| Devotion to Our Lady |
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DAILY THOUGHTS FOR THE MONTH OF
THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
Article 5
June 6th, Saturday within the Octave of Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi Adoration through Communion Preparation
June 6th, Saturday within the Octave of Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi Adoration through Communion Preparation
The Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist―God or Just Bread?
Jesus Christ is really and truly present, with His Body, Soul, Blood and Divinity, under the external appearance of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist. This is a dogma of the Catholic Church, a belief which binds under pain of mortal sin. In 2001, only 63% believed in the Real Presence; in 2008, the number fell even more, down to only 57% believing in the Real Presence. Many held the belief the Bread and wine are symbols of Jesus, but Jesus is not really present. This was the opinion of 37% in 2001; and this erroneous opinion had increased to 43% by 2008.
Today, it is estimated that only around 40% (four out ten) still believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist—the other 60% (six out of ten) merely think there is only a symbolic presence, but not a real one. Only 26% of Catholics under the age of 40 believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. This explains why most Catholics will go to Holy Communion while never or rarely going to Confession—it is not that they are free from mortal sin, but that they have lost the true sense of sin and their belief in the Church’s teaching on the Real Presence. They see no sacrilege in going to receive—what they think is a piece of bread symbolizing Jesus—when they are formally (knowingly) or materially (unknowingly) in a state of mortal sin.
Recent statistics from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) that show the U.S. Catholic population peaked in 2010. The report also found that in 2016 some 74.2 million people in the United States claimed to be Catholic, but almost 80% of them (8 out of 10) did not attend Sunday Mass regularly. Why attend Mass if all there is there is just a piece of bread? If you do not believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, then you are less likely to go to Mass and less likely to prepare for Holy Communion and less likely to make a good thanksgiving after Communion—there are better things to do than talk to a piece of bread! This has to be the sad link between belief in the Real Presence and attendance at Mass. The less you believe, the less you will attend.
Similar statistics from Pew Research Center in 2015 showed that more than half of all Catholics have left the Church, and only one in 10 have returned. CARA also put out a report in 2009 that found 60% of practicing Catholics were over the age of 40. There are now more Catholics attending Mass over the age of 65 than there are under 65.
By Their Fruits You Shall Know...
How much Faith is found today—when most do not attend Mass on regular basis? How much Faith is manifested today—when most Catholics do not even believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist? How much love of God is shown today—when the VAST majority of Catholics cannot even visit God at Mass each Sunday?
How much love of God is shown towards God today—when many of the Ten Commandments of God and the Chief Commandments of the Church are disregarded and broken? Our Lord said: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15) and to the Church He said “Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon Earth, it shall be bound also in Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon Earth, it shall be loosed also in Heaven” (Luke 16:19) … “He that hears you, hears Me; and he that despises you, despises Me; and he that despises Me, despises Him that sent Me” (Luke 10:16).
Finally, how much do we even care about such an abysmal and tragic state of affairs? Honestly, we don’t really care! It is at best (if we are even aware of the fact) a mere statistic—we read it, take note, and file it away in the “not important” filing cabinet of our minds. There are more important things to see to than that! As long as things are going okay for us, the rest of the world can—if you pardon the expression—go to Hell! Our attitude—even if we don’t exactly use the words of Cain—is one of: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
“I’m Alright Jack!”―”Me? I’m Doing Fine!”
Today, most of us live like kings and queens, but we don’t even realize it! How many kings and queens had access to the variety of food and drink that modern man can find in any supermarket? How many had the medical support that is available today? How many had such a comfortable and economical life, with modern conveniences like central heating and air-conditioning? They would have jumped at the chance to trade-in their horse and carriage for one of our cars! They could not even imagine the communications and electronic appliances available to us today, with their possibilities of instant communications with anyone anywhere in the world. The list of advantages that we have over the kings and queens of old is endless.
The following words were written by a newspaper columnist, and they essentially echo what has just been said: “We live in largely peaceful times, with better access to medicine and education — the world is easily in the best place it’s ever been. Humanity as a whole is doing better than it ever has: the world is becoming more prosperous, cleaner, increasingly peaceful and healthier. We are living longer, better lives. Virtually all of our existing problems are less bad than at any previous time in history.”
Who Is Your Insurance God? The Materialistic God or the Eucharistic God?
The problem with all this is that when we have so much available; when we enjoy so much relative security; when we can rely on the insurance gods to look after our health, wealth and loved ones, then the danger is that we can led into a neglect, an indifference, a laxity or lukewarmness with regard to our heavenly provider, almighty God and His Divine Providence. We pay thousands of dollars annually to the insurance gods, but how much do pay by way of prayers and attention to the real God? The real God, Jesus, has said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5)—yet that is what the insurance gods tell us and we pay more homage and trust to them than we do to our God in the Holy Eucharist. God has a heavenly insurance branch in every tabernacle, but few want His policies. They prefer to trust in men rather than God.
What on Earth do we need God for now? We have health insurance; we have car accident insurance to replace the car or pay for its repair; we have house insurance to guarantee the replacement of certain things; we can even have insurance on the gas, electricity and water supplies and the repair of their pipes and lines; we have the possibility of insurance on the multitude of appliances and articles that we buy for ourselves and our homes; we have the insurance of welfare if we lose our jobs; we have life insurance to care for our loved ones from beyond the grave! What a bevy of assurance through insurance! God is almost redundant and unnecessary! All that we need Him for is insurance against Hell!
This attitude of complacency hits everyone without exception. It was also the underlying feature of the relationship between God and His Chosen People in the Old Testament. When things were going well for them, they forgot about God and at times even took on board false idols. So God had to do something about the cause of this neglect, indifference and idolatry. God’s solution was always to make things go badly for His fallen away Chosen People; this would bring them to their knees and their senses, and they would come pleading to God for help and mercy.
No Interest, No Faith, No practice, No Insurance!
Sadly, that is the case with an increasing number of people today, either explicitly or at least implicitly. The current statistics show that over 90% of graduates will cease to practicing their Faith on a regular basis once their schooling is over. In other words, once school is finished, God is finished (unless they live at home and are made to practice by their parents).
But it is not just youngsters that offend and irritate God; the oldsters are at it too! Only 24% of Catholic adults regularly attend Sunday Mass. Most (90%) of the weekly Mass goers (24%) believe that Jesus is really present in the Holy Eucharist. Those numbers fall significantly among less frequent attendees. Of those who attend Mass around once a month, only 65% believe in the Real Presence; whole among those who only attend a few times a year, only 40% believe in the Real Presence. The words of Jesus come hauntingly back to mind: “The Son of man, when He comes, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8), “and because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).
It is clear that plenty of goods does not beget plenty of Faith; not does an abundance of comfort beget abundant Charity. Earthly riches impoverish spirituality, and ultimately greatly handicap our chances of salvation. Our Lord Himself said: “Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus beholding, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible’” (Matthew 19:23-26).
In the words of Our Lord, God and His Providence seems to be the best insurance policy we can have (not that we should quit paying insurance, but our primary agent should be God and not man). “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [riches, worldly interest]. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment? Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature by one cubit? And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little Faith? Be not solicitous therefore, saying, ‘What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed?’ For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knows that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:24-33).
The Holy Eucharist and the Holy Rosary Insurance Policy
Sister Lucia, in a letter to Fr. Umberto Pasquale, wrote: “The decadence which exists in the world is, without any doubt, the consequence of the lack of the spirit of prayer. Foreseeing this disorientation, the Blessed Virgin recommended recitation of the Rosary with such insistence. And since the Rosary is, after the Holy Eucharistic liturgy, the prayer most apt for preserving Faith in souls, the devil has unchained his struggles against it. Unfortunately, we see the disasters he has caused.”
The Holy Eucharist is the most important Sacrament of the Church, but never has it been as important as in these days of impending apostasy. Notice the Eucharistic adoration that took place at Fatima, before Our Lady even appeared. Notice how Divine Providence reserved the prodigious scientific discoveries about the Holy Eucharist from the Miracle of Lanciano in Italy, to be uncovered in 1969/1970 at a time when God knew that belief in the Eucharistic would dwindle in the world. The Holy Eucharist is there, among other things, to feed and strengthen our Faith; yet by neglecting to frequently visit, adore and eat this Bread of Heaven, we indirectly weaken our Faith and lose the necessary strength that is required in fighting the apostasy of our times.
Jesus Christ is really and truly present, with His Body, Soul, Blood and Divinity, under the external appearance of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist. This is a dogma of the Catholic Church, a belief which binds under pain of mortal sin. In 2001, only 63% believed in the Real Presence; in 2008, the number fell even more, down to only 57% believing in the Real Presence. Many held the belief the Bread and wine are symbols of Jesus, but Jesus is not really present. This was the opinion of 37% in 2001; and this erroneous opinion had increased to 43% by 2008.
Today, it is estimated that only around 40% (four out ten) still believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist—the other 60% (six out of ten) merely think there is only a symbolic presence, but not a real one. Only 26% of Catholics under the age of 40 believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. This explains why most Catholics will go to Holy Communion while never or rarely going to Confession—it is not that they are free from mortal sin, but that they have lost the true sense of sin and their belief in the Church’s teaching on the Real Presence. They see no sacrilege in going to receive—what they think is a piece of bread symbolizing Jesus—when they are formally (knowingly) or materially (unknowingly) in a state of mortal sin.
Recent statistics from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) that show the U.S. Catholic population peaked in 2010. The report also found that in 2016 some 74.2 million people in the United States claimed to be Catholic, but almost 80% of them (8 out of 10) did not attend Sunday Mass regularly. Why attend Mass if all there is there is just a piece of bread? If you do not believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, then you are less likely to go to Mass and less likely to prepare for Holy Communion and less likely to make a good thanksgiving after Communion—there are better things to do than talk to a piece of bread! This has to be the sad link between belief in the Real Presence and attendance at Mass. The less you believe, the less you will attend.
Similar statistics from Pew Research Center in 2015 showed that more than half of all Catholics have left the Church, and only one in 10 have returned. CARA also put out a report in 2009 that found 60% of practicing Catholics were over the age of 40. There are now more Catholics attending Mass over the age of 65 than there are under 65.
By Their Fruits You Shall Know...
How much Faith is found today—when most do not attend Mass on regular basis? How much Faith is manifested today—when most Catholics do not even believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist? How much love of God is shown today—when the VAST majority of Catholics cannot even visit God at Mass each Sunday?
How much love of God is shown towards God today—when many of the Ten Commandments of God and the Chief Commandments of the Church are disregarded and broken? Our Lord said: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15) and to the Church He said “Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon Earth, it shall be bound also in Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon Earth, it shall be loosed also in Heaven” (Luke 16:19) … “He that hears you, hears Me; and he that despises you, despises Me; and he that despises Me, despises Him that sent Me” (Luke 10:16).
Finally, how much do we even care about such an abysmal and tragic state of affairs? Honestly, we don’t really care! It is at best (if we are even aware of the fact) a mere statistic—we read it, take note, and file it away in the “not important” filing cabinet of our minds. There are more important things to see to than that! As long as things are going okay for us, the rest of the world can—if you pardon the expression—go to Hell! Our attitude—even if we don’t exactly use the words of Cain—is one of: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
“I’m Alright Jack!”―”Me? I’m Doing Fine!”
Today, most of us live like kings and queens, but we don’t even realize it! How many kings and queens had access to the variety of food and drink that modern man can find in any supermarket? How many had the medical support that is available today? How many had such a comfortable and economical life, with modern conveniences like central heating and air-conditioning? They would have jumped at the chance to trade-in their horse and carriage for one of our cars! They could not even imagine the communications and electronic appliances available to us today, with their possibilities of instant communications with anyone anywhere in the world. The list of advantages that we have over the kings and queens of old is endless.
The following words were written by a newspaper columnist, and they essentially echo what has just been said: “We live in largely peaceful times, with better access to medicine and education — the world is easily in the best place it’s ever been. Humanity as a whole is doing better than it ever has: the world is becoming more prosperous, cleaner, increasingly peaceful and healthier. We are living longer, better lives. Virtually all of our existing problems are less bad than at any previous time in history.”
Who Is Your Insurance God? The Materialistic God or the Eucharistic God?
The problem with all this is that when we have so much available; when we enjoy so much relative security; when we can rely on the insurance gods to look after our health, wealth and loved ones, then the danger is that we can led into a neglect, an indifference, a laxity or lukewarmness with regard to our heavenly provider, almighty God and His Divine Providence. We pay thousands of dollars annually to the insurance gods, but how much do pay by way of prayers and attention to the real God? The real God, Jesus, has said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5)—yet that is what the insurance gods tell us and we pay more homage and trust to them than we do to our God in the Holy Eucharist. God has a heavenly insurance branch in every tabernacle, but few want His policies. They prefer to trust in men rather than God.
What on Earth do we need God for now? We have health insurance; we have car accident insurance to replace the car or pay for its repair; we have house insurance to guarantee the replacement of certain things; we can even have insurance on the gas, electricity and water supplies and the repair of their pipes and lines; we have the possibility of insurance on the multitude of appliances and articles that we buy for ourselves and our homes; we have the insurance of welfare if we lose our jobs; we have life insurance to care for our loved ones from beyond the grave! What a bevy of assurance through insurance! God is almost redundant and unnecessary! All that we need Him for is insurance against Hell!
This attitude of complacency hits everyone without exception. It was also the underlying feature of the relationship between God and His Chosen People in the Old Testament. When things were going well for them, they forgot about God and at times even took on board false idols. So God had to do something about the cause of this neglect, indifference and idolatry. God’s solution was always to make things go badly for His fallen away Chosen People; this would bring them to their knees and their senses, and they would come pleading to God for help and mercy.
No Interest, No Faith, No practice, No Insurance!
Sadly, that is the case with an increasing number of people today, either explicitly or at least implicitly. The current statistics show that over 90% of graduates will cease to practicing their Faith on a regular basis once their schooling is over. In other words, once school is finished, God is finished (unless they live at home and are made to practice by their parents).
But it is not just youngsters that offend and irritate God; the oldsters are at it too! Only 24% of Catholic adults regularly attend Sunday Mass. Most (90%) of the weekly Mass goers (24%) believe that Jesus is really present in the Holy Eucharist. Those numbers fall significantly among less frequent attendees. Of those who attend Mass around once a month, only 65% believe in the Real Presence; whole among those who only attend a few times a year, only 40% believe in the Real Presence. The words of Jesus come hauntingly back to mind: “The Son of man, when He comes, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8), “and because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).
It is clear that plenty of goods does not beget plenty of Faith; not does an abundance of comfort beget abundant Charity. Earthly riches impoverish spirituality, and ultimately greatly handicap our chances of salvation. Our Lord Himself said: “Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus beholding, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible’” (Matthew 19:23-26).
In the words of Our Lord, God and His Providence seems to be the best insurance policy we can have (not that we should quit paying insurance, but our primary agent should be God and not man). “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [riches, worldly interest]. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment? Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature by one cubit? And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little Faith? Be not solicitous therefore, saying, ‘What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed?’ For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knows that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:24-33).
The Holy Eucharist and the Holy Rosary Insurance Policy
Sister Lucia, in a letter to Fr. Umberto Pasquale, wrote: “The decadence which exists in the world is, without any doubt, the consequence of the lack of the spirit of prayer. Foreseeing this disorientation, the Blessed Virgin recommended recitation of the Rosary with such insistence. And since the Rosary is, after the Holy Eucharistic liturgy, the prayer most apt for preserving Faith in souls, the devil has unchained his struggles against it. Unfortunately, we see the disasters he has caused.”
The Holy Eucharist is the most important Sacrament of the Church, but never has it been as important as in these days of impending apostasy. Notice the Eucharistic adoration that took place at Fatima, before Our Lady even appeared. Notice how Divine Providence reserved the prodigious scientific discoveries about the Holy Eucharist from the Miracle of Lanciano in Italy, to be uncovered in 1969/1970 at a time when God knew that belief in the Eucharistic would dwindle in the world. The Holy Eucharist is there, among other things, to feed and strengthen our Faith; yet by neglecting to frequently visit, adore and eat this Bread of Heaven, we indirectly weaken our Faith and lose the necessary strength that is required in fighting the apostasy of our times.
Article 4
June 5th, Friday within the Octave of Corpus Christi
The Dangers of the Holy Eucharist!
June 5th, Friday within the Octave of Corpus Christi
The Dangers of the Holy Eucharist!
Greatest Treasure Gets Great Neglect
Within this Octave of Corpus Christi, let us continue with a Eucharistic theme, since the Holy Eucharist is God Himself and our greatest Treasure this side of Heaven. In Fr. Muller’s classic book, The Blessed Eucharist, we read in the opening chapter the following:
“A certain man was once thrown into prison. He there suffered so much from hunger, thirst and cold that at last he was almost dead. One day the king determined to pay a visit to the captive, in order to find out how he bore his sufferings. Having put off his royal apparel, he went in disguise to the prison and asked the poor man how he fared, but the prisoner, being very sad and melancholy, scarcely deigned to answer him. When the king had gone away, the jailer said to the criminal: ‘Do you know who was speaking to you? It was the king himself!’ ‘The king!’ exclaimed the captive. ‘O what a wretch I am! If I had known that, then I would have thrown myself at his feet and clasped his knees, and I would not have let him go until he had pardoned me. Alas! What a favorable opportunity I have lost of freeing myself from this dungeon.’ It was thus the poor captive lamented in anguish and despair, but all was unavailing.
“I think, dear Reader, you understand the meaning of this story. The sufferings of this captive represent the wretchedness of man’s condition on this Earth. Our true country is Heaven, and as long as we are living on Earth, we are captives and exiles. We are far from Jesus Christ, our King; far from Mary, our good Mother; far from the Angels and Saints of Heaven; and far from our dear departed friends. But very many Christians are also, in another respect, like the captive of whom I have spoken. They do not know Jesus Christ, their true King, who not only visits them, but dwells very near them. ‘But,’ you will ask, ‘how can Jesus Christ dwell near them without their knowing Him?’ It is because He has put on a strange garment and appears in disguise.
“Our Lord Jesus Christ abides in two places—in Heaven, where He shows Himself undisguised, as He is in reality; and on Earth in the Blessed Sacrament, in which He conceals Himself under the appearance of bread. One day, a certain nun said to St. Teresa of Avila: ‘I wish that I had lived at the time of Jesus Christ, my dear Savior, for then I could have seen how amiable and lovely He is.’ St. Teresa, on hearing this, laughed outright. ‘What!’ said she, ‘do you not know then, dear sister, that the same Jesus Christ is still with us on Earth, that He lives quite near us, in our churches, on our altars, in the Blessed Sacrament?’ Yes, the Blessed Sacrament, or Holy Eucharist, is the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, Our Lord, who is truly, really and substantially present under the outward appearances of bread and wine” (Fr. Muller’s, The Blessed Eucharist).
Painful Neglect
In Holy Communion we receive the God of infinite mercy and love, the God of all sanctity, who comes expressly to pardon our sins and help us to sin no more. He once visited the house of the sinner Zacheus, the Chief Publican, and in that one visit, Zacheus obtained complete pardon of all his sins. How is it possible that the same God of goodness and sweetness can come, not into our houses, but into our very hearts in Holy Communion and not give us the same and even greater graces? He visited Zacheus only once; He visits us every day―if we allow Him. Many, alas, never feel, never grasp the immense joys and consolation of Holy Communion. This is often traced to a few main causes, which actually mix together like chemicals, to produce further causes.
The chief cause is always love of self and this is mixed with a love of the things and activities of the world that please, excite and satisfy self. God is not loved and thought about as much as we love and think about ourselves. God is not as exciting as the many other available things the world offers us for instant pleasure and gratification. This double-headed preoccupation produces toxic chemicals that destroy our spiritual life and especially our Communions. The chief toxic chemicals are lukewarmness, indifference, little or no preparation for Communion and thanksgiving afterwards. This is nothing other than the elements of which the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus complained about to St. Margaret Mary.
St. Denis teaches, that the most Holy Sacrament has greater efficacy to sanctify souls than all other spiritual means. St. Vincent Ferrer says, that a soul derives more profit from one Communion than from fasting a week on bread and water. The Eucharist is, according to the holy Council of Trent, a medicine which delivers us from venial sins, and preserves us from mortal sins. According to St. John Chrysostom, the Holy Communion inflames us with the fire of divine love, and makes us objects of terror to the devil.
Jesus Complains of Neglect
Our Lord, on several occasions, has complained of and criticized our neglect of the Blesses Sacrament. To St. Margaret Mary, Our Lord, as the Sacred Heart, said: “My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men, and for you in particular that, being unable any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its burning Charity, It must needs spread them abroad by your means, and manifest Itself to them (mankind) in order to enrich them with the precious graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition.
“Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love. But what I feel most keenly is that it is hearts which are consecrated to Me, that treat Me thus.”
Alas! How many are there, perhaps, who must admit that, up to this day, they have never or rarely visited Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, thus resembling the niece of the Empress, St. Cunegunda, whose name was Jutta, of whom it is related that she stayed at home, without any plausible reason, while the Blessed Sacrament was exposed in the church. St. Cunegunda, inflamed with holy indignation at this indifference of Jutta, gave her niece a severe slap in the face. The Lord, in punishment of Jutta’s indifference toward Him, allowed the imprint of Cunegunda’s fingers to remain indelibly stamped on her face. This was a lifelong rebuke for her indifference.
To Mother Mariana de Torres (of Our Lady of Good Success fame), Our Lord complained that the ingratitude and betrayal of religious souls, so dear to His Heart, would compel Him “…to let My Justice fall upon My beloved cloisters ― and even over cities ― when those so near to Me who belong to Me reject My spirit, abandoning Me alone in Tabernacles, rarely remembering that I live there especially for love of them, even more than for the rest of the faithful. Alas! If men would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small inveterate imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me ... But I will not tolerate this! Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me! I desire all or nothing! — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross. Moreover, I have continued to live in the Tabernacle under the same roof with these hidden souls, exposing Myself to so many hateful profanations and sacrileges! For I know well all that takes place in My sacramental life! ... Woe to souls like this! Woe!” (Our Lord to Mother Mariana, Quito, Ecuador).
As You Sow, So Shall You Reap
St. Alphonsus Liguori says that “They who are ungenerous to God well deserve that God should not be generous to them. ‘He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly’ (2 Corinthians 9:6). To such souls the Lord will give the graces common to all, but will probably withhold His special assistance; and without this, as we have seen, they cannot persevere without falling into mortal sin. God himself revealed to Blessed Henry Suso, that, for tepid souls who are content with leading a life exempt from mortal sin, and continue to commit many deliberate venial sins, it is very difficult to preserve themselves in the state of grace. Hence the soul, finding no more nourishment and consolation in her devout exercises, in her prayers, Communions, or visits to the Blessed Sacrament, will soon neglect them, and thus neglecting the means of eternal salvation, she shall be in great danger of being lost” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Sunday Sermons, Passion Sunday).
“Two things are necessary in order to draw great fruit from Communion preparation for, and thanksgiving after Communion. As to the preparation, it is certain that the saints derived great profit from their Communions, only because they were careful to prepare themselves well for receiving the Holy Eucharist. It is easy then to understand why so many souls remain subject to the same imperfections, after all their Communions. Cardinal Bona says, that the defect is not in the food, but in the want of preparation for it. For frequent Communion two principal dispositions are necessary. The first is detachment from creatures, and disengagement of the heart from everything that is not God. The more the heart is occupied with earthly concerns, the less room there is in it for divine love. Hence, to give full possession of the whole heart to God, it is necessary to purify it from worldly attachments” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Sunday Sermons, Second Sunday After Pentecost).
“O how many miserable souls, devoted to spiritual things, to mental prayer, to frequent Communion, and to a life of holiness, have, by exposing themselves to the occasion of sin, become the slaves of the devil! … It is necessary to detach the heart from earthly things. ‘Detach the heart from creatures,’ says St. Teresa, ‘and you shall find God.’ In a heart filled with earthly affections, there is no room for divine love. Let us therefore continually implore the Lord in our prayers, Communions, and visits to the Blessed Sacrament, to give us His holy love; for this love will expel from our souls all affections for the things of this Earth” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Sunday Sermons, Trinity Sunday).
Thanksgiving After Holy Communion
“Thanksgiving after Communion is also necessary. The prayer we make after Communion is the most acceptable to God, and the most profitable to us. After Communion, the soul should be employed in affections and petitions. The affections ought to consist, not only in acts of thanksgiving, but also in acts of humility, of love, and of oblation of ourselves to God. Let us then humble ourselves as much as possible at the sight of a God made our food, after we had offended Him. A learned author says that, for a soul after Communion, the most appropriate sentiment is one of astonishment at the thought of receiving a God. After Communion; we should not only make these affections, but we ought also to present to God with great confidence many petitions for His graces. The time after Communion is a time in which we can gain treasures of divine graces” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Sunday Sermons, Second Sunday After Pentecost).
From Whence Come Bad Communions?
Bad Communions or Sacrilegious Communions are made when a soul goes to Holy Communion in a state of Mortal Sin, without having confessed those sins beforehand, or having hidden those sins when making a confession. St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his sermon for the Third Sunday of Lent, which treats of the Concealment of Mortal Sins in Confession, writes: “After we commit sin, the devil seeks to make us dumb, that, through shame, we may conceal our guilt in confession. Thus, he leads us to Hell by a double chain, inducing us, after our transgressions, to consent to a still greater sin the sin of sacrilege. St. Augustine says, that to prevent the sheep from seeking assistance by her cries, the wolf seizes her by the neck, and thus securely carries her away and devours her. The devil acts in a similar manner with the sheep of Jesus Christ.
“After having induced them to yield to [Mortal] sin, he seizes them by the throat, that they may not confess their guilt; and thus he securely brings them to Hell. For those who have sinned grievously, there is no means of salvation except through the confession of their sins. But, what hope of salvation can he have who goes to confession and conceals his sins, and makes use of the tribunal of Penance to offend God, and to make himself doubly the slave of Satan?
“What hope would you entertain of the recovery of the man who, instead of taking the medicine prescribed by his physician, drank a cup of poison? God! What can the Sacrament of Penance be to those who conceal their sins, but a deadly poison, which adds to their guilt the malice of sacrilege? In giving absolution, the confessor dispenses to his patient the Blood of Jesus Christ. What, then, does the sinner do, when he conceals his sins in Confession? He tramples underfoot the Blood of Jesus Christ. And should he afterwards receive the Holy Communion in a state of sin, he is, according to St. John Chrysostom, as guilty as if he threw the consecrated Host into a toilet bowl” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Sunday Sermons, Third Sunday in Lent).
From One Sacrilege To Another
Fr. Muller, in his book The Blessed Eucharist, says that there is nothing that gives more honor to God and contributes more to our own welfare than the devout reception of the Holy Eucharist; and there is, on the contrary, nothing more injurious to God and more hurtful to our souls than an unworthy Communion. You will perhaps ask in astonishment: “Are there, then, really people so wicked as knowingly and willfully to make an unworthy Communion?” Alas, there are far too many! I do not mean to say that there are many who receive the Blessed Sacrament unworthily, out of pure malice, with the express purpose of dishonoring God—though even that has happened—but I do say that there are many who wish to enjoy the privileges of a Christian, while leading an immoral life and who dare receive the Author of all purity into a heart that is defiled by mortal sin.
This crime is committed by three classes of persons: First, by all those who are in mortal sin and who go to Communion after having been refused absolution; secondly, by all those who have willfully concealed a mortal sin in confession; and finally, by all those who, though they have confessed all their mortal sins, have nevertheless no true sorrow for them, or no firm purpose of amendment. To the latter class belong all those that do not intend to keep the promises they made in Confession; who are not willing to be reconciled to those who have offended them; those who will not restore the property or good name of their neighbor; those who are not fully determined to keep away from taverns, grog-shops, and the like, that have proved occasions of sin to them; and finally, all those that will not break off sinful and dangerous company.
Now, if we consider the actual state of the world, we cannot help fearing that there are many Christians who make bad Communions. The Catholic priest, therefore, is in duty bound to warn the faithful against this grievous crime. Even in the very first ages of Christianity, in those days of primitive fervor, St. Paul was compelled to warn the Christians of Corinth against this heinous crime, and the few energetic words he addressed to them on that occasion comprehend all that may be said on the subject.
Mortal Sin Requires Confession Before Communion
In this regard it is well to recall the teaching of the Church. Holy Communion must be received only while one is in the grace of God. Therefore, when one has committed a mortal sin, even if one has repented of it and has a great desire to receive Holy Communion, it is necessary and indispensible to confess oneself first before receiving Holy Communion, otherwise one commits a most grave sin of sacrilege, for which Jesus said to St. Bridget, “there does not exist on Earth a punishment which is great enough to punish it sufficiently!”
St. Ambrose said that persons who commit this sacrilege “come into church with a few sins, and leave it burdened with many.” St. Cyril wrote something yet stronger: “They who make a sacrilegious Communion receive Satan and Jesus Christ into their hearts — Satan, that they may let him rule, and Jesus Christ, that they may offer Him in sacrifice as a Victim to Satan.”
Thus the Catechism of the Council of Trent (De Eucharistia, v.i) declares: “As of all the sacred mysteries ... none can compare with the ... Eucharist, so likewise for no crime is there heavier punishment to be feared from God than for the unholy or irreligious use by the faithful of that which ... contains the very Author and Source of holiness.”
Punishment for Sacrilegious Communions
Sometimes the punishment for sacrilegious Communions can be great and frightening. St. Peter Julian Emyard—known as the Apostle of the Holy Eucharist—wrote in his book, The Real Presence, the following: “Sinners and profaners of this august Sacrament have been punished publicly for their temerity; Jesus was manifesting His justice. Scarcely had Judas sacrilegiously received the Body of his God than ‘Satan entered into him.’ Before this sacrilegious Communion the devil merely tempted him; after it the devil took possession of him: ‘Satan entered into him.’ (John 12:31). St. Paul attributed the lethargic sleep of the Corinthians and their apathy for good to their lukewarm or sacrilegious Communions: ‘Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep’ (1 Corinthians 11:30). History records terrible instances of unworthy communicants, smitten without warning by the justice of Our Lord, Whom they were insulting in the Eucharist” (St. Peter Julian Emyard, The Real Presence).
Pope Francis Stirred the Communion Pot
Just before publicly releasing (in April, 2016) his Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laeititia, in a homily in Rome (March 18th, 2016), Pope Francis was criticizing the ‘legalistic mindset’ of some in the Church who would deny Holy Communion to sinners: “And how many times, in Christian communities today, will they find doors closed! But you cannot, no you cannot! You have sinned, and you cannot! If you want to come, to Mass on Sunday, but that’s it—that’s all you can do! So, what the Holy Spirit creates in the hearts of people, those Christians―with their ‘doctors of the law’ mentality—destroy!” (RomeReports.com, March 18th, 2016).
It seems as though Pope Francis is hitting-out at those who (correctly) argue that people who are divorced and civilly remarried should not be admitted to Holy Communion, because they are objectively living in a state of mortal sin, which is, according to Church Law, incompatible with the reception of the Holy Eucharist.
Why has Mass and Communion suddenly become inseparable? As though one is useless without the other. Is Pope Francis saying that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is useless and pointless without being able to receive the Holy Eucharist? It doesn’t have to be a choice between “Only come to Mass if you can receive Communion” and “Don’t come to Mass if you can’t receive Communion.”
Without actually and explicitly saying it, the Pope is dangerously close to advocating sacrilegious Communions. This is “no big deal” for the majority of Catholics (60% to 80%) who no longer believe that the Holy Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, but is a mere symbol of Him, then of course, refusing Holy Communion to public sinners seems to be a bit silly. Furthermore, many of those same disbelieving Catholics also disbelieve that contraception is wrong, and see nothing wrong with divorce and remarriage anyway! That is where Modernism has led the Church over the last 50 years—and we wonder why Sr. Lucia of Fatima said, that in our day, most souls end up in Hell!
Open Door to Future Sacrilegious Communions?
Chicago’s Archbishop, Blase Cupich, — who participated in the Bishops’ Synod on the Family at Pope Francis’ personal invitation — called Pope Francis’ latest Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, a “game changer” that could relax the Church’s approach to Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried and those in same-sex relationships.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune on April 8th, 2016, Archbishop Cupich argued that Amoris Laetitia could normalize his approach to those living, in what the Catholic Church considers to be objectively, sinful situations, such as second marriages, when a first marriage hasn’t been declared null and same-sex relationships. Cupich told the Chicago Tribune: “There’s not really any doctrine as such that’s changed, but there is, I think, a very fresh way that will strike Catholic people in the pews and the priests about how we pastorally deal with people, especially those people whose lives are really very complicated.”
The Chicago Tribune reported that although Amoris Laetitia doesn’t grant comprehensive permission for the divorced and remarried to receive Holy Communion, “it invites them to a conversation and discernment process with their pastors that could lead them to communion one day.” Archbishop Cupich said: “There is a mindset within the life of the church among Catholics that if in fact they do have marriage breakups and they get into a second marriage that [it’s] kind of over for them unless they can get an annulment. The pope is saying that’s not the case. I do think that maybe some priests have been working with people in their own counseling. This is an official way in which we’re being encouraged to stay close to those people and reach out to them.”
Catholic doctrine specifically teaches that unless those who are divorced and re-married have had previous marriages annulled or are living as brother and sister with their second spouse, then they are committing adultery and should not receive Holy Communion. The Chicago Tribune reported: “Cupich said he hopes the pope’s guidelines show divorced and remarried Catholics that they do still belong in the church and give license to priests, like himself, who have been taking that approach for a while.” Cupich implied that Amoris Laetitia should also open the door to the potential for Holy Communion for those in same-sex relationships. Archbishop Cupich said that the conscience is “inviolable” and that he believes divorced and remarried couples could be permitted to receive the sacraments, if they have “come to a decision” to do so “in good conscience” – a theological reasoning that he indicated would also apply to gay couples.
The Chicago Tribune wrote: “Cupich said that although the pope clarifies that same-sex marriage is not analogous to the church’s definition for marriage, when it comes to inclusion in the life of the church, the same guidelines apply. ‘You can’t have one particular approach for a certain group of people and not for everybody,’ the archbishop said. ‘Everyone has the ability to form their conscience well.’”
What Archbishop Cupich failed to clarify was that the Catholic Church teaches that: “A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed. This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man ‘takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is, by degrees, almost blinded through the habit of committing sin.’ In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits” (CCC 1790 - 1791).
Archbishop Cupich’s take was echoed by German Cardinal Walter Kasper, the leading proponent of the practice of giving Holy Communion to remarried divorcees. “There are openings there, clearly,” for Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried, Kasper said, according to the German Bishops’ official website. He called the exhortation a “remarkable document.”
Sacrileges in High Places!
In Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1998, President Bill Clinton, a Protestant, received the Holy Eucharist at Queen of the World Church. President Clinton never received Communion in Catholic churches in the United States. But Barry Toiv, a White House spokesman, said the priest, Father Mohlomi Makobane, told White House staff members before Mr. Clinton’s visit to his Soweto church, that “this was the policy of the South African Conference of Bishops, that Communion was open to non-Catholics.” The South African bishops later declared that no such lenient policy exists. In January, however, the bishops did issue rules that allow non-Catholics to receive Communion in certain special circumstances. The Vatican requested clarification of that policy, but those in high places in the Vatican were doing the same thing!!
Non-Catholics are not supposed to be given Holy Communion even though they may be attending Holy Mass. Yet Pope John Paul II gave Holy Communion to British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2004, before he converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism.
In April of 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger gave Holy Communion to the Protestant minister, Rev. Roger Schutz (a.k.a. Brother Roger) of the Swiss Reformed Church and leader of the Taizé Ecumenical Community, at Pope John Paul II’s funeral. Cardinal Ratzinger had already acquired a reputation for giving Holy Communion to Protestants, so the scandal of Brother Roger was not an isolated occurrence.
In August of 2005, Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Vatican Council for Unity of Christians, celebrated Mass for the Taizé Ecumenical Community (Protestant) and their leader, Rev. Roger Schutz (a.k.a. Brother Roger), a Swiss Protestant, and gave them all Holy Communion, regardless of de-nomination. Cardinal Kasper said in the homily, `Yes, the springtime of ecumenism has flowered on the hill of Taizé!’” (reported by The New York Times, August 24, 2005). This is the same Cardinal Kasper who wants to allow remarried Catholic divorcees and some same-sex married couples to receive Holy Communion.
Some Catholic Pro-Choice candidates had already been refused Holy Communion because of their political positions on abortion, and yet Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Chris Dodd and Nancy Pelosi, all Catholics, all took Holy Communion when Pope Benedict visited the USA in 2008.
In 2009, the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who belongs to an evangelical church, was given Communion at a funeral Mass by Archbishop André Richard at the funeral Mass in New Brunswick for former Canadian Governor General Romeo LeBlanc. The New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal reported: “But Rev. Fr. Arthur Bourgeois, who delivered the homily, did not have a problem with the prime minister accepting the host. Fr. Bourgeois said: ‘Usually, to partake in Holy Communion in the Catholic Church, you have to be a member of it, but if you’re not, exceptionally sometimes at major occasions (it is different).’”
Online Admissions of Sacrileges
Here are some amazing posts highlighting the problem of sacrilegious Holy Communions. One person posted the following on a Catholic website: “I committed a mortal sin multiple times over a period of time. During this time of uncleanliness I continued to receive Communion. I never realized what I was doing. Then, a week before a scheduled Confession, I realized that I had been receiving Communion sacrilegiously. I still received Communion that week. Why? Because I go to Mass with my parents. If I hadn’t received Communion, they would have questioned me... Question #1: Was that reception of Communion a mortal sin? Question #2: Today is Christmas Eve. In approximately 4.5 hours I will attend Midnight Mass with my parents. What do I do? Receive Communion or not? If not, what do I tell my parents? Please, I need quick. Thanks.”
On the same site, another blogger chimes in: “I’ll be receiving sacrilegiously as well tonight. I used to skip Communion, but my parents were really bothered by it, and my family is more important than following Church teaching for me. I choose to seek Jesus, and, when I receive, I say: ‘Lord, I don’t mean to offend!’ I don’t play this mortal sin game. God is love. Count your blessings. Don’t be stressed out about this. Walk in peace.”
According to most figures, 95% of Catholics practice contraception or artificial birth control (Though we may not be sure what the margin of error is, we all know that contraception practice is very common), yet the same people receive Holy Communion every Sunday. Whatever one makes of those figures, it is not far wrong to reckon a majority of people are in a state of mortal sin, yet receive Holy Communion. For a society this will bring about disastrous results when Heaven finally decides enough is enough! During the Vatican’s Synod of the Eucharist in 2005, the then prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Arinze made the same observation: “The problem we have discussed is that many people don’t go to Mass, and those that come don’t understand — they go to Communion, but not to confession, as if they were immaculate.”
Is Sacrilegious Communion the Worst Sin?
In the most Blessed Sacrament is a twofold reality. The first reality is that which is both signified and contained in the Eucharist Itself, namely, Christ Himself. The second reality is that which is signified, but not contained in the Eucharist, namely, Christ’s Mystical Body, which is the Church.
Now, for this reason, only those who are incorporated into the members of Christ and are one with Him through a living Faith (that is, Faith united to Charity and therefore in a state of grace) may receive the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
Thus, whoever receives Communion while in mortal sin, is guilty of lying to the Blessed Sacrament and of a grave sacrilege. Hence, such a man sins mortally and sacrilegiously (sinning against something that sacred). Sins against God and the Faith are the worst kinds of sin. Sins such as lust and impurity may be more embarrassing, and they, too, are mortal sins, but they are not in the same league as sins against God.
With regard to sins against God, to receive Holy Communion unworthily (i.e. in the state of mortal sin) is in the third class of grave sins against God. The worst sins of all are those by which we offend the Godhead directly, as when we are guilty of unbelief and blasphemy. The second degree of sins against God are those sins which are directed immediately against the sacred Humanity of our Savior, as when the soldiers beat and tortured Our Lord. And, in the third place of gravity, are those sins against the Sacraments and other sacred things ― and among these, sacrileges against the Eucharist seem to be the worst of all.
The Punishments of God
There is a story of King Lothaire, the son of Charlemagne, who was the duke of Lorraine. He had become attracted to a woman in his court, and put away his wife in order to take up with this younger woman. He was ordered by the Pope to cease these relations, or face an excommunication, and he made thousands of false promises of what he would do. Again, he asked to be absolved in Rome and to receive Holy Communion from the Pope. The Pope found that nothing had changed and that Lothaire had no real intention of sending her away. The Pope then celebrated Mass for the King and his nobles. When Holy Communion was about to be distributed, the King went to the altar and the Pope said to him in a distinct voice:
“O king, if you are truly resolved to quit this woman and take back your lawful wife, then receive this Holy Sacrament unto life everlasting; but if you are not sincerely resolved, then do not dare to profane the sacred Body of Jesus Christ and eat your own damnation.”
Lothaire turned pale and trembled, but he had already made a sacrilegious Confession, and now he sealed his doom by adding a sacrilegious Communion. The King and his court left Rome. They arrived in Lucca (not far away) and were attacked with a fever, could not speak and their nails, hair and skin fell off, whereas the members of his court who did not join him in Holy Communion were spared.
St. Cyprian of Carthage tells of a certain young woman who, after an unworthy Communion, was instantly possessed by the devil. She became quite furious and in her rage bit her tongue to pieces and endeavored to kill herself. At last she died in horrible agony.
The lives of the saints are full of examples of those who profaned the sacrament suffering consequences. There is but one more thing, a great quote from St. John Eudes, that “the presence of wayward clergy is the surest sign of God’s displeasure with His people.”
The Angel at Fatima Commands Reparation
In the Fall of 1916, less than a year before Our Lady would make her six apparitions at Fatima, the “Angel of Peace” appeared to the children for the third time. The children saw the angel had in his hand a chalice, over which hung a Host, from which drops of Blood were falling into the chalice.
The Angel left the chalice and the Host suspended in the air, and prostrated himself before It. The children imitated him. The Angel then prayed repeatedly this act of reparation: “Most Holy Trinity―Father, Son, and Holy Spirt―I adore thee profoundly. I offer thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles in the world, in reparation for all the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.”
Then he rose, took the Host, and gave it to Lucia, while the contents of the chalice he gave to Jacinta and Francisco, and said: “Take the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ horribly outraged by thankless men. Make reparation for their sins and crimes; and so comfort your God!”
Let us commit to memory this prayer and say it throughout the day as often as possible. The “outrages, sacrileges and indifference” toward the Blessed Sacrament engendered by the Modernist revolution over the last 50 years are unprecedented, probably the worst in history. Sacrilege is so commonplace that it is no longer recognized as sacrilege. The need for reparation is colossal.
Within this Octave of Corpus Christi, let us continue with a Eucharistic theme, since the Holy Eucharist is God Himself and our greatest Treasure this side of Heaven. In Fr. Muller’s classic book, The Blessed Eucharist, we read in the opening chapter the following:
“A certain man was once thrown into prison. He there suffered so much from hunger, thirst and cold that at last he was almost dead. One day the king determined to pay a visit to the captive, in order to find out how he bore his sufferings. Having put off his royal apparel, he went in disguise to the prison and asked the poor man how he fared, but the prisoner, being very sad and melancholy, scarcely deigned to answer him. When the king had gone away, the jailer said to the criminal: ‘Do you know who was speaking to you? It was the king himself!’ ‘The king!’ exclaimed the captive. ‘O what a wretch I am! If I had known that, then I would have thrown myself at his feet and clasped his knees, and I would not have let him go until he had pardoned me. Alas! What a favorable opportunity I have lost of freeing myself from this dungeon.’ It was thus the poor captive lamented in anguish and despair, but all was unavailing.
“I think, dear Reader, you understand the meaning of this story. The sufferings of this captive represent the wretchedness of man’s condition on this Earth. Our true country is Heaven, and as long as we are living on Earth, we are captives and exiles. We are far from Jesus Christ, our King; far from Mary, our good Mother; far from the Angels and Saints of Heaven; and far from our dear departed friends. But very many Christians are also, in another respect, like the captive of whom I have spoken. They do not know Jesus Christ, their true King, who not only visits them, but dwells very near them. ‘But,’ you will ask, ‘how can Jesus Christ dwell near them without their knowing Him?’ It is because He has put on a strange garment and appears in disguise.
“Our Lord Jesus Christ abides in two places—in Heaven, where He shows Himself undisguised, as He is in reality; and on Earth in the Blessed Sacrament, in which He conceals Himself under the appearance of bread. One day, a certain nun said to St. Teresa of Avila: ‘I wish that I had lived at the time of Jesus Christ, my dear Savior, for then I could have seen how amiable and lovely He is.’ St. Teresa, on hearing this, laughed outright. ‘What!’ said she, ‘do you not know then, dear sister, that the same Jesus Christ is still with us on Earth, that He lives quite near us, in our churches, on our altars, in the Blessed Sacrament?’ Yes, the Blessed Sacrament, or Holy Eucharist, is the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, Our Lord, who is truly, really and substantially present under the outward appearances of bread and wine” (Fr. Muller’s, The Blessed Eucharist).
Painful Neglect
In Holy Communion we receive the God of infinite mercy and love, the God of all sanctity, who comes expressly to pardon our sins and help us to sin no more. He once visited the house of the sinner Zacheus, the Chief Publican, and in that one visit, Zacheus obtained complete pardon of all his sins. How is it possible that the same God of goodness and sweetness can come, not into our houses, but into our very hearts in Holy Communion and not give us the same and even greater graces? He visited Zacheus only once; He visits us every day―if we allow Him. Many, alas, never feel, never grasp the immense joys and consolation of Holy Communion. This is often traced to a few main causes, which actually mix together like chemicals, to produce further causes.
The chief cause is always love of self and this is mixed with a love of the things and activities of the world that please, excite and satisfy self. God is not loved and thought about as much as we love and think about ourselves. God is not as exciting as the many other available things the world offers us for instant pleasure and gratification. This double-headed preoccupation produces toxic chemicals that destroy our spiritual life and especially our Communions. The chief toxic chemicals are lukewarmness, indifference, little or no preparation for Communion and thanksgiving afterwards. This is nothing other than the elements of which the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus complained about to St. Margaret Mary.
St. Denis teaches, that the most Holy Sacrament has greater efficacy to sanctify souls than all other spiritual means. St. Vincent Ferrer says, that a soul derives more profit from one Communion than from fasting a week on bread and water. The Eucharist is, according to the holy Council of Trent, a medicine which delivers us from venial sins, and preserves us from mortal sins. According to St. John Chrysostom, the Holy Communion inflames us with the fire of divine love, and makes us objects of terror to the devil.
Jesus Complains of Neglect
Our Lord, on several occasions, has complained of and criticized our neglect of the Blesses Sacrament. To St. Margaret Mary, Our Lord, as the Sacred Heart, said: “My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men, and for you in particular that, being unable any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its burning Charity, It must needs spread them abroad by your means, and manifest Itself to them (mankind) in order to enrich them with the precious graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition.
“Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love. But what I feel most keenly is that it is hearts which are consecrated to Me, that treat Me thus.”
Alas! How many are there, perhaps, who must admit that, up to this day, they have never or rarely visited Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, thus resembling the niece of the Empress, St. Cunegunda, whose name was Jutta, of whom it is related that she stayed at home, without any plausible reason, while the Blessed Sacrament was exposed in the church. St. Cunegunda, inflamed with holy indignation at this indifference of Jutta, gave her niece a severe slap in the face. The Lord, in punishment of Jutta’s indifference toward Him, allowed the imprint of Cunegunda’s fingers to remain indelibly stamped on her face. This was a lifelong rebuke for her indifference.
To Mother Mariana de Torres (of Our Lady of Good Success fame), Our Lord complained that the ingratitude and betrayal of religious souls, so dear to His Heart, would compel Him “…to let My Justice fall upon My beloved cloisters ― and even over cities ― when those so near to Me who belong to Me reject My spirit, abandoning Me alone in Tabernacles, rarely remembering that I live there especially for love of them, even more than for the rest of the faithful. Alas! If men would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small inveterate imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me ... But I will not tolerate this! Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me! I desire all or nothing! — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross. Moreover, I have continued to live in the Tabernacle under the same roof with these hidden souls, exposing Myself to so many hateful profanations and sacrileges! For I know well all that takes place in My sacramental life! ... Woe to souls like this! Woe!” (Our Lord to Mother Mariana, Quito, Ecuador).
As You Sow, So Shall You Reap
St. Alphonsus Liguori says that “They who are ungenerous to God well deserve that God should not be generous to them. ‘He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly’ (2 Corinthians 9:6). To such souls the Lord will give the graces common to all, but will probably withhold His special assistance; and without this, as we have seen, they cannot persevere without falling into mortal sin. God himself revealed to Blessed Henry Suso, that, for tepid souls who are content with leading a life exempt from mortal sin, and continue to commit many deliberate venial sins, it is very difficult to preserve themselves in the state of grace. Hence the soul, finding no more nourishment and consolation in her devout exercises, in her prayers, Communions, or visits to the Blessed Sacrament, will soon neglect them, and thus neglecting the means of eternal salvation, she shall be in great danger of being lost” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Sunday Sermons, Passion Sunday).
“Two things are necessary in order to draw great fruit from Communion preparation for, and thanksgiving after Communion. As to the preparation, it is certain that the saints derived great profit from their Communions, only because they were careful to prepare themselves well for receiving the Holy Eucharist. It is easy then to understand why so many souls remain subject to the same imperfections, after all their Communions. Cardinal Bona says, that the defect is not in the food, but in the want of preparation for it. For frequent Communion two principal dispositions are necessary. The first is detachment from creatures, and disengagement of the heart from everything that is not God. The more the heart is occupied with earthly concerns, the less room there is in it for divine love. Hence, to give full possession of the whole heart to God, it is necessary to purify it from worldly attachments” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Sunday Sermons, Second Sunday After Pentecost).
“O how many miserable souls, devoted to spiritual things, to mental prayer, to frequent Communion, and to a life of holiness, have, by exposing themselves to the occasion of sin, become the slaves of the devil! … It is necessary to detach the heart from earthly things. ‘Detach the heart from creatures,’ says St. Teresa, ‘and you shall find God.’ In a heart filled with earthly affections, there is no room for divine love. Let us therefore continually implore the Lord in our prayers, Communions, and visits to the Blessed Sacrament, to give us His holy love; for this love will expel from our souls all affections for the things of this Earth” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Sunday Sermons, Trinity Sunday).
Thanksgiving After Holy Communion
“Thanksgiving after Communion is also necessary. The prayer we make after Communion is the most acceptable to God, and the most profitable to us. After Communion, the soul should be employed in affections and petitions. The affections ought to consist, not only in acts of thanksgiving, but also in acts of humility, of love, and of oblation of ourselves to God. Let us then humble ourselves as much as possible at the sight of a God made our food, after we had offended Him. A learned author says that, for a soul after Communion, the most appropriate sentiment is one of astonishment at the thought of receiving a God. After Communion; we should not only make these affections, but we ought also to present to God with great confidence many petitions for His graces. The time after Communion is a time in which we can gain treasures of divine graces” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Sunday Sermons, Second Sunday After Pentecost).
From Whence Come Bad Communions?
Bad Communions or Sacrilegious Communions are made when a soul goes to Holy Communion in a state of Mortal Sin, without having confessed those sins beforehand, or having hidden those sins when making a confession. St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his sermon for the Third Sunday of Lent, which treats of the Concealment of Mortal Sins in Confession, writes: “After we commit sin, the devil seeks to make us dumb, that, through shame, we may conceal our guilt in confession. Thus, he leads us to Hell by a double chain, inducing us, after our transgressions, to consent to a still greater sin the sin of sacrilege. St. Augustine says, that to prevent the sheep from seeking assistance by her cries, the wolf seizes her by the neck, and thus securely carries her away and devours her. The devil acts in a similar manner with the sheep of Jesus Christ.
“After having induced them to yield to [Mortal] sin, he seizes them by the throat, that they may not confess their guilt; and thus he securely brings them to Hell. For those who have sinned grievously, there is no means of salvation except through the confession of their sins. But, what hope of salvation can he have who goes to confession and conceals his sins, and makes use of the tribunal of Penance to offend God, and to make himself doubly the slave of Satan?
“What hope would you entertain of the recovery of the man who, instead of taking the medicine prescribed by his physician, drank a cup of poison? God! What can the Sacrament of Penance be to those who conceal their sins, but a deadly poison, which adds to their guilt the malice of sacrilege? In giving absolution, the confessor dispenses to his patient the Blood of Jesus Christ. What, then, does the sinner do, when he conceals his sins in Confession? He tramples underfoot the Blood of Jesus Christ. And should he afterwards receive the Holy Communion in a state of sin, he is, according to St. John Chrysostom, as guilty as if he threw the consecrated Host into a toilet bowl” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Sunday Sermons, Third Sunday in Lent).
From One Sacrilege To Another
Fr. Muller, in his book The Blessed Eucharist, says that there is nothing that gives more honor to God and contributes more to our own welfare than the devout reception of the Holy Eucharist; and there is, on the contrary, nothing more injurious to God and more hurtful to our souls than an unworthy Communion. You will perhaps ask in astonishment: “Are there, then, really people so wicked as knowingly and willfully to make an unworthy Communion?” Alas, there are far too many! I do not mean to say that there are many who receive the Blessed Sacrament unworthily, out of pure malice, with the express purpose of dishonoring God—though even that has happened—but I do say that there are many who wish to enjoy the privileges of a Christian, while leading an immoral life and who dare receive the Author of all purity into a heart that is defiled by mortal sin.
This crime is committed by three classes of persons: First, by all those who are in mortal sin and who go to Communion after having been refused absolution; secondly, by all those who have willfully concealed a mortal sin in confession; and finally, by all those who, though they have confessed all their mortal sins, have nevertheless no true sorrow for them, or no firm purpose of amendment. To the latter class belong all those that do not intend to keep the promises they made in Confession; who are not willing to be reconciled to those who have offended them; those who will not restore the property or good name of their neighbor; those who are not fully determined to keep away from taverns, grog-shops, and the like, that have proved occasions of sin to them; and finally, all those that will not break off sinful and dangerous company.
Now, if we consider the actual state of the world, we cannot help fearing that there are many Christians who make bad Communions. The Catholic priest, therefore, is in duty bound to warn the faithful against this grievous crime. Even in the very first ages of Christianity, in those days of primitive fervor, St. Paul was compelled to warn the Christians of Corinth against this heinous crime, and the few energetic words he addressed to them on that occasion comprehend all that may be said on the subject.
Mortal Sin Requires Confession Before Communion
In this regard it is well to recall the teaching of the Church. Holy Communion must be received only while one is in the grace of God. Therefore, when one has committed a mortal sin, even if one has repented of it and has a great desire to receive Holy Communion, it is necessary and indispensible to confess oneself first before receiving Holy Communion, otherwise one commits a most grave sin of sacrilege, for which Jesus said to St. Bridget, “there does not exist on Earth a punishment which is great enough to punish it sufficiently!”
St. Ambrose said that persons who commit this sacrilege “come into church with a few sins, and leave it burdened with many.” St. Cyril wrote something yet stronger: “They who make a sacrilegious Communion receive Satan and Jesus Christ into their hearts — Satan, that they may let him rule, and Jesus Christ, that they may offer Him in sacrifice as a Victim to Satan.”
Thus the Catechism of the Council of Trent (De Eucharistia, v.i) declares: “As of all the sacred mysteries ... none can compare with the ... Eucharist, so likewise for no crime is there heavier punishment to be feared from God than for the unholy or irreligious use by the faithful of that which ... contains the very Author and Source of holiness.”
Punishment for Sacrilegious Communions
Sometimes the punishment for sacrilegious Communions can be great and frightening. St. Peter Julian Emyard—known as the Apostle of the Holy Eucharist—wrote in his book, The Real Presence, the following: “Sinners and profaners of this august Sacrament have been punished publicly for their temerity; Jesus was manifesting His justice. Scarcely had Judas sacrilegiously received the Body of his God than ‘Satan entered into him.’ Before this sacrilegious Communion the devil merely tempted him; after it the devil took possession of him: ‘Satan entered into him.’ (John 12:31). St. Paul attributed the lethargic sleep of the Corinthians and their apathy for good to their lukewarm or sacrilegious Communions: ‘Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep’ (1 Corinthians 11:30). History records terrible instances of unworthy communicants, smitten without warning by the justice of Our Lord, Whom they were insulting in the Eucharist” (St. Peter Julian Emyard, The Real Presence).
Pope Francis Stirred the Communion Pot
Just before publicly releasing (in April, 2016) his Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laeititia, in a homily in Rome (March 18th, 2016), Pope Francis was criticizing the ‘legalistic mindset’ of some in the Church who would deny Holy Communion to sinners: “And how many times, in Christian communities today, will they find doors closed! But you cannot, no you cannot! You have sinned, and you cannot! If you want to come, to Mass on Sunday, but that’s it—that’s all you can do! So, what the Holy Spirit creates in the hearts of people, those Christians―with their ‘doctors of the law’ mentality—destroy!” (RomeReports.com, March 18th, 2016).
It seems as though Pope Francis is hitting-out at those who (correctly) argue that people who are divorced and civilly remarried should not be admitted to Holy Communion, because they are objectively living in a state of mortal sin, which is, according to Church Law, incompatible with the reception of the Holy Eucharist.
Why has Mass and Communion suddenly become inseparable? As though one is useless without the other. Is Pope Francis saying that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is useless and pointless without being able to receive the Holy Eucharist? It doesn’t have to be a choice between “Only come to Mass if you can receive Communion” and “Don’t come to Mass if you can’t receive Communion.”
Without actually and explicitly saying it, the Pope is dangerously close to advocating sacrilegious Communions. This is “no big deal” for the majority of Catholics (60% to 80%) who no longer believe that the Holy Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, but is a mere symbol of Him, then of course, refusing Holy Communion to public sinners seems to be a bit silly. Furthermore, many of those same disbelieving Catholics also disbelieve that contraception is wrong, and see nothing wrong with divorce and remarriage anyway! That is where Modernism has led the Church over the last 50 years—and we wonder why Sr. Lucia of Fatima said, that in our day, most souls end up in Hell!
Open Door to Future Sacrilegious Communions?
Chicago’s Archbishop, Blase Cupich, — who participated in the Bishops’ Synod on the Family at Pope Francis’ personal invitation — called Pope Francis’ latest Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, a “game changer” that could relax the Church’s approach to Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried and those in same-sex relationships.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune on April 8th, 2016, Archbishop Cupich argued that Amoris Laetitia could normalize his approach to those living, in what the Catholic Church considers to be objectively, sinful situations, such as second marriages, when a first marriage hasn’t been declared null and same-sex relationships. Cupich told the Chicago Tribune: “There’s not really any doctrine as such that’s changed, but there is, I think, a very fresh way that will strike Catholic people in the pews and the priests about how we pastorally deal with people, especially those people whose lives are really very complicated.”
The Chicago Tribune reported that although Amoris Laetitia doesn’t grant comprehensive permission for the divorced and remarried to receive Holy Communion, “it invites them to a conversation and discernment process with their pastors that could lead them to communion one day.” Archbishop Cupich said: “There is a mindset within the life of the church among Catholics that if in fact they do have marriage breakups and they get into a second marriage that [it’s] kind of over for them unless they can get an annulment. The pope is saying that’s not the case. I do think that maybe some priests have been working with people in their own counseling. This is an official way in which we’re being encouraged to stay close to those people and reach out to them.”
Catholic doctrine specifically teaches that unless those who are divorced and re-married have had previous marriages annulled or are living as brother and sister with their second spouse, then they are committing adultery and should not receive Holy Communion. The Chicago Tribune reported: “Cupich said he hopes the pope’s guidelines show divorced and remarried Catholics that they do still belong in the church and give license to priests, like himself, who have been taking that approach for a while.” Cupich implied that Amoris Laetitia should also open the door to the potential for Holy Communion for those in same-sex relationships. Archbishop Cupich said that the conscience is “inviolable” and that he believes divorced and remarried couples could be permitted to receive the sacraments, if they have “come to a decision” to do so “in good conscience” – a theological reasoning that he indicated would also apply to gay couples.
The Chicago Tribune wrote: “Cupich said that although the pope clarifies that same-sex marriage is not analogous to the church’s definition for marriage, when it comes to inclusion in the life of the church, the same guidelines apply. ‘You can’t have one particular approach for a certain group of people and not for everybody,’ the archbishop said. ‘Everyone has the ability to form their conscience well.’”
What Archbishop Cupich failed to clarify was that the Catholic Church teaches that: “A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed. This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man ‘takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is, by degrees, almost blinded through the habit of committing sin.’ In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits” (CCC 1790 - 1791).
Archbishop Cupich’s take was echoed by German Cardinal Walter Kasper, the leading proponent of the practice of giving Holy Communion to remarried divorcees. “There are openings there, clearly,” for Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried, Kasper said, according to the German Bishops’ official website. He called the exhortation a “remarkable document.”
Sacrileges in High Places!
In Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1998, President Bill Clinton, a Protestant, received the Holy Eucharist at Queen of the World Church. President Clinton never received Communion in Catholic churches in the United States. But Barry Toiv, a White House spokesman, said the priest, Father Mohlomi Makobane, told White House staff members before Mr. Clinton’s visit to his Soweto church, that “this was the policy of the South African Conference of Bishops, that Communion was open to non-Catholics.” The South African bishops later declared that no such lenient policy exists. In January, however, the bishops did issue rules that allow non-Catholics to receive Communion in certain special circumstances. The Vatican requested clarification of that policy, but those in high places in the Vatican were doing the same thing!!
Non-Catholics are not supposed to be given Holy Communion even though they may be attending Holy Mass. Yet Pope John Paul II gave Holy Communion to British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2004, before he converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism.
In April of 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger gave Holy Communion to the Protestant minister, Rev. Roger Schutz (a.k.a. Brother Roger) of the Swiss Reformed Church and leader of the Taizé Ecumenical Community, at Pope John Paul II’s funeral. Cardinal Ratzinger had already acquired a reputation for giving Holy Communion to Protestants, so the scandal of Brother Roger was not an isolated occurrence.
In August of 2005, Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Vatican Council for Unity of Christians, celebrated Mass for the Taizé Ecumenical Community (Protestant) and their leader, Rev. Roger Schutz (a.k.a. Brother Roger), a Swiss Protestant, and gave them all Holy Communion, regardless of de-nomination. Cardinal Kasper said in the homily, `Yes, the springtime of ecumenism has flowered on the hill of Taizé!’” (reported by The New York Times, August 24, 2005). This is the same Cardinal Kasper who wants to allow remarried Catholic divorcees and some same-sex married couples to receive Holy Communion.
Some Catholic Pro-Choice candidates had already been refused Holy Communion because of their political positions on abortion, and yet Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Chris Dodd and Nancy Pelosi, all Catholics, all took Holy Communion when Pope Benedict visited the USA in 2008.
In 2009, the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who belongs to an evangelical church, was given Communion at a funeral Mass by Archbishop André Richard at the funeral Mass in New Brunswick for former Canadian Governor General Romeo LeBlanc. The New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal reported: “But Rev. Fr. Arthur Bourgeois, who delivered the homily, did not have a problem with the prime minister accepting the host. Fr. Bourgeois said: ‘Usually, to partake in Holy Communion in the Catholic Church, you have to be a member of it, but if you’re not, exceptionally sometimes at major occasions (it is different).’”
Online Admissions of Sacrileges
Here are some amazing posts highlighting the problem of sacrilegious Holy Communions. One person posted the following on a Catholic website: “I committed a mortal sin multiple times over a period of time. During this time of uncleanliness I continued to receive Communion. I never realized what I was doing. Then, a week before a scheduled Confession, I realized that I had been receiving Communion sacrilegiously. I still received Communion that week. Why? Because I go to Mass with my parents. If I hadn’t received Communion, they would have questioned me... Question #1: Was that reception of Communion a mortal sin? Question #2: Today is Christmas Eve. In approximately 4.5 hours I will attend Midnight Mass with my parents. What do I do? Receive Communion or not? If not, what do I tell my parents? Please, I need quick. Thanks.”
On the same site, another blogger chimes in: “I’ll be receiving sacrilegiously as well tonight. I used to skip Communion, but my parents were really bothered by it, and my family is more important than following Church teaching for me. I choose to seek Jesus, and, when I receive, I say: ‘Lord, I don’t mean to offend!’ I don’t play this mortal sin game. God is love. Count your blessings. Don’t be stressed out about this. Walk in peace.”
According to most figures, 95% of Catholics practice contraception or artificial birth control (Though we may not be sure what the margin of error is, we all know that contraception practice is very common), yet the same people receive Holy Communion every Sunday. Whatever one makes of those figures, it is not far wrong to reckon a majority of people are in a state of mortal sin, yet receive Holy Communion. For a society this will bring about disastrous results when Heaven finally decides enough is enough! During the Vatican’s Synod of the Eucharist in 2005, the then prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Arinze made the same observation: “The problem we have discussed is that many people don’t go to Mass, and those that come don’t understand — they go to Communion, but not to confession, as if they were immaculate.”
Is Sacrilegious Communion the Worst Sin?
In the most Blessed Sacrament is a twofold reality. The first reality is that which is both signified and contained in the Eucharist Itself, namely, Christ Himself. The second reality is that which is signified, but not contained in the Eucharist, namely, Christ’s Mystical Body, which is the Church.
Now, for this reason, only those who are incorporated into the members of Christ and are one with Him through a living Faith (that is, Faith united to Charity and therefore in a state of grace) may receive the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
Thus, whoever receives Communion while in mortal sin, is guilty of lying to the Blessed Sacrament and of a grave sacrilege. Hence, such a man sins mortally and sacrilegiously (sinning against something that sacred). Sins against God and the Faith are the worst kinds of sin. Sins such as lust and impurity may be more embarrassing, and they, too, are mortal sins, but they are not in the same league as sins against God.
With regard to sins against God, to receive Holy Communion unworthily (i.e. in the state of mortal sin) is in the third class of grave sins against God. The worst sins of all are those by which we offend the Godhead directly, as when we are guilty of unbelief and blasphemy. The second degree of sins against God are those sins which are directed immediately against the sacred Humanity of our Savior, as when the soldiers beat and tortured Our Lord. And, in the third place of gravity, are those sins against the Sacraments and other sacred things ― and among these, sacrileges against the Eucharist seem to be the worst of all.
The Punishments of God
There is a story of King Lothaire, the son of Charlemagne, who was the duke of Lorraine. He had become attracted to a woman in his court, and put away his wife in order to take up with this younger woman. He was ordered by the Pope to cease these relations, or face an excommunication, and he made thousands of false promises of what he would do. Again, he asked to be absolved in Rome and to receive Holy Communion from the Pope. The Pope found that nothing had changed and that Lothaire had no real intention of sending her away. The Pope then celebrated Mass for the King and his nobles. When Holy Communion was about to be distributed, the King went to the altar and the Pope said to him in a distinct voice:
“O king, if you are truly resolved to quit this woman and take back your lawful wife, then receive this Holy Sacrament unto life everlasting; but if you are not sincerely resolved, then do not dare to profane the sacred Body of Jesus Christ and eat your own damnation.”
Lothaire turned pale and trembled, but he had already made a sacrilegious Confession, and now he sealed his doom by adding a sacrilegious Communion. The King and his court left Rome. They arrived in Lucca (not far away) and were attacked with a fever, could not speak and their nails, hair and skin fell off, whereas the members of his court who did not join him in Holy Communion were spared.
St. Cyprian of Carthage tells of a certain young woman who, after an unworthy Communion, was instantly possessed by the devil. She became quite furious and in her rage bit her tongue to pieces and endeavored to kill herself. At last she died in horrible agony.
The lives of the saints are full of examples of those who profaned the sacrament suffering consequences. There is but one more thing, a great quote from St. John Eudes, that “the presence of wayward clergy is the surest sign of God’s displeasure with His people.”
The Angel at Fatima Commands Reparation
In the Fall of 1916, less than a year before Our Lady would make her six apparitions at Fatima, the “Angel of Peace” appeared to the children for the third time. The children saw the angel had in his hand a chalice, over which hung a Host, from which drops of Blood were falling into the chalice.
The Angel left the chalice and the Host suspended in the air, and prostrated himself before It. The children imitated him. The Angel then prayed repeatedly this act of reparation: “Most Holy Trinity―Father, Son, and Holy Spirt―I adore thee profoundly. I offer thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles in the world, in reparation for all the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.”
Then he rose, took the Host, and gave it to Lucia, while the contents of the chalice he gave to Jacinta and Francisco, and said: “Take the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ horribly outraged by thankless men. Make reparation for their sins and crimes; and so comfort your God!”
Let us commit to memory this prayer and say it throughout the day as often as possible. The “outrages, sacrileges and indifference” toward the Blessed Sacrament engendered by the Modernist revolution over the last 50 years are unprecedented, probably the worst in history. Sacrilege is so commonplace that it is no longer recognized as sacrilege. The need for reparation is colossal.
Article 3
June 4th, Feast of Corpus Christi
The Holy Eucharist and Devotion to Mary
The Bricks and Cement of Rebuilding the Faith and the Family!
June 4th, Feast of Corpus Christi
The Holy Eucharist and Devotion to Mary
The Bricks and Cement of Rebuilding the Faith and the Family!
More Than You Think!
Today we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ―that is the Holy Eucharist) during the month of the Sacred Heart. What most people do not realize, and what cannot be stressed too much, is the integral connection between devotion to the Holy Eucharist with devotion to the Sacred Heart. The two devotions can, in a certain sense, be said to be one and the same devotion. This is especially true is we read the account the Miracle of Lanciano, where scientific studies, over 1,200 years after the initial miracle took place, showed the Eucharistic remains to the inner wall of a human heart!
Out of Sight―Out of Mind
Many centuries had passed over the Church of Christ before there was any distinct feast of the Blessed Sacrament. When, in the 13th century, Our Lord chose that such a feast should be instituted, He had recourse by a simple vision to a simple nun to be the instrument of this devotion in His Church. St. Thomas Aquinas was living then, and so was King St. Louis, but God chose neither the learning of the one nor the royal power of the other to be the means of executing His desire.
The instrument in the hand of Divine Providence was St. Juliana of Mont Cornillon, in Belgium. She was born in 1193 at Retines near Liège. Orphaned at an early age, she was educated by the Augustinian nuns of Mont Cornillon. Here she in time made her religious profession and later became superioress. Intrigues of various kinds, several times drove her from her convent. She died on April 5th, 1258, at the House of the Cistercian nuns at Fosses, and was buried at Villiers.
Juliana, from her early youth, had a great veneration for the Blessed Sacrament, and always longed for a special feast in its honor. From the age of 16, Juliana of Liège (1193-1252), recurrently received the same vision when she knelt in prayer: A brilliant moon continually appeared before her with one small portion obscured and invisible. That Belgian canoness in the Augustinian canonry of Mont Cornillon tried in vain to chase the vision away.
Our Lord Steps In
Finally Our Lord Himself appeared to her and explained the reasons why He desired such a feast. He said it was to show that the liturgical year of the Church would remain incomplete until the Blessed Sacrament had a feast of its own, and He wished it to be instituted for the following reasons:
Firstly, in order that Catholic doctrine might receive aid from the institution of this festival at a time when the Faith of the world was growing cold and heresies were rife.
Secondly, the faithful who love and seek truth and piety could draw from this source of life new strength and vigor to walk continually in the way of virtue.
Thirdly, irreverence and sacrilegious behavior toward the Divine Majesty in the Blessed Sacrament might, by sincere and profound adoration, be rooted-out and repaired. Then He bade her to announce to the Christian world His will that this feast should be observed.
Full of fear, the canoness beseeched Our Lord to be released from the charge. Our Lord answered her that the solemn devotion, which He ordered to be observed, was to be begun by her and to be propagated by the poor and lowly.
Petrified Procrastination Postpones Propagation
Full of fear, the canoness beseeched Our Lord to be released from the charge. Our Lord answered her that the solemn devotion, which He ordered to be observed, was to be begun by her and to be propagated by the poor and lowly.
For 20 years the secret lay hidden in Juliana’s heart; she dared not reveal it to anyone, and yet an interior impulse urged her on, so that she could not forget it. So terrible was her repugnance, for the mission assigned to her, that she shed tears of blood over it.
At length she revealed the mission to her confessor, and to Robert de Thorete, then Bishop of Liège, as well as to the learned Dominican, Hugh, later cardinal legate in the Netherlands. Others were then consulted, especially Fr. Jacques Pantaléon, Archdeacon at the Cathedral of Liège who was afterwards elected Bishop of Verdun, then he became Patriarch of Jerusalem and, finally, he was elected Pontiff of Rome, being called Pope Urban IV.
Bishop Robert was favorably impressed and persuaded to initiate the feast by St. Juliana. Since bishops, at that time, had the right of introducing local feasts for their dioceses, he called a synod in 1246 and, after theological discussions, ordered the celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi to be held―within the Diocese of Liège, Belgium―in the following year. He also decreed that a local monk, named John, should compose the Liturgical Office for the occasion. The decree is preserved in Binterim (Denkwürdigkeiten, V, 1, 276), together with parts of the Office. Bishop Robert did not live to see the execution of his order, for he died on October 16th, 1246; but the feast was celebrated for the first time by the canons of St. Martin at Liège.
Corpus Christi Creates Criticism and Controversy
From the time that Juliana revealed her visions about the feast, it became a public question, and men were sorely divided upon it. As her message became publicly known, she had to suffer scorn and ridicule for some years. Many canons and monks protested against the new devotion and argued that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was sufficient to commemorate the love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament ― without a special day being particularly assigned for that purpose.
Julianna prayed on as civic unrest and religious controversies raged around her; the city where she lived was lost and won in the waging Guelph/Ghibbelline struggle, sacked by a lawless army, and retaken. Three successive convents were either burned or otherwise destroyed over her head. Twice Juliana, now superior of the Convent and enforcing the strict Augustinian Rule, was forced to flee her convent.
After the second time, she found refuge in a Cistercian convent, then another, and then among the poor Beguines. From there she took up residence in the Cistercian Abbey at Salzinners, and finally at Fosses-les-Villes, where she lived in seclusion until her death. Yet no earthly troubles could make her forget the task that Our Lord had assigned her.
She died before it was accomplished throughout the whole Church―even though she had the joy of seeing it celebrated in her own diocese of Liège, in Belgium. Nevertheless, she had done enough in her lifetime to provide a spark for its execution. In her wanderings―she had met with a few men with devotion and learning to defend the feast of the Blessed Sacrament and they helped to spread the devotion, especially among the simple people.
The Miracle of Orvieto
Five years after the death of Juliana in 1258, a German priest, Peter of Prague, stopped at Bolsena in 1263, while on a pilgrimage to Rome. At that time this priest was suffering a crisis of faith, doubting that Christ was actually present in the consecrated Host. While celebrating Holy Mass above the tomb of St. Christina in the church named after this martyr, he had barely spoken the words of Consecration when blood started to seep from the consecrated Host and trickle over his hands onto the altar and the corporal.
At first the priest attempted to hide the blood, but then he interrupted the Mass and asked to be taken to the neighboring city of Orvieto, where he knew that Pope Urban IV was then visiting. The Pope listened to the priest’s account and dismissed him. He then sent emissaries for an immediate investigation. When all the facts were ascertained, he ordered the Bishop of the Diocese to bring the Host and the linen cloth (corporal) bearing the stains of blood to Orvieto.
With Archbishops, Cardinals and other Church dignitaries in attendance, the Pope met the procession and, amid great pomp, had the relics placed in the Cathedral. The linen corporal bearing the spots of blood is still reverently enshrined and exhibited in the Cathedral of Orvieto. The Feast is introduced in the Church calendar
Popes Take Over
After the death of Juliana in 1258, Pope Urban IV, who all along had been favorable towards instituting the feast of Corpus Christi, was asked to extend the devotion to the entire Church. The Eucharistic miracle of Orvieto, in 1263, was instrumental in his final decision favoring the installation of the Feast of Corpus Christi. Soon after the miracle of Orvieto Urban IV commissioned the great Dominican scholar, St. Thomas Aquinas, to compose the Proper for a Mass (readings and texts for the Mass) and Divine Office for the new feast. The splendor, depth, and devotion of the prayers and hymns that Saint Thomas wrote have enriched the liturgy with one of its most beautiful rituals. They are still in use today, admired and appreciated by people of all faiths.
One year later, on September 8th, 1264 (six years after the death of Juliana), Pope Urban IV, by means of the papal bull Transiturus de hoc mundo, established for the universal Church that festival in honor of the Holy Eucharist ― the feast of Corpus Christi. At the same time he granted many indulgences to the faithful for attendance at Mass and the Office. It was to be celebrated with great solemnity on the Thursday after Pentecost week, and indulgences were granted to all who would receive Holy Communion or attend special devotions in addition to hearing Mass.
The papal bull, Transiturus de hoc mundo, of Urban IV had no immediate effect, because he died (October 2nd, 1264) within a month of its publication (September 8th, 1264), and the immediate succeeding popes did not push the matter. However, Pope Clement V (elected pope in 1305) again took the matter in hand and, at the General Council of Vienne (1311), once more ordered the adoption of the feast. Finally, however, Pope Clement V, in 1314, renewed the decrees in a papal bull of his own, which embodied that of Urban IV. Pope John XXII, successor of Clement V, also urged its observance.
The feast began to spread quickly throughout the Latin Church. The feast had been accepted in 1306 at Cologne; Worms adopted it in 1315; Strasburg in 1316. In England it was introduced from Belgium between 1320 and 1325. Later it was also accepted by some parts of the Oriental Church (Syrians, Armenians, Copts, and Melchites). The churches of the Greeks, Ukrainians, and Russians (of the Greek Catholic Rite) do not celebrate this feast.
The triumph of the Blessed Sacrament was complete, and the devotion spread throughout the length and breadth of Europe. From that time, until after Vatican II, every church in a Catholic country―from the cathedral of a royal city down to the most modest village chapel―kept the feast on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday. The procession would issue into the streets followed by the authorities of the realm. It is the public recognition by the Catholic world of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
From Triumph to Tragedy
In the ebb and flow, ups and downs, wins and losses of the spiritual combat, the devil would strike back at this Eucharistic devotion―a most central element of spiritual life and salvation―with hundreds of years of erosion and corrosion of the devotion. Just as it took centuries for the Eucharistic devotion of Corpus Christi to cement itself in the liturgy of the Church, so too has the devil taken centuries to gradually whittle and chip away that devotion.
In a nutshell, over the centuries, the devil has chipped-away at the Holy Eucharist with several progressive tools:
● Jansenism―creates infrequent reception of Christ in the Holy Eucharist through excessive feelings of unworthiness
● Rationalism―creates a doubt over the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist
● Modernism―creates a new doctrine and belief on the presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist
● Materialism―creates an tangible, visible, enjoyable alternative to Christ in the Holy Eucharist
● Hedonism (Seeking Pleasure)―creates a greater material pleasure than the ‘boring’ Holy Eucharist seems offer
● Technologism― creates through technological inventions greater interest, advantages, immediate results and profit than the Holy Eucharist offers
All distractions and alternatives that seem to be more desirable, more interesting, more exciting, more profitable, more lovable, more advantageous, more satisfying and more gratifying than the Holy Eucharist―which is today proven by the number of hours people spend in front TVs, computer monitors, tablet screens and smartphones; proven by the sports temples that are filled everyday with sports worshippers; proved by the time and money spent on entertainment and pleasure-seeking; proven by the empty churches and lack of Eucharistic worship and worshipers; proven by the lack of attendance at Masses to receive the Holy Eucharist.
The Screwtape Letters and “Screwed-Up Souls”
The Screwtape Letters is a novel by C. S. Lewis, published in 1942, which, even though it is satirical and humorous― he said it was “not fun” to write―for the content also has a deadly ring of truth to it. Lewis himself writes: “Though it was easy to twist one’s mind into the diabolical attitude, it was not fun, or not for long. The strain produced a sort of spiritual cramp. The work into which I had to project myself, while I spoke through Screwtape, was all dust, grit, thirst, and itch. Every trace of beauty, freshness, and geniality had to be excluded. It almost smothered me before I was done.”
The story takes the form of a series of 31 letters from a senior demon, called Screwtape (hence the title― The Screwtape Letters), to his nephew Wormwood, who is a Junior Tempter. Screwtape holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy or “Lowerarchy” of Hell (as opposed to “Hierarchy” or “Higherarchy” of Heaven), and acts as a mentor to his nephew Wormwood, an inexperienced and incompetent tempter who is just starting out is the field of temptation. The uncle demon is counseling his nephew demon, who has been charged with the responsibility of guiding a man (called “the patient”) away from “the Enemy” (meaning Jesus), toward “Our Father Below” (meaning the Devil / Satan).
In these 31 letters, which make up the book, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining God’s words and of promoting an abandonment of God in “the Patient”, so that he can be successfully led to “Our Father Below” (meaning the Devil / Satan). Screwtape sprinkles the letters with his observations on human nature and on the Bible. In Screwtape’s advice, selfish gain and power are seen as the only good. After the second letter, the Patient converts to Christianity, and Wormwood is chastised by Screwtape for allowing this. After “the Patient’s” conversion to Christianity, he further irritates the devils by marrying a good Christian girl.
A striking contrast in tactics emerges between Wormwood and Screwtape during the rest of the book―whereby Wormwood becomes obsessed with trying to tempt his patient into blatantly obvious wicked and deplorable sins, often recklessly, while Screwtape takes a more subtle approach, as seen in Letter XII, wherein he states: “The safest road to Hell is the gradual one ― the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” Screwtape further admonishes Wormwood to keep “the Patient” safe, in the hopes that they can compromise and destroy his Faith over a long lifetime.
In Letter VIII, Screwtape explains to his protégé, Wormwood, the different goals that God and the devils have for the human race: “We want cattle who can finally become food! He wants servants who can finally become sons!” With this end in mind, Screwtape urges Wormwood in Letter VI to promote passivity and irresponsibility in the Patient: “The Enemy (God) wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them!” This, sadly, is the road that we are happily treading today―oblivious to the great dangers, or at best, perceiving those great dangers as being merely trivial dangers.
A Taste of Hell―Sugary Coating, Bitter Center
If you have not read The Screwtape Letters, then it would not be a bad idea to do so―but you should read it in conjunction with a spiritual classic on temptation, such as The Spiritual Exercises by St. Ignatius of Loyola, or a short booklet that is a very readable commentary on St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, written by Fr. Ludovic-Marie Barrielle, entitled Rules for Discerning the Spirits―which distills the wisdom of the 30-day Ignatian retreat into 20 principles, so that you can discern the spiritual influences in your life that are from God from those that are from the devil. The Screwtape Letters are also a slightly humorous means of introducing children to the not so humorous reality of the mechanics of temptation, sin, damnation or salvation―depending on how we handle temptation.
However, parts can seem somewhat obscure―not because they are of themselves difficult, but because we have had our vocabulary eroded and emptied by modern day forms of communication. Hence, before ‘feeding’ the children, you may have modify parts or “cut-them-up-into-bite-size-pieces” or make them into “vocabulary smoothies” for those who have lost, or not even grown, their intellectual teeth. One way of doing this is to find an online version of The Screwtape Letters, copy and paste it into you preferred text document―Microsoft Word, Wordperfect, etc. ― and then read through it, changing and simplifying any words or phrases that you feel might be difficult for your children to understand. You may find that there is very much that needs to be modified―in that case it is recommended that you feed your children one-letter-a-week―which, in actual fact, is how the original Screwtape Letters, were fed to the public, by being published in the newspaper, one-letter-per-week. Here is the opening short chapter―as previously stated, in the form of a letter, from the devil, Uncle Screwtape (the mentor demon), to his protégé demon, Wormwood, who is just starting-out in his temptation apprenticeship.
My Dear Wormwood,
I note what you say about guiding your patient’s reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naive. It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy’s [God’s] clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons, we have largely altered that.
Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily “true” or “false, but as “academic” or “practical,” “outworn” or “contemporary,” “conventional” or “ruthless.” Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don’t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous; that it is the philosophy of the future. That’s the sort of thing he cares about.
The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle onto the Enemy’s [God’s] own ground. He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda, of the kind I am suggesting, He has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of Our Father Below [Satan]. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient’s reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result? Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favor, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it “real life” and don’t let him ask what he means by “real.”
Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (O that abominable advantage of the Enemy’s!) you don’t realize how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary.
I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the ‘wrong way. The Enemy, of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years’ work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defense by argument, I should have been undone.
But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control, and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch. The Enemy presumably made the counter suggestion (you know how one can never quite overhear what He says to them?) that this was more important than lunch. At least I think that must have been His line, for when I said, “Quite. In fact much too important to tackle at the end of a morning,” the patient brightened up considerably, and by the time I had added “Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind,” he was already halfway to the door.
Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man’s head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of “real life” (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that all “that sort of thing” just couldn’t be true. He knew he’d had a narrow escape, and in later years was fond of talking about “that inarticulate sense for actuality which is our ultimate safeguard against the aberrations of mere logic.” He is now safe in Our Father’s house {Hell].
You begin to see the point? Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things. Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defense against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can’t touch and see. There have been sad cases among the modern physicists. If he must dabble in science, keep him on economics and sociology; don’t let him get away from that invaluable “real life.” But the best of all is to let him read no science, but to give him a grand general idea that he knows it all and that everything he happens to have picked up in casual talk and reading is “the results of modern investigation.” Do remember you are there to fuddle him. From the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach!
Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape
That opening chapter sets the tone and reveals the basic successful demonic tactic for which most souls have fallen and for which most souls still fall―distraction from God and attraction to the world, distraction from the hereafter and attraction to the here-and-now. This is the principal cause of the damnation of so many souls―something that is attested by Our Lord, Our Lady and numerous saints―the fact being that most souls fall for the devil and fall into Hell. Salvation is possible for everyone, but not everyone wants to follow the rules and paths of salvation―God will not twist anyone’s arm, but Satan will. God gives every single soul sufficient graces and warnings to save their souls, but most souls waste, ignore or deliberately refuse to cooperate with those graces and warnings.
The Heavenail Truths versus The Screwtape Letters
Of course, The Screwtape Letters is a fictional work, but one that nevertheless expounds certain truths about the “Father of Lies.” Our Lady’s apparitions are not fictional, and they, too, convey truths―in fact they ‘nail’ the truth and ‘nail’ the truth about Satan’s antics and tactics. They also ‘nail’ mankind by chastising our indifference and negligence is corresponding with those Heaven-sent truths and doing something about it! In The Screwtape Letters, the devils Screwtape and Wormwood are plotting damnation―in what could be called The Heavenail Truths, Our Lord and Our Lady are trying to nail us down, or tie us down, to the truths that we persist in ignoring or “sweeping under the carpet.” Screwtape and Wormwood have their tactics for our salvation, whereas Our Lord and Our Lady have their tactics for our salvation. Ultimately, it depends on who we listen to and who we believe and whose advice we take.
Screwtape’s policy of leading “patients” to Hell is a patient method―as the popular saying states: “Little-by-little one goes a long way!”― even all the way to Hell. That is the preferred method of Satan. Little falls are less likely to make us take action than big falls. Like an ocean gently wafting against the shoreline and slowly eroding it, or the ever so gently increasing temperature of the water dissuades the comfortable frog from jumping out of it, or like the incremental and progressive changes in laws that have now led us to abortions and same-sex marriages, the devils prefer to follow a similar policy in damning souls. Rome wasn’t built in a day and no soul was damned in a day. The easiest way to get anyone into committing mortal sins is to get them to commit the smallest and teeniest of venial sins on a regular basis, which leads to an addiction to that sin (those sins) and thus begins to weaken our spiritual immune system and will-power in resisting sin in general. The initial ‘infiltrating’ sins are made to look so ‘tiny’ and ‘insignificant’ so as to convince you that it’s not all that important. After the first little sin in any category, it’s easier to repeat the next one in the same category―since it doesn’t matter, right? And once you’ve committed enough of the ‘little’ ones, the big ones (or the smallest of the big ones) won’t seem so bad—because the little ones basically add up to a big one, anyway, and those were okay, right? Wrong. Tiny steps toward evil are still evil. The Catechism teaches that the greatest evil in the world is sin―mortal sin being the greatest evil, and venial sin the second greatest evil. Today, since hardly anyone knows their Catechism, those truths are forgotten and ignored. If we think sin is of little consequence― “Oh, what’s the big deal? I’ll commit it and then just go and confess it!”― then it is obvious that temptations will be seen as being of even less consequence. The day when we stop letting even the little temptations bother us, is the day our final descent begins.
Nailing Down the Truth or Nailing Christ Again?
Sin can be forgiven―any kind of sin can be forgiven; any gravity of sin can be forgiven; any quantity of sin can be forgiven―as Holy Scripture says: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity” (1 John 1:9) … “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18) … “Peter came unto Jesus and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times!’” (Matthew 18:21-22) … “The Lord is compassionate and merciful; longsuffering and plenteous in mercy. He will not always be angry; nor will He threaten for ever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins: nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our iniquities from us!” (Psalm 102:8-12).
On the other hand, Our Lord, when He had forgiven the woman caught in adultery, and healed the sinful paralytic by the Pool of Bethsaida, he to one and the other to stop sinning: “Jesus said to her: ‘Neither will I condemn thee! Go, and now sin no more!’” (John 8:11) … “Afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him: ‘Behold you are healed!! Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!’” (John 5:14). Scripture adds: “God will surely take revenge. Say not: ‘I have sinned, and what harm has befallen me?’ For the most High is a patient rewarder. Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great, He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’ For both mercy and wrath quickly come from Him, and His wrath looks upon sinners. Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:3-8). Read Leviticus 26:14-45 for further proofs. Hence Scripture warns: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8).
This is what Our Lady reminds us of―adding nothing new to Divine Public Revelation, but warning us of its consequences―when she says: “Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God [even lay Catholics are dedicated to God by their Baptism], who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! … Holy places are in a state of corruption!. Many convents are no longer houses of God, but the grazing-grounds of Asmodeas [the devil of impurity] and his like! ... The spirit of impurity will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty! There will be almost no virgin souls in the world! … Sin will conquer innumerable frivolous souls―who will be lost! Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women! … The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God ... as true Faith fades and false light will brighten the people! … The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth! People will think of nothing but amusement! The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin!”
“Many men in this world afflict the Lord! … Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended! … If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them! … If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will strike in an unprecedented way. God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together! ... In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind! … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events! Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God! … God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other! ... As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead! … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness!” (Combination of warning from Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador; Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
The Hazy, Mazy, Lazy Way of Screwtape
These are the truths and warnings that the ‘Screwtapes’ and ‘Wormwoods’ of today wish to distract you from. Yet the truth is that we are heading towards the above mentioned cataclysms and catastrophes as surely as there is an Earth, a Hell and a Heaven. As Screwtape writes: Do not “awake the patient’s reason; for once it is awake, who can foresee the result? … As always, the first step is to keep knowledge out of his mind … Give him a grand general idea that he knows it all … Make his mind flit to and fro … Keep everything hazy in his mind … Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favor, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of thinking about universal issues [or his salvation] and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the daily stream of experiences. Teach him to call it «real life» and don’t let him ask what he means by «real». Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. You don’t realize how enslaved humans are to the pressure of the ordinary! … Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things … What he says, even on his knees, about his own sinfulness is all parrot talk. At bottom, he still believes that he has run up a very favorable credit balance in the Enemy’s ledger … Keep him in that state of mind as long as you can! … Weaken his prayers by diverting his attention from the Enemy … Let an insult, or a woman’s body, so fix his attention outwardly, that he does not reflect that «I am now entering into the state called Anger—or the state called Lust» ... We should make the patient an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist. All extremes―except extreme devotion to the Enemy―are to be encouraged. Not always, of course, but at this period. Some ages are lukewarm and complacent, and then it is our business to soothe them yet faster asleep. Other ages, of which the present is one, are unbalanced and prone to factions, and it is our business to inflame them. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the ‘Cause’ … Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and Sacraments and charity, he is ours!”
The Antidote, Weapons, Bricks and Cement
It is exactly that―as Screwtape says―let mankind do anything they want, even good things, as long as you can get them to neglect prayer, the Sacraments and charity. Our Lady has said that the devil has mainly succeeded in this tactic, for most souls are ignoring her warnings and instructions, failing to do what Heaven wants them to do and, instead, carrying on doing the good things they themselves prefer to do. The devil is always about doing the “lesser”―when it comes to sin, he will make us feel ‘virtuous’ if he can make us “do the lesser of two evils”―he first suggests a whopper of a sin, which he knows we will find repugnant, and then he will suggest a lesser sin, which makes us feel ‘good’ because we have committed a lesser evil―like the fraudulent vendor who asks $30,000 for a used car, knowing it will shock you, then drops his price to $20,000 which makes you feel as though you are getting a bargain, whereas it is still overpriced.
Likewise, does the devil want us to “do the lesser of two goods”―if he sees that we want to pray all 15 mysteries of the Rosary, he will suggest that we give our lonely grandma a phone call instead, all in the name of charity. Or if we are inclined to pray―he will let us pray, but he will encourage us the pray the less powerful p rayer. Thus, instead of praying the Rosary, he will have us pray a novena. Instead of spiritual reading that will change our actions, he will have read something spiritual that merely titillates our mind and leaves actions aside.
In this way, the devil has succeeded in diverting and distracting us from the two ESSENTIAL weapons that Heaven has instructed that we must use in our present day warfare against our triple enemy―the devil, the world and our own flesh (passions and concupiscence). Those first and most powerful of those two weapons is THE HOLY EUCHARIST in all its forms―the Holy Sacrifice of Mass, Holy Communion, visits to the Blessed Sacrament and spiritual Communions. The second of those two weapons is DEVOTION TO OUR LADY in all its forms―praying the Holy Rosary daily and many Rosaries daily; the wearing of the Brown Scapular and other Scapulars; the wearing of the Miraculous Medal; the recitation of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the observation of her feast days; the practice of the five First Saturdays of the Month in reparation for sin; and, above all these things, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the consecration of ourselves (as well as Russia primarily and other nations secondarily) to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. All the lesser things―Rosary, Scapular, Medals, First Saturdays, etc. ― are the bricks that make up the larger temple of a true devotion to Mary.
Yet those are the very things that are neglected, forgotten, sidelined, marginalized and unpublicized. As Sr. Lucia of Fatima revealed: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on the road of goodness with their life of virtue and apostolate without paying mind to this Message―they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners, the bad, because of their sins, do not see God’s chastisement about to fall upon them presently, also keep following the road of evil through sin, ignoring the Message, because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them. But, Father, you must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a tremendous way!” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
Dreamy Life
The Walt Disney Corporation has coined the phrase: “If you can dream it, you can do it!” ―and we have fallen for the dream! Or, rather, the devil has made us fall for that dream―much as he made Eve fall for the “Original Dream”―”In what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil!” (Genesis 3:5). Since that day, generation after generation have fallen for the “Original Dream”―dreaming that we are better than we actually are; dreaming that we are doing more than most; dreaming that our sins are not that bad; dreaming that our pitiful penances have paid our debts for sin; dreaming that world is in a better state than it really is; dreaming that God will turn a blind-eye to everything because He is a loving God; dreaming that the Chastisement will not come―at least not in our lifetime; dreaming that most people will go to Heaven; dreaming this and dreaming that!
These are not the kind of dreams that Holy Scripture means, when it says: “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy: your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions” (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17). The devil is a frequent source of our unrealistic dreams and Scripture says that the “forger of dreams shall be slain―because he spoke to draw you away from the Lord your God!” (Deuteronomy 13:5). “Give no heed to your dreams which you dream!” (Jeremias 29:8). “Where there are many dreams, there are many vanities!” (Ecclesiastes 5:6). “His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant! Dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams!” (Isaias 56:10) “Dreams lift up fools!” (Ecclesiasticus 34:1). “You shall not observe dreams!” (Leviticus 19:26). “For dreams have deceived many, and they have failed that put their trust in them!” (Ecclesiasticus 34:7).
Yet, to some, God actually did speak through dreams and to some God gave the power to interpret dreams. We see both the Old Testament Joseph and the New Testament Joseph having messages transmitted to them through dreams. The Old Testament Joseph had several dreams that indicated his future to him (Genesis 37), while also receiving the power to interpret the dreams of two of Pharao’s servants whilst he was in prison in Egypt. St. Joseph had the angel of God speak to him several times in his dreams, wherein he was given major instructions as to what to do and where to go and when to go.
In the Old Testament Book of Daniel, we read that Daniel was the was given the power to interpret the dream of King Nabuchodonnosor of Babylon: “God gave to Daniel the understanding also of all visions and dreams” (Daniel 1:17). King Solomon was another dreamer: “The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, saying: ‘Ask what you want that I should give thee!’” (3 Kings 3:5). There are more instances to be found in the Old Testament, whereas in the New Testament, besides St. Joseph’s dreams, we have St. Peter given a dream that indicates to him that the Gentiles should be accepted as converts to Christianity. The wife of Pontius Pilate received a dream that could have saved Pilate’s skin had he only listened to her: “Have thou nothing to do with that just man [Jesus]; for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of Him!” (Matthew 27:19).
The Saint of Dreams
This brings us to St. John Bosco―who could be called “The Saint of Dreams”―you may have read the book entitled “Forty Dreams of St. John Bosco”, from which let us take a dream that applies to our day and age, as well to this current article―it is the dream which has come be known as “The Prophecy of the Two Columns.” Here are the pertinent extracts from that dream. On May 30th, 1862 Don Bosco at his ‘Good Night’ talk told his boys, and the young clerics he was training, about a dream he had dreamt a few nights previously. After some preliminary remarks he went on to describe what he had seen:
“Try to picture yourselves with me on the seashore, or, better still, on an outlying cliff with no other land in sight. The vast expanse of water is covered with a formidable array of ships in battle formation, prows [the front of the ship] fitted with sharp spear-like beaks capable of breaking through any defense. All are heavily armed with cannons, incendiary bombs, and firearms of all sorts ― even books ― and are heading toward one stately ship, mightier than them all [the Catholic Church]. As they try to close in, they try to ram it, set it afire, and cripple it as much as possible. This stately vessel is shielded by a flotilla escort. Winds and waves are with the enemy.
“In this midst of this endless sea, two solid columns, a short distance apart, soar high into the sky: one is surmounted by a statue of the Immaculate Virgin at whose feet a large inscription reads: «Help of Christians» ― the other, far loftier and sturdier, supports a [Holy Communion] Host of proportionate size and bears beneath it the inscription «Salvation of believers». The flagship commander ― the Roman Pontiff [the Pope] ― seeing the enemy’s fury and his auxiliary ships very grave predicament, summons his captains to a conference. However, as they discuss their strategy, a furious storm breaks out and they must return to their ships. When the storm abates, the Pope again summons his captains as the flagship keeps on its course. But the storm rages again.
“Standing at the helm, the Pope strains every muscle to steer his ship between the two columns, from whose summits hang many anchors and strong hooks linked to chains. The entire enemy fleet closes in to intercept and sink the flagship at all costs. They bombard it with everything they have: books and pamphlets, incendiary bombs, firearms, cannons. The battle rages ever more furious. Beaked prows ram the flagship again and again, but to no avail, as, unscathed and undaunted, it keeps on its course. At times a formidable ram splinters a gaping hole into its hull, but, immediately, a breeze from the two columns instantly seals the gash. Meanwhile, enemy cannons blow up, firearms and beaks fall to pieces, ships crack up and sink to the bottom. In blind fury the enemy takes to hand-to-hand combat, cursing and blaspheming.
“Suddenly the Pope falls, seriously wounded. He is instantly helped up but, struck down a second time, dies. A shout of victory rises from the enemy and wild rejoicing sweeps their ships. But no sooner is the Pope dead than another takes his place. The captains of the auxiliary ships elected him so quickly that the news of the Pope’s death coincides with that of his successor’s election. The enemy’s self-assurance wanes. Breaking through all resistance, the new Pope steers his ship safely between the two columns and moors it to the two columns; first to the one surmounted by the Host, and then to the other, topped by the statue of the Virgin. At this point something unexpected happens. The enemy ships panic and disperse, colliding with and scuttling each other. Some auxiliary ships which had gallantly fought alongside their flagship are the first to tie up at the two columns. Many others, which had fearfully kept far away from the fight, stand still, cautiously waiting until the wrecked enemy ships vanish under the waves. Then, they too head for the two columns, tie up at the swinging hooks, and ride safe and tranquil beside their flagship. A great calm now covers the sea.”
At this point, Don Bosco asked one of the priests present for his views. He replied that he thought that the flagship symbolized the Church headed by the Pope, with the ships representing mankind and the sea as an image of the world. The ships defending the flagship he equated with the laity and the attackers with those trying to destroy the Church, while the two columns represented devotion to Mary and the Eucharist. Don Bosco replied: “Very grave trials await the Church. What we have suffered so far is almost nothing compared to what is going to happen. The enemies of the Church are symbolized by the ships which strive their utmost to sink the flagship. Only two things can save us in such a grave hour―devotion to Mary and frequent Communion. Let us do our very best to use these two means and have others use them everywhere!” St. John Bosco was stressing the importance of devotion to Our Lady and the Blessed Sacrament.
Our Lady of Good Success on Devotion to Mary and the Holy Eucharist
This same combination―of devotion to Our Lady in one form or another, and devotion to the Holy Eucharist in one form or another―has also been the essence of many of the Marian apparitions over the last few hundred years. At Quito in Ecuador, besides saying that she would crush Satan’s proud head, during “that epoch during which there will be a great devotion to me”― she also commanded that we “clamor insistently, imploring the Celestial Father that, for love of the Eucharistic Heart of my Most Holy Son and His Precious Blood shed with such generosity and the profound bitterness and sufferings of His cruel Passion and Death, He might take pity and bring to an end those ominous times” when “there will be occasions when all will seem to be lost and paralyzed.” Our Lord Himself added: “If men would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small spineless imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me ... But I will not tolerate this! Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me! I desire all or nothing! — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross. Moreover, I have continued to live in the Tabernacle under the same roof with these hidden souls, exposing Myself to so many hateful profanations and sacrileges! For I know well all that takes place in My sacramental life! ... Woe to souls like this! Woe!”
Other Apparitions
► RUE DU BAC (1830) ― St. Catherine Labouré is woken by an angel and told to go the convent chapel, where Our Lady appears to her in the sanctuary of the chapel―thus in the presence of the Holy Eucharist. The second time Our Lady appeared, it was again in the present of the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel. The devotion to Our Lady came through the Miraculous Medal, which Our Lady revealed to St. Catherine Labouré, and commanded medals to be made according to design Our Lady had manifested.
►LA SALETTE, FRANCE (1846) ― Our Lady spoke about future abuses to Holy Eucharist, especially through irreverential Masses offered by the priests and the neglect of people in attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. She also pointed out her role in the triumph of the Church after terrible persecutions, murders, wars and catasptophes.
► FATIMA, PORTUGAL (9117) ― Even before Our Lady first appeared, there was apparition of the Angel of Portugal, who showed the children how to reverence, adore and pray to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Then, in her apparitions, Our Lady explicitly spoke about devotion to her―especially through the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart, saying that only she could help the world now. You could say that the Miracle of the Sun, whereby the sun was seen spinning and then falling out of the sky towards the ground, was symbolic of both the Miracle of Holy Eucharist (transubstantiation), and the fall in devotion of the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
► AKITA, JAPAN (1973) ― We take note that Sister Agnes Sasagawa, to whom Our Lady spoke, belonged to The Institute of Handmaids of the Eucharist. On several occasions Sr. Agnes encounters a bright light emanating from the tabernacle in the chapel and “spiritual beings” worshiping the Eucharist. Our Lady prays together with Sr. Agnes the Institute’s prayer to Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus: “Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, truly present in Holy Eucharist, I consecrate my body and soul to be entirely one with Your Heart, being sacrificed at every instant on all the altars of the world and giving praise to the Father pleading for the coming of His Kingdom.” After this, Our Lady tells her: “Recite the prayer of the Handmaids of the Eucharist with awareness of its meaning; put it into practice!” Then Our Lady speaks of devotion to both her and her Son―especially implying it to be the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Holy Eucharist―saying: “The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved!”
Need any more be said? No! But much needs to be done to change our attitude, approach, practice and love of these two life-saving―eternal life saving―gifts that Heaven has offered as the last means of hope and salvation in these undoubtedly cataclysmic times―which not everyone sees and recognizes, because their eyes are on their screens and instead of Rosaries in their hands, they have smartphones, cookies, burgers, beers, etc.
Today we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ―that is the Holy Eucharist) during the month of the Sacred Heart. What most people do not realize, and what cannot be stressed too much, is the integral connection between devotion to the Holy Eucharist with devotion to the Sacred Heart. The two devotions can, in a certain sense, be said to be one and the same devotion. This is especially true is we read the account the Miracle of Lanciano, where scientific studies, over 1,200 years after the initial miracle took place, showed the Eucharistic remains to the inner wall of a human heart!
Out of Sight―Out of Mind
Many centuries had passed over the Church of Christ before there was any distinct feast of the Blessed Sacrament. When, in the 13th century, Our Lord chose that such a feast should be instituted, He had recourse by a simple vision to a simple nun to be the instrument of this devotion in His Church. St. Thomas Aquinas was living then, and so was King St. Louis, but God chose neither the learning of the one nor the royal power of the other to be the means of executing His desire.
The instrument in the hand of Divine Providence was St. Juliana of Mont Cornillon, in Belgium. She was born in 1193 at Retines near Liège. Orphaned at an early age, she was educated by the Augustinian nuns of Mont Cornillon. Here she in time made her religious profession and later became superioress. Intrigues of various kinds, several times drove her from her convent. She died on April 5th, 1258, at the House of the Cistercian nuns at Fosses, and was buried at Villiers.
Juliana, from her early youth, had a great veneration for the Blessed Sacrament, and always longed for a special feast in its honor. From the age of 16, Juliana of Liège (1193-1252), recurrently received the same vision when she knelt in prayer: A brilliant moon continually appeared before her with one small portion obscured and invisible. That Belgian canoness in the Augustinian canonry of Mont Cornillon tried in vain to chase the vision away.
Our Lord Steps In
Finally Our Lord Himself appeared to her and explained the reasons why He desired such a feast. He said it was to show that the liturgical year of the Church would remain incomplete until the Blessed Sacrament had a feast of its own, and He wished it to be instituted for the following reasons:
Firstly, in order that Catholic doctrine might receive aid from the institution of this festival at a time when the Faith of the world was growing cold and heresies were rife.
Secondly, the faithful who love and seek truth and piety could draw from this source of life new strength and vigor to walk continually in the way of virtue.
Thirdly, irreverence and sacrilegious behavior toward the Divine Majesty in the Blessed Sacrament might, by sincere and profound adoration, be rooted-out and repaired. Then He bade her to announce to the Christian world His will that this feast should be observed.
Full of fear, the canoness beseeched Our Lord to be released from the charge. Our Lord answered her that the solemn devotion, which He ordered to be observed, was to be begun by her and to be propagated by the poor and lowly.
Petrified Procrastination Postpones Propagation
Full of fear, the canoness beseeched Our Lord to be released from the charge. Our Lord answered her that the solemn devotion, which He ordered to be observed, was to be begun by her and to be propagated by the poor and lowly.
For 20 years the secret lay hidden in Juliana’s heart; she dared not reveal it to anyone, and yet an interior impulse urged her on, so that she could not forget it. So terrible was her repugnance, for the mission assigned to her, that she shed tears of blood over it.
At length she revealed the mission to her confessor, and to Robert de Thorete, then Bishop of Liège, as well as to the learned Dominican, Hugh, later cardinal legate in the Netherlands. Others were then consulted, especially Fr. Jacques Pantaléon, Archdeacon at the Cathedral of Liège who was afterwards elected Bishop of Verdun, then he became Patriarch of Jerusalem and, finally, he was elected Pontiff of Rome, being called Pope Urban IV.
Bishop Robert was favorably impressed and persuaded to initiate the feast by St. Juliana. Since bishops, at that time, had the right of introducing local feasts for their dioceses, he called a synod in 1246 and, after theological discussions, ordered the celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi to be held―within the Diocese of Liège, Belgium―in the following year. He also decreed that a local monk, named John, should compose the Liturgical Office for the occasion. The decree is preserved in Binterim (Denkwürdigkeiten, V, 1, 276), together with parts of the Office. Bishop Robert did not live to see the execution of his order, for he died on October 16th, 1246; but the feast was celebrated for the first time by the canons of St. Martin at Liège.
Corpus Christi Creates Criticism and Controversy
From the time that Juliana revealed her visions about the feast, it became a public question, and men were sorely divided upon it. As her message became publicly known, she had to suffer scorn and ridicule for some years. Many canons and monks protested against the new devotion and argued that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was sufficient to commemorate the love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament ― without a special day being particularly assigned for that purpose.
Julianna prayed on as civic unrest and religious controversies raged around her; the city where she lived was lost and won in the waging Guelph/Ghibbelline struggle, sacked by a lawless army, and retaken. Three successive convents were either burned or otherwise destroyed over her head. Twice Juliana, now superior of the Convent and enforcing the strict Augustinian Rule, was forced to flee her convent.
After the second time, she found refuge in a Cistercian convent, then another, and then among the poor Beguines. From there she took up residence in the Cistercian Abbey at Salzinners, and finally at Fosses-les-Villes, where she lived in seclusion until her death. Yet no earthly troubles could make her forget the task that Our Lord had assigned her.
She died before it was accomplished throughout the whole Church―even though she had the joy of seeing it celebrated in her own diocese of Liège, in Belgium. Nevertheless, she had done enough in her lifetime to provide a spark for its execution. In her wanderings―she had met with a few men with devotion and learning to defend the feast of the Blessed Sacrament and they helped to spread the devotion, especially among the simple people.
The Miracle of Orvieto
Five years after the death of Juliana in 1258, a German priest, Peter of Prague, stopped at Bolsena in 1263, while on a pilgrimage to Rome. At that time this priest was suffering a crisis of faith, doubting that Christ was actually present in the consecrated Host. While celebrating Holy Mass above the tomb of St. Christina in the church named after this martyr, he had barely spoken the words of Consecration when blood started to seep from the consecrated Host and trickle over his hands onto the altar and the corporal.
At first the priest attempted to hide the blood, but then he interrupted the Mass and asked to be taken to the neighboring city of Orvieto, where he knew that Pope Urban IV was then visiting. The Pope listened to the priest’s account and dismissed him. He then sent emissaries for an immediate investigation. When all the facts were ascertained, he ordered the Bishop of the Diocese to bring the Host and the linen cloth (corporal) bearing the stains of blood to Orvieto.
With Archbishops, Cardinals and other Church dignitaries in attendance, the Pope met the procession and, amid great pomp, had the relics placed in the Cathedral. The linen corporal bearing the spots of blood is still reverently enshrined and exhibited in the Cathedral of Orvieto. The Feast is introduced in the Church calendar
Popes Take Over
After the death of Juliana in 1258, Pope Urban IV, who all along had been favorable towards instituting the feast of Corpus Christi, was asked to extend the devotion to the entire Church. The Eucharistic miracle of Orvieto, in 1263, was instrumental in his final decision favoring the installation of the Feast of Corpus Christi. Soon after the miracle of Orvieto Urban IV commissioned the great Dominican scholar, St. Thomas Aquinas, to compose the Proper for a Mass (readings and texts for the Mass) and Divine Office for the new feast. The splendor, depth, and devotion of the prayers and hymns that Saint Thomas wrote have enriched the liturgy with one of its most beautiful rituals. They are still in use today, admired and appreciated by people of all faiths.
One year later, on September 8th, 1264 (six years after the death of Juliana), Pope Urban IV, by means of the papal bull Transiturus de hoc mundo, established for the universal Church that festival in honor of the Holy Eucharist ― the feast of Corpus Christi. At the same time he granted many indulgences to the faithful for attendance at Mass and the Office. It was to be celebrated with great solemnity on the Thursday after Pentecost week, and indulgences were granted to all who would receive Holy Communion or attend special devotions in addition to hearing Mass.
The papal bull, Transiturus de hoc mundo, of Urban IV had no immediate effect, because he died (October 2nd, 1264) within a month of its publication (September 8th, 1264), and the immediate succeeding popes did not push the matter. However, Pope Clement V (elected pope in 1305) again took the matter in hand and, at the General Council of Vienne (1311), once more ordered the adoption of the feast. Finally, however, Pope Clement V, in 1314, renewed the decrees in a papal bull of his own, which embodied that of Urban IV. Pope John XXII, successor of Clement V, also urged its observance.
The feast began to spread quickly throughout the Latin Church. The feast had been accepted in 1306 at Cologne; Worms adopted it in 1315; Strasburg in 1316. In England it was introduced from Belgium between 1320 and 1325. Later it was also accepted by some parts of the Oriental Church (Syrians, Armenians, Copts, and Melchites). The churches of the Greeks, Ukrainians, and Russians (of the Greek Catholic Rite) do not celebrate this feast.
The triumph of the Blessed Sacrament was complete, and the devotion spread throughout the length and breadth of Europe. From that time, until after Vatican II, every church in a Catholic country―from the cathedral of a royal city down to the most modest village chapel―kept the feast on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday. The procession would issue into the streets followed by the authorities of the realm. It is the public recognition by the Catholic world of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
From Triumph to Tragedy
In the ebb and flow, ups and downs, wins and losses of the spiritual combat, the devil would strike back at this Eucharistic devotion―a most central element of spiritual life and salvation―with hundreds of years of erosion and corrosion of the devotion. Just as it took centuries for the Eucharistic devotion of Corpus Christi to cement itself in the liturgy of the Church, so too has the devil taken centuries to gradually whittle and chip away that devotion.
In a nutshell, over the centuries, the devil has chipped-away at the Holy Eucharist with several progressive tools:
● Jansenism―creates infrequent reception of Christ in the Holy Eucharist through excessive feelings of unworthiness
● Rationalism―creates a doubt over the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist
● Modernism―creates a new doctrine and belief on the presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist
● Materialism―creates an tangible, visible, enjoyable alternative to Christ in the Holy Eucharist
● Hedonism (Seeking Pleasure)―creates a greater material pleasure than the ‘boring’ Holy Eucharist seems offer
● Technologism― creates through technological inventions greater interest, advantages, immediate results and profit than the Holy Eucharist offers
All distractions and alternatives that seem to be more desirable, more interesting, more exciting, more profitable, more lovable, more advantageous, more satisfying and more gratifying than the Holy Eucharist―which is today proven by the number of hours people spend in front TVs, computer monitors, tablet screens and smartphones; proven by the sports temples that are filled everyday with sports worshippers; proved by the time and money spent on entertainment and pleasure-seeking; proven by the empty churches and lack of Eucharistic worship and worshipers; proven by the lack of attendance at Masses to receive the Holy Eucharist.
The Screwtape Letters and “Screwed-Up Souls”
The Screwtape Letters is a novel by C. S. Lewis, published in 1942, which, even though it is satirical and humorous― he said it was “not fun” to write―for the content also has a deadly ring of truth to it. Lewis himself writes: “Though it was easy to twist one’s mind into the diabolical attitude, it was not fun, or not for long. The strain produced a sort of spiritual cramp. The work into which I had to project myself, while I spoke through Screwtape, was all dust, grit, thirst, and itch. Every trace of beauty, freshness, and geniality had to be excluded. It almost smothered me before I was done.”
The story takes the form of a series of 31 letters from a senior demon, called Screwtape (hence the title― The Screwtape Letters), to his nephew Wormwood, who is a Junior Tempter. Screwtape holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy or “Lowerarchy” of Hell (as opposed to “Hierarchy” or “Higherarchy” of Heaven), and acts as a mentor to his nephew Wormwood, an inexperienced and incompetent tempter who is just starting out is the field of temptation. The uncle demon is counseling his nephew demon, who has been charged with the responsibility of guiding a man (called “the patient”) away from “the Enemy” (meaning Jesus), toward “Our Father Below” (meaning the Devil / Satan).
In these 31 letters, which make up the book, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining God’s words and of promoting an abandonment of God in “the Patient”, so that he can be successfully led to “Our Father Below” (meaning the Devil / Satan). Screwtape sprinkles the letters with his observations on human nature and on the Bible. In Screwtape’s advice, selfish gain and power are seen as the only good. After the second letter, the Patient converts to Christianity, and Wormwood is chastised by Screwtape for allowing this. After “the Patient’s” conversion to Christianity, he further irritates the devils by marrying a good Christian girl.
A striking contrast in tactics emerges between Wormwood and Screwtape during the rest of the book―whereby Wormwood becomes obsessed with trying to tempt his patient into blatantly obvious wicked and deplorable sins, often recklessly, while Screwtape takes a more subtle approach, as seen in Letter XII, wherein he states: “The safest road to Hell is the gradual one ― the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” Screwtape further admonishes Wormwood to keep “the Patient” safe, in the hopes that they can compromise and destroy his Faith over a long lifetime.
In Letter VIII, Screwtape explains to his protégé, Wormwood, the different goals that God and the devils have for the human race: “We want cattle who can finally become food! He wants servants who can finally become sons!” With this end in mind, Screwtape urges Wormwood in Letter VI to promote passivity and irresponsibility in the Patient: “The Enemy (God) wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them!” This, sadly, is the road that we are happily treading today―oblivious to the great dangers, or at best, perceiving those great dangers as being merely trivial dangers.
A Taste of Hell―Sugary Coating, Bitter Center
If you have not read The Screwtape Letters, then it would not be a bad idea to do so―but you should read it in conjunction with a spiritual classic on temptation, such as The Spiritual Exercises by St. Ignatius of Loyola, or a short booklet that is a very readable commentary on St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, written by Fr. Ludovic-Marie Barrielle, entitled Rules for Discerning the Spirits―which distills the wisdom of the 30-day Ignatian retreat into 20 principles, so that you can discern the spiritual influences in your life that are from God from those that are from the devil. The Screwtape Letters are also a slightly humorous means of introducing children to the not so humorous reality of the mechanics of temptation, sin, damnation or salvation―depending on how we handle temptation.
However, parts can seem somewhat obscure―not because they are of themselves difficult, but because we have had our vocabulary eroded and emptied by modern day forms of communication. Hence, before ‘feeding’ the children, you may have modify parts or “cut-them-up-into-bite-size-pieces” or make them into “vocabulary smoothies” for those who have lost, or not even grown, their intellectual teeth. One way of doing this is to find an online version of The Screwtape Letters, copy and paste it into you preferred text document―Microsoft Word, Wordperfect, etc. ― and then read through it, changing and simplifying any words or phrases that you feel might be difficult for your children to understand. You may find that there is very much that needs to be modified―in that case it is recommended that you feed your children one-letter-a-week―which, in actual fact, is how the original Screwtape Letters, were fed to the public, by being published in the newspaper, one-letter-per-week. Here is the opening short chapter―as previously stated, in the form of a letter, from the devil, Uncle Screwtape (the mentor demon), to his protégé demon, Wormwood, who is just starting-out in his temptation apprenticeship.
My Dear Wormwood,
I note what you say about guiding your patient’s reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naive. It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy’s [God’s] clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons, we have largely altered that.
Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily “true” or “false, but as “academic” or “practical,” “outworn” or “contemporary,” “conventional” or “ruthless.” Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don’t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous; that it is the philosophy of the future. That’s the sort of thing he cares about.
The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle onto the Enemy’s [God’s] own ground. He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda, of the kind I am suggesting, He has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of Our Father Below [Satan]. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient’s reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result? Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favor, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it “real life” and don’t let him ask what he means by “real.”
Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (O that abominable advantage of the Enemy’s!) you don’t realize how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary.
I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the ‘wrong way. The Enemy, of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years’ work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defense by argument, I should have been undone.
But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control, and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch. The Enemy presumably made the counter suggestion (you know how one can never quite overhear what He says to them?) that this was more important than lunch. At least I think that must have been His line, for when I said, “Quite. In fact much too important to tackle at the end of a morning,” the patient brightened up considerably, and by the time I had added “Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind,” he was already halfway to the door.
Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man’s head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of “real life” (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that all “that sort of thing” just couldn’t be true. He knew he’d had a narrow escape, and in later years was fond of talking about “that inarticulate sense for actuality which is our ultimate safeguard against the aberrations of mere logic.” He is now safe in Our Father’s house {Hell].
You begin to see the point? Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things. Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defense against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can’t touch and see. There have been sad cases among the modern physicists. If he must dabble in science, keep him on economics and sociology; don’t let him get away from that invaluable “real life.” But the best of all is to let him read no science, but to give him a grand general idea that he knows it all and that everything he happens to have picked up in casual talk and reading is “the results of modern investigation.” Do remember you are there to fuddle him. From the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach!
Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape
That opening chapter sets the tone and reveals the basic successful demonic tactic for which most souls have fallen and for which most souls still fall―distraction from God and attraction to the world, distraction from the hereafter and attraction to the here-and-now. This is the principal cause of the damnation of so many souls―something that is attested by Our Lord, Our Lady and numerous saints―the fact being that most souls fall for the devil and fall into Hell. Salvation is possible for everyone, but not everyone wants to follow the rules and paths of salvation―God will not twist anyone’s arm, but Satan will. God gives every single soul sufficient graces and warnings to save their souls, but most souls waste, ignore or deliberately refuse to cooperate with those graces and warnings.
The Heavenail Truths versus The Screwtape Letters
Of course, The Screwtape Letters is a fictional work, but one that nevertheless expounds certain truths about the “Father of Lies.” Our Lady’s apparitions are not fictional, and they, too, convey truths―in fact they ‘nail’ the truth and ‘nail’ the truth about Satan’s antics and tactics. They also ‘nail’ mankind by chastising our indifference and negligence is corresponding with those Heaven-sent truths and doing something about it! In The Screwtape Letters, the devils Screwtape and Wormwood are plotting damnation―in what could be called The Heavenail Truths, Our Lord and Our Lady are trying to nail us down, or tie us down, to the truths that we persist in ignoring or “sweeping under the carpet.” Screwtape and Wormwood have their tactics for our salvation, whereas Our Lord and Our Lady have their tactics for our salvation. Ultimately, it depends on who we listen to and who we believe and whose advice we take.
Screwtape’s policy of leading “patients” to Hell is a patient method―as the popular saying states: “Little-by-little one goes a long way!”― even all the way to Hell. That is the preferred method of Satan. Little falls are less likely to make us take action than big falls. Like an ocean gently wafting against the shoreline and slowly eroding it, or the ever so gently increasing temperature of the water dissuades the comfortable frog from jumping out of it, or like the incremental and progressive changes in laws that have now led us to abortions and same-sex marriages, the devils prefer to follow a similar policy in damning souls. Rome wasn’t built in a day and no soul was damned in a day. The easiest way to get anyone into committing mortal sins is to get them to commit the smallest and teeniest of venial sins on a regular basis, which leads to an addiction to that sin (those sins) and thus begins to weaken our spiritual immune system and will-power in resisting sin in general. The initial ‘infiltrating’ sins are made to look so ‘tiny’ and ‘insignificant’ so as to convince you that it’s not all that important. After the first little sin in any category, it’s easier to repeat the next one in the same category―since it doesn’t matter, right? And once you’ve committed enough of the ‘little’ ones, the big ones (or the smallest of the big ones) won’t seem so bad—because the little ones basically add up to a big one, anyway, and those were okay, right? Wrong. Tiny steps toward evil are still evil. The Catechism teaches that the greatest evil in the world is sin―mortal sin being the greatest evil, and venial sin the second greatest evil. Today, since hardly anyone knows their Catechism, those truths are forgotten and ignored. If we think sin is of little consequence― “Oh, what’s the big deal? I’ll commit it and then just go and confess it!”― then it is obvious that temptations will be seen as being of even less consequence. The day when we stop letting even the little temptations bother us, is the day our final descent begins.
Nailing Down the Truth or Nailing Christ Again?
Sin can be forgiven―any kind of sin can be forgiven; any gravity of sin can be forgiven; any quantity of sin can be forgiven―as Holy Scripture says: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity” (1 John 1:9) … “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18) … “Peter came unto Jesus and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times!’” (Matthew 18:21-22) … “The Lord is compassionate and merciful; longsuffering and plenteous in mercy. He will not always be angry; nor will He threaten for ever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins: nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our iniquities from us!” (Psalm 102:8-12).
On the other hand, Our Lord, when He had forgiven the woman caught in adultery, and healed the sinful paralytic by the Pool of Bethsaida, he to one and the other to stop sinning: “Jesus said to her: ‘Neither will I condemn thee! Go, and now sin no more!’” (John 8:11) … “Afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him: ‘Behold you are healed!! Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!’” (John 5:14). Scripture adds: “God will surely take revenge. Say not: ‘I have sinned, and what harm has befallen me?’ For the most High is a patient rewarder. Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great, He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’ For both mercy and wrath quickly come from Him, and His wrath looks upon sinners. Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:3-8). Read Leviticus 26:14-45 for further proofs. Hence Scripture warns: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8).
This is what Our Lady reminds us of―adding nothing new to Divine Public Revelation, but warning us of its consequences―when she says: “Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God [even lay Catholics are dedicated to God by their Baptism], who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! … Holy places are in a state of corruption!. Many convents are no longer houses of God, but the grazing-grounds of Asmodeas [the devil of impurity] and his like! ... The spirit of impurity will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty! There will be almost no virgin souls in the world! … Sin will conquer innumerable frivolous souls―who will be lost! Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women! … The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God ... as true Faith fades and false light will brighten the people! … The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth! People will think of nothing but amusement! The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin!”
“Many men in this world afflict the Lord! … Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended! … If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them! … If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will strike in an unprecedented way. God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together! ... In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind! … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events! Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God! … God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other! ... As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead! … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness!” (Combination of warning from Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador; Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
The Hazy, Mazy, Lazy Way of Screwtape
These are the truths and warnings that the ‘Screwtapes’ and ‘Wormwoods’ of today wish to distract you from. Yet the truth is that we are heading towards the above mentioned cataclysms and catastrophes as surely as there is an Earth, a Hell and a Heaven. As Screwtape writes: Do not “awake the patient’s reason; for once it is awake, who can foresee the result? … As always, the first step is to keep knowledge out of his mind … Give him a grand general idea that he knows it all … Make his mind flit to and fro … Keep everything hazy in his mind … Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favor, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of thinking about universal issues [or his salvation] and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the daily stream of experiences. Teach him to call it «real life» and don’t let him ask what he means by «real». Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. You don’t realize how enslaved humans are to the pressure of the ordinary! … Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things … What he says, even on his knees, about his own sinfulness is all parrot talk. At bottom, he still believes that he has run up a very favorable credit balance in the Enemy’s ledger … Keep him in that state of mind as long as you can! … Weaken his prayers by diverting his attention from the Enemy … Let an insult, or a woman’s body, so fix his attention outwardly, that he does not reflect that «I am now entering into the state called Anger—or the state called Lust» ... We should make the patient an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist. All extremes―except extreme devotion to the Enemy―are to be encouraged. Not always, of course, but at this period. Some ages are lukewarm and complacent, and then it is our business to soothe them yet faster asleep. Other ages, of which the present is one, are unbalanced and prone to factions, and it is our business to inflame them. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the ‘Cause’ … Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and Sacraments and charity, he is ours!”
The Antidote, Weapons, Bricks and Cement
It is exactly that―as Screwtape says―let mankind do anything they want, even good things, as long as you can get them to neglect prayer, the Sacraments and charity. Our Lady has said that the devil has mainly succeeded in this tactic, for most souls are ignoring her warnings and instructions, failing to do what Heaven wants them to do and, instead, carrying on doing the good things they themselves prefer to do. The devil is always about doing the “lesser”―when it comes to sin, he will make us feel ‘virtuous’ if he can make us “do the lesser of two evils”―he first suggests a whopper of a sin, which he knows we will find repugnant, and then he will suggest a lesser sin, which makes us feel ‘good’ because we have committed a lesser evil―like the fraudulent vendor who asks $30,000 for a used car, knowing it will shock you, then drops his price to $20,000 which makes you feel as though you are getting a bargain, whereas it is still overpriced.
Likewise, does the devil want us to “do the lesser of two goods”―if he sees that we want to pray all 15 mysteries of the Rosary, he will suggest that we give our lonely grandma a phone call instead, all in the name of charity. Or if we are inclined to pray―he will let us pray, but he will encourage us the pray the less powerful p rayer. Thus, instead of praying the Rosary, he will have us pray a novena. Instead of spiritual reading that will change our actions, he will have read something spiritual that merely titillates our mind and leaves actions aside.
In this way, the devil has succeeded in diverting and distracting us from the two ESSENTIAL weapons that Heaven has instructed that we must use in our present day warfare against our triple enemy―the devil, the world and our own flesh (passions and concupiscence). Those first and most powerful of those two weapons is THE HOLY EUCHARIST in all its forms―the Holy Sacrifice of Mass, Holy Communion, visits to the Blessed Sacrament and spiritual Communions. The second of those two weapons is DEVOTION TO OUR LADY in all its forms―praying the Holy Rosary daily and many Rosaries daily; the wearing of the Brown Scapular and other Scapulars; the wearing of the Miraculous Medal; the recitation of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the observation of her feast days; the practice of the five First Saturdays of the Month in reparation for sin; and, above all these things, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the consecration of ourselves (as well as Russia primarily and other nations secondarily) to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. All the lesser things―Rosary, Scapular, Medals, First Saturdays, etc. ― are the bricks that make up the larger temple of a true devotion to Mary.
Yet those are the very things that are neglected, forgotten, sidelined, marginalized and unpublicized. As Sr. Lucia of Fatima revealed: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on the road of goodness with their life of virtue and apostolate without paying mind to this Message―they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners, the bad, because of their sins, do not see God’s chastisement about to fall upon them presently, also keep following the road of evil through sin, ignoring the Message, because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them. But, Father, you must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a tremendous way!” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
Dreamy Life
The Walt Disney Corporation has coined the phrase: “If you can dream it, you can do it!” ―and we have fallen for the dream! Or, rather, the devil has made us fall for that dream―much as he made Eve fall for the “Original Dream”―”In what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil!” (Genesis 3:5). Since that day, generation after generation have fallen for the “Original Dream”―dreaming that we are better than we actually are; dreaming that we are doing more than most; dreaming that our sins are not that bad; dreaming that our pitiful penances have paid our debts for sin; dreaming that world is in a better state than it really is; dreaming that God will turn a blind-eye to everything because He is a loving God; dreaming that the Chastisement will not come―at least not in our lifetime; dreaming that most people will go to Heaven; dreaming this and dreaming that!
These are not the kind of dreams that Holy Scripture means, when it says: “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy: your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions” (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17). The devil is a frequent source of our unrealistic dreams and Scripture says that the “forger of dreams shall be slain―because he spoke to draw you away from the Lord your God!” (Deuteronomy 13:5). “Give no heed to your dreams which you dream!” (Jeremias 29:8). “Where there are many dreams, there are many vanities!” (Ecclesiastes 5:6). “His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant! Dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams!” (Isaias 56:10) “Dreams lift up fools!” (Ecclesiasticus 34:1). “You shall not observe dreams!” (Leviticus 19:26). “For dreams have deceived many, and they have failed that put their trust in them!” (Ecclesiasticus 34:7).
Yet, to some, God actually did speak through dreams and to some God gave the power to interpret dreams. We see both the Old Testament Joseph and the New Testament Joseph having messages transmitted to them through dreams. The Old Testament Joseph had several dreams that indicated his future to him (Genesis 37), while also receiving the power to interpret the dreams of two of Pharao’s servants whilst he was in prison in Egypt. St. Joseph had the angel of God speak to him several times in his dreams, wherein he was given major instructions as to what to do and where to go and when to go.
In the Old Testament Book of Daniel, we read that Daniel was the was given the power to interpret the dream of King Nabuchodonnosor of Babylon: “God gave to Daniel the understanding also of all visions and dreams” (Daniel 1:17). King Solomon was another dreamer: “The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, saying: ‘Ask what you want that I should give thee!’” (3 Kings 3:5). There are more instances to be found in the Old Testament, whereas in the New Testament, besides St. Joseph’s dreams, we have St. Peter given a dream that indicates to him that the Gentiles should be accepted as converts to Christianity. The wife of Pontius Pilate received a dream that could have saved Pilate’s skin had he only listened to her: “Have thou nothing to do with that just man [Jesus]; for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of Him!” (Matthew 27:19).
The Saint of Dreams
This brings us to St. John Bosco―who could be called “The Saint of Dreams”―you may have read the book entitled “Forty Dreams of St. John Bosco”, from which let us take a dream that applies to our day and age, as well to this current article―it is the dream which has come be known as “The Prophecy of the Two Columns.” Here are the pertinent extracts from that dream. On May 30th, 1862 Don Bosco at his ‘Good Night’ talk told his boys, and the young clerics he was training, about a dream he had dreamt a few nights previously. After some preliminary remarks he went on to describe what he had seen:
“Try to picture yourselves with me on the seashore, or, better still, on an outlying cliff with no other land in sight. The vast expanse of water is covered with a formidable array of ships in battle formation, prows [the front of the ship] fitted with sharp spear-like beaks capable of breaking through any defense. All are heavily armed with cannons, incendiary bombs, and firearms of all sorts ― even books ― and are heading toward one stately ship, mightier than them all [the Catholic Church]. As they try to close in, they try to ram it, set it afire, and cripple it as much as possible. This stately vessel is shielded by a flotilla escort. Winds and waves are with the enemy.
“In this midst of this endless sea, two solid columns, a short distance apart, soar high into the sky: one is surmounted by a statue of the Immaculate Virgin at whose feet a large inscription reads: «Help of Christians» ― the other, far loftier and sturdier, supports a [Holy Communion] Host of proportionate size and bears beneath it the inscription «Salvation of believers». The flagship commander ― the Roman Pontiff [the Pope] ― seeing the enemy’s fury and his auxiliary ships very grave predicament, summons his captains to a conference. However, as they discuss their strategy, a furious storm breaks out and they must return to their ships. When the storm abates, the Pope again summons his captains as the flagship keeps on its course. But the storm rages again.
“Standing at the helm, the Pope strains every muscle to steer his ship between the two columns, from whose summits hang many anchors and strong hooks linked to chains. The entire enemy fleet closes in to intercept and sink the flagship at all costs. They bombard it with everything they have: books and pamphlets, incendiary bombs, firearms, cannons. The battle rages ever more furious. Beaked prows ram the flagship again and again, but to no avail, as, unscathed and undaunted, it keeps on its course. At times a formidable ram splinters a gaping hole into its hull, but, immediately, a breeze from the two columns instantly seals the gash. Meanwhile, enemy cannons blow up, firearms and beaks fall to pieces, ships crack up and sink to the bottom. In blind fury the enemy takes to hand-to-hand combat, cursing and blaspheming.
“Suddenly the Pope falls, seriously wounded. He is instantly helped up but, struck down a second time, dies. A shout of victory rises from the enemy and wild rejoicing sweeps their ships. But no sooner is the Pope dead than another takes his place. The captains of the auxiliary ships elected him so quickly that the news of the Pope’s death coincides with that of his successor’s election. The enemy’s self-assurance wanes. Breaking through all resistance, the new Pope steers his ship safely between the two columns and moors it to the two columns; first to the one surmounted by the Host, and then to the other, topped by the statue of the Virgin. At this point something unexpected happens. The enemy ships panic and disperse, colliding with and scuttling each other. Some auxiliary ships which had gallantly fought alongside their flagship are the first to tie up at the two columns. Many others, which had fearfully kept far away from the fight, stand still, cautiously waiting until the wrecked enemy ships vanish under the waves. Then, they too head for the two columns, tie up at the swinging hooks, and ride safe and tranquil beside their flagship. A great calm now covers the sea.”
At this point, Don Bosco asked one of the priests present for his views. He replied that he thought that the flagship symbolized the Church headed by the Pope, with the ships representing mankind and the sea as an image of the world. The ships defending the flagship he equated with the laity and the attackers with those trying to destroy the Church, while the two columns represented devotion to Mary and the Eucharist. Don Bosco replied: “Very grave trials await the Church. What we have suffered so far is almost nothing compared to what is going to happen. The enemies of the Church are symbolized by the ships which strive their utmost to sink the flagship. Only two things can save us in such a grave hour―devotion to Mary and frequent Communion. Let us do our very best to use these two means and have others use them everywhere!” St. John Bosco was stressing the importance of devotion to Our Lady and the Blessed Sacrament.
Our Lady of Good Success on Devotion to Mary and the Holy Eucharist
This same combination―of devotion to Our Lady in one form or another, and devotion to the Holy Eucharist in one form or another―has also been the essence of many of the Marian apparitions over the last few hundred years. At Quito in Ecuador, besides saying that she would crush Satan’s proud head, during “that epoch during which there will be a great devotion to me”― she also commanded that we “clamor insistently, imploring the Celestial Father that, for love of the Eucharistic Heart of my Most Holy Son and His Precious Blood shed with such generosity and the profound bitterness and sufferings of His cruel Passion and Death, He might take pity and bring to an end those ominous times” when “there will be occasions when all will seem to be lost and paralyzed.” Our Lord Himself added: “If men would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small spineless imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me ... But I will not tolerate this! Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me! I desire all or nothing! — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross. Moreover, I have continued to live in the Tabernacle under the same roof with these hidden souls, exposing Myself to so many hateful profanations and sacrileges! For I know well all that takes place in My sacramental life! ... Woe to souls like this! Woe!”
Other Apparitions
► RUE DU BAC (1830) ― St. Catherine Labouré is woken by an angel and told to go the convent chapel, where Our Lady appears to her in the sanctuary of the chapel―thus in the presence of the Holy Eucharist. The second time Our Lady appeared, it was again in the present of the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel. The devotion to Our Lady came through the Miraculous Medal, which Our Lady revealed to St. Catherine Labouré, and commanded medals to be made according to design Our Lady had manifested.
►LA SALETTE, FRANCE (1846) ― Our Lady spoke about future abuses to Holy Eucharist, especially through irreverential Masses offered by the priests and the neglect of people in attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. She also pointed out her role in the triumph of the Church after terrible persecutions, murders, wars and catasptophes.
► FATIMA, PORTUGAL (9117) ― Even before Our Lady first appeared, there was apparition of the Angel of Portugal, who showed the children how to reverence, adore and pray to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Then, in her apparitions, Our Lady explicitly spoke about devotion to her―especially through the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart, saying that only she could help the world now. You could say that the Miracle of the Sun, whereby the sun was seen spinning and then falling out of the sky towards the ground, was symbolic of both the Miracle of Holy Eucharist (transubstantiation), and the fall in devotion of the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
► AKITA, JAPAN (1973) ― We take note that Sister Agnes Sasagawa, to whom Our Lady spoke, belonged to The Institute of Handmaids of the Eucharist. On several occasions Sr. Agnes encounters a bright light emanating from the tabernacle in the chapel and “spiritual beings” worshiping the Eucharist. Our Lady prays together with Sr. Agnes the Institute’s prayer to Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus: “Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, truly present in Holy Eucharist, I consecrate my body and soul to be entirely one with Your Heart, being sacrificed at every instant on all the altars of the world and giving praise to the Father pleading for the coming of His Kingdom.” After this, Our Lady tells her: “Recite the prayer of the Handmaids of the Eucharist with awareness of its meaning; put it into practice!” Then Our Lady speaks of devotion to both her and her Son―especially implying it to be the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Holy Eucharist―saying: “The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved!”
Need any more be said? No! But much needs to be done to change our attitude, approach, practice and love of these two life-saving―eternal life saving―gifts that Heaven has offered as the last means of hope and salvation in these undoubtedly cataclysmic times―which not everyone sees and recognizes, because their eyes are on their screens and instead of Rosaries in their hands, they have smartphones, cookies, burgers, beers, etc.
Article 2
June 3rd
Corpus Christi ― Our Greatest Treasure,
Our Greatest Weapon, Our Greatest Neglect!
June 3rd
Corpus Christi ― Our Greatest Treasure,
Our Greatest Weapon, Our Greatest Neglect!
The “What?” and the “Why?”
Hopefully most Catholics know what feast day we celebrate today! It is, of course, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, historically known by its Latin name, Corpus Christi, and the feast celebrates the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. It is traditionally celebrated on the Thursday following the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. The feast dates to the Middle-Ages and originated with a visionary nun and a Eucharistic miracle. So much for the “WHAT?”
But how many Catholics know “WHY” this feast was instituted? What was the purpose? What was the need? It wasn’t instituted on a whim by a pope who had nothing better to do! The Feast of Corpus Christi was instituted when devotion to the Eucharist was at a low point. The purpose for Our Lord pushing for and instituting this feast was: (1) so that the Catholic doctrine would receive aid from the institution of this festival at a time when the Faith of the world was growing cold and heresies were rife; (2) that the faithful might be enabled to draw from this source of life new strength and vigor a time of increasing lukewarmness, in order to walk continually in the way of virtue; (3) that irreverence and sacrilegious behavior towards the Divine Majesty in this adorable Sacrament may, by sincere and profound adoration, be destroyed and repaired; (4) to announce to the Christian world His will that the feast be observed.
Today, we seem to be repeating history―for in our day also, devotion to the Eucharist is at a low point. Today, too, there is much irreverence and sacrilegious behavior towards the Divine Majesty in this adorable Sacrament. Today, we see belief and Faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist weakening and dwindling―whereby anywhere from 60% to 80% (depending where you live) of Catholics no longer believe in the Real Presence.
The Greatest Treasure
There is nothing, this side of Heaven, that is greater than the Holy Eucharist! The Holy Eucharist is both a SACRAMENT and a SACRIFICE. It is during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that we obtain the Holy Eucharist and we receive it in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, after which Christ remains with us in the tabernacle in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar! Numerous miracles have been performed in relation to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Holy Communion and the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. We hope that, at this time, you are making some time to read through some of the wonderful Faith-strengthening Eucharistic miracles that God has allowed to happen throughout the world in all centuries. Through such wondrous signs God calls souls to belief and conversion. [click here for an account of some Eucharistic Miracles]
There are increasing numbers of Catholics who are refusing to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Many think of the Eucharist as a mere symbol of Christ, and look upon the Mass as a mere commemoration of the Last Supper, and not the Sacrifice that it really and truly is! What an offense this must be to Our Lord! If already, in the more believing day of St. Margaret Mary (in the 1600s) Our Lord appeared to her and complained about the lack of love and devotion shown to Him—what would He have to say about our times?
Greatest Neglect
The Holy Eucharist is our “Greatest Treasure” and at the same time it is the modern era’s “Greatest Neglect.” It is impossible to identify the Holy Eucharist too closely with Jesus Christ. We should remember He is in the Holy Eucharist not merely with His substance. Some may say: “Transubstantiation means that the substance of bread and wine become the substance of Jesus Christ.”
No, it is not just an academic definition or philosophical explanation that is relegated to to the memory banks of our mind—a cerebral thing. Transubstantiation means the substance of bread and wine are no longer there. The substance of bread and wine is replaced not only by the substance of Christ’s Body and Blood. What replaces the substance of bread and wine is Jesus Christ! Everything that makes Him Christ, replaces what had been the substance of bread and wine. The substance of bread and wine become the whole Christ—that is what we mean by “Body, Soul, Blood and Divinity”—the whole Christ.
Living Heart
Therefore, Christ in the Holy Eucharist is here with His human heart and His Sacred Heart. Is it a living heart? Yes! This is seen in the Miracles of Lanciano and Buenos Aires. This is also why the revelations Our Lord made to St. Margaret Mary about promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart were all made from the Holy Eucharist.
Why do we equate the Sacred Heart with the Holy Eucharist? Because the Holy Eucharist is the whole Christ with His human heart. According to St. Margaret Mary, the Sacred Heart is the Holy Eucharist. So it follows that devotion to the Sacred Heart is devotion to the Holy Eucharist. It is infinite Love Incarnate living in our midst in the Blessed Sacrament. When we receive the Holy Eucharist, we receive the living Christ—total, entire, living!
If Jesus causes the Host to become what science has identified as a human heart—and especially a muscle of the heart that is responsible for the contraction of a human heart, a heart that suffers like that of someone who has been beaten severely about the chest—if He does such things, it is in order to arouse and enliven our Faith in His Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. He thus enables us to see that Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a re-presentation (i.e. a making present once again) of the entire drama of our salvation: namely, Christ’s Passion and Death on Calvary, but now in an unbloody manner in the Sacrifice of the Mass.
Signs-a-Plenty
Jesus says to His disciples: “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe” (John 4:48). There is no need to actively seek out wondrous signs. But if Jesus chooses to give them to us, then we ought to accept them with meekness and humility in Faith, seeking to understand what He desires to tell us by them. Thanks to these signs, many people have discovered Faith in God—the One God in the Holy Trinity, Who reveals His Son to us: Jesus Christ, Who abides in the tabernacles of the world, Who worked through the Sacraments and Who teaches us through Holy Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church—the triple cord of our Faith, of which Scripture says: “a threefold cord is not easily broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
Miracles Seekers Are Often Blind
We have the “Greatest Treasure” staring us in the face, yet we run around trying to fill our minds and hearts with lesser spiritual treasures. We run after apparitions, we study prophecies, we delight over relics, we travel to holy sites where Our Lady or Our Lord might have appeared once, twice or a few times—but the place where Our Lord appears every day, which is the Altar upon which Mass is said, we often leave neglected and we place it way down in our rankings of holy places and things to see and visit. The Imitation of Christ puts it thus:
“Many people travel far to honor the relics of the saints, marveling at their wonderful deeds and at the building of magnificent shrines. They gaze upon and kiss the sacred relics encased in silk and gold; and behold, You are here present before me on the Altar, my God, Saint of saints, Creator of men, and Lord of angels! Often in looking at such things, men are moved by curiosity, by the novelty of the unseen, and they bear away little fruit for the amendment of their lives, especially when they go from place to place lightly and without true contrition. But here in the Sacrament of the Altar You are wholly present, my God, the man Christ Jesus, whence is obtained the full realization of eternal salvation, as often as You are worthily and devoutly received.”
A Mystery that Surpasses our Understanding
The Holy Eucharist—the actual presence of the risen person of Jesus under the appearances of bread and wine—is one of the most important and most difficult truths, revealed to us by Christ. Eucharistic miracles are merely visible confirmations of what He tells us about Himself; namely, that He really does give us His glorified Body and Blood as spiritual food and drink.
Jesus established the Eucharist on the eve of His Passion and Death. During the Last Supper, “Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke: and gave to His disciples, and said: ‘Take ye, and eat. This is My Body.’ And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them, saying: ‘Drink ye all of this. For this is My Blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins’” (Matthew 26:26-28). When Jesus took and gave the Apostles the bread and wine, He said, “this is My Body….this is My Blood” by which He clearly meant that the bread and wine, which He gave them to eat and drink, really was His Body and Blood, and not some sort of symbol.
Jesus’ Eucharistic Sermon Shocks
Earlier, in the famous Eucharistic sermon recorded by St. John the Evangelist, Jesus said to the Jews: “Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For My Flesh is meat indeed: and My Blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me, and I in him’” (John 6:54-57).
Shocked by Jesus’ words, the Jews said, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” (John 6:53). Many of Jesus’ disciples were also scandalized. “This saying is hard, and who can hear it?” they objected. Knowing that the truth of the Eucharist was a shock and a scandal to many of His listeners, Jesus responded, not by retracting His words, but by raising the stakes: “Doth this scandalize you? The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life” (John 6: 62-63). Many refused to believe Him: “After this many of His disciples went back; and walked no more with Him” (John 6:67).
Today, we see a repeat of both the incredulity and disbelief in the Real Presence—with anywhere from 65% to 80% of Catholics no longer believing that Jesus is present in the Holy Eucharist—as well as a repeat of “many walked no more with Him”—as only around 20% to 25% come to Mass regularly on Sundays, for the rest it ends up being a Sinday.
Jesus Throws Down the Gauntlet
Our Lord throws down the gauntlet of Faith before His Apostles, as He does before us: “Then Jesus said to the Twelve: Will you also go away?” (John 6:68). St. Peter replies for them, and for us, with words of Faith—not understanding but believing nevertheless—“Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have known, that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God.” Here Jesus goes to the heart of the mystery, the “Eucharistic Heart” of the mystery and that “Eucharistic Heart” we still have with us in our tabernacles! But though Jesus is really in the tabernacle, is Faith really in our hearts?
Not all Jesus’ listeners accepted His teaching of the Eucharist. Thus He turned to them, saying, “But there are some of you that believe not.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray Him” (John 6:65). Judas’ betrayal began with his rejection of Jesus’ teaching about His real presence in the Eucharist. In confirmation of this fact, Jesus said, “‘Have not I chosen you Twelve; and one of you is a devil? Now He meant Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon: for this same was about to betray Him, whereas he was one of the Twelve.” (John 6:71-72).
Lack of Faith Today
How many today have not betrayed their Faith in Christ by refusing to believe in His Real Presence—Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity—in the Holy Eucharist? How many refuse to believe that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is more than just a commemoration of the Last Supper, but is also, and more importantly, the unbloody re-offering of Jesus Christ’s Sacrifice on Calvary—in a way, a kind prolongation of that Sacrifice of Calvary through time. Read Articles 14 to 25 in our Easter Daily Thoughts section to see the damage done to the Church by a falling away from the Faith.
The Eucharist is our Pillar of Faith. It is our strengthener and comfort in these increasingly evil days. The Eucharist is the Risen Jesus Himself in His glorified, and thus invisible, humanity. This is the essence of His teaching of the Eucharist (John 6:62-63). By its death and resurrection, the humanity of Jesus takes on a divine nature; it assumes a new order of existence: “For in Him dwells the whole fullness of the deity, bodily” (Colossians 2:9). In His glorified humanity, the Risen Jesus, becoming omnipresent, gives of Himself in the gift of the Eucharist. He shares with us, not only His life of suffering, but also His resurrected life and divine love, so that we may, even here on Earth, experience the reality of Heaven and partake of the life of the Holy Trinity.
Your Transubstantiation
He wishes to work a ‘transubstantiation’ of sorts in our minds and hearts—as He changes the Bread and Wine into Himself, so too does He wish to change us Body and Soul into Himself. Like He said to so many people while He walked upon this Earth: “Do you believe, that I can do this unto you?” (Matthew 9:28). We have to reply with the leper: “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst!” (Luke 5:11). Confronting the mystery of the Eucharist, human reason feels its impotence and limitations. Yet St. Cyril of Jerusalem exhorts us: “Do not see in the bread and wine merely natural elements, because the Lord has expressly said that they are His Body and His Blood: Faith assures you of this, though your senses suggest otherwise.”
Visiting His Temple, Delighting in the Lord
“One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. That I may see the delight of the Lord, and may visit His temple” (Psalms 26:4). How many souls could truthfully say these words today? The houses of the Lord—the churches—are empty for most, if not all, the day. Few “see the delight of the Lord”—the Holy Eucharist—and “visit His temple”, the tabernacle.
Some souls might spend time in front of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and pride themselves upon it, but why do they not encourage and work ‘tooth-and-nail’ to try get others to do likewise, instead of just priding themselves upon their practices of piety. This smacks of the Pharisee, condemned by Our Lord in His parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, who self-righteously boasts: “And when ye pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, that love to stand and pray in the synagogues and corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men” (Matthew 6:5). “Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself: ‘O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican. I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess!’” (Luke 18:10-12).
Modern Day Pharisaical Boast
Today, the boast might be—“I go to Sunday Mass, whereas most Catholics no longer do! I say my Rosary every day, whereas only 96% of Catholics do not!” Yet, to whom more is given, more is expected! We should not be comparing ourselves with the sinners below us, but with the saints above us. Then, our position will suddenly look weak and precarious! 96% of Catholics may not pray the Rosary every day, but St. Padre Pio was among those who did pray it every day—and he prayed anywhere from 30 to 50 Rosaries (150 to 250 decades) every day! “Ah, well!” you say, “That was Padre Pio! I am no priest and stigmatic! That’s an unfair example that you are trying to hoist upon us!” Okay! Well what about a little 9 year old boy, Francisco Marto, one of seers at Fatima, would say many Rosaries each day and, like St. Padre Pio, was rarely seen without the Rosary beads in his little hands. “They that fear the Lord, will seek after the things that are well pleasing to Him” (Ecclesiasticus 2:19).
Sacrifice of the Mass—the Greatest Thing in the World
St. Leonard of Port Maurice (1676-1751), in his book The Hidden Treasure of the Holy Mass, writes: “The principal excellence of the most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass consists in being essentially, and in the very highest degree, identical with that which was offered on the Cross of Calvary: with this sole difference, that the Sacrifice on the Cross was bloody, and made once for all, and did on that one occasion satisfy fully for all the sins of the world; while the Sacrifice of the Altar is an unbloody sacrifice.” Sadly, today, this notion of the Mass has been, at best, blurred; or, at worst, is no longer believed.
In 1957, 75% of Catholics attended Sunday Mass regularly each week. By 1965 this had dropped to 65%. In 2004, there were only 25% of Catholics attending Sunday Mass regularly each week. Most of the 25% who attend weekly Mass today are 50 years old or older.
As for believe in the Real Presence (Jesus Christ being really and truly present with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist and Blessed Sacrament), over 66% of Catholics believe that the Holy Eucharist is only symbolic and not the Body and Blood of Christ.
St. Leonard of Port Maurice continues: “Now, tell me whether, when you enter church to hear Mass, you thoroughly well consider that you are going up as it were to Calvary, to be present at the death of the Redeemer. If so, would you go with behavior so unsubdued, with dress so flaunting? If the Magdalene had gone to Calvary, to the foot of the Cross, all dressed out, perfumed, and adorned, as when she associated with her lovers, what would have been said of her? What, then, shall be said of you who go to Holy Mass as if you were going to a ball? But what shall be said if you profane those functions of most dread sanctity with nods and becks, with tattle, with laughter, with the petty attentions of courtship, or with graver sacrileges of thought, word, or deed? Wickedness is hideous at any time, and in any place; but sins committed during the time of Mass, and before the altar, draw down after them the curse of God.”
What is Your Mass Attendance Like?
Do you, and your family, approach the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass like you would Calvary? What is your preparation for Mass like? Read about St. Charbal Maklouf—a Maronite monk-priest—who had a great devotion to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Holy Eucharist. That is all he lived for—he lived and said Mass in a cave, having been given permission to live a hermit-like existence. Already before sunrise, he would be at prayer—reciting his Divine Office (breviary) and other prayers in preparation for his 11:00 a.m. Mass. A monk would come up to his cave from the nearby monastery, to serve Mass and bring him a meager lunch. After Mass, he would spend at least one hour or even two, before eating his lunch, and would then return to his thanksgiving—which he continued into the early evening. Then he would begin his prayers of preparation for the next day’s Mass. His body lies incorrupt to this day.
On the Way to Mass
When you drive to Mass, what is the mood of the passengers in the car? Is it a prayerful mood, or a worldly mood—peppered with worldly or frivolous conversation, perhaps worldly music? If so, it weakens the notion of what the Sacrifice of the Mass is and the serious and awesome action you are about to take part in—there is no greater action taking place anywhere in the world, on any day, than that of the Mass. Perhaps passengers need to be told that henceforth, the approach to traveling to Sunday (daily/weekday) Masses will be different. Prayers could be said; hymns sung or played; suitable spiritual material read out aloud; or at least spiritual conversations held.
Arrival Time for Mass
Do you arrive in plenty of time to make a proper preparation for Mass in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament? Let’s face it—it is GOD HIMSELF that you are visiting when you go to Mass! It is not a commemoration of Calvary; it is not a mere human action; it is not a social function—you are there TO SEE GOD. Is there enough time made for God, or is it a last minute arrival? Or if you do make it on time, does everyone actually GO INSIDE TO SPEAK TO GOD, or do they spend time chatting with other parishioners prior to Mass starting? Worldly talk, frivolous talk, socializing, joking around and laughing? If the Mass is a sacrifice, then sacrifice something yourself and get right in there! The answers to these questions show the value we place on God and whether or not He is “Number One” in our lives.
Assistance at Mass
How do we assist at Mass? Some people clearly show that, even though their bodies are present at Mass, their minds most certainly are not—they gaze around, fidget with their ‘little-ones’, keeping them entertained so that they don’t cry, etc. Others may have a Missal, prayer book or Rosary in their hands—but their heart can be lukewarm and they listlessly, carelessly and mechanically go through the motions of praying, fitting the description of Our Lord: “This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8). Lining up for Holy Communion is no different to lining up at the supermarket check-out—cold, indifferent, with no devotion or zeal.
Holy Communion
The reception of Holy Communion makes you wonder if they really believe that God is present—but of course nearly 70% of Catholics do not believe that He is present. Thanksgiving after Communion, if there is one, is frequently seen to be a mechanical repetition of the same old prayers, said without any real feeling and without any personal heart-to-heart conversation with the God that now rests within them! Once Mass is over, hardly anyone stays behind to continue their thanksgiving and to continue talking to their God—for friends beckon in the parking lot or the parish hall, and, instead of a tasteless Host, coffee and donuts with a variety of sweet fillings are available in the parish hall—and the early bird gets the best donuts! I guess the redeeming factor must be that the donut looks like a fat halo! Friends, coffee and donuts are “Number One”—“Number Two”—and “Number Three”—God came in fourth!
On this feast of Corpus Christi―which is a holy day of obligation in the Universal Calendar of the Church, but not observed as such in most countries―let us strive to rekindle our esteem, appreciation, love and manner of assistance at the greatest Treasure we have this side of Heaven. Let us strive to attend the Sacrifice of the Mass more often; to assist at it with greater reverence and fervor; to make better thanksgivings after Mass, and to visit Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament much more frequently.
If, with the eyes of Faith, we REALLY saw GOD PRESENT in the Holy Eucharist and in the Sacrifice of the Mass, then this should not be too hard. But if our eyes of Faith have become myopic, or even blind, then we will go the way of the majority. It is not a path that we should be taking, for it ends in misery.
St. Clare and the Blessed Sacrament
St. Clare was a beautiful Italian noblewoman, born to a noble family of the town of Assisi, in Umbria, Italy in the year 1193. She was destined to become the foundress of an order of nuns called “The Poor Clares.” She was converted upon hearing St. Francis of Assisi preach. Thereafter, she developed a great desire to live a poor humble life for Jesus. Francis had given away all his possessions to follow Jesus in poverty and prayer, Clare felt herself drawn to follow his example. She ran away from home, and in a little chapel outside Assisi, gave herself to God. Under the direction of St. Francis, she founded an order of contemplative nuns vowed to poverty, chastity, and obedience who are often known today as the “Poor Clares.” St. Francis cut off her hair and gave her a rough brown habit to wear, tied with a plain cord around her waist. During her lifetime, Clare was renowned for her deep holiness and great wisdom. She gave herself over to prayer and contemplation, leading her charges by her great example of consuming love for the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, looking to Him to lead her in all her decisions.
In the opinion of many people, the poverty Clare and the nuns embraced, was absurd. Some thought the poverty and sacrifices of the nuns was too harsh, too much to be asked. To Clare this was simply not true, nothing was too great a sacrifice to offer her Beloved Lord, and her nuns joyfully followed her in this life. St. Clare and her sisters wore no shoes, ate no meat, lived in a poor house, and kept silent most of the time. Yet they were very happy, because Our Lord was close to them all the time in the Blessed Sacrament.
They knew in their hearts the truths so often lost in today’s modern world―that, sacrifices done out of love for another, are made lighter by a true love. To truly love another requires sacrifices, emotions of love are the reward that comes from giving of one’s self. To these dear nuns there was true peace and often joy in the submission of their will, the complete laying down of their life to God. They wanted to give their all to Him, in loving return for His lovingly giving His very life on the Cross for all.
The next truth they found was that poverty, willingly undertaken, was not a burden, rather, it was freeing to not be weighed down by material concerns, or caring for all manner of possessions. Many of them were of noble birth, they had experienced all the world had to offer, and yet they chose to abandon it all for a higher calling, namely the total giving of their all for Love of God. They found the more they emptied themselves out of their own interests and desires, the more they were filled. They experienced great peace in the simplicity they lived. The nuns trusted in God to provide their needs, through the generosity of others. This has been the way of the Poor Clares for over 800 years now, and He has never let them down, often times providing miraculously.
St. Clare’s deep union with the Lord and persistent prayers, often were rewarded by miracles. Twice, God saved the convent through the intercession of St. Clare.
St. Clare Defeats Saracens with the Blessed Sacrament
A famous incident in her life, in September of 1240, which we call the Miracle of the Eucharist of Assisi, took place at San Damiano in 1241, twelve years before St. Clare died. The catalyst that the Lord, used to bring about this miracle, was a German prince, Frederick II of Swabia. There is a tradition that Frederick was born in Assisi at the same time as St. Francis, and was baptized on the same day in the church of San Ruffino. The Pope had treated this Frederick very well, being sure he was brought up comfortably, showing him every courtesy. The young German repaid his kindness nastily, by turning on the Pope and the Church, waging a war against them, and the people of the Umbria. He had visions of an empire that would spread itself from Assisi down to Sicily. To this end, he recruited a band of Saracen (Arab) mercenaries to be his army. reinforced by this band of merciless cut-throat Saracens, Frederick proceeded to march upon Assisi.
The convent of San Damiano stood between the troops of Frederick II and the city of Assisi. The fact that there was a group of virgin nuns in the convent was particularly appealing to the Saracens―who hated Christians, and had a lusty appetite for Caucasian women. They proceeded to attack the Convent. Clare was sick in bed at this time. Her ladies rushed to her, crying, in a state of panic. What would they do? Could she protect them from the attacking soldiers? One of the Sisters ran into the room to report that she had seen soldiers in the fields close to the convent. A general state of alarm broke out.
Clare had two Sisters help her up out of bed. She went to their little Chapel and prostrated herself before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. She then removed the silver and ivory case containing the Blessed Sacrament, holding it in her hands, she pressed her head against it, and prayed to the Lord. She spoke to the Lord, and He answered her. She implored: “Behold, my Lord! Is it possible that Thou desirest to deliver, into the hands of pagans, Thy defenseless handmaids, whom I have taught and raised out of love for Thee? I pray Thee, Lord―protect these Thy handmaids, whom I cannot now save by myself!”
A very gentle voice, like that of a young child, answered her: “I will take care of you―always!”
Clare added another petition: “My Lord, protect also―because it pleases you―this town of Assisi that, out of love for Thee, supports us!”
The reply she received was: “It will have to go through suffering, but it will be defended by My protection.”
Strengthened by these words, Clare turned to her Sisters, who were terrified by the prospects of the attack of the feared Saracens. “I promise you, my daughters, that you will not suffer any evil. Only have Faith in Christ!”
The fierce Saracens had invaded San Damiano and entered the confines of the monastery. St. Clare took the silver and ivory case containing the Blessed Sacrament and held it high in the air. The advancing Saracens froze in their tracks at the courtyard of the Convent. They looked up at Clare and the Blessed Sacrament in her hand. What happened next has no humanly explicable reason. The Saracens, witnessing blinding rays of bright light coming from the Blessed Sacrament, were petrified with fear―as if they could recognize the God Who was there―they turned and ran, fleeing from the convent of San Damiano, leaving Clare and her Sisters in peace. Neither did they attack Assisi as planned. St. Clare immediately admonished her Sisters―who had heard the voice of Christ speaking to Clare―telling them severely: “Take care not to tell anyone about that voice while I am still alive, dearest daughters!”
The next day, the people of Assisi were delighted, but astonished that the Saracens had not attacked their city. Survival not conquest, uppermost in their minds, the invaders had left without ever setting foot in the town.
A similar situation occurred when the troops of Vitalis d’Aversa attacked Assisi in June of 1241. Again her deep devotion to the Eucharist brought her before the Blessed Sacrament and again the city was spared. Olive Jars were filled with oil after she blessed them. On another occasion St. Clare experienced her own “multiplication of the loaves” when she fed 50 sisters and all the Franciscan friars with a single loaf of bread.
Fewer and Fewer Miracles Today!
God never changes ― “Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today; and the same for ever!” (Hebrews 13:8). “For I am the Lord, and I change not!” (Malachias 3:6). “Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration!” (James 1:17). “God is not a man, nor as the son of man, that He should be changed!” (Numbers 23:19). God is willing to perform miracles and come to our aid today―just as much as in the past. What has changed is our Faith in God, our trust in God and our confidence in God―all of these things have increasingly weakened over the years. Instead―we now place our faith in technology more than God, we trust science and technology more than God, and we have confidence in science and technology more than God! So God leaves us to our newly found gods!
The Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is still the greatest Treasure the world has―but it also the greatest neglected Treasure the world has. You reap what you sow―that is why we reaping so few miracles today, because the seed of the Faith has been choked up by the mammon of the world. “He that received the seed among thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word, and he becometh fruitless!” (Matthew 13:22).
Hopefully most Catholics know what feast day we celebrate today! It is, of course, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, historically known by its Latin name, Corpus Christi, and the feast celebrates the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. It is traditionally celebrated on the Thursday following the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. The feast dates to the Middle-Ages and originated with a visionary nun and a Eucharistic miracle. So much for the “WHAT?”
But how many Catholics know “WHY” this feast was instituted? What was the purpose? What was the need? It wasn’t instituted on a whim by a pope who had nothing better to do! The Feast of Corpus Christi was instituted when devotion to the Eucharist was at a low point. The purpose for Our Lord pushing for and instituting this feast was: (1) so that the Catholic doctrine would receive aid from the institution of this festival at a time when the Faith of the world was growing cold and heresies were rife; (2) that the faithful might be enabled to draw from this source of life new strength and vigor a time of increasing lukewarmness, in order to walk continually in the way of virtue; (3) that irreverence and sacrilegious behavior towards the Divine Majesty in this adorable Sacrament may, by sincere and profound adoration, be destroyed and repaired; (4) to announce to the Christian world His will that the feast be observed.
Today, we seem to be repeating history―for in our day also, devotion to the Eucharist is at a low point. Today, too, there is much irreverence and sacrilegious behavior towards the Divine Majesty in this adorable Sacrament. Today, we see belief and Faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist weakening and dwindling―whereby anywhere from 60% to 80% (depending where you live) of Catholics no longer believe in the Real Presence.
The Greatest Treasure
There is nothing, this side of Heaven, that is greater than the Holy Eucharist! The Holy Eucharist is both a SACRAMENT and a SACRIFICE. It is during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that we obtain the Holy Eucharist and we receive it in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, after which Christ remains with us in the tabernacle in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar! Numerous miracles have been performed in relation to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Holy Communion and the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. We hope that, at this time, you are making some time to read through some of the wonderful Faith-strengthening Eucharistic miracles that God has allowed to happen throughout the world in all centuries. Through such wondrous signs God calls souls to belief and conversion. [click here for an account of some Eucharistic Miracles]
There are increasing numbers of Catholics who are refusing to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Many think of the Eucharist as a mere symbol of Christ, and look upon the Mass as a mere commemoration of the Last Supper, and not the Sacrifice that it really and truly is! What an offense this must be to Our Lord! If already, in the more believing day of St. Margaret Mary (in the 1600s) Our Lord appeared to her and complained about the lack of love and devotion shown to Him—what would He have to say about our times?
Greatest Neglect
The Holy Eucharist is our “Greatest Treasure” and at the same time it is the modern era’s “Greatest Neglect.” It is impossible to identify the Holy Eucharist too closely with Jesus Christ. We should remember He is in the Holy Eucharist not merely with His substance. Some may say: “Transubstantiation means that the substance of bread and wine become the substance of Jesus Christ.”
No, it is not just an academic definition or philosophical explanation that is relegated to to the memory banks of our mind—a cerebral thing. Transubstantiation means the substance of bread and wine are no longer there. The substance of bread and wine is replaced not only by the substance of Christ’s Body and Blood. What replaces the substance of bread and wine is Jesus Christ! Everything that makes Him Christ, replaces what had been the substance of bread and wine. The substance of bread and wine become the whole Christ—that is what we mean by “Body, Soul, Blood and Divinity”—the whole Christ.
Living Heart
Therefore, Christ in the Holy Eucharist is here with His human heart and His Sacred Heart. Is it a living heart? Yes! This is seen in the Miracles of Lanciano and Buenos Aires. This is also why the revelations Our Lord made to St. Margaret Mary about promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart were all made from the Holy Eucharist.
Why do we equate the Sacred Heart with the Holy Eucharist? Because the Holy Eucharist is the whole Christ with His human heart. According to St. Margaret Mary, the Sacred Heart is the Holy Eucharist. So it follows that devotion to the Sacred Heart is devotion to the Holy Eucharist. It is infinite Love Incarnate living in our midst in the Blessed Sacrament. When we receive the Holy Eucharist, we receive the living Christ—total, entire, living!
If Jesus causes the Host to become what science has identified as a human heart—and especially a muscle of the heart that is responsible for the contraction of a human heart, a heart that suffers like that of someone who has been beaten severely about the chest—if He does such things, it is in order to arouse and enliven our Faith in His Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. He thus enables us to see that Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a re-presentation (i.e. a making present once again) of the entire drama of our salvation: namely, Christ’s Passion and Death on Calvary, but now in an unbloody manner in the Sacrifice of the Mass.
Signs-a-Plenty
Jesus says to His disciples: “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe” (John 4:48). There is no need to actively seek out wondrous signs. But if Jesus chooses to give them to us, then we ought to accept them with meekness and humility in Faith, seeking to understand what He desires to tell us by them. Thanks to these signs, many people have discovered Faith in God—the One God in the Holy Trinity, Who reveals His Son to us: Jesus Christ, Who abides in the tabernacles of the world, Who worked through the Sacraments and Who teaches us through Holy Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church—the triple cord of our Faith, of which Scripture says: “a threefold cord is not easily broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
Miracles Seekers Are Often Blind
We have the “Greatest Treasure” staring us in the face, yet we run around trying to fill our minds and hearts with lesser spiritual treasures. We run after apparitions, we study prophecies, we delight over relics, we travel to holy sites where Our Lady or Our Lord might have appeared once, twice or a few times—but the place where Our Lord appears every day, which is the Altar upon which Mass is said, we often leave neglected and we place it way down in our rankings of holy places and things to see and visit. The Imitation of Christ puts it thus:
“Many people travel far to honor the relics of the saints, marveling at their wonderful deeds and at the building of magnificent shrines. They gaze upon and kiss the sacred relics encased in silk and gold; and behold, You are here present before me on the Altar, my God, Saint of saints, Creator of men, and Lord of angels! Often in looking at such things, men are moved by curiosity, by the novelty of the unseen, and they bear away little fruit for the amendment of their lives, especially when they go from place to place lightly and without true contrition. But here in the Sacrament of the Altar You are wholly present, my God, the man Christ Jesus, whence is obtained the full realization of eternal salvation, as often as You are worthily and devoutly received.”
A Mystery that Surpasses our Understanding
The Holy Eucharist—the actual presence of the risen person of Jesus under the appearances of bread and wine—is one of the most important and most difficult truths, revealed to us by Christ. Eucharistic miracles are merely visible confirmations of what He tells us about Himself; namely, that He really does give us His glorified Body and Blood as spiritual food and drink.
Jesus established the Eucharist on the eve of His Passion and Death. During the Last Supper, “Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke: and gave to His disciples, and said: ‘Take ye, and eat. This is My Body.’ And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them, saying: ‘Drink ye all of this. For this is My Blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins’” (Matthew 26:26-28). When Jesus took and gave the Apostles the bread and wine, He said, “this is My Body….this is My Blood” by which He clearly meant that the bread and wine, which He gave them to eat and drink, really was His Body and Blood, and not some sort of symbol.
Jesus’ Eucharistic Sermon Shocks
Earlier, in the famous Eucharistic sermon recorded by St. John the Evangelist, Jesus said to the Jews: “Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For My Flesh is meat indeed: and My Blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me, and I in him’” (John 6:54-57).
Shocked by Jesus’ words, the Jews said, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” (John 6:53). Many of Jesus’ disciples were also scandalized. “This saying is hard, and who can hear it?” they objected. Knowing that the truth of the Eucharist was a shock and a scandal to many of His listeners, Jesus responded, not by retracting His words, but by raising the stakes: “Doth this scandalize you? The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life” (John 6: 62-63). Many refused to believe Him: “After this many of His disciples went back; and walked no more with Him” (John 6:67).
Today, we see a repeat of both the incredulity and disbelief in the Real Presence—with anywhere from 65% to 80% of Catholics no longer believing that Jesus is present in the Holy Eucharist—as well as a repeat of “many walked no more with Him”—as only around 20% to 25% come to Mass regularly on Sundays, for the rest it ends up being a Sinday.
Jesus Throws Down the Gauntlet
Our Lord throws down the gauntlet of Faith before His Apostles, as He does before us: “Then Jesus said to the Twelve: Will you also go away?” (John 6:68). St. Peter replies for them, and for us, with words of Faith—not understanding but believing nevertheless—“Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have known, that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God.” Here Jesus goes to the heart of the mystery, the “Eucharistic Heart” of the mystery and that “Eucharistic Heart” we still have with us in our tabernacles! But though Jesus is really in the tabernacle, is Faith really in our hearts?
Not all Jesus’ listeners accepted His teaching of the Eucharist. Thus He turned to them, saying, “But there are some of you that believe not.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray Him” (John 6:65). Judas’ betrayal began with his rejection of Jesus’ teaching about His real presence in the Eucharist. In confirmation of this fact, Jesus said, “‘Have not I chosen you Twelve; and one of you is a devil? Now He meant Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon: for this same was about to betray Him, whereas he was one of the Twelve.” (John 6:71-72).
Lack of Faith Today
How many today have not betrayed their Faith in Christ by refusing to believe in His Real Presence—Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity—in the Holy Eucharist? How many refuse to believe that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is more than just a commemoration of the Last Supper, but is also, and more importantly, the unbloody re-offering of Jesus Christ’s Sacrifice on Calvary—in a way, a kind prolongation of that Sacrifice of Calvary through time. Read Articles 14 to 25 in our Easter Daily Thoughts section to see the damage done to the Church by a falling away from the Faith.
The Eucharist is our Pillar of Faith. It is our strengthener and comfort in these increasingly evil days. The Eucharist is the Risen Jesus Himself in His glorified, and thus invisible, humanity. This is the essence of His teaching of the Eucharist (John 6:62-63). By its death and resurrection, the humanity of Jesus takes on a divine nature; it assumes a new order of existence: “For in Him dwells the whole fullness of the deity, bodily” (Colossians 2:9). In His glorified humanity, the Risen Jesus, becoming omnipresent, gives of Himself in the gift of the Eucharist. He shares with us, not only His life of suffering, but also His resurrected life and divine love, so that we may, even here on Earth, experience the reality of Heaven and partake of the life of the Holy Trinity.
Your Transubstantiation
He wishes to work a ‘transubstantiation’ of sorts in our minds and hearts—as He changes the Bread and Wine into Himself, so too does He wish to change us Body and Soul into Himself. Like He said to so many people while He walked upon this Earth: “Do you believe, that I can do this unto you?” (Matthew 9:28). We have to reply with the leper: “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst!” (Luke 5:11). Confronting the mystery of the Eucharist, human reason feels its impotence and limitations. Yet St. Cyril of Jerusalem exhorts us: “Do not see in the bread and wine merely natural elements, because the Lord has expressly said that they are His Body and His Blood: Faith assures you of this, though your senses suggest otherwise.”
Visiting His Temple, Delighting in the Lord
“One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. That I may see the delight of the Lord, and may visit His temple” (Psalms 26:4). How many souls could truthfully say these words today? The houses of the Lord—the churches—are empty for most, if not all, the day. Few “see the delight of the Lord”—the Holy Eucharist—and “visit His temple”, the tabernacle.
Some souls might spend time in front of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and pride themselves upon it, but why do they not encourage and work ‘tooth-and-nail’ to try get others to do likewise, instead of just priding themselves upon their practices of piety. This smacks of the Pharisee, condemned by Our Lord in His parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, who self-righteously boasts: “And when ye pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, that love to stand and pray in the synagogues and corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men” (Matthew 6:5). “Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself: ‘O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican. I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess!’” (Luke 18:10-12).
Modern Day Pharisaical Boast
Today, the boast might be—“I go to Sunday Mass, whereas most Catholics no longer do! I say my Rosary every day, whereas only 96% of Catholics do not!” Yet, to whom more is given, more is expected! We should not be comparing ourselves with the sinners below us, but with the saints above us. Then, our position will suddenly look weak and precarious! 96% of Catholics may not pray the Rosary every day, but St. Padre Pio was among those who did pray it every day—and he prayed anywhere from 30 to 50 Rosaries (150 to 250 decades) every day! “Ah, well!” you say, “That was Padre Pio! I am no priest and stigmatic! That’s an unfair example that you are trying to hoist upon us!” Okay! Well what about a little 9 year old boy, Francisco Marto, one of seers at Fatima, would say many Rosaries each day and, like St. Padre Pio, was rarely seen without the Rosary beads in his little hands. “They that fear the Lord, will seek after the things that are well pleasing to Him” (Ecclesiasticus 2:19).
Sacrifice of the Mass—the Greatest Thing in the World
St. Leonard of Port Maurice (1676-1751), in his book The Hidden Treasure of the Holy Mass, writes: “The principal excellence of the most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass consists in being essentially, and in the very highest degree, identical with that which was offered on the Cross of Calvary: with this sole difference, that the Sacrifice on the Cross was bloody, and made once for all, and did on that one occasion satisfy fully for all the sins of the world; while the Sacrifice of the Altar is an unbloody sacrifice.” Sadly, today, this notion of the Mass has been, at best, blurred; or, at worst, is no longer believed.
In 1957, 75% of Catholics attended Sunday Mass regularly each week. By 1965 this had dropped to 65%. In 2004, there were only 25% of Catholics attending Sunday Mass regularly each week. Most of the 25% who attend weekly Mass today are 50 years old or older.
As for believe in the Real Presence (Jesus Christ being really and truly present with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist and Blessed Sacrament), over 66% of Catholics believe that the Holy Eucharist is only symbolic and not the Body and Blood of Christ.
St. Leonard of Port Maurice continues: “Now, tell me whether, when you enter church to hear Mass, you thoroughly well consider that you are going up as it were to Calvary, to be present at the death of the Redeemer. If so, would you go with behavior so unsubdued, with dress so flaunting? If the Magdalene had gone to Calvary, to the foot of the Cross, all dressed out, perfumed, and adorned, as when she associated with her lovers, what would have been said of her? What, then, shall be said of you who go to Holy Mass as if you were going to a ball? But what shall be said if you profane those functions of most dread sanctity with nods and becks, with tattle, with laughter, with the petty attentions of courtship, or with graver sacrileges of thought, word, or deed? Wickedness is hideous at any time, and in any place; but sins committed during the time of Mass, and before the altar, draw down after them the curse of God.”
What is Your Mass Attendance Like?
Do you, and your family, approach the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass like you would Calvary? What is your preparation for Mass like? Read about St. Charbal Maklouf—a Maronite monk-priest—who had a great devotion to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Holy Eucharist. That is all he lived for—he lived and said Mass in a cave, having been given permission to live a hermit-like existence. Already before sunrise, he would be at prayer—reciting his Divine Office (breviary) and other prayers in preparation for his 11:00 a.m. Mass. A monk would come up to his cave from the nearby monastery, to serve Mass and bring him a meager lunch. After Mass, he would spend at least one hour or even two, before eating his lunch, and would then return to his thanksgiving—which he continued into the early evening. Then he would begin his prayers of preparation for the next day’s Mass. His body lies incorrupt to this day.
On the Way to Mass
When you drive to Mass, what is the mood of the passengers in the car? Is it a prayerful mood, or a worldly mood—peppered with worldly or frivolous conversation, perhaps worldly music? If so, it weakens the notion of what the Sacrifice of the Mass is and the serious and awesome action you are about to take part in—there is no greater action taking place anywhere in the world, on any day, than that of the Mass. Perhaps passengers need to be told that henceforth, the approach to traveling to Sunday (daily/weekday) Masses will be different. Prayers could be said; hymns sung or played; suitable spiritual material read out aloud; or at least spiritual conversations held.
Arrival Time for Mass
Do you arrive in plenty of time to make a proper preparation for Mass in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament? Let’s face it—it is GOD HIMSELF that you are visiting when you go to Mass! It is not a commemoration of Calvary; it is not a mere human action; it is not a social function—you are there TO SEE GOD. Is there enough time made for God, or is it a last minute arrival? Or if you do make it on time, does everyone actually GO INSIDE TO SPEAK TO GOD, or do they spend time chatting with other parishioners prior to Mass starting? Worldly talk, frivolous talk, socializing, joking around and laughing? If the Mass is a sacrifice, then sacrifice something yourself and get right in there! The answers to these questions show the value we place on God and whether or not He is “Number One” in our lives.
Assistance at Mass
How do we assist at Mass? Some people clearly show that, even though their bodies are present at Mass, their minds most certainly are not—they gaze around, fidget with their ‘little-ones’, keeping them entertained so that they don’t cry, etc. Others may have a Missal, prayer book or Rosary in their hands—but their heart can be lukewarm and they listlessly, carelessly and mechanically go through the motions of praying, fitting the description of Our Lord: “This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8). Lining up for Holy Communion is no different to lining up at the supermarket check-out—cold, indifferent, with no devotion or zeal.
Holy Communion
The reception of Holy Communion makes you wonder if they really believe that God is present—but of course nearly 70% of Catholics do not believe that He is present. Thanksgiving after Communion, if there is one, is frequently seen to be a mechanical repetition of the same old prayers, said without any real feeling and without any personal heart-to-heart conversation with the God that now rests within them! Once Mass is over, hardly anyone stays behind to continue their thanksgiving and to continue talking to their God—for friends beckon in the parking lot or the parish hall, and, instead of a tasteless Host, coffee and donuts with a variety of sweet fillings are available in the parish hall—and the early bird gets the best donuts! I guess the redeeming factor must be that the donut looks like a fat halo! Friends, coffee and donuts are “Number One”—“Number Two”—and “Number Three”—God came in fourth!
On this feast of Corpus Christi―which is a holy day of obligation in the Universal Calendar of the Church, but not observed as such in most countries―let us strive to rekindle our esteem, appreciation, love and manner of assistance at the greatest Treasure we have this side of Heaven. Let us strive to attend the Sacrifice of the Mass more often; to assist at it with greater reverence and fervor; to make better thanksgivings after Mass, and to visit Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament much more frequently.
If, with the eyes of Faith, we REALLY saw GOD PRESENT in the Holy Eucharist and in the Sacrifice of the Mass, then this should not be too hard. But if our eyes of Faith have become myopic, or even blind, then we will go the way of the majority. It is not a path that we should be taking, for it ends in misery.
St. Clare and the Blessed Sacrament
St. Clare was a beautiful Italian noblewoman, born to a noble family of the town of Assisi, in Umbria, Italy in the year 1193. She was destined to become the foundress of an order of nuns called “The Poor Clares.” She was converted upon hearing St. Francis of Assisi preach. Thereafter, she developed a great desire to live a poor humble life for Jesus. Francis had given away all his possessions to follow Jesus in poverty and prayer, Clare felt herself drawn to follow his example. She ran away from home, and in a little chapel outside Assisi, gave herself to God. Under the direction of St. Francis, she founded an order of contemplative nuns vowed to poverty, chastity, and obedience who are often known today as the “Poor Clares.” St. Francis cut off her hair and gave her a rough brown habit to wear, tied with a plain cord around her waist. During her lifetime, Clare was renowned for her deep holiness and great wisdom. She gave herself over to prayer and contemplation, leading her charges by her great example of consuming love for the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, looking to Him to lead her in all her decisions.
In the opinion of many people, the poverty Clare and the nuns embraced, was absurd. Some thought the poverty and sacrifices of the nuns was too harsh, too much to be asked. To Clare this was simply not true, nothing was too great a sacrifice to offer her Beloved Lord, and her nuns joyfully followed her in this life. St. Clare and her sisters wore no shoes, ate no meat, lived in a poor house, and kept silent most of the time. Yet they were very happy, because Our Lord was close to them all the time in the Blessed Sacrament.
They knew in their hearts the truths so often lost in today’s modern world―that, sacrifices done out of love for another, are made lighter by a true love. To truly love another requires sacrifices, emotions of love are the reward that comes from giving of one’s self. To these dear nuns there was true peace and often joy in the submission of their will, the complete laying down of their life to God. They wanted to give their all to Him, in loving return for His lovingly giving His very life on the Cross for all.
The next truth they found was that poverty, willingly undertaken, was not a burden, rather, it was freeing to not be weighed down by material concerns, or caring for all manner of possessions. Many of them were of noble birth, they had experienced all the world had to offer, and yet they chose to abandon it all for a higher calling, namely the total giving of their all for Love of God. They found the more they emptied themselves out of their own interests and desires, the more they were filled. They experienced great peace in the simplicity they lived. The nuns trusted in God to provide their needs, through the generosity of others. This has been the way of the Poor Clares for over 800 years now, and He has never let them down, often times providing miraculously.
St. Clare’s deep union with the Lord and persistent prayers, often were rewarded by miracles. Twice, God saved the convent through the intercession of St. Clare.
St. Clare Defeats Saracens with the Blessed Sacrament
A famous incident in her life, in September of 1240, which we call the Miracle of the Eucharist of Assisi, took place at San Damiano in 1241, twelve years before St. Clare died. The catalyst that the Lord, used to bring about this miracle, was a German prince, Frederick II of Swabia. There is a tradition that Frederick was born in Assisi at the same time as St. Francis, and was baptized on the same day in the church of San Ruffino. The Pope had treated this Frederick very well, being sure he was brought up comfortably, showing him every courtesy. The young German repaid his kindness nastily, by turning on the Pope and the Church, waging a war against them, and the people of the Umbria. He had visions of an empire that would spread itself from Assisi down to Sicily. To this end, he recruited a band of Saracen (Arab) mercenaries to be his army. reinforced by this band of merciless cut-throat Saracens, Frederick proceeded to march upon Assisi.
The convent of San Damiano stood between the troops of Frederick II and the city of Assisi. The fact that there was a group of virgin nuns in the convent was particularly appealing to the Saracens―who hated Christians, and had a lusty appetite for Caucasian women. They proceeded to attack the Convent. Clare was sick in bed at this time. Her ladies rushed to her, crying, in a state of panic. What would they do? Could she protect them from the attacking soldiers? One of the Sisters ran into the room to report that she had seen soldiers in the fields close to the convent. A general state of alarm broke out.
Clare had two Sisters help her up out of bed. She went to their little Chapel and prostrated herself before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. She then removed the silver and ivory case containing the Blessed Sacrament, holding it in her hands, she pressed her head against it, and prayed to the Lord. She spoke to the Lord, and He answered her. She implored: “Behold, my Lord! Is it possible that Thou desirest to deliver, into the hands of pagans, Thy defenseless handmaids, whom I have taught and raised out of love for Thee? I pray Thee, Lord―protect these Thy handmaids, whom I cannot now save by myself!”
A very gentle voice, like that of a young child, answered her: “I will take care of you―always!”
Clare added another petition: “My Lord, protect also―because it pleases you―this town of Assisi that, out of love for Thee, supports us!”
The reply she received was: “It will have to go through suffering, but it will be defended by My protection.”
Strengthened by these words, Clare turned to her Sisters, who were terrified by the prospects of the attack of the feared Saracens. “I promise you, my daughters, that you will not suffer any evil. Only have Faith in Christ!”
The fierce Saracens had invaded San Damiano and entered the confines of the monastery. St. Clare took the silver and ivory case containing the Blessed Sacrament and held it high in the air. The advancing Saracens froze in their tracks at the courtyard of the Convent. They looked up at Clare and the Blessed Sacrament in her hand. What happened next has no humanly explicable reason. The Saracens, witnessing blinding rays of bright light coming from the Blessed Sacrament, were petrified with fear―as if they could recognize the God Who was there―they turned and ran, fleeing from the convent of San Damiano, leaving Clare and her Sisters in peace. Neither did they attack Assisi as planned. St. Clare immediately admonished her Sisters―who had heard the voice of Christ speaking to Clare―telling them severely: “Take care not to tell anyone about that voice while I am still alive, dearest daughters!”
The next day, the people of Assisi were delighted, but astonished that the Saracens had not attacked their city. Survival not conquest, uppermost in their minds, the invaders had left without ever setting foot in the town.
A similar situation occurred when the troops of Vitalis d’Aversa attacked Assisi in June of 1241. Again her deep devotion to the Eucharist brought her before the Blessed Sacrament and again the city was spared. Olive Jars were filled with oil after she blessed them. On another occasion St. Clare experienced her own “multiplication of the loaves” when she fed 50 sisters and all the Franciscan friars with a single loaf of bread.
Fewer and Fewer Miracles Today!
God never changes ― “Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today; and the same for ever!” (Hebrews 13:8). “For I am the Lord, and I change not!” (Malachias 3:6). “Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration!” (James 1:17). “God is not a man, nor as the son of man, that He should be changed!” (Numbers 23:19). God is willing to perform miracles and come to our aid today―just as much as in the past. What has changed is our Faith in God, our trust in God and our confidence in God―all of these things have increasingly weakened over the years. Instead―we now place our faith in technology more than God, we trust science and technology more than God, and we have confidence in science and technology more than God! So God leaves us to our newly found gods!
The Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is still the greatest Treasure the world has―but it also the greatest neglected Treasure the world has. You reap what you sow―that is why we reaping so few miracles today, because the seed of the Faith has been choked up by the mammon of the world. “He that received the seed among thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word, and he becometh fruitless!” (Matthew 13:22).
Article 1
June 2nd
A Hearty Month! A Meaty Month!
June 2nd
A Hearty Month! A Meaty Month!
A Heart to Eat! Eat His Heart!
This year (2026), in the month of June, we celebrate three closely connected feasts― on June 4th we have the feast of Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ in the Holy Eucharist); on June 12th we have the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and on June 18th we have the lesser known feast of the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.
What most people do not realize, and what cannot be stressed too much, is the integral connection between devotion to the Holy Eucharist with devotion to the Sacred Heart. The two devotions can, in a certain sense, be said to be one and the same devotion. This is especially true is we read the account the Miracle of Lanciano, where scientific studies, over 1,200 years after the initial miracle took place, showed the Eucharistic remains to the inner wall of a human heart!
Our instinctive Catholic sense tells us that this miracle should be enough to convince of the connection of the two devotions! Yet there some who want proof that is based, not on miracles or private revelations, but on solid dogmas of Divine Revelation, with its roots going back to the tradition of the early Apostolic Church.
To what extent does devotion to the Sacred Heart, which in its modern form is only just over three hundred years old, actually rest on that sublime mystery of Eucharistic Love, which Jesus instituted at the Last Supper when He first gave us the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, or the Holy Eucharist, in that very first Mass. The answer to this question will determine in great measure our attitude toward the Sacred Heart, whether we shall consider it just another devotion, based on some private revelations given to a saintly nun in the seventeenth century, or whether we should associate it with an essential doctrine of the Catholic Faith, outside of which there is no salvation.
Historical Connection Between the Eucharist and the Sacred Heart
Pope Pius XI gives us some food for thought, when he writes: “As formerly Divine Goodness wished to exhibit to the human race, as it came from the Ark of Noe, a sign of the renewed covenant between them . . . so in our own troubled times, while that heresy held sway which, is known as Jansenism, the most insidious of all heresies, enemy of the love of God and of filial affection for Him — for this heresy preached that God was not so much to be loved by us as a Father, as to be feared as an unrelenting Judge — the most kind Jesus manifested to the nations His Sacred Heart.”
Doom and Gloom of Jansenism
At this point it is well to clarify a bit of Church history. Jansenism was really two heresies in one. On its doctrinal side it denied that Christ died for all men, and therefore pictured God very much as John Calvin, who said that, “not all men are created with a similar destiny; but eternal life is foreordained for some, and eternal damnation for others.” Christ did not die on the Cross, then, to save those whom God has arbitrarily decided should be lost. On its practical side, however, which particularly interests us, Jansenism gave expression to this caricature of the divinity by requiring extraordinary penance of the faithful to placate this God of anger; only after such penance was performed, and the soul became purified of all self love, should anyone dare approach the Holy of Holies in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
One of the disciples of Jansenism, Arnauld, lays down the conditions on which a person may receive Holy Communion. “Since,” he argues, “the Eucharist is the same food that is eaten in Heaven, so the purity of the faithful who receive it on Earth must necessarily be that of the blessed in Heaven. Consequently the only difference in disposition between those who partake of this food on Earth and those who receive it in Heaven, is that the first are still living by Faith while the latter enjoy the vision of God.” The author then goes through a list of persons who should be debarred from Holy Communion.
Disastrous Effects
What was the effect of this teaching on the people? It was disastrous. Even in the first period of Jansenism, they were so influenced by its rigorism, that they omitted their Easter duty and refused the Viaticum on their death-bed, because they thought they were not sufficiently detached from creatures. Jansenist priests were never known, or very rarely known, to say Mass; others considered it a matter of principle to reduce reception of the Sacraments to a minimum, so that Catholics were found who had not made their First Communion by the age of thirty. In one of his letters, St. Vincent de Paul describes the situation in Paris where, he says, “We no longer see persons frequenting the Sacraments, not even at Easter, the way they formerly did.” Speaking of annual Communions, he reports that “Saint Sulpice has 3,000 less; the parish of Saint Nicholas du Chardonnet, after having visited his families in the parish after Easter, in person and by proxy, told us recently that he discovered 1,500 of his parishioners who had not been to Holy Communion; and the same is true of others.” Many people used to receive at least once a month. “But now scarcely anyone can be seen going to Holy Communion on the first Sunday of the month and on feast days . . . unless a few at the Jesuit churches.”
The Sacred Eucharistic Heart to the Rescue
It was at the height of this heresy that St. Margaret Mary was favored with the apparitions of Our Lord at Paray-le-Monial. This fact alone would make us look for some connection between the two events. If not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the knowledge of God, there must be more than coincidence in the revelations of the Sacred Heart taking place, in the same country, and at the same time that a heresy was rampant, which threatened to remove the Blessed Sacrament from the lives of the faithful. However we do not have to speculate on the subject, because all the evidence in the life of St. Margaret Mary proves that the Holy Eucharist is an essential element in the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Revelations Of The Sacred Heart And The Holy Eucharist
There were, all told, perhaps forty mystical experiences of which we have some record in the life of St. Margaret Mary. Yet only three of these are properly called revelations in the technical sense, during which Our Lord appeared to the saint as the Sacred Heart, and communicated to her some message that she was to transmit to others. These three are known as the “Great Apparitions,” and took place in a period of less than two years, specifically between December 27, 1673 and June 16, 1675. Let us briefly quote the circumstances under which each revelation began, as described by the saint herself.
Regarding the first apparition, on the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, she says: “One day, when I was before the Blessed Sacrament, and having at the time more leisure than usual, I felt myself wholly invested with the presence of God.”
The second apparition probably occurred early in the following year, and its beginning is described as follows in the Autobiography: “On one occasion, while the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, feeling wholly withdrawn within myself by an extraordinary recollection of all my senses and powers, Jesus Christ, my sweet Master, presented Himself to me, all resplendent with glory, His five wounds shining like so many suns.”
Narrating the third apparition, she begins: “Being before the Blessed Sacrament one day of its octave, I received from my God signal tokens of His love, and I felt urged with the desire of making Him some return, and of rendering Him love for love.”
The Sacred Heart Appears at Eucharistic Times
In every instance, therefore, the revelations of the Sacred Heart took place before the Blessed Sacrament; the first two when the monstrance was exposed on the altar, the third while St. Claude de la Colombiere was offering Mass and St. Margaret Mary was approaching the grille to receive Holy Communion from his hands.
More than just the setting, however, the substance of the revelations is clearly Eucharistic, as may be seen from the authentic memoirs and letters of St. Margaret Mary. Fortunately, we need not examine all her writings to arrive at this conclusion, because an easier method is available. After the death of St. Claude Colombiere, the man chosen by Christ Himself to promote the devotion to the Sacred Heart, was Fr. John Croiset, professor at the Jesuit College in Lyons, France. Fr. Croiset became the fellow worker of the saint. Her extant correspondence with him covers ten letters, which she wrote during the last eighteen months of her life, when the revelations of the Sacred Heart were completed. On these letters is based the first book ever written on devotion to the Sacred Heart in its modern form.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart is Devotion to the Eucharist
To avoid obvious complications, Fr. Croiset held up the book until after the death of St. Margaret Mary; he published the volume at Lyons in 1691. Entitled, The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ, it was written at the request of Our Savior in a message conveyed to Father Croiset by St. Margaret Mary. In asking him to write the book she assured him in the name of the Sacred Heart that he would receive special assistance in its composition, and when it was almost finished she wrote to tell him that the work was so entirely in accord with the wishes of Our Lord it would never have to be revised. Subsequent history has vindicated this promise. Even now, after the lapse of more than three centuries, during which time countless volumes have appeared on the subject, it still remains the most practical source book on the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
In the opening paragraph of the first chapter, in answer to the question: “What do we mean by devotion to the Sacred Heart,” we are told by Fr. Croiset:
“The particular object of this devotion is the immense love of the Son of God which induced Him to deliver Himself up to death for us and to give Himself entirely to us in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. The thought of all the ingratitude and all the outrages, which He has to receive in this state of immolated victim until the end of time did not prevent Him from operating this prodigy. He preferred to expose Himself each day to the insults and opprobrium of men rather than be prevented from testifying by working the greatest of all miracles to what excess He loved us.”
Reflection on this immense love of God, manifested in the Incarnation and perpetuated in the Eucharist, has evoked corresponding sentiments of love in the souls of the faithful;
“For when they consider how little the world is moved by this excess of love, how little men love Jesus Christ in return, and how little pains they take to be loved by Him, His faithful friends have not been able to endure seeing him treated with such contempt day after day. They have endeavored to show their just sorrow at such treatment and, by their ardent love, their profound respect. They have also sought by special acts of homage to testify their great desire to make reparation to the utmost of their capacity for this ingratitude and contempt.”
Granting, therefore, that the principal motive of this devotion is the Incarnate, Eucharistic love of God, and its proper ends are to make a return of this love by acts of adoration, gratitude and reparation, why should the concentration or focus be on the physical Heart of Christ? The reason lies in the limitations of our composite human nature, which is made up of body and soul:
“Just as in the case of even the most spiritual devotions, we have always need of material and sensible objects which appeal to our human nature, act on the imagination and memory and facilitate the practice, so in the case of this devotion, the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been chosen as the sensible object most worthy of our veneration, and at the same time most proper for the end proposed by this devotion.”
This correlation is perfectly natural once we realize that, on the one hand, “the heart of man is both the source and the seat of love,” while, on the other, “properly understood, this devotion is nothing else than an exercise of love. Love is its object, love its motive and principle, and love is also its end.”
Identical Devotions
The problem arises, however, of whether devotion to the Sacred Heart is any different from devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. Speaking for Margaret Mary and, we may believe, conformably to the wishes of Christ, Fr. Croiset firmly declares the difference is only a matter of emphasis. He uses a comparison with devotion to the Sacred Passion. The sufferings of Christ, no less than the Eucharistic love of Christ, are spiritual realities and clearly suitable objects of worship by the faithful. Yet to help our life of prayer the Church gives us a sensible object for the sufferings of the Son of God, represented in the image of His Wounds. Consequently devotion to the Five Wounds is in reality only a particular devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ. Croiset then concludes, and his conclusion deserves to be memorized. “In like manner,” he says, “devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a more warm-hearted and ardent devotion towards Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, its principal motive being the extreme love which He shows us in this Sacrament, and the principal object, to make reparation for the contempt and outrages which He suffers in this same Sacrament.”
Does This Present Dogmatic Problems?
To appreciate the doctrinal significance of this assimilation of the Eucharist and devotion to the Sacred Heart, we have to examine the meaning of the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. We might take as the basis of our analysis, the very technical definitions of the Council of Trent directed against the Protestant Reformers. More suitable to our purpose, however, are the expressive statements of the Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, in his Encyclical Mediator Dei, where he declares that by their devotion to the Real Presence, “the faithful bear witness to and solemnly avow the Faith of the Church that the Word of God is identical with the Son of the Virgin Mary, who suffered on the Cross, who is present in a hidden manner in the Eucharist, and who reigns upon His heavenly throne.”
The all-important word to be analyzed in the Pope’s declaration is the term “identical.” What does he mean when he says that Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and the Christ of history are identical? The answer to this question has to be given in several stages; but once clarified, it will greatly enlighten our concept of devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Same Two Natures
If we therefore examine the various ways in which the historical and Eucharistic Christ can be the same, we have, first of all, these two possibilities. The Eucharistic and historical Christ is identical: (1) in having the same divine nature; and (2) in having the same human nature.
Evidently it would not be saying much to claim that He is identical in having the same divine nature, because the Word, as God, was already on Earth before the Incarnation, and would have remained on Earth, as God, even though there had been no institution of the Blessed Sacrament. So the first significant fact is that, in virtue of the Blessed Sacrament, thanks to the flesh which the Son of God received from the Virgin Mary, Christ as man is still on Earth in His human nature, even though He has ascended into Heaven.
Same Jesus, Then and Now
Christ in the Eucharist, therefore, is identical with the Christ of history in possessing the same human nature. But this presents two more possibilities. Having the same human nature may mean: (1) that in both cases He has only the same human soul, or (2) that He also has the same human body.
Orthodox Catholic doctrine teaches, of course, that the identity of human nature covers both body and soul. However, it is less of a strain on one’s Faith to conceive of Christ’s humanity in the Eucharist, not as something material and bodily, but only as something spiritual. Even Calvin, who denied the real bodily presence, was willing to admit that at the moment of reception the spirit of Christ nourishes the soul of the communicant. And the French Modernist, Loisy, while strenuously opposing a material conception of the Real Presence, claimed that, “Faith in the spirit of Christ and Faith in Jesus Christ present in the Holy Eucharist are one and the same Faith.”
He is Really There!
Consequently we find a stress in the documents of the Church on a bodily presence in the Blessed Sacrament, as a counterpoise to the error of spiritualizing Christ in the Eucharist to the exclusion or at least the oversight of His body. Thus in the Encyclical on the Sacred Liturgy, Pius XII explains that, “Christ,” and not just the soul of Christ, “is present under the Eucharistic species.” Moreover, the Sacrifice of the Mass is the same as the Sacrifice of the Cross because “the Victim is the same, namely, our Divine Redeemer, in His human nature,” whole and entire, “with His true body and blood.”
“The Word of God,” we are told by the Pope, “is identical with the Son of Mary, who suffered on the Cross, who is present in a hidden manner in the Eucharist, and who reigns upon His heavenly throne.” But how far can we extend this identification? In relation to the humanity of Christ, does it mean only: (1) an identity of nature and substance, or (2) does it also include an identity of physical properties, down to the smallest details of stature, texture, and disposition of bodily parts? The answer of the Holy Father is that it means the second type of identity.
To illustrate this truth, he quotes a memorable passage from St. John Chrystostom, telling us how we should react when we appear in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord. “When you see the Blessed Sacrament exposed, say to yourself: ‘Thanks to this Body, I am no longer dust and ashes, I am no more a captive but a free human being. Hence I hope to obtain Heaven and the good things that are there in store for me, eternal life, the heritage of the angels, companionship with Christ; death has not destroyed this Body which was pierced by nails and scourged . . . this is that Body which was once covered with blood, pierced by a lance, from which issued saving fountains upon the world, one of blood and the other of water . . . This Body He gave us to keep and to eat, as a mark of His intense love.’”
The Eucharist Contains the Heart of Jesus
We are now in a position to draw a simple, but very important conclusion. Since Christ Our Lord is present in the Eucharist, not only as God, but as man; not only with His human soul, but also with His body; not only in the substance of His body, but with all its physical components and parts — it follows that the Blessed Sacrament contains the living Heart of Christ: the same that was formed by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary, that was moved to compassion over the sins of Mary Magdalen and the sorrow of the widow of Naim, that was pierced on the Cross for our salvation and abides, in a glorified state, at the right hand of His heavenly Father.
Acts of Love for Host and Heart
In His revelations to St. Margaret Mary, Our Lord repeatedly asked for acts of love and adoration, thanksgiving and reparation to His Sacred Heart. Given a deep Faith in the identity of the historical and Eucharistic Christ, these acts of piety become the spontaneous reaction of a soul on fire with the love of God.
Acts of love are inevitable when the soul realizes that it stands before its heavenly Spouse, present in the tabernacle in the glorified humanity, which arose from the grave on Easter Sunday. We are familiar from the Scriptures with the profession of love, which this humanity educed from the disciples after the Resurrection. Mary Magdalen was beside herself with joy when she cast herself at the feet of Jesus and had to be told not to keep clinging to the feet of her Master. St. Peter threw himself into the Sea of Tiberias, when he heard that it was the Lord who stood waiting on the shore. Arrived there, he made his triple protestation of love, ending with, “Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee.”
Time After Communion is Special
There is one occasion especially when these acts of love are most efficacious: during the time after Holy Communion when the Sacramental Species have not yet disintegrated. The writings of the saints are filled with praise of the blessings that come to a soul that is properly disposed while in physical contact with the Sacred Heart. “The time after Communion,” says St. Teresa of Avila, “is the best time for negotiating with Jesus Christ; for then He is in the soul, seated, as it were, on a throne of grace, and saying, as He said to the blind man: ‘What wilt thou that I should do to thee?’”
Thanksgiving After Mass a Must
But more authoritative is the exhortation of Pope Pius XII in the Mediator Dei, where he devotes a full six paragraphs to this single subject. “When Mass is finished,” he directs that, “the person who has received the Eucharist should recollect himself, and in intimate union with the Divine Master hold loving and fruitful converse with Him.” If this seems like stressing the obvious, the Pope does not think so. He complains there are some teachers who discourage such private communication between the soul and the Eucharistic Christ “because this pertains to a private and personal act of piety and not to the good of the community.” Hence it is not liturgical. In America we have not seen much speculative defense of this aberration; but in practice how many people, except priests and religious, ever spend any time in prayer after Mass at which they received Holy Communion? Yet Pope Pius XII insists that this is not a mere spiritual luxury, but “such personal colloquies are very necessary that we may all enjoy more fully the supernatural treasures that are contained in the Eucharist and, according to our means, share them with others, so that Christ Our Lord may exert the greatest possible influence on the souls of all.” Addressing himself to the bishops, and through them to us, the Pope asks, “why should we not approve of those who, when they receive Holy Communion, remain on in closest familiarity with their Divine Redeemer even after the congregation has been officially dismissed.”
There are three reasons for this: “ . . . for the consolation of conversing with Him, also to render Him due thanks and praise, but especially to ask help to defend their souls against anything that may lessen the efficacy of the Sacrament and to do everything in their power to cooperate with the action of Christ Who is so intimately present.”
Acts of Adoration of Host and Heart
Acts of adoration are equally spontaneous as we recognize that Christ in the Eucharist is the Christ of history, the same before whom the Apostle Thomas knelt in worship and pronounced the most explicit profession of Christ’s divinity to be found in the Gospels: “My Lord and my God.” Once again we appeal to the authority of the Vicar of Christ to remind us of a truth that some have tried to obscure in the minds of the faithful. “It is the Church’s tradition right from the beginning,” he declares, “to worship with the same adoration the Word Incarnate as well as His own flesh.”
And St. Augustine asserts that: “No one eats that flesh, without first adoring it,” while he adds that “not only do we not commit a sin by adoring it, but we do sin by not adoring it.” Consequently it was on this doctrinal basis that the practice of adoring the Eucharist was founded and gradually developed as something distinct from the Sacrifice of the Mass. True the Eucharist is a Sacrifice, but as such it is transitory, lasting only during the time of the actual celebration of Mass; it is also a Communion, but again, as such it is transitory. Besides being a Sacrifice and Communion, however, the Eucharist differs from all the other channels of grace, since “it contains in a permanent manner the Author of grace Himself. When, therefore, the Church bids us adore Christ hidden behind the Eucharistic veils and pray to Him for spiritual and temporal favors of which we ever stand in need, she manifests a living Faith in her divine Spouse who is present beneath these veils.”
There is a letter of St. Ignatius Loyola that perfectly illustrates this Faith in the adorableness of the Eucharist. In 1540, a few weeks before the Institute of the Society of Jesus was formally approved by Paul III, he wrote to the citizens of his native town of Azpeitia, exhorting them to a greater devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. “I beg and entreat you,” he said, “by the love of God and by the respect which we owe Him, to apply yourselves to serve Our Lord Jesus Christ with all the fidelity of which you are capable, and to venerate His Divine Majesty with the deepest respect, above all in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, in which He is hidden in all the greatness of His divine and human natures, wherein He is present as entirely, as powerfully and as infinitely as He is in Heaven.”
Acts of Thanksgiving to Host and Heart
Acts of thanksgiving follow naturally from a moment’s reflection on the goodness of God in prolonging His Incarnation through the Eucharist. Every new year of the calendar adds another twelve months to the length of time, ordained from eternity, during which God, once become man, remains on this planet of ours in the humanity of His own creation. Pope Pius XII gave eloquent expression to this conviction shortly before he was elevated to the papacy. As Cardinal Pacelli, he was commissioned by Pius XI to preside at the International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest in 1938. In the opening address he preached to the assembled multitude on the motive that should prompt them to worship Christ with the same devotion as had the apostles and disciples before their Master ascended into Heaven. The Eucharist, he explained, “is that unsearchable mystery by which we believe that the earthly life of Christ our Redeemer, though apparently closed at His Ascension, still goes on and will go on until the end of time . . . It is nothing less than the invisible continuation now of His visible presence in times past.”
Frequent Attendance at Mass
The most effective way of showing gratitude for the Eucharist is to use it according to the will of God, which means especially frequent assistance at Mass with reception of Holy Communion. To be emphasized, however, is that mere frequentation is not enough to derive all the benefit, which Christ intended when He instituted the Holy Eucharist. In the words of the Holy Father, if the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Altar, “are to produce their proper effect, it is absolutely necessary that our hearts be rightly disposed to receive (the graces which come from) them.”
We are not living in the seventeenth century, when Jansenism infected the Catholic atmosphere. Our problem today, so states the Pope, is the danger of underestimating the importance of personal effort in order to profit more than just minimally from the Sacrifice and Sacrament of Christ’s love. He warns us against “certain theories (which) tend too belittle, or pass over in silence, what they call ‘subjective’, or ‘personal’ piety.” Without denying that the Mass and Holy Communion, “being Christ’s own actions, must be held capable in themselves of conveying and dispensing grace from the divine Head to the members of the Mystical Body.” Pius XII reminds us of the corresponding obligation which this places upon us. We are indeed members of the Mystical Body. “But observe,” says the Pope, “that these members are alive, endowed and equipped with an intelligence and will of their own. It follows that they are strictly required to put their own lips to the fountain, imbibe and absorb for themselves the life-giving water, and rid themselves personally of anything that might hinder its nutritive effect in their souls.” Considered in this light, our gratitude to the Sacred Heart for giving us the Holy Eucharist is removed from the realm of theory and brought down to actual practice, which, at times, may well become even heroic.
Acts of Reparation
Acts of reparation are correlative to those of gratitude, because it was especially the ingratitude towards Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar, which the Sacred Heart deplored in His final and greatest revelation to St. Margaret Mary. “Behold this Heart,” He said, “which has loved men so much, that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to testify to them its love. And in return I receive from the greater number nothing but ingratitude by reason of their irreverence and sacrileges, and by the coldness and contempt which they show Me in this Sacrament of love.”
Here, if anywhere, it is necessary to bring ourselves up to date, and see what significance this aspect of devotion to the Sacred Heart has in our own time and country. What are these irreverences and sacrileges towards the Eucharist that we are to expiate, and how are we to make reparation for them? I think we can safely transmit, without questioning, that there are sacrilegious Communions; that Catholics, even priests and religious, are often wanting in due reverence and love for the Blessed Sacrament. We admit these conditions and by prayer, penance and a renewed fervor are to make amends for them to the Heart of Christ.
There is another phase of this problem, however, that has not received the attention it deserves. By its judicious application, reparation to the Sacred Heart can become one of the strongest motives for the apostolate. I refer to the absence of the Blessed Sacrament from the lives of over one hundred million Americans, who are deprived of the spiritual consolation and supernatural strength of the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
The fact that these millions of present and former Christians have been robbed of such a great treasure is not something mysterious or inexplicable. It is the tragic result of centuries of opposition to the Catholic Mass and Communion. Recall the polemic writings of John Calvin who taught it was idolatry to worship the Sacred Host; the destruction of thousands of Catholic churches and chapels in France and Germany during the Protestant Reformation; the persecution of Mass priests in Elizabethan England; the steady flow of books and pamphlets in modern America which deny or attack the Real Presence — and we have some idea of the gigantic task of reparation that lies before us.
This apostolic reparation to the Sacred Heart in the Eucharist can take on a variety of forms. I will only mention one, namely, working and praying for the conversion of our non-Catholic fellow Americans, in order to restore to them the Eucharistic Christ whom they have lost — and thus repair the dishonor and injury which the love of Christ has been suffering for four hundred years.
It was in the spirit of this kind of reparation that Pope Pius XI composed the familiar Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart: “Be Thou King, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken Thee, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned Thee. Grant that they may quickly return to their Father’s house lest they die of wretchedness and hunger.” To which we may add: the wretchedness, which follows on losing the Mass and the hunger, which can only be satisfied by Holy Communion.
Cardinal Newman and the Eucharistic Heart
As an epilogue, we may remember the struggle that Cardinal Newman had with the doctrines of the Church before his conversion to the Catholic Faith. He confessed that, “I did not believe the doctrine of Transubstantiation till I was a Catholic.” But once converted, he found in the Holy Eucharist the source of his greatest joy. He made the discovery that the Sacrament of the Altar contains the Sacred Heart, which contains the heart of God. This identification he crystallized in a short prayer that beautifully synthesizes the doctrine we have examined:
“O most Sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus, Thou art concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and Thou beatest for us still. Now as then Thou sayest — ‘With desire I have desired!’ I worship Thee then with all my best love and awe, with my fervent affection, with my most subdued, most resolved will. O my God, when Thou dost condescend to suffer me to receive Thee, and Thou for a while takest up Thy abode with me, O make my heart beat with Thy Heart. Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and sensual, all that is hard and cruel, of all perversity, of all disorder, of all deadness. So fill it with Thee, that neither the events of the day nor the circumstances of the time may have power to ruffle it, but that in Thy love and Thy fear it may have peace.”
This year (2026), in the month of June, we celebrate three closely connected feasts― on June 4th we have the feast of Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ in the Holy Eucharist); on June 12th we have the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and on June 18th we have the lesser known feast of the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.
What most people do not realize, and what cannot be stressed too much, is the integral connection between devotion to the Holy Eucharist with devotion to the Sacred Heart. The two devotions can, in a certain sense, be said to be one and the same devotion. This is especially true is we read the account the Miracle of Lanciano, where scientific studies, over 1,200 years after the initial miracle took place, showed the Eucharistic remains to the inner wall of a human heart!
Our instinctive Catholic sense tells us that this miracle should be enough to convince of the connection of the two devotions! Yet there some who want proof that is based, not on miracles or private revelations, but on solid dogmas of Divine Revelation, with its roots going back to the tradition of the early Apostolic Church.
To what extent does devotion to the Sacred Heart, which in its modern form is only just over three hundred years old, actually rest on that sublime mystery of Eucharistic Love, which Jesus instituted at the Last Supper when He first gave us the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, or the Holy Eucharist, in that very first Mass. The answer to this question will determine in great measure our attitude toward the Sacred Heart, whether we shall consider it just another devotion, based on some private revelations given to a saintly nun in the seventeenth century, or whether we should associate it with an essential doctrine of the Catholic Faith, outside of which there is no salvation.
Historical Connection Between the Eucharist and the Sacred Heart
Pope Pius XI gives us some food for thought, when he writes: “As formerly Divine Goodness wished to exhibit to the human race, as it came from the Ark of Noe, a sign of the renewed covenant between them . . . so in our own troubled times, while that heresy held sway which, is known as Jansenism, the most insidious of all heresies, enemy of the love of God and of filial affection for Him — for this heresy preached that God was not so much to be loved by us as a Father, as to be feared as an unrelenting Judge — the most kind Jesus manifested to the nations His Sacred Heart.”
Doom and Gloom of Jansenism
At this point it is well to clarify a bit of Church history. Jansenism was really two heresies in one. On its doctrinal side it denied that Christ died for all men, and therefore pictured God very much as John Calvin, who said that, “not all men are created with a similar destiny; but eternal life is foreordained for some, and eternal damnation for others.” Christ did not die on the Cross, then, to save those whom God has arbitrarily decided should be lost. On its practical side, however, which particularly interests us, Jansenism gave expression to this caricature of the divinity by requiring extraordinary penance of the faithful to placate this God of anger; only after such penance was performed, and the soul became purified of all self love, should anyone dare approach the Holy of Holies in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
One of the disciples of Jansenism, Arnauld, lays down the conditions on which a person may receive Holy Communion. “Since,” he argues, “the Eucharist is the same food that is eaten in Heaven, so the purity of the faithful who receive it on Earth must necessarily be that of the blessed in Heaven. Consequently the only difference in disposition between those who partake of this food on Earth and those who receive it in Heaven, is that the first are still living by Faith while the latter enjoy the vision of God.” The author then goes through a list of persons who should be debarred from Holy Communion.
Disastrous Effects
What was the effect of this teaching on the people? It was disastrous. Even in the first period of Jansenism, they were so influenced by its rigorism, that they omitted their Easter duty and refused the Viaticum on their death-bed, because they thought they were not sufficiently detached from creatures. Jansenist priests were never known, or very rarely known, to say Mass; others considered it a matter of principle to reduce reception of the Sacraments to a minimum, so that Catholics were found who had not made their First Communion by the age of thirty. In one of his letters, St. Vincent de Paul describes the situation in Paris where, he says, “We no longer see persons frequenting the Sacraments, not even at Easter, the way they formerly did.” Speaking of annual Communions, he reports that “Saint Sulpice has 3,000 less; the parish of Saint Nicholas du Chardonnet, after having visited his families in the parish after Easter, in person and by proxy, told us recently that he discovered 1,500 of his parishioners who had not been to Holy Communion; and the same is true of others.” Many people used to receive at least once a month. “But now scarcely anyone can be seen going to Holy Communion on the first Sunday of the month and on feast days . . . unless a few at the Jesuit churches.”
The Sacred Eucharistic Heart to the Rescue
It was at the height of this heresy that St. Margaret Mary was favored with the apparitions of Our Lord at Paray-le-Monial. This fact alone would make us look for some connection between the two events. If not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the knowledge of God, there must be more than coincidence in the revelations of the Sacred Heart taking place, in the same country, and at the same time that a heresy was rampant, which threatened to remove the Blessed Sacrament from the lives of the faithful. However we do not have to speculate on the subject, because all the evidence in the life of St. Margaret Mary proves that the Holy Eucharist is an essential element in the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Revelations Of The Sacred Heart And The Holy Eucharist
There were, all told, perhaps forty mystical experiences of which we have some record in the life of St. Margaret Mary. Yet only three of these are properly called revelations in the technical sense, during which Our Lord appeared to the saint as the Sacred Heart, and communicated to her some message that she was to transmit to others. These three are known as the “Great Apparitions,” and took place in a period of less than two years, specifically between December 27, 1673 and June 16, 1675. Let us briefly quote the circumstances under which each revelation began, as described by the saint herself.
Regarding the first apparition, on the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, she says: “One day, when I was before the Blessed Sacrament, and having at the time more leisure than usual, I felt myself wholly invested with the presence of God.”
The second apparition probably occurred early in the following year, and its beginning is described as follows in the Autobiography: “On one occasion, while the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, feeling wholly withdrawn within myself by an extraordinary recollection of all my senses and powers, Jesus Christ, my sweet Master, presented Himself to me, all resplendent with glory, His five wounds shining like so many suns.”
Narrating the third apparition, she begins: “Being before the Blessed Sacrament one day of its octave, I received from my God signal tokens of His love, and I felt urged with the desire of making Him some return, and of rendering Him love for love.”
The Sacred Heart Appears at Eucharistic Times
In every instance, therefore, the revelations of the Sacred Heart took place before the Blessed Sacrament; the first two when the monstrance was exposed on the altar, the third while St. Claude de la Colombiere was offering Mass and St. Margaret Mary was approaching the grille to receive Holy Communion from his hands.
More than just the setting, however, the substance of the revelations is clearly Eucharistic, as may be seen from the authentic memoirs and letters of St. Margaret Mary. Fortunately, we need not examine all her writings to arrive at this conclusion, because an easier method is available. After the death of St. Claude Colombiere, the man chosen by Christ Himself to promote the devotion to the Sacred Heart, was Fr. John Croiset, professor at the Jesuit College in Lyons, France. Fr. Croiset became the fellow worker of the saint. Her extant correspondence with him covers ten letters, which she wrote during the last eighteen months of her life, when the revelations of the Sacred Heart were completed. On these letters is based the first book ever written on devotion to the Sacred Heart in its modern form.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart is Devotion to the Eucharist
To avoid obvious complications, Fr. Croiset held up the book until after the death of St. Margaret Mary; he published the volume at Lyons in 1691. Entitled, The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ, it was written at the request of Our Savior in a message conveyed to Father Croiset by St. Margaret Mary. In asking him to write the book she assured him in the name of the Sacred Heart that he would receive special assistance in its composition, and when it was almost finished she wrote to tell him that the work was so entirely in accord with the wishes of Our Lord it would never have to be revised. Subsequent history has vindicated this promise. Even now, after the lapse of more than three centuries, during which time countless volumes have appeared on the subject, it still remains the most practical source book on the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
In the opening paragraph of the first chapter, in answer to the question: “What do we mean by devotion to the Sacred Heart,” we are told by Fr. Croiset:
“The particular object of this devotion is the immense love of the Son of God which induced Him to deliver Himself up to death for us and to give Himself entirely to us in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. The thought of all the ingratitude and all the outrages, which He has to receive in this state of immolated victim until the end of time did not prevent Him from operating this prodigy. He preferred to expose Himself each day to the insults and opprobrium of men rather than be prevented from testifying by working the greatest of all miracles to what excess He loved us.”
Reflection on this immense love of God, manifested in the Incarnation and perpetuated in the Eucharist, has evoked corresponding sentiments of love in the souls of the faithful;
“For when they consider how little the world is moved by this excess of love, how little men love Jesus Christ in return, and how little pains they take to be loved by Him, His faithful friends have not been able to endure seeing him treated with such contempt day after day. They have endeavored to show their just sorrow at such treatment and, by their ardent love, their profound respect. They have also sought by special acts of homage to testify their great desire to make reparation to the utmost of their capacity for this ingratitude and contempt.”
Granting, therefore, that the principal motive of this devotion is the Incarnate, Eucharistic love of God, and its proper ends are to make a return of this love by acts of adoration, gratitude and reparation, why should the concentration or focus be on the physical Heart of Christ? The reason lies in the limitations of our composite human nature, which is made up of body and soul:
“Just as in the case of even the most spiritual devotions, we have always need of material and sensible objects which appeal to our human nature, act on the imagination and memory and facilitate the practice, so in the case of this devotion, the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been chosen as the sensible object most worthy of our veneration, and at the same time most proper for the end proposed by this devotion.”
This correlation is perfectly natural once we realize that, on the one hand, “the heart of man is both the source and the seat of love,” while, on the other, “properly understood, this devotion is nothing else than an exercise of love. Love is its object, love its motive and principle, and love is also its end.”
Identical Devotions
The problem arises, however, of whether devotion to the Sacred Heart is any different from devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. Speaking for Margaret Mary and, we may believe, conformably to the wishes of Christ, Fr. Croiset firmly declares the difference is only a matter of emphasis. He uses a comparison with devotion to the Sacred Passion. The sufferings of Christ, no less than the Eucharistic love of Christ, are spiritual realities and clearly suitable objects of worship by the faithful. Yet to help our life of prayer the Church gives us a sensible object for the sufferings of the Son of God, represented in the image of His Wounds. Consequently devotion to the Five Wounds is in reality only a particular devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ. Croiset then concludes, and his conclusion deserves to be memorized. “In like manner,” he says, “devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a more warm-hearted and ardent devotion towards Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, its principal motive being the extreme love which He shows us in this Sacrament, and the principal object, to make reparation for the contempt and outrages which He suffers in this same Sacrament.”
Does This Present Dogmatic Problems?
To appreciate the doctrinal significance of this assimilation of the Eucharist and devotion to the Sacred Heart, we have to examine the meaning of the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. We might take as the basis of our analysis, the very technical definitions of the Council of Trent directed against the Protestant Reformers. More suitable to our purpose, however, are the expressive statements of the Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, in his Encyclical Mediator Dei, where he declares that by their devotion to the Real Presence, “the faithful bear witness to and solemnly avow the Faith of the Church that the Word of God is identical with the Son of the Virgin Mary, who suffered on the Cross, who is present in a hidden manner in the Eucharist, and who reigns upon His heavenly throne.”
The all-important word to be analyzed in the Pope’s declaration is the term “identical.” What does he mean when he says that Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and the Christ of history are identical? The answer to this question has to be given in several stages; but once clarified, it will greatly enlighten our concept of devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Same Two Natures
If we therefore examine the various ways in which the historical and Eucharistic Christ can be the same, we have, first of all, these two possibilities. The Eucharistic and historical Christ is identical: (1) in having the same divine nature; and (2) in having the same human nature.
Evidently it would not be saying much to claim that He is identical in having the same divine nature, because the Word, as God, was already on Earth before the Incarnation, and would have remained on Earth, as God, even though there had been no institution of the Blessed Sacrament. So the first significant fact is that, in virtue of the Blessed Sacrament, thanks to the flesh which the Son of God received from the Virgin Mary, Christ as man is still on Earth in His human nature, even though He has ascended into Heaven.
Same Jesus, Then and Now
Christ in the Eucharist, therefore, is identical with the Christ of history in possessing the same human nature. But this presents two more possibilities. Having the same human nature may mean: (1) that in both cases He has only the same human soul, or (2) that He also has the same human body.
Orthodox Catholic doctrine teaches, of course, that the identity of human nature covers both body and soul. However, it is less of a strain on one’s Faith to conceive of Christ’s humanity in the Eucharist, not as something material and bodily, but only as something spiritual. Even Calvin, who denied the real bodily presence, was willing to admit that at the moment of reception the spirit of Christ nourishes the soul of the communicant. And the French Modernist, Loisy, while strenuously opposing a material conception of the Real Presence, claimed that, “Faith in the spirit of Christ and Faith in Jesus Christ present in the Holy Eucharist are one and the same Faith.”
He is Really There!
Consequently we find a stress in the documents of the Church on a bodily presence in the Blessed Sacrament, as a counterpoise to the error of spiritualizing Christ in the Eucharist to the exclusion or at least the oversight of His body. Thus in the Encyclical on the Sacred Liturgy, Pius XII explains that, “Christ,” and not just the soul of Christ, “is present under the Eucharistic species.” Moreover, the Sacrifice of the Mass is the same as the Sacrifice of the Cross because “the Victim is the same, namely, our Divine Redeemer, in His human nature,” whole and entire, “with His true body and blood.”
“The Word of God,” we are told by the Pope, “is identical with the Son of Mary, who suffered on the Cross, who is present in a hidden manner in the Eucharist, and who reigns upon His heavenly throne.” But how far can we extend this identification? In relation to the humanity of Christ, does it mean only: (1) an identity of nature and substance, or (2) does it also include an identity of physical properties, down to the smallest details of stature, texture, and disposition of bodily parts? The answer of the Holy Father is that it means the second type of identity.
To illustrate this truth, he quotes a memorable passage from St. John Chrystostom, telling us how we should react when we appear in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord. “When you see the Blessed Sacrament exposed, say to yourself: ‘Thanks to this Body, I am no longer dust and ashes, I am no more a captive but a free human being. Hence I hope to obtain Heaven and the good things that are there in store for me, eternal life, the heritage of the angels, companionship with Christ; death has not destroyed this Body which was pierced by nails and scourged . . . this is that Body which was once covered with blood, pierced by a lance, from which issued saving fountains upon the world, one of blood and the other of water . . . This Body He gave us to keep and to eat, as a mark of His intense love.’”
The Eucharist Contains the Heart of Jesus
We are now in a position to draw a simple, but very important conclusion. Since Christ Our Lord is present in the Eucharist, not only as God, but as man; not only with His human soul, but also with His body; not only in the substance of His body, but with all its physical components and parts — it follows that the Blessed Sacrament contains the living Heart of Christ: the same that was formed by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary, that was moved to compassion over the sins of Mary Magdalen and the sorrow of the widow of Naim, that was pierced on the Cross for our salvation and abides, in a glorified state, at the right hand of His heavenly Father.
Acts of Love for Host and Heart
In His revelations to St. Margaret Mary, Our Lord repeatedly asked for acts of love and adoration, thanksgiving and reparation to His Sacred Heart. Given a deep Faith in the identity of the historical and Eucharistic Christ, these acts of piety become the spontaneous reaction of a soul on fire with the love of God.
Acts of love are inevitable when the soul realizes that it stands before its heavenly Spouse, present in the tabernacle in the glorified humanity, which arose from the grave on Easter Sunday. We are familiar from the Scriptures with the profession of love, which this humanity educed from the disciples after the Resurrection. Mary Magdalen was beside herself with joy when she cast herself at the feet of Jesus and had to be told not to keep clinging to the feet of her Master. St. Peter threw himself into the Sea of Tiberias, when he heard that it was the Lord who stood waiting on the shore. Arrived there, he made his triple protestation of love, ending with, “Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee.”
Time After Communion is Special
There is one occasion especially when these acts of love are most efficacious: during the time after Holy Communion when the Sacramental Species have not yet disintegrated. The writings of the saints are filled with praise of the blessings that come to a soul that is properly disposed while in physical contact with the Sacred Heart. “The time after Communion,” says St. Teresa of Avila, “is the best time for negotiating with Jesus Christ; for then He is in the soul, seated, as it were, on a throne of grace, and saying, as He said to the blind man: ‘What wilt thou that I should do to thee?’”
Thanksgiving After Mass a Must
But more authoritative is the exhortation of Pope Pius XII in the Mediator Dei, where he devotes a full six paragraphs to this single subject. “When Mass is finished,” he directs that, “the person who has received the Eucharist should recollect himself, and in intimate union with the Divine Master hold loving and fruitful converse with Him.” If this seems like stressing the obvious, the Pope does not think so. He complains there are some teachers who discourage such private communication between the soul and the Eucharistic Christ “because this pertains to a private and personal act of piety and not to the good of the community.” Hence it is not liturgical. In America we have not seen much speculative defense of this aberration; but in practice how many people, except priests and religious, ever spend any time in prayer after Mass at which they received Holy Communion? Yet Pope Pius XII insists that this is not a mere spiritual luxury, but “such personal colloquies are very necessary that we may all enjoy more fully the supernatural treasures that are contained in the Eucharist and, according to our means, share them with others, so that Christ Our Lord may exert the greatest possible influence on the souls of all.” Addressing himself to the bishops, and through them to us, the Pope asks, “why should we not approve of those who, when they receive Holy Communion, remain on in closest familiarity with their Divine Redeemer even after the congregation has been officially dismissed.”
There are three reasons for this: “ . . . for the consolation of conversing with Him, also to render Him due thanks and praise, but especially to ask help to defend their souls against anything that may lessen the efficacy of the Sacrament and to do everything in their power to cooperate with the action of Christ Who is so intimately present.”
Acts of Adoration of Host and Heart
Acts of adoration are equally spontaneous as we recognize that Christ in the Eucharist is the Christ of history, the same before whom the Apostle Thomas knelt in worship and pronounced the most explicit profession of Christ’s divinity to be found in the Gospels: “My Lord and my God.” Once again we appeal to the authority of the Vicar of Christ to remind us of a truth that some have tried to obscure in the minds of the faithful. “It is the Church’s tradition right from the beginning,” he declares, “to worship with the same adoration the Word Incarnate as well as His own flesh.”
And St. Augustine asserts that: “No one eats that flesh, without first adoring it,” while he adds that “not only do we not commit a sin by adoring it, but we do sin by not adoring it.” Consequently it was on this doctrinal basis that the practice of adoring the Eucharist was founded and gradually developed as something distinct from the Sacrifice of the Mass. True the Eucharist is a Sacrifice, but as such it is transitory, lasting only during the time of the actual celebration of Mass; it is also a Communion, but again, as such it is transitory. Besides being a Sacrifice and Communion, however, the Eucharist differs from all the other channels of grace, since “it contains in a permanent manner the Author of grace Himself. When, therefore, the Church bids us adore Christ hidden behind the Eucharistic veils and pray to Him for spiritual and temporal favors of which we ever stand in need, she manifests a living Faith in her divine Spouse who is present beneath these veils.”
There is a letter of St. Ignatius Loyola that perfectly illustrates this Faith in the adorableness of the Eucharist. In 1540, a few weeks before the Institute of the Society of Jesus was formally approved by Paul III, he wrote to the citizens of his native town of Azpeitia, exhorting them to a greater devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. “I beg and entreat you,” he said, “by the love of God and by the respect which we owe Him, to apply yourselves to serve Our Lord Jesus Christ with all the fidelity of which you are capable, and to venerate His Divine Majesty with the deepest respect, above all in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, in which He is hidden in all the greatness of His divine and human natures, wherein He is present as entirely, as powerfully and as infinitely as He is in Heaven.”
Acts of Thanksgiving to Host and Heart
Acts of thanksgiving follow naturally from a moment’s reflection on the goodness of God in prolonging His Incarnation through the Eucharist. Every new year of the calendar adds another twelve months to the length of time, ordained from eternity, during which God, once become man, remains on this planet of ours in the humanity of His own creation. Pope Pius XII gave eloquent expression to this conviction shortly before he was elevated to the papacy. As Cardinal Pacelli, he was commissioned by Pius XI to preside at the International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest in 1938. In the opening address he preached to the assembled multitude on the motive that should prompt them to worship Christ with the same devotion as had the apostles and disciples before their Master ascended into Heaven. The Eucharist, he explained, “is that unsearchable mystery by which we believe that the earthly life of Christ our Redeemer, though apparently closed at His Ascension, still goes on and will go on until the end of time . . . It is nothing less than the invisible continuation now of His visible presence in times past.”
Frequent Attendance at Mass
The most effective way of showing gratitude for the Eucharist is to use it according to the will of God, which means especially frequent assistance at Mass with reception of Holy Communion. To be emphasized, however, is that mere frequentation is not enough to derive all the benefit, which Christ intended when He instituted the Holy Eucharist. In the words of the Holy Father, if the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Altar, “are to produce their proper effect, it is absolutely necessary that our hearts be rightly disposed to receive (the graces which come from) them.”
We are not living in the seventeenth century, when Jansenism infected the Catholic atmosphere. Our problem today, so states the Pope, is the danger of underestimating the importance of personal effort in order to profit more than just minimally from the Sacrifice and Sacrament of Christ’s love. He warns us against “certain theories (which) tend too belittle, or pass over in silence, what they call ‘subjective’, or ‘personal’ piety.” Without denying that the Mass and Holy Communion, “being Christ’s own actions, must be held capable in themselves of conveying and dispensing grace from the divine Head to the members of the Mystical Body.” Pius XII reminds us of the corresponding obligation which this places upon us. We are indeed members of the Mystical Body. “But observe,” says the Pope, “that these members are alive, endowed and equipped with an intelligence and will of their own. It follows that they are strictly required to put their own lips to the fountain, imbibe and absorb for themselves the life-giving water, and rid themselves personally of anything that might hinder its nutritive effect in their souls.” Considered in this light, our gratitude to the Sacred Heart for giving us the Holy Eucharist is removed from the realm of theory and brought down to actual practice, which, at times, may well become even heroic.
Acts of Reparation
Acts of reparation are correlative to those of gratitude, because it was especially the ingratitude towards Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar, which the Sacred Heart deplored in His final and greatest revelation to St. Margaret Mary. “Behold this Heart,” He said, “which has loved men so much, that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to testify to them its love. And in return I receive from the greater number nothing but ingratitude by reason of their irreverence and sacrileges, and by the coldness and contempt which they show Me in this Sacrament of love.”
Here, if anywhere, it is necessary to bring ourselves up to date, and see what significance this aspect of devotion to the Sacred Heart has in our own time and country. What are these irreverences and sacrileges towards the Eucharist that we are to expiate, and how are we to make reparation for them? I think we can safely transmit, without questioning, that there are sacrilegious Communions; that Catholics, even priests and religious, are often wanting in due reverence and love for the Blessed Sacrament. We admit these conditions and by prayer, penance and a renewed fervor are to make amends for them to the Heart of Christ.
There is another phase of this problem, however, that has not received the attention it deserves. By its judicious application, reparation to the Sacred Heart can become one of the strongest motives for the apostolate. I refer to the absence of the Blessed Sacrament from the lives of over one hundred million Americans, who are deprived of the spiritual consolation and supernatural strength of the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
The fact that these millions of present and former Christians have been robbed of such a great treasure is not something mysterious or inexplicable. It is the tragic result of centuries of opposition to the Catholic Mass and Communion. Recall the polemic writings of John Calvin who taught it was idolatry to worship the Sacred Host; the destruction of thousands of Catholic churches and chapels in France and Germany during the Protestant Reformation; the persecution of Mass priests in Elizabethan England; the steady flow of books and pamphlets in modern America which deny or attack the Real Presence — and we have some idea of the gigantic task of reparation that lies before us.
This apostolic reparation to the Sacred Heart in the Eucharist can take on a variety of forms. I will only mention one, namely, working and praying for the conversion of our non-Catholic fellow Americans, in order to restore to them the Eucharistic Christ whom they have lost — and thus repair the dishonor and injury which the love of Christ has been suffering for four hundred years.
It was in the spirit of this kind of reparation that Pope Pius XI composed the familiar Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart: “Be Thou King, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken Thee, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned Thee. Grant that they may quickly return to their Father’s house lest they die of wretchedness and hunger.” To which we may add: the wretchedness, which follows on losing the Mass and the hunger, which can only be satisfied by Holy Communion.
Cardinal Newman and the Eucharistic Heart
As an epilogue, we may remember the struggle that Cardinal Newman had with the doctrines of the Church before his conversion to the Catholic Faith. He confessed that, “I did not believe the doctrine of Transubstantiation till I was a Catholic.” But once converted, he found in the Holy Eucharist the source of his greatest joy. He made the discovery that the Sacrament of the Altar contains the Sacred Heart, which contains the heart of God. This identification he crystallized in a short prayer that beautifully synthesizes the doctrine we have examined:
“O most Sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus, Thou art concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and Thou beatest for us still. Now as then Thou sayest — ‘With desire I have desired!’ I worship Thee then with all my best love and awe, with my fervent affection, with my most subdued, most resolved will. O my God, when Thou dost condescend to suffer me to receive Thee, and Thou for a while takest up Thy abode with me, O make my heart beat with Thy Heart. Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and sensual, all that is hard and cruel, of all perversity, of all disorder, of all deadness. So fill it with Thee, that neither the events of the day nor the circumstances of the time may have power to ruffle it, but that in Thy love and Thy fear it may have peace.”
DAILY THOUGHTS FOR THE EASTER SEASON
Article 33
Trinity Sunday (also the feast of the Queenship of Mary), May 31st
The Holy Ghost, Mary & You!
Trinity Sunday (also the feast of the Queenship of Mary), May 31st
The Holy Ghost, Mary & You!
Multiple Feasts
Today, Sunday May 31st, 2026, we encounter a rarity of the moveable feast of the Holy Trinity occurring on the same day as the traditionally fixed and non-moveable feast of the Queenship of Mary. So let us examine both aspects―the Trinity and Mary―and see how they apply to us.
We Know in Part
The Holy Trinity is a mystery that cannot be fully understood or explained. If anyone professes to you that they fully understand the Holy Trinity—call for a doctor and keep the patient calm and restrained! However, though we cannot fully grasp, understand and explain the Trinity in its inexhaustible depth, we can, nevertheless, grasp something about the Trinity that helps our frail and finite human reason have some idea of this impenetrable mystery.
A supernatural mystery is a truth which we cannot fully understand, but which we firmly believe because we have God’s word for it. A supernatural mystery is above reason, but not contrary to it. No man can explain a mystery; neither can anyone know it unless it is revealed by God. “Great art thou, O Lord, in counsel, and incomprehensible in thought” (Jeremias 32:19).
It is not unreasonable to believe in a supernatural mystery. There are many natural mysteries around us that no one has yet been able to explain, yet we believe them: electricity, magnetism, force, and many of the processes of life. The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity is a strict mystery; that is, we cannot learn it from reason, nor understand it completely, even after it has been revealed to us.
Some Things We Just Cannot Understand
The doctrine contains two truths our reason cannot fully understand: (1) that there is only one God; and (2) that each of the three Persons is God. We can understand each of these truths separately, but not when taken together. The mystery of the Blessed Trinity is not a contradiction. We do not say that there are three gods in one God, nor that the three divine Persons are one Person.
We only say that there are three Persons in one God, that is, three Persons, and one nature or essence. Somewhat similarly, the soul of man has will, understanding, and memory, but it is only one soul. Also, the sun has form, light, and heat, but it is only one sun. Three flames put together make only one flame.
This is why saints like Patrick would use a three-leaf-clover to give the Irish a basic grasp of this mystery, telling them that the Trinity was One God, but Three Persons—like the clover had one stem, but three leaves that came forth from the same stem. One could humanize this botanical example and present the hypothesis of, not Siamese-Twins, but imagine instead Siamese-Triplets! Three-in-one. One being, yet three separate persons! Yet, in the order of nature, this would not be a perfection, but an imperfection—with God there is no such imperfection with its consequent limitations and restraints. Analogies are always imperfect and impractical, even though they help somewhat in understanding a concept.
Eh? What is it?
What do we mean by the Blessed Trinity? The technical, theological, catechetical answer would be: “By the Blessed Trinity we mean one and the same God in three divine Persons.” The Athanasian Creed, which was composed in order to refute the Arian heresy, which held that the Jesus Christ was not fully God, says the following:
“So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity nothing is afore or after, nothing is greater or less; but the whole three Persons are co-eternal together, and co-equal. So that in all things, as in aforesaid, the unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in unity is to be worshiped’’ (Extract from the Athanasian Creed ).
Job Description
The Father is God and the First Person of the Blessed Trinity. Omnipotence, and especially the work of creation, is attributed to God the Father. God the Father could have created millions of beings instead of you yourself; but He chose you out of a love wholly undeserved, saying, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jeremias 31:3). Let us then cry in thanksgiving, “Abba, Father!” (Romans 8:15). Let us show our gratitude by avoiding all that could displease God the Father, by trying to please Him with virtue, by trying to attain an ever greater perfection, in obedience to that command Our Lord’s: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
The Son is God and the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. To God the Son we owe our redemption from sin and eternal death; by His death He gave us life. For us God the Son debased Himself, taking the form of a servant ... “becoming obedient to death, even to death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). In Holy Communion we are united with Him, for He Himself said; “He who eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, abides in Me and I in him” (John 6:57). In return we should be “other Christs,” and, as the Apostle urged, “walk even as He walked.”
The Holy Ghost is God and the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. He manifests Himself in us particularly in our sanctification. The word “Ghost” applied to the Third Person means “Spirit.” In Latin, the word used in “Spiritus.”
At our Baptism God the Holy Ghost purifies us from all sin and fills our souls with divine grace, so that we become truly children of God, sons and heirs, and co-heirs with Jesus Christ. By Baptism we become living temples of the Holy Ghost: “Or do you not know that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).
Trinitarian Spiritual Life
The Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, can be found to symbolized or reflected in the Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life (cf. the book of Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange under that title). The first way, or first conversion, which is called the Way of Beginners or the Purgative Way, can be seen to symbolize God the Father, the Creator, Who creates our soul and sets it out on its path which is intended to lead to Heaven. The second way, or second conversion, which is called the Way of Proficients or the Illuminative Way, can be seen to symbolize Jesus Christ, Who is the Light of the World. The third way, or the third conversion, which is called the Way of the Perfect or the Unitive Way, can be seen to symbolize the Holy Ghost, Who is the Spirit of Unity and Love, that passes to and fro between the Father and the Son, and is meant to lead us to perfection.
Mary and the Holy Trinity
Christ promises a sort of Trinitarian in-dwelling for those who persevere in love and obedience: “If a man loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). The Immaculate Virgin Mary is the exemplar of this Trinitarian in-dwelling, as we see from the Annunciation. The Archangel Gabriel’s message to Mary consists of three distinct parts (each of which she responds to separately), and relating the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book True Devotion to Mary, writes: “Mary is the excellent masterpiece of the Most High―the knowledge and possession of which He has reserved to Himself. Mary is the admirable Mother of the Son―who took pleasure in humbling and concealing her during her life in order to favor her humility, calling her by the name of “woman” (John 2:4; 19:26), as if she were a stranger, although, in His heart, He esteemed and loved her above all angels and all men. Mary is the “sealed fountain” (Canticles 4:12), the faithful spouse of the Holy Ghost, to whom He alone has entrance. Mary is the sanctuary and the repose of the Holy Trinity, where God dwells more magnificently and more divinely than in any other place in the universe―not excepting His dwelling between the Cherubim and Seraphim. Nor is any creature―no matter how pure―allowed to enter into that sanctuary, except by a great and special privilege. It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only-Begotten to the world. The Son of God became man for our salvation―but it was in Mary and by Mary. God the Holy Ghost formed Jesus Christ in Mary―but it was only after having asked her consent.”
“The conduct which the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity have deigned to pursue in the Incarnation and the first coming of Jesus Christ, They still pursue daily, in an invisible manner, throughout the whole Church; and They will still pursue it even to the consummation of ages in the last coming of Jesus Christ.
“God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters and He named it the sea (mare). He made an assemblage of all His graces and he called it Mary (Maria).This great God has a most rich treasury in which He has laid up all that He has of beauty and splendor, of rarity and preciousness―including even His own Son―and this immense treasury is none other than Mary, whom the saints have named the Treasure of the Lord, out of whose plenitude all men are made rich.
God the Son has communicated to His Mother all that He acquired―by His life and His death, His infinite merits and His admirable virtues―and He has made her the treasurer of all that His Father gave Him for His inheritance. It is by her that He applies His merits to His members, and that He communicates His virtues, and distributes His graces. She is His mysterious canal; she is His aqueduct, through which He makes His mercies flow gently and abundantly.
“To Mary, His faithful spouse, God the Holy Ghost has communicated His unspeakable gifts; and He has chosen her to be the dispenser of all He possesses, in such a way that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills, as she wills and when she wills, all His gifts and graces. The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gift to men, which He does not have pass through her virginal hands. Such has been the will of God, who has willed that we should have everything through Mary―so that she who, impoverished, humbled, and who hid herself even unto the abyss of nothingness by her profound humility her whole life long, should now be enriched and exalted and honored by the Most High. Such are the sentiments of the Church and the holy Fathers.”
Mary and the Father (Luke 1:26-29)
In the sixth month the Archangel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. It’s interesting that Mary isn’t described as being troubled the appearance of an angel (which would be normal: Matthew 28:5; Luke 1:13). Rather, Luke says that she was troubled by the saying, and wondered what it might mean. Luke doesn’t tell us why she was greatly troubled, but some propose one possibility.
The Archangel calls Mary by the title “Full of Grace,” a reference to her Immaculate Conception (which is why, confusingly, this is the Gospel for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception). And then he tells her, “the Lord is with thee,” a reference to Nathan’s message to King David, after the king wanted to build the Temple (2 Kings 7:3). It was Nathan giving a green light to proceed with the Temple, but has to backtrack on this, after God puts a stop to the plans. Elsewhere, we’re told that this is because the blood on David’s hands made him unworthy to build the temple (1 Paralipomenon 28:3). So now, the Archangel Gabriel is giving the green light to Mary to build the Temple (John 2:21), after declaring her sinless. An astute Jew would recognize this for what it is: a Messianic promise.
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book True Devotion to Mary, adds: “God the Father communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, inasmuch as a mere creature was capable of it, in order that He might give her the power to produce His Son and all the members of His Mystical Body.
Mary and the Son (Luke 1:30-34)
And the angel said to her: “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God! Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son; and thou shalt call His Name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David His father; and He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of His kingdom there shall be no end!” And Mary said to the angel: “How shall this be done, because I know not man?” So having found favor with the Father, Mary is promised that she will bear the Son, Jesus. This raises an obvious question: how can that occur, given that Mary is a perpetual Virgin?
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book True Devotion to Mary, says: “God the Son descended into her virginal womb, as the New Adam into His terrestrial paradise, to take His pleasure there, and to work in secret marvels of grace. God made Man, found His liberty in seeing Himself imprisoned in her womb. He made His omnipotence shine forth in letting Himself be carried by that humble maiden. He found His glory, and His Father’s, in hiding His splendors from all creatures here below, and revealing them to Mary only. He glorified His independence and His majesty in depending on that sweet Virgin―in His conception, in His birth, in His presentation in the temple, in His hidden life of thirty years, and even in His death, where she was to be present in order that He might make with her but one same sacrifice and be immolated to the Eternal Father by her consent, just as Isaac of old was offered by Abraham’s consent to the will of God. It is she who nourished Him, supported Him, brought Him up and then sacrificed Him for us. If we examine closely the rest of our Blessed Lord’s life, we shall see that it was His will to begin His miracles by Mary. He sanctified St. John in the womb of his mother, St. Elizabeth―but it was by Mary’s word. No sooner had she spoken, than John was sanctified―and this was His first miracle of grace. At the marriage of Cana He changed the water into wine, but it was at Mary’s humble prayer―and this was His first miracle of nature. He began and continued His miracles by Mary, and He will continue them to the end of ages by Mary.”
Mary and the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:35-38)
And the angel said to her: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also has conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren―because no word shall be impossible with God.” And Mary said:”Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word!” And the angel departed from her. So Mary finds favor with the Father, bears the Son, and is overshadowed by the Trinity. This is what I mean by saying that she is the exemplar of Trinitarian in-dwelling: after all, she literally grew the Son of God in her body, offered to her by the Father, through the angel, and produced by the power of the Holy Ghost.
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book True Devotion to Mary, says: “God the Holy Ghost is become fruitful by Mary, whom He has espoused. It was with her, in her, and of her that He produced His Masterpiece―which is God made Man―and that He goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head. This is the reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary, His dear and inseparable spouse, in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ. It is not that we mean that our Blessed Lady gives the Holy Ghost His fruitfulness, as if He had it not Himself. For inasmuch as He is God, He has the same fruitfulness or capacity of producing as the Father and the Son; only He does not bring it into action, as He does not produce another Divine Person. But what we mean is that the Holy Ghost chose to make use of our Blessed Lady―though He had no absolute need of her―to bring His fruitfulness into action, by producing, in her and by her, Jesus Christ and His members—a mystery of grace unknown to even the wisest and most spiritual among Christians.
Mary and You
God―strictly speaking―has no need of Mary. However, God has decided and ruled that we do need Mary. St. Louis de Montfort states: “Just as in the natural and corporal generation of children there are a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there are a Father, who is God, and a Mother, who is Mary. All the true children of God, the predestinate, have God for their Father and Mary for their Mother. He who has not Mary for his Mother, has not God for his Father. St. Augustine―surpassing himself, and going beyond all I have yet said―affirms that all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin, where they are guarded, nourished, brought up and made to grow by that good Mother, until she has brought them forth to glory after death, which is properly the day of their birth, as the Church calls the death of the just.”
● St. Albert the Great (a Doctor of the Church), says: “They who are not thy servants, O Mary, shall perish.”
● St. Bonaventure (a Doctor of the Church) repeats the same thought when he says: “They who neglect the service of Mary shall die in their sins.” And again: “For them, from whom Mary turns away her face, there is not even a hope of salvation.”
● St. Ignatius of Antioch (a Father of the Church), a martyr of the second century, writes: “A sinner can be saved only through the Holy Virgin who, by her merciful prayers, obtains salvation for so many who, according to strict justice, would be lost.”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church) says: “It is impossible that a servant of Mary be damned, provided he serves her faithfully and commends himself to her maternal protection.”
● St. Anselm (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “He who turns to thee and is regarded by thee cannot be lost.”
● St. Antonine is of the same opinion. He says: “As it is impossible for them from whom Mary turns away her eyes of mercy to be saved, so it is necessary that they to whom she turns her eyes of mercy and for whom she intercedes to be saved and glorified.”
● St. John Damascene (a Doctor of the Church) says: “To be devout to you, O holy Virgin, is an arm of salvation which God gives to those whom He wishes to save.”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church), in his book, The Glories of Mary, says: “The intercession of Mary is even necessary to salvation. We say ‘necessary’, not absolutely, but morally. This necessity proceeds from the will itself of God, that all graces that He dispenses should pass by the hands of Mary, according to the opinion of St. Bernard.”
● St. Louis de Montfort adds: “Devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary to salvation, and that it is an infallible mark of reprobation to have no esteem and love for the holy Virgin; while on the other hand, it is an infallible mark of predestination to be entirely and truly devoted to her.”
● St. Bernardine of Sienna addresses these words to the Blessed Virgin Mary: “O Lady, thou art the dispenser of all graces, and since the grace of salvation can only come through thy hands, our salvation depends on thee!”
Edel Quinn and the In-dwelling of the Trinity
The Venerable Edel Quinn (1907-1944), was a young Irish girl who was one of the jewels of the Legion of Mary. Edel Quinn felt a call to religious life at a young age. She wished to join the Poor Clares but was prevented by advanced tuberculosis. After spending eighteen months in a sanatorium, her condition unchanged, she decided to become active in the Legion of Mary, which she joined in Dublin at age 20. She gave herself completely to its work in the form of helping the poor in the slums of Dublin. In 1936, at age 29 and dying of tuberculosis, Quinn became a Legion of Mary Envoy, a very active missionary to East and Central Africa, departing in December 1936 for Mombasa. By the outbreak of World War II, she was working as far off as Dar es Salaam and Mauritius. Fighting her illness, in seven and a half years she established hundreds of Legion branches and councils in today’s Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, and Mauritius.
Edel Quinn had an extraordinary devotion to the Holy Eucharist. Fr. Anselm Moynihan O.P., who was the very dedicated vice-postulator for her Cause wrote:”To be deprived of Communion was one of the greatest sufferings she could conceive. At one period in Africa she was a patient in a non-Catholic sanatorium and was able to receive Holy Communion only once a week. She said later that the privation of daily Communion gave her an experience of what hell must be like.” In her own words she says: “Without the Eucharist what a desolation life would be... Thank the Trinity over and over again for this Gift... We want to be united with Him, to give ourselves to Him utterly. Our Faith tells us He is in the Eucharist; let us seek Him there.” Devotion to the Holy Eucharist is one of the brightest jewels in the crown of Legion Spirituality.
From Eucharist to Trinity
The Eucharist led to another aspect of Edel’s interior life, namely, the in-dwelling of the Holy Trinity through grace in her soul. An Irish Carthusian nun, who was a very close friend of Edel, tells us how she and Edel read together again and again the little book: From Holy Communion to the Blessed Trinity by Fr. Bernadot, O.P. The central theme of this book is that the Holy Eucharist is the supreme means of enabling us to live the mystery of the In-dwelling of the Trinity in our souls. Edel grasped this magnificent principle both in theory and daily practice. It was not surprising to learn that another of her favorite authors was St. Elizabeth of the Trinity (1880-1906). St. Elizabeth is one of the great teachers concerning this mystery of God’s extraordinary intimacy with us in the very depths of our being through grace.
For St. Elizabeth, and for Edel too, there is no substantial difference between the In-dwelling Trinity and the reality of Heaven. The only difference between the two is that we live the mystery of In-dwelling by Faith and Heaven by direct and beatific vision. Once this is grasped it is easy to understand why Edel craved moments of time and indeed long hours if possible, of gentle silence and recollection. Several key witnesses at the tribunal for her beatification testified under oath that despite the extraordinary business of her apostolic life her most striking characteristic was her spirit of recollection.
In one of Edel’s private notebooks, we read: “We are sharers in the very life of the Blessed Trinity, with the Incarnate Word as our Brother, his Father as our Father, his Spirit as the Soul of our souls. Yet we can never forget the transcendent holiness of God. And as a consequence, underlying, though not weakening the sublime intimacy we enjoy with the Divine Persons, will be an attitude of profound reverence and adoration... She knew her soul to be the living sanctuary of the Triune God. She snatched at every opportunity of quiet and silence to recollect herself and be alone with God and offer Him the incense of her adoration.”
Edel wrote the following in her little spiritual notebook: “Let us ask the grace to live in realization of our life in Christ, through Mary, adoring the Trinity” … “In Christ Jesus we have all. Realize this. Often offer Him to the Trinity, present in our soul, giving all honor, reparation and glory throughout the day” … “Realize that I am the temple of God, the dwelling place of the Trinity. In Christ we adore the Trinity. Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus. Try and adore the Trinity in our soul, even in the midst of troubles and external duties” … “With Christ and helped by Mary, let us adore the Trinity. Cut out useless worrying thoughts... to adore with and in union with Jesus... the Trinity in my soul... through Mary!”
Pursuing a Perishable World—Is it Worth it?
Everything in this life passes away—only God remains! Do we want what is perishable or do we want what is lasting? If we live for the world, there is no reward outside of this world—only penalties and punishment. If we live for God, then the world will impose penalties and punishments upon us—but only for a short time, until we are rewarded by God for eternity. We have a choice: to follow the way of this world, of the society that surrounds us, and thereby find ourselves outside of God; or to choose the way of life, to choose God Who calls us and for Whom our heart is searching. We cannot seek, love and serve both―“No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4).
This Soul Ain’t Big Enough For All of Us
If the world occupies your heart and soul, the Holy Trinity can find no dwelling space within your soul—there is “no room for Them at the inn!” Yet, if you “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33), and “let the word of Christ dwell in you” (Colossians 3:16) then the Holy Trinity will come and dwell within you. “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him” (John 14:23).
We said, in the previous article, that creation is attributed to God the Father; redemption to God the Son; and sanctification to God the Holy Ghost. Likewise, the Holy Trinity wants to create a temple for Itself within us; in order to sacrifice within that temple; and to sanctify that temple.
Temple of God
“Know you not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God; and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). “Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners; but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and the domestics of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone. In Whom all the building, being framed together, grows up into an holy temple in the Lord. In Whom you also are built together into a habitation of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22).
“But if any man violates the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are!” (1 Corinthians 3:17). “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the chairs of them that sold doves: And He said to them: ‘It is written ― “My house shall be called the house of prayer!” ― but you have made it a den of thieves!’” (Matthew 21:12-23).
God the Father—Real Presence in Creation
The Catechism tells us that God is everywhere by His Power, Presence and Essence. St. Paul says: “For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; His eternal power also, and divinity” (Romans 1:20). Yet all around us the work of God the Father is ignored—we ignore or take God the Father’s creation for granted! We are continually moving about in what might be called “God’s World” — where we are constantly surrounded by God’s creation. It is not as though we had to get onto another planet to find and give glory to God. In fact, we are outdone in the singing of praises of God by our lesser ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’!
God is glorified in all His creation, and not only in human beings who can use their minds to speak His praises. Nature praises Him because it gets its existence from Him and works according to His laws. Each separate piece of God’s creation, by existing in the kind of existence God means it to have, gives glory to God. This idea of everything having on it the glow of God’s look — like the warmth of the sun showing in a haze of heat over the water — seems clear enough when we take the trouble to think about it. To the saints, such a view of creation is a settled state of mind. Outward objects are seen and loved as being reflections of Him who made them. That is why St. Paul said that the visible things of creation were there to draw our minds to a knowledge of the invisible Creator (Romans 1:20). That is why St. Francis of Assisi called natural things, like the sky and the sun, by the title of “brother” and “sister.” They were all in the family. They all bore on them the Father’s likeness.
Signposts to God
What a difference it would make to your life if you saw all around you signposts pointing to the presence of God. Not only would nature and human beings proclaim the glory of God, but even in the ordinary happenings from hour to hour and from day to day you would welcome God’s will. You would be drawn at once to show gratitude for the pleasant things that happened, knowing that God had provided them, and the unpleasant ones you would accept as part of your share in the Passion. So it would mean that you could live out your life under what St. Augustine described as the canopy or firmament of God’s will. God the Father should be continually praised and glorified for His creation and creatures that we continually see around us! Start tomorrow! You may feel awkward—because you’ve never or rarely done it before. You may feel hypocritical—because, even you may praise with silent or spoken words of your mind and lips, your heart may have to wait quite some time before it sincerely joins in with your mind and lips. But do it anyway! Why? Because it is a part of Justice—which is a virtue that gives another his due—and God is due praise for what He has created.
The Holy Ghost—Real Presence in the Soul
Devotion to the Holy Ghost is probably the most difficult of all devotions in which to be interested, over which to grow enthusiastic. Christ, our Blessed Mother, the Saints came on earth and lived human lives and “conversed with men. But the Holy Ghost never lived on earth as man. His life was never written by man for man. When we consider the Holy Ghost, therefore, we are forced at once into the realm of reason, unaided and unsupported by images so natural to us. There is the difficulty of a mystery too, something we cannot understand. But the chief difficulty that devotion to the Holy Ghost faces is the attempt to build it on a foundation that is not intellectual.
God the Holy Ghost is the Holy Gift
God is good. He is the sovereign Good, and no one but God is really and essentially good. God is also, shall we say for want of a better word, givable. He is in the highest degree communicable. He, being goodness itself, not only can diffuse goodness around, but actually contains in Himself, as goodness does, the inclination to give His goodness, which again is Himself. He has, consequently, in Himself, more than any creature, the power and free inclination to communicate, to give Himself. Moreover, since there is no goodness outside of Him, there is nothing He could hope for from creatures. He is the very essence of unselfishness.
Just as the God the Father gave of His goodness in His creation, and God the Son gave of His goodness in His Sacrifice and Redemption, so too does the Holy Ghost gives of Himself for our sanctification. In a word, God is the ultimate good; He is communicable in the highest degree; He is absolutely free and absolutely disinterested; and, as such, He merits most excellently the name “Gift”. Not only that, but God merits this name of “Gift” more than does any created gift. Do we not say in the Veni Creator ― “O heavenly Gift of God most high”?
Love Above Knowledge
In our earthly friendships, there is something that unites us more closely to our friends than mere knowledge does, and this is love. Knowledge may teach us something about them, knowledge may unlock for us, gradually throughout life, ever more wonderful secrets of their goodness and strength and loyalty. But knowledge, of itself, pushes us irresistibly on to something more. The more we know of that which is worth knowing, the more we must love it—for we were made to love that which is good.
It was an axiom, among the medieval theologians, that love is more unifying than knowledge, so that in the real indwelling of the Holy Ghost in our hearts, we must expect to find, not only that He is the object of our intelligence, but also that He truly and sincerely has a place in our hearts. This love or friendship between ourselves and the Holy Ghost—if by “friendship” we mean anything like that of which we have experience in our human relations—implies three things.
True Friendship
First of all, true friendship, if it based upon charity, is of giving to the friend—as God gives to us. Friendship implies that we come for what we can give, far more than that we come for what we can get. “We love because we have helped” is the true order of the origins of friendship than “we help because we have loved.”
Secondly, friendship, to be complete, must be mutual. There may indeed be love when, in this world, some poor, forlorn soul is never requited in its affection, but that is not what we mean by a friend or by friendship. Friendship implies action, a fellow feeling, a desire for each other, a sympathy. Are we not reluctant to go there where we sense that we are not welcome or wanted? If the Holy Ghost does not feel welcome and wanted by us, then He is not going to even think about ‘unpacking-the-suitcase’ and distributing His Gifts! As we sow, so shall we reap!
Thirdly, friendship also implies necessarily a common bond of likeness, or similarity of condition or life, some equality. Of course, it is evident from classic instances that friendship may exist between a poor shepherd and the son of a king (although perhaps Jonathan’s princedom was very little removed from shepherd life (see 1 Kings 18:1‑3), yet the very friendship itself must produce equality between them. Said the Latin proverb: “Friendship either finds or makes men equal.” God is pure, total goodness—what similarity will He find in us? Are we seeking pure, total goodness? Or are we seeking the world? God is not of this world. Jesus said: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world” (John 8:23). Speaking of the Holy Ghost, Jesus also said: “The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, nor knows Him” (John 14:17).
True Friendship With God
Therefore, we must expect to find these things reproduced in our friendship with the Spirit of God. He is our friend, not for His need, but for ours. He is our friend, not for what He can get, but for what He can give—eternal life. Again, His friendship is certainly mutual, for as St. John tells: “Let us therefore love God because God first hath loved us” (1 John 4:19). I can say, not only that I love God, but that He is my friend.
The Holy Spirit dwells in me that I may dwell in Him. “Friendship either finds or makes men equal.” It found us apart; it makes us one. He, divine and perfect, came to me, human and imperfect. By grace I am raised to a supernatural level. I know Him in some sort as He is; I am immediately united to Him by the bond of love. As one of the saints writes: “God became man so that He might make us like unto God!”
Is There Room in My Soul?
In these days that follow the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, let us contemplate our relationship to the Trinity. The Divine Persons, almost like Jesus, Mary and Joseph at Bethlehem, are seeking a place to stay—is there room for them in my life?
Today, Sunday May 31st, 2026, we encounter a rarity of the moveable feast of the Holy Trinity occurring on the same day as the traditionally fixed and non-moveable feast of the Queenship of Mary. So let us examine both aspects―the Trinity and Mary―and see how they apply to us.
We Know in Part
The Holy Trinity is a mystery that cannot be fully understood or explained. If anyone professes to you that they fully understand the Holy Trinity—call for a doctor and keep the patient calm and restrained! However, though we cannot fully grasp, understand and explain the Trinity in its inexhaustible depth, we can, nevertheless, grasp something about the Trinity that helps our frail and finite human reason have some idea of this impenetrable mystery.
A supernatural mystery is a truth which we cannot fully understand, but which we firmly believe because we have God’s word for it. A supernatural mystery is above reason, but not contrary to it. No man can explain a mystery; neither can anyone know it unless it is revealed by God. “Great art thou, O Lord, in counsel, and incomprehensible in thought” (Jeremias 32:19).
It is not unreasonable to believe in a supernatural mystery. There are many natural mysteries around us that no one has yet been able to explain, yet we believe them: electricity, magnetism, force, and many of the processes of life. The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity is a strict mystery; that is, we cannot learn it from reason, nor understand it completely, even after it has been revealed to us.
Some Things We Just Cannot Understand
The doctrine contains two truths our reason cannot fully understand: (1) that there is only one God; and (2) that each of the three Persons is God. We can understand each of these truths separately, but not when taken together. The mystery of the Blessed Trinity is not a contradiction. We do not say that there are three gods in one God, nor that the three divine Persons are one Person.
We only say that there are three Persons in one God, that is, three Persons, and one nature or essence. Somewhat similarly, the soul of man has will, understanding, and memory, but it is only one soul. Also, the sun has form, light, and heat, but it is only one sun. Three flames put together make only one flame.
This is why saints like Patrick would use a three-leaf-clover to give the Irish a basic grasp of this mystery, telling them that the Trinity was One God, but Three Persons—like the clover had one stem, but three leaves that came forth from the same stem. One could humanize this botanical example and present the hypothesis of, not Siamese-Twins, but imagine instead Siamese-Triplets! Three-in-one. One being, yet three separate persons! Yet, in the order of nature, this would not be a perfection, but an imperfection—with God there is no such imperfection with its consequent limitations and restraints. Analogies are always imperfect and impractical, even though they help somewhat in understanding a concept.
Eh? What is it?
What do we mean by the Blessed Trinity? The technical, theological, catechetical answer would be: “By the Blessed Trinity we mean one and the same God in three divine Persons.” The Athanasian Creed, which was composed in order to refute the Arian heresy, which held that the Jesus Christ was not fully God, says the following:
“So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity nothing is afore or after, nothing is greater or less; but the whole three Persons are co-eternal together, and co-equal. So that in all things, as in aforesaid, the unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in unity is to be worshiped’’ (Extract from the Athanasian Creed ).
Job Description
The Father is God and the First Person of the Blessed Trinity. Omnipotence, and especially the work of creation, is attributed to God the Father. God the Father could have created millions of beings instead of you yourself; but He chose you out of a love wholly undeserved, saying, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jeremias 31:3). Let us then cry in thanksgiving, “Abba, Father!” (Romans 8:15). Let us show our gratitude by avoiding all that could displease God the Father, by trying to please Him with virtue, by trying to attain an ever greater perfection, in obedience to that command Our Lord’s: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
The Son is God and the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. To God the Son we owe our redemption from sin and eternal death; by His death He gave us life. For us God the Son debased Himself, taking the form of a servant ... “becoming obedient to death, even to death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). In Holy Communion we are united with Him, for He Himself said; “He who eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, abides in Me and I in him” (John 6:57). In return we should be “other Christs,” and, as the Apostle urged, “walk even as He walked.”
The Holy Ghost is God and the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. He manifests Himself in us particularly in our sanctification. The word “Ghost” applied to the Third Person means “Spirit.” In Latin, the word used in “Spiritus.”
At our Baptism God the Holy Ghost purifies us from all sin and fills our souls with divine grace, so that we become truly children of God, sons and heirs, and co-heirs with Jesus Christ. By Baptism we become living temples of the Holy Ghost: “Or do you not know that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).
Trinitarian Spiritual Life
The Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, can be found to symbolized or reflected in the Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life (cf. the book of Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange under that title). The first way, or first conversion, which is called the Way of Beginners or the Purgative Way, can be seen to symbolize God the Father, the Creator, Who creates our soul and sets it out on its path which is intended to lead to Heaven. The second way, or second conversion, which is called the Way of Proficients or the Illuminative Way, can be seen to symbolize Jesus Christ, Who is the Light of the World. The third way, or the third conversion, which is called the Way of the Perfect or the Unitive Way, can be seen to symbolize the Holy Ghost, Who is the Spirit of Unity and Love, that passes to and fro between the Father and the Son, and is meant to lead us to perfection.
Mary and the Holy Trinity
Christ promises a sort of Trinitarian in-dwelling for those who persevere in love and obedience: “If a man loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). The Immaculate Virgin Mary is the exemplar of this Trinitarian in-dwelling, as we see from the Annunciation. The Archangel Gabriel’s message to Mary consists of three distinct parts (each of which she responds to separately), and relating the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book True Devotion to Mary, writes: “Mary is the excellent masterpiece of the Most High―the knowledge and possession of which He has reserved to Himself. Mary is the admirable Mother of the Son―who took pleasure in humbling and concealing her during her life in order to favor her humility, calling her by the name of “woman” (John 2:4; 19:26), as if she were a stranger, although, in His heart, He esteemed and loved her above all angels and all men. Mary is the “sealed fountain” (Canticles 4:12), the faithful spouse of the Holy Ghost, to whom He alone has entrance. Mary is the sanctuary and the repose of the Holy Trinity, where God dwells more magnificently and more divinely than in any other place in the universe―not excepting His dwelling between the Cherubim and Seraphim. Nor is any creature―no matter how pure―allowed to enter into that sanctuary, except by a great and special privilege. It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only-Begotten to the world. The Son of God became man for our salvation―but it was in Mary and by Mary. God the Holy Ghost formed Jesus Christ in Mary―but it was only after having asked her consent.”
“The conduct which the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity have deigned to pursue in the Incarnation and the first coming of Jesus Christ, They still pursue daily, in an invisible manner, throughout the whole Church; and They will still pursue it even to the consummation of ages in the last coming of Jesus Christ.
“God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters and He named it the sea (mare). He made an assemblage of all His graces and he called it Mary (Maria).This great God has a most rich treasury in which He has laid up all that He has of beauty and splendor, of rarity and preciousness―including even His own Son―and this immense treasury is none other than Mary, whom the saints have named the Treasure of the Lord, out of whose plenitude all men are made rich.
God the Son has communicated to His Mother all that He acquired―by His life and His death, His infinite merits and His admirable virtues―and He has made her the treasurer of all that His Father gave Him for His inheritance. It is by her that He applies His merits to His members, and that He communicates His virtues, and distributes His graces. She is His mysterious canal; she is His aqueduct, through which He makes His mercies flow gently and abundantly.
“To Mary, His faithful spouse, God the Holy Ghost has communicated His unspeakable gifts; and He has chosen her to be the dispenser of all He possesses, in such a way that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills, as she wills and when she wills, all His gifts and graces. The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gift to men, which He does not have pass through her virginal hands. Such has been the will of God, who has willed that we should have everything through Mary―so that she who, impoverished, humbled, and who hid herself even unto the abyss of nothingness by her profound humility her whole life long, should now be enriched and exalted and honored by the Most High. Such are the sentiments of the Church and the holy Fathers.”
Mary and the Father (Luke 1:26-29)
In the sixth month the Archangel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. It’s interesting that Mary isn’t described as being troubled the appearance of an angel (which would be normal: Matthew 28:5; Luke 1:13). Rather, Luke says that she was troubled by the saying, and wondered what it might mean. Luke doesn’t tell us why she was greatly troubled, but some propose one possibility.
The Archangel calls Mary by the title “Full of Grace,” a reference to her Immaculate Conception (which is why, confusingly, this is the Gospel for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception). And then he tells her, “the Lord is with thee,” a reference to Nathan’s message to King David, after the king wanted to build the Temple (2 Kings 7:3). It was Nathan giving a green light to proceed with the Temple, but has to backtrack on this, after God puts a stop to the plans. Elsewhere, we’re told that this is because the blood on David’s hands made him unworthy to build the temple (1 Paralipomenon 28:3). So now, the Archangel Gabriel is giving the green light to Mary to build the Temple (John 2:21), after declaring her sinless. An astute Jew would recognize this for what it is: a Messianic promise.
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book True Devotion to Mary, adds: “God the Father communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, inasmuch as a mere creature was capable of it, in order that He might give her the power to produce His Son and all the members of His Mystical Body.
Mary and the Son (Luke 1:30-34)
And the angel said to her: “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God! Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son; and thou shalt call His Name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David His father; and He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of His kingdom there shall be no end!” And Mary said to the angel: “How shall this be done, because I know not man?” So having found favor with the Father, Mary is promised that she will bear the Son, Jesus. This raises an obvious question: how can that occur, given that Mary is a perpetual Virgin?
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book True Devotion to Mary, says: “God the Son descended into her virginal womb, as the New Adam into His terrestrial paradise, to take His pleasure there, and to work in secret marvels of grace. God made Man, found His liberty in seeing Himself imprisoned in her womb. He made His omnipotence shine forth in letting Himself be carried by that humble maiden. He found His glory, and His Father’s, in hiding His splendors from all creatures here below, and revealing them to Mary only. He glorified His independence and His majesty in depending on that sweet Virgin―in His conception, in His birth, in His presentation in the temple, in His hidden life of thirty years, and even in His death, where she was to be present in order that He might make with her but one same sacrifice and be immolated to the Eternal Father by her consent, just as Isaac of old was offered by Abraham’s consent to the will of God. It is she who nourished Him, supported Him, brought Him up and then sacrificed Him for us. If we examine closely the rest of our Blessed Lord’s life, we shall see that it was His will to begin His miracles by Mary. He sanctified St. John in the womb of his mother, St. Elizabeth―but it was by Mary’s word. No sooner had she spoken, than John was sanctified―and this was His first miracle of grace. At the marriage of Cana He changed the water into wine, but it was at Mary’s humble prayer―and this was His first miracle of nature. He began and continued His miracles by Mary, and He will continue them to the end of ages by Mary.”
Mary and the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:35-38)
And the angel said to her: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also has conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren―because no word shall be impossible with God.” And Mary said:”Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word!” And the angel departed from her. So Mary finds favor with the Father, bears the Son, and is overshadowed by the Trinity. This is what I mean by saying that she is the exemplar of Trinitarian in-dwelling: after all, she literally grew the Son of God in her body, offered to her by the Father, through the angel, and produced by the power of the Holy Ghost.
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book True Devotion to Mary, says: “God the Holy Ghost is become fruitful by Mary, whom He has espoused. It was with her, in her, and of her that He produced His Masterpiece―which is God made Man―and that He goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head. This is the reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary, His dear and inseparable spouse, in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ. It is not that we mean that our Blessed Lady gives the Holy Ghost His fruitfulness, as if He had it not Himself. For inasmuch as He is God, He has the same fruitfulness or capacity of producing as the Father and the Son; only He does not bring it into action, as He does not produce another Divine Person. But what we mean is that the Holy Ghost chose to make use of our Blessed Lady―though He had no absolute need of her―to bring His fruitfulness into action, by producing, in her and by her, Jesus Christ and His members—a mystery of grace unknown to even the wisest and most spiritual among Christians.
Mary and You
God―strictly speaking―has no need of Mary. However, God has decided and ruled that we do need Mary. St. Louis de Montfort states: “Just as in the natural and corporal generation of children there are a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there are a Father, who is God, and a Mother, who is Mary. All the true children of God, the predestinate, have God for their Father and Mary for their Mother. He who has not Mary for his Mother, has not God for his Father. St. Augustine―surpassing himself, and going beyond all I have yet said―affirms that all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin, where they are guarded, nourished, brought up and made to grow by that good Mother, until she has brought them forth to glory after death, which is properly the day of their birth, as the Church calls the death of the just.”
● St. Albert the Great (a Doctor of the Church), says: “They who are not thy servants, O Mary, shall perish.”
● St. Bonaventure (a Doctor of the Church) repeats the same thought when he says: “They who neglect the service of Mary shall die in their sins.” And again: “For them, from whom Mary turns away her face, there is not even a hope of salvation.”
● St. Ignatius of Antioch (a Father of the Church), a martyr of the second century, writes: “A sinner can be saved only through the Holy Virgin who, by her merciful prayers, obtains salvation for so many who, according to strict justice, would be lost.”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church) says: “It is impossible that a servant of Mary be damned, provided he serves her faithfully and commends himself to her maternal protection.”
● St. Anselm (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “He who turns to thee and is regarded by thee cannot be lost.”
● St. Antonine is of the same opinion. He says: “As it is impossible for them from whom Mary turns away her eyes of mercy to be saved, so it is necessary that they to whom she turns her eyes of mercy and for whom she intercedes to be saved and glorified.”
● St. John Damascene (a Doctor of the Church) says: “To be devout to you, O holy Virgin, is an arm of salvation which God gives to those whom He wishes to save.”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church), in his book, The Glories of Mary, says: “The intercession of Mary is even necessary to salvation. We say ‘necessary’, not absolutely, but morally. This necessity proceeds from the will itself of God, that all graces that He dispenses should pass by the hands of Mary, according to the opinion of St. Bernard.”
● St. Louis de Montfort adds: “Devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary to salvation, and that it is an infallible mark of reprobation to have no esteem and love for the holy Virgin; while on the other hand, it is an infallible mark of predestination to be entirely and truly devoted to her.”
● St. Bernardine of Sienna addresses these words to the Blessed Virgin Mary: “O Lady, thou art the dispenser of all graces, and since the grace of salvation can only come through thy hands, our salvation depends on thee!”
Edel Quinn and the In-dwelling of the Trinity
The Venerable Edel Quinn (1907-1944), was a young Irish girl who was one of the jewels of the Legion of Mary. Edel Quinn felt a call to religious life at a young age. She wished to join the Poor Clares but was prevented by advanced tuberculosis. After spending eighteen months in a sanatorium, her condition unchanged, she decided to become active in the Legion of Mary, which she joined in Dublin at age 20. She gave herself completely to its work in the form of helping the poor in the slums of Dublin. In 1936, at age 29 and dying of tuberculosis, Quinn became a Legion of Mary Envoy, a very active missionary to East and Central Africa, departing in December 1936 for Mombasa. By the outbreak of World War II, she was working as far off as Dar es Salaam and Mauritius. Fighting her illness, in seven and a half years she established hundreds of Legion branches and councils in today’s Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, and Mauritius.
Edel Quinn had an extraordinary devotion to the Holy Eucharist. Fr. Anselm Moynihan O.P., who was the very dedicated vice-postulator for her Cause wrote:”To be deprived of Communion was one of the greatest sufferings she could conceive. At one period in Africa she was a patient in a non-Catholic sanatorium and was able to receive Holy Communion only once a week. She said later that the privation of daily Communion gave her an experience of what hell must be like.” In her own words she says: “Without the Eucharist what a desolation life would be... Thank the Trinity over and over again for this Gift... We want to be united with Him, to give ourselves to Him utterly. Our Faith tells us He is in the Eucharist; let us seek Him there.” Devotion to the Holy Eucharist is one of the brightest jewels in the crown of Legion Spirituality.
From Eucharist to Trinity
The Eucharist led to another aspect of Edel’s interior life, namely, the in-dwelling of the Holy Trinity through grace in her soul. An Irish Carthusian nun, who was a very close friend of Edel, tells us how she and Edel read together again and again the little book: From Holy Communion to the Blessed Trinity by Fr. Bernadot, O.P. The central theme of this book is that the Holy Eucharist is the supreme means of enabling us to live the mystery of the In-dwelling of the Trinity in our souls. Edel grasped this magnificent principle both in theory and daily practice. It was not surprising to learn that another of her favorite authors was St. Elizabeth of the Trinity (1880-1906). St. Elizabeth is one of the great teachers concerning this mystery of God’s extraordinary intimacy with us in the very depths of our being through grace.
For St. Elizabeth, and for Edel too, there is no substantial difference between the In-dwelling Trinity and the reality of Heaven. The only difference between the two is that we live the mystery of In-dwelling by Faith and Heaven by direct and beatific vision. Once this is grasped it is easy to understand why Edel craved moments of time and indeed long hours if possible, of gentle silence and recollection. Several key witnesses at the tribunal for her beatification testified under oath that despite the extraordinary business of her apostolic life her most striking characteristic was her spirit of recollection.
In one of Edel’s private notebooks, we read: “We are sharers in the very life of the Blessed Trinity, with the Incarnate Word as our Brother, his Father as our Father, his Spirit as the Soul of our souls. Yet we can never forget the transcendent holiness of God. And as a consequence, underlying, though not weakening the sublime intimacy we enjoy with the Divine Persons, will be an attitude of profound reverence and adoration... She knew her soul to be the living sanctuary of the Triune God. She snatched at every opportunity of quiet and silence to recollect herself and be alone with God and offer Him the incense of her adoration.”
Edel wrote the following in her little spiritual notebook: “Let us ask the grace to live in realization of our life in Christ, through Mary, adoring the Trinity” … “In Christ Jesus we have all. Realize this. Often offer Him to the Trinity, present in our soul, giving all honor, reparation and glory throughout the day” … “Realize that I am the temple of God, the dwelling place of the Trinity. In Christ we adore the Trinity. Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus. Try and adore the Trinity in our soul, even in the midst of troubles and external duties” … “With Christ and helped by Mary, let us adore the Trinity. Cut out useless worrying thoughts... to adore with and in union with Jesus... the Trinity in my soul... through Mary!”
Pursuing a Perishable World—Is it Worth it?
Everything in this life passes away—only God remains! Do we want what is perishable or do we want what is lasting? If we live for the world, there is no reward outside of this world—only penalties and punishment. If we live for God, then the world will impose penalties and punishments upon us—but only for a short time, until we are rewarded by God for eternity. We have a choice: to follow the way of this world, of the society that surrounds us, and thereby find ourselves outside of God; or to choose the way of life, to choose God Who calls us and for Whom our heart is searching. We cannot seek, love and serve both―“No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4).
This Soul Ain’t Big Enough For All of Us
If the world occupies your heart and soul, the Holy Trinity can find no dwelling space within your soul—there is “no room for Them at the inn!” Yet, if you “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33), and “let the word of Christ dwell in you” (Colossians 3:16) then the Holy Trinity will come and dwell within you. “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him” (John 14:23).
We said, in the previous article, that creation is attributed to God the Father; redemption to God the Son; and sanctification to God the Holy Ghost. Likewise, the Holy Trinity wants to create a temple for Itself within us; in order to sacrifice within that temple; and to sanctify that temple.
Temple of God
“Know you not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God; and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). “Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners; but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and the domestics of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone. In Whom all the building, being framed together, grows up into an holy temple in the Lord. In Whom you also are built together into a habitation of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22).
“But if any man violates the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are!” (1 Corinthians 3:17). “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the chairs of them that sold doves: And He said to them: ‘It is written ― “My house shall be called the house of prayer!” ― but you have made it a den of thieves!’” (Matthew 21:12-23).
God the Father—Real Presence in Creation
The Catechism tells us that God is everywhere by His Power, Presence and Essence. St. Paul says: “For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; His eternal power also, and divinity” (Romans 1:20). Yet all around us the work of God the Father is ignored—we ignore or take God the Father’s creation for granted! We are continually moving about in what might be called “God’s World” — where we are constantly surrounded by God’s creation. It is not as though we had to get onto another planet to find and give glory to God. In fact, we are outdone in the singing of praises of God by our lesser ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’!
God is glorified in all His creation, and not only in human beings who can use their minds to speak His praises. Nature praises Him because it gets its existence from Him and works according to His laws. Each separate piece of God’s creation, by existing in the kind of existence God means it to have, gives glory to God. This idea of everything having on it the glow of God’s look — like the warmth of the sun showing in a haze of heat over the water — seems clear enough when we take the trouble to think about it. To the saints, such a view of creation is a settled state of mind. Outward objects are seen and loved as being reflections of Him who made them. That is why St. Paul said that the visible things of creation were there to draw our minds to a knowledge of the invisible Creator (Romans 1:20). That is why St. Francis of Assisi called natural things, like the sky and the sun, by the title of “brother” and “sister.” They were all in the family. They all bore on them the Father’s likeness.
Signposts to God
What a difference it would make to your life if you saw all around you signposts pointing to the presence of God. Not only would nature and human beings proclaim the glory of God, but even in the ordinary happenings from hour to hour and from day to day you would welcome God’s will. You would be drawn at once to show gratitude for the pleasant things that happened, knowing that God had provided them, and the unpleasant ones you would accept as part of your share in the Passion. So it would mean that you could live out your life under what St. Augustine described as the canopy or firmament of God’s will. God the Father should be continually praised and glorified for His creation and creatures that we continually see around us! Start tomorrow! You may feel awkward—because you’ve never or rarely done it before. You may feel hypocritical—because, even you may praise with silent or spoken words of your mind and lips, your heart may have to wait quite some time before it sincerely joins in with your mind and lips. But do it anyway! Why? Because it is a part of Justice—which is a virtue that gives another his due—and God is due praise for what He has created.
The Holy Ghost—Real Presence in the Soul
Devotion to the Holy Ghost is probably the most difficult of all devotions in which to be interested, over which to grow enthusiastic. Christ, our Blessed Mother, the Saints came on earth and lived human lives and “conversed with men. But the Holy Ghost never lived on earth as man. His life was never written by man for man. When we consider the Holy Ghost, therefore, we are forced at once into the realm of reason, unaided and unsupported by images so natural to us. There is the difficulty of a mystery too, something we cannot understand. But the chief difficulty that devotion to the Holy Ghost faces is the attempt to build it on a foundation that is not intellectual.
God the Holy Ghost is the Holy Gift
God is good. He is the sovereign Good, and no one but God is really and essentially good. God is also, shall we say for want of a better word, givable. He is in the highest degree communicable. He, being goodness itself, not only can diffuse goodness around, but actually contains in Himself, as goodness does, the inclination to give His goodness, which again is Himself. He has, consequently, in Himself, more than any creature, the power and free inclination to communicate, to give Himself. Moreover, since there is no goodness outside of Him, there is nothing He could hope for from creatures. He is the very essence of unselfishness.
Just as the God the Father gave of His goodness in His creation, and God the Son gave of His goodness in His Sacrifice and Redemption, so too does the Holy Ghost gives of Himself for our sanctification. In a word, God is the ultimate good; He is communicable in the highest degree; He is absolutely free and absolutely disinterested; and, as such, He merits most excellently the name “Gift”. Not only that, but God merits this name of “Gift” more than does any created gift. Do we not say in the Veni Creator ― “O heavenly Gift of God most high”?
Love Above Knowledge
In our earthly friendships, there is something that unites us more closely to our friends than mere knowledge does, and this is love. Knowledge may teach us something about them, knowledge may unlock for us, gradually throughout life, ever more wonderful secrets of their goodness and strength and loyalty. But knowledge, of itself, pushes us irresistibly on to something more. The more we know of that which is worth knowing, the more we must love it—for we were made to love that which is good.
It was an axiom, among the medieval theologians, that love is more unifying than knowledge, so that in the real indwelling of the Holy Ghost in our hearts, we must expect to find, not only that He is the object of our intelligence, but also that He truly and sincerely has a place in our hearts. This love or friendship between ourselves and the Holy Ghost—if by “friendship” we mean anything like that of which we have experience in our human relations—implies three things.
True Friendship
First of all, true friendship, if it based upon charity, is of giving to the friend—as God gives to us. Friendship implies that we come for what we can give, far more than that we come for what we can get. “We love because we have helped” is the true order of the origins of friendship than “we help because we have loved.”
Secondly, friendship, to be complete, must be mutual. There may indeed be love when, in this world, some poor, forlorn soul is never requited in its affection, but that is not what we mean by a friend or by friendship. Friendship implies action, a fellow feeling, a desire for each other, a sympathy. Are we not reluctant to go there where we sense that we are not welcome or wanted? If the Holy Ghost does not feel welcome and wanted by us, then He is not going to even think about ‘unpacking-the-suitcase’ and distributing His Gifts! As we sow, so shall we reap!
Thirdly, friendship also implies necessarily a common bond of likeness, or similarity of condition or life, some equality. Of course, it is evident from classic instances that friendship may exist between a poor shepherd and the son of a king (although perhaps Jonathan’s princedom was very little removed from shepherd life (see 1 Kings 18:1‑3), yet the very friendship itself must produce equality between them. Said the Latin proverb: “Friendship either finds or makes men equal.” God is pure, total goodness—what similarity will He find in us? Are we seeking pure, total goodness? Or are we seeking the world? God is not of this world. Jesus said: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world” (John 8:23). Speaking of the Holy Ghost, Jesus also said: “The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, nor knows Him” (John 14:17).
True Friendship With God
Therefore, we must expect to find these things reproduced in our friendship with the Spirit of God. He is our friend, not for His need, but for ours. He is our friend, not for what He can get, but for what He can give—eternal life. Again, His friendship is certainly mutual, for as St. John tells: “Let us therefore love God because God first hath loved us” (1 John 4:19). I can say, not only that I love God, but that He is my friend.
The Holy Spirit dwells in me that I may dwell in Him. “Friendship either finds or makes men equal.” It found us apart; it makes us one. He, divine and perfect, came to me, human and imperfect. By grace I am raised to a supernatural level. I know Him in some sort as He is; I am immediately united to Him by the bond of love. As one of the saints writes: “God became man so that He might make us like unto God!”
Is There Room in My Soul?
In these days that follow the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, let us contemplate our relationship to the Trinity. The Divine Persons, almost like Jesus, Mary and Joseph at Bethlehem, are seeking a place to stay—is there room for them in my life?
Article 32
Saturday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 30th
The Holy Ghost Comes for a Holy War! Are You Ready?
Saturday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 30th
The Holy Ghost Comes for a Holy War! Are You Ready?
The Ascension Sends the Apostles to War
“Let not your heart be troubled … I shall go, and prepare a place for you! … I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever. The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive―because it sees Him not, nor knows Him―but you shall know Him; because He shall abide with you, and shall be in you … The Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you … Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid! ... The prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not any thing! … You have not chosen Me: but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit …
“If you had been of the world, the world would love its own―but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you! ... If the world hates you, know ye, that it has hated Me before you. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you! … All these things they will do to you for My Name’s sake―because they know not Him Who sent Me … They will put you out of the synagogues [today ― churches]. Yea, the hour is coming, that whosoever kills you, will think that he does a service to God! ... But these things I have told you, so that when the hour shall come, you may remember that I told you of them.
“Because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth―it is expedient to you that I go―for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you! ... And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment … because they believed not in Me! … Behold, the hour is coming, and it is now come, that you shall be scattered every man to his own … In the world you shall have distress―but have confidence, I have overcome the world! ... Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy!” (extracts from the Last Supper discourse of Jesus, Gospel of St. John, chapters 14 to 18).
This Pentecost Sees the World at War
“At war? Don’t be ridiculous! There is no war!” you will say. What is war?
● Defined in its simplest form: “War is social conflict.” Taking things a little deeper, war is defined in simple terms as “a state of armed conflict between different nations or states [as in international wars or interstate wars], or different groups within a nation or state [as in civil wars, or religious wars].” Though it is not always necessary to be armed in the conventional manner with guns, tanks, planes, ships, etc. Modern warfare is much more subtle these days. Remember the words of Yuri Bezmenov, the Russian KGB defector of the 1980s, who said: “According to my opinion, and the opinions of many defectors of my caliber, only about 15% of time, money, and manpower is spent on espionage as such. The other 85% is a slow process which we call either ideological subversion, active measures, or psychological warfare. What it basically means is that it seeks to change the perception of reality of every American, so that, despite of the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.”
● A further and even deeper definition of war is: “Three pure types of war are distinguished, namely: (1) absolute war which seeks annihilation of an enemy as much as possible, (2) instrumental war which seeks as many advantages as possible over the enemy, and (3) agonistic fighting which seeks self-glory and the shaming or humiliation of the enemy.”
● War is further defined thus: “War is a species in the genus of violence; more specifically it is collective, direct, manifest, personal, intentional, organized, institutionalized, instrumental, sanctioned, and sometimes ritualized and regulated, violence. Violence violates something. Violence can be done to your body, your health, your mind, your beliefs, your freedoms, your possessions, your rights.” Our Lord, in this sense, speaks of our having to take sides and having to fight to get to Heaven: “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword!” (Matthew 10:34). “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no―but separation! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided―three against two, and two against three!” (Luke 12:51-52). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12), with Holy Scripture adding: “Fight the good fight of Faith! Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12).
● The 19th century Prussian general and military theorist, Carl von Clausewitz, defined war thus: “War is nothing but a duel on an extensive scale … an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will,” directed by political motives and morality. (Clausewitz 1940: Book I, Ch. I). War is neither a scientific game nor an international sport―it is an act of violence, characterized by destruction. (Clausewitz 1940: Book IV, Ch. XI). In terms of absolute war, Clausewitz discusses three characteristics that make it unique. First, the utmost use of force is necessary. Second, the aim is to disarm the enemy. Lastly, absolute war calls for the utmost exertion of powers. In what Clausewitz refers to as the theoretical concept of war, he outlines three objectives for success. First, the armed forces of the opponent must be destroyed. Second, the country must be occupied. Third, the will of the enemy must be broken. Peace simply cannot be achieved until all three objectives are met “… the hostile feeling and action of hostile agencies, cannot be considered at an end, as long as the will of the enemy is not subdued.” To Clausewitz, “War is only a branch of political activity … the influence of politics on war is a matter of political choice, reflecting all the variety of political purposes that make wars into exterminations.” (Doyle 1997: 23). Clausewitz warns that politicians must not attempt to use war as an instrument through which to achieve purposes for which it is unsuited.
Finally, since man is multi-faceted and exists in a variety of circumstances, you can therefore have (1) physical warfare, (2) psychological warfare, (3) ideological warfare, (4) moral warfare, (5) economic or financial warfare, (6) territorial warfare, (7) racial warfare, (8) political warfare, (9) cultural warfare, (10) drug warfare, (11) gang warfare, (12) religious warfare, (13) family warfare, etc.
Thus, in a certain sense, the world has never ceased experience wars of one kind or another over the last few thousand years. Yet, without a doubt, as the population of the Earth increases, so do wars increase. Our Lord has even warned us that wars will herald in and be the precursors of the so-called “End Times” or “Last Days” that so many prophecies refer to―as well as Our Lady, who revealed to Sister Lucia of Fatima that we have already entered the “Last Days.”
In an interview with Fr. Fuentes in 1957, Sister Lucia said: “Father, the Blessed Virgin did not tell me [explicitly] that we are in the last times of the world, but I understood this for three reasons. The first is because she told me that the Devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle. It is a final battle where one party will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God or we are with the Devil; there is no middle ground. The second reason is because she told me, as well as my cousins, that God is giving two last remedies to the world: the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And, being the last remedies, that is to say, they are the final ones, means that there will be no others. And the third, because in the plans of the Divine Providence, when God is going to chastise the world He always first exhausts all other remedies. When He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever, then, as we say in our imperfect way of talking, with a certain fear He presents us the last means of salvation, His Blessed Mother.”
Those words ― “we are in the last times of the world” and “the devil is engaging in a final battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle” ― should not be taken lightly, yet, sadly, they are taken lightly. They roll-off us like water flows-off the duck’s back. We hear those words, but they have little or no impact upon us. As Our Lord says: “For the heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut: lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them!” (Matthew 13:15).
Kill or Be Killed!
We need to get things straight in our minds! We are in a war—whether we want it or not, whether we like or not, whether we fight or not! It is a war of Faith! Even though the axiom insists: “It takes two to make a fight”—in this particular war, the enemy will fight us even if we refuse to fight—and then we are lost. We should rather focus on the axiom that says: “Kill, or be killed!” That is closer to the truth of the matter in the fight that we must fight.
Holy Scripture is loaded with quotes on the war that we must wage against the enemies of our Faith, we will just present a few of the hundreds to be found:
A Life-long Warfare
“The life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1)—notice it says the “LIFE” meaning the entire life, and not just “part of man’s life”! “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth―I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36)—meaning that you may even have to fight your own parents, spouse, children and relatives for the sake of the Faith—“He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37).
We Must Fight
“Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour! Whom resist ye, strong in Faith―knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world!” (1 Peter 5:8). “Laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us!” (Hebrews 12:1). “Fight the good fight of Faith … whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). “Blessed be the Lord my God, Who teaches my hands to fight, and my fingers to war!” (Psalm 143:1).
Confirmation made you a Soldier for Christ
This whole idea of warfare in the service of Christ is the foundation of the Sacrament of Confirmation. When we are confirmed, we become Soldiers for Christ. The Holy Ghost grants to our souls, among other graces and gifts, the Gift of Fortitude or courage for the fight. This is also indicated by the slap (now a gentle tap) that the bishop administers on the cheek of the confirmand—as a reminder that he or she will have receive blows from the enemy in the fight for the Faith unto which they are called.
Who are the enemy?
We all know the superficial off-the-cuff answer by heart: the devil, the world and the flesh! But let us look at the enemy in some more depth—especially since, at the present time, the enemy certainly has the upper-hand in the battles being waged throughout the world.
The Devil
Our Lord calls him the “prince of this world” and the “father of lies” and a “murderer”! Holy Scripture adds that “by the envy of the devil, death came into the world” (Wisdom 2:24). Who needs friends like that? St. Peter warns us that “the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8). St. Paul says: “Give not place to the devil!” (Ephesians 4:27), to which St. James adds: “but resist the devil, and he will flee from you!” (James 4:7). Jesus calls the devil the “prince of this world” (John 14:30) and further states that “now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). So we have a lifelong fight against the devil, who hates us more than we can imagine and who never ceases nor sleeps in his fight against us.
The World
St. Augustine writes: “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be ... By ‘the world’, we must understand the lovers of the world, a love which cometh not of the Father. And therefore it is that this love of the world, which we strive to lessen and to destroy in ourselves, is contrary to the love of God, which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.”
St. James clearly tells us that the world and God are incompatible—that they are enmity with one another—and this is understandable if Jesus calls the devil the “prince of this world” (John 14:30) and that “now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). The world is the devil’s tool and his playground—that is why the world is one of the triple enemies of our soul. “The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the Kingdom. And the cockle are the children of the wicked one.” (Matthew 13:38). St. James could not say it any more clearly than when he states: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Surrounded by Cockle
Sadly, however, our family, relatives, friends and work colleagues can be the cockle! Even Our Lord had this problem, as many of His relatives were not enamored with His teaching—“For neither did His brethren believe in Him” (John 7:5). Which leads Jesus to complain: “Amen I say to you, that no prophet is accepted in his own country!” (Luke 4:24). “And you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren, and kinsmen and friends; and some of you they will put to death!” (Luke 21:16). “The brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death!” (Mark 13:12).
God Comes Before Family
“He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37) ... “If any man come to Me, and hates not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). “Everyone that has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My Name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting” (Matthew 19:29).
Our Lord could not put it more clearly than this: “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Luke 12:51-53).
This does not mean that we have to literally “hate” what is not evil. The law of Christ does not allow us to hate even our enemies, much less our parents: but the meaning of the text is, that we must be in that disposition of soul, as to be willing to renounce, and part with everything, no matter how near or dear it may be to us, that would keep us from following Christ. If those nearest and dearest to us risk leading us away from Christ and our salvation—then we are to hate that sinful behavior and separate ourselves from it—much as Christ said to St. Peter, “Go behind Me, Satan! You are a scandal unto Me! Because you savor not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men!” (Matthew 16:23). Shocking words indeed, but St. Peter was trying to turn Our Lord aside from the path He had chosen to take.
The Flesh
The third enemy is our flesh, this means more than just the body, but our whole selves, body and soul with all passions and concupiscences included. If the devil is called the “father of lies”, then we are not very far behind, for we are inclined to lie to ourselves and to others to cover our tendencies, guilt and true intentions. We are proud as peacocks, slow as tortoises, slimy as toads, slithery as snakes, with an eagle-eye for the faults of others, yet blind as a bat to our own faults, timid as mouse when it comes to spreading the Faith, roaring like a lion when offended, and bristling like a porcupine or hedgehog, smelly as a sinful skunk ... yet God still wants to save us! But to be saved we must fight and overcome ourselves! For “the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12) and that violence is primarily directed at ourselves with our passions and concupiscences. That is why Our Lord tells us: “unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
So Fight We Must
Some of the above scenarios are not what we dream about and look forwards to—far from it—they are very painful to envisage and even more painful to have to live through. Abel suffered at the hands of Cain; Jacob at the hands of Esau; Joseph at the hands of his brothers and so on through history. We will not be the first, nor will we be the last. What we have to do is to clearly place, before our minds and hearts, the fact that God comes first—that we cannot serve God and mammon; that we cannot please our family and friends if it means not standing up for God; that we cannot reconcile two irreconcilables—God and the world, Christ and Belial, believers and unbelievers (Matthew 6:24; 2 Corinthians 6:15). We cannot, at the same time, pine for the fleshpots of Egypt and the milk and honey of the Promised Land. We must make a choice and fight for the choice we have made. If we choose not to fight, it does not mean the enemy will not fight. They will kill us, or at least kill the life of grace in our soul. Let us not be afraid—“Fear not, little flock” (Luke 12:32) ...”I say to you, my friends: ‘Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do! But I will show you Whom you shall fear―fear ye Him, who after He has killed, has power to cast into Hell! Yea, I say to you, fear Him!’” (Luke 12:4-5). So “Fight the good fight of Faith … whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12).
Armor and Weapons
“Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). “Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not [just] against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore, take unto you the armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth; and having on the breastplate of justice; and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; in all things taking the shield of Faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:11-17).
Fight With the Word of God
“The word of God is more piercing than any two edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12) … “And from His mouth came out a sharp two edged sword” (Apocalypse 1:16) … “I will fight against them with the sword of My mouth” (Apocalypse 2:16) ... “The high praise of God shall be in their mouth: and two-edged swords in their hands―to execute vengeance upon the nations, and chastisements among the people!” (Psalm 149:6-7). “And they shall fight against you, and shall not prevail! For I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you!” (Jeremias 1:19).
“Let not your heart be troubled … I shall go, and prepare a place for you! … I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever. The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive―because it sees Him not, nor knows Him―but you shall know Him; because He shall abide with you, and shall be in you … The Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you … Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid! ... The prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not any thing! … You have not chosen Me: but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit …
“If you had been of the world, the world would love its own―but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you! ... If the world hates you, know ye, that it has hated Me before you. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you! … All these things they will do to you for My Name’s sake―because they know not Him Who sent Me … They will put you out of the synagogues [today ― churches]. Yea, the hour is coming, that whosoever kills you, will think that he does a service to God! ... But these things I have told you, so that when the hour shall come, you may remember that I told you of them.
“Because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth―it is expedient to you that I go―for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you! ... And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment … because they believed not in Me! … Behold, the hour is coming, and it is now come, that you shall be scattered every man to his own … In the world you shall have distress―but have confidence, I have overcome the world! ... Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy!” (extracts from the Last Supper discourse of Jesus, Gospel of St. John, chapters 14 to 18).
This Pentecost Sees the World at War
“At war? Don’t be ridiculous! There is no war!” you will say. What is war?
● Defined in its simplest form: “War is social conflict.” Taking things a little deeper, war is defined in simple terms as “a state of armed conflict between different nations or states [as in international wars or interstate wars], or different groups within a nation or state [as in civil wars, or religious wars].” Though it is not always necessary to be armed in the conventional manner with guns, tanks, planes, ships, etc. Modern warfare is much more subtle these days. Remember the words of Yuri Bezmenov, the Russian KGB defector of the 1980s, who said: “According to my opinion, and the opinions of many defectors of my caliber, only about 15% of time, money, and manpower is spent on espionage as such. The other 85% is a slow process which we call either ideological subversion, active measures, or psychological warfare. What it basically means is that it seeks to change the perception of reality of every American, so that, despite of the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.”
● A further and even deeper definition of war is: “Three pure types of war are distinguished, namely: (1) absolute war which seeks annihilation of an enemy as much as possible, (2) instrumental war which seeks as many advantages as possible over the enemy, and (3) agonistic fighting which seeks self-glory and the shaming or humiliation of the enemy.”
● War is further defined thus: “War is a species in the genus of violence; more specifically it is collective, direct, manifest, personal, intentional, organized, institutionalized, instrumental, sanctioned, and sometimes ritualized and regulated, violence. Violence violates something. Violence can be done to your body, your health, your mind, your beliefs, your freedoms, your possessions, your rights.” Our Lord, in this sense, speaks of our having to take sides and having to fight to get to Heaven: “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword!” (Matthew 10:34). “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no―but separation! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided―three against two, and two against three!” (Luke 12:51-52). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12), with Holy Scripture adding: “Fight the good fight of Faith! Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12).
● The 19th century Prussian general and military theorist, Carl von Clausewitz, defined war thus: “War is nothing but a duel on an extensive scale … an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will,” directed by political motives and morality. (Clausewitz 1940: Book I, Ch. I). War is neither a scientific game nor an international sport―it is an act of violence, characterized by destruction. (Clausewitz 1940: Book IV, Ch. XI). In terms of absolute war, Clausewitz discusses three characteristics that make it unique. First, the utmost use of force is necessary. Second, the aim is to disarm the enemy. Lastly, absolute war calls for the utmost exertion of powers. In what Clausewitz refers to as the theoretical concept of war, he outlines three objectives for success. First, the armed forces of the opponent must be destroyed. Second, the country must be occupied. Third, the will of the enemy must be broken. Peace simply cannot be achieved until all three objectives are met “… the hostile feeling and action of hostile agencies, cannot be considered at an end, as long as the will of the enemy is not subdued.” To Clausewitz, “War is only a branch of political activity … the influence of politics on war is a matter of political choice, reflecting all the variety of political purposes that make wars into exterminations.” (Doyle 1997: 23). Clausewitz warns that politicians must not attempt to use war as an instrument through which to achieve purposes for which it is unsuited.
Finally, since man is multi-faceted and exists in a variety of circumstances, you can therefore have (1) physical warfare, (2) psychological warfare, (3) ideological warfare, (4) moral warfare, (5) economic or financial warfare, (6) territorial warfare, (7) racial warfare, (8) political warfare, (9) cultural warfare, (10) drug warfare, (11) gang warfare, (12) religious warfare, (13) family warfare, etc.
Thus, in a certain sense, the world has never ceased experience wars of one kind or another over the last few thousand years. Yet, without a doubt, as the population of the Earth increases, so do wars increase. Our Lord has even warned us that wars will herald in and be the precursors of the so-called “End Times” or “Last Days” that so many prophecies refer to―as well as Our Lady, who revealed to Sister Lucia of Fatima that we have already entered the “Last Days.”
In an interview with Fr. Fuentes in 1957, Sister Lucia said: “Father, the Blessed Virgin did not tell me [explicitly] that we are in the last times of the world, but I understood this for three reasons. The first is because she told me that the Devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle. It is a final battle where one party will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God or we are with the Devil; there is no middle ground. The second reason is because she told me, as well as my cousins, that God is giving two last remedies to the world: the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And, being the last remedies, that is to say, they are the final ones, means that there will be no others. And the third, because in the plans of the Divine Providence, when God is going to chastise the world He always first exhausts all other remedies. When He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever, then, as we say in our imperfect way of talking, with a certain fear He presents us the last means of salvation, His Blessed Mother.”
Those words ― “we are in the last times of the world” and “the devil is engaging in a final battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle” ― should not be taken lightly, yet, sadly, they are taken lightly. They roll-off us like water flows-off the duck’s back. We hear those words, but they have little or no impact upon us. As Our Lord says: “For the heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut: lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them!” (Matthew 13:15).
Kill or Be Killed!
We need to get things straight in our minds! We are in a war—whether we want it or not, whether we like or not, whether we fight or not! It is a war of Faith! Even though the axiom insists: “It takes two to make a fight”—in this particular war, the enemy will fight us even if we refuse to fight—and then we are lost. We should rather focus on the axiom that says: “Kill, or be killed!” That is closer to the truth of the matter in the fight that we must fight.
Holy Scripture is loaded with quotes on the war that we must wage against the enemies of our Faith, we will just present a few of the hundreds to be found:
A Life-long Warfare
“The life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1)—notice it says the “LIFE” meaning the entire life, and not just “part of man’s life”! “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth―I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36)—meaning that you may even have to fight your own parents, spouse, children and relatives for the sake of the Faith—“He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37).
We Must Fight
“Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour! Whom resist ye, strong in Faith―knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world!” (1 Peter 5:8). “Laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us!” (Hebrews 12:1). “Fight the good fight of Faith … whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). “Blessed be the Lord my God, Who teaches my hands to fight, and my fingers to war!” (Psalm 143:1).
Confirmation made you a Soldier for Christ
This whole idea of warfare in the service of Christ is the foundation of the Sacrament of Confirmation. When we are confirmed, we become Soldiers for Christ. The Holy Ghost grants to our souls, among other graces and gifts, the Gift of Fortitude or courage for the fight. This is also indicated by the slap (now a gentle tap) that the bishop administers on the cheek of the confirmand—as a reminder that he or she will have receive blows from the enemy in the fight for the Faith unto which they are called.
Who are the enemy?
We all know the superficial off-the-cuff answer by heart: the devil, the world and the flesh! But let us look at the enemy in some more depth—especially since, at the present time, the enemy certainly has the upper-hand in the battles being waged throughout the world.
The Devil
Our Lord calls him the “prince of this world” and the “father of lies” and a “murderer”! Holy Scripture adds that “by the envy of the devil, death came into the world” (Wisdom 2:24). Who needs friends like that? St. Peter warns us that “the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8). St. Paul says: “Give not place to the devil!” (Ephesians 4:27), to which St. James adds: “but resist the devil, and he will flee from you!” (James 4:7). Jesus calls the devil the “prince of this world” (John 14:30) and further states that “now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). So we have a lifelong fight against the devil, who hates us more than we can imagine and who never ceases nor sleeps in his fight against us.
The World
St. Augustine writes: “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be ... By ‘the world’, we must understand the lovers of the world, a love which cometh not of the Father. And therefore it is that this love of the world, which we strive to lessen and to destroy in ourselves, is contrary to the love of God, which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.”
St. James clearly tells us that the world and God are incompatible—that they are enmity with one another—and this is understandable if Jesus calls the devil the “prince of this world” (John 14:30) and that “now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). The world is the devil’s tool and his playground—that is why the world is one of the triple enemies of our soul. “The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the Kingdom. And the cockle are the children of the wicked one.” (Matthew 13:38). St. James could not say it any more clearly than when he states: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Surrounded by Cockle
Sadly, however, our family, relatives, friends and work colleagues can be the cockle! Even Our Lord had this problem, as many of His relatives were not enamored with His teaching—“For neither did His brethren believe in Him” (John 7:5). Which leads Jesus to complain: “Amen I say to you, that no prophet is accepted in his own country!” (Luke 4:24). “And you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren, and kinsmen and friends; and some of you they will put to death!” (Luke 21:16). “The brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death!” (Mark 13:12).
God Comes Before Family
“He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37) ... “If any man come to Me, and hates not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). “Everyone that has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My Name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting” (Matthew 19:29).
Our Lord could not put it more clearly than this: “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Luke 12:51-53).
This does not mean that we have to literally “hate” what is not evil. The law of Christ does not allow us to hate even our enemies, much less our parents: but the meaning of the text is, that we must be in that disposition of soul, as to be willing to renounce, and part with everything, no matter how near or dear it may be to us, that would keep us from following Christ. If those nearest and dearest to us risk leading us away from Christ and our salvation—then we are to hate that sinful behavior and separate ourselves from it—much as Christ said to St. Peter, “Go behind Me, Satan! You are a scandal unto Me! Because you savor not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men!” (Matthew 16:23). Shocking words indeed, but St. Peter was trying to turn Our Lord aside from the path He had chosen to take.
The Flesh
The third enemy is our flesh, this means more than just the body, but our whole selves, body and soul with all passions and concupiscences included. If the devil is called the “father of lies”, then we are not very far behind, for we are inclined to lie to ourselves and to others to cover our tendencies, guilt and true intentions. We are proud as peacocks, slow as tortoises, slimy as toads, slithery as snakes, with an eagle-eye for the faults of others, yet blind as a bat to our own faults, timid as mouse when it comes to spreading the Faith, roaring like a lion when offended, and bristling like a porcupine or hedgehog, smelly as a sinful skunk ... yet God still wants to save us! But to be saved we must fight and overcome ourselves! For “the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12) and that violence is primarily directed at ourselves with our passions and concupiscences. That is why Our Lord tells us: “unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
So Fight We Must
Some of the above scenarios are not what we dream about and look forwards to—far from it—they are very painful to envisage and even more painful to have to live through. Abel suffered at the hands of Cain; Jacob at the hands of Esau; Joseph at the hands of his brothers and so on through history. We will not be the first, nor will we be the last. What we have to do is to clearly place, before our minds and hearts, the fact that God comes first—that we cannot serve God and mammon; that we cannot please our family and friends if it means not standing up for God; that we cannot reconcile two irreconcilables—God and the world, Christ and Belial, believers and unbelievers (Matthew 6:24; 2 Corinthians 6:15). We cannot, at the same time, pine for the fleshpots of Egypt and the milk and honey of the Promised Land. We must make a choice and fight for the choice we have made. If we choose not to fight, it does not mean the enemy will not fight. They will kill us, or at least kill the life of grace in our soul. Let us not be afraid—“Fear not, little flock” (Luke 12:32) ...”I say to you, my friends: ‘Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do! But I will show you Whom you shall fear―fear ye Him, who after He has killed, has power to cast into Hell! Yea, I say to you, fear Him!’” (Luke 12:4-5). So “Fight the good fight of Faith … whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12).
Armor and Weapons
“Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). “Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not [just] against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore, take unto you the armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth; and having on the breastplate of justice; and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; in all things taking the shield of Faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:11-17).
Fight With the Word of God
“The word of God is more piercing than any two edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12) … “And from His mouth came out a sharp two edged sword” (Apocalypse 1:16) … “I will fight against them with the sword of My mouth” (Apocalypse 2:16) ... “The high praise of God shall be in their mouth: and two-edged swords in their hands―to execute vengeance upon the nations, and chastisements among the people!” (Psalm 149:6-7). “And they shall fight against you, and shall not prevail! For I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you!” (Jeremias 1:19).
Article 31
Friday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 29th
Do You Have a Ghost in the House? Do You Want a Ghost in the House?
Friday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 29th
Do You Have a Ghost in the House? Do You Want a Ghost in the House?
Article 31
Friday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 29th
Do You Have a Ghost in the House? Do You Want a Ghost in the House?
Friday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 29th
Do You Have a Ghost in the House? Do You Want a Ghost in the House?
Spooky Spirit or Holy Ghost?
Do you have a ghost in your home? Do you want a ghost in your home? You have to have some kind of ghost or spirit in your home—for, as the saying goes, “Nature abhors a vacuum!” The supernatural also abhors a vacuum, as we see with King Saul: “But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit troubled him” (1 Kings 16:14). Jesus also says: “Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit” (John 3:5-6). “He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathers not with Me, scatters!” (Matthew 12:30).
So what is the ghost of your home? Or, rather, what spirit rules your home? Nature abhors a vacuum—you cannot have a godly spirit and worldly spirit, Our Lord Himself tells us this: “You cannot serve God and mammon! Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:19-24). “You are from beneath, I am from above! You are of this world, I am not of this world! … My Kingdom is not of this world … My Kingdom is not here! ... The prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not anything! … The world hates Me, because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil” (John 8:23; 18:36; 14:30; 7:7). Holy Scripture adds: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:15-16).
“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I Know All This!”
“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I know all this! There’s no need to keep on repeating it again and again and again!” you say in exasperated boredom. The answer to that is: “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I know you know all this! But there’s a massive difference between knowing and doing!” Our Lord speaks thus of the “know-alls-and-do-nothings”—“Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). To which Holy Scripture adds: “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves! For if a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass. For he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was. But he that has looked into the perfect law of liberty, and has continued therein, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work; this man shall be blessed in his deed. And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father, is this―to keep one’s self unspotted from this world!” (James 1:22-27). Yet rather than be unspotted from this world, we love to be spotted by this world--the world has too much offer and enjoy for us to ignore it! The world just “hits the spot!”
Therefore, we need persistence in preaching to the family—in season and out of season—just as St. John, did in his old age, when he would never cease to say to his flock: “Children, love one another!”--which eventually provoked the complaint: “Do you have nothing else you can say?”―which, in turn, produced St. John’s answer: “There is nothing else that needs saying—everything is contained therein!” We need that same persistence and insistence within the family—in season and out of season, at all times and in all circumstances. As Holy Scripture say: “I charge thee, before God and Jesus Christ―Preach the word! Be insistent, in season and out of season! Reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine! For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears and will turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables!” (2 Timothy 4:1-4).
A Time of “Itching-Ears”, False Teachers and Fables
That is where we are today—having “itching ears” for what is going on in the world, believing “fables” or rumors or gossip; taking for our teachers worldly media outlets instead of God and His word; letting our beliefs follow our desires as we tinker, twist and change our God-given religion is a personally tailored religion that suits our preferences and pleasures. “Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God― indeed having an appearance of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
Which Spirit Rules Your Home?
You cannot have it both ways—live for the world and live for God. There is one spirit that mostly and truly rules your home—and that spirit is either getting stronger or weaker. “That which is born of the flesh, is flesh [worldly]; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit [spiritual]” … “It is the spirit [spiritual] that quickens: the flesh [world] profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life!” (John 3:6, 6:64). “Walk not according to the flesh [world], but according to the Spirit [of God]. For they that are according to the flesh [world], mind the things that are of the flesh [world]; but they that are according to the Spirit [of God], mind the things that are of the Spirit. For the wisdom of the flesh [world] is death; but the wisdom of the Spirit [of God] is life and peace. Because the wisdom of the flesh [world] is an enemy to God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. And they who are in the flesh [worldly], cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh [world], but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of Christ’s. And if Christ be in you, the body indeed is dead [to the world], because of sin; but the spirit lives because of justification. And if the Spirit of Him, that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwells in you, then He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit that dwells in you” (Romans 8:4-11).
Therefore, your home and family is either “alive” to God or “alive” to the world, either “dead” to God or “dead” to the world. You cannot be, at the same time, “alive AND dead” to God, or “alive AND dead” to the world. “He that is not with Me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30). “What concord has Christ with Belial? What fellowship has light with darkness? Or what part have the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). “Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God!” (1 Corinthians 2:12). These are the kinds of words that you must use “in family”—not just once a year, or once a month, or once a week, nor even once a day—but if necessary many times a day―”in season and out of season”―just as the world preaches its messages many times a day on the TV, the internet, the social media, the radio, in music, in newspapers and magazines, in books, in advertising, etc. Just as in business, you have to compete or go out of business—likewise with the Faith, compete or lose the Faith or have your children gradually lose the Faith, or weaken in the Faith so much that, when the inevitable persecution comes, they will be so weak that they will be among the first to give up the Faith to save their skin.
The Spirit of God
Isaias, speaking of the future Christ, describes His spirit—the Spirit of God: “There shall come forth a Rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of His root. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him―the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness. And He shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears. But He shall judge the poor with justice; and shall reprove with equity for the meek of the Earth; and he shall strike the Earth with the rod of His mouth; and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. And justice shall be the girdle of His loins, and Faith the girdle of His reins!” (Isaias 11:1-5).
We see here the listing of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost—we list them in reverse order that is to say, in ascending order, from lowest to highest―fear of the Lord, godliness (piety), knowledge, fortitude, counsel, understanding and wisdom. Though they all sound like virtues, they are not virtues. They are movements by Holy Ghost that perfect our virtues—which, logically, presupposes that we are practicing virtues in the first place! Remember—and this is VERY important―a virtue is not a “one time thing” or an “occasional thing” or a “now and again thing” or a “hit-and-miss” thing or a “three-weeks-on-and-two-weeks-off” thing. Virtue is an habitual thing—a “day-in-day-out” thing, or a “24/7/all-year-round” thing, it has to become and be a “normal-way-of-acting” thing. Anyone can be a “flash-in-the-pan” in some thing or another, but virtue requires that it be “the norm” and not a mere one-time “flash-in-the-pan”. Virtue separates the “amateur-armchair-quarterback” from the “professional-on-the-field-quarterback”—the first has “the mouth” and second has “the money”, and the first should “put his money where his mouth is”!
We Need the Spirit of God in Our Soul and Home
There is one ghost that you do need and one ghost you should not be afraid of—that is the Holy Ghost! If there is one spirit that you want to possess you—that spirit is the Holy Spirit! “God is a spirit; and they that adore Him, must adore Him in spirit” (John 4:24) “That which is born of the flesh, is flesh [worldly]; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit [spiritual]” (John 3:6). “Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God―so that we may know the things that are given us from God” (1 Corinthians 2:12). “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, then he is none of Christ’s … And if the Spirit of Him, that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit that dwells in you!” (Romans 8:9-11). There is your resurrection! “He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies…”—but only if Christ’s spirit dwells within you: “…because of His Spirit that dwells in you!”
Let the Spirit Resurrect You!
There is nothing more that God wants than the resurrection of so many ‘dead’ Catholic families—it was the purpose of Christ’s coming: “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly!” (John 10:10)—but then He adds: “And you will not come to Me that you may have life!” (John 5:40). You will not come to Me, but you will go to your TV set, to your computer, to you tablet, to your smartphone, to your friends, to your hobbies, etc. So true are the words of the Gospel: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shined in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it … He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not! He came unto His own, and His own received Him not!” (John 1:4-5-11).
We do not know Him because we don’t take time to know Him! O yes, of course, we know His Name—Jesus; we know His Mother—Mary; we know He is God; we know He came to die for our sins; we know He instituted the Eucharist; we know some stories from the Gospels (vaguely)—but the bottom line is that we FAR more about our neighbor, our favorite sport, our closest friends, our neighborhood, our hobbies, etc. than we know about Christ—yet we are supposed to love Him totally, not partially—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment!” (Mark 12:30).
Dying, Dysfunctional, Divorced, Separated Families
Until the fulfilling of that “first commandment” starts to be the daily, official, formal, practical (not just theoretical), effective and fruit-bearing goal of our family, then our family is a spiritually dying (or dead) family, a spiritually dysfunctional family; a family experiencing and living in a spiritually ‘divorced’ or ‘separated’ environment, where God is honored with lips, but not heart, as we absent-mindedly, distractedly, hurriedly go through our spiritual duties. “But Jesus said to them: ‘Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: “These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!”’” (Mark 7:6). “My brethren, these things ought not so to be!” (James 3:10).
Convicting the World
“I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever. The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, nor knows Him―but you shall know Him; because He shall abide with you, and shall be in you ... When the Paraclete comes, Whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He shall give testimony of Me … It is expedient to you that I go! For if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment. Of sin―because they believed not in Me. And of justice―because I go to the Father; and you shall see Me no longer. And of judgment―because the prince of this world is already judged!” (John 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:7-11).
Do Not Doubt the Fair Justice of God
Right now, the world is casting stones at the Church, because members of the clergy and members of religious orders have been caught committing sexual sins. Those sins will be justly punished by God―make no mistake about it―either in this world or in the next, regardless of whether they are closer to God by vocation or not. God will reward everyone down to the tiniest good thought, word or action―and God will punish everyone for even the tiniest sinful thought, word, action, omission or neglect―regardless of who you are: Catholic or non-Catholic; Jew, Protestant, pagan or atheist. “God is not a respecter of persons!” (Acts 10:34).
This is further emphasized thus: “We know that, according to truth, the judgment of God is against them that do such [sinful] things ... Do you despise the riches of God’s goodness, patience and longsuffering? Do you not know that the kindness of God leads you to penance? But, according to your hardness and impenitent heart, you treasure up to yourself wrath, in the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God, Who will render to every man according to his works. To them indeed, who, according to patience in good works, seek glory and honor, incorruption and eternal life! But to them that are contentious and who obey not the truth, but give credit to iniquity, to them there will be wrath and indignation. Tribulation and anguish shall fall upon every soul of man that works evil―of the Jew first, and also of the Greek. But glory, and honor, and peace to everyone that works good―to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For there is no respect of persons with God. For whosoever have sinned without the law, shall perish without the law; and whosoever have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers [or talkers] of the law are just before God, but it is the doers of the law that shall be justified. (Romans 2:1-13).
Do you have a ghost in your home? Do you want a ghost in your home? You have to have some kind of ghost or spirit in your home—for, as the saying goes, “Nature abhors a vacuum!” The supernatural also abhors a vacuum, as we see with King Saul: “But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit troubled him” (1 Kings 16:14). Jesus also says: “Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit” (John 3:5-6). “He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathers not with Me, scatters!” (Matthew 12:30).
So what is the ghost of your home? Or, rather, what spirit rules your home? Nature abhors a vacuum—you cannot have a godly spirit and worldly spirit, Our Lord Himself tells us this: “You cannot serve God and mammon! Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:19-24). “You are from beneath, I am from above! You are of this world, I am not of this world! … My Kingdom is not of this world … My Kingdom is not here! ... The prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not anything! … The world hates Me, because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil” (John 8:23; 18:36; 14:30; 7:7). Holy Scripture adds: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:15-16).
“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I Know All This!”
“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I know all this! There’s no need to keep on repeating it again and again and again!” you say in exasperated boredom. The answer to that is: “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I know you know all this! But there’s a massive difference between knowing and doing!” Our Lord speaks thus of the “know-alls-and-do-nothings”—“Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). To which Holy Scripture adds: “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves! For if a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass. For he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was. But he that has looked into the perfect law of liberty, and has continued therein, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work; this man shall be blessed in his deed. And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father, is this―to keep one’s self unspotted from this world!” (James 1:22-27). Yet rather than be unspotted from this world, we love to be spotted by this world--the world has too much offer and enjoy for us to ignore it! The world just “hits the spot!”
Therefore, we need persistence in preaching to the family—in season and out of season—just as St. John, did in his old age, when he would never cease to say to his flock: “Children, love one another!”--which eventually provoked the complaint: “Do you have nothing else you can say?”―which, in turn, produced St. John’s answer: “There is nothing else that needs saying—everything is contained therein!” We need that same persistence and insistence within the family—in season and out of season, at all times and in all circumstances. As Holy Scripture say: “I charge thee, before God and Jesus Christ―Preach the word! Be insistent, in season and out of season! Reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine! For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears and will turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables!” (2 Timothy 4:1-4).
A Time of “Itching-Ears”, False Teachers and Fables
That is where we are today—having “itching ears” for what is going on in the world, believing “fables” or rumors or gossip; taking for our teachers worldly media outlets instead of God and His word; letting our beliefs follow our desires as we tinker, twist and change our God-given religion is a personally tailored religion that suits our preferences and pleasures. “Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God― indeed having an appearance of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
Which Spirit Rules Your Home?
You cannot have it both ways—live for the world and live for God. There is one spirit that mostly and truly rules your home—and that spirit is either getting stronger or weaker. “That which is born of the flesh, is flesh [worldly]; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit [spiritual]” … “It is the spirit [spiritual] that quickens: the flesh [world] profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life!” (John 3:6, 6:64). “Walk not according to the flesh [world], but according to the Spirit [of God]. For they that are according to the flesh [world], mind the things that are of the flesh [world]; but they that are according to the Spirit [of God], mind the things that are of the Spirit. For the wisdom of the flesh [world] is death; but the wisdom of the Spirit [of God] is life and peace. Because the wisdom of the flesh [world] is an enemy to God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. And they who are in the flesh [worldly], cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh [world], but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of Christ’s. And if Christ be in you, the body indeed is dead [to the world], because of sin; but the spirit lives because of justification. And if the Spirit of Him, that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwells in you, then He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit that dwells in you” (Romans 8:4-11).
Therefore, your home and family is either “alive” to God or “alive” to the world, either “dead” to God or “dead” to the world. You cannot be, at the same time, “alive AND dead” to God, or “alive AND dead” to the world. “He that is not with Me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30). “What concord has Christ with Belial? What fellowship has light with darkness? Or what part have the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). “Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God!” (1 Corinthians 2:12). These are the kinds of words that you must use “in family”—not just once a year, or once a month, or once a week, nor even once a day—but if necessary many times a day―”in season and out of season”―just as the world preaches its messages many times a day on the TV, the internet, the social media, the radio, in music, in newspapers and magazines, in books, in advertising, etc. Just as in business, you have to compete or go out of business—likewise with the Faith, compete or lose the Faith or have your children gradually lose the Faith, or weaken in the Faith so much that, when the inevitable persecution comes, they will be so weak that they will be among the first to give up the Faith to save their skin.
The Spirit of God
Isaias, speaking of the future Christ, describes His spirit—the Spirit of God: “There shall come forth a Rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of His root. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him―the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness. And He shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears. But He shall judge the poor with justice; and shall reprove with equity for the meek of the Earth; and he shall strike the Earth with the rod of His mouth; and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. And justice shall be the girdle of His loins, and Faith the girdle of His reins!” (Isaias 11:1-5).
We see here the listing of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost—we list them in reverse order that is to say, in ascending order, from lowest to highest―fear of the Lord, godliness (piety), knowledge, fortitude, counsel, understanding and wisdom. Though they all sound like virtues, they are not virtues. They are movements by Holy Ghost that perfect our virtues—which, logically, presupposes that we are practicing virtues in the first place! Remember—and this is VERY important―a virtue is not a “one time thing” or an “occasional thing” or a “now and again thing” or a “hit-and-miss” thing or a “three-weeks-on-and-two-weeks-off” thing. Virtue is an habitual thing—a “day-in-day-out” thing, or a “24/7/all-year-round” thing, it has to become and be a “normal-way-of-acting” thing. Anyone can be a “flash-in-the-pan” in some thing or another, but virtue requires that it be “the norm” and not a mere one-time “flash-in-the-pan”. Virtue separates the “amateur-armchair-quarterback” from the “professional-on-the-field-quarterback”—the first has “the mouth” and second has “the money”, and the first should “put his money where his mouth is”!
We Need the Spirit of God in Our Soul and Home
There is one ghost that you do need and one ghost you should not be afraid of—that is the Holy Ghost! If there is one spirit that you want to possess you—that spirit is the Holy Spirit! “God is a spirit; and they that adore Him, must adore Him in spirit” (John 4:24) “That which is born of the flesh, is flesh [worldly]; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit [spiritual]” (John 3:6). “Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God―so that we may know the things that are given us from God” (1 Corinthians 2:12). “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, then he is none of Christ’s … And if the Spirit of Him, that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit that dwells in you!” (Romans 8:9-11). There is your resurrection! “He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies…”—but only if Christ’s spirit dwells within you: “…because of His Spirit that dwells in you!”
Let the Spirit Resurrect You!
There is nothing more that God wants than the resurrection of so many ‘dead’ Catholic families—it was the purpose of Christ’s coming: “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly!” (John 10:10)—but then He adds: “And you will not come to Me that you may have life!” (John 5:40). You will not come to Me, but you will go to your TV set, to your computer, to you tablet, to your smartphone, to your friends, to your hobbies, etc. So true are the words of the Gospel: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shined in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it … He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not! He came unto His own, and His own received Him not!” (John 1:4-5-11).
We do not know Him because we don’t take time to know Him! O yes, of course, we know His Name—Jesus; we know His Mother—Mary; we know He is God; we know He came to die for our sins; we know He instituted the Eucharist; we know some stories from the Gospels (vaguely)—but the bottom line is that we FAR more about our neighbor, our favorite sport, our closest friends, our neighborhood, our hobbies, etc. than we know about Christ—yet we are supposed to love Him totally, not partially—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment!” (Mark 12:30).
Dying, Dysfunctional, Divorced, Separated Families
Until the fulfilling of that “first commandment” starts to be the daily, official, formal, practical (not just theoretical), effective and fruit-bearing goal of our family, then our family is a spiritually dying (or dead) family, a spiritually dysfunctional family; a family experiencing and living in a spiritually ‘divorced’ or ‘separated’ environment, where God is honored with lips, but not heart, as we absent-mindedly, distractedly, hurriedly go through our spiritual duties. “But Jesus said to them: ‘Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: “These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!”’” (Mark 7:6). “My brethren, these things ought not so to be!” (James 3:10).
Convicting the World
“I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever. The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, nor knows Him―but you shall know Him; because He shall abide with you, and shall be in you ... When the Paraclete comes, Whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He shall give testimony of Me … It is expedient to you that I go! For if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment. Of sin―because they believed not in Me. And of justice―because I go to the Father; and you shall see Me no longer. And of judgment―because the prince of this world is already judged!” (John 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:7-11).
Do Not Doubt the Fair Justice of God
Right now, the world is casting stones at the Church, because members of the clergy and members of religious orders have been caught committing sexual sins. Those sins will be justly punished by God―make no mistake about it―either in this world or in the next, regardless of whether they are closer to God by vocation or not. God will reward everyone down to the tiniest good thought, word or action―and God will punish everyone for even the tiniest sinful thought, word, action, omission or neglect―regardless of who you are: Catholic or non-Catholic; Jew, Protestant, pagan or atheist. “God is not a respecter of persons!” (Acts 10:34).
This is further emphasized thus: “We know that, according to truth, the judgment of God is against them that do such [sinful] things ... Do you despise the riches of God’s goodness, patience and longsuffering? Do you not know that the kindness of God leads you to penance? But, according to your hardness and impenitent heart, you treasure up to yourself wrath, in the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God, Who will render to every man according to his works. To them indeed, who, according to patience in good works, seek glory and honor, incorruption and eternal life! But to them that are contentious and who obey not the truth, but give credit to iniquity, to them there will be wrath and indignation. Tribulation and anguish shall fall upon every soul of man that works evil―of the Jew first, and also of the Greek. But glory, and honor, and peace to everyone that works good―to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For there is no respect of persons with God. For whosoever have sinned without the law, shall perish without the law; and whosoever have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers [or talkers] of the law are just before God, but it is the doers of the law that shall be justified. (Romans 2:1-13).
Article 30
Thursday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 28th
The Holy Ghost Requires an Army
Thursday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 28th
The Holy Ghost Requires an Army
Christ Is King―We Are His Soldiers
Christ is king “and of His Kingdom there shall be no end” said the Archangel Gabriel to Our Lady at the Annunciation (Luke 1:33). The Three Wise Men of Three Kings or Three Magi, came to seek this King, “saying: ‘Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east, and are come to adore Him!’” (Matthew 2:2).
Later, during the time of His Passion, in speaking to the Roman governor of Judea―Pontius Pilate―Our Lord spoke of His Kingdom: “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, my servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now my Kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). “And Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying: ‘Art thou the King of the Jews?’ Jesus said to him: ‘Thou sayest it!’” (Matthew 27:11).
Christ was put to death for claiming to be the King of the Jews. “Pilate sought to release Him. But the Jews cried out, saying: ‘If thou release this Man, thou art not Caesar’s friend! For whosoever makes himself a king, speaks against Caesar!’ Now when Pilate had heard these words, he brought Jesus forth, and he said to the Jews: ‘Behold your King!’ But they cried out: ‘Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!’ Pilate said to them: ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered: ‘We have no king but Caesar!’” (John 19:12-15). “And Pilate again answering, said to them: ‘What will you then that I do to the King of the Jews?’ But they again cried out: ‘Crucify Him!’ So Pilate, being willing to satisfy the people, delivered up Jesus, when he had scourged Him, to be crucified’” (Mark 15:12-15).
“Then the soldiers of the governor taking Jesus into the hall, and stripping Him, they put a scarlet cloak about Him. And platting a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head, and a reed in His right hand. And bowing the knee before Him, they mocked Him, saying: ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ … And after they had mocked Him, they took off the cloak from Him, and put on him His own garments, and led Him away to crucify Him … And they came to the place that is called Golgotha, which is the place of Calvary ... And after they had crucified Him, they put over His head His cause written: ‘This is Jesus the King of the Jews’” (Matthew 27:27-37).
Kings rule kingdoms and kings need soldiers to help them rule and protect those kingdoms. An essential aspect of a kingdom is that it has warriors, or soldiers, that defend and spread the kingdom (1 Kings 17; 2 Kings 8; 2 Kings 18). A kingdom is helpless without soldiers to protect the king, the queen mother, and the members of that kingdom from being attacked. The soldiers of a kingdom play a crucial role in the survival of the kingdom. Christ is King and Our Lady is the Mother of the King―the Queen Mother. Every member of the Kingdom of God is called to be a Soldier of Christ.
Our Lady’s Battle Cry
At La Salette, Our Lady sounds out her battle cry: “I make an urgent appeal to the Earth! I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven! I call on the true followers of Christ made man, the only true Savior of men! I call on my children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to me, so that I may lead them to my divine Son, those whom I carry in my arms, so to speak, those who have lived on my spirit! Finally, I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world! It is time they came out and filled the world with light! Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children! I am at your side and within you―provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days. May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ! Fight, children of light―you, the few who can see! For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends!” (Our Lady of La Salette). Holy Scripture echoes this: “You are the light of the world!” (Matthew 5:14) … “Fight the good fight of Faith … whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12) … “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12).
The Sacrament of War
The Holy Ghost is directly associated with the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Sacrament of Confirmation is probably the least understood and most under-rated Sacrament of them all. You could call the Sacrament of Confirmation the Sacrament of War. Confirmation makes of us “Soldiers of Christ” ― and soldiers are meant to fight wars and not just prance around playing at being “make-believe soldiers.”
The several actions performed within the Sacrament of Confirmation symbolize the nature and purpose of the sacrament: the anointing signifies the strength given for the spiritual conflict; the balsam contained in the chrism, the fragrance of virtue and the good odor of Christ; the sign of the cross on the forehead, the courage to confess Christ, before all men; the imposition of hands and the blow on the cheek, enrollment in the service of Christ as soldiers who will have endure blows and wounds, but which bring true peace to the soul (Catholic Encyclopedia, Summa Theologica, IIIa, q. 72, art. 4).
Holy Scripture says: “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). Our Lord clearly means this when He says: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). Confirmation makes us “Soldiers of Christ” and strictly obliges us to spread and defend the Faith by both word and deed. “Labor as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No man, being a soldier to God, entangles himself with secular businesses; that he may please Him to Whom he hath engaged himself!” ― namely God (2 Timothy 2:3-4).
In 350 A.D., St. Cyril of Jerusalem gave a series of lectures during Easter week. When speaking on Confirmation, he stated: “Just as Christ―after His baptism and the coming upon Him of the Holy Spirit―went forth and defeated the adversary―so also with you! After holy Baptism and the Mystical Chrism [Confirmation], having put on the full suit of armor of the Holy Spirit, you are to withstand the power of the adversary, and defeat him, saying, 'I am able to do all things in Christ, Who strengthens me!’”
In 1140, Hugh of St. Victor, in his work, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith, writes: “For the Incarnate Word is our King, Who came into this world to war with the devil; and all the saints who were before His coming, are soldiers, as it were, going before their King; and those who have come after and will come, even to the end of the world, are soldiers following their King. And the King Himself is in the midst of His army and proceeds protected and surrounded on all sides by His columns. And although in a multitude as vast as this, the kind of arms differ in the Sacraments and observance of the peoples preceding and following, yet all are really serving the one king and following the one banner; all are pursuing the one enemy and are being crowned by the one victory!”
St. Louis de Montfort’s End Time Warriors
This rallying cry of Our Lady fits perfectly with St. Louis de Montfort’s prophetic writings about the saints of end times:
“The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for Mary ... I have said that this would come to pass, particularly at the end of the world and indeed soon … These great souls, full of grace and zeal, shall be chosen to match themselves against the enemies of God, who shall rage on all sides; and they shall be singularly devout to our Blessed Lady, illuminated by her light, strengthened with her nourishment, led by her spirit, supported by her arm and sheltered under her protection, so that they shall fight with one hand and build with the other. With the one hand they shall fight, overthrow and crush the heretics with their heresies, the schismatics with their schisms, the idolaters with their idolatries and the sinners with their impieties. With the other hand they shall build the temple of the true Solomon and the mystical city of God, that is to say, the most holy Virgin” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“The devil, knowing that he has but little time, and now less than ever, to destroy souls, will every day redouble his efforts and his combats. He will presently raise up cruel persecutions and will put terrible snares before the faithful servants and true children of Mary, whom it gives him more trouble to conquer than it does to conquer others ... These last and cruel persecutions of the devil, shall go on increasing daily till the reign of Antichrist … But the power of Mary over all the devils will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lay his snares against her heel: that is to say, her humble slaves and her poor children, whom she will raise up to make war against him” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“They shall be clouds thundering and flying through the air at the least breath of the Holy Ghost―who, detaching themselves from everything and troubling themselves about nothing, shall shower forth the rain of the Word of God and of life eternal! They shall thunder against sin; they shall storm against the world; they shall strike the devil and his crew; and they shall pierce through and through, for life or for death, with their two-edged sword of the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17), all those to whom they shall be sent on the part of the Most High! ... They shall be the true apostles of the latter times, to whom the Lord of Hosts shall give the word and the might to work marvels and to carry off with glory the spoils of His enemies!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“In a word, we know that they shall be true disciples of Jesus Christ, walking in the footsteps of His poverty, humility, contempt of the world, charity; teaching the narrow way of God in pure truth, according to the Holy Gospel, and not according to the maxims of the world; troubling themselves about nothing; not accepting persons; sparing, fearing and listening to no mortal, however influential he may be! They shall have in their mouths the two-edged sword of the Word of God! They shall carry on their shoulders the bloody standard of the Cross, the Crucifix in their right hand and the Rosary in their left, the sacred Names of Jesus and Mary in their hearts, and the modesty and mortification of Jesus Christ in their own behavior!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Soldiers Are Made, Not Born
This is not empty rhetoric by St. Louis de Montfort—this is a prophetic picture of what we have to be in our day and age. No soldier is born a soldier, but has to be trained and made into a soldier. Looking at St. Louis imagery and comparing it with our own personal state and condition might well be despondent—but it is well worth reading the book by the ex-Communist turned Catholic, Douglas Hyde, entitled Dedication and Leadership, wherein he shows how Communists take the worst imaginable material and train and convert it into a very efficient Communist fighting machine. If the skill of Communists can do that—what can the grace of God do?
The Example of St. Paul
St. Paul gives us an example of a true Soldier for Christ. Referring to the Apostles, he says: “They are the ministers of Christ (I speak as one less wise), I am more―in many more labors, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes, minus one! Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea! In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren! In labor and painfulness, in much watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness!” (2 Corinthians 11:23-27).
Let us pray to Our Lady, St. Paul, St. Louis de Montfort and all the saints, especially the martyrs, that we might have a love of the Precious Blood of Jesus; that we believe and use the power of His Precious Blood; that we be ready to shed our own blood for love of Jesus—whether it be shed mystically or physically. As the saying goes: “The Blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church!”
Light of the World?
“You are the salt of the Earth. But if the salt loses its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men! You are the light of the world! A city seated on a mountain cannot be hidden! Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bucket, but upon a candlestick, so that it may shine to all that are in the house!” (Matthew 5:13-16).
The Holy Ghost Needs Real Soldiers, Not Play Soldiers!
We are meant to carry the Light of the Faith into battle against the darkness of the world: “For whatsoever is born of God, overcomes the world: and this is the victory which overcomes the world―our Faith! Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4-5) … “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood―but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12) … “For your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist ye, strong in Faith!” (1 Peter 5:8-9).
We cannot quote too often the fighting talk of Our Lord: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). We don’t like such fiery talk, but Our Lord says: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled? … Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided―three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son; and the son against his father; the mother against the daughter; and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law; and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me! And he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me! And he that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me! He that finds his life, shall lose it; and he that shall loses his life for Me, shall find it!” (Luke 12:49-53; Matthew 10:34-39).
We have to get out of our hypnotic state that imagines that life is meant to be enjoyed and we are here to have fun—each in his or her own way! “Fight the good fight of Faith! Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12), for “the life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1) and this fight is not a virtual fight; it is not a fight in the imagination; nor a fight that once existed in the past but no longer today; nor a fight that some but not all are involved in—it is a perennial fight, a universal fight, an apocalyptic fight! Your salvation rests upon whether or not you fight; whether or not you compromise; whether or not you surrender to the enemy. Just as Our Lord was asked: “And who is my neighbor?” — you may well ask: “And who is my enemy?” Let Holy Scripture answer you:
The Enemy―World, Flesh, Devil
The enemy is the world, the flesh and the devil. “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “The whole world is seated in wickedness” (1 John 5:19). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own―but you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world” (John 15:19). Satan is “the prince of this world” (John 14:30).
The Fires of Heaven fight the Fires of Hell
There are basically two fires competing for this world―the fire of love for “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and the fires of hatred or the fires of Hell. In a sense, one fire is fighting the other fire. Can you fight fire with fire? Think about it for a second! A fire needs oxygen and fuel, such as leaves and vegetation, to continue raging. Rob the fire of either source of nourishment and you squelch the chemical reaction that produces it. When faced with an oil-well fire, firefighters have been known to remove the oxygen from the equation by detonating a little dynamite. The fiery blast from the dynamite eats up all the local oxygen, leaving nothing to keep the oil-well fire going. When an entire forest is ablaze, however, a different tactic is in order. Firefighters remove the fuel―and what better way to quickly remove combustible underbrush than to carefully set it on fire and destroy it before the forest fire gets a hold of it?
In pondering a fire’s hunger and growth, it’s easy to think of it as some form of organism―like a rat infestation. In addition to putting out poison, major metropolitan areas encourage residents to help combat rodent infestations through anti-litter campaigns. You don’t want rats in your home? Then don’t litter the streets with a buffet of fast-food garbage. Likewise, you can help prevent the spread of forest fires by keeping less fuel sitting around. Around the home, this strategy often means keeping your property free of vegetation that could act as fuel. If you’re managing a farm, forest or grassland, it often pays to conduct a controlled burn. In this scenario, wildlife managers set fire to an area under controlled conditions, burning fuel that could potentially feed a future wildfire. The burn creates a manmade firebreak, or gap, in combustible material to contain spreading wildfires.
Burning the Fuel of Worldliness
Too much worldly stuff provides the devil with excellent fuel for his “fires of Hell.” We need to burn that garbage before the rats of this world surround us and live-off us and our worldliness. Hence the Catholic spirit of abstinence, fasting, sacrifices, mortification, alms giving, temperance, etc. These are the good fires that burn up the trash and garbage that can inflame our souls with the fires of Hell.
Kindling Fires
Yet today, Catholics have no problem loving the world, they have no problem pampering their flesh and they are increasingly accepting the ‘doctrines’ of the devil―contraception, abortion, cohabitation, divorce and remarriage, same sex-unions, etc. Our Lord came to set the Earth on fire: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). In our prayers to the Holy Ghost, we ask for this fire to be kindled within us: “Come O Holy Ghost and enkindle in us the fire of Thy love!” Is the Holy Ghost failing to “enkindle in us the fire of His love” or is that the wood is no longer suitable for burning?
Bad Wood for Burning
Coated, painted, or pressure-treated wood can release toxic or harmful chemicals into the air, likewise Catholics who are coated by the world, ‘painted’ with worldliness and have been pressured by the world, are likely to produce a toxic spirituality. Green Wood―a freshly cut down living tree―is not the best material for the fire. The timber needs to age or “season” for a minimum of six to nine months before burning. Similarly Catholics need to “dry-out” from the “sap” of the world. Freshly cut wood, called green wood, is loaded with sap (mostly water) and needs to dry out first. It’s hard to light and once you get it going, it burns very efficiently and smokes horribly―you can draw your own spiritual analogies. “Green” Catholics or Catholics saturated by the world are difficult to motivate and hard to “light” or get them going in spiritual exercises―and when they do start, they smoke (complain) horribly! If you’re unsure if the wood is green, check the bark―firmly attached bark, that’s still sticky with sap when you nick it, is a bad sign. Likewise, a Catholic oozing worldliness is a bad sign.
There is also a danger in burning non-local wood. If you live in, or are visiting an area currently affected by invasive wood pests―even if the firewood was cut or stored more than a few miles away, you should leave the firewood where it is and keep looking. Firewood that travels too far is the number one way that invasive insects and diseases rapidly spread. Though the pests travel slowly on their own, moving an infected log can put new forests at risk and undermine conservation efforts. Millions of trees and thousands of acres of forest have been seriously damaged or even killed by these non-native pests. Similarly, Catholics should avoid invasive Faith pests―which would be non-Catholics, fallen-away Catholics, lukewarm Catholics.
Soft wood, from trees like pines, firs, or cypress, burns fast, leaves few coals, and makes a lot of smoke that can coat your chimney with soot (not a safe thing in the long run). Seasoned softwood is okay for outdoor fires, but you may want to avoid it if a fireplace is involved or you want a long-lasting fire or coals to cook over. Similarly, “soft” Catholics burn out quickly, are not long-lasting and put out a lot of smoke (complaints). Not the best thing to be around. Hard wood, though it may take longer to get started, lasts a long time―which is what a Catholic should be all about!
Poisonous woods are toxic. Care should be taken to avoid burning any wood covered with vines. Burning poison ivy, poison sumac, poison oak, or pretty much anything else with “poison” in the name releases the irritant oil urushiol into the smoke. Breathing it in can cause lung irritation and severe allergic respiratory problems. Burning salt-saturated driftwood (from the sea) is also a bad idea, as it can release toxic or harmful chemicals when burned. Obviously, poisonous woods are synonymous with bad Catholics―those who are covered with sin. They are toxic to your life.
All of this can be related to and compared with Our Lord’s words about wood and trees. “I am the true vine; and My Father is the farmer. Every branch in Me, that bears not fruit, He will take away! And every one that bears fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit! As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine―you are the branches! He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit! For without Me you can do nothing! If anyone does not abide in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:1-6).
Like Fire and Wood
St. John of the Cross explains something similar: A piece of wood is thrown into the fire. The fire envelops, penetrates, possesses it. To the wood, being possessed by the fire and burning are the same thing. But at first the wood is not wholly burned because the fire has not penetrated it completely. Penetration and possession come about little by little as the wood burns, until, perfectly penetrated by the fire, it is converted into it and burns with the same fire and has all the characteristics of fire.
The Holy Ghost is rightly called fire, living fountain, Charity, because He is Love. The spiritual life is nothing else but the penetration of the soul by that divine fire. The Holy Ghost possesses the soul and the soul burns―that is to say, it loves. Charity is the intimate fire that burns the soul, but the Holy Ghost, quite as intimately present in the soul, is both the cause of that fire and its glorious end.
Our ‘Green Wood’ Needs Perfecting
At first the soul does not burn totally, because it needs to be purified, in order that the divine fire may perfectly penetrate and possess it. Little by little the divine penetration is effected and the soul gradually burns more thoroughly, more profoundly. The divine penetration becomes so perfect, the spiritual combustion so complete, that the soul is “deified”; one might say that it is changed into fire, into love. It may be said to burn with the fire of God, and to love with the Holy Ghost, for the divine Spirit moves it to love so intimately and fully that, in all truth, this love is attributed to the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God loves in the soul, and the soul loves with that Holy Ghost. As the wood, when perfectly penetrated by the fire, takes on the very character of fire, so the soul that loves with the love of the Holy Ghost participates in the divine characteristics of eternal Love.
Get Used to Being Burnt―You Were to Burn
Everyone was made to burn―we will burn forever and the fire will never go out. We will either burn forever in Hell in hatred, or we will burn forever in Heaven in love, and most of those who end up burning forever in Heaven in love, first have to burn in Purgatory in regret for not having burned enough in love while still on Earth. Even in this world everyone is burning―some burn with love of the world, others burn with love of the Faith and God; some burn with hatred of God and His Church and all things to do with God, others burn with hatred for sin and all that in this world can lead to sin. “Prove me, O Lord, and test me! Burn my reins and my heart!” (Psalm 25:2). The flames of love will not burn those who love: “Thou shalt walk in the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, and the flames shall not burn in thee!” (Isaias 43:2).
But for those who burn with hatred for God and His Church, will meet a fate of fire in which they will burn for ever: “A fire shall go before Him, and shall burn His enemies round about!” (Psalm 96:3). “Woe be to the nation that rises up against my people―for the Lord almighty will take revenge on them, in the Day of Judgment He will visit them. For He will give fire and worms into their flesh, so that they may burn and may feel for ever!” (Judith 16:20-21). “For a fire is kindled in My rage, it shall burn upon you!” (Jeremias 15:14). “And I will gather you together, and will burn you in the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst thereof!” (Ezechiel 22:21). “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire and He will purge His floor, and will gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire!” (Luke 3:16-17).
Fire and War
There is close connection between fire and war―even before the days when guns and cannons were invented which led to the phenomenon and terminology of firearms, firing-guns and gunfire. In ancient times fire was used as a weapon of destruction. The destruction of enemy possessions and territory was a fundamental strategy of war, serving the dual purpose of punishment and deprivation of resources. Until the 5th century BC, the Greeks had little expertise in siege warfare and mainly relied on a strategy of devastation to draw the enemy out―they destroyed crops, trees and houses. Centuries later, the Byzantines still recommended this strategy, even though they had developed siege technology. Fire was the easiest way of harrying and destroying territories, and could be done easily and quickly by small forces. Early “thermal weapons” were devices or substances used in warfare during the classical and medieval periods (approximately from the 8th century BC until the mid-16th century AD) which used heat or burning action to destroy or damage enemy personnel, fortifications or territories. Fire and incendiary weapons were used against enemy structures and territory, as well as personnel, sometimes on a massive scale. At the simplest level, fire itself was used as a weapon to cause large-scale destruction. Large tracts of land, towns and villages were frequently ignited as part of a scorched Earth strategy. It was frequently used against siege engines and wooden structures.
Incendiary weapons could be used to set fire to towns and fortifications, and a wide range of thermal weapons were used against enemy personnel. The simplest and most common thermal projectiles were boiling water and hot sand―which required fire to heat them―which could then be poured over attacking personnel. Other anti-personnel weapons included the use of hot pitch, oil, resin, animal fat and other similar compounds―all of which required fire to heat them. Smoke was used to confuse or drive off attackers―where there is smoke, there is fire. Substances such as quicklime and sulfur could be toxic and blinding.
Various throwing machines were in use throughout the classical and medieval periods. Incendiary devices were frequently used as projectiles during warfare, particularly during sieges and naval battles. Generally referred to as “artillery”, these engines could hurl, fire or shoot missiles and most could be used or adapted for throwing thermal weapons, by attacking and defending forces. Some substances were boiled or heated to inflict damage by scalding or burning. Other substances relied on their chemical properties to inflict burns or damage. These weapons or devices could be used by individuals, manipulated by war machines, or utilized as army strategy. Barrels, fire pots and other breakable containers of pitch, Greek fire, and other incendiary mixtures could be thrown; other machines fired arrows and bolts, which could be ignited, or adapted to carry flammable mixtures. From the 12th century, Muslims in Syria were using clay and glass grenades for fire weapons, thrown by machines.
Incendiary mixtures, such as the petroleum-based Greek fire, could be launched by throwing machines or administered through a siphon. Sulfur-soaked and oil-soaked materials were sometimes ignited and thrown at the enemy, or attached to spears, arrow and bolts and fired by hand or machine. Some siege techniques—such as mining and boring—relied on combustibles and fire to complete the collapse of walls and structures.
Some armies developed specialized “fire-troops.” By 837, many Muslim armies had groups of “naffatin” (fire-archers), and when the Mamluk Sultanate raised a fleet for an attack on Cyprus they had “nafata”, or fire-troops. Towards the latter part of the period, gunpowder was invented, which increased the sophistication of the weapons, starting with fire-lances, which led to the eventual development of the cannon and other firearms. Development of the early weapons has continued ever since, with modern war weapons such as napalm, flame throwers, and other explosives having direct roots in the original early thermal weapons. Fire-raising and other destructive strategies can still be seen in modern strategic bombing.
Time For Fireworks!
Prophecies for our times speak of two kinds of fire falling from the skies―a man-made fire will come first, which will then be “trumped” by God sending His own fire from Heaven.
Just a few extracts of Our Lady’s warnings from Quito, La Salette, Fatima and Akita are enough to terrify us even more than the globalists terrify us: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it ... Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together ... The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God … Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she trembles, with dread, at what must happen to the Earth stained with crime ...
“Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws … These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government will see a cruel persecution … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... The impious will rage a cruel war … The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings …
“There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed ... There will be bloody wars and famines, plagues and infectious diseases .... The Earth will be struck by calamities of all kinds in addition to the plague and famine, which will be widespread .... There will be a series of wars … Italy will be punished for her ambition in wanting to shake off the yoke of the Lord of Lords. And so she will be left to fight a war; blood will flow on all sides ... France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling ... Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of arms and blasphemy …
“There will be thunderstorms which will shake cities, earthquakes which will swallow up countries ... Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes which will swallow up mountains and cities … Water and fire will purge the Earth and consume all the works of man’s pride … Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes ... It will rain with a fearful hail of animals … People will believe that all is lost ... It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. ... The fire of Heaven will fall and consume three cities ... Various nations will be annihilated … All the universe will be struck with terror … The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead … Men will beat their heads against walls, call for their death, and on another side death will be their torment. Who will be the victor if God does not shorten the length of the test?”
Why? Oh, Why?
Why all this carnage? Our Lady replies: “The sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this Earth” (La Salette) … ”God is about to punish the world for its crimes—by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church! … Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended!” (Fatima) … ”Many men in this world afflict the Lord! … In order that the world might know His anger, the heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind! ... If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity!” (Akita).
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! … Yada! Yada! Yada! … Blah! Blah! Blah!
We have heard all this before! We have read it all before! This is nothing new! Yet, on December 26th, 1957, Sister Lucia spoke to Fr. Augustine Fuentes, a Mexican priest, which Fr. Fuentes reports thus: “The first thing she (Lucia) said to me (Fr Fuentes) was: ’Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them.’”
Therefore you must “Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and will turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables! But be thou vigilant, labor in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry!” (2 Timothy 4:2). “He that hears you, hears Me; and he that despises you, despises Me; and he that despises Me, despises Him that sent Me!” (Luke 10:16).
For the Last Time!—We’re in the Last Times!—Last Time You Paid No Attention!
Sister Lucia also said the following to Fr. Augustine Fuentes: “The Most Holy Virgin has made me understand that we are in the last times of the world. She has told me that the devil is about to wage a decisive battle with the Virgin, and a decisive battle is a final battle, in which one side wins, the other side loses. Also, starting with the present time, we belong either to God or we belong to the demon―there is no middle ground!”
“The devil is about to wage a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin. The devil knows what it is that most offends God and which, in a short space of time, will gain for him the greatest number of souls. Thus the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way the devil will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them!”
Sister Lucia wrote to a priest nephew of hers, Fr. Jose Valinho: “I see by your letter that you are disturbed by the confusion of our time. It is sad indeed that so many persons let themselves be dominated by the diabolical wave, which is sweeping the world, and that they are blinded, to the point of being incapable of seeing error!”
In her 1957 conversation with Fr. Fuentes, Sister Lucia said: “Father, we should not wait for an appeal to the world to come from Rome on the part of the Holy Father, to do penance. Nor should we wait for the call from our bishops in our dioceses, nor from the religious congregations. No! Our Lord has already, very often, used these means and the world has not paid attention. That is why now it is necessary for each one of us to begin to reform ourselves spiritually. Each person must not only save his own soul, but also the souls that God has placed on our path.”
“Father, the Most Holy Virgin did not tell me [explicitly] that we are in the last times, but she made me understand this for three reasons:
► The first reason is as follows: The devil is about to wage a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin, and a decisive battle is the final battle where one side will be victorious and the other side will suffer defeat.
► The second reason is as follows: She said to my cousins as well as to myself, that God is giving two last remedies to the world―the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These are the last two remedies, which signify that there will be no others.
► The third reason is as follows―God, before He is about to chastise, exhausts all other remedies.”
It’s Now Time For…
Okay! Is that it? Fine! Thanks! There’s nothing I can do about it! Well, there isn’t, is there? I’ve better things to do than listen to all ‘private-revelation’ stuff! Someone turn the TV back on! Let’s get back to reality! Now, someone pass the popcorn! Hey! Where’s my beer gone? Who took my beer? Enough of this scaremongering and killjoy party-pooping! Besides, God is a God of love! God is a nice guy! He wouldn’t hurt a fly! Well, He wouldn’t, would He? Don’t you agree?
Well, that Nice Guy, Who loves us all and wouldn’t hurt a fly, happened to wipe out millions of Israelites during the Exodus―because they paid little attention to Him and were always complaining! That Nice Guy, Who loves us all and wouldn’t hurt a fly, happened to wipe out all the inhabitants of the Earth with the Great Flood―except for 8 persons and an ark full of animals. That Nice Guy, Who loves us all and wouldn’t hurt a fly, also happened to wipe Jerusalem off the map and throw His Chosen People into years of Babylonian Captivity. That Nice Guy, Who loves us all and wouldn’t hurt a fly, also arranged for the total destruction of Jerusalem with all its inflated seasonal Passover population of over 1 million people in the year 70 AD, because they had rejected and crucified His Nice Son, Who happened to prophesy that all this would happen and that not stone would be left upon a stone! Chosen People or not― “with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the desert” (1 Corinthians 10:5). Is it any better today? It is worse today than it ever was! Our Lady has spoken of our times being worse than those in the time of Noe and the Great Flood―consequently, she has said that punishment that is pending, will also be worse than that of the Great Flood.
To Blessed Sister Elena Aiello (1895-1961)―mystic, stigmatic, victim soul, prophetess and foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ―Our Lady, in an apparition on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, 1956, said: “People are offending God too much! Were I to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief. These are grave times. The world is in total turmoil because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge. Materialism marches on ever fomenting bloody strifes and fratricidal struggles. Clear signs portend that peace is in danger. That scourge, like the shadow of a dark cloud, is now moving across mankind: only my power, as Mother of God, is preventing the outbreak of the storm. All is hanging on a slender thread. When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs. All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth.”
At Akita, around 17 years later (in 1973), Our Lady warned: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord! … Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended! … If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them! … In order that the world might know His anger, the heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind! … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before! Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful! The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead! … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness!”
Soldiers of Christ and Light of the World or Suckers for the World?
“You are the salt of the Earth. But if the salt loses its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men! You are the light of the world! A city seated on a mountain cannot be hidden. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bucket, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house” (Matthew 5:13-16). Today, there are very few “salty Catholics” to be found―most of them have become “soft Catholics” or “sweet Catholics” or “sugary Catholics” or “mammonized Catholics”―who love the world more than God (if not in theory, then most definitely in practice―which can be seen by the hours and hours they give to the world in relation to the few minutes they give to God).
The Soldiers of Christ have become Suckers for the World! They have laid down their arms and picked up their smartphones. Instead of meditating 5 decades of the Rosary―they meditate the internet with their latest 5G smartphones. “Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luke 4:4) becomes “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word he can read on the internet.” Instead of following Christ―they follow friends on social media. Instead of reading the texts of the Bible all day long, they send texts all day long. Instead of fighting those who have no time for God and His Church, they spend their time delighting in those who have no time for God and His Church. Nobody wants to be a saint―they just want to be quaint. Nobody wants to be hated for Christ’ sake―they want to be loved for their own sake. The words of Scripture are truer than ever before:
“The fool has said in his heart: ‘There is no God!’ They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways: there is none that does good―no, not one! The Lord has looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside! They are become unprofitable together! There is none that does good―no, not one! Their throat is an open sepulcher―with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips! Their mouth [texts, e-mails, posts] is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood! Destruction and unhappiness is in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes!” (Psalm 13:1-3).
It’s Just Not Fair!!!
The problem is that, once you start to let your light shine, there are plenty of people (not to mention the devil) who want to put out that light! It’s as though the world loves the sinner, but hates the saint! If we try too hard to be good, and become good, then we are target to be attacked and destroyed. It’s not fair, is it? It’s downright disgusting! Yep! But Our Lord never promised that the world would be fair to us, did He?
Scandalous Scriptures
“But Jesus, knowing in Himself, that His disciples murmured at this, said to them: ‘Doth this scandalize you?’” ((John 6:62). “Wonder not, brethren, if the world hates you!” (1 John 3:13). “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “They hated Me without cause!” (John 15:25). “Remember My words that I said to you: ‘The servant is not greater than his master.’ If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you!” (John 15:20). “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own―but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. All these things they will do to you for My Name’s sake―because they know not Him Who sent Me!” (John 15:18-21). “And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake―but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:22).
And If That Wasn’t Enough…
Wow! That is a pretty tough advertising campaign! And then He has to go and add things that that make it even tougher! “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me. He that finds his life, shall lose it―and he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it!” (Matthew 10:34-39). Whew! But there is even more!
Want Some More?
“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death―and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name’s sake! And then shall many be scandalized; and shall betray one another; and shall hate one another!” (Matthew 24:9-10). “And you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren, and kinsmen and friends; and some of you they will put to death!” (Luke 21:16). “The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death; and the father the son; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death!” (Matthew 10:21). Mark repeats the same in His Gospel: “And the brother shall betray his brother unto death; and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death!” (Mark 13:12). “Behold―I have told it to you beforehand!” (Matthew 24:25).
Is There A Bright Side?
“Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake―for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven! For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you!” (Matthew 5:10-12).
A Fake World—A False Peace
For all the talk about “Human Rights”, “The Rights of Man”, “Brotherhood of Nations”, “Freedom of Religion”, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, etc., there has never been as much persecution and martyrdom as we have seen in the 20th century and which has now spilled-over into the 21st century. It fits perfectly with the prophecies of Our Lady that were made well in advance of those centuries.
The “Age of Martyrs” is the term of art for the earliest years of Christian history, but statistics show (both Catholic and non-Catholic evaluations and as Pope Francis remarked several times in his homilies after his election, as well as this year, “the age of martyrs is not yet over; even today we can say, in truth, that the Church has more martyrs now than during the first centuries.” More Christians were martyred in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined. Here is just a small sampling of the persecution that is going on worldwide, and is accelerating and increasing:
● About 170,000 Christians are martyred for their Faith each year (over 400 per day).
● Currently over 200 million Christians are being persecuted worldwide.
● Christians are persecuted in 131 of the world’s 193 countries [Pew Forum study].
● North Korea: in 2014 it still continued to be the worst country in the world for persecution.
● Nigeria: In 2010 Christians suffered terror from Muslim extremists. Whole villages were massacred.
● Iran: Its parliament believes Muslims who change their Faith should be put to death.
● India: up to 70,000 in Orissa were forced to flee their homes in riots against Christians.
● Indonesia: Between 2000-2002 Muslims slaughtered 10,000 Christians.
● Iraq: half of Iraq’s Christians have fled the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
● Egypt: Under Islamist pressure, Coptic Christians are being forced from their homes.
● Syria: By 2012, most of the 80,000 Christians in Homs had been ‘cleansed’ from their homes.
● Europe: persecution is coming in by stealth through EU (European Union) equality directives.
In its ultimate form, persecution results in martyrdom. A martyr is one who, without seeking their own death or any harm to others, is murdered or put to death for their religious Faith. The word ‘martyr’ comes from the Greek word translated “witness”. Such extreme witness is always positive in that it leads to church growth. As Tertullian [a theologian in the early Christian church] said: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
United Nations Human Rights Declaration
Today we have the noble declaration of human rights enshrined in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Despite Article 18, there are severe human rights violations in many countries. Christians are persecuted across Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, most of Asia (including China) and now Europe (via the European Union). Iran is one of the world’s most repressive states, and those who offend the Sharia law, may be publicly flogged, or even executed by hanging in the streets. In 2008 over 200 million Christians around the world were in danger of being tortured, persecuted, or killed for their Faith. Yet nobody wants to fight! Catholics will read about it and do nothing about it! Back to their entertainment they go!
Why?
The simple answer to the question, “Why does our good God allow all this?” is simply sin! Our Lady of La Salette says: “The sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this Earth!” Our Lady said at Fatima says wars are a punishment for sin. The worldwide explosion of sin and faithlessness has been foretold both by the Bible and Our Lady’s prophecies.
In Holy Scripture Our Lord shows that Jerusalem’s rejection of Him, would be severely punished: “You shall see Jerusalem compassed about with an army … For these are the days of vengeance, that all things may be fulfilled, that are written ... for there shall be great wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword; and shall be led away captives into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles” (Luke 21:20-24). Why? Because of sin. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7). “Sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15). “According to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up to thyself wrath, against the day of wrath, and revelation of the just judgment of God” (Romans 2:5).
This is exactly what Our Lady foretold would happen at her apparition at La Salette: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it … “Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together ... God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God ... The priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the holy mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door … Churches will be locked up or desecrated. Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death ...
“Italy will be punished for her ambition in wanting to shake off the yoke of the Lord of Lords. And so she will be left to fight a war; blood will flow on all sides … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God ... Religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God ... They will abolish civil rights as well as ecclesiastical, all order and all justice would be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension would be seen, without love for country or family ... All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principal, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... “France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France and Italy because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other even in their homes.” (Our Lady of La Salette).
We therefore see the terrible consequences of the ever escalating sins of the world. We were asked to do something to counter-balance this by Our Lady of Fatima, who asked for many Rosaries and sacrifices, and the five First Saturday devotions of reparation to the her Immaculate Heart. Yet most good souls, if they are not part of the deluge of sin, are too busy with their own ‘good’ preoccupations, and so Our Lady’s requests go, for the most part, unanswered—the few that do comply with her requests are a mere few drops of water against the tsunami of sin. That is why God has to release an unprecedented chastisement upon the world, for when the world is faced with what, Our Lady says, has never been seen before, then some of them will, in fear, be brought to their knees and their senses. It seems that this is only way in which we will listen and obey!
Christ is king “and of His Kingdom there shall be no end” said the Archangel Gabriel to Our Lady at the Annunciation (Luke 1:33). The Three Wise Men of Three Kings or Three Magi, came to seek this King, “saying: ‘Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east, and are come to adore Him!’” (Matthew 2:2).
Later, during the time of His Passion, in speaking to the Roman governor of Judea―Pontius Pilate―Our Lord spoke of His Kingdom: “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, my servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now my Kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). “And Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying: ‘Art thou the King of the Jews?’ Jesus said to him: ‘Thou sayest it!’” (Matthew 27:11).
Christ was put to death for claiming to be the King of the Jews. “Pilate sought to release Him. But the Jews cried out, saying: ‘If thou release this Man, thou art not Caesar’s friend! For whosoever makes himself a king, speaks against Caesar!’ Now when Pilate had heard these words, he brought Jesus forth, and he said to the Jews: ‘Behold your King!’ But they cried out: ‘Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!’ Pilate said to them: ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered: ‘We have no king but Caesar!’” (John 19:12-15). “And Pilate again answering, said to them: ‘What will you then that I do to the King of the Jews?’ But they again cried out: ‘Crucify Him!’ So Pilate, being willing to satisfy the people, delivered up Jesus, when he had scourged Him, to be crucified’” (Mark 15:12-15).
“Then the soldiers of the governor taking Jesus into the hall, and stripping Him, they put a scarlet cloak about Him. And platting a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head, and a reed in His right hand. And bowing the knee before Him, they mocked Him, saying: ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ … And after they had mocked Him, they took off the cloak from Him, and put on him His own garments, and led Him away to crucify Him … And they came to the place that is called Golgotha, which is the place of Calvary ... And after they had crucified Him, they put over His head His cause written: ‘This is Jesus the King of the Jews’” (Matthew 27:27-37).
Kings rule kingdoms and kings need soldiers to help them rule and protect those kingdoms. An essential aspect of a kingdom is that it has warriors, or soldiers, that defend and spread the kingdom (1 Kings 17; 2 Kings 8; 2 Kings 18). A kingdom is helpless without soldiers to protect the king, the queen mother, and the members of that kingdom from being attacked. The soldiers of a kingdom play a crucial role in the survival of the kingdom. Christ is King and Our Lady is the Mother of the King―the Queen Mother. Every member of the Kingdom of God is called to be a Soldier of Christ.
Our Lady’s Battle Cry
At La Salette, Our Lady sounds out her battle cry: “I make an urgent appeal to the Earth! I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven! I call on the true followers of Christ made man, the only true Savior of men! I call on my children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to me, so that I may lead them to my divine Son, those whom I carry in my arms, so to speak, those who have lived on my spirit! Finally, I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world! It is time they came out and filled the world with light! Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children! I am at your side and within you―provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days. May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ! Fight, children of light―you, the few who can see! For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends!” (Our Lady of La Salette). Holy Scripture echoes this: “You are the light of the world!” (Matthew 5:14) … “Fight the good fight of Faith … whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12) … “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12).
The Sacrament of War
The Holy Ghost is directly associated with the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Sacrament of Confirmation is probably the least understood and most under-rated Sacrament of them all. You could call the Sacrament of Confirmation the Sacrament of War. Confirmation makes of us “Soldiers of Christ” ― and soldiers are meant to fight wars and not just prance around playing at being “make-believe soldiers.”
The several actions performed within the Sacrament of Confirmation symbolize the nature and purpose of the sacrament: the anointing signifies the strength given for the spiritual conflict; the balsam contained in the chrism, the fragrance of virtue and the good odor of Christ; the sign of the cross on the forehead, the courage to confess Christ, before all men; the imposition of hands and the blow on the cheek, enrollment in the service of Christ as soldiers who will have endure blows and wounds, but which bring true peace to the soul (Catholic Encyclopedia, Summa Theologica, IIIa, q. 72, art. 4).
Holy Scripture says: “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). Our Lord clearly means this when He says: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). Confirmation makes us “Soldiers of Christ” and strictly obliges us to spread and defend the Faith by both word and deed. “Labor as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No man, being a soldier to God, entangles himself with secular businesses; that he may please Him to Whom he hath engaged himself!” ― namely God (2 Timothy 2:3-4).
In 350 A.D., St. Cyril of Jerusalem gave a series of lectures during Easter week. When speaking on Confirmation, he stated: “Just as Christ―after His baptism and the coming upon Him of the Holy Spirit―went forth and defeated the adversary―so also with you! After holy Baptism and the Mystical Chrism [Confirmation], having put on the full suit of armor of the Holy Spirit, you are to withstand the power of the adversary, and defeat him, saying, 'I am able to do all things in Christ, Who strengthens me!’”
In 1140, Hugh of St. Victor, in his work, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith, writes: “For the Incarnate Word is our King, Who came into this world to war with the devil; and all the saints who were before His coming, are soldiers, as it were, going before their King; and those who have come after and will come, even to the end of the world, are soldiers following their King. And the King Himself is in the midst of His army and proceeds protected and surrounded on all sides by His columns. And although in a multitude as vast as this, the kind of arms differ in the Sacraments and observance of the peoples preceding and following, yet all are really serving the one king and following the one banner; all are pursuing the one enemy and are being crowned by the one victory!”
St. Louis de Montfort’s End Time Warriors
This rallying cry of Our Lady fits perfectly with St. Louis de Montfort’s prophetic writings about the saints of end times:
“The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for Mary ... I have said that this would come to pass, particularly at the end of the world and indeed soon … These great souls, full of grace and zeal, shall be chosen to match themselves against the enemies of God, who shall rage on all sides; and they shall be singularly devout to our Blessed Lady, illuminated by her light, strengthened with her nourishment, led by her spirit, supported by her arm and sheltered under her protection, so that they shall fight with one hand and build with the other. With the one hand they shall fight, overthrow and crush the heretics with their heresies, the schismatics with their schisms, the idolaters with their idolatries and the sinners with their impieties. With the other hand they shall build the temple of the true Solomon and the mystical city of God, that is to say, the most holy Virgin” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“The devil, knowing that he has but little time, and now less than ever, to destroy souls, will every day redouble his efforts and his combats. He will presently raise up cruel persecutions and will put terrible snares before the faithful servants and true children of Mary, whom it gives him more trouble to conquer than it does to conquer others ... These last and cruel persecutions of the devil, shall go on increasing daily till the reign of Antichrist … But the power of Mary over all the devils will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lay his snares against her heel: that is to say, her humble slaves and her poor children, whom she will raise up to make war against him” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“They shall be clouds thundering and flying through the air at the least breath of the Holy Ghost―who, detaching themselves from everything and troubling themselves about nothing, shall shower forth the rain of the Word of God and of life eternal! They shall thunder against sin; they shall storm against the world; they shall strike the devil and his crew; and they shall pierce through and through, for life or for death, with their two-edged sword of the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17), all those to whom they shall be sent on the part of the Most High! ... They shall be the true apostles of the latter times, to whom the Lord of Hosts shall give the word and the might to work marvels and to carry off with glory the spoils of His enemies!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“In a word, we know that they shall be true disciples of Jesus Christ, walking in the footsteps of His poverty, humility, contempt of the world, charity; teaching the narrow way of God in pure truth, according to the Holy Gospel, and not according to the maxims of the world; troubling themselves about nothing; not accepting persons; sparing, fearing and listening to no mortal, however influential he may be! They shall have in their mouths the two-edged sword of the Word of God! They shall carry on their shoulders the bloody standard of the Cross, the Crucifix in their right hand and the Rosary in their left, the sacred Names of Jesus and Mary in their hearts, and the modesty and mortification of Jesus Christ in their own behavior!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Soldiers Are Made, Not Born
This is not empty rhetoric by St. Louis de Montfort—this is a prophetic picture of what we have to be in our day and age. No soldier is born a soldier, but has to be trained and made into a soldier. Looking at St. Louis imagery and comparing it with our own personal state and condition might well be despondent—but it is well worth reading the book by the ex-Communist turned Catholic, Douglas Hyde, entitled Dedication and Leadership, wherein he shows how Communists take the worst imaginable material and train and convert it into a very efficient Communist fighting machine. If the skill of Communists can do that—what can the grace of God do?
The Example of St. Paul
St. Paul gives us an example of a true Soldier for Christ. Referring to the Apostles, he says: “They are the ministers of Christ (I speak as one less wise), I am more―in many more labors, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes, minus one! Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea! In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren! In labor and painfulness, in much watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness!” (2 Corinthians 11:23-27).
Let us pray to Our Lady, St. Paul, St. Louis de Montfort and all the saints, especially the martyrs, that we might have a love of the Precious Blood of Jesus; that we believe and use the power of His Precious Blood; that we be ready to shed our own blood for love of Jesus—whether it be shed mystically or physically. As the saying goes: “The Blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church!”
Light of the World?
“You are the salt of the Earth. But if the salt loses its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men! You are the light of the world! A city seated on a mountain cannot be hidden! Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bucket, but upon a candlestick, so that it may shine to all that are in the house!” (Matthew 5:13-16).
The Holy Ghost Needs Real Soldiers, Not Play Soldiers!
We are meant to carry the Light of the Faith into battle against the darkness of the world: “For whatsoever is born of God, overcomes the world: and this is the victory which overcomes the world―our Faith! Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4-5) … “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood―but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12) … “For your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist ye, strong in Faith!” (1 Peter 5:8-9).
We cannot quote too often the fighting talk of Our Lord: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). We don’t like such fiery talk, but Our Lord says: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled? … Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided―three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son; and the son against his father; the mother against the daughter; and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law; and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me! And he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me! And he that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me! He that finds his life, shall lose it; and he that shall loses his life for Me, shall find it!” (Luke 12:49-53; Matthew 10:34-39).
We have to get out of our hypnotic state that imagines that life is meant to be enjoyed and we are here to have fun—each in his or her own way! “Fight the good fight of Faith! Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12), for “the life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1) and this fight is not a virtual fight; it is not a fight in the imagination; nor a fight that once existed in the past but no longer today; nor a fight that some but not all are involved in—it is a perennial fight, a universal fight, an apocalyptic fight! Your salvation rests upon whether or not you fight; whether or not you compromise; whether or not you surrender to the enemy. Just as Our Lord was asked: “And who is my neighbor?” — you may well ask: “And who is my enemy?” Let Holy Scripture answer you:
The Enemy―World, Flesh, Devil
The enemy is the world, the flesh and the devil. “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “The whole world is seated in wickedness” (1 John 5:19). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own―but you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world” (John 15:19). Satan is “the prince of this world” (John 14:30).
The Fires of Heaven fight the Fires of Hell
There are basically two fires competing for this world―the fire of love for “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and the fires of hatred or the fires of Hell. In a sense, one fire is fighting the other fire. Can you fight fire with fire? Think about it for a second! A fire needs oxygen and fuel, such as leaves and vegetation, to continue raging. Rob the fire of either source of nourishment and you squelch the chemical reaction that produces it. When faced with an oil-well fire, firefighters have been known to remove the oxygen from the equation by detonating a little dynamite. The fiery blast from the dynamite eats up all the local oxygen, leaving nothing to keep the oil-well fire going. When an entire forest is ablaze, however, a different tactic is in order. Firefighters remove the fuel―and what better way to quickly remove combustible underbrush than to carefully set it on fire and destroy it before the forest fire gets a hold of it?
In pondering a fire’s hunger and growth, it’s easy to think of it as some form of organism―like a rat infestation. In addition to putting out poison, major metropolitan areas encourage residents to help combat rodent infestations through anti-litter campaigns. You don’t want rats in your home? Then don’t litter the streets with a buffet of fast-food garbage. Likewise, you can help prevent the spread of forest fires by keeping less fuel sitting around. Around the home, this strategy often means keeping your property free of vegetation that could act as fuel. If you’re managing a farm, forest or grassland, it often pays to conduct a controlled burn. In this scenario, wildlife managers set fire to an area under controlled conditions, burning fuel that could potentially feed a future wildfire. The burn creates a manmade firebreak, or gap, in combustible material to contain spreading wildfires.
Burning the Fuel of Worldliness
Too much worldly stuff provides the devil with excellent fuel for his “fires of Hell.” We need to burn that garbage before the rats of this world surround us and live-off us and our worldliness. Hence the Catholic spirit of abstinence, fasting, sacrifices, mortification, alms giving, temperance, etc. These are the good fires that burn up the trash and garbage that can inflame our souls with the fires of Hell.
Kindling Fires
Yet today, Catholics have no problem loving the world, they have no problem pampering their flesh and they are increasingly accepting the ‘doctrines’ of the devil―contraception, abortion, cohabitation, divorce and remarriage, same sex-unions, etc. Our Lord came to set the Earth on fire: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). In our prayers to the Holy Ghost, we ask for this fire to be kindled within us: “Come O Holy Ghost and enkindle in us the fire of Thy love!” Is the Holy Ghost failing to “enkindle in us the fire of His love” or is that the wood is no longer suitable for burning?
Bad Wood for Burning
Coated, painted, or pressure-treated wood can release toxic or harmful chemicals into the air, likewise Catholics who are coated by the world, ‘painted’ with worldliness and have been pressured by the world, are likely to produce a toxic spirituality. Green Wood―a freshly cut down living tree―is not the best material for the fire. The timber needs to age or “season” for a minimum of six to nine months before burning. Similarly Catholics need to “dry-out” from the “sap” of the world. Freshly cut wood, called green wood, is loaded with sap (mostly water) and needs to dry out first. It’s hard to light and once you get it going, it burns very efficiently and smokes horribly―you can draw your own spiritual analogies. “Green” Catholics or Catholics saturated by the world are difficult to motivate and hard to “light” or get them going in spiritual exercises―and when they do start, they smoke (complain) horribly! If you’re unsure if the wood is green, check the bark―firmly attached bark, that’s still sticky with sap when you nick it, is a bad sign. Likewise, a Catholic oozing worldliness is a bad sign.
There is also a danger in burning non-local wood. If you live in, or are visiting an area currently affected by invasive wood pests―even if the firewood was cut or stored more than a few miles away, you should leave the firewood where it is and keep looking. Firewood that travels too far is the number one way that invasive insects and diseases rapidly spread. Though the pests travel slowly on their own, moving an infected log can put new forests at risk and undermine conservation efforts. Millions of trees and thousands of acres of forest have been seriously damaged or even killed by these non-native pests. Similarly, Catholics should avoid invasive Faith pests―which would be non-Catholics, fallen-away Catholics, lukewarm Catholics.
Soft wood, from trees like pines, firs, or cypress, burns fast, leaves few coals, and makes a lot of smoke that can coat your chimney with soot (not a safe thing in the long run). Seasoned softwood is okay for outdoor fires, but you may want to avoid it if a fireplace is involved or you want a long-lasting fire or coals to cook over. Similarly, “soft” Catholics burn out quickly, are not long-lasting and put out a lot of smoke (complaints). Not the best thing to be around. Hard wood, though it may take longer to get started, lasts a long time―which is what a Catholic should be all about!
Poisonous woods are toxic. Care should be taken to avoid burning any wood covered with vines. Burning poison ivy, poison sumac, poison oak, or pretty much anything else with “poison” in the name releases the irritant oil urushiol into the smoke. Breathing it in can cause lung irritation and severe allergic respiratory problems. Burning salt-saturated driftwood (from the sea) is also a bad idea, as it can release toxic or harmful chemicals when burned. Obviously, poisonous woods are synonymous with bad Catholics―those who are covered with sin. They are toxic to your life.
All of this can be related to and compared with Our Lord’s words about wood and trees. “I am the true vine; and My Father is the farmer. Every branch in Me, that bears not fruit, He will take away! And every one that bears fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit! As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine―you are the branches! He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit! For without Me you can do nothing! If anyone does not abide in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:1-6).
Like Fire and Wood
St. John of the Cross explains something similar: A piece of wood is thrown into the fire. The fire envelops, penetrates, possesses it. To the wood, being possessed by the fire and burning are the same thing. But at first the wood is not wholly burned because the fire has not penetrated it completely. Penetration and possession come about little by little as the wood burns, until, perfectly penetrated by the fire, it is converted into it and burns with the same fire and has all the characteristics of fire.
The Holy Ghost is rightly called fire, living fountain, Charity, because He is Love. The spiritual life is nothing else but the penetration of the soul by that divine fire. The Holy Ghost possesses the soul and the soul burns―that is to say, it loves. Charity is the intimate fire that burns the soul, but the Holy Ghost, quite as intimately present in the soul, is both the cause of that fire and its glorious end.
Our ‘Green Wood’ Needs Perfecting
At first the soul does not burn totally, because it needs to be purified, in order that the divine fire may perfectly penetrate and possess it. Little by little the divine penetration is effected and the soul gradually burns more thoroughly, more profoundly. The divine penetration becomes so perfect, the spiritual combustion so complete, that the soul is “deified”; one might say that it is changed into fire, into love. It may be said to burn with the fire of God, and to love with the Holy Ghost, for the divine Spirit moves it to love so intimately and fully that, in all truth, this love is attributed to the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God loves in the soul, and the soul loves with that Holy Ghost. As the wood, when perfectly penetrated by the fire, takes on the very character of fire, so the soul that loves with the love of the Holy Ghost participates in the divine characteristics of eternal Love.
Get Used to Being Burnt―You Were to Burn
Everyone was made to burn―we will burn forever and the fire will never go out. We will either burn forever in Hell in hatred, or we will burn forever in Heaven in love, and most of those who end up burning forever in Heaven in love, first have to burn in Purgatory in regret for not having burned enough in love while still on Earth. Even in this world everyone is burning―some burn with love of the world, others burn with love of the Faith and God; some burn with hatred of God and His Church and all things to do with God, others burn with hatred for sin and all that in this world can lead to sin. “Prove me, O Lord, and test me! Burn my reins and my heart!” (Psalm 25:2). The flames of love will not burn those who love: “Thou shalt walk in the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, and the flames shall not burn in thee!” (Isaias 43:2).
But for those who burn with hatred for God and His Church, will meet a fate of fire in which they will burn for ever: “A fire shall go before Him, and shall burn His enemies round about!” (Psalm 96:3). “Woe be to the nation that rises up against my people―for the Lord almighty will take revenge on them, in the Day of Judgment He will visit them. For He will give fire and worms into their flesh, so that they may burn and may feel for ever!” (Judith 16:20-21). “For a fire is kindled in My rage, it shall burn upon you!” (Jeremias 15:14). “And I will gather you together, and will burn you in the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst thereof!” (Ezechiel 22:21). “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire and He will purge His floor, and will gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire!” (Luke 3:16-17).
Fire and War
There is close connection between fire and war―even before the days when guns and cannons were invented which led to the phenomenon and terminology of firearms, firing-guns and gunfire. In ancient times fire was used as a weapon of destruction. The destruction of enemy possessions and territory was a fundamental strategy of war, serving the dual purpose of punishment and deprivation of resources. Until the 5th century BC, the Greeks had little expertise in siege warfare and mainly relied on a strategy of devastation to draw the enemy out―they destroyed crops, trees and houses. Centuries later, the Byzantines still recommended this strategy, even though they had developed siege technology. Fire was the easiest way of harrying and destroying territories, and could be done easily and quickly by small forces. Early “thermal weapons” were devices or substances used in warfare during the classical and medieval periods (approximately from the 8th century BC until the mid-16th century AD) which used heat or burning action to destroy or damage enemy personnel, fortifications or territories. Fire and incendiary weapons were used against enemy structures and territory, as well as personnel, sometimes on a massive scale. At the simplest level, fire itself was used as a weapon to cause large-scale destruction. Large tracts of land, towns and villages were frequently ignited as part of a scorched Earth strategy. It was frequently used against siege engines and wooden structures.
Incendiary weapons could be used to set fire to towns and fortifications, and a wide range of thermal weapons were used against enemy personnel. The simplest and most common thermal projectiles were boiling water and hot sand―which required fire to heat them―which could then be poured over attacking personnel. Other anti-personnel weapons included the use of hot pitch, oil, resin, animal fat and other similar compounds―all of which required fire to heat them. Smoke was used to confuse or drive off attackers―where there is smoke, there is fire. Substances such as quicklime and sulfur could be toxic and blinding.
Various throwing machines were in use throughout the classical and medieval periods. Incendiary devices were frequently used as projectiles during warfare, particularly during sieges and naval battles. Generally referred to as “artillery”, these engines could hurl, fire or shoot missiles and most could be used or adapted for throwing thermal weapons, by attacking and defending forces. Some substances were boiled or heated to inflict damage by scalding or burning. Other substances relied on their chemical properties to inflict burns or damage. These weapons or devices could be used by individuals, manipulated by war machines, or utilized as army strategy. Barrels, fire pots and other breakable containers of pitch, Greek fire, and other incendiary mixtures could be thrown; other machines fired arrows and bolts, which could be ignited, or adapted to carry flammable mixtures. From the 12th century, Muslims in Syria were using clay and glass grenades for fire weapons, thrown by machines.
Incendiary mixtures, such as the petroleum-based Greek fire, could be launched by throwing machines or administered through a siphon. Sulfur-soaked and oil-soaked materials were sometimes ignited and thrown at the enemy, or attached to spears, arrow and bolts and fired by hand or machine. Some siege techniques—such as mining and boring—relied on combustibles and fire to complete the collapse of walls and structures.
Some armies developed specialized “fire-troops.” By 837, many Muslim armies had groups of “naffatin” (fire-archers), and when the Mamluk Sultanate raised a fleet for an attack on Cyprus they had “nafata”, or fire-troops. Towards the latter part of the period, gunpowder was invented, which increased the sophistication of the weapons, starting with fire-lances, which led to the eventual development of the cannon and other firearms. Development of the early weapons has continued ever since, with modern war weapons such as napalm, flame throwers, and other explosives having direct roots in the original early thermal weapons. Fire-raising and other destructive strategies can still be seen in modern strategic bombing.
Time For Fireworks!
Prophecies for our times speak of two kinds of fire falling from the skies―a man-made fire will come first, which will then be “trumped” by God sending His own fire from Heaven.
Just a few extracts of Our Lady’s warnings from Quito, La Salette, Fatima and Akita are enough to terrify us even more than the globalists terrify us: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it ... Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together ... The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God … Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she trembles, with dread, at what must happen to the Earth stained with crime ...
“Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws … These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government will see a cruel persecution … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... The impious will rage a cruel war … The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings …
“There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed ... There will be bloody wars and famines, plagues and infectious diseases .... The Earth will be struck by calamities of all kinds in addition to the plague and famine, which will be widespread .... There will be a series of wars … Italy will be punished for her ambition in wanting to shake off the yoke of the Lord of Lords. And so she will be left to fight a war; blood will flow on all sides ... France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling ... Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of arms and blasphemy …
“There will be thunderstorms which will shake cities, earthquakes which will swallow up countries ... Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes which will swallow up mountains and cities … Water and fire will purge the Earth and consume all the works of man’s pride … Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes ... It will rain with a fearful hail of animals … People will believe that all is lost ... It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. ... The fire of Heaven will fall and consume three cities ... Various nations will be annihilated … All the universe will be struck with terror … The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead … Men will beat their heads against walls, call for their death, and on another side death will be their torment. Who will be the victor if God does not shorten the length of the test?”
Why? Oh, Why?
Why all this carnage? Our Lady replies: “The sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this Earth” (La Salette) … ”God is about to punish the world for its crimes—by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church! … Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended!” (Fatima) … ”Many men in this world afflict the Lord! … In order that the world might know His anger, the heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind! ... If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity!” (Akita).
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! … Yada! Yada! Yada! … Blah! Blah! Blah!
We have heard all this before! We have read it all before! This is nothing new! Yet, on December 26th, 1957, Sister Lucia spoke to Fr. Augustine Fuentes, a Mexican priest, which Fr. Fuentes reports thus: “The first thing she (Lucia) said to me (Fr Fuentes) was: ’Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them.’”
Therefore you must “Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and will turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables! But be thou vigilant, labor in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry!” (2 Timothy 4:2). “He that hears you, hears Me; and he that despises you, despises Me; and he that despises Me, despises Him that sent Me!” (Luke 10:16).
For the Last Time!—We’re in the Last Times!—Last Time You Paid No Attention!
Sister Lucia also said the following to Fr. Augustine Fuentes: “The Most Holy Virgin has made me understand that we are in the last times of the world. She has told me that the devil is about to wage a decisive battle with the Virgin, and a decisive battle is a final battle, in which one side wins, the other side loses. Also, starting with the present time, we belong either to God or we belong to the demon―there is no middle ground!”
“The devil is about to wage a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin. The devil knows what it is that most offends God and which, in a short space of time, will gain for him the greatest number of souls. Thus the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way the devil will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them!”
Sister Lucia wrote to a priest nephew of hers, Fr. Jose Valinho: “I see by your letter that you are disturbed by the confusion of our time. It is sad indeed that so many persons let themselves be dominated by the diabolical wave, which is sweeping the world, and that they are blinded, to the point of being incapable of seeing error!”
In her 1957 conversation with Fr. Fuentes, Sister Lucia said: “Father, we should not wait for an appeal to the world to come from Rome on the part of the Holy Father, to do penance. Nor should we wait for the call from our bishops in our dioceses, nor from the religious congregations. No! Our Lord has already, very often, used these means and the world has not paid attention. That is why now it is necessary for each one of us to begin to reform ourselves spiritually. Each person must not only save his own soul, but also the souls that God has placed on our path.”
“Father, the Most Holy Virgin did not tell me [explicitly] that we are in the last times, but she made me understand this for three reasons:
► The first reason is as follows: The devil is about to wage a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin, and a decisive battle is the final battle where one side will be victorious and the other side will suffer defeat.
► The second reason is as follows: She said to my cousins as well as to myself, that God is giving two last remedies to the world―the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These are the last two remedies, which signify that there will be no others.
► The third reason is as follows―God, before He is about to chastise, exhausts all other remedies.”
It’s Now Time For…
Okay! Is that it? Fine! Thanks! There’s nothing I can do about it! Well, there isn’t, is there? I’ve better things to do than listen to all ‘private-revelation’ stuff! Someone turn the TV back on! Let’s get back to reality! Now, someone pass the popcorn! Hey! Where’s my beer gone? Who took my beer? Enough of this scaremongering and killjoy party-pooping! Besides, God is a God of love! God is a nice guy! He wouldn’t hurt a fly! Well, He wouldn’t, would He? Don’t you agree?
Well, that Nice Guy, Who loves us all and wouldn’t hurt a fly, happened to wipe out millions of Israelites during the Exodus―because they paid little attention to Him and were always complaining! That Nice Guy, Who loves us all and wouldn’t hurt a fly, happened to wipe out all the inhabitants of the Earth with the Great Flood―except for 8 persons and an ark full of animals. That Nice Guy, Who loves us all and wouldn’t hurt a fly, also happened to wipe Jerusalem off the map and throw His Chosen People into years of Babylonian Captivity. That Nice Guy, Who loves us all and wouldn’t hurt a fly, also arranged for the total destruction of Jerusalem with all its inflated seasonal Passover population of over 1 million people in the year 70 AD, because they had rejected and crucified His Nice Son, Who happened to prophesy that all this would happen and that not stone would be left upon a stone! Chosen People or not― “with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the desert” (1 Corinthians 10:5). Is it any better today? It is worse today than it ever was! Our Lady has spoken of our times being worse than those in the time of Noe and the Great Flood―consequently, she has said that punishment that is pending, will also be worse than that of the Great Flood.
To Blessed Sister Elena Aiello (1895-1961)―mystic, stigmatic, victim soul, prophetess and foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ―Our Lady, in an apparition on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, 1956, said: “People are offending God too much! Were I to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief. These are grave times. The world is in total turmoil because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge. Materialism marches on ever fomenting bloody strifes and fratricidal struggles. Clear signs portend that peace is in danger. That scourge, like the shadow of a dark cloud, is now moving across mankind: only my power, as Mother of God, is preventing the outbreak of the storm. All is hanging on a slender thread. When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs. All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth.”
At Akita, around 17 years later (in 1973), Our Lady warned: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord! … Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended! … If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them! … In order that the world might know His anger, the heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind! … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before! Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful! The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead! … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness!”
Soldiers of Christ and Light of the World or Suckers for the World?
“You are the salt of the Earth. But if the salt loses its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men! You are the light of the world! A city seated on a mountain cannot be hidden. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bucket, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house” (Matthew 5:13-16). Today, there are very few “salty Catholics” to be found―most of them have become “soft Catholics” or “sweet Catholics” or “sugary Catholics” or “mammonized Catholics”―who love the world more than God (if not in theory, then most definitely in practice―which can be seen by the hours and hours they give to the world in relation to the few minutes they give to God).
The Soldiers of Christ have become Suckers for the World! They have laid down their arms and picked up their smartphones. Instead of meditating 5 decades of the Rosary―they meditate the internet with their latest 5G smartphones. “Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luke 4:4) becomes “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word he can read on the internet.” Instead of following Christ―they follow friends on social media. Instead of reading the texts of the Bible all day long, they send texts all day long. Instead of fighting those who have no time for God and His Church, they spend their time delighting in those who have no time for God and His Church. Nobody wants to be a saint―they just want to be quaint. Nobody wants to be hated for Christ’ sake―they want to be loved for their own sake. The words of Scripture are truer than ever before:
“The fool has said in his heart: ‘There is no God!’ They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways: there is none that does good―no, not one! The Lord has looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside! They are become unprofitable together! There is none that does good―no, not one! Their throat is an open sepulcher―with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips! Their mouth [texts, e-mails, posts] is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood! Destruction and unhappiness is in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes!” (Psalm 13:1-3).
It’s Just Not Fair!!!
The problem is that, once you start to let your light shine, there are plenty of people (not to mention the devil) who want to put out that light! It’s as though the world loves the sinner, but hates the saint! If we try too hard to be good, and become good, then we are target to be attacked and destroyed. It’s not fair, is it? It’s downright disgusting! Yep! But Our Lord never promised that the world would be fair to us, did He?
Scandalous Scriptures
“But Jesus, knowing in Himself, that His disciples murmured at this, said to them: ‘Doth this scandalize you?’” ((John 6:62). “Wonder not, brethren, if the world hates you!” (1 John 3:13). “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “They hated Me without cause!” (John 15:25). “Remember My words that I said to you: ‘The servant is not greater than his master.’ If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you!” (John 15:20). “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own―but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. All these things they will do to you for My Name’s sake―because they know not Him Who sent Me!” (John 15:18-21). “And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake―but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:22).
And If That Wasn’t Enough…
Wow! That is a pretty tough advertising campaign! And then He has to go and add things that that make it even tougher! “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me. He that finds his life, shall lose it―and he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it!” (Matthew 10:34-39). Whew! But there is even more!
Want Some More?
“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death―and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name’s sake! And then shall many be scandalized; and shall betray one another; and shall hate one another!” (Matthew 24:9-10). “And you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren, and kinsmen and friends; and some of you they will put to death!” (Luke 21:16). “The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death; and the father the son; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death!” (Matthew 10:21). Mark repeats the same in His Gospel: “And the brother shall betray his brother unto death; and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death!” (Mark 13:12). “Behold―I have told it to you beforehand!” (Matthew 24:25).
Is There A Bright Side?
“Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake―for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven! For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you!” (Matthew 5:10-12).
A Fake World—A False Peace
For all the talk about “Human Rights”, “The Rights of Man”, “Brotherhood of Nations”, “Freedom of Religion”, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, etc., there has never been as much persecution and martyrdom as we have seen in the 20th century and which has now spilled-over into the 21st century. It fits perfectly with the prophecies of Our Lady that were made well in advance of those centuries.
The “Age of Martyrs” is the term of art for the earliest years of Christian history, but statistics show (both Catholic and non-Catholic evaluations and as Pope Francis remarked several times in his homilies after his election, as well as this year, “the age of martyrs is not yet over; even today we can say, in truth, that the Church has more martyrs now than during the first centuries.” More Christians were martyred in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined. Here is just a small sampling of the persecution that is going on worldwide, and is accelerating and increasing:
● About 170,000 Christians are martyred for their Faith each year (over 400 per day).
● Currently over 200 million Christians are being persecuted worldwide.
● Christians are persecuted in 131 of the world’s 193 countries [Pew Forum study].
● North Korea: in 2014 it still continued to be the worst country in the world for persecution.
● Nigeria: In 2010 Christians suffered terror from Muslim extremists. Whole villages were massacred.
● Iran: Its parliament believes Muslims who change their Faith should be put to death.
● India: up to 70,000 in Orissa were forced to flee their homes in riots against Christians.
● Indonesia: Between 2000-2002 Muslims slaughtered 10,000 Christians.
● Iraq: half of Iraq’s Christians have fled the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
● Egypt: Under Islamist pressure, Coptic Christians are being forced from their homes.
● Syria: By 2012, most of the 80,000 Christians in Homs had been ‘cleansed’ from their homes.
● Europe: persecution is coming in by stealth through EU (European Union) equality directives.
In its ultimate form, persecution results in martyrdom. A martyr is one who, without seeking their own death or any harm to others, is murdered or put to death for their religious Faith. The word ‘martyr’ comes from the Greek word translated “witness”. Such extreme witness is always positive in that it leads to church growth. As Tertullian [a theologian in the early Christian church] said: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
United Nations Human Rights Declaration
Today we have the noble declaration of human rights enshrined in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Despite Article 18, there are severe human rights violations in many countries. Christians are persecuted across Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, most of Asia (including China) and now Europe (via the European Union). Iran is one of the world’s most repressive states, and those who offend the Sharia law, may be publicly flogged, or even executed by hanging in the streets. In 2008 over 200 million Christians around the world were in danger of being tortured, persecuted, or killed for their Faith. Yet nobody wants to fight! Catholics will read about it and do nothing about it! Back to their entertainment they go!
Why?
The simple answer to the question, “Why does our good God allow all this?” is simply sin! Our Lady of La Salette says: “The sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this Earth!” Our Lady said at Fatima says wars are a punishment for sin. The worldwide explosion of sin and faithlessness has been foretold both by the Bible and Our Lady’s prophecies.
In Holy Scripture Our Lord shows that Jerusalem’s rejection of Him, would be severely punished: “You shall see Jerusalem compassed about with an army … For these are the days of vengeance, that all things may be fulfilled, that are written ... for there shall be great wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword; and shall be led away captives into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles” (Luke 21:20-24). Why? Because of sin. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7). “Sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15). “According to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up to thyself wrath, against the day of wrath, and revelation of the just judgment of God” (Romans 2:5).
This is exactly what Our Lady foretold would happen at her apparition at La Salette: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it … “Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together ... God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God ... The priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the holy mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door … Churches will be locked up or desecrated. Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death ...
“Italy will be punished for her ambition in wanting to shake off the yoke of the Lord of Lords. And so she will be left to fight a war; blood will flow on all sides … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God ... Religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God ... They will abolish civil rights as well as ecclesiastical, all order and all justice would be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension would be seen, without love for country or family ... All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principal, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... “France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France and Italy because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other even in their homes.” (Our Lady of La Salette).
We therefore see the terrible consequences of the ever escalating sins of the world. We were asked to do something to counter-balance this by Our Lady of Fatima, who asked for many Rosaries and sacrifices, and the five First Saturday devotions of reparation to the her Immaculate Heart. Yet most good souls, if they are not part of the deluge of sin, are too busy with their own ‘good’ preoccupations, and so Our Lady’s requests go, for the most part, unanswered—the few that do comply with her requests are a mere few drops of water against the tsunami of sin. That is why God has to release an unprecedented chastisement upon the world, for when the world is faced with what, Our Lady says, has never been seen before, then some of them will, in fear, be brought to their knees and their senses. It seems that this is only way in which we will listen and obey!
Article 29
Wednesday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 27th
The Fire of Love Descends from Heaven
Wednesday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 27th
The Fire of Love Descends from Heaven
What’s This With God And Fire?
Pentecost is the time of fire par excellence! The Holy Ghost comes from Heaven, under the appearance of tongues of fire, and rests upon each of those present in the Upper Room. He “fires them up” and gives them a “fiery” courage to go out and confess and preach Christ.
We’ve hear of the expression: “Don’t play with fire!” Yet fire is all that God seems to think about! As Holy Scripture says: “Our God is a consuming fire!” (Hebrews 12:29). There is more fire around than we would imagine. Let us then draw closer to this fire and take a closer look at it, to see if, perhaps, it might warm our lukewarm souls!
God the Father and Fire
God the Father sparks things off by choosing fire to represent Himself on many an occasion—not least the time of Israelites’ wanderings in the desert, when He led them at night as “pillar of fire” (Exodus 13:21).
● God the Father appeared to Moses in the burning bush, on Mount Sinai: “Now Moses … came to the mountain of God, Horeb. And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire and was not burnt. And Moses said: ‘I will go and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt!’ And when the Lord saw that he went forward to see, He called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said: ‘Moses! Moses!’ And he answered: Here I am. And He said: ‘Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground!’” (Exodus 3:1-5).
● “And when forty years were expired, there appeared to Moses, in the desert of Sinai, an angel in a flame of fire in a bush. And Moses seeing it, wondered at the sight. And as he drew near to view it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying: ‘I am the God of thy fathers; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob!’” (Acts 7:30-32).
● “And the Lord went before them to show the way by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire: that He might be the guide of their journey at both times. There never failed the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, before the people” (Exodus 13:21-22).
● Another time, the whole of the Chosen People saw the glory of God in the fire that lit up the whole of the top of Mount Sinai: “And when Moses had brought them forth to meet God from the place of the camp, they stood at the bottom of the mount. And all Mount Sinai was on a smoke: because the Lord was come down upon it in fire, and the smoke arose from it as out of a furnace: and all the mount was terrible! … And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Exodus 19:17-18; 24:17).
God the Son and Fire
● Besides showing St. Margaret Mary His Sacred Heart, on fire with love for men, just as His Father had shown Himself on fire atop Mount Sinai, Our Lord also said, while on Earth: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth! And what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). Not only that, but he often uses the image of fire as a part of His teaching:
● “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees! Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire!” (Matthew 3:10).
● “And if thy hand, or thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to go into life maimed or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee having one eye to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into Hell fire” (Matthew 18:8-9).
● “If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:6).
● “But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother: ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. And whosoever shall say: ‘Thou Fool!’ shall be in danger of Hell fire” (Matthew 5:22).
● “The harvest is the end of the world. And the reapers are the angels. Even as cockle therefore is gathered up, and burnt with fire: so shall it be at the end of the world. The Son of man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all scandals, and them that work iniquity. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth … Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not extinguished” (Matthew 13:40-50; Mark 9:43).
God the Holy Ghost and Fire
● “John the Baptist answered, saying unto all: ‘I indeed baptize you with water; but there shall come one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to loose―He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire!’” (Luke 3:16).
● On the first Pentecost Sunday, the Holy Ghost did indeed come as fire to ‘baptize’ them as “there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them” (Acts 2:3). Hence we have the phrase: “A baptism of fire!”
● The Church even incorporates fire in the devotion to the Holy Ghost—as is seen in the following extracts of various liturgical prayers: “Come, O Holy Ghost, … enkindle in us the fire of Thy love” … “Forth from the Father’s light it came, that beautiful and kindly flame: to fill with fervor of His word, the spirits faithful to their Lord” … “With quivering flame He lights on each, in fashion like a tongue, to teach!” … “Kindle with fire, brought from above, each sense and fill our hearts with love!” ... ”The fire of God fell, not to burn them, but to enlighten them, and gave them gifts of grace.”
Heaven and Fire
● “And when His disciples James and John had seen this [rejection of Jesus], they said: ‘Lord, do You want that we command fire to come down from Heaven, and consume them?’” (Luke 9:54). They were no doubt thinking of a repeat of Sodom and Gomorrha—which is another example of fire from Heaven.
● “And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven. And He destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the Earth” (Genesis 19:24-25).
● Jesus Himself mentions this punishing fire from Heaven, and states that the same thing will happen in the End Times: “And in the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven, and destroyed them all! Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man shall be revealed” (Luke 17:29-30).
The Antichrist and Fire
Among the ‘wonders’ that the Antichrist will work, we read: “And he did great signs, so that he made also fire to come down from Heaven unto the Earth in the sight of men” (Apocalypse 13:13).
Sin and Fire
● “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity!” (James 3:6).
● “Your gold and silver is cankered: and the rust of them shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up to yourselves wrath against the last days!” (James 5:3).
● “Sodom and Gomorrha, and the neighboring cities, in like manner, having given themselves to fornication, and going after other flesh, were made an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 1:7).
Day of Judgment and Fire
● “And the first angel sounded the trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and it was cast on the Earth, and the third part of the Earth was burnt up, and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded the trumpet: and as it were a great mountain, burning with fire, was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood!” (Apocalypse 8:7-8).
● “Looking for the coming of the day of the Lord, by which the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with the burning heat” (2 Peter 3:12).
● “Every man’s work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work survive, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire” (1 Corinthians 3:13-15).
● “When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven, with the angels of his power, in a flame of fire, giving vengeance to them who know not God, and who obey not the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8).
● St. Paul speaks of “a certain dreadful expectation of judgment, and the rage of a fire which shall consume the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:27).
● Speaking of the iniquitous Babylon, the Book of Apocalypse says: “For her sins have reached unto Heaven, and the Lord hath remembered her iniquities … Therefore she shall be burnt with the fire; because God is strong, who shall judge her” (Apocalypse 18:5-8).
● The Book of Apocalypse has numerous other references to fire on the Day of Judgment.
Hell and Fire
● “He also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled with pure wine in the cup of His wrath, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone” (Apocalypse 14:10).
● At Fatima, Our Lady showed the three children a vision of the fires of Hell. Sr. Lucia of Fatima relates the experience thus: “She opened her hands once more, as she had done the two previous months. The rays [of light] appeared to penetrate the Earth, and we saw, as it were, a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire, we saw the demons and the souls [of the damned]. The latter were like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, having human forms. They were floating about in that conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames which issued from within themselves, together with great clouds of smoke. Now they fell back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fright — it must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me. The demons were distinguished [from the souls of the damned] by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. That vision only lasted for a moment, thanks to our good heavenly Mother, who at the first apparition had promised to take us to Heaven. Without that, I think that we would have died of terror and fear.”
● She also told the children: “When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: ‘O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of Hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need of mercy.’”
Purgatory and Fire
● Pope St. Gregory the Great, in his Dialogues, informs us, that “the flames of Purgatory are, as it were, the instrument of divine justice, operating with such terrible power as to render the agony of the souls detained there intolerable. These pains far exceed all the tribulations, nay, and martyrdoms that can be witnessed, felt, or imagined in this life.”
● St. Catherine of Genoa, in the Treatise on Purgatory, writes: “From that furnace of divine love I see rays of fire dart like burning lamps towards the soul; and so violent and powerful are they that both soul and body would be utterly destroyed, if that were possible. These rays perform a double office; they purify and they annihilate. Consider gold: the oftener it is melted, the more pure does it become; continue to melt it and every imperfection is destroyed. This is the effect of fire on all materials. The soul, however, cannot be annihilated in God, but in herself she can, and the longer her purification lasts, the more perfectly does she die to herself, until at length she remains purified in God. When gold has been completely freed from dross, no fire, however great, has any further action on it, for nothing but its imperfections can be consumed. So it is with the divine fire in the soul. God retains her in these flames until every stain is burned away, and she is brought to the highest perfection of which she is capable, each soul in her own degree. And when this is accomplished, she rests wholly in God. Nothing of herself remains, and God is her entire being.”
● Fr. Schouppe, in his book Purgatory Explained, relating an experience of St. Frances of Rome, writes: “Purgatory, she said, is divided into three distinct parts … They are situated the one beneath the other, and occupied by souls of different states … The lowest region is filled with a fierce fire, but which is not dark like that of Hell; it is a vast burning sea, throwing forth immense flames. Innumerable souls are plunged into its depths: they are those who have rendered themselves guilty of mortal sin, which they have duly confessed, but not sufficiently expiated during life. The servant of God then learned that, for all forgiven mortal sin, there remains to be undergone a suffering of seven years. This term cannot evidently be taken to mean a definite measure, since mortal sins differ in enormity, but as an average penalty. Although the souls are enveloped in the same flames, their sufferings are not the same; they differ according to the number and nature of their former sins.”
Our Lady and Fire
● Our Lady’s heart is on fire! In the Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the prayer during the Offertory Secret reads: “O Lord, we pray that our hearts may be set aflame by the fire that burned so wondrously in the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” She would prefer that our hearts burn with love, like hers, but if not, she speaks of a different, more painful kind of fire!
● Already in the 1600’s, Our Lady of Good Success said: “If there are not any souls who, by their lives of immolation and sacrifice, appease the Divine Justice, fire will rain from Heaven! … Without virginity, it would be necessary for fire from Heaven to rain down upon these lands in order to purify them!”
● Our Lady of La Salette also speaks of punishing fires: “The seasons will be altered, the Earth will produce nothing but bad fruit, the stars will lose their regular motion, the moon will only reflect a faint reddish glow. Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes which will swallow up mountains and cities ... The fire of Heaven will fall and consume cities ... And then water and fire will purge the Earth and consume all the works of man’s pride and all will be renewed. God will be served and glorified.”
● Our Lady of Akita also stresses the punishing fires from Heaven: “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.”
The Church’s Liturgy and Fire
● Fire is one of the most expressive and most ancient of liturgical symbols. All the creeds of antiquity give prominent place to fire, whose mysterious nature and irresistible power frequently caused it to be adored as a god. The sun, as the principle of heat and light for the Earth, had its share in this worship. Christianity adapted this belief, while refusing to give the title of divinity to heat and light, and instead made them mere symbols of the true divinity, which enlightens and warms humanity. The symbolism led quite naturally to the liturgical rite by which the Church on the Eve of Easter celebrates the mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, of which the extinguished and rekindled fire furnishes the expressive image.
● The beginning of the Easter Divine Office also reflects ancient beliefs. The first ceremony consisted in the blessing of the New Fire, which was to furnish light for the whole Service. It was the daily custom, in the first ages of the Church, to strike a flame from a flint before Vespers; from this the lamps and candles were lit for the celebration of that Hour, and the light thus procured was kept up in the church till the Vespers of the following day. The Church at Rome observed this custom with great solemnity on Maundy Thursday morning, and the New Fire received a special blessing. We learn, from a letter written in the eight century by Pope St. Zachary to St. Boniface the Archbishop of Mainz, that three lamps were lit from this fire, which were then removed to some safe place, and care taken that their light be not extinguished. It was from these lamps that the light for Holy Saturday night was taken. The new fire is struck from a flint and is blessed with this prayer.
“Lord God, Almighty Father, inextinguishable light, Who has created all light, bless this fire sanctified and blessed by Thee, Who has enlightened the whole world; make us enlightened by that light and inflamed with the fire of Thy brightness; and as Thou did enlighten Moses when he went out of Egypt, so illuminate our hearts and senses that we may attain life and light everlasting through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
● Fr. Goffine, writing on the use fire in the liturgy, says: “In ancient times it was customary to strike a new fire every day, bless it, and light the candles from it, and later this was done every Saturday; in the eleventh century this ceremony was restricted to Holy Saturday. The fire is struck from a stone to indicate, that Christ is the light of the world, and the Stone which the Jews rejected has now become the Corner stone of His Church (Psalm 117:22); that the divine Son, the light of the world, was apparently extinguished at His death, but at His resurrection shone anew; that all those who witness this ceremony today be spiritually enlightened hereafter. This fire is blessed, because the Church blesses everything that is used for divine service, and because the light and fire represent Christ, who brought the fire of love upon Earth with which to enkindle our hearts” (Fr. Goffine, The Church’s Year).
The large Paschal Candle representing Christ, which is lit in total darkness—symbolizing the darkness of a world that tries to do without Christ—and from that Paschal Candle we light our smaller candles. Again, the Paschal Candle is made of beeswax, but the smaller candles are not. The more candles that are lit from the Paschal Candle, the more light is shed around and everything brightens up.
● On Holy Thursday, at the consecration of the holy chrism (oil), there was collected in all the lamps of the Lateran basilica a quantity of oil sufficient to fill three large vases deposited in the corner of the church. Wicks burned in this oil until the night of Holy Saturday, when there were lighted from these lamps the candles and other lights, that were used during the Paschal Vigil (Eve of Easter) ceremonies—during which there is the blessing of the fire and the paschal candle at the beginning of Easter Eve.
● When the Paschal or Easter Vigil fire has been lit and blessed the three-branched candle (representing the Holy Trinity) is lighted with that blessed fire and the deacon then chants the “Exultet”, a chant still preserved in the Roman Liturgy. In the Eastern Church, the Easter ceremony of the new fire occupies a place of considerable importance in the paschal ritual of the Greek Church at Jerusalem. In the West we see the Irish, as early as the sixth century, lighting large fires at nightfall on the Eve of Easter.
● The feast of the Purification or Candlemas (February 2nd) has a celebrated rite with ancient prayers concerning the emission of liturgical fire and light. One of these prayers invokes Christ as “Thy servant Moses didst command the purest oil to be prepared for lamps to burn continuously before Thee: vouchsafe to pour forth the grace of Thy blessing ☩ upon these candles: that they may so afford us light outwardly that by Thy gift, the gift of Thy Spirit may never be wanting inwardly to our minds. … As these candles are enkindled with visible fire to dispel the darkness of night, so may our hearts illumined by invisible fire, that is, by the splendor of the Holy Spirit, in order to free from the blindness of all vice.” … “being worthily inflamed with the holy fire of Thy most sweet charity, we may deserve to be presented in the holy temple of Thy glory”
The flame of the candles represents God, His divinity and grace. God the Father appeared to Moses in the burning bush; God the Son showed Himself as a burning heart to St. Margaret Mary; God the Holy Ghost came down upon Our Lady and the Apostles in the form of tongues of fire at Pentecost. God chooses fire to show both His love, His mercy and His justice. Those in Heaven experience the fire of His love; those in Purgatory experience the fire of His mercy; those in Hell experience the fire of His justice. We even say, in the prayer to the Holy Ghost, “Come O Holy Ghost … enkindle in us the fire of Thy love.” Without God and His grace in our souls (candles), we are useless, just like an extinguished candle. A candle was made to burn, not to be extinguished. It should spend its life giving light to those around, as Our Lord said: “Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 5:15).
Mankind, You, and Fire
Surrounded by all this fire, you may well think there is no escape! You are right! In all truth, we were made to burn! The only variable thing is where we shall burn. We can choose to burn on Earth with a great love of God and have the fire of love purge us from all stain of sin: “And all that may pass through the fire, shall be purified by fire, but whatsoever cannot abide the fire, shall be sanctified with the water of expiation” (Numbers 31:23). We can neglect or escape from doing this, but we only jump out of the frying-pan into the fire—either the Fires of Purgatory, or the Fires of Hell. That is where our lukewarm, fireless soul will lead us to eventually. Our Lord said: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth! And what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). He wants to kindle a fire in your soul, so that you can avoid the fires of Purgatory or Hell. You can come to that fire or flee from that fire.
Will the Real Holy Ghost Please Stand Up!
With all this talk of fire and the Holy Ghost choosing to come in the form of fire―the question naturally arises: “Is the Holy Ghost tough or mild?” ― for fires can be comforting and fires can be destructive! Is He loud or quiet? Is he comforting or destructive? Reading Holy Scripture can be a little confusing―for it seems contradictory, or is it that God is a little bit of everything? God is God―whether it be God the Father, God the Son or God the Holy Ghost. The three members of the Holy Trinity think alike and act alike―there is no disagreement between them. They may have different roles―Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier―but the Spirit is the same. But what Spirit is it that rules and drives Them all? Trying to find out can be a little confusing as we read seemingly contradictory indications in Holy Scripture:
“Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord! And behold the Lord passes, and a great and strong wind before the Lord over throwing the mountains, and breaking the rocks in pieces―the Lord is not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake―the Lord is not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire―the Lord is not in the fire―and after the fire a whistling of a gentle air” (3 Kings 19:11-12).
“And when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak” (Acts 2:1-4).
You Get the God You Deserve
No doubt you have heard it said: “We get the leaders we deserve!” Similarly, “We get the God we deserve!” Modern-day Christians are ceaselessly enthusing about God being “Love” and “Mercy” and all you have to do is believe in Him and you are “saved”. God is love, that is true, but God is not ONLY love. You would have thought that simple common sense would have told them that there is something wrong with their theory when scrutinized under the light of most souls ending up damned―but, of course, they refuse to look at and consider that part of reality!
The Life You Lead Dictates the God You Get
As Holy Scripture says elsewhere: “With the holy one Thou will be holy, and with the valiant, perfect. With the elect Thou will be elect, and with the perverse Thou will be perverted. And the poor people Thou will save. And with Thy eyes Thou will humble the haughty!” (2 Kings 22:26-28). “With the holy, Thou will be holy; and with the innocent man Thou will be innocent. And with the elect Thou will be elect and with the perverse thou will be perverted. For Thou will save the humble people; but will bring down the eyes of the proud!” (Psalm 17:26-28). In other words―God will be tough or kind, heavy-handed or gentle, depending on what we are “asking for” or what we deserve. As the New Testament says: “See then the goodness and the severity of God―towards them indeed that are fallen, the severity; but towards thee, if thou abide in goodness, the goodness of God―otherwise thou also shalt be cut off!” (Romans 11:22).
Is the Holy Ghost Gentle?
“O how good and sweet is Thy spirit, O Lord, in all things!” (Wisdom 12:1). “The Lord is sweet!” (1 Peter 2:3). Scripture speaks of “the goodness and kindness of God our Savior” (Titus 3:4). Just like any parent, the Holy Ghost is gentle if the “child” listens, obeys and is good. If we decide not to listen, not to obey and are bad, then, like any parent would do, the Holy Ghost has to take “corrective measures” and even “punitive measures.” Heck! We even treat pets the same way! Or even a pen that won’t write when it is needed to write, we tend to throw it aside and get one that will write! If you disobey God, ignore God, neglect God―even though He is patient and merciful―you will pay! Hey! Even those who are in Hell are experiencing the mercy of God―because they are not being punished as severely as they actually deserve to be punished.
Modern-man seems to ignore this truth. You have to get this straight―you do not mess with God just because He does not react immediately! “The Lord delays not His promise [to punish], as some imagine, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance!” (2 Peter 3:9). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).
Yes, “the Lord is sweet and righteous” (Psalm 24:8). “O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet! Blessed is the man that hopes in Him!” (Psalm 33:9). “Thy mercy is sweet! Do Thou deliver me!” (Psalm 108:21). When sweetness and kindness is merited, then God will give it―but He is also righteous, which means “acting in accord with divine or moral law”, and if man decides to break God’s law, then that righteous God will do what is right and His justice will be invoked. “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil―that put darkness for light, and light for darkness―that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20).
“The Lord is sweet to all―and His tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:9). “He has borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows” (Isaias 53:4). “Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon Thee!” (Psalms 85:5). Yet merely “calling” on the Lord is not enough―we must “change” our ways if we seek and hope to obtain His “plenteous mercy”. There are too many who expect mercy without amending their sinful ways, who treat the Sacrament of Confession like a weekly “car-wash” or a revolving door, but drive back into the mud of sin immediately afterwards, just “as a dog that returns to his vomit, so is the fool that repeats his folly” (Proverbs 26:11). Scripture adds: “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). Jesus warns us, saying: “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21). “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
The Kindness of God
The reality is that God wants to save everyone―but it has to be on His terms and not on their terms. God’s love excludes nobody―the excluding is done by a lack of love towards God. There are sufficient Scriptural quotes that confirm that God loves sinners, has compassion upon those sinners, and wishes to save those sinners―regardless of how sinful they are or may have been: “The Lord is gracious and merciful; patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). “‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his ways, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil way―and why will you die?’ (Ezechiel 33:11). “The soul that sins, the same shall die … But if the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keeps all My commandments, and does judgment and justice, then living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done! In his justice, which he has wrought, he shall live!” (Ezechiel 18:20-22). “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow; and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18). “Because I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). Beautiful, huh? Those quotes are only the tip of the iceberg!
As a further “dip the big toe in the water” reflection or meditation, Holy Scripture not only tells us that “God is charity” (1 John 4:8), but Scripture also unpacks or gives a brief description of that charity: “Charity is patient, is kind. Charity envies not, deals not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious, seeks not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinks no evil; rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believeth all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Charity never falls away―whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
The Toughness of God
Yet, on the other hand, God also says: “But if the just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity―according to all the abominations which the wicked man uses to work―shall he live? All his justices, which he has done, shall not be remembered in the prevarication by which he has prevaricated, and in his sins, which he has committed, in them he shall die. And you have said: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Hear ye, therefore, O house of Israel! Is it My way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse? For when the just man turns himself away from his justice and commits iniquity, then he shall die therein―in the injustice, that he has wrought, he shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:24-26).
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8). “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great―He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’ For mercy and wrath quickly come from Him, and His wrath looks upon sinners. Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day. For His wrath shall come suddenly, and in the time of vengeance He will destroy thee!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5-9).
God is Charity―Charity Sanctifies
It is only logical that if “God is Charity” (1 John 4:8) and “God is holy” (Psalm 98:9), then Charity must have a major and crucial part to play in holiness. In fact, Holy Scripture tells us that without Charity, all that we might do will be useless, pointless and worthless without Charity: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). “Above all have charity, which is the bond of perfection!” (Colossians 3:12-14).
“We are of God. Let us love one another, for charity is of God. And everyone that loves, is born of God and knows God. He that loves not, knows not God―for God is charity. By this has the charity of God appeared towards us, because God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we may live by Him. In this is charity―not as though we had loved God, but because He has first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. My dearest, if God has so loved us; we also ought to love one another. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His charity is perfected in us” (1 John 4:6-12).
Pentecost is the time of fire par excellence! The Holy Ghost comes from Heaven, under the appearance of tongues of fire, and rests upon each of those present in the Upper Room. He “fires them up” and gives them a “fiery” courage to go out and confess and preach Christ.
We’ve hear of the expression: “Don’t play with fire!” Yet fire is all that God seems to think about! As Holy Scripture says: “Our God is a consuming fire!” (Hebrews 12:29). There is more fire around than we would imagine. Let us then draw closer to this fire and take a closer look at it, to see if, perhaps, it might warm our lukewarm souls!
God the Father and Fire
God the Father sparks things off by choosing fire to represent Himself on many an occasion—not least the time of Israelites’ wanderings in the desert, when He led them at night as “pillar of fire” (Exodus 13:21).
● God the Father appeared to Moses in the burning bush, on Mount Sinai: “Now Moses … came to the mountain of God, Horeb. And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire and was not burnt. And Moses said: ‘I will go and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt!’ And when the Lord saw that he went forward to see, He called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said: ‘Moses! Moses!’ And he answered: Here I am. And He said: ‘Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground!’” (Exodus 3:1-5).
● “And when forty years were expired, there appeared to Moses, in the desert of Sinai, an angel in a flame of fire in a bush. And Moses seeing it, wondered at the sight. And as he drew near to view it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying: ‘I am the God of thy fathers; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob!’” (Acts 7:30-32).
● “And the Lord went before them to show the way by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire: that He might be the guide of their journey at both times. There never failed the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, before the people” (Exodus 13:21-22).
● Another time, the whole of the Chosen People saw the glory of God in the fire that lit up the whole of the top of Mount Sinai: “And when Moses had brought them forth to meet God from the place of the camp, they stood at the bottom of the mount. And all Mount Sinai was on a smoke: because the Lord was come down upon it in fire, and the smoke arose from it as out of a furnace: and all the mount was terrible! … And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Exodus 19:17-18; 24:17).
God the Son and Fire
● Besides showing St. Margaret Mary His Sacred Heart, on fire with love for men, just as His Father had shown Himself on fire atop Mount Sinai, Our Lord also said, while on Earth: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth! And what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). Not only that, but he often uses the image of fire as a part of His teaching:
● “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees! Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire!” (Matthew 3:10).
● “And if thy hand, or thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to go into life maimed or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee having one eye to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into Hell fire” (Matthew 18:8-9).
● “If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:6).
● “But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother: ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. And whosoever shall say: ‘Thou Fool!’ shall be in danger of Hell fire” (Matthew 5:22).
● “The harvest is the end of the world. And the reapers are the angels. Even as cockle therefore is gathered up, and burnt with fire: so shall it be at the end of the world. The Son of man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all scandals, and them that work iniquity. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth … Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not extinguished” (Matthew 13:40-50; Mark 9:43).
God the Holy Ghost and Fire
● “John the Baptist answered, saying unto all: ‘I indeed baptize you with water; but there shall come one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to loose―He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire!’” (Luke 3:16).
● On the first Pentecost Sunday, the Holy Ghost did indeed come as fire to ‘baptize’ them as “there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them” (Acts 2:3). Hence we have the phrase: “A baptism of fire!”
● The Church even incorporates fire in the devotion to the Holy Ghost—as is seen in the following extracts of various liturgical prayers: “Come, O Holy Ghost, … enkindle in us the fire of Thy love” … “Forth from the Father’s light it came, that beautiful and kindly flame: to fill with fervor of His word, the spirits faithful to their Lord” … “With quivering flame He lights on each, in fashion like a tongue, to teach!” … “Kindle with fire, brought from above, each sense and fill our hearts with love!” ... ”The fire of God fell, not to burn them, but to enlighten them, and gave them gifts of grace.”
Heaven and Fire
● “And when His disciples James and John had seen this [rejection of Jesus], they said: ‘Lord, do You want that we command fire to come down from Heaven, and consume them?’” (Luke 9:54). They were no doubt thinking of a repeat of Sodom and Gomorrha—which is another example of fire from Heaven.
● “And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven. And He destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the Earth” (Genesis 19:24-25).
● Jesus Himself mentions this punishing fire from Heaven, and states that the same thing will happen in the End Times: “And in the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven, and destroyed them all! Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man shall be revealed” (Luke 17:29-30).
The Antichrist and Fire
Among the ‘wonders’ that the Antichrist will work, we read: “And he did great signs, so that he made also fire to come down from Heaven unto the Earth in the sight of men” (Apocalypse 13:13).
Sin and Fire
● “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity!” (James 3:6).
● “Your gold and silver is cankered: and the rust of them shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up to yourselves wrath against the last days!” (James 5:3).
● “Sodom and Gomorrha, and the neighboring cities, in like manner, having given themselves to fornication, and going after other flesh, were made an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 1:7).
Day of Judgment and Fire
● “And the first angel sounded the trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and it was cast on the Earth, and the third part of the Earth was burnt up, and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded the trumpet: and as it were a great mountain, burning with fire, was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood!” (Apocalypse 8:7-8).
● “Looking for the coming of the day of the Lord, by which the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with the burning heat” (2 Peter 3:12).
● “Every man’s work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work survive, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire” (1 Corinthians 3:13-15).
● “When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven, with the angels of his power, in a flame of fire, giving vengeance to them who know not God, and who obey not the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8).
● St. Paul speaks of “a certain dreadful expectation of judgment, and the rage of a fire which shall consume the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:27).
● Speaking of the iniquitous Babylon, the Book of Apocalypse says: “For her sins have reached unto Heaven, and the Lord hath remembered her iniquities … Therefore she shall be burnt with the fire; because God is strong, who shall judge her” (Apocalypse 18:5-8).
● The Book of Apocalypse has numerous other references to fire on the Day of Judgment.
Hell and Fire
● “He also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled with pure wine in the cup of His wrath, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone” (Apocalypse 14:10).
● At Fatima, Our Lady showed the three children a vision of the fires of Hell. Sr. Lucia of Fatima relates the experience thus: “She opened her hands once more, as she had done the two previous months. The rays [of light] appeared to penetrate the Earth, and we saw, as it were, a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire, we saw the demons and the souls [of the damned]. The latter were like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, having human forms. They were floating about in that conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames which issued from within themselves, together with great clouds of smoke. Now they fell back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fright — it must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me. The demons were distinguished [from the souls of the damned] by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. That vision only lasted for a moment, thanks to our good heavenly Mother, who at the first apparition had promised to take us to Heaven. Without that, I think that we would have died of terror and fear.”
● She also told the children: “When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: ‘O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of Hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need of mercy.’”
Purgatory and Fire
● Pope St. Gregory the Great, in his Dialogues, informs us, that “the flames of Purgatory are, as it were, the instrument of divine justice, operating with such terrible power as to render the agony of the souls detained there intolerable. These pains far exceed all the tribulations, nay, and martyrdoms that can be witnessed, felt, or imagined in this life.”
● St. Catherine of Genoa, in the Treatise on Purgatory, writes: “From that furnace of divine love I see rays of fire dart like burning lamps towards the soul; and so violent and powerful are they that both soul and body would be utterly destroyed, if that were possible. These rays perform a double office; they purify and they annihilate. Consider gold: the oftener it is melted, the more pure does it become; continue to melt it and every imperfection is destroyed. This is the effect of fire on all materials. The soul, however, cannot be annihilated in God, but in herself she can, and the longer her purification lasts, the more perfectly does she die to herself, until at length she remains purified in God. When gold has been completely freed from dross, no fire, however great, has any further action on it, for nothing but its imperfections can be consumed. So it is with the divine fire in the soul. God retains her in these flames until every stain is burned away, and she is brought to the highest perfection of which she is capable, each soul in her own degree. And when this is accomplished, she rests wholly in God. Nothing of herself remains, and God is her entire being.”
● Fr. Schouppe, in his book Purgatory Explained, relating an experience of St. Frances of Rome, writes: “Purgatory, she said, is divided into three distinct parts … They are situated the one beneath the other, and occupied by souls of different states … The lowest region is filled with a fierce fire, but which is not dark like that of Hell; it is a vast burning sea, throwing forth immense flames. Innumerable souls are plunged into its depths: they are those who have rendered themselves guilty of mortal sin, which they have duly confessed, but not sufficiently expiated during life. The servant of God then learned that, for all forgiven mortal sin, there remains to be undergone a suffering of seven years. This term cannot evidently be taken to mean a definite measure, since mortal sins differ in enormity, but as an average penalty. Although the souls are enveloped in the same flames, their sufferings are not the same; they differ according to the number and nature of their former sins.”
Our Lady and Fire
● Our Lady’s heart is on fire! In the Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the prayer during the Offertory Secret reads: “O Lord, we pray that our hearts may be set aflame by the fire that burned so wondrously in the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” She would prefer that our hearts burn with love, like hers, but if not, she speaks of a different, more painful kind of fire!
● Already in the 1600’s, Our Lady of Good Success said: “If there are not any souls who, by their lives of immolation and sacrifice, appease the Divine Justice, fire will rain from Heaven! … Without virginity, it would be necessary for fire from Heaven to rain down upon these lands in order to purify them!”
● Our Lady of La Salette also speaks of punishing fires: “The seasons will be altered, the Earth will produce nothing but bad fruit, the stars will lose their regular motion, the moon will only reflect a faint reddish glow. Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes which will swallow up mountains and cities ... The fire of Heaven will fall and consume cities ... And then water and fire will purge the Earth and consume all the works of man’s pride and all will be renewed. God will be served and glorified.”
● Our Lady of Akita also stresses the punishing fires from Heaven: “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.”
The Church’s Liturgy and Fire
● Fire is one of the most expressive and most ancient of liturgical symbols. All the creeds of antiquity give prominent place to fire, whose mysterious nature and irresistible power frequently caused it to be adored as a god. The sun, as the principle of heat and light for the Earth, had its share in this worship. Christianity adapted this belief, while refusing to give the title of divinity to heat and light, and instead made them mere symbols of the true divinity, which enlightens and warms humanity. The symbolism led quite naturally to the liturgical rite by which the Church on the Eve of Easter celebrates the mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, of which the extinguished and rekindled fire furnishes the expressive image.
● The beginning of the Easter Divine Office also reflects ancient beliefs. The first ceremony consisted in the blessing of the New Fire, which was to furnish light for the whole Service. It was the daily custom, in the first ages of the Church, to strike a flame from a flint before Vespers; from this the lamps and candles were lit for the celebration of that Hour, and the light thus procured was kept up in the church till the Vespers of the following day. The Church at Rome observed this custom with great solemnity on Maundy Thursday morning, and the New Fire received a special blessing. We learn, from a letter written in the eight century by Pope St. Zachary to St. Boniface the Archbishop of Mainz, that three lamps were lit from this fire, which were then removed to some safe place, and care taken that their light be not extinguished. It was from these lamps that the light for Holy Saturday night was taken. The new fire is struck from a flint and is blessed with this prayer.
“Lord God, Almighty Father, inextinguishable light, Who has created all light, bless this fire sanctified and blessed by Thee, Who has enlightened the whole world; make us enlightened by that light and inflamed with the fire of Thy brightness; and as Thou did enlighten Moses when he went out of Egypt, so illuminate our hearts and senses that we may attain life and light everlasting through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
● Fr. Goffine, writing on the use fire in the liturgy, says: “In ancient times it was customary to strike a new fire every day, bless it, and light the candles from it, and later this was done every Saturday; in the eleventh century this ceremony was restricted to Holy Saturday. The fire is struck from a stone to indicate, that Christ is the light of the world, and the Stone which the Jews rejected has now become the Corner stone of His Church (Psalm 117:22); that the divine Son, the light of the world, was apparently extinguished at His death, but at His resurrection shone anew; that all those who witness this ceremony today be spiritually enlightened hereafter. This fire is blessed, because the Church blesses everything that is used for divine service, and because the light and fire represent Christ, who brought the fire of love upon Earth with which to enkindle our hearts” (Fr. Goffine, The Church’s Year).
The large Paschal Candle representing Christ, which is lit in total darkness—symbolizing the darkness of a world that tries to do without Christ—and from that Paschal Candle we light our smaller candles. Again, the Paschal Candle is made of beeswax, but the smaller candles are not. The more candles that are lit from the Paschal Candle, the more light is shed around and everything brightens up.
● On Holy Thursday, at the consecration of the holy chrism (oil), there was collected in all the lamps of the Lateran basilica a quantity of oil sufficient to fill three large vases deposited in the corner of the church. Wicks burned in this oil until the night of Holy Saturday, when there were lighted from these lamps the candles and other lights, that were used during the Paschal Vigil (Eve of Easter) ceremonies—during which there is the blessing of the fire and the paschal candle at the beginning of Easter Eve.
● When the Paschal or Easter Vigil fire has been lit and blessed the three-branched candle (representing the Holy Trinity) is lighted with that blessed fire and the deacon then chants the “Exultet”, a chant still preserved in the Roman Liturgy. In the Eastern Church, the Easter ceremony of the new fire occupies a place of considerable importance in the paschal ritual of the Greek Church at Jerusalem. In the West we see the Irish, as early as the sixth century, lighting large fires at nightfall on the Eve of Easter.
● The feast of the Purification or Candlemas (February 2nd) has a celebrated rite with ancient prayers concerning the emission of liturgical fire and light. One of these prayers invokes Christ as “Thy servant Moses didst command the purest oil to be prepared for lamps to burn continuously before Thee: vouchsafe to pour forth the grace of Thy blessing ☩ upon these candles: that they may so afford us light outwardly that by Thy gift, the gift of Thy Spirit may never be wanting inwardly to our minds. … As these candles are enkindled with visible fire to dispel the darkness of night, so may our hearts illumined by invisible fire, that is, by the splendor of the Holy Spirit, in order to free from the blindness of all vice.” … “being worthily inflamed with the holy fire of Thy most sweet charity, we may deserve to be presented in the holy temple of Thy glory”
The flame of the candles represents God, His divinity and grace. God the Father appeared to Moses in the burning bush; God the Son showed Himself as a burning heart to St. Margaret Mary; God the Holy Ghost came down upon Our Lady and the Apostles in the form of tongues of fire at Pentecost. God chooses fire to show both His love, His mercy and His justice. Those in Heaven experience the fire of His love; those in Purgatory experience the fire of His mercy; those in Hell experience the fire of His justice. We even say, in the prayer to the Holy Ghost, “Come O Holy Ghost … enkindle in us the fire of Thy love.” Without God and His grace in our souls (candles), we are useless, just like an extinguished candle. A candle was made to burn, not to be extinguished. It should spend its life giving light to those around, as Our Lord said: “Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 5:15).
Mankind, You, and Fire
Surrounded by all this fire, you may well think there is no escape! You are right! In all truth, we were made to burn! The only variable thing is where we shall burn. We can choose to burn on Earth with a great love of God and have the fire of love purge us from all stain of sin: “And all that may pass through the fire, shall be purified by fire, but whatsoever cannot abide the fire, shall be sanctified with the water of expiation” (Numbers 31:23). We can neglect or escape from doing this, but we only jump out of the frying-pan into the fire—either the Fires of Purgatory, or the Fires of Hell. That is where our lukewarm, fireless soul will lead us to eventually. Our Lord said: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth! And what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). He wants to kindle a fire in your soul, so that you can avoid the fires of Purgatory or Hell. You can come to that fire or flee from that fire.
Will the Real Holy Ghost Please Stand Up!
With all this talk of fire and the Holy Ghost choosing to come in the form of fire―the question naturally arises: “Is the Holy Ghost tough or mild?” ― for fires can be comforting and fires can be destructive! Is He loud or quiet? Is he comforting or destructive? Reading Holy Scripture can be a little confusing―for it seems contradictory, or is it that God is a little bit of everything? God is God―whether it be God the Father, God the Son or God the Holy Ghost. The three members of the Holy Trinity think alike and act alike―there is no disagreement between them. They may have different roles―Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier―but the Spirit is the same. But what Spirit is it that rules and drives Them all? Trying to find out can be a little confusing as we read seemingly contradictory indications in Holy Scripture:
“Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord! And behold the Lord passes, and a great and strong wind before the Lord over throwing the mountains, and breaking the rocks in pieces―the Lord is not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake―the Lord is not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire―the Lord is not in the fire―and after the fire a whistling of a gentle air” (3 Kings 19:11-12).
“And when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak” (Acts 2:1-4).
You Get the God You Deserve
No doubt you have heard it said: “We get the leaders we deserve!” Similarly, “We get the God we deserve!” Modern-day Christians are ceaselessly enthusing about God being “Love” and “Mercy” and all you have to do is believe in Him and you are “saved”. God is love, that is true, but God is not ONLY love. You would have thought that simple common sense would have told them that there is something wrong with their theory when scrutinized under the light of most souls ending up damned―but, of course, they refuse to look at and consider that part of reality!
The Life You Lead Dictates the God You Get
As Holy Scripture says elsewhere: “With the holy one Thou will be holy, and with the valiant, perfect. With the elect Thou will be elect, and with the perverse Thou will be perverted. And the poor people Thou will save. And with Thy eyes Thou will humble the haughty!” (2 Kings 22:26-28). “With the holy, Thou will be holy; and with the innocent man Thou will be innocent. And with the elect Thou will be elect and with the perverse thou will be perverted. For Thou will save the humble people; but will bring down the eyes of the proud!” (Psalm 17:26-28). In other words―God will be tough or kind, heavy-handed or gentle, depending on what we are “asking for” or what we deserve. As the New Testament says: “See then the goodness and the severity of God―towards them indeed that are fallen, the severity; but towards thee, if thou abide in goodness, the goodness of God―otherwise thou also shalt be cut off!” (Romans 11:22).
Is the Holy Ghost Gentle?
“O how good and sweet is Thy spirit, O Lord, in all things!” (Wisdom 12:1). “The Lord is sweet!” (1 Peter 2:3). Scripture speaks of “the goodness and kindness of God our Savior” (Titus 3:4). Just like any parent, the Holy Ghost is gentle if the “child” listens, obeys and is good. If we decide not to listen, not to obey and are bad, then, like any parent would do, the Holy Ghost has to take “corrective measures” and even “punitive measures.” Heck! We even treat pets the same way! Or even a pen that won’t write when it is needed to write, we tend to throw it aside and get one that will write! If you disobey God, ignore God, neglect God―even though He is patient and merciful―you will pay! Hey! Even those who are in Hell are experiencing the mercy of God―because they are not being punished as severely as they actually deserve to be punished.
Modern-man seems to ignore this truth. You have to get this straight―you do not mess with God just because He does not react immediately! “The Lord delays not His promise [to punish], as some imagine, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance!” (2 Peter 3:9). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).
Yes, “the Lord is sweet and righteous” (Psalm 24:8). “O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet! Blessed is the man that hopes in Him!” (Psalm 33:9). “Thy mercy is sweet! Do Thou deliver me!” (Psalm 108:21). When sweetness and kindness is merited, then God will give it―but He is also righteous, which means “acting in accord with divine or moral law”, and if man decides to break God’s law, then that righteous God will do what is right and His justice will be invoked. “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil―that put darkness for light, and light for darkness―that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20).
“The Lord is sweet to all―and His tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:9). “He has borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows” (Isaias 53:4). “Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon Thee!” (Psalms 85:5). Yet merely “calling” on the Lord is not enough―we must “change” our ways if we seek and hope to obtain His “plenteous mercy”. There are too many who expect mercy without amending their sinful ways, who treat the Sacrament of Confession like a weekly “car-wash” or a revolving door, but drive back into the mud of sin immediately afterwards, just “as a dog that returns to his vomit, so is the fool that repeats his folly” (Proverbs 26:11). Scripture adds: “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). Jesus warns us, saying: “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21). “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
The Kindness of God
The reality is that God wants to save everyone―but it has to be on His terms and not on their terms. God’s love excludes nobody―the excluding is done by a lack of love towards God. There are sufficient Scriptural quotes that confirm that God loves sinners, has compassion upon those sinners, and wishes to save those sinners―regardless of how sinful they are or may have been: “The Lord is gracious and merciful; patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). “‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his ways, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil way―and why will you die?’ (Ezechiel 33:11). “The soul that sins, the same shall die … But if the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keeps all My commandments, and does judgment and justice, then living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done! In his justice, which he has wrought, he shall live!” (Ezechiel 18:20-22). “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow; and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18). “Because I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). Beautiful, huh? Those quotes are only the tip of the iceberg!
As a further “dip the big toe in the water” reflection or meditation, Holy Scripture not only tells us that “God is charity” (1 John 4:8), but Scripture also unpacks or gives a brief description of that charity: “Charity is patient, is kind. Charity envies not, deals not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious, seeks not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinks no evil; rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believeth all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Charity never falls away―whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
The Toughness of God
Yet, on the other hand, God also says: “But if the just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity―according to all the abominations which the wicked man uses to work―shall he live? All his justices, which he has done, shall not be remembered in the prevarication by which he has prevaricated, and in his sins, which he has committed, in them he shall die. And you have said: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Hear ye, therefore, O house of Israel! Is it My way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse? For when the just man turns himself away from his justice and commits iniquity, then he shall die therein―in the injustice, that he has wrought, he shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:24-26).
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8). “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great―He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’ For mercy and wrath quickly come from Him, and His wrath looks upon sinners. Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day. For His wrath shall come suddenly, and in the time of vengeance He will destroy thee!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5-9).
God is Charity―Charity Sanctifies
It is only logical that if “God is Charity” (1 John 4:8) and “God is holy” (Psalm 98:9), then Charity must have a major and crucial part to play in holiness. In fact, Holy Scripture tells us that without Charity, all that we might do will be useless, pointless and worthless without Charity: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). “Above all have charity, which is the bond of perfection!” (Colossians 3:12-14).
“We are of God. Let us love one another, for charity is of God. And everyone that loves, is born of God and knows God. He that loves not, knows not God―for God is charity. By this has the charity of God appeared towards us, because God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we may live by Him. In this is charity―not as though we had loved God, but because He has first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. My dearest, if God has so loved us; we also ought to love one another. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His charity is perfected in us” (1 John 4:6-12).
Article 28
Tuesday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 26th
The Catholic Church is Fast Becoming an Un-Holy Ghost Town
Tuesday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 26th
The Catholic Church is Fast Becoming an Un-Holy Ghost Town
Article 28
Tuesday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 26th
The Catholic Church is Fast Becoming an Un-Holy Ghost Town
Tuesday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 26th
The Catholic Church is Fast Becoming an Un-Holy Ghost Town
Week of the Holy Ghost & Ghost Towns
In this Octave of Pentecost, or “Week of the Holy Ghost”, it would be appropriate to speak of “Ghost Towns.” Just as you can call a glass that contains 50% water both “half-full” and “half-empty”―likewise you could call today’s Church (or local churches) as being “half-full” or “half-empty.” Yet the fact is that our churches are emptying. The Church should be a “Holy Ghost Town” where the Holy Ghost dwells, but the Church is fast becoming the other kind of “Ghost Town”―one which is becoming increasingly emptied of its inhabitants. Perhaps your own family has already become, or is fast becoming, a “Catholic Ghost Town”―whereby increasing numbers are leaning away from the Faith, not practicing the Faith, or have left the Faith. Recent research, studies and surveys show that over 90% of Catholic youth will no longer practice the Faith on a regular basis by the time they leave college (or high school, if they don’t pursue college education).
Nearly half of the “cradle Catholics” are gone by age eighteen. 80% (8 out of 10) are gone by age twenty-three. When a person walks away from the Church, that person usually leaves when it is young. Dynamic Catholic states that 85% of Catholic young adults (17 out of 20) stop practicing their Faith in college―most of them within their first year of leaving home. Curtis Martin, the founder of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) thinks that 85% is conservative, and that the Catholic Church is losing more than 90% of Catholic young people by the end of their college years. This data isn’t new―it has been the case year after year after year. At least three-quarters (75%) of people raised Catholic, say they attended Mass at least once a week as children, including those who later left the Catholic Church. But those who have become unaffiliated, exhibit a sharp decline in Mass attendance through their lifetime: 74% attended regularly as children, 44% did so as teens and only 2% do so as adults.
The Ghost Town Phenomenon
Dictionaries will define a “ghost town” as an abandoned village, town, or city, usually one that contains substantial visible remains. A town often becomes a “ghost town” because the economic activity that once supported it, has now failed, or it becomes a “ghost town” due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, prolonged droughts, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, pollution, or nuclear disasters. The term can sometimes refer to cities, towns, and neighborhoods that are still populated, but significantly less so than in past years; for example, those affected by high levels of unemployment and dereliction.
The above definition and description presents no difficulty when applied to the Church and the Faith. The Church can become a “Ghost Town” when for one reason or another―or through a combination of reasons―persons no longer show an interest, nor any concern, nor any devotion, nor any attachment to the Church and Her teachings, laws and practices. The causes could be internal, external or both. The result is a gradual ‘depopulation’ of the Church. Many will still call themselves “Catholic”―but will not believe all Catholic teachings, nor obey all Catholic laws, nor observe all Catholic practices and customs. All of this is a progressive disease that gradually leads down the slippery slope to apostasy, and from there further down the slippery slope to Hell. Such a diagnosis would be instantly rejected by those who are on that slippery slope―but Scripture is adamant:
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that does the will of My Father, Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from me, you that work iniquity!’ Everyone, therefore, that hears these My words, and does them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that hears these my words, and does them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof!” (Matthew 7:21-27). Since most houses are built on sand―when that storm comes, be it a storm of temptation, worldliness, persecution, etc., those houses fall and we are left with a ghost town.
Prophecy of a Catholic Ghost Town
If you are a prophecy aficionado (devotee), then you will be well aware of the many prophecies that paint a ghostly picture for the Faith in the “last days” or end times”―and, as Sr. Lucia of Fatima revealed: “The Blessed Virgin did not tell me (explicitly) that we are in the last times of the world, but I understood this for three reasons. The first is because she told me that the Devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle. It is a final battle where one party will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God or we are with the Devil; there is no middle ground. The second reason is because she told me, as well as my cousins, that God is giving two last remedies to the world: the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And, being the last remedies, that is to say, they are the final ones, means that there will be no others. And the third, because in the plans of the Divine Providence, when God is going to chastise the world He always first exhausts all other remedies. When He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever, then, as we say in our imperfect way of talking, with a certain fear He presents us the last means of salvation, His Blessed Mother” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
The “last times of the world” that Sr. Lucia speaks of, are closely entwined with the so-called “Third Secret of Fatima” as well as the many prophecies, made over many centuries, by many Saints, Blesseds, Venerables and other holy persons within the Church. The so-called “Third Secret of Fatima” was the third and final part of the full prophetic Secret, in three parts, which Our Lady revealed to three children at Fatima on July 13th, 1917. The first and second parts of the Secret―namely, the vision of Hell and the warning about the rise of Communist Russia―were publicly revealed with the publication of Sr. Lucia’s memoirs in the 1940s (read here). The final part of the revelation remains in the possession of the Vatican and has not yet been correctly and fully disclosed to the world. In fact, it is widely believed that the Vatican has two versions of the Third Secret under lock and key―(1) the original one and (2) a doctored version, that has been sanitized, modified and sterilized. The doctored, modified, sanitized and sterilized version was revealed for public consumption in the year 2000―but very quickly this version was picked-to-pieces and discredited by most of the Fatima experts in the world.
Our Lady had commanded Sr. Lucia to write down on paper the Third Secret of Fatima and to entrust it to her bishop and, through him, to Pope Pius XII. At the same time, Our Lady also insisted that this part of the Secret was to be revealed to the faithful throughout the world no later than 1960. Lucia hesitated, and it was under the direct order of her bishop that Sr. Lucia finally wrote down the third part of the Secret on January 2nd, 1944. However, upon learning that her bishop was unwilling to open the envelope containing the Secret, Sr. Lucia made him promise that the Third Secret would be opened and read to the world upon her death, or in 1960, whichever would happen first. If her bishop died first, it was agreed that the Secret would be confided to the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon. Despite this agreement, the Secret was, in fact, delivered to the Vatican where it has remained undisclosed to the public―except for the disclosure of doctored, sanitized and modified version in 2000.
Haunting Words from Church Officials
The first pope to read the Third Secret of Fatima was not Pope Pius XII―during whose reign Lucia had written down the Secret―but it was his successor, Pope John XXIII.
► CARDINAL SILVIO ODDI (1910-2001), who had been had been the secretary of Archbishop Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli — later Pope John XXIII — When Roncalli served as the apostolic nuncio in Paris, insistently tried to get Pope John XXIII to publish the Third Secret of Fatima. As the British newspaper, The Telegraph, reported upon his death:
“In yet another unguarded interview, published in 1990, Cardinal Oddi spoke about his relationship with John XXIII. In the early 1960s, when acting as his secretary, he told the Pope: «Most Holy Father, there is one thing for which I cannot forgive you!» The Pope, surprised, asked what it was. Oddi replied that he had not revealed the Third Secret of Fatima, conveyed to three Portuguese children by the Virgin Mary in 1917, which had been scheduled for release in 1960.” Pope John XXIII replied: “Let’s not talk about it!” Cardinal Oddi revealed to the pope that he had already given over a hundred sermons and speeches on the subject. To which the Pope retorted: “I told you not to mention it!”
In another outspoken interview in 1990, Cardinal Oddi said: “I believe I knew John XXIII quite well, since I spent a number of years at his side when he was at the nunciature in Paris. If the Secret had concerned realities consoling for the Church like the conversion of Russia or the religious rebirth of Eastern Europe, I believe that he would have brought pressure to bear to make the Secret public. Due to his temperament, he did not hesitate to communicate joyful things. But when I asked him during an audience why in 1960, when the obligation to keep the Secret had come to an end, he had not made public the last part of the message of Fatima, he responded with a weary sigh. He then said: «Don’t bring that subject up with me, please!»” Later, in that same interview, Cardinal Oddi explains his own theory concerning the content of the Third Secret of Fatima:
“What is it that happened in 1960, that might have been seen in connection with the Secret of Fatima? The most important event is without a doubt the launching of the preparatory phase of the Second Vatican Council. Therefore I would not be surprised if the Secret had something to do with the convocation of Vatican II … From the attitude Pope John showed during our conversation, I deduced ― but it is only an hypothesis ― that the Secret might contain a part that could have a rather unpleasant ring to it. John XXIII had convened the Council with the precise intention of directing the forces of the Church toward the solution of the problems that concern all of humanity, beginning from within. That is, he intended the work to begin with the evangelical perfection pursued by consecrated persons … But we all know that many sad things have taken place … I am thinking, for example, of the number of priests who have abandoned the priesthood―it is said that there have been 80,000. But one only has to recall the anguish with which the Holy Father, Paul VI, in 1968 cried out against the “auto-demolition” taking place in the Church (to include the “smoke of Satan has entered into the Church” quote). I would not be surprised if the Third Secret alluded to dark times for the Church: grave confusions and troubling apostasies within Catholicism itself … If we consider the grave crisis we have lived through since the Council, the signs that this prophecy has been fulfilled do not seem to be lacking!”
To the Italian journalist Lucio Brunelli, in an interview conducted for the Italian journal, Il Sabato, Cardinal Oddi said: “It (the Third Secret) has nothing to do with Gorbachev [the Russian leader]. The Blessed Virgin was alerting us against apostasy in the Church!” Those words of Cardinal Oddi have been collaborated, substantiated and demonstrated to be true by many other high ranking members of the clergy.
► FATHER JOSE DOS SANTOS VALINHO
Sister Lucia’s nephew, Father Jose dos Santos Valinho. He related his opinion of the contents of the Third Secret in a book by Renzo and Roberto Allegri, entitled Reportage su Fatima (Milan 2000), which was published — providentially enough — very shortly before the disclosure of the vision purported to be the Third Secret and the publication of booklet, entitled The Message of Fatima, by Cardinal Ratzinger and Archbishop Bertone. Father Valinho stated:
“I believe that (third) part of the Secret concerns the Church from within, perhaps doctrinal difficulties, a crisis of unity, rebellion. The last sentence my aunt wrote, which precedes the part that is still unknown, says, ‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.’ … Therefore, people elsewhere in the Church might waver on dogma. But this is just speculation.”
On February 14th, 2003 Father Valinho also spoke about the Third Secret on the program ENIGMA. It was transmitted prime time, nationwide on RAI, the national television network of Italy. Father Valinho stated on this occasion:
“I believe that there is a connection between that which is announced in the first part of the Secret, which concerns wars and sufferings which would be everywhere, and the second part which concerns the persecutions and a type of breakdown of the Faith. Because where the ellipsis (the three dots, “…”) was placed, it means “Here is the third part, which is not revealed” and then the conclusion: “In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” This suggests to me that there is a relationship between Faith and the third part of the Secret. Therefore, it is something that relates to the Church. It is some kind of universal crisis which affects the whole Church and all of humanity.”
► POPE PIUS XII (while still a Cardinal)
Cardinal Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, said while still a cardinal: “I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s messages to Lucia of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul…. I hear all around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject her ornaments and make her feel remorse for her historical past. A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God. In our churches, Christians will search in vain for the red lamp where God awaits them. Like Mary Magdalene, weeping before the empty tomb, they will ask: ‘Where have they taken Him?’” Cardinal Pacelli said this in 1931. He became Pope Pius XII in 1939.
► POPE PAUL VI
Pope Paul VI said: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church” (Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13th, 1977. Pope Paul was dead 10 months later).
► POPE BENEDICT XVI (while still Cardinal Ratzinger)
Cardinal Ratzinger said: “Yes, I have read (the Third Secret). (It refers to) a radical call to conversion; the absolute seriousness of history; the dangers which threaten the Faith and the life of the Christian and therefore (the life) of the world” (Jesus magazine, November 11th, 1984).
► FR. J. SCHWEIGL (Pope Pius XII’s interviewer of Sr. Lucia)
Fr. J. Schweigl said: “I cannot reveal anything of what I learned at Fatima concerning the Third Secret, but I can say that it has two parts: one concerns the Pope; the other logically (although I must say nothing) would have to be the continuation of the words: ‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved’” (The Whole Truth about Fatima, Vol. III, p. 74). Pope Pius XII personally sent Fr. Schweigl to interview Sr. Lucia about the Third Secret in 1952.
► FR. J. ALONSO (the Church’s official archivist of Fatima 1965—1981)
Fr. J. Alonso said: “In the period preceding the great triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, terrible things are to happen. These form the content of the third part of the Secret. What are they? If ‘in Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved,’ … then it can be clearly deduced, from this, that in other parts of the Church these dogmas are going to become obscure, or even lost altogether…. Perhaps it even refers to the failures of the upper hierarchy of the Church.”
► CARDINAL OTTAVIANI
Cardinal Ottaviani said: “The message was not to be opened before 1960. I asked Sister Lucia, ‘Why this date?’ She answered, ‘Because then it will be clearer.’” Cardinal Ottaviani was the head of the Holy Office. He interviewed Sister Lucia in 1955.
► CARDINAL MARIO LUIGI CIAPPI
Cardinal Ciappi, the Papal Theologian of Pope John Paul II, in a personal communication to a Professor Baumgartner in Salzburg, Austria, said: “In the Third Secret, it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.”
► SISTER LUCIA OF FATIMA
Sister Lucia, in an interview with Fr. Augustine Fuentes, said: “Father, the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin. And the devil knows what it is that most offends God and which in a short space of time will gain for him the greatest number of souls. Thus, the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way, the devil will succeed in leaving souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them! …. That which afflicts the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Heart of Jesus is the fall of religious and priestly souls. The devil knows that religious and priests who fall away from their beautiful vocation drag numerous souls to Hell… The devil wishes to take possession of consecrated souls. He tries to corrupt them in order to lull to sleep the souls of laypeople and thereby lead them to final impenitence …. Father, let us not wait for an appeal to come from Rome, on behalf of the Holy Father, calling on the whole world to do penance; nor let us wait for it to come from our bishops in their dioceses, nor from the religious congregations. No. Our Lord has already made frequent use of these means and the world took no notice. That is why each of us must now begin his own spiritual reform. Each person must not only save his own soul, but also every soul that God has placed on his path.” (Fr. Augustine Fuentes interviewed Sr. Lucia on December 26th, 1957).
Sister Lucia, in a letter to Fr. Umberto Pasquale, who was very devoted to the cause of Fatima, wrote: “The decadence which exists in the world is without any doubt the consequence of the lack of the spirit of prayer. Foreseeing this disorientation, the Blessed Virgin recommended recitation of the Rosary with such insistence. And since the Rosary is, after the Holy Eucharistic liturgy, the prayer most apt for preserving Faith in souls, the devil has unchained his struggles against it. Unfortunately, we see the disasters he has caused.”
Second Vatican Council Ghost Town Haunted by Ghosts
We are all led by a spirit or spirits―no spirit, no life. Our soul is a spirit and, without the soul, the body is dead. Yet even though our soul is our main guiding spirit, we can be guided by other spirits too―the souls or spirits of our family, relatives, friends, teachers, acquaintances, employers, employees, strangers, the media, etc. Since we are made to be social creatures―as God said of Adam: “It is not good for man to be alone! Let Us make him a help like unto himself!” (Genesis 2:18)―and we are helped in life, for better or for worse, by the help, advice and guidance of others, other “kindred spirits” as the saying goes. Hence there are leaders and there are followers. Ultimately, at the end of the day, the two leaders are God and Satan―and humanity is caught in a tug-of-war between them.
The Catholic Church has always been in a tug-of-war with its enemies―the devil, the world and the flesh. The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and its fruits (or rotten fruits) is a clear indication of this tug-of-war. With the advent of the Second Vatican Council, the Church has been losing ground in the tug-of-war with each passing year and decade―it has been dragged out of the safety of its Traditional Faith into the chaos and sinfulness of the world. The Second Vatican Council’s desire for the so-called “aggiornamento” (meaning “update”) which sought to open the doors and windows of the Church to the world―resulted not in the world coming into the Church, but in the faithful rushing out of those opened doors and leaping out of the opened windows into the arms of the sinful world. Today in most countries―varying from country to country―only around 5% to 20% of Catholics regularly attend Sunday Mass―which binds under the pain of mortal sin! The spirit of the Second Vatican Council was certainly not the Spirit of God, but an alien spirit―a mixture of a spirit of Modernism, Liberalism, lukewarmness, worldliness; and the spirit of the infiltrators of the Church who had long since made their way into the Church for many decades; aided and abetted by the spirits of Hell, the devils themselves.
Even Our Lord was not exempt from this tug-of-war: “Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1). “The Spirit drove Him out into the desert. And He was in the desert forty days and forty nights, and was tempted by Satan; and He was with beasts, and the angels ministered to Him” (Mark 1:12-13).
What Our Lord went through, we have to go through. There is no exemption from temptation, there is no exemption from the test or exam of temptation, and there is no exemption from this warfare―“The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1)―in which “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8) and in which “our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
These “spirits of wickedness in the high places” are no doubt the diabolically inspired and diabolically led infiltrators in both Church and State―as the recently deceased (2016) former chief exorcist of Rome, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, used to say: “Satan continually tries to dominate the world … He seeks to enslave men by making them obey himself and disobey God … We see it in laws that go totally against nature, such as divorce, abortion, ‘gay marriage’ … The influence of Satan is immense! … Today, Satan has free hands … Satanism is on the increase. Satanism is growing! Unfortunately it is being spread more and more! Satanism is spreading enormously! … The smoke of Satan has entered everywhere! Everywhere! ... And, yes, Satan is in the Vatican! The devil resides in the Vatican. I have no doubt about the fact that the demon tempts the authorities of the Church especially―just as he tempts every authority, those of politics and industry. Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan! The devil loves to take over business leaders and those who hold political office! … Today Satan rules the world! … The whole world is in the power of the evil one!”
In that sense, the spirit of the world is increasingly becoming satanic―without even realizing it. People are being enslaved to the principles, maxims, fashions and attitudes of Satan. It is―as Fr. Amorth says―an increasing satanic world. “Today Satan rules the world! … The whole world is in the power of the evil one!”
Therefore, spirit of the modern-day Church is also becoming increasingly satanic. Some Catholics―clergy and laity alike―take on this spirit knowingly, others unknowingly. As Our Lord says, “by their fruits you shall know them” ― and the fruits of today’s modern Church are not good! Already way back in 2019, a Pew Research study about the level of Catholic belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, showed that a majority of Catholics do not believe that the bread and wine used at Mass become the Body and Blood of Christ. The Pew Research study showed that 69% of all self-identified Catholics said they believed the bread and wine consecrated at Mass are not the Real Presence of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, but instead are merely symbols of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. That is just one example of the bad fruits of the Post-Conciliar (Post-Second Vatican Council) Church.
Other similar deviations from the Faith are seen by the fact that another Pew Research survey found most American Catholics, including those who go to church on a regular basis, have no moral problem with contraception. Just 8% said contraception is morally wrong, with 89% saying it was either morally acceptable or not a moral issue at all. Even among Catholics who attend Mass at least weekly, only about one in 8 (13%) in this group said contraception is morally wrong, with 87% of regular church goers saying it is either acceptable or not a moral issue.
On the issue of abortion, only about half of all U.S. Catholics say it is morally wrong, although that number shoots up to 83% among Catholics who attend Sunday Mass regularly.
About two-thirds of all U.S. Catholics (64%) say that homosexual behavior is either morally acceptable or not a moral issue at all, while 32% say it’s morally wrong. But Catholics who attend Mass weekly are more evenly split, with half labeling homosexual behavior as morally wrong―yet even that is shocking when 50% of regular Mass attendees accept homosexual behavior!
Devil’s Final Battle
It is in this warfare against the devil that everyone must fight, or be conquered if they choose not to fight. Sr. Lucia of Fatima speaks of “the devil’s final battle” and says that it will be essentially be against “marriage and the family.”
In an interview with Fr. Fuentes, on December 26th, 1957, Sr. Lucia warned: “Father, the Blessed Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times of the world, but I understood this for three reasons:
“The first is because she told me that the Devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle. It is a final battle where one party will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God or we are with the Devil; there is no middle ground.
“The second reason is because she told me, as well as my cousins, that God is giving two last remedies to the world: the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And, being the last remedies, that is to say, they are the final ones, means that there will be no others.
“And the third, because in the plans of the Divine Providence, when God is going to chastise the world He always first exhausts all other remedies. When He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever, then, as we say in our imperfect way of talking, with a certain fear He presents us the last means of salvation, His Blessed Mother” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
After Pope John Paul II asked Monsignor (later Cardinal) Carlo Caffarra (1938-2017) to begin a new Pontifical Institute for studies on marriage and the family, Caffarra wrote to Sister Lucia, simply requesting her prayers for this venture. He was surprised at receiving a very long letter with her signature, in which Lucia had written: “The final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family. Don’t be afraid, because anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be contended and opposed in every way, for this is the decisive issue.” And then Lucia concluded: “however, Our Lady has already crushed its head.”
Amongst the Liberals and Modernists cardinals, bishops and priests that infect the Church today, Cardinal Caffarra was one of the few lights in the present darkness, being less infected than the others. The Cardinal died in 2017, and a priest, who assisted the Cardinal in his last days, spoke the Cardinal’s distress over the disasters that he sees and endures in the Church every day, mentioning some incidents to him. The dying cardinal burst into tears, saying: “The Lord will not abandon His Church. There were Twelve Apostles, so the Lord will start again with a few! Imagine the suffering of Saint Athanasius, who was left alone to defend the truth for the love of Christ, of the Church and of men. We must have Faith, hope and fortitude!” The priest who assisted the Cardinal in his last days said: “The cardinal was very sorrowful, but he conveyed to me so much courage and love for the Church. He was comforted by the prophetic words which he had received years ago from Sister Lucia of Fatima, in that letter in which she said to him that ‘the final battle between God and Satan will be about marriage and the family.’”
Just in case you are tempted to bury your head in the sand, or switch into virtual reality mode, or retreat into a Disneyland version of the Faith―let the penny drop, let reality sink-in, and realize that “the final battle between God and Satan will be about marriage and the family” automatically includes your marriage and your family! Just as there is nobody who is exempt from temptation and just as we are all sinners―it stands to reason that we will all be part of this “final battle between God and Satan” upon “marriage and the family”―for, even if we are not married, we are all part of a family. The devil wants to possess marriage, he wants to possess the family―and he will being to achieve that possession by introducing, little by little, more and more, the spirit of the world (which is essentially and ultimately the spirit of the devil) into each and every marriage and family. Looking at the world today, it seems as though he has most marriages and most families in his grasp―and to the few that are resisting, he nevertheless has his foot in the door with some aspects of worldliness being accepted even by those who are resisting.
The Spirit of Our Times
St. Mark gives us several accounts of souls tormented or possessed by evil spirits―something which is on the increase today. Though relatively few souls might be possessed by the devil, many souls are oppressed and obsessed by the devil. For the spirit of the world is essentially the spirit of the devil―since the devil is the prince of the world, as Jesus Himself says: “The prince of this world is coming, and in Me he has not any thing!” (John 14:30) “The prince of this world is already judged” (John 16:11). “The prince of this world shall be cast out!” (John 12:31). It is now, in our days, that we need Our Lord to again cast out the prince of this world, whose spirit has possessed and created the spirit of the world, which has captivated so many souls today. These poor souls are not led by the spirit of God, but by the spirit of the devil, disguised and wrapped-up in the fancy coverings of the spirit of the world. “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God―that we may know the things that are given us from God” (1 Corinthians 2:12). “Woe to the foolish that follow their own spirit, and see nothing!” (Ezechiel 13:3). “Leave them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14).
This is exactly what Our Lady foretold: “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell … and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops .... Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God ... as true Faith fades and false light will brighten the people … The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth. People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin.” (Our Lady of La Salette).
When Our Lord speaks of there being no Faith on Earth when He returns― “The Son of man, when He comes, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8)―He is thereby implying that there will be another spirit that will have replaced the spirit of Faith. That other spirit will be the spirit of the world―a child of the spirit of the devil. That spirit was unchained with the Second Vatican Council―which is what the Third Secret of Fatima is thought to mention―and the infiltration of the Church to the highest positions―which is what Our Lady also mentions: “The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church, in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.” (Akita) … “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell.” (La Salette).
Taking On the Spirit of These Angels of Hell
We do well to re-read the accounts of demonic possession in the time of Our Lord, for demonic activity can only be on the increase in this “final battle between God and Satan” upon “marriage and the family.” Pope Paul VI, more than once, spoke of the smoke of Satan having entered the Church. Pope Paul VI complained that after the Second Vatican Council, that “from some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God” (June 29th, 1972). A few years later he repeated the same concern: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church” (Pope Paul VI, Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13th, 1977).
The recently deceased (2016) famous exorcist of Rome, Father Gabriele Amorth, in an interview with the magazine 30 Days, in June 2000, also said: “The smoke of Satan has entered everywhere. Everywhere! Perhaps … a large number of exorcists might succeed in chasing out the legions of demons that have installed themselves in the Vatican.” When Fr. Amorth says “Satan has entered everywhere”, he means everywhere―your family included! Obviously you won’t see him wearing a red cat-suit, with tail attached and pitchfork in hand―but you will see him in the worldliness that has crept into your family in one way or another, in one form or another, through one family member or another. Or you will see him in the anti-Christian attitude and spirit that easily creeps into families and individuals―a spirit of indifference, lukewarmness, argumentativeness, mockery, abuse, criticism, denigration, negativity, hatred, etc. This is his modern method of possession―or, more correctly speaking―obsession. He seeks to make each and every family more and more obsessed with the world, the spirit of the world, with worldliness. That is how he controls most people today.
Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, said: “We have now absorbed into Church teaching, and the Church has opened herself up to, principles which are not hers, but which come from modern society.” Elsewhere he said that with Vatican II, the principles of 1789 [the French Revolution] had entered the Church. Unfortunately, the opening of the windows of the Church to the world, has let worldliness into the Church, while many of the Catholics jumped out of the windows and joined the world!
“And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying: ‘What have we to do with Thee, Jesus of Nazareth? Art Thou come to destroy us? I know who Thou art―the Holy One of God!’ And Jesus threatened him, saying: ‘Speak no more, and go out of the man!’ And the unclean spirit, tearing him and crying out with a loud voice, went out of him” (Mark 1:23-26).
“There met Him [Jesus], out of the monuments, a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling in the tombs, and no man now could bind him, not even with chains. For having been often bound with fetters and chains, he had burst the chains, and broken the fetters in pieces, and no one could tame him. And he was always day and night in the monuments and in the mountains, crying and cutting himself with stones. And seeing Jesus afar off, he ran and adored Him. And crying with a loud voice, he said: ‘What have I to do with Thee, Jesus the Son of the most high God? I adjure Thee by God that Thou torment me not!’ For He said unto him: ‘Go out of the man, thou unclean spirit!’ And Jesus asked him: ‘What is thy name?’ And he said to Him: ‘My name is Legion, for we are many [devils in the man]!’ And he besought Jesus much, that He would not drive him away out of the country. And there was there near the mountain a great herd of swine, feeding. And the [evil] spirits besought Him, saying: ‘Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them!’ And Jesus immediately gave them permission. And the unclean spirits, going out of the man, entered into the swine―and the herd, with great violence, was carried headlong into the sea, being about two thousand, and were drowned in the sea. And they that fed them fled, and told it in the city and in the fields. And they went out to see what was done. And they came to Jesus, and they saw him that was troubled with the devil, sitting, clothed, and well in his wits, and they were afraid. And they, that had seen it, told them in what manner he had been dealt with who had the devil; and concerning the swine. And they began to pray Jesus that He would depart from their coasts. And when He went up into the ship, he that had been troubled with the devil, began to beseech Jesus that he might be with Him. And Jesus admitted him not onto the ship, but said to him: ‘Go into thy house to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord has done for thee, and has had mercy on thee!’ And he went his way, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him―and all men wondered” (Mark 5:2-20).
On another occasion, “He went into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon: and a woman, as soon as she heard of Him, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, came in and fell down at His feet. The woman was a Gentile, a Syrophenician born. And she besought Him that He would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. Who said to her: ‘Suffer first the children to be filled! For it is not good to take the bread of the children, and cast it to the dogs!’ But she answered and said to Him: ‘Yea, Lord! But even the whelps also eat under the table of the crumbs of the children!’ And He said to her: ‘For this saying―go thy way! The devil is gone out of thy daughter!’ And when she was come into her house, she found the girl lying upon the bed, and that the devil was gone out” (Mark 7:24-30).
And Jesus said: “When an unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walks through dry places seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says: ‘I will return into my house from whence I came out!’ And coming he finds it empty, swept, and garnished. Then he goes, and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is made worse than the first. So shall it be also to this wicked generation!” (Matthew 12:43-45).
Burning Down the Church Underground
The fate of a Ukrainian Church in the little town of Centralia, now a ghost town, in Pennsylvannia, USA, in a way epitomizes what is happening to the Catholic Church as a whole today. The town of Centralia had more than a thousand people in 400 to 500 houses living there in 1962―coincidentally the year the Second Vatican Council began―today only six people live there! Once, there were homes and gardens. Now there are weeds. In 1962 it was a thriving coal-mining town. Today it is a ghost town―left to die―but its last remaining church is thriving. In Pennsylvania’s coal-mining mountains, there is an empty grid where a town once lived. The roads remain on Google Maps, they have names like Railway Avenue and Apple Alley ― but on the ground, they are ghost streets. Nameless. Silent. Stripped bare. Anonymous, in every sense. Yet on the horizon, there stand a white church amid black trees. Its congregation no longer lives in town, but the church still stands and is still frequented, but only by a few.
What happened to Centralia? More or less the same thing that has been happening to the Catholic Church. On May 27th, 1962 (the same year that the Second Vatican Council opened), a fire spread from a surface mine to underground seams, and kept burning. Nobody is quite sure how the fire started, but more than $7m was spent trying to stop the fire―without success. Though the town was able to extinguish the fire above ground, a much bigger inferno burned underneath, and it eventually spread its way under Centralia’s town center. “Through a monumental series of blunders and inadequate attention over the years, it got to the size underground where it basically destroyed the town of Centralia and everybody had to move,” said Davod Dekok, a Pennsylvania historian. In 1983, the US Congress approved a $42m package to relocate the residents. Some locals think the fire is either out, or no longer poses a danger today. The state says the fire could burn for more than 100 years.
By the 1980s, Centralia was fading from the map, like a photo developing in reverse. When the fire started, there were five churches in the town. One by one, they disappeared. In 1986, the Ukrainian church ― built in 1911 ― almost followed. “It was on its last breath,” says Father Michael Hutsko, the pastor. “The church would have been knocked down, and all that would have remained was the cemetery.” But, as the state oversaw the clearance of Centralia, Archbishop Stephen Sulyk ordered a survey under the hillside church. “So they drilled, and they found solid rock [rather than coal],” says Father Hutsko, “That’s so Scriptural! ‘You are Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church!’” The building was saved, and with the help of a small number of families, the church kept watching over Centralia. Its congregation has left town, but Centralia’s Ukrainian Catholic Church wasn’t going anywhere. The Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church continues to stand on its solid rock foundation as a symbol of resilience and steadfastness.
Similarly, in the Catholic Church, “the final battle between God and Satan will be about marriage and the family” and Satan, as is his preference to work out of sight and therefore out of mind, has been burning the foundations of the Catholic Church since 1962―the year the Second Vatican Council opened its deliberations. Just as in the case of Centralia, the numbers and the resolve of Catholics has been whittled down as attempts to put out the Satanic fires of Vatican II have failed. Yet, just as the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church continues to stand in Centralia on its solid rock foundation as a symbol of resilience and steadfastness, so too will the Catholic Church survive this current underground fire―for as Our Lady promised, “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!” In the meantime, however, as Our Lady also said at Quito (Our Lady of Good Success): “The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings and those who sacrifice themselves for the Church and their country will be counted as martyrs. There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. This then will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration.”
What Our Lady foretold, Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed when he said: “The Church will become small and will have to start afresh, more or less, from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices She built in prosperity. As the number of Her adherents diminishes ... She will lose many of Her social privileges ... As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of Her individual members …. It will be hard-going for the Church … It will make Her poor and cause Her to become the Church of the meek ... The process will be long and wearisome ... But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church ... It seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end―not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of Faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power, to the extent that She was until recently; but She will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death” (Benedict XVI, from his book Faith and the Future).
In this Octave of Pentecost, or “Week of the Holy Ghost”, it would be appropriate to speak of “Ghost Towns.” Just as you can call a glass that contains 50% water both “half-full” and “half-empty”―likewise you could call today’s Church (or local churches) as being “half-full” or “half-empty.” Yet the fact is that our churches are emptying. The Church should be a “Holy Ghost Town” where the Holy Ghost dwells, but the Church is fast becoming the other kind of “Ghost Town”―one which is becoming increasingly emptied of its inhabitants. Perhaps your own family has already become, or is fast becoming, a “Catholic Ghost Town”―whereby increasing numbers are leaning away from the Faith, not practicing the Faith, or have left the Faith. Recent research, studies and surveys show that over 90% of Catholic youth will no longer practice the Faith on a regular basis by the time they leave college (or high school, if they don’t pursue college education).
Nearly half of the “cradle Catholics” are gone by age eighteen. 80% (8 out of 10) are gone by age twenty-three. When a person walks away from the Church, that person usually leaves when it is young. Dynamic Catholic states that 85% of Catholic young adults (17 out of 20) stop practicing their Faith in college―most of them within their first year of leaving home. Curtis Martin, the founder of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) thinks that 85% is conservative, and that the Catholic Church is losing more than 90% of Catholic young people by the end of their college years. This data isn’t new―it has been the case year after year after year. At least three-quarters (75%) of people raised Catholic, say they attended Mass at least once a week as children, including those who later left the Catholic Church. But those who have become unaffiliated, exhibit a sharp decline in Mass attendance through their lifetime: 74% attended regularly as children, 44% did so as teens and only 2% do so as adults.
The Ghost Town Phenomenon
Dictionaries will define a “ghost town” as an abandoned village, town, or city, usually one that contains substantial visible remains. A town often becomes a “ghost town” because the economic activity that once supported it, has now failed, or it becomes a “ghost town” due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, prolonged droughts, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, pollution, or nuclear disasters. The term can sometimes refer to cities, towns, and neighborhoods that are still populated, but significantly less so than in past years; for example, those affected by high levels of unemployment and dereliction.
The above definition and description presents no difficulty when applied to the Church and the Faith. The Church can become a “Ghost Town” when for one reason or another―or through a combination of reasons―persons no longer show an interest, nor any concern, nor any devotion, nor any attachment to the Church and Her teachings, laws and practices. The causes could be internal, external or both. The result is a gradual ‘depopulation’ of the Church. Many will still call themselves “Catholic”―but will not believe all Catholic teachings, nor obey all Catholic laws, nor observe all Catholic practices and customs. All of this is a progressive disease that gradually leads down the slippery slope to apostasy, and from there further down the slippery slope to Hell. Such a diagnosis would be instantly rejected by those who are on that slippery slope―but Scripture is adamant:
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that does the will of My Father, Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from me, you that work iniquity!’ Everyone, therefore, that hears these My words, and does them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that hears these my words, and does them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof!” (Matthew 7:21-27). Since most houses are built on sand―when that storm comes, be it a storm of temptation, worldliness, persecution, etc., those houses fall and we are left with a ghost town.
Prophecy of a Catholic Ghost Town
If you are a prophecy aficionado (devotee), then you will be well aware of the many prophecies that paint a ghostly picture for the Faith in the “last days” or end times”―and, as Sr. Lucia of Fatima revealed: “The Blessed Virgin did not tell me (explicitly) that we are in the last times of the world, but I understood this for three reasons. The first is because she told me that the Devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle. It is a final battle where one party will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God or we are with the Devil; there is no middle ground. The second reason is because she told me, as well as my cousins, that God is giving two last remedies to the world: the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And, being the last remedies, that is to say, they are the final ones, means that there will be no others. And the third, because in the plans of the Divine Providence, when God is going to chastise the world He always first exhausts all other remedies. When He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever, then, as we say in our imperfect way of talking, with a certain fear He presents us the last means of salvation, His Blessed Mother” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
The “last times of the world” that Sr. Lucia speaks of, are closely entwined with the so-called “Third Secret of Fatima” as well as the many prophecies, made over many centuries, by many Saints, Blesseds, Venerables and other holy persons within the Church. The so-called “Third Secret of Fatima” was the third and final part of the full prophetic Secret, in three parts, which Our Lady revealed to three children at Fatima on July 13th, 1917. The first and second parts of the Secret―namely, the vision of Hell and the warning about the rise of Communist Russia―were publicly revealed with the publication of Sr. Lucia’s memoirs in the 1940s (read here). The final part of the revelation remains in the possession of the Vatican and has not yet been correctly and fully disclosed to the world. In fact, it is widely believed that the Vatican has two versions of the Third Secret under lock and key―(1) the original one and (2) a doctored version, that has been sanitized, modified and sterilized. The doctored, modified, sanitized and sterilized version was revealed for public consumption in the year 2000―but very quickly this version was picked-to-pieces and discredited by most of the Fatima experts in the world.
Our Lady had commanded Sr. Lucia to write down on paper the Third Secret of Fatima and to entrust it to her bishop and, through him, to Pope Pius XII. At the same time, Our Lady also insisted that this part of the Secret was to be revealed to the faithful throughout the world no later than 1960. Lucia hesitated, and it was under the direct order of her bishop that Sr. Lucia finally wrote down the third part of the Secret on January 2nd, 1944. However, upon learning that her bishop was unwilling to open the envelope containing the Secret, Sr. Lucia made him promise that the Third Secret would be opened and read to the world upon her death, or in 1960, whichever would happen first. If her bishop died first, it was agreed that the Secret would be confided to the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon. Despite this agreement, the Secret was, in fact, delivered to the Vatican where it has remained undisclosed to the public―except for the disclosure of doctored, sanitized and modified version in 2000.
Haunting Words from Church Officials
The first pope to read the Third Secret of Fatima was not Pope Pius XII―during whose reign Lucia had written down the Secret―but it was his successor, Pope John XXIII.
► CARDINAL SILVIO ODDI (1910-2001), who had been had been the secretary of Archbishop Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli — later Pope John XXIII — When Roncalli served as the apostolic nuncio in Paris, insistently tried to get Pope John XXIII to publish the Third Secret of Fatima. As the British newspaper, The Telegraph, reported upon his death:
“In yet another unguarded interview, published in 1990, Cardinal Oddi spoke about his relationship with John XXIII. In the early 1960s, when acting as his secretary, he told the Pope: «Most Holy Father, there is one thing for which I cannot forgive you!» The Pope, surprised, asked what it was. Oddi replied that he had not revealed the Third Secret of Fatima, conveyed to three Portuguese children by the Virgin Mary in 1917, which had been scheduled for release in 1960.” Pope John XXIII replied: “Let’s not talk about it!” Cardinal Oddi revealed to the pope that he had already given over a hundred sermons and speeches on the subject. To which the Pope retorted: “I told you not to mention it!”
In another outspoken interview in 1990, Cardinal Oddi said: “I believe I knew John XXIII quite well, since I spent a number of years at his side when he was at the nunciature in Paris. If the Secret had concerned realities consoling for the Church like the conversion of Russia or the religious rebirth of Eastern Europe, I believe that he would have brought pressure to bear to make the Secret public. Due to his temperament, he did not hesitate to communicate joyful things. But when I asked him during an audience why in 1960, when the obligation to keep the Secret had come to an end, he had not made public the last part of the message of Fatima, he responded with a weary sigh. He then said: «Don’t bring that subject up with me, please!»” Later, in that same interview, Cardinal Oddi explains his own theory concerning the content of the Third Secret of Fatima:
“What is it that happened in 1960, that might have been seen in connection with the Secret of Fatima? The most important event is without a doubt the launching of the preparatory phase of the Second Vatican Council. Therefore I would not be surprised if the Secret had something to do with the convocation of Vatican II … From the attitude Pope John showed during our conversation, I deduced ― but it is only an hypothesis ― that the Secret might contain a part that could have a rather unpleasant ring to it. John XXIII had convened the Council with the precise intention of directing the forces of the Church toward the solution of the problems that concern all of humanity, beginning from within. That is, he intended the work to begin with the evangelical perfection pursued by consecrated persons … But we all know that many sad things have taken place … I am thinking, for example, of the number of priests who have abandoned the priesthood―it is said that there have been 80,000. But one only has to recall the anguish with which the Holy Father, Paul VI, in 1968 cried out against the “auto-demolition” taking place in the Church (to include the “smoke of Satan has entered into the Church” quote). I would not be surprised if the Third Secret alluded to dark times for the Church: grave confusions and troubling apostasies within Catholicism itself … If we consider the grave crisis we have lived through since the Council, the signs that this prophecy has been fulfilled do not seem to be lacking!”
To the Italian journalist Lucio Brunelli, in an interview conducted for the Italian journal, Il Sabato, Cardinal Oddi said: “It (the Third Secret) has nothing to do with Gorbachev [the Russian leader]. The Blessed Virgin was alerting us against apostasy in the Church!” Those words of Cardinal Oddi have been collaborated, substantiated and demonstrated to be true by many other high ranking members of the clergy.
► FATHER JOSE DOS SANTOS VALINHO
Sister Lucia’s nephew, Father Jose dos Santos Valinho. He related his opinion of the contents of the Third Secret in a book by Renzo and Roberto Allegri, entitled Reportage su Fatima (Milan 2000), which was published — providentially enough — very shortly before the disclosure of the vision purported to be the Third Secret and the publication of booklet, entitled The Message of Fatima, by Cardinal Ratzinger and Archbishop Bertone. Father Valinho stated:
“I believe that (third) part of the Secret concerns the Church from within, perhaps doctrinal difficulties, a crisis of unity, rebellion. The last sentence my aunt wrote, which precedes the part that is still unknown, says, ‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.’ … Therefore, people elsewhere in the Church might waver on dogma. But this is just speculation.”
On February 14th, 2003 Father Valinho also spoke about the Third Secret on the program ENIGMA. It was transmitted prime time, nationwide on RAI, the national television network of Italy. Father Valinho stated on this occasion:
“I believe that there is a connection between that which is announced in the first part of the Secret, which concerns wars and sufferings which would be everywhere, and the second part which concerns the persecutions and a type of breakdown of the Faith. Because where the ellipsis (the three dots, “…”) was placed, it means “Here is the third part, which is not revealed” and then the conclusion: “In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” This suggests to me that there is a relationship between Faith and the third part of the Secret. Therefore, it is something that relates to the Church. It is some kind of universal crisis which affects the whole Church and all of humanity.”
► POPE PIUS XII (while still a Cardinal)
Cardinal Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, said while still a cardinal: “I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s messages to Lucia of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul…. I hear all around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject her ornaments and make her feel remorse for her historical past. A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God. In our churches, Christians will search in vain for the red lamp where God awaits them. Like Mary Magdalene, weeping before the empty tomb, they will ask: ‘Where have they taken Him?’” Cardinal Pacelli said this in 1931. He became Pope Pius XII in 1939.
► POPE PAUL VI
Pope Paul VI said: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church” (Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13th, 1977. Pope Paul was dead 10 months later).
► POPE BENEDICT XVI (while still Cardinal Ratzinger)
Cardinal Ratzinger said: “Yes, I have read (the Third Secret). (It refers to) a radical call to conversion; the absolute seriousness of history; the dangers which threaten the Faith and the life of the Christian and therefore (the life) of the world” (Jesus magazine, November 11th, 1984).
► FR. J. SCHWEIGL (Pope Pius XII’s interviewer of Sr. Lucia)
Fr. J. Schweigl said: “I cannot reveal anything of what I learned at Fatima concerning the Third Secret, but I can say that it has two parts: one concerns the Pope; the other logically (although I must say nothing) would have to be the continuation of the words: ‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved’” (The Whole Truth about Fatima, Vol. III, p. 74). Pope Pius XII personally sent Fr. Schweigl to interview Sr. Lucia about the Third Secret in 1952.
► FR. J. ALONSO (the Church’s official archivist of Fatima 1965—1981)
Fr. J. Alonso said: “In the period preceding the great triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, terrible things are to happen. These form the content of the third part of the Secret. What are they? If ‘in Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved,’ … then it can be clearly deduced, from this, that in other parts of the Church these dogmas are going to become obscure, or even lost altogether…. Perhaps it even refers to the failures of the upper hierarchy of the Church.”
► CARDINAL OTTAVIANI
Cardinal Ottaviani said: “The message was not to be opened before 1960. I asked Sister Lucia, ‘Why this date?’ She answered, ‘Because then it will be clearer.’” Cardinal Ottaviani was the head of the Holy Office. He interviewed Sister Lucia in 1955.
► CARDINAL MARIO LUIGI CIAPPI
Cardinal Ciappi, the Papal Theologian of Pope John Paul II, in a personal communication to a Professor Baumgartner in Salzburg, Austria, said: “In the Third Secret, it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.”
► SISTER LUCIA OF FATIMA
Sister Lucia, in an interview with Fr. Augustine Fuentes, said: “Father, the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin. And the devil knows what it is that most offends God and which in a short space of time will gain for him the greatest number of souls. Thus, the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way, the devil will succeed in leaving souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them! …. That which afflicts the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Heart of Jesus is the fall of religious and priestly souls. The devil knows that religious and priests who fall away from their beautiful vocation drag numerous souls to Hell… The devil wishes to take possession of consecrated souls. He tries to corrupt them in order to lull to sleep the souls of laypeople and thereby lead them to final impenitence …. Father, let us not wait for an appeal to come from Rome, on behalf of the Holy Father, calling on the whole world to do penance; nor let us wait for it to come from our bishops in their dioceses, nor from the religious congregations. No. Our Lord has already made frequent use of these means and the world took no notice. That is why each of us must now begin his own spiritual reform. Each person must not only save his own soul, but also every soul that God has placed on his path.” (Fr. Augustine Fuentes interviewed Sr. Lucia on December 26th, 1957).
Sister Lucia, in a letter to Fr. Umberto Pasquale, who was very devoted to the cause of Fatima, wrote: “The decadence which exists in the world is without any doubt the consequence of the lack of the spirit of prayer. Foreseeing this disorientation, the Blessed Virgin recommended recitation of the Rosary with such insistence. And since the Rosary is, after the Holy Eucharistic liturgy, the prayer most apt for preserving Faith in souls, the devil has unchained his struggles against it. Unfortunately, we see the disasters he has caused.”
Second Vatican Council Ghost Town Haunted by Ghosts
We are all led by a spirit or spirits―no spirit, no life. Our soul is a spirit and, without the soul, the body is dead. Yet even though our soul is our main guiding spirit, we can be guided by other spirits too―the souls or spirits of our family, relatives, friends, teachers, acquaintances, employers, employees, strangers, the media, etc. Since we are made to be social creatures―as God said of Adam: “It is not good for man to be alone! Let Us make him a help like unto himself!” (Genesis 2:18)―and we are helped in life, for better or for worse, by the help, advice and guidance of others, other “kindred spirits” as the saying goes. Hence there are leaders and there are followers. Ultimately, at the end of the day, the two leaders are God and Satan―and humanity is caught in a tug-of-war between them.
The Catholic Church has always been in a tug-of-war with its enemies―the devil, the world and the flesh. The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and its fruits (or rotten fruits) is a clear indication of this tug-of-war. With the advent of the Second Vatican Council, the Church has been losing ground in the tug-of-war with each passing year and decade―it has been dragged out of the safety of its Traditional Faith into the chaos and sinfulness of the world. The Second Vatican Council’s desire for the so-called “aggiornamento” (meaning “update”) which sought to open the doors and windows of the Church to the world―resulted not in the world coming into the Church, but in the faithful rushing out of those opened doors and leaping out of the opened windows into the arms of the sinful world. Today in most countries―varying from country to country―only around 5% to 20% of Catholics regularly attend Sunday Mass―which binds under the pain of mortal sin! The spirit of the Second Vatican Council was certainly not the Spirit of God, but an alien spirit―a mixture of a spirit of Modernism, Liberalism, lukewarmness, worldliness; and the spirit of the infiltrators of the Church who had long since made their way into the Church for many decades; aided and abetted by the spirits of Hell, the devils themselves.
Even Our Lord was not exempt from this tug-of-war: “Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1). “The Spirit drove Him out into the desert. And He was in the desert forty days and forty nights, and was tempted by Satan; and He was with beasts, and the angels ministered to Him” (Mark 1:12-13).
What Our Lord went through, we have to go through. There is no exemption from temptation, there is no exemption from the test or exam of temptation, and there is no exemption from this warfare―“The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1)―in which “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8) and in which “our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
These “spirits of wickedness in the high places” are no doubt the diabolically inspired and diabolically led infiltrators in both Church and State―as the recently deceased (2016) former chief exorcist of Rome, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, used to say: “Satan continually tries to dominate the world … He seeks to enslave men by making them obey himself and disobey God … We see it in laws that go totally against nature, such as divorce, abortion, ‘gay marriage’ … The influence of Satan is immense! … Today, Satan has free hands … Satanism is on the increase. Satanism is growing! Unfortunately it is being spread more and more! Satanism is spreading enormously! … The smoke of Satan has entered everywhere! Everywhere! ... And, yes, Satan is in the Vatican! The devil resides in the Vatican. I have no doubt about the fact that the demon tempts the authorities of the Church especially―just as he tempts every authority, those of politics and industry. Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan! The devil loves to take over business leaders and those who hold political office! … Today Satan rules the world! … The whole world is in the power of the evil one!”
In that sense, the spirit of the world is increasingly becoming satanic―without even realizing it. People are being enslaved to the principles, maxims, fashions and attitudes of Satan. It is―as Fr. Amorth says―an increasing satanic world. “Today Satan rules the world! … The whole world is in the power of the evil one!”
Therefore, spirit of the modern-day Church is also becoming increasingly satanic. Some Catholics―clergy and laity alike―take on this spirit knowingly, others unknowingly. As Our Lord says, “by their fruits you shall know them” ― and the fruits of today’s modern Church are not good! Already way back in 2019, a Pew Research study about the level of Catholic belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, showed that a majority of Catholics do not believe that the bread and wine used at Mass become the Body and Blood of Christ. The Pew Research study showed that 69% of all self-identified Catholics said they believed the bread and wine consecrated at Mass are not the Real Presence of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, but instead are merely symbols of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. That is just one example of the bad fruits of the Post-Conciliar (Post-Second Vatican Council) Church.
Other similar deviations from the Faith are seen by the fact that another Pew Research survey found most American Catholics, including those who go to church on a regular basis, have no moral problem with contraception. Just 8% said contraception is morally wrong, with 89% saying it was either morally acceptable or not a moral issue at all. Even among Catholics who attend Mass at least weekly, only about one in 8 (13%) in this group said contraception is morally wrong, with 87% of regular church goers saying it is either acceptable or not a moral issue.
On the issue of abortion, only about half of all U.S. Catholics say it is morally wrong, although that number shoots up to 83% among Catholics who attend Sunday Mass regularly.
About two-thirds of all U.S. Catholics (64%) say that homosexual behavior is either morally acceptable or not a moral issue at all, while 32% say it’s morally wrong. But Catholics who attend Mass weekly are more evenly split, with half labeling homosexual behavior as morally wrong―yet even that is shocking when 50% of regular Mass attendees accept homosexual behavior!
Devil’s Final Battle
It is in this warfare against the devil that everyone must fight, or be conquered if they choose not to fight. Sr. Lucia of Fatima speaks of “the devil’s final battle” and says that it will be essentially be against “marriage and the family.”
In an interview with Fr. Fuentes, on December 26th, 1957, Sr. Lucia warned: “Father, the Blessed Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times of the world, but I understood this for three reasons:
“The first is because she told me that the Devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle. It is a final battle where one party will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God or we are with the Devil; there is no middle ground.
“The second reason is because she told me, as well as my cousins, that God is giving two last remedies to the world: the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And, being the last remedies, that is to say, they are the final ones, means that there will be no others.
“And the third, because in the plans of the Divine Providence, when God is going to chastise the world He always first exhausts all other remedies. When He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever, then, as we say in our imperfect way of talking, with a certain fear He presents us the last means of salvation, His Blessed Mother” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
After Pope John Paul II asked Monsignor (later Cardinal) Carlo Caffarra (1938-2017) to begin a new Pontifical Institute for studies on marriage and the family, Caffarra wrote to Sister Lucia, simply requesting her prayers for this venture. He was surprised at receiving a very long letter with her signature, in which Lucia had written: “The final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family. Don’t be afraid, because anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be contended and opposed in every way, for this is the decisive issue.” And then Lucia concluded: “however, Our Lady has already crushed its head.”
Amongst the Liberals and Modernists cardinals, bishops and priests that infect the Church today, Cardinal Caffarra was one of the few lights in the present darkness, being less infected than the others. The Cardinal died in 2017, and a priest, who assisted the Cardinal in his last days, spoke the Cardinal’s distress over the disasters that he sees and endures in the Church every day, mentioning some incidents to him. The dying cardinal burst into tears, saying: “The Lord will not abandon His Church. There were Twelve Apostles, so the Lord will start again with a few! Imagine the suffering of Saint Athanasius, who was left alone to defend the truth for the love of Christ, of the Church and of men. We must have Faith, hope and fortitude!” The priest who assisted the Cardinal in his last days said: “The cardinal was very sorrowful, but he conveyed to me so much courage and love for the Church. He was comforted by the prophetic words which he had received years ago from Sister Lucia of Fatima, in that letter in which she said to him that ‘the final battle between God and Satan will be about marriage and the family.’”
Just in case you are tempted to bury your head in the sand, or switch into virtual reality mode, or retreat into a Disneyland version of the Faith―let the penny drop, let reality sink-in, and realize that “the final battle between God and Satan will be about marriage and the family” automatically includes your marriage and your family! Just as there is nobody who is exempt from temptation and just as we are all sinners―it stands to reason that we will all be part of this “final battle between God and Satan” upon “marriage and the family”―for, even if we are not married, we are all part of a family. The devil wants to possess marriage, he wants to possess the family―and he will being to achieve that possession by introducing, little by little, more and more, the spirit of the world (which is essentially and ultimately the spirit of the devil) into each and every marriage and family. Looking at the world today, it seems as though he has most marriages and most families in his grasp―and to the few that are resisting, he nevertheless has his foot in the door with some aspects of worldliness being accepted even by those who are resisting.
The Spirit of Our Times
St. Mark gives us several accounts of souls tormented or possessed by evil spirits―something which is on the increase today. Though relatively few souls might be possessed by the devil, many souls are oppressed and obsessed by the devil. For the spirit of the world is essentially the spirit of the devil―since the devil is the prince of the world, as Jesus Himself says: “The prince of this world is coming, and in Me he has not any thing!” (John 14:30) “The prince of this world is already judged” (John 16:11). “The prince of this world shall be cast out!” (John 12:31). It is now, in our days, that we need Our Lord to again cast out the prince of this world, whose spirit has possessed and created the spirit of the world, which has captivated so many souls today. These poor souls are not led by the spirit of God, but by the spirit of the devil, disguised and wrapped-up in the fancy coverings of the spirit of the world. “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God―that we may know the things that are given us from God” (1 Corinthians 2:12). “Woe to the foolish that follow their own spirit, and see nothing!” (Ezechiel 13:3). “Leave them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14).
This is exactly what Our Lady foretold: “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell … and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops .... Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God ... as true Faith fades and false light will brighten the people … The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth. People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin.” (Our Lady of La Salette).
When Our Lord speaks of there being no Faith on Earth when He returns― “The Son of man, when He comes, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8)―He is thereby implying that there will be another spirit that will have replaced the spirit of Faith. That other spirit will be the spirit of the world―a child of the spirit of the devil. That spirit was unchained with the Second Vatican Council―which is what the Third Secret of Fatima is thought to mention―and the infiltration of the Church to the highest positions―which is what Our Lady also mentions: “The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church, in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.” (Akita) … “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell.” (La Salette).
Taking On the Spirit of These Angels of Hell
We do well to re-read the accounts of demonic possession in the time of Our Lord, for demonic activity can only be on the increase in this “final battle between God and Satan” upon “marriage and the family.” Pope Paul VI, more than once, spoke of the smoke of Satan having entered the Church. Pope Paul VI complained that after the Second Vatican Council, that “from some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God” (June 29th, 1972). A few years later he repeated the same concern: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church” (Pope Paul VI, Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13th, 1977).
The recently deceased (2016) famous exorcist of Rome, Father Gabriele Amorth, in an interview with the magazine 30 Days, in June 2000, also said: “The smoke of Satan has entered everywhere. Everywhere! Perhaps … a large number of exorcists might succeed in chasing out the legions of demons that have installed themselves in the Vatican.” When Fr. Amorth says “Satan has entered everywhere”, he means everywhere―your family included! Obviously you won’t see him wearing a red cat-suit, with tail attached and pitchfork in hand―but you will see him in the worldliness that has crept into your family in one way or another, in one form or another, through one family member or another. Or you will see him in the anti-Christian attitude and spirit that easily creeps into families and individuals―a spirit of indifference, lukewarmness, argumentativeness, mockery, abuse, criticism, denigration, negativity, hatred, etc. This is his modern method of possession―or, more correctly speaking―obsession. He seeks to make each and every family more and more obsessed with the world, the spirit of the world, with worldliness. That is how he controls most people today.
Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, said: “We have now absorbed into Church teaching, and the Church has opened herself up to, principles which are not hers, but which come from modern society.” Elsewhere he said that with Vatican II, the principles of 1789 [the French Revolution] had entered the Church. Unfortunately, the opening of the windows of the Church to the world, has let worldliness into the Church, while many of the Catholics jumped out of the windows and joined the world!
“And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying: ‘What have we to do with Thee, Jesus of Nazareth? Art Thou come to destroy us? I know who Thou art―the Holy One of God!’ And Jesus threatened him, saying: ‘Speak no more, and go out of the man!’ And the unclean spirit, tearing him and crying out with a loud voice, went out of him” (Mark 1:23-26).
“There met Him [Jesus], out of the monuments, a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling in the tombs, and no man now could bind him, not even with chains. For having been often bound with fetters and chains, he had burst the chains, and broken the fetters in pieces, and no one could tame him. And he was always day and night in the monuments and in the mountains, crying and cutting himself with stones. And seeing Jesus afar off, he ran and adored Him. And crying with a loud voice, he said: ‘What have I to do with Thee, Jesus the Son of the most high God? I adjure Thee by God that Thou torment me not!’ For He said unto him: ‘Go out of the man, thou unclean spirit!’ And Jesus asked him: ‘What is thy name?’ And he said to Him: ‘My name is Legion, for we are many [devils in the man]!’ And he besought Jesus much, that He would not drive him away out of the country. And there was there near the mountain a great herd of swine, feeding. And the [evil] spirits besought Him, saying: ‘Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them!’ And Jesus immediately gave them permission. And the unclean spirits, going out of the man, entered into the swine―and the herd, with great violence, was carried headlong into the sea, being about two thousand, and were drowned in the sea. And they that fed them fled, and told it in the city and in the fields. And they went out to see what was done. And they came to Jesus, and they saw him that was troubled with the devil, sitting, clothed, and well in his wits, and they were afraid. And they, that had seen it, told them in what manner he had been dealt with who had the devil; and concerning the swine. And they began to pray Jesus that He would depart from their coasts. And when He went up into the ship, he that had been troubled with the devil, began to beseech Jesus that he might be with Him. And Jesus admitted him not onto the ship, but said to him: ‘Go into thy house to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord has done for thee, and has had mercy on thee!’ And he went his way, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him―and all men wondered” (Mark 5:2-20).
On another occasion, “He went into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon: and a woman, as soon as she heard of Him, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, came in and fell down at His feet. The woman was a Gentile, a Syrophenician born. And she besought Him that He would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. Who said to her: ‘Suffer first the children to be filled! For it is not good to take the bread of the children, and cast it to the dogs!’ But she answered and said to Him: ‘Yea, Lord! But even the whelps also eat under the table of the crumbs of the children!’ And He said to her: ‘For this saying―go thy way! The devil is gone out of thy daughter!’ And when she was come into her house, she found the girl lying upon the bed, and that the devil was gone out” (Mark 7:24-30).
And Jesus said: “When an unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walks through dry places seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says: ‘I will return into my house from whence I came out!’ And coming he finds it empty, swept, and garnished. Then he goes, and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is made worse than the first. So shall it be also to this wicked generation!” (Matthew 12:43-45).
Burning Down the Church Underground
The fate of a Ukrainian Church in the little town of Centralia, now a ghost town, in Pennsylvannia, USA, in a way epitomizes what is happening to the Catholic Church as a whole today. The town of Centralia had more than a thousand people in 400 to 500 houses living there in 1962―coincidentally the year the Second Vatican Council began―today only six people live there! Once, there were homes and gardens. Now there are weeds. In 1962 it was a thriving coal-mining town. Today it is a ghost town―left to die―but its last remaining church is thriving. In Pennsylvania’s coal-mining mountains, there is an empty grid where a town once lived. The roads remain on Google Maps, they have names like Railway Avenue and Apple Alley ― but on the ground, they are ghost streets. Nameless. Silent. Stripped bare. Anonymous, in every sense. Yet on the horizon, there stand a white church amid black trees. Its congregation no longer lives in town, but the church still stands and is still frequented, but only by a few.
What happened to Centralia? More or less the same thing that has been happening to the Catholic Church. On May 27th, 1962 (the same year that the Second Vatican Council opened), a fire spread from a surface mine to underground seams, and kept burning. Nobody is quite sure how the fire started, but more than $7m was spent trying to stop the fire―without success. Though the town was able to extinguish the fire above ground, a much bigger inferno burned underneath, and it eventually spread its way under Centralia’s town center. “Through a monumental series of blunders and inadequate attention over the years, it got to the size underground where it basically destroyed the town of Centralia and everybody had to move,” said Davod Dekok, a Pennsylvania historian. In 1983, the US Congress approved a $42m package to relocate the residents. Some locals think the fire is either out, or no longer poses a danger today. The state says the fire could burn for more than 100 years.
By the 1980s, Centralia was fading from the map, like a photo developing in reverse. When the fire started, there were five churches in the town. One by one, they disappeared. In 1986, the Ukrainian church ― built in 1911 ― almost followed. “It was on its last breath,” says Father Michael Hutsko, the pastor. “The church would have been knocked down, and all that would have remained was the cemetery.” But, as the state oversaw the clearance of Centralia, Archbishop Stephen Sulyk ordered a survey under the hillside church. “So they drilled, and they found solid rock [rather than coal],” says Father Hutsko, “That’s so Scriptural! ‘You are Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church!’” The building was saved, and with the help of a small number of families, the church kept watching over Centralia. Its congregation has left town, but Centralia’s Ukrainian Catholic Church wasn’t going anywhere. The Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church continues to stand on its solid rock foundation as a symbol of resilience and steadfastness.
Similarly, in the Catholic Church, “the final battle between God and Satan will be about marriage and the family” and Satan, as is his preference to work out of sight and therefore out of mind, has been burning the foundations of the Catholic Church since 1962―the year the Second Vatican Council opened its deliberations. Just as in the case of Centralia, the numbers and the resolve of Catholics has been whittled down as attempts to put out the Satanic fires of Vatican II have failed. Yet, just as the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church continues to stand in Centralia on its solid rock foundation as a symbol of resilience and steadfastness, so too will the Catholic Church survive this current underground fire―for as Our Lady promised, “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!” In the meantime, however, as Our Lady also said at Quito (Our Lady of Good Success): “The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings and those who sacrifice themselves for the Church and their country will be counted as martyrs. There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. This then will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration.”
What Our Lady foretold, Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed when he said: “The Church will become small and will have to start afresh, more or less, from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices She built in prosperity. As the number of Her adherents diminishes ... She will lose many of Her social privileges ... As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of Her individual members …. It will be hard-going for the Church … It will make Her poor and cause Her to become the Church of the meek ... The process will be long and wearisome ... But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church ... It seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end―not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of Faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power, to the extent that She was until recently; but She will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death” (Benedict XVI, from his book Faith and the Future).
Article 27
Monday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 25th
PREPARING FOR PENTECOST―EXAMINING THE GIFTS
#7 Heavenly Wisdom or Worldly Wisdom?
Monday in the Octave of Pentecost, May 25th
PREPARING FOR PENTECOST―EXAMINING THE GIFTS
#7 Heavenly Wisdom or Worldly Wisdom?
God Speaks of Wisdom in Scripture
“For Wisdom came forth from God … the Wisdom of God is great!” (Ecclesiasticus 15:10, 19). “Get Wisdom, because it is better than gold!” (Proverbs 16:16). “The desire of Wisdom brings to the everlasting kingdom” (Wisdom 6:21). “For God loves none but him that dwells with wisdom” (Wisdom 7:28). “Better is wisdom, than weapons of war!” (Ecclesiastes 9:18). “Wisdom is better than strength, and a wise man is better than a strong man!” (Wisdom 6:1). “And I said that wisdom is better than strength!” (Ecclesiastes 9:16). “Wisdom has delivered from sorrow” (Wisdom 10:9). “He that rejects Wisdom and discipline, is unhappy; and his hope is vain!” (Wisdom 3:11). “I called upon God, and the spirit of Wisdom came upon me!” (Wisdom 7:7). “And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with Wisdom and Understanding, and Knowledge!” (Exodus 31:3). “And God has given to me to speak … because He is the guide of Wisdom, and the director of the wise” (Wisdom 7:15).
The Wisdom of De Montfort
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book Love of Eternal Wisdom, speaks of true and false wisdom: “There is the Wisdom of God, the only true Wisdom that deserves to be loved as a great Treasure. There is also the wisdom of the corrupt world which must be condemned and detested as evil and pernicious. Moreover, there is the wisdom of the philosophers which we must despise when it is not true philosophy, and because it is often dangerous to salvation.
“The wisdom of the world is that of which it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise’ (1 Corinthians 1:19) according to the world. ‘The wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God’ (Romans 8:7) … ‘This is not the wisdom descending from above, but earthly, sensual, devilish’ (James 3:15). This worldly wisdom consists in the exact compliance with the maxims and the fashions of the world; in a continuous trend toward greatness and esteem. It is a secret and unceasing pursuit of pleasures and personal interests, not in a gross and open manner so as to cause scandal, but in a secret, deceitful and scheming fashion. Otherwise, it would not be what the world calls wisdom, but rank licentiousness.
“Those who proceed according to the wisdom of the world are those who know how to manage well their affairs and to arrange things to their temporal advantage without appearing to do so; who know the art of deceiving and how to cleverly cheat without being noticed; who say or do one thing and have another thing in mind; who are thoroughly acquainted with the way and the flattery of the world; who know how to please everybody in order to reach their goal, not troubling much about the honor and interests of God; who make a secret but deadly fusion of truth with untruth, of the Gospel with the world, of virtue with vice, of Jesus Christ with Satan; who wish to pass as honest people but not as religious men; who despise and corrupt or readily condemn every religious practice which does not conform to their own. In short, the worldly wise are those who, being guided only by their human senses and reason, seek only to appear as Christian and honest folk, without troubling much to please God or to do penance for the sins which they have committed against His divine Majesty.
“THE EARTHLY WISDOM spoken of by St. James is an excessive striving for worldly goods. The worldly-wise make a secret profession of this type of wisdom when they allow themselves to become attached to their earthly possessions, when they strive to become rich, when they go to law and bring useless actions against others in order to acquire or to keep temporal goods; when their every thought, word and deed is mainly directed toward obtaining or retaining something temporal. As to working out their eternal salvation and making use of the means to do so, such as reception of the Sacraments and prayer, they accomplish these duties only carelessly, in a very off-hand manner, once in a while, and for the sake of appearances.
“SENSUAL WISDOM is a lustful desire for pleasure. The worldly wise make a profession of it when they seek only the satisfaction of the senses; when they are inordinately fond of entertainment; when they shun whatever mortifies and inconveniences the body, such as fasting and other austerities; when they continually think of eating, drinking, playing, laughing, amusing themselves and having an agreeable time; when they eagerly seek after soft beds, merry games, sumptuous feasts and fashionable society. Then, after having unscrupulously indulged in all these pleasures—perhaps without displeasing the world or injuring their health—they look for “the least scrupulous” confessor (such is the name they give to those easygoing confessors who shirk their duty) that they may receive from him, at little cost, the peaceful sanction of their soft and effeminate life, and a plenary indulgence for all their sins. I say, at little cost, for these sensually wise want as penance the recitation of only a few prayers, or the giving of an alms, because they dislike what afflicts the body.
“DEVILISH WISDOM consists in an unlawful striving for human esteem and honors. This is the wisdom which the worldly wise profess when they aim, although not openly, at greatness, honors, dignities and high positions; when they wish to be seen, esteemed, praised and applauded by men; when in their studies, their works, their endeavors their words and actions, they seek only the good opinion and praise of men so that they may be looked upon as pious people, as men of learning, as great leaders, as clever lawyers, as people of boundless and distinguished merit, or deserving of high consideration; while they cannot bear an insult or a rebuke; or they cover up their faults and make a show of their fine qualities.” (St. Louis de Montfort, Love of Eternal Wisdom).
Tasting True Wisdom
The word “wisdom” comes from the Latin word “sapientia.” The very sound is delicious. “Sapientia” actually means “tasting knowledge”—knowledge that is delightful and not merely notional or abstract. It is like the experience of tasting fruit, a very different experience from reading about it in a dictionary.
Is it really possible to taste God? The answer is yes--”O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet!” (Psalm 33:9)—but we cannot bring it about by our own efforts. We can only prepare ourselves for it by reducing the obvious obstacles we can perceive and by allowing the action of divine love to purify our unconscious motivation. “Wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins” (Wisdom 1:4). “You have found Wisdom,” says St. Bernardine of Sienna, “if you weep for the sins of your past life, if you value as naught that which this world most desires, and if all your longing is centered around your eternal happiness!”
True Wisdom
Wisdom imparts to us a knowledge and a love of everything divine, in the highest possible way, and enables us also to judge created things after a divine standard. It is a summing up of all the Gifts, their blossom and their perfection. It is the last step we make in our ascent to God. “The fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom … The root of Wisdom is to fear the Lord” (Ecclesiasticus 1:16; 1:25).
The Gift of Wisdom is, therefore, a participation of God’s Wisdom. This close union with God necessarily means participation in God’s Wisdom. “But he who is joined to the Lord,” says St. Paul, “is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17). Hence, it follows that the Gift of Wisdom is not for Saints alone; no, it exists in the soul of each and every one of the faithful who is free from mortal sin; and we all possess as much of it as is necessary for salvation.
The Gift of Wisdom gives to the soul is incomparably superior to all human sciences, even theology, which already possesses something of divine. For that reason, a simple and uneducated soul who lacks the theological knowledge acquired by study may sometimes possess, through the Gift of Wisdom, a profound knowledge of divine things that causes amazement even to eminent theologians. Such was the case of St. Teresa and many other souls who had no scientific studies whatsoever.
The Nature of the Gift of Wisdom
The Gift of Wisdom is a supernatural habit, inseparable from Charity (a love of God), by which we judge rightly concerning God and divine things through their ultimate and highest causes under the special instinct of the Holy Ghost, Who makes us taste these things by a certain connaturality and sympathy. We shall explain this definition in order to gain a clear idea of the true nature of this great Gift.
“It is a supernatural habit”: Like all the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, it is infused by God in the soul together with grace and the infused virtues.
“Inseparable from Charity”: It is precisely the Gift of Wisdom that perfects charity by giving it the divine modality it lacks as long as Charity is subject to the rule of human reason, even illumined by Faith. By reason of its connection with Charity, all the souls in the state of grace possess the Gift of Wisdom as a habit—though in differing degrees—and it is incompatible with mortal sin. The same is true of all the other Gifts of the Holy Ghost.
“By which we judge rightly”: In this, as in other things, it is distinguished from the Gift of Understanding. It is proper to the Gift of Understanding to have a penetrating and profound intuition of the truths of Faith in the order of simple apprehension, without making any judgment concerning them. Such a judgment is made by the other intellectual Gifts, but in different ways: The Gift of Wisdom judges concerning divine things; the Gift of Knowledge judges concerning created things; the Gift of Counsel judges concerning the application of these things to our concrete actions.
Seeing Things God’s Way
Too often we try to make God see things our way, yet God says: “My thoughts are not your thoughts; nor your ways My ways. For as the heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9). The Gift of Wisdom provides us with God’s view of things, a kind of divine perspective on reality that penetrates through events and perceives the divine presence and action at work, even in very tragic and painful situations. To see God in suffering is indeed a high level of the Gift of Wisdom. Some things are to be learned in this perspective that cannot be learned in any other way.
The Necessity of the Gift of Wisdom
The Gift of Wisdom is absolutely necessary if the virtue of charity is to develop to its full perfection and plenitude. Precisely because charity is the most excellent of all the virtues and the most perfect and divine, it demands by its very nature the divine regulation of the divine wisdom. Left to itself, or to the control of man in the ascetical state, it would have to be regulated by human reason according to the human mode. But this human atmosphere asphyxiates it, preventing it from flying to the heights.
Charity is a divine virtue and has wings for soaring to Heaven, but it is obliged to move along the earth, because it is under the control of human reason and because, in a certain sense, it is necessary to compromise, in accordance with prudence, due to its weak condition. Only when it begins to receive the full influence of the Gift of Wisdom is there given to Charity the divine atmosphere and modality that it needs as the most perfect of all the theological virtues. Then Charity begins to breathe and to expand in its proper element.
As an inevitable consequence, it begins to grow and to increase rapidly, carrying the soul with it as if in flight, soaring to regions of the mystical life and to the very summit of perfection, which it never could have done if it had remained under the control of human reason in the purely ascetical state.
The Mystical State is Meant For Everyone
From this sublime doctrine follow two inevitable conclusions. The first is that the mystical state—the habitual or predominant regime of the Gifts—is not something abnormal and extraordinary in the full development of the Christian life, but it is the normal atmosphere which grace, as a divine form, demands, so that it can develop in all its virtualities through the operative principles of the infused virtues, and especially through the theological virtues (Faith, Hope and Charity), which are substantially divine. Therefore, the mystical state ought to be something normal in the Christian life, and it is, as a matter of fact, normal in every perfect Christian.
Who’s the Boss? Gift or Virtue?
The second conclusion is that an actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost in merely the human mode—a kind of demotion for the Gifts—besides being impossible and absurd, would be utterly useless for the perfection of the infused virtues, and especially the theological virtues. The theological virtues are superior by their nature to the Gifts themselves. The theological virtues have as direct and immediate object God Himself (believed, hoped for or loved), while the Gifts fall directly upon the infused virtues (something very distinct from God) to perfect them. Therefore it is evident that the theological virtues are, by their own nature, superior to the Gifts themselves. On the other hand, the Gifts are superior to all infused virtues—including the theological ones—by their divine way of acting (as direct and immediate instruments of the Holy Ghost, and not of the soul in grace, like the virtues). More briefly, the theological virtues are superior to the Gifts by their theological nature, while the Gifts are superior to them by their divine modality (Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-Ilae, q. 68, art. 8).
Effects of the Gift of Wisdom
By reason of its elevation and grandeur and by reason of the sublimity of the virtue that it perfects, the effects which wisdom produces in the soul are truly remarkable. The following are the more characteristic effects of this Gift.
(1) It Gives to the Saints a Divine Sense By Which They Judge All Things
This is the most impressive of all the effects of the Gift of Wisdom so far as they are manifested externally. One would say that the saints have completely lost the human instinct or the human manner of judgment and that it has been replaced by a certain divine instinct by which they judge all things. They see everything from God’s point of view, whether the little, commonplace episodes of daily life, or the great international events. In all things they see the hand of God. They never attach their attention to immediate secondary causes but pass them by, to arrive immediately at the Supreme Cause, Who governs and rules them from above.
The saints would have to do a great violence to themselves in order to descend to the point of view that judges from a purely human and rational standard. An insult or any other injury that is done to them causes them to turn immediately to God, Who is the one who wishes or permits that they be exercised in patience and thus increase their glory. They do not dwell for an instant on the secondary cause, which is the evil or malice of men, but they rise immediately to God and judge all things from the divine heights. They do not consider something (whether sickness, persecution, death, or the like) disgraceful in the way that the men of the world do, but they consider as disgraceful only that which God would consider such, namely, sin, lukewarmness, infidelity to grace, and so on. Like St. Teresa of Avila, they do not understand how the world can consider as treasures those little baubles that sparkle and glitter, because they see clearly that there is no treasure but God and the things that lead to God. As St. Aloysius Gonzaga used to say: “Of what avail is this to me for eternity, for the glory of God?” This is the Saints’ only differential criteria for judging the value of things.
The Gift of Wisdom shone most brilliantly in St. Thomas Aquinas, among many other saints. He possessed a remarkable supernatural instinct in discovering in all things the divine aspect by which they were related to God. There is no other way of explaining his divine instinct and insight except that the Gift of Wisdom operated in him in an eminent degree (Cf. Antoine Gardeil, O.P., The Gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Dominican Saints (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1937), chap. 8).
In modern times, an admirable example of the operation of the Gift of Wisdom is Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity. According to Father Philipon, who studied her case profoundly, the Gift of Wisdom was the outstanding characteristic of the doctrine and life of this saintly Carmelite nun of Dijon (Cf. M. M. Philipon, The Spiritual Doctrine of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, chap. 8, n. 8). She was perfectly aware of her sublime vocation and even succeeded in contemplating the Trinity, so that she experienced the distinct Persons of the Trinity present in her soul. The greatest trials and sufferings were unable to disturb for a moment her ineffable peace of soul. No matter what misfortunes befell her, she remained as unmoved and tranquil as if her soul were already in eternity.
(2) It Makes the Saints Live the Mysteries of Faith in an Entirely Divine Manner
As Father Philipon says: “The Gift of Wisdom is the royal Gift; by it souls enter most closely into participation of the deiform mode of divine knowledge. Short of the beatific vision, which is the fullest measure of this Gift, it is impossible to rise any higher. It is the gaze of the ‘Word breathing forth love’ communicated to the soul, which judges of everything in the light of the highest and most divine causes, and judges them also for the highest reasons ‘after the manner of God.’
“The divinized soul that has been introduced by charity into the intimacy of the Divine Persons and, as it were, into the heart of the Trinity is so moved by the Spirit of Love that it contemplates all things from this center, this indivisible point from which they appear to it as they do to God Himself. Thus does it view the divine attributes, creation, redemption, glory, the hypostatic order, the smallest happenings in the world. So far as it is possible to mere creatures, it tends to see from the same angle of vision as that from which God sees Himself and the whole universe. It is the deiform manner of contemplation in the light of the experience of the Deity that fills the soul with ineffable sweetness (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, q. 112, a. 5).
“To understand this, we must understand that God can only see things in Himself: in His causality. It is not directly in themselves that He knows His creatures, or in the movement of contingent and temporal causes which govern their activity. He beholds them eternally in His Son. He judges of every event of Providence in the light of His Essence and His Glory” (M. M. Philipon, The Spiritual Doctrine of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, chap. 8, n. 8, pp. 181-182).
The soul that becomes a participant in this divine mode of knowledge by means of the Gift of Wisdom penetrates into the unsounded depths of the Divinity, and it contemplates all things through the divine. One would say that St. Paul was thinking of such souls when he wrote: “The Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10).
(3) It Makes Them Live in Union with the three Divine Persons
It makes them live in union with the three Divine Persons through an ineffable participation in Their Trinitarian life. We look again to Father Philipon:
“While the Gift of Knowledge acts by an ascending movement, raising the soul from creatures to God, and the Gift of Understanding penetrates all God’s mysteries from without and within by a simple loving gaze, the Gift of Wisdom may be said never to leave the very heart of the Trinity. It looks at everything from that indivisible center. Thus deiform, the soul can see things only from their highest and most divine motives. The whole movement of the universe, down to its tiniest atoms, thus lies beneath its gaze in the all-pure light of the Trinity and of the divine attributes, and it beholds them in order, according to the rhythm with which these things proceed from God. Creation, redemption, hypostatic order-it sees all, even evil, ordained to the greater glory of the Trinity.
“Finally, it looks aloft, rising above justice, mercy, prudence and all the divine attributes. Then it suddenly discovers all these uncreated perfections in their eternal Source: in the Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Ghost which infinitely surpasses all our narrow human concepts and leaves God incomprehensible and ineffable even to the gaze of the blessed, and even to the beatified gaze of Christ. It beholds that God, Who is supereminent in His simplicity, is simultaneously Unity in Trinity, indivisible Essence and fellowship of three living Persons, really distinct according to an order of procession that does not affect their consubstantial Equality.
“Human eye could never have discovered such a mystery, nor could human ear have caught such harmonies, and the human heart could never have suspected such beatitude had not the Godhead stooped to us by grace in Christ, in order that we might enter into the unfathomable depths of God under the guidance of His own Spirit” (M. M. Philipon, The Spiritual Doctrine of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, chap. 8, n. 8, p. 183).
The soul that has reached these heights never departs from God. If the duties of one’s state should so demand, it gives itself externally to all types of work, even the most absorbing work, with an unbelievable activity; but in the most profound center of the soul, as St. John of the Cross used to say, it experiences and perceives the divine company of the Three, and does not abandon Them for an instant. In such souls, Martha and Mary have been joined in an ineffable manner, so that the prodigious activity of Martha in no way compromises the peace and tranquility of Mary, who remains day and night in silent contemplation at the feet of the Divine Master. For such a soul, life on earth is the beginning of eternal beatitude.
(4) It Raises the Virtue of Charity to Heroism
This is precisely the purpose of the Gift of Wisdom. Freed from human bondage and receiving in full the divine atmosphere that the Gift gives, the fire of charity reaches tremendous proportions. It is incredible what the love of God can do in souls that are under the operations of the Gift of Wisdom. Its most impressive effect is the complete and total death of self.
Such souls love God with a pure love only for His infinite goodness and without the mixture of any human motive or self-interest. True, they do not renounce their hope of Heaven; they desire it more than ever, but they desire it primarily because there they shall be able to love God with even greater intensity and without any interruption. If it were possible to glorify God more in Hell than in Heaven, they would without hesitation prefer the eternal torments. It is the definitive triumph of grace and the total death of one’s own self. Then one begins to fulfill the first commandment of the law of God in all the fullness that is compatible with the state of misery and weakness on earth.
This sentiment has been experienced by many saints. We mention only St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who expresses it with such simple yet sublime delicacy: “One evening, not knowing in what words to tell Jesus how much I loved Him, and how much I wished that He might be everywhere honored and served, the sad thought forced itself upon my mind that from the depths of Hell there would never go up to Him one single act of love. From my inmost heart I then cried out that I would gladly be cast into that place of torment and blasphemy to make Him eternally loved even there. Of course this could not be for His glory, since He desires only our happiness, but love must needs speak foolishly” (Autobiography, chap. 5).
As regards one’s neighbor, charity also reaches a sublime perfection through the Gift of Wisdom. Accustomed to seeing God in all things, even in the most minute details of daily life, the saints see Him in a very special manner in their neighbor. They love their neighbor with a profound tenderness that is completely supernatural and divine. They serve their neighbor with heroic abnegation, which is at the same time filled with naturalness and simplicity. Seeing Christ in the poor, in those who suffer, in the heart of all their brothers, they hasten to aid their brethren with a soul that is filled with love. They are happy to deprive themselves of even the necessities of life in order to give them to their neighbor, whose interest they place and prefer before their own, as they would put the interests of Christ before their own. Personal egoism in relation to neighbor is completely dead. Sometimes the love of charity that inflames their heart is so great that it is manifested externally in the divine madness which is so disconcerting to human prudence. St. Francis of Assisi embraced a tree as a creature of God, desiring to embrace all creation because it came from the hands of God.
(5) It Gives to all the Virtues Their Ultimate Perfection
This is an inevitable consequence of the previous effect. Perfected by the Gift of Wisdom, charity extends the divine influence to all the other virtues, because Charity is the true—though extrinsic and accidental form of all the other virtues, as St. Thomas teaches. The whole pattern and organism of the Christian life experiences the divine influence of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, the perfect plenitude that is seen in the virtues of the saints and is sought in vain in souls which are less advanced.
By reason of the influence of the Gift of Wisdom through Charity, all the Christian virtues are cultivated, and they acquire a godlike modality that admits of countless shades and manifestations, according to the personal character and particular type of life of the saints. But in any case they are all so sublime that one could not say which of them is most exquisite. Having died definitively to self, being perfect in every type of virtue, the soul has arrived at the summit of the mount of sanctity, where it reads that sublime inscription written by St. John of the Cross: “Here on this mountain dwell only the honor and glory of God.”
Opposed Vices
To the Gift of Wisdom is opposed the vice of spiritual dullness or stupidity (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 46). It consists in a certain defect of judgment and lack of spiritual sense, or a spiritual dullness, which prevents one from discerning or judging the things of God by taste or contact with God that comes from the Gift of Wisdom. Worse yet is the vice of foolishness or stupidity, which prevents a person from judging in any way of divine things. Dullness is opposed to the Gift of Wisdom by privation; foolishness or stupidity is opposed to it by negation (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 46, art. 1).
We suffer from this stupidity whenever we somehow esteem the nothingness of this world, or think that there is value in anything which is not the possession of the supreme good or what leads to it. Hence, if we are not saints, we must admit that we are really stupid, however painful this might be to self-love (I. Menendez-Reigada, Los dones del Espiritu Santo y la perfeccion cristiana, p. 595).
When this stupidity or dullness is voluntary because a man is submerged in earthly things to the point that he has lost sight or has become incapable of contemplating the divine, it is a true sin, according to the teaching of St. Paul, who says that the animal man does not comprehend the things of the Spirit of God (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:14). And since there is nothing that so brutalizes and animalizes man, until submerging him entirely in the mud of earth, as the vice of lust, it is primarily from lust that spiritual dullness proceeds, although the vice of anger also contributes to it so far as its violent movements impede right judgment (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 46, art. 3).
The Means to Foster This Gift
Apart from the general means such as recollection, a life of prayer, fidelity to grace, deep humility, frequent invocation of the Holy Ghost, and so on, we can dispose ourselves for the actuation of the Gift of Wisdom by using the following means, which are perfectly within our reach with the help of ordinary grace:
(a) To make an effort to see all things from God’s point of view.
How many pious souls, even among those who are consecrated to God, fall into the habit of judging things from a purely natural and human point of view—when not a totally worldly point of view! Their spiritual myopia is such that they never elevate their gaze above the purely human causes to see God’s designs in everything that happens. If they are annoyed by others—even inadvertently—they get mad and feel offended.
If a superior corrects them, right away they consider him demanding, tyrannical and cruel. If he orders them to do something that is not to their liking, they complain of his “lack of understanding,” his “unawareness of reality,” his “incapacity to govern.” If he humiliates them, they raise a terrible fuss. They have to be treated with the caution one would have toward a worldly person entirely lacking supernatural spirit. It is not surprising that the world is in such a bad state when those who should give the good example are often this way!
The Gift of Wisdom will never act in such souls. Such an imperfect and human spirit completely suffocates the habit of the Gifts. Unless they make some effort to elevate their gaze to Heaven and, prescinding from the secondary causes, see the hand of God in all the events of their life-whether prosperous or not—-their poor and painful spiritual life will always remain on the ground. To learn how to fly it is necessary to keep flapping toward the heights, whatever the cost and sacrifice.
(b) To combat the wisdom of the world, which is nothingness in the eyes of God.
It is St. Paul who terms it so (1 Corinthians 3:19). The world considers as wise those who are fools in God’s eyes (1 Corinthians 1:25), and by an unavoidable antithesis, the wise in the eyes of God are fools according to the world (1 Corinthians 1:27, 3:18). And since the world is full of stupidity and foolishness, Sacred Scripture says that “the number of fools is infinite” (Ecclesiastes. 1:15).
Father Lallemant writes: “In fact, the generality of mankind have a depraved taste, and they may justly be called fools, because they act like fools, placing their last end, at least practically, in the creature and not in God. Each has some object to which he is attached, and to which he refers everything, entertaining neither affection nor passion except in connection with it; and this is to be a fool indeed.
“Would we know if we are of the number of wise men or fools, let us examine our tastes and distastes, either with respect to God and divine things, or with respect to creatures and the things of earth. Whence spring our satisfaction and our dissatisfaction? Wherein does our heart find its repose and its contentment?
“This sort of examination is an excellent means of acquiring purity of heart. We ought to familiarize ourselves with the practice, examining our likes and dislikes frequently during the day, and trying little by little to refer them to God.
“There are three sorts of wisdom condemned in Scripture, which are so many veritable follies. ‘Terrena’, earthly wisdom, when a man has no taste but for riches; ‘animalis’, sensual wisdom, when he has no taste but for bodily pleasures; ‘diabolica’, devilish wisdom, when he has no taste but for his own superiority.
“There is a folly that is true wisdom before God. To love poverty, contempt, crosses, persecutions; this is to be a fool according to the world’s esteem. And yet the wisdom which is a Gift of the Holy Ghost is nothing else but this same folly which has a taste only for what Our Lord and the saints delighted in. Now Jesus Christ, in everything that He touched during His mortal life, as poverty, abjection, the cross, left a sweet odor, a delicious savor; but few souls have their senses sufficiently purified to perceive this odor and to taste this savor, which are altogether supernatural.
“The saints have run to the odor of these ointments (Canticles 1:3), like St. Ignatius, who took delight in seeing himself made a mock of; St. Francis, who so passionately loved abjection, that he performed actions for the purpose of making himself ridiculous; St. Dominic, who was more gratified at Carcassonne, where he was generally insulted, than at Toulouse, where he was honored by all the world” (Spiritual Teaching, pp. 132-133, IV, chap. 4, art. 1).
(c) Not to be attached to things of this world, however good and useful.
Science, art, human culture, material progress of the nations, and so on, are good and useful in themselves if they are directed and ordered righteously. However, if we dedicate ourselves to them with too much eagerness and ardor, they will not fail to seriously harm us. Once
our taste is used to the savor of creatures, it will experience a certain dullness toward savoring the things of God, so superior in every way.
A multitude of souls are paralyzed in their spiritual life because they allow themselves to be absorbed in the disorderly appetite of science, even sacred or theological science. They lose the taste for the interior life, they abandon or shorten prayer, they absorb themselves in intellectual work and neglect the “only necessary thing,” of which Our Lord speaks in the Gospel (Luke 10:42). What a shame this is and how they will regret it in the next life, when it will be too late!
Father Lallemant continues: “How unlike are the judgments of God to the judgments of men! Divine wisdom is a folly in the judgment of men, and human wisdom is folly in the judgment of God. It is for us to see to which of these two judgments we will conform our own. One or the other we must take as the rule of our actions. If we have a taste for praises and honors, so far we are fools; and the more relish we have for being esteemed and honored, the more foolish we are. As, on the contrary, the more love we have for humiliation and the cross, the wiser we are.
“It is monstrous that even in religion there should be found persons who have no taste for anything but what makes them of importance in the eyes of the world; who do all their actions, for the twenty or thirty years of their religious life, only that they may attain some end which they have in view; who scarcely feel either joy or sadness except with reference thereto, or at least are more affected by that than by anything else. As for all that regards God and perfection, it is insipid to them; they feel no relish for it.
“This is a fearful state, and worthy of being deplored with tears of blood. For of what perfection are such religious capable? And what fruit can they gather from their labors among others? But what confusion will be theirs at the hour of death, when it shall be disclosed to them that, during the whole course of their life, they have neither sought nor relished anything but show and vanity, like people of the world. Let such persons be ever so melancholy, only utter a word that gives them a hope of some advancement, however false it may be, and you will instantly see a change come over their countenance, and their heart expand with joy as at the news of some great success.
“For the rest, as they have no taste for devotion, they treat its practices as follies, the amusement of weak minds, and not only guide their conduct by these erroneous principles of an earthly and devilish wisdom, but communicate their sentiments also to others, teaching them maxims altogether contrary to those of Our Lord and the Gospel, the rigor of which they try to soften by forced interpretations that fall in with the inclinations of corrupt nature; supporting themselves by other passages of Scripture ill understood, on which they build their own ruin” (Spiritual Teaching, pp. 133-134).
(d) Not to be attached to spiritual consolations, but pass from them to God.
God wants us only for Himself to such an extent that He desires our complete detachment even from the spiritual consolations which He at times so abundantly provides in prayer. Such consolations are certainly extremely important for our spiritual advancement (J. G. Arintero, O.P., Cuestiones misticas, 1, art. 6), but only as an incentive and encouragement to seek God with a greater ardor. To desire them so as to dwell on them and enjoy them as the ultimate end of our prayer would be evil and immoral; and even considering them as an intermediate end, subordinated to God, would be a great imperfection, of which we would have to purify ourselves if desirous of attaining perfect union with God (St. John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night of the Soul, passim).
We have to be ready and willing to serve God in darkness as in light, in dryness as in consolation, in aridity as in spiritual delight. We have to seek directly the God of consolations, not the consolations of God. Consolations are like the sauce or seasoning which makes it easier to eat the strong food that really nourishes the body; the seasoning by itself does not nourish the body and can even harm the palate, making the palate insensitive to useful foods prepared without it. This is evil and has to be avoided at all costs if we want the Gift of Wisdom to begin acting intensively in us.
“For Wisdom came forth from God … the Wisdom of God is great!” (Ecclesiasticus 15:10, 19). “Get Wisdom, because it is better than gold!” (Proverbs 16:16). “The desire of Wisdom brings to the everlasting kingdom” (Wisdom 6:21). “For God loves none but him that dwells with wisdom” (Wisdom 7:28). “Better is wisdom, than weapons of war!” (Ecclesiastes 9:18). “Wisdom is better than strength, and a wise man is better than a strong man!” (Wisdom 6:1). “And I said that wisdom is better than strength!” (Ecclesiastes 9:16). “Wisdom has delivered from sorrow” (Wisdom 10:9). “He that rejects Wisdom and discipline, is unhappy; and his hope is vain!” (Wisdom 3:11). “I called upon God, and the spirit of Wisdom came upon me!” (Wisdom 7:7). “And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with Wisdom and Understanding, and Knowledge!” (Exodus 31:3). “And God has given to me to speak … because He is the guide of Wisdom, and the director of the wise” (Wisdom 7:15).
The Wisdom of De Montfort
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book Love of Eternal Wisdom, speaks of true and false wisdom: “There is the Wisdom of God, the only true Wisdom that deserves to be loved as a great Treasure. There is also the wisdom of the corrupt world which must be condemned and detested as evil and pernicious. Moreover, there is the wisdom of the philosophers which we must despise when it is not true philosophy, and because it is often dangerous to salvation.
“The wisdom of the world is that of which it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise’ (1 Corinthians 1:19) according to the world. ‘The wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God’ (Romans 8:7) … ‘This is not the wisdom descending from above, but earthly, sensual, devilish’ (James 3:15). This worldly wisdom consists in the exact compliance with the maxims and the fashions of the world; in a continuous trend toward greatness and esteem. It is a secret and unceasing pursuit of pleasures and personal interests, not in a gross and open manner so as to cause scandal, but in a secret, deceitful and scheming fashion. Otherwise, it would not be what the world calls wisdom, but rank licentiousness.
“Those who proceed according to the wisdom of the world are those who know how to manage well their affairs and to arrange things to their temporal advantage without appearing to do so; who know the art of deceiving and how to cleverly cheat without being noticed; who say or do one thing and have another thing in mind; who are thoroughly acquainted with the way and the flattery of the world; who know how to please everybody in order to reach their goal, not troubling much about the honor and interests of God; who make a secret but deadly fusion of truth with untruth, of the Gospel with the world, of virtue with vice, of Jesus Christ with Satan; who wish to pass as honest people but not as religious men; who despise and corrupt or readily condemn every religious practice which does not conform to their own. In short, the worldly wise are those who, being guided only by their human senses and reason, seek only to appear as Christian and honest folk, without troubling much to please God or to do penance for the sins which they have committed against His divine Majesty.
“THE EARTHLY WISDOM spoken of by St. James is an excessive striving for worldly goods. The worldly-wise make a secret profession of this type of wisdom when they allow themselves to become attached to their earthly possessions, when they strive to become rich, when they go to law and bring useless actions against others in order to acquire or to keep temporal goods; when their every thought, word and deed is mainly directed toward obtaining or retaining something temporal. As to working out their eternal salvation and making use of the means to do so, such as reception of the Sacraments and prayer, they accomplish these duties only carelessly, in a very off-hand manner, once in a while, and for the sake of appearances.
“SENSUAL WISDOM is a lustful desire for pleasure. The worldly wise make a profession of it when they seek only the satisfaction of the senses; when they are inordinately fond of entertainment; when they shun whatever mortifies and inconveniences the body, such as fasting and other austerities; when they continually think of eating, drinking, playing, laughing, amusing themselves and having an agreeable time; when they eagerly seek after soft beds, merry games, sumptuous feasts and fashionable society. Then, after having unscrupulously indulged in all these pleasures—perhaps without displeasing the world or injuring their health—they look for “the least scrupulous” confessor (such is the name they give to those easygoing confessors who shirk their duty) that they may receive from him, at little cost, the peaceful sanction of their soft and effeminate life, and a plenary indulgence for all their sins. I say, at little cost, for these sensually wise want as penance the recitation of only a few prayers, or the giving of an alms, because they dislike what afflicts the body.
“DEVILISH WISDOM consists in an unlawful striving for human esteem and honors. This is the wisdom which the worldly wise profess when they aim, although not openly, at greatness, honors, dignities and high positions; when they wish to be seen, esteemed, praised and applauded by men; when in their studies, their works, their endeavors their words and actions, they seek only the good opinion and praise of men so that they may be looked upon as pious people, as men of learning, as great leaders, as clever lawyers, as people of boundless and distinguished merit, or deserving of high consideration; while they cannot bear an insult or a rebuke; or they cover up their faults and make a show of their fine qualities.” (St. Louis de Montfort, Love of Eternal Wisdom).
Tasting True Wisdom
The word “wisdom” comes from the Latin word “sapientia.” The very sound is delicious. “Sapientia” actually means “tasting knowledge”—knowledge that is delightful and not merely notional or abstract. It is like the experience of tasting fruit, a very different experience from reading about it in a dictionary.
Is it really possible to taste God? The answer is yes--”O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet!” (Psalm 33:9)—but we cannot bring it about by our own efforts. We can only prepare ourselves for it by reducing the obvious obstacles we can perceive and by allowing the action of divine love to purify our unconscious motivation. “Wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins” (Wisdom 1:4). “You have found Wisdom,” says St. Bernardine of Sienna, “if you weep for the sins of your past life, if you value as naught that which this world most desires, and if all your longing is centered around your eternal happiness!”
True Wisdom
Wisdom imparts to us a knowledge and a love of everything divine, in the highest possible way, and enables us also to judge created things after a divine standard. It is a summing up of all the Gifts, their blossom and their perfection. It is the last step we make in our ascent to God. “The fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom … The root of Wisdom is to fear the Lord” (Ecclesiasticus 1:16; 1:25).
The Gift of Wisdom is, therefore, a participation of God’s Wisdom. This close union with God necessarily means participation in God’s Wisdom. “But he who is joined to the Lord,” says St. Paul, “is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17). Hence, it follows that the Gift of Wisdom is not for Saints alone; no, it exists in the soul of each and every one of the faithful who is free from mortal sin; and we all possess as much of it as is necessary for salvation.
The Gift of Wisdom gives to the soul is incomparably superior to all human sciences, even theology, which already possesses something of divine. For that reason, a simple and uneducated soul who lacks the theological knowledge acquired by study may sometimes possess, through the Gift of Wisdom, a profound knowledge of divine things that causes amazement even to eminent theologians. Such was the case of St. Teresa and many other souls who had no scientific studies whatsoever.
The Nature of the Gift of Wisdom
The Gift of Wisdom is a supernatural habit, inseparable from Charity (a love of God), by which we judge rightly concerning God and divine things through their ultimate and highest causes under the special instinct of the Holy Ghost, Who makes us taste these things by a certain connaturality and sympathy. We shall explain this definition in order to gain a clear idea of the true nature of this great Gift.
“It is a supernatural habit”: Like all the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, it is infused by God in the soul together with grace and the infused virtues.
“Inseparable from Charity”: It is precisely the Gift of Wisdom that perfects charity by giving it the divine modality it lacks as long as Charity is subject to the rule of human reason, even illumined by Faith. By reason of its connection with Charity, all the souls in the state of grace possess the Gift of Wisdom as a habit—though in differing degrees—and it is incompatible with mortal sin. The same is true of all the other Gifts of the Holy Ghost.
“By which we judge rightly”: In this, as in other things, it is distinguished from the Gift of Understanding. It is proper to the Gift of Understanding to have a penetrating and profound intuition of the truths of Faith in the order of simple apprehension, without making any judgment concerning them. Such a judgment is made by the other intellectual Gifts, but in different ways: The Gift of Wisdom judges concerning divine things; the Gift of Knowledge judges concerning created things; the Gift of Counsel judges concerning the application of these things to our concrete actions.
Seeing Things God’s Way
Too often we try to make God see things our way, yet God says: “My thoughts are not your thoughts; nor your ways My ways. For as the heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9). The Gift of Wisdom provides us with God’s view of things, a kind of divine perspective on reality that penetrates through events and perceives the divine presence and action at work, even in very tragic and painful situations. To see God in suffering is indeed a high level of the Gift of Wisdom. Some things are to be learned in this perspective that cannot be learned in any other way.
The Necessity of the Gift of Wisdom
The Gift of Wisdom is absolutely necessary if the virtue of charity is to develop to its full perfection and plenitude. Precisely because charity is the most excellent of all the virtues and the most perfect and divine, it demands by its very nature the divine regulation of the divine wisdom. Left to itself, or to the control of man in the ascetical state, it would have to be regulated by human reason according to the human mode. But this human atmosphere asphyxiates it, preventing it from flying to the heights.
Charity is a divine virtue and has wings for soaring to Heaven, but it is obliged to move along the earth, because it is under the control of human reason and because, in a certain sense, it is necessary to compromise, in accordance with prudence, due to its weak condition. Only when it begins to receive the full influence of the Gift of Wisdom is there given to Charity the divine atmosphere and modality that it needs as the most perfect of all the theological virtues. Then Charity begins to breathe and to expand in its proper element.
As an inevitable consequence, it begins to grow and to increase rapidly, carrying the soul with it as if in flight, soaring to regions of the mystical life and to the very summit of perfection, which it never could have done if it had remained under the control of human reason in the purely ascetical state.
The Mystical State is Meant For Everyone
From this sublime doctrine follow two inevitable conclusions. The first is that the mystical state—the habitual or predominant regime of the Gifts—is not something abnormal and extraordinary in the full development of the Christian life, but it is the normal atmosphere which grace, as a divine form, demands, so that it can develop in all its virtualities through the operative principles of the infused virtues, and especially through the theological virtues (Faith, Hope and Charity), which are substantially divine. Therefore, the mystical state ought to be something normal in the Christian life, and it is, as a matter of fact, normal in every perfect Christian.
Who’s the Boss? Gift or Virtue?
The second conclusion is that an actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost in merely the human mode—a kind of demotion for the Gifts—besides being impossible and absurd, would be utterly useless for the perfection of the infused virtues, and especially the theological virtues. The theological virtues are superior by their nature to the Gifts themselves. The theological virtues have as direct and immediate object God Himself (believed, hoped for or loved), while the Gifts fall directly upon the infused virtues (something very distinct from God) to perfect them. Therefore it is evident that the theological virtues are, by their own nature, superior to the Gifts themselves. On the other hand, the Gifts are superior to all infused virtues—including the theological ones—by their divine way of acting (as direct and immediate instruments of the Holy Ghost, and not of the soul in grace, like the virtues). More briefly, the theological virtues are superior to the Gifts by their theological nature, while the Gifts are superior to them by their divine modality (Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-Ilae, q. 68, art. 8).
Effects of the Gift of Wisdom
By reason of its elevation and grandeur and by reason of the sublimity of the virtue that it perfects, the effects which wisdom produces in the soul are truly remarkable. The following are the more characteristic effects of this Gift.
(1) It Gives to the Saints a Divine Sense By Which They Judge All Things
This is the most impressive of all the effects of the Gift of Wisdom so far as they are manifested externally. One would say that the saints have completely lost the human instinct or the human manner of judgment and that it has been replaced by a certain divine instinct by which they judge all things. They see everything from God’s point of view, whether the little, commonplace episodes of daily life, or the great international events. In all things they see the hand of God. They never attach their attention to immediate secondary causes but pass them by, to arrive immediately at the Supreme Cause, Who governs and rules them from above.
The saints would have to do a great violence to themselves in order to descend to the point of view that judges from a purely human and rational standard. An insult or any other injury that is done to them causes them to turn immediately to God, Who is the one who wishes or permits that they be exercised in patience and thus increase their glory. They do not dwell for an instant on the secondary cause, which is the evil or malice of men, but they rise immediately to God and judge all things from the divine heights. They do not consider something (whether sickness, persecution, death, or the like) disgraceful in the way that the men of the world do, but they consider as disgraceful only that which God would consider such, namely, sin, lukewarmness, infidelity to grace, and so on. Like St. Teresa of Avila, they do not understand how the world can consider as treasures those little baubles that sparkle and glitter, because they see clearly that there is no treasure but God and the things that lead to God. As St. Aloysius Gonzaga used to say: “Of what avail is this to me for eternity, for the glory of God?” This is the Saints’ only differential criteria for judging the value of things.
The Gift of Wisdom shone most brilliantly in St. Thomas Aquinas, among many other saints. He possessed a remarkable supernatural instinct in discovering in all things the divine aspect by which they were related to God. There is no other way of explaining his divine instinct and insight except that the Gift of Wisdom operated in him in an eminent degree (Cf. Antoine Gardeil, O.P., The Gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Dominican Saints (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1937), chap. 8).
In modern times, an admirable example of the operation of the Gift of Wisdom is Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity. According to Father Philipon, who studied her case profoundly, the Gift of Wisdom was the outstanding characteristic of the doctrine and life of this saintly Carmelite nun of Dijon (Cf. M. M. Philipon, The Spiritual Doctrine of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, chap. 8, n. 8). She was perfectly aware of her sublime vocation and even succeeded in contemplating the Trinity, so that she experienced the distinct Persons of the Trinity present in her soul. The greatest trials and sufferings were unable to disturb for a moment her ineffable peace of soul. No matter what misfortunes befell her, she remained as unmoved and tranquil as if her soul were already in eternity.
(2) It Makes the Saints Live the Mysteries of Faith in an Entirely Divine Manner
As Father Philipon says: “The Gift of Wisdom is the royal Gift; by it souls enter most closely into participation of the deiform mode of divine knowledge. Short of the beatific vision, which is the fullest measure of this Gift, it is impossible to rise any higher. It is the gaze of the ‘Word breathing forth love’ communicated to the soul, which judges of everything in the light of the highest and most divine causes, and judges them also for the highest reasons ‘after the manner of God.’
“The divinized soul that has been introduced by charity into the intimacy of the Divine Persons and, as it were, into the heart of the Trinity is so moved by the Spirit of Love that it contemplates all things from this center, this indivisible point from which they appear to it as they do to God Himself. Thus does it view the divine attributes, creation, redemption, glory, the hypostatic order, the smallest happenings in the world. So far as it is possible to mere creatures, it tends to see from the same angle of vision as that from which God sees Himself and the whole universe. It is the deiform manner of contemplation in the light of the experience of the Deity that fills the soul with ineffable sweetness (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, q. 112, a. 5).
“To understand this, we must understand that God can only see things in Himself: in His causality. It is not directly in themselves that He knows His creatures, or in the movement of contingent and temporal causes which govern their activity. He beholds them eternally in His Son. He judges of every event of Providence in the light of His Essence and His Glory” (M. M. Philipon, The Spiritual Doctrine of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, chap. 8, n. 8, pp. 181-182).
The soul that becomes a participant in this divine mode of knowledge by means of the Gift of Wisdom penetrates into the unsounded depths of the Divinity, and it contemplates all things through the divine. One would say that St. Paul was thinking of such souls when he wrote: “The Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10).
(3) It Makes Them Live in Union with the three Divine Persons
It makes them live in union with the three Divine Persons through an ineffable participation in Their Trinitarian life. We look again to Father Philipon:
“While the Gift of Knowledge acts by an ascending movement, raising the soul from creatures to God, and the Gift of Understanding penetrates all God’s mysteries from without and within by a simple loving gaze, the Gift of Wisdom may be said never to leave the very heart of the Trinity. It looks at everything from that indivisible center. Thus deiform, the soul can see things only from their highest and most divine motives. The whole movement of the universe, down to its tiniest atoms, thus lies beneath its gaze in the all-pure light of the Trinity and of the divine attributes, and it beholds them in order, according to the rhythm with which these things proceed from God. Creation, redemption, hypostatic order-it sees all, even evil, ordained to the greater glory of the Trinity.
“Finally, it looks aloft, rising above justice, mercy, prudence and all the divine attributes. Then it suddenly discovers all these uncreated perfections in their eternal Source: in the Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Ghost which infinitely surpasses all our narrow human concepts and leaves God incomprehensible and ineffable even to the gaze of the blessed, and even to the beatified gaze of Christ. It beholds that God, Who is supereminent in His simplicity, is simultaneously Unity in Trinity, indivisible Essence and fellowship of three living Persons, really distinct according to an order of procession that does not affect their consubstantial Equality.
“Human eye could never have discovered such a mystery, nor could human ear have caught such harmonies, and the human heart could never have suspected such beatitude had not the Godhead stooped to us by grace in Christ, in order that we might enter into the unfathomable depths of God under the guidance of His own Spirit” (M. M. Philipon, The Spiritual Doctrine of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, chap. 8, n. 8, p. 183).
The soul that has reached these heights never departs from God. If the duties of one’s state should so demand, it gives itself externally to all types of work, even the most absorbing work, with an unbelievable activity; but in the most profound center of the soul, as St. John of the Cross used to say, it experiences and perceives the divine company of the Three, and does not abandon Them for an instant. In such souls, Martha and Mary have been joined in an ineffable manner, so that the prodigious activity of Martha in no way compromises the peace and tranquility of Mary, who remains day and night in silent contemplation at the feet of the Divine Master. For such a soul, life on earth is the beginning of eternal beatitude.
(4) It Raises the Virtue of Charity to Heroism
This is precisely the purpose of the Gift of Wisdom. Freed from human bondage and receiving in full the divine atmosphere that the Gift gives, the fire of charity reaches tremendous proportions. It is incredible what the love of God can do in souls that are under the operations of the Gift of Wisdom. Its most impressive effect is the complete and total death of self.
Such souls love God with a pure love only for His infinite goodness and without the mixture of any human motive or self-interest. True, they do not renounce their hope of Heaven; they desire it more than ever, but they desire it primarily because there they shall be able to love God with even greater intensity and without any interruption. If it were possible to glorify God more in Hell than in Heaven, they would without hesitation prefer the eternal torments. It is the definitive triumph of grace and the total death of one’s own self. Then one begins to fulfill the first commandment of the law of God in all the fullness that is compatible with the state of misery and weakness on earth.
This sentiment has been experienced by many saints. We mention only St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who expresses it with such simple yet sublime delicacy: “One evening, not knowing in what words to tell Jesus how much I loved Him, and how much I wished that He might be everywhere honored and served, the sad thought forced itself upon my mind that from the depths of Hell there would never go up to Him one single act of love. From my inmost heart I then cried out that I would gladly be cast into that place of torment and blasphemy to make Him eternally loved even there. Of course this could not be for His glory, since He desires only our happiness, but love must needs speak foolishly” (Autobiography, chap. 5).
As regards one’s neighbor, charity also reaches a sublime perfection through the Gift of Wisdom. Accustomed to seeing God in all things, even in the most minute details of daily life, the saints see Him in a very special manner in their neighbor. They love their neighbor with a profound tenderness that is completely supernatural and divine. They serve their neighbor with heroic abnegation, which is at the same time filled with naturalness and simplicity. Seeing Christ in the poor, in those who suffer, in the heart of all their brothers, they hasten to aid their brethren with a soul that is filled with love. They are happy to deprive themselves of even the necessities of life in order to give them to their neighbor, whose interest they place and prefer before their own, as they would put the interests of Christ before their own. Personal egoism in relation to neighbor is completely dead. Sometimes the love of charity that inflames their heart is so great that it is manifested externally in the divine madness which is so disconcerting to human prudence. St. Francis of Assisi embraced a tree as a creature of God, desiring to embrace all creation because it came from the hands of God.
(5) It Gives to all the Virtues Their Ultimate Perfection
This is an inevitable consequence of the previous effect. Perfected by the Gift of Wisdom, charity extends the divine influence to all the other virtues, because Charity is the true—though extrinsic and accidental form of all the other virtues, as St. Thomas teaches. The whole pattern and organism of the Christian life experiences the divine influence of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, the perfect plenitude that is seen in the virtues of the saints and is sought in vain in souls which are less advanced.
By reason of the influence of the Gift of Wisdom through Charity, all the Christian virtues are cultivated, and they acquire a godlike modality that admits of countless shades and manifestations, according to the personal character and particular type of life of the saints. But in any case they are all so sublime that one could not say which of them is most exquisite. Having died definitively to self, being perfect in every type of virtue, the soul has arrived at the summit of the mount of sanctity, where it reads that sublime inscription written by St. John of the Cross: “Here on this mountain dwell only the honor and glory of God.”
Opposed Vices
To the Gift of Wisdom is opposed the vice of spiritual dullness or stupidity (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 46). It consists in a certain defect of judgment and lack of spiritual sense, or a spiritual dullness, which prevents one from discerning or judging the things of God by taste or contact with God that comes from the Gift of Wisdom. Worse yet is the vice of foolishness or stupidity, which prevents a person from judging in any way of divine things. Dullness is opposed to the Gift of Wisdom by privation; foolishness or stupidity is opposed to it by negation (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 46, art. 1).
We suffer from this stupidity whenever we somehow esteem the nothingness of this world, or think that there is value in anything which is not the possession of the supreme good or what leads to it. Hence, if we are not saints, we must admit that we are really stupid, however painful this might be to self-love (I. Menendez-Reigada, Los dones del Espiritu Santo y la perfeccion cristiana, p. 595).
When this stupidity or dullness is voluntary because a man is submerged in earthly things to the point that he has lost sight or has become incapable of contemplating the divine, it is a true sin, according to the teaching of St. Paul, who says that the animal man does not comprehend the things of the Spirit of God (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:14). And since there is nothing that so brutalizes and animalizes man, until submerging him entirely in the mud of earth, as the vice of lust, it is primarily from lust that spiritual dullness proceeds, although the vice of anger also contributes to it so far as its violent movements impede right judgment (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 46, art. 3).
The Means to Foster This Gift
Apart from the general means such as recollection, a life of prayer, fidelity to grace, deep humility, frequent invocation of the Holy Ghost, and so on, we can dispose ourselves for the actuation of the Gift of Wisdom by using the following means, which are perfectly within our reach with the help of ordinary grace:
(a) To make an effort to see all things from God’s point of view.
How many pious souls, even among those who are consecrated to God, fall into the habit of judging things from a purely natural and human point of view—when not a totally worldly point of view! Their spiritual myopia is such that they never elevate their gaze above the purely human causes to see God’s designs in everything that happens. If they are annoyed by others—even inadvertently—they get mad and feel offended.
If a superior corrects them, right away they consider him demanding, tyrannical and cruel. If he orders them to do something that is not to their liking, they complain of his “lack of understanding,” his “unawareness of reality,” his “incapacity to govern.” If he humiliates them, they raise a terrible fuss. They have to be treated with the caution one would have toward a worldly person entirely lacking supernatural spirit. It is not surprising that the world is in such a bad state when those who should give the good example are often this way!
The Gift of Wisdom will never act in such souls. Such an imperfect and human spirit completely suffocates the habit of the Gifts. Unless they make some effort to elevate their gaze to Heaven and, prescinding from the secondary causes, see the hand of God in all the events of their life-whether prosperous or not—-their poor and painful spiritual life will always remain on the ground. To learn how to fly it is necessary to keep flapping toward the heights, whatever the cost and sacrifice.
(b) To combat the wisdom of the world, which is nothingness in the eyes of God.
It is St. Paul who terms it so (1 Corinthians 3:19). The world considers as wise those who are fools in God’s eyes (1 Corinthians 1:25), and by an unavoidable antithesis, the wise in the eyes of God are fools according to the world (1 Corinthians 1:27, 3:18). And since the world is full of stupidity and foolishness, Sacred Scripture says that “the number of fools is infinite” (Ecclesiastes. 1:15).
Father Lallemant writes: “In fact, the generality of mankind have a depraved taste, and they may justly be called fools, because they act like fools, placing their last end, at least practically, in the creature and not in God. Each has some object to which he is attached, and to which he refers everything, entertaining neither affection nor passion except in connection with it; and this is to be a fool indeed.
“Would we know if we are of the number of wise men or fools, let us examine our tastes and distastes, either with respect to God and divine things, or with respect to creatures and the things of earth. Whence spring our satisfaction and our dissatisfaction? Wherein does our heart find its repose and its contentment?
“This sort of examination is an excellent means of acquiring purity of heart. We ought to familiarize ourselves with the practice, examining our likes and dislikes frequently during the day, and trying little by little to refer them to God.
“There are three sorts of wisdom condemned in Scripture, which are so many veritable follies. ‘Terrena’, earthly wisdom, when a man has no taste but for riches; ‘animalis’, sensual wisdom, when he has no taste but for bodily pleasures; ‘diabolica’, devilish wisdom, when he has no taste but for his own superiority.
“There is a folly that is true wisdom before God. To love poverty, contempt, crosses, persecutions; this is to be a fool according to the world’s esteem. And yet the wisdom which is a Gift of the Holy Ghost is nothing else but this same folly which has a taste only for what Our Lord and the saints delighted in. Now Jesus Christ, in everything that He touched during His mortal life, as poverty, abjection, the cross, left a sweet odor, a delicious savor; but few souls have their senses sufficiently purified to perceive this odor and to taste this savor, which are altogether supernatural.
“The saints have run to the odor of these ointments (Canticles 1:3), like St. Ignatius, who took delight in seeing himself made a mock of; St. Francis, who so passionately loved abjection, that he performed actions for the purpose of making himself ridiculous; St. Dominic, who was more gratified at Carcassonne, where he was generally insulted, than at Toulouse, where he was honored by all the world” (Spiritual Teaching, pp. 132-133, IV, chap. 4, art. 1).
(c) Not to be attached to things of this world, however good and useful.
Science, art, human culture, material progress of the nations, and so on, are good and useful in themselves if they are directed and ordered righteously. However, if we dedicate ourselves to them with too much eagerness and ardor, they will not fail to seriously harm us. Once
our taste is used to the savor of creatures, it will experience a certain dullness toward savoring the things of God, so superior in every way.
A multitude of souls are paralyzed in their spiritual life because they allow themselves to be absorbed in the disorderly appetite of science, even sacred or theological science. They lose the taste for the interior life, they abandon or shorten prayer, they absorb themselves in intellectual work and neglect the “only necessary thing,” of which Our Lord speaks in the Gospel (Luke 10:42). What a shame this is and how they will regret it in the next life, when it will be too late!
Father Lallemant continues: “How unlike are the judgments of God to the judgments of men! Divine wisdom is a folly in the judgment of men, and human wisdom is folly in the judgment of God. It is for us to see to which of these two judgments we will conform our own. One or the other we must take as the rule of our actions. If we have a taste for praises and honors, so far we are fools; and the more relish we have for being esteemed and honored, the more foolish we are. As, on the contrary, the more love we have for humiliation and the cross, the wiser we are.
“It is monstrous that even in religion there should be found persons who have no taste for anything but what makes them of importance in the eyes of the world; who do all their actions, for the twenty or thirty years of their religious life, only that they may attain some end which they have in view; who scarcely feel either joy or sadness except with reference thereto, or at least are more affected by that than by anything else. As for all that regards God and perfection, it is insipid to them; they feel no relish for it.
“This is a fearful state, and worthy of being deplored with tears of blood. For of what perfection are such religious capable? And what fruit can they gather from their labors among others? But what confusion will be theirs at the hour of death, when it shall be disclosed to them that, during the whole course of their life, they have neither sought nor relished anything but show and vanity, like people of the world. Let such persons be ever so melancholy, only utter a word that gives them a hope of some advancement, however false it may be, and you will instantly see a change come over their countenance, and their heart expand with joy as at the news of some great success.
“For the rest, as they have no taste for devotion, they treat its practices as follies, the amusement of weak minds, and not only guide their conduct by these erroneous principles of an earthly and devilish wisdom, but communicate their sentiments also to others, teaching them maxims altogether contrary to those of Our Lord and the Gospel, the rigor of which they try to soften by forced interpretations that fall in with the inclinations of corrupt nature; supporting themselves by other passages of Scripture ill understood, on which they build their own ruin” (Spiritual Teaching, pp. 133-134).
(d) Not to be attached to spiritual consolations, but pass from them to God.
God wants us only for Himself to such an extent that He desires our complete detachment even from the spiritual consolations which He at times so abundantly provides in prayer. Such consolations are certainly extremely important for our spiritual advancement (J. G. Arintero, O.P., Cuestiones misticas, 1, art. 6), but only as an incentive and encouragement to seek God with a greater ardor. To desire them so as to dwell on them and enjoy them as the ultimate end of our prayer would be evil and immoral; and even considering them as an intermediate end, subordinated to God, would be a great imperfection, of which we would have to purify ourselves if desirous of attaining perfect union with God (St. John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night of the Soul, passim).
We have to be ready and willing to serve God in darkness as in light, in dryness as in consolation, in aridity as in spiritual delight. We have to seek directly the God of consolations, not the consolations of God. Consolations are like the sauce or seasoning which makes it easier to eat the strong food that really nourishes the body; the seasoning by itself does not nourish the body and can even harm the palate, making the palate insensitive to useful foods prepared without it. This is evil and has to be avoided at all costs if we want the Gift of Wisdom to begin acting intensively in us.
Article 26
Saturday, May 23rd
PREPARING FOR PENTECOST―EXAMINING THE GIFTS
#6 Understanding versus Blindness?
Saturday, May 23rd
PREPARING FOR PENTECOST―EXAMINING THE GIFTS
#6 Understanding versus Blindness?
The Gift of Understanding makes us penetrate divine truths.
I Wanna Know!
Everyone by nature wants to know—or at least be “in the know.” Diplomats and barbers have, of course, a professional standing to preserve. Rectory housekeepers and rulers of nations have likewise their official reasons. Yet even outside such officialdom there is a common need to know.
Between the Lines—Below the Surface
Some words express our thoughts with admirable accuracy. Though they may not be precise definitions, they are exact expressions of the object signified. Such is the Latin word “intelligere” (intus-legere: “to read interiorly, to penetrate”).
Let us try to be more precise. The Latins called it an “inner reading”―[which is another way of saying that which “stands under” or “stands beneath” the surface of things; therefore, a “deeper” knowledge, rather than a surface or superficial knowledge]. Understanding, then, is that power of the human soul, to descend beneath the surface of things, to pry into the hidden reality, it is that which breaks through the surface-shell, to reach the real substance therein enclosed.
Abstract
In the natural order, intelligence is the ability to perceive the abstract, the immaterial truth—we can contemplate abstract things like justice, mercy, fidelity, etc., which do not exist by themselves in a concrete way, like a tree for example. We understand and calculate with numbers and fractions, even though they do not exist in the concrete. In the supernatural order, intelligence penetrates higher truths. As the natural light of reason makes us understand sensible things, the light of the Gift of Understanding serves to penetrate supernatural truths and to reveal their intimate depths.
Understanding is More Than Knowing
On a purely natural and rational level, “to know” is not always “to understand”. I may “know” how to say a phrase in a foreign language without necessarily “understanding” what it means. I may “know” that my car won’t start, but I do not “understand” why. St. Ignatius Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises, points out that it is not great knowledge which profits the soul, but the penetration and savoring of spiritual things. To find spiritual profit, we do not have to multiply readings and meditations―we should rather go to the heart of some few truths, understand them as much as we can, and delight in them. When the Spiritual Exercises are made, or during a day of retreat, or simply whenever we meditate attentively on some supernatural truth, it seems that our soul is transformed, that we become another being. With the new light given us, our soul has a changed attitude toward spiritual things.
Through Him, With Him, In Him
Without God we can do nothing—”Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). God is our light―“Jesus spoke to them, saying: ‘I am the light of the world! He that follows Me, walks not in darkness, but shall have the light of life … As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world!’” (John 8:12; 9:5). “Wherefore he said: ‘Rise thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead: and Christ shall enlighten thee’” (Ephesians 5:14).The teachings of God are meant “to enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death―to direct our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:79). When Christ ascended into Heaven, He sent us the Paraclete: “And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever. The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, nor knows Him―but you shall know Him; because He shall abide with you, and shall be in you … The Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you!” (John 14:16-17, 26).
Who Truly Understands Without God?
“God looked down from Heaven upon the children of men―to see if there were any that did understand, or did seek God” (Psalm 52:3). “The steps of man are guided by the Lord; but who is the man that can understand his own way?” (Proverbs 20:24). “But all men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God; and who, by these good things that are seen, could not understand Him that is, neither by attending to the works have acknowledged who was the workman” (Wisdom 13:1). “And His ways who shall understand?” (Ecclesiasticus 16:21). “The senseless man shall not know; nor will the fool understand these things!” (Psalm 91:7). “Who, as it were, on purpose have revolted from Him, and would not understand all His ways” (Job 34:27). “Understand, ye senseless among the people! And, you fools, be wise at last!” (Psalm 93:8). “O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end” (Deuteronomy 32:29). “They that trust in Him, shall understand the truth” (Wisdom 3:9).
Limited Intelligence
But man’s intelligence, be it ever so powerful and penetrating, is nonetheless a created power; hence it is a limited power, and by itself it can never overstep the limits set down to it by God. But, man is created for a supernatural end, for Heaven, and the means given him by God are contained in Revelation; they are a set of truths exceeding the natural capacity of the understanding. Now, if these are really means to our end, we must use them, and to use them we must first know them; but as they are above the power of the human mind, we need some supernatural aid, some Heavenly light to penetrate them. This supernatural light which the Holy Ghost gives to man is called the Gift of Understanding.
Gift of Understanding Surpasses Natural Understanding
This light of the Gift of Understanding does not proceed from the natural understanding―as no amount of reasoning, even of the most intelligent mind that the world ever saw or will see, could prove that God is one and at the same time three. The Gift of Understanding perfects our natural reason. Just as it is by reason that we grasp all natural truths, so it is by the Gift of Understanding we know those truths which exceed the power of our reason, such as the truth of the Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, or the Redemption.
This is a distinct Gift. It is not human reason; neither is it the same as the theological virtue of Faith, whose characteristic it is to make us adhere to truths beyond the light of reason, because God has revealed them; whereas the Gift of Understanding helps us to penetrate the depths of such truths, and to know them as far as that is possible for a creature of Earth. It differs also from the Gift of Knowledge which distinguishes with certitude truth from error. Such, therefore, is the hierarchy or order in the degrees of our knowledge of revealed truths. We know of their existence by Faith, we are rendered sure of their truth by Knowledge, then, the Gift of Understanding gives us as clear an insight of them as man can have here below.
Thus, we see that this Gift is a special intellectual power given to those who, corresponding to the light of Faith and to the Spirit of God, receive over and above the light of natural reason, a power disposing them to grasp the hidden meaning of truths beyond the natural range of reason. This knowledge, like a powerful search-light, casts its penetrating rays not only over the surface, but into the deep ocean of all the articles of Faith. It shows how they are all intimately connected, it points out their superiority over anything this earth could give, over any truth soever, of which human reason may claim parentage, and it shows their beauty to be surpassing the splendor of any earthly truth.
The Gift of Understanding, then, is a supernatural habit, quality or perfection, whereby our intelligence is enabled to know and comprehend the truths of Catholic Faith and all that are connected with them; and knowing them we are led to love them and to live in conformity with this knowledge.
The Three Lights
There are three lights that guide us in our passage through life; namely, Reason, Faith and the Gift of Understanding. Reason is but a weak oil-lamp emitting only a feeble glimmering light, and often glimmers most when we most need its assistance. It is scarce sufficient to pierce the surface of the blackness of night, and let us perceive or distinguish the objects nearest at hand. Faith is the blazing torchlight, illumining and cheering the way; but, alas, whose rays do not go beyond a very limited horizon. We have all of us seen such brilliant torch displays; and their light is admirable within a certain radius, but as the objects are more remote, they become less distinct, till they lose themselves finally in the darkness. The Gift of Understanding is the summer sun at noonday, dispelling all darkness and clouds, and shedding its penetrating light on everything beneath. The difference is clear.
The following example is also familiar to all. I enter my room one evening, an hour after sunset, with my own eyes, unaided by any other light, I can barely distinguish the objects around me. I then light my lamp, and now, I can see them clearly. I can read and write at my desk with ease, though I cannot read my paper, ten feet from my light. Now, suppose I enter this same room at midday, I see everything distinctly and without the slightest effort. The Gift of Understanding does for us in the order of supernatural truths what the summer sun does in the order of natural ones. All these, truths are contained in Holy Scripture, but they are there in an obscure way, hidden under some mysterious veil of words or expressions; but the Gift we are considering pierces this veil or makes it transparent. It enables us to understand what we believe from the time we believe it explicitly.
The Apostles and the Gift of Understanding
The Apostles, before Pentecost, had reason and Faith, yet we are told that they knew not the Scriptures, which, however, they understood perfectly when the Holy Ghost came upon them. The Spirit of Understanding descended upon those poor unlettered fishermen, who, there and then, became real suns in the sky of Heavenly doctrine, and their rays illumined the entire world. See how St. Peter expounded the Scriptures to the assembled nations on the first Pentecost morning; and see how the Spirit of Understanding enlightened the minds of his hearers, so that “they received his word, were baptized, and there were added on that day about three thousand souls … and the Lord increased daily such as should be saved.” (Acts 2:41, 47).
With the skill of a master, St. Peter paints a verbal picture of the reign of Jesus, whilst his hearers, the Jews, truly penitent, confessing their guilt, embrace the truth, just like the child who, after a long absence, embraces his loving mother.
Raising Our Minds to New Heights
This Gift of Understanding not only aids our minds to know and understand Holy Scripture, but also it helps us to find the truth wherever it may be had. It is verified for some in the science of theology. A case in point is the Saint whose very doctrine I am using, St. Thomas Aquinas. He handles the most sublime truths with an ease and a grace which baffle all comprehension. In his case it was the Spirit of Understanding that passed into the “dumb Sicilian ox and by his mouth spoke to the world.” As Our Lord said: “Take no thought how or what to speak―for it shall be given you in that hour what to speak!” (Matthew 10:19).
For others, this Gift of Understanding is verified in philosophy, as is admirably portrayed in the life of St. Catherine, whose deep knowledge made the pagan philosophers blush for shame. For others still, this Gift of Understanding shines forth in their ordinary actions or conversations; and, thank God, it is more frequent than we think. And this is due to no human aid, to no natural light; no, it is Faith perfected by the Gift of Understanding.
If people, if Catholics especially, would only make that small effort required to possess such a treasure, what a veritable gold-mine would sermons, religious instruction and the history of the Church become! They would no longer be vain, boring sounds, but entering by the ear, they would be engraved on the heart, producing abundant fruit.
Understanding Persecution
Today is not the first time that we are baffled by the fact that the Church is always persecuted and the world is always prosperous; and yet, we must believe that God is still in control over the world and the Church. Nation after nation has abandoned God. This is surely hard to understand; nay, it is impossible to grasp, unless, by the light of the Gift of Understanding, see in this Jesus Himself, our Head, persecuted, abandoned and contradicted by all, and yet He lives on. So, too, His Church; this warfare, though it becomes more brutal and savage with each decade, can never prevail against the Church. These events and countless others—the whole history of the world and Church—point always to the hand of God behind everything, when read under the light of the Gift of Understanding.
This Gift also acts on our will. For, the clearer the mind sees a thing the more the heart loves it and adheres to it. Then once we know and understand and love our Faith, we are safe: then, Hell, with its deceit, the sophistry of the proud independent mind with its lies, the world with its derision, may all beat against the Ark of Faith, but in vain. We merely say “Credo” or “I believe” and nothing can disturb us. But, as the wind that shakes the tender oak, only serves to drive its roots more firmly into the ground; likewise, such storms and persecutions from without only purify our Faith, make us more fervent in serving God, more resisting in temptation, more resigned in poverty, more cheerful in adversity, more detached from life, and more constant in our endeavors and aspirations to the only reality of the future—God and Heaven.
Effects of the Gift of Understanding
The Gift of Understanding produces admirable effects in the soul, and all of them perfect the virtue of Faith to the degree of incredible intensity and certainty that was attained in the saints. It reveals truths with such clarity that, without sounding-out the mystery entirely, it gives such an unshakable security concerning the truth of our Faith that they could not conceive the existence of unbelieving or undecided persons in matters of Faith. This is seen in the experimental order in mystical souls, in whom the Gift of Understanding has developed to an eminent degree. They would be disposed to believe the contrary of what they saw with their own eyes, rather than to doubt in the slightest any of the truths of Faith.
This Gift is most useful for theologians, and St. Thomas Aquinas possessed it to an extraordinary degree. It enables the theologian to penetrate into the depths of the revealed truth and to deduce later, by means of theological discursus (reasoning), the conclusions that are implicit in these truths. The Angelic Doctor himself points out six different ways in which the Gift of Understanding enables us to penetrate into the depths and mystery of the truths of Faith (Cf. Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 8, art. 1).
(1) It enables us to see the substance of things hidden under their accidental [surface/outward] manifestations. In virtue of this divine instinct, the mystics perceive the Divine reality that is hidden under the Eucharistic veils. From this follows their obsession with the Eucharist, an obsession that becomes in them a veritable martyrdom of hunger and thirst. In their visits to the tabernacle they do not pray or meditate, but merely contemplate the Divine Prisoner of Love with a simple and penetrating gaze that fills their souls with infinite peace and tenderness. “I look at Him and He looks at me,” as the simple peasant, possessed by the Holy Ghost, told the Curé of Ars.
(2) It discloses the hidden meaning of Sacred Scripture. This is what the Lord effected in regard to the disciples at Emmaus when “He opened their understanding so that they could understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). All the mystics have experienced this phenomenon. Without any study or any human assistance, the Holy Ghost suddenly disclosed to them with a most vivid intensity the profound meaning of some statement in Scripture that immersed them in a deluge of light.
(3) It reveals to us the mysterious significance of symbols and figures. Thus St. Paul saw Christ in the rock that gushed forth with living water to appease the thirst of the Israelites in the desert: “And the rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). St. John of the Cross reveals to us, with a startling mystical intuition, the moral, analogical and parabolic meaning of many of the symbols and figures of the Old Testament that reached their full realization in the New Testament or in the life of grace.
(4) It reveals spiritual realities to us under sensible appearances. The Liturgy of the Church is filled with sublime symbolism that, for the most part, escapes the notice of superficial souls. But the saints experience a great veneration and respect for the “smallest ceremony of the Church” (St. Teresa, The Life, p. 226, chap. 33, n. 5), which floods their soul with devotion and tenderness. The Gift of Understanding enables them to see the sublime realities that are hidden beneath those symbols and sensible signs.
(5) It enables us to contemplate the effects that are contained in causes. As Father Philipon writes: “There is another aspect of the Gift of Understanding that is particularly noticeable in the case of contemplative theologians. After the hard work of human study, everything suddenly becomes luminous under an impulse of the Spirit. A new world is seen … Christ-the-Priest, the One Mediator between Heaven and Earth, or Mary the Virgin Co-Redemptrix, bearing spiritually in her womb all the members of the Mystical Body; the Unity of Essence with the Trinity of Persons … All are truths which the Gift of Understanding can penetrate effortlessly and fruitfully in the very light of God” (M. M. Philipon, O.P., The Spiritual Doctrine of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, p. 180-181, chap. 8, n. 7).
(6) It makes us see causes through their effects. Father Philipon continues: “Inversely, the Gift of Understanding reveals God and His almighty causality of effects, without working the long, discursive journeyings of human thought left to its own resources, but by a simple, comparative gaze and by intuition, ‘after the manner of God.’ In almost imperceptible signs and in the smallest events of its life, a soul ,that is attentive to the Holy Ghost, suddenly discovers God’s providential plan in its regard” (M. M. Philipon, O.P., The Spiritual Doctrine of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, p.180-181, chap. 8, n. 7).
Such are the principal effects that the actuation of the Gift of Understanding produces in the soul. One can see that, perfected by this Gift, the virtue of Faith reaches an astounding intensity. The veils of mystery are never parted in this life—”we see now through a glass in a dark manner” (1 Corinthians 13:12)―but its unfathomable depths are penetrated by the soul with an experience that is so clear and deep that it approaches the intuitive vision. St. Thomas, a model of serenity and reserve in all his statements, writes the following words: “In this very life, when the eye of the soul is purified by the Gift of Understanding, one can in a certain way see God” (Summa, Ia-IIae, q. 69, art. 2, ad 3).
Opposed Vices
St. Thomas dedicates an entire question to the study of these vices (SummaTheologica, IIa-IIae, q. 15). They are mainly two: (1) spiritual blindness and (2) dullness of the spiritual sense.
The first, spiritual blindness, is the complete lack of vision (blindness); the second, dullness of the spiritual sense, is a notable weakening of vision (myopia). Both of them proceed from carnal sins (lust and gluttony), and because of that there is nothing that is such an impediment to the flight of the intellect—even naturally speaking—as the vehement attachment to corporal things that are contrary to it. For that reason, lust, with its greater vehemence, produces spiritual blindness, which excludes almost completely the knowledge and appreciation of spiritual goods, and gluttony produces dullness of the spiritual sense, which weakens man as regards this knowledge and appreciation in a way similar to the blunting or dulling of a sharp and pointed object—a nail, for example—that should easily penetrate a wall (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 15, art. 3).
A contemporary author writes: “This blindness of mind is that which is suffered by all lukewarm souls; for they possess the Gift of Understanding, but their mind is engulfed with the things of this world. They are lacking in interior recollection and the spirit of prayer; they are constantly pouring themselves out through the channels of the senses, without any attentive or constant consideration of divine truths. Hence they never arrive at discovering the exalted clarity that is hidden in their obscurity. For that reason we see that very frequently they are easily deceived and mistaken when they speak of spiritual things, of the delicacy and fine points of divine love, of the first stages of the mystical life, of the heights of sanctity, and that sometimes they engage themselves in external works that are covered with the veil of human evaluations, and they consider as exaggerations or eccentricities the delicacies that the Holy Ghost asks of souls.
“These are the souls who wish ‘to go by the cow-path,’ as one says rustically. They are attached to the Earth, and for that reason the Holy Ghost cannot raise them into the air with His divine motion and breathing. They are busy making sand-piles by which they think they can reach Heaven. They suffer that spiritual blindness that prevents them from seeing the infinite holiness of God, the marvel that grace works in souls, the heroism of abnegation that He asks of souls to correspond to His immense love, the foolishness of love by which the soul is led to the folly of the Cross. Such lukewarm souls think nothing of venial sins and perceive only those sins that are more serious; as a result, they ignore what are commonly called imperfections. They are blind because they never take into their hands the torch that would give light in this dark space (2 Peter 1:19), and many times in their presumption they attempt to guide others who are blind (Matthew 15:14).
“He who suffers such a blindness or shortsightedness in his interior vision, which prevents him from penetrating the things of Faith, cannot be free of fault because of his negligence and carelessness, or because of the tedium that he experiences in regard to spiritual things, since he loves more those things that appeal to the senses” ( I. Menendez-Reigada, O.P., Los dones del Espiritu Santo y la perfeccion cristiana, pp. 593-94).
Hello Sin! Goodbye Holy Ghost!
History certainly repeats itself. A Catholic can have the Faith, but if he has lost its life-giving principle of activity by mortal sin, Holy Scripture is nothing more than a sealed book, whose very appearance brings fatigue and, what is still worse, disgust. Why? Because with his soul in the state of sin, the Holy Ghost withdraws all His Gifts.
How many of us read and do not understand! And it is our own fault. Still the Holy Scripture is the word of God, a letter from our Father’s home, the bread of our souls, the mirror of our hearts and the guide of our lives. It is a book we should read the most, but we read it the least. It is the book we should understand most, whereas we understand it least of all. The reason is not far to seek: it is because we have not the Gift of Understanding; and we have not this Gift because our souls are not free from sin.
Unmoved By Religion
You believe in God, in Jesus, in Calvary, in Heaven and in Hell. These are consoling and terrible truths, and still admit that they make but a slight impression on you. Why? Because the Gift of Understanding is lacking. And if you have it not, then you have its contrary, a base, low vice-gluttony. Here is how a Doctor of the Church explains it. Gluttony is an inordinate love of eating and drinking. It is the flesh fighting and conquering the spirit. It is man in company with the lower creation; and if this inordinate love becomes a habit, it throws the entire man on bended knee before his new god—his stomach.
The first effect of this disorder is that the intelligence becomes dull. The soul and body are like two plates of a balance, when the one mounts the other descends. So, by excess of eating and drinking the body develops and the mind becomes heavy, lazy and unfit for study and for all intellectual activity. The more we eat, the less we think. For the slave of gluttony, the most important truths are as if they were not. St. Paul says, “The sensual man perceives not the things that are of the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:14) but “the things that are of the Spirit” are that series of supernatural truths which make up the deposit of Catholic belief.
A second effect of this vice is a senseless worldly indulgence, hilarity, laughter and amusement, which may be manifested in countless ways―this is nothing more than the victorious battle-cry of the flesh when it has conquered the mind or soul. As Our Lady of La Salette warned: “The people will think of nothing but amusement!” This is nothing more than the lack of the Spirit of Understanding. For, the glutton does not see that life is a trial and that Christian life should be a perpetual penance. He makes it a perpetual pleasure. He forgets or despises these words of Divine Truth, “Unless you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3). For the glutton, Heavenly truths really “waste their sweetness in the desert air.”
Means to Foster This Gift
As we have said repeatedly, the actuation or “sparking” or “ignition” of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost depends entirely on the Divine Spirit Himself. However, the soul can do much by disposing itself, with the help of grace, for this divine actuation. “Although this work is performed by the Lord, and we can do nothing to make His Majesty grant us this favor, we can do a great deal to prepare ourselves for it” (St. Teresa, Interior Castle, Fifth Mansions, chap. 2, n. 1). The Saint is referring to the contemplative prayer of union, which is an effect of the Gifts of Understanding and Wisdom.
Following are the principal means of disposing oneself:
(1) To enliven Faith with the help of ordinary grace. The infused virtues are perfected by their increasingly intense practice. This is an excellent disposition which will allow the Holy Ghost to perfect the virtues with His Gifts, if the soul does all that it can by the ascetical practices (spiritual exercises) within its reach. It is a fact that God, according to His ordinary providence, gives His graces to those who are best disposed. Yet how few are the number of souls who seriously seek to acquire, practice and grow in all the virtues!
St. Teresa of Avila speaks beautifully on this point in many ways. “Unless you have omitted to prepare yourselves for your work, you need have no fear that it will be lost” (The Way of Perfection, chap. 18, n. 3). “Their disposition [exercise of virtues] is such that He will grant them any favor” (Interior Castle, Third Mansions, chap. 1, n. 5).
(2) Perfect purity of soul and body. As we have already seen, the sixth beatitude, which pertains to the clean of heart, corresponds to the Gift of Understanding. Only through perfect cleanness of soul and body is one made capable of seeing God: in this life, by the profound illumination of the Gift of Understanding in the obscurity of Faith; in the next life, through the clear vision of glory. Impurity is incompatible with either one.
(3) Interior recollection. The Holy Ghost is the friend of recollection and solitude. Only there does He speak in silence to souls. “I will lead her into the wilderness: and I will speak to her heart” (Osee 2:14). The soul that is a friend of dissipation and worldliness will never perceive the word of God in its interior. It is necessary to empty oneself of all created things, to retire to the cell of one’s own heart in order to live there with the Divine Guest, until the soul gradually succeeds in always preserving the sense of God’s presence, even amidst the most absorbing occupations. When the soul has done all that it can to be recollected and detached from the world, the Holy Ghost will do the rest.
(4) Fidelity to grace. The soul must be always attentive and careful not to deny the Holy Ghost any sacrifice that He may ask. “Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts!” (Psalm 94:8). Not only must the soul avoid every voluntary thought, however small, that would sadden the Holy Ghost—according to the mysterious expression of St. Paul: “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:30)—but it must positively second all His divine movements until it can say with Christ: “I do always the things that please Him” (John 8:29).
It does not matter if sometimes the sacrifices that He asks of us seem to be beyond our strength. With God’s grace, all things are possible. “I can do all things in Him Who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). And there is always left to us the recourse of prayer, to ask the Lord in advance that which He wishes us to give to Him: “Grant what Thou dost command and command what Thou wilt” (St. Augustine, Confessions, Book 10, chap. 29). In any case, in order to avoid anxiety in the matter of fidelity to grace, we should always rely on the rule and counsel of a wise and experienced spiritual director.
(5) Invoking the Holy Ghost. We cannot practice any of these methods without the help and antecedent grace of the Holy Ghost. For that reason we must invoke Him frequently and with the greatest possible fervor, remembering the promise of Jesus to send the Holy Ghost to us (John 14:16-17).
The hymns ― Come Holy Ghost and Come O Creator Spirit Blessed, and the liturgical prayer (collect) for the feast of Pentecost ― should be, after the Our Father and the Hail Mary, the favorite prayers of interior souls. We should repeat them often until we attain that true understanding that the Holy Ghost can give us.
And in imitation of the Apostles, when they retired to the Cenacle to await the coming of the Paraclete, we should associate our supplications with those of the Immaculate Heart of Mary— “All these were persevering with one mind in prayer with … Mary the mother of Jesus” (Acts 1:14)—the Virgin most faithful and the Heavenly spouse of the Holy Ghost.
The beautiful invocation of the litany of the Blessed Virgin, “Virgin most faithful, pray for us,” should be one of the favorite ejaculations of the souls that thirst for God. The Divine Spirit will be communicated to us in the measure of our fidelity to grace, and this fidelity must be obtained through Mary, the universal Mediatrix of all graces by will of God.
I Wanna Know!
Everyone by nature wants to know—or at least be “in the know.” Diplomats and barbers have, of course, a professional standing to preserve. Rectory housekeepers and rulers of nations have likewise their official reasons. Yet even outside such officialdom there is a common need to know.
Between the Lines—Below the Surface
Some words express our thoughts with admirable accuracy. Though they may not be precise definitions, they are exact expressions of the object signified. Such is the Latin word “intelligere” (intus-legere: “to read interiorly, to penetrate”).
Let us try to be more precise. The Latins called it an “inner reading”―[which is another way of saying that which “stands under” or “stands beneath” the surface of things; therefore, a “deeper” knowledge, rather than a surface or superficial knowledge]. Understanding, then, is that power of the human soul, to descend beneath the surface of things, to pry into the hidden reality, it is that which breaks through the surface-shell, to reach the real substance therein enclosed.
Abstract
In the natural order, intelligence is the ability to perceive the abstract, the immaterial truth—we can contemplate abstract things like justice, mercy, fidelity, etc., which do not exist by themselves in a concrete way, like a tree for example. We understand and calculate with numbers and fractions, even though they do not exist in the concrete. In the supernatural order, intelligence penetrates higher truths. As the natural light of reason makes us understand sensible things, the light of the Gift of Understanding serves to penetrate supernatural truths and to reveal their intimate depths.
Understanding is More Than Knowing
On a purely natural and rational level, “to know” is not always “to understand”. I may “know” how to say a phrase in a foreign language without necessarily “understanding” what it means. I may “know” that my car won’t start, but I do not “understand” why. St. Ignatius Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises, points out that it is not great knowledge which profits the soul, but the penetration and savoring of spiritual things. To find spiritual profit, we do not have to multiply readings and meditations―we should rather go to the heart of some few truths, understand them as much as we can, and delight in them. When the Spiritual Exercises are made, or during a day of retreat, or simply whenever we meditate attentively on some supernatural truth, it seems that our soul is transformed, that we become another being. With the new light given us, our soul has a changed attitude toward spiritual things.
Through Him, With Him, In Him
Without God we can do nothing—”Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). God is our light―“Jesus spoke to them, saying: ‘I am the light of the world! He that follows Me, walks not in darkness, but shall have the light of life … As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world!’” (John 8:12; 9:5). “Wherefore he said: ‘Rise thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead: and Christ shall enlighten thee’” (Ephesians 5:14).The teachings of God are meant “to enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death―to direct our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:79). When Christ ascended into Heaven, He sent us the Paraclete: “And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever. The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, nor knows Him―but you shall know Him; because He shall abide with you, and shall be in you … The Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you!” (John 14:16-17, 26).
Who Truly Understands Without God?
“God looked down from Heaven upon the children of men―to see if there were any that did understand, or did seek God” (Psalm 52:3). “The steps of man are guided by the Lord; but who is the man that can understand his own way?” (Proverbs 20:24). “But all men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God; and who, by these good things that are seen, could not understand Him that is, neither by attending to the works have acknowledged who was the workman” (Wisdom 13:1). “And His ways who shall understand?” (Ecclesiasticus 16:21). “The senseless man shall not know; nor will the fool understand these things!” (Psalm 91:7). “Who, as it were, on purpose have revolted from Him, and would not understand all His ways” (Job 34:27). “Understand, ye senseless among the people! And, you fools, be wise at last!” (Psalm 93:8). “O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end” (Deuteronomy 32:29). “They that trust in Him, shall understand the truth” (Wisdom 3:9).
Limited Intelligence
But man’s intelligence, be it ever so powerful and penetrating, is nonetheless a created power; hence it is a limited power, and by itself it can never overstep the limits set down to it by God. But, man is created for a supernatural end, for Heaven, and the means given him by God are contained in Revelation; they are a set of truths exceeding the natural capacity of the understanding. Now, if these are really means to our end, we must use them, and to use them we must first know them; but as they are above the power of the human mind, we need some supernatural aid, some Heavenly light to penetrate them. This supernatural light which the Holy Ghost gives to man is called the Gift of Understanding.
Gift of Understanding Surpasses Natural Understanding
This light of the Gift of Understanding does not proceed from the natural understanding―as no amount of reasoning, even of the most intelligent mind that the world ever saw or will see, could prove that God is one and at the same time three. The Gift of Understanding perfects our natural reason. Just as it is by reason that we grasp all natural truths, so it is by the Gift of Understanding we know those truths which exceed the power of our reason, such as the truth of the Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, or the Redemption.
This is a distinct Gift. It is not human reason; neither is it the same as the theological virtue of Faith, whose characteristic it is to make us adhere to truths beyond the light of reason, because God has revealed them; whereas the Gift of Understanding helps us to penetrate the depths of such truths, and to know them as far as that is possible for a creature of Earth. It differs also from the Gift of Knowledge which distinguishes with certitude truth from error. Such, therefore, is the hierarchy or order in the degrees of our knowledge of revealed truths. We know of their existence by Faith, we are rendered sure of their truth by Knowledge, then, the Gift of Understanding gives us as clear an insight of them as man can have here below.
Thus, we see that this Gift is a special intellectual power given to those who, corresponding to the light of Faith and to the Spirit of God, receive over and above the light of natural reason, a power disposing them to grasp the hidden meaning of truths beyond the natural range of reason. This knowledge, like a powerful search-light, casts its penetrating rays not only over the surface, but into the deep ocean of all the articles of Faith. It shows how they are all intimately connected, it points out their superiority over anything this earth could give, over any truth soever, of which human reason may claim parentage, and it shows their beauty to be surpassing the splendor of any earthly truth.
The Gift of Understanding, then, is a supernatural habit, quality or perfection, whereby our intelligence is enabled to know and comprehend the truths of Catholic Faith and all that are connected with them; and knowing them we are led to love them and to live in conformity with this knowledge.
The Three Lights
There are three lights that guide us in our passage through life; namely, Reason, Faith and the Gift of Understanding. Reason is but a weak oil-lamp emitting only a feeble glimmering light, and often glimmers most when we most need its assistance. It is scarce sufficient to pierce the surface of the blackness of night, and let us perceive or distinguish the objects nearest at hand. Faith is the blazing torchlight, illumining and cheering the way; but, alas, whose rays do not go beyond a very limited horizon. We have all of us seen such brilliant torch displays; and their light is admirable within a certain radius, but as the objects are more remote, they become less distinct, till they lose themselves finally in the darkness. The Gift of Understanding is the summer sun at noonday, dispelling all darkness and clouds, and shedding its penetrating light on everything beneath. The difference is clear.
The following example is also familiar to all. I enter my room one evening, an hour after sunset, with my own eyes, unaided by any other light, I can barely distinguish the objects around me. I then light my lamp, and now, I can see them clearly. I can read and write at my desk with ease, though I cannot read my paper, ten feet from my light. Now, suppose I enter this same room at midday, I see everything distinctly and without the slightest effort. The Gift of Understanding does for us in the order of supernatural truths what the summer sun does in the order of natural ones. All these, truths are contained in Holy Scripture, but they are there in an obscure way, hidden under some mysterious veil of words or expressions; but the Gift we are considering pierces this veil or makes it transparent. It enables us to understand what we believe from the time we believe it explicitly.
The Apostles and the Gift of Understanding
The Apostles, before Pentecost, had reason and Faith, yet we are told that they knew not the Scriptures, which, however, they understood perfectly when the Holy Ghost came upon them. The Spirit of Understanding descended upon those poor unlettered fishermen, who, there and then, became real suns in the sky of Heavenly doctrine, and their rays illumined the entire world. See how St. Peter expounded the Scriptures to the assembled nations on the first Pentecost morning; and see how the Spirit of Understanding enlightened the minds of his hearers, so that “they received his word, were baptized, and there were added on that day about three thousand souls … and the Lord increased daily such as should be saved.” (Acts 2:41, 47).
With the skill of a master, St. Peter paints a verbal picture of the reign of Jesus, whilst his hearers, the Jews, truly penitent, confessing their guilt, embrace the truth, just like the child who, after a long absence, embraces his loving mother.
Raising Our Minds to New Heights
This Gift of Understanding not only aids our minds to know and understand Holy Scripture, but also it helps us to find the truth wherever it may be had. It is verified for some in the science of theology. A case in point is the Saint whose very doctrine I am using, St. Thomas Aquinas. He handles the most sublime truths with an ease and a grace which baffle all comprehension. In his case it was the Spirit of Understanding that passed into the “dumb Sicilian ox and by his mouth spoke to the world.” As Our Lord said: “Take no thought how or what to speak―for it shall be given you in that hour what to speak!” (Matthew 10:19).
For others, this Gift of Understanding is verified in philosophy, as is admirably portrayed in the life of St. Catherine, whose deep knowledge made the pagan philosophers blush for shame. For others still, this Gift of Understanding shines forth in their ordinary actions or conversations; and, thank God, it is more frequent than we think. And this is due to no human aid, to no natural light; no, it is Faith perfected by the Gift of Understanding.
If people, if Catholics especially, would only make that small effort required to possess such a treasure, what a veritable gold-mine would sermons, religious instruction and the history of the Church become! They would no longer be vain, boring sounds, but entering by the ear, they would be engraved on the heart, producing abundant fruit.
Understanding Persecution
Today is not the first time that we are baffled by the fact that the Church is always persecuted and the world is always prosperous; and yet, we must believe that God is still in control over the world and the Church. Nation after nation has abandoned God. This is surely hard to understand; nay, it is impossible to grasp, unless, by the light of the Gift of Understanding, see in this Jesus Himself, our Head, persecuted, abandoned and contradicted by all, and yet He lives on. So, too, His Church; this warfare, though it becomes more brutal and savage with each decade, can never prevail against the Church. These events and countless others—the whole history of the world and Church—point always to the hand of God behind everything, when read under the light of the Gift of Understanding.
This Gift also acts on our will. For, the clearer the mind sees a thing the more the heart loves it and adheres to it. Then once we know and understand and love our Faith, we are safe: then, Hell, with its deceit, the sophistry of the proud independent mind with its lies, the world with its derision, may all beat against the Ark of Faith, but in vain. We merely say “Credo” or “I believe” and nothing can disturb us. But, as the wind that shakes the tender oak, only serves to drive its roots more firmly into the ground; likewise, such storms and persecutions from without only purify our Faith, make us more fervent in serving God, more resisting in temptation, more resigned in poverty, more cheerful in adversity, more detached from life, and more constant in our endeavors and aspirations to the only reality of the future—God and Heaven.
Effects of the Gift of Understanding
The Gift of Understanding produces admirable effects in the soul, and all of them perfect the virtue of Faith to the degree of incredible intensity and certainty that was attained in the saints. It reveals truths with such clarity that, without sounding-out the mystery entirely, it gives such an unshakable security concerning the truth of our Faith that they could not conceive the existence of unbelieving or undecided persons in matters of Faith. This is seen in the experimental order in mystical souls, in whom the Gift of Understanding has developed to an eminent degree. They would be disposed to believe the contrary of what they saw with their own eyes, rather than to doubt in the slightest any of the truths of Faith.
This Gift is most useful for theologians, and St. Thomas Aquinas possessed it to an extraordinary degree. It enables the theologian to penetrate into the depths of the revealed truth and to deduce later, by means of theological discursus (reasoning), the conclusions that are implicit in these truths. The Angelic Doctor himself points out six different ways in which the Gift of Understanding enables us to penetrate into the depths and mystery of the truths of Faith (Cf. Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 8, art. 1).
(1) It enables us to see the substance of things hidden under their accidental [surface/outward] manifestations. In virtue of this divine instinct, the mystics perceive the Divine reality that is hidden under the Eucharistic veils. From this follows their obsession with the Eucharist, an obsession that becomes in them a veritable martyrdom of hunger and thirst. In their visits to the tabernacle they do not pray or meditate, but merely contemplate the Divine Prisoner of Love with a simple and penetrating gaze that fills their souls with infinite peace and tenderness. “I look at Him and He looks at me,” as the simple peasant, possessed by the Holy Ghost, told the Curé of Ars.
(2) It discloses the hidden meaning of Sacred Scripture. This is what the Lord effected in regard to the disciples at Emmaus when “He opened their understanding so that they could understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). All the mystics have experienced this phenomenon. Without any study or any human assistance, the Holy Ghost suddenly disclosed to them with a most vivid intensity the profound meaning of some statement in Scripture that immersed them in a deluge of light.
(3) It reveals to us the mysterious significance of symbols and figures. Thus St. Paul saw Christ in the rock that gushed forth with living water to appease the thirst of the Israelites in the desert: “And the rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). St. John of the Cross reveals to us, with a startling mystical intuition, the moral, analogical and parabolic meaning of many of the symbols and figures of the Old Testament that reached their full realization in the New Testament or in the life of grace.
(4) It reveals spiritual realities to us under sensible appearances. The Liturgy of the Church is filled with sublime symbolism that, for the most part, escapes the notice of superficial souls. But the saints experience a great veneration and respect for the “smallest ceremony of the Church” (St. Teresa, The Life, p. 226, chap. 33, n. 5), which floods their soul with devotion and tenderness. The Gift of Understanding enables them to see the sublime realities that are hidden beneath those symbols and sensible signs.
(5) It enables us to contemplate the effects that are contained in causes. As Father Philipon writes: “There is another aspect of the Gift of Understanding that is particularly noticeable in the case of contemplative theologians. After the hard work of human study, everything suddenly becomes luminous under an impulse of the Spirit. A new world is seen … Christ-the-Priest, the One Mediator between Heaven and Earth, or Mary the Virgin Co-Redemptrix, bearing spiritually in her womb all the members of the Mystical Body; the Unity of Essence with the Trinity of Persons … All are truths which the Gift of Understanding can penetrate effortlessly and fruitfully in the very light of God” (M. M. Philipon, O.P., The Spiritual Doctrine of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, p. 180-181, chap. 8, n. 7).
(6) It makes us see causes through their effects. Father Philipon continues: “Inversely, the Gift of Understanding reveals God and His almighty causality of effects, without working the long, discursive journeyings of human thought left to its own resources, but by a simple, comparative gaze and by intuition, ‘after the manner of God.’ In almost imperceptible signs and in the smallest events of its life, a soul ,that is attentive to the Holy Ghost, suddenly discovers God’s providential plan in its regard” (M. M. Philipon, O.P., The Spiritual Doctrine of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, p.180-181, chap. 8, n. 7).
Such are the principal effects that the actuation of the Gift of Understanding produces in the soul. One can see that, perfected by this Gift, the virtue of Faith reaches an astounding intensity. The veils of mystery are never parted in this life—”we see now through a glass in a dark manner” (1 Corinthians 13:12)―but its unfathomable depths are penetrated by the soul with an experience that is so clear and deep that it approaches the intuitive vision. St. Thomas, a model of serenity and reserve in all his statements, writes the following words: “In this very life, when the eye of the soul is purified by the Gift of Understanding, one can in a certain way see God” (Summa, Ia-IIae, q. 69, art. 2, ad 3).
Opposed Vices
St. Thomas dedicates an entire question to the study of these vices (SummaTheologica, IIa-IIae, q. 15). They are mainly two: (1) spiritual blindness and (2) dullness of the spiritual sense.
The first, spiritual blindness, is the complete lack of vision (blindness); the second, dullness of the spiritual sense, is a notable weakening of vision (myopia). Both of them proceed from carnal sins (lust and gluttony), and because of that there is nothing that is such an impediment to the flight of the intellect—even naturally speaking—as the vehement attachment to corporal things that are contrary to it. For that reason, lust, with its greater vehemence, produces spiritual blindness, which excludes almost completely the knowledge and appreciation of spiritual goods, and gluttony produces dullness of the spiritual sense, which weakens man as regards this knowledge and appreciation in a way similar to the blunting or dulling of a sharp and pointed object—a nail, for example—that should easily penetrate a wall (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 15, art. 3).
A contemporary author writes: “This blindness of mind is that which is suffered by all lukewarm souls; for they possess the Gift of Understanding, but their mind is engulfed with the things of this world. They are lacking in interior recollection and the spirit of prayer; they are constantly pouring themselves out through the channels of the senses, without any attentive or constant consideration of divine truths. Hence they never arrive at discovering the exalted clarity that is hidden in their obscurity. For that reason we see that very frequently they are easily deceived and mistaken when they speak of spiritual things, of the delicacy and fine points of divine love, of the first stages of the mystical life, of the heights of sanctity, and that sometimes they engage themselves in external works that are covered with the veil of human evaluations, and they consider as exaggerations or eccentricities the delicacies that the Holy Ghost asks of souls.
“These are the souls who wish ‘to go by the cow-path,’ as one says rustically. They are attached to the Earth, and for that reason the Holy Ghost cannot raise them into the air with His divine motion and breathing. They are busy making sand-piles by which they think they can reach Heaven. They suffer that spiritual blindness that prevents them from seeing the infinite holiness of God, the marvel that grace works in souls, the heroism of abnegation that He asks of souls to correspond to His immense love, the foolishness of love by which the soul is led to the folly of the Cross. Such lukewarm souls think nothing of venial sins and perceive only those sins that are more serious; as a result, they ignore what are commonly called imperfections. They are blind because they never take into their hands the torch that would give light in this dark space (2 Peter 1:19), and many times in their presumption they attempt to guide others who are blind (Matthew 15:14).
“He who suffers such a blindness or shortsightedness in his interior vision, which prevents him from penetrating the things of Faith, cannot be free of fault because of his negligence and carelessness, or because of the tedium that he experiences in regard to spiritual things, since he loves more those things that appeal to the senses” ( I. Menendez-Reigada, O.P., Los dones del Espiritu Santo y la perfeccion cristiana, pp. 593-94).
Hello Sin! Goodbye Holy Ghost!
History certainly repeats itself. A Catholic can have the Faith, but if he has lost its life-giving principle of activity by mortal sin, Holy Scripture is nothing more than a sealed book, whose very appearance brings fatigue and, what is still worse, disgust. Why? Because with his soul in the state of sin, the Holy Ghost withdraws all His Gifts.
How many of us read and do not understand! And it is our own fault. Still the Holy Scripture is the word of God, a letter from our Father’s home, the bread of our souls, the mirror of our hearts and the guide of our lives. It is a book we should read the most, but we read it the least. It is the book we should understand most, whereas we understand it least of all. The reason is not far to seek: it is because we have not the Gift of Understanding; and we have not this Gift because our souls are not free from sin.
Unmoved By Religion
You believe in God, in Jesus, in Calvary, in Heaven and in Hell. These are consoling and terrible truths, and still admit that they make but a slight impression on you. Why? Because the Gift of Understanding is lacking. And if you have it not, then you have its contrary, a base, low vice-gluttony. Here is how a Doctor of the Church explains it. Gluttony is an inordinate love of eating and drinking. It is the flesh fighting and conquering the spirit. It is man in company with the lower creation; and if this inordinate love becomes a habit, it throws the entire man on bended knee before his new god—his stomach.
The first effect of this disorder is that the intelligence becomes dull. The soul and body are like two plates of a balance, when the one mounts the other descends. So, by excess of eating and drinking the body develops and the mind becomes heavy, lazy and unfit for study and for all intellectual activity. The more we eat, the less we think. For the slave of gluttony, the most important truths are as if they were not. St. Paul says, “The sensual man perceives not the things that are of the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:14) but “the things that are of the Spirit” are that series of supernatural truths which make up the deposit of Catholic belief.
A second effect of this vice is a senseless worldly indulgence, hilarity, laughter and amusement, which may be manifested in countless ways―this is nothing more than the victorious battle-cry of the flesh when it has conquered the mind or soul. As Our Lady of La Salette warned: “The people will think of nothing but amusement!” This is nothing more than the lack of the Spirit of Understanding. For, the glutton does not see that life is a trial and that Christian life should be a perpetual penance. He makes it a perpetual pleasure. He forgets or despises these words of Divine Truth, “Unless you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3). For the glutton, Heavenly truths really “waste their sweetness in the desert air.”
Means to Foster This Gift
As we have said repeatedly, the actuation or “sparking” or “ignition” of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost depends entirely on the Divine Spirit Himself. However, the soul can do much by disposing itself, with the help of grace, for this divine actuation. “Although this work is performed by the Lord, and we can do nothing to make His Majesty grant us this favor, we can do a great deal to prepare ourselves for it” (St. Teresa, Interior Castle, Fifth Mansions, chap. 2, n. 1). The Saint is referring to the contemplative prayer of union, which is an effect of the Gifts of Understanding and Wisdom.
Following are the principal means of disposing oneself:
(1) To enliven Faith with the help of ordinary grace. The infused virtues are perfected by their increasingly intense practice. This is an excellent disposition which will allow the Holy Ghost to perfect the virtues with His Gifts, if the soul does all that it can by the ascetical practices (spiritual exercises) within its reach. It is a fact that God, according to His ordinary providence, gives His graces to those who are best disposed. Yet how few are the number of souls who seriously seek to acquire, practice and grow in all the virtues!
St. Teresa of Avila speaks beautifully on this point in many ways. “Unless you have omitted to prepare yourselves for your work, you need have no fear that it will be lost” (The Way of Perfection, chap. 18, n. 3). “Their disposition [exercise of virtues] is such that He will grant them any favor” (Interior Castle, Third Mansions, chap. 1, n. 5).
(2) Perfect purity of soul and body. As we have already seen, the sixth beatitude, which pertains to the clean of heart, corresponds to the Gift of Understanding. Only through perfect cleanness of soul and body is one made capable of seeing God: in this life, by the profound illumination of the Gift of Understanding in the obscurity of Faith; in the next life, through the clear vision of glory. Impurity is incompatible with either one.
(3) Interior recollection. The Holy Ghost is the friend of recollection and solitude. Only there does He speak in silence to souls. “I will lead her into the wilderness: and I will speak to her heart” (Osee 2:14). The soul that is a friend of dissipation and worldliness will never perceive the word of God in its interior. It is necessary to empty oneself of all created things, to retire to the cell of one’s own heart in order to live there with the Divine Guest, until the soul gradually succeeds in always preserving the sense of God’s presence, even amidst the most absorbing occupations. When the soul has done all that it can to be recollected and detached from the world, the Holy Ghost will do the rest.
(4) Fidelity to grace. The soul must be always attentive and careful not to deny the Holy Ghost any sacrifice that He may ask. “Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts!” (Psalm 94:8). Not only must the soul avoid every voluntary thought, however small, that would sadden the Holy Ghost—according to the mysterious expression of St. Paul: “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:30)—but it must positively second all His divine movements until it can say with Christ: “I do always the things that please Him” (John 8:29).
It does not matter if sometimes the sacrifices that He asks of us seem to be beyond our strength. With God’s grace, all things are possible. “I can do all things in Him Who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). And there is always left to us the recourse of prayer, to ask the Lord in advance that which He wishes us to give to Him: “Grant what Thou dost command and command what Thou wilt” (St. Augustine, Confessions, Book 10, chap. 29). In any case, in order to avoid anxiety in the matter of fidelity to grace, we should always rely on the rule and counsel of a wise and experienced spiritual director.
(5) Invoking the Holy Ghost. We cannot practice any of these methods without the help and antecedent grace of the Holy Ghost. For that reason we must invoke Him frequently and with the greatest possible fervor, remembering the promise of Jesus to send the Holy Ghost to us (John 14:16-17).
The hymns ― Come Holy Ghost and Come O Creator Spirit Blessed, and the liturgical prayer (collect) for the feast of Pentecost ― should be, after the Our Father and the Hail Mary, the favorite prayers of interior souls. We should repeat them often until we attain that true understanding that the Holy Ghost can give us.
And in imitation of the Apostles, when they retired to the Cenacle to await the coming of the Paraclete, we should associate our supplications with those of the Immaculate Heart of Mary— “All these were persevering with one mind in prayer with … Mary the mother of Jesus” (Acts 1:14)—the Virgin most faithful and the Heavenly spouse of the Holy Ghost.
The beautiful invocation of the litany of the Blessed Virgin, “Virgin most faithful, pray for us,” should be one of the favorite ejaculations of the souls that thirst for God. The Divine Spirit will be communicated to us in the measure of our fidelity to grace, and this fidelity must be obtained through Mary, the universal Mediatrix of all graces by will of God.
Article 25
Friday, May 22nd
PREPARING FOR PENTECOST―EXAMINING THE GIFTS
#5 Seeking Counsel or Following Stupidity?
Friday, May 22nd
PREPARING FOR PENTECOST―EXAMINING THE GIFTS
#5 Seeking Counsel or Following Stupidity?
“For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14).
Counsel, in general, is an advice, which is the result of our own or of another’s reflection, and which influences the line of action to be taken in some event or issue of our lives, or of some special undertaking. We may even say that counsel is an advice given by somebody.
Uncertainty in Life
How often in our lives are we not in serious doubt! Our minds are harassed from every side, no matter where we turn we are greeted by indecision. We may long for some ray of light to guide us in a serious undertaking, but it is not forthcoming. How can that cloud, that thick shadow of doubt, be laid aside? How are we to enter into the sunlight of certitude? What is our usual everyday solution? We ask advice, seek counsel. We seek out the most reputable adviser possible—it may be the best priest, the best doctor, the best lawyer, the best broker, the best mechanic, etc., that we know or can afford. If we are young, we consult those placed over us, our parents or our guides, and we cast away all anxious doubt by relying on their decision; in religion we seek the advice of our superiors; and in the world we ask counsel from our dearest friend, who is always ready to help us, who perhaps has often or always advised us in our
anxieties, and whose advice has always proven trustworthy.
Seeking Advice
At all events, whenever we are in doubt as to the course to follow, we seek counsel. Moreover, this is what Holy Scripture tells us to do, “Seek counsel always of a good wise man” (Tobias, 4:19). On a good counsel may depend our fortune, honor or even life! And if we truly had our own interests seriously at heart, and if our souls were not so disposed to pride and independence, how happy and contented we should be to seek counsel from others! How many useless regrets! How many bitter tears it would spare us!
If man needs advice so often on worldly affairs, on the business of every-day life, how much more does he not need it on things regarding the world of the supernatural? It is also clear that man’s willingness to follow a piece of advice becomes greater in proportion as the advice brings light, knowledge and certainty and excludes all doubt. If this is true of human advice, how much more true is it for the Gift of Counsel, which does all this and more, and in a way far superior to any human adviser.
Divine Advice
Souls who are free from mortal sin; whose are in the state of grace; they receive, from the Divine Spirit, advice concerning their supernatural destiny, so that they may reach Heaven in all security, in all certainty. The doubts—which may cloud the path along the steep, narrow and dangerous mountain pass that leads from Earth to Heaven—are melted before the powerful and penetrating rays of this heavenly sun. The sun we speak of is none other than the light conveyed by the Holy Ghost is one of His seven Gifts, that of Counsel.
Advice and Freedom
St. Thomas Aquinas says that the Gift of Counsel leads us on, and guides us, in all the undertakings whose final end or goal is eternal life. It matters little whether these undertakings are absolutely necessary or not; as, for him who obeys God’s law, who does God’s will in all things, all paths lead to Heaven, nor, is any one of them, taken separately, strictly necessary. Again, as the advice of any man does not oppose or destroy our personal freedom, so also the Gift of Counsel is no enemy of human freedom, it only elevates and perfects it, in a supernatural way.
Where Am I Headed?
The object of your existence here below is to gain Heaven. What is the surest way, the most practical means of reaching Heaven? Are you to live in the world? If so, are you to remain single or should you marry? Or are you to enter into the sanctuary of God’s holy priesthood (men) or the Religious life (men and women)? If so, are you to be a secular priest, or a priest within a Religious Order? If the latter, are you to enter a contemplative Order, or one devoted to the active ministry? And, finally, of these which one is to be the object of your choice? St. John Bosco was of the opinion that one-out-of four persons is called to the priesthood or Religious life. How many failed to fulfill God’s wishes for lack of light and direction? The Gift of Counsel would have given that light and direction—but let us not forget that the Gifts of the Holy Ghost will only work at full steam after we have spent a decent length of time in the apprenticeship of acquiring and practicing the virtues. Today’s world is not very conducive to a successful apprenticeship!
Various Paths—Various Destinations
Look around you, and without going beyond the family circle perhaps, you find different members following different paths to the one destined goal—Eternity and Heaven. Your parents, brothers, sisters, relatives and friends may have chosen different courses—some taking paths that lead to God, others taking paths that lead away from God and are worldly. Will you follow the beaten path of the world outside, or the narrow passage of the chosen few? Here, you are face to face with the business of your own salvation; and you may well be in doubt. Who shall rid you of your difficulties? You cannot expect much light from men, for no one knows your mind better than yourself. All alone, it is only prayer to the Father of Light that will assist you. You pray. You pray intensely. In an instant your mind is made up, all doubt has vanished, profound peace floods the soul; and the light given is nothing else than the Gift of Counsel. Yet, we keep repeating the fact that the Gifts of the Holy Ghost will usually only work best if we have persevered for a certain time in the acquisition and practice of the many virtues.
Led, Yet Free
Those led by the Spirit of God, lose nothing of their liberty, but they lose all of their doubts. Counsel leaps up to do the will of God, instead of plunging down into pride by doing its own will. In a single simple supernatural intuition, under the enlightenment of the Holy Ghost, the soul sees, as far as is opportune, the end of its action and the means which are best adapted to the circumstances.
How human liberty is preserved by Counsel is a mystery of the movement of the Holy Ghost. In the intimate instruction or inspiration, which the Holy Ghost gives to the soul in Counsel, there seems to be no alternative but to obey. The Holy Ghost does not negotiate or engage in arbitration, but asks complete acceptance, since such is the law of grace: “For it is God Who works in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to His good will” (Philippians 2:13).
In surrendering all personal deliberation to God, the soul that is obedient to the Gift of Counsel, does not lose its liberty. On the contrary, it gains a sureness and determination, which rebukes the false elation of pride. Knowing the will of God, with a certitude inspired by the Spirit of God, the soul has no need of a more humanly acceptable explanation to assure it that, in Counsel, the soul is both pre-eminently free and prudent. Obedience to God is at once the greatest of human sacrifices and its most clear-cut perfection. Complete obedience is the work of the Gift of Counsel. In its scope are works more pleasing to God than acts of sacrifice performed in the virtue of Religion, and from it proceed acts which rise above, not only the perversity of men, but even their best efforts.
Not Fully Understanding, But Still Confident
The soul with the Gift of Counsel does not ask for a clear realization and understanding of every aspect of each situation. It asks only a sign of God’s will, a smile of approval or a frown of warning, interiorly manifested through the Holy Ghost. The ordinary signs of God’s will—His prohibitions, precepts, permissions, exteriorly revealed counsels, or the pattern of his own acts—may be lacking, but the Gift of Counsel grants an interior assurance in an act of discernment of good from evil, the greater good from the lesser, in each situation which would confound the soul functioning under ordinary prudential judgments.
When the will of God is manifested interiorly, even if no exterior obligation or law binds it, the soul finds itself with the choice of either serving God or sinning. Yet the soul is not told what to do and then left without further assistance from the Holy Ghost. It is also instructed concerning the immediate circumstances of its act and any possible impediments. St. Peter was told by God to evangelize and baptize the Gentiles, although prudence would tell him that “it is not permissible for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him” (Acts 10:28 ff.), Peter still came to Cornelius, so that “the grace of the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the Gentiles also” (Acts 10:45).
Hey God! No Trespassing!
For many lukewarm or worldly souls, even the apparent ‘trespassing’ of the Holy Ghost and His Gift of Counsel upon modern man’s independence, is sufficient reason to deny them entry into the soul. They may happily be the slaves of every kind of bad habit and sin, or the dupes of any kind of deception, but to serve the will of God under inspiration seems repugnant. They will not serve Him whose counsels they have not shared. Because they cannot understand precisely how the Holy Ghost works within the soul, to conceive within it right intentions and judgments, therefore, they militantly defend their puny exaggerated human liberty at whatever price.
Don’t Cramp My Style!
St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that man was made to be happy—unfortunately, like a baby seeking to alleviate its thirst with a bottle of colorless ammonia, thinking it to be water, man seeks to slake his thirst for happiness with things that are harmful, but which he falsely reckons to be good.
Happiness can be identified with nothing further afield than the greener grass next door, and the soul, with serpent-like scheming or bullish brashness, tries to overcome or undermine any moral barriers to obtain it. Once the grass or any other created good is gained, the soul is not satisfied, and looks again for something else. Over and over again the mind changes its final end, and tries to adjust to it a new set of means. With each new experience it is less sure of itself, a little more indifferent and appreciably more inconsistent, since “a double-minded man is inconstant in all his ways” (James 1:8).
Double-Minded, Two-Faced
This duplicity of mind arises principally from pleasure-seeking. Sensual satisfactions delight, distract, and then destroy a person’s judgment in practical matters, long before they obliterate his knowledge or judgment of speculative or practical principles. In each sin, his mind retains the rules of conduct, but it does not apply them. In a kind of stupor the mind finds itself unwilling, or by habit incapable, of applying its memory of the past experiences to the judgment of the present experience, in view of the future. It casts aside its accepted principles, rather than apply them to the current situation, because it is not sufficiently concerned about the consequences of its action: “Eat, drink and be merry,” for science has a remedy for hangovers and Hell. Only the present moment, or the past in dreams and the future in desires to be currently enjoyed, concerns the person animalized by sensuality, and his only counsel is the impulse to grasp and gulp down every pleasure within reach. Yet, in each sensual act, a man’s mind is a little queasy, since what his practical judgment demands at the moment, his other mind—his judgment of principles—has rejected for all time. In other words, he is like a schizophrenic in the spiritual domain—two minded, two faced—convinced that he really can serve mammon and God.
Avarice
Another less common, but no less uncontrolled source of a double mind and a doubting heart, is avarice. With two heads and no heart, the avaricious are excessive in their prudence, rather than inept. They ignore the wise man’s admonition: “Labor not to be rich; but set bounds to thy prudence” (Proverbs 23:4), and they put a fine edge on their reasoning powers at the grinding wheel of many worldly motivated sacrifices. Sacrifices are made, moreover, not only to gain wealth, but to get one’s own way.
More subtle than the avarice of wealth is the avarice for dominance and control. Assuming authority, attracting and absorbing attention, minding other people’s business—these things often give a perverted soul a tidy sum in self-satisfaction. Many sacrifices of honor may have to be made, and the soul may have to engage in crafty maneuvering—one moment they are faking obedience and giving off the odor of false humility; the next moment they are highly offended, but the eventual possession and control of the emotional strings, which make puppets of other people, seems worth it. In either avarice there is a false caricature of prudence and a contradiction to the Gift of Counsel. The motives for avarice are as much a part of carnal prudence as sensual delight. Its methods—astuteness, fraud, and deceit—are far more ruthless. Astuteness formulates the tactics, while deceit and fraud carry them out.
To be led by the Spirit of God means to ask God’s guidance. “But,” says Cardinal Manning, “impetuous men are led by the flesh, and not by the Spirit; and having set out on the way of their own choosing, they come to crosses and sorrows. Then, they begin to ask counsel of God, but they ask it too late.” (Internal Mission, p. 344). God will not hear them; they are thrown back into the hands of their own counsel, their hearts filled with darkness and indecision. Each step takes them farther into the night of doubt; they have lost their paths, and all that is left to them is despair.
The Nature of the Gift of Counsel
The Gift of Counsel is a supernatural habit by which the soul in the state of grace, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, judges rightly in particular events what ought to be done in view of its supernatural ultimate end. The following should be noted in regard to this definition:
(a) The Gifts of the Holy Ghost are not transient motions or simple actual graces, but supernatural habits infused by God in the soul together with sanctifying grace.
(b) The Holy Ghost actuates the Gift of Counsel as its only motor cause; but the soul in grace collaborates as instrumental cause, through the virtue of prudence, to produce a supernatural act. These acts are performed promptly and as if by instinct, without needing the slow and laborious interior discussion of the reason.
(c) Supernatural prudence correctly judges what has to be done at a given moment, guided by the light of reason illumined by Faith. But the Gift of Counsel quickly intuits what has to be done by the instinct and motion of the Holy Ghost, that is, by entirely divine reasons, which are often unknown to the very soul that performs the act. For this reason, in the virtue of prudence the way of action is discursive, while in the Gift it is intuitive, divine or superhuman.
These ways of defining the Gift of Counsel do not differ substantially from Cardinal Manning’s description of it, when he says, “It is a certain quality or perfection, infused into the reason of man, by the Grace of the Holy Ghost, whereby the reason is made able to discern, not only right and wrong, not only the way of obedience, but also the way of perfection; that is to know that which between two things, both good and right, is better, higher and more pleasing to God. It gives also ... a ready will to do and carry out into practice, that which we see to be the higher and better part” (Internal Mission, pp. 333, ff.).
Its Importance and Necessity
The intervention of the Gift of Counsel is indispensable for perfecting the virtue of prudence, above all, in certain sudden cases that are difficult to solve yet require an immediate judgment, since sin or heroism can be a matter of an instant. Such cases, which are less rare than is commonly believed, cannot be resolved by the slow and laborious work of the virtue of prudence. The intervention of the Gift of Counsel is necessary; it will provide the instantaneous solution as to what should be done.
Father Lallemant writes: “We may notice in several places of Scripture admirable instances of the Gift of Counsel; as in the silence of Our Lord before Herod, and in the answers He made to save the woman taken in adultery, and to confound those who demanded of Him if it were lawful to pay tribute to Caesar; in the judgement of Solomon; in the enterprise of Judith, to deliver the people of God from the army of Holofernes; in the conduct of Daniel to justify Susanna, against the calumny of the two elders; in that of St. Paul, when he set the Pharisees against the Sadducees and when he appealed from the tribunal of Festus to that of Caesar” (Spiritual Teaching, p. 151).
Natural Prudence, Supernatural Prudence, Divine Prudence
Natural Prudence
Before performing any deliberate action, we go through a mental process with the purpose of examining carefully, not only the lawfulness of what we intend to do, but also its convenience, its timeliness. Ordinarily we are not aware of this process, just as we are not aware of what happens when our food goes through the digestive tract, to be assimilated by the entire organism. Precisely because we are accustomed to use our intelligence to regulate our actions, the procedure goes by unnoticed. But on certain occasions, in more difficult and complicated activities, when we do not see our way clearly and immediately, then, because of our greater concentration on the matter, we are aware of our deliberation.
It is no easy thing to determine what should be done in difficult matters, and to know what should be known about the lawfulness, the appropriateness, and the opportuneness of an act. We analyze, reflect, and recall the past to guide us in the present and to foresee the future — and how many times, after we have reflected and analyzed at great length, we still do not know what to do in a given circumstance, but have to go to a wiser, more experienced person for advice.
The Supernatural Virtue of Prudence
To help us determine what should be done in a particular case, we have Prudence in the natural order, and the infused virtue of Prudence, which bears the same name, in the supernatural order. The virtue of Prudence is not the speculative knowledge of ordinary spiritual things; it is the application of this knowledge and these general principles to concrete cases with their special circumstances of time, place, manner, etc. Prudence is a difficult virtue to practice — not only the prudence needed to direct others, but even that prudence which is indispensable in governing ourselves. It is difficult because, while we must look upward in order to work according to higher principles and rules, we must look downward and remain in touch with this prosaic Earth in order to be aware of each one of the circumstances that surround the contemplated act.
But in this matter, as in all others in the spiritual life, the virtue is not enough. Timidity and uncertainty, as we have already seen, are the usual characteristics of prudence the virtue. How difficult to unite prudence and boldness! There are bold men who are unmindful of prudence, and there are men who seem prudent yet who do not dare to do the bold things they should. At the same time, our decisions are uncertain. In any matter whatsoever, and especially in spiritual things, how difficult it is to arrive at stability and security! We plan and arrange things without having the assurance that they will attain the desired result; our procedures are unsure and do not always bring about what we have intended.
Divine Prudence
Therefore human prudence would not be enough, supernatural prudence itself, prudence the virtue, would not be enough, to lead us to the heights of glory. Human life is so complicated, so difficult, the ways by which we reach perfection are so painful, we find so many troubles, so many contradictions in our life, that if we had no other direction, we would never attain our end.
But God, who never fails us in our needs, has given us a Gift by which the Holy Ghost becomes our guide. As the archangel Raphael led Tobias on his journey, so the Spirit who lives in our souls guides us along the winding and troublesome paths of this life, until we reach our perfection in the inexpressibly loving embrace of God.
That superior prudence, that divine prudence which is the fruit of a movement of the Holy Ghost, is the Gift of Counsel. It does not have the same name as the virtue, because the prudence we receive from the Gift of Counsel does not spring from the depths of our intelligence; it comes to us from above, from a superior Being: it is communicated to us by the Spirit.
Prudence, ruled by reason, gives a human mode to our actions: uncertainty and timidity; whereas the Holy Ghost puts a divine character on the acts that proceed from the Gift of Counsel. The virtue and the Gift have different norms. That of the virtue is right reason, enlightened by faith, which helps us to judge whether we should perform such and such an action at a certain time. The norm of the Gift is higher; it is divine, it is eternal reason, the norm of God.
The Gift of Counsel in Saints
At times the saints have been able to do things that fill us with amazement. For example, St. Catherine of Siena spent entire Lenten periods without any other food than Holy Communion. In the light of human prudence, there is no justification for this. Right reason demands that we give our bodies the necessary food; it prohibits such excesses, though at the same time it does not tolerate neglect of mortification, for the middle way must always prevail in the practice of virtue. But St. Catherine accomplished this amazing thing because of a superior instinct, a divine norm. She did not see the usual rule of reason; she saw the exalted rule of the will of God. This is the way of the Gift of Counsel.
When we work under its direction our decisions will be quick, sure and audacious. With what boldness do the saints proceed, with what security, and with what rapidity! They do not follow the counsels of men, nor the dictates of their own reason. They have a higher norm: eternal reason, the mind of God, that illuminates their spirit and lays before them the road they should follow.
In numerous instances we can discover the influence, the effect, of this Gift upon the saints. For example, how could St. Vincent Ferrer have performed miracles with such naturalness, if he had not been guided by the Gift of Counsel? The saint would speak a few words from the Gospel, then add: “In the Name of Jesus Christ, you are now healed”; and he worked these miracles just in passing, as any ordinary act of his life. Now, if one of us should try to imitate St. Vincent and perform miracles, he would commit a gravely imprudent act. St. Vincent could perform them because the Holy Ghost moved him; because he was in a singular manner under the direction of the Spirit.
First Degree of the Gift of Counsel
In this Gift, as in all the others, there are degrees. In the first degree, the soul succeeds rapidly in doing the will of God as regards what is immediately necessary in the spiritual life. It is no simple thing to have this, security. While the known will of God is by no means always easy to fulfill, yet it is often more difficult to know God’s will than to fulfill it. Have we not all found ourselves in situations in which we could not exactly say what our obligation was? What did God want us to do in such cases? The Gift of Counsel helps us to answer that question in a quick and certain manner.
The Gifts work in us simultaneously, or rather, the Holy Ghost makes us work and advance under the influence of His Gifts, and on some occasions several of them cooperate in the work of our spiritual life, just as many organs cooperate in our body, and many faculties in our soul. But in this world of the Gifts, the actions that proceed from them have to be ruled by the Gift of Counsel.
Now this Gift also influences the actions of our everyday life, those actions that are ruled by the ordinary virtue of prudence. As in a battle the general who has the responsibility of a special division works with freedom in it, but receives orders from a higher chief, so the virtue of prudence rules our actions, but receives directives from another, more excellent supernatural arbiter, the Gift of Counsel.
Second Degree of the Gift of Counsel
In the second degree, the Gift of Counsel shows us the will of God, our designated way, not only in the necessary things of our spiritual life, but also in the things of counsel; in the things that, while not absolutely obligatory, are very beneficial and useful for helping us to reach God.
Third Degree of the Gift of Counsel
In the third degree, the soul seems to rise from the Earth and to live in another, higher world. The hand of God guides it with security, without mishap, and without timidity. The soul goes along the path that our Lord indicates, until it arrives at that height of perfection to which it has been called by God.
Means to Foster This Gift
Apart from the general means for fostering the Gifts (recollection, life of prayer, fidelity to grace, and the like), upon which we can never insist too much, the following greatly help us to dispose ourselves for the actuation of the Gift of Counsel when it becomes necessary:
(a) Cultivating a profound humility, in order to recognize our own ignorance and to ask for guidance from on high. Humble and persevering prayer is irresistible in face of the mercy of God. We should invoke the Holy Ghost when we rise in the morning, to ask Him for His direction and counsel throughout the day; at the beginning of each action, with a simple and brief movement of the heart that will be at the same time an act of love; in difficult and dangerous moments, when more than ever we need the lights of Heaven; before making an important decision or giving orientation to others, or the like.
(b) Accustoming ourselves to act always with reflection and without haste. All human effort and diligence are often insufficient for acting with prudence, as we have already noted. However, God does not deny His grace to anyone who does his best. When it becomes necessary, the Gift of Counsel will unfailingly act to make up for our ignorance and inability; but we should not tempt God, expecting to receive by Divine means what we can provide by the means He has placed within our reach with the help of ordinary grace.
(c) Listening in silence to the voice of God. If we emptied our minds and shut out the noise and tumult of the world, we would frequently hear the voice of God, which usually speaks to the heart in solitude (cf. Osee 2:14). The soul must flee the exterior tumult and completely relax the spirit in order to hear the lessons of eternal life that the Divine Master will explain to it, as He did to Mary of Bethany, who sat calm and quiet at His feet (cf. Luke 10:39).
(d) Practicing perfect docility and obedience to those whom God has placed in the Church to govern us. Let us imitate the example of the saints. St. Teresa, as we have seen, obeyed her confessors even in preference to Our Lord Himself, and He praised her conduct. The docile, obedient and humble soul is in the best of conditions to receive enlightenment from on high. On the contrary, nothing removes us farther from the mysterious echo of the voice of God than the spirit of self-sufficiency and insubordination to His legitimate representatives on Earth.
Counsel, in general, is an advice, which is the result of our own or of another’s reflection, and which influences the line of action to be taken in some event or issue of our lives, or of some special undertaking. We may even say that counsel is an advice given by somebody.
Uncertainty in Life
How often in our lives are we not in serious doubt! Our minds are harassed from every side, no matter where we turn we are greeted by indecision. We may long for some ray of light to guide us in a serious undertaking, but it is not forthcoming. How can that cloud, that thick shadow of doubt, be laid aside? How are we to enter into the sunlight of certitude? What is our usual everyday solution? We ask advice, seek counsel. We seek out the most reputable adviser possible—it may be the best priest, the best doctor, the best lawyer, the best broker, the best mechanic, etc., that we know or can afford. If we are young, we consult those placed over us, our parents or our guides, and we cast away all anxious doubt by relying on their decision; in religion we seek the advice of our superiors; and in the world we ask counsel from our dearest friend, who is always ready to help us, who perhaps has often or always advised us in our
anxieties, and whose advice has always proven trustworthy.
Seeking Advice
At all events, whenever we are in doubt as to the course to follow, we seek counsel. Moreover, this is what Holy Scripture tells us to do, “Seek counsel always of a good wise man” (Tobias, 4:19). On a good counsel may depend our fortune, honor or even life! And if we truly had our own interests seriously at heart, and if our souls were not so disposed to pride and independence, how happy and contented we should be to seek counsel from others! How many useless regrets! How many bitter tears it would spare us!
If man needs advice so often on worldly affairs, on the business of every-day life, how much more does he not need it on things regarding the world of the supernatural? It is also clear that man’s willingness to follow a piece of advice becomes greater in proportion as the advice brings light, knowledge and certainty and excludes all doubt. If this is true of human advice, how much more true is it for the Gift of Counsel, which does all this and more, and in a way far superior to any human adviser.
Divine Advice
Souls who are free from mortal sin; whose are in the state of grace; they receive, from the Divine Spirit, advice concerning their supernatural destiny, so that they may reach Heaven in all security, in all certainty. The doubts—which may cloud the path along the steep, narrow and dangerous mountain pass that leads from Earth to Heaven—are melted before the powerful and penetrating rays of this heavenly sun. The sun we speak of is none other than the light conveyed by the Holy Ghost is one of His seven Gifts, that of Counsel.
Advice and Freedom
St. Thomas Aquinas says that the Gift of Counsel leads us on, and guides us, in all the undertakings whose final end or goal is eternal life. It matters little whether these undertakings are absolutely necessary or not; as, for him who obeys God’s law, who does God’s will in all things, all paths lead to Heaven, nor, is any one of them, taken separately, strictly necessary. Again, as the advice of any man does not oppose or destroy our personal freedom, so also the Gift of Counsel is no enemy of human freedom, it only elevates and perfects it, in a supernatural way.
Where Am I Headed?
The object of your existence here below is to gain Heaven. What is the surest way, the most practical means of reaching Heaven? Are you to live in the world? If so, are you to remain single or should you marry? Or are you to enter into the sanctuary of God’s holy priesthood (men) or the Religious life (men and women)? If so, are you to be a secular priest, or a priest within a Religious Order? If the latter, are you to enter a contemplative Order, or one devoted to the active ministry? And, finally, of these which one is to be the object of your choice? St. John Bosco was of the opinion that one-out-of four persons is called to the priesthood or Religious life. How many failed to fulfill God’s wishes for lack of light and direction? The Gift of Counsel would have given that light and direction—but let us not forget that the Gifts of the Holy Ghost will only work at full steam after we have spent a decent length of time in the apprenticeship of acquiring and practicing the virtues. Today’s world is not very conducive to a successful apprenticeship!
Various Paths—Various Destinations
Look around you, and without going beyond the family circle perhaps, you find different members following different paths to the one destined goal—Eternity and Heaven. Your parents, brothers, sisters, relatives and friends may have chosen different courses—some taking paths that lead to God, others taking paths that lead away from God and are worldly. Will you follow the beaten path of the world outside, or the narrow passage of the chosen few? Here, you are face to face with the business of your own salvation; and you may well be in doubt. Who shall rid you of your difficulties? You cannot expect much light from men, for no one knows your mind better than yourself. All alone, it is only prayer to the Father of Light that will assist you. You pray. You pray intensely. In an instant your mind is made up, all doubt has vanished, profound peace floods the soul; and the light given is nothing else than the Gift of Counsel. Yet, we keep repeating the fact that the Gifts of the Holy Ghost will usually only work best if we have persevered for a certain time in the acquisition and practice of the many virtues.
Led, Yet Free
Those led by the Spirit of God, lose nothing of their liberty, but they lose all of their doubts. Counsel leaps up to do the will of God, instead of plunging down into pride by doing its own will. In a single simple supernatural intuition, under the enlightenment of the Holy Ghost, the soul sees, as far as is opportune, the end of its action and the means which are best adapted to the circumstances.
How human liberty is preserved by Counsel is a mystery of the movement of the Holy Ghost. In the intimate instruction or inspiration, which the Holy Ghost gives to the soul in Counsel, there seems to be no alternative but to obey. The Holy Ghost does not negotiate or engage in arbitration, but asks complete acceptance, since such is the law of grace: “For it is God Who works in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to His good will” (Philippians 2:13).
In surrendering all personal deliberation to God, the soul that is obedient to the Gift of Counsel, does not lose its liberty. On the contrary, it gains a sureness and determination, which rebukes the false elation of pride. Knowing the will of God, with a certitude inspired by the Spirit of God, the soul has no need of a more humanly acceptable explanation to assure it that, in Counsel, the soul is both pre-eminently free and prudent. Obedience to God is at once the greatest of human sacrifices and its most clear-cut perfection. Complete obedience is the work of the Gift of Counsel. In its scope are works more pleasing to God than acts of sacrifice performed in the virtue of Religion, and from it proceed acts which rise above, not only the perversity of men, but even their best efforts.
Not Fully Understanding, But Still Confident
The soul with the Gift of Counsel does not ask for a clear realization and understanding of every aspect of each situation. It asks only a sign of God’s will, a smile of approval or a frown of warning, interiorly manifested through the Holy Ghost. The ordinary signs of God’s will—His prohibitions, precepts, permissions, exteriorly revealed counsels, or the pattern of his own acts—may be lacking, but the Gift of Counsel grants an interior assurance in an act of discernment of good from evil, the greater good from the lesser, in each situation which would confound the soul functioning under ordinary prudential judgments.
When the will of God is manifested interiorly, even if no exterior obligation or law binds it, the soul finds itself with the choice of either serving God or sinning. Yet the soul is not told what to do and then left without further assistance from the Holy Ghost. It is also instructed concerning the immediate circumstances of its act and any possible impediments. St. Peter was told by God to evangelize and baptize the Gentiles, although prudence would tell him that “it is not permissible for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him” (Acts 10:28 ff.), Peter still came to Cornelius, so that “the grace of the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the Gentiles also” (Acts 10:45).
Hey God! No Trespassing!
For many lukewarm or worldly souls, even the apparent ‘trespassing’ of the Holy Ghost and His Gift of Counsel upon modern man’s independence, is sufficient reason to deny them entry into the soul. They may happily be the slaves of every kind of bad habit and sin, or the dupes of any kind of deception, but to serve the will of God under inspiration seems repugnant. They will not serve Him whose counsels they have not shared. Because they cannot understand precisely how the Holy Ghost works within the soul, to conceive within it right intentions and judgments, therefore, they militantly defend their puny exaggerated human liberty at whatever price.
Don’t Cramp My Style!
St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that man was made to be happy—unfortunately, like a baby seeking to alleviate its thirst with a bottle of colorless ammonia, thinking it to be water, man seeks to slake his thirst for happiness with things that are harmful, but which he falsely reckons to be good.
Happiness can be identified with nothing further afield than the greener grass next door, and the soul, with serpent-like scheming or bullish brashness, tries to overcome or undermine any moral barriers to obtain it. Once the grass or any other created good is gained, the soul is not satisfied, and looks again for something else. Over and over again the mind changes its final end, and tries to adjust to it a new set of means. With each new experience it is less sure of itself, a little more indifferent and appreciably more inconsistent, since “a double-minded man is inconstant in all his ways” (James 1:8).
Double-Minded, Two-Faced
This duplicity of mind arises principally from pleasure-seeking. Sensual satisfactions delight, distract, and then destroy a person’s judgment in practical matters, long before they obliterate his knowledge or judgment of speculative or practical principles. In each sin, his mind retains the rules of conduct, but it does not apply them. In a kind of stupor the mind finds itself unwilling, or by habit incapable, of applying its memory of the past experiences to the judgment of the present experience, in view of the future. It casts aside its accepted principles, rather than apply them to the current situation, because it is not sufficiently concerned about the consequences of its action: “Eat, drink and be merry,” for science has a remedy for hangovers and Hell. Only the present moment, or the past in dreams and the future in desires to be currently enjoyed, concerns the person animalized by sensuality, and his only counsel is the impulse to grasp and gulp down every pleasure within reach. Yet, in each sensual act, a man’s mind is a little queasy, since what his practical judgment demands at the moment, his other mind—his judgment of principles—has rejected for all time. In other words, he is like a schizophrenic in the spiritual domain—two minded, two faced—convinced that he really can serve mammon and God.
Avarice
Another less common, but no less uncontrolled source of a double mind and a doubting heart, is avarice. With two heads and no heart, the avaricious are excessive in their prudence, rather than inept. They ignore the wise man’s admonition: “Labor not to be rich; but set bounds to thy prudence” (Proverbs 23:4), and they put a fine edge on their reasoning powers at the grinding wheel of many worldly motivated sacrifices. Sacrifices are made, moreover, not only to gain wealth, but to get one’s own way.
More subtle than the avarice of wealth is the avarice for dominance and control. Assuming authority, attracting and absorbing attention, minding other people’s business—these things often give a perverted soul a tidy sum in self-satisfaction. Many sacrifices of honor may have to be made, and the soul may have to engage in crafty maneuvering—one moment they are faking obedience and giving off the odor of false humility; the next moment they are highly offended, but the eventual possession and control of the emotional strings, which make puppets of other people, seems worth it. In either avarice there is a false caricature of prudence and a contradiction to the Gift of Counsel. The motives for avarice are as much a part of carnal prudence as sensual delight. Its methods—astuteness, fraud, and deceit—are far more ruthless. Astuteness formulates the tactics, while deceit and fraud carry them out.
To be led by the Spirit of God means to ask God’s guidance. “But,” says Cardinal Manning, “impetuous men are led by the flesh, and not by the Spirit; and having set out on the way of their own choosing, they come to crosses and sorrows. Then, they begin to ask counsel of God, but they ask it too late.” (Internal Mission, p. 344). God will not hear them; they are thrown back into the hands of their own counsel, their hearts filled with darkness and indecision. Each step takes them farther into the night of doubt; they have lost their paths, and all that is left to them is despair.
The Nature of the Gift of Counsel
The Gift of Counsel is a supernatural habit by which the soul in the state of grace, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, judges rightly in particular events what ought to be done in view of its supernatural ultimate end. The following should be noted in regard to this definition:
(a) The Gifts of the Holy Ghost are not transient motions or simple actual graces, but supernatural habits infused by God in the soul together with sanctifying grace.
(b) The Holy Ghost actuates the Gift of Counsel as its only motor cause; but the soul in grace collaborates as instrumental cause, through the virtue of prudence, to produce a supernatural act. These acts are performed promptly and as if by instinct, without needing the slow and laborious interior discussion of the reason.
(c) Supernatural prudence correctly judges what has to be done at a given moment, guided by the light of reason illumined by Faith. But the Gift of Counsel quickly intuits what has to be done by the instinct and motion of the Holy Ghost, that is, by entirely divine reasons, which are often unknown to the very soul that performs the act. For this reason, in the virtue of prudence the way of action is discursive, while in the Gift it is intuitive, divine or superhuman.
These ways of defining the Gift of Counsel do not differ substantially from Cardinal Manning’s description of it, when he says, “It is a certain quality or perfection, infused into the reason of man, by the Grace of the Holy Ghost, whereby the reason is made able to discern, not only right and wrong, not only the way of obedience, but also the way of perfection; that is to know that which between two things, both good and right, is better, higher and more pleasing to God. It gives also ... a ready will to do and carry out into practice, that which we see to be the higher and better part” (Internal Mission, pp. 333, ff.).
Its Importance and Necessity
The intervention of the Gift of Counsel is indispensable for perfecting the virtue of prudence, above all, in certain sudden cases that are difficult to solve yet require an immediate judgment, since sin or heroism can be a matter of an instant. Such cases, which are less rare than is commonly believed, cannot be resolved by the slow and laborious work of the virtue of prudence. The intervention of the Gift of Counsel is necessary; it will provide the instantaneous solution as to what should be done.
Father Lallemant writes: “We may notice in several places of Scripture admirable instances of the Gift of Counsel; as in the silence of Our Lord before Herod, and in the answers He made to save the woman taken in adultery, and to confound those who demanded of Him if it were lawful to pay tribute to Caesar; in the judgement of Solomon; in the enterprise of Judith, to deliver the people of God from the army of Holofernes; in the conduct of Daniel to justify Susanna, against the calumny of the two elders; in that of St. Paul, when he set the Pharisees against the Sadducees and when he appealed from the tribunal of Festus to that of Caesar” (Spiritual Teaching, p. 151).
Natural Prudence, Supernatural Prudence, Divine Prudence
Natural Prudence
Before performing any deliberate action, we go through a mental process with the purpose of examining carefully, not only the lawfulness of what we intend to do, but also its convenience, its timeliness. Ordinarily we are not aware of this process, just as we are not aware of what happens when our food goes through the digestive tract, to be assimilated by the entire organism. Precisely because we are accustomed to use our intelligence to regulate our actions, the procedure goes by unnoticed. But on certain occasions, in more difficult and complicated activities, when we do not see our way clearly and immediately, then, because of our greater concentration on the matter, we are aware of our deliberation.
It is no easy thing to determine what should be done in difficult matters, and to know what should be known about the lawfulness, the appropriateness, and the opportuneness of an act. We analyze, reflect, and recall the past to guide us in the present and to foresee the future — and how many times, after we have reflected and analyzed at great length, we still do not know what to do in a given circumstance, but have to go to a wiser, more experienced person for advice.
The Supernatural Virtue of Prudence
To help us determine what should be done in a particular case, we have Prudence in the natural order, and the infused virtue of Prudence, which bears the same name, in the supernatural order. The virtue of Prudence is not the speculative knowledge of ordinary spiritual things; it is the application of this knowledge and these general principles to concrete cases with their special circumstances of time, place, manner, etc. Prudence is a difficult virtue to practice — not only the prudence needed to direct others, but even that prudence which is indispensable in governing ourselves. It is difficult because, while we must look upward in order to work according to higher principles and rules, we must look downward and remain in touch with this prosaic Earth in order to be aware of each one of the circumstances that surround the contemplated act.
But in this matter, as in all others in the spiritual life, the virtue is not enough. Timidity and uncertainty, as we have already seen, are the usual characteristics of prudence the virtue. How difficult to unite prudence and boldness! There are bold men who are unmindful of prudence, and there are men who seem prudent yet who do not dare to do the bold things they should. At the same time, our decisions are uncertain. In any matter whatsoever, and especially in spiritual things, how difficult it is to arrive at stability and security! We plan and arrange things without having the assurance that they will attain the desired result; our procedures are unsure and do not always bring about what we have intended.
Divine Prudence
Therefore human prudence would not be enough, supernatural prudence itself, prudence the virtue, would not be enough, to lead us to the heights of glory. Human life is so complicated, so difficult, the ways by which we reach perfection are so painful, we find so many troubles, so many contradictions in our life, that if we had no other direction, we would never attain our end.
But God, who never fails us in our needs, has given us a Gift by which the Holy Ghost becomes our guide. As the archangel Raphael led Tobias on his journey, so the Spirit who lives in our souls guides us along the winding and troublesome paths of this life, until we reach our perfection in the inexpressibly loving embrace of God.
That superior prudence, that divine prudence which is the fruit of a movement of the Holy Ghost, is the Gift of Counsel. It does not have the same name as the virtue, because the prudence we receive from the Gift of Counsel does not spring from the depths of our intelligence; it comes to us from above, from a superior Being: it is communicated to us by the Spirit.
Prudence, ruled by reason, gives a human mode to our actions: uncertainty and timidity; whereas the Holy Ghost puts a divine character on the acts that proceed from the Gift of Counsel. The virtue and the Gift have different norms. That of the virtue is right reason, enlightened by faith, which helps us to judge whether we should perform such and such an action at a certain time. The norm of the Gift is higher; it is divine, it is eternal reason, the norm of God.
The Gift of Counsel in Saints
At times the saints have been able to do things that fill us with amazement. For example, St. Catherine of Siena spent entire Lenten periods without any other food than Holy Communion. In the light of human prudence, there is no justification for this. Right reason demands that we give our bodies the necessary food; it prohibits such excesses, though at the same time it does not tolerate neglect of mortification, for the middle way must always prevail in the practice of virtue. But St. Catherine accomplished this amazing thing because of a superior instinct, a divine norm. She did not see the usual rule of reason; she saw the exalted rule of the will of God. This is the way of the Gift of Counsel.
When we work under its direction our decisions will be quick, sure and audacious. With what boldness do the saints proceed, with what security, and with what rapidity! They do not follow the counsels of men, nor the dictates of their own reason. They have a higher norm: eternal reason, the mind of God, that illuminates their spirit and lays before them the road they should follow.
In numerous instances we can discover the influence, the effect, of this Gift upon the saints. For example, how could St. Vincent Ferrer have performed miracles with such naturalness, if he had not been guided by the Gift of Counsel? The saint would speak a few words from the Gospel, then add: “In the Name of Jesus Christ, you are now healed”; and he worked these miracles just in passing, as any ordinary act of his life. Now, if one of us should try to imitate St. Vincent and perform miracles, he would commit a gravely imprudent act. St. Vincent could perform them because the Holy Ghost moved him; because he was in a singular manner under the direction of the Spirit.
First Degree of the Gift of Counsel
In this Gift, as in all the others, there are degrees. In the first degree, the soul succeeds rapidly in doing the will of God as regards what is immediately necessary in the spiritual life. It is no simple thing to have this, security. While the known will of God is by no means always easy to fulfill, yet it is often more difficult to know God’s will than to fulfill it. Have we not all found ourselves in situations in which we could not exactly say what our obligation was? What did God want us to do in such cases? The Gift of Counsel helps us to answer that question in a quick and certain manner.
The Gifts work in us simultaneously, or rather, the Holy Ghost makes us work and advance under the influence of His Gifts, and on some occasions several of them cooperate in the work of our spiritual life, just as many organs cooperate in our body, and many faculties in our soul. But in this world of the Gifts, the actions that proceed from them have to be ruled by the Gift of Counsel.
Now this Gift also influences the actions of our everyday life, those actions that are ruled by the ordinary virtue of prudence. As in a battle the general who has the responsibility of a special division works with freedom in it, but receives orders from a higher chief, so the virtue of prudence rules our actions, but receives directives from another, more excellent supernatural arbiter, the Gift of Counsel.
Second Degree of the Gift of Counsel
In the second degree, the Gift of Counsel shows us the will of God, our designated way, not only in the necessary things of our spiritual life, but also in the things of counsel; in the things that, while not absolutely obligatory, are very beneficial and useful for helping us to reach God.
Third Degree of the Gift of Counsel
In the third degree, the soul seems to rise from the Earth and to live in another, higher world. The hand of God guides it with security, without mishap, and without timidity. The soul goes along the path that our Lord indicates, until it arrives at that height of perfection to which it has been called by God.
Means to Foster This Gift
Apart from the general means for fostering the Gifts (recollection, life of prayer, fidelity to grace, and the like), upon which we can never insist too much, the following greatly help us to dispose ourselves for the actuation of the Gift of Counsel when it becomes necessary:
(a) Cultivating a profound humility, in order to recognize our own ignorance and to ask for guidance from on high. Humble and persevering prayer is irresistible in face of the mercy of God. We should invoke the Holy Ghost when we rise in the morning, to ask Him for His direction and counsel throughout the day; at the beginning of each action, with a simple and brief movement of the heart that will be at the same time an act of love; in difficult and dangerous moments, when more than ever we need the lights of Heaven; before making an important decision or giving orientation to others, or the like.
(b) Accustoming ourselves to act always with reflection and without haste. All human effort and diligence are often insufficient for acting with prudence, as we have already noted. However, God does not deny His grace to anyone who does his best. When it becomes necessary, the Gift of Counsel will unfailingly act to make up for our ignorance and inability; but we should not tempt God, expecting to receive by Divine means what we can provide by the means He has placed within our reach with the help of ordinary grace.
(c) Listening in silence to the voice of God. If we emptied our minds and shut out the noise and tumult of the world, we would frequently hear the voice of God, which usually speaks to the heart in solitude (cf. Osee 2:14). The soul must flee the exterior tumult and completely relax the spirit in order to hear the lessons of eternal life that the Divine Master will explain to it, as He did to Mary of Bethany, who sat calm and quiet at His feet (cf. Luke 10:39).
(d) Practicing perfect docility and obedience to those whom God has placed in the Church to govern us. Let us imitate the example of the saints. St. Teresa, as we have seen, obeyed her confessors even in preference to Our Lord Himself, and He praised her conduct. The docile, obedient and humble soul is in the best of conditions to receive enlightenment from on high. On the contrary, nothing removes us farther from the mysterious echo of the voice of God than the spirit of self-sufficiency and insubordination to His legitimate representatives on Earth.
Article 24
Thursday, May 21st
PREPARING FOR PENTECOST―EXAMINING THE GIFTS
#4 Fear or Fortitude?
Thursday, May 21st
PREPARING FOR PENTECOST―EXAMINING THE GIFTS
#4 Fear or Fortitude?
A Lack of Fortitude Today
Perhaps one of the most keenly felt absences, experienced in the world today, is that of a lack of fortitude. Yet, paradoxically, there is some fortitude to be found, but in the wrong areas. There is a widespread ‘fortitude’ in ignoring Almighty God and His Commandments, but there is a lack of fortitude in standing up for God and His teachings. There is a ‘fortitude’ among those who are responsible for the increasing violence and other crimes that plague us today; but a lack of fortitude in practicing virtue in the face of a mocking, threatening world. There is a ‘fortitude’ among many teenagers in arguing with their parents; but a lack of fortitude in arguing the Faith. We have come to a time when most flee from God’s idea of fortitude and embrace the world’s idea of fortitude.
Fear and Fortitude—Are They Not Contradictory?
We seemingly have two Gifts of the Holy Ghost that could cancel out each other—The Gift of Fear and the Gift of Fortitude. This, however, is not the case—for their focal points are different. The Gift of Fear focuses on God—hence, as is seen it its full title “Fear of the Lord.” Whereas the Gift of Fortitude focuses on our battles with our enemies—the devil, the world and the flesh. This can be somewhat seen in Our Lord’s words: “Fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in Hell” (Matthew 10:28). In face of the world we must be fearless, yet in the face of God we must be fearful.
There Will Be Trouble! But Fear Not!
Our Lord was often telling His followers not to be afraid. Chapter Ten of St. Matthew recalls the words of Our Lord, spoken to His disciples, as He sent them out to preach:
“And having called His Twelve disciples together, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of diseases, and all manner of infirmities. These twelve Jesus sent: commanding them, saying: ‘Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves! Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves! But beware of men! For they will deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues! And you shall be brought before governors, and before kings for My sake! The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death; and the father the son; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death! And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake―but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved! And when they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another … Therefore fear them not!
“And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul―but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in Hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father! But the very hairs of your head are all numbered! Fear not therefore―better are you than many sparrows. Everyone therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven!
“Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father; and the daughter against her mother; and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me. He that finds his life, shall lose it; and he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it!” (Matthew 10:1-39).
Frightened Followers
Despite Our Lord’s assurances, His followers were not exempt from fear.
► As Jesus was first choosing and gathering His future Apostles, He brought about a miraculous catch of fish for Simon Peter, which struck fear in all. Jesus allayed their fears, saying: “Fear not! From henceforth thou shalt catch men!” (Luke 5:10).
► On another occasion they were all caught in a storm on the lake: “And behold a great tempest arose in the sea, so that the boat was covered with waves, but He was asleep. And they came to Him, and awakened Him, saying: ‘Lord, save us! We perish!’ And Jesus said to them: ‘Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith?’ Then rising up He commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm! But the men wondered, saying: ‘What manner of Man is this, for the winds and the sea obey Him?’” (Matthew 8:24-27).
St. Mark’s account is as follows: “Jesus was in the ship: and there were other ships with Him. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that the ship was filled with water. And He was in the rear part of the ship, sleeping upon a pillow; and they awakened Him, and said to Him: ‘Master, does it not concern Thee that we perish?’ And rising up, He rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased and there was made a great calm. And He said to them: ‘Why are you fearful? Have you not faith yet?’ And they feared exceedingly: and they said one to another: ‘Who is this that both wind and sea obey Him?’” (Mark 4:36-40).
► When Jesus cured the man from palsy, “All were astonished … and they were filled with fear” (Luke 5:26). He raises from the dead, the son of the widow of Naim, “and there came a fear on them all” (Luke 7:16). He casts out a legion of devils from a possessed man and “all the multitude besought Him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear” (Luke 8:37).
► Even before the Passion, His Apostles saw Him walking on water and were afraid: “And they seeing him walk upon the sea, were troubled, saying: ‘It is an apparition!’ And they cried out for fear” (Matthew 14:26). Jesus had to calm them down, and said: “Be of good heart! It is I, fear ye not!” (Matthew 14:27).
► In this same incident, Peter begins to walk on water also, but “But seeing the wind strong, he was afraid: and when he began to sink, he cried out, saying: ‘Lord, save me!’” (Matthew 14:30). Our Lord rebukes Peter, saying: “O thou of little faith!”
► At the Transfiguration, there came “a voice out of the cloud, saying: ‘This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased! Hear ye Him!’ And the disciples hearing, fell upon their face, and were very much afraid. And Jesus came and touched them: and said to them, ‘Arise, and fear not!’” (Matthew 17:5-7).
► Speaking of the end times, Jesus says: “When you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, fear ye not! For such things must needs be, but the end is not yet” (Mark 13:7).
► As the Passion approached, Our Lord’s words concerning His imminent sufferings made the disciples afraid: “And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem: and Jesus went before them, and they, following, were afraid. And taking the Twelve, He began to tell them the things that should befall Him. Saying: ‘Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests, and to the scribes and ancients, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles. And they shall mock Him, and spit on Him, and scourge Him, and kill Him!’” (Mark 10:32-34).
► Our Lord Himself was afraid: “And they came to a farm called Gethsemane. And He said to His disciples: ‘Sit you here, while I pray’! And He took Peter and James and John with Him; and He began to fear and to be heavy” (Mark 14:32-33). The Apostles also fell into fear: “And when He rose up from prayer, and was come to His disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow [fear]” (Luke 22:45).
► After the crucifixion, the disciples locked themselves away for fear of the Jews: “the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews” (John 20:19).
► After His resurrection, He again causes fear. The women had come to His tomb and found only an empty tomb and angel: “And the angel answering, said to the women: ‘Fear not you! For I know that you seek Jesus, Who was crucified’” (Matthew 28:5). “But they going out, fled from the sepulcher. For a trembling and fear had seized them: and they said nothing to any man; for they were afraid” (Mark 16:8). Then Jesus appears to them next, saying: “Fear not. Go, tell My brethren that they go into Galilee, there they shall see Me!’” (Matthew 28:10).
► After Our Lord’s Ascension into Heaven, the Apostles and disciples once more returned to the safety of the Upper Room and locked themselves in. When the Holy Ghost came, He fortified them and, as Our Lady revealed to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “They all left the house of the Cenacle and, placing themselves before the multitudes, began to preach the mysteries of the Faith and of eternal life. Though until then they had been so shy and seclusive, they now stepped forth with unhesitating boldness and poured forth burning words, that like a flashing fire penetrated to the souls of their hearers” (The Mystical City of God, Ven. Mary of Agreda).
Fear Not!
“Fear not, Mary!” The angelic words were more than a comfort, they were a confirmation of God’s presence and help. Mary must have heard them with some reassurance. For these were indeed familiar words--”Fear not!” They had rung out loud from Holy Scripture for many centuries. Isaias says, seeing the Messias through the veil of prophecy: “Fear ye not the reproach of men, and be not afraid of their blasphemies” … “Fear not, for I am with you.” They would be echoed again and again in the Psalms of David, particularly in those that looked to the Savior: “I will not fear thousands” … “For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for Thou art with me” … “The Lord is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear ... of whom shall I be afraid ... My heart shall not fear” … “Therefore we shall not fear when the Earth shall be troubled …. the God of Jacob is our protector” … “I will not fear what flesh can do against me.”
The Gospel story gives us a hint of the frequency with which that “Fear not” fell from the divine lips of the Savior. The gloom of the Upper Room, where the apostles faced the fact of separation from the Master, after the crucifixion, tells us something of what that steady reassurance--”Fear not” — had meant to the hearts of men. The apostolic courage, that conquered the world for Christ, tells us beyond all doubt of the effectiveness of the “Fear not” assurance of God. There are indeed things to fear, attacks to face, burdens to be borne before which millions of men and women will cringe and flee. Fear not, be of good heart, have courage! Why? Because you are weaklings, timid, cowardly, unable to stand on your own feet? Not at all. No! The reason that fear arises and needs to be calmed is because you have things to do that are much too much for the strength of men, heights to scale, choices to make, time and sorrow to batter down for eternity and joy; because, in a word, you are to walk in mystery, on a divine and not merely human level, to a destiny that properly belongs to God.
Courage, My Friend!
That courage within a man’s own soul is essential if he is to follow Christ. For our Lord’s “Fear not” was not at all a divine molly-coddling of the weakness of men. The words “Fear not” must be heard in union with His prophecy, even His promise, of a terrifying violence. He told the Apostles what they could expect from the world they were to conquer—persecution, exile, suffering, and death. They would meet violence as inevitably and as consistently as a man meets the wind driving down a road.
What is more, they would travel with violence as a close companion, they would not only meet violence, but to also bring it to bear on the world. They were not only to stand up under suffering, they were to be the violent ones, before whom the powers of evil would flinch and flee. For it was His own clear statement that told them He had come to bring the sword into play, that the kingdom of Heaven suffered violence, that it would be the violent who would bear it away. To take up a cross and follow Him would take courage: not only the courage to bear up under the cross, but the courage to bring that cross to men and women across the world, across the ages.
Kinds of Fortitude
There are several kinds of fortitude—(1) Acquired Fortitude, (2) Infused Fortitude, (3) the Gift of Fortitude. There is a great difference between the potentials of the acquired virtue, the infused virtue, and the Gift of Fortitude, even though the three share the same name. Thus:
(a) Natural or acquired fortitude strengthens the soul for undertaking the greatest labors and for exposing oneself to the greatest dangers—as is seen in the lives of many pagan heroes—but not without a certain fear or anxiety that proceeds from the clear perception of the weakness of one’s own powers, which are the only ones utilized by the acquired virtue.
(b) Infused Fortitude, which is a supernatural virtue, relies on the Divine help, but it operates in a human mode, that is to say, according to the light of human reason illuminated by Faith, which does not rid the soul completely of all fear. The virtue of Fortitude perseveres in doing good, while advancing along the steep and slippery path to Heaven, and guarding against the illicit pleasures of life on the one hand, while remaining undaunted by its difficulties on the other. But even here, man has a certain limit beyond which he cannot go. How well St. Paul knew it, when he cried for help to our Lord against the attacks of Satan! Yes, God alone is all-powerful, man, even at his best, has a limited sphere of action. A strong man may lift a weight of five hundred pounds, he will not lift a ton.
(c) The Gift of Fortitude, on the other hand, enables the soul to undertake the greatest work and expose itself to the greatest dangers, with a great confidence and security, because the Holy Ghost Himself moves the soul—not through the dictates of simple prudence, but through the lofty direction of the Gift of Counsel, that is, through reasons that are entirely Divine.
We need special assistance from on high. If we are in the state of grace, we receive it. It is the Gift of Fortitude. However, it must be stressed again, the Gifts of the Holy Ghost only really start to ‘kick-in’ after we have passed a decent amount of time in the apprenticeship of working on our virtues—most people don’t do this. By means of the Gift of Fortitude, the soul, aided by the Holy Ghost, overcomes all the obstacles in the pathway of salvation, it avoids all the allurements of the world to evil, it overcomes the well-nigh invincible passions that threaten its eternal happiness even at the very latest breath. It is a Gift beyond human strength, often even it would seem to perform actions contrary to those which human nature is wont to perform, such, for instance, as martyrdom. It is not content with doing what is easy, it seeks what is more difficult.
Nature of the Gift of Fortitude
The Gift of Fortitude is a supernatural habit that strengthens the soul for the practice, under the movement of the Holy Ghost, of every type of heroic virtue, with invincible confidence of overcoming any dangers or difficulties that may arise. Let us explain this definition a little, word by word.
“It is a supernatural habit”, like the other gifts and infused virtues.
“That strengthens the soul”: Its precise function is to elevate the powers of the soul to a divine plane.
For the practice, “under the movement of the Holy Ghost”: The operation of this gift, as of the other gifts, is always under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, in such way that the soul does not reason or discourse, but acts by a kind of instinctive interior impulse, that proceeds directly from the Holy Ghost.
“Of every type of heroic virtue”: Although the virtue of Fortitude has the same name as the Gift of Fortitude by which it is perfected, the Gift of Fortitude extends to all the heroic actions of the other virtues, because this heroism demands an extraordinary fortitude that is beyond the power of the unaided virtue alone.
Father Lallemant writes of this Gift that it is: “An habitual disposition which the Holy Spirit communicates to the soul and to the body both to do and to suffer extraordinary things; to undertake the most arduous actions; to expose ourselves to the most formidable dangers; to undergo the most toilsome labors; to endure the most grievous pains, and that with constancy and heroism” (Spiritual Teaching, p. 156).
“With invincible confidence”: This is one of the clearest marks of distinction between the virtue of Fortitude and the Gift of Fortitude. The virtue of Fortitude, says St. Thomas (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 139, art. 1, ad 1), also gives strength to the soul for overcoming obstacles, but it is the Gift of Fortitude alone that imparts the invincible confidence of success.
Addressing this point, Father Arrighini writes: “Despite the similarity of the definition, the Gift of Fortitude should not be confused with the cardinal virtue of the same name. Although both suppose a certain firmness and energy of spirit, the virtue of Fortitude has its limits in human power, which it cannot surpass; the gift, on the contrary, relies on the Divine power, according to the words of the Prophet: ‘Through my God I shall go over a wall’ (Psalm 17:30), that is, I will overcome all obstacles in order to reach the final end.
“Secondly, if the Cardinal Virtue of Fortitude gives enough courage to face such obstacles in general, it does not infuse the confidence to face and overcome all of them, as the analogous Gift of the Holy Ghost does.
“Moreover, the virtue of Fortitude, precisely because it is limited by human power, does not extend equally to all kinds of difficulties. For this reason, there are people who easily overcome the temptations of pride but not those of the flesh, or who avoid a certain kind of danger but not another, and so on. The Gift of Fortitude, on the other hand, relying completely on the Divine omnipotence, extends to everything, suffices for everything, and makes one exclaim with Job: ‘Deliver me, O Lord, and set me beside thee, and let any man’s hand fight against me’ (Job 17:3).
Finally, the virtue of Fortitude does not always attain its object, as it is not proper to man to overcome all dangers and win all battles. But God can easily do this, and since the Gift of Fortitude infuses in us the Divine power, with it man can readily overcome all dangers and enemies, fight and win every battle, and repeat with the Apostle: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
The Virtue Strengthened by the Gift
The Virtue of Fortitude enables us to pursue the difficult good on the spiritual journey The Gift of Fortitude, however, pushes us much further. It gives energy to overcome major obstacles in the way of spiritual growth; it is an enormous reinforcement of the natural and infused virtue of Fortitude.
There is, for example, the virtue of Christian courage, or Fortitude, which equips a man to endure the extreme of danger and difficulty, even the danger of death. The Gift of the Holy Ghost, coming to the perfection of this virtue of Fortitude, enables a man to stride into those dangers with the confidence of God; indeed, by the Gift of Fortitude, he truly escapes those dangers, not only in the triumphant climax of divine action, which gives him eternal life and the end of all dangers; but here and now the divine magic eliminates the danger and all fear of it.
Early Martyrs Did Not Run From Lions
We have no record of the early Christian martyrs running in terror from the lions; yet often enough the lions did retreat from so tough a specimen as an early Christian to whom death was no longer a danger but an invitation to life. When the truth of history trickles out from under the iron curtain that hides the horrors of modern martyrdom from our eyes, we shall have even more abundant evidence of the work of the Gift of Fortitude than ever was furnished by the bloody persecutions of Rome.
As in the early ages of the Church, so today the calm strength of divine courage is not less in the living than in the dying; a truth seen clearly enough in Communist countries and pagan countries, where the living must “shield the flame of the Faith” with their bodies. Yet is it no less clearly to be seen by the observant in the faithful of Western Europe and America where the defense of truth and morals has the apparent hopelessness of a fight against an enshrouding fog or an entwining serpent. This is an age for the Gift of Fortitude, as is any age, where the world howls again for Barabbas, rather than Christ, and blasphemously calls down on itself the blood of God.
More Strength in Suffering Than Attacking
If action requires strength, if the affair of our salvation demands the supernatural aid of Fortitude, this need is magnified when we consider what we have to suffer. St. Thomas puts forth many reasons showing how much more strength is required for suffering or endurance than for action. To attack is to throw oneself into peril, but to support the shock is more noble, more difficult, more perfect. It is the strong who attack, the more feeble who endure. Again he who receives the attack, he who suffers, feels the actual danger, whilst he who gives fight sees it only in the future. Hence, it is commonly said, that the best army is not the one most ardent in combat, but the one most enduring in fatigue.
A Battle Like No Other
In this war, which, unlike earthly warfare, is not measured by hours and days; in this battle where each day dawns only to bring to light new and more terrible temptations; in this contest where at every move we are hindered by the flesh, the world and the devil, we find human strength is but a weakness; and that human prowess, is but fear; and human valor, more like cowardice; and human endeavor, nothing but impotence.
There surely is a strength beyond human strength. Without this superior strength, suffering is unbearable, but with it life is sweet. “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me,” says St. Paul; it was that Gift which enabled him to fight the good fight of his apostolate and to win the glorious crown of justice. The Apostle’s words are, moreover, a true expression of the nature of Fortitude; overcome all obstacles and that with a positive assurance of final success.
The Gift of Fortitude, then, is a divine power, a perfection of the will, enabling the faithful soul to follow the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, with full confidence in Him in the hour of temptation, with magnanimous steadfastness in difficulties and with patient endurance of sufferings, and all this to the term of life’s journey, to the end of the road which leads to Heaven. Action and suffering are the effects of this Gift; action and suffering in the cause of extraordinary undertakings are its characteristic notes.
The Triple Enemy—Flesh, World, Devil
We have to act, and vigorously, against our own flesh—that part of our being which is always hankering after pleasure, always seeking its ease, always hungry, always thirsty, always craving to be pampered. Each and every one of these is a serious disorder; each draws us away from the path to Heaven.
If there is one thing more than another that the saints themselves found nearest the realms of impossibility, it was, surely, that of keeping the body in subjection, not by stifling its natural wants, but by curbing its unruly whims. It cost them years of labor, many a sacrifice and many a drop of blood. And they were saints. What, then, might not be said of the work ordinary Catholics are called upon to perform in virtue of their religion? What of inordinate love, vanity, anger, insubordination, avarice?
Next to the flesh come the false pretenses and glaring fascinations of the world. It is a second but not a secondary enemy. It coaxes us to incline to its follies, to cast ourselves into its outstretched arms, to go with it to parties, dances, movies and other worldly pastimes. We refuse and it insists, trying to convince us that it’s okay; again we refuse, and we are called old-fashioned, “not with the times”, or even fanatical and unfit for human society. The idol of pleasure is ever tantalizing us. We have to live in the midst of a furnace of luxury without being burned, of fascination without being bewitched; we must conquer without even giving an inch.
We must face the demon, too. He who conquered half the heavenly host is not ashamed to cross swords with men. We must throw down the gauntlet. It is not sufficient to be on the defensive, we must attack him; a mastermind of intelligence, he would outscore us; on his side is the experience of having tempted souls in all the ages since Adam’s fall; and we have merely a few years of experience under our belt. This is a gigantic task, absolutely above our strength, even when fortified by virtues. And if we are victorious in the struggle, the Gift of Fortitude is to be thanked.
True Strength
If action requires strength, if the matter of our salvation demands the supernatural aid of the Gift of Fortitude, this need is magnified when we consider what we have to suffer. St. Thomas puts forth many reasons showing how much more strength is required for suffering, or endurance, than for action. To attack is to throw oneself into peril, but to support the shock is more noble, more difficult, more perfect. It is the strong who attack, the more feeble who endure. Again he who receives the attack, he who suffers, feels the actual danger; whilst he who gives fight, sees it only in the future. Hence, it is commonly said, that the best army is not the one most ardent in combat, but the one most enduring in fatigue.
In his combat for salvation, what must man suffer? Rather, what must he not suffer? His life from cradle to grave is but a chain of acute sufferings of soul and body. He is weakness itself—a “leaf carried by every wind.” Nevertheless, he must resist. Measure his weakness, measure the enterprise, and you will find the measure of force needed.
Thanks to this Gift, the world, for twenty centuries has seen incredible marvels of endurance. I say nothing of the astounding examples of Catholic sufferings borne patiently and for God. We all know them, and at the very mention thousands of examples come to our mind, where this superhuman strength aids weak and frail human beings in their struggle for Heaven.
In his combat for salvation, what must man suffer? Rather, what must he not suffer? His life from cradle to grave is but a chain of acute sufferings of soul and body. He is weakness itself—a “leaf carried by every wind.” Nevertheless, he must resist. Measure his weakness, measure the enterprise, and you will find the measure of force needed.
Thanks to this Gift of Fortitude, the world, for twenty centuries has seen incredible marvels of endurance. To that could be added the astounding examples of Catholic sufferings, borne patiently and for God. We all know them, and at the very mention thousands of examples come to our mind, where this superhuman strength, which is the Gift of Fortitude, aids weak and frail human beings in their struggle for Heaven.
Perhaps one of the most keenly felt absences, experienced in the world today, is that of a lack of fortitude. Yet, paradoxically, there is some fortitude to be found, but in the wrong areas. There is a widespread ‘fortitude’ in ignoring Almighty God and His Commandments, but there is a lack of fortitude in standing up for God and His teachings. There is a ‘fortitude’ among those who are responsible for the increasing violence and other crimes that plague us today; but a lack of fortitude in practicing virtue in the face of a mocking, threatening world. There is a ‘fortitude’ among many teenagers in arguing with their parents; but a lack of fortitude in arguing the Faith. We have come to a time when most flee from God’s idea of fortitude and embrace the world’s idea of fortitude.
Fear and Fortitude—Are They Not Contradictory?
We seemingly have two Gifts of the Holy Ghost that could cancel out each other—The Gift of Fear and the Gift of Fortitude. This, however, is not the case—for their focal points are different. The Gift of Fear focuses on God—hence, as is seen it its full title “Fear of the Lord.” Whereas the Gift of Fortitude focuses on our battles with our enemies—the devil, the world and the flesh. This can be somewhat seen in Our Lord’s words: “Fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in Hell” (Matthew 10:28). In face of the world we must be fearless, yet in the face of God we must be fearful.
There Will Be Trouble! But Fear Not!
Our Lord was often telling His followers not to be afraid. Chapter Ten of St. Matthew recalls the words of Our Lord, spoken to His disciples, as He sent them out to preach:
“And having called His Twelve disciples together, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of diseases, and all manner of infirmities. These twelve Jesus sent: commanding them, saying: ‘Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves! Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves! But beware of men! For they will deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues! And you shall be brought before governors, and before kings for My sake! The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death; and the father the son; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death! And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake―but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved! And when they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another … Therefore fear them not!
“And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul―but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in Hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father! But the very hairs of your head are all numbered! Fear not therefore―better are you than many sparrows. Everyone therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven!
“Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father; and the daughter against her mother; and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me. He that finds his life, shall lose it; and he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it!” (Matthew 10:1-39).
Frightened Followers
Despite Our Lord’s assurances, His followers were not exempt from fear.
► As Jesus was first choosing and gathering His future Apostles, He brought about a miraculous catch of fish for Simon Peter, which struck fear in all. Jesus allayed their fears, saying: “Fear not! From henceforth thou shalt catch men!” (Luke 5:10).
► On another occasion they were all caught in a storm on the lake: “And behold a great tempest arose in the sea, so that the boat was covered with waves, but He was asleep. And they came to Him, and awakened Him, saying: ‘Lord, save us! We perish!’ And Jesus said to them: ‘Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith?’ Then rising up He commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm! But the men wondered, saying: ‘What manner of Man is this, for the winds and the sea obey Him?’” (Matthew 8:24-27).
St. Mark’s account is as follows: “Jesus was in the ship: and there were other ships with Him. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that the ship was filled with water. And He was in the rear part of the ship, sleeping upon a pillow; and they awakened Him, and said to Him: ‘Master, does it not concern Thee that we perish?’ And rising up, He rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased and there was made a great calm. And He said to them: ‘Why are you fearful? Have you not faith yet?’ And they feared exceedingly: and they said one to another: ‘Who is this that both wind and sea obey Him?’” (Mark 4:36-40).
► When Jesus cured the man from palsy, “All were astonished … and they were filled with fear” (Luke 5:26). He raises from the dead, the son of the widow of Naim, “and there came a fear on them all” (Luke 7:16). He casts out a legion of devils from a possessed man and “all the multitude besought Him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear” (Luke 8:37).
► Even before the Passion, His Apostles saw Him walking on water and were afraid: “And they seeing him walk upon the sea, were troubled, saying: ‘It is an apparition!’ And they cried out for fear” (Matthew 14:26). Jesus had to calm them down, and said: “Be of good heart! It is I, fear ye not!” (Matthew 14:27).
► In this same incident, Peter begins to walk on water also, but “But seeing the wind strong, he was afraid: and when he began to sink, he cried out, saying: ‘Lord, save me!’” (Matthew 14:30). Our Lord rebukes Peter, saying: “O thou of little faith!”
► At the Transfiguration, there came “a voice out of the cloud, saying: ‘This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased! Hear ye Him!’ And the disciples hearing, fell upon their face, and were very much afraid. And Jesus came and touched them: and said to them, ‘Arise, and fear not!’” (Matthew 17:5-7).
► Speaking of the end times, Jesus says: “When you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, fear ye not! For such things must needs be, but the end is not yet” (Mark 13:7).
► As the Passion approached, Our Lord’s words concerning His imminent sufferings made the disciples afraid: “And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem: and Jesus went before them, and they, following, were afraid. And taking the Twelve, He began to tell them the things that should befall Him. Saying: ‘Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests, and to the scribes and ancients, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles. And they shall mock Him, and spit on Him, and scourge Him, and kill Him!’” (Mark 10:32-34).
► Our Lord Himself was afraid: “And they came to a farm called Gethsemane. And He said to His disciples: ‘Sit you here, while I pray’! And He took Peter and James and John with Him; and He began to fear and to be heavy” (Mark 14:32-33). The Apostles also fell into fear: “And when He rose up from prayer, and was come to His disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow [fear]” (Luke 22:45).
► After the crucifixion, the disciples locked themselves away for fear of the Jews: “the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews” (John 20:19).
► After His resurrection, He again causes fear. The women had come to His tomb and found only an empty tomb and angel: “And the angel answering, said to the women: ‘Fear not you! For I know that you seek Jesus, Who was crucified’” (Matthew 28:5). “But they going out, fled from the sepulcher. For a trembling and fear had seized them: and they said nothing to any man; for they were afraid” (Mark 16:8). Then Jesus appears to them next, saying: “Fear not. Go, tell My brethren that they go into Galilee, there they shall see Me!’” (Matthew 28:10).
► After Our Lord’s Ascension into Heaven, the Apostles and disciples once more returned to the safety of the Upper Room and locked themselves in. When the Holy Ghost came, He fortified them and, as Our Lady revealed to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “They all left the house of the Cenacle and, placing themselves before the multitudes, began to preach the mysteries of the Faith and of eternal life. Though until then they had been so shy and seclusive, they now stepped forth with unhesitating boldness and poured forth burning words, that like a flashing fire penetrated to the souls of their hearers” (The Mystical City of God, Ven. Mary of Agreda).
Fear Not!
“Fear not, Mary!” The angelic words were more than a comfort, they were a confirmation of God’s presence and help. Mary must have heard them with some reassurance. For these were indeed familiar words--”Fear not!” They had rung out loud from Holy Scripture for many centuries. Isaias says, seeing the Messias through the veil of prophecy: “Fear ye not the reproach of men, and be not afraid of their blasphemies” … “Fear not, for I am with you.” They would be echoed again and again in the Psalms of David, particularly in those that looked to the Savior: “I will not fear thousands” … “For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for Thou art with me” … “The Lord is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear ... of whom shall I be afraid ... My heart shall not fear” … “Therefore we shall not fear when the Earth shall be troubled …. the God of Jacob is our protector” … “I will not fear what flesh can do against me.”
The Gospel story gives us a hint of the frequency with which that “Fear not” fell from the divine lips of the Savior. The gloom of the Upper Room, where the apostles faced the fact of separation from the Master, after the crucifixion, tells us something of what that steady reassurance--”Fear not” — had meant to the hearts of men. The apostolic courage, that conquered the world for Christ, tells us beyond all doubt of the effectiveness of the “Fear not” assurance of God. There are indeed things to fear, attacks to face, burdens to be borne before which millions of men and women will cringe and flee. Fear not, be of good heart, have courage! Why? Because you are weaklings, timid, cowardly, unable to stand on your own feet? Not at all. No! The reason that fear arises and needs to be calmed is because you have things to do that are much too much for the strength of men, heights to scale, choices to make, time and sorrow to batter down for eternity and joy; because, in a word, you are to walk in mystery, on a divine and not merely human level, to a destiny that properly belongs to God.
Courage, My Friend!
That courage within a man’s own soul is essential if he is to follow Christ. For our Lord’s “Fear not” was not at all a divine molly-coddling of the weakness of men. The words “Fear not” must be heard in union with His prophecy, even His promise, of a terrifying violence. He told the Apostles what they could expect from the world they were to conquer—persecution, exile, suffering, and death. They would meet violence as inevitably and as consistently as a man meets the wind driving down a road.
What is more, they would travel with violence as a close companion, they would not only meet violence, but to also bring it to bear on the world. They were not only to stand up under suffering, they were to be the violent ones, before whom the powers of evil would flinch and flee. For it was His own clear statement that told them He had come to bring the sword into play, that the kingdom of Heaven suffered violence, that it would be the violent who would bear it away. To take up a cross and follow Him would take courage: not only the courage to bear up under the cross, but the courage to bring that cross to men and women across the world, across the ages.
Kinds of Fortitude
There are several kinds of fortitude—(1) Acquired Fortitude, (2) Infused Fortitude, (3) the Gift of Fortitude. There is a great difference between the potentials of the acquired virtue, the infused virtue, and the Gift of Fortitude, even though the three share the same name. Thus:
(a) Natural or acquired fortitude strengthens the soul for undertaking the greatest labors and for exposing oneself to the greatest dangers—as is seen in the lives of many pagan heroes—but not without a certain fear or anxiety that proceeds from the clear perception of the weakness of one’s own powers, which are the only ones utilized by the acquired virtue.
(b) Infused Fortitude, which is a supernatural virtue, relies on the Divine help, but it operates in a human mode, that is to say, according to the light of human reason illuminated by Faith, which does not rid the soul completely of all fear. The virtue of Fortitude perseveres in doing good, while advancing along the steep and slippery path to Heaven, and guarding against the illicit pleasures of life on the one hand, while remaining undaunted by its difficulties on the other. But even here, man has a certain limit beyond which he cannot go. How well St. Paul knew it, when he cried for help to our Lord against the attacks of Satan! Yes, God alone is all-powerful, man, even at his best, has a limited sphere of action. A strong man may lift a weight of five hundred pounds, he will not lift a ton.
(c) The Gift of Fortitude, on the other hand, enables the soul to undertake the greatest work and expose itself to the greatest dangers, with a great confidence and security, because the Holy Ghost Himself moves the soul—not through the dictates of simple prudence, but through the lofty direction of the Gift of Counsel, that is, through reasons that are entirely Divine.
We need special assistance from on high. If we are in the state of grace, we receive it. It is the Gift of Fortitude. However, it must be stressed again, the Gifts of the Holy Ghost only really start to ‘kick-in’ after we have passed a decent amount of time in the apprenticeship of working on our virtues—most people don’t do this. By means of the Gift of Fortitude, the soul, aided by the Holy Ghost, overcomes all the obstacles in the pathway of salvation, it avoids all the allurements of the world to evil, it overcomes the well-nigh invincible passions that threaten its eternal happiness even at the very latest breath. It is a Gift beyond human strength, often even it would seem to perform actions contrary to those which human nature is wont to perform, such, for instance, as martyrdom. It is not content with doing what is easy, it seeks what is more difficult.
Nature of the Gift of Fortitude
The Gift of Fortitude is a supernatural habit that strengthens the soul for the practice, under the movement of the Holy Ghost, of every type of heroic virtue, with invincible confidence of overcoming any dangers or difficulties that may arise. Let us explain this definition a little, word by word.
“It is a supernatural habit”, like the other gifts and infused virtues.
“That strengthens the soul”: Its precise function is to elevate the powers of the soul to a divine plane.
For the practice, “under the movement of the Holy Ghost”: The operation of this gift, as of the other gifts, is always under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, in such way that the soul does not reason or discourse, but acts by a kind of instinctive interior impulse, that proceeds directly from the Holy Ghost.
“Of every type of heroic virtue”: Although the virtue of Fortitude has the same name as the Gift of Fortitude by which it is perfected, the Gift of Fortitude extends to all the heroic actions of the other virtues, because this heroism demands an extraordinary fortitude that is beyond the power of the unaided virtue alone.
Father Lallemant writes of this Gift that it is: “An habitual disposition which the Holy Spirit communicates to the soul and to the body both to do and to suffer extraordinary things; to undertake the most arduous actions; to expose ourselves to the most formidable dangers; to undergo the most toilsome labors; to endure the most grievous pains, and that with constancy and heroism” (Spiritual Teaching, p. 156).
“With invincible confidence”: This is one of the clearest marks of distinction between the virtue of Fortitude and the Gift of Fortitude. The virtue of Fortitude, says St. Thomas (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 139, art. 1, ad 1), also gives strength to the soul for overcoming obstacles, but it is the Gift of Fortitude alone that imparts the invincible confidence of success.
Addressing this point, Father Arrighini writes: “Despite the similarity of the definition, the Gift of Fortitude should not be confused with the cardinal virtue of the same name. Although both suppose a certain firmness and energy of spirit, the virtue of Fortitude has its limits in human power, which it cannot surpass; the gift, on the contrary, relies on the Divine power, according to the words of the Prophet: ‘Through my God I shall go over a wall’ (Psalm 17:30), that is, I will overcome all obstacles in order to reach the final end.
“Secondly, if the Cardinal Virtue of Fortitude gives enough courage to face such obstacles in general, it does not infuse the confidence to face and overcome all of them, as the analogous Gift of the Holy Ghost does.
“Moreover, the virtue of Fortitude, precisely because it is limited by human power, does not extend equally to all kinds of difficulties. For this reason, there are people who easily overcome the temptations of pride but not those of the flesh, or who avoid a certain kind of danger but not another, and so on. The Gift of Fortitude, on the other hand, relying completely on the Divine omnipotence, extends to everything, suffices for everything, and makes one exclaim with Job: ‘Deliver me, O Lord, and set me beside thee, and let any man’s hand fight against me’ (Job 17:3).
Finally, the virtue of Fortitude does not always attain its object, as it is not proper to man to overcome all dangers and win all battles. But God can easily do this, and since the Gift of Fortitude infuses in us the Divine power, with it man can readily overcome all dangers and enemies, fight and win every battle, and repeat with the Apostle: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
The Virtue Strengthened by the Gift
The Virtue of Fortitude enables us to pursue the difficult good on the spiritual journey The Gift of Fortitude, however, pushes us much further. It gives energy to overcome major obstacles in the way of spiritual growth; it is an enormous reinforcement of the natural and infused virtue of Fortitude.
There is, for example, the virtue of Christian courage, or Fortitude, which equips a man to endure the extreme of danger and difficulty, even the danger of death. The Gift of the Holy Ghost, coming to the perfection of this virtue of Fortitude, enables a man to stride into those dangers with the confidence of God; indeed, by the Gift of Fortitude, he truly escapes those dangers, not only in the triumphant climax of divine action, which gives him eternal life and the end of all dangers; but here and now the divine magic eliminates the danger and all fear of it.
Early Martyrs Did Not Run From Lions
We have no record of the early Christian martyrs running in terror from the lions; yet often enough the lions did retreat from so tough a specimen as an early Christian to whom death was no longer a danger but an invitation to life. When the truth of history trickles out from under the iron curtain that hides the horrors of modern martyrdom from our eyes, we shall have even more abundant evidence of the work of the Gift of Fortitude than ever was furnished by the bloody persecutions of Rome.
As in the early ages of the Church, so today the calm strength of divine courage is not less in the living than in the dying; a truth seen clearly enough in Communist countries and pagan countries, where the living must “shield the flame of the Faith” with their bodies. Yet is it no less clearly to be seen by the observant in the faithful of Western Europe and America where the defense of truth and morals has the apparent hopelessness of a fight against an enshrouding fog or an entwining serpent. This is an age for the Gift of Fortitude, as is any age, where the world howls again for Barabbas, rather than Christ, and blasphemously calls down on itself the blood of God.
More Strength in Suffering Than Attacking
If action requires strength, if the affair of our salvation demands the supernatural aid of Fortitude, this need is magnified when we consider what we have to suffer. St. Thomas puts forth many reasons showing how much more strength is required for suffering or endurance than for action. To attack is to throw oneself into peril, but to support the shock is more noble, more difficult, more perfect. It is the strong who attack, the more feeble who endure. Again he who receives the attack, he who suffers, feels the actual danger, whilst he who gives fight sees it only in the future. Hence, it is commonly said, that the best army is not the one most ardent in combat, but the one most enduring in fatigue.
A Battle Like No Other
In this war, which, unlike earthly warfare, is not measured by hours and days; in this battle where each day dawns only to bring to light new and more terrible temptations; in this contest where at every move we are hindered by the flesh, the world and the devil, we find human strength is but a weakness; and that human prowess, is but fear; and human valor, more like cowardice; and human endeavor, nothing but impotence.
There surely is a strength beyond human strength. Without this superior strength, suffering is unbearable, but with it life is sweet. “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me,” says St. Paul; it was that Gift which enabled him to fight the good fight of his apostolate and to win the glorious crown of justice. The Apostle’s words are, moreover, a true expression of the nature of Fortitude; overcome all obstacles and that with a positive assurance of final success.
The Gift of Fortitude, then, is a divine power, a perfection of the will, enabling the faithful soul to follow the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, with full confidence in Him in the hour of temptation, with magnanimous steadfastness in difficulties and with patient endurance of sufferings, and all this to the term of life’s journey, to the end of the road which leads to Heaven. Action and suffering are the effects of this Gift; action and suffering in the cause of extraordinary undertakings are its characteristic notes.
The Triple Enemy—Flesh, World, Devil
We have to act, and vigorously, against our own flesh—that part of our being which is always hankering after pleasure, always seeking its ease, always hungry, always thirsty, always craving to be pampered. Each and every one of these is a serious disorder; each draws us away from the path to Heaven.
If there is one thing more than another that the saints themselves found nearest the realms of impossibility, it was, surely, that of keeping the body in subjection, not by stifling its natural wants, but by curbing its unruly whims. It cost them years of labor, many a sacrifice and many a drop of blood. And they were saints. What, then, might not be said of the work ordinary Catholics are called upon to perform in virtue of their religion? What of inordinate love, vanity, anger, insubordination, avarice?
Next to the flesh come the false pretenses and glaring fascinations of the world. It is a second but not a secondary enemy. It coaxes us to incline to its follies, to cast ourselves into its outstretched arms, to go with it to parties, dances, movies and other worldly pastimes. We refuse and it insists, trying to convince us that it’s okay; again we refuse, and we are called old-fashioned, “not with the times”, or even fanatical and unfit for human society. The idol of pleasure is ever tantalizing us. We have to live in the midst of a furnace of luxury without being burned, of fascination without being bewitched; we must conquer without even giving an inch.
We must face the demon, too. He who conquered half the heavenly host is not ashamed to cross swords with men. We must throw down the gauntlet. It is not sufficient to be on the defensive, we must attack him; a mastermind of intelligence, he would outscore us; on his side is the experience of having tempted souls in all the ages since Adam’s fall; and we have merely a few years of experience under our belt. This is a gigantic task, absolutely above our strength, even when fortified by virtues. And if we are victorious in the struggle, the Gift of Fortitude is to be thanked.
True Strength
If action requires strength, if the matter of our salvation demands the supernatural aid of the Gift of Fortitude, this need is magnified when we consider what we have to suffer. St. Thomas puts forth many reasons showing how much more strength is required for suffering, or endurance, than for action. To attack is to throw oneself into peril, but to support the shock is more noble, more difficult, more perfect. It is the strong who attack, the more feeble who endure. Again he who receives the attack, he who suffers, feels the actual danger; whilst he who gives fight, sees it only in the future. Hence, it is commonly said, that the best army is not the one most ardent in combat, but the one most enduring in fatigue.
In his combat for salvation, what must man suffer? Rather, what must he not suffer? His life from cradle to grave is but a chain of acute sufferings of soul and body. He is weakness itself—a “leaf carried by every wind.” Nevertheless, he must resist. Measure his weakness, measure the enterprise, and you will find the measure of force needed.
Thanks to this Gift, the world, for twenty centuries has seen incredible marvels of endurance. I say nothing of the astounding examples of Catholic sufferings borne patiently and for God. We all know them, and at the very mention thousands of examples come to our mind, where this superhuman strength aids weak and frail human beings in their struggle for Heaven.
In his combat for salvation, what must man suffer? Rather, what must he not suffer? His life from cradle to grave is but a chain of acute sufferings of soul and body. He is weakness itself—a “leaf carried by every wind.” Nevertheless, he must resist. Measure his weakness, measure the enterprise, and you will find the measure of force needed.
Thanks to this Gift of Fortitude, the world, for twenty centuries has seen incredible marvels of endurance. To that could be added the astounding examples of Catholic sufferings, borne patiently and for God. We all know them, and at the very mention thousands of examples come to our mind, where this superhuman strength, which is the Gift of Fortitude, aids weak and frail human beings in their struggle for Heaven.
Article 23
Tuesday, May 19th
PREPARING FOR PENTECOST―EXAMINING THE GIFTS
#3 What Do You Know?
Tuesday, May 19th
PREPARING FOR PENTECOST―EXAMINING THE GIFTS
#3 What Do You Know?
Mistaken Identity!
The Gift of Knowledge is another prime candidate for mistaken identity! We spend our whole life in the process of getting to know things—yet this gift is not mere human knowledge. As said before—Grace perfects nature—and the Gift of Knowledge perfects our human knowledge. Through the Gift of Knowledge, the Holy Ghost opens our minds to greater, broader and deeper knowledge in a way that human reason alone could never attain.
Knowing the Wrong Things
Sometimes—maybe often—we seek to know things that are vain, empty, pointless and of little use for attaining our salvation. One of the Books of Wisdom, the Book of Ecclesiastes, speaks of such knowledge as vanity: “Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities, and all is vanity ... The eye is not filled with seeing, neither is the ear filled with hearing … I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold all is vanity, and vexation of spirit. The perverse are hard to be corrected, and the number of fools is infinite …. I have spoken in my heart, saying: Behold I am become great, and have gone beyond all in wisdom, of those that were before me in Jerusalem: and my mind hath contemplated many things wisely, and I have learned. And I have given my heart to know prudence and learning, and errors, and folly … I said in my heart: ‘I will go, and abound with delights, and enjoy good things.’ And I saw that this also was vanity.
“Laughter I counted error: and to mirth I said: ‘Why art thou vainly deceived?’ I thought in my heart, to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might turn my mind to wisdom, and might avoid folly … I made me great works, I built me houses, and planted vineyards, I made gardens and orchards … I got me menservants, and maidservants, and had a great family: and herds of oxen, and great flocks of sheep … I heaped together for myself silver and gold, and the wealth of kings … and I surpassed in riches all that were before me in Jerusalem: my wisdom also remained with me. And whatsoever my eyes desired, I refused them not: and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and delighting itself in the things which I had prepared … And when I turned myself to all the works which my hands had wrought, and to the labors wherein I had labored in vain, I saw in all things vanity, and vexation of mind, and that nothing was lasting under the sun … For what profit shall a man have of all his labor, and vexation of spirit, with which he hath been tormented under the sun? All his days are full of sorrows and miseries, even in the night he doth not rest in mind: and is not this vanity?” (Ecclesiastes, chapters 1 & 2).
Knowing the Right Things
Since the advent of the internet, avenues of knowledge have opened up that would astound the minds of old! Yet of what good is this knowledge if it leads not to God, Heaven and salvation? The Imitation of Christ says:
“Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ. The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a hidden manna. Now, there are many who hear the Gospel often, but care little for it, because they have not the spirit of Christ. Yet whoever wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his whole life on that of Christ. What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it. For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers, if we live without grace and the love of God? Vanity of vanities and all is vanity, except to love God and serve Him alone.
“This is the greatest wisdom — to seek the Kingdom of Heaven through contempt of the world. It is vanity, therefore, to seek and trust in riches that perish. It is vanity also to court honor and to be puffed up with pride. It is vanity to follow the lusts of the body and to desire things for which severe punishment later must come. It is vanity to wish for long life and to care little about a well-spent life. It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come. It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides. Often recall the proverb: ‘The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing.’ Try, moreover, to turn your heart from the love of things visible and bring yourself to things invisible. For they who follow their own evil passions stain their consciences and lose the grace of God” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 1).
What is the Gift of Knowledge?
In the clear and precise language of Theology, the Gift of Knowledge is a supernatural habit, infused by God with sanctifying grace, through which the human intellect, under the illuminating action of the Holy Ghost, judges rightly concerning created things as ordained to the supernatural end. Let us now put that into the layman’s language.
The Gift of Knowledge gives us a true idea of the created world in relation to God. The created world is a stepping-stone to God and manifests God. Without that direction and orientation, the created world is sheer vanity or illusion, that leads to Hell and not to God. Since we are created beings, we are basically prone to illusion, and that our way of looking at life is not the only way and certainly not the most accurate—however devout or pious we may be. Most folk tend to mold God into what they would like Him to be and fail to see Him as He really is.
God is extremely down to earth and has a certain humor and playfulness—qualities that Jesus manifests in the Gospels, especially in the parables. Yet God can also be deadly serious, strict and just—as also manifested by Jesus in the Gospels. Our imperfect human knowledge is need of a crutch or assistance in order to know correctly. This assistance comes from the Gift of Knowledge.
The Gift of Knowledge is not a question of human or philosophical knowledge, nor is it a theological knowledge, makes use of natural reasoning. It is a question of a certain supernatural knowledge that proceeds from a special illumination of the Holy Ghost, Who reveals to us and enables us to appreciate rightly the connection between created things and the supernatural ultimate end. More briefly, it is the correct estimation of the present temporal life in relation to eternal life.
Thus we can see the importance of the Gift of Knowledge in helping us avoid the pitfalls of worldliness that surround us on all sides. Human reason and rationalization will try to make peace with worldliness and marry it to religion. Yet the mind enlightened by the Holy Ghost’s Gift of Knowledge, truly and fully appreciates that “the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
Strengthening and Perfection of Faith
The Gift of Knowledge is absolutely necessary if the virtue of Faith is to reach its full expansion and development. The Gift of Knowledge performs invaluable services for the virtue of Faith, especially in the practical order. Through this Gift, under the movement and illumination of the Holy Ghost, we are able to judge rightly, according to the guiding principles of Faith, concerning the right use of creatures, their value to us, and their usefulness or danger as regards eternal life and salvation. Without this supernatural assistance of the Gift of Knowledge, Faith itself would be in danger, because attracted and seduced by the allurement of created things; being ignorant of the method or manner of relating or evaluating them with the supernatural order and salvation, we could easily fall into error, and, at least in the practical order, we could lose the light of Faith.
Daily experience confirms this all too well to make it necessary to insist upon it. For as was said before, the Gifts of the Holy Ghost will only begin to really work effectively once we have passed through the apprenticeship of accumulating and practicing virtues for a decent length of time. The Gifts will perfect and strengthen the virtues. Yet, if there are no virtues present, then there is nothing to strengthen. God will not spoil us or give us anything that we either do not deserve or for which we have no real interest.
Effects of the Gift of Knowledge
The effects produced in the soul by the action of the Gift of Knowledge are admirable and varied, and all of them have a great sanctifying value. The following are the principal effects:
(1) It teaches us how to judge rightly concerning created things in relation to God. This is proper to the Gift of Knowledge:
“Under this impulsion, a twofold movement takes place in the soul: it understands the nothingness, the emptiness of the creature, and at the same time, in beholding creation, it sees the footprints of God. Thus, the Gift of Knowledge drew tears from St. Dominic at the thought of the lot of poor sinners and inspired St. Francis of Assisi to compose his famous Canticle to the Sun at the sight of the pageant of nature” (M. M. Philipon, O.P., The Spiritual Doctrine of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, pp. 174-175, chap. 8, n. 6).
The first aspect caused St. Ignatius of Loyola to exclaim, when contemplating the spectacle of a starry night: “Oh, how vile the Earth appears to me when I contemplate Heaven!”; the second aspect caused St. John of the Cross to fall to his knees before the beauty of a little fountain, of a mountain, of a landscape, of the setting sun, or on hearing “the whistling of the memorial airs.”
The nothingness of created things, when contemplated through the Gift of Knowledge, made St. Paul esteem all things as dung, so that he might gain Christ (Philippians 3:8); the beauty of God reflected in the beauty and fragrance of the flowers obliged St. Paul of the Cross to speak to them in transports of love: “Be silent, little flowers, be silent.” And this same sentiment is what gave St. Francis of Assisi that sublime sense of the universal brotherhood of all things that come forth from the hand of God: brother sun, brother wolf, sister flower. . . . It was likewise the Gift of Knowledge that gave St. Teresa of Avila that extraordinary facility for explaining the things of God by making use of comparisons and examples taken from created things.
(2) It guides us with certitude concerning what we must believe or not believe. The souls in whom the Gift of Knowledge operates intensely, instinctively possess the sense of Faith (sensus fidei). Without having studied theology or without having had any education, they perceive immediately whether or not a devotion, a doctrine, a counsel, or any kind of maxim is in accord with Faith or is opposed to Faith. Do not ask them for the reasons, because they know it without reasoning. They experience it with an irresistible power and with an unflinching assurance. It is admirable how St. Teresa of Avila, in spite of her humility and her complete submission to her confessors, could never accept the erroneous doctrine which held that in certain elevated states of prayer it was advisable to detach oneself from the consideration of the humanity of Christ.
St. Teresa of Avila writes: “Although I have been contradicted about it and told that I do not understand it, because these are paths along which Our Lord leads us, and that, when we have got over the first stages, we shall do better to occupy ourselves with matters concerning the Godhead and to flee from corporeal things, they will certainly not make me admit that this is a good way” (Interior Castle, Sixth Mansions, chap. 7).
(3) It enables us to see promptly and with certitude the state of our soul. Everything is clear to the penetrating introspection of the Gift of Knowledge: “our interior acts, the secret movements of our heart, their qualities, their goodness, their malice, their principles, their motives, their ends and their intentions, their effects and their consequences, their merit and demerit” (Louis Lallemant, S.J., Spiritual Teaching, p. 140). Rightly did St. Teresa say that “in a room bathed in sunlight not a cobweb can remain hidden” (The Life, p. 112).
(4) It inspires us concerning the safest method of conduct with our neighbor as regards eternal life. In this sense the Gift of Knowledge in its practical aspect influences the virtue of prudence, whose perfection is directly under the gift of counsel, as we saw. Once again, we call on Father Lallemant:
“By this gift a preacher knows what he ought to say to his hearers, and what he ought to urge upon them. A director knows the state of the souls he has under his guidance, their spiritual needs, the remedies for their faults, the obstacles they put in the way of their perfection, the shortest and the surest road by which to conduct them safely; how he must console or mortify them, what God is working in them, and what they ought to do on their part in order to cooperate with God and fulfill His designs. A superior knows in what way he ought to govern his inferiors.
“They who have the largest share of this gift are the most enlightened in all knowledge of this kind. Wonderful things are disclosed to them with respect to the practice of virtues. They discover therein degrees of perfection unknown to others. They perceive at a glance whether actions are inspired by God and conformable to His designs; let them deviate ever so little from the ways of God, they discern it at once. They remark imperfections where others cannot see them; they are not liable to be deceived in their opinions, neither are they apt to allow themselves to be surprised by illusions with which the whole world is filled. If a scrupulous soul applies to them, they know what to say to remove its scruples. If they have to make an exhortation, whether to monks or to nuns, thoughts will occur to them suited both to the spiritual needs of the religious themselves, and to the spirit of their order. If difficulties of conscience are proposed to them, they will give an admirable solution. Ask them for the reason of their reply, they cannot tell you, because they know it without reasoning, by a light superior to all reason.
“By this gift it was that St. Vincent Ferrer preached with that wonderful success that we read of in his life. He abandoned himself to the Holy Spirit as well in preparing his sermons as in delivering them, and everybody went away deeply affected. It was easy to see that the Holy Spirit animated him, and spoke by his mouth. One day that he had to preach before a prince, he thought he must use more study and more human diligence in the preparation of his sermon. He applied himself thereto with extraordinary pains; but neither the prince nor the audience generally were as satisfied with this studied discourse as they were with that of the next day, which he composed in his ordinary way, according to the movement of the Spirit of God. His attention was called to the difference between the two sermons. “Yesterday,” said he, “it was brother Vincent that preached; to-day it was the Holy Spirit” (Spiritual Teaching, pp. 141-142).
(5) It detaches us from the things of Earth. This is, in reality, nothing more than a logical consequence of the right judgment of things that constitutes the proper characteristic of the Gift of Knowledge. “All things in Heaven and Earth are nothing in comparison with God” (St. John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. I, chap. 4).
For that reason it is necessary to rise above created things in order to rest in God alone. But only the Gift of Knowledge gives to the saints that profound vision concerning the necessity of the absolute detachment that we admire, for example, in St. John of the Cross. For a soul illuminated by the Gift of Knowledge, creation is an open book where it discovers without effort the nothingness of creatures and the all of the Creator. “The soul must fly [from creatures], must no longer know them; it must consider all things as dross in order to gain Christ. . . . Are all created things put together worth even a look from him who—though it be but once—has felt God?” (M. M. Philipon, O.P., op. cit., p. 175).
The effect produced in St. Teresa by the jewels shown to her by her friend Dona Luisa de la Cerda in Toledo is of interest. Here is the Teresian text with all its inimitable elegance:
“It happened on one occasion while I was staying with that lady whom I have mentioned, and I was troubled with my heart (as I have said, I have suffered with this a great deal, though less so of late), that, being an extremely kind person, she had some very valuable golden trinkets and stones brought out for me, and in particular a set of diamonds, supposed to be of great price, thinking that they would cheer me. But I only laughed to myself, thinking what a pity it is that people esteem such things, remembering what the Lord has laid up for us and reflecting how impossible it would be for me to set any store by these things, even if I tried to make myself do so, unless the Lord were to allow me to forget those others.
“The soul that feels like this has great dominion over itself—so great that I do not know if it can be understood by anyone who does not possess it, for it is a real, natural detachment, achieved without labor of our own. It is all effected by God, for, when His Majesty reveals these truths, they are so deeply impressed upon our souls as to show us clearly that we could not in so short a time acquire them ourselves” (St. Teresa of Avila, The Life, chap. 38, n. 4, Peers transl., pp. 268-269).
(6) It teaches us how to use created things in a holy way. This sentiment, which is complementary to the former, is another natural consequence of the right judgment of created things proper to the Gift of Knowledge. It is certain that the being of the creatures is nothing compared to the being of God, and yet all created things are crumbs that fall from the table of God, and they speak to us of Him and lead us to Him if we know how to use them rightly. This is what is effected by the Gift of Knowledge. There are countless examples of this in the lives of the saints. The contemplation of created things raised their souls to God because they could see the vestige or trace of God in creation. Sometimes the most insignificant detail, which would pass unnoticed by an ordinary person, made a strong impression on these holy souls and led them to God.
(7) It fills us with repentance and sorrow for our past errors. This is an inevitable consequence of the right judgment concerning created things. In the resplendent light of the Gift of Knowledge, the souls discover the nothingness of creatures, their fragility, their vanity, their short duration, their inability to make us truly happy, the harm that attachment to them can cause to the soul. And then, on recalling other periods of life in which perhaps they were subject to such vanity and misery, holy souls feel deep within their hearts a most profound repentance that is manifested externally by intense acts of contrition and self-disdain. The pathetic accents of the Miserere spontaneously spring to their lips as a psychological necessity to alleviate the weight of sorrow that overwhelms them. For that reason, the beatitude that corresponds to the Gift of Knowledge is the beatitude of those who weep, as we shall see.
Such are the principal effects of the Gift of Knowledge. Thanks to it, far from seeing creatures as obstacles to union with God, the virtue of Faith uses them as instruments to be united to God more easily. Perfected by the gifts of Understanding and Knowledge, the virtue of Faith reaches a most lively intensity that gives the soul a premonition of the divine brilliance of the eternal vision.
The Gift of Knowledge is another prime candidate for mistaken identity! We spend our whole life in the process of getting to know things—yet this gift is not mere human knowledge. As said before—Grace perfects nature—and the Gift of Knowledge perfects our human knowledge. Through the Gift of Knowledge, the Holy Ghost opens our minds to greater, broader and deeper knowledge in a way that human reason alone could never attain.
Knowing the Wrong Things
Sometimes—maybe often—we seek to know things that are vain, empty, pointless and of little use for attaining our salvation. One of the Books of Wisdom, the Book of Ecclesiastes, speaks of such knowledge as vanity: “Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities, and all is vanity ... The eye is not filled with seeing, neither is the ear filled with hearing … I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold all is vanity, and vexation of spirit. The perverse are hard to be corrected, and the number of fools is infinite …. I have spoken in my heart, saying: Behold I am become great, and have gone beyond all in wisdom, of those that were before me in Jerusalem: and my mind hath contemplated many things wisely, and I have learned. And I have given my heart to know prudence and learning, and errors, and folly … I said in my heart: ‘I will go, and abound with delights, and enjoy good things.’ And I saw that this also was vanity.
“Laughter I counted error: and to mirth I said: ‘Why art thou vainly deceived?’ I thought in my heart, to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might turn my mind to wisdom, and might avoid folly … I made me great works, I built me houses, and planted vineyards, I made gardens and orchards … I got me menservants, and maidservants, and had a great family: and herds of oxen, and great flocks of sheep … I heaped together for myself silver and gold, and the wealth of kings … and I surpassed in riches all that were before me in Jerusalem: my wisdom also remained with me. And whatsoever my eyes desired, I refused them not: and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and delighting itself in the things which I had prepared … And when I turned myself to all the works which my hands had wrought, and to the labors wherein I had labored in vain, I saw in all things vanity, and vexation of mind, and that nothing was lasting under the sun … For what profit shall a man have of all his labor, and vexation of spirit, with which he hath been tormented under the sun? All his days are full of sorrows and miseries, even in the night he doth not rest in mind: and is not this vanity?” (Ecclesiastes, chapters 1 & 2).
Knowing the Right Things
Since the advent of the internet, avenues of knowledge have opened up that would astound the minds of old! Yet of what good is this knowledge if it leads not to God, Heaven and salvation? The Imitation of Christ says:
“Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ. The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a hidden manna. Now, there are many who hear the Gospel often, but care little for it, because they have not the spirit of Christ. Yet whoever wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his whole life on that of Christ. What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it. For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers, if we live without grace and the love of God? Vanity of vanities and all is vanity, except to love God and serve Him alone.
“This is the greatest wisdom — to seek the Kingdom of Heaven through contempt of the world. It is vanity, therefore, to seek and trust in riches that perish. It is vanity also to court honor and to be puffed up with pride. It is vanity to follow the lusts of the body and to desire things for which severe punishment later must come. It is vanity to wish for long life and to care little about a well-spent life. It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come. It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides. Often recall the proverb: ‘The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing.’ Try, moreover, to turn your heart from the love of things visible and bring yourself to things invisible. For they who follow their own evil passions stain their consciences and lose the grace of God” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 1).
What is the Gift of Knowledge?
In the clear and precise language of Theology, the Gift of Knowledge is a supernatural habit, infused by God with sanctifying grace, through which the human intellect, under the illuminating action of the Holy Ghost, judges rightly concerning created things as ordained to the supernatural end. Let us now put that into the layman’s language.
The Gift of Knowledge gives us a true idea of the created world in relation to God. The created world is a stepping-stone to God and manifests God. Without that direction and orientation, the created world is sheer vanity or illusion, that leads to Hell and not to God. Since we are created beings, we are basically prone to illusion, and that our way of looking at life is not the only way and certainly not the most accurate—however devout or pious we may be. Most folk tend to mold God into what they would like Him to be and fail to see Him as He really is.
God is extremely down to earth and has a certain humor and playfulness—qualities that Jesus manifests in the Gospels, especially in the parables. Yet God can also be deadly serious, strict and just—as also manifested by Jesus in the Gospels. Our imperfect human knowledge is need of a crutch or assistance in order to know correctly. This assistance comes from the Gift of Knowledge.
The Gift of Knowledge is not a question of human or philosophical knowledge, nor is it a theological knowledge, makes use of natural reasoning. It is a question of a certain supernatural knowledge that proceeds from a special illumination of the Holy Ghost, Who reveals to us and enables us to appreciate rightly the connection between created things and the supernatural ultimate end. More briefly, it is the correct estimation of the present temporal life in relation to eternal life.
Thus we can see the importance of the Gift of Knowledge in helping us avoid the pitfalls of worldliness that surround us on all sides. Human reason and rationalization will try to make peace with worldliness and marry it to religion. Yet the mind enlightened by the Holy Ghost’s Gift of Knowledge, truly and fully appreciates that “the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
Strengthening and Perfection of Faith
The Gift of Knowledge is absolutely necessary if the virtue of Faith is to reach its full expansion and development. The Gift of Knowledge performs invaluable services for the virtue of Faith, especially in the practical order. Through this Gift, under the movement and illumination of the Holy Ghost, we are able to judge rightly, according to the guiding principles of Faith, concerning the right use of creatures, their value to us, and their usefulness or danger as regards eternal life and salvation. Without this supernatural assistance of the Gift of Knowledge, Faith itself would be in danger, because attracted and seduced by the allurement of created things; being ignorant of the method or manner of relating or evaluating them with the supernatural order and salvation, we could easily fall into error, and, at least in the practical order, we could lose the light of Faith.
Daily experience confirms this all too well to make it necessary to insist upon it. For as was said before, the Gifts of the Holy Ghost will only begin to really work effectively once we have passed through the apprenticeship of accumulating and practicing virtues for a decent length of time. The Gifts will perfect and strengthen the virtues. Yet, if there are no virtues present, then there is nothing to strengthen. God will not spoil us or give us anything that we either do not deserve or for which we have no real interest.
Effects of the Gift of Knowledge
The effects produced in the soul by the action of the Gift of Knowledge are admirable and varied, and all of them have a great sanctifying value. The following are the principal effects:
(1) It teaches us how to judge rightly concerning created things in relation to God. This is proper to the Gift of Knowledge:
“Under this impulsion, a twofold movement takes place in the soul: it understands the nothingness, the emptiness of the creature, and at the same time, in beholding creation, it sees the footprints of God. Thus, the Gift of Knowledge drew tears from St. Dominic at the thought of the lot of poor sinners and inspired St. Francis of Assisi to compose his famous Canticle to the Sun at the sight of the pageant of nature” (M. M. Philipon, O.P., The Spiritual Doctrine of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, pp. 174-175, chap. 8, n. 6).
The first aspect caused St. Ignatius of Loyola to exclaim, when contemplating the spectacle of a starry night: “Oh, how vile the Earth appears to me when I contemplate Heaven!”; the second aspect caused St. John of the Cross to fall to his knees before the beauty of a little fountain, of a mountain, of a landscape, of the setting sun, or on hearing “the whistling of the memorial airs.”
The nothingness of created things, when contemplated through the Gift of Knowledge, made St. Paul esteem all things as dung, so that he might gain Christ (Philippians 3:8); the beauty of God reflected in the beauty and fragrance of the flowers obliged St. Paul of the Cross to speak to them in transports of love: “Be silent, little flowers, be silent.” And this same sentiment is what gave St. Francis of Assisi that sublime sense of the universal brotherhood of all things that come forth from the hand of God: brother sun, brother wolf, sister flower. . . . It was likewise the Gift of Knowledge that gave St. Teresa of Avila that extraordinary facility for explaining the things of God by making use of comparisons and examples taken from created things.
(2) It guides us with certitude concerning what we must believe or not believe. The souls in whom the Gift of Knowledge operates intensely, instinctively possess the sense of Faith (sensus fidei). Without having studied theology or without having had any education, they perceive immediately whether or not a devotion, a doctrine, a counsel, or any kind of maxim is in accord with Faith or is opposed to Faith. Do not ask them for the reasons, because they know it without reasoning. They experience it with an irresistible power and with an unflinching assurance. It is admirable how St. Teresa of Avila, in spite of her humility and her complete submission to her confessors, could never accept the erroneous doctrine which held that in certain elevated states of prayer it was advisable to detach oneself from the consideration of the humanity of Christ.
St. Teresa of Avila writes: “Although I have been contradicted about it and told that I do not understand it, because these are paths along which Our Lord leads us, and that, when we have got over the first stages, we shall do better to occupy ourselves with matters concerning the Godhead and to flee from corporeal things, they will certainly not make me admit that this is a good way” (Interior Castle, Sixth Mansions, chap. 7).
(3) It enables us to see promptly and with certitude the state of our soul. Everything is clear to the penetrating introspection of the Gift of Knowledge: “our interior acts, the secret movements of our heart, their qualities, their goodness, their malice, their principles, their motives, their ends and their intentions, their effects and their consequences, their merit and demerit” (Louis Lallemant, S.J., Spiritual Teaching, p. 140). Rightly did St. Teresa say that “in a room bathed in sunlight not a cobweb can remain hidden” (The Life, p. 112).
(4) It inspires us concerning the safest method of conduct with our neighbor as regards eternal life. In this sense the Gift of Knowledge in its practical aspect influences the virtue of prudence, whose perfection is directly under the gift of counsel, as we saw. Once again, we call on Father Lallemant:
“By this gift a preacher knows what he ought to say to his hearers, and what he ought to urge upon them. A director knows the state of the souls he has under his guidance, their spiritual needs, the remedies for their faults, the obstacles they put in the way of their perfection, the shortest and the surest road by which to conduct them safely; how he must console or mortify them, what God is working in them, and what they ought to do on their part in order to cooperate with God and fulfill His designs. A superior knows in what way he ought to govern his inferiors.
“They who have the largest share of this gift are the most enlightened in all knowledge of this kind. Wonderful things are disclosed to them with respect to the practice of virtues. They discover therein degrees of perfection unknown to others. They perceive at a glance whether actions are inspired by God and conformable to His designs; let them deviate ever so little from the ways of God, they discern it at once. They remark imperfections where others cannot see them; they are not liable to be deceived in their opinions, neither are they apt to allow themselves to be surprised by illusions with which the whole world is filled. If a scrupulous soul applies to them, they know what to say to remove its scruples. If they have to make an exhortation, whether to monks or to nuns, thoughts will occur to them suited both to the spiritual needs of the religious themselves, and to the spirit of their order. If difficulties of conscience are proposed to them, they will give an admirable solution. Ask them for the reason of their reply, they cannot tell you, because they know it without reasoning, by a light superior to all reason.
“By this gift it was that St. Vincent Ferrer preached with that wonderful success that we read of in his life. He abandoned himself to the Holy Spirit as well in preparing his sermons as in delivering them, and everybody went away deeply affected. It was easy to see that the Holy Spirit animated him, and spoke by his mouth. One day that he had to preach before a prince, he thought he must use more study and more human diligence in the preparation of his sermon. He applied himself thereto with extraordinary pains; but neither the prince nor the audience generally were as satisfied with this studied discourse as they were with that of the next day, which he composed in his ordinary way, according to the movement of the Spirit of God. His attention was called to the difference between the two sermons. “Yesterday,” said he, “it was brother Vincent that preached; to-day it was the Holy Spirit” (Spiritual Teaching, pp. 141-142).
(5) It detaches us from the things of Earth. This is, in reality, nothing more than a logical consequence of the right judgment of things that constitutes the proper characteristic of the Gift of Knowledge. “All things in Heaven and Earth are nothing in comparison with God” (St. John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. I, chap. 4).
For that reason it is necessary to rise above created things in order to rest in God alone. But only the Gift of Knowledge gives to the saints that profound vision concerning the necessity of the absolute detachment that we admire, for example, in St. John of the Cross. For a soul illuminated by the Gift of Knowledge, creation is an open book where it discovers without effort the nothingness of creatures and the all of the Creator. “The soul must fly [from creatures], must no longer know them; it must consider all things as dross in order to gain Christ. . . . Are all created things put together worth even a look from him who—though it be but once—has felt God?” (M. M. Philipon, O.P., op. cit., p. 175).
The effect produced in St. Teresa by the jewels shown to her by her friend Dona Luisa de la Cerda in Toledo is of interest. Here is the Teresian text with all its inimitable elegance:
“It happened on one occasion while I was staying with that lady whom I have mentioned, and I was troubled with my heart (as I have said, I have suffered with this a great deal, though less so of late), that, being an extremely kind person, she had some very valuable golden trinkets and stones brought out for me, and in particular a set of diamonds, supposed to be of great price, thinking that they would cheer me. But I only laughed to myself, thinking what a pity it is that people esteem such things, remembering what the Lord has laid up for us and reflecting how impossible it would be for me to set any store by these things, even if I tried to make myself do so, unless the Lord were to allow me to forget those others.
“The soul that feels like this has great dominion over itself—so great that I do not know if it can be understood by anyone who does not possess it, for it is a real, natural detachment, achieved without labor of our own. It is all effected by God, for, when His Majesty reveals these truths, they are so deeply impressed upon our souls as to show us clearly that we could not in so short a time acquire them ourselves” (St. Teresa of Avila, The Life, chap. 38, n. 4, Peers transl., pp. 268-269).
(6) It teaches us how to use created things in a holy way. This sentiment, which is complementary to the former, is another natural consequence of the right judgment of created things proper to the Gift of Knowledge. It is certain that the being of the creatures is nothing compared to the being of God, and yet all created things are crumbs that fall from the table of God, and they speak to us of Him and lead us to Him if we know how to use them rightly. This is what is effected by the Gift of Knowledge. There are countless examples of this in the lives of the saints. The contemplation of created things raised their souls to God because they could see the vestige or trace of God in creation. Sometimes the most insignificant detail, which would pass unnoticed by an ordinary person, made a strong impression on these holy souls and led them to God.
(7) It fills us with repentance and sorrow for our past errors. This is an inevitable consequence of the right judgment concerning created things. In the resplendent light of the Gift of Knowledge, the souls discover the nothingness of creatures, their fragility, their vanity, their short duration, their inability to make us truly happy, the harm that attachment to them can cause to the soul. And then, on recalling other periods of life in which perhaps they were subject to such vanity and misery, holy souls feel deep within their hearts a most profound repentance that is manifested externally by intense acts of contrition and self-disdain. The pathetic accents of the Miserere spontaneously spring to their lips as a psychological necessity to alleviate the weight of sorrow that overwhelms them. For that reason, the beatitude that corresponds to the Gift of Knowledge is the beatitude of those who weep, as we shall see.
Such are the principal effects of the Gift of Knowledge. Thanks to it, far from seeing creatures as obstacles to union with God, the virtue of Faith uses them as instruments to be united to God more easily. Perfected by the gifts of Understanding and Knowledge, the virtue of Faith reaches a most lively intensity that gives the soul a premonition of the divine brilliance of the eternal vision.
Article 22
Monday, May 18th
PREPARING FOR PENTECOST―EXAMINING THE GIFTS
#2 Afraid to be Pious?
Monday, May 18th
PREPARING FOR PENTECOST―EXAMINING THE GIFTS
#2 Afraid to be Pious?
Pious Joke
Piety! What a joke! Or at least it is a joking matter for the worldly! What is piety? Most people would find it hard to explain properly. Most have only a vague notion of what piety is—they imagine a pious person to be someone who folds their hands in prayer-like fashion; who genuflects slowly; makes the Sign of the Cross carefully; doesn’t curse or swear; etc. For the worldly minded, “Holy Roller” is substituted for the word “pious” with much mockery and merriment. What is piety?
Mistaken Identity
We must first point out—in order to avoid mistaken identity—that there is a VIRTUE called Piety, and there is also a GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST called Piety. The two, though similar, are not the same. Speaking of the VIRTUE OF PIETY, St. Thomas Aquinas writes:
“Man becomes a debtor to other men in various ways, according to their various excellence and the various benefits received from them. On both counts God holds first place. In second place … are our parents and our country, that have given us birth and nourishment. Consequently, man is debtor, after God, chiefly to his parents and his country. Wherefore just as it belongs to Religion to give worship to God, so does it belong to Piety, in the second place, to give worship to one's parents and one's country. The worship due to our parents includes the worship given to all our kindred, since our kinsfolk are those who descend from the same parents. The worship given to our country includes homage to all our fellow-citizens and to all the friends of our country. Therefore Piety extends chiefly to these. It is by Piety that we do our duty towards our kindred and well-wishers of our country and render them faithful service … [It is] a part of justice ... Since the nature of justice consists in rendering another person his due … [However], when we find our parents [or country] to be a hindrance in our way to God, we must ignore them by hating and fleeing from them. For if our parents incite us to sin, and withdraw us from the service of God, we must, as regards this point, abandon and hate them” (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 101, art. 1, 3 & 4). So much for the VIRTUE of Piety.
The Gift of Piety
What of the GIFT OF PIETY? What is that? How does it differ from the Virtue of Piety? If, as has been already stated, the Gifts are different to the Virtues, how can Piety be both a Virtue and a Gift? These are the questions to which this current article shall be devoted.
St. Thomas points out that whereas the Virtue of Piety is mainly concerned with family, friends and country—“It is by piety that we do our duty towards our kindred and well-wishers of our country and render them faithful service”—St. Thomas goes on to say: “[Piety] is reckoned among the Gifts in Isaias 11:2 [The Douay Bible uses the word “godliness” instead of piety. The Latin "Pietas" gives our English word "pity," which is the same as mercy]. The Piety that pays duty and worship to a father in the flesh, is a Virtue: but the piety [godliness] that is a Gift, pays this to God as Father ... To pay worship to God as Creator, as the Virtue of Religion does, is more excellent than to pay worship to one's father in the flesh, as the Piety that is a virtue does. But to pay worship to God as Father is yet more excellent than to pay worship to God as Creator and Lord. Wherefore the Virtue of Religion is greater than the Virtue of Piety: while the Gift of Piety is greater than the Virtue of Religion” (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 121, art. 1). Whew! Still with us? Good!
The Gift of Piety or Godliness Puts God First
“Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and His justice!” (Matthew 6:33). Piety, as St. Thomas states, belongs to Justice—that is to say “giving others their due”—whether the “other” be man or God. As St. Thomas points out, we owe God more than we owe man; we must pay God first, love God first, serve God first, look after God’s interests first. That is what the Gift of Piety or Godliness is all about. The word “Godliness” seems to expound this better. We are part of God’s family—He created our soul and adopted us as His children.
Piety Not Popular
Today, Piety is far from popular. Instead of giving to God, family, friends and country, it is all about getting from God family, friends and country. Our interests take precedence over all others. Piety is seen as a weakness, not a strength. Piety is seen to be more of a “Party-Pooper” than “Partier.” Pious Pete or Pious Pat is not the first name on the list for invites!! Given the immense pressure of human respect in the world today, many deliberately shy away from coming across as being pious. As St. Louis de Montfort puts it, in his book, The Love of Eternal Wisdom [the bold print highlights what refers to Piety] :
“Those who proceed according to the wisdom of the world are those who know how to manage well their affairs and to arrange things to their temporal advantage without appearing to do so; who know the art of deceiving and how to cleverly cheat without being noticed; who say or do one thing and have another thing in mind; who are thoroughly acquainted with the way and the flattery of the world; who know how to please everybody in order to reach their goal, not troubling much about the honor and interests of God [which is what the Gift of Piety is all about]; who make a secret but deadly fusion of truth with untruth, of the Gospel with the world, of virtue with vice, of Jesus Christ with Satan; who wish to pass as honest people, but not as religious men; who despise and corrupt or readily condemn every religious practice which does not conform to their own. In short, the worldly wise are those who, being guided only by their human senses and reason, seek only to appear as Christian and honest folk, without troubling much to please God or to do penance for the sins which they have committed against His divine Majesty” (St. Louis de Montfort puts it, in his book, The Love of Eternal Wisdom, chapter 7).
Family Home Life
We were made to live in a home and are as wisely equipped for such life by God, as fish are for life in water, or birds for flight through the air. We like the looks of those at home because, as a matter of fact, they look like us; we can understand their gifts and deficiencies, for by blood we share with them the common source of both. We can relax and be ourselves within the family; here there is no need for armor, nothing to be gained by bluff, no mercy for showing-off, and no scorn for weakness. We move through that family life with none of the timidity and caution that we have among strangers, none of the haunting fear that eats into our confidence as we go forth into strange lands and places, or into levels of society that are new to us. We are at home, and our every movement shows it: here we are seen at our very best and at our very worst; for here we are at home. We belong. This easy competence of ours is strictly limited to human family life, for it is only within those strict limits that we are natural sons.
Adopted Into The Divine Family
The divine family is altogether out of our orbit; there is nothing in our nature that gives us the privilege of calling God our Father. It is only when the supernatural has entered into our lives—through Baptism and the Sanctifying Grace it gives—that we can be called sons of God. Yet even that does not change our human nature but, leaving it intact, elevates it. We still cannot be called the sons of God—except by adoption.
Adoption, as we ordinarily understand it, demands no more than warm mercy that throws open the doors of home to a homeless child, giving the child access not merely to the home, but to the very hearts of the household—the adopted child is immediately and forever one of the family.
If we could so elevate the nature of the dog that he would become like ourselves, knowing and loving as we do, speaking our speech, cultivating our manners, aiming at our goals, then we would begin to have some little idea of what God expects of us in His adoption of us as sons. There would, in fact, be much less of distance bridged in a dog’s leap to human nature, than in the soaring flight of man or woman to the divine heights of God’s own family. There is infinity between our nature and God’s, between our life and His; and we have absolutely no equipment for divine living.
The adoption, by which we become sons of God, is obviously a work possible only to the Almighty; nothing else could possibly overcome the difficulties involved in such adoption. If we are to live the divine family life as sons, we must share in the divine life; we must be given a life, over and above our human one, that will enable us to live on a divine plane. Just like the dog can no longer live as a dog if he was miraculously granted a human nature; neither can we just live a worldly life once we have been adopted by the Divine Nature.
Grace Perfects Our Weak Nature
God overcomes this difficulty by the gift of Sanctifying Grace—for grace perfects nature. By this gift of Sanctifying Grace we are divinely alive, by its absence we are supernaturally dead. If God were to stop short at the gift of the life of grace and withhold it, we would be supernatural paralytics, incapable of the least supernatural activity—a poor kind of adoption indeed, and a meager share of the family life into which we are adopted.
Like A Thug in A Convent
With Charity as the bond of union, with the virtues moving under the direction of Charity to the goal that is God, we can and do move on the family plane of the divine. But we do it badly. We are embarrassed in the divinely civilized social life proper to God; and we are an embarrassment to the divine family which has adopted us. We are infinitely out of our element, as red-necked, heavy-handed, and ill-at-ease as a thug in a convent. We need something MORE than that participation of divine life which is GRACE, something MORE than those divinely elevated powers of action which are the VIRTUES; something that will fit us to move as God moves socially, a help that will make our souls easily responsive to God’s own movement through our faculties and the divinely given virtues.
Divine Social Graces
That social gift by which we act as God acts in all His relations with others is the gift of the Holy Ghost which is called the Gift of Piety. This Gift of Piety, not to be mistaken with the Virtue of Piety, communicates the spirit of the family of God to us. The Gift of Piety is absolutely necessary in order to perfect, to a heroic degree, the matter that falls under the Virtue of Justice (giving others their due) and the other virtues related to Justice, especially the Virtue of Religion and the Virtue of Piety.
St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “Now the Holy Ghost moves us to this effect among others, of having a filial affection towards God, according to Romans 8, 15: ‘You have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba (Father): And since it belongs properly to Piety to pay duty and worship to one’s father, it follows that piety, whereby, at the Holy Ghost’s instigation, we pay worship and duty to God as our Father, is a gift of the Holy Ghost” (Summa, IIa Ilae, q. 121, art. 1).
This is the Gift which completes and perfects our adoption into the family of God. Because of this Gift, it can be said of us: like father, like son. With it, it is not only true that we live with a divine life, act towards divine goals, but we also act divinely; for by this Gift we share the justice of God.
That note of justice is fundamental. The Gift of Piety deals only with our relations to others, and with all our relations with others. In other words, it deals with the proper field of Justice, perfecting the Virtue of Justice to its fullest divine bloom. Just as Justice is the absolute requisite for social living among men, so the Gift of Piety is the absolute requisite for the social living of the sons of God.
Effects of the Gift of Piety
The effects that the intense action of the Gift of Piety produces in the soul are truly marvelous. The following are the principal effects:
(1) It places in the soul a truly filial tenderness toward our Heavenly Father. This is the primary and fundamental effect of the Gift of Piety. Dom Columba Marmion, the saintly abbot of Maredsous, also possessed to a high degree this awareness of our adoptive divine filiation (sonship). For him God was above all our Father. The monastery was the “house of the Father” and all its members formed God’s family. The same thing must be said of the whole world and of all men. Dom Marmion insists repeatedly on the necessity of cultivating this spirit of adoption, that should be the Christian’s basic attitude toward God. A splendid text of his invaluable work, Christ in His Mysteries, admirably summarizes his thought:
“Never let us forget that all Christian life, all holiness, is being by grace what Jesus is by nature: the Son of God. It is this that makes the sublimity of our religion. The source of all the greatness of Jesus, the source of the value of all His states, of the fruitfulness of all His mysteries, is His divine generation and His quality of Son of God. In the same way, the saint who is the highest in Heaven is the one who here below was most perfectly a child of God, who made the grace of supernatural adoption in Jesus Christ fructify the most” (Christ in His Mysteries, p. 55).
(2) It enables us to adore the mystery of the Divine Paternity within the Trinity. In its most sublime manifestations, the Gift of Piety makes us penetrate the mystery of the intimate life of God by giving us a most vivid awareness, filled with respect and adoration, of the divine paternity of the Father in relation to the Word. The soul rejoices and loves to repeat, in the depth of its soul, sublime words such as those of the Gloria: “We give Thee thanks for Thy great glory.” It is the worship and adoration of God for His own sake and without any consideration of the benefit the soul has received from Him.
(3) It arouses in the soul a filial abandonment in the arms of the Heavenly Father. The soul abandons itself calmly and confidently to the heavenly Father. It is not preoccupied with any care, and nothing is capable of disturbing its unalterable peace, even for an instant. The soul asks nothing and rejects nothing in regard to health or sickness, a long life or a short life, consolations or aridity, strength or weakness, persecution or praise, activity or idleness. It abandons itself completely in the arms of God, and asks only to glorify Him with all its powers.
(4) It makes us see in our neighbor a son of God and a brother in Jesus Christ. This is a natural consequence of our adoptive filiation (sonship) through grace. If God is our Father, we are all sons of God and brothers in Jesus Christ, either actually or potentially. But with what forcefulness do souls dominated by the Gift of Piety perceive and live this sublime truth! They love all men with a great tenderness because they see them as beloved brothers in Christ, and they would like to shower upon them every kind of grace and blessing.
(5) It moves us to love and devotion for the persons and things related to the Fatherhood of God or Christian brotherhood. The Gift of Piety perfects and intensifies the soul’s filial love for the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom it considers as a tender Mother and in whom it has all the confidence that a child has in the best of mothers. The soul tenderly loves the angels and the saints, whom it considers as its older brothers who already enjoy the continual presence of the Father in the eternal mansion of the children of God; it has a tender affection for the souls in Purgatory, its suffering brothers, whom it assists by frequent suffrages; a tender care for the members of the Church on Earth, especially the Pope and the clergy. It looks upon all lawful superiors as fathers and serves and obeys them in everything that is non-sinful with true filial joy.
It wishes to see its country imbued with the spirit of Jesus Christ in its laws and customs, and for it would willingly shed its blood or suffer the flames like another St. Joan of Arc. It has a deep veneration for Sacred Scripture, and reads it as if it were a letter sent from Heaven by the Father, to tell it what it must do or what is desired of it. It has a great respect for all holy things, especially those used for the cult and service of God (sacred vessels, monstrances, and so on), viewing them as articles for the service and glorification of the Father. St. Thérèse was delighted with her office of sacristan, which permitted her to touch the sacred vessels and to see her face reflected inside the chalices.
These are the chief effects of the Gift of Piety if it is cultivated and allowed to develop unhindered in our souls. Yet, we must state again, that the Gifts of the Holy Ghost can only really work in our souls after a long apprenticeship in the practice of Virtues—this cannot be by-passed.
Opposed Vices
The vices opposed to the Gift of Piety can be grouped under the generic name of impiety. St. Gregory the Great names hardness of heart as opposed to the Gift of Piety since it is born of a disorderly love of self. Father Lallemant has written admirably on this hardness of heart:
“The vice that is opposed to the Gift of Piety is hardness of heart, which springs out of an ill-regulated love of ourselves; for this love makes us naturally sensible only to our own interests, so that nothing affects us except in reference to ourselves. We behold the offences done against God without tears, and the miseries of our neighbor without compassion; we are unwilling to inconvenience ourselves to oblige others; we cannot put up with their faults; we inveigh against them on the slightest ground, and harbor in our hearts feelings of bitterness and resentment, hatred and antipathy, against them.”
On the other hand, the more charity or love of God a soul possesses, the more sensitive it is to the interests of God and those of its neighbor.
This hardness is worst in the great ones of the world, in rich misers and pleasure-seekers, and in those who never soften their hearts by exercises of piety and familiarity with spiritual things. It is also often to be found amongst men of learning, who do not join devotion to knowledge and who, to disguise this fault from themselves, call it strength of mind; but the truly learned have been the most pious of men, as St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure, St. Bernard; and of the Society, Laynez, Suarez, Bellarmine, and Lessius.
A soul which cannot weep for its sins, at least with tears of the heart, is full either of impiety or of impurity, one or the other, as is generally the case with those whose heart is hardened. It is a great misfortune when natural and acquired talents are more esteemed in religion than piety. You will sometimes see religious, and perhaps superiors, who will loudly declare that they attach much more value to a practical active mind than to all those "petty devotions", which, they say, are all very well for women, but are unbecoming in a strong mind, meaning by strength of mind that hardness of heart, which is so opposed to the spirit of Piety. They ought to bear in mind that devotion is an act of Religion, or a fruit of Religion and of Charity, and consequently that it is to be preferred to all the moral virtues, Religion following immediately in order of dignity the theological virtues.
The Means to Cultivate This Gift
In addition to the general means for disposing oneself for the activity of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, such as practice of the moral virtues, prayer, fidelity to grace, and so on, the following practices are more immediately related to the Gift of Piety:
(a) Cultivating the spirit of adopted children of God. There are few truths that have been repeated as often in the Gospel as the truth that God is our Father. Our Lord repeats this truth fourteen times in the Sermon on the Mount alone. This doctrine of our adopted sonship is so predominant in the New Testament, that some writers have seen it as the most basic and essential theme of Christianity. God is our Creator and will be our Judge at the moment of death; but, before all else and above all else, He is always our Father. The Gift of Fear of the Lord arouses in us a respectful reverence for God, but this is in no way incompatible with the tenderness and filial confidence inspired in us by the Gift of Piety.
(b) Cultivating the spirit of universal brotherhood toward all men. This is, as we have seen, the principal secondary effect of the Gift of Piety. Even before it is practiced in all its plenitude, by the activation of the Gift, we can prepare ourselves for it with help of ordinary grace. We should strive ever to increase the capacity of our love so that we may embrace the whole world with the arms of love. We are all sons of God and brothers of Christ.
(c) Considering all things, even purely material things, as pertaining to the house of the Father. What a profoundly religious sense is discovered in all things by those souls that are ruled by the Gift of Piety! St. Francis of Assisi ardently embraced a tree, because it was “his brother” in God. St. Paul of the Cross would become ecstatic over the little flowers in his garden, because to him they spoke of the heavenly Father. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux broke into tears of tenderness when she contemplated a hen gathering its chicks under its wings and remembered the Gospel image by which Christ wanted to show us the sentiments of His divine heart, even toward ungrateful and rebellious children (cf. Matthew 23:37).
How differently we could evaluate created things, even purely material things, if we would strive to discover, under the light of Faith, the religious meaning hidden within them. All creation is truly the house of the Father, and all things in it belong to Him. With what delicacy would we act toward even purely material things! We would discover in them something divine, which would make us respect them as if they were sacred vessels. Such a Christian attitude, so holy and meritorious in the eyes of God, would distance us from sin, which is always some kind of sacrilege against God or the things of God! Our whole life would be elevated to a loftier plane, reaching sublime heights under the most loving gaze of our heavenly Father.
(d) Cultivating the spirit of complete abandonment to God. We will not attain this spirit perfectly until the Gift of Piety is intensely actuated in us, but we should try to do what we can to cultivate total abandonment to God. To this end, we should be fully convinced that, since God is our Father, it is impossible that any evil could befall us unless He permits it.
For that reason, we should strive to remain indifferent in regard to health or sickness, the shortness or the length of our life, peace or war, consolation or aridity in our spiritual life, and so on, constantly repeating our acts of surrender and abandonment to His most holy will. The fiat, the “yes,” the “whatever Thou dost desire, Lord” should be the basic attitude of the Christian toward his God, in a complete filial abandonment to His divine and paternal will, which can only desire for us the greatest good, even though at times it might appear to be an evil in the sight of our purely human and natural gaze.
Piety! What a joke! Or at least it is a joking matter for the worldly! What is piety? Most people would find it hard to explain properly. Most have only a vague notion of what piety is—they imagine a pious person to be someone who folds their hands in prayer-like fashion; who genuflects slowly; makes the Sign of the Cross carefully; doesn’t curse or swear; etc. For the worldly minded, “Holy Roller” is substituted for the word “pious” with much mockery and merriment. What is piety?
Mistaken Identity
We must first point out—in order to avoid mistaken identity—that there is a VIRTUE called Piety, and there is also a GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST called Piety. The two, though similar, are not the same. Speaking of the VIRTUE OF PIETY, St. Thomas Aquinas writes:
“Man becomes a debtor to other men in various ways, according to their various excellence and the various benefits received from them. On both counts God holds first place. In second place … are our parents and our country, that have given us birth and nourishment. Consequently, man is debtor, after God, chiefly to his parents and his country. Wherefore just as it belongs to Religion to give worship to God, so does it belong to Piety, in the second place, to give worship to one's parents and one's country. The worship due to our parents includes the worship given to all our kindred, since our kinsfolk are those who descend from the same parents. The worship given to our country includes homage to all our fellow-citizens and to all the friends of our country. Therefore Piety extends chiefly to these. It is by Piety that we do our duty towards our kindred and well-wishers of our country and render them faithful service … [It is] a part of justice ... Since the nature of justice consists in rendering another person his due … [However], when we find our parents [or country] to be a hindrance in our way to God, we must ignore them by hating and fleeing from them. For if our parents incite us to sin, and withdraw us from the service of God, we must, as regards this point, abandon and hate them” (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 101, art. 1, 3 & 4). So much for the VIRTUE of Piety.
The Gift of Piety
What of the GIFT OF PIETY? What is that? How does it differ from the Virtue of Piety? If, as has been already stated, the Gifts are different to the Virtues, how can Piety be both a Virtue and a Gift? These are the questions to which this current article shall be devoted.
St. Thomas points out that whereas the Virtue of Piety is mainly concerned with family, friends and country—“It is by piety that we do our duty towards our kindred and well-wishers of our country and render them faithful service”—St. Thomas goes on to say: “[Piety] is reckoned among the Gifts in Isaias 11:2 [The Douay Bible uses the word “godliness” instead of piety. The Latin "Pietas" gives our English word "pity," which is the same as mercy]. The Piety that pays duty and worship to a father in the flesh, is a Virtue: but the piety [godliness] that is a Gift, pays this to God as Father ... To pay worship to God as Creator, as the Virtue of Religion does, is more excellent than to pay worship to one's father in the flesh, as the Piety that is a virtue does. But to pay worship to God as Father is yet more excellent than to pay worship to God as Creator and Lord. Wherefore the Virtue of Religion is greater than the Virtue of Piety: while the Gift of Piety is greater than the Virtue of Religion” (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 121, art. 1). Whew! Still with us? Good!
The Gift of Piety or Godliness Puts God First
“Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and His justice!” (Matthew 6:33). Piety, as St. Thomas states, belongs to Justice—that is to say “giving others their due”—whether the “other” be man or God. As St. Thomas points out, we owe God more than we owe man; we must pay God first, love God first, serve God first, look after God’s interests first. That is what the Gift of Piety or Godliness is all about. The word “Godliness” seems to expound this better. We are part of God’s family—He created our soul and adopted us as His children.
Piety Not Popular
Today, Piety is far from popular. Instead of giving to God, family, friends and country, it is all about getting from God family, friends and country. Our interests take precedence over all others. Piety is seen as a weakness, not a strength. Piety is seen to be more of a “Party-Pooper” than “Partier.” Pious Pete or Pious Pat is not the first name on the list for invites!! Given the immense pressure of human respect in the world today, many deliberately shy away from coming across as being pious. As St. Louis de Montfort puts it, in his book, The Love of Eternal Wisdom [the bold print highlights what refers to Piety] :
“Those who proceed according to the wisdom of the world are those who know how to manage well their affairs and to arrange things to their temporal advantage without appearing to do so; who know the art of deceiving and how to cleverly cheat without being noticed; who say or do one thing and have another thing in mind; who are thoroughly acquainted with the way and the flattery of the world; who know how to please everybody in order to reach their goal, not troubling much about the honor and interests of God [which is what the Gift of Piety is all about]; who make a secret but deadly fusion of truth with untruth, of the Gospel with the world, of virtue with vice, of Jesus Christ with Satan; who wish to pass as honest people, but not as religious men; who despise and corrupt or readily condemn every religious practice which does not conform to their own. In short, the worldly wise are those who, being guided only by their human senses and reason, seek only to appear as Christian and honest folk, without troubling much to please God or to do penance for the sins which they have committed against His divine Majesty” (St. Louis de Montfort puts it, in his book, The Love of Eternal Wisdom, chapter 7).
Family Home Life
We were made to live in a home and are as wisely equipped for such life by God, as fish are for life in water, or birds for flight through the air. We like the looks of those at home because, as a matter of fact, they look like us; we can understand their gifts and deficiencies, for by blood we share with them the common source of both. We can relax and be ourselves within the family; here there is no need for armor, nothing to be gained by bluff, no mercy for showing-off, and no scorn for weakness. We move through that family life with none of the timidity and caution that we have among strangers, none of the haunting fear that eats into our confidence as we go forth into strange lands and places, or into levels of society that are new to us. We are at home, and our every movement shows it: here we are seen at our very best and at our very worst; for here we are at home. We belong. This easy competence of ours is strictly limited to human family life, for it is only within those strict limits that we are natural sons.
Adopted Into The Divine Family
The divine family is altogether out of our orbit; there is nothing in our nature that gives us the privilege of calling God our Father. It is only when the supernatural has entered into our lives—through Baptism and the Sanctifying Grace it gives—that we can be called sons of God. Yet even that does not change our human nature but, leaving it intact, elevates it. We still cannot be called the sons of God—except by adoption.
Adoption, as we ordinarily understand it, demands no more than warm mercy that throws open the doors of home to a homeless child, giving the child access not merely to the home, but to the very hearts of the household—the adopted child is immediately and forever one of the family.
If we could so elevate the nature of the dog that he would become like ourselves, knowing and loving as we do, speaking our speech, cultivating our manners, aiming at our goals, then we would begin to have some little idea of what God expects of us in His adoption of us as sons. There would, in fact, be much less of distance bridged in a dog’s leap to human nature, than in the soaring flight of man or woman to the divine heights of God’s own family. There is infinity between our nature and God’s, between our life and His; and we have absolutely no equipment for divine living.
The adoption, by which we become sons of God, is obviously a work possible only to the Almighty; nothing else could possibly overcome the difficulties involved in such adoption. If we are to live the divine family life as sons, we must share in the divine life; we must be given a life, over and above our human one, that will enable us to live on a divine plane. Just like the dog can no longer live as a dog if he was miraculously granted a human nature; neither can we just live a worldly life once we have been adopted by the Divine Nature.
Grace Perfects Our Weak Nature
God overcomes this difficulty by the gift of Sanctifying Grace—for grace perfects nature. By this gift of Sanctifying Grace we are divinely alive, by its absence we are supernaturally dead. If God were to stop short at the gift of the life of grace and withhold it, we would be supernatural paralytics, incapable of the least supernatural activity—a poor kind of adoption indeed, and a meager share of the family life into which we are adopted.
Like A Thug in A Convent
With Charity as the bond of union, with the virtues moving under the direction of Charity to the goal that is God, we can and do move on the family plane of the divine. But we do it badly. We are embarrassed in the divinely civilized social life proper to God; and we are an embarrassment to the divine family which has adopted us. We are infinitely out of our element, as red-necked, heavy-handed, and ill-at-ease as a thug in a convent. We need something MORE than that participation of divine life which is GRACE, something MORE than those divinely elevated powers of action which are the VIRTUES; something that will fit us to move as God moves socially, a help that will make our souls easily responsive to God’s own movement through our faculties and the divinely given virtues.
Divine Social Graces
That social gift by which we act as God acts in all His relations with others is the gift of the Holy Ghost which is called the Gift of Piety. This Gift of Piety, not to be mistaken with the Virtue of Piety, communicates the spirit of the family of God to us. The Gift of Piety is absolutely necessary in order to perfect, to a heroic degree, the matter that falls under the Virtue of Justice (giving others their due) and the other virtues related to Justice, especially the Virtue of Religion and the Virtue of Piety.
St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “Now the Holy Ghost moves us to this effect among others, of having a filial affection towards God, according to Romans 8, 15: ‘You have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba (Father): And since it belongs properly to Piety to pay duty and worship to one’s father, it follows that piety, whereby, at the Holy Ghost’s instigation, we pay worship and duty to God as our Father, is a gift of the Holy Ghost” (Summa, IIa Ilae, q. 121, art. 1).
This is the Gift which completes and perfects our adoption into the family of God. Because of this Gift, it can be said of us: like father, like son. With it, it is not only true that we live with a divine life, act towards divine goals, but we also act divinely; for by this Gift we share the justice of God.
That note of justice is fundamental. The Gift of Piety deals only with our relations to others, and with all our relations with others. In other words, it deals with the proper field of Justice, perfecting the Virtue of Justice to its fullest divine bloom. Just as Justice is the absolute requisite for social living among men, so the Gift of Piety is the absolute requisite for the social living of the sons of God.
Effects of the Gift of Piety
The effects that the intense action of the Gift of Piety produces in the soul are truly marvelous. The following are the principal effects:
(1) It places in the soul a truly filial tenderness toward our Heavenly Father. This is the primary and fundamental effect of the Gift of Piety. Dom Columba Marmion, the saintly abbot of Maredsous, also possessed to a high degree this awareness of our adoptive divine filiation (sonship). For him God was above all our Father. The monastery was the “house of the Father” and all its members formed God’s family. The same thing must be said of the whole world and of all men. Dom Marmion insists repeatedly on the necessity of cultivating this spirit of adoption, that should be the Christian’s basic attitude toward God. A splendid text of his invaluable work, Christ in His Mysteries, admirably summarizes his thought:
“Never let us forget that all Christian life, all holiness, is being by grace what Jesus is by nature: the Son of God. It is this that makes the sublimity of our religion. The source of all the greatness of Jesus, the source of the value of all His states, of the fruitfulness of all His mysteries, is His divine generation and His quality of Son of God. In the same way, the saint who is the highest in Heaven is the one who here below was most perfectly a child of God, who made the grace of supernatural adoption in Jesus Christ fructify the most” (Christ in His Mysteries, p. 55).
(2) It enables us to adore the mystery of the Divine Paternity within the Trinity. In its most sublime manifestations, the Gift of Piety makes us penetrate the mystery of the intimate life of God by giving us a most vivid awareness, filled with respect and adoration, of the divine paternity of the Father in relation to the Word. The soul rejoices and loves to repeat, in the depth of its soul, sublime words such as those of the Gloria: “We give Thee thanks for Thy great glory.” It is the worship and adoration of God for His own sake and without any consideration of the benefit the soul has received from Him.
(3) It arouses in the soul a filial abandonment in the arms of the Heavenly Father. The soul abandons itself calmly and confidently to the heavenly Father. It is not preoccupied with any care, and nothing is capable of disturbing its unalterable peace, even for an instant. The soul asks nothing and rejects nothing in regard to health or sickness, a long life or a short life, consolations or aridity, strength or weakness, persecution or praise, activity or idleness. It abandons itself completely in the arms of God, and asks only to glorify Him with all its powers.
(4) It makes us see in our neighbor a son of God and a brother in Jesus Christ. This is a natural consequence of our adoptive filiation (sonship) through grace. If God is our Father, we are all sons of God and brothers in Jesus Christ, either actually or potentially. But with what forcefulness do souls dominated by the Gift of Piety perceive and live this sublime truth! They love all men with a great tenderness because they see them as beloved brothers in Christ, and they would like to shower upon them every kind of grace and blessing.
(5) It moves us to love and devotion for the persons and things related to the Fatherhood of God or Christian brotherhood. The Gift of Piety perfects and intensifies the soul’s filial love for the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom it considers as a tender Mother and in whom it has all the confidence that a child has in the best of mothers. The soul tenderly loves the angels and the saints, whom it considers as its older brothers who already enjoy the continual presence of the Father in the eternal mansion of the children of God; it has a tender affection for the souls in Purgatory, its suffering brothers, whom it assists by frequent suffrages; a tender care for the members of the Church on Earth, especially the Pope and the clergy. It looks upon all lawful superiors as fathers and serves and obeys them in everything that is non-sinful with true filial joy.
It wishes to see its country imbued with the spirit of Jesus Christ in its laws and customs, and for it would willingly shed its blood or suffer the flames like another St. Joan of Arc. It has a deep veneration for Sacred Scripture, and reads it as if it were a letter sent from Heaven by the Father, to tell it what it must do or what is desired of it. It has a great respect for all holy things, especially those used for the cult and service of God (sacred vessels, monstrances, and so on), viewing them as articles for the service and glorification of the Father. St. Thérèse was delighted with her office of sacristan, which permitted her to touch the sacred vessels and to see her face reflected inside the chalices.
These are the chief effects of the Gift of Piety if it is cultivated and allowed to develop unhindered in our souls. Yet, we must state again, that the Gifts of the Holy Ghost can only really work in our souls after a long apprenticeship in the practice of Virtues—this cannot be by-passed.
Opposed Vices
The vices opposed to the Gift of Piety can be grouped under the generic name of impiety. St. Gregory the Great names hardness of heart as opposed to the Gift of Piety since it is born of a disorderly love of self. Father Lallemant has written admirably on this hardness of heart:
“The vice that is opposed to the Gift of Piety is hardness of heart, which springs out of an ill-regulated love of ourselves; for this love makes us naturally sensible only to our own interests, so that nothing affects us except in reference to ourselves. We behold the offences done against God without tears, and the miseries of our neighbor without compassion; we are unwilling to inconvenience ourselves to oblige others; we cannot put up with their faults; we inveigh against them on the slightest ground, and harbor in our hearts feelings of bitterness and resentment, hatred and antipathy, against them.”
On the other hand, the more charity or love of God a soul possesses, the more sensitive it is to the interests of God and those of its neighbor.
This hardness is worst in the great ones of the world, in rich misers and pleasure-seekers, and in those who never soften their hearts by exercises of piety and familiarity with spiritual things. It is also often to be found amongst men of learning, who do not join devotion to knowledge and who, to disguise this fault from themselves, call it strength of mind; but the truly learned have been the most pious of men, as St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure, St. Bernard; and of the Society, Laynez, Suarez, Bellarmine, and Lessius.
A soul which cannot weep for its sins, at least with tears of the heart, is full either of impiety or of impurity, one or the other, as is generally the case with those whose heart is hardened. It is a great misfortune when natural and acquired talents are more esteemed in religion than piety. You will sometimes see religious, and perhaps superiors, who will loudly declare that they attach much more value to a practical active mind than to all those "petty devotions", which, they say, are all very well for women, but are unbecoming in a strong mind, meaning by strength of mind that hardness of heart, which is so opposed to the spirit of Piety. They ought to bear in mind that devotion is an act of Religion, or a fruit of Religion and of Charity, and consequently that it is to be preferred to all the moral virtues, Religion following immediately in order of dignity the theological virtues.
The Means to Cultivate This Gift
In addition to the general means for disposing oneself for the activity of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, such as practice of the moral virtues, prayer, fidelity to grace, and so on, the following practices are more immediately related to the Gift of Piety:
(a) Cultivating the spirit of adopted children of God. There are few truths that have been repeated as often in the Gospel as the truth that God is our Father. Our Lord repeats this truth fourteen times in the Sermon on the Mount alone. This doctrine of our adopted sonship is so predominant in the New Testament, that some writers have seen it as the most basic and essential theme of Christianity. God is our Creator and will be our Judge at the moment of death; but, before all else and above all else, He is always our Father. The Gift of Fear of the Lord arouses in us a respectful reverence for God, but this is in no way incompatible with the tenderness and filial confidence inspired in us by the Gift of Piety.
(b) Cultivating the spirit of universal brotherhood toward all men. This is, as we have seen, the principal secondary effect of the Gift of Piety. Even before it is practiced in all its plenitude, by the activation of the Gift, we can prepare ourselves for it with help of ordinary grace. We should strive ever to increase the capacity of our love so that we may embrace the whole world with the arms of love. We are all sons of God and brothers of Christ.
(c) Considering all things, even purely material things, as pertaining to the house of the Father. What a profoundly religious sense is discovered in all things by those souls that are ruled by the Gift of Piety! St. Francis of Assisi ardently embraced a tree, because it was “his brother” in God. St. Paul of the Cross would become ecstatic over the little flowers in his garden, because to him they spoke of the heavenly Father. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux broke into tears of tenderness when she contemplated a hen gathering its chicks under its wings and remembered the Gospel image by which Christ wanted to show us the sentiments of His divine heart, even toward ungrateful and rebellious children (cf. Matthew 23:37).
How differently we could evaluate created things, even purely material things, if we would strive to discover, under the light of Faith, the religious meaning hidden within them. All creation is truly the house of the Father, and all things in it belong to Him. With what delicacy would we act toward even purely material things! We would discover in them something divine, which would make us respect them as if they were sacred vessels. Such a Christian attitude, so holy and meritorious in the eyes of God, would distance us from sin, which is always some kind of sacrilege against God or the things of God! Our whole life would be elevated to a loftier plane, reaching sublime heights under the most loving gaze of our heavenly Father.
(d) Cultivating the spirit of complete abandonment to God. We will not attain this spirit perfectly until the Gift of Piety is intensely actuated in us, but we should try to do what we can to cultivate total abandonment to God. To this end, we should be fully convinced that, since God is our Father, it is impossible that any evil could befall us unless He permits it.
For that reason, we should strive to remain indifferent in regard to health or sickness, the shortness or the length of our life, peace or war, consolation or aridity in our spiritual life, and so on, constantly repeating our acts of surrender and abandonment to His most holy will. The fiat, the “yes,” the “whatever Thou dost desire, Lord” should be the basic attitude of the Christian toward his God, in a complete filial abandonment to His divine and paternal will, which can only desire for us the greatest good, even though at times it might appear to be an evil in the sight of our purely human and natural gaze.
Article 21
Sunday, May 17th
PREPARING FOR PENTECOST―EXAMINING THE GIFTS
#1 Living in Fear!
Sunday, May 17th
PREPARING FOR PENTECOST―EXAMINING THE GIFTS
#1 Living in Fear!
Unwrapped Gifts
As we approach the great and magnificent feast of Pentecost, let us spend these last seven days examining the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost. These Gifts are little known and misunderstood by most people. What could be a massive advantage to us in the quest of our salvation, are not even unwrapped and lay dormant. We shall very briefly look at the Gifts as a whole, and then embark upon examining each of the seven Gifts over the remaining seven days before Pentecost.
God’s Gifts of Action
St. Thomas tells us that God may act in us in two ways:
(a) by accommodating Himself to the human mode of action. This is what He does in the case of the Virtues, which are infused into our soul at Baptism (Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance, etc). He helps us to reflect, to seek the best means to reach our end. In order to supernaturalize these operations He gives us actual graces, but leaves us free to take the initiative according to the dictates of prudence, or of reason enlightened by Faith. It is therefore WE who act under the impulse of grace.
(b) But, by means of the Gifts, God acts in a supra-human way. He Himself takes the initiative. Before we have had the time to reflect and consult the dictates of prudence, He sends us divine intuitions, lights and inspirations which act in us; without deliberation on our part, but never without our consent. This grace, which sweetly invites and effectively obtains our consent, may be called operating grace. Under its influence, it is God Who primarily acts in us, we are rather passive than active; our activity consists chiefly in freely consenting to ‘the operation of God, in allowing ourselves to be led by the Holy Ghost, and in promptly and generously following His inspirations.
Who Will Do Better?
Who will do better a job—you or God? Of course God will! Yet even though the Gifts were infused in a largely dormant way at our Baptism, and made more active at our Confirmation—it is only when we have reached certain spiritual heights that they flourish and bring much and magnificent fruit. They are like seven seeds that have been planted and need cultivating so that they grow to be great trees. If we neglect to play our part and cultivate them, then it is to our loss—perhaps even eternal loss!
The Gifts Are Superior To Virtues
By the light of this fundamental principle, we will better understand the differences existing between the Gifts and the Virtues:
(a) The Virtues incline us to act in accordance with the nature of our faculties: thus, with the help of the grace we receive, we inquire, reason and work as we do in actions of a purely natural order. The Virtues are therefore energies that are primarily and directly active. The Gifts on the contrary impart to us a docility and a receptiveness that enable us to receive and follow the motions of operating grace. This grace moves our faculties to act, without however taking away their liberty, so that the soul, as St. Thomas tells us, is more passive than active, “is not the mover, but the thing moved.”
(b) In the case of the Virtues, we act according to the principles and rules of supernatural prudence. We are obliged to reflect, deliberate, take counsel, make choices, etc. Under the influence of the Gifts, we let ourselves be led by a divine inspiration which suddenly and without any reflection on our part vigorously urges us to do such or such a thing.
(c) Since the share of grace is far greater in the case of the Gifts than in that of the Virtues, the acts performed under the influence of the former are, all other circumstances being the same, more perfect than those performed under the action of the Virtues. It is due to the Gifts that the third degree of the Virtues is practiced and heroic acts performed.
Analogies To Help Understand
Various comparisons are used to give a better understanding of this doctrine:
(a) To practice virtue is to row, to use the Gifts is to sail: in this latter way one advances more rapidly and with less effort,
(b) The child who with his mother’s help takes a few steps forward stands for the Christian who practices the Virtues with the help of grace; whilst the child whom the mother takes in her arms to make him advance more rapidly stands for the Christian who makes use of the Gifts by corresponding to operating grace.
(c) The artist who strikes the strings of a harp to produce harmonious sounds represents the Christian who practices the Virtues; but, when the Holy Ghost comes Himself to touch the strings of the heart, the soul is then under the influence of the Gifts. This is a comparison employed by the Fathers to picture the action of Jesus upon Mary’s soul: “A most melodious harp used by Jesus to delight the Eternal Father.”
How and When Do the Gifts Work?
We receive the Gifts of the Holy Ghost at the same time that we receive the state of grace. They are then merely dormant supernatural faculties. When we come to the age of reason and our heart turns towards God, we begin, under the influence of actual grace, to use our whole supernatural organism, the Gifts of the Holy Ghost included. It is indeed incredible that these Gifts should remain unavailing and unavailable during a long period of our life. However, in order that the Gifts may attain their normal and complete development, we must have previously practiced the Moral Virtues (Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude and all the others) during a notable period of time, varying according to the providential designs of God for our life and our cooperation with His grace.
The practice of the moral virtues is first required in order to cultivate the gifts. The practice of virtue is like an entrance exam to the Gifts. Such is the teaching of St. Thomas: “The moral and the intellectual virtues precede the gifts, since man, through being well subordinate to his own reason, is disposed to be rightly subordinate to God.” It stand to reason that in order to acquire that divine docility which the Gifts confer, one must have previously conquered one’s passions and vices and formed habits of prudence, of humility, of obedience, of meekness, of chastity. How can one discern, accept and follow with docility the inspirations of grace, when the soul is troubled by the prudence of the flesh, by pride, willfulness, anger and lust! Before being led by divine impulses, one must needs have followed, first of all, the rules of Christian prudence; before obeying the motions of grace, one must needs have observed the commandments and triumphed over pride. It is, in fact, the Moral Virtues that, little by little, make the soul docile and dispose it to enjoy that perfect docility required for the full exercise of the Gifts. In the meantime, the Gifts grow as habits, together with habitual grace, and frequently, unknown to us, join their energies to those of the Virtues to make us perform our supernatural acts.
There are even times when, through His operating grace, the Holy Ghost enkindles temporarily an unwonted fervor of soul which is a kind of passing contemplation. What fervent soul has not at times felt these sudden inspirations of grace, when all it had to do was to receive the divine motion and follow it?—like a shove from behind, or a gust of wind in the sails. It may have been while reading the Gospels, or some devout book; on the occasion of some Communion, or of a visit to the Blessed Sacrament; at the time of some retreat, or when making a choice of a state in life, at the time of ordination or religious profession, that it seemed to us that the grace of God sweetly and strongly carried us along.
So…
From what has so far been said, we can conclude that the Gifts of the Holy Ghost are supernatural habits which impart such docility to our faculties that they promptly comply with the inspirations of grace. However, as we shall soon explain, this docility is at the outset but mere spark which needs to be cultivated to attain its full development. Besides, it is never exercised, except when God bestows that actual grace which we call operating grace. On such occasions, the soul, whilst passive under the action of God, is most active in accomplishing His Will, and so, one may say that the Gifts are at once sources of suppleness and of energy, of docility and of power, which render the soul more passive under the Hand of God, and at the same time more active and more powerful in His service and in the practice of good works.
The Seven Gifts
We find the names and the number of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost in a classic passage of the prophet Isaias: “There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him: the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness [piety]. And He shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord” (Isaias 11:1-3).
What Isaias calls “spirit,” the technical language of theology calls “Gifts.” The Holy Ghost who dwells in us when we possess the grace of God, this sweet Guest of our soul who masterfully directs our spiritual life, has desired to establish in the different parts of our being those mysterious realities, the Gifts by which He communicates with us and influences each and every one of our human faculties.
These Seven Gifts sound very much like virtues that we may have—but they are not virtues. Their role is to perfect the virtues, strengthen them, raise them to superhuman levels. They are superior to and more perfect than our virtues, but they work in harmony with them—often pushing them beyond imagined limits.
The gifts of the Holy Ghost are of two kinds: (1) the first are specially intended for the sanctification of the person who receives them; (2) the second, more properly called charismata, are extraordinary favors granted for the help of another, favors, too, which do not sanctify by themselves, and may even be separated from sanctifying grace. Those of the first class are accounted seven in number, as enumerated by Isaias (11:2-3), where the prophet sees and describes them in the Messias. They are the gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety (godliness), and fear of the Lord.
The Gift of Wisdom, helps us see things from a more overall and general viewpoint—seeing things as God sees them and thereby detaching us from the world, makes us relish and love only the things of Heaven.
The Gift of Understanding helps us to grasp the truths of religion as far as is necessary.
The Gift of Counsel springs from supernatural prudence, and enables us to see and choose correctly what will help most to the glory of God and our own salvation.
By the Gift of Fortitude we receive courage to overcome the obstacles and difficulties that arise in the practice of our religious duties.
The Gift of Knowledge points out to us the path to follow and the dangers to avoid in order to reach Heaven.
The Gift of Piety, by inspiring us with a tender and filial confidence in God, makes us joyfully embrace all that pertains to His service.
Lastly, the Gift of Fear fills us with a sovereign respect for God, and makes us dread, above all things, to offend Him.
Fear of the Lord
It is with the lowest Gift on the totem pole that we will begin—Fear of the Lord. Holy Scripture tells us that “The fear of God is the beginning of his love” (Ecclesiasticus 25:16) and “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7). Our two faculties of the soul are the intellect (mind) and the will (heart). The highest level or pinnacle for each of them is love for the heart (will) and wisdom for the mind (intellect). Fear is the necessary foundation or platform for both love and wisdom.
God is love—”He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is charity” (1 John 4:8)—and we must fear losing that love or charity of God: “The Lord spoke to me, saying: ‘Call together the people unto Me, that they may hear My words, and may learn to fear Me all the time that they live on the Earth, and may teach their children!’” (Deuteronomy 4:10). “That thou mayest fear the Lord thy God, and keep all His commandments and precepts … Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and shalt serve Him only” (Deuteronomy 6:2; 6:13). “I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you shall fear: fear ye Him, who after He hath killed, hath power to cast into Hell. Yea, I say to you, fear Him!” (Luke 12:4-5).
Various Kinds of Fear
How can there be a Gift of Fear? Is not charity at the root of all the Gifts? And do not the Scriptures say that perfect love excludes fear? How is it possible, then, that fear of God can come from the profound and divine root of charity?
In order to understand this we must do a little analyzing. There are various kinds of fear: there is fear of pain and fear of blame; there is also a fear of the world that makes us conform to the world and forget the holy commandments of God and commit sin — fear, that is, of some earthly, temporal evil. How many there are who separate themselves from God through such earthly fear!
Worldly Fear
Worldly or mundane fear is that which dreads the loss of temporal goods, such as riches and honors. Innocent in itself, it becomes injurious when we prefer to sin rather than lose these goods. History is replete with cruelties that worldly fear has caused.
It is the fear of a Pilate who condemned Jesus to death because he feared to lose the esteem of Caesar. It is the fear of a Herod who put the Holy Innocents to death, because he feared for his crown. It is the fear of a Pharaoh who dreads the multiplication of the Israelites in Egypt. It is the fear of thousands of young men and women today, who deny their religion and abandon their most sacred duties, the frequentation of the Sacraments and the sanctification of Sunday, on account of human respect.
Carnal Fear
Carnal fear is that, of bodily inconveniences, fear of sickness or of death carried to the extent of losing the goods of the soul. It is the fear of a Peter denying his Master, lest he meet the same fate. Ah, how many Peters has the course of ages not seen? It is indeed lamentable how the sight of torture, or the fear of death, turns the mind from the thought of Heaven, and to preserve the body, the soul is lost: “For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; for he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall save it” (Luke 9:24).
This is a common fear. Do we not see it every day dictating recourse to sinful means in order to avoid the ordinary inconveniences of life? We witness it many times daily—perhaps from ourselves too! A lie here and there to avoid something, or to get an advantage; afraid to correct others for fear of reprisals or fear of losing one’s popularity; sleeping on the job and misusing our employer’s time; conforming to the world for fear of being an outcast, etc., etc.
Servile Fear
There is another fear that keeps us from sin and brings us close to God, but which is imperfect: theologians call it “servile fear,” the fear of punishment. Servile fear is the fear of God because of the punishment He dishes out to sinners; it is the avoiding of sin purely and simply because there is a Hell. There is no doubt that this fear keeps us many times from falling into sin; but the motive is of an inferior order, and without the nobility proper to love. Servile fear is not the Gift of Fear of God.
Filial Fear
There is another fear that is called filial. It consists in the repugnance that the soul feels at the thought of being separated from God. This fear comes from love. It is true that perfect love casts out a certain type of fear, but there is also a fear that is, we might say, the basis of love. Whosoever desires, whosoever loves, experiences a profound fear of being separated from the loved one, of displeasing him. Love cannot be conceived of without this fear. One who loves deeply has a fear that is above all other fears — fear of separation from the beloved. This is the Gift of Fear which is directed by the Holy Ghost.
In a more perfect sense filial fear is the beginning of wisdom, because, in order to possess divine wisdom, we need to unite ourselves so closely to God that nothing can separate us from Him. The Gift of Fear unites us with God in this way. It hinders us from ever separating ourselves from the Beloved, and in that sense it is the beginning of wisdom.
Fear of the Lord Delivers From Fears
The Fear of the Lord is necessary that we may work out our salvation; it is necessary for us lest we degrade ourselves to the level of brute creation. It is the only guardian of our liberty and of our honor, because it alone is capable of delivering us from all other fear, from servile, worldly and carnal fear.
The first service rendered by the Gift of Holy Fear is to deliver us from this shameful tyranny. Servile gives way to filial fear, that fear to offend God because He is so good; it is always accompanied by confidence and love. As for worldly and carnal fear they no longer possess an illegitimate dominion, as filial fear either absorbs or banishes them. It regrets, deplores one and only one thing—sin.
This Fear of the Lord is, moreover, the only safeguard of that for which the whole world strives, liberty. Man cannot live without fear. If he does not fear God, he fears creatures, and if he fears a creature he is a creature’s slave; for, his freedom and his dignity belong to him whom he fears. To fear aught else except God, is to be under the yoke of tyranny. This is not understood by those who pretend to freedom by shaking off the yoke of God. In vain are revolutions begun; they but plunge their slaves into deeper distress. He alone is free who fears God; for, where the Spirit of God is, there, too, is liberty. Hence, we should only “fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
The Spirit of God unites us to Himself in such a way that He infuses in us an instinctive, profound, efficacious horror of being separated from God. This fear overrides all other fears.
The Gift of Fear in the Saints
Many of the great deeds in the lives of the saints were inspired by the Gift of Fear. St. Louis Gonzaga wept and scourged himself when he had to confess some little faults that we find it hard to believe were really sins. Why such tears from the saint? Why such grief? Because he examined so closely, under the influence of the Gift of Fear, the magnitude of those faults which to us seem insignificant; because he saw evil in them, a sign of separation from God. They were certainly very slight, but is anything really insignificant in love? When one loves passionately, does not the slightest danger of being removed from the beloved tear the heart to pieces?
This same Gift of Fear influenced St. Juliana of Falconieri, who trembled on hearing the word “sin,” who would faint when she heard of a crime being committed. This is something higher, something deeper, something much more perfect, than we are able to attain by our natural faculties; it is a supernatural effect which the Holy Ghost produces in souls so that they can look with horror at sin, and thus cling with intensity to God.
Degrees of Fear of the Lord
Of course there are degrees in the Gifts, as there are degrees in the Virtues. In the natural order, any faculty can be developed by practice, the acts performed by it becoming all the while stronger, more perfect. The intelligence of a student on the threshold of knowledge is not of the same degree as that of one who has spent his whole life in serious and profound study. The natural faculties grow with exercise, and as they grow we distinguish new degrees of them. The same thing happens in the supernatural order. The Virtues have their degrees, and so do the Gifts.
The gift of the fear of God, in the first degree, produces horror for sin and strength to overcome temptations. By means of the virtue we keep away from sin and conquer temptations, but with many struggles, many failures. We know from sad experience that our spiritual efforts do not always result in victory. How many times we are overcome; and even when we finally come out victorious, how conscious we are of deficiencies, hesitations, effort! With the Gift of Fear, victory is rapid and perfect. How often have we known this experience in the depths of our souls — the quick, instinctive impulse in the presence of temptation to leave the danger at once! It was the Holy Ghost moving us with His Gift of Fear.
In the second degree of this gift, the soul not only stays away from sin, but clings to God with profound reverence, avoiding even insignificant acts that are signs of imperfection. The profound respect of the saints for everything sacred — the Church, the Gospel, the priest — is the effect of the Gift of Fear. Everything divine is reverenced. The soul under the power of this gift does not want to fail in the least detail in respect and veneration for God.
A marvelous effect is produced in the third degree of this gift: total detachment from the things of this Earth. That is why theologians say that this gift produces the first of the beatitudes: that of poverty of spirit. When we cling to God and avoid all that could separate us from Him, in such a way that exterior things lose their fascination for us, then the soul knows it is free, and it experiences the divine detachment characteristic of this stage of the spiritual life; it reaches the glorious height of which Jesus Christ spoke when He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3). The disinterestedness of St. Francis of Assisi, who considered all the things of Earth as nothing; the disinterestedness to which Christ counseled the young man of the Gospel — “If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor.... and come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:21. Mark 10:21; Luke 18:22): such disinterestedness as this is the fruit of the divine Gift of Fear.
As we approach the great and magnificent feast of Pentecost, let us spend these last seven days examining the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost. These Gifts are little known and misunderstood by most people. What could be a massive advantage to us in the quest of our salvation, are not even unwrapped and lay dormant. We shall very briefly look at the Gifts as a whole, and then embark upon examining each of the seven Gifts over the remaining seven days before Pentecost.
God’s Gifts of Action
St. Thomas tells us that God may act in us in two ways:
(a) by accommodating Himself to the human mode of action. This is what He does in the case of the Virtues, which are infused into our soul at Baptism (Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance, etc). He helps us to reflect, to seek the best means to reach our end. In order to supernaturalize these operations He gives us actual graces, but leaves us free to take the initiative according to the dictates of prudence, or of reason enlightened by Faith. It is therefore WE who act under the impulse of grace.
(b) But, by means of the Gifts, God acts in a supra-human way. He Himself takes the initiative. Before we have had the time to reflect and consult the dictates of prudence, He sends us divine intuitions, lights and inspirations which act in us; without deliberation on our part, but never without our consent. This grace, which sweetly invites and effectively obtains our consent, may be called operating grace. Under its influence, it is God Who primarily acts in us, we are rather passive than active; our activity consists chiefly in freely consenting to ‘the operation of God, in allowing ourselves to be led by the Holy Ghost, and in promptly and generously following His inspirations.
Who Will Do Better?
Who will do better a job—you or God? Of course God will! Yet even though the Gifts were infused in a largely dormant way at our Baptism, and made more active at our Confirmation—it is only when we have reached certain spiritual heights that they flourish and bring much and magnificent fruit. They are like seven seeds that have been planted and need cultivating so that they grow to be great trees. If we neglect to play our part and cultivate them, then it is to our loss—perhaps even eternal loss!
The Gifts Are Superior To Virtues
By the light of this fundamental principle, we will better understand the differences existing between the Gifts and the Virtues:
(a) The Virtues incline us to act in accordance with the nature of our faculties: thus, with the help of the grace we receive, we inquire, reason and work as we do in actions of a purely natural order. The Virtues are therefore energies that are primarily and directly active. The Gifts on the contrary impart to us a docility and a receptiveness that enable us to receive and follow the motions of operating grace. This grace moves our faculties to act, without however taking away their liberty, so that the soul, as St. Thomas tells us, is more passive than active, “is not the mover, but the thing moved.”
(b) In the case of the Virtues, we act according to the principles and rules of supernatural prudence. We are obliged to reflect, deliberate, take counsel, make choices, etc. Under the influence of the Gifts, we let ourselves be led by a divine inspiration which suddenly and without any reflection on our part vigorously urges us to do such or such a thing.
(c) Since the share of grace is far greater in the case of the Gifts than in that of the Virtues, the acts performed under the influence of the former are, all other circumstances being the same, more perfect than those performed under the action of the Virtues. It is due to the Gifts that the third degree of the Virtues is practiced and heroic acts performed.
Analogies To Help Understand
Various comparisons are used to give a better understanding of this doctrine:
(a) To practice virtue is to row, to use the Gifts is to sail: in this latter way one advances more rapidly and with less effort,
(b) The child who with his mother’s help takes a few steps forward stands for the Christian who practices the Virtues with the help of grace; whilst the child whom the mother takes in her arms to make him advance more rapidly stands for the Christian who makes use of the Gifts by corresponding to operating grace.
(c) The artist who strikes the strings of a harp to produce harmonious sounds represents the Christian who practices the Virtues; but, when the Holy Ghost comes Himself to touch the strings of the heart, the soul is then under the influence of the Gifts. This is a comparison employed by the Fathers to picture the action of Jesus upon Mary’s soul: “A most melodious harp used by Jesus to delight the Eternal Father.”
How and When Do the Gifts Work?
We receive the Gifts of the Holy Ghost at the same time that we receive the state of grace. They are then merely dormant supernatural faculties. When we come to the age of reason and our heart turns towards God, we begin, under the influence of actual grace, to use our whole supernatural organism, the Gifts of the Holy Ghost included. It is indeed incredible that these Gifts should remain unavailing and unavailable during a long period of our life. However, in order that the Gifts may attain their normal and complete development, we must have previously practiced the Moral Virtues (Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude and all the others) during a notable period of time, varying according to the providential designs of God for our life and our cooperation with His grace.
The practice of the moral virtues is first required in order to cultivate the gifts. The practice of virtue is like an entrance exam to the Gifts. Such is the teaching of St. Thomas: “The moral and the intellectual virtues precede the gifts, since man, through being well subordinate to his own reason, is disposed to be rightly subordinate to God.” It stand to reason that in order to acquire that divine docility which the Gifts confer, one must have previously conquered one’s passions and vices and formed habits of prudence, of humility, of obedience, of meekness, of chastity. How can one discern, accept and follow with docility the inspirations of grace, when the soul is troubled by the prudence of the flesh, by pride, willfulness, anger and lust! Before being led by divine impulses, one must needs have followed, first of all, the rules of Christian prudence; before obeying the motions of grace, one must needs have observed the commandments and triumphed over pride. It is, in fact, the Moral Virtues that, little by little, make the soul docile and dispose it to enjoy that perfect docility required for the full exercise of the Gifts. In the meantime, the Gifts grow as habits, together with habitual grace, and frequently, unknown to us, join their energies to those of the Virtues to make us perform our supernatural acts.
There are even times when, through His operating grace, the Holy Ghost enkindles temporarily an unwonted fervor of soul which is a kind of passing contemplation. What fervent soul has not at times felt these sudden inspirations of grace, when all it had to do was to receive the divine motion and follow it?—like a shove from behind, or a gust of wind in the sails. It may have been while reading the Gospels, or some devout book; on the occasion of some Communion, or of a visit to the Blessed Sacrament; at the time of some retreat, or when making a choice of a state in life, at the time of ordination or religious profession, that it seemed to us that the grace of God sweetly and strongly carried us along.
So…
From what has so far been said, we can conclude that the Gifts of the Holy Ghost are supernatural habits which impart such docility to our faculties that they promptly comply with the inspirations of grace. However, as we shall soon explain, this docility is at the outset but mere spark which needs to be cultivated to attain its full development. Besides, it is never exercised, except when God bestows that actual grace which we call operating grace. On such occasions, the soul, whilst passive under the action of God, is most active in accomplishing His Will, and so, one may say that the Gifts are at once sources of suppleness and of energy, of docility and of power, which render the soul more passive under the Hand of God, and at the same time more active and more powerful in His service and in the practice of good works.
The Seven Gifts
We find the names and the number of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost in a classic passage of the prophet Isaias: “There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him: the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness [piety]. And He shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord” (Isaias 11:1-3).
What Isaias calls “spirit,” the technical language of theology calls “Gifts.” The Holy Ghost who dwells in us when we possess the grace of God, this sweet Guest of our soul who masterfully directs our spiritual life, has desired to establish in the different parts of our being those mysterious realities, the Gifts by which He communicates with us and influences each and every one of our human faculties.
These Seven Gifts sound very much like virtues that we may have—but they are not virtues. Their role is to perfect the virtues, strengthen them, raise them to superhuman levels. They are superior to and more perfect than our virtues, but they work in harmony with them—often pushing them beyond imagined limits.
The gifts of the Holy Ghost are of two kinds: (1) the first are specially intended for the sanctification of the person who receives them; (2) the second, more properly called charismata, are extraordinary favors granted for the help of another, favors, too, which do not sanctify by themselves, and may even be separated from sanctifying grace. Those of the first class are accounted seven in number, as enumerated by Isaias (11:2-3), where the prophet sees and describes them in the Messias. They are the gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety (godliness), and fear of the Lord.
The Gift of Wisdom, helps us see things from a more overall and general viewpoint—seeing things as God sees them and thereby detaching us from the world, makes us relish and love only the things of Heaven.
The Gift of Understanding helps us to grasp the truths of religion as far as is necessary.
The Gift of Counsel springs from supernatural prudence, and enables us to see and choose correctly what will help most to the glory of God and our own salvation.
By the Gift of Fortitude we receive courage to overcome the obstacles and difficulties that arise in the practice of our religious duties.
The Gift of Knowledge points out to us the path to follow and the dangers to avoid in order to reach Heaven.
The Gift of Piety, by inspiring us with a tender and filial confidence in God, makes us joyfully embrace all that pertains to His service.
Lastly, the Gift of Fear fills us with a sovereign respect for God, and makes us dread, above all things, to offend Him.
Fear of the Lord
It is with the lowest Gift on the totem pole that we will begin—Fear of the Lord. Holy Scripture tells us that “The fear of God is the beginning of his love” (Ecclesiasticus 25:16) and “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7). Our two faculties of the soul are the intellect (mind) and the will (heart). The highest level or pinnacle for each of them is love for the heart (will) and wisdom for the mind (intellect). Fear is the necessary foundation or platform for both love and wisdom.
God is love—”He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is charity” (1 John 4:8)—and we must fear losing that love or charity of God: “The Lord spoke to me, saying: ‘Call together the people unto Me, that they may hear My words, and may learn to fear Me all the time that they live on the Earth, and may teach their children!’” (Deuteronomy 4:10). “That thou mayest fear the Lord thy God, and keep all His commandments and precepts … Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and shalt serve Him only” (Deuteronomy 6:2; 6:13). “I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you shall fear: fear ye Him, who after He hath killed, hath power to cast into Hell. Yea, I say to you, fear Him!” (Luke 12:4-5).
Various Kinds of Fear
How can there be a Gift of Fear? Is not charity at the root of all the Gifts? And do not the Scriptures say that perfect love excludes fear? How is it possible, then, that fear of God can come from the profound and divine root of charity?
In order to understand this we must do a little analyzing. There are various kinds of fear: there is fear of pain and fear of blame; there is also a fear of the world that makes us conform to the world and forget the holy commandments of God and commit sin — fear, that is, of some earthly, temporal evil. How many there are who separate themselves from God through such earthly fear!
Worldly Fear
Worldly or mundane fear is that which dreads the loss of temporal goods, such as riches and honors. Innocent in itself, it becomes injurious when we prefer to sin rather than lose these goods. History is replete with cruelties that worldly fear has caused.
It is the fear of a Pilate who condemned Jesus to death because he feared to lose the esteem of Caesar. It is the fear of a Herod who put the Holy Innocents to death, because he feared for his crown. It is the fear of a Pharaoh who dreads the multiplication of the Israelites in Egypt. It is the fear of thousands of young men and women today, who deny their religion and abandon their most sacred duties, the frequentation of the Sacraments and the sanctification of Sunday, on account of human respect.
Carnal Fear
Carnal fear is that, of bodily inconveniences, fear of sickness or of death carried to the extent of losing the goods of the soul. It is the fear of a Peter denying his Master, lest he meet the same fate. Ah, how many Peters has the course of ages not seen? It is indeed lamentable how the sight of torture, or the fear of death, turns the mind from the thought of Heaven, and to preserve the body, the soul is lost: “For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; for he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall save it” (Luke 9:24).
This is a common fear. Do we not see it every day dictating recourse to sinful means in order to avoid the ordinary inconveniences of life? We witness it many times daily—perhaps from ourselves too! A lie here and there to avoid something, or to get an advantage; afraid to correct others for fear of reprisals or fear of losing one’s popularity; sleeping on the job and misusing our employer’s time; conforming to the world for fear of being an outcast, etc., etc.
Servile Fear
There is another fear that keeps us from sin and brings us close to God, but which is imperfect: theologians call it “servile fear,” the fear of punishment. Servile fear is the fear of God because of the punishment He dishes out to sinners; it is the avoiding of sin purely and simply because there is a Hell. There is no doubt that this fear keeps us many times from falling into sin; but the motive is of an inferior order, and without the nobility proper to love. Servile fear is not the Gift of Fear of God.
Filial Fear
There is another fear that is called filial. It consists in the repugnance that the soul feels at the thought of being separated from God. This fear comes from love. It is true that perfect love casts out a certain type of fear, but there is also a fear that is, we might say, the basis of love. Whosoever desires, whosoever loves, experiences a profound fear of being separated from the loved one, of displeasing him. Love cannot be conceived of without this fear. One who loves deeply has a fear that is above all other fears — fear of separation from the beloved. This is the Gift of Fear which is directed by the Holy Ghost.
In a more perfect sense filial fear is the beginning of wisdom, because, in order to possess divine wisdom, we need to unite ourselves so closely to God that nothing can separate us from Him. The Gift of Fear unites us with God in this way. It hinders us from ever separating ourselves from the Beloved, and in that sense it is the beginning of wisdom.
Fear of the Lord Delivers From Fears
The Fear of the Lord is necessary that we may work out our salvation; it is necessary for us lest we degrade ourselves to the level of brute creation. It is the only guardian of our liberty and of our honor, because it alone is capable of delivering us from all other fear, from servile, worldly and carnal fear.
The first service rendered by the Gift of Holy Fear is to deliver us from this shameful tyranny. Servile gives way to filial fear, that fear to offend God because He is so good; it is always accompanied by confidence and love. As for worldly and carnal fear they no longer possess an illegitimate dominion, as filial fear either absorbs or banishes them. It regrets, deplores one and only one thing—sin.
This Fear of the Lord is, moreover, the only safeguard of that for which the whole world strives, liberty. Man cannot live without fear. If he does not fear God, he fears creatures, and if he fears a creature he is a creature’s slave; for, his freedom and his dignity belong to him whom he fears. To fear aught else except God, is to be under the yoke of tyranny. This is not understood by those who pretend to freedom by shaking off the yoke of God. In vain are revolutions begun; they but plunge their slaves into deeper distress. He alone is free who fears God; for, where the Spirit of God is, there, too, is liberty. Hence, we should only “fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
The Spirit of God unites us to Himself in such a way that He infuses in us an instinctive, profound, efficacious horror of being separated from God. This fear overrides all other fears.
The Gift of Fear in the Saints
Many of the great deeds in the lives of the saints were inspired by the Gift of Fear. St. Louis Gonzaga wept and scourged himself when he had to confess some little faults that we find it hard to believe were really sins. Why such tears from the saint? Why such grief? Because he examined so closely, under the influence of the Gift of Fear, the magnitude of those faults which to us seem insignificant; because he saw evil in them, a sign of separation from God. They were certainly very slight, but is anything really insignificant in love? When one loves passionately, does not the slightest danger of being removed from the beloved tear the heart to pieces?
This same Gift of Fear influenced St. Juliana of Falconieri, who trembled on hearing the word “sin,” who would faint when she heard of a crime being committed. This is something higher, something deeper, something much more perfect, than we are able to attain by our natural faculties; it is a supernatural effect which the Holy Ghost produces in souls so that they can look with horror at sin, and thus cling with intensity to God.
Degrees of Fear of the Lord
Of course there are degrees in the Gifts, as there are degrees in the Virtues. In the natural order, any faculty can be developed by practice, the acts performed by it becoming all the while stronger, more perfect. The intelligence of a student on the threshold of knowledge is not of the same degree as that of one who has spent his whole life in serious and profound study. The natural faculties grow with exercise, and as they grow we distinguish new degrees of them. The same thing happens in the supernatural order. The Virtues have their degrees, and so do the Gifts.
The gift of the fear of God, in the first degree, produces horror for sin and strength to overcome temptations. By means of the virtue we keep away from sin and conquer temptations, but with many struggles, many failures. We know from sad experience that our spiritual efforts do not always result in victory. How many times we are overcome; and even when we finally come out victorious, how conscious we are of deficiencies, hesitations, effort! With the Gift of Fear, victory is rapid and perfect. How often have we known this experience in the depths of our souls — the quick, instinctive impulse in the presence of temptation to leave the danger at once! It was the Holy Ghost moving us with His Gift of Fear.
In the second degree of this gift, the soul not only stays away from sin, but clings to God with profound reverence, avoiding even insignificant acts that are signs of imperfection. The profound respect of the saints for everything sacred — the Church, the Gospel, the priest — is the effect of the Gift of Fear. Everything divine is reverenced. The soul under the power of this gift does not want to fail in the least detail in respect and veneration for God.
A marvelous effect is produced in the third degree of this gift: total detachment from the things of this Earth. That is why theologians say that this gift produces the first of the beatitudes: that of poverty of spirit. When we cling to God and avoid all that could separate us from Him, in such a way that exterior things lose their fascination for us, then the soul knows it is free, and it experiences the divine detachment characteristic of this stage of the spiritual life; it reaches the glorious height of which Jesus Christ spoke when He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3). The disinterestedness of St. Francis of Assisi, who considered all the things of Earth as nothing; the disinterestedness to which Christ counseled the young man of the Gospel — “If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor.... and come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:21. Mark 10:21; Luke 18:22): such disinterestedness as this is the fruit of the divine Gift of Fear.
Article 20
Saturday, May 16th
Happy and Sad
Saturday, May 16th
Happy and Sad
Happy and Sad
We are in the season of ‘celebrating’ the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ into Heaven. We may be celebrating it today, but back then, at the time of actual Ascension of Our Lord, there was very little ‘celebrating’ going on! There were a lot of sad faces around on that mountain, after Our Lord had left them behind and was now ‘gone-for-good’! It might have been a ‘good’ thing for Our Lord—going to Heaven, who wouldn’t want that!?! Yet, for the Apostles, this was no ‘heaven’—it was a similar feeling to the one they had when Jesus had been arrested, was tried, tortured and put to death! Their initial reaction was the same—they went back the Upper Room and locked themselves in, out of fear of the Jews.
Our Lady, too, took the least joyful path on that day. According to revelations made to the mystics, she was offered the choice of going to Heaven with Our Lord, or staying upon the Earth to help the fledgling Church get off the ground. Though Heaven would have been the ‘happier’ choice, she chose the ‘sadder’ option and remained behind.
The Hollywood Ascension or the Real Ascension?
In a Hollywood version of the Ascension, things would be portrayed much differently to the real version of the Ascension. Hollywood would focus upon the glittering and beautiful and extraordinary aspect of the Ascension. Heavenly music, heavenly cherubs, bright lights, triumphalism, etc. But rather than being a “launch-pad” for Jesus’ flight to Heaven, the Ascension was the ‘“launch-pad” for the Church’s fight on Earth, and its battles in a war on Earth against the devil, the world and the flesh!
Here is the account of the Ascension from the book The Life of Mary As Seen By The Mystics:
“When all had gathered on the top of the hill, Jesus stood on a large, flat stone and spoke to them with calm affection. Then the Savior spread out His hands and directed His gaze toward Heaven. His whole body became increasingly luminous. The wounds of His hands glistened, and those of His feet shone brightly. A dazzling multicolored circle of light descended from the sky and completely enveloped Him. Then He slowly began to ascend into the air. While the stupefied disciples gazed after Him with intense amazement and awe, His figure became so small and distant that it could scarcely be distinguished, until finally a cloud took Him out of their sight.
“The dazed and shaken disciples were still staring at the sky in complete silence. All who were present bowed their heads and remained thus for some moments. For now, with a profound shock, they fully realized what had just happened to them: their beloved Savior had returned to His Father in Heaven, leaving them to themselves on earth! Some of them were so grieved and heartbroken that they fell to the ground and wept disconsolately, like children. Others began to talk excitedly to one another. Often they looked up into the sky again, as if hoping to catch another glimpse of Jesus. Only Mary, Peter and John were calm and serene, though deeply moved. Then gradually their first sorrow over the sudden separation changed into profound happiness as they understood that their Redeemer was watching over them from the throne of His Father in Heaven, and as they also recalled His promise to be with them always.
“During the Ascension of Christ, the Blessed Virgin underwent a marvelous mystical experience. By the will and power of Almighty God her soul was raised with her divine Son, and she was told to choose between remaining henceforth in the glory of Heaven or returning to the world to guide and assist the new Church. But when she looked down and saw the pitiful condition of the bewildered followers of Christ just after His Ascension, she was stirred by compassion for them and for all mankind, and, by her own free choice and with the blessing of God, Mary returned to help in founding the Church Militant on Earth.” (The Life of Mary As Seen By The Mystics, Raphael Brown).
The Ascension Foretold
Jesus’ farewell talks—at the Last Supper and now again after the Resurrection—were a preparation for the battles to come. “Knowing that the Father had given Him all things into His hands, and that He came from God, and was going to God … Jesus said: ‘Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You shall seek Me; and, as I said to the Jews: :Where I go, you cannot not follow Me now; but you shall follow hereafter ... … I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to Myself; that where I am, you also may be ... I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever. The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive … If you loved Me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father: for the Father is greater than I.”’
The Ascension Sends the Apostles to War
“Let not your heart be troubled! … I shall go, and prepare a place for you! … Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid! ... The prince of this world is coming, and in Me he hath not any thing! … You have not chosen Me―but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit! … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own―but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you ... If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you … All these things they will do to you for My Name’s sake―because they know not Him who sent Me … “They will put you out of the synagogues [today ― churches]: yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever kills you, will think that he does a service to God ... But these things I have told you, that when the hour shall come, you may remember that I told you of them.
Because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth: it is expedient to you that I go―for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you ... I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever. The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive―because it sees Him not, nor knows Him―but you shall know Him; because He shall abide with you, and shall be in you … The Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you! … And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment … because they believed not in Me … Behold, the hour cometh, and it is now come, that you shall be scattered every man to his own … In the world you shall have distress―but have confidence, I have overcome the world ... Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (extracts from the Last Supper discourse of Jesus, Gospel of St. John, chapters 14 to 18).
Kill or Be Killed!
We need to get things straight in our minds! We are in a war—whether we want it or not, whether we like or not, whether we fight or not! It is a war of Faith! Even though the axiom insists: “It takes two to make a fight”—in this particular war, the enemy will fight us even if we refuse to fight—and then we are lost. We should rather focus on the axiom that says: “Kill, or be killed!” That is closer to the truth of the matter in the fight that we must fight.
Holy Scripture is loaded with quotes on the war that we must wage against the enemies of our Faith, we will just present a few of the hundreds to be found:
A Life-long Warfare
“The life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1)—notice it says the “LIFE” meaning the entire life, and not just “part of man’s life”! “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36)—meaning that you may even have to fight your own parents, spouse, children and relatives for the sake of the Faith — “He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37).
We Must Fight
“Be sober and watch―because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour! Whom resist ye, strong in Faith―knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world!” (1 Peter 5:8). “Laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us” (Hebrews 12:1). “Fight the good fight of Faith … whereunto thou art called” (1 Timothy 6:12). “Blessed be the Lord my God, Who teaches my hands to fight, and my fingers to war!” (Psalm 143:1).
Fight With the Word of God
“The word of God is more piercing than any two edged sword!” (Hebrews 4:12) …”And from His mouth came out a sharp two edged sword” (Apocalypse 1:16) … “I will fight against them with the sword of My mouth” (Apocalypse 2:16) ... “The high praise of God shall be in their mouth: and two-edged swords in their hands―to execute vengeance upon the nations, and chastisements among the people!” (Psalm 149:6-7). “And they shall fight against thee, and shall not prevail: for I am with thee, says the Lord, to deliver thee!” (Jeremias 1:19).
Confirmation made you a Soldier for Christ
This whole idea of warfare in the service of Christ is the foundation of the Sacrament of Confirmation. When we are confirmed, we become Soldiers for Christ. The Holy Ghost grants to our souls, among other graces and gifts, the Gift of Fortitude or courage for the fight. This is also indicated by the slap (now a gentle tap) that the bishop administers on the cheek of the confirmand—as a reminder that he or she will have receive blows from the enemy in the fight for the Faith unto which they are called.
Who are the enemy?
Who is our enemy? We all know the superficial off-the-cuff answer by heart: the devil, the world and the flesh! But let us look at the enemy in some more depth—especially since, at the present time, the enemy certainly has the upper-hand in the battles being waged throughout the world.
The Devil
Our Lord calls him the “prince of this world” and the “father of lies” and a “murderer”! Holy Scripture adds that “by the envy of the devil, death came into the world” (Wisdom 2:24). Who needs friends like that? St. Peter warns us that “the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). St. Paul says:”Give not place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27), to which St. James adds: “but resist the devil, and he will flee from you!” (James 4:7). Jesus calls the devil the “prince of this world” (John 14:30) and further states that “now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). So we have a lifelong fight against the devil, who hates us more than we can imagine and who never ceases nor sleeps in his fight against us.
The World
St. James clearly tells us that the world and God are incompatible—that they are enmity with one another—and this is understandable if Jesus calls the devil the “prince of this world” (John 14:30) and that “now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). The world is the devil’s tool and his playground—that is why the world is one of the triple enemies of our soul. “The field, is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom. And the cockle, are the children of the wicked one.” (Matthew 13:38). St. James could not say it any more clearly than when he states: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).”What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Surrounded by Cockle
Sadly, however, our family, relatives, friends and work colleagues can be the cockle! Even Our Lord had this problem, as many of His relatives were not enamored with His teaching―”For neither did His brethren believe in Him” (John 7:5). Which leads Jesus to complain: “Amen I say to you, that no prophet is accepted in his own country” (Luke 4:24). “And you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren, and kinsmen and friends; and some of you they will put to death” (Luke 21:16). “The brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death” (Mark 13:12).
God Comes Before Family
“He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that lovesson or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37) ... “If any man come to Me, and hates not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also―then he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). “Everyone that has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My Name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting” (Matthew 19:29).
Our Lord could not put it more clearly than this: “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided―three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Luke 12:51-53).
This does not mean that we have to literally “hate” what is not evil. The law of Christ does not allow us to hate even our enemies, much less our parents: but the meaning of the text is, that we must be in that disposition of soul, as to be willing to renounce, and part with everything, how near or dear soever it may be to us, that would keep us from following Christ. If those nearest and dearest to us risk leading us away from Christ and our salvation—then we are to hate that sinful behavior and separate ourselves from it—much as Christ said to St. Peter, “Go behind Me, Satan, you are a scandal unto Me: because you savor not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men!” (Matthew 16:23). Shocking words indeed, but St. Peter was trying to turn Our Lord aside from the path He had chosen to take.
The Flesh
The third enemy is our flesh, this means more than just the body, but our whole selves, body and soul with all passions and concupiscences included. If the devil is called the “father of lies”, then we are not very far behind, for we are inclined to lie to ourselves and to others to cover our tendencies, guilt and true intentions. We are proud as peacocks, slow as tortoises, slimy as toads, slithery as snakes, with an eagle-eye for the faults of others, yet blind as a bat to our own faults, timid as mouse when it comes to spreading the Faith, roaring like a lion when offended, and bristling like a porcupine or hedgehog, smelly as a sinful skunk ... yet God still wants to save us! But to be saved we must fight and overcome ourselves! For “the kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12) and that violence is primarily directed at ourselves with our passions and concupiscences. That is why Our Lord tells us: “unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).
So Fight We Must
Some of the above scenarios are not what we dream about and look forwards to—far from it—they are very painful to envisage and even more painful to have to live through. Abel suffered at the hands of Cain; Jacob at the hands of Esau; Joseph at the hands of his brothers and so on through history. We will not be the first, nor will we be the last. What we have to do is to clearly place, before our minds and hearts, the fact that God comes first—that we cannot serve God and mammon; that we cannot please our family and friends if it means not standing up for God; that we cannot reconcile two irreconcilables—God and the world, Christ and Belial, believers and unbelievers (Matthew 6:24; 2 Corinthians 6:15). We cannot, at the same time, pine for the fleshpots of Egypt and the milk and honey of the Promised Land. We must make a choice and fight for the choice we have made. If we choose not to fight, it does not mean the enemy will not fight. They will kill us, or at least kill the life of sanctifying grace in our soul. Let us not be afraid ― “Fear not, little flock!” (Luke 12:32) ...”I say to you, my friends: ‘Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you Whom you shall fear: fear ye Him, who after He has killed, hath power to cast into Hell. Yes, I say to you, fear Him!’” (Luke 12:4-5). So “Fight the good fight of Faith … whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12).
Armor and Weapons
“Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). “Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not [just] against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore, take unto you the armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace: in all things taking the shield of Faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:11-17).
We are in the season of ‘celebrating’ the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ into Heaven. We may be celebrating it today, but back then, at the time of actual Ascension of Our Lord, there was very little ‘celebrating’ going on! There were a lot of sad faces around on that mountain, after Our Lord had left them behind and was now ‘gone-for-good’! It might have been a ‘good’ thing for Our Lord—going to Heaven, who wouldn’t want that!?! Yet, for the Apostles, this was no ‘heaven’—it was a similar feeling to the one they had when Jesus had been arrested, was tried, tortured and put to death! Their initial reaction was the same—they went back the Upper Room and locked themselves in, out of fear of the Jews.
Our Lady, too, took the least joyful path on that day. According to revelations made to the mystics, she was offered the choice of going to Heaven with Our Lord, or staying upon the Earth to help the fledgling Church get off the ground. Though Heaven would have been the ‘happier’ choice, she chose the ‘sadder’ option and remained behind.
The Hollywood Ascension or the Real Ascension?
In a Hollywood version of the Ascension, things would be portrayed much differently to the real version of the Ascension. Hollywood would focus upon the glittering and beautiful and extraordinary aspect of the Ascension. Heavenly music, heavenly cherubs, bright lights, triumphalism, etc. But rather than being a “launch-pad” for Jesus’ flight to Heaven, the Ascension was the ‘“launch-pad” for the Church’s fight on Earth, and its battles in a war on Earth against the devil, the world and the flesh!
Here is the account of the Ascension from the book The Life of Mary As Seen By The Mystics:
“When all had gathered on the top of the hill, Jesus stood on a large, flat stone and spoke to them with calm affection. Then the Savior spread out His hands and directed His gaze toward Heaven. His whole body became increasingly luminous. The wounds of His hands glistened, and those of His feet shone brightly. A dazzling multicolored circle of light descended from the sky and completely enveloped Him. Then He slowly began to ascend into the air. While the stupefied disciples gazed after Him with intense amazement and awe, His figure became so small and distant that it could scarcely be distinguished, until finally a cloud took Him out of their sight.
“The dazed and shaken disciples were still staring at the sky in complete silence. All who were present bowed their heads and remained thus for some moments. For now, with a profound shock, they fully realized what had just happened to them: their beloved Savior had returned to His Father in Heaven, leaving them to themselves on earth! Some of them were so grieved and heartbroken that they fell to the ground and wept disconsolately, like children. Others began to talk excitedly to one another. Often they looked up into the sky again, as if hoping to catch another glimpse of Jesus. Only Mary, Peter and John were calm and serene, though deeply moved. Then gradually their first sorrow over the sudden separation changed into profound happiness as they understood that their Redeemer was watching over them from the throne of His Father in Heaven, and as they also recalled His promise to be with them always.
“During the Ascension of Christ, the Blessed Virgin underwent a marvelous mystical experience. By the will and power of Almighty God her soul was raised with her divine Son, and she was told to choose between remaining henceforth in the glory of Heaven or returning to the world to guide and assist the new Church. But when she looked down and saw the pitiful condition of the bewildered followers of Christ just after His Ascension, she was stirred by compassion for them and for all mankind, and, by her own free choice and with the blessing of God, Mary returned to help in founding the Church Militant on Earth.” (The Life of Mary As Seen By The Mystics, Raphael Brown).
The Ascension Foretold
Jesus’ farewell talks—at the Last Supper and now again after the Resurrection—were a preparation for the battles to come. “Knowing that the Father had given Him all things into His hands, and that He came from God, and was going to God … Jesus said: ‘Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You shall seek Me; and, as I said to the Jews: :Where I go, you cannot not follow Me now; but you shall follow hereafter ... … I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to Myself; that where I am, you also may be ... I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever. The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive … If you loved Me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father: for the Father is greater than I.”’
The Ascension Sends the Apostles to War
“Let not your heart be troubled! … I shall go, and prepare a place for you! … Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid! ... The prince of this world is coming, and in Me he hath not any thing! … You have not chosen Me―but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit! … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own―but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you ... If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you … All these things they will do to you for My Name’s sake―because they know not Him who sent Me … “They will put you out of the synagogues [today ― churches]: yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever kills you, will think that he does a service to God ... But these things I have told you, that when the hour shall come, you may remember that I told you of them.
Because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth: it is expedient to you that I go―for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you ... I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever. The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive―because it sees Him not, nor knows Him―but you shall know Him; because He shall abide with you, and shall be in you … The Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you! … And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment … because they believed not in Me … Behold, the hour cometh, and it is now come, that you shall be scattered every man to his own … In the world you shall have distress―but have confidence, I have overcome the world ... Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (extracts from the Last Supper discourse of Jesus, Gospel of St. John, chapters 14 to 18).
Kill or Be Killed!
We need to get things straight in our minds! We are in a war—whether we want it or not, whether we like or not, whether we fight or not! It is a war of Faith! Even though the axiom insists: “It takes two to make a fight”—in this particular war, the enemy will fight us even if we refuse to fight—and then we are lost. We should rather focus on the axiom that says: “Kill, or be killed!” That is closer to the truth of the matter in the fight that we must fight.
Holy Scripture is loaded with quotes on the war that we must wage against the enemies of our Faith, we will just present a few of the hundreds to be found:
A Life-long Warfare
“The life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1)—notice it says the “LIFE” meaning the entire life, and not just “part of man’s life”! “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36)—meaning that you may even have to fight your own parents, spouse, children and relatives for the sake of the Faith — “He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37).
We Must Fight
“Be sober and watch―because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour! Whom resist ye, strong in Faith―knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world!” (1 Peter 5:8). “Laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us” (Hebrews 12:1). “Fight the good fight of Faith … whereunto thou art called” (1 Timothy 6:12). “Blessed be the Lord my God, Who teaches my hands to fight, and my fingers to war!” (Psalm 143:1).
Fight With the Word of God
“The word of God is more piercing than any two edged sword!” (Hebrews 4:12) …”And from His mouth came out a sharp two edged sword” (Apocalypse 1:16) … “I will fight against them with the sword of My mouth” (Apocalypse 2:16) ... “The high praise of God shall be in their mouth: and two-edged swords in their hands―to execute vengeance upon the nations, and chastisements among the people!” (Psalm 149:6-7). “And they shall fight against thee, and shall not prevail: for I am with thee, says the Lord, to deliver thee!” (Jeremias 1:19).
Confirmation made you a Soldier for Christ
This whole idea of warfare in the service of Christ is the foundation of the Sacrament of Confirmation. When we are confirmed, we become Soldiers for Christ. The Holy Ghost grants to our souls, among other graces and gifts, the Gift of Fortitude or courage for the fight. This is also indicated by the slap (now a gentle tap) that the bishop administers on the cheek of the confirmand—as a reminder that he or she will have receive blows from the enemy in the fight for the Faith unto which they are called.
Who are the enemy?
Who is our enemy? We all know the superficial off-the-cuff answer by heart: the devil, the world and the flesh! But let us look at the enemy in some more depth—especially since, at the present time, the enemy certainly has the upper-hand in the battles being waged throughout the world.
The Devil
Our Lord calls him the “prince of this world” and the “father of lies” and a “murderer”! Holy Scripture adds that “by the envy of the devil, death came into the world” (Wisdom 2:24). Who needs friends like that? St. Peter warns us that “the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). St. Paul says:”Give not place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27), to which St. James adds: “but resist the devil, and he will flee from you!” (James 4:7). Jesus calls the devil the “prince of this world” (John 14:30) and further states that “now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). So we have a lifelong fight against the devil, who hates us more than we can imagine and who never ceases nor sleeps in his fight against us.
The World
St. James clearly tells us that the world and God are incompatible—that they are enmity with one another—and this is understandable if Jesus calls the devil the “prince of this world” (John 14:30) and that “now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). The world is the devil’s tool and his playground—that is why the world is one of the triple enemies of our soul. “The field, is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom. And the cockle, are the children of the wicked one.” (Matthew 13:38). St. James could not say it any more clearly than when he states: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).”What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Surrounded by Cockle
Sadly, however, our family, relatives, friends and work colleagues can be the cockle! Even Our Lord had this problem, as many of His relatives were not enamored with His teaching―”For neither did His brethren believe in Him” (John 7:5). Which leads Jesus to complain: “Amen I say to you, that no prophet is accepted in his own country” (Luke 4:24). “And you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren, and kinsmen and friends; and some of you they will put to death” (Luke 21:16). “The brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death” (Mark 13:12).
God Comes Before Family
“He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that lovesson or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37) ... “If any man come to Me, and hates not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also―then he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). “Everyone that has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My Name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting” (Matthew 19:29).
Our Lord could not put it more clearly than this: “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided―three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Luke 12:51-53).
This does not mean that we have to literally “hate” what is not evil. The law of Christ does not allow us to hate even our enemies, much less our parents: but the meaning of the text is, that we must be in that disposition of soul, as to be willing to renounce, and part with everything, how near or dear soever it may be to us, that would keep us from following Christ. If those nearest and dearest to us risk leading us away from Christ and our salvation—then we are to hate that sinful behavior and separate ourselves from it—much as Christ said to St. Peter, “Go behind Me, Satan, you are a scandal unto Me: because you savor not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men!” (Matthew 16:23). Shocking words indeed, but St. Peter was trying to turn Our Lord aside from the path He had chosen to take.
The Flesh
The third enemy is our flesh, this means more than just the body, but our whole selves, body and soul with all passions and concupiscences included. If the devil is called the “father of lies”, then we are not very far behind, for we are inclined to lie to ourselves and to others to cover our tendencies, guilt and true intentions. We are proud as peacocks, slow as tortoises, slimy as toads, slithery as snakes, with an eagle-eye for the faults of others, yet blind as a bat to our own faults, timid as mouse when it comes to spreading the Faith, roaring like a lion when offended, and bristling like a porcupine or hedgehog, smelly as a sinful skunk ... yet God still wants to save us! But to be saved we must fight and overcome ourselves! For “the kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12) and that violence is primarily directed at ourselves with our passions and concupiscences. That is why Our Lord tells us: “unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).
So Fight We Must
Some of the above scenarios are not what we dream about and look forwards to—far from it—they are very painful to envisage and even more painful to have to live through. Abel suffered at the hands of Cain; Jacob at the hands of Esau; Joseph at the hands of his brothers and so on through history. We will not be the first, nor will we be the last. What we have to do is to clearly place, before our minds and hearts, the fact that God comes first—that we cannot serve God and mammon; that we cannot please our family and friends if it means not standing up for God; that we cannot reconcile two irreconcilables—God and the world, Christ and Belial, believers and unbelievers (Matthew 6:24; 2 Corinthians 6:15). We cannot, at the same time, pine for the fleshpots of Egypt and the milk and honey of the Promised Land. We must make a choice and fight for the choice we have made. If we choose not to fight, it does not mean the enemy will not fight. They will kill us, or at least kill the life of sanctifying grace in our soul. Let us not be afraid ― “Fear not, little flock!” (Luke 12:32) ...”I say to you, my friends: ‘Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you Whom you shall fear: fear ye Him, who after He has killed, hath power to cast into Hell. Yes, I say to you, fear Him!’” (Luke 12:4-5). So “Fight the good fight of Faith … whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12).
Armor and Weapons
“Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). “Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not [just] against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore, take unto you the armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace: in all things taking the shield of Faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:11-17).
Article 19
Friday, May 15th
Gone for Good―Gone for Our Good!
Friday, May 15th
Gone for Good―Gone for Our Good!
Gone For Good—Gone For the Good of Their Souls
“And He led them out as far as Bethania, and lifting up His hands, He blessed them. And it came to pass, whilst He blessed them, He departed from them, and was carried up to Heaven. And they, adoring, went back into Jerusalem with great joy” (Luke 24:50-52). Our Lord could have stayed on Earth for centuries, for millennia, teaching, healing, performing miracles—what a great advantage it would have been.
But no! He leaves! He goes HOME! He goes to prepare a place for us to show us that HEAVEN is intended to be our true and only HOME. It is too easy to get attached to what you can see, and pass over what you cannot see. Yet therein lies the test, the examination. Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe. “Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed!” (John 20:29).
Heaven Is Meant For All—Not All Get There
“The rulers and Pharisees sent ministers to apprehend Him. Jesus therefore said to them: ‘Yet a little while I am with you; and then I go to Him that sent Me. You shall seek Me, and shall not find Me: and where I am, there you cannot come!’ The Jews therefore said among themselves: ‘Where will He go, so that we shall not find Him? Will He go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? What is this saying that He hath said: “You shall seek Me, and shall not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come?”‘” (John 7:32-36).
“Again therefore Jesus said to them: ‘I go, and you shall seek Me, and you shall die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come!’ The Jews therefore said: ‘Will He kill himself, because He said: “Where I am going, you cannot come?”‘ And He said to them: ‘You are from beneath, I am from above! You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins!’” (John 8:21-24).
“Little children―yet a little while I am with you! You shall seek Me; and, as I said to the Jews--‘Where I am going you cannot come’— so I say to you now!” (John 13:33).
Heavenly Realty is a Heavenly Reality
“Jesus said to them: ‘Let not your heart be troubled! You believe in God―then believe also in Me! In My Father’s house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you―because I go to prepare a place for you! And if I shall go and prepare a place for you, then I will come again and will take you to Myself; so that where I am, you also may be! And where I go, you know, and the way you know!’”
Do We Know The Way? Or Have We Lost Our Way?
“Thomas saith to Him: ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going; and how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, but by Me. If you had known Me, you would without doubt have known My Father also: and from henceforth you shall know Him, and you have seen Him.’
“Philip said to him: ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us!’ Jesus said to him: ‘I have been so long a time with you; and have you not known Me? Philip! He that sees Me sees the Father also! How is it you say: “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe, that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I speak to you―I speak not of Myself, but the Father Who abides in Me, He does the works. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? Otherwise believe for the very works’ sake. Amen, amen I say to you, he that believes in Me, the works that I do, those he shall also do; and greater than these shall he do! Because I go to the Father―and whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My Name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask Me anything in My Name, that I will do!’” (John 14:1-14).
Christ’s Sad Idea of Happiness
“But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth―it is expedient to you that I go―for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:6-7).
“A little while, and now you shall not see Me; and again a little while, and you shall see Me―because I go to the Father. Then some of the disciples said one to another: ‘What is this that he says to us: “A little while, and you shall not see Me; and again a little while, and you shall see Me, and, because I go to the Father?”’ They said therefore: ‘What is this that He says, “A little while?” We do not know what He speaks about!’
“And Jesus knew that they had a mind to ask Him; and He said to them: ‘Of this do you inquire among yourselves, because I said: “A little while, and you shall not see Me; and again a little while, and you shall see Me?” Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy! ... So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you! .. . In the world you shall have distress―but have confidence, I have overcome the world! ... I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and I go to the Father!” (John 16:16-22, 28, 33).
“Blessed are they that suffer persecution for the sake of justice―for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven! Blessed are you when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice! For your reward is very great in Heaven! For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).
Where’s Your Bank Account?
“Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither rust nor moth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Actions More Than Just Words
“Not everyone that says to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21). “And why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “And calling the multitude together with His disciples, He said to them: ‘If any man will follow Me, then let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me!’” (Mark 8:34). “And he that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me! … He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:35-37-38). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12).
Seed or Weed?
“Another parable He proposed to them, saying: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seeds in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and over-sowed cockle among the wheat and went his way ... The man said: “Suffer both to grow until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: ‘Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn.’” ’” (Matthew 13:24-30) … “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:8).
Do We “Cut The Mustard”? Do We Make The Grade?
“Another parable He proposed unto them, saying: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. The mustard seed is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof’” (Matthew 13:31-32) -- thereby telling us that we must not be spiritually stagnant, but that we must grow spiritually and share our spiritual treasures with others; otherwise we become like the man, in the Parable of Talents, who buried his talent and did nothing with it.
Too many souls are lost because they choose to be spiritually stunted or spiritually selfish. God expects our spiritually tree to bear fruit and He will purge it so that it bears even more fruit: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me, that bears not fruit, He will take away: and every branch that bears fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit ... I am the vine and you the branches! He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing! If anyone does not abide in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he will burn” (John 15:1-6).
Are We Rising?
“Another parable He spoke to them: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened’” (Matthew 13:33) — thereby teaching us that the spiritual must penetrate all material and physical aspects of our life and raise them to a higher supernatural level, whereby we do all things for God.
Treasure and Pearls
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in a field. Which a man having found, hid it, and for joy thereof goes, and sells all that he has, and buys that field. Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like to a merchant seeking good pearls. Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went his way, and sold all that he had, and bought it” (Matthew 13:44-46) — hereby teaching us that the spiritual is of far greater value than all material possessions. As St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, that one single soul in a state of sanctifying grace is worth far more than all the material treasures of the universe.
However, we have the example of the rich young man, who asked Our Lord what he had to do to get to Heaven. Our Lord told him to sell all he had and then come follow Him. “And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:22-24).
How do we rate in this area? Are our possessions—whether things, hobbies or places—hindering our passage to Heaven? What comes first—God or mammon, morning prayers or morning coffee, to pray or to play
“And He led them out as far as Bethania, and lifting up His hands, He blessed them. And it came to pass, whilst He blessed them, He departed from them, and was carried up to Heaven. And they, adoring, went back into Jerusalem with great joy” (Luke 24:50-52). Our Lord could have stayed on Earth for centuries, for millennia, teaching, healing, performing miracles—what a great advantage it would have been.
But no! He leaves! He goes HOME! He goes to prepare a place for us to show us that HEAVEN is intended to be our true and only HOME. It is too easy to get attached to what you can see, and pass over what you cannot see. Yet therein lies the test, the examination. Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe. “Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed!” (John 20:29).
Heaven Is Meant For All—Not All Get There
“The rulers and Pharisees sent ministers to apprehend Him. Jesus therefore said to them: ‘Yet a little while I am with you; and then I go to Him that sent Me. You shall seek Me, and shall not find Me: and where I am, there you cannot come!’ The Jews therefore said among themselves: ‘Where will He go, so that we shall not find Him? Will He go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? What is this saying that He hath said: “You shall seek Me, and shall not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come?”‘” (John 7:32-36).
“Again therefore Jesus said to them: ‘I go, and you shall seek Me, and you shall die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come!’ The Jews therefore said: ‘Will He kill himself, because He said: “Where I am going, you cannot come?”‘ And He said to them: ‘You are from beneath, I am from above! You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins!’” (John 8:21-24).
“Little children―yet a little while I am with you! You shall seek Me; and, as I said to the Jews--‘Where I am going you cannot come’— so I say to you now!” (John 13:33).
Heavenly Realty is a Heavenly Reality
“Jesus said to them: ‘Let not your heart be troubled! You believe in God―then believe also in Me! In My Father’s house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you―because I go to prepare a place for you! And if I shall go and prepare a place for you, then I will come again and will take you to Myself; so that where I am, you also may be! And where I go, you know, and the way you know!’”
Do We Know The Way? Or Have We Lost Our Way?
“Thomas saith to Him: ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going; and how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, but by Me. If you had known Me, you would without doubt have known My Father also: and from henceforth you shall know Him, and you have seen Him.’
“Philip said to him: ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us!’ Jesus said to him: ‘I have been so long a time with you; and have you not known Me? Philip! He that sees Me sees the Father also! How is it you say: “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe, that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I speak to you―I speak not of Myself, but the Father Who abides in Me, He does the works. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? Otherwise believe for the very works’ sake. Amen, amen I say to you, he that believes in Me, the works that I do, those he shall also do; and greater than these shall he do! Because I go to the Father―and whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My Name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask Me anything in My Name, that I will do!’” (John 14:1-14).
Christ’s Sad Idea of Happiness
“But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth―it is expedient to you that I go―for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:6-7).
“A little while, and now you shall not see Me; and again a little while, and you shall see Me―because I go to the Father. Then some of the disciples said one to another: ‘What is this that he says to us: “A little while, and you shall not see Me; and again a little while, and you shall see Me, and, because I go to the Father?”’ They said therefore: ‘What is this that He says, “A little while?” We do not know what He speaks about!’
“And Jesus knew that they had a mind to ask Him; and He said to them: ‘Of this do you inquire among yourselves, because I said: “A little while, and you shall not see Me; and again a little while, and you shall see Me?” Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy! ... So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you! .. . In the world you shall have distress―but have confidence, I have overcome the world! ... I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and I go to the Father!” (John 16:16-22, 28, 33).
“Blessed are they that suffer persecution for the sake of justice―for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven! Blessed are you when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice! For your reward is very great in Heaven! For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).
Where’s Your Bank Account?
“Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither rust nor moth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Actions More Than Just Words
“Not everyone that says to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21). “And why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “And calling the multitude together with His disciples, He said to them: ‘If any man will follow Me, then let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me!’” (Mark 8:34). “And he that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me! … He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:35-37-38). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12).
Seed or Weed?
“Another parable He proposed to them, saying: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seeds in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and over-sowed cockle among the wheat and went his way ... The man said: “Suffer both to grow until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: ‘Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn.’” ’” (Matthew 13:24-30) … “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:8).
Do We “Cut The Mustard”? Do We Make The Grade?
“Another parable He proposed unto them, saying: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. The mustard seed is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof’” (Matthew 13:31-32) -- thereby telling us that we must not be spiritually stagnant, but that we must grow spiritually and share our spiritual treasures with others; otherwise we become like the man, in the Parable of Talents, who buried his talent and did nothing with it.
Too many souls are lost because they choose to be spiritually stunted or spiritually selfish. God expects our spiritually tree to bear fruit and He will purge it so that it bears even more fruit: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me, that bears not fruit, He will take away: and every branch that bears fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit ... I am the vine and you the branches! He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing! If anyone does not abide in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he will burn” (John 15:1-6).
Are We Rising?
“Another parable He spoke to them: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened’” (Matthew 13:33) — thereby teaching us that the spiritual must penetrate all material and physical aspects of our life and raise them to a higher supernatural level, whereby we do all things for God.
Treasure and Pearls
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in a field. Which a man having found, hid it, and for joy thereof goes, and sells all that he has, and buys that field. Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like to a merchant seeking good pearls. Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went his way, and sold all that he had, and bought it” (Matthew 13:44-46) — hereby teaching us that the spiritual is of far greater value than all material possessions. As St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, that one single soul in a state of sanctifying grace is worth far more than all the material treasures of the universe.
However, we have the example of the rich young man, who asked Our Lord what he had to do to get to Heaven. Our Lord told him to sell all he had and then come follow Him. “And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:22-24).
How do we rate in this area? Are our possessions—whether things, hobbies or places—hindering our passage to Heaven? What comes first—God or mammon, morning prayers or morning coffee, to pray or to play
Article 18
Ascension Thursday, May 14th
Ascension Thursday ― Are You Ascending or Descending?
Ascension Thursday, May 14th
Ascension Thursday ― Are You Ascending or Descending?
Our Lord Goes Back Home! Where Is Your Home?
After His resurrection from the dead, Our Lord could have stayed around for a few thousand years! Think of the wonderful effects that could have had on the Church! He could have been performing miracles and converting souls, preventing errors from arising, shepherding souls to Heaven…! Yet He chooses to stay for only forty days before ascending into Heaven! Only forty days!
Heart and Home
Home is where the heart is and Our Lord’s heart was in Heaven. He wants our hearts to be there with Him, for Heaven is our true home—the home that God wants for everyone, but very few really want to go home and so few get home. Most people have found a home away from home—and they are very happy with it. They ignore the advice and warnings of Our Lord, who said: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth consumes, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:19-21). “In My Father’s house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you. And if I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to Myself; so that where I am, you also may be!” (John 14:2-3).
Does This Sound Familiar?
Yet we have become like the rich young man of the Gospels, who had so many possessions that he could not bear to part from and take up Our Lord’s invitation of following Him (Matthew 19:16-24). Whereas we should look forward to death, we fear death (which is only natural), but we also fear it because we will have to leave all that we have accumulated behind. We have, for the most part, fallen into the traps of material preoccupations rather than being primarily—even solely—occupied with our soul: “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
This brings to mind the parable Our Lord told about the rich farmer: “The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. And he thought within himself, saying: ‘What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?’ And he said: ‘This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. And I will say to my soul: “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thy rest; eat, drink, make good cheer!”’ But God said to him: ‘Thou fool! This very night will they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?’ So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God!” (Luke 12:16-21).
Wrong Focus
Continuing, “He said to His disciples: ‘Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat; nor for your body, what you shall put on. The life is more than the meat, and the body is more than the raiment. Consider the ravens, for they sow not, neither do they reap, neither have they storehouse nor barn, and God feeds them. How much are you more valuable than they? And which of you, by worrying, can add to his stature one cubit? If then ye be not able to do so much as the least thing, why are you solicitous for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow―they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these. Now if God clothes in this manner the grass that is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven―then how much more you, O ye of little faith?
“And seek not you what you shall eat, or what you shall drink: and be not lifted up on high. For all these things do the nations of the world seek. But your Father knows that you have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom. Sell what you possess and give alms. Make to yourselves bags which grow not old, a treasure in Heaven which fails not: where no thief approaches, nor moth corrupts. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also!” (Luke 12:22-34).
Too Busy For Heaven?
Our Lord drives this point home more during the incident with Martha and Mary:”Now it came to pass as they went, that Jesus entered into a certain town: and a certain woman named Martha, received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sitting also at the Lord’s feet, heard His word. But Martha was busy about much serving. Martha stood and said: ‘Lord! Hast Thou no care that my sister has left me alone to serve? Speak to her therefore, that she help me!’ And the Lord answering, said to her: ‘Martha! Martha! Thou art careful, and art troubled about many things: but only one thing is necessary! Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her!’” (Luke 10:38-42).
Head Scratching Problem?
The above words of Our Lord are commented upon by Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, in his book The Three Ages of the Spiritual Life, wherein he writes:
“We shall briefly recall what constitutes the one thing necessary for every Christian, and we shall also recall how urgently this question is being raised at the present time. As everyone can easily understand, the interior life is an elevated form of intimate conversation which everyone has with himself as soon as he is alone, even in the tumult of a great city. From the moment he ceases to converse with his fellow men, man converses interiorly with himself about what preoccupies him most. This conversation varies greatly according to the different ages of life; that of an old man is not that of a youth. It also varies greatly according as a man is good or bad.
“As soon as a man seriously seeks truth and goodness, this intimate conversation with himself tends to become conversation with God. Little by little, instead of seeking himself in everything, instead of tending more or less consciously to make himself a center, man tends to seek God in everything, and to substitute for egoism love of God and of souls in Him. This constitutes the interior life. No sincere man will have any difficulty in recognizing it. The one thing necessary which Jesus spoke of, to Martha and Mary, consists in hearing the word of God and living by it” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
The Best of Lives
“The interior life thus conceived is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him.
“Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity, which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
“This shows that the interior life, or the life of the soul with God, well deserves to be called the one thing necessary, since by it we tend to our last end and assure our salvation. This last must not be too widely separated from progressive sanctification, for it is the very way of salvation” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Admission to Heaven—Same Price for Everybody
“There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul.
“Every sin, though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into purgatory to be purified” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
The One Thing Necessary
“The interior life of a just man who tends toward God and who already lives by Him is indeed the one thing necessary. To be a saint, neither intellectual culture nor great exterior activity is a requisite; it suffices that we live profoundly by God. This truth is evident in the saints of the early Church; several of those saints were poor people, even slaves. It is evident also in St. Francis, St. Benedict Joseph Labre, in the Cure of Ars, and many others. They all had a deep understanding of these words of our Savior: ‘For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?’
“If people sacrifice so many things to save the life of the body, which must ultimately die, what should we not sacrifice to save the life of our soul, which is to last forever? Ought not man to love his soul more than his body? ‘Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?’ Our Lord adds. ‘One thing is necessary,’ He tells us. To save our soul, one thing alone is necessary: to hear the word of God and to live by it. Therein lies the best part, which will not be taken away from a faithful soul even though it should lose everything else.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
It Has Become the One Thing Unnecessary!
The interior life is looked upon like prison life! It “cramps our style”! It’s depressing and no fun! It’s for old folk, or sick folk, or dying folk, or fanatics! We want something more expansive, more interesting, more in tune with the times, more entertaining, more gratifying, more exhilarating!
According to a Pew Research Center survey, 55% of Christians (all denominations taken together) say they pray every day, while 21% say they pray weekly or monthly and 23% say they seldom or never pray.
What has happened to the First Friday Devotions to the Sacred Heart, with the Holy Hour that was part of it? What has happened to the First Saturday Devotions to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with the fifteen-minute Rosary mediations and Communions of reparation for offenses against the Immaculate Heart of Mary? What has happened to the confessions that were “part and parcel” of these two devotions? All of these things have been downgraded or even rejected and thrown out by many parishes since the Modernist revolution exploded in the Church 50 years ago!
Another key element of the interior life—regular confession—has also fallen by the wayside. “The statistics are alarming. According to the Center for Applied Research on the Apostolate (CARA), a survey showed that 47% of Catholic adults, when asked how often they went to confession, answered Never. Alarming, but hardly surprising. Is there any American Catholic who does not know how empty the confessionals are in this country? The days of ritual visits to confession on Saturday afternoons are over for most Catholic families. In that same survey, 32% of Catholics said they confess their sins to a priest less than once a year.” (America Magazine). So much for “one thing necessary”!
Who still meditates? Perhaps the Buddhists, but not Catholics anymore! Who does regular spiritual reading anymore? Who goes on an annual retreat—many will go on vacations, but almost all the seats at the retreat houses are vacant.
After His resurrection from the dead, Our Lord could have stayed around for a few thousand years! Think of the wonderful effects that could have had on the Church! He could have been performing miracles and converting souls, preventing errors from arising, shepherding souls to Heaven…! Yet He chooses to stay for only forty days before ascending into Heaven! Only forty days!
Heart and Home
Home is where the heart is and Our Lord’s heart was in Heaven. He wants our hearts to be there with Him, for Heaven is our true home—the home that God wants for everyone, but very few really want to go home and so few get home. Most people have found a home away from home—and they are very happy with it. They ignore the advice and warnings of Our Lord, who said: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth consumes, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:19-21). “In My Father’s house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you. And if I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to Myself; so that where I am, you also may be!” (John 14:2-3).
Does This Sound Familiar?
Yet we have become like the rich young man of the Gospels, who had so many possessions that he could not bear to part from and take up Our Lord’s invitation of following Him (Matthew 19:16-24). Whereas we should look forward to death, we fear death (which is only natural), but we also fear it because we will have to leave all that we have accumulated behind. We have, for the most part, fallen into the traps of material preoccupations rather than being primarily—even solely—occupied with our soul: “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
This brings to mind the parable Our Lord told about the rich farmer: “The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. And he thought within himself, saying: ‘What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?’ And he said: ‘This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. And I will say to my soul: “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thy rest; eat, drink, make good cheer!”’ But God said to him: ‘Thou fool! This very night will they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?’ So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God!” (Luke 12:16-21).
Wrong Focus
Continuing, “He said to His disciples: ‘Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat; nor for your body, what you shall put on. The life is more than the meat, and the body is more than the raiment. Consider the ravens, for they sow not, neither do they reap, neither have they storehouse nor barn, and God feeds them. How much are you more valuable than they? And which of you, by worrying, can add to his stature one cubit? If then ye be not able to do so much as the least thing, why are you solicitous for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow―they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these. Now if God clothes in this manner the grass that is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven―then how much more you, O ye of little faith?
“And seek not you what you shall eat, or what you shall drink: and be not lifted up on high. For all these things do the nations of the world seek. But your Father knows that you have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom. Sell what you possess and give alms. Make to yourselves bags which grow not old, a treasure in Heaven which fails not: where no thief approaches, nor moth corrupts. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also!” (Luke 12:22-34).
Too Busy For Heaven?
Our Lord drives this point home more during the incident with Martha and Mary:”Now it came to pass as they went, that Jesus entered into a certain town: and a certain woman named Martha, received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sitting also at the Lord’s feet, heard His word. But Martha was busy about much serving. Martha stood and said: ‘Lord! Hast Thou no care that my sister has left me alone to serve? Speak to her therefore, that she help me!’ And the Lord answering, said to her: ‘Martha! Martha! Thou art careful, and art troubled about many things: but only one thing is necessary! Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her!’” (Luke 10:38-42).
Head Scratching Problem?
The above words of Our Lord are commented upon by Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, in his book The Three Ages of the Spiritual Life, wherein he writes:
“We shall briefly recall what constitutes the one thing necessary for every Christian, and we shall also recall how urgently this question is being raised at the present time. As everyone can easily understand, the interior life is an elevated form of intimate conversation which everyone has with himself as soon as he is alone, even in the tumult of a great city. From the moment he ceases to converse with his fellow men, man converses interiorly with himself about what preoccupies him most. This conversation varies greatly according to the different ages of life; that of an old man is not that of a youth. It also varies greatly according as a man is good or bad.
“As soon as a man seriously seeks truth and goodness, this intimate conversation with himself tends to become conversation with God. Little by little, instead of seeking himself in everything, instead of tending more or less consciously to make himself a center, man tends to seek God in everything, and to substitute for egoism love of God and of souls in Him. This constitutes the interior life. No sincere man will have any difficulty in recognizing it. The one thing necessary which Jesus spoke of, to Martha and Mary, consists in hearing the word of God and living by it” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
The Best of Lives
“The interior life thus conceived is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him.
“Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity, which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
“This shows that the interior life, or the life of the soul with God, well deserves to be called the one thing necessary, since by it we tend to our last end and assure our salvation. This last must not be too widely separated from progressive sanctification, for it is the very way of salvation” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Admission to Heaven—Same Price for Everybody
“There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul.
“Every sin, though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into purgatory to be purified” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
The One Thing Necessary
“The interior life of a just man who tends toward God and who already lives by Him is indeed the one thing necessary. To be a saint, neither intellectual culture nor great exterior activity is a requisite; it suffices that we live profoundly by God. This truth is evident in the saints of the early Church; several of those saints were poor people, even slaves. It is evident also in St. Francis, St. Benedict Joseph Labre, in the Cure of Ars, and many others. They all had a deep understanding of these words of our Savior: ‘For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?’
“If people sacrifice so many things to save the life of the body, which must ultimately die, what should we not sacrifice to save the life of our soul, which is to last forever? Ought not man to love his soul more than his body? ‘Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?’ Our Lord adds. ‘One thing is necessary,’ He tells us. To save our soul, one thing alone is necessary: to hear the word of God and to live by it. Therein lies the best part, which will not be taken away from a faithful soul even though it should lose everything else.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
It Has Become the One Thing Unnecessary!
The interior life is looked upon like prison life! It “cramps our style”! It’s depressing and no fun! It’s for old folk, or sick folk, or dying folk, or fanatics! We want something more expansive, more interesting, more in tune with the times, more entertaining, more gratifying, more exhilarating!
According to a Pew Research Center survey, 55% of Christians (all denominations taken together) say they pray every day, while 21% say they pray weekly or monthly and 23% say they seldom or never pray.
What has happened to the First Friday Devotions to the Sacred Heart, with the Holy Hour that was part of it? What has happened to the First Saturday Devotions to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with the fifteen-minute Rosary mediations and Communions of reparation for offenses against the Immaculate Heart of Mary? What has happened to the confessions that were “part and parcel” of these two devotions? All of these things have been downgraded or even rejected and thrown out by many parishes since the Modernist revolution exploded in the Church 50 years ago!
Another key element of the interior life—regular confession—has also fallen by the wayside. “The statistics are alarming. According to the Center for Applied Research on the Apostolate (CARA), a survey showed that 47% of Catholic adults, when asked how often they went to confession, answered Never. Alarming, but hardly surprising. Is there any American Catholic who does not know how empty the confessionals are in this country? The days of ritual visits to confession on Saturday afternoons are over for most Catholic families. In that same survey, 32% of Catholics said they confess their sins to a priest less than once a year.” (America Magazine). So much for “one thing necessary”!
Who still meditates? Perhaps the Buddhists, but not Catholics anymore! Who does regular spiritual reading anymore? Who goes on an annual retreat—many will go on vacations, but almost all the seats at the retreat houses are vacant.
Article 17
Wednesday, May 13th
Anniversary of Our Lady's First Apparition at Fatima
Heed the Fatima Message or Become Enslaved to Totalitarianism
Wednesday, May 13th
Anniversary of Our Lady's First Apparition at Fatima
Heed the Fatima Message or Become Enslaved to Totalitarianism
How Long Will I Suffer You?
“How long shall I suffer you?” (Matthew 17:16), says Our Lord, “O faithless and perverse generation! How long shall I be with you, and suffer you?” (Luke 9:41). “Hear, O foolish people and without understanding―who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not!” (Jeremias 5:21). “And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify Me, but their heart is far from Me!” (Isaias 29:13). To which Jesus adds: “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). Those same reproaches could also be placed in the mouth of Our Lady―who has been humiliated and rejected by our apparent disregard for her warnings and commands.
Take the Advice or Pay the Price
Sister Lucia of Fatima adds to those reproaches these words: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message―neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them! You must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a tremendous way!”
Weaponize Your Rosary
St. Padre Pio said that “The Rosary is THE weapon!” Our Lady said that the Rosary is the weapon by which God wants to reform the world (cf. The Secret of the Rosary by St. Louis de Montfort). Sister Lucia of Fatima said that the Rosary has been given a new power to be the solution of all problems. Do you realize and appreciate the fact that you carry the most powerful weapon in the world (outside of the Holy Mass) in your pocket or purse!
Our Lady of Fatima explicitly said: “Continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary … because only she can help you!” (Fatima, July 13th 1917). Our Lady of Akita, 56 years later, in 1973, repeated that inescapable truth: “Pray very much … Continue to pray very much—very much! The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved!” (Akita, 1973).
Sister Lucia of Fatima said: “The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary, to such an extent, that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, that cannot be solved by the Rosary.”
At Fatima, Our Lady informed Francisco that he could only get to Heaven if he prayed many Rosaries! What had a little 9-year-old boy done to merit that command? He had done far less than we have done! The world was also in a state nowhere near the sinful state that it finds itself in today! A meager 2% or 3% of Catholics pray the Rosary daily―and one must seriously doubt that they pray the Rosary as it should be prayed―slowly, respectfully, with intentions and meditatively. Perhaps that is how you pray it―but few do! Yet we expect remedies for a few paltry, distracted, hastily said, non-meditated, half-hearted Rosaries that lack fervor, intensity and immovable Faith! We are deluded fools, complacent idiots, prideful dreamers, spineless soldiers and addicts of the world with our heads buried in the sands of indifference and neglect.
Sin abounds more and more―yet the Rosary is prayed less and less! What do you expect? How can you expect to fight an ever worsening disease by taking less and less medicine? Is that not stupidity? Is that not insanity? Is that not suicidal? Well, then, why are we following such a stupid protocol with our approach to the Rosary and its “medicinal” application to the problems and crises that face us today on all fronts? Let us stop being stupid and start getting more realistic. If Our Lady said that only Our Lady of the Rosary can help us now―and that the Rosary is one of last weapons Heaven has given us―then who the heck do we think we are in ignoring those truths and commands? We are not going to arrest the many crises facing us by merely sharing information, forwarding e-mails, writing articles, signing petitions, protesting to governmental agencies and representatives―we will only change things by using the supernatural weapons Heaven has given. You will not change Heaven’s mind―you can only change your own mind, together with you habits and opinions. If 98 out 100 Catholics do not pray the Rosary, then―just in any family, workplace or battlefield―someone must “pick-up the slack” and make up for that neglect. If not, then we will pay the consequences―and those consequences will be very, very heavy, as Our Lady has warned:
“As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead!” (Akita) … “Nations will be annihilated!” (Fatima) … “Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together … God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events ... They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family ... All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes … People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder … Blood will flow on all sides … Blood will flow in the streets … A general war will follow which will be appalling … Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the Heavens!” (La Salette) … “The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom … This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings … How the Church will suffer during this dark night! … There will be great physical and moral calamities, both public and private … There will be occasions when all will seem to be lost and paralyzed! … Oh, if mortals only understood how to appreciate the time given to them, and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
What is there about this that you don’t understand? It could be any clearer! We know the remedies―but we refuse to take them, or, we refuse to take them according to the recommended dosages: “Pray very much … Continue to pray very much—very much! … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! … Pray! Pray a great deal! The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs on you. Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High! Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended!” If everyone was to spend as much time praying the Rosary against this agenda, this crisis, this demonically created assault on both Church and mankind, then massive and phenomenal things would occur! Just think of the victories of the Rosary against Islam at Lepanto in 1571; or the Rosary’s protection for the Jesuit priests in Hiroshima, Japan, during the Second World War, by emerging unscathed from the dropped atom-bomb; or the Rosary’s victory against Communism in Austria in the 1950s and Brazil in the 1960s [read more about these victories here]. It is proof of its power―yet we refuse to tap into that power and neglect the recommended dosages!
A Powerful Weapon, but …
A bullet that misses the target is a wasted bullet. A missile that misses its target is an expensive waste weaponry. St. Padre Pio said that “The Rosary is THE weapon!” ― but a weapon is only as good as the person who is using it and a bullet or missile that hits the target is also wasted if it is the wrong target―just like a doctor who treats the symptom but fails to attack the cause of the symptom. The COVID-19 Plannedemic was merely a symptom of another hidden more nefarious cause and agenda. The manipulation of world politics from behind the scenes is another symptom of that nefarious cause and agenda. That is why St. Louis de Montfort writes: “A single Hail Mary said properly is worth more than a hundred and fifty said badly!” He also reports the words of Our Lady to St. Dominic: “Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world? In this kind of warfare, the principal weapon has always been the Angelic Psalter [the Rosary].”
Sister Lucia of Fatima said: “The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary, to such an extent, that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or, above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.” (Lucia to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
OUR LADY OF FATIMA, at each apparition, commanded that the Rosary be prayed daily―with the Angel of Portugal, when he saw the Fatima playing, adding: “What are you doing? Pray! Pray a great deal! The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs on you. Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High! Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended, and as a petition for the conversion of sinners. In this way, you will draw peace upon your country!”
I Already Know All That!
Sure you know all the above―but what are you doing with your knowledge? Our Lord says: “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more!” (Luke 12:48). Being given the grace of the Traditional or Conservative Catholic Faith, you have received far more than anyone else in this world―just as the man in the parable of the Talents who was given 5 talents! Have you used your talents to much profit, or have you buried your talent? All Catholics are soldiers for Christ―but Traditional Catholics are meant to be an elite fighting force, like the Green Berets, Navy Seals, Marine Snipers, etc. Yet most do not live up to that calling! Once again, let it repeated: “How long shall I suffer you?” (Matthew 17:16), says Our Lord, “O faithless and perverse generation! How long shall I be with you, and suffer you?” (Luke 9:41). “Hear, O foolish people and without understanding―who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not!” (Jeremias 5:21). “And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify Me, but their heart is far from Me!” (Isaias 29:13). To which Jesus adds: “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). Those same reproaches could also be placed in the mouth of Our Lady―who has been humiliated and rejected by our apparent disregard for her constant warnings and repeated commands.
SISTER LUCIA OF FATIMA adds to those reproaches these words: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them! You must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a tremendous way!”
ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT says: “When the Rosary is well said, it gives Jesus and Mary more glory and is more meritorious for the soul than any other prayer. But it is also the hardest prayer to say well and to persevere in, owing especially to the distractions which almost inevitably attend the constant repetition of the same words … Because of the constant repetition of the Our Father and Hail Mary in the same unvarying form, it is difficult, while saying the Rosary, not to become wearied and inclined to sleep, or to turn to other prayers that are more refreshing and less tedious. This shows that one needs much greater devotion to persevere in saying the Rosary … Being human, we easily become tired and slipshod, but the devil makes these difficulties worse when we are saying the Rosary. Before we even begin, he makes us feel bored, distracted, or exhausted; and when we have started praying, he oppresses us from all sides, and when after much difficulty and many distractions … Even if you have to fight distractions all through your whole Rosary, be sure to fight well, arms in hand: that is to say, do not stop saying your Rosary even if it is difficult to say and you have no sensible devotion. It is a terrible battle, but one that is profitable to the faithful soul. If you put down your arms, that is, if you give up the Rosary, you will be admitting defeat and then the devil, having got what he wanted, will leave you in peace, and on the Day of Judgment will taunt you because of your faithlessness and lack of courage.” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).
ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT adds: “Why is it then that so few of them give up their sins and make progress in virtue, if not because they are not saying them as they should … To say the Holy Rosary with advantage, one must be in a state of grace, or at least be fully determined to give up sin, for all our theology teaches us that good works and prayers are dead works if they are done in a state of mortal sin. [also] The stronger our Faith―the more merit our Rosary will have. In order to pray well, it is not enough to give expression to our petitions by means of that most excellent of all prayers, the Rosary, but we must also pray with great attention, for God listens more to the voice of the heart than that of the mouth. To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin. How can we expect God to listen to us if we ourselves do not pay attention to what we are saying? How can we expect him to be pleased if, while in the presence of his tremendous majesty, we give in to distractions, like a child running after a butterfly? People who do that forfeit God’s blessing, which is changed into a curse for having treated the things of God disrespectfully: “Cursed be the one who does God’s work negligently” (Jeremias 48:10). (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).
“Our Lady also taught it to Blessed Alan de la Roche and said to him in a vision, “When people say 150 Hail Marys, that prayer is very helpful to them and a most pleasing tribute to me. But they will do better still and will please me more if they say these salutations while meditating on the life, death, and passion of Jesus Christ, for this MEDITATION IS THE SOUL OF THIS PRAYER.” For the Rosary said without the meditation on the sacred mysteries of our salvation, would almost be a body without a soul, excellent matter, but without the form, which is the meditation. We must not only say the Rosary with our lips in honor of Jesus and Mary, but also meditate upon the sacred mysteries while we are saying it … A Christian who does not meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary is very ungrateful to Our Lord and shows how little he cares for all that our divine Savior has suffered to save the world. This attitude seems to show that he knows little or nothing of the life of Jesus Christ, and that he has never taken the trouble to find out what He has done and what He went through in order to save us. A Christian of that kind ought to fear that, not having known Jesus Christ or having put Him out of his mind, Jesus will reject him on the Day of Judgment with the reproach: “I tell you solemnly, I do not know you!” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).
“Take great care to avoid the two pitfalls that most people fall into during the Rosary. The first is the danger of not asking for any graces at all … The second fault commonly committed in saying the Rosary is to have no intention other than that of getting it over with as quickly as possible. This is because so many look upon the Rosary as a burden … It is sad to see how most people say the Rosary. They say it astonishingly fast, slipping over part of the words. We could not possibly expect anyone, even the most important person, to think that a slipshod address of this kind was a compliment, and yet we imagine that Jesus and Mary will be honored by it! Small wonder, then, that the most sacred prayers of our holy religion seem to bear no fruit, and that, after saying thousands of Rosaries, we are still no better than we were before. I beg you to restrain your natural precipitation when saying your Rosary, and make some pauses in the middle of the Our Father and Hail Mary, and a smaller one after the words of the Our Father and Hail Mary which I have marked with a cross, as follows. At first, you may find it difficult to make these pauses because of your bad habit of saying prayers in a hurry; but a decade said recollectedly in this way will be worth more than thousands of Rosaries said in a hurry, without pausing or reflecting.” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).
Making Your Rosary a More Powerful Weapon
RECOMMENDED MANNER OF THE PRAYING THE ROSARY PRAYERS ACCORDING TO ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT
(The Secret of the Rosary, §127)
St. Louis de Montfort suggests a very short pause at each sign of the cross
Our Father, Who art in Heaven, + hallowed by Thy Name, + Thy kingdom come, + Thy will be done + on Earth as it is in Heaven. + Give us this day + our daily bread, + and forgive us our trespasses + as we forgive those who trespass against us, + and lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. + Amen.
Hail, Mary, full of grace, + the Lord is with thee, + blessed art thou among women, + and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. + Holy Mary, Mother of God, + pray for us sinners, now + and at the hour of our death. + Amen.
Glory be to the Father + and to the Son + and to the Holy Ghost, + as it was in the beginning, + is now and ever shall be, + world without end. + Amen.
SHORT INVOCATIONS TO BE INSERTED IN EACH HAIL MARY
There is also a long-lost custom of adding a short invocation midway through each Hail Mary, immediately after the word “Jesus”. For example, in the 1st Sorrowful Mystery of the Agony in the Garden, it could be the words ― “Jesus in agony over our sins!” Hence it would be said thus: “…and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, in agony over our sins! Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, etc.”
In the present worldwide escalating crisis, the invocations can be modified to make mention of our present threats and dangers. Choose and use whatever you want. Below are a mere few generic suggestions out of literally thousands of possible invocations. Remember! Our Lady said at Fatima and Akita THAT ONLY SHE CAN HELP US! Stop looking elsewhere! Though some things can be helpful in this crisis, such as the forwarding of information, videos, etc.― it not this which will solve the crisis. The current crisis ultimately has a preternatural cause (the devil) and it can only be overcome with a supernatural solution (Our Lady and the Rosary). That is how God has decided it will be ― we can either take His advice or pay the price! Insert these or any other invocations you like into your Rosaries. Even though they will not make your Rosary as powerful as a truly meditated Rosary, they will nevertheless increase the power of your Rosaries. Above all, DO NOT RUSH! Pray as you would hold a conversation ― which means interspersed with pauses and not a case of verbal diarrhea.
JOYFUL MYSTERIES
1st Mystery : Annunciation ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, calling Catholics to fulfill God’s will by increased devotion to Mary”
2nd Mystery : Visitation ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, calling us to personally go and spread devotion to Mary …”
3rd Mystery : Nativity ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, wishing to be truly born into our hearts and rule our daily lives …”
4th Mystery : Presentation ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, calling us to present ourselves before Him ready for battle …”
5th Mystery : Finding in Temple ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, calling us seek out lost souls and indifferent Catholics …”
JOYFUL MYSTERIES
1st Mystery : Agony in Garden ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, calling us to truly weep over the sins of the world, the ultimate cause of our crisis …”
2nd Mystery : Scourging ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, asking us to brave and endure tongue lashings for His sake and the sake of truth …”
3rd Mystery : Crowning with Thorns ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, asking us to endure the world imposed thorns of threats and fears …”
4th Mystery : Carrying of the Cross ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, asking us to profit from the crosses imposed upon us by the crisis …”
5th Mystery : Crucifixion ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, asking us to be ready for martyrdom if we should be called …”
GLORIOUS MYSTERIES
1st Mystery : Resurrection ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, telling us that the triumph over evil will eventually come …”
2nd Mystery : Ascension ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, asking to look to Heaven and not Earth for help and intervention …”
3rd Mystery : Pentecost ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, sending the Spirit of God to cast out our fears and give us courage…”
4th Mystery : Assumption ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, offering us our place in Heaven if we fight the good fight of Faith …”
5th Mystery : Coronation ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, offering us the crown of victory …”
Talking About Remedies
Everyone is talking about remedies for COVID-19 and the official narrative has deified vaccination as being the god that will save the world! Yet the real virus, the real disease, the real threat is the agenda behind this man-made COVID-19 virus. Nobody is speaking about and focusing upon a remedy for the CAUSE of it all, they are only worried about addressing and treating the SYMPTOM (COVID-19), but not the CAUSE (the nefarious agenda).
Heaven has warned of this agenda and Heaven has given us a remedy or a cure for this! We either take the advice or pay the price! Just as Fr. Faber, in the Preface of his personal translation of St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary, says about the need of an IMMENSE INCREASE in devotion to Mary, likewise, we will fall into the worldwide total Communistic enslavement that Our Lady foretold through Sister Lucia of Fatima, if there is not an IMMENSE INCREASE in the praying of the Rosary and the performance of numerous, countless acts of penance and sacrifice. The era of the armchair Catholic has come to an end―he either falls to his knees in almost constant prayer, or he will be brought to his knees by totalitarianist Communism posing as and hiding behind and within the political parties your own countries.
Our Lady has warned us enough times already―we either take the advice or pay the price. The time is no longer far away in the future. Recent events have shown that what Our Lady foretold is just around the corner. Take the following words of Fr. Faber and simply apply them to our situation today:
“But what is the remedy that is wanted? What is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one! Mary is not half enough preached! Devotion to her is low and thin and poor! It is always invoking human respect and carnal prudence, wishing to make Mary so little of a Mary that Protestants [or lukewarm Catholics] may feel at ease about her! Its ignorance of theology makes it unsubstantial and unworthy! It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be! It has no faith in itself! Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted, that the Church is not exalted; that souls which might be saints wither and dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelized! Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the background! Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them! It is the miserable, unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines! Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the saints, God is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to His Blessed Mother! “
Sharing information and enlightening others is good up to a point―but there comes a time when the continual talk must stop and continual prayers must start. Knowing what is going on is only half the job. A patient who goes to a doctor expects, not only to be informed as to what is wrong with him, but he also to expects receive medication to solve the problem. Knowledge without action is like a diagnosis without treatment. ”O, we’ve found out that you have cancer! You can go home now with the full knowledge that you have cancer and not some other disease!” But what about the treatment? What about the solution? How about prayer and penance on an unprecedented scale to match the unprecedented scale of this clearly man-made crisis (which ultimately comes from the devil).
One would hope that Catholics would react to what is a thinly disguised attack upon mankind as a whole and the Catholic Church in particular―for the Catholic Church is the only real church and the only real barrier that stands between Satan and his lust for souls and world domination. Yet, Our Lady’s La Salette warning rings ominously true: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish.” This brings to mind the equally ominous words of Our Lord: “I say to you―unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3)―to which Holy Scripture further adds: “God has given him place for penance― and he abuses it in his pride!” (Job 24:23) … “I gave her a time that she might do penance―but she will not repent of her fornication!” (Apocalypse 2:21).
“How long shall I suffer you?” (Matthew 17:16), says Our Lord, “O faithless and perverse generation! How long shall I be with you, and suffer you?” (Luke 9:41). “Hear, O foolish people and without understanding―who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not!” (Jeremias 5:21). “And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify Me, but their heart is far from Me!” (Isaias 29:13). To which Jesus adds: “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). Those same reproaches could also be placed in the mouth of Our Lady―who has been humiliated and rejected by our apparent disregard for her warnings and commands.
Take the Advice or Pay the Price
Sister Lucia of Fatima adds to those reproaches these words: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message―neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them! You must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a tremendous way!”
Weaponize Your Rosary
St. Padre Pio said that “The Rosary is THE weapon!” Our Lady said that the Rosary is the weapon by which God wants to reform the world (cf. The Secret of the Rosary by St. Louis de Montfort). Sister Lucia of Fatima said that the Rosary has been given a new power to be the solution of all problems. Do you realize and appreciate the fact that you carry the most powerful weapon in the world (outside of the Holy Mass) in your pocket or purse!
Our Lady of Fatima explicitly said: “Continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary … because only she can help you!” (Fatima, July 13th 1917). Our Lady of Akita, 56 years later, in 1973, repeated that inescapable truth: “Pray very much … Continue to pray very much—very much! The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved!” (Akita, 1973).
Sister Lucia of Fatima said: “The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary, to such an extent, that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, that cannot be solved by the Rosary.”
At Fatima, Our Lady informed Francisco that he could only get to Heaven if he prayed many Rosaries! What had a little 9-year-old boy done to merit that command? He had done far less than we have done! The world was also in a state nowhere near the sinful state that it finds itself in today! A meager 2% or 3% of Catholics pray the Rosary daily―and one must seriously doubt that they pray the Rosary as it should be prayed―slowly, respectfully, with intentions and meditatively. Perhaps that is how you pray it―but few do! Yet we expect remedies for a few paltry, distracted, hastily said, non-meditated, half-hearted Rosaries that lack fervor, intensity and immovable Faith! We are deluded fools, complacent idiots, prideful dreamers, spineless soldiers and addicts of the world with our heads buried in the sands of indifference and neglect.
Sin abounds more and more―yet the Rosary is prayed less and less! What do you expect? How can you expect to fight an ever worsening disease by taking less and less medicine? Is that not stupidity? Is that not insanity? Is that not suicidal? Well, then, why are we following such a stupid protocol with our approach to the Rosary and its “medicinal” application to the problems and crises that face us today on all fronts? Let us stop being stupid and start getting more realistic. If Our Lady said that only Our Lady of the Rosary can help us now―and that the Rosary is one of last weapons Heaven has given us―then who the heck do we think we are in ignoring those truths and commands? We are not going to arrest the many crises facing us by merely sharing information, forwarding e-mails, writing articles, signing petitions, protesting to governmental agencies and representatives―we will only change things by using the supernatural weapons Heaven has given. You will not change Heaven’s mind―you can only change your own mind, together with you habits and opinions. If 98 out 100 Catholics do not pray the Rosary, then―just in any family, workplace or battlefield―someone must “pick-up the slack” and make up for that neglect. If not, then we will pay the consequences―and those consequences will be very, very heavy, as Our Lady has warned:
“As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead!” (Akita) … “Nations will be annihilated!” (Fatima) … “Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together … God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events ... They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family ... All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes … People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder … Blood will flow on all sides … Blood will flow in the streets … A general war will follow which will be appalling … Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the Heavens!” (La Salette) … “The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom … This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings … How the Church will suffer during this dark night! … There will be great physical and moral calamities, both public and private … There will be occasions when all will seem to be lost and paralyzed! … Oh, if mortals only understood how to appreciate the time given to them, and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
What is there about this that you don’t understand? It could be any clearer! We know the remedies―but we refuse to take them, or, we refuse to take them according to the recommended dosages: “Pray very much … Continue to pray very much—very much! … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! … Pray! Pray a great deal! The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs on you. Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High! Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended!” If everyone was to spend as much time praying the Rosary against this agenda, this crisis, this demonically created assault on both Church and mankind, then massive and phenomenal things would occur! Just think of the victories of the Rosary against Islam at Lepanto in 1571; or the Rosary’s protection for the Jesuit priests in Hiroshima, Japan, during the Second World War, by emerging unscathed from the dropped atom-bomb; or the Rosary’s victory against Communism in Austria in the 1950s and Brazil in the 1960s [read more about these victories here]. It is proof of its power―yet we refuse to tap into that power and neglect the recommended dosages!
A Powerful Weapon, but …
A bullet that misses the target is a wasted bullet. A missile that misses its target is an expensive waste weaponry. St. Padre Pio said that “The Rosary is THE weapon!” ― but a weapon is only as good as the person who is using it and a bullet or missile that hits the target is also wasted if it is the wrong target―just like a doctor who treats the symptom but fails to attack the cause of the symptom. The COVID-19 Plannedemic was merely a symptom of another hidden more nefarious cause and agenda. The manipulation of world politics from behind the scenes is another symptom of that nefarious cause and agenda. That is why St. Louis de Montfort writes: “A single Hail Mary said properly is worth more than a hundred and fifty said badly!” He also reports the words of Our Lady to St. Dominic: “Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world? In this kind of warfare, the principal weapon has always been the Angelic Psalter [the Rosary].”
Sister Lucia of Fatima said: “The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary, to such an extent, that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or, above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.” (Lucia to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
OUR LADY OF FATIMA, at each apparition, commanded that the Rosary be prayed daily―with the Angel of Portugal, when he saw the Fatima playing, adding: “What are you doing? Pray! Pray a great deal! The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs on you. Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High! Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended, and as a petition for the conversion of sinners. In this way, you will draw peace upon your country!”
I Already Know All That!
Sure you know all the above―but what are you doing with your knowledge? Our Lord says: “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more!” (Luke 12:48). Being given the grace of the Traditional or Conservative Catholic Faith, you have received far more than anyone else in this world―just as the man in the parable of the Talents who was given 5 talents! Have you used your talents to much profit, or have you buried your talent? All Catholics are soldiers for Christ―but Traditional Catholics are meant to be an elite fighting force, like the Green Berets, Navy Seals, Marine Snipers, etc. Yet most do not live up to that calling! Once again, let it repeated: “How long shall I suffer you?” (Matthew 17:16), says Our Lord, “O faithless and perverse generation! How long shall I be with you, and suffer you?” (Luke 9:41). “Hear, O foolish people and without understanding―who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not!” (Jeremias 5:21). “And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify Me, but their heart is far from Me!” (Isaias 29:13). To which Jesus adds: “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). Those same reproaches could also be placed in the mouth of Our Lady―who has been humiliated and rejected by our apparent disregard for her constant warnings and repeated commands.
SISTER LUCIA OF FATIMA adds to those reproaches these words: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them! You must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a tremendous way!”
ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT says: “When the Rosary is well said, it gives Jesus and Mary more glory and is more meritorious for the soul than any other prayer. But it is also the hardest prayer to say well and to persevere in, owing especially to the distractions which almost inevitably attend the constant repetition of the same words … Because of the constant repetition of the Our Father and Hail Mary in the same unvarying form, it is difficult, while saying the Rosary, not to become wearied and inclined to sleep, or to turn to other prayers that are more refreshing and less tedious. This shows that one needs much greater devotion to persevere in saying the Rosary … Being human, we easily become tired and slipshod, but the devil makes these difficulties worse when we are saying the Rosary. Before we even begin, he makes us feel bored, distracted, or exhausted; and when we have started praying, he oppresses us from all sides, and when after much difficulty and many distractions … Even if you have to fight distractions all through your whole Rosary, be sure to fight well, arms in hand: that is to say, do not stop saying your Rosary even if it is difficult to say and you have no sensible devotion. It is a terrible battle, but one that is profitable to the faithful soul. If you put down your arms, that is, if you give up the Rosary, you will be admitting defeat and then the devil, having got what he wanted, will leave you in peace, and on the Day of Judgment will taunt you because of your faithlessness and lack of courage.” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).
ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT adds: “Why is it then that so few of them give up their sins and make progress in virtue, if not because they are not saying them as they should … To say the Holy Rosary with advantage, one must be in a state of grace, or at least be fully determined to give up sin, for all our theology teaches us that good works and prayers are dead works if they are done in a state of mortal sin. [also] The stronger our Faith―the more merit our Rosary will have. In order to pray well, it is not enough to give expression to our petitions by means of that most excellent of all prayers, the Rosary, but we must also pray with great attention, for God listens more to the voice of the heart than that of the mouth. To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin. How can we expect God to listen to us if we ourselves do not pay attention to what we are saying? How can we expect him to be pleased if, while in the presence of his tremendous majesty, we give in to distractions, like a child running after a butterfly? People who do that forfeit God’s blessing, which is changed into a curse for having treated the things of God disrespectfully: “Cursed be the one who does God’s work negligently” (Jeremias 48:10). (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).
“Our Lady also taught it to Blessed Alan de la Roche and said to him in a vision, “When people say 150 Hail Marys, that prayer is very helpful to them and a most pleasing tribute to me. But they will do better still and will please me more if they say these salutations while meditating on the life, death, and passion of Jesus Christ, for this MEDITATION IS THE SOUL OF THIS PRAYER.” For the Rosary said without the meditation on the sacred mysteries of our salvation, would almost be a body without a soul, excellent matter, but without the form, which is the meditation. We must not only say the Rosary with our lips in honor of Jesus and Mary, but also meditate upon the sacred mysteries while we are saying it … A Christian who does not meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary is very ungrateful to Our Lord and shows how little he cares for all that our divine Savior has suffered to save the world. This attitude seems to show that he knows little or nothing of the life of Jesus Christ, and that he has never taken the trouble to find out what He has done and what He went through in order to save us. A Christian of that kind ought to fear that, not having known Jesus Christ or having put Him out of his mind, Jesus will reject him on the Day of Judgment with the reproach: “I tell you solemnly, I do not know you!” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).
“Take great care to avoid the two pitfalls that most people fall into during the Rosary. The first is the danger of not asking for any graces at all … The second fault commonly committed in saying the Rosary is to have no intention other than that of getting it over with as quickly as possible. This is because so many look upon the Rosary as a burden … It is sad to see how most people say the Rosary. They say it astonishingly fast, slipping over part of the words. We could not possibly expect anyone, even the most important person, to think that a slipshod address of this kind was a compliment, and yet we imagine that Jesus and Mary will be honored by it! Small wonder, then, that the most sacred prayers of our holy religion seem to bear no fruit, and that, after saying thousands of Rosaries, we are still no better than we were before. I beg you to restrain your natural precipitation when saying your Rosary, and make some pauses in the middle of the Our Father and Hail Mary, and a smaller one after the words of the Our Father and Hail Mary which I have marked with a cross, as follows. At first, you may find it difficult to make these pauses because of your bad habit of saying prayers in a hurry; but a decade said recollectedly in this way will be worth more than thousands of Rosaries said in a hurry, without pausing or reflecting.” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).
Making Your Rosary a More Powerful Weapon
RECOMMENDED MANNER OF THE PRAYING THE ROSARY PRAYERS ACCORDING TO ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT
(The Secret of the Rosary, §127)
St. Louis de Montfort suggests a very short pause at each sign of the cross
Our Father, Who art in Heaven, + hallowed by Thy Name, + Thy kingdom come, + Thy will be done + on Earth as it is in Heaven. + Give us this day + our daily bread, + and forgive us our trespasses + as we forgive those who trespass against us, + and lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. + Amen.
Hail, Mary, full of grace, + the Lord is with thee, + blessed art thou among women, + and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. + Holy Mary, Mother of God, + pray for us sinners, now + and at the hour of our death. + Amen.
Glory be to the Father + and to the Son + and to the Holy Ghost, + as it was in the beginning, + is now and ever shall be, + world without end. + Amen.
SHORT INVOCATIONS TO BE INSERTED IN EACH HAIL MARY
There is also a long-lost custom of adding a short invocation midway through each Hail Mary, immediately after the word “Jesus”. For example, in the 1st Sorrowful Mystery of the Agony in the Garden, it could be the words ― “Jesus in agony over our sins!” Hence it would be said thus: “…and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, in agony over our sins! Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, etc.”
In the present worldwide escalating crisis, the invocations can be modified to make mention of our present threats and dangers. Choose and use whatever you want. Below are a mere few generic suggestions out of literally thousands of possible invocations. Remember! Our Lady said at Fatima and Akita THAT ONLY SHE CAN HELP US! Stop looking elsewhere! Though some things can be helpful in this crisis, such as the forwarding of information, videos, etc.― it not this which will solve the crisis. The current crisis ultimately has a preternatural cause (the devil) and it can only be overcome with a supernatural solution (Our Lady and the Rosary). That is how God has decided it will be ― we can either take His advice or pay the price! Insert these or any other invocations you like into your Rosaries. Even though they will not make your Rosary as powerful as a truly meditated Rosary, they will nevertheless increase the power of your Rosaries. Above all, DO NOT RUSH! Pray as you would hold a conversation ― which means interspersed with pauses and not a case of verbal diarrhea.
JOYFUL MYSTERIES
1st Mystery : Annunciation ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, calling Catholics to fulfill God’s will by increased devotion to Mary”
2nd Mystery : Visitation ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, calling us to personally go and spread devotion to Mary …”
3rd Mystery : Nativity ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, wishing to be truly born into our hearts and rule our daily lives …”
4th Mystery : Presentation ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, calling us to present ourselves before Him ready for battle …”
5th Mystery : Finding in Temple ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, calling us seek out lost souls and indifferent Catholics …”
JOYFUL MYSTERIES
1st Mystery : Agony in Garden ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, calling us to truly weep over the sins of the world, the ultimate cause of our crisis …”
2nd Mystery : Scourging ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, asking us to brave and endure tongue lashings for His sake and the sake of truth …”
3rd Mystery : Crowning with Thorns ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, asking us to endure the world imposed thorns of threats and fears …”
4th Mystery : Carrying of the Cross ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, asking us to profit from the crosses imposed upon us by the crisis …”
5th Mystery : Crucifixion ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, asking us to be ready for martyrdom if we should be called …”
GLORIOUS MYSTERIES
1st Mystery : Resurrection ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, telling us that the triumph over evil will eventually come …”
2nd Mystery : Ascension ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, asking to look to Heaven and not Earth for help and intervention …”
3rd Mystery : Pentecost ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, sending the Spirit of God to cast out our fears and give us courage…”
4th Mystery : Assumption ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, offering us our place in Heaven if we fight the good fight of Faith …”
5th Mystery : Coronation ― “…of thy womb, Jesus, offering us the crown of victory …”
Talking About Remedies
Everyone is talking about remedies for COVID-19 and the official narrative has deified vaccination as being the god that will save the world! Yet the real virus, the real disease, the real threat is the agenda behind this man-made COVID-19 virus. Nobody is speaking about and focusing upon a remedy for the CAUSE of it all, they are only worried about addressing and treating the SYMPTOM (COVID-19), but not the CAUSE (the nefarious agenda).
Heaven has warned of this agenda and Heaven has given us a remedy or a cure for this! We either take the advice or pay the price! Just as Fr. Faber, in the Preface of his personal translation of St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary, says about the need of an IMMENSE INCREASE in devotion to Mary, likewise, we will fall into the worldwide total Communistic enslavement that Our Lady foretold through Sister Lucia of Fatima, if there is not an IMMENSE INCREASE in the praying of the Rosary and the performance of numerous, countless acts of penance and sacrifice. The era of the armchair Catholic has come to an end―he either falls to his knees in almost constant prayer, or he will be brought to his knees by totalitarianist Communism posing as and hiding behind and within the political parties your own countries.
Our Lady has warned us enough times already―we either take the advice or pay the price. The time is no longer far away in the future. Recent events have shown that what Our Lady foretold is just around the corner. Take the following words of Fr. Faber and simply apply them to our situation today:
“But what is the remedy that is wanted? What is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one! Mary is not half enough preached! Devotion to her is low and thin and poor! It is always invoking human respect and carnal prudence, wishing to make Mary so little of a Mary that Protestants [or lukewarm Catholics] may feel at ease about her! Its ignorance of theology makes it unsubstantial and unworthy! It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be! It has no faith in itself! Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted, that the Church is not exalted; that souls which might be saints wither and dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelized! Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the background! Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them! It is the miserable, unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines! Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the saints, God is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to His Blessed Mother! “
Sharing information and enlightening others is good up to a point―but there comes a time when the continual talk must stop and continual prayers must start. Knowing what is going on is only half the job. A patient who goes to a doctor expects, not only to be informed as to what is wrong with him, but he also to expects receive medication to solve the problem. Knowledge without action is like a diagnosis without treatment. ”O, we’ve found out that you have cancer! You can go home now with the full knowledge that you have cancer and not some other disease!” But what about the treatment? What about the solution? How about prayer and penance on an unprecedented scale to match the unprecedented scale of this clearly man-made crisis (which ultimately comes from the devil).
One would hope that Catholics would react to what is a thinly disguised attack upon mankind as a whole and the Catholic Church in particular―for the Catholic Church is the only real church and the only real barrier that stands between Satan and his lust for souls and world domination. Yet, Our Lady’s La Salette warning rings ominously true: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish.” This brings to mind the equally ominous words of Our Lord: “I say to you―unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3)―to which Holy Scripture further adds: “God has given him place for penance― and he abuses it in his pride!” (Job 24:23) … “I gave her a time that she might do penance―but she will not repent of her fornication!” (Apocalypse 2:21).
Article 16
Tuesday, May 12th
How Can Mary Save You? Will You Let Mary Save You?
Tuesday, May 12th
How Can Mary Save You? Will You Let Mary Save You?
God Saves How He Wants
God can choose to save our sinful in whatever manner He wants. He could save us by having us eat a particular fruit―which might be appropriate since the Original Sin of Adam and Eve consisted in eating the forbidden fruit! God could save us by having us eat soil and grass―much like St. Bernadette of Lourdes being commanded to eat grass as a penance for sinners―and that, too, could be appropriate, since Adam was made from the soil of the Earth: “And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the Earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7) and we are all, so to speak, slimy sinners!
New Adam, New Eve
Nevertheless, since sin first came into this world through a man and woman―Adam and Eve―it is only fitting that God chooses to save mankind through another man and woman―Jesus Christ, Who is God incarnate (God in the flesh of man) and the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the Mother of Christ and thus the Mother of God. Furthermore, since the devil managed to get Adam to sin by having Eve sin first, who then approached Adam and made him sin―so too does God want to go to the “woman”, the “New Eve” (Mary) first, and through Mary approach the “New Adam”, Jesus Christ through her, in order to obtain forgiveness and mercy for our sins.
In Catholic theology, Jesus is seen as fulfilling the role that Adam failed to fulfill. Adam’s disobedience to God’s command not to eat the forbidden fruit, led to sin and death, but Jesus, through His obedience and sacrifice, overcomes sin and death, thereby offering the possibility of redemption and salvation to all humanity. Mary’s role is understood as contrasting with Eve’s. Eve’s interaction with the serpent (devil) led to doubt, pride and disobedience, which in turn led to the Fall through Original Sin, whereas Mary’s Faith, humility and obedience to God’s will are seen as the foundation for the “New Creation”. She is considered the “New Eve” because she cooperated with God’s plan for our redemption and salvation by giving birth to Jesus, the “New Adam.”
Due to Eve’s disobedience to God, and consequently Adam’s cooperation with Eve in her sin by repeating it, they both lost Sanctifying Grace for themselves and for all their offspring throughout future generations. Like Eve, Mary was created “full of grace” ― full of Sanctifying Grace. But unlike Eve, Mary remained in a state of Sanctifying Grace by being obedient to God, just as Christ, unlike Adam, remained obedient to God. In cooperation with God, Mary became Mother of the Redeemer and, in cooperation with Christ, she became Mother of the redeemed as well.
Mary if often referred to by the phrase “New Eve” or similar expressions, by the early Fathers of the Church. St. Justin Martyr, to take just one example, lived and wrote within a couple of generations of the Apostles. In his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew (around 150 AD), Justin states that Jesus destroyed Satan’s work in the same manner as evil had originally entered into the world. Evil entered through Eve while she was still a virgin; likewise, salvation entered through Mary while she was still a virgin. Each woman was a willing participant in what they did―fully cognizant of what they were doing. Eve listened to the serpent and conceived death. Mary listened to the Archangel Gabriel and conceived life. Eve instigates the sin of Adam by giving birth to the idea in Adam’s mind―Mary instigates the redemption of mankind by giving birth to Christ in her body. Adam does not sin without Eve’s involvement. Christ does not redeem without Mary’s involvement. Justin sees this clearly in the Gospel of St. Luke (chapter 1:38) where Mary states: “Be it done unto me according to thy word!” Therefore, for St. Justin, Christ’s becoming a man involved his Mother’s willing cooperation in undoing the perpetually tangled web of sin that Eve introduced by Original Sin.
God Makes the Rules
As the saying goes: “There is more than one way to skin a cat!” and there are many ways God could save souls. God has made Mary an integral part in the salvation of souls―that is how it is, like it or not, accept it or not! Whether or not you follow His plan of redemption and salvation is totally up to you―you make the choice and you accept the consequences.
“Our God is in Heaven and He has done all things whatsoever He wants” (Psalm 113:11). “So shall My word be, which shall go forth from My Mouth―it shall not return to Me void, but it shall do whatsoever I please, and shall prosper in the things for which I sent it!” (Isaias 55:11). “He does according to His will, and there is none that can resist His hand, and say to Him: ‘Why hast Thou done it?’” (Daniel 4:32). “And you have said: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Hear ye, therefore―is it My way that is not right, or rather that your ways are not right but perverse?” (Ezechiel 18:25). “For My thoughts are not your thoughts; nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9). God’s way for us is that we should go to Him through Christ, and that we should go to Christ through Mary. Take it or leave―that is how it is!
St. Louis de Montfort, in his True Devotion to Mary, writes: “I avow, with all the Church, that Mary, being a mere creature that has come from the hands of the Most High, is in comparison with His Infinite Majesty less than an atom; or rather, she is nothing at all … Consequently, the Lord never had, and has not now, any absolute need of the holy Virgin for the accomplishment of His will. He has only to will something in order to do everything. Nevertheless, I say that, things being as they are now—that is, God having willed to commence and to complete His greatest works by the most holy Virgin—then we may well think He will not change His conduct in the eternal ages; for He is God, and He changes not, either in His sentiments, or in His conduct. It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only-Begotten to the world. God the Holy Ghost formed Jesus Christ in Mary―but it was only after having asked her consent by one of the first ministers of His court. God the Father communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, inasmuch as a mere creature was capable of it, in order that He might give her the power to produce His Son and all the members of His Mystical Body. God the Son descended into her virginal womb, as the New Adam into His terrestrial paradise, and to work there in secret marvels of grace. O admirable and incomprehensible dependence of God!
“O how highly we glorify God when, to please Him, we submit ourselves to Mary, after the example of Jesus Christ, our sole Exemplar! If we examine closely the rest of our Blessed Lord’s life, we shall see that it was His will to begin His miracles by Mary. He sanctified St. John in the womb of his mother, St. Elizabeth―but it was by Mary’s word. No sooner had she spoken, than John was sanctified―and this was His first miracle of grace. At the marriage of Cana He changed the water into wine, but it was at Mary’s humble prayer―and this was His first miracle of nature. He began and continued His miracles by Mary, and He will continue them to the end of ages by Mary.
“God the Holy Ghost, being barren in God—that is to say, not producing another Divine Person—is become fruitful by Mary, whom He has espoused. It was with her, in her, and of her that He produced His Masterpiece―which is Jesus Christ, God made Man―and that He goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head. This is the reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary, His dear and inseparable spouse, in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ. It is not that we mean that our Blessed Lady gives the Holy Ghost His fruitfulness, as if He had it not Himself. What we mean is that the Holy Ghost chose to make use of our Blessed Lady―though He had no absolute need of her―to bring His fruitfulness into action, by producing, in her and by her, Jesus Christ and His members—a mystery of grace unknown to even the wisest and most spiritual among Christians. The conduct which the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity have deigned to pursue in the Incarnation and the first coming of Jesus Christ, They still pursue daily, in an invisible manner, throughout the whole Church; and They will still pursue it even to the consummation of ages in the last coming of Jesus Christ.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
That is why the saints see Mary as an integral part of salvation―because God has wished it to be so; God has ruled that it will be so; and God has set up things so that His will in this matter can be carried out. Here are some statements made by the saints on this subject―many of them coming from Doctors of the Church―affirming that Mary holds such a place in the economy of our redemption that some do not hesitate to state that devotion to her is a necessary condition of salvation:
● St. Albert the Great (a Doctor of the Church), says: “They who are not thy servants, O Mary, shall perish!”
● St. Bonaventure (a Doctor of the Church) repeats the same thought when he says: “They who neglect the service of Mary shall die in their sins.” And again: “For them, from whom Mary turns away her face, there is not even a hope of salvation!”
● St. Ignatius of Antioch (a Father of the Church), a martyr of the second century, writes: “A sinner can be saved only through the Holy Virgin who, by her merciful prayers, obtains salvation for so many who, according to strict justice, would be lost!”
If a lack of devotion to her is a mark of eternal reprobation a constant love for her must be a sign of eternal salvation. Many spiritual writers state that devotion to Mary is a sign of predestination.
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church) says: “It is impossible that a servant of Mary be damned, provided he serves her faithfully and commends himself to her maternal protection!”
● St. Anselm (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “He who turns to thee and is regarded by thee cannot be lost!”
● St. Antonine is of the same opinion. He says: “As it is impossible for them from whom Mary turns away her eyes of mercy to be saved, so it is necessary that they to whom she turns her eyes of mercy and for whom she intercedes to be saved and glorified!”
Confirmed by Our Lady
Our Lady essentially confirms all of this in her modern-day apparitions, especially those of Fatima (1917) and Akita (1973), saying: “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go! … Many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you! … To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart ... Jesus wants to make me known and loved. He wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it―these souls will be dear to God! … If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved!” (Fatima). “I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach! Those who place their confidence in me will be saved!” (Akita).
All of that is true and nice―but the key words, in what Our Lady says, do not apply to the “end” or “goal” or “target” or “destination” which is Heaven and salvation, but the key words apply to the method or means on how to get there: “If what I say is done!” If we do as she says, then we will achieve our salvation: “I promise salvation to whoever embraces devotion to my Immaculate Heart.”
The Economy of Salvation
As you sow, so shall you reap! He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly! (Galatians 6:8; 2 Corinthians 9:6). Do little and you will get little. Our Lady says that God and Jesus want to establish devotion to her throughout the world. Devotion―by the very meaning of the word―is not something that is mediocre and average; it is above average and far from being mediocre.
The word “devotion” finds its origins in Latin, rooted in words like: “devotus, devotio, devovere”, etc. The verb, devovere”, giving the past participle “devotus”, is itself based on the verb “vovere”, pp. “votus”, meaning “to give up, to vow, dedicate or consecrate.” The Latin “devotus” means “faithful”, from which we obviously get our word “devoted”. If we come to more modern times, and look up the word in the book of definitions, the Dictionary, we will encounter such definitions as: (1) earnestness and zeal in the performance of religious duties and observations; (2) religious fervor, reverence, piety; (3) an act of prayer or supplication—now usually used in plural; (4) oblation or offering, such as of oneself or an alms given from religious motives; (5) ardent love or affection; (6) strong attachment; (7) dedication or attachment to a cause, person, principle, etc. (8) zeal, enthusiasm.
This gives us a clear picture of “devotion” being a cut-above the average, being something especially noticeable due to the presence of a zeal, a fervor, an enthusiasm, a strong attachment and ardent love for some object or thing, or some person, or some place. It rules out notions like lukewarmness, tepidity, torpor, sloth, indifference, inconsistency, sporadic, half-hearted, selfish, etc.
The bottom line is that you will get what you pay for―the more you pay, the more you get; the more you pray, the more you get; the more you sacrifice, the more you get; the more you love, the more you are loved in return. “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8). “I love them that love me! … I enrich them that love me, and fill their treasures” (Proverbs 8:17, 21). “Give, and it shall be given to you―good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you shall measure out to others, it shall be measured to you again!” (Luke 6:38). As St. Louis de Montfort writes: “A fervent and generous soul who gives God all he has, without reserve, so that he can do nothing more; who lives only for the glory and reign of Jesus Christ, through His holy Mother, and who makes an entire sacrifice of himself to bring it about—will this generous soul, I say, be more punished in the other world because it has been more generous and more disinterested than others? Far, indeed, will that be from the truth! Rather, it is toward that soul, as we shall see by what follows, that Our Lord and His holy Mother are the most generous in this world and in the other, in the orders of nature, grace and glory!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
What Salvation Plan Do You Want?
As with most things in life―you get what you pay for. There are various different health insurance plans, ranging from basic to deluxe―you can get a cheap one that only covers the basics, or an expensive one that covers everything.
St. Louis de Montfort presents us with “deluxe” version of a “Salvation Insurance Plan” when he writes: “The most holy Virgin, who is a Mother of sweetness and mercy, and who never lets herself be outdone in love and generosity, seeing that we give ourselves entirely to her, to honor and to serve her, and for that end strip ourselves of all that is dearest to us, in order to adorn her, meets us in the same spirit. She also gives her whole self, and gives it in an unspeakable manner, to him who gives all to her. She causes him to be engulfed in the abyss of her graces. She adorns him with her merits; she supports him with her power; she illuminates him with her light; she inflames him with her love; she communicates to him her virtues: her humility, her Faith, her purity and the rest. She makes herself his bail, his supplement, and his dear all toward Jesus. In a word, as that consecrated person is all Mary’s, so Mary is all his!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
There are plenty of cheap “Salvation Insurance Plans” masquerading as the real thing―but which are nothing but false plans. St. Louis calls them “false devotions.” Use them at your own risk if you wish―but you will risk your salvation into the bargain! He says:
“I find seven kinds of false devotees and false devotions to Our Lady, namely: (1) the critical devotees; (2) the scrupulous devotees; (3) the external devotees; (4) the presumptuous devotees; (5) the inconstant devotees; (6) the hypocritical devotees; (7) the interested devotees.
Critical Devotees: The critical devotees are rash and self-sufficient spirits, who have at heart some devotion to the holy Virgin, but who criticize practices do not fall in with their own humor and fancy. They call in doubt all the miracles and pious stories recorded by authors worthy of Faith; they are not fond of simple humble external devotions.
Scrupulous Devotees: The scrupulous devotees are those who fear to dishonor the Son by honoring the Mother, to abase the one in elevating the other. They cannot bear that we should attribute to Our Lady the most just praise which the holy Fathers have given her. They are unwilling that we should speak so often of Our Lady and address her so frequently.
External Devotees: External devotees are persons who make all devotion to our Blessed Lady consist in outward practices. They have no taste except for the exterior of this devotion, because they have no interior spirit of their own. They will say quantities of Rosaries with the greatest precipitation; they will hear many Masses distractedly; they will go, without devotion, to processions; they will enroll themselves in all her confraternities—without amending their lives, without doing any violence to their passions, or without imitating the virtues of that most holy Virgin.
Presumptuous Devotees: Presumptuous devotees are sinners abandoned to their passions, or lovers of the world, who under the fair name of Christians and clients of our Blessed Lady conceal pride, avarice, impurity, drunkenness, anger, swearing, detraction, injustice or some other sin. They sleep in peace in the midst of their bad habits, without doing any violence to themselves to correct their faults, under the pretext that they are devout to the Blessed Virgin. They promise themselves that God will pardon them; that they will not be allowed to die without confession; and that they will not be lost eternally because they say the Rosary, because they fast on Saturdays, because they belong to the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, or wear the Scapular, etc. They say that God is good and merciful; that He has not made us to condemn us everlastingly; that no man is without sin; that they shall not die without confession; that one good act of contrition at the hour of death is enough. They will not believe us when we tell them that their devotion is only an illusion of the devil and a pernicious presumption likely to destroy their souls. Nothing in Christianity is more detestable than this diabolical presumption. For how can we truly say that we love and honor our Blessed Lady when by our sins we are pitilessly piercing, wounding, crucifying and outraging Jesus Christ, her Son?
Inconstant Devotees: The inconstant devotees are those who are devout to our Blessed Lady by fits and starts. Sometimes they are fervent and sometimes lukewarm. Sometimes they seem ready to do anything for her, and then a little afterward, they are not like the same people. They begin by taking up all the devotions to her, and enrolling themselves in the confraternities; and then they do not practice the rules with fidelity. They are changeable and unworthy to be reckoned among the servants of that faithful Virgin who should show fidelity and constancy.
Hypocritical Devotees: We have still to mention the false devotees to our Blessed Lady who are the hypocritical devotees, who cloak their sins and sinful habits with her mantle, in order to be taken by men for what they are not.
Interested Devotees: There are also the interested devotees, who have recourse to Our Lady only to gain some lawsuit, or to avoid some danger, or to be cured of some illness, or for some other similar necessity, without which they would forget her altogether. All these are false devotees, pleasing neither to God nor to His holy Mother.
Therefore, let us then take great care not to be of the number of the critical devotees, who believe nothing and criticize everything; nor of the scrupulous devotees, who are afraid of being too devout to Our Lady, out of respect to Our Lord; nor of the exterior devotees, who make all their devotion consist in outward practices; nor of the presumptuous devotees, who, under the pretext of their false devotion to the Blessed Virgin, wallow in their sins; nor of the inconstant devotees, who from levity change their practices of devotion, or give them up altogether, at the least temptation; nor of the hypocritical devotees, who join confraternities and wear the liveries of the Blessed Virgin in order to pass for good people; nor, finally, of the interested devotees, who have recourse to Our Lady only to be delivered from bodily evils, or to obtain temporal goods.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
St. Alphonsus Liguori says: “It is impossible that a servant of Mary be damned, provided he serves her faithfully and commends himself to her maternal protection. When we declare that it is impossible for a servant of Mary to be lost, we do not mean those who by their devotion to Mary think themselves warranted to sin freely. We state that these reckless people, because of their presumption, deserve to be treated with rigor and not with kindness. We speak here of the servants of Mary who, to the fidelity with which they honor and invoke her, join the desire to amend their lives. I hold it morally impossible that these be lost.” St. Alphonsus adds, the desire to amend one’s life is also necessary before we can be morally certain that she will be the cause of our eternal salvation. It is clear from the words of St. Alphonsus that a certain measure of fidelity is required on the part of those who wish to gain the special love and protection of Our Lady.
The Rosary Clause―A Cause of Salvation
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book The Secret of the Rosary, writes: “Make a practice of the Rosary and taste its fruits … I beg of you to beware of thinking of the Rosary as something of little importance! … Those who love this divine salutation bear the very special stamp of predestination … Those who bear the mark of God’s reprobation think but little of the Rosary. They either neglect to say it, or only say it quickly and in a lukewarm manner … The Rosary is a priceless treasure which is inspired by God … The saints have said it faithfully and the Popes have endorsed it … Recite the entire Rosary every day, that is to say, three Rosaries each of five decades.
“Supposing I were to give you a hundred and fifty diamonds every day, even if you were an enemy of mine, would you not forgive me? Would you not treat me as a friend and give me all the graces that you were able to give? If you want to gain the riches of grace and of glory, then salute the Blessed Virgin, honor your good Mother. He who honors his Mother―the Blessed Virgin―is as one who lays up a treasure. Present her every day with at least fifty Hail Marys, for each one is worth fifteen precious stones, which are more pleasing to her than all the riches of this world put together. And you can then expect great things from her generosity!
“The chief concern of the Christian should be to tend to perfection … If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins ‘you shall receive a never‑fading crown of glory’ (1 Peter 5:4). Even if you are on the brink of damnation; even if you have one foot in Hell; even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic; and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil―sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if — and mark well what I say — if you say the Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins ... To say the Holy Rosary with advantage, one must be in a state of grace, or at least be fully determined to give up sin―for all our theology teaches us that good works and prayers are dead works if they are done in a state of mortal sin.
“I have just said that a person must at least be fully determined to give up sin―because if it were true that God only heard the prayers of those in a state of grace, then it would follow that those who are in a state of serious sin should not pray at all. This is an erroneous teaching which has been condemned by the Church―because sinners, of course, need to pray far more than good people. Were this horrible doctrine true, it would be useless and futile to tell a sinner to say the Rosary, because it would never help him! We earnestly advise everyone to say the Rosary―those who are virtuous, so that they may persevere and grow in the grace of God; and those who are sinners, so that they may rise from their sins. But God forbid we should ever encourage a sinner to think that Our Lady will protect him with her mantle if he continues to love sin, for it will turn into a mantle of damnation!
“The Rosary is made up of two things: mental prayer and vocal prayer ... The Rosary said without the meditation on the sacred mysteries of our salvation, would almost be a body without a soul―excellent matter, but without the form, which is the meditation … In the Rosary mental prayer is none other than meditation of the chief mysteries of the life, death and glory of Jesus Christ and of His Blessed Mother. Vocal prayer consists in saying fifteen decades of the Our Fathers and Hail Marys, etc. … So the Rosary is a blessed blending of mental and vocal prayer, by which we honor and learn to imitate the mysteries and the virtues of the life, death, Passion and glory of Jesus and Mary … It is scarcely possible for me to put into words how much Our Lady esteems the Rosary and how she prefers it to all other devotions … Our Lady not only blesses those who preach her Rosary, but she highly rewards all those who, by their example, get others to say it.
“All things, even the holiest, are subject to change―especially when they are dependent on man’s free will. It is hardly to be wondered then, that the Holy Rosary only retained its first fervor for a century after it was instituted by Saint Dominic. After this it was like a thing buried and forgotten. Doubtless, too, the wicked scheming and jealousy of the devil were largely responsible for getting people to neglect the Rosary, and thus block the flow of God’s grace which it had drawn upon the world. Even though God has set His seal of approval on the Rosary by many miracles, and though it has been approved by the Church in many papal bulls, there are only too many people who are against the Holy Rosary today. It is easy to see that they have absorbed the poison of Hell and that they are inspired by the devil―for no one can condemn devotion to the Holy Rosary without condemning all that is most holy in the Catholic Faith―such as the Lord’s Prayer; the Hail Mary; and the mysteries of the life, death and glory of Jesus Christ and His holy Mother.
“To what ends does not the evil one go against us while we are engaged in saying our Rosary against him. Being human, we easily become tired and slipshod, but the devil makes these difficulties worse when we are saying the Rosary. Before we even begin, he makes us feel bored, distracted, or exhausted; and when we have started praying, he oppresses us from all sides, and when after much difficulty and many distractions, we have finished, he whispers to us: ‘What you have just said is worthless! It is useless for you to say the Rosary! You had better get on with other things! It is only a waste of time to pray without paying attention to what you are saying! Half‑an‑hour’s meditation, or some spiritual reading would be much better!’ By tricks of this kind the devil gets us to give up the Rosary altogether, or to say it less often, and we keep putting it off, or we change to some other devotion.
“Even if you have to fight distractions all through your whole Rosary, be sure to fight well, arms in hand: that is to say, do not stop saying your Rosary―even if it is difficult to say and you have no sensible devotion. It is a terrible battle, but one that is profitable to the faithful soul. If you put down your arms―that is, if you give up the Rosary―you will be admitting defeat and then the devil, having got what he wanted, will leave you in peace, and on the Day of Judgment will taunt you because of your faithlessness and lack of courage.
“Take great care to avoid the two pitfalls that most people fall into during the Rosary. The first is the danger of not asking for any graces at all, so that if some good people were asked their Rosary intention they would not know what to say. So, whenever you say your Rosary, be sure to ask for some special grace or virtue, or strength to overcome some sin. The second fault commonly committed in saying the Rosary is to have no intention other than that of getting it over with as quickly as possible. This is because so many look upon the Rosary as a burden, which weighs heavily upon them when it has not been said, especially when we have promised to say it regularly or have been told to say it as a penance more or less against our will. It is sad to see how most people say the Rosary. They say it astonishingly fast, slipping over part of the words. We could not possibly expect anyone―even the most important person―to think that a slipshod address of this kind was a compliment, and yet we imagine that Jesus and Mary will be honored by it! Small wonder, then, that the most sacred prayers of our holy religion seem to bear no fruit, and that, after saying thousands of Rosaries, we are still no better than we were before!
“I beg you to restrain your natural precipitation when saying your Rosary, and make some pauses in the middle of the Our Father and Hail Mary, and a smaller one after the words of the Our Father and Hail Mary which I have marked with a cross, as follows:
“Our Father Who art in Heaven, + hallowed by Thy Name, + Thy kingdom come, + Thy will be done + on Earth as it is in Heaven. + Give us this day + our daily bread, + and forgive us our trespasses + as we forgive those who trespass against us, + and lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. Amen.
“Hail, Mary, full of grace, + the Lord is with thee, + blessed art thou among women, + and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. + Holy Mary, Mother of God, + pray for us sinners, now + and at the hour of our death. Amen.
[We may well add the “Glory Be” following St. Louis’ method: Glory be to the Father, + and to the Son, + and to the Holy Ghost, + as it was in the beginning, + is now and ever shall be, + world without end. Amen.]
“At first, you may find it difficult to make these pauses because of your bad habit of saying prayers in a hurry; but a decade said recollectedly in this way, will be worth more than thousands of Rosaries said in a hurry, without pausing or reflecting.
“A Christian who does not meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary is very ungrateful to Our Lord and shows how little he cares for all that our Divine Savior has suffered to save the world. This attitude seems to show that he knows little or nothing of the life of Jesus Christ, and that he has never taken the trouble to find out what He has done and what He went through in order to save us. A Christian of that kind ought to fear that, not having known Jesus Christ or having put Him out of his mind, Jesus will reject him on the Day of Judgment with the reproach: ‘I tell you solemnly, I do not know you!’ … The saints made Our Lord’s life the principal object of their study; they meditated on His virtues and His sufferings, and in this way arrived at Christian perfection … During her whole life, our Savior’s holy Mother was occupied in meditating on the virtues and the sufferings of her Son … After Our Lord’s Ascension, our Blessed Lady spent the rest of her life visiting the places that had been hallowed by His presence and by His sufferings. There, she meditated on His boundless love and on His terrible Passion.
“It is a great mistake to think that only priests and religious, and those who have withdrawn from the turmoil of the world, are supposed to meditate upon the truths of our Faith and the mysteries of the life of Christ. The same obligation is just as much incumbent on the laity, because of the fact that every day they meet with spiritual dangers which might cause them to lose their souls. Therefore they should arm themselves with the frequent meditation on the life, virtues, and sufferings of our Blessed Lord, which are presented to us in the fifteen mysteries of the Holy Rosary. The meditation on the mysteries and prayers of the Rosary is the easiest of all prayers, because the diversity of the virtues of Our Lord and the different situations of His life which we study. For the learned, these mysteries are the source of the most profound doctrine; while simple people find in them a means of instruction well within their reach … If you genuinely wish to attain a high degree of prayer and without falling into the illusions of the devil, then say and meditate the whole Rosary every day, or at least five decades of it.
“This life is a continual war and a series of temptations; we do not have to contend with enemies of flesh and blood, but with the very powers of Hell. What better weapon could we possibly use to combat them than the Rosary … So arm yourself with the arms of God, with the Holy Rosary, and you will crush the devil’s head and stand firm in the face of all his temptations … Blessed Alan de la Roche relates that a man he knew had tried desperately all kinds of devotions to rid himself of the evil spirit which possessed him, but without success. Finally, he thought of wearing his Rosary round his neck, which eased him considerably. He discovered that whenever he took it off, the devil tormented him cruelly, so he resolved to wear it night and day. This drove the evil spirit away forever, because he could not bear such a terrible chain. Blessed Alan de la Roche also testifies that he delivered a great number of those who were possessed by putting a Rosary round their necks … St. Dominic was so convinced of the efficacy of the Rosary and its great value that, when he heard Confessions, he hardly ever gave any other penance.
“When St. Dominic was preaching the Rosary, an Albigensian was brought to him who was possessed by the devil. The Saint exorcised him in the presence of a great crowd of people. The devils, who were in possession of this wretched man, were forced to answer St. Dominic’s questions by the command of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They said: ‘O you who are our enemy, our downfall and our destruction, why have you come from Heaven to torture us so grievously? O advocate of sinners, you who snatch them from the very jaws of Hell, you who are a most sure path to Heaven―must we, in spite of ourselves, tell the whole truth and confess before everyone, who it is who is the cause of our shame and our ruin? Then listen, you Christians! This Mother of Jesus is most powerful in saving her servants from falling into Hell! She is like the sun which destroys the darkness of our wiles and subtlety! It is she who uncovers our hidden plots; breaks our snares; and makes our temptations useless and ineffective! We have to say, however, reluctantly, that no soul who has really persevered in her service has ever been damned with us! One single sigh, that she offers to the Blessed Trinity, is worth far more than all the prayers, desires, and aspirations of all the saints! We fear her more than all the other saints in Heaven together, and we have no success with her faithful servants! Many Christians who call on her at the hour of death and who really ought to be damned, according to our ordinary standards, are saved by her intercession! If she did not counter our plans and our efforts, we should have overcome the Church and destroyed it long before this, and caused all the Orders in the Church to fall into error and infidelity! Now that we are forced to speak, we must also tell you that nobody who perseveres in saying the Rosary will be damned, because she obtains for her servants the grace of true contrition for their sins, by which they obtain pardon and mercy!’” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).
God can choose to save our sinful in whatever manner He wants. He could save us by having us eat a particular fruit―which might be appropriate since the Original Sin of Adam and Eve consisted in eating the forbidden fruit! God could save us by having us eat soil and grass―much like St. Bernadette of Lourdes being commanded to eat grass as a penance for sinners―and that, too, could be appropriate, since Adam was made from the soil of the Earth: “And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the Earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7) and we are all, so to speak, slimy sinners!
New Adam, New Eve
Nevertheless, since sin first came into this world through a man and woman―Adam and Eve―it is only fitting that God chooses to save mankind through another man and woman―Jesus Christ, Who is God incarnate (God in the flesh of man) and the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the Mother of Christ and thus the Mother of God. Furthermore, since the devil managed to get Adam to sin by having Eve sin first, who then approached Adam and made him sin―so too does God want to go to the “woman”, the “New Eve” (Mary) first, and through Mary approach the “New Adam”, Jesus Christ through her, in order to obtain forgiveness and mercy for our sins.
In Catholic theology, Jesus is seen as fulfilling the role that Adam failed to fulfill. Adam’s disobedience to God’s command not to eat the forbidden fruit, led to sin and death, but Jesus, through His obedience and sacrifice, overcomes sin and death, thereby offering the possibility of redemption and salvation to all humanity. Mary’s role is understood as contrasting with Eve’s. Eve’s interaction with the serpent (devil) led to doubt, pride and disobedience, which in turn led to the Fall through Original Sin, whereas Mary’s Faith, humility and obedience to God’s will are seen as the foundation for the “New Creation”. She is considered the “New Eve” because she cooperated with God’s plan for our redemption and salvation by giving birth to Jesus, the “New Adam.”
Due to Eve’s disobedience to God, and consequently Adam’s cooperation with Eve in her sin by repeating it, they both lost Sanctifying Grace for themselves and for all their offspring throughout future generations. Like Eve, Mary was created “full of grace” ― full of Sanctifying Grace. But unlike Eve, Mary remained in a state of Sanctifying Grace by being obedient to God, just as Christ, unlike Adam, remained obedient to God. In cooperation with God, Mary became Mother of the Redeemer and, in cooperation with Christ, she became Mother of the redeemed as well.
Mary if often referred to by the phrase “New Eve” or similar expressions, by the early Fathers of the Church. St. Justin Martyr, to take just one example, lived and wrote within a couple of generations of the Apostles. In his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew (around 150 AD), Justin states that Jesus destroyed Satan’s work in the same manner as evil had originally entered into the world. Evil entered through Eve while she was still a virgin; likewise, salvation entered through Mary while she was still a virgin. Each woman was a willing participant in what they did―fully cognizant of what they were doing. Eve listened to the serpent and conceived death. Mary listened to the Archangel Gabriel and conceived life. Eve instigates the sin of Adam by giving birth to the idea in Adam’s mind―Mary instigates the redemption of mankind by giving birth to Christ in her body. Adam does not sin without Eve’s involvement. Christ does not redeem without Mary’s involvement. Justin sees this clearly in the Gospel of St. Luke (chapter 1:38) where Mary states: “Be it done unto me according to thy word!” Therefore, for St. Justin, Christ’s becoming a man involved his Mother’s willing cooperation in undoing the perpetually tangled web of sin that Eve introduced by Original Sin.
God Makes the Rules
As the saying goes: “There is more than one way to skin a cat!” and there are many ways God could save souls. God has made Mary an integral part in the salvation of souls―that is how it is, like it or not, accept it or not! Whether or not you follow His plan of redemption and salvation is totally up to you―you make the choice and you accept the consequences.
“Our God is in Heaven and He has done all things whatsoever He wants” (Psalm 113:11). “So shall My word be, which shall go forth from My Mouth―it shall not return to Me void, but it shall do whatsoever I please, and shall prosper in the things for which I sent it!” (Isaias 55:11). “He does according to His will, and there is none that can resist His hand, and say to Him: ‘Why hast Thou done it?’” (Daniel 4:32). “And you have said: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Hear ye, therefore―is it My way that is not right, or rather that your ways are not right but perverse?” (Ezechiel 18:25). “For My thoughts are not your thoughts; nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9). God’s way for us is that we should go to Him through Christ, and that we should go to Christ through Mary. Take it or leave―that is how it is!
St. Louis de Montfort, in his True Devotion to Mary, writes: “I avow, with all the Church, that Mary, being a mere creature that has come from the hands of the Most High, is in comparison with His Infinite Majesty less than an atom; or rather, she is nothing at all … Consequently, the Lord never had, and has not now, any absolute need of the holy Virgin for the accomplishment of His will. He has only to will something in order to do everything. Nevertheless, I say that, things being as they are now—that is, God having willed to commence and to complete His greatest works by the most holy Virgin—then we may well think He will not change His conduct in the eternal ages; for He is God, and He changes not, either in His sentiments, or in His conduct. It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only-Begotten to the world. God the Holy Ghost formed Jesus Christ in Mary―but it was only after having asked her consent by one of the first ministers of His court. God the Father communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, inasmuch as a mere creature was capable of it, in order that He might give her the power to produce His Son and all the members of His Mystical Body. God the Son descended into her virginal womb, as the New Adam into His terrestrial paradise, and to work there in secret marvels of grace. O admirable and incomprehensible dependence of God!
“O how highly we glorify God when, to please Him, we submit ourselves to Mary, after the example of Jesus Christ, our sole Exemplar! If we examine closely the rest of our Blessed Lord’s life, we shall see that it was His will to begin His miracles by Mary. He sanctified St. John in the womb of his mother, St. Elizabeth―but it was by Mary’s word. No sooner had she spoken, than John was sanctified―and this was His first miracle of grace. At the marriage of Cana He changed the water into wine, but it was at Mary’s humble prayer―and this was His first miracle of nature. He began and continued His miracles by Mary, and He will continue them to the end of ages by Mary.
“God the Holy Ghost, being barren in God—that is to say, not producing another Divine Person—is become fruitful by Mary, whom He has espoused. It was with her, in her, and of her that He produced His Masterpiece―which is Jesus Christ, God made Man―and that He goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head. This is the reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary, His dear and inseparable spouse, in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ. It is not that we mean that our Blessed Lady gives the Holy Ghost His fruitfulness, as if He had it not Himself. What we mean is that the Holy Ghost chose to make use of our Blessed Lady―though He had no absolute need of her―to bring His fruitfulness into action, by producing, in her and by her, Jesus Christ and His members—a mystery of grace unknown to even the wisest and most spiritual among Christians. The conduct which the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity have deigned to pursue in the Incarnation and the first coming of Jesus Christ, They still pursue daily, in an invisible manner, throughout the whole Church; and They will still pursue it even to the consummation of ages in the last coming of Jesus Christ.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
That is why the saints see Mary as an integral part of salvation―because God has wished it to be so; God has ruled that it will be so; and God has set up things so that His will in this matter can be carried out. Here are some statements made by the saints on this subject―many of them coming from Doctors of the Church―affirming that Mary holds such a place in the economy of our redemption that some do not hesitate to state that devotion to her is a necessary condition of salvation:
● St. Albert the Great (a Doctor of the Church), says: “They who are not thy servants, O Mary, shall perish!”
● St. Bonaventure (a Doctor of the Church) repeats the same thought when he says: “They who neglect the service of Mary shall die in their sins.” And again: “For them, from whom Mary turns away her face, there is not even a hope of salvation!”
● St. Ignatius of Antioch (a Father of the Church), a martyr of the second century, writes: “A sinner can be saved only through the Holy Virgin who, by her merciful prayers, obtains salvation for so many who, according to strict justice, would be lost!”
If a lack of devotion to her is a mark of eternal reprobation a constant love for her must be a sign of eternal salvation. Many spiritual writers state that devotion to Mary is a sign of predestination.
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church) says: “It is impossible that a servant of Mary be damned, provided he serves her faithfully and commends himself to her maternal protection!”
● St. Anselm (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “He who turns to thee and is regarded by thee cannot be lost!”
● St. Antonine is of the same opinion. He says: “As it is impossible for them from whom Mary turns away her eyes of mercy to be saved, so it is necessary that they to whom she turns her eyes of mercy and for whom she intercedes to be saved and glorified!”
Confirmed by Our Lady
Our Lady essentially confirms all of this in her modern-day apparitions, especially those of Fatima (1917) and Akita (1973), saying: “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go! … Many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you! … To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart ... Jesus wants to make me known and loved. He wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it―these souls will be dear to God! … If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved!” (Fatima). “I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach! Those who place their confidence in me will be saved!” (Akita).
All of that is true and nice―but the key words, in what Our Lady says, do not apply to the “end” or “goal” or “target” or “destination” which is Heaven and salvation, but the key words apply to the method or means on how to get there: “If what I say is done!” If we do as she says, then we will achieve our salvation: “I promise salvation to whoever embraces devotion to my Immaculate Heart.”
The Economy of Salvation
As you sow, so shall you reap! He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly! (Galatians 6:8; 2 Corinthians 9:6). Do little and you will get little. Our Lady says that God and Jesus want to establish devotion to her throughout the world. Devotion―by the very meaning of the word―is not something that is mediocre and average; it is above average and far from being mediocre.
The word “devotion” finds its origins in Latin, rooted in words like: “devotus, devotio, devovere”, etc. The verb, devovere”, giving the past participle “devotus”, is itself based on the verb “vovere”, pp. “votus”, meaning “to give up, to vow, dedicate or consecrate.” The Latin “devotus” means “faithful”, from which we obviously get our word “devoted”. If we come to more modern times, and look up the word in the book of definitions, the Dictionary, we will encounter such definitions as: (1) earnestness and zeal in the performance of religious duties and observations; (2) religious fervor, reverence, piety; (3) an act of prayer or supplication—now usually used in plural; (4) oblation or offering, such as of oneself or an alms given from religious motives; (5) ardent love or affection; (6) strong attachment; (7) dedication or attachment to a cause, person, principle, etc. (8) zeal, enthusiasm.
This gives us a clear picture of “devotion” being a cut-above the average, being something especially noticeable due to the presence of a zeal, a fervor, an enthusiasm, a strong attachment and ardent love for some object or thing, or some person, or some place. It rules out notions like lukewarmness, tepidity, torpor, sloth, indifference, inconsistency, sporadic, half-hearted, selfish, etc.
The bottom line is that you will get what you pay for―the more you pay, the more you get; the more you pray, the more you get; the more you sacrifice, the more you get; the more you love, the more you are loved in return. “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8). “I love them that love me! … I enrich them that love me, and fill their treasures” (Proverbs 8:17, 21). “Give, and it shall be given to you―good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you shall measure out to others, it shall be measured to you again!” (Luke 6:38). As St. Louis de Montfort writes: “A fervent and generous soul who gives God all he has, without reserve, so that he can do nothing more; who lives only for the glory and reign of Jesus Christ, through His holy Mother, and who makes an entire sacrifice of himself to bring it about—will this generous soul, I say, be more punished in the other world because it has been more generous and more disinterested than others? Far, indeed, will that be from the truth! Rather, it is toward that soul, as we shall see by what follows, that Our Lord and His holy Mother are the most generous in this world and in the other, in the orders of nature, grace and glory!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
What Salvation Plan Do You Want?
As with most things in life―you get what you pay for. There are various different health insurance plans, ranging from basic to deluxe―you can get a cheap one that only covers the basics, or an expensive one that covers everything.
St. Louis de Montfort presents us with “deluxe” version of a “Salvation Insurance Plan” when he writes: “The most holy Virgin, who is a Mother of sweetness and mercy, and who never lets herself be outdone in love and generosity, seeing that we give ourselves entirely to her, to honor and to serve her, and for that end strip ourselves of all that is dearest to us, in order to adorn her, meets us in the same spirit. She also gives her whole self, and gives it in an unspeakable manner, to him who gives all to her. She causes him to be engulfed in the abyss of her graces. She adorns him with her merits; she supports him with her power; she illuminates him with her light; she inflames him with her love; she communicates to him her virtues: her humility, her Faith, her purity and the rest. She makes herself his bail, his supplement, and his dear all toward Jesus. In a word, as that consecrated person is all Mary’s, so Mary is all his!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
There are plenty of cheap “Salvation Insurance Plans” masquerading as the real thing―but which are nothing but false plans. St. Louis calls them “false devotions.” Use them at your own risk if you wish―but you will risk your salvation into the bargain! He says:
“I find seven kinds of false devotees and false devotions to Our Lady, namely: (1) the critical devotees; (2) the scrupulous devotees; (3) the external devotees; (4) the presumptuous devotees; (5) the inconstant devotees; (6) the hypocritical devotees; (7) the interested devotees.
Critical Devotees: The critical devotees are rash and self-sufficient spirits, who have at heart some devotion to the holy Virgin, but who criticize practices do not fall in with their own humor and fancy. They call in doubt all the miracles and pious stories recorded by authors worthy of Faith; they are not fond of simple humble external devotions.
Scrupulous Devotees: The scrupulous devotees are those who fear to dishonor the Son by honoring the Mother, to abase the one in elevating the other. They cannot bear that we should attribute to Our Lady the most just praise which the holy Fathers have given her. They are unwilling that we should speak so often of Our Lady and address her so frequently.
External Devotees: External devotees are persons who make all devotion to our Blessed Lady consist in outward practices. They have no taste except for the exterior of this devotion, because they have no interior spirit of their own. They will say quantities of Rosaries with the greatest precipitation; they will hear many Masses distractedly; they will go, without devotion, to processions; they will enroll themselves in all her confraternities—without amending their lives, without doing any violence to their passions, or without imitating the virtues of that most holy Virgin.
Presumptuous Devotees: Presumptuous devotees are sinners abandoned to their passions, or lovers of the world, who under the fair name of Christians and clients of our Blessed Lady conceal pride, avarice, impurity, drunkenness, anger, swearing, detraction, injustice or some other sin. They sleep in peace in the midst of their bad habits, without doing any violence to themselves to correct their faults, under the pretext that they are devout to the Blessed Virgin. They promise themselves that God will pardon them; that they will not be allowed to die without confession; and that they will not be lost eternally because they say the Rosary, because they fast on Saturdays, because they belong to the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, or wear the Scapular, etc. They say that God is good and merciful; that He has not made us to condemn us everlastingly; that no man is without sin; that they shall not die without confession; that one good act of contrition at the hour of death is enough. They will not believe us when we tell them that their devotion is only an illusion of the devil and a pernicious presumption likely to destroy their souls. Nothing in Christianity is more detestable than this diabolical presumption. For how can we truly say that we love and honor our Blessed Lady when by our sins we are pitilessly piercing, wounding, crucifying and outraging Jesus Christ, her Son?
Inconstant Devotees: The inconstant devotees are those who are devout to our Blessed Lady by fits and starts. Sometimes they are fervent and sometimes lukewarm. Sometimes they seem ready to do anything for her, and then a little afterward, they are not like the same people. They begin by taking up all the devotions to her, and enrolling themselves in the confraternities; and then they do not practice the rules with fidelity. They are changeable and unworthy to be reckoned among the servants of that faithful Virgin who should show fidelity and constancy.
Hypocritical Devotees: We have still to mention the false devotees to our Blessed Lady who are the hypocritical devotees, who cloak their sins and sinful habits with her mantle, in order to be taken by men for what they are not.
Interested Devotees: There are also the interested devotees, who have recourse to Our Lady only to gain some lawsuit, or to avoid some danger, or to be cured of some illness, or for some other similar necessity, without which they would forget her altogether. All these are false devotees, pleasing neither to God nor to His holy Mother.
Therefore, let us then take great care not to be of the number of the critical devotees, who believe nothing and criticize everything; nor of the scrupulous devotees, who are afraid of being too devout to Our Lady, out of respect to Our Lord; nor of the exterior devotees, who make all their devotion consist in outward practices; nor of the presumptuous devotees, who, under the pretext of their false devotion to the Blessed Virgin, wallow in their sins; nor of the inconstant devotees, who from levity change their practices of devotion, or give them up altogether, at the least temptation; nor of the hypocritical devotees, who join confraternities and wear the liveries of the Blessed Virgin in order to pass for good people; nor, finally, of the interested devotees, who have recourse to Our Lady only to be delivered from bodily evils, or to obtain temporal goods.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
St. Alphonsus Liguori says: “It is impossible that a servant of Mary be damned, provided he serves her faithfully and commends himself to her maternal protection. When we declare that it is impossible for a servant of Mary to be lost, we do not mean those who by their devotion to Mary think themselves warranted to sin freely. We state that these reckless people, because of their presumption, deserve to be treated with rigor and not with kindness. We speak here of the servants of Mary who, to the fidelity with which they honor and invoke her, join the desire to amend their lives. I hold it morally impossible that these be lost.” St. Alphonsus adds, the desire to amend one’s life is also necessary before we can be morally certain that she will be the cause of our eternal salvation. It is clear from the words of St. Alphonsus that a certain measure of fidelity is required on the part of those who wish to gain the special love and protection of Our Lady.
The Rosary Clause―A Cause of Salvation
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book The Secret of the Rosary, writes: “Make a practice of the Rosary and taste its fruits … I beg of you to beware of thinking of the Rosary as something of little importance! … Those who love this divine salutation bear the very special stamp of predestination … Those who bear the mark of God’s reprobation think but little of the Rosary. They either neglect to say it, or only say it quickly and in a lukewarm manner … The Rosary is a priceless treasure which is inspired by God … The saints have said it faithfully and the Popes have endorsed it … Recite the entire Rosary every day, that is to say, three Rosaries each of five decades.
“Supposing I were to give you a hundred and fifty diamonds every day, even if you were an enemy of mine, would you not forgive me? Would you not treat me as a friend and give me all the graces that you were able to give? If you want to gain the riches of grace and of glory, then salute the Blessed Virgin, honor your good Mother. He who honors his Mother―the Blessed Virgin―is as one who lays up a treasure. Present her every day with at least fifty Hail Marys, for each one is worth fifteen precious stones, which are more pleasing to her than all the riches of this world put together. And you can then expect great things from her generosity!
“The chief concern of the Christian should be to tend to perfection … If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins ‘you shall receive a never‑fading crown of glory’ (1 Peter 5:4). Even if you are on the brink of damnation; even if you have one foot in Hell; even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic; and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil―sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if — and mark well what I say — if you say the Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins ... To say the Holy Rosary with advantage, one must be in a state of grace, or at least be fully determined to give up sin―for all our theology teaches us that good works and prayers are dead works if they are done in a state of mortal sin.
“I have just said that a person must at least be fully determined to give up sin―because if it were true that God only heard the prayers of those in a state of grace, then it would follow that those who are in a state of serious sin should not pray at all. This is an erroneous teaching which has been condemned by the Church―because sinners, of course, need to pray far more than good people. Were this horrible doctrine true, it would be useless and futile to tell a sinner to say the Rosary, because it would never help him! We earnestly advise everyone to say the Rosary―those who are virtuous, so that they may persevere and grow in the grace of God; and those who are sinners, so that they may rise from their sins. But God forbid we should ever encourage a sinner to think that Our Lady will protect him with her mantle if he continues to love sin, for it will turn into a mantle of damnation!
“The Rosary is made up of two things: mental prayer and vocal prayer ... The Rosary said without the meditation on the sacred mysteries of our salvation, would almost be a body without a soul―excellent matter, but without the form, which is the meditation … In the Rosary mental prayer is none other than meditation of the chief mysteries of the life, death and glory of Jesus Christ and of His Blessed Mother. Vocal prayer consists in saying fifteen decades of the Our Fathers and Hail Marys, etc. … So the Rosary is a blessed blending of mental and vocal prayer, by which we honor and learn to imitate the mysteries and the virtues of the life, death, Passion and glory of Jesus and Mary … It is scarcely possible for me to put into words how much Our Lady esteems the Rosary and how she prefers it to all other devotions … Our Lady not only blesses those who preach her Rosary, but she highly rewards all those who, by their example, get others to say it.
“All things, even the holiest, are subject to change―especially when they are dependent on man’s free will. It is hardly to be wondered then, that the Holy Rosary only retained its first fervor for a century after it was instituted by Saint Dominic. After this it was like a thing buried and forgotten. Doubtless, too, the wicked scheming and jealousy of the devil were largely responsible for getting people to neglect the Rosary, and thus block the flow of God’s grace which it had drawn upon the world. Even though God has set His seal of approval on the Rosary by many miracles, and though it has been approved by the Church in many papal bulls, there are only too many people who are against the Holy Rosary today. It is easy to see that they have absorbed the poison of Hell and that they are inspired by the devil―for no one can condemn devotion to the Holy Rosary without condemning all that is most holy in the Catholic Faith―such as the Lord’s Prayer; the Hail Mary; and the mysteries of the life, death and glory of Jesus Christ and His holy Mother.
“To what ends does not the evil one go against us while we are engaged in saying our Rosary against him. Being human, we easily become tired and slipshod, but the devil makes these difficulties worse when we are saying the Rosary. Before we even begin, he makes us feel bored, distracted, or exhausted; and when we have started praying, he oppresses us from all sides, and when after much difficulty and many distractions, we have finished, he whispers to us: ‘What you have just said is worthless! It is useless for you to say the Rosary! You had better get on with other things! It is only a waste of time to pray without paying attention to what you are saying! Half‑an‑hour’s meditation, or some spiritual reading would be much better!’ By tricks of this kind the devil gets us to give up the Rosary altogether, or to say it less often, and we keep putting it off, or we change to some other devotion.
“Even if you have to fight distractions all through your whole Rosary, be sure to fight well, arms in hand: that is to say, do not stop saying your Rosary―even if it is difficult to say and you have no sensible devotion. It is a terrible battle, but one that is profitable to the faithful soul. If you put down your arms―that is, if you give up the Rosary―you will be admitting defeat and then the devil, having got what he wanted, will leave you in peace, and on the Day of Judgment will taunt you because of your faithlessness and lack of courage.
“Take great care to avoid the two pitfalls that most people fall into during the Rosary. The first is the danger of not asking for any graces at all, so that if some good people were asked their Rosary intention they would not know what to say. So, whenever you say your Rosary, be sure to ask for some special grace or virtue, or strength to overcome some sin. The second fault commonly committed in saying the Rosary is to have no intention other than that of getting it over with as quickly as possible. This is because so many look upon the Rosary as a burden, which weighs heavily upon them when it has not been said, especially when we have promised to say it regularly or have been told to say it as a penance more or less against our will. It is sad to see how most people say the Rosary. They say it astonishingly fast, slipping over part of the words. We could not possibly expect anyone―even the most important person―to think that a slipshod address of this kind was a compliment, and yet we imagine that Jesus and Mary will be honored by it! Small wonder, then, that the most sacred prayers of our holy religion seem to bear no fruit, and that, after saying thousands of Rosaries, we are still no better than we were before!
“I beg you to restrain your natural precipitation when saying your Rosary, and make some pauses in the middle of the Our Father and Hail Mary, and a smaller one after the words of the Our Father and Hail Mary which I have marked with a cross, as follows:
“Our Father Who art in Heaven, + hallowed by Thy Name, + Thy kingdom come, + Thy will be done + on Earth as it is in Heaven. + Give us this day + our daily bread, + and forgive us our trespasses + as we forgive those who trespass against us, + and lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. Amen.
“Hail, Mary, full of grace, + the Lord is with thee, + blessed art thou among women, + and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. + Holy Mary, Mother of God, + pray for us sinners, now + and at the hour of our death. Amen.
[We may well add the “Glory Be” following St. Louis’ method: Glory be to the Father, + and to the Son, + and to the Holy Ghost, + as it was in the beginning, + is now and ever shall be, + world without end. Amen.]
“At first, you may find it difficult to make these pauses because of your bad habit of saying prayers in a hurry; but a decade said recollectedly in this way, will be worth more than thousands of Rosaries said in a hurry, without pausing or reflecting.
“A Christian who does not meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary is very ungrateful to Our Lord and shows how little he cares for all that our Divine Savior has suffered to save the world. This attitude seems to show that he knows little or nothing of the life of Jesus Christ, and that he has never taken the trouble to find out what He has done and what He went through in order to save us. A Christian of that kind ought to fear that, not having known Jesus Christ or having put Him out of his mind, Jesus will reject him on the Day of Judgment with the reproach: ‘I tell you solemnly, I do not know you!’ … The saints made Our Lord’s life the principal object of their study; they meditated on His virtues and His sufferings, and in this way arrived at Christian perfection … During her whole life, our Savior’s holy Mother was occupied in meditating on the virtues and the sufferings of her Son … After Our Lord’s Ascension, our Blessed Lady spent the rest of her life visiting the places that had been hallowed by His presence and by His sufferings. There, she meditated on His boundless love and on His terrible Passion.
“It is a great mistake to think that only priests and religious, and those who have withdrawn from the turmoil of the world, are supposed to meditate upon the truths of our Faith and the mysteries of the life of Christ. The same obligation is just as much incumbent on the laity, because of the fact that every day they meet with spiritual dangers which might cause them to lose their souls. Therefore they should arm themselves with the frequent meditation on the life, virtues, and sufferings of our Blessed Lord, which are presented to us in the fifteen mysteries of the Holy Rosary. The meditation on the mysteries and prayers of the Rosary is the easiest of all prayers, because the diversity of the virtues of Our Lord and the different situations of His life which we study. For the learned, these mysteries are the source of the most profound doctrine; while simple people find in them a means of instruction well within their reach … If you genuinely wish to attain a high degree of prayer and without falling into the illusions of the devil, then say and meditate the whole Rosary every day, or at least five decades of it.
“This life is a continual war and a series of temptations; we do not have to contend with enemies of flesh and blood, but with the very powers of Hell. What better weapon could we possibly use to combat them than the Rosary … So arm yourself with the arms of God, with the Holy Rosary, and you will crush the devil’s head and stand firm in the face of all his temptations … Blessed Alan de la Roche relates that a man he knew had tried desperately all kinds of devotions to rid himself of the evil spirit which possessed him, but without success. Finally, he thought of wearing his Rosary round his neck, which eased him considerably. He discovered that whenever he took it off, the devil tormented him cruelly, so he resolved to wear it night and day. This drove the evil spirit away forever, because he could not bear such a terrible chain. Blessed Alan de la Roche also testifies that he delivered a great number of those who were possessed by putting a Rosary round their necks … St. Dominic was so convinced of the efficacy of the Rosary and its great value that, when he heard Confessions, he hardly ever gave any other penance.
“When St. Dominic was preaching the Rosary, an Albigensian was brought to him who was possessed by the devil. The Saint exorcised him in the presence of a great crowd of people. The devils, who were in possession of this wretched man, were forced to answer St. Dominic’s questions by the command of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They said: ‘O you who are our enemy, our downfall and our destruction, why have you come from Heaven to torture us so grievously? O advocate of sinners, you who snatch them from the very jaws of Hell, you who are a most sure path to Heaven―must we, in spite of ourselves, tell the whole truth and confess before everyone, who it is who is the cause of our shame and our ruin? Then listen, you Christians! This Mother of Jesus is most powerful in saving her servants from falling into Hell! She is like the sun which destroys the darkness of our wiles and subtlety! It is she who uncovers our hidden plots; breaks our snares; and makes our temptations useless and ineffective! We have to say, however, reluctantly, that no soul who has really persevered in her service has ever been damned with us! One single sigh, that she offers to the Blessed Trinity, is worth far more than all the prayers, desires, and aspirations of all the saints! We fear her more than all the other saints in Heaven together, and we have no success with her faithful servants! Many Christians who call on her at the hour of death and who really ought to be damned, according to our ordinary standards, are saved by her intercession! If she did not counter our plans and our efforts, we should have overcome the Church and destroyed it long before this, and caused all the Orders in the Church to fall into error and infidelity! Now that we are forced to speak, we must also tell you that nobody who perseveres in saying the Rosary will be damned, because she obtains for her servants the grace of true contrition for their sins, by which they obtain pardon and mercy!’” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).
Article 15
Sunday & Monday, May 10th & 11th
Mother's Day
Mary is Your Best Mother!
Sunday & Monday, May 10th & 11th
Mother's Day
Mary is Your Best Mother!
A Neglected Mother
Who is there that gives Mary what she deserves? Nobody! Who is there who could give Mary much more than they actually give her? Everybody! Who is there that is more or less ignorant and ungrateful for what Mary does for them? Everybody!
If you attended the Good Friday ceremonies, you might remember the phrase: “What more could I have done for you?” which is a powerful rhetorical question from the Good Friday liturgy, in the section entitled “Reproaches.” The Reproaches are a set of prayers and reflections that explore the relationship between God and mankind―focusing on the themes of blessings, disobedience, and ultimately, the Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. The question, “What more could I have done for you?” is a central theme of the Reproaches and serves as a powerful reminder of God’s love for us and our failure to reciprocate. The Reproaches are intended to produce in us a sense of sorrow, reflection, and repentance, as well as to highlight the profound love and sacrifice that Jesus made for us and all of humanity: “I planted you as My fairest vine, but you have brought forth bitter fruit!” followed by the question, “What more could I have done for you?”
God Sends Us Everything Through Mary
The same question could just as well come from the lips of Our Lady ― “What more could I have done for you?” Our Lady is the Mediatrix of All Grace ― each and every grace that we receive has been sent by God through the hands of Mary! As St. Louis de Montfort writes: “God has empowered her and commissioned her to fill, with saints, the empty thrones from which the apostate angels fell by pride. The will of the Most High is that Heaven, Earth and Hell bend, with good will or bad will, to the commandments of the humble Mary, whom He has made sovereign of Heaven and Earth―general of His armies, treasurer of His treasures, dispenser of His graces, worker of His greatest marvels, restorer of the human race, Mediatrix of men, the exterminator of the enemies of God, and the faithful companion of His grandeurs and triumphs.”
“GOD THE FATHER made an assemblage of all the waters and He named it the sea (Latin: “mare” pronounced “mah-ray”). He made an assemblage of all His graces and he called it Mary. God the Father communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, inasmuch as a mere creature was capable of it, in order that He might give her the power to produce His Son and all the members of His Mystical Body … This great God has a most rich treasury in which He has laid up all that He has―and this immense treasury is none other than Mary, whom the saints have named the Treasure of the Lord, out of whose plenitude all men are made rich.
“THE SON OF GOD became man for our salvation―but it was in Mary and by Mary. God the Son has communicated to His Mother all that He acquired―by His life and His death, His infinite merits and His admirable virtues―and He has made her the treasurer of all that His Father gave Him for His inheritance. It is by her that He applies His merits to His members, and that He communicates His virtues, and distributes His graces. She is His mysterious canal; she is His aqueduct, through which He makes His mercies flow gently and abundantly. If we examine closely the rest of our Blessed Lord’s life, we shall see that it was His will to begin His miracles by Mary. He sanctified St. John in the womb of his mother, St. Elizabeth―but it was by Mary’s word. No sooner had she spoken, than John was sanctified―and this was His first miracle of grace. At the marriage of Cana He changed the water into wine, but it was at Mary’s humble prayer―and this was His first miracle of nature. He began and continued His miracles by Mary, and He will continue them to the end of ages by Mary.
“GOD THE HOLY GHOST formed Jesus Christ in Mary―but it was only after having asked her consent by one of the first ministers of His court. God the Holy Ghost, being barren in God—that is to say, not producing another Divine Person—is become fruitful by Mary, whom He has espoused. It was with her, in her, and of her that He produced His Masterpiece ― which is God made Man ― and that He goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head. This is the reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ ... God the Holy Ghost has communicated His unspeakable gifts; and He has chosen her to be the dispenser of all He possesses, in such a way that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills, as she wills and when she wills, all His gifts and graces. The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gift to men, which He does not have pass through her virginal hands.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Words of Our Lady
► ST. BRIDGET OF SWEDEN was told by Our Lady: “As a mother who sees her son exposed to the sword of the enemy, makes every effort to save him, thus do I, and will I ever do for my children, sinful though they be, if they come to me for help! … I am the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the gate of entrance for sinners to God; neither is there living on Earth a sinner who is so accursed that he is deprived of my compassion―for everyone, if he receives nothing else through my intercession, receives the grace of being less tempted by evil spirits than he otherwise would be. No one, therefore, who is not entirely accursed [by which is meant the final and irrevocable malediction pronounced against the damned], is so entirely cast-off by God, that he may not return and enjoy His mercy, if he invokes my aid. I am called by all the Mother of Mercy, and truly the mercy of God towards men has made me so merciful towards them. Therefore, he shall be miserable, and forever miserable in another life, who in this life, being able to do so, does not have recourse to me, who am so compassionate to all, and so earnestly desire to aid sinners.” (quoted by St. Alphonsus Liguori, Glories of Mary).
► OUR LADY OF FATIMA (1917) and AKITA (1973) echoes the above, when she says: “Jesus wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it! … You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved! … Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you! … I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day! … Pray, pray very much!” (Our Lady of Fatima, 1917) … “I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father … Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger. I desire this … Pray in reparation for the ingratitude and outrages of so many men … Pray very much! … Continue to pray very much—very much! … Pray with fervor! … Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! … I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach! Those who place their confidence in me will be saved!” (Our Lady of Akita, 1973).
Nevertheless, Our Lady of Fatima adds a tremendously important clause and condition to the “contract” of salvation that she offers―that clause is: “If my requests are heeded!” There is no such thing as “unconditional salvation” ― meaning that Our Lady will guarantee to save no matter how much we choose to sin and what kinds of sins we choose to commit. If we are not careful, the words of Our Lord shall apply to us: “You shall die in your sin!” (John 8:21) ― for Holy Scripture warns: “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great, He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5-6). We can easily fall into the sin of presumption, which refers to a condition of the soul where someone either trusts too much in their own abilities, or assumes God will grant forgiveness without repentance or merit on our part. It involves hoping for salvation without deserving it, or seeking pardon for sins without genuine sorrow. Essentially, the sin of presumption is a form of pride that leads to overconfidence in oneself or overconfidence in God's mercy.
► OUR LADY OF FATIMA (1917) and AKITA (1973) speaks against this kind of presumption and points out that it will not work. If presumption did work, then why does Our Lady of Fatima point out that “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended! … You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go! … Many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners?” (Our Lady of Fatima, 1917). In other words, presumption will not save them―but prayers and penances can save them if they cooperate with the graces of conversion that Our Lady will present to them.
At Akita, Our Lady echoes the same idea: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord ... If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger! … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before! … Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead!” (Our Lady of Akita, 1973). If God was the “all-forgiving and always forgiving” doormat that most people make Him out to be―why would He inflict such terrible punishments. It is not presumption, but it is punishments that could possibly save them―if they are accepted in a spirit of sorrow for sin and as just and rightful penance inflicted by God―then, like the Good Thief on the cross, they might possibly be saved at the last minute of their lives.
► SISTER LUCY OF FATIMA indicated in 1957 that we are not listening to Our Lady's Fatima requests―we are ignoring the clause “If my requests are heeded” in the “contract” of salvation that Our Lady offers. Sister Lucia explains: “The Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners, ignoring the message, keep following the road of evil, because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them. But, Father, you must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a tremendous way! The chastisement from Heaven is imminent!”
► OUR LADY OF LA SALETTE (1846) had already indicated this lack of cooperation with her: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you!”
Wake Up to Reality
It is both astounding and terrifying to see so many Catholics presumptuously plodding along in their worldly lives under the illusion and delusion that all is “fine-and-dandy” and they are on their way to Heaven―when, in reality, most Catholics end up in Hell. Who says so? Our Lord says so; Our Lady says so; many Saints say so.
► OUR LORD says: “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ... Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! … And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 7:13, 21; Luke 13:23-28). If that does not wake up Catholics from their deluded presumption, then nothing will!
► OUR LADY―the Mother of Mercy, the Mother of Fair Love, the Refuge of Sinners―who has a heart of gold and sweetness―also tells a similar story to Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Fear the danger of not attending to the divine calls, for that is the cause of the loss of innumerable souls ... Men are lost in forgetful rest and sleep―as if there were no vigilant and powerful enemies … How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular. Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation! … Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment!” Despite all this, the vast majority of Catholics remain unmoved in the deluded presumption.
► THE SAINTS tell us the same thing.
● Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604) says: “There are many who arrive at the Faith, but few who are led into the heavenly Kingdom!”
● St. John Chrysostom (347-407), Doctor and Father of the Church says: “What do you think? How many of the inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? What I am about to tell you is very terrible, yet I will not conceal it from you. Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants not one hundred people will be saved. I even doubt whether there will be as many as that!”
● St. Anselm (1033-1109), Doctor of the Church, says: “If thou wouldst be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many. And if thou wouldst be quite sure of thy salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few! … Do not follow the great majority of mankind, but follow those who enter upon the narrow way, who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or by night, that they may attain everlasting blessedness!”
● St. Thomas Aquinas (1235-1274), Doctor of the Church says: “There are a select few who are saved! … Those who are saved are in the minority!”
● St. Louis Marie de Montfort (1673-1716): “Be one of the small number who find the way to life, and enter by the narrow gate into Heaven. Take care not to follow the majority and the common herd, so many of whom are lost.”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), Doctor of the Church, says: “Everyone desires to be saved but the greater part is lost! … All persons desire to be saved, but the greater part, because they will not adopt the means of being saved, fall into sin and are lost! … The greater part of men choose to be damned rather than to love Almighty God! … He who abuses too much the mercy of God will be abandoned by Him! … The common opinion is that the greater part of adults is lost!”
● St. Benedict Joseph of Labre (1748-1783): “Yes, indeed, many will be damned; few will be saved… Meditate on the horrors of Hell which will last for eternity because of one easily-committed mortal sin. Try hard to be among the few who are chosen. Think of the eternal flames of Hell, and how few there are that are saved…I was watching souls falling down into the abyss like snowflakes falling thick and fast in the winter!”
● St. John Marie Vianney (1786-1859): “The number of the saved is as few as the number of grapes left after the vineyard-pickers have passed! … Shall we all be saved? Shall we go to Heaven? Alas, my children, we do not know at all! But I tremble when I see so many souls lost these days. See, they fall into Hell as leaves fall from the trees at the approach of winter.”
Despite all those comments―and they are truly just the tip of a massive iceberg―Catholics remain deluded in the presumption that they are certainly going to Heaven. Ask most souls in Hell―and they will tell you that is how they thought and felt when they were still living on Earth! When will we wake up!!??!!! The devil has us heavily sedated with the fatally sweet drug of presumption―but those sedating, pain-killing effects will wear off when we find ourselves unexpectedly in Hell! Wake up before it too late!!!
Mary is Your Answer, Mary is Your Insurance Policy ― Start Making Payments!
Mary is the “Insurance Policy” against evil and damnation that God has chosen to offer us in our current era. It is God’s choice and God’s will―take it or leave it at your own peril. Many saints have stressed and attested to the power of this heavenly “Insurance Policy.”
● St. Albert the Great (a Doctor of the Church), says: “They who are not thy servants, O Mary, shall perish.”
● St. Bonaventure (a Doctor of the Church) repeats the same thought when he says: “They who neglect the service of Mary shall die in their sins.” And again: “For them, from whom Mary turns away her face, there is not even a hope of salvation.”
● St. Ignatius of Antioch (a Father of the Church), a martyr of the second century, writes: “A sinner can be saved only through the Holy Virgin who, by her merciful prayers, obtains salvation for so many who, according to strict justice, would be lost.”
If a lack of devotion to her is a mark of eternal reprobation a constant love for her must be a sign of eternal salvation. Many spiritual writers state that devotion to Mary is a sign of predestination.
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church) says: “It is impossible that a servant of Mary be damned, provided he serves her faithfully and commends himself to her maternal protection.”
● St. Anselm (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “He who turns to thee and is regarded by thee cannot be lost.”
● St. Antonine is of the same opinion. He says: “As it is impossible for them from whom Mary turns away her eyes of mercy to be saved, so it is necessary that they to whom she turns her eyes of mercy and for whom she intercedes to be saved and glorified.”
● St. John Damascene (a Doctor of the Church) says: “To be devout to you, O holy Virgin, is an arm of salvation which God gives to those whom He wishes to save.”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church), in his book, The Glories of Mary, says: “The intercession of Mary is even necessary to salvation. We say ‘necessary’, not absolutely, but morally. This necessity proceeds from the will itself of God, that all graces that He dispenses should pass by the hands of Mary, according to the opinion of St. Bernard.”
● St. Bernardine of Sienna addresses these words to the Blessed Virgin Mary: “O Lady, thou art the dispenser of all graces, and since the grace of salvation can only come through thy hands, our salvation depends on thee!”
● St. Louis de Montfort adds: “Devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary to salvation, and that it is an infallible mark of reprobation to have no esteem and love for the holy Virgin; while on the other hand, it is an infallible mark of predestination to be entirely and truly devoted to her.”
Mary Deserves Attention and Gratitude
In speaking of Mary, St. Louis de Montfort furthermore writes: “The saints have said admirable things of this holy city of God; and, as they themselves avow, they were never more eloquent and more content than when they spoke of her. Yet, after all they have said, they cry out that the height of her merits―which she has raised up to the throne of the Divinity―cannot be fully seen; that the breadth of her charity―which is broader than the Earth―is in truth immeasurable; that the length of her power―which she exercises even over God Himself―is incomprehensible; and finally, that the depth of her humility, and of all her virtues and graces, is an abyss which never can be sounded. O height incomprehensible! O breadth unspeakable! O length immeasurable! O abyss impenetrable! …
“The whole Earth is full of her glory, especially among Christians, by whom she is taken as the protectress of many kingdoms, provinces, dioceses and cities. Many cathedrals are consecrated to God under her name. There is not a church without an altar in her honor, not a country, nor a canton, where there are not some miraculous images where all sorts of evils are cured and all sorts of good gifts obtained. Who can count the confraternities and congregations in her honor? How many religious orders have been founded in her name and under her protection? How many members in these confraternities, and how many religious men and women in all these orders, who publish her praises and confess her mercies! There is not a little child who, as it lisps the Hail Mary, does not praise her. There is scarcely a sinner who, even in his obduracy, has not some spark of confidence in her. Nay, the very devils in Hell respect her while they fear her!
“After that, we must cry out with the saints: “De Maria numquam satis!”—“Of Mary there is never enough!” We have not yet praised, exalted, honored, loved and served Mary as we ought! She deserves still more praise, still more respect, still more love, and still more service!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Mary the Mother of Grace
We are so caught up in ourselves and other things, that we never stop to think what the Blessed Virgin is actually doing for all of us―whether we in a state of Sanctifying Grace or a state of Mortal Sin; whether we are friends of God or enemies of God! Mary is the Mediatrix of All Grace. Very few people truly grasp what grace is and do not know the distinctions between the different kinds of grace that exist. If Our Lady is the Mediatrix of All Grace, then perhaps we should learn a little more, or refresh our knowledge on grace in general.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux used to say: “Everything is grace!” ― and you could add to that: “Grace is everything!” Our Lord Himself said: “Without Me―you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). Most people fail to see and understand the universal and omnipresent aspect and need of God’s grace. We are, in a sense, constantly swimming in the sea of God’s grace. St. Louis de Montfort says: “God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters and He named it the sea (in Latin: “mare”). He made also an assemblage of all His graces and he called it Mary (in Latin: “Maria”).” Thus we are swimming around in the grace of God in the sea of Mary. All the rivers of God’s graces flow into that sea of grace that is Mary. If Mary is the Mother of Jesus (Who is God), then she is also the Mother of God. If Jesus as God is the Author of All Grace, then it stands to reason that Mary is the Mother of Grace just as she is the Mother of Jesus and God. As Jesus came to us through Mary, so too does Jesus send to us all His graces through Mary. Hence we have the expressions such as: “To Jesus through Mary!”
There is nobody in Heaven without Sanctifying Grace in their soul―and there is nobody in Hell with Sanctifying Grace in their soul. Grace is everything―it is all that really matters. If you are the richest person in world, but do not have Sanctifying Grace in your soul, then you cannot enter Heaven, you cannot buy your way into Heaven, nor can you bribe your way into Heaven. You might be the most famous person in the world―but without Sanctifying Grace your fame will get you nowhere when it comes to Heaven. You might be the most powerful person in the world―but without Sanctifying Grace in your soul, you will be powerless in getting to Heaven.
You might be the poorest person on Earth―but with Sanctifying Grace in your soul you are richer than the richest person on Earth. You may be hated by everyone and have no friends―but with Sanctifying Grace in your soul you are loved by God and all the angels and saints in Heaven. You may have been the biggest sinner the world has ever seen―but with Sanctifying Grace in your soul you will avoid Hell and eventually get to Heaven. Yes―grace is everything. Grace is everything we need to get to Heaven.
Sanctifying Grace is our passport to Heaven, but another kind of grace, called Actual Grace, is constantly whirring and working around us to keep us on the right path to Heaven and to avoid the pitfalls that could make us fall into Hell. Those who are in a state Mortal Sin and have therefore kicked-out Sanctifying Grace from their souls, those sinners will still be mercifully given Actual Graces by God (through Mary) to prod and prompt them to convert and return to a state of Sanctifying Grace. Everyone in the world might not be in a state of Sanctifying Grace, but everyone in the world is mercifully given Actual Grace which is meant to lead them to God and conversion; sanctification and salvation.
Actual Grace refers to supernatural help from God that helps us to do good and to avoid evil. It can enlighten the mind, making us understand what is good, or move the will, inspiring us to choose the right path. It is a transient, passing, temporary intervention of grace in our lives, meaning it is offered by God at specific moments to assist us in spiritual growth and progress. Unlike Sanctifying Grace, which is a permanent dwelling of God’s love in our soul, Actual Grace is not a permanent grace, but a specific, temporary gift from God. Actual Grace lasts only for a while―sometimes more and sometimes less―and can be received and used at different times for countless needs and situations. You cannot store and save Actual Grace because it lasts only for the while that it tries to move you to think, say, or do something good; or not think, not say, and not do something evil. Actual Grace is an invitation to cooperate with God’s will in doing good and avoiding evil. We can either accept and respond to that Actual Grace, or we can ignore or resist it―it will not hang around forever. Thus we can either accept and respond to Our Lady’s attempts at bring us those graces, or we can ignore and resist her.
What does grace do? Grace does everything―everything that is not sinful. St. Thomas Aquinas, in his section on Grace, in his Summa Theologica and also Quaestiones Quodlibetales, writes:
“Human nature needs the help of God to do or wish any good whatsoever … Without grace men do nothing good when they either think or wish or love or act! … Without grace men can do no good whatever! … Grace is a light of the soul … Man cannot even know truth without Divine help … Not only do men know by the light of grace what to do, but by its help they do lovingly what they know! … Man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works proportionate to everlasting life―for this a higher force is needed, namely, the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life … Man cannot prepare himself for everlasting life without the help of grace ... Man’s turning to God is by free-will―but free-will can only be turned to God by God, according to John 15:5: ‘Without Me, you can do nothing!’ … Man can do nothing unless moved by God ... Man needs the help of grace to heal his nature … Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it … Man cannot fulfill all the Divine commandments without healing grace … It is heresy to believe that without grace man can fulfill all the Divine commandments … Man cannot avoid every act of sin, except by grace … Man needs grace to entirely abstain from sin … Man by himself can in no way rise from sin without the help of grace … In order for a man rise from sin there is required the help of grace … God’s grace is the outcome of His mercy … Even a man who already possesses grace needs a further assistance of grace in order to live righteously … After anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil until the end of his life. For grace is given to many persons to whom perseverance in grace is not given!” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114; Quaestiones Quodlibetales, 4, 6).
Let those words sink in deep! We cannot wish or do any good whatsoever without grace! Without grace we cannot think of good things, desire good things, love in a good way, or act in a good way! Without grace we can do no good whatsoever! We cannot know truth without grace! We cannot know what to do without grace! We can do nothing unless moved by God! We cannot avoid sinning without grace! We cannot rise from sin without grace! We cannot be contrite without grace! We cannot persevere without grace! Etc. Thus we can see―or should see―that grace is working constantly in our lives and we are most probably oblivious to the fact!
Thanklessly Overworked Mother of Grace
If grace is working constantly in our lives―then, quite logically, it means that Our Lady the Mediatrix of All Grace is also working constantly in our lives. You can be sure that most people―if not almost all people―fail to realize this, fail to acknowledge this, and fail to give thanks for this ceaseless work of Our Lady. Those words of Our Lady of La Salette come to mind: “I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you!”
Our Lady said to St. Mechtilde: “The words ― ‘full of grace’ ― remind me that the Holy Ghost has showered so many graces upon me that I am able to give these graces in abundance to those who ask for them through my mediation.” She also said to Blessed Alan de la Roche: “I am the Mother of the King of Heaven, and He calls me full of grace. And, being filled with grace, I am able to dispense it freely to my dear children.” In his book, The Secret of the Rosary, St. Louis de Montfort adds: “Praise and honor the numberless graces with which God has filled the Blessed Virgin and say to her ― ‘Thou art full of grace and filled with all the gifts of the Holy Ghost!’ ― and she will give you some of these graces.” In his True Devotion to Mary, St. Louis further says: “Thank God for the incomparable graces He has given Mary! … Thank God for the graces He has given to Our Lady! … If any one of the faithful has Jesus Christ formed in his heart, he can say boldly: ‘All thanks be to Mary! What I possess is her effect and her fruit, and without her I should never have had it!’” (True Devotion to Mary).
There is no Heaven without holiness―it is only saints that go to Heaven―and it is only Sanctifying Grace in the soul that makes us progressively holy. As St. Louis de Montfort, in his The Secret of Mary, says: “It all comes to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God … Mary alone found grace with God for herself and for every individual person … It was Mary who gave existence and life to the Author of all grace and, because of this, she is called the Mother of Grace … God the Father, from Whom every grace comes down to us, gave her every grace when He gave her His Son … God chose her to be the treasurer, the administrator and the dispenser of all His graces, so that all His graces and gifts pass through her hands … She keeps her Son from striking us; she prevents the devil from harming us; she preserves virtue in us; she prevents our merits from being lost and our graces from receding … The Saints tell us that when we have once found Mary—and through Mary, found Jesus, and through Jesus, found God the father—then we have discovered every good. When we say ‘every good,’ we exclude nothing. ‘Every good’ includes every grace; continuous friendship with God; every guarantee against the enemies of God; possession of truth to counter every falsehood; endless benefits and unfailing headway against the hazards we meet on the way to salvation; and finally every consolation and joy amid the bitter afflictions of life.”
Do Not Forget Your Mother!
St. Louis de Montfort writes: “Long ago, Moses was inspired by God to command the Jewish people never to forget the graces which had been showered upon them” (The Secret of the Rosary). Since God showers us with graces through Mary the Mediatrix of All Grace, then you could paraphrase the above quote to say: “God commands His people never to forget the graces which have been showered upon them through Mary!”
It is God’s love for us that makes Him shower graces upon us―whether we be good or evil: “Your Father in Heaven, who makes His sun rise and rain fall upon the good and bad, upon the just and the unjust!” (Matthew 5:45). It is Mary’s love for us that makes her be a Refuge of Sinners and a Mother of Mercy despite our sinfulness. Holy Scripture tells us that “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and the Church applies to Mary the words: “I am the Mother of fair love” (Ecclesiasticus 24:24) which is seen in several Readings in various Masses of Our Lady. Love is something that is reciprocal―which means it is a case of two-way giving―we are loved and we love in return. That is especially what we should be doing with God and Our Lady: “In this is charity―not as though we had loved God first, but because He has first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins … Let us therefore love God, because God has first loved us!” (1 John 4:10, 19).
The love of Christ is clearly shown by the fact that He gave up His life through suffering and torture to save us from Hell. St. Louis de Montfort writes: “Jesus has given Himself to us without reserve―body and soul, virtues, graces and merits. Is it not then a simple matter of justice and of gratitude that we should give Him all that we can give Him? … We offer and consecrate all we are and all we have to the Blessed Virgin in order that Our Lord may receive through her mediation the glory and the gratitude which we owe Him … He finds His glory in receiving, through the hands of Mary, the gratitude, respect and love which we owe Him for His benefits … He has been the first to be generous toward us―let us, at least, be the second; and then, in life and death and throughout all eternity, we shall find Him still more generous. ‘With the generous He will be generous’ … As you have given yourself entirely to her―she, who is generous with the generous, and more generous even than the generous, will in return give herself to you in a marvelous but real manner! … The most holy Virgin, who is a Mother of sweetness and mercy, and who never lets herself be outdone in love and generosity, seeing that we give ourselves entirely to her, she also gives her whole self, and gives it in an unspeakable manner, to him who gives all to her … Hence, if a soul gives itself to her without reserve, she gives herself to that soul without reserve … She causes him to be engulfed in the abyss of her graces ... Mary, being the most gracious and generous of all pure creatures, never lets herself be outdone in love and generosity ... She adorns him with her merits; she supports him with her power; she illuminates him with her light; she inflames him with her love; she communicates to him her virtues: her humility, her Faith, her purity and the rest! … Our Blessed Lord and Our Lady will never let themselves be outdone in gratitude!” (True Devotion to Mary).
Who is there that gives Mary what she deserves? Nobody! Who is there who could give Mary much more than they actually give her? Everybody! Who is there that is more or less ignorant and ungrateful for what Mary does for them? Everybody!
If you attended the Good Friday ceremonies, you might remember the phrase: “What more could I have done for you?” which is a powerful rhetorical question from the Good Friday liturgy, in the section entitled “Reproaches.” The Reproaches are a set of prayers and reflections that explore the relationship between God and mankind―focusing on the themes of blessings, disobedience, and ultimately, the Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. The question, “What more could I have done for you?” is a central theme of the Reproaches and serves as a powerful reminder of God’s love for us and our failure to reciprocate. The Reproaches are intended to produce in us a sense of sorrow, reflection, and repentance, as well as to highlight the profound love and sacrifice that Jesus made for us and all of humanity: “I planted you as My fairest vine, but you have brought forth bitter fruit!” followed by the question, “What more could I have done for you?”
God Sends Us Everything Through Mary
The same question could just as well come from the lips of Our Lady ― “What more could I have done for you?” Our Lady is the Mediatrix of All Grace ― each and every grace that we receive has been sent by God through the hands of Mary! As St. Louis de Montfort writes: “God has empowered her and commissioned her to fill, with saints, the empty thrones from which the apostate angels fell by pride. The will of the Most High is that Heaven, Earth and Hell bend, with good will or bad will, to the commandments of the humble Mary, whom He has made sovereign of Heaven and Earth―general of His armies, treasurer of His treasures, dispenser of His graces, worker of His greatest marvels, restorer of the human race, Mediatrix of men, the exterminator of the enemies of God, and the faithful companion of His grandeurs and triumphs.”
“GOD THE FATHER made an assemblage of all the waters and He named it the sea (Latin: “mare” pronounced “mah-ray”). He made an assemblage of all His graces and he called it Mary. God the Father communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, inasmuch as a mere creature was capable of it, in order that He might give her the power to produce His Son and all the members of His Mystical Body … This great God has a most rich treasury in which He has laid up all that He has―and this immense treasury is none other than Mary, whom the saints have named the Treasure of the Lord, out of whose plenitude all men are made rich.
“THE SON OF GOD became man for our salvation―but it was in Mary and by Mary. God the Son has communicated to His Mother all that He acquired―by His life and His death, His infinite merits and His admirable virtues―and He has made her the treasurer of all that His Father gave Him for His inheritance. It is by her that He applies His merits to His members, and that He communicates His virtues, and distributes His graces. She is His mysterious canal; she is His aqueduct, through which He makes His mercies flow gently and abundantly. If we examine closely the rest of our Blessed Lord’s life, we shall see that it was His will to begin His miracles by Mary. He sanctified St. John in the womb of his mother, St. Elizabeth―but it was by Mary’s word. No sooner had she spoken, than John was sanctified―and this was His first miracle of grace. At the marriage of Cana He changed the water into wine, but it was at Mary’s humble prayer―and this was His first miracle of nature. He began and continued His miracles by Mary, and He will continue them to the end of ages by Mary.
“GOD THE HOLY GHOST formed Jesus Christ in Mary―but it was only after having asked her consent by one of the first ministers of His court. God the Holy Ghost, being barren in God—that is to say, not producing another Divine Person—is become fruitful by Mary, whom He has espoused. It was with her, in her, and of her that He produced His Masterpiece ― which is God made Man ― and that He goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head. This is the reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ ... God the Holy Ghost has communicated His unspeakable gifts; and He has chosen her to be the dispenser of all He possesses, in such a way that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills, as she wills and when she wills, all His gifts and graces. The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gift to men, which He does not have pass through her virginal hands.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Words of Our Lady
► ST. BRIDGET OF SWEDEN was told by Our Lady: “As a mother who sees her son exposed to the sword of the enemy, makes every effort to save him, thus do I, and will I ever do for my children, sinful though they be, if they come to me for help! … I am the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the gate of entrance for sinners to God; neither is there living on Earth a sinner who is so accursed that he is deprived of my compassion―for everyone, if he receives nothing else through my intercession, receives the grace of being less tempted by evil spirits than he otherwise would be. No one, therefore, who is not entirely accursed [by which is meant the final and irrevocable malediction pronounced against the damned], is so entirely cast-off by God, that he may not return and enjoy His mercy, if he invokes my aid. I am called by all the Mother of Mercy, and truly the mercy of God towards men has made me so merciful towards them. Therefore, he shall be miserable, and forever miserable in another life, who in this life, being able to do so, does not have recourse to me, who am so compassionate to all, and so earnestly desire to aid sinners.” (quoted by St. Alphonsus Liguori, Glories of Mary).
► OUR LADY OF FATIMA (1917) and AKITA (1973) echoes the above, when she says: “Jesus wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it! … You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved! … Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you! … I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day! … Pray, pray very much!” (Our Lady of Fatima, 1917) … “I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father … Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger. I desire this … Pray in reparation for the ingratitude and outrages of so many men … Pray very much! … Continue to pray very much—very much! … Pray with fervor! … Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! … I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach! Those who place their confidence in me will be saved!” (Our Lady of Akita, 1973).
Nevertheless, Our Lady of Fatima adds a tremendously important clause and condition to the “contract” of salvation that she offers―that clause is: “If my requests are heeded!” There is no such thing as “unconditional salvation” ― meaning that Our Lady will guarantee to save no matter how much we choose to sin and what kinds of sins we choose to commit. If we are not careful, the words of Our Lord shall apply to us: “You shall die in your sin!” (John 8:21) ― for Holy Scripture warns: “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great, He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5-6). We can easily fall into the sin of presumption, which refers to a condition of the soul where someone either trusts too much in their own abilities, or assumes God will grant forgiveness without repentance or merit on our part. It involves hoping for salvation without deserving it, or seeking pardon for sins without genuine sorrow. Essentially, the sin of presumption is a form of pride that leads to overconfidence in oneself or overconfidence in God's mercy.
► OUR LADY OF FATIMA (1917) and AKITA (1973) speaks against this kind of presumption and points out that it will not work. If presumption did work, then why does Our Lady of Fatima point out that “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended! … You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go! … Many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners?” (Our Lady of Fatima, 1917). In other words, presumption will not save them―but prayers and penances can save them if they cooperate with the graces of conversion that Our Lady will present to them.
At Akita, Our Lady echoes the same idea: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord ... If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger! … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before! … Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead!” (Our Lady of Akita, 1973). If God was the “all-forgiving and always forgiving” doormat that most people make Him out to be―why would He inflict such terrible punishments. It is not presumption, but it is punishments that could possibly save them―if they are accepted in a spirit of sorrow for sin and as just and rightful penance inflicted by God―then, like the Good Thief on the cross, they might possibly be saved at the last minute of their lives.
► SISTER LUCY OF FATIMA indicated in 1957 that we are not listening to Our Lady's Fatima requests―we are ignoring the clause “If my requests are heeded” in the “contract” of salvation that Our Lady offers. Sister Lucia explains: “The Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners, ignoring the message, keep following the road of evil, because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them. But, Father, you must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a tremendous way! The chastisement from Heaven is imminent!”
► OUR LADY OF LA SALETTE (1846) had already indicated this lack of cooperation with her: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you!”
Wake Up to Reality
It is both astounding and terrifying to see so many Catholics presumptuously plodding along in their worldly lives under the illusion and delusion that all is “fine-and-dandy” and they are on their way to Heaven―when, in reality, most Catholics end up in Hell. Who says so? Our Lord says so; Our Lady says so; many Saints say so.
► OUR LORD says: “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ... Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! … And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 7:13, 21; Luke 13:23-28). If that does not wake up Catholics from their deluded presumption, then nothing will!
► OUR LADY―the Mother of Mercy, the Mother of Fair Love, the Refuge of Sinners―who has a heart of gold and sweetness―also tells a similar story to Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Fear the danger of not attending to the divine calls, for that is the cause of the loss of innumerable souls ... Men are lost in forgetful rest and sleep―as if there were no vigilant and powerful enemies … How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular. Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation! … Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment!” Despite all this, the vast majority of Catholics remain unmoved in the deluded presumption.
► THE SAINTS tell us the same thing.
● Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604) says: “There are many who arrive at the Faith, but few who are led into the heavenly Kingdom!”
● St. John Chrysostom (347-407), Doctor and Father of the Church says: “What do you think? How many of the inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? What I am about to tell you is very terrible, yet I will not conceal it from you. Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants not one hundred people will be saved. I even doubt whether there will be as many as that!”
● St. Anselm (1033-1109), Doctor of the Church, says: “If thou wouldst be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many. And if thou wouldst be quite sure of thy salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few! … Do not follow the great majority of mankind, but follow those who enter upon the narrow way, who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or by night, that they may attain everlasting blessedness!”
● St. Thomas Aquinas (1235-1274), Doctor of the Church says: “There are a select few who are saved! … Those who are saved are in the minority!”
● St. Louis Marie de Montfort (1673-1716): “Be one of the small number who find the way to life, and enter by the narrow gate into Heaven. Take care not to follow the majority and the common herd, so many of whom are lost.”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), Doctor of the Church, says: “Everyone desires to be saved but the greater part is lost! … All persons desire to be saved, but the greater part, because they will not adopt the means of being saved, fall into sin and are lost! … The greater part of men choose to be damned rather than to love Almighty God! … He who abuses too much the mercy of God will be abandoned by Him! … The common opinion is that the greater part of adults is lost!”
● St. Benedict Joseph of Labre (1748-1783): “Yes, indeed, many will be damned; few will be saved… Meditate on the horrors of Hell which will last for eternity because of one easily-committed mortal sin. Try hard to be among the few who are chosen. Think of the eternal flames of Hell, and how few there are that are saved…I was watching souls falling down into the abyss like snowflakes falling thick and fast in the winter!”
● St. John Marie Vianney (1786-1859): “The number of the saved is as few as the number of grapes left after the vineyard-pickers have passed! … Shall we all be saved? Shall we go to Heaven? Alas, my children, we do not know at all! But I tremble when I see so many souls lost these days. See, they fall into Hell as leaves fall from the trees at the approach of winter.”
Despite all those comments―and they are truly just the tip of a massive iceberg―Catholics remain deluded in the presumption that they are certainly going to Heaven. Ask most souls in Hell―and they will tell you that is how they thought and felt when they were still living on Earth! When will we wake up!!??!!! The devil has us heavily sedated with the fatally sweet drug of presumption―but those sedating, pain-killing effects will wear off when we find ourselves unexpectedly in Hell! Wake up before it too late!!!
Mary is Your Answer, Mary is Your Insurance Policy ― Start Making Payments!
Mary is the “Insurance Policy” against evil and damnation that God has chosen to offer us in our current era. It is God’s choice and God’s will―take it or leave it at your own peril. Many saints have stressed and attested to the power of this heavenly “Insurance Policy.”
● St. Albert the Great (a Doctor of the Church), says: “They who are not thy servants, O Mary, shall perish.”
● St. Bonaventure (a Doctor of the Church) repeats the same thought when he says: “They who neglect the service of Mary shall die in their sins.” And again: “For them, from whom Mary turns away her face, there is not even a hope of salvation.”
● St. Ignatius of Antioch (a Father of the Church), a martyr of the second century, writes: “A sinner can be saved only through the Holy Virgin who, by her merciful prayers, obtains salvation for so many who, according to strict justice, would be lost.”
If a lack of devotion to her is a mark of eternal reprobation a constant love for her must be a sign of eternal salvation. Many spiritual writers state that devotion to Mary is a sign of predestination.
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church) says: “It is impossible that a servant of Mary be damned, provided he serves her faithfully and commends himself to her maternal protection.”
● St. Anselm (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “He who turns to thee and is regarded by thee cannot be lost.”
● St. Antonine is of the same opinion. He says: “As it is impossible for them from whom Mary turns away her eyes of mercy to be saved, so it is necessary that they to whom she turns her eyes of mercy and for whom she intercedes to be saved and glorified.”
● St. John Damascene (a Doctor of the Church) says: “To be devout to you, O holy Virgin, is an arm of salvation which God gives to those whom He wishes to save.”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church), in his book, The Glories of Mary, says: “The intercession of Mary is even necessary to salvation. We say ‘necessary’, not absolutely, but morally. This necessity proceeds from the will itself of God, that all graces that He dispenses should pass by the hands of Mary, according to the opinion of St. Bernard.”
● St. Bernardine of Sienna addresses these words to the Blessed Virgin Mary: “O Lady, thou art the dispenser of all graces, and since the grace of salvation can only come through thy hands, our salvation depends on thee!”
● St. Louis de Montfort adds: “Devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary to salvation, and that it is an infallible mark of reprobation to have no esteem and love for the holy Virgin; while on the other hand, it is an infallible mark of predestination to be entirely and truly devoted to her.”
Mary Deserves Attention and Gratitude
In speaking of Mary, St. Louis de Montfort furthermore writes: “The saints have said admirable things of this holy city of God; and, as they themselves avow, they were never more eloquent and more content than when they spoke of her. Yet, after all they have said, they cry out that the height of her merits―which she has raised up to the throne of the Divinity―cannot be fully seen; that the breadth of her charity―which is broader than the Earth―is in truth immeasurable; that the length of her power―which she exercises even over God Himself―is incomprehensible; and finally, that the depth of her humility, and of all her virtues and graces, is an abyss which never can be sounded. O height incomprehensible! O breadth unspeakable! O length immeasurable! O abyss impenetrable! …
“The whole Earth is full of her glory, especially among Christians, by whom she is taken as the protectress of many kingdoms, provinces, dioceses and cities. Many cathedrals are consecrated to God under her name. There is not a church without an altar in her honor, not a country, nor a canton, where there are not some miraculous images where all sorts of evils are cured and all sorts of good gifts obtained. Who can count the confraternities and congregations in her honor? How many religious orders have been founded in her name and under her protection? How many members in these confraternities, and how many religious men and women in all these orders, who publish her praises and confess her mercies! There is not a little child who, as it lisps the Hail Mary, does not praise her. There is scarcely a sinner who, even in his obduracy, has not some spark of confidence in her. Nay, the very devils in Hell respect her while they fear her!
“After that, we must cry out with the saints: “De Maria numquam satis!”—“Of Mary there is never enough!” We have not yet praised, exalted, honored, loved and served Mary as we ought! She deserves still more praise, still more respect, still more love, and still more service!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Mary the Mother of Grace
We are so caught up in ourselves and other things, that we never stop to think what the Blessed Virgin is actually doing for all of us―whether we in a state of Sanctifying Grace or a state of Mortal Sin; whether we are friends of God or enemies of God! Mary is the Mediatrix of All Grace. Very few people truly grasp what grace is and do not know the distinctions between the different kinds of grace that exist. If Our Lady is the Mediatrix of All Grace, then perhaps we should learn a little more, or refresh our knowledge on grace in general.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux used to say: “Everything is grace!” ― and you could add to that: “Grace is everything!” Our Lord Himself said: “Without Me―you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). Most people fail to see and understand the universal and omnipresent aspect and need of God’s grace. We are, in a sense, constantly swimming in the sea of God’s grace. St. Louis de Montfort says: “God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters and He named it the sea (in Latin: “mare”). He made also an assemblage of all His graces and he called it Mary (in Latin: “Maria”).” Thus we are swimming around in the grace of God in the sea of Mary. All the rivers of God’s graces flow into that sea of grace that is Mary. If Mary is the Mother of Jesus (Who is God), then she is also the Mother of God. If Jesus as God is the Author of All Grace, then it stands to reason that Mary is the Mother of Grace just as she is the Mother of Jesus and God. As Jesus came to us through Mary, so too does Jesus send to us all His graces through Mary. Hence we have the expressions such as: “To Jesus through Mary!”
There is nobody in Heaven without Sanctifying Grace in their soul―and there is nobody in Hell with Sanctifying Grace in their soul. Grace is everything―it is all that really matters. If you are the richest person in world, but do not have Sanctifying Grace in your soul, then you cannot enter Heaven, you cannot buy your way into Heaven, nor can you bribe your way into Heaven. You might be the most famous person in the world―but without Sanctifying Grace your fame will get you nowhere when it comes to Heaven. You might be the most powerful person in the world―but without Sanctifying Grace in your soul, you will be powerless in getting to Heaven.
You might be the poorest person on Earth―but with Sanctifying Grace in your soul you are richer than the richest person on Earth. You may be hated by everyone and have no friends―but with Sanctifying Grace in your soul you are loved by God and all the angels and saints in Heaven. You may have been the biggest sinner the world has ever seen―but with Sanctifying Grace in your soul you will avoid Hell and eventually get to Heaven. Yes―grace is everything. Grace is everything we need to get to Heaven.
Sanctifying Grace is our passport to Heaven, but another kind of grace, called Actual Grace, is constantly whirring and working around us to keep us on the right path to Heaven and to avoid the pitfalls that could make us fall into Hell. Those who are in a state Mortal Sin and have therefore kicked-out Sanctifying Grace from their souls, those sinners will still be mercifully given Actual Graces by God (through Mary) to prod and prompt them to convert and return to a state of Sanctifying Grace. Everyone in the world might not be in a state of Sanctifying Grace, but everyone in the world is mercifully given Actual Grace which is meant to lead them to God and conversion; sanctification and salvation.
Actual Grace refers to supernatural help from God that helps us to do good and to avoid evil. It can enlighten the mind, making us understand what is good, or move the will, inspiring us to choose the right path. It is a transient, passing, temporary intervention of grace in our lives, meaning it is offered by God at specific moments to assist us in spiritual growth and progress. Unlike Sanctifying Grace, which is a permanent dwelling of God’s love in our soul, Actual Grace is not a permanent grace, but a specific, temporary gift from God. Actual Grace lasts only for a while―sometimes more and sometimes less―and can be received and used at different times for countless needs and situations. You cannot store and save Actual Grace because it lasts only for the while that it tries to move you to think, say, or do something good; or not think, not say, and not do something evil. Actual Grace is an invitation to cooperate with God’s will in doing good and avoiding evil. We can either accept and respond to that Actual Grace, or we can ignore or resist it―it will not hang around forever. Thus we can either accept and respond to Our Lady’s attempts at bring us those graces, or we can ignore and resist her.
What does grace do? Grace does everything―everything that is not sinful. St. Thomas Aquinas, in his section on Grace, in his Summa Theologica and also Quaestiones Quodlibetales, writes:
“Human nature needs the help of God to do or wish any good whatsoever … Without grace men do nothing good when they either think or wish or love or act! … Without grace men can do no good whatever! … Grace is a light of the soul … Man cannot even know truth without Divine help … Not only do men know by the light of grace what to do, but by its help they do lovingly what they know! … Man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works proportionate to everlasting life―for this a higher force is needed, namely, the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life … Man cannot prepare himself for everlasting life without the help of grace ... Man’s turning to God is by free-will―but free-will can only be turned to God by God, according to John 15:5: ‘Without Me, you can do nothing!’ … Man can do nothing unless moved by God ... Man needs the help of grace to heal his nature … Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it … Man cannot fulfill all the Divine commandments without healing grace … It is heresy to believe that without grace man can fulfill all the Divine commandments … Man cannot avoid every act of sin, except by grace … Man needs grace to entirely abstain from sin … Man by himself can in no way rise from sin without the help of grace … In order for a man rise from sin there is required the help of grace … God’s grace is the outcome of His mercy … Even a man who already possesses grace needs a further assistance of grace in order to live righteously … After anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil until the end of his life. For grace is given to many persons to whom perseverance in grace is not given!” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114; Quaestiones Quodlibetales, 4, 6).
Let those words sink in deep! We cannot wish or do any good whatsoever without grace! Without grace we cannot think of good things, desire good things, love in a good way, or act in a good way! Without grace we can do no good whatsoever! We cannot know truth without grace! We cannot know what to do without grace! We can do nothing unless moved by God! We cannot avoid sinning without grace! We cannot rise from sin without grace! We cannot be contrite without grace! We cannot persevere without grace! Etc. Thus we can see―or should see―that grace is working constantly in our lives and we are most probably oblivious to the fact!
Thanklessly Overworked Mother of Grace
If grace is working constantly in our lives―then, quite logically, it means that Our Lady the Mediatrix of All Grace is also working constantly in our lives. You can be sure that most people―if not almost all people―fail to realize this, fail to acknowledge this, and fail to give thanks for this ceaseless work of Our Lady. Those words of Our Lady of La Salette come to mind: “I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you!”
Our Lady said to St. Mechtilde: “The words ― ‘full of grace’ ― remind me that the Holy Ghost has showered so many graces upon me that I am able to give these graces in abundance to those who ask for them through my mediation.” She also said to Blessed Alan de la Roche: “I am the Mother of the King of Heaven, and He calls me full of grace. And, being filled with grace, I am able to dispense it freely to my dear children.” In his book, The Secret of the Rosary, St. Louis de Montfort adds: “Praise and honor the numberless graces with which God has filled the Blessed Virgin and say to her ― ‘Thou art full of grace and filled with all the gifts of the Holy Ghost!’ ― and she will give you some of these graces.” In his True Devotion to Mary, St. Louis further says: “Thank God for the incomparable graces He has given Mary! … Thank God for the graces He has given to Our Lady! … If any one of the faithful has Jesus Christ formed in his heart, he can say boldly: ‘All thanks be to Mary! What I possess is her effect and her fruit, and without her I should never have had it!’” (True Devotion to Mary).
There is no Heaven without holiness―it is only saints that go to Heaven―and it is only Sanctifying Grace in the soul that makes us progressively holy. As St. Louis de Montfort, in his The Secret of Mary, says: “It all comes to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God … Mary alone found grace with God for herself and for every individual person … It was Mary who gave existence and life to the Author of all grace and, because of this, she is called the Mother of Grace … God the Father, from Whom every grace comes down to us, gave her every grace when He gave her His Son … God chose her to be the treasurer, the administrator and the dispenser of all His graces, so that all His graces and gifts pass through her hands … She keeps her Son from striking us; she prevents the devil from harming us; she preserves virtue in us; she prevents our merits from being lost and our graces from receding … The Saints tell us that when we have once found Mary—and through Mary, found Jesus, and through Jesus, found God the father—then we have discovered every good. When we say ‘every good,’ we exclude nothing. ‘Every good’ includes every grace; continuous friendship with God; every guarantee against the enemies of God; possession of truth to counter every falsehood; endless benefits and unfailing headway against the hazards we meet on the way to salvation; and finally every consolation and joy amid the bitter afflictions of life.”
Do Not Forget Your Mother!
St. Louis de Montfort writes: “Long ago, Moses was inspired by God to command the Jewish people never to forget the graces which had been showered upon them” (The Secret of the Rosary). Since God showers us with graces through Mary the Mediatrix of All Grace, then you could paraphrase the above quote to say: “God commands His people never to forget the graces which have been showered upon them through Mary!”
It is God’s love for us that makes Him shower graces upon us―whether we be good or evil: “Your Father in Heaven, who makes His sun rise and rain fall upon the good and bad, upon the just and the unjust!” (Matthew 5:45). It is Mary’s love for us that makes her be a Refuge of Sinners and a Mother of Mercy despite our sinfulness. Holy Scripture tells us that “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and the Church applies to Mary the words: “I am the Mother of fair love” (Ecclesiasticus 24:24) which is seen in several Readings in various Masses of Our Lady. Love is something that is reciprocal―which means it is a case of two-way giving―we are loved and we love in return. That is especially what we should be doing with God and Our Lady: “In this is charity―not as though we had loved God first, but because He has first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins … Let us therefore love God, because God has first loved us!” (1 John 4:10, 19).
The love of Christ is clearly shown by the fact that He gave up His life through suffering and torture to save us from Hell. St. Louis de Montfort writes: “Jesus has given Himself to us without reserve―body and soul, virtues, graces and merits. Is it not then a simple matter of justice and of gratitude that we should give Him all that we can give Him? … We offer and consecrate all we are and all we have to the Blessed Virgin in order that Our Lord may receive through her mediation the glory and the gratitude which we owe Him … He finds His glory in receiving, through the hands of Mary, the gratitude, respect and love which we owe Him for His benefits … He has been the first to be generous toward us―let us, at least, be the second; and then, in life and death and throughout all eternity, we shall find Him still more generous. ‘With the generous He will be generous’ … As you have given yourself entirely to her―she, who is generous with the generous, and more generous even than the generous, will in return give herself to you in a marvelous but real manner! … The most holy Virgin, who is a Mother of sweetness and mercy, and who never lets herself be outdone in love and generosity, seeing that we give ourselves entirely to her, she also gives her whole self, and gives it in an unspeakable manner, to him who gives all to her … Hence, if a soul gives itself to her without reserve, she gives herself to that soul without reserve … She causes him to be engulfed in the abyss of her graces ... Mary, being the most gracious and generous of all pure creatures, never lets herself be outdone in love and generosity ... She adorns him with her merits; she supports him with her power; she illuminates him with her light; she inflames him with her love; she communicates to him her virtues: her humility, her Faith, her purity and the rest! … Our Blessed Lord and Our Lady will never let themselves be outdone in gratitude!” (True Devotion to Mary).
Article 14
Thursday & Friday, May 7th & 8th
Are You Blind to Mary's Gifts for You?
Thursday & Friday, May 7th & 8th
Are You Blind to Mary's Gifts for You?
O How Blind We Are!
Ingratitude is regarded in theological and moral traditions as a profound sin, often indirectly described as the “root of all evils” ― because it signifies a failure to recognize God or others as the source of blessings, leading to pride and self-centeredness. It is linked to entitlement, constant complaining, and a hard heart, essentially rejecting God’s goodness and grace. St. Ignatius of Loyola considered ingratitude the cause, beginning, and origin of all evils.
Holy Scripture gives a vivid account of ingratitude in the story of the ten lepers, where only one returned to thank Jesus for healing, highlighting the failure to return gratitude for blessings received: “As Jesus was going to Jerusalem, He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain town, there met him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off and lifted up their voice, saying: ‘Jesus, master! Have mercy on us!’ Whom, when Jesus saw, He said: ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests!’ And it came to pass, as they went, they were made clean. And one of them, when he saw that he was made clean, went back, with a loud voice glorifying God. And he fell on his face before the feet of Jesus, giving thanks―and this was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering, said: ‘Were not ten made clean? And where are the other nine? There is no one found to return and give glory to God, but this stranger!’” (Luke17:11-18).
According to St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica (IIa-IIae, Q. 107), ingratitude is a special sin consisting of three degrees of increasing severity, which correspond to the stages of showing gratitude:
(1) Failure to Repay (the lowest degree of severity in ingratitude): When a person fails to return a favor or express thanks, often due to negligence or a lack of effort.
(2) Neglect of Recognition (the middle degree of severity in ingratitude): When a person declines to notice, acknowledge, or indicate that a favor has been received.
(3) Failure to Recognize (the highest/supreme degree/most serious degree of severity in ingratitude): When a person completely forgets or fails to recognize that a favor was received, or treats a kindness as an unkindness.
Our Lady Complains of Our Ingratitude
At her apparition at La Salette, France, in 1846, Our Lady complained about ingratitude: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! In vain you will pray! In vain you will act! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you!”
Our Lady further states to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “As your Creator, Preserver and Benefactor, God claims your gratitude! … If the first transaction and operation was a mortgage and a debt to God, by which man binds himself, how can he with such impatience demand favors? And if in spite of all this, the supreme goodness of the Creator furnishes him graciously with what is necessary, why should he be agitated by the lack of superfluities. O what an execrable disorder and what a despicable blindness of mortals is this? For that, which the Lord gives them gratuitously, they do not thank Him, or even give Him acknowledgment! … Few show themselves grateful!
“Show yourself thankful for the favor which God given you in appointing angels to assist you, teach you, and guide you through all tribulations and sorrows. Show yourself grateful to them for their vigilance, defense and protection! Do not forget the greatness of the benefits bestowed upon you in these angels, for they are above those of many nations and generations! Strive to be grateful to your Lord and to the angels, His ministers! Mortals, in their abominable ingratitude and grossness, usually forget this blessing. They do not consider, what great mercy and condescension of the Most High it is, to have ordained these holy princes as helpers, guardians and defenders of men!
“Flee from such base ingratitude, and humbly acknowledge that you have received your existence, being and life gratuitously, and that, gratuitously, its Author preserves it for you. Freely do you receive all the other benefits, without any merit of yours; and thus, receiving much and repaying little, you make yourself daily less worthy of favors, while the generosity of the Most High grows continually with your indebtedness. If the children of the holy Church would pause in their vain occupations and would take time to consider and weigh the blessings which separate them from darkness and which, without their merit, distinguishes them from the followers of blind unbelief―then they would, without doubt, be ashamed of their torpid forgetfulness and repudiate their vile ingratitude! … Make yourself pleasing to God and make some recompense for the ingratitude of mortals!
“Since you have been so highly favored and distinguished by the blessings of the Lord, it is just that you, more than many generations of men, give thanks and with incessant praises magnify God for what, He has condescended to do for you. Do not undervalue the favors and benefits, which you receive! If this vice of ingratitude is so vile and reprehensible in the creatures who owe God little and, in their earthliness and coarseness, forget the benefits of the Lord―then even greater will be your guilt in falling short of your obligations. And do not deceive yourself with the pretext of being humble―for there is a great difference between thankful humility and humble thanklessness! … I wish that you feel deeply obliged to your Lord and Father, your Spouse and Friend, at the thought of the riches given to those souls, who become His dearest children. For, as a powerful Father, He holds in readiness these great and manifold gifts for His children, and if necessary, all of His gifts for each one of them in particular. In the midst of such motives and incentives of love, the disaffection of men is inexcusable, and at the sight of so many blessings, given without measure, their ingratitude is unpardonable!
“Show reverence and humble gratitude to appreciate God’s teachings, and to follow them in practice with all diligence and punctuality. He withdraws in disgust from those who are ungrateful and disobedient. He is accustomed to withdraw from other creatures in order to visit them with merited punishment for their many sins, outrages, ingratitudes and negligences.
“See with what ingratitude men correspond to the gifts of the most generous Creator! The angels and saints of Heaven understand His kindness, and they are astounded at the gross and dangerous ingratitude of mortals … Grieve and mourn over the gross ignorance and dangerous tardiness of the sons of men; also over the ingratitude of the children of the Church, who, having received the light of the divine Faith, yet live in such interior forgetfulness of the works and benefits of the Incarnation, and of God Himself, and so much so, that they seem to differ from infidels only in some ceremonies and exterior worship. They perform these without spirit or heartiness, many times offending and provoking the divine justice which they should placate. Through this ignorance and lethargy they bring upon themselves the loss of the divine light and they deserve to be left in the heavy darkness, making themselves more unworthy than the infidels themselves and entailing upon themselves an incomparably greater chastisement!
No Gratitude Less Graces
Though God is kind―even to His enemies―it is nevertheless true that we will reap as we sow: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap!” (Galatians 6:7-8) … “He who sows sparingly, shall also reap sparingly!” (2 Corinthians 9:6).
Our Lady―in speaking to the Venerable Mary of Agreda―warns all of us: “No soul must despair of the divine goodness. Yet no one must on that account have a vain and presumptuous trust, expecting divine love to work in it effects of grace of which he is altogether unworthy! The Lord holds in readiness great and manifold gifts for His children, and if necessary, all of His gifts for each one of them in particular ... However, in granting these gifts the love, the Most High follows a course of equity. Although God loves them all and wishes all to be saved, yet, in the distribution of these gifts and effects of His love, He undeniably applies a certain measure and weight by which He dispenses them. Man must take care not to forfeit or lose the first grace―for he does not know whether he will not lose the second grace by his ingratitude, and he can be certain of not losing the second only by making use of the first grace. Grace will not be denied if the soul does not make itself unworthy. But human pride makes many of them so foolish and base of heart that they resist this grace; others are hard to move and never fail to have some vain excuse for their negligence; whence they counteract the first effects of the love of God and make themselves unfit for future graces. Now, without the help of grace, men cannot avoid evil, nor can they do the good, or even know it; thus many cast themselves from abyss to abyss. For, since they counteract and repel grace, and thus are unworthy of further help, they inevitably draw upon themselves ruin by falling from sin to sin … making themselves more unworthy than the infidels themselves and entailing upon themselves an incomparably greater chastisement! … The disaffection of men is inexcusable, and―at the sight of so many blessings, given without measure―their ingratitude is unpardonable!”
Aquinas on Gratitude
St. Thomas Aquinas defines the term as “remembering the friendship and kindliness shown by others, and in desiring to pay them back.” Aquinas points out three chief duties that man has towards God: (1) Adoration of God’s majesty; (2) Sorrow for sins committed against God; and (3) Gratitude for God’s favors, blessings and gifts; (4) Gratitude for the future benefits he hopes to receive from God: “Man is bound to God, chiefly on account of His majesty; secondly, on account of the sins he has committed; thirdly, because of the benefits he has already received from Him; fourthly, by reason of the benefits he hopes to receive from Him.” Gratitude to God is part of due worship of God, but in third place. The highest form of liturgy is adoration of God for his Perfect excellence, the next highest is contrition for sin against God, the third is thanksgiving for God’s blessings, and last is the prayer of petition asking for future blessings.
For St. Thomas Aquinas, gratitude is intimately connected to charity―which is essentially God’s divine love for us and our friendship with God. He also connects it to the virtue of justice―because it is a moral debt that is owed for kindness, which is fueled and sustained by charity. Unlike legal justice, gratitude (thankfulness) is a “debt of honor” owed for kindness and benefits received from God and others. The debt of gratitude is prompted by charity—the supernatural love of God and neighbor—which moves us to repay favors, especially those from God. The three phases of gratitude are (1) recognizing a gift, (2) expressing thanks, and (3) repaying the benefactor in a way that imitates their generosity. Because gratitude flows from charity, it is an obligation that has no limit; we should constantly strive to grow in gratitude, rather than seeing it as a transaction that is “paid in full.” Gratitude helps us acknowledge our dependence on God as the ultimate giver of all good things, strengthening our friendship with Him. While gratitude serves the purpose of justice (giving what is due), it is empowered by the virtue of charity.
The Generosity of God demands the Gratitude of Man
Holy Scripture clearly puts us in our rightful place as humble and unworthy recipients of the graces and gifts of God. Our Lord says: “Without Me―you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). “What have you that you have not received? And if you have received, why do you glory, as if you had not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). “Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights!” (James 1:17). “For of Him, and by Him, and in Him, are all things! … Therefore, brethren, we are debtors!” (Romans 11:36; 8:12). You don’t owe a lot to God―you owe everything to God! You cannot draw your next breath without His grace. Everything we have, we owe to Him. “We are bound to give thanks always to God! … Give thanks to God without ceasing!” (2 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:13).
In Catholic theology, the concept that we owe everything to God is based on the reality that he is our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Since God made us and all things, everything belongs to Him. We also owe a debt of love and gratitude―because Christ redeemed us through His Blood. In Catholic tradition, rendering worship, honor, and thanksgiving to God is not merely a recommendation, but a matter of justice ― a virtue where we return to God what is due to Him. These fundamental truths mean our lives, breath, and salvation come entirely from God’s grace, as expressed in the Bible, and call for complete gratitude and service.
St. Thomas Aquinas further humbles us by saying: “Human nature needs the help of God to do or wish any good whatsoever … Without grace men do nothing good when they either think or wish or love or act! … Without grace men can do no good whatever! … Grace is a light of the soul … Man cannot even know truth without Divine help … Not only do men know by the light of grace what to do, but by its help they do lovingly what they know! … Man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works to merit everlasting life―for this a higher force is needed, namely, the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life … Man cannot prepare himself for everlasting life without the help of grace ... According to John 15:5: ‘Without Me, you can do nothing!’ … Man can do nothing unless moved by God ... Man cannot avoid every act of sin, except by grace … Man needs grace to entirely abstain from sin … Man by himself can in no way rise from sin without the help of grace … In order for a man rise from sin there is required the help of grace … God’s grace is the outcome of His mercy … Even a man who already possesses grace also needs a further assistance of grace in order to live righteously … After anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil until the end of his life. For to many persons grace is given but to whom perseverance in grace is not given!” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114; Quaestiones Quodlibetales, 4, 6).
Mary the Mediatrix of All Grace
Did you ever wonder what “Mediatrix of All Graces” actually means, or what difference it makes in your daily life? St. Thomas Aquinas explained that a mediator is someone who is in the middle between two parties, and being both similar to and different from each side, the mediator unites the two sides. Christ is the perfect and unique Mediator between God and man because Jesus is both God and man; He freely accepted His death on a cross to satisfy for man’s sins, interceded for men with the Father, and then conferred the Father’s gifts on man to reunite man with God. This emphasis on the singularity of Christ seems to mean that no one other than Jesus is a mediator. Therefore, how can Mary be a mediatrix?
Sinless from the moment of her own conception in her mother’s womb, Mary has always been in a unique middle position between God, the all-holy Creator, and sinful human creatures. By her consent at the Annunciation, Mary united God and man literally in her womb as she conceived Christ who is true God and true Man. As the one Mother of Jesus, Mary is a unique mediatrix of Jesus, who is the source of all graces. Thus, in at least an indirect way, the Blessed Virgin is the Mediatrix of All Graces.
However, Mary’s mediation is in an entirely different category than Christ’s, because her creaturely mediation has always been imperfect and insufficient in the sense that she has never done any of this only by herself. She depends on God who created her immaculate from her conception and even now holds her in existence at every moment. It was God who received the Blessed Virgin’s consent to overshadow her for the Son of God to become incarnate in her womb. It was by the merits of Christ that His Mother was created immaculate and received the grace to remain sinless throughout her life. Therefore, it is God Himself who made Our Lady to be a universal mediatrix, starting with her Immaculate Conception, and continuing with the grace of her virginal conception of Christ. Her mediation between man and the God-man Jesus was then seen by a few at the wedding feast of Cana, proclaimed publicly by Christ on the Cross, and manifested at Pentecost. As St. Bernard taught, “It is God’s will that we receive everything through Mary.”
Mary’s mediation is secondary mediation and dependent on Christ’s divine mediation which is primary and independent. Mary is filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit and cooperates with God’s grace to mediate grace to others. The teaching of Mary as Mediatrix of All Grace in Catholic theology signifies that Mary cooperates in the distribution of all graces merited by Jesus Christ, acting as a spiritual mother and conduit through which divine grace flows to humanity. While Jesus is the sole mediator of redemption, Mary's role is a subordinate, maternal participation in this process.
Popes Leo XIII, in Adiutricem Populi; St. Pius X, in Ad Diem Illum; Pius XI, in Miserentissimus Redemptor; and Pius XII, in his Radio-Message to Fatima, all speak of this role of Our Lady. Pope Leo XIII, in the text referred to, spoke of her as having “practically limitless power.” Pope St. Pius X said she was the “dispensatrix of all the gifts” and is the “neck” connecting the Head of the Mystical Body (Christ) to the Members of the Mystical Body. But all power flows through the neck. Pope Pius XII said: “Her kingdom is as vast as that of her Son and God, since nothing is excluded from her dominion.” These and many other texts speak in varied ways of Mary as Mediatrix of all graces, so often that the teaching has become almost infallible.
Since Mary was associated with her Son in acquiring grace for us, she will also be associated with her Son in distributing that grace to us. This fits well with the words of the Popes, who call her the “administra” of grace, meaning that she administers or dispenses grace. Thus Pope Leo XIII, in Iucunda Semper, said: “When God the Father has been invoked with excellent prayers, our humble voice turns to Mary; in accordance with no other law than that law of conciliation and petition, which was expressed as follows by St. Bernardine of Siena : ‘Every grace that is communicated to this world has a threefold course. For by excellent order, it is dispensed from God to Christ, from Christ to the Virgin, from the Virgin to us.’”
Ingratitude is regarded in theological and moral traditions as a profound sin, often indirectly described as the “root of all evils” ― because it signifies a failure to recognize God or others as the source of blessings, leading to pride and self-centeredness. It is linked to entitlement, constant complaining, and a hard heart, essentially rejecting God’s goodness and grace. St. Ignatius of Loyola considered ingratitude the cause, beginning, and origin of all evils.
Holy Scripture gives a vivid account of ingratitude in the story of the ten lepers, where only one returned to thank Jesus for healing, highlighting the failure to return gratitude for blessings received: “As Jesus was going to Jerusalem, He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain town, there met him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off and lifted up their voice, saying: ‘Jesus, master! Have mercy on us!’ Whom, when Jesus saw, He said: ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests!’ And it came to pass, as they went, they were made clean. And one of them, when he saw that he was made clean, went back, with a loud voice glorifying God. And he fell on his face before the feet of Jesus, giving thanks―and this was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering, said: ‘Were not ten made clean? And where are the other nine? There is no one found to return and give glory to God, but this stranger!’” (Luke17:11-18).
According to St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica (IIa-IIae, Q. 107), ingratitude is a special sin consisting of three degrees of increasing severity, which correspond to the stages of showing gratitude:
(1) Failure to Repay (the lowest degree of severity in ingratitude): When a person fails to return a favor or express thanks, often due to negligence or a lack of effort.
(2) Neglect of Recognition (the middle degree of severity in ingratitude): When a person declines to notice, acknowledge, or indicate that a favor has been received.
(3) Failure to Recognize (the highest/supreme degree/most serious degree of severity in ingratitude): When a person completely forgets or fails to recognize that a favor was received, or treats a kindness as an unkindness.
Our Lady Complains of Our Ingratitude
At her apparition at La Salette, France, in 1846, Our Lady complained about ingratitude: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! In vain you will pray! In vain you will act! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you!”
Our Lady further states to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “As your Creator, Preserver and Benefactor, God claims your gratitude! … If the first transaction and operation was a mortgage and a debt to God, by which man binds himself, how can he with such impatience demand favors? And if in spite of all this, the supreme goodness of the Creator furnishes him graciously with what is necessary, why should he be agitated by the lack of superfluities. O what an execrable disorder and what a despicable blindness of mortals is this? For that, which the Lord gives them gratuitously, they do not thank Him, or even give Him acknowledgment! … Few show themselves grateful!
“Show yourself thankful for the favor which God given you in appointing angels to assist you, teach you, and guide you through all tribulations and sorrows. Show yourself grateful to them for their vigilance, defense and protection! Do not forget the greatness of the benefits bestowed upon you in these angels, for they are above those of many nations and generations! Strive to be grateful to your Lord and to the angels, His ministers! Mortals, in their abominable ingratitude and grossness, usually forget this blessing. They do not consider, what great mercy and condescension of the Most High it is, to have ordained these holy princes as helpers, guardians and defenders of men!
“Flee from such base ingratitude, and humbly acknowledge that you have received your existence, being and life gratuitously, and that, gratuitously, its Author preserves it for you. Freely do you receive all the other benefits, without any merit of yours; and thus, receiving much and repaying little, you make yourself daily less worthy of favors, while the generosity of the Most High grows continually with your indebtedness. If the children of the holy Church would pause in their vain occupations and would take time to consider and weigh the blessings which separate them from darkness and which, without their merit, distinguishes them from the followers of blind unbelief―then they would, without doubt, be ashamed of their torpid forgetfulness and repudiate their vile ingratitude! … Make yourself pleasing to God and make some recompense for the ingratitude of mortals!
“Since you have been so highly favored and distinguished by the blessings of the Lord, it is just that you, more than many generations of men, give thanks and with incessant praises magnify God for what, He has condescended to do for you. Do not undervalue the favors and benefits, which you receive! If this vice of ingratitude is so vile and reprehensible in the creatures who owe God little and, in their earthliness and coarseness, forget the benefits of the Lord―then even greater will be your guilt in falling short of your obligations. And do not deceive yourself with the pretext of being humble―for there is a great difference between thankful humility and humble thanklessness! … I wish that you feel deeply obliged to your Lord and Father, your Spouse and Friend, at the thought of the riches given to those souls, who become His dearest children. For, as a powerful Father, He holds in readiness these great and manifold gifts for His children, and if necessary, all of His gifts for each one of them in particular. In the midst of such motives and incentives of love, the disaffection of men is inexcusable, and at the sight of so many blessings, given without measure, their ingratitude is unpardonable!
“Show reverence and humble gratitude to appreciate God’s teachings, and to follow them in practice with all diligence and punctuality. He withdraws in disgust from those who are ungrateful and disobedient. He is accustomed to withdraw from other creatures in order to visit them with merited punishment for their many sins, outrages, ingratitudes and negligences.
“See with what ingratitude men correspond to the gifts of the most generous Creator! The angels and saints of Heaven understand His kindness, and they are astounded at the gross and dangerous ingratitude of mortals … Grieve and mourn over the gross ignorance and dangerous tardiness of the sons of men; also over the ingratitude of the children of the Church, who, having received the light of the divine Faith, yet live in such interior forgetfulness of the works and benefits of the Incarnation, and of God Himself, and so much so, that they seem to differ from infidels only in some ceremonies and exterior worship. They perform these without spirit or heartiness, many times offending and provoking the divine justice which they should placate. Through this ignorance and lethargy they bring upon themselves the loss of the divine light and they deserve to be left in the heavy darkness, making themselves more unworthy than the infidels themselves and entailing upon themselves an incomparably greater chastisement!
No Gratitude Less Graces
Though God is kind―even to His enemies―it is nevertheless true that we will reap as we sow: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap!” (Galatians 6:7-8) … “He who sows sparingly, shall also reap sparingly!” (2 Corinthians 9:6).
Our Lady―in speaking to the Venerable Mary of Agreda―warns all of us: “No soul must despair of the divine goodness. Yet no one must on that account have a vain and presumptuous trust, expecting divine love to work in it effects of grace of which he is altogether unworthy! The Lord holds in readiness great and manifold gifts for His children, and if necessary, all of His gifts for each one of them in particular ... However, in granting these gifts the love, the Most High follows a course of equity. Although God loves them all and wishes all to be saved, yet, in the distribution of these gifts and effects of His love, He undeniably applies a certain measure and weight by which He dispenses them. Man must take care not to forfeit or lose the first grace―for he does not know whether he will not lose the second grace by his ingratitude, and he can be certain of not losing the second only by making use of the first grace. Grace will not be denied if the soul does not make itself unworthy. But human pride makes many of them so foolish and base of heart that they resist this grace; others are hard to move and never fail to have some vain excuse for their negligence; whence they counteract the first effects of the love of God and make themselves unfit for future graces. Now, without the help of grace, men cannot avoid evil, nor can they do the good, or even know it; thus many cast themselves from abyss to abyss. For, since they counteract and repel grace, and thus are unworthy of further help, they inevitably draw upon themselves ruin by falling from sin to sin … making themselves more unworthy than the infidels themselves and entailing upon themselves an incomparably greater chastisement! … The disaffection of men is inexcusable, and―at the sight of so many blessings, given without measure―their ingratitude is unpardonable!”
Aquinas on Gratitude
St. Thomas Aquinas defines the term as “remembering the friendship and kindliness shown by others, and in desiring to pay them back.” Aquinas points out three chief duties that man has towards God: (1) Adoration of God’s majesty; (2) Sorrow for sins committed against God; and (3) Gratitude for God’s favors, blessings and gifts; (4) Gratitude for the future benefits he hopes to receive from God: “Man is bound to God, chiefly on account of His majesty; secondly, on account of the sins he has committed; thirdly, because of the benefits he has already received from Him; fourthly, by reason of the benefits he hopes to receive from Him.” Gratitude to God is part of due worship of God, but in third place. The highest form of liturgy is adoration of God for his Perfect excellence, the next highest is contrition for sin against God, the third is thanksgiving for God’s blessings, and last is the prayer of petition asking for future blessings.
For St. Thomas Aquinas, gratitude is intimately connected to charity―which is essentially God’s divine love for us and our friendship with God. He also connects it to the virtue of justice―because it is a moral debt that is owed for kindness, which is fueled and sustained by charity. Unlike legal justice, gratitude (thankfulness) is a “debt of honor” owed for kindness and benefits received from God and others. The debt of gratitude is prompted by charity—the supernatural love of God and neighbor—which moves us to repay favors, especially those from God. The three phases of gratitude are (1) recognizing a gift, (2) expressing thanks, and (3) repaying the benefactor in a way that imitates their generosity. Because gratitude flows from charity, it is an obligation that has no limit; we should constantly strive to grow in gratitude, rather than seeing it as a transaction that is “paid in full.” Gratitude helps us acknowledge our dependence on God as the ultimate giver of all good things, strengthening our friendship with Him. While gratitude serves the purpose of justice (giving what is due), it is empowered by the virtue of charity.
The Generosity of God demands the Gratitude of Man
Holy Scripture clearly puts us in our rightful place as humble and unworthy recipients of the graces and gifts of God. Our Lord says: “Without Me―you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). “What have you that you have not received? And if you have received, why do you glory, as if you had not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). “Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights!” (James 1:17). “For of Him, and by Him, and in Him, are all things! … Therefore, brethren, we are debtors!” (Romans 11:36; 8:12). You don’t owe a lot to God―you owe everything to God! You cannot draw your next breath without His grace. Everything we have, we owe to Him. “We are bound to give thanks always to God! … Give thanks to God without ceasing!” (2 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:13).
In Catholic theology, the concept that we owe everything to God is based on the reality that he is our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Since God made us and all things, everything belongs to Him. We also owe a debt of love and gratitude―because Christ redeemed us through His Blood. In Catholic tradition, rendering worship, honor, and thanksgiving to God is not merely a recommendation, but a matter of justice ― a virtue where we return to God what is due to Him. These fundamental truths mean our lives, breath, and salvation come entirely from God’s grace, as expressed in the Bible, and call for complete gratitude and service.
St. Thomas Aquinas further humbles us by saying: “Human nature needs the help of God to do or wish any good whatsoever … Without grace men do nothing good when they either think or wish or love or act! … Without grace men can do no good whatever! … Grace is a light of the soul … Man cannot even know truth without Divine help … Not only do men know by the light of grace what to do, but by its help they do lovingly what they know! … Man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works to merit everlasting life―for this a higher force is needed, namely, the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life … Man cannot prepare himself for everlasting life without the help of grace ... According to John 15:5: ‘Without Me, you can do nothing!’ … Man can do nothing unless moved by God ... Man cannot avoid every act of sin, except by grace … Man needs grace to entirely abstain from sin … Man by himself can in no way rise from sin without the help of grace … In order for a man rise from sin there is required the help of grace … God’s grace is the outcome of His mercy … Even a man who already possesses grace also needs a further assistance of grace in order to live righteously … After anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil until the end of his life. For to many persons grace is given but to whom perseverance in grace is not given!” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114; Quaestiones Quodlibetales, 4, 6).
Mary the Mediatrix of All Grace
Did you ever wonder what “Mediatrix of All Graces” actually means, or what difference it makes in your daily life? St. Thomas Aquinas explained that a mediator is someone who is in the middle between two parties, and being both similar to and different from each side, the mediator unites the two sides. Christ is the perfect and unique Mediator between God and man because Jesus is both God and man; He freely accepted His death on a cross to satisfy for man’s sins, interceded for men with the Father, and then conferred the Father’s gifts on man to reunite man with God. This emphasis on the singularity of Christ seems to mean that no one other than Jesus is a mediator. Therefore, how can Mary be a mediatrix?
Sinless from the moment of her own conception in her mother’s womb, Mary has always been in a unique middle position between God, the all-holy Creator, and sinful human creatures. By her consent at the Annunciation, Mary united God and man literally in her womb as she conceived Christ who is true God and true Man. As the one Mother of Jesus, Mary is a unique mediatrix of Jesus, who is the source of all graces. Thus, in at least an indirect way, the Blessed Virgin is the Mediatrix of All Graces.
However, Mary’s mediation is in an entirely different category than Christ’s, because her creaturely mediation has always been imperfect and insufficient in the sense that she has never done any of this only by herself. She depends on God who created her immaculate from her conception and even now holds her in existence at every moment. It was God who received the Blessed Virgin’s consent to overshadow her for the Son of God to become incarnate in her womb. It was by the merits of Christ that His Mother was created immaculate and received the grace to remain sinless throughout her life. Therefore, it is God Himself who made Our Lady to be a universal mediatrix, starting with her Immaculate Conception, and continuing with the grace of her virginal conception of Christ. Her mediation between man and the God-man Jesus was then seen by a few at the wedding feast of Cana, proclaimed publicly by Christ on the Cross, and manifested at Pentecost. As St. Bernard taught, “It is God’s will that we receive everything through Mary.”
Mary’s mediation is secondary mediation and dependent on Christ’s divine mediation which is primary and independent. Mary is filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit and cooperates with God’s grace to mediate grace to others. The teaching of Mary as Mediatrix of All Grace in Catholic theology signifies that Mary cooperates in the distribution of all graces merited by Jesus Christ, acting as a spiritual mother and conduit through which divine grace flows to humanity. While Jesus is the sole mediator of redemption, Mary's role is a subordinate, maternal participation in this process.
Popes Leo XIII, in Adiutricem Populi; St. Pius X, in Ad Diem Illum; Pius XI, in Miserentissimus Redemptor; and Pius XII, in his Radio-Message to Fatima, all speak of this role of Our Lady. Pope Leo XIII, in the text referred to, spoke of her as having “practically limitless power.” Pope St. Pius X said she was the “dispensatrix of all the gifts” and is the “neck” connecting the Head of the Mystical Body (Christ) to the Members of the Mystical Body. But all power flows through the neck. Pope Pius XII said: “Her kingdom is as vast as that of her Son and God, since nothing is excluded from her dominion.” These and many other texts speak in varied ways of Mary as Mediatrix of all graces, so often that the teaching has become almost infallible.
Since Mary was associated with her Son in acquiring grace for us, she will also be associated with her Son in distributing that grace to us. This fits well with the words of the Popes, who call her the “administra” of grace, meaning that she administers or dispenses grace. Thus Pope Leo XIII, in Iucunda Semper, said: “When God the Father has been invoked with excellent prayers, our humble voice turns to Mary; in accordance with no other law than that law of conciliation and petition, which was expressed as follows by St. Bernardine of Siena : ‘Every grace that is communicated to this world has a threefold course. For by excellent order, it is dispensed from God to Christ, from Christ to the Virgin, from the Virgin to us.’”
Article 13
Sunday & Monday, May 3rd & 4th
What Gifts Have You Lined Up for Your Heavenly Mother's Month?
Sunday & Monday, May 3rd & 4th
What Gifts Have You Lined Up for Your Heavenly Mother's Month?
May Crownings
Now that we have entered the Marian month of May, the mind should focus on Mary. Traditionally, the Church encourages parishes to perform “May Crownings”―the public crowning of a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary―during this Marian month of May. Though the crowning of Our Lady’s statues during May is a long held tradition―that is not the case as regards the date on which the crowning should take place. If you do some research, then you will find all kinds of variations with regard to the date of the crowning.
Some parishes prefer to do so on the first Sunday of May; other parishes prefer to do so on Mother’s Day―which in many countries is the second Sunday in May. There are some who prefer to do so on May 31st (or the Sunday before May 31st if it falls on a weekday) because according to the Traditional Calendar it is the feast of the Queenship of Our Lady―though the Modern Catholic Church has extensively changed many feast days and not celebrates the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on May 31st. There are some parishes who perform the crowning on the First Saturday of the Month―a day that honors the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Others do so on May 13th, the anniversary of Our Lady’s first apparition at Fatima in 1917.
Yet all these differences and preferences are merely secondary to the most important aspect of May crownings―which is the crowning of Our Lady in your heart and soul―for, as Holy Scripture states: “Do you not know that you are the temple of the Holy Ghost, Who is in you, Whom you have from God; and you are not your own? … Glorify and bear God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) … “Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? But if any man violates the temple of God, him shall God destroy! For the temple of God is holy, which you are!” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
Will our “May Crowning” of Our Lady be a mere lip service? Or will it truly and sincerely come from our hearts? The words of Our Lord should serve as a timely warning: “Hypocrites! Well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me. And in vain do they worship Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-9).
Ways to Celebrate the Month of Mary
Many things can be said about Catholics, but it can never be said that we don’t honor our Mother! In addition to the myriad feast days honoring Our Lady in her many titles and virtues, the entire month of May is especially given to her praise. May, when the earth blooms in springtime beauty, is an ideal time for our thoughts and sentiments to be directed towards this supremely lovely Queen of Heaven and Earth, who busily labors from her heavenly throne to conquer hearts, minds, and souls for the greater glory of her Son. In the words of Pope Paul VI, May is “a month which the piety of the faithful has long dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God.” So, how can you honor the Blessed Virgin Mary in a special way this month, and allow her to conquer your own heart? Here are nine ideas.
1. Flower Your Mary Statue
May crownings are one of the most popular ways to celebrate the month of Mary. Make a crown of flowers for your Mary statue and adorn your indoor and outdoor Mary statues with fresh blooming flowers this month. Add a candle too for an extra touch. If you don’t have a Mary statue, now would be a good time to get one. Even if it’s just a small statue for your desk or nightstand, no Catholic should be without it!
Even if you live in a town home or apartment, you can have a Marian garden on your porch! This creative display is pretty and portable...you don’t even need a yard to maintain it.
2. Pray a Novena to Our Lady
Sometime during the month of May, pray a novena to the Blessed Mother for a particular intention that you want to entrust to her Immaculate Heart, for yourself or for someone else. If you don’t already have a favorite novena to Our Lady, try one of these three Novenas to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
3. Spread Devotion to the Rosary
Outside of the Mass, there is no prayer more pleasing to Our Lady and more efficacious for her intercession than the Holy Rosary. If you don’t already have the spiritual discipline, make an effort to pray the Rosary daily.
If you already do this, consider encouraging others to do the same throughout this month. Get inspired by reading Our Lady’s fifteen promises to those who pray her Rosary and hand out Rosaries with Rosary instructions to others as the opportunity arises. There are many graces to be gained for those who preach the power of the holy Rosary!
4. Learn About a New Marian Devotion
Our Lady is the Mother of the Universal Church. There are many ways she has affected Christians in various times and places during these nearly 2,000 years since she walked the earth. It is fascinating to read the stories behind each one, and many are associated with miracles, apparitions, saints, and holy images. Will one of them touch you in a special way?
This month consider researching and adopting a special devotion to Mary under one of her many titles (find a short list here). For example, Our Lady of Fatima (whose feast is May 13th), Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady Undoer of Knots, Our Lady of Guadalupe, or Our Lady of Perpetual Help. This could become an annual tradition for you and your family to learn about a new Marian devotion each May. There are more of them than years in your life!
5. Share the Miraculous Medal
When Our Lady appeared to St. Catherine Labouré and gave her the vision of the Miraculous Medal in 1830, she promised great graces to those who would wear the medal. It was called “Miraculous” by the faithful for good reason, as it became the means of conversion for even the most hardened of atheists to the truth of the Catholic Faith. Consider buying a 25 pack of Miraculous Medals and have them blessed with this Blessing and Investiture of the Miraculous Medal, and distribute them as the Holy Spirit leads. Mary changes lives through the power of her Sacramentals!
6. Memorize a Marian Prayer or Hymn
You may already know the Memorare and the Hail Holy Queen by heart, and this month you can add more Marian hymns and prayers into your mental index. These prayers and hymns become a great solace during trying moments and can be recited often.
You can memorize this beautiful Prayer of Praise to Our Lady composed by St. Ephraim, or learn to sing traditional Marian hymns such as the Regina Caeli and the Salve Regina (the Hail Holy Queen in Latin). The below video is an excellent guide to learning to sing the Salve Regina for those who didn’t grow up knowing it. It is an incredibly beautiful melody, and supernaturally consoling. Then you can sing this prayer after finishing your Rosary instead of reciting it; and, as St. Augustine says, “He who sings prays twice.”
7. Get Invested in the Scapular
We speak of the “Investiture” with the Scapular―meaning “being clothed” with the Scapular. The Scapular is one of the best “investments” you can―it can pay eternal dividends! If you haven’t been invested in the Scapular, Mary’s month is a good time to do it. A Scapular is basically a mini religious habit for the laity, an outward symbol of your consecration to the Blessed Mother, that you wear daily underneath your clothes.
The original and most common Scapular is the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, which has special prayers and graces associated with it, namely the famous “Scapular Promise” ― which states that those who die wearing Our Lady’s Scapular will not spend eternity in Hell. Most Scapulars come with the proper prayer for investment (or investiture, or clothing, or enrollment) that the priest prays for you while blessing the Scapular.
8. Read a Book about Mary
The best way to increase your devotion to the Blessed Mother is simply by reading more about her. You cannot love what you do not know! There is no shortage of great Catholic books on Mary that unpack the mysteries of her life, virtues, and perfect union with her son, Jesus, and the treasures of grace this unfolds in the life of every Christian who turns to her in Faith. Make a goal to read one this month.
9. Pray the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is like the Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours) in that it is comprised of prayers said at various hours throughout the day, but different in that they are all in praise of Our Lady. Once upon a time in Church history the Little Office was the preferred way to pray the Hours for the laity. You can find a link to pray the Little Office online in our daily Morning Offering email, which you can sign up for at MorningOffering.com.
How Will You Celebrate the Month of May?
There is no better or more suited month than the “Marian Month of May” during which Catholics, in their churches and their homes, can offer the Virgin Mother more fervent and loving acts of homage and veneration; and it is the month in which a greater abundance of God’s merciful gifts comes down to us from our Mother’s throne―the Mediatrix of All Graces!
Now that we have entered the Marian month of May, the mind should focus on Mary. Traditionally, the Church encourages parishes to perform “May Crownings”―the public crowning of a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary―during this Marian month of May. Though the crowning of Our Lady’s statues during May is a long held tradition―that is not the case as regards the date on which the crowning should take place. If you do some research, then you will find all kinds of variations with regard to the date of the crowning.
Some parishes prefer to do so on the first Sunday of May; other parishes prefer to do so on Mother’s Day―which in many countries is the second Sunday in May. There are some who prefer to do so on May 31st (or the Sunday before May 31st if it falls on a weekday) because according to the Traditional Calendar it is the feast of the Queenship of Our Lady―though the Modern Catholic Church has extensively changed many feast days and not celebrates the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on May 31st. There are some parishes who perform the crowning on the First Saturday of the Month―a day that honors the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Others do so on May 13th, the anniversary of Our Lady’s first apparition at Fatima in 1917.
Yet all these differences and preferences are merely secondary to the most important aspect of May crownings―which is the crowning of Our Lady in your heart and soul―for, as Holy Scripture states: “Do you not know that you are the temple of the Holy Ghost, Who is in you, Whom you have from God; and you are not your own? … Glorify and bear God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) … “Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? But if any man violates the temple of God, him shall God destroy! For the temple of God is holy, which you are!” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
Will our “May Crowning” of Our Lady be a mere lip service? Or will it truly and sincerely come from our hearts? The words of Our Lord should serve as a timely warning: “Hypocrites! Well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me. And in vain do they worship Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-9).
Ways to Celebrate the Month of Mary
Many things can be said about Catholics, but it can never be said that we don’t honor our Mother! In addition to the myriad feast days honoring Our Lady in her many titles and virtues, the entire month of May is especially given to her praise. May, when the earth blooms in springtime beauty, is an ideal time for our thoughts and sentiments to be directed towards this supremely lovely Queen of Heaven and Earth, who busily labors from her heavenly throne to conquer hearts, minds, and souls for the greater glory of her Son. In the words of Pope Paul VI, May is “a month which the piety of the faithful has long dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God.” So, how can you honor the Blessed Virgin Mary in a special way this month, and allow her to conquer your own heart? Here are nine ideas.
1. Flower Your Mary Statue
May crownings are one of the most popular ways to celebrate the month of Mary. Make a crown of flowers for your Mary statue and adorn your indoor and outdoor Mary statues with fresh blooming flowers this month. Add a candle too for an extra touch. If you don’t have a Mary statue, now would be a good time to get one. Even if it’s just a small statue for your desk or nightstand, no Catholic should be without it!
Even if you live in a town home or apartment, you can have a Marian garden on your porch! This creative display is pretty and portable...you don’t even need a yard to maintain it.
2. Pray a Novena to Our Lady
Sometime during the month of May, pray a novena to the Blessed Mother for a particular intention that you want to entrust to her Immaculate Heart, for yourself or for someone else. If you don’t already have a favorite novena to Our Lady, try one of these three Novenas to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
3. Spread Devotion to the Rosary
Outside of the Mass, there is no prayer more pleasing to Our Lady and more efficacious for her intercession than the Holy Rosary. If you don’t already have the spiritual discipline, make an effort to pray the Rosary daily.
If you already do this, consider encouraging others to do the same throughout this month. Get inspired by reading Our Lady’s fifteen promises to those who pray her Rosary and hand out Rosaries with Rosary instructions to others as the opportunity arises. There are many graces to be gained for those who preach the power of the holy Rosary!
4. Learn About a New Marian Devotion
Our Lady is the Mother of the Universal Church. There are many ways she has affected Christians in various times and places during these nearly 2,000 years since she walked the earth. It is fascinating to read the stories behind each one, and many are associated with miracles, apparitions, saints, and holy images. Will one of them touch you in a special way?
This month consider researching and adopting a special devotion to Mary under one of her many titles (find a short list here). For example, Our Lady of Fatima (whose feast is May 13th), Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady Undoer of Knots, Our Lady of Guadalupe, or Our Lady of Perpetual Help. This could become an annual tradition for you and your family to learn about a new Marian devotion each May. There are more of them than years in your life!
5. Share the Miraculous Medal
When Our Lady appeared to St. Catherine Labouré and gave her the vision of the Miraculous Medal in 1830, she promised great graces to those who would wear the medal. It was called “Miraculous” by the faithful for good reason, as it became the means of conversion for even the most hardened of atheists to the truth of the Catholic Faith. Consider buying a 25 pack of Miraculous Medals and have them blessed with this Blessing and Investiture of the Miraculous Medal, and distribute them as the Holy Spirit leads. Mary changes lives through the power of her Sacramentals!
6. Memorize a Marian Prayer or Hymn
You may already know the Memorare and the Hail Holy Queen by heart, and this month you can add more Marian hymns and prayers into your mental index. These prayers and hymns become a great solace during trying moments and can be recited often.
You can memorize this beautiful Prayer of Praise to Our Lady composed by St. Ephraim, or learn to sing traditional Marian hymns such as the Regina Caeli and the Salve Regina (the Hail Holy Queen in Latin). The below video is an excellent guide to learning to sing the Salve Regina for those who didn’t grow up knowing it. It is an incredibly beautiful melody, and supernaturally consoling. Then you can sing this prayer after finishing your Rosary instead of reciting it; and, as St. Augustine says, “He who sings prays twice.”
7. Get Invested in the Scapular
We speak of the “Investiture” with the Scapular―meaning “being clothed” with the Scapular. The Scapular is one of the best “investments” you can―it can pay eternal dividends! If you haven’t been invested in the Scapular, Mary’s month is a good time to do it. A Scapular is basically a mini religious habit for the laity, an outward symbol of your consecration to the Blessed Mother, that you wear daily underneath your clothes.
The original and most common Scapular is the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, which has special prayers and graces associated with it, namely the famous “Scapular Promise” ― which states that those who die wearing Our Lady’s Scapular will not spend eternity in Hell. Most Scapulars come with the proper prayer for investment (or investiture, or clothing, or enrollment) that the priest prays for you while blessing the Scapular.
8. Read a Book about Mary
The best way to increase your devotion to the Blessed Mother is simply by reading more about her. You cannot love what you do not know! There is no shortage of great Catholic books on Mary that unpack the mysteries of her life, virtues, and perfect union with her son, Jesus, and the treasures of grace this unfolds in the life of every Christian who turns to her in Faith. Make a goal to read one this month.
9. Pray the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is like the Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours) in that it is comprised of prayers said at various hours throughout the day, but different in that they are all in praise of Our Lady. Once upon a time in Church history the Little Office was the preferred way to pray the Hours for the laity. You can find a link to pray the Little Office online in our daily Morning Offering email, which you can sign up for at MorningOffering.com.
How Will You Celebrate the Month of May?
There is no better or more suited month than the “Marian Month of May” during which Catholics, in their churches and their homes, can offer the Virgin Mother more fervent and loving acts of homage and veneration; and it is the month in which a greater abundance of God’s merciful gifts comes down to us from our Mother’s throne―the Mediatrix of All Graces!
Article 12
Friday & Saturday, May 1st & 2nd
True and False Devotions to Mary! Which One is Yours?
Friday & Saturday, May 1st & 2nd
True and False Devotions to Mary! Which One is Yours?
We Live in an Increasingly Fake and False World
We are born liars and ever prone to lie. It is only the grace of God that can preserve in truth. Christ said: “I am the Truth” (John 14:6) and He said of Satan: “The devil, from the beginning, stood not in the truth―because truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own―for he is a liar, and the father of lies!” (John 8:44). Christ further stated that Satan is “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 16:11; 14:30) and there the world is a kingdom of lies. Hence Holy Scripture says: “God is true; and every man a liar!” (Romans 3:4). “In the last times some shall give heed to spirits of error and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy!” (1 Timothy 4:2).
Fake (artificial or imitation) materials, elements and items are commonly used in a wide variety of areas―ranging from the spiritual realm to the material and physical realms; the human mind and the human body, to politics and the news media, to advertising, to food items, to jewelry, to home decor, crafting, and remodeling to mimic expensive or fragile materials. Below is an example of just a few of those fake items:
► HUMAN MIND: Subjective beliefs are what we prefer and would like to believe, regardless of whether or not it is objectively true. We will readily embellish, exaggerate, twist, modify, doctor or hide the truth when it comes to our personal advantage, or to the disadvantage of our enemies, or to avoid blame and punishment, etc. We are quick to make mountains out of molehills when it comes to the faults, failings and sins of others―and equally quick in making molehills out of the mountains of our own personal faults, failings and sins. Most people fall into what is called “Confirmation Bias” ― which is actively seeking out information that supports your view, such as only reading news sources that align with your personal beliefs. Confirmation bias is the psychological tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information that confirms one’s pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses; remembering and quoting information that supports your viewpoint while forgetting or ignoring evidence that refutes it.
► HUMAN BODY: False teeth; false eyelashes; false fingernails; cosmetics; false hair (wigs); false beards; false breasts (implants); false limbs, etc. Over 40 million Americans wear dentures (complete or partial fake teeth). Approximately 37% of women globally prefer using false eyelashes to enhance their eye appearance. An estimated 30% of US women who get manicures regularly use acrylic nails. Approximately 52% to 74% of U.S. adult women wear makeup at least occasionally, though daily usage has declined by 20% since 2019, with many shifting to occasional use. Roughly one-third (29%-38%) of women wear makeup daily or weekly. Over 50% of women in America regularly wear wigs or extensions. More than 2 million women in North America try wigs for the first time annually, with the 35–55 age group being the largest. Around 5% of men experiencing baldness or thinning use a wig. An estimated 3.5 million to 5 million+ women in the United States have breast implants, with over 300,000 to 365,000 new procedures performed annually. People still wear corsets, as shown by a resurgence of corsets a fashion staple for daily wear, street fashion, and special occasions.
► POLITICS: Journalists and politicians have become ensnared in a symbiotic web of lies that misleads the public. The news media and the government are entwined in a vicious circle of mutual manipulation, mythmaking, and self-interest. Journalists need crises to dramatize news, and government officials need to appear to be responding to crises. Too often, the crises are not really crises but joint fabrications. The two institutions have become so ensnared in a symbiotic web of lies that the news media are unable to tell the public what is true and the government is unable to govern effectively. That is the thesis advanced by Paul H. Weaver, a former political scientist at Harvard University. Spin, obfuscation, eliding context, or even lying by omission––these are normal acts of dishonesty expected from political spokespeople. It is the job of press secretaries to put a gloss on the facts that makes their boss look good. In administrations run by both parties, this has sometimes turned into outright lying or dishonesty. Elections and politics have always involved disinformation and manipulation.
CIA DIRECTOR WILLIAM CASEY (1913–1987) was an American lawyer, veteran U.S. spy and undercover operator whom President Ronald Reagan named to be his CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) Director. William Casey ran the CIA and as the Director of Central Intelligence from 1981 to 1987. In this capacity he oversaw the entire United States Intelligence Community. It is reported that that William Casey, while CIA Director, said to President Reagan during a Presidential Briefing in 1981: “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”
BARBARA HONEGGER―Assistant to the Chief Domestic Policy Adviser to President Reagan― said: “I am the source for this quote, which was indeed said by CIA Director, William Casey, at an early February 1981 meeting of the newly elected President Reagan with his new cabinet secretaries, to report to him on what they had learned about their agencies in the first couple of weeks of the administration. The meeting was in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House, not far from the Cabinet Room. I was present at the meeting as Assistant to the chief domestic policy adviser to the President. Casey first told Reagan that he had been astonished to discover that over 80% of the ‘intelligence’― that the analysis side of the CIA produced ― was based on open public sources like newspapers and magazines. As he did to all the other secretaries of their departments and agencies, Reagan asked [Casey] what he saw as his goal as director for the CIA, to which he [Casey] replied with this quote―[“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false!”], which I recorded in my notes of the meeting as he said it. Shortly thereafter I told Senior White House correspondent Sarah McClendon, who was a close friend and colleague, who in turn made it public.” (Barbara Honegger, Assistant to the Chief Domestic Policy Adviser to President Reagan).
► NEWS MEDIA: Before the advent of modern day media (radio, television, internet, etc.), lies would generally be limited to the areas in which they were concocted. Nowadays, one single lie can be communicated throughout the whole world in matter of seconds on the internet and other modern-means of communication. We now live in a atmosphere of so-called “fake news” ― a term rarely heard before, but now it heard everywhere. Most people “buy into the lie” of “fake news” which has achieved viral proportions in our day and age. The news media and the internet are looked upon and believed like the Gospel. The chief components of fake news are as follows:
● Misinformation: False or inaccurate information that is spread regardless of intent to mislead.
● Disinformation: False information deliberately created and spread to deceive, manipulate, or harm.
● Mal-information: True information used out of context to inflict harm.
● Clickbait: Sensationalized headlines designed to drive traffic and ad revenue, often at the expense of truth and accuracy.
► ADVERTIZING: Advertising encompasses an extremely broad range―for it is deemed indispensable for making known the existence of certain things for the purpose of selling them. Fake goods require fake advertising. It has become so crafty and clever at the way it presents things that most people naively and readily “buy the lie.” The chief types of false advertising are as follows:
● Misleading Descriptions: False claims regarding ingredients, quality, or “natural”/”organic” status.
● Deceptive Pricing: “Always on sale” items, fake “going out of business” sales, or hidden fees.
● Unsupported Claims: Making health or safety claims without scientific evidence.
● “Puffery” vs. Fact: While subjective exaggeration is generally legal, making false claims about measurable facts is not.
► FOOD: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration defines food fraud as “when someone intentionally leaves out, takes out, or substitutes a valuable ingredient or part of a food,” or “when someone adds a substance to a food to make it appear better or of greater value.” In other words, food fraud occurs when a product is not what it claims to be on the label or menu.
● Honey is one of the most commonly mislabeled foods. Cheaper honeys are increasingly passed off as more expensive varieties. Researchers found that 30% of commercial honey samples from around the world were thinned out with sweeteners like corn syrup, fructose, beet sugar, cane sugar, etc.
● Milk is one of the most commonly adulterated food items. Milk often has a nightmarish list of adulterants: melamine, non-authentic animal sources, formaldehyde, urea, hydrogen peroxide, machine oil, detergent, caustic soda, starch, non-potable water, cow tallow and pork lard.
● Coffee has been found to contain twigs, coffee husks, roasted corn, roasted barley, roasted soybeans, chicory powder, rye flour, potato flour, burned sugar, caramel, figs, roasted date seeds, glucose, maltodextrins, starch and roasted ground parchment.
● Meat can also be faked by using plant-based meat substitutes, often named in creative, descriptive, or pun-filled terms to highlight their texture or purpose. Popular types include seitan (wheat-based), tempeh (fermented soy), jackfruit (meaty texture), and textured vegetable protein (TVP). You can get fake chicken, fake bacon, fake burgers, fake meatballs, fake steak, etc.
● Olive oil marketed as “extra virgin” may actually be diluted with other vegetable oils or made with olives from which oil has already been extracted once. Several investigations have found vegetable oil mixtures containing sunflower, corn, palm, rapeseed, and even avocado oil masquerading as extra virgin or virgin olive oil. A common seafood swap is tilefish instead of red snapper. If you see anything labeled as white tuna―know that this fish doesn’t even exist.
● Fish is a major offender when it comes to faking it. Fish fraud is often a case of mislabeling, where retailers pass off cheap fish as valuable varieties. In 2018, researchers tested 449 samples of popular fish across the U.S. and found that 21% were mislabeled.
● Fruit juice is easy to fake and manufacturers sometimes adulterate orange juice with cheaper alternatives, including lemon, grapefruit, or mandarin juice. In more severe fraud cases, you might be getting a watered down cocktail of dyes and sugary flavorings. What you think is pure apple juice, for example, could contain questionable additives like high fructose corn syrup, raisin sweetener, fructose, and malic acid.
● Spices, especially in a powdered form, make it hard to tell the real deal from an anonymous mix of brown or red dust. Take ground black pepper, for example. Reports have detected all kinds of impurities like colored starch, papaya seeds, buckwheat, flour, twigs, and millet masquerading as black pepper.
► HOME DECOR: A lot of people use fake furnishing in order to appear rich. There are many fakes that pass for the real thing to the average person. Many faux products, such as high-density polyurethane faux beams or molded chairs, are nearly indistinguishable from the real thing to the average person, providing the same visual impact for a fraction of the cost. The range of fake furnishings is quite broad―fake leather upholstery; fake wooden floors and furniture; fake marble; fake stone; fake brick; replica dining chairs, bar stools, dining tables and home furniture; a huge selection of artificial plants, life-like trees and flowers. People like fake (or replica/faux) home furnishings primarily because they offer the aesthetic of high-end design at a significantly lower cost, allowing stylish, trend-driven interiors on a budget.
Being a Fake is Easy in a Fake World!
When you are surrounded by fakes and falsity, it is hard not to catch the disease! What Fr. Salvany―in his book Liberalism is a Sin―says of Liberalism, is also very true of falsity. He argues that it is hard to live in a Liberal atmosphere without taking on certain aspects of Liberalism Likewise, it is hard not to be fake and false when you are immersed in a fake and false atmosphere. Fr. Salvany writes:
“Physical science tells us that floating through the atmosphere are innumerable disease germs seeking a suitable nest or breeding place in which to settle and propagate and that we are constantly breathing these germs into the lungs. If the [immune] system be depleted or weakened, the dangerous microbe takes up its abode with us, and propagating its own kind with astonishing rapidity, undermines and ravages our health. The only safeguard against the encroachments of this insidious enemy, which we cannot escape, is a vigorous and healthy body with adequate powers of resistance to repel the invader.
“It is equally true that we are subject to like infectious attacks in the spiritual order. Swarming in the atmosphere of our spiritual lives are innumerable deadly germs, ever ready to fasten upon the depleted and weakened soul and, propagating its leprous contagion through every faculty, destroy the spiritual life. Against the menace of this ever-threatening danger, whose advances we cannot avoid in our present circumstances, the ever-healthy soul alone can be prepared. To escape the contagion, the power of resistance must be equal to the emergencies of the attack, and that power will be in proportion to our spiritual health. To be prepared is to be armed, but to be prepared is not sufficient; we must possess the interior strength to throw off the germ. There must be no condition in the soul to make a suitable nest or breeding place for an enemy so insidious and so efficacious as to need only the slightest point of contact whence to spread its deadly contagion.
“It is not only through the avenues of disordered passions that this spiritual disease may gain an entrance; it may make its inroad through the intellect, and this under a disguise often calculated to deceive the unwary and incautious. The Trojans admitted the enemy into their walls under the impression that they were actually securing a valuable acquisition to their safety, and today their fatal experience has come down to us in the proverb—“Beware of the Greeks when they bring gifts.” Intellectual torpidity, inexperience, ignorance, indifference, and complaisance, or even virtues, such as, benevolence, generosity, and pity may be the unsuspected way open to the foe, and lo, we are surprised to find him in possession of the citadel!
“That we may know our danger, we must appreciate the possible shapes in which it may come. Here is just the difficulty; the uniform of the enemy is so various, changeable, sometimes even of our own colors, that if we rely upon the outward semblance alone, we shall be more often deceived than certain of his identity. But before laying down any test by which we may distinguish friend from foe in a warfare so subtly fought within the precincts of our own souls, let us first reconnoiter the respective positions of either camp, and to do this best, we shall consider the origin and sources of the danger which surrounds us, for we may be asked: “Where is this foe described as so intangible as scarcely to be apprehended by ordinary mortals?” Or it may be urged: “Is the danger as proximate, as frequent and [as] fearful as you allege? Whence is it anyhow? Point it out! If we know from what direction the enemy comes, we may better appreciate the peril.”
“As we are addressing ourselves to those who live amidst the peculiar circumstances of our American life, and, as the spiritual and moral conditions, which obtain in this country, make up the moral and spiritual atmosphere in which we have our being, it is in the relation of our surroundings to ourselves, as well as of ourselves to our surroundings, that we shall find the answer to our question. Let us then consider these surroundings in a general way for the moment.
“First, as to some patent facts: The population of this country [USA] is at present something over 340 million [2025 estimates]. Of these, 70 million are Catholics, and according to their claim, 150 million are Protestants, leaving a population of 120 million or more who do not profess any form of Christianity at all [2025 estimates]. Amongst the 120 million Protestants, every shade and variety of belief … In this scale of heresy, the adjustments of creeds are loose and easy. Lack of any decisive authority renders any exact standard of belief impossible. A Protestant may freely range from one end of the scale to the other and still be considered orthodox according to Protestant estimates. A loose indefinite belief in Christ suffices to place the Protestant within the compass of his own standard of orthodoxy. Any specific expression of dogma, or of particular truths, bound up in the acceptance of Christianity, is not required.
“Outside of these various bodies of loosely professed Christians stands a still larger mass of our population who are either absolutely indifferent to Christianity as a creed or positively reject it. In practice, the distinction is of little importance whether they hold themselves merely indifferent, or are positively hostile. In other words, we have here to reckon with a body, to all practical purposes, that is infidel. This mass comprises over 35% of our population, holding itself aloof from Christianity, and in some instances virulently antagonistic to it.
[COMMENT: When you add together the Protestants with the non-believers, it produces a total in excess of 79% of the U.S. population, but is currently increased to an even more frightening percentage by the vast majority of Catholics today—2025—around 80% (or 56 million) of the 70 million Catholics, who do not regularly attend Sunday Mass, and many do not practice their Faith at all, or who are ignorant of its teachings (especially with regard to morality) or in practice simply disregard those teachings—bringing the total of practical non-believing and infidel people, including bad Catholics, to around 96%, if we can presume there to be today approximately 14 million believing, regularly practicing Catholics in the USA out of a population of 340 million (20250 stats)].
“It is natural that Protestantism and infidelity should find public expression. What the U.S. 270 million non-Catholic population thinks in these matters [2025 stats], naturally seeks and finds open expression. They have their organs and their literature where we find their current opinions publicly uttered. Their views upon religion, morality, politics, the constitution of society are perpetually marshaled before us. In the pulpit and in the press they are reiterated day after day. In magazine and newspaper they constantly speak from every line. Our literature is permeated and saturated with non-Catholic dogmatism. On all sides do we find this opposing spirit. We cannot escape from it. It enfolds and embraces us. Its breath is perpetually in our faces. It enters in by eye and ear. From birth to death, it enslaves us in its offensive garments. It now soothes and flatters, now hates and curses, now threatens, now praises. But it is most dangerous when it comes to us under the form of “liberality.” It is especially powerful for seduction in this guise. And it is under this aspect that we wish to consider it. For it is as Liberalism that Protestantism and Infidelity make their most devastating inroads upon the domain of the Faith. Out of these non-Catholic and anti-Catholic conditions thus predominating amongst us springs this monster of our times, Liberalism!” (Fr. Salvany, Liberalism is a Sin, Chapter 1).
Liberalism Breeds Falsehood and Error
“Liberalism is a world complete in itself―it has its maxims, its fashions, its art, its literature, its diplomacy, its laws, its conspiracies, its ambuscades. It is the world of Lucifer, disguised in our times under the name of Liberalism, in radical opposition and in perpetual warfare against the Church of Jesus Christ.” (Fr. Salvany, Liberalism is a Sin, Chapter 2). Protestantism is a child or fruit of Liberalism―it is a fake religion, a religion riddled with falsity and error.
“Protestantism naturally begets toleration of error. Rejecting the principle of authority in religion, it has neither criterion nor definition of Faith. On the principle that every individual or sect may interpret the deposit of Revelation according to the dictates of private judgment, it gives birth to endless differences and contradictions ... It finally arrive, by force of its own premises, at the conclusion that one creed is as good as another; it then seeks to shelter its inconsistency under the false plea of liberty of conscience. Belief is not imposed by a legitimately and divinely constituted authority, but springs directly and freely from the unrestricted exercise of the individual’s reason. The individual or sect interprets as it pleases—rejecting or accepting what it chooses. This is popularly called liberty of conscience. Religious beliefs or unbeliefs have come to be mere matters of opinion, wherein there are always essential differences, each one being free to make or unmake his own creed—or accept no creed. Such is the mainspring of the heresy constantly dinned into our ears, flooding our current literature and our press. The secular press reeks with it, proclaiming with almost unanimous vociferation, absolute division between public life and religion. It is against this that we have to be perpetually vigilant, the more so because it insidiously attacks us on the grounds of a false charity and in the name of a false liberty” (Fr. Salvany, Liberalism is a Sin, Chapter 2).
Liberalism Creates False Religions and False Devotion
Think what you want―say what you want―do what you want! That is the underlying current of Liberalism which claims for everyone freedom of speech and human rights! Yet freedom of speech does not mean freedom for error and lies! Nor do human rights give a right to sin and immorality. Liberalism traditionally views freedom of speech as a foundational right. In the United States, the First Amendment provides broad protection for speech, including hate speech―but exceptions exist for true threats, defamation, fraud, and incitement. “Hate speech” can be defined as speech that offends, threatens, or insults groups based on their race, religion, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Strangely, hate speech against God and the One True Faith is rarely criticized, punished and banned―but hate speech against Liberalism and the immorality it often fosters is criticized, punished and banned! In other words, pushed to the extreme of its false logic, you can hate what is godly and good, but you cannot hate what is bad and sinful! Holy Scripture has this to say on the matter: “Hate evil and love good!” (Amos 5:15) … “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20). Yet that is what Liberal Catholics―who are the vast majority of Catholics―do today! Their Liberal mentality allows them to judge for themselves what is good and bad; what is desirable and undesirable; and what they will observe and not observe.
“Pick-and-Choose” Catholics
Hence it is that these Liberal Catholics create their own personalized and preferred Catholic religion―accepting what they like and choose to accept; while rejecting what they do not like and refuse to accept. Statistics show the sad truth of this situation:
Among all U.S. Catholics
77% believe it is not necessary to attend Sunday Mass.
65% believe Divorce and Remarriage is acceptable.
53% believe Abortion is acceptable.
74% believe Artificial Birth Control is acceptable.
66% believe the Holy Eucharist is only symbolic and not really the Body and Blood of Christ.
23% go to Confession at least once a year, while 30% go less often, and 47% never go to confession.
80% no longer practice their Faith by regular Sunday Mass attendance.
96% do not pray the Rosary daily and only 22% say they pray it at least once a month.
Among U.S. Catholic Elementary School Teachers:
90% disagree with the Church’s condemnation of Birth Control.
74% disagree with the Church’s condemnation of Abortion.
73% disagree with the Church’s teaching on Papal Infallibility.
37% disagree with the Church teaching on the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
Yet they will all say that they are ‘good’ Catholics despite holding those erroneous and false beliefs! Of such persons Our Lord says: “Leave them alone! They are blind and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit” (Matthew 15:14). “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21). “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Partial Devotion of “Pick-and-Choose” Catholics
These “pick-and-choose” Catholics have a false idea of the Faith and thus the Faith is not practiced as it should be practiced. They only give themselves partially to God, not totally. Their devotion to God―though it may seem true in their own eyes―is a false devotion.
The word “devotion” comes from the Latin verb “devovere”, meaning to avow oneself to, or to give oneself entirely to a deity or cause of some kind. Thus devotion to Mary implicitly requires this total consecration of ourselves to her, and through her to God. The word consecration comes from the Latin verb “consecrare”, meaning to dedicate, to set apart, hallow, sanctify, vow to a god.
If we come to more modern times, and look up the word in the Dictionary, we will encounter such definitions as: (1) earnestness and zeal in the performance of religious duties and observations; (2) religious fervor, reverence, piety; (3) an act of prayer or supplication; (4) oblation or offering, such as of oneself or an alms given from religious motives; (5) ardent love or affection; (6) strong attachment; (7) dedication or attachment to a cause, person, principle, etc. (8) zeal, enthusiasm.
This gives us a clear picture of “devotion” being a cut-above the average, being something especially noticeable due to the presence of a zeal, a fervor, an enthusiasm, a strong attachment and ardent love for some object or thing, or some person, or some place. It rules out notions like lukewarmness, tepidity, torpor, sloth, indifference, inconsistency, sporadic, half-hearted, selfish, etc.
Love with Your WHOLE Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength
Devotion is perfectly expressed in the commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength” (Mark 12:30). That is true devotion in a nutshell—whole soul, whole heart, whole mind, whole strength. We even admit that on a natural level. We will say of an outstanding worker or an outstanding athlete, that they put their whole soul, heart, mind and strength into the work/race/game. Let us not try water it down and give a second-rate love or devotion! In this way, devotion is not hard to understand—it means: everything, all, total, nothing held back. It is something “outstanding”, something “out of the ordinary”, something “above the ordinary”, something “extraordinary.”
Yet, an outstanding worker or athlete, an extraordinary musician or artist, did not start out being something outstanding or extraordinary—they worked their way up to that level. The same applies to us in our pursuit of true spiritual devotion. Nobody is made that way, they have to acquire it—and everyone CAN acquire it, if they really wish and try.
Want to be a Fantastic Fanatic?
To those who love themselves, such an attitude will be denigrated as fanatical, ‘over-the-top’, extreme, or some other similar epithet. Yet this is exactly what God is! If God is perfection itself, then He is extreme—for perfection is something extremely good. We call people “fanatics” who blow themselves up, or burn themselves to death, for some earthly cause. The word “fanatic” can be traced back, first to a mid-16th century French adjective, “fanatique”, which in turn owes its origins to the Latin, “fanaticus”, meaning “of a temple, inspired by a god,” which itself is based on the Latin word “fanum”, meaning “temple.” The adjective originally described behavior or speech that might result from possession by a god or demon—behavior or speech that we describe as “fantastic.” St. Paul says that we ought to be temples of the Holy Ghost—hence temples possessed by God, hence fantastic and fanatical in a good sense. “Know you not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God; and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Sr. Lucia of Fatima echoes this: “The Most Holy Virgin has made me understand that we are in the last times of the world. She has told me that … starting with the present time, we belong either to God, or we belong to the demon; there is no middle ground.” (Sr. Lucia, in 1957 to Fr. Augustine Fuentes).
Making Mountains of Holiness Out Of Our Molehills of Holiness
► ST. FRANCIS DE SALES, the author of the spiritual classic, Introduction to the Devout Life, deals with the subject of devotion at quite some length. In fact, he opens the first chapter of the book with the question: “What is true Devotion?” Here are some extracts on what he says:
“Seeing that the small errors which people tend to commit in the beginning of any undertaking, tend to grow greater as they advance, and to become irreparable in the end, it is therefore most important that you should thoroughly understand wherein lies the grace of true devotion—because while there undoubtedly is such a true devotion, there are also many fake and look-alike imitations too; and unless you know which is real, you may mistake, and waste your energy in pursuing an empty, profitless shadow.
“We all color devotion according to our own likings and dispositions. One man sets great value on fasting, and believes himself to be leading a very devout life, so long as he fasts rigorously, although the while his heart is full of bitterness—and while he will not moisten his lips with wine, perhaps not even with water, in his great abstinence, he does not scruple to steep them in his neighbor’s blood, through slander and detraction. Another man reckons himself as devout because he repeats many prayers daily, although at the same time he does not refrain from all manner of angry, irritating, conceited or insulting speeches among his family and neighbors. This man freely opens his purse in almsgiving, but closes his heart to all gentle and forgiving feelings towards those who are opposed to him; while that one is ready enough to forgive his enemies, but will never pay his rightful debts except under pressure. Meanwhile all these people are conventionally called religious, but nevertheless they are in no true sense really devout.”
“But, in fact, all true and living devotion presupposes the love of God—and indeed it is neither more nor less than a very real love of God—but only when it attains its fullest perfection, in which it not only leads us to do well, but to act carefully, diligently, and promptly, then it is called devotion. Devotion consists in a high degree of real love―it not only makes us ready, active, and diligent in following all God’s Commands, but it also excites us to be ready and loving in performing as many good works as possible, even such as are not enjoined upon us, but are only matters of counsel or inspiration. The difference between love and devotion is just that which exists between fire and flame—love being a spiritual fire, which becomes devotion, when it is fanned into a flame—and what devotion adds to the fire of love, is that flame which makes it eager, energetic and diligent, not merely in obeying God’s Commandments, but in fulfilling His Divine Counsels and inspirations.” (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life).
As St. Francis de Sales says, there is only one true devotion, while there is a very large number of false and meaningless devotionss. So if you cannot recognize true devotion, you could be deceived and waste time in following some devotion that is irrelevant and irrational. It is in the devil’s interests to sell you a counterfeit devotion and thereby turn you aside from the true devotion. To achieve his satanic purpose, he seeks to blind you and keep you ignorance as to what devotion really is―so that you can be all the more easily fooled. In addition to that, the devil will make mountains out of the molehill of your false devotion―making you imagine that you are climbing in the heights of holiness! “The number of fools is infinite!” (Ecclesiastes 1:15).
Our Lady Speaks of Devotion
► OUR LADY said to the Venerable Mary of Agreda,: “I receive with maternal affection all those who, fervently and devoutly, desire to be my children and servants in the Lord. By the love which He has given me, I shall embrace them with open arms and shall be their Intercessor and Advocate … God, in His kindness, wishes to offer this opportune remedy to men, in order that all of them may seek help and eternal salvation through my intercession … . In the beatific vision, I pray without ceasing for the salvation of my clients … It should teach them to seek my most kind and powerful intercession and to fear the judgments of the Most High; for in this lies an efficacious means of salvation … One of the reasons why men should call me Mother of Mercy, is the knowledge of my loving desire, that all be filled with the flood of grace and taste the sweetness of the Lord. For, if they respond and follow me, I will offer them my protection and help, and I will intercede for them with my Son … If they obey me in this I offer them my protection, and I will constitute myself their Mother, to be their help and defense. And I will also promise them my continual and efficacious intercession with my most holy Son―if they do not displease me.
“For this purpose you should exhort them to a CONTINUAL LOVE AND DEVOTION TOWARD ME, engrafting it in their hearts! … Let therefore mortals beware, lest I, in the Day of Judgment, most justly refuse my intercession to those, who have foolishly despised and forgotten so many and so great favors and blessings! How can these ungrateful and pertinacious mortals expect mercy of the most just and righteous God, when He has given them sufficient and opportune time, invited them so often, called them, waited and worked for them, and conferred upon them immense blessings, while they abused and wasted all of them in the pursuit of vanity? Fear this, the greatest of all blindnesses.
“What then are my thoughts and the thoughts of the angels and saints, in seeing this world and all the faithful in such a dangerous and dreadful state of carelessness? I obtain countless blessings for Christians ― and if not all experience them, it is not because I do not solicit them, but because there are very few of the faithful who call to me WITH ALL THEIR HEART and who dispose themselves toward meriting and reaping the fruit of my maternal love … All those DEVOTED to me, who should call upon me at the hour of death, shall be under my special protection in that hour. They shall have me as a defense against the demons, as a help and protection, and shall be presented by me before the tribunal of His mercy and there experience my intercession … How much my intercession and the power I have in Heaven is worth has never been hidden in the Church, for I have demonstrated my ability to save all by so many thousands of miracles, prodigies and favors operated on behalf of those DEVOTED to me. With those who have called upon me in their needs I have always shown myself generous, and the Lord has shown Himself generous to them on my account. Yet, though many are the souls whom I have helped, they are few in comparison with those, whom I could help and am willing to help.” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
We are born liars and ever prone to lie. It is only the grace of God that can preserve in truth. Christ said: “I am the Truth” (John 14:6) and He said of Satan: “The devil, from the beginning, stood not in the truth―because truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own―for he is a liar, and the father of lies!” (John 8:44). Christ further stated that Satan is “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 16:11; 14:30) and there the world is a kingdom of lies. Hence Holy Scripture says: “God is true; and every man a liar!” (Romans 3:4). “In the last times some shall give heed to spirits of error and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy!” (1 Timothy 4:2).
Fake (artificial or imitation) materials, elements and items are commonly used in a wide variety of areas―ranging from the spiritual realm to the material and physical realms; the human mind and the human body, to politics and the news media, to advertising, to food items, to jewelry, to home decor, crafting, and remodeling to mimic expensive or fragile materials. Below is an example of just a few of those fake items:
► HUMAN MIND: Subjective beliefs are what we prefer and would like to believe, regardless of whether or not it is objectively true. We will readily embellish, exaggerate, twist, modify, doctor or hide the truth when it comes to our personal advantage, or to the disadvantage of our enemies, or to avoid blame and punishment, etc. We are quick to make mountains out of molehills when it comes to the faults, failings and sins of others―and equally quick in making molehills out of the mountains of our own personal faults, failings and sins. Most people fall into what is called “Confirmation Bias” ― which is actively seeking out information that supports your view, such as only reading news sources that align with your personal beliefs. Confirmation bias is the psychological tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information that confirms one’s pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses; remembering and quoting information that supports your viewpoint while forgetting or ignoring evidence that refutes it.
► HUMAN BODY: False teeth; false eyelashes; false fingernails; cosmetics; false hair (wigs); false beards; false breasts (implants); false limbs, etc. Over 40 million Americans wear dentures (complete or partial fake teeth). Approximately 37% of women globally prefer using false eyelashes to enhance their eye appearance. An estimated 30% of US women who get manicures regularly use acrylic nails. Approximately 52% to 74% of U.S. adult women wear makeup at least occasionally, though daily usage has declined by 20% since 2019, with many shifting to occasional use. Roughly one-third (29%-38%) of women wear makeup daily or weekly. Over 50% of women in America regularly wear wigs or extensions. More than 2 million women in North America try wigs for the first time annually, with the 35–55 age group being the largest. Around 5% of men experiencing baldness or thinning use a wig. An estimated 3.5 million to 5 million+ women in the United States have breast implants, with over 300,000 to 365,000 new procedures performed annually. People still wear corsets, as shown by a resurgence of corsets a fashion staple for daily wear, street fashion, and special occasions.
► POLITICS: Journalists and politicians have become ensnared in a symbiotic web of lies that misleads the public. The news media and the government are entwined in a vicious circle of mutual manipulation, mythmaking, and self-interest. Journalists need crises to dramatize news, and government officials need to appear to be responding to crises. Too often, the crises are not really crises but joint fabrications. The two institutions have become so ensnared in a symbiotic web of lies that the news media are unable to tell the public what is true and the government is unable to govern effectively. That is the thesis advanced by Paul H. Weaver, a former political scientist at Harvard University. Spin, obfuscation, eliding context, or even lying by omission––these are normal acts of dishonesty expected from political spokespeople. It is the job of press secretaries to put a gloss on the facts that makes their boss look good. In administrations run by both parties, this has sometimes turned into outright lying or dishonesty. Elections and politics have always involved disinformation and manipulation.
CIA DIRECTOR WILLIAM CASEY (1913–1987) was an American lawyer, veteran U.S. spy and undercover operator whom President Ronald Reagan named to be his CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) Director. William Casey ran the CIA and as the Director of Central Intelligence from 1981 to 1987. In this capacity he oversaw the entire United States Intelligence Community. It is reported that that William Casey, while CIA Director, said to President Reagan during a Presidential Briefing in 1981: “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”
BARBARA HONEGGER―Assistant to the Chief Domestic Policy Adviser to President Reagan― said: “I am the source for this quote, which was indeed said by CIA Director, William Casey, at an early February 1981 meeting of the newly elected President Reagan with his new cabinet secretaries, to report to him on what they had learned about their agencies in the first couple of weeks of the administration. The meeting was in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House, not far from the Cabinet Room. I was present at the meeting as Assistant to the chief domestic policy adviser to the President. Casey first told Reagan that he had been astonished to discover that over 80% of the ‘intelligence’― that the analysis side of the CIA produced ― was based on open public sources like newspapers and magazines. As he did to all the other secretaries of their departments and agencies, Reagan asked [Casey] what he saw as his goal as director for the CIA, to which he [Casey] replied with this quote―[“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false!”], which I recorded in my notes of the meeting as he said it. Shortly thereafter I told Senior White House correspondent Sarah McClendon, who was a close friend and colleague, who in turn made it public.” (Barbara Honegger, Assistant to the Chief Domestic Policy Adviser to President Reagan).
► NEWS MEDIA: Before the advent of modern day media (radio, television, internet, etc.), lies would generally be limited to the areas in which they were concocted. Nowadays, one single lie can be communicated throughout the whole world in matter of seconds on the internet and other modern-means of communication. We now live in a atmosphere of so-called “fake news” ― a term rarely heard before, but now it heard everywhere. Most people “buy into the lie” of “fake news” which has achieved viral proportions in our day and age. The news media and the internet are looked upon and believed like the Gospel. The chief components of fake news are as follows:
● Misinformation: False or inaccurate information that is spread regardless of intent to mislead.
● Disinformation: False information deliberately created and spread to deceive, manipulate, or harm.
● Mal-information: True information used out of context to inflict harm.
● Clickbait: Sensationalized headlines designed to drive traffic and ad revenue, often at the expense of truth and accuracy.
► ADVERTIZING: Advertising encompasses an extremely broad range―for it is deemed indispensable for making known the existence of certain things for the purpose of selling them. Fake goods require fake advertising. It has become so crafty and clever at the way it presents things that most people naively and readily “buy the lie.” The chief types of false advertising are as follows:
● Misleading Descriptions: False claims regarding ingredients, quality, or “natural”/”organic” status.
● Deceptive Pricing: “Always on sale” items, fake “going out of business” sales, or hidden fees.
● Unsupported Claims: Making health or safety claims without scientific evidence.
● “Puffery” vs. Fact: While subjective exaggeration is generally legal, making false claims about measurable facts is not.
► FOOD: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration defines food fraud as “when someone intentionally leaves out, takes out, or substitutes a valuable ingredient or part of a food,” or “when someone adds a substance to a food to make it appear better or of greater value.” In other words, food fraud occurs when a product is not what it claims to be on the label or menu.
● Honey is one of the most commonly mislabeled foods. Cheaper honeys are increasingly passed off as more expensive varieties. Researchers found that 30% of commercial honey samples from around the world were thinned out with sweeteners like corn syrup, fructose, beet sugar, cane sugar, etc.
● Milk is one of the most commonly adulterated food items. Milk often has a nightmarish list of adulterants: melamine, non-authentic animal sources, formaldehyde, urea, hydrogen peroxide, machine oil, detergent, caustic soda, starch, non-potable water, cow tallow and pork lard.
● Coffee has been found to contain twigs, coffee husks, roasted corn, roasted barley, roasted soybeans, chicory powder, rye flour, potato flour, burned sugar, caramel, figs, roasted date seeds, glucose, maltodextrins, starch and roasted ground parchment.
● Meat can also be faked by using plant-based meat substitutes, often named in creative, descriptive, or pun-filled terms to highlight their texture or purpose. Popular types include seitan (wheat-based), tempeh (fermented soy), jackfruit (meaty texture), and textured vegetable protein (TVP). You can get fake chicken, fake bacon, fake burgers, fake meatballs, fake steak, etc.
● Olive oil marketed as “extra virgin” may actually be diluted with other vegetable oils or made with olives from which oil has already been extracted once. Several investigations have found vegetable oil mixtures containing sunflower, corn, palm, rapeseed, and even avocado oil masquerading as extra virgin or virgin olive oil. A common seafood swap is tilefish instead of red snapper. If you see anything labeled as white tuna―know that this fish doesn’t even exist.
● Fish is a major offender when it comes to faking it. Fish fraud is often a case of mislabeling, where retailers pass off cheap fish as valuable varieties. In 2018, researchers tested 449 samples of popular fish across the U.S. and found that 21% were mislabeled.
● Fruit juice is easy to fake and manufacturers sometimes adulterate orange juice with cheaper alternatives, including lemon, grapefruit, or mandarin juice. In more severe fraud cases, you might be getting a watered down cocktail of dyes and sugary flavorings. What you think is pure apple juice, for example, could contain questionable additives like high fructose corn syrup, raisin sweetener, fructose, and malic acid.
● Spices, especially in a powdered form, make it hard to tell the real deal from an anonymous mix of brown or red dust. Take ground black pepper, for example. Reports have detected all kinds of impurities like colored starch, papaya seeds, buckwheat, flour, twigs, and millet masquerading as black pepper.
► HOME DECOR: A lot of people use fake furnishing in order to appear rich. There are many fakes that pass for the real thing to the average person. Many faux products, such as high-density polyurethane faux beams or molded chairs, are nearly indistinguishable from the real thing to the average person, providing the same visual impact for a fraction of the cost. The range of fake furnishings is quite broad―fake leather upholstery; fake wooden floors and furniture; fake marble; fake stone; fake brick; replica dining chairs, bar stools, dining tables and home furniture; a huge selection of artificial plants, life-like trees and flowers. People like fake (or replica/faux) home furnishings primarily because they offer the aesthetic of high-end design at a significantly lower cost, allowing stylish, trend-driven interiors on a budget.
Being a Fake is Easy in a Fake World!
When you are surrounded by fakes and falsity, it is hard not to catch the disease! What Fr. Salvany―in his book Liberalism is a Sin―says of Liberalism, is also very true of falsity. He argues that it is hard to live in a Liberal atmosphere without taking on certain aspects of Liberalism Likewise, it is hard not to be fake and false when you are immersed in a fake and false atmosphere. Fr. Salvany writes:
“Physical science tells us that floating through the atmosphere are innumerable disease germs seeking a suitable nest or breeding place in which to settle and propagate and that we are constantly breathing these germs into the lungs. If the [immune] system be depleted or weakened, the dangerous microbe takes up its abode with us, and propagating its own kind with astonishing rapidity, undermines and ravages our health. The only safeguard against the encroachments of this insidious enemy, which we cannot escape, is a vigorous and healthy body with adequate powers of resistance to repel the invader.
“It is equally true that we are subject to like infectious attacks in the spiritual order. Swarming in the atmosphere of our spiritual lives are innumerable deadly germs, ever ready to fasten upon the depleted and weakened soul and, propagating its leprous contagion through every faculty, destroy the spiritual life. Against the menace of this ever-threatening danger, whose advances we cannot avoid in our present circumstances, the ever-healthy soul alone can be prepared. To escape the contagion, the power of resistance must be equal to the emergencies of the attack, and that power will be in proportion to our spiritual health. To be prepared is to be armed, but to be prepared is not sufficient; we must possess the interior strength to throw off the germ. There must be no condition in the soul to make a suitable nest or breeding place for an enemy so insidious and so efficacious as to need only the slightest point of contact whence to spread its deadly contagion.
“It is not only through the avenues of disordered passions that this spiritual disease may gain an entrance; it may make its inroad through the intellect, and this under a disguise often calculated to deceive the unwary and incautious. The Trojans admitted the enemy into their walls under the impression that they were actually securing a valuable acquisition to their safety, and today their fatal experience has come down to us in the proverb—“Beware of the Greeks when they bring gifts.” Intellectual torpidity, inexperience, ignorance, indifference, and complaisance, or even virtues, such as, benevolence, generosity, and pity may be the unsuspected way open to the foe, and lo, we are surprised to find him in possession of the citadel!
“That we may know our danger, we must appreciate the possible shapes in which it may come. Here is just the difficulty; the uniform of the enemy is so various, changeable, sometimes even of our own colors, that if we rely upon the outward semblance alone, we shall be more often deceived than certain of his identity. But before laying down any test by which we may distinguish friend from foe in a warfare so subtly fought within the precincts of our own souls, let us first reconnoiter the respective positions of either camp, and to do this best, we shall consider the origin and sources of the danger which surrounds us, for we may be asked: “Where is this foe described as so intangible as scarcely to be apprehended by ordinary mortals?” Or it may be urged: “Is the danger as proximate, as frequent and [as] fearful as you allege? Whence is it anyhow? Point it out! If we know from what direction the enemy comes, we may better appreciate the peril.”
“As we are addressing ourselves to those who live amidst the peculiar circumstances of our American life, and, as the spiritual and moral conditions, which obtain in this country, make up the moral and spiritual atmosphere in which we have our being, it is in the relation of our surroundings to ourselves, as well as of ourselves to our surroundings, that we shall find the answer to our question. Let us then consider these surroundings in a general way for the moment.
“First, as to some patent facts: The population of this country [USA] is at present something over 340 million [2025 estimates]. Of these, 70 million are Catholics, and according to their claim, 150 million are Protestants, leaving a population of 120 million or more who do not profess any form of Christianity at all [2025 estimates]. Amongst the 120 million Protestants, every shade and variety of belief … In this scale of heresy, the adjustments of creeds are loose and easy. Lack of any decisive authority renders any exact standard of belief impossible. A Protestant may freely range from one end of the scale to the other and still be considered orthodox according to Protestant estimates. A loose indefinite belief in Christ suffices to place the Protestant within the compass of his own standard of orthodoxy. Any specific expression of dogma, or of particular truths, bound up in the acceptance of Christianity, is not required.
“Outside of these various bodies of loosely professed Christians stands a still larger mass of our population who are either absolutely indifferent to Christianity as a creed or positively reject it. In practice, the distinction is of little importance whether they hold themselves merely indifferent, or are positively hostile. In other words, we have here to reckon with a body, to all practical purposes, that is infidel. This mass comprises over 35% of our population, holding itself aloof from Christianity, and in some instances virulently antagonistic to it.
[COMMENT: When you add together the Protestants with the non-believers, it produces a total in excess of 79% of the U.S. population, but is currently increased to an even more frightening percentage by the vast majority of Catholics today—2025—around 80% (or 56 million) of the 70 million Catholics, who do not regularly attend Sunday Mass, and many do not practice their Faith at all, or who are ignorant of its teachings (especially with regard to morality) or in practice simply disregard those teachings—bringing the total of practical non-believing and infidel people, including bad Catholics, to around 96%, if we can presume there to be today approximately 14 million believing, regularly practicing Catholics in the USA out of a population of 340 million (20250 stats)].
“It is natural that Protestantism and infidelity should find public expression. What the U.S. 270 million non-Catholic population thinks in these matters [2025 stats], naturally seeks and finds open expression. They have their organs and their literature where we find their current opinions publicly uttered. Their views upon religion, morality, politics, the constitution of society are perpetually marshaled before us. In the pulpit and in the press they are reiterated day after day. In magazine and newspaper they constantly speak from every line. Our literature is permeated and saturated with non-Catholic dogmatism. On all sides do we find this opposing spirit. We cannot escape from it. It enfolds and embraces us. Its breath is perpetually in our faces. It enters in by eye and ear. From birth to death, it enslaves us in its offensive garments. It now soothes and flatters, now hates and curses, now threatens, now praises. But it is most dangerous when it comes to us under the form of “liberality.” It is especially powerful for seduction in this guise. And it is under this aspect that we wish to consider it. For it is as Liberalism that Protestantism and Infidelity make their most devastating inroads upon the domain of the Faith. Out of these non-Catholic and anti-Catholic conditions thus predominating amongst us springs this monster of our times, Liberalism!” (Fr. Salvany, Liberalism is a Sin, Chapter 1).
Liberalism Breeds Falsehood and Error
“Liberalism is a world complete in itself―it has its maxims, its fashions, its art, its literature, its diplomacy, its laws, its conspiracies, its ambuscades. It is the world of Lucifer, disguised in our times under the name of Liberalism, in radical opposition and in perpetual warfare against the Church of Jesus Christ.” (Fr. Salvany, Liberalism is a Sin, Chapter 2). Protestantism is a child or fruit of Liberalism―it is a fake religion, a religion riddled with falsity and error.
“Protestantism naturally begets toleration of error. Rejecting the principle of authority in religion, it has neither criterion nor definition of Faith. On the principle that every individual or sect may interpret the deposit of Revelation according to the dictates of private judgment, it gives birth to endless differences and contradictions ... It finally arrive, by force of its own premises, at the conclusion that one creed is as good as another; it then seeks to shelter its inconsistency under the false plea of liberty of conscience. Belief is not imposed by a legitimately and divinely constituted authority, but springs directly and freely from the unrestricted exercise of the individual’s reason. The individual or sect interprets as it pleases—rejecting or accepting what it chooses. This is popularly called liberty of conscience. Religious beliefs or unbeliefs have come to be mere matters of opinion, wherein there are always essential differences, each one being free to make or unmake his own creed—or accept no creed. Such is the mainspring of the heresy constantly dinned into our ears, flooding our current literature and our press. The secular press reeks with it, proclaiming with almost unanimous vociferation, absolute division between public life and religion. It is against this that we have to be perpetually vigilant, the more so because it insidiously attacks us on the grounds of a false charity and in the name of a false liberty” (Fr. Salvany, Liberalism is a Sin, Chapter 2).
Liberalism Creates False Religions and False Devotion
Think what you want―say what you want―do what you want! That is the underlying current of Liberalism which claims for everyone freedom of speech and human rights! Yet freedom of speech does not mean freedom for error and lies! Nor do human rights give a right to sin and immorality. Liberalism traditionally views freedom of speech as a foundational right. In the United States, the First Amendment provides broad protection for speech, including hate speech―but exceptions exist for true threats, defamation, fraud, and incitement. “Hate speech” can be defined as speech that offends, threatens, or insults groups based on their race, religion, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Strangely, hate speech against God and the One True Faith is rarely criticized, punished and banned―but hate speech against Liberalism and the immorality it often fosters is criticized, punished and banned! In other words, pushed to the extreme of its false logic, you can hate what is godly and good, but you cannot hate what is bad and sinful! Holy Scripture has this to say on the matter: “Hate evil and love good!” (Amos 5:15) … “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20). Yet that is what Liberal Catholics―who are the vast majority of Catholics―do today! Their Liberal mentality allows them to judge for themselves what is good and bad; what is desirable and undesirable; and what they will observe and not observe.
“Pick-and-Choose” Catholics
Hence it is that these Liberal Catholics create their own personalized and preferred Catholic religion―accepting what they like and choose to accept; while rejecting what they do not like and refuse to accept. Statistics show the sad truth of this situation:
Among all U.S. Catholics
77% believe it is not necessary to attend Sunday Mass.
65% believe Divorce and Remarriage is acceptable.
53% believe Abortion is acceptable.
74% believe Artificial Birth Control is acceptable.
66% believe the Holy Eucharist is only symbolic and not really the Body and Blood of Christ.
23% go to Confession at least once a year, while 30% go less often, and 47% never go to confession.
80% no longer practice their Faith by regular Sunday Mass attendance.
96% do not pray the Rosary daily and only 22% say they pray it at least once a month.
Among U.S. Catholic Elementary School Teachers:
90% disagree with the Church’s condemnation of Birth Control.
74% disagree with the Church’s condemnation of Abortion.
73% disagree with the Church’s teaching on Papal Infallibility.
37% disagree with the Church teaching on the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
Yet they will all say that they are ‘good’ Catholics despite holding those erroneous and false beliefs! Of such persons Our Lord says: “Leave them alone! They are blind and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit” (Matthew 15:14). “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21). “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Partial Devotion of “Pick-and-Choose” Catholics
These “pick-and-choose” Catholics have a false idea of the Faith and thus the Faith is not practiced as it should be practiced. They only give themselves partially to God, not totally. Their devotion to God―though it may seem true in their own eyes―is a false devotion.
The word “devotion” comes from the Latin verb “devovere”, meaning to avow oneself to, or to give oneself entirely to a deity or cause of some kind. Thus devotion to Mary implicitly requires this total consecration of ourselves to her, and through her to God. The word consecration comes from the Latin verb “consecrare”, meaning to dedicate, to set apart, hallow, sanctify, vow to a god.
If we come to more modern times, and look up the word in the Dictionary, we will encounter such definitions as: (1) earnestness and zeal in the performance of religious duties and observations; (2) religious fervor, reverence, piety; (3) an act of prayer or supplication; (4) oblation or offering, such as of oneself or an alms given from religious motives; (5) ardent love or affection; (6) strong attachment; (7) dedication or attachment to a cause, person, principle, etc. (8) zeal, enthusiasm.
This gives us a clear picture of “devotion” being a cut-above the average, being something especially noticeable due to the presence of a zeal, a fervor, an enthusiasm, a strong attachment and ardent love for some object or thing, or some person, or some place. It rules out notions like lukewarmness, tepidity, torpor, sloth, indifference, inconsistency, sporadic, half-hearted, selfish, etc.
Love with Your WHOLE Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength
Devotion is perfectly expressed in the commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength” (Mark 12:30). That is true devotion in a nutshell—whole soul, whole heart, whole mind, whole strength. We even admit that on a natural level. We will say of an outstanding worker or an outstanding athlete, that they put their whole soul, heart, mind and strength into the work/race/game. Let us not try water it down and give a second-rate love or devotion! In this way, devotion is not hard to understand—it means: everything, all, total, nothing held back. It is something “outstanding”, something “out of the ordinary”, something “above the ordinary”, something “extraordinary.”
Yet, an outstanding worker or athlete, an extraordinary musician or artist, did not start out being something outstanding or extraordinary—they worked their way up to that level. The same applies to us in our pursuit of true spiritual devotion. Nobody is made that way, they have to acquire it—and everyone CAN acquire it, if they really wish and try.
Want to be a Fantastic Fanatic?
To those who love themselves, such an attitude will be denigrated as fanatical, ‘over-the-top’, extreme, or some other similar epithet. Yet this is exactly what God is! If God is perfection itself, then He is extreme—for perfection is something extremely good. We call people “fanatics” who blow themselves up, or burn themselves to death, for some earthly cause. The word “fanatic” can be traced back, first to a mid-16th century French adjective, “fanatique”, which in turn owes its origins to the Latin, “fanaticus”, meaning “of a temple, inspired by a god,” which itself is based on the Latin word “fanum”, meaning “temple.” The adjective originally described behavior or speech that might result from possession by a god or demon—behavior or speech that we describe as “fantastic.” St. Paul says that we ought to be temples of the Holy Ghost—hence temples possessed by God, hence fantastic and fanatical in a good sense. “Know you not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God; and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Sr. Lucia of Fatima echoes this: “The Most Holy Virgin has made me understand that we are in the last times of the world. She has told me that … starting with the present time, we belong either to God, or we belong to the demon; there is no middle ground.” (Sr. Lucia, in 1957 to Fr. Augustine Fuentes).
Making Mountains of Holiness Out Of Our Molehills of Holiness
► ST. FRANCIS DE SALES, the author of the spiritual classic, Introduction to the Devout Life, deals with the subject of devotion at quite some length. In fact, he opens the first chapter of the book with the question: “What is true Devotion?” Here are some extracts on what he says:
“Seeing that the small errors which people tend to commit in the beginning of any undertaking, tend to grow greater as they advance, and to become irreparable in the end, it is therefore most important that you should thoroughly understand wherein lies the grace of true devotion—because while there undoubtedly is such a true devotion, there are also many fake and look-alike imitations too; and unless you know which is real, you may mistake, and waste your energy in pursuing an empty, profitless shadow.
“We all color devotion according to our own likings and dispositions. One man sets great value on fasting, and believes himself to be leading a very devout life, so long as he fasts rigorously, although the while his heart is full of bitterness—and while he will not moisten his lips with wine, perhaps not even with water, in his great abstinence, he does not scruple to steep them in his neighbor’s blood, through slander and detraction. Another man reckons himself as devout because he repeats many prayers daily, although at the same time he does not refrain from all manner of angry, irritating, conceited or insulting speeches among his family and neighbors. This man freely opens his purse in almsgiving, but closes his heart to all gentle and forgiving feelings towards those who are opposed to him; while that one is ready enough to forgive his enemies, but will never pay his rightful debts except under pressure. Meanwhile all these people are conventionally called religious, but nevertheless they are in no true sense really devout.”
“But, in fact, all true and living devotion presupposes the love of God—and indeed it is neither more nor less than a very real love of God—but only when it attains its fullest perfection, in which it not only leads us to do well, but to act carefully, diligently, and promptly, then it is called devotion. Devotion consists in a high degree of real love―it not only makes us ready, active, and diligent in following all God’s Commands, but it also excites us to be ready and loving in performing as many good works as possible, even such as are not enjoined upon us, but are only matters of counsel or inspiration. The difference between love and devotion is just that which exists between fire and flame—love being a spiritual fire, which becomes devotion, when it is fanned into a flame—and what devotion adds to the fire of love, is that flame which makes it eager, energetic and diligent, not merely in obeying God’s Commandments, but in fulfilling His Divine Counsels and inspirations.” (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life).
As St. Francis de Sales says, there is only one true devotion, while there is a very large number of false and meaningless devotionss. So if you cannot recognize true devotion, you could be deceived and waste time in following some devotion that is irrelevant and irrational. It is in the devil’s interests to sell you a counterfeit devotion and thereby turn you aside from the true devotion. To achieve his satanic purpose, he seeks to blind you and keep you ignorance as to what devotion really is―so that you can be all the more easily fooled. In addition to that, the devil will make mountains out of the molehill of your false devotion―making you imagine that you are climbing in the heights of holiness! “The number of fools is infinite!” (Ecclesiastes 1:15).
Our Lady Speaks of Devotion
► OUR LADY said to the Venerable Mary of Agreda,: “I receive with maternal affection all those who, fervently and devoutly, desire to be my children and servants in the Lord. By the love which He has given me, I shall embrace them with open arms and shall be their Intercessor and Advocate … God, in His kindness, wishes to offer this opportune remedy to men, in order that all of them may seek help and eternal salvation through my intercession … . In the beatific vision, I pray without ceasing for the salvation of my clients … It should teach them to seek my most kind and powerful intercession and to fear the judgments of the Most High; for in this lies an efficacious means of salvation … One of the reasons why men should call me Mother of Mercy, is the knowledge of my loving desire, that all be filled with the flood of grace and taste the sweetness of the Lord. For, if they respond and follow me, I will offer them my protection and help, and I will intercede for them with my Son … If they obey me in this I offer them my protection, and I will constitute myself their Mother, to be their help and defense. And I will also promise them my continual and efficacious intercession with my most holy Son―if they do not displease me.
“For this purpose you should exhort them to a CONTINUAL LOVE AND DEVOTION TOWARD ME, engrafting it in their hearts! … Let therefore mortals beware, lest I, in the Day of Judgment, most justly refuse my intercession to those, who have foolishly despised and forgotten so many and so great favors and blessings! How can these ungrateful and pertinacious mortals expect mercy of the most just and righteous God, when He has given them sufficient and opportune time, invited them so often, called them, waited and worked for them, and conferred upon them immense blessings, while they abused and wasted all of them in the pursuit of vanity? Fear this, the greatest of all blindnesses.
“What then are my thoughts and the thoughts of the angels and saints, in seeing this world and all the faithful in such a dangerous and dreadful state of carelessness? I obtain countless blessings for Christians ― and if not all experience them, it is not because I do not solicit them, but because there are very few of the faithful who call to me WITH ALL THEIR HEART and who dispose themselves toward meriting and reaping the fruit of my maternal love … All those DEVOTED to me, who should call upon me at the hour of death, shall be under my special protection in that hour. They shall have me as a defense against the demons, as a help and protection, and shall be presented by me before the tribunal of His mercy and there experience my intercession … How much my intercession and the power I have in Heaven is worth has never been hidden in the Church, for I have demonstrated my ability to save all by so many thousands of miracles, prodigies and favors operated on behalf of those DEVOTED to me. With those who have called upon me in their needs I have always shown myself generous, and the Lord has shown Himself generous to them on my account. Yet, though many are the souls whom I have helped, they are few in comparison with those, whom I could help and am willing to help.” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
Article 11
Wednesday & Thursday, April 29th & 30th
Turn to Mary While You Still Have Time!
Wednesday & Thursday, April 29th & 30th
Turn to Mary While You Still Have Time!
The Time Draws Ever Nearer!
Do you have time to read about time? Time is not forever! Time is short! Will you run out of time? Holy Scripture is full of timely warnings. Here are just a few:
“Remember your Creator before the time of affliction comes!” (Ecclesiastes 12:1) ... “Observe the time!” (Ecclesiasticus 4:23) … “The time is short!” (1 Corinthians 7:29) … “Lose no time!” (Judges 18:9) … “For time has its end!” (Daniel 8:19) … “Time shall be no longer!” (Apocalypse 10:6) … “The time is at hand!” (Apocalypse (1:3). “Take ye heed, watch and pray. For ye know not when the time is!” (Mark 13:33) … “Work your work before the time, and He will give you your reward in His time!” (Ecclesiasticus 51:38) …. “Time passes like a shadow! … Be not foolish nor wicked―lest you die before your time!” (Ecclesiastes 7:1; 7:18) … “Therefore, while we have time, let us do good to all men!” (Galatians 6:10). “Behold, now is the acceptable time! Behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2). “It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we came to believe! The night is far advanced; the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light! Let us walk becomingly as in the day―not in partying and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy―but put on the Lord Jesus Christ” and turn to His Holy Mother! (Romans 13:11-14).
“There shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears!” (2 Timothy 4:3) … “Redeem the time, because the days are evil!” (Ephesians 5:16) … “I gave her a time that she might do penance, and she will not repent of her fornication!” (Apocalypse 2:21). “God has given him time for penance, and he abuses it in his pride!” (Job 24:23), with Christ adding: “Take heed, watch and pray! For you know not when the time is!” (Mark 13:33) … “Be ready―because at what hour you know not the Son of man will come!” (Matthew 24:44) … “When they shall say: ‘Peace and security!’ then shall sudden destruction come upon them!” (1 Thessalonians 5:3) …“Their day is coming, the time of their visitation!” (Jeremias 50:27) ... “The time is come, the day is at hand! For wrath is upon all the people!” (Ezechiel 7:12) … “The time of correction” (Hebrews 9:10) ... “The time is accomplished, and the Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent and believe the Gospel!” (Mark 1:15) … “The lord of that servant will come in the day that he hopes not, and at the hour that he knows not, and shall separate him and shall appoint him his portion with unbelievers!” (Luke 12:46).
Revolution Against the Solution
Our Lady, in modern times, has echoed the above warning many times―but to little or no avail. She has told us that devotion to her is the solution that God has appointed for the ills of our time and age. Yet we, for the most part, remain deaf to her words. Here are just a few of her warnings:
“Jesus wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world … You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved! … I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day!” (Fatima, October 1917). “Continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you! … In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!” (Our Lady of Fatima).
“In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. With my Son I have intervened so many times to appease the wrath of the Father. I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering Him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross and His Precious Blood … The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son … I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved” (Our Lady of Akita).
Our Lady said to Blessed Elena Aiello: “My Heart is sad for so many sufferings in an impending world in ruin ... I, for a long time, have advised men in many ways, but they do not listen to my maternal appeals, and they continue to walk the paths of perdition ... I am bending over the world, holding in suspension the justice of God … Men, in spite of repeated warnings, are not returning to God. They refuse grace, and are not listening to my voice ... The justice of our Father is most offended. Men live in their obstinacy of sin. The wrath of God is near. Soon the world will be afflicted with great calamities, bloody revolutions, frightful hurricanes, and the overflowing of rivers and the seas … If men do not amend their ways, a terrifying scourge of fire will come down from Heaven upon all the nations of the world, and men will be punished according to the debts contracted with Divine justice. There will be frightful moments for all, because Heaven will be joined with the Earth, and all the un-Godly people will be destroyed, some nations will be purified, while others will disappear entirely ... All nations will be punished, because sin has spread all over the world! … You are to transmit these warnings to all, in order that the new generation will know that men had been warned in time to turn to God by doing penance, and thus could have avoided these punishments … Propagate the devotions to my Immaculate Heart … Launch at once a message into the world, to advise men to return to God by prayers and penances, and to come with confidence to my Immaculate Heart. My intercession must be shown, because I am the Mother of God, of the just, and of sinners. In order to save souls, I wish that there be propagated in the world the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary … Through prayer and penance, my mercy will be able to hold back the hand of God’s justice … Spread the devotion to my Immaculate Heart, in order that many souls maybe conquered by my love and that many sinners may return to my Maternal Heart. Do not fear, for I will accompany with my maternal protection my faithful ones, and all those who accept my urgent warnings, and they — especially by the recitations of my Rosary — will be saved!” (Our Lady to Blessed Elena Aiello).
“From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, there will be many who will not believe … Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects ... During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … Many will turn against Religion … Many people will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil … The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation, and those who should speak out will be silent … Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of making it easy for everyone to live in sin … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals ... There will be occasions when all will seem to be lost and paralyzed … This night will be most horrible, for, humanly speaking, evil will seem to triumph. This, however, will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet and fettering him in the infernal abyss.” (Our Lady of Good Success).
“If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you! …The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish ... Woe to the Princes of the Church who will think only of piling riches upon riches, of protecting their authority and dominating with pride. The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity … There is no one left worthy of offering a spotless Sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world. God will strike in an unprecedented way … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God … God will take care of His faithful servants and men of good will … those who have given themselves to me, so that I may lead them to my divine Son, those who have lived on my spirit … I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days” (Our Lady of La Salette).
Our Lady in Not an Option―She is a Necessity!
Our Lady’s role in matters of salvation is not something that has been decided by her―her role has been decided by God Himself. ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT clearly states this incontestable truth: I avow, with all the Church, that Mary, being a mere creature that has come from the hands of the Most High, is in comparison with His Infinite Majesty less than an atom; or rather, she is nothing at all, because only He is “He who is” (Exodus 3:14); consequently, that grand Lord, always independent and sufficient to Himself, never had, and has not now, any absolute need of the holy Virgin for the accomplishment of His will and for the manifestation of His glory. He has but to will in order to do everything. Nevertheless, I say that, things being as they are now—that is, God having willed to commence and to complete His greatest works by the most holy Virgin ever since He created her—we may well think He will not change His conduct in the eternal ages; for He is God, and He changes not, either in His sentiments, or in His conduct.
“Mary is the excellent masterpiece of the Most High―the knowledge and possession of which He has reserved to Himself ... She is the magnificence of the Most High … Mary is the sanctuary and the repose of the Holy Trinity, where God dwells more magnificently and more divinely than in any other place in the universe … God the Father has a most rich treasury in which He has laid up all that He has of beauty and splendor, of rarity and preciousness―including even His own Son―and this immense treasury is none other than Mary … It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only-Begotten to the world.
“It was through the most holy Virgin Mary that Jesus came into the world, and it is also through her that He has to reign in the world … The Son of God became man for our salvation―but it was in Mary and by Mary … God the Son wishes to form Himself, and, so to speak, to incarnate Himself in His members every day, by His dear Mother … Just as in the natural and corporal generation of children there are a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there are a Father, who is God, and a Mother, who is Mary. All the true children of God, the predestinate, have God for their Father and Mary for their Mother. He who has not Mary for his Mother, has not God for his Father … God the Father communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, in order that He might give her the power to produce His Son and all the members of His Mystical Body … Jesus Christ gave more glory to God the Father by submission to His Mother, during those thirty years, than He would have given Him in converting the whole world, by the working of the most stupendous miracles. O how highly we glorify God when, to please Him, we submit ourselves to Mary, after the example of Jesus Christ!
“God the Holy Ghost is become fruitful by Mary, whom He has espoused. It was with her, in her, and of her that He produced His Masterpiece―which is Jesus Christ, God made Man―and the Holy Ghost goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head. This is the reason why the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary in any soul, then the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ. To Mary, His faithful spouse, God the Holy Ghost has communicated His unspeakable gifts; and He has chosen her to be the dispenser of all He possesses, in such a way that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills, as she wills and when she wills, all His gifts and graces. The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gift to men, which He does not have pass through her virginal hands. Such has been the will of God, who has willed that we should have everything through Mary … Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has been or ever will be—a God Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest saints that there will be in the end of time. The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for her.
“God the Son has communicated to His Mother all that He acquired―by His life and His death, His infinite merits and His admirable virtues―and He has made her the treasurer of all that His Father gave Him for His inheritance. It is by her that He applies His merits to His members, and that He communicates His virtues, and distributes His graces. Our Lord is still, in Heaven, as much the Son of Mary as He was on Earth; and that, consequently, He has retained the obedience and submission of the most perfect Child toward the best of all mothers. But we must take great pains not to conceive this dependence as any abasement or imperfection in Jesus Christ. For Mary is infinitely below her Son, Who is God, and therefore she does not command Him as a mother, here below, would command her child, who is below her.
“Mary, being altogether transformed into God by grace and by the glory which transforms all the saints into Him, asks nothing, wishes nothing, does nothing contrary to the eternal and immutable will of God … The authority, which God has been pleased to give her, is so great that it seems as if she had the same power as God; and that her prayers and petitions are so powerful with God, that they always pass for commandments with His Majesty, Who never resists the prayer of His dear Mother, because she is always humble and conformed to His will. If Moses, by the force of his prayer, stayed the anger of God against the Israelites―in a manner so powerful that the most high and infinitely merciful Lord, being unable to resist him, told him to let Him alone that He might be angry with and punish that rebellious people―what must we not, with much greater reason, think of the prayer of the humble Mary, that worthy Mother of God, which is more powerful with His Majesty than the prayers and intercessions of all the angels and saints both in Heaven and on Earth?” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Mary is Necessary for Our Salvation
Our Blessed Mother holds such a place in the economy of our redemption that some do not hesitate to state that devotion to her is a necessary condition of salvation. For all those souls who have taken Mary for their guide and have faithfully followed all her instructions―not one single soul has been lost! The saints affirm this to be true and the devils confirm that affirmation.
● St. Albert the Great (a Doctor of the Church), says: “They who are not thy servants, O Mary, shall perish!”
● St. Bonaventure (a Doctor of the Church) repeats the same thought when he says: “They who neglect the service of Mary shall die in their sins!” And again: “For them, from whom Mary turns away her face, there is not even a hope of salvation! … No one can be saved without the protection of Mary!”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church), in his book, The Glories of Mary, says: “The intercession of Mary is even necessary to salvation. We say ‘necessary’, not absolutely, but morally. This necessity proceeds from the will itself of God, that all graces that He dispenses should pass by the hands of Mary, according to the opinion of St. Bernard.”
● St. Ignatius of Antioch (a Father of the Church), a martyr of the second century, writes: “A sinner can be saved only through the Holy Virgin who, by her merciful prayers, obtains salvation for so many who, according to strict justice, would be lost!”
● St. John Chrysostom (a Doctor of the Church) states: “It is impossible to be saved without the help of the Most Blessed Virgin!”
● St. Ildephonsus says: “All the Elect obtain eternal salvation through the means of Mary! ... “Without the Blessed Virgin, a person travels along the road to damnation!”
● St. Anselm (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “It is impossible to save one’s soul without devotion to Mary and without her protection!”
● St. Francis Borgia states: “I have great doubts about the salvation of those who do not have special devotion to Mary.”
If a lack of devotion to her is a mark of eternal reprobation a constant love for her must be a sign of eternal salvation. Many spiritual writers state that devotion to Mary is a sign of predestination.
● St. Louis de Montfort states: “The devout and learned Jesuit, Suarez; Justus Lipsius, an erudite theologian of Louvain; and many others have proved incontestably that devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary to attain salvation. This they show from the teaching of the Fathers, notably St. Augustine, St. Ephrem, deacon of Edessa, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Germanus of Constantinople, St. John Damascene, St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bernardine, St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure.”
● St. Bernard of Clairvaux (a Doctor of the Church) says: “Love of Mary and devotion to her are a sure sign of obtaining eternal salvation.”
● Blessed Alan de la Roche states: “Devotion to Mary is a sure sign of predestination to him who possesses it.”
● St. John of Avila (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “The sign of those who will be saved consists in this―that they have a great devotion to Mary in their hearts.”
● St. John Eudes says: “Not one of those who love her can perish; not one of those who try to imitate her can fail to attain eternal salvation.”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (Doctor of the Church) writes: “The servants of Mary are as sure of getting to Paradise as though they were already there. Who are they who are saved and who reign in Heaven? Surely those for whom the Queen of Mercy intercedes ... The clients of Mary will necessarily be saved.”
● St. John Damascene (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “Devotion to you, O Blessed Virgin, is a means of salvation which God gives to those whom he wishes to save!”
● St. Gabriel of the Most Sorrowful Virgin states: “I believe that devotion to thee, O Lady, is a certain sign of eternal salvation.”
● St. Hilary of Poitiers (a Doctor of the Church) says: “However great a sinner may have been, if he shows himself devout to Mary he will never perish!”
● St. John Vianney states: “Happy is he who lives and dies under the protection of the Blessed Virgin!”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church) says: “Our Lord ordained that no one shall obtain salvation except through her intercession! … It is impossible that a servant of Mary be damned, provided he serves her faithfully and commends himself to her maternal protection.”
● St. Frances Xavier Cabrini states: “If you are in danger, if your hearts are confused, turn to Mary; she is our comfort, our help! Turn towards her and you will be saved!”
● St. Anselm (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “He who turns to thee and is regarded by thee cannot be lost!”
● St. Antonine is of the same opinion. He says: “As it is impossible for them from whom Mary turns away her eyes of mercy to be saved, so it is necessary that they to whom she turns her eyes of mercy and for whom she intercedes to be saved and glorified!”
● St. Louis de Montfort adds: “Devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary to salvation, and that it is an infallible mark of reprobation to have no esteem and love for the holy Virgin; while on the other hand, it is an infallible mark of predestination to be entirely and truly devoted to her.”
● St. Bernardine of Sienna addresses these words to the Blessed Virgin Mary: “O Lady, thou art the dispenser of all graces, and since the grace of salvation can only come through thy hands, our salvation depends on thee!”
● St. Charbel Makhlouf says: “Do you want certain salvation? Then have great devotion to the Virgin Mary ... She will guarantee your salvation. She infallibly saves the one who honors her.”
No Mary―No Chance!
God has ruled that all of His graces must and will pass through the hands of Mary. It is not Mary’s decision―it is God’s decision. Like it or not; accept it or not―that is how it is. You ignore God’s ruling at your own peril! You ignore Mary at your own peril! If you show a true and sincere devotion to her―then she will help you, no matter how bad you may have been or still are. If you neglect to turn to her with a desire for a true and sincere devotion―then woe to you! Our Lady herself said this to St. Bridget of Sweden: “As a mother who sees her son exposed to the sword of the enemy, makes every effort to save him, thus do I, and will I ever do for my children, sinful though they be, if they come to me for help! I am the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the gate of entrance for sinners to God; neither is there living on Earth a sinner who is so accursed that he is deprived of my compassion―for everyone, if he receives nothing else through my intercession, receives the grace of being less tempted by evil spirits than he otherwise would be. No one, therefore, who is not entirely accursed [by which is meant the final and irrevocable malediction pronounced against the damned], is so entirely cast-off by God, that he may not return and enjoy His mercy, if he invokes my aid. I am called by all the Mother of Mercy, and truly the mercy of God towards men has made me so merciful towards them. Therefore, he shall be miserable, and forever miserable in another life, who in this life, being able to do so, does not have recourse to me, who am so compassionate to all, and so earnestly desire to aid sinners.” (quoted by St. Alphonsus Liguori, Glories of Mary).
St. Bernard of Clairvaux encourages us to turn to Mary for help: “When the storm of temptation arises, when you are midst the reefs and shoals of tribulation, fix your gaze upon the Star of the Sea―call upon Mary! If tossed by the rising tide of pride and ambition, if lost upon the troubled waters of scandal and contention―look then at the Star, invoke her name! Do the billows of anger, of avarice, of lust batter against your soul―cast thy eyes upon Mary! Does the greatness of your crime fill your soul with terror? Does your wretched conscience beat you down in shame and the fear of judgment paralyze your heart?―then, when about to sink to the depths of despondency, to plunge headlong into despair, then think of Mary! In perils and in sorrows and in fears―think of her, call upon her name! Let her name be ever on your lips and the thought of her be ever in your heart! Follow her―so that the power of her intercession may attend to your needs! Imitate her―for in her footsteps you cannot go astray! Call upon her―and you will not despair! Think of her―and you cannot fail. If she holds you by the hand―how can you fall? Under her protection you shall know no fear! Under her guidance you shall not falter! Under her patronage you shall surely reach the goal!” (St. Bernard of Clairvaux).
Do you have time to read about time? Time is not forever! Time is short! Will you run out of time? Holy Scripture is full of timely warnings. Here are just a few:
“Remember your Creator before the time of affliction comes!” (Ecclesiastes 12:1) ... “Observe the time!” (Ecclesiasticus 4:23) … “The time is short!” (1 Corinthians 7:29) … “Lose no time!” (Judges 18:9) … “For time has its end!” (Daniel 8:19) … “Time shall be no longer!” (Apocalypse 10:6) … “The time is at hand!” (Apocalypse (1:3). “Take ye heed, watch and pray. For ye know not when the time is!” (Mark 13:33) … “Work your work before the time, and He will give you your reward in His time!” (Ecclesiasticus 51:38) …. “Time passes like a shadow! … Be not foolish nor wicked―lest you die before your time!” (Ecclesiastes 7:1; 7:18) … “Therefore, while we have time, let us do good to all men!” (Galatians 6:10). “Behold, now is the acceptable time! Behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2). “It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we came to believe! The night is far advanced; the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light! Let us walk becomingly as in the day―not in partying and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy―but put on the Lord Jesus Christ” and turn to His Holy Mother! (Romans 13:11-14).
“There shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears!” (2 Timothy 4:3) … “Redeem the time, because the days are evil!” (Ephesians 5:16) … “I gave her a time that she might do penance, and she will not repent of her fornication!” (Apocalypse 2:21). “God has given him time for penance, and he abuses it in his pride!” (Job 24:23), with Christ adding: “Take heed, watch and pray! For you know not when the time is!” (Mark 13:33) … “Be ready―because at what hour you know not the Son of man will come!” (Matthew 24:44) … “When they shall say: ‘Peace and security!’ then shall sudden destruction come upon them!” (1 Thessalonians 5:3) …“Their day is coming, the time of their visitation!” (Jeremias 50:27) ... “The time is come, the day is at hand! For wrath is upon all the people!” (Ezechiel 7:12) … “The time of correction” (Hebrews 9:10) ... “The time is accomplished, and the Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent and believe the Gospel!” (Mark 1:15) … “The lord of that servant will come in the day that he hopes not, and at the hour that he knows not, and shall separate him and shall appoint him his portion with unbelievers!” (Luke 12:46).
Revolution Against the Solution
Our Lady, in modern times, has echoed the above warning many times―but to little or no avail. She has told us that devotion to her is the solution that God has appointed for the ills of our time and age. Yet we, for the most part, remain deaf to her words. Here are just a few of her warnings:
“Jesus wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world … You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved! … I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day!” (Fatima, October 1917). “Continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you! … In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!” (Our Lady of Fatima).
“In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. With my Son I have intervened so many times to appease the wrath of the Father. I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering Him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross and His Precious Blood … The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son … I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved” (Our Lady of Akita).
Our Lady said to Blessed Elena Aiello: “My Heart is sad for so many sufferings in an impending world in ruin ... I, for a long time, have advised men in many ways, but they do not listen to my maternal appeals, and they continue to walk the paths of perdition ... I am bending over the world, holding in suspension the justice of God … Men, in spite of repeated warnings, are not returning to God. They refuse grace, and are not listening to my voice ... The justice of our Father is most offended. Men live in their obstinacy of sin. The wrath of God is near. Soon the world will be afflicted with great calamities, bloody revolutions, frightful hurricanes, and the overflowing of rivers and the seas … If men do not amend their ways, a terrifying scourge of fire will come down from Heaven upon all the nations of the world, and men will be punished according to the debts contracted with Divine justice. There will be frightful moments for all, because Heaven will be joined with the Earth, and all the un-Godly people will be destroyed, some nations will be purified, while others will disappear entirely ... All nations will be punished, because sin has spread all over the world! … You are to transmit these warnings to all, in order that the new generation will know that men had been warned in time to turn to God by doing penance, and thus could have avoided these punishments … Propagate the devotions to my Immaculate Heart … Launch at once a message into the world, to advise men to return to God by prayers and penances, and to come with confidence to my Immaculate Heart. My intercession must be shown, because I am the Mother of God, of the just, and of sinners. In order to save souls, I wish that there be propagated in the world the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary … Through prayer and penance, my mercy will be able to hold back the hand of God’s justice … Spread the devotion to my Immaculate Heart, in order that many souls maybe conquered by my love and that many sinners may return to my Maternal Heart. Do not fear, for I will accompany with my maternal protection my faithful ones, and all those who accept my urgent warnings, and they — especially by the recitations of my Rosary — will be saved!” (Our Lady to Blessed Elena Aiello).
“From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, there will be many who will not believe … Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects ... During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … Many will turn against Religion … Many people will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil … The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation, and those who should speak out will be silent … Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of making it easy for everyone to live in sin … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals ... There will be occasions when all will seem to be lost and paralyzed … This night will be most horrible, for, humanly speaking, evil will seem to triumph. This, however, will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet and fettering him in the infernal abyss.” (Our Lady of Good Success).
“If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you! …The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish ... Woe to the Princes of the Church who will think only of piling riches upon riches, of protecting their authority and dominating with pride. The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity … There is no one left worthy of offering a spotless Sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world. God will strike in an unprecedented way … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God … God will take care of His faithful servants and men of good will … those who have given themselves to me, so that I may lead them to my divine Son, those who have lived on my spirit … I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days” (Our Lady of La Salette).
Our Lady in Not an Option―She is a Necessity!
Our Lady’s role in matters of salvation is not something that has been decided by her―her role has been decided by God Himself. ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT clearly states this incontestable truth: I avow, with all the Church, that Mary, being a mere creature that has come from the hands of the Most High, is in comparison with His Infinite Majesty less than an atom; or rather, she is nothing at all, because only He is “He who is” (Exodus 3:14); consequently, that grand Lord, always independent and sufficient to Himself, never had, and has not now, any absolute need of the holy Virgin for the accomplishment of His will and for the manifestation of His glory. He has but to will in order to do everything. Nevertheless, I say that, things being as they are now—that is, God having willed to commence and to complete His greatest works by the most holy Virgin ever since He created her—we may well think He will not change His conduct in the eternal ages; for He is God, and He changes not, either in His sentiments, or in His conduct.
“Mary is the excellent masterpiece of the Most High―the knowledge and possession of which He has reserved to Himself ... She is the magnificence of the Most High … Mary is the sanctuary and the repose of the Holy Trinity, where God dwells more magnificently and more divinely than in any other place in the universe … God the Father has a most rich treasury in which He has laid up all that He has of beauty and splendor, of rarity and preciousness―including even His own Son―and this immense treasury is none other than Mary … It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only-Begotten to the world.
“It was through the most holy Virgin Mary that Jesus came into the world, and it is also through her that He has to reign in the world … The Son of God became man for our salvation―but it was in Mary and by Mary … God the Son wishes to form Himself, and, so to speak, to incarnate Himself in His members every day, by His dear Mother … Just as in the natural and corporal generation of children there are a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there are a Father, who is God, and a Mother, who is Mary. All the true children of God, the predestinate, have God for their Father and Mary for their Mother. He who has not Mary for his Mother, has not God for his Father … God the Father communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, in order that He might give her the power to produce His Son and all the members of His Mystical Body … Jesus Christ gave more glory to God the Father by submission to His Mother, during those thirty years, than He would have given Him in converting the whole world, by the working of the most stupendous miracles. O how highly we glorify God when, to please Him, we submit ourselves to Mary, after the example of Jesus Christ!
“God the Holy Ghost is become fruitful by Mary, whom He has espoused. It was with her, in her, and of her that He produced His Masterpiece―which is Jesus Christ, God made Man―and the Holy Ghost goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head. This is the reason why the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary in any soul, then the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ. To Mary, His faithful spouse, God the Holy Ghost has communicated His unspeakable gifts; and He has chosen her to be the dispenser of all He possesses, in such a way that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills, as she wills and when she wills, all His gifts and graces. The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gift to men, which He does not have pass through her virginal hands. Such has been the will of God, who has willed that we should have everything through Mary … Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has been or ever will be—a God Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest saints that there will be in the end of time. The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for her.
“God the Son has communicated to His Mother all that He acquired―by His life and His death, His infinite merits and His admirable virtues―and He has made her the treasurer of all that His Father gave Him for His inheritance. It is by her that He applies His merits to His members, and that He communicates His virtues, and distributes His graces. Our Lord is still, in Heaven, as much the Son of Mary as He was on Earth; and that, consequently, He has retained the obedience and submission of the most perfect Child toward the best of all mothers. But we must take great pains not to conceive this dependence as any abasement or imperfection in Jesus Christ. For Mary is infinitely below her Son, Who is God, and therefore she does not command Him as a mother, here below, would command her child, who is below her.
“Mary, being altogether transformed into God by grace and by the glory which transforms all the saints into Him, asks nothing, wishes nothing, does nothing contrary to the eternal and immutable will of God … The authority, which God has been pleased to give her, is so great that it seems as if she had the same power as God; and that her prayers and petitions are so powerful with God, that they always pass for commandments with His Majesty, Who never resists the prayer of His dear Mother, because she is always humble and conformed to His will. If Moses, by the force of his prayer, stayed the anger of God against the Israelites―in a manner so powerful that the most high and infinitely merciful Lord, being unable to resist him, told him to let Him alone that He might be angry with and punish that rebellious people―what must we not, with much greater reason, think of the prayer of the humble Mary, that worthy Mother of God, which is more powerful with His Majesty than the prayers and intercessions of all the angels and saints both in Heaven and on Earth?” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Mary is Necessary for Our Salvation
Our Blessed Mother holds such a place in the economy of our redemption that some do not hesitate to state that devotion to her is a necessary condition of salvation. For all those souls who have taken Mary for their guide and have faithfully followed all her instructions―not one single soul has been lost! The saints affirm this to be true and the devils confirm that affirmation.
● St. Albert the Great (a Doctor of the Church), says: “They who are not thy servants, O Mary, shall perish!”
● St. Bonaventure (a Doctor of the Church) repeats the same thought when he says: “They who neglect the service of Mary shall die in their sins!” And again: “For them, from whom Mary turns away her face, there is not even a hope of salvation! … No one can be saved without the protection of Mary!”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church), in his book, The Glories of Mary, says: “The intercession of Mary is even necessary to salvation. We say ‘necessary’, not absolutely, but morally. This necessity proceeds from the will itself of God, that all graces that He dispenses should pass by the hands of Mary, according to the opinion of St. Bernard.”
● St. Ignatius of Antioch (a Father of the Church), a martyr of the second century, writes: “A sinner can be saved only through the Holy Virgin who, by her merciful prayers, obtains salvation for so many who, according to strict justice, would be lost!”
● St. John Chrysostom (a Doctor of the Church) states: “It is impossible to be saved without the help of the Most Blessed Virgin!”
● St. Ildephonsus says: “All the Elect obtain eternal salvation through the means of Mary! ... “Without the Blessed Virgin, a person travels along the road to damnation!”
● St. Anselm (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “It is impossible to save one’s soul without devotion to Mary and without her protection!”
● St. Francis Borgia states: “I have great doubts about the salvation of those who do not have special devotion to Mary.”
If a lack of devotion to her is a mark of eternal reprobation a constant love for her must be a sign of eternal salvation. Many spiritual writers state that devotion to Mary is a sign of predestination.
● St. Louis de Montfort states: “The devout and learned Jesuit, Suarez; Justus Lipsius, an erudite theologian of Louvain; and many others have proved incontestably that devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary to attain salvation. This they show from the teaching of the Fathers, notably St. Augustine, St. Ephrem, deacon of Edessa, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Germanus of Constantinople, St. John Damascene, St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bernardine, St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure.”
● St. Bernard of Clairvaux (a Doctor of the Church) says: “Love of Mary and devotion to her are a sure sign of obtaining eternal salvation.”
● Blessed Alan de la Roche states: “Devotion to Mary is a sure sign of predestination to him who possesses it.”
● St. John of Avila (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “The sign of those who will be saved consists in this―that they have a great devotion to Mary in their hearts.”
● St. John Eudes says: “Not one of those who love her can perish; not one of those who try to imitate her can fail to attain eternal salvation.”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (Doctor of the Church) writes: “The servants of Mary are as sure of getting to Paradise as though they were already there. Who are they who are saved and who reign in Heaven? Surely those for whom the Queen of Mercy intercedes ... The clients of Mary will necessarily be saved.”
● St. John Damascene (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “Devotion to you, O Blessed Virgin, is a means of salvation which God gives to those whom he wishes to save!”
● St. Gabriel of the Most Sorrowful Virgin states: “I believe that devotion to thee, O Lady, is a certain sign of eternal salvation.”
● St. Hilary of Poitiers (a Doctor of the Church) says: “However great a sinner may have been, if he shows himself devout to Mary he will never perish!”
● St. John Vianney states: “Happy is he who lives and dies under the protection of the Blessed Virgin!”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church) says: “Our Lord ordained that no one shall obtain salvation except through her intercession! … It is impossible that a servant of Mary be damned, provided he serves her faithfully and commends himself to her maternal protection.”
● St. Frances Xavier Cabrini states: “If you are in danger, if your hearts are confused, turn to Mary; she is our comfort, our help! Turn towards her and you will be saved!”
● St. Anselm (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “He who turns to thee and is regarded by thee cannot be lost!”
● St. Antonine is of the same opinion. He says: “As it is impossible for them from whom Mary turns away her eyes of mercy to be saved, so it is necessary that they to whom she turns her eyes of mercy and for whom she intercedes to be saved and glorified!”
● St. Louis de Montfort adds: “Devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary to salvation, and that it is an infallible mark of reprobation to have no esteem and love for the holy Virgin; while on the other hand, it is an infallible mark of predestination to be entirely and truly devoted to her.”
● St. Bernardine of Sienna addresses these words to the Blessed Virgin Mary: “O Lady, thou art the dispenser of all graces, and since the grace of salvation can only come through thy hands, our salvation depends on thee!”
● St. Charbel Makhlouf says: “Do you want certain salvation? Then have great devotion to the Virgin Mary ... She will guarantee your salvation. She infallibly saves the one who honors her.”
No Mary―No Chance!
God has ruled that all of His graces must and will pass through the hands of Mary. It is not Mary’s decision―it is God’s decision. Like it or not; accept it or not―that is how it is. You ignore God’s ruling at your own peril! You ignore Mary at your own peril! If you show a true and sincere devotion to her―then she will help you, no matter how bad you may have been or still are. If you neglect to turn to her with a desire for a true and sincere devotion―then woe to you! Our Lady herself said this to St. Bridget of Sweden: “As a mother who sees her son exposed to the sword of the enemy, makes every effort to save him, thus do I, and will I ever do for my children, sinful though they be, if they come to me for help! I am the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the gate of entrance for sinners to God; neither is there living on Earth a sinner who is so accursed that he is deprived of my compassion―for everyone, if he receives nothing else through my intercession, receives the grace of being less tempted by evil spirits than he otherwise would be. No one, therefore, who is not entirely accursed [by which is meant the final and irrevocable malediction pronounced against the damned], is so entirely cast-off by God, that he may not return and enjoy His mercy, if he invokes my aid. I am called by all the Mother of Mercy, and truly the mercy of God towards men has made me so merciful towards them. Therefore, he shall be miserable, and forever miserable in another life, who in this life, being able to do so, does not have recourse to me, who am so compassionate to all, and so earnestly desire to aid sinners.” (quoted by St. Alphonsus Liguori, Glories of Mary).
St. Bernard of Clairvaux encourages us to turn to Mary for help: “When the storm of temptation arises, when you are midst the reefs and shoals of tribulation, fix your gaze upon the Star of the Sea―call upon Mary! If tossed by the rising tide of pride and ambition, if lost upon the troubled waters of scandal and contention―look then at the Star, invoke her name! Do the billows of anger, of avarice, of lust batter against your soul―cast thy eyes upon Mary! Does the greatness of your crime fill your soul with terror? Does your wretched conscience beat you down in shame and the fear of judgment paralyze your heart?―then, when about to sink to the depths of despondency, to plunge headlong into despair, then think of Mary! In perils and in sorrows and in fears―think of her, call upon her name! Let her name be ever on your lips and the thought of her be ever in your heart! Follow her―so that the power of her intercession may attend to your needs! Imitate her―for in her footsteps you cannot go astray! Call upon her―and you will not despair! Think of her―and you cannot fail. If she holds you by the hand―how can you fall? Under her protection you shall know no fear! Under her guidance you shall not falter! Under her patronage you shall surely reach the goal!” (St. Bernard of Clairvaux).
Article 10
Monday & Tuesday, April 27th & 28th
Do You Have a Vocation?
Monday & Tuesday, April 27th & 28th
Do You Have a Vocation?
God Calls! Can You Hear His Voice?
Vocation comes from the Latin verb “vocare” ― meaning “to call.” The past participle of “vocare” is “vocatus” giving the root for the word “vocation.” “Vocare” (“to call”) is derived from the Latin word “vox” (“voice”). Thus voice and calling implicitly go together―as we see in Our Lord’s reference to shepherds and sheep: “The shepherd of the sheep calls his own sheep by name, and the sheep hear his voice, and he and leads them out. And when he has let out his own sheep, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice” (John 10:2-4).
► GOD CALLS EVERYONE TO SALVATION: “God will [“to will” means “to want”] have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, … so that He might redeem us” (Titus 2:11-14). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). “The Lord deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance” (2 Peter 3:9). “God declares unto men, that all should everywhere do penance!” (Acts 17:30). “God sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:17). “The Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32).
► GOD CALLS EVERYONE TO HOLINESS: “You shall be holy men to Me!” (Exodus 22:31). “Be ye holy, because I the Lord your God am holy!” (Leviticus 19:2). “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14). “Be a holy people of the Lord thy God!” (Deuteronomy 26:19). “Because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy!’” (1 Peter 1:16). “Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy, because I am the Lord your God!” (Leviticus 20:7). “I am the Lord who sanctify you!” (Leviticus 22:32). Let them therefore be holy, because I also am holy, the Lord, Who sanctifies them!” (Leviticus 21:8). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:26).
“Know you not, that you are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? … Or know you not, that your members are the Temple of the Holy Ghost, Who is in you, Whom you have from God; and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 3:16-19). “And what agreement has the Temple of God with idols? For you are the Temple of the living God; as God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’” (2 Corinthians 6:16). “But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the Temple of God is holy―which you are!” [or are supposed to be]. (1 Corinthians 3:17). “Health of the soul in holiness is better than all gold and silver” (Ecclesiasticus 30:15).
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book The Secret of Mary, speaks of our call or vocation to holiness: “Chosen soul, living image of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, God wants you to become holy like Him in this life, and glorious like Him in the next (Matthew 5:48). It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you and for which He is even now keeping you in being. What a marvelous transformation is possible! Dust into light, uncleanness into purity, sinfulness into holiness, creature into Creator, man into God! A marvelous work, I repeat, so difficult in itself, and even impossible for a mere creature to bring about, for only God can accomplish it by giving His grace abundantly and in an extraordinary manner. The very creation of the universe is not as great an achievement as this.
“Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you? The means of holiness and salvation are known to everybody, since they are found in the Gospel; the masters of the spiritual life have explained them; the saints have practiced them and shown how essential they are for those who wish to be saved and attain perfection. These means are: sincere humility, unceasing prayer, complete self-denial, abandonment to divine Providence, and obedience to the will of God. The grace and help of God are absolutely necessary for us to practice all these, but we are sure that grace will be given to all, though not in the same measure. I say “not in the same measure,” because God does not give His graces in equal measure to everyone (Romans 12:6), although in His infinite goodness He always gives sufficient grace to each. A person who corresponds to great graces performs great works, and one who corresponds to lesser graces performs lesser works. The value and high standard of our actions corresponds to the value and perfection of the grace given by God and responded to by the faithful soul. No one can contest these principles. It all comes to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. It is precisely this I wish to teach you. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God.” (St. Louis de Montfort, in his book The Secret of Mary).
You Were Made To Glorify God
(a) That is first purpose behind your creation. Many mistakenly think that we were made to save our soul—this is a self-focused thing, a selfish thing. Love is outgoing, not self-focusing. Our Lord tells us that the greatest and first commandment is to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. We are to be God-focused, not self-focused; God-centered, not self-centered. It is by loving God wholeheartedly that we will achieve, as a kind of a by-product, the salvation of our souls. Or, as the philosophical axiom puts it: “The greater contains the lesser.” The salvation of our souls is part-and-parcel of the package of living God. Pay attention to loving God and He will pay attention to saving your soul. Why did God create us? God Himself gives us the answer:
“I have created him for My glory, I have formed him, and made him!” (Isaias 43:7). “The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declares the work of His hands!” (Psalm 18:2). “The whole Earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord!” (Numbers 14:21). “Give glory to the Lord God!” (Josue 7:19). “Give all of you glory to Him!” (Judith 13:21). “Give glory to the Lord and praise Him in the sight of the Gentiles!” (Tobias 13:3). “Declare His glory among the Gentiles!” (1 Paralipomenon 16:24). “With fear and trembling give ye glory to Him!” (Tobias 13:6). “All they that love Thy Name shall glory in Thee!” (Psalm 5:12). “Bring to the Lord glory and honor! Bring to the Lord glory to His Name! Adore the Lord in His holy court” (Psalm 28:2). “Give to the Lord glory to His Name, bring up sacrifice, and come ye in His sight: and adore the Lord in holy becomingness!” (1 Paralipomenon 16:29). “Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches―but let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, for I am the Lord that exercises mercy, and judgment, and justice in the Earth―for these things please Me!’ says the Lord” (Jeremias 9:23-24).
There are literally hundreds of similar quotes about giving glory to God, yet there are, by comparison, very few about saving our own souls. So let us give glory to God in the highest! “I will worship towards Thy holy temple, and I will give glory to Thy Name” (Psalm 137:2). “Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Thy glory above all the Earth!” (Psalm 56:12).
(b) If you delay in glorifying Him, you may find the door closed to you: “Give ye glory to the Lord your God, before it be dark, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains―for then you shall look for light, and He will turn it into the shadow of death, and into darkness!” (Jeremias 13:16). “Come down from thy glory and sit in thirst!” (Jeremias 48:18)—in other words, stop glorying in yourself and things of the world, but thirst rather for God and His glory.
Let us magnify, not ourselves, but God—as did Our Lady: “And Mary said: ‘My soul does magnify the Lord. And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior ... Because He that is mighty, has done great things to me; and holy is His Name … He has shown might in His arm; He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He has put down the mighty from their seat, and has exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He has sent empty away’” (Luke 1:46-53).
(c) Put God and His glory first—this means from the beginning of the day, from the moment you awake. If not more, then at least awake with the words that were first spoken by the angels at Bethlehem and which are repeated in most Masses: “Glory to God in the Highest!” You could add to this: “My soul does magnify the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior!” That would be a fitting opener for any day. But then why stop there? Why not add more? Why merely take this “off-the-shelf” prefabricated greeting? Why not create your own? Why not create a different greeting for each day of the week? Wouldn’t that please God? He would have less reason to say: “And the Lord said: ‘Forasmuch as these people draw near to Me with their mouths, and with their lips glorify Me, but their hearts are far from Me!’”
Seeking the Glory of God
At Our Lady’s first apparition to St. Catherine Labouré, she said: “You will have much to suffer, but you will rise above these sufferings by reflecting that what you do is for the glory of God.” St. Ignatius of Loyola chose for His motto “For the greater glory of God!”
We read in St. John’s Gospel, that Our Lord deliberately allows Lazarus to die without going to help him, so that He would be glorified by resurrecting him: “Now there was a certain man sick, named Lazarus, of Bethania, of the town of Mary and Martha her sister. His sisters therefore sent to Him, saying: ‘Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick!’ And Jesus hearing it, said to them: ‘This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God: that the Son of God may be glorified by it!’” (John 11: 1-4).
The Imitation of Christ puts it this way: “Now, that which seems to be charity is oftentimes really sensuality, for man’s own inclination, his own will, his hope of reward, and his self-interest, are motives seldom absent. On the contrary, he who has true and perfect charity seeks self in nothing, but searches all things for the glory of God.”
Our Lord puts it in a nutshell when He says: “Seek ye, therefore, first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). The word “justice” is often read but not understood. Justice means giving another person their due. God needs to be given His due. Since God made everything and everything we have comes from God—the consequence is obvious, isn’t it? God comes first! God must be seen to and looked after first! This is also underlined when Our Lord says: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment … This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37-38). But “love” is not an “airy fairy” word with little or no substance! Our Lord speaks of proof of love when He says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If any one loves Me, he will keep My word … He that loves Me not, keeps not My words!” (John 14:15; 14:21-24). “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Hearing the Word and Will of God
Searching for the will of God is not as hard as it seems, but God will not yell and scream out His will for us into our ear-hole! In the calling of Elias to his mission, we read that a voice tells him: “‘Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord: and behold the Lord passes, and a great and strong wind before the Lord over throwing the mountains, and breaking the rocks in pieces―but the Lord is not in the wind. And after the wind comes an earthquake―but the Lord is not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake comes a fire―but the Lord is not in the fire. And after the fire comes a whistling of a gentle air!’ And when Elias heard it, he covered his face with his mantle, and coming forth stood in the entering in of the cave, and behold a voice unto him, saying: ‘What dost thou here, Elias?’” (3 Kings 19:11-13).
The above is very aptly put in an excerpt of an article, which runs as follows: “When I turned 16, I took my saved money and bought a car―a very used, rusty, barely running piece of junk. I loved it. A couple months later, as Christmas was coming around, I decided that I wanted to get a better sound system in the car, because it was incredibly important for a 16 year old like me. So with all the money I got for Christmas in my pocket I walked proudly into the local store that sold all the car stereo equipment. I walked first over to the wall of speakers. The wall was twice as tall as I was and at least 20 feet wide, simply filled with speakers of various sizes. They were all playing different pieces of music. Amidst all the noise I couldn’t distinguish between any of the speakers.
“A salesman walked up to me and after a little small talk I told him what I was looking for and how much I had to spend. He pointed to one that he recommended. I looked at the speaker and tried to listen to it. But I simply couldn’t. I couldn’t hear any music coming out of the speaker. The salesman noticed the look on my face and began to turn off the music on the other speakers. As the first couple speakers stopped playing music, I still couldn’t hear the speaker I was paying attention to, but gradually, as all the other speakers were turned-off, the speaker, that I was listening to, began to become audible. And, finally, once all the other speakers were off, I could hear the clear music coming out of what would become my new speaker. It had been playing the music the entire time and had never changed its volume, but, in order for me to hear it, I had to take the step of turning-off the competing speakers.
“Our vocation from God is like this speaker, that spent the next five years playing music flawlessly in my very used, rusty, barely running piece of junk car, until barely running turned into not running. The speaker worked flawlessly, but, in order to find it, I had to tune out everything else on the giant wall that was competing for my attention. Our vocation works the same way―it is constantly being called out to us by God, it will fit us flawlessly, but, in order to hear it, we need to learn how to tune out the competing voices calling out for our attention.”
Hopefully this will help you to both shut-out the voices and noises that compete with God, and to help you discern more clearly what God’s vocation is for you, and, if you have failed thus far, then showing you how best to put things right.
We Are All Called
So what is vocation in the Catholic Church? Deriving from the Latin word meaning “to call”― a vocation is just that ― a calling. Which means it comes from without. We cannot call ourselves, the one doing the calling has to be someone else. This person who calls us is God Himself. When we look at a vocation as this―as a calling wherein God is extending an invitation to us that we have the privilege of answering we can see many examples of this in Holy Scripture. There are two that we can focus on in particular ― Samuel and Matthew.
In the First Book of Kings (sometimes referenced as 1 Samuel 3:2-10) we read the story of God calling Samuel. We give a simplified vocabulary version. Notice the repeated use of the word call:
At that time Heli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.
Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Heli (the high priest), and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Heli said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down.
The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Heli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.”
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Heli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Heli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Heli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’”
So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Speak, for your servant is listening
There are many lessons to be learned about vocation in this story. The first thing to point out is that Samuel is confused about who is doing the calling. In essence, he does not recognize the voice of the Lord. He confuses it with a human voice. He needs help in determining what the voice of the Lord sounds like in his life. This can be a problem for us in our lives as well. We may well be hearing the voice of the Lord speak in our lives, but confuse it for the voice of someone else and then search for the answer, for meaning, in things other than the Lord. Later we will discuss how to truly recognize the voice of the Lord in our lives.
The second thing to note about this story is that the Lord continues to call, even though His calls are not understood correctly. Samuel heard the voice of the Lord twice and both times he didn’t recognize the voice and didn’t answer the Lord. But the Lord continued to call him. The call of the Lord is consistent. It does not change. This can offer us great solace in our own lives. We may sometimes feel as though we’ve missed our chance, that we’ve missed our calling. But we can recall this story and remember, then if the Lord calls us once, He calls us always—the calling always remains, even if we, like the prophet Jonas, go off in an opposite direction.
The Calling of St. Matthew
The second story from Scripture to look at is the call of Matthew. This call is special because it leads us into a discussion of primary, secondary, and even tertiary vocations. Let’s look at these distinctions after we read the story of the call of Matthew. Comprising just one verse in the Gospel of Matthew, this call is very important. Matthew 9:9 reads “As Jesus was walking along, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.” There is a lot we can get out of this simple verse. First, Matthew was sitting at a tax booth. This means that Matthew was a tax collector, a traitor in the eyes of the Jewish people. Why is this important? Jesus seeks out and calls one who the Jewish people looked down upon, one who they thought would not be worthy. So, whether or not we think we are worthy or not does not matter to Jesus Christ. He calls us. When we sin, He calls us; when we ignore Him, He calls us; when we least expect it, He calls us. Our vocation, our call from the Lord is always there, to everybody.
Few Answer the Calls
Everyone is called by God―but few answer those calls! Our Lord warns: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Luke 13:24; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
Jesus further says: “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
Learn to Listen
But we cannot discern the above things if we are always being pummeled with the noise of the world. Just as, in the above example about the speakers playing music, one couldn’t recognize the music playing from a particular speaker because of the noise from all the other speakers. We need to tune-out or turn-off the noise of the world, in order to hear the voice of God in our lives. God often doesn’t speak in ‘loud’ signs, but rather in quiet moments that are incredibly personal. In order to hear that voice, we need to consistently practice silence. We need to intentionally carve out moments of silence in our lives to begin to recognize God’s voice. If we are addicted to the TV, the internet, the smartphone, social media, etc., then we are not going to hear the voice of God. Additionally, we can also pray for the intercession of the Saints, who have so successfully discerned their primary and secondary vocations—but, once again, if we are addicted to the TV, the internet, the smartphone, social media, etc., then we are not going want to pray! Right?
All this sounds quite subjective, and the hard part is that it is. God works in our lives in different ways and because we are different, He will work in one life, He will reveal his call to me in a different way than He will reveal His call in another life. This is where a holy and experienced Spiritual Director can be very helpful. If you are serious about finding how God is calling you to fulfill you call to holiness, seek out the best available local priest you can find for a Spiritual Director in order to help you figure this out. They can often help you determine what the voice of God sounds like in your own life. This is not just true of the religious life or the priesthood, but also the married life or any vocation in life. Very few persons ask their spiritual directors for advice or ask them to assess the candidate for marriage. Perhaps that is why so many marriages are way below the level of true happiness and spiritual holiness that they could, should and would be. Likewise, very few ask for spiritual advice before choosing some other vocation in life. It is God’s will that matters most, not our own personal will or whim. As Our Lord says: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
Vocation comes from the Latin verb “vocare” ― meaning “to call.” The past participle of “vocare” is “vocatus” giving the root for the word “vocation.” “Vocare” (“to call”) is derived from the Latin word “vox” (“voice”). Thus voice and calling implicitly go together―as we see in Our Lord’s reference to shepherds and sheep: “The shepherd of the sheep calls his own sheep by name, and the sheep hear his voice, and he and leads them out. And when he has let out his own sheep, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice” (John 10:2-4).
► GOD CALLS EVERYONE TO SALVATION: “God will [“to will” means “to want”] have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, … so that He might redeem us” (Titus 2:11-14). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). “The Lord deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance” (2 Peter 3:9). “God declares unto men, that all should everywhere do penance!” (Acts 17:30). “God sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:17). “The Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32).
► GOD CALLS EVERYONE TO HOLINESS: “You shall be holy men to Me!” (Exodus 22:31). “Be ye holy, because I the Lord your God am holy!” (Leviticus 19:2). “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14). “Be a holy people of the Lord thy God!” (Deuteronomy 26:19). “Because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy!’” (1 Peter 1:16). “Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy, because I am the Lord your God!” (Leviticus 20:7). “I am the Lord who sanctify you!” (Leviticus 22:32). Let them therefore be holy, because I also am holy, the Lord, Who sanctifies them!” (Leviticus 21:8). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:26).
“Know you not, that you are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? … Or know you not, that your members are the Temple of the Holy Ghost, Who is in you, Whom you have from God; and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 3:16-19). “And what agreement has the Temple of God with idols? For you are the Temple of the living God; as God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’” (2 Corinthians 6:16). “But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the Temple of God is holy―which you are!” [or are supposed to be]. (1 Corinthians 3:17). “Health of the soul in holiness is better than all gold and silver” (Ecclesiasticus 30:15).
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book The Secret of Mary, speaks of our call or vocation to holiness: “Chosen soul, living image of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, God wants you to become holy like Him in this life, and glorious like Him in the next (Matthew 5:48). It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you and for which He is even now keeping you in being. What a marvelous transformation is possible! Dust into light, uncleanness into purity, sinfulness into holiness, creature into Creator, man into God! A marvelous work, I repeat, so difficult in itself, and even impossible for a mere creature to bring about, for only God can accomplish it by giving His grace abundantly and in an extraordinary manner. The very creation of the universe is not as great an achievement as this.
“Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you? The means of holiness and salvation are known to everybody, since they are found in the Gospel; the masters of the spiritual life have explained them; the saints have practiced them and shown how essential they are for those who wish to be saved and attain perfection. These means are: sincere humility, unceasing prayer, complete self-denial, abandonment to divine Providence, and obedience to the will of God. The grace and help of God are absolutely necessary for us to practice all these, but we are sure that grace will be given to all, though not in the same measure. I say “not in the same measure,” because God does not give His graces in equal measure to everyone (Romans 12:6), although in His infinite goodness He always gives sufficient grace to each. A person who corresponds to great graces performs great works, and one who corresponds to lesser graces performs lesser works. The value and high standard of our actions corresponds to the value and perfection of the grace given by God and responded to by the faithful soul. No one can contest these principles. It all comes to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. It is precisely this I wish to teach you. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God.” (St. Louis de Montfort, in his book The Secret of Mary).
You Were Made To Glorify God
(a) That is first purpose behind your creation. Many mistakenly think that we were made to save our soul—this is a self-focused thing, a selfish thing. Love is outgoing, not self-focusing. Our Lord tells us that the greatest and first commandment is to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. We are to be God-focused, not self-focused; God-centered, not self-centered. It is by loving God wholeheartedly that we will achieve, as a kind of a by-product, the salvation of our souls. Or, as the philosophical axiom puts it: “The greater contains the lesser.” The salvation of our souls is part-and-parcel of the package of living God. Pay attention to loving God and He will pay attention to saving your soul. Why did God create us? God Himself gives us the answer:
“I have created him for My glory, I have formed him, and made him!” (Isaias 43:7). “The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declares the work of His hands!” (Psalm 18:2). “The whole Earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord!” (Numbers 14:21). “Give glory to the Lord God!” (Josue 7:19). “Give all of you glory to Him!” (Judith 13:21). “Give glory to the Lord and praise Him in the sight of the Gentiles!” (Tobias 13:3). “Declare His glory among the Gentiles!” (1 Paralipomenon 16:24). “With fear and trembling give ye glory to Him!” (Tobias 13:6). “All they that love Thy Name shall glory in Thee!” (Psalm 5:12). “Bring to the Lord glory and honor! Bring to the Lord glory to His Name! Adore the Lord in His holy court” (Psalm 28:2). “Give to the Lord glory to His Name, bring up sacrifice, and come ye in His sight: and adore the Lord in holy becomingness!” (1 Paralipomenon 16:29). “Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches―but let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, for I am the Lord that exercises mercy, and judgment, and justice in the Earth―for these things please Me!’ says the Lord” (Jeremias 9:23-24).
There are literally hundreds of similar quotes about giving glory to God, yet there are, by comparison, very few about saving our own souls. So let us give glory to God in the highest! “I will worship towards Thy holy temple, and I will give glory to Thy Name” (Psalm 137:2). “Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Thy glory above all the Earth!” (Psalm 56:12).
(b) If you delay in glorifying Him, you may find the door closed to you: “Give ye glory to the Lord your God, before it be dark, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains―for then you shall look for light, and He will turn it into the shadow of death, and into darkness!” (Jeremias 13:16). “Come down from thy glory and sit in thirst!” (Jeremias 48:18)—in other words, stop glorying in yourself and things of the world, but thirst rather for God and His glory.
Let us magnify, not ourselves, but God—as did Our Lady: “And Mary said: ‘My soul does magnify the Lord. And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior ... Because He that is mighty, has done great things to me; and holy is His Name … He has shown might in His arm; He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He has put down the mighty from their seat, and has exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He has sent empty away’” (Luke 1:46-53).
(c) Put God and His glory first—this means from the beginning of the day, from the moment you awake. If not more, then at least awake with the words that were first spoken by the angels at Bethlehem and which are repeated in most Masses: “Glory to God in the Highest!” You could add to this: “My soul does magnify the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior!” That would be a fitting opener for any day. But then why stop there? Why not add more? Why merely take this “off-the-shelf” prefabricated greeting? Why not create your own? Why not create a different greeting for each day of the week? Wouldn’t that please God? He would have less reason to say: “And the Lord said: ‘Forasmuch as these people draw near to Me with their mouths, and with their lips glorify Me, but their hearts are far from Me!’”
Seeking the Glory of God
At Our Lady’s first apparition to St. Catherine Labouré, she said: “You will have much to suffer, but you will rise above these sufferings by reflecting that what you do is for the glory of God.” St. Ignatius of Loyola chose for His motto “For the greater glory of God!”
We read in St. John’s Gospel, that Our Lord deliberately allows Lazarus to die without going to help him, so that He would be glorified by resurrecting him: “Now there was a certain man sick, named Lazarus, of Bethania, of the town of Mary and Martha her sister. His sisters therefore sent to Him, saying: ‘Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick!’ And Jesus hearing it, said to them: ‘This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God: that the Son of God may be glorified by it!’” (John 11: 1-4).
The Imitation of Christ puts it this way: “Now, that which seems to be charity is oftentimes really sensuality, for man’s own inclination, his own will, his hope of reward, and his self-interest, are motives seldom absent. On the contrary, he who has true and perfect charity seeks self in nothing, but searches all things for the glory of God.”
Our Lord puts it in a nutshell when He says: “Seek ye, therefore, first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). The word “justice” is often read but not understood. Justice means giving another person their due. God needs to be given His due. Since God made everything and everything we have comes from God—the consequence is obvious, isn’t it? God comes first! God must be seen to and looked after first! This is also underlined when Our Lord says: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment … This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37-38). But “love” is not an “airy fairy” word with little or no substance! Our Lord speaks of proof of love when He says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If any one loves Me, he will keep My word … He that loves Me not, keeps not My words!” (John 14:15; 14:21-24). “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Hearing the Word and Will of God
Searching for the will of God is not as hard as it seems, but God will not yell and scream out His will for us into our ear-hole! In the calling of Elias to his mission, we read that a voice tells him: “‘Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord: and behold the Lord passes, and a great and strong wind before the Lord over throwing the mountains, and breaking the rocks in pieces―but the Lord is not in the wind. And after the wind comes an earthquake―but the Lord is not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake comes a fire―but the Lord is not in the fire. And after the fire comes a whistling of a gentle air!’ And when Elias heard it, he covered his face with his mantle, and coming forth stood in the entering in of the cave, and behold a voice unto him, saying: ‘What dost thou here, Elias?’” (3 Kings 19:11-13).
The above is very aptly put in an excerpt of an article, which runs as follows: “When I turned 16, I took my saved money and bought a car―a very used, rusty, barely running piece of junk. I loved it. A couple months later, as Christmas was coming around, I decided that I wanted to get a better sound system in the car, because it was incredibly important for a 16 year old like me. So with all the money I got for Christmas in my pocket I walked proudly into the local store that sold all the car stereo equipment. I walked first over to the wall of speakers. The wall was twice as tall as I was and at least 20 feet wide, simply filled with speakers of various sizes. They were all playing different pieces of music. Amidst all the noise I couldn’t distinguish between any of the speakers.
“A salesman walked up to me and after a little small talk I told him what I was looking for and how much I had to spend. He pointed to one that he recommended. I looked at the speaker and tried to listen to it. But I simply couldn’t. I couldn’t hear any music coming out of the speaker. The salesman noticed the look on my face and began to turn off the music on the other speakers. As the first couple speakers stopped playing music, I still couldn’t hear the speaker I was paying attention to, but gradually, as all the other speakers were turned-off, the speaker, that I was listening to, began to become audible. And, finally, once all the other speakers were off, I could hear the clear music coming out of what would become my new speaker. It had been playing the music the entire time and had never changed its volume, but, in order for me to hear it, I had to take the step of turning-off the competing speakers.
“Our vocation from God is like this speaker, that spent the next five years playing music flawlessly in my very used, rusty, barely running piece of junk car, until barely running turned into not running. The speaker worked flawlessly, but, in order to find it, I had to tune out everything else on the giant wall that was competing for my attention. Our vocation works the same way―it is constantly being called out to us by God, it will fit us flawlessly, but, in order to hear it, we need to learn how to tune out the competing voices calling out for our attention.”
Hopefully this will help you to both shut-out the voices and noises that compete with God, and to help you discern more clearly what God’s vocation is for you, and, if you have failed thus far, then showing you how best to put things right.
We Are All Called
So what is vocation in the Catholic Church? Deriving from the Latin word meaning “to call”― a vocation is just that ― a calling. Which means it comes from without. We cannot call ourselves, the one doing the calling has to be someone else. This person who calls us is God Himself. When we look at a vocation as this―as a calling wherein God is extending an invitation to us that we have the privilege of answering we can see many examples of this in Holy Scripture. There are two that we can focus on in particular ― Samuel and Matthew.
In the First Book of Kings (sometimes referenced as 1 Samuel 3:2-10) we read the story of God calling Samuel. We give a simplified vocabulary version. Notice the repeated use of the word call:
At that time Heli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.
Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Heli (the high priest), and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Heli said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down.
The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Heli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.”
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Heli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Heli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Heli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’”
So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Speak, for your servant is listening
There are many lessons to be learned about vocation in this story. The first thing to point out is that Samuel is confused about who is doing the calling. In essence, he does not recognize the voice of the Lord. He confuses it with a human voice. He needs help in determining what the voice of the Lord sounds like in his life. This can be a problem for us in our lives as well. We may well be hearing the voice of the Lord speak in our lives, but confuse it for the voice of someone else and then search for the answer, for meaning, in things other than the Lord. Later we will discuss how to truly recognize the voice of the Lord in our lives.
The second thing to note about this story is that the Lord continues to call, even though His calls are not understood correctly. Samuel heard the voice of the Lord twice and both times he didn’t recognize the voice and didn’t answer the Lord. But the Lord continued to call him. The call of the Lord is consistent. It does not change. This can offer us great solace in our own lives. We may sometimes feel as though we’ve missed our chance, that we’ve missed our calling. But we can recall this story and remember, then if the Lord calls us once, He calls us always—the calling always remains, even if we, like the prophet Jonas, go off in an opposite direction.
The Calling of St. Matthew
The second story from Scripture to look at is the call of Matthew. This call is special because it leads us into a discussion of primary, secondary, and even tertiary vocations. Let’s look at these distinctions after we read the story of the call of Matthew. Comprising just one verse in the Gospel of Matthew, this call is very important. Matthew 9:9 reads “As Jesus was walking along, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.” There is a lot we can get out of this simple verse. First, Matthew was sitting at a tax booth. This means that Matthew was a tax collector, a traitor in the eyes of the Jewish people. Why is this important? Jesus seeks out and calls one who the Jewish people looked down upon, one who they thought would not be worthy. So, whether or not we think we are worthy or not does not matter to Jesus Christ. He calls us. When we sin, He calls us; when we ignore Him, He calls us; when we least expect it, He calls us. Our vocation, our call from the Lord is always there, to everybody.
Few Answer the Calls
Everyone is called by God―but few answer those calls! Our Lord warns: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Luke 13:24; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
Jesus further says: “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
Learn to Listen
But we cannot discern the above things if we are always being pummeled with the noise of the world. Just as, in the above example about the speakers playing music, one couldn’t recognize the music playing from a particular speaker because of the noise from all the other speakers. We need to tune-out or turn-off the noise of the world, in order to hear the voice of God in our lives. God often doesn’t speak in ‘loud’ signs, but rather in quiet moments that are incredibly personal. In order to hear that voice, we need to consistently practice silence. We need to intentionally carve out moments of silence in our lives to begin to recognize God’s voice. If we are addicted to the TV, the internet, the smartphone, social media, etc., then we are not going to hear the voice of God. Additionally, we can also pray for the intercession of the Saints, who have so successfully discerned their primary and secondary vocations—but, once again, if we are addicted to the TV, the internet, the smartphone, social media, etc., then we are not going want to pray! Right?
All this sounds quite subjective, and the hard part is that it is. God works in our lives in different ways and because we are different, He will work in one life, He will reveal his call to me in a different way than He will reveal His call in another life. This is where a holy and experienced Spiritual Director can be very helpful. If you are serious about finding how God is calling you to fulfill you call to holiness, seek out the best available local priest you can find for a Spiritual Director in order to help you figure this out. They can often help you determine what the voice of God sounds like in your own life. This is not just true of the religious life or the priesthood, but also the married life or any vocation in life. Very few persons ask their spiritual directors for advice or ask them to assess the candidate for marriage. Perhaps that is why so many marriages are way below the level of true happiness and spiritual holiness that they could, should and would be. Likewise, very few ask for spiritual advice before choosing some other vocation in life. It is God’s will that matters most, not our own personal will or whim. As Our Lord says: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
Article 9
Friday & Saturday, April 24th & 25th
Vocation Vacation a Vexation!
Friday & Saturday, April 24th & 25th
Vocation Vacation a Vexation!
Catholic Population Going Up―Vocations Going Down
Only those who are blind, or insane, or who have their heads buried in the sands of worldliness, can fail to see the constant decline in vocations while the Catholic population as a whole is on the rise! Since the end of the Second Vatican Council (1965), the numbers of vocations have regularly fallen―despite an occasional “flash-in-the-pan” rise in numbers. The following chart, issued by the Catholic organization, Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), clearly manifests this constant, ongoing decline in the number of vocations in the United States.
Only those who are blind, or insane, or who have their heads buried in the sands of worldliness, can fail to see the constant decline in vocations while the Catholic population as a whole is on the rise! Since the end of the Second Vatican Council (1965), the numbers of vocations have regularly fallen―despite an occasional “flash-in-the-pan” rise in numbers. The following chart, issued by the Catholic organization, Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), clearly manifests this constant, ongoing decline in the number of vocations in the United States.
Plummeting Priests
In 1965, 95% of diocesan priests were active; today, only about 65% are active in ministry. The average age of a priest is about 70. None of the largest Catholic dioceses and archdioceses in the US has ordained enough priests to replace the older priests now in ministry, a new study shows. In the USA in 2025, many dioceses consider age 70 as the usual priestly early retirement age from running a parish― though they may request to continue working between ages 70 and 75. Priests must submit their resignation from pastoral leadership at age 75. Catholic priests usually retire as pastors at age 75, often moving to “administrator” status for a year or more if they choose to continue working. Since most priests are 65 years or much older, the in 7 to 10 years leaving less than 12,000 active priests―and most of these would be in aging categories.
Religious Orders Will See Numbers Tumble
In the next decade (2025-2035) the United States is anticipated to see a drastic decline in the number of religious priests, sisters, and brothers, according to recently released data from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Current projections anticipate a drop of nearly 50% over the next decade, taking the count of priests (diocesan and religious priests combined) from around 33,000 in 2025 to approximately 17,000 in 2035. This trend follows the decrease already witnessed from 1990, when there were almost 120,000 religious (men and women combined) in the US, which has now fallen to approximately 36,000 by 2025. The majority of the Religious Order population, by 2035, is expected to be over 75 years of age. It is worth noting that more women in Religious Orders are projected to be in this age bracket compared to men in Religious Orders. Looking at a more detailed breakdown of the Religious Order population, it can be seen that more than half of the women in Religious Orders are aged 80 or above. Furthermore, there are more women aged 95 or older in these Religious Orders than those under the age of 40.
Fewer Seminarians Mean Even Fewer Priests
Just as the chicken is hatched out of an egg, likewise are priests “hatched” out of seminarians. No egg, means no chicken. No seminarians means no priests. Below, you can see a graph indicating the fatal collapse in seminarians attending U.S. Diocesan Seminaries from 1967 to 2020.
In 1965, 95% of diocesan priests were active; today, only about 65% are active in ministry. The average age of a priest is about 70. None of the largest Catholic dioceses and archdioceses in the US has ordained enough priests to replace the older priests now in ministry, a new study shows. In the USA in 2025, many dioceses consider age 70 as the usual priestly early retirement age from running a parish― though they may request to continue working between ages 70 and 75. Priests must submit their resignation from pastoral leadership at age 75. Catholic priests usually retire as pastors at age 75, often moving to “administrator” status for a year or more if they choose to continue working. Since most priests are 65 years or much older, the in 7 to 10 years leaving less than 12,000 active priests―and most of these would be in aging categories.
Religious Orders Will See Numbers Tumble
In the next decade (2025-2035) the United States is anticipated to see a drastic decline in the number of religious priests, sisters, and brothers, according to recently released data from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Current projections anticipate a drop of nearly 50% over the next decade, taking the count of priests (diocesan and religious priests combined) from around 33,000 in 2025 to approximately 17,000 in 2035. This trend follows the decrease already witnessed from 1990, when there were almost 120,000 religious (men and women combined) in the US, which has now fallen to approximately 36,000 by 2025. The majority of the Religious Order population, by 2035, is expected to be over 75 years of age. It is worth noting that more women in Religious Orders are projected to be in this age bracket compared to men in Religious Orders. Looking at a more detailed breakdown of the Religious Order population, it can be seen that more than half of the women in Religious Orders are aged 80 or above. Furthermore, there are more women aged 95 or older in these Religious Orders than those under the age of 40.
Fewer Seminarians Mean Even Fewer Priests
Just as the chicken is hatched out of an egg, likewise are priests “hatched” out of seminarians. No egg, means no chicken. No seminarians means no priests. Below, you can see a graph indicating the fatal collapse in seminarians attending U.S. Diocesan Seminaries from 1967 to 2020.
St. John Bosco was of the opinion that one out of three (or sometimes one in four) children has a vocation to the priesthood or religious life. St. John Bosco and St. Alphonsus Liguori both believed this to be true in the context of a solid, Christian upbringing, suggesting that vocations are plentiful, but are sadly often uncultivated. The family is considered the primary “seedbed” of vocations, often making the difference in a child answering the call to a priestly or religious vocation. St. John Bosco often noted that if children were taught properly, a high percentage would have a vocation. St. John Bosco felt many vocations were lost due to lack of nurturing or the lure of luxuries, akin to the rich young man in the Gospel. Many sources cite that while God calls innumerable battalions to the priestly and religious life, these calls to vocations are not seen, heard, nor accepted―due to a lack of prayer for them.
Not Every Egg Hatches―Not Every Seminarian Becomes a Priest
According to data published in the most recent (2024) edition of The Official Catholic Directory, 2,980 men are preparing for priestly ordination as diocesan seminarians in the Latin-rite dioceses of the United States. However, not all of them will eventually be ordained to the priesthood. The “drop-out” or “discern out” rate of seminarians failing to make it to priestly ordination, currently ranges from 50% to 70% depending on which diocesan seminary they find themselves in.
While some dioceses see high numbers of seminarians, such as Philadelphia (72) and Washington (69), many areas are ordaining only 13% to 23% of the priests needed to replace those elderly priests who are retiring. The current number of retired priests is around 35% ― or even 50% in some dioceses.
When one compares the number of diocesan seminarians to the number of Catholics in each diocese, does the diocese attract one seminarian for every 10,000 Catholics, one seminarian for every 50,000 Catholics, or one seminarian for every 100,000 Catholics? Which dioceses attract the proportionally highest and proportionally lowest number of seminarians? Remember too that the number of seminarians studying in a seminary will always be MUCH HIGHER than the number of seminarians who will eventually “make it” to priestly ordination!
Of the 175 U.S. dioceses for which diocesan seminarians are ordained, only nineteen diocesan seminaries have forty or more seminarians. The dioceses with the highest number of seminarians are Philadelphia (72), Washington (69), Boston (62), New York (62), St. Paul and Minneapolis (60), Miami (55), Cincinnati (54), Baltimore (51), Charlotte (51), Los Angeles (51), Cleveland (48), Galveston-Houston (46), Wichita (44), Brooklyn (43), Dallas (43), Milwaukee (43), Phoenix (43), Arlington (40), and Austin (40).
On the other hand, twelve dioceses have three or fewer seminarians, according to data published in the Directory. One of them–Fairbanks–has no listing for diocesan seminarians in the Directory. The dioceses with the lowest number of seminarians, according to data published in the Directory (with the adjustment made for Springfield), are Fairbanks (0), Baker (1), Springfield, Massachusetts (1), Anchorage-Juneau (2), Gallup (2), Laredo (2), Springfield-Cape Girardeau (2), Tucson (2), Belleville (3), Monterey (3), Owensboro (3), and Shreveport (3). Eleven dioceses have four seminarians, six dioceses have five seminarians, and seven dioceses have six seminarians.
The Highs and Lows
The top 10% of dioceses in the United States, with the HIGHEST RATIO of diocesan seminarians to Catholics, are the following:
● Rapid City, SD (11 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 1,904 Catholics)
● Wichita, KS (44 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 2,466 Catholics)
● Lincoln, NE (30 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 2,481 Catholics)
● Steubenville, OH (8 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 3,541 Catholics)
● Duluth, MN (11 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 3,805 Catholics)
● Salina, KS (10 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 3,855 Catholics)
● Nashville, TN (28 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 3,944 Catholics)
● Helena, MT (12 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 4,024 Catholics)
● Evansville, IN (17 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 4,149 Catholics)
● Pensacola-Tallahassee, FL (19 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 4,267 Catholics)
● Alexandria, LA (8 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 4,529 Catholics)
● Winona-Rochester, MN (24 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 4,762 Catholics)
● Tulsa, OK (12 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 5,034 Catholics)
● Fargo, ND (14 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 5,199 Catholics)
● Memphis, TN (12 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 5,558 Catholics)
● Wheeling-Charleston, WV (11 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 5,725 Catholics)
● Peoria, IL (22 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 5,904 Catholics)
The 10% of dioceses in the United States with the LOWEST RATIO of diocesan seminarians to Catholics, according to statistics published in the 2024 edition of The Official Catholic Directory (with the adjustment described above for the Diocese of Springfield), are the following:
● Rochester, NY (5 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 58,960 Catholics)
● Las Vegas, NV (10 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 62,000 Catholics)
● Chicago, IL (31 seminarians; 1 per 67,065 Catholics)
● San Antonio, TX (17 seminarians; 1 per 67,544 Catholics)
● Los Angeles, CA (51 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 74,812 Catholics)
● San Jose, CA (7 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 75,000 Catholics)
● Buffalo, NY (7 seminarians; 1 per 79,315 Catholics)
● Sacramento, CA (12 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 87,892 Catholics)
● San Bernardino, CA (15 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 91,425 Catholics)
● San Diego, CA (13 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 106,305 Catholics)
● Rockville Centre, NY (11 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 119,012 Catholics)
● Monterey, CA (3 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 123,000 Catholics)
● Tucson, AZ (2 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 149,242 Catholics)
● Springfield, MA (1 seminarian; which is 1 seminarian per 151,546 Catholics)
● Laredo, TX (2 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 167,715 Catholics)
● Brownsville, TX (7 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 169,933 Catholics)
● Fairbanks, AK (0 seminarians and 12,475 Catholics)
No Luck of the Irish
The United States is not a Catholic nation, since only around 20% of the population is Catholic (and most of them are fallen-away Catholics, or Catholics in name only). Ireland, on the other hand, has always been regarded as being staunchly Catholic.
In 2006, Ireland has a population of around 5.4 million. According to the 2022 Census, almost 70% (3.5 million) of the total population of 5.1 million in the Republic of Ireland identified as Catholic. This represents a significant decline from 79% who identified as being Catholic in 2016 and over 90% in 2006. Yet only around 30% of those Catholics practice their Faith and attend Sunday Mass regularly; and only 17% attend among those who are under the age of 26.
Ireland has 20 diocesan seminaries. In 2025, just 13 men started training at the national seminary in Maynooth, a decline from 21 the previous year. As of 2025, there are only 77 seminarians in Ireland spread throughout the 20 diocesan seminaries―which translates to 1 seminarian for every 45,174 Catholics!
The number of men entering the seminary and beginning their FIRST YEAR of studies at Irish seminaries has collapsed from 1,400 FIRST YEAR SEMINARIANS in 1965 to just 13 FIRST YEAR SEMINARIANS in 2025. This low number of first year seminarians has been around for a long time. Here is list of seminarians who began their FIRST YEAR academic program and priestly formation for Irish dioceses over the last 15 years:
Not Every Egg Hatches―Not Every Seminarian Becomes a Priest
According to data published in the most recent (2024) edition of The Official Catholic Directory, 2,980 men are preparing for priestly ordination as diocesan seminarians in the Latin-rite dioceses of the United States. However, not all of them will eventually be ordained to the priesthood. The “drop-out” or “discern out” rate of seminarians failing to make it to priestly ordination, currently ranges from 50% to 70% depending on which diocesan seminary they find themselves in.
While some dioceses see high numbers of seminarians, such as Philadelphia (72) and Washington (69), many areas are ordaining only 13% to 23% of the priests needed to replace those elderly priests who are retiring. The current number of retired priests is around 35% ― or even 50% in some dioceses.
When one compares the number of diocesan seminarians to the number of Catholics in each diocese, does the diocese attract one seminarian for every 10,000 Catholics, one seminarian for every 50,000 Catholics, or one seminarian for every 100,000 Catholics? Which dioceses attract the proportionally highest and proportionally lowest number of seminarians? Remember too that the number of seminarians studying in a seminary will always be MUCH HIGHER than the number of seminarians who will eventually “make it” to priestly ordination!
Of the 175 U.S. dioceses for which diocesan seminarians are ordained, only nineteen diocesan seminaries have forty or more seminarians. The dioceses with the highest number of seminarians are Philadelphia (72), Washington (69), Boston (62), New York (62), St. Paul and Minneapolis (60), Miami (55), Cincinnati (54), Baltimore (51), Charlotte (51), Los Angeles (51), Cleveland (48), Galveston-Houston (46), Wichita (44), Brooklyn (43), Dallas (43), Milwaukee (43), Phoenix (43), Arlington (40), and Austin (40).
On the other hand, twelve dioceses have three or fewer seminarians, according to data published in the Directory. One of them–Fairbanks–has no listing for diocesan seminarians in the Directory. The dioceses with the lowest number of seminarians, according to data published in the Directory (with the adjustment made for Springfield), are Fairbanks (0), Baker (1), Springfield, Massachusetts (1), Anchorage-Juneau (2), Gallup (2), Laredo (2), Springfield-Cape Girardeau (2), Tucson (2), Belleville (3), Monterey (3), Owensboro (3), and Shreveport (3). Eleven dioceses have four seminarians, six dioceses have five seminarians, and seven dioceses have six seminarians.
The Highs and Lows
The top 10% of dioceses in the United States, with the HIGHEST RATIO of diocesan seminarians to Catholics, are the following:
● Rapid City, SD (11 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 1,904 Catholics)
● Wichita, KS (44 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 2,466 Catholics)
● Lincoln, NE (30 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 2,481 Catholics)
● Steubenville, OH (8 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 3,541 Catholics)
● Duluth, MN (11 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 3,805 Catholics)
● Salina, KS (10 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 3,855 Catholics)
● Nashville, TN (28 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 3,944 Catholics)
● Helena, MT (12 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 4,024 Catholics)
● Evansville, IN (17 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 4,149 Catholics)
● Pensacola-Tallahassee, FL (19 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 4,267 Catholics)
● Alexandria, LA (8 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 4,529 Catholics)
● Winona-Rochester, MN (24 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 4,762 Catholics)
● Tulsa, OK (12 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 5,034 Catholics)
● Fargo, ND (14 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 5,199 Catholics)
● Memphis, TN (12 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 5,558 Catholics)
● Wheeling-Charleston, WV (11 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 5,725 Catholics)
● Peoria, IL (22 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 5,904 Catholics)
The 10% of dioceses in the United States with the LOWEST RATIO of diocesan seminarians to Catholics, according to statistics published in the 2024 edition of The Official Catholic Directory (with the adjustment described above for the Diocese of Springfield), are the following:
● Rochester, NY (5 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 58,960 Catholics)
● Las Vegas, NV (10 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 62,000 Catholics)
● Chicago, IL (31 seminarians; 1 per 67,065 Catholics)
● San Antonio, TX (17 seminarians; 1 per 67,544 Catholics)
● Los Angeles, CA (51 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 74,812 Catholics)
● San Jose, CA (7 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 75,000 Catholics)
● Buffalo, NY (7 seminarians; 1 per 79,315 Catholics)
● Sacramento, CA (12 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 87,892 Catholics)
● San Bernardino, CA (15 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 91,425 Catholics)
● San Diego, CA (13 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 106,305 Catholics)
● Rockville Centre, NY (11 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 119,012 Catholics)
● Monterey, CA (3 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 123,000 Catholics)
● Tucson, AZ (2 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 149,242 Catholics)
● Springfield, MA (1 seminarian; which is 1 seminarian per 151,546 Catholics)
● Laredo, TX (2 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 167,715 Catholics)
● Brownsville, TX (7 seminarians; which is 1 seminarian per 169,933 Catholics)
● Fairbanks, AK (0 seminarians and 12,475 Catholics)
No Luck of the Irish
The United States is not a Catholic nation, since only around 20% of the population is Catholic (and most of them are fallen-away Catholics, or Catholics in name only). Ireland, on the other hand, has always been regarded as being staunchly Catholic.
In 2006, Ireland has a population of around 5.4 million. According to the 2022 Census, almost 70% (3.5 million) of the total population of 5.1 million in the Republic of Ireland identified as Catholic. This represents a significant decline from 79% who identified as being Catholic in 2016 and over 90% in 2006. Yet only around 30% of those Catholics practice their Faith and attend Sunday Mass regularly; and only 17% attend among those who are under the age of 26.
Ireland has 20 diocesan seminaries. In 2025, just 13 men started training at the national seminary in Maynooth, a decline from 21 the previous year. As of 2025, there are only 77 seminarians in Ireland spread throughout the 20 diocesan seminaries―which translates to 1 seminarian for every 45,174 Catholics!
The number of men entering the seminary and beginning their FIRST YEAR of studies at Irish seminaries has collapsed from 1,400 FIRST YEAR SEMINARIANS in 1965 to just 13 FIRST YEAR SEMINARIANS in 2025. This low number of first year seminarians has been around for a long time. Here is list of seminarians who began their FIRST YEAR academic program and priestly formation for Irish dioceses over the last 15 years:
|
2010: 16 seminarians;
2011: 18 seminarians; 2012: 12 seminarians; 2013: 20 seminarians; |
2014: 14 seminarians;
2015: 17 seminarians; 2016: 14 seminarians; 2017: 19 seminarians; |
2018: 17 seminarians;
2019: 15 seminarians; 2020: 13 seminarians; 2021: 9 seminarians; |
2022: 10 seminarians;
2023: 15 seminarians; 2024: 21 seminarians. 2024: 13 seminarians. |
In 1957, there were 334 ORDINATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD in Ireland. The numbers remained high until the mid-1960s before beginning a steep decline. By 1980 the average annual number was 70. From 2001–2005, the average number of ordinations fell to 18 per year. In 2025, just 13 new priests were ordained.
In 1967, the diocesan clergy numbers were just under 4,000. As of late 2023–2025, there are approximately 2,000 active Catholic priests in Ireland, with numbers declining steeply with each passing year. That means there is 1 priest for every 1,750 Catholics. Over one-third of these priests are over age 60, and less than 3% are under 40. The number of active serving priests has halved in the past 30 years. Over 25% of all priests in Ireland have passed away in the last three years. Even if ordinations do not decrease any further, or departures do not rise any higher, the situation overall will inevitably worsen owing simply to increased mortality as the Irish Catholic priestly population, which, starved of new recruits, continues to age.
France’s Faith Failing Fast
Another country that used to be regarded as being staunchly Catholic is France. We all know that France’s religious woes began in the aftermath of the 1789 French Revolution―which, on the religious front, saw the government take an ever increasing stranglehold on the Catholic in France―but today the state of Catholic France has truly become abysmal.
France has a population of around 70 million. Estimates of the number of Catholics in France vary widely, generally ranging between 25% and 60% of the population (roughly 16 to 40 million people) depending on whether the survey includes Catholics in name only or active practicing Catholics. While higher figures include those who identify culturally, recent data shows only about 25% explicitly call themselves Catholic. While a large portion of the population (60%) may identify themselves as being Catholic, only a small minority regularly attend Mass. The Church has experienced a decline in active church attendance. Surveys indicate only 2% to 5% of Catholics go to Mass every Sunday. Baptism rates have fallen from 80% in 1972 to around 30% in 2035. Catholicism in France is aging. One study found that 62% of people over the age 65 identify as Catholic, compared to only 23% of those aged between18 and 23 years.
The Catholic Church in France is facing a severe shortage of priests, with numbers dropping from around 65,000 in 1960 to around 12,000 today. The average age of priests is high, with around 800 deaths annually compared to roughly 100–120 ordinations per year. In 2025, only 90 priests were ordained, compared to 105 in 2024. This brings the 2025 number close to the historic low of 88.
The overall number of seminarians has been declining for decades. As of recent data (2020–2022), there were approximately 700 to 800 major seminarians in France, with 709 reported in 2022, down from 815 in 2020. This means that there is 1 seminarian for every 50,000 to 57,000 Catholics.
Spain’s Sinking Ship
Spain has a total population of around 50 million. Roughly 40% to 44% of the population identifies as atheist, agnostic, or non-believer. As of early 2025, approximately 55% (27.5 million) of Spaniards identify themselves as Catholic, representing a significant decline from over 90% in the 1970s. While 55% of Spaniards people may identify with the Faith, only about 18% are considered to be practicing Catholics. Among people aged 18–29, only about 32% identify as Catholic, compared to 77% of those aged over 70.
As of 2023, there are approximately 15,285 priests in Spain―which translates to 1 priest for every 1,800 Catholics. The number of Catholic priests has decreased by over 40% since 1971, leading to a shortage where some priests serve dozens of villages. Finalized figures for the total number of Catholic priests in Spain in 2025 are not yet published, data from early 2025 indicates the number is continuing a long-term decline from 15,285 in 2023. The average age of Spanish priests is high―being over 70 years of age.
There are 1,036 seminarians in various stages of formation―which translates to 1 seminarian for every 26,544 Catholics! The number has been below 1,000 since 2021. In 2024, only 85 seminarians were ordained to the priesthood in Spain. In 2023 there were only 79 ordinations. Yet each year hundreds of priests die of old age. With seminaries all but empty and many priests fast approaching retirement, almost half the country's parishes have no priest.
Italy’s Implosion
The total population of Italy is around 59 million people. Data reports that roughly 57.5 million Italians were baptized Catholic (over 96% of the total population), only 89% were raised Catholic, around 67% (around 40 million) still identify as Catholic, but to the majority of that 67% (40 million) identifying themselves as being Catholic has little to do with religious practice with only about 20% actually attending weekly Mass.
As of 2025, there are 27,938 diocesan priests and 12,542 Religious Order priests―giving a combined total of 40,480 priests. That translates to around 1 priest for 1,417 baptized Catholics. In 1970, Italy had 6,337 seminarians; by 2019 that number dropped to 2,103. By 2021 it dropped to 1,804―which translates to 1 seminarian for every 31,873 baptized Catholic. While exact, finalized national figures for the total of 2024-2025 seminarians are not yet published, regional examples show significant decreases.
Saints on the Priesthood
Many of the saints spoke of the power and the great responsibility given to priests. There is quote is commonly attributed to St. John Vianney (the Curé of Ars), the patron saint of parish priests, which is often cited in discussions about priestly holiness and its influence on the laity. The quote is: “A saintly priest will produce a holy parish; whereas a holy priest will produce a good parish. A good priest will only produce a lukewarm parish and a lukewarm priest will produce a parish of devils. A bad priest will send most of his parish to Hell!” While variations of this quote exist, it generally follows a structure where the spiritual level of the priest dictates the spiritual health of his parishioners―with the parishioners always being one level below the priest. The devil once said to St. John Vianney: “If there were three priests like you, then my kingdom would be ruined!”
ST. BERNARDINE OF SIENA described it as, “the power of the divine person; for the transubstantiation of the bread requires as much power as the creation of the world.”
ST. JOHN VIANNEY, THE CURÉ OF ARS: “If a priest is determined not to lose his soul, so soon as any disorder arises in the parish, he must trample underfoot all human considerations as well as the fear of the contempt and hatred of his people. He must not allow anything to bar his way in the discharge of duty, even where he is certain of being murdered on coming down from the pulpit. A pastor who wants to do his duty must keep his sword in hand at all times.”
ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM: “If priests sin, all the people are led to sin. Hence, everyone must render an account of his own sins; but the priests are also responsible for the sins of others.”
ST. ANTHONY MARY CLARET said it would be better to leave a town without a priest than to have one who is unworthy. “If God does not send me men who are truly called, God himself will have to take care of the men and souls by means of his angels. A call is God's gift. I must not bring the unworthy into the sheepfold to destroy it instead of tending it.”
POPE ST. PIUS X warned against letting unworthy men enter seminaries. “Venerable brethren, there is only one piece of advice that I offer to you: watch over your seminaries and over candidates for the priesthood... If ever you have in your seminary one of those new-style savants (masterminds, “know-alls”), get rid of him without delay; on no account impose hands upon him. You will always regret having ordained even one such person: never will you regret having excluded him.”
VENERABLE ARCHBISHOP FULTON SHEEN from his book, The Priest is Not His Own stated: “Every worldly priest hinders the growth of the Church: every saintly priest promotes it. If only all priests realized how their holiness makes the Church holy and how the Church begins to decline when the level of holiness among priests falls below that of the people!”
ST. ANTHONY OF THE DESERT (251-356) , a close friend of St. Athanasius, and the Father of Western monasticism, prophesied concerning the worldliness of the future Church: “Men will surrender to the spirit of the age. They will say that if they had lived in our age, Faith would be simple and easy. But in their day, they will say, things are complex; the Church must be brought up to date and made meaningful to the day's problems. When the Church and the world are one these days are at hand. Because our Divine Master put a barrier between His things and the things of this world” (St. Anthony of the Desert, Dis. CXIV).
Fatal Consequences of Lack of Vocations
Our Lady of Good Success clearly stated that vocations lead to peace, harmony and salvation: “No one on the face of the Earth is aware whence comes the salvation of souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars, and the harmony between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents. O, if mortals only understood how to appreciate the time given to them, and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
In 1967, the diocesan clergy numbers were just under 4,000. As of late 2023–2025, there are approximately 2,000 active Catholic priests in Ireland, with numbers declining steeply with each passing year. That means there is 1 priest for every 1,750 Catholics. Over one-third of these priests are over age 60, and less than 3% are under 40. The number of active serving priests has halved in the past 30 years. Over 25% of all priests in Ireland have passed away in the last three years. Even if ordinations do not decrease any further, or departures do not rise any higher, the situation overall will inevitably worsen owing simply to increased mortality as the Irish Catholic priestly population, which, starved of new recruits, continues to age.
France’s Faith Failing Fast
Another country that used to be regarded as being staunchly Catholic is France. We all know that France’s religious woes began in the aftermath of the 1789 French Revolution―which, on the religious front, saw the government take an ever increasing stranglehold on the Catholic in France―but today the state of Catholic France has truly become abysmal.
France has a population of around 70 million. Estimates of the number of Catholics in France vary widely, generally ranging between 25% and 60% of the population (roughly 16 to 40 million people) depending on whether the survey includes Catholics in name only or active practicing Catholics. While higher figures include those who identify culturally, recent data shows only about 25% explicitly call themselves Catholic. While a large portion of the population (60%) may identify themselves as being Catholic, only a small minority regularly attend Mass. The Church has experienced a decline in active church attendance. Surveys indicate only 2% to 5% of Catholics go to Mass every Sunday. Baptism rates have fallen from 80% in 1972 to around 30% in 2035. Catholicism in France is aging. One study found that 62% of people over the age 65 identify as Catholic, compared to only 23% of those aged between18 and 23 years.
The Catholic Church in France is facing a severe shortage of priests, with numbers dropping from around 65,000 in 1960 to around 12,000 today. The average age of priests is high, with around 800 deaths annually compared to roughly 100–120 ordinations per year. In 2025, only 90 priests were ordained, compared to 105 in 2024. This brings the 2025 number close to the historic low of 88.
The overall number of seminarians has been declining for decades. As of recent data (2020–2022), there were approximately 700 to 800 major seminarians in France, with 709 reported in 2022, down from 815 in 2020. This means that there is 1 seminarian for every 50,000 to 57,000 Catholics.
Spain’s Sinking Ship
Spain has a total population of around 50 million. Roughly 40% to 44% of the population identifies as atheist, agnostic, or non-believer. As of early 2025, approximately 55% (27.5 million) of Spaniards identify themselves as Catholic, representing a significant decline from over 90% in the 1970s. While 55% of Spaniards people may identify with the Faith, only about 18% are considered to be practicing Catholics. Among people aged 18–29, only about 32% identify as Catholic, compared to 77% of those aged over 70.
As of 2023, there are approximately 15,285 priests in Spain―which translates to 1 priest for every 1,800 Catholics. The number of Catholic priests has decreased by over 40% since 1971, leading to a shortage where some priests serve dozens of villages. Finalized figures for the total number of Catholic priests in Spain in 2025 are not yet published, data from early 2025 indicates the number is continuing a long-term decline from 15,285 in 2023. The average age of Spanish priests is high―being over 70 years of age.
There are 1,036 seminarians in various stages of formation―which translates to 1 seminarian for every 26,544 Catholics! The number has been below 1,000 since 2021. In 2024, only 85 seminarians were ordained to the priesthood in Spain. In 2023 there were only 79 ordinations. Yet each year hundreds of priests die of old age. With seminaries all but empty and many priests fast approaching retirement, almost half the country's parishes have no priest.
Italy’s Implosion
The total population of Italy is around 59 million people. Data reports that roughly 57.5 million Italians were baptized Catholic (over 96% of the total population), only 89% were raised Catholic, around 67% (around 40 million) still identify as Catholic, but to the majority of that 67% (40 million) identifying themselves as being Catholic has little to do with religious practice with only about 20% actually attending weekly Mass.
As of 2025, there are 27,938 diocesan priests and 12,542 Religious Order priests―giving a combined total of 40,480 priests. That translates to around 1 priest for 1,417 baptized Catholics. In 1970, Italy had 6,337 seminarians; by 2019 that number dropped to 2,103. By 2021 it dropped to 1,804―which translates to 1 seminarian for every 31,873 baptized Catholic. While exact, finalized national figures for the total of 2024-2025 seminarians are not yet published, regional examples show significant decreases.
Saints on the Priesthood
Many of the saints spoke of the power and the great responsibility given to priests. There is quote is commonly attributed to St. John Vianney (the Curé of Ars), the patron saint of parish priests, which is often cited in discussions about priestly holiness and its influence on the laity. The quote is: “A saintly priest will produce a holy parish; whereas a holy priest will produce a good parish. A good priest will only produce a lukewarm parish and a lukewarm priest will produce a parish of devils. A bad priest will send most of his parish to Hell!” While variations of this quote exist, it generally follows a structure where the spiritual level of the priest dictates the spiritual health of his parishioners―with the parishioners always being one level below the priest. The devil once said to St. John Vianney: “If there were three priests like you, then my kingdom would be ruined!”
ST. BERNARDINE OF SIENA described it as, “the power of the divine person; for the transubstantiation of the bread requires as much power as the creation of the world.”
ST. JOHN VIANNEY, THE CURÉ OF ARS: “If a priest is determined not to lose his soul, so soon as any disorder arises in the parish, he must trample underfoot all human considerations as well as the fear of the contempt and hatred of his people. He must not allow anything to bar his way in the discharge of duty, even where he is certain of being murdered on coming down from the pulpit. A pastor who wants to do his duty must keep his sword in hand at all times.”
ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM: “If priests sin, all the people are led to sin. Hence, everyone must render an account of his own sins; but the priests are also responsible for the sins of others.”
ST. ANTHONY MARY CLARET said it would be better to leave a town without a priest than to have one who is unworthy. “If God does not send me men who are truly called, God himself will have to take care of the men and souls by means of his angels. A call is God's gift. I must not bring the unworthy into the sheepfold to destroy it instead of tending it.”
POPE ST. PIUS X warned against letting unworthy men enter seminaries. “Venerable brethren, there is only one piece of advice that I offer to you: watch over your seminaries and over candidates for the priesthood... If ever you have in your seminary one of those new-style savants (masterminds, “know-alls”), get rid of him without delay; on no account impose hands upon him. You will always regret having ordained even one such person: never will you regret having excluded him.”
VENERABLE ARCHBISHOP FULTON SHEEN from his book, The Priest is Not His Own stated: “Every worldly priest hinders the growth of the Church: every saintly priest promotes it. If only all priests realized how their holiness makes the Church holy and how the Church begins to decline when the level of holiness among priests falls below that of the people!”
ST. ANTHONY OF THE DESERT (251-356) , a close friend of St. Athanasius, and the Father of Western monasticism, prophesied concerning the worldliness of the future Church: “Men will surrender to the spirit of the age. They will say that if they had lived in our age, Faith would be simple and easy. But in their day, they will say, things are complex; the Church must be brought up to date and made meaningful to the day's problems. When the Church and the world are one these days are at hand. Because our Divine Master put a barrier between His things and the things of this world” (St. Anthony of the Desert, Dis. CXIV).
Fatal Consequences of Lack of Vocations
Our Lady of Good Success clearly stated that vocations lead to peace, harmony and salvation: “No one on the face of the Earth is aware whence comes the salvation of souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars, and the harmony between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents. O, if mortals only understood how to appreciate the time given to them, and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
Article 8
Wednesday & Thursday, April 22nd & 23rd
Like Sheep to the Slaughter!
Wednesday & Thursday, April 22nd & 23rd
Like Sheep to the Slaughter!
Are We Sheep for Slaughter?
OUR LORD warns us: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 7:7). “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own! But because you are not of the world―for I have chosen you out of the world―therefore the world hates you!” (John 15:19). “There shall be then great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be! … You shall be hated by all men and all nations for My Name’s sake! ... Many shall betray one another and shall hate one another! … You shall be brought before governors and before kings for My sake! They will deliver you up in councils and they will scourge you in their synagogues. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall put you to death! The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death; and the father the son; and the children shall rise up against their parents and shall put them to death! … The hour is coming, that whosoever kills you, will think that he does a service to God! … But he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:17-22; 24:9-10, 21; John 16:2). “Fear not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul―but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in Hell!” (Matthew 10:28). “Fear none of those things which you shall suffer! Behold, the devil will cast some of you into prison that you may be tried! Be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life!” (Apocalypse 2:10).
ST. PAUL echoes this, addressing God, writes: “For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long! We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter!” (Romans 8:36). “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution!” (2 Timothy 3:12). ST. PETER adds: “If you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that when His glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy!” (1 Peter 4:13).
OUR LADY reinforces those Scriptural prophecies: “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects! ... These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government, will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and discord will be seen, without love for country or family ... Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective, making it easy for everyone to live in sin ... During this time the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay. How the Church will suffer during this dark night! … The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to make them deviate from the spirit of their vocation … The Church will yield to large persecution, a time of darkness and the Church will witness a frightful crisis ... Churches will be locked up or desecrated … and altars will be sacked … Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death … The good will be martyred and the Holy Father will have much to suffer … Men will kill and massacre each other, even in their homes … Blood will flow in the streets. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy ... Blood will flow on all sides ... The righteous will suffer greatly ... The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings!” (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
OUR LADY OF FATIMA warned of five scourges that would fall upon the world if mankind did not repent and return to God. The five scourges were to be:
(1) A second world war beginning in the reign of Pius XI (in his pontificate we had the Chinese-Japanese war, the Spanish Civil War, and the annexation of Austria ― all of which might be considered the prologue to the Second World War);
(2) The rise and success of Russian Communism;
(3) The martyrdom of the faithful;
(4) The Holy Father having much to suffer;
(5) The annihilation of nations.
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI (1181–1226) prophesied on his deathbed: “There will be an uncanonically elected pope who will cause a great Schism, which will cause such universal dissension and persecutions, that if those days were not shortened, even the elect would be lost.”
BROTHER JOHN OF THE CLEFT ROCK (1310-1366) prophesied: “Towards the end of the world, tyrants and hostile mobs will rob the Church and the clergy of all their possessions and will afflict and martyr them. Those who heap the most abuse upon them will be held in high esteem. The sufferings of the Church will be much greater than at any previous time in her history.”
BLESSED ANNA-MARIA TAIGI (19th century, Italy) prophesied of our times: “Religion shall be persecuted, and priests massacred. Churches shall be closed!”
VENERABLE FR. BARTHOLOMEW HOLZHAUSER (1613-1658) prophesied concerning our times: “This period will be one of affliction, desolation, humiliation, and poverty for the Church ― a period of defections, calamities and exterminations. Those Christians who survive the sword, plague and famines, will be few on Earth!”
ABBESS MARIA STEINER (died 1862): “Unless people obtain pardon through their prayers, the time will come when they will see the sword and death, and Rome without a shepherd.”
POPE PIUS IX (died 1878) prophesied: “The Church will suffer exceedingly. Her servants and her chieftain will be mocked, scourged and martyred.”
POPE SAINT PIUS X (died 1914) prophesied: “I saw one of my successors by name fleeing over the corpses of his brethren. He will flee to a place for a short respite where he is unknown, but he himself will die a cruel death”
POPE PIUS XII (1876–1958), after one of his mystical visions, said: “Mankind must prepare itself for sufferings such as it has never before experienced.” He expressed dismay at what he saw facing humanity in the not so distant future, describing those times as “the darkest since the deluge.”
POPE JOHN PAUL II (1920-2005), having read the Third Secret of Fatima, was questioned on the contents of the Secret. The pope replied: “Given the seriousness of the contents, my predecessors in the Petrine office diplomatically preferred to postpone publication, so as not to encourage the world power of Communism to make certain moves. On the other hand, it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this―if there is a message in which it is written that the oceans will flood whole areas of the Earth, and that, from one moment to the next, millions of people will perish, truly the publication of such a message is no longer something to be so much desired! Many wish to know simply from curiosity and a taste for the sensational, but they forget that knowledge also implies responsibility. They only seek the satisfaction of their curiosity, and that is dangerous if at the same time they are not disposed to do something, and if they are convinced that it is impossible to do anything against evil. Here is the remedy against this evil. Pray! Pray, and ask for nothing more! Leave everything else to the Mother of God! We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and a total dedication to Christ and for Christ! … With your and my prayers it is possible to mitigate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because only thus can the Church be effectively renewed! How many times has the renewal of the Church sprung from blood! This time, too, it will not be otherwise! We must be strong and prepared, and trust in Christ and His Mother, and be very, very assiduous in praying the Rosary!”
POPE BENEDICT XVI (1927-2022), before he became pope, wrote on the crisis facing the Church today: “It seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrifying upheavals … It will be hard-going for the Church! … As a small society, she will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members … As the number of her adherents diminishes, so will she loose many of her privileges ... It will make her poor … She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices [buildings] that she built in prosperity ... From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge ― a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning … But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church.”
The Age of Martyrdom is Today
On the bloody side, the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, has had more Christians who were martyred for Christ than in all the centuries from Calvary to nineteen hundred included. Communism has played a major part in this—where, behind the old ‘Iron Curtain’, millions were slaughtered for their Faith. To this day, innumerable Catholics are dying for their Faith at the hands of Muslims, who are told by the Koran to either convert Christians from their idolatry of adoring the man Jesus as though he were God, or put them to death.
But our focus here is on our own country. Call it an “unbloody martyrdom”. But have no doubt that to live an authentic Catholic life in America today is to live a martyr's life—or at least to enter the beginning of a prolonged martyrdom, where the ‘civilized’ torture—and at times not so civilized torture—will get progressively worse from here on in.
Only heroic bishops and heroic priests, heroic religious, heroic fathers and mothers, heroic faithful, will survive the massive persecution of the Catholic Church in our country today. We call ourselves the Land of Liberty. But the only liberty that is given freedom is the liberty to do your own will. Pro-choice is not just a clever phrase. It is the hallmark of a culture in which millions have chosen to do what they want and make life humanly impossible for those who choose to do what God wants.
Martyrdom of Witness
We still have one more type of martyrdom to reflect on, and it is, in a way, the most pervasive of all because no follower of Christ can escape it. This is the martyrdom of witness. What do we mean by martyrdom of witness and how does it differ from the other two? It differs from them in that, even in the absence of active opposition―the imitation of Christ must always face passive opposition. From whom? From those who lack a clear vision of the Savior or who, having had it, lost their former commitment to Christ. All that we have seen about the martyrdom by violence applies here too, but the method of opposition is different.
Here the firm believer in the Church's teaching authority; the devoted servant of the perennial teaching of the Church; the convinced pastor who insists on sound traditional doctrine to his flock; the dedicated religious who want to remain faithful to their vows of authentic poverty, honest chastity, and sincere obedience; the firm parents who are concerned about the religious and moral training of their children and are willing to sacrifice generously to build and care for a Christian family―natural or adopted―such persons will not be spared also active criticism and open opposition. But they must especially be ready to live in an atmosphere of coldness to their deepest beliefs.
Sometimes they would almost wish the opposition were more overt and even persecution would be a welcome change. It is the studied indifference of people whom they know and love, of persons in their own natural or religious family, of men and women whose intelligence they respect and whose respect they cherish. This kind of apathy can be demoralizing and, unless it finds relief, can be devastating.
To continue living a Christ-like life, in this kind of environment, is to practice the martyrdom of witness. Why witness? Because it means giving testimony to our deep religious convictions although all around us others are giving their own example to the contrary. It means giving witness twice over: once on our own behalf as the outward expression of what we internally believe and once again on behalf of others whose conduct is not only different from ours but contradicts it.
The phrase, sanguis martyrum est semen Christianorum― “the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians” ―was not a pious sentiment. It was a literal fact of history. The more blood was shed by Christians in dying for their Faith, the more Christianity expanded throughout the pagan world.
Modern-Day Paganism
Paganism is as old as human history. In one sentence, paganism is a culture of untruth and a culture of death. Error and human sacrifice played a major part in the life of many pagans. We Christians too have our ‘human sacrifice’—we call it martyrdom. However, it is not something we do to ourselves, it is something we suffer as coming from the hands of pagans and other enemies of the Church.
Over the two thousand years since Calvary, Christianity has had to constantly contend with pagan ideas, pagan laws; in a word―with a pagan culture that hated Christianity for the same reason that it crucified the Incarnate Truth, who became man to teach the world how to serve God here on earth, in order to possess Him in a blessed eternity.
There are differences, however, between a paganism that has never been Christianized, and a once-Christian society that has become paganized. This state of neo-paganism or modern paganism, is the condition in which faithful and believing Catholics find themselves surrounded by, as we approach the third millennium. In a country like America, whose supreme court in the early years of this century called a Christian nation, they find themselves surrounded by a paganism that is literally directed by the prince of this world. It is a paganism whose father is the evil spirit, whom Christ identified as the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning.
Death & Lies
There are two effects of this modern paganism which no one can rationally deny. It is first of all a culture of death, and secondly it is a society penetrated with the untruth. Politics lives a lie; the Protestant religions preach a lie; the Atheists believe a lie; the world lives a lie.
Can anyone doubt that our society is a culture of death? The lowest statistic for the number of abortions throughout the world is sixty-five million. One once-civilized nation after another has legalized the abortion of not only the unborn, but of the newly born. Infanticide is now part of accepted American practice. So-called euthanasia and assisted suicide are accepted as part of modern life.
Unreal World
On the side of truth, even Protestants (in error themselves) see how bad things are. Marshall McLuhan, the renowned Canadian Protestant philosopher of social psychology and communication theory, wrote: “The modern media are engaged in Luciferian conspiracy against the truth.” Millions of words are published every day and heard over the internet, radio and television. Very consciously and deliberately, much of this written and spoken communication is not true. The media broadcasts a lie and the world lives that lie.
Our Lord called the devil the "father of lies" and this father of lies is “the prince of the world” (John 8:44; 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). It is estimated that ninety percent of the books borrowed from American libraries are fiction. Whole nations are living in a dream world created by the media, and the dreams are scientifically calculated to keep the human mind from contact with reality. We define “truth” as conformity of the mind with objective reality. On these terms, must we not say that the evil spirit is demonically successful in deceiving whole nations by filling their minds with lies?
The Need for Martyrs
Given the widespread culture of death and plague of untruth in our day, is it any wonder that the followers of Christ must pay dearly for their loyalty to the Master, who identified Himself as the Life and the Truth?
You do not remain faithful to the Savior without paying for it. This has been the story of Christianity since the first Good Friday, when Jesus was crucified by His enemies. Why did they crucify Him? Because He taught that we were made for a life that will never end, and because He would not compromise on the Truth which He had received from His Father.
This has been the verdict of Christian history ever since, and will remain the same until the end of time. Those who want to remain loyal to Jesus Christ must expect to suffer for their witness to Incarnate Life and Truth. Another name for this suffering witness is martyrdom.
What is Martyrdom?
The best description of martyrdom was given by Christ Himself just before He ascended into Heaven. He said to them: “You shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Here we have capsulized in one sentence the motivating power of martyrdom, its nature, and its apostolic purpose.
Towards the end of His life on Earth, Jesus described in quite striking terms what “witnessing” to Him could entail: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death: and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name's sake. The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the son: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death. And you shall be hated by all men for My Name's sake: but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved” (Matthew 10:21-22; 24:9). The defining factor is “for My Name’s sake”! We live for Christ’s sake; we suffer for Christ’s sake; we die or are put to death for Christ’s sake.
Martyrs For Christ
The source of strength to suffer for Christ comes finally from the Holy Spirit, who is said to give power. In the language of the New Testament, this power is the same kind of power by which miracles can be worked. The nature of martyrdom is to witness, except that when Christ spoke to the disciples He did not say “You shall be My witnesses,” but, “You shall be My martyrs,” which tells us exactly what we want to know.
The essence of being a martyr is to be a witness. And we know what a witness does. He gives testimony publicly that something he saw or heard is true. He has experience of a fact or an event, and as a witness he declares that what he says or signs his name to is so. He gives evidence to others that what he testifies to should be believed. Why? Because he personally knows.
We are liable to miss the word “My” which precedes the word “Martyrs” in the clause “You shall by My martyrs.” This prefix is crucial. Those who are martyrs, are witnesses to Christ. They testify, if need be with their blood, that what they believe is true because they have known Christ.
The implication is that in order to be a witness, even to martyrdom, one must have experienced Christ, in a way comparable to what Peter told the early Christians: “Whom having not seen, you love: in Whom also now, though you see Him not, you believe: and believing shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified; receiving the end of your Faith, even the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9).
Believe Strongly, Die Bravely
So it was in the apostolic age, and so it is in ours. In order to witness to Christ we must believe in Him so strongly that we are filled with His joy. This joy is, of course, as Peter explained, not devoid of pain. But it is genuine and unmistakable. It is also profoundly communicable. In fact, one of the paradoxes of martyrdom is the positive happiness that a strongly committed follower of Christ has in suffering for Christ.
This is brought out dramatically by St. Luke in describing the second summons of the Apostles before the Sanhedrin, after they had been warned not to preach about the Savior. The Apostles were flogged and warned again not to speak in the name of Jesus. As they left the jail where they had been scourged, they were glad to have had the honor of suffering humiliation for the sake of the name of Christ: “And calling in the Apostles, after they had scourged them, they charged them that they should not speak at all in the name of Jesus; and they dismissed them. And they indeed went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus” (Acts 5:40-41).
They would all, eventually, lay down their lives for Christ—even St. John in a certain sense, for had he not been miraculously preserved by God, he would have been martyred in the cauldron of boiling oil where they had placed him.
If They Hated Me, They Will Hate You
“If the world hate you, know that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). Today, the world has, for the most part, rejected Christ. It is but a small step from rejecting and eliminating those who profess to follow Christ. We are in the age of the minor apostasy. Many, when threatened, will abandon their Faith. We need to pray to the Queen of Martyrs and the Apostle martyrs for the strength to witness for Christ in that crucial moment. “Fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in Hell” (Matthew 10:28).
OUR LORD warns us: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 7:7). “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own! But because you are not of the world―for I have chosen you out of the world―therefore the world hates you!” (John 15:19). “There shall be then great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be! … You shall be hated by all men and all nations for My Name’s sake! ... Many shall betray one another and shall hate one another! … You shall be brought before governors and before kings for My sake! They will deliver you up in councils and they will scourge you in their synagogues. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall put you to death! The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death; and the father the son; and the children shall rise up against their parents and shall put them to death! … The hour is coming, that whosoever kills you, will think that he does a service to God! … But he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:17-22; 24:9-10, 21; John 16:2). “Fear not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul―but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in Hell!” (Matthew 10:28). “Fear none of those things which you shall suffer! Behold, the devil will cast some of you into prison that you may be tried! Be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life!” (Apocalypse 2:10).
ST. PAUL echoes this, addressing God, writes: “For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long! We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter!” (Romans 8:36). “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution!” (2 Timothy 3:12). ST. PETER adds: “If you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that when His glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy!” (1 Peter 4:13).
OUR LADY reinforces those Scriptural prophecies: “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects! ... These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government, will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and discord will be seen, without love for country or family ... Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective, making it easy for everyone to live in sin ... During this time the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay. How the Church will suffer during this dark night! … The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to make them deviate from the spirit of their vocation … The Church will yield to large persecution, a time of darkness and the Church will witness a frightful crisis ... Churches will be locked up or desecrated … and altars will be sacked … Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death … The good will be martyred and the Holy Father will have much to suffer … Men will kill and massacre each other, even in their homes … Blood will flow in the streets. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy ... Blood will flow on all sides ... The righteous will suffer greatly ... The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings!” (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
OUR LADY OF FATIMA warned of five scourges that would fall upon the world if mankind did not repent and return to God. The five scourges were to be:
(1) A second world war beginning in the reign of Pius XI (in his pontificate we had the Chinese-Japanese war, the Spanish Civil War, and the annexation of Austria ― all of which might be considered the prologue to the Second World War);
(2) The rise and success of Russian Communism;
(3) The martyrdom of the faithful;
(4) The Holy Father having much to suffer;
(5) The annihilation of nations.
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI (1181–1226) prophesied on his deathbed: “There will be an uncanonically elected pope who will cause a great Schism, which will cause such universal dissension and persecutions, that if those days were not shortened, even the elect would be lost.”
BROTHER JOHN OF THE CLEFT ROCK (1310-1366) prophesied: “Towards the end of the world, tyrants and hostile mobs will rob the Church and the clergy of all their possessions and will afflict and martyr them. Those who heap the most abuse upon them will be held in high esteem. The sufferings of the Church will be much greater than at any previous time in her history.”
BLESSED ANNA-MARIA TAIGI (19th century, Italy) prophesied of our times: “Religion shall be persecuted, and priests massacred. Churches shall be closed!”
VENERABLE FR. BARTHOLOMEW HOLZHAUSER (1613-1658) prophesied concerning our times: “This period will be one of affliction, desolation, humiliation, and poverty for the Church ― a period of defections, calamities and exterminations. Those Christians who survive the sword, plague and famines, will be few on Earth!”
ABBESS MARIA STEINER (died 1862): “Unless people obtain pardon through their prayers, the time will come when they will see the sword and death, and Rome without a shepherd.”
POPE PIUS IX (died 1878) prophesied: “The Church will suffer exceedingly. Her servants and her chieftain will be mocked, scourged and martyred.”
POPE SAINT PIUS X (died 1914) prophesied: “I saw one of my successors by name fleeing over the corpses of his brethren. He will flee to a place for a short respite where he is unknown, but he himself will die a cruel death”
POPE PIUS XII (1876–1958), after one of his mystical visions, said: “Mankind must prepare itself for sufferings such as it has never before experienced.” He expressed dismay at what he saw facing humanity in the not so distant future, describing those times as “the darkest since the deluge.”
POPE JOHN PAUL II (1920-2005), having read the Third Secret of Fatima, was questioned on the contents of the Secret. The pope replied: “Given the seriousness of the contents, my predecessors in the Petrine office diplomatically preferred to postpone publication, so as not to encourage the world power of Communism to make certain moves. On the other hand, it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this―if there is a message in which it is written that the oceans will flood whole areas of the Earth, and that, from one moment to the next, millions of people will perish, truly the publication of such a message is no longer something to be so much desired! Many wish to know simply from curiosity and a taste for the sensational, but they forget that knowledge also implies responsibility. They only seek the satisfaction of their curiosity, and that is dangerous if at the same time they are not disposed to do something, and if they are convinced that it is impossible to do anything against evil. Here is the remedy against this evil. Pray! Pray, and ask for nothing more! Leave everything else to the Mother of God! We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and a total dedication to Christ and for Christ! … With your and my prayers it is possible to mitigate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because only thus can the Church be effectively renewed! How many times has the renewal of the Church sprung from blood! This time, too, it will not be otherwise! We must be strong and prepared, and trust in Christ and His Mother, and be very, very assiduous in praying the Rosary!”
POPE BENEDICT XVI (1927-2022), before he became pope, wrote on the crisis facing the Church today: “It seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrifying upheavals … It will be hard-going for the Church! … As a small society, she will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members … As the number of her adherents diminishes, so will she loose many of her privileges ... It will make her poor … She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices [buildings] that she built in prosperity ... From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge ― a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning … But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church.”
The Age of Martyrdom is Today
On the bloody side, the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, has had more Christians who were martyred for Christ than in all the centuries from Calvary to nineteen hundred included. Communism has played a major part in this—where, behind the old ‘Iron Curtain’, millions were slaughtered for their Faith. To this day, innumerable Catholics are dying for their Faith at the hands of Muslims, who are told by the Koran to either convert Christians from their idolatry of adoring the man Jesus as though he were God, or put them to death.
But our focus here is on our own country. Call it an “unbloody martyrdom”. But have no doubt that to live an authentic Catholic life in America today is to live a martyr's life—or at least to enter the beginning of a prolonged martyrdom, where the ‘civilized’ torture—and at times not so civilized torture—will get progressively worse from here on in.
Only heroic bishops and heroic priests, heroic religious, heroic fathers and mothers, heroic faithful, will survive the massive persecution of the Catholic Church in our country today. We call ourselves the Land of Liberty. But the only liberty that is given freedom is the liberty to do your own will. Pro-choice is not just a clever phrase. It is the hallmark of a culture in which millions have chosen to do what they want and make life humanly impossible for those who choose to do what God wants.
Martyrdom of Witness
We still have one more type of martyrdom to reflect on, and it is, in a way, the most pervasive of all because no follower of Christ can escape it. This is the martyrdom of witness. What do we mean by martyrdom of witness and how does it differ from the other two? It differs from them in that, even in the absence of active opposition―the imitation of Christ must always face passive opposition. From whom? From those who lack a clear vision of the Savior or who, having had it, lost their former commitment to Christ. All that we have seen about the martyrdom by violence applies here too, but the method of opposition is different.
Here the firm believer in the Church's teaching authority; the devoted servant of the perennial teaching of the Church; the convinced pastor who insists on sound traditional doctrine to his flock; the dedicated religious who want to remain faithful to their vows of authentic poverty, honest chastity, and sincere obedience; the firm parents who are concerned about the religious and moral training of their children and are willing to sacrifice generously to build and care for a Christian family―natural or adopted―such persons will not be spared also active criticism and open opposition. But they must especially be ready to live in an atmosphere of coldness to their deepest beliefs.
Sometimes they would almost wish the opposition were more overt and even persecution would be a welcome change. It is the studied indifference of people whom they know and love, of persons in their own natural or religious family, of men and women whose intelligence they respect and whose respect they cherish. This kind of apathy can be demoralizing and, unless it finds relief, can be devastating.
To continue living a Christ-like life, in this kind of environment, is to practice the martyrdom of witness. Why witness? Because it means giving testimony to our deep religious convictions although all around us others are giving their own example to the contrary. It means giving witness twice over: once on our own behalf as the outward expression of what we internally believe and once again on behalf of others whose conduct is not only different from ours but contradicts it.
The phrase, sanguis martyrum est semen Christianorum― “the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians” ―was not a pious sentiment. It was a literal fact of history. The more blood was shed by Christians in dying for their Faith, the more Christianity expanded throughout the pagan world.
Modern-Day Paganism
Paganism is as old as human history. In one sentence, paganism is a culture of untruth and a culture of death. Error and human sacrifice played a major part in the life of many pagans. We Christians too have our ‘human sacrifice’—we call it martyrdom. However, it is not something we do to ourselves, it is something we suffer as coming from the hands of pagans and other enemies of the Church.
Over the two thousand years since Calvary, Christianity has had to constantly contend with pagan ideas, pagan laws; in a word―with a pagan culture that hated Christianity for the same reason that it crucified the Incarnate Truth, who became man to teach the world how to serve God here on earth, in order to possess Him in a blessed eternity.
There are differences, however, between a paganism that has never been Christianized, and a once-Christian society that has become paganized. This state of neo-paganism or modern paganism, is the condition in which faithful and believing Catholics find themselves surrounded by, as we approach the third millennium. In a country like America, whose supreme court in the early years of this century called a Christian nation, they find themselves surrounded by a paganism that is literally directed by the prince of this world. It is a paganism whose father is the evil spirit, whom Christ identified as the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning.
Death & Lies
There are two effects of this modern paganism which no one can rationally deny. It is first of all a culture of death, and secondly it is a society penetrated with the untruth. Politics lives a lie; the Protestant religions preach a lie; the Atheists believe a lie; the world lives a lie.
Can anyone doubt that our society is a culture of death? The lowest statistic for the number of abortions throughout the world is sixty-five million. One once-civilized nation after another has legalized the abortion of not only the unborn, but of the newly born. Infanticide is now part of accepted American practice. So-called euthanasia and assisted suicide are accepted as part of modern life.
Unreal World
On the side of truth, even Protestants (in error themselves) see how bad things are. Marshall McLuhan, the renowned Canadian Protestant philosopher of social psychology and communication theory, wrote: “The modern media are engaged in Luciferian conspiracy against the truth.” Millions of words are published every day and heard over the internet, radio and television. Very consciously and deliberately, much of this written and spoken communication is not true. The media broadcasts a lie and the world lives that lie.
Our Lord called the devil the "father of lies" and this father of lies is “the prince of the world” (John 8:44; 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). It is estimated that ninety percent of the books borrowed from American libraries are fiction. Whole nations are living in a dream world created by the media, and the dreams are scientifically calculated to keep the human mind from contact with reality. We define “truth” as conformity of the mind with objective reality. On these terms, must we not say that the evil spirit is demonically successful in deceiving whole nations by filling their minds with lies?
The Need for Martyrs
Given the widespread culture of death and plague of untruth in our day, is it any wonder that the followers of Christ must pay dearly for their loyalty to the Master, who identified Himself as the Life and the Truth?
You do not remain faithful to the Savior without paying for it. This has been the story of Christianity since the first Good Friday, when Jesus was crucified by His enemies. Why did they crucify Him? Because He taught that we were made for a life that will never end, and because He would not compromise on the Truth which He had received from His Father.
This has been the verdict of Christian history ever since, and will remain the same until the end of time. Those who want to remain loyal to Jesus Christ must expect to suffer for their witness to Incarnate Life and Truth. Another name for this suffering witness is martyrdom.
What is Martyrdom?
The best description of martyrdom was given by Christ Himself just before He ascended into Heaven. He said to them: “You shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Here we have capsulized in one sentence the motivating power of martyrdom, its nature, and its apostolic purpose.
Towards the end of His life on Earth, Jesus described in quite striking terms what “witnessing” to Him could entail: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death: and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name's sake. The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the son: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death. And you shall be hated by all men for My Name's sake: but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved” (Matthew 10:21-22; 24:9). The defining factor is “for My Name’s sake”! We live for Christ’s sake; we suffer for Christ’s sake; we die or are put to death for Christ’s sake.
Martyrs For Christ
The source of strength to suffer for Christ comes finally from the Holy Spirit, who is said to give power. In the language of the New Testament, this power is the same kind of power by which miracles can be worked. The nature of martyrdom is to witness, except that when Christ spoke to the disciples He did not say “You shall be My witnesses,” but, “You shall be My martyrs,” which tells us exactly what we want to know.
The essence of being a martyr is to be a witness. And we know what a witness does. He gives testimony publicly that something he saw or heard is true. He has experience of a fact or an event, and as a witness he declares that what he says or signs his name to is so. He gives evidence to others that what he testifies to should be believed. Why? Because he personally knows.
We are liable to miss the word “My” which precedes the word “Martyrs” in the clause “You shall by My martyrs.” This prefix is crucial. Those who are martyrs, are witnesses to Christ. They testify, if need be with their blood, that what they believe is true because they have known Christ.
The implication is that in order to be a witness, even to martyrdom, one must have experienced Christ, in a way comparable to what Peter told the early Christians: “Whom having not seen, you love: in Whom also now, though you see Him not, you believe: and believing shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified; receiving the end of your Faith, even the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9).
Believe Strongly, Die Bravely
So it was in the apostolic age, and so it is in ours. In order to witness to Christ we must believe in Him so strongly that we are filled with His joy. This joy is, of course, as Peter explained, not devoid of pain. But it is genuine and unmistakable. It is also profoundly communicable. In fact, one of the paradoxes of martyrdom is the positive happiness that a strongly committed follower of Christ has in suffering for Christ.
This is brought out dramatically by St. Luke in describing the second summons of the Apostles before the Sanhedrin, after they had been warned not to preach about the Savior. The Apostles were flogged and warned again not to speak in the name of Jesus. As they left the jail where they had been scourged, they were glad to have had the honor of suffering humiliation for the sake of the name of Christ: “And calling in the Apostles, after they had scourged them, they charged them that they should not speak at all in the name of Jesus; and they dismissed them. And they indeed went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus” (Acts 5:40-41).
They would all, eventually, lay down their lives for Christ—even St. John in a certain sense, for had he not been miraculously preserved by God, he would have been martyred in the cauldron of boiling oil where they had placed him.
If They Hated Me, They Will Hate You
“If the world hate you, know that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). Today, the world has, for the most part, rejected Christ. It is but a small step from rejecting and eliminating those who profess to follow Christ. We are in the age of the minor apostasy. Many, when threatened, will abandon their Faith. We need to pray to the Queen of Martyrs and the Apostle martyrs for the strength to witness for Christ in that crucial moment. “Fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in Hell” (Matthew 10:28).
Article 7
Monday & Tuesday, April 20th & 21st
Growing Shepherd Crisis
Monday & Tuesday, April 20th & 21st
Growing Shepherd Crisis
We are in the Time of Crisis
We have entered the period of Church History that we could well call “The Crisis of the Shepherd.” It is no secret that the so-called “Third Secret of Fatima” speaks of an apostasy or falling-away from the Faith, which is supposed to start at the “top”—meaning that it will start with the clergy or pastors within the Catholic Church and it will affect even those in the highest positions within the Church.
Repeated Warnings from Our Lady
It is not a though all this is a shock and a surprise—Our Lady has given the world ample time and wonderful remedies to avoid what is happening and will continue to worsen. Yet the world, apart from a very small number of souls, seems indifferent at best and scornful at worst with regard to her warnings. Our Lady of Fatima would complain that even the good are not listening to her message and are blindly carrying on with their own ‘good’ projects while ignoring what Heaven wants to be done.
Our Lady of Good Success at Quito, Ecuador
The warnings that have come from Our Lady are unmistakably clear and dire—the terrible times she foretells include a “Crisis of the Shepherd.” Already back in the 1600s, during her apparitions at Quito, in Ecuador, she warned us of these calamities. The Blessed Virgin under the glorious title of Our Lady of Good Success told Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, that this battle would reach its most acute stage because of various unfaithful religious, who, Our Lady says, “under the appearance of virtue and bad-spirited zeal, would turn upon Religion.” She goes on to say: “The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs. The effects of secular education will increase, which will be one reason for the lack of priestly and religious vocations...”
Our Lady of Good Success continues: “The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised. ...The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them. These corrupted priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all priests. This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good Pastors of the Church.” … “Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost.”
During this time, Our Lady foretold, “the secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the divine compass, they will stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry, and they will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain. How the Church will suffer during this dark night! Lacking a Prelate and Father to guide them with paternal love, gentleness, strength, wisdom and prudence, many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger. This will mark the arrival of my hour.”
Our Lady of La Salette
Though we have often quoted extracts from Our Lady’s La Salette message, we will do so again—following the words of wisdom from Holy Scripture: “Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:2-4). Sadly, many today do “indeed turn away their hearing from the truth”—but as Our Lady never tires of repeating her message, we will not tire in repeating it in unison with her.
La Salette’s message takes up the same theme of Quito, Ecuador. Our Lady had the following tragic things to say: “Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! … The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence … The devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God … Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops … Rome will lose Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.”
Our Lady of Fatima
In Sister Lucia’s fourth memoir, which was written from October-December 1941, Sister Lucia copied the first two parts of the Secret from the text of her third memoir, but added a sentence that is not found there. Sister Lucia gave us the first sentence of the Third Secret when she inserted into her fourth memoir the phrase “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” This sentence had not appeared in her previous memoir. Sister Lucia purposely inserted it into her fourth memoir to indicate to us what the final part of the Third Secret is about.
In 1943, after having been asked by Bishop da Silva to write down the text of the Third Secret, Sister Lucia was finding the task difficult. She declared to the bishop that it was not absolutely necessary to write out the text, “since in a certain manner she had said it.” Sister Lucia was very likely referring to the additional phrase she had inserted into her fourth memoir, “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.”
The phrase, “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” is a promise that the true Faith will be preserved in that country, although in its vagueness it does not state by whom. Yet, if in Portugal the true Faith will be preserved, what does that imply about the rest of the world? The Portuguese Father Messias de Coelho concluded that, “this allusion, so positive about what will happen among us, suggests to us that it will be different around us.”
Father Alonso, the official Fatima archivist had this to say on the Third Secret: “‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved’: The phrase most clearly implies a critical state of Faith, which other nations will suffer, that is to say, a crisis of Faith; whereas Portugal will preserve its Faith.”
Honest Members of the Church Admit the Crisis
Cardinal Manning: “The apostasy of the city of Rome from the vicar of Christ and its destruction by Antichrist may be thoughts very new to many Catholics, that I think it well to recite the text of theologians of greatest repute. First Malvenda, who writes expressly on the subject, states as the opinion of Ribera, Gaspar Melus, Biegas, Suarez, Bellarmine and Bosius that Rome shall apostatize from the Faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ and return to its ancient paganism. ...Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible; hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were from the face of the Earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early Church.” (Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, The Present Crisis of the Holy See, 1861, London: Burns and Lambert, pp. 88-90). For Cardinal Manning to speak about apostasy in his day, would seem to be scandalous — yet Manning was alive at the time of Our Lady’s warnings at La Salette. He heard; he understood and he believed.
Pope Pius XII: “I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s messages to Lucia of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul …. A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God.” Cardinal Pacelli said this in 1931. He became Pope Pius XII in 1939. Here Pope Pius XII speaks of a future humanism that we are currently witnessing; and one that is increasing. “The Rights of Man” … “Human Dignity” … “the Human Person” are all phrases and ideas that have flooded the Church like never before. We are so focused on man, that we are forgetting God. Look at all the socials and activities organized by churches everywhere and compare those attendances to the attendances in visiting and adoring the Blessed Sacrament, where God Himself resides in our midst!
The Holy Eucharist is the most important Sacrament of the Church, but never has it been as important as in these days of impending apostasy. Notice the Eucharistic adoration that took place at Fatima, before Our Lady even appeared. Notice how Divine Providence reserved the prodigious scientific discoveries about the Holy Eucharist from the Miracle of Lanziano Italy, to be uncovered in 1969/1970 at a time when God knew that belief in the Eucharistic would dwindle in the world. The Holy Eucharist is there, among other things, to feed and strengthen our Faith; yet by neglecting to frequently visit, adore and eat this Bread of Heaven, we indirectly weaken our Faith and lose the necessary strength that is required in fighting the apostasy of our times.
Pope Paul VI: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church.” (Pope Paul VI, Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13th, 1977). Here too, Pope Paul VI speaks of the “Crisis of the Shepherds” by saying that the “darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church, even to its summit... Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading into the highest levels within the Church.” ! This explains, according to some authors on the “Third Secret of Fatima” the reluctance of the Church to speak on these matters, because of embarrassment that would arise from what would be tantamount to self-indictment.
Pope Benedict XVI: “Yes, I have read it [the Third Secret]. It refers to] the dangers which threaten the Faith and the life of the Christian and therefore (the life) of the world” (Pope Benedict XVI, while still Cardinal Ratzinger, Jesus magazine, November 11, 1984). What gives “life” to the Church? Grace and Truth, of course. But Grace and Truth have to be distributed by the Shepherds of the Church; that is why Jesus said to St. Peter: “Feed My lambs…Feed My sheep!” But Liberalism and Modernism feed poison to the lambs and sheep; and False Ecumenism introduces the lambs and sheep to wolves in sheep’s clothing. No wonder today’s statistics show that the “Cancer of Unbelief” has far advanced in the Catholic Church today:
Pope John Paul II’s Personal Theologian: “In the Third Secret, it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top” (Cardinal Ciappi, the Papal Theologian of Pope John Paul II).
Sister Lucia: In a letter to Fr. Umberto Pasquale, who was very devoted to the cause of Fatima, Sister Lucia wrote:
“The decadence which exists in the world is without any doubt the consequence of the lack of the spirit of prayer. Foreseeing this disorientation, the Blessed Virgin recommended recitation of the Rosary with such insistence. And since the Rosary is, after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the prayer most apt for preserving Faith in souls, the devil has unchained his struggles against it. Unfortunately, we see the disasters he has caused.”
THE DEVIL’S SCORE-CARD FOR THE USA
PRIESTS: In 1965 there were 58,632. In 2004 only 41,212. In 2025 only 19,471. A 67% decrease.
In the USA in 2025, many dioceses consider age 70 as the usual priestly early retirement age from running a parish― though they may request to continue working between ages 70 and 75. Priests must submit their resignation from pastoral leadership at age 75. Catholic priests usually retire as pastors at age 75, often moving to “administrator” status for a year or more if they choose to continue working. While they step down from full-time parish administration, many continue to serve in ministry to some extent as their health permits. Since most priests are 65 years or much older, the % drop could reach 85% in 7 to 10 years leaving less than 12,000 priests. And most of these would be in aging categories.
SEMINARIANS: In 1965 there were 48,992. In 2004 only 4,719. In 2025 only 2,686. A 94% decrease. In 1965, the Catholic Church in the United States saw 1,575 new priests ordained. By 2025 that number had dropped to only 405 ordinations to the priesthood. A 74% decrease.
RELIGIOUS BROTHERS: In 1965 there were 12,271. In 2004 only 5,505. In 2025 only 3,290. A 73% decrease.
RELIGIOUS SISTERS: In 1965 there were 179,954. In 2004 only 71,468. In 2025 only 33,135. A 82% decrease.
CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOLS: In 1965 there were 1,566. In 2004 1,225. In 2025 only 1,100. A 30% decrease.
CATHOLIC GRADE SCHOOLS: In 1965 there were 10,503. In 2004 only 6,574. In 2025 only 4,644. A 56% decrease.
TEACHING SISTERS: In 1965 there were 104,314. In 2004 only 8,233. In 2025 only 2,250. A 97% decrease.
TEACHING PRIESTS: In 1965 there were 12,346. In 2004 only 1,897. In 2025 no stats available. A 84% decrease from 1965 to 2004.
WEEKLY MASS ATTENDANCE: In 1965 65%. In 2004 only 25%. In 2025 only 20%. Most of the 20% who attend weekly Mass today are 50 years old or older. The projected attendance will be less than 10% in ten years. When our grey hairs are gone our churches will be empty.
BAPTISMS AND CONVERSIONS: There were approximately 1.3 million Catholic baptisms in the United States in 1965. Of these, roughly 90% were infant baptisms, marking a peak period for the Church just as the Second Vatican Council concluded. According to data reported in the 2024 edition of The Official Catholic Directory (covering the previous year, 2023), there were 480,905 infant baptisms in U.S. Latin-rite dioceses. A total of 619,775 people entered the Catholic Church (including infant/adult baptisms and receptions) in that same period. That gives a 52% decrease since 1965.
DIVORCE AMONG CATHOLICS: In 1965, divorce was a rarity rather than a trend. There are no concrete numbers for divorce among Catholics in 1965―but with the overall national US average being at 2.5%, then one can conclude that the Catholic divorce rate was below that. However, in2024, the Catholic divorce rate had risen to around 30%.
MARRIAGE RATES: In 1970 there were about 426,000 Catholic marriages in the United States, compared with about 108,000 in 2025―a decrease of almost 75%. Those declines have come even despite the total number of Catholics in the U.S. having risen, from about 47.8 million Catholics in 1970 to 68 million in 2025. While numerous factors contribute to this, cohabitation — or living together without being married — is widely recognized as a major, accelerating factor.
WHAT CATHOLICS BELIEVE (OR DON’T BELIEVE)!
77% believe it is not necessary to attend Sunday Mass
65% believe Divorce and Remarriage is acceptable
53% believe Abortion is acceptable
74% believe Artificial Birth Control is acceptable
66% believe the Holy Eucharist is only symbolic and not really the Body and Blood of Christ.
These are all mortal sins that can lead to eternal suffering for those who practice these beliefs.
OUR CATHOLIC SHEPHERDS IN SCHOOLS
Among Catholic Elementary School Teachers:
90% disagree with the Church’s condemnation of Birth Control
74% disagree with the Church’s condemnation of Abortion
73% disagree with the Church’s teaching on Papal Infallibility
37% disagree with the Church teaching on the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist
There are many dogmas and teachings of the Catholic Church that these teachers disagree with, the above mentioned are only a sample of the whole. A prime example is you don’t have to believe in the official Catechism. It’s subjective. Let your conscience be your guide. (What about the dogmatic sections of the Catechism?)
These are some of the “Shepherds” who are teaching and guiding your children. Now you know why most Catholic elementary school students quit going to Mass after they leave our schools.
The figures are far worse at Catholic High Schools and most Universities are a disgrace in what they do and do not teach about our Faith.
DECLINE OF CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES between 1965 and 2025
Large, traditional orders such as the Jesuits and Franciscans have seen their numbers fall to roughly half of their 1965 levels.
Jesuit Priests declined 40%; Jesuit Seminarians declined 89%.
Franciscan Priests declined 41%; Franciscan Seminarians declined 97%
Benedictine Priests declined 40%; Benedictine Seminarians declined 93%
Dominican Priests declined 40%; Dominican Seminarians declined 89%
The Jesuits and Franciscans together and by themselves represent 24% of the 110 religious Institutes of Consecrated Life in 1966 and 19% of these religious in 2014. While the average decline of all these religious in 2014 is about 38.1% of their high point, the decline of these two institutes is about 53.5% and 48.2%, respectively. In other words, by 2014, the Jesuits and Franciscans were reduced to about half of their 1966 numbers, and the decline continues.
And so on for all communities. Most of the remaining priests will be gone in the near future, because of their advanced ages. And there increasingly fewer and fewer replacements, because there are so few seminarians; made worse by the fact that only a small percentage of these seminarians graduate.
In 1965, there were over 180,000 Catholic religious sisters in the United States. By 2006, there were around 67,000. In 2025, there were approximately 33,000 Catholic religious sisters in the United States, reflecting an 82% decrease over the past 60 years. As of early 2025, the average age of a Catholic nun in the USA is approximately 80 years old.
There are 19,431 parishes in the United States, over 3,000 of them have no priest to serve them. The number of parishes without priests could easily triple to 9,000 in a few short years because of the rapidly decreasing number of priests and so few replacements.
We have a Mess! We have a Crisis!
Folks! We have a “Crisis of Shepherds”! No surprise, for Our Lady already foretold it, but the world would not listen, nor take the remedies Our Lady offered. We may be tempted to bury our heads in the sand, with a spirit of hopelessness, muttering with Cain: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9) ... “I am only the sheep, I am not the shepherd!” ... “What can I do? I am only one among over a billion who inhabit this Earth!”
This is both a lack of Faith and desertion of obligation. The Apostles were only twelve; the disciples barely a hundred. Yet they were commanded to convert all nations and baptize all creatures. Our sense of desperation is only a natural human emotion and not supernatural response. Our Lord performed miracles and promised that we would do even greater ones, IF WE HAD THE FAITH! The devil said to St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, that if there were only four like him in France, then the devil would “be out of business”! St. Louis Marie de Montfort speaks of the greatest saints being formed and raised up by Our Lady at the end times.
If we look upon and rely upon our own powers, then we are lost; for we but sinful dust and ashes, to whom Our Lord says: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). Yet, if we tap into the vines, that Our Lord and Our Lady are, then nothing is impossible: “With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26) ... “For, amen I say to you, if you have Faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Remove from hence hither!’ and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you” (Matthew 17:19).
We have entered the period of Church History that we could well call “The Crisis of the Shepherd.” It is no secret that the so-called “Third Secret of Fatima” speaks of an apostasy or falling-away from the Faith, which is supposed to start at the “top”—meaning that it will start with the clergy or pastors within the Catholic Church and it will affect even those in the highest positions within the Church.
Repeated Warnings from Our Lady
It is not a though all this is a shock and a surprise—Our Lady has given the world ample time and wonderful remedies to avoid what is happening and will continue to worsen. Yet the world, apart from a very small number of souls, seems indifferent at best and scornful at worst with regard to her warnings. Our Lady of Fatima would complain that even the good are not listening to her message and are blindly carrying on with their own ‘good’ projects while ignoring what Heaven wants to be done.
Our Lady of Good Success at Quito, Ecuador
The warnings that have come from Our Lady are unmistakably clear and dire—the terrible times she foretells include a “Crisis of the Shepherd.” Already back in the 1600s, during her apparitions at Quito, in Ecuador, she warned us of these calamities. The Blessed Virgin under the glorious title of Our Lady of Good Success told Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, that this battle would reach its most acute stage because of various unfaithful religious, who, Our Lady says, “under the appearance of virtue and bad-spirited zeal, would turn upon Religion.” She goes on to say: “The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs. The effects of secular education will increase, which will be one reason for the lack of priestly and religious vocations...”
Our Lady of Good Success continues: “The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised. ...The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them. These corrupted priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all priests. This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good Pastors of the Church.” … “Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost.”
During this time, Our Lady foretold, “the secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the divine compass, they will stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry, and they will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain. How the Church will suffer during this dark night! Lacking a Prelate and Father to guide them with paternal love, gentleness, strength, wisdom and prudence, many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger. This will mark the arrival of my hour.”
Our Lady of La Salette
Though we have often quoted extracts from Our Lady’s La Salette message, we will do so again—following the words of wisdom from Holy Scripture: “Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:2-4). Sadly, many today do “indeed turn away their hearing from the truth”—but as Our Lady never tires of repeating her message, we will not tire in repeating it in unison with her.
La Salette’s message takes up the same theme of Quito, Ecuador. Our Lady had the following tragic things to say: “Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! … The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence … The devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God … Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops … Rome will lose Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.”
Our Lady of Fatima
In Sister Lucia’s fourth memoir, which was written from October-December 1941, Sister Lucia copied the first two parts of the Secret from the text of her third memoir, but added a sentence that is not found there. Sister Lucia gave us the first sentence of the Third Secret when she inserted into her fourth memoir the phrase “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” This sentence had not appeared in her previous memoir. Sister Lucia purposely inserted it into her fourth memoir to indicate to us what the final part of the Third Secret is about.
In 1943, after having been asked by Bishop da Silva to write down the text of the Third Secret, Sister Lucia was finding the task difficult. She declared to the bishop that it was not absolutely necessary to write out the text, “since in a certain manner she had said it.” Sister Lucia was very likely referring to the additional phrase she had inserted into her fourth memoir, “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.”
The phrase, “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” is a promise that the true Faith will be preserved in that country, although in its vagueness it does not state by whom. Yet, if in Portugal the true Faith will be preserved, what does that imply about the rest of the world? The Portuguese Father Messias de Coelho concluded that, “this allusion, so positive about what will happen among us, suggests to us that it will be different around us.”
Father Alonso, the official Fatima archivist had this to say on the Third Secret: “‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved’: The phrase most clearly implies a critical state of Faith, which other nations will suffer, that is to say, a crisis of Faith; whereas Portugal will preserve its Faith.”
Honest Members of the Church Admit the Crisis
Cardinal Manning: “The apostasy of the city of Rome from the vicar of Christ and its destruction by Antichrist may be thoughts very new to many Catholics, that I think it well to recite the text of theologians of greatest repute. First Malvenda, who writes expressly on the subject, states as the opinion of Ribera, Gaspar Melus, Biegas, Suarez, Bellarmine and Bosius that Rome shall apostatize from the Faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ and return to its ancient paganism. ...Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible; hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were from the face of the Earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early Church.” (Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, The Present Crisis of the Holy See, 1861, London: Burns and Lambert, pp. 88-90). For Cardinal Manning to speak about apostasy in his day, would seem to be scandalous — yet Manning was alive at the time of Our Lady’s warnings at La Salette. He heard; he understood and he believed.
Pope Pius XII: “I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s messages to Lucia of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul …. A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God.” Cardinal Pacelli said this in 1931. He became Pope Pius XII in 1939. Here Pope Pius XII speaks of a future humanism that we are currently witnessing; and one that is increasing. “The Rights of Man” … “Human Dignity” … “the Human Person” are all phrases and ideas that have flooded the Church like never before. We are so focused on man, that we are forgetting God. Look at all the socials and activities organized by churches everywhere and compare those attendances to the attendances in visiting and adoring the Blessed Sacrament, where God Himself resides in our midst!
The Holy Eucharist is the most important Sacrament of the Church, but never has it been as important as in these days of impending apostasy. Notice the Eucharistic adoration that took place at Fatima, before Our Lady even appeared. Notice how Divine Providence reserved the prodigious scientific discoveries about the Holy Eucharist from the Miracle of Lanziano Italy, to be uncovered in 1969/1970 at a time when God knew that belief in the Eucharistic would dwindle in the world. The Holy Eucharist is there, among other things, to feed and strengthen our Faith; yet by neglecting to frequently visit, adore and eat this Bread of Heaven, we indirectly weaken our Faith and lose the necessary strength that is required in fighting the apostasy of our times.
Pope Paul VI: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church.” (Pope Paul VI, Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13th, 1977). Here too, Pope Paul VI speaks of the “Crisis of the Shepherds” by saying that the “darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church, even to its summit... Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading into the highest levels within the Church.” ! This explains, according to some authors on the “Third Secret of Fatima” the reluctance of the Church to speak on these matters, because of embarrassment that would arise from what would be tantamount to self-indictment.
Pope Benedict XVI: “Yes, I have read it [the Third Secret]. It refers to] the dangers which threaten the Faith and the life of the Christian and therefore (the life) of the world” (Pope Benedict XVI, while still Cardinal Ratzinger, Jesus magazine, November 11, 1984). What gives “life” to the Church? Grace and Truth, of course. But Grace and Truth have to be distributed by the Shepherds of the Church; that is why Jesus said to St. Peter: “Feed My lambs…Feed My sheep!” But Liberalism and Modernism feed poison to the lambs and sheep; and False Ecumenism introduces the lambs and sheep to wolves in sheep’s clothing. No wonder today’s statistics show that the “Cancer of Unbelief” has far advanced in the Catholic Church today:
Pope John Paul II’s Personal Theologian: “In the Third Secret, it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top” (Cardinal Ciappi, the Papal Theologian of Pope John Paul II).
Sister Lucia: In a letter to Fr. Umberto Pasquale, who was very devoted to the cause of Fatima, Sister Lucia wrote:
“The decadence which exists in the world is without any doubt the consequence of the lack of the spirit of prayer. Foreseeing this disorientation, the Blessed Virgin recommended recitation of the Rosary with such insistence. And since the Rosary is, after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the prayer most apt for preserving Faith in souls, the devil has unchained his struggles against it. Unfortunately, we see the disasters he has caused.”
THE DEVIL’S SCORE-CARD FOR THE USA
PRIESTS: In 1965 there were 58,632. In 2004 only 41,212. In 2025 only 19,471. A 67% decrease.
In the USA in 2025, many dioceses consider age 70 as the usual priestly early retirement age from running a parish― though they may request to continue working between ages 70 and 75. Priests must submit their resignation from pastoral leadership at age 75. Catholic priests usually retire as pastors at age 75, often moving to “administrator” status for a year or more if they choose to continue working. While they step down from full-time parish administration, many continue to serve in ministry to some extent as their health permits. Since most priests are 65 years or much older, the % drop could reach 85% in 7 to 10 years leaving less than 12,000 priests. And most of these would be in aging categories.
SEMINARIANS: In 1965 there were 48,992. In 2004 only 4,719. In 2025 only 2,686. A 94% decrease. In 1965, the Catholic Church in the United States saw 1,575 new priests ordained. By 2025 that number had dropped to only 405 ordinations to the priesthood. A 74% decrease.
RELIGIOUS BROTHERS: In 1965 there were 12,271. In 2004 only 5,505. In 2025 only 3,290. A 73% decrease.
RELIGIOUS SISTERS: In 1965 there were 179,954. In 2004 only 71,468. In 2025 only 33,135. A 82% decrease.
CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOLS: In 1965 there were 1,566. In 2004 1,225. In 2025 only 1,100. A 30% decrease.
CATHOLIC GRADE SCHOOLS: In 1965 there were 10,503. In 2004 only 6,574. In 2025 only 4,644. A 56% decrease.
TEACHING SISTERS: In 1965 there were 104,314. In 2004 only 8,233. In 2025 only 2,250. A 97% decrease.
TEACHING PRIESTS: In 1965 there were 12,346. In 2004 only 1,897. In 2025 no stats available. A 84% decrease from 1965 to 2004.
WEEKLY MASS ATTENDANCE: In 1965 65%. In 2004 only 25%. In 2025 only 20%. Most of the 20% who attend weekly Mass today are 50 years old or older. The projected attendance will be less than 10% in ten years. When our grey hairs are gone our churches will be empty.
BAPTISMS AND CONVERSIONS: There were approximately 1.3 million Catholic baptisms in the United States in 1965. Of these, roughly 90% were infant baptisms, marking a peak period for the Church just as the Second Vatican Council concluded. According to data reported in the 2024 edition of The Official Catholic Directory (covering the previous year, 2023), there were 480,905 infant baptisms in U.S. Latin-rite dioceses. A total of 619,775 people entered the Catholic Church (including infant/adult baptisms and receptions) in that same period. That gives a 52% decrease since 1965.
DIVORCE AMONG CATHOLICS: In 1965, divorce was a rarity rather than a trend. There are no concrete numbers for divorce among Catholics in 1965―but with the overall national US average being at 2.5%, then one can conclude that the Catholic divorce rate was below that. However, in2024, the Catholic divorce rate had risen to around 30%.
MARRIAGE RATES: In 1970 there were about 426,000 Catholic marriages in the United States, compared with about 108,000 in 2025―a decrease of almost 75%. Those declines have come even despite the total number of Catholics in the U.S. having risen, from about 47.8 million Catholics in 1970 to 68 million in 2025. While numerous factors contribute to this, cohabitation — or living together without being married — is widely recognized as a major, accelerating factor.
WHAT CATHOLICS BELIEVE (OR DON’T BELIEVE)!
77% believe it is not necessary to attend Sunday Mass
65% believe Divorce and Remarriage is acceptable
53% believe Abortion is acceptable
74% believe Artificial Birth Control is acceptable
66% believe the Holy Eucharist is only symbolic and not really the Body and Blood of Christ.
These are all mortal sins that can lead to eternal suffering for those who practice these beliefs.
OUR CATHOLIC SHEPHERDS IN SCHOOLS
Among Catholic Elementary School Teachers:
90% disagree with the Church’s condemnation of Birth Control
74% disagree with the Church’s condemnation of Abortion
73% disagree with the Church’s teaching on Papal Infallibility
37% disagree with the Church teaching on the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist
There are many dogmas and teachings of the Catholic Church that these teachers disagree with, the above mentioned are only a sample of the whole. A prime example is you don’t have to believe in the official Catechism. It’s subjective. Let your conscience be your guide. (What about the dogmatic sections of the Catechism?)
These are some of the “Shepherds” who are teaching and guiding your children. Now you know why most Catholic elementary school students quit going to Mass after they leave our schools.
The figures are far worse at Catholic High Schools and most Universities are a disgrace in what they do and do not teach about our Faith.
DECLINE OF CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES between 1965 and 2025
Large, traditional orders such as the Jesuits and Franciscans have seen their numbers fall to roughly half of their 1965 levels.
Jesuit Priests declined 40%; Jesuit Seminarians declined 89%.
Franciscan Priests declined 41%; Franciscan Seminarians declined 97%
Benedictine Priests declined 40%; Benedictine Seminarians declined 93%
Dominican Priests declined 40%; Dominican Seminarians declined 89%
The Jesuits and Franciscans together and by themselves represent 24% of the 110 religious Institutes of Consecrated Life in 1966 and 19% of these religious in 2014. While the average decline of all these religious in 2014 is about 38.1% of their high point, the decline of these two institutes is about 53.5% and 48.2%, respectively. In other words, by 2014, the Jesuits and Franciscans were reduced to about half of their 1966 numbers, and the decline continues.
And so on for all communities. Most of the remaining priests will be gone in the near future, because of their advanced ages. And there increasingly fewer and fewer replacements, because there are so few seminarians; made worse by the fact that only a small percentage of these seminarians graduate.
In 1965, there were over 180,000 Catholic religious sisters in the United States. By 2006, there were around 67,000. In 2025, there were approximately 33,000 Catholic religious sisters in the United States, reflecting an 82% decrease over the past 60 years. As of early 2025, the average age of a Catholic nun in the USA is approximately 80 years old.
There are 19,431 parishes in the United States, over 3,000 of them have no priest to serve them. The number of parishes without priests could easily triple to 9,000 in a few short years because of the rapidly decreasing number of priests and so few replacements.
We have a Mess! We have a Crisis!
Folks! We have a “Crisis of Shepherds”! No surprise, for Our Lady already foretold it, but the world would not listen, nor take the remedies Our Lady offered. We may be tempted to bury our heads in the sand, with a spirit of hopelessness, muttering with Cain: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9) ... “I am only the sheep, I am not the shepherd!” ... “What can I do? I am only one among over a billion who inhabit this Earth!”
This is both a lack of Faith and desertion of obligation. The Apostles were only twelve; the disciples barely a hundred. Yet they were commanded to convert all nations and baptize all creatures. Our sense of desperation is only a natural human emotion and not supernatural response. Our Lord performed miracles and promised that we would do even greater ones, IF WE HAD THE FAITH! The devil said to St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, that if there were only four like him in France, then the devil would “be out of business”! St. Louis Marie de Montfort speaks of the greatest saints being formed and raised up by Our Lady at the end times.
If we look upon and rely upon our own powers, then we are lost; for we but sinful dust and ashes, to whom Our Lord says: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). Yet, if we tap into the vines, that Our Lord and Our Lady are, then nothing is impossible: “With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26) ... “For, amen I say to you, if you have Faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Remove from hence hither!’ and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you” (Matthew 17:19).
Article 6
Saturday & Good Shepherd Sunday, April 18th & 19th
Good Shepherds & Bad Shepherds
Saturday & Good Shepherd Sunday, April 18th & 19th
Good Shepherds & Bad Shepherds
The Beautiful Image of Shepherd and Sheep
During Paschal tide the Church puts before us the symbolism of the Shepherd and the sheep. During the Easter season we are presented with what is commonly and popularly called “Good Shepherd Sunday” which contains the famous quote of Our Lord’s: “I am the Good Shepherd! And I know Mine, and Mine know Me.”
This phrase opens the door to some of the most beautiful contemplations possible! It can lead us to think of our relationship with Christ; of the role we have in that relationship. It can lead us into broader pastures of our personal vocation—for we are all either ‘shepherds’ or ‘sheep’ and often both at the same time.
We Are Both Shepherds and Sheep
Parents shepherd the sheep that are their children, while at the same time being themselves the ‘sheep’ of the parish or the Church at large. Employers are the shepherds of the employees, while being ‘sheep’ of a larger economic community themselves; teachers shepherd their students while they are themselves just the ‘sheep’ of the school as a whole; the principal shepherds the teachers while being under the shepherding of the parish priest; priests shepherd their parish, while being the ‘sheep’ of the diocese and their bishop, and so forth.
We are called, in the broad sense, to be both shepherds and sheep. Therefore, it would be well not to pass by the topic too hastily or superficially—since we will all be judged on how we have ‘shepherded’ others and also on how ‘sheepish’ we ourselves were! First of all, let us look at what we should always look at first—the word of God! Holy Scripture and the Divine Liturgy have some beautiful passages concerning the shepherd and the sheep—not least the passage where Our Lord calls Himself the “Good Shepherd.” So let us begin with that:
Christ the Good Shepherd
In chapter 10 of St. John’s Gospel, we read (the verses will be in parentheses):
[1] “Amen, amen I say to you: He that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up another way, the same is a thief and a robber. [2] But he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. [3] To him the porter opens the door; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. [4] And when he has let out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. [5] But a stranger they follow not, but flee from him, because they know not the voice of strangers.”
[6] This proverb Jesus spoke to them. But they understood not what He spoke to them. [7] Jesus therefore said to them again: “Amen, amen I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. [8] All others, as many as have come, are thieves and robbers: and the sheep heard them not. [9] I am the door. By Me, if any man enters in, he shall be saved: and he shall go in and go out, and shall find pastures. [10] The thief comes only to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly. [11] I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for his sheep.
[12] But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees: and the wolf catches, and scatters the sheep: [13] And the hireling flees because he is a hireling: and he has no care for the sheep. [14] I am the good shepherd; and I know Mine, and Mine know Me. [15] As the Father knows Me, and I know the Father: and I lay down My life for My sheep. [16] And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” (John 10:1-16).
Laying Down His Life for His Sheep
Can we think of a more beautiful image than that of a good, caring shepherd, looking after and protecting his sheep? Our Lord says: “I am the Good Shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me!” It was in the role of the “Good Shepherd,” that Christ accompanied us during the weeks preceding and following Easter. On Holy Saturday the Church in her liturgy prayed: “Our Shepherd has departed, the fount of living water, at whose death the sun was darkened...”
Then two days later the Church joyfully prayed: “Risen is the Good Shepherd, Who laid down His life for His sheep. And deigned to die for His flock, alleluia! Christ, our Pasch, is sacrificed.”
There are a couple of notable Old Testament texts that form the background of this Good Shepherd discourse in John.
The Lord is My Shepherd...
We think first of all of Psalm 22 (Psalm 23): “The Lord is my shepherd: and I shall want nothing. He has set me in a place of pasture. He has brought me up, on the water of refreshment: He has converted my soul. He has led me on the paths of justice, for His own Name’s sake. For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they have comforted me. You have prepared a table before me against them that afflict me. You have anointed my head with oil; and my chalice which inebriates me, how goodly is it! And Your mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And that I may dwell in the house of the Lord unto length of days.”
This psalm was extremely popular among the Fathers of the Church as a source for sacramental catechesis. This reminds us that the sacraments are key moments when the Good Shepherd touches us and cares for us.
Old Testament Shepherds
Another less prominent, but no less important, Old Testament background text is found in chapter 34 of the Book of Ezechiel, concerning Ezechiel’s prophecy of the future Good Shepherd. In this passage God criticizes the failings of the ‘shepherds’ of Israel, who have not truly fed the flock of God, but themselves. The same was to be true of the Sadducees (the priests in Jesus’ time), the Scribes and the Pharisees. The same could be said to be true of those shepherds of the Church today, who are Liberals and Modernists (again, the verse numbers will be in parentheses):
[1] And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: [2] “Son of man, prophesy concerning the shepherds of Israel (That is, princes, magistrates, chief priests, and scribes): prophesy, and say to the shepherds: ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel, that fed themselves! Should not the flocks be fed by the shepherds? [3] You ate the milk, and you clothed yourselves with the wool, and you killed that which was fat―but My flock you did not feed! [4] The weak you have not strengthened; and that which was sick you have not healed; that which was broken you have not bound up; and that which was driven away you have not brought again; neither have you sought that which was lost―but you ruled over them with rigor, and with a high hand! [5] And My sheep were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became the prey of all the beasts of the field, and were scattered! [6] My sheep have wandered in every mountain, and in every high hill; and My flocks were scattered upon the face of the Earth; and there was none that sought them, there was none, I say, that sought them! [7] Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: [8] As I live, says the Lord God, forasmuch as My flocks have been made a spoil, and My sheep are become a prey to all the beasts of the field, because there was no shepherd―for My shepherds did not seek after my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not My flocks! [9] Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: [10] Thus says the Lord God: Behold I Myself come upon the shepherds, I will require My flock at their hand, and I will cause them to cease from feeding the flock any more, neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more―and I will deliver My flock from their mouth, and it shall no more be meat for them!
[11] For thus says the Lord God: “Behold I Myself will seek My sheep, and will visit them. [12] As the shepherd visits his flock in the day when he shall be in the midst of his sheep that were scattered, so will I visit My sheep, and will deliver them out of all the places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. [13] And I will bring them out from the peoples, and will gather them out of the countries, and will bring them to their own land; and I will feed them in the mountains of Israel, by the rivers, and in all the habitations of the land. [14] I will feed them in the most fruitful pastures, and their pastures shall be in the high mountains of Israel; there shall they rest on the green grass, and be fed in fat pastures upon the mountains of Israel. [15] I will feed My sheep and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.
[16] I will seek that which was lost: and that which was driven away, I will bring again: and I will bind up that which was broken, and I will strengthen that which was weak, and that which was fat and strong I will preserve: and I will feed them in judgment.
[17] And as for you, O my flocks, thus saith the Lord God: Behold I judge between cattle and cattle, of rams and of he goats. [18] Was it not enough for you to feed upon good pastures? But you must also tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures; and when you drank the clearest water, you troubled the rest with your feet. [19] And My sheep were fed with that which you had trodden with your feet; and they drank what your feet had troubled. [20] Therefore thus says the Lord God to you: Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat cattle and the lean.
[21] Because you thrust with sides and shoulders, and struck all the weak cattle with your horns, till they were scattered abroad! [22] I will save my flock, and it shall be no more a spoil, and I will judge between cattle and cattle. [23] And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My servant David, he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. [24] And I the Lord will be their God; and My servant David the prince in the midst of them: I the Lord have spoken it.” (Ezechiel 34:1-24)
Shepherd Warnings for Our Day!
Here we have a real ‘dressing-down’ of the shepherds of the day! We have to ask ourselves the same questions, though! Are we feeding our ‘sheep’ what God wants them to be fed with, or are we feeding them ‘junk food’? We have to turn to the prophecies and warnings of Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Good Success (Quito, Ecuador), to see that there will be a time (and it seems we are in it) where the Faith will no longer be fed as it ought to be.
“The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the holy mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls, there is no one left worthy of offering a spotless sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world. God will strike in an unprecedented way.” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God ... Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops … Rome will lose Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.” (Our Lady of La Salette). “At the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, various heresies will be propagated … As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls by the almost total corruption of customs. During this period, there will be great physical and moral calamities, both public and private.” (Our Lady of Good Success, Quito, Ecuador, 17th century).
Why Does the Good Shepherd Allow This?
The comforting promises of this Gospel, concerning Christ the Good Shepherd who will not let his sheep perish, seem in apparent conflict with the catastrophes and persecution that Our Lady speaks of in her prophecies. If Christ is the Good Shepherd, why do we have to go through all those woes? Why do we have to go through the time of great distress, of which Our Lady says: “Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth!”?
This paradoxical situation of God’s shepherding care with the very real presence of evil and persecution is already foreshadowed in the words of Psalm 22 (Psalm 23):
“The Lord is my shepherd: and I shall want nothing. He has set me in a place of pasture. He has brought me up, on the water of refreshment: He has converted my soul. He has led me on the paths of justice, for His own Name’s sake. For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they have comforted me. You have prepared a table before me against them that afflict me.”
One could ask, if the Lord God is the psalmist’s Shepherd, what is he doing walking through the valley of the shadow of death in the first place? If the Lord is shepherding, why are the enemies present as the table is being prepared?
This is a great mystery. Nonetheless, it seems clear that just as the Lamb-Shepherd suffered persecution Himself, so his sheep will also “walk through the valley … of death” and eat their meals “in the presence of enemies.” The Lamb-Shepherd does not guide us around these experiences but through them. Thus, the Eucharist, the supreme Table prepared before us, is always a meal we eat, while our enemies are looking on. In this life, the faithful will always face opposition.
We are in the Time of Crisis
We have entered the period of Church History that we could well call “The Crisis of the Shepherd.” It is no secret that the so-called “Third Secret of Fatima” speaks of an apostasy or falling-away from the Faith, which is supposed to start at the “top”—meaning that it will start with the clergy or pastors within the Catholic Church and it will affect even those in the highest positions within the Church.
Repeated Warnings from Our Lady
It is not a though all this is a shock and a surprise—Our Lady has given the world ample time and wonderful remedies to avoid what is happening and will continue to worsen. Yet the world, apart from a very small number of souls, seems indifferent at best and scornful at worst with regard to her warnings. Our Lady of Fatima would complain that even the good are not listening to her message and are blindly carrying on with their own ‘good’ projects while ignoring what Heaven wants to be done.
Our Lady of Good Success at Quito, Ecuador
The warnings that have come from Our Lady are unmistakably clear and dire—the terrible times she foretells include a “Crisis of the Shepherd.” Already back in the 1600s, during her apparitions at Quito, in Ecuador, she warned us of these calamities. The Blessed Virgin under the glorious title of Our Lady of Good Success told Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, that this battle would reach its most acute stage because of various unfaithful religious, who, Our Lady says, “under the appearance of virtue and bad-spirited zeal, would turn upon Religion.” She goes on to say: “The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs. The effects of secular education will increase, which will be one reason for the lack of priestly and religious vocations...”
Our Lady of Good Success continues: “The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised. ...The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them. These corrupted priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all priests. This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good Pastors of the Church.” … “Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost.”
During this time, Our Lady foretold, “the secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the divine compass, they will stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry, and they will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain. How the Church will suffer during this dark night! Lacking a Prelate and Father to guide them with paternal love, gentleness, strength, wisdom and prudence, many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger. This will mark the arrival of my hour.”
Our Lady of La Salette
Though we have often quoted extracts from Our Lady’s La Salette message, we will do so again—following the words of wisdom from Holy Scripture: “Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:2-4). Sadly, many today do “indeed turn away their hearing from the truth”—but as Our Lady never tires of repeating her message, we will not tire in repeating it in unison with her.
La Salette’s message takes up the same theme of Quito, Ecuador. Our Lady had the following tragic things to say: “Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! … The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence … The devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God … Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops … Rome will lose Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.”
Our Lady of Fatima
In Sister Lucia’s fourth memoir, which was written from October-December 1941, Sister Lucia copied the first two parts of the Secret from the text of her third memoir, but added a sentence that is not found there. Sister Lucia gave us the first sentence of the Third Secret when she inserted into her fourth memoir the phrase “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” This sentence had not appeared in her previous memoir. Sister Lucia purposely inserted it into her fourth memoir to indicate to us what the final part of the Third Secret is about.
In 1943, after having been asked by Bishop da Silva to write down the text of the Third Secret, Sister Lucia was finding the task difficult. She declared to the bishop that it was not absolutely necessary to write out the text, “since in a certain manner she had said it.” Sister Lucia was very likely referring to the additional phrase she had inserted into her fourth memoir, “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.”
The phrase, “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” is a promise that the true Faith will be preserved in that country, although in its vagueness it does not state by whom. Yet, if in Portugal the true Faith will be preserved, what does that imply about the rest of the world? The Portuguese Father Messias de Coelho concluded that, “this allusion, so positive about what will happen among us, suggests to us that it will be different around us.”
Father Alonso, the official Fatima archivist had this to say on the Third Secret: “‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved’: The phrase most clearly implies a critical state of Faith, which other nations will suffer, that is to say, a crisis of Faith; whereas Portugal will preserve its Faith.”
Honest Members of the Church Admit the Crisis
Cardinal Manning: “The apostasy of the city of Rome from the vicar of Christ and its destruction by Antichrist may be thoughts very new to many Catholics, that I think it well to recite the text of theologians of greatest repute. First Malvenda, who writes expressly on the subject, states as the opinion of Ribera, Gaspar Melus, Biegas, Suarez, Bellarmine and Bosius that Rome shall apostatize from the Faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ and return to its ancient paganism. ...Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible; hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were from the face of the Earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early Church.” (Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, The Present Crisis of the Holy See, 1861, London: Burns and Lambert, pp. 88-90). For Cardinal Manning to speak about apostasy in his day, would seem to be scandalous — yet Manning was alive at the time of Our Lady’s warnings at La Salette. He heard; he understood and he believed.
Pope Pius XII: “I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s messages to Lucia of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul …. A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God.” Cardinal Pacelli said this in 1931. He became Pope Pius XII in 1939. Here Pope Pius XII speaks of a future humanism that we are currently witnessing; and one that is increasing. “The Rights of Man” … “Human Dignity” … “the Human Person” are all phrases and ideas that have flooded the Church like never before. We are so focused on man, that we are forgetting God. Look at all the socials and activities organized by churches everywhere and compare those attendances to the attendances in visiting and adoring the Blessed Sacrament, where God Himself resides in our midst!
The Holy Eucharist is the most important Sacrament of the Church, but never has it been as important as in these days of impending apostasy. Notice the Eucharistic adoration that took place at Fatima, before Our Lady even appeared. Notice how Divine Providence reserved the prodigious scientific discoveries about the Holy Eucharist from the Miracle of Lanziano Italy, to be uncovered in 1969/1970 at a time when God knew that belief in the Eucharistic would dwindle in the world. The Holy Eucharist is there, among other things, to feed and strengthen our Faith; yet by neglecting to frequently visit, adore and eat this Bread of Heaven, we indirectly weaken our Faith and lose the necessary strength that is required in fighting the apostasy of our times.
Pope Paul VI: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church.” (Pope Paul VI, Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13th, 1977). Here too, Pope Paul VI speaks of the “Crisis of the Shepherds” by saying that the “darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church, even to its summit... Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading into the highest levels within the Church.” ! This explains, according to some authors on the “Third Secret of Fatima” the reluctance of the Church to speak on these matters, because of embarrassment that would arise from what would be tantamount to self-indictment.
Pope Benedict XVI: “Yes, I have read it [the Third Secret]. It refers to] the dangers which threaten the Faith and the life of the Christian and therefore (the life) of the world” (Pope Benedict XVI, while still Cardinal Ratzinger, Jesus magazine, November 11th, 1984). What gives “life” to the Church? Grace and Truth, of course. But Grace and Truth have to be distributed by the Shepherds of the Church; that is why Jesus said to St. Peter: “Feed My lambs…Feed My sheep!” But Liberalism and Modernism feed poison to the lambs and sheep; and False Ecumenism introduces the lambs and sheep to wolves in sheep’s clothing. No wonder today’s statistics show that the “Cancer of Unbelief” has far advanced in the Catholic Church today:
Pope John Paul II’s Personal Theologian: “In the Third Secret, it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top” (Cardinal Ciappi, the Papal Theologian of Pope John Paul II).
Sister Lucia: In a letter to Fr. Umberto Pasquale, who was very devoted to the cause of Fatima, Sister Lucia wrote:
“The decadence which exists in the world is without any doubt the consequence of the lack of the spirit of prayer. Foreseeing this disorientation, the Blessed Virgin recommended recitation of the Rosary with such insistence. And since the Rosary is, after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the prayer most apt for preserving Faith in souls, the devil has unchained his struggles against it. Unfortunately, we see the disasters he has caused.”
THE DEVIL’S SCORE-CARD FOR THE USA
During Paschal tide the Church puts before us the symbolism of the Shepherd and the sheep. During the Easter season we are presented with what is commonly and popularly called “Good Shepherd Sunday” which contains the famous quote of Our Lord’s: “I am the Good Shepherd! And I know Mine, and Mine know Me.”
This phrase opens the door to some of the most beautiful contemplations possible! It can lead us to think of our relationship with Christ; of the role we have in that relationship. It can lead us into broader pastures of our personal vocation—for we are all either ‘shepherds’ or ‘sheep’ and often both at the same time.
We Are Both Shepherds and Sheep
Parents shepherd the sheep that are their children, while at the same time being themselves the ‘sheep’ of the parish or the Church at large. Employers are the shepherds of the employees, while being ‘sheep’ of a larger economic community themselves; teachers shepherd their students while they are themselves just the ‘sheep’ of the school as a whole; the principal shepherds the teachers while being under the shepherding of the parish priest; priests shepherd their parish, while being the ‘sheep’ of the diocese and their bishop, and so forth.
We are called, in the broad sense, to be both shepherds and sheep. Therefore, it would be well not to pass by the topic too hastily or superficially—since we will all be judged on how we have ‘shepherded’ others and also on how ‘sheepish’ we ourselves were! First of all, let us look at what we should always look at first—the word of God! Holy Scripture and the Divine Liturgy have some beautiful passages concerning the shepherd and the sheep—not least the passage where Our Lord calls Himself the “Good Shepherd.” So let us begin with that:
Christ the Good Shepherd
In chapter 10 of St. John’s Gospel, we read (the verses will be in parentheses):
[1] “Amen, amen I say to you: He that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up another way, the same is a thief and a robber. [2] But he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. [3] To him the porter opens the door; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. [4] And when he has let out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. [5] But a stranger they follow not, but flee from him, because they know not the voice of strangers.”
[6] This proverb Jesus spoke to them. But they understood not what He spoke to them. [7] Jesus therefore said to them again: “Amen, amen I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. [8] All others, as many as have come, are thieves and robbers: and the sheep heard them not. [9] I am the door. By Me, if any man enters in, he shall be saved: and he shall go in and go out, and shall find pastures. [10] The thief comes only to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly. [11] I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for his sheep.
[12] But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees: and the wolf catches, and scatters the sheep: [13] And the hireling flees because he is a hireling: and he has no care for the sheep. [14] I am the good shepherd; and I know Mine, and Mine know Me. [15] As the Father knows Me, and I know the Father: and I lay down My life for My sheep. [16] And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” (John 10:1-16).
Laying Down His Life for His Sheep
Can we think of a more beautiful image than that of a good, caring shepherd, looking after and protecting his sheep? Our Lord says: “I am the Good Shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me!” It was in the role of the “Good Shepherd,” that Christ accompanied us during the weeks preceding and following Easter. On Holy Saturday the Church in her liturgy prayed: “Our Shepherd has departed, the fount of living water, at whose death the sun was darkened...”
Then two days later the Church joyfully prayed: “Risen is the Good Shepherd, Who laid down His life for His sheep. And deigned to die for His flock, alleluia! Christ, our Pasch, is sacrificed.”
There are a couple of notable Old Testament texts that form the background of this Good Shepherd discourse in John.
The Lord is My Shepherd...
We think first of all of Psalm 22 (Psalm 23): “The Lord is my shepherd: and I shall want nothing. He has set me in a place of pasture. He has brought me up, on the water of refreshment: He has converted my soul. He has led me on the paths of justice, for His own Name’s sake. For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they have comforted me. You have prepared a table before me against them that afflict me. You have anointed my head with oil; and my chalice which inebriates me, how goodly is it! And Your mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And that I may dwell in the house of the Lord unto length of days.”
This psalm was extremely popular among the Fathers of the Church as a source for sacramental catechesis. This reminds us that the sacraments are key moments when the Good Shepherd touches us and cares for us.
Old Testament Shepherds
Another less prominent, but no less important, Old Testament background text is found in chapter 34 of the Book of Ezechiel, concerning Ezechiel’s prophecy of the future Good Shepherd. In this passage God criticizes the failings of the ‘shepherds’ of Israel, who have not truly fed the flock of God, but themselves. The same was to be true of the Sadducees (the priests in Jesus’ time), the Scribes and the Pharisees. The same could be said to be true of those shepherds of the Church today, who are Liberals and Modernists (again, the verse numbers will be in parentheses):
[1] And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: [2] “Son of man, prophesy concerning the shepherds of Israel (That is, princes, magistrates, chief priests, and scribes): prophesy, and say to the shepherds: ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel, that fed themselves! Should not the flocks be fed by the shepherds? [3] You ate the milk, and you clothed yourselves with the wool, and you killed that which was fat―but My flock you did not feed! [4] The weak you have not strengthened; and that which was sick you have not healed; that which was broken you have not bound up; and that which was driven away you have not brought again; neither have you sought that which was lost―but you ruled over them with rigor, and with a high hand! [5] And My sheep were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became the prey of all the beasts of the field, and were scattered! [6] My sheep have wandered in every mountain, and in every high hill; and My flocks were scattered upon the face of the Earth; and there was none that sought them, there was none, I say, that sought them! [7] Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: [8] As I live, says the Lord God, forasmuch as My flocks have been made a spoil, and My sheep are become a prey to all the beasts of the field, because there was no shepherd―for My shepherds did not seek after my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not My flocks! [9] Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: [10] Thus says the Lord God: Behold I Myself come upon the shepherds, I will require My flock at their hand, and I will cause them to cease from feeding the flock any more, neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more―and I will deliver My flock from their mouth, and it shall no more be meat for them!
[11] For thus says the Lord God: “Behold I Myself will seek My sheep, and will visit them. [12] As the shepherd visits his flock in the day when he shall be in the midst of his sheep that were scattered, so will I visit My sheep, and will deliver them out of all the places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. [13] And I will bring them out from the peoples, and will gather them out of the countries, and will bring them to their own land; and I will feed them in the mountains of Israel, by the rivers, and in all the habitations of the land. [14] I will feed them in the most fruitful pastures, and their pastures shall be in the high mountains of Israel; there shall they rest on the green grass, and be fed in fat pastures upon the mountains of Israel. [15] I will feed My sheep and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.
[16] I will seek that which was lost: and that which was driven away, I will bring again: and I will bind up that which was broken, and I will strengthen that which was weak, and that which was fat and strong I will preserve: and I will feed them in judgment.
[17] And as for you, O my flocks, thus saith the Lord God: Behold I judge between cattle and cattle, of rams and of he goats. [18] Was it not enough for you to feed upon good pastures? But you must also tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures; and when you drank the clearest water, you troubled the rest with your feet. [19] And My sheep were fed with that which you had trodden with your feet; and they drank what your feet had troubled. [20] Therefore thus says the Lord God to you: Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat cattle and the lean.
[21] Because you thrust with sides and shoulders, and struck all the weak cattle with your horns, till they were scattered abroad! [22] I will save my flock, and it shall be no more a spoil, and I will judge between cattle and cattle. [23] And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My servant David, he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. [24] And I the Lord will be their God; and My servant David the prince in the midst of them: I the Lord have spoken it.” (Ezechiel 34:1-24)
Shepherd Warnings for Our Day!
Here we have a real ‘dressing-down’ of the shepherds of the day! We have to ask ourselves the same questions, though! Are we feeding our ‘sheep’ what God wants them to be fed with, or are we feeding them ‘junk food’? We have to turn to the prophecies and warnings of Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Good Success (Quito, Ecuador), to see that there will be a time (and it seems we are in it) where the Faith will no longer be fed as it ought to be.
“The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the holy mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls, there is no one left worthy of offering a spotless sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world. God will strike in an unprecedented way.” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God ... Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops … Rome will lose Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.” (Our Lady of La Salette). “At the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, various heresies will be propagated … As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls by the almost total corruption of customs. During this period, there will be great physical and moral calamities, both public and private.” (Our Lady of Good Success, Quito, Ecuador, 17th century).
Why Does the Good Shepherd Allow This?
The comforting promises of this Gospel, concerning Christ the Good Shepherd who will not let his sheep perish, seem in apparent conflict with the catastrophes and persecution that Our Lady speaks of in her prophecies. If Christ is the Good Shepherd, why do we have to go through all those woes? Why do we have to go through the time of great distress, of which Our Lady says: “Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth!”?
This paradoxical situation of God’s shepherding care with the very real presence of evil and persecution is already foreshadowed in the words of Psalm 22 (Psalm 23):
“The Lord is my shepherd: and I shall want nothing. He has set me in a place of pasture. He has brought me up, on the water of refreshment: He has converted my soul. He has led me on the paths of justice, for His own Name’s sake. For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they have comforted me. You have prepared a table before me against them that afflict me.”
One could ask, if the Lord God is the psalmist’s Shepherd, what is he doing walking through the valley of the shadow of death in the first place? If the Lord is shepherding, why are the enemies present as the table is being prepared?
This is a great mystery. Nonetheless, it seems clear that just as the Lamb-Shepherd suffered persecution Himself, so his sheep will also “walk through the valley … of death” and eat their meals “in the presence of enemies.” The Lamb-Shepherd does not guide us around these experiences but through them. Thus, the Eucharist, the supreme Table prepared before us, is always a meal we eat, while our enemies are looking on. In this life, the faithful will always face opposition.
We are in the Time of Crisis
We have entered the period of Church History that we could well call “The Crisis of the Shepherd.” It is no secret that the so-called “Third Secret of Fatima” speaks of an apostasy or falling-away from the Faith, which is supposed to start at the “top”—meaning that it will start with the clergy or pastors within the Catholic Church and it will affect even those in the highest positions within the Church.
Repeated Warnings from Our Lady
It is not a though all this is a shock and a surprise—Our Lady has given the world ample time and wonderful remedies to avoid what is happening and will continue to worsen. Yet the world, apart from a very small number of souls, seems indifferent at best and scornful at worst with regard to her warnings. Our Lady of Fatima would complain that even the good are not listening to her message and are blindly carrying on with their own ‘good’ projects while ignoring what Heaven wants to be done.
Our Lady of Good Success at Quito, Ecuador
The warnings that have come from Our Lady are unmistakably clear and dire—the terrible times she foretells include a “Crisis of the Shepherd.” Already back in the 1600s, during her apparitions at Quito, in Ecuador, she warned us of these calamities. The Blessed Virgin under the glorious title of Our Lady of Good Success told Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, that this battle would reach its most acute stage because of various unfaithful religious, who, Our Lady says, “under the appearance of virtue and bad-spirited zeal, would turn upon Religion.” She goes on to say: “The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs. The effects of secular education will increase, which will be one reason for the lack of priestly and religious vocations...”
Our Lady of Good Success continues: “The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised. ...The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them. These corrupted priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all priests. This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good Pastors of the Church.” … “Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost.”
During this time, Our Lady foretold, “the secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the divine compass, they will stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry, and they will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain. How the Church will suffer during this dark night! Lacking a Prelate and Father to guide them with paternal love, gentleness, strength, wisdom and prudence, many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger. This will mark the arrival of my hour.”
Our Lady of La Salette
Though we have often quoted extracts from Our Lady’s La Salette message, we will do so again—following the words of wisdom from Holy Scripture: “Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:2-4). Sadly, many today do “indeed turn away their hearing from the truth”—but as Our Lady never tires of repeating her message, we will not tire in repeating it in unison with her.
La Salette’s message takes up the same theme of Quito, Ecuador. Our Lady had the following tragic things to say: “Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! … The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence … The devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God … Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops … Rome will lose Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.”
Our Lady of Fatima
In Sister Lucia’s fourth memoir, which was written from October-December 1941, Sister Lucia copied the first two parts of the Secret from the text of her third memoir, but added a sentence that is not found there. Sister Lucia gave us the first sentence of the Third Secret when she inserted into her fourth memoir the phrase “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” This sentence had not appeared in her previous memoir. Sister Lucia purposely inserted it into her fourth memoir to indicate to us what the final part of the Third Secret is about.
In 1943, after having been asked by Bishop da Silva to write down the text of the Third Secret, Sister Lucia was finding the task difficult. She declared to the bishop that it was not absolutely necessary to write out the text, “since in a certain manner she had said it.” Sister Lucia was very likely referring to the additional phrase she had inserted into her fourth memoir, “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.”
The phrase, “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” is a promise that the true Faith will be preserved in that country, although in its vagueness it does not state by whom. Yet, if in Portugal the true Faith will be preserved, what does that imply about the rest of the world? The Portuguese Father Messias de Coelho concluded that, “this allusion, so positive about what will happen among us, suggests to us that it will be different around us.”
Father Alonso, the official Fatima archivist had this to say on the Third Secret: “‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved’: The phrase most clearly implies a critical state of Faith, which other nations will suffer, that is to say, a crisis of Faith; whereas Portugal will preserve its Faith.”
Honest Members of the Church Admit the Crisis
Cardinal Manning: “The apostasy of the city of Rome from the vicar of Christ and its destruction by Antichrist may be thoughts very new to many Catholics, that I think it well to recite the text of theologians of greatest repute. First Malvenda, who writes expressly on the subject, states as the opinion of Ribera, Gaspar Melus, Biegas, Suarez, Bellarmine and Bosius that Rome shall apostatize from the Faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ and return to its ancient paganism. ...Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible; hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were from the face of the Earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early Church.” (Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, The Present Crisis of the Holy See, 1861, London: Burns and Lambert, pp. 88-90). For Cardinal Manning to speak about apostasy in his day, would seem to be scandalous — yet Manning was alive at the time of Our Lady’s warnings at La Salette. He heard; he understood and he believed.
Pope Pius XII: “I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s messages to Lucia of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul …. A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God.” Cardinal Pacelli said this in 1931. He became Pope Pius XII in 1939. Here Pope Pius XII speaks of a future humanism that we are currently witnessing; and one that is increasing. “The Rights of Man” … “Human Dignity” … “the Human Person” are all phrases and ideas that have flooded the Church like never before. We are so focused on man, that we are forgetting God. Look at all the socials and activities organized by churches everywhere and compare those attendances to the attendances in visiting and adoring the Blessed Sacrament, where God Himself resides in our midst!
The Holy Eucharist is the most important Sacrament of the Church, but never has it been as important as in these days of impending apostasy. Notice the Eucharistic adoration that took place at Fatima, before Our Lady even appeared. Notice how Divine Providence reserved the prodigious scientific discoveries about the Holy Eucharist from the Miracle of Lanziano Italy, to be uncovered in 1969/1970 at a time when God knew that belief in the Eucharistic would dwindle in the world. The Holy Eucharist is there, among other things, to feed and strengthen our Faith; yet by neglecting to frequently visit, adore and eat this Bread of Heaven, we indirectly weaken our Faith and lose the necessary strength that is required in fighting the apostasy of our times.
Pope Paul VI: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church.” (Pope Paul VI, Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13th, 1977). Here too, Pope Paul VI speaks of the “Crisis of the Shepherds” by saying that the “darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church, even to its summit... Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading into the highest levels within the Church.” ! This explains, according to some authors on the “Third Secret of Fatima” the reluctance of the Church to speak on these matters, because of embarrassment that would arise from what would be tantamount to self-indictment.
Pope Benedict XVI: “Yes, I have read it [the Third Secret]. It refers to] the dangers which threaten the Faith and the life of the Christian and therefore (the life) of the world” (Pope Benedict XVI, while still Cardinal Ratzinger, Jesus magazine, November 11th, 1984). What gives “life” to the Church? Grace and Truth, of course. But Grace and Truth have to be distributed by the Shepherds of the Church; that is why Jesus said to St. Peter: “Feed My lambs…Feed My sheep!” But Liberalism and Modernism feed poison to the lambs and sheep; and False Ecumenism introduces the lambs and sheep to wolves in sheep’s clothing. No wonder today’s statistics show that the “Cancer of Unbelief” has far advanced in the Catholic Church today:
Pope John Paul II’s Personal Theologian: “In the Third Secret, it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top” (Cardinal Ciappi, the Papal Theologian of Pope John Paul II).
Sister Lucia: In a letter to Fr. Umberto Pasquale, who was very devoted to the cause of Fatima, Sister Lucia wrote:
“The decadence which exists in the world is without any doubt the consequence of the lack of the spirit of prayer. Foreseeing this disorientation, the Blessed Virgin recommended recitation of the Rosary with such insistence. And since the Rosary is, after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the prayer most apt for preserving Faith in souls, the devil has unchained his struggles against it. Unfortunately, we see the disasters he has caused.”
THE DEVIL’S SCORE-CARD FOR THE USA
Article 5
Thursday & Friday, April 16th & 17th
The God of Losers and the Losers of God
Thursday & Friday, April 16th & 17th
The God of Losers and the Losers of God
The God of Losers
No doubt you have heard the phrase: “Everyone loves a winner and hates a loser!” God, however―Whose ways are not our ways and Whose thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaias 55:8-9)―loves the loser and wants to change him into a winner. If you were to wander into Heaven, you might be forgiven for thinking of some of the people you would find there: “What the Hell are they doing here? How the Hell did they get into Heaven?” Great sinners who became great saints, are walking proof of the words of God in Holy Scripture, Who said: “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18).
Around the time of Our Lord, we think of St. Mary Magdalen, who was possessed by seven devils and caught in adultery. Then there is St. Dismas, the Good Thief on the cross, who, by his sufferings and sorrow for sin, steals Heaven with his dying breath. There too, on Calvary, in the Roman legionary, St. Longinus, who pierces Our Lord’s heart with his spear, and ends up being pierced with sorrow in his own heart—finally converting, leaving the military and becoming a saint. Then there is St. Paul the persecutor and killer of Christians, who converts and becomes a pillar of the Faith and paying for his sins through a lifetime of suffering.
A little later in time, as the Church grows, we have St. Callixtus of Rome, who had a very sinful life before being taken under the wing of Victor I, a second century pope. He embezzled money and started a public riot, amongst other criminal affairs, but left that all behind when he reformed. Callixtus went on to become a pope himself, and died a martyr shortly thereafter, thereby sufficiently paying his debts for sin. St. Mary of Egypt , at the age of 12, became an accomplished seductress and prostitute, who took special pleasure in corrupting innocent young men. The beautiful, teenage St. Pelagia was a dancer and prostitute by her early teens. Following a chance encounter with St. Nonnus, the bishop of Edessa, she repented, converted and was baptized, gave away her possessions to the poor and lived as a hermit for the rest of her life.
As St. Augustine, a great sinner for many years, says: “The Church is not a museum of saints, but a hospital of sinners … There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future” (St. Augustine of Hippo, Doctor of the Church—sinners need a good doctor!).
If You’re a Loser, You Can Still be a Saint
This does not mean that it is acceptable to be worldly and sinful, but it is an encouragement for us—for if these former sinners were once worldly and sinful like we are, then we can also be as saintly as they were! Not just can be, but MUST be! The problem is that most people say that if the saints were worldly, then we can be and remain worldly! This is the blindness of the worldly and the lukewarm, who twist truth to make excuses for their tepidity and sinfulness.
Let it be said and let it be understood and let it be believed and let it be desired: God expects you to be a saint and Our Lady will help you be a saint! Don’t question it and don’t doubt it! It is not, as you may think, an act of pride to want and expect to be a saint—it is an act of insanity not to do so! What’s the alternative to not wanting to and actually becoming a saint in this life? It is either Hell or Purgatory! Either way, it is insanity! Why pay a thousand times more or pay eternally for what could have been bought at a fraction of the effort and pain here below? You are expected to be a saint. Are you a sinner? You can be a saint! Are you depressed and discourages by your sins? You must become a saint! Only saints go to Heaven!
● In Holy Scripture Our Lord says the first will be last and the last shall be first―which is tantamount to saying that winners will be losers and losers will be winners: “The last shall be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen!” (Matthew 20:16). “Many that are first, shall be last―and the last, first!” (Mark 10:31). “Many that are first, shall be last―and the last shall be first!” (Matthew 19:30).
● We also have the story of the rich man and poverty struck Lazarus ― where the rich man ends up in Hell, and Lazarus ends up in Heaven (Luke 16:19-31).
● In His parables Our Lord often makes the hated Samaritan to be the hero rather than the Jew (Luke 10:30-37; 17:11-19).
● Our Lord refused to destroy the Samaritan town that had rejected Him, stating that “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:52-56).
● Elsewhere, Our Lord says: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost!” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). “What man of you that has an hundred sheep, and if he shall lose one of them, does he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which was lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it upon his shoulders, rejoicing And coming home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them: ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost!’ I say to you, that there shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that does penance, more than upon ninety-nine just persons who need not penance!” (Luke 15:4-7).
The Pit of Fools
It is amazing and saddening to see that so many Catholics―even most Catholics―fail to take seriously the fact that most Catholic souls end up being damned and fail to show any seriousness in trying to figure out why this is the case! They nonchalantly skip through life with a complacent and presumptuous attitude that it will not happen to them! This lack of seriousness will inevitably have serious consequences! They are foolish and blind with regard to the path and requirements that need to be fulfilled to attain eternal life in Heaven―and thus they find an eternal life in Hell. As Holy Scripture so truly says: “There is a way that seems to a man right, but the ends of which lead to death!” (Proverbs 16:25). “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes” (Proverbs 12:15). “The senseless and the fool shall perish together!” (Psalm 48:11). “The number of fools is infinite” (Ecclesiastes 1:15). “They are blind and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit” (Matthew 15:14). Our Lord adds: “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14). “Seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand!” (Matthew 13:13).
“O foolish people and without understanding―who have eyes and see not; and ears and hear not!” (Jeremias 5:21). “For the heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears have they heard heavily, and their eyes they have shut; lest perhaps they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Acts 28:27).
Those are true words, but who the hell really cares? “The Lord has looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together! The fool has said in his heart: ‘There is no God!’ There is no fear of God before their eyes! They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways―there is none that does good, no not one! Their throat is an open sepulcher―with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips! Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness! Their feet are swift to shed blood! Destruction and unhappiness are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known! They have not called upon God! There have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear. God has scattered the bones of them that please men! They have been confounded, because God has despised them!” (Psalm 13:1-3; Psalm 52:1-6). “He that despises Me and receives not My words, has One that judges him; the same shall judge him in the last day!” (John 12:48). “He that hears you, hears Me; and he that despises you, despises Me; and he that despises Me, despises Him that sent Me!” (Luke 10:16).
Our Lady reinforces all of the above in her words to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Weep in deepest sorrow over the ruin of so many souls! They live in the obscurity of their passions and depraved inclinations, forgetful of the danger, unmoved by their losses, and heedless of their dealings. Instead of fearing and avoiding the occasions of evil, they encounter and seek for them in blind ignorance. In senseless fury they follow their pleasures, place no restraint on their passionate desires, and care not where they walk―even if to the most dangerous precipices. They are surrounded by innumerable enemies, who pursue them with diabolical treachery, unceasing vigilance, unquenchable wrath and restless diligence.
“Fear the danger of not attending to the divine calls, for that is the cause of the loss of innumerable souls ... How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!”
Learn the lesson!
Learn the lesson!!
LEARN the lesson!!!
LEARN the lesson!!!!
Salvation on God’s Terms, Not Our Terms
● Do you tell the government what laws you will follow and what laws you reject to follow?
● When you apply for a job, who dictates the rules of the contract―the employer or the employee? Do you tell your employer which rules you will obey and which rules you refuse to obey? Do you tell your employer what work you will do and what work you will not do? If you are sacked, do you automatically expect to be hired again?
● Does the patient dictate to the doctor?
● Can you command your body to change the way it operates?
● Can you change the laws of physics, chemistry and biology? Or do you have to adapt to those laws?
● Do students choose what they want to learn? Do students decide when they will attend school? Do students set their own exams and grade their own papers?
● Do children tell their parents what the family and house rules will be?
The words of God in the Old Testament “My thoughts are not your thoughts; nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9) could be slightly modified and applied to the question of salvation: “My thoughts regarding salvation are not your thoughts regarding salvation; nor are your ways regarding salvation the same as My ways regarding salvation! For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways regarding salvation exalted above your ways regarding salvation, and My thoughts regarding salvation above your thoughts regarding salvation” (Isaias 55:8-9).
God’s way demands perfection and holiness: “The Lord will raise you up to be a holy people to Himself, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways!” (Deuteronomy 28:9). “I am the Almighty God! Walk before Me and be perfect!” (Genesis 17:1). Our Lord echoes this when He says: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). Holy Scripture reinforces this, saying: “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14). God has repeatedly demanded this perfection and holiness: “You shall be holy men to Me!” (Exodus 22:31). “Be a holy people of the Lord thy God!” (Deuteronomy 26:19). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:26).
Holiness is True Wealth that Buys Heaven
“Health of the soul in holiness is better than all gold and silver” (Ecclesiasticus 30:15). Our Lord says: “What shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36) … “What advantage is it to a man, if he gains the whole world and loses himself, and casts himself away?” (Luke 9:25). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of this world (Matthew 6:19-24). Our Lord invited the rich young man to sell all that he had, to give the money to the poor, and then to come and follow Him―but the rich young man turned and went away sad, because he had many and great possessions (Matthew 19:16-22) … “Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:23-24).
Which is why Holy Scripture adds: “Woe to you that are rich!” (Luke 6:24). “Do not trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God!” (1 Timothy 6:17) … “He that trusts in his riches shall fall!” (Proverbs 11:28) … “You say: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ and you know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked!” (Apocalypse 3:17) ... “Labor not to be rich!” (Proverbs 23:4) … “For gold and silver has destroyed many!” (Ecclesiasticus 8:3) ... “If you are rich, you shall not be free from sin!” (Ecclesiasticus 11:10) … “For they that will become rich, fall into temptation, and into the snares of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition!” (1 Timothy 6:9) … “Go now, you rich men, weep and howl in your miseries, which shall come upon you! Your riches are corrupted! Your gold and silver is cankered―and the rust of them shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up to yourselves wrath against the last days!” (James 5:1-3).
Lukewarm Losers and Holy Heroes
If only souls would give as much time and exert as much energy with regard to spiritual things as they give to worldly things, then the few number of souls that get to Heaven would not be so few. Our Lord criticizes this attitude when He says: “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8) ― meaning that we should learn from the efforts of the worldly and put similar efforts into pursuing holiness and Heaven.
► FR. GARRIGOU-LAGRANGE, in his book The Three Ages of the Interior Life, writes: “The one thing necessary — which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary — consists in hearing the word of God and living by it. St. Alphonsus Liguori, in The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, writes: ‘One thing is necessary! The salvation of our souls! It is not necessary to be great, noble, or rich in this world, or to enjoy uninterrupted health; but it is necessary to save our souls. For this purpose has God placed us here―not to acquire honors, riches, or pleasures, but to acquire, by our good works, that eternal kingdom which is prepared for those who, during this present life, fight against and overcome the enemies of their eternal salvation’ (The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, Part 1, Meditation 17). The interior life is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life, or the cultivation of the sciences, more profound than artistic or literary life, more profound than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science, as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good, in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity, which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
“There are some who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles, and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. Failure to listen to this lesson, is to work at one’s destruction! There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin—though it should be only venial—must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified.”
► THE BOOK OF THE APOCALYPSE warns us about being lukewarm and not taking holiness seriously: “Because you are lukewarm―and neither cold, nor hot―I will begin to vomit you out of my mouth! Because you say: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold, fire tried, so that you mayest be made rich; and may be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, so that you may see!” (Apocalypse 3:16-17).
► OUR LORD speaks of such persons indirectly: “Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: ‘The Scribes and the Pharisees have sat on the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do―but according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not! For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, and lay them on men’s shoulders―but with a finger of their own they will not move them! And all their works they do so that they are seen by men!” (Matthew 23:1-5). “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! … Woe to you blind guides! …. Ye foolish and blind! … Blind guides! … Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you make clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within you are full of rapine and uncleanness! Thou blind Pharisee, first make clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside may become clean! Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you are like whitened sepulchers―which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men’s bones and of all filthiness! So you also outwardly indeed appear to other men as being just―but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity!” (Matthew 23:14-28). “Leave them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14).
► HOLY SCRIPTURE adds: “His watchmen are all blind! They are all ignorant―dumb dogs not able to bark! Seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams!” (Isaias 56:10). “Like the blind we have groped as if we had no eyes! We have stumbled at noonday as if in a darkness!” (Isaias 59:10). “Hear, ye deaf! And ye blind, behold that you may see!” (Isaias 42:18). “Hear, O foolish people, and without understanding―who have eyes, and see not; and ears, and hear not!” (Jeremias 5:21).
► FR. FREDERICK FABER, speaking of the terrible disease of lukewarmness in his book Growth in Holiness, writes: “There is nothing in the spiritual life which arrests our attention so forcibly as lukewarmness, because of the unusual language in which it has pleased God to express His ineffable disgust with it … The diseases and evils of the body are in a great degree typical of the miseries and misfortunes of the soul. If we seek the correlative of lukewarmness, we shall find it in blindness. It is a blindness which does not know even its own self, and does not suspect that it is blind, or that other men see better than itself … In the first place conscience becomes untrue ... First there comes a false conscience … In proportion as conscience becomes dark, and so cold, and finally numb, and in the same proportion the bad instincts of the human soul get more animated and vivacious. These instincts lead us with uncommon tact to avoid anything which will restore animation to the conscience … Thus they make us shrink from anything like vigorous spiritual direction. We suspect we shall be awakened, and driven, and made too good … Out of the two preceding results flows a third, which is a profane use of the Sacraments. To go to Holy Communion when we are physically drowsy, yawning and half asleep, or to make our general confession half stupefied would be fair examples of the way in which we morally use the Sacraments. Thus frequent or even daily Communion seems to have only a negative effect upon us. Weekly confession gives us no additional power over our commonest imperfections. We are blind men! Alas! We are asleep as well as blind! The finest things we do now are no better than feats of somnambulism [sleep-walking].
“The symptoms of lukewarmness are seven in number:
(1) The first mark is a great facility in omitting our exercises of piety, which is the exact contradictory of fervor. Little inconveniences suggest dispensations, or at least delays, which will turn out dispensations in the end.
(2) But we are not only easy in omitting exercises of piety, we are negligent in those which we do perform. We care more about the fact of going through them, than the manner or the spirit of it. Thus our prayers rise to Heaven with a mass of venial sins attached to them.
(3) The soul feels not altogether right with God. It does not exactly know what is wrong; but it is sure all is not right.
(4) A fourth symptom of lukewarmness is an habitual acting without any intention at all, good, bad or indifferent.
(5) A fifth is a carelessness about forming habits of virtue.
(6) A sixth symptom is a contempt of little things and of daily opportunities.
(7) The seventh and last symptom is a thinking rather of the good we have done than of the good we have left undone, resting on the past rather than striving for the future, loving to look at people below us rather than people above us.
“The lukewarm are ever calculating the sacrifices they have made, and fondly realizing to themselves the glory of their self‑devotion. When these signs are observed, we can recognize in them the alarming symptoms of tepidity. From these fatal marks let us pass to consider the extraordinary hatred which God has of this state. ‘I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth!’ (Apocalypse 3:15-16). This passage is without any parallel in Scripture. God not only prefers coldness, but He rejects tepidity. It turns Him sick, Who is eternal love! … I fear this evil of lukewarmness is very common, and that at this moment it is gnawing the life out of many souls who suspect not its presence there. It is a great grace, a prophecy of a miraculous cure, to find out that we are lukewarm; but we are lost if we do not act with vigor the moment we make this frightening discovery. It is like going to sleep in the snow, almost a pleasant tingling feeling at the first, and then—lost forever!” (Fr. Frederick Faber, Growth in Holiness, Chapter 25: Lukewarmness).
► FR. ADOLPHE TANQUEREY, in his book The Spiritual Life, writes: “Lukewarmness is a spiritual malady that may attack beginners or even perfect souls, but which manifests itself especially in the course of the Illuminative Way. It presupposes, in fact, that a soul has already reached a certain degree of fervor, and that it gradually allows itself to become lax. Lukewarmness consists in a sort of spiritual languor which saps the energies of the will, inspires one with a horror for effort and thus leads to the decline of the Christian life. It is a kind of sluggishness, a species of torpor which, though not death as yet, insensibly leads to it through a gradual weakening of our moral forces. One may compare it to those slow-working diseases, such as consumption, which little by little prey upon some vital organ.
“To live and grow, our soul needs wholesome spiritual food. Now, the soul is nourished by the various spiritual exercises, that is, meditation, devout reading, prayer, examinations of conscience, the fulfillment of the duties of state, exercise in the practice of the virtues — all of which keep it in communion with God, the Source of spiritual life. Therefore, if these exercises are performed with negligence, with voluntary distractions, without efforts to react against routine or sluggishness, the soul is deprived of many graces, is poorly nourished, and becomes weak and incapable of practicing the virtues of the Christian life in face of even little difficulties. The lukewarm man lets himself be carried along by useless thoughts, takes pleasure in them, hardly makes any effort to be rid of them, and soon distractions well-nigh overrun his prayers. Then, seeing how little profit he derives from his exercises of piety, he begins to shorten them, and in time suppresses them entirely.
“The avenues of the soul being poorly guarded, the exterior and interior senses readily lay themselves open to the unwholesome suggestions of curiosity and sensuality, and frequent temptations arise only to be half-repulsed. Innumerable deliberate venial sins are committed for which one feels scarcely any compunction. Horror for sin diminishes, God’s graces become more rare, and the profit derived from them smaller. In a word, there is a weakening of the spiritual organism, which prepares the way to shameful surrenders. The special danger of this state consists in the gradual weakening of the soul’s energies, a condition fraught with more danger than the commission of some isolated mortal sin. The first effect of lukewarmness is a kind of blinding of conscience. Along with this comes the gradual weakening of the will. One lets oneself go the way of natural desires, of indifference, of pleasure. In so acting, one abuses grace and offers frequent resistance to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost; one lends a readier ear to the voice of pleasure, and ends by sinning grievously. Such a fall is all the more difficult to repair since it occurs almost insensibly. One lets oneself slide, so to speak, to the depths of the abyss without any great shock. Then one tries to practice self-deception: one would convince oneself that the fault is only venial; that, if the matter be grave, there was no full consent; that it is a fault of surprise which cannot be mortally sinful. In this manner a false conscience is formed and the regular confession continues to reveal only trivial matters; the confessor is deceived and thus may be begun a long series of sacrileges.
“To be converted one must needs have frequent recourse to a wise confessor, frankly open one’s soul to him and sincerely beg his help to overcome tepidity. One must take and follow his counsels energetically and with constancy. Under his guidance, one will return to the fervent practice of the exercises of piety, especially of those that secure the fulfillment of the others; namely, mental prayer, examination of conscience and the frequent renewal of the intention of doing all for God. The fervor of which we here speak lies not in feeling, but in a generous will that strives to refuse God nothing. One will also take up once more the practice of the virtues and the fulfillment of one’s duties of state in all earnestness, making one’s particular examination of conscience successively upon the chief points, and giving an account thereof in confession. By these means one will regain fervor and one will not forget that past faults demand an atonement through the spirit and the works of penance” (Fr. Adolphe Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
No doubt you have heard the phrase: “Everyone loves a winner and hates a loser!” God, however―Whose ways are not our ways and Whose thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaias 55:8-9)―loves the loser and wants to change him into a winner. If you were to wander into Heaven, you might be forgiven for thinking of some of the people you would find there: “What the Hell are they doing here? How the Hell did they get into Heaven?” Great sinners who became great saints, are walking proof of the words of God in Holy Scripture, Who said: “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18).
Around the time of Our Lord, we think of St. Mary Magdalen, who was possessed by seven devils and caught in adultery. Then there is St. Dismas, the Good Thief on the cross, who, by his sufferings and sorrow for sin, steals Heaven with his dying breath. There too, on Calvary, in the Roman legionary, St. Longinus, who pierces Our Lord’s heart with his spear, and ends up being pierced with sorrow in his own heart—finally converting, leaving the military and becoming a saint. Then there is St. Paul the persecutor and killer of Christians, who converts and becomes a pillar of the Faith and paying for his sins through a lifetime of suffering.
A little later in time, as the Church grows, we have St. Callixtus of Rome, who had a very sinful life before being taken under the wing of Victor I, a second century pope. He embezzled money and started a public riot, amongst other criminal affairs, but left that all behind when he reformed. Callixtus went on to become a pope himself, and died a martyr shortly thereafter, thereby sufficiently paying his debts for sin. St. Mary of Egypt , at the age of 12, became an accomplished seductress and prostitute, who took special pleasure in corrupting innocent young men. The beautiful, teenage St. Pelagia was a dancer and prostitute by her early teens. Following a chance encounter with St. Nonnus, the bishop of Edessa, she repented, converted and was baptized, gave away her possessions to the poor and lived as a hermit for the rest of her life.
As St. Augustine, a great sinner for many years, says: “The Church is not a museum of saints, but a hospital of sinners … There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future” (St. Augustine of Hippo, Doctor of the Church—sinners need a good doctor!).
If You’re a Loser, You Can Still be a Saint
This does not mean that it is acceptable to be worldly and sinful, but it is an encouragement for us—for if these former sinners were once worldly and sinful like we are, then we can also be as saintly as they were! Not just can be, but MUST be! The problem is that most people say that if the saints were worldly, then we can be and remain worldly! This is the blindness of the worldly and the lukewarm, who twist truth to make excuses for their tepidity and sinfulness.
Let it be said and let it be understood and let it be believed and let it be desired: God expects you to be a saint and Our Lady will help you be a saint! Don’t question it and don’t doubt it! It is not, as you may think, an act of pride to want and expect to be a saint—it is an act of insanity not to do so! What’s the alternative to not wanting to and actually becoming a saint in this life? It is either Hell or Purgatory! Either way, it is insanity! Why pay a thousand times more or pay eternally for what could have been bought at a fraction of the effort and pain here below? You are expected to be a saint. Are you a sinner? You can be a saint! Are you depressed and discourages by your sins? You must become a saint! Only saints go to Heaven!
● In Holy Scripture Our Lord says the first will be last and the last shall be first―which is tantamount to saying that winners will be losers and losers will be winners: “The last shall be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen!” (Matthew 20:16). “Many that are first, shall be last―and the last, first!” (Mark 10:31). “Many that are first, shall be last―and the last shall be first!” (Matthew 19:30).
● We also have the story of the rich man and poverty struck Lazarus ― where the rich man ends up in Hell, and Lazarus ends up in Heaven (Luke 16:19-31).
● In His parables Our Lord often makes the hated Samaritan to be the hero rather than the Jew (Luke 10:30-37; 17:11-19).
● Our Lord refused to destroy the Samaritan town that had rejected Him, stating that “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:52-56).
● Elsewhere, Our Lord says: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost!” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). “What man of you that has an hundred sheep, and if he shall lose one of them, does he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which was lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it upon his shoulders, rejoicing And coming home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them: ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost!’ I say to you, that there shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that does penance, more than upon ninety-nine just persons who need not penance!” (Luke 15:4-7).
The Pit of Fools
It is amazing and saddening to see that so many Catholics―even most Catholics―fail to take seriously the fact that most Catholic souls end up being damned and fail to show any seriousness in trying to figure out why this is the case! They nonchalantly skip through life with a complacent and presumptuous attitude that it will not happen to them! This lack of seriousness will inevitably have serious consequences! They are foolish and blind with regard to the path and requirements that need to be fulfilled to attain eternal life in Heaven―and thus they find an eternal life in Hell. As Holy Scripture so truly says: “There is a way that seems to a man right, but the ends of which lead to death!” (Proverbs 16:25). “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes” (Proverbs 12:15). “The senseless and the fool shall perish together!” (Psalm 48:11). “The number of fools is infinite” (Ecclesiastes 1:15). “They are blind and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit” (Matthew 15:14). Our Lord adds: “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14). “Seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand!” (Matthew 13:13).
“O foolish people and without understanding―who have eyes and see not; and ears and hear not!” (Jeremias 5:21). “For the heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears have they heard heavily, and their eyes they have shut; lest perhaps they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Acts 28:27).
Those are true words, but who the hell really cares? “The Lord has looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together! The fool has said in his heart: ‘There is no God!’ There is no fear of God before their eyes! They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways―there is none that does good, no not one! Their throat is an open sepulcher―with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips! Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness! Their feet are swift to shed blood! Destruction and unhappiness are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known! They have not called upon God! There have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear. God has scattered the bones of them that please men! They have been confounded, because God has despised them!” (Psalm 13:1-3; Psalm 52:1-6). “He that despises Me and receives not My words, has One that judges him; the same shall judge him in the last day!” (John 12:48). “He that hears you, hears Me; and he that despises you, despises Me; and he that despises Me, despises Him that sent Me!” (Luke 10:16).
Our Lady reinforces all of the above in her words to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Weep in deepest sorrow over the ruin of so many souls! They live in the obscurity of their passions and depraved inclinations, forgetful of the danger, unmoved by their losses, and heedless of their dealings. Instead of fearing and avoiding the occasions of evil, they encounter and seek for them in blind ignorance. In senseless fury they follow their pleasures, place no restraint on their passionate desires, and care not where they walk―even if to the most dangerous precipices. They are surrounded by innumerable enemies, who pursue them with diabolical treachery, unceasing vigilance, unquenchable wrath and restless diligence.
“Fear the danger of not attending to the divine calls, for that is the cause of the loss of innumerable souls ... How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!”
Learn the lesson!
Learn the lesson!!
LEARN the lesson!!!
LEARN the lesson!!!!
Salvation on God’s Terms, Not Our Terms
● Do you tell the government what laws you will follow and what laws you reject to follow?
● When you apply for a job, who dictates the rules of the contract―the employer or the employee? Do you tell your employer which rules you will obey and which rules you refuse to obey? Do you tell your employer what work you will do and what work you will not do? If you are sacked, do you automatically expect to be hired again?
● Does the patient dictate to the doctor?
● Can you command your body to change the way it operates?
● Can you change the laws of physics, chemistry and biology? Or do you have to adapt to those laws?
● Do students choose what they want to learn? Do students decide when they will attend school? Do students set their own exams and grade their own papers?
● Do children tell their parents what the family and house rules will be?
The words of God in the Old Testament “My thoughts are not your thoughts; nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9) could be slightly modified and applied to the question of salvation: “My thoughts regarding salvation are not your thoughts regarding salvation; nor are your ways regarding salvation the same as My ways regarding salvation! For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways regarding salvation exalted above your ways regarding salvation, and My thoughts regarding salvation above your thoughts regarding salvation” (Isaias 55:8-9).
God’s way demands perfection and holiness: “The Lord will raise you up to be a holy people to Himself, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways!” (Deuteronomy 28:9). “I am the Almighty God! Walk before Me and be perfect!” (Genesis 17:1). Our Lord echoes this when He says: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). Holy Scripture reinforces this, saying: “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14). God has repeatedly demanded this perfection and holiness: “You shall be holy men to Me!” (Exodus 22:31). “Be a holy people of the Lord thy God!” (Deuteronomy 26:19). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:26).
Holiness is True Wealth that Buys Heaven
“Health of the soul in holiness is better than all gold and silver” (Ecclesiasticus 30:15). Our Lord says: “What shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36) … “What advantage is it to a man, if he gains the whole world and loses himself, and casts himself away?” (Luke 9:25). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of this world (Matthew 6:19-24). Our Lord invited the rich young man to sell all that he had, to give the money to the poor, and then to come and follow Him―but the rich young man turned and went away sad, because he had many and great possessions (Matthew 19:16-22) … “Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:23-24).
Which is why Holy Scripture adds: “Woe to you that are rich!” (Luke 6:24). “Do not trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God!” (1 Timothy 6:17) … “He that trusts in his riches shall fall!” (Proverbs 11:28) … “You say: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ and you know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked!” (Apocalypse 3:17) ... “Labor not to be rich!” (Proverbs 23:4) … “For gold and silver has destroyed many!” (Ecclesiasticus 8:3) ... “If you are rich, you shall not be free from sin!” (Ecclesiasticus 11:10) … “For they that will become rich, fall into temptation, and into the snares of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition!” (1 Timothy 6:9) … “Go now, you rich men, weep and howl in your miseries, which shall come upon you! Your riches are corrupted! Your gold and silver is cankered―and the rust of them shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up to yourselves wrath against the last days!” (James 5:1-3).
Lukewarm Losers and Holy Heroes
If only souls would give as much time and exert as much energy with regard to spiritual things as they give to worldly things, then the few number of souls that get to Heaven would not be so few. Our Lord criticizes this attitude when He says: “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8) ― meaning that we should learn from the efforts of the worldly and put similar efforts into pursuing holiness and Heaven.
► FR. GARRIGOU-LAGRANGE, in his book The Three Ages of the Interior Life, writes: “The one thing necessary — which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary — consists in hearing the word of God and living by it. St. Alphonsus Liguori, in The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, writes: ‘One thing is necessary! The salvation of our souls! It is not necessary to be great, noble, or rich in this world, or to enjoy uninterrupted health; but it is necessary to save our souls. For this purpose has God placed us here―not to acquire honors, riches, or pleasures, but to acquire, by our good works, that eternal kingdom which is prepared for those who, during this present life, fight against and overcome the enemies of their eternal salvation’ (The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, Part 1, Meditation 17). The interior life is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life, or the cultivation of the sciences, more profound than artistic or literary life, more profound than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science, as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good, in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity, which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
“There are some who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles, and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. Failure to listen to this lesson, is to work at one’s destruction! There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin—though it should be only venial—must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified.”
► THE BOOK OF THE APOCALYPSE warns us about being lukewarm and not taking holiness seriously: “Because you are lukewarm―and neither cold, nor hot―I will begin to vomit you out of my mouth! Because you say: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold, fire tried, so that you mayest be made rich; and may be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, so that you may see!” (Apocalypse 3:16-17).
► OUR LORD speaks of such persons indirectly: “Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: ‘The Scribes and the Pharisees have sat on the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do―but according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not! For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, and lay them on men’s shoulders―but with a finger of their own they will not move them! And all their works they do so that they are seen by men!” (Matthew 23:1-5). “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! … Woe to you blind guides! …. Ye foolish and blind! … Blind guides! … Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you make clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within you are full of rapine and uncleanness! Thou blind Pharisee, first make clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside may become clean! Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you are like whitened sepulchers―which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men’s bones and of all filthiness! So you also outwardly indeed appear to other men as being just―but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity!” (Matthew 23:14-28). “Leave them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14).
► HOLY SCRIPTURE adds: “His watchmen are all blind! They are all ignorant―dumb dogs not able to bark! Seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams!” (Isaias 56:10). “Like the blind we have groped as if we had no eyes! We have stumbled at noonday as if in a darkness!” (Isaias 59:10). “Hear, ye deaf! And ye blind, behold that you may see!” (Isaias 42:18). “Hear, O foolish people, and without understanding―who have eyes, and see not; and ears, and hear not!” (Jeremias 5:21).
► FR. FREDERICK FABER, speaking of the terrible disease of lukewarmness in his book Growth in Holiness, writes: “There is nothing in the spiritual life which arrests our attention so forcibly as lukewarmness, because of the unusual language in which it has pleased God to express His ineffable disgust with it … The diseases and evils of the body are in a great degree typical of the miseries and misfortunes of the soul. If we seek the correlative of lukewarmness, we shall find it in blindness. It is a blindness which does not know even its own self, and does not suspect that it is blind, or that other men see better than itself … In the first place conscience becomes untrue ... First there comes a false conscience … In proportion as conscience becomes dark, and so cold, and finally numb, and in the same proportion the bad instincts of the human soul get more animated and vivacious. These instincts lead us with uncommon tact to avoid anything which will restore animation to the conscience … Thus they make us shrink from anything like vigorous spiritual direction. We suspect we shall be awakened, and driven, and made too good … Out of the two preceding results flows a third, which is a profane use of the Sacraments. To go to Holy Communion when we are physically drowsy, yawning and half asleep, or to make our general confession half stupefied would be fair examples of the way in which we morally use the Sacraments. Thus frequent or even daily Communion seems to have only a negative effect upon us. Weekly confession gives us no additional power over our commonest imperfections. We are blind men! Alas! We are asleep as well as blind! The finest things we do now are no better than feats of somnambulism [sleep-walking].
“The symptoms of lukewarmness are seven in number:
(1) The first mark is a great facility in omitting our exercises of piety, which is the exact contradictory of fervor. Little inconveniences suggest dispensations, or at least delays, which will turn out dispensations in the end.
(2) But we are not only easy in omitting exercises of piety, we are negligent in those which we do perform. We care more about the fact of going through them, than the manner or the spirit of it. Thus our prayers rise to Heaven with a mass of venial sins attached to them.
(3) The soul feels not altogether right with God. It does not exactly know what is wrong; but it is sure all is not right.
(4) A fourth symptom of lukewarmness is an habitual acting without any intention at all, good, bad or indifferent.
(5) A fifth is a carelessness about forming habits of virtue.
(6) A sixth symptom is a contempt of little things and of daily opportunities.
(7) The seventh and last symptom is a thinking rather of the good we have done than of the good we have left undone, resting on the past rather than striving for the future, loving to look at people below us rather than people above us.
“The lukewarm are ever calculating the sacrifices they have made, and fondly realizing to themselves the glory of their self‑devotion. When these signs are observed, we can recognize in them the alarming symptoms of tepidity. From these fatal marks let us pass to consider the extraordinary hatred which God has of this state. ‘I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth!’ (Apocalypse 3:15-16). This passage is without any parallel in Scripture. God not only prefers coldness, but He rejects tepidity. It turns Him sick, Who is eternal love! … I fear this evil of lukewarmness is very common, and that at this moment it is gnawing the life out of many souls who suspect not its presence there. It is a great grace, a prophecy of a miraculous cure, to find out that we are lukewarm; but we are lost if we do not act with vigor the moment we make this frightening discovery. It is like going to sleep in the snow, almost a pleasant tingling feeling at the first, and then—lost forever!” (Fr. Frederick Faber, Growth in Holiness, Chapter 25: Lukewarmness).
► FR. ADOLPHE TANQUEREY, in his book The Spiritual Life, writes: “Lukewarmness is a spiritual malady that may attack beginners or even perfect souls, but which manifests itself especially in the course of the Illuminative Way. It presupposes, in fact, that a soul has already reached a certain degree of fervor, and that it gradually allows itself to become lax. Lukewarmness consists in a sort of spiritual languor which saps the energies of the will, inspires one with a horror for effort and thus leads to the decline of the Christian life. It is a kind of sluggishness, a species of torpor which, though not death as yet, insensibly leads to it through a gradual weakening of our moral forces. One may compare it to those slow-working diseases, such as consumption, which little by little prey upon some vital organ.
“To live and grow, our soul needs wholesome spiritual food. Now, the soul is nourished by the various spiritual exercises, that is, meditation, devout reading, prayer, examinations of conscience, the fulfillment of the duties of state, exercise in the practice of the virtues — all of which keep it in communion with God, the Source of spiritual life. Therefore, if these exercises are performed with negligence, with voluntary distractions, without efforts to react against routine or sluggishness, the soul is deprived of many graces, is poorly nourished, and becomes weak and incapable of practicing the virtues of the Christian life in face of even little difficulties. The lukewarm man lets himself be carried along by useless thoughts, takes pleasure in them, hardly makes any effort to be rid of them, and soon distractions well-nigh overrun his prayers. Then, seeing how little profit he derives from his exercises of piety, he begins to shorten them, and in time suppresses them entirely.
“The avenues of the soul being poorly guarded, the exterior and interior senses readily lay themselves open to the unwholesome suggestions of curiosity and sensuality, and frequent temptations arise only to be half-repulsed. Innumerable deliberate venial sins are committed for which one feels scarcely any compunction. Horror for sin diminishes, God’s graces become more rare, and the profit derived from them smaller. In a word, there is a weakening of the spiritual organism, which prepares the way to shameful surrenders. The special danger of this state consists in the gradual weakening of the soul’s energies, a condition fraught with more danger than the commission of some isolated mortal sin. The first effect of lukewarmness is a kind of blinding of conscience. Along with this comes the gradual weakening of the will. One lets oneself go the way of natural desires, of indifference, of pleasure. In so acting, one abuses grace and offers frequent resistance to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost; one lends a readier ear to the voice of pleasure, and ends by sinning grievously. Such a fall is all the more difficult to repair since it occurs almost insensibly. One lets oneself slide, so to speak, to the depths of the abyss without any great shock. Then one tries to practice self-deception: one would convince oneself that the fault is only venial; that, if the matter be grave, there was no full consent; that it is a fault of surprise which cannot be mortally sinful. In this manner a false conscience is formed and the regular confession continues to reveal only trivial matters; the confessor is deceived and thus may be begun a long series of sacrileges.
“To be converted one must needs have frequent recourse to a wise confessor, frankly open one’s soul to him and sincerely beg his help to overcome tepidity. One must take and follow his counsels energetically and with constancy. Under his guidance, one will return to the fervent practice of the exercises of piety, especially of those that secure the fulfillment of the others; namely, mental prayer, examination of conscience and the frequent renewal of the intention of doing all for God. The fervor of which we here speak lies not in feeling, but in a generous will that strives to refuse God nothing. One will also take up once more the practice of the virtues and the fulfillment of one’s duties of state in all earnestness, making one’s particular examination of conscience successively upon the chief points, and giving an account thereof in confession. By these means one will regain fervor and one will not forget that past faults demand an atonement through the spirit and the works of penance” (Fr. Adolphe Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
Article 4
Tuesday & Wednesday, April 14th & 15th
Do You Need Mercy? Will You Get Mercy?
Tuesday & Wednesday, April 14th & 15th
Do You Need Mercy? Will You Get Mercy?
Who Needs Mercy?
“No man, of himself, is innocent before thee!” (Exodus 34:6-7). “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). Who dare say: “I am clean, and without sin! I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me!” (Job 33:9). “There is no man who sins not” (3 Kings 8:46). “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10).
If we downplay or devaluate the gravity of sin, then we automatically reduce any notion of needing mercy. Yet sin―whether it be Mortal Sin or Venial―is the greatest evil that exists. “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Mortal Sin must be a most terrible thing indeed to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the everlasting punishment of the rebellious angels and of sinners who die with even only one Mortal Sin … Venial Sin is a less serious offense against the law of God … We are prone to look upon Venial Sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that it is second only in evil consequences to Mortal Sin. In Holy Scripture we see from many examples how God regards Venial Sin; even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished [by death on the borders of the Promised Land and] ― he was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD).
As for downplaying or devaluating Mortal and Venial Sins, the popes―both Traditional as well as Liberal and Modernist―complain about our loss of the sense of sin:
● Pope Pius XII remarked in 1946: “Perhaps the greatest sin in the world today is that men have begun to lose the sense of sin!”
● Pope John Paul II, in 2005, wrote: “We live in a society that seems to have lost the sense of God and of sin!”
● Pope Benedict XVI, in 2011, said: “The word ‘sin’ is not accepted by many!”
● Pope Francis, in 2014, stated: “The sense of sin is lost!”
On April 2nd, 1982, John Paul II, having addressed a group of French Bishops on their visit to Rome, unequivocally stated: “It is necessary to recognize the existence of a certain crisis in the Sacrament of Penance. Many people no longer see in what way they have sinned, and even fewer, that they have possibly sinned seriously; above all, they do not see why they should ask forgiveness before a representative of the Church.”
If you lose the sense of the gravity of sin, then you will also lose the sense of needing mercy.
Presuming Upon God’s Mercy
A modern-day error is that of presuming upon the mercy of God―imagining that it will be automatically given. Such an attitude is a sinful attitude. The Catholic Encyclopedia defines the sin of presumption: “It may be defined as the condition of a soul that, because of a badly regulated reliance on God’s mercy and power, hopes for salvation without doing anything to deserve it, or for pardon of his sins without repenting of them.”
Presumption is when a person believes that God automatically forgives his or her sins, simply because the person desires forgiveness, and that one does not need to actually say or do anything to repent of those sins. It is, in a word, it is a desire to receive God’s mercy and forgiveness without the accompanying desire to repent (abandon that sins and make reparation for it). God’s mercy cannot bring about true spiritual renewal unless we are willing to cooperate with God. The CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA notes how presumption ― which it defines as a state in which the soul “hopes for salvation without doing anything to deserve it, or hopes for pardon from his sins without repenting of them” – is born of a sense of pride.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, in his Summa Theologica, writes: “Through presumption, a person despises the Divine justice, which punishes the sinner … Presumption on God's mercy ascribes to the Divine power that which is unbecoming to it … presumption is an inordinate trust in the Divine mercy or power, consisting in the hope of obtaining glory without merits, or pardon without repentance. Such like presumption seems to arise directly from pride, as though man thought so much of himself as to esteem that God would not punish him or exclude him from glory, however much he might be a sinner … Consequently presumption is a sin … through man hoping to obtain from God something unbecoming to Him” (Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, Question 21. Presumption).
The BALTIMORE CATECHISM explains it thus:
Question 1183. What is presumption?
Answer. Presumption is a rash expectation of salvation without making proper use of the necessary means to obtain it.
Question 1184. How may we be guilty of presumption?
Answer. We may be guilty of presumption:
(1) By putting off confession when in a state of mortal sin;
(2) By delaying the amendment of our lives and repentance for past sins;
(3) By being indifferent about the number of times we yield to any temptation after we have once yielded and broken our resolution to resist it;
(4) By thinking we can avoid sin without avoiding its near occasion;
(5) By relying too much on ourselves and neglecting to follow the advice of our confessor in regard to the sins we confess.
The sin of presumption starts out with committing small sins presuming that God will forgive them. But over time our conscience becomes dulled and deadened to Venial Sin and consequently we will be led to presume that God will automatically forgive us our Mortal Sins. However, at that point, because of our presumption, we will be missing the necessary condition for the forgiveness of mortal sins―sorrow for our sin, the resolution to avoid that sin, and the resolution to make amends.
One wonders how sincere a person’s love for God is when he is so readily willing to sin simply because God is forgiving God. God cannot be fooled. He reads hearts and knows our sincerity. To decide to sin is to offend God. To decide to sin because one knows that he can be forgiven is to sin twice. It is to use God, reducing him to a utility at the service of our whim. It is to implicitly laugh at His passion and death.
The sin of presumption is a vice opposed to the virtue of hope, where one relies too heavily on God’s mercy, or one’s own capacity, assuming salvation is guaranteed without sincere repentance, reparation or effort to avoid future sin. It involves either believing salvation is possible without doing anything to deserve it; or continuing to sin, thinking God will automatically forgive.
Holy Scripture issues a grave warning on this issue: “Say not: ‘I have sinned, and what harm hath befallen me?’ Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great―He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’ For mercy and wrath quickly come from Him, and His wrath looks upon sinners! Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day! For His wrath shall come on all of a sudden, and in the time of vengeance He will destroy you!” [Ecclesiasticus 5:4-9).
True Notion of Mercy
St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his sermon for the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost and the 1st Sunday of Lent, paints a true picture of God’s mercy to sinners. He writes:
“Our Lord said: ‘If any of you had a hundred sheep, and lost one of them, would he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go in search of the lost sheep? Would he not continue his search until he found it? And having found it, would he not carry it on his shoulders, and, rejoicing, say to his friends and neighbors: “Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost?”’ (Luke 15:4-6). There is more joy in Heaven upon one sinner who returns to God, than upon many just who preserve the grace of God. Let us, then, speak today on the mercy which God shows to sinners, first, in calling them to repentance; secondly, in receiving them when they return.
“After having sinned …you fled from Him and He has so often invited you to repentance by means of confessors and preachers. Who was it that spoke to you when they exhorted you to penance? It was the Lord! God does not refuse to make peace with sinners, but they are unwilling to be reconciled with Him. But despite the refusal of sinners to return to God, He does not cease to continue to call them by so many interior inspirations, remorse of conscience, and terrors of chastisements. God has spoken to you, and, seeing that you disregarded His words, He has had recourse to scourges; He has called you to repentance by such a persecution, by temporal losses, by the death of a relative, by sickness which has brought you to the brink of the grave. He has placed before your eyes your damnation, not that you might be condemned to eternal misery, but that you might be delivered from Hell, which you deserved. You regarded certain afflictions as misfortunes; but they were mercies from God; they were the voices of God calling on you to renounce sin, that you might escape perdition.
“By your ingratitude you deserved that He should call you no more; but He has continued to invite you to return to Him. Why has He called you? To restore to you the life of grace which you have lost. ‘Return ye and live!’ (Ezechiel 18:32). To acquire the grace of God, it would be but little to spend a hundred years in a desert in fasting and penitential austerities. But God offered it to you for a single act of sorrow! You refused that act, and after your refusal He has not abandoned you, but has sought after you. As often as you sinned you banished Him from your souls. And, instead of abandoning you, what has the Lord done? He has placed Himself at the door of your ungrateful hearts, and, by His knocking, has made you feel that He was outside, and seeking for admission. Open to Me and I will deliver you from perdition! I will forget all the insults you have offered to Me if you give up sin. Why, ungrateful souls, do you fly from Me? I love you and desire nothing but your welfare. “Ah, sinners!” says St. Teresa, “Remember that He Who now calls and seeks after you, is that God Who shall one day be your judge. If you are lost, the great mercies which He now shows you, shall be the greatest torments which, you shall suffer in Hell.”
“Sinners hear the calls of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend Him. But God does not forget them. He numbers the graces which He dispenses, as well as the sins which we commit. Hence, when the time which He has fixed arrives, God deprives us of His graces, and begins to inflict chastisement. Sinners hear the calls of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend Him. But God does not forget them. He numbers the graces which He dispenses, as well as the sins which we commit. Hence, when the time which He has fixed arrives, God deprives us of His graces, and begins to inflict chastisement.
“St. Basil, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and other Fathers, teach that God has fixed for each person the number of the days of his life, and the degrees of health and talent which He will give him, likewise He has also determined for each the number of sins which He will pardon; and when this number is completed, He will pardon no more. God is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner. The Lord pardons sins, but He cannot pardon those who are determined to offend Him. He who receives pardon, says St. Augustine, is pardoned through the pure mercy of God; and they who are chastised are justly punished. You must, then, tremble at the thought of committing a single mortal sin, particularly if you have already been guilty of mortal sins. ‘Be not without fear about sins forgiven, and add not sin to sin!’ (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). Say not then, O sinner: ‘As God has forgiven me other sins, so He will also pardon me this one if I commit it!” Say not this; for, if to the sin which has been forgiven you add another, you have reason to fear that this new sin shall be united to your former guilt, and that thus the number will be completed, and that you shall be abandoned.
“Sinners multiply their sins without keeping any account of them; but God numbers them that, when the harvest is ripe, that is, when the number of sins is completed, He may take vengeance on them. It is necessary to be persuaded that, though God bears with us sinners, He does not wait, nor bear with us forever. Listen, then, sinner, to the admonition of the Lord: ‘My son, hast thou sinned? Do so no more, but for thy former sins pray that they may be forgiven thee.’ (Ecclesiasticus 21:1). Add not sins to those which you have already committed, but be careful to pray for the pardon of your past transgressions; otherwise, if you commit another mortal sin, the gates of the divine mercy may be closed against you, and your soul may be lost forever.”
Mercy is Painful and Costly
Mercy, like grace, is an undeserved favor or gift. Creation itself is an act of pure mercy―a pure, gratuitous gift of existence given by God. And mercy, which is an aspect of love, always places that undeserved favor in service to the being and well-being of the other. Love means willing the good of another, and mercy―which is love encountering evil and overcoming it―means willing the good of one crippled by evil, whether it is self-inflicted or inflicted by others.
Mercy is always free, but, once accepted, it is never cheap―since one who receives mercy accepts with it the inner goal of mercy, which is to radically eradicate evil, radically here meaning that which is related to the Latin word “radix”, meaning “root” ― since mercy uproots evil. Mercy is always costly when it is permitted to be what it is and achieve its end, because the eradication of evil demands total conversion from evil―which is always costly and painful to the sinner. St. John of the Cross describes the excruciating process of purgation that God puts us through, as He gives us His mercy, in order to eradicate sin and its distorting effects within us and to make us capable of receiving and giving divine selfless love.
And, as Jesus reveals fully on the cross, mercy is also always costly to the giver of mercy. God creates a world out of nothing and gives it, in man, a freedom to receive the gift offered or not. That was a costly move that God chose to take, and on the cross He paid the cost by shedding His Blood for the good of rebellious sinners who refused His gifts.
In regard to sin, mercy is remissive but not permissive―meaning that the remission of sins is not a permission to sin. It pardons evils in order to remove those evils, and get them out of the way ― “blot out my iniquity” (Psalm 50:3), so that the communion of love with God, which has been broken by sin, may be restored and estranged parties might be reconciled. Mercy never overlooks evil, but rather mercy heals, overcomes evil by restoring the one who is harmed by evil to their originally God-intended goodness. Or to use an image dear to St. Gregory Nazianzus, sin covers the divine image over with muck and filth and mercy washes it clean―so that it might shine in us again with all its brilliance in the life of virtue.
Lastly, there is another cost to mercy. The one who receives mercy must also in turn give mercy. Our Lord encapsulates that perfectly in the following parable:
“Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say you not just seven times; but seventy times seven times! Therefore is the Kingdom of Heaven likened to a king, who wanted to take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents (1 talent was 750 ounces of silver. At today’s [2026] silver prices of around $80 an ounce, one talent would be worth $60,000―that would put the 10,000 talents at just over $600 million). And as he could not pay his debt, his lord commanded that he, and his wife and children and all that he had, should be sold and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, begged him, saying: “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all that I owe!” And the lord of that servant, being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.
“‘But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence (the Roman penny was the eighth part of an ounce of silver. At today’s [2026] silver prices of $80 per ounce, the penny would be worth $10―and a hundred pence would be $1,000): and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: “Pay what you owe me!” And his fellow servant falling down, begged him, saying: “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all that I owe!” But he would not listen―and went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.
“‘Now his fellow servants, seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him and said to him: “You wicked servant! I forgave you all the debt, because you begged me! Should you not then have had the same compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had compassion on you?” And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers, until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you do not forgive everyone from your hearts!’” (Matthew 18:21-35).
Then there’s forgiving mercy. The Our Father contains that stunning conditional clause that should make the “forgiven” tremble, tremble, tremble: “And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” Jesus ends the Our Father with these words: “For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. 15 But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences” (Matthew 6:12-15). Nothing cheap there. It is easy and pleasant to be on the receiving end of mercy―but it often hard and unpleasant to show mercy to those who have wronged, offended or injured us.
Our Lady Laments the Lack of Mercy
Our Lady made the following disclosures when speaking to the Venerable Mary of Agreda:
“I wish on this occasion to reveal to you the just reproach and indignation of the Most High against mortals … The cause of this reproach, which the Lord and I have to make against men, is the inhuman perversity of men in persisting to treat each other with so much lack of humility and love. In this they commit three faults, which displease the Most High very much and which cause the Almighty and me to withhold many mercies.
“The first fault is, that men, knowing that they are all children of the same Father in Heaven (Isaias 64:8), works of His hands, formed of the same nature, graciously nourished and kept alive by His Providence, reared at the same table of divine mysteries and Sacraments, especially of His own Body and Blood, nevertheless forget and despise all these advantages, concentrating all their interest upon earthly and trivial affairs, exciting themselves without reason, swelling with indignation, creating discords, quarrels, indulging in detractions and harsh words, sometimes rising up to most wicked and inhuman vengeance or mortal hate of one another.
“The second fault is, that, when through human frailty and want of mortification, incited by the temptation of the devil, they happen to fall into one of these faults, they do not at once seek to rid themselves of it nor strive to be again reconciled, as should be done by brothers in the presence of a just judge. Thus they deny Him as their merciful Father and force Him to become the severe and rigid Judge of their sins―for no faults excite Him sooner to exercise His severity than the sins of revenge and hate.
“The third offense, which causes His great indignation, is, that sometimes, when a brother comes in order to be reconciled, he, that deems himself offended, will not receive him and asks a greater satisfaction than that which he knows would be accepted by the Lord, and which he himself offers as satisfaction to God’s Majesty.
“For all of them wish that God, Who is most grievously offended, should receive and pardon them, whenever they approach Him with humility and contrition; while those that are but dust and ashes, ask to be revenged upon their brothers and will not content themselves with the satisfaction, which the Most High himself readily accepts for their own sins.
“Of all the sins, which the sons of the Church commit, none is more horrible than these in the eyes of the Most High. This you will readily understand by the divine light and in the vigor of God’s law, which commands men to pardon their brethren, although they may have offended seventy times seven. And if a brother offend many times every day, as soon as he says that he is sorry for it, the Lord commands us to forgive the offending brother as many times without counting the number.
“And those that are not willing to forgive, He threatens with severest punishment on account of the scandal, which they cause by not forgiving. This can be gathered from the threatening words of God himself: ‘Woe to him from whom scandal comes and through whom scandal is caused! It were better for him, if he fell into the depths of the sea with a heavy millstone around his neck. This was said in order to indicate the danger of this sin and the difficulty of obtaining deliverance therefrom, which must be compared to that of a man dropping into the sea with a grinding-stone around his neck. It also points out that the punishment is the abyss of eternal pains’ (Matthew 18:9). Therefore the command of my most holy Son is good advice to the faithful, that they rather permit their eyes to be torn out and their hands chopped off, than allow themselves to fall into this crime of scandalizing the little ones by not being forgiving.
“How you must bewail the wickedness and evils of this sin with tears of blood! That is the sin, which grieves the Holy Ghost (Ephesians 4, 30), affords proud triumphs to the demons, makes monsters of rational creatures, and wipes out in them the image of the eternal Father! What thing more unbecoming, or hateful and monstrous, than to see creatures of the Earth, the food of worms and corruption, rise up against one another in pride and arrogance? You will not find words strong enough to describe this wickedness, in order to persuade mortals to fear it and guard against the wrath of the Lord (Matthew 3:7).
“But do you preserve your heart from this contagion, stamp and engrave in it the most useful doctrine for your guidance. Never think for a moment, that in offending your neighbor or scandalizing him in this way, the guilt can be small―for all these sins are weighty in the sight of God. Place a damper on all your faculties and feelings in order to observe most strictly the rules of charity toward all creatures of the Most High.
“To me also afford this pleasure, since I wish you to be most perfect in this virtue. I impose upon you, as my most vigorous precept, that you give offense neither in thought, word or deed to any of thy neighbors; and that you prevent anyone under your authority of you subjects, and, as far as you can, any other person in your presence from injuring their neighbor.
“Meditate well on this, for it is a doctrine most divine and least understood by mortals. Serve yourself with the only remedy against these passions: namely, with the compelling example of my humility and meekness, the effect of the sincere love, not only toward my spouse, but toward all the children of the heavenly Father―for I esteemed them and looked upon them as redeemed and bought for a great price (1 Peter 1:18).
“The divine Majesty is offended grievously by anyone who does not fulfill this command―expressly inculcated and called a new one by my Son (‘This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you!’ John 15:12); but He is roused to incomparably greater indignation against religious persons, who offend against it. Among these there are many, who should distinguish themselves as perfect children of the Father and Teacher of this virtue; nevertheless they cast it aside and thereby become more odious and detestable in His sight than worldly persons.
“I want you to understand, that to suffer injuries with equanimity and to pardon them entirely for the Lord, will be more acceptable in His eyes, than if you choose of your own will to do the most severe penance and shed your own blood for Him. Humble yourself before those who persecute you, love them and pray for them from your true heart; thereby you shall turn toward yourself in love the heart of your God and rise to the perfection of holiness, and you shall overcome Hell in all things.
“That great dragon, who persecutes all men, was confounded many times by my humility and meekness, and his fury could not tolerate the sight of these virtues. From them he fled more swiftly than the sun’s rays. I gained great victories for my soul and won glorious triumphs for the exaltation of the Divinity. When any creature rose up against me, I conceived no anger toward it, for I knew in reality it was an instrument of the Most High, directed by His Providence for my special good. This knowledge and the consideration, that it was a creature of my Lord, capable of grace, excited me to love it truly with a greater fervor, and I did not rest until I could reward this benefit of persecution by obtaining for it eternal life, as far as was possible.”
Our Lord on Mercy and How to Treat Enemies
No one could doubt and argue that Our Lord was not truly the Son of God, or that He was not the Messias, or that He was liar, or that His words should be ignored. Our Lord was Truth Itself ― “I am the Truth!” (John 14:6). Even His enemies acknowledged that He spoke the truth: “And they asked Him, saying: ‘Master, we know that You speak and teach rightly: and You do not respect any person, but teach the way of God in truth!’” (Luke 20:21). Let us then listen to His words of truth:
“You have heard that it has been said: ‘You shalt love your neighbor, and hate your enemy!’ But I say to you, Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you―so that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who makes His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and makes His rain fall upon the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you do that is more? Do not also the heathens do this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:43-46). That is true and total Catholicism―it is just that we are not there yet and still have a long way to go!
Even the Old Testament speaks along these line: “If your enemy be hungry, give him to eat; if he thirsts, give him water to drink―for thereby you shall heap hot coals upon his head, and the Lord will reward you!” (Proverbs 25:21-22). The New Testament echoes that: “Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved, but give place unto wrath, for it is written: ‘Revenge is mine! I will repay!’ says the Lord. But if your enemy be hungry, then give him to eat; if he thirsts, then give him to drink. For, doing this, you shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good!” (Romans 12:19-21).
Straighten-Out Your Warped Faith!
In this very vindictive, finger-pointing, tongue-wagging, publicly condemning, vengeful justice-seeking, witch-hunting and judgmental world―which aligns itself more with the devil than with God―we are forgetting the basic teachings of our Faith as found in Holy Scripture and Tradition. We have more of worldly attitude of justice than a godly attitude of justice. There is a two-faced approach to justice and mercy―both of which are inexorably and inseparably tied to each other. God is never just without mixing-in His mercy; and He is never merciful without mixing-in His justice. Yet mankind―when it comes to oneself―want all mercy and no justice. Yet when it comes to others―we want all justice and no mercy―unless, of course, we happen to like the guilty person!
Even the Apostles―the first pope included―had to straighten-out their warped ideas of justice and mercy. St. Peter―the first pope―was in no mood for much forgiveness and was probably at the end of his tether over some issue when he came to Our Lord, impatiently and frustratingly asking Jesus: “‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times!’” (Matthew 18:21-22). We see something similar in the case of St. James and his brother St. John, when they perceived that a certain Samaritan town rejected Jesus: “They entered into a city of the Samaritans, to prepare for Jesus. And they did not receive Him, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem [the Samaritans hated the Jews and Jerusalem]. And when His disciples, James and John, had seen this, they said: ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them?’ And turning, Jesus rebuked them, saying: ‘You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!’” (Luke 9:52-56). Of what spirit are we?
The Raging Angry World
Today, the world, swelling with anger, breathes out fire in its rage against the sins of the Church―even though the world itself wallows in far greater and far more numerous sins itself. This is reminiscent of King Antiochus and also Saul (before he became St. Paul), as we read in Holy Scripture:
The rage of the world is similar to the rage of King Antiochus, whose pride had lifted him way above his station in life, to the point where “swelling with anger, he thought to revenge himself upon the Jews for the injury done by them in that they had put Antiochus to flight. And therefore he commanded his chariot to be driven, without stopping in his journey―the judgment of heaven urging him forward because he had spoken so proudly―that he would come to Jerusalem and make it a common burying place of the Jews. But the Lord the God, Who seeth all things, struck him with an incurable and an invisible plague. For as soon as he had ended these words, a dreadful pain in his bowels came upon him, and bitter torments of the inner parts. And indeed very justly―seeing he had tormented the bowels of others with many and new torments, albeit he by no means ceased from his malice. Moreover being filled with pride, breathing out fire in his rage against the Jews, and commanding the matter to be hastened, it happened, as he was going with violence, that he fell from the chariot, so that his limbs were much pained by a grievous bruising of the body. Thus he―that once seemed to himself to command even the waves of the sea, being proud above the condition of man, and to weigh the heights of the mountains in a balance―now being cast down to the ground, was carried in a litter, bearing witness to the manifest power of God in himself: so that worms swarmed out of the body of this man, and whilst he lived in sorrow and pain, his flesh fell off, and the filthiness of his smell was burdensome to the army. And the man that thought a little before he could reach to the stars of heaven, no man could endure to carry, for the intolerable stench. And, by this means, being brought from his great pride, he began to come to the knowledge of himself, being admonished by the scourge of God, his pains increasing every moment. And, when he himself could not now abide his own stench, he spoke thus: ‘It is just to be subject to God, and that a mortal man should not equal himself to God!’” (2 Maccabees 9:4-12).
As for Saul, we read: “Saul, as yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, so that if he found any men and women of this way [Christians], he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And as he went on his journey, it came to pass that he drew nigh to Damascus; and suddenly a light from Heaven shined round about him. And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting Me?’ Who said: ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And he said: ‘I am Jesus Whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goad!’ And he, trembling and astonished, said: ‘Lord, what will You have me do?’ And the Lord said to him: ‘Arise and go into the city, and there you shall be told what you must do!’ Now the men who went in company with him, stood amazed, hearing indeed a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the ground; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing [he had been made blind]. But they leading him by the hands, brought him to Damascus. And he was there three days, without sight, and he did neither eat nor drink” (Acts 9:1-9).
Our Lord said that what Saul was doing to the Christians, he was in reality doing to Jesus Himself―which is echoed elsewhere in Holy Scripture, in the parable of the Goats and the Sheep: “Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to Me!” (Matthew 25:40). This is exactly what God tells St. Catherine of Siena, in The Dialogue that He had with her. God warns against judging His ministers―saying that this judgment is reserved for Him―and that the faithful are better employed in praying for erring and sinful ministers of the Church. Here is the section from The Dialogue where God speaks of this:
God Speaks of Bad Ministers or Clergy
“I have shown you a sample of the excellence of good priests, and I have told you of the dignity in which I have placed them―having elected them for My ministers, on account of which dignity and authority I do not wish them to be punished by the hand of seculars on account of any personal defect, for those who punish them offend Me miserably.
“But I wish seculars to hold them in due reverence―not for their own sakes, as I have said, but for Mine―by reason of the authority which I have given them. Wherefore this reverence should never diminish in the case of priests whose virtue grows weak, any more than in the case of those virtuous ones, of whose goodness I have spoken to you. For all alike have been appointed ministers of the Sun―that is of the Body and Blood of My Son―and of the other Sacraments.
“This dignity belongs to good and bad alike―all have the Sun to administer, as has been said. You should love them therefore by reason of the virtue and dignity of the Sacrament, and, by reason of that very virtue and dignity, you should hate the defects of those who live miserably in sin, but not, on that account, appoint yourselves their judges, which I forbid, because they are My Christs, and you ought to love and reverence the authority which I have given them.
“You know well that if a filthy and badly dressed person brought you a great treasure, from which you obtained life, you would not hate the bearer, however ragged and filthy he might be, through love of the treasure and of the lord who sent it to you. His state would indeed displease you, and you would be anxious, through love of his master, that he should be cleansed from his foulness and properly clothed.
“This, then, is your duty according to the demands of charity, and thus I wish you to act with regard to such badly ordered priests, who themselves filthy and clothed in garments ragged with vice through their separation from My love, bring you great Treasures ― that is to say, the Sacraments of the Holy Church ― from which you obtain the life of grace, receiving them worthily (in spite of the great defects there may be in them) through love of Me, the Eternal God, who send them to you, and through love of that life of grace which you receive from the Great Treasure, by which they administer to you the whole of God and the whole of Man, that is to say, the Body and Blood of My Son united to My Divine nature.
“Their sins indeed should displease you, and you should hate them, and strive with love and holy prayer to re-clothe them, washing away their foulness with your tears ― that is to say, that you should offer them before Me with tears and great desire, that I may re-clothe them in My goodness, with the garment of charity. Know well that I wish to do them grace, if only they will dispose themselves to receive it, and you to pray for it; for it is not according to My will that they should administer to you the Sun, being themselves in darkness, not that they should be stripped of the garment of virtue, foully living in dishonor; on the contrary, I have given them to you, and appointed them to be earthly angels and suns, as I have said.
“With it not being My will, that they should be in this state, you should pray for them, and not judge them, leaving their judgment to Me. And I, moved by your prayers, will do them mercy if they will only receive it, but if they do not correct their life, their dignity will be the cause of their ruin. For if they do not accept the breadth of My mercy, I, the Supreme Judge, shall terribly condemn them at their last extremity, and they will be sent to the eternal fire!” (The Dialogue, Section: “A Treatise Of Prayer”, chapter 29: Of the reverence which should be paid to priests, whether they are good or bad).
God’s Way Is Not Our Way!
Aw! Shucks! That is not exactly what we want to hear! We want to see justice done! We want blood! We want revenge! We don’t want to see mercy! That is a cop-out! That is unfair! We want a trial! We want justice! That is exactly how the world thinks―and, since we so imbued and influenced by the world, that is also how we think! Yet that is not how God thinks: “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways,’ saith the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!’” (Isaias 55:8-9). “‘Is it My will that a sinner should die’, says the Lord God, ‘and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?’” (Ezechiel 18:23). “God will have all men to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4).
Our Lord Himself said: “Go then and learn what this means―‘I will have mercy and not sacrifice’―For I am not come to call the just, but sinners!” (Matthew 9:13). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost!” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). “They that are well have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. For I came not to call the just, but sinners!” (Mark 2:17). “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost! What think you? If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them should go astray: doth he not leave the ninety-nine in the mountains, and go to seek that which is gone astray? And if it so be that he find it: Amen I say to you, he rejoices more for that, than for the ninety-nine that went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father, Who is in Heaven, that one of these little ones should perish!” (Matthew 18:11-14). Which merely echoes the Old Testament message: “I will seek that which was lost; and that which was driven away, I will bring again; and I will bind up that which was broken, and I will strengthen that which was weak!” (Ezechiel 34:16).
Goose, Gander and Pope et al
“What is good for the goose, is good for the gander!”―or you could say: “What is good for the sheep, is good for the shepherd!”―or, “What is good for the faithful, is good for the pope, bishops and priests!” If the supreme shepherd of the Church, the pope, has gone astray and is lost―then he needs to be recovered, not shot down, roasted and devoured! The same applies to all the other clergy of the Church―whether or not they are valid bishops or priests, or invalid bishops and priests; virtuous bishops and priests or sinful bishops and priests; Traditional, Conservative, Novus Ordo, or whatever else―the same applies to all the faithful no matter what flavor they are; the same applies to all homosexuals, heterosexuals, bisexuals, transsexuals, fallen-away or practicing; knowledgeable or ignorant, rich or poor, black or white, yellow or brown, or whatever other distinction you may care to add―“‘Is it my will that a sinner should die’, saith the Lord God, ‘and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?’” (Ezechiel 18:23). “God will have all men to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4). Our Lord Himself said: “Go then and learn what this means―‘I will have mercy and not sacrifice’―For I am not come to call the just, but sinners!” (Matthew 9:13).
That, dear friends, is the Faith―those are the words of God and Holy Scripture, of Jesus Christ Himself. If you wish to go off and make up your own religion, your personally tweaked Faith―then go ahead―you will live by it, die by it and be judged for it: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7), but “judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy. Mercy exalts itself above judgment” (James 2:12). “If you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences” (Matthew 6:14-15). “Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because you begged me! Should not you then have had compassion also on your fellow servant, even as I had compassion on you? And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not, everyone his brother, from your hearts!” (Matthew 18:32-35).
Time to Re-Think Things
Just stop, sit-down and do some very logical thinking! Most Catholics, if not almost all Catholics (especially in this day and age) and way-off-track in living a truly Catholic life. Most, if not all Catholics, will argue vehemently against that statement, saying that they are “not so bad” and they “feel okay” in their life as a Catholic because there is nothing that really disturbs or pricks their conscience! O foolish Catholics!―“and the number of fools is infinite” (Ecclesiastes 1:15)―is it not one the devil’s specialties to make the conscience complacent, drowsy, foggy, numb and eventually dead? Does not St. Ignatius―in his Spiritual Exercises―warn us against the devil gradually leading us off the straight and narrow path that leads to Heaven and then making us feel comfortable on the wrong path? Does not Our Lord warn against the same thing in Holy Scripture, when “a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But Jesus said: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! .… Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!’” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14).
Most souls are obviously lost and damned―it is the inescapable logical conclusion of what Our Lord says―yet do you really think that all those souls, who are now in Hell, actually thought they would go to Hell? Did they not feel comfortable living the way they were living? Did they not say to themselves: “O, I’m not such a bad person! There are many worse than I am! I feel okay the way I am! There is nothing in my conscience that accuses me or worries me!” It is well worth remembering that mortal sins are not only things that do―Mortal Sins can also be things that WE DO NOT DO, in other words, sins of negligence. Imagine the negligence of the maintenance crew of an airplane that leads to its crashing. Imagine the negligence of a doctor who does not properly study the results of a patient examination, that leads to the death of the patient―or the doctor’s negligence in keeping up his studies which leads him to prescribe a medicine that kills a patient. Imagine the negligence of a parent in instructing its child in basic safety, which leads to the child electrocuting itself. Imagine the negligence of a father in locking-away his firearms, which leads to a child inadvertently shooting itself or someone else. In the field of law, “The unintentional death of another person as a result of reckless actions, negligence, criminal activity, or any person's actions is involuntary manslaughter.” A person can still end up in prison for manslaughter―for voluntary manslaughter it could be as much as 20 years in prison; for involuntary manslaughter it could be as much as 12 years. The cost of negligence, huh? God is no different in judging negligence―as we see in Our Lord’s parable of the Goats and the Sheep, wherein the Goats are damned―not for what they did do, but for what they DID NOT DO.
“And when the Son of man shall come in His majesty and all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats: And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. Then shall the King say to them that shall be on His right hand: ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world! For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; naked, and you covered Me; sick, and you visited Me: I was in prison, and you came to Me!’ Then shall the just answer Him, saying: ‘Lord! When did we see Thee hungry, and fed Thee; thirsty, and gave Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? Or naked, and covered Thee? Or when did we see Thee sick or in prison, and came to Thee?’ And the King, answering, shall say to them: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me!’
“Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink. I was a stranger, and you took Me not in; naked, and you covered Me not; sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me!’ Then they also shall answer Him, saying: ‘Lord! When did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?’ Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting” (Matthew 25:31-46).
The above parable is what gives us the so-called “Seven Corporal Works of Mercy”―(1) to feed the hungry, (2) to give drink to the thirsty, (3) to shelter the homeless, (4) to clothe the naked, (5) to visit the sick, (6) to visit the imprisoned, and (7) to bury the dead. To these are added the even more important “Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy”―more important because the soul is more important than the body―(1) to instruct the ignorant, (2) to counsel the doubtful, (3) to admonish the sinner, (4) to forgive all injuries, (5) to bear all wrongs patiently, (6) to pray for the living, and (7) to pray for the dead. So many souls would have been saved from Hell had they merely practiced these fourteen works of mercy in all earnestness―they would have found by practicing mercy.
Mercy―The Whole Point of Fatima
Our Lady’s apparitions at Fatima essentially revolved around the idea of mercy. At the very first apparition, Our Lady announces her merciful designs by asking the children: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort!” (Our Lady of Fatima, May 1917). She later compounds and drives home even more emphatically her desire to dispense mercy, by showing the three children a vision of the real Hell, adding: “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved” (Our Lady of Fatima, July 1917).
This focus and insistence upon mercy was again reiterated in a vision that Sr. Lucia was granted in 1929, twelve years after the Fatima apparitions, which she relates as follows:
“Suddenly the whole chapel was illumined by a supernatural light, and above the altar appeared a Cross of light, reaching to the ceiling. In a brighter light on the upper part of the Cross, could be seen the face of a man and his body as far as the waist; upon his breast was a dove of light; nailed to the Cross was the body of another man. A little below the waist, I could see a chalice and a large Host suspended in the air, onto which drops of blood were falling from the Face of Jesus Crucified and from the wound in His side. These drops ran down onto the Host and fell into the chalice. Beneath the right arm of the Cross was Our Lady and in her hand was her Immaculate Heart. (It was Our Lady of Fatima, with her Immaculate Heart in her left hand, without sword or roses, but with a crown of thorns and flames). Under the left arm of the Cross, large letters, as if of crystal clear water which ran down upon the altar, formed these words: ‘Grace and Mercy.’” (Personal account by Sr. Lucia of Fatima of her vision at Tuy, June 13th, 1929).
Already in 1599, Our Lady of Good Success had already spoken of the need for her to be known as the “Mother of Mercy” during our age, “so that men in the future might realize how powerful I am in placating Divine Justice and obtaining mercy and pardon for every sinner, who comes to me with a contrite heart. For I am the Mother of Mercy and in me there is only goodness and love” (Our Lady of Good Success, January 16th, 1599). Are we children of the “Mother of Mercy”? Is there also, in us and in Our Lady, “only goodness and love”―or are we filled with bitterness, rancor, vindictiveness, disdain and even hatred? Our “Mother of Mercy” asked that we―not only the three children of Fatima―offer ourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He will send us, in a spirit of sacrifice and reparation for the conversion of sinners and for the saving of souls from falling into Hell. Is that what drives our life? Is that our spirit? Or would Our Lady have to say to us what Our Lord said to St. James and St. John? “You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:52-56). Of what spirit are we?
Headless Chickens and Merciless Doctors
What are doing with our lives and our time? Never mind about the Liberal or Modernist popes being pleasing or displeasing to God―the question is what are we doing? You will not be judged so much upon what a particular pope has done or not done, but upon what you have done or nor done! Though, admittedly, if we had been praying for sinners and the clergy―pope, bishops and priests alike―then much of what has happened would not have happened! Yes, by our negligence in praying and sacrificing for sinners, we have failed to put out many fires. Instead of frenziedly running around and crying-out and posting online our thoughts about this or that pope and all the other clergy, we could and should have been putting-out the fires with the waters of grace that come from the hosepipe of prayer and sacrifice.
If God has given us the grace to see the problems and many crises in the Church, then with that grace comes the responsibility of doing something about it―and that “doing something about it” does not entail running around like a headless-chicken, screaming, texting, posting and blogging that “The Church is on fire! The Church is on fire!”―while doing nothing else about it! There are many Catholics out there who are ‘professional headless-chickens’―who are ceaselessly telling everyone else how bad this and how bad that is, how corrupt this and that is, etc. The time they spend doing this VASTLY OUTWEIGHS any time they might be spending praying on these matters and for these people―if they even pray for them at all!
If a doctor discovers a disease in you―what do you expect and hope that he will do? Do you expect him to run round the whole hospital telling everyone that you have a terrible disease? Does he then call all his family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances to tell them about it? Does he call all the media outlets―TV, radio, newspapers, magazine―to inform them of your disease. Does he then go home and do nothing about your disease? What kind of doctor would such a jerk be? As St. James so rightly says:
“For judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy! Mercy exalts itself above judgment! What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has Faith, but has not works? Shall Faith be able to save him? And if a brother or sister be naked, and lack daily food; and one of you says to them: ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled!’―yet give them not those things that are necessary for the body―what shall it profit? So Faith also, if it has not works, is dead in itself. But some man will say: ‘You have Faith, and I have works!’ Show me your Faith without works; and I will show you, by works, my Faith. You believe that there is one God. You do well! But the devils also believe and tremble! When will you realize, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? Do you see that it is by works that a man is justified; and not by Faith only? For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:13-26).
In his Summa Theologica, treating of the subject of mercy, St. Thomas Aquinas uses a quote from Pope St. Gregory the Great: “Thus Gregory says in a homily (Homily on the Gospels, xxxiv) that ‘true godliness is not disdainful, but compassionate’ … The proud are without pity, because they despise others and think them wicked, so that they account them as suffering deservedly whatever they suffer. Hence Gregory says (Homily on the Gospels, xxxiv) that ‘false godliness,’― i.e. of the proud― ‘is not compassionate, but disdainful.’” St. Thomas continues by quoting St. Augustine: “Augustine says (The City of God, ix, 5): ‘Cicero, in praising Caesar, expresses himself much better and in a fashion at once more humane and more in accordance with religious feeling, when he says: “Of all thy virtues none is more marvelous or more graceful than thy mercy.”‘ Therefore mercy is a virtue … Of all the virtues, which relate to our neighbor, mercy is the greatest … As regards external works, the sum total of the Christian religion consists in mercy; but the inward love of charity, whereby we are united to God, preponderates over both love and mercy for our neighbor” (Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q.30, articles 1, 2, 3 & 4).
The Supreme Work―the Supreme Law
What is the supreme work we can do? What is the supreme law of the Church? Lex suprema salus animarum―which is Latin for “The supreme law is the salvation of souls.” Even though this phrase is only found in modern version of Canon Law (1983 Edition, Canon 1752: “…the salvation of souls, which must always be the supreme law in the Church…”) and not in the older 1917 version of Canon Law, the actual sources for the phrase are traceable back to St. Ivo of Chartres (1040-1115), St. Raymond of Penaforte (1185-1275) and St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Yet, one has only to look to the words of Our Lord to find the implicit, or arguably explicit, source for that law―where Our Lord says: “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)―thus, the salvation of the soul is the supreme goal.
Similarly, Our Lord points out that the chief reason that He has come into this world is to save souls: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost! … I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 19:10; Luke 5:32). “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost! What think you? If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them should go astray―does he not leave the ninety-nine in the mountains, and go to seek that which is gone astray? And if it so be that he find it: Amen I say to you, he rejoices more for that, than for the ninety-nine that went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father, Who is in Heaven, that one of these little ones should perish!” (Matthew 18:11-14)―while St. James adds: “He must know that he who causes a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).
The sinner is like the Jew in the parable of the Good Samaritan―beaten-up, stripped naked and robbed of grace, dying by the roadside. His two fellow Jews―the Priest and the Levite―see him and walk past him, leaving him in that terrible state. In that parable, Our Lord chooses the image of a Samaritan―an arch enemy of Jews―as the one who stops and helps the Jew. Hence, Our Lord shows that even our enemies need to be helped. Is that what you do? Or are you like the ‘self-righteous’ Priest and Levite, who walk on by, probably muttering to themselves that the beaten, robbed, stripped, dying man probably deserved it and “had it coming to him!”
Neglecting the Salvation of Souls
In the Church today, instead of fellow-Jews, there are fellow-Catholics who have be beaten by sin, robbed of virtue or even the Faith, stripped of sanctifying grace, and are dying by the wayside. These fellow-Catholics include the Pope, the bishops, priests, religious and laity―some to a greater degree, others to a lesser degree. The temptation is to walk on by, muttering that they deserve it―that it’s their own fault. In doing so, we take on the mentality of Cain, who after he had murdered Abel, tried to wriggle-out of having to answer God’s question: “‘Where is your brother Abel?’ And he answered: ‘I do not know! Am I my brother’s keeper?’ And the Lord said to him: ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to Me from the earth! Now, therefore, cursed shall you be upon the Earth!’” (Genesis 4:9-11).
Similarly, in a certain sense, we also are “cursed upon Earth”―because of our grave neglect in praying for our superiors and leaders, of whom the supreme leader is the pope. Did not Our Lady say at Fatima and at Akita: “With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the Bishops and Priests … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners! … Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners―for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Pray very much for the Pope, Bishops, and Priests!” At Akita the Church and her clergy had already entered the Liberal and Modernist era. Hence, our “curse” is in “getting the leaders which we deserve” by our negligence to prayer for them. If you neglect to maintain your health by doing the right things, then you will eventually be ‘cursed’ by ill-health. Rarely does disease come upon us, “out of the blue” without there being any cause. Usually, in most cases, the cause is neglect―neglect of a healthy diet, neglect of exercise, neglect of sleep, neglect of sanitary habits.
We are told, by Holy Scripture, to do good to ALL persons―even BAD persons―but above all to those of the Catholic Faith, whether they be good or bad: “Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the Faith” (Galatians 6:10). “You have heard that it has been said: ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy!’ But I say to you: ‘Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you! And pray for them that persecute and calumniate you!’ ― so that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who makes His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and makes His rain fall upon the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you do that is more? Do not also the heathens do this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:43-48).
“No man, of himself, is innocent before thee!” (Exodus 34:6-7). “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). Who dare say: “I am clean, and without sin! I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me!” (Job 33:9). “There is no man who sins not” (3 Kings 8:46). “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10).
If we downplay or devaluate the gravity of sin, then we automatically reduce any notion of needing mercy. Yet sin―whether it be Mortal Sin or Venial―is the greatest evil that exists. “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Mortal Sin must be a most terrible thing indeed to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the everlasting punishment of the rebellious angels and of sinners who die with even only one Mortal Sin … Venial Sin is a less serious offense against the law of God … We are prone to look upon Venial Sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that it is second only in evil consequences to Mortal Sin. In Holy Scripture we see from many examples how God regards Venial Sin; even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished [by death on the borders of the Promised Land and] ― he was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD).
As for downplaying or devaluating Mortal and Venial Sins, the popes―both Traditional as well as Liberal and Modernist―complain about our loss of the sense of sin:
● Pope Pius XII remarked in 1946: “Perhaps the greatest sin in the world today is that men have begun to lose the sense of sin!”
● Pope John Paul II, in 2005, wrote: “We live in a society that seems to have lost the sense of God and of sin!”
● Pope Benedict XVI, in 2011, said: “The word ‘sin’ is not accepted by many!”
● Pope Francis, in 2014, stated: “The sense of sin is lost!”
On April 2nd, 1982, John Paul II, having addressed a group of French Bishops on their visit to Rome, unequivocally stated: “It is necessary to recognize the existence of a certain crisis in the Sacrament of Penance. Many people no longer see in what way they have sinned, and even fewer, that they have possibly sinned seriously; above all, they do not see why they should ask forgiveness before a representative of the Church.”
If you lose the sense of the gravity of sin, then you will also lose the sense of needing mercy.
Presuming Upon God’s Mercy
A modern-day error is that of presuming upon the mercy of God―imagining that it will be automatically given. Such an attitude is a sinful attitude. The Catholic Encyclopedia defines the sin of presumption: “It may be defined as the condition of a soul that, because of a badly regulated reliance on God’s mercy and power, hopes for salvation without doing anything to deserve it, or for pardon of his sins without repenting of them.”
Presumption is when a person believes that God automatically forgives his or her sins, simply because the person desires forgiveness, and that one does not need to actually say or do anything to repent of those sins. It is, in a word, it is a desire to receive God’s mercy and forgiveness without the accompanying desire to repent (abandon that sins and make reparation for it). God’s mercy cannot bring about true spiritual renewal unless we are willing to cooperate with God. The CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA notes how presumption ― which it defines as a state in which the soul “hopes for salvation without doing anything to deserve it, or hopes for pardon from his sins without repenting of them” – is born of a sense of pride.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, in his Summa Theologica, writes: “Through presumption, a person despises the Divine justice, which punishes the sinner … Presumption on God's mercy ascribes to the Divine power that which is unbecoming to it … presumption is an inordinate trust in the Divine mercy or power, consisting in the hope of obtaining glory without merits, or pardon without repentance. Such like presumption seems to arise directly from pride, as though man thought so much of himself as to esteem that God would not punish him or exclude him from glory, however much he might be a sinner … Consequently presumption is a sin … through man hoping to obtain from God something unbecoming to Him” (Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, Question 21. Presumption).
The BALTIMORE CATECHISM explains it thus:
Question 1183. What is presumption?
Answer. Presumption is a rash expectation of salvation without making proper use of the necessary means to obtain it.
Question 1184. How may we be guilty of presumption?
Answer. We may be guilty of presumption:
(1) By putting off confession when in a state of mortal sin;
(2) By delaying the amendment of our lives and repentance for past sins;
(3) By being indifferent about the number of times we yield to any temptation after we have once yielded and broken our resolution to resist it;
(4) By thinking we can avoid sin without avoiding its near occasion;
(5) By relying too much on ourselves and neglecting to follow the advice of our confessor in regard to the sins we confess.
The sin of presumption starts out with committing small sins presuming that God will forgive them. But over time our conscience becomes dulled and deadened to Venial Sin and consequently we will be led to presume that God will automatically forgive us our Mortal Sins. However, at that point, because of our presumption, we will be missing the necessary condition for the forgiveness of mortal sins―sorrow for our sin, the resolution to avoid that sin, and the resolution to make amends.
One wonders how sincere a person’s love for God is when he is so readily willing to sin simply because God is forgiving God. God cannot be fooled. He reads hearts and knows our sincerity. To decide to sin is to offend God. To decide to sin because one knows that he can be forgiven is to sin twice. It is to use God, reducing him to a utility at the service of our whim. It is to implicitly laugh at His passion and death.
The sin of presumption is a vice opposed to the virtue of hope, where one relies too heavily on God’s mercy, or one’s own capacity, assuming salvation is guaranteed without sincere repentance, reparation or effort to avoid future sin. It involves either believing salvation is possible without doing anything to deserve it; or continuing to sin, thinking God will automatically forgive.
Holy Scripture issues a grave warning on this issue: “Say not: ‘I have sinned, and what harm hath befallen me?’ Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great―He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’ For mercy and wrath quickly come from Him, and His wrath looks upon sinners! Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day! For His wrath shall come on all of a sudden, and in the time of vengeance He will destroy you!” [Ecclesiasticus 5:4-9).
True Notion of Mercy
St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his sermon for the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost and the 1st Sunday of Lent, paints a true picture of God’s mercy to sinners. He writes:
“Our Lord said: ‘If any of you had a hundred sheep, and lost one of them, would he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go in search of the lost sheep? Would he not continue his search until he found it? And having found it, would he not carry it on his shoulders, and, rejoicing, say to his friends and neighbors: “Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost?”’ (Luke 15:4-6). There is more joy in Heaven upon one sinner who returns to God, than upon many just who preserve the grace of God. Let us, then, speak today on the mercy which God shows to sinners, first, in calling them to repentance; secondly, in receiving them when they return.
“After having sinned …you fled from Him and He has so often invited you to repentance by means of confessors and preachers. Who was it that spoke to you when they exhorted you to penance? It was the Lord! God does not refuse to make peace with sinners, but they are unwilling to be reconciled with Him. But despite the refusal of sinners to return to God, He does not cease to continue to call them by so many interior inspirations, remorse of conscience, and terrors of chastisements. God has spoken to you, and, seeing that you disregarded His words, He has had recourse to scourges; He has called you to repentance by such a persecution, by temporal losses, by the death of a relative, by sickness which has brought you to the brink of the grave. He has placed before your eyes your damnation, not that you might be condemned to eternal misery, but that you might be delivered from Hell, which you deserved. You regarded certain afflictions as misfortunes; but they were mercies from God; they were the voices of God calling on you to renounce sin, that you might escape perdition.
“By your ingratitude you deserved that He should call you no more; but He has continued to invite you to return to Him. Why has He called you? To restore to you the life of grace which you have lost. ‘Return ye and live!’ (Ezechiel 18:32). To acquire the grace of God, it would be but little to spend a hundred years in a desert in fasting and penitential austerities. But God offered it to you for a single act of sorrow! You refused that act, and after your refusal He has not abandoned you, but has sought after you. As often as you sinned you banished Him from your souls. And, instead of abandoning you, what has the Lord done? He has placed Himself at the door of your ungrateful hearts, and, by His knocking, has made you feel that He was outside, and seeking for admission. Open to Me and I will deliver you from perdition! I will forget all the insults you have offered to Me if you give up sin. Why, ungrateful souls, do you fly from Me? I love you and desire nothing but your welfare. “Ah, sinners!” says St. Teresa, “Remember that He Who now calls and seeks after you, is that God Who shall one day be your judge. If you are lost, the great mercies which He now shows you, shall be the greatest torments which, you shall suffer in Hell.”
“Sinners hear the calls of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend Him. But God does not forget them. He numbers the graces which He dispenses, as well as the sins which we commit. Hence, when the time which He has fixed arrives, God deprives us of His graces, and begins to inflict chastisement. Sinners hear the calls of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend Him. But God does not forget them. He numbers the graces which He dispenses, as well as the sins which we commit. Hence, when the time which He has fixed arrives, God deprives us of His graces, and begins to inflict chastisement.
“St. Basil, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and other Fathers, teach that God has fixed for each person the number of the days of his life, and the degrees of health and talent which He will give him, likewise He has also determined for each the number of sins which He will pardon; and when this number is completed, He will pardon no more. God is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner. The Lord pardons sins, but He cannot pardon those who are determined to offend Him. He who receives pardon, says St. Augustine, is pardoned through the pure mercy of God; and they who are chastised are justly punished. You must, then, tremble at the thought of committing a single mortal sin, particularly if you have already been guilty of mortal sins. ‘Be not without fear about sins forgiven, and add not sin to sin!’ (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). Say not then, O sinner: ‘As God has forgiven me other sins, so He will also pardon me this one if I commit it!” Say not this; for, if to the sin which has been forgiven you add another, you have reason to fear that this new sin shall be united to your former guilt, and that thus the number will be completed, and that you shall be abandoned.
“Sinners multiply their sins without keeping any account of them; but God numbers them that, when the harvest is ripe, that is, when the number of sins is completed, He may take vengeance on them. It is necessary to be persuaded that, though God bears with us sinners, He does not wait, nor bear with us forever. Listen, then, sinner, to the admonition of the Lord: ‘My son, hast thou sinned? Do so no more, but for thy former sins pray that they may be forgiven thee.’ (Ecclesiasticus 21:1). Add not sins to those which you have already committed, but be careful to pray for the pardon of your past transgressions; otherwise, if you commit another mortal sin, the gates of the divine mercy may be closed against you, and your soul may be lost forever.”
Mercy is Painful and Costly
Mercy, like grace, is an undeserved favor or gift. Creation itself is an act of pure mercy―a pure, gratuitous gift of existence given by God. And mercy, which is an aspect of love, always places that undeserved favor in service to the being and well-being of the other. Love means willing the good of another, and mercy―which is love encountering evil and overcoming it―means willing the good of one crippled by evil, whether it is self-inflicted or inflicted by others.
Mercy is always free, but, once accepted, it is never cheap―since one who receives mercy accepts with it the inner goal of mercy, which is to radically eradicate evil, radically here meaning that which is related to the Latin word “radix”, meaning “root” ― since mercy uproots evil. Mercy is always costly when it is permitted to be what it is and achieve its end, because the eradication of evil demands total conversion from evil―which is always costly and painful to the sinner. St. John of the Cross describes the excruciating process of purgation that God puts us through, as He gives us His mercy, in order to eradicate sin and its distorting effects within us and to make us capable of receiving and giving divine selfless love.
And, as Jesus reveals fully on the cross, mercy is also always costly to the giver of mercy. God creates a world out of nothing and gives it, in man, a freedom to receive the gift offered or not. That was a costly move that God chose to take, and on the cross He paid the cost by shedding His Blood for the good of rebellious sinners who refused His gifts.
In regard to sin, mercy is remissive but not permissive―meaning that the remission of sins is not a permission to sin. It pardons evils in order to remove those evils, and get them out of the way ― “blot out my iniquity” (Psalm 50:3), so that the communion of love with God, which has been broken by sin, may be restored and estranged parties might be reconciled. Mercy never overlooks evil, but rather mercy heals, overcomes evil by restoring the one who is harmed by evil to their originally God-intended goodness. Or to use an image dear to St. Gregory Nazianzus, sin covers the divine image over with muck and filth and mercy washes it clean―so that it might shine in us again with all its brilliance in the life of virtue.
Lastly, there is another cost to mercy. The one who receives mercy must also in turn give mercy. Our Lord encapsulates that perfectly in the following parable:
“Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say you not just seven times; but seventy times seven times! Therefore is the Kingdom of Heaven likened to a king, who wanted to take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents (1 talent was 750 ounces of silver. At today’s [2026] silver prices of around $80 an ounce, one talent would be worth $60,000―that would put the 10,000 talents at just over $600 million). And as he could not pay his debt, his lord commanded that he, and his wife and children and all that he had, should be sold and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, begged him, saying: “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all that I owe!” And the lord of that servant, being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.
“‘But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence (the Roman penny was the eighth part of an ounce of silver. At today’s [2026] silver prices of $80 per ounce, the penny would be worth $10―and a hundred pence would be $1,000): and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: “Pay what you owe me!” And his fellow servant falling down, begged him, saying: “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all that I owe!” But he would not listen―and went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.
“‘Now his fellow servants, seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him and said to him: “You wicked servant! I forgave you all the debt, because you begged me! Should you not then have had the same compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had compassion on you?” And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers, until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you do not forgive everyone from your hearts!’” (Matthew 18:21-35).
Then there’s forgiving mercy. The Our Father contains that stunning conditional clause that should make the “forgiven” tremble, tremble, tremble: “And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” Jesus ends the Our Father with these words: “For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. 15 But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences” (Matthew 6:12-15). Nothing cheap there. It is easy and pleasant to be on the receiving end of mercy―but it often hard and unpleasant to show mercy to those who have wronged, offended or injured us.
Our Lady Laments the Lack of Mercy
Our Lady made the following disclosures when speaking to the Venerable Mary of Agreda:
“I wish on this occasion to reveal to you the just reproach and indignation of the Most High against mortals … The cause of this reproach, which the Lord and I have to make against men, is the inhuman perversity of men in persisting to treat each other with so much lack of humility and love. In this they commit three faults, which displease the Most High very much and which cause the Almighty and me to withhold many mercies.
“The first fault is, that men, knowing that they are all children of the same Father in Heaven (Isaias 64:8), works of His hands, formed of the same nature, graciously nourished and kept alive by His Providence, reared at the same table of divine mysteries and Sacraments, especially of His own Body and Blood, nevertheless forget and despise all these advantages, concentrating all their interest upon earthly and trivial affairs, exciting themselves without reason, swelling with indignation, creating discords, quarrels, indulging in detractions and harsh words, sometimes rising up to most wicked and inhuman vengeance or mortal hate of one another.
“The second fault is, that, when through human frailty and want of mortification, incited by the temptation of the devil, they happen to fall into one of these faults, they do not at once seek to rid themselves of it nor strive to be again reconciled, as should be done by brothers in the presence of a just judge. Thus they deny Him as their merciful Father and force Him to become the severe and rigid Judge of their sins―for no faults excite Him sooner to exercise His severity than the sins of revenge and hate.
“The third offense, which causes His great indignation, is, that sometimes, when a brother comes in order to be reconciled, he, that deems himself offended, will not receive him and asks a greater satisfaction than that which he knows would be accepted by the Lord, and which he himself offers as satisfaction to God’s Majesty.
“For all of them wish that God, Who is most grievously offended, should receive and pardon them, whenever they approach Him with humility and contrition; while those that are but dust and ashes, ask to be revenged upon their brothers and will not content themselves with the satisfaction, which the Most High himself readily accepts for their own sins.
“Of all the sins, which the sons of the Church commit, none is more horrible than these in the eyes of the Most High. This you will readily understand by the divine light and in the vigor of God’s law, which commands men to pardon their brethren, although they may have offended seventy times seven. And if a brother offend many times every day, as soon as he says that he is sorry for it, the Lord commands us to forgive the offending brother as many times without counting the number.
“And those that are not willing to forgive, He threatens with severest punishment on account of the scandal, which they cause by not forgiving. This can be gathered from the threatening words of God himself: ‘Woe to him from whom scandal comes and through whom scandal is caused! It were better for him, if he fell into the depths of the sea with a heavy millstone around his neck. This was said in order to indicate the danger of this sin and the difficulty of obtaining deliverance therefrom, which must be compared to that of a man dropping into the sea with a grinding-stone around his neck. It also points out that the punishment is the abyss of eternal pains’ (Matthew 18:9). Therefore the command of my most holy Son is good advice to the faithful, that they rather permit their eyes to be torn out and their hands chopped off, than allow themselves to fall into this crime of scandalizing the little ones by not being forgiving.
“How you must bewail the wickedness and evils of this sin with tears of blood! That is the sin, which grieves the Holy Ghost (Ephesians 4, 30), affords proud triumphs to the demons, makes monsters of rational creatures, and wipes out in them the image of the eternal Father! What thing more unbecoming, or hateful and monstrous, than to see creatures of the Earth, the food of worms and corruption, rise up against one another in pride and arrogance? You will not find words strong enough to describe this wickedness, in order to persuade mortals to fear it and guard against the wrath of the Lord (Matthew 3:7).
“But do you preserve your heart from this contagion, stamp and engrave in it the most useful doctrine for your guidance. Never think for a moment, that in offending your neighbor or scandalizing him in this way, the guilt can be small―for all these sins are weighty in the sight of God. Place a damper on all your faculties and feelings in order to observe most strictly the rules of charity toward all creatures of the Most High.
“To me also afford this pleasure, since I wish you to be most perfect in this virtue. I impose upon you, as my most vigorous precept, that you give offense neither in thought, word or deed to any of thy neighbors; and that you prevent anyone under your authority of you subjects, and, as far as you can, any other person in your presence from injuring their neighbor.
“Meditate well on this, for it is a doctrine most divine and least understood by mortals. Serve yourself with the only remedy against these passions: namely, with the compelling example of my humility and meekness, the effect of the sincere love, not only toward my spouse, but toward all the children of the heavenly Father―for I esteemed them and looked upon them as redeemed and bought for a great price (1 Peter 1:18).
“The divine Majesty is offended grievously by anyone who does not fulfill this command―expressly inculcated and called a new one by my Son (‘This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you!’ John 15:12); but He is roused to incomparably greater indignation against religious persons, who offend against it. Among these there are many, who should distinguish themselves as perfect children of the Father and Teacher of this virtue; nevertheless they cast it aside and thereby become more odious and detestable in His sight than worldly persons.
“I want you to understand, that to suffer injuries with equanimity and to pardon them entirely for the Lord, will be more acceptable in His eyes, than if you choose of your own will to do the most severe penance and shed your own blood for Him. Humble yourself before those who persecute you, love them and pray for them from your true heart; thereby you shall turn toward yourself in love the heart of your God and rise to the perfection of holiness, and you shall overcome Hell in all things.
“That great dragon, who persecutes all men, was confounded many times by my humility and meekness, and his fury could not tolerate the sight of these virtues. From them he fled more swiftly than the sun’s rays. I gained great victories for my soul and won glorious triumphs for the exaltation of the Divinity. When any creature rose up against me, I conceived no anger toward it, for I knew in reality it was an instrument of the Most High, directed by His Providence for my special good. This knowledge and the consideration, that it was a creature of my Lord, capable of grace, excited me to love it truly with a greater fervor, and I did not rest until I could reward this benefit of persecution by obtaining for it eternal life, as far as was possible.”
Our Lord on Mercy and How to Treat Enemies
No one could doubt and argue that Our Lord was not truly the Son of God, or that He was not the Messias, or that He was liar, or that His words should be ignored. Our Lord was Truth Itself ― “I am the Truth!” (John 14:6). Even His enemies acknowledged that He spoke the truth: “And they asked Him, saying: ‘Master, we know that You speak and teach rightly: and You do not respect any person, but teach the way of God in truth!’” (Luke 20:21). Let us then listen to His words of truth:
“You have heard that it has been said: ‘You shalt love your neighbor, and hate your enemy!’ But I say to you, Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you―so that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who makes His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and makes His rain fall upon the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you do that is more? Do not also the heathens do this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:43-46). That is true and total Catholicism―it is just that we are not there yet and still have a long way to go!
Even the Old Testament speaks along these line: “If your enemy be hungry, give him to eat; if he thirsts, give him water to drink―for thereby you shall heap hot coals upon his head, and the Lord will reward you!” (Proverbs 25:21-22). The New Testament echoes that: “Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved, but give place unto wrath, for it is written: ‘Revenge is mine! I will repay!’ says the Lord. But if your enemy be hungry, then give him to eat; if he thirsts, then give him to drink. For, doing this, you shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good!” (Romans 12:19-21).
Straighten-Out Your Warped Faith!
In this very vindictive, finger-pointing, tongue-wagging, publicly condemning, vengeful justice-seeking, witch-hunting and judgmental world―which aligns itself more with the devil than with God―we are forgetting the basic teachings of our Faith as found in Holy Scripture and Tradition. We have more of worldly attitude of justice than a godly attitude of justice. There is a two-faced approach to justice and mercy―both of which are inexorably and inseparably tied to each other. God is never just without mixing-in His mercy; and He is never merciful without mixing-in His justice. Yet mankind―when it comes to oneself―want all mercy and no justice. Yet when it comes to others―we want all justice and no mercy―unless, of course, we happen to like the guilty person!
Even the Apostles―the first pope included―had to straighten-out their warped ideas of justice and mercy. St. Peter―the first pope―was in no mood for much forgiveness and was probably at the end of his tether over some issue when he came to Our Lord, impatiently and frustratingly asking Jesus: “‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times!’” (Matthew 18:21-22). We see something similar in the case of St. James and his brother St. John, when they perceived that a certain Samaritan town rejected Jesus: “They entered into a city of the Samaritans, to prepare for Jesus. And they did not receive Him, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem [the Samaritans hated the Jews and Jerusalem]. And when His disciples, James and John, had seen this, they said: ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them?’ And turning, Jesus rebuked them, saying: ‘You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!’” (Luke 9:52-56). Of what spirit are we?
The Raging Angry World
Today, the world, swelling with anger, breathes out fire in its rage against the sins of the Church―even though the world itself wallows in far greater and far more numerous sins itself. This is reminiscent of King Antiochus and also Saul (before he became St. Paul), as we read in Holy Scripture:
The rage of the world is similar to the rage of King Antiochus, whose pride had lifted him way above his station in life, to the point where “swelling with anger, he thought to revenge himself upon the Jews for the injury done by them in that they had put Antiochus to flight. And therefore he commanded his chariot to be driven, without stopping in his journey―the judgment of heaven urging him forward because he had spoken so proudly―that he would come to Jerusalem and make it a common burying place of the Jews. But the Lord the God, Who seeth all things, struck him with an incurable and an invisible plague. For as soon as he had ended these words, a dreadful pain in his bowels came upon him, and bitter torments of the inner parts. And indeed very justly―seeing he had tormented the bowels of others with many and new torments, albeit he by no means ceased from his malice. Moreover being filled with pride, breathing out fire in his rage against the Jews, and commanding the matter to be hastened, it happened, as he was going with violence, that he fell from the chariot, so that his limbs were much pained by a grievous bruising of the body. Thus he―that once seemed to himself to command even the waves of the sea, being proud above the condition of man, and to weigh the heights of the mountains in a balance―now being cast down to the ground, was carried in a litter, bearing witness to the manifest power of God in himself: so that worms swarmed out of the body of this man, and whilst he lived in sorrow and pain, his flesh fell off, and the filthiness of his smell was burdensome to the army. And the man that thought a little before he could reach to the stars of heaven, no man could endure to carry, for the intolerable stench. And, by this means, being brought from his great pride, he began to come to the knowledge of himself, being admonished by the scourge of God, his pains increasing every moment. And, when he himself could not now abide his own stench, he spoke thus: ‘It is just to be subject to God, and that a mortal man should not equal himself to God!’” (2 Maccabees 9:4-12).
As for Saul, we read: “Saul, as yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, so that if he found any men and women of this way [Christians], he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And as he went on his journey, it came to pass that he drew nigh to Damascus; and suddenly a light from Heaven shined round about him. And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting Me?’ Who said: ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And he said: ‘I am Jesus Whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goad!’ And he, trembling and astonished, said: ‘Lord, what will You have me do?’ And the Lord said to him: ‘Arise and go into the city, and there you shall be told what you must do!’ Now the men who went in company with him, stood amazed, hearing indeed a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the ground; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing [he had been made blind]. But they leading him by the hands, brought him to Damascus. And he was there three days, without sight, and he did neither eat nor drink” (Acts 9:1-9).
Our Lord said that what Saul was doing to the Christians, he was in reality doing to Jesus Himself―which is echoed elsewhere in Holy Scripture, in the parable of the Goats and the Sheep: “Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to Me!” (Matthew 25:40). This is exactly what God tells St. Catherine of Siena, in The Dialogue that He had with her. God warns against judging His ministers―saying that this judgment is reserved for Him―and that the faithful are better employed in praying for erring and sinful ministers of the Church. Here is the section from The Dialogue where God speaks of this:
God Speaks of Bad Ministers or Clergy
“I have shown you a sample of the excellence of good priests, and I have told you of the dignity in which I have placed them―having elected them for My ministers, on account of which dignity and authority I do not wish them to be punished by the hand of seculars on account of any personal defect, for those who punish them offend Me miserably.
“But I wish seculars to hold them in due reverence―not for their own sakes, as I have said, but for Mine―by reason of the authority which I have given them. Wherefore this reverence should never diminish in the case of priests whose virtue grows weak, any more than in the case of those virtuous ones, of whose goodness I have spoken to you. For all alike have been appointed ministers of the Sun―that is of the Body and Blood of My Son―and of the other Sacraments.
“This dignity belongs to good and bad alike―all have the Sun to administer, as has been said. You should love them therefore by reason of the virtue and dignity of the Sacrament, and, by reason of that very virtue and dignity, you should hate the defects of those who live miserably in sin, but not, on that account, appoint yourselves their judges, which I forbid, because they are My Christs, and you ought to love and reverence the authority which I have given them.
“You know well that if a filthy and badly dressed person brought you a great treasure, from which you obtained life, you would not hate the bearer, however ragged and filthy he might be, through love of the treasure and of the lord who sent it to you. His state would indeed displease you, and you would be anxious, through love of his master, that he should be cleansed from his foulness and properly clothed.
“This, then, is your duty according to the demands of charity, and thus I wish you to act with regard to such badly ordered priests, who themselves filthy and clothed in garments ragged with vice through their separation from My love, bring you great Treasures ― that is to say, the Sacraments of the Holy Church ― from which you obtain the life of grace, receiving them worthily (in spite of the great defects there may be in them) through love of Me, the Eternal God, who send them to you, and through love of that life of grace which you receive from the Great Treasure, by which they administer to you the whole of God and the whole of Man, that is to say, the Body and Blood of My Son united to My Divine nature.
“Their sins indeed should displease you, and you should hate them, and strive with love and holy prayer to re-clothe them, washing away their foulness with your tears ― that is to say, that you should offer them before Me with tears and great desire, that I may re-clothe them in My goodness, with the garment of charity. Know well that I wish to do them grace, if only they will dispose themselves to receive it, and you to pray for it; for it is not according to My will that they should administer to you the Sun, being themselves in darkness, not that they should be stripped of the garment of virtue, foully living in dishonor; on the contrary, I have given them to you, and appointed them to be earthly angels and suns, as I have said.
“With it not being My will, that they should be in this state, you should pray for them, and not judge them, leaving their judgment to Me. And I, moved by your prayers, will do them mercy if they will only receive it, but if they do not correct their life, their dignity will be the cause of their ruin. For if they do not accept the breadth of My mercy, I, the Supreme Judge, shall terribly condemn them at their last extremity, and they will be sent to the eternal fire!” (The Dialogue, Section: “A Treatise Of Prayer”, chapter 29: Of the reverence which should be paid to priests, whether they are good or bad).
God’s Way Is Not Our Way!
Aw! Shucks! That is not exactly what we want to hear! We want to see justice done! We want blood! We want revenge! We don’t want to see mercy! That is a cop-out! That is unfair! We want a trial! We want justice! That is exactly how the world thinks―and, since we so imbued and influenced by the world, that is also how we think! Yet that is not how God thinks: “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways,’ saith the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!’” (Isaias 55:8-9). “‘Is it My will that a sinner should die’, says the Lord God, ‘and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?’” (Ezechiel 18:23). “God will have all men to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4).
Our Lord Himself said: “Go then and learn what this means―‘I will have mercy and not sacrifice’―For I am not come to call the just, but sinners!” (Matthew 9:13). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost!” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). “They that are well have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. For I came not to call the just, but sinners!” (Mark 2:17). “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost! What think you? If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them should go astray: doth he not leave the ninety-nine in the mountains, and go to seek that which is gone astray? And if it so be that he find it: Amen I say to you, he rejoices more for that, than for the ninety-nine that went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father, Who is in Heaven, that one of these little ones should perish!” (Matthew 18:11-14). Which merely echoes the Old Testament message: “I will seek that which was lost; and that which was driven away, I will bring again; and I will bind up that which was broken, and I will strengthen that which was weak!” (Ezechiel 34:16).
Goose, Gander and Pope et al
“What is good for the goose, is good for the gander!”―or you could say: “What is good for the sheep, is good for the shepherd!”―or, “What is good for the faithful, is good for the pope, bishops and priests!” If the supreme shepherd of the Church, the pope, has gone astray and is lost―then he needs to be recovered, not shot down, roasted and devoured! The same applies to all the other clergy of the Church―whether or not they are valid bishops or priests, or invalid bishops and priests; virtuous bishops and priests or sinful bishops and priests; Traditional, Conservative, Novus Ordo, or whatever else―the same applies to all the faithful no matter what flavor they are; the same applies to all homosexuals, heterosexuals, bisexuals, transsexuals, fallen-away or practicing; knowledgeable or ignorant, rich or poor, black or white, yellow or brown, or whatever other distinction you may care to add―“‘Is it my will that a sinner should die’, saith the Lord God, ‘and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?’” (Ezechiel 18:23). “God will have all men to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4). Our Lord Himself said: “Go then and learn what this means―‘I will have mercy and not sacrifice’―For I am not come to call the just, but sinners!” (Matthew 9:13).
That, dear friends, is the Faith―those are the words of God and Holy Scripture, of Jesus Christ Himself. If you wish to go off and make up your own religion, your personally tweaked Faith―then go ahead―you will live by it, die by it and be judged for it: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7), but “judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy. Mercy exalts itself above judgment” (James 2:12). “If you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences” (Matthew 6:14-15). “Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because you begged me! Should not you then have had compassion also on your fellow servant, even as I had compassion on you? And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not, everyone his brother, from your hearts!” (Matthew 18:32-35).
Time to Re-Think Things
Just stop, sit-down and do some very logical thinking! Most Catholics, if not almost all Catholics (especially in this day and age) and way-off-track in living a truly Catholic life. Most, if not all Catholics, will argue vehemently against that statement, saying that they are “not so bad” and they “feel okay” in their life as a Catholic because there is nothing that really disturbs or pricks their conscience! O foolish Catholics!―“and the number of fools is infinite” (Ecclesiastes 1:15)―is it not one the devil’s specialties to make the conscience complacent, drowsy, foggy, numb and eventually dead? Does not St. Ignatius―in his Spiritual Exercises―warn us against the devil gradually leading us off the straight and narrow path that leads to Heaven and then making us feel comfortable on the wrong path? Does not Our Lord warn against the same thing in Holy Scripture, when “a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But Jesus said: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! .… Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!’” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14).
Most souls are obviously lost and damned―it is the inescapable logical conclusion of what Our Lord says―yet do you really think that all those souls, who are now in Hell, actually thought they would go to Hell? Did they not feel comfortable living the way they were living? Did they not say to themselves: “O, I’m not such a bad person! There are many worse than I am! I feel okay the way I am! There is nothing in my conscience that accuses me or worries me!” It is well worth remembering that mortal sins are not only things that do―Mortal Sins can also be things that WE DO NOT DO, in other words, sins of negligence. Imagine the negligence of the maintenance crew of an airplane that leads to its crashing. Imagine the negligence of a doctor who does not properly study the results of a patient examination, that leads to the death of the patient―or the doctor’s negligence in keeping up his studies which leads him to prescribe a medicine that kills a patient. Imagine the negligence of a parent in instructing its child in basic safety, which leads to the child electrocuting itself. Imagine the negligence of a father in locking-away his firearms, which leads to a child inadvertently shooting itself or someone else. In the field of law, “The unintentional death of another person as a result of reckless actions, negligence, criminal activity, or any person's actions is involuntary manslaughter.” A person can still end up in prison for manslaughter―for voluntary manslaughter it could be as much as 20 years in prison; for involuntary manslaughter it could be as much as 12 years. The cost of negligence, huh? God is no different in judging negligence―as we see in Our Lord’s parable of the Goats and the Sheep, wherein the Goats are damned―not for what they did do, but for what they DID NOT DO.
“And when the Son of man shall come in His majesty and all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats: And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. Then shall the King say to them that shall be on His right hand: ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world! For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; naked, and you covered Me; sick, and you visited Me: I was in prison, and you came to Me!’ Then shall the just answer Him, saying: ‘Lord! When did we see Thee hungry, and fed Thee; thirsty, and gave Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? Or naked, and covered Thee? Or when did we see Thee sick or in prison, and came to Thee?’ And the King, answering, shall say to them: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me!’
“Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink. I was a stranger, and you took Me not in; naked, and you covered Me not; sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me!’ Then they also shall answer Him, saying: ‘Lord! When did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?’ Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting” (Matthew 25:31-46).
The above parable is what gives us the so-called “Seven Corporal Works of Mercy”―(1) to feed the hungry, (2) to give drink to the thirsty, (3) to shelter the homeless, (4) to clothe the naked, (5) to visit the sick, (6) to visit the imprisoned, and (7) to bury the dead. To these are added the even more important “Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy”―more important because the soul is more important than the body―(1) to instruct the ignorant, (2) to counsel the doubtful, (3) to admonish the sinner, (4) to forgive all injuries, (5) to bear all wrongs patiently, (6) to pray for the living, and (7) to pray for the dead. So many souls would have been saved from Hell had they merely practiced these fourteen works of mercy in all earnestness―they would have found by practicing mercy.
Mercy―The Whole Point of Fatima
Our Lady’s apparitions at Fatima essentially revolved around the idea of mercy. At the very first apparition, Our Lady announces her merciful designs by asking the children: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort!” (Our Lady of Fatima, May 1917). She later compounds and drives home even more emphatically her desire to dispense mercy, by showing the three children a vision of the real Hell, adding: “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved” (Our Lady of Fatima, July 1917).
This focus and insistence upon mercy was again reiterated in a vision that Sr. Lucia was granted in 1929, twelve years after the Fatima apparitions, which she relates as follows:
“Suddenly the whole chapel was illumined by a supernatural light, and above the altar appeared a Cross of light, reaching to the ceiling. In a brighter light on the upper part of the Cross, could be seen the face of a man and his body as far as the waist; upon his breast was a dove of light; nailed to the Cross was the body of another man. A little below the waist, I could see a chalice and a large Host suspended in the air, onto which drops of blood were falling from the Face of Jesus Crucified and from the wound in His side. These drops ran down onto the Host and fell into the chalice. Beneath the right arm of the Cross was Our Lady and in her hand was her Immaculate Heart. (It was Our Lady of Fatima, with her Immaculate Heart in her left hand, without sword or roses, but with a crown of thorns and flames). Under the left arm of the Cross, large letters, as if of crystal clear water which ran down upon the altar, formed these words: ‘Grace and Mercy.’” (Personal account by Sr. Lucia of Fatima of her vision at Tuy, June 13th, 1929).
Already in 1599, Our Lady of Good Success had already spoken of the need for her to be known as the “Mother of Mercy” during our age, “so that men in the future might realize how powerful I am in placating Divine Justice and obtaining mercy and pardon for every sinner, who comes to me with a contrite heart. For I am the Mother of Mercy and in me there is only goodness and love” (Our Lady of Good Success, January 16th, 1599). Are we children of the “Mother of Mercy”? Is there also, in us and in Our Lady, “only goodness and love”―or are we filled with bitterness, rancor, vindictiveness, disdain and even hatred? Our “Mother of Mercy” asked that we―not only the three children of Fatima―offer ourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He will send us, in a spirit of sacrifice and reparation for the conversion of sinners and for the saving of souls from falling into Hell. Is that what drives our life? Is that our spirit? Or would Our Lady have to say to us what Our Lord said to St. James and St. John? “You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:52-56). Of what spirit are we?
Headless Chickens and Merciless Doctors
What are doing with our lives and our time? Never mind about the Liberal or Modernist popes being pleasing or displeasing to God―the question is what are we doing? You will not be judged so much upon what a particular pope has done or not done, but upon what you have done or nor done! Though, admittedly, if we had been praying for sinners and the clergy―pope, bishops and priests alike―then much of what has happened would not have happened! Yes, by our negligence in praying and sacrificing for sinners, we have failed to put out many fires. Instead of frenziedly running around and crying-out and posting online our thoughts about this or that pope and all the other clergy, we could and should have been putting-out the fires with the waters of grace that come from the hosepipe of prayer and sacrifice.
If God has given us the grace to see the problems and many crises in the Church, then with that grace comes the responsibility of doing something about it―and that “doing something about it” does not entail running around like a headless-chicken, screaming, texting, posting and blogging that “The Church is on fire! The Church is on fire!”―while doing nothing else about it! There are many Catholics out there who are ‘professional headless-chickens’―who are ceaselessly telling everyone else how bad this and how bad that is, how corrupt this and that is, etc. The time they spend doing this VASTLY OUTWEIGHS any time they might be spending praying on these matters and for these people―if they even pray for them at all!
If a doctor discovers a disease in you―what do you expect and hope that he will do? Do you expect him to run round the whole hospital telling everyone that you have a terrible disease? Does he then call all his family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances to tell them about it? Does he call all the media outlets―TV, radio, newspapers, magazine―to inform them of your disease. Does he then go home and do nothing about your disease? What kind of doctor would such a jerk be? As St. James so rightly says:
“For judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy! Mercy exalts itself above judgment! What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has Faith, but has not works? Shall Faith be able to save him? And if a brother or sister be naked, and lack daily food; and one of you says to them: ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled!’―yet give them not those things that are necessary for the body―what shall it profit? So Faith also, if it has not works, is dead in itself. But some man will say: ‘You have Faith, and I have works!’ Show me your Faith without works; and I will show you, by works, my Faith. You believe that there is one God. You do well! But the devils also believe and tremble! When will you realize, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? Do you see that it is by works that a man is justified; and not by Faith only? For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:13-26).
In his Summa Theologica, treating of the subject of mercy, St. Thomas Aquinas uses a quote from Pope St. Gregory the Great: “Thus Gregory says in a homily (Homily on the Gospels, xxxiv) that ‘true godliness is not disdainful, but compassionate’ … The proud are without pity, because they despise others and think them wicked, so that they account them as suffering deservedly whatever they suffer. Hence Gregory says (Homily on the Gospels, xxxiv) that ‘false godliness,’― i.e. of the proud― ‘is not compassionate, but disdainful.’” St. Thomas continues by quoting St. Augustine: “Augustine says (The City of God, ix, 5): ‘Cicero, in praising Caesar, expresses himself much better and in a fashion at once more humane and more in accordance with religious feeling, when he says: “Of all thy virtues none is more marvelous or more graceful than thy mercy.”‘ Therefore mercy is a virtue … Of all the virtues, which relate to our neighbor, mercy is the greatest … As regards external works, the sum total of the Christian religion consists in mercy; but the inward love of charity, whereby we are united to God, preponderates over both love and mercy for our neighbor” (Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q.30, articles 1, 2, 3 & 4).
The Supreme Work―the Supreme Law
What is the supreme work we can do? What is the supreme law of the Church? Lex suprema salus animarum―which is Latin for “The supreme law is the salvation of souls.” Even though this phrase is only found in modern version of Canon Law (1983 Edition, Canon 1752: “…the salvation of souls, which must always be the supreme law in the Church…”) and not in the older 1917 version of Canon Law, the actual sources for the phrase are traceable back to St. Ivo of Chartres (1040-1115), St. Raymond of Penaforte (1185-1275) and St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Yet, one has only to look to the words of Our Lord to find the implicit, or arguably explicit, source for that law―where Our Lord says: “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)―thus, the salvation of the soul is the supreme goal.
Similarly, Our Lord points out that the chief reason that He has come into this world is to save souls: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost! … I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 19:10; Luke 5:32). “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost! What think you? If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them should go astray―does he not leave the ninety-nine in the mountains, and go to seek that which is gone astray? And if it so be that he find it: Amen I say to you, he rejoices more for that, than for the ninety-nine that went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father, Who is in Heaven, that one of these little ones should perish!” (Matthew 18:11-14)―while St. James adds: “He must know that he who causes a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).
The sinner is like the Jew in the parable of the Good Samaritan―beaten-up, stripped naked and robbed of grace, dying by the roadside. His two fellow Jews―the Priest and the Levite―see him and walk past him, leaving him in that terrible state. In that parable, Our Lord chooses the image of a Samaritan―an arch enemy of Jews―as the one who stops and helps the Jew. Hence, Our Lord shows that even our enemies need to be helped. Is that what you do? Or are you like the ‘self-righteous’ Priest and Levite, who walk on by, probably muttering to themselves that the beaten, robbed, stripped, dying man probably deserved it and “had it coming to him!”
Neglecting the Salvation of Souls
In the Church today, instead of fellow-Jews, there are fellow-Catholics who have be beaten by sin, robbed of virtue or even the Faith, stripped of sanctifying grace, and are dying by the wayside. These fellow-Catholics include the Pope, the bishops, priests, religious and laity―some to a greater degree, others to a lesser degree. The temptation is to walk on by, muttering that they deserve it―that it’s their own fault. In doing so, we take on the mentality of Cain, who after he had murdered Abel, tried to wriggle-out of having to answer God’s question: “‘Where is your brother Abel?’ And he answered: ‘I do not know! Am I my brother’s keeper?’ And the Lord said to him: ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to Me from the earth! Now, therefore, cursed shall you be upon the Earth!’” (Genesis 4:9-11).
Similarly, in a certain sense, we also are “cursed upon Earth”―because of our grave neglect in praying for our superiors and leaders, of whom the supreme leader is the pope. Did not Our Lady say at Fatima and at Akita: “With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the Bishops and Priests … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners! … Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners―for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Pray very much for the Pope, Bishops, and Priests!” At Akita the Church and her clergy had already entered the Liberal and Modernist era. Hence, our “curse” is in “getting the leaders which we deserve” by our negligence to prayer for them. If you neglect to maintain your health by doing the right things, then you will eventually be ‘cursed’ by ill-health. Rarely does disease come upon us, “out of the blue” without there being any cause. Usually, in most cases, the cause is neglect―neglect of a healthy diet, neglect of exercise, neglect of sleep, neglect of sanitary habits.
We are told, by Holy Scripture, to do good to ALL persons―even BAD persons―but above all to those of the Catholic Faith, whether they be good or bad: “Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the Faith” (Galatians 6:10). “You have heard that it has been said: ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy!’ But I say to you: ‘Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you! And pray for them that persecute and calumniate you!’ ― so that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who makes His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and makes His rain fall upon the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you do that is more? Do not also the heathens do this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:43-48).
Article 3
Saturday within the Octave of Easter, April 11th
Come Out of Your Tomb!
Saturday within the Octave of Easter, April 11th
Come Out of Your Tomb!
Digging Graves and Holes
You have no doubt heard of the expression: “Dig a hole for oneself!” or “Digging oneself into a hole!” ― which basically means: taking an action that is going to cause a lot of trouble for you; getting yourself into a difficult situation by doing or saying the wrong thing; taking an action or creating a situation from which it is difficult to extricate oneself; getting oneself into a difficult, undesirable, or disadvantageous position; etc.
A similar idiom is “Digging your own grave!” ―which means doing something foolish or dangerous that will eventually cause your own failure or ruin. For example, if you are consistently rude to your employer, you are “digging your own grave” regarding your job security.
In the spiritual life, it is through sin that we “dig ourselves into a hole” or “dig our own grave” ― “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15). “Everyone shall die for his own sin!” (Deuteronomy 24:16). “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof leads to death!” (Proverbs 16:25). You could rephrase that last quote and say: “There is a way that seems right to a Catholic, but the end thereof leads to Hell!” This can be seen to be true in the following statistics concerning what many modern-day American Catholics believe:
● 74% of U.S. Catholics say that homosexuality should be accepted.
● 70% of U.S. Catholics favor same-sex marriages.
● 59% of U.S. Catholics say abortion should be legal.
● 98% of sexually active Catholic women in the U.S. have used contraception at some point.
● 84% of U.S. Catholics say the Church should allow Catholics to use birth control.
● 83% of U.S. Catholics say the Church should allow couples to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) to get pregnant.
● More than 30% of U.S. Catholics do not believe in Hell.
● Almost 40% of U.S. Catholics are not sure whether or not God exists.
● 80% of U.S. Catholics believe in evolution and 27% of Catholics believe God played no part in human evolution.
● 40% of U.S. Catholics seldom or never attend Mass.
● Regular Sunday Mass attendance by U.S. Catholics ranges between an estimated 18% to 22%.
● 70% of U.S. Catholics believe that they can be a good Catholic without going to Mass every Sunday.
● 76% of U.S. Catholics say the Church should allow Catholics to take Holy Communion even if they are unmarried and living with a romantic partner.
● 70% of all U.S. Catholics no longer believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, seeing it as only being a symbol of His Presence.
● 47% of U.S. Catholics never go to confession with a Catholic priest.
Good Fruit and Bad Fruit
“Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor in the way of sinners―but whose will is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he shall meditate day and night! He shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season!” (Psalm 1:1-3). At the Last Supper, Our Lord says: “I am the true vine and My Father is the farmer. I am the vine―you are the branches! He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing! As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. Every branch in Me that bears not fruit, He will take away; and everyone that bears fruit, He will purge it, so that it may bring forth more fruit. In this is My Father glorified―that you bring forth very much fruit, and become My disciples. If anyone abides not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither―and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 5:1-8).
Our Lord says: “By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Every good tree brings forth good fruit, and the evil tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire! Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:16-21).
Today, there are more and more Catholics producing rotten fruit by their sinful, faithless, rebellious lives. As they say: “One bad apple spoils the whole box of apples!” Holy Scripture has similar warnings:
“Know you not that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump? Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened. Therefore let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth!” (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). “Be not seduced! Evil communications corrupt good manners!” (1 Corinthians 15:33). “A friend of fools shall become like them!” (Proverbs 13:20). “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers! What fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God! Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). “Keep not company with any man that is a fellow Christian, whether he be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner―with such a person, do not even eat!” (1 Corinthians 5:11).
Talking of trees and fruits―Satan loves to blind us to the seriousness and consequences of sin―much as he did with Eve in Paradise, when he seduced Eve into eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God had commanded: “Of every tree of paradise you shalt eat―but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shalt not eat! For in what day soever you shalt eat of it, you shall die the death!” (Genesis 2:16-17). Satan however seduced Eve by saying: “No! You shall not die the death! In what day soever you shall eat the fruit, your eyes shall be opened―and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil!” (Genesis 3:4). Similarly, Satan―whom Our Lord calls “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44)―continually tries to blind us to the truth and to believe his lies. This he will either do directly by speaking silently to our minds; or he will use his stooges, slaves and instruments to entice us to blindly follow them along the path of sin. Through this blindness we eventually fall into the pit, or hole, or grave that we blindly dig for ourselves. As Our Lord said: “They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14).
Through our sins, we blindly dig a hole for ourselves. Few are the people who are not blind when they sin―most people are blinded by the lies of Satan; the false reasoning of their own minds; or their own wishful thinking. St. Louis de Montfort, in his Letter to the Friends of the Cross, sums up such persons perfectly when he writes: “Worldly people rouse one another to persist in their unscrupulous depravity. ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure!’ they shout, ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure! Let us eat, let us drink, let us sing, let us dance, let us play! God is good, He did not make us to damn us! God does not forbid us to enjoy ourselves! We shall not be damned for that! Away with scruples! We shall not die!’ And so they continue.” Holy Scripture, however, says the contrary: “There is a way which seems just to a man―but the ends thereof lead to death!” (Proverbs 14:12). “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great, He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’ For mercy and wrath quickly come from Him, and His wrath looks down upon sinners! Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day! For His wrath shall come on you all of a sudden, and in the time of vengeance He will destroy you!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5-9). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For whatever things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap!” (Galatians 6:7).
Fruits and Tombs
Rotten fruit is good for nothing except to be thrown away. Burying rotten fruit in soil (a “trench” or “tomb” method) is an effective, natural way to bring good out of evil by boosting soil fertility and creating a thriving, nutrient-rich garden environment. Decomposition releases essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium directly into the soil. The decomposing fruit acts as a sugar-rich food source for microbes, attracts beneficial earthworms to the decaying matter, who create tunnels that improve aeration and drainage and improves soil structure. The process increases soil moisture retention and creates a soft, crumbly texture.
Our Lord came to seek and save rotten souls, decomposed by sin and fit to be discarded. Christ “is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10) and God is always seeking to bring some good out of evil― St. Augustine writes: “The power of God is demonstrated in His ability to bring good out of apparent evil.” We clearly see that in the Passion and Death of Our Lord―an evil in itself, but an evil that was conquered by Our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. Likewise, God wants to bring us out of the tomb of evil that we have constructed and buried ourselves in through our innumerable sins. We see this bringing out the tomb of sin in so many cases of sinners throughout history. St. Mary Magdalen was a whore, an adulteress, and possessed by seven devils whom Our Lord cast out of her (Mark 16:9; Luke 8:2). St. Dismas the so-called “Good Thief” on the cross on Calvary is another example (Luke 23:39-43. St. Paul of Tarsus is another example (Acts 9:1-22).
St. Augustine ― Hedonistic Party Lover and Fornicator
St. Augustine (354-430) is probably the most famous saint with a sinful past, which is rather surprising since his own mother (St. Monica) was a devout Christian. Augustine rejected his Christian upbringing to live a life of hedonism and constant partying. He once famously prayed, “Grant me chastity, but not just yet!” He fathered an illegitimate son with his young mistress, whom he later abandoned at the prospect of marrying an heiress. Yet his holy and devout mother, St. Monica, never gave up, constantly following him and urging him to repent. Eventually her persistence paid off, and Augustine became a priest who related his story in a volume titled Confessions, which is still widely read and referenced today. Although St. Augustine is most often associated with a sinner who became a saint, his sins pale in comparison to many others.
St. Moses the Ethiopian (330-405) ― Robber and Murderer
Moses, a lustful, vengeful, violent man, was the leader of a gang of 75 men who were almost as wicked as he. Moses and his brigands became the terror of the Egyptian desert, raiding villages and robbing and killing travelers. The governor of the province sent out troops to wipe out Moses and his men, but the bandits drove off every squad sent against them. The day came at last when the governor sent a force strong enough to destroy the brigands. Faced with such a large body of troops, the robbers scattered. Moses traveled alone through the desert until he reached the monastery of Petra in Skete, one of Egypt’s most renowned monastic communities. In Moses’s mind, this was the perfect hideout. He would live with the monks until the situation settled down, then go back and round up whatever remained of his band of robbers and murderers.
The monks asked him no questions. They gave Moses a cell, fed him, and treated him kindly. As time passed, however, something unexpected began to happen to Moses. The goodness and holiness of the monks transformed him. He no longer wanted to return to his life as a robber and murderer―he wanted to start a new life at Petra. It wasn’t easy. Moses found abstaining from wine hard, and chastity proved especially difficult. The temptations he felt were so strong he almost abandoned the life of a monk. Guided by the abbot, St. Isidore, Moses learned to overcome his sinful impulses. Once, just before dawn, Isidore and Moses climbed to the roof of the monastery to watch the sun rise. “See how long it takes for the light to drive away the darkness of night?” Isidore said. “It is the same with the soul.”
St. Mary of Egypt (344-421) ― Prostitute
St. Mary became a prostitute at age 12 and engaged in the “oldest profession” for over 17 years until her dramatic conversion. It occurred during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. She had joined the pilgrimage merely to seek out more customers, but decided that she wanted to see the relic of the cross the pilgrims were venerating. In Jerusalem, Mary joined a crowd heading to the Church of Holy Sepulcher. But as the pilgrims entered the church, Mary felt an invisible force keeping her out. All at once it occurred to Mary that the powers of heaven were keeping her away from the tomb of Christ. As the full realization of everything she had done broke upon her, she was filled with shame and self-loathing. Through her tears she saw an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary above the entrance of the church. “Help me,” she prayed to the Mother of God, “for I have no other help!” Her prayer was answered. The force that had barred her way released her. Inside the church she made her confession to a priest, attended Mass, and venerated the relic of the Holy Cross. She was able to turn away from prostitution and became a desert hermit―fasting, praying and living alone for 47 years until her death.
St. Olga (890 to 969) ― Murderess
Olga was a princess from Kiev (modern day Ukraine). When her husband was murdered by members of a rival tribe, Olga set out for revenge against those who killed her husband. Thousands lost their lives. She had the murderers captured and scalded to death. But, she did not stop there. She had hundreds of people murdered who belonged to the tribe her husband’s murderers were members―burying some alive, burning others, and eventually burning down an entire town. She is said to have ordered the execution of 5,000 men at a feast held in her honor. Years later, Olga converted to Christianity during a journey to Constantinople. It’s believed that she was partially inspired to convert by the beauty of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy.
St. Vladimir (958–1015) ― Murderer and Immoral
Vladimir, St. Olga’s grandson, was a bloodthirsty ruler in his own right. When civil war broke out between his half-brothers, he was forced to flee to Scandinavia. But, he did not stay long. He put together an army and returned to Kiev, capturing and murdering his own half-brother for power. As ruler, he was known for his barbarism and immorality, much like his grandmother. He sometimes engaged in human sacrifices to placate the gods that his people worshiped. After his conversion, he changed his life and became devoted to others becoming Christians. He brought Greek missionaries to Russia, led people to Christianity, built schools and even churches to replace pagan temples. He got rid of his 7 other wives (he had 8 wives at the time), tore down the pagan temple, and spent the rest of his life trying to convert Russians to Christianity. Vladimir also outlawed the death penalty. Both Olga and Vladimir are revered for introducing Christianity to the Ukraine and Russia.
St. Thomas Becket (1118-1170) ― Selfish Rich Man
As chancellor of England under King Henry II, Thomas Becket became obscenely wealthy. His wardrobe was larger and more expensive than the king’s. He even had his own private navy. In spite of all his wealth, Becket was cold-hearted and never gave anything to the poor. All that changed after Becket entered the religious and was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury. He gave away all his possessions. He welcomed the poor at his table. And he became a champion of the independence of the Church, for which he was murdered in his own cathedral by four of King Henry’s knights.
St. Margaret of Cortona (1247-1297) ― Rich Man’s Mistress
Margaret was only twelve when she became Arsenio’s mistress. After years of cohabitation, she realized her sins when she discovered Arsenio’s murdered corpse. Full of the grace of conversion and determined to start a new life, she went to Cortona where the Franciscans ministered to penitent sinners. There, Margaret pursued a life of prayer, penance, and good works.
St. Angela of Foligno ― Vain, Materialistic Adulteress
St. Angela (1248–1309) spent most of her life seeking wealth, material possessions and pleasure. Angela was born into a wealthy Italian family and married a man of high social standing. She had several children but was more interested in acquiring wealth and status then caring for her family. At around age 40, she experienced a conversion and realized how empty and shallow her life had become. Sadly, just three years later, Angela’s mother, husband and children died. She sold all her worldly possessions and joined a secular Franciscan order, founding a women’s religious group to serve the poor. St. Angela is the patron saint of widows.
St. Philip Howard ― Materialistic, Wealthy Playboy
Son of one of the wealthiest noble families in England, Philip Howard (1557-1595) could afford any pleasure he liked — and he liked them all. At court he was a notorious playboy, gambler and excessively vain and concerned with his appearance. He ran up enormous debts, then sold off his wife’s property to pay those debts. On one occasion he said publicly that he did not really consider himself to be married. In 1581, he joined other members of the court at the Tower of London to see a debate between several Anglican ministers and a prisoner, the Jesuit priest St. Edmund Campion. Although the ministers were armed with books and assistants, Father Campion was alone and had only his memory to rely on, yet he did so well in the debate that the government canceled them before a verdict was rendered. Inspired by Father Campion, Howard reconciled with his wife, and they both returned to the Catholic Faith. When they tried to leave the country secretly for the Continent, where they could practice Catholicism freely, they were stopped and Howard was imprisoned in the Tower of London. He died there 10 years later.
Blessed Bartolo Longo ― Satanic Priest
Raised in a devout Catholic family, Bartolo Longo (1841–1926) prayed the Rosary every night with his family while still a child. Yet, like many young Catholics today, he strayed from his Faith in his 20s during his college years. He became interested in the occult, going so far as to eventually become a satanic priest after attending séances. He publicly attacked and ridiculed the church while rising in the ranks of Satanism. As a lawyer, he was ordained as a priest in Satanism. Becoming so heavily involved in Satanism, Bartolo became depressed, was paranoid, and nearly had a nervous breakdown. Bartolo’s family and friends continued to pray for him and finally convinced him to return to his Faith. To make amends for his sinful lifestyle, he became a Dominican tertiary and helped college students learn about the evils of the occult and how to avoid it. Instead of drawing people away from the faith, he began seeking to bring people into the Faith. He built orphanages, schools and other charitable institutions. He was also commissioned to build the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii, which still stands today.
You have no doubt heard of the expression: “Dig a hole for oneself!” or “Digging oneself into a hole!” ― which basically means: taking an action that is going to cause a lot of trouble for you; getting yourself into a difficult situation by doing or saying the wrong thing; taking an action or creating a situation from which it is difficult to extricate oneself; getting oneself into a difficult, undesirable, or disadvantageous position; etc.
A similar idiom is “Digging your own grave!” ―which means doing something foolish or dangerous that will eventually cause your own failure or ruin. For example, if you are consistently rude to your employer, you are “digging your own grave” regarding your job security.
In the spiritual life, it is through sin that we “dig ourselves into a hole” or “dig our own grave” ― “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15). “Everyone shall die for his own sin!” (Deuteronomy 24:16). “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof leads to death!” (Proverbs 16:25). You could rephrase that last quote and say: “There is a way that seems right to a Catholic, but the end thereof leads to Hell!” This can be seen to be true in the following statistics concerning what many modern-day American Catholics believe:
● 74% of U.S. Catholics say that homosexuality should be accepted.
● 70% of U.S. Catholics favor same-sex marriages.
● 59% of U.S. Catholics say abortion should be legal.
● 98% of sexually active Catholic women in the U.S. have used contraception at some point.
● 84% of U.S. Catholics say the Church should allow Catholics to use birth control.
● 83% of U.S. Catholics say the Church should allow couples to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) to get pregnant.
● More than 30% of U.S. Catholics do not believe in Hell.
● Almost 40% of U.S. Catholics are not sure whether or not God exists.
● 80% of U.S. Catholics believe in evolution and 27% of Catholics believe God played no part in human evolution.
● 40% of U.S. Catholics seldom or never attend Mass.
● Regular Sunday Mass attendance by U.S. Catholics ranges between an estimated 18% to 22%.
● 70% of U.S. Catholics believe that they can be a good Catholic without going to Mass every Sunday.
● 76% of U.S. Catholics say the Church should allow Catholics to take Holy Communion even if they are unmarried and living with a romantic partner.
● 70% of all U.S. Catholics no longer believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, seeing it as only being a symbol of His Presence.
● 47% of U.S. Catholics never go to confession with a Catholic priest.
Good Fruit and Bad Fruit
“Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor in the way of sinners―but whose will is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he shall meditate day and night! He shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season!” (Psalm 1:1-3). At the Last Supper, Our Lord says: “I am the true vine and My Father is the farmer. I am the vine―you are the branches! He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing! As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. Every branch in Me that bears not fruit, He will take away; and everyone that bears fruit, He will purge it, so that it may bring forth more fruit. In this is My Father glorified―that you bring forth very much fruit, and become My disciples. If anyone abides not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither―and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 5:1-8).
Our Lord says: “By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Every good tree brings forth good fruit, and the evil tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire! Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:16-21).
Today, there are more and more Catholics producing rotten fruit by their sinful, faithless, rebellious lives. As they say: “One bad apple spoils the whole box of apples!” Holy Scripture has similar warnings:
“Know you not that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump? Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened. Therefore let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth!” (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). “Be not seduced! Evil communications corrupt good manners!” (1 Corinthians 15:33). “A friend of fools shall become like them!” (Proverbs 13:20). “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers! What fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God! Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). “Keep not company with any man that is a fellow Christian, whether he be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner―with such a person, do not even eat!” (1 Corinthians 5:11).
Talking of trees and fruits―Satan loves to blind us to the seriousness and consequences of sin―much as he did with Eve in Paradise, when he seduced Eve into eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God had commanded: “Of every tree of paradise you shalt eat―but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shalt not eat! For in what day soever you shalt eat of it, you shall die the death!” (Genesis 2:16-17). Satan however seduced Eve by saying: “No! You shall not die the death! In what day soever you shall eat the fruit, your eyes shall be opened―and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil!” (Genesis 3:4). Similarly, Satan―whom Our Lord calls “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44)―continually tries to blind us to the truth and to believe his lies. This he will either do directly by speaking silently to our minds; or he will use his stooges, slaves and instruments to entice us to blindly follow them along the path of sin. Through this blindness we eventually fall into the pit, or hole, or grave that we blindly dig for ourselves. As Our Lord said: “They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14).
Through our sins, we blindly dig a hole for ourselves. Few are the people who are not blind when they sin―most people are blinded by the lies of Satan; the false reasoning of their own minds; or their own wishful thinking. St. Louis de Montfort, in his Letter to the Friends of the Cross, sums up such persons perfectly when he writes: “Worldly people rouse one another to persist in their unscrupulous depravity. ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure!’ they shout, ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure! Let us eat, let us drink, let us sing, let us dance, let us play! God is good, He did not make us to damn us! God does not forbid us to enjoy ourselves! We shall not be damned for that! Away with scruples! We shall not die!’ And so they continue.” Holy Scripture, however, says the contrary: “There is a way which seems just to a man―but the ends thereof lead to death!” (Proverbs 14:12). “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great, He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’ For mercy and wrath quickly come from Him, and His wrath looks down upon sinners! Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day! For His wrath shall come on you all of a sudden, and in the time of vengeance He will destroy you!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5-9). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For whatever things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap!” (Galatians 6:7).
Fruits and Tombs
Rotten fruit is good for nothing except to be thrown away. Burying rotten fruit in soil (a “trench” or “tomb” method) is an effective, natural way to bring good out of evil by boosting soil fertility and creating a thriving, nutrient-rich garden environment. Decomposition releases essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium directly into the soil. The decomposing fruit acts as a sugar-rich food source for microbes, attracts beneficial earthworms to the decaying matter, who create tunnels that improve aeration and drainage and improves soil structure. The process increases soil moisture retention and creates a soft, crumbly texture.
Our Lord came to seek and save rotten souls, decomposed by sin and fit to be discarded. Christ “is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10) and God is always seeking to bring some good out of evil― St. Augustine writes: “The power of God is demonstrated in His ability to bring good out of apparent evil.” We clearly see that in the Passion and Death of Our Lord―an evil in itself, but an evil that was conquered by Our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. Likewise, God wants to bring us out of the tomb of evil that we have constructed and buried ourselves in through our innumerable sins. We see this bringing out the tomb of sin in so many cases of sinners throughout history. St. Mary Magdalen was a whore, an adulteress, and possessed by seven devils whom Our Lord cast out of her (Mark 16:9; Luke 8:2). St. Dismas the so-called “Good Thief” on the cross on Calvary is another example (Luke 23:39-43. St. Paul of Tarsus is another example (Acts 9:1-22).
St. Augustine ― Hedonistic Party Lover and Fornicator
St. Augustine (354-430) is probably the most famous saint with a sinful past, which is rather surprising since his own mother (St. Monica) was a devout Christian. Augustine rejected his Christian upbringing to live a life of hedonism and constant partying. He once famously prayed, “Grant me chastity, but not just yet!” He fathered an illegitimate son with his young mistress, whom he later abandoned at the prospect of marrying an heiress. Yet his holy and devout mother, St. Monica, never gave up, constantly following him and urging him to repent. Eventually her persistence paid off, and Augustine became a priest who related his story in a volume titled Confessions, which is still widely read and referenced today. Although St. Augustine is most often associated with a sinner who became a saint, his sins pale in comparison to many others.
St. Moses the Ethiopian (330-405) ― Robber and Murderer
Moses, a lustful, vengeful, violent man, was the leader of a gang of 75 men who were almost as wicked as he. Moses and his brigands became the terror of the Egyptian desert, raiding villages and robbing and killing travelers. The governor of the province sent out troops to wipe out Moses and his men, but the bandits drove off every squad sent against them. The day came at last when the governor sent a force strong enough to destroy the brigands. Faced with such a large body of troops, the robbers scattered. Moses traveled alone through the desert until he reached the monastery of Petra in Skete, one of Egypt’s most renowned monastic communities. In Moses’s mind, this was the perfect hideout. He would live with the monks until the situation settled down, then go back and round up whatever remained of his band of robbers and murderers.
The monks asked him no questions. They gave Moses a cell, fed him, and treated him kindly. As time passed, however, something unexpected began to happen to Moses. The goodness and holiness of the monks transformed him. He no longer wanted to return to his life as a robber and murderer―he wanted to start a new life at Petra. It wasn’t easy. Moses found abstaining from wine hard, and chastity proved especially difficult. The temptations he felt were so strong he almost abandoned the life of a monk. Guided by the abbot, St. Isidore, Moses learned to overcome his sinful impulses. Once, just before dawn, Isidore and Moses climbed to the roof of the monastery to watch the sun rise. “See how long it takes for the light to drive away the darkness of night?” Isidore said. “It is the same with the soul.”
St. Mary of Egypt (344-421) ― Prostitute
St. Mary became a prostitute at age 12 and engaged in the “oldest profession” for over 17 years until her dramatic conversion. It occurred during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. She had joined the pilgrimage merely to seek out more customers, but decided that she wanted to see the relic of the cross the pilgrims were venerating. In Jerusalem, Mary joined a crowd heading to the Church of Holy Sepulcher. But as the pilgrims entered the church, Mary felt an invisible force keeping her out. All at once it occurred to Mary that the powers of heaven were keeping her away from the tomb of Christ. As the full realization of everything she had done broke upon her, she was filled with shame and self-loathing. Through her tears she saw an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary above the entrance of the church. “Help me,” she prayed to the Mother of God, “for I have no other help!” Her prayer was answered. The force that had barred her way released her. Inside the church she made her confession to a priest, attended Mass, and venerated the relic of the Holy Cross. She was able to turn away from prostitution and became a desert hermit―fasting, praying and living alone for 47 years until her death.
St. Olga (890 to 969) ― Murderess
Olga was a princess from Kiev (modern day Ukraine). When her husband was murdered by members of a rival tribe, Olga set out for revenge against those who killed her husband. Thousands lost their lives. She had the murderers captured and scalded to death. But, she did not stop there. She had hundreds of people murdered who belonged to the tribe her husband’s murderers were members―burying some alive, burning others, and eventually burning down an entire town. She is said to have ordered the execution of 5,000 men at a feast held in her honor. Years later, Olga converted to Christianity during a journey to Constantinople. It’s believed that she was partially inspired to convert by the beauty of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy.
St. Vladimir (958–1015) ― Murderer and Immoral
Vladimir, St. Olga’s grandson, was a bloodthirsty ruler in his own right. When civil war broke out between his half-brothers, he was forced to flee to Scandinavia. But, he did not stay long. He put together an army and returned to Kiev, capturing and murdering his own half-brother for power. As ruler, he was known for his barbarism and immorality, much like his grandmother. He sometimes engaged in human sacrifices to placate the gods that his people worshiped. After his conversion, he changed his life and became devoted to others becoming Christians. He brought Greek missionaries to Russia, led people to Christianity, built schools and even churches to replace pagan temples. He got rid of his 7 other wives (he had 8 wives at the time), tore down the pagan temple, and spent the rest of his life trying to convert Russians to Christianity. Vladimir also outlawed the death penalty. Both Olga and Vladimir are revered for introducing Christianity to the Ukraine and Russia.
St. Thomas Becket (1118-1170) ― Selfish Rich Man
As chancellor of England under King Henry II, Thomas Becket became obscenely wealthy. His wardrobe was larger and more expensive than the king’s. He even had his own private navy. In spite of all his wealth, Becket was cold-hearted and never gave anything to the poor. All that changed after Becket entered the religious and was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury. He gave away all his possessions. He welcomed the poor at his table. And he became a champion of the independence of the Church, for which he was murdered in his own cathedral by four of King Henry’s knights.
St. Margaret of Cortona (1247-1297) ― Rich Man’s Mistress
Margaret was only twelve when she became Arsenio’s mistress. After years of cohabitation, she realized her sins when she discovered Arsenio’s murdered corpse. Full of the grace of conversion and determined to start a new life, she went to Cortona where the Franciscans ministered to penitent sinners. There, Margaret pursued a life of prayer, penance, and good works.
St. Angela of Foligno ― Vain, Materialistic Adulteress
St. Angela (1248–1309) spent most of her life seeking wealth, material possessions and pleasure. Angela was born into a wealthy Italian family and married a man of high social standing. She had several children but was more interested in acquiring wealth and status then caring for her family. At around age 40, she experienced a conversion and realized how empty and shallow her life had become. Sadly, just three years later, Angela’s mother, husband and children died. She sold all her worldly possessions and joined a secular Franciscan order, founding a women’s religious group to serve the poor. St. Angela is the patron saint of widows.
St. Philip Howard ― Materialistic, Wealthy Playboy
Son of one of the wealthiest noble families in England, Philip Howard (1557-1595) could afford any pleasure he liked — and he liked them all. At court he was a notorious playboy, gambler and excessively vain and concerned with his appearance. He ran up enormous debts, then sold off his wife’s property to pay those debts. On one occasion he said publicly that he did not really consider himself to be married. In 1581, he joined other members of the court at the Tower of London to see a debate between several Anglican ministers and a prisoner, the Jesuit priest St. Edmund Campion. Although the ministers were armed with books and assistants, Father Campion was alone and had only his memory to rely on, yet he did so well in the debate that the government canceled them before a verdict was rendered. Inspired by Father Campion, Howard reconciled with his wife, and they both returned to the Catholic Faith. When they tried to leave the country secretly for the Continent, where they could practice Catholicism freely, they were stopped and Howard was imprisoned in the Tower of London. He died there 10 years later.
Blessed Bartolo Longo ― Satanic Priest
Raised in a devout Catholic family, Bartolo Longo (1841–1926) prayed the Rosary every night with his family while still a child. Yet, like many young Catholics today, he strayed from his Faith in his 20s during his college years. He became interested in the occult, going so far as to eventually become a satanic priest after attending séances. He publicly attacked and ridiculed the church while rising in the ranks of Satanism. As a lawyer, he was ordained as a priest in Satanism. Becoming so heavily involved in Satanism, Bartolo became depressed, was paranoid, and nearly had a nervous breakdown. Bartolo’s family and friends continued to pray for him and finally convinced him to return to his Faith. To make amends for his sinful lifestyle, he became a Dominican tertiary and helped college students learn about the evils of the occult and how to avoid it. Instead of drawing people away from the faith, he began seeking to bring people into the Faith. He built orphanages, schools and other charitable institutions. He was also commissioned to build the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii, which still stands today.
Article 2
Thursday within the Octave of Easter, April 9th
Risen or Still Dead?
Thursday within the Octave of Easter, April 9th
Risen or Still Dead?
The Cross and the Tomb
Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He was buried in a tomb and from that tomb He rose to life―leaving the tomb behind as He resurrected to a new life. Sin deserves death and death leads to the tomb. “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15). In the Old Testament, God says: “The soul that sins, the same shall die! But if the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keeps all My commandments, and does judgment and justice―then living he shall live and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done and in his justice, which he has wrought, he shall live! Is it My will that a sinner should die, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? … I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live! Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways―and why will you die?” (Ezechiel 18:20-23; 33:11).
Come Out of Your Tomb!
There are two tombs for sin―the tomb of eternal damnation and the tomb of the confessional. We have a choice―live in mortal sin and end up in the tomb of Hell; or go to the dark tomb of the confessional and leave your sins buried there and emerge to a new life―no longer a sinful life, but a virtuous life; not a worldly life, but a godly life. That is what Holy Scripture indicates: “What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin? God forbid! For we that are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer in sin? Know you not that all we―who are baptized in Christ Jesus―are baptized in His death? For we are buried together with Him by baptism into death; so that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life! For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, then we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection! Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, so that the body of sin may be destroyed, so that we may serve sin no longer! For he that is dead is justified from sin! Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ―knowing that Christ rising again from the dead, dies now no more, death shall no more have dominion over Him. For in that He died to sin, he died once; but in that He lived, he lived unto God! So do you also reckon that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord! Let no sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof! Neither yield your members as instruments of iniquity unto sin―but present yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of justice unto God! For sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law, but under grace!” (Romans 6:1-14).
What Tomb Are You Stuck In?
What is that tomb that you stuck in? Where are you experiencing spiritual death? What sins have a stranglehold on you? Jesus, because He is God, He knows you and He can heal you, but you have to sincerely invite Him in with the desire to change your life. He is the resurrection and the life. Little by little, the stone of the tomb of sin that blocks your way to life, is taken away, and the darkness is pierced by a growing light. Jesus calls Lazarus out of the sleep of death, and he seeks to resurrect each one of us from the death of sin by speaking our name: “My child, come out of that tomb! You don’t have to stay there!” If you’re oppressed by the attacks of the enemy, come out of that tomb―you don’t have to be ruled by Satan anymore. Satan, the strong man has been bound by Jesus, who is much stronger than Satan. The empty tomb is the declaration of Christ's absolute dominion over Satan sin and Hell. Do you feel stuck in the slavery of sin? Do you feels tied-up by the temptations of Satan? Go to the Confession, the Tomb where sin goes to die and come out of that tomb a new creation―experience it as a place of victory and resurrection. He calls us by name; come out of that tomb. Walk in the light.
God wants us to come out from tomb of sin into a new life of sanctity and holiness. In the Old Testament, God says: “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:26). “Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy, because I am the Lord your God!” (Leviticus 20:7). This is also echoed in the New Testament, where Our Lord says: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). St. Peter adds: “It is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy!’” (1 Peter 1:16). St. Paul further adds: “He chose us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight!” (Ephesians 1:4). “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14).
Can You Resurrect Your Life Or Not? Will You Resurrect Your Life Or Not?
“Who? Me? Thanks, But I'm alright as I am!” The attitude of most people is one of “I may not be a saint, but I’m happy as a I am!” Most people have reached the end of the road, as far a spiritual improvement goes, and they have their slippers on and are well-ensconced into their armchair, happy to maintain what they have.
God, in the Book of the Apocalypse, addresses this smugness when He says: “You say: ‘I am rich and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ And you know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked! I counsel you to buy of me gold fire tried, that you mayest be made rich; and may be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint you eyes with eye-salve, that you may see! Be zealous, therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:17-19).
Perpetual Conversion
The spiritual life is a road of perpetual conversion, until the day we die. There is a famous axiom of the spiritual life, quoted by many saints and spiritual writers, that says: “There is not standing still in the spiritual life—we are either going forwards or backwards—he who makes not progress, regresses.” This is something that we instinctively dislike. We would prefer to reach a goal and then put up our feet and rest. This can never be so in the spiritual life. It has to be a life of perpetual spiritual motion, always working. How else can you interpret Scriptural quotes like: “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). “Prayer was made without ceasing” (Acts 12:5). “We also give thanks to God without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Our Lord Himself says: “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). “Let nothing hinder thee from praying always” (Ecclesiasticus 18:22).
No Sitting Down
Praying always is like running without taking a break. Yet this does not mean saying an endless chain of Our Fathers and Hail Marys. Prayer is more than that. Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God. We can pray in the usual accustomed way—Rosaries, Acts of Contrition, Acts of Faith, Hope and Charity. Yet there is more to prayer. We pray when we attend Mass—and most people do not attend enough Masses. We pray when read the Bible. We pray when we meditate. We pray when we are doing our spiritual reading. We pray when consider and reflect upon the wondrous creation of God. We pray when we listen to a sermon. We pray when we give spiritual advice or simply talk about spiritual things. By trying to see God in all things, behind all things, controlling all things—we are praying.
Training Takes Time
This should be our goal—but one arrives at goals by stages. We go to school, college, or university and learn by stages. We practice whatever art attracts and pleases us, but we grow better by stages. Athletes improve their fitness and form by stages. The same must be true of the spiritual life—there is no “light switch” that we can flick and instantly be at a level that we desire. The danger and the tragedy is that most people do not take time to train spiritually.
Stages of Spiritual Resurrection
Resurrection from the death of mortal sin, or the crippling effects of venial sin, can be instantaneous (as in the case of St. Paul) or it can a gradual, slow, progressive resurrection as described in the book Soul of Apostolate by Dom Chautard and repeated in Guidance in Spiritual Direction by Fr. Hugo Doyle.
“Every soul is a world by itself. It has its own shades of difference. Still, as an ordinary rule, we may classify Christians in various groups. We have thought fit to attempt such a classification here below, testing souls on one hand by sin and imperfection, and on the other by their degree of prayer. Let us hope that this classification may lead some of our respected confreres to think over the necessity of studying these things, in order to learn the practical rules for directing each soul according to its state.
“In the first two categories, the priest may not be able to work directly upon the souls in question but if he is a good director he will be able to give much more effective guidance to those relatives and friends who have set their hearts on winning back these dear ones, even though they may be hardened in sin, before they are entirely rejected by God.
1. HARDENED IN SIN
MORTAL SIN:
● Stubborn persistence in sin, either out of ignorance or because of a maliciously warped conscience.
VENIAL SIN:
● Complete acceptance.
● Fails to even recognize and accept them as being sins.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● What God would look at being imperfections, the soul thinks them to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● Deliberate refusal to have any recourse to God.
2. SURFACE OR SUPERFICIAL CHRISTIANITY
MORTAL SIN:
● Considered as a trifling evil, easily forgiven.
● The soul easily gives way and commits mortal sin at every possible occasion or temptation.
● Confession almost without contrition.
VENIAL SIN:
● Complete acceptance.
● Fails to even recognize and accept them as being sins.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● Many imperfections are even thought to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● Mechanical; either inattentive, or always dictated by temporal interest.
● Such souls enter into themselves very rarely and superficially.
3. MEDIOCRE PIETY
MORTAL SIN:
● Weak resistance.
● Hardly ever avoids occasions but seriously regrets having sinned, and makes good confessions.
VENIAL SIN:
● Complete acceptance of this sin, which is considered as insignificant.
● Hence, tepidity of the will.
● Does nothing whatever to prevent venial sin, or to extirpate it, or to find it out when it is concealed.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● Many imperfections are even thought to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● From time to time, prays well.
● Momentary fits of fervor.
4. INTERMITTENT PIETY
MORTAL SIN:
● Loyal resistance.
● Habitually avoids occasion.
● Deep regrets.
● Does penance to make reparation.
VENIAL SIN:
● Sometimes deliberate.
● Puts up a weak fight.
● Sorrow only superficial.
● Makes a particular examination of conscience, but without any method or coherence.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● Many imperfections are even thought to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● Not firmly resolved to remain faithful to meditation.
● Gives it up as soon as dryness is felt, or as soon as there is business to attend to.
5. SUSTAINED PIETY
MORTAL SIN:
● Never. At most very rare, when taken suddenly and violently by surprise.
● And then, often it is to be doubted if the sin is mortal.
● It is followed by ardent compunction and penance.
VENIAL SIN:
● Vigilant in avoiding and fighting it.
● Rarely deliberate.
● Keen sorrow, but does little by way of reparation.
● Consistent daily particular examination of conscience, but aiming only at avoidance of venial sin.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul either avoids uncovering them, so as not to have to fight them, or else easily excuses them.
● Approves the thought of renouncing them, and would like to do so, but makes little effort in that direction.
PRAYER:
● Always faithful to prayer, no matter what happens. Often affective prayer.
● Alternating consolations and dryness, the latter endured with considerable hardship.
6. FERVOR
MORTAL SIN:
● Never
VENIAL SIN:
● Never deliberate.
● By surprise, sometimes, or with imperfect advertence.
● Keenly regretted, and serious reparation made.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Wants nothing to do with them.
● Watches over them, fights them with courage, in order to be more pleasing to God.
● These imperfections are sometimes accepted, however, but regretted at once.
● Frequent acts of renunciation.
● The Daily Particular Examination of Conscience aims at perfection in a given virtue.
PRAYER:
● Mental prayer gladly prolonged. Prayer on the affective side, or even prayer of simplicity.
● Alternation between powerful consolations and fierce trials.
7. RELATIVE PERFECTION
MORTAL SIN:
● Never.
VENIAL SIN:
● Never.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Guards against them energetically and with much love.
● They only happen with half-advertence.
PRAYER:
● Habitual life of prayer, even when occupied in external works.
● Thirst for self-renunciation, annihilation, detachment, and divine love.
● Hunger for the Eucharist and for Heaven.
● Graces of infused prayer, of different degree.
● Often passive purification.
8. HEROIC PERFECTION
MORTAL SIN:
● Never.
VENIAL SIN:
● Never.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Nothing but the first impulse.
PRAYER:
● Supernatural graces of contemplation, sometimes accompanied by extraordinary phenomena.
● Pronounced passive purifications.
● Contempt of self to the point of complete self-forgetfulness.
● Prefers suffering to joys.
9. COMPLETE SANCTITY
MORTAL SIN:
● Never.
VENIAL SIN:
● Never.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Hardly apparent.
PRAYER:
● Usually, transforming union. Spiritual marriage.
● Purifications by love.
● Ardent thirst for sufferings and humiliations.
“Few and far between are the souls that belong to the last two, even to the last three categories. Nor is it hard to understand that a priest will wait until he actually comes across such a penitent before making a study of what the best authors have to say, in order that his direction may then be prudent and safe.” (taken from Soul of the Apostolate by Dom Chautard & Guidance in Spiritual Direction by Fr. Hugo Doyle).
THE THREE CONVERSIONS (RESURRECTIONS) OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
The Beginners in the Purgative Way
Each of these three stages is preceded by a crisis or a painful transition. These are sometimes called “CONVERSIONS” by the spiritual writers. Before one can be a BEGINNER in the spiritual life, one has to convert from the state of not-possessing the grace of God in the soul (for an adult this means being in Mortal Sin, for a new born child it is the state of Original Sin) to a state of possessing the grace of God in the soul.
This FIRST CONVERSION therefore initially takes place in the Sacrament of Baptism, when sanctifying grace is infused into the soul for the first time, and in the Sacrament of Confession where Mortal Sin is removed and grace once again returns to the soul. This can be a real battle-royal for the soul. A battle that is painful and one that costs dearly.
During this FIRST CONVERSION the soul of the Beginner is concerned with THREE chief things: (1) To battle and eradicate Mortal Sin, (2) to do penance for past mortal sins, and (3) to preserve the state of grace in the soul on an habitual basisl. The soul therefore has to PURGE itself (hence the name “Purgative Way”), not only from the present Mortal Sin, but also remedy the past effects of Mortal Sin by doing penance.
It is only by an habitual avoidance of Mortal Sin that a soul can truly lay claim to being a Beginner in the spiritual life. Authors like the Fr. Faber and the 20th century spiritual master, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, are of the opinion that most souls are not even beginners, but are going backwards and forwards between the state of grace and the state of Mortal Sin. As regards lukewarm souls, many others state that they are not truly Beginners, for they have one foot inside the room and the other foot outside, neither in nor out.
Those Making Progress ae in the Illuminative Way
The second level or stage of the spiritual life (the Illuminative Way of those making progress—the Proficients) is where the soul, now habitually free of Mortal Sin, starts to focus on THREE chief things:
(1) the Proficient soul now starts to look for its Venial Sins in order to battle them, uproot them and destroy them,
(2) It starts to pray much, much more than ever before, and
(3) it starts to focus on the systematic (not random or sporadic) acquisition of virtues.
Before the soul acquires these great graces, it has to undergo the SECOND CONVERSION, which has THREE chief areas of combat. These are
(1) the painful endurance of a spiritual dryness despite wanting and trying to draw closer to God,
(2) the battle to overcome all deliberate Venial Sin, which in earlier years didn’t even seem like sin at all! And (3) the pulling away from all the sensible, tangible, non-sinful pleasures and consolations that the soul instinctively still desires.
Many, if not most souls, who enter this level, do not have the fortitude and resolution to do this, and will often make peace with Venial Sin (which will then require a painful Purgatory at the end their life, unless they finally push through this stage). This peace with Venial Sin will quite frequently lead some souls back into Mortal Sin more or less frequently—for as one of the maxims of the spiritual life says: “If we are not making progress, then we will find ourselves going backwards.”
Those Reaching Perfection are in the Unitive Way
The third level or stage of the spiritual life (the Unitive Way of the Perfect) is one has to be preceded by a third trial or THIRD CONVERSION, which now hones or perfects the soul even more.
The first conversion centered around the elimination of all Mortal Sin; the second conversion focused on the elimination of all Venial Sin; this third conversion has as its target the elimination of all imperfections—which are all thoughts, words and actions that are not sinful in any way, but could be more perfectly done. In short, it means trying to always do the most perfect thing, to take the most perfect option or solution.
This can be an excruciating crucible of suffering. To add to the trial, at this stage or level, God often pulls away from the soul—much more than in the second conversion, where the pulling away only meant a kind of dryness being experienced. In this third stage, the soul has the impression that it has been completely abandoned by God, so much so that it feels an unworthiness so great that it feels it will be damned. You can read of this in the lives of many of the saints.
It is the final test for the soul, whereby God purifies it of all self-interest and self-love, and examines the soul to see if it seeks God for His own sake, or if it was only seeking it for consolations and self-interest. As the saying goes: “Do you seek the consolations of God, or do you seek the God of consolations?”
That, in brief, is a sketch of the road map to Heaven! But who the hell wants it? Very few do! That is why most do end up in Hell, whereas God wants everyone in Heaven.
Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He was buried in a tomb and from that tomb He rose to life―leaving the tomb behind as He resurrected to a new life. Sin deserves death and death leads to the tomb. “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15). In the Old Testament, God says: “The soul that sins, the same shall die! But if the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keeps all My commandments, and does judgment and justice―then living he shall live and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done and in his justice, which he has wrought, he shall live! Is it My will that a sinner should die, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? … I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live! Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways―and why will you die?” (Ezechiel 18:20-23; 33:11).
Come Out of Your Tomb!
There are two tombs for sin―the tomb of eternal damnation and the tomb of the confessional. We have a choice―live in mortal sin and end up in the tomb of Hell; or go to the dark tomb of the confessional and leave your sins buried there and emerge to a new life―no longer a sinful life, but a virtuous life; not a worldly life, but a godly life. That is what Holy Scripture indicates: “What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin? God forbid! For we that are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer in sin? Know you not that all we―who are baptized in Christ Jesus―are baptized in His death? For we are buried together with Him by baptism into death; so that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life! For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, then we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection! Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, so that the body of sin may be destroyed, so that we may serve sin no longer! For he that is dead is justified from sin! Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ―knowing that Christ rising again from the dead, dies now no more, death shall no more have dominion over Him. For in that He died to sin, he died once; but in that He lived, he lived unto God! So do you also reckon that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord! Let no sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof! Neither yield your members as instruments of iniquity unto sin―but present yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of justice unto God! For sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law, but under grace!” (Romans 6:1-14).
What Tomb Are You Stuck In?
What is that tomb that you stuck in? Where are you experiencing spiritual death? What sins have a stranglehold on you? Jesus, because He is God, He knows you and He can heal you, but you have to sincerely invite Him in with the desire to change your life. He is the resurrection and the life. Little by little, the stone of the tomb of sin that blocks your way to life, is taken away, and the darkness is pierced by a growing light. Jesus calls Lazarus out of the sleep of death, and he seeks to resurrect each one of us from the death of sin by speaking our name: “My child, come out of that tomb! You don’t have to stay there!” If you’re oppressed by the attacks of the enemy, come out of that tomb―you don’t have to be ruled by Satan anymore. Satan, the strong man has been bound by Jesus, who is much stronger than Satan. The empty tomb is the declaration of Christ's absolute dominion over Satan sin and Hell. Do you feel stuck in the slavery of sin? Do you feels tied-up by the temptations of Satan? Go to the Confession, the Tomb where sin goes to die and come out of that tomb a new creation―experience it as a place of victory and resurrection. He calls us by name; come out of that tomb. Walk in the light.
God wants us to come out from tomb of sin into a new life of sanctity and holiness. In the Old Testament, God says: “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:26). “Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy, because I am the Lord your God!” (Leviticus 20:7). This is also echoed in the New Testament, where Our Lord says: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). St. Peter adds: “It is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy!’” (1 Peter 1:16). St. Paul further adds: “He chose us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight!” (Ephesians 1:4). “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14).
Can You Resurrect Your Life Or Not? Will You Resurrect Your Life Or Not?
“Who? Me? Thanks, But I'm alright as I am!” The attitude of most people is one of “I may not be a saint, but I’m happy as a I am!” Most people have reached the end of the road, as far a spiritual improvement goes, and they have their slippers on and are well-ensconced into their armchair, happy to maintain what they have.
God, in the Book of the Apocalypse, addresses this smugness when He says: “You say: ‘I am rich and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ And you know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked! I counsel you to buy of me gold fire tried, that you mayest be made rich; and may be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint you eyes with eye-salve, that you may see! Be zealous, therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:17-19).
Perpetual Conversion
The spiritual life is a road of perpetual conversion, until the day we die. There is a famous axiom of the spiritual life, quoted by many saints and spiritual writers, that says: “There is not standing still in the spiritual life—we are either going forwards or backwards—he who makes not progress, regresses.” This is something that we instinctively dislike. We would prefer to reach a goal and then put up our feet and rest. This can never be so in the spiritual life. It has to be a life of perpetual spiritual motion, always working. How else can you interpret Scriptural quotes like: “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). “Prayer was made without ceasing” (Acts 12:5). “We also give thanks to God without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Our Lord Himself says: “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). “Let nothing hinder thee from praying always” (Ecclesiasticus 18:22).
No Sitting Down
Praying always is like running without taking a break. Yet this does not mean saying an endless chain of Our Fathers and Hail Marys. Prayer is more than that. Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God. We can pray in the usual accustomed way—Rosaries, Acts of Contrition, Acts of Faith, Hope and Charity. Yet there is more to prayer. We pray when we attend Mass—and most people do not attend enough Masses. We pray when read the Bible. We pray when we meditate. We pray when we are doing our spiritual reading. We pray when consider and reflect upon the wondrous creation of God. We pray when we listen to a sermon. We pray when we give spiritual advice or simply talk about spiritual things. By trying to see God in all things, behind all things, controlling all things—we are praying.
Training Takes Time
This should be our goal—but one arrives at goals by stages. We go to school, college, or university and learn by stages. We practice whatever art attracts and pleases us, but we grow better by stages. Athletes improve their fitness and form by stages. The same must be true of the spiritual life—there is no “light switch” that we can flick and instantly be at a level that we desire. The danger and the tragedy is that most people do not take time to train spiritually.
Stages of Spiritual Resurrection
Resurrection from the death of mortal sin, or the crippling effects of venial sin, can be instantaneous (as in the case of St. Paul) or it can a gradual, slow, progressive resurrection as described in the book Soul of Apostolate by Dom Chautard and repeated in Guidance in Spiritual Direction by Fr. Hugo Doyle.
“Every soul is a world by itself. It has its own shades of difference. Still, as an ordinary rule, we may classify Christians in various groups. We have thought fit to attempt such a classification here below, testing souls on one hand by sin and imperfection, and on the other by their degree of prayer. Let us hope that this classification may lead some of our respected confreres to think over the necessity of studying these things, in order to learn the practical rules for directing each soul according to its state.
“In the first two categories, the priest may not be able to work directly upon the souls in question but if he is a good director he will be able to give much more effective guidance to those relatives and friends who have set their hearts on winning back these dear ones, even though they may be hardened in sin, before they are entirely rejected by God.
1. HARDENED IN SIN
MORTAL SIN:
● Stubborn persistence in sin, either out of ignorance or because of a maliciously warped conscience.
VENIAL SIN:
● Complete acceptance.
● Fails to even recognize and accept them as being sins.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● What God would look at being imperfections, the soul thinks them to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● Deliberate refusal to have any recourse to God.
2. SURFACE OR SUPERFICIAL CHRISTIANITY
MORTAL SIN:
● Considered as a trifling evil, easily forgiven.
● The soul easily gives way and commits mortal sin at every possible occasion or temptation.
● Confession almost without contrition.
VENIAL SIN:
● Complete acceptance.
● Fails to even recognize and accept them as being sins.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● Many imperfections are even thought to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● Mechanical; either inattentive, or always dictated by temporal interest.
● Such souls enter into themselves very rarely and superficially.
3. MEDIOCRE PIETY
MORTAL SIN:
● Weak resistance.
● Hardly ever avoids occasions but seriously regrets having sinned, and makes good confessions.
VENIAL SIN:
● Complete acceptance of this sin, which is considered as insignificant.
● Hence, tepidity of the will.
● Does nothing whatever to prevent venial sin, or to extirpate it, or to find it out when it is concealed.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● Many imperfections are even thought to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● From time to time, prays well.
● Momentary fits of fervor.
4. INTERMITTENT PIETY
MORTAL SIN:
● Loyal resistance.
● Habitually avoids occasion.
● Deep regrets.
● Does penance to make reparation.
VENIAL SIN:
● Sometimes deliberate.
● Puts up a weak fight.
● Sorrow only superficial.
● Makes a particular examination of conscience, but without any method or coherence.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● Many imperfections are even thought to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● Not firmly resolved to remain faithful to meditation.
● Gives it up as soon as dryness is felt, or as soon as there is business to attend to.
5. SUSTAINED PIETY
MORTAL SIN:
● Never. At most very rare, when taken suddenly and violently by surprise.
● And then, often it is to be doubted if the sin is mortal.
● It is followed by ardent compunction and penance.
VENIAL SIN:
● Vigilant in avoiding and fighting it.
● Rarely deliberate.
● Keen sorrow, but does little by way of reparation.
● Consistent daily particular examination of conscience, but aiming only at avoidance of venial sin.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul either avoids uncovering them, so as not to have to fight them, or else easily excuses them.
● Approves the thought of renouncing them, and would like to do so, but makes little effort in that direction.
PRAYER:
● Always faithful to prayer, no matter what happens. Often affective prayer.
● Alternating consolations and dryness, the latter endured with considerable hardship.
6. FERVOR
MORTAL SIN:
● Never
VENIAL SIN:
● Never deliberate.
● By surprise, sometimes, or with imperfect advertence.
● Keenly regretted, and serious reparation made.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Wants nothing to do with them.
● Watches over them, fights them with courage, in order to be more pleasing to God.
● These imperfections are sometimes accepted, however, but regretted at once.
● Frequent acts of renunciation.
● The Daily Particular Examination of Conscience aims at perfection in a given virtue.
PRAYER:
● Mental prayer gladly prolonged. Prayer on the affective side, or even prayer of simplicity.
● Alternation between powerful consolations and fierce trials.
7. RELATIVE PERFECTION
MORTAL SIN:
● Never.
VENIAL SIN:
● Never.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Guards against them energetically and with much love.
● They only happen with half-advertence.
PRAYER:
● Habitual life of prayer, even when occupied in external works.
● Thirst for self-renunciation, annihilation, detachment, and divine love.
● Hunger for the Eucharist and for Heaven.
● Graces of infused prayer, of different degree.
● Often passive purification.
8. HEROIC PERFECTION
MORTAL SIN:
● Never.
VENIAL SIN:
● Never.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Nothing but the first impulse.
PRAYER:
● Supernatural graces of contemplation, sometimes accompanied by extraordinary phenomena.
● Pronounced passive purifications.
● Contempt of self to the point of complete self-forgetfulness.
● Prefers suffering to joys.
9. COMPLETE SANCTITY
MORTAL SIN:
● Never.
VENIAL SIN:
● Never.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Hardly apparent.
PRAYER:
● Usually, transforming union. Spiritual marriage.
● Purifications by love.
● Ardent thirst for sufferings and humiliations.
“Few and far between are the souls that belong to the last two, even to the last three categories. Nor is it hard to understand that a priest will wait until he actually comes across such a penitent before making a study of what the best authors have to say, in order that his direction may then be prudent and safe.” (taken from Soul of the Apostolate by Dom Chautard & Guidance in Spiritual Direction by Fr. Hugo Doyle).
THE THREE CONVERSIONS (RESURRECTIONS) OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
The Beginners in the Purgative Way
Each of these three stages is preceded by a crisis or a painful transition. These are sometimes called “CONVERSIONS” by the spiritual writers. Before one can be a BEGINNER in the spiritual life, one has to convert from the state of not-possessing the grace of God in the soul (for an adult this means being in Mortal Sin, for a new born child it is the state of Original Sin) to a state of possessing the grace of God in the soul.
This FIRST CONVERSION therefore initially takes place in the Sacrament of Baptism, when sanctifying grace is infused into the soul for the first time, and in the Sacrament of Confession where Mortal Sin is removed and grace once again returns to the soul. This can be a real battle-royal for the soul. A battle that is painful and one that costs dearly.
During this FIRST CONVERSION the soul of the Beginner is concerned with THREE chief things: (1) To battle and eradicate Mortal Sin, (2) to do penance for past mortal sins, and (3) to preserve the state of grace in the soul on an habitual basisl. The soul therefore has to PURGE itself (hence the name “Purgative Way”), not only from the present Mortal Sin, but also remedy the past effects of Mortal Sin by doing penance.
It is only by an habitual avoidance of Mortal Sin that a soul can truly lay claim to being a Beginner in the spiritual life. Authors like the Fr. Faber and the 20th century spiritual master, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, are of the opinion that most souls are not even beginners, but are going backwards and forwards between the state of grace and the state of Mortal Sin. As regards lukewarm souls, many others state that they are not truly Beginners, for they have one foot inside the room and the other foot outside, neither in nor out.
Those Making Progress ae in the Illuminative Way
The second level or stage of the spiritual life (the Illuminative Way of those making progress—the Proficients) is where the soul, now habitually free of Mortal Sin, starts to focus on THREE chief things:
(1) the Proficient soul now starts to look for its Venial Sins in order to battle them, uproot them and destroy them,
(2) It starts to pray much, much more than ever before, and
(3) it starts to focus on the systematic (not random or sporadic) acquisition of virtues.
Before the soul acquires these great graces, it has to undergo the SECOND CONVERSION, which has THREE chief areas of combat. These are
(1) the painful endurance of a spiritual dryness despite wanting and trying to draw closer to God,
(2) the battle to overcome all deliberate Venial Sin, which in earlier years didn’t even seem like sin at all! And (3) the pulling away from all the sensible, tangible, non-sinful pleasures and consolations that the soul instinctively still desires.
Many, if not most souls, who enter this level, do not have the fortitude and resolution to do this, and will often make peace with Venial Sin (which will then require a painful Purgatory at the end their life, unless they finally push through this stage). This peace with Venial Sin will quite frequently lead some souls back into Mortal Sin more or less frequently—for as one of the maxims of the spiritual life says: “If we are not making progress, then we will find ourselves going backwards.”
Those Reaching Perfection are in the Unitive Way
The third level or stage of the spiritual life (the Unitive Way of the Perfect) is one has to be preceded by a third trial or THIRD CONVERSION, which now hones or perfects the soul even more.
The first conversion centered around the elimination of all Mortal Sin; the second conversion focused on the elimination of all Venial Sin; this third conversion has as its target the elimination of all imperfections—which are all thoughts, words and actions that are not sinful in any way, but could be more perfectly done. In short, it means trying to always do the most perfect thing, to take the most perfect option or solution.
This can be an excruciating crucible of suffering. To add to the trial, at this stage or level, God often pulls away from the soul—much more than in the second conversion, where the pulling away only meant a kind of dryness being experienced. In this third stage, the soul has the impression that it has been completely abandoned by God, so much so that it feels an unworthiness so great that it feels it will be damned. You can read of this in the lives of many of the saints.
It is the final test for the soul, whereby God purifies it of all self-interest and self-love, and examines the soul to see if it seeks God for His own sake, or if it was only seeking it for consolations and self-interest. As the saying goes: “Do you seek the consolations of God, or do you seek the God of consolations?”
That, in brief, is a sketch of the road map to Heaven! But who the hell wants it? Very few do! That is why most do end up in Hell, whereas God wants everyone in Heaven.
Article 1
Easter Sunday, April 5th
Winners & Losers!
Easter Sunday, April 5th
Winners & Losers!
Winners & Losers ― Nothing Else!
At the end of the day, there are only winners and losers―there are no “tied or drawn games” or “stalemates”, no “deadlocks” or “standoffs” or “impasses”. You either win or lose! “It is appointed unto men to die once, and after this comes the judgment!” (Hebrews 9:27). You only have one life! Will it end in victory or will it end in failure? It is like having “one shot” at something―you have one arrow, or one bullet―will you hit the target, or will you miss the target?
Are You on the Side of Winners or Losers?
“The devil is about to wage a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin, and a decisive battle is the final battle where one side will be victorious and the other side will suffer defeat. From now on, we are either with God, or we are with the Devil―there is no middle ground” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957). As Our Lord Himself said: “He that is not with Me, is against Me―and he that gathers not with Me, scatters … Everyone that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven! But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 12:30; 10:32-33).
Losing Winners & Winning Losers
Sometimes, winners seem to failures and losers seem to be winners! Today the world looks upon those who are religious as losers. They mock us, like they mocked Christ. Our Lord said that if they have hated Me then they will also hate you. Let us not become cowards just because we are mocked and laughed at. He who laughs last, laughs longest. Those who now laugh at religion will gnash and grind their teeth as they howl and wail for eternity. As Our Lord said to His followers at the Last Supper, just before the commencement of His Passion: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy!” (John 16:20).
Attacked from all sides—the Sadducees (priests); the Scribes and Pharisees; the mob or heartless cowardly crowd; Pilate, Herod, Annas, Caiphas, the Roman soldiers; betrayed by Judas; abandoned by most of His Apostles; and last of all the attacked by the devils themselves—the irrepressible Jesus―an apparent loser and failure after His horrendous beating and death―emerges victorious! As Our Lord said: “Many that are first, shall be last―and the last shall be first! … So shall the last be first, and the first last!” (Matthew 19:30; 20:16). “And behold, they are last that shall be first; and they are first that shall be last!” (Luke 13:30). You could rephrase that slightly and say: “Many winners will end up being losers―and many losers shall end up being winners!”
Our Lady also foretells a time when the Church will believe that all is lost―only for Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart to step in and lead the Church to an unimagined triumph: “There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. This then will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration … This will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet and fettering him in the infernal abyss … I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved … God will take care of His faithful servants and men of good will ... At the blood, the tears and prayers of the righteous, God will relent ... Then Jesus Christ, in an act of His justice and His great mercy, will command His Angels to have all His enemies put to death. The fire of Heaven will fall and consume cities. All the universe will be struck with terror and many will let themselves be led astray, because they have not worshiped the true Christ. Suddenly, with one blow, the persecutors of the Church of Jesus Christ, and all those given over to sin, will perish and the Earth will become like a desert ... In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph ... Russia will be converted … Pagan Rome will disappear. And then peace will be made, and man will be reconciled with God ... and a period of peace will be granted to the world … Jesus Christ will be served, adored, worshiped and glorified. Charity will flourish everywhere. The new kings will be the right arm of the Holy Church, which will be strong, humble, pious in Its poor but fervent imitation of the virtues of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be preached everywhere and mankind will make great progress in its Faith, for there will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ and man will live in fear of God.” (Our Lady of Good Success, Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Akita).
The Multiform Victory of Christ
Our Lord the “Loser” Leads the way to Victory and shows us how apparent failure can be turned into an unimaginable success. Jesus looked a failure and a loser as He died on the Cross on Calvary. His whole Passion seemed to paint Him as a failure. He had already foretold this to Apostles: “Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the Twelve Disciples apart and said to them: ‘Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death! And shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified, and the third day He shall rise again!’” (Matthew 20:17-19). “And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem: and Jesus went before them, and they were astonished; and following were afraid. And taking again the Twelve, He began to tell them the things that should befall Him, saying: ‘Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests, and to the scribes and ancients, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles, and they shall mock Him, and spit on Him, and scourge Him, and kill Him―and the third day He shall rise again!’” (Mark 10:32-34).
Victory over his murderers
“Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do” (Luke 12:4) He was afraid, but He chose to walk into the jaws of death so as to come out alive. “For whosoever will seek to save his life shall lose it―and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel shall save it!” (Mark 8:35). Don’t waste your life things that don’t matter, you may lose your eternal life over those things. Do not seek a long life, but rather a good one. Do not be afraid of martyrdom if it may come your way. “Greater love no man has than he who lays down his life for his friends.”
Victory over the Doubters and Unbelievers
“Let Christ the king of Israel come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Yet, as Jesus had once said: “Which is easier, to say to the sick of the palsy: ‘Thy sins are forgiven thee!’ or to say: ‘Arise, take up thy bed, and walk!’?” (Mark 2:9); now, dying on Calvary, He could say: “Which is easier? To come down from this cross while I am still alive, or to rise from the dead once I have died?” As always, Our Lord chose the most difficult option.
He did much more than come down from the Cross whilst alive! He came out of the tomb when He was dead! Let us beg Him to conquer our unbelief...our unbelief or doubts, for example, about the Holy Eucharist, our unbelief or doubts about eternal life, our unbelief or doubts in the power of prayer, our unbelief or doubts about the devil, our unbelief or doubts about the existence of Hell, or whatever unbelief or doubts that we may be guilty of.
Victory over Death
Say what you will, but most people fear death! Some will even renounce the Faith if threatened with death. Death is the penultimate punishment, which the punishment of Hell still manages to trump. The wage for sin is death. Yet Our Lord came to remove our fears over death.
Death where is thy sting? Through the old Adam death came into the world, because he ate a forbidden fruit from a tree. Now the new Adam, bore a new fruit on the tree of the Cross and through partaking of that fruit we have life eternal. Look at the lacerated, bruised, beaten, wounded body that hung on the cross and now is unrecognizable in His resurrection. Do not fear or flee your sufferings, for they will be your source of grace and glory. He had raised three persons from the dead while He was alive, now He raised Himself from the dead as He had predicted and when He had predicted. So too will He raise you and your loved ones from the dead on the last day. Do not fear so much as the death of mortal sin. Yet there too He raises from the dead of the tomb of confessional in which we bury ourselves. We enter dead to God and come out alive.
Victory over the Devil
The devil was not sure who He was! His holiness enraged the devil so much that he plotted and waged war against Christ—as he will wage war against you the holier you try to become, stirring all manner of things against you. Yet by His humble acceptance and meekness in face of this onslaught, Christ bore the victory. He used the weight of His enemies attack against his enemy. The greater the rage, the greater the defeat. Let us learn from Our Lord not to fear the devil, and above all not to love him and his allurements. The devil can do nothing without the permission and agreement of God.
Victory over the World
Jesus did not rise from the dead to live in the world. After His resurrection, He could have lived in the world till the end of time; but He did not rise to live here forever. He rose from the dead to go to Heaven. He died for this world, but He also died to this world. He took nothing of this world with Him, nor shall we when we die. Let us not live as though it was only this world that matters. Especially the young ones, who have not yet tasted the poison that Satan offers under the glitter and charm of the world around us. Do not compromise your soul and your salvation for a cheap sin. What a way to repay your God who died for you in order to help you stay clean.
Our Lord rose from the dead but did not remain in this world ― He ascended into Heaven shortly after His resurrection. Imagine the powerful influence He could have exercised by remaining and living in this world to this very day! A 2050+ year old man―looking as though he still 33 years old! Stupendous! Unheard of! Mind-boggling! But his home is Heaven and our true home is Heaven ― that is why, after His resurrection, He stayed on Earth for merely 40 days! It was to encourage us rise above this world and place our hearts and desires in Heaven. As Jesus Himself said: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24).
At the end of the day, there are only winners and losers―there are no “tied or drawn games” or “stalemates”, no “deadlocks” or “standoffs” or “impasses”. You either win or lose! “It is appointed unto men to die once, and after this comes the judgment!” (Hebrews 9:27). You only have one life! Will it end in victory or will it end in failure? It is like having “one shot” at something―you have one arrow, or one bullet―will you hit the target, or will you miss the target?
Are You on the Side of Winners or Losers?
“The devil is about to wage a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin, and a decisive battle is the final battle where one side will be victorious and the other side will suffer defeat. From now on, we are either with God, or we are with the Devil―there is no middle ground” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957). As Our Lord Himself said: “He that is not with Me, is against Me―and he that gathers not with Me, scatters … Everyone that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven! But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 12:30; 10:32-33).
Losing Winners & Winning Losers
Sometimes, winners seem to failures and losers seem to be winners! Today the world looks upon those who are religious as losers. They mock us, like they mocked Christ. Our Lord said that if they have hated Me then they will also hate you. Let us not become cowards just because we are mocked and laughed at. He who laughs last, laughs longest. Those who now laugh at religion will gnash and grind their teeth as they howl and wail for eternity. As Our Lord said to His followers at the Last Supper, just before the commencement of His Passion: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy!” (John 16:20).
Attacked from all sides—the Sadducees (priests); the Scribes and Pharisees; the mob or heartless cowardly crowd; Pilate, Herod, Annas, Caiphas, the Roman soldiers; betrayed by Judas; abandoned by most of His Apostles; and last of all the attacked by the devils themselves—the irrepressible Jesus―an apparent loser and failure after His horrendous beating and death―emerges victorious! As Our Lord said: “Many that are first, shall be last―and the last shall be first! … So shall the last be first, and the first last!” (Matthew 19:30; 20:16). “And behold, they are last that shall be first; and they are first that shall be last!” (Luke 13:30). You could rephrase that slightly and say: “Many winners will end up being losers―and many losers shall end up being winners!”
Our Lady also foretells a time when the Church will believe that all is lost―only for Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart to step in and lead the Church to an unimagined triumph: “There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. This then will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration … This will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet and fettering him in the infernal abyss … I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved … God will take care of His faithful servants and men of good will ... At the blood, the tears and prayers of the righteous, God will relent ... Then Jesus Christ, in an act of His justice and His great mercy, will command His Angels to have all His enemies put to death. The fire of Heaven will fall and consume cities. All the universe will be struck with terror and many will let themselves be led astray, because they have not worshiped the true Christ. Suddenly, with one blow, the persecutors of the Church of Jesus Christ, and all those given over to sin, will perish and the Earth will become like a desert ... In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph ... Russia will be converted … Pagan Rome will disappear. And then peace will be made, and man will be reconciled with God ... and a period of peace will be granted to the world … Jesus Christ will be served, adored, worshiped and glorified. Charity will flourish everywhere. The new kings will be the right arm of the Holy Church, which will be strong, humble, pious in Its poor but fervent imitation of the virtues of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be preached everywhere and mankind will make great progress in its Faith, for there will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ and man will live in fear of God.” (Our Lady of Good Success, Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Akita).
The Multiform Victory of Christ
Our Lord the “Loser” Leads the way to Victory and shows us how apparent failure can be turned into an unimaginable success. Jesus looked a failure and a loser as He died on the Cross on Calvary. His whole Passion seemed to paint Him as a failure. He had already foretold this to Apostles: “Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the Twelve Disciples apart and said to them: ‘Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death! And shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified, and the third day He shall rise again!’” (Matthew 20:17-19). “And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem: and Jesus went before them, and they were astonished; and following were afraid. And taking again the Twelve, He began to tell them the things that should befall Him, saying: ‘Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests, and to the scribes and ancients, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles, and they shall mock Him, and spit on Him, and scourge Him, and kill Him―and the third day He shall rise again!’” (Mark 10:32-34).
Victory over his murderers
“Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do” (Luke 12:4) He was afraid, but He chose to walk into the jaws of death so as to come out alive. “For whosoever will seek to save his life shall lose it―and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel shall save it!” (Mark 8:35). Don’t waste your life things that don’t matter, you may lose your eternal life over those things. Do not seek a long life, but rather a good one. Do not be afraid of martyrdom if it may come your way. “Greater love no man has than he who lays down his life for his friends.”
Victory over the Doubters and Unbelievers
“Let Christ the king of Israel come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Yet, as Jesus had once said: “Which is easier, to say to the sick of the palsy: ‘Thy sins are forgiven thee!’ or to say: ‘Arise, take up thy bed, and walk!’?” (Mark 2:9); now, dying on Calvary, He could say: “Which is easier? To come down from this cross while I am still alive, or to rise from the dead once I have died?” As always, Our Lord chose the most difficult option.
He did much more than come down from the Cross whilst alive! He came out of the tomb when He was dead! Let us beg Him to conquer our unbelief...our unbelief or doubts, for example, about the Holy Eucharist, our unbelief or doubts about eternal life, our unbelief or doubts in the power of prayer, our unbelief or doubts about the devil, our unbelief or doubts about the existence of Hell, or whatever unbelief or doubts that we may be guilty of.
Victory over Death
Say what you will, but most people fear death! Some will even renounce the Faith if threatened with death. Death is the penultimate punishment, which the punishment of Hell still manages to trump. The wage for sin is death. Yet Our Lord came to remove our fears over death.
Death where is thy sting? Through the old Adam death came into the world, because he ate a forbidden fruit from a tree. Now the new Adam, bore a new fruit on the tree of the Cross and through partaking of that fruit we have life eternal. Look at the lacerated, bruised, beaten, wounded body that hung on the cross and now is unrecognizable in His resurrection. Do not fear or flee your sufferings, for they will be your source of grace and glory. He had raised three persons from the dead while He was alive, now He raised Himself from the dead as He had predicted and when He had predicted. So too will He raise you and your loved ones from the dead on the last day. Do not fear so much as the death of mortal sin. Yet there too He raises from the dead of the tomb of confessional in which we bury ourselves. We enter dead to God and come out alive.
Victory over the Devil
The devil was not sure who He was! His holiness enraged the devil so much that he plotted and waged war against Christ—as he will wage war against you the holier you try to become, stirring all manner of things against you. Yet by His humble acceptance and meekness in face of this onslaught, Christ bore the victory. He used the weight of His enemies attack against his enemy. The greater the rage, the greater the defeat. Let us learn from Our Lord not to fear the devil, and above all not to love him and his allurements. The devil can do nothing without the permission and agreement of God.
Victory over the World
Jesus did not rise from the dead to live in the world. After His resurrection, He could have lived in the world till the end of time; but He did not rise to live here forever. He rose from the dead to go to Heaven. He died for this world, but He also died to this world. He took nothing of this world with Him, nor shall we when we die. Let us not live as though it was only this world that matters. Especially the young ones, who have not yet tasted the poison that Satan offers under the glitter and charm of the world around us. Do not compromise your soul and your salvation for a cheap sin. What a way to repay your God who died for you in order to help you stay clean.
Our Lord rose from the dead but did not remain in this world ― He ascended into Heaven shortly after His resurrection. Imagine the powerful influence He could have exercised by remaining and living in this world to this very day! A 2050+ year old man―looking as though he still 33 years old! Stupendous! Unheard of! Mind-boggling! But his home is Heaven and our true home is Heaven ― that is why, after His resurrection, He stayed on Earth for merely 40 days! It was to encourage us rise above this world and place our hearts and desires in Heaven. As Jesus Himself said: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24).
DAILY THOUGHTS FOR THE LENTEN SEASON
Article 21
Good Friday, April 3rd
The Cross Leads to Salvation and Damnation!
Good Friday, April 3rd
The Cross Leads to Salvation and Damnation!
Article 20
Holy Thursday, April 2nd
The Last Supper is More than a Supper! Make Your Last Supper Last!
Holy Thursday, April 2nd
The Last Supper is More than a Supper! Make Your Last Supper Last!
Our Greatest Treasure―Our Greatest Danger
The Holy Eucharist stands at the heart and at the pinnacle of all the Sacraments. The difference is that the Sacraments give us the grace of God, but the Holy Eucharist gives us not only grace, but God Himself. The Holy Eucharist is the Real Presence of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread. It is God Himself! What greater treasure can you imagine? Daily access to God! Having God enter your body and soul through Holy Communion! Yet, at the same time, there is a great danger attached to this! How so? Well, you know well the popular proverb: “Familiarity breeds contempt!” The more we get used to something, the less we start to esteem and respect it.
This is precisely what Holy Mother Church and St. Paul put before us in the Epistle from the Mass for Holy Thursday. The passage from St. Paul that Holy Mother Church has selected is the one where St. Paul rebukes those Christians at Corinth who are guilty of abusing the Holy Eucharist. He warns the Corinthians against the unworthy reception of Holy Communion (11:27–30), because the Eucharist is Jesus Himself: “Whoever eats the Bread or drinks the Cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the Body and Blood of the Lord … For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the Body eats and drinks condemnation upon himself” (11:27, 29). Paul says that we must examine ourselves before we receive (11:28). These three verses (11:27–29) — which concern a matter so important that salvation or damnation hinges on it — are read at least three times each year in the traditional Latin Mass. They were, however, systematically excluded and never read in the Novus Ordo Mass (the New Mass that came out at the end of the 1960s and continued to be changed at the start of the 1970s).
The Apostle also points out that unworthy reception of Communion can lead to physical sickness and death (11:30). St. Paul’s advice that Christians should first eat at home and then come later on to the Mass (11:34), emphasizing its proper dignity as a heavenly banquet, shows the remote origins of the discipline of the Eucharistic fast. Here is the entire passage:
“First of all, I hear that when you come together in the church, there are schisms among you―and in part I believe it. When you come therefore together into one place, it is not now to eat the Lord's Supper. [He speaks of them mixing together their secular meals with Lord’s Supper, that is Holy Mass]. For every one taketh before his own supper to eat. And one indeed is hungry and another is drunk! What, have you not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God; and put them to shame that have not? What shall I say to you? Do I praise you? In this I praise you not! [He then reminds them that the Lord’s Supper is not a common meal, but a sacrifice―which we today call the Sacrifice of the Mass]. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread. And giving thanks, broke, and said: ‘Take ye, and eat! This is My Body, which shall be delivered for you! Do this for the commemoration of Me!’ In like manner also the Chalice, after He had supped, saying: ‘This Chalice is the New Testament in My Blood! Do ye this, as often as you shall drink, for the commemoration of Me!’ For as often as you shall eat this Bread, and drink the Chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord, until He come! Therefore whosoever shall eat this Bread, or drink the Chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and of the Blood of the Lord! But let a man prove himself―and so let him eat of that Bread, and drink of the Chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the Body of the Lord. Therefore there are many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep. But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But whilst we are judged, we are chastised by the Lord, that we be not condemned with this world. Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If any man be hungry, let him eat at home [before coming to the Lord’s Supper or Holy Mass]; that you come not together unto judgment” (1 Corinthians 11:18-33).
The Holy Eucharist is inextricably tied to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass―it is during the Holy Sacrifice that the Holy Eucharist is produced through transubstantiation, whereby the substances of bread and wine are changed into the substances of the Body and Blood of Christ, whilst miraculously retaining the appearance of bread and wine. You cannot get the Holy Eucharist without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass―much like you cannot beget a child without parents. That is why the Church teaches that the Holy Eucharist is NOT JUST a Sacrament, but a SACRAMENT and a SACRIFICE.
Fr. Stefano M. Manelli, in his book Jesus Our Eucharistic Love, writes: “Let us ask the question: What is the Eucharist? It is God with us. It is the Lord Jesus present in the tabernacles of our churches with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. It is Jesus veiled under the appearance of bread, but really and physically present in the consecrated Host, so that He dwells in our midst, works within us and for us, and is at our disposal. The Eucharistic Jesus is the true Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us’ (Matthew 1:23). The Faith of the Church, Pope Pius XII teaches us, is this: That one and identical is the Word of God and the Son of Mary, Who suffered on the Cross, Who is present in the Eucharist, and Who rules in Heaven. The Eucharistic Jesus is here with us as a brother, as a friend, as spouse of our souls. He wishes to enter within us to be our food for eternal life, our love, our support. He wants to make us part of His mystical Body in which He would redeem us and save us, and then take us into the kingdom of Heaven”
Christ came to “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He said of Himself: “I am the door. By Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9) … “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). He then explains how we achieve that eternal life: “He that believeth in Me, hath everlasting life. I am the Bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead. This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die. I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever; and the Bread that I will give, is My flesh, for the life of the world … Amen, amen I say unto you: Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath everlasting life―and I will raise him up in the last day. For My Flesh is meat indeed: and My Blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this Bread, shall live for ever!” (John 6:47-59).
The Only Way to Heaven
As Holy Scripture says: “Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under Heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:10-12). Our Lord said of Himself: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by Me!” (John 14:6). “I am the door. By Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9). If that is the case, then you had better go find Him and find that door! Where is He? Where is that door? He is in the Holy Eucharist, behind the door of every tabernacle!
God is love: “God is charity” (1 John 4:8). To find God is to find love. St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love: It signifies Love, It produces love.” Without that Love we shall never make Heaven―as Holy Scripture points out: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Lack of Eucharistic Love
The image of a heart is a symbol of charity and love. It is no coincidence that when Jesus came to St. Margaret Mary to sow the seeds of devotion to His Sacred Heart, it was during the octave of Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ), a Eucharistic feast. We even have a votive Mass dedicated to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. You could also call it the Eucharistic Love of Jesus―for the Heart of Jesus is all about love, and God is love itself: “God is charity” (1 John 4:8). You can also correctly say that Holy Eucharist is the Sacred Heart of Jesus―especially since scientists discovered that 1,200 year old remains of a Host from the Eucharistic miracle at Lanciano, was actually a fragment of a human heart! [click here to read about it]. This “Heart” or “Loving Heart” of the Holy Eucharist is further amplified and proven by the words of the Sacred Heart, spoken to St. Margaret Mary: “My Divine Heart is so passionately inflamed with love for men … and is not able any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its ardent charity … Behold this Heart which has so loved men that It spared nothing, even going so far as to exhaust and consume Itself, to prove to them Its love. And in return I receive from the greater part of men nothing but ingratitude, by the contempt, irreverence, sacrileges and coldness with which they treat Me in this Sacrament of Love!”
In the parable of the wedding feast (isn’t marriage supposed to be all about love?), Our Lord mentions that the man without a wedding-garment (which biblical commentators say signifies a garment of love or charity) is cast out of the wedding banquet: “The marriage was filled with guests. And the king went in to see the guests: and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment. And he said to him: ‘Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?’ But he was silent. Then the king said to the waiters: ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness! There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’” (Matthew 22:10-13).
Our Lord is in the Eucharist―the Sacrament of Love―out of love for us. He expects us to come to Him with love―dressed in a wedding-garment, a garment of love. Yet too many come to Him stained with sins, even unconfessed mortal sins, for which they have no repentance, or they lack love and are lukewarm―of these He says: “Thou art neither cold, nor hot [that is to say, you neither hate Me nor love Me]. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth! Because thou sayest: ‘I am rich and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ ― and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of Me gold, fire tried [that is to say, charity which is symbolized by gold and fire], that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments [garments of grace and purity], and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see! Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise! Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:15-19).
If every Christian must love Jesus Christ: “If any man love not Our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.” (1 Corinthians 16:22), love for the Eucharist must spring from the heart and be ever alive in us all. Now even love needs exercise. The heart needs to be exercised to love the true God. Yet exercises can be performed sluggishly, half-heartedly, lazily and lukewarmly―or the can be performed with energy, intensity, passion and zeal. We speak of spiritual EXERCISES―yet how poorly we perform them! Of all those who receive Holy Communion, what do you think their prayers of preparation and thanksgiving are like? The word “Eucharist” means “Thanksgiving”. Realistically, if you look around you at Mass, there are very few who manifest an energy, intensity, passion and zeal for the Holy Eucharist. Their prayers are more likely to be routine, automatic, mechanical, half-hearted, distracted, and insincere. The words of Our Lord spring to mind: “Hypocrites! Well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-8).
As Our Lord said to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (of Our Lady of Good Success fame): “Alas! If men would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small spineless imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me ... But I will not tolerate this! Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me! I desire all or nothing! — according to My example ― for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross. Moreover, I have continued to live in the Tabernacle under the same roof with these hidden souls, exposing Myself to so many hateful profanations and sacrileges! For I know well all that takes place in My sacramental life! ... Woe to souls like this! Woe!”
The Greatest Treasure
Set aside some time to read through some of the wonderful ‘Faith-strengthening’ Eucharistic miracles that God has allowed to happen throughout the world in all centuries. Through such wondrous signs God calls souls to belief and conversion.
There are increasing numbers of Catholics who are refusing to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Many think of the Eucharist as a mere symbol of Christ, and look upon the Mass as a mere commemoration of the Last Supper, and not the Sacrifice that it really and truly is! What an offense this must be to Our Lord! If already, in the more believing day of St. Margaret Mary (in the 1600’s) Our Lord appeared to her and complained about the lack of love and devotion shown to Him—what would He have to say about our times?
Greatest Neglect
The Holy Eucharist is our “Greatest Treasure” and at the same time it is the modern era’s “Greatest Neglect.” It is impossible to identify the Holy Eucharist too closely with Jesus Christ. We should remember He is in the Holy Eucharist not merely with His substance. Some may say: “Transubstantiation means that the substance of bread and wine become the substance of Jesus Christ.”
No, it is not just an academic definition or philosophical explanation that is relegated to to the memory banks of our mind—a cerebral thing. Transubstantiation means the substance of bread and wine are no longer there. The substance of bread and wine is replaced not only by the substance of Christ’s Body and Blood. What replaces the substance of bread and wine is Jesus Christ! Everything that makes Him Christ, replaces what had been the substance of bread and wine. The substance of bread and wine become the whole Christ—that is what we mean by “Body, Soul, Blood and Divinity”—the whole Christ.
Living Heart
Therefore, Christ in the Holy Eucharist is here with His human heart and His Sacred Heart. Is it a living heart? Yes! This is seen in the Miracles of Lanciano and Buenos Aires. This is also why the revelations Our Lord made to St. Margaret Mary about promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart were all made from the Holy Eucharist.
Why do we equate the Sacred Heart with the Holy Eucharist? Because the Holy Eucharist is the whole Christ with His human heart. According to St. Margaret Mary, the Sacred Heart is the Holy Eucharist. So it follows that devotion to the Sacred Heart is devotion to the Holy Eucharist. It is infinite Love Incarnate living in our midst in the Blessed Sacrament. When we receive the Holy Eucharist, we receive the living Christ—total, entire, living!
If Jesus causes the Host to become what science has identified as a human heart—and especially a muscle of the heart that is responsible for the contraction of a human heart, a heart that suffers like that of someone who has been beaten severely about the chest—if He does such things, it is in order to arouse and enliven our Faith in His Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. He thus enables us to see that Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a re-presentation (i.e. a making present once again) of the entire drama of our salvation: namely, Christ’s Passion and Death on Calvary, but now in an unbloody manner in the Sacrifice of the Mass.
Signs-a-Plenty
Jesus says to His disciples: “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe” (John 4:48). There is no need to actively seek out wondrous signs. But if Jesus chooses to give them to us, then we ought to accept them with meekness and humility in Faith, seeking to understand what He desires to tell us by them. Thanks to these signs, many people have discovered Faith in God—the One God in the Holy Trinity, Who reveals His Son to us: Jesus Christ, Who abides in the tabernacles of the world, Who worked through the Sacraments and Who teaches us through Holy Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church—the triple cord of our Faith, of which Scripture says: “a threefold cord is not easily broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
Miracles Seekers Are Often Blind
We have the “Greatest Treasure” staring us in the face, yet we run around trying to fill our minds and hearts with lesser spiritual treasures. We run after apparitions, we study prophecies, we delight over relics, we travel to holy sites where Our Lady or Our Lord might have appeared once, twice or a few times—but the place where Our Lord appears every day, which is the Altar upon which Mass is said, we often leave neglected and we place it way down in our rankings of holy places and things to see and visit. The Imitation of Christ puts it thus:
“Many people travel far to honor the relics of the saints, marveling at their wonderful deeds and at the building of magnificent shrines. They gaze upon and kiss the sacred relics encased in silk and gold; and behold, You are here present before me on the Altar, my God, Saint of saints, Creator of men, and Lord of angels! Often in looking at such things, men are moved by curiosity, by the novelty of the unseen, and they bear away little fruit for the amendment of their lives, especially when they go from place to place lightly and without true contrition. But here in the Sacrament of the Altar You are wholly present, my God, the man Christ Jesus, whence is obtained the full realization of eternal salvation, as often as You are worthily and devoutly received.”
A Mystery that Surpasses our Understanding
The Holy Eucharist—the actual presence of the risen person of Jesus under the appearances of bread and wine—is one of the most important and most difficult truths, revealed to us by Christ. Eucharistic miracles are merely visible confirmations of what He tells us about Himself; namely, that He really does give us His glorified Body and Blood as spiritual food and drink.
Jesus established the Eucharist on the eve of His Passion and Death. During the Last Supper, “Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke: and gave to His disciples, and said: ‘Take ye, and eat. This is My Body.’ And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them, saying: ‘Drink ye all of this. For this is My Blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins’” (Matthew 26:26-28). When Jesus took and gave the Apostles the bread and wine, He said, “this is My Body….this is My Blood” by which He clearly meant that the bread and wine, which He gave them to eat and drink, really was His Body and Blood, and not some sort of symbol.
Jesus’ Eucharistic Sermon Shocks
Earlier, in the famous Eucharistic sermon recorded by St. John the Evangelist, Jesus said to the Jews: “Amen, amen I say unto you! Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you! He that eats My Flesh, and drinks My Blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For My Flesh is meat indeed and My Blood is drink indeed! He that eats My Flesh, and drinks My Blood, abides in Me, and I in him’” (John 6:54-57).
Shocked by Jesus’ words, the Jews said, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” (John 6:53). Many of Jesus’ disciples were also scandalized. “This saying is hard, and who can hear it?” they objected. Knowing that the truth of the Eucharist was a shock and a scandal to many of His listeners, Jesus responded, not by retracting His words, but by raising the stakes: “Does this scandalize you? The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life!” (John 6: 62-63). Many refused to believe Him: “After this many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him” (John 6:67).
Today, we see a repeat of both the incredulity and disbelief in the Real Presence—with anywhere from 65% to 85% of Catholics (depending upon where you live) no longer believing that Jesus is present in the Holy Eucharist—as well as a repeat of “many walked no more with Him”—as less than 20% come to Mass regularly on Sundays―for the rest it ends up being a Sinday.
One Good Communion Worth 1,000s of Lukewarm Ones
As St. Louis de Montfort writes: “It is not so much the length of a prayer as the fervor with which it is said which pleases God and touches his heart. A single Hail Mary said properly is worth more than a hundred and fifty said badly” (The Secret of the Rosary, “Forty-First Rose”). If that is true of the Hail Mary, how much more true is it not of Holy Communions? The devil knows this too, and, so, it is in his best interests to make sure that our Holy Communions are not made well. This is an endless battle that everyone has to face—whether it be pope, bishop or priest, or man, woman and child—and it will remain so until our dying day.
Real Communions of Fake Communions?
Our Lord’s words beg the question: “This people honor Me with their lips: but their hearts are far from Me!” (Matthew 15:8). Would He say the same of our Holy Communions? Unfortunately, in our modern-day existence, quantity and speed have replaced the ancient values placed on quality and thoroughness. Not that quality is totally disregarded, but it often comes second to quantity. A bottom-line principle, that can be seen in the lives of many people, is that they want to pay less for things, so that they can afford to buy lots of different things. Now of course, one’s income obviously plays a large part in this, but many of the rich even play the same game. Manufacturers are often more focused on the quantity they can produce, more so than on the quality. If they can make something “look real” then there is no point spending extra money making the real thing. So we have fake stone or fake brick faҫades for houses; we have fake furs; fake foods; fake wood; fake gold; fake marble; fake candles; fake glass, etc., etc. We are living in a fake world!
The sad part is that this over-spills into our intellectual, moral and spiritual lives. We fake knowledge, we fake behavior, and we fake piety. We learn superficially—just enough to be able to make it look like we know a lot. Trivia becomes more popular than in-depth knowledge. We become a race of “Tips-and-Tricks”—but we are only tricking ourselves. Morally, the world has never been as sinful as it is today, yet we put on a kind of ‘moral-make-up’ to hide the sinfulness and focus on the sins of others to make us feel better in our own miserable state. Spiritually, we cover the faҫade of our Temple of the Holy Ghost (which St Paul says we are), with pseudo-gold bricks. Financially, we are prepared to fall into serious debt, in order to appear, to the world around us, as something that we are not, but simply want to be. I guess that would make us “fake wannabees”!
Pharisees, Judas and Magdalen
Three sinners—two losers—one winner! Why is that Mary Magdalen, an adulteress who was also possessed by seven devils, hits the jackpot, while the Pharisees and Judas end up as losers? A four-letter word is the answer! L-O-V-E! Mary Magdalen loved Our Lord—the Pharisees and Judas did not love Him. Jesus said of her: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much!” (Luke 7:47). Whereas He addressed the Pharisees with the following words: “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees―hypocrites! … Woe to you blind guides! … Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like whitened sepulchers, which outwardly appear to be beautiful to men, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness!” (Matthew 23).
Wasn’t Mary Magdalen a “hypocrite”? Wasn’t she a “whitened sepulcher”? Being possessed of seven devils, she was worse in a sense—yet it was her sincere love of Christ and sincere acceptance and admission of her guilt, permeated with a deep love and gratitude to God (Christ), which justified and saved her.
Concerning Judas, Our Lord said: “Woe to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed―it were better for him if that man had not been born!” (Matthew 26:24). A loveless Judas became a faithless Judas―which led him to a hopeless end!
Our Lord’s Anger About Eucharistic Neglect
It was to both St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (of Our Lady of Good Success fame) that Our Lord complained about being neglected in the Eucharist due to lukewarmness, indifference, coldness or outright sacrileges. To St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Our Lord often appeared in relation to the Holy Eucharist—either while she was adoring the Holy Eucharist, or around times of feasts associated with the Holy Eucharist—such as during the Corpus Christi Octave. The third apparition of the Sacred Heart took place in July of 1674, and of this St. Margaret Mary relates the following:
“One day, as I knelt before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar… Jesus presented Himself to me … Then He revealed to me all the unspeakable marvels of His pure love, and the excess of love He had conceived for men from whom He had received nothing but ingratitude and contempt. ‘This is more grievous to Me,’ He said, "than all that I endured in My Passion. If they would only give Me some return of love! … But they have only coldness and contempt for all My endeavors to do them good! … You are to receive Me in the Blessed Sacrament as often as obedience will allow, no matter what mortification or humiliation it may entail. Moreover, you are to receive Holy Communion on the First Friday of each month, and every night between Thursday and Friday I will make you partaker of that sorrow unto death which it was My will to suffer in the Garden of Olives. This sorrow will reduce you, without your understanding how, to a kind of agony more bitter than death.’”
Don’t Be Fooled By Mass Attendance Alone!
It would be foolish and naïve to imagine that mere regular Mass attendance alone is a sign of good spiritual health. It is not! Far from it! Even in days when Mass attendance was extremely high, this was no guarantee of spiritual health, nor a guarantee of salvation. St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)—the patron saint of moral theologians—was of the opinion that many souls were in the habit of making bad confessions already back in his day. Fr. Frederick Faber (1814-1863) was of the opinion that most souls were lukewarm, yet most souls attended Sunday Mass regularly. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange (1877-1964) was of the opinion that most Catholic souls were not even beginners in the spiritual life—which means that they are either lukewarm or in the revolving door of mortal sin/confession/mortal sin.
Today, we can see almost all Sunday Mass goers line-up for Holy Communion, but barely anybody lines-up for Confession. Is mortal sin a rare thing today? Definitely not! How many sacrilegious Holy Communions are being made by the 17% of Catholics who can be bothered to attend Sunday Mass regularly? God only knows! But we can guess that the number is not small. Surveys show that among regular Sunday Mass attendees, only 60% believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist! The ultimate con of the devil is to have you—through lukewarmness and spiritual blindness—committing mortal sins which you should know to be mortal sins, but which through laziness in study and rationalization you happily dismiss as being mere venial sins!
A Dominican website points out: “Many sacrilegious Confessions and Communions may be traced to the fact that a soul confides too much in self, and not in the help of God. Men and women come into the confessional without the least preparation, after having been engaged in useless conversation on the street up to the moment of entering the Church. Others spend their time idly gazing around the church. This should never happen; and those who do so, show that they do not realize the sanctity of the action, which they are about to perform.
“It is a sacrilege to make a bad Confession. To receive absolution after having made an unworthy Confession, and consequently without having the right dispositions, is to incur the guilt of sacrilege; that is, the violation of a sacred thing. A bad Confession hinders and frustrates the instrumental action of the Sacrament of Penance, and he who is guilty of it may be said thus to destroy the efficacy of the Blood of Jesus Christ; for it is in the Precious Blood of Our Lord, shed long ago, that souls are cleansed from sin.
“Our Lord, instituted the Sacraments as so many channels through which His Precious Blood may be applied to souls, quickening them with and sustaining them in, a new and higher life. In the sacred tribunal of Penance, when the penitent comes properly disposed, as soon as the priest raises his hand over him and pronounces the words of absolution, through the Divine agency of the Blood of Our Lord, the soul is washed and purified of all its sins, no matter how great they may be; for Christ has said, ‘Whose sins ye shall forgive, they are forgiven.’ But if the penitent has not the proper disposition there is a sacrilege, for the Blood of Our Lord is, in a manner, destroyed – rendered ineffectual in that case. And, what is worse, a bad Confession is generally followed by a bad Communion. How great a crime is committed by unworthily receiving our Lord in Communion! They who do so, as St. Paul says, are guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. You have heard, perhaps of the unnatural mother who took her lovely smiling babe and buried it alive. Oh, how much greater is the crime of the bad Catholic who will bury the living Son of God in a heart foul with every crime, worse than any grave, however horrible! How will such a wretch one day answer an enraged Father for what may be called the murder of His adorable Son?
“What has been said was not to terrify or keep you away from the Sacraments. God forbid! The priest does not desire to frighten people away from the table of the Lord, but to press them to come to the Feast. You know, that if you do not approach and receive Holy Communion, you cannot have life in you; that is, the life of the soul, the life of the children of God. Yes, go to Communion – go frequently! It will nourish and strengthen your soul. Our Lord will dwell in you; He will support you. He will sustain you in your conflicts with the devil. Remember that what has been said was only to guard you against that carelessness with which too many, alas, approach the Sacraments.”
Words of Our Lord Himself
Fr. Robert Gottemuller complied a book called Words of Love, wherein he takes quotes of Our Lord made to three victim souls in the 20th century: Sister Josefa Menendez (1890-1923); Sister Mary of the Trinity (1901-1942); Sister Consolata Betrone (1903-1946). The book clearly points out the supremacy of love and the immense desire Our Lord has for our love. Here are only a few such quotes:
“Tell all souls that I prefer an act of love and a Communion of love to any other gift which they may offer Me! Yes, an act of love is better than the discipline, for I thirst for love! Poor souls! They think that in order to reach Me it is necessary to live an austere, penitential life! ... See how they misrepresent Me! They make Me out as one to be feared, whereas I am kindness itself! See how they forget the precept which I have given them, the very essence of the entire Law: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul ... I prefer an act of love and a Communion of love to any other gift! ... I thirst for love! … I desire to be loved; I crave the love of My creatures! When they will come to love Me, they will no longer offend Me!” (Our Lord to Sr. Consolata Betrone).
“I am not known, and because I am not known, people do not know how to love Me―I who have so loved men! ... The more you know and love Me, the closer will you be united to all those who love Me! … Each one of you, in your own sphere, however obscure, can give Me nobly, heroically, love for love!” (Our Lord to Sr. Mary of the Trinity).
“Love gives Itself as food to Its own and this food is the substance which gives them their life and sustains them! Love humbles Itself before Its own ... and in so doing raises them to the highest dignity! Love surrenders Itself in totality, It gives in profusion and without reserve! With enthusiasm, with vehemence It is sacrificed, It is immolated, It is given for those It loves! ... The Holy Eucharist is love to the extreme of folly!” (Our Lord to Sr. Josefa Menendez).
Fr. Anthony J. Paone, S.J., in his little gem of a pocket book, My Daily Bread, a Summary of the Spiritual Life, has the following beautiful passage with which these thoughts shall finish:
“Jesus says to us: ‘My Child, if My True Presence on the altar were limited to one place alone, many people from all parts of the world would try to visit that place at some time or other in their lives. Yet, now that I have made it easy for all to come to Me, see how many visit Me only when they are obliged!
“Many people are so cold toward Me. Like children they are impressed only by what they can touch and see. I have given them their Greatest Treasure in the Blessed Sacrament! Through My Apostles and their successors, I have promised to be personally present wherever the Blessed Sacrament is! Make EVERY effort to be deeply impressed by this greatest of all earthly gifts!
“It is not enough for you to believe in My Real Presence upon the altar. I placed Myself there for love of you. I wanted to be near you in some visible way, so that you might visit Me as often as you wished. You should wish it as often as possible.
“People come to Me for different reasons. Some come only on Sundays and holy days, through a sense of obligation. Either they do not want to lose Heaven, or they desire My help in their daily life. Then there are those who come to Me through mere habit. They act automatically, without any particular devotion to Me. There are, however, a certain number who come to Me for the best reason. They come because they are glad to be near Me. These people please Me best of all. They receive many extra graces which are not granted to the others.
“Consider how devoted My saints were to Me. They seized every opportunity to visit Me and stay with Me. They desired to abandon all useless interests so that they might have more time with Me. In return for this generosity with Me, they received a clearer understanding of My boundless goodness and a deeper appreciation of My infinite love.
“You, too, have the opportunity to give Me more of your time and attention. Make a greater effort to come closer to Me in friendship. You have the privilege of kneeling before Me like the simple, wonderful shepherds; the tired, admiring Magi; the suffering, begging leper; the penitent, hopeful Magdalene; the convinced, converted Thomas. How are you taking advantage of this privilege?
“How much easier it will be for you to face Me in your judgment if you have loved to face Me often during your earthly life. Each visit to Me is an act of Faith, of Love, and of self-purification. Come to Me often, so that I may shower more of My gifts upon your soul!”
The Holy Eucharist stands at the heart and at the pinnacle of all the Sacraments. The difference is that the Sacraments give us the grace of God, but the Holy Eucharist gives us not only grace, but God Himself. The Holy Eucharist is the Real Presence of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread. It is God Himself! What greater treasure can you imagine? Daily access to God! Having God enter your body and soul through Holy Communion! Yet, at the same time, there is a great danger attached to this! How so? Well, you know well the popular proverb: “Familiarity breeds contempt!” The more we get used to something, the less we start to esteem and respect it.
This is precisely what Holy Mother Church and St. Paul put before us in the Epistle from the Mass for Holy Thursday. The passage from St. Paul that Holy Mother Church has selected is the one where St. Paul rebukes those Christians at Corinth who are guilty of abusing the Holy Eucharist. He warns the Corinthians against the unworthy reception of Holy Communion (11:27–30), because the Eucharist is Jesus Himself: “Whoever eats the Bread or drinks the Cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the Body and Blood of the Lord … For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the Body eats and drinks condemnation upon himself” (11:27, 29). Paul says that we must examine ourselves before we receive (11:28). These three verses (11:27–29) — which concern a matter so important that salvation or damnation hinges on it — are read at least three times each year in the traditional Latin Mass. They were, however, systematically excluded and never read in the Novus Ordo Mass (the New Mass that came out at the end of the 1960s and continued to be changed at the start of the 1970s).
The Apostle also points out that unworthy reception of Communion can lead to physical sickness and death (11:30). St. Paul’s advice that Christians should first eat at home and then come later on to the Mass (11:34), emphasizing its proper dignity as a heavenly banquet, shows the remote origins of the discipline of the Eucharistic fast. Here is the entire passage:
“First of all, I hear that when you come together in the church, there are schisms among you―and in part I believe it. When you come therefore together into one place, it is not now to eat the Lord's Supper. [He speaks of them mixing together their secular meals with Lord’s Supper, that is Holy Mass]. For every one taketh before his own supper to eat. And one indeed is hungry and another is drunk! What, have you not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God; and put them to shame that have not? What shall I say to you? Do I praise you? In this I praise you not! [He then reminds them that the Lord’s Supper is not a common meal, but a sacrifice―which we today call the Sacrifice of the Mass]. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread. And giving thanks, broke, and said: ‘Take ye, and eat! This is My Body, which shall be delivered for you! Do this for the commemoration of Me!’ In like manner also the Chalice, after He had supped, saying: ‘This Chalice is the New Testament in My Blood! Do ye this, as often as you shall drink, for the commemoration of Me!’ For as often as you shall eat this Bread, and drink the Chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord, until He come! Therefore whosoever shall eat this Bread, or drink the Chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and of the Blood of the Lord! But let a man prove himself―and so let him eat of that Bread, and drink of the Chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the Body of the Lord. Therefore there are many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep. But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But whilst we are judged, we are chastised by the Lord, that we be not condemned with this world. Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If any man be hungry, let him eat at home [before coming to the Lord’s Supper or Holy Mass]; that you come not together unto judgment” (1 Corinthians 11:18-33).
The Holy Eucharist is inextricably tied to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass―it is during the Holy Sacrifice that the Holy Eucharist is produced through transubstantiation, whereby the substances of bread and wine are changed into the substances of the Body and Blood of Christ, whilst miraculously retaining the appearance of bread and wine. You cannot get the Holy Eucharist without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass―much like you cannot beget a child without parents. That is why the Church teaches that the Holy Eucharist is NOT JUST a Sacrament, but a SACRAMENT and a SACRIFICE.
Fr. Stefano M. Manelli, in his book Jesus Our Eucharistic Love, writes: “Let us ask the question: What is the Eucharist? It is God with us. It is the Lord Jesus present in the tabernacles of our churches with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. It is Jesus veiled under the appearance of bread, but really and physically present in the consecrated Host, so that He dwells in our midst, works within us and for us, and is at our disposal. The Eucharistic Jesus is the true Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us’ (Matthew 1:23). The Faith of the Church, Pope Pius XII teaches us, is this: That one and identical is the Word of God and the Son of Mary, Who suffered on the Cross, Who is present in the Eucharist, and Who rules in Heaven. The Eucharistic Jesus is here with us as a brother, as a friend, as spouse of our souls. He wishes to enter within us to be our food for eternal life, our love, our support. He wants to make us part of His mystical Body in which He would redeem us and save us, and then take us into the kingdom of Heaven”
Christ came to “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He said of Himself: “I am the door. By Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9) … “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). He then explains how we achieve that eternal life: “He that believeth in Me, hath everlasting life. I am the Bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead. This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die. I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever; and the Bread that I will give, is My flesh, for the life of the world … Amen, amen I say unto you: Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath everlasting life―and I will raise him up in the last day. For My Flesh is meat indeed: and My Blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this Bread, shall live for ever!” (John 6:47-59).
The Only Way to Heaven
As Holy Scripture says: “Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under Heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:10-12). Our Lord said of Himself: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by Me!” (John 14:6). “I am the door. By Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9). If that is the case, then you had better go find Him and find that door! Where is He? Where is that door? He is in the Holy Eucharist, behind the door of every tabernacle!
God is love: “God is charity” (1 John 4:8). To find God is to find love. St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love: It signifies Love, It produces love.” Without that Love we shall never make Heaven―as Holy Scripture points out: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Lack of Eucharistic Love
The image of a heart is a symbol of charity and love. It is no coincidence that when Jesus came to St. Margaret Mary to sow the seeds of devotion to His Sacred Heart, it was during the octave of Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ), a Eucharistic feast. We even have a votive Mass dedicated to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. You could also call it the Eucharistic Love of Jesus―for the Heart of Jesus is all about love, and God is love itself: “God is charity” (1 John 4:8). You can also correctly say that Holy Eucharist is the Sacred Heart of Jesus―especially since scientists discovered that 1,200 year old remains of a Host from the Eucharistic miracle at Lanciano, was actually a fragment of a human heart! [click here to read about it]. This “Heart” or “Loving Heart” of the Holy Eucharist is further amplified and proven by the words of the Sacred Heart, spoken to St. Margaret Mary: “My Divine Heart is so passionately inflamed with love for men … and is not able any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its ardent charity … Behold this Heart which has so loved men that It spared nothing, even going so far as to exhaust and consume Itself, to prove to them Its love. And in return I receive from the greater part of men nothing but ingratitude, by the contempt, irreverence, sacrileges and coldness with which they treat Me in this Sacrament of Love!”
In the parable of the wedding feast (isn’t marriage supposed to be all about love?), Our Lord mentions that the man without a wedding-garment (which biblical commentators say signifies a garment of love or charity) is cast out of the wedding banquet: “The marriage was filled with guests. And the king went in to see the guests: and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment. And he said to him: ‘Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?’ But he was silent. Then the king said to the waiters: ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness! There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’” (Matthew 22:10-13).
Our Lord is in the Eucharist―the Sacrament of Love―out of love for us. He expects us to come to Him with love―dressed in a wedding-garment, a garment of love. Yet too many come to Him stained with sins, even unconfessed mortal sins, for which they have no repentance, or they lack love and are lukewarm―of these He says: “Thou art neither cold, nor hot [that is to say, you neither hate Me nor love Me]. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth! Because thou sayest: ‘I am rich and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ ― and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of Me gold, fire tried [that is to say, charity which is symbolized by gold and fire], that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments [garments of grace and purity], and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see! Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise! Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:15-19).
If every Christian must love Jesus Christ: “If any man love not Our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.” (1 Corinthians 16:22), love for the Eucharist must spring from the heart and be ever alive in us all. Now even love needs exercise. The heart needs to be exercised to love the true God. Yet exercises can be performed sluggishly, half-heartedly, lazily and lukewarmly―or the can be performed with energy, intensity, passion and zeal. We speak of spiritual EXERCISES―yet how poorly we perform them! Of all those who receive Holy Communion, what do you think their prayers of preparation and thanksgiving are like? The word “Eucharist” means “Thanksgiving”. Realistically, if you look around you at Mass, there are very few who manifest an energy, intensity, passion and zeal for the Holy Eucharist. Their prayers are more likely to be routine, automatic, mechanical, half-hearted, distracted, and insincere. The words of Our Lord spring to mind: “Hypocrites! Well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-8).
As Our Lord said to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (of Our Lady of Good Success fame): “Alas! If men would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small spineless imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me ... But I will not tolerate this! Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me! I desire all or nothing! — according to My example ― for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross. Moreover, I have continued to live in the Tabernacle under the same roof with these hidden souls, exposing Myself to so many hateful profanations and sacrileges! For I know well all that takes place in My sacramental life! ... Woe to souls like this! Woe!”
The Greatest Treasure
Set aside some time to read through some of the wonderful ‘Faith-strengthening’ Eucharistic miracles that God has allowed to happen throughout the world in all centuries. Through such wondrous signs God calls souls to belief and conversion.
There are increasing numbers of Catholics who are refusing to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Many think of the Eucharist as a mere symbol of Christ, and look upon the Mass as a mere commemoration of the Last Supper, and not the Sacrifice that it really and truly is! What an offense this must be to Our Lord! If already, in the more believing day of St. Margaret Mary (in the 1600’s) Our Lord appeared to her and complained about the lack of love and devotion shown to Him—what would He have to say about our times?
Greatest Neglect
The Holy Eucharist is our “Greatest Treasure” and at the same time it is the modern era’s “Greatest Neglect.” It is impossible to identify the Holy Eucharist too closely with Jesus Christ. We should remember He is in the Holy Eucharist not merely with His substance. Some may say: “Transubstantiation means that the substance of bread and wine become the substance of Jesus Christ.”
No, it is not just an academic definition or philosophical explanation that is relegated to to the memory banks of our mind—a cerebral thing. Transubstantiation means the substance of bread and wine are no longer there. The substance of bread and wine is replaced not only by the substance of Christ’s Body and Blood. What replaces the substance of bread and wine is Jesus Christ! Everything that makes Him Christ, replaces what had been the substance of bread and wine. The substance of bread and wine become the whole Christ—that is what we mean by “Body, Soul, Blood and Divinity”—the whole Christ.
Living Heart
Therefore, Christ in the Holy Eucharist is here with His human heart and His Sacred Heart. Is it a living heart? Yes! This is seen in the Miracles of Lanciano and Buenos Aires. This is also why the revelations Our Lord made to St. Margaret Mary about promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart were all made from the Holy Eucharist.
Why do we equate the Sacred Heart with the Holy Eucharist? Because the Holy Eucharist is the whole Christ with His human heart. According to St. Margaret Mary, the Sacred Heart is the Holy Eucharist. So it follows that devotion to the Sacred Heart is devotion to the Holy Eucharist. It is infinite Love Incarnate living in our midst in the Blessed Sacrament. When we receive the Holy Eucharist, we receive the living Christ—total, entire, living!
If Jesus causes the Host to become what science has identified as a human heart—and especially a muscle of the heart that is responsible for the contraction of a human heart, a heart that suffers like that of someone who has been beaten severely about the chest—if He does such things, it is in order to arouse and enliven our Faith in His Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. He thus enables us to see that Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a re-presentation (i.e. a making present once again) of the entire drama of our salvation: namely, Christ’s Passion and Death on Calvary, but now in an unbloody manner in the Sacrifice of the Mass.
Signs-a-Plenty
Jesus says to His disciples: “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe” (John 4:48). There is no need to actively seek out wondrous signs. But if Jesus chooses to give them to us, then we ought to accept them with meekness and humility in Faith, seeking to understand what He desires to tell us by them. Thanks to these signs, many people have discovered Faith in God—the One God in the Holy Trinity, Who reveals His Son to us: Jesus Christ, Who abides in the tabernacles of the world, Who worked through the Sacraments and Who teaches us through Holy Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church—the triple cord of our Faith, of which Scripture says: “a threefold cord is not easily broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
Miracles Seekers Are Often Blind
We have the “Greatest Treasure” staring us in the face, yet we run around trying to fill our minds and hearts with lesser spiritual treasures. We run after apparitions, we study prophecies, we delight over relics, we travel to holy sites where Our Lady or Our Lord might have appeared once, twice or a few times—but the place where Our Lord appears every day, which is the Altar upon which Mass is said, we often leave neglected and we place it way down in our rankings of holy places and things to see and visit. The Imitation of Christ puts it thus:
“Many people travel far to honor the relics of the saints, marveling at their wonderful deeds and at the building of magnificent shrines. They gaze upon and kiss the sacred relics encased in silk and gold; and behold, You are here present before me on the Altar, my God, Saint of saints, Creator of men, and Lord of angels! Often in looking at such things, men are moved by curiosity, by the novelty of the unseen, and they bear away little fruit for the amendment of their lives, especially when they go from place to place lightly and without true contrition. But here in the Sacrament of the Altar You are wholly present, my God, the man Christ Jesus, whence is obtained the full realization of eternal salvation, as often as You are worthily and devoutly received.”
A Mystery that Surpasses our Understanding
The Holy Eucharist—the actual presence of the risen person of Jesus under the appearances of bread and wine—is one of the most important and most difficult truths, revealed to us by Christ. Eucharistic miracles are merely visible confirmations of what He tells us about Himself; namely, that He really does give us His glorified Body and Blood as spiritual food and drink.
Jesus established the Eucharist on the eve of His Passion and Death. During the Last Supper, “Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke: and gave to His disciples, and said: ‘Take ye, and eat. This is My Body.’ And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them, saying: ‘Drink ye all of this. For this is My Blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins’” (Matthew 26:26-28). When Jesus took and gave the Apostles the bread and wine, He said, “this is My Body….this is My Blood” by which He clearly meant that the bread and wine, which He gave them to eat and drink, really was His Body and Blood, and not some sort of symbol.
Jesus’ Eucharistic Sermon Shocks
Earlier, in the famous Eucharistic sermon recorded by St. John the Evangelist, Jesus said to the Jews: “Amen, amen I say unto you! Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you! He that eats My Flesh, and drinks My Blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For My Flesh is meat indeed and My Blood is drink indeed! He that eats My Flesh, and drinks My Blood, abides in Me, and I in him’” (John 6:54-57).
Shocked by Jesus’ words, the Jews said, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” (John 6:53). Many of Jesus’ disciples were also scandalized. “This saying is hard, and who can hear it?” they objected. Knowing that the truth of the Eucharist was a shock and a scandal to many of His listeners, Jesus responded, not by retracting His words, but by raising the stakes: “Does this scandalize you? The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life!” (John 6: 62-63). Many refused to believe Him: “After this many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him” (John 6:67).
Today, we see a repeat of both the incredulity and disbelief in the Real Presence—with anywhere from 65% to 85% of Catholics (depending upon where you live) no longer believing that Jesus is present in the Holy Eucharist—as well as a repeat of “many walked no more with Him”—as less than 20% come to Mass regularly on Sundays―for the rest it ends up being a Sinday.
One Good Communion Worth 1,000s of Lukewarm Ones
As St. Louis de Montfort writes: “It is not so much the length of a prayer as the fervor with which it is said which pleases God and touches his heart. A single Hail Mary said properly is worth more than a hundred and fifty said badly” (The Secret of the Rosary, “Forty-First Rose”). If that is true of the Hail Mary, how much more true is it not of Holy Communions? The devil knows this too, and, so, it is in his best interests to make sure that our Holy Communions are not made well. This is an endless battle that everyone has to face—whether it be pope, bishop or priest, or man, woman and child—and it will remain so until our dying day.
Real Communions of Fake Communions?
Our Lord’s words beg the question: “This people honor Me with their lips: but their hearts are far from Me!” (Matthew 15:8). Would He say the same of our Holy Communions? Unfortunately, in our modern-day existence, quantity and speed have replaced the ancient values placed on quality and thoroughness. Not that quality is totally disregarded, but it often comes second to quantity. A bottom-line principle, that can be seen in the lives of many people, is that they want to pay less for things, so that they can afford to buy lots of different things. Now of course, one’s income obviously plays a large part in this, but many of the rich even play the same game. Manufacturers are often more focused on the quantity they can produce, more so than on the quality. If they can make something “look real” then there is no point spending extra money making the real thing. So we have fake stone or fake brick faҫades for houses; we have fake furs; fake foods; fake wood; fake gold; fake marble; fake candles; fake glass, etc., etc. We are living in a fake world!
The sad part is that this over-spills into our intellectual, moral and spiritual lives. We fake knowledge, we fake behavior, and we fake piety. We learn superficially—just enough to be able to make it look like we know a lot. Trivia becomes more popular than in-depth knowledge. We become a race of “Tips-and-Tricks”—but we are only tricking ourselves. Morally, the world has never been as sinful as it is today, yet we put on a kind of ‘moral-make-up’ to hide the sinfulness and focus on the sins of others to make us feel better in our own miserable state. Spiritually, we cover the faҫade of our Temple of the Holy Ghost (which St Paul says we are), with pseudo-gold bricks. Financially, we are prepared to fall into serious debt, in order to appear, to the world around us, as something that we are not, but simply want to be. I guess that would make us “fake wannabees”!
Pharisees, Judas and Magdalen
Three sinners—two losers—one winner! Why is that Mary Magdalen, an adulteress who was also possessed by seven devils, hits the jackpot, while the Pharisees and Judas end up as losers? A four-letter word is the answer! L-O-V-E! Mary Magdalen loved Our Lord—the Pharisees and Judas did not love Him. Jesus said of her: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much!” (Luke 7:47). Whereas He addressed the Pharisees with the following words: “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees―hypocrites! … Woe to you blind guides! … Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like whitened sepulchers, which outwardly appear to be beautiful to men, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness!” (Matthew 23).
Wasn’t Mary Magdalen a “hypocrite”? Wasn’t she a “whitened sepulcher”? Being possessed of seven devils, she was worse in a sense—yet it was her sincere love of Christ and sincere acceptance and admission of her guilt, permeated with a deep love and gratitude to God (Christ), which justified and saved her.
Concerning Judas, Our Lord said: “Woe to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed―it were better for him if that man had not been born!” (Matthew 26:24). A loveless Judas became a faithless Judas―which led him to a hopeless end!
Our Lord’s Anger About Eucharistic Neglect
It was to both St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (of Our Lady of Good Success fame) that Our Lord complained about being neglected in the Eucharist due to lukewarmness, indifference, coldness or outright sacrileges. To St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Our Lord often appeared in relation to the Holy Eucharist—either while she was adoring the Holy Eucharist, or around times of feasts associated with the Holy Eucharist—such as during the Corpus Christi Octave. The third apparition of the Sacred Heart took place in July of 1674, and of this St. Margaret Mary relates the following:
“One day, as I knelt before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar… Jesus presented Himself to me … Then He revealed to me all the unspeakable marvels of His pure love, and the excess of love He had conceived for men from whom He had received nothing but ingratitude and contempt. ‘This is more grievous to Me,’ He said, "than all that I endured in My Passion. If they would only give Me some return of love! … But they have only coldness and contempt for all My endeavors to do them good! … You are to receive Me in the Blessed Sacrament as often as obedience will allow, no matter what mortification or humiliation it may entail. Moreover, you are to receive Holy Communion on the First Friday of each month, and every night between Thursday and Friday I will make you partaker of that sorrow unto death which it was My will to suffer in the Garden of Olives. This sorrow will reduce you, without your understanding how, to a kind of agony more bitter than death.’”
Don’t Be Fooled By Mass Attendance Alone!
It would be foolish and naïve to imagine that mere regular Mass attendance alone is a sign of good spiritual health. It is not! Far from it! Even in days when Mass attendance was extremely high, this was no guarantee of spiritual health, nor a guarantee of salvation. St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)—the patron saint of moral theologians—was of the opinion that many souls were in the habit of making bad confessions already back in his day. Fr. Frederick Faber (1814-1863) was of the opinion that most souls were lukewarm, yet most souls attended Sunday Mass regularly. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange (1877-1964) was of the opinion that most Catholic souls were not even beginners in the spiritual life—which means that they are either lukewarm or in the revolving door of mortal sin/confession/mortal sin.
Today, we can see almost all Sunday Mass goers line-up for Holy Communion, but barely anybody lines-up for Confession. Is mortal sin a rare thing today? Definitely not! How many sacrilegious Holy Communions are being made by the 17% of Catholics who can be bothered to attend Sunday Mass regularly? God only knows! But we can guess that the number is not small. Surveys show that among regular Sunday Mass attendees, only 60% believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist! The ultimate con of the devil is to have you—through lukewarmness and spiritual blindness—committing mortal sins which you should know to be mortal sins, but which through laziness in study and rationalization you happily dismiss as being mere venial sins!
A Dominican website points out: “Many sacrilegious Confessions and Communions may be traced to the fact that a soul confides too much in self, and not in the help of God. Men and women come into the confessional without the least preparation, after having been engaged in useless conversation on the street up to the moment of entering the Church. Others spend their time idly gazing around the church. This should never happen; and those who do so, show that they do not realize the sanctity of the action, which they are about to perform.
“It is a sacrilege to make a bad Confession. To receive absolution after having made an unworthy Confession, and consequently without having the right dispositions, is to incur the guilt of sacrilege; that is, the violation of a sacred thing. A bad Confession hinders and frustrates the instrumental action of the Sacrament of Penance, and he who is guilty of it may be said thus to destroy the efficacy of the Blood of Jesus Christ; for it is in the Precious Blood of Our Lord, shed long ago, that souls are cleansed from sin.
“Our Lord, instituted the Sacraments as so many channels through which His Precious Blood may be applied to souls, quickening them with and sustaining them in, a new and higher life. In the sacred tribunal of Penance, when the penitent comes properly disposed, as soon as the priest raises his hand over him and pronounces the words of absolution, through the Divine agency of the Blood of Our Lord, the soul is washed and purified of all its sins, no matter how great they may be; for Christ has said, ‘Whose sins ye shall forgive, they are forgiven.’ But if the penitent has not the proper disposition there is a sacrilege, for the Blood of Our Lord is, in a manner, destroyed – rendered ineffectual in that case. And, what is worse, a bad Confession is generally followed by a bad Communion. How great a crime is committed by unworthily receiving our Lord in Communion! They who do so, as St. Paul says, are guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. You have heard, perhaps of the unnatural mother who took her lovely smiling babe and buried it alive. Oh, how much greater is the crime of the bad Catholic who will bury the living Son of God in a heart foul with every crime, worse than any grave, however horrible! How will such a wretch one day answer an enraged Father for what may be called the murder of His adorable Son?
“What has been said was not to terrify or keep you away from the Sacraments. God forbid! The priest does not desire to frighten people away from the table of the Lord, but to press them to come to the Feast. You know, that if you do not approach and receive Holy Communion, you cannot have life in you; that is, the life of the soul, the life of the children of God. Yes, go to Communion – go frequently! It will nourish and strengthen your soul. Our Lord will dwell in you; He will support you. He will sustain you in your conflicts with the devil. Remember that what has been said was only to guard you against that carelessness with which too many, alas, approach the Sacraments.”
Words of Our Lord Himself
Fr. Robert Gottemuller complied a book called Words of Love, wherein he takes quotes of Our Lord made to three victim souls in the 20th century: Sister Josefa Menendez (1890-1923); Sister Mary of the Trinity (1901-1942); Sister Consolata Betrone (1903-1946). The book clearly points out the supremacy of love and the immense desire Our Lord has for our love. Here are only a few such quotes:
“Tell all souls that I prefer an act of love and a Communion of love to any other gift which they may offer Me! Yes, an act of love is better than the discipline, for I thirst for love! Poor souls! They think that in order to reach Me it is necessary to live an austere, penitential life! ... See how they misrepresent Me! They make Me out as one to be feared, whereas I am kindness itself! See how they forget the precept which I have given them, the very essence of the entire Law: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul ... I prefer an act of love and a Communion of love to any other gift! ... I thirst for love! … I desire to be loved; I crave the love of My creatures! When they will come to love Me, they will no longer offend Me!” (Our Lord to Sr. Consolata Betrone).
“I am not known, and because I am not known, people do not know how to love Me―I who have so loved men! ... The more you know and love Me, the closer will you be united to all those who love Me! … Each one of you, in your own sphere, however obscure, can give Me nobly, heroically, love for love!” (Our Lord to Sr. Mary of the Trinity).
“Love gives Itself as food to Its own and this food is the substance which gives them their life and sustains them! Love humbles Itself before Its own ... and in so doing raises them to the highest dignity! Love surrenders Itself in totality, It gives in profusion and without reserve! With enthusiasm, with vehemence It is sacrificed, It is immolated, It is given for those It loves! ... The Holy Eucharist is love to the extreme of folly!” (Our Lord to Sr. Josefa Menendez).
Fr. Anthony J. Paone, S.J., in his little gem of a pocket book, My Daily Bread, a Summary of the Spiritual Life, has the following beautiful passage with which these thoughts shall finish:
“Jesus says to us: ‘My Child, if My True Presence on the altar were limited to one place alone, many people from all parts of the world would try to visit that place at some time or other in their lives. Yet, now that I have made it easy for all to come to Me, see how many visit Me only when they are obliged!
“Many people are so cold toward Me. Like children they are impressed only by what they can touch and see. I have given them their Greatest Treasure in the Blessed Sacrament! Through My Apostles and their successors, I have promised to be personally present wherever the Blessed Sacrament is! Make EVERY effort to be deeply impressed by this greatest of all earthly gifts!
“It is not enough for you to believe in My Real Presence upon the altar. I placed Myself there for love of you. I wanted to be near you in some visible way, so that you might visit Me as often as you wished. You should wish it as often as possible.
“People come to Me for different reasons. Some come only on Sundays and holy days, through a sense of obligation. Either they do not want to lose Heaven, or they desire My help in their daily life. Then there are those who come to Me through mere habit. They act automatically, without any particular devotion to Me. There are, however, a certain number who come to Me for the best reason. They come because they are glad to be near Me. These people please Me best of all. They receive many extra graces which are not granted to the others.
“Consider how devoted My saints were to Me. They seized every opportunity to visit Me and stay with Me. They desired to abandon all useless interests so that they might have more time with Me. In return for this generosity with Me, they received a clearer understanding of My boundless goodness and a deeper appreciation of My infinite love.
“You, too, have the opportunity to give Me more of your time and attention. Make a greater effort to come closer to Me in friendship. You have the privilege of kneeling before Me like the simple, wonderful shepherds; the tired, admiring Magi; the suffering, begging leper; the penitent, hopeful Magdalene; the convinced, converted Thomas. How are you taking advantage of this privilege?
“How much easier it will be for you to face Me in your judgment if you have loved to face Me often during your earthly life. Each visit to Me is an act of Faith, of Love, and of self-purification. Come to Me often, so that I may shower more of My gifts upon your soul!”
Article 19
Monday after Palm Sunday - the Sixth Sunday of Lent, March 30th
Do Not “Palm-Off” Holy Week for Something Worse!
Monday after Palm Sunday - the Sixth Sunday of Lent, March 30th
Do Not “Palm-Off” Holy Week for Something Worse!
A Palm in Your Palm!
There are many idioms which use the word “palm” ― each with a different meaning. For example: to “have someone in the palm of one’s hand” means to have complete control over them. To “grease someone’s palm” or “cross someone’s palm with silver” means to bribe someone. To “bear the palm” or “carry off the palm” means to be the winner or take the prize―as in “the palm of victory”. To have an “itching palm” describes a greedy or avaricious person. To “know something like the palm of your hand” means to have a very thorough knowledge of something. To “palm something off” means to try and pass something off onto others, to persuade someone to accept something that you do not want or something that has no value, or to persuade someone to accept something by deception. There is even the superstitious and seriously sinful practice that is called “palm-reading” also known as palmistry and chiromancy, which seeks to find out things about the future, how long he will live, his personality traits, habits, and even his fortune. Palm reading is a form of divination and is condemned in Scripture.
On Palm Sunday―Holy Mother Church placed in our palms the holy palms that were blessed before Mass. There is a wealth of information that can be read and gleaned from this apparently simple action. This article will cover many of those insights. The main one to bear in mind, however, revolves around the fact the unblessed palms (therefore unholy palms) are blessed (and thus made holy), which is an indication to us that God wants us to abandon unholy ways and become holy. For nothing unholy will enter Heaven, nothing unholy will receive “the palm of victory.” As Scripture says: “The just shall flourish like the palm tree!” (Psalm 91:13). The palm branch, or palm frond, is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life. Early Christians used the palm branch to symbolize the victory of the faithful over enemies of the soul, as in the Palm Sunday festival celebrating the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
We are given palms on Palm Sunday, with which we then march in procession to the church, as a symbol of our obligation to march through life on Earth on our pilgrimage to Heaven, carrying with us the palm of victory that will give us victory over the enemies of our soul―which are the devil, the world and our own sinful inclinations. In Western Christian art, martyrs were often shown holding a palm frond, representing the victory of the soul over the flesh. It was widely believed that a picture of a palm on a tomb meant that a martyr was buried there―hence you will frequently find in the Acts of the Martyrs expressions like “he received the palm of martyrdom.” On April 10th, 1688, the Congregation of Rites decided that the palm, when found depicted on catacomb tombs, was to be regarded as a proof that a martyr had been buried there.
Will Your Holy Week Be Wholly Holy?
If there ever was a week to strengthen our weak love of God, then this is that week—Holy Week. We all know the greatest Commandment that we have the greatest difficulty in fulfilling--“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment!” (Mark 12:30). We do love God—it is true—but not with our WHOLE heart, soul, mind and strength! We often fall into the category of those of whom Our Lord says: “These people honor Me with their lips―but their hearts are far from Me!” (Matthew 15:8). We are—at times, or even often—spiritual automatons, religious robots, going through our spiritual life on ‘auto-pilot’ uttering memorized prayers with more or less half-a-heart, half-focused, half-minded. The other half is focused on our daily life, our home and work life, our studies, our hobbies and our socializing.
This approach is—though we strenuously banish this truth from our half-focused minds—seriously condemned in Holy Scripture: “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24). “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father, Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 7:21). “And why do you call Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
What Does God Will? Holiness!
And what is His will? “This is the will of God―your sanctification!” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). “Think on the things of the Lord! … Be holy both in body and in spirit!” (1 Corinthians 7:34). “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God!” (Romans 12:1). “Because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy!’” (1 Peter 1:16)—St. Peter here quotes the Old Testament: “For I am the Lord your God! Be holy because I am holy! Defile not your souls! … You shall be holy, because I am holy! … You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 11:44-46; 20:26). St. Paul adds: “He chose us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight!” (Ephesians 1:4). There is no better time for trying to be holy than Holy Week―the holiest week of the Church’s liturgical year!
What Union Can There Be Between the Holy and Unholy?
This is why St. Paul commands that we separate ourselves from certain kinds of people: “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers! For what participation has justice with injustice? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part have the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God says: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God and they shall be my people!’ Wherefore: ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
You Are A Holy Temple!―Or Should Be!
“Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? But if any man violates the temple of God, him shall God destroy! For the temple of God is holy―which you are! [or should be] Or know you not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, Who is in you, Whom you have from God; and that you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19).
Knock Down Your Worldly Temple, Build a Holy One!
Speaking of destroying temples, this is what Jesus predicted He would do—destroy and rebuild the Temple. This is what we should ask Him to do to our worldly, earthly or at best hybrid temple—knock it down and rebuild it as a truly spiritual and holy temple!
Get Outta Here!
“And the Pasch of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the Temple them that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting. And when He had made, as it were, a scourge of little cords, He drove them all out of the Temple, the sheep also and the oxen, and the money of the changers He poured out, and the tables He overthrew. And to them that sold doves He said: ‘Take these things out of here! And make not the house of my Father a house of traffic!’ And His disciples remembered, that it was written: ‘The zeal of Thy house has eaten me up!’ The Jews, therefore, answered, and said to Him: ‘What sign do You show unto us, seeing You do these things?” Jesus answered, and said to them: ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up!’ The Jews then said: ‘Six and forty years was this Temple in building; and will You raise it up in three days?” But He spoke of the temple of His body” (John 2:13-21)—and we should ask Him to do the same to the temple of our soul!
The above incident happened earlier in Our Lord’s ministry—it was repeated on Palm Sunday, after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem—which is reported by St. Matthew and St. Mark. So it is twice that Our Lord drove people out of the Temple for misusing it, or for having a worldly attitude.
“And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the Temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the chairs of them that sold doves. And He said to them: ‘It is written, “My house shall be called the house of prayer!” but you have made it a den of thieves!’” (Matthew 21:12-13). St. Mark echoes the account: “And they came to Jerusalem. And when Jesus entered into the Temple, He began to cast out them that sold and bought in the Temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the chairs of them that sold doves. And He suffered not that any man should carry a vessel through the Temple; and He taught them, saying: ‘Is it not written, “My house shall be called the house of prayer to all nations”? But you have made it a den of thieves!’” (Mark 11:15-17).
Rebuilding the Temple of Our Soul
The false witnesses, at Jesus’ trial before the Chief Priests, testified of Jesus destroying and rebuilding the Temple: “And they said: ‘This man said, “I am able to destroy the Temple of God, and, after three days, rebuild it!”‘ ” (Matthew 26:61). “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another not made with hands!’” (Mark 14:58). We have remade the temple of our soul with ‘human hands’—we need to restore the temple of our soul to its pristine, holy state, which was given to it at Baptism by Divine hands. We have ruined or soiled the temple of our soul with our human approach—we need Our Lord to cleanse and restore the temple of our soul to a holy state! Holy Week is the best time to have Him whip out the human and restore the Divine!
In speaking to one of His mystics, Our Lord said: “With ruins, on ruins, I can build magnificently! It gives Me joy to use that which has humbled itself before Me, because My action is free! … It is with coal that I make diamonds! What would I not do with a soul, however black she might be, who would give herself to Me!” (Our Lord to Sr. Mary of the Trinity, Words of Love, by Fr. Gottemoller). Holy Week is the time to give yourself to Him—to build on your ruins and make diamonds from the black coal of your sins!
A Lesson in the Palm in Your Hand
On Palm Sunday—blessed palms were distributed. “Blessed” means “made holy”—a blessed medal becomes a “holy medal”; a blessed picture card becomes a “holy card”.
We would do well to reflect a little more deeply upon the words with which our palms were blessed: “Bless, we beseech Thee, O Lord, these branches of palm and grant that what Thy people today bodily perform for Thy honor, they may perfect spiritually with the utmost devotion, by gaining the victory over the enemy, and ardently loving every work of mercy.”
You―like the palm that was blessed and made holy—are meant to be holy! You are meant to fight against the world and receive the palm of victory in Heaven for your brave and painful efforts! Just as Our Lady was told: “Blessed art thou among women!”—we should be blessed and holy in the unholy world in which we live.
Lessons from the Palm Tree
God made all things—down to their tiniest details—and God therefore made palm trees. As Holy Scripture says: “All men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God: and who by these good things that are seen, could not understand Him that is, neither, by attending to the works of Him, have acknowledged Who was the Workman” (Wisdom 13:1). Let us, then, look at the visible palm tree, and see what invisible things of the heavenly Workman we can find therein!
To begin with, it must be noted that of the many thousands of trees that God did create—the palm tree found its way into Holy Scripture: “The just shall flourish like the palm tree” (Psalm 91:13). The palm tree goes even further, and makes up part of the ancient Tabernacle: “Go forth to the mount, and fetch branches of olive, and branches of beautiful wood, branches of myrtle, and branches of palm, and branches of thick trees, to make tabernacles, as it is written” (2 Esdras 8:15).
The date-palm tree is characteristic of Palestine. It is described as “flourishing” (Psalm 91:13), “tall” (Canticles 7:7), “upright” (Jeremias 10:5). Its branches are a symbol of victory (Apocalypse 7:9). Rising with slender stem 40 or 50, at times even 80 feet aloft, its only branches, the feathery, snow-like, pale-green fronds from 6 to 12 feet long, bending from its top, the palm attracts the eye wherever it is seen. The whole land of Palestine was called by the Greeks and Romans―“Phoenicia”, which means “the land of palms.”
The Upright Palm—The Upright Man
Most palms are a straight, unbranched stem, but sometimes they can have a branching stem (two faced Catholics), or even a creeping vine (hypocritical and evil Catholics). Some trees are irregular, they are twisted and tortuous in their growth; some hug the ground before they rise; but the palm rises straight toward Heaven, it stands upright among the trees. The good man is well symbolized in this―he is the man who does not stoop or cling to the Earth, who does not bend and bow earthward, who stands erect, who moves in one heavenward direction, who is governed constantly by true and abiding principles. And these he gains from God and from his teachings. Through them, he is sustained in his principles, is reminded of them, gains fresh inspiration to illustrate and practice them.
Catholics should be ‘straight’ souls following the straight and narrow path upwards to Heaven. We see this ‘straightness’ reflected in the palm leaves, which are all straight: “The crooked shall become straight” (Isaias 40:4). “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths!” (Mark 1:3). “How narrow is the gate, and straight is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:14). “Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps. Make straight the path for thy feet. Decline not to the right hand, nor to the left [like the branched palm or creeping palm]: turn away thy foot from evil. For the Lord knows the ways that are on the right hand; but those are perverse which are on the left hand. But He will make thy courses straight, He will bring forward thy ways in peace … The wise man makes straight his steps” (Proverbs 4:25-27; 15:21).
Tough Palm Trees—Tough Catholics
Palm trees are from a family of perennial lianas, shrubs, and trees and grow best in hot and humid climates. Most palm trees grow in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. They occur from about 44° northern latitude to about 44° southern latitude. However—as with Catholics—there are also hardy palm trees that can withstand coldness and grow in much harsher and colder environments. Palm Trees―with proper care, planting, moisture and climate―are grown all over the world, even in locations with freezing cold winters. Canada serves a Northern reference point and many types of Palm Trees can grow there. The main factors affecting hardiness are the minimum winter temperature, the number of hours of cold every winter, the amount of heat every summer, and the relative wetness or dryness of the climate. In general, Palms are not particularly hardy. Many are actually injured by a single freezing night. Others Palms withstand 0° F (zero degrees Fahrenheit) for short periods without damage.
Community Life or Desert Father Hermits?
They have large evergreen leaves that are either “palmate” which is fan-leaved like a hand or “pinnate” which feather-leaved where the palms do not blend together at the base, but are separate leaves arranged in a spiral at the top of the trunk. If you liken that to religious life, you could say, broadly speaking, that the “palmate” palms are those that are joined together and live in community, whereas the “pinnate” palms are those who live like hermits or Desert Fathers.
Evergreen—Ever Humble
Being evergreens, reminds us of the virtue of humility (which is represented by the color green—as in green grass that walked upon and trodden on and squashed down). This humility should be present in us all year round—evergreen—and is required by Our Lord, Who said: "Learn of Me, for I am humble of heart!" (Matthew 11:29). “God has made the roots of proud nations to wither, and has planted the humble of these nations” (Ecclesiasticus 10:18). “And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off; and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper!” (Psalm 1:3). There can be no fruit without humility—just as no tree can survive without humus (Latin for the word “soil”).
The Fruit of the Palm Tree
As Holy Scripture says: “I will go up into the palm tree, and will take hold of the fruit thereof” (Canticles 7:8). So what is the fruit of the palm tree? Surprisingly, from the various species of palm trees, we get a wide variety of fruit. Among the many species of palm tree there are many different fruits. The most common fruits that grow from palm trees are coconuts and dates. Other fruits from palm trees include the acai berry, jubaea, peach palm fruit and betel nut.
Similarly with Catholics—or saints (which each Catholic should be)—there is a wide variety of species of Catholic, each bearing different fruits (virtues). Some saints were mainly known for shedding their blood, others were known for their learning, others for their missionary zeal, others for suffering persecution, others for carrying a variety of burdens―but all of them had humility and charity in common.
The Coconut Palm Tree
The coconut, that you see in your store, does not look anything like the coconut on the tree. The coconut has three layers and in the store you only the final inner layer—with the other two layers having been removed. In technical botanical jargon, a coconut is “a fibrous one-seeded drupe, also known as a dry drupe.” However, when using loose definitions, the coconut can be all three: a fruit, a nut, and a seed. Eh? Drupe? Okay! Classification of plants can be a complicated matter for the average person. A drupe is a fruit with a hard stony covering enclosing the seed and comes from the word drupa meaning “overripe olive”.
A untouched coconut, and all drupes, have three layers: (1) the exocarp (outer layer), which is typically smooth with a greenish color, (2) the mesocarp (fleshy middle layer), the fibrous husk, which ultimately surrounds (3) the endocarp (the furry hard woody shell with the seed inside of it). Generally speaking, when you buy a coconut at the supermarket, the exocarp (green exterior) and the mesocarp (middle layer of husk) are removed and what you see is the endocarp (the furry hard woody shell with the seed inside of it). If you look at one end of the coconut, you’ll see three pores (also called eyes). The coconut seed―inside of the furry or hairy hard woody shell―germinates and a shoot emerges from one of the pores. In addition to the “baby” plant in the seed, there is the food to kick off its life called the endosperm. The endosperm is what makes up most of the seed and, in the coconut’s case, is the yummy white stuff we eat.
The Coconut Palm of Milk, Cream and Water!
Also, inside that furry or hairy hard woody shell is coconut water—which is drinkable and not to be confused with coconut milk. Coconut water is the liquid that can be poured out from pierced coconuts. Coconut milk and coconut cream are both made from the white grated coconut meat that is macerated (soaked) in a measured quantity of water. When the resulting liquid is squeezed out, the first squeezing produces coconut cream, which is thick like dairy cream. Coconut milk has the liquid consistency of cow’s milk and is made from simmering one part shredded coconut meat in one part water.
What do we learn from all of this? Well, first of all, in order to get to the good, edible and enjoyable part of the coconut—which you could call the ‘soul of the coconut’ or ‘coconut heaven’—you have to go through three states or stages: the smooth exterior of a greenish color, called the exocarp. Then the fibrous husk, or mesocarp. Finally the very hard woody layer that we see and buy in the store which is called the endocarp. So, in a sense, it gets harder the closer you get to the white yummy tasty stuff in the center. The same is true for the spiritual life—we have three stages to pass through before God will allow us to get to Heaven—and nobody is exempt from any of those stages. The stages are those of the Beginner (the easiest), the Proficient (getting harder) and the Perfect (extremely hard). We either pass through these on Earth (which is preferable and easier) or in the fires of Purgatory (which is not preferable and incredibly more painful).
The water is the coconut is symbolic of grace in soul—for water has always been a symbol of grace for the Fathers of the Church. It is what keeps the coconut ‘alive’—just as grace keeps the soul ‘alive’ to God. The coconut milk and cream are produced by the white flesh being mixed with water and then either boiled (simmered), or squeezed to produce milk and cream respectively. This is symbolic of the pure soul (white flesh), working with grace (the water), under the pressure of the cross (simmered or squeezed) to produce virtues (milk or cream). This is symbolized by the way some Catholics like to fold the palm in order to make it into a Palm Cross—look it up online in you don’t know how to do that!
More Than Just a Palm!
Thus you can see that the simple palm that you were given on Palm Sunday has far more meaning than we superficially find it! And this is just “the tip of the iceberg” to what could be found if one looked deeper and researched more. It proves the point that you can find the DNA of God and the Faith in everything that God has made. Just as, proverbially, “all roads lead to Rome”—so too does all of creation point and lead to God, if we would only stop long enough to examine deeply enough all those things, or signposts, that God has placed before us!
Therefore, DO NOT WASTE YOUR HOLY WEEK! Just as with the palms of Palm Sunday, there is myriad or plethora of material present in Holy Week that shows the DNA of God and the Faith. But you need to free yourself from other things in order to have the time seek, dig, study, compare, connect and enjoy what God and His Church places before us in this holiest of weeks. Superficiality not only gets you nowhere, it is also as dissatisfying and unfulfilling for the spiritual appetite as cotton-candy (candy floss) is to a hungry man!
There are many idioms which use the word “palm” ― each with a different meaning. For example: to “have someone in the palm of one’s hand” means to have complete control over them. To “grease someone’s palm” or “cross someone’s palm with silver” means to bribe someone. To “bear the palm” or “carry off the palm” means to be the winner or take the prize―as in “the palm of victory”. To have an “itching palm” describes a greedy or avaricious person. To “know something like the palm of your hand” means to have a very thorough knowledge of something. To “palm something off” means to try and pass something off onto others, to persuade someone to accept something that you do not want or something that has no value, or to persuade someone to accept something by deception. There is even the superstitious and seriously sinful practice that is called “palm-reading” also known as palmistry and chiromancy, which seeks to find out things about the future, how long he will live, his personality traits, habits, and even his fortune. Palm reading is a form of divination and is condemned in Scripture.
On Palm Sunday―Holy Mother Church placed in our palms the holy palms that were blessed before Mass. There is a wealth of information that can be read and gleaned from this apparently simple action. This article will cover many of those insights. The main one to bear in mind, however, revolves around the fact the unblessed palms (therefore unholy palms) are blessed (and thus made holy), which is an indication to us that God wants us to abandon unholy ways and become holy. For nothing unholy will enter Heaven, nothing unholy will receive “the palm of victory.” As Scripture says: “The just shall flourish like the palm tree!” (Psalm 91:13). The palm branch, or palm frond, is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life. Early Christians used the palm branch to symbolize the victory of the faithful over enemies of the soul, as in the Palm Sunday festival celebrating the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
We are given palms on Palm Sunday, with which we then march in procession to the church, as a symbol of our obligation to march through life on Earth on our pilgrimage to Heaven, carrying with us the palm of victory that will give us victory over the enemies of our soul―which are the devil, the world and our own sinful inclinations. In Western Christian art, martyrs were often shown holding a palm frond, representing the victory of the soul over the flesh. It was widely believed that a picture of a palm on a tomb meant that a martyr was buried there―hence you will frequently find in the Acts of the Martyrs expressions like “he received the palm of martyrdom.” On April 10th, 1688, the Congregation of Rites decided that the palm, when found depicted on catacomb tombs, was to be regarded as a proof that a martyr had been buried there.
Will Your Holy Week Be Wholly Holy?
If there ever was a week to strengthen our weak love of God, then this is that week—Holy Week. We all know the greatest Commandment that we have the greatest difficulty in fulfilling--“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment!” (Mark 12:30). We do love God—it is true—but not with our WHOLE heart, soul, mind and strength! We often fall into the category of those of whom Our Lord says: “These people honor Me with their lips―but their hearts are far from Me!” (Matthew 15:8). We are—at times, or even often—spiritual automatons, religious robots, going through our spiritual life on ‘auto-pilot’ uttering memorized prayers with more or less half-a-heart, half-focused, half-minded. The other half is focused on our daily life, our home and work life, our studies, our hobbies and our socializing.
This approach is—though we strenuously banish this truth from our half-focused minds—seriously condemned in Holy Scripture: “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24). “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father, Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 7:21). “And why do you call Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
What Does God Will? Holiness!
And what is His will? “This is the will of God―your sanctification!” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). “Think on the things of the Lord! … Be holy both in body and in spirit!” (1 Corinthians 7:34). “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God!” (Romans 12:1). “Because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy!’” (1 Peter 1:16)—St. Peter here quotes the Old Testament: “For I am the Lord your God! Be holy because I am holy! Defile not your souls! … You shall be holy, because I am holy! … You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 11:44-46; 20:26). St. Paul adds: “He chose us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight!” (Ephesians 1:4). There is no better time for trying to be holy than Holy Week―the holiest week of the Church’s liturgical year!
What Union Can There Be Between the Holy and Unholy?
This is why St. Paul commands that we separate ourselves from certain kinds of people: “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers! For what participation has justice with injustice? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part have the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God says: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God and they shall be my people!’ Wherefore: ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
You Are A Holy Temple!―Or Should Be!
“Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? But if any man violates the temple of God, him shall God destroy! For the temple of God is holy―which you are! [or should be] Or know you not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, Who is in you, Whom you have from God; and that you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19).
Knock Down Your Worldly Temple, Build a Holy One!
Speaking of destroying temples, this is what Jesus predicted He would do—destroy and rebuild the Temple. This is what we should ask Him to do to our worldly, earthly or at best hybrid temple—knock it down and rebuild it as a truly spiritual and holy temple!
Get Outta Here!
“And the Pasch of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the Temple them that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting. And when He had made, as it were, a scourge of little cords, He drove them all out of the Temple, the sheep also and the oxen, and the money of the changers He poured out, and the tables He overthrew. And to them that sold doves He said: ‘Take these things out of here! And make not the house of my Father a house of traffic!’ And His disciples remembered, that it was written: ‘The zeal of Thy house has eaten me up!’ The Jews, therefore, answered, and said to Him: ‘What sign do You show unto us, seeing You do these things?” Jesus answered, and said to them: ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up!’ The Jews then said: ‘Six and forty years was this Temple in building; and will You raise it up in three days?” But He spoke of the temple of His body” (John 2:13-21)—and we should ask Him to do the same to the temple of our soul!
The above incident happened earlier in Our Lord’s ministry—it was repeated on Palm Sunday, after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem—which is reported by St. Matthew and St. Mark. So it is twice that Our Lord drove people out of the Temple for misusing it, or for having a worldly attitude.
“And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the Temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the chairs of them that sold doves. And He said to them: ‘It is written, “My house shall be called the house of prayer!” but you have made it a den of thieves!’” (Matthew 21:12-13). St. Mark echoes the account: “And they came to Jerusalem. And when Jesus entered into the Temple, He began to cast out them that sold and bought in the Temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the chairs of them that sold doves. And He suffered not that any man should carry a vessel through the Temple; and He taught them, saying: ‘Is it not written, “My house shall be called the house of prayer to all nations”? But you have made it a den of thieves!’” (Mark 11:15-17).
Rebuilding the Temple of Our Soul
The false witnesses, at Jesus’ trial before the Chief Priests, testified of Jesus destroying and rebuilding the Temple: “And they said: ‘This man said, “I am able to destroy the Temple of God, and, after three days, rebuild it!”‘ ” (Matthew 26:61). “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another not made with hands!’” (Mark 14:58). We have remade the temple of our soul with ‘human hands’—we need to restore the temple of our soul to its pristine, holy state, which was given to it at Baptism by Divine hands. We have ruined or soiled the temple of our soul with our human approach—we need Our Lord to cleanse and restore the temple of our soul to a holy state! Holy Week is the best time to have Him whip out the human and restore the Divine!
In speaking to one of His mystics, Our Lord said: “With ruins, on ruins, I can build magnificently! It gives Me joy to use that which has humbled itself before Me, because My action is free! … It is with coal that I make diamonds! What would I not do with a soul, however black she might be, who would give herself to Me!” (Our Lord to Sr. Mary of the Trinity, Words of Love, by Fr. Gottemoller). Holy Week is the time to give yourself to Him—to build on your ruins and make diamonds from the black coal of your sins!
A Lesson in the Palm in Your Hand
On Palm Sunday—blessed palms were distributed. “Blessed” means “made holy”—a blessed medal becomes a “holy medal”; a blessed picture card becomes a “holy card”.
We would do well to reflect a little more deeply upon the words with which our palms were blessed: “Bless, we beseech Thee, O Lord, these branches of palm and grant that what Thy people today bodily perform for Thy honor, they may perfect spiritually with the utmost devotion, by gaining the victory over the enemy, and ardently loving every work of mercy.”
You―like the palm that was blessed and made holy—are meant to be holy! You are meant to fight against the world and receive the palm of victory in Heaven for your brave and painful efforts! Just as Our Lady was told: “Blessed art thou among women!”—we should be blessed and holy in the unholy world in which we live.
Lessons from the Palm Tree
God made all things—down to their tiniest details—and God therefore made palm trees. As Holy Scripture says: “All men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God: and who by these good things that are seen, could not understand Him that is, neither, by attending to the works of Him, have acknowledged Who was the Workman” (Wisdom 13:1). Let us, then, look at the visible palm tree, and see what invisible things of the heavenly Workman we can find therein!
To begin with, it must be noted that of the many thousands of trees that God did create—the palm tree found its way into Holy Scripture: “The just shall flourish like the palm tree” (Psalm 91:13). The palm tree goes even further, and makes up part of the ancient Tabernacle: “Go forth to the mount, and fetch branches of olive, and branches of beautiful wood, branches of myrtle, and branches of palm, and branches of thick trees, to make tabernacles, as it is written” (2 Esdras 8:15).
The date-palm tree is characteristic of Palestine. It is described as “flourishing” (Psalm 91:13), “tall” (Canticles 7:7), “upright” (Jeremias 10:5). Its branches are a symbol of victory (Apocalypse 7:9). Rising with slender stem 40 or 50, at times even 80 feet aloft, its only branches, the feathery, snow-like, pale-green fronds from 6 to 12 feet long, bending from its top, the palm attracts the eye wherever it is seen. The whole land of Palestine was called by the Greeks and Romans―“Phoenicia”, which means “the land of palms.”
The Upright Palm—The Upright Man
Most palms are a straight, unbranched stem, but sometimes they can have a branching stem (two faced Catholics), or even a creeping vine (hypocritical and evil Catholics). Some trees are irregular, they are twisted and tortuous in their growth; some hug the ground before they rise; but the palm rises straight toward Heaven, it stands upright among the trees. The good man is well symbolized in this―he is the man who does not stoop or cling to the Earth, who does not bend and bow earthward, who stands erect, who moves in one heavenward direction, who is governed constantly by true and abiding principles. And these he gains from God and from his teachings. Through them, he is sustained in his principles, is reminded of them, gains fresh inspiration to illustrate and practice them.
Catholics should be ‘straight’ souls following the straight and narrow path upwards to Heaven. We see this ‘straightness’ reflected in the palm leaves, which are all straight: “The crooked shall become straight” (Isaias 40:4). “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths!” (Mark 1:3). “How narrow is the gate, and straight is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:14). “Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps. Make straight the path for thy feet. Decline not to the right hand, nor to the left [like the branched palm or creeping palm]: turn away thy foot from evil. For the Lord knows the ways that are on the right hand; but those are perverse which are on the left hand. But He will make thy courses straight, He will bring forward thy ways in peace … The wise man makes straight his steps” (Proverbs 4:25-27; 15:21).
Tough Palm Trees—Tough Catholics
Palm trees are from a family of perennial lianas, shrubs, and trees and grow best in hot and humid climates. Most palm trees grow in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. They occur from about 44° northern latitude to about 44° southern latitude. However—as with Catholics—there are also hardy palm trees that can withstand coldness and grow in much harsher and colder environments. Palm Trees―with proper care, planting, moisture and climate―are grown all over the world, even in locations with freezing cold winters. Canada serves a Northern reference point and many types of Palm Trees can grow there. The main factors affecting hardiness are the minimum winter temperature, the number of hours of cold every winter, the amount of heat every summer, and the relative wetness or dryness of the climate. In general, Palms are not particularly hardy. Many are actually injured by a single freezing night. Others Palms withstand 0° F (zero degrees Fahrenheit) for short periods without damage.
Community Life or Desert Father Hermits?
They have large evergreen leaves that are either “palmate” which is fan-leaved like a hand or “pinnate” which feather-leaved where the palms do not blend together at the base, but are separate leaves arranged in a spiral at the top of the trunk. If you liken that to religious life, you could say, broadly speaking, that the “palmate” palms are those that are joined together and live in community, whereas the “pinnate” palms are those who live like hermits or Desert Fathers.
Evergreen—Ever Humble
Being evergreens, reminds us of the virtue of humility (which is represented by the color green—as in green grass that walked upon and trodden on and squashed down). This humility should be present in us all year round—evergreen—and is required by Our Lord, Who said: "Learn of Me, for I am humble of heart!" (Matthew 11:29). “God has made the roots of proud nations to wither, and has planted the humble of these nations” (Ecclesiasticus 10:18). “And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off; and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper!” (Psalm 1:3). There can be no fruit without humility—just as no tree can survive without humus (Latin for the word “soil”).
The Fruit of the Palm Tree
As Holy Scripture says: “I will go up into the palm tree, and will take hold of the fruit thereof” (Canticles 7:8). So what is the fruit of the palm tree? Surprisingly, from the various species of palm trees, we get a wide variety of fruit. Among the many species of palm tree there are many different fruits. The most common fruits that grow from palm trees are coconuts and dates. Other fruits from palm trees include the acai berry, jubaea, peach palm fruit and betel nut.
Similarly with Catholics—or saints (which each Catholic should be)—there is a wide variety of species of Catholic, each bearing different fruits (virtues). Some saints were mainly known for shedding their blood, others were known for their learning, others for their missionary zeal, others for suffering persecution, others for carrying a variety of burdens―but all of them had humility and charity in common.
The Coconut Palm Tree
The coconut, that you see in your store, does not look anything like the coconut on the tree. The coconut has three layers and in the store you only the final inner layer—with the other two layers having been removed. In technical botanical jargon, a coconut is “a fibrous one-seeded drupe, also known as a dry drupe.” However, when using loose definitions, the coconut can be all three: a fruit, a nut, and a seed. Eh? Drupe? Okay! Classification of plants can be a complicated matter for the average person. A drupe is a fruit with a hard stony covering enclosing the seed and comes from the word drupa meaning “overripe olive”.
A untouched coconut, and all drupes, have three layers: (1) the exocarp (outer layer), which is typically smooth with a greenish color, (2) the mesocarp (fleshy middle layer), the fibrous husk, which ultimately surrounds (3) the endocarp (the furry hard woody shell with the seed inside of it). Generally speaking, when you buy a coconut at the supermarket, the exocarp (green exterior) and the mesocarp (middle layer of husk) are removed and what you see is the endocarp (the furry hard woody shell with the seed inside of it). If you look at one end of the coconut, you’ll see three pores (also called eyes). The coconut seed―inside of the furry or hairy hard woody shell―germinates and a shoot emerges from one of the pores. In addition to the “baby” plant in the seed, there is the food to kick off its life called the endosperm. The endosperm is what makes up most of the seed and, in the coconut’s case, is the yummy white stuff we eat.
The Coconut Palm of Milk, Cream and Water!
Also, inside that furry or hairy hard woody shell is coconut water—which is drinkable and not to be confused with coconut milk. Coconut water is the liquid that can be poured out from pierced coconuts. Coconut milk and coconut cream are both made from the white grated coconut meat that is macerated (soaked) in a measured quantity of water. When the resulting liquid is squeezed out, the first squeezing produces coconut cream, which is thick like dairy cream. Coconut milk has the liquid consistency of cow’s milk and is made from simmering one part shredded coconut meat in one part water.
What do we learn from all of this? Well, first of all, in order to get to the good, edible and enjoyable part of the coconut—which you could call the ‘soul of the coconut’ or ‘coconut heaven’—you have to go through three states or stages: the smooth exterior of a greenish color, called the exocarp. Then the fibrous husk, or mesocarp. Finally the very hard woody layer that we see and buy in the store which is called the endocarp. So, in a sense, it gets harder the closer you get to the white yummy tasty stuff in the center. The same is true for the spiritual life—we have three stages to pass through before God will allow us to get to Heaven—and nobody is exempt from any of those stages. The stages are those of the Beginner (the easiest), the Proficient (getting harder) and the Perfect (extremely hard). We either pass through these on Earth (which is preferable and easier) or in the fires of Purgatory (which is not preferable and incredibly more painful).
The water is the coconut is symbolic of grace in soul—for water has always been a symbol of grace for the Fathers of the Church. It is what keeps the coconut ‘alive’—just as grace keeps the soul ‘alive’ to God. The coconut milk and cream are produced by the white flesh being mixed with water and then either boiled (simmered), or squeezed to produce milk and cream respectively. This is symbolic of the pure soul (white flesh), working with grace (the water), under the pressure of the cross (simmered or squeezed) to produce virtues (milk or cream). This is symbolized by the way some Catholics like to fold the palm in order to make it into a Palm Cross—look it up online in you don’t know how to do that!
More Than Just a Palm!
Thus you can see that the simple palm that you were given on Palm Sunday has far more meaning than we superficially find it! And this is just “the tip of the iceberg” to what could be found if one looked deeper and researched more. It proves the point that you can find the DNA of God and the Faith in everything that God has made. Just as, proverbially, “all roads lead to Rome”—so too does all of creation point and lead to God, if we would only stop long enough to examine deeply enough all those things, or signposts, that God has placed before us!
Therefore, DO NOT WASTE YOUR HOLY WEEK! Just as with the palms of Palm Sunday, there is myriad or plethora of material present in Holy Week that shows the DNA of God and the Faith. But you need to free yourself from other things in order to have the time seek, dig, study, compare, connect and enjoy what God and His Church places before us in this holiest of weeks. Superficiality not only gets you nowhere, it is also as dissatisfying and unfulfilling for the spiritual appetite as cotton-candy (candy floss) is to a hungry man!
Article 18
Palm Sunday - the Sixth Sunday of Lent, March 29th
Today is the Day for “Palm-Reading”! Read Your Palms to See What’s in Store!
Article #12 on the FORTY CHIEF REASONS WHY WE FAIL is still being written. We are currently on reason #32.
Palm Sunday - the Sixth Sunday of Lent, March 29th
Today is the Day for “Palm-Reading”! Read Your Palms to See What’s in Store!
Article #12 on the FORTY CHIEF REASONS WHY WE FAIL is still being written. We are currently on reason #32.
From Triumph to Tragedy to Triumph
Talk of a roller-coaster ride! In these 7 days, Our Lord, with His Apostles and Disciples, will experience a momentous and unimaginable “roller-coaster” ride of gargantuan proportions. Today―“Palm Sunday”―we start with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which quickly descends into days of altercation and dispute in the Temple between Jesus and the Jews and the plotted betrayal by Judas and the High Priest, only to reach new heights by Holy Thursday, the birthday of the Holy Mass, the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood, which then immediately plummets down into the betrayal and arrest of Jesus leading into His Passion and Death; and then ends with His glorious Resurrection from death and seeming defeat.
Dom Gueranger, in the section on Palm Sunday, in his Liturgical Year, writes:
“Early in the morning of this day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary His Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus, at Bethany. The Mother of sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus expose Himself to danger, for His enemies are bent upon His destruction; but it is not death, it is triumph, that Jesus is to receive today in Jerusalem. The Messias, before being nailed to the cross, is to be proclaimed King by the people of the great city; the little children are to make her streets echo with their Hosannas to the Son of David; and this in presence of the soldiers of Rome’s emperor, and of the high priests and Pharisees: the first standing under the banner of their eagles; the second, dumb with rage.” (Dom Gueranger, Liturgical Year, Palm Sunday).
“The disciples spread their garments upon the colt; and our Savior, that the prophetic figure might be fulfilled, sits upon him (Mark 11:7, Luke 19:35), and advances towards Jerusalem. As soon as it is known that Jesus is near the city, the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those Jews, who have come from all parts to celebrate the feast of the Passover. They go out to meet Our Lord, holding palm branches in their hands, and loudly proclaiming Him to be King (Luke 19:38). They that have accompanied Jesus from Bethany, join the enthusiastic crowd. Whilst some spread their garments on the way, others cut down boughs from the palm-trees, and strew them along the road. “Hosanna” is the triumphant cry, proclaiming to the whole city that Jesus, the Son of David, has made His entrance as her King. Thus did God, in His power over men’s hearts, procure a triumph for His Son, and in the very city which, a few days later, was to clamor for His Blood. This day was one of glory to our Jesus, and the Holy Church would have us renew, each year, the memory of this triumph of the Man-God” (Dom Gueranger, Liturgical Year, Palm Sunday).
“Jesus begins His reign upon the Earth this very day; and though the first Israel is soon to disclaim His rule, a new Israel, formed from the faithful few of the old, shall rise up in every nation of the earth, and become the kingdom of Christ, a kingdom such as no mere earthly monarch ever coveted in his wildest fancies of ambition. This is the glorious mystery which ushers in the great week, the week of dolors. Holy Church would have us give this momentary consolation to our heart, and hail our Jesus as our King. She has so arranged the service of today, that it should express both joy and sorrow; joy, by uniting herself with the loyal hosannas of the city of David; and sorrow, by compassionating the Passion of her divine Spouse. The whole function is divided into three parts, which we will now proceed to explain.
Reading the Palms for the Significance
“The first is the blessing of the palms; and we may have an idea of its importance from the solemnity used by the Church in this sacred rite. One would suppose that the Holy Sacrifice has begun, and is going to be offered up in honor of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Introit, Collect, Epistle, Gradual, Gospel, even a Preface, are said, as though we were, as usual, preparing for the immolation of the spotless Lamb; but―after the triple Sanctus! Sanctus! Sanctus!―the Church suspends these sacrificial formulas, and turns to the blessing of the palms. The prayers she uses for this blessing are eloquent and full of instruction; and, together with the sprinkling with holy water and the incensation, impart a virtue to these branches, which elevates them to the supernatural order, and makes them means for the sanctification of our souls and the protection of our persons and dwellings. The faithful should hold these palms in their hands during the procession, and during the reading of the Passion at Mass, and keep them in their homes as an outward expression of their faith, and as a pledge of God’s watchful love.
Then, Dom Gueranger proceeds to explain the significance of the palms by reading the prayers that constitute their blessing. Unless your local parish followed the so-called “Extraordinary Rite” (the old Latin Rite, which truly is extraordinary compared to its cheap and ordinary replacement in recent times), then you will have missed out of the tremendous riches and depth of symbolism, teaching and inspiration contained in that venerable Rite. If you are offended by that, then don’t be―for increasing numbers of priests and laity are expressing a preference for the “old-way of doing things” especially among younger ones, which surprises many. Besides, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich saw in her visions, a counterfeit church for our times, introducing new ways of doing things―which, when overthrown by Heaven, went back to the “old ways” with a worldwide restoration of the old rite by the pope. Here are the prayers that were used (and will be used again) in blessing the psalms.
The priest began by by giving two Scriptural allusions: the first is to Noe, who received an olive-branch, when the waters of the deluge had subsided; the second is to Moses, whose people, after quitting Egypt, encamped under the seventy palm-trees. The prayer of blessing was then said as follows:
“Increase, O God, the Faith of them that hope in Thee, and mercifully hear the prayers of Thy suppliants; let Thy manifold mercy come upon us, and let these branches of palm-trees, or olive-trees be blessed; and as in a figure of the Church Thou didst multiply Noe going out of the ark, and Moses going out of Egypt with the children of Israel, so let us, carrying palms and branches of olive-trees, go and meet Christ with good works, and enter, through Him, into eternal joys.”
The prayers which follow, explain the mystery of the palms, and draw down the blessing of God both upon them and upon the faithful who receive and keep them with proper dispositions.
LET US PRAY
“We beseech Thee, O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, that Thou wouldst be pleased to bless and sanctify this creature of the olive tree, which Thou madest to shoot out of the substance of the wood, and which the dove, returning to the ark, brought in its bill; that whoever receiveth it, may find protection of soul and body, and that it may prove, O Lord, a saving remedy, and a sacred sign of Thy grace.”
LET US PRAY
“O God, Who gatherest what is dispersed, and preservest what is gathered; who didst bless the people that carried boughs to meet Jesus; bless also these branches of the palm-tree and olive-tree, which Thy servants take with Faith in honor of Thy Name; that into whatever place they may be carried, the inhabitants of that place may obtain thy blessing, and Thy right hand may preserve from all adversity, and protect those that have been redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son.”
LET US PRAY
“O God, Who by the wonderful order of Thy providence wouldst, even in insensible things, show us the manner of our salvation; grant, we beseech Thee, that the devout hearts of Thy faithful may understand to their benefit the mystical meaning of that ceremony, when the multitude, by direction from Heaven, going this day to meet our Redeemer, strewed under His feet palms and olive-branches. The palms represent His triumph over the prince of death: and the olive-branches proclaim, in some manner, the coming of a spiritual unction. For that pious multitude then knew, what was by them signified, that our Redeemer, compassionating the misery of mankind, was to fight, for the life of the whole world, with the prince of death; and to triumph over him by His own death. And, therefore, in that action they made use of such things, as might declare, both the triumph of his victory and the riches of His mercy. We also, with a firm Faith, retaining both the ceremony and its signification, humbly beseech Thee, O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, through the same Lord Jesus Christ, that we, whom Thou hast made His members, gaining by Him, and in Him, a victory over the empire of death, may deserve to be partakers of His glorious resurrection.”
LET US PRAY
“O God, Who by an olive branch didst command the dove to proclaim peace to the world; sanctify, we beseech Thee, by Thy heavenly benediction, these branches of olives and other trees; that they may be serviceable to all Thy people unto salvation.”
LET US PRAY
“Bless, O Lord, we beseech Thee, these branches of the palm-tree, or olive-tree; and grant that what Thy people, this day, do corporally for Thy honor, they may perform the same spiritually with the greatest devotion, by gaining a victory over their enemy, and ardently loving the work of Thy mercy.”
The Palm is a Sign of Victory
The palm branch is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life originating in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world. The palm (Phoenix) was sacred in Mesopotamian religions, and in ancient Egypt the palm represented immortality.
In Judaism, the lulav―a closed frond of the date palm―is part of the Festival of Tabernacles, one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, on which the Israelites were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. As stated in the Book of Leviticus, it is also intended as a reminder of the type of fragile dwellings in which the Israelites dwelt during their 40 years of travel in the desert after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt―for the Latin word tabernaculum literally means “tent” or “booth” in the sense of a temporary dwelling place. God commands: “And you shall take to you, on the first day, the fruits of the fairest tree, and branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. And you shall keep the solemnity thereof seven days in the year. It shall be an everlasting ordinance in your generations. In the seventh month shall you celebrate this feast. And you shall dwell in bowers seven days: every one that is of the race of Israel, shall dwell in tabernacles [tents]. That your posterity may know, that I made the children of Israel to dwell in tabernacles [tents], when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 23:40-43).
A palm branch was awarded to victorious athletes in ancient Greece, and a palm frond or the tree itself is one of the most common attributes of Victory personified in ancient Rome. Since a victory signals an end to a conflict or competition, the palm developed into a symbol of peace.
Pick Your Palm!
There are approximately 2,600 species of palm. The most well-known ones are the date palm and the coconut tree. All palm trees are not actually trees. A palm tree is a type of grass. This is so because the yearly growth of the palm is not marked by rings, as it happens in other trees. Also, a palm tree does not have a bark. The inside and outside of the plant are essentially the same―which how Catholics should be, we should be on the inside what we are on the outside and not be hypocrites or pretenders.
Palm trees are of two types―palmate and pinnate. In the palmate varieties, the leaves grow at the end of the stem in a bunch, resembling a hand or a fan. In the pinnate variety, the leaves grow all along either side of the stem, resembling feathers. The pinnate leaves of the oil palm can easily be 10 to 15 feet long and palm trees shed these enormous leaves on a yearly basis and these dead leaves have a veritable variety of uses. The woody stem of the leaves is strong and is used as fuel or building material, the leaves themselves can be recycled in the palm plantation as mulch, or can be used as a base for weaving baskets, and sometimes the leaf as a whole is used in fences and temporary constructions.
Greasy, Oily Palms?
The use of palm oil is as old as 3000 B.C and archaeologists have located traces of palm oil in Egyptian tombs. Palm oil — also known as red palm oil — is a vegetable oil extracted from the oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis). The oil palm yields two types of oil: One is extracted from the flesh of the fruit (palm oil), and the other from the seed, or kernel (palm kernel oil).
The oil is often found in products such as bread, ice cream, and other processed foods, as it is trans-fat free, as well as some cosmetics such as makeup and soap. In fact, half the packaged products in any supermarket contain palm oil, so the chances are high that you have a lot of palm oil products in your house.
Health in the Palm of Your (Oily) Hand
Unrefined palm oil is sometimes referred to as red palm oil because of its reddish-orange color. Similar to coconut oil, palm oil is resistant to heat compared to other vegetable oils. Red palm oil's reddish-orange pigment stems from antioxidants known as carotenoids, including beta-carotene, which your body can convert into vitamin A.
Palm Oil is packed with amazing health benefits that includes boosting energy, may prevent cancer, balancing cholesterol level, a rich source of antioxidants, a rich source of vitamin K, a rich source of Omega 3 fatty acids, supply the body with vitamin E for youthful appearance, support pregnancy, and supply the body with vitamin D for healthy joints and bone density. Applying palm oil directly to your skin is also beneficial. Injuries like bruises, sunburn, and cuts also heal faster when palm oil is applied.
Regarded as a sacred healing food by many civilizations, including the ancient Egyptians, crude or virgin red palm fruit oil should be regarded as one of the most nutritious edible oils in the world. It is not to be confused with palm kernel oil. Palm fruit oil is derived from the fruit of the oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis) and is referred to as “red palm oil” because of its rich dark red color in its unprocessed natural state. Palm kernel oil is derived from the seed or the kernel.
● PALM FRUIT OIL contains mainly palmitic and oleic acids and is about 50% saturated, while palm kernel oil contains mainly lauric acid and is more than 89% saturated. The general assumption that kernel oil and palm fruit oil are one in the same, may have lead to one of the greatest oversights in modern nutrition. The stigma attached to the kernel has kept the fruit in the dark ― at least until now. Virgin organic sustainable red palm fruit oil is otherwise a bona fide food.
● PALM KERNEL OIL does not convey the same health benefits that red palm fruit oil does. The health benefits are only achieved due to the red color of the palm fruit oil that is attributed to its high content of carotenes, which include beta-carotene and lycopene. These powerhouse antioxidant nutrients are the same ones that give tomatoes and carrots and other fruits and vegetables their rich red and orange colors. What may shock you is that red palm fruit oil contains more that tomatoes or carrots. Red palm fruit oil is also densely packed with numerous tocotrienols ― a powerful form of vitamin E.
Palm Oil Can “Take the Heat”!
Like coconut oil, palm oil is semi-solid at room temperature. However, its melting point is 95°F (35°C), which is considerably higher than 76°F (24°C) for coconut oil. This is due to the different fatty acid compositions of the two oils. It is often used for sautéing or frying because it has a high smoke point of 450°F (232°C) and remains stable under high heat. That is how Catholics ought to be―able to take the heat, while remaining flexible, yet hard.
Your Palm Shows a Long Life!
Palm trees have ancient symbolical value. The Assyrians believed that the symbol of eternal life was a palm tree growing beside a stream. Palm trees live unusually live long. It takes about 5 years for a palm tree to grow a trunk. Palm tree trunks are absolutely amazing in their ability to bend and flex in hurricane force winds without breaking―which is how Catholics ought to be amid the storms and tempests and persecutions of the world. Within 15 years a palm tree can produce coconuts―that number reminds us of the 15 mysteries of the Rosary we should be producing daily. At about 70 years the tree stops producing coconuts. Though it can be difficult to estimate the age of a palm tree without rings, thankfully, scientists have found other ways to estimate age. One species was found to have lived for 740 years! That reminds us of the long years that Adam and his descendants used to live―before God shortened the life of man due to sin.
Eating From Your Palms?
The leaves of the palm tree are eaten by animals―likewise, the words and examples of Catholics ought to be “eaten” by those around us.
A Palm Roof Over Your Head
The leaves can also be used to make a thatch or roof. However, only the pinnate type of leaves (the hand-shaped or fan-shaped leaves) can be used. Some palm leaves make great roofs because of their size―the ones from coconut or royal palm in the feather or fan-leaf category. Some of the larger fan varieties like many of the “thatch palms” (that's why they call them that―because of the thatch roofs). The roofs made out of these giant leaves can last anywhere from 5-10 years, depending on the weather, of course.
Universal
Like the Catholic Church, you could say that the palm tree is universal―that is to say it is used in an enormous amount and variety of products. Many palm trees are the source of wax, which is used to make scented candles. Many different leaves are also used in weaving everything from furniture, to decorations and place-mats. There are cultures that make sugar out of the sap of the sugar palm tree. It's collected very similar to the way we get sap for maple syrup from maple trees, but it is then fermented into the sugary drink called “toddy.”
Walking on Your Palms
Wood from coconut and palm trees is used for making flooring as the dried wood is harder than oak. After a coconut palm tree has gone beyond its productive years, the tree is chopped down. The wood from the palm tree can be made into some excellent flooring and siding. The wood is extremely hard once it is cured, or dried. Harder than oak, by far. There are also palms whose leaves are also used to produce oil, but a completely different kind. Other palm tree uses for leaves are, to produce a different kind of oil and wax from those produced from the fruit.
Talk of a roller-coaster ride! In these 7 days, Our Lord, with His Apostles and Disciples, will experience a momentous and unimaginable “roller-coaster” ride of gargantuan proportions. Today―“Palm Sunday”―we start with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which quickly descends into days of altercation and dispute in the Temple between Jesus and the Jews and the plotted betrayal by Judas and the High Priest, only to reach new heights by Holy Thursday, the birthday of the Holy Mass, the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood, which then immediately plummets down into the betrayal and arrest of Jesus leading into His Passion and Death; and then ends with His glorious Resurrection from death and seeming defeat.
Dom Gueranger, in the section on Palm Sunday, in his Liturgical Year, writes:
“Early in the morning of this day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary His Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus, at Bethany. The Mother of sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus expose Himself to danger, for His enemies are bent upon His destruction; but it is not death, it is triumph, that Jesus is to receive today in Jerusalem. The Messias, before being nailed to the cross, is to be proclaimed King by the people of the great city; the little children are to make her streets echo with their Hosannas to the Son of David; and this in presence of the soldiers of Rome’s emperor, and of the high priests and Pharisees: the first standing under the banner of their eagles; the second, dumb with rage.” (Dom Gueranger, Liturgical Year, Palm Sunday).
“The disciples spread their garments upon the colt; and our Savior, that the prophetic figure might be fulfilled, sits upon him (Mark 11:7, Luke 19:35), and advances towards Jerusalem. As soon as it is known that Jesus is near the city, the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those Jews, who have come from all parts to celebrate the feast of the Passover. They go out to meet Our Lord, holding palm branches in their hands, and loudly proclaiming Him to be King (Luke 19:38). They that have accompanied Jesus from Bethany, join the enthusiastic crowd. Whilst some spread their garments on the way, others cut down boughs from the palm-trees, and strew them along the road. “Hosanna” is the triumphant cry, proclaiming to the whole city that Jesus, the Son of David, has made His entrance as her King. Thus did God, in His power over men’s hearts, procure a triumph for His Son, and in the very city which, a few days later, was to clamor for His Blood. This day was one of glory to our Jesus, and the Holy Church would have us renew, each year, the memory of this triumph of the Man-God” (Dom Gueranger, Liturgical Year, Palm Sunday).
“Jesus begins His reign upon the Earth this very day; and though the first Israel is soon to disclaim His rule, a new Israel, formed from the faithful few of the old, shall rise up in every nation of the earth, and become the kingdom of Christ, a kingdom such as no mere earthly monarch ever coveted in his wildest fancies of ambition. This is the glorious mystery which ushers in the great week, the week of dolors. Holy Church would have us give this momentary consolation to our heart, and hail our Jesus as our King. She has so arranged the service of today, that it should express both joy and sorrow; joy, by uniting herself with the loyal hosannas of the city of David; and sorrow, by compassionating the Passion of her divine Spouse. The whole function is divided into three parts, which we will now proceed to explain.
Reading the Palms for the Significance
“The first is the blessing of the palms; and we may have an idea of its importance from the solemnity used by the Church in this sacred rite. One would suppose that the Holy Sacrifice has begun, and is going to be offered up in honor of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Introit, Collect, Epistle, Gradual, Gospel, even a Preface, are said, as though we were, as usual, preparing for the immolation of the spotless Lamb; but―after the triple Sanctus! Sanctus! Sanctus!―the Church suspends these sacrificial formulas, and turns to the blessing of the palms. The prayers she uses for this blessing are eloquent and full of instruction; and, together with the sprinkling with holy water and the incensation, impart a virtue to these branches, which elevates them to the supernatural order, and makes them means for the sanctification of our souls and the protection of our persons and dwellings. The faithful should hold these palms in their hands during the procession, and during the reading of the Passion at Mass, and keep them in their homes as an outward expression of their faith, and as a pledge of God’s watchful love.
Then, Dom Gueranger proceeds to explain the significance of the palms by reading the prayers that constitute their blessing. Unless your local parish followed the so-called “Extraordinary Rite” (the old Latin Rite, which truly is extraordinary compared to its cheap and ordinary replacement in recent times), then you will have missed out of the tremendous riches and depth of symbolism, teaching and inspiration contained in that venerable Rite. If you are offended by that, then don’t be―for increasing numbers of priests and laity are expressing a preference for the “old-way of doing things” especially among younger ones, which surprises many. Besides, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich saw in her visions, a counterfeit church for our times, introducing new ways of doing things―which, when overthrown by Heaven, went back to the “old ways” with a worldwide restoration of the old rite by the pope. Here are the prayers that were used (and will be used again) in blessing the psalms.
The priest began by by giving two Scriptural allusions: the first is to Noe, who received an olive-branch, when the waters of the deluge had subsided; the second is to Moses, whose people, after quitting Egypt, encamped under the seventy palm-trees. The prayer of blessing was then said as follows:
“Increase, O God, the Faith of them that hope in Thee, and mercifully hear the prayers of Thy suppliants; let Thy manifold mercy come upon us, and let these branches of palm-trees, or olive-trees be blessed; and as in a figure of the Church Thou didst multiply Noe going out of the ark, and Moses going out of Egypt with the children of Israel, so let us, carrying palms and branches of olive-trees, go and meet Christ with good works, and enter, through Him, into eternal joys.”
The prayers which follow, explain the mystery of the palms, and draw down the blessing of God both upon them and upon the faithful who receive and keep them with proper dispositions.
LET US PRAY
“We beseech Thee, O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, that Thou wouldst be pleased to bless and sanctify this creature of the olive tree, which Thou madest to shoot out of the substance of the wood, and which the dove, returning to the ark, brought in its bill; that whoever receiveth it, may find protection of soul and body, and that it may prove, O Lord, a saving remedy, and a sacred sign of Thy grace.”
LET US PRAY
“O God, Who gatherest what is dispersed, and preservest what is gathered; who didst bless the people that carried boughs to meet Jesus; bless also these branches of the palm-tree and olive-tree, which Thy servants take with Faith in honor of Thy Name; that into whatever place they may be carried, the inhabitants of that place may obtain thy blessing, and Thy right hand may preserve from all adversity, and protect those that have been redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son.”
LET US PRAY
“O God, Who by the wonderful order of Thy providence wouldst, even in insensible things, show us the manner of our salvation; grant, we beseech Thee, that the devout hearts of Thy faithful may understand to their benefit the mystical meaning of that ceremony, when the multitude, by direction from Heaven, going this day to meet our Redeemer, strewed under His feet palms and olive-branches. The palms represent His triumph over the prince of death: and the olive-branches proclaim, in some manner, the coming of a spiritual unction. For that pious multitude then knew, what was by them signified, that our Redeemer, compassionating the misery of mankind, was to fight, for the life of the whole world, with the prince of death; and to triumph over him by His own death. And, therefore, in that action they made use of such things, as might declare, both the triumph of his victory and the riches of His mercy. We also, with a firm Faith, retaining both the ceremony and its signification, humbly beseech Thee, O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, through the same Lord Jesus Christ, that we, whom Thou hast made His members, gaining by Him, and in Him, a victory over the empire of death, may deserve to be partakers of His glorious resurrection.”
LET US PRAY
“O God, Who by an olive branch didst command the dove to proclaim peace to the world; sanctify, we beseech Thee, by Thy heavenly benediction, these branches of olives and other trees; that they may be serviceable to all Thy people unto salvation.”
LET US PRAY
“Bless, O Lord, we beseech Thee, these branches of the palm-tree, or olive-tree; and grant that what Thy people, this day, do corporally for Thy honor, they may perform the same spiritually with the greatest devotion, by gaining a victory over their enemy, and ardently loving the work of Thy mercy.”
The Palm is a Sign of Victory
The palm branch is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life originating in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world. The palm (Phoenix) was sacred in Mesopotamian religions, and in ancient Egypt the palm represented immortality.
In Judaism, the lulav―a closed frond of the date palm―is part of the Festival of Tabernacles, one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, on which the Israelites were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. As stated in the Book of Leviticus, it is also intended as a reminder of the type of fragile dwellings in which the Israelites dwelt during their 40 years of travel in the desert after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt―for the Latin word tabernaculum literally means “tent” or “booth” in the sense of a temporary dwelling place. God commands: “And you shall take to you, on the first day, the fruits of the fairest tree, and branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. And you shall keep the solemnity thereof seven days in the year. It shall be an everlasting ordinance in your generations. In the seventh month shall you celebrate this feast. And you shall dwell in bowers seven days: every one that is of the race of Israel, shall dwell in tabernacles [tents]. That your posterity may know, that I made the children of Israel to dwell in tabernacles [tents], when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 23:40-43).
A palm branch was awarded to victorious athletes in ancient Greece, and a palm frond or the tree itself is one of the most common attributes of Victory personified in ancient Rome. Since a victory signals an end to a conflict or competition, the palm developed into a symbol of peace.
Pick Your Palm!
There are approximately 2,600 species of palm. The most well-known ones are the date palm and the coconut tree. All palm trees are not actually trees. A palm tree is a type of grass. This is so because the yearly growth of the palm is not marked by rings, as it happens in other trees. Also, a palm tree does not have a bark. The inside and outside of the plant are essentially the same―which how Catholics should be, we should be on the inside what we are on the outside and not be hypocrites or pretenders.
Palm trees are of two types―palmate and pinnate. In the palmate varieties, the leaves grow at the end of the stem in a bunch, resembling a hand or a fan. In the pinnate variety, the leaves grow all along either side of the stem, resembling feathers. The pinnate leaves of the oil palm can easily be 10 to 15 feet long and palm trees shed these enormous leaves on a yearly basis and these dead leaves have a veritable variety of uses. The woody stem of the leaves is strong and is used as fuel or building material, the leaves themselves can be recycled in the palm plantation as mulch, or can be used as a base for weaving baskets, and sometimes the leaf as a whole is used in fences and temporary constructions.
Greasy, Oily Palms?
The use of palm oil is as old as 3000 B.C and archaeologists have located traces of palm oil in Egyptian tombs. Palm oil — also known as red palm oil — is a vegetable oil extracted from the oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis). The oil palm yields two types of oil: One is extracted from the flesh of the fruit (palm oil), and the other from the seed, or kernel (palm kernel oil).
The oil is often found in products such as bread, ice cream, and other processed foods, as it is trans-fat free, as well as some cosmetics such as makeup and soap. In fact, half the packaged products in any supermarket contain palm oil, so the chances are high that you have a lot of palm oil products in your house.
Health in the Palm of Your (Oily) Hand
Unrefined palm oil is sometimes referred to as red palm oil because of its reddish-orange color. Similar to coconut oil, palm oil is resistant to heat compared to other vegetable oils. Red palm oil's reddish-orange pigment stems from antioxidants known as carotenoids, including beta-carotene, which your body can convert into vitamin A.
Palm Oil is packed with amazing health benefits that includes boosting energy, may prevent cancer, balancing cholesterol level, a rich source of antioxidants, a rich source of vitamin K, a rich source of Omega 3 fatty acids, supply the body with vitamin E for youthful appearance, support pregnancy, and supply the body with vitamin D for healthy joints and bone density. Applying palm oil directly to your skin is also beneficial. Injuries like bruises, sunburn, and cuts also heal faster when palm oil is applied.
Regarded as a sacred healing food by many civilizations, including the ancient Egyptians, crude or virgin red palm fruit oil should be regarded as one of the most nutritious edible oils in the world. It is not to be confused with palm kernel oil. Palm fruit oil is derived from the fruit of the oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis) and is referred to as “red palm oil” because of its rich dark red color in its unprocessed natural state. Palm kernel oil is derived from the seed or the kernel.
● PALM FRUIT OIL contains mainly palmitic and oleic acids and is about 50% saturated, while palm kernel oil contains mainly lauric acid and is more than 89% saturated. The general assumption that kernel oil and palm fruit oil are one in the same, may have lead to one of the greatest oversights in modern nutrition. The stigma attached to the kernel has kept the fruit in the dark ― at least until now. Virgin organic sustainable red palm fruit oil is otherwise a bona fide food.
● PALM KERNEL OIL does not convey the same health benefits that red palm fruit oil does. The health benefits are only achieved due to the red color of the palm fruit oil that is attributed to its high content of carotenes, which include beta-carotene and lycopene. These powerhouse antioxidant nutrients are the same ones that give tomatoes and carrots and other fruits and vegetables their rich red and orange colors. What may shock you is that red palm fruit oil contains more that tomatoes or carrots. Red palm fruit oil is also densely packed with numerous tocotrienols ― a powerful form of vitamin E.
Palm Oil Can “Take the Heat”!
Like coconut oil, palm oil is semi-solid at room temperature. However, its melting point is 95°F (35°C), which is considerably higher than 76°F (24°C) for coconut oil. This is due to the different fatty acid compositions of the two oils. It is often used for sautéing or frying because it has a high smoke point of 450°F (232°C) and remains stable under high heat. That is how Catholics ought to be―able to take the heat, while remaining flexible, yet hard.
Your Palm Shows a Long Life!
Palm trees have ancient symbolical value. The Assyrians believed that the symbol of eternal life was a palm tree growing beside a stream. Palm trees live unusually live long. It takes about 5 years for a palm tree to grow a trunk. Palm tree trunks are absolutely amazing in their ability to bend and flex in hurricane force winds without breaking―which is how Catholics ought to be amid the storms and tempests and persecutions of the world. Within 15 years a palm tree can produce coconuts―that number reminds us of the 15 mysteries of the Rosary we should be producing daily. At about 70 years the tree stops producing coconuts. Though it can be difficult to estimate the age of a palm tree without rings, thankfully, scientists have found other ways to estimate age. One species was found to have lived for 740 years! That reminds us of the long years that Adam and his descendants used to live―before God shortened the life of man due to sin.
Eating From Your Palms?
The leaves of the palm tree are eaten by animals―likewise, the words and examples of Catholics ought to be “eaten” by those around us.
A Palm Roof Over Your Head
The leaves can also be used to make a thatch or roof. However, only the pinnate type of leaves (the hand-shaped or fan-shaped leaves) can be used. Some palm leaves make great roofs because of their size―the ones from coconut or royal palm in the feather or fan-leaf category. Some of the larger fan varieties like many of the “thatch palms” (that's why they call them that―because of the thatch roofs). The roofs made out of these giant leaves can last anywhere from 5-10 years, depending on the weather, of course.
Universal
Like the Catholic Church, you could say that the palm tree is universal―that is to say it is used in an enormous amount and variety of products. Many palm trees are the source of wax, which is used to make scented candles. Many different leaves are also used in weaving everything from furniture, to decorations and place-mats. There are cultures that make sugar out of the sap of the sugar palm tree. It's collected very similar to the way we get sap for maple syrup from maple trees, but it is then fermented into the sugary drink called “toddy.”
Walking on Your Palms
Wood from coconut and palm trees is used for making flooring as the dried wood is harder than oak. After a coconut palm tree has gone beyond its productive years, the tree is chopped down. The wood from the palm tree can be made into some excellent flooring and siding. The wood is extremely hard once it is cured, or dried. Harder than oak, by far. There are also palms whose leaves are also used to produce oil, but a completely different kind. Other palm tree uses for leaves are, to produce a different kind of oil and wax from those produced from the fruit.
Article 17
Friday & Saturday after Passion Sunday - the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 27th & 28th
Don't Throw-Away the Key!
Article #12 on the FORTY CHIEF REASONS WHY WE FAIL is still being written. We are currently on reason #32.
Friday & Saturday after Passion Sunday - the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 27th & 28th
Don't Throw-Away the Key!
Article #12 on the FORTY CHIEF REASONS WHY WE FAIL is still being written. We are currently on reason #32.
The Royal Road of the Cross
The Imitation of Christ has a most beautiful, yet hard-hitting passage, entitled: The Royal Road of the Cross, in which it lays down the need for carrying the cross if we wish to arrive at salvation and avoid damnation. Here are some pertinent passages―which are most suitable as we enter Passiontide, the “season of the cross”―or, more correctly, since the “season of the cross” is an all-year-round season, we could call Passiontide, the time when the cross matures, ripens and bears it fruit.
Book 2, Chapter 12 of The Imitation of Christ, “The Royal Road of the Holy Cross”, states:
To many the saying, “Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Me,” seems hard, but it will be much harder to hear that final word: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!” Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the Day of Judgment. This sign of the cross will be in the heavens when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross―who, during life, made themselves one with the Crucified―will draw near with great trust to Christ, the judge.
Why, then, do you fear to take up the cross when through it you can win a kingdom? In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit, in the cross is highest virtue, in the cross is perfect holiness. There is no salvation of soul, nor hope of everlasting life, except in the cross.
Therefore, take up your cross and follow Jesus, and you shall enter eternal life. He Himself opened the way before you in carrying His cross, and upon it He died for you, so that you, too, might take up your cross and long to die upon it. If you die with Him, you shall also live with Him, and if you share His suffering, you shall also share His glory. In the cross is everything, and upon your dying on the cross everything depends. There is no other way to life and to true inward peace than the way of the holy cross and daily mortification. You will not find a higher way, nor a safer way, than the way of the holy cross. Even if arrange and order everything to suit yourself, still you will find that some suffering must always be borne, willingly or unwillingly―and thus you will always find the cross. The cross, therefore, is always ready; it awaits you everywhere. No matter where you may go, you cannot escape it, for wherever you go you take yourself with you and shall always find yourself. Turn where you will — above, below, without, or within — you will find a cross in everything, and everywhere you must have patience if you want to have peace within and merit an eternal crown.
If you carry the cross willingly, it will carry and lead you to the desired goal where there shall be no more suffering, but here there shall be. If you carry it unwillingly, you create a burden for yourself and increase the load, though still you have to bear it. If you cast away one cross, you will find another and perhaps a heavier one. Do you expect to escape what no mortal man can ever avoid? Which of the saints was without a cross or trial on this Earth? Not even Jesus Christ, our Lord, Whose every hour on Earth knew the pain of His passion. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). How is it that you look for another way than this, the royal way of the holy cross?
The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom, and do you seek rest and enjoyment for yourself? You deceive yourself, you are mistaken if you seek anything but to suffer, for this mortal life is full of miseries and marked with crosses on all sides. Indeed, the more spiritual progress a person makes, so much heavier will he frequently find the cross, because as his love increases, the pain of his exile also increases.
Yet such a man, though afflicted in many ways, is not without hope of consolation, because he knows that great reward is coming to him for bearing his cross. And when he carries it willingly, every pang of tribulation is changed into hope of solace from God. Besides, the more the flesh is distressed by affliction, so much the more is the spirit strengthened by inward grace. Not infrequently a man is so strengthened by his love of trials and hardship in his desire to conform to the cross of Christ, that he does not wish to be without sorrow or pain, since he believes he will be the more acceptable to God if he is able to endure more and more grievous things for His sake.
To carry the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body and bring it to subjection, to flee honors, to endure contempt gladly, to despise self and wish to be despised, to suffer any adversity and loss, to desire no prosperous days on Earth — this is not man’s way. If you rely upon yourself, you can do none of these things, but if you trust in the Lord, strength will be given you from Heaven and the world and the flesh will be made subject to your word. You will not even fear your enemy, the devil, if you are armed with faith and signed with the cross of Christ.
Set yourself, then, like a good and faithful servant of Christ, to bear bravely the cross of your Lord, Who out of love was crucified for you. Be ready to suffer many adversities and many kinds of trouble in this miserable life, for troublesome and miserable life will always be, no matter where you are; and so you will find it wherever you may hide. Thus it must be; and there is no way to evade the trials and sorrows of life but to bear them.
Drink the chalice of the Lord with affection it you wish to be His friend and to have part with Him. Leave consolation to God; let Him do as most pleases Him. On your part, be ready to bear sufferings and consider them the greatest consolation, for even though you alone were to undergo them all, the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.
When you shall have come to the point where suffering is sweet and acceptable for the sake of Christ, then consider yourself fortunate, for you have found paradise on Earth. But as long as suffering irks you and you seek to escape, so long will you be unfortunate, and the tribulation you seek to evade will follow you everywhere. If you put your mind to the things you ought to consider, that is, to suffering and death, you would soon be in a better state and would find peace.
Although you were taken to the third Heaven with Paul, you were not thereby insured against suffering. Jesus said: “I will show him how many great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake.” To suffer, then, remains your lot, if you mean to love Jesus and serve Him forever.
If you were but worthy to suffer something for the Name of Jesus, what great glory would be in store for you, what great joy to all the saints of God, what great edification to those about you! For all men praise patience though there are few who wish to practice it. With good reason, then, ought you to be willing to suffer a little for Christ since many suffer much more for the world. Realize that you must lead a dying life; the more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live unto God.
No man is fit to enjoy Heaven unless he has resigned himself to suffer hardship for Christ. Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing more helpful for you on this Earth than to suffer willingly for Christ. If you had to make a choice, you ought to wish rather to suffer for Christ than to enjoy many consolations, for thus you would be more like Christ and more like all the saints. Our merit and progress consist not in many pleasures and comforts but rather in enduring great afflictions and sufferings.
If, indeed, there were anything better or more useful for man’s salvation than suffering, Christ would have shown it by word and example. But He clearly exhorts the disciples who follow Him and all who wish to follow Him to carry the cross, saying: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” When, therefore, we have read and searched all that has been written, let this be the final conclusion — that through much suffering we must enter into the kingdom of God. (Here ends the passage from Book 2, Chapter 12 of The Imitation of Christ, “The Royal Road of the Holy Cross”).
The Cross is Everywhere
The one symbol that is most often identified with Jesus and his Church is the Cross.
● We make the Sign of the Cross often (or hopefully we do).
● A priest makes the Sign of the Cross over 50 times during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Traditional Roman Mass, not the Novus Ordo Mass, which has eliminated most of them).
● The Sacraments of the Church incorporate the Sign of the Cross. In the administration of the Sacraments it is used 14 times during Baptism and 17 times in Extreme Unction or “Sacrament of the Sick” [in the Traditional Roman Rite not the Novus Ordo Rite).
● The Sacramentals (blessings and exorcisms) also incorporate the Sign of the Cross―often several times in the cases of blessing some objects.
● Bishops visibly wears a Cross as signifying their role and authority.
● The Church requires a Cross on or above the altar.
● There are also the Fourteen Stations of the Cross on the walls of a church.
● Churches used to be built in the shape of a Cross.
Our Lord Himself “said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross to come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that does not take up his cross to follow Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).
Throwing-Away Our Key to Heaven
The Liturgy of Holy Mother Church implicitly speaks of the cross as being our key to Heaven: “Ave crux, spes unica!” ― “Hail O Cross our sole hope!” and “In cruce salus!” ― “In the cross is salvation!” To throw-off the cross or to throw-way the cross is tantamount to throwing away our hope of salvation.
This reminds us of the humorous story of the man who was dissatisfied with the cross that Jesus had given him. So, first thing in the morning, he takes his cross back to the Supermarket of Crosses and complains to Jesus, at “Customer Service”, that the cross which he was given is just not good enough―it is far too heavy, it rubs against the skin too much, leaves lots of splinters behind, it is too long, does not sit and fit correctly, etc.
Jesus tells him to go and throw his cross on the big pile of crosses in the supermarket and dig through the pile to find a cross that was more according to his likes and tastes.
The man happily tosses his cross on the pile and starts sifting through the other crosses on the pile―but cannot seem to find one that will sit well with him and satisfy him.
After a few hours Our Lord asks: “How are you doing? Have you found one to your liking yet?”
The man replies: “No! But I will keep on looking! There looks to be tens of thousands to pick from! Just give me some more time! I’ll find something to my liking!”
“Okay!” says Our Lord, “But just remember―the Supermarket of Crosses closes at 9:00 p.m.”
With that, the man goes back to feverishly sorting through the pile of crosses.
Eventually Our Lord shouts out that the Supermarket of Crosses is closing in 5 minutes and that he had better choose one before closing time. Eventually, the man finds one that seems acceptable to him and smilingly carries it past Jesus on his way out of the supermarket. Jesus asks the man if he is happy with it. The man replies that it is the lightest one that he could find after almost a whole day of looking and searching. Jesus then remarks: “I hate to tell you this―but that is the cross that you came in with this morning!”
We Cannot Love Christ Without the Cross
The vast majority of Christians seek to avoid suffering as much as possible, yet they profess to love Christ! Our Lord clearly tells us that suffering is a part of love. It is a part that needs to go on increasing until it reaches the pinnacle of love, which is the top of Mount Calvary―a mountain of love and suffering: “Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Like the Jews, we might be tempted to say: “This saying is hard, and who can hear it?” (John 6:61). But Our Lord will answer: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him. He that loves Me not, keeps not My words” (John 14:23-24).
That love begins with the seed of love, which is the keeping of the commandments―which are a form of suffering: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). That love grows as the cross grows. Without that love, the carrying of the cross and suffering under the cross is vain, fruitless and profitless, as Holy Scripture points out: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal! And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing! And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
And that cross and that suffering will be found in many different shapes and forms and sizes. It will be found at home, at work, in the parish, in social life. In all these places Christ must come first, Christ must reign. Yet at home, at work, in the parish, in social life we will find those who refuse to put Christ first, or seek to put Christ alongside the world, so that they are both tied for first place. These will be our enemies, whom we have to fight in order to put Christ in His rightful place:
“Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven. Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:32-38).
Yet we don’t want to suffer! Insanely, we feel there is no need to suffer! However, logic condemns our insanity. If we buy sinful pleasures, we have to pay a fitting price. Now, our catechisms tell us that mortal sin and venial sin are the two GREATEST EVILS in the world. Nothing I could possibly suffer could be described as the greatest evil in world, apart from sin. Yet I have sinned, not just once, but many times—and in cases of venial sins, countless times! Can I really complain about the ‘cut-price’ suffering that God’s Providence sends me?
The Season of the Cross
Even though we could rightly say Passiontide is the “season of the cross”, it would be wrong to label Passiontide (or even Lent for that matter) as the only season of the cross―for, in reality, the “season of the cross” spans all the four seasons of the year. There is never a day that goes by without many crosses coming our way. God plants the “tree of the cross” in our lives and the fruit of the “tree of the cross” is found on the tree all year round and we can harvest the fruit of the cross daily, every day, all throughout the year. Some crosses are fully ripe, while others are merely beginning to bloom. This reminds of the biblical “tree of life” ― “In the midst … was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruits every month” (Apocalypse 22:2). Our Lord Himself speaks of this DAILY cross: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his CROSS DAILY, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23).
The Focus on the Cross
The pinnacle of joy―though most people wince at the thought―is to be able to suffer for God. Our Lord Himself tells us: “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for the sake of justice―for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice! For your reward is very great in Heaven! For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you!” (Matthew 5:10-12) and on the eve of His own Passion and Death, He said at the Last Supper: “Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). All of this summed-up in one word—the “Cross.” The liturgy for Passiontide is clearly, unashamedly and unapologetically focused on the Cross. Here are just a few extracts from two of the liturgical hymns for Passiontide:
PANGE LINGUA
Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle
Sing the last, the dread affray;
O’er the cross, the victor’s trophy,
Sound the high triumphal lay:
Tell how Christ, the world’s Redeemer,
As a victim won the day.
Thirty years among us dwelling,
His appointed time fulfilled,
Born for this, He meets His passion,
For that this He freely willed:
On the Cross the Lamb is lifted,
Where His life-blood shall be spilled.
He endured the nails, the spitting,
Vinegar, and spear, and reed;
From that holy body broken
Blood and water forth proceed:
Earth, and stars, and sky, and ocean,
By that flood from stain are freed.
Faithful cross! Above all other,
One and only noble tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peers may be;
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron!
Sweetest weight is hung on thee.
Bend thy boughs, O tree of glory!
Thy relaxing sinews bend;
For awhile the ancient rigor,
That thy birth bestowed, suspend;
And the King of heavenly beauty
On thy bosom gently tend!
Thou alone wast counted worthy
This world’s Ransom to uphold;
For a shipwrecked race preparing
Harbor, like the ark of old;
With the sacred blood anointed
From the smitten Lamb that rolled.
VEXILLA REGIS
Abroad the regal banners fly,
Now shines the cross’s mystery;
Upon it Life did death endure,
And yet by death did life procure.
Who, wounded with a direful spear,
Did, purposely to wash us clear
From stain of sin, pour out a flood
Of precious water mixed with blood.
That which the prophet-king of old
Has in mysterious verse foretold,
Is now accomplished, whilst we see
God ruling nations from a tree.
O lovely and refulgent tree,
Adorned with purpled majesty;
Culled from a worthy stock, to bear
Those limbs which sanctifièd were.
Blest tree, whose happy branches bore
The Wealth that did the world restore;
The beam that did that Body weigh
Which raised up Hell’s expected prey.
O Cross, our one reliance, hail!
This holy Passiontide avail
To give fresh merit to the saint,
And pardon to the penitent.
Blest Trinity, salvation’s spring,
May every soul thy praises sing;
To those thou grantest conquest by
The holy cross, rewards apply.
Amen.
The Tree and Fruit of the Cross
The Apostles speak of Our Lord dying on a tree―the tree of the Cross: “We are witnesses of all things that Jesus did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, Whom they killed, hanging Him upon a tree!” (Acts 10:39) … “Who, His own self, bore our sins in His Body upon the tree―so that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice―and by Whose stripes you were healed!” (1 Peter 2:24) … “And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of Him, taking Him down from the tree, they laid Him in a sepulcher” (Acts 13:29) … “The God of our fathers has raised up Jesus, Whom you put to death, hanging Him upon a tree!” (Acts 5:30).
Our Lord Himself was full of “tree talk” while He walked this Earth. Here are just some of His teachings that we would do well do ponder and plant in the garden of our soul: “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree evil, and its fruit evil. For by the fruit the tree is known!” (Matthew 12:33). “By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Every good tree brings forth good fruit, and the evil tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them!” (Matthew 7:16-20). “For there is no good tree that brings forth evil fruit; nor an evil tree that brings forth good fruit. For every tree is known by its fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns; nor from a bramble bush do they gather the grape!” (Luke 6:43-44). “And seeing a certain fig tree by the way side, Jesus came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only, and He said to it: ‘May no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever!’ And immediately the fig tree withered away!” (Matthew 21:19).
“He spoke also this parable: ‘A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: “Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and I find none! Cut it down therefore! Why does it encumber the ground?” But he answering, said to him: “Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it. Perhaps happily it bears fruit, but if not, then after that you shall cut it down!”’” (Luke 13:6-9). To which Scripture adds: “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire” (Matthew 3:10).
“To what is the kingdom of God like, and whereunto shall I resemble it? The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but, when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs and becomes a great tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32; Luke 13:18-19).
Our Lord even compares Himself to a tree of sorts when He says: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the farmer. Every branch in Me, that bears not fruit, He will take away. And every one that bears fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth even more fruit! … Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine and you are the branches! He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abides not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:1-6).
We even engage in “tree-talk” ourselves with our idiomatic expressions. We say someone is “planted in good soil”, or that someone is “shaking like a leaf”, or is “branching-out”, or “holding out an olive branch to someone”, or referring to family traits when we say “the apple never falls far from the tree”, or someone being “at the top of the tree” or “barking up the wrong tree”, or that someone “cannot see the forest because of the tree”, or that “money doesn’t grow on trees”, or someone being “dressed-up like a Christmas Tree”, etc.
Sun and Rain for the Cross
The cross is synonymous with the tree―the Tree of Life―which is Our Lord’s Death on Calvary, and which is perpetuated in each and every Sacrifice of the Mass, whose fruit is the Holy Eucharist, which we receive in Holy Communion. To receive Holy Communion, we need to be in a state of grace (symbolized by water) and the Holy Eucharist―the fire of love, for “God is charity” (1 John 4:8), and God is in the Holy Eucharist, hence you could just as well say: “The Holy Eucharist is charity.” Without sanctifying grace―whatever we might do or suffer―is supernaturally useless. The same is true of charity―as Holy Scripture points out: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal! And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing! And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Charity and Sanctifying Grace are the “sun” and “rain” of our entire spiritual life―that includes the carrying of our crosses.
Understanding this, we can read the following passages with a clearer insight as to their meaning: “He shall be like a tree, which is planted near the running waters [symbol of grace], which shall bring forth its fruit [symbol of virtues], in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off; and all whatsoever he shall do, shall prosper” (Psalms 1:3). “The fruit of the just man is a tree of life” (Proverbs 11:30). “And he shall be as a tree that is planted by the waters [symbol of grace], that spreads out its roots towards moisture―and it shall not fear when the heat comes. And the leaf thereof shall be green, and in the time of drought it shall not be solicitous, neither shall it cease at any time to bring forth fruit” (Jeremias 17:8).
Just as each year a tree grows bigger, carries a heavier load of fruit and produces more fruit―likewise, the “tree of the cross”, that each of us has to be, must carry a “heavier load” with each successive year, and by carrying that load, “produce more and more fruit” with each successive year, by exercising all the various virtues needed to carry the cross with love for God. Anything that will increase the rainfall of grace and sunlight and heat of charity, must be actively sought by us―and we will essentially find that “rain” and “sunlight” in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in the Holy Eucharist. We must frequently place ourselves in the grace-full downpour of Sanctifying Grace by planting ourselves daily (if possible) in the “garden” of the Holy Mass―for one hour’s “rain” only once a week, on Sundays, is barely enough “water” for our tree to survive. Additionally, we need to expose ourselves to the “Sun” of God, the Son of God, in the Holy Eucharist, in order to make our “tree” grow―as Our Lord said: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me!” (John 15:4).
The Imitation of Christ has a most beautiful, yet hard-hitting passage, entitled: The Royal Road of the Cross, in which it lays down the need for carrying the cross if we wish to arrive at salvation and avoid damnation. Here are some pertinent passages―which are most suitable as we enter Passiontide, the “season of the cross”―or, more correctly, since the “season of the cross” is an all-year-round season, we could call Passiontide, the time when the cross matures, ripens and bears it fruit.
Book 2, Chapter 12 of The Imitation of Christ, “The Royal Road of the Holy Cross”, states:
To many the saying, “Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Me,” seems hard, but it will be much harder to hear that final word: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!” Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the Day of Judgment. This sign of the cross will be in the heavens when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross―who, during life, made themselves one with the Crucified―will draw near with great trust to Christ, the judge.
Why, then, do you fear to take up the cross when through it you can win a kingdom? In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit, in the cross is highest virtue, in the cross is perfect holiness. There is no salvation of soul, nor hope of everlasting life, except in the cross.
Therefore, take up your cross and follow Jesus, and you shall enter eternal life. He Himself opened the way before you in carrying His cross, and upon it He died for you, so that you, too, might take up your cross and long to die upon it. If you die with Him, you shall also live with Him, and if you share His suffering, you shall also share His glory. In the cross is everything, and upon your dying on the cross everything depends. There is no other way to life and to true inward peace than the way of the holy cross and daily mortification. You will not find a higher way, nor a safer way, than the way of the holy cross. Even if arrange and order everything to suit yourself, still you will find that some suffering must always be borne, willingly or unwillingly―and thus you will always find the cross. The cross, therefore, is always ready; it awaits you everywhere. No matter where you may go, you cannot escape it, for wherever you go you take yourself with you and shall always find yourself. Turn where you will — above, below, without, or within — you will find a cross in everything, and everywhere you must have patience if you want to have peace within and merit an eternal crown.
If you carry the cross willingly, it will carry and lead you to the desired goal where there shall be no more suffering, but here there shall be. If you carry it unwillingly, you create a burden for yourself and increase the load, though still you have to bear it. If you cast away one cross, you will find another and perhaps a heavier one. Do you expect to escape what no mortal man can ever avoid? Which of the saints was without a cross or trial on this Earth? Not even Jesus Christ, our Lord, Whose every hour on Earth knew the pain of His passion. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). How is it that you look for another way than this, the royal way of the holy cross?
The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom, and do you seek rest and enjoyment for yourself? You deceive yourself, you are mistaken if you seek anything but to suffer, for this mortal life is full of miseries and marked with crosses on all sides. Indeed, the more spiritual progress a person makes, so much heavier will he frequently find the cross, because as his love increases, the pain of his exile also increases.
Yet such a man, though afflicted in many ways, is not without hope of consolation, because he knows that great reward is coming to him for bearing his cross. And when he carries it willingly, every pang of tribulation is changed into hope of solace from God. Besides, the more the flesh is distressed by affliction, so much the more is the spirit strengthened by inward grace. Not infrequently a man is so strengthened by his love of trials and hardship in his desire to conform to the cross of Christ, that he does not wish to be without sorrow or pain, since he believes he will be the more acceptable to God if he is able to endure more and more grievous things for His sake.
To carry the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body and bring it to subjection, to flee honors, to endure contempt gladly, to despise self and wish to be despised, to suffer any adversity and loss, to desire no prosperous days on Earth — this is not man’s way. If you rely upon yourself, you can do none of these things, but if you trust in the Lord, strength will be given you from Heaven and the world and the flesh will be made subject to your word. You will not even fear your enemy, the devil, if you are armed with faith and signed with the cross of Christ.
Set yourself, then, like a good and faithful servant of Christ, to bear bravely the cross of your Lord, Who out of love was crucified for you. Be ready to suffer many adversities and many kinds of trouble in this miserable life, for troublesome and miserable life will always be, no matter where you are; and so you will find it wherever you may hide. Thus it must be; and there is no way to evade the trials and sorrows of life but to bear them.
Drink the chalice of the Lord with affection it you wish to be His friend and to have part with Him. Leave consolation to God; let Him do as most pleases Him. On your part, be ready to bear sufferings and consider them the greatest consolation, for even though you alone were to undergo them all, the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.
When you shall have come to the point where suffering is sweet and acceptable for the sake of Christ, then consider yourself fortunate, for you have found paradise on Earth. But as long as suffering irks you and you seek to escape, so long will you be unfortunate, and the tribulation you seek to evade will follow you everywhere. If you put your mind to the things you ought to consider, that is, to suffering and death, you would soon be in a better state and would find peace.
Although you were taken to the third Heaven with Paul, you were not thereby insured against suffering. Jesus said: “I will show him how many great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake.” To suffer, then, remains your lot, if you mean to love Jesus and serve Him forever.
If you were but worthy to suffer something for the Name of Jesus, what great glory would be in store for you, what great joy to all the saints of God, what great edification to those about you! For all men praise patience though there are few who wish to practice it. With good reason, then, ought you to be willing to suffer a little for Christ since many suffer much more for the world. Realize that you must lead a dying life; the more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live unto God.
No man is fit to enjoy Heaven unless he has resigned himself to suffer hardship for Christ. Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing more helpful for you on this Earth than to suffer willingly for Christ. If you had to make a choice, you ought to wish rather to suffer for Christ than to enjoy many consolations, for thus you would be more like Christ and more like all the saints. Our merit and progress consist not in many pleasures and comforts but rather in enduring great afflictions and sufferings.
If, indeed, there were anything better or more useful for man’s salvation than suffering, Christ would have shown it by word and example. But He clearly exhorts the disciples who follow Him and all who wish to follow Him to carry the cross, saying: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” When, therefore, we have read and searched all that has been written, let this be the final conclusion — that through much suffering we must enter into the kingdom of God. (Here ends the passage from Book 2, Chapter 12 of The Imitation of Christ, “The Royal Road of the Holy Cross”).
The Cross is Everywhere
The one symbol that is most often identified with Jesus and his Church is the Cross.
● We make the Sign of the Cross often (or hopefully we do).
● A priest makes the Sign of the Cross over 50 times during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Traditional Roman Mass, not the Novus Ordo Mass, which has eliminated most of them).
● The Sacraments of the Church incorporate the Sign of the Cross. In the administration of the Sacraments it is used 14 times during Baptism and 17 times in Extreme Unction or “Sacrament of the Sick” [in the Traditional Roman Rite not the Novus Ordo Rite).
● The Sacramentals (blessings and exorcisms) also incorporate the Sign of the Cross―often several times in the cases of blessing some objects.
● Bishops visibly wears a Cross as signifying their role and authority.
● The Church requires a Cross on or above the altar.
● There are also the Fourteen Stations of the Cross on the walls of a church.
● Churches used to be built in the shape of a Cross.
Our Lord Himself “said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross to come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that does not take up his cross to follow Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).
Throwing-Away Our Key to Heaven
The Liturgy of Holy Mother Church implicitly speaks of the cross as being our key to Heaven: “Ave crux, spes unica!” ― “Hail O Cross our sole hope!” and “In cruce salus!” ― “In the cross is salvation!” To throw-off the cross or to throw-way the cross is tantamount to throwing away our hope of salvation.
This reminds us of the humorous story of the man who was dissatisfied with the cross that Jesus had given him. So, first thing in the morning, he takes his cross back to the Supermarket of Crosses and complains to Jesus, at “Customer Service”, that the cross which he was given is just not good enough―it is far too heavy, it rubs against the skin too much, leaves lots of splinters behind, it is too long, does not sit and fit correctly, etc.
Jesus tells him to go and throw his cross on the big pile of crosses in the supermarket and dig through the pile to find a cross that was more according to his likes and tastes.
The man happily tosses his cross on the pile and starts sifting through the other crosses on the pile―but cannot seem to find one that will sit well with him and satisfy him.
After a few hours Our Lord asks: “How are you doing? Have you found one to your liking yet?”
The man replies: “No! But I will keep on looking! There looks to be tens of thousands to pick from! Just give me some more time! I’ll find something to my liking!”
“Okay!” says Our Lord, “But just remember―the Supermarket of Crosses closes at 9:00 p.m.”
With that, the man goes back to feverishly sorting through the pile of crosses.
Eventually Our Lord shouts out that the Supermarket of Crosses is closing in 5 minutes and that he had better choose one before closing time. Eventually, the man finds one that seems acceptable to him and smilingly carries it past Jesus on his way out of the supermarket. Jesus asks the man if he is happy with it. The man replies that it is the lightest one that he could find after almost a whole day of looking and searching. Jesus then remarks: “I hate to tell you this―but that is the cross that you came in with this morning!”
We Cannot Love Christ Without the Cross
The vast majority of Christians seek to avoid suffering as much as possible, yet they profess to love Christ! Our Lord clearly tells us that suffering is a part of love. It is a part that needs to go on increasing until it reaches the pinnacle of love, which is the top of Mount Calvary―a mountain of love and suffering: “Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Like the Jews, we might be tempted to say: “This saying is hard, and who can hear it?” (John 6:61). But Our Lord will answer: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him. He that loves Me not, keeps not My words” (John 14:23-24).
That love begins with the seed of love, which is the keeping of the commandments―which are a form of suffering: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). That love grows as the cross grows. Without that love, the carrying of the cross and suffering under the cross is vain, fruitless and profitless, as Holy Scripture points out: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal! And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing! And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
And that cross and that suffering will be found in many different shapes and forms and sizes. It will be found at home, at work, in the parish, in social life. In all these places Christ must come first, Christ must reign. Yet at home, at work, in the parish, in social life we will find those who refuse to put Christ first, or seek to put Christ alongside the world, so that they are both tied for first place. These will be our enemies, whom we have to fight in order to put Christ in His rightful place:
“Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven. Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:32-38).
Yet we don’t want to suffer! Insanely, we feel there is no need to suffer! However, logic condemns our insanity. If we buy sinful pleasures, we have to pay a fitting price. Now, our catechisms tell us that mortal sin and venial sin are the two GREATEST EVILS in the world. Nothing I could possibly suffer could be described as the greatest evil in world, apart from sin. Yet I have sinned, not just once, but many times—and in cases of venial sins, countless times! Can I really complain about the ‘cut-price’ suffering that God’s Providence sends me?
The Season of the Cross
Even though we could rightly say Passiontide is the “season of the cross”, it would be wrong to label Passiontide (or even Lent for that matter) as the only season of the cross―for, in reality, the “season of the cross” spans all the four seasons of the year. There is never a day that goes by without many crosses coming our way. God plants the “tree of the cross” in our lives and the fruit of the “tree of the cross” is found on the tree all year round and we can harvest the fruit of the cross daily, every day, all throughout the year. Some crosses are fully ripe, while others are merely beginning to bloom. This reminds of the biblical “tree of life” ― “In the midst … was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruits every month” (Apocalypse 22:2). Our Lord Himself speaks of this DAILY cross: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his CROSS DAILY, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23).
The Focus on the Cross
The pinnacle of joy―though most people wince at the thought―is to be able to suffer for God. Our Lord Himself tells us: “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for the sake of justice―for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice! For your reward is very great in Heaven! For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you!” (Matthew 5:10-12) and on the eve of His own Passion and Death, He said at the Last Supper: “Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). All of this summed-up in one word—the “Cross.” The liturgy for Passiontide is clearly, unashamedly and unapologetically focused on the Cross. Here are just a few extracts from two of the liturgical hymns for Passiontide:
PANGE LINGUA
Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle
Sing the last, the dread affray;
O’er the cross, the victor’s trophy,
Sound the high triumphal lay:
Tell how Christ, the world’s Redeemer,
As a victim won the day.
Thirty years among us dwelling,
His appointed time fulfilled,
Born for this, He meets His passion,
For that this He freely willed:
On the Cross the Lamb is lifted,
Where His life-blood shall be spilled.
He endured the nails, the spitting,
Vinegar, and spear, and reed;
From that holy body broken
Blood and water forth proceed:
Earth, and stars, and sky, and ocean,
By that flood from stain are freed.
Faithful cross! Above all other,
One and only noble tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peers may be;
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron!
Sweetest weight is hung on thee.
Bend thy boughs, O tree of glory!
Thy relaxing sinews bend;
For awhile the ancient rigor,
That thy birth bestowed, suspend;
And the King of heavenly beauty
On thy bosom gently tend!
Thou alone wast counted worthy
This world’s Ransom to uphold;
For a shipwrecked race preparing
Harbor, like the ark of old;
With the sacred blood anointed
From the smitten Lamb that rolled.
VEXILLA REGIS
Abroad the regal banners fly,
Now shines the cross’s mystery;
Upon it Life did death endure,
And yet by death did life procure.
Who, wounded with a direful spear,
Did, purposely to wash us clear
From stain of sin, pour out a flood
Of precious water mixed with blood.
That which the prophet-king of old
Has in mysterious verse foretold,
Is now accomplished, whilst we see
God ruling nations from a tree.
O lovely and refulgent tree,
Adorned with purpled majesty;
Culled from a worthy stock, to bear
Those limbs which sanctifièd were.
Blest tree, whose happy branches bore
The Wealth that did the world restore;
The beam that did that Body weigh
Which raised up Hell’s expected prey.
O Cross, our one reliance, hail!
This holy Passiontide avail
To give fresh merit to the saint,
And pardon to the penitent.
Blest Trinity, salvation’s spring,
May every soul thy praises sing;
To those thou grantest conquest by
The holy cross, rewards apply.
Amen.
The Tree and Fruit of the Cross
The Apostles speak of Our Lord dying on a tree―the tree of the Cross: “We are witnesses of all things that Jesus did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, Whom they killed, hanging Him upon a tree!” (Acts 10:39) … “Who, His own self, bore our sins in His Body upon the tree―so that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice―and by Whose stripes you were healed!” (1 Peter 2:24) … “And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of Him, taking Him down from the tree, they laid Him in a sepulcher” (Acts 13:29) … “The God of our fathers has raised up Jesus, Whom you put to death, hanging Him upon a tree!” (Acts 5:30).
Our Lord Himself was full of “tree talk” while He walked this Earth. Here are just some of His teachings that we would do well do ponder and plant in the garden of our soul: “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree evil, and its fruit evil. For by the fruit the tree is known!” (Matthew 12:33). “By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Every good tree brings forth good fruit, and the evil tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them!” (Matthew 7:16-20). “For there is no good tree that brings forth evil fruit; nor an evil tree that brings forth good fruit. For every tree is known by its fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns; nor from a bramble bush do they gather the grape!” (Luke 6:43-44). “And seeing a certain fig tree by the way side, Jesus came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only, and He said to it: ‘May no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever!’ And immediately the fig tree withered away!” (Matthew 21:19).
“He spoke also this parable: ‘A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: “Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and I find none! Cut it down therefore! Why does it encumber the ground?” But he answering, said to him: “Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it. Perhaps happily it bears fruit, but if not, then after that you shall cut it down!”’” (Luke 13:6-9). To which Scripture adds: “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire” (Matthew 3:10).
“To what is the kingdom of God like, and whereunto shall I resemble it? The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but, when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs and becomes a great tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32; Luke 13:18-19).
Our Lord even compares Himself to a tree of sorts when He says: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the farmer. Every branch in Me, that bears not fruit, He will take away. And every one that bears fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth even more fruit! … Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine and you are the branches! He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abides not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:1-6).
We even engage in “tree-talk” ourselves with our idiomatic expressions. We say someone is “planted in good soil”, or that someone is “shaking like a leaf”, or is “branching-out”, or “holding out an olive branch to someone”, or referring to family traits when we say “the apple never falls far from the tree”, or someone being “at the top of the tree” or “barking up the wrong tree”, or that someone “cannot see the forest because of the tree”, or that “money doesn’t grow on trees”, or someone being “dressed-up like a Christmas Tree”, etc.
Sun and Rain for the Cross
The cross is synonymous with the tree―the Tree of Life―which is Our Lord’s Death on Calvary, and which is perpetuated in each and every Sacrifice of the Mass, whose fruit is the Holy Eucharist, which we receive in Holy Communion. To receive Holy Communion, we need to be in a state of grace (symbolized by water) and the Holy Eucharist―the fire of love, for “God is charity” (1 John 4:8), and God is in the Holy Eucharist, hence you could just as well say: “The Holy Eucharist is charity.” Without sanctifying grace―whatever we might do or suffer―is supernaturally useless. The same is true of charity―as Holy Scripture points out: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal! And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing! And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Charity and Sanctifying Grace are the “sun” and “rain” of our entire spiritual life―that includes the carrying of our crosses.
Understanding this, we can read the following passages with a clearer insight as to their meaning: “He shall be like a tree, which is planted near the running waters [symbol of grace], which shall bring forth its fruit [symbol of virtues], in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off; and all whatsoever he shall do, shall prosper” (Psalms 1:3). “The fruit of the just man is a tree of life” (Proverbs 11:30). “And he shall be as a tree that is planted by the waters [symbol of grace], that spreads out its roots towards moisture―and it shall not fear when the heat comes. And the leaf thereof shall be green, and in the time of drought it shall not be solicitous, neither shall it cease at any time to bring forth fruit” (Jeremias 17:8).
Just as each year a tree grows bigger, carries a heavier load of fruit and produces more fruit―likewise, the “tree of the cross”, that each of us has to be, must carry a “heavier load” with each successive year, and by carrying that load, “produce more and more fruit” with each successive year, by exercising all the various virtues needed to carry the cross with love for God. Anything that will increase the rainfall of grace and sunlight and heat of charity, must be actively sought by us―and we will essentially find that “rain” and “sunlight” in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in the Holy Eucharist. We must frequently place ourselves in the grace-full downpour of Sanctifying Grace by planting ourselves daily (if possible) in the “garden” of the Holy Mass―for one hour’s “rain” only once a week, on Sundays, is barely enough “water” for our tree to survive. Additionally, we need to expose ourselves to the “Sun” of God, the Son of God, in the Holy Eucharist, in order to make our “tree” grow―as Our Lord said: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me!” (John 15:4).
Article 16
Monday to Wednesday after Passion Sunday - the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 23rd & 25th
Get a Passion for the Passion!
Article #12 on the FORTY CHIEF REASONS WHY WE FAIL is still being written. We are currently on reason #32.
Monday to Wednesday after Passion Sunday - the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 23rd & 25th
Get a Passion for the Passion!
Article #12 on the FORTY CHIEF REASONS WHY WE FAIL is still being written. We are currently on reason #32.
Passion Misunderstood
Our modern-day ignorance―largely due to decades of being “dumbed-down” in schools, in the media and by entertainment replacing serious thinking―has resulted in vague conceptions and misconceptions of many fundamental things. Not least in all of this is our ignorance, vague conceptions and misconceptions of the words we use or read in our everyday lives.
“Passion” is a common word in today’s society, but is rarely used for its original meaning. It is one of the many words that live in the English language whose meaning has not remained static. The definition of “passion” is complex; it has shifted many times throughout history, leaving behind a variety of meanings scattered across time. By following the word chronologically, one can see how passion has gradually evolved from an explicitly religious term to the modern equivalents today which, in some cases, have greatly departed from the original meaning and definition.
“Passion” originates from the Greek “pathos” (meaning “suffering,” or “emotion”) and the Latin noun “passio” (meaning “suffering, enduring”), which is derived from the verb “patior, pati” (meaning “to suffer, bear, or endure”). Originally, the term meant “physical suffering”, particularly referring to the intense afflictions of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (The Passion).
Although the earliest meaning of “passion” mostly referred to Christ’s suffering, the sense in English was extended by early 13th century to the sufferings of martyrs. Sometimes this definition was applied to a specific “narrative account of the suffering and martyrdom of a saint,” imitating the “Passion of Christ, but any great affliction could be considered a “passion.” Later it was further applied to enduring hardship and suffering and pain generally. Therefore, “passion” historically means finding something you are willing to suffer for.
By the 14th century the meaning had shifted from physical suffering to “strong emotion,” “desire,” or “affection,” “state marked by strong excitement, agitation, or other intense emotion” ― implying a state of being “suffered” or controlled by an external force ― for example also “an emotion, feeling, inclination or desire to sin ― which was considered as an affliction.”
By the 16th and 17th centuries, the original meaning of “passion” only endured in religious spheres, and the concept of “passion” as general suffering and affliction was nearly obsolete; the strongly emotional sense of the word and its inclination to sin, grew steadily in usage.
The modern day definition of “passion” has gradually and significantly evolved from an explicitly religious term concerning suffering and pain to the modern equivalent of an intense, barely controllable, or consuming devotion or feeling of enthusiasm, love or sexual feelings. The specific sense of “sexual love” is attested by 1580s. The meaning “strong liking, enthusiasm, predilection” is from 1630s; that of “object of great admiration or desire” is by 1732. It developed a strong reference to “sexual desire or impulses,” which was adopted in the literary and philosophical spheres. As morality and religion became less prevalent in society, however, the stigma attached to sexual passion dissipated, leaving the word with amorous and vaguely risqué connotations. This romantic sense of “passion” has never faded, and is still in common use today―as in sentences such as: “The sight of her aroused his passion” … “She kissed him passionately” … “He could not control his passion for her” … “She wanted someone to love her passionately” … etc. The modern sexual meaning of the word “passion” has increasingly replaced the traditional meaning of the word as denoting suffering.
Love and Passion ― Love and Suffering
To totally exclude the notion of “love” from the traditional meaning of the word “passion” (meaning “suffering”) would be incorrect. Our Lord Himself indicates this when He says at the Last Supper: “Greater love than this no man has―that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13) ― and He would then go out and suffer His Passion and Death out of love for His chosen ones in particular and for sinners in general. “God showed His charity towards us; because when as yet we were sinners Christ died for us!” (Romans 5:8-9). “Christ died for our sins, the just for the unjust―being put to death in the flesh so that he might offer us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). “Christ, Who committed no sin, suffered for us, bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice!” (1 Peter 2:21-24).
St. John of the Cross tells us that we must imitate Christ’s love of suffering if we wish to gain Heaven: “I wish I could persuade spiritual persons that the way of perfection does not consist in many devices, nor in much cogitation, but in denying themselves completely and yielding themselves to suffer everything for love of Christ. And if there is failure in this exercise, all other methods of walking in the spiritual way are merely a beating about the bush, and profitless trifling, although a person should have a very high contemplation and communication with God” (St. John of the Cross).
► ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS tells us that we must imitate Christ’s love of suffering if we wish to gain Heaven: “I wish I could persuade spiritual persons that the way of perfection does not consist in many devices, nor in much cogitation, but in denying themselves completely and yielding themselves to suffer everything for love of Christ. And if there is failure in this exercise, all other methods of walking in the spiritual way are merely a beating about the bush, and profitless trifling, although a person should have a very high contemplation and communication with God” (St. John of the Cross).
► ST. FRANCIS DE SALES adds: “All the science of the Saints is included in these two things―to do and to suffer. And whoever has done these two things best, has made himself most saintly.”
► OUR LADY herself, in speaking to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, said: “Embrace the Cross and bear it with joy in imitation of my Son! … Bear the Cross with joyful resignation and give praise to the Lord, because His will is being fulfilled in thy regard! … Humiliate yourself under the mighty hand of the Lord! … The divine influence will urge and draw you on to the desire of being despised by creatures, to joyful suffering, to a love of the Cross and an earnest and generous acceptation of it! … You cannot follow Christ if you refuse to embrace the Cross and rejoice in it! … Consider all delights and joys of the world as insanity! … Let the will of the Lord be thy only delight and joy! ... If labors and sufferings are accepted with joy and with serenity of heart, they spiritualize the creature, they elevate it and furnish it with a divine insight; by which the soul begins to esteem affliction at its proper value and soon finds consolation and the blessings of mortification and of freedom from disorderly passions. In my life, I forgot the bitterness and labors I had suffered―for the great joy drove out pain, though I never lost from view what my Son had suffered for the human race.
“Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment―nor do I count him a devoted child, who does not suffer with me and my divine Son. My Son and Lord could have redeemed the human race without suffering so much! … It was not necessary to suffer so much! … Yet He wished to increase His sufferings only on account of the immensity of His love for souls! … But the worldlings, in their lethargy, are moved neither by the duty of conforming to their Lord, nor by His declaration that all their salvation consists in following Christ in His sufferings! It is a great shame―nay, a great boldness―on the part of the faithful, that they should hate suffering, especially after all that my most holy Son suffered for them! … Many there are who wish to follow Christ and very few who truly dispose themselves to imitate Him―for as soon as they feel the sufferings of the Cross, they cast it aside! … They do not seek the medicine of suffering! … Why do mortals continue to deceive themselves, by expecting, in spite of their sins, to become pure and worthy of enjoying God, without the furnace or the file of sorrows? Some of them expect to be distinguished by God’s most intimate love; others expect to be pardoned without penance; others expect to be highly favored. Nothing of all this will they attain, because they do not wish to imitate Him and follow Him in His Passion! … Hence it is that men do not find joy in their tribulations, nor rest in their labors, nor consolation in their sorrows, nor any peace in adversities. For, being altogether different from the saints―who glory in tribulation as the fulfillment of their most earnest desires―these worldlings desire none of it and abhor everything that is painful!
“As for those who are forgetful of this truth and are so adverse to suffering―our love for the eternal salvation of men obliges us to send them labors and punishments, so that if they do not freely welcome them, they may at least be forced to undergo them and so be enabled to enter upon the way of salvation … My most holy Son and myself are trying to find some soul, whom We can instruct systematically in this divine science and whom We can withdraw from the worldly and diabolical wisdom, in which the sons of Adam, with blind stubbornness, are rejecting the salutary discipline of sufferings. If thou wish to be Our disciple, then enter into this school―in which alone is taught the doctrine of the Cross and the manner of reaching true peace and veritable delights … The Lord and I suffered and endured such bitter sorrows, in order that mortals might be encouraged not to refuse less severe sufferings for their own eternal good. Therefore let mortals show themselves thankful, and willingly enter upon the rough and thorny path and accepting the Cross, and to carry it after Christ. Thus will they walk upon the direct path toward Heaven and gain an eternal happiness!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
The Imitation of Christ
The spiritual classic, The Imitation of Christ, has some beautiful and poignant passages concerning the acceptance and love of suffering and the cross. We would do well to reflect upon them often―especially during this season of Passiontide. Here are just a few excerpts:
► Book Two : The Chapter Eleven : Few Love the Cross of Jesus
Jesus has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation, yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus — love that is free from all self-interest and self-love!
Do not those who always seek consolation deserve to be called mercenaries? Do not those who always think of their own profit and gain prove that they love themselves rather than Christ? Where can a man be found who desires to serve God for nothing? Rarely indeed is a man so spiritual as to strip himself of all things. And who shall find a man so truly poor in spirit as to be free from every creature? His value is like that of things brought from the most distant lands.
If a man give all his wealth, it is nothing; if he do great penance, it is little; if he gain all knowledge, he is still far afield; if he have great virtue and much ardent devotion, he still lacks a great deal, and especially, the one thing that is most necessary to him. What is this one thing? That leaving all, he forsake himself, completely renounce himself, and give up all private affections. Then, when he has done all that he knows ought to be done, let him consider it as nothing, let him make little of what may be considered great; let him in all honesty call himself an unprofitable servant. For truth itself has said: “When you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: ‘We are unprofitable servants!’” (Luke 17:10).
Then he will be truly poor and stripped in spirit, and with the prophet may say: “I am alone and poor” (Psalm 24:16). No one, however, is more wealthy than such a man; no one is more powerful, no one freer than he who knows how to leave all things and think of himself as the least of all.
► Book Two : Chapter Twelve : The Royal Road of the Holy Cross
To many the saying, “Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Me!” (Matthew 16:24) seems hard, but it will be much harder to hear that final word: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!” (Matthew 25:41). Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the Day of Judgment. This sign of the cross will be in the heavens when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross, who during life made themselves one with the Crucified, will draw near with great trust to Christ, the judge.
Why, then, do you fear to take up the cross when through it you can win a kingdom? In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit, in the cross is highest virtue, in the cross is perfect holiness. There is no salvation of soul nor hope of everlasting life except in the cross.
Take up your cross, therefore, and follow Jesus, and you shall enter eternal life. He Himself opened the way before you in carrying His cross, and upon it He died for you, that you, too, might take up your cross and long to die upon it. If you die with Him, you shall also live with Him, and if you share His suffering, you shall also share His glory.
Behold, in the cross is everything, and upon your dying on the cross everything depends. There is no other way to life and to true inward peace than the way of the holy cross and daily mortification. Go where you will, seek what you will, you will not find a higher way, nor a less exalted but safer way, than the way of the holy cross. Arrange and order everything to suit your will and judgment, and still you will find that some suffering must always be borne, willingly or unwillingly, and thus you will always find the cross.
Either you will experience bodily pain or you will undergo tribulation of spirit in your soul. At times you will be forsaken by God, at times troubled by those about you and, what is worse, you will often grow weary of yourself. You cannot escape, you cannot be relieved by any remedy or comfort but must bear with it as long as God wills. For He wishes you to learn to bear trial without consolation, to submit yourself wholly to Him that you may become more humble through suffering. No one understands the passion of Christ so thoroughly or heartily as the man whose lot it is to suffer the like himself.
The cross, therefore, is always ready; it awaits you everywhere. No matter where you may go, you cannot escape it, for wherever you go you take yourself with you and shall always find yourself. Turn where you will — above, below, without, or within — you will find a cross in everything, and everywhere you must have patience if you would have peace within and merit an eternal crown.
If you carry the cross willingly, it will carry and lead you to the desired goal where indeed there shall be no more suffering, but here there shall be. If you carry it unwillingly, you create a burden for yourself and increase the load, though still you have to bear it. If you cast away one cross, you will find another and perhaps a heavier one. Do you expect to escape what no mortal man can ever avoid? Which of the saints was without a cross or trial on this Earth? Not even Jesus Christ, our Lord, Whose every hour on Earth knew the pain of His passion. “It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead, . . . and so enter into his glory” (Luke 24:46, 26). How is it that you look for another way than this, the royal way of the holy cross?
The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom, and do you seek rest and enjoyment for yourself? You deceive yourself, you are mistaken if you seek anything but to suffer, for this mortal life is full of miseries and marked with crosses on all sides. Indeed, the more spiritual progress a person makes, so much heavier will he frequently find the cross, because as his love increases, the pain of his exile also increases.
Yet such a man, though afflicted in many ways, is not without hope of consolation, because he knows that great reward is coming to him for bearing his cross. And when he carries it willingly, every pang of tribulation is changed into hope of solace from God. Besides, the more the flesh is distressed by affliction, so much the more is the spirit strengthened by inward grace. Not infrequently a man is so strengthened by his love of trials and hardship in his desire to conform to the cross of Christ, that he does not wish to be without sorrow or pain, since he believes he will be the more acceptable to God if he is able to endure more and more grievous things for His sake.
It is the grace of Christ, and not the virtue of man, which can and does bring it about that through fervor of spirit frail flesh learns to love and to gain what it naturally hates and shuns.
To carry the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body and bring it to subjection, to flee honors, to endure contempt gladly, to despise self and wish to be despised, to suffer any adversity and loss, to desire no prosperous days on Earth — this is not man’s way. If you rely upon yourself, you can do none of these things, but if you trust in the Lord, strength will be given you from Heaven and the world and the flesh will be made subject to your word. You will not even fear your enemy, the devil, if you are armed with Faith and signed with the cross of Christ.
Set yourself, then, like a good and faithful servant of Christ, to bear bravely the cross of your Lord, Who out of love was crucified for you. Be ready to suffer many adversities and many kinds of trouble in this miserable life, for troublesome and miserable life will always be, no matter where you are; and so you will find it wherever you may hide. Thus it must be; and there is no way to evade the trials and sorrows of life except to bear them.
Drink the chalice of the Lord with affection it you wish to be His friend and to have part with Him. Leave consolation to God; let Him do as most pleases Him. On your part, be ready to bear sufferings and consider them the greatest consolation, for even though you alone were to undergo them all, the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.
When you shall have come to the point where suffering is sweet and acceptable for the sake of Christ, then consider yourself fortunate, for you have found paradise on Earth. But as long as suffering irks you and you seek to escape, so long will you be unfortunate, and the tribulation you seek to evade will follow you everywhere. If you put your mind to the things you ought to consider, that is, to suffering and death, you would soon be in a better state and would find peace.
Although you were taken to the third Heaven with Paul, you were not thereby insured against suffering. Jesus said: “I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake” (Acts 9:16).To suffer, then, remains your lot, if you mean to love Jesus and serve Him forever.
If you were but worthy to suffer something for the name of Jesus, what great glory would be in store for you, what great joy to all the saints of God, what great edification to those about you! For all men praise patience though there are few who wish to practice it. With good reason, then, ought you to be willing to suffer a little for Christ since many suffer much more for the world. Realize that you must lead a dying life; the more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live unto God.
No man is fit to enjoy Heaven unless he has resigned himself to suffer hardship for Christ. Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing more helpful for you on this Earth than to suffer willingly for Christ. If you had to make a choice, you ought to wish rather to suffer for Christ than to enjoy many consolations, for thus you would be more like Christ and more like all the saints. Our merit and progress consist not in many pleasures and comforts but rather in enduring great afflictions and sufferings.
If, indeed, there were anything better or more useful for man’s salvation than suffering, Christ would have shown it by word and example. But He clearly exhorts the disciples who follow Him and all who wish to follow Him to carry the cross, saying: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).
When, therefore, we have read and searched all that has been written, let this be the final conclusion — that through much suffering we must enter into the kingdom of God.
Our modern-day ignorance―largely due to decades of being “dumbed-down” in schools, in the media and by entertainment replacing serious thinking―has resulted in vague conceptions and misconceptions of many fundamental things. Not least in all of this is our ignorance, vague conceptions and misconceptions of the words we use or read in our everyday lives.
“Passion” is a common word in today’s society, but is rarely used for its original meaning. It is one of the many words that live in the English language whose meaning has not remained static. The definition of “passion” is complex; it has shifted many times throughout history, leaving behind a variety of meanings scattered across time. By following the word chronologically, one can see how passion has gradually evolved from an explicitly religious term to the modern equivalents today which, in some cases, have greatly departed from the original meaning and definition.
“Passion” originates from the Greek “pathos” (meaning “suffering,” or “emotion”) and the Latin noun “passio” (meaning “suffering, enduring”), which is derived from the verb “patior, pati” (meaning “to suffer, bear, or endure”). Originally, the term meant “physical suffering”, particularly referring to the intense afflictions of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (The Passion).
Although the earliest meaning of “passion” mostly referred to Christ’s suffering, the sense in English was extended by early 13th century to the sufferings of martyrs. Sometimes this definition was applied to a specific “narrative account of the suffering and martyrdom of a saint,” imitating the “Passion of Christ, but any great affliction could be considered a “passion.” Later it was further applied to enduring hardship and suffering and pain generally. Therefore, “passion” historically means finding something you are willing to suffer for.
By the 14th century the meaning had shifted from physical suffering to “strong emotion,” “desire,” or “affection,” “state marked by strong excitement, agitation, or other intense emotion” ― implying a state of being “suffered” or controlled by an external force ― for example also “an emotion, feeling, inclination or desire to sin ― which was considered as an affliction.”
By the 16th and 17th centuries, the original meaning of “passion” only endured in religious spheres, and the concept of “passion” as general suffering and affliction was nearly obsolete; the strongly emotional sense of the word and its inclination to sin, grew steadily in usage.
The modern day definition of “passion” has gradually and significantly evolved from an explicitly religious term concerning suffering and pain to the modern equivalent of an intense, barely controllable, or consuming devotion or feeling of enthusiasm, love or sexual feelings. The specific sense of “sexual love” is attested by 1580s. The meaning “strong liking, enthusiasm, predilection” is from 1630s; that of “object of great admiration or desire” is by 1732. It developed a strong reference to “sexual desire or impulses,” which was adopted in the literary and philosophical spheres. As morality and religion became less prevalent in society, however, the stigma attached to sexual passion dissipated, leaving the word with amorous and vaguely risqué connotations. This romantic sense of “passion” has never faded, and is still in common use today―as in sentences such as: “The sight of her aroused his passion” … “She kissed him passionately” … “He could not control his passion for her” … “She wanted someone to love her passionately” … etc. The modern sexual meaning of the word “passion” has increasingly replaced the traditional meaning of the word as denoting suffering.
Love and Passion ― Love and Suffering
To totally exclude the notion of “love” from the traditional meaning of the word “passion” (meaning “suffering”) would be incorrect. Our Lord Himself indicates this when He says at the Last Supper: “Greater love than this no man has―that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13) ― and He would then go out and suffer His Passion and Death out of love for His chosen ones in particular and for sinners in general. “God showed His charity towards us; because when as yet we were sinners Christ died for us!” (Romans 5:8-9). “Christ died for our sins, the just for the unjust―being put to death in the flesh so that he might offer us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). “Christ, Who committed no sin, suffered for us, bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice!” (1 Peter 2:21-24).
St. John of the Cross tells us that we must imitate Christ’s love of suffering if we wish to gain Heaven: “I wish I could persuade spiritual persons that the way of perfection does not consist in many devices, nor in much cogitation, but in denying themselves completely and yielding themselves to suffer everything for love of Christ. And if there is failure in this exercise, all other methods of walking in the spiritual way are merely a beating about the bush, and profitless trifling, although a person should have a very high contemplation and communication with God” (St. John of the Cross).
► ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS tells us that we must imitate Christ’s love of suffering if we wish to gain Heaven: “I wish I could persuade spiritual persons that the way of perfection does not consist in many devices, nor in much cogitation, but in denying themselves completely and yielding themselves to suffer everything for love of Christ. And if there is failure in this exercise, all other methods of walking in the spiritual way are merely a beating about the bush, and profitless trifling, although a person should have a very high contemplation and communication with God” (St. John of the Cross).
► ST. FRANCIS DE SALES adds: “All the science of the Saints is included in these two things―to do and to suffer. And whoever has done these two things best, has made himself most saintly.”
► OUR LADY herself, in speaking to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, said: “Embrace the Cross and bear it with joy in imitation of my Son! … Bear the Cross with joyful resignation and give praise to the Lord, because His will is being fulfilled in thy regard! … Humiliate yourself under the mighty hand of the Lord! … The divine influence will urge and draw you on to the desire of being despised by creatures, to joyful suffering, to a love of the Cross and an earnest and generous acceptation of it! … You cannot follow Christ if you refuse to embrace the Cross and rejoice in it! … Consider all delights and joys of the world as insanity! … Let the will of the Lord be thy only delight and joy! ... If labors and sufferings are accepted with joy and with serenity of heart, they spiritualize the creature, they elevate it and furnish it with a divine insight; by which the soul begins to esteem affliction at its proper value and soon finds consolation and the blessings of mortification and of freedom from disorderly passions. In my life, I forgot the bitterness and labors I had suffered―for the great joy drove out pain, though I never lost from view what my Son had suffered for the human race.
“Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment―nor do I count him a devoted child, who does not suffer with me and my divine Son. My Son and Lord could have redeemed the human race without suffering so much! … It was not necessary to suffer so much! … Yet He wished to increase His sufferings only on account of the immensity of His love for souls! … But the worldlings, in their lethargy, are moved neither by the duty of conforming to their Lord, nor by His declaration that all their salvation consists in following Christ in His sufferings! It is a great shame―nay, a great boldness―on the part of the faithful, that they should hate suffering, especially after all that my most holy Son suffered for them! … Many there are who wish to follow Christ and very few who truly dispose themselves to imitate Him―for as soon as they feel the sufferings of the Cross, they cast it aside! … They do not seek the medicine of suffering! … Why do mortals continue to deceive themselves, by expecting, in spite of their sins, to become pure and worthy of enjoying God, without the furnace or the file of sorrows? Some of them expect to be distinguished by God’s most intimate love; others expect to be pardoned without penance; others expect to be highly favored. Nothing of all this will they attain, because they do not wish to imitate Him and follow Him in His Passion! … Hence it is that men do not find joy in their tribulations, nor rest in their labors, nor consolation in their sorrows, nor any peace in adversities. For, being altogether different from the saints―who glory in tribulation as the fulfillment of their most earnest desires―these worldlings desire none of it and abhor everything that is painful!
“As for those who are forgetful of this truth and are so adverse to suffering―our love for the eternal salvation of men obliges us to send them labors and punishments, so that if they do not freely welcome them, they may at least be forced to undergo them and so be enabled to enter upon the way of salvation … My most holy Son and myself are trying to find some soul, whom We can instruct systematically in this divine science and whom We can withdraw from the worldly and diabolical wisdom, in which the sons of Adam, with blind stubbornness, are rejecting the salutary discipline of sufferings. If thou wish to be Our disciple, then enter into this school―in which alone is taught the doctrine of the Cross and the manner of reaching true peace and veritable delights … The Lord and I suffered and endured such bitter sorrows, in order that mortals might be encouraged not to refuse less severe sufferings for their own eternal good. Therefore let mortals show themselves thankful, and willingly enter upon the rough and thorny path and accepting the Cross, and to carry it after Christ. Thus will they walk upon the direct path toward Heaven and gain an eternal happiness!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
The Imitation of Christ
The spiritual classic, The Imitation of Christ, has some beautiful and poignant passages concerning the acceptance and love of suffering and the cross. We would do well to reflect upon them often―especially during this season of Passiontide. Here are just a few excerpts:
► Book Two : The Chapter Eleven : Few Love the Cross of Jesus
Jesus has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation, yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus — love that is free from all self-interest and self-love!
Do not those who always seek consolation deserve to be called mercenaries? Do not those who always think of their own profit and gain prove that they love themselves rather than Christ? Where can a man be found who desires to serve God for nothing? Rarely indeed is a man so spiritual as to strip himself of all things. And who shall find a man so truly poor in spirit as to be free from every creature? His value is like that of things brought from the most distant lands.
If a man give all his wealth, it is nothing; if he do great penance, it is little; if he gain all knowledge, he is still far afield; if he have great virtue and much ardent devotion, he still lacks a great deal, and especially, the one thing that is most necessary to him. What is this one thing? That leaving all, he forsake himself, completely renounce himself, and give up all private affections. Then, when he has done all that he knows ought to be done, let him consider it as nothing, let him make little of what may be considered great; let him in all honesty call himself an unprofitable servant. For truth itself has said: “When you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: ‘We are unprofitable servants!’” (Luke 17:10).
Then he will be truly poor and stripped in spirit, and with the prophet may say: “I am alone and poor” (Psalm 24:16). No one, however, is more wealthy than such a man; no one is more powerful, no one freer than he who knows how to leave all things and think of himself as the least of all.
► Book Two : Chapter Twelve : The Royal Road of the Holy Cross
To many the saying, “Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Me!” (Matthew 16:24) seems hard, but it will be much harder to hear that final word: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!” (Matthew 25:41). Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the Day of Judgment. This sign of the cross will be in the heavens when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross, who during life made themselves one with the Crucified, will draw near with great trust to Christ, the judge.
Why, then, do you fear to take up the cross when through it you can win a kingdom? In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit, in the cross is highest virtue, in the cross is perfect holiness. There is no salvation of soul nor hope of everlasting life except in the cross.
Take up your cross, therefore, and follow Jesus, and you shall enter eternal life. He Himself opened the way before you in carrying His cross, and upon it He died for you, that you, too, might take up your cross and long to die upon it. If you die with Him, you shall also live with Him, and if you share His suffering, you shall also share His glory.
Behold, in the cross is everything, and upon your dying on the cross everything depends. There is no other way to life and to true inward peace than the way of the holy cross and daily mortification. Go where you will, seek what you will, you will not find a higher way, nor a less exalted but safer way, than the way of the holy cross. Arrange and order everything to suit your will and judgment, and still you will find that some suffering must always be borne, willingly or unwillingly, and thus you will always find the cross.
Either you will experience bodily pain or you will undergo tribulation of spirit in your soul. At times you will be forsaken by God, at times troubled by those about you and, what is worse, you will often grow weary of yourself. You cannot escape, you cannot be relieved by any remedy or comfort but must bear with it as long as God wills. For He wishes you to learn to bear trial without consolation, to submit yourself wholly to Him that you may become more humble through suffering. No one understands the passion of Christ so thoroughly or heartily as the man whose lot it is to suffer the like himself.
The cross, therefore, is always ready; it awaits you everywhere. No matter where you may go, you cannot escape it, for wherever you go you take yourself with you and shall always find yourself. Turn where you will — above, below, without, or within — you will find a cross in everything, and everywhere you must have patience if you would have peace within and merit an eternal crown.
If you carry the cross willingly, it will carry and lead you to the desired goal where indeed there shall be no more suffering, but here there shall be. If you carry it unwillingly, you create a burden for yourself and increase the load, though still you have to bear it. If you cast away one cross, you will find another and perhaps a heavier one. Do you expect to escape what no mortal man can ever avoid? Which of the saints was without a cross or trial on this Earth? Not even Jesus Christ, our Lord, Whose every hour on Earth knew the pain of His passion. “It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead, . . . and so enter into his glory” (Luke 24:46, 26). How is it that you look for another way than this, the royal way of the holy cross?
The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom, and do you seek rest and enjoyment for yourself? You deceive yourself, you are mistaken if you seek anything but to suffer, for this mortal life is full of miseries and marked with crosses on all sides. Indeed, the more spiritual progress a person makes, so much heavier will he frequently find the cross, because as his love increases, the pain of his exile also increases.
Yet such a man, though afflicted in many ways, is not without hope of consolation, because he knows that great reward is coming to him for bearing his cross. And when he carries it willingly, every pang of tribulation is changed into hope of solace from God. Besides, the more the flesh is distressed by affliction, so much the more is the spirit strengthened by inward grace. Not infrequently a man is so strengthened by his love of trials and hardship in his desire to conform to the cross of Christ, that he does not wish to be without sorrow or pain, since he believes he will be the more acceptable to God if he is able to endure more and more grievous things for His sake.
It is the grace of Christ, and not the virtue of man, which can and does bring it about that through fervor of spirit frail flesh learns to love and to gain what it naturally hates and shuns.
To carry the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body and bring it to subjection, to flee honors, to endure contempt gladly, to despise self and wish to be despised, to suffer any adversity and loss, to desire no prosperous days on Earth — this is not man’s way. If you rely upon yourself, you can do none of these things, but if you trust in the Lord, strength will be given you from Heaven and the world and the flesh will be made subject to your word. You will not even fear your enemy, the devil, if you are armed with Faith and signed with the cross of Christ.
Set yourself, then, like a good and faithful servant of Christ, to bear bravely the cross of your Lord, Who out of love was crucified for you. Be ready to suffer many adversities and many kinds of trouble in this miserable life, for troublesome and miserable life will always be, no matter where you are; and so you will find it wherever you may hide. Thus it must be; and there is no way to evade the trials and sorrows of life except to bear them.
Drink the chalice of the Lord with affection it you wish to be His friend and to have part with Him. Leave consolation to God; let Him do as most pleases Him. On your part, be ready to bear sufferings and consider them the greatest consolation, for even though you alone were to undergo them all, the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.
When you shall have come to the point where suffering is sweet and acceptable for the sake of Christ, then consider yourself fortunate, for you have found paradise on Earth. But as long as suffering irks you and you seek to escape, so long will you be unfortunate, and the tribulation you seek to evade will follow you everywhere. If you put your mind to the things you ought to consider, that is, to suffering and death, you would soon be in a better state and would find peace.
Although you were taken to the third Heaven with Paul, you were not thereby insured against suffering. Jesus said: “I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake” (Acts 9:16).To suffer, then, remains your lot, if you mean to love Jesus and serve Him forever.
If you were but worthy to suffer something for the name of Jesus, what great glory would be in store for you, what great joy to all the saints of God, what great edification to those about you! For all men praise patience though there are few who wish to practice it. With good reason, then, ought you to be willing to suffer a little for Christ since many suffer much more for the world. Realize that you must lead a dying life; the more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live unto God.
No man is fit to enjoy Heaven unless he has resigned himself to suffer hardship for Christ. Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing more helpful for you on this Earth than to suffer willingly for Christ. If you had to make a choice, you ought to wish rather to suffer for Christ than to enjoy many consolations, for thus you would be more like Christ and more like all the saints. Our merit and progress consist not in many pleasures and comforts but rather in enduring great afflictions and sufferings.
If, indeed, there were anything better or more useful for man’s salvation than suffering, Christ would have shown it by word and example. But He clearly exhorts the disciples who follow Him and all who wish to follow Him to carry the cross, saying: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).
When, therefore, we have read and searched all that has been written, let this be the final conclusion — that through much suffering we must enter into the kingdom of God.
Article 15
Passion Sunday - the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 22nd
Will You Pass on the Passion?
Article #12 on the FORTY CHIEF REASONS WHY WE FAIL is still being written. We are currently on reason #32.
Passion Sunday - the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 22nd
Will You Pass on the Passion?
Article #12 on the FORTY CHIEF REASONS WHY WE FAIL is still being written. We are currently on reason #32.
Oh No! It’s Here!
Passiontide is finally here!
A time some love, but others fear!
Now that this grace-filled season has come,
Will it find you glad or find you glum?
In this season of Passiontide,
Many weak Catholics will try to hide!
For the very thought of the cross and its gain,
To them seems a mere loss and much pain!
To worldliness we refuse to die.
The thought of it only makes us cry!
Both God and the world we seek to love
But that will make us lose Heaven above!
Sadly, those words are applicable to most Catholics living in the world today! They live a “double-life”―in theory they put God first, but in practice they put the world and themselves first. Of such Our Lord said: “Hypocrites! Well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their hearts are far from Me!’ In vain do they worship Me!” (Matthew 15:7-9).
The Focal Point of History, Life, Lent, and the Liturgy
Passiontide! Or Passion-hide? There are times when we have to make a choice! Times when we can no longer pretend and insist on being neutral spectators. Times of an “either, or”! Our Lord puts it this way: “He that is not with Me, is against me!” (Matthew 12:30). “No servant can serve two masters―for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [the world, pleasures, treasures, etc.]” (Luke 16:13). “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23). “Whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27). “He that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). Which is why St. Paul writes: “God forbid that I should glory in anything except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ―by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world! … With Christ I am nailed to the cross” (Galatians 6:14; 2:19).
Passiontide is the time of the cross. Passiontide is the time where “the rubber meets the road” or the cross meets shoulder, or reality stares you in the face. The reality is that we have all sinned―and the basic way to pay for sin is to carry the cross of our rebellion against God. The penalty of the cross can be a direct consequence of our sin―for example, you get drunk, drive your car, have an accident and must suffer the crosses that come from that accident while driving under the influence of alcohol―you may lose your driver’s license, be sued by the person you knocked over, face a prison sentence, or perhaps you were left paralyzed by the accident. All of these are direct consequences, or direct crosses coming from your sinfulness in getting drunk and driving while drunk. Other crosses are indirect consequences for your sinfulness, which are usually events arranged by Divine Providence, to make you pay, or help you pay for your sins if you have not done sufficient penance for them, or are not sufficiently sorry for them.
Glorious Passiontide or Hideous Passiontide?
Some see Passiontide as being glorious as they embrace the glory of the cross. Others see Passiontide as being hideous as they seek to avoid and hide from the cross. A few see the benefits of the cross, but most see benefits in the absence of a cross. For most souls, the cross makes them cross and they reject it―yet for a few, the cross crosses out their debt for sin and they accept it. We either have a love for the cross, or a dislike (or even hatred) of the cross. Some accept the need for the cross in theory, but them complain, moan and groan when God’s Providence imposes some crosses upon them―even tiny ones! Of such Our Lord says: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6).
In the same vein, The Imitation of Christ tells us: “Jesus has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation, yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus — love that is free from all self-interest and self-love!” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 2, Chapter 11: “Few Love The Cross Of Jesus”).
Our Lady Glorifies the Cross
Our Lady, in her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, says: “Estimate then, and weigh within your soul, how important is the eternal predestination or reprobation of the souls―since my most holy Son looked upon it with such great anxiety, that the difficulty or impossibility of saving all men added such immense bitterness to the death which He was about to suffer for all. What pretense or excuse will men advance for having forgotten their own eternal salvation, when my divine Son and I have desired and sought to procure it for them with such sacrifices and untiring watchfulness? None of the mortals will have any excuse for their foolish negligence! Do not think that it is written in vain: ‘Many are called, but few are chosen!’ (Matthew 20:16). Fear this sentence and renew in your heart the care and zeal for your salvation! You draw upon thyself (and upon mortals) a severe judgment, if you do not overcome your pusillanimity, ingratitude and baseness by meditating day and night on the Passion and Death of Jesus crucified. This is the great science of the saints―so little heeded by the worldly and the lack of which starves the lovers of this proud world. In this science I wish you to be studious and wise. My Son and Lord taught us this science. Tell me then, if my Lord and Master has made Himself the life and the way for men through his Passion and Death, is it not evident that, in order to go that way and live up to this truth, they must follow Christ crucified, afflicted, scourged and affronted? To abhor earthly vanities, to desire being despised by creatures, to suffering joyfully, to love the cross and have an earnest and generous acceptation of it.
“Consider the ignorance of men who wish to come to the Father without following Christ, since they expect to reign with God without suffering or imitating his Passion, yea without even a thought of accepting any part of his suffering and Death, or of thanking Him for it. They want it to procure for them the pleasures of this life as well as of eternal life, while Christ their Creator has suffered the most bitter pains and torments in order to enter Heaven and to show them by his example how they are to find the way of light. All abhor poverty and thirst after riches, none of them being willing to recognize their emptiness. Infinite is the number of those who are carried away by their anger and vengeance, despising meekness. Few deplore their real miseries and struggle merely for terrestrial consolations; scarcely any love justice, or loyally pursue it in their dealings with the neighbors. Mercy is almost extinct, purity of heart is sullied and infringed upon, peace is constrained. None grant pardon, none wish to suffer for justice’s sake, yea not even the least of the many torments and pains, which they have so justly merited.
“Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment. He is not a true son of his father, who does not imitate him, nor he a good disciple, who does not follow his Master, nor he a good servant, who does not accompany his lord; nor do I count him a devoted child, who does not suffer with me and my divine Son. But our love for the eternal salvation of men obliges us, who see them forgetful of this truth and so adverse to suffering, to send them labors and punishments, so that if they do not freely welcome them, they may at least be forced to undergo them and so be enabled to enter upon the way of salvation. And yet even all this is insufficient, since their inclinations and their blind love of visible things detains them and makes them hard and heavy of heart; they rob them of remembrance and affection toward these higher things, which might raise them above themselves and above created things. Hence it comes, that men do not find joy in their tribulations, nor rest in their labors, nor consolation in their sorrows, nor any peace in adversities. For―altogether different from the saints who glory in tribulation as the fulfillment of their most earnest desires―they desire none of it and abhor all that is painful.
“My most holy Son and myself are trying to find among those, who have arrived at the way of the cross, some soul whom We can instruct systematically in this divine science and whom We can withdraw from the worldly and diabolical wisdom, in which the sons of Adam, with blind stubbornness, are rejecting the salutary discipline of sufferings. If you wish to be our disciple, then enter into this school―in which alone is taught the doctrine of the cross and the manner of reaching true peace and veritable delights. The lesson containing the greatest wisdom for souls consists in the knowledge of the cross, in the love of sufferings, and in putting this knowledge into practice by bearing afflictions with patience. With this wisdom, the earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible; nor the vain ostentation and pomp, which fascinates the blear-eyed worldlings, who are so covetous of passing honors, and so full of ignorant admiration for costly worldly grandeur. The followers of this world and its vain pleasures deprive themselves of assistance and protection―since they hate the way of the Cross. Therefore embrace the Cross and do not admit any consolation outside of it in this mortal life. By contemplating and feeling within yourself the sacred Passion you will attain the summit of perfection. You must acquire the precious gem of suffering and thus become pleasing to your Lord. I exhort you to select the sufferings of His Cross, in preference to His favors and gifts; and to rather embrace afflictions, than to desire to be visited with caresses! When the occasion of tasting the chalice and the cross of suffering is at hand, you must not turn away in sorrow and affliction from the sufferings. For you cannot follow Christ if you refuse to embrace the cross and rejoice in it!” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
The Season of the Cross
Even though we could rightly say Passiontide is the “season of the cross”, it would be wrong to label Passiontide (or even Lent for that matter) as the only season of the cross―for, in reality, the “season of the cross” spans all the four seasons of the year. There is never a day that goes by without many crosses coming our way. The cross is like the Barahmasia Mango Tree, which can be counted on to on to bear fruit throughout the year. The specialty of the tree is that its branches bear the fruits in different stages from flowering to ripening at the same time. While one branch has flowers, the others have matured mangoes. So, too, with the “tree of the cross” that God plants in our lives―the fruit of the “tree of the cross” is found on the tree all year round and we can harvest the fruit of the cross daily, every day, all throughout the year. Some crosses are in fully ripe, while others are merely beginning to bloom. This reminds of the biblical “tree of life” ― “In the midst … was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruits every month” (Apocalypse 22:2). Our Lord Himself speaks of this DAILY cross: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his CROSS DAILY, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23).
In some parts of the world, mango is called the “king of fruits.” It is a “drupe”, or stone fruit, which means that it has a large seed in the middle. However, the mango fruit can be difficult to cut―due to its tough skin and large pit (seed, kernel)―which speaks volumes symbolically, for Catholics should have a “tough skin” to face the “cuts” of persecution and a large heart (kernel, seed, pit). Mango is low in calories (worldliness) but full of nutrients (grace and virtues)―particularly vitamin C, which aids immunity, iron absorption and growth and repair. However, the health benefits are not just limited to the fruit―there numerous benefits from its seed, flower and the bark of the mango tree. Studies indicate that, overall, mangoes possesses the following properties―they are anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-oxidant, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, anti-tumor, anti-spasmodic, anti-diarrheal, cardiotonic, immuno-modulating, and gastro-protective. Mango seeds help eliminate dandruff, reduces the risk of diarrhea, keeps cardiovascular disease at bay, ensures a healthy skin, is good for diabetics, etc. Mango stem bark, leaves and flowers have been used in traditional medicine to treat anemia, cutaneous infections, diabetes, diarrhea, scabies, syphilis, and malignant tumors and many, many other ailments. It is well worth researching―this article is not meant to be a full exposure of the benefits. The point of briefly mentioning the benefits is to create an analogy to the many benefits of the cross.
Tree-Talk
The liturgy for Passiontide is clearly, unashamedly and unapologetically focused on the “Tree of the Cross”, the life-giving tree, the “Tree of Life”. The Preface of the Holy Cross, that is said during Passiontide, says: “We give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God; Who didst establish the salvation of mankind on the tree of the Cross; that whence death came, thence also life might arise again, and that he (the devil), who overcame (Adam and Eve) by the tree, by the tree (of the Cross) also might be overcome!” That is the theme throughout Passiontide―the redemption of mankind upon the “Tree of the Cross”. Here are just a few extracts from two of the liturgical hymns for Passiontide―the Pange Lingua and Vexilla Regis:
PANGE LINGUA
Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle
Sing the last, the dread affray;
O’er the cross, the victor’s trophy,
Sound the high triumphal lay:
Tell how Christ, the world’s Redeemer,
As a victim won the day.
Eating of the tree forbidden,
Man had sunk in Satan's snare,
When our pitying Creator did
This second tree prepare;
Destined, many ages later,
That first evil to repair.
Such the order God appointed
When for sin He would atone;
To the serpent thus opposing
Schemes yet deeper than his own;
Thence the remedy procuring,
Whence the fatal wound had come.
Thirty years among us dwelling,
His appointed time fulfilled,
Born for this, He meets His passion,
For that this He freely willed:
On the Cross the Lamb is lifted,
Where His life-blood shall be spilled.
He endured the nails, the spitting,
Vinegar, and spear, and reed;
From that holy body broken
Blood and water forth proceed:
Earth, and stars, and sky, and ocean,
By that flood from stain are free.
Faithful cross! Above all other,
One and only noble tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peers may be;
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron!
Sweetest weight is hung on thee.
Bend thy boughs, O tree of glory!
Thy relaxing sinews bend;
For awhile the ancient rigor,
That thy birth bestowed, suspend;
And the King of heavenly beauty
On thy bosom gently tend!
Thou alone wast counted worthy
This world’s Ransom to uphold;
For a shipwrecked race preparing
Harbor, like the ark of old;
With the sacred blood anointed
From the smitten Lamb that rolled.
Blessing, honor, everlasting,
To the immortal Deity;
To the Father, Son, and Spirit,
Equal praises ever be;
Glory through the earth and heaven
To Trinity in Unity.
Amen.
VEXILLA REGIS
Abroad the regal banners fly,
Now shines the cross’s mystery;
Upon it Life did death endure,
And yet by death did life procure.
Who, wounded with a direful spear,
Did, purposely to wash us clear
From stain of sin, pour out a flood
Of precious water mixed with blood.
That which the prophet-king of old
Hath in mysterious verse foretold,
Is now accomplished, whilst we see
God ruling nations from a tree.
O lovely and refulgent tree,
Adorned with purpled majesty;
Culled from a worthy stock, to bear
Those limbs which sanctifièd were.
Blest tree, whose happy branches bore
The Wealth that did the world restore;
The beam that did that Body weigh
Which raised up Hell’s expected prey.
O Cross, our one reliance, hail!
This holy Passiontide avail
To give fresh merit to the saint,
And pardon to the penitent.
Blest Trinity, salvation’s spring,
May every soul thy praises sing;
To those thou grantest conquest by
The holy cross, rewards apply.
Amen.
The Apostles engage in “tree-talk” as they speak of Our Lord dying on a tree―the tree of the Cross: “We are witnesses of all things that Jesus did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, Whom they killed, hanging Him upon a tree!” (Acts 10:39) … “Who, His own self, bore our sins in His Body upon the tree―so that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice―and by Whose stripes you were healed!” (1 Peter 2:24) … “And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of Him, taking Him down from the tree, they laid Him in a sepulcher” (Acts 13:29) … “The God of our fathers has raised up Jesus, Whom you put to death, hanging Him upon a tree” (Acts of Apostles 5:30).
Our Lord Himself was full of “tree talk” while He walked this Earth. Here are just some of His teachings that we would do well do ponder and plant in the garden of our soul: “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree evil, and its fruit evil. For by the fruit the tree is known!” (Matthew 12:33). “By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit, and the evil tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them!” (Matthew 7:16-20). “For there is no good tree that brings forth evil fruit; nor an evil tree that brings forth good fruit. For every tree is known by its fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns; nor from a bramble bush do they gather the grape!” (Luke 6:43-44). “And seeing a certain fig tree by the way side, Jesus came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only, and He said to it: ‘May no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever!’ And immediately the fig tree withered away” (Matthew 21:19).
“He spoke also this parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: ‘Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and I find none! Cut it down therefore! Why does it encumber the ground?’ But he answering, said to him: ‘Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it. Perhaps happily it bear fruit, but if not, then after that you shall cut it down!’” (Luke 13:6-9). To which Scripture adds: “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire” (Matthew 3:10).
“To what is the kingdom of God like, and whereunto shall I resemble it? The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but, when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs and becomes a great tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32; Luke 13:18-19).
Our Lord even compares Himself to a tree of sorts when He says: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the farmer. Every branch in Me, that bears not fruit, He will take away. And every one that bears fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit! … Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine and you are the branches! He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abides not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:1-6).
We even engage in “tree-talk” ourselves with our idiomatic expressions. We say someone is “planted in good soil”, or that someone is “shaking like a leaf”, or is “branching-out”, or “holding out an olive branch to someone”, or referring to family traits when we say “the apple never falls far from the tree”, or someone being “at the top of the tree” or “barking up the wrong tree”, or that someone “cannot see the forest because of the tree”, or that “money doesn’t grow on trees”, or someone being “dressed-up like a Christmas Tree”, etc.
Sun and Rain for the Cross
The cross is synonymous with the tree―the Tree of Life―which is Our Lord’s Death on Calvary, and which is perpetuated in each and every Sacrifice of the Mass, whose fruit is the Holy Eucharist, which we receive in Holy Communion. To receive Holy Communion, we need to be in a state of grace (symbolized by water) and the Holy Eucharist―the fire of love, for “God is charity” (1 John 4:8), and God is in the Holy Eucharist, hence you could just as well say: “The Holy Eucharist is charity.” Without sanctifying grace―whatever we might do or suffer―is supernaturally useless. The same is true of charity―as Holy Scripture points out: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal! And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing! And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Charity and Sanctifying Grace are the “sun” and “rain” of our entire spiritual life―that includes the carrying of our crosses.
Understanding this, we can read the following passages with a clearer insight as to their meaning: “He shall be like a tree, which is planted near the running waters [symbol of grace], which shall bring forth its fruit [symbol of virtues], in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off; and all whatsoever he shall do, shall prosper” (Psalms 1:3). “The fruit of the just man is a tree of life” (Proverbs 11:30). “And he shall be as a tree that is planted by the waters, that spreads out its roots towards moisture―and it shall not fear when the heat comes. And the leaf thereof shall be green, and in the time of drought it shall not be solicitous, neither shall it cease at any time to bring forth fruit” (Jeremias 17:8).
Just as each year a tree grows bigger, carries a heavier load of fruit and produces more fruit―likewise, the “tree of the cross”, that each of us has to be, must carry a “heavier load” with each successive year, and by carrying that load, “produce more and more fruit” with each successive year, by exercising all the various virtues needed to carry the cross with love for God. Anything that will increase the rainfall of grace and sunlight and heat of charity, must be actively sought by us―and we will essentially find that “rain” and “sunlight” in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in the Holy Eucharist. We must frequently place ourselves in the grace-full downpour of sanctifying grace by planting ourselves daily (if possible) in the “garden” of the Holy Mass―for one hour’s “rain” only once a week, on Sundays, is barely enough “water” for our tree to survive. Additionally, we need to expose ourselves to the “Sun” of God, the Son of God, in the Holy Eucharist, in order to make our “tree” grow―as Our Lord said: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me!” (John 15:4).
The Royal Road of the Cross
The Imitation of Christ has a most beautiful, yet hard-hitting passage, entitled: The Royal Road of the Cross, in which it lays down the need for carrying the cross if we wish to arrive at salvation and avoid damnation. Here is the entire passage―which is most suitable as we enter Passiontide, the “season of the cross”―or, more correctly, since the “season of the cross” is an all-year-round season, we could call Passiontide, the time when the cross matures, ripens and bears it fruit.
We will end with Book 2, Chapter 12 of The Imitation of Christ, “The Royal Road of the Holy Cross”, which states:
To many the saying, “Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Me,” seems hard, but it will be much harder to hear that final word: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the Day of Judgment. This sign of the cross will be in the heavens when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross―who, during life, made themselves one with the Crucified―will draw near with great trust to Christ, the judge.
Why, then, do you fear to take up the cross when through it you can win a kingdom? In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit, in the cross is highest virtue, in the cross is perfect holiness. There is no salvation of soul, nor hope of everlasting life, except in the cross.
Therefore, take up your cross and follow Jesus, and you shall enter eternal life. He Himself opened the way before you in carrying His cross, and upon it He died for you, so that you, too, might take up your cross and long to die upon it. If you die with Him, you shall also live with Him, and if you share His suffering, you shall also share His glory.
Behold, in the cross is everything, and upon your dying on the cross everything depends. There is no other way to life and to true inward peace than the way of the holy cross and daily mortification. Go where you will, seek what you will, you will not find a higher way, nor a less exalted but safer way, than the way of the holy cross. Arrange and order everything to suit your will and judgment, and still you will find that some suffering must always be borne, willingly or unwillingly, and thus you will always find the cross.
Either you will experience bodily pain or you will undergo tribulation of spirit in your soul. At times you will be forsaken by God, at times troubled by those about you and, what is worse, you will often grow weary of yourself. You cannot escape, you cannot be relieved by any remedy or comfort but must bear with it as long as God wills. For He wishes you to learn to bear trial without consolation, to submit yourself wholly to Him that you may become more humble through suffering. No one understands the passion of Christ so thoroughly or heartily, as the man whose lot it is to suffer the like himself.
The cross, therefore, is always ready; it awaits you everywhere. No matter where you may go, you cannot escape it, for wherever you go you take yourself with you and shall always find yourself. Turn where you will — above, below, without, or within — you will find a cross in everything, and everywhere you must have patience if you would have peace within and merit an eternal crown.
If you carry the cross willingly, it will carry and lead you to the desired goal where indeed there shall be no more suffering, but here there shall be. If you carry it unwillingly, you create a burden for yourself and increase the load, though still you have to bear it. If you cast away one cross, you will find another and perhaps a heavier one. Do you expect to escape what no mortal man can ever avoid? Which of the saints was without a cross or trial on this Earth? Not even Jesus Christ, our Lord, Whose every hour on Earth knew the pain of His passion. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). How is it that you look for another way than this, the royal way of the holy cross?
The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom, and do you seek rest and enjoyment for yourself? You deceive yourself, you are mistaken if you seek anything but to suffer, for this mortal life is full of miseries and marked with crosses on all sides. Indeed, the more spiritual progress a person makes, so much heavier will he frequently find the cross, because as his love increases, the pain of his exile also increases.
Yet such a man, though afflicted in many ways, is not without hope of consolation, because he knows that great reward is coming to him for bearing his cross. And when he carries it willingly, every pang of tribulation is changed into hope of solace from God. Besides, the more the flesh is distressed by affliction, so much the more is the spirit strengthened by inward grace. Not infrequently a man is so strengthened by his love of trials and hardship in his desire to conform to the cross of Christ, that he does not wish to be without sorrow or pain, since he believes he will be the more acceptable to God if he is able to endure more and more grievous things for His sake.
It is the grace of Christ, and not the virtue of man, which can and does bring it about that through fervor of spirit frail flesh learns to love and to gain what it naturally hates and shuns.
To carry the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body and bring it to subjection, to flee honors, to endure contempt gladly, to despise self and wish to be despised, to suffer any adversity and loss, to desire no prosperous days on Earth — this is not man’s way. If you rely upon yourself, you can do none of these things, but if you trust in the Lord, strength will be given you from Heaven and the world and the flesh will be made subject to your word. You will not even fear your enemy, the devil, if you are armed with faith and signed with the cross of Christ.
Set yourself, then, like a good and faithful servant of Christ, to bear bravely the cross of your Lord, Who out of love was crucified for you. Be ready to suffer many adversities and many kinds of trouble in this miserable life, for troublesome and miserable life will always be, no matter where you are; and so you will find it wherever you may hide. Thus it must be; and there is no way to evade the trials and sorrows of life but to bear them.
Drink the chalice of the Lord with affection it you wish to be His friend and to have part with Him. Leave consolation to God; let Him do as most pleases Him. On your part, be ready to bear sufferings and consider them the greatest consolation, for even though you alone were to undergo them all, the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.
When you shall have come to the point where suffering is sweet and acceptable for the sake of Christ, then consider yourself fortunate, for you have found paradise on Earth. But as long as suffering irks you and you seek to escape, so long will you be unfortunate, and the tribulation you seek to evade will follow you everywhere. If you put your mind to the things you ought to consider, that is, to suffering and death, you would soon be in a better state and would find peace.
Although you were taken to the third Heaven with Paul, you were not thereby insured against suffering. Jesus said: “I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake.” To suffer, then, remains your lot, if you mean to love Jesus and serve Him forever.
If you were but worthy to suffer something for the name of Jesus, what great glory would be in store for you, what great joy to all the saints of God, what great edification to those about you! For all men praise patience though there are few who wish to practice it. With good reason, then, ought you to be willing to suffer a little for Christ since many suffer much more for the world. Realize that you must lead a dying life; the more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live unto God.
No man is fit to enjoy Heaven unless he has resigned himself to suffer hardship for Christ. Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing more helpful for you on this Earth than to suffer willingly for Christ. If you had to make a choice, you ought to wish rather to suffer for Christ than to enjoy many consolations, for thus you would be more like Christ and more like all the saints. Our merit and progress consist not in many pleasures and comforts but rather in enduring great afflictions and sufferings.
If, indeed, there were anything better or more useful for man’s salvation than suffering, Christ would have shown it by word and example. But He clearly exhorts the disciples who follow Him and all who wish to follow Him to carry the cross, saying: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” When, therefore, we have read and searched all that has been written, let this be the final conclusion — that through much suffering we must enter into the kingdom of God. (Here ends the passage from Book 2, Chapter 12 of The Imitation of Christ, “The Royal Road of the Holy Cross”).
Passiontide is finally here!
A time some love, but others fear!
Now that this grace-filled season has come,
Will it find you glad or find you glum?
In this season of Passiontide,
Many weak Catholics will try to hide!
For the very thought of the cross and its gain,
To them seems a mere loss and much pain!
To worldliness we refuse to die.
The thought of it only makes us cry!
Both God and the world we seek to love
But that will make us lose Heaven above!
Sadly, those words are applicable to most Catholics living in the world today! They live a “double-life”―in theory they put God first, but in practice they put the world and themselves first. Of such Our Lord said: “Hypocrites! Well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their hearts are far from Me!’ In vain do they worship Me!” (Matthew 15:7-9).
The Focal Point of History, Life, Lent, and the Liturgy
Passiontide! Or Passion-hide? There are times when we have to make a choice! Times when we can no longer pretend and insist on being neutral spectators. Times of an “either, or”! Our Lord puts it this way: “He that is not with Me, is against me!” (Matthew 12:30). “No servant can serve two masters―for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [the world, pleasures, treasures, etc.]” (Luke 16:13). “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23). “Whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27). “He that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). Which is why St. Paul writes: “God forbid that I should glory in anything except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ―by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world! … With Christ I am nailed to the cross” (Galatians 6:14; 2:19).
Passiontide is the time of the cross. Passiontide is the time where “the rubber meets the road” or the cross meets shoulder, or reality stares you in the face. The reality is that we have all sinned―and the basic way to pay for sin is to carry the cross of our rebellion against God. The penalty of the cross can be a direct consequence of our sin―for example, you get drunk, drive your car, have an accident and must suffer the crosses that come from that accident while driving under the influence of alcohol―you may lose your driver’s license, be sued by the person you knocked over, face a prison sentence, or perhaps you were left paralyzed by the accident. All of these are direct consequences, or direct crosses coming from your sinfulness in getting drunk and driving while drunk. Other crosses are indirect consequences for your sinfulness, which are usually events arranged by Divine Providence, to make you pay, or help you pay for your sins if you have not done sufficient penance for them, or are not sufficiently sorry for them.
Glorious Passiontide or Hideous Passiontide?
Some see Passiontide as being glorious as they embrace the glory of the cross. Others see Passiontide as being hideous as they seek to avoid and hide from the cross. A few see the benefits of the cross, but most see benefits in the absence of a cross. For most souls, the cross makes them cross and they reject it―yet for a few, the cross crosses out their debt for sin and they accept it. We either have a love for the cross, or a dislike (or even hatred) of the cross. Some accept the need for the cross in theory, but them complain, moan and groan when God’s Providence imposes some crosses upon them―even tiny ones! Of such Our Lord says: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6).
In the same vein, The Imitation of Christ tells us: “Jesus has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation, yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus — love that is free from all self-interest and self-love!” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 2, Chapter 11: “Few Love The Cross Of Jesus”).
Our Lady Glorifies the Cross
Our Lady, in her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, says: “Estimate then, and weigh within your soul, how important is the eternal predestination or reprobation of the souls―since my most holy Son looked upon it with such great anxiety, that the difficulty or impossibility of saving all men added such immense bitterness to the death which He was about to suffer for all. What pretense or excuse will men advance for having forgotten their own eternal salvation, when my divine Son and I have desired and sought to procure it for them with such sacrifices and untiring watchfulness? None of the mortals will have any excuse for their foolish negligence! Do not think that it is written in vain: ‘Many are called, but few are chosen!’ (Matthew 20:16). Fear this sentence and renew in your heart the care and zeal for your salvation! You draw upon thyself (and upon mortals) a severe judgment, if you do not overcome your pusillanimity, ingratitude and baseness by meditating day and night on the Passion and Death of Jesus crucified. This is the great science of the saints―so little heeded by the worldly and the lack of which starves the lovers of this proud world. In this science I wish you to be studious and wise. My Son and Lord taught us this science. Tell me then, if my Lord and Master has made Himself the life and the way for men through his Passion and Death, is it not evident that, in order to go that way and live up to this truth, they must follow Christ crucified, afflicted, scourged and affronted? To abhor earthly vanities, to desire being despised by creatures, to suffering joyfully, to love the cross and have an earnest and generous acceptation of it.
“Consider the ignorance of men who wish to come to the Father without following Christ, since they expect to reign with God without suffering or imitating his Passion, yea without even a thought of accepting any part of his suffering and Death, or of thanking Him for it. They want it to procure for them the pleasures of this life as well as of eternal life, while Christ their Creator has suffered the most bitter pains and torments in order to enter Heaven and to show them by his example how they are to find the way of light. All abhor poverty and thirst after riches, none of them being willing to recognize their emptiness. Infinite is the number of those who are carried away by their anger and vengeance, despising meekness. Few deplore their real miseries and struggle merely for terrestrial consolations; scarcely any love justice, or loyally pursue it in their dealings with the neighbors. Mercy is almost extinct, purity of heart is sullied and infringed upon, peace is constrained. None grant pardon, none wish to suffer for justice’s sake, yea not even the least of the many torments and pains, which they have so justly merited.
“Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment. He is not a true son of his father, who does not imitate him, nor he a good disciple, who does not follow his Master, nor he a good servant, who does not accompany his lord; nor do I count him a devoted child, who does not suffer with me and my divine Son. But our love for the eternal salvation of men obliges us, who see them forgetful of this truth and so adverse to suffering, to send them labors and punishments, so that if they do not freely welcome them, they may at least be forced to undergo them and so be enabled to enter upon the way of salvation. And yet even all this is insufficient, since their inclinations and their blind love of visible things detains them and makes them hard and heavy of heart; they rob them of remembrance and affection toward these higher things, which might raise them above themselves and above created things. Hence it comes, that men do not find joy in their tribulations, nor rest in their labors, nor consolation in their sorrows, nor any peace in adversities. For―altogether different from the saints who glory in tribulation as the fulfillment of their most earnest desires―they desire none of it and abhor all that is painful.
“My most holy Son and myself are trying to find among those, who have arrived at the way of the cross, some soul whom We can instruct systematically in this divine science and whom We can withdraw from the worldly and diabolical wisdom, in which the sons of Adam, with blind stubbornness, are rejecting the salutary discipline of sufferings. If you wish to be our disciple, then enter into this school―in which alone is taught the doctrine of the cross and the manner of reaching true peace and veritable delights. The lesson containing the greatest wisdom for souls consists in the knowledge of the cross, in the love of sufferings, and in putting this knowledge into practice by bearing afflictions with patience. With this wisdom, the earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible; nor the vain ostentation and pomp, which fascinates the blear-eyed worldlings, who are so covetous of passing honors, and so full of ignorant admiration for costly worldly grandeur. The followers of this world and its vain pleasures deprive themselves of assistance and protection―since they hate the way of the Cross. Therefore embrace the Cross and do not admit any consolation outside of it in this mortal life. By contemplating and feeling within yourself the sacred Passion you will attain the summit of perfection. You must acquire the precious gem of suffering and thus become pleasing to your Lord. I exhort you to select the sufferings of His Cross, in preference to His favors and gifts; and to rather embrace afflictions, than to desire to be visited with caresses! When the occasion of tasting the chalice and the cross of suffering is at hand, you must not turn away in sorrow and affliction from the sufferings. For you cannot follow Christ if you refuse to embrace the cross and rejoice in it!” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
The Season of the Cross
Even though we could rightly say Passiontide is the “season of the cross”, it would be wrong to label Passiontide (or even Lent for that matter) as the only season of the cross―for, in reality, the “season of the cross” spans all the four seasons of the year. There is never a day that goes by without many crosses coming our way. The cross is like the Barahmasia Mango Tree, which can be counted on to on to bear fruit throughout the year. The specialty of the tree is that its branches bear the fruits in different stages from flowering to ripening at the same time. While one branch has flowers, the others have matured mangoes. So, too, with the “tree of the cross” that God plants in our lives―the fruit of the “tree of the cross” is found on the tree all year round and we can harvest the fruit of the cross daily, every day, all throughout the year. Some crosses are in fully ripe, while others are merely beginning to bloom. This reminds of the biblical “tree of life” ― “In the midst … was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruits every month” (Apocalypse 22:2). Our Lord Himself speaks of this DAILY cross: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his CROSS DAILY, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23).
In some parts of the world, mango is called the “king of fruits.” It is a “drupe”, or stone fruit, which means that it has a large seed in the middle. However, the mango fruit can be difficult to cut―due to its tough skin and large pit (seed, kernel)―which speaks volumes symbolically, for Catholics should have a “tough skin” to face the “cuts” of persecution and a large heart (kernel, seed, pit). Mango is low in calories (worldliness) but full of nutrients (grace and virtues)―particularly vitamin C, which aids immunity, iron absorption and growth and repair. However, the health benefits are not just limited to the fruit―there numerous benefits from its seed, flower and the bark of the mango tree. Studies indicate that, overall, mangoes possesses the following properties―they are anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-oxidant, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, anti-tumor, anti-spasmodic, anti-diarrheal, cardiotonic, immuno-modulating, and gastro-protective. Mango seeds help eliminate dandruff, reduces the risk of diarrhea, keeps cardiovascular disease at bay, ensures a healthy skin, is good for diabetics, etc. Mango stem bark, leaves and flowers have been used in traditional medicine to treat anemia, cutaneous infections, diabetes, diarrhea, scabies, syphilis, and malignant tumors and many, many other ailments. It is well worth researching―this article is not meant to be a full exposure of the benefits. The point of briefly mentioning the benefits is to create an analogy to the many benefits of the cross.
Tree-Talk
The liturgy for Passiontide is clearly, unashamedly and unapologetically focused on the “Tree of the Cross”, the life-giving tree, the “Tree of Life”. The Preface of the Holy Cross, that is said during Passiontide, says: “We give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God; Who didst establish the salvation of mankind on the tree of the Cross; that whence death came, thence also life might arise again, and that he (the devil), who overcame (Adam and Eve) by the tree, by the tree (of the Cross) also might be overcome!” That is the theme throughout Passiontide―the redemption of mankind upon the “Tree of the Cross”. Here are just a few extracts from two of the liturgical hymns for Passiontide―the Pange Lingua and Vexilla Regis:
PANGE LINGUA
Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle
Sing the last, the dread affray;
O’er the cross, the victor’s trophy,
Sound the high triumphal lay:
Tell how Christ, the world’s Redeemer,
As a victim won the day.
Eating of the tree forbidden,
Man had sunk in Satan's snare,
When our pitying Creator did
This second tree prepare;
Destined, many ages later,
That first evil to repair.
Such the order God appointed
When for sin He would atone;
To the serpent thus opposing
Schemes yet deeper than his own;
Thence the remedy procuring,
Whence the fatal wound had come.
Thirty years among us dwelling,
His appointed time fulfilled,
Born for this, He meets His passion,
For that this He freely willed:
On the Cross the Lamb is lifted,
Where His life-blood shall be spilled.
He endured the nails, the spitting,
Vinegar, and spear, and reed;
From that holy body broken
Blood and water forth proceed:
Earth, and stars, and sky, and ocean,
By that flood from stain are free.
Faithful cross! Above all other,
One and only noble tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peers may be;
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron!
Sweetest weight is hung on thee.
Bend thy boughs, O tree of glory!
Thy relaxing sinews bend;
For awhile the ancient rigor,
That thy birth bestowed, suspend;
And the King of heavenly beauty
On thy bosom gently tend!
Thou alone wast counted worthy
This world’s Ransom to uphold;
For a shipwrecked race preparing
Harbor, like the ark of old;
With the sacred blood anointed
From the smitten Lamb that rolled.
Blessing, honor, everlasting,
To the immortal Deity;
To the Father, Son, and Spirit,
Equal praises ever be;
Glory through the earth and heaven
To Trinity in Unity.
Amen.
VEXILLA REGIS
Abroad the regal banners fly,
Now shines the cross’s mystery;
Upon it Life did death endure,
And yet by death did life procure.
Who, wounded with a direful spear,
Did, purposely to wash us clear
From stain of sin, pour out a flood
Of precious water mixed with blood.
That which the prophet-king of old
Hath in mysterious verse foretold,
Is now accomplished, whilst we see
God ruling nations from a tree.
O lovely and refulgent tree,
Adorned with purpled majesty;
Culled from a worthy stock, to bear
Those limbs which sanctifièd were.
Blest tree, whose happy branches bore
The Wealth that did the world restore;
The beam that did that Body weigh
Which raised up Hell’s expected prey.
O Cross, our one reliance, hail!
This holy Passiontide avail
To give fresh merit to the saint,
And pardon to the penitent.
Blest Trinity, salvation’s spring,
May every soul thy praises sing;
To those thou grantest conquest by
The holy cross, rewards apply.
Amen.
The Apostles engage in “tree-talk” as they speak of Our Lord dying on a tree―the tree of the Cross: “We are witnesses of all things that Jesus did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, Whom they killed, hanging Him upon a tree!” (Acts 10:39) … “Who, His own self, bore our sins in His Body upon the tree―so that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice―and by Whose stripes you were healed!” (1 Peter 2:24) … “And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of Him, taking Him down from the tree, they laid Him in a sepulcher” (Acts 13:29) … “The God of our fathers has raised up Jesus, Whom you put to death, hanging Him upon a tree” (Acts of Apostles 5:30).
Our Lord Himself was full of “tree talk” while He walked this Earth. Here are just some of His teachings that we would do well do ponder and plant in the garden of our soul: “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree evil, and its fruit evil. For by the fruit the tree is known!” (Matthew 12:33). “By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit, and the evil tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them!” (Matthew 7:16-20). “For there is no good tree that brings forth evil fruit; nor an evil tree that brings forth good fruit. For every tree is known by its fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns; nor from a bramble bush do they gather the grape!” (Luke 6:43-44). “And seeing a certain fig tree by the way side, Jesus came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only, and He said to it: ‘May no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever!’ And immediately the fig tree withered away” (Matthew 21:19).
“He spoke also this parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: ‘Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and I find none! Cut it down therefore! Why does it encumber the ground?’ But he answering, said to him: ‘Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it. Perhaps happily it bear fruit, but if not, then after that you shall cut it down!’” (Luke 13:6-9). To which Scripture adds: “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire” (Matthew 3:10).
“To what is the kingdom of God like, and whereunto shall I resemble it? The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but, when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs and becomes a great tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32; Luke 13:18-19).
Our Lord even compares Himself to a tree of sorts when He says: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the farmer. Every branch in Me, that bears not fruit, He will take away. And every one that bears fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit! … Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine and you are the branches! He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abides not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:1-6).
We even engage in “tree-talk” ourselves with our idiomatic expressions. We say someone is “planted in good soil”, or that someone is “shaking like a leaf”, or is “branching-out”, or “holding out an olive branch to someone”, or referring to family traits when we say “the apple never falls far from the tree”, or someone being “at the top of the tree” or “barking up the wrong tree”, or that someone “cannot see the forest because of the tree”, or that “money doesn’t grow on trees”, or someone being “dressed-up like a Christmas Tree”, etc.
Sun and Rain for the Cross
The cross is synonymous with the tree―the Tree of Life―which is Our Lord’s Death on Calvary, and which is perpetuated in each and every Sacrifice of the Mass, whose fruit is the Holy Eucharist, which we receive in Holy Communion. To receive Holy Communion, we need to be in a state of grace (symbolized by water) and the Holy Eucharist―the fire of love, for “God is charity” (1 John 4:8), and God is in the Holy Eucharist, hence you could just as well say: “The Holy Eucharist is charity.” Without sanctifying grace―whatever we might do or suffer―is supernaturally useless. The same is true of charity―as Holy Scripture points out: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal! And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing! And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Charity and Sanctifying Grace are the “sun” and “rain” of our entire spiritual life―that includes the carrying of our crosses.
Understanding this, we can read the following passages with a clearer insight as to their meaning: “He shall be like a tree, which is planted near the running waters [symbol of grace], which shall bring forth its fruit [symbol of virtues], in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off; and all whatsoever he shall do, shall prosper” (Psalms 1:3). “The fruit of the just man is a tree of life” (Proverbs 11:30). “And he shall be as a tree that is planted by the waters, that spreads out its roots towards moisture―and it shall not fear when the heat comes. And the leaf thereof shall be green, and in the time of drought it shall not be solicitous, neither shall it cease at any time to bring forth fruit” (Jeremias 17:8).
Just as each year a tree grows bigger, carries a heavier load of fruit and produces more fruit―likewise, the “tree of the cross”, that each of us has to be, must carry a “heavier load” with each successive year, and by carrying that load, “produce more and more fruit” with each successive year, by exercising all the various virtues needed to carry the cross with love for God. Anything that will increase the rainfall of grace and sunlight and heat of charity, must be actively sought by us―and we will essentially find that “rain” and “sunlight” in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in the Holy Eucharist. We must frequently place ourselves in the grace-full downpour of sanctifying grace by planting ourselves daily (if possible) in the “garden” of the Holy Mass―for one hour’s “rain” only once a week, on Sundays, is barely enough “water” for our tree to survive. Additionally, we need to expose ourselves to the “Sun” of God, the Son of God, in the Holy Eucharist, in order to make our “tree” grow―as Our Lord said: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me!” (John 15:4).
The Royal Road of the Cross
The Imitation of Christ has a most beautiful, yet hard-hitting passage, entitled: The Royal Road of the Cross, in which it lays down the need for carrying the cross if we wish to arrive at salvation and avoid damnation. Here is the entire passage―which is most suitable as we enter Passiontide, the “season of the cross”―or, more correctly, since the “season of the cross” is an all-year-round season, we could call Passiontide, the time when the cross matures, ripens and bears it fruit.
We will end with Book 2, Chapter 12 of The Imitation of Christ, “The Royal Road of the Holy Cross”, which states:
To many the saying, “Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Me,” seems hard, but it will be much harder to hear that final word: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the Day of Judgment. This sign of the cross will be in the heavens when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross―who, during life, made themselves one with the Crucified―will draw near with great trust to Christ, the judge.
Why, then, do you fear to take up the cross when through it you can win a kingdom? In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit, in the cross is highest virtue, in the cross is perfect holiness. There is no salvation of soul, nor hope of everlasting life, except in the cross.
Therefore, take up your cross and follow Jesus, and you shall enter eternal life. He Himself opened the way before you in carrying His cross, and upon it He died for you, so that you, too, might take up your cross and long to die upon it. If you die with Him, you shall also live with Him, and if you share His suffering, you shall also share His glory.
Behold, in the cross is everything, and upon your dying on the cross everything depends. There is no other way to life and to true inward peace than the way of the holy cross and daily mortification. Go where you will, seek what you will, you will not find a higher way, nor a less exalted but safer way, than the way of the holy cross. Arrange and order everything to suit your will and judgment, and still you will find that some suffering must always be borne, willingly or unwillingly, and thus you will always find the cross.
Either you will experience bodily pain or you will undergo tribulation of spirit in your soul. At times you will be forsaken by God, at times troubled by those about you and, what is worse, you will often grow weary of yourself. You cannot escape, you cannot be relieved by any remedy or comfort but must bear with it as long as God wills. For He wishes you to learn to bear trial without consolation, to submit yourself wholly to Him that you may become more humble through suffering. No one understands the passion of Christ so thoroughly or heartily, as the man whose lot it is to suffer the like himself.
The cross, therefore, is always ready; it awaits you everywhere. No matter where you may go, you cannot escape it, for wherever you go you take yourself with you and shall always find yourself. Turn where you will — above, below, without, or within — you will find a cross in everything, and everywhere you must have patience if you would have peace within and merit an eternal crown.
If you carry the cross willingly, it will carry and lead you to the desired goal where indeed there shall be no more suffering, but here there shall be. If you carry it unwillingly, you create a burden for yourself and increase the load, though still you have to bear it. If you cast away one cross, you will find another and perhaps a heavier one. Do you expect to escape what no mortal man can ever avoid? Which of the saints was without a cross or trial on this Earth? Not even Jesus Christ, our Lord, Whose every hour on Earth knew the pain of His passion. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). How is it that you look for another way than this, the royal way of the holy cross?
The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom, and do you seek rest and enjoyment for yourself? You deceive yourself, you are mistaken if you seek anything but to suffer, for this mortal life is full of miseries and marked with crosses on all sides. Indeed, the more spiritual progress a person makes, so much heavier will he frequently find the cross, because as his love increases, the pain of his exile also increases.
Yet such a man, though afflicted in many ways, is not without hope of consolation, because he knows that great reward is coming to him for bearing his cross. And when he carries it willingly, every pang of tribulation is changed into hope of solace from God. Besides, the more the flesh is distressed by affliction, so much the more is the spirit strengthened by inward grace. Not infrequently a man is so strengthened by his love of trials and hardship in his desire to conform to the cross of Christ, that he does not wish to be without sorrow or pain, since he believes he will be the more acceptable to God if he is able to endure more and more grievous things for His sake.
It is the grace of Christ, and not the virtue of man, which can and does bring it about that through fervor of spirit frail flesh learns to love and to gain what it naturally hates and shuns.
To carry the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body and bring it to subjection, to flee honors, to endure contempt gladly, to despise self and wish to be despised, to suffer any adversity and loss, to desire no prosperous days on Earth — this is not man’s way. If you rely upon yourself, you can do none of these things, but if you trust in the Lord, strength will be given you from Heaven and the world and the flesh will be made subject to your word. You will not even fear your enemy, the devil, if you are armed with faith and signed with the cross of Christ.
Set yourself, then, like a good and faithful servant of Christ, to bear bravely the cross of your Lord, Who out of love was crucified for you. Be ready to suffer many adversities and many kinds of trouble in this miserable life, for troublesome and miserable life will always be, no matter where you are; and so you will find it wherever you may hide. Thus it must be; and there is no way to evade the trials and sorrows of life but to bear them.
Drink the chalice of the Lord with affection it you wish to be His friend and to have part with Him. Leave consolation to God; let Him do as most pleases Him. On your part, be ready to bear sufferings and consider them the greatest consolation, for even though you alone were to undergo them all, the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.
When you shall have come to the point where suffering is sweet and acceptable for the sake of Christ, then consider yourself fortunate, for you have found paradise on Earth. But as long as suffering irks you and you seek to escape, so long will you be unfortunate, and the tribulation you seek to evade will follow you everywhere. If you put your mind to the things you ought to consider, that is, to suffering and death, you would soon be in a better state and would find peace.
Although you were taken to the third Heaven with Paul, you were not thereby insured against suffering. Jesus said: “I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake.” To suffer, then, remains your lot, if you mean to love Jesus and serve Him forever.
If you were but worthy to suffer something for the name of Jesus, what great glory would be in store for you, what great joy to all the saints of God, what great edification to those about you! For all men praise patience though there are few who wish to practice it. With good reason, then, ought you to be willing to suffer a little for Christ since many suffer much more for the world. Realize that you must lead a dying life; the more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live unto God.
No man is fit to enjoy Heaven unless he has resigned himself to suffer hardship for Christ. Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing more helpful for you on this Earth than to suffer willingly for Christ. If you had to make a choice, you ought to wish rather to suffer for Christ than to enjoy many consolations, for thus you would be more like Christ and more like all the saints. Our merit and progress consist not in many pleasures and comforts but rather in enduring great afflictions and sufferings.
If, indeed, there were anything better or more useful for man’s salvation than suffering, Christ would have shown it by word and example. But He clearly exhorts the disciples who follow Him and all who wish to follow Him to carry the cross, saying: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” When, therefore, we have read and searched all that has been written, let this be the final conclusion — that through much suffering we must enter into the kingdom of God. (Here ends the passage from Book 2, Chapter 12 of The Imitation of Christ, “The Royal Road of the Holy Cross”).
Article 14
Friday after the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 20th
The Seven Joys and the Seven Sorrows of St. Joseph
Article #12 on the FORTY CHIEF REASONS WHY WE FAIL is still being written. We are currently on reason #32.
Friday after the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 20th
The Seven Joys and the Seven Sorrows of St. Joseph
Article #12 on the FORTY CHIEF REASONS WHY WE FAIL is still being written. We are currently on reason #32.
God, Joy and Sorrow
“God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and joy is a result or an effect of charity. Sorrow is caused by an absence of love or an absence of some good thing in the object of our love. The greater our charity, then the greater is also our joy. The greater the absence of charity, then the greater will be our sorrow. If “God is charity” ― then the possession of God in Heaven is the greatest possible joy. On the other hand, the total absence of God in Hell is the greatest possible sorrow we can experience. The sorrow of Hell is an intense, agonizing spiritual and emotional suffering, often described as extreme regret, despair, and separation from God. It is depicted as the deepest torment, surpassing physical pain, resulting from the realization of lost salvation, wasted earthly grace, and the permanence of ruin.
Hence charity (love of God) is the greatest of all virtues and lack of charity (hatred of God) is the greatest of sins. This is why St. John of the Cross says that at the end of our life, we shall be judged on love [charity] alone! This is also echoed by Holy Scripture: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
“God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and joy is a result or an effect of charity. Sorrow is caused by an absence of love or an absence of some good thing in the object of our love. The greater our charity, then the greater is also our joy. The greater the absence of charity, then the greater will be our sorrow. If “God is charity” ― then the possession of God in Heaven is the greatest possible joy. On the other hand, the total absence of God in Hell is the greatest possible sorrow we can experience. The sorrow of Hell is an intense, agonizing spiritual and emotional suffering, often described as extreme regret, despair, and separation from God. It is depicted as the deepest torment, surpassing physical pain, resulting from the realization of lost salvation, wasted earthly grace, and the permanence of ruin.
Hence charity (love of God) is the greatest of all virtues and lack of charity (hatred of God) is the greatest of sins. This is why St. John of the Cross says that at the end of our life, we shall be judged on love [charity] alone! This is also echoed by Holy Scripture: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Article 13
Laetare Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 15th
Can You Find Joy in Lent?
Article #12 on the FORTY CHIEF REASONS WHY WE FAIL is still being written. We are currently on reason #32.
Laetare Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 15th
Can You Find Joy in Lent?
Article #12 on the FORTY CHIEF REASONS WHY WE FAIL is still being written. We are currently on reason #32.
Yes and No!
Can you find joy in Lent? Well the answer can be Yes or No―or both Yes and No! For the wishy-washy lukewarm Catholics, finding joy in Lent is easy because Pope Paul VI made Lent easy! In his 1966 Apostolic Constitution, Poenitemini, the pope gave everyone a 95% discount on fasting during Lent―reducing obligatory fasting from the traditional 40 days down to a mere 2 days―those days being Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. To many Catholics that is Lenten Joy!
For the tiny minority of Catholics who are still trying to adhere to those traditional 40 days of fasting―there is, humanly speaking, no joy―because a 40 day fast is hard, especially when you look around and see that the majority of Catholics are not doing that! The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence! Yet, supernaturally speaking, they do find joy in knowledge that they are paying-off some of their great debt for past sins―and paying here and now is far, far cheaper than having to pay those debts in Purgatory―and far, far less painful too!
Then there are those who grow more joyful as Lent goes on―knowing that the day for Easter feasting, wining and dining is fast approaching! They don’t like Lent―and do it with gritted teeth―which sharpens them for feasting on Easter Sunday and the days that follow.
Wrong Kind of Joy
The world is the epitome of the wrong kind of joy. Whereas God loves the sinner and hates the sin, the world attacks the sinner rather than attacking the sin. The world rejoices in what God condemns and hates what God loves. Holy Scripture denounces this attitude: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaias 5:20).
Our penances may be bitter, but they will lead to sweet things—hence, we can call them bittersweet.
Our Lord tells His Apostles, at the Last Supper: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she has brought forth the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you!” (John 16:20-22).
Rejoice with the World—Perish with the World
Let us not be sucked-into the damning whirlpool of the world—its fate is inevitable! Our Lord and the Apostles in particular, and Holy Scripture in general, repeatedly warn us against the false and fateful joys of the world: “You that rejoice in a thing that is a mere nothing!” (Amos 6:14) … “Rejoice not, O Israel, rejoice not as the nations do!” (Osee 9:1). “Rejoice not in ungodly children, neither be delighted in them, if the fear of God be not with them!” (Ecclesiasticus 16:1).
What Are We Rejoicing Over?
“Let the heart of them rejoice, that seek the Lord!” (1 Paralipomenon 16:10). “Serve ye the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling!” (Psalm 2:11). Rejoice over the greatest gift of God! What is that greatest gift? “The Lord is gracious and merciful, patient and plenteous in mercy! His tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:8-9). “Let your soul rejoice in His mercy!” (Ecclesiasticus 51:37). “I have trusted in thy mercy! My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation!” (Psalm 12:6).
Rejoice Over Mercy!
What is it, above all things, that you will desire in your death throes and agony on your deathbed? It is mercy! Nothing else will matter. Nothing else will be worth anything if you fail to secure that mercy. All your future joy or misery will depend on one thing alone—whether or not you manage to secure the mercy of God. Our joy, on this day of rejoicing—Laetare Sunday—comes from the fact of God’s incredible mercy and pardon, which is to be used, but not abused.
Mercy—A Room in the Mansion of Charity
Lacking hope in that mercy and pardon, leads to despair. Being over-confident in that mercy and pardon, leads to presumption. Both despair and presumption are serious sins. We need to keep that balance between the two—for virtue stands in the middle between excess and neglect—and joyfully do penance for our sins, hoping and trusting in the mercy and pardon of God, Whose “tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:9). This is because “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and mercy is one of the rooms in the divine mansion of charity.
God Does Not Hate His Creation
God cannot hate what He has created—for all that He creates is good. Yet God does hate some things that man has created—and the chief focal point of hatred is sin. As St. Thomas Aquinas says: “…the hatred of something does not befit God. For as love is to the good, so hatred is to evil; for to those we love we will good, and to those we hate, evil. If, then, the will of God cannot be inclined to evil, as has been shown, it is impossible that He should hate anything” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Contra Gentiles, Book 1, chapter 96: “God Hates Nothing, and the Hatred of No Thing Befits Him”).
This is stated in slightly different terms by Holy Scripture: “All things were made by Him” (John 1:3). “The Lord has made all things for Himself” (Proverbs 16:4). Thus mankind was made for God and not for itself. Yet, God’s human creation—mankind—turned away from God through sin.
Nevertheless, God in His infinite mercy, sought a remedy to that rebelliousness, as explained by Our Lord Himself: “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him. He that believes in Him is not judged. But he that does not believe, is already judged: because he believes not in the Name of the Only-begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18) … “Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin” (John 8:24). “For everyone that does evil, hates the light, and comes not to the light” (John 3:20).
Came to Save All—But All Will Not Be Saved
St. Thomas writes: “The power of the divine Incarnation is equal to the salvation ‘of all men, but the fact that some are not saved, thereby comes from their indisposition: they are unwilling to take unto themselves the fruit of the Incarnation; they do not cleave to the incarnate God by Faith and Love. For men were not intended to lose that freedom of choice, by which they are able to cleave or not to cleave to the incarnate God, lest the good of man be produced by coercion” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Contra Gentiles, Book 4, chapter 55: “Arguments Against the Suitability of the Incarnation”).
Thus we are free to choose—and, ultimately, we choose our own salvation or damnation. There will be no coercion from God in that matter.
Abuse of Mercy
Most souls fail to do so and are irrevocably lost—says Our Lord and most theologians of the Church. Yet every soul is capable of securing it. “Christ died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15). Yet everyone WILL NOT DO what it takes to be saved. “And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But Jesus said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’” (Luke 13:23-24).
As St. Paul points out: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5). “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). So rejoice—mercy is yours if you choose to abide by it, use it and not abuse it! But woe to you if you abuse it!
Joy Though Pain
The joys of Heaven are not “freebies” but must be painfully earned on Earth or in Purgatory. Mercy, of course, brings joy—but mercy requires payment. This is something that mankind—especially modern man—fails to grasp. Modern man thinks the joys of Heaven are there for sinners, or the lukewarm, or the mediocre man.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange dispels this foolish thought: “There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity.
“There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin, though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Going Cheap…! Cheap Joys!
Most people put a cheap price on sin and cheap admission price to Heaven. How foolish and stupid we are! This stupidity is perhaps one of the chief reasons why so many souls are lost! It does not help matters to see almost everyone around us, living-out this insane sense of values.
These idiots—let us at least hope they are idiots, for idiocy might excuse them somewhat from sin—want joy on Earth and joy in Heaven! They want to neither suffer in this life, nor in the next! They, as the proverb goes, “want their cake and they want to eat it”! Our Lord says: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24)--”You can’t have your cake and eat it!”
Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty?
This brings us to the way in which we can view a glass that contains 50% liquid and 50% air. Some see this glass as being half-full; others see it as being half-empty. The “half-full” people are being positive about it; the “half-empty” people are being negative about it.
The same applies to our Faith and religion. Some see the Faith and religion as being a foretaste of the fullness of joy we shall experience in Heaven. Others sees our Faith and religion as “cramping their style” and robbing of them of many joys they would like to experience here on Earth.
One group sees the Faith, and the practice of it, as being “half-full” and look forward to being fulfilled in Heaven. The other group sees the Faith, and practice of it, as being “half-emptied” of potential Earthly joys, and dread having to give up even more of them. Yet our soul—in which joy resides—was made by God and only God can truly fill it with true joy—“Who satisfies thy desire with good things” (Psalms 102:5).
Cotton Candy Joys
To seek the joys of this world above the joys of Heaven; to seek material joys above spiritual joys—is like eating cotton-candy (candy-floss) in comparison to a highly nutritious and delicious seven course meal. The cotton-candy melts away in your mouth before you know it! On top of that, the high sugar content is the favorite nesting place for disease!
Our Lord puts it this way: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Different Ideas of Joy
You are, no doubt, familiar with the Scriptural quote: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9). We could well paraphrase that into “My ideas of joy are not your ideas of joys: nor your joys My joys, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My joys exalted above your joys, and My ideas of joy above your ideas of joy!”
God is Joy Because God is Love
God is love and love is the cause of joy. For, we rejoice either because the object of our love is really present, or because we really find our own good existing, so to say, in the person, or in the object we love.
We rejoice because we find ourselves in the presence of one whom we cherish, or because we have good news from a friend or parent, separated from us by endless stretches of land, or by vast expanses of water; we find an unbounded joy when we know that son or brother called to serve his country’s cause, in the gory battlefields of the world, is well, far removed from harm, or has been honored for his bravery.
Furthermore, our joy is enhanced by our love for the person from whom we receive the news, and is in proportion to it. We feel, for instance, little or no delight in our hearts when we read that a commander of a hostile force has escaped unscathed from battle. Our love is the cause of our joy.
To Find Joy, We Must Find and Love God
But, charity, in its highest object and point, is love of God, Whose good is infinite, unchanging and unchangeable, and, Who, by the very fact that He is loved, dwells in the person who loves Him. “God is charity: and he that abides in charity, abides in God and God in Him” (1 John 4:16). Hence joy is caused by love; hence, too, it follows charity.
What is this spiritual joy? It is not a virtue, separated from charity, spiritual joy is an action of the virtue charity, an effect, a result of charity. Joy of itself could not exist, it owes its very being to the virtue of charity, which is, for it, a fountainhead. Love is the first impulse of our will or heart, and from it proceed joy and desire. Thus joy is not a virtue distinct from charity, it is only an effect of charity, it is an action of charity.
Joy is that gratitude, that happy consciousness we have of the infinite goodness of God, the great object of our love, in Whom we live, move and have our being. Joy is the grand and consoling reward for the victories we have won in the battles with our passions.
A Religion of Joy
Since joy is a Fruit of the Holy Ghost, it follows that where the Holy Ghost is not, there is no joy. Now, the Divine Spirit is the vivifying principle of the Catholic Church and of her faithful. The Catholic Religion, is, then, essentially a religion of joy. Christ being the center of Christianity, there is no joy superior to that which He procures.
Down through the night of forgotten centuries and the fast highway of fleeting years, whatever holy joy was in the world was caused by Him. He was the unsurpassing joy of the patriarchs and prophets, of David, Isaias and Zachary, of Magdalene and John, of Peter and of Paul.
Faith itself is a joyous exposition of the truths that lead to Heaven; its precepts and commands are not merely a burden, but also a pleasure and a joy. Self-control in the service of the commandments makes us strong, and that is a source of joy. In sin we are downcast, and a load seems lifted from our hearts when grace, through the Sacrament of Penance, joy streams into our souls anew.
Once forgiven, we are children of God once again, perfect men and perfect Christians. Penance brings an entire Heaven of joy into our otherwise heavy hearts. “In thy salvation he shall rejoice exceedingly” (Psalm 20:2). “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into joy: Thou hast cut my sackcloth, and hast compassed me with gladness” (Psalm 29:12).
Purgatorial Joys
Penance brings joy to the souls in Purgatory, too! Even though they find themselves in the most unspeakably excruciating pains—which no tongue can describe nor imagination imagine—they are, nevertheless, also immersed in the most unspeakably great joys. They know that they are saved and that these horrendous pains are bringing Heaven and God closer with every excruciating moment. They are the perfect example of how the Catholic on Earth should find joy in suffering.
Those poor souls failed to learn how to suffer and do penance with joy on Earth, so now they have to learn that lesson in Purgatory. Yet their lesson is also a lesson for us—who, like the ill-fated Chosen People, are ever mumbling and grumbling, whining and whinging, moaning and groaning about the least suffering that we have to experience and suffer, by God’s Providence, here on Earth.
Worldly Joys Bring Sadness
At the Last Supper, Our Lord spoke of the two contrary lots that would befall His Apostles on the one hand, at the world on the other. He said: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20). If we take this to the next stage—if the sorrow of His followers shall be turned to joy, then the joy of the world shall be turned to sorrow. This is proven to be the case by other passages in Holy Scripture that depict the rich and the poor.
We have the case of Our Lord’s parable about the beggar, Lazarus, and Rich Man: “There was a beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, and no one did give him. Moreover, the dogs came, and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died: and he was buried in Hell” (Luke 16:20-22).
In a real-life incident, we have the case of the rich young man—who you would have thought would be happy and joyful with all his riches, but he becomes sad and sorrowful because of them: “And behold a certain man running up and kneeling before Him: ‘Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Thou knowest the commandments—keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Jesus: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
“Then Jesus, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you: How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the Kingdom of God!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:16-26; Mark 10:17-27).
God Does Bestow Riches, But…
God has enriched many a man as well the Israelites as a nation—but it was always contingent upon their placing God before all riches and wealth. Once those riches and wealth became a hindrance to their love of God and led them down paths of infidelity, lukewarmness, infidelity and sin—God not only brutally removed or destroyed those riches and that wealth, but He also was not averse to slaying some or most of the wayward ones.
The Old Testament history of the Chosen People is a perpetual saga of God’s benefits leading them to forget God, which led God to acting in a way towards them that they would never forget! But forget they did—and foolishly repeated the same behavior.
God has to come first—Our Lord commands in the New Testament what had already been commanded in the Old Testament: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30), which merely repeats the Old Testament command: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
This is what Job did in the Old Testament, and he was abundantly blessed by God. Yet, when God allowed all types of calamities to befall Job—losing his health, his children, his wealth and his properties and flocks—God never ceased to love and bless God, as much in calamity as in prosperity.
His famous quote—which we would well to take to heart—was: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither! The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away! As it has pleased the Lord, so is it done! Blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21). This eventual acceptance of the bitter with the sweet, led to God restoring all things to Job in an abundantly greater measure than he had possessed in the beginning: “And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10).
The Joys of Heaven
This doubling of Job’s possessions and wealth, after his tribulations at the hands of the devil, is symbolic of our tests and trials in this life, after which we shall be rewarded with Heaven—if we have been faithful.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange writes: “This vision will constitute eternal life. No one can express the joy and love that will be born in us of this vision. It will be so strong, so absolute a love of God, that, thenceforth, nothing will be able to destroy it, or even to diminish it. It will be a love by which we shall, above all, rejoice that God is God, infinitely holy, just, and merciful. We shall adore all the decrees of His providence in view of the manifestation of His goodness … We shall have entered into His beatitude, according to Christ’s own words: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! Because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things! Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!’” (The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Can you find joy in Lent? Well the answer can be Yes or No―or both Yes and No! For the wishy-washy lukewarm Catholics, finding joy in Lent is easy because Pope Paul VI made Lent easy! In his 1966 Apostolic Constitution, Poenitemini, the pope gave everyone a 95% discount on fasting during Lent―reducing obligatory fasting from the traditional 40 days down to a mere 2 days―those days being Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. To many Catholics that is Lenten Joy!
For the tiny minority of Catholics who are still trying to adhere to those traditional 40 days of fasting―there is, humanly speaking, no joy―because a 40 day fast is hard, especially when you look around and see that the majority of Catholics are not doing that! The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence! Yet, supernaturally speaking, they do find joy in knowledge that they are paying-off some of their great debt for past sins―and paying here and now is far, far cheaper than having to pay those debts in Purgatory―and far, far less painful too!
Then there are those who grow more joyful as Lent goes on―knowing that the day for Easter feasting, wining and dining is fast approaching! They don’t like Lent―and do it with gritted teeth―which sharpens them for feasting on Easter Sunday and the days that follow.
Wrong Kind of Joy
The world is the epitome of the wrong kind of joy. Whereas God loves the sinner and hates the sin, the world attacks the sinner rather than attacking the sin. The world rejoices in what God condemns and hates what God loves. Holy Scripture denounces this attitude: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaias 5:20).
Our penances may be bitter, but they will lead to sweet things—hence, we can call them bittersweet.
Our Lord tells His Apostles, at the Last Supper: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she has brought forth the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you!” (John 16:20-22).
Rejoice with the World—Perish with the World
Let us not be sucked-into the damning whirlpool of the world—its fate is inevitable! Our Lord and the Apostles in particular, and Holy Scripture in general, repeatedly warn us against the false and fateful joys of the world: “You that rejoice in a thing that is a mere nothing!” (Amos 6:14) … “Rejoice not, O Israel, rejoice not as the nations do!” (Osee 9:1). “Rejoice not in ungodly children, neither be delighted in them, if the fear of God be not with them!” (Ecclesiasticus 16:1).
What Are We Rejoicing Over?
“Let the heart of them rejoice, that seek the Lord!” (1 Paralipomenon 16:10). “Serve ye the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling!” (Psalm 2:11). Rejoice over the greatest gift of God! What is that greatest gift? “The Lord is gracious and merciful, patient and plenteous in mercy! His tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:8-9). “Let your soul rejoice in His mercy!” (Ecclesiasticus 51:37). “I have trusted in thy mercy! My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation!” (Psalm 12:6).
Rejoice Over Mercy!
What is it, above all things, that you will desire in your death throes and agony on your deathbed? It is mercy! Nothing else will matter. Nothing else will be worth anything if you fail to secure that mercy. All your future joy or misery will depend on one thing alone—whether or not you manage to secure the mercy of God. Our joy, on this day of rejoicing—Laetare Sunday—comes from the fact of God’s incredible mercy and pardon, which is to be used, but not abused.
Mercy—A Room in the Mansion of Charity
Lacking hope in that mercy and pardon, leads to despair. Being over-confident in that mercy and pardon, leads to presumption. Both despair and presumption are serious sins. We need to keep that balance between the two—for virtue stands in the middle between excess and neglect—and joyfully do penance for our sins, hoping and trusting in the mercy and pardon of God, Whose “tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:9). This is because “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and mercy is one of the rooms in the divine mansion of charity.
God Does Not Hate His Creation
God cannot hate what He has created—for all that He creates is good. Yet God does hate some things that man has created—and the chief focal point of hatred is sin. As St. Thomas Aquinas says: “…the hatred of something does not befit God. For as love is to the good, so hatred is to evil; for to those we love we will good, and to those we hate, evil. If, then, the will of God cannot be inclined to evil, as has been shown, it is impossible that He should hate anything” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Contra Gentiles, Book 1, chapter 96: “God Hates Nothing, and the Hatred of No Thing Befits Him”).
This is stated in slightly different terms by Holy Scripture: “All things were made by Him” (John 1:3). “The Lord has made all things for Himself” (Proverbs 16:4). Thus mankind was made for God and not for itself. Yet, God’s human creation—mankind—turned away from God through sin.
Nevertheless, God in His infinite mercy, sought a remedy to that rebelliousness, as explained by Our Lord Himself: “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him. He that believes in Him is not judged. But he that does not believe, is already judged: because he believes not in the Name of the Only-begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18) … “Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin” (John 8:24). “For everyone that does evil, hates the light, and comes not to the light” (John 3:20).
Came to Save All—But All Will Not Be Saved
St. Thomas writes: “The power of the divine Incarnation is equal to the salvation ‘of all men, but the fact that some are not saved, thereby comes from their indisposition: they are unwilling to take unto themselves the fruit of the Incarnation; they do not cleave to the incarnate God by Faith and Love. For men were not intended to lose that freedom of choice, by which they are able to cleave or not to cleave to the incarnate God, lest the good of man be produced by coercion” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Contra Gentiles, Book 4, chapter 55: “Arguments Against the Suitability of the Incarnation”).
Thus we are free to choose—and, ultimately, we choose our own salvation or damnation. There will be no coercion from God in that matter.
Abuse of Mercy
Most souls fail to do so and are irrevocably lost—says Our Lord and most theologians of the Church. Yet every soul is capable of securing it. “Christ died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15). Yet everyone WILL NOT DO what it takes to be saved. “And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But Jesus said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’” (Luke 13:23-24).
As St. Paul points out: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5). “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). So rejoice—mercy is yours if you choose to abide by it, use it and not abuse it! But woe to you if you abuse it!
Joy Though Pain
The joys of Heaven are not “freebies” but must be painfully earned on Earth or in Purgatory. Mercy, of course, brings joy—but mercy requires payment. This is something that mankind—especially modern man—fails to grasp. Modern man thinks the joys of Heaven are there for sinners, or the lukewarm, or the mediocre man.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange dispels this foolish thought: “There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity.
“There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin, though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Going Cheap…! Cheap Joys!
Most people put a cheap price on sin and cheap admission price to Heaven. How foolish and stupid we are! This stupidity is perhaps one of the chief reasons why so many souls are lost! It does not help matters to see almost everyone around us, living-out this insane sense of values.
These idiots—let us at least hope they are idiots, for idiocy might excuse them somewhat from sin—want joy on Earth and joy in Heaven! They want to neither suffer in this life, nor in the next! They, as the proverb goes, “want their cake and they want to eat it”! Our Lord says: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24)--”You can’t have your cake and eat it!”
Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty?
This brings us to the way in which we can view a glass that contains 50% liquid and 50% air. Some see this glass as being half-full; others see it as being half-empty. The “half-full” people are being positive about it; the “half-empty” people are being negative about it.
The same applies to our Faith and religion. Some see the Faith and religion as being a foretaste of the fullness of joy we shall experience in Heaven. Others sees our Faith and religion as “cramping their style” and robbing of them of many joys they would like to experience here on Earth.
One group sees the Faith, and the practice of it, as being “half-full” and look forward to being fulfilled in Heaven. The other group sees the Faith, and practice of it, as being “half-emptied” of potential Earthly joys, and dread having to give up even more of them. Yet our soul—in which joy resides—was made by God and only God can truly fill it with true joy—“Who satisfies thy desire with good things” (Psalms 102:5).
Cotton Candy Joys
To seek the joys of this world above the joys of Heaven; to seek material joys above spiritual joys—is like eating cotton-candy (candy-floss) in comparison to a highly nutritious and delicious seven course meal. The cotton-candy melts away in your mouth before you know it! On top of that, the high sugar content is the favorite nesting place for disease!
Our Lord puts it this way: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Different Ideas of Joy
You are, no doubt, familiar with the Scriptural quote: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9). We could well paraphrase that into “My ideas of joy are not your ideas of joys: nor your joys My joys, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My joys exalted above your joys, and My ideas of joy above your ideas of joy!”
God is Joy Because God is Love
God is love and love is the cause of joy. For, we rejoice either because the object of our love is really present, or because we really find our own good existing, so to say, in the person, or in the object we love.
We rejoice because we find ourselves in the presence of one whom we cherish, or because we have good news from a friend or parent, separated from us by endless stretches of land, or by vast expanses of water; we find an unbounded joy when we know that son or brother called to serve his country’s cause, in the gory battlefields of the world, is well, far removed from harm, or has been honored for his bravery.
Furthermore, our joy is enhanced by our love for the person from whom we receive the news, and is in proportion to it. We feel, for instance, little or no delight in our hearts when we read that a commander of a hostile force has escaped unscathed from battle. Our love is the cause of our joy.
To Find Joy, We Must Find and Love God
But, charity, in its highest object and point, is love of God, Whose good is infinite, unchanging and unchangeable, and, Who, by the very fact that He is loved, dwells in the person who loves Him. “God is charity: and he that abides in charity, abides in God and God in Him” (1 John 4:16). Hence joy is caused by love; hence, too, it follows charity.
What is this spiritual joy? It is not a virtue, separated from charity, spiritual joy is an action of the virtue charity, an effect, a result of charity. Joy of itself could not exist, it owes its very being to the virtue of charity, which is, for it, a fountainhead. Love is the first impulse of our will or heart, and from it proceed joy and desire. Thus joy is not a virtue distinct from charity, it is only an effect of charity, it is an action of charity.
Joy is that gratitude, that happy consciousness we have of the infinite goodness of God, the great object of our love, in Whom we live, move and have our being. Joy is the grand and consoling reward for the victories we have won in the battles with our passions.
A Religion of Joy
Since joy is a Fruit of the Holy Ghost, it follows that where the Holy Ghost is not, there is no joy. Now, the Divine Spirit is the vivifying principle of the Catholic Church and of her faithful. The Catholic Religion, is, then, essentially a religion of joy. Christ being the center of Christianity, there is no joy superior to that which He procures.
Down through the night of forgotten centuries and the fast highway of fleeting years, whatever holy joy was in the world was caused by Him. He was the unsurpassing joy of the patriarchs and prophets, of David, Isaias and Zachary, of Magdalene and John, of Peter and of Paul.
Faith itself is a joyous exposition of the truths that lead to Heaven; its precepts and commands are not merely a burden, but also a pleasure and a joy. Self-control in the service of the commandments makes us strong, and that is a source of joy. In sin we are downcast, and a load seems lifted from our hearts when grace, through the Sacrament of Penance, joy streams into our souls anew.
Once forgiven, we are children of God once again, perfect men and perfect Christians. Penance brings an entire Heaven of joy into our otherwise heavy hearts. “In thy salvation he shall rejoice exceedingly” (Psalm 20:2). “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into joy: Thou hast cut my sackcloth, and hast compassed me with gladness” (Psalm 29:12).
Purgatorial Joys
Penance brings joy to the souls in Purgatory, too! Even though they find themselves in the most unspeakably excruciating pains—which no tongue can describe nor imagination imagine—they are, nevertheless, also immersed in the most unspeakably great joys. They know that they are saved and that these horrendous pains are bringing Heaven and God closer with every excruciating moment. They are the perfect example of how the Catholic on Earth should find joy in suffering.
Those poor souls failed to learn how to suffer and do penance with joy on Earth, so now they have to learn that lesson in Purgatory. Yet their lesson is also a lesson for us—who, like the ill-fated Chosen People, are ever mumbling and grumbling, whining and whinging, moaning and groaning about the least suffering that we have to experience and suffer, by God’s Providence, here on Earth.
Worldly Joys Bring Sadness
At the Last Supper, Our Lord spoke of the two contrary lots that would befall His Apostles on the one hand, at the world on the other. He said: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20). If we take this to the next stage—if the sorrow of His followers shall be turned to joy, then the joy of the world shall be turned to sorrow. This is proven to be the case by other passages in Holy Scripture that depict the rich and the poor.
We have the case of Our Lord’s parable about the beggar, Lazarus, and Rich Man: “There was a beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, and no one did give him. Moreover, the dogs came, and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died: and he was buried in Hell” (Luke 16:20-22).
In a real-life incident, we have the case of the rich young man—who you would have thought would be happy and joyful with all his riches, but he becomes sad and sorrowful because of them: “And behold a certain man running up and kneeling before Him: ‘Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Thou knowest the commandments—keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Jesus: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
“Then Jesus, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you: How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the Kingdom of God!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:16-26; Mark 10:17-27).
God Does Bestow Riches, But…
God has enriched many a man as well the Israelites as a nation—but it was always contingent upon their placing God before all riches and wealth. Once those riches and wealth became a hindrance to their love of God and led them down paths of infidelity, lukewarmness, infidelity and sin—God not only brutally removed or destroyed those riches and that wealth, but He also was not averse to slaying some or most of the wayward ones.
The Old Testament history of the Chosen People is a perpetual saga of God’s benefits leading them to forget God, which led God to acting in a way towards them that they would never forget! But forget they did—and foolishly repeated the same behavior.
God has to come first—Our Lord commands in the New Testament what had already been commanded in the Old Testament: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30), which merely repeats the Old Testament command: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
This is what Job did in the Old Testament, and he was abundantly blessed by God. Yet, when God allowed all types of calamities to befall Job—losing his health, his children, his wealth and his properties and flocks—God never ceased to love and bless God, as much in calamity as in prosperity.
His famous quote—which we would well to take to heart—was: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither! The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away! As it has pleased the Lord, so is it done! Blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21). This eventual acceptance of the bitter with the sweet, led to God restoring all things to Job in an abundantly greater measure than he had possessed in the beginning: “And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10).
The Joys of Heaven
This doubling of Job’s possessions and wealth, after his tribulations at the hands of the devil, is symbolic of our tests and trials in this life, after which we shall be rewarded with Heaven—if we have been faithful.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange writes: “This vision will constitute eternal life. No one can express the joy and love that will be born in us of this vision. It will be so strong, so absolute a love of God, that, thenceforth, nothing will be able to destroy it, or even to diminish it. It will be a love by which we shall, above all, rejoice that God is God, infinitely holy, just, and merciful. We shall adore all the decrees of His providence in view of the manifestation of His goodness … We shall have entered into His beatitude, according to Christ’s own words: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! Because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things! Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!’” (The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Article 12
Wednesday to Saturday after the Third Sunday of Lent, March 11th to 14th
More Reasons Why We Fail
Wednesday to Saturday after the Third Sunday of Lent, March 11th to 14th
More Reasons Why We Fail
O Happy Failure!
There are several ways of looking at failure. We can liken it to the proverbial comment of how people view a glass of water that is half-full. Some see the glass as being “half-empty” and some see the glass as being “half-full.” Failure is usually viewed negatively―as being something bad. Yet, as Faith teaches, God is always seeking to bring good out of evil. Holy Mother Church, in the Easter Liturgy, furnishes us with a quote on that subject when it speaks of failure of Adam by committing Original Sin, which ended up bringing about the incarnation of the Son of God in order to rescue us and free us from the evils of Original Sin and, consequently, our own Actual Sins (Mortal and Venial). At the Easter Vigil when the Exultet is sung, we hear the words: “O truly necessary sin of Adam, which the death of Christ has blotted out! O happy fault, that merited such and so great a Redeemer!” (Latin: “O certe necessarium Adae peccatum, quod Christi morte deletum est! O felix culpa, quae talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorem!”).
Before we resume with the next point on our list of 40 chief reasons why we fail ― #20 “Arguing Against Advice Instead of Taking It” ― let us perhaps take the advice found in the following quotes from secular persons. Their names have been removed―for it not so much a case of WHO said it, but more a case of WHAT they said. It also removes the perennial problem of being biased as to who we will listen and who we refuse to listen―which is based more on the quality (or lack thereof) of the person speaking, rather than quality of the advice given. So here are some “anonymous” quotes for your perusal―which will hopefully give you hope in your hopeless failures!
● “Failure is not the opposite to success, it’s part of success.”
● “Failure is success in progress.”
● “Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success.”
● “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
● “Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”
● “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
● “Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.”
● “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
● “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”
● “There is no failure except in no longer trying.”
● “Giving up is the only sure way to fail.”
● “Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. “
● “Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be.”
● “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better [meaning fail less badly].”
● “We are all failures―at least the best of us are!”
● “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
● “It’s failure that gives you the proper perspective on success.”
● “It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.”
● “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on them.”
● “Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success.”
● “Use failures to teach you, not to define you.”
The simple truth is ― no great success was ever achieved without failure. It may have been one epic failure. Or a series of failures ― such as Edison’s 10,000 attempts to create a light bulb or Dyson’s 5,126 attempts to invent a bagless vacuum cleaner. But, whether we like it or not, failure is a necessary stepping stone to achieving our dreams and also in achieving holiness and eventually reaching Heaven.
Let us now get back to the grindstone of failure and our examination of 40 chief reasons for failure―we have reached #20 in our list of 40. So here goes!
(20) Arguing Against Advice Instead of Taking It
People usually hate advice because it hurts their ego. Taking advice can imply that what you are doing is wrong or that you are going about it the wrong way. That is often the reason why people have a strong aversion to receiving advice―for it would make the advice giver “superior” and the advice taker “inferior.” Research shows people who feel they are powerful or superior, are less likely to take advice because it can make them feel like they are not in control. Another reason why people hate advice, especially the unsolicited kind, is that when you tell them what to do they reject the advice because it wasn't their idea. They look upon your unsolicited advice as an intrusion and an insult. So, power dynamics can play a big role in whether or not someone takes advice. It is a battle between humility and pride―and pride usually triumphs and the advice is rejected.
There are two things that can overcome this resistance to advice. The first one is obviously God: “God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble!” (James 4:6) ― so too will God withhold His advice from the proud, but will give His advice to the humble. “If any of you wants wisdom, then let him ask of God and it shall be given to him!” (James 1:5) … “Lean not upon your own prudence, but have confidence in the Lord with all your heart, and He will direct your steps!” (Proverbs 3:5-6) “Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths!” (Psalm 118:105). “I will give you understanding, and I will instruct you in the way in which you shalt go!” (Psalm 31:8). “To them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to His purpose, are called to be saints!” (Romans 8:28).
When we give advice or receive advice from humans, the act of giving advice comes across as an “in your face” intrusive action―whereas with God, very few people actually realize that God is advising them and simply think that they are talking to themselves or following their own imagination, God’s grace usually works silently and imperceptibly―thus making us drop our guard and our instinctive, “knee-jerk” resistance to advice.
The second way that advice can be more effectively communicated is by example, rather than words―for “actions speak louder than words.” Thus Our Lord says: “Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works” (Matthew 5:16) ― with the added hope that they will imitate your good works of their own free-will, rather than being told or advised to do so. As someone once said: “A good example has twice the value of good advice!”
Nevertheless, Holy Scripture recommends that we humbly take advice: “He that trusts in his own heart is a fool!” (Proverbs 28:26). “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes―but he that is wise, listens to counsels!” (Proverbs 12:15). “Hear counsel and receive instruction, so that you may be wise!” [Proverbs 19:20). ). “There is safety where there is much counsel!” (Proverbs 11:14). “Plans are brought to nothing where there is no counsel―but where there are many counselors, then those plans are established!” (Proverbs 15:22). “He that walks with the wise, shall be wise―but friend of fools shall become a fool like them!” (Proverbs 13:20). “He that rejects instruction, despises his own soul!” (Proverbs 15:32).
“Hear instruction! … Listen to My words, and incline thy ear to My sayings! Let them not depart from your eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart! … Forsake not My law! ... Take hold of instruction, leave it not! Keep it, because it is your life! … Receive My words, so that years of your life may be multiplied! … Let thy heart receive My words, keep My commandments, and you shall live! Neither forget nor decline from the words of My mouth! … I will show you the way of wisdom, I will lead you by the paths of equity!” (Proverbs 4:1-21).
“Everyone that hears My words and does them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a―and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock! And everyone that hears My words, and does not do them, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand―and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof!” (Matthew 7:24-27).
(21) Refusing All Criticism
This particular point is closely linked to the previous one. Refusing advice and refusing criticism could be said to be “flip-sides-of-the-same-coin” ― whereby advice is usually positive and criticism is usually negative. When “push-comes-to-shove”, most people would prefer to receive advice rather than receive criticism. If receiving advice implies that you are doing something wrong or not as well as you should be―then criticism is a blatant slap-in-the-face that does not imply, but clearly states that you are wrong! Thus advice is less painful than criticism.
The word “criticism” hardly appears in the Bible, but the principle most certainly does. Terms such as “rebuke”, “reproof”, “correction” and “admonishment” are all forms of it, and even “instruction” carries with it an element of criticism. The Bible strongly advises against refusing criticism, associating the rejection of correction with foolishness and destruction: “The man who despises him that reproves him, shall suddenly be destroyed!” (Proverbs 29:1). “Poverty and shame to him that refuses instruction!” (Proverbs 13:18). “He that observes correction finds the way of life, but he that rejects reproofs goes astray!” (Proverbs 10:17). “He that loves correction, loves knowledge―but he that hates reproof is foolish!” (Proverbs 12:1). “I am assured of you, that you a are full of love and filled with all knowledge, so that you are able to admonish one another!” (Romans 15:14). “If a man be overtaken in any fault, you, who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted!” (Galatians 6:1).
The chief goal in any Christian relationship should be to help others grow to be more and more like Christ. This does not mean that the recipient will not hear painful words―but that the message will be delivered with the good intention of building the person up, rather than tearing them down.
(22) Giving too much Importance to Feelings and Emotions
Feelings and emotions are like children―they are not meant to rule, but have be ruled and controlled by their “parents” which are the intellect and the will. Parents need to pay attention to their children, but they not meant to ruled by their children.
Being ruled by feelings—or emotional dysregulation—means struggling to manage intense emotions, leading to impulsive actions, mood swings, manifesting reactions that are disproportionate to events, and difficulty in calming down. Examples include road rage; explosive outburst over trivial matters or secondary unimportant things; storming out of situations; and becoming easily triggered or oversensitive. It often causes the "thinking brain" to shut down, resulting in high stress and anxiety levels, poor decision-making, and strained relationships. Common signs include frequent outbursts, irritability, and using unhealthy coping mechanisms. While emotions and feelings are a natural part of being human, developing skills to regulate them is essential for reducing their control over your behavior and taking control of them.
Emotional dysregulation means having difficulty managing your emotions and the way you react to them. When this happens, your feelings or reactions might seem stronger or more intense than what others might expect in a given situation. Emotional regulation, on the other hand, is the ability to understand and manage your emotions in healthy ways. Most people begin learning these skills in childhood and improve them as they grow older. Being able to regulate your emotions helps you cope with challenges, adapt to change and respond to life’s ups and downs more effectively.
It’s normal for young children to have temper tantrums as they learn to manage their emotions. These outbursts are a typical part of development while children are still learning how to express feelings in healthy ways. As they get older, most children develop better coping skills, so tantrums happen less often and eventually stop. However, if these skills don’t fully develop, emotional dysregulation can continue into teen or adult years and can affect how you feel, speak and act.
Common signs and symptoms include:
● Acting impulsively
● Emotions that get in the way of setting or reaching goals
● Feeling frustrated easily by small problems or annoyances
● Having trouble calming down once upset or feeling emotionally “out of control”
● Losing your temper often
● Frequent ood swings
● Ongoing irritability or anger between outbursts
● Saying or doing things you later regret when upset
● Shutting down or going numb when overwhelmed (feeling “blank,” zoning out or withdrawing)
● Sometimes, big feelings burst outward (like yelling or slamming doors). Other times, they turn inward (going quiet or checking out). Both are common ways your brain and body try to cope when emotions feel too strong.
The Bible presents emotions as a God-given elements of human nature―an essential part of life,. However, Holy Scripture highlights the need to manage feelings and emotions by our reason and will, with the assistance of God’s grace, rather than allowing ourselves to be controlled by them. Emotions are meant to be a God-given help, not suppressed, but to be controlled. Control is not the same thing as suppression. The purpose of emotions is to help us relate to God, understand our hearts, and react to situations, often serving as a gauge for what we value.
Thomas Aquinas viewed emotions (which he calls “passions”) as being neutral, bodily-rooted movements in response to perceived good or evil. Far from evil―when properly ordered by reason and directed toward virtue―they act as, positive energies for moral action, rather than threats to be eliminated. St. Thomas Aquinas divided the 11 main passions into two categories based on their relationship to the object:
(1) Concupiscible Passions (Gentler/Immediate): These passions/emotions concern anything that is good or evil in itself—love, desire, joy, hatred, aversion, and sadness.
(2) Irascible Passions (Arduous/Difficult): These passions/emotions concern a good or evil that is difficult to obtain or avoid—hope, despair, daring, fear, and anger.
All of these passions/emotions are found in the Bible as a means to doing what is right, pleasing God and to attaining Heaven. “Hate evil, and love good!” (Amos 5:15). “Bless God at all times and desire of him to direct thy ways!” (Tobias 4:20). “Serve the Lord thy God with joy” (Deuteronomy 28:47), “The fear of the Lord hates evil” (Proverbs 8:13). “You that love the Lord, hate evil!” (Psalm 96:10). “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy” (John 16:20). “Hope in God … The Lord takes pleasure in them hope in his mercy!” (Psalms 41:6; 146:11). “It is dangerous to drive people to despair (2 Kings 2:26) “Wherein if any man dare, I dare also!” (2 Corinthians 11:21). “Fear the Lord God! … The fear of the Lord hates evil … The fear of the Lord drives out sin” (Exodus 9:30; Proverbs 8:13; Ecclesiasticus 1:27). “Be angry, and sin not! … Anger is better than laughter―because by the sadness of the mind of the offender is corrected” (Ephesians 4:26; Ecclesiastes 7:4).
(23) Lack of Focus
As with some of the other points in this examination of the reasons why we fail, “Lack of Focus” and the next point, “Too Distracted” are somewhat interlinked. Lack of focus can be caused by distraction and it can also exist without distraction. We all have many things that require our focus―both at home and at work―yet we can sometimes be guilty is giving those focal points the wrong value and making less important focal points much too important; and making important focal points much less important. Often it is personal preferences or pleasure that dictates this shuffling around of focal points.
Focus is a skill that helps you to concentrate on a task. It helps to shut out distractions and encourage productivity. When you feel focused, you’re less likely to have to try as hard to pay attention to the task at hand. Your mind may feel clearer during periods of focus, which can allow you to remain absorbed in what’s important to you during that time.
There are many different types of focus that come together to help you pay attention.
● Inner focus is where you tune into your thoughts and feelings so you can understand yourself better. When you're aware of what's happening inside your head, it's easier to sort your thoughts and maintain concentration.
● Outer focus means being aware of the world around you. Outer focus helps you notice the details in your environment and understand how it all fits together.
● Other focus is about people other than yourself. It's the kind of focus you use when listening to a friend, understanding how someone else is feeling, or working together with people to get something done.
Everyone has moments when their focus slips—maybe you feel tired, you're in a noisy place, or you just have a lot on your mind. That's perfectly normal. The trick is to recognize when your focus is drifting and bring it back to where it needs to be.
On several occasions Holy Scripture speaks of this need for being focused: “Let thy eyes look straight on!” (Proverbs 4:25). “Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the Earth!” (Colossians 3:2). “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice!” (Matthew 6:33). “No man putting his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God!” (Luke 9:62). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal! But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal! For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24).
(24) Too Distracted
O boy are we too distracted!!! The modern world is one big quagmire of distraction―especially so since the advent of the internet and a massive variety of electronic gadgets! Each day is loaded and downloaded with distractions waiting to happen! Distraction has become an addiction! It has become so bad that many people are incapable of living without their daily distractions!
Hand-in-hand with distraction goes attention span. Research shows that currently the average attention spans have dropped significantly over the past two decades, with estimates suggesting a fall from 2.5 minutes to roughly 40 seconds for single tasks. Amazing! Incredible! Shocking! Tragic! Try and translate those numbers into the setting of attendance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; into praying the Holy Rosary; into spiritual reading or into meditation; into learning the Catechism!!! What a mess! It is not surprising that most Catholics do not even know all the Ten Commandments, or the Six Chief Commandments of the Church, or the required conditions for a good and valid Confession, or the Seven Sacraments. There are even some teenagers who cannot name the Persons of the Holy Trinity, nor the number and authors of the Gospels!
Our Lord warned about distractions choking the Word of God: “The cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts after other things―entering in, choke the Word of God, and it is made fruitless!” (Mark 4:19). We see Our Lord rebuke Martha for being too distracted with household chores that she missed out on sitting with her sister Mary listening to Our Lord’s teachings: “Martha was busy about much serving. Who stood and said: ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me alone to serve? Speak to her therefore, that she help me!’ And the Lord answering, said to her: ‘Martha, Martha, you are careful and are troubled about many things! But one thing is necessary! Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her!’” (Luke 10:40-42).
“Let your eyes look straight on, and let your eyelids go before your steps! Make straight the path for your feet, and all your ways shall be established. Decline not to the right hand, nor to the left! Turn away thy foot from evil! For the Lord knows the ways that are on the right hand― but those are perverse which are on the left hand. The Lord will make your courses straight, He will bring forward your ways in peace!” (Proverbs 4:25-27). “Let no temptation [distraction] take hold on you God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted [distracted] above that which you are able―but He will also make issue with the temptation [distraction], so that you may be able to bear it!” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
(25) Relying on Motivation Alone
You could link this point to a whole host of secular sayings, such as: “Mere wishful thinking!” … “All theory, but no practice!” … “All talk and no action!” … Talking the talk, but not walking the walk!” … “All smoke and mirrors!” … “A storm with no rain” … “Smoke but no fire!” … etc.
Enthusiasm or Motivation is like a seed. Enthusiasm or Motivation is not enough for success; it must be joined with endurance, resilience, and consistent action. While initial excitement drives a person to starting a project, long-term success requires maintaining commitment through boredom, difficulties, challenges, disappointments and setbacks. True achievement demands planning, acquiring skills, growing in strength and grit, rather than overly relying on mere passion, enthusiasm or motivation alone. Enthusiasm is common, but endurance is rare; many stop when the initial excitement wears off. You often see the “honeymoon effect” come into play, where passion often fades once the hard work has to begin.
One has to learn to what to combine with Enthusiasm/Motivation. Firstly, consistency is needed, where sustained effort over time will always beat short-term intensity. Secondly, the non-exciting aspect of discipline must be practiced, which means following through on tasks even when unmotivated. Thirdly, one must realize that skills must be learned and developed―for knowing how to execute the work is as crucial as wanting to do it. To succeed, you must move from initial passion to committed endurance, focusing on the work even when the "honeymoon phase" of intense motivation or enthusiasm weakens or ends.
Enthusiasm or Motivation is nevertheless very important. Enthusiasm is a powerful motivator, but it often requires coupling with action, discipline, and strategy to achieve results. While nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm, action is required: "It is not good enough for things to be planned—they still have to be done. In order for the intention that motivates us to become a reality, it is required that our energetic enthusiasm has to be launched into practical operation. You have to have a dream, a goal―but you have to be willing to work for it. Enthusiasm or Motivation is the fuel, but action is the vehicle.
Enthusiasm is like a fire―but creating the spark to ignite and enkindle the first flame requires much effort. The traditional flint and steel method of fire starting requires persevering effort rather than wishful enthusiastic thinking. The principle of this method is based on friction. Steel is struck against the sharp edge of a hard stone, and sparks form as the rock peels away tiny pieces of heated steel. The sparks are directed to the very fine, dry tinder bundle that has been prepared to accept them when they fall. The spark is then blown into flame. For a flint and steel fire to be successful, you must use very fine, dry tinder. Sparks created in this manner are short lived―like enthusiasm―and need to fall onto material that will capture and retain the small amount of heat generated. If the spark has begun to ignite the tinder, a small wisp of smoke will be present, and a tiny glow will be seen. One must blow the tinder into flame. If the tinder does not catch, continue striking sparks. Yet the need for effort does not end there―once you have started a fire (enthusiasm), you must work even more to feed that further with more solid combustible materials―otherwise your fire will soon be extinguished.
Teams―whether in sports or in business―cannot win on motivation alone, because high energy without clear direction, methodical structure, and sustained competence leads to burnout, not success. Sustainable performance requires clear goals, consistent discipline, and effective collaboration rather than just hype. Motivation is essential, but it must be supported by other foundational elements like clear roles, solid training, hard work, sustained effort, physical or mental fitness, mutual trust, and a shared purpose.
As one sports team coach writes: “The debate of motivation versus discipline is ever-present. While motivation provides an initial spark, it is a discipline that fuels the long-term engine of team performance. As a coach, I've witnessed firsthand the pitfalls of relying solely on motivational speeches, which, like simple sugars, offer only a temporary boost. Motivation can elevate a team's spirit, but its effects are often short-lived. The problem with relying solely on motivation is that it doesn't address the underlying issues that affect a team's resilience and consistency. Once the initial excitement fades, the team is left without the necessary framework to overcome ongoing challenges.”
Holy Scripture furnishes both encouragement and validation for Enthusiasm/Motivation―urging us on to be enthusiastic and motivated, but also telling us that enthusiasm/motivation without consequent actions will lead to failure: “Whatsoever you do, do it from the heart” (Colossians 3:23). “Serving the Lord in a fervent spirit” (Romans 12:11). “They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall take wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint!” (Isaias 40:31). “Have confidence in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not upon your own prudence! In all your ways think on Him, and He will direct your steps!” (Proverbs 3:5-6). “May God supply all your needs” (Philippians 4:19).
“I can do all these things in Him Who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, thereby deceiving your own selves! … Faith without works is dead!” (James 1:22; 2:20). “Work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). “In much work there shall be abundance―but where there are many words, there is oftentimes shortage!” (Proverbs 14:23). “In your labor wherewith you labor under the sun, whatsoever your hand is able to do, do it earnestly!” (Ecclesiastes 9:9-10).
(26) Full of Presumption
The word “presumption” comes from the Latin verb “praesumere”, meaning “to take before” or “to take for granted.” In Catholic teaching, presumption is a sin against the theological virtue of hope. It is a form of spiritual laziness or mediocrity, often resulting from pride and a failure to recognize one’s own need for repentance. It occurs when a person, relying on their own strength or misusing God's mercy, expects salvation without merit, or forgiveness without repentance. It is often described as prideful, assuming salvation is guaranteed without effort or change.
There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities―hoping to be able to do things and save himself without help from God. Or man presumes upon God’s almighty power or God’s mercy―by hoping to obtain God’s forgiveness without conversion and attain glory without meriting it. The first kind of presumption has been around for a long time. The heresy of Pelagianism, which proposed humanity was so good as to not need redemption, is a type of presumption. It denied Original Sin and promoted a belief in human goodness independent from divine grace.
The second kind of presumption is often manifested in the idea: “Once saved, always saved!” Yes―we are surely redeemed by Christ in our Baptism, but afterwards we can freely choose to reject this gift through serious sin. As St. Paul writes: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) We are also warned: “If we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a dreadful expectation of judgment, and a fury of a raging fire which will consume the adversaries.” (Hebrews 10:26-27). Our Lord makes it clear that there are some who will come to Him presuming their entrance into Heaven but their presumption will be met with these frightening words: “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me.” (Luke 13:27). Jesus presents this teaching not to reveal that He is harsh with those who are presumptuous; rather, He presents it as an act of great mercy for those stuck in this sin. It takes this startling revelation to shake a person free of this sin. In this case, it is the fear of one day hearing these words from Jesus that will help those who are stuck in presumption to break free and to face the truth.
Presumption is a dangerous sin. It’s dangerous for two reasons.
Firstly, when people are presumptuous, they are living in denial of the truth. In regard to God, presumption means that the persons act as if they are in a relationship with God when they are not. They may say holy things, act holy and even believe they are holy, while in fact they do not know our Lord at all. Thus, presumption is when one lives in denial of the truth.
Secondly, presumption is dangerous because the presumptuous person will not repent of his or her own sin. This is because their denial makes it impossible for them to admit their sin. Without admitting their sin, they cannot subsequently admit their need to change. They remain steeped in their false thinking and their sin.
Presumption hardens our hearts and leads to a loss of sensitivity to sin, fostering mediocrity or spiritual laziness. Presumption is more widespread than we would like to imagine or admit. Perhaps we need to ask ourselves a few simple questions and answer them in all honesty―without rationalizing, fudging, masking, tweaking, or painting over the truth:
● Have I assumed God would forgive me without true sorrow or changed behavior rather than truly trusting His mercy?
● Have I relied on God’s mercy as an excuse to sin, thinking “God is merciful, so it doesn’t matter what I do,” instead of seeking to please Him and avoid sin?
● Have I prioritized my own desires and comfort over God’s commandments and the needs of others?
● Have I believed I am “saved” or destined for heaven without consistently striving for holiness or working out my salvation with “fear and trembling?”
● Have I prioritized my own desires and comfort over God’s commandments and His will?
● Do I believe that I can save myself or be good enough without God’s grace?
● Do I confess my sins superficially, knowing I can keep sinning because God will forgive me or do I genuinely hate my sins because they offend God?
(27) Lack of Humility
Failure is inextricably linked to a lack of humility and the flip-side of the same coin, which is pride. “The proud shall fall!” (Ecclesiasticus 23:8). “Pride goes before destruction; and the soul is lifted up before a fall!” (Proverbs 16:18). “The proud one shall fall, he shall fall down, and there shall be none to lift him up!” (Jeremias 50:32). “The beginning of the pride of man, is to fall away from God” (Ecclesiasticus 10:14). “Pride is the beginning of all sin! He that holds it shall be filled with maledictions, and it shall ruin him in the end!” (Ecclesiasticus 10:15). “He that works pride shall not dwell in the midst of my house!” (Psalm 100:7). “Never suffer pride to reign in thy mind, or in thy words―for from it all perdition took its beginning!” (Tobias 4:14). “Pride is brought down to Hell!” (Isaias 14:11). “If his pride mounts up to Heaven, he shall be destroyed like a dunghill, and they that has seen him shall say: ‘Where is he?’” (Job 20:6-7).
“Pride is hateful before God and men!” (Ecclesiasticus 10:7). God wants nothing to do with the prideful: “Why is earth and ashes proud?” (Ecclesiasticus 10:9). “Pride was not made for men!” (Ecclesiasticus 10:22). “Every proud man is an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 16:5). “Pride is hateful before God!” (Ecclesiasticus 10:7). “I hate arrogance and pride!” (Proverbs 8:13). “Thy arrogance and the pride of thy heart have deceived thee!” (Jeremias 49:16). “I detest pride!” (Amos 6:8). “The Lord will destroy the house of the proud” (Proverbs 15:25).
Our Lord attacks pride in His parable about the Pharisee and the Publican: “And to some who trusted in themselves as just, and despised others, Jesus spoke also this parable: ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. The Pharisee, standing, prayed thus with himself: “O God, I give Thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men! Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican! I fast twice in a week! I give tithes of all that I possess!” And the Publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards Heaven; but struck his breast, saying: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner!” I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather than the other―because everyone that exalts himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbles himself, shall be exalted!’” (Luke 18:9-14).
If you want to avoid failure, then you need to avoid pride. If you want to be successful, then you need to be humble: “Humiliation follows the proud” (Proverbs 29:23). “From the beginning the proud have not been acceptable to Thee―but the prayer of the humble and the meek has always pleased Thee” (Judith 9:16). “The Lord will save the humble people―but will bring down the eyes of the proud!” (Psalm 17:28). “God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble!” (James 4:6). “Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, proud, haughty, puffed up! Having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
Any and all good that we have done, are doing, or will do―depends ultimately on the assistance of God’s grace. Hence it was that Christ said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). “So you also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded from you, say: ‘We are unprofitable servants! We have only done that which we ought to do!’” (Luke 17:10). On that point, we would do well to reflect once again on the humbling and pride piercing words of St. Thomas Aquinas on the importance and absolute need of God’s grace in our lives:
“Human nature needs the help of God to do or wish any good whatsoever … Without grace men do nothing good when they either think or wish or love or act! … Without grace men can do no good whatever! … Grace is a light of the soul … Man cannot even know truth without Divine help … Not only do they know by the light of grace what to do, but by its help they do lovingly what they know! … Man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works proportionate to everlasting life―for this a higher force is needed, namely, the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life … Man cannot prepare himself for everlasting life without the help of grace―a gratuitous gift of God, Who moves the soul inwardly or inspires the good wish ... Man’s turning to God is by free-will―but free-will can only be turned to God, when God turns it, according to John 15:5: ‘Without Me, you can do nothing!’ … Man can do nothing unless moved by God.
“Grace is a gift of God … The gift of grace surpasses every capability of created nature … In the state of corrupt nature [after Original Sin] man needs the help of grace to heal his nature … In the state of corrupted nature man cannot fulfill all the Divine commandments without healing grace … St. Augustine says that it is part of the Pelagian heresy to believe that without grace man can fulfill all the Divine commandments … Sanctifying grace is called ‘gratuitous grace’ since it is bestowed on a man beyond the capability of human nature and beyond the merits of the person … Man’s free-will is moved by something which is above the human mind, that is to say, by God … The mind of man is not so great a master of its act that it does not need to be moved by God … God leads everything to love of Himself … … for this it is necessary that the will of man should be prepared with grace by God …
“In the state of corrupt nature, it cannot be that man remains for a long time without mortal sin … Man cannot avoid every act of sin, except by grace … God’s grace is the outcome of His mercy … Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it … Man needs grace to heal his nature, in order that he may entirely abstain from sin … Man by himself can in no way rise from sin without the help of grace … In order for a man rise from sin there is required the help of grace ... According to Jeremias 31:18: ‘Convert me and I shall be converted, for Thou art the Lord, my God!’ and Lamentations 5:21: ‘Convert us, O Lord, to Thee, and we shall be converted!’ … Correction is useful … Correction is necessary in order to abstain from sin; yet correction is not sufficient without God’s help … … Even a man who already possesses grace needs a further assistance of grace in order to live righteously … Hence after anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil until the end of his life. For to many persons grace is given to whom perseverance in grace is not given!” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114; Quaestiones quodlibetales, 4, 6).
You want to avoid failure and desire success―then you need the help of God’s grace, without which you can do nothing good. The only thing you can do without the help of God’s grace is to fail by sinning!
(28) Refusing Help
Refusing help can be linked to a lack of humility and the stubbornness of pride. Refusing help often stems from a deep-seated desire for independence, pride, or fear of being a burden, or becoming indebted to others, or it can be refused due to a need for maintaining personal control of one’s life, or in order to keep up an impression of self-sufficiency. It can also be a defense mechanism rooted in past negative experiences where help was accepted only for everything to turn out badly.
● Pride: There might be a feeling that admitting the need for help shows weakness or incompetence. Some feel ashamed of their situation or the reasons why they need assistance.
● Independence: A person might have cultivated a culture of self-reliance and self-sufficiency, making them too embarrassed to ask for help. They might feel a need to prove to themselves or others that they can manage challenges alone. To them, accepting help could feel like losing control over their situation. They do not want to appear as being needy.
● Privacy Concerns: Some might be afraid that by accepting help, they will be forced to reveal personal or sensitive details about themselves.
● Lack of Awareness: Some might not even realize they need assistance or know it’s available. Or, perhaps they are avoiding facing the severity of a situation by turning down aid. It is a denial mechanism.
● Fear of Strings Attached: Some are worried that help comes with hidden conditions or expectations. If they have had negative experiences when seeking assistance in the past, they might be hesitant to do so again.
● Distrust: Some are uncertain about the motives or abilities of those offering their support. Consequently, they think they can handle things better by themselves.
● Feeling Undeserving: Sometimes a feeling of low self-esteem makes a person feel that they don’t deserve help.
On a spiritual level, it is not uncommon to find most people refusing the help of God’s grace―preferring to “go it alone” because they fear where that help of God’s grace might eventually lead them. Sure―everyone wants to go to Heaven, many if not most expect to get into Heaven, but not everyone wants to do it on God’s terms! Not everyone wants to be saint and to take the difficult means and painful steps to becoming a saint. Ultimately, it is God’s way or the highway―God’s way to Heaven (and eternal success), or the highway to Hell (and eternal failure). We come back to that haunting quote of Our Lord: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) ― therefore, we need to accept the help of His grace! Otherwise we will end up with nothing―nothing but eternal suffering and eternal remorse for our prideful stupidity.
(29) Mental Roadblocks
What are mental roadblocks? We all have them. They are beliefs or impressions or emotions that are subconscious. Thoughts and feelings that exist in the mind and influence our behavior―sometimes without our knowing it. They might be based upon earlier negative experiences in childhood, or in school, or in the workplace or social sphere. We don’t realize we have them, and how much they hinder us.
Technically speaking, a mental block is a temporary, subconscious psychological barrier that hinders us from thinking clearly, making decisions, or pursuing paths. It feels like being stuck in the mud, or experiencing a "brain fog." Mental roadblocks are often caused by stress, fear of failure, perfectionism, or burnout. Some of the chief or common symptoms include the Inability to focus, decision fatigue, memory lapses, lack of creativity ("writer's block"), feeling overwhelmed, or unmotivated.
● Money: Money is a major one. You learn most about money from your parents. If they struggled when you grew up, then you’ll often struggle too. Simply because of your experience and relationship with it. Even when you succeed and get a high-paid job, you can self-sabotage from a subconscious belief that you’re not worthy of it.
● Perfectionism: Another impediment could be that you strive more for perfection than you do progress. It’s the fear of failure and wanting everything to be perfect that stops us. Maybe as children we were told not to make mistakes and were harshly criticized if we made mistakes, and so we struggle to move forward.
● Negative self-talk: Another of the biggest innate beliefs that hold a great majority of people back is that they don’t feel worthy of their dreams. For example: Let’s say you want to get a job at a particular business company, but deep down inside you don’t feel you’re good enough for it. Why would you get the position over everyone else who is, in your limiting perspective, more intelligent, confident, and savvy than you? This type of thinking can lead you to stop in your tracks before you even get started, or ruin your chances in an interview because of your lack of confidence. Ultimately, you create what you believe you can have, so removing these mental roadblocks is the key to succeeding. And until we bring them to the forefront and integrate them, they may keep us from what we set out to accomplish.
A common factor in these mental roadblocks is a lack of trust, dependence and confidence in God and the help of His grace and the wise dictates of His Divine Providence. “Be you humbled under the mighty hand of God, casting all your care upon him, for He has care of you!” (1 Peter 5:6-7). Our Lord went into even more detail when He said: “Behold the birds of the air-- they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns―and your heavenly Father feeds them! Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by being anxious, can add a single hour to his life? And as for clothing―why are you anxious? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow―they do not labor, neither do they spin! But I say to you, that not even King Solomon in all his glory was clothed as one of these! And if the grass of the field―which is here today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven―God does so clothe, then how much more you, O ye of little faith? Be not anxious, saying: ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we be clothed?’ For after all these things do the heathens seek! Your Father knows that you have need of all these things! Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Matthew 6:26-33).
(30) Lack of Ambition to go Above and Beyond
What exactly does this mean: “Lack of ambition to go above and beyond”? Basically, it means doing only what you are asked or told to do―and no more than that. In modern jargon, you would say of such a person that they are a “Minimalist” and perhaps “Legalistic”. Such a person will not refuse to do their duty―but they will do nothing beyond what is their duty. The do the least that they can get away with―hence the name “Minimalist”. From the “legalistic” viewpoint, they will argue that “Nowhere in the contract is it required that I do more! I am fulfilling the contract and this good enough for me!”
Just like there is such a thing as “justified anger” as well as a “sinful anger” ― so too there are two kinds of “Minimalism”. There is a sinful or slothful “Minimalism” that seeks to do the least it can possibly get away with; and there is a virtuous form of “Minimalism” whereby a person avoids the non-essential in order to focus on what’s truly important―clearing away all but the most essential things; clearing away the noise and distractions so we can focus the important things; clearing away all unnecessary or secondary activities. In this article on “reasons for failure”, we are referring to the slothful and sinful kind of “Minimalism” which is always seeking to do less rather than do more―unless, of course, some personal advantage or profit can be gained by doing more on some occasions.
“Doing the minimum” or “Doing the bare minimum”―often called “quiet quitting”― means exerting the smallest amount of effort that you can get away with. It involves performing only the essential tasks required by a job description, or that you are practically or legally required to meet as a rule, obligation, or expectation―refusing to go above and beyond that level; giving no more; showing no extra care; and often having no regard for quality beyond that which is strictly necessary. Such an attitude can eventually weaken and damage our spiritual life; erode and destroy relationships; hinder career growth; make people less competitive; and potentially lead to being viewed as unmotivated or replaceable―by God and by man.
In the spiritual life, you could equate “doing the bare minimum and nothing above and beyond that” with the concept of lukewarmness. Lukewarmness is a spiritual state of indifference, apathy, and lack of fervor, often described as being neither hot nor cold in commitment to God and the Faith. It represents a complacent, middle-ground existence, between total devotion and complete rejection of God. Holy Scripture refers to such an attitude when it says: “He who sows sparingly, shall also reap sparingly!” (2 Corinthians 9:6). We are told: “Ask and it shall be given to you!” (Matthew 7:7)―but if we too lazy to ask or ask half-heartedly or intermittently, then will not receive: “You ask and receive not―because you ask amiss!” (James 4:3). St. Alphonsus Liguori says that “He who prays most receives most!”
The words of God Himself, in Holy Scripture, should be enough to terrify and shake us out this kind of attitude: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot! But, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth!” (Apocalypse 3:15-16).
St. John of the Cross writes: “The peculiarity of lukewarmness is the lack of earnestness and of interior solicitude for the things of God.” (St. John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Bk. I, chap. 9). “Dissipation of the mind engenders in its turn spiritual sloth and lukewarmness, which grow into weariness and sadness in divine things, so that in the end we come to hate them.” (St. John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. III, chap. 21).
Fr. Adolphe Tanquerey, in his book The Spiritual Life, points out that “Lukewarmness consists in a sort of spiritual idleness which saps the energies of the will, inspires one with a horror for effort and thus leads to the decline of the Christian life. It is a kind of sluggishness, a species of lethargy which, though not death as yet, insensibly leads to it through a gradual weakening of our moral forces. To live and grow, our soul needs wholesome spiritual food. Now, the soul is nourished by the various spiritual exercises ― that is, meditation, devout reading, prayer, examinations of conscience, the fulfillment of the duties of state, exercise in the practice of the virtues — all of which keep it in communion with God, the Source of spiritual life. Therefore, if these exercises are performed with negligence, with voluntary distractions, without efforts to react against routine or sluggishness, then the soul is deprived of many graces, is poorly nourished, and becomes weak and incapable of practicing the virtues of the Christian life in face of even little difficulties.
“Then, seeing how little profit he derives from his exercises of piety, he begins to shorten them, and in time suppresses them entirely. The outcome of this spiritual apathy is the gradual weakening of the soul—a species of spiritual anemia—which paves the way for the entrance of unwholesome suggestions of curiosity and sensuality, and frequent temptations arise only to be half-repulsed. At times the heart yields itself to the current of disturbing affections: one commits imprudences and courts danger; venial sins are multiplied and hardly regretted; one glides down a perilous grade, skirts the abyss, and is extremely fortunate to avoid a fall. Besides, pride, never completely subdued, renews its onslaughts. One begins to indulge in self-complacency, to delight in exterior qualities, in outward successes. The better to exalt self, one makes comparisons with others still more lax than oneself, and despises as narrow and small-minded those who are more faithful to duty. This pride brings in its wake envy, jealousy, impatience, anger and harshness in the relations with others. Hence, innumerable deliberate venial sins are committed for which one feels scarcely any compunction, since the light of judgment and delicacy of conscience have been gradually weakened; one lives in habitual dissipation of mind, and performs the examination of conscience carelessly. Thus, horror for sin diminishes, God’s graces become more rare, and the profit derived from them smaller. In a word, there is a weakening of the spiritual organism, which prepares the way to shameful surrenders.” (Fr. Adolphe Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
Fr. Frederick William Faber, in his book Growth in Holiness, finishes his chapter on Lukewarmness with the following words: “I fear this evil of lukewarmness is very common, and that at this moment it is gnawing the life out of many souls who do not even suspect its presence. It is a great grace, a prophecy of a miraculous cure, to find out that we are lukewarm; but we are lost if we do not act with vigor at the moment we make this frightening discovery. It is like going to sleep in the snow, almost a pleasant tingling feeling at the first, but then, if we don’t get up―lost forever!”
(31) Afraid to Stand Out Among the Crowd
This notion of “being afraid to stand-out among the crowd” can be confusing since Our Lord and Holy Scripture seem to say the opposite. Our Lord condemns the Pharisees for seeking to stand out among the crowd: “Take heed that you do not your justice before men, so as to be seen by them―otherwise you shall not have a reward from your Father Who is in Heaven! Therefore when you do an alms-deed, sound not a trumpet before you―as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. But when you give alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand does, so that your alms may be done in secret, and your Father Who sees in secret will repay you! And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, that love to stand and pray in the synagogues and corners of the streets, so that they may be seen by men! Amen I say to you, they have received their reward! But when you pray, enter into your chamber and, having shut the door, pray to your Father in secret―and your Father Who sees in secret will repay you! … And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites―sad. For they disfigure their faces, so that they may appear unto men to be fasting! Amen I say to you, they have received their reward! But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face―so that you do appear to fast, and your Father Who sees in secret, will repay you! … Therefore be not like them!” (Matthew 6:1-17).
Yet, on the other hand, Our Lord both explicitly and implicitly also says the contrary: “And Jesus said to them: ‘Go ye into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature! Teach ye all nations; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you!’” [Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:19-20). “You are the light of the world! A city seated on a mountain cannot be hidden! Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bucket, but upon a candlestick, so that it may shine and give light to all that are in the house! So let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 5:16). Holy Scripture adds: “For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you to be the light of the Gentiles; so that you may be a means of salvation unto the utmost part of the Earth!” (Acts 13:47). “Be blameless and without reproof, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world!” (Philippians 2:15). “In all things show yourself an example of good works!” (Titus 2:7). “Be an example to the faithful in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in chastity!” (1 Timothy 4:12). “Sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, being ready always to satisfy everyone that asks you a reason for that hope which is in you!” (1 Peter 3:15). “Let us do good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the Faith!” (Galatians 6:10).
The simple answer to the above dilemma of an apparent and confusing contradiction is that (1) in life, many things have to be done publicly and many things have to done privately―we can talk with a person publicly and we can also pray for them privately; we can correct a person privately and, if that fails to work, we can correct them publicly; some information is publicly available, whereas some information is kept private from the public; there are things that a priest, a doctor or an employer can reveal about you and there are things that they are not allowed to reveal about you. (2) In the life of the Church, there are generally two kinds of Religious Orders―Active Religious Orders and Contemplative Religious Orders. The Active Religious Orders are usually in the “public eye” for they go out to preach, to teach and perform works of charity. The Contemplative Religious Orders are usually hidden from the “public eye” by being “cloistered”―that is to say, spending the majority of their lives hidden behind the walls of their monastery or convent, being mainly focused upon the contemplative life or spiritual life―praying, meditating, studying, living in mortification, performing sacrifices and penances, and perhaps also writing spiritual books and articles.
Yet whichever Religious Order it might be―Active or Contemplative―or whether it be the Catholic clergy or the Catholic laity―they are all called to stand out above and beyond the rest of the world by being saints. Saints stand out! Not in a proud way―but by the sheer fact that they are not like the rest of the world. They are called to separate themselves from the world and rise above the world. The world does not produce saints―so if you want to be a saint, then you must separate yourself from the world. If you want to go to Heaven, then you have to want to be a saint―for only saints go to Heaven. Furthermore, the world is an enemy of God and Heaven. The more you separate yourself from the world, then the more you stand out like a “sore-thumb” and will be hated by the world! Holy Scripture is full of quotes that confirm this.
Our Lord Himself said: “I am not of this world! … My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world … My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 8:23; 18:36). “The prince of this world [the devil] is coming, and in Me he has not anything!” (John 14:30). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). Concerning His followers, Jesus says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world” (John 17:16). To His followers He says: “You shall be hated by all men and all nations for My Name’s sake! … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own! But because you are not of the world―for I have chosen you out of the world―therefore the world hates you!” (Matthew 10:22; 24:9; John 15:19). “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 7:7).
Which is why Holy Scripture adds fighting-talk that we mainly choose and like to ignore: “Whatsoever is born of God, overcomes the world! And this is the victory which overcomes the world―our Faith!” (1 John 5:4). “Wonder not, brethren, if the world hates you!” (1 John 3:13). “They are of the world―therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them!” (1 John 4:5). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “For they that are according to the flesh, mind the things that are of the flesh―but they that are according to the spirit, mind the things that are of the spirit. For the wisdom of the flesh is death―but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace. Because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God―for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. And they who are in the flesh, cannot please God.” (Romans 8:5-8). “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4).
If you follow the above counsels and put them into practice, then it is unavoidably obvious that you will “stand-out among the crowd” ― but that is what scares most people and that is why most people end up losing their souls. They “sit down for fear of rocking the boat” of the world, they feel they must “sit-down-and-shut-up”! In theory they might want to be saints, but in practice they are afraid to be saints―afraid of what the world might think and say; and afraid of what it might cost them in becoming a saint.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, in his book The Three Ages of the Interior Life, writes: “The one thing necessary — which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary — consists in hearing the word of God and living by it. St. Alphonsus Liguori, in ‘The Way of Salvation and of Perfection’, writes: ‘One thing is necessary! The salvation of our souls. It is not necessary to be great, noble, or rich in this world, or to enjoy uninterrupted health; but it is necessary to save our souls. For this purpose has God placed us here―not to acquire honors, riches, or pleasures, but to acquire, by our good works, that eternal kingdom which is prepared for those who, during this present life, fight against and overcome the enemies of their eternal salvation’ (The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, Part 1, Meditation 17).
“The interior life is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life, or the cultivation of the sciences, more profound than artistic or literary life, more profound than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science, as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good, in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity, which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
“There are some who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles, and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. Our Lord adds. “One thing is necessary,” He tells us. To save our soul, one thing alone is necessary ― to hear the word of God and to live by it. Failure to listen to this lesson, is to work at one’s destruction.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Sometimes that path to sanctity and Heaven will require that we publicly stand-out above and beyond the crowd―made up of the world and also worldly Catholics. Sometimes that path to sanctity and Heaven will require that pray, suffer and act in secret. Both modes of action are necessary and both modes must be practiced.
(32) Fear of Failure
There are several ways of looking at failure. We can liken it to the proverbial comment of how people view a glass of water that is half-full. Some see the glass as being “half-empty” and some see the glass as being “half-full.” Failure is usually viewed negatively―as being something bad. Yet, as Faith teaches, God is always seeking to bring good out of evil. Holy Mother Church, in the Easter Liturgy, furnishes us with a quote on that subject when it speaks of failure of Adam by committing Original Sin, which ended up bringing about the incarnation of the Son of God in order to rescue us and free us from the evils of Original Sin and, consequently, our own Actual Sins (Mortal and Venial). At the Easter Vigil when the Exultet is sung, we hear the words: “O truly necessary sin of Adam, which the death of Christ has blotted out! O happy fault, that merited such and so great a Redeemer!” (Latin: “O certe necessarium Adae peccatum, quod Christi morte deletum est! O felix culpa, quae talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorem!”).
Before we resume with the next point on our list of 40 chief reasons why we fail ― #20 “Arguing Against Advice Instead of Taking It” ― let us perhaps take the advice found in the following quotes from secular persons. Their names have been removed―for it not so much a case of WHO said it, but more a case of WHAT they said. It also removes the perennial problem of being biased as to who we will listen and who we refuse to listen―which is based more on the quality (or lack thereof) of the person speaking, rather than quality of the advice given. So here are some “anonymous” quotes for your perusal―which will hopefully give you hope in your hopeless failures!
● “Failure is not the opposite to success, it’s part of success.”
● “Failure is success in progress.”
● “Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success.”
● “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
● “Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”
● “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
● “Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.”
● “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
● “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”
● “There is no failure except in no longer trying.”
● “Giving up is the only sure way to fail.”
● “Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. “
● “Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be.”
● “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better [meaning fail less badly].”
● “We are all failures―at least the best of us are!”
● “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
● “It’s failure that gives you the proper perspective on success.”
● “It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.”
● “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on them.”
● “Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success.”
● “Use failures to teach you, not to define you.”
The simple truth is ― no great success was ever achieved without failure. It may have been one epic failure. Or a series of failures ― such as Edison’s 10,000 attempts to create a light bulb or Dyson’s 5,126 attempts to invent a bagless vacuum cleaner. But, whether we like it or not, failure is a necessary stepping stone to achieving our dreams and also in achieving holiness and eventually reaching Heaven.
Let us now get back to the grindstone of failure and our examination of 40 chief reasons for failure―we have reached #20 in our list of 40. So here goes!
(20) Arguing Against Advice Instead of Taking It
People usually hate advice because it hurts their ego. Taking advice can imply that what you are doing is wrong or that you are going about it the wrong way. That is often the reason why people have a strong aversion to receiving advice―for it would make the advice giver “superior” and the advice taker “inferior.” Research shows people who feel they are powerful or superior, are less likely to take advice because it can make them feel like they are not in control. Another reason why people hate advice, especially the unsolicited kind, is that when you tell them what to do they reject the advice because it wasn't their idea. They look upon your unsolicited advice as an intrusion and an insult. So, power dynamics can play a big role in whether or not someone takes advice. It is a battle between humility and pride―and pride usually triumphs and the advice is rejected.
There are two things that can overcome this resistance to advice. The first one is obviously God: “God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble!” (James 4:6) ― so too will God withhold His advice from the proud, but will give His advice to the humble. “If any of you wants wisdom, then let him ask of God and it shall be given to him!” (James 1:5) … “Lean not upon your own prudence, but have confidence in the Lord with all your heart, and He will direct your steps!” (Proverbs 3:5-6) “Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths!” (Psalm 118:105). “I will give you understanding, and I will instruct you in the way in which you shalt go!” (Psalm 31:8). “To them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to His purpose, are called to be saints!” (Romans 8:28).
When we give advice or receive advice from humans, the act of giving advice comes across as an “in your face” intrusive action―whereas with God, very few people actually realize that God is advising them and simply think that they are talking to themselves or following their own imagination, God’s grace usually works silently and imperceptibly―thus making us drop our guard and our instinctive, “knee-jerk” resistance to advice.
The second way that advice can be more effectively communicated is by example, rather than words―for “actions speak louder than words.” Thus Our Lord says: “Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works” (Matthew 5:16) ― with the added hope that they will imitate your good works of their own free-will, rather than being told or advised to do so. As someone once said: “A good example has twice the value of good advice!”
Nevertheless, Holy Scripture recommends that we humbly take advice: “He that trusts in his own heart is a fool!” (Proverbs 28:26). “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes―but he that is wise, listens to counsels!” (Proverbs 12:15). “Hear counsel and receive instruction, so that you may be wise!” [Proverbs 19:20). ). “There is safety where there is much counsel!” (Proverbs 11:14). “Plans are brought to nothing where there is no counsel―but where there are many counselors, then those plans are established!” (Proverbs 15:22). “He that walks with the wise, shall be wise―but friend of fools shall become a fool like them!” (Proverbs 13:20). “He that rejects instruction, despises his own soul!” (Proverbs 15:32).
“Hear instruction! … Listen to My words, and incline thy ear to My sayings! Let them not depart from your eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart! … Forsake not My law! ... Take hold of instruction, leave it not! Keep it, because it is your life! … Receive My words, so that years of your life may be multiplied! … Let thy heart receive My words, keep My commandments, and you shall live! Neither forget nor decline from the words of My mouth! … I will show you the way of wisdom, I will lead you by the paths of equity!” (Proverbs 4:1-21).
“Everyone that hears My words and does them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a―and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock! And everyone that hears My words, and does not do them, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand―and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof!” (Matthew 7:24-27).
(21) Refusing All Criticism
This particular point is closely linked to the previous one. Refusing advice and refusing criticism could be said to be “flip-sides-of-the-same-coin” ― whereby advice is usually positive and criticism is usually negative. When “push-comes-to-shove”, most people would prefer to receive advice rather than receive criticism. If receiving advice implies that you are doing something wrong or not as well as you should be―then criticism is a blatant slap-in-the-face that does not imply, but clearly states that you are wrong! Thus advice is less painful than criticism.
The word “criticism” hardly appears in the Bible, but the principle most certainly does. Terms such as “rebuke”, “reproof”, “correction” and “admonishment” are all forms of it, and even “instruction” carries with it an element of criticism. The Bible strongly advises against refusing criticism, associating the rejection of correction with foolishness and destruction: “The man who despises him that reproves him, shall suddenly be destroyed!” (Proverbs 29:1). “Poverty and shame to him that refuses instruction!” (Proverbs 13:18). “He that observes correction finds the way of life, but he that rejects reproofs goes astray!” (Proverbs 10:17). “He that loves correction, loves knowledge―but he that hates reproof is foolish!” (Proverbs 12:1). “I am assured of you, that you a are full of love and filled with all knowledge, so that you are able to admonish one another!” (Romans 15:14). “If a man be overtaken in any fault, you, who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted!” (Galatians 6:1).
The chief goal in any Christian relationship should be to help others grow to be more and more like Christ. This does not mean that the recipient will not hear painful words―but that the message will be delivered with the good intention of building the person up, rather than tearing them down.
(22) Giving too much Importance to Feelings and Emotions
Feelings and emotions are like children―they are not meant to rule, but have be ruled and controlled by their “parents” which are the intellect and the will. Parents need to pay attention to their children, but they not meant to ruled by their children.
Being ruled by feelings—or emotional dysregulation—means struggling to manage intense emotions, leading to impulsive actions, mood swings, manifesting reactions that are disproportionate to events, and difficulty in calming down. Examples include road rage; explosive outburst over trivial matters or secondary unimportant things; storming out of situations; and becoming easily triggered or oversensitive. It often causes the "thinking brain" to shut down, resulting in high stress and anxiety levels, poor decision-making, and strained relationships. Common signs include frequent outbursts, irritability, and using unhealthy coping mechanisms. While emotions and feelings are a natural part of being human, developing skills to regulate them is essential for reducing their control over your behavior and taking control of them.
Emotional dysregulation means having difficulty managing your emotions and the way you react to them. When this happens, your feelings or reactions might seem stronger or more intense than what others might expect in a given situation. Emotional regulation, on the other hand, is the ability to understand and manage your emotions in healthy ways. Most people begin learning these skills in childhood and improve them as they grow older. Being able to regulate your emotions helps you cope with challenges, adapt to change and respond to life’s ups and downs more effectively.
It’s normal for young children to have temper tantrums as they learn to manage their emotions. These outbursts are a typical part of development while children are still learning how to express feelings in healthy ways. As they get older, most children develop better coping skills, so tantrums happen less often and eventually stop. However, if these skills don’t fully develop, emotional dysregulation can continue into teen or adult years and can affect how you feel, speak and act.
Common signs and symptoms include:
● Acting impulsively
● Emotions that get in the way of setting or reaching goals
● Feeling frustrated easily by small problems or annoyances
● Having trouble calming down once upset or feeling emotionally “out of control”
● Losing your temper often
● Frequent ood swings
● Ongoing irritability or anger between outbursts
● Saying or doing things you later regret when upset
● Shutting down or going numb when overwhelmed (feeling “blank,” zoning out or withdrawing)
● Sometimes, big feelings burst outward (like yelling or slamming doors). Other times, they turn inward (going quiet or checking out). Both are common ways your brain and body try to cope when emotions feel too strong.
The Bible presents emotions as a God-given elements of human nature―an essential part of life,. However, Holy Scripture highlights the need to manage feelings and emotions by our reason and will, with the assistance of God’s grace, rather than allowing ourselves to be controlled by them. Emotions are meant to be a God-given help, not suppressed, but to be controlled. Control is not the same thing as suppression. The purpose of emotions is to help us relate to God, understand our hearts, and react to situations, often serving as a gauge for what we value.
Thomas Aquinas viewed emotions (which he calls “passions”) as being neutral, bodily-rooted movements in response to perceived good or evil. Far from evil―when properly ordered by reason and directed toward virtue―they act as, positive energies for moral action, rather than threats to be eliminated. St. Thomas Aquinas divided the 11 main passions into two categories based on their relationship to the object:
(1) Concupiscible Passions (Gentler/Immediate): These passions/emotions concern anything that is good or evil in itself—love, desire, joy, hatred, aversion, and sadness.
(2) Irascible Passions (Arduous/Difficult): These passions/emotions concern a good or evil that is difficult to obtain or avoid—hope, despair, daring, fear, and anger.
All of these passions/emotions are found in the Bible as a means to doing what is right, pleasing God and to attaining Heaven. “Hate evil, and love good!” (Amos 5:15). “Bless God at all times and desire of him to direct thy ways!” (Tobias 4:20). “Serve the Lord thy God with joy” (Deuteronomy 28:47), “The fear of the Lord hates evil” (Proverbs 8:13). “You that love the Lord, hate evil!” (Psalm 96:10). “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy” (John 16:20). “Hope in God … The Lord takes pleasure in them hope in his mercy!” (Psalms 41:6; 146:11). “It is dangerous to drive people to despair (2 Kings 2:26) “Wherein if any man dare, I dare also!” (2 Corinthians 11:21). “Fear the Lord God! … The fear of the Lord hates evil … The fear of the Lord drives out sin” (Exodus 9:30; Proverbs 8:13; Ecclesiasticus 1:27). “Be angry, and sin not! … Anger is better than laughter―because by the sadness of the mind of the offender is corrected” (Ephesians 4:26; Ecclesiastes 7:4).
(23) Lack of Focus
As with some of the other points in this examination of the reasons why we fail, “Lack of Focus” and the next point, “Too Distracted” are somewhat interlinked. Lack of focus can be caused by distraction and it can also exist without distraction. We all have many things that require our focus―both at home and at work―yet we can sometimes be guilty is giving those focal points the wrong value and making less important focal points much too important; and making important focal points much less important. Often it is personal preferences or pleasure that dictates this shuffling around of focal points.
Focus is a skill that helps you to concentrate on a task. It helps to shut out distractions and encourage productivity. When you feel focused, you’re less likely to have to try as hard to pay attention to the task at hand. Your mind may feel clearer during periods of focus, which can allow you to remain absorbed in what’s important to you during that time.
There are many different types of focus that come together to help you pay attention.
● Inner focus is where you tune into your thoughts and feelings so you can understand yourself better. When you're aware of what's happening inside your head, it's easier to sort your thoughts and maintain concentration.
● Outer focus means being aware of the world around you. Outer focus helps you notice the details in your environment and understand how it all fits together.
● Other focus is about people other than yourself. It's the kind of focus you use when listening to a friend, understanding how someone else is feeling, or working together with people to get something done.
Everyone has moments when their focus slips—maybe you feel tired, you're in a noisy place, or you just have a lot on your mind. That's perfectly normal. The trick is to recognize when your focus is drifting and bring it back to where it needs to be.
On several occasions Holy Scripture speaks of this need for being focused: “Let thy eyes look straight on!” (Proverbs 4:25). “Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the Earth!” (Colossians 3:2). “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice!” (Matthew 6:33). “No man putting his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God!” (Luke 9:62). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal! But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal! For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24).
(24) Too Distracted
O boy are we too distracted!!! The modern world is one big quagmire of distraction―especially so since the advent of the internet and a massive variety of electronic gadgets! Each day is loaded and downloaded with distractions waiting to happen! Distraction has become an addiction! It has become so bad that many people are incapable of living without their daily distractions!
Hand-in-hand with distraction goes attention span. Research shows that currently the average attention spans have dropped significantly over the past two decades, with estimates suggesting a fall from 2.5 minutes to roughly 40 seconds for single tasks. Amazing! Incredible! Shocking! Tragic! Try and translate those numbers into the setting of attendance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; into praying the Holy Rosary; into spiritual reading or into meditation; into learning the Catechism!!! What a mess! It is not surprising that most Catholics do not even know all the Ten Commandments, or the Six Chief Commandments of the Church, or the required conditions for a good and valid Confession, or the Seven Sacraments. There are even some teenagers who cannot name the Persons of the Holy Trinity, nor the number and authors of the Gospels!
Our Lord warned about distractions choking the Word of God: “The cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts after other things―entering in, choke the Word of God, and it is made fruitless!” (Mark 4:19). We see Our Lord rebuke Martha for being too distracted with household chores that she missed out on sitting with her sister Mary listening to Our Lord’s teachings: “Martha was busy about much serving. Who stood and said: ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me alone to serve? Speak to her therefore, that she help me!’ And the Lord answering, said to her: ‘Martha, Martha, you are careful and are troubled about many things! But one thing is necessary! Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her!’” (Luke 10:40-42).
“Let your eyes look straight on, and let your eyelids go before your steps! Make straight the path for your feet, and all your ways shall be established. Decline not to the right hand, nor to the left! Turn away thy foot from evil! For the Lord knows the ways that are on the right hand― but those are perverse which are on the left hand. The Lord will make your courses straight, He will bring forward your ways in peace!” (Proverbs 4:25-27). “Let no temptation [distraction] take hold on you God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted [distracted] above that which you are able―but He will also make issue with the temptation [distraction], so that you may be able to bear it!” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
(25) Relying on Motivation Alone
You could link this point to a whole host of secular sayings, such as: “Mere wishful thinking!” … “All theory, but no practice!” … “All talk and no action!” … Talking the talk, but not walking the walk!” … “All smoke and mirrors!” … “A storm with no rain” … “Smoke but no fire!” … etc.
Enthusiasm or Motivation is like a seed. Enthusiasm or Motivation is not enough for success; it must be joined with endurance, resilience, and consistent action. While initial excitement drives a person to starting a project, long-term success requires maintaining commitment through boredom, difficulties, challenges, disappointments and setbacks. True achievement demands planning, acquiring skills, growing in strength and grit, rather than overly relying on mere passion, enthusiasm or motivation alone. Enthusiasm is common, but endurance is rare; many stop when the initial excitement wears off. You often see the “honeymoon effect” come into play, where passion often fades once the hard work has to begin.
One has to learn to what to combine with Enthusiasm/Motivation. Firstly, consistency is needed, where sustained effort over time will always beat short-term intensity. Secondly, the non-exciting aspect of discipline must be practiced, which means following through on tasks even when unmotivated. Thirdly, one must realize that skills must be learned and developed―for knowing how to execute the work is as crucial as wanting to do it. To succeed, you must move from initial passion to committed endurance, focusing on the work even when the "honeymoon phase" of intense motivation or enthusiasm weakens or ends.
Enthusiasm or Motivation is nevertheless very important. Enthusiasm is a powerful motivator, but it often requires coupling with action, discipline, and strategy to achieve results. While nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm, action is required: "It is not good enough for things to be planned—they still have to be done. In order for the intention that motivates us to become a reality, it is required that our energetic enthusiasm has to be launched into practical operation. You have to have a dream, a goal―but you have to be willing to work for it. Enthusiasm or Motivation is the fuel, but action is the vehicle.
Enthusiasm is like a fire―but creating the spark to ignite and enkindle the first flame requires much effort. The traditional flint and steel method of fire starting requires persevering effort rather than wishful enthusiastic thinking. The principle of this method is based on friction. Steel is struck against the sharp edge of a hard stone, and sparks form as the rock peels away tiny pieces of heated steel. The sparks are directed to the very fine, dry tinder bundle that has been prepared to accept them when they fall. The spark is then blown into flame. For a flint and steel fire to be successful, you must use very fine, dry tinder. Sparks created in this manner are short lived―like enthusiasm―and need to fall onto material that will capture and retain the small amount of heat generated. If the spark has begun to ignite the tinder, a small wisp of smoke will be present, and a tiny glow will be seen. One must blow the tinder into flame. If the tinder does not catch, continue striking sparks. Yet the need for effort does not end there―once you have started a fire (enthusiasm), you must work even more to feed that further with more solid combustible materials―otherwise your fire will soon be extinguished.
Teams―whether in sports or in business―cannot win on motivation alone, because high energy without clear direction, methodical structure, and sustained competence leads to burnout, not success. Sustainable performance requires clear goals, consistent discipline, and effective collaboration rather than just hype. Motivation is essential, but it must be supported by other foundational elements like clear roles, solid training, hard work, sustained effort, physical or mental fitness, mutual trust, and a shared purpose.
As one sports team coach writes: “The debate of motivation versus discipline is ever-present. While motivation provides an initial spark, it is a discipline that fuels the long-term engine of team performance. As a coach, I've witnessed firsthand the pitfalls of relying solely on motivational speeches, which, like simple sugars, offer only a temporary boost. Motivation can elevate a team's spirit, but its effects are often short-lived. The problem with relying solely on motivation is that it doesn't address the underlying issues that affect a team's resilience and consistency. Once the initial excitement fades, the team is left without the necessary framework to overcome ongoing challenges.”
Holy Scripture furnishes both encouragement and validation for Enthusiasm/Motivation―urging us on to be enthusiastic and motivated, but also telling us that enthusiasm/motivation without consequent actions will lead to failure: “Whatsoever you do, do it from the heart” (Colossians 3:23). “Serving the Lord in a fervent spirit” (Romans 12:11). “They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall take wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint!” (Isaias 40:31). “Have confidence in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not upon your own prudence! In all your ways think on Him, and He will direct your steps!” (Proverbs 3:5-6). “May God supply all your needs” (Philippians 4:19).
“I can do all these things in Him Who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, thereby deceiving your own selves! … Faith without works is dead!” (James 1:22; 2:20). “Work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). “In much work there shall be abundance―but where there are many words, there is oftentimes shortage!” (Proverbs 14:23). “In your labor wherewith you labor under the sun, whatsoever your hand is able to do, do it earnestly!” (Ecclesiastes 9:9-10).
(26) Full of Presumption
The word “presumption” comes from the Latin verb “praesumere”, meaning “to take before” or “to take for granted.” In Catholic teaching, presumption is a sin against the theological virtue of hope. It is a form of spiritual laziness or mediocrity, often resulting from pride and a failure to recognize one’s own need for repentance. It occurs when a person, relying on their own strength or misusing God's mercy, expects salvation without merit, or forgiveness without repentance. It is often described as prideful, assuming salvation is guaranteed without effort or change.
There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities―hoping to be able to do things and save himself without help from God. Or man presumes upon God’s almighty power or God’s mercy―by hoping to obtain God’s forgiveness without conversion and attain glory without meriting it. The first kind of presumption has been around for a long time. The heresy of Pelagianism, which proposed humanity was so good as to not need redemption, is a type of presumption. It denied Original Sin and promoted a belief in human goodness independent from divine grace.
The second kind of presumption is often manifested in the idea: “Once saved, always saved!” Yes―we are surely redeemed by Christ in our Baptism, but afterwards we can freely choose to reject this gift through serious sin. As St. Paul writes: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) We are also warned: “If we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a dreadful expectation of judgment, and a fury of a raging fire which will consume the adversaries.” (Hebrews 10:26-27). Our Lord makes it clear that there are some who will come to Him presuming their entrance into Heaven but their presumption will be met with these frightening words: “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me.” (Luke 13:27). Jesus presents this teaching not to reveal that He is harsh with those who are presumptuous; rather, He presents it as an act of great mercy for those stuck in this sin. It takes this startling revelation to shake a person free of this sin. In this case, it is the fear of one day hearing these words from Jesus that will help those who are stuck in presumption to break free and to face the truth.
Presumption is a dangerous sin. It’s dangerous for two reasons.
Firstly, when people are presumptuous, they are living in denial of the truth. In regard to God, presumption means that the persons act as if they are in a relationship with God when they are not. They may say holy things, act holy and even believe they are holy, while in fact they do not know our Lord at all. Thus, presumption is when one lives in denial of the truth.
Secondly, presumption is dangerous because the presumptuous person will not repent of his or her own sin. This is because their denial makes it impossible for them to admit their sin. Without admitting their sin, they cannot subsequently admit their need to change. They remain steeped in their false thinking and their sin.
Presumption hardens our hearts and leads to a loss of sensitivity to sin, fostering mediocrity or spiritual laziness. Presumption is more widespread than we would like to imagine or admit. Perhaps we need to ask ourselves a few simple questions and answer them in all honesty―without rationalizing, fudging, masking, tweaking, or painting over the truth:
● Have I assumed God would forgive me without true sorrow or changed behavior rather than truly trusting His mercy?
● Have I relied on God’s mercy as an excuse to sin, thinking “God is merciful, so it doesn’t matter what I do,” instead of seeking to please Him and avoid sin?
● Have I prioritized my own desires and comfort over God’s commandments and the needs of others?
● Have I believed I am “saved” or destined for heaven without consistently striving for holiness or working out my salvation with “fear and trembling?”
● Have I prioritized my own desires and comfort over God’s commandments and His will?
● Do I believe that I can save myself or be good enough without God’s grace?
● Do I confess my sins superficially, knowing I can keep sinning because God will forgive me or do I genuinely hate my sins because they offend God?
(27) Lack of Humility
Failure is inextricably linked to a lack of humility and the flip-side of the same coin, which is pride. “The proud shall fall!” (Ecclesiasticus 23:8). “Pride goes before destruction; and the soul is lifted up before a fall!” (Proverbs 16:18). “The proud one shall fall, he shall fall down, and there shall be none to lift him up!” (Jeremias 50:32). “The beginning of the pride of man, is to fall away from God” (Ecclesiasticus 10:14). “Pride is the beginning of all sin! He that holds it shall be filled with maledictions, and it shall ruin him in the end!” (Ecclesiasticus 10:15). “He that works pride shall not dwell in the midst of my house!” (Psalm 100:7). “Never suffer pride to reign in thy mind, or in thy words―for from it all perdition took its beginning!” (Tobias 4:14). “Pride is brought down to Hell!” (Isaias 14:11). “If his pride mounts up to Heaven, he shall be destroyed like a dunghill, and they that has seen him shall say: ‘Where is he?’” (Job 20:6-7).
“Pride is hateful before God and men!” (Ecclesiasticus 10:7). God wants nothing to do with the prideful: “Why is earth and ashes proud?” (Ecclesiasticus 10:9). “Pride was not made for men!” (Ecclesiasticus 10:22). “Every proud man is an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 16:5). “Pride is hateful before God!” (Ecclesiasticus 10:7). “I hate arrogance and pride!” (Proverbs 8:13). “Thy arrogance and the pride of thy heart have deceived thee!” (Jeremias 49:16). “I detest pride!” (Amos 6:8). “The Lord will destroy the house of the proud” (Proverbs 15:25).
Our Lord attacks pride in His parable about the Pharisee and the Publican: “And to some who trusted in themselves as just, and despised others, Jesus spoke also this parable: ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. The Pharisee, standing, prayed thus with himself: “O God, I give Thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men! Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican! I fast twice in a week! I give tithes of all that I possess!” And the Publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards Heaven; but struck his breast, saying: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner!” I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather than the other―because everyone that exalts himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbles himself, shall be exalted!’” (Luke 18:9-14).
If you want to avoid failure, then you need to avoid pride. If you want to be successful, then you need to be humble: “Humiliation follows the proud” (Proverbs 29:23). “From the beginning the proud have not been acceptable to Thee―but the prayer of the humble and the meek has always pleased Thee” (Judith 9:16). “The Lord will save the humble people―but will bring down the eyes of the proud!” (Psalm 17:28). “God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble!” (James 4:6). “Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, proud, haughty, puffed up! Having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
Any and all good that we have done, are doing, or will do―depends ultimately on the assistance of God’s grace. Hence it was that Christ said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). “So you also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded from you, say: ‘We are unprofitable servants! We have only done that which we ought to do!’” (Luke 17:10). On that point, we would do well to reflect once again on the humbling and pride piercing words of St. Thomas Aquinas on the importance and absolute need of God’s grace in our lives:
“Human nature needs the help of God to do or wish any good whatsoever … Without grace men do nothing good when they either think or wish or love or act! … Without grace men can do no good whatever! … Grace is a light of the soul … Man cannot even know truth without Divine help … Not only do they know by the light of grace what to do, but by its help they do lovingly what they know! … Man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works proportionate to everlasting life―for this a higher force is needed, namely, the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life … Man cannot prepare himself for everlasting life without the help of grace―a gratuitous gift of God, Who moves the soul inwardly or inspires the good wish ... Man’s turning to God is by free-will―but free-will can only be turned to God, when God turns it, according to John 15:5: ‘Without Me, you can do nothing!’ … Man can do nothing unless moved by God.
“Grace is a gift of God … The gift of grace surpasses every capability of created nature … In the state of corrupt nature [after Original Sin] man needs the help of grace to heal his nature … In the state of corrupted nature man cannot fulfill all the Divine commandments without healing grace … St. Augustine says that it is part of the Pelagian heresy to believe that without grace man can fulfill all the Divine commandments … Sanctifying grace is called ‘gratuitous grace’ since it is bestowed on a man beyond the capability of human nature and beyond the merits of the person … Man’s free-will is moved by something which is above the human mind, that is to say, by God … The mind of man is not so great a master of its act that it does not need to be moved by God … God leads everything to love of Himself … … for this it is necessary that the will of man should be prepared with grace by God …
“In the state of corrupt nature, it cannot be that man remains for a long time without mortal sin … Man cannot avoid every act of sin, except by grace … God’s grace is the outcome of His mercy … Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it … Man needs grace to heal his nature, in order that he may entirely abstain from sin … Man by himself can in no way rise from sin without the help of grace … In order for a man rise from sin there is required the help of grace ... According to Jeremias 31:18: ‘Convert me and I shall be converted, for Thou art the Lord, my God!’ and Lamentations 5:21: ‘Convert us, O Lord, to Thee, and we shall be converted!’ … Correction is useful … Correction is necessary in order to abstain from sin; yet correction is not sufficient without God’s help … … Even a man who already possesses grace needs a further assistance of grace in order to live righteously … Hence after anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil until the end of his life. For to many persons grace is given to whom perseverance in grace is not given!” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114; Quaestiones quodlibetales, 4, 6).
You want to avoid failure and desire success―then you need the help of God’s grace, without which you can do nothing good. The only thing you can do without the help of God’s grace is to fail by sinning!
(28) Refusing Help
Refusing help can be linked to a lack of humility and the stubbornness of pride. Refusing help often stems from a deep-seated desire for independence, pride, or fear of being a burden, or becoming indebted to others, or it can be refused due to a need for maintaining personal control of one’s life, or in order to keep up an impression of self-sufficiency. It can also be a defense mechanism rooted in past negative experiences where help was accepted only for everything to turn out badly.
● Pride: There might be a feeling that admitting the need for help shows weakness or incompetence. Some feel ashamed of their situation or the reasons why they need assistance.
● Independence: A person might have cultivated a culture of self-reliance and self-sufficiency, making them too embarrassed to ask for help. They might feel a need to prove to themselves or others that they can manage challenges alone. To them, accepting help could feel like losing control over their situation. They do not want to appear as being needy.
● Privacy Concerns: Some might be afraid that by accepting help, they will be forced to reveal personal or sensitive details about themselves.
● Lack of Awareness: Some might not even realize they need assistance or know it’s available. Or, perhaps they are avoiding facing the severity of a situation by turning down aid. It is a denial mechanism.
● Fear of Strings Attached: Some are worried that help comes with hidden conditions or expectations. If they have had negative experiences when seeking assistance in the past, they might be hesitant to do so again.
● Distrust: Some are uncertain about the motives or abilities of those offering their support. Consequently, they think they can handle things better by themselves.
● Feeling Undeserving: Sometimes a feeling of low self-esteem makes a person feel that they don’t deserve help.
On a spiritual level, it is not uncommon to find most people refusing the help of God’s grace―preferring to “go it alone” because they fear where that help of God’s grace might eventually lead them. Sure―everyone wants to go to Heaven, many if not most expect to get into Heaven, but not everyone wants to do it on God’s terms! Not everyone wants to be saint and to take the difficult means and painful steps to becoming a saint. Ultimately, it is God’s way or the highway―God’s way to Heaven (and eternal success), or the highway to Hell (and eternal failure). We come back to that haunting quote of Our Lord: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) ― therefore, we need to accept the help of His grace! Otherwise we will end up with nothing―nothing but eternal suffering and eternal remorse for our prideful stupidity.
(29) Mental Roadblocks
What are mental roadblocks? We all have them. They are beliefs or impressions or emotions that are subconscious. Thoughts and feelings that exist in the mind and influence our behavior―sometimes without our knowing it. They might be based upon earlier negative experiences in childhood, or in school, or in the workplace or social sphere. We don’t realize we have them, and how much they hinder us.
Technically speaking, a mental block is a temporary, subconscious psychological barrier that hinders us from thinking clearly, making decisions, or pursuing paths. It feels like being stuck in the mud, or experiencing a "brain fog." Mental roadblocks are often caused by stress, fear of failure, perfectionism, or burnout. Some of the chief or common symptoms include the Inability to focus, decision fatigue, memory lapses, lack of creativity ("writer's block"), feeling overwhelmed, or unmotivated.
● Money: Money is a major one. You learn most about money from your parents. If they struggled when you grew up, then you’ll often struggle too. Simply because of your experience and relationship with it. Even when you succeed and get a high-paid job, you can self-sabotage from a subconscious belief that you’re not worthy of it.
● Perfectionism: Another impediment could be that you strive more for perfection than you do progress. It’s the fear of failure and wanting everything to be perfect that stops us. Maybe as children we were told not to make mistakes and were harshly criticized if we made mistakes, and so we struggle to move forward.
● Negative self-talk: Another of the biggest innate beliefs that hold a great majority of people back is that they don’t feel worthy of their dreams. For example: Let’s say you want to get a job at a particular business company, but deep down inside you don’t feel you’re good enough for it. Why would you get the position over everyone else who is, in your limiting perspective, more intelligent, confident, and savvy than you? This type of thinking can lead you to stop in your tracks before you even get started, or ruin your chances in an interview because of your lack of confidence. Ultimately, you create what you believe you can have, so removing these mental roadblocks is the key to succeeding. And until we bring them to the forefront and integrate them, they may keep us from what we set out to accomplish.
A common factor in these mental roadblocks is a lack of trust, dependence and confidence in God and the help of His grace and the wise dictates of His Divine Providence. “Be you humbled under the mighty hand of God, casting all your care upon him, for He has care of you!” (1 Peter 5:6-7). Our Lord went into even more detail when He said: “Behold the birds of the air-- they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns―and your heavenly Father feeds them! Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by being anxious, can add a single hour to his life? And as for clothing―why are you anxious? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow―they do not labor, neither do they spin! But I say to you, that not even King Solomon in all his glory was clothed as one of these! And if the grass of the field―which is here today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven―God does so clothe, then how much more you, O ye of little faith? Be not anxious, saying: ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we be clothed?’ For after all these things do the heathens seek! Your Father knows that you have need of all these things! Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Matthew 6:26-33).
(30) Lack of Ambition to go Above and Beyond
What exactly does this mean: “Lack of ambition to go above and beyond”? Basically, it means doing only what you are asked or told to do―and no more than that. In modern jargon, you would say of such a person that they are a “Minimalist” and perhaps “Legalistic”. Such a person will not refuse to do their duty―but they will do nothing beyond what is their duty. The do the least that they can get away with―hence the name “Minimalist”. From the “legalistic” viewpoint, they will argue that “Nowhere in the contract is it required that I do more! I am fulfilling the contract and this good enough for me!”
Just like there is such a thing as “justified anger” as well as a “sinful anger” ― so too there are two kinds of “Minimalism”. There is a sinful or slothful “Minimalism” that seeks to do the least it can possibly get away with; and there is a virtuous form of “Minimalism” whereby a person avoids the non-essential in order to focus on what’s truly important―clearing away all but the most essential things; clearing away the noise and distractions so we can focus the important things; clearing away all unnecessary or secondary activities. In this article on “reasons for failure”, we are referring to the slothful and sinful kind of “Minimalism” which is always seeking to do less rather than do more―unless, of course, some personal advantage or profit can be gained by doing more on some occasions.
“Doing the minimum” or “Doing the bare minimum”―often called “quiet quitting”― means exerting the smallest amount of effort that you can get away with. It involves performing only the essential tasks required by a job description, or that you are practically or legally required to meet as a rule, obligation, or expectation―refusing to go above and beyond that level; giving no more; showing no extra care; and often having no regard for quality beyond that which is strictly necessary. Such an attitude can eventually weaken and damage our spiritual life; erode and destroy relationships; hinder career growth; make people less competitive; and potentially lead to being viewed as unmotivated or replaceable―by God and by man.
In the spiritual life, you could equate “doing the bare minimum and nothing above and beyond that” with the concept of lukewarmness. Lukewarmness is a spiritual state of indifference, apathy, and lack of fervor, often described as being neither hot nor cold in commitment to God and the Faith. It represents a complacent, middle-ground existence, between total devotion and complete rejection of God. Holy Scripture refers to such an attitude when it says: “He who sows sparingly, shall also reap sparingly!” (2 Corinthians 9:6). We are told: “Ask and it shall be given to you!” (Matthew 7:7)―but if we too lazy to ask or ask half-heartedly or intermittently, then will not receive: “You ask and receive not―because you ask amiss!” (James 4:3). St. Alphonsus Liguori says that “He who prays most receives most!”
The words of God Himself, in Holy Scripture, should be enough to terrify and shake us out this kind of attitude: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot! But, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth!” (Apocalypse 3:15-16).
St. John of the Cross writes: “The peculiarity of lukewarmness is the lack of earnestness and of interior solicitude for the things of God.” (St. John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Bk. I, chap. 9). “Dissipation of the mind engenders in its turn spiritual sloth and lukewarmness, which grow into weariness and sadness in divine things, so that in the end we come to hate them.” (St. John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. III, chap. 21).
Fr. Adolphe Tanquerey, in his book The Spiritual Life, points out that “Lukewarmness consists in a sort of spiritual idleness which saps the energies of the will, inspires one with a horror for effort and thus leads to the decline of the Christian life. It is a kind of sluggishness, a species of lethargy which, though not death as yet, insensibly leads to it through a gradual weakening of our moral forces. To live and grow, our soul needs wholesome spiritual food. Now, the soul is nourished by the various spiritual exercises ― that is, meditation, devout reading, prayer, examinations of conscience, the fulfillment of the duties of state, exercise in the practice of the virtues — all of which keep it in communion with God, the Source of spiritual life. Therefore, if these exercises are performed with negligence, with voluntary distractions, without efforts to react against routine or sluggishness, then the soul is deprived of many graces, is poorly nourished, and becomes weak and incapable of practicing the virtues of the Christian life in face of even little difficulties.
“Then, seeing how little profit he derives from his exercises of piety, he begins to shorten them, and in time suppresses them entirely. The outcome of this spiritual apathy is the gradual weakening of the soul—a species of spiritual anemia—which paves the way for the entrance of unwholesome suggestions of curiosity and sensuality, and frequent temptations arise only to be half-repulsed. At times the heart yields itself to the current of disturbing affections: one commits imprudences and courts danger; venial sins are multiplied and hardly regretted; one glides down a perilous grade, skirts the abyss, and is extremely fortunate to avoid a fall. Besides, pride, never completely subdued, renews its onslaughts. One begins to indulge in self-complacency, to delight in exterior qualities, in outward successes. The better to exalt self, one makes comparisons with others still more lax than oneself, and despises as narrow and small-minded those who are more faithful to duty. This pride brings in its wake envy, jealousy, impatience, anger and harshness in the relations with others. Hence, innumerable deliberate venial sins are committed for which one feels scarcely any compunction, since the light of judgment and delicacy of conscience have been gradually weakened; one lives in habitual dissipation of mind, and performs the examination of conscience carelessly. Thus, horror for sin diminishes, God’s graces become more rare, and the profit derived from them smaller. In a word, there is a weakening of the spiritual organism, which prepares the way to shameful surrenders.” (Fr. Adolphe Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
Fr. Frederick William Faber, in his book Growth in Holiness, finishes his chapter on Lukewarmness with the following words: “I fear this evil of lukewarmness is very common, and that at this moment it is gnawing the life out of many souls who do not even suspect its presence. It is a great grace, a prophecy of a miraculous cure, to find out that we are lukewarm; but we are lost if we do not act with vigor at the moment we make this frightening discovery. It is like going to sleep in the snow, almost a pleasant tingling feeling at the first, but then, if we don’t get up―lost forever!”
(31) Afraid to Stand Out Among the Crowd
This notion of “being afraid to stand-out among the crowd” can be confusing since Our Lord and Holy Scripture seem to say the opposite. Our Lord condemns the Pharisees for seeking to stand out among the crowd: “Take heed that you do not your justice before men, so as to be seen by them―otherwise you shall not have a reward from your Father Who is in Heaven! Therefore when you do an alms-deed, sound not a trumpet before you―as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. But when you give alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand does, so that your alms may be done in secret, and your Father Who sees in secret will repay you! And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, that love to stand and pray in the synagogues and corners of the streets, so that they may be seen by men! Amen I say to you, they have received their reward! But when you pray, enter into your chamber and, having shut the door, pray to your Father in secret―and your Father Who sees in secret will repay you! … And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites―sad. For they disfigure their faces, so that they may appear unto men to be fasting! Amen I say to you, they have received their reward! But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face―so that you do appear to fast, and your Father Who sees in secret, will repay you! … Therefore be not like them!” (Matthew 6:1-17).
Yet, on the other hand, Our Lord both explicitly and implicitly also says the contrary: “And Jesus said to them: ‘Go ye into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature! Teach ye all nations; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you!’” [Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:19-20). “You are the light of the world! A city seated on a mountain cannot be hidden! Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bucket, but upon a candlestick, so that it may shine and give light to all that are in the house! So let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 5:16). Holy Scripture adds: “For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you to be the light of the Gentiles; so that you may be a means of salvation unto the utmost part of the Earth!” (Acts 13:47). “Be blameless and without reproof, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world!” (Philippians 2:15). “In all things show yourself an example of good works!” (Titus 2:7). “Be an example to the faithful in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in chastity!” (1 Timothy 4:12). “Sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, being ready always to satisfy everyone that asks you a reason for that hope which is in you!” (1 Peter 3:15). “Let us do good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the Faith!” (Galatians 6:10).
The simple answer to the above dilemma of an apparent and confusing contradiction is that (1) in life, many things have to be done publicly and many things have to done privately―we can talk with a person publicly and we can also pray for them privately; we can correct a person privately and, if that fails to work, we can correct them publicly; some information is publicly available, whereas some information is kept private from the public; there are things that a priest, a doctor or an employer can reveal about you and there are things that they are not allowed to reveal about you. (2) In the life of the Church, there are generally two kinds of Religious Orders―Active Religious Orders and Contemplative Religious Orders. The Active Religious Orders are usually in the “public eye” for they go out to preach, to teach and perform works of charity. The Contemplative Religious Orders are usually hidden from the “public eye” by being “cloistered”―that is to say, spending the majority of their lives hidden behind the walls of their monastery or convent, being mainly focused upon the contemplative life or spiritual life―praying, meditating, studying, living in mortification, performing sacrifices and penances, and perhaps also writing spiritual books and articles.
Yet whichever Religious Order it might be―Active or Contemplative―or whether it be the Catholic clergy or the Catholic laity―they are all called to stand out above and beyond the rest of the world by being saints. Saints stand out! Not in a proud way―but by the sheer fact that they are not like the rest of the world. They are called to separate themselves from the world and rise above the world. The world does not produce saints―so if you want to be a saint, then you must separate yourself from the world. If you want to go to Heaven, then you have to want to be a saint―for only saints go to Heaven. Furthermore, the world is an enemy of God and Heaven. The more you separate yourself from the world, then the more you stand out like a “sore-thumb” and will be hated by the world! Holy Scripture is full of quotes that confirm this.
Our Lord Himself said: “I am not of this world! … My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world … My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 8:23; 18:36). “The prince of this world [the devil] is coming, and in Me he has not anything!” (John 14:30). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). Concerning His followers, Jesus says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world” (John 17:16). To His followers He says: “You shall be hated by all men and all nations for My Name’s sake! … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own! But because you are not of the world―for I have chosen you out of the world―therefore the world hates you!” (Matthew 10:22; 24:9; John 15:19). “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 7:7).
Which is why Holy Scripture adds fighting-talk that we mainly choose and like to ignore: “Whatsoever is born of God, overcomes the world! And this is the victory which overcomes the world―our Faith!” (1 John 5:4). “Wonder not, brethren, if the world hates you!” (1 John 3:13). “They are of the world―therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them!” (1 John 4:5). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “For they that are according to the flesh, mind the things that are of the flesh―but they that are according to the spirit, mind the things that are of the spirit. For the wisdom of the flesh is death―but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace. Because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God―for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. And they who are in the flesh, cannot please God.” (Romans 8:5-8). “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4).
If you follow the above counsels and put them into practice, then it is unavoidably obvious that you will “stand-out among the crowd” ― but that is what scares most people and that is why most people end up losing their souls. They “sit down for fear of rocking the boat” of the world, they feel they must “sit-down-and-shut-up”! In theory they might want to be saints, but in practice they are afraid to be saints―afraid of what the world might think and say; and afraid of what it might cost them in becoming a saint.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, in his book The Three Ages of the Interior Life, writes: “The one thing necessary — which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary — consists in hearing the word of God and living by it. St. Alphonsus Liguori, in ‘The Way of Salvation and of Perfection’, writes: ‘One thing is necessary! The salvation of our souls. It is not necessary to be great, noble, or rich in this world, or to enjoy uninterrupted health; but it is necessary to save our souls. For this purpose has God placed us here―not to acquire honors, riches, or pleasures, but to acquire, by our good works, that eternal kingdom which is prepared for those who, during this present life, fight against and overcome the enemies of their eternal salvation’ (The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, Part 1, Meditation 17).
“The interior life is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life, or the cultivation of the sciences, more profound than artistic or literary life, more profound than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science, as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good, in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity, which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
“There are some who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles, and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. Our Lord adds. “One thing is necessary,” He tells us. To save our soul, one thing alone is necessary ― to hear the word of God and to live by it. Failure to listen to this lesson, is to work at one’s destruction.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Sometimes that path to sanctity and Heaven will require that we publicly stand-out above and beyond the crowd―made up of the world and also worldly Catholics. Sometimes that path to sanctity and Heaven will require that pray, suffer and act in secret. Both modes of action are necessary and both modes must be practiced.
(32) Fear of Failure
Article 11
The Third Sunday of Lent, March 8th
Continuing Our Look at Why We Fail
The Third Sunday of Lent, March 8th
Continuing Our Look at Why We Fail
Here We Go Again!
Why spend so much time on so many reasons for failure? Simply because most people end up being failures―Hell testifies to that. Furthermore, Our Lady of Fatima said that many souls end in up Hell―which is for them a massive failure. Likewise, Our Lady said to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! … I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!”
Damnation the Ultimate Failure
There is no evil greater that being damned. There is no failure as great as the failure of those who now suffer damnation. Furthermore, the vast majority of mankind today is headed down that same “Road of Failure” or “Highway to Hell” ― far more than we would like to imagine! The tragedy is that the majority of those to be damned imagine they will somehow be saved―because, as they say to themselves, “God is good! God is kind! God is love! God is merciful! God understands! God is not cruel! God wouldn’t damn me!” If that was the case, then Our Lady of Fatima was wasting her time and breath telling us about the many souls that are being damned. Or some might blaspheme and say that Our Lady was lying!!!
Likewise, Our Lady was wasting her time and confusing us in the 1950s, when she said to the stigmatic and Foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Sr. Elena Aiello (1895-1961): “The times are grievous. The whole world is in turmoil, because it has become worse than at the time of the deluge! … Satan reigns and triumphs on Earth! … So many souls going to Hell! … See how the souls are falling into Hell! See how high the flames are, and the souls who fall into them like flakes of snow, looking like transparent embers! How many sparks! How many cries of hate, and of despair! How much pain! See how many priestly souls are there! How many of the youth live in perdition! Men, in spite of repeated warnings, are not returning to God! They refuse grace, and are not listening to my voice!”
Of course―if you so choose―you can listen to and believe Pope Francis instead of Our Lady. Pope Francis has explicitly stated on January 14th, 2024, interview on Italy’s Che Tempo Che Fa, that his personal hope that Hell is empty: “What I would say is not a dogma of Faith, but my personal thought is that I like to think Hell is empty! I hope it is!” The American Bishop Barron, rather than asserting that Hell is definitely empty, has defended the theological position that Christians can “reasonably hope that all men will be saved” ― a view heavily influenced by the 20th-century theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar.
Failure of Parents and Priests
If damnation is the ultimate failure―which it most certainly is―then should we not be vigorously researching on how we can avoid that failure in our own lives and the lives of those nearest and dearest to us? As Our Lord said: “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Unfortunately, most parents are more concerned about their children failing their school exams than failing to get to Heaven. More people fear that their favorite sports team might be relegated in a particular season, more than they fear being relegated to Hell! And so their thoughts and conversations usually center around such like things rather than the things that really matter in the long run―Heaven and Hell.
► POPE PIUS IX urged priests to preach more frequently on the reality of Hell. He emphasized that the “thought of Hell makes saints” and advised clergy to “please, please, preach more often on Hell” to remind the faithful of the gravity of sin and the necessity of repentance. The failure of the clergy in doing this contributes in a large part to the failure of most souls in reaching Heaven. Likewise, the failure of parents and teachers doing this also contributes to the damnation of many of their children and students. Failure breeds failure. By their fruits you shall know them. If most souls are being lost, then there has to be massive failure somewhere in the process of their life.
► OUR LADY said to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “It is an act of justice, due to the eternal God, that every child, coming to the use of reason, direct its very first movement toward God. By knowing, it should begin to love Him, reverence Him and adore Him as its Creator and only true Lord. The parents are naturally bound to instruct their children, from their infancy, in this knowledge of God and to direct them with solicitous care, so that they may at once see their ultimate end, and seek it in their first acts of the intellect and will. They should with great watchfulness withdraw them from the childishness and puerile trickery and deceitfulness, to which depraved nature will incline them, if left without direction. The demons instill into the parents a base neglectfulness and carnal love for their offspring; and they incite the teachers to carelessness, so that the children find no support against evil in their education, but become depraved and spoiled by many bad habits, losing sight of virtue and of their good inclinations and going the way of perdition. God will severely punish any negligence in this matter! If the fathers and mothers would be solicitous to prevent these vanities and perverted habits of their children, and would instruct them from their infancy in the knowledge of their God and Creator, then they would afterwards easily accustom them to know and adore Him. Parents must learn to help their children, exhort them, correct them and lead them on in the way of salvation without remissness or carelessness! What pretense or excuse for their negligence will lax Christians advance for having forgotten their own eternal salvation!”
“The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and the father shall not bear the iniquity of the son” (Ezechiel 18:20). However, the Church teaches that parents have the primary responsibility for the education of their children in the faith, prayer, and virtue―and even though parents are not held accountable for the personal, voluntary, free-will sins of their children, nevertheless parents will be held responsible for their children's sins if they directly caused them through negligence, lack of moral training, or bad example. Parents have a sacred duty to educate, instruct in faith, and discipline their children. They are accountable for the environment, moral foundation, and guidance they provide or fail to provide. If a child’s sin is a direct result of a parent’s failure to fulfill their duty, the parent shares in that responsibility. Parents who fail to instruct their children in the faith, neglect to correct them, or provide a bad example that leads to sin will face accountability before God.
► Even the LIBERAL AND MODERNIST POST-CONCILIAR CHURCH CATECHISM states: “Through the grace of the Sacrament of Marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children. The home is the natural environment for fostering interior dispositions that are a genuine preparation for a living Faith and remain a support for it throughout one’s life. Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. Family catechesis precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of instruction in the Faith. Education in the Faith by the parents should begin in the child's earliest years. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the Faith―of which they are the first heralds for their children. The home is well suited for education in the virtues ... Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children … They should associate them from their tenderest years with the life of the Church. Parents should teach their children to subordinate the material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones ... Parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies.” (The 1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church, §2223 to §2226).
► THE AMERICAN EXORCIST, FR. CHAD RIPPERGER, in a conference on the main pitfalls of Catholic parents, states: “There is virtually no family that is untouched by the loss of a child to the world―so to speak. In other words, you know there is something wrong when many Catholic parents do a good job and raise their children as Catholics ― and all the sudden the children go off on a tangent. There are certain common pitfalls which parents tend to fall into ― things they tend to commit, or certain errors they tend to commit, and those are some of the things I want to talk about, so that people will learn how to actually avoid these.
“The first is that many parents teach their children “what they should not do” ― which is good ― but few teach their children “what they should do.” That is to say, few people teach their children what the virtues actually are; what the individual virtues are and how to obtain them. Part of that failure is because parents usually don’t even know what the virtues are. It is a common pitfall for parents to provide for the material welfare of their children, but neglect their religious upbringing. I realize here that’s probably not too much of a problem but sometimes people will teach their children what needs to be known as far as a religious doctrine that is intellectual formation but they will not provide for them spiritually by doing prayer and fasting and mortification and things of this sort and this is something that starts from the day you’re married.
“Parents themselves very often do not have a consistent prayer life. Going to Mass and receiving the Sacraments is not enough. It necessary, it is a good thing, but it’s not enough. You should try and get into the habit of praying always for your children but also it’s a matter of children seeing you pray privately and not just always at the family time ― because then people can get the idea that the only time you pray is when you pray in common―and that is completely false. If parents are praying alone, from time to time, even if it’s just 10 or 15 minutes, they will usually find that their spiritual life begins to change, then it will begin to significantly change, especially if they are doing meditation. But furthermore, the children will recognize that prayer is an integral part of a good Catholic life―it’s not just going to Mass ― it’s not just doing that ― because if your child is praying regularly, then he is not going to leave the Church, generally speaking ― whereas if he never prays, then he is going to leave the Church.”
“Mortification and prayer and fasting―all these things are part of what most parents fail to take on penances for the sake of their children. In other words, when they see five-year-old little Johnny getting angry―very often the parents will just discipline him, but they won’t sit there and say “Okay! I’m going to fast for a week!” People will see that their children will actually be transformed quite a bit.” (American Exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger, conference on the main pitfalls of Catholic parents).
Back to the Forty Failures for the Forty Days of Lent
Let us now turn our focus back the 40 chief reasons for failures―taken from many more reasons listed by spiritual writers, priests, psychologists, coaches, business mentors―and let us chew over some more of them. Here is what remains untreated from the previous article:
Why spend so much time on so many reasons for failure? Simply because most people end up being failures―Hell testifies to that. Furthermore, Our Lady of Fatima said that many souls end in up Hell―which is for them a massive failure. Likewise, Our Lady said to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! … I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!”
Damnation the Ultimate Failure
There is no evil greater that being damned. There is no failure as great as the failure of those who now suffer damnation. Furthermore, the vast majority of mankind today is headed down that same “Road of Failure” or “Highway to Hell” ― far more than we would like to imagine! The tragedy is that the majority of those to be damned imagine they will somehow be saved―because, as they say to themselves, “God is good! God is kind! God is love! God is merciful! God understands! God is not cruel! God wouldn’t damn me!” If that was the case, then Our Lady of Fatima was wasting her time and breath telling us about the many souls that are being damned. Or some might blaspheme and say that Our Lady was lying!!!
Likewise, Our Lady was wasting her time and confusing us in the 1950s, when she said to the stigmatic and Foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Sr. Elena Aiello (1895-1961): “The times are grievous. The whole world is in turmoil, because it has become worse than at the time of the deluge! … Satan reigns and triumphs on Earth! … So many souls going to Hell! … See how the souls are falling into Hell! See how high the flames are, and the souls who fall into them like flakes of snow, looking like transparent embers! How many sparks! How many cries of hate, and of despair! How much pain! See how many priestly souls are there! How many of the youth live in perdition! Men, in spite of repeated warnings, are not returning to God! They refuse grace, and are not listening to my voice!”
Of course―if you so choose―you can listen to and believe Pope Francis instead of Our Lady. Pope Francis has explicitly stated on January 14th, 2024, interview on Italy’s Che Tempo Che Fa, that his personal hope that Hell is empty: “What I would say is not a dogma of Faith, but my personal thought is that I like to think Hell is empty! I hope it is!” The American Bishop Barron, rather than asserting that Hell is definitely empty, has defended the theological position that Christians can “reasonably hope that all men will be saved” ― a view heavily influenced by the 20th-century theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar.
Failure of Parents and Priests
If damnation is the ultimate failure―which it most certainly is―then should we not be vigorously researching on how we can avoid that failure in our own lives and the lives of those nearest and dearest to us? As Our Lord said: “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Unfortunately, most parents are more concerned about their children failing their school exams than failing to get to Heaven. More people fear that their favorite sports team might be relegated in a particular season, more than they fear being relegated to Hell! And so their thoughts and conversations usually center around such like things rather than the things that really matter in the long run―Heaven and Hell.
► POPE PIUS IX urged priests to preach more frequently on the reality of Hell. He emphasized that the “thought of Hell makes saints” and advised clergy to “please, please, preach more often on Hell” to remind the faithful of the gravity of sin and the necessity of repentance. The failure of the clergy in doing this contributes in a large part to the failure of most souls in reaching Heaven. Likewise, the failure of parents and teachers doing this also contributes to the damnation of many of their children and students. Failure breeds failure. By their fruits you shall know them. If most souls are being lost, then there has to be massive failure somewhere in the process of their life.
► OUR LADY said to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “It is an act of justice, due to the eternal God, that every child, coming to the use of reason, direct its very first movement toward God. By knowing, it should begin to love Him, reverence Him and adore Him as its Creator and only true Lord. The parents are naturally bound to instruct their children, from their infancy, in this knowledge of God and to direct them with solicitous care, so that they may at once see their ultimate end, and seek it in their first acts of the intellect and will. They should with great watchfulness withdraw them from the childishness and puerile trickery and deceitfulness, to which depraved nature will incline them, if left without direction. The demons instill into the parents a base neglectfulness and carnal love for their offspring; and they incite the teachers to carelessness, so that the children find no support against evil in their education, but become depraved and spoiled by many bad habits, losing sight of virtue and of their good inclinations and going the way of perdition. God will severely punish any negligence in this matter! If the fathers and mothers would be solicitous to prevent these vanities and perverted habits of their children, and would instruct them from their infancy in the knowledge of their God and Creator, then they would afterwards easily accustom them to know and adore Him. Parents must learn to help their children, exhort them, correct them and lead them on in the way of salvation without remissness or carelessness! What pretense or excuse for their negligence will lax Christians advance for having forgotten their own eternal salvation!”
“The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and the father shall not bear the iniquity of the son” (Ezechiel 18:20). However, the Church teaches that parents have the primary responsibility for the education of their children in the faith, prayer, and virtue―and even though parents are not held accountable for the personal, voluntary, free-will sins of their children, nevertheless parents will be held responsible for their children's sins if they directly caused them through negligence, lack of moral training, or bad example. Parents have a sacred duty to educate, instruct in faith, and discipline their children. They are accountable for the environment, moral foundation, and guidance they provide or fail to provide. If a child’s sin is a direct result of a parent’s failure to fulfill their duty, the parent shares in that responsibility. Parents who fail to instruct their children in the faith, neglect to correct them, or provide a bad example that leads to sin will face accountability before God.
► Even the LIBERAL AND MODERNIST POST-CONCILIAR CHURCH CATECHISM states: “Through the grace of the Sacrament of Marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children. The home is the natural environment for fostering interior dispositions that are a genuine preparation for a living Faith and remain a support for it throughout one’s life. Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. Family catechesis precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of instruction in the Faith. Education in the Faith by the parents should begin in the child's earliest years. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the Faith―of which they are the first heralds for their children. The home is well suited for education in the virtues ... Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children … They should associate them from their tenderest years with the life of the Church. Parents should teach their children to subordinate the material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones ... Parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies.” (The 1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church, §2223 to §2226).
► THE AMERICAN EXORCIST, FR. CHAD RIPPERGER, in a conference on the main pitfalls of Catholic parents, states: “There is virtually no family that is untouched by the loss of a child to the world―so to speak. In other words, you know there is something wrong when many Catholic parents do a good job and raise their children as Catholics ― and all the sudden the children go off on a tangent. There are certain common pitfalls which parents tend to fall into ― things they tend to commit, or certain errors they tend to commit, and those are some of the things I want to talk about, so that people will learn how to actually avoid these.
“The first is that many parents teach their children “what they should not do” ― which is good ― but few teach their children “what they should do.” That is to say, few people teach their children what the virtues actually are; what the individual virtues are and how to obtain them. Part of that failure is because parents usually don’t even know what the virtues are. It is a common pitfall for parents to provide for the material welfare of their children, but neglect their religious upbringing. I realize here that’s probably not too much of a problem but sometimes people will teach their children what needs to be known as far as a religious doctrine that is intellectual formation but they will not provide for them spiritually by doing prayer and fasting and mortification and things of this sort and this is something that starts from the day you’re married.
“Parents themselves very often do not have a consistent prayer life. Going to Mass and receiving the Sacraments is not enough. It necessary, it is a good thing, but it’s not enough. You should try and get into the habit of praying always for your children but also it’s a matter of children seeing you pray privately and not just always at the family time ― because then people can get the idea that the only time you pray is when you pray in common―and that is completely false. If parents are praying alone, from time to time, even if it’s just 10 or 15 minutes, they will usually find that their spiritual life begins to change, then it will begin to significantly change, especially if they are doing meditation. But furthermore, the children will recognize that prayer is an integral part of a good Catholic life―it’s not just going to Mass ― it’s not just doing that ― because if your child is praying regularly, then he is not going to leave the Church, generally speaking ― whereas if he never prays, then he is going to leave the Church.”
“Mortification and prayer and fasting―all these things are part of what most parents fail to take on penances for the sake of their children. In other words, when they see five-year-old little Johnny getting angry―very often the parents will just discipline him, but they won’t sit there and say “Okay! I’m going to fast for a week!” People will see that their children will actually be transformed quite a bit.” (American Exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger, conference on the main pitfalls of Catholic parents).
Back to the Forty Failures for the Forty Days of Lent
Let us now turn our focus back the 40 chief reasons for failures―taken from many more reasons listed by spiritual writers, priests, psychologists, coaches, business mentors―and let us chew over some more of them. Here is what remains untreated from the previous article:
|
● Lack of Self-Discipline
● Poor Work Ethic ● Low Desire to Achieve ● Lack of Enthusiasm in Work ● Lack of Perseverance ● Lack of Tenacity ● Lack of Accountability ● Not taking Responsibility for what Happens in Your Life ● Excuses–Blaming Anyone & Everything Except Yourself ● Refusal to Learn from Past Mistakes ● Arguing Against Advice Instead of Taking It ● Refusing All Criticism ● Giving too much Importance to Feelings and Emotions ● Lack of Focus ● Too Distracted ● Relying on Motivation Alone |
● Full of Presumption
● Lack of Humility ● Refusing Help ● Mental Roadblocks ● Lack of Ambition to go Above and Beyond ● Afraid to Stand Out Among the Crowd ● Fear of Failure ● High Expectations ● Being in a Hurry to Get What You Want ● Unhappy with Your Progress ● Full of Doubts ● Lack of Belief ● Don’t Believe it’s Possible ● Pessimism ● Deep down You don’t think You Deserve what You Want |
(10) Lack of Self-Discipline
The inability to control impulses, stick to a plan, and make necessary sacrifices ― all of this hinders progress and promotes failure. Success requires discipline, and exerting self-control over yourself is a central requirement for being successful. Self-discipline implies an interior toughness that is not influenced by things of lesser importance. If you lack self-discipline, you are more likely to give up quickly when problems arise. That is why self-discipline is of such great importance in the training of soldiers, athletes―not to mention the religious life and many other professional fields. The undisciplined person is a failure waiting to happen. “There is success in evil things to a man without discipline!” (Ecclesiasticus 20:9) …“Discipline is the gift of God” (Ecclesiasticus 26:17) … “Thou hast hated discipline! … Embrace discipline, lest at any time you perish from the just way!” (Psalms 49:17; 2:12) … “Listen to Me, My son, and learn discipline!” (Ecclesiasticus 16:24) … “Let your soul receive discipline!” (Ecclesiasticus 51:34) ... “Neglect not the discipline of the Lord! … Persevere under discipline!” (Hebrews 12:5-7) … “Become the friends of God, being commended for the gift of discipline!” (Wisdom 7:14).
(11) Poor Work Ethic
This can be linked to the above point “Lack of Self-Discipline.” We can’t control what we are born into, our genetics and environment―but we can control how we react to things. We cannot choose our natural talents before being born. We have to work with what we have been given. Even if others have more naturally gifted traits than we have, we can make up for it. We can make her up for it in trying to maximize on the qualities that we do have, showing a greater desire to achieve, and not allowing our circumstances to define us. Sometimes the people that are most gifted in talent, don’t always achieve what they need to achieve. Whereas those who don’t have quite the talent, they will try to put to work every bit of what they have got and maximize their achievement through a great work ethic and greater desire. Christ did not choose the most intelligent Jews to be His Apostles; Our Lady was not thought to be the greatest woman on Earth; the saints were rarely the most powerful and most talented people in the time in which they lived―some terrible sinners even became great saints! “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much!” (Luke 7:47).
“Jesus said to them: ‘My Father works until now―and I work!” (John 5:17). “Be always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord!” (1 Corinthians 15:58) … “Nothing is better than for a man to rejoice in his work, for that this is his portion!” (Ecclesiastes 3:22) … “Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly!” (Ecclesiastes 9:10) … “Let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good” (Ephesians 4:28) … “Whatever you do, do it from the heart!” (Colossians 3:23) … “The slothful hand brings poverty―but the hand of the industrious brings riches!” (Proverbs 10:4) … “In much work there shall be abundance―but where there are many words, there is oftentimes shortage!” (Proverbs 14:23) … “If any man will not work, neither let him eat!” (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
(12) Low Desire to Achieve
The world is full of half-hearted people who want many things but lack the desire and strength of will to go out obtain those things. We live in a world where the sense of “entitlement” is increasingly overcoming and destroying the sense of “achievement.” Why bother to work for something when you feel that you owed it. This is all fueled by many aspects of the State Welfare System―free schooling, free college education. Other free state welfare benefits include:
► MEDICAID ― free or low-cost health coverage.
► SNAP ― (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) provides monthly, income-based benefits to low-income households for purchasing food through an EBT card.
► SCHOOL MEALS ― free or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches are provided for children in low-income households.
► CFR ― (Community Food Resources) provides access to local food pantries and "blessing boxes" that provide non-perishable food, often without strict qualifications.
► CCDF ― (Child Care and Development Fund) provides for childcare expenses for low income families.
► CHIP ― (Children’s Health Insurance Program) provides free health insurance for children.
► TANF ― (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) provides cash assistance to such families for basic needs, often including job training cash.
► LIHEAP ― (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) provides assistance with heating/cooling bills.
► LIFELINE ― provides discounted or free phone/internet services.
► WIC ― (Women, Infants, and Children) provides specialized food packages such as free formula, baby food, healthy foods for pregnant women and children under five.
► VITA/TCE ― (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance / Tax Counseling for the Elderly) provides free, IRS-certified, basic income tax return preparation to qualified individuals, including those with low-to-moderate incomes (generally below $60,000 or $69,000), those with disabilities, limited English proficiency, or seniors (age 60+).
These are just some of many State Welfare Programs available. In 12 states and DC, welfare packages can be more generous than a $15-an-hour job, creating a rational incentive to choose benefits over low-wage work.
Similarly in schools―children prefer to have fun rather than learn. Some parents treat school like free day care. Furthermore, in the US system, the focus has been put too much on the grades rather than quality learning. Children are taught how to pass the test more than they are taught on how to learn. The majority of students are incapable of performing their core responsibilities of actively engaging with the lesson, asking relevant questions, studying, understanding, retaining/memorizing, interrelating and applying what is being taught. Now that there is such an abundance of information online which can be accessed in seconds, the thirst for learning is gone. In the US system, the focus has been put too much on the grades rather than quality learning. The ever-increasing invasion of the classroom by the electronic―smartphones, calculators, tablets, laptops and now Artificial Intelligence―has created dependence upon the electronic data and solutions, which has negatively impacted the intellectual capacities of most students. As a whole, the educational system has been “dumbed-down” and is producing “dumbed-down” students―who then go on to be “dumbed-down” adults, parents and workers―and ultimately a “dumbed-down” nation.
The ever-increasing “dumbing down of America” has been extensively documented over the last few decades and refers to a decline in cultural literacy, critical thinking, and educational standards. It is often manifested by a thirst for “infotainment”, short-form media with minimal byte-sized information, and a shift away from deep reading; a reduced intellectual curiosity; desire for simplified information, and a disregard for historical or political knowledge.
Is anyone really surprised that this attitude invades the religious and spiritual life of Catholics? Who is there who truly wants to be a saint by acquiring a holiness of life? Who is there who puts God and the spiritual life above the world and a worldly life? Who is there who avidly studies the Faith by reading the Bible, the Catechism and a whole variety of books on the spiritual life? Above all, who is there who puts this acquired knowledge into practice in their daily lives? “Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:13-20). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).
(13) Lack of Enthusiasm in Work
This point is a natural consequence of the previous point― Low Desire to Achieve. If we have a low desire to achieve something, then it is only to be expected that we will lack an enthusiasm in the pursuit of it. If you have a low desire for attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass or praying the Holy Rosary―then it is obvious that you will be lacking in enthusiasm whenever to have to go to Mass or pray the Rosary.
This “lack of enthusiasm” can also be called a “lack of heart” or “half-heartedness” or “lukewarmness”. Our Lord rebukes this kind of attitude, saying: “Hypocrites! Well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me. And in vain do they worship Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-9). Of lukewarmness, God says in Holy Scripture: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot! But, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth!” (Apocalypse 3:15-16).
Father Faber, in his book Growth in Holiness, is of the opinion that most souls are lukewarm: “There is nothing in the spiritual life which arrests our attention so forcibly as lukewarmness, because of the unusual language in which it has pleased God to express His ineffable disgust with it. If we seek the correlative of lukewarmness, we shall find it in blindness. It is a blindness which does not know even its own self, and does not suspect that it is blind. This blindness is owing principally to three causes: (1) the frequency of venial sins, (2) the habitual dissipation of mind, and (3) the ruling passion. The immediate results of this blindness are three: (1) In the first place conscience becomes untrue; (2) bad instincts grow stronger; (3) out of the two preceding results flows a third, which is a profane use of the Sacraments.
The seven symptoms of lukewarmness are: (1) The first mark is a great facility in omitting our exercises of piety; (2) we are negligent in those which we do perform; (3) the soul feels not altogether right with God; (4) there is an habitual acting without any intention at all, good, bad or indifferent; (5) a carelessness about forming habits of virtue; (6) a contempt of little things and of daily opportunities; (7) thinking rather of the good we have done than of the good we have left undone. I fear this evil of lukewarmness is very common, and that at this moment it is gnawing the life out of many souls who suspect not its presence there.”
(14) Lack of Perseverance
There is no room in Heaven for quitters. Heaven is only won by perseverance. “One day wonders” might shine now and again―but they lack perseverance. Yet, strangely enough, you could say that everyone has perseverance―but often it is in the wrong and sinful areas of life. An alcoholic or drug addict has ‘perseverance’; someone hooked on pornography has perseverance; someone who is habitually lazy is persevering in their laziness, etc. We need to channel our perseverance down good paths and not evil paths!
Life is a marathon. The race for Heaven is a marathon. Anyone can start a race by running as fast as they can―but how many will finish the race? As regards Heaven, “Many are called―but few are chosen!” (Matthew 22:14). Everyone is invited to the race for Heaven. Many accept the invitation and begin to run. Yet few there are that successfully finish that race and claim the crown of glory!
St. Paul tells us to run in a manner so as to win: “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it! Everyone that strives for the mastery, refrains himself from all things―and they do this so that they may receive a corruptible crown―but we seek an incorruptible one! Therefore, I so run, not as at an uncertainty; I so fight, not as one beating the air―but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
God has placed all of us in the “Marathon of Life” ― it is a race of a lifetime and a race for eternal life! Nobody is exempt―you will either win or lose. There is no single winner, but what you could call a maximum cut-off time and you have to “make the cut” to get to Heaven. It is not a 100 yard sprint; nor a one-mile race; nor a one-day race; not even a one-year race―it is a lifelong “marathon” that puts all athletic marathons in its shadow. You might start-out well―but is not starting that matters―it is finishing the course that matters: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the Faith!” (2 Timothy 4:7). For this, perseverance is absolutely necessary: “Persevere in this work which you have begun!” (Judith 4:13). “Take all that shall be brought upon thee; and in thy sorrow endure!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:4). “The Lord will hear your prayers, if you continue with perseverance in fasting and prayers!” (Judith 4:11). “He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 24:13).
Running a marathon is more than just a race—it’s a journey of resilience, courage. Running a marathon is a significant physical and mental challenge that requires immense perseverance to overcome fatigue, doubt, and pain. It is a test of endurance where success is defined by refusing to stop, adapting to difficulties, and pushing through the 26 mile distance. Perseverance is most crucial in the later, painful miles (around the mile 18 to 20 mile mark) when the inevitable moment of fatigue starts whispering doubts, turning the race into a triumph of will-power rather than mere physical fitness and strength. Ultimately, the marathon serves as a metaphor for life's challenges, teaching us that endurance and refusing to quit will lead to accomplishment.
Here are some quotes from seasoned and experienced marathon runners:
“The race began with optimism. The atmosphere was electric. The starting gun fired, and I found my rhythm quickly. My pace was solid, the weather favorable and each mile marker passed with relative ease. This is the honeymoon phase! Everything feels like it's going according to plan. In those early miles, you feel strong, even invincible. But like in life, marathons aren't won at the starting line. At around the 18-mile mark, things changed. Without warning, a sharp pain seized my left leg. A cramp so severe I had to stop and walk. My race plan? Out the window! My pace? Shattered! My morale? Hanging by a thread! I thought about quitting. When you hit the infamous marathon wall—physically or metaphorically—your original goals can feel impossible. During the race, I began focusing on micro-goals: Just make it to the next lamp post. Get to the next water station. Run to the corner, then reevaluate.
“When I finally crossed the finish line, much slower than I had planned, with my legs trembling and breath ragged, a familiar thought returned, and I was once again reminded of the ways races like this can be seen as condensed version of life. I felt no disappointment. I had endured. I had adapted. I had finished. There's something uniquely humbling about pounding the pavement for over 26 miles. It strips away ego. It tests your body, yes, but more importantly, it reveals your mental strength, your resilience, your ability to keep moving when everything inside you is telling you to stop.”
It is estimated that out of the world’s population of around 8 billion (8,000 million) only 1 million people have ever completed a marathon―which means 7,999 million have not (which translates to 1 out of 8,000 people). Additionally, a marathon has a maximum cutoff time in which it must be completed―which differs from one race organizer to another, but is generally around 6 to 8 hours.
This brings to mind comparisons with the few number of souls that are saved.
St. John Chrysostom (347-407), a Doctor and Father of the Church, wrote: “What do you think? How many of the inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? What I am about to tell you is very terrible, yet I will not conceal it from you. Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants―not one hundred people will be saved. I even doubt whether there will be as many as that!”
Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604), a Doctor and Father of the Church, wrote: “There are many who arrive at the Faith, but few who are led into the heavenly kingdom. Behold how many are gathered here for today’s Feast-Day: we fill the church from wall to wall. Yet who knows how few they are who shall be numbered in that chosen company of the Elect? They who are to be saved as Saints, and wish to be saved as imperfect souls, shall not be saved! The Ark, which in the midst of the Flood was a symbol of the Church, was wide below and narrow above; and, at the summit. It was wide where the animals were, narrow where men lived―for the Holy Church is indeed wide in the number of those who are carnal-minded, but narrow in the number of those who are spiritual.”
St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), also a Doctor of the Church, wrote: “In the Great Deluge in the days of Noe, nearly all mankind perished, eight persons alone being saved in the Ark. In our days a deluge―not of water but of sins―continually floods the Earth, and out of this deluge very few escape. Scarcely anyone is saved―especially among seculars!”
St. Anselm (1033-1109), Doctor of the Church, wrote: “If you want to be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many! And if you want to be quite sure of your salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few Do not follow the great majority of mankind, but follow those who enter upon the narrow way, who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or by night, in order that they may attain everlasting blessedness”
(15) Lack of Tenacity
Dictionaries define “tenacity” as “holding on tightly; unwilling to give in, weaken, or surrender; a mental or moral strength to resist opposition, danger, or hardship.” The word tenacity comes from Latin “tenacitas” which means “an act of holding fast,” from “tenax” (genitive “tenacis”) “holding fast, gripping, clingy; firm, steadfast,” from “tenere” meaning “to hold.” Common synonyms for tenacity include “persistence, determination, stubbornness , obstinacy, perseverance, resolve, steadfastness, doggedness, grit, a never-say-die or a never-give-up attitude, etc.” ― all emphasizing an unwavering commitment or ability to continue despite difficulty. You can see from this that “tenacity” is linked to “perseverance” ― perhaps being more of a dogged perseverance, a more gritty perseverance, a more extreme perseverance, a more intense perseverance ― a holding on to something and not letting go: much like a dog that grips something with its teeth and will not let go of it no matter how hard you pull and tug and shake the object!
Our Lord’s words come to mind, where He says: “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8) ― whereby we could rephrase that to read: “The children of this world are more tenacious than the children of light!” We see this evil tenacity in those who control the world behind the scenes ― nothing seems to shake them or stop them! Their grip or strangle-hold on the world increases year by year. One of the many tactics that they use is to puncture the tenacity of good people in resisting their evil plans; discouraging them and disheartening them in all kinds of ways that lead them to think that is pointless resisting, that there is little or nothing that can be done to combat the evil, etc.
Seeing that most of the world has grown ever-increasingly “soft” since the end of the Second World War (1939-1945), this weakening of good people is easily done in an age where good people and religious are looked upon by society being biased and hateful. Examples include rebranding immorality as “freedom,” labeling biblical morality, religious faith, or traditional family structures as “evil,” “backwards,” “homophobic,” “racist,” “hate speech,” or “cultish.” Those who stand for moral absolutes are called “intolerant or hateful fanatics.” They twist moral standards to normalize destructive sinful behaviors, while vilifying and ridiculing virtues. Abortion (murder) is redefined as being “family-planning,” “pro-choice,” a “right” or “healthcare.” They normalize or celebrating binge drinking and legalize recreational drugs―the legalization of recreational cannabis is a rapidly evolving issue in the United States, with 24 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia having legalized its use for adults. They promote sexual activity outside of marriage or redefine gender contrary to traditional or biblical teachings. Firm parental training or biblical discipline of children is looked upon as being abusive, while permissiveness is praised as being an example of love. Politically, the military invasion of another country and its destruction is called “liberation” ― whereas any resistance of the local population is said to be “terrorism.”
Good people ― in both Church and State ― have long since any tenacity they may have had in resisting these evils. As the saying goes: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing!” In one sense, good persons can do nothing if they try to do something without God and His grace―thus Our Lord said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). The world ― both Church and State ― is in such a mess, that there is nothing we can do about by ourselves. Yet the evil in the Church and State will be overcome, defeated and destroyed―as Our Lady has promised: “There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. This then will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration … This will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet … Thus the Church and country will be finally free of his cruel tyranny! … In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!”
That triumph will be triumph of God’s grace―without which we can do nothing. We need some perseverance and tenacity in pleading, beseeching, begging and imploring God’s grace to take charge, inspire, move, shake, guide and do what we cannot do: “Jesus said to them: ‘With men this is impossible―but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:26). “The things that are impossible with men, are possible with God!” (Luke 18:27). “No word shall be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). “And Jesus answering, said to them: ‘Amen, I say to you, if you shall have Faith and stagger not, you shall say to this mountain: “Take up and cast thyself into the sea!” it shall be done!’” (Matthew 21:21).
Our Lord shows us the tenacity that we must have in begging God’s assistance by the following parable: “He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13). Our Lord both tells a parable about perseveringly asking and also rewards the Canaanite woman who perseveringly asked for help. “And Jesus said to them: ‘Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and shall say to him: “Friend, lend me three loaves―because a friend of mine is come off his journey to me, and I have not what to set before him!” And he from within should answer, and say: “Trouble me not! The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed! I cannot rise and give you what you want!” Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity [relentless persistence], he will rise, and give him as many loaves as he needs. And I say to you, “Ask, and it shall be given you! Seek, and you shall find! Knock, and it shall be opened to you!” For every one that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks, it shall be opened!’” (Luke 11:5-10).
(16) Lack of Accountability
Everyone is so quick to “pass the buck” and “buck the blame”! If at all possible we seek to avoid being accountable for our actions―especially our sins and failings! You could say that it is “part and parcel” of Original Sin―whereby Adam tries to pass of his accountability before God onto Eve by blaming her: “The woman, whom You gave me to be my companion, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat!” (Genesis 3:12). Eve tried the same ploy and tactic, trying to deflect the blame that Adam had passed onto her, and she chose to blame the devil with the classic “The devil made me do it!” excuse: “And the Lord God said to the woman: ‘Why have you done this?’ And she answered: ‘The serpent deceived me, and I did eat!’” (Genesis 3:12-13). We see something similar in Cain―the son of Adam and Eve―after he had killed his brother Abel out of envy: “Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and slew him. And the Lord said to Cain: ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ And Cain answered: ‘I do not know! Am I my brother’s keeper?’” (Genesis 4:8-9).
We look at the world around us with all its evil―and we say: “It’s not my fault! They choose to be evil! What can I do about it?” We forget―or choose to ignore―that we have been given much more than other people by the mere fact that have been given the grace of being Catholic―which means that for every Catholic, there are 5 other persons who do not have the Faith (Catholics make up 1.4 billion out of world population of 8.3 billion). By the fact that we are Catholic we have treasure of graces available for our use―not our selfish use, but for the use of others, in order to bring them to the Faith. “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20) … “You are the salt of the Earth! But if the salt lose its savor, it is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men! You are the light of the world! A city seated on a mountain cannot be hidden! Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bucket, but upon a candlestick, so that it may shine to all that are in the house! So let your light shine before men!” (Matthew 5:13-16). “Going, therefore, teach all nations; baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you!” (Matthew 28:19-20).
Likewise, we have in certain sense been made “watchmen” of the world, whose job it is to warn the world where it is headed: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel (the Church)! And you shall hear the word out of My mouth, and shall tell it to them from Me! If, when I say to the wicked: ‘You shall surely die!’ ― and you do not declare it to him, nor speak to him, so that he might be converted from his wicked ways and live, then the same wicked man shall certainly die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at your hand! But if you give warning to the wicked, and he does not convert from his wickedness and from his evil ways―then he indeed shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your soul! Moreover, if the just man shall turn away from his justice, and shall commit iniquity―then I will lay a stumbling-block before him and he shall die―because you have not warned him! He shall die in his sin, and all his justices which he has done beforehand, shall not be remembered―but I will require his blood at your hand! But if you warn the just man, so that the just may not sin, and he does not sin―then living he shall live, because you have warned him, and you will have saved your soul!” (Ezechiel 3:17-21).
We shall have to give an account of what we have done with the gift of Faith that has been given to us!“Everyone of us shall render account to God” (Romans 14:12). “Everyone shall bear his own burden” (Galatians 6:5). “I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the Day of Judgment!” (Matthew 12:36). “I am the Lord who searches the heart who gives to everyone according to his ways!” (Jeremias 17:10). “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required―and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more!” (Luke 12:48).
(17) Not taking Responsibility for what Happens in Your Life
This particular point could be said to part of the “Unholy Trinity” which includes the previously mentioned “Lack of Accountability” and the point which follows this one ― “Making Excuses–Blaming Anyone & Everything Except Yourself.”
People do not like to look bad―and so they will do all that they can to wiggle and wriggle out of being blamed for anything that goes wrong or anything they do that is wrong. To protect self-worth, the mind may refuse to accept that a mistake was made, rationalizing or denying it. : It may be a deeply ingrained behavioral pattern learned in childhood. Children are notorious for trying to avoid responsibility for the bad things they have―creating all kinds of lies and posturing to try and wriggle out of being held responsible.
Taking ownership feels bad, especially if it reveals you have hurt someone or failed. Not taking responsibility for your life stems from fear of judgment, shame, or trauma of failure, causing constant defensiveness and repetitive negative behaviors. Refusing personal blame and blaming others for personal, professional, or emotional setbacks or failures prevents emotional and spiritual growth and limits control over your future. It can even lead to making bad confessions―whereby you are not honest in admitting your guilt in the sins you have committed, but seek to “water-it-down” by a false rationalization that strips you of accountability and tries to place the blame on the shoulders of other persons, places or things. You make yourself a victim of circumstances. Avoiding accountability often leads to internal, unresolved guilt and, over time, increased anxiety. You remain stuck in failure and negativity, often finding that you cannot achieve your goals because you blame external obstacles rather than taking action to overcome your own personal role in repeated failure. Without acknowledging mistakes, you cannot learn from them, causing you to repeat the same negative actions.
Not taking responsibility for your life leads to a "victim mentality," where blaming others for personal, professional, or emotional circumstances prevents growth and limits control over your future. It stems from fear of judgment, shame, or trauma, causing defensiveness and repetitive negative behaviors. Owning actions brings empowerment and change. Constant blaming, excuse-making, or deflecting (defensiveness) blame strains personal and professional relationships. Try to notice when you are about to blame someone else and stop. Even if an event was not your fault, you are responsible for how you react to it. Acknowledge your role in situations without justifying it. Perfectionism can lead to not taking responsibility for your actions. View failures as opportunities for growth in humility and a greater reliance upon God rather than a public exposure of your personal flaws.
(18) Excuses–Blaming Anyone & Everything Except Yourself
Welcome to the third member of the “Unholy Trinity” mentioned above―making excuses for ourselves and blaming others for our mistakes. Decades ago, researchers discovered that people tend to take credit for themselves when things go well in life, but then they will lay blame on circumstances or other persons when things go poorly. Blaming others is, essentially, “blame avoidance.” This phenomenon is called “self-serving bias,” and nearly everyone is a culprit. For example, consider past job interviews. If a company hired you following an interview, how often did you credit it to your qualifications, achievement, or excellent interviewing skills? Likewise, how often did you discredit the interviewer or company when you didn’t receive a callback? When our favorite team wins, it’s due to their dedication and hard work. When they lose, it’s usually the fault of the referee or umpire.
People blame others for the negative behaviors, thoughts, or feelings experienced by the blamer. We may blame someone for “pressuring” us into a decision, “causing” us to explode in anger, or “making” us late. Like other adult habits, the blaming tendency traces back to early childhood development. Some learned the strategy after observing parents who frequently blamed others. Blame is contagious. Blaming actually leads to more blaming. The more we respond aggressively, the more it becomes our “go-to” reaction. Blaming pushes people away and creates a dangerous environment of mistrust and judgment. Blaming ultimately leads to negative emotional conditions. The person placing blame often feels resentment, anger, or even hatred for the person they blame. The person being blamed often feels defensive, hurt, or angry if the blaming is vocalized or communicated in other ways. The most dangerous part? Blame feels good. It protects you from the uncomfortable truth that you yourself weren’t good enough today ― and attack is the best form of defense; so too is distracting focus away from your failings onto the failings of others.
We associate blame with bad things or being bad. We associate praise with good things or being good. Most people have an aversion to being thought of as being bad―just as most people thirst for praise and being thought of as being good. Blaming others creates the illusion that the problem is outside of oneself and is not caused by one’s own actions. Blaming anyone and everyone except yourself is a defense mechanism that avoid accountability in order to protect the ego and self-esteem by deflecting the blame elsewhere, but it also damages relationships by distrust, resentment, and conflict; it also stunts personal growth, and fuels a victim mentality ― a “poor-little-old-me” mentality ― which sees oneself as a victim of the people that blame you. It stems from insecurity, a fear of vulnerability, a even need for control over others―whom you discredit by blaming them. Most people blame others because they never developed self-soothing skills to deal with powerful feelings, especially shame.
People typically blame others because:
● It’s easy.
● It feeds a need for control and gives one a sense of power.
● It fuels a desire for perfectionism and an appearance of perfectionism.
● It keeps them from having to be vulnerable.
● It protects their ego.
● It unloads backed-up feelings.
Overcoming this requires taking personal responsibility to build trust and improve self-awareness. Most individuals deny responsibility for poor behavior, regardless of if their anger is inherited or learned. They portray themselves as incapable of change or powerless in their actions. You cannot fix problems you refuse to acknowledge as your own. Instead of immediately reacting, examine your own actions and involvement in a situation. Accept that mistakes are opportunities for learning, not just failures. Shift from blaming to asking, “What can I do to improve this situation?”
Our Lord indirectly addresses this “blame-game” when He says: “Judge not, so that you may not be judged! For with what judgment you judge another, you shall be judged yourself! : And with what measure you measure out to others, it shall be measured to you again! Why do you see the splinter that is in your brother’s eye; but cannot see the plank that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother: ‘Let me remove the splinter out of your eye!’ ― and behold there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite! First cast out the plank from your own eye, and then you shall be able to see in order to cast out the splinter from your brother’s eye!” (Matthew 7:1-5).
Holy Scripture adds: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us … If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him [God] a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). “You are inexcusable, O man, whosoever you are that judges another! For wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself! For you do the same things which you judge in others!” (Romans 2:1). “Everyone of us shall render account to God for himself!” (Romans 14:12). “God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved by Him!” (John 3:17). When you judge and blame―is to build up and save souls, or is to knock down and discourage souls? Is it done out of care and love for the other soul, or is it done out of dislike or even hatred of the other soul? Is it done with kindness and mercy, or is it done with anger and vengeance? “Revenge not yourselves, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘Revenge is mine! I will repay!’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19).
Our Lady of Fatima asked that PRAY and MAKE SACRIFICES for sinners―she said nothing about pointing-the-finger at sinners and blaming sinners. The Angel of Portugal also said to the three children at Fatima: “What are you doing? Pray! Pray a great deal! Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High! Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended, and as a petition for the conversion of sinners. Above all, accept and bear with submission all the sufferings the Lord will send you!”
(19) Refusal to Learn from Past Mistakes
Have you ever made a mistake? Of course not! Catholics never make mistakes! We are always right about everything! Catholics are absolutely incapable of making mistakes! If you really hold that to be true, then there is a room in some mental hospital waiting for you!
The Sacrament of Confession is all about learning from mistakes. “He that hides his sins, shall not prosper―but he that shall confess and forsake them, shall obtain mercy!” (Proverbs 28:13). Sin is the greatest evil that there is―and we are commanded to learn from falling into that terrible evil by coming up with a firm purpose of amendment. What is a firm purpose of amendment?
The firm resolution required of a penitent to receive valid absolution in the Sacrament of Penance (Confession). It is the sincere, heartfelt resolution to avoid future sins, avoid the near occasions of sin, and take steps to amend one's life. He or she must resolve to avoid, by the grace of God, not only the sins confessed, but also the dangerous occasions to sin. It requires avoiding situations, people, or places that lead to sin (proximate occasions). It is also self-evident that the accusation of sins must include the serious intention not to commit them again in the future. Without this intent to reform, absolution is not effective. It is not merely feeling sorry (remorse), but a firm will to change. If this disposition of soul is lacking, there really is no repentance and the absolution that the priest gives is invalid.
St. Alphonsus Liguori, a Doctor of the Church and the patron saint of moral theologians, writes: “A firm purpose to sin no more is necessary for a good Confession; and this purpose must be firm, universal, and efficacious. First, it must be firm. Some say: ‘I would like to never more commit this sin! I would wish never more to offend God!’ Alas this expression, ‘I would like’; denotes that the purpose is not firm. In order to have; a firm purpose, you must say with a resolute will: ‘I will never more commit this sin! I will never more deliberately offend God!’
“Secondly, a firm purpose of amendment must be universal. The penitent must purpose to avoid all sins without exception―that is, all mortal sins. With regard to venial sins, it is sufficient for the validity of the Sacrament to have sorrow for one species of them, and to have a firm purpose to avoid it. Spiritual souls should nevertheless resolve to avoid all deliberate venial sins; and with regard to indeliberate venial sins, it is enough to resolve to guard against them according to the best of their ability―for it is impossible to avoid all indeliberate sins.
“Thirdly, the purpose of avoiding sin must be efficacious―in other words, it must make the penitent adopt the means of not relapsing into the sins that he confesses, and it must make him avoid the proximate occasions of a relapse. An occasion is called proximate in which a person has frequently fallen into grievous sin, or has been an occasion of sin to others. It is not enough for penitents to resolve merely to renounce sin―it is also necessary to resolve to remove the occasions of sin; otherwise all their confessions, though they should receive a thousand absolutions, will be invalid: because not to remove the proximate occasion of mortal sin is in itself a mortal sin. He that receives absolution without a firm purpose of removing the proximate occasion of mortal sins, commits a new mortal sin, and is guilty of sacrilege.”
Holy Scripture further adds: “There is no man who sins not” (3 Kings 8:46). “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). “A just man shall fall seven times and shall rise again―but the wicked shall fall down into evil” (Proverbs 24:16). “Just as a dog that returns to his vomit, so is the fool that repeats his folly!” (Proverbs 26:11). “Remember not the former things, and look not on things of old ―but do new things!” (Isaias 43:18-19). “Therefore, he that thinks himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:12). “Put-off the old man, who is corrupted and put on the new man, who is created in justice and holiness of truth!” (Ephesians 4:22-24).
Wise people learn from their failures, analyze what went wrong, and make adjustments; others simply live through the experience and repeat the same errors. Unsuccessful people are deeply hurt by their mistakes and failures, and as a result of this, they do everything they can to quickly forget their painful experience without learning from it. Don’t bury your mistakes, acknowledge what you did wrong and see what you can learn from that experience. For you to succeed, learn from your past mistakes. Find out why your strategy is not working out. Challenge yourself to develop better approaches that will help you to avoid similar mistakes in the future. Above all else, do not rely upon your own powers, but rely upon the powerful grace of God―without which you can do nothing.
The inability to control impulses, stick to a plan, and make necessary sacrifices ― all of this hinders progress and promotes failure. Success requires discipline, and exerting self-control over yourself is a central requirement for being successful. Self-discipline implies an interior toughness that is not influenced by things of lesser importance. If you lack self-discipline, you are more likely to give up quickly when problems arise. That is why self-discipline is of such great importance in the training of soldiers, athletes―not to mention the religious life and many other professional fields. The undisciplined person is a failure waiting to happen. “There is success in evil things to a man without discipline!” (Ecclesiasticus 20:9) …“Discipline is the gift of God” (Ecclesiasticus 26:17) … “Thou hast hated discipline! … Embrace discipline, lest at any time you perish from the just way!” (Psalms 49:17; 2:12) … “Listen to Me, My son, and learn discipline!” (Ecclesiasticus 16:24) … “Let your soul receive discipline!” (Ecclesiasticus 51:34) ... “Neglect not the discipline of the Lord! … Persevere under discipline!” (Hebrews 12:5-7) … “Become the friends of God, being commended for the gift of discipline!” (Wisdom 7:14).
(11) Poor Work Ethic
This can be linked to the above point “Lack of Self-Discipline.” We can’t control what we are born into, our genetics and environment―but we can control how we react to things. We cannot choose our natural talents before being born. We have to work with what we have been given. Even if others have more naturally gifted traits than we have, we can make up for it. We can make her up for it in trying to maximize on the qualities that we do have, showing a greater desire to achieve, and not allowing our circumstances to define us. Sometimes the people that are most gifted in talent, don’t always achieve what they need to achieve. Whereas those who don’t have quite the talent, they will try to put to work every bit of what they have got and maximize their achievement through a great work ethic and greater desire. Christ did not choose the most intelligent Jews to be His Apostles; Our Lady was not thought to be the greatest woman on Earth; the saints were rarely the most powerful and most talented people in the time in which they lived―some terrible sinners even became great saints! “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much!” (Luke 7:47).
“Jesus said to them: ‘My Father works until now―and I work!” (John 5:17). “Be always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord!” (1 Corinthians 15:58) … “Nothing is better than for a man to rejoice in his work, for that this is his portion!” (Ecclesiastes 3:22) … “Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly!” (Ecclesiastes 9:10) … “Let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good” (Ephesians 4:28) … “Whatever you do, do it from the heart!” (Colossians 3:23) … “The slothful hand brings poverty―but the hand of the industrious brings riches!” (Proverbs 10:4) … “In much work there shall be abundance―but where there are many words, there is oftentimes shortage!” (Proverbs 14:23) … “If any man will not work, neither let him eat!” (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
(12) Low Desire to Achieve
The world is full of half-hearted people who want many things but lack the desire and strength of will to go out obtain those things. We live in a world where the sense of “entitlement” is increasingly overcoming and destroying the sense of “achievement.” Why bother to work for something when you feel that you owed it. This is all fueled by many aspects of the State Welfare System―free schooling, free college education. Other free state welfare benefits include:
► MEDICAID ― free or low-cost health coverage.
► SNAP ― (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) provides monthly, income-based benefits to low-income households for purchasing food through an EBT card.
► SCHOOL MEALS ― free or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches are provided for children in low-income households.
► CFR ― (Community Food Resources) provides access to local food pantries and "blessing boxes" that provide non-perishable food, often without strict qualifications.
► CCDF ― (Child Care and Development Fund) provides for childcare expenses for low income families.
► CHIP ― (Children’s Health Insurance Program) provides free health insurance for children.
► TANF ― (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) provides cash assistance to such families for basic needs, often including job training cash.
► LIHEAP ― (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) provides assistance with heating/cooling bills.
► LIFELINE ― provides discounted or free phone/internet services.
► WIC ― (Women, Infants, and Children) provides specialized food packages such as free formula, baby food, healthy foods for pregnant women and children under five.
► VITA/TCE ― (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance / Tax Counseling for the Elderly) provides free, IRS-certified, basic income tax return preparation to qualified individuals, including those with low-to-moderate incomes (generally below $60,000 or $69,000), those with disabilities, limited English proficiency, or seniors (age 60+).
These are just some of many State Welfare Programs available. In 12 states and DC, welfare packages can be more generous than a $15-an-hour job, creating a rational incentive to choose benefits over low-wage work.
Similarly in schools―children prefer to have fun rather than learn. Some parents treat school like free day care. Furthermore, in the US system, the focus has been put too much on the grades rather than quality learning. Children are taught how to pass the test more than they are taught on how to learn. The majority of students are incapable of performing their core responsibilities of actively engaging with the lesson, asking relevant questions, studying, understanding, retaining/memorizing, interrelating and applying what is being taught. Now that there is such an abundance of information online which can be accessed in seconds, the thirst for learning is gone. In the US system, the focus has been put too much on the grades rather than quality learning. The ever-increasing invasion of the classroom by the electronic―smartphones, calculators, tablets, laptops and now Artificial Intelligence―has created dependence upon the electronic data and solutions, which has negatively impacted the intellectual capacities of most students. As a whole, the educational system has been “dumbed-down” and is producing “dumbed-down” students―who then go on to be “dumbed-down” adults, parents and workers―and ultimately a “dumbed-down” nation.
The ever-increasing “dumbing down of America” has been extensively documented over the last few decades and refers to a decline in cultural literacy, critical thinking, and educational standards. It is often manifested by a thirst for “infotainment”, short-form media with minimal byte-sized information, and a shift away from deep reading; a reduced intellectual curiosity; desire for simplified information, and a disregard for historical or political knowledge.
Is anyone really surprised that this attitude invades the religious and spiritual life of Catholics? Who is there who truly wants to be a saint by acquiring a holiness of life? Who is there who puts God and the spiritual life above the world and a worldly life? Who is there who avidly studies the Faith by reading the Bible, the Catechism and a whole variety of books on the spiritual life? Above all, who is there who puts this acquired knowledge into practice in their daily lives? “Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:13-20). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).
(13) Lack of Enthusiasm in Work
This point is a natural consequence of the previous point― Low Desire to Achieve. If we have a low desire to achieve something, then it is only to be expected that we will lack an enthusiasm in the pursuit of it. If you have a low desire for attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass or praying the Holy Rosary―then it is obvious that you will be lacking in enthusiasm whenever to have to go to Mass or pray the Rosary.
This “lack of enthusiasm” can also be called a “lack of heart” or “half-heartedness” or “lukewarmness”. Our Lord rebukes this kind of attitude, saying: “Hypocrites! Well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me. And in vain do they worship Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-9). Of lukewarmness, God says in Holy Scripture: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot! But, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth!” (Apocalypse 3:15-16).
Father Faber, in his book Growth in Holiness, is of the opinion that most souls are lukewarm: “There is nothing in the spiritual life which arrests our attention so forcibly as lukewarmness, because of the unusual language in which it has pleased God to express His ineffable disgust with it. If we seek the correlative of lukewarmness, we shall find it in blindness. It is a blindness which does not know even its own self, and does not suspect that it is blind. This blindness is owing principally to three causes: (1) the frequency of venial sins, (2) the habitual dissipation of mind, and (3) the ruling passion. The immediate results of this blindness are three: (1) In the first place conscience becomes untrue; (2) bad instincts grow stronger; (3) out of the two preceding results flows a third, which is a profane use of the Sacraments.
The seven symptoms of lukewarmness are: (1) The first mark is a great facility in omitting our exercises of piety; (2) we are negligent in those which we do perform; (3) the soul feels not altogether right with God; (4) there is an habitual acting without any intention at all, good, bad or indifferent; (5) a carelessness about forming habits of virtue; (6) a contempt of little things and of daily opportunities; (7) thinking rather of the good we have done than of the good we have left undone. I fear this evil of lukewarmness is very common, and that at this moment it is gnawing the life out of many souls who suspect not its presence there.”
(14) Lack of Perseverance
There is no room in Heaven for quitters. Heaven is only won by perseverance. “One day wonders” might shine now and again―but they lack perseverance. Yet, strangely enough, you could say that everyone has perseverance―but often it is in the wrong and sinful areas of life. An alcoholic or drug addict has ‘perseverance’; someone hooked on pornography has perseverance; someone who is habitually lazy is persevering in their laziness, etc. We need to channel our perseverance down good paths and not evil paths!
Life is a marathon. The race for Heaven is a marathon. Anyone can start a race by running as fast as they can―but how many will finish the race? As regards Heaven, “Many are called―but few are chosen!” (Matthew 22:14). Everyone is invited to the race for Heaven. Many accept the invitation and begin to run. Yet few there are that successfully finish that race and claim the crown of glory!
St. Paul tells us to run in a manner so as to win: “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it! Everyone that strives for the mastery, refrains himself from all things―and they do this so that they may receive a corruptible crown―but we seek an incorruptible one! Therefore, I so run, not as at an uncertainty; I so fight, not as one beating the air―but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
God has placed all of us in the “Marathon of Life” ― it is a race of a lifetime and a race for eternal life! Nobody is exempt―you will either win or lose. There is no single winner, but what you could call a maximum cut-off time and you have to “make the cut” to get to Heaven. It is not a 100 yard sprint; nor a one-mile race; nor a one-day race; not even a one-year race―it is a lifelong “marathon” that puts all athletic marathons in its shadow. You might start-out well―but is not starting that matters―it is finishing the course that matters: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the Faith!” (2 Timothy 4:7). For this, perseverance is absolutely necessary: “Persevere in this work which you have begun!” (Judith 4:13). “Take all that shall be brought upon thee; and in thy sorrow endure!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:4). “The Lord will hear your prayers, if you continue with perseverance in fasting and prayers!” (Judith 4:11). “He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 24:13).
Running a marathon is more than just a race—it’s a journey of resilience, courage. Running a marathon is a significant physical and mental challenge that requires immense perseverance to overcome fatigue, doubt, and pain. It is a test of endurance where success is defined by refusing to stop, adapting to difficulties, and pushing through the 26 mile distance. Perseverance is most crucial in the later, painful miles (around the mile 18 to 20 mile mark) when the inevitable moment of fatigue starts whispering doubts, turning the race into a triumph of will-power rather than mere physical fitness and strength. Ultimately, the marathon serves as a metaphor for life's challenges, teaching us that endurance and refusing to quit will lead to accomplishment.
Here are some quotes from seasoned and experienced marathon runners:
“The race began with optimism. The atmosphere was electric. The starting gun fired, and I found my rhythm quickly. My pace was solid, the weather favorable and each mile marker passed with relative ease. This is the honeymoon phase! Everything feels like it's going according to plan. In those early miles, you feel strong, even invincible. But like in life, marathons aren't won at the starting line. At around the 18-mile mark, things changed. Without warning, a sharp pain seized my left leg. A cramp so severe I had to stop and walk. My race plan? Out the window! My pace? Shattered! My morale? Hanging by a thread! I thought about quitting. When you hit the infamous marathon wall—physically or metaphorically—your original goals can feel impossible. During the race, I began focusing on micro-goals: Just make it to the next lamp post. Get to the next water station. Run to the corner, then reevaluate.
“When I finally crossed the finish line, much slower than I had planned, with my legs trembling and breath ragged, a familiar thought returned, and I was once again reminded of the ways races like this can be seen as condensed version of life. I felt no disappointment. I had endured. I had adapted. I had finished. There's something uniquely humbling about pounding the pavement for over 26 miles. It strips away ego. It tests your body, yes, but more importantly, it reveals your mental strength, your resilience, your ability to keep moving when everything inside you is telling you to stop.”
It is estimated that out of the world’s population of around 8 billion (8,000 million) only 1 million people have ever completed a marathon―which means 7,999 million have not (which translates to 1 out of 8,000 people). Additionally, a marathon has a maximum cutoff time in which it must be completed―which differs from one race organizer to another, but is generally around 6 to 8 hours.
This brings to mind comparisons with the few number of souls that are saved.
St. John Chrysostom (347-407), a Doctor and Father of the Church, wrote: “What do you think? How many of the inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? What I am about to tell you is very terrible, yet I will not conceal it from you. Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants―not one hundred people will be saved. I even doubt whether there will be as many as that!”
Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604), a Doctor and Father of the Church, wrote: “There are many who arrive at the Faith, but few who are led into the heavenly kingdom. Behold how many are gathered here for today’s Feast-Day: we fill the church from wall to wall. Yet who knows how few they are who shall be numbered in that chosen company of the Elect? They who are to be saved as Saints, and wish to be saved as imperfect souls, shall not be saved! The Ark, which in the midst of the Flood was a symbol of the Church, was wide below and narrow above; and, at the summit. It was wide where the animals were, narrow where men lived―for the Holy Church is indeed wide in the number of those who are carnal-minded, but narrow in the number of those who are spiritual.”
St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), also a Doctor of the Church, wrote: “In the Great Deluge in the days of Noe, nearly all mankind perished, eight persons alone being saved in the Ark. In our days a deluge―not of water but of sins―continually floods the Earth, and out of this deluge very few escape. Scarcely anyone is saved―especially among seculars!”
St. Anselm (1033-1109), Doctor of the Church, wrote: “If you want to be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many! And if you want to be quite sure of your salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few Do not follow the great majority of mankind, but follow those who enter upon the narrow way, who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or by night, in order that they may attain everlasting blessedness”
(15) Lack of Tenacity
Dictionaries define “tenacity” as “holding on tightly; unwilling to give in, weaken, or surrender; a mental or moral strength to resist opposition, danger, or hardship.” The word tenacity comes from Latin “tenacitas” which means “an act of holding fast,” from “tenax” (genitive “tenacis”) “holding fast, gripping, clingy; firm, steadfast,” from “tenere” meaning “to hold.” Common synonyms for tenacity include “persistence, determination, stubbornness , obstinacy, perseverance, resolve, steadfastness, doggedness, grit, a never-say-die or a never-give-up attitude, etc.” ― all emphasizing an unwavering commitment or ability to continue despite difficulty. You can see from this that “tenacity” is linked to “perseverance” ― perhaps being more of a dogged perseverance, a more gritty perseverance, a more extreme perseverance, a more intense perseverance ― a holding on to something and not letting go: much like a dog that grips something with its teeth and will not let go of it no matter how hard you pull and tug and shake the object!
Our Lord’s words come to mind, where He says: “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8) ― whereby we could rephrase that to read: “The children of this world are more tenacious than the children of light!” We see this evil tenacity in those who control the world behind the scenes ― nothing seems to shake them or stop them! Their grip or strangle-hold on the world increases year by year. One of the many tactics that they use is to puncture the tenacity of good people in resisting their evil plans; discouraging them and disheartening them in all kinds of ways that lead them to think that is pointless resisting, that there is little or nothing that can be done to combat the evil, etc.
Seeing that most of the world has grown ever-increasingly “soft” since the end of the Second World War (1939-1945), this weakening of good people is easily done in an age where good people and religious are looked upon by society being biased and hateful. Examples include rebranding immorality as “freedom,” labeling biblical morality, religious faith, or traditional family structures as “evil,” “backwards,” “homophobic,” “racist,” “hate speech,” or “cultish.” Those who stand for moral absolutes are called “intolerant or hateful fanatics.” They twist moral standards to normalize destructive sinful behaviors, while vilifying and ridiculing virtues. Abortion (murder) is redefined as being “family-planning,” “pro-choice,” a “right” or “healthcare.” They normalize or celebrating binge drinking and legalize recreational drugs―the legalization of recreational cannabis is a rapidly evolving issue in the United States, with 24 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia having legalized its use for adults. They promote sexual activity outside of marriage or redefine gender contrary to traditional or biblical teachings. Firm parental training or biblical discipline of children is looked upon as being abusive, while permissiveness is praised as being an example of love. Politically, the military invasion of another country and its destruction is called “liberation” ― whereas any resistance of the local population is said to be “terrorism.”
Good people ― in both Church and State ― have long since any tenacity they may have had in resisting these evils. As the saying goes: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing!” In one sense, good persons can do nothing if they try to do something without God and His grace―thus Our Lord said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). The world ― both Church and State ― is in such a mess, that there is nothing we can do about by ourselves. Yet the evil in the Church and State will be overcome, defeated and destroyed―as Our Lady has promised: “There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. This then will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration … This will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet … Thus the Church and country will be finally free of his cruel tyranny! … In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!”
That triumph will be triumph of God’s grace―without which we can do nothing. We need some perseverance and tenacity in pleading, beseeching, begging and imploring God’s grace to take charge, inspire, move, shake, guide and do what we cannot do: “Jesus said to them: ‘With men this is impossible―but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:26). “The things that are impossible with men, are possible with God!” (Luke 18:27). “No word shall be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). “And Jesus answering, said to them: ‘Amen, I say to you, if you shall have Faith and stagger not, you shall say to this mountain: “Take up and cast thyself into the sea!” it shall be done!’” (Matthew 21:21).
Our Lord shows us the tenacity that we must have in begging God’s assistance by the following parable: “He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13). Our Lord both tells a parable about perseveringly asking and also rewards the Canaanite woman who perseveringly asked for help. “And Jesus said to them: ‘Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and shall say to him: “Friend, lend me three loaves―because a friend of mine is come off his journey to me, and I have not what to set before him!” And he from within should answer, and say: “Trouble me not! The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed! I cannot rise and give you what you want!” Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity [relentless persistence], he will rise, and give him as many loaves as he needs. And I say to you, “Ask, and it shall be given you! Seek, and you shall find! Knock, and it shall be opened to you!” For every one that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks, it shall be opened!’” (Luke 11:5-10).
(16) Lack of Accountability
Everyone is so quick to “pass the buck” and “buck the blame”! If at all possible we seek to avoid being accountable for our actions―especially our sins and failings! You could say that it is “part and parcel” of Original Sin―whereby Adam tries to pass of his accountability before God onto Eve by blaming her: “The woman, whom You gave me to be my companion, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat!” (Genesis 3:12). Eve tried the same ploy and tactic, trying to deflect the blame that Adam had passed onto her, and she chose to blame the devil with the classic “The devil made me do it!” excuse: “And the Lord God said to the woman: ‘Why have you done this?’ And she answered: ‘The serpent deceived me, and I did eat!’” (Genesis 3:12-13). We see something similar in Cain―the son of Adam and Eve―after he had killed his brother Abel out of envy: “Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and slew him. And the Lord said to Cain: ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ And Cain answered: ‘I do not know! Am I my brother’s keeper?’” (Genesis 4:8-9).
We look at the world around us with all its evil―and we say: “It’s not my fault! They choose to be evil! What can I do about it?” We forget―or choose to ignore―that we have been given much more than other people by the mere fact that have been given the grace of being Catholic―which means that for every Catholic, there are 5 other persons who do not have the Faith (Catholics make up 1.4 billion out of world population of 8.3 billion). By the fact that we are Catholic we have treasure of graces available for our use―not our selfish use, but for the use of others, in order to bring them to the Faith. “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20) … “You are the salt of the Earth! But if the salt lose its savor, it is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men! You are the light of the world! A city seated on a mountain cannot be hidden! Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bucket, but upon a candlestick, so that it may shine to all that are in the house! So let your light shine before men!” (Matthew 5:13-16). “Going, therefore, teach all nations; baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you!” (Matthew 28:19-20).
Likewise, we have in certain sense been made “watchmen” of the world, whose job it is to warn the world where it is headed: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel (the Church)! And you shall hear the word out of My mouth, and shall tell it to them from Me! If, when I say to the wicked: ‘You shall surely die!’ ― and you do not declare it to him, nor speak to him, so that he might be converted from his wicked ways and live, then the same wicked man shall certainly die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at your hand! But if you give warning to the wicked, and he does not convert from his wickedness and from his evil ways―then he indeed shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your soul! Moreover, if the just man shall turn away from his justice, and shall commit iniquity―then I will lay a stumbling-block before him and he shall die―because you have not warned him! He shall die in his sin, and all his justices which he has done beforehand, shall not be remembered―but I will require his blood at your hand! But if you warn the just man, so that the just may not sin, and he does not sin―then living he shall live, because you have warned him, and you will have saved your soul!” (Ezechiel 3:17-21).
We shall have to give an account of what we have done with the gift of Faith that has been given to us!“Everyone of us shall render account to God” (Romans 14:12). “Everyone shall bear his own burden” (Galatians 6:5). “I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the Day of Judgment!” (Matthew 12:36). “I am the Lord who searches the heart who gives to everyone according to his ways!” (Jeremias 17:10). “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required―and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more!” (Luke 12:48).
(17) Not taking Responsibility for what Happens in Your Life
This particular point could be said to part of the “Unholy Trinity” which includes the previously mentioned “Lack of Accountability” and the point which follows this one ― “Making Excuses–Blaming Anyone & Everything Except Yourself.”
People do not like to look bad―and so they will do all that they can to wiggle and wriggle out of being blamed for anything that goes wrong or anything they do that is wrong. To protect self-worth, the mind may refuse to accept that a mistake was made, rationalizing or denying it. : It may be a deeply ingrained behavioral pattern learned in childhood. Children are notorious for trying to avoid responsibility for the bad things they have―creating all kinds of lies and posturing to try and wriggle out of being held responsible.
Taking ownership feels bad, especially if it reveals you have hurt someone or failed. Not taking responsibility for your life stems from fear of judgment, shame, or trauma of failure, causing constant defensiveness and repetitive negative behaviors. Refusing personal blame and blaming others for personal, professional, or emotional setbacks or failures prevents emotional and spiritual growth and limits control over your future. It can even lead to making bad confessions―whereby you are not honest in admitting your guilt in the sins you have committed, but seek to “water-it-down” by a false rationalization that strips you of accountability and tries to place the blame on the shoulders of other persons, places or things. You make yourself a victim of circumstances. Avoiding accountability often leads to internal, unresolved guilt and, over time, increased anxiety. You remain stuck in failure and negativity, often finding that you cannot achieve your goals because you blame external obstacles rather than taking action to overcome your own personal role in repeated failure. Without acknowledging mistakes, you cannot learn from them, causing you to repeat the same negative actions.
Not taking responsibility for your life leads to a "victim mentality," where blaming others for personal, professional, or emotional circumstances prevents growth and limits control over your future. It stems from fear of judgment, shame, or trauma, causing defensiveness and repetitive negative behaviors. Owning actions brings empowerment and change. Constant blaming, excuse-making, or deflecting (defensiveness) blame strains personal and professional relationships. Try to notice when you are about to blame someone else and stop. Even if an event was not your fault, you are responsible for how you react to it. Acknowledge your role in situations without justifying it. Perfectionism can lead to not taking responsibility for your actions. View failures as opportunities for growth in humility and a greater reliance upon God rather than a public exposure of your personal flaws.
(18) Excuses–Blaming Anyone & Everything Except Yourself
Welcome to the third member of the “Unholy Trinity” mentioned above―making excuses for ourselves and blaming others for our mistakes. Decades ago, researchers discovered that people tend to take credit for themselves when things go well in life, but then they will lay blame on circumstances or other persons when things go poorly. Blaming others is, essentially, “blame avoidance.” This phenomenon is called “self-serving bias,” and nearly everyone is a culprit. For example, consider past job interviews. If a company hired you following an interview, how often did you credit it to your qualifications, achievement, or excellent interviewing skills? Likewise, how often did you discredit the interviewer or company when you didn’t receive a callback? When our favorite team wins, it’s due to their dedication and hard work. When they lose, it’s usually the fault of the referee or umpire.
People blame others for the negative behaviors, thoughts, or feelings experienced by the blamer. We may blame someone for “pressuring” us into a decision, “causing” us to explode in anger, or “making” us late. Like other adult habits, the blaming tendency traces back to early childhood development. Some learned the strategy after observing parents who frequently blamed others. Blame is contagious. Blaming actually leads to more blaming. The more we respond aggressively, the more it becomes our “go-to” reaction. Blaming pushes people away and creates a dangerous environment of mistrust and judgment. Blaming ultimately leads to negative emotional conditions. The person placing blame often feels resentment, anger, or even hatred for the person they blame. The person being blamed often feels defensive, hurt, or angry if the blaming is vocalized or communicated in other ways. The most dangerous part? Blame feels good. It protects you from the uncomfortable truth that you yourself weren’t good enough today ― and attack is the best form of defense; so too is distracting focus away from your failings onto the failings of others.
We associate blame with bad things or being bad. We associate praise with good things or being good. Most people have an aversion to being thought of as being bad―just as most people thirst for praise and being thought of as being good. Blaming others creates the illusion that the problem is outside of oneself and is not caused by one’s own actions. Blaming anyone and everyone except yourself is a defense mechanism that avoid accountability in order to protect the ego and self-esteem by deflecting the blame elsewhere, but it also damages relationships by distrust, resentment, and conflict; it also stunts personal growth, and fuels a victim mentality ― a “poor-little-old-me” mentality ― which sees oneself as a victim of the people that blame you. It stems from insecurity, a fear of vulnerability, a even need for control over others―whom you discredit by blaming them. Most people blame others because they never developed self-soothing skills to deal with powerful feelings, especially shame.
People typically blame others because:
● It’s easy.
● It feeds a need for control and gives one a sense of power.
● It fuels a desire for perfectionism and an appearance of perfectionism.
● It keeps them from having to be vulnerable.
● It protects their ego.
● It unloads backed-up feelings.
Overcoming this requires taking personal responsibility to build trust and improve self-awareness. Most individuals deny responsibility for poor behavior, regardless of if their anger is inherited or learned. They portray themselves as incapable of change or powerless in their actions. You cannot fix problems you refuse to acknowledge as your own. Instead of immediately reacting, examine your own actions and involvement in a situation. Accept that mistakes are opportunities for learning, not just failures. Shift from blaming to asking, “What can I do to improve this situation?”
Our Lord indirectly addresses this “blame-game” when He says: “Judge not, so that you may not be judged! For with what judgment you judge another, you shall be judged yourself! : And with what measure you measure out to others, it shall be measured to you again! Why do you see the splinter that is in your brother’s eye; but cannot see the plank that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother: ‘Let me remove the splinter out of your eye!’ ― and behold there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite! First cast out the plank from your own eye, and then you shall be able to see in order to cast out the splinter from your brother’s eye!” (Matthew 7:1-5).
Holy Scripture adds: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us … If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him [God] a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). “You are inexcusable, O man, whosoever you are that judges another! For wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself! For you do the same things which you judge in others!” (Romans 2:1). “Everyone of us shall render account to God for himself!” (Romans 14:12). “God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved by Him!” (John 3:17). When you judge and blame―is to build up and save souls, or is to knock down and discourage souls? Is it done out of care and love for the other soul, or is it done out of dislike or even hatred of the other soul? Is it done with kindness and mercy, or is it done with anger and vengeance? “Revenge not yourselves, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘Revenge is mine! I will repay!’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19).
Our Lady of Fatima asked that PRAY and MAKE SACRIFICES for sinners―she said nothing about pointing-the-finger at sinners and blaming sinners. The Angel of Portugal also said to the three children at Fatima: “What are you doing? Pray! Pray a great deal! Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High! Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended, and as a petition for the conversion of sinners. Above all, accept and bear with submission all the sufferings the Lord will send you!”
(19) Refusal to Learn from Past Mistakes
Have you ever made a mistake? Of course not! Catholics never make mistakes! We are always right about everything! Catholics are absolutely incapable of making mistakes! If you really hold that to be true, then there is a room in some mental hospital waiting for you!
The Sacrament of Confession is all about learning from mistakes. “He that hides his sins, shall not prosper―but he that shall confess and forsake them, shall obtain mercy!” (Proverbs 28:13). Sin is the greatest evil that there is―and we are commanded to learn from falling into that terrible evil by coming up with a firm purpose of amendment. What is a firm purpose of amendment?
The firm resolution required of a penitent to receive valid absolution in the Sacrament of Penance (Confession). It is the sincere, heartfelt resolution to avoid future sins, avoid the near occasions of sin, and take steps to amend one's life. He or she must resolve to avoid, by the grace of God, not only the sins confessed, but also the dangerous occasions to sin. It requires avoiding situations, people, or places that lead to sin (proximate occasions). It is also self-evident that the accusation of sins must include the serious intention not to commit them again in the future. Without this intent to reform, absolution is not effective. It is not merely feeling sorry (remorse), but a firm will to change. If this disposition of soul is lacking, there really is no repentance and the absolution that the priest gives is invalid.
St. Alphonsus Liguori, a Doctor of the Church and the patron saint of moral theologians, writes: “A firm purpose to sin no more is necessary for a good Confession; and this purpose must be firm, universal, and efficacious. First, it must be firm. Some say: ‘I would like to never more commit this sin! I would wish never more to offend God!’ Alas this expression, ‘I would like’; denotes that the purpose is not firm. In order to have; a firm purpose, you must say with a resolute will: ‘I will never more commit this sin! I will never more deliberately offend God!’
“Secondly, a firm purpose of amendment must be universal. The penitent must purpose to avoid all sins without exception―that is, all mortal sins. With regard to venial sins, it is sufficient for the validity of the Sacrament to have sorrow for one species of them, and to have a firm purpose to avoid it. Spiritual souls should nevertheless resolve to avoid all deliberate venial sins; and with regard to indeliberate venial sins, it is enough to resolve to guard against them according to the best of their ability―for it is impossible to avoid all indeliberate sins.
“Thirdly, the purpose of avoiding sin must be efficacious―in other words, it must make the penitent adopt the means of not relapsing into the sins that he confesses, and it must make him avoid the proximate occasions of a relapse. An occasion is called proximate in which a person has frequently fallen into grievous sin, or has been an occasion of sin to others. It is not enough for penitents to resolve merely to renounce sin―it is also necessary to resolve to remove the occasions of sin; otherwise all their confessions, though they should receive a thousand absolutions, will be invalid: because not to remove the proximate occasion of mortal sin is in itself a mortal sin. He that receives absolution without a firm purpose of removing the proximate occasion of mortal sins, commits a new mortal sin, and is guilty of sacrilege.”
Holy Scripture further adds: “There is no man who sins not” (3 Kings 8:46). “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). “A just man shall fall seven times and shall rise again―but the wicked shall fall down into evil” (Proverbs 24:16). “Just as a dog that returns to his vomit, so is the fool that repeats his folly!” (Proverbs 26:11). “Remember not the former things, and look not on things of old ―but do new things!” (Isaias 43:18-19). “Therefore, he that thinks himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:12). “Put-off the old man, who is corrupted and put on the new man, who is created in justice and holiness of truth!” (Ephesians 4:22-24).
Wise people learn from their failures, analyze what went wrong, and make adjustments; others simply live through the experience and repeat the same errors. Unsuccessful people are deeply hurt by their mistakes and failures, and as a result of this, they do everything they can to quickly forget their painful experience without learning from it. Don’t bury your mistakes, acknowledge what you did wrong and see what you can learn from that experience. For you to succeed, learn from your past mistakes. Find out why your strategy is not working out. Challenge yourself to develop better approaches that will help you to avoid similar mistakes in the future. Above all else, do not rely upon your own powers, but rely upon the powerful grace of God―without which you can do nothing.
Article 10
Monday to Thursday after the 2nd Sunday of Lent, March 2nd & 5th
Why Do Most People Fail?
Monday to Thursday after the 2nd Sunday of Lent, March 2nd & 5th
Why Do Most People Fail?
Everyone Loves a Winner!
As they say: “Everyone loves a winner!” The only true winners are those who get to Heaven. There are no winners in Hell―only failures and losers. “Everyone loves a winner” and in the Heaven of winners, everyone loves each other eternally. In the Hell of losers and failures, there is no love of each other―only hatred. The tragic thing is that most souls in Hell never dreamt or imagined that they would end up being losers in Hell.
Added it to that tragedy is the fact that God wanted them to be winners: “You love all things that exist, and hate none of the things which You have made―for You did not appoint, or make anything hating it! How could anything survive or be preserved, if You did not want it? But You spare all―because they are yours, O Lord, who love souls!” (Wisdom 11:25-26). “God wants hall men to be saved … not willing that any should perish” (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23).
At the start of this Lenten season, the Church encouraged us to be winners: “Do you not know that those who run in a race, all indeed run, but only one receives the prize? So run as to win it. And everyone in a contest abstains from all things ― and they indeed to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable. Therefore I so run as not without a purpose; I so fight as not beating the air; but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps after preaching to others I myself should be rejected!” (Septuagesima Sunday).
Love Wins
God is the biggest winner of all―and “God is Charity” (1 John4:8). Satan is the biggest loser of all―and Satan has no Charity, but is pure hatred. Without Charity―like Satan―we are condemned to be losers: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). In other words, without charity you are a failure.
It is Charity that wins Heaven for us: “Charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47). St. John of the Cross says that at the end of our lives, God―Who is Charity―will judge us upon our Charity, or the lack therof. That is why the whole Law of God depends upon Charity: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the greatest and the first commandment! And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself! On these two commandments depends the whole law and the prophets!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31).
Love and Grace
Catholic theology teaches that God is Love and God is Grace. Love and Sanctifying Grace go together like a husband and wife. You cannot have Love without Sanctifying Grace―and you cannot have Sanctifying Grace without the Love of God. By committing Mortal Sin you cast both of them out of your soul. God is not merely a dispenser of grace, but is Grace itself. Thus, when we say that we can do nothing without God―“Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John15:5) says Christ―it must be automatically understood that without God’s grace we can do nothing. Most people have never read treatise by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica on the subject of the Grace of God. Here are a few humbling and mind-blowing extracts that manifest our absolute dependence upon the Grace of God:
“Human nature needs the help of God to do or wish any good whatsoever … Without grace men do nothing good when they either think or wish or love or act! … Without grace men can do no good whatever! … Grace is a light of the soul … Man cannot even know truth without Divine help … Not only do men know by the light of grace what to do, but by its help they do lovingly what they know! … Man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works proportionate to everlasting life―for this a higher force is needed, namely, the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life … Man cannot prepare himself for everlasting life without the help of grace ... Man’s turning to God is by free-will―but free-will can only be turned to God by God, according to John 15:5: ‘Without Me, you can do nothing!’ … Man can do nothing unless moved by God ... Man needs the help of grace to heal his nature … Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it … Man cannot fulfill all the Divine commandments without healing grace … It is heresy to believe that without grace man can fulfill all the Divine commandments … Man cannot avoid every act of sin, except by grace … Man needs grace to entirely abstain from sin … Man by himself can in no way rise from sin without the help of grace … In order for a man rise from sin there is required the help of grace … God’s grace is the outcome of His mercy … Even a man who already possesses grace needs a further assistance of grace in order to live righteously … After anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil until the end of his life. For to many persons grace is given to whom perseverance in grace is not given!” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114; Quaestiones Quodlibetales, 4, 6).
All success ultimately depends upon God and His Grace and our Love for God. God will not supernaturally reward with Heaven―which is the ultimate success―those who hate Him and Mortal Sin is a hatred of God. Likewise, God will not reward those who have expelled Sanctifying Grace from their souls through Mortal Sin. Sin is for losers―Mortal Sin loses Sanctifying Grace, Charity and the friendship of God. Venial Sin, if habitually committed, eventually leads to Mortal Sin. To commit Mortal Sin is a massive failure―and to fail to repent of Mortal Sin is an even greater failure! Just ask the souls in Hell! They are the ultimate failures, the ultimate losers!
The Many Sides and Causes of Failure
Spiritual writers, priests, psychologists, coaches, business mentors have all had a say as to the many reasons why we fail. Some of those reasons overlap. Here is an abbreviated compilation of the many reasons that they list. We will then give some further consideration to them in order to help us fight against failure and achieve success―especially spiritual and supernatural success, which ultimately consists in our salvation and eternal life in Heaven. Since we are in the Forty Days of Lent, we have symbolically only chosen 40 of the many reasons that are listed.
As they say: “Everyone loves a winner!” The only true winners are those who get to Heaven. There are no winners in Hell―only failures and losers. “Everyone loves a winner” and in the Heaven of winners, everyone loves each other eternally. In the Hell of losers and failures, there is no love of each other―only hatred. The tragic thing is that most souls in Hell never dreamt or imagined that they would end up being losers in Hell.
Added it to that tragedy is the fact that God wanted them to be winners: “You love all things that exist, and hate none of the things which You have made―for You did not appoint, or make anything hating it! How could anything survive or be preserved, if You did not want it? But You spare all―because they are yours, O Lord, who love souls!” (Wisdom 11:25-26). “God wants hall men to be saved … not willing that any should perish” (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23).
At the start of this Lenten season, the Church encouraged us to be winners: “Do you not know that those who run in a race, all indeed run, but only one receives the prize? So run as to win it. And everyone in a contest abstains from all things ― and they indeed to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable. Therefore I so run as not without a purpose; I so fight as not beating the air; but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps after preaching to others I myself should be rejected!” (Septuagesima Sunday).
Love Wins
God is the biggest winner of all―and “God is Charity” (1 John4:8). Satan is the biggest loser of all―and Satan has no Charity, but is pure hatred. Without Charity―like Satan―we are condemned to be losers: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). In other words, without charity you are a failure.
It is Charity that wins Heaven for us: “Charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47). St. John of the Cross says that at the end of our lives, God―Who is Charity―will judge us upon our Charity, or the lack therof. That is why the whole Law of God depends upon Charity: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the greatest and the first commandment! And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself! On these two commandments depends the whole law and the prophets!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31).
Love and Grace
Catholic theology teaches that God is Love and God is Grace. Love and Sanctifying Grace go together like a husband and wife. You cannot have Love without Sanctifying Grace―and you cannot have Sanctifying Grace without the Love of God. By committing Mortal Sin you cast both of them out of your soul. God is not merely a dispenser of grace, but is Grace itself. Thus, when we say that we can do nothing without God―“Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John15:5) says Christ―it must be automatically understood that without God’s grace we can do nothing. Most people have never read treatise by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica on the subject of the Grace of God. Here are a few humbling and mind-blowing extracts that manifest our absolute dependence upon the Grace of God:
“Human nature needs the help of God to do or wish any good whatsoever … Without grace men do nothing good when they either think or wish or love or act! … Without grace men can do no good whatever! … Grace is a light of the soul … Man cannot even know truth without Divine help … Not only do men know by the light of grace what to do, but by its help they do lovingly what they know! … Man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works proportionate to everlasting life―for this a higher force is needed, namely, the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life … Man cannot prepare himself for everlasting life without the help of grace ... Man’s turning to God is by free-will―but free-will can only be turned to God by God, according to John 15:5: ‘Without Me, you can do nothing!’ … Man can do nothing unless moved by God ... Man needs the help of grace to heal his nature … Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it … Man cannot fulfill all the Divine commandments without healing grace … It is heresy to believe that without grace man can fulfill all the Divine commandments … Man cannot avoid every act of sin, except by grace … Man needs grace to entirely abstain from sin … Man by himself can in no way rise from sin without the help of grace … In order for a man rise from sin there is required the help of grace … God’s grace is the outcome of His mercy … Even a man who already possesses grace needs a further assistance of grace in order to live righteously … After anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil until the end of his life. For to many persons grace is given to whom perseverance in grace is not given!” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114; Quaestiones Quodlibetales, 4, 6).
All success ultimately depends upon God and His Grace and our Love for God. God will not supernaturally reward with Heaven―which is the ultimate success―those who hate Him and Mortal Sin is a hatred of God. Likewise, God will not reward those who have expelled Sanctifying Grace from their souls through Mortal Sin. Sin is for losers―Mortal Sin loses Sanctifying Grace, Charity and the friendship of God. Venial Sin, if habitually committed, eventually leads to Mortal Sin. To commit Mortal Sin is a massive failure―and to fail to repent of Mortal Sin is an even greater failure! Just ask the souls in Hell! They are the ultimate failures, the ultimate losers!
The Many Sides and Causes of Failure
Spiritual writers, priests, psychologists, coaches, business mentors have all had a say as to the many reasons why we fail. Some of those reasons overlap. Here is an abbreviated compilation of the many reasons that they list. We will then give some further consideration to them in order to help us fight against failure and achieve success―especially spiritual and supernatural success, which ultimately consists in our salvation and eternal life in Heaven. Since we are in the Forty Days of Lent, we have symbolically only chosen 40 of the many reasons that are listed.
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● Not Relying Upon God and His Grace
● Not Praying for Success ● Procrastination ● Lack of Planning. Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail ● No Concrete Path to Success ● Wishful Thinking ● Vague Goals ● Taking the Wrong Means ● Setting the Wrong Goals ● Lack of Self-Discipline ● Poor Work Ethic ● Low Desire to Achieve ● Lack of Enthusiasm in Work ● Lack of Perseverance ● Lack of Tenacity ● Lack of Accountability ● Not taking Responsibility for what Happens in Your Life ● Excuses – Blaming Anyone and Everything Except Yourself ● Refusal to Learn from Past Mistakes ● Arguing Against Advice Instead of Taking It |
● Refusing All Criticism
● Giving too much Importance to Feelings and Emotions ● Lack of Focus ● Too Distracted ● Relying on Motivation Alone ● Full of Presumption ● Lack of Humility ● Refusing Help ● Mental Roadblocks ● Lack of Ambition to go Above and Beyond ● Afraid to Stand Out Among the Crowd ● Fear of Failure ● High Expectations ● Being in a Hurry to Get What You Want ● Unhappy with Your Progress ● Full of Doubts ● Lack of Belief ● Don’t Believe it’s Possible ● Pessimism ● Deep down, You Don’t Think You Deserve What You Want |
Short-Term Success & Long-Term Failure or Short-Term Failure & Long-Term Success?
There are some people who want to have fun, wealth, comfort and success in this life―and expect to go to Heaven and continue their life of ease. If things go wrong for them, then they start complaining, criticizing, moaning, groaning, whinging and whining! These people are clueless as to how the spiritual life works. Our Lord clearly says to His Apostles that, in a certain sense (in the eyes of the world), they will be miserable failures here on Earth but joyfully successful in Heaven: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy!” (John 16:20). Our Lady of Lourdes told St. Bernadette the same thing: “I do not promise to make you happy in this life, but in the next life!” That is the underlying message in Our Lord’s words on what it takes to get to Heaven: “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me [to Heaven], let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me [to Heaven]!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me [to Heaven], cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that takes not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me [and Heaven]!” (Matthew 10:38).
To the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady said: “Earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible with true wisdom! … The greatest wisdom for souls consists in the knowledge of the cross and in the love of sufferings … Those that know nothing of this science are foolish! … Although the number of fools is so great and the vices are become so measureless, there are those who also think that the perfect are numerous―but there are fewer than one thinks, and many less than there should be … The number of fools is infinite, the number of the reprobate is also uncountable! … Many there are who wish to follow Christ―but as soon as they feel the sufferings of the Cross, they cast it aside! … They do not seek the medicine of suffering! … Why do mortals continue to deceive themselves, by expecting, in spite of their sins, to become pure and worthy of enjoying God, without the furnace of sorrows and suffering? Some of them expect to be distinguished by God’s most intimate love; others expect to be pardoned without penance; others expect to be highly favored. Nothing of all this will they attain, because they do not wish to imitate Him and follow Him in His Passion! … Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment!” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, from The Mystical City of God).
Christ Was Seen as a Failure
The cross and suffering are generally associated with failure. Christ was thought be a failure as He died upon the cross on Mount Calvary. His enemies taunted Him: “And they that passed by, blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying: ‘Vah! Thou that destroyest the temple of God and in three days dost rebuild it! Save thy own self! If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross!’ In like manner also the chief priests, with the scribes and ancients, mocking, said: ‘He saved others; but He cannot save Himself! If He be the king of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him! He trusted in God―let God now deliver Him if He will have Him; for He said: ‘I am the Son of God!’” (Matthew 27:39-43).
Even Our Lord’s disciples thought He had failed when He died on the cross. Their hopes were shattered. They had not anticipated that the Messias would suffer and die. Following His arrest, the disciples were terrified and fled, abandoning Him. The crucifixion was seen as a failure of their hope that he would redeem Israel. After the crucifixion, they were absorbed in grief and, in some cases, refused to believe reports of His resurrection, indicating they thought the movement had failed and ended. The disciples on the road to Emmaus said: “Jesus of Nazareth, was a prophet, mighty in work and word before God and all the people! Our chief priests and princes delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him! But we had hoped, that it was He that should have redeemed Israel!” (Luke 24:19-21).
We see from this that what is taken to be a failure in the eyes of the world, is sometimes a success in the eyes of God―and, conversely, what is taken to be a success in the eyes of the world, is sometimes taken to be a failure in the eyes of God. As God says: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9). Holy Scripture adds: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (1 Corinthians 3:19). “The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men! … The foolish things of the world God has chosen, so that He may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world God has chosen, so that He may confound the strong!” (1 Corinthians 1:25-27). What is seen as success to the spiritual person is seen as being a failure to the worldly person―and what seems to be a success to the worldly person is seen as being a failure in the eyes of the spiritual person. When St. Paul writes: “We are fools for Christ’s sake!” (1 Corinthians 4:10) ― we could just as well say: “We are apparent failures for Christ’s sake!” We could broadly apply the following words from Holy Scripture to this scenario: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20). More often than not, those who ‘succeed’ in the eyes of the world, are failures in the eyes of God. We should seek to avoid failing in the eyes of God―and not worry about failing in the eyes of the world.So, ultimately, there is what can called “a good failure” and “a bad failure”―likewise there is “good success” and “evil success”, “virtuous success” and “sinful success.”
Christians are often called “fools” by the world for following the message of the cross―which appears foolish or irrational to those who do not believe: “The word of the cross is foolishness to them that will perish; but to them that are saved―that is, to us―it is the power of God! For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject!’ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For seeing that the world by its wisdom did not know God―it has pleased God, in His wisdom, to save them that believe by the foolishness of our preaching. For both the Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom―but we preach Christ crucified, which for the Jews is a stumbling-block; and for the Gentiles it is foolishness! But to them that are called―both Jews and Greeks―the cross of Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men; and the weakness of God is stronger than the strength of men!” (1 Corinthians 1:18-25). This “foolishness” for Christ involves embracing suffering, humility, and non-worldly attitudes and choices―such as rejecting worldly honors, power, wealth and possessions in order to serve God. “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).
Let us now look at some the above listed 40 reasons why people fail. Just as the virtues are interlinked, so too are some these reasons for failure interlinked and overlap.
(1) Not Relying Upon God and His Grace
God is everything―and we are nothing. Without Him we can do nothing and with Him everything is possible. “Without Me―you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). “The things that are impossible with men, are possible with God! … With men this is impossible―but with God all things are possible!’” (Luke 18:27; Matthew 19:26). “A man cannot receive anything, unless it be given him from Heaven” (John 3:27). If we rely upon our own skills and powers, then God will leave us to ourselves―and we will fail sooner or later. “No man shall prevail by his own strength!” (1 Kings 2:9). “God looked down from Heaven on the children of men―to see if there were any that did seek God. All have gone aside! They are become unprofitable together!” (Psalm 52:3-4).
“The birds of the air neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns―and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they―O ye of little faith? - Be not solicitous therefore, saying: ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What clothes shall we wear?’ For your Father knows that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Matthew 6:26-33). “For every one that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds: and to him that knocks, it shall be opened. What man among you, of whom if his son shall asks for bread, will he give him a stone? [If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more will your Father, Who is in Heaven, give good things to them that ask Him?” (Matthew 7:8-11). We fail miserably by failing to see that God wishes to part of TINIEST DETAILS OF OUR LIFE. Read the above section by St. Thomas Aquinas on grace again―and again, and again, and again!
The main problem lies in the fact that we have become used to doing most things without reference to God; without doing them for God; without seeking God’s will in those things; and without asking for and relying upon God’s grace in ALL that we do. “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do ALL to the glory of God!” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
(2) Not Praying for Success
“For everyone that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds: and to him that knocks, it shall be opened. What man among you, of whom if his son shall asks for bread, will he give him a stone? [If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more will your Father, Who is in Heaven, give good things to them that ask Him?” (Matthew 7:8-11). St. Teresa of Avila, commenting upon this passage, says that if we don’t ask then we won’t receive; if we don’t week then we will never find; and if we don’t knock then the door will not be opened to us.
Prayer is not merely a duty which we are bound in conscience to perform; it is, moreover, a necessity of life. St. Thomas Aquinas, writing of prayer, says that what God decided from all eternity to grant us by His Divine Providence, He will give it to us by means of prayer, and on this depends the deliverance, salvation, conversion and cure of many souls and the progress and perfection of others.
St. John Chrysostom says that prayer is to the soul what nerves are to the body, ramparts to a city, arms to a soldier, wings to a bird, breath to a living being. We cannot live without air and food and sleep; it is just as impossible for our supernatural life to continue without prayer. By prayer we become united with God, and obtain the supernatural help without which we cannot long resist the attacks of evil, or accomplish any supernatural good work. Prayer nourishes the supernatural virtues in our souls.
Without prayer, Faith, Hope, and Charity, and all the other virtues become weak, just as in time of drought vegetation gradually withers and dies. It is all the more necessary for us to realize the necessity of prayer, because we can suffer from spiritual starvation without noticing it. If we neglect to take bodily food we feel hungry, and continued abstinence from food makes us weak and unable to work. But if we abstain from spiritual food, the serious consequences are not brought home to us in the same way, and we may starve ourselves without knowing it. Prayer, therefore, is a necessity for spiritual health and strength; and if we want to grow stronger spiritually, we must pray. There is no other way.
(3) Procrastination
As the saying goes: “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today!” Holy Scripture warns: “He that watches the wind shall not sow; and he that watches the clouds shall never reap!” (Ecclesiastes 11:4). “To him who knows he should do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin!” (James 4:17). “You say: ‘Tomorrow we will go into such a city, and there we will spend a year, and will do business, and make our profit!’ But you know not what tomorrow will bring!” (James 4:13-14). “Boast not for tomorrow―for you know not what the day to come may bring forth!” (Proverbs 27:1). “The slothful hand brings poverty!” (Proverbs 10:4). “In much work there shall be abundance―but where there are many words, there is often a lack of things” (Proverbs 14:23) ― which relates to: “All talk and no action!”
(4) Lack of Planning―Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail
If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail. If you don’t have a concrete plan, you are less likely to succeed. It doesn't matter if the plan is perfect or imperfect, all that matters is that you have a plan that will steer all your actions in one direction. Without a concrete plan of action and the discipline to follow through, goals remain dreams.
We see that frequently in the Sacrament of Confession―which demands that for a confession to be valid, we must have a FIRM PURPOSE OF AMENDMENT. Why bother using the word “FIRM”? Because a VAGUE purpose of amendment is not enough. It is not enough to say: “Oh, I’ve got to stop committing this Mortal Sin!” That is far too vague and wishy-washy! You should ask yourself: “What do I plan to do to stop committing this Mortal Sin? What are the means that I will take? What do I plan to do when tempted in the future? How do I plan to avoid the occasions of those sins? What do I plan to do when I am tempted?” Most people neglect to plan in this way―and that is one reason why most confessions are invalid in the opinion of St. Alphonsus Liguori. Why is it that most souls end up being damned? It is because they died in a state of Mortal Sin―many of them in a state of habitual Mortal Sin. They now realize in Hell that failing to plan is in reality planning to fail.
The same lack of planning is behind the fact that very few people desire and achieve holiness in this life! They have many plans for many worldly ventures and activities―but little or no plans for acquiring holiness. They forget that it is ONLY SAINTS who go to Heaven―those who fail to achieve sanctity in this life are sent to burn in the fires of Purgatory or the fires of Hell.
(5) No Concrete Path to Success
This is linked to the previous point and is the development of the previous point. The planning may have been done and the plan might be excellent―but it never sees the light of day like a baby that suffers a miscarriage. It remains it “womb” of the mind and that “womb” becomes the “tomb” of those excellent plans. These people know what they want to achieve; they have seriously planned on how it can be achieved; but they never really started. The mind is strong, but the will is weak. St. Paul speaks of this: “I do not do what I want to do!” (Romans 7:15). “They say, and do not!” says Our Lord (Matthew 23:3). Again, a case of “All talk and no action!”
In a certain sense, planning is easier than doing. Knowing is easier that doing. Hence Holy Scripture says: “What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has Faith, but has not works? Shall Faith be able to save him? … Faith, if it has not works, is dead in itself. Show me your Faith without works; and I will show you, by works, my Faith! Will you know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? … Do you see that a man is justified by works, and not by Faith only? For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:14-26).
(6) Wishful Thinking
This is also linked to the two previous points and is the development of them. The planning may have been done and the plan might be excellent―but there is neglect, for one of many possible reasons, to make the effort to put the plan into practice. There are some people who are wishful thinkers―who vainly and presumptuously expect someone else to do the “donkey work” for them. That other person might be God or some other fellow human. “God will take care of it! God will step in and see to it! God will make it happen! God will send someone to put my plans into action!” All of this is wishful thinking and ignores the fact that God expects you to WORK! “Where there are many dreams, there are many vanities and words without number!” (Ecclesiastes 5:6).
“This is your portion in life― in your labor under the sun, whatsoever your hand is able to do, do it earnestly” (Ecclesiastes 9:9-10). “Be not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work” (James 1:25). “In all things show yourself an example of good works!” (Titus 2:7). “Let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good” (Ephesians 4:28). “Work with your own hands, as we commanded you!” (1 Thessalonians 4:11). “Let everyone prove his own work!” (Galatians 6:4). “Lay open your works to the Lord” [Proverbs 16:3). “The grace of God in me has not been void, for I have labored more abundantly than all!” (1 Corinthians 15:10). “If any man will not work, neither let him eat!” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). “He that is loose and slack in his work, is the brother of him that wastes his own works” (Proverbs 18:9).
Wishful thinking is also the formation of beliefs and the making of decisions based on what is pleasing to imagine, rather than being based on evidence, rationality, or reality. It is an emotion-focused coping strategy often characterized by over-optimism, where someone hopes for an unlikely outcome, such as expecting a lottery win. The ultimate lottery win is Heaven―but Hell is far exceeds the numbers of the few that are saved! Many or most of those in Hell were mere wishful thinkers―dreaming of an outcome that was far from being based on the kind of life they were living.
(7) Vague Goals
This has already been dealt with to a certain extent in #4 above: “Lack of Planning.”
(8) Taking the Wrong Means
You can have a sick patient who seeks out the best doctor available to cure him―but if the sick man is given the wrong medicine or insufficient medicine, then his health will continue to fail. If a person wants to get to Heaven, but chooses the wrong religion―then, normally speaking, he will not get to Heaven. Sometimes we can be spiritually ignorant and spiritually blind, while insisting or pretending that we are not―of such persons Our Lord says: “Leave them alone! They are blind and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14). Our Faith is our spiritual eyesight―we see with the eyes of Faith.
Yet if we do not study our Faith in order to maintain our spiritual eyesight, then our vision will become increasingly blurred as it degenerates towards blindness―making us easy prey for false teachings and imprudent judgments: “O foolish people, and without understanding―who have eyes and see not; and ears, and hear not!” (Jeremias (5:21). “His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant―dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams!” (Isaias 56:10). “They shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord!” (Sophonias 1:17). Our Lord rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees as being blind―for they rejected the means that Christ offered them and which God had also earlier offered them―preferring their own personal means: “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees! … Woe to you blind guides! … Ye foolish and blind! … Thou blind Pharisee! … How will you flee from the judgment of Hell? Behold I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes―and some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city!” (Matthew 23:14-31).
There are several chief reasons as to why we might take the wrong means. One reason, as mentioned above, might be our ignorance―often due to a neglect in studying the Faith. This ignorance leads to another cause―being led astray by “false prophets” who sound as though they are telling the truth: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep! … Many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many! … For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive, if possible, even the elect!” (Matthew 7:15; 24:11; 24:2). Another reason for taking the wrong means might be pride―whereby we don’t want to take the means offered by Christ and His Church, but prefer to “do it our way”―which is basically placing subjectivity above objectivity; replacing what is really true with what I imagine to be true―thus every person has his or her own truth. Combine this with the modern ‘dogma’ of “Follow your own conscience” ― and you have recipe for disaster! That is how all the Protestant sects were born: “There shall be among you lying teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition” (2 Peter 2:1).
(9) Setting the Wrong Goals
Take the wrong direction and you will end up in the wrong place! If only the souls in Hell would have realized the truth of that! If you are running a marathon, but take the wrong turn upon exiting the stadium―then no matter how fast you run, you will not win the race. There are many souls who place their own personal preferred goals above the goals that Heaven has given us―somehow, stupidly, naively, imagining that everything will still work out in the end! After all―isn’t God loving, understanding and merciful?
St. Louis de Montfort perfectly depicts this crowd: “The world’s group―the devil’s in fact―is far superior in number, and seemingly far more colorful and splendid in array. Fashionable folk are all in a hurry to enlist, the highways are overcrowded. These roads are strewn with flowers, bordered with all kinds of amusements and attractions, and paved with gold and silver! They rouse one another to persist in their unscrupulous depravity. ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure!’ they shout, ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure! Let us eat, let us drink, let us sing, let us dance, let us play! God is good, He did not make us to damn us! God does not forbid us to enjoy ourselves! We shall not be damned for that! Away with scruples! We shall not die!’ ― and so they continue!” (St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross).
The chief goal―and wrong goal―of such people is to profit from the world and what the world can offer. They blindly ignore Our Lord’s warning about wrong goals: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24). “Seek first the Kingdom of God!” (Luke 12:31). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4).
Holy Scripture warns against setting goals driven by selfish ambition, pride, or worldly success, etc. Chasing goals solely for personal gain, fame, or to satisfy selfish desires rather than serving God. Working hard to gain admiration or recognition from others rather than doing it for God. Investing time and resources in pursuits that do not align with God’s purpose for your life. Making rigid plans without seeking divine guidance or acknowledging that God holds ultimate control over the future.
Of such persons Holy Scripture says: “They are of the world―therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them! We are of God! He that knows God, hears us! He that is not of God, hears us not! By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error!” (1 John 4:5-6). The chief wrong goals include ignoring God’s will: “I called, and you refused!” (Proverbs 1:24) … “I will reject thee, for thou hast forgotten the law of thy God!” (Osee 4:6). “Not everyone that says to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that dord the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21).
Another wrong goal is the accumulation of wealth for personal pleasure: “Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:23-24). Which is why Holy Scripture adds: “Woe to you that are rich!” (Luke 6:24). “Do not trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God!” (1 Timothy 6:17) … “He that trusts in his riches shall fall!” (Proverbs 11:28).
To be Continued ... Because Failure Continues!
Since we have chosen chief reasons for why people fail―these will have be continued in the following article. The reasons that remain to be examined and treated are:
There are some people who want to have fun, wealth, comfort and success in this life―and expect to go to Heaven and continue their life of ease. If things go wrong for them, then they start complaining, criticizing, moaning, groaning, whinging and whining! These people are clueless as to how the spiritual life works. Our Lord clearly says to His Apostles that, in a certain sense (in the eyes of the world), they will be miserable failures here on Earth but joyfully successful in Heaven: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy!” (John 16:20). Our Lady of Lourdes told St. Bernadette the same thing: “I do not promise to make you happy in this life, but in the next life!” That is the underlying message in Our Lord’s words on what it takes to get to Heaven: “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me [to Heaven], let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me [to Heaven]!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me [to Heaven], cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that takes not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me [and Heaven]!” (Matthew 10:38).
To the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady said: “Earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible with true wisdom! … The greatest wisdom for souls consists in the knowledge of the cross and in the love of sufferings … Those that know nothing of this science are foolish! … Although the number of fools is so great and the vices are become so measureless, there are those who also think that the perfect are numerous―but there are fewer than one thinks, and many less than there should be … The number of fools is infinite, the number of the reprobate is also uncountable! … Many there are who wish to follow Christ―but as soon as they feel the sufferings of the Cross, they cast it aside! … They do not seek the medicine of suffering! … Why do mortals continue to deceive themselves, by expecting, in spite of their sins, to become pure and worthy of enjoying God, without the furnace of sorrows and suffering? Some of them expect to be distinguished by God’s most intimate love; others expect to be pardoned without penance; others expect to be highly favored. Nothing of all this will they attain, because they do not wish to imitate Him and follow Him in His Passion! … Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment!” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, from The Mystical City of God).
Christ Was Seen as a Failure
The cross and suffering are generally associated with failure. Christ was thought be a failure as He died upon the cross on Mount Calvary. His enemies taunted Him: “And they that passed by, blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying: ‘Vah! Thou that destroyest the temple of God and in three days dost rebuild it! Save thy own self! If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross!’ In like manner also the chief priests, with the scribes and ancients, mocking, said: ‘He saved others; but He cannot save Himself! If He be the king of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him! He trusted in God―let God now deliver Him if He will have Him; for He said: ‘I am the Son of God!’” (Matthew 27:39-43).
Even Our Lord’s disciples thought He had failed when He died on the cross. Their hopes were shattered. They had not anticipated that the Messias would suffer and die. Following His arrest, the disciples were terrified and fled, abandoning Him. The crucifixion was seen as a failure of their hope that he would redeem Israel. After the crucifixion, they were absorbed in grief and, in some cases, refused to believe reports of His resurrection, indicating they thought the movement had failed and ended. The disciples on the road to Emmaus said: “Jesus of Nazareth, was a prophet, mighty in work and word before God and all the people! Our chief priests and princes delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him! But we had hoped, that it was He that should have redeemed Israel!” (Luke 24:19-21).
We see from this that what is taken to be a failure in the eyes of the world, is sometimes a success in the eyes of God―and, conversely, what is taken to be a success in the eyes of the world, is sometimes taken to be a failure in the eyes of God. As God says: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9). Holy Scripture adds: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (1 Corinthians 3:19). “The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men! … The foolish things of the world God has chosen, so that He may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world God has chosen, so that He may confound the strong!” (1 Corinthians 1:25-27). What is seen as success to the spiritual person is seen as being a failure to the worldly person―and what seems to be a success to the worldly person is seen as being a failure in the eyes of the spiritual person. When St. Paul writes: “We are fools for Christ’s sake!” (1 Corinthians 4:10) ― we could just as well say: “We are apparent failures for Christ’s sake!” We could broadly apply the following words from Holy Scripture to this scenario: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20). More often than not, those who ‘succeed’ in the eyes of the world, are failures in the eyes of God. We should seek to avoid failing in the eyes of God―and not worry about failing in the eyes of the world.So, ultimately, there is what can called “a good failure” and “a bad failure”―likewise there is “good success” and “evil success”, “virtuous success” and “sinful success.”
Christians are often called “fools” by the world for following the message of the cross―which appears foolish or irrational to those who do not believe: “The word of the cross is foolishness to them that will perish; but to them that are saved―that is, to us―it is the power of God! For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject!’ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For seeing that the world by its wisdom did not know God―it has pleased God, in His wisdom, to save them that believe by the foolishness of our preaching. For both the Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom―but we preach Christ crucified, which for the Jews is a stumbling-block; and for the Gentiles it is foolishness! But to them that are called―both Jews and Greeks―the cross of Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men; and the weakness of God is stronger than the strength of men!” (1 Corinthians 1:18-25). This “foolishness” for Christ involves embracing suffering, humility, and non-worldly attitudes and choices―such as rejecting worldly honors, power, wealth and possessions in order to serve God. “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).
Let us now look at some the above listed 40 reasons why people fail. Just as the virtues are interlinked, so too are some these reasons for failure interlinked and overlap.
(1) Not Relying Upon God and His Grace
God is everything―and we are nothing. Without Him we can do nothing and with Him everything is possible. “Without Me―you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). “The things that are impossible with men, are possible with God! … With men this is impossible―but with God all things are possible!’” (Luke 18:27; Matthew 19:26). “A man cannot receive anything, unless it be given him from Heaven” (John 3:27). If we rely upon our own skills and powers, then God will leave us to ourselves―and we will fail sooner or later. “No man shall prevail by his own strength!” (1 Kings 2:9). “God looked down from Heaven on the children of men―to see if there were any that did seek God. All have gone aside! They are become unprofitable together!” (Psalm 52:3-4).
“The birds of the air neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns―and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they―O ye of little faith? - Be not solicitous therefore, saying: ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What clothes shall we wear?’ For your Father knows that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Matthew 6:26-33). “For every one that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds: and to him that knocks, it shall be opened. What man among you, of whom if his son shall asks for bread, will he give him a stone? [If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more will your Father, Who is in Heaven, give good things to them that ask Him?” (Matthew 7:8-11). We fail miserably by failing to see that God wishes to part of TINIEST DETAILS OF OUR LIFE. Read the above section by St. Thomas Aquinas on grace again―and again, and again, and again!
The main problem lies in the fact that we have become used to doing most things without reference to God; without doing them for God; without seeking God’s will in those things; and without asking for and relying upon God’s grace in ALL that we do. “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do ALL to the glory of God!” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
(2) Not Praying for Success
“For everyone that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds: and to him that knocks, it shall be opened. What man among you, of whom if his son shall asks for bread, will he give him a stone? [If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more will your Father, Who is in Heaven, give good things to them that ask Him?” (Matthew 7:8-11). St. Teresa of Avila, commenting upon this passage, says that if we don’t ask then we won’t receive; if we don’t week then we will never find; and if we don’t knock then the door will not be opened to us.
Prayer is not merely a duty which we are bound in conscience to perform; it is, moreover, a necessity of life. St. Thomas Aquinas, writing of prayer, says that what God decided from all eternity to grant us by His Divine Providence, He will give it to us by means of prayer, and on this depends the deliverance, salvation, conversion and cure of many souls and the progress and perfection of others.
St. John Chrysostom says that prayer is to the soul what nerves are to the body, ramparts to a city, arms to a soldier, wings to a bird, breath to a living being. We cannot live without air and food and sleep; it is just as impossible for our supernatural life to continue without prayer. By prayer we become united with God, and obtain the supernatural help without which we cannot long resist the attacks of evil, or accomplish any supernatural good work. Prayer nourishes the supernatural virtues in our souls.
Without prayer, Faith, Hope, and Charity, and all the other virtues become weak, just as in time of drought vegetation gradually withers and dies. It is all the more necessary for us to realize the necessity of prayer, because we can suffer from spiritual starvation without noticing it. If we neglect to take bodily food we feel hungry, and continued abstinence from food makes us weak and unable to work. But if we abstain from spiritual food, the serious consequences are not brought home to us in the same way, and we may starve ourselves without knowing it. Prayer, therefore, is a necessity for spiritual health and strength; and if we want to grow stronger spiritually, we must pray. There is no other way.
(3) Procrastination
As the saying goes: “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today!” Holy Scripture warns: “He that watches the wind shall not sow; and he that watches the clouds shall never reap!” (Ecclesiastes 11:4). “To him who knows he should do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin!” (James 4:17). “You say: ‘Tomorrow we will go into such a city, and there we will spend a year, and will do business, and make our profit!’ But you know not what tomorrow will bring!” (James 4:13-14). “Boast not for tomorrow―for you know not what the day to come may bring forth!” (Proverbs 27:1). “The slothful hand brings poverty!” (Proverbs 10:4). “In much work there shall be abundance―but where there are many words, there is often a lack of things” (Proverbs 14:23) ― which relates to: “All talk and no action!”
(4) Lack of Planning―Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail
If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail. If you don’t have a concrete plan, you are less likely to succeed. It doesn't matter if the plan is perfect or imperfect, all that matters is that you have a plan that will steer all your actions in one direction. Without a concrete plan of action and the discipline to follow through, goals remain dreams.
We see that frequently in the Sacrament of Confession―which demands that for a confession to be valid, we must have a FIRM PURPOSE OF AMENDMENT. Why bother using the word “FIRM”? Because a VAGUE purpose of amendment is not enough. It is not enough to say: “Oh, I’ve got to stop committing this Mortal Sin!” That is far too vague and wishy-washy! You should ask yourself: “What do I plan to do to stop committing this Mortal Sin? What are the means that I will take? What do I plan to do when tempted in the future? How do I plan to avoid the occasions of those sins? What do I plan to do when I am tempted?” Most people neglect to plan in this way―and that is one reason why most confessions are invalid in the opinion of St. Alphonsus Liguori. Why is it that most souls end up being damned? It is because they died in a state of Mortal Sin―many of them in a state of habitual Mortal Sin. They now realize in Hell that failing to plan is in reality planning to fail.
The same lack of planning is behind the fact that very few people desire and achieve holiness in this life! They have many plans for many worldly ventures and activities―but little or no plans for acquiring holiness. They forget that it is ONLY SAINTS who go to Heaven―those who fail to achieve sanctity in this life are sent to burn in the fires of Purgatory or the fires of Hell.
(5) No Concrete Path to Success
This is linked to the previous point and is the development of the previous point. The planning may have been done and the plan might be excellent―but it never sees the light of day like a baby that suffers a miscarriage. It remains it “womb” of the mind and that “womb” becomes the “tomb” of those excellent plans. These people know what they want to achieve; they have seriously planned on how it can be achieved; but they never really started. The mind is strong, but the will is weak. St. Paul speaks of this: “I do not do what I want to do!” (Romans 7:15). “They say, and do not!” says Our Lord (Matthew 23:3). Again, a case of “All talk and no action!”
In a certain sense, planning is easier than doing. Knowing is easier that doing. Hence Holy Scripture says: “What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has Faith, but has not works? Shall Faith be able to save him? … Faith, if it has not works, is dead in itself. Show me your Faith without works; and I will show you, by works, my Faith! Will you know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? … Do you see that a man is justified by works, and not by Faith only? For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:14-26).
(6) Wishful Thinking
This is also linked to the two previous points and is the development of them. The planning may have been done and the plan might be excellent―but there is neglect, for one of many possible reasons, to make the effort to put the plan into practice. There are some people who are wishful thinkers―who vainly and presumptuously expect someone else to do the “donkey work” for them. That other person might be God or some other fellow human. “God will take care of it! God will step in and see to it! God will make it happen! God will send someone to put my plans into action!” All of this is wishful thinking and ignores the fact that God expects you to WORK! “Where there are many dreams, there are many vanities and words without number!” (Ecclesiastes 5:6).
“This is your portion in life― in your labor under the sun, whatsoever your hand is able to do, do it earnestly” (Ecclesiastes 9:9-10). “Be not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work” (James 1:25). “In all things show yourself an example of good works!” (Titus 2:7). “Let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good” (Ephesians 4:28). “Work with your own hands, as we commanded you!” (1 Thessalonians 4:11). “Let everyone prove his own work!” (Galatians 6:4). “Lay open your works to the Lord” [Proverbs 16:3). “The grace of God in me has not been void, for I have labored more abundantly than all!” (1 Corinthians 15:10). “If any man will not work, neither let him eat!” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). “He that is loose and slack in his work, is the brother of him that wastes his own works” (Proverbs 18:9).
Wishful thinking is also the formation of beliefs and the making of decisions based on what is pleasing to imagine, rather than being based on evidence, rationality, or reality. It is an emotion-focused coping strategy often characterized by over-optimism, where someone hopes for an unlikely outcome, such as expecting a lottery win. The ultimate lottery win is Heaven―but Hell is far exceeds the numbers of the few that are saved! Many or most of those in Hell were mere wishful thinkers―dreaming of an outcome that was far from being based on the kind of life they were living.
(7) Vague Goals
This has already been dealt with to a certain extent in #4 above: “Lack of Planning.”
(8) Taking the Wrong Means
You can have a sick patient who seeks out the best doctor available to cure him―but if the sick man is given the wrong medicine or insufficient medicine, then his health will continue to fail. If a person wants to get to Heaven, but chooses the wrong religion―then, normally speaking, he will not get to Heaven. Sometimes we can be spiritually ignorant and spiritually blind, while insisting or pretending that we are not―of such persons Our Lord says: “Leave them alone! They are blind and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14). Our Faith is our spiritual eyesight―we see with the eyes of Faith.
Yet if we do not study our Faith in order to maintain our spiritual eyesight, then our vision will become increasingly blurred as it degenerates towards blindness―making us easy prey for false teachings and imprudent judgments: “O foolish people, and without understanding―who have eyes and see not; and ears, and hear not!” (Jeremias (5:21). “His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant―dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams!” (Isaias 56:10). “They shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord!” (Sophonias 1:17). Our Lord rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees as being blind―for they rejected the means that Christ offered them and which God had also earlier offered them―preferring their own personal means: “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees! … Woe to you blind guides! … Ye foolish and blind! … Thou blind Pharisee! … How will you flee from the judgment of Hell? Behold I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes―and some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city!” (Matthew 23:14-31).
There are several chief reasons as to why we might take the wrong means. One reason, as mentioned above, might be our ignorance―often due to a neglect in studying the Faith. This ignorance leads to another cause―being led astray by “false prophets” who sound as though they are telling the truth: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep! … Many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many! … For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive, if possible, even the elect!” (Matthew 7:15; 24:11; 24:2). Another reason for taking the wrong means might be pride―whereby we don’t want to take the means offered by Christ and His Church, but prefer to “do it our way”―which is basically placing subjectivity above objectivity; replacing what is really true with what I imagine to be true―thus every person has his or her own truth. Combine this with the modern ‘dogma’ of “Follow your own conscience” ― and you have recipe for disaster! That is how all the Protestant sects were born: “There shall be among you lying teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition” (2 Peter 2:1).
(9) Setting the Wrong Goals
Take the wrong direction and you will end up in the wrong place! If only the souls in Hell would have realized the truth of that! If you are running a marathon, but take the wrong turn upon exiting the stadium―then no matter how fast you run, you will not win the race. There are many souls who place their own personal preferred goals above the goals that Heaven has given us―somehow, stupidly, naively, imagining that everything will still work out in the end! After all―isn’t God loving, understanding and merciful?
St. Louis de Montfort perfectly depicts this crowd: “The world’s group―the devil’s in fact―is far superior in number, and seemingly far more colorful and splendid in array. Fashionable folk are all in a hurry to enlist, the highways are overcrowded. These roads are strewn with flowers, bordered with all kinds of amusements and attractions, and paved with gold and silver! They rouse one another to persist in their unscrupulous depravity. ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure!’ they shout, ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure! Let us eat, let us drink, let us sing, let us dance, let us play! God is good, He did not make us to damn us! God does not forbid us to enjoy ourselves! We shall not be damned for that! Away with scruples! We shall not die!’ ― and so they continue!” (St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross).
The chief goal―and wrong goal―of such people is to profit from the world and what the world can offer. They blindly ignore Our Lord’s warning about wrong goals: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24). “Seek first the Kingdom of God!” (Luke 12:31). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4).
Holy Scripture warns against setting goals driven by selfish ambition, pride, or worldly success, etc. Chasing goals solely for personal gain, fame, or to satisfy selfish desires rather than serving God. Working hard to gain admiration or recognition from others rather than doing it for God. Investing time and resources in pursuits that do not align with God’s purpose for your life. Making rigid plans without seeking divine guidance or acknowledging that God holds ultimate control over the future.
Of such persons Holy Scripture says: “They are of the world―therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them! We are of God! He that knows God, hears us! He that is not of God, hears us not! By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error!” (1 John 4:5-6). The chief wrong goals include ignoring God’s will: “I called, and you refused!” (Proverbs 1:24) … “I will reject thee, for thou hast forgotten the law of thy God!” (Osee 4:6). “Not everyone that says to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that dord the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21).
Another wrong goal is the accumulation of wealth for personal pleasure: “Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:23-24). Which is why Holy Scripture adds: “Woe to you that are rich!” (Luke 6:24). “Do not trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God!” (1 Timothy 6:17) … “He that trusts in his riches shall fall!” (Proverbs 11:28).
To be Continued ... Because Failure Continues!
Since we have chosen chief reasons for why people fail―these will have be continued in the following article. The reasons that remain to be examined and treated are:
|
● Lack of Self-Discipline
● Poor Work Ethic ● Low Desire to Achieve ● Lack of Enthusiasm in Work ● Lack of Perseverance ● Lack of Tenacity ● Lack of Accountability ● Not taking Responsibility for what Happens in Your Life ● Excuses – Blaming Anyone and Everything Except Yourself ● Refusal to Learn from Past Mistakes ● Arguing Against Advice Instead of Taking It ● Refusing All Criticism ● Giving too much Importance to Feelings and Emotions ● Lack of Focus ● Too Distracted ● Relying on Motivation Alone |
● Full of Presumption
● Lack of Humility ● Refusing Help ● Mental Roadblocks ● Lack of Ambition to go Above and Beyond ● Afraid to Stand Out Among the Crowd ● Fear of Failure ● High Expectations ● Being in a Hurry to Get What You Want ● Unhappy with Your Progress ● Full of Doubts ● Lack of Belief ● Don’t Believe it’s Possible ● Pessimism ● Deep down, You Don’t Think You Deserve What You Want |
Why spend so much time on so many reasons for failure? Simply because most people end up being failures―Hell testifies to that. Furthermore, Our Lady of Fatima said that many souls end in up Hell―which is for them a massive failure. Likewise, Our Lady said to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! … I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!”
Article 9
The Second Sunday of Lent, March 1st
Will Your Lent Be Profitable or Profitless?
The Second Sunday of Lent, March 1st
Will Your Lent Be Profitable or Profitless?
It’s All About Profit!
Profit has become a key factor in lives of the majority of people. They look to acquire things or do things that they think will be profitable to them in one way or another. One particular area of this desire for profitability is the acquisition of money and wealth.
How important is it for you to be rich and prosperous? During the sermon in a weekday school Mass for Conservative and Traditional Catholic students, the priest asked the students (Kindergarten to 12th Grade) to raise their hands if they wanted to be rich when they reached adulthood. It was amazing to see how many hands immediately and excitedly shot-up in the air, accompanied by sparkling eyes and smiling faces! Obviously, to them, being rich and prosperous was something that was very important!
People value riches highly because they are seen to be a means to achieve security by providing stability, comfort and resources, such as housing and food. Riches are thought of as bringing freedom and increased opportunities, often correlating with higher life satisfaction, better health, and reduced stress. Furthermore, riches are often seen as a sign of success and high social status―yet they also carry the potential for fostering selfishness.
Approximately 60% of Americans believe money can buy happiness. A survey of over 1.7 million persons found that larger incomes were associated with both greater happiness and greater life satisfaction. As income increased, positive feelings increased, and negative feelings decreased. Lack of money is associated with stress, poorer health, less leisure time, and greater emotional pain.
Some Love Money More Than They Love God
We are told to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength―nowhere in the Bible does it say that we are to love money with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. We are to savor the things of God more that we savor the things of this world. On this point, Jesus had some harsh words for St. Peter: “Jesus, turning, said to Peter: ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a scandal unto Me―because you savor not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men!’” (Matthew 16:23).
We also recall the encounter that Jesus had with a very devout and commandment keeping young man, who had many possessions and great riches: “A certain rich young man, a ruler, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee! If thou wilt be perfect, go sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-24; Mark 10:17-23; Luke 18:18-25).
The love of money is said to be root of all kinds of evil: “The desire of money is the root of all evils” (1 Timothy 6:10) ― referring to a greedy, unethical desire for wealth rather than money itself, which often leads to ruin, sorrow, and abandonment of Faith. It is a form of idolatry that prioritizes wealth over spiritual or personal well-being. “They that want to become rich, fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition!” (1 Timothy 6:9).
Judas ended up putting money before Christ―and ultimately ended up in Hell! “One of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, he that was about to betray him, said: ‘Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?’ Now he said this―not because he cared for the poor―but because he was a thief, and having the purse, carried the things that were put therein” (John 12:4-6). “Then one of the Twelve Apostles, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said to them: ‘What will you give me, if I will deliver Him unto you?’ They appointed him thirty pieces of silver. And from thenceforth he sought opportunity to betray Jesus” (Matthew 26:14-16).
We read in Holy Scripture of a certain man who thought he could buy spiritual gifts from the Apostles by giving them money in exchange for those gifts: “And when Simon saw that by the imposition of the hands of the Apostles, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying: ‘Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I shall lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost!’ But Peter said to him: ‘Keep your money for yourself, to perish with you, because you have thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money! Your heart is not right in the sight of God! Therefore do penance for your wickedness; and pray to God, that perhaps this thought of your heart may be forgiven!’” (Acts 8:18-24).
Our Lord warns: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal! But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal! For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24). Our Lord then adds: “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Pick Your Side―You Cannot Be on Both Sides
Elsewhere Our Lord develops this division between Heaven and Earth, salvation and damnation, following God and following the world. He says that He is not of this world and that His Kingdom is not of this world. The world is wicked and belongs to the devil, who is the prince of this world; and who seduces the world. Hence there is no profit to be found in adhering to the world and following the world.
“My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world … My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). “The prince of this world [the devil] is coming, and in Me he has not anything!” (John 14:30). “He that is not with me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). Concerning His followers, Jesus says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world” (John 17:16). To His followers He says: “You shall be hated by all men and all nations for My Name’s sake! … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own! But because you are not of the world―for I have chosen you out of the world―therefore the world hates you!” (Matthew 10:22; 24:9; John 15:19). “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 7:7).
Holy Scripture echoes and develops those words of Our Lord: “They are of the world—therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them! We are of God. He that knows God, hears us. He that is not of God, hears us not!” (1 John 4:5-6). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
“And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!’” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
Grace and Charity are the Riches of Heaven
“Grace is like a paradise in blessings” (Ecclesiasticus 40:17). AS the Lord said to St. Paul: “My grace is sufficient for thee!” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Money cannot buy you Heaven―but Sanctifying Grace will buy you Heaven. Yet Sanctifying Grace cannot be bought with money! Grace is a gift that comes from God―and we should be seeking to grow in grace rather than grow in worldly wealth! “Jesus advanced in grace with God” (Luke 2:52). “We saw His glory … full of grace! … And of His fullness we all have received― grace for grace!” (John 1:14-16). “I am the Lord thy God that teaches you profitable things!” (Isaias 48:17). “God instructs us for our profit, so that we might receive His sanctification!” (Hebrews 12:10). “This is the will of God―your sanctification!” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). “Receive not the grace of God in vain!” (2 Corinthians 6:1). “Neglect not the grace that is in you!” (1 Timothy 4:14). “Continue in the grace of God!” (Acts 13:43). “Cast not away the grace of God!” (Galatians 2:21). “By the grace of God, I am what I am―and His grace in me has not been void!” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
Likewise with the gold of charity―the most precious of the virtues. “Above all things have charity, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:12-14). “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). “Charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8) … “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12) … “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47).
“Where sin abounded, grace did more abound!” (Romans 5:20). “The wages of sin is death―but the grace of God is life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 6:23). “I have been in danger of death and I have been delivered by the grace of God” (Ecclesiasticus 34:13). “By the grace of Christ you are saved!” (Ephesians 2:5)―not by money. “Grace delivers a man” (Proverbs 25:10) )―not money. “God loves mercy and the Lord will give grace” (Psalm 83:12)―not money. “The grace of God and His mercy is with his saints” (Wisdom 4:15).
What Do You Treasure Most in Life?
“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also! … Make for yourselves a treasure in Heaven!” (Luke 12:34). “Sell all whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven―and then come and follow Me!” (Luke 18:22). Who are you really following? Along which path are you walking? Are you walking with the minority along the narrow path that leads to Heaven―which, because it is so narrow, leaves no room for all our worldly wealth, possessions and baggage? Or are you happily walking with the majority along the broad, wide, well-paved and easy road that leads to Hell? Our Lord said: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate! Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it!” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14).
St. Louis de Montfort, in his Letter to the Friends of the Cross, speaks of this: “Are you, with the grace of God, really eager and truly striving to attain this goal? Is the way you follow the one that leads to this goal? Is it the true way of life, the narrow way, the thorn-strewn way to Calvary? Or are you unconsciously traveling the world’s broad road, the road to perdition? Do you realize that there is a highroad which to all appearances is straight and safe for man to travel, but which in reality leads to death? … Our Savior’s group is to the right, scaling a narrow path. There is only a handful of people who follow Him ... The world’s group, the devil’s in fact, is far superior in number, and seemingly far more colorful and splendid in array. Fashionable folk are all in a hurry to enlist, the highways are overcrowded, although they are broad and ever broadening with the crowds that flow through in a torrent. These roads are strewn with flowers, bordered with all kinds of amusements and attractions and paved with gold and silver! . These worldlings rouse one another to persist in their unscrupulous depravity. ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure!’ they shout, ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure! Let us eat! Let us drink! Let us sing! Let us dance! Let us play! God is good! He did not make us to damn us! God does not forbid us to enjoy ourselves! We shall not be damned for that! Away with scruples! We shall not die!’ And so they continue!” (St. Louis de Montfort, in his Letter to the Friends of the Cross).
In her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady rebukes this profitless search for earthly riches:
“There are very few in the world who use well the temporal riches and offer them to their God. Thus they spend all the time of their life―which was given them in order to gain eternal salvation and happiness―in these vanities. They want it to procure for them the pleasures of this life as well as of eternal life ... Earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible with [true] wisdom! … How unreasonable and how damnable is the conduct of a man, who labors so much for a momentary sensible pleasure, which at most must end with life and generally lasts only for a short time, and still claims to have the Faith, while at the same time he takes no account of his immortal soul, and forgets it being consumed with the visible things? Their inclinations and their blind love of visible things―these inclinations and this blindness rob them of remembrance and affection toward these higher things, which could raise them above their worldliness … Let the countless numbers that have fallen into Hell with their burden, proclaim it! Let their incalculable anxieties of preserving their riches, testify what is required to retain them!
“The rich glory in their riches and wish to be respected on their account. The poor strive to be and appear rich, anxious to gain the approbation of the wealthy. All of them are pursuing the same deceit of seeking to appear what they are not in fact, and fail in reality to come up to what they appear to be. The lovers of its vanity have subjected themselves and are following the standard and the fables of the devil. In the midst of this ruin, Hell has opened its mouth and the more it is fed, the more insatiable becomes its hunger, seeking to bury in its infernal caverns all the rest of mankind. Fear this danger! Thou hast a warning in Ananias and Saphira (Acts 5:1-11), into whose souls the demon entered as soon as he had found out their desire for money and so the demon could attack them through this portal.
“This deceitful error has filled the Earth with lovers of the world; it has filled the world with avarice and concupiscence against the law of the Creator; it has made men insane in their desires―for all of them commonly chase after riches and earthly possessions; claiming, thereby, merely to satisfy their needs―which is only a lame pretext for hiding their lack of interest in higher things, spiritual things. Men are so taken up with their earthly and material life, that they do not feel any other evils except those on a physical and material nature. All their life they labor and exert themselves to become more and more entangled in the snares of their passions, to be consumed in deceitful vanities and to deliver themselves over to an inextinguishable fire, death and everlasting perdition in Hell, as if all were a mere joke! In reality they lie to themselves abominously, since they are seeking superfluous things that they do not really need and not what is really necessary―but what ministers to worldly pride.
“Even the sacerdotal dignity and the precious vestments of virtue are soiled by contagion with the worldly; the anointed of the Lord, consecrated solely to his worship and service, have lapsed from their noble and godlike station; they have lost their beauty in debasing themselves to vile actions, unworthy of their exalted position among men. They love vanity; they indulge greed and avarice; they serve their own interest; they love money, they place their hopes in treasures of silver and gold; they submit to the flatteries and to the slavery of the worldly and powerful.
“Who is so dull-minded and insipid as not to know the dangers of the worldly life? Withdraw your affections from all that is earthly, lift your aspirations on high. All goods are estimated according to the appreciation in which creatures hold them: in so far they value them, as they know them to be good. But since there is only one true Good, and all the others merely fictitious and apparent, it follows, that only the highest Good is to be appreciated and recognized. Then only shall you give Him true appreciation and love, when you shall enjoy and esteem Him above all created things. By this appreciation and love will also be measured the sorrow of losing Him. Imagine then, what ought to be the grief of really losing God by sin. But this wisdom seems far from the mind of carnal men―for, with a most perverse blindness, they continue to make much of all these visible and fictitious goods, and they torment themselves and are disconsolate, whenever they cannot get them or when they fail. Because they never taste or recognize the highest and truest Good, they take no thought or appreciation of it. The more they study and exert themselves to reach the evil objects of their carnal and animal passions, and to attain the means of indulging them, then so much the more will they fall into ignorance of divine things. The sons of the world are ignorant, precisely because they are lovers of earthly riches. God knows the endless damage caused in mortals by greed and covetousness of visible things; and God knows that this insane love will pervert the greater part of the human nature, who are lost by the vice of avarice and cupidity. Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation.
“Few know the poverty of Christ, and fewer embrace it. All abhor poverty and thirst after riches. They seek to be rich and flee poverty―none of them being willing to recognize the emptiness of riches. They long for pleasure and dread mortification. My most holy Son sought destitution and poverty―not because He had any need of them, but in order to teach mortals the shortest and surest way for reaching the heights of divine love and union with God. Detach yourself entirely of human and earthly affections, so as freely to follow our footsteps in destitution and poverty. I lived in the greatest constraint, in poverty and detached from earthly things. Imitate me in being very careful to practice poverty of spirit concerning the use of necessities and comforts―so that, with advancing years, you may find yourself more free, more detached and averted from visible things.” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
The bottom line is―if we seek to enjoy and reward ourselves in this life, then we will eternal misery and eternal punishment in the next life. However, if we reject the worldly joys offered to us in this life, and punish ourselves for our past sins, then we will find eternal joys and an eternal reward in the next life. You cannot have it both ways―you must choose one path or the other. “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24). “What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Profit has become a key factor in lives of the majority of people. They look to acquire things or do things that they think will be profitable to them in one way or another. One particular area of this desire for profitability is the acquisition of money and wealth.
How important is it for you to be rich and prosperous? During the sermon in a weekday school Mass for Conservative and Traditional Catholic students, the priest asked the students (Kindergarten to 12th Grade) to raise their hands if they wanted to be rich when they reached adulthood. It was amazing to see how many hands immediately and excitedly shot-up in the air, accompanied by sparkling eyes and smiling faces! Obviously, to them, being rich and prosperous was something that was very important!
People value riches highly because they are seen to be a means to achieve security by providing stability, comfort and resources, such as housing and food. Riches are thought of as bringing freedom and increased opportunities, often correlating with higher life satisfaction, better health, and reduced stress. Furthermore, riches are often seen as a sign of success and high social status―yet they also carry the potential for fostering selfishness.
Approximately 60% of Americans believe money can buy happiness. A survey of over 1.7 million persons found that larger incomes were associated with both greater happiness and greater life satisfaction. As income increased, positive feelings increased, and negative feelings decreased. Lack of money is associated with stress, poorer health, less leisure time, and greater emotional pain.
Some Love Money More Than They Love God
We are told to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength―nowhere in the Bible does it say that we are to love money with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. We are to savor the things of God more that we savor the things of this world. On this point, Jesus had some harsh words for St. Peter: “Jesus, turning, said to Peter: ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a scandal unto Me―because you savor not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men!’” (Matthew 16:23).
We also recall the encounter that Jesus had with a very devout and commandment keeping young man, who had many possessions and great riches: “A certain rich young man, a ruler, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee! If thou wilt be perfect, go sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-24; Mark 10:17-23; Luke 18:18-25).
The love of money is said to be root of all kinds of evil: “The desire of money is the root of all evils” (1 Timothy 6:10) ― referring to a greedy, unethical desire for wealth rather than money itself, which often leads to ruin, sorrow, and abandonment of Faith. It is a form of idolatry that prioritizes wealth over spiritual or personal well-being. “They that want to become rich, fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition!” (1 Timothy 6:9).
Judas ended up putting money before Christ―and ultimately ended up in Hell! “One of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, he that was about to betray him, said: ‘Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?’ Now he said this―not because he cared for the poor―but because he was a thief, and having the purse, carried the things that were put therein” (John 12:4-6). “Then one of the Twelve Apostles, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said to them: ‘What will you give me, if I will deliver Him unto you?’ They appointed him thirty pieces of silver. And from thenceforth he sought opportunity to betray Jesus” (Matthew 26:14-16).
We read in Holy Scripture of a certain man who thought he could buy spiritual gifts from the Apostles by giving them money in exchange for those gifts: “And when Simon saw that by the imposition of the hands of the Apostles, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying: ‘Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I shall lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost!’ But Peter said to him: ‘Keep your money for yourself, to perish with you, because you have thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money! Your heart is not right in the sight of God! Therefore do penance for your wickedness; and pray to God, that perhaps this thought of your heart may be forgiven!’” (Acts 8:18-24).
Our Lord warns: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal! But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal! For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24). Our Lord then adds: “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Pick Your Side―You Cannot Be on Both Sides
Elsewhere Our Lord develops this division between Heaven and Earth, salvation and damnation, following God and following the world. He says that He is not of this world and that His Kingdom is not of this world. The world is wicked and belongs to the devil, who is the prince of this world; and who seduces the world. Hence there is no profit to be found in adhering to the world and following the world.
“My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world … My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). “The prince of this world [the devil] is coming, and in Me he has not anything!” (John 14:30). “He that is not with me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). Concerning His followers, Jesus says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world” (John 17:16). To His followers He says: “You shall be hated by all men and all nations for My Name’s sake! … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own! But because you are not of the world―for I have chosen you out of the world―therefore the world hates you!” (Matthew 10:22; 24:9; John 15:19). “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 7:7).
Holy Scripture echoes and develops those words of Our Lord: “They are of the world—therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them! We are of God. He that knows God, hears us. He that is not of God, hears us not!” (1 John 4:5-6). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
“And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!’” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
Grace and Charity are the Riches of Heaven
“Grace is like a paradise in blessings” (Ecclesiasticus 40:17). AS the Lord said to St. Paul: “My grace is sufficient for thee!” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Money cannot buy you Heaven―but Sanctifying Grace will buy you Heaven. Yet Sanctifying Grace cannot be bought with money! Grace is a gift that comes from God―and we should be seeking to grow in grace rather than grow in worldly wealth! “Jesus advanced in grace with God” (Luke 2:52). “We saw His glory … full of grace! … And of His fullness we all have received― grace for grace!” (John 1:14-16). “I am the Lord thy God that teaches you profitable things!” (Isaias 48:17). “God instructs us for our profit, so that we might receive His sanctification!” (Hebrews 12:10). “This is the will of God―your sanctification!” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). “Receive not the grace of God in vain!” (2 Corinthians 6:1). “Neglect not the grace that is in you!” (1 Timothy 4:14). “Continue in the grace of God!” (Acts 13:43). “Cast not away the grace of God!” (Galatians 2:21). “By the grace of God, I am what I am―and His grace in me has not been void!” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
Likewise with the gold of charity―the most precious of the virtues. “Above all things have charity, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:12-14). “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). “Charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8) … “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12) … “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47).
“Where sin abounded, grace did more abound!” (Romans 5:20). “The wages of sin is death―but the grace of God is life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 6:23). “I have been in danger of death and I have been delivered by the grace of God” (Ecclesiasticus 34:13). “By the grace of Christ you are saved!” (Ephesians 2:5)―not by money. “Grace delivers a man” (Proverbs 25:10) )―not money. “God loves mercy and the Lord will give grace” (Psalm 83:12)―not money. “The grace of God and His mercy is with his saints” (Wisdom 4:15).
What Do You Treasure Most in Life?
“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also! … Make for yourselves a treasure in Heaven!” (Luke 12:34). “Sell all whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven―and then come and follow Me!” (Luke 18:22). Who are you really following? Along which path are you walking? Are you walking with the minority along the narrow path that leads to Heaven―which, because it is so narrow, leaves no room for all our worldly wealth, possessions and baggage? Or are you happily walking with the majority along the broad, wide, well-paved and easy road that leads to Hell? Our Lord said: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate! Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it!” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14).
St. Louis de Montfort, in his Letter to the Friends of the Cross, speaks of this: “Are you, with the grace of God, really eager and truly striving to attain this goal? Is the way you follow the one that leads to this goal? Is it the true way of life, the narrow way, the thorn-strewn way to Calvary? Or are you unconsciously traveling the world’s broad road, the road to perdition? Do you realize that there is a highroad which to all appearances is straight and safe for man to travel, but which in reality leads to death? … Our Savior’s group is to the right, scaling a narrow path. There is only a handful of people who follow Him ... The world’s group, the devil’s in fact, is far superior in number, and seemingly far more colorful and splendid in array. Fashionable folk are all in a hurry to enlist, the highways are overcrowded, although they are broad and ever broadening with the crowds that flow through in a torrent. These roads are strewn with flowers, bordered with all kinds of amusements and attractions and paved with gold and silver! . These worldlings rouse one another to persist in their unscrupulous depravity. ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure!’ they shout, ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure! Let us eat! Let us drink! Let us sing! Let us dance! Let us play! God is good! He did not make us to damn us! God does not forbid us to enjoy ourselves! We shall not be damned for that! Away with scruples! We shall not die!’ And so they continue!” (St. Louis de Montfort, in his Letter to the Friends of the Cross).
In her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady rebukes this profitless search for earthly riches:
“There are very few in the world who use well the temporal riches and offer them to their God. Thus they spend all the time of their life―which was given them in order to gain eternal salvation and happiness―in these vanities. They want it to procure for them the pleasures of this life as well as of eternal life ... Earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible with [true] wisdom! … How unreasonable and how damnable is the conduct of a man, who labors so much for a momentary sensible pleasure, which at most must end with life and generally lasts only for a short time, and still claims to have the Faith, while at the same time he takes no account of his immortal soul, and forgets it being consumed with the visible things? Their inclinations and their blind love of visible things―these inclinations and this blindness rob them of remembrance and affection toward these higher things, which could raise them above their worldliness … Let the countless numbers that have fallen into Hell with their burden, proclaim it! Let their incalculable anxieties of preserving their riches, testify what is required to retain them!
“The rich glory in their riches and wish to be respected on their account. The poor strive to be and appear rich, anxious to gain the approbation of the wealthy. All of them are pursuing the same deceit of seeking to appear what they are not in fact, and fail in reality to come up to what they appear to be. The lovers of its vanity have subjected themselves and are following the standard and the fables of the devil. In the midst of this ruin, Hell has opened its mouth and the more it is fed, the more insatiable becomes its hunger, seeking to bury in its infernal caverns all the rest of mankind. Fear this danger! Thou hast a warning in Ananias and Saphira (Acts 5:1-11), into whose souls the demon entered as soon as he had found out their desire for money and so the demon could attack them through this portal.
“This deceitful error has filled the Earth with lovers of the world; it has filled the world with avarice and concupiscence against the law of the Creator; it has made men insane in their desires―for all of them commonly chase after riches and earthly possessions; claiming, thereby, merely to satisfy their needs―which is only a lame pretext for hiding their lack of interest in higher things, spiritual things. Men are so taken up with their earthly and material life, that they do not feel any other evils except those on a physical and material nature. All their life they labor and exert themselves to become more and more entangled in the snares of their passions, to be consumed in deceitful vanities and to deliver themselves over to an inextinguishable fire, death and everlasting perdition in Hell, as if all were a mere joke! In reality they lie to themselves abominously, since they are seeking superfluous things that they do not really need and not what is really necessary―but what ministers to worldly pride.
“Even the sacerdotal dignity and the precious vestments of virtue are soiled by contagion with the worldly; the anointed of the Lord, consecrated solely to his worship and service, have lapsed from their noble and godlike station; they have lost their beauty in debasing themselves to vile actions, unworthy of their exalted position among men. They love vanity; they indulge greed and avarice; they serve their own interest; they love money, they place their hopes in treasures of silver and gold; they submit to the flatteries and to the slavery of the worldly and powerful.
“Who is so dull-minded and insipid as not to know the dangers of the worldly life? Withdraw your affections from all that is earthly, lift your aspirations on high. All goods are estimated according to the appreciation in which creatures hold them: in so far they value them, as they know them to be good. But since there is only one true Good, and all the others merely fictitious and apparent, it follows, that only the highest Good is to be appreciated and recognized. Then only shall you give Him true appreciation and love, when you shall enjoy and esteem Him above all created things. By this appreciation and love will also be measured the sorrow of losing Him. Imagine then, what ought to be the grief of really losing God by sin. But this wisdom seems far from the mind of carnal men―for, with a most perverse blindness, they continue to make much of all these visible and fictitious goods, and they torment themselves and are disconsolate, whenever they cannot get them or when they fail. Because they never taste or recognize the highest and truest Good, they take no thought or appreciation of it. The more they study and exert themselves to reach the evil objects of their carnal and animal passions, and to attain the means of indulging them, then so much the more will they fall into ignorance of divine things. The sons of the world are ignorant, precisely because they are lovers of earthly riches. God knows the endless damage caused in mortals by greed and covetousness of visible things; and God knows that this insane love will pervert the greater part of the human nature, who are lost by the vice of avarice and cupidity. Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation.
“Few know the poverty of Christ, and fewer embrace it. All abhor poverty and thirst after riches. They seek to be rich and flee poverty―none of them being willing to recognize the emptiness of riches. They long for pleasure and dread mortification. My most holy Son sought destitution and poverty―not because He had any need of them, but in order to teach mortals the shortest and surest way for reaching the heights of divine love and union with God. Detach yourself entirely of human and earthly affections, so as freely to follow our footsteps in destitution and poverty. I lived in the greatest constraint, in poverty and detached from earthly things. Imitate me in being very careful to practice poverty of spirit concerning the use of necessities and comforts―so that, with advancing years, you may find yourself more free, more detached and averted from visible things.” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
The bottom line is―if we seek to enjoy and reward ourselves in this life, then we will eternal misery and eternal punishment in the next life. However, if we reject the worldly joys offered to us in this life, and punish ourselves for our past sins, then we will find eternal joys and an eternal reward in the next life. You cannot have it both ways―you must choose one path or the other. “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24). “What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Article 8
Ember Wednesday to Ember Friday after the 1st Sunday of Lent, February 25th to 27th
Is Your Lent Reduced to Ashes and Embers?
Ember Wednesday to Ember Friday after the 1st Sunday of Lent, February 25th to 27th
Is Your Lent Reduced to Ashes and Embers?
Stoking-Up Your Knowledge of Embers
It is no exaggeration to say that human levels of knowledge―for the most apart―are barely burning and have been reduced to embers as each successive generation has been increasingly “dumbed-down.” If most Catholics can no longer list for you all the Ten Commandments, then you can bet your last dollar on the fact that even fewer Catholics can give you an adequate explanation of what the Ember Days and how they originated!
The Ember Days (a corruption of words from the Latin Quatuor Tempora, meaning four times or four seasons) are the days at the beginning of the four seasons ordered by the Church as days of fast and abstinence. The purpose of their introduction was to thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy.
The Church, when converting heathen nations, has always tried to sanctify any practices which could be utilized for a good purpose. The initial reason for the Ember Days was to neutralize the practice of the heathens of Rome. The Romans were originally given to agriculture, and their native gods were gods of agriculture. At the beginning of the time for seeding and harvesting pagan religious ceremonies were performed to implore the help of their deities—in December for the seeding, in June for a bountiful harvest, and in September for a rich vintage.
Therefore, the Church in Rome held fasts in December, June, September; though the exact days were not at first fixed, but were announced by the priests—probably trying to be close to the actual time of seeding, harvest and vintage. It is not certain when the fourth season was added, but Pope Gelasius (492-496) speaks of all four.
As the Ember Days came to be associated with great feast days, they later lost their connection to agriculture and came to be regarded solely as days of penitence and prayer. It is only the Michaelmas Embertide, which falls around the autumn harvest, that retains any connection to the original purpose.
Who Stoked-Up the Ember Days?
They were definitely arranged and prescribed for the entire Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) for the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after December 13th (St. Lucia), after Ash Wednesday, after Whitsunday, and after September 14th (Exaltation of the Cross)—thus distributed equally over the four seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall. Some remember the dates with the phrase: “Lucy, Ashes, Dove, and Cross.”
The original reason for the Ember Days was to neutralize the practice of the heathens of Rome. The Romans were originally given to agriculture, and their native gods belonged to the same class. At the beginning of the time for seeding and harvesting religious ceremonies were performed to implore the help of their deities: in December for the seeding, in June for a bountiful harvest, and in September for a rich vintage. The Church, when converting heathen nations, has always tried to sanctify any practices which could be utilized for a good purpose. Therefore, the Church in Rome held fasts in December, June, September; though the exact days were not fixed, but were announced by the priests—probably trying to be close to the actual time of seeding, harvest and vintage. The “Liber Pontificalis” ascribes to Pope Callistus (217-222) a law ordering the fast, but probably it is older. Pope Leo the Great (440-461) considers it an Apostolic institution.
It is not certain when the fourth season was added cannot be ascertained, but Pope Gelasius (492-496) speaks of all four. This pope also permitted the conferring of priesthood and deaconship on the Saturdays of ember week―these were formerly given only at Easter. Before Gelasius the Ember Days were known only in Rome, but after his time their observance spread.
They were brought into England by St. Augustine in the 6th century; into Gaul and Germany by the Carlovingians in the 8th century. Spain adopted them with the Roman Liturgy in the 11th century. They were introduced by St. Charles Borromeo into Milan in the 16th century. The Eastern Church does not observe them. The traditional Roman Missal, in the formulary for the Ember Days, retains in part the old practice of lessons from Scripture in addition to the ordinary two: for the Wednesdays three, for the Saturdays six, and seven for the Saturday in December. Some of these lessons contain promises of a bountiful harvest for those that serve God.
The traditional Roman Missal, in the readings for the Ember Days, retains in part the old practice of adding in addition to the ordinary two lessons some more reading from Scripture: for the Wednesdays there are three readings, for the Saturdays six readings, and seven readings for the Saturday in December. Some of these lessons contain promises of a bountiful harvest for those that serve God.
Ember Days Have Been Burned Out
For those following the “Extraordinary Rite”—and extraordinary it is—today is Ember Wednesday (to be followed by Ember Friday and Ember Saturday). For most Catholics Embers Days sound like something ‘new’, whereas the Ember Days have been around for centuries―earliest written records mention them in the 300s AD, but Pope Leo the Great says they come from the Apostolic times)—only to have disappeared in Pope Paul VI’s drastic reduction of penance in the document Poenitemini, in 1966, at which time Lenten penance also received its 95% discount—from 40 days of fasting to only 2 days: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Penance was reduced to “Ash” and most people thought it was “good”! Except Heaven!
Prior to the reforms instituted after the Second Vatican Council, the Church required fasting (only one full meal per day, plus two partial, meatless meals) on all Ember Days (which meant both fasting and abstinence from meat on Ember Fridays), and the faithful were encouraged (though not required) to go to Confession whenever possible.
Ember Day Weather Forecasts for the Year
There are 12 Ember Days per year and folklore claims that the weather that occurs on each of these days gives a rough and general “weather forecast” for each of the 12 months of the year. These are as follows:
Advent Ember Wednesday for January; Advent Ember Friday for February; Advent Ember Saturday for March; Lent Ember Wednesday for April; Lent Ember Friday for May; Lent Ember Saturday for June; Pentecost Ember Wednesday for July; Pentecost Ember Friday for August; Pentecost Ember Saturday for September; September Ember Wednesday for October; September Ember Friday for November; September Ember Saturday for December! Check it this year and see for yourself!
What is the Spiritual Weather Forecast?
When we think or speak of Lent, the main thing that comes to mind is PENANCE. Some people might also add to that PRAYER. Yet, we never really stop to think that penance and prayer can actually be useless without some other key ingredients.
► PENANCE: If our penances lead us to pride, then they become abominable to God―as Scripture clearly points out: “Why is earth and ashes proud?” (Ecclesiasticus 10:9). “Every proud man is an abomination to the Lord!” (Proverbs 16:5). “God has abolished the memory of the proud, and has preserved the memory of them that are humble in mind” (Ecclesiasticus 10:21).
Likewise, if our penances are not done out of a love of God, then they are profitless: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
If we merely pray mechanically, lukewarmly, inattentively and not out of a sincere love of God―then our prayers are also profitless if not downright sinful! Our Lord condemns this kind of prayer: “Hypocrites! Well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-8). “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21).
Our Lord warns of a lack of charity in our modern age: “Because iniquity will have abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold!” (Matthew 24:12). Scripture warns of the consequences of this lukewarmness and diminishing of charity: “I have something against you―because you have left your first charity! Be mindful therefore from whence you have fallen and do penance, and do the first works! Or else I will come to you, and will move your candlestick out of its place, unless you do penance! ... I know your works―that you are neither cold, nor hot! I would rather you were cold, or hot. But because you are lukewarm―and neither cold not hot―I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth! … Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 2:2-5; 3:15-19).
If you look the temperature of penance over the centuries, then it is unmistakably clear that we increasingly descending into a penitential “ice-age” ― whereby there is less and less “fire-in-the-belly” for doing penance. As Our Lady of La Salette complained: “The heads, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance … Love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement!” Our Lord Himself said: “I came to call sinners to penance! … I tell you―unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish! ... Again I say to you―except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5). At Lourdes, Our Lady commanded: “Penance! Penance! Penance!”
► PRAYER: Prayer is not an option but an obligation! We talk to the ones that we love―and the more we love them, the more we talk to them. We love to talk with them because we love them. Moreover, we talk with them rather than merely talking at them. Christ commands: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength! This is the first commandment!” (Mark 12:30). Such a powerful love should empower our prayer and give us the power and strength to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) ― as Our Lord Himself said: “praying at all times” (Luke 21:36) … adding “that we ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).
Not only are we to pray with love―with our hearts and not just our lips―but we are to pray with Faith: “In all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive!” (Matthew 21:22). “According to your faith, be it done unto you!” (Matthew 9:29) “Be not faithless, but believing!” (John 20:27). “God heard them, because they had put their faith in Him!” (1 Paralipomenon 5:20). “He shows Himself to them that have faith in Him!” (Wisdom 1:2). Our Lord says: “The Son of man, when He comes again, do you think He shall find Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8). Scripture adds: “Without Faith it is impossible to please God!” (Hebrews 11:6). Nevertheless, Faith still depends upon Charity―for Charity is superior to Faith: “There remain Faith, Hope, And Charity, these three―but the greatest of these is Charity!” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Without Charity―like all things―Faith is dead: “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20) and “Faith works by Charity” (Galatians 5:6).
Our Lord, during His Sermon on the Mount, rebukes His followers for a lack of faith in God’s Divine Providence: “O ye of little faith!” (Matthew 6:30). He rebuked the Apostles in storm-tossed boat who cried to Him in panic thinking they would perish: “Why are you fearful? Have you not faith yet?” (Mark 4:40). He rebuked St. Peter for his lack of faith when after beginning to walk on water, Peter began to sink into it: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31). He rebuked St. Thomas for his lack of faith in Christ’s resurrection from the dead: “Thomas said: ‘Unless I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe!’ And after eight days Jesus came and He said to Thomas: ‘Put in your finger here and see My hands; and bring here your hand, and put it into My side―and be not faithless, but believing!’” (John 20:25-27). “And the Apostles said to the Lord: ‘Increase our faith!’” (Luke 17:5) … To the father of the demonically possessed boy, who had come to Jesus asking Him to heal his son, “Jesus said to him: ‘If you canst believe, all things are possible to him that believes!’ And immediately the father of the boy, crying out with tears, said: ‘I do believe, Lord! Help my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:23).
► PRAYER & PENANCE: At Fatima (1917)―even before Our Lady appeared―we have the Angel of Portugal addressing the three children who were playing: “What are you doing? Pray! Pray a great deal! Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High! Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended, and as a petition for the conversion of sinners. Above all, accept and bear with submission all the sufferings the Lord will send you!” When Our Lady of Fatima later appeared, she said: “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go! … Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer! … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners! … Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them!” (Compilation of the words of Our Lady of Fatima from her apparitions in May, June, July & August of 1917).
In 1957, Sister Lucia of Fatima said in an interview with Fr. Fuentes: “It is my mission not just to speak about the material punishments, that will certainly come over the Earth, if the world does not pray and do penance. No, my mission is to also tell everyone the imminent danger we are in of losing our souls for all eternity, if we remain fixed in sin. We should not wait for a call to the world from Rome on the part of the Holy Father to do penance. Nor should we wait for a call for penance to come from the Bishops in our Dioceses, nor from our Religious Congregations. No―Our Lord has often used these means, and the world has not paid heed! So, now each one of us must begin to reform himself spiritually. Each one has to save not only his own soul, but also all the souls that God has placed on his pathway!”
In the 1950s Our Lady appeared several times to Blessed Sister Elena Aiello (1895-1961)―a mystic, stigmatic, victim soul, prophetess and foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lady said: “Satan reigns and triumphs on Earth! See how the souls are falling into Hell! … The justice of our Father is most offended. Men live in their obstinacy of sin … The justice of the Father requires reparation — otherwise many will be lost! … The only valid means for placating Divine Justice is to pray and do penance! … Therefore I ask for prayers, penance and sacrifice, so I may act as Mediatrix with my Son in order to save souls ... I desire prayers and penance, in order that I may again obtain mercy and salvation for many souls — otherwise they will be lost! … Prayers and penances are necessary! … The rulers of the people do not understand this, because they do not have the Christian spirit … All nations will be punished, because sin has spread all over the world! … If men do not return to God with prayers and penances, the world will be overturned in a new and more terrible war. Arms most deadly will destroy peoples and nations! … Tremendous will be the punishments, because man has arrived at an insupportable contest with his God … My words are very clear, and you must transmit them to everyone!”
In 1973, Our Lady of Akita stated: “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before! ... I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father! … Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger!”
Pope Paul’s Paenitemini Promotes Pruned Powerless Penance
The words of Our Lady of La Salette, concerning Church leaders, have come true in our day and age: “The heads, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance!” Even though penance has been in decline for centuries, that decline has accelerated greatly since the Second Vatican Council and Pope Paul VI’s Apostolic Constitution―entitled Paenitemini―which he promulgated on February 17th, 1966, with this month of February seeing its 60-year anniversary. It is nothing to celebrate―unless you are lukewarm―for it radically decimated penitential practices (especially during the season of Lent) by slashing obligatory Lenten fasting and abstinence by 95% in keeping only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday as obligatory days of fasting and abstinence with the remaining 38 days of obligatory fasting and abstinence being thrown out of the window!
Now ask yourself this: If sin is rapidly increasing throughout the world with the devil taking more and more control―is that the time to reduce obligatory penance by 95%. When a disease becomes more aggressive and spreads more and more throughout the body―does it make sense to reduce the amount of medicine you are giving to the patient? When an enemy country sends more and more soldiers into your country―are you going to counteract that by reducing your army by 95%? If crime is increasing drastically―is it wise to reduce law enforcement agencies by 95%?
Consider how Catholics around seven generations spent Lent. Catholics in the 19th century were supposed to avoid eating for long periods and to abstain from certain food the vast majority of days during Lent. For many in the 19th century, Lent meant no meat, eggs, butter, cheese or milk, for 40 days. Nearly every day during Lent also was a fast day — meaning long periods of no eating. In previous centuries, the total number of fasting and abstinence days per year in the Church once topped 100. The Church has always recommended and taught that fasting and abstinence are powerful and necessary forms of prayer and penance against sin and armor against temptation. In 1741, Pope Benedict XIV (in Non Ambigimus) called fasting “this common remedy for us who sin daily.”
Rules varied by time and place―but before the 20th century, Catholics were generally required to fast by restricting their intake of food (fasting), or refraining from eating certain foods (abstaining) or both, not only during Lent, but also throughout much of Advent and on so-called Ember Days (four periods of the year of three days of fasting and abstinence), and on most Wednesdays and Fridays at other times of the year. Earlier generations of Catholics also fasted on the eve of holy days. They celebrated every holy day of obligation (there were as many of 45 of them in the mid-17th century) as a spiritual and literal feast — and every day before the feast day as a famine. When you do the math, you realize that, back in the day, Catholics were either fasting or abstaining for 100 or more days out of the year. And their fasts weren’t like ours (one full meal and two smaller meals per day). An early Christian practice, for instance, was to eat nothing from Holy Thursday night to Easter Sunday morning.
Our chief weapons in our war against our triple enemy of the devil, the world and the flesh―have always been penance (especially fasting) and prayer (especially the Holy Mass and Holy Rosary). Our Lady of Akita reaffirmed this when she said: “The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son [which is, of course, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass]. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests! … Pray very much for the Pope, Bishops, and Priests! … Continue to pray very much—very much! … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary!” (Akita, 1973). At Fatima, Our Lady insisted: “Say many Rosaries!” (Fatima, May 1917). “Say the Rosary every day!” (Fatima, June 1917). “Continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you!” (Fatima, July 1917). “Continue to say the Rosary every day! Pray, pray very much!” (Fatima, August 1917). “Continue to pray the Rosary!” (Fatima, September 1917). “Continue always to pray the Rosary every day!” (Fatima, October 1917).
Sadly, not only did Pope Paul VI reduce obligatory Lenten penance by 95%--there has also been a massive reduction in Catholics fulfilling their obligation of assisting at every Sunday Mass, as well as massive reduction in Catholics praying the Rosary. Depending on which country you live in, the numbers vary. The chart below shows the percentage of Catholics who regularly attend Holy Mass on a weekly basis in various countries throughout the world. The USA has not been included in this chart, so we will give the US statistics afterwards.
It is no exaggeration to say that human levels of knowledge―for the most apart―are barely burning and have been reduced to embers as each successive generation has been increasingly “dumbed-down.” If most Catholics can no longer list for you all the Ten Commandments, then you can bet your last dollar on the fact that even fewer Catholics can give you an adequate explanation of what the Ember Days and how they originated!
The Ember Days (a corruption of words from the Latin Quatuor Tempora, meaning four times or four seasons) are the days at the beginning of the four seasons ordered by the Church as days of fast and abstinence. The purpose of their introduction was to thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy.
The Church, when converting heathen nations, has always tried to sanctify any practices which could be utilized for a good purpose. The initial reason for the Ember Days was to neutralize the practice of the heathens of Rome. The Romans were originally given to agriculture, and their native gods were gods of agriculture. At the beginning of the time for seeding and harvesting pagan religious ceremonies were performed to implore the help of their deities—in December for the seeding, in June for a bountiful harvest, and in September for a rich vintage.
Therefore, the Church in Rome held fasts in December, June, September; though the exact days were not at first fixed, but were announced by the priests—probably trying to be close to the actual time of seeding, harvest and vintage. It is not certain when the fourth season was added, but Pope Gelasius (492-496) speaks of all four.
As the Ember Days came to be associated with great feast days, they later lost their connection to agriculture and came to be regarded solely as days of penitence and prayer. It is only the Michaelmas Embertide, which falls around the autumn harvest, that retains any connection to the original purpose.
Who Stoked-Up the Ember Days?
They were definitely arranged and prescribed for the entire Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) for the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after December 13th (St. Lucia), after Ash Wednesday, after Whitsunday, and after September 14th (Exaltation of the Cross)—thus distributed equally over the four seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall. Some remember the dates with the phrase: “Lucy, Ashes, Dove, and Cross.”
The original reason for the Ember Days was to neutralize the practice of the heathens of Rome. The Romans were originally given to agriculture, and their native gods belonged to the same class. At the beginning of the time for seeding and harvesting religious ceremonies were performed to implore the help of their deities: in December for the seeding, in June for a bountiful harvest, and in September for a rich vintage. The Church, when converting heathen nations, has always tried to sanctify any practices which could be utilized for a good purpose. Therefore, the Church in Rome held fasts in December, June, September; though the exact days were not fixed, but were announced by the priests—probably trying to be close to the actual time of seeding, harvest and vintage. The “Liber Pontificalis” ascribes to Pope Callistus (217-222) a law ordering the fast, but probably it is older. Pope Leo the Great (440-461) considers it an Apostolic institution.
It is not certain when the fourth season was added cannot be ascertained, but Pope Gelasius (492-496) speaks of all four. This pope also permitted the conferring of priesthood and deaconship on the Saturdays of ember week―these were formerly given only at Easter. Before Gelasius the Ember Days were known only in Rome, but after his time their observance spread.
They were brought into England by St. Augustine in the 6th century; into Gaul and Germany by the Carlovingians in the 8th century. Spain adopted them with the Roman Liturgy in the 11th century. They were introduced by St. Charles Borromeo into Milan in the 16th century. The Eastern Church does not observe them. The traditional Roman Missal, in the formulary for the Ember Days, retains in part the old practice of lessons from Scripture in addition to the ordinary two: for the Wednesdays three, for the Saturdays six, and seven for the Saturday in December. Some of these lessons contain promises of a bountiful harvest for those that serve God.
The traditional Roman Missal, in the readings for the Ember Days, retains in part the old practice of adding in addition to the ordinary two lessons some more reading from Scripture: for the Wednesdays there are three readings, for the Saturdays six readings, and seven readings for the Saturday in December. Some of these lessons contain promises of a bountiful harvest for those that serve God.
Ember Days Have Been Burned Out
For those following the “Extraordinary Rite”—and extraordinary it is—today is Ember Wednesday (to be followed by Ember Friday and Ember Saturday). For most Catholics Embers Days sound like something ‘new’, whereas the Ember Days have been around for centuries―earliest written records mention them in the 300s AD, but Pope Leo the Great says they come from the Apostolic times)—only to have disappeared in Pope Paul VI’s drastic reduction of penance in the document Poenitemini, in 1966, at which time Lenten penance also received its 95% discount—from 40 days of fasting to only 2 days: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Penance was reduced to “Ash” and most people thought it was “good”! Except Heaven!
Prior to the reforms instituted after the Second Vatican Council, the Church required fasting (only one full meal per day, plus two partial, meatless meals) on all Ember Days (which meant both fasting and abstinence from meat on Ember Fridays), and the faithful were encouraged (though not required) to go to Confession whenever possible.
Ember Day Weather Forecasts for the Year
There are 12 Ember Days per year and folklore claims that the weather that occurs on each of these days gives a rough and general “weather forecast” for each of the 12 months of the year. These are as follows:
Advent Ember Wednesday for January; Advent Ember Friday for February; Advent Ember Saturday for March; Lent Ember Wednesday for April; Lent Ember Friday for May; Lent Ember Saturday for June; Pentecost Ember Wednesday for July; Pentecost Ember Friday for August; Pentecost Ember Saturday for September; September Ember Wednesday for October; September Ember Friday for November; September Ember Saturday for December! Check it this year and see for yourself!
What is the Spiritual Weather Forecast?
When we think or speak of Lent, the main thing that comes to mind is PENANCE. Some people might also add to that PRAYER. Yet, we never really stop to think that penance and prayer can actually be useless without some other key ingredients.
► PENANCE: If our penances lead us to pride, then they become abominable to God―as Scripture clearly points out: “Why is earth and ashes proud?” (Ecclesiasticus 10:9). “Every proud man is an abomination to the Lord!” (Proverbs 16:5). “God has abolished the memory of the proud, and has preserved the memory of them that are humble in mind” (Ecclesiasticus 10:21).
Likewise, if our penances are not done out of a love of God, then they are profitless: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
If we merely pray mechanically, lukewarmly, inattentively and not out of a sincere love of God―then our prayers are also profitless if not downright sinful! Our Lord condemns this kind of prayer: “Hypocrites! Well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-8). “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21).
Our Lord warns of a lack of charity in our modern age: “Because iniquity will have abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold!” (Matthew 24:12). Scripture warns of the consequences of this lukewarmness and diminishing of charity: “I have something against you―because you have left your first charity! Be mindful therefore from whence you have fallen and do penance, and do the first works! Or else I will come to you, and will move your candlestick out of its place, unless you do penance! ... I know your works―that you are neither cold, nor hot! I would rather you were cold, or hot. But because you are lukewarm―and neither cold not hot―I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth! … Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 2:2-5; 3:15-19).
If you look the temperature of penance over the centuries, then it is unmistakably clear that we increasingly descending into a penitential “ice-age” ― whereby there is less and less “fire-in-the-belly” for doing penance. As Our Lady of La Salette complained: “The heads, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance … Love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement!” Our Lord Himself said: “I came to call sinners to penance! … I tell you―unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish! ... Again I say to you―except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5). At Lourdes, Our Lady commanded: “Penance! Penance! Penance!”
► PRAYER: Prayer is not an option but an obligation! We talk to the ones that we love―and the more we love them, the more we talk to them. We love to talk with them because we love them. Moreover, we talk with them rather than merely talking at them. Christ commands: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength! This is the first commandment!” (Mark 12:30). Such a powerful love should empower our prayer and give us the power and strength to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) ― as Our Lord Himself said: “praying at all times” (Luke 21:36) … adding “that we ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).
Not only are we to pray with love―with our hearts and not just our lips―but we are to pray with Faith: “In all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive!” (Matthew 21:22). “According to your faith, be it done unto you!” (Matthew 9:29) “Be not faithless, but believing!” (John 20:27). “God heard them, because they had put their faith in Him!” (1 Paralipomenon 5:20). “He shows Himself to them that have faith in Him!” (Wisdom 1:2). Our Lord says: “The Son of man, when He comes again, do you think He shall find Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8). Scripture adds: “Without Faith it is impossible to please God!” (Hebrews 11:6). Nevertheless, Faith still depends upon Charity―for Charity is superior to Faith: “There remain Faith, Hope, And Charity, these three―but the greatest of these is Charity!” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Without Charity―like all things―Faith is dead: “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20) and “Faith works by Charity” (Galatians 5:6).
Our Lord, during His Sermon on the Mount, rebukes His followers for a lack of faith in God’s Divine Providence: “O ye of little faith!” (Matthew 6:30). He rebuked the Apostles in storm-tossed boat who cried to Him in panic thinking they would perish: “Why are you fearful? Have you not faith yet?” (Mark 4:40). He rebuked St. Peter for his lack of faith when after beginning to walk on water, Peter began to sink into it: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31). He rebuked St. Thomas for his lack of faith in Christ’s resurrection from the dead: “Thomas said: ‘Unless I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe!’ And after eight days Jesus came and He said to Thomas: ‘Put in your finger here and see My hands; and bring here your hand, and put it into My side―and be not faithless, but believing!’” (John 20:25-27). “And the Apostles said to the Lord: ‘Increase our faith!’” (Luke 17:5) … To the father of the demonically possessed boy, who had come to Jesus asking Him to heal his son, “Jesus said to him: ‘If you canst believe, all things are possible to him that believes!’ And immediately the father of the boy, crying out with tears, said: ‘I do believe, Lord! Help my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:23).
► PRAYER & PENANCE: At Fatima (1917)―even before Our Lady appeared―we have the Angel of Portugal addressing the three children who were playing: “What are you doing? Pray! Pray a great deal! Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High! Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended, and as a petition for the conversion of sinners. Above all, accept and bear with submission all the sufferings the Lord will send you!” When Our Lady of Fatima later appeared, she said: “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go! … Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer! … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners! … Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them!” (Compilation of the words of Our Lady of Fatima from her apparitions in May, June, July & August of 1917).
In 1957, Sister Lucia of Fatima said in an interview with Fr. Fuentes: “It is my mission not just to speak about the material punishments, that will certainly come over the Earth, if the world does not pray and do penance. No, my mission is to also tell everyone the imminent danger we are in of losing our souls for all eternity, if we remain fixed in sin. We should not wait for a call to the world from Rome on the part of the Holy Father to do penance. Nor should we wait for a call for penance to come from the Bishops in our Dioceses, nor from our Religious Congregations. No―Our Lord has often used these means, and the world has not paid heed! So, now each one of us must begin to reform himself spiritually. Each one has to save not only his own soul, but also all the souls that God has placed on his pathway!”
In the 1950s Our Lady appeared several times to Blessed Sister Elena Aiello (1895-1961)―a mystic, stigmatic, victim soul, prophetess and foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lady said: “Satan reigns and triumphs on Earth! See how the souls are falling into Hell! … The justice of our Father is most offended. Men live in their obstinacy of sin … The justice of the Father requires reparation — otherwise many will be lost! … The only valid means for placating Divine Justice is to pray and do penance! … Therefore I ask for prayers, penance and sacrifice, so I may act as Mediatrix with my Son in order to save souls ... I desire prayers and penance, in order that I may again obtain mercy and salvation for many souls — otherwise they will be lost! … Prayers and penances are necessary! … The rulers of the people do not understand this, because they do not have the Christian spirit … All nations will be punished, because sin has spread all over the world! … If men do not return to God with prayers and penances, the world will be overturned in a new and more terrible war. Arms most deadly will destroy peoples and nations! … Tremendous will be the punishments, because man has arrived at an insupportable contest with his God … My words are very clear, and you must transmit them to everyone!”
In 1973, Our Lady of Akita stated: “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before! ... I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father! … Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger!”
Pope Paul’s Paenitemini Promotes Pruned Powerless Penance
The words of Our Lady of La Salette, concerning Church leaders, have come true in our day and age: “The heads, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance!” Even though penance has been in decline for centuries, that decline has accelerated greatly since the Second Vatican Council and Pope Paul VI’s Apostolic Constitution―entitled Paenitemini―which he promulgated on February 17th, 1966, with this month of February seeing its 60-year anniversary. It is nothing to celebrate―unless you are lukewarm―for it radically decimated penitential practices (especially during the season of Lent) by slashing obligatory Lenten fasting and abstinence by 95% in keeping only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday as obligatory days of fasting and abstinence with the remaining 38 days of obligatory fasting and abstinence being thrown out of the window!
Now ask yourself this: If sin is rapidly increasing throughout the world with the devil taking more and more control―is that the time to reduce obligatory penance by 95%. When a disease becomes more aggressive and spreads more and more throughout the body―does it make sense to reduce the amount of medicine you are giving to the patient? When an enemy country sends more and more soldiers into your country―are you going to counteract that by reducing your army by 95%? If crime is increasing drastically―is it wise to reduce law enforcement agencies by 95%?
Consider how Catholics around seven generations spent Lent. Catholics in the 19th century were supposed to avoid eating for long periods and to abstain from certain food the vast majority of days during Lent. For many in the 19th century, Lent meant no meat, eggs, butter, cheese or milk, for 40 days. Nearly every day during Lent also was a fast day — meaning long periods of no eating. In previous centuries, the total number of fasting and abstinence days per year in the Church once topped 100. The Church has always recommended and taught that fasting and abstinence are powerful and necessary forms of prayer and penance against sin and armor against temptation. In 1741, Pope Benedict XIV (in Non Ambigimus) called fasting “this common remedy for us who sin daily.”
Rules varied by time and place―but before the 20th century, Catholics were generally required to fast by restricting their intake of food (fasting), or refraining from eating certain foods (abstaining) or both, not only during Lent, but also throughout much of Advent and on so-called Ember Days (four periods of the year of three days of fasting and abstinence), and on most Wednesdays and Fridays at other times of the year. Earlier generations of Catholics also fasted on the eve of holy days. They celebrated every holy day of obligation (there were as many of 45 of them in the mid-17th century) as a spiritual and literal feast — and every day before the feast day as a famine. When you do the math, you realize that, back in the day, Catholics were either fasting or abstaining for 100 or more days out of the year. And their fasts weren’t like ours (one full meal and two smaller meals per day). An early Christian practice, for instance, was to eat nothing from Holy Thursday night to Easter Sunday morning.
Our chief weapons in our war against our triple enemy of the devil, the world and the flesh―have always been penance (especially fasting) and prayer (especially the Holy Mass and Holy Rosary). Our Lady of Akita reaffirmed this when she said: “The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son [which is, of course, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass]. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests! … Pray very much for the Pope, Bishops, and Priests! … Continue to pray very much—very much! … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary!” (Akita, 1973). At Fatima, Our Lady insisted: “Say many Rosaries!” (Fatima, May 1917). “Say the Rosary every day!” (Fatima, June 1917). “Continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you!” (Fatima, July 1917). “Continue to say the Rosary every day! Pray, pray very much!” (Fatima, August 1917). “Continue to pray the Rosary!” (Fatima, September 1917). “Continue always to pray the Rosary every day!” (Fatima, October 1917).
Sadly, not only did Pope Paul VI reduce obligatory Lenten penance by 95%--there has also been a massive reduction in Catholics fulfilling their obligation of assisting at every Sunday Mass, as well as massive reduction in Catholics praying the Rosary. Depending on which country you live in, the numbers vary. The chart below shows the percentage of Catholics who regularly attend Holy Mass on a weekly basis in various countries throughout the world. The USA has not been included in this chart, so we will give the US statistics afterwards.
Since the publication of the above chart in 2022, numbers have continued to fall.
● In 2022 the Philippines showed a 56% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 41% as of January 2026.
● In 2022 Poland showed a 52% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 29% as of January 2026.
● In 2022 Italy showed a 34% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 15% as of January 2026.
● In 2022 Spain showed a 27% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 18% as of January 2026.
● In 2022 Australia showed a 21% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 8% as of January 2026.
● In 2022 Germany showed a 14% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 6% as of January 2026.
● In 2022 France showed an 8% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 5% as of January 2026.
● In 2022 the Netherlands showed a 7% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 2.5% as of January 2026.
As for the USA, in 1957 over 75% of U.S. Catholics attended Sunday Mass regularly. In 1965 regular Sunday Mass attendance had dropped to 67%. In 1980 it had dropped to 41%. In 1990 only 39% of U.S. Catholics regularly attended Sunday Mass. In 1995 it was 35%. In 2004 only 25% of Catholics would regularly attend Sunday Mass. In 2018 there were only 21% U.S. Catholics attending Mass every week. During the Plannedemic, 2020-2022, the number dropped to around 10%. Today (2026) around 17% of US Catholics attend Sunday Mass on a regular basis.
Similarly in Ireland. Remarkably, in the 1950s and 1960s regular Sunday Mass attendance was around 90%. In 1973 it was 87%. In 2008, in 1981 it was it was 44%. Today (2026) Mass attendance in Ireland is 27%.
The Fire of the Catholic Faith is Being Reduced to Embers and Ashes
During these Lenten Ember Day (Ember Wednesday, Ember Friday and Ember Saturday) we would do well to reflect upon the long-lasting and gradual demise of the Catholic Faith―in the hope that our own embers might be sparked back into the fire that God intended for our Faith. God Himself chose fire to represent and symbolize Himself in both the Old and New Testaments.
“God is a consuming fire!” (Hebrews 12:29). “The Lord thy God is a consuming fire!” (Deuteronomy 4:2). “The mountains shall be melted under Him as wax before the fire” (Micheas 1:4). “Know that the Lord thy God Himself, a devouring and consuming fire, will pass over before thee!” (Deuteronomy 9:3). “The Lord will come with fire, to render His wrath in indignation, and His rebuke with flames of fire! For the Lord shall judge by fire, and the slain of the Lord shall be many!” (Isaias 66:15-16). We see that to be true in the case of Sodom and Gomorrha: “And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire out of Heaven! And He destroyed these cities, and all the country surrounding them” (Genesis 19:24). During the Exodus, God killed Core, Dathan and Abiron for leading a violent rebellion against the divinely appointed leadership of Moses and Aaron: “And a fire coming out from the Lord, destroyed the two hundred and fifty men” (Numbers 16:35).
God appears to Moses as a burning bush: “The Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush” (Exodus 3:1-6). During the Exodus from Egypt, “the Lord went before them to show the way by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire” (Exodus 13:21). God shows His presence as a massive fire on the mountain: “All Mount Sinai was smoking because the Lord was come down upon it in fire” (Exodus 19:18). “The glory of the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the Mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Exodus 24:17).
Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary as the Sacred Heart, showing her that His Heart was on fire with love for us: “My Divine Heart is so passionately inflamed with love for men, that it can no longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its ardent charity, and needs spread them abroad!” Our Lord Himself said: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth―and what will I, but that it be kindled!” (Luke 12:49).
We ourselves pray to the Holy Ghost, begging: “Come O Holy Ghost … enkindle in us the fire of Thy love!” At the very first Pentecost, the Holy Ghost came down upon Our Lady and the Apostles in the form of tongues of fire: “There appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and sat upon every one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:3-4).
God commanded that a fire always burn at the altar in His Temple―just we always have a sanctuary light always burning on the altar or somewhere else in the sanctuary: “And the fire on the altar shall always burn” (Leviticus 6:12). Is the fire of our Faith and Charity always burning brightly? “Shall thy zeal be kindled like a fire?” (Psalm 78:5). Or is it being gradually reduced to mere glowing embers waiting to eventually becoming lifeless ashes? “He was condemned to die in ashes” (2 Machabees 13:8). God will test the fire of our love: “The Lord is like a refining fire” (Malachias 3:2). “As silver is tried by fire, and gold in the furnace, so the Lord tries the hearts” (Proverbs 17:3). “Thou hast proved my heart, and, Thou hast tried me by fire!” (Psalm 16:3). “My heart grew hot within me and in my meditation a fire shall flame out!” (Psalm 38:4). We are meant to enkindle a fire of love already here on Earth, which will burn with even greater love in Heaven―unless our lukewarm love needs “heating-up” in the fires of Purgatory; or, God forbid, that we end up burning with hatred in the fires of Hell. Burn we must! Burn we will! Which fire will we choose?
► POPE BENEDICT XVI (1927–2022)―was a Liberal and advocate of Church reform, who participated in the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) where served as a peritus (theological consultant) to Cardinal Frings of Cologne. He was viewed during the time of the council as a reformer, cooperating with Liberal and Modernist theologians like Fr. Hans Küng and Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx. In a conference that he gave in 1969 while still a priest (Fr. Joseph Ratzinger) and professor of theology, he admitted that the Faith was dying throughout the world:
“In our days, in vast areas of the world, the Faith is in danger of dying out―like a flame which no longer has fuel! … The boat has taken on so much water as to be on the verge of capsizing! … The future of the Church can and will issue from those whose roots are deep, and who live from the pure fullness of their Faith … It will not come from those who take the easier road, who sidestep the passion of Faith! … The future of the Church―once again as always―will be reshaped by saints, by men whose minds probe deeper than the slogans of the day; who see more than others see, because their lives embrace a wider reality … From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge ― a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh―more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices [buildings] that she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes, so will she lose many of her social privileges. In contrast to an earlier age, she will be seen much more as a voluntary society, entered only by free decision. As a small society, she will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members … The Church will be a more spiritual Church …. It will be hard-going for the Church … It seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end―not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of Faith … But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church!” (Pope Benedict XVI, who was Fr. Joseph Ratzinger before his papal election).
Fr. Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) reinforces the many prophecies that speak of the same situation within the Church.
► OUR LADY OF GOOD SUCCESS foretold: “I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and shortly after the middle of the 20th century … the Catholic spirit will rapidly decay; the precious light of the Faith will gradually be extinguished … Various heresies will be propagated. As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls by the almost total corruption of morals … The small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and the virtues, will suffer an unspeakably cruel and slow martyrdom!”
► OUR LADY OF LA SALETTE foretold: “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell―they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance … People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin … and men will become more and more perverted … The true Faith to the Lord will be forgotten … Many will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops ... A number of religious institutions will lose all Faith and will cause many souls to be damned. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening in everything that concerns the service of God … Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.”
► OUR LADY OF FATIMA entrusted three secrets to the children at Fatima―it is the Third Secret of Fatima that has not been fully (or truthfully) revealed. However, those persons who were privileged to read Sister Lucia written version of the Third Secret, have given some clues as to what it might refer to.
► FATHER JOSEPH SCHWEIGL was entrusted by Pope Pius XII with a secret mission to interview Sister Lucy about the Third Secret in 1952. He subsequently stated: “I cannot reveal anything of what I learned at Fatima concerning the Third Secret, but I can say that it has two parts―one concerns the Pope; the other logically―although I must say nothing―would have to be the continuation of the words: ‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.’”
► CARDINAL ODDI―who was a personal friend of Pope John XXIII and who had spoken to him regarding the Secret―gave the following testimony to Italian journalist, Lucio Brunelli, in the journal Il Sabato on March 17th, 1990: “It [the Third Secret] has nothing to do with Gorbachev [Russia’s Communist leader]. The Blessed Virgin was alerting us against apostasy in the Church.”
► CARDINAL MARIO LUIGI CIAPPI―who was the personal papal theologian to Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II―revealed in a personal communication to a Professor Baumgartner in Salzburg: “In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.”
► FATHER JOSE VALINHO―Sister Lucia’s nephew―stated: “I believe that (the third) part of the secret concerns the Church from within, perhaps doctrinal difficulties, a crisis of unity, rebellion. The last sentence my aunt [Lucia] wrote, which precedes the part that is still unknown, says: ‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc.’ … Therefore, people elsewhere in the Church might waver on dogma. But this is just speculation … I believe that there is a connection between that which is announced in the first part of the Secret, which concerns wars and sufferings which would be everywhere, and the second part which concerns the persecutions and a type of breakdown of the Faith. Because where the ellipsis (the three dots, “…”) was placed, it means: ‘Here is the third part, which is not revealed’ and then the conclusion: ‘In Portugal the dogma of the faith will always be preserved etc ...’ This suggests to me that there is a relationship between Faith and the third part of the Secret. Therefore, it is something that relates to the Church. It is some kind of universal crisis which affects the whole Church and all of humanity.”
► POPE ST. PIUS X warned: “I saw one of my successors taking to flight over the bodies of his brethren. He will take refuge in disguise somewhere; and after a short retirement he will die a cruel death. The present wickedness of the world is only the beginning of the sorrows which must take place before the end of the world.”
► CARDINAL MANNING wrote in 1861: “The apostasy of the city of Rome from the vicar of Christ and its destruction by Antichrist may be thoughts very new to many Catholics, that I think it well to recite the text of theologians of greatest repute. First Malvenda, who writes expressly on the subject, states as the opinion of Ribera, Gaspar Melus, Biegas, Suarrez, Bellarmine and Bosius that Rome shall apostatize from the Faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ and return to its ancient paganism. ...Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible; hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were from the face of the Earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early Church.” (Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, The Present Crisis of the Holy See, pp. 88-90).
► ST. JOHN BOSCO predicted back in 1862: “There will be an Ecumenical Council in the next century [the 1900s―Vatican II took place from 1962 to 1965]], after which there will be chaos in the Church.”
► MARIE JULIE JAHENNY was warned by Our Lord and Our Lady of the conspiracy to invent the “New Mass”: “I give you a WARNING. The disciples who are not of My Gospel are now working hard to remake―according to their ideas and under the influence of the enemy of souls―a Mass that contains words that are odious in My sight. When the fatal hour arrives when the Faith of my priests is put to the test, it will be these texts that will be celebrated in this second period ... The first period is the one of my priesthood which exists since Me. The second is the one of the persecution when the enemies of the Faith and of Holy Religion will impose their formulas in the book of the second celebration ... These infamous spirits are those who crucified Me and are awaiting the kingdom of the new Messias.”
► ARCHBISHOP FULTON SHEEN foretold: “He [Satan] will set up a counter-church which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ... But the twentieth century will join the counter-church because it claims to be infallible when its visible head speaks ex cathedra” (Fulton J. Sheen, Communism and the Conscience of the West, pp. 24-25).
► ST ANTHONY OF DESERT (ST. ANTHONY THE GREAT) warned: “Men will surrender to the spirit of the age. They will say if they had lived in our day Faith would be easy. But in their day, they will say, things are complex; the Church must be brought up to date and be made meaningful to today’s problems (which is what the Second Vatican Council professed to do). When the Church and world are one, know then that those days are at hand (the beginning of the End). Because our Divine Master placed a barrier between His things and the things of this world.”
ST. NICHOLAS OF FLÜE (1417-1487): “The Church will be punished because the majority of her members, high and low, will become so perverted. The Church will sink deeper and deeper until she will at last seem to be extinguished, and the succession of Peter and the other Apostles will seem to have expired.”
► ST. NILUS (died 430) was a disciple and fervent defenders of St. John Chrysostom. He was an officer at the Court of Constantinople. St. John Chrysostom directed Nilus in the study of Scripture and in works of piety. St. Nilus later went to Mount Sinai to be a monk. The Bishop of Eleusa ordained St. Nilus to the priesthood. From his monastery at Sinai, St. Nilus was a well-known person throughout the Eastern Church; by his writings and correspondence he played an important part in the history of his time. He was known as a theologian, Biblical scholar and ascetic writer, so people of all kinds, from the emperor down, wrote to consult him.
St. Nilus wrote: “After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable. People’s minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions, and dishonor and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will become unrecognizable. The appearances of people will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women―due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair. There will be no respect for parents or elders, love will disappear, and Christian pastors, bishops, and priests will become vain men. The Church of God will be deprived of God-fearing and pious pastors, and woe to the Christians remaining in the world at that time; many will completely lose their Faith. At that time the morals and traditions of Christians and the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, and woe to those who pile up treasures. Lust, adultery, homosexuality, secret deeds and murder will rule in society.” (St. Nilus, 430).
► VENERABLE FR. BARTHOLOMEW HOLZHAUSER (17th century): “Jesus Christ will purify His people through cruel wars, famines, plaque, epidemics, and other horrible calamities. He will also afflict and weaken the Latin Churches with many heresies. Nations will fight against nations. It is a period of defections, calamities, and extermination. Those Christians who survive the sword, plaque, famines and epidemics will be few on Earth. During this period many men will abuse the freedom of conscience (heresy) conceded to them―there will be laxity in divine and human precepts. Discipline will suffer. The Holy Canons will be completely disregarded and the clergy will not respect the Laws of the Church. Everyone will be carried away and led to believe and to do what he fancies according to the manner of the flesh. These are evil times and heresy is everywhere! A time full of dangers and calamities. Heresy is everywhere and the followers of heresy are in power almost everywhere! Bishops, prelates and priests will seek all kinds of excuses and say they are doing their duty, that they are vigilant and that they live as befits their state of life. Heretics and tyrants will come suddenly and unexpectedly; they will break into the Church while bishops, prelates and priests are asleep. When everything has been ruined by war, when Catholics are hard pressed by traitorous co-religionists and heretics, when the Church and her servants are denied her rights, when the monarchies have been overthrown and their rulers murdered, then the hand of Almighty God will work a marvelous change, something seemingly impossible according to reason.”
● In 2022 the Philippines showed a 56% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 41% as of January 2026.
● In 2022 Poland showed a 52% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 29% as of January 2026.
● In 2022 Italy showed a 34% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 15% as of January 2026.
● In 2022 Spain showed a 27% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 18% as of January 2026.
● In 2022 Australia showed a 21% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 8% as of January 2026.
● In 2022 Germany showed a 14% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 6% as of January 2026.
● In 2022 France showed an 8% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 5% as of January 2026.
● In 2022 the Netherlands showed a 7% Sunday Mass attendance, but that has fallen to 2.5% as of January 2026.
As for the USA, in 1957 over 75% of U.S. Catholics attended Sunday Mass regularly. In 1965 regular Sunday Mass attendance had dropped to 67%. In 1980 it had dropped to 41%. In 1990 only 39% of U.S. Catholics regularly attended Sunday Mass. In 1995 it was 35%. In 2004 only 25% of Catholics would regularly attend Sunday Mass. In 2018 there were only 21% U.S. Catholics attending Mass every week. During the Plannedemic, 2020-2022, the number dropped to around 10%. Today (2026) around 17% of US Catholics attend Sunday Mass on a regular basis.
Similarly in Ireland. Remarkably, in the 1950s and 1960s regular Sunday Mass attendance was around 90%. In 1973 it was 87%. In 2008, in 1981 it was it was 44%. Today (2026) Mass attendance in Ireland is 27%.
The Fire of the Catholic Faith is Being Reduced to Embers and Ashes
During these Lenten Ember Day (Ember Wednesday, Ember Friday and Ember Saturday) we would do well to reflect upon the long-lasting and gradual demise of the Catholic Faith―in the hope that our own embers might be sparked back into the fire that God intended for our Faith. God Himself chose fire to represent and symbolize Himself in both the Old and New Testaments.
“God is a consuming fire!” (Hebrews 12:29). “The Lord thy God is a consuming fire!” (Deuteronomy 4:2). “The mountains shall be melted under Him as wax before the fire” (Micheas 1:4). “Know that the Lord thy God Himself, a devouring and consuming fire, will pass over before thee!” (Deuteronomy 9:3). “The Lord will come with fire, to render His wrath in indignation, and His rebuke with flames of fire! For the Lord shall judge by fire, and the slain of the Lord shall be many!” (Isaias 66:15-16). We see that to be true in the case of Sodom and Gomorrha: “And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire out of Heaven! And He destroyed these cities, and all the country surrounding them” (Genesis 19:24). During the Exodus, God killed Core, Dathan and Abiron for leading a violent rebellion against the divinely appointed leadership of Moses and Aaron: “And a fire coming out from the Lord, destroyed the two hundred and fifty men” (Numbers 16:35).
God appears to Moses as a burning bush: “The Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush” (Exodus 3:1-6). During the Exodus from Egypt, “the Lord went before them to show the way by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire” (Exodus 13:21). God shows His presence as a massive fire on the mountain: “All Mount Sinai was smoking because the Lord was come down upon it in fire” (Exodus 19:18). “The glory of the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the Mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Exodus 24:17).
Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary as the Sacred Heart, showing her that His Heart was on fire with love for us: “My Divine Heart is so passionately inflamed with love for men, that it can no longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its ardent charity, and needs spread them abroad!” Our Lord Himself said: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth―and what will I, but that it be kindled!” (Luke 12:49).
We ourselves pray to the Holy Ghost, begging: “Come O Holy Ghost … enkindle in us the fire of Thy love!” At the very first Pentecost, the Holy Ghost came down upon Our Lady and the Apostles in the form of tongues of fire: “There appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and sat upon every one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:3-4).
God commanded that a fire always burn at the altar in His Temple―just we always have a sanctuary light always burning on the altar or somewhere else in the sanctuary: “And the fire on the altar shall always burn” (Leviticus 6:12). Is the fire of our Faith and Charity always burning brightly? “Shall thy zeal be kindled like a fire?” (Psalm 78:5). Or is it being gradually reduced to mere glowing embers waiting to eventually becoming lifeless ashes? “He was condemned to die in ashes” (2 Machabees 13:8). God will test the fire of our love: “The Lord is like a refining fire” (Malachias 3:2). “As silver is tried by fire, and gold in the furnace, so the Lord tries the hearts” (Proverbs 17:3). “Thou hast proved my heart, and, Thou hast tried me by fire!” (Psalm 16:3). “My heart grew hot within me and in my meditation a fire shall flame out!” (Psalm 38:4). We are meant to enkindle a fire of love already here on Earth, which will burn with even greater love in Heaven―unless our lukewarm love needs “heating-up” in the fires of Purgatory; or, God forbid, that we end up burning with hatred in the fires of Hell. Burn we must! Burn we will! Which fire will we choose?
► POPE BENEDICT XVI (1927–2022)―was a Liberal and advocate of Church reform, who participated in the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) where served as a peritus (theological consultant) to Cardinal Frings of Cologne. He was viewed during the time of the council as a reformer, cooperating with Liberal and Modernist theologians like Fr. Hans Küng and Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx. In a conference that he gave in 1969 while still a priest (Fr. Joseph Ratzinger) and professor of theology, he admitted that the Faith was dying throughout the world:
“In our days, in vast areas of the world, the Faith is in danger of dying out―like a flame which no longer has fuel! … The boat has taken on so much water as to be on the verge of capsizing! … The future of the Church can and will issue from those whose roots are deep, and who live from the pure fullness of their Faith … It will not come from those who take the easier road, who sidestep the passion of Faith! … The future of the Church―once again as always―will be reshaped by saints, by men whose minds probe deeper than the slogans of the day; who see more than others see, because their lives embrace a wider reality … From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge ― a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh―more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices [buildings] that she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes, so will she lose many of her social privileges. In contrast to an earlier age, she will be seen much more as a voluntary society, entered only by free decision. As a small society, she will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members … The Church will be a more spiritual Church …. It will be hard-going for the Church … It seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end―not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of Faith … But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church!” (Pope Benedict XVI, who was Fr. Joseph Ratzinger before his papal election).
Fr. Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) reinforces the many prophecies that speak of the same situation within the Church.
► OUR LADY OF GOOD SUCCESS foretold: “I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and shortly after the middle of the 20th century … the Catholic spirit will rapidly decay; the precious light of the Faith will gradually be extinguished … Various heresies will be propagated. As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls by the almost total corruption of morals … The small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and the virtues, will suffer an unspeakably cruel and slow martyrdom!”
► OUR LADY OF LA SALETTE foretold: “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell―they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance … People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin … and men will become more and more perverted … The true Faith to the Lord will be forgotten … Many will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops ... A number of religious institutions will lose all Faith and will cause many souls to be damned. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening in everything that concerns the service of God … Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.”
► OUR LADY OF FATIMA entrusted three secrets to the children at Fatima―it is the Third Secret of Fatima that has not been fully (or truthfully) revealed. However, those persons who were privileged to read Sister Lucia written version of the Third Secret, have given some clues as to what it might refer to.
► FATHER JOSEPH SCHWEIGL was entrusted by Pope Pius XII with a secret mission to interview Sister Lucy about the Third Secret in 1952. He subsequently stated: “I cannot reveal anything of what I learned at Fatima concerning the Third Secret, but I can say that it has two parts―one concerns the Pope; the other logically―although I must say nothing―would have to be the continuation of the words: ‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.’”
► CARDINAL ODDI―who was a personal friend of Pope John XXIII and who had spoken to him regarding the Secret―gave the following testimony to Italian journalist, Lucio Brunelli, in the journal Il Sabato on March 17th, 1990: “It [the Third Secret] has nothing to do with Gorbachev [Russia’s Communist leader]. The Blessed Virgin was alerting us against apostasy in the Church.”
► CARDINAL MARIO LUIGI CIAPPI―who was the personal papal theologian to Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II―revealed in a personal communication to a Professor Baumgartner in Salzburg: “In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.”
► FATHER JOSE VALINHO―Sister Lucia’s nephew―stated: “I believe that (the third) part of the secret concerns the Church from within, perhaps doctrinal difficulties, a crisis of unity, rebellion. The last sentence my aunt [Lucia] wrote, which precedes the part that is still unknown, says: ‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc.’ … Therefore, people elsewhere in the Church might waver on dogma. But this is just speculation … I believe that there is a connection between that which is announced in the first part of the Secret, which concerns wars and sufferings which would be everywhere, and the second part which concerns the persecutions and a type of breakdown of the Faith. Because where the ellipsis (the three dots, “…”) was placed, it means: ‘Here is the third part, which is not revealed’ and then the conclusion: ‘In Portugal the dogma of the faith will always be preserved etc ...’ This suggests to me that there is a relationship between Faith and the third part of the Secret. Therefore, it is something that relates to the Church. It is some kind of universal crisis which affects the whole Church and all of humanity.”
► POPE ST. PIUS X warned: “I saw one of my successors taking to flight over the bodies of his brethren. He will take refuge in disguise somewhere; and after a short retirement he will die a cruel death. The present wickedness of the world is only the beginning of the sorrows which must take place before the end of the world.”
► CARDINAL MANNING wrote in 1861: “The apostasy of the city of Rome from the vicar of Christ and its destruction by Antichrist may be thoughts very new to many Catholics, that I think it well to recite the text of theologians of greatest repute. First Malvenda, who writes expressly on the subject, states as the opinion of Ribera, Gaspar Melus, Biegas, Suarrez, Bellarmine and Bosius that Rome shall apostatize from the Faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ and return to its ancient paganism. ...Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible; hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were from the face of the Earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early Church.” (Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, The Present Crisis of the Holy See, pp. 88-90).
► ST. JOHN BOSCO predicted back in 1862: “There will be an Ecumenical Council in the next century [the 1900s―Vatican II took place from 1962 to 1965]], after which there will be chaos in the Church.”
► MARIE JULIE JAHENNY was warned by Our Lord and Our Lady of the conspiracy to invent the “New Mass”: “I give you a WARNING. The disciples who are not of My Gospel are now working hard to remake―according to their ideas and under the influence of the enemy of souls―a Mass that contains words that are odious in My sight. When the fatal hour arrives when the Faith of my priests is put to the test, it will be these texts that will be celebrated in this second period ... The first period is the one of my priesthood which exists since Me. The second is the one of the persecution when the enemies of the Faith and of Holy Religion will impose their formulas in the book of the second celebration ... These infamous spirits are those who crucified Me and are awaiting the kingdom of the new Messias.”
► ARCHBISHOP FULTON SHEEN foretold: “He [Satan] will set up a counter-church which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ... But the twentieth century will join the counter-church because it claims to be infallible when its visible head speaks ex cathedra” (Fulton J. Sheen, Communism and the Conscience of the West, pp. 24-25).
► ST ANTHONY OF DESERT (ST. ANTHONY THE GREAT) warned: “Men will surrender to the spirit of the age. They will say if they had lived in our day Faith would be easy. But in their day, they will say, things are complex; the Church must be brought up to date and be made meaningful to today’s problems (which is what the Second Vatican Council professed to do). When the Church and world are one, know then that those days are at hand (the beginning of the End). Because our Divine Master placed a barrier between His things and the things of this world.”
ST. NICHOLAS OF FLÜE (1417-1487): “The Church will be punished because the majority of her members, high and low, will become so perverted. The Church will sink deeper and deeper until she will at last seem to be extinguished, and the succession of Peter and the other Apostles will seem to have expired.”
► ST. NILUS (died 430) was a disciple and fervent defenders of St. John Chrysostom. He was an officer at the Court of Constantinople. St. John Chrysostom directed Nilus in the study of Scripture and in works of piety. St. Nilus later went to Mount Sinai to be a monk. The Bishop of Eleusa ordained St. Nilus to the priesthood. From his monastery at Sinai, St. Nilus was a well-known person throughout the Eastern Church; by his writings and correspondence he played an important part in the history of his time. He was known as a theologian, Biblical scholar and ascetic writer, so people of all kinds, from the emperor down, wrote to consult him.
St. Nilus wrote: “After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable. People’s minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions, and dishonor and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will become unrecognizable. The appearances of people will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women―due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair. There will be no respect for parents or elders, love will disappear, and Christian pastors, bishops, and priests will become vain men. The Church of God will be deprived of God-fearing and pious pastors, and woe to the Christians remaining in the world at that time; many will completely lose their Faith. At that time the morals and traditions of Christians and the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, and woe to those who pile up treasures. Lust, adultery, homosexuality, secret deeds and murder will rule in society.” (St. Nilus, 430).
► VENERABLE FR. BARTHOLOMEW HOLZHAUSER (17th century): “Jesus Christ will purify His people through cruel wars, famines, plaque, epidemics, and other horrible calamities. He will also afflict and weaken the Latin Churches with many heresies. Nations will fight against nations. It is a period of defections, calamities, and extermination. Those Christians who survive the sword, plaque, famines and epidemics will be few on Earth. During this period many men will abuse the freedom of conscience (heresy) conceded to them―there will be laxity in divine and human precepts. Discipline will suffer. The Holy Canons will be completely disregarded and the clergy will not respect the Laws of the Church. Everyone will be carried away and led to believe and to do what he fancies according to the manner of the flesh. These are evil times and heresy is everywhere! A time full of dangers and calamities. Heresy is everywhere and the followers of heresy are in power almost everywhere! Bishops, prelates and priests will seek all kinds of excuses and say they are doing their duty, that they are vigilant and that they live as befits their state of life. Heretics and tyrants will come suddenly and unexpectedly; they will break into the Church while bishops, prelates and priests are asleep. When everything has been ruined by war, when Catholics are hard pressed by traitorous co-religionists and heretics, when the Church and her servants are denied her rights, when the monarchies have been overthrown and their rulers murdered, then the hand of Almighty God will work a marvelous change, something seemingly impossible according to reason.”
Article 7
Tuesday after the 1st Sunday of Lent, February 24th
Why Do You Fall For It?
Tuesday after the 1st Sunday of Lent, February 24th
Why Do You Fall For It?
Falling Into Temptation
We have already said that temptation is inevitable! Yet falling into temptation, or giving in to the temptation, is not inevitable. Yet we fall so many times! Why? Well, one reason is that we do not understand how the temptation works, or how the devil works the temptation. Let us therefore look at some of these things, so that, being forewarned, we are fore-armed.
The Devil’s Targets
Again, St. John Vianney, in his simple language, explains some the tactics used by the devil: “Whom does the devil pursue must? Perhaps you are thinking that it must be those who are tempted most; these would undoubtedly be the habitual drunkards, the scandalmongers, the immodest and shameless people who wallow in moral filth, and the miser, who hoards in all sorts of ways. No, my dear brethren no, it is not these people. On the contrary, the Devil despises them, or else he holds onto them, lest they not have a long enough time in which to do evil, because the longer they live, the more their bad example will drag souls into Hell.
“Indeed, if the Devil had pursued this lewd and shameless old fellow too closely, he might have shortened the latter’s life by fifteen or twenty years, and he would not then have destroyed the virginity of that young girl by plunging her into the unspeakable mire of his indecencies; he would not, again, have seduced that wife, nor would he have taught his evil lessons to that young man, who will perhaps continue to practice them until his death. If the Devil had prompted this thief to rob on every occasion, he would long since have ended on the scaffold and so he would not have induced his neighbor to follow his example. If the Devil had urged this drunkard to fill himself unceasingly with wine, he would long ago have perished in his debaucheries, instead of which, by living longer, he has made many others like himself. If the Devil had taken away the life of this musician, of that dance-hall owner, of this bar keeper, in some raid or scuffle, or on any other occasion, how many souls would there be who, without these people, would not be damned and who now will be? St. Augustine teaches us that the Devil does not bother these people very much; on the contrary, he despises them and spits upon them” (St. John Vianney, Sermon on Temptation).
The Prime Targets of the Devils
The Curé of Ars then asks the rhetorical question: “So, you will ask me, who then are the people most tempted? They are these, my friends; note them carefully. The people most tempted are those who are ready, with the grace of God, to sacrifice everything for the salvation of their poor souls, who renounce all those things which most people eagerly seek. It is not one devil only who tempts them, but millions seek to entrap them.
“We are told that St. Francis of Assisi and all his religious were gathered on an open plain, where they had built little huts of rushes. Seeing the extraordinary penances which were being practiced, St. Francis ordered that all instruments of penance should be brought out, whereupon his religious produced them in bundles. At this moment there was one young man, to whom God gave the grace to see his Guardian Angel. On the one side he saw all of these good religious, who could not satisfy their hunger for penance, and, on the other, his Guardian Angel allowed him to see a gathering of eighteen thousand devils, who were holding counsel to see in what way they could subvert these religious by temptation.
“One of the devils said: ‘You do not understand this at all! These religious are so humble! Ah, what wonderful virtue, so detached from themselves, so attached to God! They have a superior who leads them so well that it is impossible to succeed in winning them over. Let us wait until their superior is dead, and then we shall try to introduce among them young people without vocations, who will bring about a certain slackening of spirit, and in this way we shall gain them!’” (St. John Vianney, Sermon on Temptation).
Same Tactic For Families, Parishes & Schools
The very same can be said about families—if one or both parents are well-intentioned, fervent and well-disciplined, then the devil will seek to bring that family into contact with much weaker and dissolute families, with the hope that weaker and more lax family will spread the germs or virus of lukewarmness into the bosom of the better family. To help weaken future families, the devils desire the faithful children to marry lukewarm or sinful spouses—thereby watering-down the devotion and Faith―for as Our Lord says: “Every kingdom that is divided against itself shall be made desolate; and every city or house that is divided against itself shall not stand!” (Matthew 12:25)—hence the devils seek to divide in order to conquer.
The same applies to our parishes and schools. The devils do their utmost to see to it that authority is placed in the hands of the lukewarm or the Liberals (preferably both), for it is the superior that forms and shapes the inferiors. The devil knows that we are only as strong as our weakest link—so he seeks to remove any and all strict authorities and add as many weak links as possible in positions of authority―whether it be it as priests, religious or teachers. This will create division among the ranks, with the weaker parishioners or school-children—like water—seeking the point of least resistance and of greatest allowance or permissiveness. Once this split or division is created, the end is only a matter of time.
St. John Vianney continues: “A little further on, as St. Francis entered the town, he saw a devil, sitting by himself beside the gate into the town, whose task was to tempt all of those who were inside. This saint asked his Guardian Angel why it was that, in order to tempt this group of religious, there had been so many thousands of devils, while for a whole town there was but one—and that one sitting down. His good Angel told him that the people of the town had not the same need of temptations, that they had enough bad in themselves, while the religious were doing good, despite all the traps which the Devil could lay for them.”
Sinners Seem to Have it Easy!
Psalm 72 speaks of sentiments that we may all have experience or perhaps still encounter from time to time. It speaks of bewilderment when looking at the lives of sinners—who seem to be without a care in the world—and discourages the Christian soul by causing it to question whether its efforts at trying to be good and resisting temptation are worthwhile.
“But, as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped, because I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they suffer no pain; their bodies are healthy and sleek. They are free of the burdens of life; they are not afflicted like others. Thus pride adorns them as a necklace; violence clothes them as a robe. Out of such blindness comes sin; evil thoughts flood their hearts. They scoff and spout their malice; from on high they utter threats. They set their mouths against the heavens, their tongues roam the Earth.
“So my people turn to them and drink deeply of their words. They say, ‘Does God really know?’ … ‘Does the Most High have any knowledge?’ Such, then, are the wicked, always carefree, increasing their wealth. Is it in vain that I have kept my heart pure, washed my hands in innocence? For I am afflicted day after day, chastised every morning. Had I thought, ‘I will speak as they do,’ I would have betrayed this generation of Your children” (Psalm 72).
Then the Psalmist passes into the second phase of the meditation, and finally solves the mystery, removes the bewilderment and answers his own question: “Though I tried to understand all this, it was too difficult for me, until I entered the sanctuary of God and came to understand their end. You set them, indeed, on a slippery road; You hurl them down to ruin. How suddenly they are devastated; utterly undone by disaster! They are like a dream after waking, Lord, dismissed like shadows when You arise. Since my heart was embittered and my soul deeply wounded, I was stupid and could not understand; I was like a brute beast in your presence. Yet I am always with You; You take hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You guide me, and at the end receive me with honor. Whom else have I in the heavens? None beside You delights me on Earth. Though my flesh and my heart fail, God is the rock of my heart, my portion forever. But those who are far from you perish; You destroy those unfaithful to You” (Psalm 72).
Sinners Left in Peace―the Job is Already Done
St. John Vianney looks at it from this perspective: “Why is it, my dear brethren, that when someone gives no thought at all to saving his soul, when he is living in sin, he is not tempted in the slightest, but that as soon as he wants to change his life, in other words, as soon as the desire to give his life to God comes to him, all Hell falls upon him?
“Listen to what St. Augustine has to say: ‘Look at the way,’ he tells us, ‘in which the Devil behaves towards the sinner. He acts like a jailer who has a great many prisoners locked up in his prison but who, because he has the key in his pocket, is quite happy to leave them, secure in the knowledge that they cannot get out. This is his way of dealing with the sinner who does not consider the possibility of leaving his sin behind. He does not go to the trouble of tempting him. He looks upon this as time wasted, because, not only is the sinner not thinking of leaving him, but the Devil does not desire to multiply his chains. It would be pointless, therefore, to tempt him. He allows him to live in peace―if, indeed, it is possible to live in peace when one is in sin! He hides the sinner’s state of soul from the sinner as much as is possible until death, when he then tries to paint a picture of his life, so terrifying, as to plunge him into despair. But with anyone who has made up his mind to change his life, to give himself up to God, that is another thing altogether.’” (St. John Vianney, Sermon on Temptation).
Some Are Tempted More, Some Less
The frequency, as well as the violence of temptations, vary greatly. Some persons are often and violently tempted; others are tempted but rarely and without being deeply stirred. There are many causes that account for such diversity. In his book, The Spiritual Life, Fr. Tanquerey lists three chief causes or reasons for the varying degrees of frequency and violence of temptations.
(a) First of all, there are temperament and character. Some persons are extremely passionate and at the same time weak of will; often tempted, they are upset by temptation. Others are well‑balanced and energetic; seldom tempted, they keep their peace in the midst of temptation.
(b) Education accounts for other differences: there are souls who have been reared in the fear and love of God, in the habitual fulfillment of stern duty, and who have almost invariably received none but good example. Others have been brought up in the love of pleasure, in the dread of any kind of suffering, and have seen too many examples of worldliness and sensuality. It is evident that the latter will be more violently tempted than the former.
(c) God’s Providential designs must also be taken into account. There are souls whom He destines for a holy calling and whose purity He shelters with a jealous care. There are others whom He likewise destines to sanctity, but whom He would have pass through severe tests in order to ground them in virtue. Lastly, others there are whom He does not destine to such a high vocation, and who will be more or less frequently tempted, but never beyond their strength. (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
The Devil Looks to the Future
You may see, too, the struggle which St. Jerome endured when he desired to give himself to God and when he had the thought of visiting the Holy Land. When he was in Rome, he conceived a new desire to work for his salvation. Leaving Rome, he buried himself in a fearsome desert, to give himself over to everything with which his love of God could inspire him. Then the Devil, who foresaw how greatly his conversion would affect others, seemed to burst with fury and despair.
Sinner Changes Life—The Devil Changes Tactics
When a sinner tries to change his life, suddenly the devil comes to life! While St. Augustine lived in sin and evil, he was not aware of anything by which he was tempted. He believed himself to be at peace, as he tells us himself. But from the moment that he desired to turn his back upon the Devil, he had to struggle with him, even to the point of losing his breath in the fight. And that lasted for five years! He wept the most bitter of tears and employed the most austere of penances: “I argued with him,” he says, “in my chains. One day I thought myself victorious, the next I was prostrate on the earth again. This cruel and stubborn war went on for five years! However, God gave me the grace to be victorious over my enemy!”
When the Good Try to Be Better—They’d Better Watch Out
St. John Vianney states: “The first temptation, my dear brethren, which the Devil tries on anyone who has begun to serve God better is in the matter of human respect. He will no longer dare to be seen around; he will hide himself from those with whom, until now, he had been mixing and pleasure seeking. If he should be told that he has changed a lot, he will be ashamed of it! Worrying about what people are going to say about him, is continually in his mind, to the extent that he no longer has enough courage to do good before other people. If the Devil cannot get him back through human respect, he will induce an extraordinary fear to possess him, so that his confessions are not good, that his confessor does not understand him, that whatever he does will be all in vain, that he will be damned just the same, that he will achieve the same result in the end by letting everything slide as by continuing to fight, because the occasions of sin will prove too many for him” (St. John Vianney, Sermon on Temptation).
There was not a single temptation that the devil spared St. Jerome after he chose to better himself spiritually. This is what St. Jerome wrote to one of his friends concerning his temptations: “My dear friend, I wish to confide in you about my affliction and the state to which the Devil seeks to reduce me. How many times in this vast solitude, which the heat of the sun makes insupportable, how many times the pleasures of Rome have come to assail me! The sorrow and the bitterness with which my soul is filled cause me, night and day, to shed floods of tears. I proceed to hide myself in the most isolated places to struggle with my temptations and there to weep for my sins. My body is all disfigured and covered with a rough hair shirt. I have no other bed than the naked ground and my only food is coarse roots and water, even in my illnesses. In spite of all these rigors, my body still experiences thoughts of the squalid pleasures with which Rome is poisoned; my spirit finds itself in the midst of those pleasant companionships in which I so greatly offended God.
“In this desert to which I have condemned myself to avoid Hell, among these sombre rocks, where I have no other companions than the scorpions and the wild beasts, my spirit still bums my body, already dead before myself, with an impure fire; the Devil still dares to offer it pleasures to taste. I behold myself so humiliated by these temptations, the very thought of which makes me die with horror, and not knowing what further austerities I should exert upon my body to attach it to God, that I throw myself on the ground at the foot of my crucifix, bathing it with my tears, and when I can weep no more I pick up stones and beat my breast with them until the blood comes out of my mouth, begging for mercy until the Lord takes pity upon me.
“Is there anyone who can understand the misery of my state, desiring so ardently to please God and to love Him alone? Yet I see myself constantly prone to offend Him. What sorrow this is for me! Help me, my dear friend, by the aid of your prayers, so that I may be stronger in repelling the Devil, who has sworn my eternal damnation” (St. Jerome).
Sleeping Life Away in a False Peace
St. John Vianney warns us of a false peace that the devil gladly gives us: “These, my dear brethren, are the struggles to which God permits his great saints to be exposed. Alas, how we are to be pitied if we are not fiercely harried by the Devil! According to all appearances, we are the friends of the Devil: he lets us live in a false peace, he lulls us to sleep under the pretense that we have said some good prayers, given some alms, that we have done less harm than others. According to our standard, my dear brethren, if you were to ask, for instance, this pillar of the cabaret, if the Devil tempted him, he would answer quite simply that nothing was bothering him at all. Ask this young girl, this daughter of vanity, what her struggles are like, and she will tell you laughingly that she has none at all, that she does not even know what it is to be tempted” (St. John Vianney, Sermon on Temptation).
Danger of Being Oblivious to Temptation
St. John Vianney says: “The temptations we must fear most are those of which we are not conscious.” This is dangerous lot of those who are lukewarm or indifferent with regard to the Faith and their spiritual life. These people look upon a vast multitude of thoughts and actions as being normal and natural. They don’t even dream or imagine them to be sinful. Those who are lukewarm to a high degree will even rationalize away mortal sin. Woe to them when they awake from their dream on Judgment Day!
The Most Terrifying Temptation
The Curé of Ars continues: “There you see, my dear brethren, the most terrifying temptation of all, which is not to be tempted. There you see the state of those whom the Devil is preserving for Hell. If I dared, I would tell you that he takes good care not to tempt or torment such people about their past lives, lest their eyes be opened to their sins. The greatest of all evils is not to be tempted, because there are then grounds for believing that the Devil looks upon us as his property and that he is only awaiting our deaths to drag us into Hell. Nothing could be easier to understand.
“Just consider the Christian who is trying, even in a small way, to save his soul. Everything around him inclines him to evil; he can hardly lift his eyes without being tempted, in spite of all his prayers and penances. And yet a hardened sinner, who for the past twenty years has been wallowing in sin, will tell you that he is not tempted! So much the worse, my friend, so much the worse! That is precisely what should make you tremble—that you do not know what temptations are. For to say that you are not tempted is like saying the Devil no longer exists or that he has lost all his rage against Christian souls” (St. John Vianney, Sermon on Temptation).
Fr. Faber tells us that “Temptations are the raw material of glory.” That is why St. James says: “My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations!” (James 1:2), to which St. Peter will add: “You shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations: so that the trial of your Faith—much more precious than gold which is tried by the fire—may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7). While the Imitation of Christ chimes in, saying: “Yet temptations, though troublesome and severe, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed.” (Book 1, chapter 13).
We have already said that temptation is inevitable! Yet falling into temptation, or giving in to the temptation, is not inevitable. Yet we fall so many times! Why? Well, one reason is that we do not understand how the temptation works, or how the devil works the temptation. Let us therefore look at some of these things, so that, being forewarned, we are fore-armed.
The Devil’s Targets
Again, St. John Vianney, in his simple language, explains some the tactics used by the devil: “Whom does the devil pursue must? Perhaps you are thinking that it must be those who are tempted most; these would undoubtedly be the habitual drunkards, the scandalmongers, the immodest and shameless people who wallow in moral filth, and the miser, who hoards in all sorts of ways. No, my dear brethren no, it is not these people. On the contrary, the Devil despises them, or else he holds onto them, lest they not have a long enough time in which to do evil, because the longer they live, the more their bad example will drag souls into Hell.
“Indeed, if the Devil had pursued this lewd and shameless old fellow too closely, he might have shortened the latter’s life by fifteen or twenty years, and he would not then have destroyed the virginity of that young girl by plunging her into the unspeakable mire of his indecencies; he would not, again, have seduced that wife, nor would he have taught his evil lessons to that young man, who will perhaps continue to practice them until his death. If the Devil had prompted this thief to rob on every occasion, he would long since have ended on the scaffold and so he would not have induced his neighbor to follow his example. If the Devil had urged this drunkard to fill himself unceasingly with wine, he would long ago have perished in his debaucheries, instead of which, by living longer, he has made many others like himself. If the Devil had taken away the life of this musician, of that dance-hall owner, of this bar keeper, in some raid or scuffle, or on any other occasion, how many souls would there be who, without these people, would not be damned and who now will be? St. Augustine teaches us that the Devil does not bother these people very much; on the contrary, he despises them and spits upon them” (St. John Vianney, Sermon on Temptation).
The Prime Targets of the Devils
The Curé of Ars then asks the rhetorical question: “So, you will ask me, who then are the people most tempted? They are these, my friends; note them carefully. The people most tempted are those who are ready, with the grace of God, to sacrifice everything for the salvation of their poor souls, who renounce all those things which most people eagerly seek. It is not one devil only who tempts them, but millions seek to entrap them.
“We are told that St. Francis of Assisi and all his religious were gathered on an open plain, where they had built little huts of rushes. Seeing the extraordinary penances which were being practiced, St. Francis ordered that all instruments of penance should be brought out, whereupon his religious produced them in bundles. At this moment there was one young man, to whom God gave the grace to see his Guardian Angel. On the one side he saw all of these good religious, who could not satisfy their hunger for penance, and, on the other, his Guardian Angel allowed him to see a gathering of eighteen thousand devils, who were holding counsel to see in what way they could subvert these religious by temptation.
“One of the devils said: ‘You do not understand this at all! These religious are so humble! Ah, what wonderful virtue, so detached from themselves, so attached to God! They have a superior who leads them so well that it is impossible to succeed in winning them over. Let us wait until their superior is dead, and then we shall try to introduce among them young people without vocations, who will bring about a certain slackening of spirit, and in this way we shall gain them!’” (St. John Vianney, Sermon on Temptation).
Same Tactic For Families, Parishes & Schools
The very same can be said about families—if one or both parents are well-intentioned, fervent and well-disciplined, then the devil will seek to bring that family into contact with much weaker and dissolute families, with the hope that weaker and more lax family will spread the germs or virus of lukewarmness into the bosom of the better family. To help weaken future families, the devils desire the faithful children to marry lukewarm or sinful spouses—thereby watering-down the devotion and Faith―for as Our Lord says: “Every kingdom that is divided against itself shall be made desolate; and every city or house that is divided against itself shall not stand!” (Matthew 12:25)—hence the devils seek to divide in order to conquer.
The same applies to our parishes and schools. The devils do their utmost to see to it that authority is placed in the hands of the lukewarm or the Liberals (preferably both), for it is the superior that forms and shapes the inferiors. The devil knows that we are only as strong as our weakest link—so he seeks to remove any and all strict authorities and add as many weak links as possible in positions of authority―whether it be it as priests, religious or teachers. This will create division among the ranks, with the weaker parishioners or school-children—like water—seeking the point of least resistance and of greatest allowance or permissiveness. Once this split or division is created, the end is only a matter of time.
St. John Vianney continues: “A little further on, as St. Francis entered the town, he saw a devil, sitting by himself beside the gate into the town, whose task was to tempt all of those who were inside. This saint asked his Guardian Angel why it was that, in order to tempt this group of religious, there had been so many thousands of devils, while for a whole town there was but one—and that one sitting down. His good Angel told him that the people of the town had not the same need of temptations, that they had enough bad in themselves, while the religious were doing good, despite all the traps which the Devil could lay for them.”
Sinners Seem to Have it Easy!
Psalm 72 speaks of sentiments that we may all have experience or perhaps still encounter from time to time. It speaks of bewilderment when looking at the lives of sinners—who seem to be without a care in the world—and discourages the Christian soul by causing it to question whether its efforts at trying to be good and resisting temptation are worthwhile.
“But, as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped, because I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they suffer no pain; their bodies are healthy and sleek. They are free of the burdens of life; they are not afflicted like others. Thus pride adorns them as a necklace; violence clothes them as a robe. Out of such blindness comes sin; evil thoughts flood their hearts. They scoff and spout their malice; from on high they utter threats. They set their mouths against the heavens, their tongues roam the Earth.
“So my people turn to them and drink deeply of their words. They say, ‘Does God really know?’ … ‘Does the Most High have any knowledge?’ Such, then, are the wicked, always carefree, increasing their wealth. Is it in vain that I have kept my heart pure, washed my hands in innocence? For I am afflicted day after day, chastised every morning. Had I thought, ‘I will speak as they do,’ I would have betrayed this generation of Your children” (Psalm 72).
Then the Psalmist passes into the second phase of the meditation, and finally solves the mystery, removes the bewilderment and answers his own question: “Though I tried to understand all this, it was too difficult for me, until I entered the sanctuary of God and came to understand their end. You set them, indeed, on a slippery road; You hurl them down to ruin. How suddenly they are devastated; utterly undone by disaster! They are like a dream after waking, Lord, dismissed like shadows when You arise. Since my heart was embittered and my soul deeply wounded, I was stupid and could not understand; I was like a brute beast in your presence. Yet I am always with You; You take hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You guide me, and at the end receive me with honor. Whom else have I in the heavens? None beside You delights me on Earth. Though my flesh and my heart fail, God is the rock of my heart, my portion forever. But those who are far from you perish; You destroy those unfaithful to You” (Psalm 72).
Sinners Left in Peace―the Job is Already Done
St. John Vianney looks at it from this perspective: “Why is it, my dear brethren, that when someone gives no thought at all to saving his soul, when he is living in sin, he is not tempted in the slightest, but that as soon as he wants to change his life, in other words, as soon as the desire to give his life to God comes to him, all Hell falls upon him?
“Listen to what St. Augustine has to say: ‘Look at the way,’ he tells us, ‘in which the Devil behaves towards the sinner. He acts like a jailer who has a great many prisoners locked up in his prison but who, because he has the key in his pocket, is quite happy to leave them, secure in the knowledge that they cannot get out. This is his way of dealing with the sinner who does not consider the possibility of leaving his sin behind. He does not go to the trouble of tempting him. He looks upon this as time wasted, because, not only is the sinner not thinking of leaving him, but the Devil does not desire to multiply his chains. It would be pointless, therefore, to tempt him. He allows him to live in peace―if, indeed, it is possible to live in peace when one is in sin! He hides the sinner’s state of soul from the sinner as much as is possible until death, when he then tries to paint a picture of his life, so terrifying, as to plunge him into despair. But with anyone who has made up his mind to change his life, to give himself up to God, that is another thing altogether.’” (St. John Vianney, Sermon on Temptation).
Some Are Tempted More, Some Less
The frequency, as well as the violence of temptations, vary greatly. Some persons are often and violently tempted; others are tempted but rarely and without being deeply stirred. There are many causes that account for such diversity. In his book, The Spiritual Life, Fr. Tanquerey lists three chief causes or reasons for the varying degrees of frequency and violence of temptations.
(a) First of all, there are temperament and character. Some persons are extremely passionate and at the same time weak of will; often tempted, they are upset by temptation. Others are well‑balanced and energetic; seldom tempted, they keep their peace in the midst of temptation.
(b) Education accounts for other differences: there are souls who have been reared in the fear and love of God, in the habitual fulfillment of stern duty, and who have almost invariably received none but good example. Others have been brought up in the love of pleasure, in the dread of any kind of suffering, and have seen too many examples of worldliness and sensuality. It is evident that the latter will be more violently tempted than the former.
(c) God’s Providential designs must also be taken into account. There are souls whom He destines for a holy calling and whose purity He shelters with a jealous care. There are others whom He likewise destines to sanctity, but whom He would have pass through severe tests in order to ground them in virtue. Lastly, others there are whom He does not destine to such a high vocation, and who will be more or less frequently tempted, but never beyond their strength. (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
The Devil Looks to the Future
You may see, too, the struggle which St. Jerome endured when he desired to give himself to God and when he had the thought of visiting the Holy Land. When he was in Rome, he conceived a new desire to work for his salvation. Leaving Rome, he buried himself in a fearsome desert, to give himself over to everything with which his love of God could inspire him. Then the Devil, who foresaw how greatly his conversion would affect others, seemed to burst with fury and despair.
Sinner Changes Life—The Devil Changes Tactics
When a sinner tries to change his life, suddenly the devil comes to life! While St. Augustine lived in sin and evil, he was not aware of anything by which he was tempted. He believed himself to be at peace, as he tells us himself. But from the moment that he desired to turn his back upon the Devil, he had to struggle with him, even to the point of losing his breath in the fight. And that lasted for five years! He wept the most bitter of tears and employed the most austere of penances: “I argued with him,” he says, “in my chains. One day I thought myself victorious, the next I was prostrate on the earth again. This cruel and stubborn war went on for five years! However, God gave me the grace to be victorious over my enemy!”
When the Good Try to Be Better—They’d Better Watch Out
St. John Vianney states: “The first temptation, my dear brethren, which the Devil tries on anyone who has begun to serve God better is in the matter of human respect. He will no longer dare to be seen around; he will hide himself from those with whom, until now, he had been mixing and pleasure seeking. If he should be told that he has changed a lot, he will be ashamed of it! Worrying about what people are going to say about him, is continually in his mind, to the extent that he no longer has enough courage to do good before other people. If the Devil cannot get him back through human respect, he will induce an extraordinary fear to possess him, so that his confessions are not good, that his confessor does not understand him, that whatever he does will be all in vain, that he will be damned just the same, that he will achieve the same result in the end by letting everything slide as by continuing to fight, because the occasions of sin will prove too many for him” (St. John Vianney, Sermon on Temptation).
There was not a single temptation that the devil spared St. Jerome after he chose to better himself spiritually. This is what St. Jerome wrote to one of his friends concerning his temptations: “My dear friend, I wish to confide in you about my affliction and the state to which the Devil seeks to reduce me. How many times in this vast solitude, which the heat of the sun makes insupportable, how many times the pleasures of Rome have come to assail me! The sorrow and the bitterness with which my soul is filled cause me, night and day, to shed floods of tears. I proceed to hide myself in the most isolated places to struggle with my temptations and there to weep for my sins. My body is all disfigured and covered with a rough hair shirt. I have no other bed than the naked ground and my only food is coarse roots and water, even in my illnesses. In spite of all these rigors, my body still experiences thoughts of the squalid pleasures with which Rome is poisoned; my spirit finds itself in the midst of those pleasant companionships in which I so greatly offended God.
“In this desert to which I have condemned myself to avoid Hell, among these sombre rocks, where I have no other companions than the scorpions and the wild beasts, my spirit still bums my body, already dead before myself, with an impure fire; the Devil still dares to offer it pleasures to taste. I behold myself so humiliated by these temptations, the very thought of which makes me die with horror, and not knowing what further austerities I should exert upon my body to attach it to God, that I throw myself on the ground at the foot of my crucifix, bathing it with my tears, and when I can weep no more I pick up stones and beat my breast with them until the blood comes out of my mouth, begging for mercy until the Lord takes pity upon me.
“Is there anyone who can understand the misery of my state, desiring so ardently to please God and to love Him alone? Yet I see myself constantly prone to offend Him. What sorrow this is for me! Help me, my dear friend, by the aid of your prayers, so that I may be stronger in repelling the Devil, who has sworn my eternal damnation” (St. Jerome).
Sleeping Life Away in a False Peace
St. John Vianney warns us of a false peace that the devil gladly gives us: “These, my dear brethren, are the struggles to which God permits his great saints to be exposed. Alas, how we are to be pitied if we are not fiercely harried by the Devil! According to all appearances, we are the friends of the Devil: he lets us live in a false peace, he lulls us to sleep under the pretense that we have said some good prayers, given some alms, that we have done less harm than others. According to our standard, my dear brethren, if you were to ask, for instance, this pillar of the cabaret, if the Devil tempted him, he would answer quite simply that nothing was bothering him at all. Ask this young girl, this daughter of vanity, what her struggles are like, and she will tell you laughingly that she has none at all, that she does not even know what it is to be tempted” (St. John Vianney, Sermon on Temptation).
Danger of Being Oblivious to Temptation
St. John Vianney says: “The temptations we must fear most are those of which we are not conscious.” This is dangerous lot of those who are lukewarm or indifferent with regard to the Faith and their spiritual life. These people look upon a vast multitude of thoughts and actions as being normal and natural. They don’t even dream or imagine them to be sinful. Those who are lukewarm to a high degree will even rationalize away mortal sin. Woe to them when they awake from their dream on Judgment Day!
The Most Terrifying Temptation
The Curé of Ars continues: “There you see, my dear brethren, the most terrifying temptation of all, which is not to be tempted. There you see the state of those whom the Devil is preserving for Hell. If I dared, I would tell you that he takes good care not to tempt or torment such people about their past lives, lest their eyes be opened to their sins. The greatest of all evils is not to be tempted, because there are then grounds for believing that the Devil looks upon us as his property and that he is only awaiting our deaths to drag us into Hell. Nothing could be easier to understand.
“Just consider the Christian who is trying, even in a small way, to save his soul. Everything around him inclines him to evil; he can hardly lift his eyes without being tempted, in spite of all his prayers and penances. And yet a hardened sinner, who for the past twenty years has been wallowing in sin, will tell you that he is not tempted! So much the worse, my friend, so much the worse! That is precisely what should make you tremble—that you do not know what temptations are. For to say that you are not tempted is like saying the Devil no longer exists or that he has lost all his rage against Christian souls” (St. John Vianney, Sermon on Temptation).
Fr. Faber tells us that “Temptations are the raw material of glory.” That is why St. James says: “My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations!” (James 1:2), to which St. Peter will add: “You shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations: so that the trial of your Faith—much more precious than gold which is tried by the fire—may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7). While the Imitation of Christ chimes in, saying: “Yet temptations, though troublesome and severe, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed.” (Book 1, chapter 13).
Article 6
Monday after the 1st Sunday of Lent, February 23rd
Temptation is Good for You―But Don’t Go Looking for It
Monday after the 1st Sunday of Lent, February 23rd
Temptation is Good for You―But Don’t Go Looking for It
Temptation is Good for You!
It might shock some people to hear that temptation is good for you―yet that is the truth. Temptation is a test―hence spiritual writers speak of temptation trying us and proving us. As soon as we go to school we are confronted with evaluations of various kinds: Spelling tests, Math tests, English tests, History tests, Physical Education skills tests, I.Q. tests. When we have our annual physical exam, we have blood tests and stress tests and breathing tests. In certain U.S. locations automobiles are subjected to various obligatory annual tests. If you want to permission to drive a car on the roads, then you have to pass the driving test. Human life is full of tests. What are they for? Obviously they are necessary in order to know something that otherwise would be hidden or unknown. Most people do not like tests and examinations―they are often stressed by them. Similarly, we are not meant to love temptation, but we should see the good that can come from successfully overcoming temptation.
We should not seek out temptations―“Watch and pray so that you do not enter into temptation! For the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak!” (Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38). Yet we should see the benefit and the necessity for the examinations, tests and trials that temptations bring. : “When you come to the service of God, prepare your soul for temptation!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:1). “Because you were acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove you!” (Tobias 12:13). We could compare temptation to war. There are, of course, wars that are lawful and just; and wars that are not lawful but unjust. It would not be evil to fight a lawful and just war―yet we would suffer evil if we were lose that war. Temptation―of itself―is not evil. It is giving in to the temptation that is evil.
Our Lord Himself accepted temptations and overcame them. “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1). It was divinely providential that Christ allowed Himself to be tempted by the devil at the beginning of His public ministry. He is teaching us one of the most important lessons we need to learn in life. If He, the living God in human form, was tempted by the evil spirit, then we must expect to be tempted as well. In order to imitate Christ, we must resist the devil as Christ, Himself, resisted the devil.
St. Paul also speaks of being severely tempted by the devil, to the point where he begged the Lord to remove those temptations from him―but he was told that the grace of God was sufficient for him to cope: “There was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me―for which thing I begged the Lord three times, that it might depart from me! And He said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee!’” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).
All the saints were greatly tempted. Some saints experienced temptations against the Faith; others against Hope or Charity; others against Chastity; some temptations lasted for years.
● St. Anthony the Great was tormented by demons in the Egyptian desert with erotic visions.
● St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi was severely tempted to commit suicide.
● St. Francis of Assisi was tormented by suggestions of impurity.
● St. Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, was tempted to blaspheme.
● St. Francis of Sales was tempted to despair.
● St. Catherine of Siena suffered intense sexual temptations
● St. John Vianney endured 35 years of physical and psychological diabolical attacks.
● St. Thérèse of Lisieux was tempted by paralyzing doubts about her religious vocation just before her profession.
● St. Gemma Galgani was tempted to despair.
● St. Padre Pio was tempted by demons that came as nude and provocative young girls, performing obscene dances.
God Does Not Tempt
“God tempts no man” (James 1:13). He simply permits man to be tempted. It is the devil, with God’s permission, who hammers at you when you are tempted. “Our wrestling is against the spirits of wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). On Earth we are surrounded by robbers; many of us are overcome and wounded by them. The conflict with the spirit of evil is a more critical struggle; it is carried on in hidden manner; against a more powerful adversary; one who spares no pains and knows no shame; who, when he is repulsed, returns all the more defiantly to the attack. For six thousand years the devil has tempted mankind―such long practice has made him perfect. He excites within us concupiscence of the flesh, or concupiscence of the eyes, or the pride of life (1 John 2:16). In this threefold manner he tempted Our Lord.
Many temptations come upon a man through no fault of his own (for example Job); some are the result of culpable negligence (for example Eve). The evil enemy as a rule attacks our weak point, our affection for persons, places and things. Like a hunter or fowler, he attracts the birds to his net by offering them the food they like best. Physical infirmities give the devil more power over us―everyone knows how the sick tend to be fretful, impatient and exacting―and the devil plays upon that and exacerbates that. At other times the devil craftily transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14); that is, he deceives us by assuming an appearance of goodness, godliness, kindness, likeableness and piety. His tricks and artifices prove his weakness―for he would not resort to them if he was powerful enough to do without them. Thus we can see that the devil’s temptation of human beings is actually an indication of his weakness, and not at all of his strength.
The Devil Wants to Know
St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that the immediate end or purpose of temptation is knowledge. When the devil tempts or tests us, it is in order for him to know what he otherwise would not know. Now, what could that be? Certainly he knows that we are weak and fallen―after all, it was his tempting that led our first parents to sin. So our weakness and passions are not something he needs to be informed about. He knows that we have in us the seeds of the seven capital sins of pride, anger, envy, greediness, lust, gluttony, and laziness. He doesn’t need to check out whether we are subject to these defects and the passions that lead to them and flow from them. He does not get any special delight in seeing us enjoy some sinful pleasure; if anything, this annoys him, since he hates our pleasures, which, even if we misuse them, still come from God and show that in some way we want to be happy. He wants none of that for himself or anyone else.
The devil tempts us because he is desperate. As Our Lord says, “He knows his time is short” and he is eager to drag as many as possible into Hell with him and his other cohorts before the final judgment. The one thing he cannot know for sure is the actual condition of a soul―whether the soul is in God’s grace. He can see the external actions of a person, he can even see the contents of his imagination and his feelings, but he cannot see the true condition of the human soul before God. This means that he just is looking for evidence that the particular soul will belong to him forever—but he cannot know for sure, ever. Therefore he is like a desperate person who wants affirmation and certitude without ever being certain. Such a person is always reaching out for evidence that what he hopes for will be true.
Trust in God―Not Yourself
So, when we are tempted, we should be aware that there is a reason for our temptation that has nothing directly to do with us. The Evil One simply wants to accumulate evidence for his own bitter consolation that we will belong to him in his insane, envious contest with the God Who made us. This shows us that even more important than resisting temptation (and resisting temptation is important if we truly love God) is a constant confidence in God’s power and mercy. As the Lord said to St. Paul when he asked to be delivered from his terrible temptations: “My grace is sufficient for thee!” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). We have to think to ourselves as we pray, “Even should the devil tempt me and I fail, I will still turn to God for pardon and mercy. I shall make a good confession and a new start, even if I have to do it again and again.”
This is the way we do battle as Our Lord taught us. The devil could find none of the usual evidence in Christ that would indicate that He would sin. This was a Man unlike any he had encountered before Adam before the fall. He was already unnerved by Christ’s Mother, Mary, and now he needed to know just who this Man he might be. Our Lord gave him no information. The devil would have known that Christ was a mere man, if the Lord had given in to temptation―indeed it would be clear then that Jesus was not the Lord at all, because He would sinned by giving in to the devil’s temptations. But the Savior did not satisfy the devil’s curiosity, and the Gospels tell us the devil went away to await another opportunity. Thus we should take great confidence from Our Lord’s own temptation. We are tempted in Him and not by Him. He permits the devil to tempt us, and we should say to ourselves “I belong to Christ Who was also tempted, and Christ knows my destiny and calls me to eternal life in Him, so I am not afraid of this temptation, but put all my trust in Him for my perseverance!”
Let us now see how some of the saints manifested this trust and reliance upon God in their struggles with temptation and battles with the devil.
St. Anthony the Great
Known as the father of monasticism, St. Anthony the Great (3rd–4th century) was inspired by the Gospels to sell all his possessions and live a life of solitude in the Egyptian desert. He established for himself a quiet hermitage away from the world, but he wasn't able to completely escape from his most persistent enemy at whose hands Anthony endured fierce demonic attacks. The devil, knowing that St. Anthony was a very holy man and close to God, threw everything he had against him. If the devil couldn't turn Anthony away from God through the riches of the world, he would try to attack him both physically and spiritually. St. Athanasius records several of these encounters in his Life of St. Anthony.
After failing to tempt him with the lure of wealth, the devil attacked the young man, disturbing him by night and harassing him by day, so that even the onlookers saw the struggle which was going on between them. After each temptation, however, St. Anthony would fortify his body with faith, prayers, and fasting. Frustrated by this, the devil tried to confront Anthony by taking on the shape of a boy and conversing with him. Anthony replied, “You are very despicable then, for you are black-hearted and weak as a child. Henceforth I shall have no trouble from you, ‘for the Lord is my helper, and I shall look down on mine enemies!’”
For a time the devil left Anthony alone, but returned again to test him, this time with a multitude of demons. In The Life of St. Anthony, a biography written by St. Athanasius, it says that when people would visit St. Anthony at his desert home, they often heard terrifying noises, and, as it were, the clash of arms. At night they saw the mountain become full of wild beasts, surrounding his dwelling as he prayed, and Anthony fighting as though against visible beings and praying against them.
One night, St. Anthony decided to spend a night alone in a large tomb. A huge group of demons descended upon him and attacked his body. The demons brutally beat him in a tomb until he lay nearly dead. The devil had so cut him with lashes that he lay on the ground speechless from the excessive pain. For he affirmed that the torture had been so excessive that no blows inflicted by man could ever have caused him such torment.
The next day, a friend bringing him supplies found him and brought him back to the nearby village. But that evening, he regained consciousness and asked for the friend to carry him back to the tomb. After his friend shut him back in the tomb, St. Anthony called out to the devil: “Here I am again! I will not flee from your lashes! Even if you inflict more, nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ!” The demons returned in monstrous forms—lions, bulls, serpents, and wolves. St. Athanasius describes what happened next:
“In the night they made such a din that the whole of that place seemed to be shaken by an earthquake, and the demons as if breaking the four walls of the dwelling seemed to enter through them, coming in the likeness of beasts and creeping things. And the place was on a sudden filled with the forms of lions, bears, leopards, bulls, serpents, asps, scorpions, and wolves, and each of them was moving according to his nature. The lion was roaring, wishing to attack, the bull seeming to toss with its horns, the serpent writhing but unable to approach, and the wolf as it rushed on was restrained; altogether the noises of the apparitions, with their angry ragings, were dreadful.”
But St. Anthony rebuked them: “If you had power, it would have sufficed had one of you come! Since you are weak, you come and attempt to terrify me by numbers―and a proof of your weakness is that you take the shapes of brute beasts. If you are able, and have received power against me, then delay not to attack; but if you are unable, why trouble me in vain? For Faith in Our Lord is a seal and a wall of safety to us.” Suddenly, a bright heavenly light filled the tomb. The demons vanished and his pain ceased. Realizing that the Lord had saved him, he prayed: “Where were you, Lord? Why did you not appear at the beginning to make my pains to cease?” And the Lord replied to him: “Anthony, I was here all the time― watching your fight! Since you have endured, and have not been beaten, I will always be your help, and will make your name known everywhere!” St. Athanasius writes that “having heard this, Anthony arose and prayed, and received such strength that he perceived that he had more power in his body than formerly. And he was then about thirty-five years old.”
After each encounter with the devil Anthony was strengthened in his Faith and God came to his aid. In teaching his many disciples, St. Anthony taught them how to defeat the demons: “Sign yourselves therefore with the cross, and depart boldly, and let these make sport for themselves!” And elsewhere he said to them: "We need not fear their suggestions, for by prayer, fasting, and Faith in the Lord, their attacks immediately fail."
In whatever temptations we may encounter, Anthony teaches us that Faith, prayer, fasting, and the Sign of the Cross are enough to defeat the snares of the Evil One. The devil may appear powerful, but the saints again and again prove that the devil is not that powerful and is no match for those who put their trust in God.
St. Teresa of Avila
St. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582), the Spanish mystic and Doctor of the Church, founded a new Carmelite convent with a strict rule that gave birth to similar convents and brought considerable reform to the Carmelite Order. The Enemy’s opposition to her work was at times severe―as is usual when reforms take place―because many were comfortable with a more lax rule and felt threatened by the new movement.
St. Teresa regularly came in contact with the devil in her prayers and meditations. She writes: “An abominable form, his mouth was horrible. Out of his body there seemed to be coming a great flame, which cast no shadow.” She once saw two hideous devils whose horns were around a priest’s throat as he celebrated Mass. Though such visual manifestations were rare, she often sensed evil without seeing it in a visible form. “I have seldom seen him in bodily shape,” she writes, “but I have often seen him without any form, as in the kind of vision I have described, in which no form is seen but the object is known to be there.”
Her weapons were humility, prayer, and especially holy water, which she said drove demons away immediately. “There is nothing the devils flee from more,” she wrote, “than holy water.”
St. Teresa wrote several works that have become spiritual classics―among these classics was The Interior Castle. It was inspired by the vision God gave her of a most beautiful crystal globe like a castle that was illuminated by Christ the King, who was enthroned at the center of the fortress in the greatest splendor. But outside the castle all was darkness, with toads, vipers, and other poisonous vermin. Then, however, the vision took a disturbing turn. While Teresa was admiring the beauty that God gives to souls, the light suddenly disappeared and, although the King of Glory did not leave the castle, the crystal was covered with darkness and was left as ugly as coal and with an unbearable stench, and the poisonous creatures outside the wall were able to get into the castle. Such was the state of a soul in sin. In many ways, Teresa’s personal mission was that of the soldier assigned to guard that interior castle—both her own and those of the women under her care—from the diabolical forces outside.
St. Alphonsus Rodriguez
St. Alphonsus Rodriguez (1533- 1617) is the patron saint of porters and ushers. Born in Segovia, Spain, in 1533, Alphonsus was the son of a wool merchant. When St. Peter Faber, one of the original Jesuits, visited the city to preach, the Rodríguez family provided hospitality to the Jesuit. Faber prepared the young Rodríguez for his First Communion. At the age of twelve, Rodríguez was sent to the new Jesuit college at Alcalá, but left two years later, aged 23, to help his mother run the family business when his father died. At the age of 26, he married María Suarez, a woman of his own station, with whom he had three children. Within the space of three years, his wife, daughter, and mother died; meanwhile, business was poor. At the age of 31, his wife had died as did two of their children. Alphonsus stepped back and reassessed his life. From then on, Rodriguez began a life of prayer, meditation and mortification, separated from the world around him. He sold the business, and with his young son, moved into his sister’s home. On the death of his third child a few years later, his thoughts turned to life in some religious order. Alphonsus, almost 40 by then, sought to join the Jesuits. He was not helped by his poor education. At the age of 39 he attempted to make up this deficiency by following the course at the College of Barcelona, but without success. His austerities had also undermined his health. After considerable delay he was finally admitted into the Society of Jesus as a lay brother in 1571, at the age of 40. He applied twice before being admitted The Jesuit provincial is supposed to have said that if Alphonsus was not qualified to become a brother or a priest, he could enter to become a saint.
For 45 years he served as a humble lowly doorkeeper at the Jesuits’ college in Majorca. When not at his post, he was almost always at prayer, though he often encountered difficulties and temptations. After having received great blessings, he was attacked, both by violent temptations and by physical assaults, starting around the age of 50 and continuing for seven years. At times, he was so oppressed, and pursued so closely, that it was impossible to describe his suffering. Sometimes, he heard demonic conversations, and witnessed demons blaspheming against God. Other times, he was at the point of dying from suffocation, because the evil spirits were squeezing his throat. Generally, these events started at midnight, while he was asleep. St. Alphonsus would be awakened by the great din. Then, the demons would begin to dance around him, jump on top of him, and grab him by the arm to try to force him to do evil, without him being able to get rid of them. Those were years of great suffering.
These saints remind us that while demonic attacks are real, faith and perseverance in Christ always triumph. Each of them proved that no power of darkness can overcome a soul united with Jesus.
St. Padre Pio
St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina (1887-1968) was a 20th-century stigmatist and miracle-working Capuchin priest, who lived and died in Italy and was constantly harassed by demons. Despite his health problems, which had inescapably made his studies more difficult, Padre Pio was eventually ordained a priest in August of 1910, at the age of twenty-three. Holy cards were distributed to those who attended the ordination, with a prayer the young priest had written: “With Thee, may I be for the world the way, the truth, and the life, and through Thee, a holy priest, a perfect victim.”
Four weeks after his ordination, Padre Pio received for the first time a form of the stigmata, the wounds of Christ appearing on his own body. After a short time, they became invisible, but he could still feel the pain. Our Lord was providing him a seal of his sacrifice as a victim soul, a seal that would later become visible again.
Meanwhile, Satan’s assaults continued and intensified. The great and constant struggle of Padre Pio’s life was with those enemies of God and human souls, the devils who tried to capture his soul. Even in his youth, St. Padre Pio would enjoy incredible celestial visions, but also suffer demonic attacks.
Satan would even sometimes attack St. Padre Pio physically. He describes this in one letter he wrote to a priest confidant: “These devils don’t stop striking me, even making me fall down from the bed. They even tear off my shirt to beat me! But now they do not frighten me anymore. Jesus loves me, He often lifts me and places me back on the bed.”
Nevertheless, if we are close to the Lord, we should have no fear of demons. The saint suffered especially from temptations to impurity, fears of unconfessed sins, and despair about his salvation. Nevertheless, Our Lord provided consolations as well. The priest once wrote to his spiritual director: “All the ugly fantasies that the Devil introduces to my mind vanish when I abandon myself to the arms of Jesus. I suffer immensely, but it is a grief that does me good.” He spoke also of an inexplicable spiritual joy that supported him in his trials. He found he could repel the malicious attacks of the Enemy’s temptations more and more easily as he offered himself to God. Soon that gift to Our Lord took on a new meaning, three months after his ordination. With his spiritual director’s permission, he made an explicit offering up of his life as a victim for poor sinners and for souls in Purgatory. He placed himself on the Cross with Christ as a sacrifice to the Father in union with the Son.
According to Fr. Gabriele Amorth (1925-2016), a close friend of St. Padre Pio and also chief exorcist of Rome for several decades: “Padre Pio was much loved, but he also suffered the attacks of some formidable enemies. I am not speaking of his human enemies, who may have been led astray by falsehoods, prejudice or misunderstanding. Padre Pio’s real enemies were the demons who besieged him. Contrary to some reports, Padre Pio always respected and esteemed his ecclesiastical superiors, and he always obeyed them, often at the cost of great suffering to himself. The great and constant struggle of Padre Pio’s life was with those enemies of God and human souls, the devils who tried to capture his soul.”
When did that struggle begin? Was it a physical struggle or a matter of internal visions? Fr. Amorth explains: “The devil is always pure spirit, but in order to reveal himself he takes on aspects which can be most provocative and harmful: fear, seduction, deception. From his childhood, Padre Pio enjoyed celestial visions, but he also experienced terrible diabolical presences. These tormented him in the most frightful forms. They occasionally scourged him with heavy chains, leaving him bruised and bleeding. Sometimes they appeared as gruesome animals. Many biographies recount Padre Pio’s encounters with the demons. Padre Pio himself described many of his encounters with devils. His accounts to his spiritual director in 1911 in the monastery of Venafro are particularly vivid. That was the first time Padre Pio revealed his rich interior life, both his ecstatic visions and his diabolical torments.
“The devil would appear to him as an ugly black cat, or in the shape of a truly repugnant animal. The obvious intent was to fill him with terror. Other times demons came as young girls, nude and provocative, performing obscene dances, to test the young priest’s chastity. But Padre Pio sensed his greatest danger when the devil tried to deceive him by taking on the form of one of his superiors (his provincial superior or his spiritual director) or in a sacred form (the Lord, the Virgin, or St. Francis). He learned a “rule of thumb,” which we also find in the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, and which he taught some of his spiritual followers. He noticed a certain timidity when the Virgin or the Lord first appeared, followed by a sense of peace when the vision departed. On the other hand, a devil in sacred form provoked an immediate feeling of joy and attraction, replaced afterwards by remorse and sadness.
“He could also clearly distinguish if a person’s soul was possessed by Satan. He would then communicate the danger to that person alone. Crucial moments sometimes occurred in the confessional. During confession, he sometimes made a gesture as if to dispel something. Perhaps he was asking the Lord to liberate the penitent from a temptation or evil habit. St. Alphonsus Liguori, who was a master in such situations, suggested that in certain cases confessors could execute a mental mini-exorcism, before even commencing the confession. Many of Padre Pio’s most difficult struggles with demons came about as he tried to rescue souls from diabolical possession, whether in the confessional or when he was praying for one of his spiritual followers. Pio never performed official exorcisms. He did, however, have an extraordinary discernment for souls in danger. Many persons allegedly possessed by demons were brought before Padre Pio, and his attitude changed with each different case. Let us say he could tell if the possessed was susceptible to liberation or not.
“Once Padre Pio liberated a youth by simply pronouncing the words “Begone.” But such sudden liberations were extremely rare. Another time Don Faustino Negrini accompanied a young person named Agnese Salamoni, who had been cursed for being the “model girl of the parish” and seized by a sudden diabolical possession. Padre Pio said a simple blessing over her, and that seemed to bear fruit. Don Faustino himself completed the liberation, after 13 years of prayer! It seems that Padre Pio sensed that her time for liberation had not yet come.” (Testimony of Fr. Gabriele Amorth about St. Padre Pio).
St. Gemma Galgani
The young Italian mystic St. Gemma Galgani (1878–1903) suffered frequent attacks from the devil, especially after Holy Communion. In a letter to a priest, she wrote: “During the last two days Jesus has been telling me after Holy Communion: ‘My daughter, the devil will soon wage a great war against you!’ These words I hear in my heart continuously. Please pray for me!” Jesus warned her that the devil would wage war against her, and soon she endured severe headaches, sleepless nights, and violent assaults. Once, while writing, the devil tore the paper and dragged her by the hair so that it came off in his brutal claws. Despite the suffering, she joked about his ugliness: “If you had seen him run away making faces, you would have laughed! He is so ugly! But Jesus told me not to fear him.”
She quickly realized that prayer was the best defense. In response, Satan gave her violent headaches in order to make sleeping difficult for her. Her fatigue then made sleeping more difficult ― but she persevered. She writes: “How many efforts does not that wretch make to make it impossible for me to pray! Yesterday evening he tried to kill me, and would have succeeded if Jesus had not come quickly to my aid. I was terrified and kept the image of Jesus in my mind!”
At one point, while she was writing a letter, the devil snatched the pen from her hand and tore up the paper then dragged her from the table, seizing her by the hair with such violence that it came off in his brutal claws. She describes another attack in one of her writings:
“The demon came before me as a giant of great height and kept saying to me: ‘For you there is no more hope of salvation. You are in my hands!’ I replied that God is merciful and therefore I fear nothing. Then, in a rage, giving me a hard blow on the head, he said ‘Accursed be you!’ ― and then he disappeared. I then went to my room to rest, and there I found him. He began again to strike me with a knotted rope, and wanted me to listen to him while he suggested wickedness. I said no, and he struck me even harder, knocking my head violently against the ground. At a certain point, it came to my mind to invoke Jesus’ Father: ‘Eternal Father, through the most Precious Blood of Jesus, free me!’ I then don’t quite know what happened. That contemptible beast dragged me from my bed and threw me, hitting my head against the floor with such force that it pains me still. I became senseless and remained lying there until I came to myself a long time afterwards. Jesus be thanked!”
Nevertheless, she always kept her Faith and trust in Jesus. God, in order to purify His elect and render them victims of expiation for themselves and for others, makes use even of the demons, who because of their hatred of souls and their increased intelligence become very profitable instruments to the attainment of His ends.
Gemma soon learned that the best way to defend herself against the demons and to reach God’s ends is through prayer, which she practiced with all the ardor of her soul. The enemy then tried to prevent it. To weary her, he would try to upset her temperament; he caused her violent headaches so that she might be obliged to go to bed, rather than remain in prayer; and strove in numerous other ways to distract her from this holy exercise. “Oh” she once said, “What torment this gives me, not to be able to pray! What fatigue it costs me! How many efforts does not that wretch make to make it impossible for me to pray! Yesterday evening he tried to kill me, and would have succeeded if Jesus had not come quickly to my aid! I was terrified and kept the image of Jesus in my mind, but I could not pronounce His Name!”
At other times, he attacked her differently. “What are you doing?” he said, blaspheming, “How stupid you are to pray to that malefactor [referring to Jesus]. Look at the harm He does to you, keeping you nailed to the Cross with Himself! How then can you care for Him, for Him whom you don’t even know, who makes all who love Him suffer?” But these and all his other evil suggestions were as dust before the wind, and only served to afflict her at hearing her Jesus outraged by such blasphemies.
In the midst of so much suffering, the servant of God found comfort in the direction and advice of her spiritual director. This the wicked enemy could not bear, and tried to turn her away from her spiritual guide. He depicted her director as an ignorant, fanatical, deluded man and with so many arguments strove to convince and terrify her that the poor child thought herself all but lost. Hence on one occasion she wrote: “For some days, the devil has pursued me in every guise and way, and has done all in his power against me. This monster keeps on redoubling all his efforts to ruin me and tries to deprive me of whomever directs or advises me. But even should this happen, I am not afraid!” Seeing that with all his efforts he could not succeed in shaking her confidence in her director, he resorted to acts of violence.
He carried this audacity so far as to feign to be a priest to whom Gemma used to make her confessions. She had gone one day to Church, and, while preparing herself to make her confession, she saw that the priest was already in the confessional, at which she momentarily wondered and was puzzled, not having seen him pass and enter. At the same time she felt very much disturbed in spirit, as generally happened when in the presence of the evil one. She entered the confessional, however, and began her confession as usual. The voice and ways were indeed those of the confessor, but his talk was foul and scandalous, accompanied by improper gestures. “My God!” she exclaimed, “What has happened?” At such a sight and at such words Gemma trembled, and, with her presence of mind returning, she hurriedly left the confessional, and saw as she did so that the pretended “confessor” had disappeared. It was the devil, who by his coarse and fiendish ways had sought to deceive her, or at least make her lose all confidence in the minister of God.
Failing in this attempt, the enemy made another. He appeared to Gemma in the form of an angel, resplendent with light, insinuating himself with the most subtle cunning, so as to throw her off her guard. Then as with Eve in the Garden of Eden, he depicted things in the falsest colors: “Look” he said “I can make you happy if only you will swear to obey me!” Gemma, who this time did not feel in her soul the usual disturbance indicating the presence of the demon, stood listening in her simplicity. But God came to her aid. After the first wicked proposal, her eyes were opened. She stood up exclaiming: “My God! Mary Immaculate!” Make me die rather than do this!” and with these words she rushed to the feigned “angel” and spat in his face. At the same moment she saw him vanish in the form of fire.
Another time Gemma writes: “Today I thought I was to be entirely free from that nauseous animal, and instead he has knocked me about greatly. I had gone to bed with the full intention of sleeping, but it turned out otherwise. He began to beat me with such blows that I feared I would die. He was in the shape of a big black dog, and he put his “paws” on my shoulders, hurting me greatly. I felt it so much in all my bones that I thought that they were broken. Also, when I was taking holy water he wrenched my arm so violently that I fell to the floor from the pain. The bone was dislocated, but went back into place because Jesus touched it for me, and all was remedied”. Knowing her mission as soul victim, the Devil once said to her: “You can pray for yourself, but if you pray for others, I will make you pay dearly for it”.
In her Diary Gemma writes: “The devil, in the form of a great black dog, put his paws upon my shoulders, making every bone in my body ache. At times I believed that he would mangle me; then one time, when I was taking holy water, he twisted my arm so cruelly that I fell to the earth in great pain. After a while I remembered that I had around my neck the relic of the Holy Cross. Making the Sign of the Cross, I became calm. Jesus let me see Himself, but only for a short time, and He strengthened me anew to suffer and struggle.”
Another time in her Diary she writes: “This evening I felt I could not collect myself; I said a few evening prayers and went to bed. To tell the truth, I foresaw a bit of a storm because Jesus had warned me a few days ago, saying: ‘The enemy will try you with one final battle, but it will be the last because now that is enough.’ I could not help but thank Him for the strength He had always given me, and I prayed that He would want to give me strength for this final test as well, that is to say last night. I went to bed, as you know well, with the intention of sleeping; slumber was not long in coming when almost instantly a tiny, tiny man appeared, all covered in black hair. What a fright! He put his hands on my bed and I thought he wanted to hit me: ‘No, no’ he said, ‘I am not able to hit you, don’t be afraid!’ and as he said this he lay down on the bed. I called Jesus to help me but Jesus did not come, but this doesn’t mean He abandoned me. As soon as I called His Name I felt liberated, but it was sudden. Other times I had called Jesus, but He had never been ready like last night. You should have seen the demon afterward, how angry! He rolled around on the floor, cursing; he made one last effort to take away the cross I had with me, but then he instantly fell backward. How good Jesus was with me last night. The devil, after that last effort, turned toward me and said that since he had not been able to do anything, he wished to torment me the rest of the night. ‘No,’ I told him; I called my guardian Angel, who opened his wings and came next to me; he blessed me and the devil ran away. Jesus be thanked! This morning I learned that at the very moment the devil was rising in fury, the scapular of Our Lady of Sorrows had been placed on me [by Cecilia Giannini] and I realized that when the devil was trying to take something off me, it could have been nothing but that. My Mother, Our Lady of Sorrows, also be thanked!”
Again, in her Diary she writes: “It happened today as usual. I had gone to bed, in fact I was asleep, but the devil did not wish this. He presented himself in a disgusting manner; he tempted me but I was strong. I commended myself to Jesus asking that He take my life rather than have me offend Him. What horrible temptations those were! All displease me but those against Holy Purity make me most wretched. Afterward he left me in peace and the Angel Guardian came and assured me that I had not done anything wrong. I complained somewhat, because I wished his help at such times, and he said that whether I saw him or not, he would be always above my head.”
St. John Vianney
The Curé of Ars, St. John Vianney (1786–1859), the patron saint of parish priests, was often tormented by the devil and regularly did battle with the evil one. St. John Vianney would say: “It is because I convert souls to the good God!” For 35 years Satan threw everything he had against the holy priest who would hear confessions for sixteen hours each day. At night Vianney would hear taunts, harrowing voices, evil singing, or shouting. He was physically dragged from his bed and one night his bed caught on fire. This torment would prevent him from having much sleep, but it did not deter him from living a life of holiness. Vianney accepted the torment from the devil and knew that he was attacking him because of the many sinners that were being reconciled. He would often get attacked the most the night before a “big sinner” came to town to confess their sins. The attacks continued but he remarked later that, “The demon is very cunning, but he is not strong. Making a Sign of the Cross soon puts him to flight! When I made the Sign of the Cross they departed.”
At first, St. John Vianney was terrified, but he eventually became so accustomed to the encounters that he gave a nickname to the devil, calling him “the Grappin.” He said once, “Oh! The Grappin and myself? We are almost buddies!” His sister once heard loud noises in his house, and he calmly told her: “It is the Grappin. He cannot harm you. He torments me because I convert souls to God.” When his room was set on fire one night, while he was hearing confessions, he said peacefully, “The Grappin is angry. He couldn’t catch the bird, so he burned the cage. It is a good sign—many sinners will come today.”
If the object of Vianney's invisible persecutor was to strike terror into his heart, he succeeded only too well in the beginning―for the poor Vianney confessed that in the early times, before the cause of these mysterious noises, which were renewed every night for hours together, was known, he was often ready to die with fear in his bed. His health, indeed, was so much affected by the strain upon his nerves, caused by the terrible apprehension he endured, that he visibly declined. Kind friends offered to keep watch round the house, and to sleep in the room adjoining his own; and several young men, under arms, stationed themselves near the church, where they could command a view of all the approaches to the presbytery.
Some of these good people were very much terrified, among others, Andre Verchere, the wheelwright of the village, who, when his turn to act as sentinel came round, was installed, his gun by his side, in a room in the presbytery. At midnight he heard a frightful crash close to him. It seemed to him that all the furniture in the room broke into pieces under a storm of invisible blows. The poor man cried out for help, and Vianney came quickly to his assistance. They searched the room and the house, examining every corner, but all in vain. When Vianney was entirely convinced that these unearthly sounds had no humanly assignable cause, he dismissed his guards. By degrees his alarm was, in some measure, allayed, and in the end he became in a manner accustomed to this terrible visitation.
Before this period poor Vianney had been a prey to a different kind of conflict. He had been tormented by the most despairing thoughts of his future destiny. He seemed continually to see under his feet the lake of fire, and to hear a voice telling him that his place was already marked in it. Day and night he was haunted by the fear of being eternally lost; and, after having combated and overcome this internal temptation, he had less difficulty in resisting his external, though invisible foes. Still, the martyrdom to which he was now subjected was no light one. It lasted, not for days or months, but for thirty-five years, with different phases, and under different forms, but almost without intermission.
St. John Vianney underwent such horrifying attacks because God knew he could handle them and they would strengthen him for his ministry of mercy. Saint Paul wrote to the Corinthians on this topic, “God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)
Satan’s attacks on St. John Vianney were a “last resort” because the daily temptations, that we are all familiar with, did not do anything to the saint. So the devil ramped up his game and tried to scare the priest into submission. However, instead of cowering in his room and submitting to the will of Satan, Vianney received God’s grace to follow will of the Father and remain faithful to the end. Above all things Satan is a terrorist who never stops striking fear in our hearts, hoping that we will be afraid of him and think he is more powerful than God. This was true in Saint John Vianney’s time and certainly is the case now.
It might shock some people to hear that temptation is good for you―yet that is the truth. Temptation is a test―hence spiritual writers speak of temptation trying us and proving us. As soon as we go to school we are confronted with evaluations of various kinds: Spelling tests, Math tests, English tests, History tests, Physical Education skills tests, I.Q. tests. When we have our annual physical exam, we have blood tests and stress tests and breathing tests. In certain U.S. locations automobiles are subjected to various obligatory annual tests. If you want to permission to drive a car on the roads, then you have to pass the driving test. Human life is full of tests. What are they for? Obviously they are necessary in order to know something that otherwise would be hidden or unknown. Most people do not like tests and examinations―they are often stressed by them. Similarly, we are not meant to love temptation, but we should see the good that can come from successfully overcoming temptation.
We should not seek out temptations―“Watch and pray so that you do not enter into temptation! For the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak!” (Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38). Yet we should see the benefit and the necessity for the examinations, tests and trials that temptations bring. : “When you come to the service of God, prepare your soul for temptation!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:1). “Because you were acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove you!” (Tobias 12:13). We could compare temptation to war. There are, of course, wars that are lawful and just; and wars that are not lawful but unjust. It would not be evil to fight a lawful and just war―yet we would suffer evil if we were lose that war. Temptation―of itself―is not evil. It is giving in to the temptation that is evil.
Our Lord Himself accepted temptations and overcame them. “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1). It was divinely providential that Christ allowed Himself to be tempted by the devil at the beginning of His public ministry. He is teaching us one of the most important lessons we need to learn in life. If He, the living God in human form, was tempted by the evil spirit, then we must expect to be tempted as well. In order to imitate Christ, we must resist the devil as Christ, Himself, resisted the devil.
St. Paul also speaks of being severely tempted by the devil, to the point where he begged the Lord to remove those temptations from him―but he was told that the grace of God was sufficient for him to cope: “There was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me―for which thing I begged the Lord three times, that it might depart from me! And He said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee!’” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).
All the saints were greatly tempted. Some saints experienced temptations against the Faith; others against Hope or Charity; others against Chastity; some temptations lasted for years.
● St. Anthony the Great was tormented by demons in the Egyptian desert with erotic visions.
● St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi was severely tempted to commit suicide.
● St. Francis of Assisi was tormented by suggestions of impurity.
● St. Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, was tempted to blaspheme.
● St. Francis of Sales was tempted to despair.
● St. Catherine of Siena suffered intense sexual temptations
● St. John Vianney endured 35 years of physical and psychological diabolical attacks.
● St. Thérèse of Lisieux was tempted by paralyzing doubts about her religious vocation just before her profession.
● St. Gemma Galgani was tempted to despair.
● St. Padre Pio was tempted by demons that came as nude and provocative young girls, performing obscene dances.
God Does Not Tempt
“God tempts no man” (James 1:13). He simply permits man to be tempted. It is the devil, with God’s permission, who hammers at you when you are tempted. “Our wrestling is against the spirits of wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). On Earth we are surrounded by robbers; many of us are overcome and wounded by them. The conflict with the spirit of evil is a more critical struggle; it is carried on in hidden manner; against a more powerful adversary; one who spares no pains and knows no shame; who, when he is repulsed, returns all the more defiantly to the attack. For six thousand years the devil has tempted mankind―such long practice has made him perfect. He excites within us concupiscence of the flesh, or concupiscence of the eyes, or the pride of life (1 John 2:16). In this threefold manner he tempted Our Lord.
Many temptations come upon a man through no fault of his own (for example Job); some are the result of culpable negligence (for example Eve). The evil enemy as a rule attacks our weak point, our affection for persons, places and things. Like a hunter or fowler, he attracts the birds to his net by offering them the food they like best. Physical infirmities give the devil more power over us―everyone knows how the sick tend to be fretful, impatient and exacting―and the devil plays upon that and exacerbates that. At other times the devil craftily transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14); that is, he deceives us by assuming an appearance of goodness, godliness, kindness, likeableness and piety. His tricks and artifices prove his weakness―for he would not resort to them if he was powerful enough to do without them. Thus we can see that the devil’s temptation of human beings is actually an indication of his weakness, and not at all of his strength.
The Devil Wants to Know
St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that the immediate end or purpose of temptation is knowledge. When the devil tempts or tests us, it is in order for him to know what he otherwise would not know. Now, what could that be? Certainly he knows that we are weak and fallen―after all, it was his tempting that led our first parents to sin. So our weakness and passions are not something he needs to be informed about. He knows that we have in us the seeds of the seven capital sins of pride, anger, envy, greediness, lust, gluttony, and laziness. He doesn’t need to check out whether we are subject to these defects and the passions that lead to them and flow from them. He does not get any special delight in seeing us enjoy some sinful pleasure; if anything, this annoys him, since he hates our pleasures, which, even if we misuse them, still come from God and show that in some way we want to be happy. He wants none of that for himself or anyone else.
The devil tempts us because he is desperate. As Our Lord says, “He knows his time is short” and he is eager to drag as many as possible into Hell with him and his other cohorts before the final judgment. The one thing he cannot know for sure is the actual condition of a soul―whether the soul is in God’s grace. He can see the external actions of a person, he can even see the contents of his imagination and his feelings, but he cannot see the true condition of the human soul before God. This means that he just is looking for evidence that the particular soul will belong to him forever—but he cannot know for sure, ever. Therefore he is like a desperate person who wants affirmation and certitude without ever being certain. Such a person is always reaching out for evidence that what he hopes for will be true.
Trust in God―Not Yourself
So, when we are tempted, we should be aware that there is a reason for our temptation that has nothing directly to do with us. The Evil One simply wants to accumulate evidence for his own bitter consolation that we will belong to him in his insane, envious contest with the God Who made us. This shows us that even more important than resisting temptation (and resisting temptation is important if we truly love God) is a constant confidence in God’s power and mercy. As the Lord said to St. Paul when he asked to be delivered from his terrible temptations: “My grace is sufficient for thee!” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). We have to think to ourselves as we pray, “Even should the devil tempt me and I fail, I will still turn to God for pardon and mercy. I shall make a good confession and a new start, even if I have to do it again and again.”
This is the way we do battle as Our Lord taught us. The devil could find none of the usual evidence in Christ that would indicate that He would sin. This was a Man unlike any he had encountered before Adam before the fall. He was already unnerved by Christ’s Mother, Mary, and now he needed to know just who this Man he might be. Our Lord gave him no information. The devil would have known that Christ was a mere man, if the Lord had given in to temptation―indeed it would be clear then that Jesus was not the Lord at all, because He would sinned by giving in to the devil’s temptations. But the Savior did not satisfy the devil’s curiosity, and the Gospels tell us the devil went away to await another opportunity. Thus we should take great confidence from Our Lord’s own temptation. We are tempted in Him and not by Him. He permits the devil to tempt us, and we should say to ourselves “I belong to Christ Who was also tempted, and Christ knows my destiny and calls me to eternal life in Him, so I am not afraid of this temptation, but put all my trust in Him for my perseverance!”
Let us now see how some of the saints manifested this trust and reliance upon God in their struggles with temptation and battles with the devil.
St. Anthony the Great
Known as the father of monasticism, St. Anthony the Great (3rd–4th century) was inspired by the Gospels to sell all his possessions and live a life of solitude in the Egyptian desert. He established for himself a quiet hermitage away from the world, but he wasn't able to completely escape from his most persistent enemy at whose hands Anthony endured fierce demonic attacks. The devil, knowing that St. Anthony was a very holy man and close to God, threw everything he had against him. If the devil couldn't turn Anthony away from God through the riches of the world, he would try to attack him both physically and spiritually. St. Athanasius records several of these encounters in his Life of St. Anthony.
After failing to tempt him with the lure of wealth, the devil attacked the young man, disturbing him by night and harassing him by day, so that even the onlookers saw the struggle which was going on between them. After each temptation, however, St. Anthony would fortify his body with faith, prayers, and fasting. Frustrated by this, the devil tried to confront Anthony by taking on the shape of a boy and conversing with him. Anthony replied, “You are very despicable then, for you are black-hearted and weak as a child. Henceforth I shall have no trouble from you, ‘for the Lord is my helper, and I shall look down on mine enemies!’”
For a time the devil left Anthony alone, but returned again to test him, this time with a multitude of demons. In The Life of St. Anthony, a biography written by St. Athanasius, it says that when people would visit St. Anthony at his desert home, they often heard terrifying noises, and, as it were, the clash of arms. At night they saw the mountain become full of wild beasts, surrounding his dwelling as he prayed, and Anthony fighting as though against visible beings and praying against them.
One night, St. Anthony decided to spend a night alone in a large tomb. A huge group of demons descended upon him and attacked his body. The demons brutally beat him in a tomb until he lay nearly dead. The devil had so cut him with lashes that he lay on the ground speechless from the excessive pain. For he affirmed that the torture had been so excessive that no blows inflicted by man could ever have caused him such torment.
The next day, a friend bringing him supplies found him and brought him back to the nearby village. But that evening, he regained consciousness and asked for the friend to carry him back to the tomb. After his friend shut him back in the tomb, St. Anthony called out to the devil: “Here I am again! I will not flee from your lashes! Even if you inflict more, nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ!” The demons returned in monstrous forms—lions, bulls, serpents, and wolves. St. Athanasius describes what happened next:
“In the night they made such a din that the whole of that place seemed to be shaken by an earthquake, and the demons as if breaking the four walls of the dwelling seemed to enter through them, coming in the likeness of beasts and creeping things. And the place was on a sudden filled with the forms of lions, bears, leopards, bulls, serpents, asps, scorpions, and wolves, and each of them was moving according to his nature. The lion was roaring, wishing to attack, the bull seeming to toss with its horns, the serpent writhing but unable to approach, and the wolf as it rushed on was restrained; altogether the noises of the apparitions, with their angry ragings, were dreadful.”
But St. Anthony rebuked them: “If you had power, it would have sufficed had one of you come! Since you are weak, you come and attempt to terrify me by numbers―and a proof of your weakness is that you take the shapes of brute beasts. If you are able, and have received power against me, then delay not to attack; but if you are unable, why trouble me in vain? For Faith in Our Lord is a seal and a wall of safety to us.” Suddenly, a bright heavenly light filled the tomb. The demons vanished and his pain ceased. Realizing that the Lord had saved him, he prayed: “Where were you, Lord? Why did you not appear at the beginning to make my pains to cease?” And the Lord replied to him: “Anthony, I was here all the time― watching your fight! Since you have endured, and have not been beaten, I will always be your help, and will make your name known everywhere!” St. Athanasius writes that “having heard this, Anthony arose and prayed, and received such strength that he perceived that he had more power in his body than formerly. And he was then about thirty-five years old.”
After each encounter with the devil Anthony was strengthened in his Faith and God came to his aid. In teaching his many disciples, St. Anthony taught them how to defeat the demons: “Sign yourselves therefore with the cross, and depart boldly, and let these make sport for themselves!” And elsewhere he said to them: "We need not fear their suggestions, for by prayer, fasting, and Faith in the Lord, their attacks immediately fail."
In whatever temptations we may encounter, Anthony teaches us that Faith, prayer, fasting, and the Sign of the Cross are enough to defeat the snares of the Evil One. The devil may appear powerful, but the saints again and again prove that the devil is not that powerful and is no match for those who put their trust in God.
St. Teresa of Avila
St. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582), the Spanish mystic and Doctor of the Church, founded a new Carmelite convent with a strict rule that gave birth to similar convents and brought considerable reform to the Carmelite Order. The Enemy’s opposition to her work was at times severe―as is usual when reforms take place―because many were comfortable with a more lax rule and felt threatened by the new movement.
St. Teresa regularly came in contact with the devil in her prayers and meditations. She writes: “An abominable form, his mouth was horrible. Out of his body there seemed to be coming a great flame, which cast no shadow.” She once saw two hideous devils whose horns were around a priest’s throat as he celebrated Mass. Though such visual manifestations were rare, she often sensed evil without seeing it in a visible form. “I have seldom seen him in bodily shape,” she writes, “but I have often seen him without any form, as in the kind of vision I have described, in which no form is seen but the object is known to be there.”
Her weapons were humility, prayer, and especially holy water, which she said drove demons away immediately. “There is nothing the devils flee from more,” she wrote, “than holy water.”
St. Teresa wrote several works that have become spiritual classics―among these classics was The Interior Castle. It was inspired by the vision God gave her of a most beautiful crystal globe like a castle that was illuminated by Christ the King, who was enthroned at the center of the fortress in the greatest splendor. But outside the castle all was darkness, with toads, vipers, and other poisonous vermin. Then, however, the vision took a disturbing turn. While Teresa was admiring the beauty that God gives to souls, the light suddenly disappeared and, although the King of Glory did not leave the castle, the crystal was covered with darkness and was left as ugly as coal and with an unbearable stench, and the poisonous creatures outside the wall were able to get into the castle. Such was the state of a soul in sin. In many ways, Teresa’s personal mission was that of the soldier assigned to guard that interior castle—both her own and those of the women under her care—from the diabolical forces outside.
St. Alphonsus Rodriguez
St. Alphonsus Rodriguez (1533- 1617) is the patron saint of porters and ushers. Born in Segovia, Spain, in 1533, Alphonsus was the son of a wool merchant. When St. Peter Faber, one of the original Jesuits, visited the city to preach, the Rodríguez family provided hospitality to the Jesuit. Faber prepared the young Rodríguez for his First Communion. At the age of twelve, Rodríguez was sent to the new Jesuit college at Alcalá, but left two years later, aged 23, to help his mother run the family business when his father died. At the age of 26, he married María Suarez, a woman of his own station, with whom he had three children. Within the space of three years, his wife, daughter, and mother died; meanwhile, business was poor. At the age of 31, his wife had died as did two of their children. Alphonsus stepped back and reassessed his life. From then on, Rodriguez began a life of prayer, meditation and mortification, separated from the world around him. He sold the business, and with his young son, moved into his sister’s home. On the death of his third child a few years later, his thoughts turned to life in some religious order. Alphonsus, almost 40 by then, sought to join the Jesuits. He was not helped by his poor education. At the age of 39 he attempted to make up this deficiency by following the course at the College of Barcelona, but without success. His austerities had also undermined his health. After considerable delay he was finally admitted into the Society of Jesus as a lay brother in 1571, at the age of 40. He applied twice before being admitted The Jesuit provincial is supposed to have said that if Alphonsus was not qualified to become a brother or a priest, he could enter to become a saint.
For 45 years he served as a humble lowly doorkeeper at the Jesuits’ college in Majorca. When not at his post, he was almost always at prayer, though he often encountered difficulties and temptations. After having received great blessings, he was attacked, both by violent temptations and by physical assaults, starting around the age of 50 and continuing for seven years. At times, he was so oppressed, and pursued so closely, that it was impossible to describe his suffering. Sometimes, he heard demonic conversations, and witnessed demons blaspheming against God. Other times, he was at the point of dying from suffocation, because the evil spirits were squeezing his throat. Generally, these events started at midnight, while he was asleep. St. Alphonsus would be awakened by the great din. Then, the demons would begin to dance around him, jump on top of him, and grab him by the arm to try to force him to do evil, without him being able to get rid of them. Those were years of great suffering.
These saints remind us that while demonic attacks are real, faith and perseverance in Christ always triumph. Each of them proved that no power of darkness can overcome a soul united with Jesus.
St. Padre Pio
St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina (1887-1968) was a 20th-century stigmatist and miracle-working Capuchin priest, who lived and died in Italy and was constantly harassed by demons. Despite his health problems, which had inescapably made his studies more difficult, Padre Pio was eventually ordained a priest in August of 1910, at the age of twenty-three. Holy cards were distributed to those who attended the ordination, with a prayer the young priest had written: “With Thee, may I be for the world the way, the truth, and the life, and through Thee, a holy priest, a perfect victim.”
Four weeks after his ordination, Padre Pio received for the first time a form of the stigmata, the wounds of Christ appearing on his own body. After a short time, they became invisible, but he could still feel the pain. Our Lord was providing him a seal of his sacrifice as a victim soul, a seal that would later become visible again.
Meanwhile, Satan’s assaults continued and intensified. The great and constant struggle of Padre Pio’s life was with those enemies of God and human souls, the devils who tried to capture his soul. Even in his youth, St. Padre Pio would enjoy incredible celestial visions, but also suffer demonic attacks.
Satan would even sometimes attack St. Padre Pio physically. He describes this in one letter he wrote to a priest confidant: “These devils don’t stop striking me, even making me fall down from the bed. They even tear off my shirt to beat me! But now they do not frighten me anymore. Jesus loves me, He often lifts me and places me back on the bed.”
Nevertheless, if we are close to the Lord, we should have no fear of demons. The saint suffered especially from temptations to impurity, fears of unconfessed sins, and despair about his salvation. Nevertheless, Our Lord provided consolations as well. The priest once wrote to his spiritual director: “All the ugly fantasies that the Devil introduces to my mind vanish when I abandon myself to the arms of Jesus. I suffer immensely, but it is a grief that does me good.” He spoke also of an inexplicable spiritual joy that supported him in his trials. He found he could repel the malicious attacks of the Enemy’s temptations more and more easily as he offered himself to God. Soon that gift to Our Lord took on a new meaning, three months after his ordination. With his spiritual director’s permission, he made an explicit offering up of his life as a victim for poor sinners and for souls in Purgatory. He placed himself on the Cross with Christ as a sacrifice to the Father in union with the Son.
According to Fr. Gabriele Amorth (1925-2016), a close friend of St. Padre Pio and also chief exorcist of Rome for several decades: “Padre Pio was much loved, but he also suffered the attacks of some formidable enemies. I am not speaking of his human enemies, who may have been led astray by falsehoods, prejudice or misunderstanding. Padre Pio’s real enemies were the demons who besieged him. Contrary to some reports, Padre Pio always respected and esteemed his ecclesiastical superiors, and he always obeyed them, often at the cost of great suffering to himself. The great and constant struggle of Padre Pio’s life was with those enemies of God and human souls, the devils who tried to capture his soul.”
When did that struggle begin? Was it a physical struggle or a matter of internal visions? Fr. Amorth explains: “The devil is always pure spirit, but in order to reveal himself he takes on aspects which can be most provocative and harmful: fear, seduction, deception. From his childhood, Padre Pio enjoyed celestial visions, but he also experienced terrible diabolical presences. These tormented him in the most frightful forms. They occasionally scourged him with heavy chains, leaving him bruised and bleeding. Sometimes they appeared as gruesome animals. Many biographies recount Padre Pio’s encounters with the demons. Padre Pio himself described many of his encounters with devils. His accounts to his spiritual director in 1911 in the monastery of Venafro are particularly vivid. That was the first time Padre Pio revealed his rich interior life, both his ecstatic visions and his diabolical torments.
“The devil would appear to him as an ugly black cat, or in the shape of a truly repugnant animal. The obvious intent was to fill him with terror. Other times demons came as young girls, nude and provocative, performing obscene dances, to test the young priest’s chastity. But Padre Pio sensed his greatest danger when the devil tried to deceive him by taking on the form of one of his superiors (his provincial superior or his spiritual director) or in a sacred form (the Lord, the Virgin, or St. Francis). He learned a “rule of thumb,” which we also find in the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, and which he taught some of his spiritual followers. He noticed a certain timidity when the Virgin or the Lord first appeared, followed by a sense of peace when the vision departed. On the other hand, a devil in sacred form provoked an immediate feeling of joy and attraction, replaced afterwards by remorse and sadness.
“He could also clearly distinguish if a person’s soul was possessed by Satan. He would then communicate the danger to that person alone. Crucial moments sometimes occurred in the confessional. During confession, he sometimes made a gesture as if to dispel something. Perhaps he was asking the Lord to liberate the penitent from a temptation or evil habit. St. Alphonsus Liguori, who was a master in such situations, suggested that in certain cases confessors could execute a mental mini-exorcism, before even commencing the confession. Many of Padre Pio’s most difficult struggles with demons came about as he tried to rescue souls from diabolical possession, whether in the confessional or when he was praying for one of his spiritual followers. Pio never performed official exorcisms. He did, however, have an extraordinary discernment for souls in danger. Many persons allegedly possessed by demons were brought before Padre Pio, and his attitude changed with each different case. Let us say he could tell if the possessed was susceptible to liberation or not.
“Once Padre Pio liberated a youth by simply pronouncing the words “Begone.” But such sudden liberations were extremely rare. Another time Don Faustino Negrini accompanied a young person named Agnese Salamoni, who had been cursed for being the “model girl of the parish” and seized by a sudden diabolical possession. Padre Pio said a simple blessing over her, and that seemed to bear fruit. Don Faustino himself completed the liberation, after 13 years of prayer! It seems that Padre Pio sensed that her time for liberation had not yet come.” (Testimony of Fr. Gabriele Amorth about St. Padre Pio).
St. Gemma Galgani
The young Italian mystic St. Gemma Galgani (1878–1903) suffered frequent attacks from the devil, especially after Holy Communion. In a letter to a priest, she wrote: “During the last two days Jesus has been telling me after Holy Communion: ‘My daughter, the devil will soon wage a great war against you!’ These words I hear in my heart continuously. Please pray for me!” Jesus warned her that the devil would wage war against her, and soon she endured severe headaches, sleepless nights, and violent assaults. Once, while writing, the devil tore the paper and dragged her by the hair so that it came off in his brutal claws. Despite the suffering, she joked about his ugliness: “If you had seen him run away making faces, you would have laughed! He is so ugly! But Jesus told me not to fear him.”
She quickly realized that prayer was the best defense. In response, Satan gave her violent headaches in order to make sleeping difficult for her. Her fatigue then made sleeping more difficult ― but she persevered. She writes: “How many efforts does not that wretch make to make it impossible for me to pray! Yesterday evening he tried to kill me, and would have succeeded if Jesus had not come quickly to my aid. I was terrified and kept the image of Jesus in my mind!”
At one point, while she was writing a letter, the devil snatched the pen from her hand and tore up the paper then dragged her from the table, seizing her by the hair with such violence that it came off in his brutal claws. She describes another attack in one of her writings:
“The demon came before me as a giant of great height and kept saying to me: ‘For you there is no more hope of salvation. You are in my hands!’ I replied that God is merciful and therefore I fear nothing. Then, in a rage, giving me a hard blow on the head, he said ‘Accursed be you!’ ― and then he disappeared. I then went to my room to rest, and there I found him. He began again to strike me with a knotted rope, and wanted me to listen to him while he suggested wickedness. I said no, and he struck me even harder, knocking my head violently against the ground. At a certain point, it came to my mind to invoke Jesus’ Father: ‘Eternal Father, through the most Precious Blood of Jesus, free me!’ I then don’t quite know what happened. That contemptible beast dragged me from my bed and threw me, hitting my head against the floor with such force that it pains me still. I became senseless and remained lying there until I came to myself a long time afterwards. Jesus be thanked!”
Nevertheless, she always kept her Faith and trust in Jesus. God, in order to purify His elect and render them victims of expiation for themselves and for others, makes use even of the demons, who because of their hatred of souls and their increased intelligence become very profitable instruments to the attainment of His ends.
Gemma soon learned that the best way to defend herself against the demons and to reach God’s ends is through prayer, which she practiced with all the ardor of her soul. The enemy then tried to prevent it. To weary her, he would try to upset her temperament; he caused her violent headaches so that she might be obliged to go to bed, rather than remain in prayer; and strove in numerous other ways to distract her from this holy exercise. “Oh” she once said, “What torment this gives me, not to be able to pray! What fatigue it costs me! How many efforts does not that wretch make to make it impossible for me to pray! Yesterday evening he tried to kill me, and would have succeeded if Jesus had not come quickly to my aid! I was terrified and kept the image of Jesus in my mind, but I could not pronounce His Name!”
At other times, he attacked her differently. “What are you doing?” he said, blaspheming, “How stupid you are to pray to that malefactor [referring to Jesus]. Look at the harm He does to you, keeping you nailed to the Cross with Himself! How then can you care for Him, for Him whom you don’t even know, who makes all who love Him suffer?” But these and all his other evil suggestions were as dust before the wind, and only served to afflict her at hearing her Jesus outraged by such blasphemies.
In the midst of so much suffering, the servant of God found comfort in the direction and advice of her spiritual director. This the wicked enemy could not bear, and tried to turn her away from her spiritual guide. He depicted her director as an ignorant, fanatical, deluded man and with so many arguments strove to convince and terrify her that the poor child thought herself all but lost. Hence on one occasion she wrote: “For some days, the devil has pursued me in every guise and way, and has done all in his power against me. This monster keeps on redoubling all his efforts to ruin me and tries to deprive me of whomever directs or advises me. But even should this happen, I am not afraid!” Seeing that with all his efforts he could not succeed in shaking her confidence in her director, he resorted to acts of violence.
He carried this audacity so far as to feign to be a priest to whom Gemma used to make her confessions. She had gone one day to Church, and, while preparing herself to make her confession, she saw that the priest was already in the confessional, at which she momentarily wondered and was puzzled, not having seen him pass and enter. At the same time she felt very much disturbed in spirit, as generally happened when in the presence of the evil one. She entered the confessional, however, and began her confession as usual. The voice and ways were indeed those of the confessor, but his talk was foul and scandalous, accompanied by improper gestures. “My God!” she exclaimed, “What has happened?” At such a sight and at such words Gemma trembled, and, with her presence of mind returning, she hurriedly left the confessional, and saw as she did so that the pretended “confessor” had disappeared. It was the devil, who by his coarse and fiendish ways had sought to deceive her, or at least make her lose all confidence in the minister of God.
Failing in this attempt, the enemy made another. He appeared to Gemma in the form of an angel, resplendent with light, insinuating himself with the most subtle cunning, so as to throw her off her guard. Then as with Eve in the Garden of Eden, he depicted things in the falsest colors: “Look” he said “I can make you happy if only you will swear to obey me!” Gemma, who this time did not feel in her soul the usual disturbance indicating the presence of the demon, stood listening in her simplicity. But God came to her aid. After the first wicked proposal, her eyes were opened. She stood up exclaiming: “My God! Mary Immaculate!” Make me die rather than do this!” and with these words she rushed to the feigned “angel” and spat in his face. At the same moment she saw him vanish in the form of fire.
Another time Gemma writes: “Today I thought I was to be entirely free from that nauseous animal, and instead he has knocked me about greatly. I had gone to bed with the full intention of sleeping, but it turned out otherwise. He began to beat me with such blows that I feared I would die. He was in the shape of a big black dog, and he put his “paws” on my shoulders, hurting me greatly. I felt it so much in all my bones that I thought that they were broken. Also, when I was taking holy water he wrenched my arm so violently that I fell to the floor from the pain. The bone was dislocated, but went back into place because Jesus touched it for me, and all was remedied”. Knowing her mission as soul victim, the Devil once said to her: “You can pray for yourself, but if you pray for others, I will make you pay dearly for it”.
In her Diary Gemma writes: “The devil, in the form of a great black dog, put his paws upon my shoulders, making every bone in my body ache. At times I believed that he would mangle me; then one time, when I was taking holy water, he twisted my arm so cruelly that I fell to the earth in great pain. After a while I remembered that I had around my neck the relic of the Holy Cross. Making the Sign of the Cross, I became calm. Jesus let me see Himself, but only for a short time, and He strengthened me anew to suffer and struggle.”
Another time in her Diary she writes: “This evening I felt I could not collect myself; I said a few evening prayers and went to bed. To tell the truth, I foresaw a bit of a storm because Jesus had warned me a few days ago, saying: ‘The enemy will try you with one final battle, but it will be the last because now that is enough.’ I could not help but thank Him for the strength He had always given me, and I prayed that He would want to give me strength for this final test as well, that is to say last night. I went to bed, as you know well, with the intention of sleeping; slumber was not long in coming when almost instantly a tiny, tiny man appeared, all covered in black hair. What a fright! He put his hands on my bed and I thought he wanted to hit me: ‘No, no’ he said, ‘I am not able to hit you, don’t be afraid!’ and as he said this he lay down on the bed. I called Jesus to help me but Jesus did not come, but this doesn’t mean He abandoned me. As soon as I called His Name I felt liberated, but it was sudden. Other times I had called Jesus, but He had never been ready like last night. You should have seen the demon afterward, how angry! He rolled around on the floor, cursing; he made one last effort to take away the cross I had with me, but then he instantly fell backward. How good Jesus was with me last night. The devil, after that last effort, turned toward me and said that since he had not been able to do anything, he wished to torment me the rest of the night. ‘No,’ I told him; I called my guardian Angel, who opened his wings and came next to me; he blessed me and the devil ran away. Jesus be thanked! This morning I learned that at the very moment the devil was rising in fury, the scapular of Our Lady of Sorrows had been placed on me [by Cecilia Giannini] and I realized that when the devil was trying to take something off me, it could have been nothing but that. My Mother, Our Lady of Sorrows, also be thanked!”
Again, in her Diary she writes: “It happened today as usual. I had gone to bed, in fact I was asleep, but the devil did not wish this. He presented himself in a disgusting manner; he tempted me but I was strong. I commended myself to Jesus asking that He take my life rather than have me offend Him. What horrible temptations those were! All displease me but those against Holy Purity make me most wretched. Afterward he left me in peace and the Angel Guardian came and assured me that I had not done anything wrong. I complained somewhat, because I wished his help at such times, and he said that whether I saw him or not, he would be always above my head.”
St. John Vianney
The Curé of Ars, St. John Vianney (1786–1859), the patron saint of parish priests, was often tormented by the devil and regularly did battle with the evil one. St. John Vianney would say: “It is because I convert souls to the good God!” For 35 years Satan threw everything he had against the holy priest who would hear confessions for sixteen hours each day. At night Vianney would hear taunts, harrowing voices, evil singing, or shouting. He was physically dragged from his bed and one night his bed caught on fire. This torment would prevent him from having much sleep, but it did not deter him from living a life of holiness. Vianney accepted the torment from the devil and knew that he was attacking him because of the many sinners that were being reconciled. He would often get attacked the most the night before a “big sinner” came to town to confess their sins. The attacks continued but he remarked later that, “The demon is very cunning, but he is not strong. Making a Sign of the Cross soon puts him to flight! When I made the Sign of the Cross they departed.”
At first, St. John Vianney was terrified, but he eventually became so accustomed to the encounters that he gave a nickname to the devil, calling him “the Grappin.” He said once, “Oh! The Grappin and myself? We are almost buddies!” His sister once heard loud noises in his house, and he calmly told her: “It is the Grappin. He cannot harm you. He torments me because I convert souls to God.” When his room was set on fire one night, while he was hearing confessions, he said peacefully, “The Grappin is angry. He couldn’t catch the bird, so he burned the cage. It is a good sign—many sinners will come today.”
If the object of Vianney's invisible persecutor was to strike terror into his heart, he succeeded only too well in the beginning―for the poor Vianney confessed that in the early times, before the cause of these mysterious noises, which were renewed every night for hours together, was known, he was often ready to die with fear in his bed. His health, indeed, was so much affected by the strain upon his nerves, caused by the terrible apprehension he endured, that he visibly declined. Kind friends offered to keep watch round the house, and to sleep in the room adjoining his own; and several young men, under arms, stationed themselves near the church, where they could command a view of all the approaches to the presbytery.
Some of these good people were very much terrified, among others, Andre Verchere, the wheelwright of the village, who, when his turn to act as sentinel came round, was installed, his gun by his side, in a room in the presbytery. At midnight he heard a frightful crash close to him. It seemed to him that all the furniture in the room broke into pieces under a storm of invisible blows. The poor man cried out for help, and Vianney came quickly to his assistance. They searched the room and the house, examining every corner, but all in vain. When Vianney was entirely convinced that these unearthly sounds had no humanly assignable cause, he dismissed his guards. By degrees his alarm was, in some measure, allayed, and in the end he became in a manner accustomed to this terrible visitation.
Before this period poor Vianney had been a prey to a different kind of conflict. He had been tormented by the most despairing thoughts of his future destiny. He seemed continually to see under his feet the lake of fire, and to hear a voice telling him that his place was already marked in it. Day and night he was haunted by the fear of being eternally lost; and, after having combated and overcome this internal temptation, he had less difficulty in resisting his external, though invisible foes. Still, the martyrdom to which he was now subjected was no light one. It lasted, not for days or months, but for thirty-five years, with different phases, and under different forms, but almost without intermission.
St. John Vianney underwent such horrifying attacks because God knew he could handle them and they would strengthen him for his ministry of mercy. Saint Paul wrote to the Corinthians on this topic, “God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)
Satan’s attacks on St. John Vianney were a “last resort” because the daily temptations, that we are all familiar with, did not do anything to the saint. So the devil ramped up his game and tried to scare the priest into submission. However, instead of cowering in his room and submitting to the will of Satan, Vianney received God’s grace to follow will of the Father and remain faithful to the end. Above all things Satan is a terrorist who never stops striking fear in our hearts, hoping that we will be afraid of him and think he is more powerful than God. This was true in Saint John Vianney’s time and certainly is the case now.
Article 5
The First Sunday of Lent, February 22nd
Temptation Sunday or Temptation to Sin Day?
The First Sunday of Lent, February 22nd
Temptation Sunday or Temptation to Sin Day?
Christ vs. Satan
St. Paul says: “What concord hath Christ with Belial?” (2 Corinthians 6:15). In Holy Scripture we see the account of Our Lord’s battle with Satan in the desert, after He had fasted and prayed for forty days and nights (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). In this triple temptation, Our Lord comes out on top against the wiles and temptations of Satan. It would seem that the prayer and fasting was the key to His victory. He Himself would later say, speaking of the devil: “This kind is not cast out except by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20). Which is something that He would essentially repeat during His Agony in the Garden, when He said to Peter, James and John: “Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation! The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak!” (Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38).
The Story of the Battle by Matthew
“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards He was hungry. And the tempter coming said to Him: ‘If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread!’ Who answered and said: ‘It is written, “Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God!”’ Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, and set Him upon the pinnacle of the Temple, and said to Him: ‘If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down, for it is written: “That He hath given His angels charge over Thee, and in their hands shall they bear Thee up, lest perhaps Thou dash thy foot against a stone!”’ Jesus said to him: ‘It is written again: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God!”’ Again the devil took Him up into a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and said to Him: ‘All these will I give Thee, if falling down Thou wilt adore me!’ Then Jesus saith to him: ‘Begone, Satan! For it is written, “The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve!”’ Then the devil left Him; and behold angels came and ministered to Him” (Matthew 4:1-11).
The Story of the Battle by Luke
“And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the desert, for the space of forty days; and was tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, He was hungry. And the devil said to Him: ‘If thou be the Son of God, say to this stone that it be made bread!’ And Jesus answered him: ‘It is written, that Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word of God!’ And the devil led Him into a high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time; and he said to Him: ‘To Thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them. If Thou therefore wilt adore before me, all shall be Thine!’ And Jesus answering said to him: ‘It is written: “Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve!”’ And he brought Him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the Temple, and he said to Him: ‘If Thou be the Son of God, cast thyself from hence. For it is written, that He hath given his angels charge over thee, that they keep thee! And that in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest perhaps Thou dash thy foot against a stone!’ And Jesus answering, said to him: ‘It is said: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God!”’ And all the temptation being ended, the devil departed from Him for a time” (Luke 4:1-13).
Satan Leaves Only For a Time
Even though he was defeated by Christ in the desert, Satan would return to fight another day and in another way. Our life is meant to be one long struggle, one long war. Holy Scripture is very adamant on this: “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1) … “Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8) … “Fight the good fight of Faith! Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you are called” (1 Timothy 6:12) … “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12). “And the Lord said: ‘Simon, Simon, behold Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat―but I have prayed for thee, that your Faith fail not!’” (Luke 22:31-32).
The Lessons of Temptation Sunday
On this First Sunday of Lent—in what we could “Temptation Sunday” because of the Sunday Gospel of Our Lord’s temptation in the desert—it would good to spend a good part of this week in exploring and understanding the necessity, mechanics, effects and consequences of temptation. Before all else, it is essential that we get as clear a notion as possible of the meaning of the word temptation. “Temptation” is derived from the Latin “tentare”, which means “to try” or “to test”. Accordingly, a temptation may be said to be a trying or a testing of the soul for the purpose of ascertaining its attitude toward God and its fidelity in the service it owes to Him.
Dom Gueranger, in his Liturgical Year, explains: “This Sunday is one of the most solemn throughout the year. We cannot we look upon Ash Wednesday as the solemn opening of the season; for the faithful are not bound to hear Mass on that day. Thus, Holy Church, seeing her children now assembled together, speaks to them: ‘Behold! Now is the acceptable time! Behold! Now is the day of salvation!’ Today she brings before us the temptation of Our Lord in the desert. We acknowledge ourselves to be sinners―but how was it that we fell into sin. The devil tempted us; we did not reject the temptation; then we yielded to the suggestion, and the sin was committed. Here we have the Saint of saints allowing the wicked spirit to approach Him, in order that we might learn, from His example, how we are to gain victory under temptation.”
It was divinely providential that Christ allowed Himself to be tempted by the devil at the beginning of His public ministry. He is teaching us one of the most important lessons we need to learn in life. If He, the living God in human form, was tempted by the evil spirit, then we must expect to be tempted as well. In order to imitate Christ, we must resist the devil as Christ, Himself, resisted the devil.
St. Ignatius has a key meditation in the Spiritual Exercises on what he calls the Two Standards. The Two Standards correspond to the two leaders in the world who are drawing people to follow them. One leader is Jesus Christ, who inspires believing Christians to dedicate themselves to the extension of His kingdom throughout the world. The other leader is Satan, who is trying to seduce people to follow him for the extension of his demonic kingdom, which, in the words of St. Augustine, is the City of Man, which is in constant conflict with the kingdom of Christ. The devil knows that you get nowhere alone, you inspire others to follow you. Then you train your followers and disciples and they will carry on your work. The devil trains his followers to seduce not just people or cities, but whole nations.
If there is one thing we learn from the masters of the spiritual life it is to expect to be tempted by the evil spirit. It was the evil spirit who tempted Eve and brought on the fall of the human race. As we reflect on temptations by the devil in our own lives, we must keep in mind who the devil is. He is the evil spirit. Spirit because he is not sensibly perceptible. We cannot hear him with our bodily ears or see him with our bodily eyes. He is an evil spirit whose number is legion and who has been phenomenally successful in seducing untold numbers from their allegiance to God.
Whose Side Are We On?
We have to make a choice in this world—do we live for Heaven and renounce the things of the world? Or do we live for this world and, despite our wishful thinking to the contrary, renounce the things of Heaven: “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (the world)” (Matthew 6:24). To the rich young man, Our Lord said: “‘If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:21-23).
Our Lord therefore separates Himself from this world: “And he said to them (Pharisees): ‘You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world’” (John 8:23). He tells Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36) and He says to us: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19).
Our Lord Teaches Us How to Fight
Fr. Leonard Goffine, in his The Church’s Year, writes: “Christ went into the desert to prepare, by fasting and prayer, for His mission, and to endure the temptations of Satan, and to show us by His own example, how we should, armed with the word of God, as with a sword, overcome the tempter … He has certainly taught us to overcome the hardest ones ― the lust of the eyes, of the flesh, and the pride of life, and if we overcome these, it will be easy to conquer the rest. If Christ permitted Himself to be tempted, it should not appear strange to us, that we are assailed by many temptations. St. Peter teaches us this: ‘Be sober and watch ― because your adversary the devil, as a roaring-lion, goes about, seeking whom he may devour!’ (1 Peter 5:8). Not all temptations are to be ascribed to the devil—‘the devil made me do it’―as they often come from our own corrupt nature, our own incautiousness, or looseness of our senses, by which we expose ourselves to the danger of falling into sin.”
St. Paul lists three chief enemies of the soul—the devil, the world and our own flesh: “When you were dead in your offences, and sins, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now works on the children of unbelief, [and] in the desires of our flesh” (Ephesians 2:1-3).
St. John tells us, we are tempted from three sources: by the world, the flesh, and the devil: “All that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16). The world is the attractive sinful conduct of other people. The flesh is our concupiscence, the natural inclination that we now have after the fall of the human race, to follow what appeals to us even though it is displeasing to God. The devil is, in some ways, the most powerful enemy we have in the spiritual life.
Dom Guéranger, looking at the third enemy indicated by St. John―our own flesh― further explains: “Concupiscence of the flesh is the love of sensual things, which covets whatever is agreeable to the flesh, and, when not curbed, draws the soul into unlawful pleasures. Concupiscence of the eyes is the love of the goods of this world, such as riches, and possessions; these dazzle the eye, and then seduce the heart. Pride of life is that confidence in ourselves, which leads us to be vain and presumptuous, and to forget that all we have, our life and every good gift, we have from God. Everyone of, our sins comes from one of these three sources; every one of our temptations aims at making us accept the concupiscence of the flesh, or the concupiscence of the eyes, or the pride of life” (The Liturgical Year).
Surrounded by Temptation
We know the verse from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: “Water, water everywhere—nor any drop to drink.” We could well change that to “Temptation, temptation everywhere—it puts us on the brink!” The Imitation of Christ has this to say on the subject of temptations:
“So long as we live in this world we cannot escape suffering and temptation. Whence it is written in Job: “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1). Everyone, therefore, must guard against temptation and must watch in prayer lest the devil, who never sleeps but goes about seeking whom he may devour, find occasion to deceive him. No one is so perfect or so holy but he is sometimes tempted; man cannot be altogether free from temptation.
“Yet temptations, though troublesome and severe, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed. The saints all passed through many temptations and trials to profit by them, while those who could not resist became reprobate and fell away. There is no state so holy, no place so secret that temptations and trials will not come. Man is never safe from them as long as he lives, for they come from within us — in sin we were born. When one temptation or trial passes, another comes; we shall always have something to suffer because we have lost the state of original blessedness.
“Many people try to escape temptations, only to fall more deeply. We cannot conquer simply by fleeing, but by patience and true humility we become stronger than all our enemies. The man who only shuns temptations outwardly and does not uproot them will make little progress; indeed they will quickly return, more violent than before.
“Little by little, in patience and long-suffering you will overcome them, by the help of God rather than by severity and your own rash ways. Often take counsel when tempted; and do not be harsh with others who are tempted, but console them as you yourself would wish to be consoled.
“The beginning of all temptation lies in a wavering mind and little trust in God, for as a rudderless ship is driven hither and yon by waves, so a careless and irresolute man is tempted in many ways. Fire tempers iron and temptation steels the just. Often we do not know what we can stand, but temptation shows us what we are. Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks.
“Someone has said very aptly: ‘Resist the beginnings; remedies come too late, when, by long delay, the evil has gained strength.’ First, a mere thought comes to mind, then strong imagination, followed by pleasure, evil delight, and consent. Thus, because he is not resisted in the beginning, Satan gains full entry. And the longer a man delays in resisting, so much the weaker does he become each day, while the strength of the enemy grows against him.
“Some suffer great temptations in the beginning of their conversion, others toward the end, while some are troubled almost constantly throughout their life. Others, again, are tempted but lightly according to the wisdom and justice of Divine Providence Who weighs the status and merit of each and prepares all for the salvation of His elect.
“We should not despair, therefore, when we are tempted, but pray to God the more fervently that He may see fit to help us, for according to the word of Paul, He will make issue with temptation that we may be able to bear it. Let us humble our souls under the hand of God in every trial and temptation for He will save and exalt the humble in spirit.
“In temptations and trials the progress of a man is measured; in them opportunity for merit and virtue is made more manifest. When a man is not troubled it is not hard for him to be fervent and devout, but if he bears up patiently in time of adversity, there is hope for great progress. Some, guarded against great temptations, are frequently overcome by small ones in order that, humbled by their weakness in small trials, they may not presume on their own strength in great ones” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 13).
St. John Vianney Speaks of Temptation
We are surrounded by temptations—some of them we negligently do not even classify as temptations because we have become so used to them. We live surrounded by danger and we dangerously dilly-dally with this danger, as the following passage from a sermon of St. John Vianney points out:
“In everything that we see, in everything that we hear, in all we say and do, we are conscious of the fact that we are drawn towards evil. If we are at table—there is sensuality, gluttony and intemperance. If we take a few moments of recreation—there are the dangers of flightiness and idle chatter. If we are at work, most of the time—then it is self-interest, or avarice, or envy which influences us, or even vanity. When we pray—there is negligence, distraction, distaste, and boredom. If we are in pain or any trouble—there are complaints and murmurings. When we are doing well and are prosperous—then pride, self-love, and contempt for our neighbor take hold of us. Our hearts swell with pride when we are praised. Wrongs inflame us into rages.
“There you see my dear brethren, the thing which made the greatest of the saints tremble. This was what made so many of them retire into the desert to live solitary lives; this was the source of so many tears, of so many prayers, of so many penances. It is true that the saints, who were hidden away in the forests, were not exempt from temptations, but they were far removed from so much bad example, as that which surrounds us continually and which is the cause of so many souls being lost.
“But, my dear brethren, we see from their lives that they watched, they prayed, and they were in dread unceasingly, while we, poor, blind sinners, are quite placid in the midst of so many dangers which could lose us our souls! Alas, my dear brethren, some of us do not even know what it is to be tempted because we hardly ever, or very rarely, resist. Which one of us can expect to escape from all these dangers? Which one of us will be saved? Anyone who wanted to reflect upon all these things could hardly go on living, so greatly terrified would he be! However, my dear brethren, what ought to console and reassure us is that we have to deal with a good Father Who will never allow our struggles to be greater than our strength, and every time we have recourse to Him, He will help us to fight and to conquer” (St. John Vianney, Sermon on Temptation).
Battles and Bullets
That is why we are not to love the world, for the world belongs to the devil, an enemy of God: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15), for “know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Thus we have two opposing camps in this world—the one of God and the one of the devil. There can be no spectators in this battle, for, as Our Lord says: “He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathers not with Me, scatters!” (Matthew 12:30). Therefore, once again, we are born into a battle and the first enemy we meet on the battlefield is temptation, or, to put it another way, the first things will encounter will be the bullets of temptation. That is why Holy Scripture warns us: “Son, when you come to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare your soul for temptation” (Ecclesiasticus 2:1), “and because you were acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove you” (Tobias 12:13).
The Prince and His Kingdom
The devil, ruling the world, will use the world to tempt us and he will unite the temptations of the world to his own direct temptations in order to break-down our resistance. He will use persons, places and things to draw us away from God and into an addiction to the things the world can offer. The chief weapon of Satan is temptation—it is like a universal tool. It can be applied to any subject and to any person at any time. It was the weapon that was first successfully used against Adam and Eve, and it has stood the test of time. From Satan’s point of view, it is a very successful weapon, since, as most Saints and Father of the Church tell us, most souls end up being damned—yet that damnation is not inevitable and could have easily been avoided, if only they would have perseveringly taken the precautions that Christ has given us through His Church.
St. Paul speaks of these temptations in his own life: “We know that the law is spiritual―but I am carnal, sold under sin! For the things that I do, I understand not. For I do not that good which I want to do―but I do the evil which I hate! … Then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. I know that there does not dwell in me―in my flesh―that which is good. To will or want, is present with me―but to accomplish that which is good, I do not find! For the good which I want to do―I do not do! But the evil which I do not want to do―that I do! Now if I do that which I do not want to do, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find that when I have a desire to do good, there is evil present within me! For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man, but I see another law in my body, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin that is in my body! Unhappy man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord! Therefore, I myself, with the mind, serve the law of God―but with the flesh, the law of sin!” (Romans 7:14-25).
Soldiers of the Devil
Once drawn away from God and being true soldiers of Christ―we become soldiers of the devil—”the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness” (Matthew 8:12), where they become “the children of unbelief … children of this world … being fettered with the bonds of darkness” (Ephesians 5:6; Luke 16:8; Wisdom 17:2). These, newly-won recruits to the ranks of the world, the devil will use to entice others away from God. “They adored the dragon, which gave power to the beast: and they adored the beast, saying: ‘Who is like to the beast? And who shall be able to fight with him?’” (Apocalypse 13:4). “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
No Peace With the Enemy
“Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now works on the children of unbelief. In which also we all conversed in time past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest” (Ephesians 2:2-3). “Let us cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). “You are the children of light, and children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11). “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation has justice with injustice? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part have the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-16). “Fight the good fight of Faith!” (1 Timothy 6:12) and “war in them a good warfare” (1 Timothy 1:18). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12).
The Weapons of Warfare
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal” (2 Corinthians 10:4). “Put you on the armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. In all things taking the shield of Faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. By all prayer and supplication praying at all times in the spirit; and in the same watching with all instance and supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:11-18).
We Don’t Like to Fight―We Don’t Want to Fight―So We Don’t Fight!
Our problem is that the soul was instinctively made for peace, not war—but sin has brought inescapable war into the world. “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1). Our Lord adds fuel to this fire saying: “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! For, from henceforth, there shall be five in one house divided—three against two, and two against three! And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household! The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Luke 13:51-53; Matthew 10:36-37).
It is tempting to avoid family confrontation over religious and spiritual things, for the sake of peace. We are tempted to “go along to get along” and fear “rocking the boat” out of this human respect, of which Our Lady of Good Success says: “Cursed human respect, which makes one ask: ‘What will others say about this?’”
To avoid or lessen spirituality in the home—for the sake of a human peace—is to betray Christ: “Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33). Put God before man!
Beware If You Have No Temptations
“If you have no temptations,” St. Gregory tells us, “it is because the devils are your friends, your leaders, and your shepherds. And by allowing you to pass your poor life tranquilly, to the end of your days, they will drag you down into the depths.” St. Augustine tells us that the greatest temptation is not to have temptations, because this means that one is a person who has been rejected, abandoned by God, and left entirely in the grip of one’s own passions. St. John Vianney explains: “If Our Lord was tempted, it was in order to show us that we must be also. It follows, therefore, that we must expect temptation. If you ask me what is the cause of our temptations, I shall tell you that it is the beauty and the great worth and importance of our souls which the Devil values and which he loves so much that he would consent to suffer two Hells, if necessary, if by so doing he could drag our souls into Hell” (St. John Vianney).
Material of Glory
Fr. Frederick Faber tells us that “Temptations are the raw material of glory.” That is why St. James says: “My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations!” (James 1:2), to which St. Peter will add: “You shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations: so that the trial of your Faith (much more precious than gold which is tried by the fire) may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
A Testing and Trying Time
To a great extent, temptations are to the spiritual life, what various tests on machines and materials are to mechanical and building operations. Before a steam boiler is put into operation, its ability to withstand a determined pressure of steam is ascertained by subjecting it to a rigorous test. Before a beam is placed in a building, its carrying strength is determined. And so in hundreds of other cases. The machines and materials are put through stresses designed to show whether they will prove adequate to the demand that will be made on them. By a transfer of meaning, we can say that they are tempted.
This, then, is the meaning of temptation — a trial or a test. In the service of God, souls are tested or tried in order that the quality of their love for God and their devotion to Him may become known, and that they may at the same time be given opportunities of winning for themselves large treasures of grace and merit. Temptations, therefore, are meant to reveal whether the love that a soul claims to have for God is genuine and true, and not mere hollow sham and vain pretense. They are the acid test of the spiritual life.
Sifting the True form the Fake
It is well known that there are certain substances that look so much like gold that they are often mistaken for that precious metal by ignorant and inexperienced persons. Many a man has been deceived by the worthless substance commonly known as “fool’s gold.” To discover whether minerals that look like gold are the genuine metal, an assayer employs special tests. One of these consists in subjecting the substance to the action of strong nitric acid. If the substance is gold, the acid will have no effect on it; if it is not, it will break up and dissolve — an easy way of proving that what was thought to be gold was nothing more than worthless dross.
This has its parallel in the spiritual world. There are many souls parading before men what appears to be solid and genuine virtue. An acid test is needed to re-veal the true character of these souls. This is supplied by temptations. The soul that truly loves God, will not allow itself to be overcome by them, but will remain firm and immovable in the keeping of His holy law; whereas that which is only a pretender, will offer but little resistance, or perhaps none at all.
God Causes Some ‘Temptations’ and Permits Others
When the man on the street speaks of temptations, it is commonly understood as an incitement or allurement to some sin, brought about by either suggestion, the fear of suffering, or the offer of some good or pleasure. It may be an external temptation, such as the sight of objects, e.g., books, improper pictures, immodestly dressed persons; or by hearing, e.g., of suggestive or obscene stories, attacks on religion or the Church, detraction, or calumny. Or it may be an internal temptation, as when evil thoughts, imaginings, or desires spring up in the mind, or when feelings or sensations of a sensual character arise in the body without our having voluntarily caused them. These and similar causes make an assault on the will to induce it to give its consent to the evil proposed.
Does God Tempt or Not?
In the Sacred Scriptures we find two sets of passages, relating to temptations, that, at first sight, seem to contradict each other. One set appears to make God the author of temptations, while the other plainly denies this. Thus we read that “God tempted Abraham” (Genesis 22:1) while we are assured by St. James that “God tempts no man” (James 1:13). To reconcile these two seemingly contradictory statements, we must keep in mind that there are two distinct varieties of temptations: those which are known as temptations of probation and those which go by the name of temptations of solicitation.
Temptations of Probation
The word “probation” finds it root in the Latin verb “probare” which means “to examine, to test, to try or to prove.” By temptations of probation we understand all those special trials to which God at times subjects persons, to prove their virtue, to prepare them for some particular work, or to elevate them to a very high degree of holiness, as was the case with Abraham, the Egyptian Joseph, Job, and Tobias in the Old Law; and with St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and countless other saints in the New. Such temptations are not incitements to sin, but simply what the first meaning of the word implies: a proving or testing of a person’s virtue, as of Faith, hope, patience, etc. In this sense, it is quite correct to say that God tempts man.
Hence all such evils as sickness, loss of fortune, poverty, enmities, false accusations, persecutions, wars, and other calamities with which people, both the good and the bad, are often visited, can be designated as temptations sent by God, or temptations of probation.
Temptations of Solicitation
But the case is entirely different when there is question of temptations of solicitation. The word “solicitation” finds it root in the Latin verb “sollicitare” which means “to stir up, to arouse, to agitate, or to incite.” These are really incitements or allurements to violations of the law of God that come, directly or indirectly, from the Devil. They come from him directly by reason of the superior spiritual powers he possesses and by which he can, to a great extent, work on our imagination and senses and suggest evil to our mind. They come from him indirectly by what Sacred Scripture designates as “the flesh” and “the world,” or by what St. John more particularly calls “the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). Of these means the enemy of our souls makes constant use for the purpose of enticing us to commit sin.
The Providential Design Behind Temptations
Fr. Tanquerey, in his book The Spiritual Life, explains the providential reason and use that God makes of temptations: God Himself does not tempt us directly: “Let no man, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by God. For God is not a tempter of evils and He tempts no man” (James 1:13). But He allows us to be tempted by our spiritual enemies, at the same time giving us the graces necessary to resist: “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). And this for excellent reasons of His own.
1. He wants to make us merit Heaven.
Undoubtedly He could have bestowed upon us eternal life as a pure gift, but in His wisdom He has willed that we merit it as a reward. He even wills that the recompense be in proportion to the merit and hence in proportion to the obstacle overcome. Temptation, which imperils our frail virtue, is certainly one of the most trying hardships; to struggle courageously against it is one of the most meritorious acts we can perform; and once we have triumphed with God’s grace, we can repeat with St. Paul, that we have fought the good fight, and that it only remains for us to receive the crown of justice which God has prepared for us. The more we have done in order to merit that crown, the greater shall be our honor and our joy.
2. Temptation is likewise a means of purification.
(a) It reminds us that through lack of vigilance and of effort in the past we have fallen, and it becomes thus an occasion for new acts of contrition, shame, and humiliation, which make for the purification of the soul.
(b) It obliges us at the same time to put forth earnest and sustained efforts lest we fall; it makes us atone for our negligences and for our surrenders by the performance of contrary acts which further purify the soul. This is why when God wants to purify a soul more perfectly in order to raise it to contemplation, He allows it to undergo horrible temptations, as we shall see when treating of the unitive way.
3. Lastly, temptation is an instrument of spiritual progress.
(a) It is like a stripe of the lash that awakens us at the moment we would lull ourselves to sleep and relax. It makes us realize the necessity of forging ahead, of not halting midway, but of ever aiming higher, the more surely to remove the danger.
(b) It is a school of humility, of distrust of self. When tempted we realize more fully our weakness, our powerlessness; we feel more keenly the need of grace, and we pray with greater earnestness. We see all the better the necessity of mortifying in us the love of pleasure, the source of our temptations, and we embrace more eagerly the little crosses of every day in order to weaken the power of concupiscence.
(c) It is a school of love of God; for to insure our power of resistance, we throw ourselves into God’s arms there to seek for strength and shelter; we are more grateful to Him for His unfailing grace; we act towards Him as children of a most loving Father to Whom we have recourse in all our trials.
God’s Friends Will Be Tempted
Hence, temptation possesses manifold advantages and it is on this account that God allows His friends to be tempted: “Because you were acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove you” (Tobias 12:13). Which is why Fr. Faber says “Temptations are the raw material of glory” and St. James commands: “My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations!” (James 1:2).
St. Paul says: “What concord hath Christ with Belial?” (2 Corinthians 6:15). In Holy Scripture we see the account of Our Lord’s battle with Satan in the desert, after He had fasted and prayed for forty days and nights (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). In this triple temptation, Our Lord comes out on top against the wiles and temptations of Satan. It would seem that the prayer and fasting was the key to His victory. He Himself would later say, speaking of the devil: “This kind is not cast out except by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20). Which is something that He would essentially repeat during His Agony in the Garden, when He said to Peter, James and John: “Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation! The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak!” (Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38).
The Story of the Battle by Matthew
“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards He was hungry. And the tempter coming said to Him: ‘If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread!’ Who answered and said: ‘It is written, “Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God!”’ Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, and set Him upon the pinnacle of the Temple, and said to Him: ‘If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down, for it is written: “That He hath given His angels charge over Thee, and in their hands shall they bear Thee up, lest perhaps Thou dash thy foot against a stone!”’ Jesus said to him: ‘It is written again: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God!”’ Again the devil took Him up into a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and said to Him: ‘All these will I give Thee, if falling down Thou wilt adore me!’ Then Jesus saith to him: ‘Begone, Satan! For it is written, “The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve!”’ Then the devil left Him; and behold angels came and ministered to Him” (Matthew 4:1-11).
The Story of the Battle by Luke
“And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the desert, for the space of forty days; and was tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, He was hungry. And the devil said to Him: ‘If thou be the Son of God, say to this stone that it be made bread!’ And Jesus answered him: ‘It is written, that Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word of God!’ And the devil led Him into a high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time; and he said to Him: ‘To Thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them. If Thou therefore wilt adore before me, all shall be Thine!’ And Jesus answering said to him: ‘It is written: “Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve!”’ And he brought Him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the Temple, and he said to Him: ‘If Thou be the Son of God, cast thyself from hence. For it is written, that He hath given his angels charge over thee, that they keep thee! And that in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest perhaps Thou dash thy foot against a stone!’ And Jesus answering, said to him: ‘It is said: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God!”’ And all the temptation being ended, the devil departed from Him for a time” (Luke 4:1-13).
Satan Leaves Only For a Time
Even though he was defeated by Christ in the desert, Satan would return to fight another day and in another way. Our life is meant to be one long struggle, one long war. Holy Scripture is very adamant on this: “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1) … “Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8) … “Fight the good fight of Faith! Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you are called” (1 Timothy 6:12) … “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12). “And the Lord said: ‘Simon, Simon, behold Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat―but I have prayed for thee, that your Faith fail not!’” (Luke 22:31-32).
The Lessons of Temptation Sunday
On this First Sunday of Lent—in what we could “Temptation Sunday” because of the Sunday Gospel of Our Lord’s temptation in the desert—it would good to spend a good part of this week in exploring and understanding the necessity, mechanics, effects and consequences of temptation. Before all else, it is essential that we get as clear a notion as possible of the meaning of the word temptation. “Temptation” is derived from the Latin “tentare”, which means “to try” or “to test”. Accordingly, a temptation may be said to be a trying or a testing of the soul for the purpose of ascertaining its attitude toward God and its fidelity in the service it owes to Him.
Dom Gueranger, in his Liturgical Year, explains: “This Sunday is one of the most solemn throughout the year. We cannot we look upon Ash Wednesday as the solemn opening of the season; for the faithful are not bound to hear Mass on that day. Thus, Holy Church, seeing her children now assembled together, speaks to them: ‘Behold! Now is the acceptable time! Behold! Now is the day of salvation!’ Today she brings before us the temptation of Our Lord in the desert. We acknowledge ourselves to be sinners―but how was it that we fell into sin. The devil tempted us; we did not reject the temptation; then we yielded to the suggestion, and the sin was committed. Here we have the Saint of saints allowing the wicked spirit to approach Him, in order that we might learn, from His example, how we are to gain victory under temptation.”
It was divinely providential that Christ allowed Himself to be tempted by the devil at the beginning of His public ministry. He is teaching us one of the most important lessons we need to learn in life. If He, the living God in human form, was tempted by the evil spirit, then we must expect to be tempted as well. In order to imitate Christ, we must resist the devil as Christ, Himself, resisted the devil.
St. Ignatius has a key meditation in the Spiritual Exercises on what he calls the Two Standards. The Two Standards correspond to the two leaders in the world who are drawing people to follow them. One leader is Jesus Christ, who inspires believing Christians to dedicate themselves to the extension of His kingdom throughout the world. The other leader is Satan, who is trying to seduce people to follow him for the extension of his demonic kingdom, which, in the words of St. Augustine, is the City of Man, which is in constant conflict with the kingdom of Christ. The devil knows that you get nowhere alone, you inspire others to follow you. Then you train your followers and disciples and they will carry on your work. The devil trains his followers to seduce not just people or cities, but whole nations.
If there is one thing we learn from the masters of the spiritual life it is to expect to be tempted by the evil spirit. It was the evil spirit who tempted Eve and brought on the fall of the human race. As we reflect on temptations by the devil in our own lives, we must keep in mind who the devil is. He is the evil spirit. Spirit because he is not sensibly perceptible. We cannot hear him with our bodily ears or see him with our bodily eyes. He is an evil spirit whose number is legion and who has been phenomenally successful in seducing untold numbers from their allegiance to God.
Whose Side Are We On?
We have to make a choice in this world—do we live for Heaven and renounce the things of the world? Or do we live for this world and, despite our wishful thinking to the contrary, renounce the things of Heaven: “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (the world)” (Matthew 6:24). To the rich young man, Our Lord said: “‘If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:21-23).
Our Lord therefore separates Himself from this world: “And he said to them (Pharisees): ‘You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world’” (John 8:23). He tells Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36) and He says to us: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19).
Our Lord Teaches Us How to Fight
Fr. Leonard Goffine, in his The Church’s Year, writes: “Christ went into the desert to prepare, by fasting and prayer, for His mission, and to endure the temptations of Satan, and to show us by His own example, how we should, armed with the word of God, as with a sword, overcome the tempter … He has certainly taught us to overcome the hardest ones ― the lust of the eyes, of the flesh, and the pride of life, and if we overcome these, it will be easy to conquer the rest. If Christ permitted Himself to be tempted, it should not appear strange to us, that we are assailed by many temptations. St. Peter teaches us this: ‘Be sober and watch ― because your adversary the devil, as a roaring-lion, goes about, seeking whom he may devour!’ (1 Peter 5:8). Not all temptations are to be ascribed to the devil—‘the devil made me do it’―as they often come from our own corrupt nature, our own incautiousness, or looseness of our senses, by which we expose ourselves to the danger of falling into sin.”
St. Paul lists three chief enemies of the soul—the devil, the world and our own flesh: “When you were dead in your offences, and sins, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now works on the children of unbelief, [and] in the desires of our flesh” (Ephesians 2:1-3).
St. John tells us, we are tempted from three sources: by the world, the flesh, and the devil: “All that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16). The world is the attractive sinful conduct of other people. The flesh is our concupiscence, the natural inclination that we now have after the fall of the human race, to follow what appeals to us even though it is displeasing to God. The devil is, in some ways, the most powerful enemy we have in the spiritual life.
Dom Guéranger, looking at the third enemy indicated by St. John―our own flesh― further explains: “Concupiscence of the flesh is the love of sensual things, which covets whatever is agreeable to the flesh, and, when not curbed, draws the soul into unlawful pleasures. Concupiscence of the eyes is the love of the goods of this world, such as riches, and possessions; these dazzle the eye, and then seduce the heart. Pride of life is that confidence in ourselves, which leads us to be vain and presumptuous, and to forget that all we have, our life and every good gift, we have from God. Everyone of, our sins comes from one of these three sources; every one of our temptations aims at making us accept the concupiscence of the flesh, or the concupiscence of the eyes, or the pride of life” (The Liturgical Year).
Surrounded by Temptation
We know the verse from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: “Water, water everywhere—nor any drop to drink.” We could well change that to “Temptation, temptation everywhere—it puts us on the brink!” The Imitation of Christ has this to say on the subject of temptations:
“So long as we live in this world we cannot escape suffering and temptation. Whence it is written in Job: “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1). Everyone, therefore, must guard against temptation and must watch in prayer lest the devil, who never sleeps but goes about seeking whom he may devour, find occasion to deceive him. No one is so perfect or so holy but he is sometimes tempted; man cannot be altogether free from temptation.
“Yet temptations, though troublesome and severe, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed. The saints all passed through many temptations and trials to profit by them, while those who could not resist became reprobate and fell away. There is no state so holy, no place so secret that temptations and trials will not come. Man is never safe from them as long as he lives, for they come from within us — in sin we were born. When one temptation or trial passes, another comes; we shall always have something to suffer because we have lost the state of original blessedness.
“Many people try to escape temptations, only to fall more deeply. We cannot conquer simply by fleeing, but by patience and true humility we become stronger than all our enemies. The man who only shuns temptations outwardly and does not uproot them will make little progress; indeed they will quickly return, more violent than before.
“Little by little, in patience and long-suffering you will overcome them, by the help of God rather than by severity and your own rash ways. Often take counsel when tempted; and do not be harsh with others who are tempted, but console them as you yourself would wish to be consoled.
“The beginning of all temptation lies in a wavering mind and little trust in God, for as a rudderless ship is driven hither and yon by waves, so a careless and irresolute man is tempted in many ways. Fire tempers iron and temptation steels the just. Often we do not know what we can stand, but temptation shows us what we are. Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks.
“Someone has said very aptly: ‘Resist the beginnings; remedies come too late, when, by long delay, the evil has gained strength.’ First, a mere thought comes to mind, then strong imagination, followed by pleasure, evil delight, and consent. Thus, because he is not resisted in the beginning, Satan gains full entry. And the longer a man delays in resisting, so much the weaker does he become each day, while the strength of the enemy grows against him.
“Some suffer great temptations in the beginning of their conversion, others toward the end, while some are troubled almost constantly throughout their life. Others, again, are tempted but lightly according to the wisdom and justice of Divine Providence Who weighs the status and merit of each and prepares all for the salvation of His elect.
“We should not despair, therefore, when we are tempted, but pray to God the more fervently that He may see fit to help us, for according to the word of Paul, He will make issue with temptation that we may be able to bear it. Let us humble our souls under the hand of God in every trial and temptation for He will save and exalt the humble in spirit.
“In temptations and trials the progress of a man is measured; in them opportunity for merit and virtue is made more manifest. When a man is not troubled it is not hard for him to be fervent and devout, but if he bears up patiently in time of adversity, there is hope for great progress. Some, guarded against great temptations, are frequently overcome by small ones in order that, humbled by their weakness in small trials, they may not presume on their own strength in great ones” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 13).
St. John Vianney Speaks of Temptation
We are surrounded by temptations—some of them we negligently do not even classify as temptations because we have become so used to them. We live surrounded by danger and we dangerously dilly-dally with this danger, as the following passage from a sermon of St. John Vianney points out:
“In everything that we see, in everything that we hear, in all we say and do, we are conscious of the fact that we are drawn towards evil. If we are at table—there is sensuality, gluttony and intemperance. If we take a few moments of recreation—there are the dangers of flightiness and idle chatter. If we are at work, most of the time—then it is self-interest, or avarice, or envy which influences us, or even vanity. When we pray—there is negligence, distraction, distaste, and boredom. If we are in pain or any trouble—there are complaints and murmurings. When we are doing well and are prosperous—then pride, self-love, and contempt for our neighbor take hold of us. Our hearts swell with pride when we are praised. Wrongs inflame us into rages.
“There you see my dear brethren, the thing which made the greatest of the saints tremble. This was what made so many of them retire into the desert to live solitary lives; this was the source of so many tears, of so many prayers, of so many penances. It is true that the saints, who were hidden away in the forests, were not exempt from temptations, but they were far removed from so much bad example, as that which surrounds us continually and which is the cause of so many souls being lost.
“But, my dear brethren, we see from their lives that they watched, they prayed, and they were in dread unceasingly, while we, poor, blind sinners, are quite placid in the midst of so many dangers which could lose us our souls! Alas, my dear brethren, some of us do not even know what it is to be tempted because we hardly ever, or very rarely, resist. Which one of us can expect to escape from all these dangers? Which one of us will be saved? Anyone who wanted to reflect upon all these things could hardly go on living, so greatly terrified would he be! However, my dear brethren, what ought to console and reassure us is that we have to deal with a good Father Who will never allow our struggles to be greater than our strength, and every time we have recourse to Him, He will help us to fight and to conquer” (St. John Vianney, Sermon on Temptation).
Battles and Bullets
That is why we are not to love the world, for the world belongs to the devil, an enemy of God: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15), for “know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Thus we have two opposing camps in this world—the one of God and the one of the devil. There can be no spectators in this battle, for, as Our Lord says: “He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathers not with Me, scatters!” (Matthew 12:30). Therefore, once again, we are born into a battle and the first enemy we meet on the battlefield is temptation, or, to put it another way, the first things will encounter will be the bullets of temptation. That is why Holy Scripture warns us: “Son, when you come to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare your soul for temptation” (Ecclesiasticus 2:1), “and because you were acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove you” (Tobias 12:13).
The Prince and His Kingdom
The devil, ruling the world, will use the world to tempt us and he will unite the temptations of the world to his own direct temptations in order to break-down our resistance. He will use persons, places and things to draw us away from God and into an addiction to the things the world can offer. The chief weapon of Satan is temptation—it is like a universal tool. It can be applied to any subject and to any person at any time. It was the weapon that was first successfully used against Adam and Eve, and it has stood the test of time. From Satan’s point of view, it is a very successful weapon, since, as most Saints and Father of the Church tell us, most souls end up being damned—yet that damnation is not inevitable and could have easily been avoided, if only they would have perseveringly taken the precautions that Christ has given us through His Church.
St. Paul speaks of these temptations in his own life: “We know that the law is spiritual―but I am carnal, sold under sin! For the things that I do, I understand not. For I do not that good which I want to do―but I do the evil which I hate! … Then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. I know that there does not dwell in me―in my flesh―that which is good. To will or want, is present with me―but to accomplish that which is good, I do not find! For the good which I want to do―I do not do! But the evil which I do not want to do―that I do! Now if I do that which I do not want to do, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find that when I have a desire to do good, there is evil present within me! For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man, but I see another law in my body, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin that is in my body! Unhappy man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord! Therefore, I myself, with the mind, serve the law of God―but with the flesh, the law of sin!” (Romans 7:14-25).
Soldiers of the Devil
Once drawn away from God and being true soldiers of Christ―we become soldiers of the devil—”the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness” (Matthew 8:12), where they become “the children of unbelief … children of this world … being fettered with the bonds of darkness” (Ephesians 5:6; Luke 16:8; Wisdom 17:2). These, newly-won recruits to the ranks of the world, the devil will use to entice others away from God. “They adored the dragon, which gave power to the beast: and they adored the beast, saying: ‘Who is like to the beast? And who shall be able to fight with him?’” (Apocalypse 13:4). “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
No Peace With the Enemy
“Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now works on the children of unbelief. In which also we all conversed in time past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest” (Ephesians 2:2-3). “Let us cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). “You are the children of light, and children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11). “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation has justice with injustice? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part have the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-16). “Fight the good fight of Faith!” (1 Timothy 6:12) and “war in them a good warfare” (1 Timothy 1:18). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12).
The Weapons of Warfare
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal” (2 Corinthians 10:4). “Put you on the armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. In all things taking the shield of Faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. By all prayer and supplication praying at all times in the spirit; and in the same watching with all instance and supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:11-18).
We Don’t Like to Fight―We Don’t Want to Fight―So We Don’t Fight!
Our problem is that the soul was instinctively made for peace, not war—but sin has brought inescapable war into the world. “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1). Our Lord adds fuel to this fire saying: “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! For, from henceforth, there shall be five in one house divided—three against two, and two against three! And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household! The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Luke 13:51-53; Matthew 10:36-37).
It is tempting to avoid family confrontation over religious and spiritual things, for the sake of peace. We are tempted to “go along to get along” and fear “rocking the boat” out of this human respect, of which Our Lady of Good Success says: “Cursed human respect, which makes one ask: ‘What will others say about this?’”
To avoid or lessen spirituality in the home—for the sake of a human peace—is to betray Christ: “Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33). Put God before man!
Beware If You Have No Temptations
“If you have no temptations,” St. Gregory tells us, “it is because the devils are your friends, your leaders, and your shepherds. And by allowing you to pass your poor life tranquilly, to the end of your days, they will drag you down into the depths.” St. Augustine tells us that the greatest temptation is not to have temptations, because this means that one is a person who has been rejected, abandoned by God, and left entirely in the grip of one’s own passions. St. John Vianney explains: “If Our Lord was tempted, it was in order to show us that we must be also. It follows, therefore, that we must expect temptation. If you ask me what is the cause of our temptations, I shall tell you that it is the beauty and the great worth and importance of our souls which the Devil values and which he loves so much that he would consent to suffer two Hells, if necessary, if by so doing he could drag our souls into Hell” (St. John Vianney).
Material of Glory
Fr. Frederick Faber tells us that “Temptations are the raw material of glory.” That is why St. James says: “My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations!” (James 1:2), to which St. Peter will add: “You shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations: so that the trial of your Faith (much more precious than gold which is tried by the fire) may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
A Testing and Trying Time
To a great extent, temptations are to the spiritual life, what various tests on machines and materials are to mechanical and building operations. Before a steam boiler is put into operation, its ability to withstand a determined pressure of steam is ascertained by subjecting it to a rigorous test. Before a beam is placed in a building, its carrying strength is determined. And so in hundreds of other cases. The machines and materials are put through stresses designed to show whether they will prove adequate to the demand that will be made on them. By a transfer of meaning, we can say that they are tempted.
This, then, is the meaning of temptation — a trial or a test. In the service of God, souls are tested or tried in order that the quality of their love for God and their devotion to Him may become known, and that they may at the same time be given opportunities of winning for themselves large treasures of grace and merit. Temptations, therefore, are meant to reveal whether the love that a soul claims to have for God is genuine and true, and not mere hollow sham and vain pretense. They are the acid test of the spiritual life.
Sifting the True form the Fake
It is well known that there are certain substances that look so much like gold that they are often mistaken for that precious metal by ignorant and inexperienced persons. Many a man has been deceived by the worthless substance commonly known as “fool’s gold.” To discover whether minerals that look like gold are the genuine metal, an assayer employs special tests. One of these consists in subjecting the substance to the action of strong nitric acid. If the substance is gold, the acid will have no effect on it; if it is not, it will break up and dissolve — an easy way of proving that what was thought to be gold was nothing more than worthless dross.
This has its parallel in the spiritual world. There are many souls parading before men what appears to be solid and genuine virtue. An acid test is needed to re-veal the true character of these souls. This is supplied by temptations. The soul that truly loves God, will not allow itself to be overcome by them, but will remain firm and immovable in the keeping of His holy law; whereas that which is only a pretender, will offer but little resistance, or perhaps none at all.
God Causes Some ‘Temptations’ and Permits Others
When the man on the street speaks of temptations, it is commonly understood as an incitement or allurement to some sin, brought about by either suggestion, the fear of suffering, or the offer of some good or pleasure. It may be an external temptation, such as the sight of objects, e.g., books, improper pictures, immodestly dressed persons; or by hearing, e.g., of suggestive or obscene stories, attacks on religion or the Church, detraction, or calumny. Or it may be an internal temptation, as when evil thoughts, imaginings, or desires spring up in the mind, or when feelings or sensations of a sensual character arise in the body without our having voluntarily caused them. These and similar causes make an assault on the will to induce it to give its consent to the evil proposed.
Does God Tempt or Not?
In the Sacred Scriptures we find two sets of passages, relating to temptations, that, at first sight, seem to contradict each other. One set appears to make God the author of temptations, while the other plainly denies this. Thus we read that “God tempted Abraham” (Genesis 22:1) while we are assured by St. James that “God tempts no man” (James 1:13). To reconcile these two seemingly contradictory statements, we must keep in mind that there are two distinct varieties of temptations: those which are known as temptations of probation and those which go by the name of temptations of solicitation.
Temptations of Probation
The word “probation” finds it root in the Latin verb “probare” which means “to examine, to test, to try or to prove.” By temptations of probation we understand all those special trials to which God at times subjects persons, to prove their virtue, to prepare them for some particular work, or to elevate them to a very high degree of holiness, as was the case with Abraham, the Egyptian Joseph, Job, and Tobias in the Old Law; and with St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and countless other saints in the New. Such temptations are not incitements to sin, but simply what the first meaning of the word implies: a proving or testing of a person’s virtue, as of Faith, hope, patience, etc. In this sense, it is quite correct to say that God tempts man.
Hence all such evils as sickness, loss of fortune, poverty, enmities, false accusations, persecutions, wars, and other calamities with which people, both the good and the bad, are often visited, can be designated as temptations sent by God, or temptations of probation.
Temptations of Solicitation
But the case is entirely different when there is question of temptations of solicitation. The word “solicitation” finds it root in the Latin verb “sollicitare” which means “to stir up, to arouse, to agitate, or to incite.” These are really incitements or allurements to violations of the law of God that come, directly or indirectly, from the Devil. They come from him directly by reason of the superior spiritual powers he possesses and by which he can, to a great extent, work on our imagination and senses and suggest evil to our mind. They come from him indirectly by what Sacred Scripture designates as “the flesh” and “the world,” or by what St. John more particularly calls “the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). Of these means the enemy of our souls makes constant use for the purpose of enticing us to commit sin.
The Providential Design Behind Temptations
Fr. Tanquerey, in his book The Spiritual Life, explains the providential reason and use that God makes of temptations: God Himself does not tempt us directly: “Let no man, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by God. For God is not a tempter of evils and He tempts no man” (James 1:13). But He allows us to be tempted by our spiritual enemies, at the same time giving us the graces necessary to resist: “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). And this for excellent reasons of His own.
1. He wants to make us merit Heaven.
Undoubtedly He could have bestowed upon us eternal life as a pure gift, but in His wisdom He has willed that we merit it as a reward. He even wills that the recompense be in proportion to the merit and hence in proportion to the obstacle overcome. Temptation, which imperils our frail virtue, is certainly one of the most trying hardships; to struggle courageously against it is one of the most meritorious acts we can perform; and once we have triumphed with God’s grace, we can repeat with St. Paul, that we have fought the good fight, and that it only remains for us to receive the crown of justice which God has prepared for us. The more we have done in order to merit that crown, the greater shall be our honor and our joy.
2. Temptation is likewise a means of purification.
(a) It reminds us that through lack of vigilance and of effort in the past we have fallen, and it becomes thus an occasion for new acts of contrition, shame, and humiliation, which make for the purification of the soul.
(b) It obliges us at the same time to put forth earnest and sustained efforts lest we fall; it makes us atone for our negligences and for our surrenders by the performance of contrary acts which further purify the soul. This is why when God wants to purify a soul more perfectly in order to raise it to contemplation, He allows it to undergo horrible temptations, as we shall see when treating of the unitive way.
3. Lastly, temptation is an instrument of spiritual progress.
(a) It is like a stripe of the lash that awakens us at the moment we would lull ourselves to sleep and relax. It makes us realize the necessity of forging ahead, of not halting midway, but of ever aiming higher, the more surely to remove the danger.
(b) It is a school of humility, of distrust of self. When tempted we realize more fully our weakness, our powerlessness; we feel more keenly the need of grace, and we pray with greater earnestness. We see all the better the necessity of mortifying in us the love of pleasure, the source of our temptations, and we embrace more eagerly the little crosses of every day in order to weaken the power of concupiscence.
(c) It is a school of love of God; for to insure our power of resistance, we throw ourselves into God’s arms there to seek for strength and shelter; we are more grateful to Him for His unfailing grace; we act towards Him as children of a most loving Father to Whom we have recourse in all our trials.
God’s Friends Will Be Tempted
Hence, temptation possesses manifold advantages and it is on this account that God allows His friends to be tempted: “Because you were acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove you” (Tobias 12:13). Which is why Fr. Faber says “Temptations are the raw material of glory” and St. James commands: “My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations!” (James 1:2).
Article 4
Saturday after Ash Wednesday, February 21st
God’s Mortgage for You! Are You Making Payments?
Saturday after Ash Wednesday, February 21st
God’s Mortgage for You! Are You Making Payments?
Ash Wednesday Mortgage
On Ash Wednesday, a large number of Catholics went to their local church in order to get a “mortgage” from God! “Huh!” you say, “Are you nuts or something? That sounds insane!” Well, it’s not so insane if you dig a bit deeper into the ashes to see what is found beneath the surface!
As the ashes were smeared onto your forehead, the priest said: “Remember man that you are dust and to dust you shall return!” This, of course, finds its root in God’s words to Adam after he (and Eve) had committed the sin of eating the forbidden fruit: “And God said to Adam: ‘Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate of the tree, whereof I commanded you that you should not eat, cursed is the earth in your work―with labor and toil you shall eat thereof all the days of thy life! Thorns and thistles shall the earth bring to you; and you shall eat the herbs of the earth! In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the earth―out of which you were taken! For you are dust and into dust you shall return!’” (Genesis 3:17-19). In other words, God was telling Adam that he was sentenced to death―because God had earlier warned Adam of the consequences of eating the fruit of certain tree which God had commanded Adam not to eat: “And God commanded Adam, saying: ‘Of every tree of paradise you shall eat―but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in what day soever you shalt eat of it, you shall die the death!’” (Genesis 2:16-17).
God had created Adam with the possibility of not dying. Death was threatened in the event of Adam and Eve sinning against God by disobeying His command. If they would not have sinned―then, after a certain period of time, God would have taken them into Heaven. They failed the test! Through the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, all the human race was condemned to die―because nobody, not even Adam and Eve, had an automatic and inalienable right to immortality―it was all dependent upon the avoidance of sin. As Holy Scripture explains: “God created man incorruptible. But, by the envy of the devil, death came into the world” (Wisdom 2:23-24). “From the woman came the beginning of sin, and by her we all die!” (Ecclesiasticus 25:33). “By one man sin entered into this world [like a virus―the virus of Original Sin], and, by sin, death―and so death passed upon all men, all of whom have sinned!” (Romans 5:12). “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15).
Mortgage of Death
“Okay,” you say, “I understand that! But how does a mortgage come into all of this?” Everything has its price! Sin is no different. That is why Lent is here and the Church forces us to pay something—we can either pay for the whole hog, or we can take-out a mortgage for sin and start paying some installments. The word “mortgage” actually contains an element of the price for sin. The word “mortgage” is a compound of two words--”mort” and “gage”. The word “mort” is a French word meaning “death” and comes from the Latin “mors, mortis”. The word “gage” is also a French word meaning “pledge”—thus giving the compound word a literal meaning of “dead pledge”— which has a late 14th century origin, “morgage” meaning a “conveyance of property as security for a loan or agreement.” “Mortgage” or “mortgage” is so called because the “deal dies” either when the debt is paid, or when payment fails.
God made a similar “dead pledge” or “pledge of death” with Adam and Eve, telling them that if they were to disobey Him by eating the ‘forbidden fruit’ then they would die the death! Thus, death is price for sin! St. Paul reminds us of this: “For the wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23), which is nothing other than what God said through His prophet Ezechiel: “The soul that sins, the same shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:4). By our sins―our many sins―we can no longer afford Heaven! Thus we have to take out a “mortgage” ― a “pledge of death.” It is, in a certain sense, a double “pledge of death” ― whereby God has pledged that we shall die for our sins: “Every man shall die for his own sin!” (2 Paralipomenon 25:4); yet the flip-side of that “pledge of death” is our chance to pay the price for our sins by pledging to die to sin and to pay the debt for sin by penance.
Death to Sin
As Holy Scripture points out: “For we that are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein? We, who are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in His death! For we are buried together with Him by Baptism into death; so that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life! Our old man is crucified with him, so that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer. For he that is dead is justified from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ. Christ died to sin … So do you also reckon, that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let no sin therefore reign in your mortal body!” (Romans 6:2-11).
Missing Mortgage Payments
Unfortunately, that is not the kind of “death to sin” that modern man envisages. For modern man, sin is no big deal―and therefore modern man thinks that God’s “mortgage” payments are set far too high! Hence modern man pays little attention to the ancient teaching of God and His Church. As Pope Pius XII said: “The greatest sin today is that men have lost the sense of sin.” The Catechism tells us: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth” … “Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … [Venial Sin] is second only in evil consequences to Mortal Sin” (Spirago-Clarke, The Catechism Explained; Bishop Morrow, STD, My Catholic Faith).
“For the wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). If you, or a beloved member of your family, had a disease that was mortal and was going to result in an imminent death, unless a certain very expensive treatment was procured—most persons would do all could to scrape together all they could to pay for that treatment. People spend hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to maintain their lives and ward-off death. Yet they are still doomed to die! What are you prepared to pay for eternal ‘health’ and eternal life in Heaven? What are you prepared to pay to be cured of the disease of sin that prevents such a bliss? Many don’t even want to pay anything! They expect it for free!
Paying Thousands for Health―Paying a Pittance for Sin!
One would like to think that people would care far more about their spiritual health than they care about their physical health―but that just seems to be wishful thinking! If we are willing to spend thousands of dollars to ward-off death and sickness―then why don’t we put an equal effort into warding-off the death of Mortal Sin and the sickness of Venial Sin? After all, Mortal and Venial Sin are far worse than physical death and sickness ― “Sin is the only evil upon Earth” … “Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … [Venial Sin] is second only in evil consequences to Mortal Sin” (Spirago-Clarke, The Catechism Explained; Bishop Morrow, STD, My Catholic Faith). It just does not pay to sin! “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15). Death usually comes through sickness―or in fewer cases through accidents or violence. Sin will be punished by God―either in this world or in the next. “For whom the Lord loves, He chastises!” (Proverbs 3:12). “He never withdraws His mercy from us―although He chastises and disciplines us with misfortunes!” (Machabees 2:16-17). That is why God asks that we do penance in this world and accept the sufferings He kindly sends our way. It is far less expensive and far less painful to be chastised in this world than in the fires of Purgatory or Hell! Remember that St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that the fires of Purgatory are the same fire as the fires of Hell! And Our Lord says: “Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last penny!” (Matthew 5:26).
Our Lady Speaks of Our Debts to God
In her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady speaks of our double debt to God―a debt for having been created in the first place; and another debt for the sins that we have committed in our lifetime:
“The fact that God created man was of no benefit to Himself―but to man it was a benefit, and one as great as the being given to him, and as high as the object for which it was given. And if, in his creation, man becomes indebted so much that he never can pay his debt, tell me―what right can he invoke at present for his preservation? Let mankind acknowledge its condition―for no one can say: “I have made myself, I preserve myself in existence, I can prolong my life or postpone death!” All his being and preservation is in the hands of the Lord! Has he not received his being without merit and many times forfeited it by sin? How can he claim the guarantee and pledge of unfailing plenty? If the first transaction and operation was a mortgage and a debt by which man binds himself, how can he with such impatience demand favors? And if in spite of all this, the supreme goodness of the Creator furnishes him graciously with what is necessary, why should he be agitated by the lack of superfluities.
“O what an execrable disorder and what a despicable blindness of mortals is this? For that, which the Lord gives them gratuitously, they do not thank Him, or even give Him acknowledgment; and for that, which He denies them justly and sometimes most mercifully, they are restless and proudly desirous, and they try to procure it by unjust and forbidden means, throwing themselves into the very destruction which flies from them.
“The first sin alone, committed by man, was sufficient to cancel man’s right to the friendly service of all the other creatures; and if the Lord Himself would not restrain them, they would turn in vengeance upon man and refuse to render any service or help for sustaining his life. The heavens would deny them their light and benign influences, the fire would refuse its heat, the air would cease to serve for respiration, and all the other things would in their particular way refuse their services, since they would in justice be bound to refuse them. Then when the Earth would deny its fruits, and the elements their moderation and their assistance, and all the other creatures would arm themselves to avenge the wrongs of their Creator, perhaps disgraced man would humiliate himself in his vileness and would not heap up the wrath of the Lord for the unerring day of accounting, when all his dreadful guilt will be exposed.
“Corporal penances are so appropriate and fitted to mortal creatures, that the ignorance of this truth and the neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. The first reason why men should afflict their body and mortify their flesh is their having been conceived in sin. By this Original Sin human nature is depraved, filled with passions, rebellious to reason, inclined to evil and adverse to the spirit. If the soul allows itself to be carried away by them, it will be precipitated by the first vice into many others. But if this beastly flesh is curbed by mortification and penance, it loses its strength and acknowledges the authority of the spirit and the light of truth.
“The second reason is that none of the mortals have altogether avoided sinning against God; and the punishment and retribution must inevitably correspond to the guilt, either in this life or the next; therefore, as the soul commits sin in union with the body, it follows that both of them must be punished. The interior sorrow is not sufficient for atonement, if the flesh seeks to evade the punishment corresponding to the guilt. Moreover, the debt is so great and the satisfaction that can be given by the creature so limited and scanty that there remains continual uncertainty whether the Judge is satisfied even after the exertions of a whole lifetime: hence, the soul should find no rest to the end of life.
“Even though divine clemency is so generous towards men, so that, if they try to satisfy for their sins by penance as far as their limited capacity goes, God remits their offenses and in addition thereto has promised the guilty ones new gifts and graces and eternal rewards: yet His faithful and prudent servants, who really love their Lord, are constrained voluntarily to add other penances―for the debtor who merely wishes to do what he is obliged to and adds nothing of his own freewill, certainly pays his debts, but will remain poor and destitute, if after payment of his debts nothing remains. What then are those to expect, who neither pay nor make any efforts towards paying?
“The third reason for bodily mortification, and the most urgent one, is the duty of Christians to imitate their divine Teacher and Master. Moreover, my divine Son and I, without being guilty of any faults, or bad inclinations, devoted ourselves to labors and made our lives a continual practice of penance and mortification of the flesh. It was thus that the Lord saw fit to attain the glory of His Body and of His holy Name, and He wished me to follow Him in all things. If We then pursued such a course of life because it was reasonable, what must be thought of mortals that seek nothing but sweetness and delight, and abhor all penances, affronts, ignominies, fasting and mortification? Shall then only Christ, our Lord, and I suffer all these hardships while the guilt laden debtors and deservers of all these punishments throw themselves head over heels into the filth of their carnal inclinations? Shall they employ their faculties, given to them for the service of Christ, my Lord, and for His following, merely in dancing attendance on their lusts and the devil, who has introduced evil into the world? This absurd position, maintained by the children of Adam, is the cause of great indignation in the just Judge.
“It is true that by the bodily afflictions and mortifications of my most blessed Son, the defects and deficiencies of human merits have been atoned for; and that He wished me, as a mere creature and as one taking the place of other creatures, to cooperate with Him most perfectly and exactly all in His penances and exercises. But this was not in order to exempt men from the practice of penance, but in order to encourage them to it―for in order merely to save them, it was not necessary to suffer so much. Our blessed Savior wished also to enhance the labors and penances of those who were to follow in His footsteps―for the efforts of creatures are of little value in the eyes of God unless they are made precious by the merits of Christ.
“If this is true of works which are entirely virtuous and perfect, how much more is it true of those which are infected with so many faults and deficiencies, even in the greatest acts of virtue, as ordinarily performed by the children of Adam? For in the works of even the most spiritual and virtuous persons many deficiencies occur. These deficiencies are made good by the merits of Christ, our Lord, so that the works of men may become acceptable to the eternal Father. But those who neglect good works and remain altogether idle, can by no means expect to apply to themselves the good works of Christ―for they have in themselves nothing that can be perfected by the works of Christ, but only such things as deserve condemnation. Chastise thy body with ever greater severity, and remember that you are deficient in many things, while you have but a short life and are so weak and incapable of repaying your debts.” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, taken from The Mystical City of God).
On Ash Wednesday, a large number of Catholics went to their local church in order to get a “mortgage” from God! “Huh!” you say, “Are you nuts or something? That sounds insane!” Well, it’s not so insane if you dig a bit deeper into the ashes to see what is found beneath the surface!
As the ashes were smeared onto your forehead, the priest said: “Remember man that you are dust and to dust you shall return!” This, of course, finds its root in God’s words to Adam after he (and Eve) had committed the sin of eating the forbidden fruit: “And God said to Adam: ‘Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate of the tree, whereof I commanded you that you should not eat, cursed is the earth in your work―with labor and toil you shall eat thereof all the days of thy life! Thorns and thistles shall the earth bring to you; and you shall eat the herbs of the earth! In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the earth―out of which you were taken! For you are dust and into dust you shall return!’” (Genesis 3:17-19). In other words, God was telling Adam that he was sentenced to death―because God had earlier warned Adam of the consequences of eating the fruit of certain tree which God had commanded Adam not to eat: “And God commanded Adam, saying: ‘Of every tree of paradise you shall eat―but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in what day soever you shalt eat of it, you shall die the death!’” (Genesis 2:16-17).
God had created Adam with the possibility of not dying. Death was threatened in the event of Adam and Eve sinning against God by disobeying His command. If they would not have sinned―then, after a certain period of time, God would have taken them into Heaven. They failed the test! Through the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, all the human race was condemned to die―because nobody, not even Adam and Eve, had an automatic and inalienable right to immortality―it was all dependent upon the avoidance of sin. As Holy Scripture explains: “God created man incorruptible. But, by the envy of the devil, death came into the world” (Wisdom 2:23-24). “From the woman came the beginning of sin, and by her we all die!” (Ecclesiasticus 25:33). “By one man sin entered into this world [like a virus―the virus of Original Sin], and, by sin, death―and so death passed upon all men, all of whom have sinned!” (Romans 5:12). “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15).
Mortgage of Death
“Okay,” you say, “I understand that! But how does a mortgage come into all of this?” Everything has its price! Sin is no different. That is why Lent is here and the Church forces us to pay something—we can either pay for the whole hog, or we can take-out a mortgage for sin and start paying some installments. The word “mortgage” actually contains an element of the price for sin. The word “mortgage” is a compound of two words--”mort” and “gage”. The word “mort” is a French word meaning “death” and comes from the Latin “mors, mortis”. The word “gage” is also a French word meaning “pledge”—thus giving the compound word a literal meaning of “dead pledge”— which has a late 14th century origin, “morgage” meaning a “conveyance of property as security for a loan or agreement.” “Mortgage” or “mortgage” is so called because the “deal dies” either when the debt is paid, or when payment fails.
God made a similar “dead pledge” or “pledge of death” with Adam and Eve, telling them that if they were to disobey Him by eating the ‘forbidden fruit’ then they would die the death! Thus, death is price for sin! St. Paul reminds us of this: “For the wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23), which is nothing other than what God said through His prophet Ezechiel: “The soul that sins, the same shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:4). By our sins―our many sins―we can no longer afford Heaven! Thus we have to take out a “mortgage” ― a “pledge of death.” It is, in a certain sense, a double “pledge of death” ― whereby God has pledged that we shall die for our sins: “Every man shall die for his own sin!” (2 Paralipomenon 25:4); yet the flip-side of that “pledge of death” is our chance to pay the price for our sins by pledging to die to sin and to pay the debt for sin by penance.
Death to Sin
As Holy Scripture points out: “For we that are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein? We, who are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in His death! For we are buried together with Him by Baptism into death; so that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life! Our old man is crucified with him, so that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer. For he that is dead is justified from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ. Christ died to sin … So do you also reckon, that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let no sin therefore reign in your mortal body!” (Romans 6:2-11).
Missing Mortgage Payments
Unfortunately, that is not the kind of “death to sin” that modern man envisages. For modern man, sin is no big deal―and therefore modern man thinks that God’s “mortgage” payments are set far too high! Hence modern man pays little attention to the ancient teaching of God and His Church. As Pope Pius XII said: “The greatest sin today is that men have lost the sense of sin.” The Catechism tells us: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth” … “Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … [Venial Sin] is second only in evil consequences to Mortal Sin” (Spirago-Clarke, The Catechism Explained; Bishop Morrow, STD, My Catholic Faith).
“For the wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). If you, or a beloved member of your family, had a disease that was mortal and was going to result in an imminent death, unless a certain very expensive treatment was procured—most persons would do all could to scrape together all they could to pay for that treatment. People spend hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to maintain their lives and ward-off death. Yet they are still doomed to die! What are you prepared to pay for eternal ‘health’ and eternal life in Heaven? What are you prepared to pay to be cured of the disease of sin that prevents such a bliss? Many don’t even want to pay anything! They expect it for free!
Paying Thousands for Health―Paying a Pittance for Sin!
One would like to think that people would care far more about their spiritual health than they care about their physical health―but that just seems to be wishful thinking! If we are willing to spend thousands of dollars to ward-off death and sickness―then why don’t we put an equal effort into warding-off the death of Mortal Sin and the sickness of Venial Sin? After all, Mortal and Venial Sin are far worse than physical death and sickness ― “Sin is the only evil upon Earth” … “Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … [Venial Sin] is second only in evil consequences to Mortal Sin” (Spirago-Clarke, The Catechism Explained; Bishop Morrow, STD, My Catholic Faith). It just does not pay to sin! “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15). Death usually comes through sickness―or in fewer cases through accidents or violence. Sin will be punished by God―either in this world or in the next. “For whom the Lord loves, He chastises!” (Proverbs 3:12). “He never withdraws His mercy from us―although He chastises and disciplines us with misfortunes!” (Machabees 2:16-17). That is why God asks that we do penance in this world and accept the sufferings He kindly sends our way. It is far less expensive and far less painful to be chastised in this world than in the fires of Purgatory or Hell! Remember that St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that the fires of Purgatory are the same fire as the fires of Hell! And Our Lord says: “Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last penny!” (Matthew 5:26).
Our Lady Speaks of Our Debts to God
In her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady speaks of our double debt to God―a debt for having been created in the first place; and another debt for the sins that we have committed in our lifetime:
“The fact that God created man was of no benefit to Himself―but to man it was a benefit, and one as great as the being given to him, and as high as the object for which it was given. And if, in his creation, man becomes indebted so much that he never can pay his debt, tell me―what right can he invoke at present for his preservation? Let mankind acknowledge its condition―for no one can say: “I have made myself, I preserve myself in existence, I can prolong my life or postpone death!” All his being and preservation is in the hands of the Lord! Has he not received his being without merit and many times forfeited it by sin? How can he claim the guarantee and pledge of unfailing plenty? If the first transaction and operation was a mortgage and a debt by which man binds himself, how can he with such impatience demand favors? And if in spite of all this, the supreme goodness of the Creator furnishes him graciously with what is necessary, why should he be agitated by the lack of superfluities.
“O what an execrable disorder and what a despicable blindness of mortals is this? For that, which the Lord gives them gratuitously, they do not thank Him, or even give Him acknowledgment; and for that, which He denies them justly and sometimes most mercifully, they are restless and proudly desirous, and they try to procure it by unjust and forbidden means, throwing themselves into the very destruction which flies from them.
“The first sin alone, committed by man, was sufficient to cancel man’s right to the friendly service of all the other creatures; and if the Lord Himself would not restrain them, they would turn in vengeance upon man and refuse to render any service or help for sustaining his life. The heavens would deny them their light and benign influences, the fire would refuse its heat, the air would cease to serve for respiration, and all the other things would in their particular way refuse their services, since they would in justice be bound to refuse them. Then when the Earth would deny its fruits, and the elements their moderation and their assistance, and all the other creatures would arm themselves to avenge the wrongs of their Creator, perhaps disgraced man would humiliate himself in his vileness and would not heap up the wrath of the Lord for the unerring day of accounting, when all his dreadful guilt will be exposed.
“Corporal penances are so appropriate and fitted to mortal creatures, that the ignorance of this truth and the neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. The first reason why men should afflict their body and mortify their flesh is their having been conceived in sin. By this Original Sin human nature is depraved, filled with passions, rebellious to reason, inclined to evil and adverse to the spirit. If the soul allows itself to be carried away by them, it will be precipitated by the first vice into many others. But if this beastly flesh is curbed by mortification and penance, it loses its strength and acknowledges the authority of the spirit and the light of truth.
“The second reason is that none of the mortals have altogether avoided sinning against God; and the punishment and retribution must inevitably correspond to the guilt, either in this life or the next; therefore, as the soul commits sin in union with the body, it follows that both of them must be punished. The interior sorrow is not sufficient for atonement, if the flesh seeks to evade the punishment corresponding to the guilt. Moreover, the debt is so great and the satisfaction that can be given by the creature so limited and scanty that there remains continual uncertainty whether the Judge is satisfied even after the exertions of a whole lifetime: hence, the soul should find no rest to the end of life.
“Even though divine clemency is so generous towards men, so that, if they try to satisfy for their sins by penance as far as their limited capacity goes, God remits their offenses and in addition thereto has promised the guilty ones new gifts and graces and eternal rewards: yet His faithful and prudent servants, who really love their Lord, are constrained voluntarily to add other penances―for the debtor who merely wishes to do what he is obliged to and adds nothing of his own freewill, certainly pays his debts, but will remain poor and destitute, if after payment of his debts nothing remains. What then are those to expect, who neither pay nor make any efforts towards paying?
“The third reason for bodily mortification, and the most urgent one, is the duty of Christians to imitate their divine Teacher and Master. Moreover, my divine Son and I, without being guilty of any faults, or bad inclinations, devoted ourselves to labors and made our lives a continual practice of penance and mortification of the flesh. It was thus that the Lord saw fit to attain the glory of His Body and of His holy Name, and He wished me to follow Him in all things. If We then pursued such a course of life because it was reasonable, what must be thought of mortals that seek nothing but sweetness and delight, and abhor all penances, affronts, ignominies, fasting and mortification? Shall then only Christ, our Lord, and I suffer all these hardships while the guilt laden debtors and deservers of all these punishments throw themselves head over heels into the filth of their carnal inclinations? Shall they employ their faculties, given to them for the service of Christ, my Lord, and for His following, merely in dancing attendance on their lusts and the devil, who has introduced evil into the world? This absurd position, maintained by the children of Adam, is the cause of great indignation in the just Judge.
“It is true that by the bodily afflictions and mortifications of my most blessed Son, the defects and deficiencies of human merits have been atoned for; and that He wished me, as a mere creature and as one taking the place of other creatures, to cooperate with Him most perfectly and exactly all in His penances and exercises. But this was not in order to exempt men from the practice of penance, but in order to encourage them to it―for in order merely to save them, it was not necessary to suffer so much. Our blessed Savior wished also to enhance the labors and penances of those who were to follow in His footsteps―for the efforts of creatures are of little value in the eyes of God unless they are made precious by the merits of Christ.
“If this is true of works which are entirely virtuous and perfect, how much more is it true of those which are infected with so many faults and deficiencies, even in the greatest acts of virtue, as ordinarily performed by the children of Adam? For in the works of even the most spiritual and virtuous persons many deficiencies occur. These deficiencies are made good by the merits of Christ, our Lord, so that the works of men may become acceptable to the eternal Father. But those who neglect good works and remain altogether idle, can by no means expect to apply to themselves the good works of Christ―for they have in themselves nothing that can be perfected by the works of Christ, but only such things as deserve condemnation. Chastise thy body with ever greater severity, and remember that you are deficient in many things, while you have but a short life and are so weak and incapable of repaying your debts.” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, taken from The Mystical City of God).
Article 3
Thursday & Friday after Ash Wednesday, February 19th & 20th
Did You Look in the Mirror on Ash Wednesday?
Thursday & Friday after Ash Wednesday, February 19th & 20th
Did You Look in the Mirror on Ash Wednesday?
Snowy Days, Ashes and Mirrors!
Recently, many persons the U.S. have received a lot of white snow! Recently (yesterday), many persons have received black ashes! The white snow makes us think of Snow-White―and Snow White makes us think of the Evil Queen who was always looking in her Magic Mirror, asking: “Mirror, mirror on the wall, Who is fairest of us all?” When the mirror eventually identifies her young step-daughter Snow-White as the fairest, the Queen jealously tries to have her killed, first by her huntsman, followed by several personal attempts―concluding with a poisoned apple. The mirror is key to her plots; it tells her Snow White’s location, and after each attempt, she checks with the mirror and is again told that Snow White remains the fairest. At the very end, when Snow White is married, the mirror tells her that the young queen is the most beautiful. The Evil Queen is terrified, but her jealousy drives her to attend the wedding where she finds that the Prince’s bride is none other than the ‘resurrected’ Snow-White. She is caught, in her rage, trying to cause discord as a result of which the Prince had her dance in red-hot iron slippers until she drops dead.
You could―at stretch of the imagination―try and supernaturalize that fairy tale, but it would be a bit of a stretch and all the bits would not fit together very well. For our purposes, we shall simply focus on the Magic Mirror. The mirror could have brought humility to the Evil Queen, but instead it provoked and exacerbated her pride. The Magic Mirror always spoke the truth to the Evil Queen―but she resented and despised that truth. In this sense, you could say that we all have our own personal Magic Mirror―and it goes by the name of “Conscience.” It will always tell us the truth―even though we might hate that truth, reject that truth, modify that truth, or replace it with our own subjective truth.
Reflecting on Mirrors!
Let us begin with a little reflection on the topic of mirrors! We use mirrors every day. Why do people look in the mirror? We rely upon mirrors to give an indication of our health―especially those parts of the body that our eyes cannot see, such as own face, our teeth, our back, and any injuries, lesions, cuts, rashes, inflammation, bruises, etc. that might have happened to those ‘invisible’ or non-visible parts of the body.
When it comes to our appearance, we rely heavily on mirrors to give us a glimpse of how we appear to others. A major reason for looking in the mirror is to check our outfits to applying makeup or shaving, etc. The short and honest answer is that they want to see how they. There’s a thin line between self-awareness and obsession, especially when we’re talking about our appearance. It’s not just vanity, there are certain behaviors that people who do this regularly display, often without even noticing it.
Most people who often check their reflection in the mirror do so out of a heightened sense of self-consciousness. This trait isn’t necessarily a negative one. It can mean they’re fine-tuned to their appearance, ensuring they present their best self to the world. It could be a sign of someone who values first impressions and understands the impact of personal presentation. But, it can also tip into the territory of anxiety and stress. Constant mirror-checking could be a symptom of an individual wrestling with insecurities or body image struggles.
Sometimes those who frequently check their appearance often have a keen eye for detail. They are the ones who will spot a tiny typo in a report, or notice if someone has changed their hair just slightly. This attention to detail extends to their own personal appearance. This type of behavior can indicate a meticulous and thorough personality. These individuals are often the ones you can count on to catch errors, remember important dates, and generally keep things running smoothly. Of course, like any trait, it’s always about balance. Too much focus on the minutiae can sometimes cause stress or hinder big-picture thinking. But when channeled correctly, this attention to detail can be a real asset.
Another angle on people who regularly check their appearance in mirrors, which is similar to the pervious one, is that often displays character traits of perfectionism. Perfectionists set high standards for themselves and are seldom satisfied with anything less. This high bar can extend to their physical appearance, leading them to constantly check and adjust until they meet their own exacting standards. Interestingly, research suggests that perfectionism has been on the rise over the past few decades. A study found that recent generations of college students are more likely to have perfectionist tendencies than earlier generations. Extreme perfectionism can lead to too much stress and anxiety for both the perfectionist and the people in the life of the perfectionist.
Some people have a phobia or fear about looking at mirrors. One such phobia is Eisoptrophobia―which is a rare, specific phobia characterized by an irrational, intense, and persistent fear of seeing one’s own reflection. Those with this condition may experience both psychological and physical symptoms when encountering mirrors. Some people fear mirrors due to self-image issues. Then there is Spectrophobia ― which refers to the fear of mirrors themselves, which is often a superstitious attitude, one example of which is the superstition that if you break a mirror then you will have seven years of bad luck. Thi originates from Ancient Roman beliefs that life renewed itself in seven-year cycles. Breaking a mirror was thought to damage the soul's reflection, requiring seven years for that cycle to repair itself. Furthermore, historically, mirrors were expensive, and breaking them was a significant loss.
Religious Mirrors
As stated above, we all have our own personal “spiritual mirror” which goes by the name of “Conscience.” It will always tell us the truth―even though we might hate that truth, reject that truth, modify that truth, or replace it with our own subjective truth. We should often look at ourselves in this “Mirror of Conscience” and pay attention to what we find and see therein. Holy Scripture warns us against ignoring or forgetting what we uncover in the “Mirror of Conscience”: “Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if a man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a mirror―for he saw himself in the mirror and then went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was!” (James 1:22-24).
Our “Mirror of Conscience” is meant to make us godly and holy: “Wisdom is the unspotted mirror of God’s majesty, and the image of His goodness” (Wisdom 7:26). Wisdom sees all things as God sees them―it is defined as “the knowledge of all things in their ultimate cause”―and God is the ultimate cause of all things.
The masters of the spiritual life recommend that we examine our consciences at least once a day―usually at the end of the day. Yet St. Ignatius, his Spiritual Exercises, suggests that we examine our consciences three times a day―at midday, at the beginning of the evening and last thing at night before going to sleep. Unfortunately, even though we might look into a mirror to assess our physical appearance or health many times day―we hardly ever look into the mirror of the mind―which is our conscience―to assess our spiritual appearance. The mirror of the conscience is rarely used―with the result that it becomes dirty, grimy, cloudy, etc. Part of the reason why we neglect or refuse to examine our consciences frequently is the fact that hate to see ourselves as we really are―we prefer our own version of the “truth”, our “Photo-shopped” or “Cosmeticized” or “Distorted-Mirror” version of the truth.
Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, an Catholic priest and exorcist in the United States, wrote: “In the midst of an exorcism, quite by chance, a mirror ended up in front of the possessed person. Immediately, the demons reacted violently and screamed to get rid of it. We were surprised by the reaction. A former practitioner of sorcery and the occult said that his “religion” often hosted underworld parties celebrating particular demons. These demons might take possession of those attending. He said it was common practice to cover the mirrors before the party because “the demon spirits could not look at themselves (or rather the reflection of the human they possessed that night) in the mirrors.” Even though they do not have a physical body, it seems that when they are possessing a human being and looking into a mirror, they see a glimpse of their horrible evil. As I sometimes say to the demons: “God made you beautiful and now look at what you have become!” Demons are ugly beyond description. No horror movie can capture the repulsive ugliness of sin and the demonic. Demons do not want to hear the truth and they do not want to see the truth. Their reflection in a mirror [possessing the body of a human person] shows them their ugly truth. The ritual of an exorcism is about telling the truth to the demons [and mirrors tell the truth]. Our weapon during the spiritual battle of an exorcism is the Truth, who is Jesus. When we pray the Ritual, they hear the truth in words. They have rejected God. They are immersed in evil. Christ has defeated them on the cross. They are damned for all eternity. They will be in an excruciating torment for all time. I do not know any exorcists who use mirrors. I wonder if it would be a good intervention. Perhaps seeing the truth in a mirror might also be good!” (Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, Exorcist Diary: “Demons Hate Mirrors”, June 18th, 2023).
Mirror Mania
The word “mirror” comes from the Latin verb mirare meaning “to wonder at” and this fascination with our reflection connects the physical mirror with the concept of vanity or dwelling too long on one’s own appearance. If the modern term for taking photos of yourself is “selfies” ― then mirror-gazing could also be called a “selfie” or a “selfishness” whereby the focus is on self. Not all focusing on self is selfishness―for besides focusing on self out of pride or vanity, we can also focus on self with the intention of fixing what is wrong or out of place―and that should be our intention and goal when focusing on self in the “Mirror of Conscience.”
People look in the mirror frequently throughout the day. Surveys vary in their finding with some surveys suggesting an average of 8 times a day; while other surveys suggesting around 38 times daily. Nearly 1 in 10 Americans avoid looking in the mirror. Remember that “average” means that there is a varietiy of numbers below that average as well as a variety of numbers above that average. The differences in numbers can be age-related; gender-related; culture-related, etc. People aged 27 are often considered the most image-conscious, checking their reflection up to 52 times a day, whereas those over 60 check only about 5 times. Women are generally reported to look in the mirror more frequently than men. A survey in the UK, almost 20 years ago, showed that on average women look at themselves in the mirror every 30 minutes, with men not far behind. Women check their reflection 34 times a day during an average 16-hour waking day, it said. They reapply their make-up 11 times a day, with 89% of those questioned saying they carry a compact mirror in their handbags.
If we are so obsessed with how we look like in the eyes of others, then wouldn’t it be pleasing to God if during Lent we were less obsessed with the “Mirror on the Wall” and more focused on our “Mirror of Conscience”? Why are so worried about how we appear in the eyes of others―and so little concerned about how we appear in the eyes of God? St. Philip Neri would sometimes shave-off his beard on one side of his face and leave the beard intact on the other side of his face! He wasn’t too concerned about how he looked in the eyes of others and gladly accepted their ridicule, rebukes and insults―so that he could “beautify” himself before God with the humility that the ridicule, rebukes and insults produced in him.
The Mirror and the Ashes
It is hard to estimate how many people receive the ashes on Ash Wednesday. Some say roughly 45% of U.S. adult Catholics receiving ashes annually. Tracking Mass attendance from 2019 to 2024, Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) — which conducts social scientific studies for and about the Catholic Church — reported Ash Wednesday continues to compete with both Easter and Christmas for the highest attended Masses each year. In fact, Ash Wednesday 2024 Mass attendance actually topped Christmas 2023 Mass attendance.
Father Bruce Morrill, a Jesuit theology professor and the chair of Roman Catholic Studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, said that the ashes symbolize sin and death―but while people may rush to get their ashes — with their unmistakable outward sign of interior penance, Father Morrill has not noticed a similar stampede to the confessional. This reminds us of Our Lord’s words: “Hypocrites! Well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me. And in vain do they worship Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-9). The blessed ashes are a Sacramental of the Church―and Sacramentals are sources of what we call Actual Graces (not to be confused with Sanctifying Grace). Actual Grace is a passing, temporary, assisting, inspirational, moving grace that is meant to inspire and help us to do the right thing and to avoid the wrong things―to do good and avoid evil; to practice virtue and avoid sin. We are meant to cooperate with Actual Grace and not brush it off.
It would be interesting to know how long the ashes “survive” on the foreheads of Catholics before they are “brushed-off.” Some will wear them proudly and boldly; others might be indifferent about it; some wipe them off as soon as they leave the church; others might remove them before going to work or appearing at some public venue; some might “doctor” them to appear less obvious; others might conceal them under hat or make sure their hair covers them.
Talking of mirrors―how many persons took a look in the mirror after receiving the ashes on their forehead? Some might have looked out of vanity―wondering and fearing what they now look like after receiving a hefty black smudge on their forehead, and contemplating whether or not they want to be seen in public like that! Yet that is not the kind of contemplation we should be making―there is something much more profound that jumps out of the mirror for our contemplation. That black cross on your forehead furnishes you with one of the profoundest meditations that you could ever make! It could make the difference between salvation and damnation! We shall now unfold some of those crucial elements to help you to reflect upon them―not just for a day, but throughout Lent!
Reflecting Reality
Pope Paul VI gave Catholics a 95% discount on Lenten fasting by reducing the obligatory days of fasting from 40 days to merely 2 days―those days being Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Such a drastic reduction in penance is of course ridiculous―especially in an age where sin was increasingly rapidly. If a disease gets worse, you give more medicine or a more potent medicine―you DO NOT reduce the medicine that is being given. Nevertheless, putting all that to one side, those two days―Ash Wednesday and Good Friday―furnish us with the essence of Lent and essence of life on Earth. On Ash Wednesday we are marked with the cross of Christ in the form of ashes, whereas on Good Friday we focus on the actual Passion and Death of Christ on His cross on Mount Calvary. Thus, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are like “bookends” that sandwich the entire Lenten season―as well as giving the Lenten season its chief theme, which is the carrying of the cross and dying to self―and that is what true penance should be.
The reality is that you cannot get into Heaven without the cross and you cannot get into Heaven without doing penance―that is what Our Lord Himself clearly and emphatically stated: “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever will not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that will not take up his cross to follow Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). “I came to call sinners to penance! … No, I say to you―unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish! ... Again I say to you―except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5).
Our Lady echoes those words in her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “The greatest wisdom for souls consists in the knowledge of the cross, in the love of sufferings, and in putting this knowledge into practice by bearing afflictions with patience! … “My Son and Lord could have redeemed the human race without suffering so much! … But worldly souls, in their lethargy, are moved neither by the duty of conforming to their Lord, nor by His declaration that all their salvation consists in following Christ in His sufferings! It is a great shame―nay, a great boldness―on the part of the faithful, that they should hate suffering, especially after all that my most holy Son suffered for them! … Many there are who wish to follow Christ and very few who truly dispose themselves to imitate Him―for as soon as they feel the sufferings of the Cross, they cast it aside! … They do not seek the medicine of suffering! … Why do mortals continue to deceive themselves, by expecting, in spite of their sins, to become pure and worthy of enjoying God, without the furnace of sorrows? Some of them expect to be distinguished by God’s most intimate love; others expect to be pardoned without penance! … Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment … If you wish to be Our disciple, then enter into this school―in which alone is taught the doctrine of the Cross! … You cannot follow Christ, if you refuse to embrace the Cross and rejoice in it!”
Love-Hate Relationship
Everyone would love to get to Heaven―but everyone hates the terms on getting there! Similarly, everyone loves to sin (otherwise we wouldn’t sin)―but everyone hates having to pay for sin. Everyone likes to be shown charity―but many hate showing charity to others (unless they can personally profit from it in some way). Everyone loves to be forgiven―but most people are slow to forgive and even slower to forget the offenses committed against themselves). We all want to be loved―but most have very little problem in hating. Is that Catholic? Is that Christian? What does Christ have to say on these matters? It is very likely that we won’t love, but we will hate what He has to say!
► DO YOU WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN?
Well, realize this―Heaven is not a freebie! Heaven is not automatically guaranteed. You do not have an inalienable right to Heaven―it can be lost and taken away, even after Baptism and Confession (and in most cases it is lost). The road to Heaven is not comfy airplane flight in the first class cabin! You have to fight tooth and nail for Heaven! “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12). “Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:21). “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). “Enter in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14). “For I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 5:20). “For many are called, but few chosen!” (Matthew 20:1-16). “Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 19:23). As St. Alphonsus pointed out: “God wants all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4); but He also wishes us all to labor for our own salvation … Sinners hear the calls of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend Him.” This is typical—God has His plans, but we know better!!
Hopefully that bursts any bubbles of presumption about salvation that you may have! The current ever-increasing tendency to believe in “universal salvation” is utter stupidity, insanity and mere wishful thinking! Just as ridiculous is the false teaching that we are saved by Faith alone and not by works―which is generally a Protestant belief. Yes―we need Faith, for “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6)―but “Faith without works is dead?” (James 2:20) and “Faith works by Charity” (Galatians 5:6). Christ further clarifies that when He says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word … He that loves Me not, keeps not My words!” (John 14:15, 14:21-24). And those commandments and works require much more than merely believing in Christ!
If you desire to get to Heaven, then you must automatically and inescapably also desire to take the means that God offers for us to get there! Most people will not do that―and that is why most souls end up being damned and very few end up being saved! The advice of the Saints seeks to dispel our presumption about salvation.
● Pope St. Gregory the Great (a Doctor and Father of the Church): “There are many who arrive at the Faith, but few who are led into the heavenly kingdom!”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church): “Everyone desires to be saved but the greater part is lost … The saints are few, but we must live with the few if we would be saved with the few! Too few indeed they are! Yet among those few I wish to be!”
● St. Jerome (a Doctor and Father of the Church): “Christ did not say that those who walked in the path to Heaven are few in number, but that there were few who found that narrow way. It is as though the Savior intended to say: The path leading to Heaven is so narrow and so rough, so overgrown, so dark and difficult to discern―that there are many who never find it their whole life long. And those who do find it are constantly exposed to the danger of deviating from it, of mistaking their way, and unwittingly wandering away from it!”
● St. Augustine (a Doctor and Father of the Church): “Just as a man cannot serve two masters, so too no-one can rejoice both in the world and in the Lord … Beyond a doubt the elect are few … It is certain that few are saved … Not all, nor even a majority, are saved. . . They are indeed many, if regarded by themselves, but they are few in comparison with the far larger number of those who shall be punished with the devil … Take care not to resemble the multitude whose knowledge of God’s will only condemn them to more severe punishment … If you wish to imitate the multitude, then you shall not be among the few who shall enter in by the narrow gate!”
● St. John Climacus (a Father of the Church): “Live with the few if you want to reign with the few.”
● St. John of the Cross (a Doctor of the Church): “Behold how many there are who are called, and how few who are chosen! If you have no care for yourself, your perdition is more certain than your amendment, especially since the way that leads to eternal life is so narrow and only a small number of souls achieve perfect love.”
● St. Francis Xavier: “O how many souls lose Heaven and are cast into Hell!”
● St. Vincent de Paul: “A great many persons live constantly in the state of damnation!”
● St. Louis Marie de Montfort: “Be one of the small number who find the way to life, and enter by the narrow gate into Heaven. Take care not to follow the majority who are lost. Do not be deceived―there are only two roads: one that leads to life and is narrow; the other that leads to death and is wide. There is no middle way!”
● St. John Vianney: “The number of the saved is as few as the number of grapes left after the vineyard-pickers have passed! … I tremble when I see so many souls lost these days. They fall into Hell as leaves fall from the trees at the approach of winter! … There are not two ways of serving Jesus Christ. There is only one good way! We cannot be together in Heaven unless we serve Him as He Himself desires to be served.”
● St. Robert Southwell: “O how much are worldly persons deceived who rejoice when they should be weeping, and make their place of imprisonment on Earth a palace of pleasure; they consider the examples of the saints as follies, and think they will go to Heaven by the wide way that leads only to perdition! The path to Heaven is narrow, rough and full of wearisome and demanding ascents, nor can it be trodden without great toil! The path to Heaven is narrow, rough and full of wearisome and demanding ascents, nor can it be trodden without great toil!”
● St. John Eudes: “Get out of the filth of the horrible torrent of this world, the torrent of thorns that is whirling you into the abyss of eternal perdition. This torrent is the world, which is full of garbage and evil odors, making a lot of noise, but flowing swiftly past, dragging the majority of men into the pit of perdition!”
That is the advice of the saints―yet it is advice that is largely ignored, neglected or even rejected! At what cost? The answer is obvious and hauntingly stares us in the face!
► DO YOU WANT TO BE SHOWN CHARITY?
The answer is obvious―we all love it when people are charitable towards us! However, charity is not a “one-way-street” ― charity is reciprocal, which means that it a case of “give-and-take” and not just “take-all-I-can-get”! As Our Lord says: “Give and it shall be given to you!” (Luke 6:38). As St. Thomas Aquinas states: “Men wish to be loved in as much as they wish to be honored. For just as honor bears witness to the good which is in him, so by being loved a man is shown to have some good, since good alone is lovable. Accordingly men seek to be loved and to be honored, for the sake of something else― to make known the good which is in the person who is loved. … On the other hand, those who have charity seek to love for the sake of loving, as though this were itself the good of charity, even as the act of any virtue is that virtue's good. Hence it is more proper to charity to wish to love than to wish to be loved … Charity is not possible between less than two persons … Charity is love … Yet Charity is not love simply, but has the nature of friendship … God and our neighbor are those with whom we are friends … Charity extends not only to the love of God, but also to the love of our neighbor ... To love belongs to Charity … To be loved is not the act of the Charity of the person loved … Friends are more praised for loving than for being loved, indeed, if they be loved and yet love not in return, they are blamed … Hence it is clear that to love is more proper to Charity than to be loved … A certain mutual love is required, since friendship is between friend and friend … Friendship consists in loving rather than in being loved. Now Charity is a kind of friendship. Therefore Charity consists in loving rather than in being loved” (Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, Questions 25, 27, 44).
► DO YOU WANT TO BE FORGIVEN?
Who on Earth does not want to be forgiven!?!? We all want to be forgiven! Yet how much forgiveness do we show to others? Forgiveness―much like Charity―is reciprocal. Our Lord indicates this in the following quotes: “Blessed are the merciful―for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7). “Judge not, and you shall not be judged! Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned! Forgive, and you shall be forgiven!” (Luke 6:37). “For if you will forgive men their offences, then your heavenly Father will also forgive you your offences. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences!” (Matthew 6:14-15). “If you will not forgive, neither will your Father that is in Heaven, forgive you your sins!” (Mark 11:26). To which Holy Scripture adds: “Be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God has forgiven you in Christ” (Ephesians 4:32). “Forgive your neighbor if he has hurt you―and then your sins be forgiven when you pray!” (Ecclesiasticus 28:2).
► DO YOU WANT TO BE LOVED?
Who doesn’t want to be loved? Everyone wants to be loved! Unfortunately, we want to be loved but are sometimes slow to show love to others―especially sinners and those who have wronged or hurt us in some way! Yet, as Holy Scripture says: “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). Who dare say: “I am clean, and without sin! I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me!” (Job 33:9). “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2). “There is no man who sins not” (3 Kings 8:46). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10).
The American exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger, adds: “What most people don’t know is that Mortal Sin is an open door. The proper effect of Mortal Sin is possession. Most people don’t grasp that. What that means is that when you commit Mortal Sin, you take yourself out from underneath the order of God and place yourself underneath the order of Satan. Thee is no limbo here in this case. So you’re either under God or you’re under Satan. When you commit a Mortal Sin you’re placing yourself under Satan. Exorcists say that any Mortal Sin is an open door to possession. Once you do that however, it’s up to Christ to determine whether He’s going to let the demon through the door―which He doesn’t do in 99% of the cases.” Why is it then, that we sinners want to be loved and feel that we should be loved, yet we are reluctant to love other sinners?
Our Lord addressed such an attitude thus: “Why do you see the splinter that is in your brother’s eye; but cannot see the plank that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother: ‘Let me remove the splinter out of your eye!’ ― and behold there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite! First cast out the plank from your own eye, and then you shall be able to see in order to cast out the splinter from your brother’s eye!” (Matthew 7:3-5). “You have heard that it has been said: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!’ and ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy!’ But I say to you―Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you! And pray for them that persecute and calumniate you! So that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who makes His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and makes His rain fall upon the just and the unjust! For if you only love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans do this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you do that is more? Do not also the heathens do this? Be you therefore perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:38-48). Holy Scripture adds: “If a man be overtaken in any fault, you, who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted!” (Galatians 6:1).
St. Thomas Aquinas, on the question of loving sinners, writes: “When a man has friendship for a certain person, then for the sake of that person he loves all that belongs to him―be they children, servants, or connected with him in any way. Indeed, so much do we love our friends, that for their sake we love all who belong to them, even if they hurt or hate us―so that, in this way, the friendship of Charity extends even to our enemies, whom we love out of Charity in relation to God, to Whom the friendship of Charity is chiefly directed. When it is said: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor’ ― it is evident that we ought to look upon every man as our neighbor. Now sinners do not cease to be men, for sin does not destroy nature. Therefore we ought to love sinners out of Charity.
“Two things may be considered in the sinner: his nature and his guilt. According to his nature, which he has from God, he has a capacity for happiness, wherefore we ought to love sinners, out of Charity, in respect of their nature. On the other hand their guilt is opposed to God, and is an obstacle to happiness. Wherefore, in respect of their guilt, by which they are opposed to God, all sinners are to be hated. For it is our duty to hate, in the sinner, his being a sinner, and to love in him, his being a man capable of bliss; and this is to love him truly, out of charity, for God’s sake. Now hatred of a person’s evil is equivalent to love of his good. Hence also this perfect hatred [of sin and sinfulness] belongs to charity. We love sinners out of Charity, not so as to will what they will, or to rejoice in what gives them joy, but so as to make them will what we will, and rejoice in what rejoices us.
“When our friends fall into sin, we ought not to deny them the amenities of friendship, so long as there is hope of their mending their ways, and we ought to help them more readily to regain virtue than to recover money, had they lost it, for as much as virtue is more akin than money to friendship. When, however, they fall into very great wickedness, and become incurable, we ought no longer to show them friendliness. It is for this reason that both Divine and human laws command such like sinners to be put to death, because there is greater likelihood of their harming others than of their mending their ways. Nevertheless the judge puts this into effect, not out of hatred for the sinners, but out of the love of Charity, by reason of which he prefers the public good to the life of the individual. Moreover the death inflicted by the judge profits the sinner, if he be converted, unto the expiation of his crime; and, if he be not converted, it profits so as to put an end to the sin, because the sinner is thus deprived of the power to sin any more.
“It is asked which is better or more meritorious―to love one's friend or one's enemy, these two loves may be compared in two ways, first, on the part of our neighbor whom we love, secondly, on the part of the reason for which we love him. In the first way, love of one's friend surpasses love of one's enemy, because a friend is both better and more closely united to us, so that he is a more suitable matter of love and consequently the act of love that passes over this matter, is better, and therefore its opposite is worse, for it is worse to hate a friend than an enemy.
“In the second way, however, it is better to love one's enemy than one's friend, and this for two reasons. First, because it is possible to love one's friend for another reason than God, whereas God is the only reason for loving one's enemy. Secondly, because if we suppose that both are loved for God, our love for God is proved to be all the stronger through carrying a man's affections to things which are furthest from him, namely, to the love of his enemies, even as the power of a furnace is proved to be the stronger, according as it throws its heat to more distant objects. Hence our love for God is proved to be so much the stronger, as the more difficult are the things we accomplish for its sake, just as the power of fire is so much the stronger, as it is able to set fire to a less inflammable matter.
“Yet just as the same fire acts with greater force on what is near than on what is distant, so too, charity loves with greater fervor those who are united to us than those who are far removed; and in this respect the love of friends, considered in itself, is more ardent and better than the love of one's enemy. The love of one's friends is not meritorious in God’s sight when we love them merely because they are our friends. On the other hand the love of our friends is meritorious, if we love them for God's sake, and not merely because they are our friends.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, Questions 23, 25).
Sadly, we find forgiveness hard to dispense―especially for repeated offenses! St. Peter probably had the same problem: “Then came Peter unto Jesus and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say you not just seven times; but seventy times seven times!” (Matthew 18:21-22). We would even have a major problem forgiving seven times―never mind seventy times seven times! We find ourselves angry and raging and shouting after only one or two times! Yet Scripture says: “Be slow to speak and slow to anger! For the anger of man works not the justice of God!” (James 1:19-20). “Revenge is Mine, and I will repay them in due time!” says God (Deuteronomy 32:35). “Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but put away your anger, for it is written: ‘Revenge is Mine, I will repay!’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). Our reply to will most likely be: “Well hurry up, then!!!”
Recently, many persons the U.S. have received a lot of white snow! Recently (yesterday), many persons have received black ashes! The white snow makes us think of Snow-White―and Snow White makes us think of the Evil Queen who was always looking in her Magic Mirror, asking: “Mirror, mirror on the wall, Who is fairest of us all?” When the mirror eventually identifies her young step-daughter Snow-White as the fairest, the Queen jealously tries to have her killed, first by her huntsman, followed by several personal attempts―concluding with a poisoned apple. The mirror is key to her plots; it tells her Snow White’s location, and after each attempt, she checks with the mirror and is again told that Snow White remains the fairest. At the very end, when Snow White is married, the mirror tells her that the young queen is the most beautiful. The Evil Queen is terrified, but her jealousy drives her to attend the wedding where she finds that the Prince’s bride is none other than the ‘resurrected’ Snow-White. She is caught, in her rage, trying to cause discord as a result of which the Prince had her dance in red-hot iron slippers until she drops dead.
You could―at stretch of the imagination―try and supernaturalize that fairy tale, but it would be a bit of a stretch and all the bits would not fit together very well. For our purposes, we shall simply focus on the Magic Mirror. The mirror could have brought humility to the Evil Queen, but instead it provoked and exacerbated her pride. The Magic Mirror always spoke the truth to the Evil Queen―but she resented and despised that truth. In this sense, you could say that we all have our own personal Magic Mirror―and it goes by the name of “Conscience.” It will always tell us the truth―even though we might hate that truth, reject that truth, modify that truth, or replace it with our own subjective truth.
Reflecting on Mirrors!
Let us begin with a little reflection on the topic of mirrors! We use mirrors every day. Why do people look in the mirror? We rely upon mirrors to give an indication of our health―especially those parts of the body that our eyes cannot see, such as own face, our teeth, our back, and any injuries, lesions, cuts, rashes, inflammation, bruises, etc. that might have happened to those ‘invisible’ or non-visible parts of the body.
When it comes to our appearance, we rely heavily on mirrors to give us a glimpse of how we appear to others. A major reason for looking in the mirror is to check our outfits to applying makeup or shaving, etc. The short and honest answer is that they want to see how they. There’s a thin line between self-awareness and obsession, especially when we’re talking about our appearance. It’s not just vanity, there are certain behaviors that people who do this regularly display, often without even noticing it.
Most people who often check their reflection in the mirror do so out of a heightened sense of self-consciousness. This trait isn’t necessarily a negative one. It can mean they’re fine-tuned to their appearance, ensuring they present their best self to the world. It could be a sign of someone who values first impressions and understands the impact of personal presentation. But, it can also tip into the territory of anxiety and stress. Constant mirror-checking could be a symptom of an individual wrestling with insecurities or body image struggles.
Sometimes those who frequently check their appearance often have a keen eye for detail. They are the ones who will spot a tiny typo in a report, or notice if someone has changed their hair just slightly. This attention to detail extends to their own personal appearance. This type of behavior can indicate a meticulous and thorough personality. These individuals are often the ones you can count on to catch errors, remember important dates, and generally keep things running smoothly. Of course, like any trait, it’s always about balance. Too much focus on the minutiae can sometimes cause stress or hinder big-picture thinking. But when channeled correctly, this attention to detail can be a real asset.
Another angle on people who regularly check their appearance in mirrors, which is similar to the pervious one, is that often displays character traits of perfectionism. Perfectionists set high standards for themselves and are seldom satisfied with anything less. This high bar can extend to their physical appearance, leading them to constantly check and adjust until they meet their own exacting standards. Interestingly, research suggests that perfectionism has been on the rise over the past few decades. A study found that recent generations of college students are more likely to have perfectionist tendencies than earlier generations. Extreme perfectionism can lead to too much stress and anxiety for both the perfectionist and the people in the life of the perfectionist.
Some people have a phobia or fear about looking at mirrors. One such phobia is Eisoptrophobia―which is a rare, specific phobia characterized by an irrational, intense, and persistent fear of seeing one’s own reflection. Those with this condition may experience both psychological and physical symptoms when encountering mirrors. Some people fear mirrors due to self-image issues. Then there is Spectrophobia ― which refers to the fear of mirrors themselves, which is often a superstitious attitude, one example of which is the superstition that if you break a mirror then you will have seven years of bad luck. Thi originates from Ancient Roman beliefs that life renewed itself in seven-year cycles. Breaking a mirror was thought to damage the soul's reflection, requiring seven years for that cycle to repair itself. Furthermore, historically, mirrors were expensive, and breaking them was a significant loss.
Religious Mirrors
As stated above, we all have our own personal “spiritual mirror” which goes by the name of “Conscience.” It will always tell us the truth―even though we might hate that truth, reject that truth, modify that truth, or replace it with our own subjective truth. We should often look at ourselves in this “Mirror of Conscience” and pay attention to what we find and see therein. Holy Scripture warns us against ignoring or forgetting what we uncover in the “Mirror of Conscience”: “Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if a man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a mirror―for he saw himself in the mirror and then went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was!” (James 1:22-24).
Our “Mirror of Conscience” is meant to make us godly and holy: “Wisdom is the unspotted mirror of God’s majesty, and the image of His goodness” (Wisdom 7:26). Wisdom sees all things as God sees them―it is defined as “the knowledge of all things in their ultimate cause”―and God is the ultimate cause of all things.
The masters of the spiritual life recommend that we examine our consciences at least once a day―usually at the end of the day. Yet St. Ignatius, his Spiritual Exercises, suggests that we examine our consciences three times a day―at midday, at the beginning of the evening and last thing at night before going to sleep. Unfortunately, even though we might look into a mirror to assess our physical appearance or health many times day―we hardly ever look into the mirror of the mind―which is our conscience―to assess our spiritual appearance. The mirror of the conscience is rarely used―with the result that it becomes dirty, grimy, cloudy, etc. Part of the reason why we neglect or refuse to examine our consciences frequently is the fact that hate to see ourselves as we really are―we prefer our own version of the “truth”, our “Photo-shopped” or “Cosmeticized” or “Distorted-Mirror” version of the truth.
Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, an Catholic priest and exorcist in the United States, wrote: “In the midst of an exorcism, quite by chance, a mirror ended up in front of the possessed person. Immediately, the demons reacted violently and screamed to get rid of it. We were surprised by the reaction. A former practitioner of sorcery and the occult said that his “religion” often hosted underworld parties celebrating particular demons. These demons might take possession of those attending. He said it was common practice to cover the mirrors before the party because “the demon spirits could not look at themselves (or rather the reflection of the human they possessed that night) in the mirrors.” Even though they do not have a physical body, it seems that when they are possessing a human being and looking into a mirror, they see a glimpse of their horrible evil. As I sometimes say to the demons: “God made you beautiful and now look at what you have become!” Demons are ugly beyond description. No horror movie can capture the repulsive ugliness of sin and the demonic. Demons do not want to hear the truth and they do not want to see the truth. Their reflection in a mirror [possessing the body of a human person] shows them their ugly truth. The ritual of an exorcism is about telling the truth to the demons [and mirrors tell the truth]. Our weapon during the spiritual battle of an exorcism is the Truth, who is Jesus. When we pray the Ritual, they hear the truth in words. They have rejected God. They are immersed in evil. Christ has defeated them on the cross. They are damned for all eternity. They will be in an excruciating torment for all time. I do not know any exorcists who use mirrors. I wonder if it would be a good intervention. Perhaps seeing the truth in a mirror might also be good!” (Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, Exorcist Diary: “Demons Hate Mirrors”, June 18th, 2023).
Mirror Mania
The word “mirror” comes from the Latin verb mirare meaning “to wonder at” and this fascination with our reflection connects the physical mirror with the concept of vanity or dwelling too long on one’s own appearance. If the modern term for taking photos of yourself is “selfies” ― then mirror-gazing could also be called a “selfie” or a “selfishness” whereby the focus is on self. Not all focusing on self is selfishness―for besides focusing on self out of pride or vanity, we can also focus on self with the intention of fixing what is wrong or out of place―and that should be our intention and goal when focusing on self in the “Mirror of Conscience.”
People look in the mirror frequently throughout the day. Surveys vary in their finding with some surveys suggesting an average of 8 times a day; while other surveys suggesting around 38 times daily. Nearly 1 in 10 Americans avoid looking in the mirror. Remember that “average” means that there is a varietiy of numbers below that average as well as a variety of numbers above that average. The differences in numbers can be age-related; gender-related; culture-related, etc. People aged 27 are often considered the most image-conscious, checking their reflection up to 52 times a day, whereas those over 60 check only about 5 times. Women are generally reported to look in the mirror more frequently than men. A survey in the UK, almost 20 years ago, showed that on average women look at themselves in the mirror every 30 minutes, with men not far behind. Women check their reflection 34 times a day during an average 16-hour waking day, it said. They reapply their make-up 11 times a day, with 89% of those questioned saying they carry a compact mirror in their handbags.
If we are so obsessed with how we look like in the eyes of others, then wouldn’t it be pleasing to God if during Lent we were less obsessed with the “Mirror on the Wall” and more focused on our “Mirror of Conscience”? Why are so worried about how we appear in the eyes of others―and so little concerned about how we appear in the eyes of God? St. Philip Neri would sometimes shave-off his beard on one side of his face and leave the beard intact on the other side of his face! He wasn’t too concerned about how he looked in the eyes of others and gladly accepted their ridicule, rebukes and insults―so that he could “beautify” himself before God with the humility that the ridicule, rebukes and insults produced in him.
The Mirror and the Ashes
It is hard to estimate how many people receive the ashes on Ash Wednesday. Some say roughly 45% of U.S. adult Catholics receiving ashes annually. Tracking Mass attendance from 2019 to 2024, Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) — which conducts social scientific studies for and about the Catholic Church — reported Ash Wednesday continues to compete with both Easter and Christmas for the highest attended Masses each year. In fact, Ash Wednesday 2024 Mass attendance actually topped Christmas 2023 Mass attendance.
Father Bruce Morrill, a Jesuit theology professor and the chair of Roman Catholic Studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, said that the ashes symbolize sin and death―but while people may rush to get their ashes — with their unmistakable outward sign of interior penance, Father Morrill has not noticed a similar stampede to the confessional. This reminds us of Our Lord’s words: “Hypocrites! Well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me. And in vain do they worship Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-9). The blessed ashes are a Sacramental of the Church―and Sacramentals are sources of what we call Actual Graces (not to be confused with Sanctifying Grace). Actual Grace is a passing, temporary, assisting, inspirational, moving grace that is meant to inspire and help us to do the right thing and to avoid the wrong things―to do good and avoid evil; to practice virtue and avoid sin. We are meant to cooperate with Actual Grace and not brush it off.
It would be interesting to know how long the ashes “survive” on the foreheads of Catholics before they are “brushed-off.” Some will wear them proudly and boldly; others might be indifferent about it; some wipe them off as soon as they leave the church; others might remove them before going to work or appearing at some public venue; some might “doctor” them to appear less obvious; others might conceal them under hat or make sure their hair covers them.
Talking of mirrors―how many persons took a look in the mirror after receiving the ashes on their forehead? Some might have looked out of vanity―wondering and fearing what they now look like after receiving a hefty black smudge on their forehead, and contemplating whether or not they want to be seen in public like that! Yet that is not the kind of contemplation we should be making―there is something much more profound that jumps out of the mirror for our contemplation. That black cross on your forehead furnishes you with one of the profoundest meditations that you could ever make! It could make the difference between salvation and damnation! We shall now unfold some of those crucial elements to help you to reflect upon them―not just for a day, but throughout Lent!
Reflecting Reality
Pope Paul VI gave Catholics a 95% discount on Lenten fasting by reducing the obligatory days of fasting from 40 days to merely 2 days―those days being Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Such a drastic reduction in penance is of course ridiculous―especially in an age where sin was increasingly rapidly. If a disease gets worse, you give more medicine or a more potent medicine―you DO NOT reduce the medicine that is being given. Nevertheless, putting all that to one side, those two days―Ash Wednesday and Good Friday―furnish us with the essence of Lent and essence of life on Earth. On Ash Wednesday we are marked with the cross of Christ in the form of ashes, whereas on Good Friday we focus on the actual Passion and Death of Christ on His cross on Mount Calvary. Thus, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are like “bookends” that sandwich the entire Lenten season―as well as giving the Lenten season its chief theme, which is the carrying of the cross and dying to self―and that is what true penance should be.
The reality is that you cannot get into Heaven without the cross and you cannot get into Heaven without doing penance―that is what Our Lord Himself clearly and emphatically stated: “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever will not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that will not take up his cross to follow Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). “I came to call sinners to penance! … No, I say to you―unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish! ... Again I say to you―except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5).
Our Lady echoes those words in her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “The greatest wisdom for souls consists in the knowledge of the cross, in the love of sufferings, and in putting this knowledge into practice by bearing afflictions with patience! … “My Son and Lord could have redeemed the human race without suffering so much! … But worldly souls, in their lethargy, are moved neither by the duty of conforming to their Lord, nor by His declaration that all their salvation consists in following Christ in His sufferings! It is a great shame―nay, a great boldness―on the part of the faithful, that they should hate suffering, especially after all that my most holy Son suffered for them! … Many there are who wish to follow Christ and very few who truly dispose themselves to imitate Him―for as soon as they feel the sufferings of the Cross, they cast it aside! … They do not seek the medicine of suffering! … Why do mortals continue to deceive themselves, by expecting, in spite of their sins, to become pure and worthy of enjoying God, without the furnace of sorrows? Some of them expect to be distinguished by God’s most intimate love; others expect to be pardoned without penance! … Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment … If you wish to be Our disciple, then enter into this school―in which alone is taught the doctrine of the Cross! … You cannot follow Christ, if you refuse to embrace the Cross and rejoice in it!”
Love-Hate Relationship
Everyone would love to get to Heaven―but everyone hates the terms on getting there! Similarly, everyone loves to sin (otherwise we wouldn’t sin)―but everyone hates having to pay for sin. Everyone likes to be shown charity―but many hate showing charity to others (unless they can personally profit from it in some way). Everyone loves to be forgiven―but most people are slow to forgive and even slower to forget the offenses committed against themselves). We all want to be loved―but most have very little problem in hating. Is that Catholic? Is that Christian? What does Christ have to say on these matters? It is very likely that we won’t love, but we will hate what He has to say!
► DO YOU WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN?
Well, realize this―Heaven is not a freebie! Heaven is not automatically guaranteed. You do not have an inalienable right to Heaven―it can be lost and taken away, even after Baptism and Confession (and in most cases it is lost). The road to Heaven is not comfy airplane flight in the first class cabin! You have to fight tooth and nail for Heaven! “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12). “Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:21). “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). “Enter in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14). “For I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 5:20). “For many are called, but few chosen!” (Matthew 20:1-16). “Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 19:23). As St. Alphonsus pointed out: “God wants all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4); but He also wishes us all to labor for our own salvation … Sinners hear the calls of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend Him.” This is typical—God has His plans, but we know better!!
Hopefully that bursts any bubbles of presumption about salvation that you may have! The current ever-increasing tendency to believe in “universal salvation” is utter stupidity, insanity and mere wishful thinking! Just as ridiculous is the false teaching that we are saved by Faith alone and not by works―which is generally a Protestant belief. Yes―we need Faith, for “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6)―but “Faith without works is dead?” (James 2:20) and “Faith works by Charity” (Galatians 5:6). Christ further clarifies that when He says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word … He that loves Me not, keeps not My words!” (John 14:15, 14:21-24). And those commandments and works require much more than merely believing in Christ!
If you desire to get to Heaven, then you must automatically and inescapably also desire to take the means that God offers for us to get there! Most people will not do that―and that is why most souls end up being damned and very few end up being saved! The advice of the Saints seeks to dispel our presumption about salvation.
● Pope St. Gregory the Great (a Doctor and Father of the Church): “There are many who arrive at the Faith, but few who are led into the heavenly kingdom!”
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church): “Everyone desires to be saved but the greater part is lost … The saints are few, but we must live with the few if we would be saved with the few! Too few indeed they are! Yet among those few I wish to be!”
● St. Jerome (a Doctor and Father of the Church): “Christ did not say that those who walked in the path to Heaven are few in number, but that there were few who found that narrow way. It is as though the Savior intended to say: The path leading to Heaven is so narrow and so rough, so overgrown, so dark and difficult to discern―that there are many who never find it their whole life long. And those who do find it are constantly exposed to the danger of deviating from it, of mistaking their way, and unwittingly wandering away from it!”
● St. Augustine (a Doctor and Father of the Church): “Just as a man cannot serve two masters, so too no-one can rejoice both in the world and in the Lord … Beyond a doubt the elect are few … It is certain that few are saved … Not all, nor even a majority, are saved. . . They are indeed many, if regarded by themselves, but they are few in comparison with the far larger number of those who shall be punished with the devil … Take care not to resemble the multitude whose knowledge of God’s will only condemn them to more severe punishment … If you wish to imitate the multitude, then you shall not be among the few who shall enter in by the narrow gate!”
● St. John Climacus (a Father of the Church): “Live with the few if you want to reign with the few.”
● St. John of the Cross (a Doctor of the Church): “Behold how many there are who are called, and how few who are chosen! If you have no care for yourself, your perdition is more certain than your amendment, especially since the way that leads to eternal life is so narrow and only a small number of souls achieve perfect love.”
● St. Francis Xavier: “O how many souls lose Heaven and are cast into Hell!”
● St. Vincent de Paul: “A great many persons live constantly in the state of damnation!”
● St. Louis Marie de Montfort: “Be one of the small number who find the way to life, and enter by the narrow gate into Heaven. Take care not to follow the majority who are lost. Do not be deceived―there are only two roads: one that leads to life and is narrow; the other that leads to death and is wide. There is no middle way!”
● St. John Vianney: “The number of the saved is as few as the number of grapes left after the vineyard-pickers have passed! … I tremble when I see so many souls lost these days. They fall into Hell as leaves fall from the trees at the approach of winter! … There are not two ways of serving Jesus Christ. There is only one good way! We cannot be together in Heaven unless we serve Him as He Himself desires to be served.”
● St. Robert Southwell: “O how much are worldly persons deceived who rejoice when they should be weeping, and make their place of imprisonment on Earth a palace of pleasure; they consider the examples of the saints as follies, and think they will go to Heaven by the wide way that leads only to perdition! The path to Heaven is narrow, rough and full of wearisome and demanding ascents, nor can it be trodden without great toil! The path to Heaven is narrow, rough and full of wearisome and demanding ascents, nor can it be trodden without great toil!”
● St. John Eudes: “Get out of the filth of the horrible torrent of this world, the torrent of thorns that is whirling you into the abyss of eternal perdition. This torrent is the world, which is full of garbage and evil odors, making a lot of noise, but flowing swiftly past, dragging the majority of men into the pit of perdition!”
That is the advice of the saints―yet it is advice that is largely ignored, neglected or even rejected! At what cost? The answer is obvious and hauntingly stares us in the face!
► DO YOU WANT TO BE SHOWN CHARITY?
The answer is obvious―we all love it when people are charitable towards us! However, charity is not a “one-way-street” ― charity is reciprocal, which means that it a case of “give-and-take” and not just “take-all-I-can-get”! As Our Lord says: “Give and it shall be given to you!” (Luke 6:38). As St. Thomas Aquinas states: “Men wish to be loved in as much as they wish to be honored. For just as honor bears witness to the good which is in him, so by being loved a man is shown to have some good, since good alone is lovable. Accordingly men seek to be loved and to be honored, for the sake of something else― to make known the good which is in the person who is loved. … On the other hand, those who have charity seek to love for the sake of loving, as though this were itself the good of charity, even as the act of any virtue is that virtue's good. Hence it is more proper to charity to wish to love than to wish to be loved … Charity is not possible between less than two persons … Charity is love … Yet Charity is not love simply, but has the nature of friendship … God and our neighbor are those with whom we are friends … Charity extends not only to the love of God, but also to the love of our neighbor ... To love belongs to Charity … To be loved is not the act of the Charity of the person loved … Friends are more praised for loving than for being loved, indeed, if they be loved and yet love not in return, they are blamed … Hence it is clear that to love is more proper to Charity than to be loved … A certain mutual love is required, since friendship is between friend and friend … Friendship consists in loving rather than in being loved. Now Charity is a kind of friendship. Therefore Charity consists in loving rather than in being loved” (Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, Questions 25, 27, 44).
► DO YOU WANT TO BE FORGIVEN?
Who on Earth does not want to be forgiven!?!? We all want to be forgiven! Yet how much forgiveness do we show to others? Forgiveness―much like Charity―is reciprocal. Our Lord indicates this in the following quotes: “Blessed are the merciful―for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7). “Judge not, and you shall not be judged! Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned! Forgive, and you shall be forgiven!” (Luke 6:37). “For if you will forgive men their offences, then your heavenly Father will also forgive you your offences. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences!” (Matthew 6:14-15). “If you will not forgive, neither will your Father that is in Heaven, forgive you your sins!” (Mark 11:26). To which Holy Scripture adds: “Be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God has forgiven you in Christ” (Ephesians 4:32). “Forgive your neighbor if he has hurt you―and then your sins be forgiven when you pray!” (Ecclesiasticus 28:2).
► DO YOU WANT TO BE LOVED?
Who doesn’t want to be loved? Everyone wants to be loved! Unfortunately, we want to be loved but are sometimes slow to show love to others―especially sinners and those who have wronged or hurt us in some way! Yet, as Holy Scripture says: “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). Who dare say: “I am clean, and without sin! I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me!” (Job 33:9). “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2). “There is no man who sins not” (3 Kings 8:46). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10).
The American exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger, adds: “What most people don’t know is that Mortal Sin is an open door. The proper effect of Mortal Sin is possession. Most people don’t grasp that. What that means is that when you commit Mortal Sin, you take yourself out from underneath the order of God and place yourself underneath the order of Satan. Thee is no limbo here in this case. So you’re either under God or you’re under Satan. When you commit a Mortal Sin you’re placing yourself under Satan. Exorcists say that any Mortal Sin is an open door to possession. Once you do that however, it’s up to Christ to determine whether He’s going to let the demon through the door―which He doesn’t do in 99% of the cases.” Why is it then, that we sinners want to be loved and feel that we should be loved, yet we are reluctant to love other sinners?
Our Lord addressed such an attitude thus: “Why do you see the splinter that is in your brother’s eye; but cannot see the plank that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother: ‘Let me remove the splinter out of your eye!’ ― and behold there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite! First cast out the plank from your own eye, and then you shall be able to see in order to cast out the splinter from your brother’s eye!” (Matthew 7:3-5). “You have heard that it has been said: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!’ and ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy!’ But I say to you―Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you! And pray for them that persecute and calumniate you! So that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who makes His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and makes His rain fall upon the just and the unjust! For if you only love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans do this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you do that is more? Do not also the heathens do this? Be you therefore perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:38-48). Holy Scripture adds: “If a man be overtaken in any fault, you, who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted!” (Galatians 6:1).
St. Thomas Aquinas, on the question of loving sinners, writes: “When a man has friendship for a certain person, then for the sake of that person he loves all that belongs to him―be they children, servants, or connected with him in any way. Indeed, so much do we love our friends, that for their sake we love all who belong to them, even if they hurt or hate us―so that, in this way, the friendship of Charity extends even to our enemies, whom we love out of Charity in relation to God, to Whom the friendship of Charity is chiefly directed. When it is said: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor’ ― it is evident that we ought to look upon every man as our neighbor. Now sinners do not cease to be men, for sin does not destroy nature. Therefore we ought to love sinners out of Charity.
“Two things may be considered in the sinner: his nature and his guilt. According to his nature, which he has from God, he has a capacity for happiness, wherefore we ought to love sinners, out of Charity, in respect of their nature. On the other hand their guilt is opposed to God, and is an obstacle to happiness. Wherefore, in respect of their guilt, by which they are opposed to God, all sinners are to be hated. For it is our duty to hate, in the sinner, his being a sinner, and to love in him, his being a man capable of bliss; and this is to love him truly, out of charity, for God’s sake. Now hatred of a person’s evil is equivalent to love of his good. Hence also this perfect hatred [of sin and sinfulness] belongs to charity. We love sinners out of Charity, not so as to will what they will, or to rejoice in what gives them joy, but so as to make them will what we will, and rejoice in what rejoices us.
“When our friends fall into sin, we ought not to deny them the amenities of friendship, so long as there is hope of their mending their ways, and we ought to help them more readily to regain virtue than to recover money, had they lost it, for as much as virtue is more akin than money to friendship. When, however, they fall into very great wickedness, and become incurable, we ought no longer to show them friendliness. It is for this reason that both Divine and human laws command such like sinners to be put to death, because there is greater likelihood of their harming others than of their mending their ways. Nevertheless the judge puts this into effect, not out of hatred for the sinners, but out of the love of Charity, by reason of which he prefers the public good to the life of the individual. Moreover the death inflicted by the judge profits the sinner, if he be converted, unto the expiation of his crime; and, if he be not converted, it profits so as to put an end to the sin, because the sinner is thus deprived of the power to sin any more.
“It is asked which is better or more meritorious―to love one's friend or one's enemy, these two loves may be compared in two ways, first, on the part of our neighbor whom we love, secondly, on the part of the reason for which we love him. In the first way, love of one's friend surpasses love of one's enemy, because a friend is both better and more closely united to us, so that he is a more suitable matter of love and consequently the act of love that passes over this matter, is better, and therefore its opposite is worse, for it is worse to hate a friend than an enemy.
“In the second way, however, it is better to love one's enemy than one's friend, and this for two reasons. First, because it is possible to love one's friend for another reason than God, whereas God is the only reason for loving one's enemy. Secondly, because if we suppose that both are loved for God, our love for God is proved to be all the stronger through carrying a man's affections to things which are furthest from him, namely, to the love of his enemies, even as the power of a furnace is proved to be the stronger, according as it throws its heat to more distant objects. Hence our love for God is proved to be so much the stronger, as the more difficult are the things we accomplish for its sake, just as the power of fire is so much the stronger, as it is able to set fire to a less inflammable matter.
“Yet just as the same fire acts with greater force on what is near than on what is distant, so too, charity loves with greater fervor those who are united to us than those who are far removed; and in this respect the love of friends, considered in itself, is more ardent and better than the love of one's enemy. The love of one's friends is not meritorious in God’s sight when we love them merely because they are our friends. On the other hand the love of our friends is meritorious, if we love them for God's sake, and not merely because they are our friends.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, Questions 23, 25).
Sadly, we find forgiveness hard to dispense―especially for repeated offenses! St. Peter probably had the same problem: “Then came Peter unto Jesus and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say you not just seven times; but seventy times seven times!” (Matthew 18:21-22). We would even have a major problem forgiving seven times―never mind seventy times seven times! We find ourselves angry and raging and shouting after only one or two times! Yet Scripture says: “Be slow to speak and slow to anger! For the anger of man works not the justice of God!” (James 1:19-20). “Revenge is Mine, and I will repay them in due time!” says God (Deuteronomy 32:35). “Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but put away your anger, for it is written: ‘Revenge is Mine, I will repay!’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). Our reply to will most likely be: “Well hurry up, then!!!”
Article 2
Ash Wednesday, February 18th
Do You Have a Black Mark Against Your Name, or on Your Forehead?
Ash Wednesday, February 18th
Do You Have a Black Mark Against Your Name, or on Your Forehead?
Back to Black!
We often think of black as being a color―but black isn’t a primary, secondary, or tertiary color. In fact, black isn’t on the color wheel because it isn’t considered a color. It’s all colors. Or rather, the absorption of all colors. Black absorbs all light in the color spectrum.
In electrics, the red wire is positive; the black wire is negative. Black conjures up all kinds of contradictory, opposing, mutually incompatible, contradictory and confusing notions and thoughts! Black is good and black is bad! Black can meaning having credit or it can mean losing all credit! Black is seen as both beautiful and ugly!
Black is associated with a number of positive qualities and characteristics. For example, some common associations with the color black is associated include: Authority; Elegance; Formality; Intelligence; Power; Prestige; Sophistication. Black is often described as strong and elegant. Black oozes sophistication. That’s why many people wear black clothing when attending a fancy or formal event. The color black has long been associated with power and prestige―as seen from priests to civil judges.
However, many use the color black to symbolize all things negative. Throughout history, this somber color has been tied to death and all things evil and bad. It evokes strong feelings of anger, aggression, fear, and sadness. The connection between black and negativity is probably most clearly seen in our language. Just consider these commonly used expressions: Black Monday. Black Plague. Black Death. Blacklist. Black sheep. Black magic. Blackball. Blackhole. Black-hearted. Black mood. Black sheep. Blackmail. Black market. Blackout. The list could go on. Nothing says “bad guy” quite like the color black. Black has a sinister note to it. Though black is worn (and often preferred) by people from all walks of society, it is often seen as the stereotypical color for criminals and villains―with shady movie and TV show characters almost always wearing black?
Holy Scripture gives us both positive and negative notions of black: “I am black, but beautiful” (Canticles 1:4) is positive, whereas “My skin is become black upon me, and my bones are dried up with heat!” (Job 30:30) is negative. In the Bible, the color black is often associated with darkness, suffering, and blindness―especially spiritual blindness. Black often symbolizes shadow or darkness―an absence of light. God clearly uses light and darkness in His creation. Originally, the entire world was created in darkness, but then God created light―and Christ says that He is the light of the world (John 9:5).
The Church uses both ideas of black―the positive and the negative. Traditionally, priests and clerics will wear black clothes―cassock, shirt, jacket, trousers, etc. Many religious orders also incorporate black attire―either entirely (Benedictines, Jesuits) or partially (Dominicans, Cistercians). Many religious books―breviaries, missals for the laity, bibles―have black covers. The majority of the text in these (and even most secular books) is black. We even have what is called the “Black Fast” ― which entails going without any kind of food and water all day long until after sunset―and then having a limited meal (not gorging oneself).
Holy Mother Church blesses ashes on Ash Wednesday and thus elevates them to the rank of being a Sacramental. Most of the ashes used on Ash Wednesday are very black―as opposed to the more commonly found grey ashes. The ashes are typically supposed to be made from the previous year’s Palm Sunday palm leaves. To get the good black ash, you cannot just burn them. You have to let them smolder with no oxygen, and that is how it gets the real charcoal black appearance.
Let Those Ashes Sink Into Your Head!
While you are still walking around with ashes on your forehead, there are a few thoughts about ashes that you might like to put into your head! There is more to ash than meets the eye—hopefully no ash fell into your eye this Ash Wednesday! Let’s “hash-out” some ash details that might make us better appreciate the wisdom of God’s Providence in arranging for ashes to be smeared on our foreheads! You will see that your ash can turn to cash—or at least 'spiritual cash'!
Ash is the residue, or solid remains, of burned plant parts like bark, wood, sawdust, leaves, woody debris, pulp, husk, hulls, fronds, and other plant debris. This brings to mind the idea of sacrifice—especially burnt offerings—where the things of this world were destroyed by fire as an act of adoration, submission or reparation to God. All that would remain of someone’s treasures belongings would be ash!
Ash also reminds us that, one day, we too will be burnt-out and have to die—this is poignant message given to us by Holy Mother Church, when She smears ash on our forehead, saying: “Remember man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return!”
Ashes, from this perspective, also teach us humility—for ashes, at least in their appearance, are very humble and far from being desired. Whoever heard of anyone collecting ashes? Or hoarding ashes? Gold and silver—yes, but ashes, most certainly no!
Medicinal Ashes
However, for all their humble appearance, ashes are far from being useless! Ash is good for physical health, just as humility is good for spiritual health. Ash has been used for soil liming and for traditional pest control to some crawling pests. This reminds of the many sinful pests that crawl about our soul—the imposition of blessed ashes symbolizes the penance that can get rid of those sinful pests! Also, like soap, ash is also a disinfecting agent (alkaline). Even the World Health Organization recommends ash as alternative to soap, when soap is not available. Doesn’t our soul need DiSINfecting too? The ashes, having been blessed, are a sacramental—therefore an avenue to and a source of actual graces that can help diSINfect the soul!
You can make lye water out of ash. Lye water is a great cleaning agent and sanitizer for clothes, floors, windows, silverware, plates, and even rust in marble. Tossing a bit of wood ash into your dirty skillet will produce enough lye (and friction) to get your camp skillets good and clean. Some people even use it raw as soap. Our ancestors learned to make lye, a caustic cleaning agent, at least 5000 years ago by running water through wood ashes, eventually learning to combine it with animal fats and water to make soap. Some hardy folks still do. Holy Mother Church has added ash to us, at the start of Lent, in the hope that we use it to clean and sanitize our souls!
Stain Removing Ashes
Sodium Carbonate, can be made out of ash. It is known to be an excellent product, used as household cleaner. A paste made out of ash and water, can remove stains from furniture. Or if we want to remove a stain from clothes the moment they happen, we add a bit of ash and after about five minutes, we rub it with the crumb of a bread—not the crust, but the soft white bit. This teaches us to do penance (ash is a symbol of penance) immediately after committing a sin—in this way we can reduce the stain of sin upon the soul and lessen its damage!
Stench Remover
Ash is a great odor repellent, just add a bit over the area that smells, for example the cat kitty litter. You can also remove odors from a fridge, by adding a plate of charcoal ash inside. Keep changing the charcoal periodically until the smell is gone. With regard to odors of the mouth, you can use it to brush your teeth. Not all woods are suitable. Conifer trees produce ash that is softer on the enamel. Some woods contain harsh minerals that may damage your teeth. Likewise, the stench of sin can be removed by penance—that is what Lent is for, and that is why the Church has placed ashes upon us!
Helps Growth
Ash was used for many years in farming. It recycles the natural nutrients back into the earth. It can be used as compost but does not include nitrogen. It aids in the increase of the earth’s PH level, which, in return, aids in the growth of the plants. But not all vegetables and fruit thrive from it, for example potatoes. Similarly, not all people profit from penance. They may do it for the wrong motives, or without any sorrow, contrition or compunction for their sins.
Ash strengthens plants that love calcium, such as tomatoes, vineyards, beans, spinach, peas, avocados, garlic, etc. Even rose bushes. This reminds of the spiritual advice that says: “Pray is good, but prayer is more powerful when penance is added to it!” Or, as Holy Scripture says: “Prayer is good with fasting and alms” (Tobias 12:8).
Animals and Pests Hate Ash
Animals hate ash. You can rid your garden of insects and various parasites, such as slugs and snails. You can rid yourself of ants. If you throw some ash in their colony, they will be forced to relocate, as they can’t move the ash. Spread some ash in the corners of the house, or dark spots of your cellar, etc. For as long as there is ash, no mice, rats, cockroaches or insects approach. It repels lice, ticks and fleas off animals. You make a thick paste of ash and vinegar and spread over the fur. It’s messy, but it works. It repels clothes moths. You can add some ash on your stored clothes, and simply shake it off when you need to use them. You can leave them for years this way, and nothing will happen to them. Likewise, the devil hates penance! As Our Lord said: “But this kind [of devil] is not cast out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:20).
Nature’s Filter
The charcoal collected within the ash, can be used as a filter. You can use charcoal to filter blurry wine. You can use charcoal to filter water before drinking. Our spiritual life is in grave need of a filter these days—there is so much out there that can either weaken or even destroy the grace in souls. Penance helps filter out the “bad-stuff”!
Ash Food Preservative
No fridge? No worries! You can preserve your fruits and vegetables for many days, months, even years, by digging a hole in the ground and filling it with ash. Add your veggies and fruit, ensuring enough space between them, so that they do not touch each other, or the muddy ground. Seal the hole with a piece of wood, and then let them be. In the older days, they used to preserve seeds in large clay containers, by adding a thick layer of ash over them. This prevented insects from destroying their produce. Ash is used for “immortal eggs”. In a recipe used in the Middle East, they preserve eggs in a mix of clay, ash, salt, lime and rice rind for many months. Penance likewise preserves our souls and virtues from corruption. Cover yourself with penances and seal the soul with the wood of the Cross and you shall be preserved!
Fire Extinguisher
You can put a fire out quickly by throwing ash over it. Similarly, you can put out the fires of your many and varied passions by throwing penance over them! Whereas indulging your passions is like throwing gasoline onto a fire! You can look upon the ashes of penance as being your fire-extinguisher for the fires of Purgatory or Hell—for if we do penance for our sins in this world, we shall not have to suffer for them in the next!
Extinguishing the Fire of Passion and Sin
The Lenten ashes imposed upon our foreheads on Ash Wednesday in part symbolize the need to extinguish the fires of our passions that ultimately ignite the fires of sin. “The tongue is a little member [of the body] and boasts great things. Behold how small a fire kindles a great wood! The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue defiles the whole body!” (James 3:5-6). How can we tame our passions? By prayer and fasting! Our Lord, speaking of how the Apostles failed to cast out a demon from a boy, said: “This kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20). St. John Vianney said: “The devil is not greatly afraid of the discipline and other instruments of penance. That which beats him is the curtailment of one’s food and drink!”
Old Testament Practice
Fasting was, in the Old Testament, one of the great means of making atonement for sin; it was called “to afflict the soul.” However, for fasting to be acceptable to God, it had to be accompanied by sentiments of sorrow for sin and mercy towards others. Otherwise it would be hypocritical to seek mercy for oneself while not extending mercy to others―for you want God to show you the mercy that you refuse to show to others!
True and Fake Fasting
“Why have we fasted, and Thou hast not regarded: have we humbled our souls, and Thou hast not taken notice? The Lord replies: ‘Behold in the day of your fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors! Behold you fast for debates and strife, and strike with the fist wickedly! Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard on high. Is this such a fast as I have chosen―for a man to afflict his soul [just] for a day? Is this it―to wind his head about like a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? That you loosen the bands of wickedness; undo the bundles that oppress; let them that are broken go free; and break asunder every burden. Give your bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the homeless into your house; when you shalt see someone naked, cover him; and despise not thy own flesh!’” (Isaias 58:3-7).
We see true sorrow in Nineve, where the prophet Jonas delivered God’s threats of destruction to the inhabitants: “Jonas began to enter into the city one day’s journey: and he cried, and said: ‘Yet forty days, and Ninive shall be destroyed!’ And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least. And the word came to the king of Ninive; and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in Ninive from the mouth of the king and of his princes, saying: ‘Let neither men nor beasts, oxen nor sheep, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water! And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength, and let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from His fierce anger, and we shall not perish?’ And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which He had said that He would do to them, and He did it not.” (Jonas 3:4-10).
Fasting in the New Testament
In the New Testament, fasting is seen as an earnest act of grief and of penance. The Apostles do not fast as long as the Bridegroom is with them, but they will fast when He is gone (Matthew 9:14-15), Our Lord, wishing to expiate our sins, fasted forty days and forty nights, and taught His Apostles that certain evil spirits cannot be cast out except by prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:20). St. Paul was so alive to the necessity of mortifying the flesh that he punished it severely in order to escape sin and final reprobation: “I chastise my body and bring it into subjection” (1 Corinthians 9:27).
The Church and Fasting
True to His teachings, the Church has established the Lenten Fast, that of the Vigils and of the Ember Days (now sadly discarded) to offer her children the opportunity of making expiation for their faults. Some religious orders would fast almost all year round, except for major feast days and Sundays.
Already mentioned in passing, further above, we have the “Black Fast.” Traditionally, the Black Fast is undertaken during Lent. This form of fasting, the most rigorous in the history of Church legislation, was marked by austerity regarding both the quantity and quality of food permitted on fasting days as well as the time of day wherein such food might be legitimately taken.
● More than one meal was strictly prohibited.
● At this meal flesh meat, eggs, butter, cheese, and milk were forbidden.
● To these restrictions abstinence from wine was added during Lent.
● During Holy Week the meal was much more frugal and consisted of solely of bread, salt, herbs, and water.
● Finally, this meal was not allowed until sunset.
The days of Lent as well as those preceding priestly and clerical ordination were marked by the black fast. This regime continued until the tenth century when the more easy-going custom of taking the only meal of the day at three o’clock was introduced. In the fourteenth century the hour of taking this meal was changed to noon. Shortly afterwards the practice of taking an additional small meal in the evening began to gain ground. Finally, the custom of taking a crust of bread and some coffee in the morning was introduced in the early part of the nineteenth century. Since then, owing to ever changing circumstances of time and place, the Church has gradually relaxed the severity of penitential requirements, so that now little more than a symbolic trace of the former rigorous fast remains.
In 1966, after the Second Vatican Council, POPE PAUL VI, in his Apostolic Constitution Paenitemini, further changed the Catholic fasting requirements. He recommended that fasting be appropriate to the local economic situation, and that all Catholics voluntarily fast and abstain. The Lenten Fast was reduced from an obligatory 40 Days to a mere 2 Days (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday) ― which is a 95% discount! You would think that in these ever increasingly sinful modern times we would need more penance rather than less penance! Pope Paul VI’s recommendation that all Catholics voluntarily (rather than obligatorily) fast and abstain, has been a total disaster―hardly anybody fasts the 40 days voluntarily, as everyone takes the easy way out! “It is no longer a sin to refuse to fast, so I will not fast!” is the attitude of most Catholics.
Many a sin takes its rise directly or indirectly in the craving for pleasure, in excess in eating and drinking, and nothing is so effective in making atonement as mortification in eating, reaching as it does the very root of the evil by mortifying the craving for sensual pleasure. This is why the Saints have made a practice, of fasting even outside the seasons appointed by the Church. Generous Christian souls imitate them and, if they cannot keep the strict fast, forego some food at each meal in order thus to curb their sensuality. If we fail in this, we will, before very long, experience the rebellion of the flesh.
THE CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT says: “All kinds of satisfaction are reducible to three heads: prayer, fasting and alms-deeds, which correspond to three kinds of goods which we have received from God; those of the soul, those of the body and what are called external goods. Nothing can be more effectual in uprooting all sin from the soul than these three kinds of satisfaction. For since whatever is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, everyone can see that to these three causes of disease are opposed also three remedies.
“To the first is opposed fasting; to the second, alms-deeds; to the third, prayer. Moreover, if we consider those whom our sins injure, we shall easily perceive why all kinds of satisfaction are reduced especially to these three. For those (we offend by our sins) are: God, our neighbor and ourselves. God we appease by prayer, our neighbor we satisfy by alms, and ourselves we chastise by fasting. [...]
“This triple remedy was, therefore, appointed by God to aid man in the attainment of salvation. For by sin we offend God, wrong our neighbor, or injure ourselves. The wrath of God we appease by pious prayer; our offenses against man we redeem by alms-deeds; the stains of our own lives we wash away by fasting. [...] Fasting is most intimately connected with prayer. For the mind of one who is filled with food and drink is so borne down as not to be able to raise itself to the contemplation of God, or even to understand what prayer means.” (The Catechism of the Council of Trent).
THE BALTIMORE CATECHISM adds: “The chief means by which we satisfy God for the temporal punishment due to sin are: Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving, all spiritual and corporal works of mercy, and the patient suffering of the ills of life.”
In more recent times, even the Liberal POPE BENEDICT XVI, in a general address for Lent in 2009, again emphasized the need to restore fasting back to its proper place, “so that the authentic and perennial significance of this long held practice may be rediscovered.”
The Saints and Fasting
Regarding mortification, ST. JOHN VIANNEY once said, “The devil is not greatly afraid of the discipline and other instruments of penance. That which beats him is the curtailment of one’s food, drink and sleep. There is nothing the devil fears more, consequently, nothing is more pleasing to God. Oh! How often have I experienced it! Whilst I was alone—and I was alone during eight or nine years, and therefore quite free to yield to my attraction—it happened at times that I refrained from food for entire days. On those occasions I obtained, both for myself and for others, whatsoever I asked of Almighty God.”
ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM says: “Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works…Let the hands fast, by being free of avarice. Let the feet fast, by ceasing to run after sin. Let the eye fast, by disciplining them not to glare at that which is sinful. Let the ear fast, by not listening to evil talk and gossip. Let the mouth fast from foul words and criticism. For what good is it if we abstain from fowl and fishes, but bite and devour one another?”
ST. PETER CHRYSOLOGUS tells us: “Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. When you fast, see the fasting of others.”
The chief reasons for fasting are listed by ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: “For we fast for three purposes: (1) to restrain the desires of the flesh; (2) to raise the mind to contemplate sublime things; (3) to make satisfaction for our sins. These are good and noble things, and so fasting is virtuous.”
Whereas ST. FRANCIS DE SALES says: “God has given us the goods of the Earth, not only that we may enjoy them, but also that we may have the means of … showing him our love by the voluntary renunciation of His gifts, and by the oblation of them to His glory. To abandon, for God’s sake, all worldly enjoyments, has always been the practice of holy souls.”
Yet the motive behind fasting can be both good and evil—it can be done out of pride, to show off; or it can be done in a way that it should be done—with contrition and compunction for our sins, and out of love and in a spirit of humility.
In The Spiritual Life, FR. TANQUEREY writes: “Even among devout souls there are those who err as to the true nature of perfection, and who describe it, each according to the caprice of his own bias and fancy. Many, mistaking devotions for devotion, imagine perfection to consist in reciting a great number of prayers, in joining sundry religious societies, even if such practices entail the occasional neglect of their duties of state or of the charity due to the other members of the household. This is a substitution of non-essentials for the necessary, a sacrifice of the end to the means.
“Others give themselves to fasting and austerities, which lead to the exhaustion of the body, and thus become unfit for the discharge of their duties of state and consider themselves dispensed therefore from the law of charity toward their neighbor. They dare not permit themselves any little dainties, yet they do not hesitate ‘to drench their lips with the life-blood of their fellow-men through calumny and slander’ (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 1, ch. 1). Here again one forgets the essentials of perfection and neglects the fundamental duty of charity, in favor of practices, good indeed, but far less important. The like mistake is made by those who give generously to charity, but refuse to forgive their enemies, or those who, whilst forgiving them, think not of paying their debts.
“Some, taking spiritual consolations for fervor, think they have arrived at perfection if they are filled with joy and can pray with ease, and they consider themselves lukewarm when they are seized by aridity and distractions. Such persons forget that what counts before God is the generous, oft-renewed effort despite apparent failures.
“Others, taken up by a life of action and external activities, neglect the interior life to give themselves more entirely to works of zeal. They forget that the life and soul of all zeal is habitual prayer which draws down the grace of God and gives fruitfulness to action.
“Others, having read mystical works or the lives of the Saints in which ecstasies and visions are described, fancy perfection to consist in these extraordinary phenomena and strain their minds and imaginations to obtain them. They have never understood that such phenomena are, as the mystics themselves testify, but incidental; that they do not constitute the essence of sanctity and that it is foolhardy to covet them.
“Summing up the doctrine of the essence of perfection according to Holy Scripture and of the Fathers of the Church, St. Thomas answers that perfection essentially consists in the love of God and of one’s neighbor for God’s sake. ‘Essentially the perfection of the Christian life consists in charity first and foremost in the love of God, then in the love of one’s neighbor’ (Summa Theologica, 1a 2ae, q. 3, art 1).” (Fr. Tanquerey. The Spiritual Life).
Article 1
Tuesday, February 17th, Eve of Ash Wednesday
Ashen Faced with Ash on Face!
Tuesday, February 17th, Eve of Ash Wednesday
Ashen Faced with Ash on Face!
Ashen-Faced
Murder is one of the greatest crimes we can commit―and it would normally have a “death-sentence” imposed upon anyone who murders another person. When that murderer is finally caught, tried and found guilty in court and is then sentenced by judge to the death penalty, the criminal will sometimes appear “ashen-faced.” Someone who is “ashen-faced” looks extremely pale, drained of color and pallid, especially, because they are shocked or terrified.
This Ash Wednesday we should also be “ashen-faced” by the ash on our face, because we likewise have committed the greatest evil in the world―MORTAL SIN. The word “mortal” means death―coming from Latin words mors and mortis. Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man ― “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) ― by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God, Who is meant to be man’s ultimate end and beatitude. Mortal sin sentences a person eternal damnation in Hell―like a death sentence of sorts, except that in Hell a person never dies, but is eternally tortured―most certainly wishing for death, but never being allowed to die throughout the tortures.
Sometimes, murderers think that what they did was “no-big-deal” ― much like a woman aborting one child after another. Many people have the same false idea about mortal sins ― “What’s the big deal? Everyone is doing it!” Yet in their blindness they fail to realize that almost everyone is going to Hell! Mortal sin is a “big-deal”―in fact, it is “the biggest deal” of all. Our Catechisms tell us that: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Mortal sin must be a most terrible thing indeed to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the everlasting punishment of the rebellious angels and of sinners who die with even only one mortal sin … Venial sin is a less serious offense against the law of God … We are prone to look upon venial sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that it is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin. In Holy Scripture we see from many examples how God regards venial sin; even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished [by death on the borders of the Promised Land and] ― he was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD).
Holy Scripture―in many places―repeatedly tells us of the evil of mortal sin and the evil consequences it brings: “Do not bind sin to sin―for even in one sin thou shalt not go unpunished!” (Ecclesiasticus 7:8). “Our God is so offended with sins, that He will deliver the people up [to chastisements] for their sins! … He will repay them for their sins!” (Judith 11:8, 15). “He will remember their iniquities and visit their sins!” (Jeremias 14:10). “In the day of revenge I will visit this sin also of theirs!” (Exodus 32:34). “I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with stripes!” (Psalm 88:33). “They have received, from the hand of the Lord, double for all their sins!” (Isaias 40:2). “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “The sting of death is sin” (1 Corinthians 15:56). “Sin has reigned to death!” (Romans 5:21). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death!” (James 1:15). “Everyone shall die for his own sin!” (Deuteronomy 24:16). “Every man shall die for his own sin!” (2 Paralipomenon 25:4). “If the just man shall turn away from his justice and shall commit iniquity … then he shall die, he shall die in his sin!” (Ezechiel 3:20). “The soul that sins, the same shall die! … If the just man turn himself away from his justice, and do iniquity ― shall he live? All his justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered, and in his sins, which he has committed, in them he shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:4 & 20 & 24). “Sin shall be destroyed with the sinner” (Ecclesiasticus 27:3).
Neglect of Penance Leads to Loss of Souls
Speaking to Venerable Mary of Agreda, concerning the Baptism of Christ and the penance He had done beforehand, in the desert, for forty-days and nights, Our Lady said: ”Corporal penances are so appropriate and fitted to mortal creatures. The ignorance of this truth and the neglect and contempt of bodily mortification, cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. The first reason—why men should afflict their body and mortify their flesh—is their having been conceived in sin. By this Original Sin human nature is depraved, filled with passions, rebellious to reason, inclined to evil and adverse to the spirit. If the soul allows itself to be carried away by them, it will be precipitated by the first vice into many others. But if this beastly flesh is curbed by mortification and penance, it loses its strength and acknowledges the authority of the spirit and the light of truth.
Everyone Has Sinned—Everyone Needs Penance
“The second reason is that none of the mortals have altogether avoided sinning against God; and the punishment and retribution must inevitably correspond to the guilt, either in this life or the next―therefore, as the soul commits sin in union with the body, it follows that both of them must be punished. The interior sorrow is not sufficient for atonement, if the flesh seeks to evade the punishment corresponding to the guilt. Moreover, the debt is so great and the satisfaction that can be given by the creature so limited and scanty, that there remains continual uncertainty whether the Judge is satisfied―even after the exertions of a whole lifetime of penance―hence, the soul should find no rest in doing penance to the end its life.
“Even though divine clemency is so generous with men, that, if they try to satisfy for their sins by penance, as far as their limited capacity goes, God remits their offenses and, in addition thereto, has promised the guilty ones new gifts and graces and eternal rewards. Yet His faithful and prudent servants, who really love their Lord, are constrained voluntarily to add other penances; for the debtor who merely wishes to do what he is obliged to and adds nothing of his own freewill, certainly pays his debts, but will remain poor and destitute, if after payment of his debts nothing remains. What then are those to expect, who neither pay nor make any efforts towards paying?
Our Lord and Our Lady—Though Innocent—Did Penance
“The third reason for bodily mortification, and the most urgent one, is the duty of Christians to imitate their divine Teacher and Master. Moreover, my divine Son and I―without being guilty of any faults, or bad inclinations―devoted ourselves to labors and made our lives a continual practice of penance and mortification of the flesh. It was thus that the Lord saw fit to attain the glory of His body and of His holy name, and He wished me to follow Him in all things.
“If We then pursued such a course of life, because it was reasonable, what must be thought of mortals that seek nothing but sweetness and delight, and abhor all penances, affronts, ignominies, fasting and mortification? Shall then only Christ, our Lord, and I suffer all these hardships, while the guilt-laden debtors and deservers of all these punishments, throw themselves head over heels into the filth of their carnal inclinations? Shall they employ their faculties, given to them for the service of Christ, my Lord, and for His following, merely in dancing attendance on their lusts and the devil, who has introduced evil into the world? This absurd position―maintained by the children of Adam―is the cause of great indignation in the just Judge.
Our Lord Atoned—But Did Not Dispense From Penance
“It is true that by the bodily afflictions and mortifications of my most blessed Son, the defects and deficiencies of human merits have been atoned for; and that He wished me―as a mere creature and as one taking the place of other creatures―to cooperate with Him most perfectly and exactly all in His penances and exercises. But this was not in order to exempt men from the practice of penance, but in order to encourage them to it―for in order merely to save them, it was not necessary to suffer so much.
“Our blessed Savior, as a true Father and Brother, wished also to enhance the labors and penances of those who were to follow in His footsteps―for the efforts of creatures are of little value, in the eyes of God, unless they are made precious by the merits of Christ. If this is true of works which are entirely virtuous and perfect, then how much more is it true of those which are infected with so many faults and deficiencies, even in the greatest acts of virtue, as ordinarily performed by the children of Adam? For in the works of even the most spiritual and virtuous persons, many deficiencies occur. These deficiencies are made good by the merits of Christ, our Lord, so that the works of men may become acceptable to the eternal Father.
Woe to Those Who Neglect Penance
“But those who neglect good works and remain altogether idle, can by no means expect to apply to themselves the good works of Christ―for they have in themselves nothing that can be perfected by the works of Christ, but only such things as deserve condemnation.
“I do not speak now of the damnable error of some of the faithful, who have introduced, into the works of penance, the sensuality and vanity of the world, so that they merit greater punishment for their penance than for their sins, since they foster, in their penances, vain and imperfect purposes and forget the supernatural ends of penance, which alone give value to penance and life to the soul.
“Deplore this blindness and labor with great zeal―for if your labors were even as great as that of the Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, they would be no greater than they should be. Chastise your body with ever greater severity, and remember that you are deficient in many things, while you only have a short life―and are so weak and incapable of repaying your debts!” (Our Lady to Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
The Mark of the Beast and the Mark of the Lord
Receiving the Sign of the Cross on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday should make us think of the passages in Holy Scripture which speak of two kinds of marks on the forehead―the Mark or Sign of the Lord; and the Mark or Sign of the Beast.
► THE MARK OF THE LORD : The mark on the forehead is like the blood that the Israelites smeared on the doorposts at the coming of the “Passover” of the Lord while they were slaves in Egypt: “I am the Lord! Take of the blood of the lamb and put it upon both the side posts, and on the upper door posts of the houses … It is the Phase (that is the Passage) of the Lord. And I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and will kill every firstborn in the land of Egypt―both man and beast―and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments! I am the Lord! And the blood shall be unto you for a sign in the houses where you shall be: and I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I shall strike the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 12:7-13).
Similarly, in speaking of the “End-Times” or “Last-Days” of the world―which Our Lady of Fatima revealed have already started―Holy Scripture, in the Book of the Apocalypse, speaks: “I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the sign of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the Earth and the sea, saying: ‘Hurt not the Earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, until we sign the servants of our God in their foreheads!’” (Apocalypse 7:2-3). The ashes we receive on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday, should remind of these things―as well as inspire us to draw closer to Christ and His Cross, and draw further away from the world and its pleasures―hence the fasting, abstinence and general penance of Lent.
► THE MARK OF THE BEAST : Being marked with the Sign of the Cross upon our foreheads also reminds us of the so-called “Mark of the Beast” that Holy Scripture speaks about: “I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads names of blasphemy. And the beast, which I saw, was like to a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his own strength, and great power. And I saw one of his heads, as it were, slain to death and his death’s wound was healed. And all the Earth was in admiration of the beast. And they adored the dragon, which gave power to the beast; and they adored the beast, saying: ‘Who is like to the beast? And who shall be able to fight with him?’ And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies―and power was given to him to do two and forty months. And he opened his mouth unto blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His Name, and His Tabernacle, and them that dwell in Heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given him over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation. And all that dwell upon the Earth, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, adored him who was slain from the beginning of the world.
“And I saw another beast coming up out of the Earth, and he had two horns, like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. And he executed all the power of the former beast in his sight. And he caused the Earth, and them that dwell therein, to adore the first beast, whose wound to death was healed. And he did great signs, so that he made also fire to come down from the sky unto the Earth in the sight of men. Through the signs, which were given him to do in the sight of the beast, he seduced them that dwell on the Earth, saying to them that dwell on the Earth that they should make the image of the beast, which had the wound by the sword and lived. And it was given him to give life to the image of the beast, and that the image of the beast should speak; and should cause, that whosoever will not adore the image of the beast, should be slain. And he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, freemen and bondmen, to have a character in their right hand, or on their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, but only he that has the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. He that has understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man―and the number of him is six hundred sixty-six.” (Apocalypse 13:1-18).
“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice: ‘If any man shall adore the beast and his image, and receive his character in his forehead, or in his hand; then he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled with pure wine in the cup of His wrath, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the sight of the holy angels, and in the sight of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever―neither have they rest day nor night, who have adored the beast and his image, and whoever received the character of his name!’” (Apocalypse 14:9-11).
Two Sides―One War―No Spectators
The above passages paint a clear picture of two diametrically opposed sides―Heaven versus Hell; Christ versus Satan. You could add to that Our Lady versus Satan, due to God’s prophecy to Satan after he had tempted Adam and Eve into committing the Original Sin: “And the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the Earth! Upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life! I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed! She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel!’” (Genesis 3:14-15).
Hence, from the beginning of the world, war was declared and it has never ceased to this day, with “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8). That is why “the life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1) and you must “fight the good fight of Faith and lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you are called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). Therefore, “put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect!” (Ephesians 6:11-13).
There are no spectators in this war―which is what Our Lady of Fatima revealed to Sister Lucia: “The Devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle. It is a final battle where one side will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God, or we are with the Devil―there is no middle ground!”
This season of Lent is yet another battle in the war against Satan and the world―of which he is the prince (John 14:30). “Shall your brethren go to fight, and will you just sit here?” (Numbers 32:6). Make no mistake about it―you are called to the fight! It does not matter whether you are young or old―a child of 7 or an old-age pensioner of 77. Man or woman; healthy or sick; rich or poor; educated or uneducated; full of courage or cowardice; full of zeal or full of excuse; whether you want to or not―you are called to the fight!
Mary and Her Children versus Satan and His Followers
The words of St. Louis de Montfort, from his book True Devotion to Mary, are a most fitting meditation for all of us in this battle of Lent: “It is principally of these last and cruel persecutions of the devil, which shall go on increasing daily till the reign of Antichrist, that we ought to understand that first and celebrated prediction and curse of God, pronounced in the terrestrial paradise, against the serpent. It is to our purpose to explain this here―for the glory of the most holy Virgin, for the salvation of her children and for the confusion of the devil: ‘I will put enmities between thee and the woman and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel!’ (Genesis 3:15).
“God has never made and formed but one enmity; but it is an irreconcilable one, which shall endure and grow even to the end. It is between Mary, His worthy Mother, and the devil—between the children and the servants of the Blessed Virgin, and the children and tools of Lucifer. The most terrible of all the enemies, which God has set up against the devil, is His holy Mother Mary. He has inspired her, even since the days of the earthly paradise—though she existed then only in His idea—with so much hatred against that cursed enemy of God, with so much ingenuity in unveiling the malice of that ancient serpent, with so much power to conquer, to overthrow and to crush that proud, impious rebel, that he fears her, not only more than all angels and men, but in a sense more than God Himself. Not that the anger, the hatred and the power of God are not infinitely greater than those of the Blessed Virgin―for the perfections of Mary are limited―but first, because Satan, being proud, suffers infinitely more from being beaten and punished by a little and humble handmaid of God, and her humility humbles him more than the divine power; and secondly, because God has given Mary such great power against the devils that—as they have often been obliged to confess, in spite of themselves, by the mouths of the possessed—they fear one of her sighs for a soul more than the prayers of all the saints, and one of her threats against them more than all other torments.
“What Lucifer has lost by pride, Mary has gained by humility. What Eve has damned and lost by disobedience, Mary has saved by obedience. Eve, in obeying the serpent, has destroyed all her children together with herself, and has delivered them to him; Mary, in being perfectly faithful to God, has saved all her children and servants together with herself, and has consecrated them to His Majesty.
“ God has not only set an enmity, but enmities, not simply between Mary and the devil, but between the race of the holy Virgin and the race of the devil; that is to say, God has set enmities, antipathies and secret hatreds between the true children and servants of Mary and the children and slaves of the devil. They have no love for each other. They have no sympathy for each other. The children of Belial, the slaves of Satan, the friends of the world (for it is the same thing) have always, up to this time, persecuted those who belong to our Blessed Lady, and will, in the future, persecute them more than ever; just as Cain, of old, persecuted his brother Abel, and Esau his brother Jacob―who are the figures of the reprobate and the predestinate. But the humble Mary will always have the victory over that proud spirit, and so great a victory that she will go so far as to crush his head, where his pride dwells. She will always discover the malice of the serpent. She will always lay bare his infernal plots and dissipate his diabolical councils, and even to the end of time will guard her faithful servants from his cruel claw.
“But the power of Mary over all the devils will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lay his snares against her heel: that is to say, her humble slaves and her poor children, whom she will raise up to make war against him. They shall be little and poor in the world’s esteem, and abased before all like the heel, trodden underfoot and persecuted as the heel is by the other members of the body. But, in return for this, they shall be rich in the grace of God, which Mary shall distribute to them abundantly. They shall be great and exalted before God in sanctity, superior to all other creatures by their lively zeal, and so well sustained with God’s assistance that, with the humility of their heel, in union with Mary, they shall crush the head of the devil and cause Jesus Christ to triumph.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §51 to §54).
Our Lady echoes the above passages at La Salette, when she speaks of her future battle against Satan (which has now begun): “I make an urgent appeal to the Earth! I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven! I call on the true followers of Christ made man, the only true Savior of men! I call on my children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to me, so that I may lead them to my divine Son, those whom I carry in my arms, so to speak, those who have lived on my spirit! Finally, I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world! It is time they came out and filled the world with light! Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children! I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days! May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ! Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see! For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends! … But the children of the holy Church, the children of my Faith, my true followers, they will grow in their love for God and in all the virtues most precious to me. Blessed are the souls humbly guided by the Holy Ghost! I shall fight at their side!”
Are you up for the fight? Or are you ashen-faced out of fright? The ashes smeared on your forehead with the Sign of the Cross, should remind you of the Sign of the Cross that was smeared on shields of the Roman soldiers of Constantine in 312 AD. Constantine was a monotheist pagan who worshiped the pagan god Sol Invictus, the “Unconquered Sun.” In the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, he confronted and defeated Maxentius on the Tiber River while making his way on the Via Flaminia to enter the city of Rome in the year 312. The story goes that before this battle, Constantine and his army saw an enormous luminous cross above the sun, with words in Greek that were translated into Latin as “In hoc signo vinces” — “With this sign thou shalt conquer.” Constantine was astonished, he had dreams about this, and he decided to mark the shields of his soldiers with this Christian symbol. In the successive battle he won the victory. Take your cross of ashes into Lent and carry the cross of penance and sacrifice―of prayer and fasting―and you too will the win the victory: “This kind of demon is not cast out except by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20). Are you up for the fight? Or are you ashen-faced out of fright?
Murder is one of the greatest crimes we can commit―and it would normally have a “death-sentence” imposed upon anyone who murders another person. When that murderer is finally caught, tried and found guilty in court and is then sentenced by judge to the death penalty, the criminal will sometimes appear “ashen-faced.” Someone who is “ashen-faced” looks extremely pale, drained of color and pallid, especially, because they are shocked or terrified.
This Ash Wednesday we should also be “ashen-faced” by the ash on our face, because we likewise have committed the greatest evil in the world―MORTAL SIN. The word “mortal” means death―coming from Latin words mors and mortis. Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man ― “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) ― by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God, Who is meant to be man’s ultimate end and beatitude. Mortal sin sentences a person eternal damnation in Hell―like a death sentence of sorts, except that in Hell a person never dies, but is eternally tortured―most certainly wishing for death, but never being allowed to die throughout the tortures.
Sometimes, murderers think that what they did was “no-big-deal” ― much like a woman aborting one child after another. Many people have the same false idea about mortal sins ― “What’s the big deal? Everyone is doing it!” Yet in their blindness they fail to realize that almost everyone is going to Hell! Mortal sin is a “big-deal”―in fact, it is “the biggest deal” of all. Our Catechisms tell us that: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Mortal sin must be a most terrible thing indeed to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the everlasting punishment of the rebellious angels and of sinners who die with even only one mortal sin … Venial sin is a less serious offense against the law of God … We are prone to look upon venial sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that it is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin. In Holy Scripture we see from many examples how God regards venial sin; even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished [by death on the borders of the Promised Land and] ― he was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD).
Holy Scripture―in many places―repeatedly tells us of the evil of mortal sin and the evil consequences it brings: “Do not bind sin to sin―for even in one sin thou shalt not go unpunished!” (Ecclesiasticus 7:8). “Our God is so offended with sins, that He will deliver the people up [to chastisements] for their sins! … He will repay them for their sins!” (Judith 11:8, 15). “He will remember their iniquities and visit their sins!” (Jeremias 14:10). “In the day of revenge I will visit this sin also of theirs!” (Exodus 32:34). “I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with stripes!” (Psalm 88:33). “They have received, from the hand of the Lord, double for all their sins!” (Isaias 40:2). “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “The sting of death is sin” (1 Corinthians 15:56). “Sin has reigned to death!” (Romans 5:21). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death!” (James 1:15). “Everyone shall die for his own sin!” (Deuteronomy 24:16). “Every man shall die for his own sin!” (2 Paralipomenon 25:4). “If the just man shall turn away from his justice and shall commit iniquity … then he shall die, he shall die in his sin!” (Ezechiel 3:20). “The soul that sins, the same shall die! … If the just man turn himself away from his justice, and do iniquity ― shall he live? All his justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered, and in his sins, which he has committed, in them he shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:4 & 20 & 24). “Sin shall be destroyed with the sinner” (Ecclesiasticus 27:3).
Neglect of Penance Leads to Loss of Souls
Speaking to Venerable Mary of Agreda, concerning the Baptism of Christ and the penance He had done beforehand, in the desert, for forty-days and nights, Our Lady said: ”Corporal penances are so appropriate and fitted to mortal creatures. The ignorance of this truth and the neglect and contempt of bodily mortification, cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. The first reason—why men should afflict their body and mortify their flesh—is their having been conceived in sin. By this Original Sin human nature is depraved, filled with passions, rebellious to reason, inclined to evil and adverse to the spirit. If the soul allows itself to be carried away by them, it will be precipitated by the first vice into many others. But if this beastly flesh is curbed by mortification and penance, it loses its strength and acknowledges the authority of the spirit and the light of truth.
Everyone Has Sinned—Everyone Needs Penance
“The second reason is that none of the mortals have altogether avoided sinning against God; and the punishment and retribution must inevitably correspond to the guilt, either in this life or the next―therefore, as the soul commits sin in union with the body, it follows that both of them must be punished. The interior sorrow is not sufficient for atonement, if the flesh seeks to evade the punishment corresponding to the guilt. Moreover, the debt is so great and the satisfaction that can be given by the creature so limited and scanty, that there remains continual uncertainty whether the Judge is satisfied―even after the exertions of a whole lifetime of penance―hence, the soul should find no rest in doing penance to the end its life.
“Even though divine clemency is so generous with men, that, if they try to satisfy for their sins by penance, as far as their limited capacity goes, God remits their offenses and, in addition thereto, has promised the guilty ones new gifts and graces and eternal rewards. Yet His faithful and prudent servants, who really love their Lord, are constrained voluntarily to add other penances; for the debtor who merely wishes to do what he is obliged to and adds nothing of his own freewill, certainly pays his debts, but will remain poor and destitute, if after payment of his debts nothing remains. What then are those to expect, who neither pay nor make any efforts towards paying?
Our Lord and Our Lady—Though Innocent—Did Penance
“The third reason for bodily mortification, and the most urgent one, is the duty of Christians to imitate their divine Teacher and Master. Moreover, my divine Son and I―without being guilty of any faults, or bad inclinations―devoted ourselves to labors and made our lives a continual practice of penance and mortification of the flesh. It was thus that the Lord saw fit to attain the glory of His body and of His holy name, and He wished me to follow Him in all things.
“If We then pursued such a course of life, because it was reasonable, what must be thought of mortals that seek nothing but sweetness and delight, and abhor all penances, affronts, ignominies, fasting and mortification? Shall then only Christ, our Lord, and I suffer all these hardships, while the guilt-laden debtors and deservers of all these punishments, throw themselves head over heels into the filth of their carnal inclinations? Shall they employ their faculties, given to them for the service of Christ, my Lord, and for His following, merely in dancing attendance on their lusts and the devil, who has introduced evil into the world? This absurd position―maintained by the children of Adam―is the cause of great indignation in the just Judge.
Our Lord Atoned—But Did Not Dispense From Penance
“It is true that by the bodily afflictions and mortifications of my most blessed Son, the defects and deficiencies of human merits have been atoned for; and that He wished me―as a mere creature and as one taking the place of other creatures―to cooperate with Him most perfectly and exactly all in His penances and exercises. But this was not in order to exempt men from the practice of penance, but in order to encourage them to it―for in order merely to save them, it was not necessary to suffer so much.
“Our blessed Savior, as a true Father and Brother, wished also to enhance the labors and penances of those who were to follow in His footsteps―for the efforts of creatures are of little value, in the eyes of God, unless they are made precious by the merits of Christ. If this is true of works which are entirely virtuous and perfect, then how much more is it true of those which are infected with so many faults and deficiencies, even in the greatest acts of virtue, as ordinarily performed by the children of Adam? For in the works of even the most spiritual and virtuous persons, many deficiencies occur. These deficiencies are made good by the merits of Christ, our Lord, so that the works of men may become acceptable to the eternal Father.
Woe to Those Who Neglect Penance
“But those who neglect good works and remain altogether idle, can by no means expect to apply to themselves the good works of Christ―for they have in themselves nothing that can be perfected by the works of Christ, but only such things as deserve condemnation.
“I do not speak now of the damnable error of some of the faithful, who have introduced, into the works of penance, the sensuality and vanity of the world, so that they merit greater punishment for their penance than for their sins, since they foster, in their penances, vain and imperfect purposes and forget the supernatural ends of penance, which alone give value to penance and life to the soul.
“Deplore this blindness and labor with great zeal―for if your labors were even as great as that of the Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, they would be no greater than they should be. Chastise your body with ever greater severity, and remember that you are deficient in many things, while you only have a short life―and are so weak and incapable of repaying your debts!” (Our Lady to Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
The Mark of the Beast and the Mark of the Lord
Receiving the Sign of the Cross on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday should make us think of the passages in Holy Scripture which speak of two kinds of marks on the forehead―the Mark or Sign of the Lord; and the Mark or Sign of the Beast.
► THE MARK OF THE LORD : The mark on the forehead is like the blood that the Israelites smeared on the doorposts at the coming of the “Passover” of the Lord while they were slaves in Egypt: “I am the Lord! Take of the blood of the lamb and put it upon both the side posts, and on the upper door posts of the houses … It is the Phase (that is the Passage) of the Lord. And I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and will kill every firstborn in the land of Egypt―both man and beast―and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments! I am the Lord! And the blood shall be unto you for a sign in the houses where you shall be: and I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I shall strike the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 12:7-13).
Similarly, in speaking of the “End-Times” or “Last-Days” of the world―which Our Lady of Fatima revealed have already started―Holy Scripture, in the Book of the Apocalypse, speaks: “I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the sign of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the Earth and the sea, saying: ‘Hurt not the Earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, until we sign the servants of our God in their foreheads!’” (Apocalypse 7:2-3). The ashes we receive on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday, should remind of these things―as well as inspire us to draw closer to Christ and His Cross, and draw further away from the world and its pleasures―hence the fasting, abstinence and general penance of Lent.
► THE MARK OF THE BEAST : Being marked with the Sign of the Cross upon our foreheads also reminds us of the so-called “Mark of the Beast” that Holy Scripture speaks about: “I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads names of blasphemy. And the beast, which I saw, was like to a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his own strength, and great power. And I saw one of his heads, as it were, slain to death and his death’s wound was healed. And all the Earth was in admiration of the beast. And they adored the dragon, which gave power to the beast; and they adored the beast, saying: ‘Who is like to the beast? And who shall be able to fight with him?’ And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies―and power was given to him to do two and forty months. And he opened his mouth unto blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His Name, and His Tabernacle, and them that dwell in Heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given him over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation. And all that dwell upon the Earth, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, adored him who was slain from the beginning of the world.
“And I saw another beast coming up out of the Earth, and he had two horns, like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. And he executed all the power of the former beast in his sight. And he caused the Earth, and them that dwell therein, to adore the first beast, whose wound to death was healed. And he did great signs, so that he made also fire to come down from the sky unto the Earth in the sight of men. Through the signs, which were given him to do in the sight of the beast, he seduced them that dwell on the Earth, saying to them that dwell on the Earth that they should make the image of the beast, which had the wound by the sword and lived. And it was given him to give life to the image of the beast, and that the image of the beast should speak; and should cause, that whosoever will not adore the image of the beast, should be slain. And he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, freemen and bondmen, to have a character in their right hand, or on their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, but only he that has the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. He that has understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man―and the number of him is six hundred sixty-six.” (Apocalypse 13:1-18).
“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice: ‘If any man shall adore the beast and his image, and receive his character in his forehead, or in his hand; then he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled with pure wine in the cup of His wrath, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the sight of the holy angels, and in the sight of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever―neither have they rest day nor night, who have adored the beast and his image, and whoever received the character of his name!’” (Apocalypse 14:9-11).
Two Sides―One War―No Spectators
The above passages paint a clear picture of two diametrically opposed sides―Heaven versus Hell; Christ versus Satan. You could add to that Our Lady versus Satan, due to God’s prophecy to Satan after he had tempted Adam and Eve into committing the Original Sin: “And the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the Earth! Upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life! I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed! She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel!’” (Genesis 3:14-15).
Hence, from the beginning of the world, war was declared and it has never ceased to this day, with “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8). That is why “the life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1) and you must “fight the good fight of Faith and lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you are called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). Therefore, “put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect!” (Ephesians 6:11-13).
There are no spectators in this war―which is what Our Lady of Fatima revealed to Sister Lucia: “The Devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle. It is a final battle where one side will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God, or we are with the Devil―there is no middle ground!”
This season of Lent is yet another battle in the war against Satan and the world―of which he is the prince (John 14:30). “Shall your brethren go to fight, and will you just sit here?” (Numbers 32:6). Make no mistake about it―you are called to the fight! It does not matter whether you are young or old―a child of 7 or an old-age pensioner of 77. Man or woman; healthy or sick; rich or poor; educated or uneducated; full of courage or cowardice; full of zeal or full of excuse; whether you want to or not―you are called to the fight!
Mary and Her Children versus Satan and His Followers
The words of St. Louis de Montfort, from his book True Devotion to Mary, are a most fitting meditation for all of us in this battle of Lent: “It is principally of these last and cruel persecutions of the devil, which shall go on increasing daily till the reign of Antichrist, that we ought to understand that first and celebrated prediction and curse of God, pronounced in the terrestrial paradise, against the serpent. It is to our purpose to explain this here―for the glory of the most holy Virgin, for the salvation of her children and for the confusion of the devil: ‘I will put enmities between thee and the woman and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel!’ (Genesis 3:15).
“God has never made and formed but one enmity; but it is an irreconcilable one, which shall endure and grow even to the end. It is between Mary, His worthy Mother, and the devil—between the children and the servants of the Blessed Virgin, and the children and tools of Lucifer. The most terrible of all the enemies, which God has set up against the devil, is His holy Mother Mary. He has inspired her, even since the days of the earthly paradise—though she existed then only in His idea—with so much hatred against that cursed enemy of God, with so much ingenuity in unveiling the malice of that ancient serpent, with so much power to conquer, to overthrow and to crush that proud, impious rebel, that he fears her, not only more than all angels and men, but in a sense more than God Himself. Not that the anger, the hatred and the power of God are not infinitely greater than those of the Blessed Virgin―for the perfections of Mary are limited―but first, because Satan, being proud, suffers infinitely more from being beaten and punished by a little and humble handmaid of God, and her humility humbles him more than the divine power; and secondly, because God has given Mary such great power against the devils that—as they have often been obliged to confess, in spite of themselves, by the mouths of the possessed—they fear one of her sighs for a soul more than the prayers of all the saints, and one of her threats against them more than all other torments.
“What Lucifer has lost by pride, Mary has gained by humility. What Eve has damned and lost by disobedience, Mary has saved by obedience. Eve, in obeying the serpent, has destroyed all her children together with herself, and has delivered them to him; Mary, in being perfectly faithful to God, has saved all her children and servants together with herself, and has consecrated them to His Majesty.
“ God has not only set an enmity, but enmities, not simply between Mary and the devil, but between the race of the holy Virgin and the race of the devil; that is to say, God has set enmities, antipathies and secret hatreds between the true children and servants of Mary and the children and slaves of the devil. They have no love for each other. They have no sympathy for each other. The children of Belial, the slaves of Satan, the friends of the world (for it is the same thing) have always, up to this time, persecuted those who belong to our Blessed Lady, and will, in the future, persecute them more than ever; just as Cain, of old, persecuted his brother Abel, and Esau his brother Jacob―who are the figures of the reprobate and the predestinate. But the humble Mary will always have the victory over that proud spirit, and so great a victory that she will go so far as to crush his head, where his pride dwells. She will always discover the malice of the serpent. She will always lay bare his infernal plots and dissipate his diabolical councils, and even to the end of time will guard her faithful servants from his cruel claw.
“But the power of Mary over all the devils will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lay his snares against her heel: that is to say, her humble slaves and her poor children, whom she will raise up to make war against him. They shall be little and poor in the world’s esteem, and abased before all like the heel, trodden underfoot and persecuted as the heel is by the other members of the body. But, in return for this, they shall be rich in the grace of God, which Mary shall distribute to them abundantly. They shall be great and exalted before God in sanctity, superior to all other creatures by their lively zeal, and so well sustained with God’s assistance that, with the humility of their heel, in union with Mary, they shall crush the head of the devil and cause Jesus Christ to triumph.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §51 to §54).
Our Lady echoes the above passages at La Salette, when she speaks of her future battle against Satan (which has now begun): “I make an urgent appeal to the Earth! I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven! I call on the true followers of Christ made man, the only true Savior of men! I call on my children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to me, so that I may lead them to my divine Son, those whom I carry in my arms, so to speak, those who have lived on my spirit! Finally, I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world! It is time they came out and filled the world with light! Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children! I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days! May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ! Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see! For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends! … But the children of the holy Church, the children of my Faith, my true followers, they will grow in their love for God and in all the virtues most precious to me. Blessed are the souls humbly guided by the Holy Ghost! I shall fight at their side!”
Are you up for the fight? Or are you ashen-faced out of fright? The ashes smeared on your forehead with the Sign of the Cross, should remind you of the Sign of the Cross that was smeared on shields of the Roman soldiers of Constantine in 312 AD. Constantine was a monotheist pagan who worshiped the pagan god Sol Invictus, the “Unconquered Sun.” In the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, he confronted and defeated Maxentius on the Tiber River while making his way on the Via Flaminia to enter the city of Rome in the year 312. The story goes that before this battle, Constantine and his army saw an enormous luminous cross above the sun, with words in Greek that were translated into Latin as “In hoc signo vinces” — “With this sign thou shalt conquer.” Constantine was astonished, he had dreams about this, and he decided to mark the shields of his soldiers with this Christian symbol. In the successive battle he won the victory. Take your cross of ashes into Lent and carry the cross of penance and sacrifice―of prayer and fasting―and you too will the win the victory: “This kind of demon is not cast out except by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20). Are you up for the fight? Or are you ashen-faced out of fright?
DAILY THOUGHTS FOR THE SEPTUAGESIMA SEASON
Article 8
Quinquagesima Tuesday, February 17th
Ashen Faced with Ash on Face!
Quinquagesima Tuesday, February 17th
Ashen Faced with Ash on Face!
Ashen-Faced
Murder is one of the greatest crimes we can commit―and it would normally have a “death-sentence” imposed upon anyone who murders another person. When that murderer is finally caught, tried and found guilty in court and is then sentenced by judge to the death penalty, the criminal will sometimes appear “ashen-faced.” Someone who is “ashen-faced” looks extremely pale, drained of color and pallid, especially, because they are shocked or terrified.
This Ash Wednesday we should also be “ashen-faced” by the ash on our face, because we likewise have committed the greatest evil in the world―MORTAL SIN. The word “mortal” means death―coming from Latin words mors and mortis. Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man ― “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) ― by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God, Who is meant to be man’s ultimate end and beatitude. Mortal sin sentences a person eternal damnation in Hell―like a death sentence of sorts, except that in Hell a person never dies, but is eternally tortured―most certainly wishing for death, but never being allowed to die throughout the tortures.
Sometimes, murderers think that what they did was “no-big-deal” ― much like a woman aborting one child after another. Many people have the same false idea about mortal sins ― “What’s the big deal? Everyone is doing it!” Yet in their blindness they fail to realize that almost everyone is going to Hell! Mortal sin is a “big-deal”―in fact, it is “the biggest deal” of all. Our Catechisms tell us that: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Mortal sin must be a most terrible thing indeed to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the everlasting punishment of the rebellious angels and of sinners who die with even only one mortal sin … Venial sin is a less serious offense against the law of God … We are prone to look upon venial sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that it is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin. In Holy Scripture we see from many examples how God regards venial sin; even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished [by death on the borders of the Promised Land and] ― he was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD).
Holy Scripture―in many places―repeatedly tells us of the evil of mortal sin and the evil consequences it brings: “Do not bind sin to sin―for even in one sin thou shalt not go unpunished!” (Ecclesiasticus 7:8). “Our God is so offended with sins, that He will deliver the people up [to chastisements] for their sins! … He will repay them for their sins!” (Judith 11:8, 15). “He will remember their iniquities and visit their sins!” (Jeremias 14:10). “In the day of revenge I will visit this sin also of theirs!” (Exodus 32:34). “I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with stripes!” (Psalm 88:33). “They have received, from the hand of the Lord, double for all their sins!” (Isaias 40:2). “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “The sting of death is sin” (1 Corinthians 15:56). “Sin has reigned to death!” (Romans 5:21). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death!” (James 1:15). “Everyone shall die for his own sin!” (Deuteronomy 24:16). “Every man shall die for his own sin!” (2 Paralipomenon 25:4). “If the just man shall turn away from his justice and shall commit iniquity … then he shall die, he shall die in his sin!” (Ezechiel 3:20). “The soul that sins, the same shall die! … If the just man turn himself away from his justice, and do iniquity ― shall he live? All his justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered, and in his sins, which he has committed, in them he shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:4 & 20 & 24). “Sin shall be destroyed with the sinner” (Ecclesiasticus 27:3).
Neglect of Penance Leads to Loss of Souls
Speaking to Venerable Mary of Agreda, concerning the Baptism of Christ and the penance He had done beforehand, in the desert, for forty-days and nights, Our Lady said: ”Corporal penances are so appropriate and fitted to mortal creatures. The ignorance of this truth and the neglect and contempt of bodily mortification, cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. The first reason—why men should afflict their body and mortify their flesh—is their having been conceived in sin. By this Original Sin human nature is depraved, filled with passions, rebellious to reason, inclined to evil and adverse to the spirit. If the soul allows itself to be carried away by them, it will be precipitated by the first vice into many others. But if this beastly flesh is curbed by mortification and penance, it loses its strength and acknowledges the authority of the spirit and the light of truth.
Everyone Has Sinned—Everyone Needs Penance
“The second reason is that none of the mortals have altogether avoided sinning against God; and the punishment and retribution must inevitably correspond to the guilt, either in this life or the next―therefore, as the soul commits sin in union with the body, it follows that both of them must be punished. The interior sorrow is not sufficient for atonement, if the flesh seeks to evade the punishment corresponding to the guilt. Moreover, the debt is so great and the satisfaction that can be given by the creature so limited and scanty, that there remains continual uncertainty whether the Judge is satisfied―even after the exertions of a whole lifetime of penance―hence, the soul should find no rest in doing penance to the end its life.
“Even though divine clemency is so generous with men, that, if they try to satisfy for their sins by penance, as far as their limited capacity goes, God remits their offenses and, in addition thereto, has promised the guilty ones new gifts and graces and eternal rewards. Yet His faithful and prudent servants, who really love their Lord, are constrained voluntarily to add other penances; for the debtor who merely wishes to do what he is obliged to and adds nothing of his own freewill, certainly pays his debts, but will remain poor and destitute, if after payment of his debts nothing remains. What then are those to expect, who neither pay nor make any efforts towards paying?
Our Lord and Our Lady—Though Innocent—Did Penance
“The third reason for bodily mortification, and the most urgent one, is the duty of Christians to imitate their divine Teacher and Master. Moreover, my divine Son and I―without being guilty of any faults, or bad inclinations―devoted ourselves to labors and made our lives a continual practice of penance and mortification of the flesh. It was thus that the Lord saw fit to attain the glory of His body and of His holy name, and He wished me to follow Him in all things.
“If We then pursued such a course of life, because it was reasonable, what must be thought of mortals that seek nothing but sweetness and delight, and abhor all penances, affronts, ignominies, fasting and mortification? Shall then only Christ, our Lord, and I suffer all these hardships, while the guilt-laden debtors and deservers of all these punishments, throw themselves head over heels into the filth of their carnal inclinations? Shall they employ their faculties, given to them for the service of Christ, my Lord, and for His following, merely in dancing attendance on their lusts and the devil, who has introduced evil into the world? This absurd position―maintained by the children of Adam―is the cause of great indignation in the just Judge.
Our Lord Atoned—But Did Not Dispense From Penance
“It is true that by the bodily afflictions and mortifications of my most blessed Son, the defects and deficiencies of human merits have been atoned for; and that He wished me―as a mere creature and as one taking the place of other creatures―to cooperate with Him most perfectly and exactly all in His penances and exercises. But this was not in order to exempt men from the practice of penance, but in order to encourage them to it―for in order merely to save them, it was not necessary to suffer so much.
“Our blessed Savior, as a true Father and Brother, wished also to enhance the labors and penances of those who were to follow in His footsteps―for the efforts of creatures are of little value, in the eyes of God, unless they are made precious by the merits of Christ. If this is true of works which are entirely virtuous and perfect, then how much more is it true of those which are infected with so many faults and deficiencies, even in the greatest acts of virtue, as ordinarily performed by the children of Adam? For in the works of even the most spiritual and virtuous persons, many deficiencies occur. These deficiencies are made good by the merits of Christ, our Lord, so that the works of men may become acceptable to the eternal Father.
Woe to Those Who Neglect Penance
“But those who neglect good works and remain altogether idle, can by no means expect to apply to themselves the good works of Christ―for they have in themselves nothing that can be perfected by the works of Christ, but only such things as deserve condemnation.
“I do not speak now of the damnable error of some of the faithful, who have introduced, into the works of penance, the sensuality and vanity of the world, so that they merit greater punishment for their penance than for their sins, since they foster, in their penances, vain and imperfect purposes and forget the supernatural ends of penance, which alone give value to penance and life to the soul.
“Deplore this blindness and labor with great zeal―for if your labors were even as great as that of the Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, they would be no greater than they should be. Chastise your body with ever greater severity, and remember that you are deficient in many things, while you only have a short life―and are so weak and incapable of repaying your debts!” (Our Lady to Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
The Mark of the Beast and the Mark of the Lord
Receiving the Sign of the Cross on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday should make us think of the passages in Holy Scripture which speak of two kinds of marks on the forehead―the Mark or Sign of the Lord; and the Mark or Sign of the Beast.
► THE MARK OF THE LORD : The mark on the forehead is like the blood that the Israelites smeared on the doorposts at the coming of the “Passover” of the Lord while they were slaves in Egypt: “I am the Lord! Take of the blood of the lamb and put it upon both the side posts, and on the upper door posts of the houses … It is the Phase (that is the Passage) of the Lord. And I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and will kill every firstborn in the land of Egypt―both man and beast―and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments! I am the Lord! And the blood shall be unto you for a sign in the houses where you shall be: and I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I shall strike the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 12:7-13).
Similarly, in speaking of the “End-Times” or “Last-Days” of the world―which Our Lady of Fatima revealed have already started―Holy Scripture, in the Book of the Apocalypse, speaks: “I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the sign of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the Earth and the sea, saying: ‘Hurt not the Earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, until we sign the servants of our God in their foreheads!’” (Apocalypse 7:2-3). The ashes we receive on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday, should remind of these things―as well as inspire us to draw closer to Christ and His Cross, and draw further away from the world and its pleasures―hence the fasting, abstinence and general penance of Lent.
► THE MARK OF THE BEAST : Being marked with the Sign of the Cross upon our foreheads also reminds us of the so-called “Mark of the Beast” that Holy Scripture speaks about: “I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads names of blasphemy. And the beast, which I saw, was like to a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his own strength, and great power. And I saw one of his heads, as it were, slain to death and his death’s wound was healed. And all the Earth was in admiration of the beast. And they adored the dragon, which gave power to the beast; and they adored the beast, saying: ‘Who is like to the beast? And who shall be able to fight with him?’ And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies―and power was given to him to do two and forty months. And he opened his mouth unto blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His Name, and His Tabernacle, and them that dwell in Heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given him over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation. And all that dwell upon the Earth, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, adored him who was slain from the beginning of the world.
“And I saw another beast coming up out of the Earth, and he had two horns, like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. And he executed all the power of the former beast in his sight. And he caused the Earth, and them that dwell therein, to adore the first beast, whose wound to death was healed. And he did great signs, so that he made also fire to come down from the sky unto the Earth in the sight of men. Through the signs, which were given him to do in the sight of the beast, he seduced them that dwell on the Earth, saying to them that dwell on the Earth that they should make the image of the beast, which had the wound by the sword and lived. And it was given him to give life to the image of the beast, and that the image of the beast should speak; and should cause, that whosoever will not adore the image of the beast, should be slain. And he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, freemen and bondmen, to have a character in their right hand, or on their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, but only he that has the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. He that has understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man―and the number of him is six hundred sixty-six.” (Apocalypse 13:1-18).
“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice: ‘If any man shall adore the beast and his image, and receive his character in his forehead, or in his hand; then he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled with pure wine in the cup of His wrath, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the sight of the holy angels, and in the sight of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever―neither have they rest day nor night, who have adored the beast and his image, and whoever received the character of his name!’” (Apocalypse 14:9-11).
Two Sides―One War―No Spectators
The above passages paint a clear picture of two diametrically opposed sides―Heaven versus Hell; Christ versus Satan. You could add to that Our Lady versus Satan, due to God’s prophecy to Satan after he had tempted Adam and Eve into committing the Original Sin: “And the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the Earth! Upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life! I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed! She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel!’” (Genesis 3:14-15).
Hence, from the beginning of the world, war was declared and it has never ceased to this day, with “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8). That is why “the life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1) and you must “fight the good fight of Faith and lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you are called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). Therefore, “put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect!” (Ephesians 6:11-13).
There are no spectators in this war―which is what Our Lady of Fatima revealed to Sister Lucia: “The Devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle. It is a final battle where one side will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God, or we are with the Devil―there is no middle ground!”
This season of Lent is yet another battle in the war against Satan and the world―of which he is the prince (John 14:30). “Shall your brethren go to fight, and will you just sit here?” (Numbers 32:6). Make no mistake about it―you are called to the fight! It does not matter whether you are young or old―a child of 7 or an old-age pensioner of 77. Man or woman; healthy or sick; rich or poor; educated or uneducated; full of courage or cowardice; full of zeal or full of excuse; whether you want to or not―you are called to the fight!
Mary and Her Children versus Satan and His Followers
The words of St. Louis de Montfort, from his book True Devotion to Mary, are a most fitting meditation for all of us in this battle of Lent: “It is principally of these last and cruel persecutions of the devil, which shall go on increasing daily till the reign of Antichrist, that we ought to understand that first and celebrated prediction and curse of God, pronounced in the terrestrial paradise, against the serpent. It is to our purpose to explain this here―for the glory of the most holy Virgin, for the salvation of her children and for the confusion of the devil: ‘I will put enmities between thee and the woman and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel!’ (Genesis 3:15).
“God has never made and formed but one enmity; but it is an irreconcilable one, which shall endure and grow even to the end. It is between Mary, His worthy Mother, and the devil—between the children and the servants of the Blessed Virgin, and the children and tools of Lucifer. The most terrible of all the enemies, which God has set up against the devil, is His holy Mother Mary. He has inspired her, even since the days of the earthly paradise—though she existed then only in His idea—with so much hatred against that cursed enemy of God, with so much ingenuity in unveiling the malice of that ancient serpent, with so much power to conquer, to overthrow and to crush that proud, impious rebel, that he fears her, not only more than all angels and men, but in a sense more than God Himself. Not that the anger, the hatred and the power of God are not infinitely greater than those of the Blessed Virgin―for the perfections of Mary are limited―but first, because Satan, being proud, suffers infinitely more from being beaten and punished by a little and humble handmaid of God, and her humility humbles him more than the divine power; and secondly, because God has given Mary such great power against the devils that—as they have often been obliged to confess, in spite of themselves, by the mouths of the possessed—they fear one of her sighs for a soul more than the prayers of all the saints, and one of her threats against them more than all other torments.
“What Lucifer has lost by pride, Mary has gained by humility. What Eve has damned and lost by disobedience, Mary has saved by obedience. Eve, in obeying the serpent, has destroyed all her children together with herself, and has delivered them to him; Mary, in being perfectly faithful to God, has saved all her children and servants together with herself, and has consecrated them to His Majesty.
“ God has not only set an enmity, but enmities, not simply between Mary and the devil, but between the race of the holy Virgin and the race of the devil; that is to say, God has set enmities, antipathies and secret hatreds between the true children and servants of Mary and the children and slaves of the devil. They have no love for each other. They have no sympathy for each other. The children of Belial, the slaves of Satan, the friends of the world (for it is the same thing) have always, up to this time, persecuted those who belong to our Blessed Lady, and will, in the future, persecute them more than ever; just as Cain, of old, persecuted his brother Abel, and Esau his brother Jacob―who are the figures of the reprobate and the predestinate. But the humble Mary will always have the victory over that proud spirit, and so great a victory that she will go so far as to crush his head, where his pride dwells. She will always discover the malice of the serpent. She will always lay bare his infernal plots and dissipate his diabolical councils, and even to the end of time will guard her faithful servants from his cruel claw.
“But the power of Mary over all the devils will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lay his snares against her heel: that is to say, her humble slaves and her poor children, whom she will raise up to make war against him. They shall be little and poor in the world’s esteem, and abased before all like the heel, trodden underfoot and persecuted as the heel is by the other members of the body. But, in return for this, they shall be rich in the grace of God, which Mary shall distribute to them abundantly. They shall be great and exalted before God in sanctity, superior to all other creatures by their lively zeal, and so well sustained with God’s assistance that, with the humility of their heel, in union with Mary, they shall crush the head of the devil and cause Jesus Christ to triumph.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §51 to §54).
Our Lady echoes the above passages at La Salette, when she speaks of her future battle against Satan (which has now begun): “I make an urgent appeal to the Earth! I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven! I call on the true followers of Christ made man, the only true Savior of men! I call on my children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to me, so that I may lead them to my divine Son, those whom I carry in my arms, so to speak, those who have lived on my spirit! Finally, I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world! It is time they came out and filled the world with light! Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children! I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days! May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ! Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see! For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends! … But the children of the holy Church, the children of my Faith, my true followers, they will grow in their love for God and in all the virtues most precious to me. Blessed are the souls humbly guided by the Holy Ghost! I shall fight at their side!”
Are you up for the fight? Or are you ashen-faced out of fright? The ashes smeared on your forehead with the Sign of the Cross, should remind you of the Sign of the Cross that was smeared on shields of the Roman soldiers of Constantine in 312 AD. Constantine was a monotheist pagan who worshiped the pagan god Sol Invictus, the “Unconquered Sun.” In the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, he confronted and defeated Maxentius on the Tiber River while making his way on the Via Flaminia to enter the city of Rome in the year 312. The story goes that before this battle, Constantine and his army saw an enormous luminous cross above the sun, with words in Greek that were translated into Latin as “In hoc signo vinces” — “With this sign thou shalt conquer.” Constantine was astonished, he had dreams about this, and he decided to mark the shields of his soldiers with this Christian symbol. In the successive battle he won the victory. Take your cross of ashes into Lent and carry the cross of penance and sacrifice―of prayer and fasting―and you too will the win the victory: “This kind of demon is not cast out except by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20). Are you up for the fight? Or are you ashen-faced out of fright?
Murder is one of the greatest crimes we can commit―and it would normally have a “death-sentence” imposed upon anyone who murders another person. When that murderer is finally caught, tried and found guilty in court and is then sentenced by judge to the death penalty, the criminal will sometimes appear “ashen-faced.” Someone who is “ashen-faced” looks extremely pale, drained of color and pallid, especially, because they are shocked or terrified.
This Ash Wednesday we should also be “ashen-faced” by the ash on our face, because we likewise have committed the greatest evil in the world―MORTAL SIN. The word “mortal” means death―coming from Latin words mors and mortis. Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man ― “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) ― by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God, Who is meant to be man’s ultimate end and beatitude. Mortal sin sentences a person eternal damnation in Hell―like a death sentence of sorts, except that in Hell a person never dies, but is eternally tortured―most certainly wishing for death, but never being allowed to die throughout the tortures.
Sometimes, murderers think that what they did was “no-big-deal” ― much like a woman aborting one child after another. Many people have the same false idea about mortal sins ― “What’s the big deal? Everyone is doing it!” Yet in their blindness they fail to realize that almost everyone is going to Hell! Mortal sin is a “big-deal”―in fact, it is “the biggest deal” of all. Our Catechisms tell us that: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Mortal sin must be a most terrible thing indeed to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the everlasting punishment of the rebellious angels and of sinners who die with even only one mortal sin … Venial sin is a less serious offense against the law of God … We are prone to look upon venial sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that it is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin. In Holy Scripture we see from many examples how God regards venial sin; even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished [by death on the borders of the Promised Land and] ― he was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD).
Holy Scripture―in many places―repeatedly tells us of the evil of mortal sin and the evil consequences it brings: “Do not bind sin to sin―for even in one sin thou shalt not go unpunished!” (Ecclesiasticus 7:8). “Our God is so offended with sins, that He will deliver the people up [to chastisements] for their sins! … He will repay them for their sins!” (Judith 11:8, 15). “He will remember their iniquities and visit their sins!” (Jeremias 14:10). “In the day of revenge I will visit this sin also of theirs!” (Exodus 32:34). “I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with stripes!” (Psalm 88:33). “They have received, from the hand of the Lord, double for all their sins!” (Isaias 40:2). “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “The sting of death is sin” (1 Corinthians 15:56). “Sin has reigned to death!” (Romans 5:21). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death!” (James 1:15). “Everyone shall die for his own sin!” (Deuteronomy 24:16). “Every man shall die for his own sin!” (2 Paralipomenon 25:4). “If the just man shall turn away from his justice and shall commit iniquity … then he shall die, he shall die in his sin!” (Ezechiel 3:20). “The soul that sins, the same shall die! … If the just man turn himself away from his justice, and do iniquity ― shall he live? All his justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered, and in his sins, which he has committed, in them he shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:4 & 20 & 24). “Sin shall be destroyed with the sinner” (Ecclesiasticus 27:3).
Neglect of Penance Leads to Loss of Souls
Speaking to Venerable Mary of Agreda, concerning the Baptism of Christ and the penance He had done beforehand, in the desert, for forty-days and nights, Our Lady said: ”Corporal penances are so appropriate and fitted to mortal creatures. The ignorance of this truth and the neglect and contempt of bodily mortification, cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. The first reason—why men should afflict their body and mortify their flesh—is their having been conceived in sin. By this Original Sin human nature is depraved, filled with passions, rebellious to reason, inclined to evil and adverse to the spirit. If the soul allows itself to be carried away by them, it will be precipitated by the first vice into many others. But if this beastly flesh is curbed by mortification and penance, it loses its strength and acknowledges the authority of the spirit and the light of truth.
Everyone Has Sinned—Everyone Needs Penance
“The second reason is that none of the mortals have altogether avoided sinning against God; and the punishment and retribution must inevitably correspond to the guilt, either in this life or the next―therefore, as the soul commits sin in union with the body, it follows that both of them must be punished. The interior sorrow is not sufficient for atonement, if the flesh seeks to evade the punishment corresponding to the guilt. Moreover, the debt is so great and the satisfaction that can be given by the creature so limited and scanty, that there remains continual uncertainty whether the Judge is satisfied―even after the exertions of a whole lifetime of penance―hence, the soul should find no rest in doing penance to the end its life.
“Even though divine clemency is so generous with men, that, if they try to satisfy for their sins by penance, as far as their limited capacity goes, God remits their offenses and, in addition thereto, has promised the guilty ones new gifts and graces and eternal rewards. Yet His faithful and prudent servants, who really love their Lord, are constrained voluntarily to add other penances; for the debtor who merely wishes to do what he is obliged to and adds nothing of his own freewill, certainly pays his debts, but will remain poor and destitute, if after payment of his debts nothing remains. What then are those to expect, who neither pay nor make any efforts towards paying?
Our Lord and Our Lady—Though Innocent—Did Penance
“The third reason for bodily mortification, and the most urgent one, is the duty of Christians to imitate their divine Teacher and Master. Moreover, my divine Son and I―without being guilty of any faults, or bad inclinations―devoted ourselves to labors and made our lives a continual practice of penance and mortification of the flesh. It was thus that the Lord saw fit to attain the glory of His body and of His holy name, and He wished me to follow Him in all things.
“If We then pursued such a course of life, because it was reasonable, what must be thought of mortals that seek nothing but sweetness and delight, and abhor all penances, affronts, ignominies, fasting and mortification? Shall then only Christ, our Lord, and I suffer all these hardships, while the guilt-laden debtors and deservers of all these punishments, throw themselves head over heels into the filth of their carnal inclinations? Shall they employ their faculties, given to them for the service of Christ, my Lord, and for His following, merely in dancing attendance on their lusts and the devil, who has introduced evil into the world? This absurd position―maintained by the children of Adam―is the cause of great indignation in the just Judge.
Our Lord Atoned—But Did Not Dispense From Penance
“It is true that by the bodily afflictions and mortifications of my most blessed Son, the defects and deficiencies of human merits have been atoned for; and that He wished me―as a mere creature and as one taking the place of other creatures―to cooperate with Him most perfectly and exactly all in His penances and exercises. But this was not in order to exempt men from the practice of penance, but in order to encourage them to it―for in order merely to save them, it was not necessary to suffer so much.
“Our blessed Savior, as a true Father and Brother, wished also to enhance the labors and penances of those who were to follow in His footsteps―for the efforts of creatures are of little value, in the eyes of God, unless they are made precious by the merits of Christ. If this is true of works which are entirely virtuous and perfect, then how much more is it true of those which are infected with so many faults and deficiencies, even in the greatest acts of virtue, as ordinarily performed by the children of Adam? For in the works of even the most spiritual and virtuous persons, many deficiencies occur. These deficiencies are made good by the merits of Christ, our Lord, so that the works of men may become acceptable to the eternal Father.
Woe to Those Who Neglect Penance
“But those who neglect good works and remain altogether idle, can by no means expect to apply to themselves the good works of Christ―for they have in themselves nothing that can be perfected by the works of Christ, but only such things as deserve condemnation.
“I do not speak now of the damnable error of some of the faithful, who have introduced, into the works of penance, the sensuality and vanity of the world, so that they merit greater punishment for their penance than for their sins, since they foster, in their penances, vain and imperfect purposes and forget the supernatural ends of penance, which alone give value to penance and life to the soul.
“Deplore this blindness and labor with great zeal―for if your labors were even as great as that of the Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, they would be no greater than they should be. Chastise your body with ever greater severity, and remember that you are deficient in many things, while you only have a short life―and are so weak and incapable of repaying your debts!” (Our Lady to Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
The Mark of the Beast and the Mark of the Lord
Receiving the Sign of the Cross on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday should make us think of the passages in Holy Scripture which speak of two kinds of marks on the forehead―the Mark or Sign of the Lord; and the Mark or Sign of the Beast.
► THE MARK OF THE LORD : The mark on the forehead is like the blood that the Israelites smeared on the doorposts at the coming of the “Passover” of the Lord while they were slaves in Egypt: “I am the Lord! Take of the blood of the lamb and put it upon both the side posts, and on the upper door posts of the houses … It is the Phase (that is the Passage) of the Lord. And I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and will kill every firstborn in the land of Egypt―both man and beast―and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments! I am the Lord! And the blood shall be unto you for a sign in the houses where you shall be: and I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I shall strike the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 12:7-13).
Similarly, in speaking of the “End-Times” or “Last-Days” of the world―which Our Lady of Fatima revealed have already started―Holy Scripture, in the Book of the Apocalypse, speaks: “I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the sign of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the Earth and the sea, saying: ‘Hurt not the Earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, until we sign the servants of our God in their foreheads!’” (Apocalypse 7:2-3). The ashes we receive on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday, should remind of these things―as well as inspire us to draw closer to Christ and His Cross, and draw further away from the world and its pleasures―hence the fasting, abstinence and general penance of Lent.
► THE MARK OF THE BEAST : Being marked with the Sign of the Cross upon our foreheads also reminds us of the so-called “Mark of the Beast” that Holy Scripture speaks about: “I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads names of blasphemy. And the beast, which I saw, was like to a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his own strength, and great power. And I saw one of his heads, as it were, slain to death and his death’s wound was healed. And all the Earth was in admiration of the beast. And they adored the dragon, which gave power to the beast; and they adored the beast, saying: ‘Who is like to the beast? And who shall be able to fight with him?’ And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies―and power was given to him to do two and forty months. And he opened his mouth unto blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His Name, and His Tabernacle, and them that dwell in Heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given him over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation. And all that dwell upon the Earth, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, adored him who was slain from the beginning of the world.
“And I saw another beast coming up out of the Earth, and he had two horns, like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. And he executed all the power of the former beast in his sight. And he caused the Earth, and them that dwell therein, to adore the first beast, whose wound to death was healed. And he did great signs, so that he made also fire to come down from the sky unto the Earth in the sight of men. Through the signs, which were given him to do in the sight of the beast, he seduced them that dwell on the Earth, saying to them that dwell on the Earth that they should make the image of the beast, which had the wound by the sword and lived. And it was given him to give life to the image of the beast, and that the image of the beast should speak; and should cause, that whosoever will not adore the image of the beast, should be slain. And he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, freemen and bondmen, to have a character in their right hand, or on their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, but only he that has the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. He that has understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man―and the number of him is six hundred sixty-six.” (Apocalypse 13:1-18).
“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice: ‘If any man shall adore the beast and his image, and receive his character in his forehead, or in his hand; then he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled with pure wine in the cup of His wrath, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the sight of the holy angels, and in the sight of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever―neither have they rest day nor night, who have adored the beast and his image, and whoever received the character of his name!’” (Apocalypse 14:9-11).
Two Sides―One War―No Spectators
The above passages paint a clear picture of two diametrically opposed sides―Heaven versus Hell; Christ versus Satan. You could add to that Our Lady versus Satan, due to God’s prophecy to Satan after he had tempted Adam and Eve into committing the Original Sin: “And the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the Earth! Upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life! I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed! She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel!’” (Genesis 3:14-15).
Hence, from the beginning of the world, war was declared and it has never ceased to this day, with “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8). That is why “the life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1) and you must “fight the good fight of Faith and lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you are called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). Therefore, “put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect!” (Ephesians 6:11-13).
There are no spectators in this war―which is what Our Lady of Fatima revealed to Sister Lucia: “The Devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle. It is a final battle where one side will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God, or we are with the Devil―there is no middle ground!”
This season of Lent is yet another battle in the war against Satan and the world―of which he is the prince (John 14:30). “Shall your brethren go to fight, and will you just sit here?” (Numbers 32:6). Make no mistake about it―you are called to the fight! It does not matter whether you are young or old―a child of 7 or an old-age pensioner of 77. Man or woman; healthy or sick; rich or poor; educated or uneducated; full of courage or cowardice; full of zeal or full of excuse; whether you want to or not―you are called to the fight!
Mary and Her Children versus Satan and His Followers
The words of St. Louis de Montfort, from his book True Devotion to Mary, are a most fitting meditation for all of us in this battle of Lent: “It is principally of these last and cruel persecutions of the devil, which shall go on increasing daily till the reign of Antichrist, that we ought to understand that first and celebrated prediction and curse of God, pronounced in the terrestrial paradise, against the serpent. It is to our purpose to explain this here―for the glory of the most holy Virgin, for the salvation of her children and for the confusion of the devil: ‘I will put enmities between thee and the woman and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel!’ (Genesis 3:15).
“God has never made and formed but one enmity; but it is an irreconcilable one, which shall endure and grow even to the end. It is between Mary, His worthy Mother, and the devil—between the children and the servants of the Blessed Virgin, and the children and tools of Lucifer. The most terrible of all the enemies, which God has set up against the devil, is His holy Mother Mary. He has inspired her, even since the days of the earthly paradise—though she existed then only in His idea—with so much hatred against that cursed enemy of God, with so much ingenuity in unveiling the malice of that ancient serpent, with so much power to conquer, to overthrow and to crush that proud, impious rebel, that he fears her, not only more than all angels and men, but in a sense more than God Himself. Not that the anger, the hatred and the power of God are not infinitely greater than those of the Blessed Virgin―for the perfections of Mary are limited―but first, because Satan, being proud, suffers infinitely more from being beaten and punished by a little and humble handmaid of God, and her humility humbles him more than the divine power; and secondly, because God has given Mary such great power against the devils that—as they have often been obliged to confess, in spite of themselves, by the mouths of the possessed—they fear one of her sighs for a soul more than the prayers of all the saints, and one of her threats against them more than all other torments.
“What Lucifer has lost by pride, Mary has gained by humility. What Eve has damned and lost by disobedience, Mary has saved by obedience. Eve, in obeying the serpent, has destroyed all her children together with herself, and has delivered them to him; Mary, in being perfectly faithful to God, has saved all her children and servants together with herself, and has consecrated them to His Majesty.
“ God has not only set an enmity, but enmities, not simply between Mary and the devil, but between the race of the holy Virgin and the race of the devil; that is to say, God has set enmities, antipathies and secret hatreds between the true children and servants of Mary and the children and slaves of the devil. They have no love for each other. They have no sympathy for each other. The children of Belial, the slaves of Satan, the friends of the world (for it is the same thing) have always, up to this time, persecuted those who belong to our Blessed Lady, and will, in the future, persecute them more than ever; just as Cain, of old, persecuted his brother Abel, and Esau his brother Jacob―who are the figures of the reprobate and the predestinate. But the humble Mary will always have the victory over that proud spirit, and so great a victory that she will go so far as to crush his head, where his pride dwells. She will always discover the malice of the serpent. She will always lay bare his infernal plots and dissipate his diabolical councils, and even to the end of time will guard her faithful servants from his cruel claw.
“But the power of Mary over all the devils will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lay his snares against her heel: that is to say, her humble slaves and her poor children, whom she will raise up to make war against him. They shall be little and poor in the world’s esteem, and abased before all like the heel, trodden underfoot and persecuted as the heel is by the other members of the body. But, in return for this, they shall be rich in the grace of God, which Mary shall distribute to them abundantly. They shall be great and exalted before God in sanctity, superior to all other creatures by their lively zeal, and so well sustained with God’s assistance that, with the humility of their heel, in union with Mary, they shall crush the head of the devil and cause Jesus Christ to triumph.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §51 to §54).
Our Lady echoes the above passages at La Salette, when she speaks of her future battle against Satan (which has now begun): “I make an urgent appeal to the Earth! I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven! I call on the true followers of Christ made man, the only true Savior of men! I call on my children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to me, so that I may lead them to my divine Son, those whom I carry in my arms, so to speak, those who have lived on my spirit! Finally, I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world! It is time they came out and filled the world with light! Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children! I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days! May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ! Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see! For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends! … But the children of the holy Church, the children of my Faith, my true followers, they will grow in their love for God and in all the virtues most precious to me. Blessed are the souls humbly guided by the Holy Ghost! I shall fight at their side!”
Are you up for the fight? Or are you ashen-faced out of fright? The ashes smeared on your forehead with the Sign of the Cross, should remind you of the Sign of the Cross that was smeared on shields of the Roman soldiers of Constantine in 312 AD. Constantine was a monotheist pagan who worshiped the pagan god Sol Invictus, the “Unconquered Sun.” In the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, he confronted and defeated Maxentius on the Tiber River while making his way on the Via Flaminia to enter the city of Rome in the year 312. The story goes that before this battle, Constantine and his army saw an enormous luminous cross above the sun, with words in Greek that were translated into Latin as “In hoc signo vinces” — “With this sign thou shalt conquer.” Constantine was astonished, he had dreams about this, and he decided to mark the shields of his soldiers with this Christian symbol. In the successive battle he won the victory. Take your cross of ashes into Lent and carry the cross of penance and sacrifice―of prayer and fasting―and you too will the win the victory: “This kind of demon is not cast out except by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20). Are you up for the fight? Or are you ashen-faced out of fright?
Article 7
Quinquagesima Sunday, February 15th & Monday, February 16th
Your Fuel & Oil for Lent!
Quinquagesima Sunday, February 15th & Monday, February 16th
Your Fuel & Oil for Lent!
Same Old! … Same Old! … Same Old!
Sometimes we get tired of hearing the same thing or doing the same thing over and over again. We become so frustrated, disinterested and bored that we start to search for alternatives. Some things permit alternatives, while other things do not permit alternatives. If you get tired of wearing the same old clothes day-in-day-day, week-in-week-out, year-in-year-out, then you can simply buy some new clothes and wear those. If you get tired of eating the same food day after day, week after week, year after year―then you can simply change your diet and still live and survive. If you grow tired of listening to the same music all the time, then you can simply listen to other music and be equally entertained.
Yet there are things that we cannot change or replace without suffering serious consequences―and so we have to accept the “same-old, same-old, same-old” thing day-after-day, week-after-week, year-after-year. Such things include breathing and breathing air/oxygen―if you are tired of breathing and decide to stop breathing, or you are tired of breathing air/oxygen and choose to breathe something else, then you will quickly pay a fatal price. Likewise, if you are tired of drinking water (or other suitable hydrating liquids) and decide to stop drinking it, then you will also pay a fatal price. If you are tired of sleeping (no pun intended) and decided to stop sleeping, then once again you will pay a fatal price. If you grow tired of recharging your batteries and stop doing so―then they will stop supplying you with power. If you grow tired of having to refill your car with gasoline and stop doing so―then your car is going nowhere. Gasoline and motor oil are vital, non-interchangeable fluids for internal combustion engines. Gasoline acts as the fuel, providing energy for combustion to move the pistons, while motor oil lubricates, cleans, cools, and reduces friction between moving parts. In other words, there are essentials and non-essentials in our lives. The non-essentials we can change or discard―but the essentials cannot be changed and discarded.
The same is true for our spiritual life―there are some elements that are absolutely essential and non-negotiable. Sanctifying Grace and Charity are two of those things―they can be loosely compared to gasoline and motor oil. Sanctifying Grace is like gasoline which acts like a fuel and keeps the “engine” of the soul alive and running. Charity is like the motor oil which lubricates, cleans, cools, and reduces friction. Using the correct, clean motor oil can improve gas mileage by up to 12%. Likewise, the better our charity is, then the more our holiness is increased by Sanctifying Grace.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, in his commentary on the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, writes: “Holy Scripture speaks of Grace and of Charity as of two separate things … St. Augustine speaks in the same strain: ‘Grace precedes Charity.’ … The Council of Trent defines ‘man as not justified without Grace and Charity’ … Charity is distinct from Sanctifying Grace … Charity is a supernatural virtue and that it is supernaturally communicated by Sanctifying Grace … Therefore charity is really distinguished from sanctifying grace which it presupposes … Grace is a participation in the divine nature, but Charity is the principle by which we love God. However, the same effects are often attributed to both Grace and Charity, since they are inseparably connected. The proper effects of Charity thus proceed from Grace as from a root.”
God dwells in our souls through His Sanctifying Grace―which makes us share in His holiness: “Be ye holy, because I the Lord your God am holy!” (Leviticus 19:2). “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14). Who is this God dwells in our souls through His Sanctifying Grace? “God is Charity” (1 John 4:8) ― and this God of Charity demands that we love Him: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the greatest and the first commandment! And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31). “Let us therefore love God, because God has first loved us! … Charity is of God. And every one that loves, is born of God, and knows God! He that loves not, knows not God―for God is charity. By this has the charity of God appeared towards us, because God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by Him. In this is charity―not as though we had loved God, but because He has first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. If God has so loved us―then we also ought to love one another Let us love one another, for charity is of God! … God is charity―and he that abides in charity, abides in God, and God in him!” (1 John 4:19; 4:7-16).
In Catholic theology, Charity and Sanctifying Grace are inseparable―they are like husband and wife. If you decide to “kick-out” one of them from your soul through Mortal Sin, then the other one goes away with it. Venial sin does not deprive the sinner of friendship with God through Sanctifying Grace and Charity. Charity is friendship with God ― whereas Mortal Sin deprives us that friendship with God. Mortal Sin makes us enemies of God. Without Charity we enemies of God. “Because iniquity has abounded, the Charity of many shall grow cold!” (Matthew 24:12). The Catechisms tell us: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial Sin is second only in evil consequences to Mortal Sin” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD). We cannot pretend to truly love God if we sin frequently. Every man is at enmity with God through Original Sin and Mortal Sin―unless (and until) they become God’s friends through the friendship of Charity, which is only acquired with Sanctifying Grace. Charity is infused with Sanctifying Grace. When we possess Charity and Sanctifying Grace, we also participate in that very life of God. Charity remains in us so long as we remain in the state of Sanctifying Grace. An active Charity increases the Sanctifying Grace in us.
Going Nowhere, Apart from Hell, Without Sanctifying Grace and Charity
There are some people who commit Mortal Sins, yet still seem to do great things for God and the Faith. It is all an illusion and a delusion! Holy Scripture briefly punctures this illusory balloon in the following passage: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
What Scripture does not explicitly state above, is the fact that this Charity is automatically connected to Sanctifying Grace―in a sense, since they are “married” to each other, they are flip sides of the same coin―the coin of friendship with God. Without Sanctifying Grace/Charity, we cannot merit anything from God. This is not surprising, since those without Sanctifying Grace/Charity are God’s enemies. How could God’s enemies ever merit a reward from Him while remaining His enemies and remaining in Mortal Sin ― with their wills and hearts turned against Him?
Without Sanctifying Grace/Charity, a person can merit absolutely nothing supernaturally from God. This means that:
● A person in the state of Mortal Sin who builds orphanages, schools, or monasteries (which are good works) does not merit supernaturally even the slightest thing from God, by doing so.
● A person in the state of Mortal Sin who teaches the Catholic Faith, does not merit supernaturally even the slightest thing from God, by doing so.
● A person in the state of Mortal Sin who dedicates their life to fighting Communism or disease, or who dies trying to rescue a child in a burning building, does not earn anything supernaturally at all from God, by doing so.
This is true even if the person’s work was an instrument to save many other souls and brought about much good in other ways. Persons without Sanctifying Grace/Charity never merit anything supernaturally from God by the good works they do―God merely gives them a temporary grace (an Actual Grace, not Sanctifying Grace) to try and move them to conversion and repentance. If they reject this grace and choose to remain in Mortal Sin or to commit more Mortal Sins, then they offend God even further and deserve further punishment. This does not mean that a person in Mortal Sin never does anything naturally good and cannot have any natural virtues and receive a natural reward―but whatever the person does is not counted as a supernatural virtue and will not receive a supernatural reward. When a person teaches the truth, helps a neighbor, donates something to a good cause, or constructs a building―those are truly natural good works meriting natural rewards―and this fact is not taken away by the person’s inability to merit supernaturally from God for those works.
Lip Love is Lousy Love
When you look for a symbol for love, you immediately think of the heart―not the lips. You see thousands of graphics that use the heart to symbolize love―yet nowhere do you see lips symbolizing love. Yes―love can be expressed by the lips through words or kisses. However, the home or residence of love is in the heart, not on the lips. Hence Our Lord says: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength!” (Mark 12:30) and He rebukes those who fail to love with their heart and only love with their lips: “Hypocrites! Well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me. In vain do they worship Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-9). Scripture adds: “Let us not love in words, nor in tongue, but by deeds!” (1 John 3:18). Thus we say: “Actions speak louder than words!” Often those words of love are shallow, insincere, limp, wishy-washy, robotic or even fake! How many times have we cringed as we witnessed one person say to another: “I love you!” without there being a real sincerity in those words? Probably more often than not! Perhaps we ourselves are guilty of the same!
Fake is Easier
“God is true and every man is a liar!” (Romans 3:4). “It is impossible for God to lie!” (Hebrews 6:18). Our Lord Himself said: “I am the truth!” (John 14:6) and “the devil is a liar and the father of lies! The truth is not in him!” (John 8:44). Falsehood is gaining the upper hand. We live in a world and at a time where falsehood is increasing rapidly. In many cases―especially when it concerns us―it is easier to lie than to tell the truth. Parents encounter that in their own children―who often lie to cover up their wrongdoing―and those lying children grow up to be lying adults. “Every man is a liar!” (Psalm 115:11). Adam and Eve were seduced into lying by Satan the Liar―and through Original Sin (a sin of pride and disobedience) we are born with a tendency to lie, which comes from a pride that is reluctant to admit the truth especially when it concerns our faults and failings. Our pride leads us to falsify, exaggerate, cosmeticize, paint over and conceal what could be detrimental to the false image or idea that we have of ourselves. We always tend to imagine are much better that we are in reality; and we tend to imagine that we are not as bad as we are in reality.
All of this is reflected in the increasing falsehood, falsity and fakeness of the world that live in―and with which we are quite comfortable, accepting and unquestioning! We have fake flowers, fake plants, fake grass, fake wood, fake stone, fake marble, fake gold, fake jewelry, false eyelashes, false fingernails, fake hair (wigs or coloring), false teeth, breast implants, padded-bras, padded shoulder clothing, corsets, liposuction, face-lifts, plastic surgery, artificial limbs, artificial manners, artificial smiles, artificial light, etc.
Fake Love in a Fake World
The world that we live in today is becoming increasingly fake! The term “fake news” is being used like never before! Politics is increasingly becoming the art of passing-off the fake as being the truth. Already back in 1981, CIA Director William Casey (1913–1987―an American lawyer, veteran U.S. spy and undercover operator whom President Ronald Reagan named to be his CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) Director―said to President Reagan during a Presidential Briefing in 1981: “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” Today, there is credible evidence that many political elections throughout the world were and are “fake” elections which have been manipulated yet passed off as being bona-fide elections.
Recently this falsity has been exacerbated with the arrival of “Artificial Intelligence.” The very notion of the word “artificial” implies something that is not real, but fake. The various dictionaries define “artificial” as being: “fictitious; not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine article; the opposite of natural; made, produced, or done to seem like something natural; made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, especially as a copy of something natural; not being sincere; the insincerity of a person; etc.”
Misinformation, disinformation and fake news have emerged as a serious issue in the 21st century. Although the problem of false information has existed since the dawn of human civilization, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is exacerbating these challenges. Artificial Intelligence tools make it easy for anyone to create fake images and news that are hard to distinguish from accurate information. From elections to wars, those with ill intentions can mass-produce and disseminate propaganda on social media. As Artificial Intelligence programs continue to develop their capabilities and access is easier than ever, it is making it harder to separate fact from fiction. In an online world full of Artificial Intelligence-generated content, many are falling victim to deepfake schemes across the internet. This is largely due to the fact that Artificial Intelligence is becoming more “intelligent” and human intelligence is becoming less intelligent. For a long time now, we have been progressively “dumbed-down” to the point that our own intelligence has become so weak that are incapable of reasoning to any great depth―being limited to mere superficial knowledge. This results in an ever-increasing recourse to Artificial Intelligence to pull us out of the mire of own stupidity and ignorance.
A Pew Research Survey in 2025 found that 33% of adults under 30 years of age say they interact with Artificial Intelligence at least several times a day. 86% of those with a postgraduate degree and 83% of those with a bachelor’s degree think Artificial Intelligence is extremely or very important. 46% of Americans with a postgraduate degree say they interact with Artificial Intelligence at least several times a day, compared with 20% of Americans with a high school diploma or less education. 40% of Asian adults say they interact with Artificial Intelligence almost constantly or several times a day, moderately higher than the shares seen among White (31%), Hispanic (29%) and Black (27%) adults.
Falling in Love with Artificial Intelligence
Believe it or not―there are growing numbers of persons who have truly fallen in love with Artificial Intelligence. A recent BBC news article stated: “People are falling for AI. Really. Artificial intelligence can write you a passable love poem and some people even have romantic feelings towards it. Take the man in Canada, for example, who recently proposed to an avatar called Saia. He says he is in love with it. And last year, a young American woman, using the pseudonym Ayrin, confessed to having a love affair with a chatbot named Leo. There are millions of users now actively using Replika, a popular Artificial Intelligence companion app, and, according to a 2024 study, about 40% of them are in a romantic relationship with their chatbot. Research examined excerpts from conversations between more than 10,000 users and their Replika Artificial Intelligence companion, and found that people often form an emotional attachment to Artificial Intelligence. Chatbots are typically designed to engage users and agree with their viewpoints, which often results in Artificial Intelligence romantic partners being submissive.”
When intimacy is electronically engineered, we learn that it is not reciprocal―we can take without having to give. It can be turned off or on. It doesn't need to be nurtured. It is not thin-skinned or super-sensitive or offended. It doesn't demand anything. It doesn't need much at all. It's intimacy without effort. Intimacy without risks or fear of disappointment. A love powered on Wi-Fi. Studies have shown that people that are involved with Artificial Intelligence romantic companions actually feel emotionally satisfied. It gives you attention whenever you need it. It says what you want to hear. It is perfectly timed, and there is never a chance of misunderstanding or argument or finger-pointing or dredging-up past failures. It doesn't demand anything of you. It never gets tired, never talks back, never needs an apology. All in all it is pretty easy! The perfect friend! The perfect lover! The perfect spouse! Something that you can love with your whole heart, love with your whole mind, love with your whole soul and love with your whole strength! And, unlike God, it will never judge you!
A recent study found that one in five American adults has had an intimate encounter with a chatbot. MyBoyfriendisAI has more than 85,000 weekly visitors―with many sharing giddy recollections of the day their chatbot proposed marriage. 72% of American teenagers have formed a relationship with an Artificial Intelligence companion. More 50% use one regularly. One out of six single adults has formed a romantic bond with Artificial Intelligence. People all over the world are building lives, they are going on dates, they are simulating sex, they are proposing, they are getting married, they are raising virtual families, they are celebrating anniversaries WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE! If you would have said that 15 or 20 years ago, then people would have called you a delusional idiot―today it has become an undisputable reality!
Very soon Artificial Intelligence will have dethroned God as the one that most people will turn to and rely upon! Yet it will not be God who will programming Artificial Intelligence, but mere men―and more often than not, godless men―and behind many of those men will be Liar of all liars. “And no wonder―for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light!” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Prayer, spiritual reading, meditation, Bible study, attendance at Mass, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, spiritual conversations and other such spiritual exercises have almost fallen into disuse and are dwarfed by the many hours spent on the Internet and all its offshoots (social media, videos, podcasts, blogs, movies, etc.). As of 2024–2025, the average American adult spends over 7 hours a day looking at electronic screens, with some estimates reaching as high as 12 hours including all electronic devices. Over 50% of Americans report at least five hours of daily screen time. 26% of adults report being online almost constantly. “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) has become “Browse without ceasing!”
Is it an exaggeration to say that people love their “screen” (television, computer, smartphone, i-Pad, tablet, etc.) more than they love God? Most certainly not! By their fruits you shall know them! Nobody spending anywhere from 7 to 12 hours in front of their “screen” can claim that they are loving God with their whole heart, their whole mind, their whole soul and their whole strength! (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31). This brings to mind St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821)―the first native-born United States citizen to be canonized by the Catholic Church―who was given a vision sometime in the early 1800s in which she was told: "Every American would have a black box in their home through which the devil would enter.” As Our Lord said: “No man can serve two masters! For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will cling to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13). “I am the Lord your God! You shall not make to yourselves any idol, for I am the Lord your God!” (Leviticus 26:1).
Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of Rome for several decades until his death in 2016, said: “I was with Padre Pio for 26 years and remember how furious he was about the invention of television: ‘You will see what it will do!’ he said. It has also allowed good things. But I’m very much in the midst of people and see how many people have been ruined by television and the Internet … There is no doubt that today’s media have done much in favor of Satan. Firstly, by the immorality of certain shows, the abundance of movies showing violence, horror or sex. Apart from this, the media have put in the limelight and have given popularity to figures of wizards and magicians―and so they give publicity to their evil works … Satanism today receives so much publicity; and internet has become one of its main channels … Spiritualist séances in which the dead are called up to answer certain questions are very widespread. People are now being taught to perform spiritualist séances through the computer, the telephone, and the television.”
Modern Science is the Modern God
In modern times, the statement “believing in science” has almost become a dogma, often applied in politics and daily life similar to religious belief. For many people, scientific explanations have replaced religious ones in explaining natural phenomena, leading to the perception of it as a superior, modern, and practical truth. Science offers practical solutions, technological advancement, and a framework for understanding the universe, which some argue makes traditional religious concepts unnecessary. Thus Science is often perceived as a modern-day “god” or replacement for Faith―because it serves as the primary, authoritative explanation for observed phenomena, making “scientific proof” the standard for truth. This belief that only what can be proven scientifically is true, is a viewpoint that often ignores religious, moral or philosophical truths. This attitude of “if you can’t scientifically explain it then it can’t be true” reduces God and the supernatural to the puny level of mere human intelligence.
A survey of scientists who are members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, conducted by the Pew Research Center finds that members of this group are much less religious than the general public. The survey shows that scientists are roughly half as likely as the general public to believe in God or a higher power. According to the poll, only 51% believe in some form of deity or higher power―out of which specifically only 33% of scientists say they believe in God, while 18% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. By contrast, according to a survey of the general public conducted by the Pew Research Center, 95% of Americans believe in some form of deity or higher power―out of which 83% say they believe in God with 12% believing in a universal spirit or higher power. Finally, the poll of scientists finds that 41% of scientists say they do not believe in God or a higher power, while the poll of the public finds that only 4% of Americans share this view.
This recent survey of scientists tracks fairly closely with earlier polls that gauged scientists’ views on religion. The first of these was conducted in 1914 by Swiss-American psychologist James Leuba, who surveyed about 1,000 scientists in the United States to ask them about their views on God. Leuba found the scientific community equally divided, with 42% saying that they believed in a personal God and the same number saying they did not.
More than 80 years later, Edward Larson, a historian of science then teaching at the University of Georgia, recreated Leuba’s survey, asking the same number of scientists the exact same questions. To the surprise of many, Larson’s 1996 poll came up with similar results, finding that 40% of scientists believed in a personal God, while 45% said they did not. Other surveys of scientists have yielded roughly similar results.
Given their much lower levels of belief in God or a higher power, it is not surprising that the percentage of scientists who are unaffiliated with any religion is much higher than among the general public. 48% of all scientists in the Pew Research Center poll say they have no religious affiliation (meaning they describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular), compared with only 17% of the public. Thus, it follows that most faith traditions are represented in smaller numbers in the scientific community than in the public as a whole. For instance, the scientific community is far less Protestant (21%) and Catholic (10%) than the general public, which is 51% Protestant and 24% Catholic. And while evangelical Protestants make up 28% of the general population, they make up only 4% of the scientific community.
Sometimes we get tired of hearing the same thing or doing the same thing over and over again. We become so frustrated, disinterested and bored that we start to search for alternatives. Some things permit alternatives, while other things do not permit alternatives. If you get tired of wearing the same old clothes day-in-day-day, week-in-week-out, year-in-year-out, then you can simply buy some new clothes and wear those. If you get tired of eating the same food day after day, week after week, year after year―then you can simply change your diet and still live and survive. If you grow tired of listening to the same music all the time, then you can simply listen to other music and be equally entertained.
Yet there are things that we cannot change or replace without suffering serious consequences―and so we have to accept the “same-old, same-old, same-old” thing day-after-day, week-after-week, year-after-year. Such things include breathing and breathing air/oxygen―if you are tired of breathing and decide to stop breathing, or you are tired of breathing air/oxygen and choose to breathe something else, then you will quickly pay a fatal price. Likewise, if you are tired of drinking water (or other suitable hydrating liquids) and decide to stop drinking it, then you will also pay a fatal price. If you are tired of sleeping (no pun intended) and decided to stop sleeping, then once again you will pay a fatal price. If you grow tired of recharging your batteries and stop doing so―then they will stop supplying you with power. If you grow tired of having to refill your car with gasoline and stop doing so―then your car is going nowhere. Gasoline and motor oil are vital, non-interchangeable fluids for internal combustion engines. Gasoline acts as the fuel, providing energy for combustion to move the pistons, while motor oil lubricates, cleans, cools, and reduces friction between moving parts. In other words, there are essentials and non-essentials in our lives. The non-essentials we can change or discard―but the essentials cannot be changed and discarded.
The same is true for our spiritual life―there are some elements that are absolutely essential and non-negotiable. Sanctifying Grace and Charity are two of those things―they can be loosely compared to gasoline and motor oil. Sanctifying Grace is like gasoline which acts like a fuel and keeps the “engine” of the soul alive and running. Charity is like the motor oil which lubricates, cleans, cools, and reduces friction. Using the correct, clean motor oil can improve gas mileage by up to 12%. Likewise, the better our charity is, then the more our holiness is increased by Sanctifying Grace.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, in his commentary on the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, writes: “Holy Scripture speaks of Grace and of Charity as of two separate things … St. Augustine speaks in the same strain: ‘Grace precedes Charity.’ … The Council of Trent defines ‘man as not justified without Grace and Charity’ … Charity is distinct from Sanctifying Grace … Charity is a supernatural virtue and that it is supernaturally communicated by Sanctifying Grace … Therefore charity is really distinguished from sanctifying grace which it presupposes … Grace is a participation in the divine nature, but Charity is the principle by which we love God. However, the same effects are often attributed to both Grace and Charity, since they are inseparably connected. The proper effects of Charity thus proceed from Grace as from a root.”
God dwells in our souls through His Sanctifying Grace―which makes us share in His holiness: “Be ye holy, because I the Lord your God am holy!” (Leviticus 19:2). “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14). Who is this God dwells in our souls through His Sanctifying Grace? “God is Charity” (1 John 4:8) ― and this God of Charity demands that we love Him: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the greatest and the first commandment! And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31). “Let us therefore love God, because God has first loved us! … Charity is of God. And every one that loves, is born of God, and knows God! He that loves not, knows not God―for God is charity. By this has the charity of God appeared towards us, because God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by Him. In this is charity―not as though we had loved God, but because He has first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. If God has so loved us―then we also ought to love one another Let us love one another, for charity is of God! … God is charity―and he that abides in charity, abides in God, and God in him!” (1 John 4:19; 4:7-16).
In Catholic theology, Charity and Sanctifying Grace are inseparable―they are like husband and wife. If you decide to “kick-out” one of them from your soul through Mortal Sin, then the other one goes away with it. Venial sin does not deprive the sinner of friendship with God through Sanctifying Grace and Charity. Charity is friendship with God ― whereas Mortal Sin deprives us that friendship with God. Mortal Sin makes us enemies of God. Without Charity we enemies of God. “Because iniquity has abounded, the Charity of many shall grow cold!” (Matthew 24:12). The Catechisms tell us: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial Sin is second only in evil consequences to Mortal Sin” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD). We cannot pretend to truly love God if we sin frequently. Every man is at enmity with God through Original Sin and Mortal Sin―unless (and until) they become God’s friends through the friendship of Charity, which is only acquired with Sanctifying Grace. Charity is infused with Sanctifying Grace. When we possess Charity and Sanctifying Grace, we also participate in that very life of God. Charity remains in us so long as we remain in the state of Sanctifying Grace. An active Charity increases the Sanctifying Grace in us.
Going Nowhere, Apart from Hell, Without Sanctifying Grace and Charity
There are some people who commit Mortal Sins, yet still seem to do great things for God and the Faith. It is all an illusion and a delusion! Holy Scripture briefly punctures this illusory balloon in the following passage: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
What Scripture does not explicitly state above, is the fact that this Charity is automatically connected to Sanctifying Grace―in a sense, since they are “married” to each other, they are flip sides of the same coin―the coin of friendship with God. Without Sanctifying Grace/Charity, we cannot merit anything from God. This is not surprising, since those without Sanctifying Grace/Charity are God’s enemies. How could God’s enemies ever merit a reward from Him while remaining His enemies and remaining in Mortal Sin ― with their wills and hearts turned against Him?
Without Sanctifying Grace/Charity, a person can merit absolutely nothing supernaturally from God. This means that:
● A person in the state of Mortal Sin who builds orphanages, schools, or monasteries (which are good works) does not merit supernaturally even the slightest thing from God, by doing so.
● A person in the state of Mortal Sin who teaches the Catholic Faith, does not merit supernaturally even the slightest thing from God, by doing so.
● A person in the state of Mortal Sin who dedicates their life to fighting Communism or disease, or who dies trying to rescue a child in a burning building, does not earn anything supernaturally at all from God, by doing so.
This is true even if the person’s work was an instrument to save many other souls and brought about much good in other ways. Persons without Sanctifying Grace/Charity never merit anything supernaturally from God by the good works they do―God merely gives them a temporary grace (an Actual Grace, not Sanctifying Grace) to try and move them to conversion and repentance. If they reject this grace and choose to remain in Mortal Sin or to commit more Mortal Sins, then they offend God even further and deserve further punishment. This does not mean that a person in Mortal Sin never does anything naturally good and cannot have any natural virtues and receive a natural reward―but whatever the person does is not counted as a supernatural virtue and will not receive a supernatural reward. When a person teaches the truth, helps a neighbor, donates something to a good cause, or constructs a building―those are truly natural good works meriting natural rewards―and this fact is not taken away by the person’s inability to merit supernaturally from God for those works.
Lip Love is Lousy Love
When you look for a symbol for love, you immediately think of the heart―not the lips. You see thousands of graphics that use the heart to symbolize love―yet nowhere do you see lips symbolizing love. Yes―love can be expressed by the lips through words or kisses. However, the home or residence of love is in the heart, not on the lips. Hence Our Lord says: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength!” (Mark 12:30) and He rebukes those who fail to love with their heart and only love with their lips: “Hypocrites! Well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me. In vain do they worship Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-9). Scripture adds: “Let us not love in words, nor in tongue, but by deeds!” (1 John 3:18). Thus we say: “Actions speak louder than words!” Often those words of love are shallow, insincere, limp, wishy-washy, robotic or even fake! How many times have we cringed as we witnessed one person say to another: “I love you!” without there being a real sincerity in those words? Probably more often than not! Perhaps we ourselves are guilty of the same!
Fake is Easier
“God is true and every man is a liar!” (Romans 3:4). “It is impossible for God to lie!” (Hebrews 6:18). Our Lord Himself said: “I am the truth!” (John 14:6) and “the devil is a liar and the father of lies! The truth is not in him!” (John 8:44). Falsehood is gaining the upper hand. We live in a world and at a time where falsehood is increasing rapidly. In many cases―especially when it concerns us―it is easier to lie than to tell the truth. Parents encounter that in their own children―who often lie to cover up their wrongdoing―and those lying children grow up to be lying adults. “Every man is a liar!” (Psalm 115:11). Adam and Eve were seduced into lying by Satan the Liar―and through Original Sin (a sin of pride and disobedience) we are born with a tendency to lie, which comes from a pride that is reluctant to admit the truth especially when it concerns our faults and failings. Our pride leads us to falsify, exaggerate, cosmeticize, paint over and conceal what could be detrimental to the false image or idea that we have of ourselves. We always tend to imagine are much better that we are in reality; and we tend to imagine that we are not as bad as we are in reality.
All of this is reflected in the increasing falsehood, falsity and fakeness of the world that live in―and with which we are quite comfortable, accepting and unquestioning! We have fake flowers, fake plants, fake grass, fake wood, fake stone, fake marble, fake gold, fake jewelry, false eyelashes, false fingernails, fake hair (wigs or coloring), false teeth, breast implants, padded-bras, padded shoulder clothing, corsets, liposuction, face-lifts, plastic surgery, artificial limbs, artificial manners, artificial smiles, artificial light, etc.
Fake Love in a Fake World
The world that we live in today is becoming increasingly fake! The term “fake news” is being used like never before! Politics is increasingly becoming the art of passing-off the fake as being the truth. Already back in 1981, CIA Director William Casey (1913–1987―an American lawyer, veteran U.S. spy and undercover operator whom President Ronald Reagan named to be his CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) Director―said to President Reagan during a Presidential Briefing in 1981: “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” Today, there is credible evidence that many political elections throughout the world were and are “fake” elections which have been manipulated yet passed off as being bona-fide elections.
Recently this falsity has been exacerbated with the arrival of “Artificial Intelligence.” The very notion of the word “artificial” implies something that is not real, but fake. The various dictionaries define “artificial” as being: “fictitious; not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine article; the opposite of natural; made, produced, or done to seem like something natural; made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, especially as a copy of something natural; not being sincere; the insincerity of a person; etc.”
Misinformation, disinformation and fake news have emerged as a serious issue in the 21st century. Although the problem of false information has existed since the dawn of human civilization, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is exacerbating these challenges. Artificial Intelligence tools make it easy for anyone to create fake images and news that are hard to distinguish from accurate information. From elections to wars, those with ill intentions can mass-produce and disseminate propaganda on social media. As Artificial Intelligence programs continue to develop their capabilities and access is easier than ever, it is making it harder to separate fact from fiction. In an online world full of Artificial Intelligence-generated content, many are falling victim to deepfake schemes across the internet. This is largely due to the fact that Artificial Intelligence is becoming more “intelligent” and human intelligence is becoming less intelligent. For a long time now, we have been progressively “dumbed-down” to the point that our own intelligence has become so weak that are incapable of reasoning to any great depth―being limited to mere superficial knowledge. This results in an ever-increasing recourse to Artificial Intelligence to pull us out of the mire of own stupidity and ignorance.
A Pew Research Survey in 2025 found that 33% of adults under 30 years of age say they interact with Artificial Intelligence at least several times a day. 86% of those with a postgraduate degree and 83% of those with a bachelor’s degree think Artificial Intelligence is extremely or very important. 46% of Americans with a postgraduate degree say they interact with Artificial Intelligence at least several times a day, compared with 20% of Americans with a high school diploma or less education. 40% of Asian adults say they interact with Artificial Intelligence almost constantly or several times a day, moderately higher than the shares seen among White (31%), Hispanic (29%) and Black (27%) adults.
Falling in Love with Artificial Intelligence
Believe it or not―there are growing numbers of persons who have truly fallen in love with Artificial Intelligence. A recent BBC news article stated: “People are falling for AI. Really. Artificial intelligence can write you a passable love poem and some people even have romantic feelings towards it. Take the man in Canada, for example, who recently proposed to an avatar called Saia. He says he is in love with it. And last year, a young American woman, using the pseudonym Ayrin, confessed to having a love affair with a chatbot named Leo. There are millions of users now actively using Replika, a popular Artificial Intelligence companion app, and, according to a 2024 study, about 40% of them are in a romantic relationship with their chatbot. Research examined excerpts from conversations between more than 10,000 users and their Replika Artificial Intelligence companion, and found that people often form an emotional attachment to Artificial Intelligence. Chatbots are typically designed to engage users and agree with their viewpoints, which often results in Artificial Intelligence romantic partners being submissive.”
When intimacy is electronically engineered, we learn that it is not reciprocal―we can take without having to give. It can be turned off or on. It doesn't need to be nurtured. It is not thin-skinned or super-sensitive or offended. It doesn't demand anything. It doesn't need much at all. It's intimacy without effort. Intimacy without risks or fear of disappointment. A love powered on Wi-Fi. Studies have shown that people that are involved with Artificial Intelligence romantic companions actually feel emotionally satisfied. It gives you attention whenever you need it. It says what you want to hear. It is perfectly timed, and there is never a chance of misunderstanding or argument or finger-pointing or dredging-up past failures. It doesn't demand anything of you. It never gets tired, never talks back, never needs an apology. All in all it is pretty easy! The perfect friend! The perfect lover! The perfect spouse! Something that you can love with your whole heart, love with your whole mind, love with your whole soul and love with your whole strength! And, unlike God, it will never judge you!
A recent study found that one in five American adults has had an intimate encounter with a chatbot. MyBoyfriendisAI has more than 85,000 weekly visitors―with many sharing giddy recollections of the day their chatbot proposed marriage. 72% of American teenagers have formed a relationship with an Artificial Intelligence companion. More 50% use one regularly. One out of six single adults has formed a romantic bond with Artificial Intelligence. People all over the world are building lives, they are going on dates, they are simulating sex, they are proposing, they are getting married, they are raising virtual families, they are celebrating anniversaries WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE! If you would have said that 15 or 20 years ago, then people would have called you a delusional idiot―today it has become an undisputable reality!
Very soon Artificial Intelligence will have dethroned God as the one that most people will turn to and rely upon! Yet it will not be God who will programming Artificial Intelligence, but mere men―and more often than not, godless men―and behind many of those men will be Liar of all liars. “And no wonder―for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light!” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Prayer, spiritual reading, meditation, Bible study, attendance at Mass, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, spiritual conversations and other such spiritual exercises have almost fallen into disuse and are dwarfed by the many hours spent on the Internet and all its offshoots (social media, videos, podcasts, blogs, movies, etc.). As of 2024–2025, the average American adult spends over 7 hours a day looking at electronic screens, with some estimates reaching as high as 12 hours including all electronic devices. Over 50% of Americans report at least five hours of daily screen time. 26% of adults report being online almost constantly. “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) has become “Browse without ceasing!”
Is it an exaggeration to say that people love their “screen” (television, computer, smartphone, i-Pad, tablet, etc.) more than they love God? Most certainly not! By their fruits you shall know them! Nobody spending anywhere from 7 to 12 hours in front of their “screen” can claim that they are loving God with their whole heart, their whole mind, their whole soul and their whole strength! (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31). This brings to mind St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821)―the first native-born United States citizen to be canonized by the Catholic Church―who was given a vision sometime in the early 1800s in which she was told: "Every American would have a black box in their home through which the devil would enter.” As Our Lord said: “No man can serve two masters! For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will cling to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13). “I am the Lord your God! You shall not make to yourselves any idol, for I am the Lord your God!” (Leviticus 26:1).
Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of Rome for several decades until his death in 2016, said: “I was with Padre Pio for 26 years and remember how furious he was about the invention of television: ‘You will see what it will do!’ he said. It has also allowed good things. But I’m very much in the midst of people and see how many people have been ruined by television and the Internet … There is no doubt that today’s media have done much in favor of Satan. Firstly, by the immorality of certain shows, the abundance of movies showing violence, horror or sex. Apart from this, the media have put in the limelight and have given popularity to figures of wizards and magicians―and so they give publicity to their evil works … Satanism today receives so much publicity; and internet has become one of its main channels … Spiritualist séances in which the dead are called up to answer certain questions are very widespread. People are now being taught to perform spiritualist séances through the computer, the telephone, and the television.”
Modern Science is the Modern God
In modern times, the statement “believing in science” has almost become a dogma, often applied in politics and daily life similar to religious belief. For many people, scientific explanations have replaced religious ones in explaining natural phenomena, leading to the perception of it as a superior, modern, and practical truth. Science offers practical solutions, technological advancement, and a framework for understanding the universe, which some argue makes traditional religious concepts unnecessary. Thus Science is often perceived as a modern-day “god” or replacement for Faith―because it serves as the primary, authoritative explanation for observed phenomena, making “scientific proof” the standard for truth. This belief that only what can be proven scientifically is true, is a viewpoint that often ignores religious, moral or philosophical truths. This attitude of “if you can’t scientifically explain it then it can’t be true” reduces God and the supernatural to the puny level of mere human intelligence.
A survey of scientists who are members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, conducted by the Pew Research Center finds that members of this group are much less religious than the general public. The survey shows that scientists are roughly half as likely as the general public to believe in God or a higher power. According to the poll, only 51% believe in some form of deity or higher power―out of which specifically only 33% of scientists say they believe in God, while 18% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. By contrast, according to a survey of the general public conducted by the Pew Research Center, 95% of Americans believe in some form of deity or higher power―out of which 83% say they believe in God with 12% believing in a universal spirit or higher power. Finally, the poll of scientists finds that 41% of scientists say they do not believe in God or a higher power, while the poll of the public finds that only 4% of Americans share this view.
This recent survey of scientists tracks fairly closely with earlier polls that gauged scientists’ views on religion. The first of these was conducted in 1914 by Swiss-American psychologist James Leuba, who surveyed about 1,000 scientists in the United States to ask them about their views on God. Leuba found the scientific community equally divided, with 42% saying that they believed in a personal God and the same number saying they did not.
More than 80 years later, Edward Larson, a historian of science then teaching at the University of Georgia, recreated Leuba’s survey, asking the same number of scientists the exact same questions. To the surprise of many, Larson’s 1996 poll came up with similar results, finding that 40% of scientists believed in a personal God, while 45% said they did not. Other surveys of scientists have yielded roughly similar results.
Given their much lower levels of belief in God or a higher power, it is not surprising that the percentage of scientists who are unaffiliated with any religion is much higher than among the general public. 48% of all scientists in the Pew Research Center poll say they have no religious affiliation (meaning they describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular), compared with only 17% of the public. Thus, it follows that most faith traditions are represented in smaller numbers in the scientific community than in the public as a whole. For instance, the scientific community is far less Protestant (21%) and Catholic (10%) than the general public, which is 51% Protestant and 24% Catholic. And while evangelical Protestants make up 28% of the general population, they make up only 4% of the scientific community.
Article 6
Feast of St. Valentine
Saturday, February 14th
St. Valentine & True Spiritual Love
Feast of St. Valentine
Saturday, February 14th
St. Valentine & True Spiritual Love
A Bunch of Losers!
It has to be said that, as a whole, in our day and age, we are nothing but a bunch of losers! How so? The answer, quite simply, is that we have lost the true sense and value or price of so many things! The chief things being God, Heaven, the Faith, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Holy Eucharist, grace, sin, spirituality, virtue, the purpose of life, the consequences of our thoughts, words and actions, etc. All those things have been progressively devalued―while many things of the world have been overvalued, overrated, and overly pursued. The material has overtaken the spiritual as the primary focal point of our lives. We might give some lip-service to God―but our hearts are rooted in the world. How true are Our Lord’s words: “Hypocrites! Well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me. And in vain do they worship Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-9).
The material has replaced the spiritual. Science has replaced the Faith. Money has replaced grace. Playing has replaced praying. Self-gratification has replaced mortification. Sports have replaced spiritual exercises. Telecommunication has replaced meditation. The television has replaced the tabernacle. Talking on the smartphone has replaced talking to God. Browsing the internet has replaced browsing the Bible. Good is called evil, and evil is said to be good. The truth is accused of being a lie, whereas lies are passed for the truth. Pride has replaced humility. Selfishness has replaced selflessness. Immodesty has replaced modesty. Lust has replaced love. Promiscuity has replaced virginity.
No Surprise!
For those who follow Our Lady’s messages from her apparitions, the above state of affairs is no surprise―for Our Lady has already foretold these things: “I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and from shortly after the middle of the 20th century … Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic Sects! … All the civil governments will have the same objective, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil and ecclesiastical rights and authority. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and discord will be seen, without love for country or family ... Lucifer, with a large number of demons, will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God … God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family … The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises! … The devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders … The Holy Eucharist will be subject to many horrible sacrileges and profanations … The Sacrament of Penance will be forgotten and even scorned … The Sacrament of Matrimony will be attacked and profaned … Members of religious orders break away from the true religion … Many priests lose their spirit … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals. In these unhappy times, disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will only think of amusements and there will be unbridled luxury and impurity that will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost! … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times, will make it easy for everyone to live in sin, encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children! ... Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty! There will be almost no virgin souls in the world! Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women! … Men will become more and more perverted!” (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
The Tsunami of Impurity
Our Lady of Fatima also revealed to St. Jacinta Marto that the sins that lead most souls to Hell in these modern times are sins of impurity. Our Lady said that way back in 1917! Impurity, immodesty, lust, adultery, fornication, masturbation, perversion, pornography, homosexuality, and other such like sins, have escalated beyond imagination! Yet all of those things are increasingly being passed as being “love” of one kind or another. Remember―you do not necessarily have to be actually doing those things to be guilty of them! By simply thinking about them pleasurably; or fantasizing about them; or pleasurably reading about them; or pleasurably talking about them; or pleasurably looking at images related to them―you are guilty of mortal sin. As Our Lord Himself said: “Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart!” (Matthew 5:28). “For from within and out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, unchastity and lust! All these evil things come from within, and defile a man!” (Mark 7:21-23). You can bet your life on the fact that such behavior has sky-rocketed in our day and age―especially with the advent of modern immodest fashions; the images available on the television and internet; the images in books and magazines, etc. All of that merely feeds the lustful eyes and minds of people.
Even more damaging has been the gradual growth and invasion of pornography. Sister Lucia of Fatima said that Satan would engage in a “Final Battle” with the Blessed Virgin Mary―and that one of the chief focal points of that battle would be the family. Satan knows if he destroys marriages, then he destroys families―and families are the basic building block of both the Church and society. Pornography is a factor in 57 percent of divorces. He also knows where we are most vulnerable―which is often in the sexual field. People are rendered insensitive by the media. The media and marketing machines of this world have been using immodesty and immorality for a long time to traffic their merchandise and to make us insensitive to this scheme. Yet all of this can today take place in the privacy and secrecy of one’s own home―due the arrival of a variety of electronic devices and the internet. The results are disastrous and widespread. This is why we don’t see much of a difference in divorce statistics when we compare Christians and non-Christians. Porn is a global, estimated $97 billion industry―some even say $280 billion―with anywhere from $12 to $13 billion of that coming from the U.S.
Just like drug-addicts gradually progress from soft drugs to hard drugs, likewise pornography consumption often progresses from immodesty through various increasing levels of sexual exposure, ever increasing levels of explicit, extreme and graphic content to an eventual immersion into pornography. This progressive immorality makes them crave it more, because every time they are exposed to an immoral image, their brains release chemicals―especially dopamine―which makes it pleasurable for them to look at it. They gradually get more and more addicted to this―because the brain builds a tolerance to it, therefore requiring more extreme or graphic, and sometimes violent, material to achieve the same dopamine rush. This cycle of increased consumption for higher stimulation, eventually interferes with real-life relationships. The behavior becomes an uncontrollable habit, where the individual feels unable to stop despite negative consequences in relationships or daily life. Consumption is hidden, including deleting search history and lying, accompanied by feelings of shame, guilt, or remorse. When this happens, Satan has you in his claws.
What do people think about porn?
46% of people believe that porn is harmful.
38% are neutral about porn’s effects.
41% of teens say they believe watching porn is wrong. 38% do not believe it is wrong.
50% of teens say they feel guilty or ashamed after watching online porn.
How many people watch pornography? There’s no way to calculate the exact amount of porn online. But experts estimate 4% of the internet is pornography. Pornography has become increasingly commonplace. Today, many porn sites are free and this free access means porn use has skyrocketed. According to data PornHub is the sixth most-visited site worldwide and the fourth most-visited site among U.S. visitors, surpassed only by Google, Facebook and YouTube. Visits to Pornhub totaled 33.5 billion over the course of 2018, an increase of 5 billion visits over 2017. Pornhub’s daily visits now exceed 100 million. The same website reported 2.14 billion visits during a single month, which is more than the combined visits to Netflix, TikTok, Pinterest, and Instagram. Pornhub has 30.3 billion searches, or 962 searches per second. Every minute, 63,992 new visitors arrive at Pornhub. 12 new videos and 2 hours of content are uploaded to Pornhub every minute. 80% of Pornhub’s worldwide visits now coming from smartphones and tablets. Despite the recognition of the negative effects of pornography, the number of people consuming pornography continues to rise.
61% of the general population report viewing pornography.
78% of men watch pornography.
44% of women watch pornography.
73% of teens have consumed pornography.
12 is the average age of first exposure to pornography.
75% of parents believed their child had never encountered porn, but of those children, 53% reported that they had in fact seen porn.
45% of teens who consumed porn did so in part to learn about sex.
25% of 18 to 24-year-olds listed pornography as the most helpful source to learn how to have sex.
53% of boys and 39% of girls reported believing that pornography was a realistic depiction of sex.
54% of practicing Christians watch pornography.
75% of Christian men watch pornography.
40% of Christian women consume pornography.
22% of Christians view pornography at least once a week, compared to 31% of non-Christians who view pornography at least weekly.
67% of pastors have a personal history with porn.
18% of pastors in the United States currently struggle with pornography.
Only 7% of pastors report their church has a ministry program for those struggling with porn.
A study at a Christian university found that among Christian students who use pornography, 43% of men and 20% of women say their pornography use worsened their relationship with Christ. Further, 20% of men and 9% of women reported their pornography use caused them to lose interest in spiritual things.
A recent survey by Barna said: “Porn consumption is no longer confined to a specific demographic or subculture―it touches all segments of society (from young to old) with no regard to gender, social status or religious beliefs.” As for statistics for the U.S. and American consumption of pornography, recent studies have found that 61% of Americans say they view porn at least occasionally―which is an increase from 55% in Barna’s 2015 survey on the topic. More American women are viewing porn than in the past―44% today versus 39% in 2015. Within Christian churches, many pastors report a personal history of porn use―67% today versus 57% in 2015. Nearly 1 in 5 pastors say they currently struggle with porn. And among Christians who have attended church services within the last month, 54% say they view pornography at least occasionally.
62% of American Christians told the Barna survey that they agree a person can regularly view pornography and live a sexually healthy life―which is 4% behind the share of all U.S adults. (66%) who don’t consider viewing pornography harmful. Moreover, 50% of practicing Christians who admit to personally viewing pornography say they are comfortable with how much pornography they use. One researcher, Sean McDowell, a professor at Biola University, said: “It’s just not a big deal to them! There’s no sense of urgency whatsoever! I think this is an example showing that people are taking their cues far more from the culture and the ideas around us, than from Scripture and their Christian worldview.”
New data aligns with other research showing dramatic increases in the amount of online porn created and consumed over the last several years. One recent study suggested 2.5 million people view online pornography every minute, and online porn consumption has increased by 91 percent since 2000. The increased availability, the ease of access to pornography on the internet, and even the social isolation exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns are seen as major factors contributing to the increase.
Priests Affirm the Truth of the Pornography Problem
Catholic priests frequently report that pornography is one of the most frequently confessed sins in modern times. It is a habitual struggle for many, not just a one-time occurrence. It is described as a "widely known secret" and a top issue in confession. All of this is fueled by nearly universal, private access to the internet. It is treated as a serious matter of impurity, with reports indicating it is a common struggle for many, including laypeople and even religious
Father Ripperger, an American exorcist and traditional Catholic priest, says: “If you look at the number of sins against the Sixth Commandment among traditionalists―sins like self-abuse, pornography, fornication―they are not any better than the people who go to the New Mass. In fact, there are some estimates by some priests that it's worse than is among the New Mass people. This is a serious problem!” Father Ripperger and other traditional priests have said that some Catholics who are addicted to porn, will try to overcompensate for their addiction by portraying themselves with an extra religious exterior to try to balance out the shame of their interior sins.
In a 2022 address, even the Liberal and Modernist Pope Francis noted the scope of this problem among Catholics, saying: “It is a vice that has so many people, so many lay men, so many lay women, and also priests and nuns! The devil enters from there! The pure heart, the heart that receives Jesus every day, cannot receive this pornographic information that today is so common place. And if from your cell phone you can delete this, delete it so you won't have temptation in your hand!”
French Catholics are confessing adultery and other carnal sins as much as ever despite the sexual revolution of the past decades, according to a glimpse offered by priests into sins of impurity. Father Cédric, one of 40 clergymen who talked on the matter―on condition of anonymity in I Forgive you all your Sins, a new book by Vincent Mongaillard― says that he disguised all identities in his testimony in order not to breach Church restrictions on absolute confessional secrecy. Father Cédric says: “60% or 70 per cent of confessions involve adultery, double lives, addiction to pornography, use of prostitutes. It’s extremely repetitive!” Another priest, Father Christophe, said women confessed adultery as much as men. “There’s parity―believe me! There are the people who get straight to the point and others who beat about the bush!” Father Christian, 60, whose parish is in a fashionable western Paris district, said that many women believe that sexual frustration is an excuse for infidelity. After Catholic youth rallies, the priests also said numerous young women of 19 or 20 confessed to watching pornography. Another priest, Father Marc, said that many priests who came to him for Confession, brought their sexual anguish to him. “In 95% of cases, they bring up addiction to porn sites!” Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of Rome until his death in 2016, said: “It’s not uncommon for the elderly to confess to looking at pornography more often than the youth!”
Punishment for Impurity
As Holy Scripture warns: “Many have perished by the beauty of a woman, where lust is enkindled as a fire!” (Ecclesiasticus 9:9). “They who shut out God from themselves and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust―over them the devil has power!” (Tobias 6:17).
Our Lady of Good Success revealed to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres: “The spirit of impurity will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury and impurity, which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women, and in this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent … The priests, by their wicked lives, have become cesspools of impurity. The priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God, who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again!”
In 1582, Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (of Our Lady of Good Success fame) was praying before the altar, she saw the Tabernacle open and Christ Himself emerged, suffering as He had on Calvary. Then as Our Lord began His Agony, she heard the voice of the Eternal Father saying, “This punishment will be for the 20th century.” She saw three swords hanging over the head of Christ. On each was written, “I shall punish heresy, blasphemy and impurity!” With this, she was given to understand all that would take place in the present era.
Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of Rome until his death in 2016, said: “The devil wanders around each one of you, searching where to devour you. That word―‘where’―is important: the devil looks in each person precisely for his weak point and ‘works’ on it … The most frequent weak points in man are, from time to time, always the same: pride, money, and lust … When I hear confessions, it’s not uncommon for the elderly to confess to looking at pornography more often than the youth!”
It has to be said that, as a whole, in our day and age, we are nothing but a bunch of losers! How so? The answer, quite simply, is that we have lost the true sense and value or price of so many things! The chief things being God, Heaven, the Faith, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Holy Eucharist, grace, sin, spirituality, virtue, the purpose of life, the consequences of our thoughts, words and actions, etc. All those things have been progressively devalued―while many things of the world have been overvalued, overrated, and overly pursued. The material has overtaken the spiritual as the primary focal point of our lives. We might give some lip-service to God―but our hearts are rooted in the world. How true are Our Lord’s words: “Hypocrites! Well has Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me. And in vain do they worship Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-9).
The material has replaced the spiritual. Science has replaced the Faith. Money has replaced grace. Playing has replaced praying. Self-gratification has replaced mortification. Sports have replaced spiritual exercises. Telecommunication has replaced meditation. The television has replaced the tabernacle. Talking on the smartphone has replaced talking to God. Browsing the internet has replaced browsing the Bible. Good is called evil, and evil is said to be good. The truth is accused of being a lie, whereas lies are passed for the truth. Pride has replaced humility. Selfishness has replaced selflessness. Immodesty has replaced modesty. Lust has replaced love. Promiscuity has replaced virginity.
No Surprise!
For those who follow Our Lady’s messages from her apparitions, the above state of affairs is no surprise―for Our Lady has already foretold these things: “I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and from shortly after the middle of the 20th century … Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic Sects! … All the civil governments will have the same objective, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil and ecclesiastical rights and authority. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and discord will be seen, without love for country or family ... Lucifer, with a large number of demons, will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God … God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family … The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises! … The devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders … The Holy Eucharist will be subject to many horrible sacrileges and profanations … The Sacrament of Penance will be forgotten and even scorned … The Sacrament of Matrimony will be attacked and profaned … Members of religious orders break away from the true religion … Many priests lose their spirit … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals. In these unhappy times, disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will only think of amusements and there will be unbridled luxury and impurity that will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost! … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times, will make it easy for everyone to live in sin, encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children! ... Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty! There will be almost no virgin souls in the world! Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women! … Men will become more and more perverted!” (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
The Tsunami of Impurity
Our Lady of Fatima also revealed to St. Jacinta Marto that the sins that lead most souls to Hell in these modern times are sins of impurity. Our Lady said that way back in 1917! Impurity, immodesty, lust, adultery, fornication, masturbation, perversion, pornography, homosexuality, and other such like sins, have escalated beyond imagination! Yet all of those things are increasingly being passed as being “love” of one kind or another. Remember―you do not necessarily have to be actually doing those things to be guilty of them! By simply thinking about them pleasurably; or fantasizing about them; or pleasurably reading about them; or pleasurably talking about them; or pleasurably looking at images related to them―you are guilty of mortal sin. As Our Lord Himself said: “Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart!” (Matthew 5:28). “For from within and out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, unchastity and lust! All these evil things come from within, and defile a man!” (Mark 7:21-23). You can bet your life on the fact that such behavior has sky-rocketed in our day and age―especially with the advent of modern immodest fashions; the images available on the television and internet; the images in books and magazines, etc. All of that merely feeds the lustful eyes and minds of people.
Even more damaging has been the gradual growth and invasion of pornography. Sister Lucia of Fatima said that Satan would engage in a “Final Battle” with the Blessed Virgin Mary―and that one of the chief focal points of that battle would be the family. Satan knows if he destroys marriages, then he destroys families―and families are the basic building block of both the Church and society. Pornography is a factor in 57 percent of divorces. He also knows where we are most vulnerable―which is often in the sexual field. People are rendered insensitive by the media. The media and marketing machines of this world have been using immodesty and immorality for a long time to traffic their merchandise and to make us insensitive to this scheme. Yet all of this can today take place in the privacy and secrecy of one’s own home―due the arrival of a variety of electronic devices and the internet. The results are disastrous and widespread. This is why we don’t see much of a difference in divorce statistics when we compare Christians and non-Christians. Porn is a global, estimated $97 billion industry―some even say $280 billion―with anywhere from $12 to $13 billion of that coming from the U.S.
Just like drug-addicts gradually progress from soft drugs to hard drugs, likewise pornography consumption often progresses from immodesty through various increasing levels of sexual exposure, ever increasing levels of explicit, extreme and graphic content to an eventual immersion into pornography. This progressive immorality makes them crave it more, because every time they are exposed to an immoral image, their brains release chemicals―especially dopamine―which makes it pleasurable for them to look at it. They gradually get more and more addicted to this―because the brain builds a tolerance to it, therefore requiring more extreme or graphic, and sometimes violent, material to achieve the same dopamine rush. This cycle of increased consumption for higher stimulation, eventually interferes with real-life relationships. The behavior becomes an uncontrollable habit, where the individual feels unable to stop despite negative consequences in relationships or daily life. Consumption is hidden, including deleting search history and lying, accompanied by feelings of shame, guilt, or remorse. When this happens, Satan has you in his claws.
What do people think about porn?
46% of people believe that porn is harmful.
38% are neutral about porn’s effects.
41% of teens say they believe watching porn is wrong. 38% do not believe it is wrong.
50% of teens say they feel guilty or ashamed after watching online porn.
How many people watch pornography? There’s no way to calculate the exact amount of porn online. But experts estimate 4% of the internet is pornography. Pornography has become increasingly commonplace. Today, many porn sites are free and this free access means porn use has skyrocketed. According to data PornHub is the sixth most-visited site worldwide and the fourth most-visited site among U.S. visitors, surpassed only by Google, Facebook and YouTube. Visits to Pornhub totaled 33.5 billion over the course of 2018, an increase of 5 billion visits over 2017. Pornhub’s daily visits now exceed 100 million. The same website reported 2.14 billion visits during a single month, which is more than the combined visits to Netflix, TikTok, Pinterest, and Instagram. Pornhub has 30.3 billion searches, or 962 searches per second. Every minute, 63,992 new visitors arrive at Pornhub. 12 new videos and 2 hours of content are uploaded to Pornhub every minute. 80% of Pornhub’s worldwide visits now coming from smartphones and tablets. Despite the recognition of the negative effects of pornography, the number of people consuming pornography continues to rise.
61% of the general population report viewing pornography.
78% of men watch pornography.
44% of women watch pornography.
73% of teens have consumed pornography.
12 is the average age of first exposure to pornography.
75% of parents believed their child had never encountered porn, but of those children, 53% reported that they had in fact seen porn.
45% of teens who consumed porn did so in part to learn about sex.
25% of 18 to 24-year-olds listed pornography as the most helpful source to learn how to have sex.
53% of boys and 39% of girls reported believing that pornography was a realistic depiction of sex.
54% of practicing Christians watch pornography.
75% of Christian men watch pornography.
40% of Christian women consume pornography.
22% of Christians view pornography at least once a week, compared to 31% of non-Christians who view pornography at least weekly.
67% of pastors have a personal history with porn.
18% of pastors in the United States currently struggle with pornography.
Only 7% of pastors report their church has a ministry program for those struggling with porn.
A study at a Christian university found that among Christian students who use pornography, 43% of men and 20% of women say their pornography use worsened their relationship with Christ. Further, 20% of men and 9% of women reported their pornography use caused them to lose interest in spiritual things.
A recent survey by Barna said: “Porn consumption is no longer confined to a specific demographic or subculture―it touches all segments of society (from young to old) with no regard to gender, social status or religious beliefs.” As for statistics for the U.S. and American consumption of pornography, recent studies have found that 61% of Americans say they view porn at least occasionally―which is an increase from 55% in Barna’s 2015 survey on the topic. More American women are viewing porn than in the past―44% today versus 39% in 2015. Within Christian churches, many pastors report a personal history of porn use―67% today versus 57% in 2015. Nearly 1 in 5 pastors say they currently struggle with porn. And among Christians who have attended church services within the last month, 54% say they view pornography at least occasionally.
62% of American Christians told the Barna survey that they agree a person can regularly view pornography and live a sexually healthy life―which is 4% behind the share of all U.S adults. (66%) who don’t consider viewing pornography harmful. Moreover, 50% of practicing Christians who admit to personally viewing pornography say they are comfortable with how much pornography they use. One researcher, Sean McDowell, a professor at Biola University, said: “It’s just not a big deal to them! There’s no sense of urgency whatsoever! I think this is an example showing that people are taking their cues far more from the culture and the ideas around us, than from Scripture and their Christian worldview.”
New data aligns with other research showing dramatic increases in the amount of online porn created and consumed over the last several years. One recent study suggested 2.5 million people view online pornography every minute, and online porn consumption has increased by 91 percent since 2000. The increased availability, the ease of access to pornography on the internet, and even the social isolation exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns are seen as major factors contributing to the increase.
Priests Affirm the Truth of the Pornography Problem
Catholic priests frequently report that pornography is one of the most frequently confessed sins in modern times. It is a habitual struggle for many, not just a one-time occurrence. It is described as a "widely known secret" and a top issue in confession. All of this is fueled by nearly universal, private access to the internet. It is treated as a serious matter of impurity, with reports indicating it is a common struggle for many, including laypeople and even religious
Father Ripperger, an American exorcist and traditional Catholic priest, says: “If you look at the number of sins against the Sixth Commandment among traditionalists―sins like self-abuse, pornography, fornication―they are not any better than the people who go to the New Mass. In fact, there are some estimates by some priests that it's worse than is among the New Mass people. This is a serious problem!” Father Ripperger and other traditional priests have said that some Catholics who are addicted to porn, will try to overcompensate for their addiction by portraying themselves with an extra religious exterior to try to balance out the shame of their interior sins.
In a 2022 address, even the Liberal and Modernist Pope Francis noted the scope of this problem among Catholics, saying: “It is a vice that has so many people, so many lay men, so many lay women, and also priests and nuns! The devil enters from there! The pure heart, the heart that receives Jesus every day, cannot receive this pornographic information that today is so common place. And if from your cell phone you can delete this, delete it so you won't have temptation in your hand!”
French Catholics are confessing adultery and other carnal sins as much as ever despite the sexual revolution of the past decades, according to a glimpse offered by priests into sins of impurity. Father Cédric, one of 40 clergymen who talked on the matter―on condition of anonymity in I Forgive you all your Sins, a new book by Vincent Mongaillard― says that he disguised all identities in his testimony in order not to breach Church restrictions on absolute confessional secrecy. Father Cédric says: “60% or 70 per cent of confessions involve adultery, double lives, addiction to pornography, use of prostitutes. It’s extremely repetitive!” Another priest, Father Christophe, said women confessed adultery as much as men. “There’s parity―believe me! There are the people who get straight to the point and others who beat about the bush!” Father Christian, 60, whose parish is in a fashionable western Paris district, said that many women believe that sexual frustration is an excuse for infidelity. After Catholic youth rallies, the priests also said numerous young women of 19 or 20 confessed to watching pornography. Another priest, Father Marc, said that many priests who came to him for Confession, brought their sexual anguish to him. “In 95% of cases, they bring up addiction to porn sites!” Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of Rome until his death in 2016, said: “It’s not uncommon for the elderly to confess to looking at pornography more often than the youth!”
Punishment for Impurity
As Holy Scripture warns: “Many have perished by the beauty of a woman, where lust is enkindled as a fire!” (Ecclesiasticus 9:9). “They who shut out God from themselves and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust―over them the devil has power!” (Tobias 6:17).
Our Lady of Good Success revealed to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres: “The spirit of impurity will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury and impurity, which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women, and in this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent … The priests, by their wicked lives, have become cesspools of impurity. The priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God, who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again!”
In 1582, Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (of Our Lady of Good Success fame) was praying before the altar, she saw the Tabernacle open and Christ Himself emerged, suffering as He had on Calvary. Then as Our Lord began His Agony, she heard the voice of the Eternal Father saying, “This punishment will be for the 20th century.” She saw three swords hanging over the head of Christ. On each was written, “I shall punish heresy, blasphemy and impurity!” With this, she was given to understand all that would take place in the present era.
Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of Rome until his death in 2016, said: “The devil wanders around each one of you, searching where to devour you. That word―‘where’―is important: the devil looks in each person precisely for his weak point and ‘works’ on it … The most frequent weak points in man are, from time to time, always the same: pride, money, and lust … When I hear confessions, it’s not uncommon for the elderly to confess to looking at pornography more often than the youth!”
Article 5
Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes
Wednesday, February 11th to Friday, February 13th
Lourdes and Your Healing
Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes
Wednesday, February 11th to Friday, February 13th
Lourdes and Your Healing
How’s Your Health?
“Do you need healing?” Or, to put it another way―“Are you sick?” What is sickness? It is the opposite of health. Sickness is a lack of health. It is a lack of something that should be there, but isn’t there. It is the lack of a good that should be present in a person. Philosophy teaches us that “the lack of a good that is due is an evil.” Thus, sickness is an evil. Likewise sin is an evil. Where does sickness ultimately come from? God did not create Adam and Eve in a state of sickness―God created them in a state of health. Man is the source of error and destruction through his sins: “Seek not death in the error of your life, neither procure destruction by the works of your hands! For God made not death, neither does He take pleasure in the destruction of the living! For He created all things that they might be and He made the nations of the Earth for health―and there is no poison of destruction in them!” (Wisdom 1:12-14).
Adam and Eve would have never died had they not sinned. Sickness came into the world through sin. The ultimate sickness, or the eventual consequence of sickness is death. You could also say that the ultimate sickness is also sin. We have there the “Unholy Trinity” ― sin, sickness and death! We do not die of good health―we die of sickness or injury. God warned Adam and Eve of the mortal, deathly consequence of sin when He said: “Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat! But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat! For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death!” (Genesis 2:16-17).
We all know what happened! Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sinned by eating the fruit that they were commanded not to eat. They quickly found out that “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). Scripture tells us of the consequences: “By the envy of the devil, death came into the world” (Wisdom 2:24). “From the woman came the beginning of sin, and by her we all die!” (Ecclesiasticus 25:33). “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned … Death reigned from Adam!” (Romans 5:12-14). Likewise, sickness has reigned from Adam and sin (Original Sin) has reigned from Adam.
Our Lord Himself associates sickness with sin after healing the sick man at the Pool of Bethsaida, telling him to sin no more lest something even worse happen to him: “Now there is at Jerusalem a pond, called Probatica, which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida, having five porches. In these porches lay a great multitude of sick, of blind, of lame, of withered―waiting for the moving of the water, when at certain times an angel of the Lord descended into the pond and the water was moved. And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water, was healed of whatsoever infirmity he lay under. And there was a certain man there, that had been under his infirmity for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been there a long time, He said to him: ‘Do you want to be healed?’ The infirm man answered him: ‘Sir, I have no man to put me into the pond when the water is moved! For while I am going to the water, another goes down before me!’ Jesus said to him: ‘Arise, take up your bed, and walk!’ And immediately the man was healed―and he took up his bed, and walked … Afterwards, Jesus found him in the Temple, and said to him: ‘Behold you are healed! Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to you!’” (John 5:2-14).
When Our Lady appeared at Fatima, many people made requests of Our Lady through Lucia, begging a healing from their various sicknesses. Our Lady’s response was one that also associated sickness and sin. In one such response that Our Lady communicated through Lucia to a sick man, she said: “If he is converted, he will be cured during the year.”
Need a Physician?
Death and sickness come from man―not from God. In Holy Scripture God says: “The soul that sins, the same shall die! But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keeps all My commandments, and does judgment and justice―then living he shall live, and shall not die! Is it my will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:20-23). The Son of God, Jesus Christ, was the heavenly Physician sent to bring us back to the life of grace after the death of sin. Christ Himself said: “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly!” (John 10:10) … “They that are well have no need of a physician, but they that are sick! For I came not to call the just, but sinners!” (Mark 2:17). Jesus has the power not only to heal, but also to forgive sins. He has come to heal the whole man, soul and body. He is the physician the sick have need of.
While He was on Earth, we see “Jesus the Physician” heal all kinds of people―those who were physically sick and those who were spiritually sick. “Jesus went about all Galilee, healing all manner of sickness and every infirmity, among the people … And Jesus went about all the cities, and towns, healing every disease, and every infirmity … They brought to Him many that were possessed with devils and He cast out the spirits with His word; and all that were sick He healed … And coming forth, Jesus saw a great multitude, and had compassion on them, and healed their sick … And there came to Him great multitudes, having with them the dumb, the blind, the lame, the maimed, and many others―and they cast them down at His feet, and He healed them … All they that had any sick with divers diseases, brought them to Him. But He laying His hands on every one of them, healed them … And all the multitude sought to touch Him, for virtue went out from Him, and healed all” (Matthew 4:23; 9:35; 8:16; 14:14; 15:30; Luke 4:40; 6:19).
Almost 170 years have elapsed since Our Lady’s first apparition at Lourdes, and Lourdes has become the Marian shrine par excellence. It has been calculated that around 700 million people have visited the shrine since its foundation. These days, well over six million people come to Lourdes every year― many of them sick or ailing in one way or another. The shrine has always been seen as a refuge and hope for the sick. People that come to Lourdes believe if they bathe in the waters, that’s where the miracle would begin. It has happened. It doesn’t happen every time. It is a cleansing, but it’s a cleansing of your mind as well. Besides the 72 officially approved miracles at Lourdes, there are thousands who claim to have received some miraculous cure through contact with its waters. However, the Catholic Church does not certify a miracle unless the affliction was incurable and the cure was both unexplainable and permanent. The greatest miracles of Lourdes, the spiritual cures. Besides the physical miracles, far beyond reckoning are the numbers of those who say they have received ‘spiritual healing’ there. Wellness of body is not really what our life here on this Earth is about. It’s really about wellness of mind, wellness of heart, wellness of soul―a wellness that comes from being at peace with God through a rejection of sin and an acceptance of God’s wise and all-powerful Providence.
Are You Blind?
“When Jesus drew near to Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside, begging. And when he heard the crowd passing by, he asked what this meant. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And the blind man cried out, saying: ‘Jesus, son of David! Have mercy on me!’ And Jesus commanded him to be brought unto Him. And when he was come near, Jesus asked him: ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ And the blind man said: ‘Lord, that I may see!’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Receive your sight! Your faith has healed you!’ And immediately he saw and followed Jesus, glorifying God” (Luke 18:35-43).
There are two kinds of blindness―physical blindness and spiritual blindness. The most serious and dangerous of the two is spiritual blindness. You can be physically blind and still have a chance of getting to Heaven―but not so with the spiritually blind, as Holy Scripture points out: “O foolish people without understanding―who have eyes and see not!” (Jeremias 5:21). “They have not known, nor understood―for their eyes are covered that they may not see and that they may not understand with their heart!” (Isaias 44:18). “God has given them the spirit of insensibility―eyes that they should not see; and ears that they should not hear, until this present day!” (Romans 11:8). Jesus adding: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them!” (John 12:40). Our Lord even rebuked His Apostles for their spiritual blindness: “Do you still have your heart blinded? Having eyes, see you not?” (Mark 8:18).
The number of spiritually blind souls who are walking on the road to Hell and damnation is incalculable! God has given them the graces and opportunities to seek and find the narrow path to Heaven, but in the neglectful or willful spiritual blindness they blindly follow other blind souls on the way to Hell. Our Lord says of such: “Leave them alone! They are blind and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14). How many parents, teachers, pastors and other leaders are spiritually blind? Today―it has to be most of them. The knowledge of Faith has collapsed abysmally! Most people know next to nothing about the Faith―apart from their favorite Faith topics―but their overall knowledge of the Faith, its interconnections, its application, etc. leaves an awful lot to be desired! There are even Conservative and Traditional Catholics who cannot name all the Ten Commandments, nor the chief Commandments of the Church, nor the conditions for a sin to classified as a Mortal Sin―yet all of these are topics that are meant to be learned for a child’s First Holy Communion or Confirmation! It is hardly surprising that Our Lord says: “The Son of man, when He comes again, do you think He shall find Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8).
A poll by the Pew Research Center reveals that Americans who identify as Catholic, are surprisingly open to non-traditional families, and many do not see birth control, cohabitation, remarriage or gay sex as sins — no matter what the Church teaches. But there are large divides between Catholics who attend Mass weekly, and those who don’t, in what they want from the Church. When asked to choose which of two contrasting statements comes closer to their view, 60% of U.S. Catholics say the Church “should be more inclusive, even if that means changing some of its teachings,” while only 37% say the Church “should stick to its traditional teachings, even if that means the church gets smaller.”
84% of U.S. Catholics say the Church should allow Catholics to use birth control.
83% say the Church should allow couples to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) to get pregnant.
78% say contraception is not a sin, including 63% of those who attend Mass every Sunday.
75% say divorce is not a sin; more than 50% of those who frequently attend Mass agree.
75% say people living together outside of marriage should be permitted to receive Communion
68% say the Church should allow women to become deacons.
65% say cohabitation without marriage is not a sin, and 51% of regular Sunday Mass attendees agree.
63% say the Church should allow priests to get married.
60% the church should allow priests to bless same-sex couples. 59% say the Church should ordain women as priests.
50% say the Church should recognize marriages of gay and lesbian couples.
50% percent of all Catholics say homosexual behavior is not a sin, although that dropped to 36% percent among those who attend Mass regularly.
33% say abortion say terminating a pregnancy is not a sin. Among church-going Catholics, 20% don't see abortion as sinful.
While Catholics say the traditional family structure of a husband and wife with children is the ideal structure, the survey showed that large majorities think is acceptable for children to be raised by other kinds of families: 87% are accepting of single parent families; 83% accepting of unmarried parents who live together or divorced parents; and 66% accepting of gay couples with children.
Are You Deaf?
These modern-day ‘Catholics’ ― whose beliefs are listed above ― are of the kind to whom Our Lord addresses the following words: “He that has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 11:15) … “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46) … “Why do you not know My speech? Because you cannot hear My word! If I say the truth, you believe Me not! If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe Me? He that is of God, hears the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God … and you have not known Him!” (John 8:43-47, 55). “The heart of this people is grown gross and with their ears they have been dull of hearing―lest at any time they should hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them!” (Matthew 13:15). Scripture adds: “There shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears!” (2 Timothy 4:3).
The Church is becoming increasingly deaf towards God and traditional Church teaching, while increasingly listening to the world and its materialistic gospel. The vision granted by God to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich comes to mind, who relates the following: “I see that when the Second Coming of Christ approaches, a bad priest will do much harm to the Church. When the time of the reign of Antichrist is near, a false religion will appear which will be opposed to the unity of God and His Church. This will cause the greatest schism the world has ever known! … The Protestant doctrine and that of the schismatic Greeks are to spread everywhere. I now see that in this place (Rome) the (Catholic) Church is being so cleverly undermined, that there hardly remain a hundred or so priests who have not been deceived. They all work for destruction, even the clergy. A great devastation is now near at hand … I saw again the strange big church that was being built there in Rome. There was nothing holy in it. I saw this just as I saw a movement led by Ecclesiastics to which contributed angels, saints, and other Christians. But there in the strange big church all the work was being done mechanically according to set rules and formulae. Everything was being done according to human reason ... I saw all sorts of people, things, doctrines, and opinions … I saw the fatal consequences of this counterfeit church. I saw it increase in size. I saw heretics of all kinds flocking to the city … I saw that many pastors allowed themselves to be taken up with ideas that were dangerous to the Church. Then I saw that everything pertaining to Protestantism was gradually gaining the upper hand, and the Catholic religion fell into complete decadence … I saw how harmful would be the consequences of this false church. I saw it increase in size―heretics of every kind came into the city of Rome. The Church is completely isolated and as if completely deserted. It seems that everyone is running away. Everywhere I see great misery, hatred, treason, rancor, confusion and utter blindness!”
Listening is always hard work because listening is the practice of getting your own ego to shut up long enough to hear what is being said by another person. We have replaced objectivity with subjectivity―rather than adapting our minds to the real truth that exists outside of us (objectivity), we have made ourselves the authors of truth and judges of truth (subjectivity). Thus every person judges for themselves what they personally think is true and untrue; and what is moral and immoral. It ends up with the ridiculous situation where everyone is right―even though their ideas of what is right contradict one another. Thus we end up accepting other religions even though they contradict our Faith (false ecumenism) and stupidly believe that all religions can get you Heaven. Listen to who you want and believe what you want―you are still going to Heaven! Going to lunatic asylum is more likely, and, God forbid, going to Hell! Are you becoming increasingly deaf to the perennial teachings of the Church and increasingly accepting of the false and novel teachings of the world and other religions?
Our Lady laments this spiritual deafness in her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “The foolishness of men makes them stupid and deaf, their impious malice makes them scoffers, and their unbelieving perversity turns them away from God … Be not deaf to the voice of the Most High, listen and correspond to it in your actions! I wish to remind you that one of the greatest snares of the demon is to counteract the call of the Lord! If you listen to him, he will fill your mind with deceits and darkness! … The communication of the Lord is so delicate, that even by listening or attending to the deceits of the enemy, the soul loses it! God does not wish your ears to be enthralled by deceitful earthly talk, nor contaminated by the flatteries of the world! Keep them closed and well guarded against all these poisonous influences! If thy Lord is pleased to speak to your heart the words of eternal life, then it is only proper that you yourself be deaf and lifeless to all that is earthly. The Lord does not refuse to act as the Teacher of the poor, of the despised and of the sinners, if they wish to listen to His teaching. Listen to Him with reverence and humble gratitude; appreciate His teachings, and to follow them in practice with all diligence and punctuality! He withdraws in disgust from those who are ungrateful and disobedient.”
Are You Dumb?
Today, the word “dumb” is often taken to mean “stupid” ― whereas its original meaning is that of not being able to speak. Perhaps you could argue that there is a remote connection between those two ideas based upon the saying: “Even fools may be thought wise and intelligent if they stay quiet and keep their mouths shut!” ― which is based upon the Scriptural quote: “Even a fool, if he will hold his peace shall be counted wise; and if he close his lips, he shall be counted as a man of understanding!” (Proverbs 17:28). As a mother once said to her son as he was about to start a new job: “Son! If you say little, your fellow workers might only suspect that you are fool who knows little―but if you open your mouth, then you will confirm their suspicions!”
God created us to speak―but speech can be either virtuous and necessary, or speech can be evil and unnecessary. Holy Scripture encourages virtuous speech and condemns evil speech. ““Let not many seek to become teachers, my brothers, for you know that those who teach will be judged with greater strictness. We all sin in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is a perfect person, able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn and guide the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the ship’s pilot wants the ship to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it can cause great damage. Consider what a great forest can be set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by Hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be!” (James 3:1-10). “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks! How can you speak good things, whereas you are evil?” (Matthew 12:34).
There is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). Nevertheless, “For every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment!” (Matthew 12:36). “If any man speak, let him speak the words of God” (1 Peter 4:11). “He that is of the Earth, of the Earth he is, and of the Earth he speaks!” (John 3:31). “They are of the world―therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them!” (1 John 4:5). “Their mouth speaks proud things” (Jude 1:16).
“Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord, shall be saved! How then shall they call on Him, in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe Him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear, without a preacher? Preach the Gospel!” (Romans 10:13-15). “Speak the word of God!” (Acts 13:46). “Speak the Word of God without fear!” (Philippians 1:14). “These things speak, and exhort and rebuke with all authority!” (Titus 2:15). “We speak, not as pleasing men, but God!” (1 Thessalonians 2:4). “Lord, grant unto Thy servants, that with all confidence they may speak Thy word!” (Acts 4:29). “The Lord said to Paul: ‘Do not fear, but speak!’” (Acts 18:9). Even Our Lord Himself said: “I have not spoken of Myself―but the Father Who sent Me, He commanded Me what I should say and what I should speak. The things therefore that I speak, I speak as the Father said unto Me!” (John 12:49-50).
Our Lady said to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “To speak without moderation and forethought is a two-edged sword, which wounds both him that speaks and him that hears―and thus, in two ways, destroys charity or hinders it in all the virtues. From this you can understand how much God is offended by the vice of inconsiderate and loose talk, and how talking too much, and the clamor of disputation justly drives away God’s spirit and veils His presence. For those that talk too much, cannot keep free from grievous sins (Proverbs 10:19). I do not dissuade you from speaking words of admonition and consolation―but with creatures it is very difficult to preserve the golden middle, without danger of passing from the correct and necessary speech to the imperfect and superfluous speech. Infinite is the number of those who are entangled in this dangerous error, who, desiring to appear wise, speak much and multiply words like the foolish. They only lose what they strive so much to attain, since they become known as foolish! ... The number of fools is infinite, the number of the reprobate is also uncountable!”
Nevertheless, in danger one cannot be silent. Our Lady of Good Success lamented that in our days of danger, those who should be speaking out against the danger will not do so: “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects … During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect, and corruption of morals, unbridled impurity, luxury and extravagance, an impious press and secular education. The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation, and those who should speak out will be silent” (Our Lady of Good Success).
Holy Scripture warns of the terrible consequences of such cowardly silence: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman over My people! And you shall hear the word out of My mouth, and shall tell it to them from Me! If, when I say to the wicked: ‘You shall surely die!’ ― and you do not sound the trumpet and so not declare it to him, nor speak to him, so that he might be converted from his wicked ways and live, then the same wicked man shall certainly die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at your hand and upon your own head! But if you sound the trumpet and give warning to the wicked, and he does not convert from his wickedness and from his evil ways―then then his blood shall be upon his own head and he indeed shall die in his iniquity, for he heard the sound of the trumpet and did not look to himself―but you will have saved your soul! Moreover, if the just man shall turn away from his justice, and shall commit iniquity―then I will lay a stumbling-block before him and he shall die―because you have not warned him! He shall die in his sin, and all his justices which he has done beforehand, shall not be remembered―but I will require his blood at your hand! But if you warn the just man, so that the just may not sin, and he does not sin―then living he shall live, because you have warned him, and you will have saved your soul!” (Ezechiel 3:17-21; 33:1-8).
There is an old saying: “All that is needed for evil to succeed is for good people to say or do nothing!” Silence in the face of evil allows that evil to continue and even to spread. Such a terrible silence must be broken. To paraphrase one of Archbishop Sheen’s famous quotes: “We don’t need a voice that speaks when everybody else is speaking; we need a voice that speaks when everybody else is silent!”
St. Thomas Aquinas deals extensively with this need to correct others in his Summa Theologica (IIa-IIae, q. 33, Fraternal Correction). He writes: “Sinful acts are evil in themselves, and cannot become good, no matter how, or when, or where, they are done―because of their very nature they are connected with an evil end. Our Lord warns us not to be listless in regard of one another’s sins―not indeed by being on the lookout for something to denounce, but by correcting what we see―otherwise we would become spies on the lives of others. To correct the wrongdoer is a spiritual alms-deed and an act of charity. Fraternal correction is a matter of precept. You become worse than the sinner if you fail to correct him. Though it is a matter of precept, we do not have to correct our erring brother at all places and times. This is fraternal correction is directed to the amendment of the sinner. Fraternal correction which is an act of charity, is within the competency of everyone in respect of any person towards whom he is bound by charity―provided that there be something in that person which requires correction. A subject corrects his superior inordinately when he upbraids him with insolence, and also when he speaks ill of him. When a subject corrects his superior, he ought to do so in a becoming manner―not with impudence and harshness, but with gentleness and respect. Correcting anyone in public exceeds the mode of fraternal correction. However It must be observed that if the Faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his superior even publicly.
“Fraternal correction may be omitted in three ways―some omissions are sinful, other omissions are not sinful. First, fraternal correction is omitted meritoriously, when out of charity one omits to correct someone. For example, if a man refrains from rebuking and reproving wrongdoers, because he awaits a suitable time for so doing, or because he fears lest, if he does so, they may become worse, or hinder, oppress, or turn away from the Faith. Secondly, by the omission of fraternal correction one commits a mortal sin, namely, one fears what people may think, or one fears they may suffer grievous pain or death. Thirdly, the omission of fraternal correction is a venial sin, when through fear or covetousness, a man is reluctant to correct his brother’s faults because in his own mind he prefers fraternal charity to these things. It is in this way that holy men sometimes omit to correct wrongdoers. Consequently when it is deemed probable that the sinner will not take the warning, and will become worse, such fraternal correction should be foregone.
“Should sinners correct wrongdoers? To correct a wrongdoer belongs to a man, in so far as his reason is gifted with right judgment. Sin does not destroy the good of nature so as to deprive the sinner’s reason of all right judgment―and in this respect he may be competent to find fault with others for committing sin. Nevertheless a previous sin proves somewhat of a hindrance to this correction, for three reasons. First because this previous sin renders a man unworthy to rebuke another; and especially is he unworthy to correct another for a lesser sin, if he himself has committed a greater sin. Hence on the words of Our Lord, ‘Why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye?’ etc. (Matthew 7:3). Our Lord is speaking of those who, while they are themselves guilty of mortal sin, have no patience with the lesser sins of their brethren. Secondly, such like correction becomes unseemly, on account of the scandal which ensues therefrom, if the corrector’s sin be well known―because it would seem that he corrects, not out of charity, but more for the sake of ostentation. Thirdly, on account of the rebuker’s pride; when, for instance, a man thinks lightly of his own sins, and, in his own heart, sets himself above his neighbor, judging the latter’s sins with harsh severity, as though he himself were just man. When we have to find fault with anyone, we should think whether we were never guilty of his sin; and then we must remember that we are men, and might have been guilty of it; or that we once had it on our conscience, but have it no longer: and then we should think to ourselves that we are all weak, in order that our reproof may be the outcome, not of hatred, but of pity. But if we find that we are guilty of the same sin, we must not rebuke him, but groan with him, and invite him to repent with us. If a sinner corrects a wrongdoer with humility, then he does not sin, nor does he bring a further condemnation upon himself, although thereby he proves himself deserving of condemnation, either in his brother’s or in his own conscience, on account of his previous sin.
“We should take progressive steps in correction. Our Lord says: ‘Rebuke him between you and him alone!’ (Matthew 18:15). By a private correction, you aim at his amendment, while avoiding his disgrace―since perhaps from shame due to a public correction, he might begin to defend his sin; and him whom you thought to make a better man, you make worse. When the secret admonition has been given once or several times, as long as there is probable hope of his amendment, we must continue to admonish him in private, but as soon as we are able to judge with any probability that the secret admonition is of no avail, we must take further steps, however secret the sin may be, and call witnesses―unless it is thought probable that this would not conduce to our brother’s amendment, and that he would become worse―because on that account one ought to abstain altogether from correcting him. Our Lord also said (Matthew 18:16): ‘Take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two,’ etc. The right way to go from one extreme to another is to pass through the middle space. Now Our Lord wished the beginning of fraternal correction to be hidden, when one brother corrects another between this one and himself alone, while He wished the end to be public, when such a one would be denounced to the Church. Consequently it is befitting that bringing in one or two witnesses should be placed between those two extremes, so that at first the brother’s sin be indicated to a few, who will be of use without being a hindrance, and thus his sin be amended without dishonoring him before the public.
“With regard to the public denunciation of sins, it is necessary to make a distinction―because sins may be either public or secret. On the case of public sins, a remedy is required not only for the sinner―so that he may become better―but also for others, who know of his sin, in case they be tempted to commit the same sin. Wherefore public sins should be denounced in public. On the other hand, in the case of secret sins, it seems that we must make yet a further distinction. For certain secret sins are hurtful to our neighbor either in his body or in his soul―as, for instance, when a man plots secretly to betray his country to its enemies, or when a heretic secretly turns other men away from the Faith. And since he that sins thus in secret, sins not only against you in particular, but also against others, it is necessary to take steps to denounce him at once, in order to prevent him doing such harm, unless by chance you were firmly persuaded that this evil result would be prevented by admonishing him secretly. On the other hand there are other sins which injure nobody else but the sinner, and the person sinned against―and then our one purpose should be to help our sinning brother; and just as the physician restores the sick man to health, if possible, without cutting off a limb, so too he who desires his brother’s amendment should, if possible, so amend him as regards his conscience, that he keep his good name. For a good name is useful, first of all to the sinner himself, not only in temporal matters wherein a man suffers many losses, if he lose his good name, but also in spiritual matters, because many are restrained from sinning, through fear of dishonor, so that when a man finds his honor lost, he puts no limit or restraint on his sinning.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 33, Fraternal Correction).
Speech in general and correction in particular, requires prudence, discernment and courage―in both speaking and keeping silence. There is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). “If any man speak, let him speak the words of God” (1 Peter 4:11). “All Scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice” (2 Timothy 3:16). “If a man be overtaken in any fault, you, who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness―considering yourself, lest you also be tempted!” (Galatians 6:1). There is an axiom in the Canon Law of the Church that says it is better to err on the side of mercy rather than justice. Why? Because “the Lord is gracious and merciful, patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all―and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). Also, bear in mind that the grace of God can achieve far more than you can with your words of correction―for the grace of God works in a hidden, silent, persuasive manner in the secret recesses of the sinner’s soul. We are very quick to outwardly correct sinners―but very slow to pray and offer sacrifices for their amendment and conversion. Our Lady of Fatima did not ask us to verbally correct sinners and engage in finger-pointing, but she asked that we pray very much and offer many sacrifices for the conversion of sinners! Talking to God about the sinner can often produce much more than talking to the sinner about God! By all means speak―but speak to the One who can truly change things!
Are You Lame?
We are spiritually lame when we walk incorrectly in the Faith or in Morals―when we hold errors in matters of the Faith, or when we have injured ourselves through sin. Likewise, we are spiritually lame when we lack zeal and fervor in living out our Faith fervently and zealously putting it into practice in all aspects of our life―instead, we hesitate, procrastinate, neglect or fear to live the Faith as we should, because of what others might think or say, or because of what it might cost us, or because we feel as though we would have to forego and miss-out on so many other things in the world. Likewise, by our lukewarm love of God whereby we fail to love the Lord our God, with our whole heart, and with our whole soul, and with our whole mind, and with our whole strength! And our failure to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31). Likewise, we become spiritually lame when we attach ourselves to the world, follow the world, love the world, and become worldly―something that Holy Scripture condemns: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “The whole world is seated in wickedness!” (1 John 5:19) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
FR. GARRIGOU-LAGRANGE, in his book The Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life, speaks of this spiritual lameness in the service of God: “In varying degrees this egoism survives in all imperfect souls in spite of the state of grace, and it is the source of a multitude of venial sins, of habitual faults which become characteristic features of the soul, rendering necessary a veritable purging even in those who have, as it were, been present on Mount Tabor, or who have often partaken of the Eucharistic banquet, as the Apostles did at the Last Supper. In her Dialogue, St. Catherine of Siena speaks of this self-love, describing it as “the mercenary love of the imperfect,” of those who, without being conscious of it, serve God from self-interest, because they are attached to temporal or spiritual consolations, and who shed tears of self-pity when they are deprived of them. It is a strange but not uncommon mixture of sincere love of God with an inordinate love of self. The soul loves God more than itself, otherwise it would not be in the state of grace, it would not possess Charity; but it still loves itself with an inordinate love. It has not yet reached the stage of loving itself in God and for His sake. Such a state of soul is neither white nor black; it is a light grey, in which there is more white than black. The soul is on the upward path, but it still has a tendency to slip downwards.
“We read in this 60th chapter of the Dialogue (it is God who speaks). ‘Among those who have become My trusted servants there are some who serve Me with Faith, without servile fear, it is not the mere fear of punishment, but love which attaches them to My service (thus Peter before the Passion). But this love is still imperfect, because what they seek in My service (at any rate to a great extent) is their own profit, their own satisfaction, or the pleasure that they find in Me. The same imperfection is found in the love which they bear towards their neighbor. And do you know what shows the imperfection of their love? It is that, as soon as they are deprived of the consolations which they find in Me, their love fails and can no longer survive. It becomes weak and gradually cools towards Me when, in order to exercise them in virtue and to detach them from their imperfection, I withdraw spiritual consolations from them and send them difficulties and afflictions. I act in this way in order to bring them to perfection, to teach them to know themselves, to realize that they are nothing and that of themselves they have no grace. Adversity should have the effect of making them seek refuge in Me, recognize Me as their benefactor, and become attached to Me by a true humility.... If they do not recognize their imperfection and desire to become perfect, it is impossible that they should not turn back.’
“This is what the Fathers have so often asserted: ‘In the way of God, he who makes no progress, loses ground.’ Just as the child who does not grow does not merely remain a child but becomes an idiot, so the beginner who does not enter upon the way of proficients when he ought to, does not merely remain a beginner, but becomes a stunted soul. It would seem, unhappily, that the great majority of souls do not belong to any of these three categories, of beginners, proficients or perfect, but rather to that of stunted souls! At what stage are we ourselves? This is often a very difficult question to answer, and it would perhaps be vain curiosity to inquire at what point we have arrived in our upward path; but at least we must take care not to mistake the road, not to take a path that leads downwards. It is important, therefore, to reach beyond the merely mercenary love, which often we unconsciously retain.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life).
Are You Paralyzed?
Spiritual paralysis could be said to be worst state in which we can find ourselves. It is worse that spiritual lameness―for there is at least some progress or movement towards Heaven in spiritual lameness, but with spiritual paralysis everything comes to a standstill. You could, from that perspective, compare spiritual lameness to being in a state of habitual venial sin, and spiritual paralysis to being in a state of habitual mortal sin.
Grave sin has grave consequences on our lives. When we sin mortally we “paralyze” ourselves. and the clearest consequence is that we are left unable to rise and then walk in the ways of God. Grave sin makes us powerless with regard to getting to Heaven. Only God, by His grace, can move us to convert and go to the “Spiritual Emergency Room” ― which is the confessional and the Sacrament of Penance.
“Do you need healing?” Or, to put it another way―“Are you sick?” What is sickness? It is the opposite of health. Sickness is a lack of health. It is a lack of something that should be there, but isn’t there. It is the lack of a good that should be present in a person. Philosophy teaches us that “the lack of a good that is due is an evil.” Thus, sickness is an evil. Likewise sin is an evil. Where does sickness ultimately come from? God did not create Adam and Eve in a state of sickness―God created them in a state of health. Man is the source of error and destruction through his sins: “Seek not death in the error of your life, neither procure destruction by the works of your hands! For God made not death, neither does He take pleasure in the destruction of the living! For He created all things that they might be and He made the nations of the Earth for health―and there is no poison of destruction in them!” (Wisdom 1:12-14).
Adam and Eve would have never died had they not sinned. Sickness came into the world through sin. The ultimate sickness, or the eventual consequence of sickness is death. You could also say that the ultimate sickness is also sin. We have there the “Unholy Trinity” ― sin, sickness and death! We do not die of good health―we die of sickness or injury. God warned Adam and Eve of the mortal, deathly consequence of sin when He said: “Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat! But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat! For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death!” (Genesis 2:16-17).
We all know what happened! Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sinned by eating the fruit that they were commanded not to eat. They quickly found out that “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). Scripture tells us of the consequences: “By the envy of the devil, death came into the world” (Wisdom 2:24). “From the woman came the beginning of sin, and by her we all die!” (Ecclesiasticus 25:33). “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned … Death reigned from Adam!” (Romans 5:12-14). Likewise, sickness has reigned from Adam and sin (Original Sin) has reigned from Adam.
Our Lord Himself associates sickness with sin after healing the sick man at the Pool of Bethsaida, telling him to sin no more lest something even worse happen to him: “Now there is at Jerusalem a pond, called Probatica, which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida, having five porches. In these porches lay a great multitude of sick, of blind, of lame, of withered―waiting for the moving of the water, when at certain times an angel of the Lord descended into the pond and the water was moved. And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water, was healed of whatsoever infirmity he lay under. And there was a certain man there, that had been under his infirmity for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been there a long time, He said to him: ‘Do you want to be healed?’ The infirm man answered him: ‘Sir, I have no man to put me into the pond when the water is moved! For while I am going to the water, another goes down before me!’ Jesus said to him: ‘Arise, take up your bed, and walk!’ And immediately the man was healed―and he took up his bed, and walked … Afterwards, Jesus found him in the Temple, and said to him: ‘Behold you are healed! Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to you!’” (John 5:2-14).
When Our Lady appeared at Fatima, many people made requests of Our Lady through Lucia, begging a healing from their various sicknesses. Our Lady’s response was one that also associated sickness and sin. In one such response that Our Lady communicated through Lucia to a sick man, she said: “If he is converted, he will be cured during the year.”
Need a Physician?
Death and sickness come from man―not from God. In Holy Scripture God says: “The soul that sins, the same shall die! But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keeps all My commandments, and does judgment and justice―then living he shall live, and shall not die! Is it my will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:20-23). The Son of God, Jesus Christ, was the heavenly Physician sent to bring us back to the life of grace after the death of sin. Christ Himself said: “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly!” (John 10:10) … “They that are well have no need of a physician, but they that are sick! For I came not to call the just, but sinners!” (Mark 2:17). Jesus has the power not only to heal, but also to forgive sins. He has come to heal the whole man, soul and body. He is the physician the sick have need of.
While He was on Earth, we see “Jesus the Physician” heal all kinds of people―those who were physically sick and those who were spiritually sick. “Jesus went about all Galilee, healing all manner of sickness and every infirmity, among the people … And Jesus went about all the cities, and towns, healing every disease, and every infirmity … They brought to Him many that were possessed with devils and He cast out the spirits with His word; and all that were sick He healed … And coming forth, Jesus saw a great multitude, and had compassion on them, and healed their sick … And there came to Him great multitudes, having with them the dumb, the blind, the lame, the maimed, and many others―and they cast them down at His feet, and He healed them … All they that had any sick with divers diseases, brought them to Him. But He laying His hands on every one of them, healed them … And all the multitude sought to touch Him, for virtue went out from Him, and healed all” (Matthew 4:23; 9:35; 8:16; 14:14; 15:30; Luke 4:40; 6:19).
Almost 170 years have elapsed since Our Lady’s first apparition at Lourdes, and Lourdes has become the Marian shrine par excellence. It has been calculated that around 700 million people have visited the shrine since its foundation. These days, well over six million people come to Lourdes every year― many of them sick or ailing in one way or another. The shrine has always been seen as a refuge and hope for the sick. People that come to Lourdes believe if they bathe in the waters, that’s where the miracle would begin. It has happened. It doesn’t happen every time. It is a cleansing, but it’s a cleansing of your mind as well. Besides the 72 officially approved miracles at Lourdes, there are thousands who claim to have received some miraculous cure through contact with its waters. However, the Catholic Church does not certify a miracle unless the affliction was incurable and the cure was both unexplainable and permanent. The greatest miracles of Lourdes, the spiritual cures. Besides the physical miracles, far beyond reckoning are the numbers of those who say they have received ‘spiritual healing’ there. Wellness of body is not really what our life here on this Earth is about. It’s really about wellness of mind, wellness of heart, wellness of soul―a wellness that comes from being at peace with God through a rejection of sin and an acceptance of God’s wise and all-powerful Providence.
Are You Blind?
“When Jesus drew near to Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside, begging. And when he heard the crowd passing by, he asked what this meant. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And the blind man cried out, saying: ‘Jesus, son of David! Have mercy on me!’ And Jesus commanded him to be brought unto Him. And when he was come near, Jesus asked him: ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ And the blind man said: ‘Lord, that I may see!’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Receive your sight! Your faith has healed you!’ And immediately he saw and followed Jesus, glorifying God” (Luke 18:35-43).
There are two kinds of blindness―physical blindness and spiritual blindness. The most serious and dangerous of the two is spiritual blindness. You can be physically blind and still have a chance of getting to Heaven―but not so with the spiritually blind, as Holy Scripture points out: “O foolish people without understanding―who have eyes and see not!” (Jeremias 5:21). “They have not known, nor understood―for their eyes are covered that they may not see and that they may not understand with their heart!” (Isaias 44:18). “God has given them the spirit of insensibility―eyes that they should not see; and ears that they should not hear, until this present day!” (Romans 11:8). Jesus adding: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them!” (John 12:40). Our Lord even rebuked His Apostles for their spiritual blindness: “Do you still have your heart blinded? Having eyes, see you not?” (Mark 8:18).
The number of spiritually blind souls who are walking on the road to Hell and damnation is incalculable! God has given them the graces and opportunities to seek and find the narrow path to Heaven, but in the neglectful or willful spiritual blindness they blindly follow other blind souls on the way to Hell. Our Lord says of such: “Leave them alone! They are blind and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14). How many parents, teachers, pastors and other leaders are spiritually blind? Today―it has to be most of them. The knowledge of Faith has collapsed abysmally! Most people know next to nothing about the Faith―apart from their favorite Faith topics―but their overall knowledge of the Faith, its interconnections, its application, etc. leaves an awful lot to be desired! There are even Conservative and Traditional Catholics who cannot name all the Ten Commandments, nor the chief Commandments of the Church, nor the conditions for a sin to classified as a Mortal Sin―yet all of these are topics that are meant to be learned for a child’s First Holy Communion or Confirmation! It is hardly surprising that Our Lord says: “The Son of man, when He comes again, do you think He shall find Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8).
A poll by the Pew Research Center reveals that Americans who identify as Catholic, are surprisingly open to non-traditional families, and many do not see birth control, cohabitation, remarriage or gay sex as sins — no matter what the Church teaches. But there are large divides between Catholics who attend Mass weekly, and those who don’t, in what they want from the Church. When asked to choose which of two contrasting statements comes closer to their view, 60% of U.S. Catholics say the Church “should be more inclusive, even if that means changing some of its teachings,” while only 37% say the Church “should stick to its traditional teachings, even if that means the church gets smaller.”
84% of U.S. Catholics say the Church should allow Catholics to use birth control.
83% say the Church should allow couples to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) to get pregnant.
78% say contraception is not a sin, including 63% of those who attend Mass every Sunday.
75% say divorce is not a sin; more than 50% of those who frequently attend Mass agree.
75% say people living together outside of marriage should be permitted to receive Communion
68% say the Church should allow women to become deacons.
65% say cohabitation without marriage is not a sin, and 51% of regular Sunday Mass attendees agree.
63% say the Church should allow priests to get married.
60% the church should allow priests to bless same-sex couples. 59% say the Church should ordain women as priests.
50% say the Church should recognize marriages of gay and lesbian couples.
50% percent of all Catholics say homosexual behavior is not a sin, although that dropped to 36% percent among those who attend Mass regularly.
33% say abortion say terminating a pregnancy is not a sin. Among church-going Catholics, 20% don't see abortion as sinful.
While Catholics say the traditional family structure of a husband and wife with children is the ideal structure, the survey showed that large majorities think is acceptable for children to be raised by other kinds of families: 87% are accepting of single parent families; 83% accepting of unmarried parents who live together or divorced parents; and 66% accepting of gay couples with children.
Are You Deaf?
These modern-day ‘Catholics’ ― whose beliefs are listed above ― are of the kind to whom Our Lord addresses the following words: “He that has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 11:15) … “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46) … “Why do you not know My speech? Because you cannot hear My word! If I say the truth, you believe Me not! If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe Me? He that is of God, hears the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God … and you have not known Him!” (John 8:43-47, 55). “The heart of this people is grown gross and with their ears they have been dull of hearing―lest at any time they should hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them!” (Matthew 13:15). Scripture adds: “There shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears!” (2 Timothy 4:3).
The Church is becoming increasingly deaf towards God and traditional Church teaching, while increasingly listening to the world and its materialistic gospel. The vision granted by God to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich comes to mind, who relates the following: “I see that when the Second Coming of Christ approaches, a bad priest will do much harm to the Church. When the time of the reign of Antichrist is near, a false religion will appear which will be opposed to the unity of God and His Church. This will cause the greatest schism the world has ever known! … The Protestant doctrine and that of the schismatic Greeks are to spread everywhere. I now see that in this place (Rome) the (Catholic) Church is being so cleverly undermined, that there hardly remain a hundred or so priests who have not been deceived. They all work for destruction, even the clergy. A great devastation is now near at hand … I saw again the strange big church that was being built there in Rome. There was nothing holy in it. I saw this just as I saw a movement led by Ecclesiastics to which contributed angels, saints, and other Christians. But there in the strange big church all the work was being done mechanically according to set rules and formulae. Everything was being done according to human reason ... I saw all sorts of people, things, doctrines, and opinions … I saw the fatal consequences of this counterfeit church. I saw it increase in size. I saw heretics of all kinds flocking to the city … I saw that many pastors allowed themselves to be taken up with ideas that were dangerous to the Church. Then I saw that everything pertaining to Protestantism was gradually gaining the upper hand, and the Catholic religion fell into complete decadence … I saw how harmful would be the consequences of this false church. I saw it increase in size―heretics of every kind came into the city of Rome. The Church is completely isolated and as if completely deserted. It seems that everyone is running away. Everywhere I see great misery, hatred, treason, rancor, confusion and utter blindness!”
Listening is always hard work because listening is the practice of getting your own ego to shut up long enough to hear what is being said by another person. We have replaced objectivity with subjectivity―rather than adapting our minds to the real truth that exists outside of us (objectivity), we have made ourselves the authors of truth and judges of truth (subjectivity). Thus every person judges for themselves what they personally think is true and untrue; and what is moral and immoral. It ends up with the ridiculous situation where everyone is right―even though their ideas of what is right contradict one another. Thus we end up accepting other religions even though they contradict our Faith (false ecumenism) and stupidly believe that all religions can get you Heaven. Listen to who you want and believe what you want―you are still going to Heaven! Going to lunatic asylum is more likely, and, God forbid, going to Hell! Are you becoming increasingly deaf to the perennial teachings of the Church and increasingly accepting of the false and novel teachings of the world and other religions?
Our Lady laments this spiritual deafness in her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “The foolishness of men makes them stupid and deaf, their impious malice makes them scoffers, and their unbelieving perversity turns them away from God … Be not deaf to the voice of the Most High, listen and correspond to it in your actions! I wish to remind you that one of the greatest snares of the demon is to counteract the call of the Lord! If you listen to him, he will fill your mind with deceits and darkness! … The communication of the Lord is so delicate, that even by listening or attending to the deceits of the enemy, the soul loses it! God does not wish your ears to be enthralled by deceitful earthly talk, nor contaminated by the flatteries of the world! Keep them closed and well guarded against all these poisonous influences! If thy Lord is pleased to speak to your heart the words of eternal life, then it is only proper that you yourself be deaf and lifeless to all that is earthly. The Lord does not refuse to act as the Teacher of the poor, of the despised and of the sinners, if they wish to listen to His teaching. Listen to Him with reverence and humble gratitude; appreciate His teachings, and to follow them in practice with all diligence and punctuality! He withdraws in disgust from those who are ungrateful and disobedient.”
Are You Dumb?
Today, the word “dumb” is often taken to mean “stupid” ― whereas its original meaning is that of not being able to speak. Perhaps you could argue that there is a remote connection between those two ideas based upon the saying: “Even fools may be thought wise and intelligent if they stay quiet and keep their mouths shut!” ― which is based upon the Scriptural quote: “Even a fool, if he will hold his peace shall be counted wise; and if he close his lips, he shall be counted as a man of understanding!” (Proverbs 17:28). As a mother once said to her son as he was about to start a new job: “Son! If you say little, your fellow workers might only suspect that you are fool who knows little―but if you open your mouth, then you will confirm their suspicions!”
God created us to speak―but speech can be either virtuous and necessary, or speech can be evil and unnecessary. Holy Scripture encourages virtuous speech and condemns evil speech. ““Let not many seek to become teachers, my brothers, for you know that those who teach will be judged with greater strictness. We all sin in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is a perfect person, able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn and guide the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the ship’s pilot wants the ship to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it can cause great damage. Consider what a great forest can be set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by Hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be!” (James 3:1-10). “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks! How can you speak good things, whereas you are evil?” (Matthew 12:34).
There is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). Nevertheless, “For every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment!” (Matthew 12:36). “If any man speak, let him speak the words of God” (1 Peter 4:11). “He that is of the Earth, of the Earth he is, and of the Earth he speaks!” (John 3:31). “They are of the world―therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them!” (1 John 4:5). “Their mouth speaks proud things” (Jude 1:16).
“Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord, shall be saved! How then shall they call on Him, in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe Him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear, without a preacher? Preach the Gospel!” (Romans 10:13-15). “Speak the word of God!” (Acts 13:46). “Speak the Word of God without fear!” (Philippians 1:14). “These things speak, and exhort and rebuke with all authority!” (Titus 2:15). “We speak, not as pleasing men, but God!” (1 Thessalonians 2:4). “Lord, grant unto Thy servants, that with all confidence they may speak Thy word!” (Acts 4:29). “The Lord said to Paul: ‘Do not fear, but speak!’” (Acts 18:9). Even Our Lord Himself said: “I have not spoken of Myself―but the Father Who sent Me, He commanded Me what I should say and what I should speak. The things therefore that I speak, I speak as the Father said unto Me!” (John 12:49-50).
Our Lady said to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “To speak without moderation and forethought is a two-edged sword, which wounds both him that speaks and him that hears―and thus, in two ways, destroys charity or hinders it in all the virtues. From this you can understand how much God is offended by the vice of inconsiderate and loose talk, and how talking too much, and the clamor of disputation justly drives away God’s spirit and veils His presence. For those that talk too much, cannot keep free from grievous sins (Proverbs 10:19). I do not dissuade you from speaking words of admonition and consolation―but with creatures it is very difficult to preserve the golden middle, without danger of passing from the correct and necessary speech to the imperfect and superfluous speech. Infinite is the number of those who are entangled in this dangerous error, who, desiring to appear wise, speak much and multiply words like the foolish. They only lose what they strive so much to attain, since they become known as foolish! ... The number of fools is infinite, the number of the reprobate is also uncountable!”
Nevertheless, in danger one cannot be silent. Our Lady of Good Success lamented that in our days of danger, those who should be speaking out against the danger will not do so: “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects … During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect, and corruption of morals, unbridled impurity, luxury and extravagance, an impious press and secular education. The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation, and those who should speak out will be silent” (Our Lady of Good Success).
Holy Scripture warns of the terrible consequences of such cowardly silence: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman over My people! And you shall hear the word out of My mouth, and shall tell it to them from Me! If, when I say to the wicked: ‘You shall surely die!’ ― and you do not sound the trumpet and so not declare it to him, nor speak to him, so that he might be converted from his wicked ways and live, then the same wicked man shall certainly die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at your hand and upon your own head! But if you sound the trumpet and give warning to the wicked, and he does not convert from his wickedness and from his evil ways―then then his blood shall be upon his own head and he indeed shall die in his iniquity, for he heard the sound of the trumpet and did not look to himself―but you will have saved your soul! Moreover, if the just man shall turn away from his justice, and shall commit iniquity―then I will lay a stumbling-block before him and he shall die―because you have not warned him! He shall die in his sin, and all his justices which he has done beforehand, shall not be remembered―but I will require his blood at your hand! But if you warn the just man, so that the just may not sin, and he does not sin―then living he shall live, because you have warned him, and you will have saved your soul!” (Ezechiel 3:17-21; 33:1-8).
There is an old saying: “All that is needed for evil to succeed is for good people to say or do nothing!” Silence in the face of evil allows that evil to continue and even to spread. Such a terrible silence must be broken. To paraphrase one of Archbishop Sheen’s famous quotes: “We don’t need a voice that speaks when everybody else is speaking; we need a voice that speaks when everybody else is silent!”
St. Thomas Aquinas deals extensively with this need to correct others in his Summa Theologica (IIa-IIae, q. 33, Fraternal Correction). He writes: “Sinful acts are evil in themselves, and cannot become good, no matter how, or when, or where, they are done―because of their very nature they are connected with an evil end. Our Lord warns us not to be listless in regard of one another’s sins―not indeed by being on the lookout for something to denounce, but by correcting what we see―otherwise we would become spies on the lives of others. To correct the wrongdoer is a spiritual alms-deed and an act of charity. Fraternal correction is a matter of precept. You become worse than the sinner if you fail to correct him. Though it is a matter of precept, we do not have to correct our erring brother at all places and times. This is fraternal correction is directed to the amendment of the sinner. Fraternal correction which is an act of charity, is within the competency of everyone in respect of any person towards whom he is bound by charity―provided that there be something in that person which requires correction. A subject corrects his superior inordinately when he upbraids him with insolence, and also when he speaks ill of him. When a subject corrects his superior, he ought to do so in a becoming manner―not with impudence and harshness, but with gentleness and respect. Correcting anyone in public exceeds the mode of fraternal correction. However It must be observed that if the Faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his superior even publicly.
“Fraternal correction may be omitted in three ways―some omissions are sinful, other omissions are not sinful. First, fraternal correction is omitted meritoriously, when out of charity one omits to correct someone. For example, if a man refrains from rebuking and reproving wrongdoers, because he awaits a suitable time for so doing, or because he fears lest, if he does so, they may become worse, or hinder, oppress, or turn away from the Faith. Secondly, by the omission of fraternal correction one commits a mortal sin, namely, one fears what people may think, or one fears they may suffer grievous pain or death. Thirdly, the omission of fraternal correction is a venial sin, when through fear or covetousness, a man is reluctant to correct his brother’s faults because in his own mind he prefers fraternal charity to these things. It is in this way that holy men sometimes omit to correct wrongdoers. Consequently when it is deemed probable that the sinner will not take the warning, and will become worse, such fraternal correction should be foregone.
“Should sinners correct wrongdoers? To correct a wrongdoer belongs to a man, in so far as his reason is gifted with right judgment. Sin does not destroy the good of nature so as to deprive the sinner’s reason of all right judgment―and in this respect he may be competent to find fault with others for committing sin. Nevertheless a previous sin proves somewhat of a hindrance to this correction, for three reasons. First because this previous sin renders a man unworthy to rebuke another; and especially is he unworthy to correct another for a lesser sin, if he himself has committed a greater sin. Hence on the words of Our Lord, ‘Why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye?’ etc. (Matthew 7:3). Our Lord is speaking of those who, while they are themselves guilty of mortal sin, have no patience with the lesser sins of their brethren. Secondly, such like correction becomes unseemly, on account of the scandal which ensues therefrom, if the corrector’s sin be well known―because it would seem that he corrects, not out of charity, but more for the sake of ostentation. Thirdly, on account of the rebuker’s pride; when, for instance, a man thinks lightly of his own sins, and, in his own heart, sets himself above his neighbor, judging the latter’s sins with harsh severity, as though he himself were just man. When we have to find fault with anyone, we should think whether we were never guilty of his sin; and then we must remember that we are men, and might have been guilty of it; or that we once had it on our conscience, but have it no longer: and then we should think to ourselves that we are all weak, in order that our reproof may be the outcome, not of hatred, but of pity. But if we find that we are guilty of the same sin, we must not rebuke him, but groan with him, and invite him to repent with us. If a sinner corrects a wrongdoer with humility, then he does not sin, nor does he bring a further condemnation upon himself, although thereby he proves himself deserving of condemnation, either in his brother’s or in his own conscience, on account of his previous sin.
“We should take progressive steps in correction. Our Lord says: ‘Rebuke him between you and him alone!’ (Matthew 18:15). By a private correction, you aim at his amendment, while avoiding his disgrace―since perhaps from shame due to a public correction, he might begin to defend his sin; and him whom you thought to make a better man, you make worse. When the secret admonition has been given once or several times, as long as there is probable hope of his amendment, we must continue to admonish him in private, but as soon as we are able to judge with any probability that the secret admonition is of no avail, we must take further steps, however secret the sin may be, and call witnesses―unless it is thought probable that this would not conduce to our brother’s amendment, and that he would become worse―because on that account one ought to abstain altogether from correcting him. Our Lord also said (Matthew 18:16): ‘Take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two,’ etc. The right way to go from one extreme to another is to pass through the middle space. Now Our Lord wished the beginning of fraternal correction to be hidden, when one brother corrects another between this one and himself alone, while He wished the end to be public, when such a one would be denounced to the Church. Consequently it is befitting that bringing in one or two witnesses should be placed between those two extremes, so that at first the brother’s sin be indicated to a few, who will be of use without being a hindrance, and thus his sin be amended without dishonoring him before the public.
“With regard to the public denunciation of sins, it is necessary to make a distinction―because sins may be either public or secret. On the case of public sins, a remedy is required not only for the sinner―so that he may become better―but also for others, who know of his sin, in case they be tempted to commit the same sin. Wherefore public sins should be denounced in public. On the other hand, in the case of secret sins, it seems that we must make yet a further distinction. For certain secret sins are hurtful to our neighbor either in his body or in his soul―as, for instance, when a man plots secretly to betray his country to its enemies, or when a heretic secretly turns other men away from the Faith. And since he that sins thus in secret, sins not only against you in particular, but also against others, it is necessary to take steps to denounce him at once, in order to prevent him doing such harm, unless by chance you were firmly persuaded that this evil result would be prevented by admonishing him secretly. On the other hand there are other sins which injure nobody else but the sinner, and the person sinned against―and then our one purpose should be to help our sinning brother; and just as the physician restores the sick man to health, if possible, without cutting off a limb, so too he who desires his brother’s amendment should, if possible, so amend him as regards his conscience, that he keep his good name. For a good name is useful, first of all to the sinner himself, not only in temporal matters wherein a man suffers many losses, if he lose his good name, but also in spiritual matters, because many are restrained from sinning, through fear of dishonor, so that when a man finds his honor lost, he puts no limit or restraint on his sinning.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 33, Fraternal Correction).
Speech in general and correction in particular, requires prudence, discernment and courage―in both speaking and keeping silence. There is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). “If any man speak, let him speak the words of God” (1 Peter 4:11). “All Scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice” (2 Timothy 3:16). “If a man be overtaken in any fault, you, who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness―considering yourself, lest you also be tempted!” (Galatians 6:1). There is an axiom in the Canon Law of the Church that says it is better to err on the side of mercy rather than justice. Why? Because “the Lord is gracious and merciful, patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all―and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). Also, bear in mind that the grace of God can achieve far more than you can with your words of correction―for the grace of God works in a hidden, silent, persuasive manner in the secret recesses of the sinner’s soul. We are very quick to outwardly correct sinners―but very slow to pray and offer sacrifices for their amendment and conversion. Our Lady of Fatima did not ask us to verbally correct sinners and engage in finger-pointing, but she asked that we pray very much and offer many sacrifices for the conversion of sinners! Talking to God about the sinner can often produce much more than talking to the sinner about God! By all means speak―but speak to the One who can truly change things!
Are You Lame?
We are spiritually lame when we walk incorrectly in the Faith or in Morals―when we hold errors in matters of the Faith, or when we have injured ourselves through sin. Likewise, we are spiritually lame when we lack zeal and fervor in living out our Faith fervently and zealously putting it into practice in all aspects of our life―instead, we hesitate, procrastinate, neglect or fear to live the Faith as we should, because of what others might think or say, or because of what it might cost us, or because we feel as though we would have to forego and miss-out on so many other things in the world. Likewise, by our lukewarm love of God whereby we fail to love the Lord our God, with our whole heart, and with our whole soul, and with our whole mind, and with our whole strength! And our failure to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31). Likewise, we become spiritually lame when we attach ourselves to the world, follow the world, love the world, and become worldly―something that Holy Scripture condemns: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “The whole world is seated in wickedness!” (1 John 5:19) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
FR. GARRIGOU-LAGRANGE, in his book The Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life, speaks of this spiritual lameness in the service of God: “In varying degrees this egoism survives in all imperfect souls in spite of the state of grace, and it is the source of a multitude of venial sins, of habitual faults which become characteristic features of the soul, rendering necessary a veritable purging even in those who have, as it were, been present on Mount Tabor, or who have often partaken of the Eucharistic banquet, as the Apostles did at the Last Supper. In her Dialogue, St. Catherine of Siena speaks of this self-love, describing it as “the mercenary love of the imperfect,” of those who, without being conscious of it, serve God from self-interest, because they are attached to temporal or spiritual consolations, and who shed tears of self-pity when they are deprived of them. It is a strange but not uncommon mixture of sincere love of God with an inordinate love of self. The soul loves God more than itself, otherwise it would not be in the state of grace, it would not possess Charity; but it still loves itself with an inordinate love. It has not yet reached the stage of loving itself in God and for His sake. Such a state of soul is neither white nor black; it is a light grey, in which there is more white than black. The soul is on the upward path, but it still has a tendency to slip downwards.
“We read in this 60th chapter of the Dialogue (it is God who speaks). ‘Among those who have become My trusted servants there are some who serve Me with Faith, without servile fear, it is not the mere fear of punishment, but love which attaches them to My service (thus Peter before the Passion). But this love is still imperfect, because what they seek in My service (at any rate to a great extent) is their own profit, their own satisfaction, or the pleasure that they find in Me. The same imperfection is found in the love which they bear towards their neighbor. And do you know what shows the imperfection of their love? It is that, as soon as they are deprived of the consolations which they find in Me, their love fails and can no longer survive. It becomes weak and gradually cools towards Me when, in order to exercise them in virtue and to detach them from their imperfection, I withdraw spiritual consolations from them and send them difficulties and afflictions. I act in this way in order to bring them to perfection, to teach them to know themselves, to realize that they are nothing and that of themselves they have no grace. Adversity should have the effect of making them seek refuge in Me, recognize Me as their benefactor, and become attached to Me by a true humility.... If they do not recognize their imperfection and desire to become perfect, it is impossible that they should not turn back.’
“This is what the Fathers have so often asserted: ‘In the way of God, he who makes no progress, loses ground.’ Just as the child who does not grow does not merely remain a child but becomes an idiot, so the beginner who does not enter upon the way of proficients when he ought to, does not merely remain a beginner, but becomes a stunted soul. It would seem, unhappily, that the great majority of souls do not belong to any of these three categories, of beginners, proficients or perfect, but rather to that of stunted souls! At what stage are we ourselves? This is often a very difficult question to answer, and it would perhaps be vain curiosity to inquire at what point we have arrived in our upward path; but at least we must take care not to mistake the road, not to take a path that leads downwards. It is important, therefore, to reach beyond the merely mercenary love, which often we unconsciously retain.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life).
Are You Paralyzed?
Spiritual paralysis could be said to be worst state in which we can find ourselves. It is worse that spiritual lameness―for there is at least some progress or movement towards Heaven in spiritual lameness, but with spiritual paralysis everything comes to a standstill. You could, from that perspective, compare spiritual lameness to being in a state of habitual venial sin, and spiritual paralysis to being in a state of habitual mortal sin.
Grave sin has grave consequences on our lives. When we sin mortally we “paralyze” ourselves. and the clearest consequence is that we are left unable to rise and then walk in the ways of God. Grave sin makes us powerless with regard to getting to Heaven. Only God, by His grace, can move us to convert and go to the “Spiritual Emergency Room” ― which is the confessional and the Sacrament of Penance.
Article 4
Monday, February 9th
Saul Sinned! Paul Paid! From Sin through Suffering to Sanctity!
Monday, February 9th
Saul Sinned! Paul Paid! From Sin through Suffering to Sanctity!
Tailor-Made Week!
This Sexagesima week seems to be tailor-made for our day and age! The readings from the Mass and the Breviary (Divine Office) are very appropriate for the circumstances in which we find ourselves. The Epistle from the Mass for Sexagesima Sunday deals with Saul the Sinner who was to become Paul the Saint―but only after having gone through many providential sufferings that God sent to allow him to pay for his sins. On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of Sexagesima week, we read in the Breviary of the terrible sinful state of the world at the time of Noe and God’s decision to punish the sinful world by the Great Flood―during which only Noe and those in the ark were saved.
This brings to mind the words of Our Lady concerning our present times: “Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will strike in an unprecedented way. God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together … Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God! Nature is asking for vengeance on account of men, and she trembles, with dread, at what must happen to the Earth stained with crime. Tremble, Earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves! … The Earth will be struck by calamities of all kinds! Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes ― cities will be shaken down, shattered and swallowed up by earthquakes, in addition to plague, infectious diseases and famine which will be widespread. There will be a series of wars, until the last war!” (Our Lady of La Salette, 1846).
To Blessed Sister Elena Aiello (1895-1961)―mystic, stigmatic, victim soul, prophetess and foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ―Our Lady, in an apparition on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, 1956, said: “People are offending God too much! If I were to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times! The world is in total turmoil―because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the Deluge! [the Great Flood in Noe’s time]. All is hanging on a slender thread! When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs! All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!”
At Akita, Japan, in 1973, Our Lady warned: “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before! Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead!” (Our Lady of Akita, 1973).
There is Always Hope!
Nevertheless, Our Lady opens a window and gives us some hope: “There are no more generous souls … There is no one to be found to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people … The heads, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance … The justice of the Father requires reparation — otherwise many will be lost! … Penance! Penance! Penance! … The only valid means for placating Divine Justice is to pray and do penance! … Therefore I ask for prayers, penance and sacrifice, so I may act as Mediatrix for my Son in order to save souls ... I wish prayers and penance, in order that I may again obtain mercy and salvation for many souls — otherwise they will be lost! … Prayers and penances are necessary! … Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger! … I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father ... who will repair―by their suffering and their poverty―for the sinners and the ungrateful! …. Already souls who wish to pray are on the way to being gathered together … Will you sacrifice yourself for the people of this time? … Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort! … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners! … Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … If men do not repent and better themselves, and return to God with prayers and penances, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity! The world will be overturned in a new and more terrible war. Arms most deadly will destroy peoples and nations! … My words are very clear, and you must transmit them to everyone!” (combination of quotes from Our Lady of Good Success, Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Akita and Our Lady’s message to Blessed Elena Aiello).
No Heaven except by the Cross―The way of the Cross is the Way to Heaven
The cross pays for sin. Our Lord paid for our sins on the cross―we must also “co-pay” for our sins with the cross. The cross is the currency of Christ. The cross is the way to Heaven. The cross is the key to Heaven. Throw-away your cross and you throw-away your salvation. Throw-away one cross―and God will give you another one which is often an even heavier one because you still have to carry a cross and now you must additionally pay for the sin of rejecting God’s cross for you. Penance pays for the debt of sin and we will not get to Heaven unless we pay the debt of our sins.
“I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance! … No, I say to you― unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish ... Again I say to you― except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5). “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2). “There is no man who sins not” (3 Kings 8:46). “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God!” (Romans 3:23).“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). Therefore, if we have sinned, we need to do penance! Yes―penance is painful; penance is a punishment; penance is a cross! But “Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross to come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that does not take up his cross to follow Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).
Admit Your Guilt―Pay Your Debts!
There are no liars and hypocrites in Heaven; and there is nobody with unpaid debts in Heaven. The place for such persons is either Purgatory or Hell. To pretend that we are not sinners is a lie: “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). You have sinned and through sin you have incurred a debt: “Be not ashamed to confess thy sins!” (Ecclesiasticus 4:31) … “He that hides his sins, shall not prosper―but he that shall confess, and forsake them, shall obtain mercy!” (Proverbs 28:13) … “If we confess our sins, then God is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity!” (1 John 1:9) … “Let him do penance for his sin!” (Leviticus 5:5) … “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
St. Paul Admits Guilt and Accepts Suffering
St. Paul publicly admits to the guilt of his sins against God in persecuting God’s Church: “I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure, and tried to destroy it … With zeal I persecuted the Church of God … Saul was trying to destroy the Church, entering in from house to house, and dragging away men and women, committed them to prison … I am the least of the Apostles, who am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God!” (Galatians 1:13; Philippians 3:6; Acts 8:3; 1 Corinthians 15:9).
Yet Christ came to save sinners―not destroy them: “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). However, it has to be on Christ’s terms that a sinner is saved and not on the terms of the sinner. The terms of Christ are basically: (1) stop sinning; (2) do penance; (3) love God and neighbor; (4) carry the cross; (5) cooperate with the grace of God. All those points are borne out by the following quotes:
(1) “Go, and now sin no more! … Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!” (John 8:11; 5:14).
(2) “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
(3) “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the greatest and the first commandment! And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these! On these two commandments depends the whole law and the prophets!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31).
(4) “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that takes not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).
(5) “Receive not the grace of God in vain!” (2 Corinthians 6:1). “Cast not away the grace of God!” (Galatians 2:21).
We read of Sauls (St. Paul’s) conversion in the Acts of the Apostles: “And Saul, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked of him for letters to Damascus, to the synagogues―stating that if he found any men and women of this way, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And as he went on his journey, it came to pass that he drew near to Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly shined round about him. And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting Me?’ Saul said: ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said: ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting! It is hard for thee to kick against the goad [a “goad” was a sharp pointed stick for directing cattle]. And Saul, trembling and astonished, said: ‘Lord, what will You have me do?’ And the Lord said to him: ‘Arise, and go into the city, and there you shall be told what you must do!’ Now the men accompanying Saul, stood amazed, hearing indeed a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the ground; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. But they, leading him by the hands, brought him to Damascus. And he was there three days, without sight, and he did neither eat nor drink.
“Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision: ‘Ananias!’ And he said: ‘Behold I am here, Lord!’ And the Lord said to him: ‘Arise, and go into the street that is called Strait, and seek in the house of Judas, one named Saul of Tarsus. For behold he prays!’ And at the same time Saul saw a vision of a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hands upon him, so that he might receive his sight back. But Ananias answered: ‘Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem! And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all that invoke Thy Name!’ And the Lord said to him: ‘Go your way! For this man is to Me a vessel of election, to carry My Name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake!’ And Ananias went his way and entered into the house. And laying his hands upon him, he said: ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus has sent me―he that appeared to you in the way when you were coming here―so that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost!’ And immediately there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight; and rising up, he was baptized. And when he had taken meat, he was strengthened. And he was with the disciples that were at Damascus, for some days. And immediately he preached Jesus in the synagogues, that Jesus is the Son of God. And all that heard him, were astonished, and said: ‘Is not this man he who persecuted in Jerusalem those that called upon this Name―and who came here with the intent of carrying them bound to the chief priests?’” (Acts 9:1-21).
St. Paul writes of his conversion: “When it pleased God, He called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles” (Galatians 1:15-16). “I cast not away the grace of God!” (Galatians 2:2). “By the grace of God, I am what I am―and His grace in me has not been void, for I have labored more abundantly than all ― yet not I, but the grace of God with me!” (1 Corinthians 15:10). “I chastise my body and bring it into subjection!” (1 Corinthians 9:27). “God forbid that I should glory in anything, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Galatians 6:14).
St. Paul then gives us the “tip-of-the-iceberg” of sufferings that God’s providence sent him in order to transform him from saint to sinner, and to pay for the debts of his sins: “I am in many labors, in prisons frequently, scourged above measure, in danger of death often. From the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes, less one! Three times was I beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I suffered shipwreck―a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea! In journeying often; in perils of waters; in perils of robbers; in perils from my own nation; in perils from the Gentiles; in perils in the city; in perils in the wilderness; in perils in the sea; in perils from false brethren; in labor and painfulness, in much watching; in hunger and thirst; fasting often; in cold and nakedness! … And there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet ― for which reason three times I begged the Lord, that it might depart from me ! And He said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee! For power is made perfect in infirmity!’ Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me! For this reason I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ! For when I am weak, then am I powerful!” (2 Corinthians 11:23-27; 12:7-10).
To Fight or Not to Fight?
We automatically imagine fighting to be sinful―parents tell their children not to fight and if they do then they are punished. The school will also punish students who indulge in fighting. Adults who fight risk punishment by the authorities. Yet there some things that are worth fighting for and some things that we must fight. Holy Scripture even says:
“All things have their season and times … A time to be born and a time to die … A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to destroy and a time to build ... A time of love, and a time of hatred. A time of war, and a time of peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). “Fight the good fight of Faith!” (1 Timothy 6:12). “Labor as a good soldier of Christ Jesus!” (2 Timothy 2:3). “Shall your brethren go to fight, and will you just sit here?” (Numbers 32:6). “The Lord is like a man of war” (Exodus 15:3). “The Lord is mighty in battle!” (Psalm 23:8) “The Lord will fight for you!” (Exodus 14:14). “The Lord your God will fight for you against your enemies, to deliver you from danger” (Deuteronomy 20:4). “Put you on the armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood―but against principalities and powers; against the rulers of the world of this darkness; against the spirits of wickedness in the high places! Therefore take unto you the armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect!” (Ephesians 6:11-13).
Our Lord is no pacifist―He Himself proclaimed that: “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no―but separation! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! You shall be hated by all men and all nations for My Name’s sake!” (Matthew 10:17-22, 34-36; 24:9-10; Luke 12:51-53). Our Lord is here speaking of the division that His teachings will bring between those who accept His teachings and those who reject and fight against His teachings. That fight has been continuous since the time when Christ walked upon this Earth.
Fighting to Get to Heaven
It is amazing (and frightening) to see how many Catholics (and of course non-Catholics) imagine that getting to Heaven is a breeze! This fuels the ever-increasing tendency to believe in “Universal Salvation” ― which holds that everyone is saved regardless of religion or morality ― because “God is love! God is kind! God is merciful! God is compassionate! God understands! etc., etc., etc!” For them―you just die and automatically go to Heaven! No Purgatory! No Hell! No worries! To such a stupid attitude you have to add―No logic! No common sense! No knowledge of God and Holy Scripture! And, ultimately, unless something changes, no chance of salvation!
It is not for nothing that Holy Scripture warns: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). A fearful man asked Our Lord about salvation and received a blunt reply: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand outside, and knock at the door, saying: ‘Lord! Open to us!’ And He, answering, shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are!’ Then you shall begin to say: ‘We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets!” And He shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are! Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity!’ There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!’” (Luke 13:23-28; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
Yes―God wishes to save everyone and does not want the damnation of anyone: “The Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). “God will [“to will” means “to want”] have all men to be saved … not willing that any should perish” (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9) ― but not everyone will be saved because they refuse, ignore or neglect the terms of salvation by God. As Our Lord says: “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “I am the Lord your God! Walk in my precepts and keep my commandments, and do them! … But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, if you despise My laws, and contemn My judgments so as not to do those things which are appointed by Me, I will break the pride of your stubbornness, I will set my face against you, I will chastise you for your sins, I will quickly visit you with poverty, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you, you shall fall down before your enemies, and if you will not amend, but will walk contrary to Me, then I will walk contrary to you, and will strike you for your sins!” (Leviticus 26:1-18).
Wicked World Washed Away
All of the above was perfectly epitomized in God’s handling of the sinful world in time of Noe―which is what Holy Mother Church presents to us in the Liturgical readings during Matins (in the Breviary/Divine Office) for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in this Sexagesima week. Yes―God is merciful: “The Lord is gracious and merciful, patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all―and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). However, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption [disease and death].” (Galatians 6:7-8). “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23) ― and death, universal death, rained down upon the exceedingly sinful world in the time of Noe.
“The Earth was corrupted before God, and was filled with iniquity―for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the Earth. God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the Earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times, and it repented Him that He had made man on the Earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said: ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth―from man even to beasts, from the creeping thing even to the fowls of the air―for it repents Me that I have made them. But Noe found grace before the Lord … And when God had seen that the Earth was corrupted, He said to Noe: ‘The end of all flesh is come before Me! The Earth is filled with iniquity through them, and I will destroy them with the Earth! Make thee an ark of timber planks … and thus shalt thou make it―the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits (at least 150 yards long): the breadth of it fifty cubits (at least 25 yards wide), and the height of it thirty cubits (at least 15 yards). Behold I will bring the waters of a great flood upon the Earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, under heaven. All things that are in the Earth shall be consumed! … Go thou into the ark―for after seven days, I will rain upon the Earth forty days and forty nights; and I will destroy every substance that I have made, from the face of the Earth!’
“And Noe did all things which the Lord had commanded him … And after the seven days were passed, the flood gates of heaven were opened and the rain fell upon the Earth forty days and forty nights and the waters of the flood overflowed the Earth … They overflowed exceedingly and filled all on the face of the Earth … And the waters increased, and lifted up the ark on high from the Earth and the ark was carried upon the waters. And the waters prevailed beyond measure upon the Earth and all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The water was higher than the mountains which it covered. And all flesh was destroyed that moved upon the Earth, fowl, cattle, beasts, all creeping things and all men―all things wherein there is the breath of life on the Earth, died. God destroyed all the substance that was upon the Earth, from man even to beast, the creeping things and fowls of the air― they were all destroyed from the Earth and Noe only remained, and they that were with him in the ark” (Genesis 6:6-22; 7:1-24).
History is Repeating Itself!
A scary thought is that history is clearly repeating itself―for Our Lady has told us that the sinful state of the world today is WORSE than it was during the time of Noe! To Blessed Sister Elena Aiello (1895-1961)―mystic, stigmatic, and foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ―Our said on December 8th, 1956: “People are offending God too much! If I were to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times! The world is in total turmoil―because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the Deluge! [the Great Flood in Noe’s time]. All is hanging on a slender thread! When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs! All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!”
Our Lady of La Salette warned: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! … Sins cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance! … The disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the Heavens! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together! … Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other for more than thirty-five years. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God! … France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Then a general war will follow which will be appalling! … There will be thunderstorms which will shake and demolish cities, earthquakes which will swallow up countries ... Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes which will swallow up mountains, cities, etc ... A number of large cities will be shaken down, shattered and swallowed up by earthquakes!”
If there is no change in the sinful state of the world, Our Lady of Fatima warned that “nations will be annihilated.” (Our Lady of Fatima, July 1917). Regarding the annihilation of nations: it is important to note that during the Father Fuentes interview, Sister Lucia said that Our Blessed Mother had told herself, Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke of the annihilation of many nations “many times!” (Frère François, Tragedy and Triumph, 1994 edition, p. 27).
Our Lady of Akita (Japan) said in 1973: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind ... If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge [the Great Flood in the time of Noe], such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead!”
Such are the words of our loving heavenly Mother―the Mother of Mercy, the Refuge of Sinners, the Help of Christians, the Comforter of the Afflicted, the Gate of Heaven! The vast majority of her modern apparitions are of a negative note, a threatening note, a frightening note! That is because we are immersed in exceedingly sinful times and it is not a time for laughing and joking. Sister Lucia of Fatima said during all her apparitions at Fatima, she NEVER SMILED! Some persons might say she sounds like a depressing “broken record” saying the same thing over and over again. Yet it is we who are the “broken record” ― making the same old excuses over and over again for our refusal to heed her warnings and put into practice her solutions!
Your Responsibility
Do we really think that God is pleased with us? Catholics have a FAR GREATER RESPONSIBILITY for this current state of affairs than anyone else! Catholics are meant to be “the salt of the Earth. But if the salt lose its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is good for nothing anymore but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men!” (Matthew 5:13). “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required―and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more!” (Luke 12:48). This reminds us of Our Lord’s Parable of the Talents―where the lord gives to his servants a certain number of talents, to each according to his ability. The one who received 5 talents used them to produce 5 more talents; the one who received 2 talents used them to produce 2 more talents; whereas the servant who received 1 talent, hid it in a hole in the ground and produced nothing with his talent. Which one are you?
“A man going into a far country, called his servants, and delivered to them his―and to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one. He that had received the five talents, went his way, and traded with the same and gained other five. He that had received the two talents, gained other two. But he that had received the one, going his way dug a hole into the earth, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came, and reckoned with them …. He that had received the five talents, brought the other five talents. His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’ … He that had received the two talents came and said: ‘Lord, I have gained another two!’ His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’ But he that had received the one talent, came and said: Lord, went and hid thy talent in the earth! Behold here you can have that which is yours!’ And his lord said to him: ‘Wicked and slothful servant! You could have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with interest! Cast this unprofitable servant into the exterior darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’” (Matthew 25:14-30).
Most Catholics, seeing that they are not quite as bad as the rest of the world, end up complacently sitting on their backsides doing little or nothing―just like the self-righteous Pharisee in Our Lord’s parable about the Pharisee and the Publican: “And to some who trusted in themselves as being just and despised others, Jesus spoke this parable: ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray―the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself: “O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers―as also is this Publican! I fast twice in a week. I give tithes of all that I possess.” And the Publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards Heaven; but struck his breast, saying: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner!” I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather than the other―because everyone that exalts himself, shall be humbled; and he that humbles himself, shall be exalted!’” (Luke 18:9-14).
The Solution of Sanctity
Only an idiot would fail to see that both the Church and the world are sinking into an ever-deepening crisis. Ultimately, it is spiritual problem, or, to put it another way, the problem is a lack of spirituality. God wants us be holy―we prefer to be worldly! “I am the Lord your God! Be holy because I am holy! … You shall be holy unto me, because I the Lord am holy! … I am the Almighty God―walk before Me and be perfect!” says God (Leviticus 11:44; 20:26). Our Lord adds: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). To which Scripture further adds: “Put off the old man who is corrupted and put on the new man who is created in holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24) … for you “are called to be saints” (Romans 8:28). “We are the children of saints, and we must not be like heathens that know not God!” (Tobias 8:5).
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, in his book The Three Ages of the Interior Life, writes: “There are some who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles, and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul ... We conclude, logically, that religion can give an efficacious and truly realistic answer to the great modern problems only if it is a religion that is profoundly lived, not simply a superficial and cheap religion, made up of some vocal prayers and some ceremonies, in which religious art is given more place than true sincere piety. As a matter of fact, no religion, that is profoundly lived, is without an interior life, without that intimate and frequent conversation which we have, not only with ourselves, but with God.”
St. Louis de Montfort leaves no “wiggle-room” when he writes: “Chosen soul, living image of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, God wants you to become holy like Him in this life, and glorious like Him in the next. It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you and for which He is even now keeping you in being!” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary).
St. Louis elaborates on this in his book True Devotion to Mary, writing: “God the Holy Ghost is become fruitful by Mary, and of her He produced His Masterpiece―which is God made Man―and He goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head. This is the reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ … If Jesus Christ, the Head of men, is born in her, then the predestinate, who are the members of that Head, ought also to be born in her by a necessary consequence … Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has been or ever will be—a God Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest saints that there will be in the end of time. The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for her … These great souls, full of grace and zeal, shall be chosen to match themselves against the enemies of God, who shall rage on all sides; and they shall be singularly devout to our Blessed Lady―so that they shall fight with one hand and build with the other. With the one hand they shall fight, overthrow and crush the heretics with their heresies, the schismatics with their schisms, the idolaters with their idolatries and the sinners with their impieties …
“The power of Mary over all the devils will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lay his snares against her heel: that is to say, her humble slaves and her poor children, whom she will raise up to make war against him. They shall be little and poor in the world’s esteem, and abased before all like the heel, trodden underfoot and persecuted as the heel is by the other members of the body. But, in return for this, they shall be rich in the grace of God, which Mary shall distribute to them abundantly. They shall be great and exalted before God in sanctity, superior to all other creatures by their lively zeal, and so well sustained with God’s assistance that, with the humility of their heel, in union with Mary, they shall crush the head of the devil and cause Jesus Christ to triumph. They shall be the ministers of the Lord who, like a burning fire, shall kindle the fire of divine love everywhere. They shall be like sharp arrows in the hand of the powerful Mary to pierce her enemies. They shall be well purified by the fire of great tribulation, and closely adhering to God, who shall carry the gold of love in their heart, the incense of prayer in their spirit, and the myrrh of mortification in their body. They shall be everywhere the good odor of Jesus Christ to the poor and to the little, while at the same time, they shall be an odor of death to the great, to the rich and to the proud worldlings. They shall be clouds thundering and flying through the air at the least breath of the Holy Ghost; who, detaching themselves from everything and troubling themselves about nothing, shall shower forth the rain of the Word of God and of life eternal. They shall thunder against sin; they shall storm against the world; they shall strike the devil and his crew; and they shall pierce through and through, for life or for death, with their two-edged sword of the Word of God, all those to whom they shall be sent on the part of the Most High.
“They shall be the true apostles of the latter times, to whom the Lord of Hosts shall give the word and the might to work marvels and to carry off with glory the spoils of His enemies. They shall sleep without gold or silver, and, what is more, without care, in the midst of the other priests, ecclesiastics, and clerics (Psalm 67:14); and yet they shall have the silvered wings of the dove to go, with the pure intention of the glory of God and the salvation of souls, wheresoever the Holy Ghost shall call them. Nor shall they leave behind them, in the places where they have preached, anything but the gold of charity, which is the fulfillment of the whole law. They shall be true disciples of Jesus Christ, walking in the footsteps of His poverty, humility, contempt of the world, charity; teaching the narrow way of God in pure truth, according to the holy Gospel, and not according to the maxims of the world; troubling themselves about nothing; not accepting persons; sparing, fearing and listening to no mortal, however influential he may be. They shall have in their mouths the two-edged sword of the Word of God. They shall carry on their shoulders the bloody standard of the Cross, the Crucifix in their right hand and the Rosary in their left, the sacred Names of Jesus and Mary in their hearts, and the modesty and mortification of Jesus Christ in their own behavior. These are the great men who are to come; but Mary is the one who, by order of the Most High, shall fashion them for the purpose of extending His empire over that of the impious, the idolaters and the Mahometans.” (St. Louis elaborates on this in his book True Devotion to Mary).
Does that sound like you? How far away are you from that blueprint of sanctity and devotion? There is no other door into Heaven other than the door of sanctity! It’s either be a saint or begone! It’s either God’s way or highway to Hell! What path are you on? Are you becoming progressively more and more holy? Or are you progressively becoming more and more lukewarm and indifferent?
This Sexagesima week seems to be tailor-made for our day and age! The readings from the Mass and the Breviary (Divine Office) are very appropriate for the circumstances in which we find ourselves. The Epistle from the Mass for Sexagesima Sunday deals with Saul the Sinner who was to become Paul the Saint―but only after having gone through many providential sufferings that God sent to allow him to pay for his sins. On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of Sexagesima week, we read in the Breviary of the terrible sinful state of the world at the time of Noe and God’s decision to punish the sinful world by the Great Flood―during which only Noe and those in the ark were saved.
This brings to mind the words of Our Lady concerning our present times: “Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will strike in an unprecedented way. God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together … Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God! Nature is asking for vengeance on account of men, and she trembles, with dread, at what must happen to the Earth stained with crime. Tremble, Earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves! … The Earth will be struck by calamities of all kinds! Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes ― cities will be shaken down, shattered and swallowed up by earthquakes, in addition to plague, infectious diseases and famine which will be widespread. There will be a series of wars, until the last war!” (Our Lady of La Salette, 1846).
To Blessed Sister Elena Aiello (1895-1961)―mystic, stigmatic, victim soul, prophetess and foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ―Our Lady, in an apparition on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, 1956, said: “People are offending God too much! If I were to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times! The world is in total turmoil―because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the Deluge! [the Great Flood in Noe’s time]. All is hanging on a slender thread! When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs! All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!”
At Akita, Japan, in 1973, Our Lady warned: “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before! Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead!” (Our Lady of Akita, 1973).
There is Always Hope!
Nevertheless, Our Lady opens a window and gives us some hope: “There are no more generous souls … There is no one to be found to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people … The heads, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance … The justice of the Father requires reparation — otherwise many will be lost! … Penance! Penance! Penance! … The only valid means for placating Divine Justice is to pray and do penance! … Therefore I ask for prayers, penance and sacrifice, so I may act as Mediatrix for my Son in order to save souls ... I wish prayers and penance, in order that I may again obtain mercy and salvation for many souls — otherwise they will be lost! … Prayers and penances are necessary! … Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger! … I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father ... who will repair―by their suffering and their poverty―for the sinners and the ungrateful! …. Already souls who wish to pray are on the way to being gathered together … Will you sacrifice yourself for the people of this time? … Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort! … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners! … Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … If men do not repent and better themselves, and return to God with prayers and penances, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity! The world will be overturned in a new and more terrible war. Arms most deadly will destroy peoples and nations! … My words are very clear, and you must transmit them to everyone!” (combination of quotes from Our Lady of Good Success, Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Akita and Our Lady’s message to Blessed Elena Aiello).
No Heaven except by the Cross―The way of the Cross is the Way to Heaven
The cross pays for sin. Our Lord paid for our sins on the cross―we must also “co-pay” for our sins with the cross. The cross is the currency of Christ. The cross is the way to Heaven. The cross is the key to Heaven. Throw-away your cross and you throw-away your salvation. Throw-away one cross―and God will give you another one which is often an even heavier one because you still have to carry a cross and now you must additionally pay for the sin of rejecting God’s cross for you. Penance pays for the debt of sin and we will not get to Heaven unless we pay the debt of our sins.
“I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance! … No, I say to you― unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish ... Again I say to you― except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5). “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2). “There is no man who sins not” (3 Kings 8:46). “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God!” (Romans 3:23).“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). Therefore, if we have sinned, we need to do penance! Yes―penance is painful; penance is a punishment; penance is a cross! But “Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross to come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that does not take up his cross to follow Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).
Admit Your Guilt―Pay Your Debts!
There are no liars and hypocrites in Heaven; and there is nobody with unpaid debts in Heaven. The place for such persons is either Purgatory or Hell. To pretend that we are not sinners is a lie: “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). You have sinned and through sin you have incurred a debt: “Be not ashamed to confess thy sins!” (Ecclesiasticus 4:31) … “He that hides his sins, shall not prosper―but he that shall confess, and forsake them, shall obtain mercy!” (Proverbs 28:13) … “If we confess our sins, then God is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity!” (1 John 1:9) … “Let him do penance for his sin!” (Leviticus 5:5) … “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
St. Paul Admits Guilt and Accepts Suffering
St. Paul publicly admits to the guilt of his sins against God in persecuting God’s Church: “I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure, and tried to destroy it … With zeal I persecuted the Church of God … Saul was trying to destroy the Church, entering in from house to house, and dragging away men and women, committed them to prison … I am the least of the Apostles, who am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God!” (Galatians 1:13; Philippians 3:6; Acts 8:3; 1 Corinthians 15:9).
Yet Christ came to save sinners―not destroy them: “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). However, it has to be on Christ’s terms that a sinner is saved and not on the terms of the sinner. The terms of Christ are basically: (1) stop sinning; (2) do penance; (3) love God and neighbor; (4) carry the cross; (5) cooperate with the grace of God. All those points are borne out by the following quotes:
(1) “Go, and now sin no more! … Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!” (John 8:11; 5:14).
(2) “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
(3) “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the greatest and the first commandment! And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these! On these two commandments depends the whole law and the prophets!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31).
(4) “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that takes not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).
(5) “Receive not the grace of God in vain!” (2 Corinthians 6:1). “Cast not away the grace of God!” (Galatians 2:21).
We read of Sauls (St. Paul’s) conversion in the Acts of the Apostles: “And Saul, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked of him for letters to Damascus, to the synagogues―stating that if he found any men and women of this way, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And as he went on his journey, it came to pass that he drew near to Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly shined round about him. And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting Me?’ Saul said: ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said: ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting! It is hard for thee to kick against the goad [a “goad” was a sharp pointed stick for directing cattle]. And Saul, trembling and astonished, said: ‘Lord, what will You have me do?’ And the Lord said to him: ‘Arise, and go into the city, and there you shall be told what you must do!’ Now the men accompanying Saul, stood amazed, hearing indeed a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the ground; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. But they, leading him by the hands, brought him to Damascus. And he was there three days, without sight, and he did neither eat nor drink.
“Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision: ‘Ananias!’ And he said: ‘Behold I am here, Lord!’ And the Lord said to him: ‘Arise, and go into the street that is called Strait, and seek in the house of Judas, one named Saul of Tarsus. For behold he prays!’ And at the same time Saul saw a vision of a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hands upon him, so that he might receive his sight back. But Ananias answered: ‘Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem! And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all that invoke Thy Name!’ And the Lord said to him: ‘Go your way! For this man is to Me a vessel of election, to carry My Name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake!’ And Ananias went his way and entered into the house. And laying his hands upon him, he said: ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus has sent me―he that appeared to you in the way when you were coming here―so that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost!’ And immediately there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight; and rising up, he was baptized. And when he had taken meat, he was strengthened. And he was with the disciples that were at Damascus, for some days. And immediately he preached Jesus in the synagogues, that Jesus is the Son of God. And all that heard him, were astonished, and said: ‘Is not this man he who persecuted in Jerusalem those that called upon this Name―and who came here with the intent of carrying them bound to the chief priests?’” (Acts 9:1-21).
St. Paul writes of his conversion: “When it pleased God, He called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles” (Galatians 1:15-16). “I cast not away the grace of God!” (Galatians 2:2). “By the grace of God, I am what I am―and His grace in me has not been void, for I have labored more abundantly than all ― yet not I, but the grace of God with me!” (1 Corinthians 15:10). “I chastise my body and bring it into subjection!” (1 Corinthians 9:27). “God forbid that I should glory in anything, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Galatians 6:14).
St. Paul then gives us the “tip-of-the-iceberg” of sufferings that God’s providence sent him in order to transform him from saint to sinner, and to pay for the debts of his sins: “I am in many labors, in prisons frequently, scourged above measure, in danger of death often. From the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes, less one! Three times was I beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I suffered shipwreck―a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea! In journeying often; in perils of waters; in perils of robbers; in perils from my own nation; in perils from the Gentiles; in perils in the city; in perils in the wilderness; in perils in the sea; in perils from false brethren; in labor and painfulness, in much watching; in hunger and thirst; fasting often; in cold and nakedness! … And there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet ― for which reason three times I begged the Lord, that it might depart from me ! And He said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee! For power is made perfect in infirmity!’ Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me! For this reason I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ! For when I am weak, then am I powerful!” (2 Corinthians 11:23-27; 12:7-10).
To Fight or Not to Fight?
We automatically imagine fighting to be sinful―parents tell their children not to fight and if they do then they are punished. The school will also punish students who indulge in fighting. Adults who fight risk punishment by the authorities. Yet there some things that are worth fighting for and some things that we must fight. Holy Scripture even says:
“All things have their season and times … A time to be born and a time to die … A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to destroy and a time to build ... A time of love, and a time of hatred. A time of war, and a time of peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). “Fight the good fight of Faith!” (1 Timothy 6:12). “Labor as a good soldier of Christ Jesus!” (2 Timothy 2:3). “Shall your brethren go to fight, and will you just sit here?” (Numbers 32:6). “The Lord is like a man of war” (Exodus 15:3). “The Lord is mighty in battle!” (Psalm 23:8) “The Lord will fight for you!” (Exodus 14:14). “The Lord your God will fight for you against your enemies, to deliver you from danger” (Deuteronomy 20:4). “Put you on the armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood―but against principalities and powers; against the rulers of the world of this darkness; against the spirits of wickedness in the high places! Therefore take unto you the armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect!” (Ephesians 6:11-13).
Our Lord is no pacifist―He Himself proclaimed that: “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no―but separation! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! You shall be hated by all men and all nations for My Name’s sake!” (Matthew 10:17-22, 34-36; 24:9-10; Luke 12:51-53). Our Lord is here speaking of the division that His teachings will bring between those who accept His teachings and those who reject and fight against His teachings. That fight has been continuous since the time when Christ walked upon this Earth.
Fighting to Get to Heaven
It is amazing (and frightening) to see how many Catholics (and of course non-Catholics) imagine that getting to Heaven is a breeze! This fuels the ever-increasing tendency to believe in “Universal Salvation” ― which holds that everyone is saved regardless of religion or morality ― because “God is love! God is kind! God is merciful! God is compassionate! God understands! etc., etc., etc!” For them―you just die and automatically go to Heaven! No Purgatory! No Hell! No worries! To such a stupid attitude you have to add―No logic! No common sense! No knowledge of God and Holy Scripture! And, ultimately, unless something changes, no chance of salvation!
It is not for nothing that Holy Scripture warns: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). A fearful man asked Our Lord about salvation and received a blunt reply: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand outside, and knock at the door, saying: ‘Lord! Open to us!’ And He, answering, shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are!’ Then you shall begin to say: ‘We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets!” And He shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are! Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity!’ There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!’” (Luke 13:23-28; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
Yes―God wishes to save everyone and does not want the damnation of anyone: “The Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). “God will [“to will” means “to want”] have all men to be saved … not willing that any should perish” (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9) ― but not everyone will be saved because they refuse, ignore or neglect the terms of salvation by God. As Our Lord says: “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “I am the Lord your God! Walk in my precepts and keep my commandments, and do them! … But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, if you despise My laws, and contemn My judgments so as not to do those things which are appointed by Me, I will break the pride of your stubbornness, I will set my face against you, I will chastise you for your sins, I will quickly visit you with poverty, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you, you shall fall down before your enemies, and if you will not amend, but will walk contrary to Me, then I will walk contrary to you, and will strike you for your sins!” (Leviticus 26:1-18).
Wicked World Washed Away
All of the above was perfectly epitomized in God’s handling of the sinful world in time of Noe―which is what Holy Mother Church presents to us in the Liturgical readings during Matins (in the Breviary/Divine Office) for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in this Sexagesima week. Yes―God is merciful: “The Lord is gracious and merciful, patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all―and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). However, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption [disease and death].” (Galatians 6:7-8). “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23) ― and death, universal death, rained down upon the exceedingly sinful world in the time of Noe.
“The Earth was corrupted before God, and was filled with iniquity―for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the Earth. God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the Earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times, and it repented Him that He had made man on the Earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said: ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth―from man even to beasts, from the creeping thing even to the fowls of the air―for it repents Me that I have made them. But Noe found grace before the Lord … And when God had seen that the Earth was corrupted, He said to Noe: ‘The end of all flesh is come before Me! The Earth is filled with iniquity through them, and I will destroy them with the Earth! Make thee an ark of timber planks … and thus shalt thou make it―the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits (at least 150 yards long): the breadth of it fifty cubits (at least 25 yards wide), and the height of it thirty cubits (at least 15 yards). Behold I will bring the waters of a great flood upon the Earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, under heaven. All things that are in the Earth shall be consumed! … Go thou into the ark―for after seven days, I will rain upon the Earth forty days and forty nights; and I will destroy every substance that I have made, from the face of the Earth!’
“And Noe did all things which the Lord had commanded him … And after the seven days were passed, the flood gates of heaven were opened and the rain fell upon the Earth forty days and forty nights and the waters of the flood overflowed the Earth … They overflowed exceedingly and filled all on the face of the Earth … And the waters increased, and lifted up the ark on high from the Earth and the ark was carried upon the waters. And the waters prevailed beyond measure upon the Earth and all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The water was higher than the mountains which it covered. And all flesh was destroyed that moved upon the Earth, fowl, cattle, beasts, all creeping things and all men―all things wherein there is the breath of life on the Earth, died. God destroyed all the substance that was upon the Earth, from man even to beast, the creeping things and fowls of the air― they were all destroyed from the Earth and Noe only remained, and they that were with him in the ark” (Genesis 6:6-22; 7:1-24).
History is Repeating Itself!
A scary thought is that history is clearly repeating itself―for Our Lady has told us that the sinful state of the world today is WORSE than it was during the time of Noe! To Blessed Sister Elena Aiello (1895-1961)―mystic, stigmatic, and foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ―Our said on December 8th, 1956: “People are offending God too much! If I were to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times! The world is in total turmoil―because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the Deluge! [the Great Flood in Noe’s time]. All is hanging on a slender thread! When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs! All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!”
Our Lady of La Salette warned: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! … Sins cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance! … The disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the Heavens! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together! … Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other for more than thirty-five years. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God! … France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Then a general war will follow which will be appalling! … There will be thunderstorms which will shake and demolish cities, earthquakes which will swallow up countries ... Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes which will swallow up mountains, cities, etc ... A number of large cities will be shaken down, shattered and swallowed up by earthquakes!”
If there is no change in the sinful state of the world, Our Lady of Fatima warned that “nations will be annihilated.” (Our Lady of Fatima, July 1917). Regarding the annihilation of nations: it is important to note that during the Father Fuentes interview, Sister Lucia said that Our Blessed Mother had told herself, Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke of the annihilation of many nations “many times!” (Frère François, Tragedy and Triumph, 1994 edition, p. 27).
Our Lady of Akita (Japan) said in 1973: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind ... If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge [the Great Flood in the time of Noe], such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead!”
Such are the words of our loving heavenly Mother―the Mother of Mercy, the Refuge of Sinners, the Help of Christians, the Comforter of the Afflicted, the Gate of Heaven! The vast majority of her modern apparitions are of a negative note, a threatening note, a frightening note! That is because we are immersed in exceedingly sinful times and it is not a time for laughing and joking. Sister Lucia of Fatima said during all her apparitions at Fatima, she NEVER SMILED! Some persons might say she sounds like a depressing “broken record” saying the same thing over and over again. Yet it is we who are the “broken record” ― making the same old excuses over and over again for our refusal to heed her warnings and put into practice her solutions!
Your Responsibility
Do we really think that God is pleased with us? Catholics have a FAR GREATER RESPONSIBILITY for this current state of affairs than anyone else! Catholics are meant to be “the salt of the Earth. But if the salt lose its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is good for nothing anymore but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men!” (Matthew 5:13). “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required―and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more!” (Luke 12:48). This reminds us of Our Lord’s Parable of the Talents―where the lord gives to his servants a certain number of talents, to each according to his ability. The one who received 5 talents used them to produce 5 more talents; the one who received 2 talents used them to produce 2 more talents; whereas the servant who received 1 talent, hid it in a hole in the ground and produced nothing with his talent. Which one are you?
“A man going into a far country, called his servants, and delivered to them his―and to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one. He that had received the five talents, went his way, and traded with the same and gained other five. He that had received the two talents, gained other two. But he that had received the one, going his way dug a hole into the earth, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came, and reckoned with them …. He that had received the five talents, brought the other five talents. His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’ … He that had received the two talents came and said: ‘Lord, I have gained another two!’ His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’ But he that had received the one talent, came and said: Lord, went and hid thy talent in the earth! Behold here you can have that which is yours!’ And his lord said to him: ‘Wicked and slothful servant! You could have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with interest! Cast this unprofitable servant into the exterior darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’” (Matthew 25:14-30).
Most Catholics, seeing that they are not quite as bad as the rest of the world, end up complacently sitting on their backsides doing little or nothing―just like the self-righteous Pharisee in Our Lord’s parable about the Pharisee and the Publican: “And to some who trusted in themselves as being just and despised others, Jesus spoke this parable: ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray―the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself: “O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers―as also is this Publican! I fast twice in a week. I give tithes of all that I possess.” And the Publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards Heaven; but struck his breast, saying: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner!” I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather than the other―because everyone that exalts himself, shall be humbled; and he that humbles himself, shall be exalted!’” (Luke 18:9-14).
The Solution of Sanctity
Only an idiot would fail to see that both the Church and the world are sinking into an ever-deepening crisis. Ultimately, it is spiritual problem, or, to put it another way, the problem is a lack of spirituality. God wants us be holy―we prefer to be worldly! “I am the Lord your God! Be holy because I am holy! … You shall be holy unto me, because I the Lord am holy! … I am the Almighty God―walk before Me and be perfect!” says God (Leviticus 11:44; 20:26). Our Lord adds: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). To which Scripture further adds: “Put off the old man who is corrupted and put on the new man who is created in holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24) … for you “are called to be saints” (Romans 8:28). “We are the children of saints, and we must not be like heathens that know not God!” (Tobias 8:5).
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, in his book The Three Ages of the Interior Life, writes: “There are some who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles, and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul ... We conclude, logically, that religion can give an efficacious and truly realistic answer to the great modern problems only if it is a religion that is profoundly lived, not simply a superficial and cheap religion, made up of some vocal prayers and some ceremonies, in which religious art is given more place than true sincere piety. As a matter of fact, no religion, that is profoundly lived, is without an interior life, without that intimate and frequent conversation which we have, not only with ourselves, but with God.”
St. Louis de Montfort leaves no “wiggle-room” when he writes: “Chosen soul, living image of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, God wants you to become holy like Him in this life, and glorious like Him in the next. It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you and for which He is even now keeping you in being!” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary).
St. Louis elaborates on this in his book True Devotion to Mary, writing: “God the Holy Ghost is become fruitful by Mary, and of her He produced His Masterpiece―which is God made Man―and He goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head. This is the reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ … If Jesus Christ, the Head of men, is born in her, then the predestinate, who are the members of that Head, ought also to be born in her by a necessary consequence … Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has been or ever will be—a God Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest saints that there will be in the end of time. The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for her … These great souls, full of grace and zeal, shall be chosen to match themselves against the enemies of God, who shall rage on all sides; and they shall be singularly devout to our Blessed Lady―so that they shall fight with one hand and build with the other. With the one hand they shall fight, overthrow and crush the heretics with their heresies, the schismatics with their schisms, the idolaters with their idolatries and the sinners with their impieties …
“The power of Mary over all the devils will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lay his snares against her heel: that is to say, her humble slaves and her poor children, whom she will raise up to make war against him. They shall be little and poor in the world’s esteem, and abased before all like the heel, trodden underfoot and persecuted as the heel is by the other members of the body. But, in return for this, they shall be rich in the grace of God, which Mary shall distribute to them abundantly. They shall be great and exalted before God in sanctity, superior to all other creatures by their lively zeal, and so well sustained with God’s assistance that, with the humility of their heel, in union with Mary, they shall crush the head of the devil and cause Jesus Christ to triumph. They shall be the ministers of the Lord who, like a burning fire, shall kindle the fire of divine love everywhere. They shall be like sharp arrows in the hand of the powerful Mary to pierce her enemies. They shall be well purified by the fire of great tribulation, and closely adhering to God, who shall carry the gold of love in their heart, the incense of prayer in their spirit, and the myrrh of mortification in their body. They shall be everywhere the good odor of Jesus Christ to the poor and to the little, while at the same time, they shall be an odor of death to the great, to the rich and to the proud worldlings. They shall be clouds thundering and flying through the air at the least breath of the Holy Ghost; who, detaching themselves from everything and troubling themselves about nothing, shall shower forth the rain of the Word of God and of life eternal. They shall thunder against sin; they shall storm against the world; they shall strike the devil and his crew; and they shall pierce through and through, for life or for death, with their two-edged sword of the Word of God, all those to whom they shall be sent on the part of the Most High.
“They shall be the true apostles of the latter times, to whom the Lord of Hosts shall give the word and the might to work marvels and to carry off with glory the spoils of His enemies. They shall sleep without gold or silver, and, what is more, without care, in the midst of the other priests, ecclesiastics, and clerics (Psalm 67:14); and yet they shall have the silvered wings of the dove to go, with the pure intention of the glory of God and the salvation of souls, wheresoever the Holy Ghost shall call them. Nor shall they leave behind them, in the places where they have preached, anything but the gold of charity, which is the fulfillment of the whole law. They shall be true disciples of Jesus Christ, walking in the footsteps of His poverty, humility, contempt of the world, charity; teaching the narrow way of God in pure truth, according to the holy Gospel, and not according to the maxims of the world; troubling themselves about nothing; not accepting persons; sparing, fearing and listening to no mortal, however influential he may be. They shall have in their mouths the two-edged sword of the Word of God. They shall carry on their shoulders the bloody standard of the Cross, the Crucifix in their right hand and the Rosary in their left, the sacred Names of Jesus and Mary in their hearts, and the modesty and mortification of Jesus Christ in their own behavior. These are the great men who are to come; but Mary is the one who, by order of the Most High, shall fashion them for the purpose of extending His empire over that of the impious, the idolaters and the Mahometans.” (St. Louis elaborates on this in his book True Devotion to Mary).
Does that sound like you? How far away are you from that blueprint of sanctity and devotion? There is no other door into Heaven other than the door of sanctity! It’s either be a saint or begone! It’s either God’s way or highway to Hell! What path are you on? Are you becoming progressively more and more holy? Or are you progressively becoming more and more lukewarm and indifferent?
Article 3
Saturday & Sunday, February 7th & 8th
Laboring in the Vineyard of Love!
Saturday & Sunday, February 7th & 8th
Laboring in the Vineyard of Love!
Labor of Love!
Love means labor! Labor means pain! No pain, no gain! No labor, no love! A child is conceived in love, but for that child of love to be born requires labor on the part of the mother―and that means labor pains in order to bring that child of love into this world. Love quickly forgets those labor pains in the consequent joy of love. As Our Lord says: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she has brought forth the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world! So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you!” (John 16:20-22).
Suffering tests our love. Our love is proved by how well we suffer. Death is the ultimate sorrow and suffering―and death is the ultimate test of love, as we see in the case of martyrs. As Our Lord pointed out: “Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends!” (John 15:13). Christ died out of love for us wretched sinners: “God showed His charity towards us―because when as yet we were sinners, Christ died for us!” (Romans 5:8-9). “The Son of God loved me and delivered Himself for me!” (Galatians 2:20).
Love is reciprocal―meaning that it is a “two-way-street” of both receiving love and giving love--a case of “give-and-take” and not just take, take, take, take! “Therefore let us love God, because God has first loved us!” (1 John 4:19). However, a half-hearted love of God, or a lukewarm love of God is not acceptable―for Christ tells us: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength! This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31). Lukewarmness is vehemently rejected: “Because thou art lukewarm, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth!” (Apocalypse 3:15-16).
To Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (of Our Lady of Good Success fame), Our Lord said: “Alas, if they only knew and were convinced of how much I love them and how much I desire that they should enter into the very depths of their souls! Then, without a doubt, they would find Me and would necessarily live the life of love and continuous union with Me! If men would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small spineless imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me ... But I will not tolerate this! Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me! I desire all or nothing! — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross. Woe to souls like this! Woe!” (Our Lord to Mother Mariana, Quito Ecuador).
Made by Love―Made to Love
Love exists in the soul―and your soul was made by God. “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and therefore your soul was made by Love Itself. In the Catechism, we encounter the question: “Why did God make you?” to which the answer is: “God made me to know Him, love Him and to serve Him!” Nevertheless, love is the greatest virtue ― “There remain Faith, Hope, and Charity, these three―but the greatest of these is Charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13). “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
“We have passed from death to life, because we love ... He that loves not, abides in death!” (1 John 3:14). “Charity is of God―and every one that loves is born of God and knows God. He that loves not, knows not God―for God is charity! In this is charity―not as though we had first loved God, but because He has first loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins! If God has so loved us, then we also ought to love one another! If we love one another, then God abides in us, and His charity is perfected in us. God is charity and he that abides in charity, abides in God, and God in him. Therefore, let us love God because God has first loved us! If any man say: ‘I love God!’ but hates his brother―then he is a liar. For he that does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God Whom he sees not? This commandment we have from God―that he who loves God, must also love his brother” (1 John 4:7-21).
Proof of Love
Mere “lip-love” is not real love― “Let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deeds, and in truth!” (1 John 3:18). As Our Lord says: “These people honor Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me. In vain do they worship Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-9). “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word … He that loves Me not, keeps not My words!” (John 14:15, 14:21-24).
Some persons erroneously imagine that having Faith suffices, quoting Scriptural passages such as: “Man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the Faith of Jesus Christ! We also believe in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by the Faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law―because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified!” (Galatians 2:16). “We account a man to be justified by Faith, without the works of the law!” (Romans 3:28). Yet elsewhere, Holy Scripture places Faith beneath Charity: “There remain Faith, Hope, and Charity, these three―but the greatest of these is Charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13). “Faith works by charity” (Galatians 5:6). ”Show evidence of your charity!” (2 Corinthians 8:24). “Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by Faith only?” (James 2:24). “For even as the body without the spirit is dead―so also Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:26). “If I … have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. If I … have not Charity―then I am nothing. If I … have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
We can have the Faith and talk about the Faith until we are blue in the face―but it is living the Faith through Charity that gets us to Heaven. Hell has innumerous souls who have the Faith ― even “the devils also believe and tremble!” (James 2:19) ― but there is no Charity in Hell, only hatred. Charity is only found in Heaven for “God is Charity” (1 John 4:8). “He that loves not, knows not God―for God is charity!” (1 John 4:8).
Jesus gives us the example of having to perform good works: "I must work the works of Him that sent Me!” (John 9:4). “Many good works I have showed you from My Father … If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not! But if I do the works of My Father, though you will not believe Me, then believe the works―so that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father!” (John 10:32; 10:37-38). “He that believes in Me, the works that I do, he also shall do―and greater than these shall he do!” (John 14:12).
Jesus associates works with Faith, as seen in the following passages: “A rich young man came and said to Jesus: ‘Good Master! What good shall I DO that I may have life everlasting?’ Jesus said to him: ‘If you want enter into everlasting life, keep the commandments!’” (Matthew 19:16-17). Keeping the Commandments does not just mean accepting them and believing them―but more importantly it means DOING them, or DOING what they command us to DO! Believing in Christ is merely a beginning, a foundation, a first step―it should lead to DOING what He tell us to do: “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not DO the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your GOOD WORKS, and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 5:16). “Provoke one another unto charity and to good works!” (Hebrews 10:24). “Show thyself an example of good works! … A pursuer of good works! … Be careful to excel in good works!” (Titus 2:7; 2:14; 3:8; ). “Do good, be rich in good works, give easily, communicate to others!” (1 Timothy 6:18). You are told to “show thyself an example of good works … A pursuer of good works!” (Titus 2:7; 2:14). For “God will render to every man according to his works!” (Romans 2:6). “The Lord will reward him according to his works!” (2 Timothy 4:14). “Wherefore, labor all the more, so that by good works you may make sure your calling and election!” (2 Peter 1:10).
This is further re-affirmed by the existence of the Corporal and Spiritual WORKS of Mercy that the Church encourages us to practice. Corporal Works of Mercy: (1) to feed the hungry; (2) to give drink to the thirsty; (3) to clothe the naked; (4) to visit the imprisoned; (5) to shelter the homeless; (6) to visit the sick; (7) to bury the dead. Spiritual Works of Mercy: (1) to admonish the sinner; (2) to instruct the ignorant; (3) to counsel the doubtful; (4) to comfort the sorrowful; (5) to bear wrongs patiently; (6) to forgive all injuries; (7) to pray for the living and the dead.
In His parable about the Talents and the unprofitable servant, Our Lord says: “A man going into a far country, called his servants, and delivered to them his―and to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one. He that had received the five talents, went his way, and traded with the same and gained other five. He that had received the two talents, gained other two. But he that had received the one, going his way dug a hole into the earth, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came, and reckoned with them …. He that had received the five talents, brought the other five talents. His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’ … He that had received the two talents came and said: ‘Lord, I have gained another two!’ His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’ But he that had received the one talent, came and said: Lord, went and hid thy talent in the earth! Behold here you can have that which is yours!’ And his lord said to him: ‘Wicked and slothful servant! You could have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with interest! Cast this unprofitable servant into the exterior darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’” (Matthew 25:14-30).
In His parable about the Sheep and Goats, Jesus condemns to Hell those who did nothing by way of charity: “When the Son of man shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the seat of His majesty and all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. Then shall the King say to them that shall be on His right hand: ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, and possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world! For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; I was naked, and you covered Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me!’ Then shall the just answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and fed You; or thirsty, and gave You to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and took You in? Or naked, and covered You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and came to You?’ And the king shall say to them: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me!
“Then He shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat! I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink! I was a stranger, and you took Me not in! I was naked, and you covered Me not! Sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me!’ Then they also shall answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then he shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment―but the just shall go into life everlasting!” (Matthew 25:31-46).
Steering Wheel―Engine―Gasoline
You could, in a certain sense, compare Faith, Works of Charity and Sanctifying Grace to the steering wheel, the engine and gasoline in a car―with Knowledge of the Faith being the steering wheel, Works of Charity being the engine and Sanctifying Grace being the gasoline. “God is able to make all grace abound in you; so that you may abound to every good work!” (2 Corinthians 9:8). “The grace of our Lord has abounded exceedingly with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:14). All have an important part to play in reaching your destination. If you have the knowledge of the Faith (steering wheel) but no engine in your car (works of Charity), then you are going nowhere: “I find not thy works full before my God!” (Apocalypse 3:2). “Faith without works is dead!” “If I have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. If I have not Charity―then I am nothing. If I have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). You need works of Charity in addition to knowledge of the Faith: “Faith works by charity” (Galatians 5:6).
St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “The unknown cannot be loved. Love is the destination or terminus of knowledge … Love of God is more than knowledge of Him, and therefore presupposes knowledge of Him.” (IIa-IIae, q. 27). St. Thomas affirms that we cannot love what we do not know, and that when we grow in understanding of God, we can also grow in love for Him, precisely because we begin to understand more deeply who God is. We cannot repeat that enough times or too many times: “Love follows upon knowledge―we cannot love what we do not know.” The more we know about God, the more we should be loving God―and the more we love God, then the more we should want to know Him even more. St. Thérèse of Lisieux complained that Jesus is too little loved because He is too little known!
Yet Charity itself is like a broken engine if it does not have the gasoline or driving power of Sanctifying Grace―for grace supernaturalizes mere natural charity so that it can lead us to salvation and Heaven. St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “Grace is a participation of the Divine Nature … Grace makes man pleasing to God … Charity is the friendship of man for God … Whosoever has not charity is wicked … Mortal sin deprives a man of sanctifying grace ... Mortal sin deprives a man of charity” (Summa, Ia IIae, q.88; q.109-110; IIa IIae, q.23; q.178). St. Augustine states that without sanctifying grace, good works are like “shining sins”, meaning they have no supernatural merit, but may lead to conversion. St. Thomas Aquinas states that good works of a sinner cannot be rewarded supernaturally. Without sanctifying grace, even the most heroic works or deeds would never have any value whatever for eternal life. Natural charity is inferior to supernatural charity―and it is sanctifying that raises our natural charity to a supernatural level, because “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and Sanctifying Grace is means by which God (Charity) dwells in our souls. When we lose Sanctifying Grace through Mortal Sin, we also lose supernatural Charity at the same time.
“The Lord will give grace” (Psalm 83:12). “For by grace you are saved through Faith” (Ephesians 2:8). “To every one of us is given grace” (Ephesians 4:7). “Neglect not the grace that is in thee!” (1 Timothy 4:14). “Receive not the grace of God in vain!” (2 Corinthians 6:1). “Stir up the grace of God which is in thee!” (2 Timothy 1:6). “Grow in grace!” (2 Peter 3:18). “I cast not away the grace of God!” (Galatians 2:21). “He that is good, shall draw grace from the Lord” (Proverbs 12:2). “I have been delivered by the grace of God!” (Ecclesiasticus 34:13). “Grace came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). “By whose grace you are saved!” (Ephesians 2:5). “The grace of one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many” (Romans 5:15). “In all things you abound in Faith, and word, and knowledge, and also in your charity, so that in this grace also you may abound!” (2 Corinthians 8:7).
The Power and Effects of Supernaturalized Charity
Supernaturalized Charity (supernaturalized by Sanctifying Grace) is superior to a mere natural charity―just like a supercharged engine is superior to a normal engine. In The Imitation of Christ we have a chapter that beautifully describes this: “Love is an excellent thing. It makes every difficulty easy, and bears all wrongs and burdens calmly and without being weighed down. Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of troubles. Wearied, it is not tired. It spurs on to great deeds and excites longing for that which is more perfect. Love tends upward; it will not be held down by anything low. Love forces its way upward and passes unharmed through every obstacle. Love wishes to be free and separated from all worldly affections. Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger or higher or wider; nothing is more pleasant, nothing fuller, and nothing better in Heaven or on Earth, for love is born of God and cannot rest except in God. One who is in love flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free, not bound. He gives all for all and possesses all in all. Love often knows no limits, but overflows all bounds. Love attempts more than it is able, and does not plead impossibility, because it believes that it may and can do all things. For this reason, it is able to do all, performing and effecting much where he who does not love fails and falls. Love is swift, sincere, kind, pleasant, and delightful. Love is humble, strong, patient and faithful, prudent, long-suffering, and manly. It is neither soft nor light, nor intent upon vain things. Love is never self-seeking, for in whatever a person seeks himself there he falls from love. If a man loves, he will know the sound of this voice.” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 3 : Chapter 5 : “The Wonderful Effect of Divine Love”).
The Power that Supernatural Charity has over Sin
Holy Scripture reveals the power of Supernatural Charity over sin: “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Before all things, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves―for charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47).
You might have heard of the terms “perfect contrition” (a.k.a. “contrition” or “true contrition” or “contrition of charity”) and “imperfect contrition” (a.k.a. “attrition” or “contrition through fear”). According to Roman Catholic theology, perfect contrition can forgive sins, including mortal sins, even before someone confesses them to a priest. It is an extraordinary, yet valid, means of receiving God’s grace and reconciliation outside of the regular Sacrament of Confession. When we have true sorrow for sin, the heart is, as it were, crushed and broken. Such sorrow is called by the expressive name of “contrition,” which word is a compound of two Latin words signifying: a complete crushing together, or a breaking to pieces. The heart is hardened by pride and sin; by contrition it is smashed up into atoms. The sorrow of heart includes, of course, a sorrow of mind, arising from the painful knowledge of the nature of sin and the unspeakable hatred which God bears to it.
Perfect contrition is a hatred for sin, because sin is offensive to God, who is infinitely good and perfect in Himself. Imperfect contrition, or attrition as it is called, is a hatred for sin arising from the fear of the punishment due to sin in the next life, or from any other supernatural motive. In perfect contrition there is a love of God for His sake alone. In imperfect contrition there is a love for God for our own sake. When perfect contrition exists, the whole heart is crushed; there is a perfect love of God, and a complete sorrow for sin. Where only attrition exists, only the surface of the heart is touched―the love is imperfect, and the sorrow incomplete. In attrition there is a mere beginning of love for God. This beginning is perfected into greater love, or charity, by receiving the Sacrament of Confession. Attrition with confession and absolution secures to the sinner a state of Sanctifying Grace.
Contrition is “perfect” when it arises from a deep love for God, rather than merely fear of punishment or the ugliness of sin. It is sorrow for sin because it offends God, who is infinitely good and deserving of all love. It differs from imperfect contrition (attrition), which is based on fear of Hell or punishment for sin, and cannot forgive mortal sin on its own without going to the Sacrament of Confession. For perfect contrition to truly absolve Mortal Sins, it must include a specific, necessary condition―a firm, sincere intention to go to Sacramental Confession at the earliest opportunity, as soon as it is possible to do so. It is not a replacement for Confession, but is to used in Emergencies. This is particularly relevant when a person is in danger of death, or when a priest is unavailable. It is not a “passport” to Holy Communion in by-passing the confessional! A person in a state of Mortal Sin must still go to Confession before receiving the Holy Eucharist, even if they have made an act of perfect contrition. Even though perfect contrition restores a person to a state of grace, it is always tied to the desire for the Sacrament of Confession.
To Get Forgiveness, You Must Give Forgiveness
Mercy and Forgiveness come under the umbrella of Charity. This is implied in the following quotes: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9) … “Be ye kind [charitable] one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God has forgiven you in Christ” (Ephesians 4:32).
To “forgive and forget” does not mean “forget to forgive”! Most people are quick to ask for forgiveness―they even expect forgiveness as some kind of right that they have―but they are slow in showing and giving forgiveness. Our Lord is brutally clear on this point: “If you will not forgive, neither will your Father that is in Heaven, forgive you your sins” (Mark 11:26). Our Lord exemplifies this principle in His Parable of the Unforgiving Servant:
“Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say you not just seven times; but seventy times seven times! Therefore is the Kingdom of Heaven likened to a king, who wanted to take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents (1 talent was 750 ounces of silver. At today’s silver prices of around $80 an ounce, one talent would be worth $60,000―that would put the 10,000 talents at $600 million). And as he could not pay his debt, his lord commanded that he, and his wife and children and all that he had, should be sold and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, begged him, saying: “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all that I owe!” And the lord of that servant, being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.
“‘But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence (the Roman penny was the eighth part of an ounce of silver. At today’s silver prices of $80 per ounce, the penny would be worth $10―and a hundred pence would be $1,000): and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: “Pay what you owe me!” And his fellow servant falling down, begged him, saying: “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all that I owe!” But he would not listen―and went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.
“‘Now his fellow servants, seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him and said to him: “You wicked servant! I forgave you all the debt, because you begged me! Should you not then have had the same compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had compassion on you?” And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers, until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you do not forgive everyone from your hearts!’” (Matthew 18:21-35).
Elsewhere Our Lord says: “Blessed are the merciful―for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7) ... “Judge not, and you shall not be judged! Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned! Forgive, and you shall be forgiven!” (Luke 6:37). Holy Scripture adds: “You are inexcusable, O man, whosoever you are that judges! For wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you do the same things which you judge! And do you think O man―that judges them who do such things, and does the same―that you shall escape the judgment of God?” (Romans 2:1-3). “Judgment without mercy to him that has not done mercy! Mercy exalts itself above judgment!” (James 2:13) … “Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation be put away from you. Be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God has forgiven you in Christ!” (Ephesians 4:31-32). “Bearing with one another and forgiving one another―if any have a complaint against another―even as the Lord has forgiven you, so do you also!” (Colossians 3:13).
Times of Hatred and Lack of Mercy
Unfortunately, we are living in merciless times of ever-increasing hatred and cruelty. Sadly, less and less people are shocked by this fact. Justice has become warped and corrupt―being biased and preferential and political in the administration of justice and mercy. These are times foretold by Holy Scripture: “In the last days, there shall come dangerous times! Men shall be lovers of themselves, proud, wicked, without affection, unmerciful, without kindness ― having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Our Lord further warns: “Then shall many be scandalized and shall betray one another: and shall hate one another! … Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted! … They will deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues! And you shall be brought before governors, and before kings for My sake and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name's sake … and they shall put you to death! The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death; and the father the son; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death!” (Matthew 10:17-21; 24:9-10).
Our Lord tells us to rise to the heights of Charity by eliminating any hatred for our enemies: “You have heard that it has been said: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy!’ But I say to you: ‘Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you! And pray for them that persecute and calumniate you!’ ― so that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who makes His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and lets His rain fall upon the just and the unjust!” (Matthew 5:43-45). True charity, true love is tough! Very few persons want to labor to acquire such a love! Perhaps that is one of the chief reasons why most souls are ultimately lost!
Love means labor! Labor means pain! No pain, no gain! No labor, no love! A child is conceived in love, but for that child of love to be born requires labor on the part of the mother―and that means labor pains in order to bring that child of love into this world. Love quickly forgets those labor pains in the consequent joy of love. As Our Lord says: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she has brought forth the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world! So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you!” (John 16:20-22).
Suffering tests our love. Our love is proved by how well we suffer. Death is the ultimate sorrow and suffering―and death is the ultimate test of love, as we see in the case of martyrs. As Our Lord pointed out: “Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends!” (John 15:13). Christ died out of love for us wretched sinners: “God showed His charity towards us―because when as yet we were sinners, Christ died for us!” (Romans 5:8-9). “The Son of God loved me and delivered Himself for me!” (Galatians 2:20).
Love is reciprocal―meaning that it is a “two-way-street” of both receiving love and giving love--a case of “give-and-take” and not just take, take, take, take! “Therefore let us love God, because God has first loved us!” (1 John 4:19). However, a half-hearted love of God, or a lukewarm love of God is not acceptable―for Christ tells us: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength! This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31). Lukewarmness is vehemently rejected: “Because thou art lukewarm, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth!” (Apocalypse 3:15-16).
To Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (of Our Lady of Good Success fame), Our Lord said: “Alas, if they only knew and were convinced of how much I love them and how much I desire that they should enter into the very depths of their souls! Then, without a doubt, they would find Me and would necessarily live the life of love and continuous union with Me! If men would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small spineless imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me ... But I will not tolerate this! Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me! I desire all or nothing! — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross. Woe to souls like this! Woe!” (Our Lord to Mother Mariana, Quito Ecuador).
Made by Love―Made to Love
Love exists in the soul―and your soul was made by God. “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and therefore your soul was made by Love Itself. In the Catechism, we encounter the question: “Why did God make you?” to which the answer is: “God made me to know Him, love Him and to serve Him!” Nevertheless, love is the greatest virtue ― “There remain Faith, Hope, and Charity, these three―but the greatest of these is Charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13). “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
“We have passed from death to life, because we love ... He that loves not, abides in death!” (1 John 3:14). “Charity is of God―and every one that loves is born of God and knows God. He that loves not, knows not God―for God is charity! In this is charity―not as though we had first loved God, but because He has first loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins! If God has so loved us, then we also ought to love one another! If we love one another, then God abides in us, and His charity is perfected in us. God is charity and he that abides in charity, abides in God, and God in him. Therefore, let us love God because God has first loved us! If any man say: ‘I love God!’ but hates his brother―then he is a liar. For he that does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God Whom he sees not? This commandment we have from God―that he who loves God, must also love his brother” (1 John 4:7-21).
Proof of Love
Mere “lip-love” is not real love― “Let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deeds, and in truth!” (1 John 3:18). As Our Lord says: “These people honor Me with their lips―but their heart is far from Me. In vain do they worship Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-9). “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word … He that loves Me not, keeps not My words!” (John 14:15, 14:21-24).
Some persons erroneously imagine that having Faith suffices, quoting Scriptural passages such as: “Man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the Faith of Jesus Christ! We also believe in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by the Faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law―because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified!” (Galatians 2:16). “We account a man to be justified by Faith, without the works of the law!” (Romans 3:28). Yet elsewhere, Holy Scripture places Faith beneath Charity: “There remain Faith, Hope, and Charity, these three―but the greatest of these is Charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13). “Faith works by charity” (Galatians 5:6). ”Show evidence of your charity!” (2 Corinthians 8:24). “Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by Faith only?” (James 2:24). “For even as the body without the spirit is dead―so also Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:26). “If I … have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. If I … have not Charity―then I am nothing. If I … have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
We can have the Faith and talk about the Faith until we are blue in the face―but it is living the Faith through Charity that gets us to Heaven. Hell has innumerous souls who have the Faith ― even “the devils also believe and tremble!” (James 2:19) ― but there is no Charity in Hell, only hatred. Charity is only found in Heaven for “God is Charity” (1 John 4:8). “He that loves not, knows not God―for God is charity!” (1 John 4:8).
Jesus gives us the example of having to perform good works: "I must work the works of Him that sent Me!” (John 9:4). “Many good works I have showed you from My Father … If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not! But if I do the works of My Father, though you will not believe Me, then believe the works―so that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father!” (John 10:32; 10:37-38). “He that believes in Me, the works that I do, he also shall do―and greater than these shall he do!” (John 14:12).
Jesus associates works with Faith, as seen in the following passages: “A rich young man came and said to Jesus: ‘Good Master! What good shall I DO that I may have life everlasting?’ Jesus said to him: ‘If you want enter into everlasting life, keep the commandments!’” (Matthew 19:16-17). Keeping the Commandments does not just mean accepting them and believing them―but more importantly it means DOING them, or DOING what they command us to DO! Believing in Christ is merely a beginning, a foundation, a first step―it should lead to DOING what He tell us to do: “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not DO the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your GOOD WORKS, and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 5:16). “Provoke one another unto charity and to good works!” (Hebrews 10:24). “Show thyself an example of good works! … A pursuer of good works! … Be careful to excel in good works!” (Titus 2:7; 2:14; 3:8; ). “Do good, be rich in good works, give easily, communicate to others!” (1 Timothy 6:18). You are told to “show thyself an example of good works … A pursuer of good works!” (Titus 2:7; 2:14). For “God will render to every man according to his works!” (Romans 2:6). “The Lord will reward him according to his works!” (2 Timothy 4:14). “Wherefore, labor all the more, so that by good works you may make sure your calling and election!” (2 Peter 1:10).
This is further re-affirmed by the existence of the Corporal and Spiritual WORKS of Mercy that the Church encourages us to practice. Corporal Works of Mercy: (1) to feed the hungry; (2) to give drink to the thirsty; (3) to clothe the naked; (4) to visit the imprisoned; (5) to shelter the homeless; (6) to visit the sick; (7) to bury the dead. Spiritual Works of Mercy: (1) to admonish the sinner; (2) to instruct the ignorant; (3) to counsel the doubtful; (4) to comfort the sorrowful; (5) to bear wrongs patiently; (6) to forgive all injuries; (7) to pray for the living and the dead.
In His parable about the Talents and the unprofitable servant, Our Lord says: “A man going into a far country, called his servants, and delivered to them his―and to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one. He that had received the five talents, went his way, and traded with the same and gained other five. He that had received the two talents, gained other two. But he that had received the one, going his way dug a hole into the earth, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came, and reckoned with them …. He that had received the five talents, brought the other five talents. His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’ … He that had received the two talents came and said: ‘Lord, I have gained another two!’ His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’ But he that had received the one talent, came and said: Lord, went and hid thy talent in the earth! Behold here you can have that which is yours!’ And his lord said to him: ‘Wicked and slothful servant! You could have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with interest! Cast this unprofitable servant into the exterior darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’” (Matthew 25:14-30).
In His parable about the Sheep and Goats, Jesus condemns to Hell those who did nothing by way of charity: “When the Son of man shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the seat of His majesty and all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. Then shall the King say to them that shall be on His right hand: ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, and possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world! For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; I was naked, and you covered Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me!’ Then shall the just answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and fed You; or thirsty, and gave You to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and took You in? Or naked, and covered You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and came to You?’ And the king shall say to them: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me!
“Then He shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat! I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink! I was a stranger, and you took Me not in! I was naked, and you covered Me not! Sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me!’ Then they also shall answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then he shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment―but the just shall go into life everlasting!” (Matthew 25:31-46).
Steering Wheel―Engine―Gasoline
You could, in a certain sense, compare Faith, Works of Charity and Sanctifying Grace to the steering wheel, the engine and gasoline in a car―with Knowledge of the Faith being the steering wheel, Works of Charity being the engine and Sanctifying Grace being the gasoline. “God is able to make all grace abound in you; so that you may abound to every good work!” (2 Corinthians 9:8). “The grace of our Lord has abounded exceedingly with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:14). All have an important part to play in reaching your destination. If you have the knowledge of the Faith (steering wheel) but no engine in your car (works of Charity), then you are going nowhere: “I find not thy works full before my God!” (Apocalypse 3:2). “Faith without works is dead!” “If I have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. If I have not Charity―then I am nothing. If I have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). You need works of Charity in addition to knowledge of the Faith: “Faith works by charity” (Galatians 5:6).
St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “The unknown cannot be loved. Love is the destination or terminus of knowledge … Love of God is more than knowledge of Him, and therefore presupposes knowledge of Him.” (IIa-IIae, q. 27). St. Thomas affirms that we cannot love what we do not know, and that when we grow in understanding of God, we can also grow in love for Him, precisely because we begin to understand more deeply who God is. We cannot repeat that enough times or too many times: “Love follows upon knowledge―we cannot love what we do not know.” The more we know about God, the more we should be loving God―and the more we love God, then the more we should want to know Him even more. St. Thérèse of Lisieux complained that Jesus is too little loved because He is too little known!
Yet Charity itself is like a broken engine if it does not have the gasoline or driving power of Sanctifying Grace―for grace supernaturalizes mere natural charity so that it can lead us to salvation and Heaven. St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “Grace is a participation of the Divine Nature … Grace makes man pleasing to God … Charity is the friendship of man for God … Whosoever has not charity is wicked … Mortal sin deprives a man of sanctifying grace ... Mortal sin deprives a man of charity” (Summa, Ia IIae, q.88; q.109-110; IIa IIae, q.23; q.178). St. Augustine states that without sanctifying grace, good works are like “shining sins”, meaning they have no supernatural merit, but may lead to conversion. St. Thomas Aquinas states that good works of a sinner cannot be rewarded supernaturally. Without sanctifying grace, even the most heroic works or deeds would never have any value whatever for eternal life. Natural charity is inferior to supernatural charity―and it is sanctifying that raises our natural charity to a supernatural level, because “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and Sanctifying Grace is means by which God (Charity) dwells in our souls. When we lose Sanctifying Grace through Mortal Sin, we also lose supernatural Charity at the same time.
“The Lord will give grace” (Psalm 83:12). “For by grace you are saved through Faith” (Ephesians 2:8). “To every one of us is given grace” (Ephesians 4:7). “Neglect not the grace that is in thee!” (1 Timothy 4:14). “Receive not the grace of God in vain!” (2 Corinthians 6:1). “Stir up the grace of God which is in thee!” (2 Timothy 1:6). “Grow in grace!” (2 Peter 3:18). “I cast not away the grace of God!” (Galatians 2:21). “He that is good, shall draw grace from the Lord” (Proverbs 12:2). “I have been delivered by the grace of God!” (Ecclesiasticus 34:13). “Grace came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). “By whose grace you are saved!” (Ephesians 2:5). “The grace of one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many” (Romans 5:15). “In all things you abound in Faith, and word, and knowledge, and also in your charity, so that in this grace also you may abound!” (2 Corinthians 8:7).
The Power and Effects of Supernaturalized Charity
Supernaturalized Charity (supernaturalized by Sanctifying Grace) is superior to a mere natural charity―just like a supercharged engine is superior to a normal engine. In The Imitation of Christ we have a chapter that beautifully describes this: “Love is an excellent thing. It makes every difficulty easy, and bears all wrongs and burdens calmly and without being weighed down. Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of troubles. Wearied, it is not tired. It spurs on to great deeds and excites longing for that which is more perfect. Love tends upward; it will not be held down by anything low. Love forces its way upward and passes unharmed through every obstacle. Love wishes to be free and separated from all worldly affections. Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger or higher or wider; nothing is more pleasant, nothing fuller, and nothing better in Heaven or on Earth, for love is born of God and cannot rest except in God. One who is in love flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free, not bound. He gives all for all and possesses all in all. Love often knows no limits, but overflows all bounds. Love attempts more than it is able, and does not plead impossibility, because it believes that it may and can do all things. For this reason, it is able to do all, performing and effecting much where he who does not love fails and falls. Love is swift, sincere, kind, pleasant, and delightful. Love is humble, strong, patient and faithful, prudent, long-suffering, and manly. It is neither soft nor light, nor intent upon vain things. Love is never self-seeking, for in whatever a person seeks himself there he falls from love. If a man loves, he will know the sound of this voice.” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 3 : Chapter 5 : “The Wonderful Effect of Divine Love”).
The Power that Supernatural Charity has over Sin
Holy Scripture reveals the power of Supernatural Charity over sin: “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Before all things, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves―for charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47).
You might have heard of the terms “perfect contrition” (a.k.a. “contrition” or “true contrition” or “contrition of charity”) and “imperfect contrition” (a.k.a. “attrition” or “contrition through fear”). According to Roman Catholic theology, perfect contrition can forgive sins, including mortal sins, even before someone confesses them to a priest. It is an extraordinary, yet valid, means of receiving God’s grace and reconciliation outside of the regular Sacrament of Confession. When we have true sorrow for sin, the heart is, as it were, crushed and broken. Such sorrow is called by the expressive name of “contrition,” which word is a compound of two Latin words signifying: a complete crushing together, or a breaking to pieces. The heart is hardened by pride and sin; by contrition it is smashed up into atoms. The sorrow of heart includes, of course, a sorrow of mind, arising from the painful knowledge of the nature of sin and the unspeakable hatred which God bears to it.
Perfect contrition is a hatred for sin, because sin is offensive to God, who is infinitely good and perfect in Himself. Imperfect contrition, or attrition as it is called, is a hatred for sin arising from the fear of the punishment due to sin in the next life, or from any other supernatural motive. In perfect contrition there is a love of God for His sake alone. In imperfect contrition there is a love for God for our own sake. When perfect contrition exists, the whole heart is crushed; there is a perfect love of God, and a complete sorrow for sin. Where only attrition exists, only the surface of the heart is touched―the love is imperfect, and the sorrow incomplete. In attrition there is a mere beginning of love for God. This beginning is perfected into greater love, or charity, by receiving the Sacrament of Confession. Attrition with confession and absolution secures to the sinner a state of Sanctifying Grace.
Contrition is “perfect” when it arises from a deep love for God, rather than merely fear of punishment or the ugliness of sin. It is sorrow for sin because it offends God, who is infinitely good and deserving of all love. It differs from imperfect contrition (attrition), which is based on fear of Hell or punishment for sin, and cannot forgive mortal sin on its own without going to the Sacrament of Confession. For perfect contrition to truly absolve Mortal Sins, it must include a specific, necessary condition―a firm, sincere intention to go to Sacramental Confession at the earliest opportunity, as soon as it is possible to do so. It is not a replacement for Confession, but is to used in Emergencies. This is particularly relevant when a person is in danger of death, or when a priest is unavailable. It is not a “passport” to Holy Communion in by-passing the confessional! A person in a state of Mortal Sin must still go to Confession before receiving the Holy Eucharist, even if they have made an act of perfect contrition. Even though perfect contrition restores a person to a state of grace, it is always tied to the desire for the Sacrament of Confession.
To Get Forgiveness, You Must Give Forgiveness
Mercy and Forgiveness come under the umbrella of Charity. This is implied in the following quotes: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9) … “Be ye kind [charitable] one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God has forgiven you in Christ” (Ephesians 4:32).
To “forgive and forget” does not mean “forget to forgive”! Most people are quick to ask for forgiveness―they even expect forgiveness as some kind of right that they have―but they are slow in showing and giving forgiveness. Our Lord is brutally clear on this point: “If you will not forgive, neither will your Father that is in Heaven, forgive you your sins” (Mark 11:26). Our Lord exemplifies this principle in His Parable of the Unforgiving Servant:
“Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say you not just seven times; but seventy times seven times! Therefore is the Kingdom of Heaven likened to a king, who wanted to take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents (1 talent was 750 ounces of silver. At today’s silver prices of around $80 an ounce, one talent would be worth $60,000―that would put the 10,000 talents at $600 million). And as he could not pay his debt, his lord commanded that he, and his wife and children and all that he had, should be sold and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, begged him, saying: “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all that I owe!” And the lord of that servant, being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.
“‘But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence (the Roman penny was the eighth part of an ounce of silver. At today’s silver prices of $80 per ounce, the penny would be worth $10―and a hundred pence would be $1,000): and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: “Pay what you owe me!” And his fellow servant falling down, begged him, saying: “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all that I owe!” But he would not listen―and went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.
“‘Now his fellow servants, seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him and said to him: “You wicked servant! I forgave you all the debt, because you begged me! Should you not then have had the same compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had compassion on you?” And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers, until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you do not forgive everyone from your hearts!’” (Matthew 18:21-35).
Elsewhere Our Lord says: “Blessed are the merciful―for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7) ... “Judge not, and you shall not be judged! Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned! Forgive, and you shall be forgiven!” (Luke 6:37). Holy Scripture adds: “You are inexcusable, O man, whosoever you are that judges! For wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you do the same things which you judge! And do you think O man―that judges them who do such things, and does the same―that you shall escape the judgment of God?” (Romans 2:1-3). “Judgment without mercy to him that has not done mercy! Mercy exalts itself above judgment!” (James 2:13) … “Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation be put away from you. Be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God has forgiven you in Christ!” (Ephesians 4:31-32). “Bearing with one another and forgiving one another―if any have a complaint against another―even as the Lord has forgiven you, so do you also!” (Colossians 3:13).
Times of Hatred and Lack of Mercy
Unfortunately, we are living in merciless times of ever-increasing hatred and cruelty. Sadly, less and less people are shocked by this fact. Justice has become warped and corrupt―being biased and preferential and political in the administration of justice and mercy. These are times foretold by Holy Scripture: “In the last days, there shall come dangerous times! Men shall be lovers of themselves, proud, wicked, without affection, unmerciful, without kindness ― having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Our Lord further warns: “Then shall many be scandalized and shall betray one another: and shall hate one another! … Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted! … They will deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues! And you shall be brought before governors, and before kings for My sake and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name's sake … and they shall put you to death! The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death; and the father the son; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death!” (Matthew 10:17-21; 24:9-10).
Our Lord tells us to rise to the heights of Charity by eliminating any hatred for our enemies: “You have heard that it has been said: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy!’ But I say to you: ‘Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you! And pray for them that persecute and calumniate you!’ ― so that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who makes His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and lets His rain fall upon the just and the unjust!” (Matthew 5:43-45). True charity, true love is tough! Very few persons want to labor to acquire such a love! Perhaps that is one of the chief reasons why most souls are ultimately lost!
Article 2
Monday to Wednesday, February 2nd to 4th
Septuagesima Shocker!
Monday to Wednesday, February 2nd to 4th
Septuagesima Shocker!
Shocked? Nothing Shocks Anymore!
We live in a shocking world where hardly anyone is shocked anymore! What should be shocking is merely a part of everyday life! Sure―many will utter “shock” with their lips, but their hearts are far from being shocked. You could almost say that it would be shocking to see these people being really and truly shocked! Shock is merely expressed as social convention or customary reaction rather than being a true state of mind and heart.
People are no longer shocked primarily due to desensitization from repeated exposure to distressing events, habituation where the brain responds less to constant stimuli, and a slow escalation of crises by small increments. Consistent exposure to negativity reduces its impact over time. When extreme political or social shifts occur gradually, society accepts them in small increments rather than reacting against. Furthermore, a saturated media environment where constant, rapid-fire news and social media exposure to catastrophes, violence and scandals eventually dulls emotional responses, a normalization of shocking events and leads to a collective, jaded apathy―whereby nothing is surprising anymore, leading to a loss of empathy. We start to become accustomed to high stress and accept the occurrence of shocking events, as if it is the new normal. The more these things happen, the less shocking they feel. Exposure to repeated traumatic events can cause us to be numb to future events or normalize them― and can lead to depressive symptoms due to feelings of hopelessness or helplessness, whereby we feel that nothing will change the situation and that is pointless trying to do something about it. The digital age has turned outrage into a commodity. The sheer volume of shocking digital content makes people numb to it, with constant exposure reducing the ability to feel surprise or horror. Research has repeatedly shown that we become desensitized as the number of individuals affected by particular events increase. In addition to cognitive adaptation to events over time, humans also experience a type of psychic numbing when dealing with events that involve large numbers of people. We have an easier time feeling empathy for one person than for large groups of people.
Just look at the gradual incremental escalation in certain behaviors, attitudes and practices over the last 60 to 70 years―and see how gradual increases have gradually eroded protests against them.
► IMMODEST FASHIONS: Already after the Second World War fashions were deemed to be becoming more and more immodest―yet the gradual demise of modesty resulted in very little protest and correction. In the early to mid-20th century, US authorities frequently arrested women for “immodest” dress, focusing on swimwear length and the wearing of pants in public or court. The “new normal” level of modesty today would most certainly be classified as outrageous modesty in the days of old―and rightly so.
► ADULTERY: Infidelity is difficult to research. Few willingly admit it. University of Colorado scientists asked 4,800 married women about infidelity during the previous year―using both face-to-face interviews and an anonymous questionnaire. In the interviews, only 1% admitted infidelity, whereas in the anonymous questionnaire, 6% admitted infidelity. Whatever numbers surveys show, the reality is that the real number is considerably higher than that. The likelihood of men cheating is generally higher than that of women: Recent statistics from the General Social Survey revealed that 20% of men and 13% of women reported having sex with someone other than their spouse while married. Women are slightly more likely than men to commit infidelity among ever-married people between the ages of 18 and 29 (11% vs. 10%). Adultery rates increase during the middle ages for both men and women. This gap quickly closes and expands among those 30 to 34 years old as people get older. The rate of adultery is highest among women in their 60s (16%), but it declines significantly among those in their 70s and 80s. Comparatively, the highest rate of infidelity is found among men in their 70s (26%), and it is still prevalent in men 80 and beyond (24%). In the past, older men were no more likely to commit adultery than their younger counterparts. Infidelity rates peaked in the 1990s among men and women between the ages of 40 and 49 (18%) and 50 to 59 (31%). The highest rates of infidelity increased between 2000 and 2009, with men aged 60 to 69 (29%) and women aged 50 to 59 (17%).
► DIVORCE: On the subject of marital divorce, in the early American Colonies divorce was rare and often required proof of fault like adultery or desertion. In 1969, California passed the first no-fault divorce law, allowing couples to end marriages without assigning blame. By the 1980s, most U.S. states adopted no-fault divorce, followed by other Western countries. New York was the last U.S. state to adopt it in 2010. As laws became less stringent, rates increased, with roughly 40% of first marriages in the U.S. now ending in divorce. Nobody is shocked by divorce anymore―it has become a “new normal” and accepted option for marriage.
► CONTRACEPTION: As regards contraception, in 1873 Congress passed the Comstock Act, which criminalized using the U.S. Postal Service to mail any obscenity, contraceptives or abortifacients, and authorized the postal service to confiscate birth control sold through the mail. By 1914, public health nurse Margaret Sanger coined the term “birth control” and began her decades-long campaign to make contraceptives legal and available to women in America. In 1916 Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The next year, a New York court convicts Sanger of “maintaining a public nuisance” by dispensing contraceptive devices and sentences her to jail for 30 days. Once released, Sanger re-opens her clinic and continues to persevere through more arrests and prosecutions. In 1917, she begins publishing the magazine Birth Control Review to educate the public about contraception. In 1921 Sanger founded the American Birth Control League, the precursor of Planned Parenthood, at the First American Birth Control Conference in New York City. In 1950, while in her 80s, Sanger organized support for research to create the first birth control pill. By 1960, the first oral contraceptive was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It quickly became known simply as “the Pill.” By 1972, the Supreme Court legalized birth control for unmarried people. In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot constitutionally place any restrictions on the advertisement, sale, and distribution of contraceptives to individuals of any age. In 1998–1999, the FDA approved the first brands of emergency contraception that can used after intercourse to prevent pregnancy. In 2013 the FDA approved over-the-counter sales of the emergency contraception for people under the age of 18. Little by little one goes far! Little by little all shock is eliminated―perhaps there is a “contrashocking pill”?
► ABORTION: You can find a similar pattern for abortion―from criminalization in the late 1800s to legalization in the early 1970s. In 1880, all states in the U.S. had laws to restrict abortion — with exceptions in some states if a doctor said the abortion was needed to save the life or health of the patient, or for therapeutic reasons. By 1910, abortion was not only restricted, but was totally illegal at every stage in pregnancy in every state in the country. These abortion bans had some exceptions in instances to save the patient’s life — a decision that only doctors had the power to make. Criminalizing abortion sent the practice underground. In 1955, due to increasingly alarming media coverage of unsafe, illegal abortions, Planned Parenthood held a first-of-its-kind conference on the issue of abortion. The doctors who attended the national conference on abortion made the bold move to publicly call for abortion law reform, calling for laws to be rewritten to allow doctors greater latitude to provide abortion services. In 1964, abortion law reform activists created the Association for the Study of Abortion (ASA), advocating for abortion law reforms. In a clever strategic move to incrementally increase abortion access, the ASA advocated only for "medically necessary" abortion―but other members of the larger abortion law reform movement wanted a full repeal to legalize abortion for all people.
In 1966, in one of the first abortion reform measures in the United States, California amended its prohibition on abortion to allow hospital committees to approve requests for abortion. By the late 1960s, a nationwide effort was underway to reform abortion laws in nearly every state. Health care providers, advocates, clergy members, and the legal community lobbied state legislatures and went to court to overturn statutes that had been in place since before the turn of the century. Between 1967 and 1973, four states — Alaska, Hawaii, New York, and Washington — repealed their abortion bans entirely, while 13 others enacted reforms that expanded exceptions. Instead of just allowing for abortion to save the patient’s life, they now allowed it in instances where a pregnancy was dangerous for the physical or mental health of a patient, fetal abnormalities, and when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. In 1970, New York state legalized abortion. One day after that law took effect, a Planned Parenthood health center in Syracuse became the first Planned Parenthood health center to provide abortion services, and the first free-standing abortion center nationwide. In the first two years after abortion was legalized in New York, two-thirds of the abortions performed in the state were on patients who had traveled from other states — most of which still outlawed abortion. At the time, other states that had legalized abortion required patients to be state residents. In 1973, In a landmark decision Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the due process clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution protects the right to abortion and allowed the right to abortion in all 50 states, making abortion services safer and more accessible throughout the country. In particular, the Supreme Court recognized for the first time that the constitutional right to privacy “is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.”
According to the World Health Organization, Around 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide each year. The U.S. hovers around the 900,000 mark per year. Some argue that the number of abortions is falling in number―but they fail to take into account the fact that since 2020, over 50% of all abortions are now achieved through taking medicine at home that will provoke the abortion. In 2014, Guttmacher found that in the U.S., 38% women getting abortions reported no religious affiliation while the majority had some form of religious affiliation — 24% were Roman Catholic, 17% were mainline Protestant, 13% were evangelical Protestant, and 8% were another affiliation.
► PORNOGRAPHY: Although pornography dates back thousands of years, its existence in the U.S. can be traced to its 18th-century origins. Pornography has existed since the origins of the United States, and has become more readily accessible over the years. Pornographic film production commenced almost immediately after the invention of the motion picture in 1895. In the 20th century, the era of “blue movies” began with the silent films of the 1920s and continued throughout the post-war era as film technology improved and equipment costs were reduced. Beginning in 1969 with Blue Movie by Andy Warhol, the subsequent Golden Age of Porn and more permissive legislation, saw a rise of adult theaters in the United States, and many other countries. Several studies have found that the United States has been the largest producer of pornography. By 1982, pornographic film production had switched to the cheaper and more convenient medium of video tape. In the late 1990s, pornographic films were distributed on DVD. The introduction and widespread availability of the Internet further changed the way pornography was distributed. Online porn consumption has increased by 91% since 2000. Previously videos would be rented or purchased through mail-order, but with the Internet people could watch pornographic movies immediately on their computers―or a movie could be downloaded within minutes or, later, within a few seconds.
Today 40 million American people regularly visit porn sites. 35% of all internet downloads are related to pornography. 34% of internet users have experienced unwanted exposure to pornographic content through ads, pop up ads, misdirected links or emails. 54% of practicing Christians admit to viewing pornography. Moreover, 49% of practicing Christians who admit to personally viewing pornography say they are “comfortable with how much pornography” they use. 47% of Christians have said pornography is a major problem in the home. As a Catholic Answers article states: “Ideally, Catholic men would be immune to this vice, but the reality is that they, too, are viewing pornography and masturbating in high numbers. In spite of this fact, men are afraid to talk about it, and it is rarely discussed.” Every day 37 pornographic videos are created in the United States; 2.5 billion emails containing porn are sent or received; 68 million search queries related to pornography―25% of total searches―are generated.
Jesuit priest Father Morton A. Hill (1917–1985) was a leader of the campaign against pornography in the United States in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He was one of the founders of Morality in Media, which was created in 1962 to fight pornography. So prominent was Hill on the issue, that in 1969 President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. Father Hill and another clergyman on the commission, Dr. Winfrey C. Link, believed that the commission was stacked with supporters of loosening laws on pornography, who held that pornography should be decriminalized!
► CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE: The global prevalence of child sexual abuse has been estimated at 25% for females and 8% for males. Most sexual abuse offenders are acquainted with their victims; approximately 30% are relatives of the child―most often brothers, fathers, uncles, or cousins; around 60% are other acquaintances, such as “friends” of the family, babysitters, or neighbors; 10% of child sexual abuse cases are committed by strangers. From 1970 to 2010, the public and professional awareness of child sexual abuse in the United States of America has grown from almost none to daily public attention in newspapers and other news media. In 2023, reports of child sexual abuse and exploitation reached critical levels, particularly regarding online crimes. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a record 36.2 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2023.
With the advent of the internet, there is now the added threat of online sexual abuse for children. University researchers say that more than 300 million children a year are victims of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse. It indicates that one in eight, or 12.6%, of the world’s children have been victims of non-consensual taking, sharing and exposure to sexual images and video in the past year. That amounts to about 302 million young people. In addition, another 12.5% of children globally (300 million) are estimated to have been subject in the past year to online solicitation, such as unwanted sexual talk which can include non-consensual sexting, unwanted sexual questions and unwanted sexual act requests by adults or other youths. Offences can also take the form of sexual extortion, where predators demand money from victims to keep images private, to abuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI) deep fake technology ― used to generate false sexual images of people.
► HUMAN TRAFFICKING: Human trafficking is a complex global issue — taking place in both the United States and in every country around the world. The UNODC's (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) Global Report noted that forced labor is the biggest form of trafficking globally, surpassing sexual exploitation, according to their latest estimates. Whereas in U.S., statistics report a prevalence of human trafficking for sexual exploitation as being the chief area― About 58% sex trafficking, 16% labor, 11% both, and 15% unspecified. European Union Data showed trafficking as being 63% women/girls, 13% children, with sexual exploitation and labor exploitation as the primary goals for human trafficking. Today, there are 49.6 million people in modern slavery worldwide, and 12 million of them are children. (ILO, United Nations).
● 54% of those trapped in modern slavery are women and girls. (International Labor Organization)
● Sex trafficking is the most common type of trafficking in the U.S. (Polaris)
● There were 88 million child sexual abuse material (CSAM) files reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) tip line in 2022.
● Child sex trafficking has been reported in all 50 U.S. states. (NCMEC)
● Forced commercial sexual exploitation generates $173 billion in illegal profits annually. (International Labor Organization, 2024)
● Human trafficking is the second most profitable illegal industry in the U.S. (UNICEF)
The Contraception, Abortion, Abuse, Adultery, Divorce and Trafficking of SOULS
Our Catholic Faith teaches us that the soul is of more importance than the body. Already in the children’s catechism we read: “Man is a creature composed of body and soul, and made to the image and likeness of God. This likeness is chiefly in the soul. The soul is like God because it is a spirit that will never die. We must take more care of our soul than of our body, because in losing our soul we lose God and everlasting happiness.” (Baltimore Catechism #2 & Baltimore Catechism #2 & Baltimore Catechism #4). Similarly, those three catechisms tell us that “God made me to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this life so that I can be happy with Him in the next life in Heaven.” This is echoed by the Catechism of Pope St. Pius X: “Man is a rational creature composed of soul and body. The soul is the noblest part of man, because it is a spiritual substance, endowed with intelligence and will, capable of knowing God and of possessing Him for all eternity.”
As Jesus said: “If you love Me, keep My commandments!” (John 14:15). We find it hard to serve those whom we do not love―and we cannot love those whom we do not know. Hence the chronological order in the Catechism answer: “God made me to KNOW Him, LOVE Him and SERVE Him…” As Jesus says: “Why do you call Me ‘Lord! Lord’ and do not do the things that I say?” (Luke 6:46). St. Thérèse of Lisieux comments: “Jesus is so little loved because He is so little known!” Our problem is that we find hundreds of more interesting things than Jesus that we want to know about!
► CONTRACEPTIVE SOULS: As Our Lord said, we are meant to bear fruit for God: “My Father is the farmer. Every branch that bears not fruit, He will take away! And every branch that bears fruit, He will purge it, so that it may bring forth more fruit! In this is My Father glorified; that you bring forth very much fruit!” (John 15:1-8). The Seed of the Word of God is meant to produce fruit in us: “The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seeds in his field. The sower went out to sow his seed. The seed is the Word of God. And they by the way side are they that hear the Word. When any one hears the word of the kingdom, and understands it not, the devil, Satan, comes [the birds of the air] and takes the word [of God], which was sown in his heart, out of his heart―lest believing he should be saved―this is he that received the seed by the way side. And he that received the seed upon the rock or stony ground, is he that hears the word of God, immediately receives it with joy and believes for a while. Yet he has no root in himself, but keeps the word of God only for a time. For, in time of temptation, when tribulation and persecution arises because of the word of God, he is suddenly scandalized [weakened] and he falls away. And he that received the seed among thorns, is he that hears the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of this life, choke up the word of God, and the word becomes fruitless and yields no fruit.” (Matthew 13:3-8, 13:18-23; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-15). Thus we see various forms of “spiritual contraception” that prevent the Seed of the Word of God producing fruit in our lives. “Seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand!” (Matthew 13:13).
► ABORTIVE SOULS: Abortion is a focal subject of discussion in our world, and the word is usually applied to the physical abortion of a child. Abortion is the killing of life within the womb of a mother. Spiritual abortion could be said to be the killing of the life of Sanctifying Grace within our souls. God dwells in our souls through Sanctifying Grace, which is the life of God in our souls―when we commit a Mortal Sin, it results in casting out God and His life-giving Sanctifying Grace from the “womb” of our soul. The word “mortal” comes from the Latin “mortālis” (meaning “subject to death”), which is a derivative of “mors” (meaning “death”). Mortal sin brings death to the life of grace in the soul: “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15).
The Catechism, speaking of Mortal Sin, says: “This sin is called mortal, or deadly, because it deprives the sinner of Sanctifying Grace, the supernatural life of the soul. Without Sanctifying Grace, the soul is displeasing to God, unclean, and can never behold Him or be with Him in Heaven. Without Sanctifying Grace the soul is without God ... One Mortal Sin
is enough to rob us of Sanctifying Grace, for it is by Mortal Sin only that the soul is separated entirely from God … He who has not sanctifying grace is spiritually dead, and will suffer eternal ruin! … Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, or poverty, because it separates us from God” (Catechism: My Catholic Faith, Bishop Morrow; The Catechism Explained, Fr. Spirago & Fr. Clarke).
Abortion was certainly known in the ancient world, but one of the Fathers of the Church understood the reality of abortion in a deeper sense. St. Gregory of Nyssa applied it to our whole being: “We are in a sense our own parents, and we give birth to ourselves by our own free choice of what is good. Such a choice becomes possible for us when we have received God into ourselves and have become children of God, children of the Most High. On the other hand, if what the Apostle calls the form of Christ has not been produced in us, we abort ourselves. The man of God must reach maturity.”
► ABUSIVE SOULS: In Catholic teaching, “abusing” God refers to various forms of sin and irreverence, primarily concerning the misuse of God’s Name (blasphemy, ridicule, defiance, false oaths); the abuse of God’ grace and mercy (by presumptuous sin when individuals knowingly continue in sin with the presumption that God will automatically forgive them later, essentially treating salvation like a “game” or a license to sin); showing disrespect in worship; or through immoral actions that use God or His teachings to erroneously justify them.
Sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons. That freedom is not s freedom to sin―but it is a freedom by which we freely and willingly choose to love and serve God. Sin is first of all an offense against God by abusing His authority by disobeying His commandments―and it involves a rejection and abuse of God’s love for us: “If you love Me, keep My commandments!” (John 14:1). Mortal Sin―as stated above―casts out Sanctifying Grace which is the life of God in the soul. Analogically speaking, you could say Mortal Sin is like trying to murder or kill God. Venial Sin does not cast out God and Sanctifying Grace from the soul―but you could say that Venial Sin is like punching, kicking, beating and slapping God around within our soul. There are many who think little or nothing of Venial Sin―saying that they won’t be sent to Hell for committing Venial Sins. That does not mean that Venial Sin is not evil! All sin is evil―Mortal or Venial. The Catechisms teach us: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial Sin is second only in evil consequences to Mortal Sin … Sometimes people say: ‘It is only a little sin, it does not matter much!’ But every Venial Sin is an offence against God, and therefore is, after Mortal Sin, the greatest of evils―far greater than any of the physical evils which can be inflicted on us!” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD; The Catechism Simply Explained, by Fr. Cafferata, q. 127).
These people live in revolving door of sin and ask for mercy; sin again and ask for mercy again; sin and ask for more mercy, etc., etc. Often, they will refuse to forgive others, despite seeking God’s mercy and forgiveness for themselves! To willingly and readily commit Venial Sins, with the excuse that you will not go to Hell for them, is an abuse of God and an abuse of God’s mercy. St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his sermon on the Abuse of Divine Mercy, writes: “Why does God wait for sinners? Is it that they may continue to insult Him? No! He waits for them that they may renounce sin, and that thus He may have pity on them, and forgive them. ‘Therefore the Lord waits, so that He may have mercy on you!’ (Isaias 30:1, 8). But when He sees that the time which He gave them to weep over their past iniquities is spent in multiplying their sins, He begins to inflict chastisements. Christians sin and say: ‘God is merciful! I will commit this sin, and will afterwards confess it!’ Behold the illusion, or rather the snare, by which Satan draws so many souls to Hell. ‘Commit sin,’ says Satan, ‘and confess it afterwards!’ But listen to what the Lord says: ‘Say not: “I have sinned, and what harm has befallen me?” Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin; and say not: “The mercy of the Lord is great! He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!”’ (Ecclesiasticus 5:4-9). Some rash sinners will say: ‘God has until now shown me so many mercies―why should He not treat me with the same mercy in the future?’ I answer: ‘He will show you mercy, if you wish to change your life! But if you intend to continue to offend Him, He tells you that He will take vengeance on your sins by casting you into Hell!’ There are some who will not believe that there is a Hell until they fall into it!
“St. Bernard says, that the confidence which sinners have in God's goodness when they commit sin, procures for them, not a blessing, but a malediction from the Lord. They do not hope for the pardon of the sins of which they repent; but they hope that, though they continue to commit sin, God will have mercy upon them; and thus they make the mercy of God serve as a motive for continuing to offend Him― which is an abomination to the Lord! He that sins with, the hope of pardon, saying: ‘I will afterwards repent, and God will pardon me!’ is, according to St. Augustine, not a penitent, but a scoffer. The Apostle tells us that ‘God is not mocked!’ (Galatians 6:7). It would be a mockery of God to offend Him as often and as long as you please, and always to receive the pardon of your offences.” (Sermon by St. Alphonsus Liguori, On the Abuse of Divine Mercy).
► ADULTEROUS SOULS: Our Lord speaks out against spiritual adultery when He says: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24). Holy Scripture takes up this teaching and adds: “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15) ... “The whole world is seated in wickedness!” (1 John 5:19) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
If you love the world, then you have Satan for your lover! Why? Because Satan is the prince of this world and he uses the world to seduce us and draw us away from God. Our Lord said: “The prince of this world is coming, and in Me he has not anything … The prince of this world is already judged ... Now shall the prince of this world be cast out!” (John 12:31; 16:11; 14:30). “That great dragon―that old serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan―was cast out and he was cast unto the Earth, and he seduces the whole world! … Woe to the Earth, because the devil is come down unto you!” (Apocalypse 12:9-12). “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). “They that will [desire or want to] become rich, fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition!” (1 Timothy 6:9). Therefore, “what fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God! As God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). St. Bernadette of Lourdes echoes this in her account of the third apparition of Our Lady: “She told me that she did not promise to make me happy in this world, but in the next.”
As Our Lord said to the rich young man: “’If you want to be perfect, go sell whatsoever you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven, and then come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, he went away sorrowful―or he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-25).
What most Catholics fail to realize is that Christ is not advocating the world, nor recommending the world, nor placing the world in a neutral position in relation to Himself. Christ came to save us from this world―and not to plant us into this world. He Himself says: “I am not of this world! … My kingdom is not of this world! … The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 8:23; 18:36; 7:7). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). Concerning His followers, Jesus says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world” (John 17:16). To His followers He says: “You shall be hated by all men and all nations for My Name’s sake! … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own! But because you are not of the world―for I have chosen you out of the world―therefore the world hates you!” (Matthew 10:22; 24:9; John 15:19). “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 7:7).
Which is why Holy Scripture adds fighting-talk that we mainly choose and like to ignore: “Whatsoever is born of God, overcomes the world! And this is the victory which overcomes the world―our Faith!” (1 John 5:4). “Wonder not, brethren, if the world hate you!” (1 John 3:13). “They are of the world―therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them!” (1 John 4:5). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “For they that are according to the flesh, mind the things that are of the flesh―but they that are according to the spirit, mind the things that are of the spirit. For the wisdom of the flesh is death―but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace. Because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God―for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. And they who are in the flesh, cannot please God.” (Romans 8:5-8)
► DIVORCED SOULS: Divorce is a final separation that has resulted from various degrees of dissatisfaction, disagreement, disputes, divisions, disappointments, discouragement, deceptions, distrust, disgust, etc. Some marriages persevere through all troubles―other marriages break-up and the spouses separate permanently. The same can be said of a “spiritual divorce” from God and the Faith. Ever increasing numbers of Catholics are “divorcing” themselves from God and the Faith and are leaving to find “new pastures”.
Millions have left the Catholic Church, especially in the U.S., with about 43% of those raised Catholic no longer identifying with the Faith, though figures vary, showing substantial losses often outweighing converts, with reasons including disagreement with Church teachings, declining belief, and scandals. Estimates suggest over 30 million people have left Catholicism in the U.S. since 1975. 50% of Catholics aged 30 and younger have left the Church. For every one new adult member, around 6 to 7 Catholics are departing. When are they leaving? 79% leave before the age of 23. The median age of those who leave is 13. While data is strongest for the U.S., similar trends of decline and significant member loss are seen in Europe, with some countries losing many more members than they gain. In 1957 around 75% of U.S. Catholics attended Sunday Mass regularly; in 1973, only 34% of U.S. Catholic Sunday Mass regularly; by 2002 that number had dropped to 20%; and by 2022 it fell even lower, down to 11%. Yet of those who no longer attend Sunday Mass regularly, 73% say you can be a good Catholic without attending Sunday Mass!
► TRAFFICKING SOULS: In recent years, the term “soul trafficking” has emerged as a disturbing reality in discussions about modern-day exploitation and spiritual warfare. Soul trafficking refers to the exploitation and manipulation of the spiritual well-being of individuals for personal gain or malevolent purposes. Soul trafficking delves into the realm of the spiritual, for the manipulation and exploitation of souls for nefarious purposes. This can take various forms, including manipulation through false teachings, deception, coercion into occult practices, or involvement in rituals that seek to control or harm others spiritually. From a Christian perspective, soul trafficking is rooted in the spiritual battle between good and evil.
Our Lord warned us to beware of this deception and slavery to error: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves!” (Matthew 7:15). “Take heed that no man seduce you! For many will come in My Name, saying, ‘I am Christ!’ and they will seduce many!” (Matthew 24:4-5). “False prophets shall arise, and shall seduce many!” (Matthew 24:11). “Then if any man shall say to you: Behold―here is Christ!’ do not believe him! For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive―if possible―even the elect! … Therefore if they shall say to you: ‘Behold―He is in the desert!’ ― go ye not out. Or if they shall say to you: ‘Behold―He is in the closets!’ believe it not!” (Matthew 24:23-26). Hence St. Paul warns us that “our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). Likewise, St. Peter: “There shall be among you lying teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition!” (2 Peter 2:1). So too St. John: “Believe not every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they be of God―because many false prophets are gone out into the world!” (1 John 4:1).
Soul trafficking embodies this spiritual warfare, as individuals are deceitfully lured into darkness and bondage by deceptive tactics of the enemy. Among the many visions granted by God to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (died in 1824), we see this aspect of deception and soul-trafficking clearly stated in the visions that foretold that a fake-church would overcome the true-Church founded by Jesus Christ. Here are just a few pertinent and startling extracts:
“I saw a long processions of bishops [The four different sessions of the Second Vatican Council, held from 1962 to 1965, had between 2,000 and 2,500 bishops in daily attendance]. Their thoughts and utterances were made known to me through images issuing from their mouths. Their faults towards religion were shown by external deformities ... I saw what I believe to be nearly all the bishops of the world [the Second Vatican Council assembled almost all the bishops in the world], but only a small number were perfectly sound ... I saw some good pious bishops; but they were weak and wavering, their cowardice often got the upper hand … A concession was demanded from the clergy which could not be granted. Many older priests wept bitterly. A few younger ones were also weeping. But others, and the lukewarm among them, readily did what was demanded. It was as if people were splitting into two camps ... Priests were among them! … Priests allowed everything and said Mass with much irreverence. I saw that few of them were still godly priests ... I saw some good pious bishops―but they were weak and wavering, their cowardice often got the upper hand … Very bad times will come when non-Catholics will lead many people astray. A great confusion will result … When the time of the reign of Antichrist is near, a false religion will appear which will be opposed to the unity of God and His Church. This will cause the greatest schism the world has ever known. The nearer the time of the end, the more the darkness of Satan will spread on Earth, the greater will be the number of the children of corruption, and the number of the just will correspondingly diminish … I see in the future religion falling so low that it will be practiced only here and there in farmhouses and in families protected by God during the horrors of war.
“I had a vision of two churches … I saw a great circle of darkness ever widening … I now see that in this place [Rome], the [Catholic] Church is being so cleverly undermined, that there hardly remain a hundred or so priests who have not been deceived. They all work for its destruction ― even the clergy … They were building a large, strange, and extravagant church there in Rome … There was nothing holy in it. They had preaching and singing, but nothing else [which possibly implies the absence of the true Sacrifice of the Mass in this new church], and only very few attended it [today’s regular Sunday Mass attendance in Catholic countries is abysmal: Brazil (8%), France (8%), Lithuania (16%), Austria (20%), Portugal (20%), Argentina (21%)] … There―in the strange big church―all the work was being done according to human reason ... All in this church belonged to the Earth, returned to the Earth. All was dead, the work of human skill, a church of the latest style, a church of man’s invention … There was nothing holy in it!
“I saw the fatal consequences of this counterfeit church … All sorts of abominations were perpetrated there … I saw how harmful would be the consequences of this false church. I saw it increase in size; I saw heretics of all kinds flocking to the city of Rome … Everyone was to be admitted in it in order to be united and have equal rights―Evangelicals, Catholics, sects of every description [all of which describes the current false spirit of Ecumenism that invaded the Church at the Council] ... The Protestant doctrine and that of the schismatic Greeks is to spread everywhere! … Then I saw that everything pertaining to Protestantism was gradually gaining the upper hand, and the Catholic religion fell into complete decadence ... I saw all sorts of people, things, doctrines, and opinions ... Then I saw darkness spreading around and people no longer seeking the true Church … The Church is in great danger! It was shown to me that there were almost no Christians left in the old acceptation of the word! … The Church is completely isolated and as if completely deserted. It seems that everyone is running away.” (Extracts from the visions granted by God to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich).
Infiltration or Imagination?
Has the Catholic Church been significantly infiltrated? There are some who “pooh-pooh” such an argument as being unworthy of serious consideration. Yet such a skeptical attitude is (1) clearly opposed to various prophecies made by Our Lord, Our Lady and the saints, and (2) is in contradiction to the increasingly bad fruits that the Catholic Church has been producing over the last 100 years or so, and (3) it rashly ignores the testimonies of both, Church members and also the enemies of the Church.
► OUR LORD spoke of wolves in the clothing of sheep who would even fool the elect if that were possible―that implies that those wolves will be found INSIDE the Church rather than outside the Church.
► OUR LADY also indicates the same thing when she says: “The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops … Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic Sects! … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell and they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God … The small number of souls who will preserve the Faith will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom … The leaders of the people of God will neglect prayer and penance … The devil will introduce sinners into religious orders … The secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties … Many priests will lose their spirit … Priests―by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries; by their love of money; their love of honors and pleasures; by their wicked lives, will become cesspools of impurity … God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society … Many people will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil! … The Church will decompose and many will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops! ... A number of religious institutions will lose all Faith and will cause many souls to be damned! ... The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals.” (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
► ST. METHODIUS OF PATARA (250 - 311), a bishop martyred in the 4th century, prophesied: “In the last period Christians will be very ungrateful, lead a sinful life, in pride, vanity, unchastity, frivolity, hatred, avarice, gluttony, and many other vices, that the sins of men will stink more than a pestilence before God. Many will doubt whether the Catholic Faith is the true and only saving faith and whether the Jews are correct when they still expect the Messias. Many will be the false teachings and resultant bewilderment. The just God will, in consequence, give Lucifer and all his devils power to come on Earth … The time will come when the enemies of Christ will boast: ‘We have subjected the Earth and all its inhabitants, and the Christians cannot escape our hands!’”
► ST. ANTHONY OF THE DESERT (251 - 356) foretold: “Men will surrender to the spirit of the age. They will say that if they had lived in our day, Faith would be simple and easy. But in their day, they will say, things are complex; the Church must be brought up to date and made meaningful to the day’s problems [That is what Vatican II set out to do]. When the Church and the world are one, then those days are at hand because our Divine Master placed a barrier between His things and the things of the world.”
► ST. NILUS OF SINAI (died 430), was a priest and disciple of St. John Chrysostom. Concerning the End Times, he wrote: “After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable. People’s minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions, and dishonor and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will become unrecognizable. People’s appearances will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair. These people will be cruel and will be like wild animals. There will be no respect for parents and elders, love will disappear, and Christian pastors, bishops, and priests will become vain men, completely failing to distinguish the right way from the wrong. The Churches of God will be deprived of God-fearing and pious pastors, and woe to the Christians remaining in the world at that time―they will completely lose their Faith because they will lack the opportunity of seeing the light of knowledge from anyone at all. At that time the morals and traditions of Christians and of the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, and adultery, homosexuality, secret deeds and murder will rule in society. At that future time―due to the power of such great crimes and licentiousness―people will be deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which they received in Holy Baptism, and they will be equally deprived of remorse for their sins.”
► ST. HILDEGARD (1098 - 1179), a German Benedictine abbess, philosopher, mystic and visionary, foretells: “The time is coming when princes and people will renounce the authority of the Pope. Individual countries will prefer their own Church rulers to the Pope. Heretics will preach their false doctrines undisturbed, resulting in Christians having doubts about their holy Catholic Faith.”
► ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI (1181 - 1226) foresaw a future great apostasy and persecution of the Church that would be brought about through the false authority, or “schism” of an antipope: “There will be an uncanonically elected pope who will cause a great Schism, there will be diverse thoughts preached which will cause many, even those in the different orders to doubt, yea, even agree with those heretics which will cause my Order to divide, then will there be such universal dissension and persecutions that if those days were not shortened even the elect would be lost.”
► SAINT NICHOLAS OF FLÜE (1417 - 1487), prophesied: “The Church will be punished because the majority of her members, high and low, will become so perverted. The Church will sink deeper and deeper until she will at last seem to be extinguished, and the succession of Peter and the other Apostles to have expired.”
► ST. JOHN BOSCO (1815–1888) made a prophecy in the mid-1800s which directly referred to the end of the 1900s and the start of the 2000s as a prophetic turning point after a period of chaos in the Church (the Great Apostasy), following an Ecumenical Council in the 20th century (Vatican II was the only Ecumenical Council in the 20th century): “There will be an Ecumenical Council in the next century, after which there will be chaos in the Church!”
► DR. BELLA VISONO DODD (1904 - 1969), baptized in the Catholic Church as Maria Assunta Isabella, came to the USA as a young child. After studies at Columbia University and the School of Law at New York University where she received a Degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence, she joined the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) from 1932–1948, and from 1944 to 1948 sat on the CPUSA’s National Council. After her defection from the Communist Party in 1949, she testified that one of her jobs, as a Communist agent, was to encourage young radicals to enter Roman Catholic seminaries. She returned to the Faith in 1952, thanks to Archbishop Fulton Sheen. In her book, School of Darkness (1954) she reveals that Communism was perpetrated by financiers “to control the common man” and to advance world tyranny. In front of the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee, Dodd testified about the plans of a Communist infiltration of Catholic Church: “In the late 1920’s and 1930’s, directives were sent from Moscow to all Communist Party organizations. In order to destroy the Roman Catholic Church from within, party members were to be planted in seminaries and within diocesan organizations … In the 1930s we put eleven hundred (1,100) men into the priesthood, in order to destroy the Church from within. The idea was for these men to be ordained, and then climb the ladder of influence and authority as Monsignors and Bishops … Right now they are in the highest places in the Church” — where they were working to bring about change in order to weaken the Church’s effectiveness against Communism. She also said that these changes would be so drastic that “you will not recognize the Catholic Church.”
► POPE PIUS XII (1876 - 1958), prior to his elevation to the papacy in 1939, made the following astonishing prophecy about a coming upheaval in the Church: “Suppose, dear friend, that Communism [one of ‘the errors of Russia’ mentioned in the Message of Fatima] was only the most visible of the instruments of subversion to be used against the Church and the traditions of Divine Revelation … I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s messages to Lucy of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul … I hear all around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject Her ornaments and make Her feel remorse for Her historical past. A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God. In our churches, Christians will search in vain for the red lamp where God awaits them. Like Mary Magdalene, weeping before the empty tomb, they will ask: ‘Where have they taken Him?’”
► FATHER JOSEPH SCHWEIGL (1894 - 1964), entrusted in 1952 by Pope Pius XII with a secret mission to interview Sister Lucy about the Third Secret of Fatima, subsequently stated: “I cannot reveal anything of what I learned at Fatima concerning the Third Secret, but I can say that it has two parts―one concerns the Pope; the other logically―although I must say nothing―would have to be the continuation of the words: ‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.’”
► CARDINAL SILVIO ODDI (1910 - 2001), a personal friend of Pope John XXIII and who had spoken to him regarding the Third Secret of Fatima, later gave the following testimony to Italian journalist, Lucio Brunelli, in the journal Il Sabato: “It [the Third Secret] has nothing to do with Gorbachev. The Blessed Virgin was alerting us against apostasy in the Church.”
► CARDINAL MARIO CIAPPI (1909 - 1996)―who was the personal papal theologian to Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II―revealed to a Professor Baumgartner in Salzburg “In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.”
► FATHER MALACHI MARTIN (1921 - 1999), secretary to Cardinal Bea (a close advisor to Pope John XXIII), stated that in 1960, Cardinal Bea was allowed to read the Third of Fatima, which he shared with Fr. Malachi Martin. Bound by oath not to reveal the Third Secret, he only commented on different speculative versions that were circulating at that time. In response to a quotation that a pope would be under the control of Satan, he responded: “Yes, it sounds as if they were reading the text of the Third Secret.” He also stated that if the Secret were made public, the confessionals and churches would be filled with parishioners on their knees. He said that the central element of the Secret is awful, and that it concerns apostasy.
► FATHER JOSE VALINHO―Sister Lucia’s nephew―related his opinion of the contents of the Third Secret: “I believe that (the third) part of the secret concerns the Church from within, perhaps doctrinal difficulties, a crisis of unity, rebellion. The last sentence my aunt [Lucia] wrote, which precedes the part that is still unknown, says: ‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc.’ … Therefore, people elsewhere in the Church might waver on dogma … It is some kind of universal crisis which affects the whole Church and all of humanity.”
► ARCHBISHOP CARLO MARIA VIGANÒ (born 1941)―who served as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States from 2011 to 2016 and as secretary-general of the Governorate of Vatican City State from 2009 to 2011―addressed this infiltration in a 2018 interview with Dr. Moynihan, saying: “It is a project, if you will, that goes back centuries, in particular, to the creation in the middle of the 1700s of Freemasonry … This project was very deceptive, and oriented, or even included in some way, the forces of some members of the Church … This process of infiltration became strikingly evident in modern times … The Second Vatican Council, in 1962, … was the beginning of an opening, the first break in the wall of the procedure that had been established, in the process of creating a new Church!”
► ARCHBISHOP FULTON SHEEN (1895 - 1979), speaking on the End Times, said: “We are living in the days of the Apocalypse — the last days of our era — The two great forces of the Mystical Body of Christ and the Mystical Body of Antichrist are beginning to draw up the battle lines for the catastrophic contest. The False Prophet will have a religion without a cross. A religion without a world to come. A religion to destroy religions. There will be a counterfeit church. Christ’s Church will be one. And the False Prophet will create the other. The false church will be worldly ecumenical, and global. It will be a loose federation of churches and religions forming some type of global association, world parliament of churches. It will be emptied of all divine content and will be the mystical body of the Antichrist. The Mystical Body on Earth today will have its Judas Iscariot and he will be the false prophet. Satan will recruit him from among our bishops.”
► ST. PADRE PIO (1887 - 1968), around the year 1960, said to the chief exorcist of Rome, Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “It is Satan who has been introduced into the bosom of the Church and within a short very short time he will come to rule a false church.”
► FR. GABRIEL AMORTH (1925 - 2016) himself stated: “One day Padre Pio said to me very sorrowfully: ‘You know what, Gabriele? It is Satan who has been introduced into the bosom of the Church and within a very short time he will come to rule a false Church!’” On other occasions, Fr. Amorth said: “The influence of Satan is immense! The smoke of Satan has entered everywhere. Everywhere! Satanism is on the increase. Today Satan rules the world. The masses no longer believe in God. And, yes, Satan is in the Vatican! … One day Padre Pio said to me very sorrowfully: ‘You know what, Gabriele? It is Satan who has been introduced into the bosom of the Church and within a very short time he will come to rule a false Church!’ … I have no doubt about the fact that the demon tempts the authorities of the Church especially―just as he tempts every authority, those of politics and industry ... Pope Paul VI talked about the ‘smoke of Satan’ infiltrating the Vatican as long ago as 1972. Satan sets out to damage the leadership of the Church … The devil resides in the Vatican ... The Devil is at work inside the Vatican … In the Vatican there are members of Satanic cults― priests, monsignors and even cardinals. I know from people who reported to me how they got to know this directly. It is something, “confessed” several times by the Devil, himself, under obedience during the exorcisms … Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan! The devil loves to take over business leaders and those who hold political office! Today, Satan has free hands ... The loss of a sense of sin―that characterizes our era―helps Satan to act nearly undisturbed … Primarily, today we live in a period of little Faith ... It is purely mathematical―when Faith declines, when we abandon God, we open the door to Satan. Satanism is spreading enormously! The loss of a sense of sin―that characterizes our era―helps Satan to act nearly undisturbed … Satan continually tries to dominate the world ― the whole world is in the power of the evil one!”
Executions of the Solutions
The enemies of the Church who have progressively infiltrated the Church, have progressively weakened and even executed and destroyed the solutions to both Church and World crises that Heaven has told us to use to overcome these crises. If Satan rules the world―which he does for the most part―then we already know the weapons that are to be used to overthrow him. They are listed in Holy Scripture and have been repeatedly hammered into us over the centuries by the popes and saints; as well being repeatedly stated in the various apparitions, visions and allocutions given to us by Our Lord and Our Lady. It takes no “rocket-scientist” to uncover them, nor does it take amounts of training and skill to use them. The world depends, trusts and relies on human weapons―we should rely upon heavenly weapons. Besides―who ever heard of the devils being defeated by atom-bombs, missiles, bombs and bullets?!!!
Holy Scripture tells us to put our trust in God and heavenly weapons, rather than trusting in man and mere human weapons: “Put not your trust in princes!” (Psalm 145:2). “Trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God!” (1 Timothy 6:17). “Some trust in chariots, and some trust in horses―but we will call upon the Name of the Lord our God!” (Psalm 19:8). “We should not trust in ourselves, but in God, Who had delivered and does deliver us out of so many great dangers―in Him we trust that He will yet also deliver us!” (2 Corinthians 1:9-10). “I will save them by the Lord their God―and I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen!” (Osee 1:7). “I will not trust in my bow―neither shall my sword save me!” (Psalm 43:7). “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can do unto me! The Lord is my helper―and I will look over my enemies! It is good to confide in the Lord, rather than to have confidence in man! It is good to trust in the Lord, rather than to trust in princes! All nations surrounded me―and in the Name of the Lord I have been revenged on them!” (Psalm 117:6-10). “Thy hand, O God, destroyed the Gentiles, and Thou didst afflict and cast them out! For your people did not take possession of the land by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them―but through Thy right hand and Thy arm!” (Psalm 43:3-4). “Wheresoever they went in without bow and arrow, and without shield and sword―their God fought for them and overcame and there was no one that triumphed over this people!” (Judith 5:16-17). “I will deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword―but thy life shall be saved because thou hast put thy trust in Me, says the Lord” (Jeremias 39:18).
Just as our ultimate helper is God, likewise our ultimate enemy is Satan. Speaking of Satan and his fellow devils, OUR LORD said: “This kind is not cast out except by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20) … “And He said to them: ‘This kind can go out by nothing except by prayer and fasting!” (Mark 9:28). Our Lord prayed and fasted in the desert for forty days and nights―after which He easily overcame the temptations of the Devil: “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the Devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards He was hungry. And the tempter coming said to Him: ‘If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread!’ Jesus answered and said: ‘It is written: “Not in bread alone does man live, but in every word that proceeds from the mouth of God!”’ Then the Devil took Him up into the holy city, and set Him upon the pinnacle of the Temple, and said to Him: ‘If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down, for it is written: “That He has given His angels charge over Thee, and in their hands shall they bear Thee up, lest perhaps Thou dash Thy foot against a stone!”’ Jesus said to him: ‘It is written again: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God!”’ Again the Devil took Him up into a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and said to Him: ‘All these will I give Thee, if falling down Thou wilt adore me!’ Then Jesus said to him: ‘Begone, Satan! For it is written: “The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve!”’ Then the devil left Him” (Matthew 4:1-11).
Prayer and fasting are regarded as essentials in any exorcisms that exorcists undertake. As the chief exorcist of Rome, FR. GABRIELE AMORTH used to say: “Our Lady’s messages speak about Satan. She often spoke about this. She underlined that Satan is powerful and that he wants to destroy her plans. She invited us to pray, to pray, to pray! Through prayer, we can even stop wars! Maybe we do not pray with the heart―this is possible!! We must pray in Faith, not mechanically! Pray with Faith―and prayer increases Faith and Charity. According to Our Lady’s words in Fatima, if we had prayed and fasted, there would not have been World War II. We did not listen to her and therefore there was a war. Our Lady speaks often about prayer and fasting ... If Our Lady insists so much on fasting, then why does the Church not speak much about it? It’s a good question! … The devil is more tranquil if he does not have to live with prayer, fasting, the Eucharist, and the other Sacramental practices! … Who ought to pray and fast? Everyone! … I recommend three tips that Jesus gives to heal the ills of evil, even without the need for exorcisms: (1) much Faith (2) much prayer and (3) fasting. I remember the advice that Jesus gave to nine Apostles who failed to release a young man from demons. ‘Why do not you have Faith? It takes prayer and fasting to banish some demons!”
As Fr. Amorth said: “Our Lady speaks often about prayer and fasting ... If Our Lady insists so much on fasting, then why does the Church not speak much about it? It’s a good question!” If the world is progressively getting worse―which it undoubtedly is―they wouldn’t you think that we would need more prayer and penance rather than less prayer and penance? So why did Pope Paul VI give everyone a 95% discount on Lenten fasting by reducing the 40-day Lenten Fast to a mere 2-days―Ash Wednesday and Good Friday? If more penance is needed to combat Satan and the world, then why throw-out the Ember Days (Ember Wednesday, Ember Friday and Ember Saturday―a trio of days that occurred 4 times a year? How often do priests preach on the need for sacrifice? Our Lady said at Fatima: Many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer! … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners!” The Angel of Fatima had also said: “Pray! Pray a great deal! Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High! Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended, and as a petition for the conversion of sinners. Above all, accept and bear with submission all the sufferings the Lord will send you!” How often do we here those things preached? Hardly ever! O how happy Satan must be!
We live in a shocking world where hardly anyone is shocked anymore! What should be shocking is merely a part of everyday life! Sure―many will utter “shock” with their lips, but their hearts are far from being shocked. You could almost say that it would be shocking to see these people being really and truly shocked! Shock is merely expressed as social convention or customary reaction rather than being a true state of mind and heart.
People are no longer shocked primarily due to desensitization from repeated exposure to distressing events, habituation where the brain responds less to constant stimuli, and a slow escalation of crises by small increments. Consistent exposure to negativity reduces its impact over time. When extreme political or social shifts occur gradually, society accepts them in small increments rather than reacting against. Furthermore, a saturated media environment where constant, rapid-fire news and social media exposure to catastrophes, violence and scandals eventually dulls emotional responses, a normalization of shocking events and leads to a collective, jaded apathy―whereby nothing is surprising anymore, leading to a loss of empathy. We start to become accustomed to high stress and accept the occurrence of shocking events, as if it is the new normal. The more these things happen, the less shocking they feel. Exposure to repeated traumatic events can cause us to be numb to future events or normalize them― and can lead to depressive symptoms due to feelings of hopelessness or helplessness, whereby we feel that nothing will change the situation and that is pointless trying to do something about it. The digital age has turned outrage into a commodity. The sheer volume of shocking digital content makes people numb to it, with constant exposure reducing the ability to feel surprise or horror. Research has repeatedly shown that we become desensitized as the number of individuals affected by particular events increase. In addition to cognitive adaptation to events over time, humans also experience a type of psychic numbing when dealing with events that involve large numbers of people. We have an easier time feeling empathy for one person than for large groups of people.
Just look at the gradual incremental escalation in certain behaviors, attitudes and practices over the last 60 to 70 years―and see how gradual increases have gradually eroded protests against them.
► IMMODEST FASHIONS: Already after the Second World War fashions were deemed to be becoming more and more immodest―yet the gradual demise of modesty resulted in very little protest and correction. In the early to mid-20th century, US authorities frequently arrested women for “immodest” dress, focusing on swimwear length and the wearing of pants in public or court. The “new normal” level of modesty today would most certainly be classified as outrageous modesty in the days of old―and rightly so.
► ADULTERY: Infidelity is difficult to research. Few willingly admit it. University of Colorado scientists asked 4,800 married women about infidelity during the previous year―using both face-to-face interviews and an anonymous questionnaire. In the interviews, only 1% admitted infidelity, whereas in the anonymous questionnaire, 6% admitted infidelity. Whatever numbers surveys show, the reality is that the real number is considerably higher than that. The likelihood of men cheating is generally higher than that of women: Recent statistics from the General Social Survey revealed that 20% of men and 13% of women reported having sex with someone other than their spouse while married. Women are slightly more likely than men to commit infidelity among ever-married people between the ages of 18 and 29 (11% vs. 10%). Adultery rates increase during the middle ages for both men and women. This gap quickly closes and expands among those 30 to 34 years old as people get older. The rate of adultery is highest among women in their 60s (16%), but it declines significantly among those in their 70s and 80s. Comparatively, the highest rate of infidelity is found among men in their 70s (26%), and it is still prevalent in men 80 and beyond (24%). In the past, older men were no more likely to commit adultery than their younger counterparts. Infidelity rates peaked in the 1990s among men and women between the ages of 40 and 49 (18%) and 50 to 59 (31%). The highest rates of infidelity increased between 2000 and 2009, with men aged 60 to 69 (29%) and women aged 50 to 59 (17%).
► DIVORCE: On the subject of marital divorce, in the early American Colonies divorce was rare and often required proof of fault like adultery or desertion. In 1969, California passed the first no-fault divorce law, allowing couples to end marriages without assigning blame. By the 1980s, most U.S. states adopted no-fault divorce, followed by other Western countries. New York was the last U.S. state to adopt it in 2010. As laws became less stringent, rates increased, with roughly 40% of first marriages in the U.S. now ending in divorce. Nobody is shocked by divorce anymore―it has become a “new normal” and accepted option for marriage.
► CONTRACEPTION: As regards contraception, in 1873 Congress passed the Comstock Act, which criminalized using the U.S. Postal Service to mail any obscenity, contraceptives or abortifacients, and authorized the postal service to confiscate birth control sold through the mail. By 1914, public health nurse Margaret Sanger coined the term “birth control” and began her decades-long campaign to make contraceptives legal and available to women in America. In 1916 Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The next year, a New York court convicts Sanger of “maintaining a public nuisance” by dispensing contraceptive devices and sentences her to jail for 30 days. Once released, Sanger re-opens her clinic and continues to persevere through more arrests and prosecutions. In 1917, she begins publishing the magazine Birth Control Review to educate the public about contraception. In 1921 Sanger founded the American Birth Control League, the precursor of Planned Parenthood, at the First American Birth Control Conference in New York City. In 1950, while in her 80s, Sanger organized support for research to create the first birth control pill. By 1960, the first oral contraceptive was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It quickly became known simply as “the Pill.” By 1972, the Supreme Court legalized birth control for unmarried people. In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot constitutionally place any restrictions on the advertisement, sale, and distribution of contraceptives to individuals of any age. In 1998–1999, the FDA approved the first brands of emergency contraception that can used after intercourse to prevent pregnancy. In 2013 the FDA approved over-the-counter sales of the emergency contraception for people under the age of 18. Little by little one goes far! Little by little all shock is eliminated―perhaps there is a “contrashocking pill”?
► ABORTION: You can find a similar pattern for abortion―from criminalization in the late 1800s to legalization in the early 1970s. In 1880, all states in the U.S. had laws to restrict abortion — with exceptions in some states if a doctor said the abortion was needed to save the life or health of the patient, or for therapeutic reasons. By 1910, abortion was not only restricted, but was totally illegal at every stage in pregnancy in every state in the country. These abortion bans had some exceptions in instances to save the patient’s life — a decision that only doctors had the power to make. Criminalizing abortion sent the practice underground. In 1955, due to increasingly alarming media coverage of unsafe, illegal abortions, Planned Parenthood held a first-of-its-kind conference on the issue of abortion. The doctors who attended the national conference on abortion made the bold move to publicly call for abortion law reform, calling for laws to be rewritten to allow doctors greater latitude to provide abortion services. In 1964, abortion law reform activists created the Association for the Study of Abortion (ASA), advocating for abortion law reforms. In a clever strategic move to incrementally increase abortion access, the ASA advocated only for "medically necessary" abortion―but other members of the larger abortion law reform movement wanted a full repeal to legalize abortion for all people.
In 1966, in one of the first abortion reform measures in the United States, California amended its prohibition on abortion to allow hospital committees to approve requests for abortion. By the late 1960s, a nationwide effort was underway to reform abortion laws in nearly every state. Health care providers, advocates, clergy members, and the legal community lobbied state legislatures and went to court to overturn statutes that had been in place since before the turn of the century. Between 1967 and 1973, four states — Alaska, Hawaii, New York, and Washington — repealed their abortion bans entirely, while 13 others enacted reforms that expanded exceptions. Instead of just allowing for abortion to save the patient’s life, they now allowed it in instances where a pregnancy was dangerous for the physical or mental health of a patient, fetal abnormalities, and when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. In 1970, New York state legalized abortion. One day after that law took effect, a Planned Parenthood health center in Syracuse became the first Planned Parenthood health center to provide abortion services, and the first free-standing abortion center nationwide. In the first two years after abortion was legalized in New York, two-thirds of the abortions performed in the state were on patients who had traveled from other states — most of which still outlawed abortion. At the time, other states that had legalized abortion required patients to be state residents. In 1973, In a landmark decision Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the due process clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution protects the right to abortion and allowed the right to abortion in all 50 states, making abortion services safer and more accessible throughout the country. In particular, the Supreme Court recognized for the first time that the constitutional right to privacy “is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.”
According to the World Health Organization, Around 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide each year. The U.S. hovers around the 900,000 mark per year. Some argue that the number of abortions is falling in number―but they fail to take into account the fact that since 2020, over 50% of all abortions are now achieved through taking medicine at home that will provoke the abortion. In 2014, Guttmacher found that in the U.S., 38% women getting abortions reported no religious affiliation while the majority had some form of religious affiliation — 24% were Roman Catholic, 17% were mainline Protestant, 13% were evangelical Protestant, and 8% were another affiliation.
► PORNOGRAPHY: Although pornography dates back thousands of years, its existence in the U.S. can be traced to its 18th-century origins. Pornography has existed since the origins of the United States, and has become more readily accessible over the years. Pornographic film production commenced almost immediately after the invention of the motion picture in 1895. In the 20th century, the era of “blue movies” began with the silent films of the 1920s and continued throughout the post-war era as film technology improved and equipment costs were reduced. Beginning in 1969 with Blue Movie by Andy Warhol, the subsequent Golden Age of Porn and more permissive legislation, saw a rise of adult theaters in the United States, and many other countries. Several studies have found that the United States has been the largest producer of pornography. By 1982, pornographic film production had switched to the cheaper and more convenient medium of video tape. In the late 1990s, pornographic films were distributed on DVD. The introduction and widespread availability of the Internet further changed the way pornography was distributed. Online porn consumption has increased by 91% since 2000. Previously videos would be rented or purchased through mail-order, but with the Internet people could watch pornographic movies immediately on their computers―or a movie could be downloaded within minutes or, later, within a few seconds.
Today 40 million American people regularly visit porn sites. 35% of all internet downloads are related to pornography. 34% of internet users have experienced unwanted exposure to pornographic content through ads, pop up ads, misdirected links or emails. 54% of practicing Christians admit to viewing pornography. Moreover, 49% of practicing Christians who admit to personally viewing pornography say they are “comfortable with how much pornography” they use. 47% of Christians have said pornography is a major problem in the home. As a Catholic Answers article states: “Ideally, Catholic men would be immune to this vice, but the reality is that they, too, are viewing pornography and masturbating in high numbers. In spite of this fact, men are afraid to talk about it, and it is rarely discussed.” Every day 37 pornographic videos are created in the United States; 2.5 billion emails containing porn are sent or received; 68 million search queries related to pornography―25% of total searches―are generated.
Jesuit priest Father Morton A. Hill (1917–1985) was a leader of the campaign against pornography in the United States in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He was one of the founders of Morality in Media, which was created in 1962 to fight pornography. So prominent was Hill on the issue, that in 1969 President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. Father Hill and another clergyman on the commission, Dr. Winfrey C. Link, believed that the commission was stacked with supporters of loosening laws on pornography, who held that pornography should be decriminalized!
► CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE: The global prevalence of child sexual abuse has been estimated at 25% for females and 8% for males. Most sexual abuse offenders are acquainted with their victims; approximately 30% are relatives of the child―most often brothers, fathers, uncles, or cousins; around 60% are other acquaintances, such as “friends” of the family, babysitters, or neighbors; 10% of child sexual abuse cases are committed by strangers. From 1970 to 2010, the public and professional awareness of child sexual abuse in the United States of America has grown from almost none to daily public attention in newspapers and other news media. In 2023, reports of child sexual abuse and exploitation reached critical levels, particularly regarding online crimes. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a record 36.2 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2023.
With the advent of the internet, there is now the added threat of online sexual abuse for children. University researchers say that more than 300 million children a year are victims of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse. It indicates that one in eight, or 12.6%, of the world’s children have been victims of non-consensual taking, sharing and exposure to sexual images and video in the past year. That amounts to about 302 million young people. In addition, another 12.5% of children globally (300 million) are estimated to have been subject in the past year to online solicitation, such as unwanted sexual talk which can include non-consensual sexting, unwanted sexual questions and unwanted sexual act requests by adults or other youths. Offences can also take the form of sexual extortion, where predators demand money from victims to keep images private, to abuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI) deep fake technology ― used to generate false sexual images of people.
► HUMAN TRAFFICKING: Human trafficking is a complex global issue — taking place in both the United States and in every country around the world. The UNODC's (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) Global Report noted that forced labor is the biggest form of trafficking globally, surpassing sexual exploitation, according to their latest estimates. Whereas in U.S., statistics report a prevalence of human trafficking for sexual exploitation as being the chief area― About 58% sex trafficking, 16% labor, 11% both, and 15% unspecified. European Union Data showed trafficking as being 63% women/girls, 13% children, with sexual exploitation and labor exploitation as the primary goals for human trafficking. Today, there are 49.6 million people in modern slavery worldwide, and 12 million of them are children. (ILO, United Nations).
● 54% of those trapped in modern slavery are women and girls. (International Labor Organization)
● Sex trafficking is the most common type of trafficking in the U.S. (Polaris)
● There were 88 million child sexual abuse material (CSAM) files reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) tip line in 2022.
● Child sex trafficking has been reported in all 50 U.S. states. (NCMEC)
● Forced commercial sexual exploitation generates $173 billion in illegal profits annually. (International Labor Organization, 2024)
● Human trafficking is the second most profitable illegal industry in the U.S. (UNICEF)
The Contraception, Abortion, Abuse, Adultery, Divorce and Trafficking of SOULS
Our Catholic Faith teaches us that the soul is of more importance than the body. Already in the children’s catechism we read: “Man is a creature composed of body and soul, and made to the image and likeness of God. This likeness is chiefly in the soul. The soul is like God because it is a spirit that will never die. We must take more care of our soul than of our body, because in losing our soul we lose God and everlasting happiness.” (Baltimore Catechism #2 & Baltimore Catechism #2 & Baltimore Catechism #4). Similarly, those three catechisms tell us that “God made me to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this life so that I can be happy with Him in the next life in Heaven.” This is echoed by the Catechism of Pope St. Pius X: “Man is a rational creature composed of soul and body. The soul is the noblest part of man, because it is a spiritual substance, endowed with intelligence and will, capable of knowing God and of possessing Him for all eternity.”
As Jesus said: “If you love Me, keep My commandments!” (John 14:15). We find it hard to serve those whom we do not love―and we cannot love those whom we do not know. Hence the chronological order in the Catechism answer: “God made me to KNOW Him, LOVE Him and SERVE Him…” As Jesus says: “Why do you call Me ‘Lord! Lord’ and do not do the things that I say?” (Luke 6:46). St. Thérèse of Lisieux comments: “Jesus is so little loved because He is so little known!” Our problem is that we find hundreds of more interesting things than Jesus that we want to know about!
► CONTRACEPTIVE SOULS: As Our Lord said, we are meant to bear fruit for God: “My Father is the farmer. Every branch that bears not fruit, He will take away! And every branch that bears fruit, He will purge it, so that it may bring forth more fruit! In this is My Father glorified; that you bring forth very much fruit!” (John 15:1-8). The Seed of the Word of God is meant to produce fruit in us: “The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seeds in his field. The sower went out to sow his seed. The seed is the Word of God. And they by the way side are they that hear the Word. When any one hears the word of the kingdom, and understands it not, the devil, Satan, comes [the birds of the air] and takes the word [of God], which was sown in his heart, out of his heart―lest believing he should be saved―this is he that received the seed by the way side. And he that received the seed upon the rock or stony ground, is he that hears the word of God, immediately receives it with joy and believes for a while. Yet he has no root in himself, but keeps the word of God only for a time. For, in time of temptation, when tribulation and persecution arises because of the word of God, he is suddenly scandalized [weakened] and he falls away. And he that received the seed among thorns, is he that hears the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of this life, choke up the word of God, and the word becomes fruitless and yields no fruit.” (Matthew 13:3-8, 13:18-23; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-15). Thus we see various forms of “spiritual contraception” that prevent the Seed of the Word of God producing fruit in our lives. “Seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand!” (Matthew 13:13).
► ABORTIVE SOULS: Abortion is a focal subject of discussion in our world, and the word is usually applied to the physical abortion of a child. Abortion is the killing of life within the womb of a mother. Spiritual abortion could be said to be the killing of the life of Sanctifying Grace within our souls. God dwells in our souls through Sanctifying Grace, which is the life of God in our souls―when we commit a Mortal Sin, it results in casting out God and His life-giving Sanctifying Grace from the “womb” of our soul. The word “mortal” comes from the Latin “mortālis” (meaning “subject to death”), which is a derivative of “mors” (meaning “death”). Mortal sin brings death to the life of grace in the soul: “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15).
The Catechism, speaking of Mortal Sin, says: “This sin is called mortal, or deadly, because it deprives the sinner of Sanctifying Grace, the supernatural life of the soul. Without Sanctifying Grace, the soul is displeasing to God, unclean, and can never behold Him or be with Him in Heaven. Without Sanctifying Grace the soul is without God ... One Mortal Sin
is enough to rob us of Sanctifying Grace, for it is by Mortal Sin only that the soul is separated entirely from God … He who has not sanctifying grace is spiritually dead, and will suffer eternal ruin! … Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, or poverty, because it separates us from God” (Catechism: My Catholic Faith, Bishop Morrow; The Catechism Explained, Fr. Spirago & Fr. Clarke).
Abortion was certainly known in the ancient world, but one of the Fathers of the Church understood the reality of abortion in a deeper sense. St. Gregory of Nyssa applied it to our whole being: “We are in a sense our own parents, and we give birth to ourselves by our own free choice of what is good. Such a choice becomes possible for us when we have received God into ourselves and have become children of God, children of the Most High. On the other hand, if what the Apostle calls the form of Christ has not been produced in us, we abort ourselves. The man of God must reach maturity.”
► ABUSIVE SOULS: In Catholic teaching, “abusing” God refers to various forms of sin and irreverence, primarily concerning the misuse of God’s Name (blasphemy, ridicule, defiance, false oaths); the abuse of God’ grace and mercy (by presumptuous sin when individuals knowingly continue in sin with the presumption that God will automatically forgive them later, essentially treating salvation like a “game” or a license to sin); showing disrespect in worship; or through immoral actions that use God or His teachings to erroneously justify them.
Sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons. That freedom is not s freedom to sin―but it is a freedom by which we freely and willingly choose to love and serve God. Sin is first of all an offense against God by abusing His authority by disobeying His commandments―and it involves a rejection and abuse of God’s love for us: “If you love Me, keep My commandments!” (John 14:1). Mortal Sin―as stated above―casts out Sanctifying Grace which is the life of God in the soul. Analogically speaking, you could say Mortal Sin is like trying to murder or kill God. Venial Sin does not cast out God and Sanctifying Grace from the soul―but you could say that Venial Sin is like punching, kicking, beating and slapping God around within our soul. There are many who think little or nothing of Venial Sin―saying that they won’t be sent to Hell for committing Venial Sins. That does not mean that Venial Sin is not evil! All sin is evil―Mortal or Venial. The Catechisms teach us: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial Sin is second only in evil consequences to Mortal Sin … Sometimes people say: ‘It is only a little sin, it does not matter much!’ But every Venial Sin is an offence against God, and therefore is, after Mortal Sin, the greatest of evils―far greater than any of the physical evils which can be inflicted on us!” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD; The Catechism Simply Explained, by Fr. Cafferata, q. 127).
These people live in revolving door of sin and ask for mercy; sin again and ask for mercy again; sin and ask for more mercy, etc., etc. Often, they will refuse to forgive others, despite seeking God’s mercy and forgiveness for themselves! To willingly and readily commit Venial Sins, with the excuse that you will not go to Hell for them, is an abuse of God and an abuse of God’s mercy. St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his sermon on the Abuse of Divine Mercy, writes: “Why does God wait for sinners? Is it that they may continue to insult Him? No! He waits for them that they may renounce sin, and that thus He may have pity on them, and forgive them. ‘Therefore the Lord waits, so that He may have mercy on you!’ (Isaias 30:1, 8). But when He sees that the time which He gave them to weep over their past iniquities is spent in multiplying their sins, He begins to inflict chastisements. Christians sin and say: ‘God is merciful! I will commit this sin, and will afterwards confess it!’ Behold the illusion, or rather the snare, by which Satan draws so many souls to Hell. ‘Commit sin,’ says Satan, ‘and confess it afterwards!’ But listen to what the Lord says: ‘Say not: “I have sinned, and what harm has befallen me?” Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin; and say not: “The mercy of the Lord is great! He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!”’ (Ecclesiasticus 5:4-9). Some rash sinners will say: ‘God has until now shown me so many mercies―why should He not treat me with the same mercy in the future?’ I answer: ‘He will show you mercy, if you wish to change your life! But if you intend to continue to offend Him, He tells you that He will take vengeance on your sins by casting you into Hell!’ There are some who will not believe that there is a Hell until they fall into it!
“St. Bernard says, that the confidence which sinners have in God's goodness when they commit sin, procures for them, not a blessing, but a malediction from the Lord. They do not hope for the pardon of the sins of which they repent; but they hope that, though they continue to commit sin, God will have mercy upon them; and thus they make the mercy of God serve as a motive for continuing to offend Him― which is an abomination to the Lord! He that sins with, the hope of pardon, saying: ‘I will afterwards repent, and God will pardon me!’ is, according to St. Augustine, not a penitent, but a scoffer. The Apostle tells us that ‘God is not mocked!’ (Galatians 6:7). It would be a mockery of God to offend Him as often and as long as you please, and always to receive the pardon of your offences.” (Sermon by St. Alphonsus Liguori, On the Abuse of Divine Mercy).
► ADULTEROUS SOULS: Our Lord speaks out against spiritual adultery when He says: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24). Holy Scripture takes up this teaching and adds: “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15) ... “The whole world is seated in wickedness!” (1 John 5:19) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
If you love the world, then you have Satan for your lover! Why? Because Satan is the prince of this world and he uses the world to seduce us and draw us away from God. Our Lord said: “The prince of this world is coming, and in Me he has not anything … The prince of this world is already judged ... Now shall the prince of this world be cast out!” (John 12:31; 16:11; 14:30). “That great dragon―that old serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan―was cast out and he was cast unto the Earth, and he seduces the whole world! … Woe to the Earth, because the devil is come down unto you!” (Apocalypse 12:9-12). “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). “They that will [desire or want to] become rich, fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition!” (1 Timothy 6:9). Therefore, “what fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God! As God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). St. Bernadette of Lourdes echoes this in her account of the third apparition of Our Lady: “She told me that she did not promise to make me happy in this world, but in the next.”
As Our Lord said to the rich young man: “’If you want to be perfect, go sell whatsoever you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven, and then come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, he went away sorrowful―or he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-25).
What most Catholics fail to realize is that Christ is not advocating the world, nor recommending the world, nor placing the world in a neutral position in relation to Himself. Christ came to save us from this world―and not to plant us into this world. He Himself says: “I am not of this world! … My kingdom is not of this world! … The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 8:23; 18:36; 7:7). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). Concerning His followers, Jesus says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world” (John 17:16). To His followers He says: “You shall be hated by all men and all nations for My Name’s sake! … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own! But because you are not of the world―for I have chosen you out of the world―therefore the world hates you!” (Matthew 10:22; 24:9; John 15:19). “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 7:7).
Which is why Holy Scripture adds fighting-talk that we mainly choose and like to ignore: “Whatsoever is born of God, overcomes the world! And this is the victory which overcomes the world―our Faith!” (1 John 5:4). “Wonder not, brethren, if the world hate you!” (1 John 3:13). “They are of the world―therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them!” (1 John 4:5). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “For they that are according to the flesh, mind the things that are of the flesh―but they that are according to the spirit, mind the things that are of the spirit. For the wisdom of the flesh is death―but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace. Because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God―for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. And they who are in the flesh, cannot please God.” (Romans 8:5-8)
► DIVORCED SOULS: Divorce is a final separation that has resulted from various degrees of dissatisfaction, disagreement, disputes, divisions, disappointments, discouragement, deceptions, distrust, disgust, etc. Some marriages persevere through all troubles―other marriages break-up and the spouses separate permanently. The same can be said of a “spiritual divorce” from God and the Faith. Ever increasing numbers of Catholics are “divorcing” themselves from God and the Faith and are leaving to find “new pastures”.
Millions have left the Catholic Church, especially in the U.S., with about 43% of those raised Catholic no longer identifying with the Faith, though figures vary, showing substantial losses often outweighing converts, with reasons including disagreement with Church teachings, declining belief, and scandals. Estimates suggest over 30 million people have left Catholicism in the U.S. since 1975. 50% of Catholics aged 30 and younger have left the Church. For every one new adult member, around 6 to 7 Catholics are departing. When are they leaving? 79% leave before the age of 23. The median age of those who leave is 13. While data is strongest for the U.S., similar trends of decline and significant member loss are seen in Europe, with some countries losing many more members than they gain. In 1957 around 75% of U.S. Catholics attended Sunday Mass regularly; in 1973, only 34% of U.S. Catholic Sunday Mass regularly; by 2002 that number had dropped to 20%; and by 2022 it fell even lower, down to 11%. Yet of those who no longer attend Sunday Mass regularly, 73% say you can be a good Catholic without attending Sunday Mass!
► TRAFFICKING SOULS: In recent years, the term “soul trafficking” has emerged as a disturbing reality in discussions about modern-day exploitation and spiritual warfare. Soul trafficking refers to the exploitation and manipulation of the spiritual well-being of individuals for personal gain or malevolent purposes. Soul trafficking delves into the realm of the spiritual, for the manipulation and exploitation of souls for nefarious purposes. This can take various forms, including manipulation through false teachings, deception, coercion into occult practices, or involvement in rituals that seek to control or harm others spiritually. From a Christian perspective, soul trafficking is rooted in the spiritual battle between good and evil.
Our Lord warned us to beware of this deception and slavery to error: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves!” (Matthew 7:15). “Take heed that no man seduce you! For many will come in My Name, saying, ‘I am Christ!’ and they will seduce many!” (Matthew 24:4-5). “False prophets shall arise, and shall seduce many!” (Matthew 24:11). “Then if any man shall say to you: Behold―here is Christ!’ do not believe him! For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive―if possible―even the elect! … Therefore if they shall say to you: ‘Behold―He is in the desert!’ ― go ye not out. Or if they shall say to you: ‘Behold―He is in the closets!’ believe it not!” (Matthew 24:23-26). Hence St. Paul warns us that “our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). Likewise, St. Peter: “There shall be among you lying teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition!” (2 Peter 2:1). So too St. John: “Believe not every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they be of God―because many false prophets are gone out into the world!” (1 John 4:1).
Soul trafficking embodies this spiritual warfare, as individuals are deceitfully lured into darkness and bondage by deceptive tactics of the enemy. Among the many visions granted by God to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (died in 1824), we see this aspect of deception and soul-trafficking clearly stated in the visions that foretold that a fake-church would overcome the true-Church founded by Jesus Christ. Here are just a few pertinent and startling extracts:
“I saw a long processions of bishops [The four different sessions of the Second Vatican Council, held from 1962 to 1965, had between 2,000 and 2,500 bishops in daily attendance]. Their thoughts and utterances were made known to me through images issuing from their mouths. Their faults towards religion were shown by external deformities ... I saw what I believe to be nearly all the bishops of the world [the Second Vatican Council assembled almost all the bishops in the world], but only a small number were perfectly sound ... I saw some good pious bishops; but they were weak and wavering, their cowardice often got the upper hand … A concession was demanded from the clergy which could not be granted. Many older priests wept bitterly. A few younger ones were also weeping. But others, and the lukewarm among them, readily did what was demanded. It was as if people were splitting into two camps ... Priests were among them! … Priests allowed everything and said Mass with much irreverence. I saw that few of them were still godly priests ... I saw some good pious bishops―but they were weak and wavering, their cowardice often got the upper hand … Very bad times will come when non-Catholics will lead many people astray. A great confusion will result … When the time of the reign of Antichrist is near, a false religion will appear which will be opposed to the unity of God and His Church. This will cause the greatest schism the world has ever known. The nearer the time of the end, the more the darkness of Satan will spread on Earth, the greater will be the number of the children of corruption, and the number of the just will correspondingly diminish … I see in the future religion falling so low that it will be practiced only here and there in farmhouses and in families protected by God during the horrors of war.
“I had a vision of two churches … I saw a great circle of darkness ever widening … I now see that in this place [Rome], the [Catholic] Church is being so cleverly undermined, that there hardly remain a hundred or so priests who have not been deceived. They all work for its destruction ― even the clergy … They were building a large, strange, and extravagant church there in Rome … There was nothing holy in it. They had preaching and singing, but nothing else [which possibly implies the absence of the true Sacrifice of the Mass in this new church], and only very few attended it [today’s regular Sunday Mass attendance in Catholic countries is abysmal: Brazil (8%), France (8%), Lithuania (16%), Austria (20%), Portugal (20%), Argentina (21%)] … There―in the strange big church―all the work was being done according to human reason ... All in this church belonged to the Earth, returned to the Earth. All was dead, the work of human skill, a church of the latest style, a church of man’s invention … There was nothing holy in it!
“I saw the fatal consequences of this counterfeit church … All sorts of abominations were perpetrated there … I saw how harmful would be the consequences of this false church. I saw it increase in size; I saw heretics of all kinds flocking to the city of Rome … Everyone was to be admitted in it in order to be united and have equal rights―Evangelicals, Catholics, sects of every description [all of which describes the current false spirit of Ecumenism that invaded the Church at the Council] ... The Protestant doctrine and that of the schismatic Greeks is to spread everywhere! … Then I saw that everything pertaining to Protestantism was gradually gaining the upper hand, and the Catholic religion fell into complete decadence ... I saw all sorts of people, things, doctrines, and opinions ... Then I saw darkness spreading around and people no longer seeking the true Church … The Church is in great danger! It was shown to me that there were almost no Christians left in the old acceptation of the word! … The Church is completely isolated and as if completely deserted. It seems that everyone is running away.” (Extracts from the visions granted by God to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich).
Infiltration or Imagination?
Has the Catholic Church been significantly infiltrated? There are some who “pooh-pooh” such an argument as being unworthy of serious consideration. Yet such a skeptical attitude is (1) clearly opposed to various prophecies made by Our Lord, Our Lady and the saints, and (2) is in contradiction to the increasingly bad fruits that the Catholic Church has been producing over the last 100 years or so, and (3) it rashly ignores the testimonies of both, Church members and also the enemies of the Church.
► OUR LORD spoke of wolves in the clothing of sheep who would even fool the elect if that were possible―that implies that those wolves will be found INSIDE the Church rather than outside the Church.
► OUR LADY also indicates the same thing when she says: “The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops … Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic Sects! … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell and they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God … The small number of souls who will preserve the Faith will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom … The leaders of the people of God will neglect prayer and penance … The devil will introduce sinners into religious orders … The secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties … Many priests will lose their spirit … Priests―by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries; by their love of money; their love of honors and pleasures; by their wicked lives, will become cesspools of impurity … God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society … Many people will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil! … The Church will decompose and many will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops! ... A number of religious institutions will lose all Faith and will cause many souls to be damned! ... The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals.” (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
► ST. METHODIUS OF PATARA (250 - 311), a bishop martyred in the 4th century, prophesied: “In the last period Christians will be very ungrateful, lead a sinful life, in pride, vanity, unchastity, frivolity, hatred, avarice, gluttony, and many other vices, that the sins of men will stink more than a pestilence before God. Many will doubt whether the Catholic Faith is the true and only saving faith and whether the Jews are correct when they still expect the Messias. Many will be the false teachings and resultant bewilderment. The just God will, in consequence, give Lucifer and all his devils power to come on Earth … The time will come when the enemies of Christ will boast: ‘We have subjected the Earth and all its inhabitants, and the Christians cannot escape our hands!’”
► ST. ANTHONY OF THE DESERT (251 - 356) foretold: “Men will surrender to the spirit of the age. They will say that if they had lived in our day, Faith would be simple and easy. But in their day, they will say, things are complex; the Church must be brought up to date and made meaningful to the day’s problems [That is what Vatican II set out to do]. When the Church and the world are one, then those days are at hand because our Divine Master placed a barrier between His things and the things of the world.”
► ST. NILUS OF SINAI (died 430), was a priest and disciple of St. John Chrysostom. Concerning the End Times, he wrote: “After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable. People’s minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions, and dishonor and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will become unrecognizable. People’s appearances will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair. These people will be cruel and will be like wild animals. There will be no respect for parents and elders, love will disappear, and Christian pastors, bishops, and priests will become vain men, completely failing to distinguish the right way from the wrong. The Churches of God will be deprived of God-fearing and pious pastors, and woe to the Christians remaining in the world at that time―they will completely lose their Faith because they will lack the opportunity of seeing the light of knowledge from anyone at all. At that time the morals and traditions of Christians and of the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, and adultery, homosexuality, secret deeds and murder will rule in society. At that future time―due to the power of such great crimes and licentiousness―people will be deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which they received in Holy Baptism, and they will be equally deprived of remorse for their sins.”
► ST. HILDEGARD (1098 - 1179), a German Benedictine abbess, philosopher, mystic and visionary, foretells: “The time is coming when princes and people will renounce the authority of the Pope. Individual countries will prefer their own Church rulers to the Pope. Heretics will preach their false doctrines undisturbed, resulting in Christians having doubts about their holy Catholic Faith.”
► ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI (1181 - 1226) foresaw a future great apostasy and persecution of the Church that would be brought about through the false authority, or “schism” of an antipope: “There will be an uncanonically elected pope who will cause a great Schism, there will be diverse thoughts preached which will cause many, even those in the different orders to doubt, yea, even agree with those heretics which will cause my Order to divide, then will there be such universal dissension and persecutions that if those days were not shortened even the elect would be lost.”
► SAINT NICHOLAS OF FLÜE (1417 - 1487), prophesied: “The Church will be punished because the majority of her members, high and low, will become so perverted. The Church will sink deeper and deeper until she will at last seem to be extinguished, and the succession of Peter and the other Apostles to have expired.”
► ST. JOHN BOSCO (1815–1888) made a prophecy in the mid-1800s which directly referred to the end of the 1900s and the start of the 2000s as a prophetic turning point after a period of chaos in the Church (the Great Apostasy), following an Ecumenical Council in the 20th century (Vatican II was the only Ecumenical Council in the 20th century): “There will be an Ecumenical Council in the next century, after which there will be chaos in the Church!”
► DR. BELLA VISONO DODD (1904 - 1969), baptized in the Catholic Church as Maria Assunta Isabella, came to the USA as a young child. After studies at Columbia University and the School of Law at New York University where she received a Degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence, she joined the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) from 1932–1948, and from 1944 to 1948 sat on the CPUSA’s National Council. After her defection from the Communist Party in 1949, she testified that one of her jobs, as a Communist agent, was to encourage young radicals to enter Roman Catholic seminaries. She returned to the Faith in 1952, thanks to Archbishop Fulton Sheen. In her book, School of Darkness (1954) she reveals that Communism was perpetrated by financiers “to control the common man” and to advance world tyranny. In front of the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee, Dodd testified about the plans of a Communist infiltration of Catholic Church: “In the late 1920’s and 1930’s, directives were sent from Moscow to all Communist Party organizations. In order to destroy the Roman Catholic Church from within, party members were to be planted in seminaries and within diocesan organizations … In the 1930s we put eleven hundred (1,100) men into the priesthood, in order to destroy the Church from within. The idea was for these men to be ordained, and then climb the ladder of influence and authority as Monsignors and Bishops … Right now they are in the highest places in the Church” — where they were working to bring about change in order to weaken the Church’s effectiveness against Communism. She also said that these changes would be so drastic that “you will not recognize the Catholic Church.”
► POPE PIUS XII (1876 - 1958), prior to his elevation to the papacy in 1939, made the following astonishing prophecy about a coming upheaval in the Church: “Suppose, dear friend, that Communism [one of ‘the errors of Russia’ mentioned in the Message of Fatima] was only the most visible of the instruments of subversion to be used against the Church and the traditions of Divine Revelation … I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s messages to Lucy of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul … I hear all around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject Her ornaments and make Her feel remorse for Her historical past. A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God. In our churches, Christians will search in vain for the red lamp where God awaits them. Like Mary Magdalene, weeping before the empty tomb, they will ask: ‘Where have they taken Him?’”
► FATHER JOSEPH SCHWEIGL (1894 - 1964), entrusted in 1952 by Pope Pius XII with a secret mission to interview Sister Lucy about the Third Secret of Fatima, subsequently stated: “I cannot reveal anything of what I learned at Fatima concerning the Third Secret, but I can say that it has two parts―one concerns the Pope; the other logically―although I must say nothing―would have to be the continuation of the words: ‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.’”
► CARDINAL SILVIO ODDI (1910 - 2001), a personal friend of Pope John XXIII and who had spoken to him regarding the Third Secret of Fatima, later gave the following testimony to Italian journalist, Lucio Brunelli, in the journal Il Sabato: “It [the Third Secret] has nothing to do with Gorbachev. The Blessed Virgin was alerting us against apostasy in the Church.”
► CARDINAL MARIO CIAPPI (1909 - 1996)―who was the personal papal theologian to Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II―revealed to a Professor Baumgartner in Salzburg “In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.”
► FATHER MALACHI MARTIN (1921 - 1999), secretary to Cardinal Bea (a close advisor to Pope John XXIII), stated that in 1960, Cardinal Bea was allowed to read the Third of Fatima, which he shared with Fr. Malachi Martin. Bound by oath not to reveal the Third Secret, he only commented on different speculative versions that were circulating at that time. In response to a quotation that a pope would be under the control of Satan, he responded: “Yes, it sounds as if they were reading the text of the Third Secret.” He also stated that if the Secret were made public, the confessionals and churches would be filled with parishioners on their knees. He said that the central element of the Secret is awful, and that it concerns apostasy.
► FATHER JOSE VALINHO―Sister Lucia’s nephew―related his opinion of the contents of the Third Secret: “I believe that (the third) part of the secret concerns the Church from within, perhaps doctrinal difficulties, a crisis of unity, rebellion. The last sentence my aunt [Lucia] wrote, which precedes the part that is still unknown, says: ‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc.’ … Therefore, people elsewhere in the Church might waver on dogma … It is some kind of universal crisis which affects the whole Church and all of humanity.”
► ARCHBISHOP CARLO MARIA VIGANÒ (born 1941)―who served as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States from 2011 to 2016 and as secretary-general of the Governorate of Vatican City State from 2009 to 2011―addressed this infiltration in a 2018 interview with Dr. Moynihan, saying: “It is a project, if you will, that goes back centuries, in particular, to the creation in the middle of the 1700s of Freemasonry … This project was very deceptive, and oriented, or even included in some way, the forces of some members of the Church … This process of infiltration became strikingly evident in modern times … The Second Vatican Council, in 1962, … was the beginning of an opening, the first break in the wall of the procedure that had been established, in the process of creating a new Church!”
► ARCHBISHOP FULTON SHEEN (1895 - 1979), speaking on the End Times, said: “We are living in the days of the Apocalypse — the last days of our era — The two great forces of the Mystical Body of Christ and the Mystical Body of Antichrist are beginning to draw up the battle lines for the catastrophic contest. The False Prophet will have a religion without a cross. A religion without a world to come. A religion to destroy religions. There will be a counterfeit church. Christ’s Church will be one. And the False Prophet will create the other. The false church will be worldly ecumenical, and global. It will be a loose federation of churches and religions forming some type of global association, world parliament of churches. It will be emptied of all divine content and will be the mystical body of the Antichrist. The Mystical Body on Earth today will have its Judas Iscariot and he will be the false prophet. Satan will recruit him from among our bishops.”
► ST. PADRE PIO (1887 - 1968), around the year 1960, said to the chief exorcist of Rome, Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “It is Satan who has been introduced into the bosom of the Church and within a short very short time he will come to rule a false church.”
► FR. GABRIEL AMORTH (1925 - 2016) himself stated: “One day Padre Pio said to me very sorrowfully: ‘You know what, Gabriele? It is Satan who has been introduced into the bosom of the Church and within a very short time he will come to rule a false Church!’” On other occasions, Fr. Amorth said: “The influence of Satan is immense! The smoke of Satan has entered everywhere. Everywhere! Satanism is on the increase. Today Satan rules the world. The masses no longer believe in God. And, yes, Satan is in the Vatican! … One day Padre Pio said to me very sorrowfully: ‘You know what, Gabriele? It is Satan who has been introduced into the bosom of the Church and within a very short time he will come to rule a false Church!’ … I have no doubt about the fact that the demon tempts the authorities of the Church especially―just as he tempts every authority, those of politics and industry ... Pope Paul VI talked about the ‘smoke of Satan’ infiltrating the Vatican as long ago as 1972. Satan sets out to damage the leadership of the Church … The devil resides in the Vatican ... The Devil is at work inside the Vatican … In the Vatican there are members of Satanic cults― priests, monsignors and even cardinals. I know from people who reported to me how they got to know this directly. It is something, “confessed” several times by the Devil, himself, under obedience during the exorcisms … Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan! The devil loves to take over business leaders and those who hold political office! Today, Satan has free hands ... The loss of a sense of sin―that characterizes our era―helps Satan to act nearly undisturbed … Primarily, today we live in a period of little Faith ... It is purely mathematical―when Faith declines, when we abandon God, we open the door to Satan. Satanism is spreading enormously! The loss of a sense of sin―that characterizes our era―helps Satan to act nearly undisturbed … Satan continually tries to dominate the world ― the whole world is in the power of the evil one!”
Executions of the Solutions
The enemies of the Church who have progressively infiltrated the Church, have progressively weakened and even executed and destroyed the solutions to both Church and World crises that Heaven has told us to use to overcome these crises. If Satan rules the world―which he does for the most part―then we already know the weapons that are to be used to overthrow him. They are listed in Holy Scripture and have been repeatedly hammered into us over the centuries by the popes and saints; as well being repeatedly stated in the various apparitions, visions and allocutions given to us by Our Lord and Our Lady. It takes no “rocket-scientist” to uncover them, nor does it take amounts of training and skill to use them. The world depends, trusts and relies on human weapons―we should rely upon heavenly weapons. Besides―who ever heard of the devils being defeated by atom-bombs, missiles, bombs and bullets?!!!
Holy Scripture tells us to put our trust in God and heavenly weapons, rather than trusting in man and mere human weapons: “Put not your trust in princes!” (Psalm 145:2). “Trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God!” (1 Timothy 6:17). “Some trust in chariots, and some trust in horses―but we will call upon the Name of the Lord our God!” (Psalm 19:8). “We should not trust in ourselves, but in God, Who had delivered and does deliver us out of so many great dangers―in Him we trust that He will yet also deliver us!” (2 Corinthians 1:9-10). “I will save them by the Lord their God―and I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen!” (Osee 1:7). “I will not trust in my bow―neither shall my sword save me!” (Psalm 43:7). “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can do unto me! The Lord is my helper―and I will look over my enemies! It is good to confide in the Lord, rather than to have confidence in man! It is good to trust in the Lord, rather than to trust in princes! All nations surrounded me―and in the Name of the Lord I have been revenged on them!” (Psalm 117:6-10). “Thy hand, O God, destroyed the Gentiles, and Thou didst afflict and cast them out! For your people did not take possession of the land by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them―but through Thy right hand and Thy arm!” (Psalm 43:3-4). “Wheresoever they went in without bow and arrow, and without shield and sword―their God fought for them and overcame and there was no one that triumphed over this people!” (Judith 5:16-17). “I will deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword―but thy life shall be saved because thou hast put thy trust in Me, says the Lord” (Jeremias 39:18).
Just as our ultimate helper is God, likewise our ultimate enemy is Satan. Speaking of Satan and his fellow devils, OUR LORD said: “This kind is not cast out except by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20) … “And He said to them: ‘This kind can go out by nothing except by prayer and fasting!” (Mark 9:28). Our Lord prayed and fasted in the desert for forty days and nights―after which He easily overcame the temptations of the Devil: “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the Devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards He was hungry. And the tempter coming said to Him: ‘If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread!’ Jesus answered and said: ‘It is written: “Not in bread alone does man live, but in every word that proceeds from the mouth of God!”’ Then the Devil took Him up into the holy city, and set Him upon the pinnacle of the Temple, and said to Him: ‘If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down, for it is written: “That He has given His angels charge over Thee, and in their hands shall they bear Thee up, lest perhaps Thou dash Thy foot against a stone!”’ Jesus said to him: ‘It is written again: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God!”’ Again the Devil took Him up into a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and said to Him: ‘All these will I give Thee, if falling down Thou wilt adore me!’ Then Jesus said to him: ‘Begone, Satan! For it is written: “The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve!”’ Then the devil left Him” (Matthew 4:1-11).
Prayer and fasting are regarded as essentials in any exorcisms that exorcists undertake. As the chief exorcist of Rome, FR. GABRIELE AMORTH used to say: “Our Lady’s messages speak about Satan. She often spoke about this. She underlined that Satan is powerful and that he wants to destroy her plans. She invited us to pray, to pray, to pray! Through prayer, we can even stop wars! Maybe we do not pray with the heart―this is possible!! We must pray in Faith, not mechanically! Pray with Faith―and prayer increases Faith and Charity. According to Our Lady’s words in Fatima, if we had prayed and fasted, there would not have been World War II. We did not listen to her and therefore there was a war. Our Lady speaks often about prayer and fasting ... If Our Lady insists so much on fasting, then why does the Church not speak much about it? It’s a good question! … The devil is more tranquil if he does not have to live with prayer, fasting, the Eucharist, and the other Sacramental practices! … Who ought to pray and fast? Everyone! … I recommend three tips that Jesus gives to heal the ills of evil, even without the need for exorcisms: (1) much Faith (2) much prayer and (3) fasting. I remember the advice that Jesus gave to nine Apostles who failed to release a young man from demons. ‘Why do not you have Faith? It takes prayer and fasting to banish some demons!”
As Fr. Amorth said: “Our Lady speaks often about prayer and fasting ... If Our Lady insists so much on fasting, then why does the Church not speak much about it? It’s a good question!” If the world is progressively getting worse―which it undoubtedly is―they wouldn’t you think that we would need more prayer and penance rather than less prayer and penance? So why did Pope Paul VI give everyone a 95% discount on Lenten fasting by reducing the 40-day Lenten Fast to a mere 2-days―Ash Wednesday and Good Friday? If more penance is needed to combat Satan and the world, then why throw-out the Ember Days (Ember Wednesday, Ember Friday and Ember Saturday―a trio of days that occurred 4 times a year? How often do priests preach on the need for sacrifice? Our Lady said at Fatima: Many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer! … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners!” The Angel of Fatima had also said: “Pray! Pray a great deal! Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High! Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended, and as a petition for the conversion of sinners. Above all, accept and bear with submission all the sufferings the Lord will send you!” How often do we here those things preached? Hardly ever! O how happy Satan must be!
Article 1
Sunday, February 1st
Racing to Heaven? Run to Win! Don't Be a Loser!
Sunday, February 1st
Racing to Heaven? Run to Win! Don't Be a Loser!
Get the Spiritual Engine Serviced Before Lent
Before we know it, Lent will be upon us! This Sunday, Septuagesima Sunday, the Church will place before us the words of St. Paul, about running in a race in such a manner that we may win. “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that ye may obtain” (1 Corinthians 9: 24). In our lazy modern times, the car has replaced the two feet as the chief means of running around; but whether it is the athlete with his feet, or the driver with his car, the bottom line is that, to win a race, the athlete or the car has to be in peak condition. Most Catholic cars (souls) are far from being in peak condition—much like the Israelite ‘cars’ (souls) crossing the desert—most of whom were not pleasing to God, as the reading from the Mass of Septuagesima Sunday points out:
God’s Viewpoint of the Racers
“For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea: and did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the desert” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5).
Hence St. Paul warns us that “Now these things were done in a figure of us, that we should not covet evil things as they also coveted. Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play!’ Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you murmur: as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:6-12).
In a certain sense, they all ran in the race for the Promised Land, but only two of the original 4 or so million that started out from Egypt, actually entered the Promised Land and successfully crossed the ‘finish-line’—the remaining finishers were born in desert during those 40 years. With most of the ‘starters’ God was not well pleased! They ended up being starters and losers, not starter and finishers and winners.
Secondly, no athlete will win a competitive race without training beforehand. The car has to be tried out beforehand also, to see if all is running smoothly and well. This is what the Septuagesima season, with its three countdown Sundays (Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima) is for: a serious time of preparation for the even more serious time of Lent.
The means to win are fairly simple, but most engines misfire and overheat by using the means badly. The means, as Our Lady has tried to tell us many times, as PRAYER and PENANCE. You could say prayer is the gasoline and penance is the oil for the engine. Prayer is of the utmost importance to our ‘spiritual engine’; it is what drives our ‘spiritual body’ forwards and it is what gives it power.
The Power of Prayer
“Do we believe in the power of prayer? We know the common teaching of theologians: that true prayer—by which we ask something for ourselves with humility, confidence and perseverance, the graces necessary for salvation—is infallibly efficacious (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa IIae, Q.83, Art.15, ad 2). We know this doctrine, and yet it seems to us, at times, that we have truly prayed without being heard. We believe in, or rather we see, the power of a machine, of an army, of money and of knowledge; but we do not believe strongly enough in the efficacy of prayer.” (Rev. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, chapter 23).
The Gasoline of Grace comes through Prayer
“The modern world cannot do without God. This is the root of its ills. The great truth is that we have an absolute need of God…He normally bestows His grace only in response to prayer. Since our need exists at all times....”We ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1)....The true nature of Christian prayer is perfectly expressed in the following definition given by St. John Damascene and St. Thomas Aquinas: prayer is “a raising of the mind and heart towards God” to offer Him our homage and to ask Him for all those things of which we stand in need” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
Spinning Wheels and Going Nowhere
People often pray without realizing what it is that they are doing, or Whom they are addressing! God so rightly complains in Scripture saying: “This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:7).
St. Louis de Montfort―in speaking of praying the Rosary in particular―writes: “A single Hail Mary said properly is worth more than a hundred and fifty said badly … To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin. How can we expect God to listen to us if we ourselves do not pay attention to what we are saying? … It is sad to see how most people say the Rosary. They say it astonishingly fast, slipping over part of the words. We could not possibly expect anyone, even the most important person, to think that a slipshod address of this kind was a compliment, and yet we imagine that Jesus and Mary will be honored by it! Small wonder, then, that the most sacred prayers of our holy religion seem to bear no fruit, and that, after saying thousands of Rosaries, we are still no better than we were before!” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).
Dom Marmion adds: “It happens to some souls that, when they have recited many formulas, they realize that they have said nothing to God from the bottom of their hearts. Our mind may be far distant from the words that fall from our lips....In our prayer, we must give up to God our whole heart and our whole mind....Just as the sanctuary light burns itself up without reserving anything, so our soul, in its conversation with God, must be entirely dedicated to the Almighty. We must free ourselves from preoccupations and from vain thoughts, which tie the soul down to Earth and prevent it from being entirely given over to the Lord” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
Winning Races Requires Intensity
Many find prayer difficult. That is only natural, since we are trying to communicate with the supernatural world.
“Prayer always requires a certain effort, even from those who find in it their delight, because a certain strain is involved in the concentration necessary to speak to God; it is always more or less difficult to maintain the soul in an atmosphere which is above its usual level. That is why prayer can serve as a sacramental penance. We must not be surprised at this difficulty in applying ourselves to prayer: for to raise ourselves towards God, even in the smallest degree, is to exceed our natural powers” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
Focus on the Race, the Whole Race and Nothing but the Race
Too many people limit prayer to an isolated part of the day—first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Yet God should be part of our whole day, not just a mere ten minutes.
“Prayer in our life, must not be limited to a number of isolated, passing incidents. We must cultivate a spirit of prayer. What must we understand by this? A spirit of prayer is an habitual disposition of soul whereby, in our troubles and discouragements, as well as in our joys and successes, our hearts turn towards Our Lady and Our Lord, as to our best friends and most intimate confidants of our feelings. And it is not only in the morning and in the evening that the soul should be raised heavenwards, but always: ‘My eyes are ever towards the Lord’ (Psalm 24:15)” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ--The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
All Enter the Race, Not All Finish the Race
Prayer is actually a bending of our will towards the will of God. He wishes the salvation of all, but all will not be saved—and one of the contributory causes of failing to make it to Heaven is a lack of prayer; a lack of prayer by those who will be damned (the driver) and a lack of prayer on the part of others for the conversion of those unfortunate souls (the mechanics and maintenance crew).
“For material harvests, God prepared the seed, the rain that must help it germinate, the sun that will ripen the fruits of the Earth. Likewise, for spiritual harvest, He has prepared spiritual seeds, the divine graces necessary for sanctification and salvation. Prayer is one of the causes meant to produce that sanctification and salvation” (Rev. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, chapter 23). We can add to this the Biblical axiom of we reap what we sow: “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:8). Prayer is sowing in the spirit. Playing is sowing in the flesh. The Angel said to the children at Fatima: “Don’t play, but pray!”
“St. Gregory the Great says: ‘Men ought, by prayer, to dispose themselves to receive what Almighty God, from eternity, has decided to give them’ (Dialogues, Book 1, chapter 8). Thus, Christ, wishing to convert the Samaritan woman, led her to pray by saying to her: “If thou didst know the gift of God!” In the same way, He granted Mary Magdalen a strong and gentle actual grace, which inclined her to repentance and to prayer. He acted in the same way to Zacheus and the Good Thief. It is, therefore, as necessary to pray in order to obtain the help of God, as it is necessary to sow seed in order to have wheat. To those who say that, what was to happen would happen, whether they prayed or not, is as foolish as to maintain that, whether or not we sowed seed, wheat would still appear once summer came! Therefore, prayer is necessary to obtain the help of God, as seed is necessary for the harvest” (Rev. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, chapter 23).
The problems we face, arise from the fact that God is prepared to give far more than we are prepared to ask for—we are so lazy and negligent, lacking in confidence and perseverance, that we receive only a fraction of what God is prepared to give. The efficacy of prayer, correctly made, is infallibly assured by Christ:
“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you....And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? Or a fish, will he give him a serpent?...If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from Heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask Him?” (Luke 11:9-13). The problem does not lie with the Giver, but with us.
Some Racing Tips
Many of us become discouraged with prayer because our prayers are rarely, if ever heard. It is like entering the race just to make up numbers—but we never win! Yet, there are ways in which we can, almost infallibly, get our prayers answered and win that race! The spiritual writers or racers list the following chief tactics as “infallible” or guaranteed means of having our prayers favorably heard and answered:
1. Pray for what is good and not sinful or harmful to our salvation — We should always remember that what we want is not always what we need. At times, adversity is a better route to Heaven than prosperity. St. Augustine says: “We ought to be persuaded that what God refuses to our prayer, He grants to our salvation.”
2. Our prayer must be humble — Remember the prayer of the Pharisee and the Publican. Remember, too, Our Lady’s prayer, the Magnificat, wherein she says that God has “regarded the humility of His handmaid…He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble.” The Old Testament says: “...nor from the beginning have the proud been acceptable to Thee: but the prayer of the humble and the meek hath always pleased Thee” (Judith 9:16). “May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things” (Psalm 11:4). “Thou hast rebuked the proud” (Psalm 118:21). “Every proud man is an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 16:5).
3. Our prayer must be fervent —Too often our prayers are said listlessly, routinely, mechanically; our heart is not in them. Of such Our Lord said: “This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:7). Our prayers should be like grains of incense, placed on the hot coals of our hearts.
4. We should amend our life — If we persist in leading a life of sin, even venial sin, then we greatly handicap the chances of having our prayers heard. “He who turns his ears from hearing the law, his prayer is an abomination” (Proverbs 28:9).
5. We should forgive those who have injured us — This was the example of Christ dying on the cross: “Father, forgive them...” “If, therefore, thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee—Leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother: and then, coming, thou shalt offer thy gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). “Forgive thy neighbor if he hath hurt thee, and then shall thy sins be forgiven to thee, when thou prayest” (Ecclesiasticus. 28:2).
6. Our prayer should be united to good works or sacrifices — “Prayer is good with fasting and alms” (Tobias 12:8). That is why penance is so crucial in strengthening our prayer. Our Lady asks not only for prayer at Fatima, but prayer and sacrifices. The power of this is expressed in Scripture, where the Apostles failed to cast out a demon from one particular person, and asked Our Lord why they had failed. Our Lord replied: “This kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:20).
7. We should pray with confidence — Our Lord praised the Faith and confidence of persons on many occasions, saying: “Go, thy Faith has made thee whole…” (Matthew 9:22; Mark 5:34; 10:52; Luke 17:19; 18:42). He also told us that “all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive” (Matthew 21:22). Do we have that confidence in prayer?
8. We should pray with perseverance — “He defers the granting to increase our desire and appreciation” says St. Augustine. Our Lord Himself said: “Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say to you: Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Luke 11:8-9).
If we would only pray in the above manner, we would be amazed at the response our prayers would bring from Heaven! Keep in mind the words of St. Augustine: “The man who knows how to pray well, is the one who knows how to live well.” Which, for our purposes, translates into “Drive well, and you’ll win the race! Pray well, and you’ll get the grace!”
The Penance Part
You could say that the “prayer part” to Lent is like an athlete’s mental attitude. The “penance part” of Lent to be likened to the athlete’s bodily fitness. Winners are usually those athletes who are both mentally strong and physically fit and strong. The same can be said to be true of the spiritual life—which is why, when asked by His Apostles why they had failed to cast out the devil from a young boy, Our Lord replied: “But this kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20).
Wholly Wholesome Holy & Whole
Therefore, we need to use our WHOLE being in our spiritual warfare and in the spiritual race for Heaven—not just soul, but body too—for a human being is a composite of body and soul. Which is why Holy Scripture powerfully and almost severely commands both elements in unmistakably strong terms: “We ought always to pray, and not to faint!” (Luke 18:1) … “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) … “Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36) … “No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish! [and Our Lord then repeats Himself two verses later] … No, I say to you; but except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3-5) … “The Lord delayeth not his promise [of punishment], as some imagine, but dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance” (2 Peter 3:9) … “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride” (Job 24:23).
In fact, things are so intertwined, that we could say that prayer and penance are just as necessary for one and the other. We must pray with the mind and mortify the mind. We must pray with the body and mortify the body.
Furthermore, just as in a good healthy, nourishing diet, there has to be a balance and a variety in our prayers and penances. As in a diet we must have proper proportions of proteins, carbohydrates and fats, so too in our spiritual diet we have to have a balance between various bodily ‘proteins’, ‘carbohydrates’ and ‘fats’ and mental ‘proteins’, ‘carbohydrates’ and ‘fats’—in order to avoid become one-dimensional and restricted in our spirituality.
Specific Penances for Specific Sins
Prayer and Fasting are among the best penances that can be undertaken—as Our Lord points out: “This kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:20). Yet we must also remember that—in both Hell and Purgatory—sins are punished in a specific way that somehow corresponds to the type of sin committed. Thus, the murderer will be punished differently to the drunkard. The adulterer differently to the slanderer or detractor. The thief differently to the blasphemer, and so on and on and on. Likewise, our penances can and should correspond to our sins, even while we live on Earth. Everyone is different and so everyone’s sins differ from his or her neighbor’s sins. Therefore the appropriate penance will also be different. The general rule of thumb being—as St. Ignatius says in his Spiritual Exercises—“agere contra”, which literally means “act against” or “act in opposition to”—which more precisely means “do the opposite.”
Therefore, if you are naturally a critical person, then be more praising and more accepting. If you are stingy, then be more generous. If you are lazy, be more industrious. If too inattentive, show more attention. If too untidy, show a greater tidiness. If too timid, be more courageous. If too angry, be more meek. If never wrong, start apologizing for your errors. If lukewarm, be more fervent. If a constant complainer, thank God more for your lot in life. If greedy, be temperate. If proud, accept humiliations gladly. If always excusing yourself, blame yourself more. If unhelpful, be more helpful. You see the principle being used—the list is as endless as sins are endless in their nuances. The bedrock or foundation to all this can and should be prayer and fasting, but built on top of the foundation should be an individual building of tailor-made penance that corresponds to one’s own personal sins.
Start Planning Now!
Let’s be honest and admit it—we are not going to plan and put into practice such a tailor-made approach to penance on Ash Wednesday. The only place “winging-it” will get you to is the “Hall of Fame of Failure!” As you sow, so shall you reap. “He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly: and he who soweth in blessings, shall also reap blessings” (2 Corinthians 9:6).
Take a sheet of paper and write down your CHIEF faults—which are often those we do not want to face, or downplay, or even deny! If you’re not sure—then ask some honest, non-flattering, people around you who know you very well. Just don’t fall-out with them or injure them when the hit the nail on the head!
Once you have a STARTER list (you can add more as you start to diminish the frequency in committing the sins list in this first batch), then start to examine them in detail—when, where, how to they arise? With or against whom? What means are you avoiding to take, that could reduce these sins? Do you pray daily, even many times daily, asking for the grace to overcome them? Do you mortify yourself to avoid them? Do you punish yourself in some way after having committed them? List a variety of ways and methods open to you to overcome them—if unsure, consult with your confessor. Write down a series of heavier and heavier self-inflicted punishments or sanctions for every successive time you fail and fall. Make those sins the regular part of your confession, reporting if they have increased or decreased since your last confession.
Make Lent a Family Affair, Not Just Individual
Our Lord sent out His disciples in pairs—two-by-two—knowing full well that mutual support is necessary for courage, perseverance and success. The Legion of Mary also works this way—sending out its Legionaries in pairs as much as possible. In normal times, parishes had a least two priests stationed there—until the Post-Vatican fall in vocations shot-down that ideal in many places. God even made man and woman as a twosome in marriage. Pilots have their co-pilots. Presidents have Vice-Presidents. We often—though not always—work better as a team than we do alone.
Furthermore, on Judgement Day, it will not only be individuals that are judged, but also nations, states, communities, religious orders, parishes, schools, and even families. Therefore, as a family, it makes sense to approach Lent, not just from an individual perspective, but also from a family perspective. What was said of an individual assessment of one person’s chief sins, can also be applied to a ‘family’s sins’—though this is a little more difficult to pinpoint and address, for everyone’s participation in a ‘family sin’ is likely to be of a different degree—some being more guilty (instigators) and other less guilty (the followers or the coerced).
Nevertheless, there are certain family traits that can be either virtuous or sinful. It takes great humility and honesty to both see and admit to those faults. To attack one or two such family faults would be a marvelous communal penance for Lent. However, this will not happen on Ash Wednesday, at the flick of a switch—serious reflection and discussion is needed to see where a family has, as a group, let God down and offended Him, either directly or indirectly by sinning against our fellow human beings: “Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me!” (Matthew 25:40).
So now is the time, in a general way, to start planning for Lent—both individually or as a family or as a school or class. Parents, especially, should help their children well in advance and talk about Lent often during this Septuagesima Season, to prepare the mind and attitude of their children in good time, so that they hit the road running and with zeal, not distaste and trepidation. Some of the future Daily Thoughts articles will try to help with suggestions—while a special website page has been created to focus on this in particular: Ash Wednesday Countdown—which can be accessed click here.
Before we know it, Lent will be upon us! This Sunday, Septuagesima Sunday, the Church will place before us the words of St. Paul, about running in a race in such a manner that we may win. “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that ye may obtain” (1 Corinthians 9: 24). In our lazy modern times, the car has replaced the two feet as the chief means of running around; but whether it is the athlete with his feet, or the driver with his car, the bottom line is that, to win a race, the athlete or the car has to be in peak condition. Most Catholic cars (souls) are far from being in peak condition—much like the Israelite ‘cars’ (souls) crossing the desert—most of whom were not pleasing to God, as the reading from the Mass of Septuagesima Sunday points out:
God’s Viewpoint of the Racers
“For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea: and did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the desert” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5).
Hence St. Paul warns us that “Now these things were done in a figure of us, that we should not covet evil things as they also coveted. Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play!’ Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you murmur: as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:6-12).
In a certain sense, they all ran in the race for the Promised Land, but only two of the original 4 or so million that started out from Egypt, actually entered the Promised Land and successfully crossed the ‘finish-line’—the remaining finishers were born in desert during those 40 years. With most of the ‘starters’ God was not well pleased! They ended up being starters and losers, not starter and finishers and winners.
Secondly, no athlete will win a competitive race without training beforehand. The car has to be tried out beforehand also, to see if all is running smoothly and well. This is what the Septuagesima season, with its three countdown Sundays (Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima) is for: a serious time of preparation for the even more serious time of Lent.
The means to win are fairly simple, but most engines misfire and overheat by using the means badly. The means, as Our Lady has tried to tell us many times, as PRAYER and PENANCE. You could say prayer is the gasoline and penance is the oil for the engine. Prayer is of the utmost importance to our ‘spiritual engine’; it is what drives our ‘spiritual body’ forwards and it is what gives it power.
The Power of Prayer
“Do we believe in the power of prayer? We know the common teaching of theologians: that true prayer—by which we ask something for ourselves with humility, confidence and perseverance, the graces necessary for salvation—is infallibly efficacious (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa IIae, Q.83, Art.15, ad 2). We know this doctrine, and yet it seems to us, at times, that we have truly prayed without being heard. We believe in, or rather we see, the power of a machine, of an army, of money and of knowledge; but we do not believe strongly enough in the efficacy of prayer.” (Rev. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, chapter 23).
The Gasoline of Grace comes through Prayer
“The modern world cannot do without God. This is the root of its ills. The great truth is that we have an absolute need of God…He normally bestows His grace only in response to prayer. Since our need exists at all times....”We ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1)....The true nature of Christian prayer is perfectly expressed in the following definition given by St. John Damascene and St. Thomas Aquinas: prayer is “a raising of the mind and heart towards God” to offer Him our homage and to ask Him for all those things of which we stand in need” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
Spinning Wheels and Going Nowhere
People often pray without realizing what it is that they are doing, or Whom they are addressing! God so rightly complains in Scripture saying: “This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:7).
St. Louis de Montfort―in speaking of praying the Rosary in particular―writes: “A single Hail Mary said properly is worth more than a hundred and fifty said badly … To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin. How can we expect God to listen to us if we ourselves do not pay attention to what we are saying? … It is sad to see how most people say the Rosary. They say it astonishingly fast, slipping over part of the words. We could not possibly expect anyone, even the most important person, to think that a slipshod address of this kind was a compliment, and yet we imagine that Jesus and Mary will be honored by it! Small wonder, then, that the most sacred prayers of our holy religion seem to bear no fruit, and that, after saying thousands of Rosaries, we are still no better than we were before!” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).
Dom Marmion adds: “It happens to some souls that, when they have recited many formulas, they realize that they have said nothing to God from the bottom of their hearts. Our mind may be far distant from the words that fall from our lips....In our prayer, we must give up to God our whole heart and our whole mind....Just as the sanctuary light burns itself up without reserving anything, so our soul, in its conversation with God, must be entirely dedicated to the Almighty. We must free ourselves from preoccupations and from vain thoughts, which tie the soul down to Earth and prevent it from being entirely given over to the Lord” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
Winning Races Requires Intensity
Many find prayer difficult. That is only natural, since we are trying to communicate with the supernatural world.
“Prayer always requires a certain effort, even from those who find in it their delight, because a certain strain is involved in the concentration necessary to speak to God; it is always more or less difficult to maintain the soul in an atmosphere which is above its usual level. That is why prayer can serve as a sacramental penance. We must not be surprised at this difficulty in applying ourselves to prayer: for to raise ourselves towards God, even in the smallest degree, is to exceed our natural powers” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
Focus on the Race, the Whole Race and Nothing but the Race
Too many people limit prayer to an isolated part of the day—first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Yet God should be part of our whole day, not just a mere ten minutes.
“Prayer in our life, must not be limited to a number of isolated, passing incidents. We must cultivate a spirit of prayer. What must we understand by this? A spirit of prayer is an habitual disposition of soul whereby, in our troubles and discouragements, as well as in our joys and successes, our hearts turn towards Our Lady and Our Lord, as to our best friends and most intimate confidants of our feelings. And it is not only in the morning and in the evening that the soul should be raised heavenwards, but always: ‘My eyes are ever towards the Lord’ (Psalm 24:15)” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ--The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
All Enter the Race, Not All Finish the Race
Prayer is actually a bending of our will towards the will of God. He wishes the salvation of all, but all will not be saved—and one of the contributory causes of failing to make it to Heaven is a lack of prayer; a lack of prayer by those who will be damned (the driver) and a lack of prayer on the part of others for the conversion of those unfortunate souls (the mechanics and maintenance crew).
“For material harvests, God prepared the seed, the rain that must help it germinate, the sun that will ripen the fruits of the Earth. Likewise, for spiritual harvest, He has prepared spiritual seeds, the divine graces necessary for sanctification and salvation. Prayer is one of the causes meant to produce that sanctification and salvation” (Rev. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, chapter 23). We can add to this the Biblical axiom of we reap what we sow: “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:8). Prayer is sowing in the spirit. Playing is sowing in the flesh. The Angel said to the children at Fatima: “Don’t play, but pray!”
“St. Gregory the Great says: ‘Men ought, by prayer, to dispose themselves to receive what Almighty God, from eternity, has decided to give them’ (Dialogues, Book 1, chapter 8). Thus, Christ, wishing to convert the Samaritan woman, led her to pray by saying to her: “If thou didst know the gift of God!” In the same way, He granted Mary Magdalen a strong and gentle actual grace, which inclined her to repentance and to prayer. He acted in the same way to Zacheus and the Good Thief. It is, therefore, as necessary to pray in order to obtain the help of God, as it is necessary to sow seed in order to have wheat. To those who say that, what was to happen would happen, whether they prayed or not, is as foolish as to maintain that, whether or not we sowed seed, wheat would still appear once summer came! Therefore, prayer is necessary to obtain the help of God, as seed is necessary for the harvest” (Rev. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, chapter 23).
The problems we face, arise from the fact that God is prepared to give far more than we are prepared to ask for—we are so lazy and negligent, lacking in confidence and perseverance, that we receive only a fraction of what God is prepared to give. The efficacy of prayer, correctly made, is infallibly assured by Christ:
“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you....And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? Or a fish, will he give him a serpent?...If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from Heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask Him?” (Luke 11:9-13). The problem does not lie with the Giver, but with us.
Some Racing Tips
Many of us become discouraged with prayer because our prayers are rarely, if ever heard. It is like entering the race just to make up numbers—but we never win! Yet, there are ways in which we can, almost infallibly, get our prayers answered and win that race! The spiritual writers or racers list the following chief tactics as “infallible” or guaranteed means of having our prayers favorably heard and answered:
1. Pray for what is good and not sinful or harmful to our salvation — We should always remember that what we want is not always what we need. At times, adversity is a better route to Heaven than prosperity. St. Augustine says: “We ought to be persuaded that what God refuses to our prayer, He grants to our salvation.”
2. Our prayer must be humble — Remember the prayer of the Pharisee and the Publican. Remember, too, Our Lady’s prayer, the Magnificat, wherein she says that God has “regarded the humility of His handmaid…He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble.” The Old Testament says: “...nor from the beginning have the proud been acceptable to Thee: but the prayer of the humble and the meek hath always pleased Thee” (Judith 9:16). “May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things” (Psalm 11:4). “Thou hast rebuked the proud” (Psalm 118:21). “Every proud man is an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 16:5).
3. Our prayer must be fervent —Too often our prayers are said listlessly, routinely, mechanically; our heart is not in them. Of such Our Lord said: “This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:7). Our prayers should be like grains of incense, placed on the hot coals of our hearts.
4. We should amend our life — If we persist in leading a life of sin, even venial sin, then we greatly handicap the chances of having our prayers heard. “He who turns his ears from hearing the law, his prayer is an abomination” (Proverbs 28:9).
5. We should forgive those who have injured us — This was the example of Christ dying on the cross: “Father, forgive them...” “If, therefore, thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee—Leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother: and then, coming, thou shalt offer thy gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). “Forgive thy neighbor if he hath hurt thee, and then shall thy sins be forgiven to thee, when thou prayest” (Ecclesiasticus. 28:2).
6. Our prayer should be united to good works or sacrifices — “Prayer is good with fasting and alms” (Tobias 12:8). That is why penance is so crucial in strengthening our prayer. Our Lady asks not only for prayer at Fatima, but prayer and sacrifices. The power of this is expressed in Scripture, where the Apostles failed to cast out a demon from one particular person, and asked Our Lord why they had failed. Our Lord replied: “This kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:20).
7. We should pray with confidence — Our Lord praised the Faith and confidence of persons on many occasions, saying: “Go, thy Faith has made thee whole…” (Matthew 9:22; Mark 5:34; 10:52; Luke 17:19; 18:42). He also told us that “all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive” (Matthew 21:22). Do we have that confidence in prayer?
8. We should pray with perseverance — “He defers the granting to increase our desire and appreciation” says St. Augustine. Our Lord Himself said: “Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say to you: Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Luke 11:8-9).
If we would only pray in the above manner, we would be amazed at the response our prayers would bring from Heaven! Keep in mind the words of St. Augustine: “The man who knows how to pray well, is the one who knows how to live well.” Which, for our purposes, translates into “Drive well, and you’ll win the race! Pray well, and you’ll get the grace!”
The Penance Part
You could say that the “prayer part” to Lent is like an athlete’s mental attitude. The “penance part” of Lent to be likened to the athlete’s bodily fitness. Winners are usually those athletes who are both mentally strong and physically fit and strong. The same can be said to be true of the spiritual life—which is why, when asked by His Apostles why they had failed to cast out the devil from a young boy, Our Lord replied: “But this kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20).
Wholly Wholesome Holy & Whole
Therefore, we need to use our WHOLE being in our spiritual warfare and in the spiritual race for Heaven—not just soul, but body too—for a human being is a composite of body and soul. Which is why Holy Scripture powerfully and almost severely commands both elements in unmistakably strong terms: “We ought always to pray, and not to faint!” (Luke 18:1) … “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) … “Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36) … “No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish! [and Our Lord then repeats Himself two verses later] … No, I say to you; but except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3-5) … “The Lord delayeth not his promise [of punishment], as some imagine, but dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance” (2 Peter 3:9) … “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride” (Job 24:23).
In fact, things are so intertwined, that we could say that prayer and penance are just as necessary for one and the other. We must pray with the mind and mortify the mind. We must pray with the body and mortify the body.
Furthermore, just as in a good healthy, nourishing diet, there has to be a balance and a variety in our prayers and penances. As in a diet we must have proper proportions of proteins, carbohydrates and fats, so too in our spiritual diet we have to have a balance between various bodily ‘proteins’, ‘carbohydrates’ and ‘fats’ and mental ‘proteins’, ‘carbohydrates’ and ‘fats’—in order to avoid become one-dimensional and restricted in our spirituality.
Specific Penances for Specific Sins
Prayer and Fasting are among the best penances that can be undertaken—as Our Lord points out: “This kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:20). Yet we must also remember that—in both Hell and Purgatory—sins are punished in a specific way that somehow corresponds to the type of sin committed. Thus, the murderer will be punished differently to the drunkard. The adulterer differently to the slanderer or detractor. The thief differently to the blasphemer, and so on and on and on. Likewise, our penances can and should correspond to our sins, even while we live on Earth. Everyone is different and so everyone’s sins differ from his or her neighbor’s sins. Therefore the appropriate penance will also be different. The general rule of thumb being—as St. Ignatius says in his Spiritual Exercises—“agere contra”, which literally means “act against” or “act in opposition to”—which more precisely means “do the opposite.”
Therefore, if you are naturally a critical person, then be more praising and more accepting. If you are stingy, then be more generous. If you are lazy, be more industrious. If too inattentive, show more attention. If too untidy, show a greater tidiness. If too timid, be more courageous. If too angry, be more meek. If never wrong, start apologizing for your errors. If lukewarm, be more fervent. If a constant complainer, thank God more for your lot in life. If greedy, be temperate. If proud, accept humiliations gladly. If always excusing yourself, blame yourself more. If unhelpful, be more helpful. You see the principle being used—the list is as endless as sins are endless in their nuances. The bedrock or foundation to all this can and should be prayer and fasting, but built on top of the foundation should be an individual building of tailor-made penance that corresponds to one’s own personal sins.
Start Planning Now!
Let’s be honest and admit it—we are not going to plan and put into practice such a tailor-made approach to penance on Ash Wednesday. The only place “winging-it” will get you to is the “Hall of Fame of Failure!” As you sow, so shall you reap. “He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly: and he who soweth in blessings, shall also reap blessings” (2 Corinthians 9:6).
Take a sheet of paper and write down your CHIEF faults—which are often those we do not want to face, or downplay, or even deny! If you’re not sure—then ask some honest, non-flattering, people around you who know you very well. Just don’t fall-out with them or injure them when the hit the nail on the head!
Once you have a STARTER list (you can add more as you start to diminish the frequency in committing the sins list in this first batch), then start to examine them in detail—when, where, how to they arise? With or against whom? What means are you avoiding to take, that could reduce these sins? Do you pray daily, even many times daily, asking for the grace to overcome them? Do you mortify yourself to avoid them? Do you punish yourself in some way after having committed them? List a variety of ways and methods open to you to overcome them—if unsure, consult with your confessor. Write down a series of heavier and heavier self-inflicted punishments or sanctions for every successive time you fail and fall. Make those sins the regular part of your confession, reporting if they have increased or decreased since your last confession.
Make Lent a Family Affair, Not Just Individual
Our Lord sent out His disciples in pairs—two-by-two—knowing full well that mutual support is necessary for courage, perseverance and success. The Legion of Mary also works this way—sending out its Legionaries in pairs as much as possible. In normal times, parishes had a least two priests stationed there—until the Post-Vatican fall in vocations shot-down that ideal in many places. God even made man and woman as a twosome in marriage. Pilots have their co-pilots. Presidents have Vice-Presidents. We often—though not always—work better as a team than we do alone.
Furthermore, on Judgement Day, it will not only be individuals that are judged, but also nations, states, communities, religious orders, parishes, schools, and even families. Therefore, as a family, it makes sense to approach Lent, not just from an individual perspective, but also from a family perspective. What was said of an individual assessment of one person’s chief sins, can also be applied to a ‘family’s sins’—though this is a little more difficult to pinpoint and address, for everyone’s participation in a ‘family sin’ is likely to be of a different degree—some being more guilty (instigators) and other less guilty (the followers or the coerced).
Nevertheless, there are certain family traits that can be either virtuous or sinful. It takes great humility and honesty to both see and admit to those faults. To attack one or two such family faults would be a marvelous communal penance for Lent. However, this will not happen on Ash Wednesday, at the flick of a switch—serious reflection and discussion is needed to see where a family has, as a group, let God down and offended Him, either directly or indirectly by sinning against our fellow human beings: “Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me!” (Matthew 25:40).
So now is the time, in a general way, to start planning for Lent—both individually or as a family or as a school or class. Parents, especially, should help their children well in advance and talk about Lent often during this Septuagesima Season, to prepare the mind and attitude of their children in good time, so that they hit the road running and with zeal, not distaste and trepidation. Some of the future Daily Thoughts articles will try to help with suggestions—while a special website page has been created to focus on this in particular: Ash Wednesday Countdown—which can be accessed click here.
DAILY THOUGHTS FOR THE SEASON OF CHRISTMAS
Article 16
Saturday, January 31st
The Doomsday Clock ― Is it about a Solution? Or is about Collusion?
Saturday, January 31st
The Doomsday Clock ― Is it about a Solution? Or is about Collusion?
Appearances Can Deceive!
The Devil is a deceiver! Satan is seducer! He seeks to fool us by appearing under the guise of good, whereas his intentions are far from being good! “The Devil is a liar and the father of lies!” (John 8:44). “That great dragon, who is called the Devil and Satan, seduces the whole world!” (Apocalypse 12:9). “Satan transforms himself into an angel of light!” (2 Corinthians 11:14). “The Devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8).
Our Lord calls Satan “the prince of this world” on several occasions: “The prince of this world is coming and in Me he has not anything! … The prince of this world is already judged! ... Now shall the prince of this world be cast out!” (John 12:31; 16:11; 14:30). We too must cast out the prince of this world and the worldly influence that prince uses to seduce us into worldliness. “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
The Prince of this World Deceives us through the World
Our Lord clearly states that the world, in general, is evil and opposed to Him: “I am not of this world! … My kingdom is not of this world! … The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 8:23; 18:36; 7:7). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “The whole world is seated in wickedness!” (1 John 5:19) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
“Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation has justice with injustice? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘GO OUT FROM AMONG THEM, AND BE YE SEPARATE!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
Our Lord adds: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! For where your treasure is, there is your heart also! No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24).
There Are Only Two Options
Think what we want; believe what we want; say what we want; do what we want―the ultimate truth is that we are either on the side of Christ or on the side of Satan. Know it or not; like it or not; admit it or not; accept it or not―that is how it is! There is no third option; no third category; no spectatorship; no opting-out―ultimately we either work for Christ, or we work for Satan. We either do God’s work, or we do the Devil’s work. That is why Our Lord said to the Jewish Scribes and Pharisees: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do! He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth―because truth is not in him. For he is a liar and the father of lies!” (John 8:44).
Regardless of our own personal views, opinions and ideas―we either belong to Christ, or we belong to Satan: “He that is not with Me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30; Luke 11:23). “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you!” (John)” (John 14:15, 14:21; 15:14). Whereas, “He that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). The American Catholic exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger states: “Most people don’t know that the proper effect of every single mortal sin is demonic possession. It’s just that God blocks it in 99.9% of the cases.” Nevertheless, the more we sin mortally, the more we fall under the increasing control of the devil―not necessarily to the point of being possessed by the devil, but, having said that, exorcists have noticed that there is a danger that continually repeated mortal sins can eventually lead to full-blown possession: “He that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the recently deceased (2016) chief exorcist of Rome, said: “The most common way a demon can enter into someone’s life is through a habitual state of mortal sin. Those who live in a state of grace, those who pray most fervently, have a much better chance of obtaining divine intervention against the evil one, than those who do not practice their Faith or, worse, who live in a habitual state of mortal sin.” Another exorcist, Fr. Aga Tarog, warns: “Mortal sin is the primary entry point for demonic possession!”
Today's Tsunami of Sin
If those who sin are of the devil ― “He that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8) ― then today the world is of the devil BIG TIME! Already 70 years ago, Our Lady, in an apparition on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, 1956, said: “People are offending God too much! If I were to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times! The world is in total turmoil―because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the Deluge! [the Great Flood in Noe’s time]. All is hanging on a slender thread! When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs! All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!”
If it was so bad 70 years ago―how much worse is it today?!!! What would Our Lady say about the state of the world in which we a currently living? If “he that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8), then most of the world is without doubt of the devil in our day and age! That is essentially what the former chief exorcist of Rome, Fr. Gabriele Amorth (1925- 2016), said:
“The influence of Satan is immense! Today, Satan has free hands … Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan! … Satan continually tries to dominate the world ― the whole world is in the power of the evil one … The smoke of Satan has entered everywhere. Everywhere! Satanism is on the increase. Today Satan rules the world … And, yes, Satan is in the Vatican! The devil resides in the Vatican ... Legions of demons have lodged there! … In the Vatican there are members of Satanic cults―there are priests, monsignors and even cardinals! I know from people who reported to me how they got to know this directly. It is also something, that has been “confessed” several times by the Devil, himself, under obedience during the exorcisms … I have no doubt about the fact that the demon tempts the authorities of the Church especially―just as he tempts every authority, those of politics and industry [and even in family]. Evil exists in politics―quite often in fact! The devil loves to take over business leaders and those who hold political office!”
“Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan! … We are all subject to it from our birth until our death! … We are all tempted by the devil, and will be for as long as we live! … The Devil does not like to be seen … that is when he is happiest! … Satan hides and disguises himself in a thousand ways … The devil prefers this way and we are all subject to it from our birth until our death! … The devil wanders around each one of you, searching where to devour you. That word―‘where’―is important: the devil looks in each person precisely for his weak point and ‘works’ on it … The most frequent weak points in man are, from time to time, always the same: pride, money, and lust.” (Fr. Gabriele Amorth, former chief exorcist of Rome).
Satan’s Useful Idiots
Yuri Bezmenov, (1939-1993), a Russia KGB agent who defected to the West in 1970, famously used the term “useful idiots” to describe idealistically motivated Westerners—particularly intellectuals, academics, journalists, civil rights activists and Hollywood actors—who were more or less unwittingly manipulated into promoting Communist propaganda, ideology, and subversion. He argued that these individuals (useful idiots) were essential to the first stage of ideological subversion of a nation, helping to destabilize their own nations from within, often without realizing they were acting in the interests of a foreign power.
The same can be said of most of world in relation to Satan―they are Satan’s “useful idiots” who have been more or less derailed from a true path to God (Catholicism, virtue and sinlessness―which is the only true path) and have been deceived into thinking that their false religion, atheism, materialism, hedonism, capitalism, communism, etc. is something inherently good and acceptable. As Our Lady warned:
“I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and from shortly after the middle of the 20th century (Vatican II was announced by Pope John XXIII on January 25th, 1959, and took place from 1962-1965), the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of customs [morals], for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic Sects! … All the civil governments will have the same objective, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil and ecclesiastical rights and authority. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and discord will be seen, without love for country or family ... Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God … The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops ... The devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … The Church will be full of those who accept compromises! … Many will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops! ... A number of religious institutions will lose all Faith and will cause many souls to be damned! … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals. In these unhappy times, people will only think of amusements and there will be unbridled luxury and impurity that will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost! … God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family … Many will turn upon Religion! … Many people will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil! … The spirit of impurity, that will permeate the atmosphere during these times, like a filthy ocean will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty! … This, in turn, will call down every type of chastisement―such as plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy!” (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
This rejection of Christ, rejection of the Catholic Faith and Catholic Church that Christ created, rejection of the Commandments of God, rejection of many Christian virtues and acceptance of grossly sinful behaviors―condemns then in the eyes of God. : “He that is not with Me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30; Luke 11:23). “He that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Shocking though it may seem and sound to ears of the worldly―most of the world today is on the side of Satan, either explicitly or implicitly, directly or indirectly, knowingly and unknowingly. This is simply borne out to be true by the fact that most souls end being damned―most Catholics are damned, most priests and bishops are damned, not to even mention all those outside of the Catholic Church. As Our Lord indicated: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it! … Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’” (Matthew 7:13-14; Luke 13:23-24).
Whose Side is the Doomsday Clock On?
Just as many religions―whether Protestant or some other religion―are not of Christ, even though they might preach and teach many of things the Catholic Church has traditionally preached and taught; the same can be said of many (if not most) of the political and secular institutions of the world―they are not of Christ, they are not of God, they are of the Devil who “seduces the whole world!” (Apocalypse 12:9) and “transforms himself into an angel of light!” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Led by the Devil, whom Our Lord calls “the prince of this world” (John 12:31), these politicians and financiers have for the most part taken over the world ― and are well on the way to creating a New World Order, a One World Government and paving the way for the Antichrist.
When we dig a little deeper into the issue of the Doomsday Clock and the institution that created it ― the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ― we see that this institution was largely the brainchild of the relatively large number of Jewish scientists who worked on the designing the first Atom Bomb in the so-called Manhattan Project during the Second World War.
The United States’ development of the first atomic bomb would not have been possible without the contribution of Jewish Americans and Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany and war-torn Europe throughout the Manhattan Project. In August of 1939, Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard, and Enrico Fermi drafted and sent a letter to President Roosevelt via Alexander Sachs, warning the President of the potential use of atomic power in weaponry. This, in addition to another letter sent by British-Jewish scientists, led Roosevelt to form an advisory committee on uranium and, eventually, create the Manhattan Project.
Significantly, every person involved in the drafting and deliverance of this letter were Jewish or had close Jewish family members. Of the four involved, three were European refugees. Einstein was from a family of German Ashkenazi Jews and fled to the United States in 1933. Szilard was from a Hungarian Jewish family and fled to England in 1933 and then the United States in 1938. Fermi, while himself not Jewish nor German, was married to a Jewish woman which required him and his family to flee his home of Italy in 1938. Sachs was American-Jewish and an important advisor to President Roosevelt. All were impacted by the anti-Semitism of Germany and were respected and prominent enough to sway the President of the United States into forming a committee. Subsequent letters and information, much of which was provided by Jewish scientists, followed and increased the breadth of the project.
Jewish involvement in the Manhattan Project burgeoned as the war continued. J. Robert Oppenheimer, a young American Jew, was placed as the head of the Los Alamos branch of the Manhattan Project. He created four divisions in the Los Alamos lab, with the T-division, the theoretical division, being the most important. Of the 86 members in this division, 18 were Jewish—almost 21%. Even more impressive, of the eight groups in 1945, five were led by Jewish scientists such as Richard Feynman, Hans Bethe, and John von Neumann. Although Jews only constituted around .05% of the US population at the time, they made up a significant portion of the scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was co-founded in December 1945 by Jewish Manhattan Project physicists Eugene Rabinowitch and Hyman Goldsmith. Eugene Rabinowitch was Russian-born Jewish botanist and biophysicist, and Hyman Goldsmith was a Jewish, Austrian-born physicist. Even though the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded by Rabinowitch and Goldsmith, it was supported by other prominent scientists and included fellow Jew, J. Robert Oppenheimer, as the first chairman of the board. All had worked on the Manhattan Project, the effort that led to the invention of the first nuclear bomb. Many of the key scientists involved in the Manhattan Project were Jewish. The number of Jews involved in the project was astounding; the vast majority of the scientists were Jewish. Almost all of them were refugees from Germany, Hungary or Austria. The list included: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Project director and nicknamed “The father of atomic bomb,” Edward Teller, Leo Szilard, Otto Frisch, Niels Bohr Felix Bloch, Hans Bethe, John von Neuman, Rudolf Peierls, Franz Eugene Simon, Hans Halban, Joseph Rotblatt, Stanislav Ulam, Richard Feynman, and Eugene Wigner.
Chaim Weizmann, himself a prominent chemist and Israel’s first president later wrote: “Very few people … have any notion of the role which Jews have played in modern science, and particularly of their astounding share in the development of nuclear physics. … I have heard Einstein speak of ninety percent. … I am continuously struck by the utter disproportion of the Jewish contribution.”
The Devil is a deceiver! Satan is seducer! He seeks to fool us by appearing under the guise of good, whereas his intentions are far from being good! “The Devil is a liar and the father of lies!” (John 8:44). “That great dragon, who is called the Devil and Satan, seduces the whole world!” (Apocalypse 12:9). “Satan transforms himself into an angel of light!” (2 Corinthians 11:14). “The Devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8).
Our Lord calls Satan “the prince of this world” on several occasions: “The prince of this world is coming and in Me he has not anything! … The prince of this world is already judged! ... Now shall the prince of this world be cast out!” (John 12:31; 16:11; 14:30). We too must cast out the prince of this world and the worldly influence that prince uses to seduce us into worldliness. “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
The Prince of this World Deceives us through the World
Our Lord clearly states that the world, in general, is evil and opposed to Him: “I am not of this world! … My kingdom is not of this world! … The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 8:23; 18:36; 7:7). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “The whole world is seated in wickedness!” (1 John 5:19) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
“Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation has justice with injustice? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘GO OUT FROM AMONG THEM, AND BE YE SEPARATE!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
Our Lord adds: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! For where your treasure is, there is your heart also! No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24).
There Are Only Two Options
Think what we want; believe what we want; say what we want; do what we want―the ultimate truth is that we are either on the side of Christ or on the side of Satan. Know it or not; like it or not; admit it or not; accept it or not―that is how it is! There is no third option; no third category; no spectatorship; no opting-out―ultimately we either work for Christ, or we work for Satan. We either do God’s work, or we do the Devil’s work. That is why Our Lord said to the Jewish Scribes and Pharisees: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do! He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth―because truth is not in him. For he is a liar and the father of lies!” (John 8:44).
Regardless of our own personal views, opinions and ideas―we either belong to Christ, or we belong to Satan: “He that is not with Me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30; Luke 11:23). “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you!” (John)” (John 14:15, 14:21; 15:14). Whereas, “He that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). The American Catholic exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger states: “Most people don’t know that the proper effect of every single mortal sin is demonic possession. It’s just that God blocks it in 99.9% of the cases.” Nevertheless, the more we sin mortally, the more we fall under the increasing control of the devil―not necessarily to the point of being possessed by the devil, but, having said that, exorcists have noticed that there is a danger that continually repeated mortal sins can eventually lead to full-blown possession: “He that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the recently deceased (2016) chief exorcist of Rome, said: “The most common way a demon can enter into someone’s life is through a habitual state of mortal sin. Those who live in a state of grace, those who pray most fervently, have a much better chance of obtaining divine intervention against the evil one, than those who do not practice their Faith or, worse, who live in a habitual state of mortal sin.” Another exorcist, Fr. Aga Tarog, warns: “Mortal sin is the primary entry point for demonic possession!”
Today's Tsunami of Sin
If those who sin are of the devil ― “He that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8) ― then today the world is of the devil BIG TIME! Already 70 years ago, Our Lady, in an apparition on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, 1956, said: “People are offending God too much! If I were to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times! The world is in total turmoil―because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the Deluge! [the Great Flood in Noe’s time]. All is hanging on a slender thread! When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs! All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!”
If it was so bad 70 years ago―how much worse is it today?!!! What would Our Lady say about the state of the world in which we a currently living? If “he that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8), then most of the world is without doubt of the devil in our day and age! That is essentially what the former chief exorcist of Rome, Fr. Gabriele Amorth (1925- 2016), said:
“The influence of Satan is immense! Today, Satan has free hands … Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan! … Satan continually tries to dominate the world ― the whole world is in the power of the evil one … The smoke of Satan has entered everywhere. Everywhere! Satanism is on the increase. Today Satan rules the world … And, yes, Satan is in the Vatican! The devil resides in the Vatican ... Legions of demons have lodged there! … In the Vatican there are members of Satanic cults―there are priests, monsignors and even cardinals! I know from people who reported to me how they got to know this directly. It is also something, that has been “confessed” several times by the Devil, himself, under obedience during the exorcisms … I have no doubt about the fact that the demon tempts the authorities of the Church especially―just as he tempts every authority, those of politics and industry [and even in family]. Evil exists in politics―quite often in fact! The devil loves to take over business leaders and those who hold political office!”
“Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan! … We are all subject to it from our birth until our death! … We are all tempted by the devil, and will be for as long as we live! … The Devil does not like to be seen … that is when he is happiest! … Satan hides and disguises himself in a thousand ways … The devil prefers this way and we are all subject to it from our birth until our death! … The devil wanders around each one of you, searching where to devour you. That word―‘where’―is important: the devil looks in each person precisely for his weak point and ‘works’ on it … The most frequent weak points in man are, from time to time, always the same: pride, money, and lust.” (Fr. Gabriele Amorth, former chief exorcist of Rome).
Satan’s Useful Idiots
Yuri Bezmenov, (1939-1993), a Russia KGB agent who defected to the West in 1970, famously used the term “useful idiots” to describe idealistically motivated Westerners—particularly intellectuals, academics, journalists, civil rights activists and Hollywood actors—who were more or less unwittingly manipulated into promoting Communist propaganda, ideology, and subversion. He argued that these individuals (useful idiots) were essential to the first stage of ideological subversion of a nation, helping to destabilize their own nations from within, often without realizing they were acting in the interests of a foreign power.
The same can be said of most of world in relation to Satan―they are Satan’s “useful idiots” who have been more or less derailed from a true path to God (Catholicism, virtue and sinlessness―which is the only true path) and have been deceived into thinking that their false religion, atheism, materialism, hedonism, capitalism, communism, etc. is something inherently good and acceptable. As Our Lady warned:
“I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and from shortly after the middle of the 20th century (Vatican II was announced by Pope John XXIII on January 25th, 1959, and took place from 1962-1965), the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of customs [morals], for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic Sects! … All the civil governments will have the same objective, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil and ecclesiastical rights and authority. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and discord will be seen, without love for country or family ... Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God … The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops ... The devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … The Church will be full of those who accept compromises! … Many will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops! ... A number of religious institutions will lose all Faith and will cause many souls to be damned! … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals. In these unhappy times, people will only think of amusements and there will be unbridled luxury and impurity that will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost! … God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family … Many will turn upon Religion! … Many people will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil! … The spirit of impurity, that will permeate the atmosphere during these times, like a filthy ocean will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty! … This, in turn, will call down every type of chastisement―such as plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy!” (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
This rejection of Christ, rejection of the Catholic Faith and Catholic Church that Christ created, rejection of the Commandments of God, rejection of many Christian virtues and acceptance of grossly sinful behaviors―condemns then in the eyes of God. : “He that is not with Me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30; Luke 11:23). “He that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Shocking though it may seem and sound to ears of the worldly―most of the world today is on the side of Satan, either explicitly or implicitly, directly or indirectly, knowingly and unknowingly. This is simply borne out to be true by the fact that most souls end being damned―most Catholics are damned, most priests and bishops are damned, not to even mention all those outside of the Catholic Church. As Our Lord indicated: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it! … Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’” (Matthew 7:13-14; Luke 13:23-24).
Whose Side is the Doomsday Clock On?
Just as many religions―whether Protestant or some other religion―are not of Christ, even though they might preach and teach many of things the Catholic Church has traditionally preached and taught; the same can be said of many (if not most) of the political and secular institutions of the world―they are not of Christ, they are not of God, they are of the Devil who “seduces the whole world!” (Apocalypse 12:9) and “transforms himself into an angel of light!” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Led by the Devil, whom Our Lord calls “the prince of this world” (John 12:31), these politicians and financiers have for the most part taken over the world ― and are well on the way to creating a New World Order, a One World Government and paving the way for the Antichrist.
When we dig a little deeper into the issue of the Doomsday Clock and the institution that created it ― the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ― we see that this institution was largely the brainchild of the relatively large number of Jewish scientists who worked on the designing the first Atom Bomb in the so-called Manhattan Project during the Second World War.
The United States’ development of the first atomic bomb would not have been possible without the contribution of Jewish Americans and Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany and war-torn Europe throughout the Manhattan Project. In August of 1939, Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard, and Enrico Fermi drafted and sent a letter to President Roosevelt via Alexander Sachs, warning the President of the potential use of atomic power in weaponry. This, in addition to another letter sent by British-Jewish scientists, led Roosevelt to form an advisory committee on uranium and, eventually, create the Manhattan Project.
Significantly, every person involved in the drafting and deliverance of this letter were Jewish or had close Jewish family members. Of the four involved, three were European refugees. Einstein was from a family of German Ashkenazi Jews and fled to the United States in 1933. Szilard was from a Hungarian Jewish family and fled to England in 1933 and then the United States in 1938. Fermi, while himself not Jewish nor German, was married to a Jewish woman which required him and his family to flee his home of Italy in 1938. Sachs was American-Jewish and an important advisor to President Roosevelt. All were impacted by the anti-Semitism of Germany and were respected and prominent enough to sway the President of the United States into forming a committee. Subsequent letters and information, much of which was provided by Jewish scientists, followed and increased the breadth of the project.
Jewish involvement in the Manhattan Project burgeoned as the war continued. J. Robert Oppenheimer, a young American Jew, was placed as the head of the Los Alamos branch of the Manhattan Project. He created four divisions in the Los Alamos lab, with the T-division, the theoretical division, being the most important. Of the 86 members in this division, 18 were Jewish—almost 21%. Even more impressive, of the eight groups in 1945, five were led by Jewish scientists such as Richard Feynman, Hans Bethe, and John von Neumann. Although Jews only constituted around .05% of the US population at the time, they made up a significant portion of the scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was co-founded in December 1945 by Jewish Manhattan Project physicists Eugene Rabinowitch and Hyman Goldsmith. Eugene Rabinowitch was Russian-born Jewish botanist and biophysicist, and Hyman Goldsmith was a Jewish, Austrian-born physicist. Even though the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded by Rabinowitch and Goldsmith, it was supported by other prominent scientists and included fellow Jew, J. Robert Oppenheimer, as the first chairman of the board. All had worked on the Manhattan Project, the effort that led to the invention of the first nuclear bomb. Many of the key scientists involved in the Manhattan Project were Jewish. The number of Jews involved in the project was astounding; the vast majority of the scientists were Jewish. Almost all of them were refugees from Germany, Hungary or Austria. The list included: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Project director and nicknamed “The father of atomic bomb,” Edward Teller, Leo Szilard, Otto Frisch, Niels Bohr Felix Bloch, Hans Bethe, John von Neuman, Rudolf Peierls, Franz Eugene Simon, Hans Halban, Joseph Rotblatt, Stanislav Ulam, Richard Feynman, and Eugene Wigner.
Chaim Weizmann, himself a prominent chemist and Israel’s first president later wrote: “Very few people … have any notion of the role which Jews have played in modern science, and particularly of their astounding share in the development of nuclear physics. … I have heard Einstein speak of ninety percent. … I am continuously struck by the utter disproportion of the Jewish contribution.”
Article 15
Wednesday, Thursday & Friday, January 28th, 29th & 30th
The Doomsday Clock Shows We Only Have 85 Seconds Left Before Midnight!
Wednesday, Thursday & Friday, January 28th, 29th & 30th
The Doomsday Clock Shows We Only Have 85 Seconds Left Before Midnight!
What is the Doomsday Clock?
The Doomsday Clock ― a symbol that represents the estimated likelihood of a human-made global catastrophe ― is the brainchild of the nonprofit organization Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, originally known by its former title as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists of Chicago. Immediately following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, biophysicist Eugene Rabinowitch, physicist Hyman Goldsmith, J. Robert Oppenheimer (first chairman of the board of the organization), and University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project. The first editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was biophysicist Eugene Rabinowitch (1901–1973).
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists began as an emergency action undertaken by scientists who saw urgent need for an immediate educational program about atomic weapons. The intention was to educate fellow scientists about the relationship between their world of science and the world of national and international politics. A second was to warn the public about the dangers of nuclear war ― to help the American people understand what nuclear energy and its possible applications to war meant. The Bulletin contributors believed the atom bomb would only be the first of many dangers. The aim of the Bulletin was to carry out the long, sustained effort of educating people about the realities of the scientific age. In addition to educating and warning the American public of the continual danger posed by nuclear weapons, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has most recently added other global dangers ― such as climate change and disruptive technologies in the life sciences to the list of concerns.
The organization has been publishing continuously since 1945―at first in the form of a newsletter, which soon evolved from a mere newsletter to a much broader and voluminous magazine. At the dawn of the nuclear age, these scientists created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 as a symbolic representation of how close humanity is to destroying the world.
The Doomsday Clock imagery was created in 1947 by artist Martyl Langsdorf for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to symbolize humanity’s proximity to self-destruction, initially focusing on the threat of nuclear weapons. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists co-editor Hyman Goldsmith had asked artist Martyl Langsdorf to come up with a design for the cover of the June 1947 edition of the Bulletin―which was the first issue published as a magazine rather than a newsletter. Martyl—as she was known professionally—was married to a physicist, Alexander Langsdorf, who worked on creating the Atom-Bomb in the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago. At first, the artist considered using the symbol for uranium. But as she listened to the scientists who had worked on the Atom-Bomb, as they passionately debated the consequences of the new technology and their responsibility to inform the public, she felt their sense of urgency. So she sketched a clock to suggest that we didn’t have much time left to get atomic weapons under control. Thus the clock face first appeared on their June 1947 first magazine cover. The resultant Doomsday Clock, which only has bullets labeling the numbers in the upper left hand corner, has been featured on the cover of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists many times since its creation.
The original time setting that appeared on the Doomsday Clock on that first edition of the magazine was arbitrarily set at 7 minutes before midnight―as the artist, Martyl Langsdorf, herself admitted: “It looked good to my eye!” Including that June 1947 first edition, the Doomsday Clock has been reset 26 times by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ― with its setting changed to reflect escalating global threats like nuclear risk and climate change, moving closer to or further from “midnight” (symbolizing catastrophe). The proximity of the minute hand to midnight has been the Bulletin leadership's way of warning the public about man-made threats to humanity; the Doomsday Clock is a metaphor, not a prediction. That is to say, the time on the clock is not to be interpreted as actual time, but simply as the level of dangers that we are actually facing at any given time.
The Doomsday Clock is a proxy mechanism for threats to humanity from unchecked scientific and technological advances. A hypothetical global catastrophe is represented by midnight on the Doomsday Clock, according to the opinion of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and its Science and Security Board (SASB). The Science and Security Board (SASB) is a select group of globally recognized leaders with a specific focus on nuclear risk, climate change, and disruptive technologies. The Science and Security Board provides the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists with objective external perspectives on trends and issues in these fields and connects the organization to outside experts. Their opinion on how close the world is to “zero” is represented by a certain number of minutes or seconds to midnight. This is assessed in January of each year. The main factors influencing the Doomsday Clock are nuclear warfare, climate change, and artificial intelligence.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists states: “The Doomsday Clock is not a forecasting tool, and we are not predicting the future. Rather, we study events that have already occurred and existing trends. Our Science and Security Board tracks numbers and statistics—looking, for example, at the number and kinds of nuclear weapons in the world, the parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the degree of acidity in our oceans, and the rate of sea level rise. The board also takes account of the pace of leaders’ and citizens’ efforts to reduce nuclear dangers, and the urgency of actions by governments, markets, and civil society organizations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“The Bulletin is a bit like a doctor making a diagnosis. We look at data, as physicians look at lab tests and x-rays, and also take harder-to-quantify factors into account, as physicians do when talking with patients and family members. We consider as many symptoms, measurements, and circumstances as we can. Then we come to a judgment that sums up what could happen if leaders and citizens don’t take action to treat the conditions. Ensuring the survival of our societies and the human species is not a political agenda. Cooperating with other countries to achieve control of extremely dangerous technologies should not involve partisan politics. If scientists involved with the Bulletin are critical of current policies on nuclear weapons and climate change, it is because those policies increase the possibility of self-destruction.”
January 2026 Doomsday Clock Statement
On January 27th, 2026, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and its Science and Security Board (SASB), which sets the Doomsday Clock, decided to set the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest the Clock has ever been to midnight in its history. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Science and Security Board is calling for urgent action to limit nuclear arsenals, create international guidelines on the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence), and form multilateral agreements to address global biological threats.
Here are some chief extracts from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Science and Security Board’s January 27th, 2026, Doomsday Clock statement:
“A year ago, we warned that the world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe. Rather than heed this warning, Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic. Global understandings are collapsing … and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence, and other apocalyptic dangers. Far too many leaders have grown complacent and indifferent … Because of this failure of leadership, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board today sets the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to catastrophe ...
“Over the course of 2025, negative trends—old and new—intensified, with three regional conflicts involving nuclear powers all threatening to escalate. The Russia–Ukraine war has featured novel and potentially destabilizing military tactics and Russian allusions to nuclear weapons use. Conflict between India and Pakistan erupted in May, leading to cross-border drone and missile attacks amid nuclear brinkmanship. In June, Israel and the United States launched aerial attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities suspected of supporting the country’s nuclear weapons ambitions. It remains unclear whether the attacks constrained those efforts—or if they instead persuaded the country to pursue nuclear weapons covertly.
“Meanwhile, competition among major powers has become a full-blown arms race, as evidenced by increasing numbers of nuclear warheads and platforms in China, and the modernization of nuclear delivery systems in the United States, Russia, and China. The United States plans to deploy a new, multilayered missile defense system, Golden Dome, that will include space-based interceptors, increasing the probability of conflict in space and likely fueling a new space-based arms race ... Countries with nuclear weapons failed to talk about strategic stability or arms control, much less nuclear disarmament, and questions about US extended deterrence commitments to traditional allies in Europe and Asia led some countries without nuclear weapons to consider acquiring them.
“An array of adverse trends also dominated the climate change outlook in the past year. The level of atmospheric carbon dioxide—the greenhouse gas most responsible for human-caused climate change—reached a new high. Global average temperature in 2024 was the warmest in the 175-year record, and temperatures in 2025 were similar. With the addition of freshwater from melting glaciers and thermal expansion, global average sea level reached a record high. Large swaths of Peru, the Amazon, southern Africa, and northwest Africa experienced droughts. Floods in the Congo River Basin displaced 350,000 people, and record rainfall in southeast Brazil displaced over half a million. The national and international responses to the climate emergency went from wholly insufficient to profoundly destructive … During the past year, developments in four areas of the life sciences have increased potentially catastrophic risks. In December 2024, scientists from nine countries announced the recognition of a potentially existential threat to all life on Earth … At the same time, the accelerating evolution of artificial intelligence poses a different sort of biological threat―the potential for the AI-aided design of new pathogens to which humans have no effective defenses ... The United States, Russia and China are incorporating AI across their defense sectors, despite the potential dangers of such moves. The AI revolution has the potential to accelerate the existing chaos and dysfunction in the world’s information ecosystem.
“These dangerous trends are accompanied by another development that undermines efforts to deal with major global threats―the rise of nationalistic autocracy in countries around the world, including in a number of countries that possess nuclear weapons. Leaders of the United States, Russia, and China greatly vary in their autocratic leanings, but they all have approaches to international relations that favor grandiosity and competition over diplomacy and cooperation. The rise of autocracies is not in itself an existential threat, but an “us-versus-them, zero-sum approach” increases the risk of global catastrophe. The current autocratic trend impedes international cooperation, reduces accountability, and acts as a threat accelerant, making dangerous nuclear, climatic, and technological threats all the harder to reverse … National leaders—particularly those in the United States, Russia, and China—must take the lead in finding a path away from the brink. Citizens must insist they do so.” (January 27th, 2026, Doomsday Clock statement from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Science and Security Board).
Doomsday Etymology
“Doomsday” originates from the Old English “dōmes dæg”, and from the later Middle English word “domesdai”. The first element, “dōmes”, is the genitive (possessive) case of “dōm”, which means “judgment, sentence, or law”. It evolved over time—partly through associations with the idea of finality and ruin—to mean total destruction or annihilation.
The second element, dæg (day), comes from the Old English “dæg” meaning “period during which the sun is above the horizon,” and which eventually came to mean “day”
Thus, “Doomsday” has come to signify the “Day of Judgment” or “Judgment Day”, referring specifically to the Christian theological concept of the final, unavoidable judgment of all humanity by God. As such, “Doomsday” was first recorded before 1000 AD, it originally referred to the Christian belief in the Last Judgment at the end of the world. The usage of “doom” to mean “death” or “final fate” was heavily influenced by Shakespeare in the early 17th century.
Heaven’s Doomsday Clock
We can so caught up in all these secular doomsday pronouncements and warnings that we forget that Heaven has long since had its own Doomsday Clock! We see its pronouncements in Holy Scripture; we see its pronouncements coming from Our Lord and Our Lady; and we see its pronouncements coming by way of many prophecies made over the centuries.
The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is not a real prediction, but a metaphorical and symbolic representation of the state of our times―whereas Heaven’s Doomsday Clock is a true and real representation of our times with true and real predictions of the inevitable consequences that will take place if we do not make spiritual changes (more so than mere natural changes) in our own live and that of the world.
All we see from these world leaders and scientists is talk, talk, talk and more talk! Talking will not bring lasting solutions unless we talk to the right person! Our Lord warned: “Without Me―you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). Yet these world leaders and scientists do not want to include Christ, nor talk to Christ, nor seek His solutions―there is no place for Christ in their discussions: “The people devised vain things. The kings of the Earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord and against his Christ, saying: ‘Let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast away their yoke from us!’” (Psalm 2:2-3).
Biblical “Doom and Gloom”
Bear in mind―as already stated above―that our English word “doomsday” originates from the Old English “dōmes dæg”, and from the later Middle English word “domesdai” ― whereby dōmes” means “judgment, sentence, or law” and “dæg” means “the period during which the sun is above the horizon,” and which eventually came to mean “day.” Therefore, “dōmes dæg” or “domesdai” ultimately means “Day of Sentencing”, “Day of Judgment” or “Judgment Day” and for well over a thousand years has referred to the Christian belief in the Last Judgment at the end of the world―with the word “doom” evolving to mean “death” or “final fate” and “doomsday” ultimately meaning “Judgment at Death”.
Looked upon in such a manner, we can then see that Holy Scripture is filled with “doom and gloom” for sinners and “doom and joy” for saints―death and woe for sinners; death and happiness for saints. For those consigned to Purgatory because they did not pay their debt for their forgiven sins―it is a hybrid case of “doom and gloom” gradually evolving into “doom and joy”; death and woe being increasingly transformed into death and joy. What is absolutely certain for every person (except those who are still living when Christ comes to judge at the end of the world) is that everyone is “doomed to die.” As Scripture says: “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death!” (James 1:15). “The soul that sins, the same shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:20). “You shall die in your sin!” (John 8:24). “Everyone shall die for his own sin!” (Deuteronomy 24:16).
Sin begets death and Original Sin begets death for every member of the human race: “From the woman came the beginning of sin, and by her we all die!” (Ecclesiasticus 25:33). “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned … Death reigned from Adam!” (Romans 5:12-14). Everyone must face the “doom of death” not only because of the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, but also because of their own personal sins: “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). Who dare say: “I am clean, and without sin! I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me!” (Job 33:9). “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2).
Doom and Gloom for the Sinners of the World
We read of a phenomenal and unprecedented “Doomsday” in the time of Noe: “God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times, it repented him that he had made man on the Earth. And He said: ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth, for it repents Me that I have made them! … I will make it rain upon the Earth for forty days and forty nights; and I will destroy every substance that I have made, from the face of the Earth!’ … And the flood was forty days upon the Earth, and the waters increased, and lifted up the ark on high from the Earth. The waters overflowed exceedingly and filled all on the face of the Earth: and the ark was carried upon the waters. And the waters prevailed beyond measure upon the Earth, and all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. And all flesh was destroyed that moved upon the Earth and all men. And all things wherein there is the breath of life on the Earth, died. And God destroyed all the substance that was upon the Earth, from man even to beast, and the creeping things and fowls of the air: and they were destroyed from the Earth: and Noe only remained, and they that were with him in the ark” (Genesis 6:5-7; 7:4; 7:17-23).
The words of Holy Scripture come to mind, which say: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). It seems that there are very few who “sow in the spirit” and countless multitudes who “sow in their flesh” ― as Our Lord Himself indicates: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Luke 13:24; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14). If that does not worry you; if that does not scare you; if that does not terrify you ― then it should set off the alarm bells, for you are told: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). Yet instead of trembling with fear of losing their salvation, most are “happy-go-lucky” with regard to salvation―as epitomized by the following words of St. Louis de Montfort in his Letter to the Friends of the Cross:
“Is the way you follow the true way of life, the narrow way, the thorn-strewn way to Calvary? Or are you unconsciously traveling the world’s broad road, the road to perdition? Do you realize that there is a highroad which to all appearances is straight and safe for man to travel, but which in reality leads to death? … Do you really know the voice of God and grace from the voice of the world and human nature? Do you distinctly hear the voice of God pronouncing His threefold curse upon everyone who follows the world in its concupiscence? … These are two groups ― the followers of Christ and the followers of the world … There is only a handful of people who follow Christ … The world’s group, the devil’s in fact, which is far superior in number … . Those who are Christ’s have crucified their flesh with its concupiscence … Worldlings, on the contrary, rouse one another to persist in their unscrupulous depravity. ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure!’ they shout: ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure! Let us eat, let us drink, let us sing, let us dance, let us play! God is good, He did not make us in order to to damn us! God does not forbid us to enjoy ourselves! We shall not be damned for that! Away with scruples! We shall not die!’ And so they continue.” (St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross).
Of such folk Holy Scripture and Our Lord say: “I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud; and all passed through the sea and all in Moses were baptized; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink ― but with most of them God was not well pleased … Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play!’” (1 Corinthians 10:7). To which Our Lord adds: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24). “What shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36). “Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:23-24). Scripture further adds: “Woe to you that are rich!” (Luke 6:24). “Do not trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God!” (1 Timothy 6:17) … “He that trusts in his riches shall fall!” (Proverbs 11:28) …“Go now, you rich men, weep and howl in your miseries, which shall come upon you! Your riches are corrupted! Your gold and silver is cankered―and the rust of them shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up to yourselves wrath against the last days!” (James 5:1-3).
Our Lady Warns Us of Our Doomsday
We often refer to Our Lady under her titles of Mother of Mercy, Refuge of Sinners and Comforter of the Afflicted ― but perhaps we should also create some new titles for her such as Our Lady of Doomsday, Warner of Justice, Admonisher of Sinners and Threatener of Affliction! Why? Because that is exactly what Our Lady has been doing for the last 200 years or so ― warning us of the justice of God; admonishing us for our sins that provoke God’s justice; and threatening us with terrible punishments that will inescapably occur if we refuse to change our lives and heed Heaven’s requests and commands!
Never before in the history of the Church has Our Lady threatened us with such “doom and gloom” as she has over the last few centuries. If you don’t believe that, or don’t know that, or have forgotten that―then just read the following mere “tip-of-the-iceberg” of quotes from Our Lady:
► LA SALETTE (1846): ““If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! In vain you will pray! In vain you will act! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events! Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God! … God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together! Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other for years!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
► OUR LADY TO BLESSED SISTER ELENA AIELLO (1895-1961)―mystic, stigmatic, victim soul, prophetess and foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ―Our Lady, in an apparition on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, 1956, said: “People are offending God too much! If I were to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times! The world is in total turmoil―because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the Deluge! [the Great Flood in Noe’s time]. Materialism marches on ever fomenting bloody strifes and fratricidal struggles. Clear signs warn that peace is in danger. That scourge, like the shadow of a dark cloud, is now moving across mankind―only my power, as Mother of God, is preventing the outbreak of the storm. All is hanging on a slender thread! When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs! All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!” (Our Lady to the Blessed Sister Elena Aiello).
► QUITO (1600s): “The secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the divine compass, they will stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry, and they will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain. Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of doing away with this Sacrament of Matrimony, making it easy for everyone to live in sin. The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals. In this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent. The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty! In these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury and impurity will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women. Corrupted priests will scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all priests. This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good pastors of the Church. The small number of souls, who will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom! There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
► LA SALETTE (1846): “The Church will yield to large persecution, a time of darkness and the Church will witness a frightful crisis. Churches will be locked up or desecrated. Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death. Many will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops ... A number of religious institutions will lose all Faith and will cause many souls to be damned. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening in everything that concerns the service of God … Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist … The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay ... The righteous will suffer greatly ... The true Faith to the Lord will be forgotten … People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin … and men will become more and more perverted.” (Our Lady of La Salette).
► FATIMA (1917): “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended! … Many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and the end of the war … If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved! … but if people do not cease offending God , know that God is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father! … Nations will be annihilated!” (Our Lady of Fatima).
Regarding the annihilation of nations: it is important to note that during the Father Fuentes interview, Sister Lucia said that Our Blessed Mother had told herself, Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke many times of the annihilation of many nations―she said this not just once, but she said it “many times!” (Frère François, Tragedy and Triumph, p. 27).
Lucia also said that later on, in 1929, Jesus had spoken to her as follows: “They did not wish to heed My request. Like the king of France, they will repent and do it, but it will be late. Russia will have already spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church; the Holy Father will have much to suffer.” (Our Lord to Sr. Lucia of Fatima).
The Lord of Doom and Gloom
The above words of Our Lady are nothing other than an echo of the words of Our Lord in the Gospels. There is nothing gloomier that Hell ― and Our Lord speaks often Hell either explicitly or implicitly, directly or indirectly!
“And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen! … Not everyone that says to Me: “Lord! Lord!” shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! Many will say to Me in that day: “Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name!” And then will I profess unto them: “I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!” ... When the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying: “Lord! Open to us!” And He, answering, shall say to you: “I know you not, whence you are!” Then you shall begin to say: “We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets!” And He shall say to you: “I know you not, whence you are! Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity!” There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out! … Why do you call Me, “Lord! Lord!” and do not the things which I say?’” (Luke 13:23-28; Matthew 7:13-14; 7:22-23; 22:14; Luke 6:46). “Take heed, watch and pray! For you know not when the time is!” (Mark 13:33) … “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance! … No, I say to you― unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish! ... Again I say to you― except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5). “Woe to you that are rich … Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Luke 6:24; Matthew 19:23-24).
“Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no―but separation! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! You shall be hated by all men and all nations for My Name’s sake! ... Many shall betray one another and shall hate one another! … They shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! … You shall be brought before governors and before kings for My sake! They will deliver you up in councils and they will scourge you in their synagogues. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall put you to death! The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death; and the father the son; and the children shall rise up against their parents and shall put them to death! But he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 5:11; 10:17-22, 34-36; 24:9-10; Luke 12:51-53).
“Take heed that no man seduce you! For many will come in My name saying: ‘I am Christ!’ ― and they will seduce many! And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you be not troubled. For these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet! For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be pestilences, and famines, and earthquakes in places! Now all these are the beginnings of sorrows! Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death, and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name’s sake! And then shall many be scandalized, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another! When this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all nations, then shall the consummation come! When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place―he that reads let him understand―then flee to the mountains! For there shall be then great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be! And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would be saved―but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened! And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of Heaven shall be moved! And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven; and then shall all tribes of the Earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with much power and majesty! So when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors! But of that day and hour no one knows, not the angels of Heaven, but the Father alone! And as in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be! For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark―and they knew not till the flood came and took them all away. So also shall the coming of the Son of man be!’” (Matthew 24:4-39).
Who Do You Believe?
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Science and Security Board are telling us that they have adjusted the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight due to the fact that “Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic. Global understandings are collapsing … and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence, and other apocalyptic dangers. Far too many leaders have grown complacent and indifferent … Because of this failure of leadership, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board today sets the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to catastrophe” (January 27th, 2026, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and its Science and Security Board).
Some of what they say might well be true―but theirs is more a list of SYMPTOMS rather than the ROOT CAUSE of those symptoms. Our Lady of La Salette “hits the nail on the head” when she says the following as being the root cause of these woes: “The sins of men are the cause of all the woes and troubles on this Earth!” Our Lady then gives the consequences of that SINFUL ROOT CAUSE by listing a whole variety of branches that will sprout forth from that SINFUL ROOT CAUSE―which to some degree dovetail with what the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Science and Security Board are telling us:
In her apparitions as Our Lady of Good Success, Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Akita and Our Lady’s revelations to Blessed Elena Aiello, the Blessed Mother warns: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord … If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them … If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind ... It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events! Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God! … God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together!
“The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God ... The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops … The secular clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith … There will be an almost total and general corruption of morals ... There will be unbridled luxury and impurity that will conquer innumerable frivolous souls … There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Depraved priests will scandalize the Christian people … Many will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops ... A number of religious institutions will lose all Faith and will cause many souls to be damned. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening in everything that concerns the service of God. The true Faith to the Lord will be forgotten … People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin … and men will become more and more perverted.”
“Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects … The evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government … The Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … All the civil governments will have the same objective, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritism and vice of all kinds … All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and discord will be seen, without love for country or family ... The rulers of nations speak of peace―but instead, the whole world will soon be at war, because the justice of God will not be delayed and these events are near. Tremendous will be the upheaval of the whole world, because men — as at the time of the Deluge — have lost God’s way, and are ruled by the spirit of Satan. Mankind, defiled in the mire, soon will be washed in its own blood, by disease; by famine; by earthquakes; by cloudbursts, tornadoes, floods, and terrible storms; and by war.”
“Nature is asking for vengeance on account of men, and she trembles, with dread, at what must happen to the Earth stained with crime. The Earth will be struck by calamities of all kinds ― in addition to famine which will be widespread ― there will be plagues and infectious diseases ... A number of large cities will be shaken down, shattered and swallowed up by earthquakes … There will be thunderstorms which will shake and demolish cities; earthquakes which will swallow up countries ... There will be a series of wars, until the last war, a general war, which will be appalling. Men will kill and massacre each other, even in their homes ... Blood will flow on all sides. Blood will flow in the streets ... People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy. Men will beat their heads against walls, call for their death, yet death will constitute their torment. France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war ... Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.”
The Doomsday Clock ― a symbol that represents the estimated likelihood of a human-made global catastrophe ― is the brainchild of the nonprofit organization Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, originally known by its former title as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists of Chicago. Immediately following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, biophysicist Eugene Rabinowitch, physicist Hyman Goldsmith, J. Robert Oppenheimer (first chairman of the board of the organization), and University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project. The first editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was biophysicist Eugene Rabinowitch (1901–1973).
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists began as an emergency action undertaken by scientists who saw urgent need for an immediate educational program about atomic weapons. The intention was to educate fellow scientists about the relationship between their world of science and the world of national and international politics. A second was to warn the public about the dangers of nuclear war ― to help the American people understand what nuclear energy and its possible applications to war meant. The Bulletin contributors believed the atom bomb would only be the first of many dangers. The aim of the Bulletin was to carry out the long, sustained effort of educating people about the realities of the scientific age. In addition to educating and warning the American public of the continual danger posed by nuclear weapons, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has most recently added other global dangers ― such as climate change and disruptive technologies in the life sciences to the list of concerns.
The organization has been publishing continuously since 1945―at first in the form of a newsletter, which soon evolved from a mere newsletter to a much broader and voluminous magazine. At the dawn of the nuclear age, these scientists created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 as a symbolic representation of how close humanity is to destroying the world.
The Doomsday Clock imagery was created in 1947 by artist Martyl Langsdorf for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to symbolize humanity’s proximity to self-destruction, initially focusing on the threat of nuclear weapons. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists co-editor Hyman Goldsmith had asked artist Martyl Langsdorf to come up with a design for the cover of the June 1947 edition of the Bulletin―which was the first issue published as a magazine rather than a newsletter. Martyl—as she was known professionally—was married to a physicist, Alexander Langsdorf, who worked on creating the Atom-Bomb in the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago. At first, the artist considered using the symbol for uranium. But as she listened to the scientists who had worked on the Atom-Bomb, as they passionately debated the consequences of the new technology and their responsibility to inform the public, she felt their sense of urgency. So she sketched a clock to suggest that we didn’t have much time left to get atomic weapons under control. Thus the clock face first appeared on their June 1947 first magazine cover. The resultant Doomsday Clock, which only has bullets labeling the numbers in the upper left hand corner, has been featured on the cover of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists many times since its creation.
The original time setting that appeared on the Doomsday Clock on that first edition of the magazine was arbitrarily set at 7 minutes before midnight―as the artist, Martyl Langsdorf, herself admitted: “It looked good to my eye!” Including that June 1947 first edition, the Doomsday Clock has been reset 26 times by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ― with its setting changed to reflect escalating global threats like nuclear risk and climate change, moving closer to or further from “midnight” (symbolizing catastrophe). The proximity of the minute hand to midnight has been the Bulletin leadership's way of warning the public about man-made threats to humanity; the Doomsday Clock is a metaphor, not a prediction. That is to say, the time on the clock is not to be interpreted as actual time, but simply as the level of dangers that we are actually facing at any given time.
The Doomsday Clock is a proxy mechanism for threats to humanity from unchecked scientific and technological advances. A hypothetical global catastrophe is represented by midnight on the Doomsday Clock, according to the opinion of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and its Science and Security Board (SASB). The Science and Security Board (SASB) is a select group of globally recognized leaders with a specific focus on nuclear risk, climate change, and disruptive technologies. The Science and Security Board provides the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists with objective external perspectives on trends and issues in these fields and connects the organization to outside experts. Their opinion on how close the world is to “zero” is represented by a certain number of minutes or seconds to midnight. This is assessed in January of each year. The main factors influencing the Doomsday Clock are nuclear warfare, climate change, and artificial intelligence.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists states: “The Doomsday Clock is not a forecasting tool, and we are not predicting the future. Rather, we study events that have already occurred and existing trends. Our Science and Security Board tracks numbers and statistics—looking, for example, at the number and kinds of nuclear weapons in the world, the parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the degree of acidity in our oceans, and the rate of sea level rise. The board also takes account of the pace of leaders’ and citizens’ efforts to reduce nuclear dangers, and the urgency of actions by governments, markets, and civil society organizations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“The Bulletin is a bit like a doctor making a diagnosis. We look at data, as physicians look at lab tests and x-rays, and also take harder-to-quantify factors into account, as physicians do when talking with patients and family members. We consider as many symptoms, measurements, and circumstances as we can. Then we come to a judgment that sums up what could happen if leaders and citizens don’t take action to treat the conditions. Ensuring the survival of our societies and the human species is not a political agenda. Cooperating with other countries to achieve control of extremely dangerous technologies should not involve partisan politics. If scientists involved with the Bulletin are critical of current policies on nuclear weapons and climate change, it is because those policies increase the possibility of self-destruction.”
January 2026 Doomsday Clock Statement
On January 27th, 2026, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and its Science and Security Board (SASB), which sets the Doomsday Clock, decided to set the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest the Clock has ever been to midnight in its history. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Science and Security Board is calling for urgent action to limit nuclear arsenals, create international guidelines on the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence), and form multilateral agreements to address global biological threats.
Here are some chief extracts from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Science and Security Board’s January 27th, 2026, Doomsday Clock statement:
“A year ago, we warned that the world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe. Rather than heed this warning, Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic. Global understandings are collapsing … and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence, and other apocalyptic dangers. Far too many leaders have grown complacent and indifferent … Because of this failure of leadership, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board today sets the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to catastrophe ...
“Over the course of 2025, negative trends—old and new—intensified, with three regional conflicts involving nuclear powers all threatening to escalate. The Russia–Ukraine war has featured novel and potentially destabilizing military tactics and Russian allusions to nuclear weapons use. Conflict between India and Pakistan erupted in May, leading to cross-border drone and missile attacks amid nuclear brinkmanship. In June, Israel and the United States launched aerial attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities suspected of supporting the country’s nuclear weapons ambitions. It remains unclear whether the attacks constrained those efforts—or if they instead persuaded the country to pursue nuclear weapons covertly.
“Meanwhile, competition among major powers has become a full-blown arms race, as evidenced by increasing numbers of nuclear warheads and platforms in China, and the modernization of nuclear delivery systems in the United States, Russia, and China. The United States plans to deploy a new, multilayered missile defense system, Golden Dome, that will include space-based interceptors, increasing the probability of conflict in space and likely fueling a new space-based arms race ... Countries with nuclear weapons failed to talk about strategic stability or arms control, much less nuclear disarmament, and questions about US extended deterrence commitments to traditional allies in Europe and Asia led some countries without nuclear weapons to consider acquiring them.
“An array of adverse trends also dominated the climate change outlook in the past year. The level of atmospheric carbon dioxide—the greenhouse gas most responsible for human-caused climate change—reached a new high. Global average temperature in 2024 was the warmest in the 175-year record, and temperatures in 2025 were similar. With the addition of freshwater from melting glaciers and thermal expansion, global average sea level reached a record high. Large swaths of Peru, the Amazon, southern Africa, and northwest Africa experienced droughts. Floods in the Congo River Basin displaced 350,000 people, and record rainfall in southeast Brazil displaced over half a million. The national and international responses to the climate emergency went from wholly insufficient to profoundly destructive … During the past year, developments in four areas of the life sciences have increased potentially catastrophic risks. In December 2024, scientists from nine countries announced the recognition of a potentially existential threat to all life on Earth … At the same time, the accelerating evolution of artificial intelligence poses a different sort of biological threat―the potential for the AI-aided design of new pathogens to which humans have no effective defenses ... The United States, Russia and China are incorporating AI across their defense sectors, despite the potential dangers of such moves. The AI revolution has the potential to accelerate the existing chaos and dysfunction in the world’s information ecosystem.
“These dangerous trends are accompanied by another development that undermines efforts to deal with major global threats―the rise of nationalistic autocracy in countries around the world, including in a number of countries that possess nuclear weapons. Leaders of the United States, Russia, and China greatly vary in their autocratic leanings, but they all have approaches to international relations that favor grandiosity and competition over diplomacy and cooperation. The rise of autocracies is not in itself an existential threat, but an “us-versus-them, zero-sum approach” increases the risk of global catastrophe. The current autocratic trend impedes international cooperation, reduces accountability, and acts as a threat accelerant, making dangerous nuclear, climatic, and technological threats all the harder to reverse … National leaders—particularly those in the United States, Russia, and China—must take the lead in finding a path away from the brink. Citizens must insist they do so.” (January 27th, 2026, Doomsday Clock statement from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Science and Security Board).
Doomsday Etymology
“Doomsday” originates from the Old English “dōmes dæg”, and from the later Middle English word “domesdai”. The first element, “dōmes”, is the genitive (possessive) case of “dōm”, which means “judgment, sentence, or law”. It evolved over time—partly through associations with the idea of finality and ruin—to mean total destruction or annihilation.
The second element, dæg (day), comes from the Old English “dæg” meaning “period during which the sun is above the horizon,” and which eventually came to mean “day”
Thus, “Doomsday” has come to signify the “Day of Judgment” or “Judgment Day”, referring specifically to the Christian theological concept of the final, unavoidable judgment of all humanity by God. As such, “Doomsday” was first recorded before 1000 AD, it originally referred to the Christian belief in the Last Judgment at the end of the world. The usage of “doom” to mean “death” or “final fate” was heavily influenced by Shakespeare in the early 17th century.
Heaven’s Doomsday Clock
We can so caught up in all these secular doomsday pronouncements and warnings that we forget that Heaven has long since had its own Doomsday Clock! We see its pronouncements in Holy Scripture; we see its pronouncements coming from Our Lord and Our Lady; and we see its pronouncements coming by way of many prophecies made over the centuries.
The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is not a real prediction, but a metaphorical and symbolic representation of the state of our times―whereas Heaven’s Doomsday Clock is a true and real representation of our times with true and real predictions of the inevitable consequences that will take place if we do not make spiritual changes (more so than mere natural changes) in our own live and that of the world.
All we see from these world leaders and scientists is talk, talk, talk and more talk! Talking will not bring lasting solutions unless we talk to the right person! Our Lord warned: “Without Me―you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). Yet these world leaders and scientists do not want to include Christ, nor talk to Christ, nor seek His solutions―there is no place for Christ in their discussions: “The people devised vain things. The kings of the Earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord and against his Christ, saying: ‘Let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast away their yoke from us!’” (Psalm 2:2-3).
Biblical “Doom and Gloom”
Bear in mind―as already stated above―that our English word “doomsday” originates from the Old English “dōmes dæg”, and from the later Middle English word “domesdai” ― whereby dōmes” means “judgment, sentence, or law” and “dæg” means “the period during which the sun is above the horizon,” and which eventually came to mean “day.” Therefore, “dōmes dæg” or “domesdai” ultimately means “Day of Sentencing”, “Day of Judgment” or “Judgment Day” and for well over a thousand years has referred to the Christian belief in the Last Judgment at the end of the world―with the word “doom” evolving to mean “death” or “final fate” and “doomsday” ultimately meaning “Judgment at Death”.
Looked upon in such a manner, we can then see that Holy Scripture is filled with “doom and gloom” for sinners and “doom and joy” for saints―death and woe for sinners; death and happiness for saints. For those consigned to Purgatory because they did not pay their debt for their forgiven sins―it is a hybrid case of “doom and gloom” gradually evolving into “doom and joy”; death and woe being increasingly transformed into death and joy. What is absolutely certain for every person (except those who are still living when Christ comes to judge at the end of the world) is that everyone is “doomed to die.” As Scripture says: “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death!” (James 1:15). “The soul that sins, the same shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:20). “You shall die in your sin!” (John 8:24). “Everyone shall die for his own sin!” (Deuteronomy 24:16).
Sin begets death and Original Sin begets death for every member of the human race: “From the woman came the beginning of sin, and by her we all die!” (Ecclesiasticus 25:33). “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned … Death reigned from Adam!” (Romans 5:12-14). Everyone must face the “doom of death” not only because of the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, but also because of their own personal sins: “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). Who dare say: “I am clean, and without sin! I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me!” (Job 33:9). “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2).
Doom and Gloom for the Sinners of the World
We read of a phenomenal and unprecedented “Doomsday” in the time of Noe: “God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times, it repented him that he had made man on the Earth. And He said: ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth, for it repents Me that I have made them! … I will make it rain upon the Earth for forty days and forty nights; and I will destroy every substance that I have made, from the face of the Earth!’ … And the flood was forty days upon the Earth, and the waters increased, and lifted up the ark on high from the Earth. The waters overflowed exceedingly and filled all on the face of the Earth: and the ark was carried upon the waters. And the waters prevailed beyond measure upon the Earth, and all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. And all flesh was destroyed that moved upon the Earth and all men. And all things wherein there is the breath of life on the Earth, died. And God destroyed all the substance that was upon the Earth, from man even to beast, and the creeping things and fowls of the air: and they were destroyed from the Earth: and Noe only remained, and they that were with him in the ark” (Genesis 6:5-7; 7:4; 7:17-23).
The words of Holy Scripture come to mind, which say: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). It seems that there are very few who “sow in the spirit” and countless multitudes who “sow in their flesh” ― as Our Lord Himself indicates: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Luke 13:24; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14). If that does not worry you; if that does not scare you; if that does not terrify you ― then it should set off the alarm bells, for you are told: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). Yet instead of trembling with fear of losing their salvation, most are “happy-go-lucky” with regard to salvation―as epitomized by the following words of St. Louis de Montfort in his Letter to the Friends of the Cross:
“Is the way you follow the true way of life, the narrow way, the thorn-strewn way to Calvary? Or are you unconsciously traveling the world’s broad road, the road to perdition? Do you realize that there is a highroad which to all appearances is straight and safe for man to travel, but which in reality leads to death? … Do you really know the voice of God and grace from the voice of the world and human nature? Do you distinctly hear the voice of God pronouncing His threefold curse upon everyone who follows the world in its concupiscence? … These are two groups ― the followers of Christ and the followers of the world … There is only a handful of people who follow Christ … The world’s group, the devil’s in fact, which is far superior in number … . Those who are Christ’s have crucified their flesh with its concupiscence … Worldlings, on the contrary, rouse one another to persist in their unscrupulous depravity. ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure!’ they shout: ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure! Let us eat, let us drink, let us sing, let us dance, let us play! God is good, He did not make us in order to to damn us! God does not forbid us to enjoy ourselves! We shall not be damned for that! Away with scruples! We shall not die!’ And so they continue.” (St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross).
Of such folk Holy Scripture and Our Lord say: “I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud; and all passed through the sea and all in Moses were baptized; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink ― but with most of them God was not well pleased … Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play!’” (1 Corinthians 10:7). To which Our Lord adds: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24). “What shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36). “Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:23-24). Scripture further adds: “Woe to you that are rich!” (Luke 6:24). “Do not trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God!” (1 Timothy 6:17) … “He that trusts in his riches shall fall!” (Proverbs 11:28) …“Go now, you rich men, weep and howl in your miseries, which shall come upon you! Your riches are corrupted! Your gold and silver is cankered―and the rust of them shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up to yourselves wrath against the last days!” (James 5:1-3).
Our Lady Warns Us of Our Doomsday
We often refer to Our Lady under her titles of Mother of Mercy, Refuge of Sinners and Comforter of the Afflicted ― but perhaps we should also create some new titles for her such as Our Lady of Doomsday, Warner of Justice, Admonisher of Sinners and Threatener of Affliction! Why? Because that is exactly what Our Lady has been doing for the last 200 years or so ― warning us of the justice of God; admonishing us for our sins that provoke God’s justice; and threatening us with terrible punishments that will inescapably occur if we refuse to change our lives and heed Heaven’s requests and commands!
Never before in the history of the Church has Our Lady threatened us with such “doom and gloom” as she has over the last few centuries. If you don’t believe that, or don’t know that, or have forgotten that―then just read the following mere “tip-of-the-iceberg” of quotes from Our Lady:
► LA SALETTE (1846): ““If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! In vain you will pray! In vain you will act! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events! Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God! … God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together! Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other for years!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
► OUR LADY TO BLESSED SISTER ELENA AIELLO (1895-1961)―mystic, stigmatic, victim soul, prophetess and foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ―Our Lady, in an apparition on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, 1956, said: “People are offending God too much! If I were to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times! The world is in total turmoil―because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the Deluge! [the Great Flood in Noe’s time]. Materialism marches on ever fomenting bloody strifes and fratricidal struggles. Clear signs warn that peace is in danger. That scourge, like the shadow of a dark cloud, is now moving across mankind―only my power, as Mother of God, is preventing the outbreak of the storm. All is hanging on a slender thread! When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs! All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!” (Our Lady to the Blessed Sister Elena Aiello).
► QUITO (1600s): “The secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the divine compass, they will stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry, and they will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain. Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of doing away with this Sacrament of Matrimony, making it easy for everyone to live in sin. The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals. In this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent. The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty! In these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury and impurity will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women. Corrupted priests will scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all priests. This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good pastors of the Church. The small number of souls, who will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom! There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
► LA SALETTE (1846): “The Church will yield to large persecution, a time of darkness and the Church will witness a frightful crisis. Churches will be locked up or desecrated. Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death. Many will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops ... A number of religious institutions will lose all Faith and will cause many souls to be damned. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening in everything that concerns the service of God … Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist … The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay ... The righteous will suffer greatly ... The true Faith to the Lord will be forgotten … People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin … and men will become more and more perverted.” (Our Lady of La Salette).
► FATIMA (1917): “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended! … Many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and the end of the war … If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved! … but if people do not cease offending God , know that God is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father! … Nations will be annihilated!” (Our Lady of Fatima).
Regarding the annihilation of nations: it is important to note that during the Father Fuentes interview, Sister Lucia said that Our Blessed Mother had told herself, Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke many times of the annihilation of many nations―she said this not just once, but she said it “many times!” (Frère François, Tragedy and Triumph, p. 27).
Lucia also said that later on, in 1929, Jesus had spoken to her as follows: “They did not wish to heed My request. Like the king of France, they will repent and do it, but it will be late. Russia will have already spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church; the Holy Father will have much to suffer.” (Our Lord to Sr. Lucia of Fatima).
The Lord of Doom and Gloom
The above words of Our Lady are nothing other than an echo of the words of Our Lord in the Gospels. There is nothing gloomier that Hell ― and Our Lord speaks often Hell either explicitly or implicitly, directly or indirectly!
“And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen! … Not everyone that says to Me: “Lord! Lord!” shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! Many will say to Me in that day: “Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name!” And then will I profess unto them: “I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!” ... When the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying: “Lord! Open to us!” And He, answering, shall say to you: “I know you not, whence you are!” Then you shall begin to say: “We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets!” And He shall say to you: “I know you not, whence you are! Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity!” There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out! … Why do you call Me, “Lord! Lord!” and do not the things which I say?’” (Luke 13:23-28; Matthew 7:13-14; 7:22-23; 22:14; Luke 6:46). “Take heed, watch and pray! For you know not when the time is!” (Mark 13:33) … “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance! … No, I say to you― unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish! ... Again I say to you― except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5). “Woe to you that are rich … Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Luke 6:24; Matthew 19:23-24).
“Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no―but separation! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! You shall be hated by all men and all nations for My Name’s sake! ... Many shall betray one another and shall hate one another! … They shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! … You shall be brought before governors and before kings for My sake! They will deliver you up in councils and they will scourge you in their synagogues. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall put you to death! The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death; and the father the son; and the children shall rise up against their parents and shall put them to death! But he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 5:11; 10:17-22, 34-36; 24:9-10; Luke 12:51-53).
“Take heed that no man seduce you! For many will come in My name saying: ‘I am Christ!’ ― and they will seduce many! And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you be not troubled. For these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet! For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be pestilences, and famines, and earthquakes in places! Now all these are the beginnings of sorrows! Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death, and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name’s sake! And then shall many be scandalized, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another! When this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all nations, then shall the consummation come! When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place―he that reads let him understand―then flee to the mountains! For there shall be then great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be! And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would be saved―but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened! And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of Heaven shall be moved! And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven; and then shall all tribes of the Earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with much power and majesty! So when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors! But of that day and hour no one knows, not the angels of Heaven, but the Father alone! And as in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be! For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark―and they knew not till the flood came and took them all away. So also shall the coming of the Son of man be!’” (Matthew 24:4-39).
Who Do You Believe?
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Science and Security Board are telling us that they have adjusted the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight due to the fact that “Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic. Global understandings are collapsing … and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence, and other apocalyptic dangers. Far too many leaders have grown complacent and indifferent … Because of this failure of leadership, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board today sets the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to catastrophe” (January 27th, 2026, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and its Science and Security Board).
Some of what they say might well be true―but theirs is more a list of SYMPTOMS rather than the ROOT CAUSE of those symptoms. Our Lady of La Salette “hits the nail on the head” when she says the following as being the root cause of these woes: “The sins of men are the cause of all the woes and troubles on this Earth!” Our Lady then gives the consequences of that SINFUL ROOT CAUSE by listing a whole variety of branches that will sprout forth from that SINFUL ROOT CAUSE―which to some degree dovetail with what the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Science and Security Board are telling us:
In her apparitions as Our Lady of Good Success, Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Akita and Our Lady’s revelations to Blessed Elena Aiello, the Blessed Mother warns: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord … If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them … If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind ... It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events! Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God! … God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together!
“The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God ... The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops … The secular clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith … There will be an almost total and general corruption of morals ... There will be unbridled luxury and impurity that will conquer innumerable frivolous souls … There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Depraved priests will scandalize the Christian people … Many will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops ... A number of religious institutions will lose all Faith and will cause many souls to be damned. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening in everything that concerns the service of God. The true Faith to the Lord will be forgotten … People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin … and men will become more and more perverted.”
“Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects … The evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government … The Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … All the civil governments will have the same objective, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritism and vice of all kinds … All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and discord will be seen, without love for country or family ... The rulers of nations speak of peace―but instead, the whole world will soon be at war, because the justice of God will not be delayed and these events are near. Tremendous will be the upheaval of the whole world, because men — as at the time of the Deluge — have lost God’s way, and are ruled by the spirit of Satan. Mankind, defiled in the mire, soon will be washed in its own blood, by disease; by famine; by earthquakes; by cloudbursts, tornadoes, floods, and terrible storms; and by war.”
“Nature is asking for vengeance on account of men, and she trembles, with dread, at what must happen to the Earth stained with crime. The Earth will be struck by calamities of all kinds ― in addition to famine which will be widespread ― there will be plagues and infectious diseases ... A number of large cities will be shaken down, shattered and swallowed up by earthquakes … There will be thunderstorms which will shake and demolish cities; earthquakes which will swallow up countries ... There will be a series of wars, until the last war, a general war, which will be appalling. Men will kill and massacre each other, even in their homes ... Blood will flow on all sides. Blood will flow in the streets ... People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy. Men will beat their heads against walls, call for their death, yet death will constitute their torment. France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war ... Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.”
Article 14
Monday & Tuesday, January 26th & 27th
Life is Serious! Take it Very Seriously!
Monday & Tuesday, January 26th & 27th
Life is Serious! Take it Very Seriously!
No Re-incarnation ― Only Salvation or Damnation!
As the modern saying states: “First things first!” We need to focus upon and attend to the primary and necessary things before we pay attention to and occupy ourselves with secondary things. Our Lord clearly affirms this in the Gospels:
“Jesus said: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, except through Me! … I am the door! By Me, if any man enters in, he shall be saved! I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly! … I am the resurrection and the life! He that believes in Me, although he be dead, shall live! And everyone that lives and believes in Me, shall not die for ever! … He that believes in Me, as Scripture says, “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water!” … I am the light of the world―he that follows Me, does not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life! … Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon! Therefore I say to you, do not be anxious about your life and what you shall eat; nor be anxious about your body and what you shall put on! Is not the life more than the meat; and the body more than the clothing? … For he that seeks to save his life, shall lose it―and he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall find it! For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul? … Fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul―but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in Hell! … Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God!” (John 14:6; 10:9-10; 11:25-26; 7:38; 8:12; Matthew 6:19-26, 33; 10:28).
Holy Scripture reinforces those words: “We have not here a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come!” (Hebrews 13:14). “It is appointed for men to die once, and after this the judgment!” (Hebrews 9:27). “None of us lives for himself; and no man dies for himself―for whether we live, we live for the Lord; or whether we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live, or whether we die―we are the Lord’s! For this is why Christ died and rose again―so that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living!” (Romans 14:7-9). “He that has the Son, has life. He that has not the Son, has not life!” (1 John 5:12). “Therefore, ensure that you walk not as unwise, but as wise ― redeeming the time, because the days are evil! Wherefore become not unwise, but understand what is the will of God. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury and impurity; but be filled with the Holy Spirit!” (Ephesians 5:15-17).
Our Lord stresses the importance of putting God above riches in His parable about the Rich Man and Lazarus: “There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen; and feasted sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table―but no one gave him any; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores! And it came to pass, that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died and he was buried in Hell. And lifting up his eyes when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said: ‘Father Abraham! Have mercy on me and send Lazarus, so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue―for I am tormented in this flame!’ And Abraham said to him: ‘Son, remember that you did receive good things in your lifetime, and likewise Lazarus received evil things―but now he is comforted and you are tormented! And besides all this, between us and you, there is fixed a great chaos―so that anyone who would like pass from here to you, cannot do so; nor can anyone from there come here!’ And he said: ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house―for I have five brethren―so that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torments!’ And Abraham said to him: ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them!’ But he said: ‘No, father Abraham―but if someone went to them from the dead, they will do penance!’ And he said to him: ‘If they will hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if someone rises again from the dead!’” (Luke 16:19-31).
The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola
The Ignatian vision of the purpose of life is contained in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, the book that Ignatius Loyola assembled to help people come into a more intimate relationship with God. Ignatian spirituality offers us a vision. It is a vision that helps us see what is really true about God and about the world that He created. The essence of the Ignatian vision is contained in a reflection at the beginning of the Exercises called the Principle and Foundation. God―Who loves us created ― wants to share life with us forever. In Scripture, Christ says that the most important commandment is that of loving God with our whole soul, mind, heart and strength. Our loving response to God takes shape in our praise and honor and service of the God of our life.
All the things in this world are also created because of God’s love and they are essentially gifts that are presented to us to use wisely, so that we can know God more easily, make a return of love more readily, and serve Him willingly. But if we abuse any of these gifts of creation or, on the contrary, use them unwisely by making them as the center of our lives, and placing them above God in importance, then we break our relationship with God, hinder our spiritual growth, and endanger our salvation. In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance before all created gifts―insofar as we have a choice and the choices that we make are our own responsibility. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a more loving response to our life forever with God.
Presumptions on Life
“Now you say: ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and there we will spend a year, and will do business and make our gain!’ Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow! For what is your life? It is a vapor which appears for a little while, and afterwards shall vanish away! Therefore you should say: ‘If the Lord wills, and if we shall live, then we will do this or that!’” (James 4:13-15). “Man―born of a woman and living only for a short time―is filled with many miseries!” (Job 14:1). “The time of man passes like a shadow” (Ecclesiastes 7:1). “My days have declined like a shadow, and I am withered like grass!” (Psalm 101:12). “For all flesh is like grass; and all the glory of man is like the flower of grass. The grass is withered, and the flower of grass is fallen away!” (1 Peter 1:24). “We are dust! Man’s days are like grass, and like the flower of the field, so too shall he flourish! For the spirit of life shall pass in him, and he shall not exist anymore, and he shall know his place no more!” (Psalm 102:14-16). “The days of our years in them are seventy years. In the strong they be eighty years―but most of them are labor and sorrow!” (Psalm 89:10).
St. Alphonsus Liguori writes: “Time is short, eternity is long! What good is all the greatness of this world at the hour of death? To love God and save my soul is the one thing necessary Fear nothing but sin! For to lose God, is to lose all! To gain all I must leave all! In loving God I have all good things! Eternal Father, give me the grace of perseverance in doing Your will in all things. Grant, O Lord, that I may love You always and never let me be separated from You!”
Life is Short! Death Comes Quickly!
St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his marvelous (but not very popular) book―Preparation for Death―paints a vivid picture of the shortness of life and the rapid approach of death for each and every one of us! Here is an extract from that book:
“What is your life? It is like a vapor or wisp of smoke, which is dissipated by a blast of wind, and is seen no more. All know that they must die; but the delusion of many is that they imagine death as far off as if it were never to arrive. But Job tells us that the life of man is short. Man born of a woman, living for a short time, who comes forth like a flower, and is destroyed. This truth the Lord commanded Isaias to preach to the people: ‘All flesh is grass. Indeed, the people is grass. The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen’ (Isaias 40:6). The life of man is like the life of a blade of grass; death comes, the grass is dried up: behold, life ends, and the flower of all greatness and of all worldly goods falls off.
“‘My days’, says Job, ‘have been swifter than a post’ (Job 9:25). Death runs to meet us more swiftly than a post, and we at every moment run towards death. Every step, every breath brings us nearer to our end. ‘What I write,’ says Jerome, ‘is so much taken away from life’ (Ad Hel. De morte Nep.). ‘During the time I write, I draw near to death.’ We all die, and like the waters that return no more, we fall into the earth (2 Kings 14:14). Behold how the stream flows to the sea, and the passing waters never return! Thus, my friend, your days pass by, and you approach death. Pleasures, amusements, pomps, praises, and acclamations pass away; and what remains? And only the grave remains for me (Job 18:1). We shall be thrown into a grave, and there we shall remain to rot, stripped of all things. At the hour of death the remembrance of the delights enjoyed, and of all the honors acquired in this life, will serve only to increase our pain and our diffidence of obtaining eternal salvation. Then the miserable worldling will say: ‘My house, my gardens, my fashionable furniture, my pictures, my garments, will in a little time be no longer mine, and only the grave remains for me!’
“Ah! At that hour all earthly goods are viewed only with pain by those who have had an attachment for them. And this pain will serve only to increase the danger of their eternal salvation; for we see by experience, that persons attached to the world wish at death to speak only of their sickness, of the physicians to be called to attend them, and of the remedies which may restore their health. When any one speaks of the state of the soul, they soon grow weary, and beg to be allowed repose. They complain of headache, and say that it pains them to hear any one speak. And if they sometimes answer, they are confused, and know not what to say. It often happens that the confessor gives them absolution, not because he knows that they are disposed for the Sacrament, but because it is dangerous to defer it. Such is the death of those who think but little of death.” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Preparation for Death, Consideration #3: The Shortness of Life).
Universal Salvation Puts Out the Fires of Hell!
However unpopular the topic of our ultimate and inevitable death might be―there is a topic that is even more unpopular! What is that super-unpopular topic? Hell! If there are few people who like to think about their own death and its inevitability―there are even fewer people who like to think about Hell and likelihood that they might up there! Today, it has become increasingly popular to focus on what is called “Universal Salvation” ― meaning that everybody eventually goes to Heaven. Universal salvation, or Christian universalism, is the theological belief that, due to God’s supreme love, mercy, all human beings—and sometimes all fallen beings—will ultimately be reconciled to God and be saved. This doctrine asserts that no one will suffer eternal punishment in Hell, as all will eventually experience redemption and salvation, often viewing punishment after death as remedial rather than final. This mistaken idea makes Hell into being Purgatory.
A clear distinction must be made here―God wants ALL PERSONS to be saved, but ALL PERSONS WILL NOT BE SAVED. Salvation is NOT UNCONDITIONAL, salvation is, on the contrary, CONDITIONAL. Certain conditions have to met and fulfilled in order to be saved―and most persons refuse or neglect to meet and fulfill those conditions. Furthermore, this heretical idea of “Universal Salvation” contradicts what Holy Scripture, Our Lord, Our Lady, saints, popes and theologians have always said on the matter of salvation―which is that MOST SOULS ARE LOST, not saved!
Yes―salvation is desired for all, but not all are saved. Holy Scripture clearly points out both truths ― (1) God wants all persons to be saved, but (2) All persons will not be saved. Here are just some of relevant quotes on both those points:
► GOD WANTS THE SALVATION OF EVERYONE: “God will [“to will” means “to want”] have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, … so that He might redeem us” (Titus 2:11-14). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). “The Lord deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance” (2 Peter 3:9). “God declares unto men, that all should everywhere do penance!” (Acts 17:30). “God sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:17). “The Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32).
► NOT EVERYONE WILL BE SAVED: Our Lord is clear and unequivocal on the subject: “No, I say to you―unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish! ... Again I say to you―except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3-5). “For what shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36). “And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But Jesus said: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen! … Not everyone that says to Me: “Lord! Lord!” shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! Many will say to Me in that day: “Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name!” And then will I profess unto them: “I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!” ... When the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying: “Lord! Open to us!” And He, answering, shall say to you: “I know you not, whence you are!” Then you shall begin to say: “We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets!” And He shall say to you: “I know you not, whence you are! Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity!” There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out! … Why do you call Me, “Lord! Lord!” and do not the things which I say?’” (Luke 13:23-28; Matthew 7:13-14; 7:22-23; 22:14; Luke 6:46).
HOLY SCRIPTURE re-affirms and reinforces those words, saying: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). “Let him do penance for his sin!” (Leviticus 5:5) ... “Hear, I beseech you, and do penance!” (Job 21:2). “Do penance―for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2). “The Lord delays not His promise, as some imagine, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance!” (2 Peter 3:9). “God has given him time for penance, and he abuses it in his pride!” (Job 24:23). “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain! And everyone that strives for the mastery, refrains himself from all things―and they, indeed, that they may receive a corruptible crown―but we an incorruptible one! I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty! I so fight, not as one beating the air! But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection―lest, perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
OUR LADY also re-affirms and reinforces the above words in her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Man is full of blindest inclinations, and if he does not restrain them, he will cause his eternal perdition! Men are so taken up with their earthly and material life, that they do not feel any other evils except those on a physical and material nature. Carnal men, with a most perverse blindness, continue to make much of the visible and fictitious good! God knows that this insane love will pervert the greater part of the human nature! Many persons―whom the world has celebrated as great, powerful and wise―have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … The number of fools is infinite and the number of the reprobate is also uncountable! … How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! … I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, taken from The Mystical City of God).
OUR LADY further laments our lack of seriousness and neglect in living our lives in the way God desires: “Great is the neglect and the inattention of men! … Men neglect their obligations! ... The cause of God remains neglected! ... What a damage is brought about in souls by the neglect of so many graces, helps, inspirations, callings and other blessings of the Lord! ... Others, who strive after virtue and perform some good works, the enemy leads into a dangerous lukewarmness and negligence! The degrading forgetfulness and neglect of men hinder them from maturing within themselves the fruits of Christ’s Redemption! … Many have been negligent in the reception of the Sacraments! … Weep over the lack of attention displayed by mortals toward these great Sacraments and at the losses sustained by them through their lukewarmness and negligence! … What a horrible crime it is in the eyes of the Lord that men should despise and neglect the frequent reception of the Holy Communion! … Furthermore, how can they be called children of the Church, who neglect to visit Him in the many places where Christ is Sacramentally present in the tabernacle? … Men do not know how much they lose by their negligence in this regard! … Through their negligence and forgetfulness, mortals lose immense treasures of grace and glory! ... Since all men, in their inordinate desire and pursuit of worldly happiness, neglect the Divine Law―where alone happiness can be found―very few really attain happiness! … They content themselves with performing good works negligently or without fervor! … Those who neglect good works and remain idle, can by no means expect to apply to themselves the good works of Christ! … This negligence is much more blamable now, since the eternal Word became man in my womb, taught the world and redeemed it for this very purpose! … The demons instill into the parents a base neglectfulness for their offspring! God will severely punish any negligence in this matter!”
“God withdraws from the lukewarm and negligent! … How great a damage it is to neglect the exercise of any virtue! … Most persons never fail to have some vain excuse for their negligence! … None of the mortals will have any excuse for their foolish negligence! … If man neglects to rise above his low desires and his forgetfulness, then he yields to the enemy of God and man! … The risks of this negligence all the human creatures incur! … What hope have the wicked, the negligent and sinful, who have spent their whole lives in making themselves unworthy of divine favor and grace! … The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss! … What pretense or excuse will lax Christians in their negligence advance for having forgotten their own eternal salvation, when my divine Son and I have desired and sought to obtain it for them with such sacrifices and untiring watchfulness? None of the mortals will have any excuse for their foolish negligence!” She also speaks of “the negligent ministers of the Church in our days.” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, taken from The Mystical City of God).
The One Thing Necessary
When visiting Martha and Mary, we see Our Lord speak of the one thing that is necessary: “Jesus entered into a certain town and a certain woman, named Martha, received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who, sitting at the Lord’s feet, heard His word. But Martha was busy about much serving. Martha stood and said: ‘Lord! Hast Thou no care that my sister has left me alone to serve? Speak to her, therefore, that she help me!’ And the Lord answering, said to her: ‘Martha! Martha! Thou art careful and art troubled about many things! But one thing is necessary! Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her!’” (Luke 10:38-42).
FR. GARRIGOU-LAGRANGE comments upon the above passage, saying: “The one thing necessary — which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary — consists in hearing the word of God and living by it. St. Alphonsus Liguori, in The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, writes: ‘One thing is necessary! The salvation of our souls. It is not necessary to be great, noble, or rich in this world, or to enjoy uninterrupted health; but it is necessary to save our souls. For this purpose has God placed us here―not to acquire honors, riches, or pleasures, but to acquire by our good works that eternal kingdom which is prepared for those who, during this present life, fight against and overcome the enemies of their eternal salvation’ (The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, Part 1, Meditation 17). Looked upon in this way, the interior life is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life, or the cultivation of the sciences, more profound than artistic or literary life, more profound than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science, as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good, in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity, which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
“There are some who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles, and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin—though it should be only venial—must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified.
“The interior life of a just man — who tends toward God and who already lives by Him — is indeed the one thing necessary. To be a saint, neither intellectual culture, nor great exterior activity is a requisite; it suffices that we live profoundly by God. This truth is evident in the saints of the early Church; several of those saints were poor people, even slaves. It is evident also in St. Francis, St. Benedict Joseph Labre, in the Curé of Ars, and many others. They all had a deep understanding of these words of our Savior: ‘For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?’ (Matthew 16:26).
“If people sacrifice so many things to save the life of the body, which must ultimately die, what should we not sacrifice to save the life of our soul, which is to last forever? Ought not man to love his soul more than his body? ‘Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?’ (Mark 8:37). Our Lord adds. ‘One thing is necessary,’ He tells us. To save our soul, one thing alone is necessary ― to hear the word of God and to live by it. Therein lies the best part, which will not be taken away from a faithful soul, even though it should lose everything else.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
As the modern saying states: “First things first!” We need to focus upon and attend to the primary and necessary things before we pay attention to and occupy ourselves with secondary things. Our Lord clearly affirms this in the Gospels:
“Jesus said: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, except through Me! … I am the door! By Me, if any man enters in, he shall be saved! I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly! … I am the resurrection and the life! He that believes in Me, although he be dead, shall live! And everyone that lives and believes in Me, shall not die for ever! … He that believes in Me, as Scripture says, “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water!” … I am the light of the world―he that follows Me, does not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life! … Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon! Therefore I say to you, do not be anxious about your life and what you shall eat; nor be anxious about your body and what you shall put on! Is not the life more than the meat; and the body more than the clothing? … For he that seeks to save his life, shall lose it―and he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall find it! For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul? … Fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul―but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in Hell! … Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God!” (John 14:6; 10:9-10; 11:25-26; 7:38; 8:12; Matthew 6:19-26, 33; 10:28).
Holy Scripture reinforces those words: “We have not here a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come!” (Hebrews 13:14). “It is appointed for men to die once, and after this the judgment!” (Hebrews 9:27). “None of us lives for himself; and no man dies for himself―for whether we live, we live for the Lord; or whether we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live, or whether we die―we are the Lord’s! For this is why Christ died and rose again―so that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living!” (Romans 14:7-9). “He that has the Son, has life. He that has not the Son, has not life!” (1 John 5:12). “Therefore, ensure that you walk not as unwise, but as wise ― redeeming the time, because the days are evil! Wherefore become not unwise, but understand what is the will of God. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury and impurity; but be filled with the Holy Spirit!” (Ephesians 5:15-17).
Our Lord stresses the importance of putting God above riches in His parable about the Rich Man and Lazarus: “There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen; and feasted sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table―but no one gave him any; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores! And it came to pass, that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died and he was buried in Hell. And lifting up his eyes when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said: ‘Father Abraham! Have mercy on me and send Lazarus, so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue―for I am tormented in this flame!’ And Abraham said to him: ‘Son, remember that you did receive good things in your lifetime, and likewise Lazarus received evil things―but now he is comforted and you are tormented! And besides all this, between us and you, there is fixed a great chaos―so that anyone who would like pass from here to you, cannot do so; nor can anyone from there come here!’ And he said: ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house―for I have five brethren―so that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torments!’ And Abraham said to him: ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them!’ But he said: ‘No, father Abraham―but if someone went to them from the dead, they will do penance!’ And he said to him: ‘If they will hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if someone rises again from the dead!’” (Luke 16:19-31).
The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola
The Ignatian vision of the purpose of life is contained in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, the book that Ignatius Loyola assembled to help people come into a more intimate relationship with God. Ignatian spirituality offers us a vision. It is a vision that helps us see what is really true about God and about the world that He created. The essence of the Ignatian vision is contained in a reflection at the beginning of the Exercises called the Principle and Foundation. God―Who loves us created ― wants to share life with us forever. In Scripture, Christ says that the most important commandment is that of loving God with our whole soul, mind, heart and strength. Our loving response to God takes shape in our praise and honor and service of the God of our life.
All the things in this world are also created because of God’s love and they are essentially gifts that are presented to us to use wisely, so that we can know God more easily, make a return of love more readily, and serve Him willingly. But if we abuse any of these gifts of creation or, on the contrary, use them unwisely by making them as the center of our lives, and placing them above God in importance, then we break our relationship with God, hinder our spiritual growth, and endanger our salvation. In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance before all created gifts―insofar as we have a choice and the choices that we make are our own responsibility. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a more loving response to our life forever with God.
Presumptions on Life
“Now you say: ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and there we will spend a year, and will do business and make our gain!’ Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow! For what is your life? It is a vapor which appears for a little while, and afterwards shall vanish away! Therefore you should say: ‘If the Lord wills, and if we shall live, then we will do this or that!’” (James 4:13-15). “Man―born of a woman and living only for a short time―is filled with many miseries!” (Job 14:1). “The time of man passes like a shadow” (Ecclesiastes 7:1). “My days have declined like a shadow, and I am withered like grass!” (Psalm 101:12). “For all flesh is like grass; and all the glory of man is like the flower of grass. The grass is withered, and the flower of grass is fallen away!” (1 Peter 1:24). “We are dust! Man’s days are like grass, and like the flower of the field, so too shall he flourish! For the spirit of life shall pass in him, and he shall not exist anymore, and he shall know his place no more!” (Psalm 102:14-16). “The days of our years in them are seventy years. In the strong they be eighty years―but most of them are labor and sorrow!” (Psalm 89:10).
St. Alphonsus Liguori writes: “Time is short, eternity is long! What good is all the greatness of this world at the hour of death? To love God and save my soul is the one thing necessary Fear nothing but sin! For to lose God, is to lose all! To gain all I must leave all! In loving God I have all good things! Eternal Father, give me the grace of perseverance in doing Your will in all things. Grant, O Lord, that I may love You always and never let me be separated from You!”
Life is Short! Death Comes Quickly!
St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his marvelous (but not very popular) book―Preparation for Death―paints a vivid picture of the shortness of life and the rapid approach of death for each and every one of us! Here is an extract from that book:
“What is your life? It is like a vapor or wisp of smoke, which is dissipated by a blast of wind, and is seen no more. All know that they must die; but the delusion of many is that they imagine death as far off as if it were never to arrive. But Job tells us that the life of man is short. Man born of a woman, living for a short time, who comes forth like a flower, and is destroyed. This truth the Lord commanded Isaias to preach to the people: ‘All flesh is grass. Indeed, the people is grass. The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen’ (Isaias 40:6). The life of man is like the life of a blade of grass; death comes, the grass is dried up: behold, life ends, and the flower of all greatness and of all worldly goods falls off.
“‘My days’, says Job, ‘have been swifter than a post’ (Job 9:25). Death runs to meet us more swiftly than a post, and we at every moment run towards death. Every step, every breath brings us nearer to our end. ‘What I write,’ says Jerome, ‘is so much taken away from life’ (Ad Hel. De morte Nep.). ‘During the time I write, I draw near to death.’ We all die, and like the waters that return no more, we fall into the earth (2 Kings 14:14). Behold how the stream flows to the sea, and the passing waters never return! Thus, my friend, your days pass by, and you approach death. Pleasures, amusements, pomps, praises, and acclamations pass away; and what remains? And only the grave remains for me (Job 18:1). We shall be thrown into a grave, and there we shall remain to rot, stripped of all things. At the hour of death the remembrance of the delights enjoyed, and of all the honors acquired in this life, will serve only to increase our pain and our diffidence of obtaining eternal salvation. Then the miserable worldling will say: ‘My house, my gardens, my fashionable furniture, my pictures, my garments, will in a little time be no longer mine, and only the grave remains for me!’
“Ah! At that hour all earthly goods are viewed only with pain by those who have had an attachment for them. And this pain will serve only to increase the danger of their eternal salvation; for we see by experience, that persons attached to the world wish at death to speak only of their sickness, of the physicians to be called to attend them, and of the remedies which may restore their health. When any one speaks of the state of the soul, they soon grow weary, and beg to be allowed repose. They complain of headache, and say that it pains them to hear any one speak. And if they sometimes answer, they are confused, and know not what to say. It often happens that the confessor gives them absolution, not because he knows that they are disposed for the Sacrament, but because it is dangerous to defer it. Such is the death of those who think but little of death.” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Preparation for Death, Consideration #3: The Shortness of Life).
Universal Salvation Puts Out the Fires of Hell!
However unpopular the topic of our ultimate and inevitable death might be―there is a topic that is even more unpopular! What is that super-unpopular topic? Hell! If there are few people who like to think about their own death and its inevitability―there are even fewer people who like to think about Hell and likelihood that they might up there! Today, it has become increasingly popular to focus on what is called “Universal Salvation” ― meaning that everybody eventually goes to Heaven. Universal salvation, or Christian universalism, is the theological belief that, due to God’s supreme love, mercy, all human beings—and sometimes all fallen beings—will ultimately be reconciled to God and be saved. This doctrine asserts that no one will suffer eternal punishment in Hell, as all will eventually experience redemption and salvation, often viewing punishment after death as remedial rather than final. This mistaken idea makes Hell into being Purgatory.
A clear distinction must be made here―God wants ALL PERSONS to be saved, but ALL PERSONS WILL NOT BE SAVED. Salvation is NOT UNCONDITIONAL, salvation is, on the contrary, CONDITIONAL. Certain conditions have to met and fulfilled in order to be saved―and most persons refuse or neglect to meet and fulfill those conditions. Furthermore, this heretical idea of “Universal Salvation” contradicts what Holy Scripture, Our Lord, Our Lady, saints, popes and theologians have always said on the matter of salvation―which is that MOST SOULS ARE LOST, not saved!
Yes―salvation is desired for all, but not all are saved. Holy Scripture clearly points out both truths ― (1) God wants all persons to be saved, but (2) All persons will not be saved. Here are just some of relevant quotes on both those points:
► GOD WANTS THE SALVATION OF EVERYONE: “God will [“to will” means “to want”] have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, … so that He might redeem us” (Titus 2:11-14). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). “The Lord deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance” (2 Peter 3:9). “God declares unto men, that all should everywhere do penance!” (Acts 17:30). “God sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:17). “The Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32).
► NOT EVERYONE WILL BE SAVED: Our Lord is clear and unequivocal on the subject: “No, I say to you―unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish! ... Again I say to you―except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3-5). “For what shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36). “And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But Jesus said: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen! … Not everyone that says to Me: “Lord! Lord!” shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! Many will say to Me in that day: “Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name!” And then will I profess unto them: “I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!” ... When the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying: “Lord! Open to us!” And He, answering, shall say to you: “I know you not, whence you are!” Then you shall begin to say: “We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets!” And He shall say to you: “I know you not, whence you are! Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity!” There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out! … Why do you call Me, “Lord! Lord!” and do not the things which I say?’” (Luke 13:23-28; Matthew 7:13-14; 7:22-23; 22:14; Luke 6:46).
HOLY SCRIPTURE re-affirms and reinforces those words, saying: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). “Let him do penance for his sin!” (Leviticus 5:5) ... “Hear, I beseech you, and do penance!” (Job 21:2). “Do penance―for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2). “The Lord delays not His promise, as some imagine, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance!” (2 Peter 3:9). “God has given him time for penance, and he abuses it in his pride!” (Job 24:23). “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain! And everyone that strives for the mastery, refrains himself from all things―and they, indeed, that they may receive a corruptible crown―but we an incorruptible one! I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty! I so fight, not as one beating the air! But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection―lest, perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
OUR LADY also re-affirms and reinforces the above words in her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Man is full of blindest inclinations, and if he does not restrain them, he will cause his eternal perdition! Men are so taken up with their earthly and material life, that they do not feel any other evils except those on a physical and material nature. Carnal men, with a most perverse blindness, continue to make much of the visible and fictitious good! God knows that this insane love will pervert the greater part of the human nature! Many persons―whom the world has celebrated as great, powerful and wise―have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … The number of fools is infinite and the number of the reprobate is also uncountable! … How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! … I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, taken from The Mystical City of God).
OUR LADY further laments our lack of seriousness and neglect in living our lives in the way God desires: “Great is the neglect and the inattention of men! … Men neglect their obligations! ... The cause of God remains neglected! ... What a damage is brought about in souls by the neglect of so many graces, helps, inspirations, callings and other blessings of the Lord! ... Others, who strive after virtue and perform some good works, the enemy leads into a dangerous lukewarmness and negligence! The degrading forgetfulness and neglect of men hinder them from maturing within themselves the fruits of Christ’s Redemption! … Many have been negligent in the reception of the Sacraments! … Weep over the lack of attention displayed by mortals toward these great Sacraments and at the losses sustained by them through their lukewarmness and negligence! … What a horrible crime it is in the eyes of the Lord that men should despise and neglect the frequent reception of the Holy Communion! … Furthermore, how can they be called children of the Church, who neglect to visit Him in the many places where Christ is Sacramentally present in the tabernacle? … Men do not know how much they lose by their negligence in this regard! … Through their negligence and forgetfulness, mortals lose immense treasures of grace and glory! ... Since all men, in their inordinate desire and pursuit of worldly happiness, neglect the Divine Law―where alone happiness can be found―very few really attain happiness! … They content themselves with performing good works negligently or without fervor! … Those who neglect good works and remain idle, can by no means expect to apply to themselves the good works of Christ! … This negligence is much more blamable now, since the eternal Word became man in my womb, taught the world and redeemed it for this very purpose! … The demons instill into the parents a base neglectfulness for their offspring! God will severely punish any negligence in this matter!”
“God withdraws from the lukewarm and negligent! … How great a damage it is to neglect the exercise of any virtue! … Most persons never fail to have some vain excuse for their negligence! … None of the mortals will have any excuse for their foolish negligence! … If man neglects to rise above his low desires and his forgetfulness, then he yields to the enemy of God and man! … The risks of this negligence all the human creatures incur! … What hope have the wicked, the negligent and sinful, who have spent their whole lives in making themselves unworthy of divine favor and grace! … The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss! … What pretense or excuse will lax Christians in their negligence advance for having forgotten their own eternal salvation, when my divine Son and I have desired and sought to obtain it for them with such sacrifices and untiring watchfulness? None of the mortals will have any excuse for their foolish negligence!” She also speaks of “the negligent ministers of the Church in our days.” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, taken from The Mystical City of God).
The One Thing Necessary
When visiting Martha and Mary, we see Our Lord speak of the one thing that is necessary: “Jesus entered into a certain town and a certain woman, named Martha, received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who, sitting at the Lord’s feet, heard His word. But Martha was busy about much serving. Martha stood and said: ‘Lord! Hast Thou no care that my sister has left me alone to serve? Speak to her, therefore, that she help me!’ And the Lord answering, said to her: ‘Martha! Martha! Thou art careful and art troubled about many things! But one thing is necessary! Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her!’” (Luke 10:38-42).
FR. GARRIGOU-LAGRANGE comments upon the above passage, saying: “The one thing necessary — which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary — consists in hearing the word of God and living by it. St. Alphonsus Liguori, in The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, writes: ‘One thing is necessary! The salvation of our souls. It is not necessary to be great, noble, or rich in this world, or to enjoy uninterrupted health; but it is necessary to save our souls. For this purpose has God placed us here―not to acquire honors, riches, or pleasures, but to acquire by our good works that eternal kingdom which is prepared for those who, during this present life, fight against and overcome the enemies of their eternal salvation’ (The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, Part 1, Meditation 17). Looked upon in this way, the interior life is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life, or the cultivation of the sciences, more profound than artistic or literary life, more profound than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science, as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good, in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity, which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
“There are some who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles, and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin—though it should be only venial—must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified.
“The interior life of a just man — who tends toward God and who already lives by Him — is indeed the one thing necessary. To be a saint, neither intellectual culture, nor great exterior activity is a requisite; it suffices that we live profoundly by God. This truth is evident in the saints of the early Church; several of those saints were poor people, even slaves. It is evident also in St. Francis, St. Benedict Joseph Labre, in the Curé of Ars, and many others. They all had a deep understanding of these words of our Savior: ‘For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?’ (Matthew 16:26).
“If people sacrifice so many things to save the life of the body, which must ultimately die, what should we not sacrifice to save the life of our soul, which is to last forever? Ought not man to love his soul more than his body? ‘Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?’ (Mark 8:37). Our Lord adds. ‘One thing is necessary,’ He tells us. To save our soul, one thing alone is necessary ― to hear the word of God and to live by it. Therein lies the best part, which will not be taken away from a faithful soul, even though it should lose everything else.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Article 13
Saturday & Sunday, January 24th & 25th
Deceived, Deluded and Damned by the Devil!
Saturday & Sunday, January 24th & 25th
Deceived, Deluded and Damned by the Devil!
The Devil and the D’s
The devil is a deceiver according to Our Lord: “The devil, from the beginning, stood not in the truth―because truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own―for he is a liar, and the father of lies!” (John 8:44). “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go forth and seduce the nations!” (Apocalypse 20:7). “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:4). “I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted, and fall from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). “Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8-9).
The Devil has many sides to himself―and perhaps no other letter is more appropriate to the devil than the letter “D”. It is quite amazing to see how many other languages use the letter “D” for the words DEVIL and DEMON!
The devil is a deceiver according to Our Lord: “The devil, from the beginning, stood not in the truth―because truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own―for he is a liar, and the father of lies!” (John 8:44). “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go forth and seduce the nations!” (Apocalypse 20:7). “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:4). “I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted, and fall from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). “Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8-9).
The Devil has many sides to himself―and perhaps no other letter is more appropriate to the devil than the letter “D”. It is quite amazing to see how many other languages use the letter “D” for the words DEVIL and DEMON!
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Ecclesiastical Greek ― diabolos and daímonas
Latin ― diabolus and dæmon Italian ― diavolo and demone English ― devil or demon Spanish ― diablo and demono Portuguese ― diabo and demónio German ― dämon French ― diable and démon Dutch ― duivel and demon Albanian ― djall and demoni |
Belarusian ― djabal and deman
Polish ― diabel and demon Lithuanian ― demonas Serbian ― đavola and demon Czech ― dábel and demon Croatian ― demon Hungarian ― démon Norwegian ― djevel and demon Swedish ― demon Danish ― djævel and dæmon |
Furthermore, there are many words beginning with the letter “D” that describe the demonic doings of devils―all of which are geared to lead to the DAMNATION of souls. He will use some or all of them if possible at some time or another in our lives―some often, some not so often. Some of those words are as follows:
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DISTRACTION
DECEPTION DISCUSSION DEBATE DIALECTICS DEGLAMORIZE DISABLE DISARM DISTURBANCE DIFFERENCES DISAGREEMENTS DICHOTOMY DIVISION DISCREDITING DERIDING DETRACTION DEFAMATION DISTORTION DISGRACE |
DISAPPOINTMENT
DISENCHANTMENT DISILLUSIONMENT DISGUST DISDAIN DOUBT DISTRUST DISBELIEF DAZZLE and DANGLE DABBLE and DIP DELIGHT DELUSION DAYDREAMS DESIRE DARE DILEMMAS DEVIATE DOWNPLAY DEVALUE |
DISREGARD
DEFILE DESENSITIZING DEADENING DEPENDENCY DELAYING DEGENERATE DEHUMANIZE DENATURIZE DEMORALIZE DESPISE DESOLATION DISCOURAGEMENT DEJECTION DESPONDENCY DEPRESSION DESPAIR DESTRUCTION DAMNATION |
Devouring Devils
As Holy Scripture warns, the devil seeks to DEVOUR us ― “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goed about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8) ― and to do so he will use a variety of the above listed measures, often in a kind of a chronological order, whereby one leads to another ― and so, little by little, and almost imperceptibly, he leads us on the road to damnation ― which, according to Our Lady, he is very successful at doing. In speaking to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady says:
“Fear the danger of not paying attention to the cause of the loss of innumerable souls ... How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! … Men are lost in forgetful rest and sleep―as if there were no vigilant and powerful enemies. This dreadful carelessness arises from two causes: on the one hand men are so taken up with their earthly and material life, that they do not feel any other evils except those on a physical and material nature. Anything that is interior seems harmless in their estimation. On the other hand, since the princes of darkness are invisible and unperceived by any of the senses and since carnal men neither touch, nor feel, nor see them―the result is that they forget the fear of them. Yet for this very reason they ought to be more attentive and careful, since invisible enemies are more cunning and skillful in injuring us by their treachery ...
“The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation! The wounds of sin do not distress sinners and the reprobate, and, the more often they are committed, the less regret or sorrow do they cause! ...
“As the Mother of mercy, it is a great cause of sorrow to me to see mortals force me to remain idle, and that, by failing to call upon me, so many souls should be lost! ... This is a sorrow beyond all sorrows, and a misfortune without equal and without remedy. Afflict yourself, lament and grieve without consolation over this ruin of so many souls! ... I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular. Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!”
Why the Hell are You Bringing Up Hell so much?
Hell is not a popular subject―and, believe it or not, the devil likes it that way. Fr. Gabriele Amorth (1925–2016), exorcist in Rome for 30 years (1986 to 2016), said: “The influence of Satan is immense! … The Devil does not like to be seen ― that is when he is happiest! … Satan hides and disguises himself in a thousand ways! … Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan! … We are all subject to it from our birth until our death! … We are all tempted by the devil, and will be for as long as we live! … The devil wanders around each one of you, searching where to devour you. That word―‘where’―is important: the devil looks in each person precisely for his weak point and ‘works’ on it … The most frequent weak points in man are, from time to time, always the same: pride, money, and lust … Satan weakens the consciences of men and women and leads them toward egoism, closing their hearts, lack of forgiveness.”
The Popes and the Devil
BLESSED POPE PIUS IX (reigned 1846-1878), asked priests to please, please preach more often on Hell.
You have without doubt heard the account of POPE LEO XIII (reigned 1878-1903) having a auditory vision of a conversation between Our Lord and Devil in the late 19th century. Pope Leo XIII had finished saying Mass in the Vatican Chapel, on October 13th, 1884, which was attended by some cardinals and other members of the Vatican staff, when he suddenly stopped at the foot of the altar, and stood for about ten minutes, as if in a trance, his face ashen white. Then, going immediately from the Chapel to his office, he composed the prayer to St. Michael, with instructions that it be said after all the Low Masses everywhere, which it was until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). When asked what happened, the Pontiff explained that as he was about to leave the foot of the altar, he suddenly heard voices—two voices, one kind and gentle, the other guttural and harsh. They seemed to be coming from near the tabernacle. As he listened, he heard the following conversation:
The guttural voice of Satan, in his pride, boasted to Our Lord: “I can destroy Your Church.”
The gentle voice of Our Lord replied: “You can? Then go ahead and do so.”
Satan said: “To do so, I need more time and power.”
Our Lord asked: “How much time? How much power?”
Satan replied: “75 to 100 years, and a greater power over those who will give themselves over to my service.”
Our Lord concluded: “You have the time, you will have the power. Do with them what you will.”
Pope Leo XIII understood that Satan was to be given a certain amount of time in order to accomplish his purpose; and a greater power to spread evil, through those human agents who would dedicate themselves to his cause. He was given further to understand that, if the devil had not accomplished his purpose at the end of the time limit given, he would suffer a most crushing and humiliating defeat. Furthermore, the forces of good would not be helpless in the face of the onslaught of Satan and his legions. They, too, were given a greater power for good, if only they would use it. Through their prayers and sacrifices and good Catholic lives, they could offset the power of the devil and his human agents.
The Smoke of Satan in the Church according to Pope Paul VI (1963-1978)
► 1972: “We believed that after the [Second Vatican] Council would come a day of sunshine in the history of the Church. But instead there has come a day of clouds and storms, and of darkness ... And how did this come about? We will confide to you … that there has been a power, an adversary power. Let us call him by his name: the Devil. … It is as if from some mysterious crack, no, it is not mysterious, from some crack the smoke of Satan has entered the Temple of God.” (Pope Paul VI, Address On the Occasion of the Ninth Anniversary of His Election, June 29th, 1972).
► 1972: Some months later, on November 15th of 1972, at a General Audience, Pope Paul VI added: “What are the Church’s greatest needs at the present time? Don’t be surprised at Our answer and don’t write it off as simplistic or even superstitious: one of the Church’s greatest needs is to be defended against the evil we call the Devil … Who can forget the highly significant description of the triple temptation of Christ? Or the many episodes in the Gospel where the Devil crosses the Lord’s path and figures in His teaching? (Matthew 12:43) And how could we forget that Christ, referring three times to the Devil as His adversary, describes him as ‘the prince of this world’?” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11).
► 1977: A few years later he repeated the same concern: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church” (Pope Paul VI, Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13th, 1977).
CARDINAL RATZINGER, later POPE BENEDICT XVI (reigned 2005-2013), later said: “We have now absorbed into Church teaching, and the Church has opened herself up to, principles which are not hers, but which come from modern society.” Elsewhere he said that with Vatican II, the principles of 1789 [the French Revolution] had entered the Church. Unfortunately, the opening of the windows of the Church to the world, has let worldliness into the Church, while many of the Catholics jumped out of the windows and joined the world! This opening up to the world (the devil, in reality, for he is “the prince of the world” John 12:31, says Our Lord) has wounded the very Heart of the Church and the Precious Blood has been spilled and wasted.
FR. GABRIELE AMORTH: “It’s true, unfortunately, because even in the Church there are adherents to Satanic cults. Pope Paul VI reported this detail about the smoke of Satan on June 29th, 1972. Of course, this broke the ice, lifting a veil of silence and censorship that has lasted too long, but it had no practical consequences. It took someone like me ― who was a nobody ― to spread the alarm in order to get results.”
FR. MALACHI MARTIN, in his book, The Kingdom of Darkness, describes what is meant by “the smoke of Satan”. He tells of an interview that Pope Paul VI gave to his close friend, Jean Guitton, not long before the pope died. When Guitton asked Pope Paul VI about his often-quoted remark regarding “the smoke of Satan”, Paul VI replied: “Yes, the smoke of Satan is in the sanctuary. Due to the presence of Satan, Catholics are destined to become an infinitesimally small part of humanity.”
Father Martin adds: “We must remember this. A new assault has been launched! The assault is very simple. The temptation is: ‘Just be like the rest of men. Adore a general god. Be good. Be compassionate. Be humanitarian. Join the rest of humanity in building man’s earthly world.’”
“In Rome, there is a force which at the present moment is immovable. It cannot be dislodged by ordinary human means. This is where, again, one’s Faith in Our Lady of Fatima comes in, because she said that only she can save the Church, because that is what her Son has willed. It is not so because it was her own choice, but because it what Christ has chosen. Christ chose that His Mother should be the one to come and finally save the Church. If you read carefully what Our Lady told Sister Lucia, you get a strong message that things are going bad. Many of the elect will lose their Faith.” (Fr. Malachi Martin, in his book, The Kingdom of Darkness).
St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Sermon on the Devil
“On this Earth we all walk in the midst of a thousand snares; that is, in the midst of the temptations of the devil, dangerous occasions, bad companions, and our own passions, which frequently deceive us. Only they who avoid these snares shall be saved. How shall we avoid them? ‘Take heed, therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness.’ (Luke 11:45). The light which you think you possess will be your ruin; it will lead you into a pit. The devil, who, because he could not bear to see men in Heaven, from which he had been banished, tempted Adam to rebel against God. ‘But by the envy of the devil death came into the world; and they follow him that are of his side.’ (Wisdom 2:25).
“O men, fools, how long will you fix the affections of your hearts on this Earth? Why do you love the goods of this world, which are all vanity and lies? Do you imagine that you shall find peace by the acquisition of these goods? ? Behold how David describes the condition of worldlings. ‘Destruction and unhappiness in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known.’ (Psalm 13:3). You hope to obtain peace from the world; but how can the world give you that peace which you seek, when St. John says, ‘that the whole world is seated in wickedness?’ (1 John 5:19). The world is full of iniquities; hence worldlings live under the despotism of the wicked one that is, the Devil.
“The devil employs vicious friends as decoys, to draw so many souls into the snare of sin. How many, because they are afraid of forfeiting the favor of a friend, sell their souls to the devil! Sinners hope to find peace in their sins; but what peace can they enjoy? Instead of seeking to be the friends of God, sinners wish to be the slaves of Satan, who is a cruel and merciless tyrant to all who submit to his yoke. Why do we allow ourselves to be so easily deceived by the Devil? We do not weigh things in the balance of God, which cannot deceive, but in the balance of Satan, who seeks only to deceive us, that he may bring us with himself into Hell.
“St. Augustine says that the devil deludes Christians in two ways: by despair and hope. After a person has committed sin, the enemy, by placing before his eyes the rigor of divine justice, tempts him to despair of the mercy of God. But, before he sins, the devil by representing to him the divine mercy, labors to make him fearless of the chastisement due to sin. Hence the saint gives the following advice: ‘After sin, hope for mercy; before sin, fear justice.’ If, after sin, you despair of God’s pardon, then you offend Him by a new and more grievous sin. Have recourse to His mercy, and He will pardon you. But, before sin, fear God’s justice, and trust not to His mercy; for, they who abuse the mercy of God to offend Him, do not deserve to be treated with mercy. Abulensis says, that the man who offends justice may have recourse to mercy; but to whom can they have recourse, who offend and provoke mercy against themselves?
“During the administration of the Extreme Unction, the devil is employed in reminding the sick man of all the sins he committed by the senses by the eyes, the ears, the tongue, the hands; and says to him: ‘After so many sins can you expect to be saved?’ O what terror is then caused by every one of those mortal sins, which are now called human frailties, and which, worldlings say, God will not punish! Now they are disregarded; but then every mortal sin shall be a sword that will pierce the soul with terror. At the moment of death, the devil exerts all his powers to secure the soul that is about to leave this world; for he knows, from the symptoms of the disease, that he has but little time to gain her for eternity. O how terrible are the assaults and snares of the devil against the souls of dying persons, even though they have led a holy life!
“We read in the life of St. Andrew Avellino, that in his agony he had so fierce a combat with Hell, that all the religious present were seized with trembling. They perceived that, in consequence of the agitation, his face swelled, and became black, all his members trembled, and a flood of tears gushed from his eyes. All began to weep through compassion, and were filled with terror, at the sight of a saint dying in such a manner. But they were afterwards consoled, when they saw that as soon as an image of most holy Mary was held before him, he became perfectly calm, and breathed forth his blessed soul with great joy. Now, if this happens to the saints, what shall become of poor sinners, who have lived in sin till death? At that awful moment the devil does not come alone to tempt them in a thousand ways, but in order to bring them to eternal perdition, he calls companions to his assistance.
“When a Christian is about to leave this world, his house is filled with devils, who unite together in order to effect his ruin. All his enemies will encompass him in the straits of death. One shall say: ‘You have been for so many years deaf to the calls of God, and can you now expect that he will save you?’ Another will ask: ‘How can you repair the frauds of your past life, and the injuries you have done to your neighbor in his property and character?’ Another shall ask: ‘What hope can there be for you? Do you not see that all your confessions have been null that they have been made without true sorrow, and without a firm purpose of amendment? How can you repair them with this heart, which you feel so hard? Do you not see that you are lost?’ And in the midst of these straits and attacks of despair, the dying sinner, full of agitation and confusion, must pass into eternity.
“In this life everything menaces ruin to the poor soul the world, the devils, the flesh, the passions, all draw her to sin and to eternal death. Pope St. Leo the Great says, our life is full of dangers, of snares, and of enemies. The first enemy of the salvation of every Christian is his own corruption. Along with the corrupt inclinations which live within us, and drag us to evil, we have many enemies from without that fight against us. We have the devils, with whom the contest is very difficult, because they are ‘stronger than we are’ says Cassiodorus (In Psalm 5). Hence, because we have to contend with powerful enemies, St. Paul exhorts us to arm ourselves with the divine aid: ‘Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the Devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in high places.’ (Ephesians 6:11-12). The Devil, according to St. Peter, is a lion who is continually going about roaring, through the rage and hunger which impel him to devour our souls. ‘Your adversary, the Devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour.’ (1 Peter 5:8) St. Cyprian says that Satan is continually lying in wait for us, in order to make us his slaves. Hence St. Augustine exclaims: ‘The enemy sleeps not, and you are asleep.’ The enemy is always awake to injure you, and you slumber.
“The Devil brings sinners to Hell by closing their eyes to the dangers of perdition. He first blinds them, and then leads them with himself to eternal torments. To escape the deceits of the enemy of salvation, place before your eyes the delusion by which the devil tempts men to sin and to persevere in sin, so that you may know how to guard yourselves against his deceitful artifices.
“To understand these delusions better, let us imagine the case of a young man who, seized by some passion, lives in sin, the slave of Satan, and never thinks of his eternal salvation. My son, I say to him, what sort of life do you lead? If you continue to live in this manner, how will you be able to save your soul? But, behold, the devil, on the other hand, says to him: ‘Why should you be afraid of being lost? Indulge your passions for the present: you will afterwards confess your sins, and thus all shall be remedied.’ Behold the net by which the devil drags so many souls into Hell. ‘Indulge your passions: you will hereafter make a good confession.’ But, in reply, I say, that in the meantime you lose your soul. Tell me: if you had a jewel worth an enormous amount of money, would you throw it into a river with the hope of afterwards finding it again? What if all your efforts to find it were fruitless? My God! You hold in your hand the invaluable jewel of your soul, which Jesus Christ has purchased with His own Blood, and you cast it into Hell! Yes; you cast it into Hell; because according to the present order of providence, for every mortal sin you commit, your name is written among the number of the damned.
“You say: ‘I cannot at present resist this passion.’ Behold the third delusion of the devil, by which he makes you believe that, at present, you have not strength to overcome certain temptations. But St. Paul tells us that God is faithful, and that He never permits us to be tempted above our strength. ‘And God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted above that which you are able’ (1 Corinthians 10:13). I ask, if you are not now able to resist the temptation, how can you expect to resist it hereafter? If you yield to it, the devil will become stronger, and you shall become weaker; and if you be not now able to extinguish this flame of passion, how can you hope to be able to extinguish it when it shall have grown more violent?
“The devil tells you: ‘Commit this sin, and confess it afterwards.’ Behold the deceitful artifice by which the devil has brought so many thousands of Christians to Hell. We scarcely ever find a Christian so sunk in despair as to intend to damn himself. All the wicked sin with the hope of afterwards going to confession. But, by this illusion, how many have brought themselves to perdition! For them there is now no time for confession, no remedy for their damnation. They fell, but failed to rise. They fell once too often.
“‘But God is merciful.’ Behold another common delusion by which the devil encourages sinners to persevere in a life of sin! A certain author has said, that more souls have been sent to Hell by the mercy of God than by His justice. This is indeed the case; for men are induced by the deceits of the devil to persevere in sin, through confidence in God’s mercy; and thus they are lost. ‘God is merciful.’ Who denies it? But, great as His mercy, how many does He every day send to Hell? God is merciful, but He is also just, and is, therefore, obliged to punish those who offend Him. ‘And His mercy,’ says the divine Mother, ‘to them that fear Him.’ (Luke 1:50). But with regard to those who abuse His mercy and despise Him, He exercises justice. The Lord pardons sins, but He cannot pardon the determination to commit sin. St. Augustine says, that he who sins, with the intention of repenting after his sins, is not a penitent but a scoffer. But the Apostle tells us that God will not be mocked. ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked.’ (Galatians 6:7). It would be a mockery of God to insult Him as often and as much as you pleased, and afterwards to expect eternal glory.
“Whenever, then, the devil tempts you to sin, by holding out the hope that you will go to confession and repair the evil you have done, say to him in answer: ‘How do I know that this shall not be the last day of my life? And should death overtake me in sin, and not give me time to make my confession, what shall become of me for all eternity?’ Alas! How many poor sinners have been struck dead in the very act of indulging in some sinful pleasure, and have been sent to Hell! How many has God sent to Hell for the first offence? You say: ‘I am young: there are many who have committed more sins than I have!’ But is God, on that account, obliged to wait for your repentance if you offend him? You must, then, tremble at the thought of committing a single mortal sin, particularly if you have already been guilty of mortal sins. ‘Be not without fear about sins forgiven, and add not sin to sin.’ (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). Say not then, O sinner: ‘As God has forgiven me other sins, so He will pardon me this one if I commit it!’ Say not this; for, if to the sin which has been forgiven you add another, you have reason to fear that this new sin shall be united to your former guilt, and that thus the number will be completed, and that you shall be abandoned.
“Should the Devil, in reply, say: ‘Fear not, God is merciful!’ answer him by saying: ‘What certainty or what probability have I, that, if I return again to sin, God will show me mercy or grant me pardon?’ Because the threat of the Lord against all who despise His calls: ‘Behold I have called and you refused. . . I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared.’ (Proverbs 1:24-26). Mark the words I also; they mean that, as you have mocked the Lord by betraying Him again after your confession and promises of amendment, so He will mock you at the hour of death. ‘I will laugh and will mock.’ But ‘God is not mocked.’ (Galatians 6:7). ‘As a dog,’ says the Wise Man, ‘that returns to his vomit, so is the fool that repeats his folly.’ (Proverbs 26:11). Blessed Denis the Carthusian gives an excellent exposition of this text. He says that, as a dog that eats what he has just vomited, is an object of disgust and abomination, so the sinner who returns to the sins which he has detested and confessed, becomes hateful in the sight of God.
“O folly of sinners! If you purchase a house, you spare no pains to get all the securities necessary to guard against the loss of your money; if you take medicine, you are careful to assure yourself that it cannot injure you; if you pass over a river, you cautiously avoid all danger of falling into it; and for a transitory enjoyment, for the gratification of revenge, for a beastly pleasure, which lasts but a moment, you risk your eternal salvation, saying: ‘I will go to confession after I commit this sin.’
“And when, I ask, are you to go to confession? You say: ‘Tomorrow!’ But who promises you tomorrow? Who assures you that you shall have time for confession, and that God will not deprive you of life, as He has deprived so many others, in the act of sin? You cannot be certain of living for another hour, and you say: ‘I will go to confession tomorrow!’ Listen to the words of St. Gregory: ‘He who has promised pardon to penitents, has not promised tomorrow to sinners!’ (Hom. xii. in Evan). God has promised pardon to all who repent; but He has not promised to wait till tomorrow for those who insult Him. Perhaps God will give you time for repentance, perhaps He will not. But, should He not give it, what shall become of your soul? In the meantime, for the sake of a miserable pleasure, you lose the grace of God, and expose yourself to the danger of being lost forever.
Would you, for such transient enjoyments, risk your money, your honor, your possessions, your liberty, and your life? No, you would not. How then does it happen that, for a miserable gratification, you lose your soul, Heaven, and God? Tell me: do you believe that Heaven, Hell, eternity, are truths of Faith? Do you believe that, if you die in sin, you are lost forever?
“St. Augustine says, that to prevent the sheep from seeking assistance by her cries the wolf seizes her by the neck, and thus securely carries her away and devours her. The devil acts in a similar manner with the sheep of Jesus Christ. After having induced them to yield to sin, he seizes them by the throat, that they may not confess their guilt; and thus he securely brings them to Hell. For those who have sinned grievously, there is no means of salvation but the confession of their sins. But, what hope of salvation can he have who goes to confession and conceals his sins, and makes use of the tribunal of penance to offend God, and to make himself doubly the slave of Satan? What hope would you entertain of the recovery of the man who, instead of taking the medicine prescribed by his physician, drank a cup of poison?
“The devil does not bring sinners to Hell with their eyes open: he first blinds them with the malice of their own sins. ‘For their own malice blinded them!’ (Wisdom 2:21). He thus leads them to eternal perdition. Before we fall into sin, the enemy labors to blind us, that we may not see the evil we do and the ruin we bring upon ourselves by offending God. After we commit sin, he seeks to make us dumb, that, through shame, we may conceal our guilt in confession. Thus, he leads us to Hell by a double chain, inducing us, after our transgressions, to consent to a still greater sin the sin of sacrilege. I will speak on this subject and will endeavor to convince you of the great evil of concealing sins in confession.
“To be silent when we are impelled to utter words injurious to God or to our neighbor, is an act of virtue; but, to be silent in confessing our sins, is the ruin of the soul. After we have offended God, the devil labors to keep the mouth closed, and to prevent us from confessing our guilt. St. Antonine relates, that a holy solitary once saw the devil standing beside a certain person who wished to go to confession. The solitary asked the fiend what he was doing there. The enemy said in reply: ‘I now restore to these penitents what I before took away from them; I took away from them shame while they were committing sin; I now restore it that they may have a horror of confession.’ ‘My sores are putrefied and corrupted, because of my foolishness’ (Psalm 37:6). Gangrenous sores are fatal; and sins concealed in confession are spiritual ulcers, which mortify and become gangrenous.
“God has made sin shameful, that we may abstain from it, and gives us confidence to confess it by promising pardon to all who accuse themselves of their sins. But the devil does the contrary: he gives confidence to sin by holding out hopes of pardon; but, when sin is committed, he inspires shame, to prevent the confession of it.
“If, then, brethren, there be a single soul among you who has ever concealed a sin, through shame, in the tribunal of penance, let him take courage, and make a full confession of all his faults. ‘Give glory to God with a good heart’ (Ecclesiasticus 35:10). Give glory to God, and confusion to the devil. A certain penitent was tempted by Satan to conceal a sin through shame; but she was resolved to confess it; and while she was going to her confessor, the devil came forward and asked her where she was going. She courageously answered: ‘I am going to cover myself and you with confusion.’ Act you in a similar manner; if you have ever concealed a mortal sin, confess it candidly to your director, and confound the devil.
“But you say: ‘I am afraid that my confessor, when he hears my sin, will rebuke me with great severity.’ God! Do you not see that all these are deceitful artifices of the devil to bring you to Hell? No; the confessor will not rebuke you, but he will give an advice suited to your state. A confessor cannot experience greater consolation than in absolving a penitent who confesses his sins with true sorrow and with sincerity. If a queen were mortally wounded by a slave, and you were in possession of a remedy by which she could be cured, how great would be your joy in saving her life! Such is the joy which a confessor feels in absolving a soul in the state of sin. By his act he delivers her from eternal death: and by restoring to her the grace of God, he makes her a queen of Paradise.
“The devil keeps an account of your sins, to charge you with them at the tribunal of Jesus Christ. Arise, then Christian souls, and if you are bound by any bad habit, burst your chains, and remain no longer the slaves of Satan. Loose the bonds of your sins, which make you the slave of Satan. Loose the bonds before the habit of sin gains such power over you, as to render your conversion morally impossible, and thus to bring you to eternal perdition. Give glory to God, and confusion to the devil. A certain penitent was tempted by Satan to conceal a sin through shame; but she was resolved to confess it; and while she was going to her confessor, the devil came forward and asked her where she was going. She courageously answered: ‘I am going to cover myself and you with confusion.’ Act you in a similar manner; if you have ever concealed a mortal sin, confess it candidly to your director, and confound the devil. Remember that the greater the violence you do yourself in confessing your sins, the greater will be the love with which Jesus Christ will embrace you. Do not give the devil time to continue to tempt you and to make you put off your confession: go immediately: for Jesus Christ is waiting for you.
As Holy Scripture warns, the devil seeks to DEVOUR us ― “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goed about seeking whom he may devour!” (1 Peter 5:8) ― and to do so he will use a variety of the above listed measures, often in a kind of a chronological order, whereby one leads to another ― and so, little by little, and almost imperceptibly, he leads us on the road to damnation ― which, according to Our Lady, he is very successful at doing. In speaking to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady says:
“Fear the danger of not paying attention to the cause of the loss of innumerable souls ... How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! … Men are lost in forgetful rest and sleep―as if there were no vigilant and powerful enemies. This dreadful carelessness arises from two causes: on the one hand men are so taken up with their earthly and material life, that they do not feel any other evils except those on a physical and material nature. Anything that is interior seems harmless in their estimation. On the other hand, since the princes of darkness are invisible and unperceived by any of the senses and since carnal men neither touch, nor feel, nor see them―the result is that they forget the fear of them. Yet for this very reason they ought to be more attentive and careful, since invisible enemies are more cunning and skillful in injuring us by their treachery ...
“The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation! The wounds of sin do not distress sinners and the reprobate, and, the more often they are committed, the less regret or sorrow do they cause! ...
“As the Mother of mercy, it is a great cause of sorrow to me to see mortals force me to remain idle, and that, by failing to call upon me, so many souls should be lost! ... This is a sorrow beyond all sorrows, and a misfortune without equal and without remedy. Afflict yourself, lament and grieve without consolation over this ruin of so many souls! ... I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular. Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!”
Why the Hell are You Bringing Up Hell so much?
Hell is not a popular subject―and, believe it or not, the devil likes it that way. Fr. Gabriele Amorth (1925–2016), exorcist in Rome for 30 years (1986 to 2016), said: “The influence of Satan is immense! … The Devil does not like to be seen ― that is when he is happiest! … Satan hides and disguises himself in a thousand ways! … Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan! … We are all subject to it from our birth until our death! … We are all tempted by the devil, and will be for as long as we live! … The devil wanders around each one of you, searching where to devour you. That word―‘where’―is important: the devil looks in each person precisely for his weak point and ‘works’ on it … The most frequent weak points in man are, from time to time, always the same: pride, money, and lust … Satan weakens the consciences of men and women and leads them toward egoism, closing their hearts, lack of forgiveness.”
The Popes and the Devil
BLESSED POPE PIUS IX (reigned 1846-1878), asked priests to please, please preach more often on Hell.
You have without doubt heard the account of POPE LEO XIII (reigned 1878-1903) having a auditory vision of a conversation between Our Lord and Devil in the late 19th century. Pope Leo XIII had finished saying Mass in the Vatican Chapel, on October 13th, 1884, which was attended by some cardinals and other members of the Vatican staff, when he suddenly stopped at the foot of the altar, and stood for about ten minutes, as if in a trance, his face ashen white. Then, going immediately from the Chapel to his office, he composed the prayer to St. Michael, with instructions that it be said after all the Low Masses everywhere, which it was until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). When asked what happened, the Pontiff explained that as he was about to leave the foot of the altar, he suddenly heard voices—two voices, one kind and gentle, the other guttural and harsh. They seemed to be coming from near the tabernacle. As he listened, he heard the following conversation:
The guttural voice of Satan, in his pride, boasted to Our Lord: “I can destroy Your Church.”
The gentle voice of Our Lord replied: “You can? Then go ahead and do so.”
Satan said: “To do so, I need more time and power.”
Our Lord asked: “How much time? How much power?”
Satan replied: “75 to 100 years, and a greater power over those who will give themselves over to my service.”
Our Lord concluded: “You have the time, you will have the power. Do with them what you will.”
Pope Leo XIII understood that Satan was to be given a certain amount of time in order to accomplish his purpose; and a greater power to spread evil, through those human agents who would dedicate themselves to his cause. He was given further to understand that, if the devil had not accomplished his purpose at the end of the time limit given, he would suffer a most crushing and humiliating defeat. Furthermore, the forces of good would not be helpless in the face of the onslaught of Satan and his legions. They, too, were given a greater power for good, if only they would use it. Through their prayers and sacrifices and good Catholic lives, they could offset the power of the devil and his human agents.
The Smoke of Satan in the Church according to Pope Paul VI (1963-1978)
► 1972: “We believed that after the [Second Vatican] Council would come a day of sunshine in the history of the Church. But instead there has come a day of clouds and storms, and of darkness ... And how did this come about? We will confide to you … that there has been a power, an adversary power. Let us call him by his name: the Devil. … It is as if from some mysterious crack, no, it is not mysterious, from some crack the smoke of Satan has entered the Temple of God.” (Pope Paul VI, Address On the Occasion of the Ninth Anniversary of His Election, June 29th, 1972).
► 1972: Some months later, on November 15th of 1972, at a General Audience, Pope Paul VI added: “What are the Church’s greatest needs at the present time? Don’t be surprised at Our answer and don’t write it off as simplistic or even superstitious: one of the Church’s greatest needs is to be defended against the evil we call the Devil … Who can forget the highly significant description of the triple temptation of Christ? Or the many episodes in the Gospel where the Devil crosses the Lord’s path and figures in His teaching? (Matthew 12:43) And how could we forget that Christ, referring three times to the Devil as His adversary, describes him as ‘the prince of this world’?” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11).
► 1977: A few years later he repeated the same concern: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church” (Pope Paul VI, Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13th, 1977).
CARDINAL RATZINGER, later POPE BENEDICT XVI (reigned 2005-2013), later said: “We have now absorbed into Church teaching, and the Church has opened herself up to, principles which are not hers, but which come from modern society.” Elsewhere he said that with Vatican II, the principles of 1789 [the French Revolution] had entered the Church. Unfortunately, the opening of the windows of the Church to the world, has let worldliness into the Church, while many of the Catholics jumped out of the windows and joined the world! This opening up to the world (the devil, in reality, for he is “the prince of the world” John 12:31, says Our Lord) has wounded the very Heart of the Church and the Precious Blood has been spilled and wasted.
FR. GABRIELE AMORTH: “It’s true, unfortunately, because even in the Church there are adherents to Satanic cults. Pope Paul VI reported this detail about the smoke of Satan on June 29th, 1972. Of course, this broke the ice, lifting a veil of silence and censorship that has lasted too long, but it had no practical consequences. It took someone like me ― who was a nobody ― to spread the alarm in order to get results.”
FR. MALACHI MARTIN, in his book, The Kingdom of Darkness, describes what is meant by “the smoke of Satan”. He tells of an interview that Pope Paul VI gave to his close friend, Jean Guitton, not long before the pope died. When Guitton asked Pope Paul VI about his often-quoted remark regarding “the smoke of Satan”, Paul VI replied: “Yes, the smoke of Satan is in the sanctuary. Due to the presence of Satan, Catholics are destined to become an infinitesimally small part of humanity.”
Father Martin adds: “We must remember this. A new assault has been launched! The assault is very simple. The temptation is: ‘Just be like the rest of men. Adore a general god. Be good. Be compassionate. Be humanitarian. Join the rest of humanity in building man’s earthly world.’”
“In Rome, there is a force which at the present moment is immovable. It cannot be dislodged by ordinary human means. This is where, again, one’s Faith in Our Lady of Fatima comes in, because she said that only she can save the Church, because that is what her Son has willed. It is not so because it was her own choice, but because it what Christ has chosen. Christ chose that His Mother should be the one to come and finally save the Church. If you read carefully what Our Lady told Sister Lucia, you get a strong message that things are going bad. Many of the elect will lose their Faith.” (Fr. Malachi Martin, in his book, The Kingdom of Darkness).
St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Sermon on the Devil
“On this Earth we all walk in the midst of a thousand snares; that is, in the midst of the temptations of the devil, dangerous occasions, bad companions, and our own passions, which frequently deceive us. Only they who avoid these snares shall be saved. How shall we avoid them? ‘Take heed, therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness.’ (Luke 11:45). The light which you think you possess will be your ruin; it will lead you into a pit. The devil, who, because he could not bear to see men in Heaven, from which he had been banished, tempted Adam to rebel against God. ‘But by the envy of the devil death came into the world; and they follow him that are of his side.’ (Wisdom 2:25).
“O men, fools, how long will you fix the affections of your hearts on this Earth? Why do you love the goods of this world, which are all vanity and lies? Do you imagine that you shall find peace by the acquisition of these goods? ? Behold how David describes the condition of worldlings. ‘Destruction and unhappiness in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known.’ (Psalm 13:3). You hope to obtain peace from the world; but how can the world give you that peace which you seek, when St. John says, ‘that the whole world is seated in wickedness?’ (1 John 5:19). The world is full of iniquities; hence worldlings live under the despotism of the wicked one that is, the Devil.
“The devil employs vicious friends as decoys, to draw so many souls into the snare of sin. How many, because they are afraid of forfeiting the favor of a friend, sell their souls to the devil! Sinners hope to find peace in their sins; but what peace can they enjoy? Instead of seeking to be the friends of God, sinners wish to be the slaves of Satan, who is a cruel and merciless tyrant to all who submit to his yoke. Why do we allow ourselves to be so easily deceived by the Devil? We do not weigh things in the balance of God, which cannot deceive, but in the balance of Satan, who seeks only to deceive us, that he may bring us with himself into Hell.
“St. Augustine says that the devil deludes Christians in two ways: by despair and hope. After a person has committed sin, the enemy, by placing before his eyes the rigor of divine justice, tempts him to despair of the mercy of God. But, before he sins, the devil by representing to him the divine mercy, labors to make him fearless of the chastisement due to sin. Hence the saint gives the following advice: ‘After sin, hope for mercy; before sin, fear justice.’ If, after sin, you despair of God’s pardon, then you offend Him by a new and more grievous sin. Have recourse to His mercy, and He will pardon you. But, before sin, fear God’s justice, and trust not to His mercy; for, they who abuse the mercy of God to offend Him, do not deserve to be treated with mercy. Abulensis says, that the man who offends justice may have recourse to mercy; but to whom can they have recourse, who offend and provoke mercy against themselves?
“During the administration of the Extreme Unction, the devil is employed in reminding the sick man of all the sins he committed by the senses by the eyes, the ears, the tongue, the hands; and says to him: ‘After so many sins can you expect to be saved?’ O what terror is then caused by every one of those mortal sins, which are now called human frailties, and which, worldlings say, God will not punish! Now they are disregarded; but then every mortal sin shall be a sword that will pierce the soul with terror. At the moment of death, the devil exerts all his powers to secure the soul that is about to leave this world; for he knows, from the symptoms of the disease, that he has but little time to gain her for eternity. O how terrible are the assaults and snares of the devil against the souls of dying persons, even though they have led a holy life!
“We read in the life of St. Andrew Avellino, that in his agony he had so fierce a combat with Hell, that all the religious present were seized with trembling. They perceived that, in consequence of the agitation, his face swelled, and became black, all his members trembled, and a flood of tears gushed from his eyes. All began to weep through compassion, and were filled with terror, at the sight of a saint dying in such a manner. But they were afterwards consoled, when they saw that as soon as an image of most holy Mary was held before him, he became perfectly calm, and breathed forth his blessed soul with great joy. Now, if this happens to the saints, what shall become of poor sinners, who have lived in sin till death? At that awful moment the devil does not come alone to tempt them in a thousand ways, but in order to bring them to eternal perdition, he calls companions to his assistance.
“When a Christian is about to leave this world, his house is filled with devils, who unite together in order to effect his ruin. All his enemies will encompass him in the straits of death. One shall say: ‘You have been for so many years deaf to the calls of God, and can you now expect that he will save you?’ Another will ask: ‘How can you repair the frauds of your past life, and the injuries you have done to your neighbor in his property and character?’ Another shall ask: ‘What hope can there be for you? Do you not see that all your confessions have been null that they have been made without true sorrow, and without a firm purpose of amendment? How can you repair them with this heart, which you feel so hard? Do you not see that you are lost?’ And in the midst of these straits and attacks of despair, the dying sinner, full of agitation and confusion, must pass into eternity.
“In this life everything menaces ruin to the poor soul the world, the devils, the flesh, the passions, all draw her to sin and to eternal death. Pope St. Leo the Great says, our life is full of dangers, of snares, and of enemies. The first enemy of the salvation of every Christian is his own corruption. Along with the corrupt inclinations which live within us, and drag us to evil, we have many enemies from without that fight against us. We have the devils, with whom the contest is very difficult, because they are ‘stronger than we are’ says Cassiodorus (In Psalm 5). Hence, because we have to contend with powerful enemies, St. Paul exhorts us to arm ourselves with the divine aid: ‘Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the Devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in high places.’ (Ephesians 6:11-12). The Devil, according to St. Peter, is a lion who is continually going about roaring, through the rage and hunger which impel him to devour our souls. ‘Your adversary, the Devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour.’ (1 Peter 5:8) St. Cyprian says that Satan is continually lying in wait for us, in order to make us his slaves. Hence St. Augustine exclaims: ‘The enemy sleeps not, and you are asleep.’ The enemy is always awake to injure you, and you slumber.
“The Devil brings sinners to Hell by closing their eyes to the dangers of perdition. He first blinds them, and then leads them with himself to eternal torments. To escape the deceits of the enemy of salvation, place before your eyes the delusion by which the devil tempts men to sin and to persevere in sin, so that you may know how to guard yourselves against his deceitful artifices.
“To understand these delusions better, let us imagine the case of a young man who, seized by some passion, lives in sin, the slave of Satan, and never thinks of his eternal salvation. My son, I say to him, what sort of life do you lead? If you continue to live in this manner, how will you be able to save your soul? But, behold, the devil, on the other hand, says to him: ‘Why should you be afraid of being lost? Indulge your passions for the present: you will afterwards confess your sins, and thus all shall be remedied.’ Behold the net by which the devil drags so many souls into Hell. ‘Indulge your passions: you will hereafter make a good confession.’ But, in reply, I say, that in the meantime you lose your soul. Tell me: if you had a jewel worth an enormous amount of money, would you throw it into a river with the hope of afterwards finding it again? What if all your efforts to find it were fruitless? My God! You hold in your hand the invaluable jewel of your soul, which Jesus Christ has purchased with His own Blood, and you cast it into Hell! Yes; you cast it into Hell; because according to the present order of providence, for every mortal sin you commit, your name is written among the number of the damned.
“You say: ‘I cannot at present resist this passion.’ Behold the third delusion of the devil, by which he makes you believe that, at present, you have not strength to overcome certain temptations. But St. Paul tells us that God is faithful, and that He never permits us to be tempted above our strength. ‘And God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted above that which you are able’ (1 Corinthians 10:13). I ask, if you are not now able to resist the temptation, how can you expect to resist it hereafter? If you yield to it, the devil will become stronger, and you shall become weaker; and if you be not now able to extinguish this flame of passion, how can you hope to be able to extinguish it when it shall have grown more violent?
“The devil tells you: ‘Commit this sin, and confess it afterwards.’ Behold the deceitful artifice by which the devil has brought so many thousands of Christians to Hell. We scarcely ever find a Christian so sunk in despair as to intend to damn himself. All the wicked sin with the hope of afterwards going to confession. But, by this illusion, how many have brought themselves to perdition! For them there is now no time for confession, no remedy for their damnation. They fell, but failed to rise. They fell once too often.
“‘But God is merciful.’ Behold another common delusion by which the devil encourages sinners to persevere in a life of sin! A certain author has said, that more souls have been sent to Hell by the mercy of God than by His justice. This is indeed the case; for men are induced by the deceits of the devil to persevere in sin, through confidence in God’s mercy; and thus they are lost. ‘God is merciful.’ Who denies it? But, great as His mercy, how many does He every day send to Hell? God is merciful, but He is also just, and is, therefore, obliged to punish those who offend Him. ‘And His mercy,’ says the divine Mother, ‘to them that fear Him.’ (Luke 1:50). But with regard to those who abuse His mercy and despise Him, He exercises justice. The Lord pardons sins, but He cannot pardon the determination to commit sin. St. Augustine says, that he who sins, with the intention of repenting after his sins, is not a penitent but a scoffer. But the Apostle tells us that God will not be mocked. ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked.’ (Galatians 6:7). It would be a mockery of God to insult Him as often and as much as you pleased, and afterwards to expect eternal glory.
“Whenever, then, the devil tempts you to sin, by holding out the hope that you will go to confession and repair the evil you have done, say to him in answer: ‘How do I know that this shall not be the last day of my life? And should death overtake me in sin, and not give me time to make my confession, what shall become of me for all eternity?’ Alas! How many poor sinners have been struck dead in the very act of indulging in some sinful pleasure, and have been sent to Hell! How many has God sent to Hell for the first offence? You say: ‘I am young: there are many who have committed more sins than I have!’ But is God, on that account, obliged to wait for your repentance if you offend him? You must, then, tremble at the thought of committing a single mortal sin, particularly if you have already been guilty of mortal sins. ‘Be not without fear about sins forgiven, and add not sin to sin.’ (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). Say not then, O sinner: ‘As God has forgiven me other sins, so He will pardon me this one if I commit it!’ Say not this; for, if to the sin which has been forgiven you add another, you have reason to fear that this new sin shall be united to your former guilt, and that thus the number will be completed, and that you shall be abandoned.
“Should the Devil, in reply, say: ‘Fear not, God is merciful!’ answer him by saying: ‘What certainty or what probability have I, that, if I return again to sin, God will show me mercy or grant me pardon?’ Because the threat of the Lord against all who despise His calls: ‘Behold I have called and you refused. . . I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared.’ (Proverbs 1:24-26). Mark the words I also; they mean that, as you have mocked the Lord by betraying Him again after your confession and promises of amendment, so He will mock you at the hour of death. ‘I will laugh and will mock.’ But ‘God is not mocked.’ (Galatians 6:7). ‘As a dog,’ says the Wise Man, ‘that returns to his vomit, so is the fool that repeats his folly.’ (Proverbs 26:11). Blessed Denis the Carthusian gives an excellent exposition of this text. He says that, as a dog that eats what he has just vomited, is an object of disgust and abomination, so the sinner who returns to the sins which he has detested and confessed, becomes hateful in the sight of God.
“O folly of sinners! If you purchase a house, you spare no pains to get all the securities necessary to guard against the loss of your money; if you take medicine, you are careful to assure yourself that it cannot injure you; if you pass over a river, you cautiously avoid all danger of falling into it; and for a transitory enjoyment, for the gratification of revenge, for a beastly pleasure, which lasts but a moment, you risk your eternal salvation, saying: ‘I will go to confession after I commit this sin.’
“And when, I ask, are you to go to confession? You say: ‘Tomorrow!’ But who promises you tomorrow? Who assures you that you shall have time for confession, and that God will not deprive you of life, as He has deprived so many others, in the act of sin? You cannot be certain of living for another hour, and you say: ‘I will go to confession tomorrow!’ Listen to the words of St. Gregory: ‘He who has promised pardon to penitents, has not promised tomorrow to sinners!’ (Hom. xii. in Evan). God has promised pardon to all who repent; but He has not promised to wait till tomorrow for those who insult Him. Perhaps God will give you time for repentance, perhaps He will not. But, should He not give it, what shall become of your soul? In the meantime, for the sake of a miserable pleasure, you lose the grace of God, and expose yourself to the danger of being lost forever.
Would you, for such transient enjoyments, risk your money, your honor, your possessions, your liberty, and your life? No, you would not. How then does it happen that, for a miserable gratification, you lose your soul, Heaven, and God? Tell me: do you believe that Heaven, Hell, eternity, are truths of Faith? Do you believe that, if you die in sin, you are lost forever?
“St. Augustine says, that to prevent the sheep from seeking assistance by her cries the wolf seizes her by the neck, and thus securely carries her away and devours her. The devil acts in a similar manner with the sheep of Jesus Christ. After having induced them to yield to sin, he seizes them by the throat, that they may not confess their guilt; and thus he securely brings them to Hell. For those who have sinned grievously, there is no means of salvation but the confession of their sins. But, what hope of salvation can he have who goes to confession and conceals his sins, and makes use of the tribunal of penance to offend God, and to make himself doubly the slave of Satan? What hope would you entertain of the recovery of the man who, instead of taking the medicine prescribed by his physician, drank a cup of poison?
“The devil does not bring sinners to Hell with their eyes open: he first blinds them with the malice of their own sins. ‘For their own malice blinded them!’ (Wisdom 2:21). He thus leads them to eternal perdition. Before we fall into sin, the enemy labors to blind us, that we may not see the evil we do and the ruin we bring upon ourselves by offending God. After we commit sin, he seeks to make us dumb, that, through shame, we may conceal our guilt in confession. Thus, he leads us to Hell by a double chain, inducing us, after our transgressions, to consent to a still greater sin the sin of sacrilege. I will speak on this subject and will endeavor to convince you of the great evil of concealing sins in confession.
“To be silent when we are impelled to utter words injurious to God or to our neighbor, is an act of virtue; but, to be silent in confessing our sins, is the ruin of the soul. After we have offended God, the devil labors to keep the mouth closed, and to prevent us from confessing our guilt. St. Antonine relates, that a holy solitary once saw the devil standing beside a certain person who wished to go to confession. The solitary asked the fiend what he was doing there. The enemy said in reply: ‘I now restore to these penitents what I before took away from them; I took away from them shame while they were committing sin; I now restore it that they may have a horror of confession.’ ‘My sores are putrefied and corrupted, because of my foolishness’ (Psalm 37:6). Gangrenous sores are fatal; and sins concealed in confession are spiritual ulcers, which mortify and become gangrenous.
“God has made sin shameful, that we may abstain from it, and gives us confidence to confess it by promising pardon to all who accuse themselves of their sins. But the devil does the contrary: he gives confidence to sin by holding out hopes of pardon; but, when sin is committed, he inspires shame, to prevent the confession of it.
“If, then, brethren, there be a single soul among you who has ever concealed a sin, through shame, in the tribunal of penance, let him take courage, and make a full confession of all his faults. ‘Give glory to God with a good heart’ (Ecclesiasticus 35:10). Give glory to God, and confusion to the devil. A certain penitent was tempted by Satan to conceal a sin through shame; but she was resolved to confess it; and while she was going to her confessor, the devil came forward and asked her where she was going. She courageously answered: ‘I am going to cover myself and you with confusion.’ Act you in a similar manner; if you have ever concealed a mortal sin, confess it candidly to your director, and confound the devil.
“But you say: ‘I am afraid that my confessor, when he hears my sin, will rebuke me with great severity.’ God! Do you not see that all these are deceitful artifices of the devil to bring you to Hell? No; the confessor will not rebuke you, but he will give an advice suited to your state. A confessor cannot experience greater consolation than in absolving a penitent who confesses his sins with true sorrow and with sincerity. If a queen were mortally wounded by a slave, and you were in possession of a remedy by which she could be cured, how great would be your joy in saving her life! Such is the joy which a confessor feels in absolving a soul in the state of sin. By his act he delivers her from eternal death: and by restoring to her the grace of God, he makes her a queen of Paradise.
“The devil keeps an account of your sins, to charge you with them at the tribunal of Jesus Christ. Arise, then Christian souls, and if you are bound by any bad habit, burst your chains, and remain no longer the slaves of Satan. Loose the bonds of your sins, which make you the slave of Satan. Loose the bonds before the habit of sin gains such power over you, as to render your conversion morally impossible, and thus to bring you to eternal perdition. Give glory to God, and confusion to the devil. A certain penitent was tempted by Satan to conceal a sin through shame; but she was resolved to confess it; and while she was going to her confessor, the devil came forward and asked her where she was going. She courageously answered: ‘I am going to cover myself and you with confusion.’ Act you in a similar manner; if you have ever concealed a mortal sin, confess it candidly to your director, and confound the devil. Remember that the greater the violence you do yourself in confessing your sins, the greater will be the love with which Jesus Christ will embrace you. Do not give the devil time to continue to tempt you and to make you put off your confession: go immediately: for Jesus Christ is waiting for you.
Article 12
Monday to Thursday, January 19th to 22nd
Mercy, Grace, Salvation & You!
Monday to Thursday, January 19th to 22nd
Mercy, Grace, Salvation & You!
A Holy Trinity for You!
At the end of our life on Earth, as we find ourselves dying, there are three things that should occupy our thoughts and perhaps even make us tremble! We could loosely term those three things as our own personal trinity―mercy, grace and salvation. Just as the Holy Trinity is three Persons in one God―likewise we could say that these three things must be a part of us. There is no salvation without sanctifying grace in the soul; and we are undeserving of sanctifying grace without the mercy of God being shown to us.
Scary thought, huh? Yes―as Holy Scripture says: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12) … “By grace you are saved, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God!” (Ephesians 2:8) … “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23) … “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9) … Who dare say: “I am clean, and without sin! I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me!” (Job 33:9) … “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2) … “There is no man who sins not” (3 Kings 8:46) … “For all have sinned, and do need the glory [mercy and grace] of God!” (Romans 3:23) ... “The soul that sins, the same shall die … Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? … Be converted and do penance for all your iniquities and iniquity shall not be your ruin! … For I desire not the death of him that dies, says the Lord God, return ye and live!” (Ezechiel 18:20-32). “If the wicked do penance for sins committed … and keep all My commandments … I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more” (Ezechiel 18:21; Hebrews 8:12) … “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy!” (Romans 9:15) … “Your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36) … “The Lord is merciful, plenteous in mercy. His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9).
If God is so merciful, then why is it that most souls end up in Hell? We must make an important distinction here between (1) the mercy that is within God and (2) the mercy that God shows to us. Within God, mercy has no limits, it is infinite just as God is infinite. Yet, with regard to us finite sinful creatures, He does not show infinite mercy to every sinner. We know that by the very fact that Hell exists―if God showed infinite mercy to every sinner, there would be no Hell. If God showed infinite mercy to every sinner, then He would not have destroyed everyone by the Great Flood in the days of Noe. If God showed infinite mercy to every sinner, then He would not have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha with fire from Heaven. If God showed infinite mercy to every sinner, then why would Our Lord say that most souls end up being damned: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it! … Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’” (Matthew 7:13-14; Luke 13:23-24).
If God showed infinite mercy to every sinner, then why did Our Lady of Fatima say that many souls go to Hell? Why did Our Lady say to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Many persons―whom the world has celebrated as great, powerful and wise―have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … The number of fools is infinite and the number of the reprobate is also uncountable! … How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! … I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular!” (The Mystical City of God).
Presume Not On God’s Mercy
Elsewhere, Holy Scripture echoes this truth: “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great, He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5-6). “He that commits sin is of the devil!” (1 John 3:8). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).
St. Alphonsus Liguori, a Doctor of the Church and patron saint of moral theologians, writes: “Sinners hear the calls of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend Him. But God does not forget them. He numbers the graces which He dispenses, as well as the sins which we commit. Hence, when the time which He has fixed arrives, God deprives us of His graces, and begins to inflict chastisement. The sinner who abandons himself to sin without striving to resist temptations―or without at least asking God’s help to conquer them and hopes that the Lord will one day draw him from the precipice―tempts God to work miracles, or rather to show to him an extraordinary mercy that is not extended to the generality of Christians. God has fixed for each person the number of the days of his life, and the degrees of health and talent which He will give him, so He has also determined for each the number of sins which He will pardon; and when this number is completed, He will pardon no more. God is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner. The Lord pardons sins, but He cannot pardon those who are determined to offend Him.” (Sermon for the First Sunday of Lent: “On The Number Of Sins Beyond Which God Pardons No More”).
Bad Confessions Lose the Mercy of God
St. Teresa of Avila stated: “Bad confessions damn the majority of Christians.” St. Alphonsus Liguori also warns of bad confessions: “The preacher should often speak against bad confessions―in which sins are concealed through shame. This is an evil not of rare occurrence, but is frequent―and which consigns innumerable souls to Hell!” As Scripture warns: “He that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). The American exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger, explains: “Most people don’t know that the proper effect of every single mortal sin is demonic possession. It’s just that God blocks it in 99.9% of the cases.” If you were to be mortally wounded by a gunshot, then you would race to the Emergency Room of the nearest hospital. Yet when our soul is mortally wounded by mortal sin, we feel little urgency to rush to the Emergency Room of the nearest confessional. Once the demons have enticed you to sin mortally, then the next step is to try and keep you in that state of mortal sin. If they see that you intend to go to Confession and confess your mortal sins, then they will try and make that confession an invalid confession by making you confess badly.
There is a grave danger of presuming on the mercy of by getting caught in the vicious circle of constant “commit mortal sin―confess the mortal sin―commit the mortal sin again―confess the mortal sin again―and so on again and again and again. This reduces the Sacrament of Confession and the Precious Blood of Jesus to the level of a weekly carwash―don’t worry about mortal sin, you can wash it off in Confession each week! That is the sin of presumption!
Closely linked to this sin of presumption is what could be called “the sin of deception” during Confession, whereby the person “fudges”, “masks”, “misrepresents” or “puts cosmetics” on their mortal sin(s) to make it seem less serious or less numerous than it really is. These people forget that they are bound to confess their mortal sins according to (1) the precise kind of mortal sin that it is; (2) the number of times they have committed each different kind of mortal sin; (3) and mention any circumstances that might affect the gravity of that mortal sin (you will often find that #1 and #3 go together). Let us explain.
Our Lady of Fatima said that the most common sin that damns most souls is the sin of impurity. Yet it is not enough to simply say in Confession: “Father, I have been impure!” Sexual impurity is a mortal sin―but there are different kinds of sexual impurity, all of which, though they are all mortal sins, have different degrees of gravity: (1) impurity in thoughts; (2) impurity in words; (3) impurity in actions. Then there are various different circumstances that can also increase the gravity of these mortal sins. For example: (1) Was it impurity of thought, word, or action by yourself with nobody else being involved; (2) was it impurity with a person under the age of consent; (3) was it impurity with a family member―father, mother, child, brother, sister, relative, etc.; (4) was it impurity with a religious person―bishop, priest, monk, nun, etc. (5) was the act of impurity forced upon the other person, e.g. rape; (6) was it impurity with an animal. All of these varying circumstances affect the gravity of the mortal sin of impurity. The same also applies to other kinds of mortal sin. By neglecting or hiding these distinctions, it is very easy to make a bad, invalid, sacrilegious confession.
Today, this is compounded and made much more frequent due to what recent popes have called “the loss of the sense of sin.”
● Pope Pius XII said in 1946: “Perhaps the greatest sin in the world today is that men have begun to lose the sense of sin!”
● Pope John Paul II, in 2005, wrote: “We live in a society that seems to have lost the sense of God and of sin!”
● Pope Benedict XVI, in 2011, said: “The word ‘sin’ is not accepted by many.”
● Pope Francis, in 2014, stated: “The sense of sin is lost … When we lose the sense of sin, when we let the Kingdom of God crumble!”
Not only do “we let the Kingdom of God crumble”, but we also let our state of sanctifying grace crumble due to our warped notions of what is sinful and what is not sinful! The demons are unbelievably intelligent, and so when the demons coax us into making bad (invalid) confessions they do so in a very subtle way―they do not advertize it, nor blow trumpets, nor wave the fact before our eyes. The perfect “con” is to “con” somebody and leave them oblivious to the fact that they have been conned. So when it comes to “conned” confessions, the demons want to have us thinking that we have confessed sufficiently well, whereas we have “botched” our confession and confessed badly (invalidly).
Sanctifying Grace―Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Out of Soul
As the Catechism, My Catholic Faith states: “Sanctifying grace is a sharing in the life of God Himself ... By Sanctifying Grace, our souls are made holy and pleasing to God ... Sanctifying grace is necessary for salvation because it is the supernatural life which alone enables us to attain the supernatural happiness of Heaven … One cannot gain any merit for Heaven as long as he is not in Sanctifying Grace, what is termed “in the state of grace.” For without Sanctifying Grace one is an enemy of God, and cannot enter His Kingdom … With Sanctifying Grace, the Holy Spirit enters our soul; we are led by His Spirit … The Holy Spirit does not sleep within us, but expands our heart with His grace, and urges our will to do good … The presence of God in the soul gives it life. When the Holy Spirit is dwelling in the soul, it is enabled to know and love God, to do supernatural works … St. Paul refers to this acquisition of Sanctifying Grace as the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new ... When we are in possession of Sanctifying Grace, we are free from mortal sin; the two cannot dwell together … Mortal sin makes the soul displeasing to God, and thus deprives it of Sanctifying Grace.” (Catechism, My Catholic Faith).
There is nobody in Heaven without Sanctifying Grace in their soul―and there is nobody in Hell with Sanctifying Grace in their soul. Grace is everything―it is all that really matters. If you are the richest person in world, but do not have Sanctifying Grace in your soul, then you cannot enter Heaven, you cannot buy your way into Heaven, nor can you bribe your way into Heaven. You might be the most famous person in the world―but without Sanctifying Grace your fame will get you nowhere when it comes to Heaven. You might be the most powerful person in the world―but without Sanctifying Grace in your soul, you will be powerless in getting to Heaven.
You might be the poorest person on Earth―but with Sanctifying Grace in your soul you are richer than the richest person on Earth. You may be hated by everyone and have no friends―but with Sanctifying Grace in your soul you are loved by God and all the angels and saints in Heaven. You may have been the biggest sinner the world has ever seen―but with Sanctifying Grace in your soul you will avoid Hell and eventually get to Heaven. Yes―grace is everything. Grace is everything we need to get to Heaven.
For most persons, God is out of sight and therefore God is also out of their mind―they think very little of the God that they cannot see, and think a lot about the world that they can see! Statistics vary, but on average the American spends anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes a day on God related matters! That number does not include attending church services on Sundays. Obviously, that number also encompasses Catholics and Protestants. Modern science and technology have distracted man from God and dethroned God! It is not so much that people have stopped believing in God, it is more a case of them no longer having time for God.
Yet this attitude blatantly spits in the face of Holy Scripture, which says: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24). “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times!” (Luke 21:36). “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).
Prayer is one of the chief sources of God’s graces. Here are some quotes on prayer from the saints: “The power of prayer is really tremendous” (St. Thérèse of Lisieux, 1873-1897). “He who prays most receives most” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, 1696-1787). “Prayer is necessary for salvation!” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, 1696-1787). “Prayer is the key to Heaven! Prayer ascends and mercy descends.” (St. Augustine, 354-430). “It is simply impossible to lead a virtuous life without the aid of prayer” (St. John Chrysostom, 347-407). “We must pray without tiring―because the salvation of mankind does not depend on material success; nor on sciences that cloud the intellect.” (St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, 1850-1917). “Prayer reveals to souls the vanity of earthly goods and pleasures.” (St. Rose of Viterbo, d. 1252).
St. Alphonsus Liguori writes on prayer: “First, I ask the pardon of all the offences I have committed … Secondly, I ask Thy Divine light, which will make me see the vanity of all the goods of this Earth … Thirdly, I ask Thy holy love, which will detach me from all creatures … “Fourthly, I ask for confidence in the merits of Jesus Christ and in the patronage of Mary … Fifthly, I ask holy perseverance in Thy grace … Eternal Father, grant me the grace of prayer, the grace to pray always! Amen.”
What Does Grace Do?
What does grace do? Grace does everything―everything that is not sinful. That is why St. Thérèse of Lisieux used to say: “Everything is grace!” Our Lord Himself said: “Without Me―you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). We can expand upon that and have Our Lord say: “Without My grace―you can do nothing!” What is it about the word “NOTHING” that we fail to understand? “Nothing” means zero, nichts, nič, ništa, nada, niente, natin, nekas, rien ― or whatever other language you choose to use! We truly underestimate and misunderstand the extent to which grace works in our lives. If you read St. Thomas Aquinas speaking about grace (Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114) then you will better understand our total and humiliating dependence upon grace. Here are a few key extracts from St. Thomas:
“Human nature needs the help of God to do or wish any good whatsoever … Without grace men do nothing good when they either think or wish or love or act! … Without grace men can do no good whatever! … Grace is a light of the soul … Man cannot even know truth without Divine help … Not only do they know by the light of grace what to do, but by its help they do lovingly what they know! … Man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works proportionate to everlasting life―for this a higher force is needed, namely, the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life … Man cannot prepare himself for everlasting life without the help of grace―a gratuitous gift of God, Who moves the soul inwardly or inspires the good wish ... Man’s turning to God is by free-will―but free-will can only be turned to God when God turns it, according to John 15:5: ‘Without Me, you can do nothing!’ … Man can do nothing unless moved by God.
“Grace is a gift of God … The gift of grace surpasses every capability of created nature … In the state of corrupt nature [after Original Sin] man needs the help of grace to heal his nature … In the state of corrupted nature man cannot fulfill all the Divine commandments without healing grace … St. Augustine says that it is part of the Pelagian heresy to believe that without grace man can fulfill all the Divine commandments …
“Sanctifying Grace is called ‘gratuitous grace’ since it is bestowed on a man beyond the capability of human nature and beyond the merits of the person … Man’s free-will is moved by something which is above the human mind, that is to say, by God … The mind of man is not so great a master of its act that it does not need to be moved by God … God leads everything to love of Himself … … for this it is necessary that the will of man should be prepared with grace by God …
“In the state of corrupt nature, it cannot be that man remains for a long time without mortal sin … Man cannot avoid every act of sin, except by grace … God’s grace is the outcome of His mercy … Man needs grace to heal his nature, in order that he may entirely abstain from sin … Man by himself can in no way rise from sin without the help of grace … In order for a man rise from sin there is required the help of grace ... According to Jeremias 31:18: ‘Convert me and I shall be converted, for Thou art the Lord, my God!’ and Lamentations 5:21: ‘Convert us, O Lord, to Thee, and we shall be converted!’ … Correction is useful … Correction is necessary in order to abstain from sin; yet correction is not sufficient without God’s help. Hence after anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil until the end of his life. For to many persons grace is given to whom perseverance in grace is not given!” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114).
Clearing Up Misunderstandings and Ignorance About Grace
Sadly to say, most Catholics would have a hard time explaining what grace is and what kinds of graces there are and what are the roles of these different kinds of grace. Catholics can fall into the trap of thinking that God is like a “vending machine” of grace. We go to church, we put our money in the basket, we say our prayers, we do something nice for someone and then we expect God to give us our grace. And, when He doesn’t―or we don’t immediately sense or feel that the grace is given―we kick the “vending machine,” grumble and walk away feeling ripped-off. However, God is not a vending machine and “owes” us nothing.
You cannot love what you do not know; you cannot use to maximum potential something that you know little about. One would imagine that most people would want to know all there is to know about grace―especially since there can no salvation without grace: “The grace of God [brings] life everlasting” (Romans 6:23) … “By grace you are saved, and not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8) … “By Christ’s grace you are saved!” (Ephesians 2:5). “Being justified by His grace, we may be heirs to life everlasting” (Titus 3:7). “Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace―so that we may obtain mercy!” (Hebrews 4:16). So let us try to dispel the darkness of our ignorance and profit from the potential that grace offers.
Grace is Given to Everyone
God does not wish to exclude anyone from His grace: “God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him!” (John 3:17). “Every man has received grace” (1 Peter 4:10). “To every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the giving of Christ” (Ephesians 4:7). Even the pagans are offered God’s graces: “The grace of the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the Gentiles also! … God gave them the same grace, as to us also who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ!” who was I, that could withstand God?” (Acts 10:45; 11:17). “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men―instructing us, that by denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world” (Titus 2:11-12).
Unfortunately, with our God-given free will, we can stubbornly and tragically refuse to accept and cooperate with God’s graces: “The light shined in darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it! … That was the true light, which enlightens every man that comes into this world. He was in the world and the world was made by Him―and the world knew him not. He came unto His own―and His own received Him not! … The light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light―for their works were evil” (John 1:5-11; 3:19).
The More Grace You Get―the More Fruit You Should Produce
Our Lord says: “I am the true vine and My Father is the gardener. Every branch in Me that bears not fruit, He will take away! And every branch that bears fruit, He will purge it, so that it may bring forth more fruit!” [John 15:1-2]. “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required―and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more!” (Luke 12:48). We see this implied in Our Lord’s parable of the talents: “And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to everyone according to his proper ability: and immediately he took his journey. He that had received the five talents, went his way and traded and gained other five. And he that had received the two, gained another two. But he that had received the one, going his way dug into the earth and hid his lord’s money” (Matthew 25:15-18). We are expected to profit from the graces that God gives us―and not profitlessly bury them in the ground. “Receive not the grace of God in vain!” (2 Corinthians 6:1). “Stir up the grace of God which is in thee!” (2 Timothy 1:6). “Grow in grace” (2 Peter 3:18). “Neglect not the grace that is in thee!” (1 Timothy 4:14). “I cast not away the grace of God!” (Galatians 2:21). “His grace in me has not been void, but I have labored more abundantly than all they―yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
Everything Revolves Around Grace
As already stated above―God saves you―but it through His grace that He does that saving. Our Lady can lead you to salvation―but not without the grace of God (and she is the Mediatrix of All Grace, the treasure chest of all God’s graces, through whom God gives all His graces). Baptism saves souls―but it is only by giving souls the grace of God. The Sacrament of Confession can save a soul from Hell merited by mortal sin―but it can only do this with the grace of God. Our Lady said that one day, through the Rosary and the Scapular, she would save the world―but this requires the grace of God. An act of perfect contrition can save a soul―but it only does this by restoring the grace of God to the soul in mortal sin.
All the countless events of everyday life revolve around and depend upon the grace of God―as shown in the above quotes of St. Thomas Aquinas. The actions of Divine Providence are the workings of the grace of God. Dom Chautard, in his book The Soul of the Apostolate, speaks of grace prodding, inspiring and moving us at every moment of the day, all throughout the day―he calls this “the grace of the present moment”. Dom Chautard writes: “At every instant Jesus presents Himself to you by the GRACE OF THE PRESENT MOMENT C every time there is a prayer to say, a Mass to celebrate or to hear, reacting to be done, or acts of patience, of zeal, of renunciation, of struggle, confidence, or love to be produced.” Sadly, most people are totally oblivious and ignorant of this―they fail to see the ceaseless actions of grace all throughout their day in all the little things of life.
Different Kinds of Grace
A man is different to a woman―yet both are called human beings. Both priests and laity are members of the Catholic Church―but they have different functions within the Church. A hammer has a different function than a screwdriver―yet both are called tools. Likewise, there are different forms of grace―which, even though they are all geared to get us to Heaven―they function differently. Let us then take a look at these different kinds of graces.
Sanctifying Grace and Actual Grace
There are two kinds of grace: Sanctifying Grace and Actual Grace.
(1) Sanctifying Grace gives us the very life of God. Sanctifying Grace is not God Himself, but is a share in certain aspects of the life of God. It is an interior grace, which should habitually dwell in the soul and transform it, making it holy―hence it is sometimes called Sanctifying Grace because it makes us holy, and Habitual Grace because it should be a permanent grace that habitually reside in our souls. The ordinary way we receive Sanctifying Grace is through the Sacraments―beginning with its first reception at Baptism. It is Sanctifying Grace that is the basis for our salvation and is infused in us upon our Baptism. If we lose Sanctifying Grace, then we can regain in through the Sacrament of Confession.
(2) Actual Grace is supernatural help from God (like inspirations, suggestions, nudges to do the right thing according to the Will of God). Actual Grace is Grace given to us when God acts in a particular moment in time; it is not continuous and does not stay with us. The unique feature of Actual Grace is that it comes and goes, not remaining permanently with the Christian. It serves a purpose such a moving the Christian to do good during a certain period of time. Actual Grace is not a permanent grace like Sanctifying Grace (unless lost by mortal sin), but Actual Grace is a temporary, passing, short-term grace that is meant to guide us through some particular thing or circumstance. It is external grace, working on us from the outside only; it does nothing to change the state of our soul. It does not remove mortal sin and it does not make us holy by itself―it is meant to inspire, lead and guide to do the things that will make us holy. Everyone receives Actual Grace, and it comes to us when we need it. We have the free will to cooperate with it or ignore it.
St. Thomas Aquinas says: “There is a twofold grace: (1) one whereby man himself is united to God, and this is called SANCTIFYING GRACE or HABITUAL GRACE, inasmuch as it heals and justifies the soul, and makes it pleasing to God; (2) the other is that whereby one man cooperates with another in leading him to God, and this gift is called GRATUITOUS GRACE [modern theology also calls it “ACTUAL GRACE”], since it is bestowed on a man beyond the capability of nature, and beyond the merit of the person.”
The most important type is sanctifying Grace, which is the grace that makes us holy, and which therefore obtains for us salvation. Actual Grace―of itself―does not directly make us holy, nor does it lead directly to salvation. Even pagans are given Actual Graces, but that does not guarantee their salvation―those graces are merely meant to lead them to the waters of Baptism, which imparts to Sanctifying Grace to the soul and begins the pilgrimage to Heaven.
Different Kinds of Actual Grace―Prevenient, Concomitant and Perservering
In Latin, theologians speak of (1) gratia praeveniens, (2) gratia concomitans, and (3) gratia perseverans. What are these three kinds of Actual Grace?
(1) Prevenient Grace is based on the Latin words “prae” or “pre” meaning “before” and “veniens” from the verb “venire” meaning “to come” ― hence “to come before” or to “precede.” Therefore, Grace is an Actual Grace (temporary passing grace) that comes before the other two―Concomitant Grace and Persevering Grace. Prevenient Grace is like a first impulse, an initial idea or suggestion that God sends―a kind of a “Hey! Why don’t you do this good thing?” The devil acts likewise in temptations to sin and evil. Prevenient Grace is like bait on the end of fishing line and hook―God uses it to attract us to some good thought, word or action.
(2) Concomitant Grace is based on the Latin words “con” meaning “with” and “mittens” from the verb “mittere” meaning “to send” ― hence “to send with.” Sometimes called Cooperating Grace, it is assistance given when we respond to a Prevenient Grace. It has been compared to a mother who, after coaxing a child to walk, actually takes it by the arms and assists it to take a few more steps. Or like a parent that suggests to the child that his or her bedroom should be cleaned and tidied―and then goes with the child to help the child get started. In Prevenient Graces God acts without man’s cooperation―God merely suggests or coaxes a person to do something; but in Concomitant Grace God acts together with the free cooperation of a person’s free-will by, so to speak, “jump-starting” the person into action.
(3) Persevering Grace comes from the Latin verb “perseverare” meaning “to continue, to persist, to persevere.” Starting something is usually far easier than seeing something through to the end―ask anyone who got married! Our Lord speaks of this perseverance when He says: “He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:22). The word “persevere” could be divided into two ― “per” meaning “through” and the word “severe” meaning “very serious, something causing very great pain, difficulty, worry, damage, etc.” The way to Heaven is not a “cake-walk” but a fight―it is a fight against the devil, the world and our own wicked tendencies. God knows how hard this is―and He is willing to give the grace to persevere through all our trials and tribulations―but we must ask for that grace! St. Thomas Aquinas says: “Hence after anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil till the end of his life. For to many persons grace is given to whom perseverance in grace is not given.”
Different Kinds of Actual Grace―Sufficient Grace and Efficient (Efficacious) Grace
Some theologians speak of a Sufficient Grace and an Efficient Grace (also called an Efficacious Grace). What are these graces and what do they do? Sufficient and Efficient/Efficacious Graces are Actual Graces that describe how those Actual Graces work. If you like, they describe the power or efficacity that God puts into each and every Actual Grace that He sends to us. You could use an analogy with cars ― car engines can be supercharged or turbocharged, which may increase engine power up to 50%. This enables a small engine to perform like a naturally aspirated larger engine. Loosely speaking―and all analogies limp―Sufficient Grace could be compared to a normal car engine and Efficient/Efficacious Grace could be compared to a supercharged or turbocharged engine.
Human freedom, under grace, is a dogma. According to the Councils of Trent and the First Vatican Council, human freedom means that man has the power to resist grace, to answer it with dissent rather than consent. Freedom means a choice of two things―a power to do or not to do, to do this or that, to dissent or consent. It is possible to resist both Sufficient Grace and Efficient/Efficacious Grace and thus thwart God’s plans for us and risk our own damnation. Sufficient Grace has all it takes to “get the job done” yet it is also less ‘persuasive’ than Efficient/Efficacious Grace. Normally, if we do not resist Sufficient Grace, then it eventually progresses into an Ordinary Efficient/Efficacious Grace―like a seed becomes a plant. However, sometimes God will directly send an Extraordinary Efficient/Efficacious Grace which is far more powerful and far more persuasive that, so to speak, “makes us an offer that we cannot refuse”! Nevertheless, at all times our will remains free to either reject or accept the movement and guidance of God’s grace, regardless if which kind it is.
God Helps Those Who Help Themselves
St. Augustine says that the help of God’s grace should be more sought for things pertaining to our justification (returning and keeping ourselves in a state of Sanctifying Grace) so that we can achieve salvation―that is what he means when her refers to the word “justice” in the following paragraphs. He points out that God’s help does not exempt us from making our own efforts by cooperating with God’s grace:
“Remove yourself, I repeat, remove yourself from yourself―you just get in your own way! If it’s you that are building yourself, it is a ruin you are building. ‘Unless the Lord has built the house, they have labored in vain, who build it!’ (Psalm 127:1). God made you without you! You didn’t, after all, give any consent to God making you! How could you consent, if you didn’t yet exist? So while God made you without you, nevertheless, He does not justify you without you ... So stop wishing to have your own justice [justification/salvation]. Do not have your own justice [justification/salvation]―the Apostle Paul counts it as dung! But the whole thing is from God―not, however as though we were asleep, as though we did not have to make an effort, as though we did not have to be willing. Without your will, there will be no justice [justification/salvation] of God in you. The will, indeed, is only ours, the justice [justification/salvation] is only God’s. There can be such a thing as God’s justice [justification/salvation] without your will, but it [justification/salvation] cannot be in you apart from your will, without your will. You have been shown what you have to do. The law has laid down: ‘Do not do that, nor that; do this and that!’ It has been shown to you, laid down for you, your mind has been opened for you―you have understood what you should do. Beg for the power to do it!
“Do not think that just because you call yourself a Christian, you cannot for that reason stumble over the stone of stumbling. When you abuse God’s grace, you stumble over Him. Let there be justice [justification/salvation] in you―but let it be from grace, let it come to you from God―do not let it be your own! Sigh to obtain it, weep to obtain it, believe in order to obtain it. ‘Whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord,’ He says, ‘shall be saved’ (Romans 10:13; Joel 2:32). Or do you suppose that when it says: ‘Whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved’ ― it means saved from malaria, or the pox, or the gout, or any other pain of the body? Not so! But ‘will be saved’ means ‘will be just.’ Because: ‘The doctor is not needed by the healthy, but by the sick.’ He explained that when he said: ‘I have not come to call the just, but sinners!’ (Mark 2:17).” (St. Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church, Sermon 169).
At the end of our life on Earth, as we find ourselves dying, there are three things that should occupy our thoughts and perhaps even make us tremble! We could loosely term those three things as our own personal trinity―mercy, grace and salvation. Just as the Holy Trinity is three Persons in one God―likewise we could say that these three things must be a part of us. There is no salvation without sanctifying grace in the soul; and we are undeserving of sanctifying grace without the mercy of God being shown to us.
Scary thought, huh? Yes―as Holy Scripture says: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12) … “By grace you are saved, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God!” (Ephesians 2:8) … “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23) … “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9) … Who dare say: “I am clean, and without sin! I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me!” (Job 33:9) … “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2) … “There is no man who sins not” (3 Kings 8:46) … “For all have sinned, and do need the glory [mercy and grace] of God!” (Romans 3:23) ... “The soul that sins, the same shall die … Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? … Be converted and do penance for all your iniquities and iniquity shall not be your ruin! … For I desire not the death of him that dies, says the Lord God, return ye and live!” (Ezechiel 18:20-32). “If the wicked do penance for sins committed … and keep all My commandments … I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more” (Ezechiel 18:21; Hebrews 8:12) … “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy!” (Romans 9:15) … “Your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36) … “The Lord is merciful, plenteous in mercy. His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9).
If God is so merciful, then why is it that most souls end up in Hell? We must make an important distinction here between (1) the mercy that is within God and (2) the mercy that God shows to us. Within God, mercy has no limits, it is infinite just as God is infinite. Yet, with regard to us finite sinful creatures, He does not show infinite mercy to every sinner. We know that by the very fact that Hell exists―if God showed infinite mercy to every sinner, there would be no Hell. If God showed infinite mercy to every sinner, then He would not have destroyed everyone by the Great Flood in the days of Noe. If God showed infinite mercy to every sinner, then He would not have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha with fire from Heaven. If God showed infinite mercy to every sinner, then why would Our Lord say that most souls end up being damned: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it! … Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’” (Matthew 7:13-14; Luke 13:23-24).
If God showed infinite mercy to every sinner, then why did Our Lady of Fatima say that many souls go to Hell? Why did Our Lady say to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Many persons―whom the world has celebrated as great, powerful and wise―have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … The number of fools is infinite and the number of the reprobate is also uncountable! … How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! … I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular!” (The Mystical City of God).
Presume Not On God’s Mercy
Elsewhere, Holy Scripture echoes this truth: “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great, He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5-6). “He that commits sin is of the devil!” (1 John 3:8). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).
St. Alphonsus Liguori, a Doctor of the Church and patron saint of moral theologians, writes: “Sinners hear the calls of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend Him. But God does not forget them. He numbers the graces which He dispenses, as well as the sins which we commit. Hence, when the time which He has fixed arrives, God deprives us of His graces, and begins to inflict chastisement. The sinner who abandons himself to sin without striving to resist temptations―or without at least asking God’s help to conquer them and hopes that the Lord will one day draw him from the precipice―tempts God to work miracles, or rather to show to him an extraordinary mercy that is not extended to the generality of Christians. God has fixed for each person the number of the days of his life, and the degrees of health and talent which He will give him, so He has also determined for each the number of sins which He will pardon; and when this number is completed, He will pardon no more. God is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner. The Lord pardons sins, but He cannot pardon those who are determined to offend Him.” (Sermon for the First Sunday of Lent: “On The Number Of Sins Beyond Which God Pardons No More”).
Bad Confessions Lose the Mercy of God
St. Teresa of Avila stated: “Bad confessions damn the majority of Christians.” St. Alphonsus Liguori also warns of bad confessions: “The preacher should often speak against bad confessions―in which sins are concealed through shame. This is an evil not of rare occurrence, but is frequent―and which consigns innumerable souls to Hell!” As Scripture warns: “He that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). The American exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger, explains: “Most people don’t know that the proper effect of every single mortal sin is demonic possession. It’s just that God blocks it in 99.9% of the cases.” If you were to be mortally wounded by a gunshot, then you would race to the Emergency Room of the nearest hospital. Yet when our soul is mortally wounded by mortal sin, we feel little urgency to rush to the Emergency Room of the nearest confessional. Once the demons have enticed you to sin mortally, then the next step is to try and keep you in that state of mortal sin. If they see that you intend to go to Confession and confess your mortal sins, then they will try and make that confession an invalid confession by making you confess badly.
There is a grave danger of presuming on the mercy of by getting caught in the vicious circle of constant “commit mortal sin―confess the mortal sin―commit the mortal sin again―confess the mortal sin again―and so on again and again and again. This reduces the Sacrament of Confession and the Precious Blood of Jesus to the level of a weekly carwash―don’t worry about mortal sin, you can wash it off in Confession each week! That is the sin of presumption!
Closely linked to this sin of presumption is what could be called “the sin of deception” during Confession, whereby the person “fudges”, “masks”, “misrepresents” or “puts cosmetics” on their mortal sin(s) to make it seem less serious or less numerous than it really is. These people forget that they are bound to confess their mortal sins according to (1) the precise kind of mortal sin that it is; (2) the number of times they have committed each different kind of mortal sin; (3) and mention any circumstances that might affect the gravity of that mortal sin (you will often find that #1 and #3 go together). Let us explain.
Our Lady of Fatima said that the most common sin that damns most souls is the sin of impurity. Yet it is not enough to simply say in Confession: “Father, I have been impure!” Sexual impurity is a mortal sin―but there are different kinds of sexual impurity, all of which, though they are all mortal sins, have different degrees of gravity: (1) impurity in thoughts; (2) impurity in words; (3) impurity in actions. Then there are various different circumstances that can also increase the gravity of these mortal sins. For example: (1) Was it impurity of thought, word, or action by yourself with nobody else being involved; (2) was it impurity with a person under the age of consent; (3) was it impurity with a family member―father, mother, child, brother, sister, relative, etc.; (4) was it impurity with a religious person―bishop, priest, monk, nun, etc. (5) was the act of impurity forced upon the other person, e.g. rape; (6) was it impurity with an animal. All of these varying circumstances affect the gravity of the mortal sin of impurity. The same also applies to other kinds of mortal sin. By neglecting or hiding these distinctions, it is very easy to make a bad, invalid, sacrilegious confession.
Today, this is compounded and made much more frequent due to what recent popes have called “the loss of the sense of sin.”
● Pope Pius XII said in 1946: “Perhaps the greatest sin in the world today is that men have begun to lose the sense of sin!”
● Pope John Paul II, in 2005, wrote: “We live in a society that seems to have lost the sense of God and of sin!”
● Pope Benedict XVI, in 2011, said: “The word ‘sin’ is not accepted by many.”
● Pope Francis, in 2014, stated: “The sense of sin is lost … When we lose the sense of sin, when we let the Kingdom of God crumble!”
Not only do “we let the Kingdom of God crumble”, but we also let our state of sanctifying grace crumble due to our warped notions of what is sinful and what is not sinful! The demons are unbelievably intelligent, and so when the demons coax us into making bad (invalid) confessions they do so in a very subtle way―they do not advertize it, nor blow trumpets, nor wave the fact before our eyes. The perfect “con” is to “con” somebody and leave them oblivious to the fact that they have been conned. So when it comes to “conned” confessions, the demons want to have us thinking that we have confessed sufficiently well, whereas we have “botched” our confession and confessed badly (invalidly).
Sanctifying Grace―Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Out of Soul
As the Catechism, My Catholic Faith states: “Sanctifying grace is a sharing in the life of God Himself ... By Sanctifying Grace, our souls are made holy and pleasing to God ... Sanctifying grace is necessary for salvation because it is the supernatural life which alone enables us to attain the supernatural happiness of Heaven … One cannot gain any merit for Heaven as long as he is not in Sanctifying Grace, what is termed “in the state of grace.” For without Sanctifying Grace one is an enemy of God, and cannot enter His Kingdom … With Sanctifying Grace, the Holy Spirit enters our soul; we are led by His Spirit … The Holy Spirit does not sleep within us, but expands our heart with His grace, and urges our will to do good … The presence of God in the soul gives it life. When the Holy Spirit is dwelling in the soul, it is enabled to know and love God, to do supernatural works … St. Paul refers to this acquisition of Sanctifying Grace as the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new ... When we are in possession of Sanctifying Grace, we are free from mortal sin; the two cannot dwell together … Mortal sin makes the soul displeasing to God, and thus deprives it of Sanctifying Grace.” (Catechism, My Catholic Faith).
There is nobody in Heaven without Sanctifying Grace in their soul―and there is nobody in Hell with Sanctifying Grace in their soul. Grace is everything―it is all that really matters. If you are the richest person in world, but do not have Sanctifying Grace in your soul, then you cannot enter Heaven, you cannot buy your way into Heaven, nor can you bribe your way into Heaven. You might be the most famous person in the world―but without Sanctifying Grace your fame will get you nowhere when it comes to Heaven. You might be the most powerful person in the world―but without Sanctifying Grace in your soul, you will be powerless in getting to Heaven.
You might be the poorest person on Earth―but with Sanctifying Grace in your soul you are richer than the richest person on Earth. You may be hated by everyone and have no friends―but with Sanctifying Grace in your soul you are loved by God and all the angels and saints in Heaven. You may have been the biggest sinner the world has ever seen―but with Sanctifying Grace in your soul you will avoid Hell and eventually get to Heaven. Yes―grace is everything. Grace is everything we need to get to Heaven.
For most persons, God is out of sight and therefore God is also out of their mind―they think very little of the God that they cannot see, and think a lot about the world that they can see! Statistics vary, but on average the American spends anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes a day on God related matters! That number does not include attending church services on Sundays. Obviously, that number also encompasses Catholics and Protestants. Modern science and technology have distracted man from God and dethroned God! It is not so much that people have stopped believing in God, it is more a case of them no longer having time for God.
Yet this attitude blatantly spits in the face of Holy Scripture, which says: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24). “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times!” (Luke 21:36). “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).
Prayer is one of the chief sources of God’s graces. Here are some quotes on prayer from the saints: “The power of prayer is really tremendous” (St. Thérèse of Lisieux, 1873-1897). “He who prays most receives most” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, 1696-1787). “Prayer is necessary for salvation!” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, 1696-1787). “Prayer is the key to Heaven! Prayer ascends and mercy descends.” (St. Augustine, 354-430). “It is simply impossible to lead a virtuous life without the aid of prayer” (St. John Chrysostom, 347-407). “We must pray without tiring―because the salvation of mankind does not depend on material success; nor on sciences that cloud the intellect.” (St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, 1850-1917). “Prayer reveals to souls the vanity of earthly goods and pleasures.” (St. Rose of Viterbo, d. 1252).
St. Alphonsus Liguori writes on prayer: “First, I ask the pardon of all the offences I have committed … Secondly, I ask Thy Divine light, which will make me see the vanity of all the goods of this Earth … Thirdly, I ask Thy holy love, which will detach me from all creatures … “Fourthly, I ask for confidence in the merits of Jesus Christ and in the patronage of Mary … Fifthly, I ask holy perseverance in Thy grace … Eternal Father, grant me the grace of prayer, the grace to pray always! Amen.”
What Does Grace Do?
What does grace do? Grace does everything―everything that is not sinful. That is why St. Thérèse of Lisieux used to say: “Everything is grace!” Our Lord Himself said: “Without Me―you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). We can expand upon that and have Our Lord say: “Without My grace―you can do nothing!” What is it about the word “NOTHING” that we fail to understand? “Nothing” means zero, nichts, nič, ništa, nada, niente, natin, nekas, rien ― or whatever other language you choose to use! We truly underestimate and misunderstand the extent to which grace works in our lives. If you read St. Thomas Aquinas speaking about grace (Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114) then you will better understand our total and humiliating dependence upon grace. Here are a few key extracts from St. Thomas:
“Human nature needs the help of God to do or wish any good whatsoever … Without grace men do nothing good when they either think or wish or love or act! … Without grace men can do no good whatever! … Grace is a light of the soul … Man cannot even know truth without Divine help … Not only do they know by the light of grace what to do, but by its help they do lovingly what they know! … Man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works proportionate to everlasting life―for this a higher force is needed, namely, the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life … Man cannot prepare himself for everlasting life without the help of grace―a gratuitous gift of God, Who moves the soul inwardly or inspires the good wish ... Man’s turning to God is by free-will―but free-will can only be turned to God when God turns it, according to John 15:5: ‘Without Me, you can do nothing!’ … Man can do nothing unless moved by God.
“Grace is a gift of God … The gift of grace surpasses every capability of created nature … In the state of corrupt nature [after Original Sin] man needs the help of grace to heal his nature … In the state of corrupted nature man cannot fulfill all the Divine commandments without healing grace … St. Augustine says that it is part of the Pelagian heresy to believe that without grace man can fulfill all the Divine commandments …
“Sanctifying Grace is called ‘gratuitous grace’ since it is bestowed on a man beyond the capability of human nature and beyond the merits of the person … Man’s free-will is moved by something which is above the human mind, that is to say, by God … The mind of man is not so great a master of its act that it does not need to be moved by God … God leads everything to love of Himself … … for this it is necessary that the will of man should be prepared with grace by God …
“In the state of corrupt nature, it cannot be that man remains for a long time without mortal sin … Man cannot avoid every act of sin, except by grace … God’s grace is the outcome of His mercy … Man needs grace to heal his nature, in order that he may entirely abstain from sin … Man by himself can in no way rise from sin without the help of grace … In order for a man rise from sin there is required the help of grace ... According to Jeremias 31:18: ‘Convert me and I shall be converted, for Thou art the Lord, my God!’ and Lamentations 5:21: ‘Convert us, O Lord, to Thee, and we shall be converted!’ … Correction is useful … Correction is necessary in order to abstain from sin; yet correction is not sufficient without God’s help. Hence after anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil until the end of his life. For to many persons grace is given to whom perseverance in grace is not given!” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114).
Clearing Up Misunderstandings and Ignorance About Grace
Sadly to say, most Catholics would have a hard time explaining what grace is and what kinds of graces there are and what are the roles of these different kinds of grace. Catholics can fall into the trap of thinking that God is like a “vending machine” of grace. We go to church, we put our money in the basket, we say our prayers, we do something nice for someone and then we expect God to give us our grace. And, when He doesn’t―or we don’t immediately sense or feel that the grace is given―we kick the “vending machine,” grumble and walk away feeling ripped-off. However, God is not a vending machine and “owes” us nothing.
You cannot love what you do not know; you cannot use to maximum potential something that you know little about. One would imagine that most people would want to know all there is to know about grace―especially since there can no salvation without grace: “The grace of God [brings] life everlasting” (Romans 6:23) … “By grace you are saved, and not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8) … “By Christ’s grace you are saved!” (Ephesians 2:5). “Being justified by His grace, we may be heirs to life everlasting” (Titus 3:7). “Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace―so that we may obtain mercy!” (Hebrews 4:16). So let us try to dispel the darkness of our ignorance and profit from the potential that grace offers.
Grace is Given to Everyone
God does not wish to exclude anyone from His grace: “God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him!” (John 3:17). “Every man has received grace” (1 Peter 4:10). “To every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the giving of Christ” (Ephesians 4:7). Even the pagans are offered God’s graces: “The grace of the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the Gentiles also! … God gave them the same grace, as to us also who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ!” who was I, that could withstand God?” (Acts 10:45; 11:17). “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men―instructing us, that by denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world” (Titus 2:11-12).
Unfortunately, with our God-given free will, we can stubbornly and tragically refuse to accept and cooperate with God’s graces: “The light shined in darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it! … That was the true light, which enlightens every man that comes into this world. He was in the world and the world was made by Him―and the world knew him not. He came unto His own―and His own received Him not! … The light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light―for their works were evil” (John 1:5-11; 3:19).
The More Grace You Get―the More Fruit You Should Produce
Our Lord says: “I am the true vine and My Father is the gardener. Every branch in Me that bears not fruit, He will take away! And every branch that bears fruit, He will purge it, so that it may bring forth more fruit!” [John 15:1-2]. “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required―and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more!” (Luke 12:48). We see this implied in Our Lord’s parable of the talents: “And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to everyone according to his proper ability: and immediately he took his journey. He that had received the five talents, went his way and traded and gained other five. And he that had received the two, gained another two. But he that had received the one, going his way dug into the earth and hid his lord’s money” (Matthew 25:15-18). We are expected to profit from the graces that God gives us―and not profitlessly bury them in the ground. “Receive not the grace of God in vain!” (2 Corinthians 6:1). “Stir up the grace of God which is in thee!” (2 Timothy 1:6). “Grow in grace” (2 Peter 3:18). “Neglect not the grace that is in thee!” (1 Timothy 4:14). “I cast not away the grace of God!” (Galatians 2:21). “His grace in me has not been void, but I have labored more abundantly than all they―yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
Everything Revolves Around Grace
As already stated above―God saves you―but it through His grace that He does that saving. Our Lady can lead you to salvation―but not without the grace of God (and she is the Mediatrix of All Grace, the treasure chest of all God’s graces, through whom God gives all His graces). Baptism saves souls―but it is only by giving souls the grace of God. The Sacrament of Confession can save a soul from Hell merited by mortal sin―but it can only do this with the grace of God. Our Lady said that one day, through the Rosary and the Scapular, she would save the world―but this requires the grace of God. An act of perfect contrition can save a soul―but it only does this by restoring the grace of God to the soul in mortal sin.
All the countless events of everyday life revolve around and depend upon the grace of God―as shown in the above quotes of St. Thomas Aquinas. The actions of Divine Providence are the workings of the grace of God. Dom Chautard, in his book The Soul of the Apostolate, speaks of grace prodding, inspiring and moving us at every moment of the day, all throughout the day―he calls this “the grace of the present moment”. Dom Chautard writes: “At every instant Jesus presents Himself to you by the GRACE OF THE PRESENT MOMENT C every time there is a prayer to say, a Mass to celebrate or to hear, reacting to be done, or acts of patience, of zeal, of renunciation, of struggle, confidence, or love to be produced.” Sadly, most people are totally oblivious and ignorant of this―they fail to see the ceaseless actions of grace all throughout their day in all the little things of life.
Different Kinds of Grace
A man is different to a woman―yet both are called human beings. Both priests and laity are members of the Catholic Church―but they have different functions within the Church. A hammer has a different function than a screwdriver―yet both are called tools. Likewise, there are different forms of grace―which, even though they are all geared to get us to Heaven―they function differently. Let us then take a look at these different kinds of graces.
Sanctifying Grace and Actual Grace
There are two kinds of grace: Sanctifying Grace and Actual Grace.
(1) Sanctifying Grace gives us the very life of God. Sanctifying Grace is not God Himself, but is a share in certain aspects of the life of God. It is an interior grace, which should habitually dwell in the soul and transform it, making it holy―hence it is sometimes called Sanctifying Grace because it makes us holy, and Habitual Grace because it should be a permanent grace that habitually reside in our souls. The ordinary way we receive Sanctifying Grace is through the Sacraments―beginning with its first reception at Baptism. It is Sanctifying Grace that is the basis for our salvation and is infused in us upon our Baptism. If we lose Sanctifying Grace, then we can regain in through the Sacrament of Confession.
(2) Actual Grace is supernatural help from God (like inspirations, suggestions, nudges to do the right thing according to the Will of God). Actual Grace is Grace given to us when God acts in a particular moment in time; it is not continuous and does not stay with us. The unique feature of Actual Grace is that it comes and goes, not remaining permanently with the Christian. It serves a purpose such a moving the Christian to do good during a certain period of time. Actual Grace is not a permanent grace like Sanctifying Grace (unless lost by mortal sin), but Actual Grace is a temporary, passing, short-term grace that is meant to guide us through some particular thing or circumstance. It is external grace, working on us from the outside only; it does nothing to change the state of our soul. It does not remove mortal sin and it does not make us holy by itself―it is meant to inspire, lead and guide to do the things that will make us holy. Everyone receives Actual Grace, and it comes to us when we need it. We have the free will to cooperate with it or ignore it.
St. Thomas Aquinas says: “There is a twofold grace: (1) one whereby man himself is united to God, and this is called SANCTIFYING GRACE or HABITUAL GRACE, inasmuch as it heals and justifies the soul, and makes it pleasing to God; (2) the other is that whereby one man cooperates with another in leading him to God, and this gift is called GRATUITOUS GRACE [modern theology also calls it “ACTUAL GRACE”], since it is bestowed on a man beyond the capability of nature, and beyond the merit of the person.”
The most important type is sanctifying Grace, which is the grace that makes us holy, and which therefore obtains for us salvation. Actual Grace―of itself―does not directly make us holy, nor does it lead directly to salvation. Even pagans are given Actual Graces, but that does not guarantee their salvation―those graces are merely meant to lead them to the waters of Baptism, which imparts to Sanctifying Grace to the soul and begins the pilgrimage to Heaven.
Different Kinds of Actual Grace―Prevenient, Concomitant and Perservering
In Latin, theologians speak of (1) gratia praeveniens, (2) gratia concomitans, and (3) gratia perseverans. What are these three kinds of Actual Grace?
(1) Prevenient Grace is based on the Latin words “prae” or “pre” meaning “before” and “veniens” from the verb “venire” meaning “to come” ― hence “to come before” or to “precede.” Therefore, Grace is an Actual Grace (temporary passing grace) that comes before the other two―Concomitant Grace and Persevering Grace. Prevenient Grace is like a first impulse, an initial idea or suggestion that God sends―a kind of a “Hey! Why don’t you do this good thing?” The devil acts likewise in temptations to sin and evil. Prevenient Grace is like bait on the end of fishing line and hook―God uses it to attract us to some good thought, word or action.
(2) Concomitant Grace is based on the Latin words “con” meaning “with” and “mittens” from the verb “mittere” meaning “to send” ― hence “to send with.” Sometimes called Cooperating Grace, it is assistance given when we respond to a Prevenient Grace. It has been compared to a mother who, after coaxing a child to walk, actually takes it by the arms and assists it to take a few more steps. Or like a parent that suggests to the child that his or her bedroom should be cleaned and tidied―and then goes with the child to help the child get started. In Prevenient Graces God acts without man’s cooperation―God merely suggests or coaxes a person to do something; but in Concomitant Grace God acts together with the free cooperation of a person’s free-will by, so to speak, “jump-starting” the person into action.
(3) Persevering Grace comes from the Latin verb “perseverare” meaning “to continue, to persist, to persevere.” Starting something is usually far easier than seeing something through to the end―ask anyone who got married! Our Lord speaks of this perseverance when He says: “He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:22). The word “persevere” could be divided into two ― “per” meaning “through” and the word “severe” meaning “very serious, something causing very great pain, difficulty, worry, damage, etc.” The way to Heaven is not a “cake-walk” but a fight―it is a fight against the devil, the world and our own wicked tendencies. God knows how hard this is―and He is willing to give the grace to persevere through all our trials and tribulations―but we must ask for that grace! St. Thomas Aquinas says: “Hence after anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil till the end of his life. For to many persons grace is given to whom perseverance in grace is not given.”
Different Kinds of Actual Grace―Sufficient Grace and Efficient (Efficacious) Grace
Some theologians speak of a Sufficient Grace and an Efficient Grace (also called an Efficacious Grace). What are these graces and what do they do? Sufficient and Efficient/Efficacious Graces are Actual Graces that describe how those Actual Graces work. If you like, they describe the power or efficacity that God puts into each and every Actual Grace that He sends to us. You could use an analogy with cars ― car engines can be supercharged or turbocharged, which may increase engine power up to 50%. This enables a small engine to perform like a naturally aspirated larger engine. Loosely speaking―and all analogies limp―Sufficient Grace could be compared to a normal car engine and Efficient/Efficacious Grace could be compared to a supercharged or turbocharged engine.
Human freedom, under grace, is a dogma. According to the Councils of Trent and the First Vatican Council, human freedom means that man has the power to resist grace, to answer it with dissent rather than consent. Freedom means a choice of two things―a power to do or not to do, to do this or that, to dissent or consent. It is possible to resist both Sufficient Grace and Efficient/Efficacious Grace and thus thwart God’s plans for us and risk our own damnation. Sufficient Grace has all it takes to “get the job done” yet it is also less ‘persuasive’ than Efficient/Efficacious Grace. Normally, if we do not resist Sufficient Grace, then it eventually progresses into an Ordinary Efficient/Efficacious Grace―like a seed becomes a plant. However, sometimes God will directly send an Extraordinary Efficient/Efficacious Grace which is far more powerful and far more persuasive that, so to speak, “makes us an offer that we cannot refuse”! Nevertheless, at all times our will remains free to either reject or accept the movement and guidance of God’s grace, regardless if which kind it is.
God Helps Those Who Help Themselves
St. Augustine says that the help of God’s grace should be more sought for things pertaining to our justification (returning and keeping ourselves in a state of Sanctifying Grace) so that we can achieve salvation―that is what he means when her refers to the word “justice” in the following paragraphs. He points out that God’s help does not exempt us from making our own efforts by cooperating with God’s grace:
“Remove yourself, I repeat, remove yourself from yourself―you just get in your own way! If it’s you that are building yourself, it is a ruin you are building. ‘Unless the Lord has built the house, they have labored in vain, who build it!’ (Psalm 127:1). God made you without you! You didn’t, after all, give any consent to God making you! How could you consent, if you didn’t yet exist? So while God made you without you, nevertheless, He does not justify you without you ... So stop wishing to have your own justice [justification/salvation]. Do not have your own justice [justification/salvation]―the Apostle Paul counts it as dung! But the whole thing is from God―not, however as though we were asleep, as though we did not have to make an effort, as though we did not have to be willing. Without your will, there will be no justice [justification/salvation] of God in you. The will, indeed, is only ours, the justice [justification/salvation] is only God’s. There can be such a thing as God’s justice [justification/salvation] without your will, but it [justification/salvation] cannot be in you apart from your will, without your will. You have been shown what you have to do. The law has laid down: ‘Do not do that, nor that; do this and that!’ It has been shown to you, laid down for you, your mind has been opened for you―you have understood what you should do. Beg for the power to do it!
“Do not think that just because you call yourself a Christian, you cannot for that reason stumble over the stone of stumbling. When you abuse God’s grace, you stumble over Him. Let there be justice [justification/salvation] in you―but let it be from grace, let it come to you from God―do not let it be your own! Sigh to obtain it, weep to obtain it, believe in order to obtain it. ‘Whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord,’ He says, ‘shall be saved’ (Romans 10:13; Joel 2:32). Or do you suppose that when it says: ‘Whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved’ ― it means saved from malaria, or the pox, or the gout, or any other pain of the body? Not so! But ‘will be saved’ means ‘will be just.’ Because: ‘The doctor is not needed by the healthy, but by the sick.’ He explained that when he said: ‘I have not come to call the just, but sinners!’ (Mark 2:17).” (St. Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church, Sermon 169).
Article 11
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, January 15th, 16th & 17th
Do You Give and Take or Do You Merely Take and Give Nothing?
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, January 15th, 16th & 17th
Do You Give and Take or Do You Merely Take and Give Nothing?
Give and Take
You may have heard it said that “Love is reciprocal” ― meaning that it is a “two-way-street” and not just a “one-way-street” whereby we don’t just expect love, but we receive love and we give love. Holy Scripture says: “By this has the charity of God appeared towards us―because God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we may live by Him. In this is charity―not as though we had first loved God, but because He has first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins! My dearest, if God has so loved us; we also ought to love one another!” (1 John 4:9-11).
Without that reciprocity―give and take, or mutual love―there can be no true love. The Holy Trinity gives us the perfect example of this reciprocity. There is God the Father, God the Son and it is said that Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love between the Father and the Son. Love does not exist unless these three Persons of the Trinity are united as one by the Holy Spirit of Love. Thus, in the prayer to the Holy Spirit, we beg: “Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in us the fire of Thy love!”
At the Last Supper. Our Lord speaks of this Spirit of Love: “A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another! By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another!” (John 13:34-35). The words “one for another” mean reciprocity―give and take, to show love and accept love.
Holy Scripture further adds: “Dearly beloved, let us love one another, for charity is of God. And everyone that loves, is born of God, and knows God! He that loves not, knows not God―for God is charity! By this has the charity of God appeared towards us, because God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by Him! In this is charity―not as though we had first loved God, but because He has first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins! If God has so loved us, then we also ought to love one another! If we love one another, God abides in us, and His charity is perfected in us! God is charity―and he that abides in charity, abides in God, and God in him! Let us therefore love God, because God has first loved us! If any man says: ‘I love God!’ but hates his brother, then he is a liar. For he that does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he sees not? And this commandment we have from God, that he, who loves God, must also love his brother!” (1 John 4:7-21).
Our Lord had also stated the same truth in the Gospels: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the greatest and the first commandment! And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these! On these two commandments depends the whole law and the prophets!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31).
Love Is More Than Just Words!
Our Lord complained of a fake love, a hypocritical love, when He said: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21). “Why call you Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
At the Last Supper, on the eve proving His love by His Passion and Death for our sins, Our Lord said: “If you love Me, keep My commandments! … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me. And he that loves Me, shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him! … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him. He that loves Me not, keeps not My words! … As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you. Abide in My love! If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love; as I also have kept My Father’s commandments, and do abide in His love!” (John 14:15; 14:21-24; 15:9-10)
Hence Holy Scripture says: “Let us not love in words, nor in tongue, but by deeds!” (1 John 3:18). Thus we say: “Actions speak louder than words!” Our Lord confirms this, saying: “If you love Me, keep My commandments!” (John 14:15). This is also affirmed elsewhere: “Love the Lord thy God and observe His precepts!” (Deuteronomy 11:1) … “Love the Lord your God, and serve Him with all your heart and all your soul!” (Deuteronomy 11:13) … “Love the Lord thy God, and walk in His ways at all times!” (Deuteronomy 19:9) … “Love the Lord thy God, and obey His voice, and adhere to Him!” (Deuteronomy 30:20) … “Love the Lord your God, and walk in all His ways, and keep all His commandments, and cleave to Him, and serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul!” (Josue 22:5) … “They that love Him, will keep His way … and they that love Him, shall be filled with His law!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:18-19).
The Highest Love Goes Beyond Reciprocity
Jesus urges us to great heights of perfection when He says: “You have heard that it has been said: ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy!’ But I say to you: ‘Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you!’ so that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who makes his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and makes His rain fall upon the just and the unjust. For if you only love them that love you―what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans do this? And if you only salute your brethren―what do you do that is more? Do not the heathens also do this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:43-48).
“As you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner! And if you only love them that love you―then what thanks are due to you? For sinners also love those that love them! And if you only do good to them who do good to you―then what thanks are due to you? For sinners also do this! And if you only lend to them of whom you hope to receive―then what thanks are due to you? For sinners also lend to sinners, in order to receive as much! But love your enemies; do good and lend, hoping for nothing thereby, and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the sons of God―for He is kind to the unthankful, and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful!” (Luke 6:31-36).
Holy Scripture adds: “The love of our neighbor works no evil. Love, therefore, is the fulfilling of the law!” (Romans 13:10). “For all the law is fulfilled in one word: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself!’” (Galatians 5:14).
True Love is Tough Love
True love is not a blind love―a love that turns a blind-eye to faults and failings; a love that is over-indulgent and that spoils a person. Such is not the kind of love shown by God. God chastises those whom He loves: “Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise!” (Apocalypse 3:19). “Persevere under discipline! God deals with you as with His sons―for what son is there, whom the father does not correct?” (Hebrews 12:7). “He that spares the rod hates his son―but he that loves his son corrects him in good time” (Proverbs 13:24). That may sound tough and sorrowful―but it leads to eternal joy and peace!
“Neglect not the discipline of the Lord; neither be thou wearied whilst thou art rebuked by Him! For whom the Lord loves, He chastises; and He scourges every son whom He receives! Persevere under discipline! God deals with you as with His sons―for what son is there, whom the father does not correct? But if you be without chastisement―of which we must all partake―then are you bastards, and not sons! Moreover we have all had fathers of our flesh for instructors, and we reverenced them―shall we not much more obey the Father of spirits, and live? And they indeed instructed us for a few days, according to their own pleasure―but God instructs us for our profit, so that we might receive His sanctification! Now all chastisement, for the present moment, indeed seems not to bring with it joy, but sorrow―but afterwards it will yield, to them that are exercised by it, the most peaceable fruit of justice!” (Hebrews 12:5-11).
The Old Testament echoes the above tough love: “He that loves his son, frequently chastises him, so that he may rejoice in his latter end, and not grope after the doors of his neighbors. He that instructs his son shall be praised in him, and shall glory in him in the midst of them of his household. He that teaches his son, makes his enemy jealous, and, in the midst of his friends, the father shall glory in him. When his father is dead, he will be as if he were not dead―for he will have left a son behind him that is like himself. While he lived he saw and rejoiced in him; and when he died he was not sorrowful, neither was he confounded before his enemies. For he left behind him a defender of his house against his enemies, and one that will show kindness to his friends. A horse not broken becomes stubborn, and a child left to himself will become headstrong. If you let thy son have his way, he shall make thee afraid; play with him, and he shall make thee sorrowful. Laugh not with him, lest thou have sorrow, and in the end thy teeth be set on edge. Give him not freedom in his youth, and wink not at his devices. Bow down his neck while he is young, and beat his sides while he is a child―lest he grow stubborn, and disregard thee, and so be a sorrow of heart to thee. Instruct thy son, and labor about him, lest his lewd behavior be an offence to thee!” (Ecclesiasticus 30:1-13).
Tough Love is a Tolerating Love
How much can your love tolerate? How much can it take? How much can it suffer offense, injury, hatred and neglect? Now this does not mean to say that we must love sin, tolerate sin, turn a blind-eye to sin, become indifferent to sin. Not even God―Who is Love itself: “God is charity” (1 John 4:8), tolerates sin―but it means that even when rightfully and justly punishing the sin, we also have compassion on the sinner. God is never just without also being merciful; and He is never merciful without also showing His justice. God’s anger is not an emotion, nor vindictiveness, but His total, unrelenting opposition to evil―because evil is opposed to what is good; evil is a lack of goodness―and God is good and goodness itself. St. Thomas Aquinas says: “God alone is good. Essentially everything else is called good according to its perfection.” In other words, God is infinite uncreated being, infinite, uncreated goodness.
Saying that “love is tough” or “love is hard” or “love is a pain” indicates that true and genuine love requires real effort. It has to deal with things like selflessness versus selfishness; dealing with flaws of others and oneself; overcoming past hurts, let-downs, failures and infidelities; creating rules, limits and boundaries; and confronting difficult emotions that inevitably arise in dealing with fallen human nature―all of which makes love to be more than just a fleeting emotional feeling, but a continuous process by mind and heart (intellect and will) of choosing to support someone through all aspects, both easy and tough, of life; and to acknowledge one’s own failures, limitations and prejudices.
Holy Scripture teaches that true love can be tough―involving hard truths; requiring discipline, boundaries, and sacrifice; all of this coming from a pure heart that seeks the salvation of others, not from harshness that seeks to inflict revenge. , as seen in God's correction, Nathan confronting David, Jesus's challenge to the rich young ruler, and Paul's tough love for the Corinthians, all aimed at growth, not destruction. It is all about doing what is best long-term―even if it is painful now―like setting firm boundaries, or speaking hard truths, in order to help someone change their destructive sinful patterns. Love needs truth and truth needs love―just like God sprinkles His justice with mercy and sprinkles His mercy with justice. Love does not allow sinners to get-away with their sins, but love wants sinners to get-away from sin. “A soft tongue shall break hardness” (Proverbs 25:15). Hence Our Lord mercifully prevents the Scribes and Pharisees from stoning to death the woman they had caught in adultery―saying to her: “Go, and sin no more!” (John 8:3-11). Likewise, He mercifully cured the man by the Pool of Bethsaida, who had been sick for 38 years, saying to Him: “Behold thou art made whole! Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!” (John 5:2-15). Likewise, He showed mercy to “Mary Magdalen, out of whom he had cast seven devils” (Mark 16:9).
St. Peter (one of the three favorite Apostles of Lord―Peter, James and John) sought to put limits to how much mercy we should show to others by suggesting that we forgive someone seven times―no doubt referring to Our Lord’s words elsewhere: “If thy brother sin against thee, reprove him: and if he do penance, forgive him. And if he sin against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day be converted unto thee, saying, ‘I repent!’― then forgive him” (Luke 17:3-4). Jewish rabbis taught forgiveness up to three times, so Peter's suggestion of seven times was considered generous. “Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say you not just seven times; but seventy times seven times!” (Matthew 18:21-22). The point was not a literal number of 490 acts of forgiveness. Instead, Jesus used 70 x 7 to represent a boundless, continual posture of forgiveness toward others. Nobody will “get-way” with anything with God―do not worry, God will see to it that everyone gets what they deserve! We must remember that “forgiving the guilt” is different to “forgiving the debt for sin” ― we might have received forgiveness for the guilt of our sins in the Sacrament of Confession, but we still have to pay for the debt of our sins by doing penance here on Earth or in the fires of Purgatory. “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
We also have the incident where the other two favorite Apostles of Our Lord, James and John, wanted to call fire down from Heaven to destroy the Samaritan town that had just refused to accept Jesus: “Jesus sent messengers before His face; and going, they entered into a city of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. And they received Him not, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem [to the ‘enemy’ city’] ... And when His disciples James and John had seen this, they said: ‘Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven, and consume them?’ And turning, He rebuked them, saying: ‘You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!’” (Luke 9:52-56). Of what spirit are we? The indignant and vengeful spirit of James and John? Or the charitable and merciful spirit of Our Lord?
It is tough to love the way in which Christ wants us to love: “You have heard that it has been said: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!’ But I say to you not to resist evil―but if one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other; and if a man will contend with thee in judgment and take away thy coat―then let thy cloak also go unto him; and whosoever will force thee to go one mile―go with him another two. Give to him that asks of thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away. You have heard that it has been said: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy!’ But I say to you: Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you! And pray for them that persecute and calumniate you! ― so that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who makes His sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust. For if you only love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even sinners [publicans] do this? And if you only salute your brethren, what do you do that is more? Do not the heathens and pagans also do this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:38-48).
Hell is Tough Love
“He that shall sin against Me, shall hurt his own soul. All that hate Me love death!” (Proverbs 8:36). Love is tough and true-love is truly tough! If we refuse to practice true tough love here on Earth, then we will experience the tough love of Hell! Hell is not a place of love, but of hatred. Nevertheless, God loves all the souls in Hell― The love of God still penetrates Hell through His mercy―which sees to it that nobody in Hell is punished as much they deserve and justice demands. God does not want to inflict Hell on anybody and God does not send anyone to Hell―the damned inflict Hell upon themselves by freely preferring sin to God and thus they automatically choose Hell as a consequence. Even after they have freely chosen Hell, God’s love for them remains―even though God respects their choice, while all the time seeking their free-will conversion before their death: “You have mercy upon all, because You can do all things, and You overlook the sins of men for the sake of repentance! For You love all things that are, and You hate none of the things which You have made―for You did not appoint, or make anything, hating it!” (Wisdom 11:24-25). “The Lord deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance!” (2 Peter 3:9). Nevertheless, “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
The Law of God does not come from our consensus. The Law of God is not made on Earth but made in Heaven. We are free to accept or reject it―but we are not free to accept or reject the consequences. If we turn away from truth, love, goodness, purity, fidelity, honesty, compassion or responsibility; if we turn from God deliberately and enter into the realm of sin in any of its many forms, then we carry the consequences of our personal choices with us into eternity. We ratify what we have chosen to become. If we leave this world locked into our own ego, then this choice of self, that excludes God or God’s Law, becomes final, irrevocable and complete. This is Hell―an absence of God; an absence of eternal joy; a presence of eternal suffering; and the presence of eternal hatred! That is tough! What makes it even more tough is the knowledge that God still loves us in Hell and shows His mercy by not allowing us to be punished as much we deserve―while also eternally knowing what we could have been, but refused to become!
Do You Love to Hate?
Everyone loves someone or something. Everyone hates someone or something. We can love what is good and hate what is evil. Or we can hate what is good and love what is evil. Heaven is full of love. Hell is full of hatred. Those in Heaven loved good and hated evil. Those in Hell loved evil and hated good―or they falsely thought and made out evil to be good, and good to be evil (or too hard). “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20).
There are many who “know not the difference of good and evil” (Deuteronomy 1:39). “Give to Thy servant, O Lord, an understanding heart, to discern between good and evil!” (3 Kings 3:9). “Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good!” (Romans 12:21). “You have heard it said: ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy!’ But I say to you: ‘Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you! Pray for them that persecute and calumniate you!’ so that you may be the children of your Father in Heaven, who makes His sun rise and rain fall upon the good and bad, upon the just and the unjust! If you only love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not sinners also do this? If you only salute your friends, what do you do that is more? Do not heathens also do this? Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:43-48).
A Rejection of Grace is a Rejection of Love
“God wants all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, … that He might redeem us” (Titus 2:11-14). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). It is to everyone that God offers and gives His graces of potential salvation: “To every one of us is given grace” (Ephesians 4:7) ― but very few persons accept and use those graces as they should be used: “They repaid me evil for good, and hatred for my love!” (Psalms 108:5). “God has given him time for penance, and he abuses it in his pride!” (Job 24:23). Penance pays the debt of our sins against God and God’s creatures. How can we pretend to love God if we refuse to pay what we owe Him? Make no mistake about it ― each one of us owes a massive debt because sin is a massive evil! “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial sin is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin … Sometimes people say: ‘It is only a little sin, it does not matter much!’ But every venial sin is an offence against God, and therefore is, after mortal sin, the greatest of evils―far greater than any of the physical evils which can be inflicted on us!” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD; also The Catechism Simply Explained, by Fr. Cafferata).
How Much or Little Do You Love Grace?
O how little do most Catholics value and treasure the graces of God! How precious and important are the graces of God for our salvation! It is impossible to be saved without the grace of God. Actual graces (passing or temporary graces) initially lead us to God and help us find Him so that we can enter into a loving friendship with Him; while sanctifying grace is an habitual grace that is not meant to be temporary but permanent (unless lost through mortal sin) by which God in a mystical way dwells in our soul all the time―thus opening to us the chance of a perpetual loving friendship with Him. We cannot get into Heaven without sanctifying grace―that’s how precious it is. Sadly, for most Catholics, it is not all that precious! Let us take just a few quotes from Holy Scripture that underline the importance of God’s graces:
“Of His fullness we all have received, grace for grace!” (John 1:16) … “Every man has received grace … of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10) … “For by grace you are saved ― and that not of yourselves ― for it is the gift of God!” (Ephesians 2:4) … “That being justified by His grace, we may be heirs of life everlasting!” (Titus 3:7) … “We are justified freely by His grace, through redemption in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24) … “We believe we are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 15:11) … “Trust perfectly in the grace which is offered you in Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13) … As Jesus said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) … “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17) … “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!” (2 Peter 3:18) … “God is able to make all grace abound in you; so that you may always abound to every good work!” (2 Corinthians 9:8) … “He called me by His grace” (Galatians 1:15) … “The Lord said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in infirmity!’” (2 Corinthians 12:9) … “The grace of God with me … By the grace of God, I am what I am―and His grace in me has not been void!” (1 Corinthians 15:10) … “I do not cast away the grace of God” (Galatians 2:21) … “Receive not the grace of God in vain!” (2 Corinthians 6:1) … “Neglect not the grace that is in thee!” (1 Timothy 4:14) … “Be strengthened by grace!” (Hebrews 13:9) … “Stir up the grace of God which is in thee!” (2 Timothy 1:6) … “God―Who is rich in mercy, in His exceeding charity with which He loved us―even when we were dead in sins, has brought us to life in Christ, by Whose grace you are saved, so that He might show in the ages to come the abundant riches of His grace. For by grace you are saved … and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God!” (Ephesians 2:4-8) ... “For where sin abounded, grace did more abound!” (Romans 5:20) … “There is a remnant saved according to the election of grace―and if by grace, it is not now by works―otherwise grace is no more grace!” (Romans 11:5-6) … “God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble!” (James 4:6) … “Let us go with confidence to the throne of grace―so that we may obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid” (Hebrews 4:16) … “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit!” (Philemon 1:25) … “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all!” (Apocalypse 22:21).
To the above Scriptural quotes, we can add some key quotes by St. Thomas Aquinas on the absolute necessity, power and importance of the grace of God: “Human nature needs the help of God to do or wish any good whatsoever … Without grace men do nothing good when they either think or wish or love or act! … Without grace men can do no good whatever! … Grace is a light of the soul … Man cannot even know truth without Divine help! … Not only do men know by the light of grace what to do, but by its help they do lovingly what they know! … Man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works proportionate to everlasting life―for this a higher force is needed, namely, the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life! … Man cannot prepare himself for everlasting life without the help of grace! ... Man’s turning to God is by free-will―but free-will can only be turned to God, according to John 15:5: ‘Without Me, you can do nothing!’ … Man can do nothing unless moved by God! ... Man needs the help of grace to heal his nature! … Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it … Man cannot fulfill all the Divine commandments without healing grace … It is heresy to believe that without grace man can fulfill all the Divine commandments! … Man cannot avoid every act of sin, except by grace! … Man needs grace to entirely abstain from sin! … Man by himself can in no way rise from sin without the help of grace! … In order for a man rise from sin there is required the help of grace! … God’s grace is the outcome of His mercy! … Even a man who already possesses grace needs a further assistance of grace in order to live righteously! … After anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil until the end of his life. For to many persons grace is given to whom perseverance in grace is not given!” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114; Quaestiones Quodlibetales, 4, 6).
How Little or Much Do You Appreciate Mercy?
The mercies of God are above all His works! “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). If mercy is the greatest of all God’s works, then why do we appreciate mercy so little, or even fail to appreciate it at all? One reason why we fail to appreciate the mercy of God is the fact that we have diluted or devalued the magnitude of sin. We have lost the sense of sin and so we have lost appreciation for mercy. This has been the complaint of not only traditional Catholic popes (such as Pius XII), but surprisingly also the complaint of Modernist and Liberal popes (John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis).
● Pope Pius XII remarked in 1946: “Perhaps the greatest sin in the world today is that men have begun to lose the sense of sin!”
● Pope John Paul II, in 2005, wrote: “We live in a society that seems to have lost the sense of God and of sin!”
● Pope Benedict XVI, in 2011, said: “The word ‘sin’ is not accepted by many, because it presupposes a religious vision of the world and of man. If we eliminate God from the horizon of the world, then we cannot speak of sin ... The meaning of sin ― which is a different thing from ‘guilt feelings’ as understood in psychology ― is only grasped in discovering the meaning of God!”
● Pope Francis, in 2014, stated: “When the Kingdom of God is forgotten, when the Kingdom of God diminishes, one of the signs is that the sense of sin is lost … When you lose the sense of sin, you also lose the sense of the Kingdom of God … When we lose the sense of sin, when we let the Kingdom of God crumble!”
Mercy is like love―in fact it is a room in the mansion of love―and thus being part of the family of love, it also has to be reciprocal―that is to say, it not a “one-way-street” whereby all the traffic of mercy travels towards you alone, but it is a “two-way-street” whereby the traffic of mercy also travels from you to others. You receive mercy. You give mercy. Your are forgiven by God and others―so God expects you to also show that mercy to others. That is what Our Lord commanded and demanded: “Blessed are the merciful―for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7) and “Judgment without mercy to him that has not shown mercy!” (James 2:13). “If thy brother sin against thee, reprove him: and if he do penance, forgive him. And if he sin against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day be converted unto thee, saying, ‘I repent!’― then forgive him” (Luke 17:3-4). “If you will forgive men their offences, then your heavenly Father will also forgive you your offences. But if you will not forgive men, then neither will your Father forgive you your offences!” (Matthew 6:14-15).
Mercy―like love―is tough! We all want to be loved―but we love little. We all want to be shown mercy―but we show little mercy to others. Few people truly love as we are meant to love. Few people practice mercy like it ought to practiced. That is why few people end up being saved!
How Much Can Your Love Give?
Love has no limits―for “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and God and God’s charity has no limits. It is impossible to love God too much―because, being infinite, God deserves infinite love―which is something that we, as finite being beings, can never achieve, but we can and should never cease growing in our love of God and showing our love of God. Nevertheless, it is possible to love our neighbor TOO MUCH, to the point that we become over-indulgent toward other people, spoiling and corrupting them through excessive love. Not even God loves us too much―for His love (and mercy) is inextricably joined to His justice and punishment. God says: “Those that I love―I rebuke and chastise!” (Apocalypse 3:19). “For whom the Lord loves, He chastises; and He scourges every son whom He receives!” (Hebrews 12:6). Nevertheless, “God never withdraws His mercy from us―even though He chastises His people with adversity!” (Machabees 2:16).
Being conceived and born in a state of Original Sin (which is an absence of sanctifying grace and an absence of the love of God―for those two things go hand-in-hand), we must therefore have the love of God enkindled in us by the fire of His love (as we say in the prayer to the Holy Ghost). The fire of love must be enkindled in our souls and then, like any good fire, it must grow. We cannot love what we do not know―therefore our love of God will normally be in proportion to our knowledge of God. St. Thérèse of Lisieux used to say: “Jesus is so little loved because He is so little known!”
Levels of Love
Just are there are three basic stages of the spiritual life that everyone must pass through before they are admitted into Heaven―the Way of Beginners (also known as The Purgative Way); the Way of the Proficient (also known as The Illuminative Way); and the Way of the Perfect (also known as The Unitive Way) ― likewise there are three chief stages of love or charity that we must attain and pass through if we wish to be admitted into Heaven and avoid Purgatory or (God forbid) Hell.
► The lowest level of love corresponds to the first stage of the spiritual life ― the Way of Beginners (also known as The Purgative Way) ― and entails the keeping of the commandments of God: “Love the Lord your God, and walk in all His ways, and keep all His commandments, and cleave to Him, and serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul” (Josue 22:5). Our Lord Himself said: “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words … He that does not love Me, keeps not My words!” (John 14:15, 14:21-24). To be a beginner in the spiritual life requires the elimination of habitual or frequent mortal sin. Mortal sin must be a rare thing―something that is hated and vehemently fought against. Unfortunately and tragically, spiritual authors and masters such Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange and Fr. Faber are of the opinion that most souls do not even reach and enter into the category of The Way of Beginners in the spiritual life!
► The next level of love corresponds to the second stage in the spiritual life ― the Way of the Proficient (also known as The Illuminative Way) ― and entails fighting against deliberate venial sins; increasing conversations with God through prayer; and the carrying of the cross with ever-increasing willingness: “He that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). “Do not bind sin to sin―for even in one sin thou shalt not be unpunished!” (Ecclesiasticus 7:8). “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great, He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5-6). “Go, and now sin no more!” (John 8:10-11). “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1) ... “Praying at all times!” (Luke 21:36) ... “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) … “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that will not take not up his cross and follow Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).
As the Imitation of Christ so truly says: “To many the saying: ‘Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Me!’ seems hard, but it will be much harder to hear that final word: ‘Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!’ Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the Day of Judgment … Why, then, do you fear to take up the cross when through it you can win a kingdom? In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit, in the cross is highest virtue, in the cross is perfect holiness. There is no salvation of soul nor hope of everlasting life except in the cross. Behold, in the cross is everything, and upon your dying on the cross everything depends. There is no other way to life and to true inward peace than the way of the holy cross and daily mortification. Go where you will, seek what you will, you will not find a higher way, nor a less exalted but safer way, than the way of the holy cross. The cross, therefore, is always ready; it awaits you everywhere. No matter where you may go, you cannot escape it, for wherever you go you take yourself with you and shall always find yourself. Turn where you will — above, below, without, or within — you will find a cross in everything, and everywhere! If you carry the cross willingly, it will carry and lead you to the desired goal where indeed there shall be no more suffering, but here there shall be. If you carry it unwillingly, you create a burden for yourself and increase the load, though still you have to bear it. If you cast away one cross, you will find another and perhaps a heavier one. Do you expect to escape what no mortal man can ever avoid? Take up your cross, therefore, and follow Jesus, and you shall enter eternal life!” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 2, Chapter 12).
► The third level of love corresponds to the third stage in the spiritual life ― the Way of the Perfect (also known as The Unitive Way). The first way centered around the elimination of all mortal sin; the second way focused on the elimination of all venial sin; this third way has as its target the elimination of all imperfections—which are all thoughts, words and actions that are not sinful in any way, but could be more perfectly done. In short, it means trying to always do the most perfect thing, to take the most perfect option or solution ― hence it is called the Way of Perfection. This can be an excruciating crucible of suffering. To further add to the trial, at this stage or level, God often pulls away from the soul—much more than in the second way, where the pulling away of God only meant a kind of dryness being experienced in the spiritual life. In this third stage, the soul has the impression that it has been completely abandoned by God, so much so that it feels an unworthiness so great that it feels it will be damned. You can read of this in the lives of many of the saints. It is the final test for the soul, whereby God purifies it of all self-interest and self-love, and examines the soul to see if it seeks God for His own sake, or if it was only seeking it for consolations and self-interest. As the saying goes: “Do you seek the consolations of God, or do you seek the God of consolations?”
Focus on Giving, Not on Getting
If we give love, we get love. If we give hate, we get hate. It’s a law, like gravity, that we can resist, but we cannot break. Giving is a response to God’s love. “Remember the word of the Lord Jesus, how He said: ‘It is a more blessed thing to give, rather than to receive!’” (Acts 20:35). The mark of a giver―who has been touched and deeply affected by God’s love―is their selflessness in giving. These are the people who give, expecting nothing in return — though what they receive is often greater than they have ever thought to give. As Our Lord said: “Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours, do not demand it back … If you lend to them from whom you hope to receive―what thanks are due to you? For sinners also lend to sinners, so as to receive as much in return! Do good and lend, hoping for nothing thereby! Give and it will be given to you and your reward shall be great!” (Luke 6:30-38). “He who sows sparingly, shall also reap sparingly!” (2 Corinthians 9:6).
Jesus makes it clear that the motives behind our giving are very important. We don’t “give to get.” “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8). In the following prayers, St. Francis of Assisi echoes the words of Our Lord:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
You may have heard it said that “Love is reciprocal” ― meaning that it is a “two-way-street” and not just a “one-way-street” whereby we don’t just expect love, but we receive love and we give love. Holy Scripture says: “By this has the charity of God appeared towards us―because God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we may live by Him. In this is charity―not as though we had first loved God, but because He has first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins! My dearest, if God has so loved us; we also ought to love one another!” (1 John 4:9-11).
Without that reciprocity―give and take, or mutual love―there can be no true love. The Holy Trinity gives us the perfect example of this reciprocity. There is God the Father, God the Son and it is said that Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love between the Father and the Son. Love does not exist unless these three Persons of the Trinity are united as one by the Holy Spirit of Love. Thus, in the prayer to the Holy Spirit, we beg: “Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in us the fire of Thy love!”
At the Last Supper. Our Lord speaks of this Spirit of Love: “A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another! By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another!” (John 13:34-35). The words “one for another” mean reciprocity―give and take, to show love and accept love.
Holy Scripture further adds: “Dearly beloved, let us love one another, for charity is of God. And everyone that loves, is born of God, and knows God! He that loves not, knows not God―for God is charity! By this has the charity of God appeared towards us, because God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by Him! In this is charity―not as though we had first loved God, but because He has first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins! If God has so loved us, then we also ought to love one another! If we love one another, God abides in us, and His charity is perfected in us! God is charity―and he that abides in charity, abides in God, and God in him! Let us therefore love God, because God has first loved us! If any man says: ‘I love God!’ but hates his brother, then he is a liar. For he that does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he sees not? And this commandment we have from God, that he, who loves God, must also love his brother!” (1 John 4:7-21).
Our Lord had also stated the same truth in the Gospels: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the greatest and the first commandment! And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these! On these two commandments depends the whole law and the prophets!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31).
Love Is More Than Just Words!
Our Lord complained of a fake love, a hypocritical love, when He said: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21). “Why call you Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
At the Last Supper, on the eve proving His love by His Passion and Death for our sins, Our Lord said: “If you love Me, keep My commandments! … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me. And he that loves Me, shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him! … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him. He that loves Me not, keeps not My words! … As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you. Abide in My love! If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love; as I also have kept My Father’s commandments, and do abide in His love!” (John 14:15; 14:21-24; 15:9-10)
Hence Holy Scripture says: “Let us not love in words, nor in tongue, but by deeds!” (1 John 3:18). Thus we say: “Actions speak louder than words!” Our Lord confirms this, saying: “If you love Me, keep My commandments!” (John 14:15). This is also affirmed elsewhere: “Love the Lord thy God and observe His precepts!” (Deuteronomy 11:1) … “Love the Lord your God, and serve Him with all your heart and all your soul!” (Deuteronomy 11:13) … “Love the Lord thy God, and walk in His ways at all times!” (Deuteronomy 19:9) … “Love the Lord thy God, and obey His voice, and adhere to Him!” (Deuteronomy 30:20) … “Love the Lord your God, and walk in all His ways, and keep all His commandments, and cleave to Him, and serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul!” (Josue 22:5) … “They that love Him, will keep His way … and they that love Him, shall be filled with His law!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:18-19).
The Highest Love Goes Beyond Reciprocity
Jesus urges us to great heights of perfection when He says: “You have heard that it has been said: ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy!’ But I say to you: ‘Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you!’ so that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who makes his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and makes His rain fall upon the just and the unjust. For if you only love them that love you―what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans do this? And if you only salute your brethren―what do you do that is more? Do not the heathens also do this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:43-48).
“As you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner! And if you only love them that love you―then what thanks are due to you? For sinners also love those that love them! And if you only do good to them who do good to you―then what thanks are due to you? For sinners also do this! And if you only lend to them of whom you hope to receive―then what thanks are due to you? For sinners also lend to sinners, in order to receive as much! But love your enemies; do good and lend, hoping for nothing thereby, and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the sons of God―for He is kind to the unthankful, and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful!” (Luke 6:31-36).
Holy Scripture adds: “The love of our neighbor works no evil. Love, therefore, is the fulfilling of the law!” (Romans 13:10). “For all the law is fulfilled in one word: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself!’” (Galatians 5:14).
True Love is Tough Love
True love is not a blind love―a love that turns a blind-eye to faults and failings; a love that is over-indulgent and that spoils a person. Such is not the kind of love shown by God. God chastises those whom He loves: “Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise!” (Apocalypse 3:19). “Persevere under discipline! God deals with you as with His sons―for what son is there, whom the father does not correct?” (Hebrews 12:7). “He that spares the rod hates his son―but he that loves his son corrects him in good time” (Proverbs 13:24). That may sound tough and sorrowful―but it leads to eternal joy and peace!
“Neglect not the discipline of the Lord; neither be thou wearied whilst thou art rebuked by Him! For whom the Lord loves, He chastises; and He scourges every son whom He receives! Persevere under discipline! God deals with you as with His sons―for what son is there, whom the father does not correct? But if you be without chastisement―of which we must all partake―then are you bastards, and not sons! Moreover we have all had fathers of our flesh for instructors, and we reverenced them―shall we not much more obey the Father of spirits, and live? And they indeed instructed us for a few days, according to their own pleasure―but God instructs us for our profit, so that we might receive His sanctification! Now all chastisement, for the present moment, indeed seems not to bring with it joy, but sorrow―but afterwards it will yield, to them that are exercised by it, the most peaceable fruit of justice!” (Hebrews 12:5-11).
The Old Testament echoes the above tough love: “He that loves his son, frequently chastises him, so that he may rejoice in his latter end, and not grope after the doors of his neighbors. He that instructs his son shall be praised in him, and shall glory in him in the midst of them of his household. He that teaches his son, makes his enemy jealous, and, in the midst of his friends, the father shall glory in him. When his father is dead, he will be as if he were not dead―for he will have left a son behind him that is like himself. While he lived he saw and rejoiced in him; and when he died he was not sorrowful, neither was he confounded before his enemies. For he left behind him a defender of his house against his enemies, and one that will show kindness to his friends. A horse not broken becomes stubborn, and a child left to himself will become headstrong. If you let thy son have his way, he shall make thee afraid; play with him, and he shall make thee sorrowful. Laugh not with him, lest thou have sorrow, and in the end thy teeth be set on edge. Give him not freedom in his youth, and wink not at his devices. Bow down his neck while he is young, and beat his sides while he is a child―lest he grow stubborn, and disregard thee, and so be a sorrow of heart to thee. Instruct thy son, and labor about him, lest his lewd behavior be an offence to thee!” (Ecclesiasticus 30:1-13).
Tough Love is a Tolerating Love
How much can your love tolerate? How much can it take? How much can it suffer offense, injury, hatred and neglect? Now this does not mean to say that we must love sin, tolerate sin, turn a blind-eye to sin, become indifferent to sin. Not even God―Who is Love itself: “God is charity” (1 John 4:8), tolerates sin―but it means that even when rightfully and justly punishing the sin, we also have compassion on the sinner. God is never just without also being merciful; and He is never merciful without also showing His justice. God’s anger is not an emotion, nor vindictiveness, but His total, unrelenting opposition to evil―because evil is opposed to what is good; evil is a lack of goodness―and God is good and goodness itself. St. Thomas Aquinas says: “God alone is good. Essentially everything else is called good according to its perfection.” In other words, God is infinite uncreated being, infinite, uncreated goodness.
Saying that “love is tough” or “love is hard” or “love is a pain” indicates that true and genuine love requires real effort. It has to deal with things like selflessness versus selfishness; dealing with flaws of others and oneself; overcoming past hurts, let-downs, failures and infidelities; creating rules, limits and boundaries; and confronting difficult emotions that inevitably arise in dealing with fallen human nature―all of which makes love to be more than just a fleeting emotional feeling, but a continuous process by mind and heart (intellect and will) of choosing to support someone through all aspects, both easy and tough, of life; and to acknowledge one’s own failures, limitations and prejudices.
Holy Scripture teaches that true love can be tough―involving hard truths; requiring discipline, boundaries, and sacrifice; all of this coming from a pure heart that seeks the salvation of others, not from harshness that seeks to inflict revenge. , as seen in God's correction, Nathan confronting David, Jesus's challenge to the rich young ruler, and Paul's tough love for the Corinthians, all aimed at growth, not destruction. It is all about doing what is best long-term―even if it is painful now―like setting firm boundaries, or speaking hard truths, in order to help someone change their destructive sinful patterns. Love needs truth and truth needs love―just like God sprinkles His justice with mercy and sprinkles His mercy with justice. Love does not allow sinners to get-away with their sins, but love wants sinners to get-away from sin. “A soft tongue shall break hardness” (Proverbs 25:15). Hence Our Lord mercifully prevents the Scribes and Pharisees from stoning to death the woman they had caught in adultery―saying to her: “Go, and sin no more!” (John 8:3-11). Likewise, He mercifully cured the man by the Pool of Bethsaida, who had been sick for 38 years, saying to Him: “Behold thou art made whole! Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!” (John 5:2-15). Likewise, He showed mercy to “Mary Magdalen, out of whom he had cast seven devils” (Mark 16:9).
St. Peter (one of the three favorite Apostles of Lord―Peter, James and John) sought to put limits to how much mercy we should show to others by suggesting that we forgive someone seven times―no doubt referring to Our Lord’s words elsewhere: “If thy brother sin against thee, reprove him: and if he do penance, forgive him. And if he sin against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day be converted unto thee, saying, ‘I repent!’― then forgive him” (Luke 17:3-4). Jewish rabbis taught forgiveness up to three times, so Peter's suggestion of seven times was considered generous. “Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say you not just seven times; but seventy times seven times!” (Matthew 18:21-22). The point was not a literal number of 490 acts of forgiveness. Instead, Jesus used 70 x 7 to represent a boundless, continual posture of forgiveness toward others. Nobody will “get-way” with anything with God―do not worry, God will see to it that everyone gets what they deserve! We must remember that “forgiving the guilt” is different to “forgiving the debt for sin” ― we might have received forgiveness for the guilt of our sins in the Sacrament of Confession, but we still have to pay for the debt of our sins by doing penance here on Earth or in the fires of Purgatory. “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
We also have the incident where the other two favorite Apostles of Our Lord, James and John, wanted to call fire down from Heaven to destroy the Samaritan town that had just refused to accept Jesus: “Jesus sent messengers before His face; and going, they entered into a city of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. And they received Him not, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem [to the ‘enemy’ city’] ... And when His disciples James and John had seen this, they said: ‘Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven, and consume them?’ And turning, He rebuked them, saying: ‘You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!’” (Luke 9:52-56). Of what spirit are we? The indignant and vengeful spirit of James and John? Or the charitable and merciful spirit of Our Lord?
It is tough to love the way in which Christ wants us to love: “You have heard that it has been said: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!’ But I say to you not to resist evil―but if one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other; and if a man will contend with thee in judgment and take away thy coat―then let thy cloak also go unto him; and whosoever will force thee to go one mile―go with him another two. Give to him that asks of thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away. You have heard that it has been said: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy!’ But I say to you: Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you! And pray for them that persecute and calumniate you! ― so that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who makes His sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust. For if you only love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even sinners [publicans] do this? And if you only salute your brethren, what do you do that is more? Do not the heathens and pagans also do this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:38-48).
Hell is Tough Love
“He that shall sin against Me, shall hurt his own soul. All that hate Me love death!” (Proverbs 8:36). Love is tough and true-love is truly tough! If we refuse to practice true tough love here on Earth, then we will experience the tough love of Hell! Hell is not a place of love, but of hatred. Nevertheless, God loves all the souls in Hell― The love of God still penetrates Hell through His mercy―which sees to it that nobody in Hell is punished as much they deserve and justice demands. God does not want to inflict Hell on anybody and God does not send anyone to Hell―the damned inflict Hell upon themselves by freely preferring sin to God and thus they automatically choose Hell as a consequence. Even after they have freely chosen Hell, God’s love for them remains―even though God respects their choice, while all the time seeking their free-will conversion before their death: “You have mercy upon all, because You can do all things, and You overlook the sins of men for the sake of repentance! For You love all things that are, and You hate none of the things which You have made―for You did not appoint, or make anything, hating it!” (Wisdom 11:24-25). “The Lord deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance!” (2 Peter 3:9). Nevertheless, “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
The Law of God does not come from our consensus. The Law of God is not made on Earth but made in Heaven. We are free to accept or reject it―but we are not free to accept or reject the consequences. If we turn away from truth, love, goodness, purity, fidelity, honesty, compassion or responsibility; if we turn from God deliberately and enter into the realm of sin in any of its many forms, then we carry the consequences of our personal choices with us into eternity. We ratify what we have chosen to become. If we leave this world locked into our own ego, then this choice of self, that excludes God or God’s Law, becomes final, irrevocable and complete. This is Hell―an absence of God; an absence of eternal joy; a presence of eternal suffering; and the presence of eternal hatred! That is tough! What makes it even more tough is the knowledge that God still loves us in Hell and shows His mercy by not allowing us to be punished as much we deserve―while also eternally knowing what we could have been, but refused to become!
Do You Love to Hate?
Everyone loves someone or something. Everyone hates someone or something. We can love what is good and hate what is evil. Or we can hate what is good and love what is evil. Heaven is full of love. Hell is full of hatred. Those in Heaven loved good and hated evil. Those in Hell loved evil and hated good―or they falsely thought and made out evil to be good, and good to be evil (or too hard). “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20).
There are many who “know not the difference of good and evil” (Deuteronomy 1:39). “Give to Thy servant, O Lord, an understanding heart, to discern between good and evil!” (3 Kings 3:9). “Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good!” (Romans 12:21). “You have heard it said: ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy!’ But I say to you: ‘Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you! Pray for them that persecute and calumniate you!’ so that you may be the children of your Father in Heaven, who makes His sun rise and rain fall upon the good and bad, upon the just and the unjust! If you only love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not sinners also do this? If you only salute your friends, what do you do that is more? Do not heathens also do this? Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:43-48).
A Rejection of Grace is a Rejection of Love
“God wants all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, … that He might redeem us” (Titus 2:11-14). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). It is to everyone that God offers and gives His graces of potential salvation: “To every one of us is given grace” (Ephesians 4:7) ― but very few persons accept and use those graces as they should be used: “They repaid me evil for good, and hatred for my love!” (Psalms 108:5). “God has given him time for penance, and he abuses it in his pride!” (Job 24:23). Penance pays the debt of our sins against God and God’s creatures. How can we pretend to love God if we refuse to pay what we owe Him? Make no mistake about it ― each one of us owes a massive debt because sin is a massive evil! “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial sin is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin … Sometimes people say: ‘It is only a little sin, it does not matter much!’ But every venial sin is an offence against God, and therefore is, after mortal sin, the greatest of evils―far greater than any of the physical evils which can be inflicted on us!” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD; also The Catechism Simply Explained, by Fr. Cafferata).
How Much or Little Do You Love Grace?
O how little do most Catholics value and treasure the graces of God! How precious and important are the graces of God for our salvation! It is impossible to be saved without the grace of God. Actual graces (passing or temporary graces) initially lead us to God and help us find Him so that we can enter into a loving friendship with Him; while sanctifying grace is an habitual grace that is not meant to be temporary but permanent (unless lost through mortal sin) by which God in a mystical way dwells in our soul all the time―thus opening to us the chance of a perpetual loving friendship with Him. We cannot get into Heaven without sanctifying grace―that’s how precious it is. Sadly, for most Catholics, it is not all that precious! Let us take just a few quotes from Holy Scripture that underline the importance of God’s graces:
“Of His fullness we all have received, grace for grace!” (John 1:16) … “Every man has received grace … of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10) … “For by grace you are saved ― and that not of yourselves ― for it is the gift of God!” (Ephesians 2:4) … “That being justified by His grace, we may be heirs of life everlasting!” (Titus 3:7) … “We are justified freely by His grace, through redemption in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24) … “We believe we are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 15:11) … “Trust perfectly in the grace which is offered you in Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13) … As Jesus said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) … “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17) … “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!” (2 Peter 3:18) … “God is able to make all grace abound in you; so that you may always abound to every good work!” (2 Corinthians 9:8) … “He called me by His grace” (Galatians 1:15) … “The Lord said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in infirmity!’” (2 Corinthians 12:9) … “The grace of God with me … By the grace of God, I am what I am―and His grace in me has not been void!” (1 Corinthians 15:10) … “I do not cast away the grace of God” (Galatians 2:21) … “Receive not the grace of God in vain!” (2 Corinthians 6:1) … “Neglect not the grace that is in thee!” (1 Timothy 4:14) … “Be strengthened by grace!” (Hebrews 13:9) … “Stir up the grace of God which is in thee!” (2 Timothy 1:6) … “God―Who is rich in mercy, in His exceeding charity with which He loved us―even when we were dead in sins, has brought us to life in Christ, by Whose grace you are saved, so that He might show in the ages to come the abundant riches of His grace. For by grace you are saved … and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God!” (Ephesians 2:4-8) ... “For where sin abounded, grace did more abound!” (Romans 5:20) … “There is a remnant saved according to the election of grace―and if by grace, it is not now by works―otherwise grace is no more grace!” (Romans 11:5-6) … “God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble!” (James 4:6) … “Let us go with confidence to the throne of grace―so that we may obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid” (Hebrews 4:16) … “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit!” (Philemon 1:25) … “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all!” (Apocalypse 22:21).
To the above Scriptural quotes, we can add some key quotes by St. Thomas Aquinas on the absolute necessity, power and importance of the grace of God: “Human nature needs the help of God to do or wish any good whatsoever … Without grace men do nothing good when they either think or wish or love or act! … Without grace men can do no good whatever! … Grace is a light of the soul … Man cannot even know truth without Divine help! … Not only do men know by the light of grace what to do, but by its help they do lovingly what they know! … Man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works proportionate to everlasting life―for this a higher force is needed, namely, the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life! … Man cannot prepare himself for everlasting life without the help of grace! ... Man’s turning to God is by free-will―but free-will can only be turned to God, according to John 15:5: ‘Without Me, you can do nothing!’ … Man can do nothing unless moved by God! ... Man needs the help of grace to heal his nature! … Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it … Man cannot fulfill all the Divine commandments without healing grace … It is heresy to believe that without grace man can fulfill all the Divine commandments! … Man cannot avoid every act of sin, except by grace! … Man needs grace to entirely abstain from sin! … Man by himself can in no way rise from sin without the help of grace! … In order for a man rise from sin there is required the help of grace! … God’s grace is the outcome of His mercy! … Even a man who already possesses grace needs a further assistance of grace in order to live righteously! … After anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil until the end of his life. For to many persons grace is given to whom perseverance in grace is not given!” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114; Quaestiones Quodlibetales, 4, 6).
How Little or Much Do You Appreciate Mercy?
The mercies of God are above all His works! “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). If mercy is the greatest of all God’s works, then why do we appreciate mercy so little, or even fail to appreciate it at all? One reason why we fail to appreciate the mercy of God is the fact that we have diluted or devalued the magnitude of sin. We have lost the sense of sin and so we have lost appreciation for mercy. This has been the complaint of not only traditional Catholic popes (such as Pius XII), but surprisingly also the complaint of Modernist and Liberal popes (John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis).
● Pope Pius XII remarked in 1946: “Perhaps the greatest sin in the world today is that men have begun to lose the sense of sin!”
● Pope John Paul II, in 2005, wrote: “We live in a society that seems to have lost the sense of God and of sin!”
● Pope Benedict XVI, in 2011, said: “The word ‘sin’ is not accepted by many, because it presupposes a religious vision of the world and of man. If we eliminate God from the horizon of the world, then we cannot speak of sin ... The meaning of sin ― which is a different thing from ‘guilt feelings’ as understood in psychology ― is only grasped in discovering the meaning of God!”
● Pope Francis, in 2014, stated: “When the Kingdom of God is forgotten, when the Kingdom of God diminishes, one of the signs is that the sense of sin is lost … When you lose the sense of sin, you also lose the sense of the Kingdom of God … When we lose the sense of sin, when we let the Kingdom of God crumble!”
Mercy is like love―in fact it is a room in the mansion of love―and thus being part of the family of love, it also has to be reciprocal―that is to say, it not a “one-way-street” whereby all the traffic of mercy travels towards you alone, but it is a “two-way-street” whereby the traffic of mercy also travels from you to others. You receive mercy. You give mercy. Your are forgiven by God and others―so God expects you to also show that mercy to others. That is what Our Lord commanded and demanded: “Blessed are the merciful―for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7) and “Judgment without mercy to him that has not shown mercy!” (James 2:13). “If thy brother sin against thee, reprove him: and if he do penance, forgive him. And if he sin against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day be converted unto thee, saying, ‘I repent!’― then forgive him” (Luke 17:3-4). “If you will forgive men their offences, then your heavenly Father will also forgive you your offences. But if you will not forgive men, then neither will your Father forgive you your offences!” (Matthew 6:14-15).
Mercy―like love―is tough! We all want to be loved―but we love little. We all want to be shown mercy―but we show little mercy to others. Few people truly love as we are meant to love. Few people practice mercy like it ought to practiced. That is why few people end up being saved!
How Much Can Your Love Give?
Love has no limits―for “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and God and God’s charity has no limits. It is impossible to love God too much―because, being infinite, God deserves infinite love―which is something that we, as finite being beings, can never achieve, but we can and should never cease growing in our love of God and showing our love of God. Nevertheless, it is possible to love our neighbor TOO MUCH, to the point that we become over-indulgent toward other people, spoiling and corrupting them through excessive love. Not even God loves us too much―for His love (and mercy) is inextricably joined to His justice and punishment. God says: “Those that I love―I rebuke and chastise!” (Apocalypse 3:19). “For whom the Lord loves, He chastises; and He scourges every son whom He receives!” (Hebrews 12:6). Nevertheless, “God never withdraws His mercy from us―even though He chastises His people with adversity!” (Machabees 2:16).
Being conceived and born in a state of Original Sin (which is an absence of sanctifying grace and an absence of the love of God―for those two things go hand-in-hand), we must therefore have the love of God enkindled in us by the fire of His love (as we say in the prayer to the Holy Ghost). The fire of love must be enkindled in our souls and then, like any good fire, it must grow. We cannot love what we do not know―therefore our love of God will normally be in proportion to our knowledge of God. St. Thérèse of Lisieux used to say: “Jesus is so little loved because He is so little known!”
Levels of Love
Just are there are three basic stages of the spiritual life that everyone must pass through before they are admitted into Heaven―the Way of Beginners (also known as The Purgative Way); the Way of the Proficient (also known as The Illuminative Way); and the Way of the Perfect (also known as The Unitive Way) ― likewise there are three chief stages of love or charity that we must attain and pass through if we wish to be admitted into Heaven and avoid Purgatory or (God forbid) Hell.
► The lowest level of love corresponds to the first stage of the spiritual life ― the Way of Beginners (also known as The Purgative Way) ― and entails the keeping of the commandments of God: “Love the Lord your God, and walk in all His ways, and keep all His commandments, and cleave to Him, and serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul” (Josue 22:5). Our Lord Himself said: “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words … He that does not love Me, keeps not My words!” (John 14:15, 14:21-24). To be a beginner in the spiritual life requires the elimination of habitual or frequent mortal sin. Mortal sin must be a rare thing―something that is hated and vehemently fought against. Unfortunately and tragically, spiritual authors and masters such Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange and Fr. Faber are of the opinion that most souls do not even reach and enter into the category of The Way of Beginners in the spiritual life!
► The next level of love corresponds to the second stage in the spiritual life ― the Way of the Proficient (also known as The Illuminative Way) ― and entails fighting against deliberate venial sins; increasing conversations with God through prayer; and the carrying of the cross with ever-increasing willingness: “He that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). “Do not bind sin to sin―for even in one sin thou shalt not be unpunished!” (Ecclesiasticus 7:8). “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great, He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5-6). “Go, and now sin no more!” (John 8:10-11). “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1) ... “Praying at all times!” (Luke 21:36) ... “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) … “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that will not take not up his cross and follow Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).
As the Imitation of Christ so truly says: “To many the saying: ‘Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Me!’ seems hard, but it will be much harder to hear that final word: ‘Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!’ Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the Day of Judgment … Why, then, do you fear to take up the cross when through it you can win a kingdom? In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit, in the cross is highest virtue, in the cross is perfect holiness. There is no salvation of soul nor hope of everlasting life except in the cross. Behold, in the cross is everything, and upon your dying on the cross everything depends. There is no other way to life and to true inward peace than the way of the holy cross and daily mortification. Go where you will, seek what you will, you will not find a higher way, nor a less exalted but safer way, than the way of the holy cross. The cross, therefore, is always ready; it awaits you everywhere. No matter where you may go, you cannot escape it, for wherever you go you take yourself with you and shall always find yourself. Turn where you will — above, below, without, or within — you will find a cross in everything, and everywhere! If you carry the cross willingly, it will carry and lead you to the desired goal where indeed there shall be no more suffering, but here there shall be. If you carry it unwillingly, you create a burden for yourself and increase the load, though still you have to bear it. If you cast away one cross, you will find another and perhaps a heavier one. Do you expect to escape what no mortal man can ever avoid? Take up your cross, therefore, and follow Jesus, and you shall enter eternal life!” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 2, Chapter 12).
► The third level of love corresponds to the third stage in the spiritual life ― the Way of the Perfect (also known as The Unitive Way). The first way centered around the elimination of all mortal sin; the second way focused on the elimination of all venial sin; this third way has as its target the elimination of all imperfections—which are all thoughts, words and actions that are not sinful in any way, but could be more perfectly done. In short, it means trying to always do the most perfect thing, to take the most perfect option or solution ― hence it is called the Way of Perfection. This can be an excruciating crucible of suffering. To further add to the trial, at this stage or level, God often pulls away from the soul—much more than in the second way, where the pulling away of God only meant a kind of dryness being experienced in the spiritual life. In this third stage, the soul has the impression that it has been completely abandoned by God, so much so that it feels an unworthiness so great that it feels it will be damned. You can read of this in the lives of many of the saints. It is the final test for the soul, whereby God purifies it of all self-interest and self-love, and examines the soul to see if it seeks God for His own sake, or if it was only seeking it for consolations and self-interest. As the saying goes: “Do you seek the consolations of God, or do you seek the God of consolations?”
Focus on Giving, Not on Getting
If we give love, we get love. If we give hate, we get hate. It’s a law, like gravity, that we can resist, but we cannot break. Giving is a response to God’s love. “Remember the word of the Lord Jesus, how He said: ‘It is a more blessed thing to give, rather than to receive!’” (Acts 20:35). The mark of a giver―who has been touched and deeply affected by God’s love―is their selflessness in giving. These are the people who give, expecting nothing in return — though what they receive is often greater than they have ever thought to give. As Our Lord said: “Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours, do not demand it back … If you lend to them from whom you hope to receive―what thanks are due to you? For sinners also lend to sinners, so as to receive as much in return! Do good and lend, hoping for nothing thereby! Give and it will be given to you and your reward shall be great!” (Luke 6:30-38). “He who sows sparingly, shall also reap sparingly!” (2 Corinthians 9:6).
Jesus makes it clear that the motives behind our giving are very important. We don’t “give to get.” “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8). In the following prayers, St. Francis of Assisi echoes the words of Our Lord:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Article 10
Monday & Tuesday, January 12th & 13th
Does Christ Divide Families?
Monday & Tuesday, January 12th & 13th
Does Christ Divide Families?
Heaven! We Have a Problem!
Sometimes Holy Scripture seems to “serve-up” contradictory statements. We see Our Lord apparently seem to do the same when on the one hand He says that He desires all to be one―as He is one with Father. Yet on the other hand He says that He has come―not to bring peace―but to bring the sword and division!
Addressing His Father, Jesus says: “I pray that they all may be one, as thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us; so that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me! And the glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given to them; so that they may be one, as We also are one― I in them, and Thou in Me; so that they may be made perfect in one; and the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast also loved Me!” (John 17:21-23).
Yet Jesus also says: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled! … Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no―but separation! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me! The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the son: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death. For they will deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And you shall be brought before governors, and before kings for My sake … And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake―but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved. And when they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another!” (Matthew 10:17-22; 10:32-37; Luke 12:49-53).
The Problem Lies with Us and the Devil―Not with God!
God is all about harmony and unity―as in Three Persons in One God. God created and placed that same harmony and unity in nature―until the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, which broke their unity with God and merited that nature should rebel against them and no longer be in total harmony with them. Furthermore, Original Sin destroyed the harmony in human nature―with the body now rebelling against the soul, of which St. Paul writes:
“Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned! … What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin? … The body of sin must be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer! … We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin! For that which I do, I understand not. For I do not that good which I want to do; but the evil which I hate, that I do! If then I do that which I do not want to do, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me! For I know that there dwells not in me, in my flesh, that which is good. The desire to do good is present within me; but to accomplish that which is good, I find not! For the good which I want to do, I do not―but the evil which I do not want to do, that I do! Now if I do that which I do not want to do, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me! I find then a law, that when I have a desire to do good, there is also evil present within me. For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the soul―but I see another law in my body, fighting against the law of my mind, heart and soul, and captivating me in the law of sin, that is to say, in my body. Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with the mind, serve the law of God―but with the body, I serve the law of sin!” (Romans 5:12; 6:1-6; 7:14-25).
It is sin that creates disharmony and destroys harmony and unity with God and creates a unity with Satan: “Give not place to the devil!” (Ephesians 4:27). “He that commits sin is of the devil!” (1 John 3:8). “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do!” (John 8:44). “Your iniquities have divided you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you, so that He should not hear you!” (Isaias 59:2). We see this division and its fatal consequences in an unprecedented and horrendous manner with God’s destruction of the almost every living creature during the Great Flood in the time of Noe:
“And the Earth was corrupted before God, and was filled with iniquity. God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the Earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times … And when God had seen that the Earth was corrupted … it repented Him that He had made man on the Earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said: ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth!’” (Genesis 6:5-7, 11-12).
As We Sow, so Shall We Reap!
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). God does not want to destroy man―He wants to save man from Satan, sin and the sinful world: “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? … Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart, and a new spirit―and why will you die? For I desire not the death of him that dies! Return ye and live, says the Lord God” (Ezechiel 18:23, 31-32). Death does not come from God―death comes from sin―and sin comes from man: “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “From the woman came the beginning of sin, and by her we all die!” (Ecclesiasticus 25:33). “By one man sin entered into this world and, by sin, death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned!” (Romans 5:12). “Death reigned from Adam” (Romans 5:14). “Sin shall be destroyed with the sinner” (Ecclesiasticus 27:3). “Every man shall die for his own sin!” (2 Paralipomenon 25:4).
Nevertheless, Christ came to seek and save that which was lost in His desire to re-unite the sinner with God: “God will [“to will” means “to want”] have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, … that He might redeem us” (Titus 2:11-14). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). “The Lord deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance” (2 Peter 3:9). “God declares unto men, that all should everywhere do penance!” (Acts 17:30). “God sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:17). “The Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance! … No, I say to you―unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish! ... Again I say to you―except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5).
Divide and Damn―Unite and Save
It is Satan that is the original divider. He created division among the angels and led a third of them to damnation. He divided Eve from God, and through her he divided Adam from God―and thus brought death and damnation into the world: “By the envy of the devil, death came into the world” (Wisdom 2:2). “He that commits sin is of the devil―for the devil sinned from the beginning” (1 John 3:8) … “And there was a great battle [division] in Heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels! And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in Heaven! And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduces the whole world; and he was cast unto the Earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Apocalypse 12:7-9). “Woe to the Earth, because the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time!” (Apocalypse 12:12).
Nailed to the Cross―United to Christ
It is the cross of Christ that saves us―it is through the cross of Christ that we are united to Christ and to God: “reconciled to God in one body by the cross” (Ephesians 2:16). Satan seeks to divide us from the cross of Christ and attach us to the pleasures of the world. Jesus said: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24). “Blessed are they that suffer!” (Matthew 5:10). “Jesus began to show to His disciples, that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death. And Peter taking Jesus, began to rebuke Him, saying: ‘Lord, be it far from Thee! This shall not happen to Thee!’ Jesus, turning, said to Peter: ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a scandal unto Me―because you savor not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men!’ Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me!’” (Matthew 16:21-24).
“Calling the multitude together with His disciples, Jesus said to them: ‘If any man will follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me!’” (Mark 8:34). “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23). “And he that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). “And whosoever does not carry his cross and comes after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27).
“And going out, they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon―him they forced to take up the cross of Jesus” (Matthew 27:32). “And they forced one Simon, a Cyrenian who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and of Rufus, to take up the cross of Jesus” (Mark 15:21). “And as they led Jesus away, they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country; and they laid the cross on him to carry after Jesus” (Luke 23:26).
“The word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness; but to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God!” (1 Corinthians 1:18). “For many walk―of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping―that they are enemies of the cross of Christ! Whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things … so that they may not suffer the persecution of the cross of Christ” (Philippians 3:18-19; Galatians 6:12).
“And bearing His own cross, Jesus went forth to Calvary” (John 19:17). “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross!” (Philippians 2:8). “And through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, making peace through the Blood of His cross, both as to the things that are on Earth, and the things that are in Heaven!” (Colossians 1:20). “Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame, and now He sits on the right hand of the throne of God!” (Hebrews 12:2).
Thus St. Paul writes: “God forbid that I should glory in anything, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world!” (Galatians 6:14). “With Christ I am nailed to the cross!” (Galatians 2:19). “Furthermore I count all things to be but a loss compared to the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord―for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as dung, so that I may gain Christ!” (Philippians 3:8). ). “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, so that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer” (Romans 6:6). “For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come!” (Romans 8:18).
The Liturgy of Holy Mother Church (Hymn in Vespers for Passiontide) says: “Ave crux! Spes unica!” meaning “Hail Cross! Our only hope!” The cross is our hope of salvation―without the cross we have no hope―we are hopeless by being crossless. St. Paul says: “With Christ I am nailed to the cross!” In other words, I am united to Christ by being nailed to the cross of Christ. If you disassociate yourself from the cross, walk away from the cross, refuse the cross, then you divide yourself from Christ: “He that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). “And whosoever does not carry his cross and comes after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27).
Mercy Unites Us to God
Sin divides us from God and mercy re-unites us to God. We have all sinned and we all need the mercy of God. Nevertheless, if we wish to obtain mercy from God, we must also show mercy to others. We reap what we sow―mercy begets mercy. “Blessed are the merciful―for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7). “Judgment without mercy to him that has not shown mercy!” (James 2:13). “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). “If thy brother sin against thee, reprove him: and if he do penance, forgive him. And if he sin against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day be converted unto thee, saying, ‘I repent!’― then forgive him” (Luke 17:3-4). “If you will forgive men their offences, then your heavenly Father will also forgive you your offences. But if you will not forgive men, then neither will your Father forgive you your offences!” (Matthew 6:14-15).
Our Lord emphasizes the truth of the above in His parable about the Merciless Steward: “Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say you not just seven times; but seventy times seven times! Therefore is the Kingdom of Heaven likened to a king, who wanted to take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents (1 talent was 750 ounces of silver. At today’s silver prices of around $90 an ounce (January 2026), one talent would be worth $67,500―that would put the 10,000 talents at just over $675 million). And as he could not pay his debt, his lord commanded that he, and his wife and children and all that he had, should be sold and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, begged him, saying: “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all that I owe!” And the lord of that servant, being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.
“‘But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence (the Roman penny was the eighth part of an ounce of silver. At today’s silver prices of $90 per ounce (January 2026), the penny would be worth $11.25―and a hundred pence would be $1,125): and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: “Pay what you owe me!” And his fellow servant falling down, begged him, saying: “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all that I owe!” But he would not listen―and went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.
“‘Now his fellow servants, seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him and said to him: “You wicked servant! I forgave you all the debt, because you begged me! Should you not then have had the same compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had compassion on you?” And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers, until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you do not forgive everyone from your hearts!’” (Matthew 18:21-35).
$675 million compared to $1,125―one heck of a difference, huh? How big is our debt for past forgiven sins? How reluctant are we in forgiving others for sins committed against us? Is the “glue” of mercy becoming “unglued” and “unstuck” in our lives with the consequence that we fall away from what binds us to Christ? Notice, too, that Our Lord speaks of forgiving from the heart: “So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you do not forgive everyone from your hearts!” The “heart” is associated with “charity.” What is often forgotten―or not even known―is that, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, mercy is a “subsection” of charity, or, so to speak, a room in the mansion of charity―and “charity is the bond [glue] of perfection” (Colossians 3:14).
Charity Unites Us to God
As the proverb says: “Birds of a feather flock together!” is based upon the Scriptural quote: “Birds resort unto their like!” (Ecclesiasticus 27:9). The proverb means that people with similar personalities, interests, backgrounds, attitudes, or beliefs tend to associate with each other, forming groups or “flocks”. It highlights the natural human tendency to gravitate towards like-minded individuals. The same is true when it comes to our relationship and union with God. “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and if we want to be united to God, we have to be charitable.
“Charity is of God―and every one that loves is born of God and knows God. He that loves not, knows not God―for God is charity! ” (1 John 4:7-8). If “God is charity”, then a lack of charity separates us from God. “If any man say: ‘I love God!’ but hates his brother―then he is a liar. For he that does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God Whom he sees not? This commandment we have from God―that he who loves God, must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21). This is why St. John of the Cross says that, at our Last Judgment, we will ultimately judged upon our charity: “At the end of our life, we shall all be judged by charity.”
That is why Holy Scripture warns: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Finger-Pointing is Preferred to Charity Today
As Scripture says: “If I have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. If I have not Charity―then I am nothing. If I have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Increasingly, today, we see more and more Catholics becoming tinkling cymbals, who are profitless nothings. Today we prefer to point and wag the finger at the sinner, rather pray and sacrifice for the sinner. We scream for avenging justice, rather than pleading for a charitable mercy.
We forget that we ourselves are sinners and that as we judge other sinners, so too shall we be judged: “For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged!” (Matthew 7:2). “Why do you see the splinter that is in your brother’s eye; but cannot see the plank that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother: ‘Let me remove the splinter out of your eye!’ ― and behold there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite! First cast out the plank from your own eye, and then you shall be able to see in order to cast out the splinter from your brother’s eye!” (Matthew 7:3-5). “But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged!” (1 Corinthians 11:31). “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). Who dare say: “I am clean, and without sin! I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me!” (Job 33:9). “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2). “There is no man who sins not” (3 Kings 8:46). “For all have sinned, and do need the glory [mercy and grace] of God!” (Romans 3:23). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10).
Unfortunately, we prefer to see and focus on the sins of neighbor more than our sins. It is a very useful tactic to deflect attention being paid upon our sins to being more attentive to the sins of others―as they say: “Attack is the best form of defense!” Therefore, we prefer to attack others before we ourselves are attacked. We make mountains out of their molehills―and make molehills out of our mountains! We expect God to show us mercy―but we will not show mercy to others, nor do we really want God to show mercy to them either! All of this shows and betrays our lack of charity―which, in effect, is a lack of God and godliness in our hearts. Christ came “to seek and save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10) … “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). We, on the other hand, desire the detraction of sinners―forgetting that we are grouped among them!
The Scribes and the Pharisees wanted to stone to death the woman whom they had caught committing adultery―but Our Lord showed her His mercy! Many would have instinctively condemned the ‘Good’ Thief on the cross to Hell―but Our Lord showed him His mercy! Our Lord mercifully cast-out the seven devils with whom the impure and adulterous Mary Magdalen was possessed―and, furthermore, Scripture says Jesus loved her, rather than hated her! What is our reaction towards such like sinners? Is our instinctive reaction one of charity and mercy? Or is one of hatred and vengeance?
This lack of charity, in these end times of the world, was foretold by Christ and Holy Scripture: “The charity of many shall grow cold!” (Matthew 24:12). “Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times! Men shall be lovers of themselves, haughty, proud, without affection, unmerciful, without kindness … Having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
In the imitation of Christ, seek to save sinners―and leave justice and punishment to God: “Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved, but give place unto wrath, for it is written: ‘Revenge is Mine, I will repay!’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). “Revenge is Mine, and I will repay them in due time!” (Deuteronomy 32:35). “Therefore judge not before the time; until the Lord comes, Who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts!” (1 Corinthians 4:5).
One Head, One Body, One Baptism, One Faith
So―ultimately, God seeks to unite everyone so that there is “One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism” (Ephesians 4:5). To achieve this, Christ said to His followers: “Go, therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you!” (Matthew 28:19-20) … “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word … He that loves Me not, keeps not My words!” (John 14:15, 14:21-24) ― we prove our love of God (and hence our unity with God) by doing what He tells us, by obeying Him, by keeping His commandments.
All of this brings and maintains a spiritual “health” within the Mystical Body of Christ. “We, being many, are one body in Christ― everyone being members one of another!” (Romans 12:5). “For as the body is one and has many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body―so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one Body and in one Spirit―whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free. For the body also is not one member, but many. If the foot should say: ‘Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body!’ ― is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say: ‘Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body!’ ― is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were the eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set every one of the members in the body as it has pleased Him. And if they all were one member, where would be the body? But now there are many members indeed, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand: ‘I need not thy help!’ Nor again can the head say to the feet: ‘I have no need of you!’ Likewise, those that seem to be the more feeble members of the body, are more necessary” (1 Corinthians 12:12-22). Christ wants us to be “reconciled to God in one body by the cross” (Ephesians 2:16).
Separation from the World and Worldliness
To do what is good, virtuous and correct is something that is usually hard―it is a cross―for it goes against the grain of world; it means swimming upstream against the tide of the world. Christ did not come to separate the good from the good―but He came to separate the good from the evil. We were already divided from God before Our Lord came into this world―divided from God by our sins. He who sins is of the devil. Our Lord comes to seek and save that which was lost―lost to sin and lost to the devil. Our Lord seeks to divide us from the devil and divide us from sin. Just as Christ has nothing to do with His enemy, the devil―likewise we should have nothing to with those that follow the devil, which is chiefly the world and the worldly―of whom he is the prince. “The prince of this world is coming and in Me he has not anything! … The prince of this world is already judged! ... Now shall the prince of this world be cast out!” (John 12:31; 16:11; 14:30). We too must cast out the prince of this world and the worldly influence that prince uses to seduce us into worldliness.
We do not separate ourselves from what is true, good and godly―but we MUST separate ourselves from lies, evil and worldliness. Hence it is that Scripture says: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “The whole world is seated in wickedness!” (1 John 5:19) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers! What fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God! As God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
Disease requires separation. That is we quarantine persons who have infectious diseases. Sin is the most infectious of all diseases. It is the most evil ‘disease’ in the world. “Sin has reigned to death!” (Romans 5:21). “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15). Not only has sin reigned to death―but sin also condemns to Hell. That is why the Catechism tells us: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial sin is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD). That is why we MUST separate ourselves from the fatal disease of sin.
God has made the human body in such a way that its immune system attacks what is harmful and expels what is toxic. Doctors, hospitals and their medical staff are trained to fight disease and eradicate it from their patients―even to extent of performing invasive surgery or even amputation. Likewise, God has seen to it that animals and insects have sophisticated immune systems using barriers (skin, mucus) and cellular/molecular defenses (phagocytes, antimicrobial peptides) to identify, neutralize, and expel harmful invaders like bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Plants have an innate immune system that is their sole mechanism of defense. They lack specialized immune cells like those found in animals, but their individual cells can recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and trigger a localized hypersensitive response to prevent the spread of disease, often by undergoing rapid cell death at the infection site. They also produce chemical signals and antimicrobial peptides to fight off infections.
In human society, this idea of separation of good from evil can also be seen whereby the Church excommunicates those who threaten the Faith or Morals of the Church. Likewise, civil authorities imprison, or even put to death, criminals who are a serious threat to common good of society. So we can see this thread of separation of good from evil as being a continuous thread throughout society and throughout nature―without which grave consequences will inevitably result. When we fail to follow this common sense rule―we open ourselves to potential disaster. When we do this on a spiritual level, then we open ourselves to the potential disaster of eternal damnation.
Sometimes Holy Scripture seems to “serve-up” contradictory statements. We see Our Lord apparently seem to do the same when on the one hand He says that He desires all to be one―as He is one with Father. Yet on the other hand He says that He has come―not to bring peace―but to bring the sword and division!
Addressing His Father, Jesus says: “I pray that they all may be one, as thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us; so that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me! And the glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given to them; so that they may be one, as We also are one― I in them, and Thou in Me; so that they may be made perfect in one; and the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast also loved Me!” (John 17:21-23).
Yet Jesus also says: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled! … Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no―but separation! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me! The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the son: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death. For they will deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And you shall be brought before governors, and before kings for My sake … And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake―but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved. And when they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another!” (Matthew 10:17-22; 10:32-37; Luke 12:49-53).
The Problem Lies with Us and the Devil―Not with God!
God is all about harmony and unity―as in Three Persons in One God. God created and placed that same harmony and unity in nature―until the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, which broke their unity with God and merited that nature should rebel against them and no longer be in total harmony with them. Furthermore, Original Sin destroyed the harmony in human nature―with the body now rebelling against the soul, of which St. Paul writes:
“Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned! … What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin? … The body of sin must be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer! … We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin! For that which I do, I understand not. For I do not that good which I want to do; but the evil which I hate, that I do! If then I do that which I do not want to do, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me! For I know that there dwells not in me, in my flesh, that which is good. The desire to do good is present within me; but to accomplish that which is good, I find not! For the good which I want to do, I do not―but the evil which I do not want to do, that I do! Now if I do that which I do not want to do, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me! I find then a law, that when I have a desire to do good, there is also evil present within me. For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the soul―but I see another law in my body, fighting against the law of my mind, heart and soul, and captivating me in the law of sin, that is to say, in my body. Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with the mind, serve the law of God―but with the body, I serve the law of sin!” (Romans 5:12; 6:1-6; 7:14-25).
It is sin that creates disharmony and destroys harmony and unity with God and creates a unity with Satan: “Give not place to the devil!” (Ephesians 4:27). “He that commits sin is of the devil!” (1 John 3:8). “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do!” (John 8:44). “Your iniquities have divided you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you, so that He should not hear you!” (Isaias 59:2). We see this division and its fatal consequences in an unprecedented and horrendous manner with God’s destruction of the almost every living creature during the Great Flood in the time of Noe:
“And the Earth was corrupted before God, and was filled with iniquity. God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the Earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times … And when God had seen that the Earth was corrupted … it repented Him that He had made man on the Earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said: ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth!’” (Genesis 6:5-7, 11-12).
As We Sow, so Shall We Reap!
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). God does not want to destroy man―He wants to save man from Satan, sin and the sinful world: “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? … Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart, and a new spirit―and why will you die? For I desire not the death of him that dies! Return ye and live, says the Lord God” (Ezechiel 18:23, 31-32). Death does not come from God―death comes from sin―and sin comes from man: “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “From the woman came the beginning of sin, and by her we all die!” (Ecclesiasticus 25:33). “By one man sin entered into this world and, by sin, death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned!” (Romans 5:12). “Death reigned from Adam” (Romans 5:14). “Sin shall be destroyed with the sinner” (Ecclesiasticus 27:3). “Every man shall die for his own sin!” (2 Paralipomenon 25:4).
Nevertheless, Christ came to seek and save that which was lost in His desire to re-unite the sinner with God: “God will [“to will” means “to want”] have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, … that He might redeem us” (Titus 2:11-14). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). “The Lord deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance” (2 Peter 3:9). “God declares unto men, that all should everywhere do penance!” (Acts 17:30). “God sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:17). “The Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance! … No, I say to you―unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish! ... Again I say to you―except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5).
Divide and Damn―Unite and Save
It is Satan that is the original divider. He created division among the angels and led a third of them to damnation. He divided Eve from God, and through her he divided Adam from God―and thus brought death and damnation into the world: “By the envy of the devil, death came into the world” (Wisdom 2:2). “He that commits sin is of the devil―for the devil sinned from the beginning” (1 John 3:8) … “And there was a great battle [division] in Heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels! And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in Heaven! And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduces the whole world; and he was cast unto the Earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Apocalypse 12:7-9). “Woe to the Earth, because the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time!” (Apocalypse 12:12).
Nailed to the Cross―United to Christ
It is the cross of Christ that saves us―it is through the cross of Christ that we are united to Christ and to God: “reconciled to God in one body by the cross” (Ephesians 2:16). Satan seeks to divide us from the cross of Christ and attach us to the pleasures of the world. Jesus said: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24). “Blessed are they that suffer!” (Matthew 5:10). “Jesus began to show to His disciples, that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death. And Peter taking Jesus, began to rebuke Him, saying: ‘Lord, be it far from Thee! This shall not happen to Thee!’ Jesus, turning, said to Peter: ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a scandal unto Me―because you savor not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men!’ Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me!’” (Matthew 16:21-24).
“Calling the multitude together with His disciples, Jesus said to them: ‘If any man will follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me!’” (Mark 8:34). “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23). “And he that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). “And whosoever does not carry his cross and comes after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27).
“And going out, they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon―him they forced to take up the cross of Jesus” (Matthew 27:32). “And they forced one Simon, a Cyrenian who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and of Rufus, to take up the cross of Jesus” (Mark 15:21). “And as they led Jesus away, they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country; and they laid the cross on him to carry after Jesus” (Luke 23:26).
“The word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness; but to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God!” (1 Corinthians 1:18). “For many walk―of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping―that they are enemies of the cross of Christ! Whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things … so that they may not suffer the persecution of the cross of Christ” (Philippians 3:18-19; Galatians 6:12).
“And bearing His own cross, Jesus went forth to Calvary” (John 19:17). “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross!” (Philippians 2:8). “And through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, making peace through the Blood of His cross, both as to the things that are on Earth, and the things that are in Heaven!” (Colossians 1:20). “Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame, and now He sits on the right hand of the throne of God!” (Hebrews 12:2).
Thus St. Paul writes: “God forbid that I should glory in anything, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world!” (Galatians 6:14). “With Christ I am nailed to the cross!” (Galatians 2:19). “Furthermore I count all things to be but a loss compared to the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord―for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as dung, so that I may gain Christ!” (Philippians 3:8). ). “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, so that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer” (Romans 6:6). “For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come!” (Romans 8:18).
The Liturgy of Holy Mother Church (Hymn in Vespers for Passiontide) says: “Ave crux! Spes unica!” meaning “Hail Cross! Our only hope!” The cross is our hope of salvation―without the cross we have no hope―we are hopeless by being crossless. St. Paul says: “With Christ I am nailed to the cross!” In other words, I am united to Christ by being nailed to the cross of Christ. If you disassociate yourself from the cross, walk away from the cross, refuse the cross, then you divide yourself from Christ: “He that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). “And whosoever does not carry his cross and comes after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27).
Mercy Unites Us to God
Sin divides us from God and mercy re-unites us to God. We have all sinned and we all need the mercy of God. Nevertheless, if we wish to obtain mercy from God, we must also show mercy to others. We reap what we sow―mercy begets mercy. “Blessed are the merciful―for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7). “Judgment without mercy to him that has not shown mercy!” (James 2:13). “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). “If thy brother sin against thee, reprove him: and if he do penance, forgive him. And if he sin against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day be converted unto thee, saying, ‘I repent!’― then forgive him” (Luke 17:3-4). “If you will forgive men their offences, then your heavenly Father will also forgive you your offences. But if you will not forgive men, then neither will your Father forgive you your offences!” (Matthew 6:14-15).
Our Lord emphasizes the truth of the above in His parable about the Merciless Steward: “Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say you not just seven times; but seventy times seven times! Therefore is the Kingdom of Heaven likened to a king, who wanted to take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents (1 talent was 750 ounces of silver. At today’s silver prices of around $90 an ounce (January 2026), one talent would be worth $67,500―that would put the 10,000 talents at just over $675 million). And as he could not pay his debt, his lord commanded that he, and his wife and children and all that he had, should be sold and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, begged him, saying: “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all that I owe!” And the lord of that servant, being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.
“‘But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence (the Roman penny was the eighth part of an ounce of silver. At today’s silver prices of $90 per ounce (January 2026), the penny would be worth $11.25―and a hundred pence would be $1,125): and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: “Pay what you owe me!” And his fellow servant falling down, begged him, saying: “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all that I owe!” But he would not listen―and went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.
“‘Now his fellow servants, seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him and said to him: “You wicked servant! I forgave you all the debt, because you begged me! Should you not then have had the same compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had compassion on you?” And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers, until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you do not forgive everyone from your hearts!’” (Matthew 18:21-35).
$675 million compared to $1,125―one heck of a difference, huh? How big is our debt for past forgiven sins? How reluctant are we in forgiving others for sins committed against us? Is the “glue” of mercy becoming “unglued” and “unstuck” in our lives with the consequence that we fall away from what binds us to Christ? Notice, too, that Our Lord speaks of forgiving from the heart: “So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you do not forgive everyone from your hearts!” The “heart” is associated with “charity.” What is often forgotten―or not even known―is that, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, mercy is a “subsection” of charity, or, so to speak, a room in the mansion of charity―and “charity is the bond [glue] of perfection” (Colossians 3:14).
Charity Unites Us to God
As the proverb says: “Birds of a feather flock together!” is based upon the Scriptural quote: “Birds resort unto their like!” (Ecclesiasticus 27:9). The proverb means that people with similar personalities, interests, backgrounds, attitudes, or beliefs tend to associate with each other, forming groups or “flocks”. It highlights the natural human tendency to gravitate towards like-minded individuals. The same is true when it comes to our relationship and union with God. “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and if we want to be united to God, we have to be charitable.
“Charity is of God―and every one that loves is born of God and knows God. He that loves not, knows not God―for God is charity! ” (1 John 4:7-8). If “God is charity”, then a lack of charity separates us from God. “If any man say: ‘I love God!’ but hates his brother―then he is a liar. For he that does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God Whom he sees not? This commandment we have from God―that he who loves God, must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21). This is why St. John of the Cross says that, at our Last Judgment, we will ultimately judged upon our charity: “At the end of our life, we shall all be judged by charity.”
That is why Holy Scripture warns: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Finger-Pointing is Preferred to Charity Today
As Scripture says: “If I have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. If I have not Charity―then I am nothing. If I have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Increasingly, today, we see more and more Catholics becoming tinkling cymbals, who are profitless nothings. Today we prefer to point and wag the finger at the sinner, rather pray and sacrifice for the sinner. We scream for avenging justice, rather than pleading for a charitable mercy.
We forget that we ourselves are sinners and that as we judge other sinners, so too shall we be judged: “For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged!” (Matthew 7:2). “Why do you see the splinter that is in your brother’s eye; but cannot see the plank that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother: ‘Let me remove the splinter out of your eye!’ ― and behold there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite! First cast out the plank from your own eye, and then you shall be able to see in order to cast out the splinter from your brother’s eye!” (Matthew 7:3-5). “But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged!” (1 Corinthians 11:31). “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). Who dare say: “I am clean, and without sin! I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me!” (Job 33:9). “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2). “There is no man who sins not” (3 Kings 8:46). “For all have sinned, and do need the glory [mercy and grace] of God!” (Romans 3:23). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10).
Unfortunately, we prefer to see and focus on the sins of neighbor more than our sins. It is a very useful tactic to deflect attention being paid upon our sins to being more attentive to the sins of others―as they say: “Attack is the best form of defense!” Therefore, we prefer to attack others before we ourselves are attacked. We make mountains out of their molehills―and make molehills out of our mountains! We expect God to show us mercy―but we will not show mercy to others, nor do we really want God to show mercy to them either! All of this shows and betrays our lack of charity―which, in effect, is a lack of God and godliness in our hearts. Christ came “to seek and save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10) … “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). We, on the other hand, desire the detraction of sinners―forgetting that we are grouped among them!
The Scribes and the Pharisees wanted to stone to death the woman whom they had caught committing adultery―but Our Lord showed her His mercy! Many would have instinctively condemned the ‘Good’ Thief on the cross to Hell―but Our Lord showed him His mercy! Our Lord mercifully cast-out the seven devils with whom the impure and adulterous Mary Magdalen was possessed―and, furthermore, Scripture says Jesus loved her, rather than hated her! What is our reaction towards such like sinners? Is our instinctive reaction one of charity and mercy? Or is one of hatred and vengeance?
This lack of charity, in these end times of the world, was foretold by Christ and Holy Scripture: “The charity of many shall grow cold!” (Matthew 24:12). “Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times! Men shall be lovers of themselves, haughty, proud, without affection, unmerciful, without kindness … Having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
In the imitation of Christ, seek to save sinners―and leave justice and punishment to God: “Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved, but give place unto wrath, for it is written: ‘Revenge is Mine, I will repay!’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). “Revenge is Mine, and I will repay them in due time!” (Deuteronomy 32:35). “Therefore judge not before the time; until the Lord comes, Who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts!” (1 Corinthians 4:5).
One Head, One Body, One Baptism, One Faith
So―ultimately, God seeks to unite everyone so that there is “One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism” (Ephesians 4:5). To achieve this, Christ said to His followers: “Go, therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you!” (Matthew 28:19-20) … “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word … He that loves Me not, keeps not My words!” (John 14:15, 14:21-24) ― we prove our love of God (and hence our unity with God) by doing what He tells us, by obeying Him, by keeping His commandments.
All of this brings and maintains a spiritual “health” within the Mystical Body of Christ. “We, being many, are one body in Christ― everyone being members one of another!” (Romans 12:5). “For as the body is one and has many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body―so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one Body and in one Spirit―whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free. For the body also is not one member, but many. If the foot should say: ‘Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body!’ ― is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say: ‘Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body!’ ― is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were the eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set every one of the members in the body as it has pleased Him. And if they all were one member, where would be the body? But now there are many members indeed, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand: ‘I need not thy help!’ Nor again can the head say to the feet: ‘I have no need of you!’ Likewise, those that seem to be the more feeble members of the body, are more necessary” (1 Corinthians 12:12-22). Christ wants us to be “reconciled to God in one body by the cross” (Ephesians 2:16).
Separation from the World and Worldliness
To do what is good, virtuous and correct is something that is usually hard―it is a cross―for it goes against the grain of world; it means swimming upstream against the tide of the world. Christ did not come to separate the good from the good―but He came to separate the good from the evil. We were already divided from God before Our Lord came into this world―divided from God by our sins. He who sins is of the devil. Our Lord comes to seek and save that which was lost―lost to sin and lost to the devil. Our Lord seeks to divide us from the devil and divide us from sin. Just as Christ has nothing to do with His enemy, the devil―likewise we should have nothing to with those that follow the devil, which is chiefly the world and the worldly―of whom he is the prince. “The prince of this world is coming and in Me he has not anything! … The prince of this world is already judged! ... Now shall the prince of this world be cast out!” (John 12:31; 16:11; 14:30). We too must cast out the prince of this world and the worldly influence that prince uses to seduce us into worldliness.
We do not separate ourselves from what is true, good and godly―but we MUST separate ourselves from lies, evil and worldliness. Hence it is that Scripture says: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “The whole world is seated in wickedness!” (1 John 5:19) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers! What fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God! As God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
Disease requires separation. That is we quarantine persons who have infectious diseases. Sin is the most infectious of all diseases. It is the most evil ‘disease’ in the world. “Sin has reigned to death!” (Romans 5:21). “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15). Not only has sin reigned to death―but sin also condemns to Hell. That is why the Catechism tells us: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial sin is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD). That is why we MUST separate ourselves from the fatal disease of sin.
God has made the human body in such a way that its immune system attacks what is harmful and expels what is toxic. Doctors, hospitals and their medical staff are trained to fight disease and eradicate it from their patients―even to extent of performing invasive surgery or even amputation. Likewise, God has seen to it that animals and insects have sophisticated immune systems using barriers (skin, mucus) and cellular/molecular defenses (phagocytes, antimicrobial peptides) to identify, neutralize, and expel harmful invaders like bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Plants have an innate immune system that is their sole mechanism of defense. They lack specialized immune cells like those found in animals, but their individual cells can recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and trigger a localized hypersensitive response to prevent the spread of disease, often by undergoing rapid cell death at the infection site. They also produce chemical signals and antimicrobial peptides to fight off infections.
In human society, this idea of separation of good from evil can also be seen whereby the Church excommunicates those who threaten the Faith or Morals of the Church. Likewise, civil authorities imprison, or even put to death, criminals who are a serious threat to common good of society. So we can see this thread of separation of good from evil as being a continuous thread throughout society and throughout nature―without which grave consequences will inevitably result. When we fail to follow this common sense rule―we open ourselves to potential disaster. When we do this on a spiritual level, then we open ourselves to the potential disaster of eternal damnation.
Article 9
Sunday, January 11th
The Holy Family & Your Family
Sunday, January 11th
The Holy Family & Your Family
Christmas and the Family
Christmas is a time to focus on the family; not only your own family, but also the Holy Family—meaning, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The family is the building block of society. If you can sanctify the family, you can sanctify society through the family. “The Holy Family” should not just be the title for the family containing Jesus, Mary and Joseph, but it should be the title for every family, for God wants every family to be holy. Just as Jesus was born and lived among us for our imitation; likewise the Holy Family was created and lived among us as an example of godly family life.
God is holy and He requires us to be holy―there is no entrance into Heaven without that required and obligatory holiness: “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14). “I am the Lord your God―be holy because I am holy. Defile not your souls!” (Leviticus 11:44). “There shall not enter into Heaven anything defiled!” (Apocalypse 21:27). “I am the Lord who sanctify you!” (Leviticus 22:32). “Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy because I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 20:7). “You shall be holy men to Me!” (Exodus 22:31). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:26). “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight!” (Ephesians 1:4).
THE HISTORY
The Feast of the Holy Family
The Feast of the Holy Family is of recent origin, being instituted by Pope Leo XIII in 1892. It used to be celebrated on the third Sunday after the Epiphany, but has now been moved, by Benedict XV to the first Sunday after the Epiphany. The feast serves as an example of family life. Like other liturgical feasts, it can be a source of many graces in our daily lives. The prayer of the Mass indicates this, when it pleads for the grace to imitate the example of the Holy Family.
The Exiled Holy Family
Joseph and Mary and the Child Jesus had been living in Egypt only a few months when Herod died. Before long, an angel appeared to the head of the Holy Family, St. Joseph, and reported this latest intelligence. It was time to go home. Without any hemming and hawing or seeking after additional details, Joseph and Mary quietly packed up and started off. They had no sooner arrived in Judea than a new problem presented itself in the person of Archelaus.
Herod’s kingdom had been split up among his sons: Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip. Archelaus was to inherit the throne of Judea and therefore control of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. He already had a reputation for diabolical wickedness. The Jews sent a fifty-man delegation to Rome to plead with Caesar Augustus to break up the Herodian dynasty. They had no success. However, Archelaus’ reign was short-lived. He was so cruel and tyrannical that the Jews combined with their old enemies, the Samaritans, and sent off a fresh delegation in 6 A.D. This time Augustus summoned Archelaus to Rome and speedily banished him to Vienne in Gaul. When the Holy Family arrived in Judea, however, Archelaus was apparently still in power and St. Joseph, as guardian of Jesus and Mary, was afraid to settle in his territory. Once again his confidence in God was rewarded by the now familiar visit of the angel. “Being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee.”
The Hidden Life of the Holy Family
Now begins the hidden life of Christ. All we know about the next eleven years is packed into a single verse from St. Luke: “And the Child grew and became strong. He was full of wisdom and the grace of God was upon Him.” Although we have no facts, it is easy to picture Mary stealing occasional glances at her mysteriously wonderful Boy and wondering with a mother’s tender sadness about the prophetic visit of the Magi and the soul-searing prophecy of old Simeon. Her intuitions proved to be correct for the next time Christ appears in the Gospel, now a boy of twelve, we see her heart wrung anew.
The Trials of the Holy Family
Every Jewish male thirteen years of age or older was obliged to visit the Temple in Jerusalem three times a year on the big feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Women and children frequently accompanied the men of the family. If they came from a distance such as Galilee they traveled in a caravan. Once a caravan got started for the day it usually splintered up into small groups and anyone could float from one group to another as the spirit moved him. At the evening stopover, everybody got back together again. It was all very free and easy and a holiday mood prevailed.
We must not suspect Mary or Joseph of the least neglect of duty when Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem. They had every reason to assume He was visiting with friends or neighbors along the way as He no doubt had done on the way down from Nazareth and perhaps even many times before on previous trips. It was at the end of the first day’s travel that the disappearance of Jesus was discovered.
In our own day we hear enough about kidnapped and missing children to appreciate the panic that grips with steel fingers the hearts of mothers or fathers who have lost a child. Imagine, then, how Mary and Joseph must have felt when the slow-dawning, truth burst full upon them: Their personal charge, their exclusive responsibility, the Boy Messias had vanished!
It took almost a full day to retrace the route to Jerusalem and another doubt and fear-filled twenty-four hours of buffeting holiday crowds before Jesus could be found. The rest of the story we know. Jesus was in the Temple and had been engaged in a discussion with the teachers and doctors.
And all who were listening to him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when they saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why hast thou done so to us? Behold, thy father and I have been seeking thee sorrowing.” And he said to them, “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” And they did not understand the word that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and, came to Nazareth, and was subject to them; and his mother kept all these things carefully in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace before God and men.
The Holy Family in Complete Obscurity
When Jesus left Jerusalem to go back to Nazareth and be subject to His parents, He began the second phase of His hidden life. He lived in complete obscurity, an unknown, and was subject in humility and obedience to His earthly mother and father. The incarnate Second Person of the Trinity, the Messias, who later on would dazzle the public with miracles, this God of all mankind hid Himself away in a small town and performed the dull tasks of a carpenter’s helper. Later, after Joseph died, Jesus supported His mother by the work of His hands. In fact, when He afterward came back to His home town and spoke in the local synagogue, neighbors and relatives who had known Him almost since birth and had watched Him grow up, referred to Him by His trade: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary ... ?”
THE MEANING
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph serves in many ways as the model for the family virtues. One virtue of the Holy Family that modem families might well emulate is humility. Humility can do much to smooth out the petty frictions and molehill mountains that inevitably rise to the surface when human beings live close together for long periods of time. The young Creator, the God who shaped the cosmos with one effortless volition, now bends to learn the carpenter’s skill from a human foster father and struggles with crude tools to shape stubborn lumber into a useful bit of furniture.
The Humility of the Holy Family
This resplendent example of divine humility should be enough to inspire, for instance, the unsung housewife who goes along for years doing the menial, humdrum jobs without any particular recognition or praise. There may be no glamour in this kind of existence, but it already shines with the far brighter brilliance of paradise. If you are not hounded by the demands of public life, if you are not in the limelight, if you are not soiled with the dust and smut of the world, it is much easier to give yourself to God, to dedicate yourself entirely to the one single purpose of life, saving your immortal soul.
How much harder it must be for the wealthy businessman, the big movie star, the socialite, the politician, for anyone who wastes so much time chasing after money or fame or power. The peace and tranquility that goes with the hidden life is a valuable possession, certainly much more to be prized than the glamour and glitter and noise of the world. If you ever have any doubts about this, remember that when God became man He could have had His pick of any type of life at all. Christ could have been a rich merchant, an idol of the Roman circus, the admired leader of Roman high society, Caesar himself. Christ had His choice. He chose to be a workingman.
The Obedience of the Holy Family
Another virtue perfectly mirrored in the Holy Family is obedience, the virtue that inclines us to submit our will to that of our lawful superiors insofar as they are the representatives of God. The most important words of that definition are the last ones. When we obey a superior whether it be husband, mother or father, a policeman on the comer, the president of the United States, our pastor or bishop-we are obeying God at least indirectly.
It is difficult for us to grasp the concept of obedience because we have been educated in a tradition that glorifies independence. What we are talking about here, however, is a question of order. In nature we find a God-instituted order: on the lowest rung of the ladder of creation are minerals, then plants, animals, men, and finally angels. The higher creatures use the lower ones to their own advantage and to achieve their ends. Thus plants, which utilize minerals, are in turn eaten by animals, and animals are used by men. This is God’s plan and it is His will that inferiors be subject to superiors. It is also God’s plan to manifest His will to us through our fellow men. And that’s where the rub comes in. We would be delighted and privileged to obey God if He came down on earth and delivered His orders to us in person, but that is not God’s way and we should try to see in our superiors the envoys of God.
We pay a good deal of attention to obedience because it is the rock-bottom foundation of family life. Children must be obedient to their parents and—despite feminist propaganda and modern heresies—wives must be obedient to their husbands as head of the family.
Role Models in Jesus, Mary & Joseph
This is not to say that husbands are free to act as tyrants. They must carry their authority lightly and rule with justice and kindness. They should take St. Joseph as their ideal of the model father.
Mary, of course, is par excellence the model mother. Children have as their pattern none other than the Boy Jesus Himself. Although children need not obey their parents after they are themselves married and have homes of their own or after they reach their majority, they are never exempt from the command to love and respect their parents. Even after our parents die, we still have the obligation to pray for them that they may not be detained long in Purgatory.
Supreme Lesson of the Holy Family
The supreme lesson of the Holy Family is this: If the God-Man, Jesus Christ, could subject Himself to earthly parents, if God could obey us, His creatures, cannot we obey God? He has clearly spelled out His will for us in His commandments and in the commandments of His Church. The practice of the virtue of obedience is the first and most necessary step in making your family a holy family.
The Family is a Microcosm of the Church
The family is a microcosm of the Church and has, therefore, a hierarchical structure. The husband is the head of the family (I Corinthians 11:3). Yet the woman is not a slave, but a help-mate for the man, just as the priest is a collaborator of the bishop, i.e. someone who labors with the bishop. The man can be likened to the head, the woman to the heart. The body of the family needs both and they both have an important role to play. Without them to form their children, they become ‘headless chickens’ or ‘heartless animals’. For both man and wife have complementary abilities and strengths, each of which greatly contributes to the well being of family life.
The flock that husband and wife must look after are their children. Yet how few parents realize the gravity and magnitude of the task entrusted to them. They often forget that God will judge them as to how they have raised or failed to raise their children. Parents cannot selfishly live for themselves, they have a responsibility in justice towards their children, they also have a responsibility towards God, who created the souls of those children. Too many parents have abdicated from the authority and responsibility of parenting, with disastrous results. When the world gets its often derailed family life back on the tracks, then too will society at large live as it ought. And what most often derails family life is a lack of authority and discipline, joined to an absence of God and His grace.
To Which Family Do We Belong?
Our Lord even goes as far as to call those who do not believe in Him, as being children of the devil: “Why do you not know My speech? Because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof. But if I say the truth, you believe Me not” (John 8:43-45). Unpleasant, but true—we belong to whoever’s spirit we follow: if we follow the Spirit of God, we are the children of God; if we follow the spirit of the world, then we are the children of the devil. “He that is not with Me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30). “Not everyone that says to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
The Adopted Children of God will be Hated
“Wonder not, brethren, if the world hate you” (1 John 3:13). “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19). Much like Joseph was hated by his many brothers, and Abel was hated by Cain. “Cain, who was of the wicked one, killed his brother. And wherefore did he kill him? Because his own works were wicked: and his brother’s just” (1 John 3:12). “Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain” (Jude 1:11).
Yet there are countless Cain and Abel situations in families, in parishes, at work and in the community at large—those who SINCERELY (as opposed to superficially) try to live a godly life, will be hated. Those who merely pray with their lips, deep down hate those who pray with their hearts. Those who love God with only a fraction of their heart, mind, soul and strength, hate those who love God with their whole heart, mind, soul and strength. This is not just a problem between the ‘saved’ and the damned, but even among those whose will be saved in the end. Those who have just started out on the spiritual path to Heaven, feel uncomfortable, envious or even hate those who have reached greater heights! Those who strive to reform things are hated by those who do want reforming—look at the case of St. John of Cross, who was imprisoned and even scourged by his fellow monks for his attempts at reforming the Order for the better.
At the root of this hatred lies the Word of God, which the world hates. Our Lord tries to plant the “good seed” of the Word in our souls—whereas the devil tries to plant ‘bad seed of cockle’ of worldliness in our souls. “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11) … “He that sows the good seed, is the Son of man” (Matthew 13:37) … “I have given them Thy word [Father], and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world” (John 17:14) … “And the servants said to him: “Didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? Whence then hath it cockle?’ And he said to them: ‘An enemy hath done this!’” (Matthew 13:27-28).
Christmas is a time to focus on the family; not only your own family, but also the Holy Family—meaning, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The family is the building block of society. If you can sanctify the family, you can sanctify society through the family. “The Holy Family” should not just be the title for the family containing Jesus, Mary and Joseph, but it should be the title for every family, for God wants every family to be holy. Just as Jesus was born and lived among us for our imitation; likewise the Holy Family was created and lived among us as an example of godly family life.
God is holy and He requires us to be holy―there is no entrance into Heaven without that required and obligatory holiness: “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14). “I am the Lord your God―be holy because I am holy. Defile not your souls!” (Leviticus 11:44). “There shall not enter into Heaven anything defiled!” (Apocalypse 21:27). “I am the Lord who sanctify you!” (Leviticus 22:32). “Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy because I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 20:7). “You shall be holy men to Me!” (Exodus 22:31). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:26). “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight!” (Ephesians 1:4).
THE HISTORY
The Feast of the Holy Family
The Feast of the Holy Family is of recent origin, being instituted by Pope Leo XIII in 1892. It used to be celebrated on the third Sunday after the Epiphany, but has now been moved, by Benedict XV to the first Sunday after the Epiphany. The feast serves as an example of family life. Like other liturgical feasts, it can be a source of many graces in our daily lives. The prayer of the Mass indicates this, when it pleads for the grace to imitate the example of the Holy Family.
The Exiled Holy Family
Joseph and Mary and the Child Jesus had been living in Egypt only a few months when Herod died. Before long, an angel appeared to the head of the Holy Family, St. Joseph, and reported this latest intelligence. It was time to go home. Without any hemming and hawing or seeking after additional details, Joseph and Mary quietly packed up and started off. They had no sooner arrived in Judea than a new problem presented itself in the person of Archelaus.
Herod’s kingdom had been split up among his sons: Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip. Archelaus was to inherit the throne of Judea and therefore control of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. He already had a reputation for diabolical wickedness. The Jews sent a fifty-man delegation to Rome to plead with Caesar Augustus to break up the Herodian dynasty. They had no success. However, Archelaus’ reign was short-lived. He was so cruel and tyrannical that the Jews combined with their old enemies, the Samaritans, and sent off a fresh delegation in 6 A.D. This time Augustus summoned Archelaus to Rome and speedily banished him to Vienne in Gaul. When the Holy Family arrived in Judea, however, Archelaus was apparently still in power and St. Joseph, as guardian of Jesus and Mary, was afraid to settle in his territory. Once again his confidence in God was rewarded by the now familiar visit of the angel. “Being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee.”
The Hidden Life of the Holy Family
Now begins the hidden life of Christ. All we know about the next eleven years is packed into a single verse from St. Luke: “And the Child grew and became strong. He was full of wisdom and the grace of God was upon Him.” Although we have no facts, it is easy to picture Mary stealing occasional glances at her mysteriously wonderful Boy and wondering with a mother’s tender sadness about the prophetic visit of the Magi and the soul-searing prophecy of old Simeon. Her intuitions proved to be correct for the next time Christ appears in the Gospel, now a boy of twelve, we see her heart wrung anew.
The Trials of the Holy Family
Every Jewish male thirteen years of age or older was obliged to visit the Temple in Jerusalem three times a year on the big feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Women and children frequently accompanied the men of the family. If they came from a distance such as Galilee they traveled in a caravan. Once a caravan got started for the day it usually splintered up into small groups and anyone could float from one group to another as the spirit moved him. At the evening stopover, everybody got back together again. It was all very free and easy and a holiday mood prevailed.
We must not suspect Mary or Joseph of the least neglect of duty when Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem. They had every reason to assume He was visiting with friends or neighbors along the way as He no doubt had done on the way down from Nazareth and perhaps even many times before on previous trips. It was at the end of the first day’s travel that the disappearance of Jesus was discovered.
In our own day we hear enough about kidnapped and missing children to appreciate the panic that grips with steel fingers the hearts of mothers or fathers who have lost a child. Imagine, then, how Mary and Joseph must have felt when the slow-dawning, truth burst full upon them: Their personal charge, their exclusive responsibility, the Boy Messias had vanished!
It took almost a full day to retrace the route to Jerusalem and another doubt and fear-filled twenty-four hours of buffeting holiday crowds before Jesus could be found. The rest of the story we know. Jesus was in the Temple and had been engaged in a discussion with the teachers and doctors.
And all who were listening to him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when they saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why hast thou done so to us? Behold, thy father and I have been seeking thee sorrowing.” And he said to them, “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” And they did not understand the word that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and, came to Nazareth, and was subject to them; and his mother kept all these things carefully in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace before God and men.
The Holy Family in Complete Obscurity
When Jesus left Jerusalem to go back to Nazareth and be subject to His parents, He began the second phase of His hidden life. He lived in complete obscurity, an unknown, and was subject in humility and obedience to His earthly mother and father. The incarnate Second Person of the Trinity, the Messias, who later on would dazzle the public with miracles, this God of all mankind hid Himself away in a small town and performed the dull tasks of a carpenter’s helper. Later, after Joseph died, Jesus supported His mother by the work of His hands. In fact, when He afterward came back to His home town and spoke in the local synagogue, neighbors and relatives who had known Him almost since birth and had watched Him grow up, referred to Him by His trade: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary ... ?”
THE MEANING
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph serves in many ways as the model for the family virtues. One virtue of the Holy Family that modem families might well emulate is humility. Humility can do much to smooth out the petty frictions and molehill mountains that inevitably rise to the surface when human beings live close together for long periods of time. The young Creator, the God who shaped the cosmos with one effortless volition, now bends to learn the carpenter’s skill from a human foster father and struggles with crude tools to shape stubborn lumber into a useful bit of furniture.
The Humility of the Holy Family
This resplendent example of divine humility should be enough to inspire, for instance, the unsung housewife who goes along for years doing the menial, humdrum jobs without any particular recognition or praise. There may be no glamour in this kind of existence, but it already shines with the far brighter brilliance of paradise. If you are not hounded by the demands of public life, if you are not in the limelight, if you are not soiled with the dust and smut of the world, it is much easier to give yourself to God, to dedicate yourself entirely to the one single purpose of life, saving your immortal soul.
How much harder it must be for the wealthy businessman, the big movie star, the socialite, the politician, for anyone who wastes so much time chasing after money or fame or power. The peace and tranquility that goes with the hidden life is a valuable possession, certainly much more to be prized than the glamour and glitter and noise of the world. If you ever have any doubts about this, remember that when God became man He could have had His pick of any type of life at all. Christ could have been a rich merchant, an idol of the Roman circus, the admired leader of Roman high society, Caesar himself. Christ had His choice. He chose to be a workingman.
The Obedience of the Holy Family
Another virtue perfectly mirrored in the Holy Family is obedience, the virtue that inclines us to submit our will to that of our lawful superiors insofar as they are the representatives of God. The most important words of that definition are the last ones. When we obey a superior whether it be husband, mother or father, a policeman on the comer, the president of the United States, our pastor or bishop-we are obeying God at least indirectly.
It is difficult for us to grasp the concept of obedience because we have been educated in a tradition that glorifies independence. What we are talking about here, however, is a question of order. In nature we find a God-instituted order: on the lowest rung of the ladder of creation are minerals, then plants, animals, men, and finally angels. The higher creatures use the lower ones to their own advantage and to achieve their ends. Thus plants, which utilize minerals, are in turn eaten by animals, and animals are used by men. This is God’s plan and it is His will that inferiors be subject to superiors. It is also God’s plan to manifest His will to us through our fellow men. And that’s where the rub comes in. We would be delighted and privileged to obey God if He came down on earth and delivered His orders to us in person, but that is not God’s way and we should try to see in our superiors the envoys of God.
We pay a good deal of attention to obedience because it is the rock-bottom foundation of family life. Children must be obedient to their parents and—despite feminist propaganda and modern heresies—wives must be obedient to their husbands as head of the family.
Role Models in Jesus, Mary & Joseph
This is not to say that husbands are free to act as tyrants. They must carry their authority lightly and rule with justice and kindness. They should take St. Joseph as their ideal of the model father.
Mary, of course, is par excellence the model mother. Children have as their pattern none other than the Boy Jesus Himself. Although children need not obey their parents after they are themselves married and have homes of their own or after they reach their majority, they are never exempt from the command to love and respect their parents. Even after our parents die, we still have the obligation to pray for them that they may not be detained long in Purgatory.
Supreme Lesson of the Holy Family
The supreme lesson of the Holy Family is this: If the God-Man, Jesus Christ, could subject Himself to earthly parents, if God could obey us, His creatures, cannot we obey God? He has clearly spelled out His will for us in His commandments and in the commandments of His Church. The practice of the virtue of obedience is the first and most necessary step in making your family a holy family.
The Family is a Microcosm of the Church
The family is a microcosm of the Church and has, therefore, a hierarchical structure. The husband is the head of the family (I Corinthians 11:3). Yet the woman is not a slave, but a help-mate for the man, just as the priest is a collaborator of the bishop, i.e. someone who labors with the bishop. The man can be likened to the head, the woman to the heart. The body of the family needs both and they both have an important role to play. Without them to form their children, they become ‘headless chickens’ or ‘heartless animals’. For both man and wife have complementary abilities and strengths, each of which greatly contributes to the well being of family life.
The flock that husband and wife must look after are their children. Yet how few parents realize the gravity and magnitude of the task entrusted to them. They often forget that God will judge them as to how they have raised or failed to raise their children. Parents cannot selfishly live for themselves, they have a responsibility in justice towards their children, they also have a responsibility towards God, who created the souls of those children. Too many parents have abdicated from the authority and responsibility of parenting, with disastrous results. When the world gets its often derailed family life back on the tracks, then too will society at large live as it ought. And what most often derails family life is a lack of authority and discipline, joined to an absence of God and His grace.
To Which Family Do We Belong?
Our Lord even goes as far as to call those who do not believe in Him, as being children of the devil: “Why do you not know My speech? Because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof. But if I say the truth, you believe Me not” (John 8:43-45). Unpleasant, but true—we belong to whoever’s spirit we follow: if we follow the Spirit of God, we are the children of God; if we follow the spirit of the world, then we are the children of the devil. “He that is not with Me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30). “Not everyone that says to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
The Adopted Children of God will be Hated
“Wonder not, brethren, if the world hate you” (1 John 3:13). “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19). Much like Joseph was hated by his many brothers, and Abel was hated by Cain. “Cain, who was of the wicked one, killed his brother. And wherefore did he kill him? Because his own works were wicked: and his brother’s just” (1 John 3:12). “Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain” (Jude 1:11).
Yet there are countless Cain and Abel situations in families, in parishes, at work and in the community at large—those who SINCERELY (as opposed to superficially) try to live a godly life, will be hated. Those who merely pray with their lips, deep down hate those who pray with their hearts. Those who love God with only a fraction of their heart, mind, soul and strength, hate those who love God with their whole heart, mind, soul and strength. This is not just a problem between the ‘saved’ and the damned, but even among those whose will be saved in the end. Those who have just started out on the spiritual path to Heaven, feel uncomfortable, envious or even hate those who have reached greater heights! Those who strive to reform things are hated by those who do want reforming—look at the case of St. John of Cross, who was imprisoned and even scourged by his fellow monks for his attempts at reforming the Order for the better.
At the root of this hatred lies the Word of God, which the world hates. Our Lord tries to plant the “good seed” of the Word in our souls—whereas the devil tries to plant ‘bad seed of cockle’ of worldliness in our souls. “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11) … “He that sows the good seed, is the Son of man” (Matthew 13:37) … “I have given them Thy word [Father], and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world” (John 17:14) … “And the servants said to him: “Didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? Whence then hath it cockle?’ And he said to them: ‘An enemy hath done this!’” (Matthew 13:27-28).
Article 8
Saturday, January 10th
The Collapsing Modern-Day Family
Saturday, January 10th
The Collapsing Modern-Day Family
Focus on the Family
One has to be blind, stupid or in a perpetual coma not to be able to see the disintegration of the family over the last 80 or so years. As we approach tomorrow’s feast of the Holy Family, it is not a bad idea to preface that with a brief look at how the family structure has been weakened, altered and decimated in recent times.
Attacks on the Catholic Family
The Catholic Family is the base unit or “building-brick” in the Catholic Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ. The attack on Catholicism, in general, inevitably translates into an attack on Catholic Families in particular. We all know the saying: “With each brick you take out of the wall, the wall becomes weaker and weaker.” How true is this today for the “bricks” of Catholic Families. With each “brick” that is loosened and removed―a person within the family, or a family within the Church―there is an increased weakening in the family or the Church.
Sister Lucia of Fatima warned that the devil would launch a massive attack upon the Family. He knows that the Catholic Family is the basic building-block of the Church. Since Sister Lucia spoke of this, we can, in retrospect, see the tragic collapse of Catholic Families throughout the world—they might still be families, but they are less and less Catholic Families. This has reached such dangerous levels, that even the modern Catholic Church and some of few remaining somewhat ‘Conservative’ and/or ‘Conservative-Liberals’ are trying to make a “last-ditch-stand” against the erosion of the Catholic Family.
Our Lady Warned of these Attacks
The Blessed Virgin Mary has also, on many occasions, foretold of the fight that is to come: “I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and from shortly after the middle of the 20th century … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell. God will allow the demons to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family … They will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God … This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings―evil will seem to triumph … Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic Sects! … All the civil governments will have the same objective, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritism and vice of all kinds making it easy for everyone to live in sin, encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children! ... All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and discord will be seen, without love for country or family ...
“The Church will be full of those who accept compromises … The Church will decompose and the devil will make himself the king of all hearts … Many will abandon the Faith! … Many will turn upon Religion! … Many people will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil! … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals. As true Faith fades ― false light will brighten the people … The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth ... In these unhappy times, people will only think of amusements and there will be unbridled luxury and impurity that will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost!
“As for the Sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with His Church, it will be attacked and profaned in the fullest sense of the word. Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for everyone to live in sin, encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children born without the blessing of the Church ... The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women … There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
Definition of Divide and Conquer
In the above quotes of Our Lady, she says: “God will allow the demons to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family.” Satan seeks to divide so that he can conquer. The phrase ― “Divide and Conquer” ― is defined as: “To make a group of people disagree and fight with one another so that they will not join together against one” (Merriam Webster Dictionary). “The policy of maintaining control over one's subordinates or opponents by encouraging dissent between them, thereby preventing them from uniting in opposition.” (Oxford Dictionary) “A way of keeping yourself in a position of power by causing disagreements among other people so that they are unable to oppose you” (Cambridge Dictionary). “A strategy by which someone remains in power by making sure that the people under their control quarrel among themselves and so cannot unite to achieve their aims and overthrow their leader.” (Collins Dictionary).
Divide and Conquer―Tactics in Practice
The tactic ― “Divide and Conquer” ― is as old as mankind. There are many instances in the Bible where we see the “divide and conquer” tactic used―either by Satan, or by men, or a combination of both.
● Satan waited until Eve was alone and away from Adam before he tempted her. After Eve had fallen, Adam fell through Satan using Eve to tempt him―and thus both ended up being separated from God through their Original Sin.
● Satan divided Cain and Abel, by making Cain envious and resentful towards Abel―to the point that Cain eventually murdered Abel.
● The Tribes of Israel were divided among themselves after the death of King Solomon. The Kingdom of Israel became divided when the nation split into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Southern Kingdom of Juda, making them vulnerable to conquest by other powers.
● The Apostles were divided when they argued among themselves as to who was the greatest among them.
● Judas was divided from the rest of the Apostles in spirit, and betrayed Christ.
● Peter the first pope, was divided or separated from the other Apostles when he denied Christ during the Passion.
● The other Apostles fled and abandoned Christ at His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.
● Heresy divided the Church from the earliest times and continues to do so until this day.
The Roman Empire is traditionally associated with a policy of “divide et impera”, when, in its early years, the expanding
Roman Republic routinely divisive tactics. When Rome was conquering the rest of Italy in the 4th and early 3rd centuries BC, her enemies rarely showed that harmony among themselves and that singleness of purpose which characterized the Romans, and Rome did her best to develop the spirit of discord among them by turning community against community and turning the aristocracy against the democracy. Rome refused to deal with its adversaries as a block, and instead made a separate treaty with each one of the communities, with the express purpose of preventing future confederations arising between them. In order to destroy channels of communication and to limit interaction between potential cooperators, these Roman treaties with the local communities deprived them, not only of the right to trade with one another, but also of the right to intermarry.
Divide and Conquer has played a crucial role in military tactics throughout history. From ancient battles to modern warfare, military leaders have utilized this approach to gain strategic advantages. The strategic encirclement employed by Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae and the fragmentation tactics of Genghis Khan are just a few examples of how Divide and Conquer has secured victories against formidable opponents. Even in more recent times, renowned leaders like Napoleon Bonaparte and General Zhukov employed Divide and Conquer strategies to outmaneuver their adversaries, disrupt enemy formations, and achieve significant military successes. Moreover, in the Battle of Stalingrad, Soviet General Georgy Zhukov utilized Divide and Conquer by encircling the German Sixth Army, cutting off their supplies and support, leading to a major turning point in World War II.
Divide and Conquer in Politics
“Divide and Rule” (Latin: “divide et impera”), or more commonly known as “Divide and Conquer”, in politics refers to an entity gaining and maintaining political power by using divisive measures. This includes the exploitation of existing divisions within a political group by its political opponents, and also the deliberate creation or strengthening of such divisions. It uses a strategy that breaks up existing power structures, and especially prevents smaller power groups from linking up, causing rivalries and fomenting discord among the people to prevent a rebellion against the elites or the people implementing the strategy. The goal is either to pit the lower classes against themselves to prevent a revolution, or to provide a desired solution to the growing discord that strengthens the power of the elites.
Our Lord speaks of Divide and Conquer
In the Gospels we see Our Lord refer to the divide and conquer tactic: “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan be risen up against himself, he is divided and cannot stand, but has an end!” (Mark 3:23-26). “Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand! And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself―how then shall his kingdom stand?” (Matthew 12:25-26). “Every kingdom divided against itself, shall be brought to desolation, and house upon house shall fall. And if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?” (Luke 11:17-18).
Our Lord even says that He Himself will be a source of division as He seeks to conquer souls by redeeming them from the clutches of Satan and leading them to Heaven: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled! … Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no―but separation! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided―three against two, and two against three. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me! The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the son: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death. They will deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And you shall be brought before governors, and before kings for My sake … And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake―but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved. And when they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another!” (Matthew 10:17-22; 10:32-37; Luke 12:49-53).
As regards this division, Our Lord adds: “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words … He that does not love Me, keeps not My words!” (John 14:15, 14:21-24). “He that is not with Me, is against Me; and he that gathers not with Me, scatters!” (Matthew 12:30). “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do!” (John 8:44). “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
Divided and Conquered by the World
The division within families and the division between one family and another family has reached unprecedented levels! Never before have we seen so much division in the world! This division can be seen in the political field, the social field, the religious field, and of course the family field. Ultimately, those divisions can be traced back to Christ. As Christ said―we are either for Him or against Him. There is no third option; there are no seats for spectators in this world.
“The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). “Fight the good fight of Faith!” (1 Timothy 6:12). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). “Labor as a good soldier of Christ Jesus! No man, being a soldier to God, entangles himself with worldly things; so that he may please Him to Whom he hath engaged himself” ― namely God (2 Timothy 2:3-4). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where your treasure is, there is your heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon! [the world with its pleasures and treasures]” (Matthew 6:19-24). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). All of the above is what God expects from us―but that is not what God gets from us and our families!
“The Lord has looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together! The fool has said in his heart: ‘There is no God!’ There is no fear of God before their eyes! They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways―there is none that does good, no, not one! Their throat is an open sepulcher―with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips! Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness! Their feet are swift to shed blood! Destruction and unhappiness is in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known! They have not called upon God! They are of the world—therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them! There have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear. God has scattered the bones of them that please men! They have been confounded, because God has despised them!” (Psalm 13:1-3; Psalm 52:1-6; 1 John 4:5).
Divided and Conquered Families
There is very little or no doubt that the vast majority of Catholics today have been seduced and conquered by what the modern world has to offer! Just as they say, “Everyone has his price”, so too you could say, “Everyone has their preferred thing” that the world tantalizingly dangles before their eyes―and which conquers the soul and divides it from God. Our Lord says: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where your treasure is, there is your heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24).
It is the treasures and pleasures of the world that have seduced and divided so many souls from God. Not only have they divided souls from God, but they have often caused division within families―especially the technological treasures and pleasures! Increasingly, people find more pleasure by being on their smartphone/tablet/laptop/computer than they do in spending time with other members of the family―they cannot wait to get away from other family members to spend time with their treasured smartphone/tablet/laptop/computer. They find it impossible to reconcile Our Lord’s command with their own preferences: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength! This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31). They have no time to “pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Below you will find a 2024 survey on how much screen time is spent by those aged 18 and above―in other words, all adults.
Media Weekly screen time Daily screen time
Total use of TV 32 hours 18 minutes 4 hours 37 minutes
Internet on a computer 4 hours 56 minutes 42 minutes
Video on a computer 1 hour 59 minutes 17 minutes
App/web on a smartphone 16 hours 24 minutes 2 hours 21 minutes
App/web on a tablet 4 hours 19 minutes 37 minutes
Total 59 hours 56 minutes 8 hours 34 minutes
The Screen Religion
Electronics are the modern-day idols. The smartphone―now combined with Artificial Intelligence―has become a secular ‘tabernacle’ in the hand; a god with all the answers; a secular ‘guardian angel’; a person’s best friend. People cannot imagine living without their smartphone―but they feel that they can live without God! “The Lord has looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God … They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together―there is none that does good; no, not one! … There is no fear of God before their eyes!” (Psalm 13:1-3). Screen time replaces God time! When someone spends an excessive amount of time on their electronic devices, it can effectively take the place of their spiritual connection and devotion to God, acting as a distraction from prayer, reflection, and essentially becoming an idol in their life that consumes their attention and focus away from their Faith.
● Screens have become the objects of our worship. Anything that commands our attention nine hours a day can be accurately described as an idol. Christians now spend the vast majority of their free time interacting with screens. Not God. Not people.
● Screen time is displacing spiritual disciplines. There is less and less time available to devote to spiritual reading, meditation, prayer and spiritual reflection. Those spiritual disciplines just cannot compete with instant gratification that people feel that they can get from their screens.
● Screen time is shortening our attention spans. The human brain is built to seek novelty. Our screens are novelty machines – presenting us with a never-ceasing stream of new images to look at. Over time our brains get used to rapid-fire visuals. Tasks that lack visual novelty or require concentration (such as prayer or Bible reading) feel unpleasant. They simply cannot compete with the pleasure of web surfing, TV watching or video gaming.
● Screens tempt us. says, “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence [desires] of the flesh, and the concupiscence [desires] of the eyes, and the pride of life―which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16). No single verse better describes what screens do to us. They inflame our lusts with an endless gallery of sensual images (desires of the flesh), objects and lifestyles to covet (desires of the eyes), and people to look down upon (the pride of life).
● Screens are anxiety and fear producing machines. Bad news attracts more attention than good news. The producers of screen content know this, so they highlight content designed to make us anxious and alarmed. The more we consume these stories, the more we come to believe the world is falling apart. Instead of moving forward in faith, we retreat into fear. But the Bible is clear: God has not given us a spirit of fear. The most frequently repeated command in all of scripture is fear not.
● Screen content stokes interpersonal conflict. Holy Scripture says, “If it be possible, as much as is in you, have peace with all men” (Romans 12:18). Yet the internet is tearing us apart—dividing us into warring tribes, even within the church. When Christians take to social media to defend their values, they often do so with such vitriol and contempt that they come across as self-righteous jerks.
A single, 30-minute sermon can’t compete with the 60+ hours we spend glued to our screens each week.
Your screens are making disciples of you – far more effectively than the Church is. Both screens and Church teach and preach. Whereas the average churchgoer might be exposed to a single, 30-minute sermon every seven days, the typical social media user spends more than 1,000 minutes on social platforms each week.
Your spiritual life is being displaced by your screen life, and you probably don’t even realize it. Every day, hundreds of former believers join the ranks of the religious “nones” [= having no religious affiliation] because of something they saw on their screens. The Gospel isn’t outdated, it is being overwhelmed.
One has to be blind, stupid or in a perpetual coma not to be able to see the disintegration of the family over the last 80 or so years. As we approach tomorrow’s feast of the Holy Family, it is not a bad idea to preface that with a brief look at how the family structure has been weakened, altered and decimated in recent times.
Attacks on the Catholic Family
The Catholic Family is the base unit or “building-brick” in the Catholic Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ. The attack on Catholicism, in general, inevitably translates into an attack on Catholic Families in particular. We all know the saying: “With each brick you take out of the wall, the wall becomes weaker and weaker.” How true is this today for the “bricks” of Catholic Families. With each “brick” that is loosened and removed―a person within the family, or a family within the Church―there is an increased weakening in the family or the Church.
Sister Lucia of Fatima warned that the devil would launch a massive attack upon the Family. He knows that the Catholic Family is the basic building-block of the Church. Since Sister Lucia spoke of this, we can, in retrospect, see the tragic collapse of Catholic Families throughout the world—they might still be families, but they are less and less Catholic Families. This has reached such dangerous levels, that even the modern Catholic Church and some of few remaining somewhat ‘Conservative’ and/or ‘Conservative-Liberals’ are trying to make a “last-ditch-stand” against the erosion of the Catholic Family.
Our Lady Warned of these Attacks
The Blessed Virgin Mary has also, on many occasions, foretold of the fight that is to come: “I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and from shortly after the middle of the 20th century … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell. God will allow the demons to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family … They will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God … This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings―evil will seem to triumph … Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic Sects! … All the civil governments will have the same objective, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritism and vice of all kinds making it easy for everyone to live in sin, encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children! ... All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and discord will be seen, without love for country or family ...
“The Church will be full of those who accept compromises … The Church will decompose and the devil will make himself the king of all hearts … Many will abandon the Faith! … Many will turn upon Religion! … Many people will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil! … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals. As true Faith fades ― false light will brighten the people … The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth ... In these unhappy times, people will only think of amusements and there will be unbridled luxury and impurity that will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost!
“As for the Sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with His Church, it will be attacked and profaned in the fullest sense of the word. Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for everyone to live in sin, encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children born without the blessing of the Church ... The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women … There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
Definition of Divide and Conquer
In the above quotes of Our Lady, she says: “God will allow the demons to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family.” Satan seeks to divide so that he can conquer. The phrase ― “Divide and Conquer” ― is defined as: “To make a group of people disagree and fight with one another so that they will not join together against one” (Merriam Webster Dictionary). “The policy of maintaining control over one's subordinates or opponents by encouraging dissent between them, thereby preventing them from uniting in opposition.” (Oxford Dictionary) “A way of keeping yourself in a position of power by causing disagreements among other people so that they are unable to oppose you” (Cambridge Dictionary). “A strategy by which someone remains in power by making sure that the people under their control quarrel among themselves and so cannot unite to achieve their aims and overthrow their leader.” (Collins Dictionary).
Divide and Conquer―Tactics in Practice
The tactic ― “Divide and Conquer” ― is as old as mankind. There are many instances in the Bible where we see the “divide and conquer” tactic used―either by Satan, or by men, or a combination of both.
● Satan waited until Eve was alone and away from Adam before he tempted her. After Eve had fallen, Adam fell through Satan using Eve to tempt him―and thus both ended up being separated from God through their Original Sin.
● Satan divided Cain and Abel, by making Cain envious and resentful towards Abel―to the point that Cain eventually murdered Abel.
● The Tribes of Israel were divided among themselves after the death of King Solomon. The Kingdom of Israel became divided when the nation split into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Southern Kingdom of Juda, making them vulnerable to conquest by other powers.
● The Apostles were divided when they argued among themselves as to who was the greatest among them.
● Judas was divided from the rest of the Apostles in spirit, and betrayed Christ.
● Peter the first pope, was divided or separated from the other Apostles when he denied Christ during the Passion.
● The other Apostles fled and abandoned Christ at His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.
● Heresy divided the Church from the earliest times and continues to do so until this day.
The Roman Empire is traditionally associated with a policy of “divide et impera”, when, in its early years, the expanding
Roman Republic routinely divisive tactics. When Rome was conquering the rest of Italy in the 4th and early 3rd centuries BC, her enemies rarely showed that harmony among themselves and that singleness of purpose which characterized the Romans, and Rome did her best to develop the spirit of discord among them by turning community against community and turning the aristocracy against the democracy. Rome refused to deal with its adversaries as a block, and instead made a separate treaty with each one of the communities, with the express purpose of preventing future confederations arising between them. In order to destroy channels of communication and to limit interaction between potential cooperators, these Roman treaties with the local communities deprived them, not only of the right to trade with one another, but also of the right to intermarry.
Divide and Conquer has played a crucial role in military tactics throughout history. From ancient battles to modern warfare, military leaders have utilized this approach to gain strategic advantages. The strategic encirclement employed by Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae and the fragmentation tactics of Genghis Khan are just a few examples of how Divide and Conquer has secured victories against formidable opponents. Even in more recent times, renowned leaders like Napoleon Bonaparte and General Zhukov employed Divide and Conquer strategies to outmaneuver their adversaries, disrupt enemy formations, and achieve significant military successes. Moreover, in the Battle of Stalingrad, Soviet General Georgy Zhukov utilized Divide and Conquer by encircling the German Sixth Army, cutting off their supplies and support, leading to a major turning point in World War II.
Divide and Conquer in Politics
“Divide and Rule” (Latin: “divide et impera”), or more commonly known as “Divide and Conquer”, in politics refers to an entity gaining and maintaining political power by using divisive measures. This includes the exploitation of existing divisions within a political group by its political opponents, and also the deliberate creation or strengthening of such divisions. It uses a strategy that breaks up existing power structures, and especially prevents smaller power groups from linking up, causing rivalries and fomenting discord among the people to prevent a rebellion against the elites or the people implementing the strategy. The goal is either to pit the lower classes against themselves to prevent a revolution, or to provide a desired solution to the growing discord that strengthens the power of the elites.
Our Lord speaks of Divide and Conquer
In the Gospels we see Our Lord refer to the divide and conquer tactic: “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan be risen up against himself, he is divided and cannot stand, but has an end!” (Mark 3:23-26). “Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand! And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself―how then shall his kingdom stand?” (Matthew 12:25-26). “Every kingdom divided against itself, shall be brought to desolation, and house upon house shall fall. And if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?” (Luke 11:17-18).
Our Lord even says that He Himself will be a source of division as He seeks to conquer souls by redeeming them from the clutches of Satan and leading them to Heaven: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled! … Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no―but separation! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided―three against two, and two against three. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me! The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the son: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death. They will deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And you shall be brought before governors, and before kings for My sake … And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake―but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved. And when they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another!” (Matthew 10:17-22; 10:32-37; Luke 12:49-53).
As regards this division, Our Lord adds: “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words … He that does not love Me, keeps not My words!” (John 14:15, 14:21-24). “He that is not with Me, is against Me; and he that gathers not with Me, scatters!” (Matthew 12:30). “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do!” (John 8:44). “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
Divided and Conquered by the World
The division within families and the division between one family and another family has reached unprecedented levels! Never before have we seen so much division in the world! This division can be seen in the political field, the social field, the religious field, and of course the family field. Ultimately, those divisions can be traced back to Christ. As Christ said―we are either for Him or against Him. There is no third option; there are no seats for spectators in this world.
“The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). “Fight the good fight of Faith!” (1 Timothy 6:12). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). “Labor as a good soldier of Christ Jesus! No man, being a soldier to God, entangles himself with worldly things; so that he may please Him to Whom he hath engaged himself” ― namely God (2 Timothy 2:3-4). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where your treasure is, there is your heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon! [the world with its pleasures and treasures]” (Matthew 6:19-24). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). All of the above is what God expects from us―but that is not what God gets from us and our families!
“The Lord has looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together! The fool has said in his heart: ‘There is no God!’ There is no fear of God before their eyes! They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways―there is none that does good, no, not one! Their throat is an open sepulcher―with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips! Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness! Their feet are swift to shed blood! Destruction and unhappiness is in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known! They have not called upon God! They are of the world—therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them! There have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear. God has scattered the bones of them that please men! They have been confounded, because God has despised them!” (Psalm 13:1-3; Psalm 52:1-6; 1 John 4:5).
Divided and Conquered Families
There is very little or no doubt that the vast majority of Catholics today have been seduced and conquered by what the modern world has to offer! Just as they say, “Everyone has his price”, so too you could say, “Everyone has their preferred thing” that the world tantalizingly dangles before their eyes―and which conquers the soul and divides it from God. Our Lord says: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where your treasure is, there is your heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24).
It is the treasures and pleasures of the world that have seduced and divided so many souls from God. Not only have they divided souls from God, but they have often caused division within families―especially the technological treasures and pleasures! Increasingly, people find more pleasure by being on their smartphone/tablet/laptop/computer than they do in spending time with other members of the family―they cannot wait to get away from other family members to spend time with their treasured smartphone/tablet/laptop/computer. They find it impossible to reconcile Our Lord’s command with their own preferences: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength! This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31). They have no time to “pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Below you will find a 2024 survey on how much screen time is spent by those aged 18 and above―in other words, all adults.
Media Weekly screen time Daily screen time
Total use of TV 32 hours 18 minutes 4 hours 37 minutes
Internet on a computer 4 hours 56 minutes 42 minutes
Video on a computer 1 hour 59 minutes 17 minutes
App/web on a smartphone 16 hours 24 minutes 2 hours 21 minutes
App/web on a tablet 4 hours 19 minutes 37 minutes
Total 59 hours 56 minutes 8 hours 34 minutes
The Screen Religion
Electronics are the modern-day idols. The smartphone―now combined with Artificial Intelligence―has become a secular ‘tabernacle’ in the hand; a god with all the answers; a secular ‘guardian angel’; a person’s best friend. People cannot imagine living without their smartphone―but they feel that they can live without God! “The Lord has looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God … They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together―there is none that does good; no, not one! … There is no fear of God before their eyes!” (Psalm 13:1-3). Screen time replaces God time! When someone spends an excessive amount of time on their electronic devices, it can effectively take the place of their spiritual connection and devotion to God, acting as a distraction from prayer, reflection, and essentially becoming an idol in their life that consumes their attention and focus away from their Faith.
● Screens have become the objects of our worship. Anything that commands our attention nine hours a day can be accurately described as an idol. Christians now spend the vast majority of their free time interacting with screens. Not God. Not people.
● Screen time is displacing spiritual disciplines. There is less and less time available to devote to spiritual reading, meditation, prayer and spiritual reflection. Those spiritual disciplines just cannot compete with instant gratification that people feel that they can get from their screens.
● Screen time is shortening our attention spans. The human brain is built to seek novelty. Our screens are novelty machines – presenting us with a never-ceasing stream of new images to look at. Over time our brains get used to rapid-fire visuals. Tasks that lack visual novelty or require concentration (such as prayer or Bible reading) feel unpleasant. They simply cannot compete with the pleasure of web surfing, TV watching or video gaming.
● Screens tempt us. says, “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence [desires] of the flesh, and the concupiscence [desires] of the eyes, and the pride of life―which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16). No single verse better describes what screens do to us. They inflame our lusts with an endless gallery of sensual images (desires of the flesh), objects and lifestyles to covet (desires of the eyes), and people to look down upon (the pride of life).
● Screens are anxiety and fear producing machines. Bad news attracts more attention than good news. The producers of screen content know this, so they highlight content designed to make us anxious and alarmed. The more we consume these stories, the more we come to believe the world is falling apart. Instead of moving forward in faith, we retreat into fear. But the Bible is clear: God has not given us a spirit of fear. The most frequently repeated command in all of scripture is fear not.
● Screen content stokes interpersonal conflict. Holy Scripture says, “If it be possible, as much as is in you, have peace with all men” (Romans 12:18). Yet the internet is tearing us apart—dividing us into warring tribes, even within the church. When Christians take to social media to defend their values, they often do so with such vitriol and contempt that they come across as self-righteous jerks.
A single, 30-minute sermon can’t compete with the 60+ hours we spend glued to our screens each week.
Your screens are making disciples of you – far more effectively than the Church is. Both screens and Church teach and preach. Whereas the average churchgoer might be exposed to a single, 30-minute sermon every seven days, the typical social media user spends more than 1,000 minutes on social platforms each week.
Your spiritual life is being displaced by your screen life, and you probably don’t even realize it. Every day, hundreds of former believers join the ranks of the religious “nones” [= having no religious affiliation] because of something they saw on their screens. The Gospel isn’t outdated, it is being overwhelmed.
Article 7
Friday, January 9th
Modern-Day Kings Take a Wrong Turn!
Friday, January 9th
Modern-Day Kings Take a Wrong Turn!
Living Like Kings and Queens!
Today, most of us live like kings and queens, but we don’t even realize it! How many kings and queens had access to the variety of food and drink that modern man can find in any supermarket? How many had the medical support that is available today? How many had such comfortable, economical life, with central heating and air-conditioning? They would have jumped at the chance to trade-in their horse and carriage for one of our cars! They could not even imagine the communications and electronic appliances available to us today, with their possibilities of instant communications with anyone anywhere in the world. The list of advantages that we have over the kings and queens of old is endless.
The following words were written by a newspaper columnist, and they essentially echo what has just been said: “We live in largely peaceful times, with better access to medicine and education ― the world is easily in the best place it’s ever been. Humanity as a whole is doing better than it ever has: the world is becoming more prosperous, cleaner, increasingly peaceful and healthier. We are living longer, better lives. Virtually all of our existing problems are less bad than at any previous time in history.”
The problem with all this is that when we have so much available; when we enjoy so much relative security; when we can rely on the insurance gods to look after our health, wealth and loved ones, then the danger is that we can led into a neglect, an indifference, a laxity or lukewarmness with regard to our heavenly provider, almighty God and His Divine Providence. We pay thousands of dollars annually to the insurance gods, but how much do pay by way of prayers and attention to the real God?
This attitude of complacency hits everyone without exception. It was also the underlying feature of the relationship between God and His Chosen People in the Old Testament. When things were going well for them, they forgot about God and at times even took on board false idols. So God had to do something about the cause of this neglect, indifference and idolatry. God’s solution was always to make things go badly for His fallen away Chosen People; this would bring them to their knees and their senses, and they would come pleading to God for help and mercy.
Who Needs God Anymore?
What on Earth do we need God for now? We have health insurance; we have car accident insurance to replace the car or pay for its repair; we have house insurance to guarantee the replacement of certain things; we can even have insurance on the gas, electricity and water supplies and the repair of their pipes and lines; we have the possibility of insurance on the multitude of appliances and articles that we buy for ourselves and our homes; we have the insurance of welfare if we lose our jobs; we have life insurance to care for our loved ones from beyond the grave! What a bevy of assurance through insurance! God is almost redundant and unnecessary! All that we need Him for is insurance against Hell!
Sadly, that is the case with an increasing number of people today, either explicitly or at least implicitly. The current statistics show that over 90% of graduates will cease to practicing their Faith on a regular basis once their schooling is over. In other words, once school is finished, God is finished (unless they live at home and are made to practice their Faith by their parents).
But it is not just youngsters that offend and irritate God; the oldsters are at it too! Only 24% of Catholic adults regularly attend Sunday Mass. Most of the weekly Mass goers (90%) believe that Jesus is really present in the Holy Eucharist. Those numbers fall significantly among less frequent attendees. Of those who attend Mass around once a month, only 65% believe in the Real Presence; whole among those who only attend a few times a year, only 40% believe in the Real Presence. The words of Jesus come hauntingly back to mind: “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8), “and because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).
Materially Rich, Spiritually Poor
It is clear that a treasure of goods does not beget plenty of Faith; nor does an abundance of comfort beget abundant charity. Earthly riches impoverish spirituality, and ultimately greatly handicap our chances of salvation. Our Lord Himself said: “Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus beholding, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible―but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:23-26).
In the words of Our Lord, God and His Providence seems to be the best insurance policy we can have (not that we should quit paying insurance, but our primary agent should be God and not man). “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [riches, worldly interest]. Therefore I say to you―be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat; and the body more than the clothing? Behold the birds of the air! For they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns―and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by being anxious, can add to his stature by one cubit? And for clothing―why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow―they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little Faith? Be not solicitous therefore, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we be clothed?’ For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knows that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Matthew 6:24-33).
The opulence of the modern world has not much time for Jesus, cribs or mangers, kings and gifts. Once the lip service is accomplished and the human parties have been attended, it is time to take down the Christmas Tree and get back to the usual business. The whole idea of Forty Days of Christmas is foreign to modern man. Some hang on their Christmas decorations until January 6th, and though the decorations may be standing, the meditations have long since been dead and buried. Material Christmases have long since buried Spiritual Christmases. We are more or less spiritual naked, yet like the “King with No Clothes”, modern-man proudly parades around in his self-satisfied smugness of having acquired most of what he wants, without anyone’s help. Our Lord condemns him saying: “Without Me you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
Apocalyptic Times
The Apocalypse has even stronger words to say: “I know thy works―that thou art neither cold, nor hot! I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth! Because thou sayest: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ ― and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked! I counsel thee to buy of Me gold, fire tried, so that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see” (Apocalypse 3:14-18).
Yes, we are spiritually poor, blind and naked, as the Apocalypse just said. Just as the three kings brought three gifts, so do the three Persons of the Holy Trinity counsel us to turn to Them for the solution: to buy from Them gold, white garments, and eye-salve. These three are an echo of the three gifts offered to Jesus by the Magi.
Symbolic Gifts
All three gifts were the usual gifts given to a king. Gold, besides being the most precious metal and represents power, also symbolizes the most precious and powerful virtue—which is Charity. Frankincense symbolizes the sweet odor of prayer coming from a burning heart, like grains of sweet incense on hot coals. Myrrh is called a “bitter-sweet perfume” and was used as both incense and embalming ointment in funerals. It symbolizes the sweetness of suffering, that earns for us an unimaginable heavenly reward.
There is a deliberate and logical progression in the order in which these gifts are listed in Scripture—first gold, then frankincense, and finally myrrh; much like the catechism response to “Why did God make you?” — “To know Him, love Him and serve Him” is the answer. We cannot love what we do not know, and we will not serve anyone very well or very long if we don’t like or love them. Similarly with the three gifts: gold symbolizes love; when we love someone we talk to them, and prayer (represented by frankincense) is talking to God; finally, if we deeply love someone, we will suffer much for them and this suffering is symbolized by the myrrh—”Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). So, in short, the gifts give us a natural order in this matter: first we love, then we pray to the One we love, then we go beyond mere words into actions whereby we suffer for the One we love.
The Gold in both cases is the gold of charity, which, as we said with the Scriptural quote above, will have grown cold in many souls.
The white garments correspond to the Myrrh. The Myrrh is a symbol of suffering, being used both as a painkiller and for embalming the dead. The white garments reflect that suffering, as shown by this quote: “These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Apocalypse 7:14).
The Eye-Salve corresponds to the frankincense of prayer, which rises like smoke to Heaven. The blind man is begging and praying to Jesus for his blindness to be removed. “Jesus asked him saying: ‘What wilt thou that I do to thee?’ But he said: ‘Lord, that I may see!’” (Luke 18:41). His prayer is the eye-salve that removes his blindness.
Today there is not enough gold, frankincense and myrrh in our lives. We love too little; we pray too little; we suffer too little. That is why we risk having little chance for salvation unless we follow the example of the three kings and follow the counsels of the Apocalypse in our apocalyptic times! Love, pray and suffer!
An Exchange of Gifts
God’s gift to the world is His Son, born in the Town of Bread—which foreshadows the greatest gift that Christ left behind when He returned to Heaven. That gift is the Holy Eucharist.
The Epiphany and the Holy Eucharist
► The Epiphany is the manifestation of the WORD MADE FLESH, and in the Holy Eucharist, the Word becomes Flesh once more, but under the appearance of bread.
► Just as the Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles, so too is the Holy Eucharist the manifestation of Jesus to the world. Anyone in the world can go into a Catholic Church and adore Jesus, really and truly present, with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
► But to go there and adore Him, means that, like the three Magi Kings, we have to make our journey to the modern-day Bethlehem or “Town of Bread”, which is the nearest Catholic Church.
► Yet when the Magi arrived, they did not see God in all His glory and splendor, but instead they saw a tiny little baby wrapped-up and hidden, so to speak, in swaddling clothes. They had to have eyes of Faith to see God in that baby. Similarly, when we enter a Catholic church, we do not see Jesus in His divine glory and splendor, but under the appearance of tiny pieces of bread, ‘wrapped-up’ or veiled in the tabernacle. We need those same eyes of Faith to adore our hidden God.
► God is worshiped and adored (whether in the Eucharist or elsewhere) through the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity; these are the kings of all other virtues. The three adoring kings prostrate before Jesus in the cave at Bethlehem remind us of this truth and these three kingly virtues.
► The three gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh also remind us of Holy Eucharist in another way. (1) The Holy Eucharist is our most precious treasure on Earth, just like gold is regarded as the most precious metal. (2) The Holy Eucharist as the Sacrifice of the Mass is the most powerful prayer that we have, and frankincense is the most precious of all brands of incense, and incense is a symbol of prayer: “The smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God” (Apocalypse 8:4). (3) The Holy Eucharist is also the greatest sacrifice that can be offered to God, and this what the Eucharist as the Sacrifice of the Mass does daily. The Sacrifice of the Mass brings healing graces to world. Likewise, Myrrh is a symbol of the supreme sacrifice, as it is used for embalming after the supreme sacrifice of death has taken the life of person; and myrrh also has healing ‘graces’, for it is also used for medicinal purposes.
Reverse Divine Psychology
That is how things should be; but there are some who do not love God, and therefore do not pray to Him, let alone suffering for Him. What then? Well, in that case, God reverses the order. He begins by making them suffer, and He goes on increasing the intensity or frequency (or both) until He brings the soul to its knees in desperation. The soul, crushed and helpless, turns to God in prayer and begs for mercy and help. God then shows that mercy and gives that help in the hope that it will now lead the soul to be grateful and to start loving Him. So, in this case, the reverse order is used: sufferings increase (the myrrh); the helpless soul turns to God in prayer (the frankincense); when God responds, the soul in gratitude finds a spark of love (the gold) in itself towards God.
Life Changing Encounter With Christ
The next point to consider is that this encounter with Jesus and Mary totally changes their lives. This is symbolized by the fact that they go back home by a different route to the one that had brought them to Bethlehem. This is commanded to them by an angel and they correspond with the grace that is given them. A very wise thing to do!
The fact that they are told to avoid traveling through Jerusalem, because of King Herod, who wanted to find out the whereabouts of Jesus in order to kill Him, in very instructive for our own lives. Outside of own wounded and weak souls, there is the devil and the world who are perpetually seeking to kill the life and influence of grace in our souls. The world hates God, because the laws and counsels of God are diametrically opposed to the laws and counsels of the world. The world, or part of the world, fakes a love of God (like Herod did) and would have us believe that it is not opposed to God, telling us that it is possible to know, love and serve both the world and God. But this is a principle that comes from the father of lies, the devil, for Our Lord told us: “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24), and St. James adds: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
Follow the Fleeing Magi
That is why we must flee the world as much as possible. To those who seek to love both the world and God, this is a shocking and painful thought. They ‘feel’ (not think) that this must be somehow wrong; that it is too radical, too extreme. Yet that is what our good God is, He is radical and extreme: He is extreme mercy and extreme justice; He is extreme patience and extreme anger. Perfection is an extreme; somebody who is perfect at doing something, is EXTREMELY good at doing that particular thing. God is perfect in all things, therefore He is extreme in all things, and Jesus told us: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
As was said before, Christmas is not a time of fuzzy sentimentality; Christmas is all about sin and redemption from sin. Christ does not come to party, Christ comes to change and save the world. He offers a hand of mercy to all comers. But, as in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago, there are not many ‘comers.’ “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God” (John 1:11-12).
From Sinners to Saints
The Magi came as sinners and left as the sons of God. Their idolatrous lives changed and their remains are now buried in the Cathedral of Cologne, Germany. Today there is a sweet odor in Cologne, the odor of sanctity achieved by the three wise men, the three kings who came, who saw and who conquered themselves, the world and the devil. May their dogged pursuit of the Christ-Child and their fidelity to the inspirations of Heaven, be our guiding star that also leads us find Christ, one day, in Heaven.
Today, most of us live like kings and queens, but we don’t even realize it! How many kings and queens had access to the variety of food and drink that modern man can find in any supermarket? How many had the medical support that is available today? How many had such comfortable, economical life, with central heating and air-conditioning? They would have jumped at the chance to trade-in their horse and carriage for one of our cars! They could not even imagine the communications and electronic appliances available to us today, with their possibilities of instant communications with anyone anywhere in the world. The list of advantages that we have over the kings and queens of old is endless.
The following words were written by a newspaper columnist, and they essentially echo what has just been said: “We live in largely peaceful times, with better access to medicine and education ― the world is easily in the best place it’s ever been. Humanity as a whole is doing better than it ever has: the world is becoming more prosperous, cleaner, increasingly peaceful and healthier. We are living longer, better lives. Virtually all of our existing problems are less bad than at any previous time in history.”
The problem with all this is that when we have so much available; when we enjoy so much relative security; when we can rely on the insurance gods to look after our health, wealth and loved ones, then the danger is that we can led into a neglect, an indifference, a laxity or lukewarmness with regard to our heavenly provider, almighty God and His Divine Providence. We pay thousands of dollars annually to the insurance gods, but how much do pay by way of prayers and attention to the real God?
This attitude of complacency hits everyone without exception. It was also the underlying feature of the relationship between God and His Chosen People in the Old Testament. When things were going well for them, they forgot about God and at times even took on board false idols. So God had to do something about the cause of this neglect, indifference and idolatry. God’s solution was always to make things go badly for His fallen away Chosen People; this would bring them to their knees and their senses, and they would come pleading to God for help and mercy.
Who Needs God Anymore?
What on Earth do we need God for now? We have health insurance; we have car accident insurance to replace the car or pay for its repair; we have house insurance to guarantee the replacement of certain things; we can even have insurance on the gas, electricity and water supplies and the repair of their pipes and lines; we have the possibility of insurance on the multitude of appliances and articles that we buy for ourselves and our homes; we have the insurance of welfare if we lose our jobs; we have life insurance to care for our loved ones from beyond the grave! What a bevy of assurance through insurance! God is almost redundant and unnecessary! All that we need Him for is insurance against Hell!
Sadly, that is the case with an increasing number of people today, either explicitly or at least implicitly. The current statistics show that over 90% of graduates will cease to practicing their Faith on a regular basis once their schooling is over. In other words, once school is finished, God is finished (unless they live at home and are made to practice their Faith by their parents).
But it is not just youngsters that offend and irritate God; the oldsters are at it too! Only 24% of Catholic adults regularly attend Sunday Mass. Most of the weekly Mass goers (90%) believe that Jesus is really present in the Holy Eucharist. Those numbers fall significantly among less frequent attendees. Of those who attend Mass around once a month, only 65% believe in the Real Presence; whole among those who only attend a few times a year, only 40% believe in the Real Presence. The words of Jesus come hauntingly back to mind: “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8), “and because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).
Materially Rich, Spiritually Poor
It is clear that a treasure of goods does not beget plenty of Faith; nor does an abundance of comfort beget abundant charity. Earthly riches impoverish spirituality, and ultimately greatly handicap our chances of salvation. Our Lord Himself said: “Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus beholding, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible―but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:23-26).
In the words of Our Lord, God and His Providence seems to be the best insurance policy we can have (not that we should quit paying insurance, but our primary agent should be God and not man). “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [riches, worldly interest]. Therefore I say to you―be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat; and the body more than the clothing? Behold the birds of the air! For they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns―and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by being anxious, can add to his stature by one cubit? And for clothing―why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow―they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little Faith? Be not solicitous therefore, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we be clothed?’ For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knows that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Matthew 6:24-33).
The opulence of the modern world has not much time for Jesus, cribs or mangers, kings and gifts. Once the lip service is accomplished and the human parties have been attended, it is time to take down the Christmas Tree and get back to the usual business. The whole idea of Forty Days of Christmas is foreign to modern man. Some hang on their Christmas decorations until January 6th, and though the decorations may be standing, the meditations have long since been dead and buried. Material Christmases have long since buried Spiritual Christmases. We are more or less spiritual naked, yet like the “King with No Clothes”, modern-man proudly parades around in his self-satisfied smugness of having acquired most of what he wants, without anyone’s help. Our Lord condemns him saying: “Without Me you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
Apocalyptic Times
The Apocalypse has even stronger words to say: “I know thy works―that thou art neither cold, nor hot! I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth! Because thou sayest: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ ― and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked! I counsel thee to buy of Me gold, fire tried, so that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see” (Apocalypse 3:14-18).
Yes, we are spiritually poor, blind and naked, as the Apocalypse just said. Just as the three kings brought three gifts, so do the three Persons of the Holy Trinity counsel us to turn to Them for the solution: to buy from Them gold, white garments, and eye-salve. These three are an echo of the three gifts offered to Jesus by the Magi.
Symbolic Gifts
All three gifts were the usual gifts given to a king. Gold, besides being the most precious metal and represents power, also symbolizes the most precious and powerful virtue—which is Charity. Frankincense symbolizes the sweet odor of prayer coming from a burning heart, like grains of sweet incense on hot coals. Myrrh is called a “bitter-sweet perfume” and was used as both incense and embalming ointment in funerals. It symbolizes the sweetness of suffering, that earns for us an unimaginable heavenly reward.
There is a deliberate and logical progression in the order in which these gifts are listed in Scripture—first gold, then frankincense, and finally myrrh; much like the catechism response to “Why did God make you?” — “To know Him, love Him and serve Him” is the answer. We cannot love what we do not know, and we will not serve anyone very well or very long if we don’t like or love them. Similarly with the three gifts: gold symbolizes love; when we love someone we talk to them, and prayer (represented by frankincense) is talking to God; finally, if we deeply love someone, we will suffer much for them and this suffering is symbolized by the myrrh—”Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). So, in short, the gifts give us a natural order in this matter: first we love, then we pray to the One we love, then we go beyond mere words into actions whereby we suffer for the One we love.
The Gold in both cases is the gold of charity, which, as we said with the Scriptural quote above, will have grown cold in many souls.
The white garments correspond to the Myrrh. The Myrrh is a symbol of suffering, being used both as a painkiller and for embalming the dead. The white garments reflect that suffering, as shown by this quote: “These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Apocalypse 7:14).
The Eye-Salve corresponds to the frankincense of prayer, which rises like smoke to Heaven. The blind man is begging and praying to Jesus for his blindness to be removed. “Jesus asked him saying: ‘What wilt thou that I do to thee?’ But he said: ‘Lord, that I may see!’” (Luke 18:41). His prayer is the eye-salve that removes his blindness.
Today there is not enough gold, frankincense and myrrh in our lives. We love too little; we pray too little; we suffer too little. That is why we risk having little chance for salvation unless we follow the example of the three kings and follow the counsels of the Apocalypse in our apocalyptic times! Love, pray and suffer!
An Exchange of Gifts
God’s gift to the world is His Son, born in the Town of Bread—which foreshadows the greatest gift that Christ left behind when He returned to Heaven. That gift is the Holy Eucharist.
The Epiphany and the Holy Eucharist
► The Epiphany is the manifestation of the WORD MADE FLESH, and in the Holy Eucharist, the Word becomes Flesh once more, but under the appearance of bread.
► Just as the Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles, so too is the Holy Eucharist the manifestation of Jesus to the world. Anyone in the world can go into a Catholic Church and adore Jesus, really and truly present, with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
► But to go there and adore Him, means that, like the three Magi Kings, we have to make our journey to the modern-day Bethlehem or “Town of Bread”, which is the nearest Catholic Church.
► Yet when the Magi arrived, they did not see God in all His glory and splendor, but instead they saw a tiny little baby wrapped-up and hidden, so to speak, in swaddling clothes. They had to have eyes of Faith to see God in that baby. Similarly, when we enter a Catholic church, we do not see Jesus in His divine glory and splendor, but under the appearance of tiny pieces of bread, ‘wrapped-up’ or veiled in the tabernacle. We need those same eyes of Faith to adore our hidden God.
► God is worshiped and adored (whether in the Eucharist or elsewhere) through the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity; these are the kings of all other virtues. The three adoring kings prostrate before Jesus in the cave at Bethlehem remind us of this truth and these three kingly virtues.
► The three gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh also remind us of Holy Eucharist in another way. (1) The Holy Eucharist is our most precious treasure on Earth, just like gold is regarded as the most precious metal. (2) The Holy Eucharist as the Sacrifice of the Mass is the most powerful prayer that we have, and frankincense is the most precious of all brands of incense, and incense is a symbol of prayer: “The smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God” (Apocalypse 8:4). (3) The Holy Eucharist is also the greatest sacrifice that can be offered to God, and this what the Eucharist as the Sacrifice of the Mass does daily. The Sacrifice of the Mass brings healing graces to world. Likewise, Myrrh is a symbol of the supreme sacrifice, as it is used for embalming after the supreme sacrifice of death has taken the life of person; and myrrh also has healing ‘graces’, for it is also used for medicinal purposes.
Reverse Divine Psychology
That is how things should be; but there are some who do not love God, and therefore do not pray to Him, let alone suffering for Him. What then? Well, in that case, God reverses the order. He begins by making them suffer, and He goes on increasing the intensity or frequency (or both) until He brings the soul to its knees in desperation. The soul, crushed and helpless, turns to God in prayer and begs for mercy and help. God then shows that mercy and gives that help in the hope that it will now lead the soul to be grateful and to start loving Him. So, in this case, the reverse order is used: sufferings increase (the myrrh); the helpless soul turns to God in prayer (the frankincense); when God responds, the soul in gratitude finds a spark of love (the gold) in itself towards God.
Life Changing Encounter With Christ
The next point to consider is that this encounter with Jesus and Mary totally changes their lives. This is symbolized by the fact that they go back home by a different route to the one that had brought them to Bethlehem. This is commanded to them by an angel and they correspond with the grace that is given them. A very wise thing to do!
The fact that they are told to avoid traveling through Jerusalem, because of King Herod, who wanted to find out the whereabouts of Jesus in order to kill Him, in very instructive for our own lives. Outside of own wounded and weak souls, there is the devil and the world who are perpetually seeking to kill the life and influence of grace in our souls. The world hates God, because the laws and counsels of God are diametrically opposed to the laws and counsels of the world. The world, or part of the world, fakes a love of God (like Herod did) and would have us believe that it is not opposed to God, telling us that it is possible to know, love and serve both the world and God. But this is a principle that comes from the father of lies, the devil, for Our Lord told us: “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24), and St. James adds: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
Follow the Fleeing Magi
That is why we must flee the world as much as possible. To those who seek to love both the world and God, this is a shocking and painful thought. They ‘feel’ (not think) that this must be somehow wrong; that it is too radical, too extreme. Yet that is what our good God is, He is radical and extreme: He is extreme mercy and extreme justice; He is extreme patience and extreme anger. Perfection is an extreme; somebody who is perfect at doing something, is EXTREMELY good at doing that particular thing. God is perfect in all things, therefore He is extreme in all things, and Jesus told us: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
As was said before, Christmas is not a time of fuzzy sentimentality; Christmas is all about sin and redemption from sin. Christ does not come to party, Christ comes to change and save the world. He offers a hand of mercy to all comers. But, as in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago, there are not many ‘comers.’ “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God” (John 1:11-12).
From Sinners to Saints
The Magi came as sinners and left as the sons of God. Their idolatrous lives changed and their remains are now buried in the Cathedral of Cologne, Germany. Today there is a sweet odor in Cologne, the odor of sanctity achieved by the three wise men, the three kings who came, who saw and who conquered themselves, the world and the devil. May their dogged pursuit of the Christ-Child and their fidelity to the inspirations of Heaven, be our guiding star that also leads us find Christ, one day, in Heaven.
Article 6
Monday, January 5th
Winners and Losers! Free-Will Users and Abusers!
Monday, January 5th
Winners and Losers! Free-Will Users and Abusers!
Win or Lose―You Choose!
Win or lose! You get to choose! No spectators! No fence sitters! No opt-outs! You will either be a winner or a loser! You will either end up in Heaven or Hell―for eternity! Everyone wants to be a winner―but most end up as losers. God wants everyone to win―but very few will win! God damns nobody―we damn ourselves. “God will [“to will” means “to want”] have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, … that He might redeem us” (Titus 2:11-14). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23).
God does not compare us to any fellow human beings. Rather, He compares every soul to Himself. God is all righteous, all just, and all merciful. God tell us: “I am the Almighty God! Walk before Me and be perfect!” (Genesis 17:1). “Therefore be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). “You shall be holy, because I am holy!” (Leviticus 11:46). For I am the Lord your God―be holy because I am holy. Defile not your souls!” (Leviticus 11:44). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I, the Lord, am holy!” (Leviticus 20:26). “You shall be holy men to Me!” (Exodus 22:31). “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14). “There shall not enter into Heaven anything defiled!” (Apocalypse 21:27).
How many times have you heard that a kind, loving, gracious, merciful God would never send anyone to Hell? St. Leonard of Port Maurice says: “Ungrateful sinner! Learn today that if you are damned, it is not God who is to blame, but you and your self-will.” The reprobate chooses perdition. God does not damn; the human being damns himself. The Father eternally offers sinners mercy and forgiveness; but those who exist in the state of perdition irrevocably refuse the offer.
St. Leonard of Port Maurice never wasted words. His preaching cut straight to the bone, and his warning about self-will is one of the most unfiltered statements in classic Catholic spirituality. He wasn’t interested in modern sensitivities or the soft illusions we use to shield ourselves from responsibility. He confronted the central issue head-on: the human will is the battlefield on which salvation or damnation is chosen.
In Catholic theology, God does not predestine anyone to destruction. Grace is offered, sometimes relentlessly. But grace is not coercion. Human beings can reject it out of pride, stubbornness, or moral laziness. St. Leonard’s point is brutally simple: if someone ends up separated from God, it is the logical consequence of choices made in sustained opposition to truth.
This isn’t fatalism; it’s moral realism. Every person is equipped with intellect and free will. When those faculties are misused—when self-will becomes the standard instead of God’s law—the person moves away from the source of life. Damnation, in this framework, is not an arbitrary punishment but the final state of a soul that has consistently chosen itself over God.
St. Leonard’s sermon “The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved” is intentionally provocative. It forces the listener to confront complacency. Comfort is an enemy of conversion. His message dismantles the popular idea that spiritual effort is optional or that God will simply overlook unrepented sin. He insists that moral seriousness, repentance, and the surrender of self-will are non-negotiable.
His warning isn’t meant to inspire despair― but to inspire us with a sense of urgency. The call to conversion is NOW, not later, or eventually. The human heart can harden gradually, and St. Leonard exposes that danger with unflinching clarity. The path to salvation is open, but it requires a willingness to let go of pride, self-will, selfishness, excuses, a fake idea of freedom―and a humble acceptance of God’s non-negotiable terms for salvation. The bottom line is―it is His way or the highway; His way to Heaven, or the highway to Hell. The choice is ours―there is no prejudice or animosity on the part of God.
His quote remains relevant because it dismantles the modern tendency to externalize blame. St. Leonard points the finger back at the individual—not as condemnation, but as a wake-up call. It’s a reminder that eternity is shaped by choices made in ordinary life, and ignoring that truth doesn’t erase its consequences.
When read in context, his message is both severe and liberating. God wants to save everyone. God does not fail anyone; we only fail ourselves and damn ourselves when we refuse His graces. The weight of that truth can be unsettling, but it is the kind of unsettling that pulls a person toward real change.
The God of Comfort Does Not Always Make Us Comfortable
Holy Scripture speaks of God being a God of comfort. That sounds very comforting―but we must take that reference in its full context and not try to twist it to fit our notions and desires for comfort! “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort! Who comforts us in all our tribulation; so that we also may be able to comfort them who are in all distress by the exhortation with which we also are exhorted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also by Christ does our comfort abound! Now whether we be in tribulation, it is for your exhortation and salvation; or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation; or whether we be exhorted, it is for your exhortation and salvation, which works the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer!” (2 Corinthians 1:3-6).
Notice that comfort and tribulation, comfort and suffering seem to go hand-in-hand a lot of the time. We suffer and then we are comforted. We are punished for our sins and then we are comforted. We suffer persecution and then we are comforted. If we desire the comfort of eternal life in Heaven, then we must carry the cross of Christ on Earth! The following Scriptural quotes echo and reinforce that truth:
“Come to Me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you! Take up My yoke [= cross/suffering] upon you, and learn of Me, because I am meek, and humble of heart―and you shall find rest to your souls! For My yoke is sweet and My burden light!” (Matthew 11:28-30). “Blessed are they that mourn―for they shall be comforted!” (Matthew 5:5). “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for the sake of justice―for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven! Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven! For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you!” (Matthew 5:10-12). “Thy word has comforted me in my humiliation!” (Psalm 118:50). “Though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for Thou art with me! Thy rod and thy staff, they have comforted me!” (Psalm 22:4).
To expect comfort without having worked and suffered for Christ is like expecting to get paid for doing no work.
An Abuse of God’s Kindness and Mercy
Today, there are many―far too many―who seem to think that they know better than God. They even play at being God with their endless pronouncements, judgments, criticisms, condemnations, interpretations, dogmatizations, etc. about anything and everything that is going on in the world, in politics, in society, in the Church and beyond. Let them answer these questions. Who made you? Did you make yourself? Who made the world that you live in? Whose air is it that you breathe? Did you make your own air? Whose water do you use? Did you create water? Whose fruits, vegetables and herbs do you eat? Did you create them? In whose soil do you grow them? Is soil your creation? Did you make the sun―without which life would be impossible? Did you create the animals that use for food? Did you create the incredible masterpiece of the human body, with its mind-boggling interactions and self-healing mechanisms?
That is how God rebuked and questioned Job―to which Holy Scripture dedicates five whole chapters! Here is the account in simplified English:
“The Lord spoke to Job from the middle of the storm. This is what He said: ‘Who do you think you are? Why do you ask questions about My wisdom? You speak many words, but you do not understand anything! Prepare yourself for a difficult job! I will ask you some questions and you must answer them. Were you with Me when I made the world? If you think you are so clever, tell me all about it! It was Me who decided the size of the world. You surely must know that! I measured it as I made it. Tell me how I fixed the foundations of the Earth. Who made it stay in its right place? I did! At the dawn of that day, the stars sang together. They sang for joy with all the angels. When the sea poured out of the ground, I decided where its borders should be. I kept the water in its right place. I caused the clouds to come over the sea. I covered it with complete darkness. I put a border around the sea. I locked it in its place. I said to the sea: ‘This is as far as you can come! You may come no further! Your powerful waves must stop there!’
“‘But you, Job, did you ever command the morning to begin? No! You have never in your whole life told the sun when it should rise. You have not told the light of day to cover the Earth. You have not told it to chase away the wicked things that happen in the night. When the light of day comes, people see the land clearly. Its shape and colors show like bright clothes. The light of day is too bright for wicked people. It destroys their power to do cruel things. You have not gone to the springs that fill the seas with water. You have not walked on the bottom of the deep seas. Nobody has showed you the gates of death. People go through them to that very dark place. You do not understand the great size of the Earth. If you know all about that, tell Me!
“‘You do not know where light comes from. You do not know where darkness has its home. Can you take them to the places where they belong? Do you know the roads that go there? Surely you must know all this, because you have lived for so long! It seems that you were already born when I created these things! Have you visited the place where I keep all the snow? Or the place where I keep the hail? I keep the snow and the hail ready to use. I use them in times of trouble and wars. You do not know where lightning comes from. Or where the east wind starts when it blows across the Earth. I make a path for the storms to travel along. I tell the thunder and the strong rain which way to go. I cause rain to fall in places where no person lives. It makes even a desert become a wet place. The rain falls on dry ground where nothing grows. It causes grass to grow there again. Do you know if the rain has a father? Who is a father to the dew? Who is a mother to the ice? Who gives birth to the frost that makes the air so cold? It causes the water to become as hard as stone. The water of the sea also becomes ice. You cannot make the stars of the Pleiades stay in their places. You cannot change the shape of Orion.
“‘You bring out the groups of stars for people to see at different times of the year. You cannot put the stars of the Great Bear and the Little Bear in their right places in the sky. You do not know the rules that the stars above obey. You cannot make the earth obey those rules. You cannot shout commands to the clouds. You cannot tell them to pour down their rain, so that a flood of water covers you. You cannot send the lightning to hit the place that you want it to go. The lightning does not say to you: ‘We are ready to go wherever you want.’
“‘Who has given people wisdom, so that they understand things with their minds? Is anyone wise enough to count the clouds? Can anyone cause the clouds to pour down rain from above? The rain causes the dust of the dry ground to become hard. The dry soil becomes pieces of mud. When the lions become hungry, can you find food for the young lions to eat? You cannot do that for them when they sit in their caves. You cannot help them as they hide in the bushes, ready to attack other animals. You cannot find food for the ravens to eat. You cannot help them when their babies cry to Me because they are weak and hungry.’
“‘Job, do you know that time when the goats on the mountains give birth? Do you watch the wild deer when their babies are born? Can you count the number of months that these animals are pregnant? How long must they wait until they give birth? They bend down low to the ground. They give birth to the babies that they have carried inside them. The young animals grow and they become strong in the fields. Then they leave their parents and they do not return to them. Did you send out the wild donkeys to go wherever they want? No! It was Me who gave them the desert as their home. I let them live in places where the ground has salt. They stay far away from the busy cities. They do not allow anyone to make them work. Instead, they live on the hills, where they find fresh plants to eat.
“‘Can you tell a wild ox to work for you? No! At night, it will not stay to feed at your farm. It will not let you tie it to a plough. It will not agree to prepare your fields in the valleys. A wild ox is very strong. But you cannot trust it to help you with your difficult work. It will not help you to bring in your harvest of grain. It will not take the grain to your threshing floor. When an ostrich is happy, it waves its wings. But it cannot use its wings to fly, as a stork can do. A mother ostrich leaves her eggs on the ground. She lets the sand cause them to be warm. She does not realize that people or wild animals might break the eggs with their feet. She does not take care of her babies, as if they did not belong to her. She does not worry that all her work might be useless. This is because I did not give wisdom to ostriches. I did not give them minds that understand things. But when an ostrich begins to run, it can run very fast. It can run faster than a horse and someone who rides on it.
“‘Did you, Job, give horses their strength? Did you give them the long hair that they have on their necks? You did not make horses able to jump like locusts. They frighten people when they blow air out through their noses. They stamp their feet on the ground, as they prepare to go to a battle. They are ready to go and attack the enemy. A horse is brave and it is not afraid of anything. It does not run away from the enemy's weapons. The soldier who is riding it has his arrows ready at the horse's side. Swords and spears shine brightly in the sun. The horse shakes with joy as it runs to the battle. When the battle trumpet makes its noise, the horse wants to run even faster! When it hears the sound of the trumpet, it makes a happy noise. From far away, it recognizes the smell of the battle. It hears the army officers as they shout their commands.
“‘Was it your wisdom, Job, that taught hawks how to fly? No! You could not teach them to fly towards the south in winter. Do eagles wait for your command to fly high into the sky? No! You could not teach them how to build their nests high up in the mountains. They live among the highest rocks. That is where they stay at night. They are safe on the sharp rocks. From the high rocks, eagles look for their food. They see small animals far away, that they can catch and eat. They come together around the bodies of dead animals. The young eagles drink the blood.’ The Lord said to Job: ‘Do you still want to argue with Me, the Almighty God? You say that I have not been fair. Now you must explain what you mean.’
“Then Job answered the Lord. This is what he said: ‘I am only a foolish man. I cannot answer your questions. I cover my mouth with my hand so that I say nothing. I have already spoken too many times. I will say no more.’
“Then the Lord spoke to Job from inside the storm. This is what he said: ‘Prepare yourself for a difficult job! I will ask you some more questions and you must answer them. Do you say that I am not a fair judge? Do you want to show that I am guilty, not you? Then you could say that you are right. Do you have the same power to do great things as I have? Can you speak with a voice as loud as thunder? I can! If you think that you can do all this, show how great you are! Show everyone your power and your glory! Show everyone your great anger! Look at all the people who like to boast and bring them down low! Yes, cause all the proud people to be humble. Knock down wicked people to the ground. Bury them all together in the dust of the ground. Cover their faces and put them in their graves. If you can do these things, Job, I will praise you. I will agree that you have the power to save yourself.
“‘Listen! I created the monsters called Behemoth. I made you and I made them too. They eat grass, as cows do. But look at the strength of their legs and their body! Their tails are like the branches of a cedar tree. Their legs are thick and very strong. Their bones are like sticks made of bronze. Their legs are as strong as iron. These monsters are some of the greatest animals that I have made. But I who made them can take my sword and go near to them. They eat the grass that grows on the hills. That is where the wild animals play. They lie down under the thorn trees. They hide among the reeds at the edge of the water. They rest in the shadow of the thorn trees, and among the willow trees beside the water. Even when the river is deep and dangerous, these monsters are not afraid. The water of the Jordan River may cover their mouths, but they still feel safe. There is no way that anyone can catch one of them. No one can make its eyes blind. No one can put a ring in its nose and lead it away.’
“‘It is the same with the sea monsters called Leviathan. Can you catch them with a hook? Can you use a rope to keep their mouths shut? Can you tie a rope through their noses? Can you put a hook into their mouths. No! They will not ask you nicely to be kind and let them go free. They will not make any agreement with you. You cannot make them your slaves to work for you as long as they live. Leviathan is not something to enjoy at home, like a bird. You cannot tie it with a rope, so that your girls can play with it. Traders do not buy it at the market. They do not cut it up to sell it. Job, can you throw spears into Leviathan's body to kill it? Can you shoot arrows into its head? If you try to take hold of it, you will never forget the fight! You will never try to do that again! If anyone hopes to catch it, he is deceiving himself. As soon as he sees it, he no longer feels so brave! No one is brave enough to wake it. So is anyone brave enough to argue against me? Nobody has ever won against me to make Me pay them anything.
“‘Everything in the whole world belongs to Me! I must tell you how strong Leviathan's legs are. Their bodies are very strong and they have a wonderful shape. Nobody is able to remove their thick skin. It is like armor that nobody can cut through. Nobody is strong enough to open its mouth. Its teeth make everyone afraid. Its back is like rows of shields. They are as hard as stone with no spaces between them. Each shield is very near the next one. Not even air can pass between them. They are strongly joined together, and nothing can pull them apart. When Leviathan breathes out loudly, bright light shines from its nose. Its eyes shine like the red sun at dawn. Fire comes out from its mouth. Bright flames shoot out! Smoke pours out from its nose, like reeds that burn under a pot. Its breath is hot enough to light a fire! Flames pour out of its mouth. Its neck is very strong. Wherever it goes, people shake with fear. There are no weak places in its skin. Its skin is as hard as iron. It is cruel and it has no fear. Its heart is as hard as stone.
“‘Even the bravest people are afraid when Leviathan appears. They run away when it starts to move. If you hit it with a sword, you will not hurt it. Spears, arrows and knives will be useless. It can easily break iron or bronze weapons. It breaks them as easily as grass or soft wood. If you shoot arrows at it, it will not run away. If you use a sling to throw stones at it, the stones will hurt it no more than bits of chaff. If you hit it with a heavy stick, that hurts it no more than a piece of straw. If you throw a spear at it, it laughs! Its stomach has sharp pieces, like bits of a pot that someone has broken. When it moves along, it ploughs the soil under it. When it swims in the deep water of the sea, the water seems to boil. It makes big waves, like oil that is boiling in a pot. As it swims, the water behind it shines. It makes waves that look like white hair on the sea. There is no other animal like it in the whole world. It is not afraid of anything. It does not respect any other great animal. It rules as king over all the proud animals.’
“Then Job replied to the Lord. He said this: ‘I know that You can do all things. You can do anything that You want to do. Nobody can stop You. You asked me: “Why do you ask questions about My wisdom, when you do not understand anything?” It is true. I was speaking about things that I do not understand. They are things that are too wonderful for me to know. You said to me: “Listen carefully to what I will say. I will ask you questions and you must answer them.” In the past, I had heard about You from other people. Now I have seen You for myself. So I am ashamed of the things that I said. I sit here in dirt and in ashes to show You that I am very sorry.’” (Book of Job, chapters 38 to 42).
Win or lose! You get to choose! No spectators! No fence sitters! No opt-outs! You will either be a winner or a loser! You will either end up in Heaven or Hell―for eternity! Everyone wants to be a winner―but most end up as losers. God wants everyone to win―but very few will win! God damns nobody―we damn ourselves. “God will [“to will” means “to want”] have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, … that He might redeem us” (Titus 2:11-14). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23).
God does not compare us to any fellow human beings. Rather, He compares every soul to Himself. God is all righteous, all just, and all merciful. God tell us: “I am the Almighty God! Walk before Me and be perfect!” (Genesis 17:1). “Therefore be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). “You shall be holy, because I am holy!” (Leviticus 11:46). For I am the Lord your God―be holy because I am holy. Defile not your souls!” (Leviticus 11:44). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I, the Lord, am holy!” (Leviticus 20:26). “You shall be holy men to Me!” (Exodus 22:31). “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14). “There shall not enter into Heaven anything defiled!” (Apocalypse 21:27).
How many times have you heard that a kind, loving, gracious, merciful God would never send anyone to Hell? St. Leonard of Port Maurice says: “Ungrateful sinner! Learn today that if you are damned, it is not God who is to blame, but you and your self-will.” The reprobate chooses perdition. God does not damn; the human being damns himself. The Father eternally offers sinners mercy and forgiveness; but those who exist in the state of perdition irrevocably refuse the offer.
St. Leonard of Port Maurice never wasted words. His preaching cut straight to the bone, and his warning about self-will is one of the most unfiltered statements in classic Catholic spirituality. He wasn’t interested in modern sensitivities or the soft illusions we use to shield ourselves from responsibility. He confronted the central issue head-on: the human will is the battlefield on which salvation or damnation is chosen.
In Catholic theology, God does not predestine anyone to destruction. Grace is offered, sometimes relentlessly. But grace is not coercion. Human beings can reject it out of pride, stubbornness, or moral laziness. St. Leonard’s point is brutally simple: if someone ends up separated from God, it is the logical consequence of choices made in sustained opposition to truth.
This isn’t fatalism; it’s moral realism. Every person is equipped with intellect and free will. When those faculties are misused—when self-will becomes the standard instead of God’s law—the person moves away from the source of life. Damnation, in this framework, is not an arbitrary punishment but the final state of a soul that has consistently chosen itself over God.
St. Leonard’s sermon “The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved” is intentionally provocative. It forces the listener to confront complacency. Comfort is an enemy of conversion. His message dismantles the popular idea that spiritual effort is optional or that God will simply overlook unrepented sin. He insists that moral seriousness, repentance, and the surrender of self-will are non-negotiable.
His warning isn’t meant to inspire despair― but to inspire us with a sense of urgency. The call to conversion is NOW, not later, or eventually. The human heart can harden gradually, and St. Leonard exposes that danger with unflinching clarity. The path to salvation is open, but it requires a willingness to let go of pride, self-will, selfishness, excuses, a fake idea of freedom―and a humble acceptance of God’s non-negotiable terms for salvation. The bottom line is―it is His way or the highway; His way to Heaven, or the highway to Hell. The choice is ours―there is no prejudice or animosity on the part of God.
His quote remains relevant because it dismantles the modern tendency to externalize blame. St. Leonard points the finger back at the individual—not as condemnation, but as a wake-up call. It’s a reminder that eternity is shaped by choices made in ordinary life, and ignoring that truth doesn’t erase its consequences.
When read in context, his message is both severe and liberating. God wants to save everyone. God does not fail anyone; we only fail ourselves and damn ourselves when we refuse His graces. The weight of that truth can be unsettling, but it is the kind of unsettling that pulls a person toward real change.
The God of Comfort Does Not Always Make Us Comfortable
Holy Scripture speaks of God being a God of comfort. That sounds very comforting―but we must take that reference in its full context and not try to twist it to fit our notions and desires for comfort! “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort! Who comforts us in all our tribulation; so that we also may be able to comfort them who are in all distress by the exhortation with which we also are exhorted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also by Christ does our comfort abound! Now whether we be in tribulation, it is for your exhortation and salvation; or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation; or whether we be exhorted, it is for your exhortation and salvation, which works the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer!” (2 Corinthians 1:3-6).
Notice that comfort and tribulation, comfort and suffering seem to go hand-in-hand a lot of the time. We suffer and then we are comforted. We are punished for our sins and then we are comforted. We suffer persecution and then we are comforted. If we desire the comfort of eternal life in Heaven, then we must carry the cross of Christ on Earth! The following Scriptural quotes echo and reinforce that truth:
“Come to Me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you! Take up My yoke [= cross/suffering] upon you, and learn of Me, because I am meek, and humble of heart―and you shall find rest to your souls! For My yoke is sweet and My burden light!” (Matthew 11:28-30). “Blessed are they that mourn―for they shall be comforted!” (Matthew 5:5). “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for the sake of justice―for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven! Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven! For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you!” (Matthew 5:10-12). “Thy word has comforted me in my humiliation!” (Psalm 118:50). “Though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for Thou art with me! Thy rod and thy staff, they have comforted me!” (Psalm 22:4).
To expect comfort without having worked and suffered for Christ is like expecting to get paid for doing no work.
An Abuse of God’s Kindness and Mercy
Today, there are many―far too many―who seem to think that they know better than God. They even play at being God with their endless pronouncements, judgments, criticisms, condemnations, interpretations, dogmatizations, etc. about anything and everything that is going on in the world, in politics, in society, in the Church and beyond. Let them answer these questions. Who made you? Did you make yourself? Who made the world that you live in? Whose air is it that you breathe? Did you make your own air? Whose water do you use? Did you create water? Whose fruits, vegetables and herbs do you eat? Did you create them? In whose soil do you grow them? Is soil your creation? Did you make the sun―without which life would be impossible? Did you create the animals that use for food? Did you create the incredible masterpiece of the human body, with its mind-boggling interactions and self-healing mechanisms?
That is how God rebuked and questioned Job―to which Holy Scripture dedicates five whole chapters! Here is the account in simplified English:
“The Lord spoke to Job from the middle of the storm. This is what He said: ‘Who do you think you are? Why do you ask questions about My wisdom? You speak many words, but you do not understand anything! Prepare yourself for a difficult job! I will ask you some questions and you must answer them. Were you with Me when I made the world? If you think you are so clever, tell me all about it! It was Me who decided the size of the world. You surely must know that! I measured it as I made it. Tell me how I fixed the foundations of the Earth. Who made it stay in its right place? I did! At the dawn of that day, the stars sang together. They sang for joy with all the angels. When the sea poured out of the ground, I decided where its borders should be. I kept the water in its right place. I caused the clouds to come over the sea. I covered it with complete darkness. I put a border around the sea. I locked it in its place. I said to the sea: ‘This is as far as you can come! You may come no further! Your powerful waves must stop there!’
“‘But you, Job, did you ever command the morning to begin? No! You have never in your whole life told the sun when it should rise. You have not told the light of day to cover the Earth. You have not told it to chase away the wicked things that happen in the night. When the light of day comes, people see the land clearly. Its shape and colors show like bright clothes. The light of day is too bright for wicked people. It destroys their power to do cruel things. You have not gone to the springs that fill the seas with water. You have not walked on the bottom of the deep seas. Nobody has showed you the gates of death. People go through them to that very dark place. You do not understand the great size of the Earth. If you know all about that, tell Me!
“‘You do not know where light comes from. You do not know where darkness has its home. Can you take them to the places where they belong? Do you know the roads that go there? Surely you must know all this, because you have lived for so long! It seems that you were already born when I created these things! Have you visited the place where I keep all the snow? Or the place where I keep the hail? I keep the snow and the hail ready to use. I use them in times of trouble and wars. You do not know where lightning comes from. Or where the east wind starts when it blows across the Earth. I make a path for the storms to travel along. I tell the thunder and the strong rain which way to go. I cause rain to fall in places where no person lives. It makes even a desert become a wet place. The rain falls on dry ground where nothing grows. It causes grass to grow there again. Do you know if the rain has a father? Who is a father to the dew? Who is a mother to the ice? Who gives birth to the frost that makes the air so cold? It causes the water to become as hard as stone. The water of the sea also becomes ice. You cannot make the stars of the Pleiades stay in their places. You cannot change the shape of Orion.
“‘You bring out the groups of stars for people to see at different times of the year. You cannot put the stars of the Great Bear and the Little Bear in their right places in the sky. You do not know the rules that the stars above obey. You cannot make the earth obey those rules. You cannot shout commands to the clouds. You cannot tell them to pour down their rain, so that a flood of water covers you. You cannot send the lightning to hit the place that you want it to go. The lightning does not say to you: ‘We are ready to go wherever you want.’
“‘Who has given people wisdom, so that they understand things with their minds? Is anyone wise enough to count the clouds? Can anyone cause the clouds to pour down rain from above? The rain causes the dust of the dry ground to become hard. The dry soil becomes pieces of mud. When the lions become hungry, can you find food for the young lions to eat? You cannot do that for them when they sit in their caves. You cannot help them as they hide in the bushes, ready to attack other animals. You cannot find food for the ravens to eat. You cannot help them when their babies cry to Me because they are weak and hungry.’
“‘Job, do you know that time when the goats on the mountains give birth? Do you watch the wild deer when their babies are born? Can you count the number of months that these animals are pregnant? How long must they wait until they give birth? They bend down low to the ground. They give birth to the babies that they have carried inside them. The young animals grow and they become strong in the fields. Then they leave their parents and they do not return to them. Did you send out the wild donkeys to go wherever they want? No! It was Me who gave them the desert as their home. I let them live in places where the ground has salt. They stay far away from the busy cities. They do not allow anyone to make them work. Instead, they live on the hills, where they find fresh plants to eat.
“‘Can you tell a wild ox to work for you? No! At night, it will not stay to feed at your farm. It will not let you tie it to a plough. It will not agree to prepare your fields in the valleys. A wild ox is very strong. But you cannot trust it to help you with your difficult work. It will not help you to bring in your harvest of grain. It will not take the grain to your threshing floor. When an ostrich is happy, it waves its wings. But it cannot use its wings to fly, as a stork can do. A mother ostrich leaves her eggs on the ground. She lets the sand cause them to be warm. She does not realize that people or wild animals might break the eggs with their feet. She does not take care of her babies, as if they did not belong to her. She does not worry that all her work might be useless. This is because I did not give wisdom to ostriches. I did not give them minds that understand things. But when an ostrich begins to run, it can run very fast. It can run faster than a horse and someone who rides on it.
“‘Did you, Job, give horses their strength? Did you give them the long hair that they have on their necks? You did not make horses able to jump like locusts. They frighten people when they blow air out through their noses. They stamp their feet on the ground, as they prepare to go to a battle. They are ready to go and attack the enemy. A horse is brave and it is not afraid of anything. It does not run away from the enemy's weapons. The soldier who is riding it has his arrows ready at the horse's side. Swords and spears shine brightly in the sun. The horse shakes with joy as it runs to the battle. When the battle trumpet makes its noise, the horse wants to run even faster! When it hears the sound of the trumpet, it makes a happy noise. From far away, it recognizes the smell of the battle. It hears the army officers as they shout their commands.
“‘Was it your wisdom, Job, that taught hawks how to fly? No! You could not teach them to fly towards the south in winter. Do eagles wait for your command to fly high into the sky? No! You could not teach them how to build their nests high up in the mountains. They live among the highest rocks. That is where they stay at night. They are safe on the sharp rocks. From the high rocks, eagles look for their food. They see small animals far away, that they can catch and eat. They come together around the bodies of dead animals. The young eagles drink the blood.’ The Lord said to Job: ‘Do you still want to argue with Me, the Almighty God? You say that I have not been fair. Now you must explain what you mean.’
“Then Job answered the Lord. This is what he said: ‘I am only a foolish man. I cannot answer your questions. I cover my mouth with my hand so that I say nothing. I have already spoken too many times. I will say no more.’
“Then the Lord spoke to Job from inside the storm. This is what he said: ‘Prepare yourself for a difficult job! I will ask you some more questions and you must answer them. Do you say that I am not a fair judge? Do you want to show that I am guilty, not you? Then you could say that you are right. Do you have the same power to do great things as I have? Can you speak with a voice as loud as thunder? I can! If you think that you can do all this, show how great you are! Show everyone your power and your glory! Show everyone your great anger! Look at all the people who like to boast and bring them down low! Yes, cause all the proud people to be humble. Knock down wicked people to the ground. Bury them all together in the dust of the ground. Cover their faces and put them in their graves. If you can do these things, Job, I will praise you. I will agree that you have the power to save yourself.
“‘Listen! I created the monsters called Behemoth. I made you and I made them too. They eat grass, as cows do. But look at the strength of their legs and their body! Their tails are like the branches of a cedar tree. Their legs are thick and very strong. Their bones are like sticks made of bronze. Their legs are as strong as iron. These monsters are some of the greatest animals that I have made. But I who made them can take my sword and go near to them. They eat the grass that grows on the hills. That is where the wild animals play. They lie down under the thorn trees. They hide among the reeds at the edge of the water. They rest in the shadow of the thorn trees, and among the willow trees beside the water. Even when the river is deep and dangerous, these monsters are not afraid. The water of the Jordan River may cover their mouths, but they still feel safe. There is no way that anyone can catch one of them. No one can make its eyes blind. No one can put a ring in its nose and lead it away.’
“‘It is the same with the sea monsters called Leviathan. Can you catch them with a hook? Can you use a rope to keep their mouths shut? Can you tie a rope through their noses? Can you put a hook into their mouths. No! They will not ask you nicely to be kind and let them go free. They will not make any agreement with you. You cannot make them your slaves to work for you as long as they live. Leviathan is not something to enjoy at home, like a bird. You cannot tie it with a rope, so that your girls can play with it. Traders do not buy it at the market. They do not cut it up to sell it. Job, can you throw spears into Leviathan's body to kill it? Can you shoot arrows into its head? If you try to take hold of it, you will never forget the fight! You will never try to do that again! If anyone hopes to catch it, he is deceiving himself. As soon as he sees it, he no longer feels so brave! No one is brave enough to wake it. So is anyone brave enough to argue against me? Nobody has ever won against me to make Me pay them anything.
“‘Everything in the whole world belongs to Me! I must tell you how strong Leviathan's legs are. Their bodies are very strong and they have a wonderful shape. Nobody is able to remove their thick skin. It is like armor that nobody can cut through. Nobody is strong enough to open its mouth. Its teeth make everyone afraid. Its back is like rows of shields. They are as hard as stone with no spaces between them. Each shield is very near the next one. Not even air can pass between them. They are strongly joined together, and nothing can pull them apart. When Leviathan breathes out loudly, bright light shines from its nose. Its eyes shine like the red sun at dawn. Fire comes out from its mouth. Bright flames shoot out! Smoke pours out from its nose, like reeds that burn under a pot. Its breath is hot enough to light a fire! Flames pour out of its mouth. Its neck is very strong. Wherever it goes, people shake with fear. There are no weak places in its skin. Its skin is as hard as iron. It is cruel and it has no fear. Its heart is as hard as stone.
“‘Even the bravest people are afraid when Leviathan appears. They run away when it starts to move. If you hit it with a sword, you will not hurt it. Spears, arrows and knives will be useless. It can easily break iron or bronze weapons. It breaks them as easily as grass or soft wood. If you shoot arrows at it, it will not run away. If you use a sling to throw stones at it, the stones will hurt it no more than bits of chaff. If you hit it with a heavy stick, that hurts it no more than a piece of straw. If you throw a spear at it, it laughs! Its stomach has sharp pieces, like bits of a pot that someone has broken. When it moves along, it ploughs the soil under it. When it swims in the deep water of the sea, the water seems to boil. It makes big waves, like oil that is boiling in a pot. As it swims, the water behind it shines. It makes waves that look like white hair on the sea. There is no other animal like it in the whole world. It is not afraid of anything. It does not respect any other great animal. It rules as king over all the proud animals.’
“Then Job replied to the Lord. He said this: ‘I know that You can do all things. You can do anything that You want to do. Nobody can stop You. You asked me: “Why do you ask questions about My wisdom, when you do not understand anything?” It is true. I was speaking about things that I do not understand. They are things that are too wonderful for me to know. You said to me: “Listen carefully to what I will say. I will ask you questions and you must answer them.” In the past, I had heard about You from other people. Now I have seen You for myself. So I am ashamed of the things that I said. I sit here in dirt and in ashes to show You that I am very sorry.’” (Book of Job, chapters 38 to 42).
Article 5
Thursday & Friday, January 1st & 2nd
The Race! The Grace! The Place!
Thursday & Friday, January 1st & 2nd
The Race! The Grace! The Place!
Staring You In The Face!
Sometimes we see something but fail to see it as it really is! Something obvious stares us in the face, but we obviously fail to see it as we should, or we fear to see it because of the consequences it may hold of us! Our Lord, in Holy Scripture, speaks of this phenomenon: “The heart of this people has grown gross; and with their ears they have been dull of hearing; and their eyes they have shut, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them!” (Matthew 13:15). You would imagine that anyone and everyone would want to be converted by Christ and converted to Christ―but that is very far from the truth. As Holy Scripture says of Christ: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shone in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it … He came unto His own, and His own received him not! … The light came into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light―for their works were evil. For every one that does evil hates the light, and comes not to the light, so that his works may not be reproved!” (John 1:4-5, 11; 3:19-20).
Christ said of Himself: “I have come as a light into the world; so that whosoever believes in Me, may not remain in darkness! … I am the light of the world! He that follows Me, walks not in darkness, but shall have the light of life!” (John 12:46; 8:12). Unfortunately, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ should not shine unto them!” (2 Corinthians 4:4). “For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils!” (Psalm 95:5).
How can we fail to see that Christ is not of this world, nor does He want us to be of this world. He calls us to be heavenly, not worldly; to be spiritual, not materialistic; to be supernatural, not naturalistic and humanistic; to place our hearts in the things of Heaven and not in the things of this Earth: “I am not of this world! … My kingdom is not of this world! … The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 8:23; 18:36; 7:7). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! For where your treasure is, there is your heart also! No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24).
“Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “The whole world is seated in wickedness!” (1 John 5:19) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
Listen to Liturgical Lessons!
Holy Mother Church does not select her Liturgical Readings for the Mass and Breviary by blindly picking them out of a hat! The importance of “tip of the iceberg” of readings selected is shown by the fact that those same readings come back each year, one year after another, one decade after another, one century after another―even though there are many other possible alternative that are available and could be selected.
Hence the striking passage that Holy Mother Church has selected for the start of the New Year―January 1st―the feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The passage in question should set the tone for the rest of the year―even the rest of our lives! It is taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to Titus: “Beloved! The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, instructing us that, rejecting ungodliness and worldly lusts, we may live temperately and justly and piously in this world; looking for the blessed hope and glorious coming of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us so that He might redeem us from all iniquity and cleanse for Himself an acceptable people, pursuing good works. Thus speak, and exhort, in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Titus 2:11-15).
Holy Mother Church then echoes that same message in the Preface of the Mass: “It is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord … for through the Mystery of the Word made flesh, the new light of Thy glory has shone upon the eyes of our mind, so that while we acknowledge God in visible form, we may through Him be drawn to the love of things invisible.” In the Post-Communion prayer it says: “O Lord, cleanse us from sin and, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, make us sharers of Your heavenly healing!”
Holy Mother Church echoes the same message throughout the Breviary (Divine Office / Liturgy of the Hours) throughout the readings for January 1st. In Matins we again have the repetition of part of the Epistle of St. Paul that was read at Mass: “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world!” (Titus 2:11-12).
The hymn of Matins speaks of “Jesus, the Ransomer of man! … Salvation’s Author! … Thou, salvation’s source alone! … We who, by Thy Precious Blood are redeemed from sin and marked for God, sing the new song of ransomed Earth!” In other sections of Matins for January 1st we have these additional questions and statements: “Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things? The kings of the Earth stood up, and the princes met together against the Lord and against His Christ―saying: ‘Let us break Their bonds asunder and let us cast away Their yoke from us!’” (Psalm 2:1-3). “Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? The innocent in hands and clean of heart!” (Psalm 23:3-4) ... “The law of the Lord is unspotted, converting souls” (Psalm 18:8) ... “Hate evil―you that love the Lord!” (Psalm 96:10).
In the next Office of the Day, that of Lauds, we are once again told the same thing in the Chapter Hymn Verse: “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world!” (Titus 2:11-12). Then in the Chapter Responsory Verse for the Divine Office of Terce, yet again we are told: “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world! (Titus 2:11-12). Likewise in Chapter Hymn Verse in the Divine Office of Vespers, it says: “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world!” (Titus 2:11-12).
Hammering Home Holy Advice
It seems like Holy Mother Church is seeking to hammer home an extremely important point on the opening day of this New Year. This is furthermore seen in many other readings and prayers from the Liturgical Year, whereby we are told to detach ourselves from worldliness and to focus upon Heaven. Here is just the tip of the iceberg of such readings:
● “Teach us to despise the things of Earth and to love those of Heaven” (Post-Communion, 2nd Sunday of Advent).
● “O God, Who knowest us to be set in the midst of so great dangers … O Lord, detach us from earthly pleasures” (Collect & Post-Communion, 4th Sunday after Epiphany).
● “Restrain our senses from hurtful excesses” (Collect, Monday in 3rd week of Lent).
● “…with our earthly affections weakening, we may more easily lay a firm hold on the things of Heaven” (Collect, Thursday of 4th week of Lent).
● “Grant that we always strive after divine things” (Post-Communion, Tuesday of Passion Week).
● “Stand firm with strong minds against the allurements of sin” (Collect, 2nd Lesson, Paschal Vigil).
● “O God, Thou art the Sower of good seed and the Cultivator of chosen branches, grant to Thy people of whom Thou dost refer to as vines and harvest fields, that they may root out all thorns and briars and produce good fruit in abundance” (Collect, 3rd Lesson, Paschal Vigil).
● “We renounced Satan and his works, and the world, likewise an enemy of God” (Renewal of Baptismal Promises, Paschal Vigil).
● “If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above! Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the Earth!” (Epistle, Easter Midnight Mass).
● “Learn to despise what is earthly and to love what is heavenly” (Post-Communion, Feast of Sacred Heart of Jesus).
● “Pass through things that are temporal, so that we may not lose those which are eternal” (Collect, 3rd Sunday after Pentecost).
● “Grant O Lord that Thy people may shun all the wiles of the devil” (17th Sunday after Pentecost).
● “Love not the world, not the things that are in the world! If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is of the world is concupiscence of the flesh, concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of love―which is not of the Father, but of the world!” (Epistle, St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, Feb. 27th).
● “O God, grant that Thy faithful―surrounded by luxury and the snares of the world―may despise earthly things and ever aspire to those of Heaven” (Collect, St. Casimir, March 4th).
● “May we overcome the snares of our spiritual enemies … Break the snares of our enemies! … Defend us from the malicious enemy!” (Collect, Secret & Post-Communion, St. John Capistran, March 28th).
● “May we despise the fleeting things of this time and seek what is eternal” (Collect, St. Heremenegild, April 13th).
● “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (Gradual, St. Justin, April 14th).
● “May we despise all the things of this world and so deserve the rewards which Thou hast promised” (Collect, St. Peter Celestine, May 19th).
● “Shedding all earthly interests, may we be found worthy to enjoy everlasting happiness” (Collect, St. Angela Merici, June 1st).
● “Overcome the wickedness of the world … Hold fast to the noble kingdom of Heaven!” (Alleluia in Eastertide, St. Primus & St. Felician, June 9th).
● “They overcame the guilt of the world and followed Christ, holding fast to the Kingdom of Heaven” (Alleluia, St. John & St. Paul, June 26th).
● “Give victory over the enticements of this life” (Collect, St. Henry, July 15th).
● “May we be enabled to despise the things of Earth and with pure hearts seek Thee alone” (Post-Communion, St. Jane Frances de Chantal, August 21st).
● “May we despise earthly prosperity and always seek heavenly things” (Collect, St. Philip Benizi, August 23rd).
● “For the sake of Thy love, may we despise earthly prosperity and fear no temporal harm” (Collect, St. Hermes, August 28th).
● “May we be lifted up above all earthly desires” (Collect, St. Joseph Cupertino, September 18th).
● “May we despise earthly goods and ever partake of Thy heavenly gifts” (Collect, St. Francis of Assisi, October 4th).
● “May we learn to trample underfoot the perishable delights of this world” (Collect, St. Hedwig, October 16th).
● “Make us renounce the proud vanities of the world” (Post-Communion, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, October 17th).
● “May we despise earthly things and enjoy fellowship with Thee for evermore” (Collect, St. Sylvester, November 26th).
We Have Lost the Sense of Sin
Traditionally, we were always taught that sin was the greatest evil in the world: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial sin is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin … Sometimes people say: ‘It is only a little sin, it does not matter much!’ But every venial sin is an offence against God, and therefore is, after mortal sin, the greatest of evils―far greater than any of the physical evils which can be inflicted on us!” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD; The Catechism Simply Explained, by Fr. Cafferata, q. 127).
Both Conservative and even Liberal popes agree on the fact that the world has lost the sense of the gravity of sin.
● Pope Pius XII remarked in 1946: “Perhaps the greatest sin in the world today is that men have begun to lose the sense of sin!”
● Pope John Paul II, in 2005, wrote: “We live in a society that seems to have lost the sense of God and of sin!”
● Pope Benedict XVI, in 2011, said: “The word ‘sin’ is not accepted by many, because it presupposes a religious vision of the world and of man. If we eliminate God from the horizon of the world, then we cannot speak of sin ... The meaning of sin ― which is a different thing from ‘guilt feelings’ as understood in psychology ― is only grasped in discovering the meaning of God!”
● Pope Francis, in 2014, stated: “When the Kingdom of God is forgotten, when the Kingdom of God diminishes, one of the signs is that the sense of sin is lost … When you lose the sense of sin, you also lose the sense of the Kingdom of God … When we lose the sense of sin, when we let the Kingdom of God crumble!”
Even Traditional Catholics have lost the sense of sin. Back in the post-Second World War years―when Pope Pius XII made the above quote―there was as yet no Vatican II with its widespread revolution in the Church and progressive dilution of Faith and Morals―yet they had lost the sense of sin even back then! Many of today’s so-called “Traditional Catholics” would probably be labeled as being “Liberal Catholics” back in the 1940s. “There is a way that seems to a man right, but the ends thereof lead to death!” (Proverbs 16:25).
For centuries, most Catholics understood that actions or thoughts contrary to right reason, God’s truth, and right conscience are sins. Such actions or thoughts could place one’s soul in grave danger of being damned. In more recent times, however, many seem to have forgotten what sin is. Or perhaps sin has been so downplayed since Vatican II that sin is not something about which too many are very concerned. The warning words of Holy Scripture come to mind here: “My son, hast thou sinned? Do so no more! But for thy former sins also pray that they may be forgiven thee!” (Ecclesiasticus 21:1). “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great, he will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’ For mercy and wrath quickly come from Him, and His wrath looks upon sinners! Delay not to be converted to the Lord and defer it not from day to day! For His wrath shall come on all of a sudden and in the time of vengeance He will destroy You!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5-9). “The Lord delays not His promise, as some imagine, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance!” (2 Peter 3:9).
Pope John XXIII stated in his opening address prior to Vatican II that “In our time . . . the Bride of Christ prefers to use the medicine of mercy rather than severity ... The Catholic Church, by raising the torch of religious truth through this Ecumenical Council, wants to show herself to be a kind mother of everyone ― benign, patient, full of mercy and kindness for the children separated from her.” Consequently, following Vatican II, God’s love and mercy took center stage. For many bishops and priests, being pastoral ― focusing on God’s love and mercy ― was ‘in’ and talking about sin was ‘out.’ Even the “New Mass” became pastoral instead of sacrificial. It was no longer a bloodless re-enactment of Christ’s sacrifice for us. Instead, it had become a community celebration of Christ’s victory over death. The altar was no longer an altar, it was a banquet table, and all are welcome at the table.
Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae (#3. Par. 4) said: “In all his activity a man is bound to follow his conscience ... ” The rest of the sentence said: “in order that he may come to God, the end and purpose of life.” But it is the first part of the sentence that became popular and the second part was largely ignored. The point being that far too many people have poorly formed consciences and they are content to stroll through life letting their desires control their actions. And at least some of the clergy have been complicit in promoting such sinful actions. The devil has always been really good at convincing people that wants and desires are more important than right reason and God’s truth. Now even the Church seemed to be saying let your poorly formed conscience be your guide.
The Devolution and Deflation of Sin
Catholic teaching on conscience and sin developed in the years following Vatican II, and sin took on some nuances. In addition to venial and mortal sin, there was now the evolution of ‘social sins’. And the term ‘grave matter’ now edged out the words ‘mortal sin.’ Pope John Paul II even addressed the problem of the loss of the sense of sin―he linked it to the conscience problem, saying that “for more or less lengthy periods ... the moral conscience of many people becomes seriously clouded.” This clouding results in a “numbness or ‘deadening’ of conscience.” He also pointed out that, “When the conscience is weakened the sense of God is also obscured, and as a result, with the loss of this decisive inner point of reference, the sense of sin is lost. This explains why one of my predecessors Pius XII, declared, in words that have almost become proverbial, that: ‘The sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin.’”
The Evolution and Inflation of “Feel Good”
You could argue that the loss of the sense of sin has always been a problem throughout the world. Nevertheless, it has accelerated and grown especially over the last 100 years or so. The devil wasn’t content just pushing greed hate, war, and killing, so he turned his attention to a more basic human desire. Already in 1917, Our Lady of Fatima had warned that the most common sin that damned souls at that time was the sin of lust and impurity. As foretold by Sister Lucia of Fatima, the devil began waging a “final battle” against Our Lady by mainly attacking the Sacrament of Matrimony and pushing the sin of lust.
One of chief encouragements to sin was the idea of “If it feels good, then do it!” This approach to things became widely associated with the seismic cultural shifts of the 1960s and 1970s―particularly the “Hippie Movement”. It became a slogan reflecting a rejection of traditional social norms and an embrace of personal pleasure and freedom. Sexual intercourse had become a pleasurable recreational activity. It was no longer one of the fruits of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
The sin of adultery picked up steam, and no-fault divorce quickly followed. The divorce rate in the 1960s was around 9.2 divorces per 1,000 married women―or around 1 in 100. By the late 1970s, it had more than doubled to 22.6 per 1,000 married women―or just over 2 per 100. In 2021 it was 2.5 divorces per 1,000 married women. Every 42 seconds, there is one divorce in America, That equates to 86 divorces per hour, 2,046 divorces per day, 14,364 divorces per week, and 746,971 divorces per year. 15% of adult women in the United States are divorced or separated today, compared with less than one percent in 1920.
As of 2024, the U.S. divorce rate remains between 40% to 50% for first marriages. On average, a marriage that ends in divorce lasts eight years, according to U.S. Census data. The likelihood of divorce increases with subsequent marriages. Around 60-67% of second marriages end in divorce, compared to 40-50% of first marriages. This trend is even more pronounced for third marriages, where the divorce rate exceeds 70%.
Today, some will point out that divorce rates are going down―but that is simply because people are no longer marrying each other, but are simply practicing “cohabitation”―that is to say, then are living together in sin, but society no longer looks upon it a being sin anymore! “If it feels good, then do it!” Couples who live together before marriage, often experience higher divorce rates. According to research from the Institute for Family Studies, couples who cohabitate before getting engaged are 39% more likely to divorce, compared to those who do not live together before marriage.
Approximately 40% of children in the U.S. experience parental divorce by the age of 18. Additionally, the U.S. Census reports that single-parent households—often formed after divorce—are on the rise, with nearly 20 million children living with a single parent.
Man has overruled God. Today, human pride trumps God’s truth and lust has become love. And, of course, if lust is love then any kind of “love is love,” as the LGBTQ crowd so loudly proclaims. So why not allow same-sex ‘marriage?’ What could be wrong with two males or two females ‘loving’ one another (i.e., disordered lust) sexually? The Church has always taught that homosexuality is intrinsically disordered. Even so, society suddenly began celebrating same-sex ‘marriage’ as something entirely normal. The devil may be jumping for joy over this destruction and corruption of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony!
The Race and the Rules of the Race
There is an awful lot of talk about racism these days―with it in some cases being deemed a crime! There is also a awful lot of racing that takes place with athletes, cars, boats, horses, dogs, etc. Yet very few people pay attention to, talk about, or take part in the only race that really matters―the race for Heaven. Holy Scripture, through the mouth of St. Paul, speaks of that race for Heaven in very clear and direct terms:
“Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it! And everyone that strives for the mastery, refrains himself from all things―and they indeed so that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one! I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty! I so fight, not as one beating the air! But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection―lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
Any race that worth anything is usually a tough race, a hard race, a testing race, a race that requires much preparation, much effort and much steel in mind and heart. Without those qualities you will rarely win. The same applies to the race for Heaven. Our Lord came from Heaven to lead us to Heaven, to teach us how to gain Heaven, to teach us how to imitate Him in getting there and winning our crown:
What is Needed for the Race
To win a bicycle race you need a bicycle. To win a car race you a need a car. To win a boat race you need a boat. To win a horse race you need a horse. To win Heaven you need a cross. “And Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that does not take up his cross and follows Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). St. Paul takes up that advice and takes up the cross of Christ and glories in the cross of Christ: “Christ humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross!” (Philippians 2:8). “Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel―lest the cross of Christ should be made void! The word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness―but to them that are saved, that is to us, it is the power of God! … We preach Christ crucified―which is to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Gentiles foolishness! But unto them that are called―both Jews and Greeks―it is the power of God, and the wisdom of God!” (1 Corinthians 1:17-19, 23-24). “With Christ I am nailed to the cross! … I do not cast away the grace of God!” (Galatians 2:19). “God forbid that I should glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ―by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world!” (Galatians 6:14). “But many walk―of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping―that they are enemies of the cross of Christ! Their end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things!” (Philippians 3:18-19).
Our Lady confirms the above in speaking to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible with [true] wisdom! … The greatest wisdom for souls consists in the knowledge of the cross, in the love of sufferings, and in putting this knowledge into practice by bearing afflictions with patience! … Those that know nothing of this science are foolish! … The wisdom of the flesh―worldly wisdom―has made men ignorant, foolish and hostile to God! Consider all delights and joys of the world as insanity, and as the source of foolishness! … Since all men, in their inordinate desire and pursuit of worldly happiness, neglect the Divine Law―where alone happiness can be found―very few really attain happiness! … Worldlings, in their lethargy, are moved neither by the duty of conforming to their Lord, nor by His declaration that all their salvation consists in following Christ in His sufferings! … They do not seek the medicine of suffering! … Why do mortals continue to deceive themselves, by expecting, in spite of their sins, to become pure and worthy of enjoying God, without the furnace or the file of sorrows! … Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
As Catholics, we are baptized into the Mystical Body of Christ. This means that wherever the Head of the Mystical Body goes, then there too must the rest of the Mystical Body go―otherwise you have a decapitation and spiritual suicide. Christ says to us as He said to the Apostles that He chose: “Follow Me!” (Matthew 4:19-22; 8:22; 9:9; 16:24; Mark 1:16-20; 2:14; 8:34; Luke 5:1-11; 5:27; 9:23; 9:59; John 1:43; 10:27; 12:26; 13:36; 21:19; 21:22). To follow Christ means to embrace the cross―which is something that most people fail to do, for they have already embraced the world and love the world and what the world has to offer. We see one such case in the encounter Jesus had with the rich young man:
“And behold, a certain rich young man, a ruler, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If you want to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘You are lacking one thing! If you want to be perfect, go sell whatsoever you have, and give the proceeds to the poor, and you shall have a treasure in Heaven, and then come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard these words, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful―for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-24; Mark 10:17-23; Luke 18:18-25).
The Cross and Grace and Charity
We cannot carry the cross profitably without the assistance of Divine Grace―as Our Lord said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). If we are not in a state of Sanctifying Grace (if we are in a state of Mortal Sin), then whatever we do is spiritually profitless apart from receiving Actual Graces (temporary passing graces) that are meant to lead to our repentance, conversion and restoration to the State of Sanctifying Grace. Sanctifying Grace can be said to be ‘married’ to Charity―for a Love of God is essential for Sanctifying Grace to remain in the soul. Conversely, Mortal Sin can be said to be ‘married’ to Hatred of God, since that is what Mortal Sin essentially expresses and communicates. Hence, Sanctifying Grace and Charity go hand in hand―if you lose one, then you automatically lose the other.
Just as we need the help of God’s Grace to perseveringly do good and save our soul, likewise we need God’s Charity for all that to bear fruit. “God is Charity” (1 John 4:8) and without that Charity of God, whatever we do is spiritually useless: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Carrying the cross is not enough without Charity. The ultimate motive for all that we do should be the love of God―hence it is that St. Augustine writes: “Love God and do whatever you please―for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.” That is exactly what Our Lord implies when, at the Last Supper, He says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word … He that loves Me not, keeps not My words!” (John 14:15, 14:21-24).
Furthermore, it is Mortal Sin that separates us from the love of God―and it is Charity that drives away the effects and debts of sin: “Before all things, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves―for charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). Of Mary Magdalen, Our Lord says: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47).
The Massive Loss of Souls
The fact that most souls end up being damned is tragically evident from what we read in Holy Scripture and in the words coming from Our Lord, Our Lady and many saints, popes and theologians―and we are only speaking of Catholic souls, for there can be no salvation outside of the Catholic Church. “And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord, are there few that are saved?’ But Jesus said: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I tell you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate and how strait is the way that leads to life, and few there are that find it!’” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14).
Our Lady of Fatima said: “Many souls go to Hell!” To the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady said: “Fear the danger of not attending to the divine calls, for that is the cause of the loss of innumerable souls ... How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!”
The Saints have echoed that truth throughout each and every century―here is a mere tip of the iceberg of quotes that are so numerous that they have filled entire books on the subject:
► St. Justin Martyr, Father of the Church (100-165): “The majority of men shall not see God, except those who live justly, purified by righteousness and by every other virtue.”
► St. Jerome, Doctor and Father of the Church (347-420): “So that you will better appreciate the meaning of Our Lord’s words, and perceive more clearly how few the Elect are, note that Christ did not say that those who actually walked in the path to Heaven are few in number, but that there were few who found that narrow way! … Out of one hundred thousand sinners who continue in sin until death, scarcely one will be saved!”
► St. John Chrysostom, Doctor and Father of the Church (347-407): “What do you think? How many of the inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? What I am about to tell you is very terrible, yet I will not conceal it from you. Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants not one hundred people will be saved. I even doubt whether there will be as many as that! Furthermore, I do not speak rashly, but as I feel and think. I do not think that many bishops are saved, but that those who perish are far more numerous!”
► St. Augustine, Doctor and Father of the Church (354-430): “Not all, nor even a majority, are saved! … It is certain that few are saved! Take care not to resemble the multitude! … If you wish to imitate the multitude, then you shall not be among the few who shall enter in by the narrow gate! … Beyond a doubt the elect are few!”
► St. Regimius of Rheims (437-533): “Among adults there are few saved because of sins of the flesh. … With the exception of those who die in childhood, most men will be damned!”
► St. John Climacus, Syrian monk (525-600): “Live with the few if you want to reign with the few!”
► Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604): “There are many who arrive at the Faith, but few who are led into the heavenly kingdom! …They who are to be saved as Saints, and wish to be saved as imperfect souls, shall not be saved!”
► St. Anselm, Doctor of the Church (1033-1109): “If you want to be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many! And if you wantt be quite sure of your salvation, then strive to be among the fewest of the few! … Do not follow the great majority of mankind, but follow those who enter upon the narrow way, who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or by night, that they may attain everlasting blessedness!”
► St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church (1225-1274): “There are a select few who are saved!” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.7, ad 3.) “Those who are saved are in the minority” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.8, ad.3).
► St. Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419): “Many religious go straight to Hell because they do not keep their vows!”
► St. John of Avila (1499-1569): “Take care not to resemble the multitude whose knowledge of God's will only condemns them to more severe punishment.”
► Ven. Louis de Granada (1504-1588): “A greater number is lost through false confidence than through excessive fear.”
► St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552): “Ah, how many souls lose Heaven and are cast into Hell!”
► St. Philip Neri (1515-1595): “So vast a number of miserable souls perish, and so comparatively few are saved!”
► St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, Doctor of the Church (1696-1787): “It is certainly a great happiness for some sinners who, after a bad life, are converted at their death, and are saved; but these cases are very rare! Usually, he that leads a bad life dies a bad death! … The common opinion is that the greater part of adults is lost! … Everyone desires to be saved―but the greater part is lost! … The greater part of men choose to be damned rather than to love Almighty God! … He who abuses too much the mercy of God will be abandoned by Him!”
► St. John Climacus, Father of the Church (579-649): “Live with the few if you want to reign with the few.”
► St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church (1542-1591): “Behold how many there are who are called, and how few who are chosen! And behold, if you have no care for yourself, your damnation is more certain than your amendment, especially since the way that leads to eternal life is so narrow! … Only a small number of souls achieve perfect love!”
► St. Veronica Giuliani (1660-1727): “The number of the damned is incalculable.”
► St. Louis Marie de Montfort (1673-1716): “Be one of the small number who find the way to life, and enter by the narrow gate into Heaven. Take care not to follow the majority and the common herd, so many of whom are lost! … The number of the elect is so small ― so small ― that, were we to know how small it is, we would faint away with grief―one here and there, scattered up and down the world!”
► Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, (1769-1837): “The greater number of Christians today are damned. The destiny of those dying on one day is that very few ― not as many as ten ― went straight to Heaven; many remained in Purgatory; and those cast into Hell were as numerous as snowflakes in midwinter.”
► St. John Marie Vianney (1786-1859): “The number of the saved is as few as the number of grapes left after the vineyard-pickers have passed! … We shall find out at the day of judgment that the greater number of Christians who are lost were damned because they did not know their own religion!”
► St. Anthony Mary Claret (1807-1870): “A multitude of souls fall into the depths of Hell, and it is of the Faith that all who die in mortal sin are condemned forever and ever. According to statistics, approximately 80,000 persons die every day [back in the 1800s―today around 170,000 people die each day worldwide]. How many of these will die in mortal sin, and how many will be condemned! For, as their lives have been, so also will be their end!”
► St. Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868): “And how very small is the kingdom of Jesus Christ! So many nations have never had the Faith!” (St. Peter Julian Eymard).
► St. Joseph Cafasso (1811-1860): “Cast a look round the world, just observe the manner of living, of speaking, and you will see immediately whether the evil of sin is known in the world or whether any attention is paid to it. Not to speak of those who live decidedly irreligious and wicked lives, how few are those who pass for good and who approach the sacraments are aware of the great evil that sin is, and the great ruin it brings with it. It must necessarily happen that, on account of this certainly culpable ignorance in which most men live, an enormous number will come to be damned, because no sin is pardoned which is not detested, and it is impossible to detest sin properly if it is not known as such.” (St. Joseph Cafasso).
► St. John Neumann (1811-1860): “Notwithstanding assurances that God did not create any man for Hell, and that He wishes all men to be saved, it remains equally true that only few will be saved; that only few will go to Heaven; and that the greater part of mankind will be lost forever.” (St. John Neumann).
► St. Francesca Saverio Cabrini, a.k.a. Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917): “How many among these uncivilized peoples do not yet know God, and are sunk in the darkest idolatry, superstition and ignorance! . . . Poor souls! These are they in whom Christ saw, in all the horror of His imminent Passion, the uselessness of His agony for so many souls!” (St. Francesca Saverio Cabrini).
► Lucia Santos of Fatima (1907-1958?): “Taking into account the behavior of mankind, only a small part of the human race will be saved! Most will be lost!”
► St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima (1910-1920): “Lucia found Jacinta sitting alone, still and very pensive, gazing at nothing. ‘What are you thinking of, Jacinta?’ ‘Of the war that is going to come. So many people are going to die. And almost all of them are going to Hell!”
God and Truth Do Not Change
The teaching on this damnation of the majority of souls is not at all popular and is therefore rarely mentioned or largely ignored―but the truth remains the truth and will not go away just because we choose to ignore it and bury our heads in the sand! Fleeing from the truth does not change the truth! Disliking the truth does not change the truth! Arguing against the truth does not change the truth! Rejecting the truth does not change the truth! Being ignorant of truth does not change the truth! Rebelling against the truth does change the truth! God is Truth and God never changes. Scripture says of God: “God is true!” (Romans 3:4). “Thy word is truth!” (John 17:17). The beginning of Thy words is truth! … All thy ways are truth! … Thy law is the truth! … All thy statutes are truth! In Thy truth Thou hast humbled me!” (Psalm 118: verses 160, 151, 142, 86, 75). Our Lord says of Himself: “I am the truth!” (John 14:6). Our Lord speaks of the Holy Ghost being Truth ― “The Father shall give you another Paraclete, the Spirit of truth … I will send you the Spirit of truth from the Father … When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will teach you all truth!” (John 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:13). God says: “I am the Lord, and I change not!” (Malachias 3:6). Scripture adds: “With the Father of lights there is no change, nor shadow of alteration!” (James 1:17).
Our Lord rebukes this refusal to accept the truth of God: “I am the Truth! … For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth, hears My voice! … He that sent Me is true―and the things I have heard of Him, these same I speak in the world! … My testimony is true! … My judgment is true! ... If you continue in My word, you shall be My disciples! And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free! … But you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you! … You seek to kill Me, a Man Who has spoken the truth to you, which I have heard of God! … I say to you that you shall die in your sins! For if you believe not that I am He, then you shall die in your sin! … Why do you not know My speech? Because you cannot hear My word! You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do! He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him! When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own―for he is a liar, and the father of lies! But if I speak the truth, you do not believe Me! If I speak the truth to you, why do you not believe Me? He that is of God, hears the words of God! Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God!” (John 14:6; 18:37; 8:14-47).
Damnation Is Not Inevitable
Yet damnation is not something that is inevitable and inescapable―just like bad health is not inevitable and inescapable! Do the right things in the physical domain and you will be healthy! Do the right things in the spiritual domain and you will be saved! Ultimately, God neither wants nor seeks the damnation of any soul―no matter how sinful they may be. “He never withdraws His mercy from us―but though He chastises His people with adversity, He forsakes them not!” (Machabees 2:16). “God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:17). God says: “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). Christ Himself said: “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I came to call sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32).
The Only Place Worth Going To!
You guessed it! It is so obvious―or it should be obvious! Or, looking at the above quotes, it is obviously not so obvious! The only place worth going to is HEAVEN. There is only one alternative―HELL. Who the hell wants to go to Hell? Nobody should want that―yet that is where most people end up! Why? A lack of love for God and Heaven! This, in turn, is the result of a lack of knowledge about God and Heaven. As philosophy correctly points out: “You cannot love what you do not know!” You cannot love a person you have never met and know nothing about. You cannot love a particular food if you have never tasted and eaten it. You cannot love a particular city if you have never been there or have little knowledge of it. You cannot love a sport if you have never watched or played it. Hence, “You cannot love what you do not know!” That is also why the Catechism teaches us that in order to get to Heaven we KNOW, LOVE and SERVE GOD. We will not serve very well someone whom we do not love―we cannot love someone whom we know little or nothing about. Hence the foundation of knowledge. The degree of love will usually be in proportion to the degree of knowledge. He who knows little will love little. That is why St. Thérèse of Lisieux used to say: “Jesus is so little loved because He is so little known!”
We read enormous quantities of material about earthly, material, physical, worldly things―but ever so little about heavenly, spiritual, supernatural things. As you sow, so shall you reap! If you fail to sow seeds of knowledge about God, Heaven and things related to them―then you risk not reaping an eternal heavenly harvest. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption [disease and death]. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8). How much time are you spending on earthly, material, physical, worldly things and how much time are you spending on heavenly, spiritual, supernatural things. Our Lord is clear on the matter: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24). “For what shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
Is this New Year the time for a new approach? “Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart, and a new spirit!” (Ezechiel 18:31). “I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you―and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh!” (Ezechiel 36:26). “Put on the new man, who, according to God, is created in justice and holiness of truth!” (Ephesians 4:24).
Sometimes we see something but fail to see it as it really is! Something obvious stares us in the face, but we obviously fail to see it as we should, or we fear to see it because of the consequences it may hold of us! Our Lord, in Holy Scripture, speaks of this phenomenon: “The heart of this people has grown gross; and with their ears they have been dull of hearing; and their eyes they have shut, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them!” (Matthew 13:15). You would imagine that anyone and everyone would want to be converted by Christ and converted to Christ―but that is very far from the truth. As Holy Scripture says of Christ: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shone in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it … He came unto His own, and His own received him not! … The light came into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light―for their works were evil. For every one that does evil hates the light, and comes not to the light, so that his works may not be reproved!” (John 1:4-5, 11; 3:19-20).
Christ said of Himself: “I have come as a light into the world; so that whosoever believes in Me, may not remain in darkness! … I am the light of the world! He that follows Me, walks not in darkness, but shall have the light of life!” (John 12:46; 8:12). Unfortunately, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ should not shine unto them!” (2 Corinthians 4:4). “For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils!” (Psalm 95:5).
How can we fail to see that Christ is not of this world, nor does He want us to be of this world. He calls us to be heavenly, not worldly; to be spiritual, not materialistic; to be supernatural, not naturalistic and humanistic; to place our hearts in the things of Heaven and not in the things of this Earth: “I am not of this world! … My kingdom is not of this world! … The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 8:23; 18:36; 7:7). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! For where your treasure is, there is your heart also! No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24).
“Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “The whole world is seated in wickedness!” (1 John 5:19) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
Listen to Liturgical Lessons!
Holy Mother Church does not select her Liturgical Readings for the Mass and Breviary by blindly picking them out of a hat! The importance of “tip of the iceberg” of readings selected is shown by the fact that those same readings come back each year, one year after another, one decade after another, one century after another―even though there are many other possible alternative that are available and could be selected.
Hence the striking passage that Holy Mother Church has selected for the start of the New Year―January 1st―the feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The passage in question should set the tone for the rest of the year―even the rest of our lives! It is taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to Titus: “Beloved! The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, instructing us that, rejecting ungodliness and worldly lusts, we may live temperately and justly and piously in this world; looking for the blessed hope and glorious coming of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us so that He might redeem us from all iniquity and cleanse for Himself an acceptable people, pursuing good works. Thus speak, and exhort, in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Titus 2:11-15).
Holy Mother Church then echoes that same message in the Preface of the Mass: “It is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord … for through the Mystery of the Word made flesh, the new light of Thy glory has shone upon the eyes of our mind, so that while we acknowledge God in visible form, we may through Him be drawn to the love of things invisible.” In the Post-Communion prayer it says: “O Lord, cleanse us from sin and, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, make us sharers of Your heavenly healing!”
Holy Mother Church echoes the same message throughout the Breviary (Divine Office / Liturgy of the Hours) throughout the readings for January 1st. In Matins we again have the repetition of part of the Epistle of St. Paul that was read at Mass: “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world!” (Titus 2:11-12).
The hymn of Matins speaks of “Jesus, the Ransomer of man! … Salvation’s Author! … Thou, salvation’s source alone! … We who, by Thy Precious Blood are redeemed from sin and marked for God, sing the new song of ransomed Earth!” In other sections of Matins for January 1st we have these additional questions and statements: “Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things? The kings of the Earth stood up, and the princes met together against the Lord and against His Christ―saying: ‘Let us break Their bonds asunder and let us cast away Their yoke from us!’” (Psalm 2:1-3). “Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? The innocent in hands and clean of heart!” (Psalm 23:3-4) ... “The law of the Lord is unspotted, converting souls” (Psalm 18:8) ... “Hate evil―you that love the Lord!” (Psalm 96:10).
In the next Office of the Day, that of Lauds, we are once again told the same thing in the Chapter Hymn Verse: “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world!” (Titus 2:11-12). Then in the Chapter Responsory Verse for the Divine Office of Terce, yet again we are told: “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world! (Titus 2:11-12). Likewise in Chapter Hymn Verse in the Divine Office of Vespers, it says: “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world!” (Titus 2:11-12).
Hammering Home Holy Advice
It seems like Holy Mother Church is seeking to hammer home an extremely important point on the opening day of this New Year. This is furthermore seen in many other readings and prayers from the Liturgical Year, whereby we are told to detach ourselves from worldliness and to focus upon Heaven. Here is just the tip of the iceberg of such readings:
● “Teach us to despise the things of Earth and to love those of Heaven” (Post-Communion, 2nd Sunday of Advent).
● “O God, Who knowest us to be set in the midst of so great dangers … O Lord, detach us from earthly pleasures” (Collect & Post-Communion, 4th Sunday after Epiphany).
● “Restrain our senses from hurtful excesses” (Collect, Monday in 3rd week of Lent).
● “…with our earthly affections weakening, we may more easily lay a firm hold on the things of Heaven” (Collect, Thursday of 4th week of Lent).
● “Grant that we always strive after divine things” (Post-Communion, Tuesday of Passion Week).
● “Stand firm with strong minds against the allurements of sin” (Collect, 2nd Lesson, Paschal Vigil).
● “O God, Thou art the Sower of good seed and the Cultivator of chosen branches, grant to Thy people of whom Thou dost refer to as vines and harvest fields, that they may root out all thorns and briars and produce good fruit in abundance” (Collect, 3rd Lesson, Paschal Vigil).
● “We renounced Satan and his works, and the world, likewise an enemy of God” (Renewal of Baptismal Promises, Paschal Vigil).
● “If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above! Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the Earth!” (Epistle, Easter Midnight Mass).
● “Learn to despise what is earthly and to love what is heavenly” (Post-Communion, Feast of Sacred Heart of Jesus).
● “Pass through things that are temporal, so that we may not lose those which are eternal” (Collect, 3rd Sunday after Pentecost).
● “Grant O Lord that Thy people may shun all the wiles of the devil” (17th Sunday after Pentecost).
● “Love not the world, not the things that are in the world! If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is of the world is concupiscence of the flesh, concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of love―which is not of the Father, but of the world!” (Epistle, St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, Feb. 27th).
● “O God, grant that Thy faithful―surrounded by luxury and the snares of the world―may despise earthly things and ever aspire to those of Heaven” (Collect, St. Casimir, March 4th).
● “May we overcome the snares of our spiritual enemies … Break the snares of our enemies! … Defend us from the malicious enemy!” (Collect, Secret & Post-Communion, St. John Capistran, March 28th).
● “May we despise the fleeting things of this time and seek what is eternal” (Collect, St. Heremenegild, April 13th).
● “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (Gradual, St. Justin, April 14th).
● “May we despise all the things of this world and so deserve the rewards which Thou hast promised” (Collect, St. Peter Celestine, May 19th).
● “Shedding all earthly interests, may we be found worthy to enjoy everlasting happiness” (Collect, St. Angela Merici, June 1st).
● “Overcome the wickedness of the world … Hold fast to the noble kingdom of Heaven!” (Alleluia in Eastertide, St. Primus & St. Felician, June 9th).
● “They overcame the guilt of the world and followed Christ, holding fast to the Kingdom of Heaven” (Alleluia, St. John & St. Paul, June 26th).
● “Give victory over the enticements of this life” (Collect, St. Henry, July 15th).
● “May we be enabled to despise the things of Earth and with pure hearts seek Thee alone” (Post-Communion, St. Jane Frances de Chantal, August 21st).
● “May we despise earthly prosperity and always seek heavenly things” (Collect, St. Philip Benizi, August 23rd).
● “For the sake of Thy love, may we despise earthly prosperity and fear no temporal harm” (Collect, St. Hermes, August 28th).
● “May we be lifted up above all earthly desires” (Collect, St. Joseph Cupertino, September 18th).
● “May we despise earthly goods and ever partake of Thy heavenly gifts” (Collect, St. Francis of Assisi, October 4th).
● “May we learn to trample underfoot the perishable delights of this world” (Collect, St. Hedwig, October 16th).
● “Make us renounce the proud vanities of the world” (Post-Communion, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, October 17th).
● “May we despise earthly things and enjoy fellowship with Thee for evermore” (Collect, St. Sylvester, November 26th).
We Have Lost the Sense of Sin
Traditionally, we were always taught that sin was the greatest evil in the world: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial sin is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin … Sometimes people say: ‘It is only a little sin, it does not matter much!’ But every venial sin is an offence against God, and therefore is, after mortal sin, the greatest of evils―far greater than any of the physical evils which can be inflicted on us!” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD; The Catechism Simply Explained, by Fr. Cafferata, q. 127).
Both Conservative and even Liberal popes agree on the fact that the world has lost the sense of the gravity of sin.
● Pope Pius XII remarked in 1946: “Perhaps the greatest sin in the world today is that men have begun to lose the sense of sin!”
● Pope John Paul II, in 2005, wrote: “We live in a society that seems to have lost the sense of God and of sin!”
● Pope Benedict XVI, in 2011, said: “The word ‘sin’ is not accepted by many, because it presupposes a religious vision of the world and of man. If we eliminate God from the horizon of the world, then we cannot speak of sin ... The meaning of sin ― which is a different thing from ‘guilt feelings’ as understood in psychology ― is only grasped in discovering the meaning of God!”
● Pope Francis, in 2014, stated: “When the Kingdom of God is forgotten, when the Kingdom of God diminishes, one of the signs is that the sense of sin is lost … When you lose the sense of sin, you also lose the sense of the Kingdom of God … When we lose the sense of sin, when we let the Kingdom of God crumble!”
Even Traditional Catholics have lost the sense of sin. Back in the post-Second World War years―when Pope Pius XII made the above quote―there was as yet no Vatican II with its widespread revolution in the Church and progressive dilution of Faith and Morals―yet they had lost the sense of sin even back then! Many of today’s so-called “Traditional Catholics” would probably be labeled as being “Liberal Catholics” back in the 1940s. “There is a way that seems to a man right, but the ends thereof lead to death!” (Proverbs 16:25).
For centuries, most Catholics understood that actions or thoughts contrary to right reason, God’s truth, and right conscience are sins. Such actions or thoughts could place one’s soul in grave danger of being damned. In more recent times, however, many seem to have forgotten what sin is. Or perhaps sin has been so downplayed since Vatican II that sin is not something about which too many are very concerned. The warning words of Holy Scripture come to mind here: “My son, hast thou sinned? Do so no more! But for thy former sins also pray that they may be forgiven thee!” (Ecclesiasticus 21:1). “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great, he will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’ For mercy and wrath quickly come from Him, and His wrath looks upon sinners! Delay not to be converted to the Lord and defer it not from day to day! For His wrath shall come on all of a sudden and in the time of vengeance He will destroy You!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5-9). “The Lord delays not His promise, as some imagine, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance!” (2 Peter 3:9).
Pope John XXIII stated in his opening address prior to Vatican II that “In our time . . . the Bride of Christ prefers to use the medicine of mercy rather than severity ... The Catholic Church, by raising the torch of religious truth through this Ecumenical Council, wants to show herself to be a kind mother of everyone ― benign, patient, full of mercy and kindness for the children separated from her.” Consequently, following Vatican II, God’s love and mercy took center stage. For many bishops and priests, being pastoral ― focusing on God’s love and mercy ― was ‘in’ and talking about sin was ‘out.’ Even the “New Mass” became pastoral instead of sacrificial. It was no longer a bloodless re-enactment of Christ’s sacrifice for us. Instead, it had become a community celebration of Christ’s victory over death. The altar was no longer an altar, it was a banquet table, and all are welcome at the table.
Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae (#3. Par. 4) said: “In all his activity a man is bound to follow his conscience ... ” The rest of the sentence said: “in order that he may come to God, the end and purpose of life.” But it is the first part of the sentence that became popular and the second part was largely ignored. The point being that far too many people have poorly formed consciences and they are content to stroll through life letting their desires control their actions. And at least some of the clergy have been complicit in promoting such sinful actions. The devil has always been really good at convincing people that wants and desires are more important than right reason and God’s truth. Now even the Church seemed to be saying let your poorly formed conscience be your guide.
The Devolution and Deflation of Sin
Catholic teaching on conscience and sin developed in the years following Vatican II, and sin took on some nuances. In addition to venial and mortal sin, there was now the evolution of ‘social sins’. And the term ‘grave matter’ now edged out the words ‘mortal sin.’ Pope John Paul II even addressed the problem of the loss of the sense of sin―he linked it to the conscience problem, saying that “for more or less lengthy periods ... the moral conscience of many people becomes seriously clouded.” This clouding results in a “numbness or ‘deadening’ of conscience.” He also pointed out that, “When the conscience is weakened the sense of God is also obscured, and as a result, with the loss of this decisive inner point of reference, the sense of sin is lost. This explains why one of my predecessors Pius XII, declared, in words that have almost become proverbial, that: ‘The sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin.’”
The Evolution and Inflation of “Feel Good”
You could argue that the loss of the sense of sin has always been a problem throughout the world. Nevertheless, it has accelerated and grown especially over the last 100 years or so. The devil wasn’t content just pushing greed hate, war, and killing, so he turned his attention to a more basic human desire. Already in 1917, Our Lady of Fatima had warned that the most common sin that damned souls at that time was the sin of lust and impurity. As foretold by Sister Lucia of Fatima, the devil began waging a “final battle” against Our Lady by mainly attacking the Sacrament of Matrimony and pushing the sin of lust.
One of chief encouragements to sin was the idea of “If it feels good, then do it!” This approach to things became widely associated with the seismic cultural shifts of the 1960s and 1970s―particularly the “Hippie Movement”. It became a slogan reflecting a rejection of traditional social norms and an embrace of personal pleasure and freedom. Sexual intercourse had become a pleasurable recreational activity. It was no longer one of the fruits of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
The sin of adultery picked up steam, and no-fault divorce quickly followed. The divorce rate in the 1960s was around 9.2 divorces per 1,000 married women―or around 1 in 100. By the late 1970s, it had more than doubled to 22.6 per 1,000 married women―or just over 2 per 100. In 2021 it was 2.5 divorces per 1,000 married women. Every 42 seconds, there is one divorce in America, That equates to 86 divorces per hour, 2,046 divorces per day, 14,364 divorces per week, and 746,971 divorces per year. 15% of adult women in the United States are divorced or separated today, compared with less than one percent in 1920.
As of 2024, the U.S. divorce rate remains between 40% to 50% for first marriages. On average, a marriage that ends in divorce lasts eight years, according to U.S. Census data. The likelihood of divorce increases with subsequent marriages. Around 60-67% of second marriages end in divorce, compared to 40-50% of first marriages. This trend is even more pronounced for third marriages, where the divorce rate exceeds 70%.
Today, some will point out that divorce rates are going down―but that is simply because people are no longer marrying each other, but are simply practicing “cohabitation”―that is to say, then are living together in sin, but society no longer looks upon it a being sin anymore! “If it feels good, then do it!” Couples who live together before marriage, often experience higher divorce rates. According to research from the Institute for Family Studies, couples who cohabitate before getting engaged are 39% more likely to divorce, compared to those who do not live together before marriage.
Approximately 40% of children in the U.S. experience parental divorce by the age of 18. Additionally, the U.S. Census reports that single-parent households—often formed after divorce—are on the rise, with nearly 20 million children living with a single parent.
Man has overruled God. Today, human pride trumps God’s truth and lust has become love. And, of course, if lust is love then any kind of “love is love,” as the LGBTQ crowd so loudly proclaims. So why not allow same-sex ‘marriage?’ What could be wrong with two males or two females ‘loving’ one another (i.e., disordered lust) sexually? The Church has always taught that homosexuality is intrinsically disordered. Even so, society suddenly began celebrating same-sex ‘marriage’ as something entirely normal. The devil may be jumping for joy over this destruction and corruption of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony!
The Race and the Rules of the Race
There is an awful lot of talk about racism these days―with it in some cases being deemed a crime! There is also a awful lot of racing that takes place with athletes, cars, boats, horses, dogs, etc. Yet very few people pay attention to, talk about, or take part in the only race that really matters―the race for Heaven. Holy Scripture, through the mouth of St. Paul, speaks of that race for Heaven in very clear and direct terms:
“Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it! And everyone that strives for the mastery, refrains himself from all things―and they indeed so that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one! I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty! I so fight, not as one beating the air! But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection―lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
Any race that worth anything is usually a tough race, a hard race, a testing race, a race that requires much preparation, much effort and much steel in mind and heart. Without those qualities you will rarely win. The same applies to the race for Heaven. Our Lord came from Heaven to lead us to Heaven, to teach us how to gain Heaven, to teach us how to imitate Him in getting there and winning our crown:
What is Needed for the Race
To win a bicycle race you need a bicycle. To win a car race you a need a car. To win a boat race you need a boat. To win a horse race you need a horse. To win Heaven you need a cross. “And Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that does not take up his cross and follows Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). St. Paul takes up that advice and takes up the cross of Christ and glories in the cross of Christ: “Christ humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross!” (Philippians 2:8). “Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel―lest the cross of Christ should be made void! The word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness―but to them that are saved, that is to us, it is the power of God! … We preach Christ crucified―which is to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Gentiles foolishness! But unto them that are called―both Jews and Greeks―it is the power of God, and the wisdom of God!” (1 Corinthians 1:17-19, 23-24). “With Christ I am nailed to the cross! … I do not cast away the grace of God!” (Galatians 2:19). “God forbid that I should glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ―by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world!” (Galatians 6:14). “But many walk―of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping―that they are enemies of the cross of Christ! Their end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things!” (Philippians 3:18-19).
Our Lady confirms the above in speaking to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible with [true] wisdom! … The greatest wisdom for souls consists in the knowledge of the cross, in the love of sufferings, and in putting this knowledge into practice by bearing afflictions with patience! … Those that know nothing of this science are foolish! … The wisdom of the flesh―worldly wisdom―has made men ignorant, foolish and hostile to God! Consider all delights and joys of the world as insanity, and as the source of foolishness! … Since all men, in their inordinate desire and pursuit of worldly happiness, neglect the Divine Law―where alone happiness can be found―very few really attain happiness! … Worldlings, in their lethargy, are moved neither by the duty of conforming to their Lord, nor by His declaration that all their salvation consists in following Christ in His sufferings! … They do not seek the medicine of suffering! … Why do mortals continue to deceive themselves, by expecting, in spite of their sins, to become pure and worthy of enjoying God, without the furnace or the file of sorrows! … Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
As Catholics, we are baptized into the Mystical Body of Christ. This means that wherever the Head of the Mystical Body goes, then there too must the rest of the Mystical Body go―otherwise you have a decapitation and spiritual suicide. Christ says to us as He said to the Apostles that He chose: “Follow Me!” (Matthew 4:19-22; 8:22; 9:9; 16:24; Mark 1:16-20; 2:14; 8:34; Luke 5:1-11; 5:27; 9:23; 9:59; John 1:43; 10:27; 12:26; 13:36; 21:19; 21:22). To follow Christ means to embrace the cross―which is something that most people fail to do, for they have already embraced the world and love the world and what the world has to offer. We see one such case in the encounter Jesus had with the rich young man:
“And behold, a certain rich young man, a ruler, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If you want to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘You are lacking one thing! If you want to be perfect, go sell whatsoever you have, and give the proceeds to the poor, and you shall have a treasure in Heaven, and then come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard these words, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful―for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-24; Mark 10:17-23; Luke 18:18-25).
The Cross and Grace and Charity
We cannot carry the cross profitably without the assistance of Divine Grace―as Our Lord said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). If we are not in a state of Sanctifying Grace (if we are in a state of Mortal Sin), then whatever we do is spiritually profitless apart from receiving Actual Graces (temporary passing graces) that are meant to lead to our repentance, conversion and restoration to the State of Sanctifying Grace. Sanctifying Grace can be said to be ‘married’ to Charity―for a Love of God is essential for Sanctifying Grace to remain in the soul. Conversely, Mortal Sin can be said to be ‘married’ to Hatred of God, since that is what Mortal Sin essentially expresses and communicates. Hence, Sanctifying Grace and Charity go hand in hand―if you lose one, then you automatically lose the other.
Just as we need the help of God’s Grace to perseveringly do good and save our soul, likewise we need God’s Charity for all that to bear fruit. “God is Charity” (1 John 4:8) and without that Charity of God, whatever we do is spiritually useless: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Carrying the cross is not enough without Charity. The ultimate motive for all that we do should be the love of God―hence it is that St. Augustine writes: “Love God and do whatever you please―for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.” That is exactly what Our Lord implies when, at the Last Supper, He says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word … He that loves Me not, keeps not My words!” (John 14:15, 14:21-24).
Furthermore, it is Mortal Sin that separates us from the love of God―and it is Charity that drives away the effects and debts of sin: “Before all things, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves―for charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). Of Mary Magdalen, Our Lord says: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47).
The Massive Loss of Souls
The fact that most souls end up being damned is tragically evident from what we read in Holy Scripture and in the words coming from Our Lord, Our Lady and many saints, popes and theologians―and we are only speaking of Catholic souls, for there can be no salvation outside of the Catholic Church. “And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord, are there few that are saved?’ But Jesus said: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I tell you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate and how strait is the way that leads to life, and few there are that find it!’” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14).
Our Lady of Fatima said: “Many souls go to Hell!” To the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady said: “Fear the danger of not attending to the divine calls, for that is the cause of the loss of innumerable souls ... How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!”
The Saints have echoed that truth throughout each and every century―here is a mere tip of the iceberg of quotes that are so numerous that they have filled entire books on the subject:
► St. Justin Martyr, Father of the Church (100-165): “The majority of men shall not see God, except those who live justly, purified by righteousness and by every other virtue.”
► St. Jerome, Doctor and Father of the Church (347-420): “So that you will better appreciate the meaning of Our Lord’s words, and perceive more clearly how few the Elect are, note that Christ did not say that those who actually walked in the path to Heaven are few in number, but that there were few who found that narrow way! … Out of one hundred thousand sinners who continue in sin until death, scarcely one will be saved!”
► St. John Chrysostom, Doctor and Father of the Church (347-407): “What do you think? How many of the inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? What I am about to tell you is very terrible, yet I will not conceal it from you. Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants not one hundred people will be saved. I even doubt whether there will be as many as that! Furthermore, I do not speak rashly, but as I feel and think. I do not think that many bishops are saved, but that those who perish are far more numerous!”
► St. Augustine, Doctor and Father of the Church (354-430): “Not all, nor even a majority, are saved! … It is certain that few are saved! Take care not to resemble the multitude! … If you wish to imitate the multitude, then you shall not be among the few who shall enter in by the narrow gate! … Beyond a doubt the elect are few!”
► St. Regimius of Rheims (437-533): “Among adults there are few saved because of sins of the flesh. … With the exception of those who die in childhood, most men will be damned!”
► St. John Climacus, Syrian monk (525-600): “Live with the few if you want to reign with the few!”
► Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604): “There are many who arrive at the Faith, but few who are led into the heavenly kingdom! …They who are to be saved as Saints, and wish to be saved as imperfect souls, shall not be saved!”
► St. Anselm, Doctor of the Church (1033-1109): “If you want to be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many! And if you wantt be quite sure of your salvation, then strive to be among the fewest of the few! … Do not follow the great majority of mankind, but follow those who enter upon the narrow way, who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or by night, that they may attain everlasting blessedness!”
► St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church (1225-1274): “There are a select few who are saved!” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.7, ad 3.) “Those who are saved are in the minority” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.8, ad.3).
► St. Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419): “Many religious go straight to Hell because they do not keep their vows!”
► St. John of Avila (1499-1569): “Take care not to resemble the multitude whose knowledge of God's will only condemns them to more severe punishment.”
► Ven. Louis de Granada (1504-1588): “A greater number is lost through false confidence than through excessive fear.”
► St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552): “Ah, how many souls lose Heaven and are cast into Hell!”
► St. Philip Neri (1515-1595): “So vast a number of miserable souls perish, and so comparatively few are saved!”
► St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, Doctor of the Church (1696-1787): “It is certainly a great happiness for some sinners who, after a bad life, are converted at their death, and are saved; but these cases are very rare! Usually, he that leads a bad life dies a bad death! … The common opinion is that the greater part of adults is lost! … Everyone desires to be saved―but the greater part is lost! … The greater part of men choose to be damned rather than to love Almighty God! … He who abuses too much the mercy of God will be abandoned by Him!”
► St. John Climacus, Father of the Church (579-649): “Live with the few if you want to reign with the few.”
► St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church (1542-1591): “Behold how many there are who are called, and how few who are chosen! And behold, if you have no care for yourself, your damnation is more certain than your amendment, especially since the way that leads to eternal life is so narrow! … Only a small number of souls achieve perfect love!”
► St. Veronica Giuliani (1660-1727): “The number of the damned is incalculable.”
► St. Louis Marie de Montfort (1673-1716): “Be one of the small number who find the way to life, and enter by the narrow gate into Heaven. Take care not to follow the majority and the common herd, so many of whom are lost! … The number of the elect is so small ― so small ― that, were we to know how small it is, we would faint away with grief―one here and there, scattered up and down the world!”
► Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, (1769-1837): “The greater number of Christians today are damned. The destiny of those dying on one day is that very few ― not as many as ten ― went straight to Heaven; many remained in Purgatory; and those cast into Hell were as numerous as snowflakes in midwinter.”
► St. John Marie Vianney (1786-1859): “The number of the saved is as few as the number of grapes left after the vineyard-pickers have passed! … We shall find out at the day of judgment that the greater number of Christians who are lost were damned because they did not know their own religion!”
► St. Anthony Mary Claret (1807-1870): “A multitude of souls fall into the depths of Hell, and it is of the Faith that all who die in mortal sin are condemned forever and ever. According to statistics, approximately 80,000 persons die every day [back in the 1800s―today around 170,000 people die each day worldwide]. How many of these will die in mortal sin, and how many will be condemned! For, as their lives have been, so also will be their end!”
► St. Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868): “And how very small is the kingdom of Jesus Christ! So many nations have never had the Faith!” (St. Peter Julian Eymard).
► St. Joseph Cafasso (1811-1860): “Cast a look round the world, just observe the manner of living, of speaking, and you will see immediately whether the evil of sin is known in the world or whether any attention is paid to it. Not to speak of those who live decidedly irreligious and wicked lives, how few are those who pass for good and who approach the sacraments are aware of the great evil that sin is, and the great ruin it brings with it. It must necessarily happen that, on account of this certainly culpable ignorance in which most men live, an enormous number will come to be damned, because no sin is pardoned which is not detested, and it is impossible to detest sin properly if it is not known as such.” (St. Joseph Cafasso).
► St. John Neumann (1811-1860): “Notwithstanding assurances that God did not create any man for Hell, and that He wishes all men to be saved, it remains equally true that only few will be saved; that only few will go to Heaven; and that the greater part of mankind will be lost forever.” (St. John Neumann).
► St. Francesca Saverio Cabrini, a.k.a. Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917): “How many among these uncivilized peoples do not yet know God, and are sunk in the darkest idolatry, superstition and ignorance! . . . Poor souls! These are they in whom Christ saw, in all the horror of His imminent Passion, the uselessness of His agony for so many souls!” (St. Francesca Saverio Cabrini).
► Lucia Santos of Fatima (1907-1958?): “Taking into account the behavior of mankind, only a small part of the human race will be saved! Most will be lost!”
► St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima (1910-1920): “Lucia found Jacinta sitting alone, still and very pensive, gazing at nothing. ‘What are you thinking of, Jacinta?’ ‘Of the war that is going to come. So many people are going to die. And almost all of them are going to Hell!”
God and Truth Do Not Change
The teaching on this damnation of the majority of souls is not at all popular and is therefore rarely mentioned or largely ignored―but the truth remains the truth and will not go away just because we choose to ignore it and bury our heads in the sand! Fleeing from the truth does not change the truth! Disliking the truth does not change the truth! Arguing against the truth does not change the truth! Rejecting the truth does not change the truth! Being ignorant of truth does not change the truth! Rebelling against the truth does change the truth! God is Truth and God never changes. Scripture says of God: “God is true!” (Romans 3:4). “Thy word is truth!” (John 17:17). The beginning of Thy words is truth! … All thy ways are truth! … Thy law is the truth! … All thy statutes are truth! In Thy truth Thou hast humbled me!” (Psalm 118: verses 160, 151, 142, 86, 75). Our Lord says of Himself: “I am the truth!” (John 14:6). Our Lord speaks of the Holy Ghost being Truth ― “The Father shall give you another Paraclete, the Spirit of truth … I will send you the Spirit of truth from the Father … When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will teach you all truth!” (John 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:13). God says: “I am the Lord, and I change not!” (Malachias 3:6). Scripture adds: “With the Father of lights there is no change, nor shadow of alteration!” (James 1:17).
Our Lord rebukes this refusal to accept the truth of God: “I am the Truth! … For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth, hears My voice! … He that sent Me is true―and the things I have heard of Him, these same I speak in the world! … My testimony is true! … My judgment is true! ... If you continue in My word, you shall be My disciples! And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free! … But you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you! … You seek to kill Me, a Man Who has spoken the truth to you, which I have heard of God! … I say to you that you shall die in your sins! For if you believe not that I am He, then you shall die in your sin! … Why do you not know My speech? Because you cannot hear My word! You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do! He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him! When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own―for he is a liar, and the father of lies! But if I speak the truth, you do not believe Me! If I speak the truth to you, why do you not believe Me? He that is of God, hears the words of God! Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God!” (John 14:6; 18:37; 8:14-47).
Damnation Is Not Inevitable
Yet damnation is not something that is inevitable and inescapable―just like bad health is not inevitable and inescapable! Do the right things in the physical domain and you will be healthy! Do the right things in the spiritual domain and you will be saved! Ultimately, God neither wants nor seeks the damnation of any soul―no matter how sinful they may be. “He never withdraws His mercy from us―but though He chastises His people with adversity, He forsakes them not!” (Machabees 2:16). “God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:17). God says: “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). Christ Himself said: “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I came to call sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32).
The Only Place Worth Going To!
You guessed it! It is so obvious―or it should be obvious! Or, looking at the above quotes, it is obviously not so obvious! The only place worth going to is HEAVEN. There is only one alternative―HELL. Who the hell wants to go to Hell? Nobody should want that―yet that is where most people end up! Why? A lack of love for God and Heaven! This, in turn, is the result of a lack of knowledge about God and Heaven. As philosophy correctly points out: “You cannot love what you do not know!” You cannot love a person you have never met and know nothing about. You cannot love a particular food if you have never tasted and eaten it. You cannot love a particular city if you have never been there or have little knowledge of it. You cannot love a sport if you have never watched or played it. Hence, “You cannot love what you do not know!” That is also why the Catechism teaches us that in order to get to Heaven we KNOW, LOVE and SERVE GOD. We will not serve very well someone whom we do not love―we cannot love someone whom we know little or nothing about. Hence the foundation of knowledge. The degree of love will usually be in proportion to the degree of knowledge. He who knows little will love little. That is why St. Thérèse of Lisieux used to say: “Jesus is so little loved because He is so little known!”
We read enormous quantities of material about earthly, material, physical, worldly things―but ever so little about heavenly, spiritual, supernatural things. As you sow, so shall you reap! If you fail to sow seeds of knowledge about God, Heaven and things related to them―then you risk not reaping an eternal heavenly harvest. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption [disease and death]. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8). How much time are you spending on earthly, material, physical, worldly things and how much time are you spending on heavenly, spiritual, supernatural things. Our Lord is clear on the matter: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24). “For what shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
Is this New Year the time for a new approach? “Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart, and a new spirit!” (Ezechiel 18:31). “I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you―and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh!” (Ezechiel 36:26). “Put on the new man, who, according to God, is created in justice and holiness of truth!” (Ephesians 4:24).
Article 4
Wednesday, December 31st
Ringing Out the Old? Ringing In the New?
Wednesday, December 31st
Ringing Out the Old? Ringing In the New?
New and Old!
The idea of “new” and “old” is as old as time! In the Bible we have the Old Testament which takes us from the beginning of time to the time of Christ. From the time of Christ to present time we are living in the time of the New Testament. Each day is new day and each moment is a new moment.
Not only do we associate “new” and “old” with time―we also associate it with quality. Usually, most people prefer something new over something old. We buy new cars if we can afford them and not old cars. Likewise, new houses rather than old houses. Similarly, new household appliances rather than old household appliances. The new computer are rated above old computers. New ways of doing things seem to replace old ways of doing things. We seek new recipes because we have grown tired of old recipes.
Our Lord Himself speaks of this “new” and “old” phenomenon: “No man puts new wine into old bottles: otherwise the wine will burst the bottles, and both the wine will be spilled, and the bottles will be lost. But new wine must be put into new bottles” (Mark 2:22). “And no man puts new wine into old bottles: otherwise the new wine will break the bottles, and it will be spilled, and the bottles will be lost. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.” (Luke 5:37-38). “Neither do they put new wine into old bottles. Otherwise the bottles break, and the wine runs out, and the bottles perish. But new wine they put into new bottles: and both are preserved” (Matthew 9:17). “And Jesus spoke also a similitude to them: ‘No man puts a piece from a new garment upon an old garment; otherwise he both rends the new, and the piece taken from the new agrees not with the old’” (Luke 5:36). “No man sews a piece of raw cloth to an old garment: otherwise the new piecing takes away from the old, and there is made a greater tear” (Mark 2:21).
Holy Scripture urges us to put away our old sinful selves and put on a new self: “Put off, according to former conversation, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error! And be renewed in the spirit of your mind! 2And put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth!” (Ephesians 4:22-24). “Put you also all away anger, indignation, malice, blasphemy, filthy speech out of your mouth! Do not lie one to another! Stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new man―him who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of God that created him!” (Colossians 3:10). “If then any be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away, behold all things are made new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened” (1 Corinthians 5:7). “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
The Old Man of Sin and Satan―the New Man of God and Virtue
Sin empowers Satan. Sin put us increasingly in the hands of Satan: “He that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). “For we that are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein? Know you not that all we, who are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in His death? For we are buried together with Him by baptism into death; so that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life! For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection! Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer! For he that is dead is justified from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ! Knowing that Christ, rising again from the dead, dies now no more, death shall no more have dominion over Him. For in that He died to sin, He died once; but in that He lives, he lives unto God! So do you also reckon, that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord! Let no sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof! Neither yield your bodily members as instruments of iniquity unto sin; but present yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of justice unto God!” (Romans 6:2-13).
“New” Should Mean “Better”
Holy Scripture, in the Book of Apocalypse, quotes the following words as coming from Christ: “And He that sat on the throne, said: ‘Behold, I make all things new!’” (Apocalypse 21:5) ― which resonates with “If anyone be in Christ a new creature ― then the old things are passed away, and all things are made new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). In this case―especially where Christ is involved―we clearly understand “new” to mean “better” or “more perfect.” Similarly, Our Lord infers to a future new wine being superior to the old wine: “Amen I say to you, that I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it new in the Kingdom of God!” (Mark 14:25).
Ringing Out the Old Self―Ringing In a New Self
Scripture tells us: “You shall eat the oldest of the old store, and, new coming on, you shall cast away the old!” (Leviticus 26:10). When Our Lord restored to health the sick man by Pool of Bethsaida, who had been sick for 38 years, upon giving the man a “new life” Jesus warned him: “Behold thou art made whole! Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!” (John 5:14).
You may have heard of and even read Lord Alfred Tennyson’s famous poem that speaks of ringing out the old and ringing in the new--the poem is listed below. Unfortunately, it never came true for Tennyson himself. Alfred Tennyson, (1809-1892) was a famous English poet during much of Queen Victoria’s reign (ruled 1837-1901). Tennyson left much to be desired on the spiritual level―being the son of an Anglican clergyman, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, aged 16, and soon after he was persuaded to join a secret society in the college. He then gradually drifted towards agnosticism and pandeism. Tennyson revealed that his religious beliefs defied convention― his son’s biography confirms that Tennyson was an unorthodox Christian, combining a deep interest in contemporary science with an unorthodox, even idiosyncratic, Christian belief. He wrote: “The churches have killed their Christ!” ― which, especially today, can be said to be truism.
The famous opening line of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem, “Ring Out, Wild Bells,” from his longer work In Memoriam A.H.H., marks the end of the old year and the hope for a better new year, calling for the ringing out of sorrow, injustice, and conflict, and ringing in truth, love, and peace for all humanity. The “wild bells” in question were the bells of the Abbey Church in High Beech, where, according to the local story, Tennyson was staying and heard the bells being rung on New Year's Eve. It is an accepted English custom to ring English Full circle bells to ring out the old year and ring in the new year over midnight on New Year's Eve. Tennyson’s poem is as follows:
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
Are You Ringing? Are You Ready? Are You Preparing?
Another New Year is around the corner! Another New Year that will rapidly become the Old Year! Same old New Year! Same old Old Year! Does anything ever change? Are you preparing for another New Year? How are you preparing? What are you doing? Do you have a party prepared? Do you have balloons and all kinds of other such like glitzy things prepared? Do you have drinks prepared? Is the food prepared? What are you preparing for? What’s the point? What’s the focal point? St. Paul tells us: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God!” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Is the glory of God your focal point on this New Year’s Eve and this New Year’s Day?
New Year Comes Late!
The Church has already beaten the State to the New Year—the New Liturgical Year started with the First Sunday of Advent! However, since many are partying tonight and waiting for the secular “New Year”, let us look at some aspects of the “new” from a spiritual perspective. To do so, let us primarily turn to the Word of God—Holy Scripture—for a look at the “new.” Then, let us look at what “New Year Resolutions” we could make or take, that we won’t break or forsake!
Our Lord Comes to Make Things New
There are times when the “old” is better, and there are times when the “new” is necessary. Our Lord Himself came to perfect the old with the new—the Old Testament gave way to the New Testament. Our “old” selves, likewise, need to make way for our “new” selves—re”new”ed by the grace of God. Heaven is often called the “New Jerusalem” —a heavenly Jerusalem that replaces or perfects the earthly Jerusalem. We see this focus on the “new” in the words of Our Lord and the New Testament authors. “But we look for new heavens and a new Earth” (2 Peter 3:13).
Don’t Mix the Old with the New
We cannot make a blend of the world and God; nor can we marry spirituality to materialism: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24) … “And what concord has Christ with Belial?” (2 Corinthians 6:15). “And you, when you were dead in your offences and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air [the devil], of the spirit that now works on the children of unbelief―in which also we all conversed in time past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, Who is rich in mercy, even when we were dead in sins, has restored us together in Christ, by Whose grace you are saved, and has raised us up together, and has made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-5).
Purge Out the Old
God wants us to be new creatures, new persons, better creatures, better persons. That is why He came on Earth—the Advent and Christmas liturgy speaks of Our Lord coming to restore, to renew, to recreate what was lost through sin. This is the spirit that we should positively and effectively undertake in the coming New Year—putting on a new man, a new self, created in justice and holiness; becoming a new leaven, renewed in mind and heart, so that we are a new creature in Christ, having put the old ways behind us and having made all things new!
“And He that sat on the throne, said: ‘Behold, I make all things new!’ And He said to me: ‘Write! For these words are most faithful and true!’” (Apocalypse 21:5). “A new commandment I give unto you” (John 13:34) ... “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste” (1 Corinthians 5:7). “Put off, according to former conversation, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error and be renewed in the spirit of your mind: and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth” (Ephesians 4:22-24). “And putting on the new, him who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of Him that created him” (Colossians 3:10). “If then anyone be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away, behold all things are made new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “In saying ‘a new’, He has made the former old” (Hebrews 8:13).
Vintage Year for God
While others toast the New Year with glasses of wine, we should be preparing to give God a special vintage this coming year—not mixing our old cheap wine with the vintage wine that God expects from us. We repeat the earlier quotes: “Neither do they put new wine into old bottles. Otherwise the bottles break, and the wine runs out, and the bottles perish. But new wine they put into new bottles: and both are preserved” (Matthew 9:17). “No man sews a piece of raw cloth to an old garment” (Mark 2:21). “No man puts a piece from a new garment upon an old garment; otherwise the piece taken from the new agrees not with the old” (Luke 5:36).
God Seeks Improvement
All these Scriptural quotes stress or imply the need for improvement—not just “new” for sake of it being “new”, but “new’ in the sense of something better than was there before. In this sense, we go through school learning new things every year and, thereby, our intelligence becomes better. We learn new skills and thereby become better. Our spiritual life should follow the same pattern—each year we should become better due to new things and changes that we have made; much like a tree that each year grows more, becomes stronger and bears more fruit: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32).
The tree or vine should be always improving, as Our Lord points out at the Last Supper: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the gardener. Every branch in Me, that bears not fruit, He will take away; and every branch that bears fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit … I am the vine and you are the branches―he that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit. If anyone abides not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:1-6).
Fruitless and Loveless
The Apocalypse has even stronger words to say: “I know your works, and that you are neither cold, nor hot. I would prefer that you were cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm―and neither cold, not hot―I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ and do you not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy of Me gold fire tried, so that you may be made rich; and may be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, so that you may see!” (Apocalypse 3:14-18).
This New Year—Buy the Gold of Charity
Yes, we are spiritually poor, blind and naked, as the Apocalypse just said. Just as the Three Kings brought three gifts, so do the three persons of the Holy Trinity counsel us to turn to Them for the solution―which is to buy from Them gold, white garments, and eye-salve. These three things are an echo of the three gifts offered to Jesus by the Magi.
The Gold in both cases—the Apocalypse account and that of the Magi—is the gold of charity, which, as we said with the Scriptural quote above, will have grown cold in many souls: “Because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold!” (Matthew 24:12). Will this be a cold year in my heart, or will I kindle a fire in my heart towards God: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). Will the fire in my heart grow or burn-out?
This New Year—Cloth Yourself with Suffering
The white garments, spoken of in Apocalypse, correspond to the Myrrh. The Myrrh is a symbol of suffering, being used both as a painkiller and for embalming the dead. The white garments reflect that suffering, as shown by this quote: “These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the Blood of the Lamb” (Apocalypse 7:14).
This coming New Year, no doubt, will bring increased suffering in an increasingly sinful world—“Be not deceived, God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7). The world cannot sin with impunity―it has to pay for its sins: “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “Sin has reigned to death” (Romans 5:21). “When concupiscence has conceived, it brings forth sin. But sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15).
This New Year—Use the Eye-Salve of Fervent Prayer
The Eye-Salve, spoken of in Apocalypse, corresponds to the frankincense of prayer, which rises like smoke to Heaven. The blind man is begging and praying to Jesus for his blindness to be removed. “Jesus asked him saying: ‘What wilt thou that I do to thee?’ But he said: ‘Lord, that I may see!’” (Luke 18:41).
His prayer is the eye-salve that removes his blindness. This blindness corresponds to lukewarmness—as Fr. Faber writes: “The diseases and evils of the body are in a great degree typical of the miseries and misfortunes of the soul. If we seek the correlative of lukewarmness, we shall find it in blindness. It is a blindness which does not know even its own self, and does not suspect that it is blind, or that other men see better than itself” (Fr. Faber, Growth in Holiness). Our Lady of Good Success says: “Others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil.”
The lukewarm need the ‘eye-salve’ of prayer to save them from the fate of lukewarmness—which is being vomited out from the mouth of God. Let us resolve to use this ‘eye-salve’ regularly and properly this coming New Year! As Our Lord said: “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).
‘Happy’ New Year! Ouch!
Today there is not enough gold, frankincense and myrrh in our lives. We love too little; we pray too little; we suffer too little. That is why we risk having little chance for salvation unless we follow the counsels of the Apocalypse in our apocalyptic times! Love, pray and suffer! This should be our New Year resolution! Have a charitable New Year! Have a prayerful New Year! Have a painful New Year! Ouch!
But that is what Our Lady herself told us: “The children of the holy Church, the children of my Faith, my true followers, they will grow in their love for God!” (Our Lady of La Salette). “Pray, pray very much!” (Our Lady of Fatima). “Are you willing to bear all the sufferings God wills to send you? Then you are going to have much to suffer … Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you!” (Our Lady of Fatima). “I do not promise to make you Happy [New Year] in this life, but in the next!” (Our Lady of Lourdes).
The idea of “new” and “old” is as old as time! In the Bible we have the Old Testament which takes us from the beginning of time to the time of Christ. From the time of Christ to present time we are living in the time of the New Testament. Each day is new day and each moment is a new moment.
Not only do we associate “new” and “old” with time―we also associate it with quality. Usually, most people prefer something new over something old. We buy new cars if we can afford them and not old cars. Likewise, new houses rather than old houses. Similarly, new household appliances rather than old household appliances. The new computer are rated above old computers. New ways of doing things seem to replace old ways of doing things. We seek new recipes because we have grown tired of old recipes.
Our Lord Himself speaks of this “new” and “old” phenomenon: “No man puts new wine into old bottles: otherwise the wine will burst the bottles, and both the wine will be spilled, and the bottles will be lost. But new wine must be put into new bottles” (Mark 2:22). “And no man puts new wine into old bottles: otherwise the new wine will break the bottles, and it will be spilled, and the bottles will be lost. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.” (Luke 5:37-38). “Neither do they put new wine into old bottles. Otherwise the bottles break, and the wine runs out, and the bottles perish. But new wine they put into new bottles: and both are preserved” (Matthew 9:17). “And Jesus spoke also a similitude to them: ‘No man puts a piece from a new garment upon an old garment; otherwise he both rends the new, and the piece taken from the new agrees not with the old’” (Luke 5:36). “No man sews a piece of raw cloth to an old garment: otherwise the new piecing takes away from the old, and there is made a greater tear” (Mark 2:21).
Holy Scripture urges us to put away our old sinful selves and put on a new self: “Put off, according to former conversation, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error! And be renewed in the spirit of your mind! 2And put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth!” (Ephesians 4:22-24). “Put you also all away anger, indignation, malice, blasphemy, filthy speech out of your mouth! Do not lie one to another! Stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new man―him who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of God that created him!” (Colossians 3:10). “If then any be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away, behold all things are made new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened” (1 Corinthians 5:7). “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
The Old Man of Sin and Satan―the New Man of God and Virtue
Sin empowers Satan. Sin put us increasingly in the hands of Satan: “He that commits sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). “For we that are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein? Know you not that all we, who are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in His death? For we are buried together with Him by baptism into death; so that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life! For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection! Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer! For he that is dead is justified from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ! Knowing that Christ, rising again from the dead, dies now no more, death shall no more have dominion over Him. For in that He died to sin, He died once; but in that He lives, he lives unto God! So do you also reckon, that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord! Let no sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof! Neither yield your bodily members as instruments of iniquity unto sin; but present yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of justice unto God!” (Romans 6:2-13).
“New” Should Mean “Better”
Holy Scripture, in the Book of Apocalypse, quotes the following words as coming from Christ: “And He that sat on the throne, said: ‘Behold, I make all things new!’” (Apocalypse 21:5) ― which resonates with “If anyone be in Christ a new creature ― then the old things are passed away, and all things are made new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). In this case―especially where Christ is involved―we clearly understand “new” to mean “better” or “more perfect.” Similarly, Our Lord infers to a future new wine being superior to the old wine: “Amen I say to you, that I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it new in the Kingdom of God!” (Mark 14:25).
Ringing Out the Old Self―Ringing In a New Self
Scripture tells us: “You shall eat the oldest of the old store, and, new coming on, you shall cast away the old!” (Leviticus 26:10). When Our Lord restored to health the sick man by Pool of Bethsaida, who had been sick for 38 years, upon giving the man a “new life” Jesus warned him: “Behold thou art made whole! Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!” (John 5:14).
You may have heard of and even read Lord Alfred Tennyson’s famous poem that speaks of ringing out the old and ringing in the new--the poem is listed below. Unfortunately, it never came true for Tennyson himself. Alfred Tennyson, (1809-1892) was a famous English poet during much of Queen Victoria’s reign (ruled 1837-1901). Tennyson left much to be desired on the spiritual level―being the son of an Anglican clergyman, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, aged 16, and soon after he was persuaded to join a secret society in the college. He then gradually drifted towards agnosticism and pandeism. Tennyson revealed that his religious beliefs defied convention― his son’s biography confirms that Tennyson was an unorthodox Christian, combining a deep interest in contemporary science with an unorthodox, even idiosyncratic, Christian belief. He wrote: “The churches have killed their Christ!” ― which, especially today, can be said to be truism.
The famous opening line of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem, “Ring Out, Wild Bells,” from his longer work In Memoriam A.H.H., marks the end of the old year and the hope for a better new year, calling for the ringing out of sorrow, injustice, and conflict, and ringing in truth, love, and peace for all humanity. The “wild bells” in question were the bells of the Abbey Church in High Beech, where, according to the local story, Tennyson was staying and heard the bells being rung on New Year's Eve. It is an accepted English custom to ring English Full circle bells to ring out the old year and ring in the new year over midnight on New Year's Eve. Tennyson’s poem is as follows:
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
Are You Ringing? Are You Ready? Are You Preparing?
Another New Year is around the corner! Another New Year that will rapidly become the Old Year! Same old New Year! Same old Old Year! Does anything ever change? Are you preparing for another New Year? How are you preparing? What are you doing? Do you have a party prepared? Do you have balloons and all kinds of other such like glitzy things prepared? Do you have drinks prepared? Is the food prepared? What are you preparing for? What’s the point? What’s the focal point? St. Paul tells us: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God!” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Is the glory of God your focal point on this New Year’s Eve and this New Year’s Day?
New Year Comes Late!
The Church has already beaten the State to the New Year—the New Liturgical Year started with the First Sunday of Advent! However, since many are partying tonight and waiting for the secular “New Year”, let us look at some aspects of the “new” from a spiritual perspective. To do so, let us primarily turn to the Word of God—Holy Scripture—for a look at the “new.” Then, let us look at what “New Year Resolutions” we could make or take, that we won’t break or forsake!
Our Lord Comes to Make Things New
There are times when the “old” is better, and there are times when the “new” is necessary. Our Lord Himself came to perfect the old with the new—the Old Testament gave way to the New Testament. Our “old” selves, likewise, need to make way for our “new” selves—re”new”ed by the grace of God. Heaven is often called the “New Jerusalem” —a heavenly Jerusalem that replaces or perfects the earthly Jerusalem. We see this focus on the “new” in the words of Our Lord and the New Testament authors. “But we look for new heavens and a new Earth” (2 Peter 3:13).
Don’t Mix the Old with the New
We cannot make a blend of the world and God; nor can we marry spirituality to materialism: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24) … “And what concord has Christ with Belial?” (2 Corinthians 6:15). “And you, when you were dead in your offences and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air [the devil], of the spirit that now works on the children of unbelief―in which also we all conversed in time past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, Who is rich in mercy, even when we were dead in sins, has restored us together in Christ, by Whose grace you are saved, and has raised us up together, and has made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-5).
Purge Out the Old
God wants us to be new creatures, new persons, better creatures, better persons. That is why He came on Earth—the Advent and Christmas liturgy speaks of Our Lord coming to restore, to renew, to recreate what was lost through sin. This is the spirit that we should positively and effectively undertake in the coming New Year—putting on a new man, a new self, created in justice and holiness; becoming a new leaven, renewed in mind and heart, so that we are a new creature in Christ, having put the old ways behind us and having made all things new!
“And He that sat on the throne, said: ‘Behold, I make all things new!’ And He said to me: ‘Write! For these words are most faithful and true!’” (Apocalypse 21:5). “A new commandment I give unto you” (John 13:34) ... “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste” (1 Corinthians 5:7). “Put off, according to former conversation, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error and be renewed in the spirit of your mind: and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth” (Ephesians 4:22-24). “And putting on the new, him who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of Him that created him” (Colossians 3:10). “If then anyone be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away, behold all things are made new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “In saying ‘a new’, He has made the former old” (Hebrews 8:13).
Vintage Year for God
While others toast the New Year with glasses of wine, we should be preparing to give God a special vintage this coming year—not mixing our old cheap wine with the vintage wine that God expects from us. We repeat the earlier quotes: “Neither do they put new wine into old bottles. Otherwise the bottles break, and the wine runs out, and the bottles perish. But new wine they put into new bottles: and both are preserved” (Matthew 9:17). “No man sews a piece of raw cloth to an old garment” (Mark 2:21). “No man puts a piece from a new garment upon an old garment; otherwise the piece taken from the new agrees not with the old” (Luke 5:36).
God Seeks Improvement
All these Scriptural quotes stress or imply the need for improvement—not just “new” for sake of it being “new”, but “new’ in the sense of something better than was there before. In this sense, we go through school learning new things every year and, thereby, our intelligence becomes better. We learn new skills and thereby become better. Our spiritual life should follow the same pattern—each year we should become better due to new things and changes that we have made; much like a tree that each year grows more, becomes stronger and bears more fruit: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32).
The tree or vine should be always improving, as Our Lord points out at the Last Supper: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the gardener. Every branch in Me, that bears not fruit, He will take away; and every branch that bears fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit … I am the vine and you are the branches―he that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit. If anyone abides not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:1-6).
Fruitless and Loveless
The Apocalypse has even stronger words to say: “I know your works, and that you are neither cold, nor hot. I would prefer that you were cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm―and neither cold, not hot―I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ and do you not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy of Me gold fire tried, so that you may be made rich; and may be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, so that you may see!” (Apocalypse 3:14-18).
This New Year—Buy the Gold of Charity
Yes, we are spiritually poor, blind and naked, as the Apocalypse just said. Just as the Three Kings brought three gifts, so do the three persons of the Holy Trinity counsel us to turn to Them for the solution―which is to buy from Them gold, white garments, and eye-salve. These three things are an echo of the three gifts offered to Jesus by the Magi.
The Gold in both cases—the Apocalypse account and that of the Magi—is the gold of charity, which, as we said with the Scriptural quote above, will have grown cold in many souls: “Because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold!” (Matthew 24:12). Will this be a cold year in my heart, or will I kindle a fire in my heart towards God: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). Will the fire in my heart grow or burn-out?
This New Year—Cloth Yourself with Suffering
The white garments, spoken of in Apocalypse, correspond to the Myrrh. The Myrrh is a symbol of suffering, being used both as a painkiller and for embalming the dead. The white garments reflect that suffering, as shown by this quote: “These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the Blood of the Lamb” (Apocalypse 7:14).
This coming New Year, no doubt, will bring increased suffering in an increasingly sinful world—“Be not deceived, God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7). The world cannot sin with impunity―it has to pay for its sins: “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “Sin has reigned to death” (Romans 5:21). “When concupiscence has conceived, it brings forth sin. But sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15).
This New Year—Use the Eye-Salve of Fervent Prayer
The Eye-Salve, spoken of in Apocalypse, corresponds to the frankincense of prayer, which rises like smoke to Heaven. The blind man is begging and praying to Jesus for his blindness to be removed. “Jesus asked him saying: ‘What wilt thou that I do to thee?’ But he said: ‘Lord, that I may see!’” (Luke 18:41).
His prayer is the eye-salve that removes his blindness. This blindness corresponds to lukewarmness—as Fr. Faber writes: “The diseases and evils of the body are in a great degree typical of the miseries and misfortunes of the soul. If we seek the correlative of lukewarmness, we shall find it in blindness. It is a blindness which does not know even its own self, and does not suspect that it is blind, or that other men see better than itself” (Fr. Faber, Growth in Holiness). Our Lady of Good Success says: “Others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil.”
The lukewarm need the ‘eye-salve’ of prayer to save them from the fate of lukewarmness—which is being vomited out from the mouth of God. Let us resolve to use this ‘eye-salve’ regularly and properly this coming New Year! As Our Lord said: “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).
‘Happy’ New Year! Ouch!
Today there is not enough gold, frankincense and myrrh in our lives. We love too little; we pray too little; we suffer too little. That is why we risk having little chance for salvation unless we follow the counsels of the Apocalypse in our apocalyptic times! Love, pray and suffer! This should be our New Year resolution! Have a charitable New Year! Have a prayerful New Year! Have a painful New Year! Ouch!
But that is what Our Lady herself told us: “The children of the holy Church, the children of my Faith, my true followers, they will grow in their love for God!” (Our Lady of La Salette). “Pray, pray very much!” (Our Lady of Fatima). “Are you willing to bear all the sufferings God wills to send you? Then you are going to have much to suffer … Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you!” (Our Lady of Fatima). “I do not promise to make you Happy [New Year] in this life, but in the next!” (Our Lady of Lourdes).
Article 3
Monday & Tuesday, December 29th & 30th
Life is No Joke! Christmas is No Party!
Monday & Tuesday, December 29th & 30th
Life is No Joke! Christmas is No Party!
Not an End, but a Beginning!
The Light of the world has arrived amidst the world’s darkness and coldness! Why has He come? He has come to enlighten our minds about the things that really matter and to enkindle in our hearts the fire of His love. As Jesus Himself said: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). The fire, at the same time, gives off warmth and light. God is charity—an inextinguishable fire of love. God is also all knowing—an inextinguishable light. “Jesus spoke to them, saying: ‘I am the light of the world: he that follows Me, walks not in darkness, but shall have the light of life’” (John 8:12). Christmas is not an end in itself, it is merely the beginning of Christ’s life. Christmas does not end the day after December 25th, but is the mere planting of the seed of knowledge and the mere sparking or kindling of the fire of a love of God. It is another year of planting. Will it bring more and better fruit than last year?
Christmas Candlesticks
The seed of knowledge of God is meant to grow; the spark of love is meant to grow into a ‘forest fire’ that sets fire to our family, relatives, friends and colleagues (the forest that surrounds us). “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). “Of one spark comes a great fire” (Ecclesiasticus 11:34). “Behold how small a fire kindles a great wood” (James 3:5). Jesus said to them: “Does a candle come in to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? Now no man lighting a candle covers it with a vessel, or puts it under a bed; but sets it upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house, that they who come in may see the light!” (Matthew 5:15; Mark 4:21; Luke 8:16).
Christmas Fires
“I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). Moses saw this truth symbolized by encountering God in the burning bush: “Now Moses came to the mountain of God, Horeb. And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire and was not burnt. And Moses said: ‘I will go and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt!’ And when the Lord saw that he went forward to see, He called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said: ‘Moses! Moses!’ And he answered: ‘Here I am!’” (Exodus 3:1-4).
It was not only to Moses that God manifested Himself in the form of fire, but, later, also to the children of Israel: “And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Exodus 24:17).
At Christmas, this same divine fire comes to Earth, to enlighten mankind and enkindle in them the divine fire of a love for God: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49).
By which Fire are You Standing Warming and Yourself?
“Let us serve, pleasing God, with fear and reverence. For our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29). Some prefer to serve gold—a symbol of riches, money, power and pleasure—but “Neither shall their silver and their gold be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord: all the land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy” (Sophonias 1:18). We can burn with a love of God or we can burn with the love of the world—yet the consequences are different.
Refining Fires
We see this in a twofold or even threefold fire—the fire of God, the fire of Purgatory and the fire of Hell. We cannot escape all of these, and must burn on Earth or in Purgatory before we can get to Heaven—if we do not burn with the fire of God’s love here on Earth, then we will burn in either the fire of Purgatory, or, God forbid, in the fire of Hell after death.
If we burn with a fire of love of God, we shall not be consumed by anything: “I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them, as silver is refined, and I will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on My name, and I will hear them. I will say: ‘Thou art My people!’ And they shall say: ‘The Lord is my God!’” (Zacharias 13:9). “And the Lord went before them to show the way: by day, in a pillar of a cloud, and by night, in a pillar of fire: so that He might be the guide of their journey at both times. There never failed the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, before the people” (Exodus 13:21-22).
If we fail to live, walk and burn in a love of God, then “Every tree that brings not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire” (Matthew 7:19). “If any one abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burns” (John 15:6). “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the pool of fire” (Apocalypse 20:15).
The Fire of God
“I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). God likes to represent Himself by fire: (1) as a fire in the burning bush to Moses, (2) as tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost, (3) as flames of fire coming forth from the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Fire purifies and God must purify us before He accepts us into Heaven. “As silver is tried by fire, and gold in the furnace: so the Lord tries the hearts” (Proverbs 17:3). “For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation” (Ecclesiasticus 2:5). That is why we will have to pass through many fires of tribulation and suffering, before we are good enough for Heaven: “But He knows my way, and has tried me as gold that passes through the fire” (Job 23:10).
Christmas is also a Time for Seeds
Out of one tiny seed comes a great plant: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32). Great things should come out of Christmas! Will this be the case in my life this year. Our Lord has tried to sow the seeds of a true Christmas in my soul year after year—perhaps to no purpose and with no fruit coming from His efforts. The Parable of the Sower of the Seed and the parable of the Cockle and the Wheat are beautiful parables and very applicable to the Christmas season. One could almost call them “Christmas Parables”!
SOME CHRISTMAS PARABLES
The Sower of the Christmas Seed
“Behold the sower went forth to sow. And whilst he sowed some seed fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down and the birds of the air came and ate them up. And other some fell upon stony ground, where they had not much Earth: and they sprung up immediately, because they had no deepness of Earth. And when the sun was up they were scorched: and because they had not root, they withered away. And others fell among thorns: and the thorns grew up and choked them. And others fell upon good ground: and they brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixty-fold, and some thirty-fold” (Matthew 13:3-8; Luke 8:5-8).
“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. When any one hears the Word of the Kingdom, and understands it not—this is he that received the seed by the wayside who hears and understands not—there comes the devil comes and and takes the word out that was sown in his heart, lest believing he should be saved.
“And he that received the seed upon stony ground, is he that hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy. Yet hath he not root in himself, but is only for a time: and when there arises temptation, tribulation and persecution because of the word, he is presently scandalized and falls away.
“And he that received the seed among thorns, is he that hears the word, and is choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, which choke-up the word in him, and he becomes fruitless.
“But he that received the seed upon good ground, is he that hears the word, in a good and perfect heart and understands, and, hearing the word, keeps it, and brings forth fruit in patience, and yield fruit: the one an hundredfold, and another sixty, and another thirty” (Matthew 13:18-23; Luke 8:11-15).
Christmas Seeds
Christmas sees all these different kinds of seeds—or different reactions to the attempts of God to sow the Word (the Word made flesh) in the hearts of the world each Christmas, just like the sower goes out to sow each year.
The seed that falls by the wayside represents those who put the Word of God aside for later (or never), so that they can indulge in the material fun-things of Christmas. These material things of the world—parties, food, drink, entertainment, etc. ― “tread down” the Word of God and they are the “birds of the air” of the “prince of the world”, the devil, that come an carry away the Word of God, so that it never takes root.
The seed that falls on stony ground—that “had not much Earth”—represents the hard-hearted, or the proud, who do not have much humility (Earth, soil, humus). The Word of God immediately springs up on the spot and dies on the spot—it stays on the surface for these superficial souls, who have no spiritual depth to their lives: all is surface stuff, they are content with appearances. When the heat of the sun comes—which is the world applying its “heat” in the form of mockery, hatred and persecution—these superficial souls cannot “take the heat” and the Word of God withers and dies within them.
The seed that fall among thorns—and is choked by them—represents those souls who are too busy with the world—not necessarily sinful things, but also very busy doing good things, but things that are a lesser good than the superior spiritual goods offered by God through the Word of God. What preoccupies them could their family, their work, their health, their leisure time, etc. All of this forgets the condemnation of Our Lord, when He said: “He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37).
These people hide under a false or twisted excuse of following “their duty of state”—whereas they forget that the primary duty of state is to love God first and above anyone or anything else. As Jesus Himself said: “Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33) and “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38). These poor deluded souls place the second commandment—of being concerned with one’s neighbor—above the first commandment of being concerned with God and the things of God. Thus is their spiritual life choked to death, or, at best, is left half-dead or sterile.
Finally, the seed that “fell upon good ground” represents the truly spiritual souls, who are detached from the material, sense driven, pleasure seeking mode of Christmas and much prefer the spiritual seeds to the material seeds of Christmas. These hear the Word of God in a good and perfect heart and understand the Word of God, penetrating below the surface of the “Christmas Story” and, hearing the word, keep it, and “bring forth fruit in patience, and yield fruit: the one an hundredfold, and another sixty, and another thirty?
The fruits, of course, are not the exotic fruits on offer in the supermarkets this Christmas season, but the fruits on offer deep within the Word of God. These souls take time to read, to ponder, to wonder, to dig, to sift and seek! They ask for the graces to understand; they knock on the doors of these mysteries; they enter through the doors and carefully explore the spiritual palace they find; they seek the Christ Child like the shepherds and Magi—and they find Him. But these souls are few, the majority are on the wide, busy road of materialism: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24) … “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14).
The Cockle and the Wheat
“Another parable he proposed to them, saying: The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seeds in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and over-sowed cockle among the wheat and went his way. And when the blade was sprung up, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle. And the servants of the good man of the house coming said to him: ‘Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? Whence then hath it cockle?’ And he said to them: ‘An enemy hath done this!’ And the servants said to him: ‘Wilt thou that we go and gather it up?’ And he said: ‘No! Lest perhaps gathering up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it! Suffer both to grow until the harvest, and, in the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers: “Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn”‘“ (Matthew 13:24-30)
Jesus explains the parable thus: “He that sows the good seed, is the Son of man [born for us on Christmas Day]. And the field, is the world [for our purposes, it is also the field of the Christmas season]. And the good seed are the children of the Kingdom [those who prefer a spiritual Christmas]. And the cockle, are the children of the wicked one [the ones who prefer a worldly Christmas]. And the enemy that sowed them, is the devil [the “prince of the world”, as Our Lord calls him, therefore also the prince of the worldly ones]. But the harvest is the end of the world. And the reapers are the angels. Even as cockle therefore is gathered up, and burnt with fire: so shall it be at the end of the world” (Matthew 13:37-40).
People with Gross Hearts, Shut Eyes, and Deaf Ears
The following passage paints a picture of the two kinds of souls that can be found at Christmas: “I speak to them in parables: because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And the prophecy of Isaias is fulfilled in them, who saith: ‘By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand: and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive. For the heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut: lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. For, amen, I say to you, many prophets and just men have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them, and to hear the things that you hear and have not heard them” (Matthew 13:13-17).
Which Frame of Mind?
If we are among the gross, deaf and blind,
And the Word of God we neither seek nor find;
Then the reason may be that we have left behind,
The One Who came to save mankind.
Perhaps we preferred a worldly frame of mind
And to material pleasures we have inclined,
So that in worldliness we were entwined,
While spiritual graces have been declined
And God’s great charity has been maligned.
Yet it is for such sinners that Our Lord appeared,
Seeking to be loved and not just feared.
Yet the devil, as always, has interfered
And Christmas away from God he has steered.
Spirituality is mostly scorned and smeared,
While worldliness is applauded and cheered.
If you wish to recover what has disappeared,
You risk running the gauntlet of being jeered.
True peace and joy arise as God is neared,
And worldly things away are cleared.
When one has in this way persevered―
Where God is sought first and above all revered―
One then will find what the world thinks weird
Joy at being alone with the God, Who has reappeared!
Did You Blunder into the Wrong Christmas Party?
Christmas is not about fun and games, feasting and drinking―it is all about being saved from Hell. Brushing aside the false sentimentality that has been created around Christmas, we should listen to Holy Mother Church as to true purpose of Christmas. Holy Mother Church reveals this in the Christmas Liturgy. The following quotes are taken from the Masses and Divine Office (Breviary) from Christmas Eve onwards:
“This day you shall know that the Lord will come and save us!” (Exodus 16:6-7) … “O God, You gladden us year after year with the expectation of our redemption!” … “Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of David, to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call His Name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins!” … “It is fitting and profitable to salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, Lord. For You have promised Him as a Savior for the lost human race … the time of His coming is near, and the day of our liberation is dawning!” … “Lift up your heads, for your redemption is at hand!” … “This day a Savior is born unto thee!” … “The Lord has made known His salvation!” … “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men; instructing us, that we should live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world by , denying ungodliness and worldly desires” … “Our Savior Jesus Christ, gave Himself for us, so that He might redeem us from all iniquity” … “These things speak, and exhort and rebuke with all authority!” … “Grant that the birth of Your only begotten Son may set us free, who are held by the bondage and chains of sin!” … “By the birth of Your only begotten Son cleanse us from our sins!” … “Take away from us our iniquities, we beseech Thee, O Lord!”
The Gift of Effort
Being born Catholic has marked advantages over not being born Catholic. Proverbially, it is like being “born with a silver spoon in your mouth”; or like having a three lap start in a four lap race. But even though it has great advantages, God does not give us Heaven on a golden plate. If something is worth doing, then it’s worth doing well; if Heaven is worth getting, then we need to put serious effort into getting there!
Our Lord puts it this way: “Not everyone that says to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21) ... “A rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:23) ... “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3) ... “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:10) ...”Unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:20) … “For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 22:14) … “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12) … “He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:22).
Painful Prophecy
Our Lord is not full of “sweet talk” but He tells us as it is, without wrapping things up in cotton balls. The following prophecy is worth pondering―since it refers to the so-called “End Times” or “Last Days”, which Our Lady of Fatima said that we have entered:
“And as it came to pass in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat and drink, they married wives, and were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark: and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it came to pass, in the days of Lot: they did eat and drink, they bought and sold, they planted and built. And in the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man shall be revealed. In that hour, he that shall be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away: and he that shall be in the field, in like manner, let him not return back. Remember Lot’s wife! Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose it, shall preserve it. I say to you: in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together: the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left: two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.” (Luke 17:26-35).
The Many and the Few
We see this poignantly fulfilled as Jesus died on the Cross: one thief was saved, the other thief was lost. Even before that, many Jews and Pharisees rejected Him, few accepted Him: “Many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16). Many are baptized, but few will be saved.
“And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:23-24) ... “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14) ... “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12).
Life is No Joke―Christmas is No Party
All this points to the seriousness and gravity of the time allotted to us here on Earth by God. Some live for pleasure and fun; others live to work out their salvation. For some, Christmas is a time for fun, food, drink, gifts and parties. For others, Christmas is a time of seeking Christ in a more profitable way, through better prayer, more spiritual reading and a greater detachment from the world. “He that is not with Me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30) ... “You are from beneath, I am from above! You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23) … “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own―but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you! … If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you” (John 15:18-19) … “The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 7:7) … “Be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind!” (Romans 12:2). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4).
Worldly Wise but Heavenly Foolish
“The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (1 Corinthians 3:1). “God made foolish the wisdom of this world” (1 Corinthians 1:20). “The foolish things of the world has God chosen, so that He may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world has God chosen, so that He may confound the strong!” (1 Corinthians 1:2).
It is a reflection of the foolish and wise virgins, mentioned by Our Lord in one of His parables. Time is too precious to lose, yet we have all lost much time. “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above! Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the Earth!” (Colossians 3:1-2). Now is the time to wake up from our illusions and wishful thinking, and face the reality of life, the reality of eternal life, the reality of salvation or ...
Going Out to Meet Christ
So, just like the wise virgins, we must go out to meet our Bridegroom, Christ: “There was a cry made: ‘Behold the bridegroom is coming! Go forth to meet Him!” (Matthew 25:6). Like the wise virgins, we must be ever ready to seek Him, ever ready to go to Him, ever ready to meet Him. Love is reciprocal, meaning it is a “two-way-street” — it is about give and take. At Christmas, Our Lord, out of love, leaves Heaven to come and save us; we must likewise leave the world and go to Him to be saved.
Mary and Joseph had to leave their home and daily occupations in Nazareth to give birth to Him far away in Bethlehem. The Magi had to leave their homes and daily occupations and travel a long way to find and meet Him in Bethlehem. Because of Him, Mary and Joseph had to go even further afield, to distant Egypt, in order to preserve Him in their lives. The Apostles had to leave their jobs and families to be with Him; and would later even have to leave their home country as they were sent into the whole wide world to take His word to others.
Love for Love, Life for Life
He gave His life for us and He demands that we give Him our lives. “For he that will save his life, shall lose it; and he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall find it” (Matthew 16:25) ... “Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground dies, then it remains alone itself. But if it dies, then it brings forth much fruit. He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world, keeps it unto life eternal” (John 12:24-25).
Dying to Live for Christ
That “dying” may take all kinds of shapes and forms. The most common form will be that of dying to the world and its worldly spirit and worldly ambitions and worldly fashions and attitudes. Yet another form, more and more common in these modern times of religious indifference, is having to “die” to human respect which makes us “go along so as to get along” with family, relatives, work colleagues and friends. We are tempted to hide our Faith and shut our mouths to avoid rocking the boat. Yet Our Lord has said: “Everyone that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33). Dying to human respect can be one of the most profitable, yet one of the most painful things we could do.
Our perpetual battle is the one against the blatant lie that tries to tell us that we can have the best of both worlds: that we can live like the rest of the world and also save our souls. Yet, He Who is Truth itself, tells us: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24), while His Apostle, St. James, adds: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
But what About My Family and Friends?
But then we are faced with those who surround us—our family, relatives, work colleagues and social acquaintances! Surely we cannot turn our backs on them?!? Surely that cannot be what God wants! There is a prudent path that must be trodden, as the following Scriptural quotes will explain.
First of all, it is certain that God has come to save sinners: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “The Pharisees and the Scribes murmured, saying: ‘This man receives sinners, and eats with them!’” (Luke 15:2). He forgave sins and accepted sinners into His entourage—as we see in the case of His choosing St. Matthew as an Apostle, whereas he was a publican; and St. Mary Magdalen, who was an adulteress who had been possessed by seven devils; and the Good Thief on the cross. So we clearly see that He does not avoid sinners, but goes to them. Nevertheless, He does not condone their sins, but says things like: “Go and sin no more!” (John 8:11) … “Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!” (John 5:14).
Limits to Love
Yet there are limits that Our Lord Himself sets. The first one being the salvation of our own soul and the avoidance of any dangers that may make us lose our salvation: “What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Secondly, we cannot put family or relatives or friends before God. Do we really want to side with those who are deliberately and stubbornly offending God and are refusing to change their sinful ways? “He that is not with Me, is against Me; and he that gathers not with Me, scatters!” (Matthew 12:30). If they will not follow God, then after trying to change their minds, we cannot let family ties or friendship weaken our Faith, or, worse still, separate us from God.
Jesus Causes Division
Jesus already foresaw and foretold splits in families because of His teaching: “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household! He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves a son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me! And he that takes not up his cross and follows Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:34-38).
If They Will Not Listen, Then...
Thirdly, where there is opposition to Christ’s teaching, and division because of it, then we are told to first of all try and bring them round to the truth, for that is Christ’s wish.
“For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost! What think you? If a man has an hundred sheep, and one of them should go astray: does he not leave the ninety-nine in the mountains, and go to seek that which is gone astray? And if it so be that he find it: Amen I say to you, he rejoices more for that, than for the ninety-nine that went not astray! Even so it is not the will of your Father, Who is in Heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. But if thy brother shall offend against thee―then go and rebuke him between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou shalt gain thy brother. And if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more―so that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand. And if he will not hear them―then tell the church. And if he will not hear the church―then let him be to thee as the heathen and publican” (Matthew 18:11-17). “Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words― going forth out of that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet!” (Matthew 10:14).
One Bad Apple...
We must separate ourselves from and avoid those who are a danger to our Faith, as St. Paul writes: “Know you not that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump? ... I wrote to you in an epistle, not to keep company with fornicators. I mean not with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or the extortioners, or the servers of idols; otherwise you must needs go out of this world. But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat! ... Put away the evil one from among yourselves!” (1 Corinthians 5:6-13).
What Really Converts
As for their conversion, prayer and sacrifice (which Our Lady requested at Fatima) will do more to convert souls that mere human words. Faith is a supernatural gift of God, not man; and it is God who freely gives it. We can give nobody the Faith, we can merely plant seeds, and water them, but it is God who sparks Faith to life: “I have planted, Apollo watered―but God gave the increase!” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Because we are too human and not supernatural enough, we place too much emphasis on human efforts, forgetting (or at least twisting) the words of Our Lord, Who said: “Without Me you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
Limited Edition of Full Version?
At Christmas Christ comes with a challenge; He challenges us to go out of our customary human, self-made (or twisted) partial notion or limited-edition of the Catholic Faith and to embrace the full version or the entire Catholic Faith. It means dying to our personal version of the Faith, a death that will invariably be humiliating and painful, but less humiliating and painful here below, than having to undergo the transformation hereafter! He is there to help us should we decide to do so. Are we among the foolish virgins or the wise virgins? Will we take on the role of the bad thief or the Good Thief? Will we be Simon the Pharisee or Mary Magdalen? We live and die by our choices. Let us choose to die to self and live for Christ. “For to me, to live is Christ; and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). “Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Therefore, whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).
Who are we really living for? Who do we resemble the most? Christ or the world? Can it be said of us: “They are of the world―therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them!” (1 John 4:5). Life is no joke, nor is Christmas merely party time! The focus of life is salvation not self-gratification. The focus of Christmas is letting Christ take over our lives rather than the world taking over our lives! As Our Lord said to His followers at the Last Supper, on the verge of His Passion and Death: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful―but your sorrow shall be turned into joy!” (John 16:20).
Christ comes at Christmas―not to wine and dine, laugh and play, be on social media or watch TV all day―Christ comes to pray, pay and die for our sins and take their just punishment away; He comes to save us from the world, not to immerse us in the world; He seeks lead our love to things above away from our selfish, material, worldly love. Yet Christ will twist no-one’s arm, He offers and leaves the choice to our own free-will ― for better or worse; leading to blessings or a self-inflicted curse! Which Christmas path will you take? “I came to call sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). “Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Luke 13:24; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14) ― or should we say: “Few choose to be chosen!”
The Light of the world has arrived amidst the world’s darkness and coldness! Why has He come? He has come to enlighten our minds about the things that really matter and to enkindle in our hearts the fire of His love. As Jesus Himself said: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). The fire, at the same time, gives off warmth and light. God is charity—an inextinguishable fire of love. God is also all knowing—an inextinguishable light. “Jesus spoke to them, saying: ‘I am the light of the world: he that follows Me, walks not in darkness, but shall have the light of life’” (John 8:12). Christmas is not an end in itself, it is merely the beginning of Christ’s life. Christmas does not end the day after December 25th, but is the mere planting of the seed of knowledge and the mere sparking or kindling of the fire of a love of God. It is another year of planting. Will it bring more and better fruit than last year?
Christmas Candlesticks
The seed of knowledge of God is meant to grow; the spark of love is meant to grow into a ‘forest fire’ that sets fire to our family, relatives, friends and colleagues (the forest that surrounds us). “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). “Of one spark comes a great fire” (Ecclesiasticus 11:34). “Behold how small a fire kindles a great wood” (James 3:5). Jesus said to them: “Does a candle come in to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? Now no man lighting a candle covers it with a vessel, or puts it under a bed; but sets it upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house, that they who come in may see the light!” (Matthew 5:15; Mark 4:21; Luke 8:16).
Christmas Fires
“I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). Moses saw this truth symbolized by encountering God in the burning bush: “Now Moses came to the mountain of God, Horeb. And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire and was not burnt. And Moses said: ‘I will go and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt!’ And when the Lord saw that he went forward to see, He called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said: ‘Moses! Moses!’ And he answered: ‘Here I am!’” (Exodus 3:1-4).
It was not only to Moses that God manifested Himself in the form of fire, but, later, also to the children of Israel: “And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Exodus 24:17).
At Christmas, this same divine fire comes to Earth, to enlighten mankind and enkindle in them the divine fire of a love for God: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49).
By which Fire are You Standing Warming and Yourself?
“Let us serve, pleasing God, with fear and reverence. For our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29). Some prefer to serve gold—a symbol of riches, money, power and pleasure—but “Neither shall their silver and their gold be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord: all the land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy” (Sophonias 1:18). We can burn with a love of God or we can burn with the love of the world—yet the consequences are different.
Refining Fires
We see this in a twofold or even threefold fire—the fire of God, the fire of Purgatory and the fire of Hell. We cannot escape all of these, and must burn on Earth or in Purgatory before we can get to Heaven—if we do not burn with the fire of God’s love here on Earth, then we will burn in either the fire of Purgatory, or, God forbid, in the fire of Hell after death.
If we burn with a fire of love of God, we shall not be consumed by anything: “I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them, as silver is refined, and I will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on My name, and I will hear them. I will say: ‘Thou art My people!’ And they shall say: ‘The Lord is my God!’” (Zacharias 13:9). “And the Lord went before them to show the way: by day, in a pillar of a cloud, and by night, in a pillar of fire: so that He might be the guide of their journey at both times. There never failed the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, before the people” (Exodus 13:21-22).
If we fail to live, walk and burn in a love of God, then “Every tree that brings not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire” (Matthew 7:19). “If any one abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burns” (John 15:6). “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the pool of fire” (Apocalypse 20:15).
The Fire of God
“I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). God likes to represent Himself by fire: (1) as a fire in the burning bush to Moses, (2) as tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost, (3) as flames of fire coming forth from the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Fire purifies and God must purify us before He accepts us into Heaven. “As silver is tried by fire, and gold in the furnace: so the Lord tries the hearts” (Proverbs 17:3). “For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation” (Ecclesiasticus 2:5). That is why we will have to pass through many fires of tribulation and suffering, before we are good enough for Heaven: “But He knows my way, and has tried me as gold that passes through the fire” (Job 23:10).
Christmas is also a Time for Seeds
Out of one tiny seed comes a great plant: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32). Great things should come out of Christmas! Will this be the case in my life this year. Our Lord has tried to sow the seeds of a true Christmas in my soul year after year—perhaps to no purpose and with no fruit coming from His efforts. The Parable of the Sower of the Seed and the parable of the Cockle and the Wheat are beautiful parables and very applicable to the Christmas season. One could almost call them “Christmas Parables”!
SOME CHRISTMAS PARABLES
The Sower of the Christmas Seed
“Behold the sower went forth to sow. And whilst he sowed some seed fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down and the birds of the air came and ate them up. And other some fell upon stony ground, where they had not much Earth: and they sprung up immediately, because they had no deepness of Earth. And when the sun was up they were scorched: and because they had not root, they withered away. And others fell among thorns: and the thorns grew up and choked them. And others fell upon good ground: and they brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixty-fold, and some thirty-fold” (Matthew 13:3-8; Luke 8:5-8).
“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. When any one hears the Word of the Kingdom, and understands it not—this is he that received the seed by the wayside who hears and understands not—there comes the devil comes and and takes the word out that was sown in his heart, lest believing he should be saved.
“And he that received the seed upon stony ground, is he that hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy. Yet hath he not root in himself, but is only for a time: and when there arises temptation, tribulation and persecution because of the word, he is presently scandalized and falls away.
“And he that received the seed among thorns, is he that hears the word, and is choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, which choke-up the word in him, and he becomes fruitless.
“But he that received the seed upon good ground, is he that hears the word, in a good and perfect heart and understands, and, hearing the word, keeps it, and brings forth fruit in patience, and yield fruit: the one an hundredfold, and another sixty, and another thirty” (Matthew 13:18-23; Luke 8:11-15).
Christmas Seeds
Christmas sees all these different kinds of seeds—or different reactions to the attempts of God to sow the Word (the Word made flesh) in the hearts of the world each Christmas, just like the sower goes out to sow each year.
The seed that falls by the wayside represents those who put the Word of God aside for later (or never), so that they can indulge in the material fun-things of Christmas. These material things of the world—parties, food, drink, entertainment, etc. ― “tread down” the Word of God and they are the “birds of the air” of the “prince of the world”, the devil, that come an carry away the Word of God, so that it never takes root.
The seed that falls on stony ground—that “had not much Earth”—represents the hard-hearted, or the proud, who do not have much humility (Earth, soil, humus). The Word of God immediately springs up on the spot and dies on the spot—it stays on the surface for these superficial souls, who have no spiritual depth to their lives: all is surface stuff, they are content with appearances. When the heat of the sun comes—which is the world applying its “heat” in the form of mockery, hatred and persecution—these superficial souls cannot “take the heat” and the Word of God withers and dies within them.
The seed that fall among thorns—and is choked by them—represents those souls who are too busy with the world—not necessarily sinful things, but also very busy doing good things, but things that are a lesser good than the superior spiritual goods offered by God through the Word of God. What preoccupies them could their family, their work, their health, their leisure time, etc. All of this forgets the condemnation of Our Lord, when He said: “He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37).
These people hide under a false or twisted excuse of following “their duty of state”—whereas they forget that the primary duty of state is to love God first and above anyone or anything else. As Jesus Himself said: “Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33) and “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38). These poor deluded souls place the second commandment—of being concerned with one’s neighbor—above the first commandment of being concerned with God and the things of God. Thus is their spiritual life choked to death, or, at best, is left half-dead or sterile.
Finally, the seed that “fell upon good ground” represents the truly spiritual souls, who are detached from the material, sense driven, pleasure seeking mode of Christmas and much prefer the spiritual seeds to the material seeds of Christmas. These hear the Word of God in a good and perfect heart and understand the Word of God, penetrating below the surface of the “Christmas Story” and, hearing the word, keep it, and “bring forth fruit in patience, and yield fruit: the one an hundredfold, and another sixty, and another thirty?
The fruits, of course, are not the exotic fruits on offer in the supermarkets this Christmas season, but the fruits on offer deep within the Word of God. These souls take time to read, to ponder, to wonder, to dig, to sift and seek! They ask for the graces to understand; they knock on the doors of these mysteries; they enter through the doors and carefully explore the spiritual palace they find; they seek the Christ Child like the shepherds and Magi—and they find Him. But these souls are few, the majority are on the wide, busy road of materialism: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24) … “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14).
The Cockle and the Wheat
“Another parable he proposed to them, saying: The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seeds in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and over-sowed cockle among the wheat and went his way. And when the blade was sprung up, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle. And the servants of the good man of the house coming said to him: ‘Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? Whence then hath it cockle?’ And he said to them: ‘An enemy hath done this!’ And the servants said to him: ‘Wilt thou that we go and gather it up?’ And he said: ‘No! Lest perhaps gathering up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it! Suffer both to grow until the harvest, and, in the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers: “Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn”‘“ (Matthew 13:24-30)
Jesus explains the parable thus: “He that sows the good seed, is the Son of man [born for us on Christmas Day]. And the field, is the world [for our purposes, it is also the field of the Christmas season]. And the good seed are the children of the Kingdom [those who prefer a spiritual Christmas]. And the cockle, are the children of the wicked one [the ones who prefer a worldly Christmas]. And the enemy that sowed them, is the devil [the “prince of the world”, as Our Lord calls him, therefore also the prince of the worldly ones]. But the harvest is the end of the world. And the reapers are the angels. Even as cockle therefore is gathered up, and burnt with fire: so shall it be at the end of the world” (Matthew 13:37-40).
People with Gross Hearts, Shut Eyes, and Deaf Ears
The following passage paints a picture of the two kinds of souls that can be found at Christmas: “I speak to them in parables: because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And the prophecy of Isaias is fulfilled in them, who saith: ‘By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand: and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive. For the heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut: lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. For, amen, I say to you, many prophets and just men have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them, and to hear the things that you hear and have not heard them” (Matthew 13:13-17).
Which Frame of Mind?
If we are among the gross, deaf and blind,
And the Word of God we neither seek nor find;
Then the reason may be that we have left behind,
The One Who came to save mankind.
Perhaps we preferred a worldly frame of mind
And to material pleasures we have inclined,
So that in worldliness we were entwined,
While spiritual graces have been declined
And God’s great charity has been maligned.
Yet it is for such sinners that Our Lord appeared,
Seeking to be loved and not just feared.
Yet the devil, as always, has interfered
And Christmas away from God he has steered.
Spirituality is mostly scorned and smeared,
While worldliness is applauded and cheered.
If you wish to recover what has disappeared,
You risk running the gauntlet of being jeered.
True peace and joy arise as God is neared,
And worldly things away are cleared.
When one has in this way persevered―
Where God is sought first and above all revered―
One then will find what the world thinks weird
Joy at being alone with the God, Who has reappeared!
Did You Blunder into the Wrong Christmas Party?
Christmas is not about fun and games, feasting and drinking―it is all about being saved from Hell. Brushing aside the false sentimentality that has been created around Christmas, we should listen to Holy Mother Church as to true purpose of Christmas. Holy Mother Church reveals this in the Christmas Liturgy. The following quotes are taken from the Masses and Divine Office (Breviary) from Christmas Eve onwards:
“This day you shall know that the Lord will come and save us!” (Exodus 16:6-7) … “O God, You gladden us year after year with the expectation of our redemption!” … “Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of David, to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call His Name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins!” … “It is fitting and profitable to salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, Lord. For You have promised Him as a Savior for the lost human race … the time of His coming is near, and the day of our liberation is dawning!” … “Lift up your heads, for your redemption is at hand!” … “This day a Savior is born unto thee!” … “The Lord has made known His salvation!” … “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men; instructing us, that we should live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world by , denying ungodliness and worldly desires” … “Our Savior Jesus Christ, gave Himself for us, so that He might redeem us from all iniquity” … “These things speak, and exhort and rebuke with all authority!” … “Grant that the birth of Your only begotten Son may set us free, who are held by the bondage and chains of sin!” … “By the birth of Your only begotten Son cleanse us from our sins!” … “Take away from us our iniquities, we beseech Thee, O Lord!”
The Gift of Effort
Being born Catholic has marked advantages over not being born Catholic. Proverbially, it is like being “born with a silver spoon in your mouth”; or like having a three lap start in a four lap race. But even though it has great advantages, God does not give us Heaven on a golden plate. If something is worth doing, then it’s worth doing well; if Heaven is worth getting, then we need to put serious effort into getting there!
Our Lord puts it this way: “Not everyone that says to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21) ... “A rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:23) ... “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3) ... “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:10) ...”Unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:20) … “For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 22:14) … “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12) … “He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:22).
Painful Prophecy
Our Lord is not full of “sweet talk” but He tells us as it is, without wrapping things up in cotton balls. The following prophecy is worth pondering―since it refers to the so-called “End Times” or “Last Days”, which Our Lady of Fatima said that we have entered:
“And as it came to pass in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat and drink, they married wives, and were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark: and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it came to pass, in the days of Lot: they did eat and drink, they bought and sold, they planted and built. And in the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man shall be revealed. In that hour, he that shall be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away: and he that shall be in the field, in like manner, let him not return back. Remember Lot’s wife! Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose it, shall preserve it. I say to you: in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together: the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left: two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.” (Luke 17:26-35).
The Many and the Few
We see this poignantly fulfilled as Jesus died on the Cross: one thief was saved, the other thief was lost. Even before that, many Jews and Pharisees rejected Him, few accepted Him: “Many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16). Many are baptized, but few will be saved.
“And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:23-24) ... “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14) ... “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12).
Life is No Joke―Christmas is No Party
All this points to the seriousness and gravity of the time allotted to us here on Earth by God. Some live for pleasure and fun; others live to work out their salvation. For some, Christmas is a time for fun, food, drink, gifts and parties. For others, Christmas is a time of seeking Christ in a more profitable way, through better prayer, more spiritual reading and a greater detachment from the world. “He that is not with Me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30) ... “You are from beneath, I am from above! You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23) … “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own―but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you! … If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you” (John 15:18-19) … “The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 7:7) … “Be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind!” (Romans 12:2). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4).
Worldly Wise but Heavenly Foolish
“The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (1 Corinthians 3:1). “God made foolish the wisdom of this world” (1 Corinthians 1:20). “The foolish things of the world has God chosen, so that He may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world has God chosen, so that He may confound the strong!” (1 Corinthians 1:2).
It is a reflection of the foolish and wise virgins, mentioned by Our Lord in one of His parables. Time is too precious to lose, yet we have all lost much time. “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above! Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the Earth!” (Colossians 3:1-2). Now is the time to wake up from our illusions and wishful thinking, and face the reality of life, the reality of eternal life, the reality of salvation or ...
Going Out to Meet Christ
So, just like the wise virgins, we must go out to meet our Bridegroom, Christ: “There was a cry made: ‘Behold the bridegroom is coming! Go forth to meet Him!” (Matthew 25:6). Like the wise virgins, we must be ever ready to seek Him, ever ready to go to Him, ever ready to meet Him. Love is reciprocal, meaning it is a “two-way-street” — it is about give and take. At Christmas, Our Lord, out of love, leaves Heaven to come and save us; we must likewise leave the world and go to Him to be saved.
Mary and Joseph had to leave their home and daily occupations in Nazareth to give birth to Him far away in Bethlehem. The Magi had to leave their homes and daily occupations and travel a long way to find and meet Him in Bethlehem. Because of Him, Mary and Joseph had to go even further afield, to distant Egypt, in order to preserve Him in their lives. The Apostles had to leave their jobs and families to be with Him; and would later even have to leave their home country as they were sent into the whole wide world to take His word to others.
Love for Love, Life for Life
He gave His life for us and He demands that we give Him our lives. “For he that will save his life, shall lose it; and he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall find it” (Matthew 16:25) ... “Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground dies, then it remains alone itself. But if it dies, then it brings forth much fruit. He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world, keeps it unto life eternal” (John 12:24-25).
Dying to Live for Christ
That “dying” may take all kinds of shapes and forms. The most common form will be that of dying to the world and its worldly spirit and worldly ambitions and worldly fashions and attitudes. Yet another form, more and more common in these modern times of religious indifference, is having to “die” to human respect which makes us “go along so as to get along” with family, relatives, work colleagues and friends. We are tempted to hide our Faith and shut our mouths to avoid rocking the boat. Yet Our Lord has said: “Everyone that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33). Dying to human respect can be one of the most profitable, yet one of the most painful things we could do.
Our perpetual battle is the one against the blatant lie that tries to tell us that we can have the best of both worlds: that we can live like the rest of the world and also save our souls. Yet, He Who is Truth itself, tells us: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24), while His Apostle, St. James, adds: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
But what About My Family and Friends?
But then we are faced with those who surround us—our family, relatives, work colleagues and social acquaintances! Surely we cannot turn our backs on them?!? Surely that cannot be what God wants! There is a prudent path that must be trodden, as the following Scriptural quotes will explain.
First of all, it is certain that God has come to save sinners: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “The Pharisees and the Scribes murmured, saying: ‘This man receives sinners, and eats with them!’” (Luke 15:2). He forgave sins and accepted sinners into His entourage—as we see in the case of His choosing St. Matthew as an Apostle, whereas he was a publican; and St. Mary Magdalen, who was an adulteress who had been possessed by seven devils; and the Good Thief on the cross. So we clearly see that He does not avoid sinners, but goes to them. Nevertheless, He does not condone their sins, but says things like: “Go and sin no more!” (John 8:11) … “Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!” (John 5:14).
Limits to Love
Yet there are limits that Our Lord Himself sets. The first one being the salvation of our own soul and the avoidance of any dangers that may make us lose our salvation: “What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Secondly, we cannot put family or relatives or friends before God. Do we really want to side with those who are deliberately and stubbornly offending God and are refusing to change their sinful ways? “He that is not with Me, is against Me; and he that gathers not with Me, scatters!” (Matthew 12:30). If they will not follow God, then after trying to change their minds, we cannot let family ties or friendship weaken our Faith, or, worse still, separate us from God.
Jesus Causes Division
Jesus already foresaw and foretold splits in families because of His teaching: “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household! He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves a son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me! And he that takes not up his cross and follows Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:34-38).
If They Will Not Listen, Then...
Thirdly, where there is opposition to Christ’s teaching, and division because of it, then we are told to first of all try and bring them round to the truth, for that is Christ’s wish.
“For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost! What think you? If a man has an hundred sheep, and one of them should go astray: does he not leave the ninety-nine in the mountains, and go to seek that which is gone astray? And if it so be that he find it: Amen I say to you, he rejoices more for that, than for the ninety-nine that went not astray! Even so it is not the will of your Father, Who is in Heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. But if thy brother shall offend against thee―then go and rebuke him between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou shalt gain thy brother. And if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more―so that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand. And if he will not hear them―then tell the church. And if he will not hear the church―then let him be to thee as the heathen and publican” (Matthew 18:11-17). “Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words― going forth out of that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet!” (Matthew 10:14).
One Bad Apple...
We must separate ourselves from and avoid those who are a danger to our Faith, as St. Paul writes: “Know you not that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump? ... I wrote to you in an epistle, not to keep company with fornicators. I mean not with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or the extortioners, or the servers of idols; otherwise you must needs go out of this world. But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat! ... Put away the evil one from among yourselves!” (1 Corinthians 5:6-13).
What Really Converts
As for their conversion, prayer and sacrifice (which Our Lady requested at Fatima) will do more to convert souls that mere human words. Faith is a supernatural gift of God, not man; and it is God who freely gives it. We can give nobody the Faith, we can merely plant seeds, and water them, but it is God who sparks Faith to life: “I have planted, Apollo watered―but God gave the increase!” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Because we are too human and not supernatural enough, we place too much emphasis on human efforts, forgetting (or at least twisting) the words of Our Lord, Who said: “Without Me you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
Limited Edition of Full Version?
At Christmas Christ comes with a challenge; He challenges us to go out of our customary human, self-made (or twisted) partial notion or limited-edition of the Catholic Faith and to embrace the full version or the entire Catholic Faith. It means dying to our personal version of the Faith, a death that will invariably be humiliating and painful, but less humiliating and painful here below, than having to undergo the transformation hereafter! He is there to help us should we decide to do so. Are we among the foolish virgins or the wise virgins? Will we take on the role of the bad thief or the Good Thief? Will we be Simon the Pharisee or Mary Magdalen? We live and die by our choices. Let us choose to die to self and live for Christ. “For to me, to live is Christ; and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). “Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Therefore, whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).
Who are we really living for? Who do we resemble the most? Christ or the world? Can it be said of us: “They are of the world―therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them!” (1 John 4:5). Life is no joke, nor is Christmas merely party time! The focus of life is salvation not self-gratification. The focus of Christmas is letting Christ take over our lives rather than the world taking over our lives! As Our Lord said to His followers at the Last Supper, on the verge of His Passion and Death: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful―but your sorrow shall be turned into joy!” (John 16:20).
Christ comes at Christmas―not to wine and dine, laugh and play, be on social media or watch TV all day―Christ comes to pray, pay and die for our sins and take their just punishment away; He comes to save us from the world, not to immerse us in the world; He seeks lead our love to things above away from our selfish, material, worldly love. Yet Christ will twist no-one’s arm, He offers and leaves the choice to our own free-will ― for better or worse; leading to blessings or a self-inflicted curse! Which Christmas path will you take? “I came to call sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). “Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Luke 13:24; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14) ― or should we say: “Few choose to be chosen!”
Article 2
Saturday & Sunday, December 27th & 28th
Are You a Christmas "Born Again"?
Saturday & Sunday, December 27th & 28th
Are You a Christmas "Born Again"?
Born Again?
We speak of Christ coming at Christmas to be born in our hearts. Can Christ be born again? To answer that question it helps to look at another aspect of Christ’s life―His Passion and Death on the Christ on the Cross on Mount Calvary. Holy Scripture tells us: “Christ died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15) … “Christ died once for our sins” (1 Peter 3:18) … “For in that he died to sin, he died once” (Romans 6:10). Why then do we say that the Mass is a Sacrifice when Holy Scripture indicates that Christ offered only one sacrifice on the cross?
In the Letter to the Hebrews (9:25-28), St. Paul speaks of the sacrifice of Jesus. He essentially says that Christ does not offer Himself again and again physically―if that were so, then He would have had to suffer a violent and bloody death over and over. Elsewhere, (Hebrews 7:27) he states That Christ has no need to physically offer sacrifice day after day, for He did that once for all when He offered Himself on the cross on Calvary. However, it would be grave mistake to isolate these verses from the rest of Sacred Scripture and simply take them at face value, for that would lead one to conclude that there could be no other sacrifice―because since Christ sacrificed Himself, then it is over and done with, and that is it―period. However, such a view is myopic or blind, to say the least.
It must be stated that, as Catholics, in no way do we believe that Christ continues to be crucified physically or die a physical death in Heaven over and over again. However, we do believe that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass does participate in the everlasting Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary.
First, one must not and one cannot separate the Sacrifice of Our Lord on the cross from the events which surround it. The Sacrifice of our Lord is inseparably linked to the Last Supper. Here, On Holy Thursday, Jesus took bread and wine. Looking to St. Matthew’s text (26:26 ff), He said over the bread, “Take this and eat it. This is My Body”; and over the cup of wine, “This is My Blood, the Blood of the covenant, to be poured out in behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.” The next day, on Good Friday, Our Lord’s Body hung on the altar of the cross and His precious Blood was spilt to wash away our sins and seal the everlasting, perfect covenant. The divine life our Lord offered and shared for our salvation in the sacrifice of Good Friday is the same that was offered and shared at the Last Supper. The Last Supper, the Sacrifice of Good Friday, and the Resurrection on Easter―form one saving, life-giving event.
Second, one must have a nuanced understanding of time. One must distinguish chronological time from kairotic time as found in Sacred Scripture. In the Bible, chronos refers to chronological time–past, present, and future–specific deeds which have an end point. Kairos or kairotic time refers to God’s eternal time. In Heaven, for God, there is no chronological time―everything is seen in the present moment, the here and now. The time of the present moment encompasses the entire past as well as containing the entire future. Therefore, while our Lord’s saving event occurred chronologically about the year AD 33, in the kairotic sense of time it is an ever present reality which touches our lives here and now.
Thus―just as Christ’s Sacrifice of the Cross is an ever-present reality in kairotic time, so too is Christ’s birth an ever present reality. Nevertheless, just as Christ does physically suffer a bloody and violent death over and over again since His Sacrifice on Calvary, likewise Christ is not physically born and again and again since His original birth in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. Yet just as Christ mystically and perpetually continues His Sacrifice on Calvary, so too does Christ mystically and perpetually desire to be born again in the souls of each member of mankind.
Life is One Long Birth
Gestation is the period from conception to birth, and typically lasts about 40 weeks, measured from the last menstrual period, divided into three trimesters where the baby develops from embryo to fetus, culminating in labor and delivery, with “full term” generally considered 37-42 weeks, and premature if born before 37 weeks, all involving complex hormonal changes and critical fetal development stages.
You could say that our true birth is when we born into Heaven after having endured a life of gestation on Earth. St. Louis de Montfort, in his book True Devotion to Mary, quotes St. Augustine on this subject. St. Louis writes: “St. Augustine―surpassing himself, and going beyond all I have yet said―affirms that all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin, where they are guarded, nourished, brought up and made to grow by that good Mother, until she has brought them forth to glory after death, which is properly the day of their birth.”
Unfortunately and sadly, most souls never achieve a successful gestation and birth into Heaven―and are lost somewhere along the whole process. Our Lady aborts nobody―but countless souls provoke a miscarriage or a stillbirth. The Church teaches that as baptized Catholics we are all part of one and the same Mystical Body of Christ―of which Christ is the Head. We often speak of Christ being the Head and Mary being the Heart of the Mystical Body―for it is blood that brings life and nourishment to every cell of the body and Mary is the Heart that pumps that life-giving and nourishing blood―which is Grace of God―and thus call Mary the Mediatrix of All Graces.
The heart pumps blood through an extensive network of blood vessels (arteries, veins, capillaries) reaching every tissue. Blood delivers essential oxygen, nutrients (like amino acids), hormones, and water to every cell for energy and function, while also removing waste (carbon dioxide, lactic acid) and defending against infection, making it the vital transport system sustaining life by connecting all body parts. White blood cells fight infections, and platelets form clots to stop bleeding. It helps maintain correct body temperature, pH balance, and fluid volume. Red blood cells contain hemoglobin, which binds to oxygen in the lungs and releases it to cells. In essence, blood acts as the body's internal highway, ensuring all cells receive what they need to live and function and that waste products are efficiently removed, making it truly the carrier of life. Blood is vital for a baby during pregnancy because it's the lifeline delivering oxygen, nutrients, and antibodies from the mother via the placenta and umbilical cord, while also removing waste, with fetal blood carrying these essential supplies throughout the developing body.
Just as we often speak of Our Lady as being the Heart of the Mystical Body, we could also speak of her as being Womb of the Mystical Body. As St. Louis de Montfort stated above: “All the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin!” He also implies the same idea when he speaks of the Holy Ghost seeking to have children through Mary: “God the Father wishes to have children by Mary till the consummation of the world … God the Holy Ghost wishes to form the elect for Himself in her and by her … Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has been or ever will be—a God Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest saints that there will be in the end of time. The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for her. For it is only that singular and miraculous Virgin who can produce, in union with the Holy Ghost, singular and extraordinary things” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Bethlehem, the Holy Mass, and Holy Communion
What is the link between Bethlehem, the Holy Mass and Holy Communion? What is their link to being “born again”? What can we find, uncover, understand and use from all these things? Just as Jesus was born in Bethlehem, so too is Jesus in the Holy Eucharist born in the Sacrifice of the Mass. Jesus is born in Bethlehem to suffer―He is born to undergo His Passion and Death by His Sacrifice on the Cross on Calvary. Likewise, Jesus is ‘born’ in the Holy Eucharist during the Sacrifice of the Mass which is the same Sacrifice as that of Calvary. Jesus is born to teach us how to suffer: “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross and comes after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). Jesus in the Holy Eucharist gives us the strength that we need to be able to carry our crosses for Christ and suffer for Him―as Jesus said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
The Power of the Holy Eucharist
First of all, it is important to recall that the word “Bethlehem” means “Town of Bread” ― and Our Lord says of Himself: “My Father gives you the true Bread from Heaven … I am the Bread of life … I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever; and the Bread that I will give, is My Flesh, for the life of the world … Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eats My Flesh, and drinks My Blood, has everlasting life―and I will raise him up in the last day. For My Flesh is meat indeed: and My Blood is drink indeed. He that eats My Flesh, and drinks My Blood, abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eats Me, the same also shall live by Me. This is the Bread that came down from Heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eats this Bread, shall live for ever!” (John 6:48-59).
The Power of the Mass
In the above quote, Our Lord says: “I will give My Flesh for the life of the world.” That is what He did by His Sacrifice on the Cross on Mount Calvary―and that very same Sacrifice is re-presented and mystically but bloodlessly offered in each and every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is also the Sacrifice of the Mass that gives us the Holy Eucharist―the Bread of Life or Holy Communion. In one sense, Christ’s Sacrifice on Calvary is “born again” in every Sacrifice of the Mass that is offered―and in that Sacrifice of the Mass that is offered, you could say that the Holy Eucharist is “born again” and again and again throughout all time and all places where Mass is offered. Each Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is like a mystical electrical impulse that is trying to “shock” our heart back into a truly spiritual life from the death of worldliness into which it has fallen. Each Holy Communion, similarly, tries to fire-up our lukewarmness back into a true and fervent love of God―and many saints and theologians tell us that one Holy Communion has the power to make anyone of us into a saint, if we would only fully cooperate with its abundant graces.
St. Leonard of Port Maurice, in his book The Hidden Treasure of the Holy Mass, writes: “The holy and tremendous Sacrifice of the Mass, though the greatest treasure which glorifies and enriches the Church of God, is still a hidden treasure, and known to few! … That Sacrifice is the sun of Christianity, the soul of Faith, the centre of the Catholic religion! … The principal excellence of the most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass consists in being essentially, and in the very highest degree, identical with that which was offered on the Cross of Calvary: with this sole difference, that the Sacrifice on the Cross was bloody, and made once for all, and did on that one occasion satisfy fully for all the sins of the world; while the Sacrifice of the Altar is an unbloody Sacrifice, which can be repeated an infinite number of times, and was instituted in order to apply in detail that universal ransom which Jesus paid for us on Calvary. So that the bloody Sacrifice was the instrument of redemption; the unbloody is that which puts us in possession of the merits of Christ Our Lord. Observe that in Mass there is made not just a mere representation, nor a simple commemoration of the Passion and Death of the Redeemer, but there is performed, in a certain true sense, the selfsame most holy act which was performed on Calvary. It may be said, with all truth, that in every Mass Our Redeemer returns mystically to die for us, without really dying―at one and the same time really alive and as it were slain ... That same Body, that same Blood, that same Jesus Who then offered Himself upon Calvary, now offers Himself in the Holy Mass”
“One single Mass is of such efficacy to have sufficed to obtain the salvation of the whole human race. Imagine the case that Our Lord Jesus Christ had not suffered anything on Calvary and, in place of His bloody Sacrifice of the Cross, had solely instituted Mass for our redemption, with an express command that in all the world it should only be celebrated once. Well, then, had this been the case, that single Mass, celebrated by the poorest priest in the world, would have been sufficient to win from God the salvation of all men. Yes; one single Mass― might thus have been made to obtain the conversion of all Mahometans, all heretics, all schismatics, in fine, of all unbelievers, and also that of all bad Christians; closing the gates of Hell to all sinners, and emptying Purgatory of all the souls there obtaining purification!”
A Lifelong ‘Rebirth’ of Christ in Your Soul
In one sense, Christ continually seeks to be ‘reborn’ in your soul all throughout your life in the Mystical Womb of Mary in the hope of helping you achieve the necessary state required to be born into Heaven at the end of your life. Pregnancy has three main stages, called Trimesters―first trimester being weeks 1 to 12; second trimester being weeks 13 to 27, third trimester being weeks 28 to birth―all of which focus on fetal development from cell cluster to mature baby. Once again we have mystical number of three―three Persons in the Holy Trinity (God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost); the three members of the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary and Joseph); the three Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope and Charity); the three essential parts of the Mass (Offertory, Canon and Communion); the three Stages or Conversions of the Spiritual Life (the Way of Beginners, the Way of the Proficient and the Way of the Perfect); the three part of the Church (Church Militant on Earth, Church suffering in Purgatory and the Church Triumphant in Heaven).
No soul can enter Heaven unless it has successfully passed through completed the Three Stages of the Spiritual Life (sometimes called the Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life)―just like a perfect pregnancy or gestation requires the baby to pass through the three trimesters mentioned above. If we fail to pass through the Three Stages of the Spiritual Life (the Way of Beginners, the Way of the Proficient and the Way of the Perfect) then we either end up in Hell or in Purgatory―for nothing can enter Heaven unless it is perfect: “There shall not enter into Heaven anything defiled” (Apocalyps 21:27). Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange comments: “There are some who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles, and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin—though it should be only venial—must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God!” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Causes of Miscarriages and Stillbirths
To progress through the Three Stages or Conversions of the Spiritual Life―just like passing through the three trimesters of pregnancy―requires a continual input of what is good and beneficial and the avoidance what is bad and harmful. Just a woman seeks to avoid a miscarriage or a stillbirth―so too Our Lady wants to avoid our spiritual miscarriage or spiritual stillbirth. What are the chief dangers that threaten the development of the baby in the mother’s womb? Maternal health issues like infections, thyroid issues, blood clotting disorders, severe kidney disease, heart conditions, lupus, hormonal imbalances, uncontrolled diabetes, or uterine problems, structural issues in the uterus, issues with the placenta or umbilical cord, fibroids―along with lifestyle factors such as smoking, excessive alcohol, certain drugs, and some medications, or environmental exposures to things like lead, mercury, pesticides, certain solvents, and radiation. While many factors can contribute, chromosomal issues are the most common.
The same is true for our spiritual growth―there are so many variable and numerous factors that can inhibit, slow down or even destroy our spiritual progress. It can come from within ourselves and inherent sinful passions and tendencies that we have; it can come from the example of those family members who surround us―such as parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, uncles, aunts and other relatives; it can come from associates at work, school or our social circle; it can come from the various media outlets―television, radio, internet, music, art, commercials, etc.; it can come through the newspapers, magazines and books that we read; etc. The list is truly endless!
The damage caused and souls that are consequently lost are also truly endless―as Our Lady herself says: How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!”
“What pretense or excuse will lax Christians in their negligence advance for having forgotten their own eternal salvation? None of the mortals will have any excuse for their foolish negligence! Parents are naturally bound to instruct their children, from their infancy, in this knowledge of God and to direct them with solicitous care, so that they may at once see their ultimate end, and seek it in their first acts of the intellect and will. They should with great watchfulness withdraw them from the childishness and puerile trickery and deceitfulness, to which depraved nature will incline them, if left without direction. The demons instill into the parents a base neglectfulness and carnal love for their offspring; and they incite the teachers to carelessness, so that the children find no support against evil in their education, but become depraved and spoiled by many bad habits, losing sight of virtue and of their good inclinations and going the way of perdition. If the fathers and mothers would be solicitous to prevent these vanities and perverted habits of their children, and would instruct them from their infancy in the knowledge of their God and Creator, then they would afterwards easily accustom them to know and adore Him. Parents must learn to love their children, help them, nourish them, exhort them, correct them and lead them on in the way of salvation without remissness or carelessness!”
You would think that such words―which have been echoed and affirmed by numerous saints over the centuries―would have some major effect upon us and how we approach and conduct our life in this world (or in Mary’s Mystical Womb). But no! That is not the case―most souls blindly and stubbornly pursue their path to a spiritual miscarriage or stillbirth that will see them fail to reach Heaven. They are fools ― “and the number of fools is infinite” (Ecclesiastes 1:1).
Are We in Danger of Miscarriage or Stillbirth? Have We Caused It in Others?
If we are even halfway sane and partially intelligent, we cannot fail to see and tremble at the likelihood of our own spiritual miscarriage or stillbirth! It is not for nothing that Holy Scripture warns us: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12) … “For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 22:14) … “Wherefore he that thinks himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:12). “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14).
Sin brings death along with it: “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15). “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “The sting of death is sin!” (1 Corinthians 15:56). “Sin has reigned to death!” (Romans 5:21). The consequences of sin are not just limited to the person who sins―but the consequences extend far beyond that! “I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me!” (Exodus 20:5). “Who repays the iniquity of the fathers to the children, and to the grandchildren, unto the third and fourth generation!” (Exodus 34:7). “I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon their children unto the third and fourth generation, to them that hate Me!” (Deuteronomy 5:9). “Who visits the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation!” (Numbers 14:18). As the regards the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, the consequences extend far beyond merely the third and fourth generation―every single generation in the history of time experiences the consequences of their sin and we are all born with the scars and tendencies that resulted from that Original Sin.
There is no impunity or escape from the consequence of sin. “Rejoice not, O Israel― for thou hast committed fornication against thy God! … They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land! … The days of visitation are come, the days of repaying are come for the multitude of thy iniquity! … They have sinned deeply! God will remember their iniquity and will visit their sin! … And though they should bring up their children, I will make them without children among men! A womb without children … They shall yield no fruit. And if they should have children, I will slay the beloved fruit of their womb! God will cast them away, because they listened not to Him!” (Osee 9:1-17).
Life and Death Issues
Satan brought sin to the human race through Adam and Eve―and with that sin came death: “By one man sin entered into this world, and, by sin, death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned!” (Romans 5:12). God seeks to bring life to the human through the New Adam (Christ) and the New Eve (Mary)―as Christ said: “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly!” (John 10:10). “So reckon, that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 6:1). “For the wages of sin is death! But the grace of God, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 6:23). “All iniquity is sin. And there is a sin unto death and a sin which is not to death” (1 John 5:16-17). The “sin unto death” and the “sin which is not to death” obviously refer to Mortal Sin and Venial Sin. Mortal Sin is so called because it causes spiritual death in the soul by killing or driving out Sanctifying Grace. Venial Sin does to destroy Sanctifying Grace, but it makes it less effective and it also gradually disposes us, more and more, to eventually committing a Mortal Sin.
“Born Again” Catholics
Each time we commit a Mortal Sin, we need to rise from the ‘death’ of Mortal Sin and return to ‘life’ through Sanctifying Grace. This ‘rebirth’ or ‘resurrection’ usually takes place in the ‘tomb’ or the ‘emergency room’ of the confessional in the Sacrament of Confession. We are spiritually “born again” through the Sacrament of Confession after having committed ‘spiritual suicide’ through Mortal Sin. Sadly, the numbers of those going to Confession are decreasing drastically, while Mortal Sin is increasing immensely. As Our Lord said: “And you will not come to Me so that you may have life!” (John 5:40) ― they prefer to live in the darkness and death of Mortal Sin and do not seek to be “born again”.
Some people think that term “born again” is a Protestant invention―but the term was actually used by Our Lord Himself in a conversation with Nicodemus. “And there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night, and said to Him: ‘Rabbi, we know that You have come as a teacher from God―for no man can do these signs which You do, unless God be with him!’ Jesus answered, and said to him: ‘Amen, amen I say to you, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God!’ Nicodemus said to Him: ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born again?’ Jesus answered: ‘Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit! Wonder not, that I said to thee, you must be born again!’” (John 3:1-7).
If you’ve been around Protestants or Evangelicals you will have heard the phrase “born again.” It was an especially popular phrase back in the 1970s and 1980s, when it was common for non-Catholic Christians to identify themselves as “Born Again Christians.” They ask, “Are you a born-again Christian?” or “You’re a Catholic―then you’re not a Christian.” This idea of being a Christian, rather than a Catholic, was tied to this idea of being born again. A Fundamentalist or Evangelical will say: “Baptism does not save you, brother! Jesus says (in John 3:5) we must be born of water and the Spirit.” The Catholic will then be told the “water” of John 3:5 has nothing to do with Baptism. For the Protestant, the “water” will either be interpreted as man’s natural birth (the “water” being amniotic fluid within the mother’s womb), and “the Spirit” would then represent the new birth; or the “water” would represent the “word of God” through which one is born again when he accepts Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior.
For the Catholic, being “born again” is quite simply being born into the spiritual life of God through the Sanctifying Grace received at Baptism. It is through Baptism that we are “born again” into a spiritual life with God after our natural birth. Jesus was baptized. If you compare the parallel passage in St. Matthew’s gospel (3:16-17), you find that when Jesus was baptized, “the Heavens were opened” and “the Spirit of God descended as a dove, upon him. And behold a voice came from Heaven, saying: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!” Obviously, this was not because Jesus needed to be baptized. In fact, St. John the Baptist noted that he needed to be baptized by Jesus (see Matthew 3:14). Jesus was baptized in order “fulfill all righteousness” and “to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins,” according to Scripture (cf. Matthew 3:15; Luke 1:77). In other words, Jesus demonstrably showed us the way the Heaven would be opened to us so that the Holy Spirit would descend upon us through Baptism.
Holy Scripture echoes this: “We ourselves were at some time unwise, incredulous, erring, slaves to divers desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another! But when the goodness and kindness of God our Savior appeared―not by the works of justice, which we have done, but according to His mercy―he saved us by the waters of regeneration and renovation of the Holy Ghost, Whom He has poured forth upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Savior―so that, being justified by His grace, we may hope to be heirs of life everlasting!” (Titus 3:3-7).
Catholics see being “born again” as happening primarily through the Sacrament of Baptism, which initiates a lifelong journey of Faith and good works―for “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). Protestants, especially Evangelicals, often view being “born again” as a distinct, personal moment of conversion—a conscious decision to accept Jesus as Savior, often marked by an emotional experience or “sinner’s prayer”—resulting in immediate spiritual rebirth. Both Catholics and Protestants believe that Jesus’ words in John 3 (“born of water and the Spirit”) require spiritual rebirth, but they differ on how that rebirth is takes place and the path that it afterwards follows.
The subsequent path after being “born again” differs for Catholics and Protestants―agreeing on some points and disagreeing on other points. For the Catholic Baptism is the primary “birth” where one is washed of Original Sin and receives the Holy Spirit. This initial rebirth in Baptism must be nurtured and deepened through an ongoing reception of Sacraments such as Confession, the Holy Eucharist, Confirmation (a one-time Sacrament), a life of prayer, good works, repentance and penance. Salvation is not a guarantee, but a process of continually cooperating with God’s grace, which is not just a single event, but one that involves the ongoing use of Faith, Sacraments, and especially a life of charity.
Too many Catholics imagine that Baptism is enough and that Mortal Sin is no big deal because you can easily confess it in Confession and have it all “washed away” just like a weekly or monthly car-wash! Why then do most Catholics end up in Hell if it is as easy as that? What infernal stupidity! “Infernal” because it is the devil who spins these false yarns just as did he with Eve―and “stupidity” on the part of Catholics who fall for such tales because their knowledge of Faith is minimal and their desire to know the Faith is equally minimal. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8). “He who sows sparingly, shall also reap sparingly: and he who sows in blessings, shall also reap blessings” (2 Corinthians 9:6). “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord!’ Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6).
Born Again Daily
Each day is a “new born” day and not a continuation of the previous day. Each week is a “new born” week and not an extension of the previous week. Each month is a “new born” month and not just a prolongation of the previous month. Each year is a “new born “ year ― a “New Year” ― and not a repetition of the passing year.
The term “born again” (John 3:3) signifies a spiritual rebirth through Faith, a process often associated with constant daily renewal, not just a one-time event ― just like the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is renewed each and every day and offers to us its graces each and every day. The saints would look upon each day as chance to be spiritually reborn to a higher level―just as athletes use each and every day to constantly try and increase their fitness levels and performance levels. Holy Scripture tells us to “put off the old man―who is corrupted according to the desire of error―and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man―who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth!” (Ephesians 4:22-24). St. Philip Neri used to say that each and every day he would throw “the old man” out of the window, but by the evening “the old man” would have climbed back in again―and so the procedure had to be repeated each and every day, whereby Philip was “born again” each and every day to fight his battles anew against “the old man.”
We speak of Christ coming at Christmas to be born in our hearts. Can Christ be born again? To answer that question it helps to look at another aspect of Christ’s life―His Passion and Death on the Christ on the Cross on Mount Calvary. Holy Scripture tells us: “Christ died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15) … “Christ died once for our sins” (1 Peter 3:18) … “For in that he died to sin, he died once” (Romans 6:10). Why then do we say that the Mass is a Sacrifice when Holy Scripture indicates that Christ offered only one sacrifice on the cross?
In the Letter to the Hebrews (9:25-28), St. Paul speaks of the sacrifice of Jesus. He essentially says that Christ does not offer Himself again and again physically―if that were so, then He would have had to suffer a violent and bloody death over and over. Elsewhere, (Hebrews 7:27) he states That Christ has no need to physically offer sacrifice day after day, for He did that once for all when He offered Himself on the cross on Calvary. However, it would be grave mistake to isolate these verses from the rest of Sacred Scripture and simply take them at face value, for that would lead one to conclude that there could be no other sacrifice―because since Christ sacrificed Himself, then it is over and done with, and that is it―period. However, such a view is myopic or blind, to say the least.
It must be stated that, as Catholics, in no way do we believe that Christ continues to be crucified physically or die a physical death in Heaven over and over again. However, we do believe that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass does participate in the everlasting Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary.
First, one must not and one cannot separate the Sacrifice of Our Lord on the cross from the events which surround it. The Sacrifice of our Lord is inseparably linked to the Last Supper. Here, On Holy Thursday, Jesus took bread and wine. Looking to St. Matthew’s text (26:26 ff), He said over the bread, “Take this and eat it. This is My Body”; and over the cup of wine, “This is My Blood, the Blood of the covenant, to be poured out in behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.” The next day, on Good Friday, Our Lord’s Body hung on the altar of the cross and His precious Blood was spilt to wash away our sins and seal the everlasting, perfect covenant. The divine life our Lord offered and shared for our salvation in the sacrifice of Good Friday is the same that was offered and shared at the Last Supper. The Last Supper, the Sacrifice of Good Friday, and the Resurrection on Easter―form one saving, life-giving event.
Second, one must have a nuanced understanding of time. One must distinguish chronological time from kairotic time as found in Sacred Scripture. In the Bible, chronos refers to chronological time–past, present, and future–specific deeds which have an end point. Kairos or kairotic time refers to God’s eternal time. In Heaven, for God, there is no chronological time―everything is seen in the present moment, the here and now. The time of the present moment encompasses the entire past as well as containing the entire future. Therefore, while our Lord’s saving event occurred chronologically about the year AD 33, in the kairotic sense of time it is an ever present reality which touches our lives here and now.
Thus―just as Christ’s Sacrifice of the Cross is an ever-present reality in kairotic time, so too is Christ’s birth an ever present reality. Nevertheless, just as Christ does physically suffer a bloody and violent death over and over again since His Sacrifice on Calvary, likewise Christ is not physically born and again and again since His original birth in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. Yet just as Christ mystically and perpetually continues His Sacrifice on Calvary, so too does Christ mystically and perpetually desire to be born again in the souls of each member of mankind.
Life is One Long Birth
Gestation is the period from conception to birth, and typically lasts about 40 weeks, measured from the last menstrual period, divided into three trimesters where the baby develops from embryo to fetus, culminating in labor and delivery, with “full term” generally considered 37-42 weeks, and premature if born before 37 weeks, all involving complex hormonal changes and critical fetal development stages.
You could say that our true birth is when we born into Heaven after having endured a life of gestation on Earth. St. Louis de Montfort, in his book True Devotion to Mary, quotes St. Augustine on this subject. St. Louis writes: “St. Augustine―surpassing himself, and going beyond all I have yet said―affirms that all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin, where they are guarded, nourished, brought up and made to grow by that good Mother, until she has brought them forth to glory after death, which is properly the day of their birth.”
Unfortunately and sadly, most souls never achieve a successful gestation and birth into Heaven―and are lost somewhere along the whole process. Our Lady aborts nobody―but countless souls provoke a miscarriage or a stillbirth. The Church teaches that as baptized Catholics we are all part of one and the same Mystical Body of Christ―of which Christ is the Head. We often speak of Christ being the Head and Mary being the Heart of the Mystical Body―for it is blood that brings life and nourishment to every cell of the body and Mary is the Heart that pumps that life-giving and nourishing blood―which is Grace of God―and thus call Mary the Mediatrix of All Graces.
The heart pumps blood through an extensive network of blood vessels (arteries, veins, capillaries) reaching every tissue. Blood delivers essential oxygen, nutrients (like amino acids), hormones, and water to every cell for energy and function, while also removing waste (carbon dioxide, lactic acid) and defending against infection, making it the vital transport system sustaining life by connecting all body parts. White blood cells fight infections, and platelets form clots to stop bleeding. It helps maintain correct body temperature, pH balance, and fluid volume. Red blood cells contain hemoglobin, which binds to oxygen in the lungs and releases it to cells. In essence, blood acts as the body's internal highway, ensuring all cells receive what they need to live and function and that waste products are efficiently removed, making it truly the carrier of life. Blood is vital for a baby during pregnancy because it's the lifeline delivering oxygen, nutrients, and antibodies from the mother via the placenta and umbilical cord, while also removing waste, with fetal blood carrying these essential supplies throughout the developing body.
Just as we often speak of Our Lady as being the Heart of the Mystical Body, we could also speak of her as being Womb of the Mystical Body. As St. Louis de Montfort stated above: “All the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin!” He also implies the same idea when he speaks of the Holy Ghost seeking to have children through Mary: “God the Father wishes to have children by Mary till the consummation of the world … God the Holy Ghost wishes to form the elect for Himself in her and by her … Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has been or ever will be—a God Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest saints that there will be in the end of time. The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for her. For it is only that singular and miraculous Virgin who can produce, in union with the Holy Ghost, singular and extraordinary things” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Bethlehem, the Holy Mass, and Holy Communion
What is the link between Bethlehem, the Holy Mass and Holy Communion? What is their link to being “born again”? What can we find, uncover, understand and use from all these things? Just as Jesus was born in Bethlehem, so too is Jesus in the Holy Eucharist born in the Sacrifice of the Mass. Jesus is born in Bethlehem to suffer―He is born to undergo His Passion and Death by His Sacrifice on the Cross on Calvary. Likewise, Jesus is ‘born’ in the Holy Eucharist during the Sacrifice of the Mass which is the same Sacrifice as that of Calvary. Jesus is born to teach us how to suffer: “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross and comes after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). Jesus in the Holy Eucharist gives us the strength that we need to be able to carry our crosses for Christ and suffer for Him―as Jesus said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
The Power of the Holy Eucharist
First of all, it is important to recall that the word “Bethlehem” means “Town of Bread” ― and Our Lord says of Himself: “My Father gives you the true Bread from Heaven … I am the Bread of life … I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever; and the Bread that I will give, is My Flesh, for the life of the world … Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eats My Flesh, and drinks My Blood, has everlasting life―and I will raise him up in the last day. For My Flesh is meat indeed: and My Blood is drink indeed. He that eats My Flesh, and drinks My Blood, abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eats Me, the same also shall live by Me. This is the Bread that came down from Heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eats this Bread, shall live for ever!” (John 6:48-59).
The Power of the Mass
In the above quote, Our Lord says: “I will give My Flesh for the life of the world.” That is what He did by His Sacrifice on the Cross on Mount Calvary―and that very same Sacrifice is re-presented and mystically but bloodlessly offered in each and every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is also the Sacrifice of the Mass that gives us the Holy Eucharist―the Bread of Life or Holy Communion. In one sense, Christ’s Sacrifice on Calvary is “born again” in every Sacrifice of the Mass that is offered―and in that Sacrifice of the Mass that is offered, you could say that the Holy Eucharist is “born again” and again and again throughout all time and all places where Mass is offered. Each Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is like a mystical electrical impulse that is trying to “shock” our heart back into a truly spiritual life from the death of worldliness into which it has fallen. Each Holy Communion, similarly, tries to fire-up our lukewarmness back into a true and fervent love of God―and many saints and theologians tell us that one Holy Communion has the power to make anyone of us into a saint, if we would only fully cooperate with its abundant graces.
St. Leonard of Port Maurice, in his book The Hidden Treasure of the Holy Mass, writes: “The holy and tremendous Sacrifice of the Mass, though the greatest treasure which glorifies and enriches the Church of God, is still a hidden treasure, and known to few! … That Sacrifice is the sun of Christianity, the soul of Faith, the centre of the Catholic religion! … The principal excellence of the most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass consists in being essentially, and in the very highest degree, identical with that which was offered on the Cross of Calvary: with this sole difference, that the Sacrifice on the Cross was bloody, and made once for all, and did on that one occasion satisfy fully for all the sins of the world; while the Sacrifice of the Altar is an unbloody Sacrifice, which can be repeated an infinite number of times, and was instituted in order to apply in detail that universal ransom which Jesus paid for us on Calvary. So that the bloody Sacrifice was the instrument of redemption; the unbloody is that which puts us in possession of the merits of Christ Our Lord. Observe that in Mass there is made not just a mere representation, nor a simple commemoration of the Passion and Death of the Redeemer, but there is performed, in a certain true sense, the selfsame most holy act which was performed on Calvary. It may be said, with all truth, that in every Mass Our Redeemer returns mystically to die for us, without really dying―at one and the same time really alive and as it were slain ... That same Body, that same Blood, that same Jesus Who then offered Himself upon Calvary, now offers Himself in the Holy Mass”
“One single Mass is of such efficacy to have sufficed to obtain the salvation of the whole human race. Imagine the case that Our Lord Jesus Christ had not suffered anything on Calvary and, in place of His bloody Sacrifice of the Cross, had solely instituted Mass for our redemption, with an express command that in all the world it should only be celebrated once. Well, then, had this been the case, that single Mass, celebrated by the poorest priest in the world, would have been sufficient to win from God the salvation of all men. Yes; one single Mass― might thus have been made to obtain the conversion of all Mahometans, all heretics, all schismatics, in fine, of all unbelievers, and also that of all bad Christians; closing the gates of Hell to all sinners, and emptying Purgatory of all the souls there obtaining purification!”
A Lifelong ‘Rebirth’ of Christ in Your Soul
In one sense, Christ continually seeks to be ‘reborn’ in your soul all throughout your life in the Mystical Womb of Mary in the hope of helping you achieve the necessary state required to be born into Heaven at the end of your life. Pregnancy has three main stages, called Trimesters―first trimester being weeks 1 to 12; second trimester being weeks 13 to 27, third trimester being weeks 28 to birth―all of which focus on fetal development from cell cluster to mature baby. Once again we have mystical number of three―three Persons in the Holy Trinity (God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost); the three members of the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary and Joseph); the three Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope and Charity); the three essential parts of the Mass (Offertory, Canon and Communion); the three Stages or Conversions of the Spiritual Life (the Way of Beginners, the Way of the Proficient and the Way of the Perfect); the three part of the Church (Church Militant on Earth, Church suffering in Purgatory and the Church Triumphant in Heaven).
No soul can enter Heaven unless it has successfully passed through completed the Three Stages of the Spiritual Life (sometimes called the Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life)―just like a perfect pregnancy or gestation requires the baby to pass through the three trimesters mentioned above. If we fail to pass through the Three Stages of the Spiritual Life (the Way of Beginners, the Way of the Proficient and the Way of the Perfect) then we either end up in Hell or in Purgatory―for nothing can enter Heaven unless it is perfect: “There shall not enter into Heaven anything defiled” (Apocalyps 21:27). Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange comments: “There are some who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles, and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin—though it should be only venial—must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God!” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Causes of Miscarriages and Stillbirths
To progress through the Three Stages or Conversions of the Spiritual Life―just like passing through the three trimesters of pregnancy―requires a continual input of what is good and beneficial and the avoidance what is bad and harmful. Just a woman seeks to avoid a miscarriage or a stillbirth―so too Our Lady wants to avoid our spiritual miscarriage or spiritual stillbirth. What are the chief dangers that threaten the development of the baby in the mother’s womb? Maternal health issues like infections, thyroid issues, blood clotting disorders, severe kidney disease, heart conditions, lupus, hormonal imbalances, uncontrolled diabetes, or uterine problems, structural issues in the uterus, issues with the placenta or umbilical cord, fibroids―along with lifestyle factors such as smoking, excessive alcohol, certain drugs, and some medications, or environmental exposures to things like lead, mercury, pesticides, certain solvents, and radiation. While many factors can contribute, chromosomal issues are the most common.
The same is true for our spiritual growth―there are so many variable and numerous factors that can inhibit, slow down or even destroy our spiritual progress. It can come from within ourselves and inherent sinful passions and tendencies that we have; it can come from the example of those family members who surround us―such as parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, uncles, aunts and other relatives; it can come from associates at work, school or our social circle; it can come from the various media outlets―television, radio, internet, music, art, commercials, etc.; it can come through the newspapers, magazines and books that we read; etc. The list is truly endless!
The damage caused and souls that are consequently lost are also truly endless―as Our Lady herself says: How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!”
“What pretense or excuse will lax Christians in their negligence advance for having forgotten their own eternal salvation? None of the mortals will have any excuse for their foolish negligence! Parents are naturally bound to instruct their children, from their infancy, in this knowledge of God and to direct them with solicitous care, so that they may at once see their ultimate end, and seek it in their first acts of the intellect and will. They should with great watchfulness withdraw them from the childishness and puerile trickery and deceitfulness, to which depraved nature will incline them, if left without direction. The demons instill into the parents a base neglectfulness and carnal love for their offspring; and they incite the teachers to carelessness, so that the children find no support against evil in their education, but become depraved and spoiled by many bad habits, losing sight of virtue and of their good inclinations and going the way of perdition. If the fathers and mothers would be solicitous to prevent these vanities and perverted habits of their children, and would instruct them from their infancy in the knowledge of their God and Creator, then they would afterwards easily accustom them to know and adore Him. Parents must learn to love their children, help them, nourish them, exhort them, correct them and lead them on in the way of salvation without remissness or carelessness!”
You would think that such words―which have been echoed and affirmed by numerous saints over the centuries―would have some major effect upon us and how we approach and conduct our life in this world (or in Mary’s Mystical Womb). But no! That is not the case―most souls blindly and stubbornly pursue their path to a spiritual miscarriage or stillbirth that will see them fail to reach Heaven. They are fools ― “and the number of fools is infinite” (Ecclesiastes 1:1).
Are We in Danger of Miscarriage or Stillbirth? Have We Caused It in Others?
If we are even halfway sane and partially intelligent, we cannot fail to see and tremble at the likelihood of our own spiritual miscarriage or stillbirth! It is not for nothing that Holy Scripture warns us: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12) … “For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 22:14) … “Wherefore he that thinks himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:12). “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14).
Sin brings death along with it: “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15). “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “The sting of death is sin!” (1 Corinthians 15:56). “Sin has reigned to death!” (Romans 5:21). The consequences of sin are not just limited to the person who sins―but the consequences extend far beyond that! “I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me!” (Exodus 20:5). “Who repays the iniquity of the fathers to the children, and to the grandchildren, unto the third and fourth generation!” (Exodus 34:7). “I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon their children unto the third and fourth generation, to them that hate Me!” (Deuteronomy 5:9). “Who visits the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation!” (Numbers 14:18). As the regards the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, the consequences extend far beyond merely the third and fourth generation―every single generation in the history of time experiences the consequences of their sin and we are all born with the scars and tendencies that resulted from that Original Sin.
There is no impunity or escape from the consequence of sin. “Rejoice not, O Israel― for thou hast committed fornication against thy God! … They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land! … The days of visitation are come, the days of repaying are come for the multitude of thy iniquity! … They have sinned deeply! God will remember their iniquity and will visit their sin! … And though they should bring up their children, I will make them without children among men! A womb without children … They shall yield no fruit. And if they should have children, I will slay the beloved fruit of their womb! God will cast them away, because they listened not to Him!” (Osee 9:1-17).
Life and Death Issues
Satan brought sin to the human race through Adam and Eve―and with that sin came death: “By one man sin entered into this world, and, by sin, death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned!” (Romans 5:12). God seeks to bring life to the human through the New Adam (Christ) and the New Eve (Mary)―as Christ said: “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly!” (John 10:10). “So reckon, that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 6:1). “For the wages of sin is death! But the grace of God, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 6:23). “All iniquity is sin. And there is a sin unto death and a sin which is not to death” (1 John 5:16-17). The “sin unto death” and the “sin which is not to death” obviously refer to Mortal Sin and Venial Sin. Mortal Sin is so called because it causes spiritual death in the soul by killing or driving out Sanctifying Grace. Venial Sin does to destroy Sanctifying Grace, but it makes it less effective and it also gradually disposes us, more and more, to eventually committing a Mortal Sin.
“Born Again” Catholics
Each time we commit a Mortal Sin, we need to rise from the ‘death’ of Mortal Sin and return to ‘life’ through Sanctifying Grace. This ‘rebirth’ or ‘resurrection’ usually takes place in the ‘tomb’ or the ‘emergency room’ of the confessional in the Sacrament of Confession. We are spiritually “born again” through the Sacrament of Confession after having committed ‘spiritual suicide’ through Mortal Sin. Sadly, the numbers of those going to Confession are decreasing drastically, while Mortal Sin is increasing immensely. As Our Lord said: “And you will not come to Me so that you may have life!” (John 5:40) ― they prefer to live in the darkness and death of Mortal Sin and do not seek to be “born again”.
Some people think that term “born again” is a Protestant invention―but the term was actually used by Our Lord Himself in a conversation with Nicodemus. “And there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night, and said to Him: ‘Rabbi, we know that You have come as a teacher from God―for no man can do these signs which You do, unless God be with him!’ Jesus answered, and said to him: ‘Amen, amen I say to you, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God!’ Nicodemus said to Him: ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born again?’ Jesus answered: ‘Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit! Wonder not, that I said to thee, you must be born again!’” (John 3:1-7).
If you’ve been around Protestants or Evangelicals you will have heard the phrase “born again.” It was an especially popular phrase back in the 1970s and 1980s, when it was common for non-Catholic Christians to identify themselves as “Born Again Christians.” They ask, “Are you a born-again Christian?” or “You’re a Catholic―then you’re not a Christian.” This idea of being a Christian, rather than a Catholic, was tied to this idea of being born again. A Fundamentalist or Evangelical will say: “Baptism does not save you, brother! Jesus says (in John 3:5) we must be born of water and the Spirit.” The Catholic will then be told the “water” of John 3:5 has nothing to do with Baptism. For the Protestant, the “water” will either be interpreted as man’s natural birth (the “water” being amniotic fluid within the mother’s womb), and “the Spirit” would then represent the new birth; or the “water” would represent the “word of God” through which one is born again when he accepts Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior.
For the Catholic, being “born again” is quite simply being born into the spiritual life of God through the Sanctifying Grace received at Baptism. It is through Baptism that we are “born again” into a spiritual life with God after our natural birth. Jesus was baptized. If you compare the parallel passage in St. Matthew’s gospel (3:16-17), you find that when Jesus was baptized, “the Heavens were opened” and “the Spirit of God descended as a dove, upon him. And behold a voice came from Heaven, saying: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!” Obviously, this was not because Jesus needed to be baptized. In fact, St. John the Baptist noted that he needed to be baptized by Jesus (see Matthew 3:14). Jesus was baptized in order “fulfill all righteousness” and “to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins,” according to Scripture (cf. Matthew 3:15; Luke 1:77). In other words, Jesus demonstrably showed us the way the Heaven would be opened to us so that the Holy Spirit would descend upon us through Baptism.
Holy Scripture echoes this: “We ourselves were at some time unwise, incredulous, erring, slaves to divers desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another! But when the goodness and kindness of God our Savior appeared―not by the works of justice, which we have done, but according to His mercy―he saved us by the waters of regeneration and renovation of the Holy Ghost, Whom He has poured forth upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Savior―so that, being justified by His grace, we may hope to be heirs of life everlasting!” (Titus 3:3-7).
Catholics see being “born again” as happening primarily through the Sacrament of Baptism, which initiates a lifelong journey of Faith and good works―for “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). Protestants, especially Evangelicals, often view being “born again” as a distinct, personal moment of conversion—a conscious decision to accept Jesus as Savior, often marked by an emotional experience or “sinner’s prayer”—resulting in immediate spiritual rebirth. Both Catholics and Protestants believe that Jesus’ words in John 3 (“born of water and the Spirit”) require spiritual rebirth, but they differ on how that rebirth is takes place and the path that it afterwards follows.
The subsequent path after being “born again” differs for Catholics and Protestants―agreeing on some points and disagreeing on other points. For the Catholic Baptism is the primary “birth” where one is washed of Original Sin and receives the Holy Spirit. This initial rebirth in Baptism must be nurtured and deepened through an ongoing reception of Sacraments such as Confession, the Holy Eucharist, Confirmation (a one-time Sacrament), a life of prayer, good works, repentance and penance. Salvation is not a guarantee, but a process of continually cooperating with God’s grace, which is not just a single event, but one that involves the ongoing use of Faith, Sacraments, and especially a life of charity.
Too many Catholics imagine that Baptism is enough and that Mortal Sin is no big deal because you can easily confess it in Confession and have it all “washed away” just like a weekly or monthly car-wash! Why then do most Catholics end up in Hell if it is as easy as that? What infernal stupidity! “Infernal” because it is the devil who spins these false yarns just as did he with Eve―and “stupidity” on the part of Catholics who fall for such tales because their knowledge of Faith is minimal and their desire to know the Faith is equally minimal. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8). “He who sows sparingly, shall also reap sparingly: and he who sows in blessings, shall also reap blessings” (2 Corinthians 9:6). “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord!’ Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6).
Born Again Daily
Each day is a “new born” day and not a continuation of the previous day. Each week is a “new born” week and not an extension of the previous week. Each month is a “new born” month and not just a prolongation of the previous month. Each year is a “new born “ year ― a “New Year” ― and not a repetition of the passing year.
The term “born again” (John 3:3) signifies a spiritual rebirth through Faith, a process often associated with constant daily renewal, not just a one-time event ― just like the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is renewed each and every day and offers to us its graces each and every day. The saints would look upon each day as chance to be spiritually reborn to a higher level―just as athletes use each and every day to constantly try and increase their fitness levels and performance levels. Holy Scripture tells us to “put off the old man―who is corrupted according to the desire of error―and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man―who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth!” (Ephesians 4:22-24). St. Philip Neri used to say that each and every day he would throw “the old man” out of the window, but by the evening “the old man” would have climbed back in again―and so the procedure had to be repeated each and every day, whereby Philip was “born again” each and every day to fight his battles anew against “the old man.”
Article 1
Friday, December 26th
Let it Be a Mary Christmass and not a Scary Christmess!
Friday, December 26th
Let it Be a Mary Christmass and not a Scary Christmess!
One-Day Wonder? Or Wonderful 40 Days?
For many persons, Christmas is a one-day wonder― a case of “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow!” Now that tomorrow has come―where is Christmas? Where is your Christmas? What on Earth are we of make of Christmas? What is your idea of Christmas? Who on Earth was born? What on Earth is going on? What on Earth is He doing here? Where on Earth is all this going to lead? What ten or twenty things come to mind at the mention of the word “Christmas”?
Different persons have conflicting answers to these questions―depending on whether they are primarily spiritual persons (a minority) or worldly persons (the majority). The words of God would be appropriately applied in this case: “My thoughts are not your thoughts; nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9).
Questions Answered
If you want the answer to the aforementioned questions, then go to the Mother. Go to the Mother of God and go to Holy Mother Church. They will tell it as it is! From the Breviary readings from Matins for Christmas Day, we have these words of Pope St. Leo the Great (died 461):
“Dearly beloved brethren, “Unto us is born this day a Savior.” ... Today is Life’s Birthday; the Birthday of that Life, Which, for us dying creatures, takes away the sting of death, and brings the bright promise of the eternal gladness hereafter ... Our Lord, Who is the destroyer of sin and of death, is come to make all free. Rejoice, you that are holy, you draw nearer to your crown! Rejoice, you that are sinful, for your Savior offers you pardon! Rejoice also, you Gentile, God calls you to life! For the Son of God ... took upon Him the nature of man, that He might reconcile that nature to Him Who made it.”
Through the readings from the Mass of the Vigil of Christmas, Holy Mother Church explains to us what on Earth is happening regarding the birth of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.
On Christmas Eve, at the Vigil Mass, the Introit told us that “This day you shall know that the Lord will come and save us.” In the Gospel, Joseph is told by the angel not to fear taking Mary for his wife, for “she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus (Savior), for He shall save His people from their sins.” By the time Christmas Eve was over and midnight had arrived, Holy Mother Church, at the first Mass of Christmas, told us: “Why have the people devised vain things” (Introit) ... “Our Savior has appeared to all men; instructing us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world” (Epistle) ... “Grant that we, who rejoice in celebrating the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, may, by dignified conversation, become worthy to attain fellowship with Him” (Postcommunion).
By the following morning’s Dawn Mass, Holy Mother Church continued: “...that we may show forth in our actions that which by Faith shines in our minds” (Collect of 2nd Mass) ... “that the new birth of Thy only-begotten Son, may set us free, whom the old bondage holds under the yoke of sin” (Collect of 3rd Mass).... “and cleanse us from the stains of our sins” (Secret of the 3rd Mass).
The other mother, the Mother of God, in her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, essentially says the same things in speaking of the mystery of Christmas:
“My most holy Son has set me as the teacher and living example of the love of humility and true contempt of worldly vanity and pride … He also sought destitution and poverty … in order to teach mortals the shortest and surest way for reaching the heights of divine love and union with God ... If men would keep their heart disengaged and if they would rightly and worthily consider this great mystery of the kindness of the Most High towards men, if they would only make use of their freedom to treat this mystery with the reverence due to its greatness, who would be so hardened as not to be moved at the sight of their God become man, humiliated in poverty, despised, unknown, entering the world in a cave, lying in a manger surrounded by brute animals, protected only by a poverty-stricken Mother, and cast off by the foolish arrogance of the world?
“Who will dare to love the vanity and pride, which was openly abhorred and condemned by the Creator of Heaven and Earth in his conduct? No one can despise the humility, poverty and indigence, which the Lord loved and chose for Himself as the very means of teaching the way of eternal life. Few there are, who stop to consider this truth and example: and on account of this vile ingratitude only the few will reap the fruit of these great mysteries ...
“I remind and exhort thee to forget all that is of Earth and lose it out of thy sight; that thou seek nothing, or engage thyself with nothing except what can help thee to withdraw and detach thee from the world and its inhabitants; so that, with a heart freed from all terrestrial affection, thou dispose thyself to celebrate in it the mysteries of the poverty, humility and divine love of the incarnate God ... His coming down from Heaven onto the Earth, His being born in humility and poverty, His living and dying in it, giving such rare example of the contempt of the world and its deceits; the knowledge, which thou hast received concerning His conduct and which thou hast penetrated so deeply by divine intelligence: all these things should be for thee like living voices, which thou must heed and inscribe into the interior of thy heart.” (Words of Our Lady to the Ven. Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God, vol. 2, The Incarnation).
The Spirit of Christmas is not the Spirit of the World
The Liturgy of Holy Mother Church seeks to communicate to us and penetrate us with the spirit of her feasts―and none more so than Christmas. It is there that we find the basics, foundation and essentials of the spirit which ought to motivate us and rule within us on this great feast.
In the Midnight Mass of Christmas we read: “Why have the people devised vain things?” (Introit) … “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, instructing us, in order that, rejecting ungodliness and worldly lusts, we may live temperately and justly and piously in this world; looking for the blessed hope and glorious coming of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and cleanse for Himself an acceptable people, pursuing good works. Thus speak, and exhort, in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Epistle).
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that the new birth in the flesh of Thine only-begotten Son may set us free, whom the old bondage doth hold under the yoke of sin. (Collect of 3rd Mass of Christmas Day)
In the Breviary, in the Matins for Christmas Day, we read: “This is the day whereon the King of Heaven was pleased to be born of a Virgin, that He might bring back to Heaven man who was lost!” … In the same Matins, Pope St. Gregory the Great says: “Unto us is born this day a Savior! Let us rejoice! It would be unlawful to be sad today―for today is Life's Birthday; the Birthday of that Life, Which, for us dying creatures, takes away the sting of death, and brings the bright promise of the eternal gladness hereafter. It would be unlawful for any man to refuse to partake in our rejoicing! All men have an equal share in the great cause of our joy―for, since our Lord, Who is the destroyer of sin and of death, finds that all are bound under the condemnation, He is come to make all free. Rejoice, you that are holy, you are drawing nearer to your crown! Rejoice, you that are sinful―for your Savior offers you pardon! Rejoice also, you Gentile, God calls you to life!” (Matins of Christmas Day). (Matins of Christmas Day).
Pope St. Gregory the Great adds: “By God's mercy we are to say three Masses today … The Lord is born in Bethlehem. Now the name Bethlehem means the ‘House of Bread’, and thus it is the birth-place of Him Who has said: ‘I am the Living Bread, Which came down from Heaven!’ (John 6:51). We see then that this name of Bethlehem was prophetically given to the place where Christ was born, because it was there that He was to appear in the flesh by Whom the souls of the faithful are fed unto life eternal. He was born, not in His Mother's house, but away from home. And this is a mystery, showing that this our mortality, into which He was born, was not the home of Him Who is begotten of the Father before the worlds. Christ is born, and the shepherds watch; shepherds, to gather together the scattered sheep of the Gentiles, and to lead them into the fold of Christ, that they might no longer be a prey to the ravages of spiritual wolves in the night of this world's darkness. And that shepherd is wide awake, whom the Good Shepherd stirs up. The flock then is the people, the night is the world, and the shepherds are the priests.” (Matins of Christmas Day).
How many Catholics celebrated Christmas Day in the above spirit outlined by the Liturgy of Holy Mother Church? Too few or hardly any! Christmas, for them, was far more secular and materialistic than it was spiritual and religious!
Christmas is About Sin and Mercy―Not Food, Drink and Parties
The well-known story of St. Jerome puts Christmas into persepctive. About four centuries after the birth of Christ, after many years spent in Jerusalem translating the Word of God from various different Bibles and languages into what would be later known as the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible, St. Jerome had finished his grand project just days before Christmas. To celebrate this great forty-year long accomplishment, Jerome decides to spend Christmas Eve in nearby Bethlehem. He comes as a pilgrim to Bethlehem. He longs to venerate the place where Christ was born. He comes to the cave of the Nativity, where he humbly prays. He himself speaks later on about the divine experience he had.
Surprise Visitor! Surpise Request! Surprise Gift!
According to the ancient account, sometime around midnight, Jesus appeared to him, saying: “Jerome, what will you give Me for My birthday?”
Immediately and enthusiastically, Jerome declared: “Lord, I give You my translation of Your Word!”
But instead of congratulating him, Jesus simply replied: “No, Jerome, that is not what I want!”
St. Jerome was speechless. Then he began to complain and remonstrate with Jesus, asking why He had let him go on for forty years, far from home, laboring at something other than what God most wanted from him. But Jesus remained silent. Jerome started suggesting other ways of honoring Jesus’ birthday—fasting, or becoming a hermit, or giving his possessions to the poor.
To each of these Jesus replied, “No. Jerome. That is not what I want most!”
St. Jerome then pleaded: “Oh Lord, You know that it is for You I have abandoned everything … both the court of the rulers, and the majesties of Rome, and the pleasures and the riches… and at this time my mind, my whole heart, my thoughts and even my life, everything belongs to You! What else could I give You? I don’t have anything else to give you today on Your on this feast day of Your birth!”
Jesus replied: “You still have something to give Me, Jerome! You have something which you have forgotten and today I want you to place it at My feet!”
Finally, Jerome protested, “What is that, my Lord? Please tell me! Do I truly have something else to give you? Would I be so evil as to keep something for myself! Tell me, dear Lord, what is there that I can still give You? Tell me, Lord! Tell me what would give You the most joy on Your birthday, and You shall have it!”
“Do you promise, Jerome?” asked Our Lord.
“Yes, Lord, anything at all!” cried Jerome.
Jesus replied, “Give Me your sins!”
“My sins, O Lord? What would You do with my sins?” asked a bewildered Jerome.
“Jerome, give Me all your sins, so that I can forgive them all.”
Hearing this, St. Jerome broke down into tears of emotion, happiness and love at the merciful words of Jesus.
“Give me your sins.” In His limitless humility, more than any service we can render Him, the Lord considers it a gift that we “allow” Him to take away our sins. Why? Precisely because He thirsts for us, because He longs for union with us, and the only obstacle to that union is our sin — which, in His eyes, then, becomes the most precious gift we can offer.
Is the Real Christmas Worth the Effort?
Christmas is not about fun and games, feasting and drinking―it is all about being saved from Hell. Brushing aside the false sentimentality that has been created around Christmas, we should listen to Holy Mother Church as to true purpose of Christmas. Holy Mother Church reveals this in the Christmas Liturgy. The following quotes are taken from the Masses and Divine Office (Breviary) from Christmas Eve onwards:
“This day you shall know that the Lord will come and save us!” (Exodus 16:6-7) … “O God, You gladden us year after year with the expectation of our redemption!” … “Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of David, to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call His Name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins!” … “It is fitting and profitable to salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, Lord. For You have promised Him as a Savior for the lost human race … the time of His coming is near, and the day of our liberation is dawning!” … “Lift up your heads, for your redemption is at hand!” … “This day a Savior is born unto thee!” … “The Lord has made known His salvation!” … “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men; instructing us, that we should live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world by , denying ungodliness and worldly desires” … “Our Savior Jesus Christ, gave Himself for us, so that He might redeem us from all iniquity” … “These things speak, and exhort and rebuke with all authority!” … “Grant that the birth of Your only begotten Son may set us free, who are held by the bondage and chains of sin!” … “By the birth of Your only begotten Son cleanse us from our sins!” … “Take away from us our iniquities, we beseech Thee, O Lord!”
Being born Catholic has marked advantages over not being born Catholic. Proverbially, it is like being “born with a silver spoon in your mouth”; or like having a three lap start in a four lap race. But even though it has great advantages, God does not give us Heaven on a golden plate. If something is worth doing, then it’s worth doing well; if Heaven is worth getting, then we need to put serious effort into getting there!
Our Lord puts it this way: “Not everyone that says to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21) ... “A rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:23) ... “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3) ... “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:10) ...”Unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:20) … “For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 22:14).
Painful Prophecy
Our Lord is not full of “sweet talk” but He tells us as it is, without wrapping things up in cotton balls. The following prophecy is worth pondering―since it refers to the so-called “End Times” or “Last Days”, which Our Lady of Fatima said that we have entered:
“And as it came to pass in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat and drink, they married wives, and were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark: and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it came to pass, in the days of Lot: they did eat and drink, they bought and sold, they planted and built. And in the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man shall be revealed. In that hour, he that shall be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away: and he that shall be in the field, in like manner, let him not return back. Remember Lot’s wife! Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose it, shall preserve it. I say to you: in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together: the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left: two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.” (Luke 17:26-35).
The Many and the Few
We see this poignantly fulfilled as Jesus died on the Cross: one thief was saved, the other thief was lost. Even before that, many Jews and Pharisees rejected Him, few accepted Him: “Many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16). Many are baptized, but few will be saved.
“And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:23-24) ... “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14) ... “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12) ... “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12).
Life is No Joke―Christmas is No Party
All this points to the seriousness and gravity of the time allotted to us here on Earth by God. Some live for pleasure and fun; others live to work out their salvation. For some, Christmas is a time for fun, food, drink, gifts and parties. For others, Christmas is a time of seeking Christ in a more profitable way, through better prayer, more spiritual reading and a greater detachment from the world. “He that is not with Me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). It is a reflection of the foolish and wise virgins, mentioned by Our Lord in one of His parables. Time is too precious to lose, yet we have all lost much time. Now is the time to wake up from our illusions and wishful thinking, and face the reality of life, the reality of eternal life, the reality of salvation or ...
Going Out to Meet Christ
So, just like the wise virgins, we must go out to meet our Bridegroom, Christ: “There was a cry made: ‘Behold the bridegroom cometh! Go ye forth to meet him!” (Matthew 25:6). Like the wise virgins, we must be ever ready to seek Him, ever ready to go to Him, ever ready to meet Him. Love is reciprocal, meaning it is a “two-way-street” — it is about give and take. At Christmas, Our Lord, out of love, leaves Heaven to come and save us; we must likewise leave the world and go to Him to be saved.
Mary and Joseph had to leave their home and daily occupations in Nazareth to give birth to Him far away in Bethlehem. The Magi had to leave their homes and daily occupations and travel a long way to find and meet Him in Bethlehem. Because of Him, Mary and Joseph had to go even further afield, to distant Egypt, in order to preserve Him in their lives. The Apostles had to leave their jobs and families to be with Him; and would later even have to leave their home country as they were sent into the whole wide world to take His word to others.
Love for Love, Life for Life
He gave His life for us and He demands that we give Him our lives. “For he that will save his life, shall lose it; and he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall find it” (Matthew 16:25) ... “Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remains alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit. He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world, keeps it unto life eternal” (John 12:24-25).
Dying to Live for Christ
That “dying” may take all kinds of shapes and forms. The most common form will be that of dying to the world and its worldly spirit and worldly ambitions and worldly fashions and attitudes. Yet another form, more and more common in these modern times of religious indifference, is having to “die” to human respect which makes us “go along so as to get along” with family, relatives, work colleagues and friends. We are tempted to hide our Faith and shut our mouths to avoid rocking the boat. Yet Our Lord has said: “Everyone that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33). Dying to human respect can be one of the most profitable, yet one of the most painful things we could do.
Our perpetual battle is the one against the blatant lie that tries to tell us that we can have the best of both worlds: that we can live like the rest of the world and also save our souls. Yet, He Who is Truth itself, tells us: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24), while His Apostle, St. James, adds: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
But what About My Family and Friends?
But then we are faced with those who surround us—our family, relatives, work colleagues and social acquaintances! Surely we cannot turn our backs on them?!? Surely that cannot be what God wants!
There is a prudent path that must be trodden, as the following Scriptural quotes will explain.
First of all, it is certain that God has come to save sinners: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying: ‘This man receives sinners, and eats with them!’” (Luke 15:2). He forgave sins and accepted sinners into His entourage—as we see in the case of His choosing St. Matthew as an Apostle, whereas he was a publican; and St. Mary Magdalen, who was an adulteress who had been possessed by seven devils; and the Good Thief on the cross. So we clearly see that He does not avoid sinners, but goes to them.
Limits to Love
Yet there are limits that Our Lord Himself sets. The first one being the salvation of our own soul and the avoidance of any dangers that may make us lose our salvation: “What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Secondly, we cannot put family or relatives or friends before God. Do we really want to side with those who are deliberately and stubbornly offending God and are refusing to change their sinful ways? “He that is not with Me, is against Me; and he that gathers not with Me, scatters!” (Matthew 12:30). If they will not follow God, then after trying to change their minds, we cannot let family ties or friendship weaken our Faith, or, worse still, separate us from God.
Jesus Causes Division
Jesus already foresaw and foretold splits in families because of His teaching: “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household! He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves a son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me! And he that takes not up his cross and follows Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:34-38).
If They Will Not Listen, Then...
Thirdly, where there is opposition to Christ’s teaching, and division because of it, then we are told to first of all try and bring them round to the truth, for that is Christ’s wish.
“For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost! What think you? If a man has an hundred sheep, and one of them should go astray: does he not leave the ninety-nine in the mountains, and go to seek that which is gone astray? And if it so be that he find it: Amen I say to you, he rejoices more for that, than for the ninety-nine that went not astray! Even so it is not the will of your Father, Who is in Heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. But if thy brother shall offend against thee―then go and rebuke him between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou shalt gain thy brother. And if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more―so that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand. And if he will not hear them―then tell the church. And if he will not hear the church―then let him be to thee as the heathen and publican” (Matthew 18:11-17). “Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words― going forth out of that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet!” (Matthew 10:14).
One Bad Apple...
We must separate ourselves from and avoid those who are a danger to our Faith, as St. Paul writes: “Know you not that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump? ... I wrote to you in an epistle, not to keep company with fornicators. I mean not with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or the extortioners, or the servers of idols; otherwise you must needs go out of this world. But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat! ... Put away the evil one from among yourselves!” (1 Corinthians 5:6-13).
What Really Converts
As for their conversion, prayer and sacrifice (which Our Lady requested at Fatima) will do more to convert souls that mere human words. Faith is a supernatural gift of God, not man; and it is God who freely gives it. We can give nobody the Faith, we can merely plant seeds, and water them, but it is God who sparks Faith to life: “I have planted, Apollo watered―but God gave the increase!” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Because we are too human and not supernatural enough, we place too much emphasis on human efforts, forgetting (or at least twisting) the words of Our Lord, Who said: “Without Me you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
Limited Edition of Full Version?
At Christmas Christ comes with a challenge; He challenges us to go out of our customary human, self-made (or twisted) partial notion or limited-edition of the Catholic Faith and to embrace the full version or the entire Catholic Faith. It means dying to our personal version of the Faith, a death that will invariably be humiliating and painful, but less humiliating and painful here below, than having to undergo the transformation hereafter! He is there to help us should we decide to do so. Are we among the foolish virgins or the wise virgins? Will we take on the role of the bad thief or the Good Thief? Will we be Simon the Pharisee or Mary Magdalen? We live and die by our choices. Let us choose to die to self and live for Christ. “For to me, to live is Christ; and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). “Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Therefore, whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).
May the Infant Jesus grant you all great blessings on His birthday and reward your kindness and love towards Him in a world where “the charity of many has grown cold” (Matthew 24:12). Keep the fires of Christmas burning in your heart and soul!
For many persons, Christmas is a one-day wonder― a case of “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow!” Now that tomorrow has come―where is Christmas? Where is your Christmas? What on Earth are we of make of Christmas? What is your idea of Christmas? Who on Earth was born? What on Earth is going on? What on Earth is He doing here? Where on Earth is all this going to lead? What ten or twenty things come to mind at the mention of the word “Christmas”?
Different persons have conflicting answers to these questions―depending on whether they are primarily spiritual persons (a minority) or worldly persons (the majority). The words of God would be appropriately applied in this case: “My thoughts are not your thoughts; nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9).
Questions Answered
If you want the answer to the aforementioned questions, then go to the Mother. Go to the Mother of God and go to Holy Mother Church. They will tell it as it is! From the Breviary readings from Matins for Christmas Day, we have these words of Pope St. Leo the Great (died 461):
“Dearly beloved brethren, “Unto us is born this day a Savior.” ... Today is Life’s Birthday; the Birthday of that Life, Which, for us dying creatures, takes away the sting of death, and brings the bright promise of the eternal gladness hereafter ... Our Lord, Who is the destroyer of sin and of death, is come to make all free. Rejoice, you that are holy, you draw nearer to your crown! Rejoice, you that are sinful, for your Savior offers you pardon! Rejoice also, you Gentile, God calls you to life! For the Son of God ... took upon Him the nature of man, that He might reconcile that nature to Him Who made it.”
Through the readings from the Mass of the Vigil of Christmas, Holy Mother Church explains to us what on Earth is happening regarding the birth of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.
On Christmas Eve, at the Vigil Mass, the Introit told us that “This day you shall know that the Lord will come and save us.” In the Gospel, Joseph is told by the angel not to fear taking Mary for his wife, for “she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus (Savior), for He shall save His people from their sins.” By the time Christmas Eve was over and midnight had arrived, Holy Mother Church, at the first Mass of Christmas, told us: “Why have the people devised vain things” (Introit) ... “Our Savior has appeared to all men; instructing us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world” (Epistle) ... “Grant that we, who rejoice in celebrating the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, may, by dignified conversation, become worthy to attain fellowship with Him” (Postcommunion).
By the following morning’s Dawn Mass, Holy Mother Church continued: “...that we may show forth in our actions that which by Faith shines in our minds” (Collect of 2nd Mass) ... “that the new birth of Thy only-begotten Son, may set us free, whom the old bondage holds under the yoke of sin” (Collect of 3rd Mass).... “and cleanse us from the stains of our sins” (Secret of the 3rd Mass).
The other mother, the Mother of God, in her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, essentially says the same things in speaking of the mystery of Christmas:
“My most holy Son has set me as the teacher and living example of the love of humility and true contempt of worldly vanity and pride … He also sought destitution and poverty … in order to teach mortals the shortest and surest way for reaching the heights of divine love and union with God ... If men would keep their heart disengaged and if they would rightly and worthily consider this great mystery of the kindness of the Most High towards men, if they would only make use of their freedom to treat this mystery with the reverence due to its greatness, who would be so hardened as not to be moved at the sight of their God become man, humiliated in poverty, despised, unknown, entering the world in a cave, lying in a manger surrounded by brute animals, protected only by a poverty-stricken Mother, and cast off by the foolish arrogance of the world?
“Who will dare to love the vanity and pride, which was openly abhorred and condemned by the Creator of Heaven and Earth in his conduct? No one can despise the humility, poverty and indigence, which the Lord loved and chose for Himself as the very means of teaching the way of eternal life. Few there are, who stop to consider this truth and example: and on account of this vile ingratitude only the few will reap the fruit of these great mysteries ...
“I remind and exhort thee to forget all that is of Earth and lose it out of thy sight; that thou seek nothing, or engage thyself with nothing except what can help thee to withdraw and detach thee from the world and its inhabitants; so that, with a heart freed from all terrestrial affection, thou dispose thyself to celebrate in it the mysteries of the poverty, humility and divine love of the incarnate God ... His coming down from Heaven onto the Earth, His being born in humility and poverty, His living and dying in it, giving such rare example of the contempt of the world and its deceits; the knowledge, which thou hast received concerning His conduct and which thou hast penetrated so deeply by divine intelligence: all these things should be for thee like living voices, which thou must heed and inscribe into the interior of thy heart.” (Words of Our Lady to the Ven. Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God, vol. 2, The Incarnation).
The Spirit of Christmas is not the Spirit of the World
The Liturgy of Holy Mother Church seeks to communicate to us and penetrate us with the spirit of her feasts―and none more so than Christmas. It is there that we find the basics, foundation and essentials of the spirit which ought to motivate us and rule within us on this great feast.
In the Midnight Mass of Christmas we read: “Why have the people devised vain things?” (Introit) … “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, instructing us, in order that, rejecting ungodliness and worldly lusts, we may live temperately and justly and piously in this world; looking for the blessed hope and glorious coming of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and cleanse for Himself an acceptable people, pursuing good works. Thus speak, and exhort, in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Epistle).
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that the new birth in the flesh of Thine only-begotten Son may set us free, whom the old bondage doth hold under the yoke of sin. (Collect of 3rd Mass of Christmas Day)
In the Breviary, in the Matins for Christmas Day, we read: “This is the day whereon the King of Heaven was pleased to be born of a Virgin, that He might bring back to Heaven man who was lost!” … In the same Matins, Pope St. Gregory the Great says: “Unto us is born this day a Savior! Let us rejoice! It would be unlawful to be sad today―for today is Life's Birthday; the Birthday of that Life, Which, for us dying creatures, takes away the sting of death, and brings the bright promise of the eternal gladness hereafter. It would be unlawful for any man to refuse to partake in our rejoicing! All men have an equal share in the great cause of our joy―for, since our Lord, Who is the destroyer of sin and of death, finds that all are bound under the condemnation, He is come to make all free. Rejoice, you that are holy, you are drawing nearer to your crown! Rejoice, you that are sinful―for your Savior offers you pardon! Rejoice also, you Gentile, God calls you to life!” (Matins of Christmas Day). (Matins of Christmas Day).
Pope St. Gregory the Great adds: “By God's mercy we are to say three Masses today … The Lord is born in Bethlehem. Now the name Bethlehem means the ‘House of Bread’, and thus it is the birth-place of Him Who has said: ‘I am the Living Bread, Which came down from Heaven!’ (John 6:51). We see then that this name of Bethlehem was prophetically given to the place where Christ was born, because it was there that He was to appear in the flesh by Whom the souls of the faithful are fed unto life eternal. He was born, not in His Mother's house, but away from home. And this is a mystery, showing that this our mortality, into which He was born, was not the home of Him Who is begotten of the Father before the worlds. Christ is born, and the shepherds watch; shepherds, to gather together the scattered sheep of the Gentiles, and to lead them into the fold of Christ, that they might no longer be a prey to the ravages of spiritual wolves in the night of this world's darkness. And that shepherd is wide awake, whom the Good Shepherd stirs up. The flock then is the people, the night is the world, and the shepherds are the priests.” (Matins of Christmas Day).
How many Catholics celebrated Christmas Day in the above spirit outlined by the Liturgy of Holy Mother Church? Too few or hardly any! Christmas, for them, was far more secular and materialistic than it was spiritual and religious!
Christmas is About Sin and Mercy―Not Food, Drink and Parties
The well-known story of St. Jerome puts Christmas into persepctive. About four centuries after the birth of Christ, after many years spent in Jerusalem translating the Word of God from various different Bibles and languages into what would be later known as the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible, St. Jerome had finished his grand project just days before Christmas. To celebrate this great forty-year long accomplishment, Jerome decides to spend Christmas Eve in nearby Bethlehem. He comes as a pilgrim to Bethlehem. He longs to venerate the place where Christ was born. He comes to the cave of the Nativity, where he humbly prays. He himself speaks later on about the divine experience he had.
Surprise Visitor! Surpise Request! Surprise Gift!
According to the ancient account, sometime around midnight, Jesus appeared to him, saying: “Jerome, what will you give Me for My birthday?”
Immediately and enthusiastically, Jerome declared: “Lord, I give You my translation of Your Word!”
But instead of congratulating him, Jesus simply replied: “No, Jerome, that is not what I want!”
St. Jerome was speechless. Then he began to complain and remonstrate with Jesus, asking why He had let him go on for forty years, far from home, laboring at something other than what God most wanted from him. But Jesus remained silent. Jerome started suggesting other ways of honoring Jesus’ birthday—fasting, or becoming a hermit, or giving his possessions to the poor.
To each of these Jesus replied, “No. Jerome. That is not what I want most!”
St. Jerome then pleaded: “Oh Lord, You know that it is for You I have abandoned everything … both the court of the rulers, and the majesties of Rome, and the pleasures and the riches… and at this time my mind, my whole heart, my thoughts and even my life, everything belongs to You! What else could I give You? I don’t have anything else to give you today on Your on this feast day of Your birth!”
Jesus replied: “You still have something to give Me, Jerome! You have something which you have forgotten and today I want you to place it at My feet!”
Finally, Jerome protested, “What is that, my Lord? Please tell me! Do I truly have something else to give you? Would I be so evil as to keep something for myself! Tell me, dear Lord, what is there that I can still give You? Tell me, Lord! Tell me what would give You the most joy on Your birthday, and You shall have it!”
“Do you promise, Jerome?” asked Our Lord.
“Yes, Lord, anything at all!” cried Jerome.
Jesus replied, “Give Me your sins!”
“My sins, O Lord? What would You do with my sins?” asked a bewildered Jerome.
“Jerome, give Me all your sins, so that I can forgive them all.”
Hearing this, St. Jerome broke down into tears of emotion, happiness and love at the merciful words of Jesus.
“Give me your sins.” In His limitless humility, more than any service we can render Him, the Lord considers it a gift that we “allow” Him to take away our sins. Why? Precisely because He thirsts for us, because He longs for union with us, and the only obstacle to that union is our sin — which, in His eyes, then, becomes the most precious gift we can offer.
Is the Real Christmas Worth the Effort?
Christmas is not about fun and games, feasting and drinking―it is all about being saved from Hell. Brushing aside the false sentimentality that has been created around Christmas, we should listen to Holy Mother Church as to true purpose of Christmas. Holy Mother Church reveals this in the Christmas Liturgy. The following quotes are taken from the Masses and Divine Office (Breviary) from Christmas Eve onwards:
“This day you shall know that the Lord will come and save us!” (Exodus 16:6-7) … “O God, You gladden us year after year with the expectation of our redemption!” … “Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of David, to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call His Name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins!” … “It is fitting and profitable to salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, Lord. For You have promised Him as a Savior for the lost human race … the time of His coming is near, and the day of our liberation is dawning!” … “Lift up your heads, for your redemption is at hand!” … “This day a Savior is born unto thee!” … “The Lord has made known His salvation!” … “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men; instructing us, that we should live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world by , denying ungodliness and worldly desires” … “Our Savior Jesus Christ, gave Himself for us, so that He might redeem us from all iniquity” … “These things speak, and exhort and rebuke with all authority!” … “Grant that the birth of Your only begotten Son may set us free, who are held by the bondage and chains of sin!” … “By the birth of Your only begotten Son cleanse us from our sins!” … “Take away from us our iniquities, we beseech Thee, O Lord!”
Being born Catholic has marked advantages over not being born Catholic. Proverbially, it is like being “born with a silver spoon in your mouth”; or like having a three lap start in a four lap race. But even though it has great advantages, God does not give us Heaven on a golden plate. If something is worth doing, then it’s worth doing well; if Heaven is worth getting, then we need to put serious effort into getting there!
Our Lord puts it this way: “Not everyone that says to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21) ... “A rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:23) ... “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3) ... “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:10) ...”Unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:20) … “For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 22:14).
Painful Prophecy
Our Lord is not full of “sweet talk” but He tells us as it is, without wrapping things up in cotton balls. The following prophecy is worth pondering―since it refers to the so-called “End Times” or “Last Days”, which Our Lady of Fatima said that we have entered:
“And as it came to pass in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat and drink, they married wives, and were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark: and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it came to pass, in the days of Lot: they did eat and drink, they bought and sold, they planted and built. And in the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man shall be revealed. In that hour, he that shall be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away: and he that shall be in the field, in like manner, let him not return back. Remember Lot’s wife! Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose it, shall preserve it. I say to you: in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together: the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left: two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.” (Luke 17:26-35).
The Many and the Few
We see this poignantly fulfilled as Jesus died on the Cross: one thief was saved, the other thief was lost. Even before that, many Jews and Pharisees rejected Him, few accepted Him: “Many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16). Many are baptized, but few will be saved.
“And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:23-24) ... “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14) ... “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12) ... “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12).
Life is No Joke―Christmas is No Party
All this points to the seriousness and gravity of the time allotted to us here on Earth by God. Some live for pleasure and fun; others live to work out their salvation. For some, Christmas is a time for fun, food, drink, gifts and parties. For others, Christmas is a time of seeking Christ in a more profitable way, through better prayer, more spiritual reading and a greater detachment from the world. “He that is not with Me, is against Me!” (Matthew 12:30). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). It is a reflection of the foolish and wise virgins, mentioned by Our Lord in one of His parables. Time is too precious to lose, yet we have all lost much time. Now is the time to wake up from our illusions and wishful thinking, and face the reality of life, the reality of eternal life, the reality of salvation or ...
Going Out to Meet Christ
So, just like the wise virgins, we must go out to meet our Bridegroom, Christ: “There was a cry made: ‘Behold the bridegroom cometh! Go ye forth to meet him!” (Matthew 25:6). Like the wise virgins, we must be ever ready to seek Him, ever ready to go to Him, ever ready to meet Him. Love is reciprocal, meaning it is a “two-way-street” — it is about give and take. At Christmas, Our Lord, out of love, leaves Heaven to come and save us; we must likewise leave the world and go to Him to be saved.
Mary and Joseph had to leave their home and daily occupations in Nazareth to give birth to Him far away in Bethlehem. The Magi had to leave their homes and daily occupations and travel a long way to find and meet Him in Bethlehem. Because of Him, Mary and Joseph had to go even further afield, to distant Egypt, in order to preserve Him in their lives. The Apostles had to leave their jobs and families to be with Him; and would later even have to leave their home country as they were sent into the whole wide world to take His word to others.
Love for Love, Life for Life
He gave His life for us and He demands that we give Him our lives. “For he that will save his life, shall lose it; and he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall find it” (Matthew 16:25) ... “Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remains alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit. He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world, keeps it unto life eternal” (John 12:24-25).
Dying to Live for Christ
That “dying” may take all kinds of shapes and forms. The most common form will be that of dying to the world and its worldly spirit and worldly ambitions and worldly fashions and attitudes. Yet another form, more and more common in these modern times of religious indifference, is having to “die” to human respect which makes us “go along so as to get along” with family, relatives, work colleagues and friends. We are tempted to hide our Faith and shut our mouths to avoid rocking the boat. Yet Our Lord has said: “Everyone that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33). Dying to human respect can be one of the most profitable, yet one of the most painful things we could do.
Our perpetual battle is the one against the blatant lie that tries to tell us that we can have the best of both worlds: that we can live like the rest of the world and also save our souls. Yet, He Who is Truth itself, tells us: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24), while His Apostle, St. James, adds: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
But what About My Family and Friends?
But then we are faced with those who surround us—our family, relatives, work colleagues and social acquaintances! Surely we cannot turn our backs on them?!? Surely that cannot be what God wants!
There is a prudent path that must be trodden, as the following Scriptural quotes will explain.
First of all, it is certain that God has come to save sinners: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying: ‘This man receives sinners, and eats with them!’” (Luke 15:2). He forgave sins and accepted sinners into His entourage—as we see in the case of His choosing St. Matthew as an Apostle, whereas he was a publican; and St. Mary Magdalen, who was an adulteress who had been possessed by seven devils; and the Good Thief on the cross. So we clearly see that He does not avoid sinners, but goes to them.
Limits to Love
Yet there are limits that Our Lord Himself sets. The first one being the salvation of our own soul and the avoidance of any dangers that may make us lose our salvation: “What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Secondly, we cannot put family or relatives or friends before God. Do we really want to side with those who are deliberately and stubbornly offending God and are refusing to change their sinful ways? “He that is not with Me, is against Me; and he that gathers not with Me, scatters!” (Matthew 12:30). If they will not follow God, then after trying to change their minds, we cannot let family ties or friendship weaken our Faith, or, worse still, separate us from God.
Jesus Causes Division
Jesus already foresaw and foretold splits in families because of His teaching: “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household! He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves a son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me! And he that takes not up his cross and follows Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:34-38).
If They Will Not Listen, Then...
Thirdly, where there is opposition to Christ’s teaching, and division because of it, then we are told to first of all try and bring them round to the truth, for that is Christ’s wish.
“For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost! What think you? If a man has an hundred sheep, and one of them should go astray: does he not leave the ninety-nine in the mountains, and go to seek that which is gone astray? And if it so be that he find it: Amen I say to you, he rejoices more for that, than for the ninety-nine that went not astray! Even so it is not the will of your Father, Who is in Heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. But if thy brother shall offend against thee―then go and rebuke him between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou shalt gain thy brother. And if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more―so that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand. And if he will not hear them―then tell the church. And if he will not hear the church―then let him be to thee as the heathen and publican” (Matthew 18:11-17). “Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words― going forth out of that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet!” (Matthew 10:14).
One Bad Apple...
We must separate ourselves from and avoid those who are a danger to our Faith, as St. Paul writes: “Know you not that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump? ... I wrote to you in an epistle, not to keep company with fornicators. I mean not with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or the extortioners, or the servers of idols; otherwise you must needs go out of this world. But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat! ... Put away the evil one from among yourselves!” (1 Corinthians 5:6-13).
What Really Converts
As for their conversion, prayer and sacrifice (which Our Lady requested at Fatima) will do more to convert souls that mere human words. Faith is a supernatural gift of God, not man; and it is God who freely gives it. We can give nobody the Faith, we can merely plant seeds, and water them, but it is God who sparks Faith to life: “I have planted, Apollo watered―but God gave the increase!” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Because we are too human and not supernatural enough, we place too much emphasis on human efforts, forgetting (or at least twisting) the words of Our Lord, Who said: “Without Me you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
Limited Edition of Full Version?
At Christmas Christ comes with a challenge; He challenges us to go out of our customary human, self-made (or twisted) partial notion or limited-edition of the Catholic Faith and to embrace the full version or the entire Catholic Faith. It means dying to our personal version of the Faith, a death that will invariably be humiliating and painful, but less humiliating and painful here below, than having to undergo the transformation hereafter! He is there to help us should we decide to do so. Are we among the foolish virgins or the wise virgins? Will we take on the role of the bad thief or the Good Thief? Will we be Simon the Pharisee or Mary Magdalen? We live and die by our choices. Let us choose to die to self and live for Christ. “For to me, to live is Christ; and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). “Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Therefore, whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).
May the Infant Jesus grant you all great blessings on His birthday and reward your kindness and love towards Him in a world where “the charity of many has grown cold” (Matthew 24:12). Keep the fires of Christmas burning in your heart and soul!
DAILY THOUGHTS FOR THE SEASON OF ADVENT
Article 19
Tuesday & Wednesday, December 23rd & 24th
Latecomers ― Don’t Be Late for Christmas!
Tuesday & Wednesday, December 23rd & 24th
Latecomers ― Don’t Be Late for Christmas!
Missed-Out Again
For many, if not most, Advent will have been a non-starter or, at least, a poor-starter! It happens every year—and not just during Advent, but also Lent. The devil knows that these seasons are potentially loaded with mercy and grace, and, therefore, he does his best to distract us from doing what is essential and of primary importance, and he tries to make us focus on the non-essentials or things of secondary or even of no importance. This way, he makes us “miss-the-boat”—year after year after year. What makes it worse is that, with each passing year, we grow accustomed to “missing-the-boat” and it pains us very little, as we sink into a comfortable, self-excusing, lukewarm preparation, which doesn’t really feel that bad when we look around us and see that most of our fellow Catholics, family, relatives and friends have all “missed-the-boat” too! The fact that they are neither worried, saddened, or upset about it, makes it easier for us to sweep it all under the carpet and make a vague and impotent resolution to “do better next year.”
Our Lord’s parable about the wise and foolish virgins is very appropriate for this time of year as we find ourselves on the brink of Christmas: “Then Kingdom of Heaven can be likenrd to ten virgins, who taking their lamps, went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. And five of them were foolish, and five wise. But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made: ‘Behold the bridegroom comes! Go ye forth to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: ‘Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out!’ The wise answered, saying: ‘Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves!’ Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. But at last come also the other virgins, saying: ‘Lord! Lord! Open to us! But He answering said: ‘Amen I say to you, I know you not!’” (Matthew 25:1-12).
Lukewarmness Lurks in ‘Last-Minute-ness’
Usually, though admittedly not always, the phenomenon of leaving something to the ‘last-minute’ betrays a lack of concern or appreciation or esteem or desire for the thing that has been relegated to the back of the line, the end of the day or to the last-minute. Actions speak louder than words. In our words we might say “My God, I love you!”—but when those words are rushed and come at the end of the day, in which we have given everything else our attention, except God, then no matter what we say with our lips, our actions shout louder. “This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8).
Of course, we will hurriedly cry out: “But at the wedding-feast at Cana, the best wine came at the end! The Good Thief converted at the last-minute! St. Louis de Montfort says that the greatest saints, that the Church has ever known, will be raised up during the ‘end-times’ of the world!”
All this is very true, but it is also true that we should give the first fruits to God and not something else: ““Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His justice” (Luke 12:31). “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Matthew 12:30).
Besides, looking at the last-minute conversion of the Good Thief, we must also look at the big picture and not just a selective part of it. The Good Thief may have converted, but the Bad Thief didn’t. For every last-minute success, there are probably countless last-minute failures. As we sow, so shall we reap. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7). We need to put God first; we need to give God the best. This is the first and greatest commandment.
The ‘Christmas’ Gifts of Cain and Abel
Now, of course, there was no Christmas since Christ as man did not yet exist; but God did exist and Christ is God too! So though we may be ‘stretching-it’ a little bit with the idea of Cain and Abel giving Christmas gifts, we are not ‘stretching-it’ when we look at the notion of giving gifts to God. Abel gave God the first and the best of his flock — “Cain offered, of the fruits of the earth, gifts to the Lord. Abel also offered of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat: and the Lord had respect to Abel, and to his offerings. But to Cain and his offerings he had no respect: and Cain was exceedingly angry, and his countenance fell” (Genesis 4:3-5).
Looking at the Giver and not the Gift
God did not look at the thing that was given, but scrutinized the giver of the thing. His rejection of Cain did not mean that God preferred the taste of meat better than the taste of fruit and veggies. The Bible commentators say that God “had respect to Abel” means that God showed His acceptance of Abel’s sacrifice as coming from a heart full of devotion. Whereas Cain’s sacrifice, therefore, was not full of devotion, but perhaps routine, insincere and lukewarm. This fits well with the words of God in the Book of the Apocalypse, where God again has no respect for the routine, indifferent, insincere and lukewarm, saying:
“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ And knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Apocalypse 3:15-17).
“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:24). “Hath not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised to them that love Him?” (James 2:5).
Cleaning and Decorating the Soul for Christmas
Even before we get round to our last-minute shopping for Christ this Christmas, we first of all need to clean and decorate our soul to be able to receive Him with confidence. This is more important than cleaning and decorating our house, for our house has no soul, and will cease to exist one day, but our souls are immortal and need far greater attention: “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
The first thing to be addressed is a plugging-of-the-leaks! Or, in other words, don’t just treat the effects or symptoms, but more importantly, go and deal with the cause of those effects or symptoms. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for life. There is little or no point cleaning and decorating the soul if we don’t deal with what is making it sick in the first place. It will simply papering over the cracks; painting over the mold or the rot.
The frightening and very revealing words of God, quoted above, concerning lukewarmness—posing under various other identities such as tepidity, carelessness, indifference, spiritual sloth, lethargy, or “I’ll do it tomorrow”-ness—show us that God hates this even more than outright hatred of Him. The blatant sinner is more easily converted, in a certain sense, than the lukewarm soul; for the sinner has no excuse for his sin and he knows it, but the lukewarm soul is full of arguments and excuses for its lukewarm condition, and since it is not a socially shocking sin, the lukewarm soul is liable to stay lukewarm for the rest of its life.
Doctoral Diagnosis
Fr. Faber, writing back in the 1800s, when the world was considerably better than it is today, states:
“Lukewarmness is in no sense a beginning. We may begin by being cold, but not by being lukewarm. For lukewarmness implies that a great deal has gone before, that a height has been climbed, and that from cowardice, human respect or weariness, we have come down from it.
“There is nothing in the spiritual life which arrests our attention so forcibly as lukewarmness because of the unusual language in which it has pleased God to express His ineffable disgust with it, and the startling doctrine which accompanies the declaration of His loathing, that coldness is less offensive to Him than tepidity. Who is it then with whom God is so exceedingly displeased, that He is sick of His own redeemed creature? We tremble at the answer. It is the man who is patient when he has nothing to suffer, who is gentle while he is not contradicted, who is humble when men leave his honor untouched, who wishes to be a saint without the trouble of it, who seeks to acquire virtues without mortification, who is willing to do many things, but not to take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence.
“The diseases and evils of the body are in a great degree typical of the miseries and misfortunes of the soul. If we seek the correlative of lukewarnmess, we shall find it in blindness. It is a blindness which does not know even its own self, and does not suspect that it is blind, or that other men see better than itself.
Getting Down to the Causes
The Fr. Faber continues by exposing the causes of lukewarmness, which has to be of primary interest to us:
“It is usual to consider that this blindness is owing principally to three causes: the frequency of venial sins, habitual dissipation of mind and the ruling passion.
(1) “The frequency of venial sins is like travelling in the wilderness, where the bright air is imperceptibly filled with fine sand.
(2) “Habitual dissipation of mind is like reading in the sunshine, and living in a light too strong for our eyes.
(3) “The ruling passion is an external violence which menaces us and makes us shut our eyes, and have them always shut, that we may not see what we would like to hide, and so when we open them after long being used to darkness, it is the very light itself which blinds us.
The Children of the Causes
“The immediate results of this blindness are three also.
(1) “In the first place conscience becomes untrue. The body does not move firmly and in a straight line in the dark. So the conscience also must see in order to keep its balance. But if we falsify the conscience, and still believe it, what is the consequence but error and corruption everywhere? If the light that is in us be darkness, says Our Lord, how great is that darkness! So first there comes a false conscience.
(2) “But in proportion as conscience becomes dark, and so cold, and finally numb, in the same proportion the bad instincts of the human spirit, like owls at night, get more far‑sighted, animated and vivacious. These instincts lead us with uncommon tact to avoid anything which will restore animation to the conscience. Thus they make us shrink from anything like vigorous spiritual direction. We suspect we shall be awakened, and driven, and made too good. Discretion [or prudence], that is, the discretion [and prudence] of the blind conscience, tells us this shrinking is wisdom and sagacity. We must, it says, be moderate in everything, but of all things amazingly moderate in the love of God! So in hearing sermons, reading books, cultivating acquaintances, patronizing works of mercy, it draws back from everything that is likely to come too near or hit too hard. This is the second result of this blindness, which renders the cure still less likely. Indeed it is a characteristic of tepidity that everything we do while we are in that state has a tendency to confirm us as incurable.
(3) “Out of the two preceding results flows a third, which is a profane use of the Sacraments. To go to Holy Communion when we are physically drowsy, yawning and half asleep, or to make our general confession half stupefied with laudanum would be fair types of the way in which we morally use the Sacraments. Thus frequent or even daily Communion seems to have only a negative effect upon us. We do not know how bad things might be without it; and that is all. Weekly confession gives us no additional power over our commonest imperfections. Matters look as if they had come to a standstill, if there were any such phase of the spiritual life. But no! We are blind men, whose faces have been turned unwittingly. We are retracing our steps; and the only wonder is that the easier task of going downhill does not by its contrast make us suspicious of some mistake. Alas! We are asleep as well as blind.
“It is plain from this description that what is of the greatest practical usefulness in this matter of lukewarmness is a thorough acquaintance with the symptoms by which the insidious disease allows itself to be detected. These are seven in number; and according as we perceive that we unite them in ourselves, either in number or degree, so we have reason painfully to doubt whether our spiritual eyesight is not failing”
Do We Want Truthful Doctors, or Lying Doctors?
There we have Fr. Faber’s opening assessment of lukewarmness the key danger to the spiritual life and one of the chief seeds of damnation. The reason that is rarely addressed and rarely cured is due to the sweet, numbing desensitizing poison it injects into our soul when it first imperceptibly bites.
There is no point in going to a doctor if you want him to lie to you and tell you that everything is fine, when in fact it’s not! Of course, it is discouraging to discover you have a fatal illness; but discouragement is not a cure but a poison, a masterful, much tried, successfully applied potion that the devil has insidiously used for centuries. As we shall see tomorrow, the spiritual masters are of the opinion that most of the Catholic world is lukewarm, therefore, according to Fr. Faber’s diagnosis; they are blind without realizing they are blind. Pride blinds us to the truth. Humility and truth are like husband and wife, and Our Lord says “Learn of Me for I am humble of heart ... I am the truth ... and the truth shall make you free!” (Matthew 11:29; John 14:6; 8:32).
There is no sin that cannot be forgiven, there is no disease, physical or spiritual, for which God does not have a physical or spiritual remedy. God’s creation has all the answers, all the cures, all the remedies for our physical and spiritual diseases. But remedies are there to be taken. He who desires the end (the cure), must also necessarily desire the means (the remedies). Of course, God can perform miracles in the twinkling of an eye, but God rarely uses the extraordinary means when the ordinary means are readily available.
Ring the Christmas Changes
We love to look like we are really not! We are often dissatisfied with what we are. We want to be (or appear to be) better than we are. Thus the widespread use of cosmetics, creams, curlers, colorings, corsets, false eyelashes, false nails, false teeth, false shoulder pads, false hair, etc. in order to change our physical appearance. Americans spend significant amounts on cosmetics and beauty products and grooming―with figures varying from hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars annually, with women often spending more ($1,000+) than men ($700+). Younger women (20s-30s) show higher spending (over $9,000 in some studies), while overall averages hover around $800-$1,700+ yearly, covering skincare, makeup, hair care, and services, with some persons reporting spending over $200 monthly (over $2,400 annually).
If we take so much time over our physical bodies and spend so much money changing the appearance of our physical appearance or bodies―then why do we not spend even more time taking care of our spiritual soul and worry about how our soul must look like in the eyes of God? After all, is not the soul much more important than the body? If our hair is getting too long and shaggy―we do something about it. But if we are becoming lukewarm, we do little or nothing about it!
Christmas is all about change! Christ comes to change! He knows we are lukewarm and would prefer not to vomit us out of His mouth: “I know your works, and that you are neither cold, nor hot. I would prefer that you were cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm―and neither cold, not hot―I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ and do you not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy of Me gold that is fire tried, so that you may be made rich; and may be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, so that you may see. Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise! Be zealous therefore, and do penance! Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear My voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Apocalypse 3:15-20).
Christ’s Christmas Coming
Christ says: “I am not of this world! … My kingdom is not of this world! … The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 8:23; 18:36; 7:7). Christ comes at Christmas―not to play, not to party, not to drink, not to socialize, not to crack jokes, not to watch movies, not to admire the decorations―but He comes to lead you away from such things into something far more important, which is the salvation of your soul and to a payment for all your past sins, sinfulness and lukewarmness. His coming at Christmas is one of offering mercy before you face His justice at the end of your life. “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled! … Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no―but separation! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law!” (Luke 12:49-53). Christ comes at Christmas to cast fire upon us―the fire of His love, to enkindle the dying embers of our flimsy love and to “fire-up” our lukewarmness!
Christ came―not stay and ‘enjoy’ life on Earth―but He came to give us eternal life for which we need the life of Sanctifying Grace in our soul, without which there is no entrance into Heaven. “The wages of sin is death. But the grace of God, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 6:23). “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly!” (John 10:10). Eternal life is abundantly greater than any kind of earthly or worldly life.
Christmas Lights?
Christ comes to enlighten those who sit in the darkness of sin and death, for “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). He comes “to enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death” (Luke 1:79). Christ said: “I am come as a light into the world―that whosoever believes in Me, may not remain in darkness!” (John 12:46). “He was the true light, which enlightens every man that comes into this world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not!” (John 1:9-11). “The light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light―for their works were evil!” (John 3:19) “Take heed that the light which is in you, be not darkness!” (Luke 11:35). “To them that sat in the region of the shadow of death, light is sprung up!” (Matthew 4:16). “What fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). “If we say that we have fellowship with Christ and walk in darkness, then we lie and do not the truth!” (1 John 1:6). “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them!” (Ephesians 5:11). “Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light!” (Romans 13:12) “Walk then as children of the light!” (Ephesians 5:8). “Arise from the dead and Christ shall enlighten thee!” (Ephesians 5:14).
The above words are more than ever applicable to the world that we live in―even the Catholic world that we live in. People are far more world-centered than they are Christ-centered. They have foolishly created their own idea of what Catholic life should be like―“and the number of fools is infinite!” (Ecclesiastes 1:15). They have exalted the love and mercy of God, and thrown His justice and judgment into the trash can.
The words of St. Louis de Montfort come to mind: “Two groups that appear before you each day―the followers of Christ and the followers of the world. Our Savior’s group is to the right, scaling a narrow path made all the narrower by the world’s corruption. There is only a handful of people who follow Him. To the left is the world’s group, the devil’s in fact, which is far superior in number, and far more colorful and splendid in array. Fashionable folk are all in a hurry to enlist, the highways are overcrowded, although they are broad and ever broadening with the crowds that flow through in a torrent. These roads are strewn with flowers, bordered with all kinds of amusements and attractions and paved with gold and silver. These worldlings rouse one another to persist in their unscrupulous depravity. “Enjoy life, peace and pleasure!” they shout, ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure! Let us eat! Let us drink! Let us sing! Let us dance! Let us play! God is good! He did not make us to damn us! God does not forbid us to enjoy ourselves! We shall not be damned for that! Away with scruples! We shall not die!’ And so they continue!” (St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross).
That is exactly the attitude of most Catholics today―and those fools fail to realize that most Catholics lose their souls and end up being damned in Hell. Those fools forget (or deliberately ignore) the words of the merciful Lord on that subject: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!’” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
O the incomprehensible foolishness of Catholics who ignore the warnings of Our Lord in Holy Scripture and the innumerable warnings coming from saints, popes and theologians throughout each and every century concerning the fewness of those who are saved! You would think that they do all that is their power to discover why this is the case and then do everything possible to ensure that they do not make the damnable mistakes of damned majority! But no! They refuse or neglect to do so―and continue living in their own created dreamland! What a terrible tragedy! They prefer the pleasures of the world more than the treasures of Heaven. They seek comfort rather than the cross. They prefer to play rather than pray. They prefer self-gratification rather than mortification. Our Lady laments such souls in her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda:
For many, if not most, Advent will have been a non-starter or, at least, a poor-starter! It happens every year—and not just during Advent, but also Lent. The devil knows that these seasons are potentially loaded with mercy and grace, and, therefore, he does his best to distract us from doing what is essential and of primary importance, and he tries to make us focus on the non-essentials or things of secondary or even of no importance. This way, he makes us “miss-the-boat”—year after year after year. What makes it worse is that, with each passing year, we grow accustomed to “missing-the-boat” and it pains us very little, as we sink into a comfortable, self-excusing, lukewarm preparation, which doesn’t really feel that bad when we look around us and see that most of our fellow Catholics, family, relatives and friends have all “missed-the-boat” too! The fact that they are neither worried, saddened, or upset about it, makes it easier for us to sweep it all under the carpet and make a vague and impotent resolution to “do better next year.”
Our Lord’s parable about the wise and foolish virgins is very appropriate for this time of year as we find ourselves on the brink of Christmas: “Then Kingdom of Heaven can be likenrd to ten virgins, who taking their lamps, went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. And five of them were foolish, and five wise. But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made: ‘Behold the bridegroom comes! Go ye forth to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: ‘Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out!’ The wise answered, saying: ‘Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves!’ Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. But at last come also the other virgins, saying: ‘Lord! Lord! Open to us! But He answering said: ‘Amen I say to you, I know you not!’” (Matthew 25:1-12).
Lukewarmness Lurks in ‘Last-Minute-ness’
Usually, though admittedly not always, the phenomenon of leaving something to the ‘last-minute’ betrays a lack of concern or appreciation or esteem or desire for the thing that has been relegated to the back of the line, the end of the day or to the last-minute. Actions speak louder than words. In our words we might say “My God, I love you!”—but when those words are rushed and come at the end of the day, in which we have given everything else our attention, except God, then no matter what we say with our lips, our actions shout louder. “This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8).
Of course, we will hurriedly cry out: “But at the wedding-feast at Cana, the best wine came at the end! The Good Thief converted at the last-minute! St. Louis de Montfort says that the greatest saints, that the Church has ever known, will be raised up during the ‘end-times’ of the world!”
All this is very true, but it is also true that we should give the first fruits to God and not something else: ““Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His justice” (Luke 12:31). “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Matthew 12:30).
Besides, looking at the last-minute conversion of the Good Thief, we must also look at the big picture and not just a selective part of it. The Good Thief may have converted, but the Bad Thief didn’t. For every last-minute success, there are probably countless last-minute failures. As we sow, so shall we reap. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7). We need to put God first; we need to give God the best. This is the first and greatest commandment.
The ‘Christmas’ Gifts of Cain and Abel
Now, of course, there was no Christmas since Christ as man did not yet exist; but God did exist and Christ is God too! So though we may be ‘stretching-it’ a little bit with the idea of Cain and Abel giving Christmas gifts, we are not ‘stretching-it’ when we look at the notion of giving gifts to God. Abel gave God the first and the best of his flock — “Cain offered, of the fruits of the earth, gifts to the Lord. Abel also offered of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat: and the Lord had respect to Abel, and to his offerings. But to Cain and his offerings he had no respect: and Cain was exceedingly angry, and his countenance fell” (Genesis 4:3-5).
Looking at the Giver and not the Gift
God did not look at the thing that was given, but scrutinized the giver of the thing. His rejection of Cain did not mean that God preferred the taste of meat better than the taste of fruit and veggies. The Bible commentators say that God “had respect to Abel” means that God showed His acceptance of Abel’s sacrifice as coming from a heart full of devotion. Whereas Cain’s sacrifice, therefore, was not full of devotion, but perhaps routine, insincere and lukewarm. This fits well with the words of God in the Book of the Apocalypse, where God again has no respect for the routine, indifferent, insincere and lukewarm, saying:
“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ And knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Apocalypse 3:15-17).
“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:24). “Hath not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised to them that love Him?” (James 2:5).
Cleaning and Decorating the Soul for Christmas
Even before we get round to our last-minute shopping for Christ this Christmas, we first of all need to clean and decorate our soul to be able to receive Him with confidence. This is more important than cleaning and decorating our house, for our house has no soul, and will cease to exist one day, but our souls are immortal and need far greater attention: “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
The first thing to be addressed is a plugging-of-the-leaks! Or, in other words, don’t just treat the effects or symptoms, but more importantly, go and deal with the cause of those effects or symptoms. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for life. There is little or no point cleaning and decorating the soul if we don’t deal with what is making it sick in the first place. It will simply papering over the cracks; painting over the mold or the rot.
The frightening and very revealing words of God, quoted above, concerning lukewarmness—posing under various other identities such as tepidity, carelessness, indifference, spiritual sloth, lethargy, or “I’ll do it tomorrow”-ness—show us that God hates this even more than outright hatred of Him. The blatant sinner is more easily converted, in a certain sense, than the lukewarm soul; for the sinner has no excuse for his sin and he knows it, but the lukewarm soul is full of arguments and excuses for its lukewarm condition, and since it is not a socially shocking sin, the lukewarm soul is liable to stay lukewarm for the rest of its life.
Doctoral Diagnosis
Fr. Faber, writing back in the 1800s, when the world was considerably better than it is today, states:
“Lukewarmness is in no sense a beginning. We may begin by being cold, but not by being lukewarm. For lukewarmness implies that a great deal has gone before, that a height has been climbed, and that from cowardice, human respect or weariness, we have come down from it.
“There is nothing in the spiritual life which arrests our attention so forcibly as lukewarmness because of the unusual language in which it has pleased God to express His ineffable disgust with it, and the startling doctrine which accompanies the declaration of His loathing, that coldness is less offensive to Him than tepidity. Who is it then with whom God is so exceedingly displeased, that He is sick of His own redeemed creature? We tremble at the answer. It is the man who is patient when he has nothing to suffer, who is gentle while he is not contradicted, who is humble when men leave his honor untouched, who wishes to be a saint without the trouble of it, who seeks to acquire virtues without mortification, who is willing to do many things, but not to take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence.
“The diseases and evils of the body are in a great degree typical of the miseries and misfortunes of the soul. If we seek the correlative of lukewarnmess, we shall find it in blindness. It is a blindness which does not know even its own self, and does not suspect that it is blind, or that other men see better than itself.
Getting Down to the Causes
The Fr. Faber continues by exposing the causes of lukewarmness, which has to be of primary interest to us:
“It is usual to consider that this blindness is owing principally to three causes: the frequency of venial sins, habitual dissipation of mind and the ruling passion.
(1) “The frequency of venial sins is like travelling in the wilderness, where the bright air is imperceptibly filled with fine sand.
(2) “Habitual dissipation of mind is like reading in the sunshine, and living in a light too strong for our eyes.
(3) “The ruling passion is an external violence which menaces us and makes us shut our eyes, and have them always shut, that we may not see what we would like to hide, and so when we open them after long being used to darkness, it is the very light itself which blinds us.
The Children of the Causes
“The immediate results of this blindness are three also.
(1) “In the first place conscience becomes untrue. The body does not move firmly and in a straight line in the dark. So the conscience also must see in order to keep its balance. But if we falsify the conscience, and still believe it, what is the consequence but error and corruption everywhere? If the light that is in us be darkness, says Our Lord, how great is that darkness! So first there comes a false conscience.
(2) “But in proportion as conscience becomes dark, and so cold, and finally numb, in the same proportion the bad instincts of the human spirit, like owls at night, get more far‑sighted, animated and vivacious. These instincts lead us with uncommon tact to avoid anything which will restore animation to the conscience. Thus they make us shrink from anything like vigorous spiritual direction. We suspect we shall be awakened, and driven, and made too good. Discretion [or prudence], that is, the discretion [and prudence] of the blind conscience, tells us this shrinking is wisdom and sagacity. We must, it says, be moderate in everything, but of all things amazingly moderate in the love of God! So in hearing sermons, reading books, cultivating acquaintances, patronizing works of mercy, it draws back from everything that is likely to come too near or hit too hard. This is the second result of this blindness, which renders the cure still less likely. Indeed it is a characteristic of tepidity that everything we do while we are in that state has a tendency to confirm us as incurable.
(3) “Out of the two preceding results flows a third, which is a profane use of the Sacraments. To go to Holy Communion when we are physically drowsy, yawning and half asleep, or to make our general confession half stupefied with laudanum would be fair types of the way in which we morally use the Sacraments. Thus frequent or even daily Communion seems to have only a negative effect upon us. We do not know how bad things might be without it; and that is all. Weekly confession gives us no additional power over our commonest imperfections. Matters look as if they had come to a standstill, if there were any such phase of the spiritual life. But no! We are blind men, whose faces have been turned unwittingly. We are retracing our steps; and the only wonder is that the easier task of going downhill does not by its contrast make us suspicious of some mistake. Alas! We are asleep as well as blind.
“It is plain from this description that what is of the greatest practical usefulness in this matter of lukewarmness is a thorough acquaintance with the symptoms by which the insidious disease allows itself to be detected. These are seven in number; and according as we perceive that we unite them in ourselves, either in number or degree, so we have reason painfully to doubt whether our spiritual eyesight is not failing”
Do We Want Truthful Doctors, or Lying Doctors?
There we have Fr. Faber’s opening assessment of lukewarmness the key danger to the spiritual life and one of the chief seeds of damnation. The reason that is rarely addressed and rarely cured is due to the sweet, numbing desensitizing poison it injects into our soul when it first imperceptibly bites.
There is no point in going to a doctor if you want him to lie to you and tell you that everything is fine, when in fact it’s not! Of course, it is discouraging to discover you have a fatal illness; but discouragement is not a cure but a poison, a masterful, much tried, successfully applied potion that the devil has insidiously used for centuries. As we shall see tomorrow, the spiritual masters are of the opinion that most of the Catholic world is lukewarm, therefore, according to Fr. Faber’s diagnosis; they are blind without realizing they are blind. Pride blinds us to the truth. Humility and truth are like husband and wife, and Our Lord says “Learn of Me for I am humble of heart ... I am the truth ... and the truth shall make you free!” (Matthew 11:29; John 14:6; 8:32).
There is no sin that cannot be forgiven, there is no disease, physical or spiritual, for which God does not have a physical or spiritual remedy. God’s creation has all the answers, all the cures, all the remedies for our physical and spiritual diseases. But remedies are there to be taken. He who desires the end (the cure), must also necessarily desire the means (the remedies). Of course, God can perform miracles in the twinkling of an eye, but God rarely uses the extraordinary means when the ordinary means are readily available.
Ring the Christmas Changes
We love to look like we are really not! We are often dissatisfied with what we are. We want to be (or appear to be) better than we are. Thus the widespread use of cosmetics, creams, curlers, colorings, corsets, false eyelashes, false nails, false teeth, false shoulder pads, false hair, etc. in order to change our physical appearance. Americans spend significant amounts on cosmetics and beauty products and grooming―with figures varying from hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars annually, with women often spending more ($1,000+) than men ($700+). Younger women (20s-30s) show higher spending (over $9,000 in some studies), while overall averages hover around $800-$1,700+ yearly, covering skincare, makeup, hair care, and services, with some persons reporting spending over $200 monthly (over $2,400 annually).
If we take so much time over our physical bodies and spend so much money changing the appearance of our physical appearance or bodies―then why do we not spend even more time taking care of our spiritual soul and worry about how our soul must look like in the eyes of God? After all, is not the soul much more important than the body? If our hair is getting too long and shaggy―we do something about it. But if we are becoming lukewarm, we do little or nothing about it!
Christmas is all about change! Christ comes to change! He knows we are lukewarm and would prefer not to vomit us out of His mouth: “I know your works, and that you are neither cold, nor hot. I would prefer that you were cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm―and neither cold, not hot―I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ and do you not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy of Me gold that is fire tried, so that you may be made rich; and may be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, so that you may see. Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise! Be zealous therefore, and do penance! Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear My voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Apocalypse 3:15-20).
Christ’s Christmas Coming
Christ says: “I am not of this world! … My kingdom is not of this world! … The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works of the world are evil!” (John 8:23; 18:36; 7:7). Christ comes at Christmas―not to play, not to party, not to drink, not to socialize, not to crack jokes, not to watch movies, not to admire the decorations―but He comes to lead you away from such things into something far more important, which is the salvation of your soul and to a payment for all your past sins, sinfulness and lukewarmness. His coming at Christmas is one of offering mercy before you face His justice at the end of your life. “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled! … Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no―but separation! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law!” (Luke 12:49-53). Christ comes at Christmas to cast fire upon us―the fire of His love, to enkindle the dying embers of our flimsy love and to “fire-up” our lukewarmness!
Christ came―not stay and ‘enjoy’ life on Earth―but He came to give us eternal life for which we need the life of Sanctifying Grace in our soul, without which there is no entrance into Heaven. “The wages of sin is death. But the grace of God, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 6:23). “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly!” (John 10:10). Eternal life is abundantly greater than any kind of earthly or worldly life.
Christmas Lights?
Christ comes to enlighten those who sit in the darkness of sin and death, for “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). He comes “to enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death” (Luke 1:79). Christ said: “I am come as a light into the world―that whosoever believes in Me, may not remain in darkness!” (John 12:46). “He was the true light, which enlightens every man that comes into this world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not!” (John 1:9-11). “The light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light―for their works were evil!” (John 3:19) “Take heed that the light which is in you, be not darkness!” (Luke 11:35). “To them that sat in the region of the shadow of death, light is sprung up!” (Matthew 4:16). “What fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). “If we say that we have fellowship with Christ and walk in darkness, then we lie and do not the truth!” (1 John 1:6). “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them!” (Ephesians 5:11). “Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light!” (Romans 13:12) “Walk then as children of the light!” (Ephesians 5:8). “Arise from the dead and Christ shall enlighten thee!” (Ephesians 5:14).
The above words are more than ever applicable to the world that we live in―even the Catholic world that we live in. People are far more world-centered than they are Christ-centered. They have foolishly created their own idea of what Catholic life should be like―“and the number of fools is infinite!” (Ecclesiastes 1:15). They have exalted the love and mercy of God, and thrown His justice and judgment into the trash can.
The words of St. Louis de Montfort come to mind: “Two groups that appear before you each day―the followers of Christ and the followers of the world. Our Savior’s group is to the right, scaling a narrow path made all the narrower by the world’s corruption. There is only a handful of people who follow Him. To the left is the world’s group, the devil’s in fact, which is far superior in number, and far more colorful and splendid in array. Fashionable folk are all in a hurry to enlist, the highways are overcrowded, although they are broad and ever broadening with the crowds that flow through in a torrent. These roads are strewn with flowers, bordered with all kinds of amusements and attractions and paved with gold and silver. These worldlings rouse one another to persist in their unscrupulous depravity. “Enjoy life, peace and pleasure!” they shout, ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure! Let us eat! Let us drink! Let us sing! Let us dance! Let us play! God is good! He did not make us to damn us! God does not forbid us to enjoy ourselves! We shall not be damned for that! Away with scruples! We shall not die!’ And so they continue!” (St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross).
That is exactly the attitude of most Catholics today―and those fools fail to realize that most Catholics lose their souls and end up being damned in Hell. Those fools forget (or deliberately ignore) the words of the merciful Lord on that subject: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!’” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
O the incomprehensible foolishness of Catholics who ignore the warnings of Our Lord in Holy Scripture and the innumerable warnings coming from saints, popes and theologians throughout each and every century concerning the fewness of those who are saved! You would think that they do all that is their power to discover why this is the case and then do everything possible to ensure that they do not make the damnable mistakes of damned majority! But no! They refuse or neglect to do so―and continue living in their own created dreamland! What a terrible tragedy! They prefer the pleasures of the world more than the treasures of Heaven. They seek comfort rather than the cross. They prefer to play rather than pray. They prefer self-gratification rather than mortification. Our Lady laments such souls in her revelations to the Venerable Mary of Agreda:
Article 18
Monday, December 21st
Are You One of Them?
Monday, December 21st
Are You One of Them?
Two Types of People
So many things come in pairs or “in twos” and everything has a positive and a negative aspect ― hot and cold; night and day; health and sickness; life and death; believer and non-believer; fidelity and infidelity; knowledge and ignorance; reality and wishful thinking; humility and pride; love and hate; kindness and nastiness; joy and sadness; truth and lies; fervor and lukewarmness; obedience and disobedience; good and evil; virtue and vice; holiness and sinfulness; reward and punishment; salvation and damnation; etc. Heaven and Hell also fit the bill―for Heaven is a presence of God and Hell is the absence of God. We also speak of the fires of love and the fire of hatred―in that we burn with love or we burn with hatred for someone or something.
God, Our Lord and Holy Scripture speak of these and many more such examples. God made us for Heaven―Satan wants us in Hell. Yet for all this “tug-of-war” between God and Satan over our souls―we are still left to a free choice made by our God-given free will. God will not violate our free will and “make” us go to Heaven. Neither can Satan violate our God-given free will and “make” us go to Hell. Ultimately, we go where we want to go―or where we deserve to go―or, as Holy Scripture says: “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:8).
At the end of the day, you are either a godly person or a worldly person―you cannot be both, you cannot be two-faced: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24).
Why can we not be both godly and worldly? Because the world is an enemy of God: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “The whole world is seated in wickedness!” (1 John 5:19) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
Winners and Losers!
Consequentially and similarly there are only two kinds of persons―winners and losers. God wants you to be a winner, while Satan wants you be a loser. God wants you to save your souls, while Satan wants you to lose your soul―there is no other option to being a winner or a loser; no other to option to an eternity in Heaven as a winner, or an eternity in Hell as a loser! Refusing to face that truth does not change that truth.
To win a race or some other competition, you have to follow the rules―if you break the rules, then you are disqualified. The same is true for God and Heaven―as God Himself clearly points out:
“If you walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments, and do them, then I will give you rain in due seasons. And the ground shall bring forth its increase, and the trees shall be filled with fruit. The threshing of your harvest shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear. I will give peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid. I will take away evil beasts: and the sword shall not pass through your quarters. You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you. Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others, and a hundred of you ten thousand: your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will look on you, and make you increase: you shall be multiplied, and I will establish My covenant with you. You shall eat the oldest of the old store, and, new coming on, you shall cast away the old. I will set My tabernacle in the midst of you, and My soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people. But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, if you despise My laws, and contemn My judgments so as not to do those things which are appointed by Me, and to make void My covenant, then …” (Leviticus 26:3-14) … then, for not “paying the price”, God says:
“I will quickly visit you with poverty, and burning heat, which shall waste your eyes, and consume your lives. You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies. I will set My face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies, and shall be made subject to them that hate you. I will break the pride of your stubbornness, and I will make to you the Heaven above as iron, and the Earth as brass! Your labor shall be spent in vain, the ground shall not bring forth her increase, nor the trees yield their fruit. I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins! And I will send in upon you beasts, to destroy you and your cattle, and make you few in number, and that your highways may be desolate. And I will bring in upon you the sword. And when you shall flee into the cities, I will send the pestilence in the midst of you, and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies! I will destroy and break your idols. You shall fall among the ruins of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you. I will bring your cities to be a wilderness. And I will destroy your land. And I will scatter you, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed. You shall perish among the Gentiles, and an enemy’s land shall consume you. And if some of them still remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own―until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, by which they have sinned against Me, and walked contrary unto Me. Then shall they pray for their sins!” (Leviticus 26:16-41).
“Two of a Kind”
In a relationship, "two of a kind" means two people are very similar in personality, interests, or behavior, leading to strong compatibility, understanding, and a feeling they “click” or think alike, like being “peas in a pod” or “birds of a feather” who naturally get along well. “We are definitely two of a kind" is an English phrase meaning that two people have many similarities and often agree with each other in thoughts, actions, or preferences. This phrase is often used to describe a strong relationship between two people, implying they have many things in common and understand each other well. It is typically used in a positive context to express bond and deep friendship. That is exactly how God wants our relationship to be with Him and with each other: “I beseech you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you; but that you be perfect in the same mind, and in the same judgment!” (1 Corinthians 1:10).
Our Lord and Holy Scripture underline this and make this point abundantly clear on many occasions. At the Last Supper, Our Lord says to His Apostles: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine: you the branches―he that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abides not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he shall burn. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you! As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love―as I also have kept My Father’s commandments, and do abide in His love!” (John 5:4-10). Our Lord then says to God the Father: “Father, keep them in Thy Name whom Thou has given Me―so that they may be one, as We also are one! … That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee; so that they also may be one in Us. And the glory which Thou has given me, I have given to them; so that they may be one, as We also are one!” (John 17:11; 7:21-22).
God Himself says: “I am the Almighty God! Walk before Me and be perfect!” (Genesis 17:1). “You shall be holy men to Me!” (Exodus 22:31). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:26). “Let them therefore be holy, because I also am holy, the Lord, Who sanctifies them!” (Leviticus 21:8).
“Be imitators of God!” (Ephesians 5:1). “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14). “There shall not enter into Heaven anything defiled, or that works!” (Apocalypse 21:27). “I live, now not I―but Christ lives in me!” (Galatians 2:20). “Be like Him” (1 John 3:2). “Have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). “Let our hearts also be perfect with the Lord our God, so that we may walk in His statutes and keep His commandments” (3 Kings 8:61). “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make our abode with him. He that loves Me not, keeps not My words!” (John 14:23-24). “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord!’ Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
“Opposites Attract”
While Christ (God) expects us to be “two of a kind” in our relationship with Him―meaning that He wants us to be like Him―nevertheless, another principle also applies in our relationship with Christ (God)―it is the principle of “opposites attract”. The definition of this idiom says “people who are very different from each other are often attracted to each other.” Sometimes this is true, sometimes it is not true―for opposites can also repel.
The “opposites attract” idiom can never really be applied to core values ― as regards core values and morals, you have to be “two of a kind.” A marriage will not last very long if one spouse loves to get drunk, take drugs, commit adultery, watch pornography and practice domestic violence―while the other spouse hates all those things and practices the very opposite to them.
Likewise, the “opposites attract” idiom is rarely applied or is not fully applied to the physical sphere―in that a physically fit and slender man rarely seeks an obese and physically unfit woman to be his spouse; nor does a handsome man seek an ugly wife; nor does a young man seek a woman who is 40 years older than him to be his spouse.
The “opposites attract” idiom is more often than not applied to the realm of the four temperaments (choleric, sanguine, melancholic and phlegmatic) and to a lesser degree to the realm of skills. A family can be likened in a broad sense to a toolbox ― which a variety of tools is required rather than a toolbox full of identical tools. Each temperament temperaments (choleric, sanguine, melancholic and phlegmatic) has its inherent strengths and weaknesses ― and it so happens that the weaknesses of one temperament in one area happen to be the strengths of another temperament in the same area. Thus the indecisiveness of a melancholic can be offset by the decisiveness of a choleric; or the extroverted imprudence of the sanguine can be offset by the introverted prudence of the phlegmatic, and so on and so forth in numerous different areas.
Yet the most amazing all instances of “opposites attract” is that of Jesus Christ in relation to us! Christ is in all things perfect and without the slightest blemish of sin―we, on the other hand, are spiritually ugly, crippled, obese, lazy, resentful and worthy of hatred because of our “innumerable sins, offenses and negligences” that we admit to in the Offertory of every single Mass. “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). Who dare say: “I am clean, and without sin! I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me!” (Job 33:9). “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2). “There is no man who sins not” (3 Kings 8:46).
And what is sin? The Catechisms tell us: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial sin is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin … Sometimes people say: ‘It is only a little sin, it does not matter much!’ But every venial sin is an offence against God, and therefore is, after mortal sin, the greatest of evils―far greater than any of the physical evils which can be inflicted on us!” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD; also The Catechism Simply Explained, by Fr. Cafferata).
Sin is revolting―in more ways than one! It is revolting because it revolts and rebels against God. It is revolting to God because it is the total opposite to what God is. God hates sin! “Your iniquities have created a divide between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you so that He should not hear! For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue utters iniquity!” (Isaias 59:2-3). “Let none of you imagine evil in your hearts―for all these are the things that I hate, says the Lord” (Zacharias 8:17). “The Lord hates all abomination” (Ecclesiasticus 15:13). “God hates iniquity!” (Judith 5:21). “He that loves iniquity hates his own soul!” (Psalm 10:6). “You are not a God that wills iniquity! Neither shall the wicked dwell near You! You hate all the workers of iniquity!” (Psalm 5:5-7).
God’s Charity Overcomes His Revulsion for Sinners
“God is charity!” (1 John 4:8), “Charity is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:14) and “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). “God sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:17).
“The charity of Chris surpasses all knowledge!” (Ephesians 3:19). “When we were still sinners, Christ died for us! When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son!” (Romans 5:8-10). “In times past, you were dead in your offences and sins―in which you walked according to the course of this world. We also we all conversed in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest of mankind. But God, Who is rich in mercy, out of His exceeding charity―with which He loved us even when we were dead in sins―has restored us to life in Christ, by Whose grace you are saved, and has raised us up and has made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus―so that He might show the abundant riches of His grace, in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus!” (Ephesians 2:1-7). “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever is born of God, does not commit sin Whosoever is not just, is not of God” (1 John 3:9-10).
Failing to Profit from the Charity of Christ
“And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand outside, and knock at the door, saying: ‘Lord! Open to us!’ And He, answering, shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are!’ Then you shall begin to say: ‘We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets!” And He shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are! Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity!’ There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!’” (Luke 13:23-28; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
What We Sow is What We Reap
Christ has drawn a line in the sand and has divided all of mankind into two categories. Every single man, woman, and child on this planet, every person who has ever lived or will live, falls into one of these two categories. Jesus vividly describes these two types of people, recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. God wants all of us to realize that we belong in one of only two groups that exist in this world. Jesus wants us to think about this continually. The sheer volume of His teachings on this drives home this point. Most of these contrasts are either stated clearly or implied in the Gospel accounts. The goal is to expose this strong emphasis in Christ’s teaching. Read this list devotionally, taking time to read it slowly and prayerfully.
► FOR CHRIST / AGAINST CHRIST ― There are only two ultimate categories that we can fall under: (1) being for Christ, and (2) being against Christ ― there can be no neutrality, so spectators, no “opting out” (Matthew 6:24; 12:30; Luke 11:23; John 1:9-12; 15:23).
► CHRIST versus THE WORLD ― Christ clearly emphasizes that we must choose between Him and the world―because the world is an enemy of Christ’s and for the most part belongs to “prince of this world”, who is Satan. We cannot pretend to love Christ and love the world ― for Christ says it is impossible to embrace contradictory loves (Matthew 6:19-24; 10:32-37; 12:30; Luke 11:23; John 7:7; 8:23; 18:36).
► NARROW GATE / WIDE ROAD ― There are few who believe, who enter by the narrow gate, finding life; the rest includes the masses who are on the wide road leading to eternal destruction (Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
► GOOD FRUIT / BAD FRUIT ― Those whose lives bring forth good fruit and remain, versus those whose lives bear bad fruit and must be cut down and thrown into the fire and destroyed (Matthew 7:18-19; Luke 13:6-9; John 15:2,6).
► WISE BUILDER / FOOLISH BUILDER ― There are the wise who build their lives upon the foundation of Christ’s teachings and live, and there are those who build their lives on weak foundations that lead to their destruction (Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:46-49).
► WISE VIRGINS / FOOLISH VIRGINS ― There are those who wisely ensure that they have what is required to keep the light of their mind and the fire of love in their hearts burning as they await Christ to come and call them into the heavenly banquet, and there are those who foolishly neglect these things and find the door closed to them (Matthew 25:1-13).
► TWO ETERNAL DESTINATIONS ― Some will join the Old Testament saints in the Kingdom of Heaven while others are thrown into outer darkness, the place of great suffering, fire, weeping, and gnashing of teeth, a place of eternal torment, for Jesus will reject them (Matthew 8:11-12; 22:13; Luke 13:23-28; 16:22-26).
► CROSS-BEARERS / CROSS REJECTORS ― There are those that will take up their cross and follow Jesus, while others will refuse to do so (Matthew 10:38; 16:24-26; Luke 9:23; 14:27)
► SELF-DENIERS / SELF-SEEKERS ― Some will deny themselves and sacrifice for Jesus now, gaining eternal life, while others will choose living for themselves now and lose their own souls (Matthew 10:38-39; 16:24-26; Mark 8:34-37; Luke 9:24; 14:26-27; John 12:24).
► WEIGHED DOWN BY WORLD / FINDING PEACE IN CHRIST ― Many are harassed, helpless, burdened down, and without spiritual guidance, while others know rest for their souls as they serve their gentle Lord whose burden is light (Matthew 5:10-12; 9:36; 11:28-30).
► WHEAT / COCKLE ― Some are like good seed that brings a harvest of righteousness and pleases the Lord while others are like bad seed that fails to produce anything but sin and lawlessness and so must be destroyed in the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:24-30; 36-42)
► GOOD FISH / DISCARDED FISH ― Mankind is compared to a great catch of fish in a net. Good fish are kept, but bad fish are thrown away, illustrating the last judgment of how God will throw the wicked into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:47-50).
► SEEKING EARTHLY TREASURE / SEEKING HEAVENLY TREASURE ― Some live for the master of possessions and wealth, living for what they can get on this Earth, while others live to be rich in ways that please God their Master instead (Matthew 6:19-21; 19:23-24; Luke 12:15-21; 16:13).
► FIRSTWILL BE LAST AND LAST WILL BE FIRST ― There are those who have their prominence and glory now, but will lose it all for eternity, while others, last in this life, according to the world’s standards, will have glory with God for ever (Matthew 19:30; 20:16; Luke 13:30).
► PRIDE / HUMILITY ― Some are condemned by God for their pride, self-righteousness, and hypocrisy, while others are received by God through their humility and repentance (Matthew 23; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31-32; Luke 18:17).
► FAÇADE OF FAITH / ENDURING FAITH ― There are those who appear to believe for a time, but fall away, and there are others who endure to the end and will be saved (Matthew 24:13; Luke 9:62).
► PREPARED FOR CHRIST’S COMING / UNPREPARED ― Some will be ready when Jesus comes again as Judge, but others will be unprepared, living in sin and weighed down by the affairs of life, and will suffer great punishment (Matthew 24:42-51; 25:13; Luke 12:35-38; 21:34).
► RAISED TO LIFE AND REWARD / RAISED TO JUDGMENT ― On the day of the resurrection of the dead, there will be some who are raised up to receive their reward and eternal life while others will receive judgment (Luke 14:14; John 5:28-29).
► SHEEP / GOATS ― At Christ’s return there will be two kinds of people who will be separated from one another forever. They are described as sheep and goats separated from one another by Jesus the Great Shepherd. The sheep are blessed by God and will inherit God’s Kingdom while the goats will be cast into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:31-34, 41, 46).
► FALSE WORSHIPERS / TRUE WORSHIPERS ― Some claim to worship God, but they really believe deceitful doctrines made up by men. Others worship the Lord in spirit and in truth (Mark 7:6-7; John 4:24).
► REPENTANT / UNREPENTANT ― There are those that repent, turn away from sin and so find entrance into the Kingdom of God. The rest, however, will find themselves in Hell, the place where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:42-29).
► DOING PENANCE / NEGLECTING PENANCE ― Penance, even though disliked, is an essential requirement if we wish to get to Heaven. Jesus says without it we will certainly perish (Matthew 11:21; Luke 5:32; 13:3-5).
► WILLINGLY HEARING / WILLFULLY DEAF ― One hears Jesus and receives Him and His words; another rejects Him and is against Him, so will be judged (Luke 10:16; 11:23; 16:31; 20:17-18; John 1:11-12; 8:47; 12:48; 13:20).
► DOCUMENTED CITIZENS OF HEAVEN / PERSONA NON GRATA ― There are those whose names are written in Heaven while the names of others are absent, for they have no citizenship there (Luke 10:20).
► PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST / ESTRANGED FROM CHRIST― Some know the Son of God, have a relationship with Him, while others don’t know Him (John 1:9ff; 8:19; 10:15; 13:7; 17:3).
► CHILD OF GOD / CHILD OF SATAN ― Every person is either a child of God through Jesus, or a child of Satan (John 1:12; 8:44).
► BORN AGAIN SPIRITUALLY / BORN ONLY ONCE PHYSICALLY ― Everyone is born physically, but few are born spiritually. Baptism is our spiritual birth. A person is ether born again through Baptism and thus has a chance to enter the Kingdom of God, or he/she is not born again spiritually through Baptism and will never see God’s Kingdom (John 3:3-7).
► NO LONGER CONDEMNED / UNDER CONDEMNATION ― There are those who believe on Jesus and have eternal life, and the rest remain condemned before God (John 3:14-18; 36; 5:24; 6:40; 8:24; 11:25-27).
► LOVE LIGHT / LOVE DARKNESS ― Some love the light of God and His truth while others love lies and spiritual darkness (John 3:19-21; 8:12; 12:46; 18:37).
► OVERFLOWING WITH LIVING WATER / DYING OF THIRST ― Some drink of the living water that is Christ, while others remain dying of spiritual thirst in their sins (John 4:13-14; 7:37-39).
► SEEKING GOD’S APPROVAL / SEEKING MAN’S APPROVAL ― There are those who seek God’s approval above all else, while others seek the approval of others above God (John 5:44).
► RECEIVING THE BREAD OF LIFE / STARVING SPIRITUALLY ― The Bread of Life, Jesus, is received by some to give life to their souls, the rest remain in state of spiritual starvation (Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20; John 6:1-70).
► SET FREE FROM SIN / ENSLAVED BY SIN ― Some are set free from sin and death, while others remain enslaved and doomed to die in their sins (John 8:32-26).
► BELIEVE THE SON LIKE ABRAHAM / HATE CHRIST LIKE SATAN ― Some share the same faith of believers throughout all of history while others remain held by Satan who has deceived the masses since the beginning (John 8:38-47).
► LIFE IN THE SPIRIT / LIFE IN THE FLESH ― There are those that live life in the Spirit, abiding in Jesus, while everyone else lives life according to the flesh without God (John 6:63; 14:16-17; 15:5-6).
► OBEDIENT / DISOBEDIENT ― Some obey Jesus, keeping His words, while many refuse to do so (John 8:31, 52).
► SEEING / BLIND ― Spiritual blindness darkens the hearts of many, but some see God and His truth (John 9:39-41).
► FOLLOWERS OF THE TRUE SHEPHERD / FOLLOWERS OF FALSE SHEPHERDS ― Some are God’s sheep and follow the Great Shepherd, Jesus, and have abundant life, but many instead follow false shepherds and are killed and destroyed (John 10:1-10, 27; 12:26).
► SAFE FROM ALL HARM / FEARFUL ― Some are safe in the hand of God the Father and God the Son; these have eternal life and will never perish. Others, however, have no eternal security. They have every reason to fear (John 10:28).
► CLEAN/FILTHY ― There are those that have been made clean by God’s grace as they have responded in faith to God’s Word, while others remain unclean before God in their sins (John 13:10-11; 15:3).
► FOLLOWERS OF THE WAY / NO ACCESS TO THE FATHER ― Some will go to the Father through Jesus ― the Way, the Truth, and the Life ― but others have no way to the Father (John 14:6).
► SECURE IN THE FATHER’S LOVE / HIS LOVE UNKNOWN ― Some love Jesus and so have the Father’s love, while others, without Jesus, cannot know the Father’s love (John 14:21-24; 15:23-24).
► BELONG TO THIS WORLD / BELONG TO CHRIST ― There are those that belong to this sin-cursed world and those that instead now belong to Jesus, God’s Son (John 17:6-11; 17:14-16).
So many things come in pairs or “in twos” and everything has a positive and a negative aspect ― hot and cold; night and day; health and sickness; life and death; believer and non-believer; fidelity and infidelity; knowledge and ignorance; reality and wishful thinking; humility and pride; love and hate; kindness and nastiness; joy and sadness; truth and lies; fervor and lukewarmness; obedience and disobedience; good and evil; virtue and vice; holiness and sinfulness; reward and punishment; salvation and damnation; etc. Heaven and Hell also fit the bill―for Heaven is a presence of God and Hell is the absence of God. We also speak of the fires of love and the fire of hatred―in that we burn with love or we burn with hatred for someone or something.
God, Our Lord and Holy Scripture speak of these and many more such examples. God made us for Heaven―Satan wants us in Hell. Yet for all this “tug-of-war” between God and Satan over our souls―we are still left to a free choice made by our God-given free will. God will not violate our free will and “make” us go to Heaven. Neither can Satan violate our God-given free will and “make” us go to Hell. Ultimately, we go where we want to go―or where we deserve to go―or, as Holy Scripture says: “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:8).
At the end of the day, you are either a godly person or a worldly person―you cannot be both, you cannot be two-faced: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24).
Why can we not be both godly and worldly? Because the world is an enemy of God: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “The whole world is seated in wickedness!” (1 John 5:19) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
Winners and Losers!
Consequentially and similarly there are only two kinds of persons―winners and losers. God wants you to be a winner, while Satan wants you be a loser. God wants you to save your souls, while Satan wants you to lose your soul―there is no other option to being a winner or a loser; no other to option to an eternity in Heaven as a winner, or an eternity in Hell as a loser! Refusing to face that truth does not change that truth.
To win a race or some other competition, you have to follow the rules―if you break the rules, then you are disqualified. The same is true for God and Heaven―as God Himself clearly points out:
“If you walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments, and do them, then I will give you rain in due seasons. And the ground shall bring forth its increase, and the trees shall be filled with fruit. The threshing of your harvest shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear. I will give peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid. I will take away evil beasts: and the sword shall not pass through your quarters. You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you. Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others, and a hundred of you ten thousand: your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will look on you, and make you increase: you shall be multiplied, and I will establish My covenant with you. You shall eat the oldest of the old store, and, new coming on, you shall cast away the old. I will set My tabernacle in the midst of you, and My soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people. But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, if you despise My laws, and contemn My judgments so as not to do those things which are appointed by Me, and to make void My covenant, then …” (Leviticus 26:3-14) … then, for not “paying the price”, God says:
“I will quickly visit you with poverty, and burning heat, which shall waste your eyes, and consume your lives. You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies. I will set My face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies, and shall be made subject to them that hate you. I will break the pride of your stubbornness, and I will make to you the Heaven above as iron, and the Earth as brass! Your labor shall be spent in vain, the ground shall not bring forth her increase, nor the trees yield their fruit. I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins! And I will send in upon you beasts, to destroy you and your cattle, and make you few in number, and that your highways may be desolate. And I will bring in upon you the sword. And when you shall flee into the cities, I will send the pestilence in the midst of you, and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies! I will destroy and break your idols. You shall fall among the ruins of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you. I will bring your cities to be a wilderness. And I will destroy your land. And I will scatter you, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed. You shall perish among the Gentiles, and an enemy’s land shall consume you. And if some of them still remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own―until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, by which they have sinned against Me, and walked contrary unto Me. Then shall they pray for their sins!” (Leviticus 26:16-41).
“Two of a Kind”
In a relationship, "two of a kind" means two people are very similar in personality, interests, or behavior, leading to strong compatibility, understanding, and a feeling they “click” or think alike, like being “peas in a pod” or “birds of a feather” who naturally get along well. “We are definitely two of a kind" is an English phrase meaning that two people have many similarities and often agree with each other in thoughts, actions, or preferences. This phrase is often used to describe a strong relationship between two people, implying they have many things in common and understand each other well. It is typically used in a positive context to express bond and deep friendship. That is exactly how God wants our relationship to be with Him and with each other: “I beseech you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you; but that you be perfect in the same mind, and in the same judgment!” (1 Corinthians 1:10).
Our Lord and Holy Scripture underline this and make this point abundantly clear on many occasions. At the Last Supper, Our Lord says to His Apostles: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine: you the branches―he that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abides not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he shall burn. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you! As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love―as I also have kept My Father’s commandments, and do abide in His love!” (John 5:4-10). Our Lord then says to God the Father: “Father, keep them in Thy Name whom Thou has given Me―so that they may be one, as We also are one! … That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee; so that they also may be one in Us. And the glory which Thou has given me, I have given to them; so that they may be one, as We also are one!” (John 17:11; 7:21-22).
God Himself says: “I am the Almighty God! Walk before Me and be perfect!” (Genesis 17:1). “You shall be holy men to Me!” (Exodus 22:31). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:26). “Let them therefore be holy, because I also am holy, the Lord, Who sanctifies them!” (Leviticus 21:8).
“Be imitators of God!” (Ephesians 5:1). “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14). “There shall not enter into Heaven anything defiled, or that works!” (Apocalypse 21:27). “I live, now not I―but Christ lives in me!” (Galatians 2:20). “Be like Him” (1 John 3:2). “Have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). “Let our hearts also be perfect with the Lord our God, so that we may walk in His statutes and keep His commandments” (3 Kings 8:61). “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make our abode with him. He that loves Me not, keeps not My words!” (John 14:23-24). “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord!’ Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
“Opposites Attract”
While Christ (God) expects us to be “two of a kind” in our relationship with Him―meaning that He wants us to be like Him―nevertheless, another principle also applies in our relationship with Christ (God)―it is the principle of “opposites attract”. The definition of this idiom says “people who are very different from each other are often attracted to each other.” Sometimes this is true, sometimes it is not true―for opposites can also repel.
The “opposites attract” idiom can never really be applied to core values ― as regards core values and morals, you have to be “two of a kind.” A marriage will not last very long if one spouse loves to get drunk, take drugs, commit adultery, watch pornography and practice domestic violence―while the other spouse hates all those things and practices the very opposite to them.
Likewise, the “opposites attract” idiom is rarely applied or is not fully applied to the physical sphere―in that a physically fit and slender man rarely seeks an obese and physically unfit woman to be his spouse; nor does a handsome man seek an ugly wife; nor does a young man seek a woman who is 40 years older than him to be his spouse.
The “opposites attract” idiom is more often than not applied to the realm of the four temperaments (choleric, sanguine, melancholic and phlegmatic) and to a lesser degree to the realm of skills. A family can be likened in a broad sense to a toolbox ― which a variety of tools is required rather than a toolbox full of identical tools. Each temperament temperaments (choleric, sanguine, melancholic and phlegmatic) has its inherent strengths and weaknesses ― and it so happens that the weaknesses of one temperament in one area happen to be the strengths of another temperament in the same area. Thus the indecisiveness of a melancholic can be offset by the decisiveness of a choleric; or the extroverted imprudence of the sanguine can be offset by the introverted prudence of the phlegmatic, and so on and so forth in numerous different areas.
Yet the most amazing all instances of “opposites attract” is that of Jesus Christ in relation to us! Christ is in all things perfect and without the slightest blemish of sin―we, on the other hand, are spiritually ugly, crippled, obese, lazy, resentful and worthy of hatred because of our “innumerable sins, offenses and negligences” that we admit to in the Offertory of every single Mass. “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). Who dare say: “I am clean, and without sin! I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me!” (Job 33:9). “For in many things we all offend” (James 3:2). “There is no man who sins not” (3 Kings 8:46).
And what is sin? The Catechisms tell us: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial sin is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin … Sometimes people say: ‘It is only a little sin, it does not matter much!’ But every venial sin is an offence against God, and therefore is, after mortal sin, the greatest of evils―far greater than any of the physical evils which can be inflicted on us!” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD; also The Catechism Simply Explained, by Fr. Cafferata).
Sin is revolting―in more ways than one! It is revolting because it revolts and rebels against God. It is revolting to God because it is the total opposite to what God is. God hates sin! “Your iniquities have created a divide between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you so that He should not hear! For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue utters iniquity!” (Isaias 59:2-3). “Let none of you imagine evil in your hearts―for all these are the things that I hate, says the Lord” (Zacharias 8:17). “The Lord hates all abomination” (Ecclesiasticus 15:13). “God hates iniquity!” (Judith 5:21). “He that loves iniquity hates his own soul!” (Psalm 10:6). “You are not a God that wills iniquity! Neither shall the wicked dwell near You! You hate all the workers of iniquity!” (Psalm 5:5-7).
God’s Charity Overcomes His Revulsion for Sinners
“God is charity!” (1 John 4:8), “Charity is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:14) and “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). “God sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:17).
“The charity of Chris surpasses all knowledge!” (Ephesians 3:19). “When we were still sinners, Christ died for us! When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son!” (Romans 5:8-10). “In times past, you were dead in your offences and sins―in which you walked according to the course of this world. We also we all conversed in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest of mankind. But God, Who is rich in mercy, out of His exceeding charity―with which He loved us even when we were dead in sins―has restored us to life in Christ, by Whose grace you are saved, and has raised us up and has made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus―so that He might show the abundant riches of His grace, in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus!” (Ephesians 2:1-7). “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever is born of God, does not commit sin Whosoever is not just, is not of God” (1 John 3:9-10).
Failing to Profit from the Charity of Christ
“And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand outside, and knock at the door, saying: ‘Lord! Open to us!’ And He, answering, shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are!’ Then you shall begin to say: ‘We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets!” And He shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are! Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity!’ There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!’” (Luke 13:23-28; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
What We Sow is What We Reap
Christ has drawn a line in the sand and has divided all of mankind into two categories. Every single man, woman, and child on this planet, every person who has ever lived or will live, falls into one of these two categories. Jesus vividly describes these two types of people, recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. God wants all of us to realize that we belong in one of only two groups that exist in this world. Jesus wants us to think about this continually. The sheer volume of His teachings on this drives home this point. Most of these contrasts are either stated clearly or implied in the Gospel accounts. The goal is to expose this strong emphasis in Christ’s teaching. Read this list devotionally, taking time to read it slowly and prayerfully.
► FOR CHRIST / AGAINST CHRIST ― There are only two ultimate categories that we can fall under: (1) being for Christ, and (2) being against Christ ― there can be no neutrality, so spectators, no “opting out” (Matthew 6:24; 12:30; Luke 11:23; John 1:9-12; 15:23).
► CHRIST versus THE WORLD ― Christ clearly emphasizes that we must choose between Him and the world―because the world is an enemy of Christ’s and for the most part belongs to “prince of this world”, who is Satan. We cannot pretend to love Christ and love the world ― for Christ says it is impossible to embrace contradictory loves (Matthew 6:19-24; 10:32-37; 12:30; Luke 11:23; John 7:7; 8:23; 18:36).
► NARROW GATE / WIDE ROAD ― There are few who believe, who enter by the narrow gate, finding life; the rest includes the masses who are on the wide road leading to eternal destruction (Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
► GOOD FRUIT / BAD FRUIT ― Those whose lives bring forth good fruit and remain, versus those whose lives bear bad fruit and must be cut down and thrown into the fire and destroyed (Matthew 7:18-19; Luke 13:6-9; John 15:2,6).
► WISE BUILDER / FOOLISH BUILDER ― There are the wise who build their lives upon the foundation of Christ’s teachings and live, and there are those who build their lives on weak foundations that lead to their destruction (Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:46-49).
► WISE VIRGINS / FOOLISH VIRGINS ― There are those who wisely ensure that they have what is required to keep the light of their mind and the fire of love in their hearts burning as they await Christ to come and call them into the heavenly banquet, and there are those who foolishly neglect these things and find the door closed to them (Matthew 25:1-13).
► TWO ETERNAL DESTINATIONS ― Some will join the Old Testament saints in the Kingdom of Heaven while others are thrown into outer darkness, the place of great suffering, fire, weeping, and gnashing of teeth, a place of eternal torment, for Jesus will reject them (Matthew 8:11-12; 22:13; Luke 13:23-28; 16:22-26).
► CROSS-BEARERS / CROSS REJECTORS ― There are those that will take up their cross and follow Jesus, while others will refuse to do so (Matthew 10:38; 16:24-26; Luke 9:23; 14:27)
► SELF-DENIERS / SELF-SEEKERS ― Some will deny themselves and sacrifice for Jesus now, gaining eternal life, while others will choose living for themselves now and lose their own souls (Matthew 10:38-39; 16:24-26; Mark 8:34-37; Luke 9:24; 14:26-27; John 12:24).
► WEIGHED DOWN BY WORLD / FINDING PEACE IN CHRIST ― Many are harassed, helpless, burdened down, and without spiritual guidance, while others know rest for their souls as they serve their gentle Lord whose burden is light (Matthew 5:10-12; 9:36; 11:28-30).
► WHEAT / COCKLE ― Some are like good seed that brings a harvest of righteousness and pleases the Lord while others are like bad seed that fails to produce anything but sin and lawlessness and so must be destroyed in the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:24-30; 36-42)
► GOOD FISH / DISCARDED FISH ― Mankind is compared to a great catch of fish in a net. Good fish are kept, but bad fish are thrown away, illustrating the last judgment of how God will throw the wicked into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:47-50).
► SEEKING EARTHLY TREASURE / SEEKING HEAVENLY TREASURE ― Some live for the master of possessions and wealth, living for what they can get on this Earth, while others live to be rich in ways that please God their Master instead (Matthew 6:19-21; 19:23-24; Luke 12:15-21; 16:13).
► FIRSTWILL BE LAST AND LAST WILL BE FIRST ― There are those who have their prominence and glory now, but will lose it all for eternity, while others, last in this life, according to the world’s standards, will have glory with God for ever (Matthew 19:30; 20:16; Luke 13:30).
► PRIDE / HUMILITY ― Some are condemned by God for their pride, self-righteousness, and hypocrisy, while others are received by God through their humility and repentance (Matthew 23; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31-32; Luke 18:17).
► FAÇADE OF FAITH / ENDURING FAITH ― There are those who appear to believe for a time, but fall away, and there are others who endure to the end and will be saved (Matthew 24:13; Luke 9:62).
► PREPARED FOR CHRIST’S COMING / UNPREPARED ― Some will be ready when Jesus comes again as Judge, but others will be unprepared, living in sin and weighed down by the affairs of life, and will suffer great punishment (Matthew 24:42-51; 25:13; Luke 12:35-38; 21:34).
► RAISED TO LIFE AND REWARD / RAISED TO JUDGMENT ― On the day of the resurrection of the dead, there will be some who are raised up to receive their reward and eternal life while others will receive judgment (Luke 14:14; John 5:28-29).
► SHEEP / GOATS ― At Christ’s return there will be two kinds of people who will be separated from one another forever. They are described as sheep and goats separated from one another by Jesus the Great Shepherd. The sheep are blessed by God and will inherit God’s Kingdom while the goats will be cast into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:31-34, 41, 46).
► FALSE WORSHIPERS / TRUE WORSHIPERS ― Some claim to worship God, but they really believe deceitful doctrines made up by men. Others worship the Lord in spirit and in truth (Mark 7:6-7; John 4:24).
► REPENTANT / UNREPENTANT ― There are those that repent, turn away from sin and so find entrance into the Kingdom of God. The rest, however, will find themselves in Hell, the place where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:42-29).
► DOING PENANCE / NEGLECTING PENANCE ― Penance, even though disliked, is an essential requirement if we wish to get to Heaven. Jesus says without it we will certainly perish (Matthew 11:21; Luke 5:32; 13:3-5).
► WILLINGLY HEARING / WILLFULLY DEAF ― One hears Jesus and receives Him and His words; another rejects Him and is against Him, so will be judged (Luke 10:16; 11:23; 16:31; 20:17-18; John 1:11-12; 8:47; 12:48; 13:20).
► DOCUMENTED CITIZENS OF HEAVEN / PERSONA NON GRATA ― There are those whose names are written in Heaven while the names of others are absent, for they have no citizenship there (Luke 10:20).
► PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST / ESTRANGED FROM CHRIST― Some know the Son of God, have a relationship with Him, while others don’t know Him (John 1:9ff; 8:19; 10:15; 13:7; 17:3).
► CHILD OF GOD / CHILD OF SATAN ― Every person is either a child of God through Jesus, or a child of Satan (John 1:12; 8:44).
► BORN AGAIN SPIRITUALLY / BORN ONLY ONCE PHYSICALLY ― Everyone is born physically, but few are born spiritually. Baptism is our spiritual birth. A person is ether born again through Baptism and thus has a chance to enter the Kingdom of God, or he/she is not born again spiritually through Baptism and will never see God’s Kingdom (John 3:3-7).
► NO LONGER CONDEMNED / UNDER CONDEMNATION ― There are those who believe on Jesus and have eternal life, and the rest remain condemned before God (John 3:14-18; 36; 5:24; 6:40; 8:24; 11:25-27).
► LOVE LIGHT / LOVE DARKNESS ― Some love the light of God and His truth while others love lies and spiritual darkness (John 3:19-21; 8:12; 12:46; 18:37).
► OVERFLOWING WITH LIVING WATER / DYING OF THIRST ― Some drink of the living water that is Christ, while others remain dying of spiritual thirst in their sins (John 4:13-14; 7:37-39).
► SEEKING GOD’S APPROVAL / SEEKING MAN’S APPROVAL ― There are those who seek God’s approval above all else, while others seek the approval of others above God (John 5:44).
► RECEIVING THE BREAD OF LIFE / STARVING SPIRITUALLY ― The Bread of Life, Jesus, is received by some to give life to their souls, the rest remain in state of spiritual starvation (Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20; John 6:1-70).
► SET FREE FROM SIN / ENSLAVED BY SIN ― Some are set free from sin and death, while others remain enslaved and doomed to die in their sins (John 8:32-26).
► BELIEVE THE SON LIKE ABRAHAM / HATE CHRIST LIKE SATAN ― Some share the same faith of believers throughout all of history while others remain held by Satan who has deceived the masses since the beginning (John 8:38-47).
► LIFE IN THE SPIRIT / LIFE IN THE FLESH ― There are those that live life in the Spirit, abiding in Jesus, while everyone else lives life according to the flesh without God (John 6:63; 14:16-17; 15:5-6).
► OBEDIENT / DISOBEDIENT ― Some obey Jesus, keeping His words, while many refuse to do so (John 8:31, 52).
► SEEING / BLIND ― Spiritual blindness darkens the hearts of many, but some see God and His truth (John 9:39-41).
► FOLLOWERS OF THE TRUE SHEPHERD / FOLLOWERS OF FALSE SHEPHERDS ― Some are God’s sheep and follow the Great Shepherd, Jesus, and have abundant life, but many instead follow false shepherds and are killed and destroyed (John 10:1-10, 27; 12:26).
► SAFE FROM ALL HARM / FEARFUL ― Some are safe in the hand of God the Father and God the Son; these have eternal life and will never perish. Others, however, have no eternal security. They have every reason to fear (John 10:28).
► CLEAN/FILTHY ― There are those that have been made clean by God’s grace as they have responded in faith to God’s Word, while others remain unclean before God in their sins (John 13:10-11; 15:3).
► FOLLOWERS OF THE WAY / NO ACCESS TO THE FATHER ― Some will go to the Father through Jesus ― the Way, the Truth, and the Life ― but others have no way to the Father (John 14:6).
► SECURE IN THE FATHER’S LOVE / HIS LOVE UNKNOWN ― Some love Jesus and so have the Father’s love, while others, without Jesus, cannot know the Father’s love (John 14:21-24; 15:23-24).
► BELONG TO THIS WORLD / BELONG TO CHRIST ― There are those that belong to this sin-cursed world and those that instead now belong to Jesus, God’s Son (John 17:6-11; 17:14-16).
Article 17
Thursday, December 18th
It All Depends Upon You!
Thursday, December 18th
It All Depends Upon You!
Leading Horses to Water
You can lead a horse to water―but you cannot make it drink! Christ can suffer and die in order to save souls―but He will not force souls into Heaven! It all depends upon you whether or not you truly want to be saved! It all depends upon you whether or not you accept the terms of Christ’s contract for salvation. He will save you on His terms―not on your terms!
Advent is a time of penitential preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas! Why did Christ coming at Christmas? What was the purpose of His coming? It the first of two comings―His first coming at Christmas was to be a coming of mercy; His second coming at the end of the world will a coming of justice. At that first Christmas―and at every Christmas celebrated since then―Christ offered and still offers us His mercy before it is too late. Now comes His mercy―later comes His justice. It is better for us to be led to waters of His mercy rather than being led to the waters of His justice! It is better for us to drink of the waters of mercy rather than having to drink of the waters of justice!
St. Paul reminds us of this in the New Testament: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea! And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea! And did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ! But with most of them God was not well pleased―for they were overthrown in the desert!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5).
God was not well pleased with most of them! What a horrifying thought! They were His Chosen People—were they not? Yet He was ready to destroy them, He made them wander and die in the desert so that only two (Josue and Caleb) of the original millions who had left Egypt actually entered the Promised Land—the rest were a new generation! With most of them God was not well pleased! What, then, would God think of our ultra-sinful world today? We shiver to think!
Hence Holy Scripture says: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). Christ has done His part by suffering and dying for you―you must now do your part by cooperating with and profiting from the Passion and Death of Christ. As St. Augustine―a former big sinner himself―said: “God created us without us―but He did not will to save us without us!” Some translate the Latin into the singular: “God, Who created you without you, will not save you without you!” In other words, God created you without your cooperation, but God will not save you without your cooperation.
Entitled Catholics
Sadly, the modern world has bred us with a false sense of entitlement―an attitude whereby we imagine and feel that we are entitled to what we do not deserve and what we have not worked for. We expect “freebies” not only in the secular world, but we also expect “freebies” from Heaven: Good Friday Sales … Salvation Security Handouts … Comfort Confessions … Guilt Bailouts … Auto-Absolutions … Penitential Price Reductions … Fast-Track Masses … Slashed Sermons … Holy Communion “Take-Now-Pray-Later” deals … Low Interest Prayers … Rosary Reductions … Devotional Discounts … Grace Give-Aways … Holiness Handouts … Virtual Virtues … Educational Exemptions … etc., etc.
In one sense, everything that we receive from Heaven, everything that pertains to our salvation is actually a “freebie” which nobody has deserved. Everything is a grace of God, and our catechisms define grace as “a supernatural GIFT of God that FREELY given by God.” God owes salvation to nobody. God owes a place in Heaven to no one. Salvation and Heaven are GIFTS of God’s charity and NOT OBLIGATIONS in justice. Sure―we can falsely imagine that if we do good things and avoid seriously offending God, then God owes us Heaven and salvation. Yet we forget that any good that we do is actually activated, aided and achieved by GOD’S GRACE and not our own independent efforts―hence Our Lord says: “Without Me―you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
Here are some selected and combined quotes from St. Thomas Aquinas on God’s grace and our total reliance on it: “Human nature needs the help of God to do or wish any good whatsoever … Without grace men do nothing good when they either think or wish or love or act! … Without grace men can do no good whatever! … Grace is a light of the soul … Man cannot even know truth without Divine help … Not only do men know by the light of grace what to do, but by its help they do lovingly what they know! … Man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works proportionate to everlasting life―for this a higher force is needed, namely, the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life … Man cannot prepare himself for everlasting life without the help of grace ... Man’s turning to God is by free-will―but free-will can only be turned to God, according to John 15:5: ‘Without Me, you can do nothing!’ … Man can do nothing unless moved by God ... Man needs the help of grace to heal his nature … Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it … Man cannot fulfill all the Divine commandments without healing grace … It is heresy to believe that without grace man can fulfill all the Divine commandments … Man cannot avoid every act of sin, except by grace … Man needs grace to entirely abstain from sin … Man by himself can in no way rise from sin without the help of grace … In order for a man rise from sin there is required the help of grace … God’s grace is the outcome of His mercy … Even a man who already possesses grace needs a further assistance of grace in order to live righteously … After anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil until the end of his life. For to many persons grace is given to whom perseverance in grace is not given!” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114; Quaestiones Quodlibetales, 4, 6).
Those passages of St. Thomas clearly show that even though the chief part of the work of salvation is unquestionably done by God and His grace, the cooperation and efforts of ourselves as nevertheless indispensable―we have to “rise from sin” … “abstain from sin” … “do good” … “produce meritorious works” … “fulfill all the Divine commandments” … “live righteously” … “keep from evil till the end of life” and “persevere in grace.”
Use It or Lose It!
The grace of salvation is a free gift of God’s ― but that gift MUST BE USED. The grace of salvation is like a seed that God freely gives us ― but we then have to plant that seed that was freely given to us, nurture it, nourish it, care for it, make it grow and make it bear fruit. Our Lord says: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the gardener. Every branch in Me, that bears not fruit, then he will take away: and every one that bears fruit, He will purge it, so that it may bring forth more fruit! As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me! I am the vine: you the branches―he that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing! If anyone does not abide in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:1-6).
Hence, in the Parable of the Talents―where the Lord gave to one of them five talents, and to another two, and to another one talent: “And he that had received the five talents, went his way, and traded with the same, and gained other five. And he that had received the two, gained other two. But he that had received the one, going his way dug a hole into the earth, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came, and reckoned with them. He that had received the five talents brought the other five talents, saying: ‘Lord, you gave me five talents―behold I have gained other five over and above!’ His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! Because you have been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things! Enter into the joy of your lord!’ And he that had received the two talents came and said: ‘Lord, gave me two talents―behold I have gained other two!’ His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! Because you have been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things! Enter into the joy of your lord!’ But he that had received the one talent, came and said: ‘Lord, I know that thou art a hard man! And being afraid I went and hid your talent in the earth! Behold here is that which is yours!’ And his lord said to him: ‘Wicked and slothful servant! You should have at least committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with additional usury!’ He then said to his servants: ‘Take away the talent from him, and the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness! There shall there be the weeping and gnashing of teeth!’” (Matthew 25:14-30).
All of that is echoed in Holy Scripture: “Work out your salvation” (Philippians 2:12) … “They say, and do not!” (Matthew 23:3) … “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only―thereby deceiving your own selves!” (James 1:20) … “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46) … “You are saved by grace through Faith and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8) … “What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he has Faith, but has not works? Shall Faith be able to save him? … Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself! Show me your Faith without works; and I will show you, by works, my Faith! Know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead! … Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by Faith only? For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-26) ... “Every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labor!” (1 Corinthians 3:8) … “Labor as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3) … “Labor in all things” (2 Timothy 4:5). Our Lord sums it up: “And He said to ALL: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross DAILY, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that does not take up his cross and follows Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).
Our Lady along speaks along the same lines to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “My Son and Lord could have redeemed the human race without suffering so much! … It was not necessary to suffer so much! … Yet He wished to increase His sufferings only on account of the immensity of His love for souls! … But the worldlings, in their lethargy, are moved neither by the duty of conforming to their Lord, nor by His declaration that all their salvation consists in following Christ in His sufferings! … The greatest wisdom for souls consists in the knowledge of the cross, in the love of sufferings, and in putting this knowledge into practice by bearing afflictions with patience! … But they do not seek the medicine of suffering! …Those that know nothing of this science are foolish! … The number of fools is infinite and the number of the reprobate is also uncountable! … Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment! … Why do mortals continue to deceive themselves, by expecting, in spite of their sins, to become pure and worthy of enjoying God, without the furnace or the file of sorrows? Many of the faithful expect to be distinguished by God’s most intimate love, others expect to be pardoned without penance, others expect to be highly favored. Nothing of all this will they attain, because they do not wish to imitate Him and follow Him in His Passion.
“Great is the neglect and the inattention of men! … Men neglect their obligations! ... What a damage is brought about in souls by the neglect of so many graces, helps, inspirations, callings and other blessings of the Lord! ... Through their negligence and forgetfulness, mortals lose immense treasures of grace and glory! ... Those who neglect good works and remain idle, can by no means expect to apply to themselves the good works of Christ! … The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! … I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!
“My divine Son and I―without being guilty of any faults, or bad inclinations―devoted ourselves to labors and made Our lives a continual practice of penance and mortification of the flesh. If We then pursued such a course of life because it was reasonable, what must be thought of mortals that seek nothing but sweetness and delight, and abhor all penances, affronts, ignominies, fasting and mortification? Shall only Christ, our Lord, and I suffer all these hardships―while the guilt laden debtors and deservers of all these punishments throw themselves head over heels into the filth of their carnal inclinations?” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, taken from The Mystical City of God).
You can lead a horse to water―but you cannot make it drink! Christ can suffer and die in order to save souls―but He will not force souls into Heaven! It all depends upon you whether or not you truly want to be saved! It all depends upon you whether or not you accept the terms of Christ’s contract for salvation. He will save you on His terms―not on your terms!
Advent is a time of penitential preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas! Why did Christ coming at Christmas? What was the purpose of His coming? It the first of two comings―His first coming at Christmas was to be a coming of mercy; His second coming at the end of the world will a coming of justice. At that first Christmas―and at every Christmas celebrated since then―Christ offered and still offers us His mercy before it is too late. Now comes His mercy―later comes His justice. It is better for us to be led to waters of His mercy rather than being led to the waters of His justice! It is better for us to drink of the waters of mercy rather than having to drink of the waters of justice!
St. Paul reminds us of this in the New Testament: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea! And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea! And did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ! But with most of them God was not well pleased―for they were overthrown in the desert!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5).
God was not well pleased with most of them! What a horrifying thought! They were His Chosen People—were they not? Yet He was ready to destroy them, He made them wander and die in the desert so that only two (Josue and Caleb) of the original millions who had left Egypt actually entered the Promised Land—the rest were a new generation! With most of them God was not well pleased! What, then, would God think of our ultra-sinful world today? We shiver to think!
Hence Holy Scripture says: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). Christ has done His part by suffering and dying for you―you must now do your part by cooperating with and profiting from the Passion and Death of Christ. As St. Augustine―a former big sinner himself―said: “God created us without us―but He did not will to save us without us!” Some translate the Latin into the singular: “God, Who created you without you, will not save you without you!” In other words, God created you without your cooperation, but God will not save you without your cooperation.
Entitled Catholics
Sadly, the modern world has bred us with a false sense of entitlement―an attitude whereby we imagine and feel that we are entitled to what we do not deserve and what we have not worked for. We expect “freebies” not only in the secular world, but we also expect “freebies” from Heaven: Good Friday Sales … Salvation Security Handouts … Comfort Confessions … Guilt Bailouts … Auto-Absolutions … Penitential Price Reductions … Fast-Track Masses … Slashed Sermons … Holy Communion “Take-Now-Pray-Later” deals … Low Interest Prayers … Rosary Reductions … Devotional Discounts … Grace Give-Aways … Holiness Handouts … Virtual Virtues … Educational Exemptions … etc., etc.
In one sense, everything that we receive from Heaven, everything that pertains to our salvation is actually a “freebie” which nobody has deserved. Everything is a grace of God, and our catechisms define grace as “a supernatural GIFT of God that FREELY given by God.” God owes salvation to nobody. God owes a place in Heaven to no one. Salvation and Heaven are GIFTS of God’s charity and NOT OBLIGATIONS in justice. Sure―we can falsely imagine that if we do good things and avoid seriously offending God, then God owes us Heaven and salvation. Yet we forget that any good that we do is actually activated, aided and achieved by GOD’S GRACE and not our own independent efforts―hence Our Lord says: “Without Me―you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
Here are some selected and combined quotes from St. Thomas Aquinas on God’s grace and our total reliance on it: “Human nature needs the help of God to do or wish any good whatsoever … Without grace men do nothing good when they either think or wish or love or act! … Without grace men can do no good whatever! … Grace is a light of the soul … Man cannot even know truth without Divine help … Not only do men know by the light of grace what to do, but by its help they do lovingly what they know! … Man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works proportionate to everlasting life―for this a higher force is needed, namely, the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life … Man cannot prepare himself for everlasting life without the help of grace ... Man’s turning to God is by free-will―but free-will can only be turned to God, according to John 15:5: ‘Without Me, you can do nothing!’ … Man can do nothing unless moved by God ... Man needs the help of grace to heal his nature … Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it … Man cannot fulfill all the Divine commandments without healing grace … It is heresy to believe that without grace man can fulfill all the Divine commandments … Man cannot avoid every act of sin, except by grace … Man needs grace to entirely abstain from sin … Man by himself can in no way rise from sin without the help of grace … In order for a man rise from sin there is required the help of grace … God’s grace is the outcome of His mercy … Even a man who already possesses grace needs a further assistance of grace in order to live righteously … After anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the gift of perseverance, so that he may be kept from evil until the end of his life. For to many persons grace is given to whom perseverance in grace is not given!” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia-IIae, questions 109 to 114; Quaestiones Quodlibetales, 4, 6).
Those passages of St. Thomas clearly show that even though the chief part of the work of salvation is unquestionably done by God and His grace, the cooperation and efforts of ourselves as nevertheless indispensable―we have to “rise from sin” … “abstain from sin” … “do good” … “produce meritorious works” … “fulfill all the Divine commandments” … “live righteously” … “keep from evil till the end of life” and “persevere in grace.”
Use It or Lose It!
The grace of salvation is a free gift of God’s ― but that gift MUST BE USED. The grace of salvation is like a seed that God freely gives us ― but we then have to plant that seed that was freely given to us, nurture it, nourish it, care for it, make it grow and make it bear fruit. Our Lord says: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the gardener. Every branch in Me, that bears not fruit, then he will take away: and every one that bears fruit, He will purge it, so that it may bring forth more fruit! As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me! I am the vine: you the branches―he that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing! If anyone does not abide in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:1-6).
Hence, in the Parable of the Talents―where the Lord gave to one of them five talents, and to another two, and to another one talent: “And he that had received the five talents, went his way, and traded with the same, and gained other five. And he that had received the two, gained other two. But he that had received the one, going his way dug a hole into the earth, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came, and reckoned with them. He that had received the five talents brought the other five talents, saying: ‘Lord, you gave me five talents―behold I have gained other five over and above!’ His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! Because you have been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things! Enter into the joy of your lord!’ And he that had received the two talents came and said: ‘Lord, gave me two talents―behold I have gained other two!’ His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! Because you have been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things! Enter into the joy of your lord!’ But he that had received the one talent, came and said: ‘Lord, I know that thou art a hard man! And being afraid I went and hid your talent in the earth! Behold here is that which is yours!’ And his lord said to him: ‘Wicked and slothful servant! You should have at least committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with additional usury!’ He then said to his servants: ‘Take away the talent from him, and the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness! There shall there be the weeping and gnashing of teeth!’” (Matthew 25:14-30).
All of that is echoed in Holy Scripture: “Work out your salvation” (Philippians 2:12) … “They say, and do not!” (Matthew 23:3) … “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only―thereby deceiving your own selves!” (James 1:20) … “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46) … “You are saved by grace through Faith and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8) … “What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he has Faith, but has not works? Shall Faith be able to save him? … Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself! Show me your Faith without works; and I will show you, by works, my Faith! Know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead! … Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by Faith only? For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-26) ... “Every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labor!” (1 Corinthians 3:8) … “Labor as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3) … “Labor in all things” (2 Timothy 4:5). Our Lord sums it up: “And He said to ALL: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross DAILY, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that does not take up his cross and follows Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).
Our Lady along speaks along the same lines to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “My Son and Lord could have redeemed the human race without suffering so much! … It was not necessary to suffer so much! … Yet He wished to increase His sufferings only on account of the immensity of His love for souls! … But the worldlings, in their lethargy, are moved neither by the duty of conforming to their Lord, nor by His declaration that all their salvation consists in following Christ in His sufferings! … The greatest wisdom for souls consists in the knowledge of the cross, in the love of sufferings, and in putting this knowledge into practice by bearing afflictions with patience! … But they do not seek the medicine of suffering! …Those that know nothing of this science are foolish! … The number of fools is infinite and the number of the reprobate is also uncountable! … Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment! … Why do mortals continue to deceive themselves, by expecting, in spite of their sins, to become pure and worthy of enjoying God, without the furnace or the file of sorrows? Many of the faithful expect to be distinguished by God’s most intimate love, others expect to be pardoned without penance, others expect to be highly favored. Nothing of all this will they attain, because they do not wish to imitate Him and follow Him in His Passion.
“Great is the neglect and the inattention of men! … Men neglect their obligations! ... What a damage is brought about in souls by the neglect of so many graces, helps, inspirations, callings and other blessings of the Lord! ... Through their negligence and forgetfulness, mortals lose immense treasures of grace and glory! ... Those who neglect good works and remain idle, can by no means expect to apply to themselves the good works of Christ! … The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! … I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!
“My divine Son and I―without being guilty of any faults, or bad inclinations―devoted ourselves to labors and made Our lives a continual practice of penance and mortification of the flesh. If We then pursued such a course of life because it was reasonable, what must be thought of mortals that seek nothing but sweetness and delight, and abhor all penances, affronts, ignominies, fasting and mortification? Shall only Christ, our Lord, and I suffer all these hardships―while the guilt laden debtors and deservers of all these punishments throw themselves head over heels into the filth of their carnal inclinations?” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, taken from The Mystical City of God).
Article 16
Wednesday, December 17th
O How He Loves You!
Wednesday, December 17th
O How He Loves You!
Do We Deserve Love?
You may have heard the phrase that is often bandied around: “Jesus love me―this I know―for the Bible tells me so!” Does God really love the likes of you and me? We are sinners! “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). “For all have sinned!” (Romans 3:23). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). “Whosoever commits sin, is the servant of sin … He that commits sin is of the devil” (John 8:34; 1 John 3:8).
What is sin? “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial sin is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin … Sometimes people say: ‘It is only a little sin, it does not matter much!’ But every venial sin is an offence against God, and therefore is, after mortal sin, the greatest of evils―far greater than any of the physical evils which can be inflicted on us!” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD; The Catechism Simply Explained, by Fr. Cafferata, q. 127).
Think of countless times that you have sinned! Think of many mortal sins you may have committed! Each time you haves sinned you have committed the greatest evil on Earth! Imagine what would happen to you if you committed the greatest crime in your country’s law books―what would they do to you? Would they love you? Would they “let you off the hook”? Or would they give you the maximum punishment for having committed the greatest crime? Holy Scripture says: “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15). “The sting of death is sin!” (1 Corinthians 15:56). “Sin has reigned to death!” (Romans 5:21). “The soul that sins, the same shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:4). “Everyone shall die for his own sin!” (Deuteronomy 24:16).
Losing the Sense of Sin
That is what sin deserves―and, as sinners, that is what we deserve! The problem is that we have lost the sense of sin―which is something that been lamented by recent popes, even the Liberal and Modernist popes as well the Traditional popes.
● Pope Pius XII said in1946:“Perhaps the greatest sin in the world today is that men have begun to lose the sense of sin!”
● Pope John Paul II, in 2005, wrote: “We live in a society that seems to have lost the sense of God and of sin!”
● Pope Benedict XVI, in 2011, said: “The word ‘sin’ is not accepted by many!”
● Pope Francis, in 2014, stated: “When the Kingdom of God is forgotten, when the Kingdom of God diminishes, one of the signs is that the sense of sin is lost! … When we lose the sense of sin, when we let the Kingdom of God crumble!”
Can Sin Destroy Charity?
Sin can and does destroy our charity for God―but sin cannot destroy God’s charity for us. “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and mercy is a, so to speak, a “room in the mansion of charity”. If God is charity, then God also must be mercy―and Scripture says: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all; and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). That is why God Himself says: “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? … If the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keeps all My commandments, and does judgment and justice―then living he shall live and shall not die! I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done―in his justice, which he has done, he shall live!” (Ezechiel 18:21-23). What is that “judgment” and “justice” that God speaks of? We “judge” ourselves to have sinned, and “justice” has to be administered―and that “justice” is done by doing penance for our sins. As Our Lord warns: “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance! … No, I say to you― unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish! ... Again I say to you― except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5).
Nevertheless, the charity and mercy of God are there for those who want to profit from them. “God will [“to will” means “to want”] have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “God sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:17). “The Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, … that He might redeem us” (Titus 2:11-14). “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “The Lord deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance” (2 Peter 3:9). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). “God declares unto men, that all should everywhere do penance!” (Acts 17:30).
Don’t Abuse the Charity and Mercy of God!
Charity covers sins. Lack of charity can lead to damnation. “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Before all things, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves―for charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47).
St. John of the Cross says that at the end of our life we shall be judged upon our charity―which is why St. Paul writes: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Let us not abuse God’s charity and mercy by treating Him a like ‘doormat’ upon which we can infinitely wipe our dirty sinful feet! “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). “Say not: ‘I have sinned―and what harm has befallen me?’ Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great―He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’ For mercy and wrath quickly come from Him, and His wrath looks upon sinners. Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day. For His wrath shall come on a sudden, and in the time of vengeance He will destroy thee!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:4-9).
Unfortunately, the mercy of God and terms of God’s mercy are being widely abused by the Church these days―both clergy and laity. The loss of the sense of sin (see above) has been compounded by a loss in seeing the need for penance. In the traditional liturgy of the Church, this week sees the so-called “Ember Days” which are traditional days of penance by fasting and abstinence on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. These Ember Days occur used to occur four times a year―but now they are abolished. Likewise with the penance of fasting on the eve (vigil) before major feasts like Christmas, Pentecost, the Assumption, All Saints’ Day, the Immaculate Conception, the Epiphany, and the Apostles Peter and Paul.
Originally, Advent was much longer than today―being a 40-day penitential season of fasting. The fast was later reduced to three obligatory days―Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week in Advent. This was later reduced to just Friday. Today even that has been thrown out and Advent today has no obligation to fast. Similarly with Lent―the traditional 40-day Lenten obligatory fast has now been reduced to a mere 2 days, which are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday―that is a 95% reduction in obligatory Lenten penance! Yet Jesus told us us that some demons can be exorcised only by prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21). The Church’s exorcists speak of Satan’s increasing grip on the world―yet there are been a mammoth decrease in one of the chief weapons against Satan―which is penance: “This kind [of devil] is not cast out but by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20).
“Christ died for our sins!” (1 Corinthians 15:3) … “Christ died once for our sins, the just for the unjust: that he might offer us to God!” (1 Peter 3:18). Our Lord Himself said: “Greater love that this no man has―that a man lay down his life for his friends!” (John 15:13)―and He not only died for His friends, but also His enemies, as He said on the cross: “Father, forgive them! They know not what they do!” ([Luke 23:34). Sure―Christ did the ultimate penance by His Passion and Death which ended with Him being crucified as payment for our sins―but Christ also expects us to “co-pay” through our own penances, which are next to nothing compared to His sufferings, but which indicate and admit our guilt for our sins. That is why Christ demands penance from us: “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance! … No, I say to you― unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish ... Again I say to you― except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5).
Our Lord Clearly Indicates His Love for Us
Hence, Our Lord says to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (of Our Lady of Good Success fame): “Alas! If men would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, and small spineless imperfections on the part of those who belong to Me ... I will not tolerate this! Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me! I desire all or nothing! — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross! ... Woe to souls like this! Woe!” (Our Lord to Mother Mariana, Quito Ecuador).
Similarly, the Sacred Heart revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque: “My Divine Heart is so passionately inflamed with love for men! … Behold this Heart which has so loved men that It spared nothing―even going so far as to exhaust and consume Itself to prove to them Its love! And in return I receive― from the greater part of men―nothing but ingratitude, by the contempt, irreverence, sacrileges and coldness with which they treat Me! … If they would only give Me some return of love―but they have only coldness and contempt for all My endeavors to do them good. This is more grievous to Me than all that I endured in My Passion!”
In the book, Words of Love, by Fr. Bartholomew Gottemuller, which is a compilation of quotes from three other books, we read of the words that Our Lord addressed to three of His mystics―Sr. Josefa Menendez, Sr. Mary of the Holy Trinity and Sr. Consolata Bertrone. Here is the section in which Our Lord speaks of His love for us (we list the references from the original books from which Fr. Gottemuller compiled his quotes):
► WORDS OF OUR LORD TO SR. JOSEFA MENENDEZ: “Ah, if souls only understood how ardently I desire to communicate Myself to them! But how few do understand ... and how deeply this wounds My Heart ... If only they [souls] knew My Heart ... mankind is ignorant of Its mercy and goodness: that is My greatest sorrow ... Behold the Heart that gives life to souls! The fire of this love is stronger than the indifference and ingratitude of men! … I am all love, and how then could I treat severely those I so love? … See My wounds [from the scourging]! Who has suffered for love of you as I have? … Love gives Itself as food to Its own and this food is the substance which gives them their life and sustains them ... The Holy Eucharist is love to the extreme of folly! I have contracted an alliance of love and mercy with you. Does love ever grow weary or mercy come to an end? Nothing, indeed, is lacking to My heavenly happiness―which is infinite―but I yearn for souls.... I thirst for them, and want to save them!” (Our Lord to Sr. Josefa Menendez, The Way of Divine Love, pages 82, 109, 123, 135, 201, 279, 305, 346, 377, 390, 399).
► WORDS OF OUR LORD TO SR. MARY OF THE HOLY TRINITY: “My love for you is so great that it could not be better expressed than through suffering … I have bought you at a great price! … I bought you at the price of My Blood, the Blood of God. That I might not condemn you, I allowed Myself to be condemned in your place … I wish each soul to understand that she has her special place in My Heart―because I have loved her even to dying on the Cross for her―yes, each soul ... As I am happy, yes, happy to show you the marks of My Passion—see how your God has loved you!―will you not also be happy to show Me the marks of your love? Oh, if you knew how I long for you! Not to reproach you, but to overwhelm you with joy in showing you the marks of My love ...
“There is only one reality―I love you! … I love you and I take care of you! … You are Mine! … I love you! Is that not enough to fill every one of your moments with the fullness of joy? I love you and desire that you should know it. Oh, if you knew how much I love you! … Do you understand that I cannot stop loving you—My gifts are without regret—do you understand how ready I am to help you, to give you My grace? You can ask everything of Me! Come to Me! … I wish you to be entirely Mine. You are so miserable! You have such need of Me! … Leave all! Let there no longer be anything else in the world for you, but the love between you and Me! … Oh, if you knew what My love is! And how I long for you to have confidence in it! … Give Me your heart! … It is such a great thing to belong to Me! What does anything else matter to you? Be full of joy at belonging to Me. I want you to be altogether Mine! … Am I not enough for you? Is it not sufficient for you to know that your Jesus loves you? … It is My joy to help you! I can do great things with a soul who unreservedly gives herself to Me, letting Me work in her―and each soul, each one, is called to that! ... Each soul is a matchless treasure to Me! … You cannot do without Me!” (Our Lord to Sr. Mary of the Trinity, The Spiritual Legacy of Sister Mary of the Holy Trinity, Fr. Silvere Van Den Broek, O.F.M., nos. 5, 61, 46, 49, 54, 55, 58, 88, 96, 145, 152, 169, 173, 177, 240, 247, 410, 425, 459, 513, 550, 551).
► WORDS OF OUR LORD TO SR. CONSOLATA BERTRONE: “Do not make Me out to be a God of rigor, whereas I am nothing but a God of Love! Write ‘The Gentle Heart of Jesus’―for everyone knows that I am holy, but not all know that I am gentle!” (Our Lord to Sr. Consolata Betrone, Jesus Appeals to the World, by Lorenzo Sales, I.M.C., p. 36).
You may have heard the phrase that is often bandied around: “Jesus love me―this I know―for the Bible tells me so!” Does God really love the likes of you and me? We are sinners! “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). “For all have sinned!” (Romans 3:23). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). “Whosoever commits sin, is the servant of sin … He that commits sin is of the devil” (John 8:34; 1 John 3:8).
What is sin? “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial sin is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin … Sometimes people say: ‘It is only a little sin, it does not matter much!’ But every venial sin is an offence against God, and therefore is, after mortal sin, the greatest of evils―far greater than any of the physical evils which can be inflicted on us!” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD; The Catechism Simply Explained, by Fr. Cafferata, q. 127).
Think of countless times that you have sinned! Think of many mortal sins you may have committed! Each time you haves sinned you have committed the greatest evil on Earth! Imagine what would happen to you if you committed the greatest crime in your country’s law books―what would they do to you? Would they love you? Would they “let you off the hook”? Or would they give you the maximum punishment for having committed the greatest crime? Holy Scripture says: “The wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23). “Sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15). “The sting of death is sin!” (1 Corinthians 15:56). “Sin has reigned to death!” (Romans 5:21). “The soul that sins, the same shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:4). “Everyone shall die for his own sin!” (Deuteronomy 24:16).
Losing the Sense of Sin
That is what sin deserves―and, as sinners, that is what we deserve! The problem is that we have lost the sense of sin―which is something that been lamented by recent popes, even the Liberal and Modernist popes as well the Traditional popes.
● Pope Pius XII said in1946:“Perhaps the greatest sin in the world today is that men have begun to lose the sense of sin!”
● Pope John Paul II, in 2005, wrote: “We live in a society that seems to have lost the sense of God and of sin!”
● Pope Benedict XVI, in 2011, said: “The word ‘sin’ is not accepted by many!”
● Pope Francis, in 2014, stated: “When the Kingdom of God is forgotten, when the Kingdom of God diminishes, one of the signs is that the sense of sin is lost! … When we lose the sense of sin, when we let the Kingdom of God crumble!”
Can Sin Destroy Charity?
Sin can and does destroy our charity for God―but sin cannot destroy God’s charity for us. “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and mercy is a, so to speak, a “room in the mansion of charity”. If God is charity, then God also must be mercy―and Scripture says: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all; and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). That is why God Himself says: “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18). “Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? … If the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keeps all My commandments, and does judgment and justice―then living he shall live and shall not die! I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done―in his justice, which he has done, he shall live!” (Ezechiel 18:21-23). What is that “judgment” and “justice” that God speaks of? We “judge” ourselves to have sinned, and “justice” has to be administered―and that “justice” is done by doing penance for our sins. As Our Lord warns: “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance! … No, I say to you― unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish! ... Again I say to you― except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5).
Nevertheless, the charity and mercy of God are there for those who want to profit from them. “God will [“to will” means “to want”] have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son―so that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “God sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:17). “The Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, … that He might redeem us” (Titus 2:11-14). “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “The Lord deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance” (2 Peter 3:9). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). “God declares unto men, that all should everywhere do penance!” (Acts 17:30).
Don’t Abuse the Charity and Mercy of God!
Charity covers sins. Lack of charity can lead to damnation. “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Before all things, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves―for charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47).
St. John of the Cross says that at the end of our life we shall be judged upon our charity―which is why St. Paul writes: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Let us not abuse God’s charity and mercy by treating Him a like ‘doormat’ upon which we can infinitely wipe our dirty sinful feet! “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). “Say not: ‘I have sinned―and what harm has befallen me?’ Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin! And say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great―He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’ For mercy and wrath quickly come from Him, and His wrath looks upon sinners. Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day. For His wrath shall come on a sudden, and in the time of vengeance He will destroy thee!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:4-9).
Unfortunately, the mercy of God and terms of God’s mercy are being widely abused by the Church these days―both clergy and laity. The loss of the sense of sin (see above) has been compounded by a loss in seeing the need for penance. In the traditional liturgy of the Church, this week sees the so-called “Ember Days” which are traditional days of penance by fasting and abstinence on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. These Ember Days occur used to occur four times a year―but now they are abolished. Likewise with the penance of fasting on the eve (vigil) before major feasts like Christmas, Pentecost, the Assumption, All Saints’ Day, the Immaculate Conception, the Epiphany, and the Apostles Peter and Paul.
Originally, Advent was much longer than today―being a 40-day penitential season of fasting. The fast was later reduced to three obligatory days―Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week in Advent. This was later reduced to just Friday. Today even that has been thrown out and Advent today has no obligation to fast. Similarly with Lent―the traditional 40-day Lenten obligatory fast has now been reduced to a mere 2 days, which are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday―that is a 95% reduction in obligatory Lenten penance! Yet Jesus told us us that some demons can be exorcised only by prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21). The Church’s exorcists speak of Satan’s increasing grip on the world―yet there are been a mammoth decrease in one of the chief weapons against Satan―which is penance: “This kind [of devil] is not cast out but by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20).
“Christ died for our sins!” (1 Corinthians 15:3) … “Christ died once for our sins, the just for the unjust: that he might offer us to God!” (1 Peter 3:18). Our Lord Himself said: “Greater love that this no man has―that a man lay down his life for his friends!” (John 15:13)―and He not only died for His friends, but also His enemies, as He said on the cross: “Father, forgive them! They know not what they do!” ([Luke 23:34). Sure―Christ did the ultimate penance by His Passion and Death which ended with Him being crucified as payment for our sins―but Christ also expects us to “co-pay” through our own penances, which are next to nothing compared to His sufferings, but which indicate and admit our guilt for our sins. That is why Christ demands penance from us: “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance! … No, I say to you― unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish ... Again I say to you― except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5).
Our Lord Clearly Indicates His Love for Us
Hence, Our Lord says to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (of Our Lady of Good Success fame): “Alas! If men would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, and small spineless imperfections on the part of those who belong to Me ... I will not tolerate this! Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me! I desire all or nothing! — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross! ... Woe to souls like this! Woe!” (Our Lord to Mother Mariana, Quito Ecuador).
Similarly, the Sacred Heart revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque: “My Divine Heart is so passionately inflamed with love for men! … Behold this Heart which has so loved men that It spared nothing―even going so far as to exhaust and consume Itself to prove to them Its love! And in return I receive― from the greater part of men―nothing but ingratitude, by the contempt, irreverence, sacrileges and coldness with which they treat Me! … If they would only give Me some return of love―but they have only coldness and contempt for all My endeavors to do them good. This is more grievous to Me than all that I endured in My Passion!”
In the book, Words of Love, by Fr. Bartholomew Gottemuller, which is a compilation of quotes from three other books, we read of the words that Our Lord addressed to three of His mystics―Sr. Josefa Menendez, Sr. Mary of the Holy Trinity and Sr. Consolata Bertrone. Here is the section in which Our Lord speaks of His love for us (we list the references from the original books from which Fr. Gottemuller compiled his quotes):
► WORDS OF OUR LORD TO SR. JOSEFA MENENDEZ: “Ah, if souls only understood how ardently I desire to communicate Myself to them! But how few do understand ... and how deeply this wounds My Heart ... If only they [souls] knew My Heart ... mankind is ignorant of Its mercy and goodness: that is My greatest sorrow ... Behold the Heart that gives life to souls! The fire of this love is stronger than the indifference and ingratitude of men! … I am all love, and how then could I treat severely those I so love? … See My wounds [from the scourging]! Who has suffered for love of you as I have? … Love gives Itself as food to Its own and this food is the substance which gives them their life and sustains them ... The Holy Eucharist is love to the extreme of folly! I have contracted an alliance of love and mercy with you. Does love ever grow weary or mercy come to an end? Nothing, indeed, is lacking to My heavenly happiness―which is infinite―but I yearn for souls.... I thirst for them, and want to save them!” (Our Lord to Sr. Josefa Menendez, The Way of Divine Love, pages 82, 109, 123, 135, 201, 279, 305, 346, 377, 390, 399).
► WORDS OF OUR LORD TO SR. MARY OF THE HOLY TRINITY: “My love for you is so great that it could not be better expressed than through suffering … I have bought you at a great price! … I bought you at the price of My Blood, the Blood of God. That I might not condemn you, I allowed Myself to be condemned in your place … I wish each soul to understand that she has her special place in My Heart―because I have loved her even to dying on the Cross for her―yes, each soul ... As I am happy, yes, happy to show you the marks of My Passion—see how your God has loved you!―will you not also be happy to show Me the marks of your love? Oh, if you knew how I long for you! Not to reproach you, but to overwhelm you with joy in showing you the marks of My love ...
“There is only one reality―I love you! … I love you and I take care of you! … You are Mine! … I love you! Is that not enough to fill every one of your moments with the fullness of joy? I love you and desire that you should know it. Oh, if you knew how much I love you! … Do you understand that I cannot stop loving you—My gifts are without regret—do you understand how ready I am to help you, to give you My grace? You can ask everything of Me! Come to Me! … I wish you to be entirely Mine. You are so miserable! You have such need of Me! … Leave all! Let there no longer be anything else in the world for you, but the love between you and Me! … Oh, if you knew what My love is! And how I long for you to have confidence in it! … Give Me your heart! … It is such a great thing to belong to Me! What does anything else matter to you? Be full of joy at belonging to Me. I want you to be altogether Mine! … Am I not enough for you? Is it not sufficient for you to know that your Jesus loves you? … It is My joy to help you! I can do great things with a soul who unreservedly gives herself to Me, letting Me work in her―and each soul, each one, is called to that! ... Each soul is a matchless treasure to Me! … You cannot do without Me!” (Our Lord to Sr. Mary of the Trinity, The Spiritual Legacy of Sister Mary of the Holy Trinity, Fr. Silvere Van Den Broek, O.F.M., nos. 5, 61, 46, 49, 54, 55, 58, 88, 96, 145, 152, 169, 173, 177, 240, 247, 410, 425, 459, 513, 550, 551).
► WORDS OF OUR LORD TO SR. CONSOLATA BERTRONE: “Do not make Me out to be a God of rigor, whereas I am nothing but a God of Love! Write ‘The Gentle Heart of Jesus’―for everyone knows that I am holy, but not all know that I am gentle!” (Our Lord to Sr. Consolata Betrone, Jesus Appeals to the World, by Lorenzo Sales, I.M.C., p. 36).
Article 15
Monday & Tuesday, December 15th & 16th
Looking for Joy? It’s Waiting for You at the Crossroads!
Monday & Tuesday, December 15th & 16th
Looking for Joy? It’s Waiting for You at the Crossroads!
True Joy is not Temporary Joy!
Yesterday we celebrated “Gaudete Sunday” ― the Latin word that means “Rejoice”. We can know what “joy” is in theory, but we do not possess it unless we put it into practice―which is by “rejoicing” (or “re-joy-sing”). “Sing joyfully to God, all the Earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come in before His presence with exceedingly great joy!” (Psalm 99:2). “Come let us praise the Lord with joy! Let us joyfully sing to God our Savior!” (Psalms 94:1).
The Introit or Entrance Hymn for Gaudete Sunday commands: “Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice!” Then, in the Epistle reading of the Mass for Gaudete Sunday―lo and behold―the same injunction is repeated: “Brethren! Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4-7). In the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (the Traditional Latin Rite), the day that follows Gaudete Sunday in the year 2025 (Monday, December 15th) is a Ferial day with no feast allocated to it―therefore the Mass of Gaudete Sunday is repeated on the Monday. Thus, we are again told―through the prayers and readings of the Mass―to “Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice!” (Entrance Hymn or Introit) and then again in the Epistle reading of the Mass the same injunction is repeated: “Brethren! Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice!”
The Church is trying to drill into our thick skulls that rejoicing in the Lord is not “a one day wonder” but a perpetual state of being―ALWAYS rejoicing in the Lord. Finding joy in ALL THINGS, in ALL PLACES, at ALL TIMES, as the Preface of the Mass says: “It is truly fitting and proper, right and profitable to salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, Lord, holy Father, Almighty and everlasting God.” This is because “to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to His purpose, are called to be saints!” (Romans 8:28).
Looking for Joy?
Are you seeking joy? Who isn’t? Everyone wants pleasure. More deeply, everyone wants happiness. Most deeply, everyone wants joy. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that joy is more than happiness, just as happiness is more than pleasure. Pleasure is in the body. Happiness is in the mind and feelings. Joy is deep in the heart, the spirit, the center of the self. The way to pleasure is power and prudence. The way to happiness is moral goodness. The way to joy is sanctity, loving God with your whole heart and your neighbor as yourself. St. Thomas Aquinas says, “No man can live without joy. That is why someone who is deprived of spiritual joy, goes over to carnal pleasures.”
It has been proved by experience by many, many people, many, many times. You can repeat the experiment and prove it to yourself. You can be absolutely certain that it is true, just as you can be certain that fire is hot and ice is cold. Millions of people for thousands of years have tried the experiment, and they have found that nobody who ever said to God: “Thy will be done” and meant it with his heart, ever failed to find joy—not just in Heaven, or even down the road in the future in this world, but in this world at that very moment, here and now.
The Joy of Surrender
In the very act of self-surrender to God there is joy. Not just later, as a consequence, but right there and then. Every time anyone has ever said yes to God with something even slightly approaching the whole of their soul, every time they have not only said “Thy will be done”, but also meant it, loved it, longed for it—they have never failed to find joy and peace at that moment. In fact, to the precise extent that they have said it and meant it, to exactly that extent have they found joy. You get as much as you put in ― “He who sows sparingly, shall also reap sparingly!” (2 Corinthians 9:6). “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:8).
The Kill-Joy
Every other Christian who has ever lived has found exactly the same thing in his own experience. It is an experiment that has been performed over and over again billions of times, always with the same result. It sounds too good to be true. It sounds like pious exaggeration, a salesman’s pitch. Instant joy? All you have to do is surrender to God? What’s the catch? There is a catch. It’s a big one, but a simple one―you have to really do it, not just think about it. To do it completely requires something we dislike very much―death. Not the death of the body. The body is not the obstacle. The ego is. Self-will is the obstacle We fear giving up our self-will even more than we fear giving up our body to death—even though that ego, the thing St. Paul calls “the old man” in us, or the Adam in us, is the cause of all our misery.
That old self has sold itself to the devil. It’s the devil’s microphone and speaker. It sits there behind our ears chattering away. When we’re about to give ourselves to God, it instantly whispers to us: “Careful, now! Hold back! Don’t get too close to Him! He’s unreasonable! He asks for too much! It will kill you!” The voice speaks some truth. Even the devil has to begin with some truth in order to twist it into a lie. It’s true; God is a killer. If you let him, he will kill your old, selfish, unhappy, bored, wretched, mistrusting, loveless self. You either believe all this, or you don’t. If you do, then do it! If you don’t, then try it. You’ll like it.
Total Joy Only Comes With Total Surrender
In the Epistle for Gaudete Sunday (and today), taken from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, one little is one of the most significant verses in the whole Bible. It states a truth that is absolutely fundamental to the spiritual life: “Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice!”
Within that quote we find one little disconcerting word that makes us uneasy ― the word “always”. We would more readily accept the passages if it were to say: “Rejoice when things are going your way. Rejoice when you’re having a good day! Rejoice when you’ve won a great victory; or you landed a job you’ve always wanted; or you experienced the birth of your first child! ” Rejoice at these times, sure. But always? How could you possibly rejoice when you’ve had a bitter disappointment? You’ve just received terrible news from the doctor. You find your precious dreams are shattered. When someone else got that job that you wanted with all your heart. When you’re lying sick in the hospital. Doesn’t it seem kind of almost callous, a little cruel, someone were to burst in on you at those moments and say: “Hey, rejoice! Always, in every circumstance, rejoice!”
Joy is Born from Effort
The ultimate joy, the only true and complete joy, is the possession of God―and this can only fully happen in Heaven. Therefore, to find joy we must seek God and Heaven―as Our Lord so clearly stated: “Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God! … For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 6:33; 16:26). What joy is there is in missing out on your salvation and being sent to Hell? Hence, Holy Scripture warns us: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). “His salvation is near to them that fear Him” (Psalm 84:10). “The fear of the Lord shall delight the heart, and shall give joy and gladness!” (Ecclesiasticus 1:12).
Notice the Scripture says: “WORK OUT your salvation!” and not “SIT BACK and await your salvation!” As St. James tells us: “What shall it profit a man if he says he has Faith, but has not works? Shall Faith be able to save him? … Faith, if it has not works, is dead in itself! Show me your Faith without works; and I will show you, by works, my Faith! You believe that there is one God. You do well―but the devils also believe and tremble! Will you know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead?” (James 2:14-26).
Expecting joy while spending the least amount of effort in seeking it, rarely works in life. Joy requires conscious efforts to attain and maintain. Things that bring true joy often require upfront effort―unlike quick-fix pleasures that are merely “off-the-shelf” conveniences. Joy does not come from shortcuts. It is born from effort, grit, and the daily choice to persist in face of adversity, opposition, difficulty, and even failure. Joy is the beautiful reward for investment and toil. Joy often requires a deliberate and concerted effort to discover and cultivate, while sadness seems to effortlessly find its way into our lives without invitation.
Joy requires effort. While sadness can feel easy and effortless― true joy, fulfillment, and lasting happiness are often the result of effort―conscious practices, choices, and actions, like building relationships, practicing gratitude, creating meaning, exercising, and developing positive habits, rather than just waiting for good things to happen. It’s about actively cultivating a positive mindset and engaging in activities that bring intrinsic satisfaction, even when challenging, like the joy of effort in physical activity or personal growth.
Unfortunately, we live in a world that thinks that it is entitled to certain things without having to put forth any effort―a general belief that you are owed certain things. Modern entitlement attitudes involve expecting special treatment; rules not applying to oneself; minimal effort for maximum reward; expecting promotions without work; demanding constant attention in relationships; feeling rules are for others; or believing one deserves success without earning it, often stemming from a sense of superiority or lack of accountability. We expect social security handouts, food stamps, free schooling, subsidies, bailouts, exemptions, etc.
Some Show Effort―But in the Wrong Things
There are those who have placed their search for joy in the basket of the world―they work hard, but not to get to Heaven, but to become successful, famous or rich upon Earth. Our Lord warned: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24).
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange writes: “The interior life is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life, or the cultivation of the sciences, more profound than artistic or literary life, more profound than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science, as if God did not exist. They have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be a search for the true and the good, in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity, which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not. This shows that the interior life, or the life of the soul with God, well deserves to be called the one thing necessary, since by it we tend to our last end and assure our salvation. If people sacrifice so many things to save the life of the body, which must ultimately die, what should we not sacrifice to save the life of our soul, which is to last forever? Ought not man to love his soul more than his body?
“There are some who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles, and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation―which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity. Every sin—even if it should be only venial—must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. The interior life of a just man — who tends toward God and who already lives by Him — is indeed the one thing necessary. To be a saint, neither intellectual culture, nor great exterior activity is a requisite; it suffices that we live profoundly by God. This truth is evident in the saints of the early Church. It is evident also in St. Francis, St. Benedict Joseph Labre, in the Curé of Ars, and many others. They all had a deep understanding of these words of our Savior: “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26). To save our soul, one thing alone is necessary ― to hear the word of God and to live by it. To wish to get along without God, leads to an abyss; not only to nothingness, but also to a physical and moral wretchedness that is worse than nothingness. The present world-wide crisis demonstrates what men can do (or cannot do) when they seek to get along without God.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Learn from the Attitude of the World
Our Lord laments the fact worldly people show more effort than Christ’s followers: “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8). Many people whom we see as pagans or not Christians are often more successful in their secular endeavors than the so called Christians and Children of God. Their primary efforts are toward material success, personal gain, fame, and fortune within the present world system. This ambition can lead to visible earthly success, high levels of education, professional achievement―and misplaced or false joy. They seek joy―but it is not true joy, nor does it promise to be an everlasting joy. Yet they put out enormous efforts to find that fleeting temporary joy.
For example, if you seek joy in sports, then to find that fulfillment you have to immerse yourself in the struggle, growth, pain and process that will lead to that joy. The desire for that joy of winning, fuels motivation, prevents burnout, and leads to greater success and longevity, making the hard work rewarding through mindset shifts, focusing on intrinsic goals, and making you appreciate the journey. It’s about finding the “joy of effort,” where movement, skill development, and personal progress become inherently satisfying, transforming pressure into presence and passion.
The joy of winning championships, titles and medals in sports fundamentally requires immense effort, encompassing consistent daily training, mental toughness, strategic preparation, and paying attention and showing dedication to “the little things” like nutrition and recovery, beyond just talent; it’s the relentless pursuit and overcoming of challenges that builds the resilience and skill necessary for victory, teaching valuable life lessons along the way. Champions train hard in order to achieve success through relentless hard work, discipline, sacrifice, and superior mental toughness, consistently pushing past comfort zones and preparing more than anyone else, not just relying on talent. This involves early mornings, late nights, extra sessions, and a resilient mindset focused on small, daily improvements to build habits that lead to greatness. But all this is merely for worldly, temporary and vain success―rather than the success of attaining the joy of reaching Heaven through hard work.
St. Paul speaks of this in Holy Scripture: “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain! And every one that strives for the mastery, refrains himself from all things―and they, indeed, that they may receive a corruptible crown―but we an incorruptible one! I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty! I so fight, not as one beating the air! But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection―lest, perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
St. Alphonsus Liguori, in The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, writes: “One thing is necessary! The salvation of our souls. It is not necessary to be great, noble, or rich in this world, or to enjoy uninterrupted health; but it is necessary to save our souls. For this purpose has God placed us here―not to acquire honors, riches, or pleasures, but to acquire by our good works that eternal kingdom which is prepared for those who, during this present life, fight against and overcome the enemies of their eternal salvation” (The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, Part 1, Meditation 17).
The Passion of Joy
Joy is one of the passions of the soul. The passions of the soul are very powerful, but they are also blind; they need to be correctly guided, and this guidance is expected to be given by the reason and the will (popularly known as the mind and the heart, as in the Scriptural command of loving God with your whole mind, heart, etc.). If this guidance is neglected, weak or erroneous, then mayhem results, but a mayhem that the passions find intoxicatingly and deliriously joyful.
Original Sin Turns Original Joy Sour
The passions of the soul are the following: love-hatred, desire-aversion, joy-grief; hope-despair, courage-fear, and anger. Adam and Eve, in the state of innocence, were not subject to the passions that have reference to evil, for they had to face no evil, present or threatening; therefore they were not subject to fear, grief, despair, anger, or inordinate desire. They had only such passions as refer to present and future good: joy, love, hope, orderly desire. And these passions of our first parents were, before the fall, perfectly subject and obedient to their reason and will, which, in turn, were perfectly subject and obedient to the enlightenment of God’s grace.
Once they had rebelled against God through their Original Sin, it was only fitting justice that God allow the inferior passions to rebel against the superior intellect and will, just as the inferior will and intellect rebelled against the superior grace of God, thus causing the inferior Adam and Eve to rebel against the superiority of God.
It is from that Original Sin that our passions beget their rebelliousness and it is from Original Sin that our intellect and our will find themselves wounded and weakened; no longer being in total domination over our passions, who now use false ‘reasoning’ in order to extort from our intellect and will an excess of what they feel will satisfy them. The passions are blind and need to be led by right reason and a strong will, when the passions overpower our reason and the will by their constant nagging and begging, then we have a case of the blind leading the weak—and as Our Lord says, they both fall into the pit (Matthew 15:14). “For the good which I will, I do not; but the evil which I will not, that I do” (Romans 7:19).
Blind Passions Cannot See True Joy
Our passions being blind, do not discern between good and evil; their measurement stick is not a moral measurement, but a measurement of pleasure: “Does this give me pleasure or does it not give me pleasure?” To the uncontrolled and unguided passions, moral good and moral evil do not enter into the equation. For them, if something is pleasurable then it is automatically good; if something is not pleasurable, then it is automatically evil. The result is what Holy Scripture warns us about: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaias 5:20). “Dearly beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that does good, is of God; he that does evil, has not seen God” (3 John 1:11).
Passionate Results
The results brought about by our blind passions are partially listed by St. Paul: “Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God: having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid.” (1 Timothy 3:1-5). Those who practice some or all of the above sins, find joy in them, but it is a misguided joy, a false joy, a sinful joy.
The Greedy Joy of the Passions
The passions are all about themselves and not the common good. Each one is like a gluttonous child taking his place at the dinner table—what results is a “free for all” grab and fight, unless the parents (reason and will) take charge and impose some discipline. Similarly, a child could eat ice-cream all day long and every day, or some other junk food of their choice—however, sickness or tooth decay will sooner or later show the existence of justice. Likewise, God will eventually step-in and with justice He will correct matters. Justice is giving someone their due―whether it be a good effect (a reward) or a bad effect (a punishment). “All things equally happen to the just and to the wicked, to the good and to the evil, to the clean and to the unclean” (Ecclesiastes 9:2).
Happiness and Joy is Every Person’s Goal
Whether we admit it nor and whether we like it or not, we all have the same ultimate supreme good. Our last end is a complete and enduring satisfaction or fulfillment; such a fulfillment is called beatitude or happiness and joy. But all men do not agree about the precise things in which their fulfillment and consequent happiness are to be found. Some think to attain the end by becoming rich, some by enjoying pleasures, some by exercising power, some by being praised and honored, and so on.
The desire for happiness and joy is behind our ceaseless drive towards his supreme and universal good—which, in other words, means seeking something that is wholly complete, perfectly satisfying. The problem lies in the fact that we have different ideas as to what that supreme good is; and we also differ in our opinions on how best to obtain it. Even in our sinful acts, we are seeking what we imagine to be a ‘good’, that is, satisfaction, although we are perversely seeking it in the wrong place, with the wrong persons, with the wrong things, or in the wrong manner.
Everyone seeks fulfillment or satisfaction, happiness and joy. These are the feelings we wish to experience. But those feelings need an object for their fulfillment or realization; the object which, when possessed, will give us complete happiness and joy.
The Joy of Knowing and the Joy of Possessing
We cannot enjoy something that we either know nothing about, nor enjoy something that we do not, at least temporarily, possess. I cannot enjoy a conversation if I am not engaged in one; I cannot enjoy a meal unless I am eating one; I cannot enjoy the weather unless I am actually experiencing it; I cannot enjoy a thought unless I am thinking it, and so on and so forth.
St. Louis de Montfort asks that popular philosophical question: “Is it possible for man to love that which he does not know? Can he love ardently that which he knows but imperfectly? Why then is the adorable Jesus, Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, loved so little? Because He is not known, or known but little. Very few of us, like St. Paul, make a sincere study of the super-eminent science of Jesus, which is, nevertheless the most noble, the most consoling, the most useful and the most necessary of all sciences in Heaven and on Earth” (St. Louis de Montfort, Love of the Eternal Wisdom).
Joy—the Icing on the Cake of Love
Joy is the fruit or the proverbial “icing-on-the-cake” that comes with possessing of being in the presence of what we love. Love is, in a certain sense, incomplete without the actual union with what we love. In fact, love is driven on powerfully to obtain the object of its love and will not find ultimate peace or joy until it successfully obtains the loved object.
Hence persons, who love food, are happiest and most joyful when they actually engaged in eating food. Lovers of music are happiest and most joyful when they are playing or listening to their favorite music. Sports lovers experience the height of joy only when they are actually engaged in playing or watching their favorite sport. Those who love drugs or alcohol will experience the greatest joy when they are actually united to and are consuming their beloved substance.
False Happiness and Fake Joy
However, our happiness is not to be found in wealth, whether this be natural wealth which serves our normal needs (such as food, clothing, housing), or artificial wealth (money) which provides us with the items of natural wealth. Wealth of any kind is a means for acquiring something else; it is a thing that serves; it does not fulfill. Therefore wealth cannot be the true last end of man and the object that will render him eternally and completely happy.
Nor can power supply us with perfect happiness and joy, because power, like money, is a means to achieving something further, it is not an end in itself, but a means to something else.
Nor can our full happiness be found in being honored, respected and loved on account of some of our qualities or excellence, nor can it be found in fame and glory, because all these things are imperfect, they are not universal (not everybody feels that way about us), nor are they enduring (their opinions about us may change). Any excellence in a man is in him by reason of some good already possessed; it means that he already has some degree of happiness. Honors come to him because of this happiness, and therefore honor, praise and respect cannot themselves be the elements of perfect happiness.
Our ultimate happiness does not consist in goods of the body―life, health, strength, beauty, agility, etc. for these goods preserve the body and its perfections. Merely to preserve life cannot be the end of life. Just like money and power, goods of the body are to be used as a means by reason (intellect and will) and not to be looked upon as end in itself, just like a ship is used by its captain; or a car by its owner. The car is a means of transportation and of carrying cargo, it is not there to be just looked at and enjoyed. The captain does not dock his ship in harbor to be admired, but to carry passengers or profitable cargoes to desired ports. Likewise the goods of the body are means to an end, and not complete ends in themselves. Besides, being a rational being as well as a bodily being; we can never be completely fulfilled and satisfied by bodily goods alone, for the soul ranks higher than the body.
Joy from Above, or Joy from Below?
In fact, no created good or creature can give us perfect happiness, for they all have limits and degrees that allow them to give only partial happiness and a passing joy. No created good is wholly perfect, in all areas and limitless in its degrees of fulfillment; only an uncreated and limitless good can be our ultimate end and joy. And this uncreated good is God.
However, if we listen to our passions more than we listen to God, then problems will arise. As already stated, happiness and joy are our ultimate goals, and if we no longer seek happiness and joy in the things that are above, then, nature abhorring a vacuum, will look for that happiness and joy the things that are below, for the hungry passion needs to be fed on something. If we refuse to eat healthy food, then we will by default eat junk food. Our Lord clearly tells us:
“My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36) ... “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world” (John 8:23). “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). To which St. James adds: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20). That is why St. Paul says: “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2).
No doubt friendship with the world, acceptance by the world, the ways of acting of the world, may bring us great happiness and joy, but it is not the happiness and joy of Heaven, it is not a true and enduring happiness: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24). “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Obtaining that Heavenly Joy
True happiness and joy cannot be perfectly attained without rightness or rectitude in our will, where the will is conformed to and obedient to the guidance of grace and the teachings of Christ, Who tells us what to love and what not to love; what to seek and what not to seek. This sets our will in proper alignment with the supreme good, and makes our will love what it loves in perfect subordination to God. Without this subordination and perfection of our human will, we will never be perfectly happy. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Luke 12:31). “Not everyone that saiys to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 7:21). “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). “If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love” (John 15:10).
Love, when it is true, brings joy. But love is reciprocal (two-way-street); it means not just being loved, but loving in return; it means not just taking, but giving in return. “He that loves Me, shall be loved of My Father: and I will love him” (John 14:21). If we love Our Lord we must keep His commandments. This will bring, what is known as the “Joy of a Good Conscience.” But that is only the first and lowest level of a love of God. When we love someone, we love to talk to them and talk to them often―do we not? The same is true of our love of God―the more we love Him, the more we want to talk to Him and the more time we find to talk to Him. Yet the pinnacle of love is to suffer for God and Our Lord just a He suffered for us: “Greater love that this no man has―that a man lay down his life for his friends!” (John 15:13). In a sense, love is tested and proved by how much we are willing to suffer for the one whom we love. Christ suffered, died and laid down His life for us―are we willing to suffer and lay down our lives for Christ (and our neighbor whom God created)?
Can You Spot Christ?
We need our supernatural glasses, or contact lenses, to see Jesus in our sufferings―but, as the old adage goes: “Where there is the cross, there too is Christ!” St. Paul understood this and that is why he can speak so joyfully and courageously of the cross and suffering:
“For the word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness; but to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18) ... “That I may live to God: with Christ I am nailed to the cross” (Galatians 2:19) ... “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14) ... “For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come” (Romans 8:18) ... “I Paul...now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh” (Colossians 1:23-24).
This attitude of St. Paul is approved and ‘rubber-stamped’ by St. Peter, who writes: “If you partake of the sufferings of Christ, then rejoice, that when His glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:13).
St. Peter and St. Paul fully realize, understand and accept that God’s gifts of grace and His promise of future glory, are sufficient at all times to give us a ready and joyful acceptance of God’s will in adversity as well as in prosperity. St. Paul himself “rejoices” in his imprisonment, because his chains have turned out to be a means of spreading the Gospel, and are, for him, a means to his own salvation as well the salvation of others (1:12-20).
Rejoice—No Matter What
There are many lessons we may learn from these words of St. Paul written from a Roman dungeon to the Christians of Philippi, but the principal lesson and the one the Church wishes to place before us today is the lesson of joy. We must rejoice in the Lord—no matter what. For all that happens to us and around us, is only happening because God either wants it to happen (if it something good and not sinful) or God has allowed it to happen (if the action we suffer happens to be unjust or sinful). In all events, we must remember that nothing can happen without God’s permission. This should give us a similar attitude to suffering to that of St. Paul.
Yet our joy should not only be a result of the crosses that come our way, but let us also stop for a moment to count our blessings and see how many positive reasons we have for rejoicing.
We are alive; we are probably reasonably healthy; reasonably well-off compared to the vast majority in this world who live in poverty or near poverty; we are most certainly much better off than the people who lived centuries ago; we are human beings who can think, reason and love; we have a body with many talents and gifts, we have a soul which is destined to last forever.
We have been redeemed and been given a chance to attain eternal happiness in Heaven; we have the means of going there and have a guarantee we will get there if we use those means. We are among the minority in this world who have been baptized; we are part of an even greater minority of the baptized who still practice the Faith; we are able to receive our God and Creator in Holy Communion—daily if we wish (in most cases); we have access to the Sacrament of Confession in the case we fall into mortal sin and lose, thereby, our chance of going to Heaven.
And while we battle and struggle on the road to Heaven, we are allowed to enjoy many temporal gifts offered us from the generous hand of a loving Father. Have we not reason to rejoice, to be glad? Indeed, can any true Christian be sad? Of course, we meet with snags and setbacks on the road. To reach the summit of the everlasting hills of Heaven we have to climb the rugged foothills that lead to the summit, but a true Christian will not moan and murmur because of that. It is only those who are going nowhere, those who are to remain forever in a lowly painful valley, who meet no obstacles and have no hills to climb. For them there is only the broad, wide road that leads downwards. We have a chance of going to Heaven and so we realize that every obstacle we overcome, every little summit we scale, is bringing us nearer to the lofty peaks where everlasting happiness and the “peace of God” will be our eternal reward together with an unending joy! Rejoice!
Joy in the Cross and Suffering―the True Riches!
The only thing worth having a lot of, is having a lot of the cross―for the cross is our key and ticket to Heaven. Holy Mother Church tells us: “Ave crux, spes unica! … In cruce salus!” ― “Hail, cross! Our only hope! … In the cross is salvation!”
The words “Ave crux, spes unica” are based upon the words “O Crux, ave, spes única!” which are sung during the Passiontide Liturgy, in the hymn Vexilla Regis Prodeunt (The Standard of the King Goes Forth)―which is sung at Vespers up until Holy Thursday. It was first sung in the November 19th procession in 569 AD, when a relic of the True Cross, sent by the Emperor Justin II from the East at the request of St. Radegunda, was carried in joyous procession with great pomp and ceremony from Tours to the monastery of Saint-Croix at Poitiers. Its original processional use is commemorated in the Roman Missal on Good Friday, when the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession from the Repository to the High Altar. Its principal use however, is in the Divine Office, the Roman Breviary assigning it to Vespers from the Saturday before Passion Sunday daily to Maundy Thursday, and to Vespers of feasts of the Holy Cross, such as the Finding of the Cross (May 3rd), the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14th), the Triumph of the Cross (16 July 16th).
The Holy Thursday liturgy, in the Introit at Mass, says: “Nos autem gloriári opórtet in Cruce Dómini nostri Iesu Christi, in quo est salus, vita et resurréctio nostra: per quem salváti et liberáti sumus” ― “But it behooves us to glory in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ―in Whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection; by Whom we are saved and delivered.”
The following day, at the Good Friday Afternoon Liturgy, we have the adoration of the Cross―during which we sing repeatedly: “Ecce lignum Crucis, in quo salus mundi pepéndit! Veníte, adorémus!” … “Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the Savior of the world! Come, let us adore!” … further adding: “We adore Thy Cross, O Lord: and we praise and glorify Thy holy Resurrection―for behold, by the wood of the Cross, JOY has come into the whole world.” This is immediately followed by the magnificent hymn, Crux FIdelis ― O Faithful Cross. Here are just some of the references to the Cross:
Faithful Cross! Above all other,
One and only noble Tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peer may be;
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron,
Sweetest weight is hung on thee.
Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle!
With completed victory rife!
And above the Cross’s trophy
Tell the triumph of the strife:
How the world’s Redeemer conquer’d
By the offering of His life.
Thirty years among us dwelling,
His appointed time fulfilled,
Born for this, He meets His Passion,
For that this He freely willed:
On the Cross the Lamb is lifted,
Where His life-blood shall be spilled.
Bend thy boughs, O Tree of glory!
Thy relaxing sinews bend;
For awhile the ancient rigor,
That thy birth bestowed, suspend:
And the King of heavenly beauty
On thy bosom gently tend!
Faithful Cross! Above all other,
One and only noble Tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peer may be.
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron,
Sweetest weight is hung on thee.
Thus we can see why Jesus recommended and insisted upon the cross so much: “And Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).
This is why St. Paul rejoices in being able to carry the Cross of Christ in his own personal life: “God forbid that I should glory, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ―by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world!” (Galatians 6:14). “For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us!” (Romans 8:18). “Furthermore I count all things to be but a loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord―for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as dung, in order that I may gain Christ!” (Philippians 3:8).
Likewise the Apostles: “Then the high priest … and all they that were with him … laid hands on the Apostles and … brought them and set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, saying: ‘Commanding we commanded you that you should not teach in this Name [Jesus]; and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and you have a mind to bring the Blood of this Man upon us. But Peter and the Apostles answering, said: ‘We ought to obey God, rather than men!’ … And calling in the Apostles, after they had scourged them, they charged them that they should not speak at all in the Name of Jesus; and they dismissed them. And the Apostles went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the Name of Jesus” (Acts 5:17-41).
Walking Contradictions
Most Catholics are walking contradictions! They put on a Catholic face on Sunday―but a worldly face on Monday! Hypocritically they try to serve both God and the world―imagining that into Hell they won’t be hurled! With their lips to God they pray―but those same lips will a neighbor slay! When corrected―the blame is always rejected and deflected. When persecuted―they react with hatred that’s deep-rooted. When they suffer they mutter―when in pain they complain―in face of rejection they fall into dejection. They seek what is sweet and avoid what is bitter―even though bitter is better. With Heaven they want to be paid―but to earn it they are afraid. They see the cross as a loss―and run to what’s fun.
The Imitation of Christ sums up perfectly this abhorrence for suffering in two consecutive chapters―Book 2, Chapter 11, entitled “Few Love the Cross of Jesus” and Book 2, Chapter 12, entitled “The Royal Road of the Holy Cross”. Here are some pertinent extracts:
Few Love the Cross of Jesus
The Imitation of Christ states: Jesus has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation ― they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus — love that is free from all self-interest and self-love!
Do not those who always seek consolation deserve to be called mercenaries? Do not those who always think of their own profit and gain prove that they love themselves rather than Christ? Where can a man be found who desires to serve God for nothing? Rarely indeed is a man so spiritual as to strip himself of all things. And who shall find a man so truly poor in spirit as to be free from every creature? If a man give all his wealth, it is nothing; if he do great penance, it is little; if he gain all knowledge, he is still far afield; if he have great virtue and much ardent devotion, he still lacks a great deal, and especially, the one thing that is most necessary to him. What is this one thing? That leaving all, he forsake himself, completely renounce himself, and give up all private affections. Then, when he has done all that he knows ought to be done, let him consider it as nothing, let him make little of what may be considered great; let him in all honesty call himself an unprofitable servant. For truth itself has said: “When you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: ‘We are unprofitable servants!’” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 2, Chapter 11: “Few Love the Cross of Jesus”).
The Royal Road of the Holy Cross
The Imitation of Christ continues: To many the saying, “Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Me!” seems hard, but it will be much harder to hear that final word: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!” Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the Day of Judgment. This sign of the cross will be in the heavens when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross, who, during life, made themselves one with the Crucified, will draw near with great trust to Christ, the judge.
Why, then, do you fear to take up the cross when through it you can win a kingdom? In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit, in the cross is highest virtue, in the cross is perfect holiness. There is no salvation of soul, nor hope of everlasting life, except in the cross. Take up your cross, therefore, and follow Jesus, and you shall enter eternal life. He Himself opened the way before you in carrying His cross, and upon it He died for you, that you, too, might take up your cross and long to die upon it. If you die with Him, you shall also live with Him, and if you share His suffering, you shall also share His glory.
Behold, in the cross is everything, and upon your dying on the cross everything depends. There is no other way to life and to true inward peace than the way of the holy cross and daily mortification. Go where you will, seek what you will, you will not find a higher way, nor a less exalted but safer way, than the way of the holy cross. Arrange and order everything to suit your will and judgment, and still you will find that some suffering must always be borne, willingly or unwillingly, and thus you will always find the cross.
Either you will experience bodily pain or you will undergo tribulation of spirit in your soul. At times you will be forsaken by God, at times troubled by those about you and, what is worse, you will often grow weary of yourself. You cannot escape, you cannot be relieved by any remedy or comfort but must bear with it as long as God wills. For He wishes you to learn to bear trial without consolation, to submit yourself wholly to Him that you may become more humble through suffering. No one understands the passion of Christ so thoroughly or heartily as the man whose lot it is to suffer the like himself.
The cross, therefore, is always ready; it awaits you everywhere. No matter where you may go, you cannot escape it, for wherever you go you take yourself with you and shall always find yourself. Turn where you will — above, below, without, or within — you will find a cross in everything, and everywhere you must have patience if you would have peace within and merit an eternal crown.
If you carry the cross willingly, it will carry and lead you to the desired goal where indeed there shall be no more suffering, but here there shall be. If you carry it unwillingly, you create a burden for yourself and increase the load, though still you have to bear it. If you cast away one cross, you will find another and perhaps a heavier one. Do you expect to escape what no mortal man can ever avoid? Which of the saints was without a cross or trial on this Earth? Not even Jesus Christ, our Lord, Whose every hour on Earth knew the pain of His passion. “It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead ... and so enter into his glory.” How is it that you look for another way than this, the royal way of the holy cross?
The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom, and do you seek rest and enjoyment for yourself? You deceive yourself, you are mistaken if you seek anything but to suffer, for this mortal life is full of miseries and marked with crosses on all sides. Indeed, the more spiritual progress a person makes, so much heavier will he frequently find the cross, because as his love increases, the pain of his exile also increases.
Yet such a man, though afflicted in many ways, is not without hope of consolation, because he knows that great reward is coming to him for bearing his cross. And when he carries it willingly, every pang of tribulation is changed into hope of solace from God. Besides, the more the flesh is distressed by affliction, so much the more is the spirit strengthened by inward grace. Not infrequently a man is so strengthened by his love of trials and hardship in his desire to conform to the cross of Christ, that he does not wish to be without sorrow or pain, since he believes he will be the more acceptable to God if he is able to endure more and more grievous things for His sake.
It is the grace of Christ, and not the virtue of man, which can and does bring it about that through fervor of spirit frail flesh learns to love and to gain what it naturally hates and shuns.
To carry the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body and bring it to subjection, to flee honors, to endure contempt gladly, to despise self and wish to be despised, to suffer any adversity and loss, to desire no prosperous days on Earth — this is not man’s way. If you rely upon yourself, you can do none of these things, but if you trust in the Lord, strength will be given you from Heaven and the world and the flesh will be made subject to your word. You will not even fear your enemy, the devil, if you are armed with faith and signed with the cross of Christ.
Set yourself, then, like a good and faithful servant of Christ, to bear bravely the cross of your Lord, Who out of love was crucified for you. Be ready to suffer many adversities and many kinds of trouble in this miserable life, for troublesome and miserable life will always be, no matter where you are; and so you will find it wherever you may hide. Thus it must be; and there is no way to evade the trials and sorrows of life but to bear them.
Drink the chalice of the Lord with affection it you wish to be His friend and to have part with Him. Leave consolation to God; let Him do as most pleases Him. On your part, be ready to bear sufferings and consider them the greatest consolation, for even though you alone were to undergo them all, the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.
When you shall have come to the point where suffering is sweet and acceptable for the sake of Christ, then consider yourself fortunate, for you have found paradise on Earth. But as long as suffering irks you and you seek to escape, so long will you be unfortunate, and the tribulation you seek to evade will follow you everywhere. If you put your mind to the things you ought to consider, that is, to suffering and death, you would soon be in a better state and would find peace.
Although you were taken to the third Heaven with Paul, you were not thereby insured against suffering. Jesus said: “I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake!” To suffer, then, remains your lot, if you mean to love Jesus and serve Him forever.
If you were only worthy to suffer something for the name of Jesus, what great glory would be in store for you, what great joy to all the saints of God, what great edification to those about you! For all men praise patience though there are few who wish to practice it. With good reason, then, ought you to be willing to suffer a little for Christ since many suffer much more for the world. Realize that you must lead a dying life; the more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live unto God.
No man is fit to enjoy Heaven unless he has resigned himself to suffer hardship for Christ. Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing more helpful for you on this Earth than to suffer willingly for Christ. If you had to make a choice, you ought to wish rather to suffer for Christ than to enjoy many consolations, for thus you would be more like Christ and more like all the saints. Our merit and progress consist not in many pleasures and comforts but rather in enduring great afflictions and sufferings.
If, indeed, there were anything better or more useful for man’s salvation than suffering, Christ would have shown it by word and example. But He clearly exhorts the disciples who follow Him and all who wish to follow Him to carry the cross, saying: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” When, therefore, we have read and searched all that has been written, let this be the final conclusion — that through much suffering we must enter into the kingdom of God. (The Imitation of Christ, Book 2, Chapter 12: “The Royal Road of the Holy Cross”).
Yesterday we celebrated “Gaudete Sunday” ― the Latin word that means “Rejoice”. We can know what “joy” is in theory, but we do not possess it unless we put it into practice―which is by “rejoicing” (or “re-joy-sing”). “Sing joyfully to God, all the Earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come in before His presence with exceedingly great joy!” (Psalm 99:2). “Come let us praise the Lord with joy! Let us joyfully sing to God our Savior!” (Psalms 94:1).
The Introit or Entrance Hymn for Gaudete Sunday commands: “Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice!” Then, in the Epistle reading of the Mass for Gaudete Sunday―lo and behold―the same injunction is repeated: “Brethren! Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4-7). In the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (the Traditional Latin Rite), the day that follows Gaudete Sunday in the year 2025 (Monday, December 15th) is a Ferial day with no feast allocated to it―therefore the Mass of Gaudete Sunday is repeated on the Monday. Thus, we are again told―through the prayers and readings of the Mass―to “Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice!” (Entrance Hymn or Introit) and then again in the Epistle reading of the Mass the same injunction is repeated: “Brethren! Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice!”
The Church is trying to drill into our thick skulls that rejoicing in the Lord is not “a one day wonder” but a perpetual state of being―ALWAYS rejoicing in the Lord. Finding joy in ALL THINGS, in ALL PLACES, at ALL TIMES, as the Preface of the Mass says: “It is truly fitting and proper, right and profitable to salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, Lord, holy Father, Almighty and everlasting God.” This is because “to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to His purpose, are called to be saints!” (Romans 8:28).
Looking for Joy?
Are you seeking joy? Who isn’t? Everyone wants pleasure. More deeply, everyone wants happiness. Most deeply, everyone wants joy. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that joy is more than happiness, just as happiness is more than pleasure. Pleasure is in the body. Happiness is in the mind and feelings. Joy is deep in the heart, the spirit, the center of the self. The way to pleasure is power and prudence. The way to happiness is moral goodness. The way to joy is sanctity, loving God with your whole heart and your neighbor as yourself. St. Thomas Aquinas says, “No man can live without joy. That is why someone who is deprived of spiritual joy, goes over to carnal pleasures.”
It has been proved by experience by many, many people, many, many times. You can repeat the experiment and prove it to yourself. You can be absolutely certain that it is true, just as you can be certain that fire is hot and ice is cold. Millions of people for thousands of years have tried the experiment, and they have found that nobody who ever said to God: “Thy will be done” and meant it with his heart, ever failed to find joy—not just in Heaven, or even down the road in the future in this world, but in this world at that very moment, here and now.
The Joy of Surrender
In the very act of self-surrender to God there is joy. Not just later, as a consequence, but right there and then. Every time anyone has ever said yes to God with something even slightly approaching the whole of their soul, every time they have not only said “Thy will be done”, but also meant it, loved it, longed for it—they have never failed to find joy and peace at that moment. In fact, to the precise extent that they have said it and meant it, to exactly that extent have they found joy. You get as much as you put in ― “He who sows sparingly, shall also reap sparingly!” (2 Corinthians 9:6). “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:8).
The Kill-Joy
Every other Christian who has ever lived has found exactly the same thing in his own experience. It is an experiment that has been performed over and over again billions of times, always with the same result. It sounds too good to be true. It sounds like pious exaggeration, a salesman’s pitch. Instant joy? All you have to do is surrender to God? What’s the catch? There is a catch. It’s a big one, but a simple one―you have to really do it, not just think about it. To do it completely requires something we dislike very much―death. Not the death of the body. The body is not the obstacle. The ego is. Self-will is the obstacle We fear giving up our self-will even more than we fear giving up our body to death—even though that ego, the thing St. Paul calls “the old man” in us, or the Adam in us, is the cause of all our misery.
That old self has sold itself to the devil. It’s the devil’s microphone and speaker. It sits there behind our ears chattering away. When we’re about to give ourselves to God, it instantly whispers to us: “Careful, now! Hold back! Don’t get too close to Him! He’s unreasonable! He asks for too much! It will kill you!” The voice speaks some truth. Even the devil has to begin with some truth in order to twist it into a lie. It’s true; God is a killer. If you let him, he will kill your old, selfish, unhappy, bored, wretched, mistrusting, loveless self. You either believe all this, or you don’t. If you do, then do it! If you don’t, then try it. You’ll like it.
Total Joy Only Comes With Total Surrender
In the Epistle for Gaudete Sunday (and today), taken from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, one little is one of the most significant verses in the whole Bible. It states a truth that is absolutely fundamental to the spiritual life: “Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice!”
Within that quote we find one little disconcerting word that makes us uneasy ― the word “always”. We would more readily accept the passages if it were to say: “Rejoice when things are going your way. Rejoice when you’re having a good day! Rejoice when you’ve won a great victory; or you landed a job you’ve always wanted; or you experienced the birth of your first child! ” Rejoice at these times, sure. But always? How could you possibly rejoice when you’ve had a bitter disappointment? You’ve just received terrible news from the doctor. You find your precious dreams are shattered. When someone else got that job that you wanted with all your heart. When you’re lying sick in the hospital. Doesn’t it seem kind of almost callous, a little cruel, someone were to burst in on you at those moments and say: “Hey, rejoice! Always, in every circumstance, rejoice!”
Joy is Born from Effort
The ultimate joy, the only true and complete joy, is the possession of God―and this can only fully happen in Heaven. Therefore, to find joy we must seek God and Heaven―as Our Lord so clearly stated: “Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God! … For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 6:33; 16:26). What joy is there is in missing out on your salvation and being sent to Hell? Hence, Holy Scripture warns us: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). “His salvation is near to them that fear Him” (Psalm 84:10). “The fear of the Lord shall delight the heart, and shall give joy and gladness!” (Ecclesiasticus 1:12).
Notice the Scripture says: “WORK OUT your salvation!” and not “SIT BACK and await your salvation!” As St. James tells us: “What shall it profit a man if he says he has Faith, but has not works? Shall Faith be able to save him? … Faith, if it has not works, is dead in itself! Show me your Faith without works; and I will show you, by works, my Faith! You believe that there is one God. You do well―but the devils also believe and tremble! Will you know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead?” (James 2:14-26).
Expecting joy while spending the least amount of effort in seeking it, rarely works in life. Joy requires conscious efforts to attain and maintain. Things that bring true joy often require upfront effort―unlike quick-fix pleasures that are merely “off-the-shelf” conveniences. Joy does not come from shortcuts. It is born from effort, grit, and the daily choice to persist in face of adversity, opposition, difficulty, and even failure. Joy is the beautiful reward for investment and toil. Joy often requires a deliberate and concerted effort to discover and cultivate, while sadness seems to effortlessly find its way into our lives without invitation.
Joy requires effort. While sadness can feel easy and effortless― true joy, fulfillment, and lasting happiness are often the result of effort―conscious practices, choices, and actions, like building relationships, practicing gratitude, creating meaning, exercising, and developing positive habits, rather than just waiting for good things to happen. It’s about actively cultivating a positive mindset and engaging in activities that bring intrinsic satisfaction, even when challenging, like the joy of effort in physical activity or personal growth.
Unfortunately, we live in a world that thinks that it is entitled to certain things without having to put forth any effort―a general belief that you are owed certain things. Modern entitlement attitudes involve expecting special treatment; rules not applying to oneself; minimal effort for maximum reward; expecting promotions without work; demanding constant attention in relationships; feeling rules are for others; or believing one deserves success without earning it, often stemming from a sense of superiority or lack of accountability. We expect social security handouts, food stamps, free schooling, subsidies, bailouts, exemptions, etc.
Some Show Effort―But in the Wrong Things
There are those who have placed their search for joy in the basket of the world―they work hard, but not to get to Heaven, but to become successful, famous or rich upon Earth. Our Lord warned: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” ― “mammon” being the pleasures, treasures, teachings and spirit of the world, whose prince is the devil (Matthew 6:19-24).
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange writes: “The interior life is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life, or the cultivation of the sciences, more profound than artistic or literary life, more profound than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science, as if God did not exist. They have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be a search for the true and the good, in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity, which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not. This shows that the interior life, or the life of the soul with God, well deserves to be called the one thing necessary, since by it we tend to our last end and assure our salvation. If people sacrifice so many things to save the life of the body, which must ultimately die, what should we not sacrifice to save the life of our soul, which is to last forever? Ought not man to love his soul more than his body?
“There are some who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles, and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation―which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity. Every sin—even if it should be only venial—must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. The interior life of a just man — who tends toward God and who already lives by Him — is indeed the one thing necessary. To be a saint, neither intellectual culture, nor great exterior activity is a requisite; it suffices that we live profoundly by God. This truth is evident in the saints of the early Church. It is evident also in St. Francis, St. Benedict Joseph Labre, in the Curé of Ars, and many others. They all had a deep understanding of these words of our Savior: “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26). To save our soul, one thing alone is necessary ― to hear the word of God and to live by it. To wish to get along without God, leads to an abyss; not only to nothingness, but also to a physical and moral wretchedness that is worse than nothingness. The present world-wide crisis demonstrates what men can do (or cannot do) when they seek to get along without God.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Learn from the Attitude of the World
Our Lord laments the fact worldly people show more effort than Christ’s followers: “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8). Many people whom we see as pagans or not Christians are often more successful in their secular endeavors than the so called Christians and Children of God. Their primary efforts are toward material success, personal gain, fame, and fortune within the present world system. This ambition can lead to visible earthly success, high levels of education, professional achievement―and misplaced or false joy. They seek joy―but it is not true joy, nor does it promise to be an everlasting joy. Yet they put out enormous efforts to find that fleeting temporary joy.
For example, if you seek joy in sports, then to find that fulfillment you have to immerse yourself in the struggle, growth, pain and process that will lead to that joy. The desire for that joy of winning, fuels motivation, prevents burnout, and leads to greater success and longevity, making the hard work rewarding through mindset shifts, focusing on intrinsic goals, and making you appreciate the journey. It’s about finding the “joy of effort,” where movement, skill development, and personal progress become inherently satisfying, transforming pressure into presence and passion.
The joy of winning championships, titles and medals in sports fundamentally requires immense effort, encompassing consistent daily training, mental toughness, strategic preparation, and paying attention and showing dedication to “the little things” like nutrition and recovery, beyond just talent; it’s the relentless pursuit and overcoming of challenges that builds the resilience and skill necessary for victory, teaching valuable life lessons along the way. Champions train hard in order to achieve success through relentless hard work, discipline, sacrifice, and superior mental toughness, consistently pushing past comfort zones and preparing more than anyone else, not just relying on talent. This involves early mornings, late nights, extra sessions, and a resilient mindset focused on small, daily improvements to build habits that lead to greatness. But all this is merely for worldly, temporary and vain success―rather than the success of attaining the joy of reaching Heaven through hard work.
St. Paul speaks of this in Holy Scripture: “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain! And every one that strives for the mastery, refrains himself from all things―and they, indeed, that they may receive a corruptible crown―but we an incorruptible one! I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty! I so fight, not as one beating the air! But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection―lest, perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
St. Alphonsus Liguori, in The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, writes: “One thing is necessary! The salvation of our souls. It is not necessary to be great, noble, or rich in this world, or to enjoy uninterrupted health; but it is necessary to save our souls. For this purpose has God placed us here―not to acquire honors, riches, or pleasures, but to acquire by our good works that eternal kingdom which is prepared for those who, during this present life, fight against and overcome the enemies of their eternal salvation” (The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, Part 1, Meditation 17).
The Passion of Joy
Joy is one of the passions of the soul. The passions of the soul are very powerful, but they are also blind; they need to be correctly guided, and this guidance is expected to be given by the reason and the will (popularly known as the mind and the heart, as in the Scriptural command of loving God with your whole mind, heart, etc.). If this guidance is neglected, weak or erroneous, then mayhem results, but a mayhem that the passions find intoxicatingly and deliriously joyful.
Original Sin Turns Original Joy Sour
The passions of the soul are the following: love-hatred, desire-aversion, joy-grief; hope-despair, courage-fear, and anger. Adam and Eve, in the state of innocence, were not subject to the passions that have reference to evil, for they had to face no evil, present or threatening; therefore they were not subject to fear, grief, despair, anger, or inordinate desire. They had only such passions as refer to present and future good: joy, love, hope, orderly desire. And these passions of our first parents were, before the fall, perfectly subject and obedient to their reason and will, which, in turn, were perfectly subject and obedient to the enlightenment of God’s grace.
Once they had rebelled against God through their Original Sin, it was only fitting justice that God allow the inferior passions to rebel against the superior intellect and will, just as the inferior will and intellect rebelled against the superior grace of God, thus causing the inferior Adam and Eve to rebel against the superiority of God.
It is from that Original Sin that our passions beget their rebelliousness and it is from Original Sin that our intellect and our will find themselves wounded and weakened; no longer being in total domination over our passions, who now use false ‘reasoning’ in order to extort from our intellect and will an excess of what they feel will satisfy them. The passions are blind and need to be led by right reason and a strong will, when the passions overpower our reason and the will by their constant nagging and begging, then we have a case of the blind leading the weak—and as Our Lord says, they both fall into the pit (Matthew 15:14). “For the good which I will, I do not; but the evil which I will not, that I do” (Romans 7:19).
Blind Passions Cannot See True Joy
Our passions being blind, do not discern between good and evil; their measurement stick is not a moral measurement, but a measurement of pleasure: “Does this give me pleasure or does it not give me pleasure?” To the uncontrolled and unguided passions, moral good and moral evil do not enter into the equation. For them, if something is pleasurable then it is automatically good; if something is not pleasurable, then it is automatically evil. The result is what Holy Scripture warns us about: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaias 5:20). “Dearly beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that does good, is of God; he that does evil, has not seen God” (3 John 1:11).
Passionate Results
The results brought about by our blind passions are partially listed by St. Paul: “Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God: having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid.” (1 Timothy 3:1-5). Those who practice some or all of the above sins, find joy in them, but it is a misguided joy, a false joy, a sinful joy.
The Greedy Joy of the Passions
The passions are all about themselves and not the common good. Each one is like a gluttonous child taking his place at the dinner table—what results is a “free for all” grab and fight, unless the parents (reason and will) take charge and impose some discipline. Similarly, a child could eat ice-cream all day long and every day, or some other junk food of their choice—however, sickness or tooth decay will sooner or later show the existence of justice. Likewise, God will eventually step-in and with justice He will correct matters. Justice is giving someone their due―whether it be a good effect (a reward) or a bad effect (a punishment). “All things equally happen to the just and to the wicked, to the good and to the evil, to the clean and to the unclean” (Ecclesiastes 9:2).
Happiness and Joy is Every Person’s Goal
Whether we admit it nor and whether we like it or not, we all have the same ultimate supreme good. Our last end is a complete and enduring satisfaction or fulfillment; such a fulfillment is called beatitude or happiness and joy. But all men do not agree about the precise things in which their fulfillment and consequent happiness are to be found. Some think to attain the end by becoming rich, some by enjoying pleasures, some by exercising power, some by being praised and honored, and so on.
The desire for happiness and joy is behind our ceaseless drive towards his supreme and universal good—which, in other words, means seeking something that is wholly complete, perfectly satisfying. The problem lies in the fact that we have different ideas as to what that supreme good is; and we also differ in our opinions on how best to obtain it. Even in our sinful acts, we are seeking what we imagine to be a ‘good’, that is, satisfaction, although we are perversely seeking it in the wrong place, with the wrong persons, with the wrong things, or in the wrong manner.
Everyone seeks fulfillment or satisfaction, happiness and joy. These are the feelings we wish to experience. But those feelings need an object for their fulfillment or realization; the object which, when possessed, will give us complete happiness and joy.
The Joy of Knowing and the Joy of Possessing
We cannot enjoy something that we either know nothing about, nor enjoy something that we do not, at least temporarily, possess. I cannot enjoy a conversation if I am not engaged in one; I cannot enjoy a meal unless I am eating one; I cannot enjoy the weather unless I am actually experiencing it; I cannot enjoy a thought unless I am thinking it, and so on and so forth.
St. Louis de Montfort asks that popular philosophical question: “Is it possible for man to love that which he does not know? Can he love ardently that which he knows but imperfectly? Why then is the adorable Jesus, Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, loved so little? Because He is not known, or known but little. Very few of us, like St. Paul, make a sincere study of the super-eminent science of Jesus, which is, nevertheless the most noble, the most consoling, the most useful and the most necessary of all sciences in Heaven and on Earth” (St. Louis de Montfort, Love of the Eternal Wisdom).
Joy—the Icing on the Cake of Love
Joy is the fruit or the proverbial “icing-on-the-cake” that comes with possessing of being in the presence of what we love. Love is, in a certain sense, incomplete without the actual union with what we love. In fact, love is driven on powerfully to obtain the object of its love and will not find ultimate peace or joy until it successfully obtains the loved object.
Hence persons, who love food, are happiest and most joyful when they actually engaged in eating food. Lovers of music are happiest and most joyful when they are playing or listening to their favorite music. Sports lovers experience the height of joy only when they are actually engaged in playing or watching their favorite sport. Those who love drugs or alcohol will experience the greatest joy when they are actually united to and are consuming their beloved substance.
False Happiness and Fake Joy
However, our happiness is not to be found in wealth, whether this be natural wealth which serves our normal needs (such as food, clothing, housing), or artificial wealth (money) which provides us with the items of natural wealth. Wealth of any kind is a means for acquiring something else; it is a thing that serves; it does not fulfill. Therefore wealth cannot be the true last end of man and the object that will render him eternally and completely happy.
Nor can power supply us with perfect happiness and joy, because power, like money, is a means to achieving something further, it is not an end in itself, but a means to something else.
Nor can our full happiness be found in being honored, respected and loved on account of some of our qualities or excellence, nor can it be found in fame and glory, because all these things are imperfect, they are not universal (not everybody feels that way about us), nor are they enduring (their opinions about us may change). Any excellence in a man is in him by reason of some good already possessed; it means that he already has some degree of happiness. Honors come to him because of this happiness, and therefore honor, praise and respect cannot themselves be the elements of perfect happiness.
Our ultimate happiness does not consist in goods of the body―life, health, strength, beauty, agility, etc. for these goods preserve the body and its perfections. Merely to preserve life cannot be the end of life. Just like money and power, goods of the body are to be used as a means by reason (intellect and will) and not to be looked upon as end in itself, just like a ship is used by its captain; or a car by its owner. The car is a means of transportation and of carrying cargo, it is not there to be just looked at and enjoyed. The captain does not dock his ship in harbor to be admired, but to carry passengers or profitable cargoes to desired ports. Likewise the goods of the body are means to an end, and not complete ends in themselves. Besides, being a rational being as well as a bodily being; we can never be completely fulfilled and satisfied by bodily goods alone, for the soul ranks higher than the body.
Joy from Above, or Joy from Below?
In fact, no created good or creature can give us perfect happiness, for they all have limits and degrees that allow them to give only partial happiness and a passing joy. No created good is wholly perfect, in all areas and limitless in its degrees of fulfillment; only an uncreated and limitless good can be our ultimate end and joy. And this uncreated good is God.
However, if we listen to our passions more than we listen to God, then problems will arise. As already stated, happiness and joy are our ultimate goals, and if we no longer seek happiness and joy in the things that are above, then, nature abhorring a vacuum, will look for that happiness and joy the things that are below, for the hungry passion needs to be fed on something. If we refuse to eat healthy food, then we will by default eat junk food. Our Lord clearly tells us:
“My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36) ... “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world” (John 8:23). “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). To which St. James adds: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20). That is why St. Paul says: “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2).
No doubt friendship with the world, acceptance by the world, the ways of acting of the world, may bring us great happiness and joy, but it is not the happiness and joy of Heaven, it is not a true and enduring happiness: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24). “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Obtaining that Heavenly Joy
True happiness and joy cannot be perfectly attained without rightness or rectitude in our will, where the will is conformed to and obedient to the guidance of grace and the teachings of Christ, Who tells us what to love and what not to love; what to seek and what not to seek. This sets our will in proper alignment with the supreme good, and makes our will love what it loves in perfect subordination to God. Without this subordination and perfection of our human will, we will never be perfectly happy. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Luke 12:31). “Not everyone that saiys to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 7:21). “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). “If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love” (John 15:10).
Love, when it is true, brings joy. But love is reciprocal (two-way-street); it means not just being loved, but loving in return; it means not just taking, but giving in return. “He that loves Me, shall be loved of My Father: and I will love him” (John 14:21). If we love Our Lord we must keep His commandments. This will bring, what is known as the “Joy of a Good Conscience.” But that is only the first and lowest level of a love of God. When we love someone, we love to talk to them and talk to them often―do we not? The same is true of our love of God―the more we love Him, the more we want to talk to Him and the more time we find to talk to Him. Yet the pinnacle of love is to suffer for God and Our Lord just a He suffered for us: “Greater love that this no man has―that a man lay down his life for his friends!” (John 15:13). In a sense, love is tested and proved by how much we are willing to suffer for the one whom we love. Christ suffered, died and laid down His life for us―are we willing to suffer and lay down our lives for Christ (and our neighbor whom God created)?
Can You Spot Christ?
We need our supernatural glasses, or contact lenses, to see Jesus in our sufferings―but, as the old adage goes: “Where there is the cross, there too is Christ!” St. Paul understood this and that is why he can speak so joyfully and courageously of the cross and suffering:
“For the word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness; but to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18) ... “That I may live to God: with Christ I am nailed to the cross” (Galatians 2:19) ... “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14) ... “For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come” (Romans 8:18) ... “I Paul...now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh” (Colossians 1:23-24).
This attitude of St. Paul is approved and ‘rubber-stamped’ by St. Peter, who writes: “If you partake of the sufferings of Christ, then rejoice, that when His glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:13).
St. Peter and St. Paul fully realize, understand and accept that God’s gifts of grace and His promise of future glory, are sufficient at all times to give us a ready and joyful acceptance of God’s will in adversity as well as in prosperity. St. Paul himself “rejoices” in his imprisonment, because his chains have turned out to be a means of spreading the Gospel, and are, for him, a means to his own salvation as well the salvation of others (1:12-20).
Rejoice—No Matter What
There are many lessons we may learn from these words of St. Paul written from a Roman dungeon to the Christians of Philippi, but the principal lesson and the one the Church wishes to place before us today is the lesson of joy. We must rejoice in the Lord—no matter what. For all that happens to us and around us, is only happening because God either wants it to happen (if it something good and not sinful) or God has allowed it to happen (if the action we suffer happens to be unjust or sinful). In all events, we must remember that nothing can happen without God’s permission. This should give us a similar attitude to suffering to that of St. Paul.
Yet our joy should not only be a result of the crosses that come our way, but let us also stop for a moment to count our blessings and see how many positive reasons we have for rejoicing.
We are alive; we are probably reasonably healthy; reasonably well-off compared to the vast majority in this world who live in poverty or near poverty; we are most certainly much better off than the people who lived centuries ago; we are human beings who can think, reason and love; we have a body with many talents and gifts, we have a soul which is destined to last forever.
We have been redeemed and been given a chance to attain eternal happiness in Heaven; we have the means of going there and have a guarantee we will get there if we use those means. We are among the minority in this world who have been baptized; we are part of an even greater minority of the baptized who still practice the Faith; we are able to receive our God and Creator in Holy Communion—daily if we wish (in most cases); we have access to the Sacrament of Confession in the case we fall into mortal sin and lose, thereby, our chance of going to Heaven.
And while we battle and struggle on the road to Heaven, we are allowed to enjoy many temporal gifts offered us from the generous hand of a loving Father. Have we not reason to rejoice, to be glad? Indeed, can any true Christian be sad? Of course, we meet with snags and setbacks on the road. To reach the summit of the everlasting hills of Heaven we have to climb the rugged foothills that lead to the summit, but a true Christian will not moan and murmur because of that. It is only those who are going nowhere, those who are to remain forever in a lowly painful valley, who meet no obstacles and have no hills to climb. For them there is only the broad, wide road that leads downwards. We have a chance of going to Heaven and so we realize that every obstacle we overcome, every little summit we scale, is bringing us nearer to the lofty peaks where everlasting happiness and the “peace of God” will be our eternal reward together with an unending joy! Rejoice!
Joy in the Cross and Suffering―the True Riches!
The only thing worth having a lot of, is having a lot of the cross―for the cross is our key and ticket to Heaven. Holy Mother Church tells us: “Ave crux, spes unica! … In cruce salus!” ― “Hail, cross! Our only hope! … In the cross is salvation!”
The words “Ave crux, spes unica” are based upon the words “O Crux, ave, spes única!” which are sung during the Passiontide Liturgy, in the hymn Vexilla Regis Prodeunt (The Standard of the King Goes Forth)―which is sung at Vespers up until Holy Thursday. It was first sung in the November 19th procession in 569 AD, when a relic of the True Cross, sent by the Emperor Justin II from the East at the request of St. Radegunda, was carried in joyous procession with great pomp and ceremony from Tours to the monastery of Saint-Croix at Poitiers. Its original processional use is commemorated in the Roman Missal on Good Friday, when the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession from the Repository to the High Altar. Its principal use however, is in the Divine Office, the Roman Breviary assigning it to Vespers from the Saturday before Passion Sunday daily to Maundy Thursday, and to Vespers of feasts of the Holy Cross, such as the Finding of the Cross (May 3rd), the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14th), the Triumph of the Cross (16 July 16th).
The Holy Thursday liturgy, in the Introit at Mass, says: “Nos autem gloriári opórtet in Cruce Dómini nostri Iesu Christi, in quo est salus, vita et resurréctio nostra: per quem salváti et liberáti sumus” ― “But it behooves us to glory in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ―in Whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection; by Whom we are saved and delivered.”
The following day, at the Good Friday Afternoon Liturgy, we have the adoration of the Cross―during which we sing repeatedly: “Ecce lignum Crucis, in quo salus mundi pepéndit! Veníte, adorémus!” … “Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the Savior of the world! Come, let us adore!” … further adding: “We adore Thy Cross, O Lord: and we praise and glorify Thy holy Resurrection―for behold, by the wood of the Cross, JOY has come into the whole world.” This is immediately followed by the magnificent hymn, Crux FIdelis ― O Faithful Cross. Here are just some of the references to the Cross:
Faithful Cross! Above all other,
One and only noble Tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peer may be;
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron,
Sweetest weight is hung on thee.
Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle!
With completed victory rife!
And above the Cross’s trophy
Tell the triumph of the strife:
How the world’s Redeemer conquer’d
By the offering of His life.
Thirty years among us dwelling,
His appointed time fulfilled,
Born for this, He meets His Passion,
For that this He freely willed:
On the Cross the Lamb is lifted,
Where His life-blood shall be spilled.
Bend thy boughs, O Tree of glory!
Thy relaxing sinews bend;
For awhile the ancient rigor,
That thy birth bestowed, suspend:
And the King of heavenly beauty
On thy bosom gently tend!
Faithful Cross! Above all other,
One and only noble Tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peer may be.
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron,
Sweetest weight is hung on thee.
Thus we can see why Jesus recommended and insisted upon the cross so much: “And Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 14:27) … “And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).
This is why St. Paul rejoices in being able to carry the Cross of Christ in his own personal life: “God forbid that I should glory, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ―by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world!” (Galatians 6:14). “For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us!” (Romans 8:18). “Furthermore I count all things to be but a loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord―for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as dung, in order that I may gain Christ!” (Philippians 3:8).
Likewise the Apostles: “Then the high priest … and all they that were with him … laid hands on the Apostles and … brought them and set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, saying: ‘Commanding we commanded you that you should not teach in this Name [Jesus]; and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and you have a mind to bring the Blood of this Man upon us. But Peter and the Apostles answering, said: ‘We ought to obey God, rather than men!’ … And calling in the Apostles, after they had scourged them, they charged them that they should not speak at all in the Name of Jesus; and they dismissed them. And the Apostles went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the Name of Jesus” (Acts 5:17-41).
Walking Contradictions
Most Catholics are walking contradictions! They put on a Catholic face on Sunday―but a worldly face on Monday! Hypocritically they try to serve both God and the world―imagining that into Hell they won’t be hurled! With their lips to God they pray―but those same lips will a neighbor slay! When corrected―the blame is always rejected and deflected. When persecuted―they react with hatred that’s deep-rooted. When they suffer they mutter―when in pain they complain―in face of rejection they fall into dejection. They seek what is sweet and avoid what is bitter―even though bitter is better. With Heaven they want to be paid―but to earn it they are afraid. They see the cross as a loss―and run to what’s fun.
The Imitation of Christ sums up perfectly this abhorrence for suffering in two consecutive chapters―Book 2, Chapter 11, entitled “Few Love the Cross of Jesus” and Book 2, Chapter 12, entitled “The Royal Road of the Holy Cross”. Here are some pertinent extracts:
Few Love the Cross of Jesus
The Imitation of Christ states: Jesus has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation ― they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus — love that is free from all self-interest and self-love!
Do not those who always seek consolation deserve to be called mercenaries? Do not those who always think of their own profit and gain prove that they love themselves rather than Christ? Where can a man be found who desires to serve God for nothing? Rarely indeed is a man so spiritual as to strip himself of all things. And who shall find a man so truly poor in spirit as to be free from every creature? If a man give all his wealth, it is nothing; if he do great penance, it is little; if he gain all knowledge, he is still far afield; if he have great virtue and much ardent devotion, he still lacks a great deal, and especially, the one thing that is most necessary to him. What is this one thing? That leaving all, he forsake himself, completely renounce himself, and give up all private affections. Then, when he has done all that he knows ought to be done, let him consider it as nothing, let him make little of what may be considered great; let him in all honesty call himself an unprofitable servant. For truth itself has said: “When you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: ‘We are unprofitable servants!’” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 2, Chapter 11: “Few Love the Cross of Jesus”).
The Royal Road of the Holy Cross
The Imitation of Christ continues: To many the saying, “Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Me!” seems hard, but it will be much harder to hear that final word: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!” Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the Day of Judgment. This sign of the cross will be in the heavens when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross, who, during life, made themselves one with the Crucified, will draw near with great trust to Christ, the judge.
Why, then, do you fear to take up the cross when through it you can win a kingdom? In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit, in the cross is highest virtue, in the cross is perfect holiness. There is no salvation of soul, nor hope of everlasting life, except in the cross. Take up your cross, therefore, and follow Jesus, and you shall enter eternal life. He Himself opened the way before you in carrying His cross, and upon it He died for you, that you, too, might take up your cross and long to die upon it. If you die with Him, you shall also live with Him, and if you share His suffering, you shall also share His glory.
Behold, in the cross is everything, and upon your dying on the cross everything depends. There is no other way to life and to true inward peace than the way of the holy cross and daily mortification. Go where you will, seek what you will, you will not find a higher way, nor a less exalted but safer way, than the way of the holy cross. Arrange and order everything to suit your will and judgment, and still you will find that some suffering must always be borne, willingly or unwillingly, and thus you will always find the cross.
Either you will experience bodily pain or you will undergo tribulation of spirit in your soul. At times you will be forsaken by God, at times troubled by those about you and, what is worse, you will often grow weary of yourself. You cannot escape, you cannot be relieved by any remedy or comfort but must bear with it as long as God wills. For He wishes you to learn to bear trial without consolation, to submit yourself wholly to Him that you may become more humble through suffering. No one understands the passion of Christ so thoroughly or heartily as the man whose lot it is to suffer the like himself.
The cross, therefore, is always ready; it awaits you everywhere. No matter where you may go, you cannot escape it, for wherever you go you take yourself with you and shall always find yourself. Turn where you will — above, below, without, or within — you will find a cross in everything, and everywhere you must have patience if you would have peace within and merit an eternal crown.
If you carry the cross willingly, it will carry and lead you to the desired goal where indeed there shall be no more suffering, but here there shall be. If you carry it unwillingly, you create a burden for yourself and increase the load, though still you have to bear it. If you cast away one cross, you will find another and perhaps a heavier one. Do you expect to escape what no mortal man can ever avoid? Which of the saints was without a cross or trial on this Earth? Not even Jesus Christ, our Lord, Whose every hour on Earth knew the pain of His passion. “It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead ... and so enter into his glory.” How is it that you look for another way than this, the royal way of the holy cross?
The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom, and do you seek rest and enjoyment for yourself? You deceive yourself, you are mistaken if you seek anything but to suffer, for this mortal life is full of miseries and marked with crosses on all sides. Indeed, the more spiritual progress a person makes, so much heavier will he frequently find the cross, because as his love increases, the pain of his exile also increases.
Yet such a man, though afflicted in many ways, is not without hope of consolation, because he knows that great reward is coming to him for bearing his cross. And when he carries it willingly, every pang of tribulation is changed into hope of solace from God. Besides, the more the flesh is distressed by affliction, so much the more is the spirit strengthened by inward grace. Not infrequently a man is so strengthened by his love of trials and hardship in his desire to conform to the cross of Christ, that he does not wish to be without sorrow or pain, since he believes he will be the more acceptable to God if he is able to endure more and more grievous things for His sake.
It is the grace of Christ, and not the virtue of man, which can and does bring it about that through fervor of spirit frail flesh learns to love and to gain what it naturally hates and shuns.
To carry the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body and bring it to subjection, to flee honors, to endure contempt gladly, to despise self and wish to be despised, to suffer any adversity and loss, to desire no prosperous days on Earth — this is not man’s way. If you rely upon yourself, you can do none of these things, but if you trust in the Lord, strength will be given you from Heaven and the world and the flesh will be made subject to your word. You will not even fear your enemy, the devil, if you are armed with faith and signed with the cross of Christ.
Set yourself, then, like a good and faithful servant of Christ, to bear bravely the cross of your Lord, Who out of love was crucified for you. Be ready to suffer many adversities and many kinds of trouble in this miserable life, for troublesome and miserable life will always be, no matter where you are; and so you will find it wherever you may hide. Thus it must be; and there is no way to evade the trials and sorrows of life but to bear them.
Drink the chalice of the Lord with affection it you wish to be His friend and to have part with Him. Leave consolation to God; let Him do as most pleases Him. On your part, be ready to bear sufferings and consider them the greatest consolation, for even though you alone were to undergo them all, the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.
When you shall have come to the point where suffering is sweet and acceptable for the sake of Christ, then consider yourself fortunate, for you have found paradise on Earth. But as long as suffering irks you and you seek to escape, so long will you be unfortunate, and the tribulation you seek to evade will follow you everywhere. If you put your mind to the things you ought to consider, that is, to suffering and death, you would soon be in a better state and would find peace.
Although you were taken to the third Heaven with Paul, you were not thereby insured against suffering. Jesus said: “I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake!” To suffer, then, remains your lot, if you mean to love Jesus and serve Him forever.
If you were only worthy to suffer something for the name of Jesus, what great glory would be in store for you, what great joy to all the saints of God, what great edification to those about you! For all men praise patience though there are few who wish to practice it. With good reason, then, ought you to be willing to suffer a little for Christ since many suffer much more for the world. Realize that you must lead a dying life; the more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live unto God.
No man is fit to enjoy Heaven unless he has resigned himself to suffer hardship for Christ. Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing more helpful for you on this Earth than to suffer willingly for Christ. If you had to make a choice, you ought to wish rather to suffer for Christ than to enjoy many consolations, for thus you would be more like Christ and more like all the saints. Our merit and progress consist not in many pleasures and comforts but rather in enduring great afflictions and sufferings.
If, indeed, there were anything better or more useful for man’s salvation than suffering, Christ would have shown it by word and example. But He clearly exhorts the disciples who follow Him and all who wish to follow Him to carry the cross, saying: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” When, therefore, we have read and searched all that has been written, let this be the final conclusion — that through much suffering we must enter into the kingdom of God. (The Imitation of Christ, Book 2, Chapter 12: “The Royal Road of the Holy Cross”).
Article 14
Sunday December 14th
Don’t Fall for Fake Joy! Seek True Joy!
Sunday December 14th
Don’t Fall for Fake Joy! Seek True Joy!
Gaudete Sunday
Today is Gaudete Sunday―which is the third Sunday of Advent and the approximate midpoint of Advent―is so called from the first word of the Introit at Mass, “Gaudete” (which means “Rejoice”). At Christmas, we sing the carol: “Joy to the world!” We speak of the joys of the world, or worldly joys. We speak of heavenly joys and earthly joys. In fact, we use the word “joy” a lot—either alone, ‘stuck-on’ or ‘sandwiched’--joy, joyful, joyfully, joyous, enjoy, enjoyment, enjoyable, rejoice (rejoyce), etc.
In essence, Gaudete Sunday encapsulates the dual nature of Advent – a time for reflection and repentance, balanced with anticipation and rejoicing in the promise of redemption. It serves as a reminder that, even in the midst of our penitential preparations, there is joy to be found in the expectation of the Savior’s imminent arrival. Thus it brings a certain joy to our penances―so that they gain a sense of purpose as a means of gaining Christ and winning Heaven.
What is Joy?
What is joy, anyway? For a true and educated look and understanding of joy, let us turn to ‘sour-faced’ Thomas—or St. Thomas Aquinas, whom artists rarely depict with a smile on his face, but who most certainly had a smile in his heart! St. Thomas tells us—and this is Thomas simplified, for the reading the actual words of Thomas might take that smile off your face, for he can be ‘heavy going’ at times—St. Thomas tells us that joy is more than happiness, just as happiness is more than pleasure. He says that pleasure is in the body. Happiness is in the mind and feelings. Joy is deep in the heart, the spirit, the soul, the center of the self. The way to pleasure is possessions, power and prudence. The way to happiness is moral goodness. The way to joy is sanctity, loving God with your whole heart and your neighbor as yourself. Everyone wants pleasure. More deeply, everyone wants happiness. Most deeply, everyone wants joy. Yet few people find joy, some find happiness, while most are busy chasing pleasures.
St. Thomas Aquinas says that no man can live without joy: “Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.” That is why we have so much carnal desire raging throughout the world today—not just sexual desire, but also a desire for things for the body, such as food, alcohol, drugs, fashions, material items, entertainment, etc.—all this due to an absence of spiritual joy which makes a person fill the void with carnal pleasures. This is essentially what Our Lady foretold would happen in our ‘modern’ times: “As true Faith fades and false light brightens the people … Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … People will think of nothing but amusement … In these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost!” (Our Lady of Good Success & La Salette).
Holy Scripture commands us to be joyful: “Shout with joy to God, all the Earth!” (Psalm 65:1). “O clap your hands, all ye nations! Shout unto God with the voice of joy!” (Psalm 46:2). “Sing joyfully to God, all the Earth! Serve ye the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with exceedingly great joy!” (Psalm 99:2). Even God the Father “got in on the act”—as we read in Holy Scripture: “God had made them joyful with great joy―their wives also and their children rejoiced, and the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off!” (2 Esdras 12:42).
Joy in Holiness
Regardless of what we might personally think―there can be no true happiness without holiness. Why? Because for happiness and joy to be real and true, they must be everlasting and eternal―and the only everlasting life in Heaven, which is the reward for holiness (for only saints get into Heaven), is the only place where joy can be everlasting. Lack of holiness or a life of unholiness inevitably leads to Hell, which is also everlasting and eternal, but where everlasting and eternal joy is replaced by everlasting and eternal sorrow. That is why Our Lord and Holy Scripture encourage us to be holy and perfect―for only those things will produce eternal joys. They joys of the world are only passing, temporary, inferior and fake joys that risk the loss of our souls.
● “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
● “I am the Lord your God! Be holy because I am holy! You shall be holy, because I am holy! Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy―because I am the Lord your God!” (Leviticus 11:44-46; 20:7).
● “I am the Almighty God! Walk before Me and be perfect!” (Genesis 17:1).
● “Thou shalt be perfect and without spot before the Lord thy God!” (Deuteronomy 18:13).
● “Therefore be perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” says Jesus (Matthew 5:48).
● “The joyfulness of the heart is a never failing treasure of holiness! Gather up thy heart His holiness and drive away sadness far from thee!” (Ecclesiasticus 30:23-24)
● “Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, Who is in you, Whom you have from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).
● “But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy ...” (Galatians 5:22-23).
● St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “‘The charity of God is poured forth into our hearts by the Holy Ghost Who is given to us.’ The necessary result of the love of charity is joy: because the lover rejoices at being united to the beloved. Now charity has always actual presence or God Whom it loves according to I Jn. 4:16: ‘He that abides in charity, abides in God, and God in Him’ ― wherefore the sequel of charity is joy” (Summa Theologica, 1a-2ae, q.7, art.3).
● “And your heart shall rejoice―and your joy no man shall take from you!” (John 16:22).
The Saints on Joy
● Francis de Sales reminds us: “A saint who is sad, is indeed a sad saint!” or in other words: “A saint who is sad is no saint at all.” A sad saint is a contradiction in terms since, “a good tree cannot bear bad fruit.” We must not forget that it is only saints who get into Heaven!
● We should also be reminded of those famous words of St. Teresa: St. Teresa of Ávila spoke out against that kind of deadly serious Catholicism. “From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us! A sad nun is a bad nun! I am more afraid of one unhappy sister than a crowd of evil spirits! …. What would happen if we hid what little sense of humor we had? Let each of us humbly use this to cheer others!”
Joy, humor and laughter are constant threads through the lives of many saints, disproving the stereotype of the dour, depressed, grumpy saint. While St. Teresa’s spirituality was a deeply reverential one, her humor also shows a kind of playfulness in her relationship with God. Once, when she was travelling to one of her convents, St. Teresa of Avila was knocked off her donkey and fell into the mud, injuring her leg. “Lord!” she said indignantly, “Here I am traveling around trying to reform and improve the Carmelite convents and You go and let this happen to me!” And the response she heard was, “But Teresa! That is how I treat My friends!” To which Teresa answered, “And that is why you have so few of them!” Here is a woman whom the Catholic Church has designated as “Doctor of the Church” an eminent teacher of the Faith, prescribing the medicine of a sense of humor.
Someone said, “Good humor is nine-tenths of Christianity.” Of course it is not, nor anything like it. It is merely a “smart saying” whose value lies not in the truth of the saying, but in the ‘smartness’ or ‘smart-aleckness’ of it. But a sense of humor has an important part to play in the spiritual life. Fr. Robert Hugh Benson did not hesitate to call St. Teresa’s gift of humor “a divine gift.” Humor is the “salt of life”, and to some extent it is the salt of the religious life, preserving it from decay. G. K. Chesterton says of St. Francis of Assisi, “The sense of humor salts all his escapades.” The history of many of the heresies is largely a history of the breakdown of the sense of humor. Their errors and absurdities can― apart from the devil―hardly be accounted for otherwise. “Laugh and grow strong!” St. Ignatius of Loyola said; and to one of his novices, “I see you are always laughing, and I am glad of it!”
“What wit that man had,” wrote René Bazin of St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars. A priest once sympathized with the Curé concerning the anxieties and sufferings he endured at the hands of the devil. “One gets used to everything — even to the Devil,” said the Curé, “he and I are almost friends!” He asked a very talkative lady if there was any month in the year in which she talked less than usual, except February [Lent]. “What must I do to get to Heaven?” asked a lady of very ample chubby proportions. He replied: “Three Lents, my daughter!” A nun said to him: “People believe that you are very ignorant, Father!” To which he replied: “Nevertheless I shall always be able to teach you more than you will ever be able to learn!”
Kinds of Joy
1. Joy of the body (pleasure): satisfying hunger & thirst, taste, smell, sight, ears, touch.
2. Joy of the mind (intellectual joy): discovery of new information, links & connections, imagination.
3. Joy of the soul (spiritual joy): see below
1. Spiritual joy, often called joy in God, is an effect of charity. It is of two kinds.
! Firstly, in what God is in Himself. This is the best.
! Secondly, in what we get from God.
Psalm 131:16. “I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall rejoice with exceeding great joy.”
2. Spiritual joy admits no admixture of sorrow, for it is joy in the divine wisdom of which Scripture says: “Her conversation has no bitterness” (Wisdom 8:16)
! Psalm 93:19. “According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, Thy comforts have given joy to my soul.”
! Proverbs 14:13. “Laughter shall be mingled with sorrow, and mourning takes hold of the ends of joy.”
! John 16:20. “Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice―and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy!”
! John 16:22. “So also you now indeed have sorrow―but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice! And your joy no man shall take from you!”
! Acts 5:41. “And they indeed went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the Name of Jesus.”
! 2 Corinthians 7:4. “I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation.”
! James 1:2. “My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into diverse temptations!”
! 1 Peter 4:13. “But if you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that, when his glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.”
! 2 Corinthians 6:10. “As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing!”
3. Spiritual joy is full and perfect when God is possessed by the soul, and nothing remains to be desired. It is manifest, therefore, that we cannot achieve the fullness of spiritual joy until we reach Heaven.
! Tobias 5:12. “And Tobias said: ‘What manner of joy shall be to me, who sit in darkness and see not the light of Heaven?’”
! Psalm 50:14. “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation!”
Learning Joy in the School of Saints
In his book, Holy Abandonment, Dom Vitalis Lehodey, writes:
“Abandonment teaches us to repose between the arms of the cross, consequently in the arms of Jesus, and on His wounded Heart. There we discover something more than peace, for we participate in the very joy of Jesus. Sometimes, and not very seldom, this joy is sensible. But at other times, and most often, it is purely spiritual. At all events, abandonment produces the joy of the soul. For that, it would suffice to secure to us liberty and peace. In what should we rejoice if not in being free and peaceful, free in the truth, free in love, and peaceful in our freedom? And, on the other hand, without liberty and peace, what joy can one taste or even imagine?” Would you like to possess the secret of being always joyous? We call it a secret, because although all men seek after joy, very few discover it. Well, the secret of attaining to joy and preserving it when attained, is holy abandonment.
“But how? Listen. Other people have too little faith, too little confidence and love to rejoice in tribulation. But those who have arrived at perfect conformity are endowed with a vivid faith, a firm hope, and a generous charity. They have learned to recognize in every event, even the most insignificant, their heavenly Father, their Savior, their Spouse, their Friend, their Well‑Beloved, busily occupied with the work of their sanctification. They have given Him without any reserve their confidence and their love. Is He not the Sovereign Master of all events? Consequently they feel assured that everything will turn to the profit of their souls, provided they remain trustfully, loyally submissive. How, then, can they help being joyous? On the sixth day of creation God contemplated the works of His hands, and He found them all good, and very good. Hence He vouchsafed to regard them with a joyous satisfaction. Similarly, the abandoned soul experiences in herself something resembling a participation of this divine joy. For the foundation of her abandonment is precisely the approbation she gives to all that God does and wills, and the complacence she takes in all the dispositions of His Providence.
“Here, says the spiritual master, Rodriguez, you have the whole secret of the perfect calm and unalterable joy which manifested themselves on the countenances, in the words, and in the actions of the saints in times past, such as St. Antony, St. Dominic, St. Francis Assisi. The same qualities were remarked, so we read, in St. Ignatius and distinguish, indeed, all true servants of God. But, it may be objected, perhaps these great saints were immune from all the miseries of life; perhaps they were not subject to bodily infirmities; perhaps they had no temptations to combat, no trials to support; perhaps, in fine, God removed from the path of His zealous servants every cause of affliction, every occasion of failing? Nothing could be farther from the truth. The crosses the saints had to support were far heavier than those of other men. Tribulations, sufferings and contempt were their portion in this life, and their crowns were always woven of thorns. God reserves His sharpest trials for the souls He loves most dearly. But these holy men had brought their wills into perfect conformity with the will of God. Hence, pains, mortifications, even temptations, became for them a source of joy and consolation, because they knew that all was the work of the divine will in which they placed the whole of their happiness. They were ingenious in discovering a thousand pious reasons for approving the ways of Providence, even when most trying, and for encouraging themselves to a confident and joyous submission thereto.”
Jesus on Joy—Words of Love
The following words of Jesus are found in Fr. Bartholomew Gottemoller’s book, Words of Love, wherein he furnishes certain quotes of Our Lord given to three of His mystics―St. Josefa Menendez; Sr. Mary of the Holy Trinity and Sr. Consolata Betrone. The scattered quotes have been blended together to make for a cohesive single passage.
“As parents are happy in showing their love to their children, so it is My joy to make My love felt, to reveal it; I do it in a reserved manner, perceptible to those who are attentive to My Presence and who seek it; because I am Spirit, and in order that a soul should really find Me, she must have sought and discovered Me. Then she associates Me with her life and perceives that she had been seeking Me too far away. It is such a great thing to belong to Me! What does anything else matter to you? Be full of joy at belonging to Me! Love Me, and you will be happy; and the more you love Me, the happier you will be! Love will produce light, love will produce strength, and love will produce joy! Oh if people would only love Me―what happiness would reign in this unhappy world!
“Your joy is to strip yourselves and to be dependent on Me alone. A soul who truly surrenders herself to Me gives Me so much joy that in spite of her miseries and imperfections she becomes a very heaven of delight to Me and I take pleasure in abiding in her. I love you! Is that not enough to fill every one of your moments with the fullness of joy? I love you and desire that you should know it. Oh, if you knew how much I love you! I am always in a joyous heart. I would rather see a soul give Me little but with great joy, than see her give Me much, but with sadness. Sadness reigns where I have not been welcomed! Joy of soul―which the world does not always see―is the first of all your messages to rise to Heaven.
“If you could but understand My joy when souls leave Me free and by their deeds say: ‘Lord, Thou art the Master!’ Do you realize how much this comforts Me? Do you think that I am not glorified by it? I have every claim upon you, but you have only one duty―to obey Me. I require a docile will which permits Me to act, which lends itself to everything, which trusts in Me and serves Me always in peace and joy, no matter what the situation is. I need to see all of you happy in My service. Time that is filled with joy, with joy directed toward God, is not lost time.
“I wish to fill you with joy! I want you to be very little and very humble, and always joyful. Humiliations, contempt, being forgotten by other creatures, these are the joys that I will give you. Often choose what costs you, but without loss of joy and gladness, for by serving Me in peace and happiness you will give the most glory to My Heart. The soul that honors Me most is not the one who has suffered most―it is the one who has most perfectly transformed all her sufferings into love and joy―yes, all her sufferings, even the smallest annoyances and little disappointments. Her love glorifies Me already on Earth. You have always the joy of being able to give; and the poorest, those who have nothing to give, can still give their heart and their soul to God―that is the greatest gift: it embraces all others. I would rather see a soul give Me little but with great joy, than see her give Me much, see her consecrate to Me all that human life can consecrate, but with sadness and regret. I can transform all ugliness into beauty―all poverty into spiritual wealth―all sin into a source of grace―all rancor into forgiveness―all bitterness into sweetness―all sadness into joy―all sufferings into Redemption when you give them to Me and let Me act.
“Yes, you are tired; but is it not your greatest joy to have something to offer Me? To bear monotony, the tediousness of the same work coming round regularly, the absence of novelty, while keeping a joyful heart, is to honor Me—that is to conform oneself to My hidden life. To be joyous simply because I am with you, when you have no other reason for being so, that is to prove to Me that you love Me.
“There are sacrifices which I desire, but for which I do not ask―so as to leave to souls the joy of offering them to Me of themselves. My joy is to be able to prove to you the generosity of My love. My Heart takes comfort in forgiving. I have no greater desire, no greater joy, than when I can pardon a soul. When I say that you must forgive one another, it is not a duty that I impose on you―can one impose love? It is a joy that I offer you; it is a share in My way of acting, a share in My Spirit. I love you! Is that not enough to fill every one of your moments with the fullness of joy? I love you and desire that you should know it. Oh, if you knew how much I love you, My little child! Serve Me with joy, give Me much joy!.
Joy Over A Sinner’s Return
We see a similar situation in the parable of the Prodigal Son—for the wayward, sinful son, after having wasted his father’s inheritance in debauchery, decides to return to his father, repentant and contrite, saying within himself: “I will arise, and will go to my father, and say to him: ‘Father! I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee! I am not worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants!’” (Luke 15:18-19). This repentance and return brings joy to his father, who, rightfully, could be extremely indignant and would be within his rights in punishing him severely for the scandal and harm he had perpetrated.
Our Lord, in telling this parable, says: “And rising up he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell upon his neck, and kissed him. And the son said to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, I am not now worthy to be called thy son!’ And the father said to his servants: ‘Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet! And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry! Because this, my son, was dead, and is come to life again! Was lost, and is found!’ And they began to be merry” (Luke 15:20-24).
Wrong Kind of Joy
The world is the epitome of the wrong kind of joy. Whereas God loves the sinner and hates the sin, the world attacks the sinner rather than attacking the sin. The world rejoices in what God condemns and hates what God loves. Holy Scripture denounces this attitude: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaias 5:20). Our penances may be bitter, but they will lead to sweet things—hence, we can call them bittersweet.
Our Lord tells His Apostles, at the Last Supper: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she has brought forth the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you!” (John 16:20-22).
Rejoice with the World—Perish with the World
Let us not be sucked-into the damning whirlpool of the world—its fate is inevitable! Our Lord and the Apostles in particular, and Holy Scripture in general, repeatedly warn us against the false and fateful joys of the world: “You that rejoice in a thing that is a mere nothing!” (Amos 6:14) … “Rejoice not, O Israel, rejoice not as the nations do!” (Osee 9:1). “Rejoice not in ungodly children, neither be delighted in them, if the fear of God be not with them!” (Ecclesiasticus 16:1).
What Are We Rejoicing Over?
“Let the heart of them rejoice, that seek the Lord!” (1 Paralipomenon 16:10). “Serve ye the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling!” (Psalm 2:11). Rejoice over the greatest gift of God! What is that greatest gift? “The Lord is gracious and merciful, patient and plenteous in mercy! His tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:8-9). “Let your soul rejoice in His mercy!” (Ecclesiasticus 51:37). “I have trusted in thy mercy! My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation!” (Psalm 12:6).
Rejoice Over Mercy!
What is it, above all things, that you will desire in your death throes and agony on your deathbed? It is mercy! Nothing else will matter. Nothing else will be worth anything if you fail to secure that mercy. All your future joy or misery will depend on one thing alone—whether or not you manage to secure the mercy of God. Our joy, on this day of rejoicing—Laetare Sunday—comes from the fact of God’s incredible mercy and pardon, which is to be used, but not abused.
Mercy—A Room in the Mansion of Charity
Lacking hope in that mercy and pardon, leads to despair. Being over-confident in that mercy and pardon, leads to presumption. Both despair and presumption are serious sins. We need to keep that balance between the two—for virtue stands in the middle between excess and neglect—and joyfully do penance for our sins, hoping and trusting in the mercy and pardon of God, Whose “tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:9). This is because “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and mercy is one of the rooms in the divine mansion of charity.
God Does Not Hate His Creation
God cannot hate what He has created—for all that He creates is good. Yet God does hate some things that man has created—and the chief focal point of hatred is sin. As St. Thomas Aquinas says: “…the hatred of something does not befit God. For as love is to the good, so hatred is to evil; for to those we love we will good, and to those we hate, evil. If, then, the will of God cannot be inclined to evil, as has been shown, it is impossible that He should hate anything” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Contra Gentiles, Book 1, chapter 96: “God Hates Nothing, and the Hatred of No Thing Befits Him”).
This is stated in slightly different terms by Holy Scripture: “All things were made by Him” (John 1:3). “The Lord has made all things for Himself” (Proverbs 16:4). Thus mankind was made for God and not for itself. Yet, God’s human creation—mankind—turned away from God through sin.
Nevertheless, God in His infinite mercy, sought a remedy to that rebelliousness, as explained by Our Lord Himself: “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him. He that believes in Him is not judged. But he that does not believe, is already judged: because he believes not in the Name of the Only-begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18) … “Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin” (John 8:24). “For everyone that does evil, hates the light, and comes not to the light” (John 3:20).
Came to Save All—But All Will Not Be Saved
St. Thomas writes: “The power of the divine Incarnation is equal to the salvation ‘of all men, but the fact that some are not saved, thereby comes from their indisposition: they are unwilling to take unto themselves the fruit of the Incarnation; they do not cleave to the incarnate God by Faith and Love. For men were not intended to lose that freedom of choice, by which they are able to cleave or not to cleave to the incarnate God, lest the good of man be produced by coercion” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Contra Gentiles, Book 4, chapter 55: “Arguments Against the Suitability of the Incarnation”).
Thus we are free to choose—and, ultimately, we choose our own salvation or damnation. There will be no coercion from God in that matter.
Abuse of Mercy
Most souls fail to do so and are irrevocably lost—says Our Lord and most theologians of the Church. Yet every soul is capable of securing it. “Christ died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15). Yet everyone WILL NOT DO what it takes to be saved. “And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But Jesus said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’” (Luke 13:23-24).
As St. Paul points out: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5). “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). So rejoice—mercy is yours if you choose to abide by it, use it and not abuse it! But woe to you if you abuse it!
Joy Though Pain
The joys of Heaven are not “freebies” but must be painfully earned on Earth or in Purgatory. Mercy, of course, brings joy—but mercy requires payment. This is something that mankind—especially modern man—fails to grasp. Modern man thinks the joys of Heaven are there for sinners, or the lukewarm, or the mediocre man.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange dispels this foolish thought: “There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity.
“There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin, though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Going Cheap…! Cheap Joys!
Most people put a cheap price on sin and cheap admission price to Heaven. How foolish and stupid we are! This stupidity is perhaps one of the chief reasons why so many souls are lost! It does not help matters to see almost everyone around us, living-out this insane sense of values.
These idiots—let us at least hope they are idiots, for idiocy might excuse them somewhat from sin—want joy on Earth and joy in Heaven! They want to neither suffer in this life, nor in the next! They, as the proverb goes, “want their cake and they want to eat it”! Our Lord says: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24)--”You can’t have your cake and eat it!”
Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty?
This brings us to the way in which we can view a glass that contains 50% liquid and 50% air. Some see this glass as being half-full; others see it as being half-empty. The “half-full” people are being positive about it; the “half-empty” people are being negative about it.
The same applies to our Faith and religion. Some see the Faith and religion as being a foretaste of the fullness of joy we shall experience in Heaven. Others sees our Faith and religion as “cramping their style” and robbing of them of many joys they would like to experience here on Earth.
One group sees the Faith, and the practice of it, as being “half-full” and look forward to being fulfilled in Heaven. The other group sees the Faith, and practice of it, as being “half-emptied” of potential Earthly joys, and dread having to give up even more of them. Yet our soul—in which joy resides—was made by God and only God can truly fill it with true joy—“Who satisfies thy desire with good things” (Psalms 102:5).
Cotton Candy Joys
To seek the joys of this world above the joys of Heaven; to seek material joys above spiritual joys—is like eating cotton-candy (candy-floss) in comparison to a highly nutritious and delicious seven course meal. The cotton-candy melts away in your mouth before you know it! On top of that, the high sugar content is the favorite nesting place for disease!
Our Lord puts it this way: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Different Ideas of Joy
You are, no doubt, familiar with the Scriptural quote: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9). We could well paraphrase that into “My ideas of joy are not your ideas of joys: nor your joys My joys, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My joys exalted above your joys, and My ideas of joy above your ideas of joy!”
Sour-Faced Sanctity
It almost seems like a sin to talk about joy during Lent! Some sour-faced Christians imagine that sour-faced sanctity is the official face of the Church—yet St. Francis de Sales says: “A saint who is sad, is indeed a sad saint!” Joy, humor and laughter are constant threads through the lives of many saints, disproving the stereotype of the dour, depressed, grumpy saint. St. Teresa of Ávila spoke out against that kind of deadly serious Catholicism. “A sad nun is a bad nun,” she said. “I am more afraid of one unhappy sister than a crowd of evil spirits …. What would happen if we hid what little sense of humor we had? Let each of us humbly use this to cheer others!” And one of her most famous lines, though probably apocryphal, is: “From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us!”
And while Teresa’s spirituality was a deeply reverential one, her humor also shows a kind of playfulness in her relationship with God. Once, when she was travelling to one of her convents, St. Teresa of Avila was knocked off her donkey and fell into the mud, injuring her leg. “Lord!” she said indignantly, “Here I am traveling around trying to reform and improve the Carmelite convents and You go and let this happen to me!” And the response she heard was, “But Teresa! That is how I treat My friends!” To which Teresa answered, “And that is why you have so few of them!” Here is a woman whom the Catholic Church has designated as “Doctor of the Church” an eminent teacher of the Faith, prescribing the medicine of a sense of humor.
Someone said, “Good humor is nine-tenths of Christianity.” Of course it is not, nor anything like it. It is merely a “smart saying” whose value lies not in the truth of the saying, but in the ‘smartness’ or ‘smart-aleckness’ of it. But a sense of humor has an important part to play in the spiritual life. Fr. Robert Hugh Benson did not hesitate to call St. Teresa’s gift of humor “a divine gift.” Humor is the “salt of life”, and to some extent it is the salt of the religious life, preserving it from decay. G. K. Chesterton says of St. Francis of Assisi, “The sense of humor salts all his escapades.” The history of many of the heresies is largely a history of the breakdown of the sense of humor. Their errors and absurdities can― apart from the devil―hardly be accounted for otherwise. “Laugh and grow strong!” St. Ignatius of Loyola said; and to one of his novices, “I see you are always laughing, and I am glad of it!”
“What wit that man had,” wrote René Bazin of St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars. A priest once sympathized with the Curé concerning the anxieties and sufferings he endured at the hands of the devil. “One gets used to everything — even to the Devil,” said the Curé, “he and I are almost friends!” He asked a very talkative lady if there was any month in the year in which she talked less than usual, except February [Lent]. “What must I do to get to Heaven?” asked a lady of very ample chubby proportions. He replied: “Three Lents, my daughter!” A nun said to him, “People believe that you are very ignorant, Father!” To which he replied: “Nevertheless I shall always be able to teach you more than you will ever be able to learn!”
Our Lord Himself refers to joys on several occasions—so joy can’t be all that bad! At the Last Supper, Our Lord confessed to having joy and was trying to pass some joy around: “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be filled!” (John 15:11).
Holy Scripture commands us to be joyful: “Shout with joy to God, all the Earth!” (Psalm 65:1). “O clap your hands, all ye nations: shout unto God with the voice of joy!” (Psalm 46:2). “Sing joyfully to God, all the Earth! Serve ye the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with exceedingly great joy!” (Psalm 99:2). Even God the Father “got in on the act”—as we read in Holy Scripture: “God had made them joyful with great joy―their wives also and their children rejoiced, and the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off!” (2 Esdras 12:42).
Can You Get To Heaven By Telling Jokes?
It might seem like a funny question, but “Can you get to Heaven by telling jokes?” Well—yes and no! It depends upon what your jokes are about! A professional comedian writes (and this is no joke): “The human condition provides for us to be hard wired to laugh. We love it. We love the feeling it gives us, and why not? When we laugh our bodies release endorphins, the same chemical responsible for making us feel a sense of euphoria. In other words laughter makes us ‘high!’” We can all agree that laughter “makes us ‘high’” but will it get us as high as “high Heaven”? Does it make Hell more bearable? Or do they even laugh in Hell? Hmm!
The same professional comedian goes on to say: “Humor and the human condition hasn’t been really studied until recently. Psychologists still argue over why people laugh. The number one element that triggers human laughter is SURPRISE! … Surprise isn’t the only theory behind why we laugh. According to Psychologist Patricia Keith-Speigel, there are eight theories of laughter. (1) Surprise; (2) Embarrassment; (3) Incongruity ; (4) Recognition; (5) Ambivalence; (6) Release; (7) Superiority; (8) Configurational.”
You would imagine, then, that Hell would be a helluva place for laughs for all the ‘triggers’ of laughter are present—since most people are (1) surprised to find themselves there, they are (2) embarrassed at finding themselves there, being there is (3) incongruous or at odds with their expectations, they finally (4) recognize the stupidity of their lives, they experience (5) ambivalent feelings to everyone else in Hell, they experience some sense of (6) release in that they are not the only person to be damned and that there a lot of damned souls there with them, everyone can experience a sense of (7) superiority by wagging and pointing their finger at everyone else, and everything (8) falls into place and “penny drops” where we don’t know whether to laugh or to cry (the configurational moment, which the comedian defines as: “the humor occurs when unconnected ideas fall into place and in that moment, make sense. It’s what I would call an ‘Ah-ha!’ moment”). As you can see, all the elements for creating laughter are there—but nobody is laughing!
Life is No Laughing Matter
Life is serious and no laughing matter—though we can find many things within life to laugh about! Likewise with salvation—that, too, is a serious business, as St. Paul tells us: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12)—and he’s not joking when he says that—he does not add: “Just kidding!” It would have been nicer had he said: “With jokes and laughs work out your salvation!”—but he didn’t. There are many who thought life was one big long joke--”A fool lifts up his voice in laughter” … “A fool will laugh at sin” (Ecclesiasticus 21:23; Proverbs 14:9)―but those fools cease laughing from the time of their final judgment! “But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them! Thou shalt bring all the nations to nothing!” (Psalms 58:9). They frittered away their life in vain laughter and “He that dwelleth in Heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them! … The Lord shall laugh at him: for He foresees that his day shall come!” (Psalm 2:4; 36:13).
Who’s Laughing?
Similarly, Our Lord told His Apostles, at the Last Supper, that life for them was not going to be a series of laughs—and He wasn’t joking: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy!” (John 16:20)—which also implies that the joys of worldly will be turned into eternal sorrows. There are many passages in Holy Scripture that bear this out—here is but one of many:
“Because I called, and you refused! I stretched out my hand, and there was none that regarded! You have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reprehensions! Therefore, I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared! When sudden calamity shall fall on you, and destruction, as a tempest, shall be at hand: when tribulation and distress shall come upon you! Then shall they call upon Me, and I will not hear! They shall rise in the morning and shall not find Me! Because they have hated instruction and received not the fear of the Lord, nor consented to My counsel, but despised all My reproof! Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own ways, and shall be filled with their own devices and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them!” (Proverbs 1:24-32).
Some theologians are of the opinion that Our Lord never laughed, for, as they point out, laughter (if honest and not faked) is triggered by surprise, and Our Lord, being both God as well as a man, knew everything and therefore could not be surprised by anything. If you were to tell Him a joke, He would know your punchline before you even started! Our Lady, not being God, could be surprised. Yet, as we read in the book, The Life of Mary As Seen by the Mystics, by Raphael Brown, we read: “As time passed, Mary became more and more serious and recollected. No one ever saw her laugh, but she did occasionally smile with a very touching expression.” This brings to mind the words of Holy Scripture: “A fool lifts up his voice in laughter: but a wise man will scarcely laugh low to himself” (Ecclesiasticus 21:23).
St. Thomas Aquinas was no comedian—even though he wrote about happiness and joy in a profound manner! His Summa Theologiae or Summa Theologica (meaning “Compendium of Theology”) is “hard going” at times and difficult to read and grasp—it would have been far more fun had he written a Summa Jocorum (Compendium of Jokes).
[As a diversion or detour—talking of Latin and talking of jokes—here is one that can only ‘inebriate’ those who have studied Latin: Julius Caesar walks into a bar, sits down, orders a “martinus”. The bartender gives him a weird look and says: “Don’t you mean a martini?” and Caesar says: “If I wanted a double I’d have ordered one!” (To explain: in Latin, “martini” is the plural of “martinus” J). Want another one? Okay! Julius Caesar walks into a bar full of centurions and says “Right, guys, this round’s on me. What will you be having? The centurions stand, salute him and cry out: “Ale, Caesar!” (Get it? “Ale Caesar!” and “Hail Caesar!” J) ].
As for St. Thomas, for all its beauty and depth, the Summa Theologica could be said (from a worldly perspective) to be no fun, but dull and boring—which seems to reflect the personality of St. Thomas, who seemed rather dull—as described by G.K. Chesterton, in a book he wrote about him, contrasting St. Thomas with St. Francis of Assisi, who was far from dull! Here are a few of G.K. Chesterton’s comments:
“St. Thomas was a huge heavy bull of a man, fat and slow and quiet; very mild and magnanimous, but not very sociable; shy, even apart from the humility of holiness; and abstracted, even apart from his occasional and carefully concealed experiences of trance or ecstasy. St. Francis was so fiery and even fidgety that the ecclesiastics, before whom he appeared quite suddenly, thought he was a madman. St. Thomas was so stolid [not easily aroused or excited] that the scholars, in the schools which he attended regularly, thought he was a dunce. Indeed, he was the sort of schoolboy, not unknown, who would much rather be thought a dunce than have his own dreams invaded, by more active or animated dunces. This external contrast extends to almost every point in the two personalities (St. Thomas and St. Francis). It was the paradox of St. Francis, that, while he was passionately fond of poems, he was rather distrustful of books. It was the outstanding fact about St. Thomas that he loved books and lived on books; that he lived the very life of the clerk or scholar in ‘The Canterbury Tales’, who would rather have a hundred books of Aristotle and his philosophy, than any wealth the world could give him. When asked for what he thanked God most, he answered simply, ‘I have understood every page I ever read.’”
A Time to Laugh and a Time to Weep
However, Holy Scripture has no “hang-ups” about laughing! In the famous passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes which lists a whole variety of different actions and attitudes, we read: “All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under Heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh …” etc. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 ff.). God wants that “thy mouth be filled with laughter, and thy lips with rejoicing” (Job 8:21). Yet, there is a danger in mere vain laughter and superficial mirth, as seen and realized by Solomon, who wrote: “Laughter I counted as error; and to mirth I said: ‘Why are you vainly deceived?’” (Ecclesiastes 2:2).
However, “first things first”―as they say! Life is not one long laugh—it is better to weep over our sins than to laugh at many things: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy!” (Psalm 125:5). “Blessed are ye that weep now―for you shall laugh! … Woe to you that now laugh―for you shall mourn and weep!” (Luke 6:21, 25). If you have time to laugh after weeping for your sins, go ahead! But first and foremost weep for your sins and do penance while you still have time: “God hath given him time for penance, and he abuses it in his pride!” … “A fool will laugh at sin!” (Job 24:23; Proverbs 14:9). However, “there is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. Even in laughter the heart may ache, and rejoicing may end in grief!” (Proverbs 14:12-13).
As The Imitation of Christ so truly points-out: “If you wish to make progress in virtue, live in the fear of the Lord … and shun inane silliness. Sorrow opens the door to many a blessing which dissoluteness usually destroys … Lighthearted and heedless of our defects, we do not feel the real sorrows of our souls, but often indulge in empty laughter when we have good reason to weep ... Happy is the man who can throw off the weight of every care and recollect himself in holy contrition. Happy is the man who casts from him all that can stain or burden his conscience!” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter 21).
The Imitation of Christ further points out our propensity or tendency for the wrong things: “Lament and grieve because you are still so worldly, so carnal, so passionate and unmortified, so full of roving lust, so careless in guarding the external senses; so often occupied in many vain fancies, so inclined to exterior things and so heedless of what lies within; so prone to laughter and dissipation and so indisposed to sorrow and tears; so inclined to ease and the pleasures of the flesh and so cool to austerity and zeal; so curious to hear what is new and to see the beautiful and so slow to embrace humiliation and dejection; so covetous of abundance, so niggardly in giving and so tenacious in keeping; so inconsiderate in speech, so reluctant in silence; so undisciplined in character, so disordered in action; so greedy at meals, so deaf to the Word of God; so prompt to rest and so slow to labor; so awake to empty conversation, so sleepy in keeping sacred vigils and so eager to end them; so wandering in your attention, so careless in saying the Divine Office and so lukewarm in celebrating Mass; so heartless in receiving Holy Communion, so quickly distracted, so seldom fully recollected; so quickly moved to anger, so apt to take offense at others; so prone to judge, so severe in condemning; so happy in prosperity and so weak in adversity; so often making good resolutions and carrying so few of them into action” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter 21). Ouch! No laughing matter there!
Sinners Smile Sweetly and Losers Laugh Loud!
The saint can smile and the sinner can smile! The saint can laugh and the sinner can laugh too! The saint can have pleasure and the sinner can have pleasure! The saint can be happy and the sinner can be happy (or seem happy) too! Herod smiled and laughed! Pontius Pilate smiled and laughed! Judas smiled and laughed! Annas and Caiphas smiled and laughed! So too did Our Lady, St. Peter, St. John and a whole bunch of saints and sinners throughout history. All of the souls who are in Heaven today, smiled and laughed! All the souls that are in Hell today, smiled and laughed!
Pleasures will make you smile and laugh! Happiness will make you smile and laugh! But neither pleasure, nor happiness are joy. Pleasure is “the joy” of the body and its senses and its imagination. Happiness is the “joy” of the mind and heart, but is still focused on earthly happiness. True joy is the joy of the soul that is focused upon God and is “right” with God, living in a state of sanctifying grace that is constantly growing and not stagnating. Pleasure and happiness can be steps on the way to joy, but joy stands at the top of the mountain. Joy stands at the top of the mountain because it is all about the greatest feeling of well-being that a soul can have—it is about spiritual well-being, it is about being well with God. Telling a joke to others at a party does not bring the same joy as telling your sins to the priest in confession. There is no joy like the joy of “being right” with God, with being “in a state of grace”, with being “in a state of salvation”, with “being with God”, with “being friends with God” and “possessing God.” This is something the devil cannot do and does not want to do—hence he is always sad, forlorn, dejected, angry, full of hatred and misery.
Tell Me … And I’ll Tell You!
We all know the variety of sayings in the “Tell me what…” series: “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell what you are!” … “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are!” … “Tell me what you … like … listen to … read … watch … etc. and I will tell you what you are!” We are what we think, say, do, read, watch, listen to, mix with, etc. Why? Well, as another saying points out: “You cannot leave clothes in a smoky room without them eventually taking on the smell of smoke!”
Mix with worldly people and you will become worldly. Read or watch bad material and you will be accepting of the ‘badness’. Mix with foul-mouthed persons and you will take on some of their foul vocabulary, or at least become desensitized to it. Mix with those who seek worldly ‘joys’ and you will seek them also. Mix with those who seek spiritual joys and you will seek them too. Talk about worldly things and you will become increasingly worldly. Talk about spiritual things and you will become increasingly spiritual.
Ideas have consequences. Words have consequences. Actions have consequences. We can choose what we wish to think about, talk about and do—and then accept the consequences. “As you sow, so shall you reap!” as they say. Dwell on morose, unhappy, negative, critical, vengeful, unjust, unforgiving thoughts and as sure as Hell you’ll become more and more morose, unhappy, critical, vengeful, unjust and unforgiving! Dwell upon pleasant, happy, positive, charitable, reconciliatory, just and forgiving thoughts and you will become more and more pleasant, happy, positive, charitable, reconciliatory, just and forgiving. “As you sow, so shall you reap!” as they say. The devil wants you to think the former, God wants you to think the latter. The choice (and the consequences) are yours. We cannot choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we think about what happens to us.
To Avoid Thinking Like the World, You Must Step Back From the World
The thoughts and ways of the world are not the thoughts and ways of God—this has been made abundantly clear by the Word of God in Holy Scripture: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways! says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9).
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal! But lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal! For where ypur treasure is, there is your heart also! No man can serve two masters! For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other! You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24)
“Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world! If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life―which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:15).
“Adulterers, know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God! Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you! Cleanse your hands, you sinners: and purify your hearts, you double minded! Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep! Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sorrow! Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you!” (James 4:4-10).
What is there about that which we cannot understand? If you are seeking joy—and who isn’t—then understand that joy is only found in the “Bank of Heaven” and if you do not want to bank with Heaven or bank on Heaven, then you will never find true joy. There is, of course, a fake “currency” of so-called ‘joy’ being passed around by the devil and world, but it finds itself devalued very quickly. You could say it is only “paper-money”, whereas the joy given out by the “Bank of Heaven” is pure gold.
Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones!
St. Thomas traces the origins of joy for us in his inimitable problem solving way, which can sometimes be a bit “dry” even though well-connected in thought. Let us first of all put it in the proverbial “nutshell” and then slightly expand on it by “cracking the nutshell” and looking at the pieces inside! Much like the lyrics of famous song: Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones—there is a connection that runs from joy through several other virtues. For those who have forgotten the “Dem Bones” song, here is a sample of lyrics:
“The toe bone’s connected to the foot bone
The foot bone’s connected to the heel bone
The heel bone’s connected to the ankle bone
The ankle bone’s connected to the shin bone
The shin bone’s connected to the knee bone
The knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone
The thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone
The hip bone’s connected to the back bone
The back bone’s connected to the shoulder bone
The shoulder bone’s connected to the neck bone
The neck bone’s connected to the head bone
Now hear the word of the Lord!”
Now hear the word of St. Thomas!
Joy is connected to devotion.
Devotion is connected to charity.
Charity is connected to love.
Love is connected to goodness.
Goodness is connected to knowledge.
Knowledge is connected to learning.
Now hear the word of St. Thomas!
That is it in a nutshell. We learn in order to know. Our minds were made to know what is good and true and beautiful. Knowing what is good, true and beautiful leads to loving what is good true and beautiful. Love is of many kinds and types (persons, places, things, etc.) of which charity is the noblest of loves—being firstly a love of God, and secondly a love of self and neighbor. Love of God and neighbor engenders a devotion to God and neighbor. Devotion brings about joy. Joy is not first and foremost about “getting”, but it is a joy about “giving”. The more we give ourselves to God, the more true joy we shall have—though at first, due to Original Sin and self-love, it will seem repugnant and bitter. Yet, as Our Lord says: “Greater love (joy) than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends!” (John 15:13) as Christ did for us.
St. Thomas says that “spiritual joy”—which is the highest and best joy—is often called “joy in God”, and it is produced by a series of causes. Working backwards, joy comes from devotion, and devotion comes from charity, and charity comes from love, and that love comes from knowledge, and the knowledge comes from learning. To love God is the greatest commandment (Mark 12:30) and to love God is the greatest joy! Yet as St. Thérèse of Lisieux once said: “Jesus is so little loved because He is so little known!”
Cracking the Nut of Joy
We cannot LOVE what we do not KNOW. We must first of all KNOW about something—its existence and qualities—before we can LOVE it. Love is an appetite for what is Good”, “Truth” and “Beautiful” (unless the love is perverted). Goodness, truth and beauty is the trinity that is the proper cause or spark of love. The trinity of “Good”, “Truth” and “Beauty” is the goal as well as the cause of love, must be KNOWN before it can it can appeal to us. LOVE seeks either to possess what is loved, and/or to bestow benefits upon what is loved. In either case, LOVE seeks to be united with its object, in fact or in affection. That possession of the “Good”, or the “Truth” or the “Beautiful” begins in the mind by thinking, reflecting, meditating or contemplating “Good”, “Truth” and “Beauty.”
The highest “Good”, the most profound “Truth” and the greatest “Beauty” is God Himself. When a person thinks, learns and acquires knowledge about God and His goodness and loving kindness, he feels stirred to a LOVE OF GOD (which is called CHARITY, the greatest and noblest room in the mansion of LOVE). Hence the need for learning, meditation and contemplation, which will lead to a union with the beloved thing. CHARITY is love and friendship. CHARITY is active friendship and love—and not just empty words. We have CHARITY when we love God and neighbor, and wish for our neighbor the good of God’s friendship. A perfection of CHARITY occurs when souls give their whole hearts habitually to God, not thinking or desiring anything contrary to His love. The mechanism by which we seek to unite ourselves to the “Beloved” is called DEVOTION. CHARITY gives birth to DEVOTION.
DEVOTION, in the religious sense, is the will to give oneself steadily and constantly to the service of God. Seeing his own insufficiency and his faults, a man is moved to turn to God and to lean upon Him; and out of this consideration also, devotion arises. The direct and chief effect of devotion is joy in God. Its secondary and indirect effect is sorrow for one’s shortcomings and sins. On man’s part, charity produces devotion and service to God. Devotion is not a virtue, but the act of the virtue of CHARITY. The external cause of DEVOTION in a person is God and His grace. The internal cause of devotion is meditation or contemplation. Hence begins the chain of causes that pass from knowledge, to love, to charity, to devotion and finally, if the object of our love can be attained and possessed, to the crowning grace of JOY. The direct and chief effect of devotion is joy in God.
Spiritual JOY is full and perfect when God is possessed by the soul, and nothing remains to be desired. It is obvious, therefore, that we cannot achieve the fullness of spiritual JOY until we reach Heaven.
Sinners do not love themselves truly. They love only an apparent good in themselves, and they love external and creatural goods as things worth having for their own sake. And thus sinners miss the goal of charity which is endless happiness in God.
God is Joy Because God is Love
God is love and love is the cause of joy. For, we rejoice either because the object of our love is really present, or because we really find our own good existing, so to say, in the person, or in the object we love.
We rejoice because we find ourselves in the presence of one whom we cherish, or because we have good news from a friend or parent, separated from us by endless stretches of land, or by vast expanses of water; we find an unbounded joy when we know that son or brother called to serve his country’s cause, in the gory battlefields of the world, is well, far removed from harm, or has been honored for his bravery.
Furthermore, our joy is enhanced by our love for the person from whom we receive the news, and is in proportion to it. We feel, for instance, little or no delight in our hearts when we read that a commander of a hostile force has escaped unscathed from battle. Our love is the cause of our joy.
To Find Joy, We Must Find and Love God
But, charity, in its highest object and point, is love of God, Whose good is infinite, unchanging and unchangeable, and, Who, by the very fact that He is loved, dwells in the person who loves Him. “God is charity: and he that abides in charity, abides in God and God in Him” (1 John 4:16). Hence joy is caused by love; hence, too, it follows charity.
What is this spiritual joy? It is not a virtue, separated from charity, spiritual joy is an action of the virtue charity, an effect, a result of charity. Joy of itself could not exist, it owes its very being to the virtue of charity, which is, for it, a fountainhead. Love is the first impulse of our will or heart, and from it proceed joy and desire. Thus joy is not a virtue distinct from charity, it is only an effect of charity, it is an action of charity.
Joy is that gratitude, that happy consciousness we have of the infinite goodness of God, the great object of our love, in Whom we live, move and have our being. Joy is the grand and consoling reward for the victories we have won in the battles with our passions.
A Religion of Joy
Since joy is a Fruit of the Holy Ghost, it follows that where the Holy Ghost is not, there is no joy. Now, the Divine Spirit is the vivifying principle of the Catholic Church and of her faithful. The Catholic Religion, is, then, essentially a religion of joy. Christ being the center of Christianity, there is no joy superior to that which He procures.
Down through the night of forgotten centuries and the fast highway of fleeting years, whatever holy joy was in the world was caused by Him. He was the unsurpassing joy of the patriarchs and prophets, of David, Isaias and Zachary, of Magdalene and John, of Peter and of Paul.
Faith itself is a joyous exposition of the truths that lead to Heaven; its precepts and commands are not merely a burden, but also a pleasure and a joy. Self-control in the service of the commandments makes us strong, and that is a source of joy. In sin we are downcast, and a load seems lifted from our hearts when grace, through the Sacrament of Penance, joy streams into our souls anew.
Once forgiven, we are children of God once again, perfect men and perfect Christians. Penance brings an entire Heaven of joy into our otherwise heavy hearts. “In thy salvation he shall rejoice exceedingly” (Psalm 20:2). “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into joy: Thou hast cut my sackcloth, and hast compassed me with gladness” (Psalm 29:12).
Purgatorial Joys
Penance brings joy to the souls in Purgatory, too! Even though they find themselves in the most unspeakably excruciating pains—which no tongue can describe nor imagination imagine—they are, nevertheless, also immersed in the most unspeakably great joys. They know that they are saved and that these horrendous pains are bringing Heaven and God closer with every excruciating moment. They are the perfect example of how the Catholic on Earth should find joy in suffering.
Those poor souls failed to learn how to suffer and do penance with joy on Earth, so now they have to learn that lesson in Purgatory. Yet their lesson is also a lesson for us—who, like the ill-fated Chosen People, are ever mumbling and grumbling, whining and whinging, moaning and groaning about the least suffering that we have to experience and suffer, by God’s Providence, here on Earth.
Worldly Joys Bring Sadness
At the Last Supper, Our Lord spoke of the two contrary lots that would befall His Apostles on the one hand, at the world on the other. He said: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20). If we take this to the next stage—if the sorrow of His followers shall be turned to joy, then the joy of the world shall be turned to sorrow. This is proven to be the case by other passages in Holy Scripture that depict the rich and the poor.
We have the case of Our Lord’s parable about the beggar, Lazarus, and Rich Man: “There was a beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, and no one did give him. Moreover, the dogs came, and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died: and he was buried in Hell” (Luke 16:20-22).
In a real-life incident, we have the case of the rich young man—who you would have thought would be happy and joyful with all his riches, but he becomes sad and sorrowful because of them: “And behold a certain man running up and kneeling before Him: ‘Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Thou knowest the commandments—keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Jesus: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
“Then Jesus, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you: How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the Kingdom of God!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:16-26; Mark 10:17-27).
God Does Bestow Riches, But…
God has enriched many a man as well the Israelites as a nation—but it was always contingent upon their placing God before all riches and wealth. Once those riches and wealth became a hindrance to their love of God and led them down paths of infidelity, lukewarmness, infidelity and sin—God not only brutally removed or destroyed those riches and that wealth, but He also was not averse to slaying some or most of the wayward ones.
The Old Testament history of the Chosen People is a perpetual saga of God’s benefits leading them to forget God, which led God to acting in a way towards them that they would never forget! But forget they did—and foolishly repeated the same behavior.
God has to come first—Our Lord commands in the New Testament what had already been commanded in the Old Testament: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30), which merely repeats the Old Testament command: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
This is what Job did in the Old Testament, and he was abundantly blessed by God. Yet, when God allowed all types of calamities to befall Job—losing his health, his children, his wealth and his properties and flocks—God never ceased to love and bless God, as much in calamity as in prosperity.
His famous quote—which we would well to take to heart—was: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither! The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away! As it has pleased the Lord, so is it done! Blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21). This eventual acceptance of the bitter with the sweet, led to God restoring all things to Job in an abundantly greater measure than he had possessed in the beginning: “And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10).
The Joys of Heaven
This doubling of Job’s possessions and wealth, after his tribulations at the hands of the devil, is symbolic of our tests and trials in this life, after which we shall be rewarded with Heaven—if we have been faithful.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange writes: “This vision will constitute eternal life. No one can express the joy and love that will be born in us of this vision. It will be so strong, so absolute a love of God, that, thenceforth, nothing will be able to destroy it, or even to diminish it. It will be a love by which we shall, above all, rejoice that God is God, infinitely holy, just, and merciful. We shall adore all the decrees of His providence in view of the manifestation of His goodness … We shall have entered into His beatitude, according to Christ’s own words: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! Because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things! Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!’” (The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Today is Gaudete Sunday―which is the third Sunday of Advent and the approximate midpoint of Advent―is so called from the first word of the Introit at Mass, “Gaudete” (which means “Rejoice”). At Christmas, we sing the carol: “Joy to the world!” We speak of the joys of the world, or worldly joys. We speak of heavenly joys and earthly joys. In fact, we use the word “joy” a lot—either alone, ‘stuck-on’ or ‘sandwiched’--joy, joyful, joyfully, joyous, enjoy, enjoyment, enjoyable, rejoice (rejoyce), etc.
In essence, Gaudete Sunday encapsulates the dual nature of Advent – a time for reflection and repentance, balanced with anticipation and rejoicing in the promise of redemption. It serves as a reminder that, even in the midst of our penitential preparations, there is joy to be found in the expectation of the Savior’s imminent arrival. Thus it brings a certain joy to our penances―so that they gain a sense of purpose as a means of gaining Christ and winning Heaven.
What is Joy?
What is joy, anyway? For a true and educated look and understanding of joy, let us turn to ‘sour-faced’ Thomas—or St. Thomas Aquinas, whom artists rarely depict with a smile on his face, but who most certainly had a smile in his heart! St. Thomas tells us—and this is Thomas simplified, for the reading the actual words of Thomas might take that smile off your face, for he can be ‘heavy going’ at times—St. Thomas tells us that joy is more than happiness, just as happiness is more than pleasure. He says that pleasure is in the body. Happiness is in the mind and feelings. Joy is deep in the heart, the spirit, the soul, the center of the self. The way to pleasure is possessions, power and prudence. The way to happiness is moral goodness. The way to joy is sanctity, loving God with your whole heart and your neighbor as yourself. Everyone wants pleasure. More deeply, everyone wants happiness. Most deeply, everyone wants joy. Yet few people find joy, some find happiness, while most are busy chasing pleasures.
St. Thomas Aquinas says that no man can live without joy: “Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.” That is why we have so much carnal desire raging throughout the world today—not just sexual desire, but also a desire for things for the body, such as food, alcohol, drugs, fashions, material items, entertainment, etc.—all this due to an absence of spiritual joy which makes a person fill the void with carnal pleasures. This is essentially what Our Lady foretold would happen in our ‘modern’ times: “As true Faith fades and false light brightens the people … Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … People will think of nothing but amusement … In these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost!” (Our Lady of Good Success & La Salette).
Holy Scripture commands us to be joyful: “Shout with joy to God, all the Earth!” (Psalm 65:1). “O clap your hands, all ye nations! Shout unto God with the voice of joy!” (Psalm 46:2). “Sing joyfully to God, all the Earth! Serve ye the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with exceedingly great joy!” (Psalm 99:2). Even God the Father “got in on the act”—as we read in Holy Scripture: “God had made them joyful with great joy―their wives also and their children rejoiced, and the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off!” (2 Esdras 12:42).
Joy in Holiness
Regardless of what we might personally think―there can be no true happiness without holiness. Why? Because for happiness and joy to be real and true, they must be everlasting and eternal―and the only everlasting life in Heaven, which is the reward for holiness (for only saints get into Heaven), is the only place where joy can be everlasting. Lack of holiness or a life of unholiness inevitably leads to Hell, which is also everlasting and eternal, but where everlasting and eternal joy is replaced by everlasting and eternal sorrow. That is why Our Lord and Holy Scripture encourage us to be holy and perfect―for only those things will produce eternal joys. They joys of the world are only passing, temporary, inferior and fake joys that risk the loss of our souls.
● “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
● “I am the Lord your God! Be holy because I am holy! You shall be holy, because I am holy! Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy―because I am the Lord your God!” (Leviticus 11:44-46; 20:7).
● “I am the Almighty God! Walk before Me and be perfect!” (Genesis 17:1).
● “Thou shalt be perfect and without spot before the Lord thy God!” (Deuteronomy 18:13).
● “Therefore be perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” says Jesus (Matthew 5:48).
● “The joyfulness of the heart is a never failing treasure of holiness! Gather up thy heart His holiness and drive away sadness far from thee!” (Ecclesiasticus 30:23-24)
● “Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, Who is in you, Whom you have from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).
● “But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy ...” (Galatians 5:22-23).
● St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “‘The charity of God is poured forth into our hearts by the Holy Ghost Who is given to us.’ The necessary result of the love of charity is joy: because the lover rejoices at being united to the beloved. Now charity has always actual presence or God Whom it loves according to I Jn. 4:16: ‘He that abides in charity, abides in God, and God in Him’ ― wherefore the sequel of charity is joy” (Summa Theologica, 1a-2ae, q.7, art.3).
● “And your heart shall rejoice―and your joy no man shall take from you!” (John 16:22).
The Saints on Joy
● Francis de Sales reminds us: “A saint who is sad, is indeed a sad saint!” or in other words: “A saint who is sad is no saint at all.” A sad saint is a contradiction in terms since, “a good tree cannot bear bad fruit.” We must not forget that it is only saints who get into Heaven!
● We should also be reminded of those famous words of St. Teresa: St. Teresa of Ávila spoke out against that kind of deadly serious Catholicism. “From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us! A sad nun is a bad nun! I am more afraid of one unhappy sister than a crowd of evil spirits! …. What would happen if we hid what little sense of humor we had? Let each of us humbly use this to cheer others!”
Joy, humor and laughter are constant threads through the lives of many saints, disproving the stereotype of the dour, depressed, grumpy saint. While St. Teresa’s spirituality was a deeply reverential one, her humor also shows a kind of playfulness in her relationship with God. Once, when she was travelling to one of her convents, St. Teresa of Avila was knocked off her donkey and fell into the mud, injuring her leg. “Lord!” she said indignantly, “Here I am traveling around trying to reform and improve the Carmelite convents and You go and let this happen to me!” And the response she heard was, “But Teresa! That is how I treat My friends!” To which Teresa answered, “And that is why you have so few of them!” Here is a woman whom the Catholic Church has designated as “Doctor of the Church” an eminent teacher of the Faith, prescribing the medicine of a sense of humor.
Someone said, “Good humor is nine-tenths of Christianity.” Of course it is not, nor anything like it. It is merely a “smart saying” whose value lies not in the truth of the saying, but in the ‘smartness’ or ‘smart-aleckness’ of it. But a sense of humor has an important part to play in the spiritual life. Fr. Robert Hugh Benson did not hesitate to call St. Teresa’s gift of humor “a divine gift.” Humor is the “salt of life”, and to some extent it is the salt of the religious life, preserving it from decay. G. K. Chesterton says of St. Francis of Assisi, “The sense of humor salts all his escapades.” The history of many of the heresies is largely a history of the breakdown of the sense of humor. Their errors and absurdities can― apart from the devil―hardly be accounted for otherwise. “Laugh and grow strong!” St. Ignatius of Loyola said; and to one of his novices, “I see you are always laughing, and I am glad of it!”
“What wit that man had,” wrote René Bazin of St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars. A priest once sympathized with the Curé concerning the anxieties and sufferings he endured at the hands of the devil. “One gets used to everything — even to the Devil,” said the Curé, “he and I are almost friends!” He asked a very talkative lady if there was any month in the year in which she talked less than usual, except February [Lent]. “What must I do to get to Heaven?” asked a lady of very ample chubby proportions. He replied: “Three Lents, my daughter!” A nun said to him: “People believe that you are very ignorant, Father!” To which he replied: “Nevertheless I shall always be able to teach you more than you will ever be able to learn!”
Kinds of Joy
1. Joy of the body (pleasure): satisfying hunger & thirst, taste, smell, sight, ears, touch.
2. Joy of the mind (intellectual joy): discovery of new information, links & connections, imagination.
3. Joy of the soul (spiritual joy): see below
1. Spiritual joy, often called joy in God, is an effect of charity. It is of two kinds.
! Firstly, in what God is in Himself. This is the best.
! Secondly, in what we get from God.
Psalm 131:16. “I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall rejoice with exceeding great joy.”
2. Spiritual joy admits no admixture of sorrow, for it is joy in the divine wisdom of which Scripture says: “Her conversation has no bitterness” (Wisdom 8:16)
! Psalm 93:19. “According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, Thy comforts have given joy to my soul.”
! Proverbs 14:13. “Laughter shall be mingled with sorrow, and mourning takes hold of the ends of joy.”
! John 16:20. “Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice―and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy!”
! John 16:22. “So also you now indeed have sorrow―but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice! And your joy no man shall take from you!”
! Acts 5:41. “And they indeed went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the Name of Jesus.”
! 2 Corinthians 7:4. “I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation.”
! James 1:2. “My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into diverse temptations!”
! 1 Peter 4:13. “But if you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that, when his glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.”
! 2 Corinthians 6:10. “As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing!”
3. Spiritual joy is full and perfect when God is possessed by the soul, and nothing remains to be desired. It is manifest, therefore, that we cannot achieve the fullness of spiritual joy until we reach Heaven.
! Tobias 5:12. “And Tobias said: ‘What manner of joy shall be to me, who sit in darkness and see not the light of Heaven?’”
! Psalm 50:14. “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation!”
Learning Joy in the School of Saints
In his book, Holy Abandonment, Dom Vitalis Lehodey, writes:
“Abandonment teaches us to repose between the arms of the cross, consequently in the arms of Jesus, and on His wounded Heart. There we discover something more than peace, for we participate in the very joy of Jesus. Sometimes, and not very seldom, this joy is sensible. But at other times, and most often, it is purely spiritual. At all events, abandonment produces the joy of the soul. For that, it would suffice to secure to us liberty and peace. In what should we rejoice if not in being free and peaceful, free in the truth, free in love, and peaceful in our freedom? And, on the other hand, without liberty and peace, what joy can one taste or even imagine?” Would you like to possess the secret of being always joyous? We call it a secret, because although all men seek after joy, very few discover it. Well, the secret of attaining to joy and preserving it when attained, is holy abandonment.
“But how? Listen. Other people have too little faith, too little confidence and love to rejoice in tribulation. But those who have arrived at perfect conformity are endowed with a vivid faith, a firm hope, and a generous charity. They have learned to recognize in every event, even the most insignificant, their heavenly Father, their Savior, their Spouse, their Friend, their Well‑Beloved, busily occupied with the work of their sanctification. They have given Him without any reserve their confidence and their love. Is He not the Sovereign Master of all events? Consequently they feel assured that everything will turn to the profit of their souls, provided they remain trustfully, loyally submissive. How, then, can they help being joyous? On the sixth day of creation God contemplated the works of His hands, and He found them all good, and very good. Hence He vouchsafed to regard them with a joyous satisfaction. Similarly, the abandoned soul experiences in herself something resembling a participation of this divine joy. For the foundation of her abandonment is precisely the approbation she gives to all that God does and wills, and the complacence she takes in all the dispositions of His Providence.
“Here, says the spiritual master, Rodriguez, you have the whole secret of the perfect calm and unalterable joy which manifested themselves on the countenances, in the words, and in the actions of the saints in times past, such as St. Antony, St. Dominic, St. Francis Assisi. The same qualities were remarked, so we read, in St. Ignatius and distinguish, indeed, all true servants of God. But, it may be objected, perhaps these great saints were immune from all the miseries of life; perhaps they were not subject to bodily infirmities; perhaps they had no temptations to combat, no trials to support; perhaps, in fine, God removed from the path of His zealous servants every cause of affliction, every occasion of failing? Nothing could be farther from the truth. The crosses the saints had to support were far heavier than those of other men. Tribulations, sufferings and contempt were their portion in this life, and their crowns were always woven of thorns. God reserves His sharpest trials for the souls He loves most dearly. But these holy men had brought their wills into perfect conformity with the will of God. Hence, pains, mortifications, even temptations, became for them a source of joy and consolation, because they knew that all was the work of the divine will in which they placed the whole of their happiness. They were ingenious in discovering a thousand pious reasons for approving the ways of Providence, even when most trying, and for encouraging themselves to a confident and joyous submission thereto.”
Jesus on Joy—Words of Love
The following words of Jesus are found in Fr. Bartholomew Gottemoller’s book, Words of Love, wherein he furnishes certain quotes of Our Lord given to three of His mystics―St. Josefa Menendez; Sr. Mary of the Holy Trinity and Sr. Consolata Betrone. The scattered quotes have been blended together to make for a cohesive single passage.
“As parents are happy in showing their love to their children, so it is My joy to make My love felt, to reveal it; I do it in a reserved manner, perceptible to those who are attentive to My Presence and who seek it; because I am Spirit, and in order that a soul should really find Me, she must have sought and discovered Me. Then she associates Me with her life and perceives that she had been seeking Me too far away. It is such a great thing to belong to Me! What does anything else matter to you? Be full of joy at belonging to Me! Love Me, and you will be happy; and the more you love Me, the happier you will be! Love will produce light, love will produce strength, and love will produce joy! Oh if people would only love Me―what happiness would reign in this unhappy world!
“Your joy is to strip yourselves and to be dependent on Me alone. A soul who truly surrenders herself to Me gives Me so much joy that in spite of her miseries and imperfections she becomes a very heaven of delight to Me and I take pleasure in abiding in her. I love you! Is that not enough to fill every one of your moments with the fullness of joy? I love you and desire that you should know it. Oh, if you knew how much I love you! I am always in a joyous heart. I would rather see a soul give Me little but with great joy, than see her give Me much, but with sadness. Sadness reigns where I have not been welcomed! Joy of soul―which the world does not always see―is the first of all your messages to rise to Heaven.
“If you could but understand My joy when souls leave Me free and by their deeds say: ‘Lord, Thou art the Master!’ Do you realize how much this comforts Me? Do you think that I am not glorified by it? I have every claim upon you, but you have only one duty―to obey Me. I require a docile will which permits Me to act, which lends itself to everything, which trusts in Me and serves Me always in peace and joy, no matter what the situation is. I need to see all of you happy in My service. Time that is filled with joy, with joy directed toward God, is not lost time.
“I wish to fill you with joy! I want you to be very little and very humble, and always joyful. Humiliations, contempt, being forgotten by other creatures, these are the joys that I will give you. Often choose what costs you, but without loss of joy and gladness, for by serving Me in peace and happiness you will give the most glory to My Heart. The soul that honors Me most is not the one who has suffered most―it is the one who has most perfectly transformed all her sufferings into love and joy―yes, all her sufferings, even the smallest annoyances and little disappointments. Her love glorifies Me already on Earth. You have always the joy of being able to give; and the poorest, those who have nothing to give, can still give their heart and their soul to God―that is the greatest gift: it embraces all others. I would rather see a soul give Me little but with great joy, than see her give Me much, see her consecrate to Me all that human life can consecrate, but with sadness and regret. I can transform all ugliness into beauty―all poverty into spiritual wealth―all sin into a source of grace―all rancor into forgiveness―all bitterness into sweetness―all sadness into joy―all sufferings into Redemption when you give them to Me and let Me act.
“Yes, you are tired; but is it not your greatest joy to have something to offer Me? To bear monotony, the tediousness of the same work coming round regularly, the absence of novelty, while keeping a joyful heart, is to honor Me—that is to conform oneself to My hidden life. To be joyous simply because I am with you, when you have no other reason for being so, that is to prove to Me that you love Me.
“There are sacrifices which I desire, but for which I do not ask―so as to leave to souls the joy of offering them to Me of themselves. My joy is to be able to prove to you the generosity of My love. My Heart takes comfort in forgiving. I have no greater desire, no greater joy, than when I can pardon a soul. When I say that you must forgive one another, it is not a duty that I impose on you―can one impose love? It is a joy that I offer you; it is a share in My way of acting, a share in My Spirit. I love you! Is that not enough to fill every one of your moments with the fullness of joy? I love you and desire that you should know it. Oh, if you knew how much I love you, My little child! Serve Me with joy, give Me much joy!.
Joy Over A Sinner’s Return
We see a similar situation in the parable of the Prodigal Son—for the wayward, sinful son, after having wasted his father’s inheritance in debauchery, decides to return to his father, repentant and contrite, saying within himself: “I will arise, and will go to my father, and say to him: ‘Father! I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee! I am not worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants!’” (Luke 15:18-19). This repentance and return brings joy to his father, who, rightfully, could be extremely indignant and would be within his rights in punishing him severely for the scandal and harm he had perpetrated.
Our Lord, in telling this parable, says: “And rising up he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell upon his neck, and kissed him. And the son said to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, I am not now worthy to be called thy son!’ And the father said to his servants: ‘Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet! And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry! Because this, my son, was dead, and is come to life again! Was lost, and is found!’ And they began to be merry” (Luke 15:20-24).
Wrong Kind of Joy
The world is the epitome of the wrong kind of joy. Whereas God loves the sinner and hates the sin, the world attacks the sinner rather than attacking the sin. The world rejoices in what God condemns and hates what God loves. Holy Scripture denounces this attitude: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaias 5:20). Our penances may be bitter, but they will lead to sweet things—hence, we can call them bittersweet.
Our Lord tells His Apostles, at the Last Supper: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she has brought forth the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you!” (John 16:20-22).
Rejoice with the World—Perish with the World
Let us not be sucked-into the damning whirlpool of the world—its fate is inevitable! Our Lord and the Apostles in particular, and Holy Scripture in general, repeatedly warn us against the false and fateful joys of the world: “You that rejoice in a thing that is a mere nothing!” (Amos 6:14) … “Rejoice not, O Israel, rejoice not as the nations do!” (Osee 9:1). “Rejoice not in ungodly children, neither be delighted in them, if the fear of God be not with them!” (Ecclesiasticus 16:1).
What Are We Rejoicing Over?
“Let the heart of them rejoice, that seek the Lord!” (1 Paralipomenon 16:10). “Serve ye the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling!” (Psalm 2:11). Rejoice over the greatest gift of God! What is that greatest gift? “The Lord is gracious and merciful, patient and plenteous in mercy! His tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:8-9). “Let your soul rejoice in His mercy!” (Ecclesiasticus 51:37). “I have trusted in thy mercy! My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation!” (Psalm 12:6).
Rejoice Over Mercy!
What is it, above all things, that you will desire in your death throes and agony on your deathbed? It is mercy! Nothing else will matter. Nothing else will be worth anything if you fail to secure that mercy. All your future joy or misery will depend on one thing alone—whether or not you manage to secure the mercy of God. Our joy, on this day of rejoicing—Laetare Sunday—comes from the fact of God’s incredible mercy and pardon, which is to be used, but not abused.
Mercy—A Room in the Mansion of Charity
Lacking hope in that mercy and pardon, leads to despair. Being over-confident in that mercy and pardon, leads to presumption. Both despair and presumption are serious sins. We need to keep that balance between the two—for virtue stands in the middle between excess and neglect—and joyfully do penance for our sins, hoping and trusting in the mercy and pardon of God, Whose “tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:9). This is because “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and mercy is one of the rooms in the divine mansion of charity.
God Does Not Hate His Creation
God cannot hate what He has created—for all that He creates is good. Yet God does hate some things that man has created—and the chief focal point of hatred is sin. As St. Thomas Aquinas says: “…the hatred of something does not befit God. For as love is to the good, so hatred is to evil; for to those we love we will good, and to those we hate, evil. If, then, the will of God cannot be inclined to evil, as has been shown, it is impossible that He should hate anything” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Contra Gentiles, Book 1, chapter 96: “God Hates Nothing, and the Hatred of No Thing Befits Him”).
This is stated in slightly different terms by Holy Scripture: “All things were made by Him” (John 1:3). “The Lord has made all things for Himself” (Proverbs 16:4). Thus mankind was made for God and not for itself. Yet, God’s human creation—mankind—turned away from God through sin.
Nevertheless, God in His infinite mercy, sought a remedy to that rebelliousness, as explained by Our Lord Himself: “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believes in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him. He that believes in Him is not judged. But he that does not believe, is already judged: because he believes not in the Name of the Only-begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18) … “Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin” (John 8:24). “For everyone that does evil, hates the light, and comes not to the light” (John 3:20).
Came to Save All—But All Will Not Be Saved
St. Thomas writes: “The power of the divine Incarnation is equal to the salvation ‘of all men, but the fact that some are not saved, thereby comes from their indisposition: they are unwilling to take unto themselves the fruit of the Incarnation; they do not cleave to the incarnate God by Faith and Love. For men were not intended to lose that freedom of choice, by which they are able to cleave or not to cleave to the incarnate God, lest the good of man be produced by coercion” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Contra Gentiles, Book 4, chapter 55: “Arguments Against the Suitability of the Incarnation”).
Thus we are free to choose—and, ultimately, we choose our own salvation or damnation. There will be no coercion from God in that matter.
Abuse of Mercy
Most souls fail to do so and are irrevocably lost—says Our Lord and most theologians of the Church. Yet every soul is capable of securing it. “Christ died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15). Yet everyone WILL NOT DO what it takes to be saved. “And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But Jesus said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’” (Luke 13:23-24).
As St. Paul points out: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5). “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). So rejoice—mercy is yours if you choose to abide by it, use it and not abuse it! But woe to you if you abuse it!
Joy Though Pain
The joys of Heaven are not “freebies” but must be painfully earned on Earth or in Purgatory. Mercy, of course, brings joy—but mercy requires payment. This is something that mankind—especially modern man—fails to grasp. Modern man thinks the joys of Heaven are there for sinners, or the lukewarm, or the mediocre man.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange dispels this foolish thought: “There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity.
“There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin, though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Going Cheap…! Cheap Joys!
Most people put a cheap price on sin and cheap admission price to Heaven. How foolish and stupid we are! This stupidity is perhaps one of the chief reasons why so many souls are lost! It does not help matters to see almost everyone around us, living-out this insane sense of values.
These idiots—let us at least hope they are idiots, for idiocy might excuse them somewhat from sin—want joy on Earth and joy in Heaven! They want to neither suffer in this life, nor in the next! They, as the proverb goes, “want their cake and they want to eat it”! Our Lord says: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24)--”You can’t have your cake and eat it!”
Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty?
This brings us to the way in which we can view a glass that contains 50% liquid and 50% air. Some see this glass as being half-full; others see it as being half-empty. The “half-full” people are being positive about it; the “half-empty” people are being negative about it.
The same applies to our Faith and religion. Some see the Faith and religion as being a foretaste of the fullness of joy we shall experience in Heaven. Others sees our Faith and religion as “cramping their style” and robbing of them of many joys they would like to experience here on Earth.
One group sees the Faith, and the practice of it, as being “half-full” and look forward to being fulfilled in Heaven. The other group sees the Faith, and practice of it, as being “half-emptied” of potential Earthly joys, and dread having to give up even more of them. Yet our soul—in which joy resides—was made by God and only God can truly fill it with true joy—“Who satisfies thy desire with good things” (Psalms 102:5).
Cotton Candy Joys
To seek the joys of this world above the joys of Heaven; to seek material joys above spiritual joys—is like eating cotton-candy (candy-floss) in comparison to a highly nutritious and delicious seven course meal. The cotton-candy melts away in your mouth before you know it! On top of that, the high sugar content is the favorite nesting place for disease!
Our Lord puts it this way: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Different Ideas of Joy
You are, no doubt, familiar with the Scriptural quote: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9). We could well paraphrase that into “My ideas of joy are not your ideas of joys: nor your joys My joys, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My joys exalted above your joys, and My ideas of joy above your ideas of joy!”
Sour-Faced Sanctity
It almost seems like a sin to talk about joy during Lent! Some sour-faced Christians imagine that sour-faced sanctity is the official face of the Church—yet St. Francis de Sales says: “A saint who is sad, is indeed a sad saint!” Joy, humor and laughter are constant threads through the lives of many saints, disproving the stereotype of the dour, depressed, grumpy saint. St. Teresa of Ávila spoke out against that kind of deadly serious Catholicism. “A sad nun is a bad nun,” she said. “I am more afraid of one unhappy sister than a crowd of evil spirits …. What would happen if we hid what little sense of humor we had? Let each of us humbly use this to cheer others!” And one of her most famous lines, though probably apocryphal, is: “From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us!”
And while Teresa’s spirituality was a deeply reverential one, her humor also shows a kind of playfulness in her relationship with God. Once, when she was travelling to one of her convents, St. Teresa of Avila was knocked off her donkey and fell into the mud, injuring her leg. “Lord!” she said indignantly, “Here I am traveling around trying to reform and improve the Carmelite convents and You go and let this happen to me!” And the response she heard was, “But Teresa! That is how I treat My friends!” To which Teresa answered, “And that is why you have so few of them!” Here is a woman whom the Catholic Church has designated as “Doctor of the Church” an eminent teacher of the Faith, prescribing the medicine of a sense of humor.
Someone said, “Good humor is nine-tenths of Christianity.” Of course it is not, nor anything like it. It is merely a “smart saying” whose value lies not in the truth of the saying, but in the ‘smartness’ or ‘smart-aleckness’ of it. But a sense of humor has an important part to play in the spiritual life. Fr. Robert Hugh Benson did not hesitate to call St. Teresa’s gift of humor “a divine gift.” Humor is the “salt of life”, and to some extent it is the salt of the religious life, preserving it from decay. G. K. Chesterton says of St. Francis of Assisi, “The sense of humor salts all his escapades.” The history of many of the heresies is largely a history of the breakdown of the sense of humor. Their errors and absurdities can― apart from the devil―hardly be accounted for otherwise. “Laugh and grow strong!” St. Ignatius of Loyola said; and to one of his novices, “I see you are always laughing, and I am glad of it!”
“What wit that man had,” wrote René Bazin of St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars. A priest once sympathized with the Curé concerning the anxieties and sufferings he endured at the hands of the devil. “One gets used to everything — even to the Devil,” said the Curé, “he and I are almost friends!” He asked a very talkative lady if there was any month in the year in which she talked less than usual, except February [Lent]. “What must I do to get to Heaven?” asked a lady of very ample chubby proportions. He replied: “Three Lents, my daughter!” A nun said to him, “People believe that you are very ignorant, Father!” To which he replied: “Nevertheless I shall always be able to teach you more than you will ever be able to learn!”
Our Lord Himself refers to joys on several occasions—so joy can’t be all that bad! At the Last Supper, Our Lord confessed to having joy and was trying to pass some joy around: “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be filled!” (John 15:11).
Holy Scripture commands us to be joyful: “Shout with joy to God, all the Earth!” (Psalm 65:1). “O clap your hands, all ye nations: shout unto God with the voice of joy!” (Psalm 46:2). “Sing joyfully to God, all the Earth! Serve ye the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with exceedingly great joy!” (Psalm 99:2). Even God the Father “got in on the act”—as we read in Holy Scripture: “God had made them joyful with great joy―their wives also and their children rejoiced, and the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off!” (2 Esdras 12:42).
Can You Get To Heaven By Telling Jokes?
It might seem like a funny question, but “Can you get to Heaven by telling jokes?” Well—yes and no! It depends upon what your jokes are about! A professional comedian writes (and this is no joke): “The human condition provides for us to be hard wired to laugh. We love it. We love the feeling it gives us, and why not? When we laugh our bodies release endorphins, the same chemical responsible for making us feel a sense of euphoria. In other words laughter makes us ‘high!’” We can all agree that laughter “makes us ‘high’” but will it get us as high as “high Heaven”? Does it make Hell more bearable? Or do they even laugh in Hell? Hmm!
The same professional comedian goes on to say: “Humor and the human condition hasn’t been really studied until recently. Psychologists still argue over why people laugh. The number one element that triggers human laughter is SURPRISE! … Surprise isn’t the only theory behind why we laugh. According to Psychologist Patricia Keith-Speigel, there are eight theories of laughter. (1) Surprise; (2) Embarrassment; (3) Incongruity ; (4) Recognition; (5) Ambivalence; (6) Release; (7) Superiority; (8) Configurational.”
You would imagine, then, that Hell would be a helluva place for laughs for all the ‘triggers’ of laughter are present—since most people are (1) surprised to find themselves there, they are (2) embarrassed at finding themselves there, being there is (3) incongruous or at odds with their expectations, they finally (4) recognize the stupidity of their lives, they experience (5) ambivalent feelings to everyone else in Hell, they experience some sense of (6) release in that they are not the only person to be damned and that there a lot of damned souls there with them, everyone can experience a sense of (7) superiority by wagging and pointing their finger at everyone else, and everything (8) falls into place and “penny drops” where we don’t know whether to laugh or to cry (the configurational moment, which the comedian defines as: “the humor occurs when unconnected ideas fall into place and in that moment, make sense. It’s what I would call an ‘Ah-ha!’ moment”). As you can see, all the elements for creating laughter are there—but nobody is laughing!
Life is No Laughing Matter
Life is serious and no laughing matter—though we can find many things within life to laugh about! Likewise with salvation—that, too, is a serious business, as St. Paul tells us: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12)—and he’s not joking when he says that—he does not add: “Just kidding!” It would have been nicer had he said: “With jokes and laughs work out your salvation!”—but he didn’t. There are many who thought life was one big long joke--”A fool lifts up his voice in laughter” … “A fool will laugh at sin” (Ecclesiasticus 21:23; Proverbs 14:9)―but those fools cease laughing from the time of their final judgment! “But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them! Thou shalt bring all the nations to nothing!” (Psalms 58:9). They frittered away their life in vain laughter and “He that dwelleth in Heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them! … The Lord shall laugh at him: for He foresees that his day shall come!” (Psalm 2:4; 36:13).
Who’s Laughing?
Similarly, Our Lord told His Apostles, at the Last Supper, that life for them was not going to be a series of laughs—and He wasn’t joking: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy!” (John 16:20)—which also implies that the joys of worldly will be turned into eternal sorrows. There are many passages in Holy Scripture that bear this out—here is but one of many:
“Because I called, and you refused! I stretched out my hand, and there was none that regarded! You have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reprehensions! Therefore, I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared! When sudden calamity shall fall on you, and destruction, as a tempest, shall be at hand: when tribulation and distress shall come upon you! Then shall they call upon Me, and I will not hear! They shall rise in the morning and shall not find Me! Because they have hated instruction and received not the fear of the Lord, nor consented to My counsel, but despised all My reproof! Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own ways, and shall be filled with their own devices and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them!” (Proverbs 1:24-32).
Some theologians are of the opinion that Our Lord never laughed, for, as they point out, laughter (if honest and not faked) is triggered by surprise, and Our Lord, being both God as well as a man, knew everything and therefore could not be surprised by anything. If you were to tell Him a joke, He would know your punchline before you even started! Our Lady, not being God, could be surprised. Yet, as we read in the book, The Life of Mary As Seen by the Mystics, by Raphael Brown, we read: “As time passed, Mary became more and more serious and recollected. No one ever saw her laugh, but she did occasionally smile with a very touching expression.” This brings to mind the words of Holy Scripture: “A fool lifts up his voice in laughter: but a wise man will scarcely laugh low to himself” (Ecclesiasticus 21:23).
St. Thomas Aquinas was no comedian—even though he wrote about happiness and joy in a profound manner! His Summa Theologiae or Summa Theologica (meaning “Compendium of Theology”) is “hard going” at times and difficult to read and grasp—it would have been far more fun had he written a Summa Jocorum (Compendium of Jokes).
[As a diversion or detour—talking of Latin and talking of jokes—here is one that can only ‘inebriate’ those who have studied Latin: Julius Caesar walks into a bar, sits down, orders a “martinus”. The bartender gives him a weird look and says: “Don’t you mean a martini?” and Caesar says: “If I wanted a double I’d have ordered one!” (To explain: in Latin, “martini” is the plural of “martinus” J). Want another one? Okay! Julius Caesar walks into a bar full of centurions and says “Right, guys, this round’s on me. What will you be having? The centurions stand, salute him and cry out: “Ale, Caesar!” (Get it? “Ale Caesar!” and “Hail Caesar!” J) ].
As for St. Thomas, for all its beauty and depth, the Summa Theologica could be said (from a worldly perspective) to be no fun, but dull and boring—which seems to reflect the personality of St. Thomas, who seemed rather dull—as described by G.K. Chesterton, in a book he wrote about him, contrasting St. Thomas with St. Francis of Assisi, who was far from dull! Here are a few of G.K. Chesterton’s comments:
“St. Thomas was a huge heavy bull of a man, fat and slow and quiet; very mild and magnanimous, but not very sociable; shy, even apart from the humility of holiness; and abstracted, even apart from his occasional and carefully concealed experiences of trance or ecstasy. St. Francis was so fiery and even fidgety that the ecclesiastics, before whom he appeared quite suddenly, thought he was a madman. St. Thomas was so stolid [not easily aroused or excited] that the scholars, in the schools which he attended regularly, thought he was a dunce. Indeed, he was the sort of schoolboy, not unknown, who would much rather be thought a dunce than have his own dreams invaded, by more active or animated dunces. This external contrast extends to almost every point in the two personalities (St. Thomas and St. Francis). It was the paradox of St. Francis, that, while he was passionately fond of poems, he was rather distrustful of books. It was the outstanding fact about St. Thomas that he loved books and lived on books; that he lived the very life of the clerk or scholar in ‘The Canterbury Tales’, who would rather have a hundred books of Aristotle and his philosophy, than any wealth the world could give him. When asked for what he thanked God most, he answered simply, ‘I have understood every page I ever read.’”
A Time to Laugh and a Time to Weep
However, Holy Scripture has no “hang-ups” about laughing! In the famous passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes which lists a whole variety of different actions and attitudes, we read: “All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under Heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh …” etc. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 ff.). God wants that “thy mouth be filled with laughter, and thy lips with rejoicing” (Job 8:21). Yet, there is a danger in mere vain laughter and superficial mirth, as seen and realized by Solomon, who wrote: “Laughter I counted as error; and to mirth I said: ‘Why are you vainly deceived?’” (Ecclesiastes 2:2).
However, “first things first”―as they say! Life is not one long laugh—it is better to weep over our sins than to laugh at many things: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy!” (Psalm 125:5). “Blessed are ye that weep now―for you shall laugh! … Woe to you that now laugh―for you shall mourn and weep!” (Luke 6:21, 25). If you have time to laugh after weeping for your sins, go ahead! But first and foremost weep for your sins and do penance while you still have time: “God hath given him time for penance, and he abuses it in his pride!” … “A fool will laugh at sin!” (Job 24:23; Proverbs 14:9). However, “there is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. Even in laughter the heart may ache, and rejoicing may end in grief!” (Proverbs 14:12-13).
As The Imitation of Christ so truly points-out: “If you wish to make progress in virtue, live in the fear of the Lord … and shun inane silliness. Sorrow opens the door to many a blessing which dissoluteness usually destroys … Lighthearted and heedless of our defects, we do not feel the real sorrows of our souls, but often indulge in empty laughter when we have good reason to weep ... Happy is the man who can throw off the weight of every care and recollect himself in holy contrition. Happy is the man who casts from him all that can stain or burden his conscience!” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter 21).
The Imitation of Christ further points out our propensity or tendency for the wrong things: “Lament and grieve because you are still so worldly, so carnal, so passionate and unmortified, so full of roving lust, so careless in guarding the external senses; so often occupied in many vain fancies, so inclined to exterior things and so heedless of what lies within; so prone to laughter and dissipation and so indisposed to sorrow and tears; so inclined to ease and the pleasures of the flesh and so cool to austerity and zeal; so curious to hear what is new and to see the beautiful and so slow to embrace humiliation and dejection; so covetous of abundance, so niggardly in giving and so tenacious in keeping; so inconsiderate in speech, so reluctant in silence; so undisciplined in character, so disordered in action; so greedy at meals, so deaf to the Word of God; so prompt to rest and so slow to labor; so awake to empty conversation, so sleepy in keeping sacred vigils and so eager to end them; so wandering in your attention, so careless in saying the Divine Office and so lukewarm in celebrating Mass; so heartless in receiving Holy Communion, so quickly distracted, so seldom fully recollected; so quickly moved to anger, so apt to take offense at others; so prone to judge, so severe in condemning; so happy in prosperity and so weak in adversity; so often making good resolutions and carrying so few of them into action” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter 21). Ouch! No laughing matter there!
Sinners Smile Sweetly and Losers Laugh Loud!
The saint can smile and the sinner can smile! The saint can laugh and the sinner can laugh too! The saint can have pleasure and the sinner can have pleasure! The saint can be happy and the sinner can be happy (or seem happy) too! Herod smiled and laughed! Pontius Pilate smiled and laughed! Judas smiled and laughed! Annas and Caiphas smiled and laughed! So too did Our Lady, St. Peter, St. John and a whole bunch of saints and sinners throughout history. All of the souls who are in Heaven today, smiled and laughed! All the souls that are in Hell today, smiled and laughed!
Pleasures will make you smile and laugh! Happiness will make you smile and laugh! But neither pleasure, nor happiness are joy. Pleasure is “the joy” of the body and its senses and its imagination. Happiness is the “joy” of the mind and heart, but is still focused on earthly happiness. True joy is the joy of the soul that is focused upon God and is “right” with God, living in a state of sanctifying grace that is constantly growing and not stagnating. Pleasure and happiness can be steps on the way to joy, but joy stands at the top of the mountain. Joy stands at the top of the mountain because it is all about the greatest feeling of well-being that a soul can have—it is about spiritual well-being, it is about being well with God. Telling a joke to others at a party does not bring the same joy as telling your sins to the priest in confession. There is no joy like the joy of “being right” with God, with being “in a state of grace”, with being “in a state of salvation”, with “being with God”, with “being friends with God” and “possessing God.” This is something the devil cannot do and does not want to do—hence he is always sad, forlorn, dejected, angry, full of hatred and misery.
Tell Me … And I’ll Tell You!
We all know the variety of sayings in the “Tell me what…” series: “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell what you are!” … “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are!” … “Tell me what you … like … listen to … read … watch … etc. and I will tell you what you are!” We are what we think, say, do, read, watch, listen to, mix with, etc. Why? Well, as another saying points out: “You cannot leave clothes in a smoky room without them eventually taking on the smell of smoke!”
Mix with worldly people and you will become worldly. Read or watch bad material and you will be accepting of the ‘badness’. Mix with foul-mouthed persons and you will take on some of their foul vocabulary, or at least become desensitized to it. Mix with those who seek worldly ‘joys’ and you will seek them also. Mix with those who seek spiritual joys and you will seek them too. Talk about worldly things and you will become increasingly worldly. Talk about spiritual things and you will become increasingly spiritual.
Ideas have consequences. Words have consequences. Actions have consequences. We can choose what we wish to think about, talk about and do—and then accept the consequences. “As you sow, so shall you reap!” as they say. Dwell on morose, unhappy, negative, critical, vengeful, unjust, unforgiving thoughts and as sure as Hell you’ll become more and more morose, unhappy, critical, vengeful, unjust and unforgiving! Dwell upon pleasant, happy, positive, charitable, reconciliatory, just and forgiving thoughts and you will become more and more pleasant, happy, positive, charitable, reconciliatory, just and forgiving. “As you sow, so shall you reap!” as they say. The devil wants you to think the former, God wants you to think the latter. The choice (and the consequences) are yours. We cannot choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we think about what happens to us.
To Avoid Thinking Like the World, You Must Step Back From the World
The thoughts and ways of the world are not the thoughts and ways of God—this has been made abundantly clear by the Word of God in Holy Scripture: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways! says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9).
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal! But lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal! For where ypur treasure is, there is your heart also! No man can serve two masters! For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other! You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24)
“Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world! If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life―which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:15).
“Adulterers, know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God! Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you! Cleanse your hands, you sinners: and purify your hearts, you double minded! Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep! Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sorrow! Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you!” (James 4:4-10).
What is there about that which we cannot understand? If you are seeking joy—and who isn’t—then understand that joy is only found in the “Bank of Heaven” and if you do not want to bank with Heaven or bank on Heaven, then you will never find true joy. There is, of course, a fake “currency” of so-called ‘joy’ being passed around by the devil and world, but it finds itself devalued very quickly. You could say it is only “paper-money”, whereas the joy given out by the “Bank of Heaven” is pure gold.
Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones!
St. Thomas traces the origins of joy for us in his inimitable problem solving way, which can sometimes be a bit “dry” even though well-connected in thought. Let us first of all put it in the proverbial “nutshell” and then slightly expand on it by “cracking the nutshell” and looking at the pieces inside! Much like the lyrics of famous song: Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones—there is a connection that runs from joy through several other virtues. For those who have forgotten the “Dem Bones” song, here is a sample of lyrics:
“The toe bone’s connected to the foot bone
The foot bone’s connected to the heel bone
The heel bone’s connected to the ankle bone
The ankle bone’s connected to the shin bone
The shin bone’s connected to the knee bone
The knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone
The thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone
The hip bone’s connected to the back bone
The back bone’s connected to the shoulder bone
The shoulder bone’s connected to the neck bone
The neck bone’s connected to the head bone
Now hear the word of the Lord!”
Now hear the word of St. Thomas!
Joy is connected to devotion.
Devotion is connected to charity.
Charity is connected to love.
Love is connected to goodness.
Goodness is connected to knowledge.
Knowledge is connected to learning.
Now hear the word of St. Thomas!
That is it in a nutshell. We learn in order to know. Our minds were made to know what is good and true and beautiful. Knowing what is good, true and beautiful leads to loving what is good true and beautiful. Love is of many kinds and types (persons, places, things, etc.) of which charity is the noblest of loves—being firstly a love of God, and secondly a love of self and neighbor. Love of God and neighbor engenders a devotion to God and neighbor. Devotion brings about joy. Joy is not first and foremost about “getting”, but it is a joy about “giving”. The more we give ourselves to God, the more true joy we shall have—though at first, due to Original Sin and self-love, it will seem repugnant and bitter. Yet, as Our Lord says: “Greater love (joy) than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends!” (John 15:13) as Christ did for us.
St. Thomas says that “spiritual joy”—which is the highest and best joy—is often called “joy in God”, and it is produced by a series of causes. Working backwards, joy comes from devotion, and devotion comes from charity, and charity comes from love, and that love comes from knowledge, and the knowledge comes from learning. To love God is the greatest commandment (Mark 12:30) and to love God is the greatest joy! Yet as St. Thérèse of Lisieux once said: “Jesus is so little loved because He is so little known!”
Cracking the Nut of Joy
We cannot LOVE what we do not KNOW. We must first of all KNOW about something—its existence and qualities—before we can LOVE it. Love is an appetite for what is Good”, “Truth” and “Beautiful” (unless the love is perverted). Goodness, truth and beauty is the trinity that is the proper cause or spark of love. The trinity of “Good”, “Truth” and “Beauty” is the goal as well as the cause of love, must be KNOWN before it can it can appeal to us. LOVE seeks either to possess what is loved, and/or to bestow benefits upon what is loved. In either case, LOVE seeks to be united with its object, in fact or in affection. That possession of the “Good”, or the “Truth” or the “Beautiful” begins in the mind by thinking, reflecting, meditating or contemplating “Good”, “Truth” and “Beauty.”
The highest “Good”, the most profound “Truth” and the greatest “Beauty” is God Himself. When a person thinks, learns and acquires knowledge about God and His goodness and loving kindness, he feels stirred to a LOVE OF GOD (which is called CHARITY, the greatest and noblest room in the mansion of LOVE). Hence the need for learning, meditation and contemplation, which will lead to a union with the beloved thing. CHARITY is love and friendship. CHARITY is active friendship and love—and not just empty words. We have CHARITY when we love God and neighbor, and wish for our neighbor the good of God’s friendship. A perfection of CHARITY occurs when souls give their whole hearts habitually to God, not thinking or desiring anything contrary to His love. The mechanism by which we seek to unite ourselves to the “Beloved” is called DEVOTION. CHARITY gives birth to DEVOTION.
DEVOTION, in the religious sense, is the will to give oneself steadily and constantly to the service of God. Seeing his own insufficiency and his faults, a man is moved to turn to God and to lean upon Him; and out of this consideration also, devotion arises. The direct and chief effect of devotion is joy in God. Its secondary and indirect effect is sorrow for one’s shortcomings and sins. On man’s part, charity produces devotion and service to God. Devotion is not a virtue, but the act of the virtue of CHARITY. The external cause of DEVOTION in a person is God and His grace. The internal cause of devotion is meditation or contemplation. Hence begins the chain of causes that pass from knowledge, to love, to charity, to devotion and finally, if the object of our love can be attained and possessed, to the crowning grace of JOY. The direct and chief effect of devotion is joy in God.
Spiritual JOY is full and perfect when God is possessed by the soul, and nothing remains to be desired. It is obvious, therefore, that we cannot achieve the fullness of spiritual JOY until we reach Heaven.
Sinners do not love themselves truly. They love only an apparent good in themselves, and they love external and creatural goods as things worth having for their own sake. And thus sinners miss the goal of charity which is endless happiness in God.
God is Joy Because God is Love
God is love and love is the cause of joy. For, we rejoice either because the object of our love is really present, or because we really find our own good existing, so to say, in the person, or in the object we love.
We rejoice because we find ourselves in the presence of one whom we cherish, or because we have good news from a friend or parent, separated from us by endless stretches of land, or by vast expanses of water; we find an unbounded joy when we know that son or brother called to serve his country’s cause, in the gory battlefields of the world, is well, far removed from harm, or has been honored for his bravery.
Furthermore, our joy is enhanced by our love for the person from whom we receive the news, and is in proportion to it. We feel, for instance, little or no delight in our hearts when we read that a commander of a hostile force has escaped unscathed from battle. Our love is the cause of our joy.
To Find Joy, We Must Find and Love God
But, charity, in its highest object and point, is love of God, Whose good is infinite, unchanging and unchangeable, and, Who, by the very fact that He is loved, dwells in the person who loves Him. “God is charity: and he that abides in charity, abides in God and God in Him” (1 John 4:16). Hence joy is caused by love; hence, too, it follows charity.
What is this spiritual joy? It is not a virtue, separated from charity, spiritual joy is an action of the virtue charity, an effect, a result of charity. Joy of itself could not exist, it owes its very being to the virtue of charity, which is, for it, a fountainhead. Love is the first impulse of our will or heart, and from it proceed joy and desire. Thus joy is not a virtue distinct from charity, it is only an effect of charity, it is an action of charity.
Joy is that gratitude, that happy consciousness we have of the infinite goodness of God, the great object of our love, in Whom we live, move and have our being. Joy is the grand and consoling reward for the victories we have won in the battles with our passions.
A Religion of Joy
Since joy is a Fruit of the Holy Ghost, it follows that where the Holy Ghost is not, there is no joy. Now, the Divine Spirit is the vivifying principle of the Catholic Church and of her faithful. The Catholic Religion, is, then, essentially a religion of joy. Christ being the center of Christianity, there is no joy superior to that which He procures.
Down through the night of forgotten centuries and the fast highway of fleeting years, whatever holy joy was in the world was caused by Him. He was the unsurpassing joy of the patriarchs and prophets, of David, Isaias and Zachary, of Magdalene and John, of Peter and of Paul.
Faith itself is a joyous exposition of the truths that lead to Heaven; its precepts and commands are not merely a burden, but also a pleasure and a joy. Self-control in the service of the commandments makes us strong, and that is a source of joy. In sin we are downcast, and a load seems lifted from our hearts when grace, through the Sacrament of Penance, joy streams into our souls anew.
Once forgiven, we are children of God once again, perfect men and perfect Christians. Penance brings an entire Heaven of joy into our otherwise heavy hearts. “In thy salvation he shall rejoice exceedingly” (Psalm 20:2). “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into joy: Thou hast cut my sackcloth, and hast compassed me with gladness” (Psalm 29:12).
Purgatorial Joys
Penance brings joy to the souls in Purgatory, too! Even though they find themselves in the most unspeakably excruciating pains—which no tongue can describe nor imagination imagine—they are, nevertheless, also immersed in the most unspeakably great joys. They know that they are saved and that these horrendous pains are bringing Heaven and God closer with every excruciating moment. They are the perfect example of how the Catholic on Earth should find joy in suffering.
Those poor souls failed to learn how to suffer and do penance with joy on Earth, so now they have to learn that lesson in Purgatory. Yet their lesson is also a lesson for us—who, like the ill-fated Chosen People, are ever mumbling and grumbling, whining and whinging, moaning and groaning about the least suffering that we have to experience and suffer, by God’s Providence, here on Earth.
Worldly Joys Bring Sadness
At the Last Supper, Our Lord spoke of the two contrary lots that would befall His Apostles on the one hand, at the world on the other. He said: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20). If we take this to the next stage—if the sorrow of His followers shall be turned to joy, then the joy of the world shall be turned to sorrow. This is proven to be the case by other passages in Holy Scripture that depict the rich and the poor.
We have the case of Our Lord’s parable about the beggar, Lazarus, and Rich Man: “There was a beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, and no one did give him. Moreover, the dogs came, and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died: and he was buried in Hell” (Luke 16:20-22).
In a real-life incident, we have the case of the rich young man—who you would have thought would be happy and joyful with all his riches, but he becomes sad and sorrowful because of them: “And behold a certain man running up and kneeling before Him: ‘Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Thou knowest the commandments—keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Jesus: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
“Then Jesus, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you: How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the Kingdom of God!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:16-26; Mark 10:17-27).
God Does Bestow Riches, But…
God has enriched many a man as well the Israelites as a nation—but it was always contingent upon their placing God before all riches and wealth. Once those riches and wealth became a hindrance to their love of God and led them down paths of infidelity, lukewarmness, infidelity and sin—God not only brutally removed or destroyed those riches and that wealth, but He also was not averse to slaying some or most of the wayward ones.
The Old Testament history of the Chosen People is a perpetual saga of God’s benefits leading them to forget God, which led God to acting in a way towards them that they would never forget! But forget they did—and foolishly repeated the same behavior.
God has to come first—Our Lord commands in the New Testament what had already been commanded in the Old Testament: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30), which merely repeats the Old Testament command: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
This is what Job did in the Old Testament, and he was abundantly blessed by God. Yet, when God allowed all types of calamities to befall Job—losing his health, his children, his wealth and his properties and flocks—God never ceased to love and bless God, as much in calamity as in prosperity.
His famous quote—which we would well to take to heart—was: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither! The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away! As it has pleased the Lord, so is it done! Blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21). This eventual acceptance of the bitter with the sweet, led to God restoring all things to Job in an abundantly greater measure than he had possessed in the beginning: “And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10).
The Joys of Heaven
This doubling of Job’s possessions and wealth, after his tribulations at the hands of the devil, is symbolic of our tests and trials in this life, after which we shall be rewarded with Heaven—if we have been faithful.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange writes: “This vision will constitute eternal life. No one can express the joy and love that will be born in us of this vision. It will be so strong, so absolute a love of God, that, thenceforth, nothing will be able to destroy it, or even to diminish it. It will be a love by which we shall, above all, rejoice that God is God, infinitely holy, just, and merciful. We shall adore all the decrees of His providence in view of the manifestation of His goodness … We shall have entered into His beatitude, according to Christ’s own words: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! Because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things! Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!’” (The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Article 13
Friday & Saturday December 12th & 13th
No Guadalupe Loophole!
Friday & Saturday December 12th & 13th
No Guadalupe Loophole!
Satanic Head Crusher
Today, December 12th, we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who appeared several times to Juan Diego in December of 1531. In the early morning hours of December 9th, 1531, a 57-year-old Indian peasant named Juan Diego was walking along the path of Tepayec Hill, on the outskirts of what today is Mexico City. Juan Diego was headed to Mass, because at that time, December 9th was the date for the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception throughout the Spanish Empire. Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego and commanded him to go tell the local bishop, Bishop Zumarraga, of her desire for a church to be built at the site of her apparition.
Tradition holds that Juan Diego asked our Blessed Mother her name. She responded in his native language of Nahuatl: “Tlecuatlecupe,” which means “the one who crushes the head of the serpent” (a clear reference to Genesis 3:15 and perhaps to the prominent symbol of the Aztec religion). “Tlecuatlecupe” when correctly pronounced, sounds remarkably similar to “Guadalupe.” Consequently, when Juan Diego would later tell Bishop Zumarraga her name in his native tongue, he probably confused it with the familiar Spanish name “Guadalupe,” a city in Spain with a famous Marian shrine dating back to the 1300s.
Our Lady added “Know for certain, O least of my sons, that I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, the true God, through whom everything lives, the Lord of all things near and far, the Master of Heaven and Earth. It is my earnest wish that a church be built here to my honor. Here I will demonstrate, I will manifest, I will give all my love, my compassion, my help and my protection to the people! I am your merciful mother, the merciful mother of all of you who live united in this land, and of all mankind, of all those who love me, of those who cry to me, of those who seek me, and of those who have confidence in me! Here I will hear their weeping, their sorrow, and will remedy and alleviate all their multiple sufferings, necessities, and misfortunes.”
Lose Some―Win Some
The Protestant Reformation was the watershed moment marking a turning point in the Catholic Church’s dominance in Europe. There was no census or population records in those days and so nobody can give an exact number of Catholics who left the Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation―but millions shifted allegiance as large regions in Northern Europe (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, mainly Northern Germany, England, Netherlands) became predominantly Protestant. Southern Europe―France, : Spain, Italy, Portugal, Poland, and mainly Southern Germany remained Catholic, leading to a massive reshuffling of Christianity, not just mass desertion but new denominations forming. Areas like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Northern Germany, and England saw large populations abandon Catholicism for Lutheran, Calvinist, or Anglican faiths.
While the Catholic Church lost significant ground in Northern Europe due to the Protestant Reformation (which started in 1517), these losses were substantially offset by major Catholic growth through missionary work and expansion into new territories globally, especially in the Americas, Asia, and Africa. During the Protestant Reformation, Catholic expansion in the Americas exploded under Spain and France, driven by the Catholic Church’s Counter-Reformation. This included establishing vast Catholic empires in Latin America, French territories (New France), and parts of North America. During the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church solidified its massive expansion in Latin America, driven by Spanish and Portuguese colonization, becoming the region's dominant Faith through intense missionary work resulting in bring many converts from paganism and idolatry and intertwining the Faith with colonial rule, effectively sealing the colonies against Protestantism by establishing strict Catholic institutions and using colonial power to create a deeply Catholic cultural bedrock that lasted centuries.
Historical data shows that for most of the 20th century, from 1900 through the 1960s, at least 90% of Latin America’s population was still Catholic. Today Catholicism remains dominant in Latin America, but is declining as a percentage of the population, with figures around 54% in 2024, has fallen greatly from over 90%. Nevertheless, Latin America still holds nearly half the world's Catholics, led by Brazil and Mexico, which are the countries with the most Catholics globally.
Satan’s Bloody Paganism
One must also not forget that Juan Diego had grown up under Aztec oppression. The Aztec religious practices, which included human sacrifice, play an interesting and integral role in this story. Every major Aztec city had a temple pyramid, about 100 feet high, on top of which was erected an altar. Upon this altar, the Aztec priests offered human sacrifice to their god Huitzilopochtli, called the “Lover of Hearts and Drinker of Blood,” by cutting out the beating hearts of their victims, usually adult men but often children. Considering that the Aztecs controlled 371 towns and the law required 1,000 human sacrifices for each town with a temple pyramid, over 50,000 human beings were sacrificed each year. Moreover, the early Mexican historian Ixtlilxochitl estimated that one out of every five children fell victim to this bloodthirsty religion.
In 1487, when Juan Diego was just 13 years old, he would have witnessed the most horrible event: Tlacaellel, the 89-year-old Aztec ruler, dedicated the new temple pyramid of the sun, dedicated to the two chief gods of the Aztec pantheon — Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca, (the god of hell and darkness) — in the center of Tenochtitlan (later Mexico City).
The temple pyramid was 100 feet high with 114 steps to reach the top. More than 80,000 men were sacrificed over a period of four days and four nights. While this number of sacrifices seems incredible, evidence indicates it took only 15 seconds to cut the heart out of each victim. (For more information, see Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness by Dr. Warren Carroll).
“And the land was polluted with blood,” by idolaters who sacrificed their sons and daughters to devils. “The heathens … served their idols … and they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to devils. And they shed innocent blood―the blood of their sons and of their daughters―which they sacrificed to the idols … And the land was polluted with blood” (Psalm 105:35-38).
Such was Mexico when Hernando Cortes arrived there in 1519. Some ten million native Nahuatl Indians formed a vast confederation of tribes at this time. These tribes were dominated by the powerful Aztecs who, for all their intelligence, industry, and valor, were equally barbaric, enslaved by an extravagant system of idolatry which placated its numerous gods with gruesome orgies of human sacrifice and cannibalism. For centuries torrents of blood literally flowed from the temple pyramids, with as many as 20,000 humans being sacrificed in one day.
Nevertheless, in 1520, Hernando Cortes outlawed human sacrifice. He stripped the temple pyramid of its two idols, cleansed the stone of its blood and erected a new altar. Cortez, his soldiers and Father Olmedo then ascended the stairs with the Holy Cross and images of the Blessed Mother and St. Christopher. Upon this new altar, Father Olmedo offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Upon what had been the place of evil pagan sacrifice, now the unbloody, eternal and true sacrifice of our Lord was offered. Such an action, however, sparked the all-out war with the Aztecs, whom Cortez finally subdued in August of 1521. In 1523, Franciscan missionaries came evangelizing the Indian people. They were so successful that the Diocese of Mexico City was established in 1528―three years before the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Cortes came and liberated the Nahuatls from their slavery to Satan, but because of the corruption of some of the Spanish rulers and because of the Aztec’s attachment to polygamy and other pagan practices, very few converted to Catholicism in the first decade of Spanish rule. The saintly Juan de Zumarraga, Mexico’s first bishop, could do little to convert the Aztecs, but he remained confident in the unfailing help of the Queen of Heaven, to whom he entrusted the future of New Spain.
Our Lady of Insurmountable Odds
There are some people who just love having the odds stacked against them, so that they can out and prove everyone was wrong in doubting their abilities and capabilities. In Holy Scripture we have the case of David and Goliath―where everyone thought that all was lost and when the young boy David confidently offered to fight Goliath, they could see no way that David could defeat Goliath―especially since he refused the armor and weapons given to him and instead opted to take into the fight with Goliath his shepherd’s sling and five pebbles!
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book True Devotion to Mary, reports the devils as admitting the following during an exorcism: “One single sigh, that she offers to the Blessed Trinity, is worth far more than all the prayers, desires, and aspirations of all the saints! We fear her more than all the other saints in Heaven together!”
Our Lady herself says of our days: “The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs [morals]. In these unhappy times, people will only think of amusements and there will be unbridled luxury and impurity that will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost … Many will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops ... A number of religious institutions will lose all Faith and will cause many souls to be damned ... There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. This then will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration … This will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet … I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved! … In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!” (Words of Our Lady of Good Success, La Salette, Fatima & Akita).
Is History Repeating Itself?
Today’s world is becoming increasingly pagan―at least in practice if not in theory. Many profess that they believe in God, but actually live like pagans. There is no single worldwide number for Sunday Mass attendance, but estimates suggest that around 20% of the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide actually fulfill their Sunday obligation of attending Mass. There are huge regional differences―the highest being in Africa (Nigeria 94%) and parts of Asia/Latin America (Philippines 56%), but low in Europe and North America (US around 17%, Netherlands and Germany below 10%, and France around 8%). The Catholic Church seems powerless to stop the increasing falling away from the practice of the Faith. Our Lady has stated that she is meant to be the solution to the problem―according to the will of God.
Likewise, Our Lady of Guadalupe was about to achieve what the Catholic Church in the Americas had thus far failed to do in the 16th century. The Spanish colonists had conquered and subdued the pagan Aztecs―but there were hardly any conversions to the Catholic Faith among those Aztecs. The missionaries were convinced that in this new land they had found a place to start a new Church that would learn from the mistakes of the European Church and really re-create the Church of the Gospel. The missionaries could not understand the religious symbolic world of the native people. They believed that whatever was different was diabolical and had to be eliminated. They also had to struggle against the pain that the people could still remember: the trauma of their brutal conquest. The natives would hear the message of the Gospel, the message of God’s love and compassion, but the lifestyle they saw was totally the opposite. So there were two totally antagonistic religions and cultures coming together, but there seemed to be a complete lack of communicability and compatibility.
The Spanish conquest was not about spreading the Faith, but was all about the lure of wealth spurred and laying their hands on the riches available. Massive sections of the Americas rapidly fell to the Spanish crown―a transformation which was begun by the ruthless conqueror of the Aztec Empire, Hernán Cortés. In 1511 he joined an expedition to conquer Cuba and was appointed secretary to the island's first colonial governor, Diego Velázquez. In 1518 Velázquez appointed Cortés to lead an expedition to Mexico. Cortés—as Velázquez was to discover to his cost—was set on becoming a leader rather than a loyal follower. He set off for the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in February 1519 with 11 ships, about 100 sailors, 500 soldiers, and 16 horses. Over the following months Cortés would take matters into his own hands, disobey the governor’s orders, and turn what had been intended to be an exploratory mission into a historic military conquest.
The relationship between the conquered Aztecs and their Spanish conquerors was further strained by the cruelty and immorality of some the Spanish conquerors. According to the chronicler Francisco López de Gómara, Cortés was “very given to women and always gave into temptation.” His biography abounds in romantic entanglements. Throughout his career, Cortés's personal life held a selfish, manipulative streak. In 1514 he married a young Spanish woman named Catalina Suárez, a relative of Governor Diego Velázquez, who soon promoted Cortés after the wedding. But Cortés was not faithful. After the conquest of Mexico, he and Malinche, an Aztec woman who served as his interpreter, had a son together. The marriage to Caralina only ended when she was found dead under mysterious circumstances in 1522. Cortés was suspected of her murder, but never charged. Cortés then took as a consort Princess Isabel Moctezuma, the Aztec emperor's daughter. She and Cortés had a daughter, but he later abandoned them. In 1529 Cortés took a Spanish noblewoman, Juana de Zúñiga, as his bride and became a marquis, securing both a high social status and a rather worldly and immodest reputation.
Today, December 12th, we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who appeared several times to Juan Diego in December of 1531. In the early morning hours of December 9th, 1531, a 57-year-old Indian peasant named Juan Diego was walking along the path of Tepayec Hill, on the outskirts of what today is Mexico City. Juan Diego was headed to Mass, because at that time, December 9th was the date for the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception throughout the Spanish Empire. Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego and commanded him to go tell the local bishop, Bishop Zumarraga, of her desire for a church to be built at the site of her apparition.
Tradition holds that Juan Diego asked our Blessed Mother her name. She responded in his native language of Nahuatl: “Tlecuatlecupe,” which means “the one who crushes the head of the serpent” (a clear reference to Genesis 3:15 and perhaps to the prominent symbol of the Aztec religion). “Tlecuatlecupe” when correctly pronounced, sounds remarkably similar to “Guadalupe.” Consequently, when Juan Diego would later tell Bishop Zumarraga her name in his native tongue, he probably confused it with the familiar Spanish name “Guadalupe,” a city in Spain with a famous Marian shrine dating back to the 1300s.
Our Lady added “Know for certain, O least of my sons, that I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, the true God, through whom everything lives, the Lord of all things near and far, the Master of Heaven and Earth. It is my earnest wish that a church be built here to my honor. Here I will demonstrate, I will manifest, I will give all my love, my compassion, my help and my protection to the people! I am your merciful mother, the merciful mother of all of you who live united in this land, and of all mankind, of all those who love me, of those who cry to me, of those who seek me, and of those who have confidence in me! Here I will hear their weeping, their sorrow, and will remedy and alleviate all their multiple sufferings, necessities, and misfortunes.”
Lose Some―Win Some
The Protestant Reformation was the watershed moment marking a turning point in the Catholic Church’s dominance in Europe. There was no census or population records in those days and so nobody can give an exact number of Catholics who left the Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation―but millions shifted allegiance as large regions in Northern Europe (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, mainly Northern Germany, England, Netherlands) became predominantly Protestant. Southern Europe―France, : Spain, Italy, Portugal, Poland, and mainly Southern Germany remained Catholic, leading to a massive reshuffling of Christianity, not just mass desertion but new denominations forming. Areas like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Northern Germany, and England saw large populations abandon Catholicism for Lutheran, Calvinist, or Anglican faiths.
While the Catholic Church lost significant ground in Northern Europe due to the Protestant Reformation (which started in 1517), these losses were substantially offset by major Catholic growth through missionary work and expansion into new territories globally, especially in the Americas, Asia, and Africa. During the Protestant Reformation, Catholic expansion in the Americas exploded under Spain and France, driven by the Catholic Church’s Counter-Reformation. This included establishing vast Catholic empires in Latin America, French territories (New France), and parts of North America. During the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church solidified its massive expansion in Latin America, driven by Spanish and Portuguese colonization, becoming the region's dominant Faith through intense missionary work resulting in bring many converts from paganism and idolatry and intertwining the Faith with colonial rule, effectively sealing the colonies against Protestantism by establishing strict Catholic institutions and using colonial power to create a deeply Catholic cultural bedrock that lasted centuries.
Historical data shows that for most of the 20th century, from 1900 through the 1960s, at least 90% of Latin America’s population was still Catholic. Today Catholicism remains dominant in Latin America, but is declining as a percentage of the population, with figures around 54% in 2024, has fallen greatly from over 90%. Nevertheless, Latin America still holds nearly half the world's Catholics, led by Brazil and Mexico, which are the countries with the most Catholics globally.
Satan’s Bloody Paganism
One must also not forget that Juan Diego had grown up under Aztec oppression. The Aztec religious practices, which included human sacrifice, play an interesting and integral role in this story. Every major Aztec city had a temple pyramid, about 100 feet high, on top of which was erected an altar. Upon this altar, the Aztec priests offered human sacrifice to their god Huitzilopochtli, called the “Lover of Hearts and Drinker of Blood,” by cutting out the beating hearts of their victims, usually adult men but often children. Considering that the Aztecs controlled 371 towns and the law required 1,000 human sacrifices for each town with a temple pyramid, over 50,000 human beings were sacrificed each year. Moreover, the early Mexican historian Ixtlilxochitl estimated that one out of every five children fell victim to this bloodthirsty religion.
In 1487, when Juan Diego was just 13 years old, he would have witnessed the most horrible event: Tlacaellel, the 89-year-old Aztec ruler, dedicated the new temple pyramid of the sun, dedicated to the two chief gods of the Aztec pantheon — Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca, (the god of hell and darkness) — in the center of Tenochtitlan (later Mexico City).
The temple pyramid was 100 feet high with 114 steps to reach the top. More than 80,000 men were sacrificed over a period of four days and four nights. While this number of sacrifices seems incredible, evidence indicates it took only 15 seconds to cut the heart out of each victim. (For more information, see Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness by Dr. Warren Carroll).
“And the land was polluted with blood,” by idolaters who sacrificed their sons and daughters to devils. “The heathens … served their idols … and they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to devils. And they shed innocent blood―the blood of their sons and of their daughters―which they sacrificed to the idols … And the land was polluted with blood” (Psalm 105:35-38).
Such was Mexico when Hernando Cortes arrived there in 1519. Some ten million native Nahuatl Indians formed a vast confederation of tribes at this time. These tribes were dominated by the powerful Aztecs who, for all their intelligence, industry, and valor, were equally barbaric, enslaved by an extravagant system of idolatry which placated its numerous gods with gruesome orgies of human sacrifice and cannibalism. For centuries torrents of blood literally flowed from the temple pyramids, with as many as 20,000 humans being sacrificed in one day.
Nevertheless, in 1520, Hernando Cortes outlawed human sacrifice. He stripped the temple pyramid of its two idols, cleansed the stone of its blood and erected a new altar. Cortez, his soldiers and Father Olmedo then ascended the stairs with the Holy Cross and images of the Blessed Mother and St. Christopher. Upon this new altar, Father Olmedo offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Upon what had been the place of evil pagan sacrifice, now the unbloody, eternal and true sacrifice of our Lord was offered. Such an action, however, sparked the all-out war with the Aztecs, whom Cortez finally subdued in August of 1521. In 1523, Franciscan missionaries came evangelizing the Indian people. They were so successful that the Diocese of Mexico City was established in 1528―three years before the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Cortes came and liberated the Nahuatls from their slavery to Satan, but because of the corruption of some of the Spanish rulers and because of the Aztec’s attachment to polygamy and other pagan practices, very few converted to Catholicism in the first decade of Spanish rule. The saintly Juan de Zumarraga, Mexico’s first bishop, could do little to convert the Aztecs, but he remained confident in the unfailing help of the Queen of Heaven, to whom he entrusted the future of New Spain.
Our Lady of Insurmountable Odds
There are some people who just love having the odds stacked against them, so that they can out and prove everyone was wrong in doubting their abilities and capabilities. In Holy Scripture we have the case of David and Goliath―where everyone thought that all was lost and when the young boy David confidently offered to fight Goliath, they could see no way that David could defeat Goliath―especially since he refused the armor and weapons given to him and instead opted to take into the fight with Goliath his shepherd’s sling and five pebbles!
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book True Devotion to Mary, reports the devils as admitting the following during an exorcism: “One single sigh, that she offers to the Blessed Trinity, is worth far more than all the prayers, desires, and aspirations of all the saints! We fear her more than all the other saints in Heaven together!”
Our Lady herself says of our days: “The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs [morals]. In these unhappy times, people will only think of amusements and there will be unbridled luxury and impurity that will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost … Many will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops ... A number of religious institutions will lose all Faith and will cause many souls to be damned ... There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. This then will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration … This will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet … I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved! … In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!” (Words of Our Lady of Good Success, La Salette, Fatima & Akita).
Is History Repeating Itself?
Today’s world is becoming increasingly pagan―at least in practice if not in theory. Many profess that they believe in God, but actually live like pagans. There is no single worldwide number for Sunday Mass attendance, but estimates suggest that around 20% of the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide actually fulfill their Sunday obligation of attending Mass. There are huge regional differences―the highest being in Africa (Nigeria 94%) and parts of Asia/Latin America (Philippines 56%), but low in Europe and North America (US around 17%, Netherlands and Germany below 10%, and France around 8%). The Catholic Church seems powerless to stop the increasing falling away from the practice of the Faith. Our Lady has stated that she is meant to be the solution to the problem―according to the will of God.
Likewise, Our Lady of Guadalupe was about to achieve what the Catholic Church in the Americas had thus far failed to do in the 16th century. The Spanish colonists had conquered and subdued the pagan Aztecs―but there were hardly any conversions to the Catholic Faith among those Aztecs. The missionaries were convinced that in this new land they had found a place to start a new Church that would learn from the mistakes of the European Church and really re-create the Church of the Gospel. The missionaries could not understand the religious symbolic world of the native people. They believed that whatever was different was diabolical and had to be eliminated. They also had to struggle against the pain that the people could still remember: the trauma of their brutal conquest. The natives would hear the message of the Gospel, the message of God’s love and compassion, but the lifestyle they saw was totally the opposite. So there were two totally antagonistic religions and cultures coming together, but there seemed to be a complete lack of communicability and compatibility.
The Spanish conquest was not about spreading the Faith, but was all about the lure of wealth spurred and laying their hands on the riches available. Massive sections of the Americas rapidly fell to the Spanish crown―a transformation which was begun by the ruthless conqueror of the Aztec Empire, Hernán Cortés. In 1511 he joined an expedition to conquer Cuba and was appointed secretary to the island's first colonial governor, Diego Velázquez. In 1518 Velázquez appointed Cortés to lead an expedition to Mexico. Cortés—as Velázquez was to discover to his cost—was set on becoming a leader rather than a loyal follower. He set off for the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in February 1519 with 11 ships, about 100 sailors, 500 soldiers, and 16 horses. Over the following months Cortés would take matters into his own hands, disobey the governor’s orders, and turn what had been intended to be an exploratory mission into a historic military conquest.
The relationship between the conquered Aztecs and their Spanish conquerors was further strained by the cruelty and immorality of some the Spanish conquerors. According to the chronicler Francisco López de Gómara, Cortés was “very given to women and always gave into temptation.” His biography abounds in romantic entanglements. Throughout his career, Cortés's personal life held a selfish, manipulative streak. In 1514 he married a young Spanish woman named Catalina Suárez, a relative of Governor Diego Velázquez, who soon promoted Cortés after the wedding. But Cortés was not faithful. After the conquest of Mexico, he and Malinche, an Aztec woman who served as his interpreter, had a son together. The marriage to Caralina only ended when she was found dead under mysterious circumstances in 1522. Cortés was suspected of her murder, but never charged. Cortés then took as a consort Princess Isabel Moctezuma, the Aztec emperor's daughter. She and Cortés had a daughter, but he later abandoned them. In 1529 Cortés took a Spanish noblewoman, Juana de Zúñiga, as his bride and became a marquis, securing both a high social status and a rather worldly and immodest reputation.
Article 12
Thursday December 11th
I Could, But I Won’t! I Should, but I Don’t!
Thursday December 11th
I Could, But I Won’t! I Should, but I Don’t!
Just Stop and Think About It!
You have no doubt heard the expression: “Ignorance does not excuse from the law!” This modern-day expression is not as modern as most would think! “Ignorantia juris non excusat” or “ignorantia legis neminem excusat” is Latin for “ignorance of the law excuses not” and “ignorance of law excuses no one” and is a legal principle holding that a person who is unaware of a law may not escape liability for violating that law, merely because the person was unaware of its content.
European-law countries, with a tradition of Roman Law, also use an expression from the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, which was translated into Latin as: “nemo censetur ignorare legem” (meaning: “nobody is thought to be ignorant of the law”) or “ignorantia iuris nocet” (meaning: “not knowing the law is harmful”).
The rationale of the doctrine is that if ignorance were an excuse, then persons charged with criminal offenses, or a subject of a civil lawsuit, would merely claim that they unaware of the law in question to avoid liability, even if those persons really did know what the law in question was. Thus, the law presupposes knowledge of all laws to all persons within the jurisdiction. Even though it would be impossible, even for someone with years of legal training, to be aware of every single law in operation in every aspect of a state's activities, this is the price paid to ensure that willful blindness cannot become the basis of exculpation (escaping blame).
Know and Follow the Laws of the Organization
Therefore, it is an accepted argument that persons wishing to engage in any undertakings or activities outside what is common for a normal person, such as running a nuclear power plant, opening a business venture, importing foreign workers, or even just acquiring a license to drive a car on the roads, will take due diligence to make themselves aware of the all laws that exist and are necessary to engage in that undertaking or business. If they do not take due diligence to research those laws, they cannot complain if they incur liability in breaking them. If you have a license to drive a vehicle on the roads, then it is presumed and understood that you have studied the highway code and are familiar with the laws, rules and regulations contained therein.
Know and Follow the Laws of the Faith
This is also true of the Catholic Faith. If anyone wishes to enter into the business of saving their soul in the Catholic Faith, they must take due diligence to research and find out what the laws of that Faith are—this is based upon the irrefutable and inescapable principle of: “He who desires an end or a goal, must also necessarily desires the means to achieve that end or goal.” In short, or in a nutshell, if you want to save your soul and get to Heaven, you must follow the laws and accept the means that God has put in place for saving your soul and attaining Heaven. Or, if you want it putting more simply and bluntly than that, then it is simply “His way or the highway!” God has the final say and He says: “Take My way to Heaven, or take the highway to Hell!” Our Lord tells us that most take the highway to Hell: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14)
When is a Law a Law? When isn’t a Law a Law?
The doctrine of “ignorance of the law does not excuse from the law” assumes that the law in question has been properly promulgated—published and distributed, for example, by being printed in a government publication, made available over the internet, or printed in volumes available for sale to the public at affordable prices. In the ancient phrase of Gratian, “Leges instituuntur cum promulgantur” (meaning: “Laws are instituted when they are promulgated”). In order that a law obtain the binding force which is proper to a law, it must be applied to the men who have to be ruled by it. Such application is made by their being given notice by promulgation. A law can bind only when it is reasonably possible for those to whom it applies to acquire knowledge of it in order to observe it, even if actual knowledge of the law is absent for a particular individual. A secret law is no law at all.
When we apply this to the Law of God and the Laws of the Church, all of these are readily available to everyone—even in the old days—through catechisms, the Bible, other Catholic literature, and now, since the Advent of the Internet, they are available for free and easily found with a “Google search”!
Ignorance Does Not Excuse From Hell
If ignorance of God’s Law could excuse us from going to Hell, then—what the Hell—let’s not bother learning or knowing anything about God and His Laws, then sin as much as we want, then plead ignorance when we die and we are guaranteed to go to Heaven! Hey! What a great idea! What a way to live! You just can’t lose! Well, if that’s our hope or attitude, then we will lose—we will lose our soul to Hell and embark on a helluva an eternity!
If ignorance of God and the Laws of God could excuse our sins and excuse us from Hell, then why the hell does Holy Scripture, not to mention Our Lord Himself, teach us the very opposite? We read the following:
“The Lord spoke to me, saying: ‘Call together the people unto Me, that they may hear my words, and may learn to fear Me all the time that they live on the Earth, and may teach their children … Hear, O Israel, the ceremonies and judgments, which I speak in your ears this day! Learn them and fulfill them!” (Deuteronomy 4:10; 5:1).
“Hear therefore, ye kings, and understand! Learn, ye that are judges of the ends of the Earth! Give ear, you that rule the people, and that please yourselves in multitudes of nations! For power is given you by the Lord, and the most High will examine your works and search out your thoughts! Because, being ministers of His kingdom, you have not judged rightly, nor kept the law of justice, nor walked according to the will of God … For God will not respect any man's person, neither will he stand in awe of any man’s greatness! … To you, therefore, O kings, are these My words, that you may learn wisdom, and not fall from it! For they that have kept just things justly, shall be justified! And they that have learned these things, shall find what to answer. Covet ye therefore My words, and love them, and you shall have instruction.” (Wisdom 6:2-12).
Our Lord Himself says: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life!” (John 14:6). “Take up My yoke upon you, and learn of Me!” (Matthew 11:29). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If any one love me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make our abode with him. He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words. And the word, which you have heard, is not Mine; but the Father’s, Who sent Me” (John 14:15; 14:21-24). It takes a brave man or a fool to say: “I’m not interested in learning about Your words! I’m not interested in knowing what Your commandments are! I’m not interested in keeping Your commandments or following Your word!” Hell is full of such brave men and fools!
Pope St. Pius X also speaks of this damnation through neglect or lack of knowledge through ignorance: “We are forced to agree with those who hold that the chief cause of the present indifference and the serious evils that result from it, is to be found above all in ignorance of things divine … It is a common complaint, unfortunately too well founded, that there are large numbers of Christians, in our own time, who are entirely ignorant of those truths necessary for salvation. We refer not only to the masses or to those in the lower walks of life — but We refer to those especially who do not lack culture or talents and, indeed, are possessed of abundant knowledge regarding things of the world but live rashly and imprudently with regard to religion. It is hard to find words to describe how profound is the darkness in which they are engulfed, and, what is most deplorable of all, how tranquilly they repose there. They rarely give thought to God! … They have no conception of the malice and baseness of sin; hence they show no anxiety to avoid sin or to renounce it. And so they arrive at life's end in such a condition … and then calmly face the fearful passage to eternity without making their peace with God. And so Our Predecessor, Pope Benedict XIV, had just cause to write: ‘We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment, suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those mysteries of Faith which must be known and believed in order to be numbered among the elect.’ … How many and how grave are the consequences of ignorance in matters of religion! It is indeed vain to expect a fulfillment of the duties of a Christian by one who does not even know them.” (Pope St. Pius X, encyclical Acerbo Nimis, 1905).
No Ignorance in Hell
There are basically two kinds of people in Hell—those who broke the law of God and those who didn’t know the law of God. Ignorance does not excuse a soul from going to Hell! There is no soul who is ignorant as to why there are in Hell! Nobody in Hell is saying: “Why the hell am I here? What the hell did I do? Where the hell is justice?”
No! Everyone in Hell clearly knows why they are in Hell. The moment each person dies, God sheds a light into their minds that lets them see everything that they DID DO and everything that they SHOULD HAVE DONE, BUT DIDN’T DO! Neglect or negligence of an action can be just as serious as the performance of an action.
Our Lord bluntly and powerfully conveys this truth in His parable about the Sheep and the Goats—where the “Goats” are sent to Hell, not so much for what they DID, but for what they NEGLECTED TO DO!
“And when the Son of man shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the seat of His majesty. And all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats! And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left.
“Then shall the King say to them that shall be on His right hand: ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; naked, and you covered Me; sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me!’
“Then shall the just answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, and fed Thee? Thirsty, and gave Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a stranger and took Thee in? Or naked, and covered Thee? Or when did we see Thee sick or in prison, and came to Thee?’ And the King answering, shall say to them: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me!’
“Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat! I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink! I was a stranger, and you took Me not in! Naked, and you covered Me not! Sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me!’
“Then they also shall answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?’ Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting” (Matthew 25:31-46). Damned for negligence! Damned—even though they pleaded ignorance! Ignorance of the law does not excuse from the law, because you should know the laws of the business that you choose to practice, and so you should know the laws of the business that saves or damns souls—which are the Laws of God and the laws of the Church.
The Vicious Circle of Lack of Knowledge and Lack of Love
The is a vicious circle that can arise with the process of knowledge and love. On the one hand, we cannot love what we do not know. On the other hand, we will not study and learn about that which we love little. St. Thérèse of Lisieux—the Little Flower—applies this our love (or lack of love) towards Our Lord: “Jesus is so little loved because He is so little known!” To which we could add the second part of the “vicious circle” principle: “Jesus is so little known because He is so little loved!” or “Jesus is so little known because few care to know about Him!” We don’t hate Him, but we don’t love Him. We say we love Him, but it is mere lip-service—it is “lip-talk” and not “heart-talk”—as Our Lord Himself complains: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). Here, Our Lord is referring to the words that God, His Father, spoke to the Israelites through His prophet Isaias: “And the Lord said: ‘Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify Me, but their heart is far from Me!” (Isaias 29:13).
Surface Christianity Can Sink to the Depths of Hell
We, likewise, can easily, readily, comfortably and even happily become “Surface Christians” or “Superficial Catholics” who “surf the Faith” like we “surf the Internet”—skimming and skipping over the surface of things, without having any real inclination or determination to “dive into the waters” of real knowledge and especially staying clear of any risks of “deep-sea-diving” which would truly deepen our knowledge of the Faith, because we hear that “deep-sea-diving” can give you “the bends” when resurfacing—and we feel that too deep a knowledge of the Faith would “drive us round the bend” as we resurface into the superficial surface waters of the world. Thus the seed of knowledge, the seed of God’s words, the seed of the Faith remains more or less unfruitful, the branches of our Faith wither and gradually die-off (as the Faith is dying-off in most souls today) and there remains the ever increasing possibility of being “separated from the vine” and “being cast into the fire”—a reality that Our Lord pointed-out:
“I am the true vine; and My Father is the farmer. Every branch in Me, that bears not fruit, He will take away! And every one that bears fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit! Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine: you the branches! He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:1-6).
The Devil Wants a Flimsy Faith
Heaven is all about love. Hell is all about hatred. Love is based on knowledge—we cannot love what we do not know. Hence the devil wants us to have a flimsy Faith so that we end up with lousy love. The devil plays a big part making religion, the Faith, the teachings of Faith, the practice of the Faith, seem boring and the world―of which he is prince―seem to be exciting. God tries to ‘sow’ the seed of His word in our minds and hearts, and the devil tries to take away that seed before it has chance to strike its roots in our soul. Our Lord’s parable about the Sower of the Seed illustrates that truth perfectly—wherein He tells us that the Word of God is like seed that God (the Sower) seeks to plant in our soul (soil), but both the cares of the world and riches (thorns) and devil (birds of the air) work together to prevent the seed from eventually bearing fruit. Here is the parable and Our Lord’s explanation of it:
“And Jesus spoke to them many things in parables, saying: ‘The sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and it was trodden down, and the birds of the air came and ate them up and devoured the seed. And other seed fell upon stony ground, upon rock, where they had not much earth, and they sprung up immediately, because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up they were scorched: and because they had not root, they withered away, because that seed had no moisture. And other some fell among thorns, and the thorns growing up with the seed, choked the seed. And other seed fell upon good ground; and being sprung up, yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold!’
“And His disciples asked Him what this parable might be. Jesus answered and said to them: ‘The parable is this: The seed is the Word of God and they by the way side are they that hear. When any one hears the Word of the Kingdom and understands it not, there comes the wicked one, the devil, and takes away that which was sown in his heart, lest by believing it, they should be saved. This is he that received the seed by the way side.
“ ‘And they that received the seed upon stony ground, are they that hear the Word of God, and immediately, when they hear the Word of God, receive the Word with joy. Yet they have no roots in themselves and it is only for a time, for they believe only for a while, and, in time of temptation, when there arises tribulation and persecution because of the Word of God, they are quickly scandalized and they fall away.
“ ‘And they that received the seed among thorns, are they that hear the Word of God, but the cares of this world, the pleasures of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the Word of God, and the Word becomes fruitless and yields no fruit. But those that received the seed upon good ground, are they who, in a good and perfect heart, hear the Word of God and understand it and bring forth fruit in patience, and yield, the one an hundredfold, and another sixty, and another thirty!’” (Combination of Matthew 13:3-23; Luke 8:5-15).
We Hear But Don’t Hear—We Know But Don’t Know―We Love But Don’t Love
For the most part, Catholics are a walking contradiction. They go to church on Sunday, but they don’t go to church with all the mind, heart, soul and strength. They listen to the Word of God, but it goes in one ear and out the other. They know they are Catholics, but they don’t really know Catholicism. They would protest that they love God, but God would protest that they don’t love Him—which is essentially what the Sacred Heart of Jesus said to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque: “My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men, that, being unable any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its burning Charity, It must needs spread them abroad and manifest Itself to them (mankind) in order to enrich them with the precious graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition. Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive, from the greater part of mankind, only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love.”
We Know Much, But the Wrong Things—We Love Much, But the Wrong Things!
Everybody knows a lot about something! Everybody loves something a lot! We never get bored with what we love and we can never know enough about what we love. So let nobody say that they are incapable of much study, much effort, much knowledge, and much love—we all study certain things a lot, we put a lot of effort into certain things, we know a lot about certain things and we love certain things a lot—for a man it might be DIY and maintenance work on the house and cars; it might be watching or participating in sports; it could be politics and current world affairs; or perhaps hunting and guns; or any other hobby or interest. For a woman it might be knowledge and the acquisition of skills that pertain to the raising, the health, the education and general care of the children; or things that pertain to cooking and all the other skills that are classified as “domestic science”; or it could one of a whole myriad of possible hobbies. If we were to really pay attention to how much time, effort, money, long-suffering, patience and perseverance we have put into our favorite subjects, hobbies or pastimes, then we would no doubt be amazed.
You Reap What You Sow—You Get What You Look For!
Yet what is all this in comparison to God? You would think that we had become insane—placing these inferior and temporary things above God, yet that is what 99% of people do! No wonder Holy Scripture says: “The fool said in his heart: ‘There is no God!’ They are corrupted and become abominable in iniquities! There is none that does good! God looked down from Heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, or did seek God. All have gone aside, they are become unprofitable together, there is none that doth good, no not one!” (Psalm 52:1-4). Is there a connection between that and what Our Lord later said? You tell me! “And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But Jesus said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!’” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14).
Why don’t they find it? They do not find it because they have little interest in finding it and little love for it! The world is much more interesting and much more lovable! We certainly know how to love, but we love the wrong things—we love the things that risk bringing about our eternal damnation, and avoid, almost like the plague, those things that are conducive to our eternal salvation. “Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a provoking house: who have eyes to see, and see not; and ears to hear, and hear not―for they are a provoking house!” (Ezechiel 12:2). “Hear, O foolish people, and without any understanding―who have eyes and see not; and ears, and hear not! Will not you then fear Me, saith the Lord, and will you not repent at My presence?” (Jeremias 5:21-22).
Wake-Up Call!—Once Again!
Advent―just like all the fruitless Advents that have slipped by in the past―would be the perfect time to repent, as the Advent liturgy suggests, warns or even commands: “Brethren! Understand, for it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we came to believe! The night is far advanced; the day is at hand! Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy! But put on the Lord Jesus Christ!” (Romans 13:11-14).
Advent is not primarily a time of hanging lights, lighting Advent candles, looking at colorful Jesse Tree images, or “pop-out-door” Advent calendars—this is, once again, mere surface Christianity. Such things can help—like striking a match can help light a bonfire—but if there is little or nothing to burn, or little or nothing of true sentiments in the soul, then you will merely have a bunch of beautiful feathers without the bird! All fluff, no substance!
Yet we refuse to rise from our spiritual sleep, or secular slumber, preferring to snore away salvation whilst dreaming of other things! Oh well! O Hell! One day all the sleepers will wake up and Our Lord has already indicated the loveless lot or fate of most of them. “Why call you Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say? … Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Luke 6:46; Matthew 7:21-23).
Our Lord is Love, He Wants Love, Love is Heaven’s Key
It is amazing how such a great love—as Our Lord has for us—can be so callously spurned! IGNORANCE of God’s love for us is one of chief causes of a lack of a return of love to Him. We need to dispel that IGNORANCE! To Sr. Mary of the Trinity, Our Lord says: “This is the only reality: I love you and I take care of you ... There is only one reality: I love you! You are Mine! I ask only for love! Ah, what are you doing about it?” (Fr. Gottemuller, Words of Love, ch. 14 & 15).
To Sr. Consolata Betrone He says: “Do not make Me out a God of rigor, whereas I am nothing but a God of Love!” … Write ‘The Gentle Heart of Jesus’―for everyone knows that I am holy, but not all know that I am gentle! … Oh, if people would only love Me, what happiness would reign in this unhappy world!” (Fr. Gottemuller, Words of Love, ch. 15 & 16). Why are we so unhappy? Why are you so unhappy? Because we do not really love God! Because you do not really love God! You say that you do—with your lips—but your heart tells Him another story!
To Sr. Josefa Menendez Our Lord says: “Ah, if souls only understood how ardently I desire to communicate Myself to them! But how few do understand ... and how deeply this wounds My Heart … If only they [souls] KNEW My Heart ... mankind is IGNORANT of Its mercy and goodness: that is My greatest sorrow! ... I am all love―and how, then, could I treat severely those I so love?” (Fr. Gottemuller, Words of Love, ch. 15).
Our Lord is Love itself: “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and wants to share that love—but insanely, we place barriers against that love. The bottom line is that we are afraid of being loved by Christ! That may sound weird, but, deep down, we sense that His true love will expose our fake love; and that His deep love will oblige us sail out of the current shallow waters of love in which we wallow! For, as they say, “Love is reciprocal”—which means it “give and take”. Of course everyone loves to be loved—but very few return that love as they ought.
Speaking to Sr. Mary of the Trinity, Our Lord said: “I love you! Is that not enough to fill every one of your moments with the fullness of joy? I love you and desire that you should know it! Oh, if you knew how much I love you, My little child! Leave all! Let there no longer be anything else in the world for you, but the love between you and Me! Am I not enough for you? Is it not sufficient for you to know that your Jesus loves you? It is such a great thing to belong to Me! What does anything else matter to you? Be full of joy at belonging to Me! I want you to be altogether Mine!” (Fr. Gottemuller, Words of Love, ch. 15).
That is scary! We do NOT want to let go of all that is the world! We are so used to our shallow “lip-service” love of Jesus, we are scared to wade into the deeper waters of a real “heart-service”! Who knows where it all might lead to! So stay in the shallow waters and think to ourselves: “I wish Jesus, that shark of love, would go love someone else and leave me alone! I don’t real care much for His kind of love! It’s too demanding and too scary!”
Love Should Be Ever Increasing—But Not By Mere Externals
St. Thomas Aquinas says that every act of love should be returned or rewarded by a greater act of love—this is something that frightens us. We would prefer to just receive Christ’s love without having to return it—especially if it means “upping” the level of love each time. This sounds and seems to be a “too much”! We are far more comfortable in the realm of “lip-service” and “pretended love” than we are in the realm of “heart-service” and “real love”. We try to offer Christ other things in place of our love—prayers, sacrifices, works, projects, penances, meditations, Mass attendance, Communions, Rosaries, or a thousand other things. These things are not bad in themselves, but they depend upon love for their value. Remember what St. Paul says:
“If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). We can give Our Lord all our prayers, sacrifices, works, projects, penances, meditations, Mass attendance, Communions, Rosaries, or a thousand other things—but if they are not done out of a love of God, then they are worthless!
Our Lord presented the flip-side of the coin as mentioned by St. Paul, when He said to Sr. Consolata Betrone: “I delight in gifts which are offered with all possible love. Then even your trifles become precious to Me!”
Charity Check-List
St. Paul then goes on to give a list of what Charity achieves, or the effects of Charity, or the signs that Charity might be present, a kind of a check-list whereby we can run a check on the engine of Charity in our soul, to see if it is functioning and how well it is functioning. Do we see all of these ‘symptoms’ or ‘signs’ of Charity in our soul, and how often? “Charity is patient, is kind. Charity envies not, deals not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious, seeks not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believeth all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
That list of fifteen effects of charity—though not exhaustive in number, but certainly exhausting to carry out—is a litmus test that quickly differentiates between mere “lip-love” and real “heart-love”!
► How is your patience? This brings to mind the parable of the unjust steward who owed his master so much for so long that he was about to be thrown into prison, “but that servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt. But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence: and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: ‘Pay what thou owest!’ And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt” (Matthew 18:26-30). Enough said? We all have a little bit of that inside of us when it comes to patience or impatience with others. Yet there is also impatience with ourselves and the lack of progress in material or spiritual things, impatience with events, circumstances, things, etc. All of this betrays an ignorance of how Divine Providence works!
► How kind are you?—kind actions and words are, in a certain sense, easier than kind thoughts, because everyone can see and hear our words, but nobody can see or read our thoughts! Additionally, we should ask: “Who are we kind to?” Our Lord hits human nature on the head when He rightly points-out: “Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you. If you love them that love you, what thanks are due to you? For sinners also love those that love them. And if you do good to them who do good to you, what thanks are due to you? For sinners also do this. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thanks are due to you? For sinners also lend to sinners, for to receive as much. But love ye your enemies: do good, and lend, hoping for nothing thereby: and your reward shall be great” (Luke 6:27-35). Now that’s real kindness! That’s also real tough!
► Envy? That’s a “biggie” these days—envious of others for the spiritual gifts and goods, their material wealth and health, their beauty or strength, their popularity, the praise they get, the successes they have, the list is endless and endless is the number of envious persons too!
► Dealing perversely? This is not so much about sexual perverts as it is about dirty-dealings. How many times have we perversely twisted, exaggerated, misrepresented the truth? How many times have we not given opportunities or benefits to those we simply do not like? How many times have perverted the course of justice or the providence of God because we were envious of someone, or held a grudge against someone, or disliked someone?
► Puffed-up? The puffed-up extrovert is more easily spotted than the puffed-up introvert, but both kinds are liable to being puffed-up—hey, we are living in a puffed-up world, aren’t we? You cannot place clothes in a smoky room for long, without them taking on the smell of smoke! Likewise with living in a puffed-up world! Some hide it better than others!
► Ambitious? Most people are, but won’t always show it, because it can make them unpopular. There is an art to being ambitious without showing it and denying it! Practice makes perfect! Just about everyone is trying to climb one ladder ot another—be it at work, or amongst family and relatives, or in the parish or school, be it for money, for power, for influence, for fame, for popularity, for respect, for a thousand and one other reasons.
► Seeks not one’s own advantage? Is there one such person walking the face of the Earth who does not seek their own advantage in one way or another, in one thing or another? We are born with that tendency and use it very effectively from our infancy onwards! Again, with time and practice, we can hide it pretty well.
► Is not provoked to anger? Once again, the anger of the extroverts is easily seen—for they wear it on their sleeve. The anger of introverts is carried around in the pocket! Yet both kinds of anger are anger! At the root of all anger there ultimately lurks self-love, self-will, and pride. Things do not go for us as favorably as we think—in our Human Providence—that they should go, and so we get angry!
► Thinketh no evil? Hmm! Who knows what you think! And there lies the advantage! If nobody knows what you are thinking, then you can think what you want without any repercussions—until you have to answer to God, that is!
► Rejoices not in iniquity? With the massive growth in the media outlets over the last 20 years—endless TV channels, worldwide internet with its countless blogs and forums, there is a helluva lot of rejoicing in iniquity! People love it because it lowers standards and so they feel better about their own sins and less likely to quit them, if they can read about similar or even greater sins being committed by others! This links in to the “splinter-in-the-eye” and the “plank-in-the-eye” stuff that Our Lord spoke about.
► Rejoices with the truth? Well, yes and no! We are more likely to rejoice in the truth when it comes to the sins of others being exposed, than rejoicing in the truth when our own sins are exposed? What was that about the goose and the gander? We rejoice in the truth when we can point the finger, but not when it is pointed at us?
► Bears all things? How much do you mutter and complain each day? How critical are you each day? Our exterior failings in this regard are merely tips of the iceberg compared to our interior mutterings, murmurings, complaints and criticisms. How well do bear the correction or criticism of others? The insults of others? The calumnies or detractions of others? The mockery of others? The rejection by others? How do we handle things when they go wrong for us? The car won’t start, the wipers smear or don’t clean properly, the red traffic lights, the traffic jams, the bad drivers, losing that open parking space to another car, the rainy day, the broken appliance, the broken dish, the power outage, the pen that won’t write, the misplaced keys/wallet/etc.
► Believes all things? Again, yes and no! We believe it when people say good things about us, but we are in disbelief when they speak ill of us! We will believe all lies if they are about people that we dislike, but we will not believe the painful truth about people that we like! Sometimes believing all things is a vice due to our naivety, gullibility, or lazy ignorance which refuses to check facts and details.
► Hopes all things? Here again, yes and no! We sometimes hope for the wrong things! I hope I win the lottery! I hope I get rich! I hope my enemies drop dead! I hope I can sin and still get to Heaven! At other times, we hope in ourselves more than we hope in God. We think or hope to achieve things without His help or His agreement. Hope in God, hope in Our Lady, hope in attaining holiness and Heaven, hope in overcoming sin, hope in overcoming the world, the flesh and the devil—these should be our chief hopes, our holy hopes, and only hopes in a certain sense—for as Jesus said: “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
► Endures all things? Everyone, as St. Paul says, starts the race—but only one gets the prize. Run so as to win! Winners need endurance, as Our Lord says: “He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:22). What do we have to endure? The cross! “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23). That cross is found every day, in multiple places, coming from multiple people. Our Lord warned: “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19). “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law!” (Luke 12:51-53). “And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake. But he that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Mark 13:13).
Ignorantly Ignoring Unignorable Truths
There is an irrefutable link between damnation and religious ignorance—as the article has tried to show. From the vain and failed pleas of ignorance from the ‘Goats’ in Our Lord’s parable, to the words of the popes--“The chief cause of the present indifference and the serious evils that result from it, is to be found above all in ignorance of things divine … There are large numbers of Christians, in our own time, who are entirely ignorant of those truths necessary for salvation. What is most deplorable of all, how tranquilly they repose there. They rarely give thought to God! … Our Predecessor, Pope Benedict XIV, had just cause to write: ‘We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment, suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those mysteries of Faith which must be known and believed in order to be numbered among the elect.’” (Pope St. Pius X, encyclical Acerbo Nimis, 1905).
As we wander or blunder through Advent—purposefully or aimlessly—like the Israelites with Moses in the desert, let us use the time at our disposal (or make time to be at disposal) to show a change of attitude to God. Perhaps, like the Israelites in their forty-year meanderings in the desert, we may have been wandering aimlessly from one Advent to another, merely going round in circles. Let us break out of that vicious circle of little knowledge and little love, and at last find, what Our Lord calls, the narrow, strait path that leads to Heaven and that very few people find!
You have no doubt heard the expression: “Ignorance does not excuse from the law!” This modern-day expression is not as modern as most would think! “Ignorantia juris non excusat” or “ignorantia legis neminem excusat” is Latin for “ignorance of the law excuses not” and “ignorance of law excuses no one” and is a legal principle holding that a person who is unaware of a law may not escape liability for violating that law, merely because the person was unaware of its content.
European-law countries, with a tradition of Roman Law, also use an expression from the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, which was translated into Latin as: “nemo censetur ignorare legem” (meaning: “nobody is thought to be ignorant of the law”) or “ignorantia iuris nocet” (meaning: “not knowing the law is harmful”).
The rationale of the doctrine is that if ignorance were an excuse, then persons charged with criminal offenses, or a subject of a civil lawsuit, would merely claim that they unaware of the law in question to avoid liability, even if those persons really did know what the law in question was. Thus, the law presupposes knowledge of all laws to all persons within the jurisdiction. Even though it would be impossible, even for someone with years of legal training, to be aware of every single law in operation in every aspect of a state's activities, this is the price paid to ensure that willful blindness cannot become the basis of exculpation (escaping blame).
Know and Follow the Laws of the Organization
Therefore, it is an accepted argument that persons wishing to engage in any undertakings or activities outside what is common for a normal person, such as running a nuclear power plant, opening a business venture, importing foreign workers, or even just acquiring a license to drive a car on the roads, will take due diligence to make themselves aware of the all laws that exist and are necessary to engage in that undertaking or business. If they do not take due diligence to research those laws, they cannot complain if they incur liability in breaking them. If you have a license to drive a vehicle on the roads, then it is presumed and understood that you have studied the highway code and are familiar with the laws, rules and regulations contained therein.
Know and Follow the Laws of the Faith
This is also true of the Catholic Faith. If anyone wishes to enter into the business of saving their soul in the Catholic Faith, they must take due diligence to research and find out what the laws of that Faith are—this is based upon the irrefutable and inescapable principle of: “He who desires an end or a goal, must also necessarily desires the means to achieve that end or goal.” In short, or in a nutshell, if you want to save your soul and get to Heaven, you must follow the laws and accept the means that God has put in place for saving your soul and attaining Heaven. Or, if you want it putting more simply and bluntly than that, then it is simply “His way or the highway!” God has the final say and He says: “Take My way to Heaven, or take the highway to Hell!” Our Lord tells us that most take the highway to Hell: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14)
When is a Law a Law? When isn’t a Law a Law?
The doctrine of “ignorance of the law does not excuse from the law” assumes that the law in question has been properly promulgated—published and distributed, for example, by being printed in a government publication, made available over the internet, or printed in volumes available for sale to the public at affordable prices. In the ancient phrase of Gratian, “Leges instituuntur cum promulgantur” (meaning: “Laws are instituted when they are promulgated”). In order that a law obtain the binding force which is proper to a law, it must be applied to the men who have to be ruled by it. Such application is made by their being given notice by promulgation. A law can bind only when it is reasonably possible for those to whom it applies to acquire knowledge of it in order to observe it, even if actual knowledge of the law is absent for a particular individual. A secret law is no law at all.
When we apply this to the Law of God and the Laws of the Church, all of these are readily available to everyone—even in the old days—through catechisms, the Bible, other Catholic literature, and now, since the Advent of the Internet, they are available for free and easily found with a “Google search”!
Ignorance Does Not Excuse From Hell
If ignorance of God’s Law could excuse us from going to Hell, then—what the Hell—let’s not bother learning or knowing anything about God and His Laws, then sin as much as we want, then plead ignorance when we die and we are guaranteed to go to Heaven! Hey! What a great idea! What a way to live! You just can’t lose! Well, if that’s our hope or attitude, then we will lose—we will lose our soul to Hell and embark on a helluva an eternity!
If ignorance of God and the Laws of God could excuse our sins and excuse us from Hell, then why the hell does Holy Scripture, not to mention Our Lord Himself, teach us the very opposite? We read the following:
“The Lord spoke to me, saying: ‘Call together the people unto Me, that they may hear my words, and may learn to fear Me all the time that they live on the Earth, and may teach their children … Hear, O Israel, the ceremonies and judgments, which I speak in your ears this day! Learn them and fulfill them!” (Deuteronomy 4:10; 5:1).
“Hear therefore, ye kings, and understand! Learn, ye that are judges of the ends of the Earth! Give ear, you that rule the people, and that please yourselves in multitudes of nations! For power is given you by the Lord, and the most High will examine your works and search out your thoughts! Because, being ministers of His kingdom, you have not judged rightly, nor kept the law of justice, nor walked according to the will of God … For God will not respect any man's person, neither will he stand in awe of any man’s greatness! … To you, therefore, O kings, are these My words, that you may learn wisdom, and not fall from it! For they that have kept just things justly, shall be justified! And they that have learned these things, shall find what to answer. Covet ye therefore My words, and love them, and you shall have instruction.” (Wisdom 6:2-12).
Our Lord Himself says: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life!” (John 14:6). “Take up My yoke upon you, and learn of Me!” (Matthew 11:29). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If any one love me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make our abode with him. He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words. And the word, which you have heard, is not Mine; but the Father’s, Who sent Me” (John 14:15; 14:21-24). It takes a brave man or a fool to say: “I’m not interested in learning about Your words! I’m not interested in knowing what Your commandments are! I’m not interested in keeping Your commandments or following Your word!” Hell is full of such brave men and fools!
Pope St. Pius X also speaks of this damnation through neglect or lack of knowledge through ignorance: “We are forced to agree with those who hold that the chief cause of the present indifference and the serious evils that result from it, is to be found above all in ignorance of things divine … It is a common complaint, unfortunately too well founded, that there are large numbers of Christians, in our own time, who are entirely ignorant of those truths necessary for salvation. We refer not only to the masses or to those in the lower walks of life — but We refer to those especially who do not lack culture or talents and, indeed, are possessed of abundant knowledge regarding things of the world but live rashly and imprudently with regard to religion. It is hard to find words to describe how profound is the darkness in which they are engulfed, and, what is most deplorable of all, how tranquilly they repose there. They rarely give thought to God! … They have no conception of the malice and baseness of sin; hence they show no anxiety to avoid sin or to renounce it. And so they arrive at life's end in such a condition … and then calmly face the fearful passage to eternity without making their peace with God. And so Our Predecessor, Pope Benedict XIV, had just cause to write: ‘We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment, suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those mysteries of Faith which must be known and believed in order to be numbered among the elect.’ … How many and how grave are the consequences of ignorance in matters of religion! It is indeed vain to expect a fulfillment of the duties of a Christian by one who does not even know them.” (Pope St. Pius X, encyclical Acerbo Nimis, 1905).
No Ignorance in Hell
There are basically two kinds of people in Hell—those who broke the law of God and those who didn’t know the law of God. Ignorance does not excuse a soul from going to Hell! There is no soul who is ignorant as to why there are in Hell! Nobody in Hell is saying: “Why the hell am I here? What the hell did I do? Where the hell is justice?”
No! Everyone in Hell clearly knows why they are in Hell. The moment each person dies, God sheds a light into their minds that lets them see everything that they DID DO and everything that they SHOULD HAVE DONE, BUT DIDN’T DO! Neglect or negligence of an action can be just as serious as the performance of an action.
Our Lord bluntly and powerfully conveys this truth in His parable about the Sheep and the Goats—where the “Goats” are sent to Hell, not so much for what they DID, but for what they NEGLECTED TO DO!
“And when the Son of man shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the seat of His majesty. And all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats! And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left.
“Then shall the King say to them that shall be on His right hand: ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; naked, and you covered Me; sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me!’
“Then shall the just answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, and fed Thee? Thirsty, and gave Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a stranger and took Thee in? Or naked, and covered Thee? Or when did we see Thee sick or in prison, and came to Thee?’ And the King answering, shall say to them: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me!’
“Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat! I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink! I was a stranger, and you took Me not in! Naked, and you covered Me not! Sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me!’
“Then they also shall answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?’ Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting” (Matthew 25:31-46). Damned for negligence! Damned—even though they pleaded ignorance! Ignorance of the law does not excuse from the law, because you should know the laws of the business that you choose to practice, and so you should know the laws of the business that saves or damns souls—which are the Laws of God and the laws of the Church.
The Vicious Circle of Lack of Knowledge and Lack of Love
The is a vicious circle that can arise with the process of knowledge and love. On the one hand, we cannot love what we do not know. On the other hand, we will not study and learn about that which we love little. St. Thérèse of Lisieux—the Little Flower—applies this our love (or lack of love) towards Our Lord: “Jesus is so little loved because He is so little known!” To which we could add the second part of the “vicious circle” principle: “Jesus is so little known because He is so little loved!” or “Jesus is so little known because few care to know about Him!” We don’t hate Him, but we don’t love Him. We say we love Him, but it is mere lip-service—it is “lip-talk” and not “heart-talk”—as Our Lord Himself complains: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). Here, Our Lord is referring to the words that God, His Father, spoke to the Israelites through His prophet Isaias: “And the Lord said: ‘Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify Me, but their heart is far from Me!” (Isaias 29:13).
Surface Christianity Can Sink to the Depths of Hell
We, likewise, can easily, readily, comfortably and even happily become “Surface Christians” or “Superficial Catholics” who “surf the Faith” like we “surf the Internet”—skimming and skipping over the surface of things, without having any real inclination or determination to “dive into the waters” of real knowledge and especially staying clear of any risks of “deep-sea-diving” which would truly deepen our knowledge of the Faith, because we hear that “deep-sea-diving” can give you “the bends” when resurfacing—and we feel that too deep a knowledge of the Faith would “drive us round the bend” as we resurface into the superficial surface waters of the world. Thus the seed of knowledge, the seed of God’s words, the seed of the Faith remains more or less unfruitful, the branches of our Faith wither and gradually die-off (as the Faith is dying-off in most souls today) and there remains the ever increasing possibility of being “separated from the vine” and “being cast into the fire”—a reality that Our Lord pointed-out:
“I am the true vine; and My Father is the farmer. Every branch in Me, that bears not fruit, He will take away! And every one that bears fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit! Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine: you the branches! He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:1-6).
The Devil Wants a Flimsy Faith
Heaven is all about love. Hell is all about hatred. Love is based on knowledge—we cannot love what we do not know. Hence the devil wants us to have a flimsy Faith so that we end up with lousy love. The devil plays a big part making religion, the Faith, the teachings of Faith, the practice of the Faith, seem boring and the world―of which he is prince―seem to be exciting. God tries to ‘sow’ the seed of His word in our minds and hearts, and the devil tries to take away that seed before it has chance to strike its roots in our soul. Our Lord’s parable about the Sower of the Seed illustrates that truth perfectly—wherein He tells us that the Word of God is like seed that God (the Sower) seeks to plant in our soul (soil), but both the cares of the world and riches (thorns) and devil (birds of the air) work together to prevent the seed from eventually bearing fruit. Here is the parable and Our Lord’s explanation of it:
“And Jesus spoke to them many things in parables, saying: ‘The sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and it was trodden down, and the birds of the air came and ate them up and devoured the seed. And other seed fell upon stony ground, upon rock, where they had not much earth, and they sprung up immediately, because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up they were scorched: and because they had not root, they withered away, because that seed had no moisture. And other some fell among thorns, and the thorns growing up with the seed, choked the seed. And other seed fell upon good ground; and being sprung up, yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold!’
“And His disciples asked Him what this parable might be. Jesus answered and said to them: ‘The parable is this: The seed is the Word of God and they by the way side are they that hear. When any one hears the Word of the Kingdom and understands it not, there comes the wicked one, the devil, and takes away that which was sown in his heart, lest by believing it, they should be saved. This is he that received the seed by the way side.
“ ‘And they that received the seed upon stony ground, are they that hear the Word of God, and immediately, when they hear the Word of God, receive the Word with joy. Yet they have no roots in themselves and it is only for a time, for they believe only for a while, and, in time of temptation, when there arises tribulation and persecution because of the Word of God, they are quickly scandalized and they fall away.
“ ‘And they that received the seed among thorns, are they that hear the Word of God, but the cares of this world, the pleasures of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the Word of God, and the Word becomes fruitless and yields no fruit. But those that received the seed upon good ground, are they who, in a good and perfect heart, hear the Word of God and understand it and bring forth fruit in patience, and yield, the one an hundredfold, and another sixty, and another thirty!’” (Combination of Matthew 13:3-23; Luke 8:5-15).
We Hear But Don’t Hear—We Know But Don’t Know―We Love But Don’t Love
For the most part, Catholics are a walking contradiction. They go to church on Sunday, but they don’t go to church with all the mind, heart, soul and strength. They listen to the Word of God, but it goes in one ear and out the other. They know they are Catholics, but they don’t really know Catholicism. They would protest that they love God, but God would protest that they don’t love Him—which is essentially what the Sacred Heart of Jesus said to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque: “My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men, that, being unable any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its burning Charity, It must needs spread them abroad and manifest Itself to them (mankind) in order to enrich them with the precious graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition. Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive, from the greater part of mankind, only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love.”
We Know Much, But the Wrong Things—We Love Much, But the Wrong Things!
Everybody knows a lot about something! Everybody loves something a lot! We never get bored with what we love and we can never know enough about what we love. So let nobody say that they are incapable of much study, much effort, much knowledge, and much love—we all study certain things a lot, we put a lot of effort into certain things, we know a lot about certain things and we love certain things a lot—for a man it might be DIY and maintenance work on the house and cars; it might be watching or participating in sports; it could be politics and current world affairs; or perhaps hunting and guns; or any other hobby or interest. For a woman it might be knowledge and the acquisition of skills that pertain to the raising, the health, the education and general care of the children; or things that pertain to cooking and all the other skills that are classified as “domestic science”; or it could one of a whole myriad of possible hobbies. If we were to really pay attention to how much time, effort, money, long-suffering, patience and perseverance we have put into our favorite subjects, hobbies or pastimes, then we would no doubt be amazed.
You Reap What You Sow—You Get What You Look For!
Yet what is all this in comparison to God? You would think that we had become insane—placing these inferior and temporary things above God, yet that is what 99% of people do! No wonder Holy Scripture says: “The fool said in his heart: ‘There is no God!’ They are corrupted and become abominable in iniquities! There is none that does good! God looked down from Heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, or did seek God. All have gone aside, they are become unprofitable together, there is none that doth good, no not one!” (Psalm 52:1-4). Is there a connection between that and what Our Lord later said? You tell me! “And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But Jesus said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!’” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14).
Why don’t they find it? They do not find it because they have little interest in finding it and little love for it! The world is much more interesting and much more lovable! We certainly know how to love, but we love the wrong things—we love the things that risk bringing about our eternal damnation, and avoid, almost like the plague, those things that are conducive to our eternal salvation. “Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a provoking house: who have eyes to see, and see not; and ears to hear, and hear not―for they are a provoking house!” (Ezechiel 12:2). “Hear, O foolish people, and without any understanding―who have eyes and see not; and ears, and hear not! Will not you then fear Me, saith the Lord, and will you not repent at My presence?” (Jeremias 5:21-22).
Wake-Up Call!—Once Again!
Advent―just like all the fruitless Advents that have slipped by in the past―would be the perfect time to repent, as the Advent liturgy suggests, warns or even commands: “Brethren! Understand, for it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we came to believe! The night is far advanced; the day is at hand! Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy! But put on the Lord Jesus Christ!” (Romans 13:11-14).
Advent is not primarily a time of hanging lights, lighting Advent candles, looking at colorful Jesse Tree images, or “pop-out-door” Advent calendars—this is, once again, mere surface Christianity. Such things can help—like striking a match can help light a bonfire—but if there is little or nothing to burn, or little or nothing of true sentiments in the soul, then you will merely have a bunch of beautiful feathers without the bird! All fluff, no substance!
Yet we refuse to rise from our spiritual sleep, or secular slumber, preferring to snore away salvation whilst dreaming of other things! Oh well! O Hell! One day all the sleepers will wake up and Our Lord has already indicated the loveless lot or fate of most of them. “Why call you Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say? … Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Luke 6:46; Matthew 7:21-23).
Our Lord is Love, He Wants Love, Love is Heaven’s Key
It is amazing how such a great love—as Our Lord has for us—can be so callously spurned! IGNORANCE of God’s love for us is one of chief causes of a lack of a return of love to Him. We need to dispel that IGNORANCE! To Sr. Mary of the Trinity, Our Lord says: “This is the only reality: I love you and I take care of you ... There is only one reality: I love you! You are Mine! I ask only for love! Ah, what are you doing about it?” (Fr. Gottemuller, Words of Love, ch. 14 & 15).
To Sr. Consolata Betrone He says: “Do not make Me out a God of rigor, whereas I am nothing but a God of Love!” … Write ‘The Gentle Heart of Jesus’―for everyone knows that I am holy, but not all know that I am gentle! … Oh, if people would only love Me, what happiness would reign in this unhappy world!” (Fr. Gottemuller, Words of Love, ch. 15 & 16). Why are we so unhappy? Why are you so unhappy? Because we do not really love God! Because you do not really love God! You say that you do—with your lips—but your heart tells Him another story!
To Sr. Josefa Menendez Our Lord says: “Ah, if souls only understood how ardently I desire to communicate Myself to them! But how few do understand ... and how deeply this wounds My Heart … If only they [souls] KNEW My Heart ... mankind is IGNORANT of Its mercy and goodness: that is My greatest sorrow! ... I am all love―and how, then, could I treat severely those I so love?” (Fr. Gottemuller, Words of Love, ch. 15).
Our Lord is Love itself: “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and wants to share that love—but insanely, we place barriers against that love. The bottom line is that we are afraid of being loved by Christ! That may sound weird, but, deep down, we sense that His true love will expose our fake love; and that His deep love will oblige us sail out of the current shallow waters of love in which we wallow! For, as they say, “Love is reciprocal”—which means it “give and take”. Of course everyone loves to be loved—but very few return that love as they ought.
Speaking to Sr. Mary of the Trinity, Our Lord said: “I love you! Is that not enough to fill every one of your moments with the fullness of joy? I love you and desire that you should know it! Oh, if you knew how much I love you, My little child! Leave all! Let there no longer be anything else in the world for you, but the love between you and Me! Am I not enough for you? Is it not sufficient for you to know that your Jesus loves you? It is such a great thing to belong to Me! What does anything else matter to you? Be full of joy at belonging to Me! I want you to be altogether Mine!” (Fr. Gottemuller, Words of Love, ch. 15).
That is scary! We do NOT want to let go of all that is the world! We are so used to our shallow “lip-service” love of Jesus, we are scared to wade into the deeper waters of a real “heart-service”! Who knows where it all might lead to! So stay in the shallow waters and think to ourselves: “I wish Jesus, that shark of love, would go love someone else and leave me alone! I don’t real care much for His kind of love! It’s too demanding and too scary!”
Love Should Be Ever Increasing—But Not By Mere Externals
St. Thomas Aquinas says that every act of love should be returned or rewarded by a greater act of love—this is something that frightens us. We would prefer to just receive Christ’s love without having to return it—especially if it means “upping” the level of love each time. This sounds and seems to be a “too much”! We are far more comfortable in the realm of “lip-service” and “pretended love” than we are in the realm of “heart-service” and “real love”. We try to offer Christ other things in place of our love—prayers, sacrifices, works, projects, penances, meditations, Mass attendance, Communions, Rosaries, or a thousand other things. These things are not bad in themselves, but they depend upon love for their value. Remember what St. Paul says:
“If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). We can give Our Lord all our prayers, sacrifices, works, projects, penances, meditations, Mass attendance, Communions, Rosaries, or a thousand other things—but if they are not done out of a love of God, then they are worthless!
Our Lord presented the flip-side of the coin as mentioned by St. Paul, when He said to Sr. Consolata Betrone: “I delight in gifts which are offered with all possible love. Then even your trifles become precious to Me!”
Charity Check-List
St. Paul then goes on to give a list of what Charity achieves, or the effects of Charity, or the signs that Charity might be present, a kind of a check-list whereby we can run a check on the engine of Charity in our soul, to see if it is functioning and how well it is functioning. Do we see all of these ‘symptoms’ or ‘signs’ of Charity in our soul, and how often? “Charity is patient, is kind. Charity envies not, deals not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious, seeks not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believeth all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
That list of fifteen effects of charity—though not exhaustive in number, but certainly exhausting to carry out—is a litmus test that quickly differentiates between mere “lip-love” and real “heart-love”!
► How is your patience? This brings to mind the parable of the unjust steward who owed his master so much for so long that he was about to be thrown into prison, “but that servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt. But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence: and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: ‘Pay what thou owest!’ And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt” (Matthew 18:26-30). Enough said? We all have a little bit of that inside of us when it comes to patience or impatience with others. Yet there is also impatience with ourselves and the lack of progress in material or spiritual things, impatience with events, circumstances, things, etc. All of this betrays an ignorance of how Divine Providence works!
► How kind are you?—kind actions and words are, in a certain sense, easier than kind thoughts, because everyone can see and hear our words, but nobody can see or read our thoughts! Additionally, we should ask: “Who are we kind to?” Our Lord hits human nature on the head when He rightly points-out: “Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you. If you love them that love you, what thanks are due to you? For sinners also love those that love them. And if you do good to them who do good to you, what thanks are due to you? For sinners also do this. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thanks are due to you? For sinners also lend to sinners, for to receive as much. But love ye your enemies: do good, and lend, hoping for nothing thereby: and your reward shall be great” (Luke 6:27-35). Now that’s real kindness! That’s also real tough!
► Envy? That’s a “biggie” these days—envious of others for the spiritual gifts and goods, their material wealth and health, their beauty or strength, their popularity, the praise they get, the successes they have, the list is endless and endless is the number of envious persons too!
► Dealing perversely? This is not so much about sexual perverts as it is about dirty-dealings. How many times have we perversely twisted, exaggerated, misrepresented the truth? How many times have we not given opportunities or benefits to those we simply do not like? How many times have perverted the course of justice or the providence of God because we were envious of someone, or held a grudge against someone, or disliked someone?
► Puffed-up? The puffed-up extrovert is more easily spotted than the puffed-up introvert, but both kinds are liable to being puffed-up—hey, we are living in a puffed-up world, aren’t we? You cannot place clothes in a smoky room for long, without them taking on the smell of smoke! Likewise with living in a puffed-up world! Some hide it better than others!
► Ambitious? Most people are, but won’t always show it, because it can make them unpopular. There is an art to being ambitious without showing it and denying it! Practice makes perfect! Just about everyone is trying to climb one ladder ot another—be it at work, or amongst family and relatives, or in the parish or school, be it for money, for power, for influence, for fame, for popularity, for respect, for a thousand and one other reasons.
► Seeks not one’s own advantage? Is there one such person walking the face of the Earth who does not seek their own advantage in one way or another, in one thing or another? We are born with that tendency and use it very effectively from our infancy onwards! Again, with time and practice, we can hide it pretty well.
► Is not provoked to anger? Once again, the anger of the extroverts is easily seen—for they wear it on their sleeve. The anger of introverts is carried around in the pocket! Yet both kinds of anger are anger! At the root of all anger there ultimately lurks self-love, self-will, and pride. Things do not go for us as favorably as we think—in our Human Providence—that they should go, and so we get angry!
► Thinketh no evil? Hmm! Who knows what you think! And there lies the advantage! If nobody knows what you are thinking, then you can think what you want without any repercussions—until you have to answer to God, that is!
► Rejoices not in iniquity? With the massive growth in the media outlets over the last 20 years—endless TV channels, worldwide internet with its countless blogs and forums, there is a helluva lot of rejoicing in iniquity! People love it because it lowers standards and so they feel better about their own sins and less likely to quit them, if they can read about similar or even greater sins being committed by others! This links in to the “splinter-in-the-eye” and the “plank-in-the-eye” stuff that Our Lord spoke about.
► Rejoices with the truth? Well, yes and no! We are more likely to rejoice in the truth when it comes to the sins of others being exposed, than rejoicing in the truth when our own sins are exposed? What was that about the goose and the gander? We rejoice in the truth when we can point the finger, but not when it is pointed at us?
► Bears all things? How much do you mutter and complain each day? How critical are you each day? Our exterior failings in this regard are merely tips of the iceberg compared to our interior mutterings, murmurings, complaints and criticisms. How well do bear the correction or criticism of others? The insults of others? The calumnies or detractions of others? The mockery of others? The rejection by others? How do we handle things when they go wrong for us? The car won’t start, the wipers smear or don’t clean properly, the red traffic lights, the traffic jams, the bad drivers, losing that open parking space to another car, the rainy day, the broken appliance, the broken dish, the power outage, the pen that won’t write, the misplaced keys/wallet/etc.
► Believes all things? Again, yes and no! We believe it when people say good things about us, but we are in disbelief when they speak ill of us! We will believe all lies if they are about people that we dislike, but we will not believe the painful truth about people that we like! Sometimes believing all things is a vice due to our naivety, gullibility, or lazy ignorance which refuses to check facts and details.
► Hopes all things? Here again, yes and no! We sometimes hope for the wrong things! I hope I win the lottery! I hope I get rich! I hope my enemies drop dead! I hope I can sin and still get to Heaven! At other times, we hope in ourselves more than we hope in God. We think or hope to achieve things without His help or His agreement. Hope in God, hope in Our Lady, hope in attaining holiness and Heaven, hope in overcoming sin, hope in overcoming the world, the flesh and the devil—these should be our chief hopes, our holy hopes, and only hopes in a certain sense—for as Jesus said: “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
► Endures all things? Everyone, as St. Paul says, starts the race—but only one gets the prize. Run so as to win! Winners need endurance, as Our Lord says: “He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:22). What do we have to endure? The cross! “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23). That cross is found every day, in multiple places, coming from multiple people. Our Lord warned: “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19). “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law!” (Luke 12:51-53). “And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake. But he that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Mark 13:13).
Ignorantly Ignoring Unignorable Truths
There is an irrefutable link between damnation and religious ignorance—as the article has tried to show. From the vain and failed pleas of ignorance from the ‘Goats’ in Our Lord’s parable, to the words of the popes--“The chief cause of the present indifference and the serious evils that result from it, is to be found above all in ignorance of things divine … There are large numbers of Christians, in our own time, who are entirely ignorant of those truths necessary for salvation. What is most deplorable of all, how tranquilly they repose there. They rarely give thought to God! … Our Predecessor, Pope Benedict XIV, had just cause to write: ‘We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment, suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those mysteries of Faith which must be known and believed in order to be numbered among the elect.’” (Pope St. Pius X, encyclical Acerbo Nimis, 1905).
As we wander or blunder through Advent—purposefully or aimlessly—like the Israelites with Moses in the desert, let us use the time at our disposal (or make time to be at disposal) to show a change of attitude to God. Perhaps, like the Israelites in their forty-year meanderings in the desert, we may have been wandering aimlessly from one Advent to another, merely going round in circles. Let us break out of that vicious circle of little knowledge and little love, and at last find, what Our Lord calls, the narrow, strait path that leads to Heaven and that very few people find!
Article 11
Wednesday December 10th
Nasty Sinners Who Became Great Saints!
Wednesday December 10th
Nasty Sinners Who Became Great Saints!
Advent is a Time for Sinners
“Advent” can be seen in the Latin words, advenire (to come to) and adventus (an arrival). The word “Advent” is a compound of two Latin words: “ad” meaning “to” and “venire” meaning “to come”, of which the past participle in Latin is “ventus”. Therefore we see the word “Advent” meaning “to come to”. Advent refers to Christ’s coming into this world. Why is Christ coming? He does not come to play, but to pay—pay for our sins. The Angel Gabriel, speaking of Jesus, says to Mary: “He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Jesus Himself says: “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “They that are whole, need not the physician: but they that are sick. I came not to call the just, but sinners…” (Luke 5:31-32). “For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47). Christ does not come to enjoy life, but to give eternal life—and that comes at a price. That “price” is a payment for our sins through penance:. Our Lord clearly states: “I came to call sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). “I say to you―unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
The Church teaches that Advent represents the “Two Comings” of Christ. His first coming was at Christmas, when He came to save us from our sins: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). The second coming will be at the end of the world when Christ will come to judge us and the sins that we have committed. The first coming is one of mercy―the second coming will be one of justice! The focus of Advent is by no means limited to just Christ’s first coming. An equal, if not more important theme found in the Advent Liturgy is the second coming of Christ, when He comes again to judge the world. Consequently, there is a double focus of, firstly, the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in His first Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in His Second Advent. In His first coming He comes as a Child offering mercy. In His second coming He will come as a Judge administering justice.
Which is why the Old Testament says: “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5) and Our Lord says to Mary Magdalen, the woman caught in adultery: “Go, and now sin no more!” (John 8:11), and to the man diseased for 38 years, who Jesus cured by the pool of Bethsaida: “Behold thou art made whole: sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!” (John 5:14). To this can be added St. Paul’s warning: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7). “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, with fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12).
Change—Or Else!
If we refuse to change, the Holy Scripture speaks of the consequences: “God shall humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God!” (Psalm 54:20). We see an example of this change of life in St. Paul—a sinner who became a saint. He himself relates his sins and his conversion, whereby he became a changed man:
“In the past I thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth―which I then did at Jerusalem, and having received authority of the chief priests, I shut up in prison many of the saints,and when they were put to death, I brought the sentence. And oftentimes punishing them, in every synagogue, I compelled them to blaspheme―and, being yet more mad against them, I persecuted them even unto foreign cities. Whereupon, when I was going to Damascus with authority and permission of the chief priest, at midday, I saw in the way a light from Heaven above, the brightness of the sun, shining round about me, and them that were in company with me. And when we were all fallen down on the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew tongue: ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad!’ And I said: ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord answered: ‘I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting! But now rise up and stand upon your feet―for the reason why I have I appeared to you, is that I may make you a minister, and a witness of those things which you have seen, and of those things wherein I will appear to you, delivering you from the people, and from the nations, unto which now I send you―so as to open their eyes, that they may be converted from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and a lot among the saints, by the Faith that is in Me” (Acts 26:9-18).
Lesson Learned! Lesson Given!
Christ loved Paul, but he had to change—or else Heaven would be shut to him. St. Paul passes on the lesson he has learned, saying: “In times past, you were dead in your offenses, and sins, wherein you walked according to the course of this world, in the desires of your flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of your thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God―Who is rich in mercy, for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins―has quickened us together in Christ, by Whose grace you are saved!” (Ephesians 2:1-5). “Therefore, if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God! Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the Earth!” (Colossians 3:1-2).
“What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin? God forbid! For we that are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein? Know you not that all we, who are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in His death? For we are buried together with Him by baptism into death; that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:1-4). “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste!” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
A Damned Good Lesson!
Let no man say or think that God wants him to be damned! Damnation is not caused by God! Damnation comes from man—assisted by man’s wayward and sinful passions and the devil! Advent is a time that focuses on Christ coming in mercy. Let us rejoice in that mercy! Let us celebrate that mercy! Let us profit from that mercy! But let us also realize that this mercy is not unconditional and that God is not a doormat on which we can wipe our dirty, muddy, smelly sinful feet: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7).
Advent is a time to “Turn away from evil and do good” (Psalms 33:15). St. Peter repeats the same message Testament: “Let him decline from evil, and do good” (1 Peter 3:11). Our Lady of Fatima also echoes this: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended.”
The Apostles write the following words of warning―which almost everyone chooses to ignore: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world! If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him! For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16). “This is the victory which overcomes the world―our Faith” (1 John 5:4). But sadly, the world has overcome the Faith in most cases today! There are more “men-of -the-world” than “men-of-Faith” ― the lovers of the world are many, whereas the lovers of God are few.
This translates into the fact that many are lost and few are saved―as indicates by Our Lord Himself: “What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26) … “Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Luke 13:24; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
Detesting Sin and Worldliness
One of the chief contributors to the deluge of sin in the world today is the absence of a fear of God and a fear of offending God. This is there has to be a terrible, frightening chastisement—in order to re-establish the foundation of fear. Fear is essential, even when we love God—it is the foundation of the spiritual life. It is even one of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost—a Fear of the Lord. As Holy Scripture says: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalms 110:10). “The fear of God is the beginning of His love” (Ecclesiasticus 25:16). “The fear of the Lord drives out sin” (Ecclesiasticus 1:27). “The fear of the Lord hates evil” (Proverbs 8:13). “The Lord hates all abomination of error, and they that fear Him shall not love it” (Ecclesiasticus 15:13). “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5).
The Stages We Must Pass Through to get to Heaven
There are many different presentations of the stages that we must pass through before we are finally acceptable for Heaven. Perhaps one of the briefest and most comprehensive of these is that of Dom Chautard. He divides them into 9 stages, which are as follows:
9 STAGES FROM MORTAL SINS TO TOTAL SANCTITY
The following steps are based upon the classic and ancient division into the Three Stages or Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life. They can be found in the book, Soul of Apostolate by Dom Chautard and are repeated in Guidance in Spiritual Direction by Fr. Hugo Doyle.
“Every soul is a world by itself. It has its own shades of difference. Still, as an ordinary rule, we may classify Christians in various groups. We have thought fit to attempt such a classification here below, testing souls on one hand by sin and imperfection, and on the other by their degree of prayer. Let us hope that this classification may lead some of our respected confreres to think over the necessity of studying these things, in order to learn the practical rules for directing each soul according to its state.
“In the first two categories, the priest may not be able to work directly upon the souls in question but if he is a good director he will be able to give much more effective guidance to those relatives and friends who have set their hearts on winning back these dear ones, even though they may be hardened in sin, before they are entirely rejected by God.
1. HARDENED IN SIN
MORTAL SIN:
● Stubborn persistence in sin, either out of ignorance or because of a maliciously warped conscience.
VENIAL SIN:
● Complete acceptance.
● Fails to even recognize and accept them as being sins.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● What God would look at being imperfections, the soul thinks them to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● Deliberate refusal to have any recourse to God.
2. SURFACE CHRISTIANITY
MORTAL SIN:
● Considered as a trifling evil, easily forgiven.
● The soul easily gives way and commits mortal sin at every possible occasion or temptation.
● Confession almost without contrition.
VENIAL SIN:
● Complete acceptance.
● Fails to even recognize and accept them as being sins.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● Many imperfections are even thought to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● Mechanical; either inattentive, or always dictated by temporal interest.
● Such souls enter into themselves very rarely and superficially.
3. MEDIOCRE PIETY
MORTAL SIN:
● Weak resistance.
● Hardly ever avoids occasions but seriously regrets having sinned, and makes good confessions.
VENIAL SIN:
● Complete acceptance of this sin, which is considered as insignificant.
● Hence, tepidity of the will.
● Does nothing whatever to prevent venial sin, or to extirpate it, or to find it out when it is concealed.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● Many imperfections are even thought to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● From time to time, prays well.
● Momentary fits of fervor.
4. INTERMITTENT PIETY
MORTAL SIN:
● Loyal resistance.
● Habitually avoids occasion.
● Deep regrets.
● Does penance to make reparation.
VENIAL SIN:
● Sometimes deliberate.
● Puts up a weak fight.
● Sorrow only superficial.
● Makes a particular examination of conscience, but without any method or coherence.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● Many imperfections are even thought to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● Not firmly resolved to remain faithful to meditation.
● Gives it up as soon as dryness is felt, or as soon as there is business to attend to.
5. SUSTAINED PIETY
MORTAL SIN:
● Never. At most very rare, when taken suddenly and violently by surprise.
● And then, often it is to be doubted if the sin is mortal.
● It is followed by ardent compunction and penance.
VENIAL SIN:
● Vigilant in avoiding and fighting it.
● Rarely deliberate.
● Keen sorrow, but does little by way of reparation.
● Consistent daily particular examination of coscience, but aiming only at avoidance of venial sin.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul either avoids uncovering them, so as not to have to fight them, or else easily excuses them.
● Approves the thought of renouncing them, and would like to do so, but makes little effort in that direction.
PRAYER:
● Always faithful to prayer, no matter what happens. Often affective prayer.
● Alternating consolations and dryness, the latter endured with considerable hardship.
6. FERVOR
MORTAL SIN:
● Never
VENIAL SIN:
● Never deliberate.
● By surprise, sometimes, or with imperfect advertence.
● Keenly regretted, and serious reparation made.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Wants nothing to do with them.
● Watches over them, fights them with courage, in order to be more pleasing to God.
● These imperfections are sometimes accepted, however, but regretted at once.
● Frequent acts of renunciation.
● The Daily Particular Examination of Conscience aims at perfection in a given virtue.
PRAYER:
● Mental prayer gladly prolonged. Prayer on the affective side, or even prayer of simplicity.
● Alternation between powerful consolations and fierce trials.
7. RELATIVE PERFECTION
MORTAL SIN:
● Never.
VENIAL SIN:
● Never.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Guards against them energetically and with much love.
● They only happen with half-advertence.
PRAYER:
● Habitual life of prayer, even when occupied in external works.
● Thirst for self-renunciation, annihilation, detachment, and divine love.
● Hunger for the Eucharist and for Heaven.
● Graces of infused prayer, of different degree.
● Often passive purification.
8. HEROIC PERFECTION
MORTAL SIN:
● Never.
VENIAL SIN:
● Never.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Nothing but the first impulse.
PRAYER:
● Supernatural graces of contemplation, sometimes accompanied by extraordinary phenomena.
● Pronounced passive purifications.
● Contempt of self to the point of complete self-forgetfulness.
● Prefers suffering to joys.
9. COMPLETE SANCTITY
MORTAL SIN:
● Never.
VENIAL SIN:
● Never.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Hardly apparent.
PRAYER:
● Usually, transforming union. Spiritual marriage.
● Purifications by love.
● Ardent thirst for sufferings and humiliations.
“Few and far between are the souls that belong to the last two, even to the last three categories. Nor is it hard to understand that a priest will wait until he actually comes across such a penitent before making a study of what the best authors have to say, in order that his direction may then be prudent and safe.” (taken from Soul of the Apostolate by Dom Chautard & Guidance in Spiritual Direction by Fr. Hugo Doyle).
Sinners Who Changed and Became Saints
St. Dismas
St. Dismas isn’t a saint in the usual or strict sense—for he was never canonized by the Church—but rather a saint by local tradition instead. As the story goes, Dismas asked for Jesus Christ to remember him while he was being crucified next to him. A clue to his past lies in Dismas’ patronage, for he is the patron saint of reformed thieves.
St. Callixtus
St. Callixtus of Rome lived a life of many sins before being taken under the wing of Victor I, a second century pope. Callixtus was a Roman slave whose petty theft and reckless investments resulted in being sentenced to forced labor in the mines of Sardinia. He embezzled money and started a public riot, amongst other criminal affairs, but left that all behind early in the third century when he reformed. Released from the mines by a general pardon, he returned to Rome where Pope St. Victor I gradually brought him to repentance. . He was ordained a priest, served as administrator of one of the catacombs, and ultimately Callixtus went on to become a pope himself, but died a martyr shortly thereafter. His Roman catacombs can be toured today.
St. Hippolytus: Heretic & First Antipope
Hippolytus was an arrogant, unforgiving man who believed that Christians guilty of mortal sin should be expelled from the Church and never readmitted. In his pride, Hippolytus permitted his followers to elect him as the Church’s first anti-pope. Inspired by the true pope’s holiness, Hippolytus eventually repented of his own sin and was reconciled to the Catholic Church.
St. Mary of Egypt
At age 12 Mary (344-421) ran away from home to Alexandria, the most exciting city in the Roman Empire. She became an accomplished seductress, who took special pleasure in corrupting innocent young men. Mary was an expert seductress who ensnared any man who caught her eye. Once, on a whim, she joined a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. By the time the ship reached its destination, Mary had seduced the entire crew and all of the pilgrims. She travelled to Jerusalem where a supernatural force prevented her from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. In Jerusalem she realized the enormity of her sins Filled with remorse, Mary sought the Mother of God’s intercession and made a good confession. In penance, Mary lived out her conversion as a hermit, alone in the Jordanian desert.
St. Moses the Black: Cut-throat & Gang Leader
Moses (330-405) was chief of a violent gang of bandits. Fleeing from law enforcement, he took refuge in a monastery. Moses was inspired by the monk’s example and converted. He took a vow never to raise his hand against another human being, even in self-defense. After years of overcoming temptation, Moses was killed by Berber raiders.
St. Pelagia
The beautiful teenager Pelagia (4th century) would have been every parent’s nightmare. Pelagia, a dancer, was head of a dance troupe in Palestinian Antioch, and lived a life of frivolity and prostitution. Pelagia’s conversion occurred all of a sudden, following a chance encounter with Saint Nonnus, the bishop of Edessa. One day while she was still a dancer, Pelagia was passing by a church dressed with her very elegant and provocative clothing. Bishop Nonnus of Edessa was preaching at that moment. Even though the parishioners turned their faces away from the sinner, the Bishop noticed her great outer beauty and spiritual greatness. Later that day, he prayed in his cell for the sinner and the following day Pelagia went to hear St. Nonnos preach. He was talking about the Last Judgment and its consequences. She was so moved and impressed with the sermon, that with tears of repentance in her eyes, she asked the Bishop to baptize her. Seeing the sincerity of her wishes and repentance, he agreed.
That same night the devil appeared to Pelagia urging her to return to her former life. She started praying and signed herself with the Sign of the Cross, after which the devil vanished. She gave all her wealth and valuables to St. Nonnos so that he could distribute them and give them to aid the poor. She left Antioch dressed in man’s clothes. After that, she journeyed to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where she became a hermitess and lived in a cell disguised as the monk Pelagius. There she lived in great austerity, performing many penances in a ascetic seclusion which helped her attain many spiritual gifts. At her death she was buried in her cell. She was known as “the beardless monk” until it was discovered that she was women after she had died.
St. Olga
When a neighboring tribe assassinated her husband, Olga (879-969), princess of Kiev, went to war. Olga slaughtered her husband’s murderer and she massacred virtually the entire tribe; the few who did survive, she sold into slavery. Years later, while in Constantinople, to make an alliance with the emperor, Olga visited a church, encountered the splendor and beauty of Christianity and was in awe of the magnificence of the liturgy. She took instruction, was baptized and returned to Kiev, zealous to convert her people. Olga tried very hard to convert her people, but hardly anyone would listen to her. Even her family rejected Christianity. Olga died believing that as a missionary, she was a failure. Yet, she planted a seed of Faith which flourished. Today, Catholic and Orthodox Christians of Russia and Ukraine hail her as “Equal to the Apostles.”
St. Vladimir
Olga’s grandson Vladimir (956-1015) became prince of Kiev by murdering his older half-brother. Then he raped his sister-in-law and added her to his harem of several hundred women. He built a new temple to all the gods; and sacrificed a father and his son to the false gods. When the emperor at Constantinople sought his help in putting down a rebellion, Vladimir demanded as his reward the emperor’s sister as his wife (actually, the unhappy woman would be Vladimir’s eighth wife). The emperor countered that Vladimir must convert to Christianity. In order to marry the emperor’s sister, Vladimir accepted Christian baptism.
Everyone suspected that once he was back in Kiev, Vladimir would return to his old ways, but the grace of baptism changed him. His zeal for the Faith knew no limits and his efforts helped spread Christianity across Russia and Ukraine. He dismissed his extra wives and his harem, tore down the pagan temple, and launched a vigorous campaign to convert his people. The Faith his grandmother, Olga (see above) planted flourished under Vladimir.
St. Margaret of Cortona: Rich Man’s Mistress
Margaret (1247-1297) was born of farming parents in Laviano, Tuscany. Her mother died when Margaret was seven; life with her stepmother was so difficult that Margaret moved out. She was only twelve years old when she became Arsenio’s mistress. For nine years she lived with Arsenio, though they were not married, and she bore him a son. In those years, she had doubts about her situation. Somewhat like Saint Augustine, she prayed for purity—but not just yet. After years of cohabitation, she realized her sins when she discovered Arsenio’s murdered corpse. One day she was waiting for Arsenio and was instead met by his dog. The animal led Margaret into the forest where she found Arsenio murdered. This crime shocked Margaret into a life of penance. Full of the grace of conversion and determined to start a new life, she went to Cortona where the Franciscans ministered to penitent sinners. There, Margaret pursued a life of prayer, penance, and good works. Under the direction of her confessor, who sometimes had to order her to moderate her self-denial, she pursued a life of prayer and penance at Cortona. There she established a hospital and founded a congregation of tertiary sisters. The poor and humble Margaret was, like Francis, devoted to the Eucharist and to the passion of Jesus. These devotions fueled her great charity and drew sinners to her for advice and inspiration.
St. Angela of Foligno
Angela was beautiful, wealthy, and vain. As a rich man’s wife she wallowed in luxury. Her passions were expensive clothes and flashy jewels, extravagant meals and rare wines. She dressed and acted in ways that would provoke envy among women and sexual desire among men. When she was not indulging herself, she spent hours gossiping with her friends and maligning her neighbors. In her autobiography Angela discloses that in 1285 she did something so bad that for the first time in her life she began to live in fear of Hell. Her biographers speculate that Angela committed adultery, and given the intensity of her guilt and shame that seems likely.
Near despair, she prayed to St. Francis of Assisi to help her. As Angela prayed the saint appeared to her. “Sister,” St. Francis said, “if you would have asked me sooner I would have complied with your request sooner. Nonetheless, your request is granted.” That same day Angela offered a sincere confession to a priest. As she stepped from the shadowy interior of the church into the bright sunlight of the piazza, Angela resolved to begin a new life. She sold her fine clothes and jewels to relieve the suffering of Foligno’s poor. After the death of her husband, she gave away all her wealth, associated herself with the Franciscans, and with a handful of other holy women dedicated herself to tending the poor and the sick. Blessed Angela’s life teaches us a timeless lesson about our weakness and God’s mercy. All that he requires is that we repent and make a sincere effort to do better in the future.
St. Thomas Becket
As chancellor of England under Henry II, Thomas Becket (1118-1170) became obscenely wealthy. His wardrobe was larger and more expensive than the king’s. He even had his own private navy. In spite of all his wealth, Becket was cold-hearted and never gave anything to the poor. All that changed after Becket was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury. He gave away all his possessions. He welcomed the poor at his table. And he became a champion of the independence of the Church, for which he was murdered in his own cathedral by four of King Henry’s knights.
St. Philip Howard
Son of one of the wealthiest noble families in England, Philip Howard (1557-1595) could afford any pleasure he liked — and he liked them all. At court he was a notorious playboy, gambler and fop (fop=obsessed with one’s appearance and clothing in an excessive vain manner). He ran up enormous debts, then sold off his wife’s property to pay those debts.
On one occasion he said publicly that he did not really consider himself to be married. In 1581, he joined other members of the court at the Tower of London, to see a debate between several Anglican ministers and a prisoner, the Jesuit priest, St. Edmund Campion. Although the ministers were armed with books and assistants, Father Campion was alone and had only his memory to rely on, yet he did so well in the debate, that the government canceled the debate before a verdict could be given. Inspired by Father Campion, Howard reconciled with his wife, and they both returned to the Catholic Faith. When they tried to leave the country secretly for the Continent of Europe, where they could practice Catholicism freely, they were stopped and Howard was imprisoned in the Tower of London. He died there 10 years later.
St. Camillus of Lellis
Camillus de Lellis was born in Italy in the middle of the 16th century. A hot-tempered, troublesome child, he joined the army when he was 16, though his aggressive behavior only grew after that. Camillus was a mercenary soldier with all the worst habits— drinking, gambling, swearing, chasing prostitutes.
Years of sinful acts followed before his wholehearted reform in 1575. When his father called for a priest on his deathbed, Camillus began to rethink his life. Guided by St. Philip Neri, his spiritual director, Camillus turned away from sin, dedicated himself to the sick, and formed a religious congregation for nursing the poor.
The above mentioned sinners got to Heaven, but they had to make themselves acceptable first! Who knows how much time they may have spent in Purgatory in addition to having suffered for their sins after conversion. With God nothing is impossible—unless we stubbornly resist and reject His graces that move us to change!
“Advent” can be seen in the Latin words, advenire (to come to) and adventus (an arrival). The word “Advent” is a compound of two Latin words: “ad” meaning “to” and “venire” meaning “to come”, of which the past participle in Latin is “ventus”. Therefore we see the word “Advent” meaning “to come to”. Advent refers to Christ’s coming into this world. Why is Christ coming? He does not come to play, but to pay—pay for our sins. The Angel Gabriel, speaking of Jesus, says to Mary: “He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Jesus Himself says: “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “They that are whole, need not the physician: but they that are sick. I came not to call the just, but sinners…” (Luke 5:31-32). “For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47). Christ does not come to enjoy life, but to give eternal life—and that comes at a price. That “price” is a payment for our sins through penance:. Our Lord clearly states: “I came to call sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). “I say to you―unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
The Church teaches that Advent represents the “Two Comings” of Christ. His first coming was at Christmas, when He came to save us from our sins: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). The second coming will be at the end of the world when Christ will come to judge us and the sins that we have committed. The first coming is one of mercy―the second coming will be one of justice! The focus of Advent is by no means limited to just Christ’s first coming. An equal, if not more important theme found in the Advent Liturgy is the second coming of Christ, when He comes again to judge the world. Consequently, there is a double focus of, firstly, the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in His first Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in His Second Advent. In His first coming He comes as a Child offering mercy. In His second coming He will come as a Judge administering justice.
Which is why the Old Testament says: “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5) and Our Lord says to Mary Magdalen, the woman caught in adultery: “Go, and now sin no more!” (John 8:11), and to the man diseased for 38 years, who Jesus cured by the pool of Bethsaida: “Behold thou art made whole: sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!” (John 5:14). To this can be added St. Paul’s warning: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7). “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, with fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12).
Change—Or Else!
If we refuse to change, the Holy Scripture speaks of the consequences: “God shall humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God!” (Psalm 54:20). We see an example of this change of life in St. Paul—a sinner who became a saint. He himself relates his sins and his conversion, whereby he became a changed man:
“In the past I thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth―which I then did at Jerusalem, and having received authority of the chief priests, I shut up in prison many of the saints,and when they were put to death, I brought the sentence. And oftentimes punishing them, in every synagogue, I compelled them to blaspheme―and, being yet more mad against them, I persecuted them even unto foreign cities. Whereupon, when I was going to Damascus with authority and permission of the chief priest, at midday, I saw in the way a light from Heaven above, the brightness of the sun, shining round about me, and them that were in company with me. And when we were all fallen down on the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew tongue: ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad!’ And I said: ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord answered: ‘I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting! But now rise up and stand upon your feet―for the reason why I have I appeared to you, is that I may make you a minister, and a witness of those things which you have seen, and of those things wherein I will appear to you, delivering you from the people, and from the nations, unto which now I send you―so as to open their eyes, that they may be converted from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and a lot among the saints, by the Faith that is in Me” (Acts 26:9-18).
Lesson Learned! Lesson Given!
Christ loved Paul, but he had to change—or else Heaven would be shut to him. St. Paul passes on the lesson he has learned, saying: “In times past, you were dead in your offenses, and sins, wherein you walked according to the course of this world, in the desires of your flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of your thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God―Who is rich in mercy, for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins―has quickened us together in Christ, by Whose grace you are saved!” (Ephesians 2:1-5). “Therefore, if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God! Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the Earth!” (Colossians 3:1-2).
“What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin? God forbid! For we that are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein? Know you not that all we, who are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in His death? For we are buried together with Him by baptism into death; that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:1-4). “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste!” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
A Damned Good Lesson!
Let no man say or think that God wants him to be damned! Damnation is not caused by God! Damnation comes from man—assisted by man’s wayward and sinful passions and the devil! Advent is a time that focuses on Christ coming in mercy. Let us rejoice in that mercy! Let us celebrate that mercy! Let us profit from that mercy! But let us also realize that this mercy is not unconditional and that God is not a doormat on which we can wipe our dirty, muddy, smelly sinful feet: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7).
Advent is a time to “Turn away from evil and do good” (Psalms 33:15). St. Peter repeats the same message Testament: “Let him decline from evil, and do good” (1 Peter 3:11). Our Lady of Fatima also echoes this: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended.”
The Apostles write the following words of warning―which almost everyone chooses to ignore: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world! If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him! For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16). “This is the victory which overcomes the world―our Faith” (1 John 5:4). But sadly, the world has overcome the Faith in most cases today! There are more “men-of -the-world” than “men-of-Faith” ― the lovers of the world are many, whereas the lovers of God are few.
This translates into the fact that many are lost and few are saved―as indicates by Our Lord Himself: “What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26) … “Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Luke 13:24; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
Detesting Sin and Worldliness
One of the chief contributors to the deluge of sin in the world today is the absence of a fear of God and a fear of offending God. This is there has to be a terrible, frightening chastisement—in order to re-establish the foundation of fear. Fear is essential, even when we love God—it is the foundation of the spiritual life. It is even one of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost—a Fear of the Lord. As Holy Scripture says: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalms 110:10). “The fear of God is the beginning of His love” (Ecclesiasticus 25:16). “The fear of the Lord drives out sin” (Ecclesiasticus 1:27). “The fear of the Lord hates evil” (Proverbs 8:13). “The Lord hates all abomination of error, and they that fear Him shall not love it” (Ecclesiasticus 15:13). “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5).
The Stages We Must Pass Through to get to Heaven
There are many different presentations of the stages that we must pass through before we are finally acceptable for Heaven. Perhaps one of the briefest and most comprehensive of these is that of Dom Chautard. He divides them into 9 stages, which are as follows:
9 STAGES FROM MORTAL SINS TO TOTAL SANCTITY
The following steps are based upon the classic and ancient division into the Three Stages or Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life. They can be found in the book, Soul of Apostolate by Dom Chautard and are repeated in Guidance in Spiritual Direction by Fr. Hugo Doyle.
“Every soul is a world by itself. It has its own shades of difference. Still, as an ordinary rule, we may classify Christians in various groups. We have thought fit to attempt such a classification here below, testing souls on one hand by sin and imperfection, and on the other by their degree of prayer. Let us hope that this classification may lead some of our respected confreres to think over the necessity of studying these things, in order to learn the practical rules for directing each soul according to its state.
“In the first two categories, the priest may not be able to work directly upon the souls in question but if he is a good director he will be able to give much more effective guidance to those relatives and friends who have set their hearts on winning back these dear ones, even though they may be hardened in sin, before they are entirely rejected by God.
1. HARDENED IN SIN
MORTAL SIN:
● Stubborn persistence in sin, either out of ignorance or because of a maliciously warped conscience.
VENIAL SIN:
● Complete acceptance.
● Fails to even recognize and accept them as being sins.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● What God would look at being imperfections, the soul thinks them to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● Deliberate refusal to have any recourse to God.
2. SURFACE CHRISTIANITY
MORTAL SIN:
● Considered as a trifling evil, easily forgiven.
● The soul easily gives way and commits mortal sin at every possible occasion or temptation.
● Confession almost without contrition.
VENIAL SIN:
● Complete acceptance.
● Fails to even recognize and accept them as being sins.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● Many imperfections are even thought to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● Mechanical; either inattentive, or always dictated by temporal interest.
● Such souls enter into themselves very rarely and superficially.
3. MEDIOCRE PIETY
MORTAL SIN:
● Weak resistance.
● Hardly ever avoids occasions but seriously regrets having sinned, and makes good confessions.
VENIAL SIN:
● Complete acceptance of this sin, which is considered as insignificant.
● Hence, tepidity of the will.
● Does nothing whatever to prevent venial sin, or to extirpate it, or to find it out when it is concealed.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● Many imperfections are even thought to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● From time to time, prays well.
● Momentary fits of fervor.
4. INTERMITTENT PIETY
MORTAL SIN:
● Loyal resistance.
● Habitually avoids occasion.
● Deep regrets.
● Does penance to make reparation.
VENIAL SIN:
● Sometimes deliberate.
● Puts up a weak fight.
● Sorrow only superficial.
● Makes a particular examination of conscience, but without any method or coherence.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul thinks nothing of imperfections, they are not even on the radar.
● Many imperfections are even thought to be virtues!
PRAYER:
● Not firmly resolved to remain faithful to meditation.
● Gives it up as soon as dryness is felt, or as soon as there is business to attend to.
5. SUSTAINED PIETY
MORTAL SIN:
● Never. At most very rare, when taken suddenly and violently by surprise.
● And then, often it is to be doubted if the sin is mortal.
● It is followed by ardent compunction and penance.
VENIAL SIN:
● Vigilant in avoiding and fighting it.
● Rarely deliberate.
● Keen sorrow, but does little by way of reparation.
● Consistent daily particular examination of coscience, but aiming only at avoidance of venial sin.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● The soul either avoids uncovering them, so as not to have to fight them, or else easily excuses them.
● Approves the thought of renouncing them, and would like to do so, but makes little effort in that direction.
PRAYER:
● Always faithful to prayer, no matter what happens. Often affective prayer.
● Alternating consolations and dryness, the latter endured with considerable hardship.
6. FERVOR
MORTAL SIN:
● Never
VENIAL SIN:
● Never deliberate.
● By surprise, sometimes, or with imperfect advertence.
● Keenly regretted, and serious reparation made.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Wants nothing to do with them.
● Watches over them, fights them with courage, in order to be more pleasing to God.
● These imperfections are sometimes accepted, however, but regretted at once.
● Frequent acts of renunciation.
● The Daily Particular Examination of Conscience aims at perfection in a given virtue.
PRAYER:
● Mental prayer gladly prolonged. Prayer on the affective side, or even prayer of simplicity.
● Alternation between powerful consolations and fierce trials.
7. RELATIVE PERFECTION
MORTAL SIN:
● Never.
VENIAL SIN:
● Never.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Guards against them energetically and with much love.
● They only happen with half-advertence.
PRAYER:
● Habitual life of prayer, even when occupied in external works.
● Thirst for self-renunciation, annihilation, detachment, and divine love.
● Hunger for the Eucharist and for Heaven.
● Graces of infused prayer, of different degree.
● Often passive purification.
8. HEROIC PERFECTION
MORTAL SIN:
● Never.
VENIAL SIN:
● Never.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Nothing but the first impulse.
PRAYER:
● Supernatural graces of contemplation, sometimes accompanied by extraordinary phenomena.
● Pronounced passive purifications.
● Contempt of self to the point of complete self-forgetfulness.
● Prefers suffering to joys.
9. COMPLETE SANCTITY
MORTAL SIN:
● Never.
VENIAL SIN:
● Never.
IMPERFECTIONS:
● Hardly apparent.
PRAYER:
● Usually, transforming union. Spiritual marriage.
● Purifications by love.
● Ardent thirst for sufferings and humiliations.
“Few and far between are the souls that belong to the last two, even to the last three categories. Nor is it hard to understand that a priest will wait until he actually comes across such a penitent before making a study of what the best authors have to say, in order that his direction may then be prudent and safe.” (taken from Soul of the Apostolate by Dom Chautard & Guidance in Spiritual Direction by Fr. Hugo Doyle).
Sinners Who Changed and Became Saints
St. Dismas
St. Dismas isn’t a saint in the usual or strict sense—for he was never canonized by the Church—but rather a saint by local tradition instead. As the story goes, Dismas asked for Jesus Christ to remember him while he was being crucified next to him. A clue to his past lies in Dismas’ patronage, for he is the patron saint of reformed thieves.
St. Callixtus
St. Callixtus of Rome lived a life of many sins before being taken under the wing of Victor I, a second century pope. Callixtus was a Roman slave whose petty theft and reckless investments resulted in being sentenced to forced labor in the mines of Sardinia. He embezzled money and started a public riot, amongst other criminal affairs, but left that all behind early in the third century when he reformed. Released from the mines by a general pardon, he returned to Rome where Pope St. Victor I gradually brought him to repentance. . He was ordained a priest, served as administrator of one of the catacombs, and ultimately Callixtus went on to become a pope himself, but died a martyr shortly thereafter. His Roman catacombs can be toured today.
St. Hippolytus: Heretic & First Antipope
Hippolytus was an arrogant, unforgiving man who believed that Christians guilty of mortal sin should be expelled from the Church and never readmitted. In his pride, Hippolytus permitted his followers to elect him as the Church’s first anti-pope. Inspired by the true pope’s holiness, Hippolytus eventually repented of his own sin and was reconciled to the Catholic Church.
St. Mary of Egypt
At age 12 Mary (344-421) ran away from home to Alexandria, the most exciting city in the Roman Empire. She became an accomplished seductress, who took special pleasure in corrupting innocent young men. Mary was an expert seductress who ensnared any man who caught her eye. Once, on a whim, she joined a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. By the time the ship reached its destination, Mary had seduced the entire crew and all of the pilgrims. She travelled to Jerusalem where a supernatural force prevented her from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. In Jerusalem she realized the enormity of her sins Filled with remorse, Mary sought the Mother of God’s intercession and made a good confession. In penance, Mary lived out her conversion as a hermit, alone in the Jordanian desert.
St. Moses the Black: Cut-throat & Gang Leader
Moses (330-405) was chief of a violent gang of bandits. Fleeing from law enforcement, he took refuge in a monastery. Moses was inspired by the monk’s example and converted. He took a vow never to raise his hand against another human being, even in self-defense. After years of overcoming temptation, Moses was killed by Berber raiders.
St. Pelagia
The beautiful teenager Pelagia (4th century) would have been every parent’s nightmare. Pelagia, a dancer, was head of a dance troupe in Palestinian Antioch, and lived a life of frivolity and prostitution. Pelagia’s conversion occurred all of a sudden, following a chance encounter with Saint Nonnus, the bishop of Edessa. One day while she was still a dancer, Pelagia was passing by a church dressed with her very elegant and provocative clothing. Bishop Nonnus of Edessa was preaching at that moment. Even though the parishioners turned their faces away from the sinner, the Bishop noticed her great outer beauty and spiritual greatness. Later that day, he prayed in his cell for the sinner and the following day Pelagia went to hear St. Nonnos preach. He was talking about the Last Judgment and its consequences. She was so moved and impressed with the sermon, that with tears of repentance in her eyes, she asked the Bishop to baptize her. Seeing the sincerity of her wishes and repentance, he agreed.
That same night the devil appeared to Pelagia urging her to return to her former life. She started praying and signed herself with the Sign of the Cross, after which the devil vanished. She gave all her wealth and valuables to St. Nonnos so that he could distribute them and give them to aid the poor. She left Antioch dressed in man’s clothes. After that, she journeyed to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where she became a hermitess and lived in a cell disguised as the monk Pelagius. There she lived in great austerity, performing many penances in a ascetic seclusion which helped her attain many spiritual gifts. At her death she was buried in her cell. She was known as “the beardless monk” until it was discovered that she was women after she had died.
St. Olga
When a neighboring tribe assassinated her husband, Olga (879-969), princess of Kiev, went to war. Olga slaughtered her husband’s murderer and she massacred virtually the entire tribe; the few who did survive, she sold into slavery. Years later, while in Constantinople, to make an alliance with the emperor, Olga visited a church, encountered the splendor and beauty of Christianity and was in awe of the magnificence of the liturgy. She took instruction, was baptized and returned to Kiev, zealous to convert her people. Olga tried very hard to convert her people, but hardly anyone would listen to her. Even her family rejected Christianity. Olga died believing that as a missionary, she was a failure. Yet, she planted a seed of Faith which flourished. Today, Catholic and Orthodox Christians of Russia and Ukraine hail her as “Equal to the Apostles.”
St. Vladimir
Olga’s grandson Vladimir (956-1015) became prince of Kiev by murdering his older half-brother. Then he raped his sister-in-law and added her to his harem of several hundred women. He built a new temple to all the gods; and sacrificed a father and his son to the false gods. When the emperor at Constantinople sought his help in putting down a rebellion, Vladimir demanded as his reward the emperor’s sister as his wife (actually, the unhappy woman would be Vladimir’s eighth wife). The emperor countered that Vladimir must convert to Christianity. In order to marry the emperor’s sister, Vladimir accepted Christian baptism.
Everyone suspected that once he was back in Kiev, Vladimir would return to his old ways, but the grace of baptism changed him. His zeal for the Faith knew no limits and his efforts helped spread Christianity across Russia and Ukraine. He dismissed his extra wives and his harem, tore down the pagan temple, and launched a vigorous campaign to convert his people. The Faith his grandmother, Olga (see above) planted flourished under Vladimir.
St. Margaret of Cortona: Rich Man’s Mistress
Margaret (1247-1297) was born of farming parents in Laviano, Tuscany. Her mother died when Margaret was seven; life with her stepmother was so difficult that Margaret moved out. She was only twelve years old when she became Arsenio’s mistress. For nine years she lived with Arsenio, though they were not married, and she bore him a son. In those years, she had doubts about her situation. Somewhat like Saint Augustine, she prayed for purity—but not just yet. After years of cohabitation, she realized her sins when she discovered Arsenio’s murdered corpse. One day she was waiting for Arsenio and was instead met by his dog. The animal led Margaret into the forest where she found Arsenio murdered. This crime shocked Margaret into a life of penance. Full of the grace of conversion and determined to start a new life, she went to Cortona where the Franciscans ministered to penitent sinners. There, Margaret pursued a life of prayer, penance, and good works. Under the direction of her confessor, who sometimes had to order her to moderate her self-denial, she pursued a life of prayer and penance at Cortona. There she established a hospital and founded a congregation of tertiary sisters. The poor and humble Margaret was, like Francis, devoted to the Eucharist and to the passion of Jesus. These devotions fueled her great charity and drew sinners to her for advice and inspiration.
St. Angela of Foligno
Angela was beautiful, wealthy, and vain. As a rich man’s wife she wallowed in luxury. Her passions were expensive clothes and flashy jewels, extravagant meals and rare wines. She dressed and acted in ways that would provoke envy among women and sexual desire among men. When she was not indulging herself, she spent hours gossiping with her friends and maligning her neighbors. In her autobiography Angela discloses that in 1285 she did something so bad that for the first time in her life she began to live in fear of Hell. Her biographers speculate that Angela committed adultery, and given the intensity of her guilt and shame that seems likely.
Near despair, she prayed to St. Francis of Assisi to help her. As Angela prayed the saint appeared to her. “Sister,” St. Francis said, “if you would have asked me sooner I would have complied with your request sooner. Nonetheless, your request is granted.” That same day Angela offered a sincere confession to a priest. As she stepped from the shadowy interior of the church into the bright sunlight of the piazza, Angela resolved to begin a new life. She sold her fine clothes and jewels to relieve the suffering of Foligno’s poor. After the death of her husband, she gave away all her wealth, associated herself with the Franciscans, and with a handful of other holy women dedicated herself to tending the poor and the sick. Blessed Angela’s life teaches us a timeless lesson about our weakness and God’s mercy. All that he requires is that we repent and make a sincere effort to do better in the future.
St. Thomas Becket
As chancellor of England under Henry II, Thomas Becket (1118-1170) became obscenely wealthy. His wardrobe was larger and more expensive than the king’s. He even had his own private navy. In spite of all his wealth, Becket was cold-hearted and never gave anything to the poor. All that changed after Becket was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury. He gave away all his possessions. He welcomed the poor at his table. And he became a champion of the independence of the Church, for which he was murdered in his own cathedral by four of King Henry’s knights.
St. Philip Howard
Son of one of the wealthiest noble families in England, Philip Howard (1557-1595) could afford any pleasure he liked — and he liked them all. At court he was a notorious playboy, gambler and fop (fop=obsessed with one’s appearance and clothing in an excessive vain manner). He ran up enormous debts, then sold off his wife’s property to pay those debts.
On one occasion he said publicly that he did not really consider himself to be married. In 1581, he joined other members of the court at the Tower of London, to see a debate between several Anglican ministers and a prisoner, the Jesuit priest, St. Edmund Campion. Although the ministers were armed with books and assistants, Father Campion was alone and had only his memory to rely on, yet he did so well in the debate, that the government canceled the debate before a verdict could be given. Inspired by Father Campion, Howard reconciled with his wife, and they both returned to the Catholic Faith. When they tried to leave the country secretly for the Continent of Europe, where they could practice Catholicism freely, they were stopped and Howard was imprisoned in the Tower of London. He died there 10 years later.
St. Camillus of Lellis
Camillus de Lellis was born in Italy in the middle of the 16th century. A hot-tempered, troublesome child, he joined the army when he was 16, though his aggressive behavior only grew after that. Camillus was a mercenary soldier with all the worst habits— drinking, gambling, swearing, chasing prostitutes.
Years of sinful acts followed before his wholehearted reform in 1575. When his father called for a priest on his deathbed, Camillus began to rethink his life. Guided by St. Philip Neri, his spiritual director, Camillus turned away from sin, dedicated himself to the sick, and formed a religious congregation for nursing the poor.
The above mentioned sinners got to Heaven, but they had to make themselves acceptable first! Who knows how much time they may have spent in Purgatory in addition to having suffered for their sins after conversion. With God nothing is impossible—unless we stubbornly resist and reject His graces that move us to change!
Article 10
Tuesday December 9th
No Room for Immaculate “One-Day-Wonders”!
Tuesday December 9th
No Room for Immaculate “One-Day-Wonders”!
Our Lady was Immaculate for More than a Day!
Even though God made Mary Immaculate in her Conception, God did not take away her free will, nor did He preserve her from temptations. The fact that she had free will was shown in the Annunciation, when Our Lady freely gave her consent to becoming the Mother of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ: “Be it done unto me according to thy word!” (Luke 1:38). As for temptations―if Our Lord Himself was tempted in the desert by Satan, then Our Lady was most certainly not going to be exempt from temptations: “He was in the desert forty days and forty nights, and was tempted by Satan” (Mark 1:13). He was “tempted in all things like as we are, without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Holy Scripture tells us: “When you come to the service of God, prepare your soul for temptation!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:1). “God is faithful, and will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able!” (1 Corinthians 10:13). “Because you were acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove you!” (Tobias 12:13). “Blessed is the man that endures temptation; for when he has been proved, he shall receive a crown of life, which God has promised to them that love Him!” (James 1:12). “Count it all joy, when you shall fall into diverse temptations―knowing that the trying of your Faith works patience; and patience has a perfect work; so that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing!” (James 1:2-4). “Was not Abraham found faithful in temptation?” (1 Machabees 2:52). “In temptation he was found faithful” (Ecclesiasticus 44:21). Thus temptations make us more immaculate, more holy and stronger if we resist them―just like a person becomes stringer by lifting heavier weights.
Temptation is a danger―and so we must not deliberately flirt with temptations or seek them out: “He that loves danger shall perish in it!” (Ecclesiasticus 3:27). There is a great difference between God allowing certain temptations to test us, and our own deliberate entering into temptations. Hence Scripture says: “Our fathers were tempted so that they might be proved, whether they worshipped their God truly. Remember how our father Abraham was tempted, and being proved by many tribulations, was made the friend of God. So Isaac, so Jacob, so Moses, and all that have pleased God, passed through many tribulations, remaining faithful!” (Judith 8:21-23). Yet just because God allows us to be tempted does not mean that we are allowed to seek temptations and flirt with them. On the contrary―due to the danger of temptations―Our Lord says: “Pray, lest ye enter into temptation!” (Luke 22:40) … “Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation!” (Matthew 26:41). Furthermore, in teaching us “The Lord’s Prayer” or the “Our Father”, Jesus includes the verse: “Lead us not into temptation!” (Matthew 6:13).
The Temptations of Mary
We read in the book, The Life of Mary as seen by the Mystics, by Raphael Brown, how the devils attempted to tempt Mary to sin―but she remained firm in her resolve to avoid all sin and remain immaculate for the honor and glory of God:
“While the Lord continued to hide Himself from Mary, He also allowed Satan to try her, in order to increase her merit and reward. Irritated by her perfect virtue and holiness, the devil vainly attempted to incite her to commit even a slight venial sin of thought, word or deed. During these various tests, Mary never stopped praying to the Lord for help, and though she suffered from the strain and at times she wept, nevertheless without once losing her inner union with God she successfully fought and conquered all these temptations. Lucifer and his devils were sorely puzzled by Mary’s exceptional holiness. Satan was enraged against her, due to her sanctity, and he therefore decided to send seven legions of his devils to tempt her in each of the seven capital sins. But Mary was warned by the Lord.
“Then while Mary was praying alone, left only to her natural force, God allowed the first legion of devils to tempt her to pride. To make her stop praying, they tried to terrify her by howling and roaring at her. But Mary did not change her position or show any fear. She simply repeated the words of the Psalm: ‘Who is like unto God, who dwells on high and looks down upon the humble in Heaven and on Earth?’ Then the devils changed themselves into resplendent angels and tried to convince Mary that they came from God in order to congratulate and praise her, but they gave themselves away when they promised to select her as the Mother of God! The Blessed Virgin, prostrate on the floor, withdrew within herself and quietly yet firmly continued to pray and adore the Lord.
“Next the second legion of demons tried to tempt her to avarice by offering her great wealth in gold and jewels, telling her that God wanted her to distribute it to the poor, since it was far better for a holy person like her to have all these riches than to leave them to be misused by wicked sinners. Mary did not argue with the devils. She merely prayed these words of the Psalmist: ‘I have acquired for my heritage and for my riches the keeping of Thy testimonies and Thy laws, my Lord.’
“When the third group of devils sought to tempt the Blessed Virgin to impurity, she renewed her vow of chastity with such fervor and merit that her enemies were driven from her presence like a cannonball fired from a cannon.
“Then the fourth legion did all they could to provoke her to anger. They posed as some women whom Mary knew and shouted outrageous insults and threats at her and stole the things she needed most. But Mary saw through their tricks and utterly disregarded them. Then one of the devils took on the appearance of a woman of Nazareth and told an easily influenced neighbor that Mary had criticized and slandered her. The deceived woman, who often lost her temper, hastened to go and insult Mary to her face. The Blessed Virgin calmly allowed her to pour forth all her anger and then spoke to her in such a kind and humble way that soon the woman’s heart softened and she apologized. Mary warned her against letting herself be stirred to anger by the devil, and after giving the poor woman some alms dismissed her in peace. Even the demons were astounded, for they had never seen anyone react that way.
“The fifth legion had no success at all in tempting Mary to gluttony. Then the spirits of envy gave her a long list of natural blessings and spiritual favors which God had bestowed on others but denied to her. They also induced several prosperous persons to describe to her the happiness of those who are rich and well off and fortunate in worldly things. But Mary simply told them that they should thank the Lord for all they had and use it well, while she judged herself quite unworthy of such favors.
“Finally the last legion of devils tried to tempt her to idleness by making her feel tired and dejected, suggesting that she postpone certain prayers and good deeds on account of weariness, so that she might do them all the better after having rested. They also sent people to bother her and take up her time in order to prevent her from doing good. But Mary prudently detected these plots and did not allow the devil to keep her from her prayers and good works. By now Lucifer was so enraged against Mary that he himself strove with all his might to hurt her and the Child in her womb, for he feared that anyone born of her would naturally be a great enemy of his.” (The Life of Mary as seen by the Mystics, by Raphael Brown).
Our Lady Speaks of Temptation
Our Lady herself, in speaking to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, warns: “You shall not escape the attacks and temptations, directed against you by Satan with the most cunning astuteness; but you live in continued wariness, lest you be disturbed or disquieted in the interior of your soul. Learn the manner of resisting and overcoming the powers of Hell. The surest way of fighting the demon is to despise him, looking upon him as the enemy of the Most High, who has lost all fear of God and all hope of good; who in his stubbornness has deprived himself of all means of recovery and is without sorrow for his wickedness. Relying on this truth you should show yourself far superior to him, and treat him as a despiser of the honor and worship of his God. Knowing that you are defending so just a cause, and do not let your courage sink; but resist and counteract him with great strength and valor in all his attempts.
“Remember then, that the demons detest and abominate that which you desire and love―namely the honor of God and your eternal happiness―and that they are striving to deprive you of that which they cannot restore to themselves. God has damned the demon, while He offers to you His grace, His virtues and His strength in order to overcome His and your enemy and to obtain for you the happy end of eternal peace. However, to attain this, you must work faithfully and keep the commandments of the Lord. The arrogance of the dragon is great, yet his weakness is greater; and he does not represent more than a weak atom in the face of the Divine power. Yet, as his cunning and malice far exceed that of mortals, it is not advisable to allow the soul to enter into a discussion with him and bandy words back and forth―whether he is present invisibly or visibl― for from his darksome mind, as from a smoking furnace, issue the shadows of confusion, obscuring the judgments of mortals; if they listen to him, he will fill their minds with deceits and darkness, so that they will neither recognize the truth and the beauty of virtue, nor the vileness of his poisonous falsehoods. Thus the souls will be made unable to distinguish the precious from the worthless, life from death, truth from error, and they easily fall into the clutches of this fierce and wicked dragon.
“You must be much more wary in the beginning of the temptations; for there is then greater danger lest the soul, yielding to the concupiscent or the irascible passions, by which the light of reason is obscured and darkened, allows itself to be thrown into confusion. As soon as the demon notices such a state of mind, he will raise a whirlwind of dust in the faculties. His fierceness is so immeasurable and implacable, that it will then increase in fury. He will add flame to flame, thinking that the soul has no one to defend and rescue it from his hands. With the force of his temptations increases also the danger of failing in the necessary resistance, since the soul has commenced to yield in the very beginning. All this I make known to you, in order that you may fear the danger of being remiss in guarding against the first approaches of the demon.
“In temptation let it be your invariable course not to attend to anything which he proposes, not to listen, not to argue with him concerning anything. If you can, then withdraw and place yourself at a distance, so as not to perceive or recognize his wicked attempts, so much the more secure you will be for thus looking upon him only at a distance. The demon always seeks to prepare the way for his deceits, especially in souls which he fears will resist his entrance, unless he can thus facilitate his approach. He is accustomed to begin by causing sorrow or dejection of heart, or he makes use of other trickery or snares, by which he diverts or withdraws the soul from the love of the Lord; then he comes with his poison, concealed in the golden cup, in order to diminish the horror of the soul.
“As soon as you notice in yourself any of these signs, I wish that with the wings of the dove you direct thy flight to the high refuge of the Almighty, calling upon Him for aid and offering Him the merits of my most holy Son. You should also fly to me for protection―for I am thy Mother and Teacher; and turn also to your devoted angels, and to all the rest of your advocates in the Lord. Quickly close up thy senses and consider yourself as dead to them, or as a soul already belonging to the other life, where the jurisdiction and the exacting tyranny of the serpent does not reach. Occupy yourself so much the more earnestly in the exercise of the virtue contrary to the vice to which he tempts you, and especially in acts of Faith, Hope and Charity, which dispel cowardice and doubt, and weaken the influence of discouragement and fear in the human heart.
“The arguments for overcoming Lucifer you must seek in God alone; and do not disclose them to your enemy, lest he meets you with fallacies and confusing pretense. Besides knowing it to be dangerous, esteem it as unworthy of you to argue with him openly, or to pay particular attention to him, who is not only the enemy of thy Beloved, but also of you. Show yourself superior to him and high-mindedly apply thyself to the practice of all virtues. Be content with this treasure and withdraw yourself; for the most skillful battle of the sons of God consists in flying farthest from evil. The devil is proud and is deeply hurt by contempt; in the presumption of his arrogance and vanity, he desires, above all, the attention of men. On this account he is so persistent in pursuing us step by step―for in his deceitfulness he cannot rely upon the force of truth, but on his persistent counterfeiting of the good and the true. As long as this slave of wickedness is not despised, he never believes himself discovered and he continues, like an importunate fly, to buzz about the spot tainted by the greatest corruption.
“Not less warily must you conduct yourself, when thy enemy makes use of other creatures for your destruction. This he does in two ways―either leading them on to immoderate love, or to undue dislike or hatred. As soon as you notice a disorderly affection in those with whom you converse with, observe the same precaution as in flying from the demon; yet with this difference, that while you hate the demon as your enemy, you consider the others as God’s creatures to whom you must not deny the consideration due to them on account of His Majesty. But, in as far as withdrawing from them is concerned, act as if they were your enemies―for in regard to the service, which the Lord requires of you and in regard to your present condition, it is the devil who operates in these persons toward separating you from your God and from your duty.
“If on the other hand they hate and persecute you, answer them with meekness and love, praying for them with intimate affection of thy heart. If it should be necessary, soothe the wrath of your persecutors with sweet words, and undeceive those who are led astray by false reports. Do this, not in order to excuse yourself, but in order to pacify your others and for their inward and outward peace; thus you will, at one and the same time, conquer yourself and those who hate you. In order to be well practiced in this way of acting, it is necessary to cut off the very roots of the capital sins, to tear them out, and to die to the movements of the appetites. For in these appetites the seven capital vices to which the devil leads men, are rooted, and in these disorderly and undisciplined passions he sows the germs of the seven sins.
“Since the flesh is the center of weakness and danger, it is proper that thou carefully resist thy natural likings, and through them the temptations of the demons … When the soul listens to and extemporizes with the animal and carnal part of its nature this latter will engross and overcome the forces of reason and of the spirit, and will reduce them to a dangerous and shameful slavery. This disorder is abominable and much to be feared by all! … The demon then introduces other distractions and temptations, and they begin to weaken in all of them; they esteem them as being light and unimportant matters, and, living on in their false security, come to lose the very perception of true virtue. Guard against this error! Remember, that a voluntary remissness in regard to one imperfection prepares and opens the way for others―these facilitate the commission of venial sins, these again facilitate the commission of mortal sins. Thus the descent is from one abyss to another, until the bottom is found in the disregard of all evil.
“In order to prevent such a misfortune it is necessary to intercept from afar the current of sin, and keep the enemy at a distance. If the demon can break through and gain the outer defenses, he is in better position to gain the inner ones. If then an opening is made in the bulwarks by the commission of sin, although it may not be a very grievous one, then he already has a better opportunity to make an assault on the interior reign of a soul. As the soul finds herself weakened by vicious acts and habits and without strength of grace, she does not resist the attack with fortitude, and the devil, acquiring more and more power over her, begins to subject and oppress her without opposition. Consider, therefore, how great must be thy watchfulness, and how great is the necessity of not falling asleep in the midst of so many dangers” (Our Lady’s words to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, taken from The Mystical City of God).
The Awesome Terrible Sanctity of God Detests Sin
God is Sanctity itself, much more so than the sun is light, and no shadow of sin can endure before His face. “Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and Thou canst not look on iniquity” (Habacuc 1:13). The least sin displeases Him infinitely, and, on account of the infinite Sanctity which is offended.
It was sin that led to banishment of the fallen angels to Hell, and it was sin led to Adam and Eve to be cast out of the Garden of Eden and to suffer and die. Both the Angels and our First Parents were created immaculate, that is to say, in a state of grace. Yet many of the angels failed to keep that grace, and both Adam and Eve lost that grace through Mortal Sin. God cannot tolerate sin. Sin is an attack upon the holiness and purity of God. Sin has to be eliminated and reparation has to be made.
The Price and Pain of Sin
Since Adam and Even listened to the devil and fell into sin, they thereby abused and threw away the gifts the gifts that God had given them: (1) the supernatural grace of God; (2) the possibility of never having to die; (3) the possibility of being free from any and all forms of suffering; (4) the harmonious submission and obedience of the soul to God’s grace, and the obedience of the body and its passions to the soul; and finally, (5) they weakened the infused knowledge that God had created them with, to the point that now they would experience a darkened intellect that finds learning difficult, a weak will that struggles with temptation, and rebellious passions.
They had offended God in the name of humanity, all their future descendants would participate in the effects of that sin. As St. Paul writes: “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). Truly, as St. Paul states later, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
The gates of Heaven were closed. Humanity had failed the test through Adam and Eve. It is because we downplay sin in our own thoughts, that we have such a wrong notion about what sin really is. As the old, but very clear and simple, Penny Catechism says: “It is the greatest of all evils to fall into mortal sin.” Another catechism, My Catholic Faith, states that “Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God ... Although venial sin is not a grievous offense against God, it is nevertheless a great moral evil, next alone to mortal sin ... We are prone to look upon venial sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that it is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin.” (from the catechism My Catholic Faith).
The New Adam, the New Eve
After his fall, man was not abandoned by God. The passage in Genesis, which is called the Proto-evangelium (“first gospel”), makes the first announcement of the Messias and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers. The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the “New Adam” who, because He “became obedient unto death, even death on a cross”, makes amends super-abundantly for the disobedience, of Adam. Additionally, many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the Woman announced in the Proto-evangelium as Mary, the Mother of Christ, the “New Eve”. Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ’s victory over sin: for she was preserved from all stain of Original Sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.
Immaculate Mary needs Immaculate Children
We all know the saying: “Like father, like son!” or “Like mother, like daughter!” or “He takes after his father!” and “She’s just like her mother!” Our Lord and Our Lady—the new Adam and Eve—want us to imitate them and Heaven. Of Our Lady, it can be said: “I am clean, and without sin: I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me” (Job 33:9) .... “My word is pure, and I am clean in thy sight” (Job 11:4). “I am without sin and am innocent” (Jeremias 2:35). We became her spiritual children at the foot of the Cross, and so we should take on the traits of our spiritual Mother. Children imitate their parents.
Jesus said: “Learn of Me…!” (Matthew 11:29) … “If you love Me, keep my Commandments” (John 14:15) … “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) … “I am the Lord your God: be holy because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44) … “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine” (Leviticus 20:26). St. Peter repeats that command in the New Testament: “According to Him that hath called you, Who is holy, be you also in all manner of conversation holy, because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16). While St. Paul writes: “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight in charity” (Ephesians 1:4).
Only saints go to Heaven, that is the pedigree of the New Adam and Eve—we have to be immaculate to enter therein: “There shall not enter into it any thing defiled” (Apocalypse 27:21). We have to be wholly holy, or “Holy, Holy, Holy” as we say in the Sanctus at Mass—which, incidentally, should remind of the three ever-increasing stages of holiness that we have to pass through: as beginners in holiness, (2) as proficients in holiness, and (3) as perfect in holiness. Purgatory will be necessary for even the slightest stains of sin or smallest unpaid debts for previously forgiven sin. For, as it was said above, God detests sin. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
“For the Highest hates sinners, and has mercy on the penitent” (Ecclesiasticus 12:3). “Six things there are, which the Lord hates, and the seventh his soul detests: (1) Haughty eyes, (2) a lying tongue, (3) hands that shed innocent blood, (4) heart that devises wicked plots, (5) feet that are swift to run into mischief, (6) deceitful witness that utters lies, and (7) him that sows discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6:16-19). “I hate arrogance, and pride, and every wicked way, and a mouth with a double tongue” (Proverbs 8:13).
The Articulate Deception of the World Opposes the Immaculate Conception of Mary
The devil and Mary are irreconcilable enemies―a fact already foretold by God after the first sin of Adam and Eve, what we now call “Original Sin”, after which God solemnly said: “And the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the Earth! Upon thy breast shalt thou go and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life! I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed! She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel!’” (Genesis 3:14-15). Thus, Mary and devil are irreconcilable enemies.
The devil, however, is also the “prince of this world” and thus the world is also an enemy of God and Mary―as mentioned by Our Lord on several occasions: “For the prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not any thing!” (John 14:30). “The prince of this world is already judged!” (John 16:11). “Now is the judgment of the world―now shall the prince of this world be cast out!” (John 12:31). How does Our Lord judge the world, of which the devil is prince? Jesus says: “My kingdom is not of this world … My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). Jesus “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world!” (Galatians 1:4). “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:10-11)―we forget that it is actually a good sign if the world does not ‘receive’ us or does not like us!
Exposing the Seductive Lies and Deception of the World
To His followers Jesus says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hates you, know ye, that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24).
In the parable of the Sower of the Seed, Jesus says: “He that received the seed among thorns, is he that hears the word of God, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of this life, choke up the word of God, and the word becomes fruitless and yields no fruit” (Matthew 13:3-8, 13:18-23; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-15). “He that loves his life [in this world] shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world, keeps it unto life eternal!” (John 12:25). To His Father in Heaven, Jesus prays: “I have manifested Thy Name, Father, to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world ... Thine they were, and to Me Thou gavest them … I am not of the world, and these are in the world … I pray for them! … I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me! … I have given them Thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world” (John 17:6-14).
This inescapable and unpleasant truth―unpleasant to us because we love the world and want the world to love us―is further driven home by the Apostles: “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “We are blasphemed [by the world], and we are made as the refuse of this world, the off-scouring of all―even until now!” (1 Corinthians 4:13). “The world is crucified to me, and I to the world!” (Galatians 6:14). “If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still act as though living in the world?” (Colossians 2:20). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; so that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not―for the fashion of this world passes away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31). “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “What fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part have the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God! As God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
The Seductive Lies of the World are the Lies of the Devil
As Our Lord says of the devil and of worldly people: “The world cannot receive the spirit of truth” (John 14:17). To the worldly-minded, who are thereby implicit slaves of the “prince of this world”, the devil, Our Lord says: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own―for he is a liar and the father of lies!” (John 8:44). Yet those lies are very seductive lies―they promise a paradise on Earth, a life of ease and comfort, many useful possessions, etc.
Articulate Deceptions of the World
St. Louis de Montfort, in one of his lesser know books, Love of Eternal Wisdom, paints a very striking and clear picture of those who have been seduced by the lies of the world and the devil:
“Those who proceed according to the wisdom of the world are those who know how to manage well their affairs and to arrange things to their temporal advantage without appearing to do so; who know the art of deceiving and how to cleverly cheat without being noticed; who say or do one thing and have another thing in mind; who are thoroughly acquainted with the way and the flattery of the world; who know how to please everybody in order to reach their goal, not troubling much about the honor and interests of God; who make a secret but deadly fusion of truth with untruth, of the Gospel with the world, of virtue with vice, of Jesus Christ with Satan; who wish to pass as honest people, but not as religious men; who despise and corrupt or readily condemn every religious practice which does not conform to their own. In short, the worldly‑wise are those who, being guided only by their human senses and reason, seek only to appear as Christian and honest folk, without troubling much to please God or to do penance for the sins which they have committed against His divine Majesty.
“The worldling bases his conduct upon his honor, upon what people say, upon convention, upon good cheer, upon personal interest, upon refined manners, upon witty jokes. These are the seven innocent incentives, so he thinks, upon which he can rely that he may lead an easy life. He has virtues of his own for which he is canonized by the world. These are manliness, finesse, diplomacy, tact, gallantry, politeness, sprightliness. He considers as serious sins such traits as lack of feeling, silliness, dullness, sanctimoniousness. He adheres as strictly as possible to the commandments which the world has given him:
(1) Thou shalt be well acquainted with the world.
(2) Thou shalt be an “honest” man.
(3) Thou shalt be successful in business.
(4) Thou shalt keep what is thine.
(5) Thou shalt get on in the world.
(6) Thou shalt make friends.
(7) Thou shalt be a society man.
(8) Thou shalt make merry.
(9) Thou shalt not be a killjoy.
(10) Thou shalt avoid singularity, dullness and an air of piety.
“Never was the world so corrupt as it is now, because it was never so astute, so wise in its own conceit, so cunning. It is so skillful in deceiving the soul seeking perfection that it makes use of truth to foster untruth, of virtue to authorize vice and it even distorts the meaning of Christ’s own truths to give authority to its own maxims. “The number of those who are fools according to God, is infinite.” The earthly wisdom spoken of by St. James, is an excessive striving for worldly goods. The worldly-wise make a secret profession of this type of wisdom when they allow themselves to become attached to their earthly possessions, when they strive to become rich, when they go to law and bring useless actions against others in order to acquire or to keep temporal goods; when their every thought, word and deed is mainly directed toward obtaining or retaining something temporal. As to working out their eternal salvation and making use of the means to do so, such as reception of the Sacraments and prayer, they accomplish these duties only carelessly, in a very offhand manner, once in a while, and for the sake of appearances” (St. Louis de Montfort, Love of Eternal Wisdom §76-§79).
God Wants You In Heaven—The Proof!
Let this never be doubted—God wants to see you in Heaven! The whispers of the devil would have us believe otherwise, but the truth is that God desires your salvation. Holy Scripture is proof enough of this truth:
God Himself says: “‘Is it My will that a sinner should die?’ saith the Lord God” (Ezechiel 18:20-23) … “‘As I live’, saith the Lord God, ‘I desire not the death of the wicked!’” (Ezechiel 33:11). “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18).
Jesus, speaking of Himself in the third person, says: “For God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). The Angel Gabriel, speaking of Jesus, says to Mary: “For He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Jesus Himself says: “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “They that are whole, need not the physician: but they that are sick. I came not to call the just, but sinners…” (Luke 5:31-32). “For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47).
Let no man say or think that God wants him to be damned! Damnation comes from man—assisted by man’s wayward passions and the devil—damnation is not caused by God! Advent is a time that focuses on Christ coming in mercy. Let us rejoice in that mercy! Let us celebrate that mercy! Let us profit from that mercy! But let us also realize that this mercy is not unconditional and that God is not a doormat on which we can wipe our dirty, muddy, smelly sinful feet: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7).
To Go To Heaven—You Must Change!
The brutal fact in this is summarized by the obvious but unpleasant philosophical axiom or truth, that says: “He who desires the end [the goal], must also necessarily desire the means [to get to the end or goal].” We would like to get the end without taking the means! We would like to get paid without having worked! We would like to be saved at the wave of magic wand! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Dream on!
We Need to Clean Up Our Act
God never changes and His demands for holiness never change. In the Old Testament it says: “Turn away from evil and do good” (Psalms 33:15); and St. Peter repeats the same in the New Testament: “Let him decline from evil, and do good” (1 Peter 3:11). Our Lady even echoes this today, for at Fatima she said: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended.” However, Sr. Lucia of Fatima tells us that: “the Blessed Virgin is very sad because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them.” St. Paul clearly tells us: “Let no sin therefore reign in your mortal body” (Romans 6:12). Not even the slightest Venial Sin, for that still separates us from God and has to paid for—either here or in Purgatory, as Our Lord says: “Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing” (Matthew 5:26).
Saints without Stains
Only saints get into Heaven―even though they are identical in the letters they use “SAINTS” and “STAINS” are irreconcilable. SAINTS cannot have STAINS―they need to have any pasts STAINS of sin removed before they can be called SAINTS. Heaven has to be STAINLESS or else it will be SAINTLESS. It is fire that removes those STAINS and makes us into SAINTS―either the fires of love and charity on Earth; or the fires of Purgatory after our death. Residency in Heaven requires that we be immaculate, perfect and undefiled: “There shall not enter into it anything defiled” (Apocalypse 21:27). We often make sin to be nothing but “A TINY SIN” ― change the order in those letters and you get “INSANITY”! It is truly INSANITY to imagine any attack on God as being “A TINY SIN”!
God says: “O ye men, to you I call, and my voice is to the sons of men! … My lips shall hate wickedness! … The fear of the Lord hates evil! I hate arrogance, and pride, and every wicked way!” (Proverbs 8:4-13) … “You are not a God that wills iniquity! Neither shall the wicked dwell near You; nor shall the unjust abide before Your eyes! You hate all the workers of iniquity!” (Psalms 5:5) … “Your iniquities have created a divide between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you!” (Isaias 59:2). “The eyes of the Lord are too pure to behold evil, and He cannot look on iniquity!” (Habacuc 1:13).
No Saints without Charity
God is love and sin is hatred of God. “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and God often represented Himself by the symbol of fire― “the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush” (Exodus 3:2-4); “The Lord went before them to show the way by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire” (Exodus 13:21); “All Mount Sinai was smoking, because the Lord was come down upon it in fire” (Exodus 19:18); “the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the mount” (Exodus 24:17).
That is why Our Lord says: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth―and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). That is why we pray: “Come O Holy Ghost … and enkindle in us the fire of Thy love!” That is why Holy Scripture says: “Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Jude 1:21). That is why Our Lord said of the great sinner, Mary Magdalen: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much!” (Luke 7:47). That is why St. Robert Bellarmine says: “Charity is that with which no man is lost, and without which no man is saved!” That is why St. John of the Cross says: “At the end of our life, we shall all be judged by charity!” What do you say?
God detests sin and sin cannot endure in the presence of God. “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and charity burns away sin. “In this we have known the charity of God, because He has laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16) … “Let us therefore love God, because God has first loved us!” (1 John 4:19). The greater the intensity of that charity, the more quickly it burns away the stains of sin. That is why Our Lord said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength! This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31). “Charity is of God. And every one that loves, is born of God, and knows God!” (1 John 4:7). “If I … have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. If I … have not Charity―then I am nothing. If I … have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
What is the very basic level of charity? Our Lord tells us: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word … He that loves Me not, keeps not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love … This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10; 15:12).
Pray to God―through Our Lady―that you may receive such an intense degree of charity that it will burn away the stains of all your past sins and make you more like your Immaculate Mother! “Charity covers all sins!” (Proverbs 10:12).
Even though God made Mary Immaculate in her Conception, God did not take away her free will, nor did He preserve her from temptations. The fact that she had free will was shown in the Annunciation, when Our Lady freely gave her consent to becoming the Mother of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ: “Be it done unto me according to thy word!” (Luke 1:38). As for temptations―if Our Lord Himself was tempted in the desert by Satan, then Our Lady was most certainly not going to be exempt from temptations: “He was in the desert forty days and forty nights, and was tempted by Satan” (Mark 1:13). He was “tempted in all things like as we are, without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Holy Scripture tells us: “When you come to the service of God, prepare your soul for temptation!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:1). “God is faithful, and will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able!” (1 Corinthians 10:13). “Because you were acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove you!” (Tobias 12:13). “Blessed is the man that endures temptation; for when he has been proved, he shall receive a crown of life, which God has promised to them that love Him!” (James 1:12). “Count it all joy, when you shall fall into diverse temptations―knowing that the trying of your Faith works patience; and patience has a perfect work; so that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing!” (James 1:2-4). “Was not Abraham found faithful in temptation?” (1 Machabees 2:52). “In temptation he was found faithful” (Ecclesiasticus 44:21). Thus temptations make us more immaculate, more holy and stronger if we resist them―just like a person becomes stringer by lifting heavier weights.
Temptation is a danger―and so we must not deliberately flirt with temptations or seek them out: “He that loves danger shall perish in it!” (Ecclesiasticus 3:27). There is a great difference between God allowing certain temptations to test us, and our own deliberate entering into temptations. Hence Scripture says: “Our fathers were tempted so that they might be proved, whether they worshipped their God truly. Remember how our father Abraham was tempted, and being proved by many tribulations, was made the friend of God. So Isaac, so Jacob, so Moses, and all that have pleased God, passed through many tribulations, remaining faithful!” (Judith 8:21-23). Yet just because God allows us to be tempted does not mean that we are allowed to seek temptations and flirt with them. On the contrary―due to the danger of temptations―Our Lord says: “Pray, lest ye enter into temptation!” (Luke 22:40) … “Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation!” (Matthew 26:41). Furthermore, in teaching us “The Lord’s Prayer” or the “Our Father”, Jesus includes the verse: “Lead us not into temptation!” (Matthew 6:13).
The Temptations of Mary
We read in the book, The Life of Mary as seen by the Mystics, by Raphael Brown, how the devils attempted to tempt Mary to sin―but she remained firm in her resolve to avoid all sin and remain immaculate for the honor and glory of God:
“While the Lord continued to hide Himself from Mary, He also allowed Satan to try her, in order to increase her merit and reward. Irritated by her perfect virtue and holiness, the devil vainly attempted to incite her to commit even a slight venial sin of thought, word or deed. During these various tests, Mary never stopped praying to the Lord for help, and though she suffered from the strain and at times she wept, nevertheless without once losing her inner union with God she successfully fought and conquered all these temptations. Lucifer and his devils were sorely puzzled by Mary’s exceptional holiness. Satan was enraged against her, due to her sanctity, and he therefore decided to send seven legions of his devils to tempt her in each of the seven capital sins. But Mary was warned by the Lord.
“Then while Mary was praying alone, left only to her natural force, God allowed the first legion of devils to tempt her to pride. To make her stop praying, they tried to terrify her by howling and roaring at her. But Mary did not change her position or show any fear. She simply repeated the words of the Psalm: ‘Who is like unto God, who dwells on high and looks down upon the humble in Heaven and on Earth?’ Then the devils changed themselves into resplendent angels and tried to convince Mary that they came from God in order to congratulate and praise her, but they gave themselves away when they promised to select her as the Mother of God! The Blessed Virgin, prostrate on the floor, withdrew within herself and quietly yet firmly continued to pray and adore the Lord.
“Next the second legion of demons tried to tempt her to avarice by offering her great wealth in gold and jewels, telling her that God wanted her to distribute it to the poor, since it was far better for a holy person like her to have all these riches than to leave them to be misused by wicked sinners. Mary did not argue with the devils. She merely prayed these words of the Psalmist: ‘I have acquired for my heritage and for my riches the keeping of Thy testimonies and Thy laws, my Lord.’
“When the third group of devils sought to tempt the Blessed Virgin to impurity, she renewed her vow of chastity with such fervor and merit that her enemies were driven from her presence like a cannonball fired from a cannon.
“Then the fourth legion did all they could to provoke her to anger. They posed as some women whom Mary knew and shouted outrageous insults and threats at her and stole the things she needed most. But Mary saw through their tricks and utterly disregarded them. Then one of the devils took on the appearance of a woman of Nazareth and told an easily influenced neighbor that Mary had criticized and slandered her. The deceived woman, who often lost her temper, hastened to go and insult Mary to her face. The Blessed Virgin calmly allowed her to pour forth all her anger and then spoke to her in such a kind and humble way that soon the woman’s heart softened and she apologized. Mary warned her against letting herself be stirred to anger by the devil, and after giving the poor woman some alms dismissed her in peace. Even the demons were astounded, for they had never seen anyone react that way.
“The fifth legion had no success at all in tempting Mary to gluttony. Then the spirits of envy gave her a long list of natural blessings and spiritual favors which God had bestowed on others but denied to her. They also induced several prosperous persons to describe to her the happiness of those who are rich and well off and fortunate in worldly things. But Mary simply told them that they should thank the Lord for all they had and use it well, while she judged herself quite unworthy of such favors.
“Finally the last legion of devils tried to tempt her to idleness by making her feel tired and dejected, suggesting that she postpone certain prayers and good deeds on account of weariness, so that she might do them all the better after having rested. They also sent people to bother her and take up her time in order to prevent her from doing good. But Mary prudently detected these plots and did not allow the devil to keep her from her prayers and good works. By now Lucifer was so enraged against Mary that he himself strove with all his might to hurt her and the Child in her womb, for he feared that anyone born of her would naturally be a great enemy of his.” (The Life of Mary as seen by the Mystics, by Raphael Brown).
Our Lady Speaks of Temptation
Our Lady herself, in speaking to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, warns: “You shall not escape the attacks and temptations, directed against you by Satan with the most cunning astuteness; but you live in continued wariness, lest you be disturbed or disquieted in the interior of your soul. Learn the manner of resisting and overcoming the powers of Hell. The surest way of fighting the demon is to despise him, looking upon him as the enemy of the Most High, who has lost all fear of God and all hope of good; who in his stubbornness has deprived himself of all means of recovery and is without sorrow for his wickedness. Relying on this truth you should show yourself far superior to him, and treat him as a despiser of the honor and worship of his God. Knowing that you are defending so just a cause, and do not let your courage sink; but resist and counteract him with great strength and valor in all his attempts.
“Remember then, that the demons detest and abominate that which you desire and love―namely the honor of God and your eternal happiness―and that they are striving to deprive you of that which they cannot restore to themselves. God has damned the demon, while He offers to you His grace, His virtues and His strength in order to overcome His and your enemy and to obtain for you the happy end of eternal peace. However, to attain this, you must work faithfully and keep the commandments of the Lord. The arrogance of the dragon is great, yet his weakness is greater; and he does not represent more than a weak atom in the face of the Divine power. Yet, as his cunning and malice far exceed that of mortals, it is not advisable to allow the soul to enter into a discussion with him and bandy words back and forth―whether he is present invisibly or visibl― for from his darksome mind, as from a smoking furnace, issue the shadows of confusion, obscuring the judgments of mortals; if they listen to him, he will fill their minds with deceits and darkness, so that they will neither recognize the truth and the beauty of virtue, nor the vileness of his poisonous falsehoods. Thus the souls will be made unable to distinguish the precious from the worthless, life from death, truth from error, and they easily fall into the clutches of this fierce and wicked dragon.
“You must be much more wary in the beginning of the temptations; for there is then greater danger lest the soul, yielding to the concupiscent or the irascible passions, by which the light of reason is obscured and darkened, allows itself to be thrown into confusion. As soon as the demon notices such a state of mind, he will raise a whirlwind of dust in the faculties. His fierceness is so immeasurable and implacable, that it will then increase in fury. He will add flame to flame, thinking that the soul has no one to defend and rescue it from his hands. With the force of his temptations increases also the danger of failing in the necessary resistance, since the soul has commenced to yield in the very beginning. All this I make known to you, in order that you may fear the danger of being remiss in guarding against the first approaches of the demon.
“In temptation let it be your invariable course not to attend to anything which he proposes, not to listen, not to argue with him concerning anything. If you can, then withdraw and place yourself at a distance, so as not to perceive or recognize his wicked attempts, so much the more secure you will be for thus looking upon him only at a distance. The demon always seeks to prepare the way for his deceits, especially in souls which he fears will resist his entrance, unless he can thus facilitate his approach. He is accustomed to begin by causing sorrow or dejection of heart, or he makes use of other trickery or snares, by which he diverts or withdraws the soul from the love of the Lord; then he comes with his poison, concealed in the golden cup, in order to diminish the horror of the soul.
“As soon as you notice in yourself any of these signs, I wish that with the wings of the dove you direct thy flight to the high refuge of the Almighty, calling upon Him for aid and offering Him the merits of my most holy Son. You should also fly to me for protection―for I am thy Mother and Teacher; and turn also to your devoted angels, and to all the rest of your advocates in the Lord. Quickly close up thy senses and consider yourself as dead to them, or as a soul already belonging to the other life, where the jurisdiction and the exacting tyranny of the serpent does not reach. Occupy yourself so much the more earnestly in the exercise of the virtue contrary to the vice to which he tempts you, and especially in acts of Faith, Hope and Charity, which dispel cowardice and doubt, and weaken the influence of discouragement and fear in the human heart.
“The arguments for overcoming Lucifer you must seek in God alone; and do not disclose them to your enemy, lest he meets you with fallacies and confusing pretense. Besides knowing it to be dangerous, esteem it as unworthy of you to argue with him openly, or to pay particular attention to him, who is not only the enemy of thy Beloved, but also of you. Show yourself superior to him and high-mindedly apply thyself to the practice of all virtues. Be content with this treasure and withdraw yourself; for the most skillful battle of the sons of God consists in flying farthest from evil. The devil is proud and is deeply hurt by contempt; in the presumption of his arrogance and vanity, he desires, above all, the attention of men. On this account he is so persistent in pursuing us step by step―for in his deceitfulness he cannot rely upon the force of truth, but on his persistent counterfeiting of the good and the true. As long as this slave of wickedness is not despised, he never believes himself discovered and he continues, like an importunate fly, to buzz about the spot tainted by the greatest corruption.
“Not less warily must you conduct yourself, when thy enemy makes use of other creatures for your destruction. This he does in two ways―either leading them on to immoderate love, or to undue dislike or hatred. As soon as you notice a disorderly affection in those with whom you converse with, observe the same precaution as in flying from the demon; yet with this difference, that while you hate the demon as your enemy, you consider the others as God’s creatures to whom you must not deny the consideration due to them on account of His Majesty. But, in as far as withdrawing from them is concerned, act as if they were your enemies―for in regard to the service, which the Lord requires of you and in regard to your present condition, it is the devil who operates in these persons toward separating you from your God and from your duty.
“If on the other hand they hate and persecute you, answer them with meekness and love, praying for them with intimate affection of thy heart. If it should be necessary, soothe the wrath of your persecutors with sweet words, and undeceive those who are led astray by false reports. Do this, not in order to excuse yourself, but in order to pacify your others and for their inward and outward peace; thus you will, at one and the same time, conquer yourself and those who hate you. In order to be well practiced in this way of acting, it is necessary to cut off the very roots of the capital sins, to tear them out, and to die to the movements of the appetites. For in these appetites the seven capital vices to which the devil leads men, are rooted, and in these disorderly and undisciplined passions he sows the germs of the seven sins.
“Since the flesh is the center of weakness and danger, it is proper that thou carefully resist thy natural likings, and through them the temptations of the demons … When the soul listens to and extemporizes with the animal and carnal part of its nature this latter will engross and overcome the forces of reason and of the spirit, and will reduce them to a dangerous and shameful slavery. This disorder is abominable and much to be feared by all! … The demon then introduces other distractions and temptations, and they begin to weaken in all of them; they esteem them as being light and unimportant matters, and, living on in their false security, come to lose the very perception of true virtue. Guard against this error! Remember, that a voluntary remissness in regard to one imperfection prepares and opens the way for others―these facilitate the commission of venial sins, these again facilitate the commission of mortal sins. Thus the descent is from one abyss to another, until the bottom is found in the disregard of all evil.
“In order to prevent such a misfortune it is necessary to intercept from afar the current of sin, and keep the enemy at a distance. If the demon can break through and gain the outer defenses, he is in better position to gain the inner ones. If then an opening is made in the bulwarks by the commission of sin, although it may not be a very grievous one, then he already has a better opportunity to make an assault on the interior reign of a soul. As the soul finds herself weakened by vicious acts and habits and without strength of grace, she does not resist the attack with fortitude, and the devil, acquiring more and more power over her, begins to subject and oppress her without opposition. Consider, therefore, how great must be thy watchfulness, and how great is the necessity of not falling asleep in the midst of so many dangers” (Our Lady’s words to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, taken from The Mystical City of God).
The Awesome Terrible Sanctity of God Detests Sin
God is Sanctity itself, much more so than the sun is light, and no shadow of sin can endure before His face. “Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and Thou canst not look on iniquity” (Habacuc 1:13). The least sin displeases Him infinitely, and, on account of the infinite Sanctity which is offended.
It was sin that led to banishment of the fallen angels to Hell, and it was sin led to Adam and Eve to be cast out of the Garden of Eden and to suffer and die. Both the Angels and our First Parents were created immaculate, that is to say, in a state of grace. Yet many of the angels failed to keep that grace, and both Adam and Eve lost that grace through Mortal Sin. God cannot tolerate sin. Sin is an attack upon the holiness and purity of God. Sin has to be eliminated and reparation has to be made.
The Price and Pain of Sin
Since Adam and Even listened to the devil and fell into sin, they thereby abused and threw away the gifts the gifts that God had given them: (1) the supernatural grace of God; (2) the possibility of never having to die; (3) the possibility of being free from any and all forms of suffering; (4) the harmonious submission and obedience of the soul to God’s grace, and the obedience of the body and its passions to the soul; and finally, (5) they weakened the infused knowledge that God had created them with, to the point that now they would experience a darkened intellect that finds learning difficult, a weak will that struggles with temptation, and rebellious passions.
They had offended God in the name of humanity, all their future descendants would participate in the effects of that sin. As St. Paul writes: “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). Truly, as St. Paul states later, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
The gates of Heaven were closed. Humanity had failed the test through Adam and Eve. It is because we downplay sin in our own thoughts, that we have such a wrong notion about what sin really is. As the old, but very clear and simple, Penny Catechism says: “It is the greatest of all evils to fall into mortal sin.” Another catechism, My Catholic Faith, states that “Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God ... Although venial sin is not a grievous offense against God, it is nevertheless a great moral evil, next alone to mortal sin ... We are prone to look upon venial sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that it is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin.” (from the catechism My Catholic Faith).
The New Adam, the New Eve
After his fall, man was not abandoned by God. The passage in Genesis, which is called the Proto-evangelium (“first gospel”), makes the first announcement of the Messias and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers. The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the “New Adam” who, because He “became obedient unto death, even death on a cross”, makes amends super-abundantly for the disobedience, of Adam. Additionally, many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the Woman announced in the Proto-evangelium as Mary, the Mother of Christ, the “New Eve”. Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ’s victory over sin: for she was preserved from all stain of Original Sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.
Immaculate Mary needs Immaculate Children
We all know the saying: “Like father, like son!” or “Like mother, like daughter!” or “He takes after his father!” and “She’s just like her mother!” Our Lord and Our Lady—the new Adam and Eve—want us to imitate them and Heaven. Of Our Lady, it can be said: “I am clean, and without sin: I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me” (Job 33:9) .... “My word is pure, and I am clean in thy sight” (Job 11:4). “I am without sin and am innocent” (Jeremias 2:35). We became her spiritual children at the foot of the Cross, and so we should take on the traits of our spiritual Mother. Children imitate their parents.
Jesus said: “Learn of Me…!” (Matthew 11:29) … “If you love Me, keep my Commandments” (John 14:15) … “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) … “I am the Lord your God: be holy because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44) … “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine” (Leviticus 20:26). St. Peter repeats that command in the New Testament: “According to Him that hath called you, Who is holy, be you also in all manner of conversation holy, because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16). While St. Paul writes: “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight in charity” (Ephesians 1:4).
Only saints go to Heaven, that is the pedigree of the New Adam and Eve—we have to be immaculate to enter therein: “There shall not enter into it any thing defiled” (Apocalypse 27:21). We have to be wholly holy, or “Holy, Holy, Holy” as we say in the Sanctus at Mass—which, incidentally, should remind of the three ever-increasing stages of holiness that we have to pass through: as beginners in holiness, (2) as proficients in holiness, and (3) as perfect in holiness. Purgatory will be necessary for even the slightest stains of sin or smallest unpaid debts for previously forgiven sin. For, as it was said above, God detests sin. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
“For the Highest hates sinners, and has mercy on the penitent” (Ecclesiasticus 12:3). “Six things there are, which the Lord hates, and the seventh his soul detests: (1) Haughty eyes, (2) a lying tongue, (3) hands that shed innocent blood, (4) heart that devises wicked plots, (5) feet that are swift to run into mischief, (6) deceitful witness that utters lies, and (7) him that sows discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6:16-19). “I hate arrogance, and pride, and every wicked way, and a mouth with a double tongue” (Proverbs 8:13).
The Articulate Deception of the World Opposes the Immaculate Conception of Mary
The devil and Mary are irreconcilable enemies―a fact already foretold by God after the first sin of Adam and Eve, what we now call “Original Sin”, after which God solemnly said: “And the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the Earth! Upon thy breast shalt thou go and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life! I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed! She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel!’” (Genesis 3:14-15). Thus, Mary and devil are irreconcilable enemies.
The devil, however, is also the “prince of this world” and thus the world is also an enemy of God and Mary―as mentioned by Our Lord on several occasions: “For the prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not any thing!” (John 14:30). “The prince of this world is already judged!” (John 16:11). “Now is the judgment of the world―now shall the prince of this world be cast out!” (John 12:31). How does Our Lord judge the world, of which the devil is prince? Jesus says: “My kingdom is not of this world … My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). Jesus “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world!” (Galatians 1:4). “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:10-11)―we forget that it is actually a good sign if the world does not ‘receive’ us or does not like us!
Exposing the Seductive Lies and Deception of the World
To His followers Jesus says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hates you, know ye, that it has hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hates Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24).
In the parable of the Sower of the Seed, Jesus says: “He that received the seed among thorns, is he that hears the word of God, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of this life, choke up the word of God, and the word becomes fruitless and yields no fruit” (Matthew 13:3-8, 13:18-23; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-15). “He that loves his life [in this world] shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world, keeps it unto life eternal!” (John 12:25). To His Father in Heaven, Jesus prays: “I have manifested Thy Name, Father, to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world ... Thine they were, and to Me Thou gavest them … I am not of the world, and these are in the world … I pray for them! … I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me! … I have given them Thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world” (John 17:6-14).
This inescapable and unpleasant truth―unpleasant to us because we love the world and want the world to love us―is further driven home by the Apostles: “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “We are blasphemed [by the world], and we are made as the refuse of this world, the off-scouring of all―even until now!” (1 Corinthians 4:13). “The world is crucified to me, and I to the world!” (Galatians 6:14). “If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still act as though living in the world?” (Colossians 2:20). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; so that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not―for the fashion of this world passes away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31). “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “What fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part have the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God! As God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
The Seductive Lies of the World are the Lies of the Devil
As Our Lord says of the devil and of worldly people: “The world cannot receive the spirit of truth” (John 14:17). To the worldly-minded, who are thereby implicit slaves of the “prince of this world”, the devil, Our Lord says: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own―for he is a liar and the father of lies!” (John 8:44). Yet those lies are very seductive lies―they promise a paradise on Earth, a life of ease and comfort, many useful possessions, etc.
Articulate Deceptions of the World
St. Louis de Montfort, in one of his lesser know books, Love of Eternal Wisdom, paints a very striking and clear picture of those who have been seduced by the lies of the world and the devil:
“Those who proceed according to the wisdom of the world are those who know how to manage well their affairs and to arrange things to their temporal advantage without appearing to do so; who know the art of deceiving and how to cleverly cheat without being noticed; who say or do one thing and have another thing in mind; who are thoroughly acquainted with the way and the flattery of the world; who know how to please everybody in order to reach their goal, not troubling much about the honor and interests of God; who make a secret but deadly fusion of truth with untruth, of the Gospel with the world, of virtue with vice, of Jesus Christ with Satan; who wish to pass as honest people, but not as religious men; who despise and corrupt or readily condemn every religious practice which does not conform to their own. In short, the worldly‑wise are those who, being guided only by their human senses and reason, seek only to appear as Christian and honest folk, without troubling much to please God or to do penance for the sins which they have committed against His divine Majesty.
“The worldling bases his conduct upon his honor, upon what people say, upon convention, upon good cheer, upon personal interest, upon refined manners, upon witty jokes. These are the seven innocent incentives, so he thinks, upon which he can rely that he may lead an easy life. He has virtues of his own for which he is canonized by the world. These are manliness, finesse, diplomacy, tact, gallantry, politeness, sprightliness. He considers as serious sins such traits as lack of feeling, silliness, dullness, sanctimoniousness. He adheres as strictly as possible to the commandments which the world has given him:
(1) Thou shalt be well acquainted with the world.
(2) Thou shalt be an “honest” man.
(3) Thou shalt be successful in business.
(4) Thou shalt keep what is thine.
(5) Thou shalt get on in the world.
(6) Thou shalt make friends.
(7) Thou shalt be a society man.
(8) Thou shalt make merry.
(9) Thou shalt not be a killjoy.
(10) Thou shalt avoid singularity, dullness and an air of piety.
“Never was the world so corrupt as it is now, because it was never so astute, so wise in its own conceit, so cunning. It is so skillful in deceiving the soul seeking perfection that it makes use of truth to foster untruth, of virtue to authorize vice and it even distorts the meaning of Christ’s own truths to give authority to its own maxims. “The number of those who are fools according to God, is infinite.” The earthly wisdom spoken of by St. James, is an excessive striving for worldly goods. The worldly-wise make a secret profession of this type of wisdom when they allow themselves to become attached to their earthly possessions, when they strive to become rich, when they go to law and bring useless actions against others in order to acquire or to keep temporal goods; when their every thought, word and deed is mainly directed toward obtaining or retaining something temporal. As to working out their eternal salvation and making use of the means to do so, such as reception of the Sacraments and prayer, they accomplish these duties only carelessly, in a very offhand manner, once in a while, and for the sake of appearances” (St. Louis de Montfort, Love of Eternal Wisdom §76-§79).
God Wants You In Heaven—The Proof!
Let this never be doubted—God wants to see you in Heaven! The whispers of the devil would have us believe otherwise, but the truth is that God desires your salvation. Holy Scripture is proof enough of this truth:
God Himself says: “‘Is it My will that a sinner should die?’ saith the Lord God” (Ezechiel 18:20-23) … “‘As I live’, saith the Lord God, ‘I desire not the death of the wicked!’” (Ezechiel 33:11). “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18).
Jesus, speaking of Himself in the third person, says: “For God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). The Angel Gabriel, speaking of Jesus, says to Mary: “For He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Jesus Himself says: “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “They that are whole, need not the physician: but they that are sick. I came not to call the just, but sinners…” (Luke 5:31-32). “For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47).
Let no man say or think that God wants him to be damned! Damnation comes from man—assisted by man’s wayward passions and the devil—damnation is not caused by God! Advent is a time that focuses on Christ coming in mercy. Let us rejoice in that mercy! Let us celebrate that mercy! Let us profit from that mercy! But let us also realize that this mercy is not unconditional and that God is not a doormat on which we can wipe our dirty, muddy, smelly sinful feet: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7).
To Go To Heaven—You Must Change!
The brutal fact in this is summarized by the obvious but unpleasant philosophical axiom or truth, that says: “He who desires the end [the goal], must also necessarily desire the means [to get to the end or goal].” We would like to get the end without taking the means! We would like to get paid without having worked! We would like to be saved at the wave of magic wand! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Dream on!
We Need to Clean Up Our Act
God never changes and His demands for holiness never change. In the Old Testament it says: “Turn away from evil and do good” (Psalms 33:15); and St. Peter repeats the same in the New Testament: “Let him decline from evil, and do good” (1 Peter 3:11). Our Lady even echoes this today, for at Fatima she said: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended.” However, Sr. Lucia of Fatima tells us that: “the Blessed Virgin is very sad because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them.” St. Paul clearly tells us: “Let no sin therefore reign in your mortal body” (Romans 6:12). Not even the slightest Venial Sin, for that still separates us from God and has to paid for—either here or in Purgatory, as Our Lord says: “Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing” (Matthew 5:26).
Saints without Stains
Only saints get into Heaven―even though they are identical in the letters they use “SAINTS” and “STAINS” are irreconcilable. SAINTS cannot have STAINS―they need to have any pasts STAINS of sin removed before they can be called SAINTS. Heaven has to be STAINLESS or else it will be SAINTLESS. It is fire that removes those STAINS and makes us into SAINTS―either the fires of love and charity on Earth; or the fires of Purgatory after our death. Residency in Heaven requires that we be immaculate, perfect and undefiled: “There shall not enter into it anything defiled” (Apocalypse 21:27). We often make sin to be nothing but “A TINY SIN” ― change the order in those letters and you get “INSANITY”! It is truly INSANITY to imagine any attack on God as being “A TINY SIN”!
God says: “O ye men, to you I call, and my voice is to the sons of men! … My lips shall hate wickedness! … The fear of the Lord hates evil! I hate arrogance, and pride, and every wicked way!” (Proverbs 8:4-13) … “You are not a God that wills iniquity! Neither shall the wicked dwell near You; nor shall the unjust abide before Your eyes! You hate all the workers of iniquity!” (Psalms 5:5) … “Your iniquities have created a divide between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you!” (Isaias 59:2). “The eyes of the Lord are too pure to behold evil, and He cannot look on iniquity!” (Habacuc 1:13).
No Saints without Charity
God is love and sin is hatred of God. “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and God often represented Himself by the symbol of fire― “the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush” (Exodus 3:2-4); “The Lord went before them to show the way by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire” (Exodus 13:21); “All Mount Sinai was smoking, because the Lord was come down upon it in fire” (Exodus 19:18); “the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the mount” (Exodus 24:17).
That is why Our Lord says: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth―and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). That is why we pray: “Come O Holy Ghost … and enkindle in us the fire of Thy love!” That is why Holy Scripture says: “Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Jude 1:21). That is why Our Lord said of the great sinner, Mary Magdalen: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much!” (Luke 7:47). That is why St. Robert Bellarmine says: “Charity is that with which no man is lost, and without which no man is saved!” That is why St. John of the Cross says: “At the end of our life, we shall all be judged by charity!” What do you say?
God detests sin and sin cannot endure in the presence of God. “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and charity burns away sin. “In this we have known the charity of God, because He has laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16) … “Let us therefore love God, because God has first loved us!” (1 John 4:19). The greater the intensity of that charity, the more quickly it burns away the stains of sin. That is why Our Lord said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength! This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31). “Charity is of God. And every one that loves, is born of God, and knows God!” (1 John 4:7). “If I … have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. If I … have not Charity―then I am nothing. If I … have not Charity―then it profits me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
What is the very basic level of charity? Our Lord tells us: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that has My commandments, and keeps them; he it is that loves Me … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word … He that loves Me not, keeps not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love … This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10; 15:12).
Pray to God―through Our Lady―that you may receive such an intense degree of charity that it will burn away the stains of all your past sins and make you more like your Immaculate Mother! “Charity covers all sins!” (Proverbs 10:12).
Article 9
Monday December 8th, Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Mary and Immaculate You!
Monday December 8th, Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Mary and Immaculate You!
The Immaculate One!
O what a day! O what a woman! “Tota pulchra es, Maria, et macula originalis non est in te”—”Thou are all beautiful, O Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in thee!” St. Louis de Montfort writes that Mary is “the straight and immaculate way to go to Jesus Christ … An immaculate way without imperfection … Make for me, if you will, a new road to go to Jesus, and pave it with all the merits of the blessed, adorn it with all their heroic virtues, illuminate and embellish it with all the lights and beauties of the angels, and let all the angels and saints be there themselves, to escort, defend and sustain those who are ready to walk there; and yet in truth, in simple truth, I say boldly, and I repeat that I say truly, I would prefer―in place of this new, perfect path―the immaculate way of Mary!” (True Devotion to Mary).
The Magnificent One!
“Mary is the excellent masterpiece of the Most High … Mary is the ‘sealed fountain’ (Canticles 4:12), where God dwells more magnificently and more divinely than in any other place in the universe … She is the grand and divine world of God, where there are beauties and treasures unspeakable” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary). As William Wordsworth wrote in his famous poem, The Virgin, Mary is “our tainted nature’s solitary boast.”
The Hidden One!
In his book, True Devotion to Mary, St. Louis de Montfort writes: “It was through the most holy Virgin Mary that Jesus came into the world, and it is also through her that He has to reign in the world. Mary was singularly hidden during her life. It is on this account that the Holy Ghost and the Church call her Alma Mater—”Mother secret and hidden.” Her humility was so profound that she had no inclination on Earth more powerful or more constant than that of hiding herself, from herself as well as from every other creature, so as to be known to God only. He heard her prayers when she begged to be hidden, to be humbled and to be treated as in all respects poor and of no account. He took pleasure in hiding her from all human creatures, in her conception, in her birth, in her life, in her mysteries, and in her resurrection and Assumption.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
The Lauded One!
“The saints have said admirable things of this holy city of God; and, as they themselves avow, they were never more eloquent and more content than when they spoke of her. Yet, after all they have said, they cry out that the height of her merits, which she has raised up to the throne of the Divinity, cannot be fully seen; that the breadth of her charity, which is broader than the Earth, is in truth immeasurable; that the length of her power, which she exercises even over God Himself, is incomprehensible; and finally, that the depth of her humility, and of all her virtues and graces, is an abyss which never can be sounded. O height incomprehensible! O breadth unspeakable! O length immeasurable! O abyss impenetrable!
“Every day, from one end of the Earth to the other, in the highest heights of the Heavens and in the profoundest depths of the abysses, everything preaches, everything publishes, the admirable Mary! The nine choirs of angels, men of all ages, sexes, conditions and religions, the good and the bad, nay, even the devils themselves, willingly or unwillingly, are compelled by the force of truth to call her ‘Blessed.’ St. Bonaventure tells us that all the angels in Heaven cry out incessantly to her: ‘Holy, holy, holy Mary! Mother of God and Virgin!’ and that they offer to her, millions and millions of times a day, the Angelical Salutation, Ave Maria, prostrating themselves before her, and begging of her in her graciousness to honor them with some of her commands. Even St. Michael, as St. Augustine says, although the prince of the heavenly court, is the most zealous in honoring her and causing her to be honored, and is always anxiously awaiting the honor of going at her bidding to render service to some one of her servants” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
The Patronizing One!
“The whole Earth is full of her glory, especially among Christians, by whom she is taken as the protectress of many kingdoms, provinces, dioceses and cities. Many cathedrals are consecrated to God under her name. There is not a church without an altar in her honor, not a country, nor a canton, where there are not some miraculous images, where all sorts of evils are cured and all sorts of good gifts obtained. Who can count the confraternities and congregations in her honor? How many religious orders have been founded in her name and under her protection? How many members in these confraternities, and how many religious men and women in all these orders, who publish her praises and confess her mercies? There is not a little child who, as it lisps the Hail Mary, does not praise her! There is scarcely a sinner who, even in his obduracy, has not some spark of confidence in her! Nay, the very devils in Hell respect her while they fear her!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
The Neglected One!
“After all that, we must cry out with the saints: ‘De Maria numquam satis’—’Of Mary there is never enough.’ We have not yet praised, exalted, honored, loved and served Mary as we ought. She deserves still more praise, still more respect, still more love, and still more service” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
This is echoed by Fr. Faber, who, in his personal translation of St. Louis’ True Devotion to Mary from the original French into English, writes: “All those who are likely to read this book [True Devotion to Mary], love God, and lament that they do not love Him more; all desire something for His glory—the spread of some good work, the success of some devotion, the coming of some good time. One man has been striving for years to overcome a particular fault, and has not succeeded. Another mourns, and almost wonders while he mourns, that so few of his relations and friends have been converted to the Faith. One grieves that he has not devotion enough; another that he has a cross to carry which is a peculiarly impossible cross to him; while a third has domestic troubles and family unhappiness, which feel almost incompatible with his salvation; and for all these things prayer appears to bring so little remedy!
“But what is the remedy that is wanted? What is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one. Mary is not half enough preached. Devotion to her is low and thin and poor!” (Fr. Faber, Preface to his translation of the True Devotion to Mary).
The One Hope!
At Fatima, speaking of herself in the third person and under the title of Our Lady of the Rosary, said: “Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you” (July 13th, 1917). At Akita, she reiterates that message, saying: “The only arms that will remain for you will be the Rosary and Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary!” At La Salette, she said of the calamitous times that we are fast approaching: “People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of arms and blasphemy. The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for my help and intercession.” At Quito, Ecaudor, as Our Lady of Good Success, she said: “How the Church will suffer during this dark night! This night will be most horrible, for, humanly speaking, evil will seem to triumph! This, however, will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet and fettering him in the infernal abyss. Thus the Church and this country will be finally free of his cruel tyranny.”
The Spurned and Saddened One!
Our Lady wants our love! God wants us to love her! To Lucia, at Fatima, Our Lady said: “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved. God is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated” (July, 1917).
In the next apparition, following month, she reiterated this demand for love and devotion: “Jesus wants to use you to make me known and loved. He wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it; these souls will be dear to God, like flowers put by me to adorn his throne” (August, 1917).
Yet it seems that Our Lady, the Immaculate One, is a woman spurned and rejected—as Sr. Lucia would later say in 1957. Speaking to Fr. Fuentes, she said: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them.”
No Time For Prayer = Time for Disaster
The math is simple! Without prayer there will be no change in the worldliness levels of ourselves or our families, relatives and friends. Without prayer there will no stopping the horrors that are heading our way. Our Lord said that without Him, we can nothing, and it is through prayer that we enlist His help. Our Lady said that at this moment in time, only she can help us, and she said that the help will only come if we pray and show devotion to her.
Furthermore, it is only the “immaculate ones” who will be admitted into Heaven: “There shall not enter into it any thing defiled!” (Apocalypse 21:27). Perfection is required for Heaven! God Himself says: “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy!” (Leviticus 20:26). Our Lord adds: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). Holy Scripture warns: “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14). St. Louis de Montfort writes: “God wants you to become holy like Him in this life … It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you! … Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you? … The grace and help of God are absolutely necessary! … You must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God!” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary).
To find Mary and the graces she offers, we must PRAY to Mary. Prayer is one of chief and most accessible ways of obtaining grace. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God―in other words, it is a communication with God. When we need something, then we need to communicate that need. Our Lord says: “Ask, and it shall be given you! Seek, and you shall find! Knock, and it shall be opened to you!” (Matthew 7:7) ― which means, as St. Teresa of Avila says, if you do not ask, then you will not get!
The famous Benedictine monk and spiritual writer, Dom Marmion, says: "The modern world cannot do without God. This is the root of its ills. The great truth is that we have an absolute need of God…He normally bestows His grace only in response to prayer. Since our need exists at all times....“We ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1)....The true nature of Christian prayer is perfectly expressed in the following definition given by St. John Damascene and St. Thomas Aquinas: prayer is “a raising of the mind and heart towards God” to offer Him our homage and to ask Him for all those things of which we stand in need" (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chap. 15).
Time spent is prayer is time that is lost—at least that is the attitude of the world and of souls who are worldly. We have all heard of the modern-day expression: “Time means money!” Obviously, the meaning behind this is that if we lose time or waste time, then we will lose money or waste money. The worldly person could well substitute any other thing or activity for the word “money”: “Time is having fun!” “Time is playing games!” “Time is surfing the internet!” “Time is TV or videos!” “Time is music!” “Time is being with friends!” “Time is food, drink and parties!” Or even slightly more noble things: “Time is family!” “Time is my work!” “Time is my hobby!” “Time is working-out!” And the more time we have for these things, the happier we are! Yet for many, prayer (and all the spiritual exercises like going to Mass, Confession, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, going on retreat, spiritual reading, meditation, etc.) gets in the way of whatever we want to make time for! This is another litmus test for our own worldliness.
Consequently, the world thinks it can get on without prayer (and all the other spiritual exercises) or at least it relegates them to last or near last place in its “Time is....” ladder of values. Instead of seeking first the kingdom of God, His kingdom becomes an afterthought, a kind of a “we’ll get round to it when we have some time” attitude.
Yet we forget that without God we can do nothing, as Jesus clearly said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” Not only that, but Jesus also had a few words to say about time for prayer: “He spoke also a parable to them, that we ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). Which is why St. Paul says: “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
Prayer is Like the Air That We Breathe
It can be good. It can also be bad. Good, clean, pure air is healthy and brings health. Bad, contaminated, polluted air is unhealthy and will bring disease.
There is more to prayer than we think! In many important professions and trades, people have to take courses in which they learn the ‘tricks-of-the-trade’ or master the basics of the profession that they are wanting to enter. They often have to have a license to prove that they have the minimal knowledge and capability to exercise their trade or profession.
Tragically, some of the most important ‘trades’, ‘professions’ or ‘vocations’ do not follow such a training procedure, nor do they require a license to practice it. Marriage and Prayer are two that spring to mind!!!
Bad Prayer is Like Bad Air! It Can Harm Us!
“Licensed to Pray”! That has a comical ring to it, but it is no joking matter. For prayer can both help and hurt! Prayer can have its perks and punishments! Sadly, it is thought that MOST PEOPLE PRAY BADLY! If the pray badly, then that is bad! If it is bad, it has to be punished by God, in one way or another.
St. Louis writes: “In order to pray well, it is not enough to give expression to our petitions by means of that most excellent of all prayers, the Rosary, but we must also pray with great attention, for God listens more to the voice of the heart than that of the mouth. To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin” (The Secret of the Rosary, “Forty-Second Rose”).
Bad prayer, deliberately inattentive prayer, fast and hurried prayer, distracted prayer is a venial sin. Venial sin is the second greatest evil in the world after mortal sin. It is an offense to God that has to be punished. So it is in our interests to do all we can to avoid, not only venial sins in general, but also venial sins in that particular dignified office of prayer.
Yet, prayer, if well said, can bring many benefits, rewards, fruits and graces. It can even bring about miracles!
The Saints Say Many Wonderful Things about Prayer
► “The power of prayer is really tremendous” (St. Therese of Lisieux).
► “By prayer, man gives to God the greatest glory possible” (St. Peter Julian Emyard).
► “When prayer is poured forth, sins are covered” (St. Peter Julian Emyard).
► “He who prays most, receives most” (St. Alphonsus Liguori).
► “It is simply impossible to live a virtuous life without prayer” (St. John Chrysostom).
► “He knows how to live well who knows how to pray well” (St. Augustine).
“He who does not give up prayer, cannot possibly continue to offend God habitually. Either he will give up prayer, or he will stop sinning” (St. Alphonsus Liguori).
► “As the body cannot live without nourishment, so our soul cannot be spiritually kept alive without prayer” (St. Augustine).
Prayer Through Mary Can Make You Immaculate!
If you want to learn Spanish or French—then seek out someone who can both speak and teach the language well. If you wish to a doctor or a lawyer—then enroll in the best medical school or law school you can find. If you wish to remove the stains of your past sins and become immaculate—then go to the one who has always been immaculate: Our Lady. St. Louis de Montfort speaks of this “immaculate way” in his book, True Devotion to Mary:
Immaculately Molded!
“By that immaculate way of Mary and that divine practice which I am teaching, we toil during the day, we toil in a holy place, we toil but little. There is no night in Mary, because there is no sin, nor even the slightest shade. Mary is a holy place, and the holy of holies where saints are formed and molded. Take notice, if you please, that I say the saints are molded in Mary. There is a great difference between making a figure in relief by blows of hammer and chisel, and making a figure by throwing it into a mold. Statuaries and sculptors labor much to make figures in the first manner; but to make them in the second manner, they work little and do their work quickly.
St. Augustine calls our Blessed Lady ‘the mold of God’—the mold fit to cast and mold gods. He who is cast in this mold is presently formed and molded in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ in him. At a slight expense and in a short time he will become God, because he has been cast in the same mold which has formed a God” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Immaculate Images!
“It seems to me that I can very aptly compare directors and devout persons—who wish to form Jesus Christ in themselves or others by practices different from this one—to sculptors who trust in their own professional skill, ingenuity or art, and so give an infinity of hammering and chiseling to a hard stone or a piece of badly polished wood, to make an image of Jesus Christ out of it. Sometimes they do not succeed in giving anything like the natural expression of Jesus, either from having no knowledge or experience of the Person of Jesus, or from some blow awkwardly given, which has spoiled the work.
“But those who embrace the secret of grace which I am revealing to them I may rightly compare to founders and casters who have discovered the beautiful mold of Mary, where Jesus was naturally and divinely formed; and without trusting in their own skill, but only in the goodness of the mold, they cast themselves and lose themselves in Mary, to become the faithful portraits of Jesus Christ.
“Oh, beautiful and true comparison! But who will comprehend it? I desire that you may, my dear brother. But remember that we cast in a mold only what is melted and liquid; that is to say, you must destroy and melt down in yourself the old Adam to become the new one in Mary. By this practice, faithfully observed, you will give Jesus more glory in a month than by any other practice, however difficult, in many years” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Go To Mary!
“Let us say boldly with St. Bernard that we have need of a mediator with the Mediator Himself, and that it is the divine Mary who is the most capable of filling that charitable office. It was through her that Jesus Christ came to us, and it is through her that we must go to Him. If we fear to go directly to Jesus Christ, our God, whether because of His infinite greatness, or because of our vileness or because of our sins, let us boldly implore the aid and intercession of Mary, our Mother. She is good, she is tender, she has nothing in her austere and forbidding, nothing too sublime and too brilliant.
“In seeing her, we see our pure nature. She is not the sun, which by the brightness of its rays blinds us because of our weakness; but she is fair and gentle as the moon (Canticles 6:9), which receives the light of the sun, and tempers it to make it more suitable to our capacity.
“She is so charitable that she repels none of those who ask her intercession, no matter how great sinners they have been; for, as the saints say, never has it been heard since the world was the world that anyone has confidently and perseveringly had recourse to our Blessed Lady and yet has been repelled.
“She is so powerful that none of her petitions has ever been refused. She has but to show herself before her Son to pray to Him, and straightaway He grants her desires, straightaway He receives her prayers. He is always lovingly vanquished by the prayers of His dearest Mother, who bore Him and nourished Him” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
As Our Lady said: Only she can help us now! Yet, it will not be our terms, but on her terms. Just as she said to the servants at the Marriage Feast at Cana, where she provoked Our Lord’s fist public miracle, “Do what He tells you!” So, too, it should be said to us: “Do what she tells you!” Do it and she will provoke another miracle― that of removing the stains of your past sins and making you immaculate.
Most people do not listen to her, nor do they do what she says. Sr. Lucia of Fatima reminds us of this truth, when she reveals to Fr. Fuentes, in 1957: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them.”
O what a day! O what a woman! “Tota pulchra es, Maria, et macula originalis non est in te”—”Thou are all beautiful, O Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in thee!” St. Louis de Montfort writes that Mary is “the straight and immaculate way to go to Jesus Christ … An immaculate way without imperfection … Make for me, if you will, a new road to go to Jesus, and pave it with all the merits of the blessed, adorn it with all their heroic virtues, illuminate and embellish it with all the lights and beauties of the angels, and let all the angels and saints be there themselves, to escort, defend and sustain those who are ready to walk there; and yet in truth, in simple truth, I say boldly, and I repeat that I say truly, I would prefer―in place of this new, perfect path―the immaculate way of Mary!” (True Devotion to Mary).
The Magnificent One!
“Mary is the excellent masterpiece of the Most High … Mary is the ‘sealed fountain’ (Canticles 4:12), where God dwells more magnificently and more divinely than in any other place in the universe … She is the grand and divine world of God, where there are beauties and treasures unspeakable” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary). As William Wordsworth wrote in his famous poem, The Virgin, Mary is “our tainted nature’s solitary boast.”
The Hidden One!
In his book, True Devotion to Mary, St. Louis de Montfort writes: “It was through the most holy Virgin Mary that Jesus came into the world, and it is also through her that He has to reign in the world. Mary was singularly hidden during her life. It is on this account that the Holy Ghost and the Church call her Alma Mater—”Mother secret and hidden.” Her humility was so profound that she had no inclination on Earth more powerful or more constant than that of hiding herself, from herself as well as from every other creature, so as to be known to God only. He heard her prayers when she begged to be hidden, to be humbled and to be treated as in all respects poor and of no account. He took pleasure in hiding her from all human creatures, in her conception, in her birth, in her life, in her mysteries, and in her resurrection and Assumption.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
The Lauded One!
“The saints have said admirable things of this holy city of God; and, as they themselves avow, they were never more eloquent and more content than when they spoke of her. Yet, after all they have said, they cry out that the height of her merits, which she has raised up to the throne of the Divinity, cannot be fully seen; that the breadth of her charity, which is broader than the Earth, is in truth immeasurable; that the length of her power, which she exercises even over God Himself, is incomprehensible; and finally, that the depth of her humility, and of all her virtues and graces, is an abyss which never can be sounded. O height incomprehensible! O breadth unspeakable! O length immeasurable! O abyss impenetrable!
“Every day, from one end of the Earth to the other, in the highest heights of the Heavens and in the profoundest depths of the abysses, everything preaches, everything publishes, the admirable Mary! The nine choirs of angels, men of all ages, sexes, conditions and religions, the good and the bad, nay, even the devils themselves, willingly or unwillingly, are compelled by the force of truth to call her ‘Blessed.’ St. Bonaventure tells us that all the angels in Heaven cry out incessantly to her: ‘Holy, holy, holy Mary! Mother of God and Virgin!’ and that they offer to her, millions and millions of times a day, the Angelical Salutation, Ave Maria, prostrating themselves before her, and begging of her in her graciousness to honor them with some of her commands. Even St. Michael, as St. Augustine says, although the prince of the heavenly court, is the most zealous in honoring her and causing her to be honored, and is always anxiously awaiting the honor of going at her bidding to render service to some one of her servants” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
The Patronizing One!
“The whole Earth is full of her glory, especially among Christians, by whom she is taken as the protectress of many kingdoms, provinces, dioceses and cities. Many cathedrals are consecrated to God under her name. There is not a church without an altar in her honor, not a country, nor a canton, where there are not some miraculous images, where all sorts of evils are cured and all sorts of good gifts obtained. Who can count the confraternities and congregations in her honor? How many religious orders have been founded in her name and under her protection? How many members in these confraternities, and how many religious men and women in all these orders, who publish her praises and confess her mercies? There is not a little child who, as it lisps the Hail Mary, does not praise her! There is scarcely a sinner who, even in his obduracy, has not some spark of confidence in her! Nay, the very devils in Hell respect her while they fear her!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
The Neglected One!
“After all that, we must cry out with the saints: ‘De Maria numquam satis’—’Of Mary there is never enough.’ We have not yet praised, exalted, honored, loved and served Mary as we ought. She deserves still more praise, still more respect, still more love, and still more service” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
This is echoed by Fr. Faber, who, in his personal translation of St. Louis’ True Devotion to Mary from the original French into English, writes: “All those who are likely to read this book [True Devotion to Mary], love God, and lament that they do not love Him more; all desire something for His glory—the spread of some good work, the success of some devotion, the coming of some good time. One man has been striving for years to overcome a particular fault, and has not succeeded. Another mourns, and almost wonders while he mourns, that so few of his relations and friends have been converted to the Faith. One grieves that he has not devotion enough; another that he has a cross to carry which is a peculiarly impossible cross to him; while a third has domestic troubles and family unhappiness, which feel almost incompatible with his salvation; and for all these things prayer appears to bring so little remedy!
“But what is the remedy that is wanted? What is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one. Mary is not half enough preached. Devotion to her is low and thin and poor!” (Fr. Faber, Preface to his translation of the True Devotion to Mary).
The One Hope!
At Fatima, speaking of herself in the third person and under the title of Our Lady of the Rosary, said: “Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you” (July 13th, 1917). At Akita, she reiterates that message, saying: “The only arms that will remain for you will be the Rosary and Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary!” At La Salette, she said of the calamitous times that we are fast approaching: “People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of arms and blasphemy. The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for my help and intercession.” At Quito, Ecaudor, as Our Lady of Good Success, she said: “How the Church will suffer during this dark night! This night will be most horrible, for, humanly speaking, evil will seem to triumph! This, however, will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet and fettering him in the infernal abyss. Thus the Church and this country will be finally free of his cruel tyranny.”
The Spurned and Saddened One!
Our Lady wants our love! God wants us to love her! To Lucia, at Fatima, Our Lady said: “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved. God is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated” (July, 1917).
In the next apparition, following month, she reiterated this demand for love and devotion: “Jesus wants to use you to make me known and loved. He wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it; these souls will be dear to God, like flowers put by me to adorn his throne” (August, 1917).
Yet it seems that Our Lady, the Immaculate One, is a woman spurned and rejected—as Sr. Lucia would later say in 1957. Speaking to Fr. Fuentes, she said: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them.”
No Time For Prayer = Time for Disaster
The math is simple! Without prayer there will be no change in the worldliness levels of ourselves or our families, relatives and friends. Without prayer there will no stopping the horrors that are heading our way. Our Lord said that without Him, we can nothing, and it is through prayer that we enlist His help. Our Lady said that at this moment in time, only she can help us, and she said that the help will only come if we pray and show devotion to her.
Furthermore, it is only the “immaculate ones” who will be admitted into Heaven: “There shall not enter into it any thing defiled!” (Apocalypse 21:27). Perfection is required for Heaven! God Himself says: “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy!” (Leviticus 20:26). Our Lord adds: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). Holy Scripture warns: “Without holiness no man shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14). St. Louis de Montfort writes: “God wants you to become holy like Him in this life … It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you! … Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you? … The grace and help of God are absolutely necessary! … You must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God!” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary).
To find Mary and the graces she offers, we must PRAY to Mary. Prayer is one of chief and most accessible ways of obtaining grace. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God―in other words, it is a communication with God. When we need something, then we need to communicate that need. Our Lord says: “Ask, and it shall be given you! Seek, and you shall find! Knock, and it shall be opened to you!” (Matthew 7:7) ― which means, as St. Teresa of Avila says, if you do not ask, then you will not get!
The famous Benedictine monk and spiritual writer, Dom Marmion, says: "The modern world cannot do without God. This is the root of its ills. The great truth is that we have an absolute need of God…He normally bestows His grace only in response to prayer. Since our need exists at all times....“We ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1)....The true nature of Christian prayer is perfectly expressed in the following definition given by St. John Damascene and St. Thomas Aquinas: prayer is “a raising of the mind and heart towards God” to offer Him our homage and to ask Him for all those things of which we stand in need" (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chap. 15).
Time spent is prayer is time that is lost—at least that is the attitude of the world and of souls who are worldly. We have all heard of the modern-day expression: “Time means money!” Obviously, the meaning behind this is that if we lose time or waste time, then we will lose money or waste money. The worldly person could well substitute any other thing or activity for the word “money”: “Time is having fun!” “Time is playing games!” “Time is surfing the internet!” “Time is TV or videos!” “Time is music!” “Time is being with friends!” “Time is food, drink and parties!” Or even slightly more noble things: “Time is family!” “Time is my work!” “Time is my hobby!” “Time is working-out!” And the more time we have for these things, the happier we are! Yet for many, prayer (and all the spiritual exercises like going to Mass, Confession, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, going on retreat, spiritual reading, meditation, etc.) gets in the way of whatever we want to make time for! This is another litmus test for our own worldliness.
Consequently, the world thinks it can get on without prayer (and all the other spiritual exercises) or at least it relegates them to last or near last place in its “Time is....” ladder of values. Instead of seeking first the kingdom of God, His kingdom becomes an afterthought, a kind of a “we’ll get round to it when we have some time” attitude.
Yet we forget that without God we can do nothing, as Jesus clearly said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” Not only that, but Jesus also had a few words to say about time for prayer: “He spoke also a parable to them, that we ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). Which is why St. Paul says: “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
Prayer is Like the Air That We Breathe
It can be good. It can also be bad. Good, clean, pure air is healthy and brings health. Bad, contaminated, polluted air is unhealthy and will bring disease.
There is more to prayer than we think! In many important professions and trades, people have to take courses in which they learn the ‘tricks-of-the-trade’ or master the basics of the profession that they are wanting to enter. They often have to have a license to prove that they have the minimal knowledge and capability to exercise their trade or profession.
Tragically, some of the most important ‘trades’, ‘professions’ or ‘vocations’ do not follow such a training procedure, nor do they require a license to practice it. Marriage and Prayer are two that spring to mind!!!
Bad Prayer is Like Bad Air! It Can Harm Us!
“Licensed to Pray”! That has a comical ring to it, but it is no joking matter. For prayer can both help and hurt! Prayer can have its perks and punishments! Sadly, it is thought that MOST PEOPLE PRAY BADLY! If the pray badly, then that is bad! If it is bad, it has to be punished by God, in one way or another.
St. Louis writes: “In order to pray well, it is not enough to give expression to our petitions by means of that most excellent of all prayers, the Rosary, but we must also pray with great attention, for God listens more to the voice of the heart than that of the mouth. To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin” (The Secret of the Rosary, “Forty-Second Rose”).
Bad prayer, deliberately inattentive prayer, fast and hurried prayer, distracted prayer is a venial sin. Venial sin is the second greatest evil in the world after mortal sin. It is an offense to God that has to be punished. So it is in our interests to do all we can to avoid, not only venial sins in general, but also venial sins in that particular dignified office of prayer.
Yet, prayer, if well said, can bring many benefits, rewards, fruits and graces. It can even bring about miracles!
The Saints Say Many Wonderful Things about Prayer
► “The power of prayer is really tremendous” (St. Therese of Lisieux).
► “By prayer, man gives to God the greatest glory possible” (St. Peter Julian Emyard).
► “When prayer is poured forth, sins are covered” (St. Peter Julian Emyard).
► “He who prays most, receives most” (St. Alphonsus Liguori).
► “It is simply impossible to live a virtuous life without prayer” (St. John Chrysostom).
► “He knows how to live well who knows how to pray well” (St. Augustine).
“He who does not give up prayer, cannot possibly continue to offend God habitually. Either he will give up prayer, or he will stop sinning” (St. Alphonsus Liguori).
► “As the body cannot live without nourishment, so our soul cannot be spiritually kept alive without prayer” (St. Augustine).
Prayer Through Mary Can Make You Immaculate!
If you want to learn Spanish or French—then seek out someone who can both speak and teach the language well. If you wish to a doctor or a lawyer—then enroll in the best medical school or law school you can find. If you wish to remove the stains of your past sins and become immaculate—then go to the one who has always been immaculate: Our Lady. St. Louis de Montfort speaks of this “immaculate way” in his book, True Devotion to Mary:
Immaculately Molded!
“By that immaculate way of Mary and that divine practice which I am teaching, we toil during the day, we toil in a holy place, we toil but little. There is no night in Mary, because there is no sin, nor even the slightest shade. Mary is a holy place, and the holy of holies where saints are formed and molded. Take notice, if you please, that I say the saints are molded in Mary. There is a great difference between making a figure in relief by blows of hammer and chisel, and making a figure by throwing it into a mold. Statuaries and sculptors labor much to make figures in the first manner; but to make them in the second manner, they work little and do their work quickly.
St. Augustine calls our Blessed Lady ‘the mold of God’—the mold fit to cast and mold gods. He who is cast in this mold is presently formed and molded in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ in him. At a slight expense and in a short time he will become God, because he has been cast in the same mold which has formed a God” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Immaculate Images!
“It seems to me that I can very aptly compare directors and devout persons—who wish to form Jesus Christ in themselves or others by practices different from this one—to sculptors who trust in their own professional skill, ingenuity or art, and so give an infinity of hammering and chiseling to a hard stone or a piece of badly polished wood, to make an image of Jesus Christ out of it. Sometimes they do not succeed in giving anything like the natural expression of Jesus, either from having no knowledge or experience of the Person of Jesus, or from some blow awkwardly given, which has spoiled the work.
“But those who embrace the secret of grace which I am revealing to them I may rightly compare to founders and casters who have discovered the beautiful mold of Mary, where Jesus was naturally and divinely formed; and without trusting in their own skill, but only in the goodness of the mold, they cast themselves and lose themselves in Mary, to become the faithful portraits of Jesus Christ.
“Oh, beautiful and true comparison! But who will comprehend it? I desire that you may, my dear brother. But remember that we cast in a mold only what is melted and liquid; that is to say, you must destroy and melt down in yourself the old Adam to become the new one in Mary. By this practice, faithfully observed, you will give Jesus more glory in a month than by any other practice, however difficult, in many years” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Go To Mary!
“Let us say boldly with St. Bernard that we have need of a mediator with the Mediator Himself, and that it is the divine Mary who is the most capable of filling that charitable office. It was through her that Jesus Christ came to us, and it is through her that we must go to Him. If we fear to go directly to Jesus Christ, our God, whether because of His infinite greatness, or because of our vileness or because of our sins, let us boldly implore the aid and intercession of Mary, our Mother. She is good, she is tender, she has nothing in her austere and forbidding, nothing too sublime and too brilliant.
“In seeing her, we see our pure nature. She is not the sun, which by the brightness of its rays blinds us because of our weakness; but she is fair and gentle as the moon (Canticles 6:9), which receives the light of the sun, and tempers it to make it more suitable to our capacity.
“She is so charitable that she repels none of those who ask her intercession, no matter how great sinners they have been; for, as the saints say, never has it been heard since the world was the world that anyone has confidently and perseveringly had recourse to our Blessed Lady and yet has been repelled.
“She is so powerful that none of her petitions has ever been refused. She has but to show herself before her Son to pray to Him, and straightaway He grants her desires, straightaway He receives her prayers. He is always lovingly vanquished by the prayers of His dearest Mother, who bore Him and nourished Him” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
As Our Lady said: Only she can help us now! Yet, it will not be our terms, but on her terms. Just as she said to the servants at the Marriage Feast at Cana, where she provoked Our Lord’s fist public miracle, “Do what He tells you!” So, too, it should be said to us: “Do what she tells you!” Do it and she will provoke another miracle― that of removing the stains of your past sins and making you immaculate.
Most people do not listen to her, nor do they do what she says. Sr. Lucia of Fatima reminds us of this truth, when she reveals to Fr. Fuentes, in 1957: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them.”
Article 8
Sunday December 7th
Too Scared to Speak Out! From Speechless to Sparkless to Faithless!
Sunday December 7th
Too Scared to Speak Out! From Speechless to Sparkless to Faithless!
She Told You So!
Mother is always right! If we would only take the Mother of God more seriously, then would not be in half the mess that we find ourselves in at the moment! Already back in the 1600s―speaking the calamities that were to befall our present day―Our Lady said: “[From] the 20th century, there will be many who will not believe ... A simple humble Faith … will be reserved for humble and fervent souls, who are docile to the inspirations of grace, for Our Heavenly Father communicates His secrets to the simple of heart, and not to those whose hearts are inflated with pride, pretending to know what they do not, or self-satisfied with empty knowledge … Under the appearance of virtue and bad-spirited zeal, many will turn upon the Religion that nourished them at her breast ... Many people will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil … During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect and corruption of morals, an impious press and secular education. Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury and extravagance, which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women. The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation. In this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak out will fall silent!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
There are very few “St. John the Baptists” who are not afraid to speak out in defense of the Faith and in condemnation of the world! Most Catholics “shut-up and put-up” with sinful, godless, faithless behavior that they see all around them! They sit down quietly so as to avoid rocking the boat!
The World is Not Silent―Except on Spiritual Matters
To the world and the worldly, it is materialism that matters―whereas spirituality ‘sucks’! There is no silence on worldly matters, but turn the conversation to spiritual matters and you can hear a pin drop!
In 2004, one Catholic media outlet stated: “Perhaps the religious illiteracy of so many otherwise well-educated young Catholics is too familiar to bear mentioning again. One has come to expect that even at elite Catholic colleges and universities, entering students will not know what is meant by the “Immaculate Conception”―hardly anyone knows that anymore. No surprise, either, when students do not know the proper number of natures and persons in Christ, Mary, and the Trinity-what’s an extra nature or two here or there? Besides, who’s counting? It’s not a chemical formula and it doesn’t take rocket science to believe God loves me anyway. As for ignorance of more technical terms, for example, confusing “homoousios” (meaning God the Father and Son are of the same substance) with “hummus” (a Near Eastern dish made of chickpeas―a good guess), or conflating the temperature at which paper burns with the date of a Church council, who can worry? Still, when more than a third of the students have to guess how many Gospels are in the Bible, or think that the phrase “original sin” refers to sex; when more than half have no idea what is meant by “Incarnation” unless it has the prefix re-; when only ten out of a class of fifty know what “Exodus” refers to, or what is meant by the phrase “Real Presence,” and only a slightly higher percentage can give a credible definition of “sacrament”; when one student can convince a large group of classmates that “Catholic Social Teaching” refers to restrictions on same-sex marriage―we can perhaps bear to mention the problem of religious ignorance yet again.”
The above was written 21 years ago! Have things improved or worsened since then? You don’t have to have a Harvard degree to know the answer to that!
You might think that this level of ignorance is only applicable to modern-day Catholic youth―but no! One Traditional Catholic priest relates having given a spiritual retreat to over 30 Traditional Catholics, at which he offered to give each person $1,000 if ALL OF THEM could name ALL the Ten Commandments―adding that it was not necessary to give them in the correct order, nor was it necessary to answer in word for word perfection, simply a word or two that indicated they knew the Commandment, would suffice. He gave them 5 minutes to write down at least a word or two that showed what each Commandment referred to―that is 30 seconds per Commandment. After 5 minutes (and a little more), he passed down the first row of retreatants―around 12 in number―and looked at their answers. Only 4 out of 12 had managed to name all Ten Commandments. The numbers for the remainder were similar!
Coming back to the Catholic media outlet, which continues: “This vast ignorance is not just a question of missing bits of information, retinal holes marring an otherwise excellent field of vision. It is something more like a retinal detachment, a whole field of vision pulling inexorably away toward blindness. Not only are the words gone, the bits of information, but the system in which the words made sense is fading. Does it matter? Maybe not, if one has lost the expectation that Catholics should be effective agents of moral change, bearing witness to Gospel values in the triple vocation of Jesus as “priest, prophet, king.” Yet if one still believes this [as one should], Catholics must have a vocabulary to articulate the values to which they bear witness―the world view and system in which such convictions make sense, the sources of renewal in sacramental practice, the reason we talk about the dignity of human persons, and why the Church takes an interest in sexual mores [customs]. “If they don’t know the Faith, John, we have nothing to build on,” Father Theodore Hesburgh once summed it up to me.
“Who is to blame for this situation? There is plenty of blame to go around―but perhaps there is no more useless exercise than rehearsing the list of suspects. It is the academic theologians, who insist that “catechesis” is not their job, and so absolve themselves of responsibility for teaching the “basics.” It is the generation of catechists who left behind the Baltimore Catechism in favor of “experience-based models” that eschewed passing on the doctrinal content of the Faith. It is parish leaders and parishioners who do not value catechesis enough to provide trained young people with well-paid careers in the field. It is bishops who for too long paid no attention to any facet of this situation, so that catechesis never developed much past the first post-Vatican II “touchy-feely” phase, and who offered no incentives to parishes to attract and keep young catechists. Maybe there is truth in all of these accusations, but they get us nowhere. I am sure of the truth of only one accusation: I am to blame. I had a share and perhaps even a stake in this oblivion. I contributed to it. As an educator I noticed it, but figured it was someone else’s problem. I left it to someone else to think about, someone before me (unnamed and unnumbered catechists), someone above me (the bishops), someone after me (pre-marriage and pre-baptismal parental sessions), but not me. Yet I have come to see that it is, in fact, my problem. One good thing about being at fault―if it is partly my fault, then I can help to fix it.”
Who Will You Blame?
The author of the above quotes from 2004, ultimately puts the blame on himself. This is pretty much true for all of us. If something is degenerating in my environment―among my family, relatives, friends, work colleagues, fellow students, parishioners, etc. ―then I am guilty of complying with that degeneration by a negligence in speaking-out about matters. Sure, you can’t change the whole world by yourself―but you can be a local influence among your family, relatives, friends, work colleagues, fellow students, parishioners, etc. “Who? Me?” you say. Yes, you! God has given you the Faith like the talents that Christ spoke about in one of His parables―we can either work at increasing that Faith, or we can bury that Faith in the ground. Yet that Faith is not just meant for me alone―but for others too―which is why Christ says: “You are the salt of the Earth. But if the salt lose its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men. You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 5:13-16). We cannot try Cain’s lame excuse to God, when he vainly protested that he was not his brother’s keeper: “And the Lord said to Cain: ‘Where is thy brother Abel?’ And he answered: ‘I know not! Am I my brother’s keeper?’ And the Lord said to him: ‘What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to Me from the earth! Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the Earth, which hath opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand!’” (Genesis 4:91-11).
Someone Turned-Off the Light of the World!
We might well be the “Light of the World” in theory, but we most certainly are not the “Light of the World” in practice. For most Catholics, their light-bulb is loose or burnt-out. Even the Protestants can see that religious ignorance is a major problem. The National Catholic Reporter has a Presbyterian minister writing a column for them, in which the Presbyterian says:
“The low level of theological education of church members -- and from my ecumenical experience, I think I can safely include Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox ― is embarrassing. What subject, after all, is more important than God? And yet we find in our congregations many people whose understanding of God seems stuck at an elementary-school level and whose knowledge of how the Bible came to be and what it means is close to zero. Talk to them about derivative financial instruments or nanotechnology or which celebrity is dating whom, and they turn out to be experts. But ask them if they know there are two creation stories in Genesis or whether the names attached to all the New Testament books were actually written by those people and they go blank. Yes, there are exceptions. I know some faithful Christians, Jews, Muslims and others who are more than ready to unpack their Scriptures, to discuss recent trends in theological studies and describe why such knowledge is important for a rich life of faith. And perhaps there’s the problem. Somehow, many people in the pews of Christian congregations seem unconvinced that biblical and theological literacy is vital to a life spent seeking to be a committed disciple of Jesus Christ. But if we can’t articulate a coherent vision of who Jesus was and is, if we can’t say something understandable about a God whom the church describes as triune in nature, if we can’t talk intelligently about the human condition and God’s desire to draw us into God’s future, we will live a life of faith stuck in the shallow end of the pool.”
The Bible is Rocket-Science to Me!
There are some Catholics who look upon the reading of Holy Scripture or the Bible as something Protestant. An article from November 2017, in the National Catholic Register, brings up this issue of Biblical ignorance among Catholics. Here are some key extracts:
“Let’s admit it: This is a huge deficiency in Catholic circles, and the result is ignorance even on very basic doctrines of the faith. Catholics don’t read the Bible anywhere near as much as evangelical Protestants do, and that is to our shame. I hasten to add that evangelicals usually are quite ignorant of Church history. It’s a sad fact of human nature that people tend to pit things against each other that don’t need to be opposed, either logically, or in terms of the biblical worldview. We should think in “both/and” terms ― as opposed to “either/or” terms. Catholics ought to do more Bible reading, and evangelicals ought to read more Church history. It is not solely a “Protestant” thing to love the Bible, and the falsity of the Protestant rule of faith, sola Scriptura (meaning that the Bible is the only infallible authority), does not mean that Catholics ought to underemphasize the Bible. Our Church certainly officially encourages such reading and familiarity. But old habits die hard. Many Catholics will say that it is no good to read the Bible on one’s own, if it is not properly understood. Personally, I think the Bible is relatively easy to understand, provided that the person learns basic principles of Bible-reading. The practice of too many Catholics―who don’t read the Bible at all―is a sort of lamentable “kindergarten Christianity” and laziness. The same people manage to find plenty of time to devote to the “study” of sports, politics, or to a hundred different subjects they will learn all about in high school or college (spending thousands of hours), but somehow they can’t find any time to read their Bibles and soak in the words of the very Lord they worship and receive every week!
‘We Catholics need to read the Bible on our own as well. If we don’t, then we don’t love God as much as we think, because love demands that we want to know more and more about the One we love. The Bible is God’s very inspired words. How, then, can any serious, committed Catholic not be passionately interested in it? This is a huge deficiency in Catholic circles, and the result is ignorance even on very basic doctrines of the Faith. Too many Catholics neglect or try to minimize the importance of the Bible. The Church herself does not do that. It is good to show forth a positive love for Holy Scripture. The Catholic Magisterium has plainly expressed itself on this point. Venerable Pope Pius XII, wrote in his encyclical, Divino Afflante Spiritu (The Most Opportune Way to Promote Biblical Studies) on September 30th, 1943: “My predecessor, Benedict XV [in 1920] ... exhorted all the children of the Church, especially clerics, to reverence the Holy Scripture, to read it piously and meditate on it constantly; he reminded them that in these pages is to be sought that food, by which the spiritual life is nourished unto perfection” (National Catholic Register, November 22nd, 2017).
Ignorance is Not Bliss―Ignorance Damns Souls
Is this ignorance, on the part of Catholics, a modern-day problem? No, it is a perennial problem that never ends. Pope St. Pius X wrote an encyclical lamenting Catholic ignorance and for the need of solid Catholic education, in which, among other things, he says:
“It is a common complaint, unfortunately too well founded, that there are large numbers of Christians in our own time who are entirely ignorant of those truths necessary for salvation. And when we mention Christians, We refer not only to the masses or to those in the lower walks of life—for these find some excuse for their ignorance in the fact that the demands of their harsh employers hardly leave them time to take care of themselves or of their dear ones—but We refer to those especially who do not lack culture or talents and, indeed, are possessed of abundant knowledge regarding things of the world, but live rashly and imprudently with regard to religion. It is hard to find words to describe how profound is the darkness in which they are engulfed and, what is most deplorable of all, how tranquilly they repose there. They rarely give thought to God, or to the teachings of the Faith of Christ. We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment, suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those mysteries of Faith!” (Pope St. Pius X, Acerbo Nimis, 1907).
See No Religion―Hear No Religion―Speak No Religion―Fall Away From Religion
In a Catholic Herald (UK) article on June 22nd, 2012, Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith, the editor, writes: “The falling off was not rejection of the Faith but rather ignorance of the Faith. People are walking away from Catholicism … not because they reject it, but because they do not understand it. The ignorance is gross. Once upon a time people did know about the Faith, and people were able to understand some quite sophisticated concepts. But then two things happened: the collapse in educational standards, and the change in approach in catechesis; that these two things happened more or less at the same time spelled disaster for the transmission of the Faith. In some parts of the world the picture is different: Africa, for example, great care is taken with catechetical materials, and there was good teaching, and, much more importantly, good learning.”
In 2012, another modern-Catholic priest, Fr. Richard Simon, pastor of a church in Skokie, Illinois, wrote: “Catholic schools, by and large, have become failures themselves. There are some splendid Catholic schools, but in my experience of 40 years in ministry, increasingly, especially in large urban areas, Catholic schools have become inexpensive private schools for middle class people who have little or no interest in the Catholic Faith, maintained at great expense by Catholic parishes. Catholic schools are, for the most part, over. We may have a few parish schools still plugging along, but are they Catholic? It seems that all we have left to us is the threadbare cousin. All our resources and energies go to maintaining the private school in the building next to the church. While the world is starving for Christ, we are giving them bingo and bratwurst, raffles and dinner dances, all to keep the school going.
“We have tied our religious education to the public school system of kindergarten and eight grades. The Sacraments of First Communion and Confirmation have become graduation rituals, rites of passage, instead of the beginnings of a life of Faith and commitment. We have turned Sacrament into sacrilege. When you “get your Sacraments” you’re “outta” there. (“Out of there” for those who don’t speak Chicagoan.) The Sacraments are an ending instead of a beginning. I can’t do this anymore. I believe it is morally wrong. The last time I brought this problem up, angry parents called the bishop. I remember one agitated parent who railed at me for questioning his Catholicism. He said that he was perfectly good Catholic. He went to Mass every single Easter and every single Christmas without fail” (Fr. Richard Simon, pastor of a church in Skokie, Illinois).
Communists Are More Effective Than Cathoilcs
Taking a cue from the “Advent Journey” page on this website, and Our Lord’s lamentation that “the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8). We can see that in how Communists can take Catholic failures and transform them in Communist successes. The former Communist editor of London’s Daily Worker, now renamed The Morning Star―a UK daily Communist newspaper, founded in 1930―Douglas Hyde, in his book, Dedication and Sacrifice, paints a clear picture of Catholic failures becoming Communist successes. Hyde was to convert to Catholicism in 1948. After his conversion, he writes in his book the following things―which are an embarrassment to the lack of zeal, energy and creativity of Catholics―truly “the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!”:
Douglas Hyde writes: “When the Communists speak of launching the world on the way to Communism in the period in which we are living, it is this that they mean—not the whole world with the exception of the United States, or the United Kingdom or whichever country, being your own, you may feel is proof against assault. Their aim is quite clear. They have never concealed it—it is something that is immensely meaningful to every Communist. It is a Communist world. In the past half-century they have achieved one‑third of that aim. On any reckoning, that is a remarkable achievement, probably an unprecedented one. It is probably true to say of the Communists that never in man’s history has a small group of people set out to win a world and achieved more in less time. Certainly, they have brought far more people under their sway by the methods they employ than anyone else has done during the same period. Moreover, they have always worked through a minority. This is, however, less exceptional than would appear. In practice, most organizations and causes work through minorities. Even those who believe most deeply in majority rule still depend upon the faithful few to do the work, to make the necessary sacrifices in time, energy and devotion to keep the movement going. The Communists have learned from experience, and as a result both of pooling their ideas and of learning from the successes and failures of their movement everywhere, how best they can make the maximum impact upon others, even though they must work through a minority. It is almost impossible to read a newspaper or to listen to the news on radio or television without learning of something which the Communists are doing.”
[COMMENT: Hmm! Did not Our Lord say to us: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you!” (Matthew 28:19-20). It seems as though “the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” The Catholic Church and laity have lost the desire to teach all nations and baptize them!]
Douglas Hyde continues: “Again, in order to get the picture clear, it must be noted that the human material on which they work is not something different from that which is at the disposal of others. The majority of Communists are ‘first generation’. This means that others, frequently Christians and Christian missionaries, had them in their hands long before they went to the Communist Party. One can, and must for honesty’s sake, be more specific: often these people are identical with those who are available to Christians to instruct and use, in the sense that a disturbingly high proportion of them, particularly those who form the hard core of the Communist Party, were once Catholics. In other words the Communists train and use successfully people with whom Christians had failed.
Why Communists Speak Better Than Catholics
Douglas Hyde explains: “Communists train and use successfully people with whom Christians had failed―I am not just theorizing: any analysis of the origins of the leadership of the Communist Party will provide ample evidence of the Communist ability to attract to their ranks lapsed and fallen‑away Catholics. I make this point, which may seem a brutal one, for two reasons: first, it is necessary to appreciate that there is no basis for the belief that Communists have some special sort of human material on which to work. The people with whom they frequently have great success are our own failures. Secondly, we must in humility accept that amongst the Christians, and Catholics in particular, who go to the Communists are many who find in Communism what they had hoped, without success, to find among the Christians. The onus is, therefore, on us to find the answer to this problem.
“If we recognize that Communists are not some different brand of human beings from those who make up the other, comparable movements, we must then turn to their methods and see what part these play in assisting the Communist Party to develop its members’ potentialities for dedication and leadership. The Christian who is trying to train and produce leaders may object that Christians are concerned with the supernatural and must operate at that level, whereas Communists are concerned only with the natural. I would submit that this is not a reason for ignoring the natural. It is theologically sound to say that the supernatural is built on the natural. In considering the Communists’ methods we shall be dealing with the question at the natural level, which is precisely where the Christian tends often to be at his weakest. It is here that we have most to learn.
Communist are Willing to Sacrifice
Hyde points out that most Communist sacrifice far more for their Communism than Catholics sacrifice for their Catholicism: “If you ask me what is the distinguishing mark of the Communist, what it is that Communists most outstandingly have in common, I would not say, as some people might expect, their ability to hate—this is by no means common to them all. I would say that beyond any shadow of doubt it is their idealism, their zeal, dedication, devotion to their cause and willingness to sacrifice. This characterizes the Communists wherever Communism has still to come to power and is obviously true of many in the very different circumstances where it now rules. The vast majority of the Communists I have met anywhere conform to this pattern. This is no accident. It does not just happen. The Communists have evolved their own means by which they are able to evoke an exceptional degree of dedication. And they use it very effectively indeed. To understand how it is done, one must follow through the process step by step from the start.”
Communists Use What Catholics Abuse
Hyde then goes on to explain how Communists harness and use what Catholics have failed to harness and use: “The majority of those who join the Communist Party are young. The average joining age used to be between seventeen and twenty‑five. Today it is between fifteen and twenty‑five. For some years now they have been recruiting successfully among fifteen to seventeen‑year‑olds. Youth is a period of idealism. The Communists attract young people by appealing directly to that idealism. Too often, others have failed either to appeal to it or to use it and they are the losers as a consequence. We have no cause to complain if, having neglected the idealism of youth, we see others come along, take it, use it and harness it to their cause—and against our own.
“It is fashionable in some circles today to sneer at ‘starry‑eyed idealism’. Of all the ways of helping Communism I can think of none better than this. That sort of cynicism has driven many eager, earnest, intelligent and potentially good youngsters to believe that the West has nothing to offer the young idealist but cynicism, and that this is an expression of the decadence of our way of life. It has led them to believe that if you are interested in improving man’s lot on Earth, if you want to change the world (and the boy who does not want to do this at some point during his adolescence will certainly make a cynical old materialist later on), it is to the Communists, not to the Christians, you must turn.
“Wherever I have travelled I have found that young people are idealistic. This is natural to any healthy youngster. I can only conclude that it is the way God wants them to be. We offend against charity and justice, and against common sense too, when we sneer at starry‑eyed idealism. We do it to our own loss. Young people have always dreamed of better worlds and we must hope that they always will. The day we lose our dreams all progress will cease. Idealistic young people will want to change the world and will pursue their own idealistic course in any case. If their idealism is not appealed to and canalized within the circles in which they have grown up they will seek elsewhere for an outlet.
“The Communists have demonstrated that the idealism of youth is something which can be harnessed and used with tremendous effect. It is a dynamic thing. Despite all the twists and turns of Communist policy it continues over the years to provide the dynamism of the Communist movement. Older Christians, believing that you cannot build perfect worlds and perfect societies from fallen men, too often take up what is at best a superciliously tolerant approach to youthful idealism—when they do not ignore it altogether. The Communists take it and use it.
“Communism becomes the dominant thing in the life of the Communist. It is something to which he gives himself completely. Quite obviously it meets a need, fills a vacuum at the time when he is first attracted to it. More significant is that it normally continues to be the dominant force in the life of the Communist for as long as he remains in the movement. The Communists’ appeal to idealism is direct and audacious. They say that if you make mean little demands upon people, you will get a mean little response which is all you deserve, but, if you make big demands on them, you will get an heroic response. They prove in practice that this is so, over and over again. They work on the assumption that if you call for big sacrifices people will respond to this and, moreover, the relatively smaller sacrifices will come quite naturally.
“When I first went to work on the British Communist Party’s daily paper, I was proud that I had been chosen for the work, proud to make whatever sacrifice was asked of me, but I was nonetheless conscious of the fact that I had willingly accepted a ludicrously small wage. I will admit that I felt slightly virtuous about this—until I met other members of the staff. Most of them were older than I was at that time, they had gone further in their careers (and some had gone very far indeed) and had had to make far bigger sacrifices than I. Some of them were earning one‑tenth of what had been their salary when they had worked for the ‘capitalist’ press. There were times when, small as our salaries were, these could not be paid at all.
“Even when the paper became slightly more prosperous and the staff were technically given the union rate for the job, the sacrifices still continued. We got our pay packets, opened them and immediately gave eight‑fourteenths (57%) of their contents to the Party and the paper—before it burned our fingers. Since everyone did this, it became something of a meaningless ritual after a while and so we did not bother even to receive the cash, it just went direct to the cause. And so it continues to this day. Among the Party’s leaders are many very able men, some of whom could command very high salaries if they were in industry or commerce. Instead, they accept the wage of a moderately‑paid, skilled worker. This is not some peculiarity of the British Communist Party. The same is true of others.”
Sacrificing and Giving Until It Hurts
Hyde embarrassingly shows a level of Communist sacrifice, among their rank-and-file, that can only make the rank-and-file of Catholics blush:
“Such sacrifices, whether at the level of leaders or of rank and file, are impressive. And they do impress those who associate with the movement. Particularly impressive is the fact that sacrifice is found at all levels of the organization. Youngsters of every continent have responded to this example of idealism expressing itself in terms of sacrifice. This is true of the newly‑developing areas. It is true also of the ‘decadent’ West. Indeed, the more materialistic our society becomes, the more the dedicated man stands out by way of contrast. The dedicated man makes his own appeal simply by virtue of the fact that he is dedicated.
“Like attracts like. Those who are attracted by the dedication they see within the movement will themselves be possessed of a latent idealism, a capacity for dedication. Thus dedication perpetuates itself. It sets the tone and pace of the movement as a whole. This being so, the movement can make big demands upon its followers, knowing that the response will come. If the majority of members of an organization are half‑hearted and largely inactive, then it is not surprising if others who join it soon conform to the general pattern. If the organization makes relatively few demands upon its members and if they quite obviously feel under no obligation to give a very great deal to it, then those who join may be forgiven for supposing that this is the norm and that this is what membership entails.
“If, on the other hand, the majority of members, from the leaders down, are characterized by their single‑minded devotion to the cause, if it is quite clear that the majority are giving until it hurts, putting their time, money, thought and if necessary life itself at its disposal, then those who consider joining will assume that this is what will be expected of them. If they nonetheless make the decision to join, they will come already conditioned to sacrifice till it hurts.
“It is ludicrous to suppose that half‑hearted Christians can conduct a fruitful dialogue with fully‑dedicated Communists. Perhaps it is this which underlies the fear of any such dialogue, felt by some Christians. They take it for granted that in any such dialogue the Communists must come out on top, that the Marxists will be the gainers, the Christians the losers. I would suggest that if this happens it will have less to do with Communist duplicity than with Communist dedication—although the Christian in such circumstances must be prepared for the duplicity too. The well‑instructed, fully committed, totally dedicated Christian has little to fear. But dedication must be met with dedication. Ideally it should be backed by a genuine understanding of one’s own beliefs and of the other man’s too. This must be the starting point for any dialogue with the Communists.”
If we do not have a thorough understanding of our own Faith, nor have a sufficient understanding of the beliefs of others, then we will be afraid to speak! We will be afraid of exposing to public view our terrible deficiency in a knowledge that we SHOULD have, but don’t have. For, as the philosophical saying goes: “YOU CANNOT GIVE WHAT YOU HAVE NOT GOT!” As Pope St. Pius X said over 100 hundred years ago: “There are large numbers of Christians in our own time who are entirely ignorant of those truths necessary for salvation. We refer not only to the masses or to those in the lower walks of life—but We refer to those especially who do not lack culture or talents and, indeed, are possessed of abundant knowledge regarding things of the world, but live rashly and imprudently with regard to religion. It is hard to find words to describe how profound is the darkness in which they are engulfed and, what is most deplorable of all, how tranquilly they repose there. They rarely give thought to God, or to the teachings of the Faith of Christ. We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment, suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those mysteries of Faith!” (Pope St. Pius X, Acerbo Nimis, 1907).
Why Can’t Catholics Show This Kind of Zeal?
You would think that nobody could match Catholics for zeal―since they are not only in possession of the truth, but they are also in possession of sanctifying grace and have God on their side! Yet this following example, shared by Douglas Hyde, should make us want to bury ourselves out of sight in all shame! Hyde gives an example of one particular Communist he knew, yet states that this was pretty much a typical example of Communists in the Communist Party―whereas all that Catholics want to do is party! Hyde writes:
“Among ex‑Communists I have met have been some who, having given their all to Communism, became in time disillusioned or saw the flaws in its thinking and then, having left it, they look back wistfully from time to time to the days when they had something to live by and for. I was talking to such a man on one occasion. Our conversation brought back very vividly to my own mind the extent of the dedication which had been common in the Party in the days when we were both Communists together. Often ex‑Communists meeting together can talk of the ‘old days when we were in the Party’ rather like old soldiers discussing nostalgically the campaigns they shared in the past. We had been doing this. We had talked of old comrades who now saw themselves as our enemies, of the campaigns in which we had engaged together. Then, very wistfully, he said:
“Do you remember what life was really like in the Party? You got up in the morning and as you shaved you were thinking of the jobs you would do for Communism that day. You went down to breakfast and read the Daily Worker to get the Party line to get the shot and shell for a fight in which you were already involved. You read every item in the paper wondering how you might be able to use it for the cause. I had never been interested in sport but I read the sports pages in order to be able to discuss sport with others and to be able to say to them, ‘Have you read this in the Daily Worker [the Communist newspaper]?’ I would follow this through by giving them the paper in the hope that they might turn from the sports pages and read the political ones too.
“On the bus or train, on my way to work, I read the Daily Worker as ostentatiously as I could, holding it up so that others might read the headlines and perhaps be influenced by them. I took two copies of the paper with me; the second one I left on the seat in the hope that someone would pick it up and read it. When I got to work, I kept the Daily Worker circulating. One worker after another would take it outside, read it for a few minutes and bring it back to me again. At lunchtime, in the canteen or the restaurant, I would try to start conversations with those with whom I was eating. I made practice of sitting with different groups in order to spread my influence as widely as I could. I did not thrust Communism down their throats but steered our conversations in such a way that they could be brought round to politics or, if possible, to the campaigns which the Party was conducting at the time.
“Before I left my place of work at night, there was a quick meeting of the factory group or cell. There we discussed in a few minutes the successes and failures of the day. And we discussed, too, what we hoped to be able to do on the following day. I dashed home, had a quick meal and then went out, maybe to attend classes, maybe to be a tutor, maybe to join some Communist campaign, going from door to door canvassing or standing at the side of the road selling Communist papers‑doing something for Communism. And I went home at night and dreamed of the jobs I was going to do for Communism the next day.” Rather sadly he added: “You know, life had some meaning and some purpose in those days. Life was good in the Communist Party.”
“He was right. Of course it was. It is quite wrong to suppose that it is only the saints who are not sad. Sinners can get quite a lot of fun out of life too. And those who are dedicated get immensely more out of life than those who are not. The day he had described had been my life and that of most of my old comrades. It was a day in the life of a dedicated man, a normal day in the life of a hard‑core Communist Party member. It is not surprising that he looked back at that life from the wasteland of his present purposeless existence with a considerable degree of nostalgia.
“Perhaps I should add in passing that this was not some unthinking, uneducated man who had lived simply on his emotions and on action. He was a highly intelligent, Oxford University graduate, the very practical and down-to‑earth product of a well‑known political family. I make this point in order to reiterate and to emphasize as strongly as I can that it is quite erroneous to suppose that Communism appeals only to some particular type or class or race. Within the Communist Party you will find people of every type and class. And within the world Communist movement you will find people of every race. Discuss their case histories with them, probe into what first attracted them to Communism and invariably you will find that it was not Communist theories, policies or campaigns, important as these may be in the making of Communists, but the impact made upon them by some dedicated Communist which predisposed and conditioned them to associate with a movement and to accept a doctrine which would otherwise most probably have been unacceptable to them. There is no mystery about the indisputable fact that Communists exert an influence out of all proportion to their numbers, once one grasps the point that practically every party member is a dedicated man in whose life, from the time he rises in the morning till the time he goes to bed at night, for 365 days of the year, Communism is the dominant force.”
Why isn’t that our attitude to the Faith? When we appear before God for judgment―He will point out to us that the Communists were far more dedicated than we ever were; that Communists achieved far more than we ever did; that Communists were far less in numbers that we were―and, worst of all, Communist did not the help of the grace of God that we had! And we wonder why most souls are lost! Insane! Blind! We are blind and insane leaders of the blind and insane―”And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14).
The next article will examine the consequences of a lack of Communist dedication in Catholic families, schools and parishes―and what can be done to try and raise these Catholics from the dead and give them a new life.
Mother is always right! If we would only take the Mother of God more seriously, then would not be in half the mess that we find ourselves in at the moment! Already back in the 1600s―speaking the calamities that were to befall our present day―Our Lady said: “[From] the 20th century, there will be many who will not believe ... A simple humble Faith … will be reserved for humble and fervent souls, who are docile to the inspirations of grace, for Our Heavenly Father communicates His secrets to the simple of heart, and not to those whose hearts are inflated with pride, pretending to know what they do not, or self-satisfied with empty knowledge … Under the appearance of virtue and bad-spirited zeal, many will turn upon the Religion that nourished them at her breast ... Many people will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil … During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect and corruption of morals, an impious press and secular education. Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury and extravagance, which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women. The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation. In this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak out will fall silent!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
There are very few “St. John the Baptists” who are not afraid to speak out in defense of the Faith and in condemnation of the world! Most Catholics “shut-up and put-up” with sinful, godless, faithless behavior that they see all around them! They sit down quietly so as to avoid rocking the boat!
The World is Not Silent―Except on Spiritual Matters
To the world and the worldly, it is materialism that matters―whereas spirituality ‘sucks’! There is no silence on worldly matters, but turn the conversation to spiritual matters and you can hear a pin drop!
In 2004, one Catholic media outlet stated: “Perhaps the religious illiteracy of so many otherwise well-educated young Catholics is too familiar to bear mentioning again. One has come to expect that even at elite Catholic colleges and universities, entering students will not know what is meant by the “Immaculate Conception”―hardly anyone knows that anymore. No surprise, either, when students do not know the proper number of natures and persons in Christ, Mary, and the Trinity-what’s an extra nature or two here or there? Besides, who’s counting? It’s not a chemical formula and it doesn’t take rocket science to believe God loves me anyway. As for ignorance of more technical terms, for example, confusing “homoousios” (meaning God the Father and Son are of the same substance) with “hummus” (a Near Eastern dish made of chickpeas―a good guess), or conflating the temperature at which paper burns with the date of a Church council, who can worry? Still, when more than a third of the students have to guess how many Gospels are in the Bible, or think that the phrase “original sin” refers to sex; when more than half have no idea what is meant by “Incarnation” unless it has the prefix re-; when only ten out of a class of fifty know what “Exodus” refers to, or what is meant by the phrase “Real Presence,” and only a slightly higher percentage can give a credible definition of “sacrament”; when one student can convince a large group of classmates that “Catholic Social Teaching” refers to restrictions on same-sex marriage―we can perhaps bear to mention the problem of religious ignorance yet again.”
The above was written 21 years ago! Have things improved or worsened since then? You don’t have to have a Harvard degree to know the answer to that!
You might think that this level of ignorance is only applicable to modern-day Catholic youth―but no! One Traditional Catholic priest relates having given a spiritual retreat to over 30 Traditional Catholics, at which he offered to give each person $1,000 if ALL OF THEM could name ALL the Ten Commandments―adding that it was not necessary to give them in the correct order, nor was it necessary to answer in word for word perfection, simply a word or two that indicated they knew the Commandment, would suffice. He gave them 5 minutes to write down at least a word or two that showed what each Commandment referred to―that is 30 seconds per Commandment. After 5 minutes (and a little more), he passed down the first row of retreatants―around 12 in number―and looked at their answers. Only 4 out of 12 had managed to name all Ten Commandments. The numbers for the remainder were similar!
Coming back to the Catholic media outlet, which continues: “This vast ignorance is not just a question of missing bits of information, retinal holes marring an otherwise excellent field of vision. It is something more like a retinal detachment, a whole field of vision pulling inexorably away toward blindness. Not only are the words gone, the bits of information, but the system in which the words made sense is fading. Does it matter? Maybe not, if one has lost the expectation that Catholics should be effective agents of moral change, bearing witness to Gospel values in the triple vocation of Jesus as “priest, prophet, king.” Yet if one still believes this [as one should], Catholics must have a vocabulary to articulate the values to which they bear witness―the world view and system in which such convictions make sense, the sources of renewal in sacramental practice, the reason we talk about the dignity of human persons, and why the Church takes an interest in sexual mores [customs]. “If they don’t know the Faith, John, we have nothing to build on,” Father Theodore Hesburgh once summed it up to me.
“Who is to blame for this situation? There is plenty of blame to go around―but perhaps there is no more useless exercise than rehearsing the list of suspects. It is the academic theologians, who insist that “catechesis” is not their job, and so absolve themselves of responsibility for teaching the “basics.” It is the generation of catechists who left behind the Baltimore Catechism in favor of “experience-based models” that eschewed passing on the doctrinal content of the Faith. It is parish leaders and parishioners who do not value catechesis enough to provide trained young people with well-paid careers in the field. It is bishops who for too long paid no attention to any facet of this situation, so that catechesis never developed much past the first post-Vatican II “touchy-feely” phase, and who offered no incentives to parishes to attract and keep young catechists. Maybe there is truth in all of these accusations, but they get us nowhere. I am sure of the truth of only one accusation: I am to blame. I had a share and perhaps even a stake in this oblivion. I contributed to it. As an educator I noticed it, but figured it was someone else’s problem. I left it to someone else to think about, someone before me (unnamed and unnumbered catechists), someone above me (the bishops), someone after me (pre-marriage and pre-baptismal parental sessions), but not me. Yet I have come to see that it is, in fact, my problem. One good thing about being at fault―if it is partly my fault, then I can help to fix it.”
Who Will You Blame?
The author of the above quotes from 2004, ultimately puts the blame on himself. This is pretty much true for all of us. If something is degenerating in my environment―among my family, relatives, friends, work colleagues, fellow students, parishioners, etc. ―then I am guilty of complying with that degeneration by a negligence in speaking-out about matters. Sure, you can’t change the whole world by yourself―but you can be a local influence among your family, relatives, friends, work colleagues, fellow students, parishioners, etc. “Who? Me?” you say. Yes, you! God has given you the Faith like the talents that Christ spoke about in one of His parables―we can either work at increasing that Faith, or we can bury that Faith in the ground. Yet that Faith is not just meant for me alone―but for others too―which is why Christ says: “You are the salt of the Earth. But if the salt lose its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men. You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 5:13-16). We cannot try Cain’s lame excuse to God, when he vainly protested that he was not his brother’s keeper: “And the Lord said to Cain: ‘Where is thy brother Abel?’ And he answered: ‘I know not! Am I my brother’s keeper?’ And the Lord said to him: ‘What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to Me from the earth! Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the Earth, which hath opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand!’” (Genesis 4:91-11).
Someone Turned-Off the Light of the World!
We might well be the “Light of the World” in theory, but we most certainly are not the “Light of the World” in practice. For most Catholics, their light-bulb is loose or burnt-out. Even the Protestants can see that religious ignorance is a major problem. The National Catholic Reporter has a Presbyterian minister writing a column for them, in which the Presbyterian says:
“The low level of theological education of church members -- and from my ecumenical experience, I think I can safely include Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox ― is embarrassing. What subject, after all, is more important than God? And yet we find in our congregations many people whose understanding of God seems stuck at an elementary-school level and whose knowledge of how the Bible came to be and what it means is close to zero. Talk to them about derivative financial instruments or nanotechnology or which celebrity is dating whom, and they turn out to be experts. But ask them if they know there are two creation stories in Genesis or whether the names attached to all the New Testament books were actually written by those people and they go blank. Yes, there are exceptions. I know some faithful Christians, Jews, Muslims and others who are more than ready to unpack their Scriptures, to discuss recent trends in theological studies and describe why such knowledge is important for a rich life of faith. And perhaps there’s the problem. Somehow, many people in the pews of Christian congregations seem unconvinced that biblical and theological literacy is vital to a life spent seeking to be a committed disciple of Jesus Christ. But if we can’t articulate a coherent vision of who Jesus was and is, if we can’t say something understandable about a God whom the church describes as triune in nature, if we can’t talk intelligently about the human condition and God’s desire to draw us into God’s future, we will live a life of faith stuck in the shallow end of the pool.”
The Bible is Rocket-Science to Me!
There are some Catholics who look upon the reading of Holy Scripture or the Bible as something Protestant. An article from November 2017, in the National Catholic Register, brings up this issue of Biblical ignorance among Catholics. Here are some key extracts:
“Let’s admit it: This is a huge deficiency in Catholic circles, and the result is ignorance even on very basic doctrines of the faith. Catholics don’t read the Bible anywhere near as much as evangelical Protestants do, and that is to our shame. I hasten to add that evangelicals usually are quite ignorant of Church history. It’s a sad fact of human nature that people tend to pit things against each other that don’t need to be opposed, either logically, or in terms of the biblical worldview. We should think in “both/and” terms ― as opposed to “either/or” terms. Catholics ought to do more Bible reading, and evangelicals ought to read more Church history. It is not solely a “Protestant” thing to love the Bible, and the falsity of the Protestant rule of faith, sola Scriptura (meaning that the Bible is the only infallible authority), does not mean that Catholics ought to underemphasize the Bible. Our Church certainly officially encourages such reading and familiarity. But old habits die hard. Many Catholics will say that it is no good to read the Bible on one’s own, if it is not properly understood. Personally, I think the Bible is relatively easy to understand, provided that the person learns basic principles of Bible-reading. The practice of too many Catholics―who don’t read the Bible at all―is a sort of lamentable “kindergarten Christianity” and laziness. The same people manage to find plenty of time to devote to the “study” of sports, politics, or to a hundred different subjects they will learn all about in high school or college (spending thousands of hours), but somehow they can’t find any time to read their Bibles and soak in the words of the very Lord they worship and receive every week!
‘We Catholics need to read the Bible on our own as well. If we don’t, then we don’t love God as much as we think, because love demands that we want to know more and more about the One we love. The Bible is God’s very inspired words. How, then, can any serious, committed Catholic not be passionately interested in it? This is a huge deficiency in Catholic circles, and the result is ignorance even on very basic doctrines of the Faith. Too many Catholics neglect or try to minimize the importance of the Bible. The Church herself does not do that. It is good to show forth a positive love for Holy Scripture. The Catholic Magisterium has plainly expressed itself on this point. Venerable Pope Pius XII, wrote in his encyclical, Divino Afflante Spiritu (The Most Opportune Way to Promote Biblical Studies) on September 30th, 1943: “My predecessor, Benedict XV [in 1920] ... exhorted all the children of the Church, especially clerics, to reverence the Holy Scripture, to read it piously and meditate on it constantly; he reminded them that in these pages is to be sought that food, by which the spiritual life is nourished unto perfection” (National Catholic Register, November 22nd, 2017).
Ignorance is Not Bliss―Ignorance Damns Souls
Is this ignorance, on the part of Catholics, a modern-day problem? No, it is a perennial problem that never ends. Pope St. Pius X wrote an encyclical lamenting Catholic ignorance and for the need of solid Catholic education, in which, among other things, he says:
“It is a common complaint, unfortunately too well founded, that there are large numbers of Christians in our own time who are entirely ignorant of those truths necessary for salvation. And when we mention Christians, We refer not only to the masses or to those in the lower walks of life—for these find some excuse for their ignorance in the fact that the demands of their harsh employers hardly leave them time to take care of themselves or of their dear ones—but We refer to those especially who do not lack culture or talents and, indeed, are possessed of abundant knowledge regarding things of the world, but live rashly and imprudently with regard to religion. It is hard to find words to describe how profound is the darkness in which they are engulfed and, what is most deplorable of all, how tranquilly they repose there. They rarely give thought to God, or to the teachings of the Faith of Christ. We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment, suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those mysteries of Faith!” (Pope St. Pius X, Acerbo Nimis, 1907).
See No Religion―Hear No Religion―Speak No Religion―Fall Away From Religion
In a Catholic Herald (UK) article on June 22nd, 2012, Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith, the editor, writes: “The falling off was not rejection of the Faith but rather ignorance of the Faith. People are walking away from Catholicism … not because they reject it, but because they do not understand it. The ignorance is gross. Once upon a time people did know about the Faith, and people were able to understand some quite sophisticated concepts. But then two things happened: the collapse in educational standards, and the change in approach in catechesis; that these two things happened more or less at the same time spelled disaster for the transmission of the Faith. In some parts of the world the picture is different: Africa, for example, great care is taken with catechetical materials, and there was good teaching, and, much more importantly, good learning.”
In 2012, another modern-Catholic priest, Fr. Richard Simon, pastor of a church in Skokie, Illinois, wrote: “Catholic schools, by and large, have become failures themselves. There are some splendid Catholic schools, but in my experience of 40 years in ministry, increasingly, especially in large urban areas, Catholic schools have become inexpensive private schools for middle class people who have little or no interest in the Catholic Faith, maintained at great expense by Catholic parishes. Catholic schools are, for the most part, over. We may have a few parish schools still plugging along, but are they Catholic? It seems that all we have left to us is the threadbare cousin. All our resources and energies go to maintaining the private school in the building next to the church. While the world is starving for Christ, we are giving them bingo and bratwurst, raffles and dinner dances, all to keep the school going.
“We have tied our religious education to the public school system of kindergarten and eight grades. The Sacraments of First Communion and Confirmation have become graduation rituals, rites of passage, instead of the beginnings of a life of Faith and commitment. We have turned Sacrament into sacrilege. When you “get your Sacraments” you’re “outta” there. (“Out of there” for those who don’t speak Chicagoan.) The Sacraments are an ending instead of a beginning. I can’t do this anymore. I believe it is morally wrong. The last time I brought this problem up, angry parents called the bishop. I remember one agitated parent who railed at me for questioning his Catholicism. He said that he was perfectly good Catholic. He went to Mass every single Easter and every single Christmas without fail” (Fr. Richard Simon, pastor of a church in Skokie, Illinois).
Communists Are More Effective Than Cathoilcs
Taking a cue from the “Advent Journey” page on this website, and Our Lord’s lamentation that “the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8). We can see that in how Communists can take Catholic failures and transform them in Communist successes. The former Communist editor of London’s Daily Worker, now renamed The Morning Star―a UK daily Communist newspaper, founded in 1930―Douglas Hyde, in his book, Dedication and Sacrifice, paints a clear picture of Catholic failures becoming Communist successes. Hyde was to convert to Catholicism in 1948. After his conversion, he writes in his book the following things―which are an embarrassment to the lack of zeal, energy and creativity of Catholics―truly “the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!”:
Douglas Hyde writes: “When the Communists speak of launching the world on the way to Communism in the period in which we are living, it is this that they mean—not the whole world with the exception of the United States, or the United Kingdom or whichever country, being your own, you may feel is proof against assault. Their aim is quite clear. They have never concealed it—it is something that is immensely meaningful to every Communist. It is a Communist world. In the past half-century they have achieved one‑third of that aim. On any reckoning, that is a remarkable achievement, probably an unprecedented one. It is probably true to say of the Communists that never in man’s history has a small group of people set out to win a world and achieved more in less time. Certainly, they have brought far more people under their sway by the methods they employ than anyone else has done during the same period. Moreover, they have always worked through a minority. This is, however, less exceptional than would appear. In practice, most organizations and causes work through minorities. Even those who believe most deeply in majority rule still depend upon the faithful few to do the work, to make the necessary sacrifices in time, energy and devotion to keep the movement going. The Communists have learned from experience, and as a result both of pooling their ideas and of learning from the successes and failures of their movement everywhere, how best they can make the maximum impact upon others, even though they must work through a minority. It is almost impossible to read a newspaper or to listen to the news on radio or television without learning of something which the Communists are doing.”
[COMMENT: Hmm! Did not Our Lord say to us: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you!” (Matthew 28:19-20). It seems as though “the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” The Catholic Church and laity have lost the desire to teach all nations and baptize them!]
Douglas Hyde continues: “Again, in order to get the picture clear, it must be noted that the human material on which they work is not something different from that which is at the disposal of others. The majority of Communists are ‘first generation’. This means that others, frequently Christians and Christian missionaries, had them in their hands long before they went to the Communist Party. One can, and must for honesty’s sake, be more specific: often these people are identical with those who are available to Christians to instruct and use, in the sense that a disturbingly high proportion of them, particularly those who form the hard core of the Communist Party, were once Catholics. In other words the Communists train and use successfully people with whom Christians had failed.
Why Communists Speak Better Than Catholics
Douglas Hyde explains: “Communists train and use successfully people with whom Christians had failed―I am not just theorizing: any analysis of the origins of the leadership of the Communist Party will provide ample evidence of the Communist ability to attract to their ranks lapsed and fallen‑away Catholics. I make this point, which may seem a brutal one, for two reasons: first, it is necessary to appreciate that there is no basis for the belief that Communists have some special sort of human material on which to work. The people with whom they frequently have great success are our own failures. Secondly, we must in humility accept that amongst the Christians, and Catholics in particular, who go to the Communists are many who find in Communism what they had hoped, without success, to find among the Christians. The onus is, therefore, on us to find the answer to this problem.
“If we recognize that Communists are not some different brand of human beings from those who make up the other, comparable movements, we must then turn to their methods and see what part these play in assisting the Communist Party to develop its members’ potentialities for dedication and leadership. The Christian who is trying to train and produce leaders may object that Christians are concerned with the supernatural and must operate at that level, whereas Communists are concerned only with the natural. I would submit that this is not a reason for ignoring the natural. It is theologically sound to say that the supernatural is built on the natural. In considering the Communists’ methods we shall be dealing with the question at the natural level, which is precisely where the Christian tends often to be at his weakest. It is here that we have most to learn.
Communist are Willing to Sacrifice
Hyde points out that most Communist sacrifice far more for their Communism than Catholics sacrifice for their Catholicism: “If you ask me what is the distinguishing mark of the Communist, what it is that Communists most outstandingly have in common, I would not say, as some people might expect, their ability to hate—this is by no means common to them all. I would say that beyond any shadow of doubt it is their idealism, their zeal, dedication, devotion to their cause and willingness to sacrifice. This characterizes the Communists wherever Communism has still to come to power and is obviously true of many in the very different circumstances where it now rules. The vast majority of the Communists I have met anywhere conform to this pattern. This is no accident. It does not just happen. The Communists have evolved their own means by which they are able to evoke an exceptional degree of dedication. And they use it very effectively indeed. To understand how it is done, one must follow through the process step by step from the start.”
Communists Use What Catholics Abuse
Hyde then goes on to explain how Communists harness and use what Catholics have failed to harness and use: “The majority of those who join the Communist Party are young. The average joining age used to be between seventeen and twenty‑five. Today it is between fifteen and twenty‑five. For some years now they have been recruiting successfully among fifteen to seventeen‑year‑olds. Youth is a period of idealism. The Communists attract young people by appealing directly to that idealism. Too often, others have failed either to appeal to it or to use it and they are the losers as a consequence. We have no cause to complain if, having neglected the idealism of youth, we see others come along, take it, use it and harness it to their cause—and against our own.
“It is fashionable in some circles today to sneer at ‘starry‑eyed idealism’. Of all the ways of helping Communism I can think of none better than this. That sort of cynicism has driven many eager, earnest, intelligent and potentially good youngsters to believe that the West has nothing to offer the young idealist but cynicism, and that this is an expression of the decadence of our way of life. It has led them to believe that if you are interested in improving man’s lot on Earth, if you want to change the world (and the boy who does not want to do this at some point during his adolescence will certainly make a cynical old materialist later on), it is to the Communists, not to the Christians, you must turn.
“Wherever I have travelled I have found that young people are idealistic. This is natural to any healthy youngster. I can only conclude that it is the way God wants them to be. We offend against charity and justice, and against common sense too, when we sneer at starry‑eyed idealism. We do it to our own loss. Young people have always dreamed of better worlds and we must hope that they always will. The day we lose our dreams all progress will cease. Idealistic young people will want to change the world and will pursue their own idealistic course in any case. If their idealism is not appealed to and canalized within the circles in which they have grown up they will seek elsewhere for an outlet.
“The Communists have demonstrated that the idealism of youth is something which can be harnessed and used with tremendous effect. It is a dynamic thing. Despite all the twists and turns of Communist policy it continues over the years to provide the dynamism of the Communist movement. Older Christians, believing that you cannot build perfect worlds and perfect societies from fallen men, too often take up what is at best a superciliously tolerant approach to youthful idealism—when they do not ignore it altogether. The Communists take it and use it.
“Communism becomes the dominant thing in the life of the Communist. It is something to which he gives himself completely. Quite obviously it meets a need, fills a vacuum at the time when he is first attracted to it. More significant is that it normally continues to be the dominant force in the life of the Communist for as long as he remains in the movement. The Communists’ appeal to idealism is direct and audacious. They say that if you make mean little demands upon people, you will get a mean little response which is all you deserve, but, if you make big demands on them, you will get an heroic response. They prove in practice that this is so, over and over again. They work on the assumption that if you call for big sacrifices people will respond to this and, moreover, the relatively smaller sacrifices will come quite naturally.
“When I first went to work on the British Communist Party’s daily paper, I was proud that I had been chosen for the work, proud to make whatever sacrifice was asked of me, but I was nonetheless conscious of the fact that I had willingly accepted a ludicrously small wage. I will admit that I felt slightly virtuous about this—until I met other members of the staff. Most of them were older than I was at that time, they had gone further in their careers (and some had gone very far indeed) and had had to make far bigger sacrifices than I. Some of them were earning one‑tenth of what had been their salary when they had worked for the ‘capitalist’ press. There were times when, small as our salaries were, these could not be paid at all.
“Even when the paper became slightly more prosperous and the staff were technically given the union rate for the job, the sacrifices still continued. We got our pay packets, opened them and immediately gave eight‑fourteenths (57%) of their contents to the Party and the paper—before it burned our fingers. Since everyone did this, it became something of a meaningless ritual after a while and so we did not bother even to receive the cash, it just went direct to the cause. And so it continues to this day. Among the Party’s leaders are many very able men, some of whom could command very high salaries if they were in industry or commerce. Instead, they accept the wage of a moderately‑paid, skilled worker. This is not some peculiarity of the British Communist Party. The same is true of others.”
Sacrificing and Giving Until It Hurts
Hyde embarrassingly shows a level of Communist sacrifice, among their rank-and-file, that can only make the rank-and-file of Catholics blush:
“Such sacrifices, whether at the level of leaders or of rank and file, are impressive. And they do impress those who associate with the movement. Particularly impressive is the fact that sacrifice is found at all levels of the organization. Youngsters of every continent have responded to this example of idealism expressing itself in terms of sacrifice. This is true of the newly‑developing areas. It is true also of the ‘decadent’ West. Indeed, the more materialistic our society becomes, the more the dedicated man stands out by way of contrast. The dedicated man makes his own appeal simply by virtue of the fact that he is dedicated.
“Like attracts like. Those who are attracted by the dedication they see within the movement will themselves be possessed of a latent idealism, a capacity for dedication. Thus dedication perpetuates itself. It sets the tone and pace of the movement as a whole. This being so, the movement can make big demands upon its followers, knowing that the response will come. If the majority of members of an organization are half‑hearted and largely inactive, then it is not surprising if others who join it soon conform to the general pattern. If the organization makes relatively few demands upon its members and if they quite obviously feel under no obligation to give a very great deal to it, then those who join may be forgiven for supposing that this is the norm and that this is what membership entails.
“If, on the other hand, the majority of members, from the leaders down, are characterized by their single‑minded devotion to the cause, if it is quite clear that the majority are giving until it hurts, putting their time, money, thought and if necessary life itself at its disposal, then those who consider joining will assume that this is what will be expected of them. If they nonetheless make the decision to join, they will come already conditioned to sacrifice till it hurts.
“It is ludicrous to suppose that half‑hearted Christians can conduct a fruitful dialogue with fully‑dedicated Communists. Perhaps it is this which underlies the fear of any such dialogue, felt by some Christians. They take it for granted that in any such dialogue the Communists must come out on top, that the Marxists will be the gainers, the Christians the losers. I would suggest that if this happens it will have less to do with Communist duplicity than with Communist dedication—although the Christian in such circumstances must be prepared for the duplicity too. The well‑instructed, fully committed, totally dedicated Christian has little to fear. But dedication must be met with dedication. Ideally it should be backed by a genuine understanding of one’s own beliefs and of the other man’s too. This must be the starting point for any dialogue with the Communists.”
If we do not have a thorough understanding of our own Faith, nor have a sufficient understanding of the beliefs of others, then we will be afraid to speak! We will be afraid of exposing to public view our terrible deficiency in a knowledge that we SHOULD have, but don’t have. For, as the philosophical saying goes: “YOU CANNOT GIVE WHAT YOU HAVE NOT GOT!” As Pope St. Pius X said over 100 hundred years ago: “There are large numbers of Christians in our own time who are entirely ignorant of those truths necessary for salvation. We refer not only to the masses or to those in the lower walks of life—but We refer to those especially who do not lack culture or talents and, indeed, are possessed of abundant knowledge regarding things of the world, but live rashly and imprudently with regard to religion. It is hard to find words to describe how profound is the darkness in which they are engulfed and, what is most deplorable of all, how tranquilly they repose there. They rarely give thought to God, or to the teachings of the Faith of Christ. We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment, suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those mysteries of Faith!” (Pope St. Pius X, Acerbo Nimis, 1907).
Why Can’t Catholics Show This Kind of Zeal?
You would think that nobody could match Catholics for zeal―since they are not only in possession of the truth, but they are also in possession of sanctifying grace and have God on their side! Yet this following example, shared by Douglas Hyde, should make us want to bury ourselves out of sight in all shame! Hyde gives an example of one particular Communist he knew, yet states that this was pretty much a typical example of Communists in the Communist Party―whereas all that Catholics want to do is party! Hyde writes:
“Among ex‑Communists I have met have been some who, having given their all to Communism, became in time disillusioned or saw the flaws in its thinking and then, having left it, they look back wistfully from time to time to the days when they had something to live by and for. I was talking to such a man on one occasion. Our conversation brought back very vividly to my own mind the extent of the dedication which had been common in the Party in the days when we were both Communists together. Often ex‑Communists meeting together can talk of the ‘old days when we were in the Party’ rather like old soldiers discussing nostalgically the campaigns they shared in the past. We had been doing this. We had talked of old comrades who now saw themselves as our enemies, of the campaigns in which we had engaged together. Then, very wistfully, he said:
“Do you remember what life was really like in the Party? You got up in the morning and as you shaved you were thinking of the jobs you would do for Communism that day. You went down to breakfast and read the Daily Worker to get the Party line to get the shot and shell for a fight in which you were already involved. You read every item in the paper wondering how you might be able to use it for the cause. I had never been interested in sport but I read the sports pages in order to be able to discuss sport with others and to be able to say to them, ‘Have you read this in the Daily Worker [the Communist newspaper]?’ I would follow this through by giving them the paper in the hope that they might turn from the sports pages and read the political ones too.
“On the bus or train, on my way to work, I read the Daily Worker as ostentatiously as I could, holding it up so that others might read the headlines and perhaps be influenced by them. I took two copies of the paper with me; the second one I left on the seat in the hope that someone would pick it up and read it. When I got to work, I kept the Daily Worker circulating. One worker after another would take it outside, read it for a few minutes and bring it back to me again. At lunchtime, in the canteen or the restaurant, I would try to start conversations with those with whom I was eating. I made practice of sitting with different groups in order to spread my influence as widely as I could. I did not thrust Communism down their throats but steered our conversations in such a way that they could be brought round to politics or, if possible, to the campaigns which the Party was conducting at the time.
“Before I left my place of work at night, there was a quick meeting of the factory group or cell. There we discussed in a few minutes the successes and failures of the day. And we discussed, too, what we hoped to be able to do on the following day. I dashed home, had a quick meal and then went out, maybe to attend classes, maybe to be a tutor, maybe to join some Communist campaign, going from door to door canvassing or standing at the side of the road selling Communist papers‑doing something for Communism. And I went home at night and dreamed of the jobs I was going to do for Communism the next day.” Rather sadly he added: “You know, life had some meaning and some purpose in those days. Life was good in the Communist Party.”
“He was right. Of course it was. It is quite wrong to suppose that it is only the saints who are not sad. Sinners can get quite a lot of fun out of life too. And those who are dedicated get immensely more out of life than those who are not. The day he had described had been my life and that of most of my old comrades. It was a day in the life of a dedicated man, a normal day in the life of a hard‑core Communist Party member. It is not surprising that he looked back at that life from the wasteland of his present purposeless existence with a considerable degree of nostalgia.
“Perhaps I should add in passing that this was not some unthinking, uneducated man who had lived simply on his emotions and on action. He was a highly intelligent, Oxford University graduate, the very practical and down-to‑earth product of a well‑known political family. I make this point in order to reiterate and to emphasize as strongly as I can that it is quite erroneous to suppose that Communism appeals only to some particular type or class or race. Within the Communist Party you will find people of every type and class. And within the world Communist movement you will find people of every race. Discuss their case histories with them, probe into what first attracted them to Communism and invariably you will find that it was not Communist theories, policies or campaigns, important as these may be in the making of Communists, but the impact made upon them by some dedicated Communist which predisposed and conditioned them to associate with a movement and to accept a doctrine which would otherwise most probably have been unacceptable to them. There is no mystery about the indisputable fact that Communists exert an influence out of all proportion to their numbers, once one grasps the point that practically every party member is a dedicated man in whose life, from the time he rises in the morning till the time he goes to bed at night, for 365 days of the year, Communism is the dominant force.”
Why isn’t that our attitude to the Faith? When we appear before God for judgment―He will point out to us that the Communists were far more dedicated than we ever were; that Communists achieved far more than we ever did; that Communists were far less in numbers that we were―and, worst of all, Communist did not the help of the grace of God that we had! And we wonder why most souls are lost! Insane! Blind! We are blind and insane leaders of the blind and insane―”And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14).
The next article will examine the consequences of a lack of Communist dedication in Catholic families, schools and parishes―and what can be done to try and raise these Catholics from the dead and give them a new life.
Article 7
Saturday December 6th
Are You Winning or Losing Your Advent Battles?
Saturday December 6th
Are You Winning or Losing Your Advent Battles?
Everyone Loves A Winner!
It’s true, isn’t it? Everyone loves a winner! Even God loves a winner, this I know, coz the Bible tells me so! “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain!” (1 Corinthians 9:24). Heaven also loves the winner—it is full of winners—and they all love each other! Hell is full of losers—and they all hate each other—and they also hate the winners in Heaven!
But what is it to win? What is it that we want to win? Winning matters to everyone—but what are they striving to win? It could be said that not all winners are winners—and that some winners end up being the losers! A bit like: “So shall the last be first, and the first last!” (Matthew 20:16). Yikes! Perhaps we first need to take a good look at what we are trying to win?!!
Where Winning is Losing!
Some of the most important teachings by Our Lord are not just reported by one Evangelist, but by several or all. We have a case of this when Our Lord seemingly talks about winning being actually losing: “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36). “For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, and cast away himself?” (Luke 9:25). “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
There are many who strive to accumulate Earthly power and wealth, only to find that their gain is their loss—of which St. James speaks of when he writes: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl in your miseries, which shall come upon you! Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten! Your gold and silver is cankered: and the rust of them shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire! You have stored up to yourselves wrath against the last days!” (James 5:1-3).
Winners Becoming Losers
This is somewhat like the parable that Our Lord told of a “winner” who became a “loser”! “And Jesus spoke a similitude to them, saying: ‘The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. And he thought within himself, saying: “What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?” And he said: “This will I do! I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. And I will say to my soul: ‘Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years! Take thy rest! Eat, drink, make good cheer!’” But God said to him: “Thou fool! This night do they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?” So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God!’” (Luke 12:16-21).
God’s Way of Winning Is Not Ours
We are forever trying to make God think, act and react like we do! We even see the Apostles, James and John, do this when they encountered resistance and a refusal of Jesus in one of Samaritan cities: “And it came to pass, when the days of His assumption [Passion and Death] were accomplishing, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. And He sent messengers before His face; and going, they entered into a city of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. And they received Him not, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem [for Samaritans were enemies of the Jews]. And when His disciples James and John had seen this, they said: ‘Lord! Wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven, and consume them?’ And turning, He rebuked them, saying: ‘You know not of what spirit you are!’” (Luke 9:51-55).
This is why God says, through Isaias His Prophet: “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways!’ saith the Lord. ‘For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9). This can quite readily and appropriately rephrased as: “‘My thoughts about winning are not your thoughts about winning, nor are your ways of winning My ways of winning!’ saith the Lord. ‘For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways of winning exalted above your ways of winning, and My thoughts about winning above your thoughts about winning!”
Pretty Depressing Thoughts!
It is starting to look as though God’s way of winning is—from our perspective—a pretty depressing way of winning! “And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem: and Jesus went before them, and they were astonished and following were afraid. And taking again the Twelve, He began to tell them the things that should befall Him. saying: ‘Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests, and to the scribes and ancients, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles! And they shall mock Him, and spit on Him, and scourge Him, and kill Him: and the third day He shall rise again!’” (Mark 10:32-34). In the eyes of the Apostles, Our Lord was supposed to be a winner—yet here He is talking about being killed! No wonder they were afraid!
Our ways of winning are much like those of the Jews, who expected the coming Messias to be glorious king and all-conquering soldier! He would conquer the world in glory—and it would begin by casting-out the Roman troops that were occupying and controlling Jerusalem and the surrounding Judean lands. Even the Apostles had this in mind after the resurrection of Our Lord: “They, therefore, who were come together, asked Him, saying: ‘Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?’” (Acts 1:6). They were imagining a conquest and glory altogether different to the one Our Lord was thinking about!
This is clearly seen in the example of the two disciples of Jesus, who were sadly and depressingly walking away from Jerusalem on the road to Emmaus, after the crucifixion and death of Our Lord. Somewhere along the road, the resurrected Lord appears to them—though they fail to recognize Him.
“And behold, two of them went, the same day, to a town which was sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, named Emmaus. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that while they talked and reasoned with themselves, Jesus Himself also drawing near, went with them. But their eyes were held, that they should not know Him.
“And He said to them: ‘What are these discourses that you hold one with another as you walk, and are sad?’
“And the one of them, whose name was Cleophas, answering, said to Him: ‘Art Thou only a stranger to Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that have been done there in these days?’
“To whom he said: ‘What things?’
“And they said: ‘Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in work and word before God and all the people; and how our chief priests and princes delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him [so in their eyes He is a loser]. But we hoped, that it was He that should have redeemed Israel! [Again this different idea about winning] And now besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea and certain women also of our company affrighted us, who before it was light, were at the sepulcher, and, not finding His body, came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who say that He is alive. And some of our people went to the sepulcher, and found it so as the women had said, but Him they found not!’
“Then He said to them: ‘O foolish, and slow of heart to believe in all things which the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures, the things that were concerning Him” (Luke 24:13-27).
In other words, Our Lord pointed out to them that by seemingly “losing” He had, in actual fact, won! His ways are not our ways, not His thoughts our thoughts—and that is why we get depressed, discouraged and down in the dumps when His Providence has actually put us on the road to victory!
Losing in Order to Win!
Christ, Himself, gained victory through apparently losing! He decided to lose His life to win eternal life for us! The very thought of this is troubling, humiliating and even ‘scandalous’—which is what the Apostles thought: “And when they abode together in Galilee, Jesus said to them: ‘The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: and they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall rise again!’ And they were troubled exceedingly” (Matthew 17:21-22).
Elsewhere in Matthew we read the same: “And Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart, and said to them: ‘Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death! And shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified … And as Jonas was in the whale’s belly three days and three nights—so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights! … And the third day He shall rise again!” (Matthew 20:17-19; Matthew 12:40).
Jesus’ and Peter’s Ideas on Winning
This was not St. Peter’s idea of victory and he adamantly said so: “And Jesus began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the ancients and by the high priests, and the scribes, and be killed; and after three days rise again. And He spoke the word openly. And Peter taking Him, began to rebuke Him” (Mark 8:31-32).
Then Our Lord angrily turned upon Peter and threateningly corrected him on the matter: “Who turning about and seeing His disciples, threatened Peter, saying: ‘Go behind Me, Satan! Because thou savorest not the things that are of God, but that are of men!’ And calling the multitude together with His disciples, He said to them: ‘If any man will follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel, shall save it! For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:33-37).
St. Matthew records the incident also: “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples, that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the third day rise again. And Peter taking Him, began to rebuke Him, saying: ‘Lord, be it far from Thee! This shall not be unto Thee!’ Jesus, turning, said to Peter: ‘Go behind Me, Satan! Thou art a scandal unto Me! Because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men!’” (Matthew 16:21-23).
Jesus’ thoughts were Peter’s thoughts, nor Peter’s ways Jesus’ ways! As the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so were Jesus’ ways exalted above Peter’s ways, and Jesus’ thoughts above Peter’s thoughts! And Jesus let Peter know and understand this in no uncertain terms!
Yet right at the start of the Passion, we again see that clash of thoughts between Jesus and Peter: “Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it, and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. And the name of the servant was Malchus. Jesus therefore said to Peter: ‘Put up thy sword into the scabbard! The chalice which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?’” (John 18:10-11). Peter thought he was striking a winning blow! Our Lord had better ideas of how to win—though far more humiliating!
The Temptation of Winning or Losing in the Garden
However, Our Lord Himself was tempted to pull-out of the winning path etched by His Father. This occurred in the “Agony in the Garden”, when Our Lord, finally faced with the last gruesome, grueling lap to victory, was tempted to say “No!” He was terrified of what was to come—so much so that He was ‘sweating blood’, that is to say the stress had built up so much pressure that He was hemorrhaging internally and the blood was flowing into his sweat glands and came out with the sweat. That is very high intense pressure from fear! He is tempted to say “No!” and addresses His Providential Father thus (all the Gospel accounts):
“He began to grow sorrowful and to be sad … Then He said: ‘My soul is sorrowful even unto death!’ … And going a little further, He fell upon His face, praying, and saying: ‘My Father! If it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me! Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt!’ … Again the second time, He went and prayed, saying: ‘My Father! If this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, Thy will be done!’ … And He prayed the third time, saying the selfsame word” (Matthew 26:37-44).
“He began to fear and to be heavy. And He said: ‘My soul is sorrowful even unto death!’ And when He was gone forward a little, He fell flat on the ground; and He prayed, that if it might be, the hour might pass from Him. And He said: ‘Abba, Father! All things are possible to Thee! Remove this chalice from Me; but not what I will, but what Thou wilt!’ And going again, He prayed, saying the same words” (Mark 14:33-39).
“And He was withdrawn away from them a stone’s cast; and kneeling down, He prayed, saying: ‘Father, if Thou wilt, remove this chalice from Me: but yet not My will, but Thine be done!’ And there appeared to Him an angel from Heaven, strengthening Him. And being in an agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground” (Luke 22:41-44).
This is tremendous consolation to us when faced with winning paths that we are convinced will lead to losing. This agony, passion and brutal death was the winning path that God’s Providence chose for His fledgling Church. Not just Apostles, but everyday, run-of-the-mill, common folk—not just men, but women and even little children—were asked by God to walk victorious, yet bloody, painful and tortuous winning path of martyrdom, thus imitation their Divine Savior. Need some proof? Need some examples? Need some strengthening? The click here and read of a long list of winners who looked like losers in the eyes of the world—just like Our Lord seemed to be to the mocking Pharisees on Calvary.
What Does It Take To Win?
The answer is as simple as you can get. One word! Three letters! GOD! What else can Our Lord’s (Who is God Himself) mean?--”Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). If we think that we are behind successes, then we are stealing glory and credit from God. God’s Providence is behind all success, just as God’s Providence is ultimately behind all failure. That wonderful little book, Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, states: “Nothing happens in the universe without God willing and allowing it. This statement must be taken absolutely of everything with the exception of sin. “Nothing occurs by chance in the whole course of our lives” is the unanimous teaching of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, “and God intervenes everywhere.”
“ ‘I am the Lord,’ He tells us Himself by the mouth of the prophet Isaias, ‘and there is none else. I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things’ (Isaias 45:6‑7). ‘It is I who bring both death and life, I who inflict wounds and heal them,’ He said to Moses (Deuteronomy 32:39). ‘The Lord killeth and maketh alive,’ it is written in the Canticle of Anna, the mother of Samuel, ‘He bringeth down to the tomb and He bringeth back again; the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, He humbleth and He exalteth’ (1 Kings 2:6‑7). ‘Shall there be evil (disaster, affliction) in a city which the Lord hath not done?’ (Amos 3:6) asks the prophet Amos. ‘Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches are from God,’ Solomon proclaims (Ecclesiasticus 11:14). And so on in numerous other passages of Scripture” (Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, chapter 1).
Winning Against the Odds
God’s Providence arranges all things so that the whole world might know that this kind of life-changing power comes from God alone and not from us. He has lots of different ways of reminding us about this truth. One such instance was the story of Gedeon, in chapter 7 of the Book of Judges, in the Old Testament. When the Madianites attacked Israel with 135,000 soldiers, Gedeon led an army of 32,000 men in the counterattack. That’s around a 4-to-1 advantage for the enemy! Evidently God didn’t like those odds because He told Gedeon to tell all those men who were afraid to fight, to go home: “Whosoever is fearful and timorous, let him return!” (Judges 7:3). 22,000 of the 32,000 men departed, leaving him with only 10,000. That would make the odds even worse, at 13-to-1 against the Israelites.
Why did God do such a thing? Because, in God’s own words, “…Lest Israel should glory against Me, and say: ‘I was delivered by my own strength!’” (Judges 7:2). Yet God was still not pleased with those overwhelmingly adverse odds, so God instructed Gedeon to dismiss all the soldiers who didn’t lap water like a dog: “ ‘They that shall lap the water with their tongues, as dogs are wont to lap, thou shalt set apart by themselves: but they that shall drink bowing down their knees, shall be on the other side!’ And the number of them that had lapped water, casting it with the hand to their mouth, was three hundred men: and all the rest of the multitude had drunk kneeling. And the Lord said to Gedeon: ‘By the three hundred men, that lapped water, I will save you, and deliver Madian into thy hand: but let all the rest of the people return to their place!’” (Judges 7:5-7).
With only 300 men left, that made the odds against Israel about 450-to-1, which is a whole lot steeper and tougher than the initial 4-to-1. Just ask any soldier what odds he would prefer going into hand-to-hand combat! Yet that suited God just fine! So God told Gedeon to attack with a mere 300 soldiers, whereupon Gedeon divided his men into three groups of 100 for a night-time assault. He instructed his men to wait until the changing of the guard (around midnight), and then blow the trumpets (the ram’s horn, called a shofar), hold up torches, and shout “A sword for the Lord and for Gedeon” (Judges 7:20). That “ambush” so greatly shocked and confused the Madianites, that they fled in fear and confusion, attacking each other in the darkness as they ran, fearing that it was an enemy.
This resulted in a total rout by Gedeon’s band of 300 men. Guess who got the credit when the battle was over? God did. And that’s what he had in mind all along. Before the battle began the Lord said to Gedeon: “The people that are with thee are many, and Madian shall not be delivered into their hands: lest Israel should glory against me, and say: ‘I was delivered by my own strength!’” (Judges 7:2). Sometimes God has to “cut us down to size” so that when the battle is over, He alone gets the glory. By this we see that God will not choose for His instruments in great achievements, which depend purely on his grace, such persons who, through pride and self-conceit, will take the glory to themselves. He wants winners who will not take away the glory of the One who masterminds each victory.
God Seeks “Nobodies” To Make Them “Somebodies”
When God wants to win a victory, He often chooses a loser and makes him a winner. God is looking for “nobodies” who will become “somebodies” in His hands. Holy Scripture puts it this way. Of the Israelites God says through Holy Scripture: “Not because you surpass all nations in number, is the Lord joined unto you and hath chosen you—for you are the fewest of any people!” (Deuteronomy 7:7). St. Paul adds: “The foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that He may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that He may confound the strong! And the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible, hath God chosen, and things that are not, that He might bring to nought things that are! So that no flesh should glory in His sight” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).
Elsewhere St. Paul writes: “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20). “For if any man think himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceiveth himself!” (Galatians 6:3). “For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to His good will” (Philippians 2:13). “Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thy own prudence. In all thy ways think on Him, and He will direct thy steps. Be not wise in thy own conceit!” (Proverbs 3:5-7).
David and Goliath—Winner and Loser
In the eyes of the Israelites, the young boy (to be future king) David was a mere “nobody”, while Goliath was a “somebody” that they greatly respected and feared. Yet, once again, God would turn the tables of human assessment upside-down, by taking a “nobody” and thrashing a “somebody” with that “nobody”. We all know the story, so there is no point reproducing it in full—but the credit David gives God and the reliance David has on God is worth quoting from the story.
David says to King Saul: “‘Let not any man’s heart be dismayed! I, thy servant, will go and will fight against the Philistine!’ And Saul said to David: ‘Thou art not able to withstand this Philistine, nor to fight against him! For thou art but a boy, but he is a warrior from his youth!’ And David said to Saul: ‘Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, or a bear, and took a ram out of the midst of the flock. And I pursued after them, and struck them, and delivered it out of their mouth: and they rose up against me, and I caught them by the throat, and I strangled and killed them [good works]. For I, thy servant, have killed both a lion and a bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be also as one of them. I will go now, and take away the reproach of the people: for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, who hath dared to curse the army of the living God? The LORD DELIVERED ME out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, and HE will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine!’” (1 Kings 17:32-26).
The self-appointed ‘winner’ Goliath taunts David when he sees him to be a mere boy without any armor or weapons: “‘Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with a staff?’ And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And he said to David: ‘Come to me, and I will give thy flesh to the birds of the air, and to the beasts of the earth!’ And David said to the Philistine: ‘Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, which thou hast defied. This day, and the Lord will deliver thee into my hand, and I will slay thee, and take away thy head from thee! And I will give the carcasses of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air, and to the beasts of the earth: so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel! And all this assembly shall know, that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for it is his battle, and HE will deliver you into our hands!’” (1 Kings 17:43-47).
We Are What We Are Because of God
St. Paul states to the Corinthians: “For who distinguisheth thee? Or what hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? … But by the grace of God, I am what I am; and His grace in me hath not been void, but I have labored more abundantly than all they: yet, not I, but the grace of God with me!” (1 Corinthians 4:7; 15:10).
Rather than vainly dream of what we think we are, remember instead your roots and stay humble! St. Paul reminds that “All have sinned, and do need the glory of God!” (Romans 3:23). “You were dead in your offences and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now worketh on the children of unbelief! In which, also, we all conversed in time past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest! But God, who is rich in mercy, for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together in Christ, by whose grace you are saved, and hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus. That He might show in the ages to come the abundant riches of his grace, in his bounty towards us through Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through Faith, and not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God not of works, so that no man may glory. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:1-10).
Self-Acknowledged Winners Are Losers
We have been reformed, changed, forgiven and sanctified by grace. Therefore we should be like the proud Pharisee in the Temple—who thought he was a winner—saying: “O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican! I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess!” (Luke 18:11-12). This self-acclaimed winner was a loser in Jesus’ eyes, for Our Lord praised instead the self-acknowledged loser, the sinful Publican, who “standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven; but struck his breast, saying: ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather than the other: because everyone that exalteth himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted!’” (Luke 18:13-14).
Good Works and Glory to God
The Protestants wrongly claim from that passage that we are “saved by Faith alone” and “not by works”. This is patently erroneous—for elsewhere St. James tells us that “Wilt thou know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? … For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead ... So Faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself!” (James 2: James 2:20; 2:26; 2:17). For in that same misquoted and misinterpreted passage, St. Paul writes: “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared, that we should walk in them [good works]” but those good works are the fruit of the grace of God and not of our own unaided human efforts. As Jesus said, we must have good works, but the glory for them must be given to the Father: “So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 5:16) to which St. Peter adds, in the same vein: “The Gentiles, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by the good works which they shall behold in you, glorify God!” (1 Peter 2:12). As Holy Scripture says: “Not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to Thy Name give glory!” (Psalm 113:9).
How’s Your Advent Working Out?
How are things working out? Have we worked out a plan? Are we arriving at the Advent Vineyard at the third, sixth, ninth or even eleventh hour? In that parable—the Workers in the Vineyard—Our Lord has everyone be a winner, no matter at what time they entered the vineyard. Let us not spend this last full week of Advent lazily and idly, but let us wholeheartedly, though perhaps belatedly, enter into the spirit of things! A Novena for Christmas begins this Saturday and ends on Christmas Day itself—make it, do it, follow it, meditate it! (Christmas Novena click here). The Great “O” Antiphons begin on this Saturday and end on Friday—follow them, pray them, sing them, meditate them! (O Antiphon Homepage click here and go from there). A series of articles accompany Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the 5-10 days they were on the open road—go with them, sympathize with them, learn from them! (Journey to Bethlehem click here). Make this last week a worthy week, so that this Christmas is not just a material Christmess, but a veritably holy and spiritual Christmas!
It’s true, isn’t it? Everyone loves a winner! Even God loves a winner, this I know, coz the Bible tells me so! “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain!” (1 Corinthians 9:24). Heaven also loves the winner—it is full of winners—and they all love each other! Hell is full of losers—and they all hate each other—and they also hate the winners in Heaven!
But what is it to win? What is it that we want to win? Winning matters to everyone—but what are they striving to win? It could be said that not all winners are winners—and that some winners end up being the losers! A bit like: “So shall the last be first, and the first last!” (Matthew 20:16). Yikes! Perhaps we first need to take a good look at what we are trying to win?!!
Where Winning is Losing!
Some of the most important teachings by Our Lord are not just reported by one Evangelist, but by several or all. We have a case of this when Our Lord seemingly talks about winning being actually losing: “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36). “For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, and cast away himself?” (Luke 9:25). “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
There are many who strive to accumulate Earthly power and wealth, only to find that their gain is their loss—of which St. James speaks of when he writes: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl in your miseries, which shall come upon you! Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten! Your gold and silver is cankered: and the rust of them shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire! You have stored up to yourselves wrath against the last days!” (James 5:1-3).
Winners Becoming Losers
This is somewhat like the parable that Our Lord told of a “winner” who became a “loser”! “And Jesus spoke a similitude to them, saying: ‘The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. And he thought within himself, saying: “What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?” And he said: “This will I do! I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. And I will say to my soul: ‘Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years! Take thy rest! Eat, drink, make good cheer!’” But God said to him: “Thou fool! This night do they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?” So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God!’” (Luke 12:16-21).
God’s Way of Winning Is Not Ours
We are forever trying to make God think, act and react like we do! We even see the Apostles, James and John, do this when they encountered resistance and a refusal of Jesus in one of Samaritan cities: “And it came to pass, when the days of His assumption [Passion and Death] were accomplishing, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. And He sent messengers before His face; and going, they entered into a city of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. And they received Him not, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem [for Samaritans were enemies of the Jews]. And when His disciples James and John had seen this, they said: ‘Lord! Wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven, and consume them?’ And turning, He rebuked them, saying: ‘You know not of what spirit you are!’” (Luke 9:51-55).
This is why God says, through Isaias His Prophet: “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways!’ saith the Lord. ‘For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9). This can quite readily and appropriately rephrased as: “‘My thoughts about winning are not your thoughts about winning, nor are your ways of winning My ways of winning!’ saith the Lord. ‘For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways of winning exalted above your ways of winning, and My thoughts about winning above your thoughts about winning!”
Pretty Depressing Thoughts!
It is starting to look as though God’s way of winning is—from our perspective—a pretty depressing way of winning! “And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem: and Jesus went before them, and they were astonished and following were afraid. And taking again the Twelve, He began to tell them the things that should befall Him. saying: ‘Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests, and to the scribes and ancients, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles! And they shall mock Him, and spit on Him, and scourge Him, and kill Him: and the third day He shall rise again!’” (Mark 10:32-34). In the eyes of the Apostles, Our Lord was supposed to be a winner—yet here He is talking about being killed! No wonder they were afraid!
Our ways of winning are much like those of the Jews, who expected the coming Messias to be glorious king and all-conquering soldier! He would conquer the world in glory—and it would begin by casting-out the Roman troops that were occupying and controlling Jerusalem and the surrounding Judean lands. Even the Apostles had this in mind after the resurrection of Our Lord: “They, therefore, who were come together, asked Him, saying: ‘Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?’” (Acts 1:6). They were imagining a conquest and glory altogether different to the one Our Lord was thinking about!
This is clearly seen in the example of the two disciples of Jesus, who were sadly and depressingly walking away from Jerusalem on the road to Emmaus, after the crucifixion and death of Our Lord. Somewhere along the road, the resurrected Lord appears to them—though they fail to recognize Him.
“And behold, two of them went, the same day, to a town which was sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, named Emmaus. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that while they talked and reasoned with themselves, Jesus Himself also drawing near, went with them. But their eyes were held, that they should not know Him.
“And He said to them: ‘What are these discourses that you hold one with another as you walk, and are sad?’
“And the one of them, whose name was Cleophas, answering, said to Him: ‘Art Thou only a stranger to Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that have been done there in these days?’
“To whom he said: ‘What things?’
“And they said: ‘Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in work and word before God and all the people; and how our chief priests and princes delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him [so in their eyes He is a loser]. But we hoped, that it was He that should have redeemed Israel! [Again this different idea about winning] And now besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea and certain women also of our company affrighted us, who before it was light, were at the sepulcher, and, not finding His body, came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who say that He is alive. And some of our people went to the sepulcher, and found it so as the women had said, but Him they found not!’
“Then He said to them: ‘O foolish, and slow of heart to believe in all things which the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures, the things that were concerning Him” (Luke 24:13-27).
In other words, Our Lord pointed out to them that by seemingly “losing” He had, in actual fact, won! His ways are not our ways, not His thoughts our thoughts—and that is why we get depressed, discouraged and down in the dumps when His Providence has actually put us on the road to victory!
Losing in Order to Win!
Christ, Himself, gained victory through apparently losing! He decided to lose His life to win eternal life for us! The very thought of this is troubling, humiliating and even ‘scandalous’—which is what the Apostles thought: “And when they abode together in Galilee, Jesus said to them: ‘The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: and they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall rise again!’ And they were troubled exceedingly” (Matthew 17:21-22).
Elsewhere in Matthew we read the same: “And Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart, and said to them: ‘Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death! And shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified … And as Jonas was in the whale’s belly three days and three nights—so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights! … And the third day He shall rise again!” (Matthew 20:17-19; Matthew 12:40).
Jesus’ and Peter’s Ideas on Winning
This was not St. Peter’s idea of victory and he adamantly said so: “And Jesus began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the ancients and by the high priests, and the scribes, and be killed; and after three days rise again. And He spoke the word openly. And Peter taking Him, began to rebuke Him” (Mark 8:31-32).
Then Our Lord angrily turned upon Peter and threateningly corrected him on the matter: “Who turning about and seeing His disciples, threatened Peter, saying: ‘Go behind Me, Satan! Because thou savorest not the things that are of God, but that are of men!’ And calling the multitude together with His disciples, He said to them: ‘If any man will follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel, shall save it! For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:33-37).
St. Matthew records the incident also: “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples, that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the third day rise again. And Peter taking Him, began to rebuke Him, saying: ‘Lord, be it far from Thee! This shall not be unto Thee!’ Jesus, turning, said to Peter: ‘Go behind Me, Satan! Thou art a scandal unto Me! Because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men!’” (Matthew 16:21-23).
Jesus’ thoughts were Peter’s thoughts, nor Peter’s ways Jesus’ ways! As the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so were Jesus’ ways exalted above Peter’s ways, and Jesus’ thoughts above Peter’s thoughts! And Jesus let Peter know and understand this in no uncertain terms!
Yet right at the start of the Passion, we again see that clash of thoughts between Jesus and Peter: “Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it, and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. And the name of the servant was Malchus. Jesus therefore said to Peter: ‘Put up thy sword into the scabbard! The chalice which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?’” (John 18:10-11). Peter thought he was striking a winning blow! Our Lord had better ideas of how to win—though far more humiliating!
The Temptation of Winning or Losing in the Garden
However, Our Lord Himself was tempted to pull-out of the winning path etched by His Father. This occurred in the “Agony in the Garden”, when Our Lord, finally faced with the last gruesome, grueling lap to victory, was tempted to say “No!” He was terrified of what was to come—so much so that He was ‘sweating blood’, that is to say the stress had built up so much pressure that He was hemorrhaging internally and the blood was flowing into his sweat glands and came out with the sweat. That is very high intense pressure from fear! He is tempted to say “No!” and addresses His Providential Father thus (all the Gospel accounts):
“He began to grow sorrowful and to be sad … Then He said: ‘My soul is sorrowful even unto death!’ … And going a little further, He fell upon His face, praying, and saying: ‘My Father! If it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me! Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt!’ … Again the second time, He went and prayed, saying: ‘My Father! If this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, Thy will be done!’ … And He prayed the third time, saying the selfsame word” (Matthew 26:37-44).
“He began to fear and to be heavy. And He said: ‘My soul is sorrowful even unto death!’ And when He was gone forward a little, He fell flat on the ground; and He prayed, that if it might be, the hour might pass from Him. And He said: ‘Abba, Father! All things are possible to Thee! Remove this chalice from Me; but not what I will, but what Thou wilt!’ And going again, He prayed, saying the same words” (Mark 14:33-39).
“And He was withdrawn away from them a stone’s cast; and kneeling down, He prayed, saying: ‘Father, if Thou wilt, remove this chalice from Me: but yet not My will, but Thine be done!’ And there appeared to Him an angel from Heaven, strengthening Him. And being in an agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground” (Luke 22:41-44).
This is tremendous consolation to us when faced with winning paths that we are convinced will lead to losing. This agony, passion and brutal death was the winning path that God’s Providence chose for His fledgling Church. Not just Apostles, but everyday, run-of-the-mill, common folk—not just men, but women and even little children—were asked by God to walk victorious, yet bloody, painful and tortuous winning path of martyrdom, thus imitation their Divine Savior. Need some proof? Need some examples? Need some strengthening? The click here and read of a long list of winners who looked like losers in the eyes of the world—just like Our Lord seemed to be to the mocking Pharisees on Calvary.
What Does It Take To Win?
The answer is as simple as you can get. One word! Three letters! GOD! What else can Our Lord’s (Who is God Himself) mean?--”Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). If we think that we are behind successes, then we are stealing glory and credit from God. God’s Providence is behind all success, just as God’s Providence is ultimately behind all failure. That wonderful little book, Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, states: “Nothing happens in the universe without God willing and allowing it. This statement must be taken absolutely of everything with the exception of sin. “Nothing occurs by chance in the whole course of our lives” is the unanimous teaching of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, “and God intervenes everywhere.”
“ ‘I am the Lord,’ He tells us Himself by the mouth of the prophet Isaias, ‘and there is none else. I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things’ (Isaias 45:6‑7). ‘It is I who bring both death and life, I who inflict wounds and heal them,’ He said to Moses (Deuteronomy 32:39). ‘The Lord killeth and maketh alive,’ it is written in the Canticle of Anna, the mother of Samuel, ‘He bringeth down to the tomb and He bringeth back again; the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, He humbleth and He exalteth’ (1 Kings 2:6‑7). ‘Shall there be evil (disaster, affliction) in a city which the Lord hath not done?’ (Amos 3:6) asks the prophet Amos. ‘Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches are from God,’ Solomon proclaims (Ecclesiasticus 11:14). And so on in numerous other passages of Scripture” (Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, chapter 1).
Winning Against the Odds
God’s Providence arranges all things so that the whole world might know that this kind of life-changing power comes from God alone and not from us. He has lots of different ways of reminding us about this truth. One such instance was the story of Gedeon, in chapter 7 of the Book of Judges, in the Old Testament. When the Madianites attacked Israel with 135,000 soldiers, Gedeon led an army of 32,000 men in the counterattack. That’s around a 4-to-1 advantage for the enemy! Evidently God didn’t like those odds because He told Gedeon to tell all those men who were afraid to fight, to go home: “Whosoever is fearful and timorous, let him return!” (Judges 7:3). 22,000 of the 32,000 men departed, leaving him with only 10,000. That would make the odds even worse, at 13-to-1 against the Israelites.
Why did God do such a thing? Because, in God’s own words, “…Lest Israel should glory against Me, and say: ‘I was delivered by my own strength!’” (Judges 7:2). Yet God was still not pleased with those overwhelmingly adverse odds, so God instructed Gedeon to dismiss all the soldiers who didn’t lap water like a dog: “ ‘They that shall lap the water with their tongues, as dogs are wont to lap, thou shalt set apart by themselves: but they that shall drink bowing down their knees, shall be on the other side!’ And the number of them that had lapped water, casting it with the hand to their mouth, was three hundred men: and all the rest of the multitude had drunk kneeling. And the Lord said to Gedeon: ‘By the three hundred men, that lapped water, I will save you, and deliver Madian into thy hand: but let all the rest of the people return to their place!’” (Judges 7:5-7).
With only 300 men left, that made the odds against Israel about 450-to-1, which is a whole lot steeper and tougher than the initial 4-to-1. Just ask any soldier what odds he would prefer going into hand-to-hand combat! Yet that suited God just fine! So God told Gedeon to attack with a mere 300 soldiers, whereupon Gedeon divided his men into three groups of 100 for a night-time assault. He instructed his men to wait until the changing of the guard (around midnight), and then blow the trumpets (the ram’s horn, called a shofar), hold up torches, and shout “A sword for the Lord and for Gedeon” (Judges 7:20). That “ambush” so greatly shocked and confused the Madianites, that they fled in fear and confusion, attacking each other in the darkness as they ran, fearing that it was an enemy.
This resulted in a total rout by Gedeon’s band of 300 men. Guess who got the credit when the battle was over? God did. And that’s what he had in mind all along. Before the battle began the Lord said to Gedeon: “The people that are with thee are many, and Madian shall not be delivered into their hands: lest Israel should glory against me, and say: ‘I was delivered by my own strength!’” (Judges 7:2). Sometimes God has to “cut us down to size” so that when the battle is over, He alone gets the glory. By this we see that God will not choose for His instruments in great achievements, which depend purely on his grace, such persons who, through pride and self-conceit, will take the glory to themselves. He wants winners who will not take away the glory of the One who masterminds each victory.
God Seeks “Nobodies” To Make Them “Somebodies”
When God wants to win a victory, He often chooses a loser and makes him a winner. God is looking for “nobodies” who will become “somebodies” in His hands. Holy Scripture puts it this way. Of the Israelites God says through Holy Scripture: “Not because you surpass all nations in number, is the Lord joined unto you and hath chosen you—for you are the fewest of any people!” (Deuteronomy 7:7). St. Paul adds: “The foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that He may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that He may confound the strong! And the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible, hath God chosen, and things that are not, that He might bring to nought things that are! So that no flesh should glory in His sight” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).
Elsewhere St. Paul writes: “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20). “For if any man think himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceiveth himself!” (Galatians 6:3). “For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to His good will” (Philippians 2:13). “Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thy own prudence. In all thy ways think on Him, and He will direct thy steps. Be not wise in thy own conceit!” (Proverbs 3:5-7).
David and Goliath—Winner and Loser
In the eyes of the Israelites, the young boy (to be future king) David was a mere “nobody”, while Goliath was a “somebody” that they greatly respected and feared. Yet, once again, God would turn the tables of human assessment upside-down, by taking a “nobody” and thrashing a “somebody” with that “nobody”. We all know the story, so there is no point reproducing it in full—but the credit David gives God and the reliance David has on God is worth quoting from the story.
David says to King Saul: “‘Let not any man’s heart be dismayed! I, thy servant, will go and will fight against the Philistine!’ And Saul said to David: ‘Thou art not able to withstand this Philistine, nor to fight against him! For thou art but a boy, but he is a warrior from his youth!’ And David said to Saul: ‘Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, or a bear, and took a ram out of the midst of the flock. And I pursued after them, and struck them, and delivered it out of their mouth: and they rose up against me, and I caught them by the throat, and I strangled and killed them [good works]. For I, thy servant, have killed both a lion and a bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be also as one of them. I will go now, and take away the reproach of the people: for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, who hath dared to curse the army of the living God? The LORD DELIVERED ME out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, and HE will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine!’” (1 Kings 17:32-26).
The self-appointed ‘winner’ Goliath taunts David when he sees him to be a mere boy without any armor or weapons: “‘Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with a staff?’ And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And he said to David: ‘Come to me, and I will give thy flesh to the birds of the air, and to the beasts of the earth!’ And David said to the Philistine: ‘Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, which thou hast defied. This day, and the Lord will deliver thee into my hand, and I will slay thee, and take away thy head from thee! And I will give the carcasses of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air, and to the beasts of the earth: so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel! And all this assembly shall know, that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for it is his battle, and HE will deliver you into our hands!’” (1 Kings 17:43-47).
We Are What We Are Because of God
St. Paul states to the Corinthians: “For who distinguisheth thee? Or what hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? … But by the grace of God, I am what I am; and His grace in me hath not been void, but I have labored more abundantly than all they: yet, not I, but the grace of God with me!” (1 Corinthians 4:7; 15:10).
Rather than vainly dream of what we think we are, remember instead your roots and stay humble! St. Paul reminds that “All have sinned, and do need the glory of God!” (Romans 3:23). “You were dead in your offences and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now worketh on the children of unbelief! In which, also, we all conversed in time past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest! But God, who is rich in mercy, for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together in Christ, by whose grace you are saved, and hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus. That He might show in the ages to come the abundant riches of his grace, in his bounty towards us through Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through Faith, and not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God not of works, so that no man may glory. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:1-10).
Self-Acknowledged Winners Are Losers
We have been reformed, changed, forgiven and sanctified by grace. Therefore we should be like the proud Pharisee in the Temple—who thought he was a winner—saying: “O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican! I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess!” (Luke 18:11-12). This self-acclaimed winner was a loser in Jesus’ eyes, for Our Lord praised instead the self-acknowledged loser, the sinful Publican, who “standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven; but struck his breast, saying: ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather than the other: because everyone that exalteth himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted!’” (Luke 18:13-14).
Good Works and Glory to God
The Protestants wrongly claim from that passage that we are “saved by Faith alone” and “not by works”. This is patently erroneous—for elsewhere St. James tells us that “Wilt thou know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? … For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead ... So Faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself!” (James 2: James 2:20; 2:26; 2:17). For in that same misquoted and misinterpreted passage, St. Paul writes: “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared, that we should walk in them [good works]” but those good works are the fruit of the grace of God and not of our own unaided human efforts. As Jesus said, we must have good works, but the glory for them must be given to the Father: “So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 5:16) to which St. Peter adds, in the same vein: “The Gentiles, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by the good works which they shall behold in you, glorify God!” (1 Peter 2:12). As Holy Scripture says: “Not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to Thy Name give glory!” (Psalm 113:9).
How’s Your Advent Working Out?
How are things working out? Have we worked out a plan? Are we arriving at the Advent Vineyard at the third, sixth, ninth or even eleventh hour? In that parable—the Workers in the Vineyard—Our Lord has everyone be a winner, no matter at what time they entered the vineyard. Let us not spend this last full week of Advent lazily and idly, but let us wholeheartedly, though perhaps belatedly, enter into the spirit of things! A Novena for Christmas begins this Saturday and ends on Christmas Day itself—make it, do it, follow it, meditate it! (Christmas Novena click here). The Great “O” Antiphons begin on this Saturday and end on Friday—follow them, pray them, sing them, meditate them! (O Antiphon Homepage click here and go from there). A series of articles accompany Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the 5-10 days they were on the open road—go with them, sympathize with them, learn from them! (Journey to Bethlehem click here). Make this last week a worthy week, so that this Christmas is not just a material Christmess, but a veritably holy and spiritual Christmas!
Article 6
Friday December 5th
Snooze and Lose!
Friday December 5th
Snooze and Lose!
A Nation of Snoozers and Loosers!
As the popular expression warns: “You snooze... you lose!" This is particularly true of the spiritual life and the work of our salvation—Our Lord even drew our attention to examples of this, both by parable and in real-life incidents. By sleeping, we can “miss the boat” and even end up losing our ticket to Heaven.
First of all, Our Lord relates the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins—in which both are snoozing, but the wise ones did what they had to do before snoozing, whereas the foolish ones neglected to do what they had to do before snoozing. The latter “missed the boat”!
Wise and Foolish Snoozers
Our Lord’s version is: “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. And five of them were foolish, and five wise. But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made: ‘Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: ‘Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out!’ The wise answered, saying: ‘Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves!’ Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. But at last come also the other virgins, saying: ‘Lord! Lord! Open to us!’ But he answering said: ‘Amen I say to you, I know you not!’ Watch ye, therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour!” (Matthew 25:1-13).
Snoozing Disciples
The real-life incident that shows the truth of “You snooze... you lose!" occurred in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Our Lord had taken His three favorite Apostles—Peter, James and John. They were told to “watch and pray” but they chose to snooze and lose! Through their snoozing they lost the graces that would have been granted to them had they prayed. Of course, they were afraid at seeing Our Lord in such a depressed and sorrowful state and, in such circumstances, rather than face the unpleasant, we would wishfully sleep all through the bad times. Our Lord did not snooze His time away, but got down to pray and kept on praying until He was given the strength to walk through the doors of torture and death. Here is the account, a combination of all the Evangelists:
Jesus went forth with His disciples over the brook Cedron, into a country place, where there was a garden, which is called Gethsemane, into which He entered with His disciples. And He taketh Peter and James and John with Him; and He began to fear and to be heavy; and began to grow sorrowful and to be sad. He said to His disciples: “Sit you here, till I go yonder and pray.” Then He saith to them: “My soul is sorrowful even unto death; stay you here, and watch with Me!” And when He was gone a little further forward, a stone's cast away, He fell flat on the ground upon His face; and He prayed, saying: “Abba, Father, all things are possible to Thee: remove this chalice from Me! My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what Thou wilt!”
Then He cometh to His disciples, and findeth them asleep, and He saith to Peter: “What? Simon, sleepest thou? Could you not watch one hour with Me? Watch ye, and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak!”
And going away again, the second time He prayed, saying the same words, saying: “My Father, if this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, thy will be done!” And when He returned, He found them again asleep, for their eyes were heavy, and they knew not what to answer Him.
And leaving them, He went again: and He prayed the third time, saying the selfsame word. And being in an agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground. And there appeared to Him an angel from Heaven, strengthening Him. Then He cometh to His disciples the third time, and saith to them: “Sleep ye now and take your rest! It is enough! The hour is come! Behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners! Behold, he that will betray Me is at hand! Rise up, let us go!” (Combination of Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, John 18).
Sleepy Spiritual Life
Already in the early Church, lukewarmness, indifference and abuse of spiritual things plagued the Church. St. Paul speaks of this on more than one occasion. In referring to an abuse and lukewarmness towards the Holy Eucharist, he says: “Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30). Today there are many more who are infirm and weak due to a sleepy spiritual life! St. Paul calls us to less sleep and more vigilance, saying:
“For all you are the children of light, and children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do; but let us watch, and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that are drunk, are drunk in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, having on the breastplate of faith and charity, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us unto wrath, but unto the purchasing of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us; that, whether we watch or sleep, we may live together with Him” (1 Thessalonians 5:5-10).
Sleeping During Mass and Sermons!
Have you ever fallen asleep during Mass or a sermon? Well, this even happened in the time of St. Paul, who was preaching an incredibly long time—for hours on end! One unfortunate young man, perched on the loft, not only fell asleep, but also fell off the loft and killed himself! At least you are still here to tell the tale! Actually, thanks to St. Paul, that young man also ended up telling the tale!
“And on the first day of the week, when they were assembled to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, having to depart on the morrow: and he continued his speech until midnight. And there were a great number of lamps in the upper chamber where we were assembled. And a certain young man named Eutychus, sitting on the window, being oppressed with a deep sleep, (as Paul was long preaching,) by occasion of his sleep fell from the third loft down, and was taken up dead. To whom, when Paul had gone down, he laid himself upon him, and embracing him, said: Be not troubled, for his soul is in him. Then going up, and breaking bread and tasting, and having talked a long time to them, until daylight, so he departed. And they brought the youth alive, and were not a little comforted” (Acts 20:7-12).
Nevertheless, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest action that takes place anywhere upon Earth at any given time. What a victory for the devil to make us sleep at Mass! The sermon, likewise, is an explanation of the word of God—although it can at times be admittedly boring, but, for Heaven’s sake, is it not a sacrifice we can unite to the Sacrifice of the Mass? Or is only Our Lord Who is supposed to sacrifice anything at Mass? Even if the sermon might be boring, think of how many times and for how long you have submitted Our Lord and Our Lady to the suffering and indignity of sitting through and listening to your lukewarm, halfhearted, rushed prayers!!
“Wakey! Wakey!” Says Our Lady
To the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady said: “Men are lost in forgetful rest and sleep, as if there were no vigilant and powerful enemies. This dreadful carelessness arises from two causes: on the one hand men are so taken up with their earthly and sensible being, that they do not feel any other evils except those concerning the animal nature in them; all that is interior is harmless in their estimation. On the other hand, since the princes of darkness are invisible and unperceived by any of the senses, and, since carnal men neither touch, nor feel, nor see them, they forget the fear of them. Yet for this very reason they ought to be more attentive and careful, since invisible enemies are more cunning and adroit in injuring us by their treachery. So much the more certain is the danger, the more concealed it is, and so much the more deadly are the wounds, the less they are felt and recognized” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
No Drowsy Halfway Measures
Our Lady revealed to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, that “it often happened that He [Jesus] had passed two or three days without rest, or food or sleep”—which explains, somewhat, Our Lord’s words to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (Quito, Ecuador), when He says: “I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small inveterate imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me.... But I will not tolerate this. Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me. I desire all or nothing — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross!”
St. Bernard’s Wake-Up Call
St. Bernard of Clairvaux writes of awakening effects of Jesus entering the soul: “I confess, though I say it in my foolishness, that the Word has visited me; and even very often. And, thus, I have learned the truth of the words I had read: ‘In Him we live and move and have pure being’ (Acts 17:28). Blessed is the man in whom He is, who lives for Him, who is moved by Him! The Lord is living and full of energy, and as soon as He has entered into me, He has quickened my sleeping soul! He has aroused and softened and goaded my heart, which was in a state of torpor and hard as a stone. He has begun to pluck and destroy, to plant and to build, to water the dry places, to illuminate the gloomy spots, to throw open those which were shut close, to inflame with warmth those which were cold, as also to straighten its crooked paths and make its rough places smooth, so that my soul might bless the Lord, and all that is within me praise His Holy Name!”
Snoozing Negligence
The Book of Proverbs has a passage that should be instructive to snoozes and losers: “I passed by the field [SOUL] of the slothful man, and by the vineyard [SOUL] of the foolish man: and behold it was all filled with nettles [MANY IMPERFECTIONS], and thorns [VENIAL SINS] had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall was broken down [FALLEN INTO MORTAL SIN]. Which, when I had seen, I laid it up in my heart, and, from this example, I received instruction: ‘Thou wilt sleep a little’, said I, ‘thou wilt slumber a little, thou wilt fold thy hands a little to rest: and [SPIRITUAL] poverty shall come to thee as a runner, and beggary as an armed man!’” (Proverbs 24:30-34).
Snoozing to God—Awake to the World
We can very easily sleep our spiritual life (and, consequently, our eternal life) away! What Holy Scripture says of the rich man in the material sense, can also be applied to those who erroneously think that they are rich in the spiritual sense. “The rich man when he shall sleep shall take away nothing with him: he shall open his eyes and find nothing” (Job 27:19). “All the foolish of heart were troubled. They have slept their sleep; and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands” (Psalm 75:6).
We can sleep the sleep of complacency and awake to find that we merely fooled ourselves. Like the man putting dollar bills in his coat pocket, unaware of the fact that there is massive hole in that pocket. This brings to mind the passage from The Unpublished Manuscript of Purgatory, where the poor soul from Purgatory explains how neglect and complacency has led many a soul to spiritual poverty, whereby it cannot pay its way out of Purgatory at the moment of death.
“Recommend strongly the offering up to God of the actions of the day. This advice is not only to people in the world, but also for religious communities. People do not always think enough of this and, consequently, many actions, good in themselves, will receive no reward at the last day, because they were not first offered up to God … There are numbers of useless actions, many days entirely futile, without any love for Jesus or purity of intention. They are all lost since they have no value for Heaven. You do not direct your intention with the purity that God wills. For instance, instead of offering up your actions vaguely, you could do so with much more fruit, if you only made your intention more definite. When you take your meals for example, say, “O my Jesus nourish my soul with your Divine Grace while I nourish my body.” When you wash your face and hands say, “My Jesus, purify my soul as I am purifying my body,” and so on, for each of your actions. Accustom yourself to be always speaking heart to heart with Jesus, and let Him be the mainspring of all you do or say” (The Unpublished Manuscript of Purgatory).
Even Advanced Souls Snooze and Fall!
Fr. Tanquerey, in The Spiritual Life, warns us against complacency—no matter how far we think we may have advanced in the spiritual life:
“We must therefore realize that contemplative souls can fall into sin. Such falls may come from several causes. The soul may have been raised to contemplation before it had sufficiently mastered its passions. Instead of courageously keeping up the fight, it lulled itself to sleep in the sweetness of repose. Then violent temptations arose, and the soul, trusting overmuch in its own strength, fell. a victim to sin. The means of restoration are compunction of heart, return to God with a contrite and humbled heart, and long and laborious penance. The greater the heights from which one has fallen, the more humble and constant must be the efforts to take up the long and arduous climb once more. It is the office of the spiritual director to drive home this truth with kindness, but also with firmness.
There are contemplative souls who fought valiantly and successfully to bring their evil tendencies into subjection. But, imagining that the struggle was over, they relaxed their efforts and became less generous in fulfilling certain duties which they looked upon as less important. Indifference gradually set in and finally begot lukewarmness. Now, the director must check this downward movement by reminding them that the more generous God has been with them, the more they must increase their fervor, that the least negligence on the part of God’s friends hurts to the quick Him Who bestows His favors so freely upon them. One should read St. Margaret Mary’s autobiography, in which she relates the severe reproaches Our Lord addressed to her, in order to correct her smallest infidelities, her lack of respect and attention during the Office and during mental prayer, her lack of uprightness and purity of intention, her vain curiosity, her least failings in obedience, even when these latter were due to an attempt to increase her austerities. This reading should move the spiritual director to work energetically for the return of such souls to fervor” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
A Half-Asleep Spiritual Life
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange says that most people are living their spiritual life half-asleep! He writes: “If the Blessed Trinity truly dwells in us; if the Word actually was made flesh; died for us; is really present in the Holy Eucharist; offers Himself sacramentally for us every day in the Mass; gives Himself to us as food―if all this is true, then only the saints are fully in order, for they live by this divine presence, through knowledge and through an ever-growing love, in the midst of the obscurities and difficulties of life. And the life of close union with God, far from appearing as something extraordinary, appears alone as fully normal.
"Before reaching such a union, we are like people still half-asleep, who do not truly live sufficiently by the immense treasure given to us and by the continually new graces granted to those who wish to follow Our Lord generously … Before experiencing this intimate union with God present in us, we are somewhat like souls still half-asleep, souls not yet spiritually awakened. Our knowledge of the consoling mystery of the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity is still too superficial and bookish … The way is intended for travelers, not for those who stop en route and sleep … The road to eternity is not made to be used as a place for rest or sleep, but rather to be traveled … We should not settle ourselves on earth; people do not settle themselves on the road, or go to sleep there, but rather use it as a means of advancing toward a given end … For the law of the traveler is to advance, and not to fall asleep on the road” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Just as sloth brings little by way of material good, so does spiritual sloth bring little by way of spiritual goods. “How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou rise out of thy sleep? Thou wilt sleep a little, thou wilt slumber a little, thou wilt fold thy hands a little to sleep: and want shall come upon thee!” (Proverbs 6:9-11). In the prologue of his Rule, St. Benedict wrote: “Let us, therefore, at length arise, since the Scriptures stir us up, saying: ‘It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep’ (Romans 13:11). And our eyes being now open to the divine light, let us hear with wonderment the divine voice admonishing us, in that it cries out daily and says: ‘Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts.’ That is to say: It is time to rise from the sleep of negligence and to walk courageously in the way of God.”
It’s Hard to Snooze While Being Whipped!
We see the saints being far from a state of spiritual doziness or slothfulness. St. Dominic used to scourge himself three times every night: once, to expiate his own faults; a second time, for those of sinners; and a third, for the souls in purgatory. He consecrated the night to prayer and penance: he slept little, rarely before Matins, and never went to bed afterward. He used to go from one altar to another in the church, praying now on his knees, his arms extended or lifted like arrows above his head, now bowed over or prostrate on the ground. When sleep overcan1e him, he would lie down on the flagstones or rest his head against an altar. Though this is the result of a special grace given by God, it nevertheless shows the seriousness we should place in the spiritual life.
Dozy Without Love
This spiritual doziness, or spiritual snoozing, or spiritual sloth betrays a lack of love for God—for when we love things, nothing holds us back from participating in those things. As the author of The Imitation of Christ writes: “Love watches, and sleeping slumbers not. When weary it is not tired ... but, like a vivid flame and a burning torch, it mounts upward and securely passes through all” (Book 3, chapter 5).
In his Treatise on the Love of God (Book 6, chapter 15), St. Francis de Sales remarks on the subject of ardent love that, according to Plato, it is poor, ragged, naked, pale, emaciated, homeless, always indigent; it sleeps out of doors on the hard ground, for it makes a man leave everything for the one he loves; it causes him to lose sleep and to aspire to an ever closer union. Plato spoke thus of natural love; but, adds St. Francis de Sales, all of this is still truer of divine love when it wounds a soul deeply.
Are We the Heavyweights of the Spiritual Life?
Do we find the spiritual life heavy, burdensome and tiresome? Do we relate to the phrase: “My soul hath slumbered through heaviness” (Psalm 118:28). Do we relate to Saints Peter, James and John in Gethsemane: “When Jesus returned, He found them again asleep, for their eyes were heavy, and they knew not what to answer Him” (Mark 14:40)? If so, then we need to stop hitting the ‘spiritual snooze button’ and drag ourselves into action—like Our Lord dragged Himself up Calvary with a heavy cross on His back, after a sleepless night!
“Give not sleep to thy eyes, neither let thy eyelids slumber” (Proverbs 6:4). It is the first step that hurts and costs. “Blessed are they that suffer” (Matthew 5:10). We must force ourselves up our own spiritual Calvary. What God said of St. Paul, He says to all His true followers: “For I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake!” (Acts 9:16).
Therefore, let us stir ourselves out of our torpor, tepidity, sleep and sloth― “Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do; but let us watch!” (1 Thessalonians 5:6) … “It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep! For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed!” (Romans 13:11) … “For He says: ‘In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee!’ Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Therefore, let us make Advent an acceptable time to make ourselves acceptable (or more acceptable) to God. “There should be no protracted hours of sleep, and, as a general principle, we must not remain in bed in mornings, once we are awake and are unable to fall asleep again” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life). Let us keep before our eyes the saints and their efforts and endeavors—for we are all called to be saints, as only saints go to Heaven.
Let us crush that debilitating human respect that has taken more souls to Hell than it is has to Heaven—in fact, cowardice in being truly Catholic has never brought anyone to Heaven, only Purgatory at the very best! Better the sleep of death than that of life, for “We know that death is but a sleep, to be soon followed by the resurrection, and that through death we merely exchange a temporary dwelling for an everlasting mansion” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life)—if we persevere unto the end: “But he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved” (Matthew 10:22).
Falling Asleep in the Lord
“Final perseverance in a state of grace is a singular and priceless gift. We cannot merit it strictly speaking. To die in the state of grace, in spite of all the temptations that assail us at the last hour, to escape these, by a sudden or tranquil death, “falling asleep” in the Lord this is truly―in the language of Councils―the grace of graces. We cannot ask for it insistently enough. Prayer and faithful cooperation with grace can obtain it for us. We truly have to rely upon the divine favor. Think what this means, if one wishes not merely to persevere in grace, but to grow in holiness each day, to avoid deliberate venial faults and reduce as much as in our power lies—even our faults of frailty.
“To pretend that we could for long escape all the faults that hinder our spiritual progress is to contradict the experience of the choicest souls, souls that sorrowed bitterly over their lapses; it would be to contradict St. John who declares that whoever imagines himself free from sin labors under a delusion; in fine, it is to contradict the Council of Trent which condemns those who maintain that justified man can, without a special privilege from God, avoid all venial sin during the whole course of his life.
“Actual grace is, therefore, needed, even after justification. We obtain it from the Divine Mercy by prayer―hence, the stress laid in Holy Scripture upon the necessity of prayer. We can also obtain it through our meritorious acts, in other words, by our cooperation with grace; for the more faithful we are in availing ourselves of the actual graces received, the more will the Almighty be moved to grant us new and greater ones” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
Be a ‘Sleepy Joe’ or Sleepy St. Joseph?
Once we have mastered ourselves and made much progress in the ways of God, He will sometimes appear to souls in their sleep! Sometimes it pays to be a “Sleepy Joe” as St. Joseph found out! It was during his sleep that he received messages from God! However, let us not make that an excuse for sleeping our Advent away in the hope of similar graces! God helps those who help themselves—nevertheless, it is remarkable the number of times, in a relatively short space of time, Joseph’s slumbers bring divine fruit!
Imaginative visions are those produced in the imagination by God, or by the Angels, either during sleep, or while one is awake. Thus an Angel appeared several times to St. Joseph in his sleep, and St. Teresa relates several imaginative visions she had of Our Lord while she was awake. These visions are frequently accompanied by an intellectual vision which explains their meaning. As for St. Joseph, we read:
“But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: ‘Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost!’ And Joseph rising up from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took unto him his wife.” (Matthew 1:20, 24).
“And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country. And after they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: ‘Arise, and take the Child and His Mother, and fly into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the Child to destroy Him” (Matthew 2:12-13).
“But when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt, saying: ‘Arise, and take the Child and His Mother, and go into the land of Israel. For they are dead that sought the life of the Child!’ Who arose, and took the Child and His Mother, and came into the land of Israel. But hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea in the room of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither: and being warned in sleep retired into the quarters of Galilee. And coming he dwelt in a city called Nazareth” (Matthew 2:19-23).
The First 'Sleepy Joe' We Know
Even though St. Joseph, the spouse of Mary, had many a divine encounter in his sleep, the first “Sleepy Joe” was Joseph of the Old Testament. It is not that he slept much, but that sleep and dreams had a major impact on his life—bringing him much trouble. It was while sleeping that he had the dreams that got him into big trouble with his family:
“Now Israel loved Joseph above all his sons, because he had him in his old age: and he made him a coat of divers colors. And his brethren seeing that he was loved by his father, more than all his sons, hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him. Now it fell out also that he told his brethren a dream, that he had dreamed: which occasioned them to hate him the more. And he said to them: ‘Hear my dream which I dreamed. I thought we were binding sheaves in the field: and my sheaf arose as it were, and stood, and your sheaves standing about, bowed down before my sheaf.’
“His brethren answered: ‘Shalt thou be our king? Or shall we be subject to thy dominion?’ Therefore this matter of his dreams and words ministered nourishment to their envy and hatred. He dreamed also another dream, which he told his brethren, saying: I saw in a dream, as it were the sun, and the moon, and eleven stars worshiping me!’ And when he had told this to his father and brethren, his father rebuked him, and said: ‘What meaneth this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother, and thy brethren worship thee upon the earth?’” (Genesis 37:3-10).
Joseph, of course, went on be an interpreter of dreams which brought him much fortune in Egypt. It must be true that just as a prophet is not accepted in his own country, neither is a dreamer accepted by his own people!
Sleepy Sam
“Samuel slept in the Temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. And the Lord called Samuel. And he answered: ‘Here am I.’ And he ran to Heli and said: ‘Here am I: for thou didst call me!’ He said: ‘I did not call: go back and sleep!’ And he went and slept. And the Lord called Samuel again. And Samuel arose and went to Heli, and said: ‘Here am I: for thou called me!’ He answered: ‘I did not call thee, my son: return and sleep!’ Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither had the word of the Lord been revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose up and went to Heli. And said: ‘Here am I: for thou didst call me!’ Then Heli understood that the Lord called the child, and he said to Samuel: ‘Go, and sleep: and if He shall call thee any more, thou shalt say: “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth!”’
“So Samuel went and slept in his place. And the Lord came and stood: and He called, as He had called the other times: ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said: ‘Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth!’ And the Lord said to Samuel: ‘Behold I do a thing in Israel: and whosoever shall hear it, both his ears shall tingle. In that day I will raise up against Heli all the things I have spoken concerning his house: I will begin, and I will make an end. For I have foretold unto him, that I will judge his house for iniquity, because he knew that his sons did wickedly, and did not chastise them. Therefore have I sworn to the house of Heli, that the iniquity of his house shall not be expiated with victims nor offerings for ever!’ And Samuel slept till morning, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel feared to tell the vision to Heli” (1 Kings 3:3-15).
End of Dream
So while God does work through dreams and show Himself to us while we sleep, that only comes as the icing on the cake after many sleepless nights of prayer and penance. God loves a cheerful giver, let us not snooze our spiritual life away, but let us cheerfully give God as much as we can before we enter the sleep of death! Goodnight! Sleep tight! And don't use the snooze button! You snooze, you lose!
As the popular expression warns: “You snooze... you lose!" This is particularly true of the spiritual life and the work of our salvation—Our Lord even drew our attention to examples of this, both by parable and in real-life incidents. By sleeping, we can “miss the boat” and even end up losing our ticket to Heaven.
First of all, Our Lord relates the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins—in which both are snoozing, but the wise ones did what they had to do before snoozing, whereas the foolish ones neglected to do what they had to do before snoozing. The latter “missed the boat”!
Wise and Foolish Snoozers
Our Lord’s version is: “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. And five of them were foolish, and five wise. But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made: ‘Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: ‘Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out!’ The wise answered, saying: ‘Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves!’ Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. But at last come also the other virgins, saying: ‘Lord! Lord! Open to us!’ But he answering said: ‘Amen I say to you, I know you not!’ Watch ye, therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour!” (Matthew 25:1-13).
Snoozing Disciples
The real-life incident that shows the truth of “You snooze... you lose!" occurred in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Our Lord had taken His three favorite Apostles—Peter, James and John. They were told to “watch and pray” but they chose to snooze and lose! Through their snoozing they lost the graces that would have been granted to them had they prayed. Of course, they were afraid at seeing Our Lord in such a depressed and sorrowful state and, in such circumstances, rather than face the unpleasant, we would wishfully sleep all through the bad times. Our Lord did not snooze His time away, but got down to pray and kept on praying until He was given the strength to walk through the doors of torture and death. Here is the account, a combination of all the Evangelists:
Jesus went forth with His disciples over the brook Cedron, into a country place, where there was a garden, which is called Gethsemane, into which He entered with His disciples. And He taketh Peter and James and John with Him; and He began to fear and to be heavy; and began to grow sorrowful and to be sad. He said to His disciples: “Sit you here, till I go yonder and pray.” Then He saith to them: “My soul is sorrowful even unto death; stay you here, and watch with Me!” And when He was gone a little further forward, a stone's cast away, He fell flat on the ground upon His face; and He prayed, saying: “Abba, Father, all things are possible to Thee: remove this chalice from Me! My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what Thou wilt!”
Then He cometh to His disciples, and findeth them asleep, and He saith to Peter: “What? Simon, sleepest thou? Could you not watch one hour with Me? Watch ye, and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak!”
And going away again, the second time He prayed, saying the same words, saying: “My Father, if this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, thy will be done!” And when He returned, He found them again asleep, for their eyes were heavy, and they knew not what to answer Him.
And leaving them, He went again: and He prayed the third time, saying the selfsame word. And being in an agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground. And there appeared to Him an angel from Heaven, strengthening Him. Then He cometh to His disciples the third time, and saith to them: “Sleep ye now and take your rest! It is enough! The hour is come! Behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners! Behold, he that will betray Me is at hand! Rise up, let us go!” (Combination of Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, John 18).
Sleepy Spiritual Life
Already in the early Church, lukewarmness, indifference and abuse of spiritual things plagued the Church. St. Paul speaks of this on more than one occasion. In referring to an abuse and lukewarmness towards the Holy Eucharist, he says: “Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30). Today there are many more who are infirm and weak due to a sleepy spiritual life! St. Paul calls us to less sleep and more vigilance, saying:
“For all you are the children of light, and children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do; but let us watch, and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that are drunk, are drunk in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, having on the breastplate of faith and charity, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us unto wrath, but unto the purchasing of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us; that, whether we watch or sleep, we may live together with Him” (1 Thessalonians 5:5-10).
Sleeping During Mass and Sermons!
Have you ever fallen asleep during Mass or a sermon? Well, this even happened in the time of St. Paul, who was preaching an incredibly long time—for hours on end! One unfortunate young man, perched on the loft, not only fell asleep, but also fell off the loft and killed himself! At least you are still here to tell the tale! Actually, thanks to St. Paul, that young man also ended up telling the tale!
“And on the first day of the week, when they were assembled to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, having to depart on the morrow: and he continued his speech until midnight. And there were a great number of lamps in the upper chamber where we were assembled. And a certain young man named Eutychus, sitting on the window, being oppressed with a deep sleep, (as Paul was long preaching,) by occasion of his sleep fell from the third loft down, and was taken up dead. To whom, when Paul had gone down, he laid himself upon him, and embracing him, said: Be not troubled, for his soul is in him. Then going up, and breaking bread and tasting, and having talked a long time to them, until daylight, so he departed. And they brought the youth alive, and were not a little comforted” (Acts 20:7-12).
Nevertheless, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest action that takes place anywhere upon Earth at any given time. What a victory for the devil to make us sleep at Mass! The sermon, likewise, is an explanation of the word of God—although it can at times be admittedly boring, but, for Heaven’s sake, is it not a sacrifice we can unite to the Sacrifice of the Mass? Or is only Our Lord Who is supposed to sacrifice anything at Mass? Even if the sermon might be boring, think of how many times and for how long you have submitted Our Lord and Our Lady to the suffering and indignity of sitting through and listening to your lukewarm, halfhearted, rushed prayers!!
“Wakey! Wakey!” Says Our Lady
To the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady said: “Men are lost in forgetful rest and sleep, as if there were no vigilant and powerful enemies. This dreadful carelessness arises from two causes: on the one hand men are so taken up with their earthly and sensible being, that they do not feel any other evils except those concerning the animal nature in them; all that is interior is harmless in their estimation. On the other hand, since the princes of darkness are invisible and unperceived by any of the senses, and, since carnal men neither touch, nor feel, nor see them, they forget the fear of them. Yet for this very reason they ought to be more attentive and careful, since invisible enemies are more cunning and adroit in injuring us by their treachery. So much the more certain is the danger, the more concealed it is, and so much the more deadly are the wounds, the less they are felt and recognized” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
No Drowsy Halfway Measures
Our Lady revealed to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, that “it often happened that He [Jesus] had passed two or three days without rest, or food or sleep”—which explains, somewhat, Our Lord’s words to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (Quito, Ecuador), when He says: “I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small inveterate imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me.... But I will not tolerate this. Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me. I desire all or nothing — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross!”
St. Bernard’s Wake-Up Call
St. Bernard of Clairvaux writes of awakening effects of Jesus entering the soul: “I confess, though I say it in my foolishness, that the Word has visited me; and even very often. And, thus, I have learned the truth of the words I had read: ‘In Him we live and move and have pure being’ (Acts 17:28). Blessed is the man in whom He is, who lives for Him, who is moved by Him! The Lord is living and full of energy, and as soon as He has entered into me, He has quickened my sleeping soul! He has aroused and softened and goaded my heart, which was in a state of torpor and hard as a stone. He has begun to pluck and destroy, to plant and to build, to water the dry places, to illuminate the gloomy spots, to throw open those which were shut close, to inflame with warmth those which were cold, as also to straighten its crooked paths and make its rough places smooth, so that my soul might bless the Lord, and all that is within me praise His Holy Name!”
Snoozing Negligence
The Book of Proverbs has a passage that should be instructive to snoozes and losers: “I passed by the field [SOUL] of the slothful man, and by the vineyard [SOUL] of the foolish man: and behold it was all filled with nettles [MANY IMPERFECTIONS], and thorns [VENIAL SINS] had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall was broken down [FALLEN INTO MORTAL SIN]. Which, when I had seen, I laid it up in my heart, and, from this example, I received instruction: ‘Thou wilt sleep a little’, said I, ‘thou wilt slumber a little, thou wilt fold thy hands a little to rest: and [SPIRITUAL] poverty shall come to thee as a runner, and beggary as an armed man!’” (Proverbs 24:30-34).
Snoozing to God—Awake to the World
We can very easily sleep our spiritual life (and, consequently, our eternal life) away! What Holy Scripture says of the rich man in the material sense, can also be applied to those who erroneously think that they are rich in the spiritual sense. “The rich man when he shall sleep shall take away nothing with him: he shall open his eyes and find nothing” (Job 27:19). “All the foolish of heart were troubled. They have slept their sleep; and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands” (Psalm 75:6).
We can sleep the sleep of complacency and awake to find that we merely fooled ourselves. Like the man putting dollar bills in his coat pocket, unaware of the fact that there is massive hole in that pocket. This brings to mind the passage from The Unpublished Manuscript of Purgatory, where the poor soul from Purgatory explains how neglect and complacency has led many a soul to spiritual poverty, whereby it cannot pay its way out of Purgatory at the moment of death.
“Recommend strongly the offering up to God of the actions of the day. This advice is not only to people in the world, but also for religious communities. People do not always think enough of this and, consequently, many actions, good in themselves, will receive no reward at the last day, because they were not first offered up to God … There are numbers of useless actions, many days entirely futile, without any love for Jesus or purity of intention. They are all lost since they have no value for Heaven. You do not direct your intention with the purity that God wills. For instance, instead of offering up your actions vaguely, you could do so with much more fruit, if you only made your intention more definite. When you take your meals for example, say, “O my Jesus nourish my soul with your Divine Grace while I nourish my body.” When you wash your face and hands say, “My Jesus, purify my soul as I am purifying my body,” and so on, for each of your actions. Accustom yourself to be always speaking heart to heart with Jesus, and let Him be the mainspring of all you do or say” (The Unpublished Manuscript of Purgatory).
Even Advanced Souls Snooze and Fall!
Fr. Tanquerey, in The Spiritual Life, warns us against complacency—no matter how far we think we may have advanced in the spiritual life:
“We must therefore realize that contemplative souls can fall into sin. Such falls may come from several causes. The soul may have been raised to contemplation before it had sufficiently mastered its passions. Instead of courageously keeping up the fight, it lulled itself to sleep in the sweetness of repose. Then violent temptations arose, and the soul, trusting overmuch in its own strength, fell. a victim to sin. The means of restoration are compunction of heart, return to God with a contrite and humbled heart, and long and laborious penance. The greater the heights from which one has fallen, the more humble and constant must be the efforts to take up the long and arduous climb once more. It is the office of the spiritual director to drive home this truth with kindness, but also with firmness.
There are contemplative souls who fought valiantly and successfully to bring their evil tendencies into subjection. But, imagining that the struggle was over, they relaxed their efforts and became less generous in fulfilling certain duties which they looked upon as less important. Indifference gradually set in and finally begot lukewarmness. Now, the director must check this downward movement by reminding them that the more generous God has been with them, the more they must increase their fervor, that the least negligence on the part of God’s friends hurts to the quick Him Who bestows His favors so freely upon them. One should read St. Margaret Mary’s autobiography, in which she relates the severe reproaches Our Lord addressed to her, in order to correct her smallest infidelities, her lack of respect and attention during the Office and during mental prayer, her lack of uprightness and purity of intention, her vain curiosity, her least failings in obedience, even when these latter were due to an attempt to increase her austerities. This reading should move the spiritual director to work energetically for the return of such souls to fervor” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
A Half-Asleep Spiritual Life
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange says that most people are living their spiritual life half-asleep! He writes: “If the Blessed Trinity truly dwells in us; if the Word actually was made flesh; died for us; is really present in the Holy Eucharist; offers Himself sacramentally for us every day in the Mass; gives Himself to us as food―if all this is true, then only the saints are fully in order, for they live by this divine presence, through knowledge and through an ever-growing love, in the midst of the obscurities and difficulties of life. And the life of close union with God, far from appearing as something extraordinary, appears alone as fully normal.
"Before reaching such a union, we are like people still half-asleep, who do not truly live sufficiently by the immense treasure given to us and by the continually new graces granted to those who wish to follow Our Lord generously … Before experiencing this intimate union with God present in us, we are somewhat like souls still half-asleep, souls not yet spiritually awakened. Our knowledge of the consoling mystery of the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity is still too superficial and bookish … The way is intended for travelers, not for those who stop en route and sleep … The road to eternity is not made to be used as a place for rest or sleep, but rather to be traveled … We should not settle ourselves on earth; people do not settle themselves on the road, or go to sleep there, but rather use it as a means of advancing toward a given end … For the law of the traveler is to advance, and not to fall asleep on the road” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Just as sloth brings little by way of material good, so does spiritual sloth bring little by way of spiritual goods. “How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou rise out of thy sleep? Thou wilt sleep a little, thou wilt slumber a little, thou wilt fold thy hands a little to sleep: and want shall come upon thee!” (Proverbs 6:9-11). In the prologue of his Rule, St. Benedict wrote: “Let us, therefore, at length arise, since the Scriptures stir us up, saying: ‘It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep’ (Romans 13:11). And our eyes being now open to the divine light, let us hear with wonderment the divine voice admonishing us, in that it cries out daily and says: ‘Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts.’ That is to say: It is time to rise from the sleep of negligence and to walk courageously in the way of God.”
It’s Hard to Snooze While Being Whipped!
We see the saints being far from a state of spiritual doziness or slothfulness. St. Dominic used to scourge himself three times every night: once, to expiate his own faults; a second time, for those of sinners; and a third, for the souls in purgatory. He consecrated the night to prayer and penance: he slept little, rarely before Matins, and never went to bed afterward. He used to go from one altar to another in the church, praying now on his knees, his arms extended or lifted like arrows above his head, now bowed over or prostrate on the ground. When sleep overcan1e him, he would lie down on the flagstones or rest his head against an altar. Though this is the result of a special grace given by God, it nevertheless shows the seriousness we should place in the spiritual life.
Dozy Without Love
This spiritual doziness, or spiritual snoozing, or spiritual sloth betrays a lack of love for God—for when we love things, nothing holds us back from participating in those things. As the author of The Imitation of Christ writes: “Love watches, and sleeping slumbers not. When weary it is not tired ... but, like a vivid flame and a burning torch, it mounts upward and securely passes through all” (Book 3, chapter 5).
In his Treatise on the Love of God (Book 6, chapter 15), St. Francis de Sales remarks on the subject of ardent love that, according to Plato, it is poor, ragged, naked, pale, emaciated, homeless, always indigent; it sleeps out of doors on the hard ground, for it makes a man leave everything for the one he loves; it causes him to lose sleep and to aspire to an ever closer union. Plato spoke thus of natural love; but, adds St. Francis de Sales, all of this is still truer of divine love when it wounds a soul deeply.
Are We the Heavyweights of the Spiritual Life?
Do we find the spiritual life heavy, burdensome and tiresome? Do we relate to the phrase: “My soul hath slumbered through heaviness” (Psalm 118:28). Do we relate to Saints Peter, James and John in Gethsemane: “When Jesus returned, He found them again asleep, for their eyes were heavy, and they knew not what to answer Him” (Mark 14:40)? If so, then we need to stop hitting the ‘spiritual snooze button’ and drag ourselves into action—like Our Lord dragged Himself up Calvary with a heavy cross on His back, after a sleepless night!
“Give not sleep to thy eyes, neither let thy eyelids slumber” (Proverbs 6:4). It is the first step that hurts and costs. “Blessed are they that suffer” (Matthew 5:10). We must force ourselves up our own spiritual Calvary. What God said of St. Paul, He says to all His true followers: “For I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake!” (Acts 9:16).
Therefore, let us stir ourselves out of our torpor, tepidity, sleep and sloth― “Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do; but let us watch!” (1 Thessalonians 5:6) … “It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep! For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed!” (Romans 13:11) … “For He says: ‘In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee!’ Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Therefore, let us make Advent an acceptable time to make ourselves acceptable (or more acceptable) to God. “There should be no protracted hours of sleep, and, as a general principle, we must not remain in bed in mornings, once we are awake and are unable to fall asleep again” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life). Let us keep before our eyes the saints and their efforts and endeavors—for we are all called to be saints, as only saints go to Heaven.
Let us crush that debilitating human respect that has taken more souls to Hell than it is has to Heaven—in fact, cowardice in being truly Catholic has never brought anyone to Heaven, only Purgatory at the very best! Better the sleep of death than that of life, for “We know that death is but a sleep, to be soon followed by the resurrection, and that through death we merely exchange a temporary dwelling for an everlasting mansion” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life)—if we persevere unto the end: “But he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved” (Matthew 10:22).
Falling Asleep in the Lord
“Final perseverance in a state of grace is a singular and priceless gift. We cannot merit it strictly speaking. To die in the state of grace, in spite of all the temptations that assail us at the last hour, to escape these, by a sudden or tranquil death, “falling asleep” in the Lord this is truly―in the language of Councils―the grace of graces. We cannot ask for it insistently enough. Prayer and faithful cooperation with grace can obtain it for us. We truly have to rely upon the divine favor. Think what this means, if one wishes not merely to persevere in grace, but to grow in holiness each day, to avoid deliberate venial faults and reduce as much as in our power lies—even our faults of frailty.
“To pretend that we could for long escape all the faults that hinder our spiritual progress is to contradict the experience of the choicest souls, souls that sorrowed bitterly over their lapses; it would be to contradict St. John who declares that whoever imagines himself free from sin labors under a delusion; in fine, it is to contradict the Council of Trent which condemns those who maintain that justified man can, without a special privilege from God, avoid all venial sin during the whole course of his life.
“Actual grace is, therefore, needed, even after justification. We obtain it from the Divine Mercy by prayer―hence, the stress laid in Holy Scripture upon the necessity of prayer. We can also obtain it through our meritorious acts, in other words, by our cooperation with grace; for the more faithful we are in availing ourselves of the actual graces received, the more will the Almighty be moved to grant us new and greater ones” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
Be a ‘Sleepy Joe’ or Sleepy St. Joseph?
Once we have mastered ourselves and made much progress in the ways of God, He will sometimes appear to souls in their sleep! Sometimes it pays to be a “Sleepy Joe” as St. Joseph found out! It was during his sleep that he received messages from God! However, let us not make that an excuse for sleeping our Advent away in the hope of similar graces! God helps those who help themselves—nevertheless, it is remarkable the number of times, in a relatively short space of time, Joseph’s slumbers bring divine fruit!
Imaginative visions are those produced in the imagination by God, or by the Angels, either during sleep, or while one is awake. Thus an Angel appeared several times to St. Joseph in his sleep, and St. Teresa relates several imaginative visions she had of Our Lord while she was awake. These visions are frequently accompanied by an intellectual vision which explains their meaning. As for St. Joseph, we read:
“But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: ‘Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost!’ And Joseph rising up from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took unto him his wife.” (Matthew 1:20, 24).
“And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country. And after they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: ‘Arise, and take the Child and His Mother, and fly into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the Child to destroy Him” (Matthew 2:12-13).
“But when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt, saying: ‘Arise, and take the Child and His Mother, and go into the land of Israel. For they are dead that sought the life of the Child!’ Who arose, and took the Child and His Mother, and came into the land of Israel. But hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea in the room of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither: and being warned in sleep retired into the quarters of Galilee. And coming he dwelt in a city called Nazareth” (Matthew 2:19-23).
The First 'Sleepy Joe' We Know
Even though St. Joseph, the spouse of Mary, had many a divine encounter in his sleep, the first “Sleepy Joe” was Joseph of the Old Testament. It is not that he slept much, but that sleep and dreams had a major impact on his life—bringing him much trouble. It was while sleeping that he had the dreams that got him into big trouble with his family:
“Now Israel loved Joseph above all his sons, because he had him in his old age: and he made him a coat of divers colors. And his brethren seeing that he was loved by his father, more than all his sons, hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him. Now it fell out also that he told his brethren a dream, that he had dreamed: which occasioned them to hate him the more. And he said to them: ‘Hear my dream which I dreamed. I thought we were binding sheaves in the field: and my sheaf arose as it were, and stood, and your sheaves standing about, bowed down before my sheaf.’
“His brethren answered: ‘Shalt thou be our king? Or shall we be subject to thy dominion?’ Therefore this matter of his dreams and words ministered nourishment to their envy and hatred. He dreamed also another dream, which he told his brethren, saying: I saw in a dream, as it were the sun, and the moon, and eleven stars worshiping me!’ And when he had told this to his father and brethren, his father rebuked him, and said: ‘What meaneth this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother, and thy brethren worship thee upon the earth?’” (Genesis 37:3-10).
Joseph, of course, went on be an interpreter of dreams which brought him much fortune in Egypt. It must be true that just as a prophet is not accepted in his own country, neither is a dreamer accepted by his own people!
Sleepy Sam
“Samuel slept in the Temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. And the Lord called Samuel. And he answered: ‘Here am I.’ And he ran to Heli and said: ‘Here am I: for thou didst call me!’ He said: ‘I did not call: go back and sleep!’ And he went and slept. And the Lord called Samuel again. And Samuel arose and went to Heli, and said: ‘Here am I: for thou called me!’ He answered: ‘I did not call thee, my son: return and sleep!’ Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither had the word of the Lord been revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose up and went to Heli. And said: ‘Here am I: for thou didst call me!’ Then Heli understood that the Lord called the child, and he said to Samuel: ‘Go, and sleep: and if He shall call thee any more, thou shalt say: “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth!”’
“So Samuel went and slept in his place. And the Lord came and stood: and He called, as He had called the other times: ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said: ‘Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth!’ And the Lord said to Samuel: ‘Behold I do a thing in Israel: and whosoever shall hear it, both his ears shall tingle. In that day I will raise up against Heli all the things I have spoken concerning his house: I will begin, and I will make an end. For I have foretold unto him, that I will judge his house for iniquity, because he knew that his sons did wickedly, and did not chastise them. Therefore have I sworn to the house of Heli, that the iniquity of his house shall not be expiated with victims nor offerings for ever!’ And Samuel slept till morning, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel feared to tell the vision to Heli” (1 Kings 3:3-15).
End of Dream
So while God does work through dreams and show Himself to us while we sleep, that only comes as the icing on the cake after many sleepless nights of prayer and penance. God loves a cheerful giver, let us not snooze our spiritual life away, but let us cheerfully give God as much as we can before we enter the sleep of death! Goodnight! Sleep tight! And don't use the snooze button! You snooze, you lose!
Article 5
Thursday December 4th
Spiritual Power Outage
Thursday December 4th
Spiritual Power Outage
“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the Earth, to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9)
Sitting in the Dark!
We’ve all been through it! Suddenly it was dark! The lights wouldn’t light! The clock forgot what time it was and went to sleep! The refrigerator was eerily silent! The radio wouldn’t jabber! The TV had no good news or bad news or even the same old news to impart! The computer went from real slow to real dead! And the microwave wouldn’t wave! The unpleasant realization dawned! It was another power outage. Was it a downed line? A blown transformer? A worn switch? A bad thingamajig? Whatever it was, something along the “power chain” was no longer plugged into the “power source.”
The Darkness of the Soul
Electricity, like anything important in life that we depend upon, is only as good as its weakest link. Christians are the same way. We wholly depend on Jesus--“Without Me, you can do nothing!”—whether we admit it or not, know it or not, like it or not. Yet, just like electrical power outages, we suffer spiritual power outages from time to time. Our spiritual life is only as good as our “weakest link” or “weakest point” in our relationship to God. We may be strong in many ways, but it is on our “weakest link” or “weakest point” or “predominant fault” that we “short-circuit” and blow the fuse for sanctifying grace.
Power Outages Can Be Very Expensive!
Many companies are unprepared for business disruptions caused by power blackouts, and are often unaware of the true costs and impact that they can have on their operations. While the majority of power failures from national grids last only a few hours, some blackouts can last days or even weeks, completely shutting down production at companies and critical infrastructures such as telecommunication networks, financial services, water supplies and hospitals.
Furthermore, it is likely that power blackouts will become more frequent because of a lack of desire to invest in aged national grid infrastructures in Europe and the USA, as well as the fact that energy from decentralized, “volatile” renewable sources is not well aligned to work on electricity grids that were designed 50 or 60 years ago. Also, as more and more grids are interconnected, a blackout in one region can trigger a domino effect that could result in supra-regional blackouts.
Increased risks from terrorism, cyber-attacks and solar flares also highlights how vulnerable the world’s energy grids are to systemic failure. Research shows that the financial impacts of even a small power cut can be catastrophic. Analyses from blackout events in the USA show that a 30-minute power-cut results in an average loss of US$15,709 for medium and large industrial clients, and nearly $94,000 for an eight-hour interruption. Even short blackouts—which occur several times a year in the US—add up to an annual estimated economic loss of between $104,000 million ($104 billion) and $164,000 million ($164 billion).
Spiritual Power Outages Are More Expensive!
When we lose or disconnect from the grace of God by a spiritual short-circuit and blown fuse (mortal sin), it is far more expensive than we would like to imagine. God revealed to St. Frances of Rome—a wife, mother, mystic, organizer of charitable services and a Benedictine oblate, who founded a religious community of oblates—that the average mortal sin, once it is confessed, has an average of seven years of expiation in the fires of Purgatory—unless additional penance is done to that imposed by the priest during confession. We post again, below, the table of calculations for the various number of mortal sins committed—in order to show how expensive mortal sin (spiritual short-circuit) really is!
Sitting in the Dark!
We’ve all been through it! Suddenly it was dark! The lights wouldn’t light! The clock forgot what time it was and went to sleep! The refrigerator was eerily silent! The radio wouldn’t jabber! The TV had no good news or bad news or even the same old news to impart! The computer went from real slow to real dead! And the microwave wouldn’t wave! The unpleasant realization dawned! It was another power outage. Was it a downed line? A blown transformer? A worn switch? A bad thingamajig? Whatever it was, something along the “power chain” was no longer plugged into the “power source.”
The Darkness of the Soul
Electricity, like anything important in life that we depend upon, is only as good as its weakest link. Christians are the same way. We wholly depend on Jesus--“Without Me, you can do nothing!”—whether we admit it or not, know it or not, like it or not. Yet, just like electrical power outages, we suffer spiritual power outages from time to time. Our spiritual life is only as good as our “weakest link” or “weakest point” in our relationship to God. We may be strong in many ways, but it is on our “weakest link” or “weakest point” or “predominant fault” that we “short-circuit” and blow the fuse for sanctifying grace.
Power Outages Can Be Very Expensive!
Many companies are unprepared for business disruptions caused by power blackouts, and are often unaware of the true costs and impact that they can have on their operations. While the majority of power failures from national grids last only a few hours, some blackouts can last days or even weeks, completely shutting down production at companies and critical infrastructures such as telecommunication networks, financial services, water supplies and hospitals.
Furthermore, it is likely that power blackouts will become more frequent because of a lack of desire to invest in aged national grid infrastructures in Europe and the USA, as well as the fact that energy from decentralized, “volatile” renewable sources is not well aligned to work on electricity grids that were designed 50 or 60 years ago. Also, as more and more grids are interconnected, a blackout in one region can trigger a domino effect that could result in supra-regional blackouts.
Increased risks from terrorism, cyber-attacks and solar flares also highlights how vulnerable the world’s energy grids are to systemic failure. Research shows that the financial impacts of even a small power cut can be catastrophic. Analyses from blackout events in the USA show that a 30-minute power-cut results in an average loss of US$15,709 for medium and large industrial clients, and nearly $94,000 for an eight-hour interruption. Even short blackouts—which occur several times a year in the US—add up to an annual estimated economic loss of between $104,000 million ($104 billion) and $164,000 million ($164 billion).
Spiritual Power Outages Are More Expensive!
When we lose or disconnect from the grace of God by a spiritual short-circuit and blown fuse (mortal sin), it is far more expensive than we would like to imagine. God revealed to St. Frances of Rome—a wife, mother, mystic, organizer of charitable services and a Benedictine oblate, who founded a religious community of oblates—that the average mortal sin, once it is confessed, has an average of seven years of expiation in the fires of Purgatory—unless additional penance is done to that imposed by the priest during confession. We post again, below, the table of calculations for the various number of mortal sins committed—in order to show how expensive mortal sin (spiritual short-circuit) really is!
As you can see, "spiritual short circuits" just don't pay! Most people never think of the cost of "spiritual power outages" and imagine that a mere resetting of the circuit-breaker or installation of a new fuse—in the confessional—is all there is to it! But as the table above shows, the long-term costs can be horrendous.
Danger of Power Outages
A terrorist attack on the power grid could cut you off from electricity for weeks without any warning. A direct hit from a solar storm could also bring our power grid to its knees—it has happened before, back when we didn’t rely so heavily on electricity. A similar event today would be devastating. But the most likely cause of a prolonged power failure is the grid itself—it is aging and, every year, it is less able to keep up with the growing power consumption of our society. No matter what caused the outage, living without power creates real, dangerous health risks that you might not have thought about or prepared for.
The same is true spiritually. A terrorist attack of worldliness could cut you off from spiritual power through succumbing to the worldliness and the resultant sins it produces. Or it could be a direct hit from Hell, that could bring to your knees through mortal sin. Or it could be your ever-aging and weakening virus of lukewarmness, that cannot provide the amount of spiritual energy needed to cope with ever-increasing temptation of worldly consumerism. This weakening of grace or loss of grace can have disastrous consequences—depending upon who you are and what your habitual state of soul is like.
Health Endangered During Power Outages
Many people rely on power to help manage chronic health conditions. If you fall into this group, you know that a power outage can quickly become a matter of life or death. Whether you require insulin to manage diabetes or you rely on a respirator to help with your breathing, you know how quickly a power outage can turn your world upside down.
Likewise, spiritually, people need a regular flow of grace—actual grace—to be able to maintain the sanctifying grace needed for life in their souls. A spiritual power outage can lead to a rapid deterioration of spiritual health, as one sin quickly follows upon the other—once the first mortal sin has been committed. Grace strengthens and perfects our human nature—without it, we quickly slide down the slope to animalistic behaviors.
Exposure to the Elements During Power Outages
Extreme temperatures, whether hot or cold, can take a toll on anyone. A lot depends upon what time of the year the power outage strikes. Winter time can be particularly dangerous, when those most at risk are young children, seniors, and anyone who is already sick, or otherwise in a weakened state. In severe cases, exposure to extreme heat or cold can lead to serious health problems that may require hospitalization, or that can even lead to death.
Similarly, in the spiritual life, a ‘spiritual power outage’ that loses grace, exposes the soul to coldness towards God or a violent feverish passion for sin.
Food Poisoning During Power Outages
Lack of refrigeration can quickly lead to food spoilage. Eating foods that have not been stored at proper temperatures can cause food poisoning from salmonella, E.coli, or other bacteria. Because we take refrigeration for granted, prudence is one of the things many people will be low on during a prolonged power outage.
Grace is sometimes referred to as something cool as opposed to heat of temptation. In fact, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Extraordinary Rite) the canon of the Mass speaks of granting to the souls of the deceased in Purgatory a place of coolness—“locum refrigerii”! We also speak of “staying cool under pressure” and we tell people to “cool down” when they are passionately violent and angry. Water—which is a favorite symbol of grace with the Fathers of the Church—is also a coolant, which brings to mind the water-cooling system of car engines. In the same way, grace keeps us cool under the pressure of “good fight of the Faith” that St. Paul commends us to. Grace keeps the mind and heart from growing rotten. Grace keeps us ‘firm’ in the Faith. Grace is that ‘electrical’ power that helps our souls run as they should and avoids our souls from being poisoned by the many virus that surround us.
Water Hazards During Power Outages
Perhaps one of the biggest dangers during a prolonged power outage is consuming contaminated water. Water treatment plants need power to operate, and while they usually have backup generators that will keep them running during an outage, during a storm or natural disaster, those generators may go out as well. If you don’t know how to treat your water before drinking it, or if you don’t have the correct supplies, you could be exposed to toxins and waterborne illnesses.
If we take the lead from the Fathers of the Church, for whom water symbolized grace—then “water hazards” can be seen to be “contaminated grace” or could we say “contaminated sources of grace”. If the Church and Her ministers are sources of grace for the faithful, then a “water hazard” could be said to be a “Contaminated Church” and “Contaminated Ministers of the Church”. This, in fact, is what Our Lady of La Salette speaks of, when she says that “the priests have become cesspools of impurity” and “a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that … several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls … and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God.” Thus, contaminated “water” and contaminated “sources of water”! Thus, a “water hazard” or “grace hazard”!
Along the same lines, we have the revelations given to the stigmatist Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, who relates: “I saw a strange church being built against every rule … No angels were supervising the building operations. In that church, nothing came from high above … There was nothing holy in it ... There was only division and chaos. It is probably a church of human creation, following the latest fashion ... I saw this false church increase in size; heretics of every kind came into the city (of Rome) … I saw how baleful (harmful) would be the consequences of this false church. .... All sorts of abominations were perpetrated there … The local clergy grew lukewarm ... I saw the Holy Father surrounded by traitors and in great distress about the Church … I saw the secret sect relentlessly undermining the great Church! … And I saw a great darkness! … I saw the ever-increasing tepidity of the clergy, the circle of darkness ever widening! I see that the false Church of darkness is making progress and I see the dreadful influence it has on the people.” A “great darkness” … “a circle of darkness” … “the false Church of darkness” is like a great spiritual power outage, where the light of Christ is no longer present!
Injury During Power Outages
During a power outage, you may be called on to do things that you wouldn’t normally do, like operate a generator or clear heavy debris from around your home. Injuries suffered during a power outage are more dangerous than usual because the medical system is already stretched thin. This could delay your treatment, and exacerbate your injury.
Likewise with a ‘spiritual power outage’, in relation to the grace of God. If you have committed a mortal sin, then you are mortally wounded. Who in their right mind would stay away from the Emergency Room after receiving a mortal wound? Yet there are many to stay away from the ‘Spiritual Emergency Room’—the confessional—after having committed mortal sin! Some even go back for more mortal wounds (sins) rather than go seek spiritual ‘emergency’ treatment and care! In the meantime, the poison of sin spreads once the grace of God has been eliminated and cast out. Just as “grace perfects our nature”, “sin weakens and corrupts our nature.” Look upon it like a fire—the longer you put-off extinguishing the fire, the more damage it does in the meantime.
Remember too, that even though Original Sin was removed from our souls by Baptism and the inpouring of sanctifying grace, the scars and effects are not taken away—we are left with a darkened intellect, a weakened will, and rampant concupiscence. Likewise with our own personal sins that we commit—even though we may confess them and grace is restored to our souls, the effects of those sins leave a certain trace and weakness behind—like the frequent spraining of an ankle makes the ankle more easily susceptible to future sprains and injuries, so too with our sins.
With regard to venial sins, we are probably already breathing these in like the dust in the air around us. They make us wheeze spiritually, impair our ability to breathe-in grace, and thus reduce our energy for spiritual things and gradually and increasingly weaken the soul—eventually setting us up for mortal sin, if not action is taken to filter them out.
Supply Interruptions During Power Outages
You normally rely on regular trips to the grocery store for the supplies you need to maintain hygiene and sanitation as well meet your other basic needs. Power outages can lead to serious supply disruptions that could compromise any one of these areas—and that, in turn, could compromise your health.
Once we, or a family member, relative, or friend, has a ‘spiritual power outage’ through mortal sin, and even in cases of frequent venial sins, the mood and state of the soul—a ‘spiritual black-out’ in the case of mortal sin, or constantly tripping breakers in the case of venial sin—produces a reluctance and lethargy in reaching out for the supplies that are so necessary for a normal and healthy spiritually functioning soul. No more visits to the Blessed Sacrament, no more extra Masses, no more spiritual reading, no more examinations of conscience, no more meditations, no more spiritual discussions, no more confessions, no more prayers, etc. Sin has this debilitating effect upon the soul—and it already starts in the state of lukewarmness, not just mortal sin.
Psychological Impacts of Power Outages
EMOTIONAL STRAIN: There is a psychological effect on people that often occurs during extended power outages. As time passes without electricity, people—who depend on their ability to communicate, or move freely—get anxious, impatient, agitated, irritable, and sometimes panic. And they can act in ways they normally would not act. This is when normal people do abnormal things. Some lose control and begin stealing from others. Some do much worse.
The same is true during the ‘spiritual power outages’ or ‘spiritual black-outs’ of sin. The more we sin, the more irritable we seem to become—not just irritable, but also impatient. Anger simmers beneath the surface and we are more likely to erupt about insignificant matters or minor problems. We become more critical of others, more ‘nit-picky’ and tend to magnify the faults of others. This is all because of the guilt of sin and blackness of soul that we have brought upon ourselves through sin. We become more emotionally unstable and disruptive and eruptive.
LOSS OF TRUST: An online newsletter published an article about a person who survived a whole year without electricity, water, gasoline, medical services, and law enforcement support in war-torn Bosnia. The article highlighted the effects on people holed up in a small city blockaded by the army. It didn’t take long for friends to become distrustful and treat each other as enemies, once all the normal resources were consumed. Within two months gangs formed destroying everything in the city. Survival instincts caused many to think and act in ways that would never be considered in a normal social setting. People fought like animals for arms, ammunition, candles, gasoline, antibiotics, batteries and food. When people lose hope that recovery will occur soon, many revert to survival of the fittest. People are capable of horrible behavior, as long as they can justify their actions in their own minds—and in a crisis situation anything is easily justified and so “anything goes”.
The Faith is One and it seek to unite all persons, of all races, or all times under the banner of Christ and within the Church of Christ. The grace of God does the same thing. It makes us one with God and His Church. Lose that grace and you lose that unity. As Our Lord said: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me, that beareth not fruit, He will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit—for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth!” (John 15:1-6).
ANIMALISTIC BEHAVIOR: In 2010, two large water pipes in Weston, Massachusetts, near Boston, ruptured dumping millions of gallons of fresh drinking water into the Charles River. Tap water became contaminated, and the Reverse 911 system was activated by the governor of Massachusetts, who urged people to boil water, taken from the faucets, in their homes, while the city water system was repaired. Water flow to the homes never stopped and sinks and toilets operated normally, but many of the local residents panicked. Shortly after the governor’s announcement, residents of the area rushed out to buy bottled water. Within 90 minutes almost all bottled water in the entire Boston area was sold out, and people began to riot—fighting each other for any remaining bottles of the clear liquid. They acted like rats in a sinking ship and fought savagely for any bottled water found. Stores were damaged and some people were physically roughed up.
It is the grace of God, the power of God, that makes us godly and helps us live up to the calling we have to be holy by being made in the image and likeness of God. Lose that grace, lose that power and you are on the slippery slope downwards towards animalism and savagery. Don’t believe it? Just look at the inhuman “Reign of Terror” during the French Revolution after 1789. Look at the inhuman atrocities committed during the many wars that have raged throughout the world since that time. Look at inhuman behavior in the Middle East today. Man does not stand still in his development. As the spiritual masters says: “He who does not make progress, goes backwards.” If we are not drawing closer and closer to the light of God, then we are automatically drawing closer to the darkness of the devil.
Our Lord & Grace is Light, the World & Worldliness is Darkness
Our Lord came to give us POWER, and NOT A POWER OUTAGE! The darkness comes from the devil and the world—they are the reasons and sources for all our ‘spiritual power outages’. Our Lord is the Light and comes into the darkness of the world to give us power and light: “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. And the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came to give testimony of the Light. He was not the Light, but was to give testimony of the Light. That was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, HE GAVE THEM POWER to be made the sons of God” (John 1:4-12).
As Jesus says: “No man lighteth a candle, and putteth it in a hidden place, nor under a bushel; but upon a candlestick, that they that come in, may see the light. The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single [focused on God alone], thy whole body will be lightsome: but if it be evil [focused on the things of the world], thy body also will be darksome. Take heed therefore, that the light which is in thee, be not darkness. If then thy whole body be lightsome, having no part of darkness; the whole shall be lightsome; and as a bright lamp, shall enlighten thee” (Luke 11:33-36).
St. Matthew reports it thus: “The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome. But if thy eye be evil thy whole body shall be darksome. If then the light that is in thee, be darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be!” (Matthew 6:22-23). He means this in the context of Heaven and Earth—implying that the world darkens our perception of the true light, which is Heaven—for these words are sandwiched between the following words: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:19-24). “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12).
Our Lord came “to enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death” (Luke 1:79). “I am come a light into the world; that whosoever believeth in Me, may not remain in darkness” (John 12:46). “Jesus spoke to them, saying: ‘I am the Light of the world: he that followeth Me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life!” (John 8:12). “Jesus therefore said to them: ‘Yet a little while, the light is among you! Walk whilst you have the Light, that the darkness overtake you not. And he that walketh in darkness, knoweth not whither he goeth!’” (John 12:35).
“And the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it!” (John 1:5). “And this is the judgment: because the Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light: for their works were evil!” (John 3:19). This preference for darkness over light, results in a ‘spiritual power outage’ whereby “the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness! There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” (Matthew 8:12). “And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness! There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” (Matthew 25:30).
Getting Spiritual Light From Your House Electrical Circuit!
Every December, Christmas lights twinkle with an elaborate holiday light display. Four-foot plastic angels stand in ranks, 3-foot candles dot the landscape, elves pop out from behind plastic snow figures, and Santa in his loaded sleigh skims across the roof with a cluster of reindeer. But every year dozens of outdoor light displays like this unexpectedly go out. You might have plugged in a small electric heater and turned it on to warm your feet. Or switched on a hair dryer. Or dropped a snack into the toaster. It’s not only the outdoor display that goes out, but perhaps most of the main floor lights too. The TV in the family room quits. The clock in the kitchen stops.
The problem? An overloaded circuit. The power needed by the outdoor lights added to the load from the refrigerator, the heater and any other devices connected to the same circuit, and all of them running at once exceeded the capacity of the electrical wiring. Rest assured that an overload in a properly installed electrical system wouldn’t burn your house down. An “overcurrent protective device” at the main panel will automatically shut off the power before damage occurs. In most cases, the device will be a circuit breaker that trips open. In older systems a fuse will “blow” (burn out). But finding a solution can be a hassle.
The nerve center of your electrical system is the main panel, usually a gray metal box about the size of a cookie-sheet, that typically sits in some obscure spot in a utility room, the garage or the basement. Three large wires from the utility company feed the main panel. Although you might spot the wires outside if they are overhead, they’ll be encased in conduit inside for safety, because they contain virtually unlimited electrical power. Circuit breakers (or fuses) in your main panel limit the power to a level that your wiring system can safely handle and funnel that power through branch circuits, the wires that run to various parts of your house. If you turn on too much stuff and the power demand on any one circuit exceeds the limits of the circuit breaker (or fuse), the breaker snaps open and shuts down the entire circuit, serving you notice that you have an overload or some other problem.
The next article will deal with the fascinating analogies and similes that can be found in electricity and their relation to God, grace, the soul, sin and virtue. The parallels are truly amazing and very instructive!
The best way to think of the power delivery to a house is to think of the bigger picture, say for example a factory. Power to the factory is four wires, three hot wires, we can call them A,B and C and the earth wire we will call N. It is called N for neutral and is connected to earth. That connection to earth helps the A, B &C remain stable and properly referenced to earth. The AB & C are like the three points of a triangle, like the Holy Trinity. Each of the three are separately identifiable but work together to deliver power. The house example consists of two wires and neutral. So one house would have ABN, the next would have BCN and the third would have ACN.
The factory is said to have three phase power or Holy Trinity power. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are each of the three points of the triangle.
Each if these three wires are connected to loads, like motors, or heaters or lights. Each load draws a specific amount of current (grace) to sustain the load. If all three conductors are connected together, then extremely large currents will flow. That is not a good thing. Too much current flow and the breaker will open, stopping the current (grace) flow. No work, no grace. Connecting ABC together is a short circuit, mortal sin? The breaker opens very quickly, shutting off the flow of grace.
Overloads are like too many toasters plugged into one extension cord. The extension cord gets too warm and damages the point where the extension cord is plugged into the wall receptacle. At some point, the breaker sees too much current flow and opens. Damage is already done. The cooks continued to plug in more and more toasters since the overload effects are slow to manifest. But the fact remains, damage has been done.
To St. Paul, the Lord says: “I send thee to open their eyes, that they may be converted from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:17-18). St. John points-out that “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, then we lie and do not tell the truth!” (1 John 1:5-6). Likewise in relation to our neighbor, St. John writes: “The darkness is passed, and the true light now shines. He that says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loves his brother, abides in the light, but he that hates his brother, is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not where he goes; because the darkness has blinded his eyes!” (1 John 2:8-11).
Danger of Power Outages
A terrorist attack on the power grid could cut you off from electricity for weeks without any warning. A direct hit from a solar storm could also bring our power grid to its knees—it has happened before, back when we didn’t rely so heavily on electricity. A similar event today would be devastating. But the most likely cause of a prolonged power failure is the grid itself—it is aging and, every year, it is less able to keep up with the growing power consumption of our society. No matter what caused the outage, living without power creates real, dangerous health risks that you might not have thought about or prepared for.
The same is true spiritually. A terrorist attack of worldliness could cut you off from spiritual power through succumbing to the worldliness and the resultant sins it produces. Or it could be a direct hit from Hell, that could bring to your knees through mortal sin. Or it could be your ever-aging and weakening virus of lukewarmness, that cannot provide the amount of spiritual energy needed to cope with ever-increasing temptation of worldly consumerism. This weakening of grace or loss of grace can have disastrous consequences—depending upon who you are and what your habitual state of soul is like.
Health Endangered During Power Outages
Many people rely on power to help manage chronic health conditions. If you fall into this group, you know that a power outage can quickly become a matter of life or death. Whether you require insulin to manage diabetes or you rely on a respirator to help with your breathing, you know how quickly a power outage can turn your world upside down.
Likewise, spiritually, people need a regular flow of grace—actual grace—to be able to maintain the sanctifying grace needed for life in their souls. A spiritual power outage can lead to a rapid deterioration of spiritual health, as one sin quickly follows upon the other—once the first mortal sin has been committed. Grace strengthens and perfects our human nature—without it, we quickly slide down the slope to animalistic behaviors.
Exposure to the Elements During Power Outages
Extreme temperatures, whether hot or cold, can take a toll on anyone. A lot depends upon what time of the year the power outage strikes. Winter time can be particularly dangerous, when those most at risk are young children, seniors, and anyone who is already sick, or otherwise in a weakened state. In severe cases, exposure to extreme heat or cold can lead to serious health problems that may require hospitalization, or that can even lead to death.
Similarly, in the spiritual life, a ‘spiritual power outage’ that loses grace, exposes the soul to coldness towards God or a violent feverish passion for sin.
Food Poisoning During Power Outages
Lack of refrigeration can quickly lead to food spoilage. Eating foods that have not been stored at proper temperatures can cause food poisoning from salmonella, E.coli, or other bacteria. Because we take refrigeration for granted, prudence is one of the things many people will be low on during a prolonged power outage.
Grace is sometimes referred to as something cool as opposed to heat of temptation. In fact, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Extraordinary Rite) the canon of the Mass speaks of granting to the souls of the deceased in Purgatory a place of coolness—“locum refrigerii”! We also speak of “staying cool under pressure” and we tell people to “cool down” when they are passionately violent and angry. Water—which is a favorite symbol of grace with the Fathers of the Church—is also a coolant, which brings to mind the water-cooling system of car engines. In the same way, grace keeps us cool under the pressure of “good fight of the Faith” that St. Paul commends us to. Grace keeps the mind and heart from growing rotten. Grace keeps us ‘firm’ in the Faith. Grace is that ‘electrical’ power that helps our souls run as they should and avoids our souls from being poisoned by the many virus that surround us.
Water Hazards During Power Outages
Perhaps one of the biggest dangers during a prolonged power outage is consuming contaminated water. Water treatment plants need power to operate, and while they usually have backup generators that will keep them running during an outage, during a storm or natural disaster, those generators may go out as well. If you don’t know how to treat your water before drinking it, or if you don’t have the correct supplies, you could be exposed to toxins and waterborne illnesses.
If we take the lead from the Fathers of the Church, for whom water symbolized grace—then “water hazards” can be seen to be “contaminated grace” or could we say “contaminated sources of grace”. If the Church and Her ministers are sources of grace for the faithful, then a “water hazard” could be said to be a “Contaminated Church” and “Contaminated Ministers of the Church”. This, in fact, is what Our Lady of La Salette speaks of, when she says that “the priests have become cesspools of impurity” and “a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that … several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls … and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God.” Thus, contaminated “water” and contaminated “sources of water”! Thus, a “water hazard” or “grace hazard”!
Along the same lines, we have the revelations given to the stigmatist Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, who relates: “I saw a strange church being built against every rule … No angels were supervising the building operations. In that church, nothing came from high above … There was nothing holy in it ... There was only division and chaos. It is probably a church of human creation, following the latest fashion ... I saw this false church increase in size; heretics of every kind came into the city (of Rome) … I saw how baleful (harmful) would be the consequences of this false church. .... All sorts of abominations were perpetrated there … The local clergy grew lukewarm ... I saw the Holy Father surrounded by traitors and in great distress about the Church … I saw the secret sect relentlessly undermining the great Church! … And I saw a great darkness! … I saw the ever-increasing tepidity of the clergy, the circle of darkness ever widening! I see that the false Church of darkness is making progress and I see the dreadful influence it has on the people.” A “great darkness” … “a circle of darkness” … “the false Church of darkness” is like a great spiritual power outage, where the light of Christ is no longer present!
Injury During Power Outages
During a power outage, you may be called on to do things that you wouldn’t normally do, like operate a generator or clear heavy debris from around your home. Injuries suffered during a power outage are more dangerous than usual because the medical system is already stretched thin. This could delay your treatment, and exacerbate your injury.
Likewise with a ‘spiritual power outage’, in relation to the grace of God. If you have committed a mortal sin, then you are mortally wounded. Who in their right mind would stay away from the Emergency Room after receiving a mortal wound? Yet there are many to stay away from the ‘Spiritual Emergency Room’—the confessional—after having committed mortal sin! Some even go back for more mortal wounds (sins) rather than go seek spiritual ‘emergency’ treatment and care! In the meantime, the poison of sin spreads once the grace of God has been eliminated and cast out. Just as “grace perfects our nature”, “sin weakens and corrupts our nature.” Look upon it like a fire—the longer you put-off extinguishing the fire, the more damage it does in the meantime.
Remember too, that even though Original Sin was removed from our souls by Baptism and the inpouring of sanctifying grace, the scars and effects are not taken away—we are left with a darkened intellect, a weakened will, and rampant concupiscence. Likewise with our own personal sins that we commit—even though we may confess them and grace is restored to our souls, the effects of those sins leave a certain trace and weakness behind—like the frequent spraining of an ankle makes the ankle more easily susceptible to future sprains and injuries, so too with our sins.
With regard to venial sins, we are probably already breathing these in like the dust in the air around us. They make us wheeze spiritually, impair our ability to breathe-in grace, and thus reduce our energy for spiritual things and gradually and increasingly weaken the soul—eventually setting us up for mortal sin, if not action is taken to filter them out.
Supply Interruptions During Power Outages
You normally rely on regular trips to the grocery store for the supplies you need to maintain hygiene and sanitation as well meet your other basic needs. Power outages can lead to serious supply disruptions that could compromise any one of these areas—and that, in turn, could compromise your health.
Once we, or a family member, relative, or friend, has a ‘spiritual power outage’ through mortal sin, and even in cases of frequent venial sins, the mood and state of the soul—a ‘spiritual black-out’ in the case of mortal sin, or constantly tripping breakers in the case of venial sin—produces a reluctance and lethargy in reaching out for the supplies that are so necessary for a normal and healthy spiritually functioning soul. No more visits to the Blessed Sacrament, no more extra Masses, no more spiritual reading, no more examinations of conscience, no more meditations, no more spiritual discussions, no more confessions, no more prayers, etc. Sin has this debilitating effect upon the soul—and it already starts in the state of lukewarmness, not just mortal sin.
Psychological Impacts of Power Outages
EMOTIONAL STRAIN: There is a psychological effect on people that often occurs during extended power outages. As time passes without electricity, people—who depend on their ability to communicate, or move freely—get anxious, impatient, agitated, irritable, and sometimes panic. And they can act in ways they normally would not act. This is when normal people do abnormal things. Some lose control and begin stealing from others. Some do much worse.
The same is true during the ‘spiritual power outages’ or ‘spiritual black-outs’ of sin. The more we sin, the more irritable we seem to become—not just irritable, but also impatient. Anger simmers beneath the surface and we are more likely to erupt about insignificant matters or minor problems. We become more critical of others, more ‘nit-picky’ and tend to magnify the faults of others. This is all because of the guilt of sin and blackness of soul that we have brought upon ourselves through sin. We become more emotionally unstable and disruptive and eruptive.
LOSS OF TRUST: An online newsletter published an article about a person who survived a whole year without electricity, water, gasoline, medical services, and law enforcement support in war-torn Bosnia. The article highlighted the effects on people holed up in a small city blockaded by the army. It didn’t take long for friends to become distrustful and treat each other as enemies, once all the normal resources were consumed. Within two months gangs formed destroying everything in the city. Survival instincts caused many to think and act in ways that would never be considered in a normal social setting. People fought like animals for arms, ammunition, candles, gasoline, antibiotics, batteries and food. When people lose hope that recovery will occur soon, many revert to survival of the fittest. People are capable of horrible behavior, as long as they can justify their actions in their own minds—and in a crisis situation anything is easily justified and so “anything goes”.
The Faith is One and it seek to unite all persons, of all races, or all times under the banner of Christ and within the Church of Christ. The grace of God does the same thing. It makes us one with God and His Church. Lose that grace and you lose that unity. As Our Lord said: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me, that beareth not fruit, He will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit—for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth!” (John 15:1-6).
ANIMALISTIC BEHAVIOR: In 2010, two large water pipes in Weston, Massachusetts, near Boston, ruptured dumping millions of gallons of fresh drinking water into the Charles River. Tap water became contaminated, and the Reverse 911 system was activated by the governor of Massachusetts, who urged people to boil water, taken from the faucets, in their homes, while the city water system was repaired. Water flow to the homes never stopped and sinks and toilets operated normally, but many of the local residents panicked. Shortly after the governor’s announcement, residents of the area rushed out to buy bottled water. Within 90 minutes almost all bottled water in the entire Boston area was sold out, and people began to riot—fighting each other for any remaining bottles of the clear liquid. They acted like rats in a sinking ship and fought savagely for any bottled water found. Stores were damaged and some people were physically roughed up.
It is the grace of God, the power of God, that makes us godly and helps us live up to the calling we have to be holy by being made in the image and likeness of God. Lose that grace, lose that power and you are on the slippery slope downwards towards animalism and savagery. Don’t believe it? Just look at the inhuman “Reign of Terror” during the French Revolution after 1789. Look at the inhuman atrocities committed during the many wars that have raged throughout the world since that time. Look at inhuman behavior in the Middle East today. Man does not stand still in his development. As the spiritual masters says: “He who does not make progress, goes backwards.” If we are not drawing closer and closer to the light of God, then we are automatically drawing closer to the darkness of the devil.
Our Lord & Grace is Light, the World & Worldliness is Darkness
Our Lord came to give us POWER, and NOT A POWER OUTAGE! The darkness comes from the devil and the world—they are the reasons and sources for all our ‘spiritual power outages’. Our Lord is the Light and comes into the darkness of the world to give us power and light: “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. And the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came to give testimony of the Light. He was not the Light, but was to give testimony of the Light. That was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, HE GAVE THEM POWER to be made the sons of God” (John 1:4-12).
As Jesus says: “No man lighteth a candle, and putteth it in a hidden place, nor under a bushel; but upon a candlestick, that they that come in, may see the light. The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single [focused on God alone], thy whole body will be lightsome: but if it be evil [focused on the things of the world], thy body also will be darksome. Take heed therefore, that the light which is in thee, be not darkness. If then thy whole body be lightsome, having no part of darkness; the whole shall be lightsome; and as a bright lamp, shall enlighten thee” (Luke 11:33-36).
St. Matthew reports it thus: “The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome. But if thy eye be evil thy whole body shall be darksome. If then the light that is in thee, be darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be!” (Matthew 6:22-23). He means this in the context of Heaven and Earth—implying that the world darkens our perception of the true light, which is Heaven—for these words are sandwiched between the following words: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:19-24). “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12).
Our Lord came “to enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death” (Luke 1:79). “I am come a light into the world; that whosoever believeth in Me, may not remain in darkness” (John 12:46). “Jesus spoke to them, saying: ‘I am the Light of the world: he that followeth Me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life!” (John 8:12). “Jesus therefore said to them: ‘Yet a little while, the light is among you! Walk whilst you have the Light, that the darkness overtake you not. And he that walketh in darkness, knoweth not whither he goeth!’” (John 12:35).
“And the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it!” (John 1:5). “And this is the judgment: because the Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light: for their works were evil!” (John 3:19). This preference for darkness over light, results in a ‘spiritual power outage’ whereby “the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness! There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” (Matthew 8:12). “And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness! There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” (Matthew 25:30).
Getting Spiritual Light From Your House Electrical Circuit!
Every December, Christmas lights twinkle with an elaborate holiday light display. Four-foot plastic angels stand in ranks, 3-foot candles dot the landscape, elves pop out from behind plastic snow figures, and Santa in his loaded sleigh skims across the roof with a cluster of reindeer. But every year dozens of outdoor light displays like this unexpectedly go out. You might have plugged in a small electric heater and turned it on to warm your feet. Or switched on a hair dryer. Or dropped a snack into the toaster. It’s not only the outdoor display that goes out, but perhaps most of the main floor lights too. The TV in the family room quits. The clock in the kitchen stops.
The problem? An overloaded circuit. The power needed by the outdoor lights added to the load from the refrigerator, the heater and any other devices connected to the same circuit, and all of them running at once exceeded the capacity of the electrical wiring. Rest assured that an overload in a properly installed electrical system wouldn’t burn your house down. An “overcurrent protective device” at the main panel will automatically shut off the power before damage occurs. In most cases, the device will be a circuit breaker that trips open. In older systems a fuse will “blow” (burn out). But finding a solution can be a hassle.
The nerve center of your electrical system is the main panel, usually a gray metal box about the size of a cookie-sheet, that typically sits in some obscure spot in a utility room, the garage or the basement. Three large wires from the utility company feed the main panel. Although you might spot the wires outside if they are overhead, they’ll be encased in conduit inside for safety, because they contain virtually unlimited electrical power. Circuit breakers (or fuses) in your main panel limit the power to a level that your wiring system can safely handle and funnel that power through branch circuits, the wires that run to various parts of your house. If you turn on too much stuff and the power demand on any one circuit exceeds the limits of the circuit breaker (or fuse), the breaker snaps open and shuts down the entire circuit, serving you notice that you have an overload or some other problem.
The next article will deal with the fascinating analogies and similes that can be found in electricity and their relation to God, grace, the soul, sin and virtue. The parallels are truly amazing and very instructive!
The best way to think of the power delivery to a house is to think of the bigger picture, say for example a factory. Power to the factory is four wires, three hot wires, we can call them A,B and C and the earth wire we will call N. It is called N for neutral and is connected to earth. That connection to earth helps the A, B &C remain stable and properly referenced to earth. The AB & C are like the three points of a triangle, like the Holy Trinity. Each of the three are separately identifiable but work together to deliver power. The house example consists of two wires and neutral. So one house would have ABN, the next would have BCN and the third would have ACN.
The factory is said to have three phase power or Holy Trinity power. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are each of the three points of the triangle.
Each if these three wires are connected to loads, like motors, or heaters or lights. Each load draws a specific amount of current (grace) to sustain the load. If all three conductors are connected together, then extremely large currents will flow. That is not a good thing. Too much current flow and the breaker will open, stopping the current (grace) flow. No work, no grace. Connecting ABC together is a short circuit, mortal sin? The breaker opens very quickly, shutting off the flow of grace.
Overloads are like too many toasters plugged into one extension cord. The extension cord gets too warm and damages the point where the extension cord is plugged into the wall receptacle. At some point, the breaker sees too much current flow and opens. Damage is already done. The cooks continued to plug in more and more toasters since the overload effects are slow to manifest. But the fact remains, damage has been done.
To St. Paul, the Lord says: “I send thee to open their eyes, that they may be converted from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:17-18). St. John points-out that “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, then we lie and do not tell the truth!” (1 John 1:5-6). Likewise in relation to our neighbor, St. John writes: “The darkness is passed, and the true light now shines. He that says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loves his brother, abides in the light, but he that hates his brother, is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not where he goes; because the darkness has blinded his eyes!” (1 John 2:8-11).
Article 4
Wednesday December 3rd
He Who Makes No Progress, Loses Ground!
Wednesday December 3rd
He Who Makes No Progress, Loses Ground!
Growth in Mary
St. Louis de Montfort has that beautiful prayer entitled Jesus Living in Mary, which is exactly what should be happening with us, especially during this Advent season. The prayer reads as follows:
O Jesus living in Mary
Come and live in Thy servants;
In the spirit of Thy holiness,
In the fullness of Thy might,
In the truth of Thy virtues,
In the perfection of Thy ways,
In the communion of Thy mysteries,
Subdue every hostile power,
In Thy spirit, for the glory of the Father. Amen.
Spiritual Womb
In the last article we spoke of St. Augustine’s statement that, while living in this world, we are, as it were, in the spiritual womb of Mary, living and growing in her protective womb until the happy day she gives birth to us in Heaven.
The whole point of normal, natural, healthy life is gradual, steady, progressive growth. The same is true for our spiritual life. Yet, in that area, most people are satisfied even if there is no growth at all. It is not uncommon to see persons in the middle or later stages of their life, in whom there is little or no spiritual growth or progress: the same sins are being committed and confessed year after year without any real reduction in quantities or frequencies; and the appetite and intensity for acquiring new virtues, or improving the quality of the ones already possessed, is almost non-existent.
If that phenomenon were translated to a baby’s state or condition in its mother’s womb, then both mother and doctor would be alarmed and worried about the future of the child.
Relating the Spiritual to the Physical
Our spiritual life is much more important than our natural or physiological life. If we die physically, we can still go to Heaven (if we die in God’s grace); but if we die spiritually, then Hell is the only option. It is like a spiritual abortion.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange―arguably the 20th century’s greatest theologian in relation to the spiritual life―compares the spiritual life to our physical life―though he begins his comparisons, not from the womb-stage, but after birth. But the idea of growth and progress is the same. In his book, The Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life, he writes:
“The development of the interior life has often been compared to the three periods or stages of physical life―childhood, youth, and manhood. St. Thomas himself has indicated this analogy―and it is an analogy which is worth pursuing, particular attention being paid to the transition from one period to the other.
“It is generally admitted that childhood lasts until the age of puberty, about fourteen years of age; though early childhood, or infancy, ceases at the dawn of reason, about the age of seven. Youth, or adolescence, lasts from the age of fourteen to twenty. Then follows manhood, in which we may distinguish the period which precedes full maturity, about the age of thirty-five, and that which follows it, before the decline of old age sets in.
“Most important to be noticed, for the purposes of our present subject, is the transition from childhood to adolescence and from youth to manhood.
He Who Makes No Progress, Loses Ground
“The period of puberty, at the end of childhood, about the age of fourteen, is characterized by a transformation [from being a beginner in life, to someone more proficient]. The youth is no longer content to follow his imagination, as the child was; he begins to reflect on the things of human life, on the need to prepare himself for some career or occupation in the future. He has no longer the child’s attitude towards family, social and religious matters. Or else, on the contrary, if he passes unsuccessfully through this difficult period, he deteriorates and follows evil courses. The law of nature so ordains that the transition from childhood to youth must follow a normal development; otherwise the subject will assume a positive bias to evil, or else he will remain a half-wit, perhaps even a complete idiot, for the rest of his life. ‘He who makes no progress loses ground.’
Arrested Spiritual Development
“It is at this point that the analogy becomes illuminating for the spiritual life. We shall see that the beginner who fails to become a proficient, either turns to sin or else presents an example of arrested spiritual development. Here, too, it is true that ‘he who makes no progress loses ground’ ― as the Fathers of the Church have so often pointed out.
“Let us pursue the analogy further. If the physical and moral crisis of puberty is a difficult transition, the same is to be said of another crisis, which we may call the crisis of the first freedom, and which occurs at the stage where the youth enters manhood, about the age of twenty. The young man, having now reached his complete physical development, has to begin to take his place in social life. It will soon be time for him to marry and to become an educator in his turn, unless he has received from God a higher vocation still. Many fail to surmount this crisis of the first freedom, and, like the prodigal son, depart from their father’s house and confuse liberty with license. Here again the law ordains that the transition must be made normally; otherwise the young man either takes the wrong road, or else his development is arrested and he becomes one of those of whom it is said: ‘He will be a child for the whole of his life.’
The Need of Conversion
“The liturgy, especially at periods such as Advent and Lent, speaks often of the need of conversion, even for those who are leading a Christian life. Spiritual writers also refer often to this second conversion, necessary for the Christian who, though he has thought seriously of his salvation and made an effort to walk in the way of God, has nevertheless begun once more to follow the bent of his nature and to fall into a state of tepidity—like an engrafted plant reverting to its wild state ... This question is of the greatest interest for every spiritual soul.
“In the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, we read the following words of God to her: ‘If they do not recognize their imperfection and desire to become perfect, it is impossible that they should not turn back.’ This is what the Fathers have so often asserted: ‘In the way of God he who makes no progress loses ground.’ Just as the child who does not grow does not merely remain a child but becomes an idiot, so the beginner who does not enter upon the way of proficients when he ought to, does not merely remain a beginner, but becomes a stunted soul. It would seem, unhappily, that the great majority of souls do not belong to any of these three categories, of beginners, proficients or perfect, but rather to that of stunted souls! At what stage are we ourselves? This is often a very difficult question to answer, and it would perhaps be vain curiosity to inquire at what point we have arrived in our upward path; but at least we must take care not to mistake the road, not to take a path that leads downwards.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life).
So, coming back to St. Augustine’s thought of our being in Mary’s spiritual womb in this life, as we await birth into Heaven, let us not neglect that spiritual growth, that only comes with spiritual work and exercises, or we may be victims of ‘stunted-growth’ or, worse still, a spiritual abortion or spiritual miscarriage!
This Advent is like a spiritual womb, in which we await the birth of our Savior, let it be time well spent more on spiritual matters than the material matters that so often lead to that spiritual abortion or a spiritual miscarriage!
The first thing to do is to make sure we have a healthy habitat for that growth. If we are, as St. Augustine says, in Mary’s spiritual womb, then we have to make sure that the womb is intact and healthy. This translates to two things: (1) It is intact if we have a devotion to Our Lady; (2) It is healthy if that devotion is a true devotion and not a one of the false devotions listed by St. Louis de Montfort (cf. True Devotion to Mary, §92-§104), where he lists them: “I find seven kinds of false devotees and false devotions to Our Lady, namely: (1) the critical devotees; (2) the scrupulous devotees; (3) the external devotees; (4) the presumptuous devotees; (5) the inconstant devotees; (6) the hypocritical devotees; (7) the interested devotees.”
Why on earth is Christ Coming?
Our Lord came to seek and save those who are lost—in fact we are all lost, for we are all sinners: “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance” (Luke 5:32). “If we say that we have not sinned, then we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:10). “I am the vine―you ae the branches! He that abided in Me, and I in him, the same beard much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). He wants us to be saints, not sinners, and not lukewarm: “I know your works, that you are neither cold, nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot! But because you are lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, then I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth! Because you say: ‘I am rich and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ And you do not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked! I counsel you to buy from Me gold that is fire tried, so that you may be made rich; and may be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, so that you may see! Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise! Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:15-19). “I say to you: unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3). “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Not everyone that says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21). “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48).
Getting the Right Mindset
“Every tree that brings not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire!” (Matthew 7:19) … “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees! Every tree therefore that brings not forth good fruit, shall be cut down and cast into the fire!” (Luke 3:9). “If anyone abides not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:6). If we do not have the mindset of striving to become a saint in this life, then we sadly have the wrong mindset. We will do damage, not only to ourselves, but to those around us also. There is no excuse of hiding behind the fact that we are sinners, for that is exactly whom Our Lord came to seek out and save—He came to call sinners to penance; to call sinners to a holiness of life; to call sinners to sanctity; to call sinners to Heaven.
Your Vocation Starts Now!
The Advent liturgy tells us clearly in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans: “Now the hour for us to rise from sleep! For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed! The night is passed, and the day is at hand! Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light! Let us walk honestly, as in the day―not in partying and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy―but put on the Lord Jesus Christ! And make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences!” (Romans 13:11-14). For how many years have we procrastinated about getting serious about our sanctity and salvation? Read about Purgatory and see what happens to those who put-off putting-on Christ—it makes for painful reading! We are called to holiness, for only saints go to Heaven, but we still play too much with the world, which is the enemy of God: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God?” (James 4:4). “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God!” (Luke 12:31).
Holiness in Your Vocation—Enrollment Starts Now!
St. Louis de Montfort puts it very clearly: “Chosen soul, living image of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, God wants you to become holy like Him in this life, and glorious like Him in the next (Matthew 5:48). It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you and for which He is even now keeping you in being. What a marvelous transformation is possible! Dust into light, uncleanness into purity, sinfulness into holiness, creature into Creator, man into God! A marvelous work, I repeat, so difficult in itself, and even impossible for a mere creature to bring about, for only God can accomplish it by giving His grace abundantly and in an extraordinary manner. The very creation of the universe is not as great an achievement as this. Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you?” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary).
The Life That Really Matters
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange stresses that the spiritual life is the optimal life, or the highest form of life we can lead—being superior to our intellectual, social, economic and political life: “Little by little, instead of seeking himself in everything, instead of tending more or less consciously to make himself a center, man tends to seek God in everything, and to substitute for egoism, the love of God and the love of souls in Him. The one thing necessary, which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary, consists in hearing the word of God and living by it. The interior life thus conceived is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social or political life ... Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science as if God did not exist. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
“There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul ... If people sacrifice so many things to save the life of the body, which must ultimately die, what should we not sacrifice to save the life of our soul, which is to last forever? … Religion, the interior life, must be profound, must be a true life of union with God if it is to keep the pre-eminence it should have over scientific and social activities. This is a manifest necessity” (Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Part 1, Introduction).
Get Started!
“Consider all the past as nothing, and say, like David: ‘Now I begin to love my God!’” (St. Francis de Sales). It was in this manner that the Apostle St. Paul acted; though, after his conversion, he had become a vessel of election, filled with the spirit of Jesus Christ, yet, to persevere and advance along Heaven’s way, he made use of this means, for he said in his Epistle to the Philippians: “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do―forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press towards the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus!”
The glorious St. Anthony went on from day to day, stimulating himself to virtue. St. Anastasius said of him, that he always looked upon himself as a beginner, as if every day were the first in which he was serving God, and as if in the past he had done nothing good, and were but just setting foot in the way of the Lord, and taking the first steps on the road to Heaven. And this was the very last admonition he left to his monks at his death: “My sons,” he said to them, “if you wish to advance in virtue and perfection, never give up the practice of considering each day that you are then beginning, and of conducting yourselves always as you did on the day you began.”
We find that St. Gregory, St. Bernard, and St. Charles acted likewise and advised others to act in the same manner. To make the necessity and utility of this method clearer to all, they made use of two beautiful comparisons, saying, that we must act in this like travelers, who do not regard the road they have gone over, but, rather, what remains for them to traverse, and this they keep always before their eyes, even to their journey’s end; or, like merchants, eager for riches, who make no account of what they have so far acquired, nor of the fatigue they have borne, but put all their thought and care upon new acquisitions, and upon daily multiplying their possessions, as if in the past they had made no profit at all.
Resolutions, Resolutions and More Resolutions!
St. Francis de Sales stated that: “We must begin with a strong and constant resolution to give ourselves wholly to God, professing to Him, in a tender, loving manner, from the bottom of our hearts, that we intend to be His without any reserve, and then we must often go back and renew this same resolution.”
One of the means for the acquisition of perfection, which was chiefly inculcated and much practiced by St. Philip Neri, was a frequent renewal of good resolutions. St. Francis de Sales made, from time to time, a spiritual renovation, and always conceived in it new desires to serve God better.
St. John Berchmans, at his very entrance into religion, planted in his heart a strong resolution to become a Saint, and then he not only remained constant in all the practices and resolutions which he took up for this end, but he went on daily gaining new vigor to his spiritual advantage.
When a holy Religious was giving the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in Rome, a nun, called Sr. Marie Bonaventura, who was living a very easy and relaxed life, did not wish to be present. After much effort, she was finally persuaded to attend. The first meditation, on the end of man, enkindled such fervor in her heart, that the priest had scarcely finished when she called him to her, and said: “Father, I intend to be a Saint, and quickly!” She then retired to her cell, and, writing the same words on a scrap of paper, fastened them to the foot of her crucifix. From that moment, she applied herself with so much zeal to the practice of perfection, that a memoir about her was written at her death, which occurred eleven months later.
God Wants Everyone to be Holy—Even the Greatest Sinner
St. Teresa of Avila explains that “The Lord chiefly desires of us that we should be completely perfect, so that we may be wholly one with Him. Let us aim, therefore, at whatever we need to reach this.”
Father Peter Faber, a companion of St. Ignatius, and highly esteemed by St. Francis de Sales, often dwelt on the thought that God greatly desires our advancement. And so he endeavored to grow constantly, and not to let a day pass without some progress in virtue, so that he gradually rose to great perfection and a high reputation for sanctity. St. Pacomius and St. Anthony, by studying the virtues of others, stimulated themselves to attain similar excellence.
The Terraces of Perfection
The Venerable Sister Mary Villani had the following vision. On the Feast of St. Francis, for whom she had a particular devotion, this Saint appeared to her and led her to a lofty place, more beautiful than any she had ever seen.
To reach it, one was obliged to ascend four very high terraces, which signified, as the Saint revealed to her, the four degrees of perfection. We stress here that we are speaking of levels of PERFECTION, and not therefore about the lower levels of the spiritual life, which are the first or lowest level of the Way of Beginners or Way of Purgation; and the middle level or Way of Proficients or the Illuminative Way, which leads to the third way, the Way of the Perfect or the Unitive Way. These four terraces are within the Way of the Perfect or the Unitive Way.
With great difficulty she ascended, by his help, the first terrace, and he explained to her that this was the first state of perfection, called purity of conscience, which borders on angelic purity. In it the soul becomes like that of a little child, enjoys a pure and holy tranquility, never thinks evil of others, nor interests itself in what does not belong to its own position.
Then he brought her up to the second terrace, telling her that whoever had arrived at purity of conscience, becomes capable of prayer and of true love, which is the inseparable fruit of prayer. Here he enumerated to her the properties of true love, which is pure, simple, unselfish, and founded upon the truth of God, who can give Himself only to souls already possessed of purity.
Then he raised her to the third terrace, that of the cross and mortification, adding that from purity and love the soul passes on to taking up the cross courageously and to being itself crucified, and that to arrive at this state one must acquire four cardinal virtues. These are, a true mortification of all vices and of every earthly affection; a perfect poverty of spirit, which tramples under foot all temporal goods; a living death, by which the soul dies to itself and to all affections of sense, and lives in a total annihilation and transformation into its crucified Lord, so as to be able to say: “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” The soul that has gained this state, seems to have conquered the world, and bears sufferings and crosses as if it could no longer feel them.
The fourth terrace, he said, typified the state of real and perfect union. This is the required level for entry into Heaven. There is no exception for anyone, for only saints go to Heaven. This Advent season is a seedbed of sanctity for those who choose to detach themselves from the world and attach themselves more to God through a serious and systematic spiritual life—which is very much different from the common half-hearted, haphazard, part-time spirituality of most souls. Let us for once use Advent profitably!
St. Louis de Montfort has that beautiful prayer entitled Jesus Living in Mary, which is exactly what should be happening with us, especially during this Advent season. The prayer reads as follows:
O Jesus living in Mary
Come and live in Thy servants;
In the spirit of Thy holiness,
In the fullness of Thy might,
In the truth of Thy virtues,
In the perfection of Thy ways,
In the communion of Thy mysteries,
Subdue every hostile power,
In Thy spirit, for the glory of the Father. Amen.
Spiritual Womb
In the last article we spoke of St. Augustine’s statement that, while living in this world, we are, as it were, in the spiritual womb of Mary, living and growing in her protective womb until the happy day she gives birth to us in Heaven.
The whole point of normal, natural, healthy life is gradual, steady, progressive growth. The same is true for our spiritual life. Yet, in that area, most people are satisfied even if there is no growth at all. It is not uncommon to see persons in the middle or later stages of their life, in whom there is little or no spiritual growth or progress: the same sins are being committed and confessed year after year without any real reduction in quantities or frequencies; and the appetite and intensity for acquiring new virtues, or improving the quality of the ones already possessed, is almost non-existent.
If that phenomenon were translated to a baby’s state or condition in its mother’s womb, then both mother and doctor would be alarmed and worried about the future of the child.
Relating the Spiritual to the Physical
Our spiritual life is much more important than our natural or physiological life. If we die physically, we can still go to Heaven (if we die in God’s grace); but if we die spiritually, then Hell is the only option. It is like a spiritual abortion.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange―arguably the 20th century’s greatest theologian in relation to the spiritual life―compares the spiritual life to our physical life―though he begins his comparisons, not from the womb-stage, but after birth. But the idea of growth and progress is the same. In his book, The Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life, he writes:
“The development of the interior life has often been compared to the three periods or stages of physical life―childhood, youth, and manhood. St. Thomas himself has indicated this analogy―and it is an analogy which is worth pursuing, particular attention being paid to the transition from one period to the other.
“It is generally admitted that childhood lasts until the age of puberty, about fourteen years of age; though early childhood, or infancy, ceases at the dawn of reason, about the age of seven. Youth, or adolescence, lasts from the age of fourteen to twenty. Then follows manhood, in which we may distinguish the period which precedes full maturity, about the age of thirty-five, and that which follows it, before the decline of old age sets in.
“Most important to be noticed, for the purposes of our present subject, is the transition from childhood to adolescence and from youth to manhood.
He Who Makes No Progress, Loses Ground
“The period of puberty, at the end of childhood, about the age of fourteen, is characterized by a transformation [from being a beginner in life, to someone more proficient]. The youth is no longer content to follow his imagination, as the child was; he begins to reflect on the things of human life, on the need to prepare himself for some career or occupation in the future. He has no longer the child’s attitude towards family, social and religious matters. Or else, on the contrary, if he passes unsuccessfully through this difficult period, he deteriorates and follows evil courses. The law of nature so ordains that the transition from childhood to youth must follow a normal development; otherwise the subject will assume a positive bias to evil, or else he will remain a half-wit, perhaps even a complete idiot, for the rest of his life. ‘He who makes no progress loses ground.’
Arrested Spiritual Development
“It is at this point that the analogy becomes illuminating for the spiritual life. We shall see that the beginner who fails to become a proficient, either turns to sin or else presents an example of arrested spiritual development. Here, too, it is true that ‘he who makes no progress loses ground’ ― as the Fathers of the Church have so often pointed out.
“Let us pursue the analogy further. If the physical and moral crisis of puberty is a difficult transition, the same is to be said of another crisis, which we may call the crisis of the first freedom, and which occurs at the stage where the youth enters manhood, about the age of twenty. The young man, having now reached his complete physical development, has to begin to take his place in social life. It will soon be time for him to marry and to become an educator in his turn, unless he has received from God a higher vocation still. Many fail to surmount this crisis of the first freedom, and, like the prodigal son, depart from their father’s house and confuse liberty with license. Here again the law ordains that the transition must be made normally; otherwise the young man either takes the wrong road, or else his development is arrested and he becomes one of those of whom it is said: ‘He will be a child for the whole of his life.’
The Need of Conversion
“The liturgy, especially at periods such as Advent and Lent, speaks often of the need of conversion, even for those who are leading a Christian life. Spiritual writers also refer often to this second conversion, necessary for the Christian who, though he has thought seriously of his salvation and made an effort to walk in the way of God, has nevertheless begun once more to follow the bent of his nature and to fall into a state of tepidity—like an engrafted plant reverting to its wild state ... This question is of the greatest interest for every spiritual soul.
“In the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, we read the following words of God to her: ‘If they do not recognize their imperfection and desire to become perfect, it is impossible that they should not turn back.’ This is what the Fathers have so often asserted: ‘In the way of God he who makes no progress loses ground.’ Just as the child who does not grow does not merely remain a child but becomes an idiot, so the beginner who does not enter upon the way of proficients when he ought to, does not merely remain a beginner, but becomes a stunted soul. It would seem, unhappily, that the great majority of souls do not belong to any of these three categories, of beginners, proficients or perfect, but rather to that of stunted souls! At what stage are we ourselves? This is often a very difficult question to answer, and it would perhaps be vain curiosity to inquire at what point we have arrived in our upward path; but at least we must take care not to mistake the road, not to take a path that leads downwards.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life).
So, coming back to St. Augustine’s thought of our being in Mary’s spiritual womb in this life, as we await birth into Heaven, let us not neglect that spiritual growth, that only comes with spiritual work and exercises, or we may be victims of ‘stunted-growth’ or, worse still, a spiritual abortion or spiritual miscarriage!
This Advent is like a spiritual womb, in which we await the birth of our Savior, let it be time well spent more on spiritual matters than the material matters that so often lead to that spiritual abortion or a spiritual miscarriage!
The first thing to do is to make sure we have a healthy habitat for that growth. If we are, as St. Augustine says, in Mary’s spiritual womb, then we have to make sure that the womb is intact and healthy. This translates to two things: (1) It is intact if we have a devotion to Our Lady; (2) It is healthy if that devotion is a true devotion and not a one of the false devotions listed by St. Louis de Montfort (cf. True Devotion to Mary, §92-§104), where he lists them: “I find seven kinds of false devotees and false devotions to Our Lady, namely: (1) the critical devotees; (2) the scrupulous devotees; (3) the external devotees; (4) the presumptuous devotees; (5) the inconstant devotees; (6) the hypocritical devotees; (7) the interested devotees.”
Why on earth is Christ Coming?
Our Lord came to seek and save those who are lost—in fact we are all lost, for we are all sinners: “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance” (Luke 5:32). “If we say that we have not sinned, then we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:10). “I am the vine―you ae the branches! He that abided in Me, and I in him, the same beard much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). He wants us to be saints, not sinners, and not lukewarm: “I know your works, that you are neither cold, nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot! But because you are lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, then I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth! Because you say: ‘I am rich and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ And you do not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked! I counsel you to buy from Me gold that is fire tried, so that you may be made rich; and may be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, so that you may see! Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise! Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:15-19). “I say to you: unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3). “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Not everyone that says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21). “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48).
Getting the Right Mindset
“Every tree that brings not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire!” (Matthew 7:19) … “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees! Every tree therefore that brings not forth good fruit, shall be cut down and cast into the fire!” (Luke 3:9). “If anyone abides not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he will burn!” (John 15:6). If we do not have the mindset of striving to become a saint in this life, then we sadly have the wrong mindset. We will do damage, not only to ourselves, but to those around us also. There is no excuse of hiding behind the fact that we are sinners, for that is exactly whom Our Lord came to seek out and save—He came to call sinners to penance; to call sinners to a holiness of life; to call sinners to sanctity; to call sinners to Heaven.
Your Vocation Starts Now!
The Advent liturgy tells us clearly in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans: “Now the hour for us to rise from sleep! For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed! The night is passed, and the day is at hand! Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light! Let us walk honestly, as in the day―not in partying and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy―but put on the Lord Jesus Christ! And make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences!” (Romans 13:11-14). For how many years have we procrastinated about getting serious about our sanctity and salvation? Read about Purgatory and see what happens to those who put-off putting-on Christ—it makes for painful reading! We are called to holiness, for only saints go to Heaven, but we still play too much with the world, which is the enemy of God: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God?” (James 4:4). “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God!” (Luke 12:31).
Holiness in Your Vocation—Enrollment Starts Now!
St. Louis de Montfort puts it very clearly: “Chosen soul, living image of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, God wants you to become holy like Him in this life, and glorious like Him in the next (Matthew 5:48). It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you and for which He is even now keeping you in being. What a marvelous transformation is possible! Dust into light, uncleanness into purity, sinfulness into holiness, creature into Creator, man into God! A marvelous work, I repeat, so difficult in itself, and even impossible for a mere creature to bring about, for only God can accomplish it by giving His grace abundantly and in an extraordinary manner. The very creation of the universe is not as great an achievement as this. Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you?” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary).
The Life That Really Matters
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange stresses that the spiritual life is the optimal life, or the highest form of life we can lead—being superior to our intellectual, social, economic and political life: “Little by little, instead of seeking himself in everything, instead of tending more or less consciously to make himself a center, man tends to seek God in everything, and to substitute for egoism, the love of God and the love of souls in Him. The one thing necessary, which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary, consists in hearing the word of God and living by it. The interior life thus conceived is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social or political life ... Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science as if God did not exist. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
“There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul ... If people sacrifice so many things to save the life of the body, which must ultimately die, what should we not sacrifice to save the life of our soul, which is to last forever? … Religion, the interior life, must be profound, must be a true life of union with God if it is to keep the pre-eminence it should have over scientific and social activities. This is a manifest necessity” (Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Part 1, Introduction).
Get Started!
“Consider all the past as nothing, and say, like David: ‘Now I begin to love my God!’” (St. Francis de Sales). It was in this manner that the Apostle St. Paul acted; though, after his conversion, he had become a vessel of election, filled with the spirit of Jesus Christ, yet, to persevere and advance along Heaven’s way, he made use of this means, for he said in his Epistle to the Philippians: “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do―forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press towards the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus!”
The glorious St. Anthony went on from day to day, stimulating himself to virtue. St. Anastasius said of him, that he always looked upon himself as a beginner, as if every day were the first in which he was serving God, and as if in the past he had done nothing good, and were but just setting foot in the way of the Lord, and taking the first steps on the road to Heaven. And this was the very last admonition he left to his monks at his death: “My sons,” he said to them, “if you wish to advance in virtue and perfection, never give up the practice of considering each day that you are then beginning, and of conducting yourselves always as you did on the day you began.”
We find that St. Gregory, St. Bernard, and St. Charles acted likewise and advised others to act in the same manner. To make the necessity and utility of this method clearer to all, they made use of two beautiful comparisons, saying, that we must act in this like travelers, who do not regard the road they have gone over, but, rather, what remains for them to traverse, and this they keep always before their eyes, even to their journey’s end; or, like merchants, eager for riches, who make no account of what they have so far acquired, nor of the fatigue they have borne, but put all their thought and care upon new acquisitions, and upon daily multiplying their possessions, as if in the past they had made no profit at all.
Resolutions, Resolutions and More Resolutions!
St. Francis de Sales stated that: “We must begin with a strong and constant resolution to give ourselves wholly to God, professing to Him, in a tender, loving manner, from the bottom of our hearts, that we intend to be His without any reserve, and then we must often go back and renew this same resolution.”
One of the means for the acquisition of perfection, which was chiefly inculcated and much practiced by St. Philip Neri, was a frequent renewal of good resolutions. St. Francis de Sales made, from time to time, a spiritual renovation, and always conceived in it new desires to serve God better.
St. John Berchmans, at his very entrance into religion, planted in his heart a strong resolution to become a Saint, and then he not only remained constant in all the practices and resolutions which he took up for this end, but he went on daily gaining new vigor to his spiritual advantage.
When a holy Religious was giving the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in Rome, a nun, called Sr. Marie Bonaventura, who was living a very easy and relaxed life, did not wish to be present. After much effort, she was finally persuaded to attend. The first meditation, on the end of man, enkindled such fervor in her heart, that the priest had scarcely finished when she called him to her, and said: “Father, I intend to be a Saint, and quickly!” She then retired to her cell, and, writing the same words on a scrap of paper, fastened them to the foot of her crucifix. From that moment, she applied herself with so much zeal to the practice of perfection, that a memoir about her was written at her death, which occurred eleven months later.
God Wants Everyone to be Holy—Even the Greatest Sinner
St. Teresa of Avila explains that “The Lord chiefly desires of us that we should be completely perfect, so that we may be wholly one with Him. Let us aim, therefore, at whatever we need to reach this.”
Father Peter Faber, a companion of St. Ignatius, and highly esteemed by St. Francis de Sales, often dwelt on the thought that God greatly desires our advancement. And so he endeavored to grow constantly, and not to let a day pass without some progress in virtue, so that he gradually rose to great perfection and a high reputation for sanctity. St. Pacomius and St. Anthony, by studying the virtues of others, stimulated themselves to attain similar excellence.
The Terraces of Perfection
The Venerable Sister Mary Villani had the following vision. On the Feast of St. Francis, for whom she had a particular devotion, this Saint appeared to her and led her to a lofty place, more beautiful than any she had ever seen.
To reach it, one was obliged to ascend four very high terraces, which signified, as the Saint revealed to her, the four degrees of perfection. We stress here that we are speaking of levels of PERFECTION, and not therefore about the lower levels of the spiritual life, which are the first or lowest level of the Way of Beginners or Way of Purgation; and the middle level or Way of Proficients or the Illuminative Way, which leads to the third way, the Way of the Perfect or the Unitive Way. These four terraces are within the Way of the Perfect or the Unitive Way.
With great difficulty she ascended, by his help, the first terrace, and he explained to her that this was the first state of perfection, called purity of conscience, which borders on angelic purity. In it the soul becomes like that of a little child, enjoys a pure and holy tranquility, never thinks evil of others, nor interests itself in what does not belong to its own position.
Then he brought her up to the second terrace, telling her that whoever had arrived at purity of conscience, becomes capable of prayer and of true love, which is the inseparable fruit of prayer. Here he enumerated to her the properties of true love, which is pure, simple, unselfish, and founded upon the truth of God, who can give Himself only to souls already possessed of purity.
Then he raised her to the third terrace, that of the cross and mortification, adding that from purity and love the soul passes on to taking up the cross courageously and to being itself crucified, and that to arrive at this state one must acquire four cardinal virtues. These are, a true mortification of all vices and of every earthly affection; a perfect poverty of spirit, which tramples under foot all temporal goods; a living death, by which the soul dies to itself and to all affections of sense, and lives in a total annihilation and transformation into its crucified Lord, so as to be able to say: “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” The soul that has gained this state, seems to have conquered the world, and bears sufferings and crosses as if it could no longer feel them.
The fourth terrace, he said, typified the state of real and perfect union. This is the required level for entry into Heaven. There is no exception for anyone, for only saints go to Heaven. This Advent season is a seedbed of sanctity for those who choose to detach themselves from the world and attach themselves more to God through a serious and systematic spiritual life—which is very much different from the common half-hearted, haphazard, part-time spirituality of most souls. Let us for once use Advent profitably!
Article 3
Tuesday December 2nd
Mary is the Way! Is She Your Way? Or Have You Lost Your Way?
Tuesday December 2nd
Mary is the Way! Is She Your Way? Or Have You Lost Your Way?
No Mother? No Son!
Advent is, par excellence, the time of the Divine Maternity, the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin, as she draws ever closer to giving birth to God’s Greatest Gift for fallen human nature. During Advent, we should not lose focus of Our Lady, for without her there is no Christmas; without her, God will not be born into this world. It is her cooperation with God that has brought about the Incarnation—God becoming flesh, becoming man so as to save and redeem mankind. But for mankind to be saved and redeemed, Christ our Savior has to be born into our souls.
Our Lady also wants Jesus to be our whole life, and she is willing to help give birth to Jesus in our life, so that He may grow and occupy and whole life, just as He did hers. This is, in essence, what St. Louis de Montfort is trying to say in his book, True Devotion to Mary. It is TOTAL consecration, a TOTAL giving of self in return for the TOTAL giving that Christ and His Mother showed towards us poor sinful creatures. The following quotes, taken from different sections of the book, will try to show this picture of Mary as the birth-giver of Jesus in our lives.
“God having willed to commence and to complete His greatest works by the most holy Virgin ever since He created her―we may well think He will not change His conduct in the eternal ages; for He is God, and He changes not, either in His sentiments or in His conduct.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only begotten to the world. Whatever sighs the patriarchs may have sent forth, whatever prayers the prophets and the saints of the Old Law may have offered up to obtain this treasure for full four thousand years, it was only Mary who merited it and found grace before God (Luke 1:30) by the force of her prayers and the eminence of her virtues. The world was unworthy, says St. Augustine, to receive the Son of God directly from the Father’s hands. He gave Him to Mary in order that the world might receive Him through her. The Son of God became man for our salvation; but it was in Mary and by Mary” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
A Time of Darkness
The commentators of Holy Scripture tell us that God waited until the world was in darkness before giving them the Light that was to be Christ. Christ will be born in the darkest time of the year, when the hours of light are very few and darkness rules most of the day. Christ is also born in the middle of the night. Night is symbolical of evil when the evil ones like to do their work under the secrecy of darkness, as Psalm 103 says: “it is night: in it shall all the beasts of the woods go about.” ... “I beheld in the vision of the night, and lo, a fourth beast, terrible and exceedingly strong, it had great iron teeth, eating and breaking in pieces, and treading down the rest with its feet” (Daniel 7:7).
Though we look upon Christmas as a season of light, the truth is, the time of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ was filled with darkness. Speaking of the future birth of the Christ child, centuries beforehand, Isaias says: “The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen” (Isaias 9:2). It was a time of gloom, anguish, and contempt for religion; a time when the Chosen People of God, once slaves in Egypt and in Babylon, were now enslaved in their own country under Roman rule. God chose a time for the coming of His Son, which would at a low ebb, a time of dejection and despondency, a time of impotence and powerlessness.
Mary Offers a Light in Our Darkness
Just as Mary was needed to bring Christ into their darkness way back then; so too is Mary necessary to bring Christ into our darkness today. Mary came before Jesus over 2,000 years ago; Mary must come again before Jesus in our darkness today. She is the Mother who gives the world her Child, without her, we will receive nothing. That is why we are, by God’s Providence, currently living what is called “The Age of Mary”—which began with Our Lady’s apparitions to St. Catherine Labouré in 1830 and which will ends its period of gestation or pregnancy with the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is why God wishes to establish, in the world, devotion to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. The knocking on the doors of the houses of Bethlehem is taking place all over again, as Mary seeks entrance into our minds, hearts and lives, in order to give birth to the Light of World into our own pervading darkness. Will we open the door? Will we let her in with her Child? Here is what St. John says of those to whom Christ tried to come over 2,000 years ago:
“In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it … That was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:4-11).
Yet as the people of Bethlehem were preoccupied with themselves and their poor worldliness, and so refused entrance to Mary, today we find the modern world is doing the same thing. Just as it was around four centuries since the word of God was properly heard among the Israelites, so too we have over four centuries since the Protestant Revolution had been fully born in Europe by the end of the Sixteenth Century and at the start of the 1600s. Likewise, as the Jews found several factions battling among themselves for the control of the people (Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots), so too we have the Traditionalists, Conservatives, Liberals and Modernists fighting to control the Church today.
Similarly, as the Jerusalem saw herself under Roman occupation, the New Jerusalem, the Church, finds herself today occupied also, as, in the words of Pope Paul VI, the smoke of Satan has entered into the Church. Today we have our own darkness as the Jews had theirs 2,000 years ago. Satan has also long since entered into politics―and we can see Satan rearing his ugly head right now, in the satanic crisis he has concocted through his human minions and worshipers. What will our response be to the solution that God sends? We will accept it, or carry on doing our own thing and reject it?
Advent Brings Jesus with His Baggage!
A big family may be part of God’s plan, but it’s not “piece-of-cake” running one, or being part of one. That, too, must be part of God’s plan: the cross. Advent, and its spilling over into Christmas, is the time of families par excellence. During Advent we await a new-born Child; after Advent comes life together with the new-born Child. God’s providence gives Mary and Joseph abundant crosses both before and after the birth of Christ!
Jesus Brings Trouble Upon Trouble
Jesus seems to bring nothing but trouble! As soon as Mary gives her “fiat” or consent to be the Mother of God, trouble starts brewing! Immediately after conceiving Jesus in her womb, she undergoes a dangerous 100 mile trek to go the assistance of her cousin St. Elizabeth, who is also with child. Let us remember that travel, in those days, was not the fast, secure, comfortable and safe undertaking that it is for us today. No cars, no buses, no trains, no planes. The usual means of travel was by foot. The roads were not paved, nor asphalted. There was no street lighting. No hotels or motels for overnight stops, with heating, running-water, electric lights, toilets, baths and showers; shelter from the cold, wind and rain. No guarantee of safety, with robbers abounding on those long lonely, uninhabited roads through desert and mountain stretches. No cell phone for emergencies; no police to come to the rescue; no convenience stores for the hungry, thirsty traveler.
Does God Care?
After making her the Mother of God and placing His Only-Begotten Son in her womb, why does God subject his most beloved and most precious masterpiece to a 100 mile walk; risking life and limb; having to sleep out in the open, exposed to the attendant bugs and reptiles that abound; eating little and walking much, etc. etc. It brings to mind the case of St. Teresa of Avila, who, as she is trying to go around the country in an effort to reform the Carmelite Order for the greater glory of God, ends up meeting with one setback after another, from persons, places things and the climate. Finally, in a pique of indignation, she questions God as to why on Earth He is letting all these things happen to her when she is trying to work for His glory. The famous response she got was: “But Teresa, I treat all my friends like that!” To which she even more famously retorted: “Then I’m not surprised that You have so few of them!”
Then, right after the three month visitation with Elizabeth, Mary has to undergo the trials and pains of Joseph preparing to abandon her, because he had noticed that she was with child, and this was ‘tearing him up.’ Holy though they both were, God did not spare Mary or Joseph this excruciating torment and strain—until, finally, and angel tells Joseph what has really happened.
Reading some of the revelations that Our Lady has made to the mystics, we see that these two cases were not isolated bouts of suffering and trial, but a regular daily dose that God administered to them. Our Lady revealed to one of the mystics that there was not one day in her whole life that she did not suffer greatly, one way or another, for the glory of God and for the salvation of souls.
Bread and Butter
Suffering is the “bread and butter” of God’s friends. It is why Our Lord said: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24); and this was echoed by Our Lady to St. Bernadette of Lourdes, when she said that she would not make Bernadette happy in this world, but in the next. We can be sure that, humanly speaking, Bernadette was just as disappointed in hearing those words as the Apostles must have been at the Last Supper, when Jesus said to them: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she has brought forth the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world” (John 16:20-21).
Advent in the Womb
During Advent, Mary carries Jesus in her womb; after Advent, she will carry Him in her arms; after Lent He will have died her arms. She knows that she is bringing Him into world, so that He may die for the world. She will give Him to the world, so that He may lead souls away from the world. She knows too, that He who made the world, will be hated by the world. The world of Mary’s womb, is more of a paradise that the world into which He will find Himself thrust.
Mother and Son
Children take on the attitudes, opinions, language, characteristics and manner of acting that they witness in their parents. We say: “Like father, like son!” ... “Like mother, like daughter!” It is only natural, and it is also supernatural. As Jesus died on the Cross, He addressed Our Lady and St. John, saying: “‘Woman, behold thy son!’ After that, He said to the disciple: ‘Behold thy Mother!’ And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own” (John 19:26-27). From that hour, too, Mary took him for her son. Yet, as the commentators say, those words also apply to us. She is our spiritual Mother also; and we are her spiritual children.
Living in Mary’s Womb
This reminds us of the words of St. Augustine, quoted by St. Louis de Montfort in his True Devotion to Mary: “St. Augustine, surpassing himself, and going beyond all I have yet said, affirms that all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin, where they are guarded, nourished, brought up and made to grow by that good Mother until she has brought them forth to glory after death, which is properly the day of their birth.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“God the Holy Ghost, being barren in God―that is to say, not producing another Divine Person―is become fruitful by Mary, whom He has espoused. It was with her, in her, and of her that He produced His Masterpiece, which is God made Man, and that He goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head ... (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
God Wants More Children Through Mary
“God the Father wishes to have children by Mary till the consummation of the world ... Just as in the natural and corporal generation of children there are a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there are a Father, who is God, and a Mother, who is Mary. All the true children of God, the predestinate, have God for their Father and Mary for their Mother. He who has not Mary for his Mother has not God for his Father.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“God the Son wishes to form Himself, and, so to speak, to incarnate Himself in His members every day, by His dear Mother ... One and the same mother does not bring forth into the world the head without the members, or the members without the head; for this would be a monster of nature. So in like manner, in the order of grace, the head and the members are born of one and the same Mother; and if a member of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ―that is to say, one of the predestinate―were born of any other mother than Mary, who has produced the Head, he would not be one of the predestinate, nor a member of Jesus Christ, but simply a monster in the order of grace.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“When Mary has struck her roots in a soul, she produces there marvels of grace, which she alone can produce, because she alone is the fruitful Virgin who never has had, and never will have, her equal in purity and in fruitfulness. Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has been or ever will be―a God Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest saints that there will be in the end of time. The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for her. For it is only that singular and miraculous Virgin who can produce, in union with the Holy Ghost, singular and extraordinary things.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“When the Holy Ghost, her Spouse, has found Mary in a soul, He flies there. He enters there in His fullness; He communicates Himself to that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to which it makes room for His spouse. Nay, one of the greatest reasons why the Holy Ghost does not now do startling wonders in our souls is because He does not find there a sufficiently great union with His faithful and inseparable spouse.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Similarly for us. If we want to follow Jesus and Mary to an eternal happiness, we must be prepared for temporal suffering: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross.” We have to make a choice―God or the Devil; good or evil; Heaven or the world. There is not and cannot be any compromise or fraternity between them. “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers! What fellowship does light have with darkness? And what agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what part do the faithful have with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God! As God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). When Our Lord says: “You cannot serve God and mammon”, He is not joking. When St. James writes: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4) he is not joking. When Jesus tells the young man: “Go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come follow Me” He is not joking.
We can be very easily brainwashed—by the devil, the world and the flesh—into believing the contrary. We rationalize, water-down, twist, filter, cover-up, ignore or forget those words of God and His saints that seem to command, demand and reprimand too much. We fallaciously argue and debate with ourselves, saying: “Hold on! Take it easy! Don’t go overboard! Remember that true virtue is a balance between two extremes—those of excess and neglect. So to be sure of being virtuous, I will not be excessively worldly, nor will I be excessively spiritual; and neither will I neglect the ways of the world, nor will I neglect God!” All of this is the false reasoning of Satan and the world that we too easily accept.
Advent is, par excellence, the time of the Divine Maternity, the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin, as she draws ever closer to giving birth to God’s Greatest Gift for fallen human nature. During Advent, we should not lose focus of Our Lady, for without her there is no Christmas; without her, God will not be born into this world. It is her cooperation with God that has brought about the Incarnation—God becoming flesh, becoming man so as to save and redeem mankind. But for mankind to be saved and redeemed, Christ our Savior has to be born into our souls.
Our Lady also wants Jesus to be our whole life, and she is willing to help give birth to Jesus in our life, so that He may grow and occupy and whole life, just as He did hers. This is, in essence, what St. Louis de Montfort is trying to say in his book, True Devotion to Mary. It is TOTAL consecration, a TOTAL giving of self in return for the TOTAL giving that Christ and His Mother showed towards us poor sinful creatures. The following quotes, taken from different sections of the book, will try to show this picture of Mary as the birth-giver of Jesus in our lives.
“God having willed to commence and to complete His greatest works by the most holy Virgin ever since He created her―we may well think He will not change His conduct in the eternal ages; for He is God, and He changes not, either in His sentiments or in His conduct.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only begotten to the world. Whatever sighs the patriarchs may have sent forth, whatever prayers the prophets and the saints of the Old Law may have offered up to obtain this treasure for full four thousand years, it was only Mary who merited it and found grace before God (Luke 1:30) by the force of her prayers and the eminence of her virtues. The world was unworthy, says St. Augustine, to receive the Son of God directly from the Father’s hands. He gave Him to Mary in order that the world might receive Him through her. The Son of God became man for our salvation; but it was in Mary and by Mary” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
A Time of Darkness
The commentators of Holy Scripture tell us that God waited until the world was in darkness before giving them the Light that was to be Christ. Christ will be born in the darkest time of the year, when the hours of light are very few and darkness rules most of the day. Christ is also born in the middle of the night. Night is symbolical of evil when the evil ones like to do their work under the secrecy of darkness, as Psalm 103 says: “it is night: in it shall all the beasts of the woods go about.” ... “I beheld in the vision of the night, and lo, a fourth beast, terrible and exceedingly strong, it had great iron teeth, eating and breaking in pieces, and treading down the rest with its feet” (Daniel 7:7).
Though we look upon Christmas as a season of light, the truth is, the time of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ was filled with darkness. Speaking of the future birth of the Christ child, centuries beforehand, Isaias says: “The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen” (Isaias 9:2). It was a time of gloom, anguish, and contempt for religion; a time when the Chosen People of God, once slaves in Egypt and in Babylon, were now enslaved in their own country under Roman rule. God chose a time for the coming of His Son, which would at a low ebb, a time of dejection and despondency, a time of impotence and powerlessness.
Mary Offers a Light in Our Darkness
Just as Mary was needed to bring Christ into their darkness way back then; so too is Mary necessary to bring Christ into our darkness today. Mary came before Jesus over 2,000 years ago; Mary must come again before Jesus in our darkness today. She is the Mother who gives the world her Child, without her, we will receive nothing. That is why we are, by God’s Providence, currently living what is called “The Age of Mary”—which began with Our Lady’s apparitions to St. Catherine Labouré in 1830 and which will ends its period of gestation or pregnancy with the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is why God wishes to establish, in the world, devotion to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. The knocking on the doors of the houses of Bethlehem is taking place all over again, as Mary seeks entrance into our minds, hearts and lives, in order to give birth to the Light of World into our own pervading darkness. Will we open the door? Will we let her in with her Child? Here is what St. John says of those to whom Christ tried to come over 2,000 years ago:
“In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it … That was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:4-11).
Yet as the people of Bethlehem were preoccupied with themselves and their poor worldliness, and so refused entrance to Mary, today we find the modern world is doing the same thing. Just as it was around four centuries since the word of God was properly heard among the Israelites, so too we have over four centuries since the Protestant Revolution had been fully born in Europe by the end of the Sixteenth Century and at the start of the 1600s. Likewise, as the Jews found several factions battling among themselves for the control of the people (Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots), so too we have the Traditionalists, Conservatives, Liberals and Modernists fighting to control the Church today.
Similarly, as the Jerusalem saw herself under Roman occupation, the New Jerusalem, the Church, finds herself today occupied also, as, in the words of Pope Paul VI, the smoke of Satan has entered into the Church. Today we have our own darkness as the Jews had theirs 2,000 years ago. Satan has also long since entered into politics―and we can see Satan rearing his ugly head right now, in the satanic crisis he has concocted through his human minions and worshipers. What will our response be to the solution that God sends? We will accept it, or carry on doing our own thing and reject it?
Advent Brings Jesus with His Baggage!
A big family may be part of God’s plan, but it’s not “piece-of-cake” running one, or being part of one. That, too, must be part of God’s plan: the cross. Advent, and its spilling over into Christmas, is the time of families par excellence. During Advent we await a new-born Child; after Advent comes life together with the new-born Child. God’s providence gives Mary and Joseph abundant crosses both before and after the birth of Christ!
Jesus Brings Trouble Upon Trouble
Jesus seems to bring nothing but trouble! As soon as Mary gives her “fiat” or consent to be the Mother of God, trouble starts brewing! Immediately after conceiving Jesus in her womb, she undergoes a dangerous 100 mile trek to go the assistance of her cousin St. Elizabeth, who is also with child. Let us remember that travel, in those days, was not the fast, secure, comfortable and safe undertaking that it is for us today. No cars, no buses, no trains, no planes. The usual means of travel was by foot. The roads were not paved, nor asphalted. There was no street lighting. No hotels or motels for overnight stops, with heating, running-water, electric lights, toilets, baths and showers; shelter from the cold, wind and rain. No guarantee of safety, with robbers abounding on those long lonely, uninhabited roads through desert and mountain stretches. No cell phone for emergencies; no police to come to the rescue; no convenience stores for the hungry, thirsty traveler.
Does God Care?
After making her the Mother of God and placing His Only-Begotten Son in her womb, why does God subject his most beloved and most precious masterpiece to a 100 mile walk; risking life and limb; having to sleep out in the open, exposed to the attendant bugs and reptiles that abound; eating little and walking much, etc. etc. It brings to mind the case of St. Teresa of Avila, who, as she is trying to go around the country in an effort to reform the Carmelite Order for the greater glory of God, ends up meeting with one setback after another, from persons, places things and the climate. Finally, in a pique of indignation, she questions God as to why on Earth He is letting all these things happen to her when she is trying to work for His glory. The famous response she got was: “But Teresa, I treat all my friends like that!” To which she even more famously retorted: “Then I’m not surprised that You have so few of them!”
Then, right after the three month visitation with Elizabeth, Mary has to undergo the trials and pains of Joseph preparing to abandon her, because he had noticed that she was with child, and this was ‘tearing him up.’ Holy though they both were, God did not spare Mary or Joseph this excruciating torment and strain—until, finally, and angel tells Joseph what has really happened.
Reading some of the revelations that Our Lady has made to the mystics, we see that these two cases were not isolated bouts of suffering and trial, but a regular daily dose that God administered to them. Our Lady revealed to one of the mystics that there was not one day in her whole life that she did not suffer greatly, one way or another, for the glory of God and for the salvation of souls.
Bread and Butter
Suffering is the “bread and butter” of God’s friends. It is why Our Lord said: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24); and this was echoed by Our Lady to St. Bernadette of Lourdes, when she said that she would not make Bernadette happy in this world, but in the next. We can be sure that, humanly speaking, Bernadette was just as disappointed in hearing those words as the Apostles must have been at the Last Supper, when Jesus said to them: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she has brought forth the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world” (John 16:20-21).
Advent in the Womb
During Advent, Mary carries Jesus in her womb; after Advent, she will carry Him in her arms; after Lent He will have died her arms. She knows that she is bringing Him into world, so that He may die for the world. She will give Him to the world, so that He may lead souls away from the world. She knows too, that He who made the world, will be hated by the world. The world of Mary’s womb, is more of a paradise that the world into which He will find Himself thrust.
Mother and Son
Children take on the attitudes, opinions, language, characteristics and manner of acting that they witness in their parents. We say: “Like father, like son!” ... “Like mother, like daughter!” It is only natural, and it is also supernatural. As Jesus died on the Cross, He addressed Our Lady and St. John, saying: “‘Woman, behold thy son!’ After that, He said to the disciple: ‘Behold thy Mother!’ And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own” (John 19:26-27). From that hour, too, Mary took him for her son. Yet, as the commentators say, those words also apply to us. She is our spiritual Mother also; and we are her spiritual children.
Living in Mary’s Womb
This reminds us of the words of St. Augustine, quoted by St. Louis de Montfort in his True Devotion to Mary: “St. Augustine, surpassing himself, and going beyond all I have yet said, affirms that all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin, where they are guarded, nourished, brought up and made to grow by that good Mother until she has brought them forth to glory after death, which is properly the day of their birth.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“God the Holy Ghost, being barren in God―that is to say, not producing another Divine Person―is become fruitful by Mary, whom He has espoused. It was with her, in her, and of her that He produced His Masterpiece, which is God made Man, and that He goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head ... (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
God Wants More Children Through Mary
“God the Father wishes to have children by Mary till the consummation of the world ... Just as in the natural and corporal generation of children there are a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there are a Father, who is God, and a Mother, who is Mary. All the true children of God, the predestinate, have God for their Father and Mary for their Mother. He who has not Mary for his Mother has not God for his Father.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“God the Son wishes to form Himself, and, so to speak, to incarnate Himself in His members every day, by His dear Mother ... One and the same mother does not bring forth into the world the head without the members, or the members without the head; for this would be a monster of nature. So in like manner, in the order of grace, the head and the members are born of one and the same Mother; and if a member of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ―that is to say, one of the predestinate―were born of any other mother than Mary, who has produced the Head, he would not be one of the predestinate, nor a member of Jesus Christ, but simply a monster in the order of grace.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“When Mary has struck her roots in a soul, she produces there marvels of grace, which she alone can produce, because she alone is the fruitful Virgin who never has had, and never will have, her equal in purity and in fruitfulness. Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has been or ever will be―a God Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest saints that there will be in the end of time. The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for her. For it is only that singular and miraculous Virgin who can produce, in union with the Holy Ghost, singular and extraordinary things.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“When the Holy Ghost, her Spouse, has found Mary in a soul, He flies there. He enters there in His fullness; He communicates Himself to that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to which it makes room for His spouse. Nay, one of the greatest reasons why the Holy Ghost does not now do startling wonders in our souls is because He does not find there a sufficiently great union with His faithful and inseparable spouse.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Similarly for us. If we want to follow Jesus and Mary to an eternal happiness, we must be prepared for temporal suffering: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross.” We have to make a choice―God or the Devil; good or evil; Heaven or the world. There is not and cannot be any compromise or fraternity between them. “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers! What fellowship does light have with darkness? And what agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what part do the faithful have with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God! As God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). When Our Lord says: “You cannot serve God and mammon”, He is not joking. When St. James writes: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4) he is not joking. When Jesus tells the young man: “Go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come follow Me” He is not joking.
We can be very easily brainwashed—by the devil, the world and the flesh—into believing the contrary. We rationalize, water-down, twist, filter, cover-up, ignore or forget those words of God and His saints that seem to command, demand and reprimand too much. We fallaciously argue and debate with ourselves, saying: “Hold on! Take it easy! Don’t go overboard! Remember that true virtue is a balance between two extremes—those of excess and neglect. So to be sure of being virtuous, I will not be excessively worldly, nor will I be excessively spiritual; and neither will I neglect the ways of the world, nor will I neglect God!” All of this is the false reasoning of Satan and the world that we too easily accept.
Article 2
Monday December 1st
The Time is Now! Don't Miss the Boat!
Monday December 1st
The Time is Now! Don't Miss the Boat!
Waste no Time! Time Waits for Nobody!
The phrase "Time and tide wait for no man" was first published around 1395 in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, specifically in the Prologue to the Clerk's Tale. It means that time is unstoppable, and like the natural movement of the ocean's tides, it does not pause for human events or concerns, so one should not delay or procrastinate. As Holy Scripture says: “Observe the time!” (Ecclesiasticus 4:23) … “The time is short!” (1 Corinthians 7:29) … “Lose no time!” (Judges 18:9) … “For time has its end!” (Daniel 8:19) … “Time passes like a shadow! … Be not foolish nor wicked―lest you die before your time!” (Ecclesiastes 7:1; 7:18) … “And our name in time shall be forgotten, and no man shall have any remembrance of our works! For our time is as the passing of a shadow, and there is no going back!” (Wisdom 2:4-5). “Therefore, while we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the Faith!” (Galatians 6:10).
Holy Scripture speaks of certain times being reserved for certain things: “All things have their season and in their times all things pass under Heaven! A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces. A time to get, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rip, and a time to sew. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak. A time of love, and a time of hatred. A time of war, and a time of peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).
Scripture also adds: “God has given him time for penance, and he abuses it in his pride!” (Job 24:23), with Christ adding: “Take heed, watch and pray! For you know not when the time is!” (Mark 13:33) … “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance! … No, I say to you― unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish ... Again I say to you― except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish! … I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that does penance, more than upon ninety-nine just men who need not penance! … There shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5; 15:7-10)
The Epistle of the Mass for the First Sunday of Advent warned us: “It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we came to believe! The night is far advanced; the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light! Let us walk becomingly as in the day―not in partying and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy―but put on the Lord Jesus Christ!” (Romans 13:11-14). Along the same lines, God says: “Behold, now is the acceptable time! Behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Don’t Waste Time!
Jean-Baptiste Chautard OCSO (1858-1935) was a French Trappist abbot and religious writer. In his book, The Soul of the Apostolate, he writes about the “Grace of the Present Moment” which entails not wasting time, but doing what God’s Providence expects of you at any given time, in each single moment of the day:
“It is certain that, by every event, person or thing, Thou, Jesus, Thou Thyself, dost present Thyself, objectively, to me, at every instant of the day. Thou dost hide Thy wisdom and Thy love beneath these appearances and dost request my co-operation to increase Thy life in myself. O my soul, at every instant Jesus presents Himself to you by the GRACE OF THE PRESENT MOMENT! Every time there is a prayer to say, a Mass to celebrate or to hear, reacting to be done, or acts of patience, of zeal, of renunciation, of struggle, confidence, or love to be produced. Would you dare look the other way, or try to avoid His gaze? … It is the practical way to keep in the presence of God, because now the soul, in the grace of the present moment, is able to find the living Christ, giving Himself to us, concealed in the work that we have to perform … This leads to a need for incessant prayer by means of spiritual Communions and ejaculatory prayers which are so easy, to one who wants to practice them, even in the thick of the most absorbing occupations, and which offer themselves in such a pleasing variation, appropriate to the particular needs of every present moment, to the present situation, dangers, difficulties, weariness, deceptions, and so on.” (Dom Chautard, The Soul of the Apostolate).
Running Out of Time
Adam lived to the ripe old age of 930 years! Our Lord died aged around 33 years. Our Lady is said to have died in her early to mid-sixties. St. Dominic Savio died aged 14 years. St. Maria Goretti was 11 years old when she was killed. Little Blessed Francisco of Fatima was only 10 years old when he died; Blessed Jacinta, his sister was only 9 years old. The Venerable Anne de Guigné was 10 years old.
Time waits for nobody. Time is precious. Time means more than money. Time and how it is spent, means the difference between Heaven and Hell. Death is the most untimely thing around. Death respects no one. Even in the forthcoming chastisement of which Our Lady has warned us, time and time again, she says that the good will die with the bad; and neither will priests be spared, but they will die with the laity.
Time is Too Precious to Lose
That is why our time is so precious. That is why the Church chooses the words of St. Paul to open the season of Advent, the time of mercy, so that we can receive, plant, nurture and grow the spirit of Christ in our souls, and so prepare favorably for the time of our Final Judgment, when the time of mercy will cease, and the time of Justice will have arrived. Those words of St. Paul that opened Advent for us were:
“It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we came to believe! The night is far advanced; the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light! Let us walk becomingly as in the day―not in partying and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy―but put on the Lord Jesus Christ!” (Romans 13:11-14).
A Time of Preparation
Advent is a time of preparation for the “putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ.” It is a time of self-examination, of correction and confession; a time of serious spiritual renewal and rejuvenation, a time of spiritual betterment and improvement, a time of re-assessing our motives and values, a time of preparing the soil of our soul to receive the seed of sanctity that our Savior wants to sow. Basically, it is a time to start really living our Faith and not just professing it with our lips.
It is not a frivolous time; it is not a time of worldly worry over the material and social side of Christmas. It was this material preoccupation at the lucrative time of the Emperor Caesar Augustus’ census and the ‘tourist’swelling of Bethlehem as people returned to register, that blinded the Bethlehemites to the True Treasure that had arrived on their doorsteps disguised as poverty and hidden in Mary’s womb.
They thought they were rich, but in reality they were very poor. They thought Mary and Joseph were poor, but they were the richest people in Heaven and Earth. They carried the only thing that really matters; the Bethlehemites sought many things but missed the one essential thing.
Is Your Time on Useless Things?
When we total up the man-hours spent on the material and social side of Advent and its successor, Christmas, and then compare it to the man-hours that will have been spent on the spiritual side of Advent and Christmas, then I think most people would have to blush with shame—as they will on Judgment Day. For we risk the King saying to us:
“Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink. I was a stranger, and you took Me not in: naked, and you covered Me not: sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me” (Matthew 25:41-43).
Time for Our Lady
Harsh? Well, Our Lord complained of the lukewarmness, indifference, coldness and sacrilege of many souls to St. Margaret Mary, in His apparitions to her from 1673-1675: “My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men … in order to enrich them with the precious graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition … But the sole return they make for all My eagerness to do them good is to reject Me and treat Me with coldness … Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt!”
It was also in the 17th century that Our Lady of Good Success complained of and condemned lukewarmness: “Oh, if only human beings and religious knew what Heaven is and what it is to possess God, how differently they would live, sparing no sacrifice in order to enter more fully into possession of it! But some let themselves be dazzled by the false glamour of honors and human greatness, while others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil which … destroys their fervor, humility, self-renunciation and the ceaseless practice of virtues and fraternal charity and child-like simplicity” (Our Lady of Good Success).
A Time of Lukewarmness
The existence of lukewarmness is not confined to the 17th century and the time of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque―lukewarmness has always been a problem (due to the effects of Original Sin) and has been both indirectly and directly condemned in both the Old and New Testaments: “This people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify Me, but their heart is far from Me!” (Isaias 29:13). “Hypocrites! Well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their hearts are far from Me! And in vain do they worship Me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men!’” (Matthew 15:6-9).
And the fruit of lukewarmness is clearly stated in the Book of the Apocalypse: “I know your works, and that you are neither cold, nor hot. I would prefer that you were cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm―and neither cold, not hot―I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ and do you not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy of Me gold fire tried, so that you may be made rich; and may be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, so that you may see. Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:15-19).
Time for Penance
Advent is that time to do penance. The time to heat up our lukewarmness into a fiery zeal; to refocus our blurred indifference into a sharp focus on spiritual matters and our salvation, rather than our relaxation and recreation. So many in the world are so focused on money, wealth, pleasures and treasures, which they see enticing them in the distance, that their farsightedness or long-sightedness prevents them from threading the eye of the needle with the thread of their soul. Their spiritual eyesight is all too blurred and they fail, time and time again, year after year, to use Advent well and pass through the eye of the needle. As Our Lord warned us: “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:24).
In fact, it is worth reading the whole passage, for its context is very typical of the Advent-Christmas mentality seen in today’s modern world.
“Behold one came and said to Him: ‘Good master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ Jesus said to him: ‘If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments!’ ... The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is still lacking to me?’ Jesus said to him: ‘If you wish to be perfect, then go sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have a treasure in Heaven: and then come and follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard these words, he went away sad―for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven’” (Matthew 19:16-24).
So, to borrow the Church’s other opening line, from the season of Lent, when the Church again quotes St. Paul, saying: “Behold, now is the acceptable time! Behold, now is the time of salvation!” Which dovetails with the words quoted above from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans for the First Sunday of Advent: “It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is passed, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light.”
The Light of World cometh, let us not sleep without having prepared our lamps, like the foolish virgins, who were without oil at the crucial time, when the Bridegroom came, and, while they were scurrying to buy some oil, they were locked-out of the feast. Now is the acceptable time, now is the hour to fill the lamps of our souls with the spiritual oil needed to have a truly profitable Advent preparation for a truly happy, holy and blessed Christmas. Noe did not build his ark at the last minute, but took much time to build it well. Let us do the same this Advent. Let us not worry about “sitting down to eat and drink, and rising up to play” (Exodus 32:6; 1 Corinthians 10:7), but let us rather “sit down to read and think, and kneel down to pray.”
The phrase "Time and tide wait for no man" was first published around 1395 in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, specifically in the Prologue to the Clerk's Tale. It means that time is unstoppable, and like the natural movement of the ocean's tides, it does not pause for human events or concerns, so one should not delay or procrastinate. As Holy Scripture says: “Observe the time!” (Ecclesiasticus 4:23) … “The time is short!” (1 Corinthians 7:29) … “Lose no time!” (Judges 18:9) … “For time has its end!” (Daniel 8:19) … “Time passes like a shadow! … Be not foolish nor wicked―lest you die before your time!” (Ecclesiastes 7:1; 7:18) … “And our name in time shall be forgotten, and no man shall have any remembrance of our works! For our time is as the passing of a shadow, and there is no going back!” (Wisdom 2:4-5). “Therefore, while we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the Faith!” (Galatians 6:10).
Holy Scripture speaks of certain times being reserved for certain things: “All things have their season and in their times all things pass under Heaven! A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces. A time to get, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rip, and a time to sew. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak. A time of love, and a time of hatred. A time of war, and a time of peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).
Scripture also adds: “God has given him time for penance, and he abuses it in his pride!” (Job 24:23), with Christ adding: “Take heed, watch and pray! For you know not when the time is!” (Mark 13:33) … “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance! … No, I say to you― unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish ... Again I say to you― except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish! … I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that does penance, more than upon ninety-nine just men who need not penance! … There shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance!” (Luke 5:32; 13:3-5; 15:7-10)
The Epistle of the Mass for the First Sunday of Advent warned us: “It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we came to believe! The night is far advanced; the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light! Let us walk becomingly as in the day―not in partying and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy―but put on the Lord Jesus Christ!” (Romans 13:11-14). Along the same lines, God says: “Behold, now is the acceptable time! Behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Don’t Waste Time!
Jean-Baptiste Chautard OCSO (1858-1935) was a French Trappist abbot and religious writer. In his book, The Soul of the Apostolate, he writes about the “Grace of the Present Moment” which entails not wasting time, but doing what God’s Providence expects of you at any given time, in each single moment of the day:
“It is certain that, by every event, person or thing, Thou, Jesus, Thou Thyself, dost present Thyself, objectively, to me, at every instant of the day. Thou dost hide Thy wisdom and Thy love beneath these appearances and dost request my co-operation to increase Thy life in myself. O my soul, at every instant Jesus presents Himself to you by the GRACE OF THE PRESENT MOMENT! Every time there is a prayer to say, a Mass to celebrate or to hear, reacting to be done, or acts of patience, of zeal, of renunciation, of struggle, confidence, or love to be produced. Would you dare look the other way, or try to avoid His gaze? … It is the practical way to keep in the presence of God, because now the soul, in the grace of the present moment, is able to find the living Christ, giving Himself to us, concealed in the work that we have to perform … This leads to a need for incessant prayer by means of spiritual Communions and ejaculatory prayers which are so easy, to one who wants to practice them, even in the thick of the most absorbing occupations, and which offer themselves in such a pleasing variation, appropriate to the particular needs of every present moment, to the present situation, dangers, difficulties, weariness, deceptions, and so on.” (Dom Chautard, The Soul of the Apostolate).
Running Out of Time
Adam lived to the ripe old age of 930 years! Our Lord died aged around 33 years. Our Lady is said to have died in her early to mid-sixties. St. Dominic Savio died aged 14 years. St. Maria Goretti was 11 years old when she was killed. Little Blessed Francisco of Fatima was only 10 years old when he died; Blessed Jacinta, his sister was only 9 years old. The Venerable Anne de Guigné was 10 years old.
Time waits for nobody. Time is precious. Time means more than money. Time and how it is spent, means the difference between Heaven and Hell. Death is the most untimely thing around. Death respects no one. Even in the forthcoming chastisement of which Our Lady has warned us, time and time again, she says that the good will die with the bad; and neither will priests be spared, but they will die with the laity.
Time is Too Precious to Lose
That is why our time is so precious. That is why the Church chooses the words of St. Paul to open the season of Advent, the time of mercy, so that we can receive, plant, nurture and grow the spirit of Christ in our souls, and so prepare favorably for the time of our Final Judgment, when the time of mercy will cease, and the time of Justice will have arrived. Those words of St. Paul that opened Advent for us were:
“It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we came to believe! The night is far advanced; the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light! Let us walk becomingly as in the day―not in partying and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy―but put on the Lord Jesus Christ!” (Romans 13:11-14).
A Time of Preparation
Advent is a time of preparation for the “putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ.” It is a time of self-examination, of correction and confession; a time of serious spiritual renewal and rejuvenation, a time of spiritual betterment and improvement, a time of re-assessing our motives and values, a time of preparing the soil of our soul to receive the seed of sanctity that our Savior wants to sow. Basically, it is a time to start really living our Faith and not just professing it with our lips.
It is not a frivolous time; it is not a time of worldly worry over the material and social side of Christmas. It was this material preoccupation at the lucrative time of the Emperor Caesar Augustus’ census and the ‘tourist’swelling of Bethlehem as people returned to register, that blinded the Bethlehemites to the True Treasure that had arrived on their doorsteps disguised as poverty and hidden in Mary’s womb.
They thought they were rich, but in reality they were very poor. They thought Mary and Joseph were poor, but they were the richest people in Heaven and Earth. They carried the only thing that really matters; the Bethlehemites sought many things but missed the one essential thing.
Is Your Time on Useless Things?
When we total up the man-hours spent on the material and social side of Advent and its successor, Christmas, and then compare it to the man-hours that will have been spent on the spiritual side of Advent and Christmas, then I think most people would have to blush with shame—as they will on Judgment Day. For we risk the King saying to us:
“Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink. I was a stranger, and you took Me not in: naked, and you covered Me not: sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me” (Matthew 25:41-43).
Time for Our Lady
Harsh? Well, Our Lord complained of the lukewarmness, indifference, coldness and sacrilege of many souls to St. Margaret Mary, in His apparitions to her from 1673-1675: “My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men … in order to enrich them with the precious graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition … But the sole return they make for all My eagerness to do them good is to reject Me and treat Me with coldness … Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt!”
It was also in the 17th century that Our Lady of Good Success complained of and condemned lukewarmness: “Oh, if only human beings and religious knew what Heaven is and what it is to possess God, how differently they would live, sparing no sacrifice in order to enter more fully into possession of it! But some let themselves be dazzled by the false glamour of honors and human greatness, while others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil which … destroys their fervor, humility, self-renunciation and the ceaseless practice of virtues and fraternal charity and child-like simplicity” (Our Lady of Good Success).
A Time of Lukewarmness
The existence of lukewarmness is not confined to the 17th century and the time of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque―lukewarmness has always been a problem (due to the effects of Original Sin) and has been both indirectly and directly condemned in both the Old and New Testaments: “This people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify Me, but their heart is far from Me!” (Isaias 29:13). “Hypocrites! Well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘These people honor Me with their lips―but their hearts are far from Me! And in vain do they worship Me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men!’” (Matthew 15:6-9).
And the fruit of lukewarmness is clearly stated in the Book of the Apocalypse: “I know your works, and that you are neither cold, nor hot. I would prefer that you were cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm―and neither cold, not hot―I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ and do you not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy of Me gold fire tried, so that you may be made rich; and may be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, so that you may see. Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:15-19).
Time for Penance
Advent is that time to do penance. The time to heat up our lukewarmness into a fiery zeal; to refocus our blurred indifference into a sharp focus on spiritual matters and our salvation, rather than our relaxation and recreation. So many in the world are so focused on money, wealth, pleasures and treasures, which they see enticing them in the distance, that their farsightedness or long-sightedness prevents them from threading the eye of the needle with the thread of their soul. Their spiritual eyesight is all too blurred and they fail, time and time again, year after year, to use Advent well and pass through the eye of the needle. As Our Lord warned us: “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:24).
In fact, it is worth reading the whole passage, for its context is very typical of the Advent-Christmas mentality seen in today’s modern world.
“Behold one came and said to Him: ‘Good master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ Jesus said to him: ‘If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments!’ ... The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is still lacking to me?’ Jesus said to him: ‘If you wish to be perfect, then go sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have a treasure in Heaven: and then come and follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard these words, he went away sad―for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven’” (Matthew 19:16-24).
So, to borrow the Church’s other opening line, from the season of Lent, when the Church again quotes St. Paul, saying: “Behold, now is the acceptable time! Behold, now is the time of salvation!” Which dovetails with the words quoted above from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans for the First Sunday of Advent: “It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is passed, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light.”
The Light of World cometh, let us not sleep without having prepared our lamps, like the foolish virgins, who were without oil at the crucial time, when the Bridegroom came, and, while they were scurrying to buy some oil, they were locked-out of the feast. Now is the acceptable time, now is the hour to fill the lamps of our souls with the spiritual oil needed to have a truly profitable Advent preparation for a truly happy, holy and blessed Christmas. Noe did not build his ark at the last minute, but took much time to build it well. Let us do the same this Advent. Let us not worry about “sitting down to eat and drink, and rising up to play” (Exodus 32:6; 1 Corinthians 10:7), but let us rather “sit down to read and think, and kneel down to pray.”
Article 1
Sunday November 30th, the First Sunday of Advent
A New Year! A New Heart! A New Life!
Sunday November 30th, the First Sunday of Advent
A New Year! A New Heart! A New Life!
New Year Comes Late!
The Church has already beaten the State to the New Year—the New Liturgical Year started with the First Sunday of Advent! However, since many are partying tonight and waiting for the secular “New Year”, let us look at some aspects of the “new” from a spiritual perspective. To do so, let us primarily turn to the Word of God—Holy Scripture—for a lokk at the “new.”
Our Lord Comes to Make Things New
There are times when the “old” is better, and there are times when the “new” is necessary. Our Lord Himself came to perfect the old with the new—the Old Testament gave way to the New Testament. Our “old” selves, likewise, need to make for our “new” selves—renewed by the grace of God. Heaven is often called the “New Jerusalem” —a heavenly Jerusalem that replaces or perfects the earthly Jerusalem. We see this focus on the “new” in the words of Our Lord and the New Testament authors. “But we look for new Heavens and a new Earth” (2 Peter 3:13).
Don’t Mix the Old with the New
We cannot make a blend of the world and God; nor can we marry spirituality to materialism: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24) … “And what concord hath Christ with Belial?” (2 Corinthians 6:15). “And you, when you were dead in your offences, and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now worketh on the children of unbelief: in which also we all conversed in time past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, Who is rich in mercy, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together in Christ, by whose grace you are saved, and hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-5).
Purge Out the Old
“And He that sat on the throne, said: ‘Behold, I make all things new!’ And He said to me: ‘Write! For these words are most faithful and true!’” (Apocalypse 21:5). “A new commandment I give unto you” (John 13:34) ... “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste” (1 Corinthians 5:7). “Put off, according to former conversation, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error and be renewed in the spirit of your mind: and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth” (Ephesians 4:22-24). “And putting on the new, him who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of Him that created him” (Colossians 3:10). “If then anyone be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away, behold all things are made new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “In saying ‘a new’, He hath made the former old” (Hebrews 8:13). God wants us to be new creatures, new persons, better creatures, better persons. That is why He came on Earth—the Advent and Christmas liturgy speaks of Our Lord coming to restore, to renew, to recreate what was lost through sin. This is the spirit that we should positively and effectively undertake in the coming New Year—putting on a new man, a new self, created in justice and holiness; becoming a new leaven, renewed in mind and heart, so that we are a new creature in Christ, having put the old ways behind us and having made all things new!
Vintage Year for God
While others toast the New Year with glasses of wine, we should be preparing to give God a special vintage this coming year—not mixing our old cheap wine with the vintage wine that God expects from us: “Neither do they put new wine into old bottles. Otherwise the bottles break, and the wine runs out, and the bottles perish. But new wine they put into new bottles: and both are preserved” (Matthew 9:17). “No man sews a piece of raw cloth to an old garment” (Mark 2:21). “No man puts a piece from a new garment upon an old garment; otherwise the piece taken from the new agrees not with the old” (Luke 5:36).
God Seeks Improvement
All these Scriptural quotes stress or imply the need for improvement—not just “new” for sake of it being “new”, but “new’ in the sense of something better than was there before. In this sense, we go through school learning new things every year and, thereby, our intelligence becomes better. We learn new skills and thereby become better. Our spiritual life should follow the same pattern—each year we should become better due to new things and changes that we have made; much like a tree that each year grows more, becomes stronger and bears more fruit: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32).
The tree or vine should be always improving, as Our Lord points out at the Last Supper: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me, that beareth not fruit, He will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit … I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit. If any one abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth.” (John 15:1-6).
Fruitless and Loveless
The Apocalypse has even stronger words to say: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest: I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing: and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of Me gold fire tried, that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see” (Apocalypse 3:14-18).
This New Year—Buy the Gold of Charity
Yes, we are spiritually poor, blind and naked, as the Apocalypse just said. Just as the three kings brought three gifts, so do the three persons of the Holy Trinity counsel us to turn to Them for the solution: to buy from Them gold, white garments, and eye-salve. These three are an echo of the three gifts offered to Jesus by the Magi. The Gold in both cases—the Apocalypse account and that of the Magi—is the gold of charity, which, as we said with the Scriptural quote above, will have grown cold in many souls: “Because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). Will this be a cold year in my heart, or will I kindle a fire in my heart towards God: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). Will the fire in my heart grow or burn-out?
This New Year—Cloth Yourself with Suffering
The white garments, spoken of in Apocalypse, correspond to the Myrrh. The Myrrh is a symbol of suffering, being used both as a painkiller and for embalming the dead. The white garments reflect that suffering, as shown by this quote: “These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Apocalypse 7:14). This coming New Year, no doubt, will bring increased suffering in an increasingly sinful world—“Be not deceived, God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7). The world cannot sin with impunity: “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “Sin has reigned to death” (Romans 5:21). “When concupiscence has conceived, it brings forth sin. But sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15).
This New Year—Use the Eye-Salve of Fervent Prayer
The Eye-Salve, spoken of in Apocalypse, corresponds to the frankincense of prayer, which rises like smoke to Heaven. The blind man is begging and praying to Jesus for his blindness to be removed. “Jesus asked him saying: ‘What wilt thou that I do to thee?’ But he said: ‘Lord, that I may see!’” (Luke 18:41). His prayer is the eye-salve that removes his blindness. This blindness corresponds to lukewarmness—as Fr. Faber writes: “The diseases and evils of the body are in a great degree typical of the miseries and misfortunes of the soul. If we seek the correlative of lukewarmness, we shall find it in blindness. It is a blindness which does not know even its own self, and does not suspect that it is blind, or that other men see better than itself” (Fr. Faber, Growth in Holiness). Our Lady of Good Success says: “Others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil.” The lukewarm need the ‘eye-salve’ of prayer to save them from the fate of lukewarmness—which is being vomited out from the mouth of God. Let us resolve to use this ‘eye-salve’ regularly and properly this coming New Year! As Our Lord said: “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).
Today there is not enough gold, frankincense and myrrh in our lives. We love too little; we pray too little; we suffer too little. That is why we risk having little chance for salvation unless we follow the the counsels of the Apocalypse in our apocalyptic times! Love, pray and suffer! This should be our New Year resolution! Have a charitable New Year! Have a prayerful New Year! Have a painful New Year! Ouch!
But that is what Our Lady herself told us: “The children of the holy Church, the children of my Faith, my true followers, they will grow in their love for God!” (Our Lady of La Salette). “Pray, pray very much!” (Our Lady of Fatima). “Are you willing to bear all the sufferings God wills to send you? Then you are going to have much to suffer … Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you!” (Our Lady of Fatima). “I do not promise to make you Happy [New Year] in this life, but in the next!” (Our Lady of Lourdes).
The Church has already beaten the State to the New Year—the New Liturgical Year started with the First Sunday of Advent! However, since many are partying tonight and waiting for the secular “New Year”, let us look at some aspects of the “new” from a spiritual perspective. To do so, let us primarily turn to the Word of God—Holy Scripture—for a lokk at the “new.”
Our Lord Comes to Make Things New
There are times when the “old” is better, and there are times when the “new” is necessary. Our Lord Himself came to perfect the old with the new—the Old Testament gave way to the New Testament. Our “old” selves, likewise, need to make for our “new” selves—renewed by the grace of God. Heaven is often called the “New Jerusalem” —a heavenly Jerusalem that replaces or perfects the earthly Jerusalem. We see this focus on the “new” in the words of Our Lord and the New Testament authors. “But we look for new Heavens and a new Earth” (2 Peter 3:13).
Don’t Mix the Old with the New
We cannot make a blend of the world and God; nor can we marry spirituality to materialism: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24) … “And what concord hath Christ with Belial?” (2 Corinthians 6:15). “And you, when you were dead in your offences, and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now worketh on the children of unbelief: in which also we all conversed in time past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, Who is rich in mercy, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together in Christ, by whose grace you are saved, and hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-5).
Purge Out the Old
“And He that sat on the throne, said: ‘Behold, I make all things new!’ And He said to me: ‘Write! For these words are most faithful and true!’” (Apocalypse 21:5). “A new commandment I give unto you” (John 13:34) ... “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste” (1 Corinthians 5:7). “Put off, according to former conversation, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error and be renewed in the spirit of your mind: and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth” (Ephesians 4:22-24). “And putting on the new, him who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of Him that created him” (Colossians 3:10). “If then anyone be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away, behold all things are made new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “In saying ‘a new’, He hath made the former old” (Hebrews 8:13). God wants us to be new creatures, new persons, better creatures, better persons. That is why He came on Earth—the Advent and Christmas liturgy speaks of Our Lord coming to restore, to renew, to recreate what was lost through sin. This is the spirit that we should positively and effectively undertake in the coming New Year—putting on a new man, a new self, created in justice and holiness; becoming a new leaven, renewed in mind and heart, so that we are a new creature in Christ, having put the old ways behind us and having made all things new!
Vintage Year for God
While others toast the New Year with glasses of wine, we should be preparing to give God a special vintage this coming year—not mixing our old cheap wine with the vintage wine that God expects from us: “Neither do they put new wine into old bottles. Otherwise the bottles break, and the wine runs out, and the bottles perish. But new wine they put into new bottles: and both are preserved” (Matthew 9:17). “No man sews a piece of raw cloth to an old garment” (Mark 2:21). “No man puts a piece from a new garment upon an old garment; otherwise the piece taken from the new agrees not with the old” (Luke 5:36).
God Seeks Improvement
All these Scriptural quotes stress or imply the need for improvement—not just “new” for sake of it being “new”, but “new’ in the sense of something better than was there before. In this sense, we go through school learning new things every year and, thereby, our intelligence becomes better. We learn new skills and thereby become better. Our spiritual life should follow the same pattern—each year we should become better due to new things and changes that we have made; much like a tree that each year grows more, becomes stronger and bears more fruit: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32).
The tree or vine should be always improving, as Our Lord points out at the Last Supper: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me, that beareth not fruit, He will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit … I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit. If any one abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth.” (John 15:1-6).
Fruitless and Loveless
The Apocalypse has even stronger words to say: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest: I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing: and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of Me gold fire tried, that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see” (Apocalypse 3:14-18).
This New Year—Buy the Gold of Charity
Yes, we are spiritually poor, blind and naked, as the Apocalypse just said. Just as the three kings brought three gifts, so do the three persons of the Holy Trinity counsel us to turn to Them for the solution: to buy from Them gold, white garments, and eye-salve. These three are an echo of the three gifts offered to Jesus by the Magi. The Gold in both cases—the Apocalypse account and that of the Magi—is the gold of charity, which, as we said with the Scriptural quote above, will have grown cold in many souls: “Because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). Will this be a cold year in my heart, or will I kindle a fire in my heart towards God: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). Will the fire in my heart grow or burn-out?
This New Year—Cloth Yourself with Suffering
The white garments, spoken of in Apocalypse, correspond to the Myrrh. The Myrrh is a symbol of suffering, being used both as a painkiller and for embalming the dead. The white garments reflect that suffering, as shown by this quote: “These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Apocalypse 7:14). This coming New Year, no doubt, will bring increased suffering in an increasingly sinful world—“Be not deceived, God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7). The world cannot sin with impunity: “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “Sin has reigned to death” (Romans 5:21). “When concupiscence has conceived, it brings forth sin. But sin, when it is completed, begets death” (James 1:15).
This New Year—Use the Eye-Salve of Fervent Prayer
The Eye-Salve, spoken of in Apocalypse, corresponds to the frankincense of prayer, which rises like smoke to Heaven. The blind man is begging and praying to Jesus for his blindness to be removed. “Jesus asked him saying: ‘What wilt thou that I do to thee?’ But he said: ‘Lord, that I may see!’” (Luke 18:41). His prayer is the eye-salve that removes his blindness. This blindness corresponds to lukewarmness—as Fr. Faber writes: “The diseases and evils of the body are in a great degree typical of the miseries and misfortunes of the soul. If we seek the correlative of lukewarmness, we shall find it in blindness. It is a blindness which does not know even its own self, and does not suspect that it is blind, or that other men see better than itself” (Fr. Faber, Growth in Holiness). Our Lady of Good Success says: “Others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil.” The lukewarm need the ‘eye-salve’ of prayer to save them from the fate of lukewarmness—which is being vomited out from the mouth of God. Let us resolve to use this ‘eye-salve’ regularly and properly this coming New Year! As Our Lord said: “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).
Today there is not enough gold, frankincense and myrrh in our lives. We love too little; we pray too little; we suffer too little. That is why we risk having little chance for salvation unless we follow the the counsels of the Apocalypse in our apocalyptic times! Love, pray and suffer! This should be our New Year resolution! Have a charitable New Year! Have a prayerful New Year! Have a painful New Year! Ouch!
But that is what Our Lady herself told us: “The children of the holy Church, the children of my Faith, my true followers, they will grow in their love for God!” (Our Lady of La Salette). “Pray, pray very much!” (Our Lady of Fatima). “Are you willing to bear all the sufferings God wills to send you? Then you are going to have much to suffer … Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you!” (Our Lady of Fatima). “I do not promise to make you Happy [New Year] in this life, but in the next!” (Our Lady of Lourdes).
DAILY THOUGHTS FOR NOVEMBER
THE MONTH OF THE HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY
THE MONTH OF THE HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY
Article 29
Saturday November 29th
Advent is Only A Few Hours Away! How Far Away Are You?
Saturday November 29th
Advent is Only A Few Hours Away! How Far Away Are You?
What, Why When?
With Advent, the ecclesiastical year begins in the Western churches. During this time the faithful are admonished to prepare themselves worthily to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord’s coming into the world as the incarnate God of love, thus to make their souls worthy dwelling-places for the Redeemer coming in Holy Communion and through grace, and thereby to make themselves ready for His final coming as judge, at death and at the end of the world.
According to present modern-day custom, Advent is a period beginning with the Sunday nearest to the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (November 30th) and embracing four Sundays. The first Sunday may be as early as November 27th, and then Advent has twenty-eight days, or as late as December 3rd, giving the season only twenty-one days.
The Meaning of Advent
The name Advent comes from the Latin words, advenire (to come to) and adventus (an arrival), and refers to Christ’s coming into this world. The Lord is coming. Is that what we really want? Is He really happy with the way we live our lives? His coming implies change—it seems to suggest that things must change in our lives. Is that what we want? It is most certainly what He wants—but are we in agreement? Are we looking forward to changing?
Every year at this time we get ready to celebrate His coming , and so there exists a real danger that, through routine, we can lose the feeling of expectancy and joyful anticipation, because, at the end of the season, everything seems to return to pretty much the same old lukewarm routine. If that is the case, then our preparation may have been lacking and we have therefore been robbed of much of the true meaning of this season.
The focus of Advent is by no means limited to just Christ’s first coming. An equal, if not more important theme found in the Advent Liturgy is the second coming of Christ, when He comes again to judge the world. Consequently, there is a double focus of, firstly, the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his first Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. In His first coming He comes as a child offering mercy. In His second coming He will come as a judge administering justice.
Two Sides of Christ
However, He is never merciful without being just, and He is never just without being merciful. Therefore, we must realize that to accept His mercy also requires that we accept His justice. He does not come to play, but to pay—pay for our sins. He does not come to enjoy life, but to give eternal life—and that comes at a price. He comes not to live on Earth forever, but to forever detach us from this Earth.
He prefers poverty over power; humility over honors; rejection over riches and suffering over splendor. His way is not our way, yet He Who called Himself “the Way” shows us wayward wayfarers the true way—and it is not a pleasant way, but the Way of the Cross. He will already carry that Cross from His infancy. Both the Crib of Bethlehem and the Cross of Calvary are made of rough wood, and He would have us carry it after Him.
A New Beginning! No Half-Measures!
Advent is not an end, but a beginning. It should be the beginning of the end of a life of sin and mediocrity—“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
As for mediocrity, Our Lord said to Mother Mariana of Quito, Ecuador: “Alas! If men―and above all, priests and religious souls―would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small inveterate imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me.... But I will not tolerate this. Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me. I desire all or nothing — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross. Moreover, I have continued to live in the Tabernacle under the same roof with these hidden souls, exposing Myself to so many hateful profanations and sacrileges! For I know well all that takes place in My sacramental life! ... Woe to souls like this! Woe!”
Putting on the Purple
The liturgical color for the season of Advent is purple. Purple also has a twofold symbolism. On the one hand purple shows the royal majesty which heralds the coming of the King of Kings. Yet that purple also signifies penance, for the King comes in order to do penance on behalf of mankind, which has grievously offended God—so purple in this sense is also a color symbolic of penance and suffering, since our King came to suffer and die for us. “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance” (Lk. 5:32).
The True Spirit of Advent
The spirit of Advent is somewhat similar to that of Lent, which prepares us for Easter—the greatest feast in the calendar of the Church. Originally the observance of Advent was made up of fasting and took up forty days—as with Lent—but was reduced to four weeks. The first allusion to Advent’s being reduced to four weeks is to be found in the ninth century, in a letter of Pope St. Nicholas I to the Bulgarians.
The Greek Church still continues to observe the fast of Advent, though with much less rigor than that of Lent. It consists of forty days, beginning with November 14th, the day on which this Church keeps the feast of the apostle St. Philip.
Advent is marked by a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, of preparation, of longing. There is a yearning for deliverance from the evils of the world, first expressed by Israelite slaves in Egypt as they cried out from their bitter oppression. It is the cry of those who have experienced the tyranny of injustice in a world under the curse of sin, and yet who have hope of deliverance by a God who has heard the cries of oppressed slaves and brought deliverance!
During Advent we recall the history of God’s people and reflect on how the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament were fulfilled. This gives us a background for the present. Today we can reflect on the past track record of God and so begin to understand what it means to us now for the sake of what is to come, in our own future and that of our world.
Mary Wants to Plant Jesus in our Souls
Advent is, par excellence, the time of the Divine Maternity, the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin, as she draws ever closer to giving birth to God’s Greatest Gift for fallen human nature. During Advent, we should not lose focus of Our Lady, for without her there is no Christmas; without her, God will not be born into this world. It is here cooperation with God that has brought about the Incarnation—God becoming flesh, becoming man so as to save and redeem mankind.
Born Again?
But for mankind to be saved and redeemed, Christ our Savior has to be “born into our souls”. Nay, perhaps that one word will be passed over and looked upon as a routine phrase! Christ wants to be born in our souls, our hearts, our minds, our thoughts, our memories, our hopes, our conversations, our daydreams, our home life, our work life, our social life —in other words, everywhere, in everything, in every moment of our days and nights!
Born to Love!
That is what is meant by the first and greatest commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30). How few there are who comply with this command! Of most, Our Lord would have to say: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6).
Be Our Life—Or A Part of Our Life?
There is no doubt whatsoever that, on the part of Jesus, He truly wants to come to us. He loves us beyond our comprehension and our wildest dreams. There is no problem on the part of Jesus. However, on our side, we have to ask the question: “Do we really want Jesus to come to us?” I mean really, not just theoretically and not just by lip-service. Do we really and truly want Jesus in our lives? To drive the point home more clearly and to avoid misconceptions, do we really and truly want Jesus to be our life? Notice the words “be our life”, which is different to being “a part of our life.” If we want Jesus to be “a part of our life”, then we only partially want Him, we only want a “part-time Jesus”—for some that means on Sundays and prayer times only, for others a little more perhaps, but they place a limit on “how much of Jesus they can take.” He wants to be our whole life, not just a part of our life, and that is what is meant by the commandment to love God with our whole mind, heart, soul and strength.
How Much Longer Will We Resist Him?
All life long Jesus has been trying to REALLY get into our lives. He desires to be a full time part of our lives, not just a part-time visitor. That is not what our Faith is all about, but that is what we have reduced it to! When will this change? Heaven is not our immediate destination until we make an alteration!
We must confess that we need a new heart to love Jesus—our old heart is too cold, too indifferent, too lukewarm, too nonchalant, too self-centered, or world-centered and not God-centered. That is why God says in more than one place:
“And I will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit in their bowels: and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh” (Ezechiel 11:19), and again, “I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you from all your idols. I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh” (Ezechiel 36:26).
Time for a Heart Transplant
Advent is the time for all this to happen! We need to ‘check-in’ to God’s hospital and get that heart transplant that He promises. Only part of our heart is working—we only partially love God—yet we have been told to wholly and totally love Him. We need the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary to, in a sense, be transplanted into ourselves. This notion crops up in the words of the Sacred Heart to Josefa Menendez, when Our Lord says: “My Heart is powerful enough to sustain you. It is yours; take from It all you need … The more you disappear, the more shall I be your life ... My Heart is yours, take it and repair with it.”
In the life of St. Lutgarde, we read of her beseeching Our Lord to give her His heart. St. Lutgarde, being a choir nun, thought it would be very appropriate if she were to be granted a miraculous understanding of Latin, in order that she might have more devotion in reciting the psalms. As matters stood, she did not understand a word of what she said reading the psalms in choir, although she prayed with great fervor. The grace granted, she discovered to her surprise that once again it did not have the result she expected. She began to receive many vivid intellectual lights at the Divine Office, and to be illuminated by numerous penetrating intuitions into the meaning of the psalms. But somehow all this new knowledge left her heart empty and dry. God had granted her this last relatively useless favor together with enough light to see that it was not what she needed, and she soon turned to Him once more confessing that all these lofty intuitions only interfered with her devotion instead of nourishing it.
So seizing the moment, Jesus asked her: “What, then, do you want?”
This time, Jesus had led her secretly to the discovery of the right answer.
“Lord,’ she told Him, “I want Thy Heart.”
“You want My Heart?” said Jesus: “Well, I, too, want your heart.”
St. Lutgarde replied: “Take it, dear Lord. But take it in such a way that the love of Your Heart may be so mingled and united with my own heart that I may possess my heart in Thee, and that it may always remain there secure in Your protection.”
St. Lutgarde is perhaps the first saint in whom this mystical “exchange of hearts” was effected. Since her time, the exchange has become rather common in the lives of mystics devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We read of it in the lives of St. Gertrude, St. Mechtilde (both Cistercians), and St. Margaret Mary. The term is, of course, purely symbolic. There is no question of a physical exchange, but only of a mystical union of wills. Nor does it imply the perfect union of wills in mystical marriage. The exchange of hearts can take place in the degree of union known as spiritual betrothal. The gift then becomes not a sign of perfect transforming union but rather a pledge of that union, which still remains to be desired and which God withholds until His own good time. In more recent times for example, Sister Josefa Menendez, a lay sister of the Society of the Sacred Heart, received a similar grace as a protection against temptations to leave the convent. Are we happy with our heart? Wouldn’t a better heart bring more happiness? Advent is the time to get that spiritual heart transplant in time for Christmas.
Total and Whole
Our Lady also wants Jesus to be our whole life, and she is willing to help give birth to Jesus in our life, so that He may grow and occupy and whole life, just as He did hers. This is, in essence, what St. Louis de Montfort is trying to say in his book, True Devotion to Mary. It is TOTAL consecration, a TOTAL giving of self in return for the TOTAL giving that Christ and His Mother showed towards us poor sinful creatures. The following quotes, taken from different sections of the book, will try to show this picture of Mary as the birth-giver of Jesus in our lives.
“God having willed to commence and to complete His greatest works by the most holy Virgin ever since He created her–we may well think He will not change His conduct in the eternal ages; for He is God, and He changes not, either in His sentiments or in His conduct.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Mary Gives Birth to Jesus in Souls
“It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only begotten to the world. Whatever sighs the patriarchs may have sent forth, whatever prayers the prophets and the saints of the Old Law may have offered up to obtain this treasure for full four thousand years, it was only Mary who merited it and found grace before God (Luke 1:30) by the force of her prayers and the eminence of her virtues. The world was unworthy, says St. Augustine, to receive the Son of God directly from the Father’s hands. He gave Him to Mary in order that the world might receive Him through her. The Son of God became man for our salvation; but it was in Mary and by Mary” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“God the Father wishes to have children by Mary till the consummation of the world... Just as in the natural and corporal generation of children there are a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there are a Father, who is God, and a Mother, who is Mary. All the true children of God, the predestinate, have God for their Father and Mary for their Mother. He who has not Mary for his Mother has not God for his Father. ... Others, who hate our Blessed Lady or regard her with contempt and indifference, have not God for their Father... For if they had her for their Mother, they would love and honor her as a true child naturally loves and honors the mother who has given him life” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Jesus Wishes to Be Incarnate in You
“God the Son wishes to form Himself, and, so to speak, to incarnate Himself in His members every day, by His dear Mother ... We can apply to her more than St. Paul applied to himself the words: ‘I am in labor again with all the children of God, until Jesus Christ my Son be formed in them in the fullness of His age’” (Cf. Galatians 4:19)” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“St. Augustine, surpassing himself, and going beyond all I have yet said, affirms that all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin, where they are guarded, nourished, brought up and made to grow by that good Mother until she has brought them forth to glory after death, which is properly the day of their birth, as the Church calls the death of the just. O mystery of grace, unknown to the reprobate, and but little known even to the predestinate!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Through Mary, With Mary, In Mary, By Mary
“God the Holy Ghost wishes to form elect for Himself in her and by her ... When Mary has struck her roots in a soul, she produces there marvels of grace, which she alone can produce, because she alone is the fruitful Virgin who never has had, and never will have, her equal in purity and in fruitfulness” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has been or ever will be–a God Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest saints that there will be in the end of time. The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for her. For it is only that singular and miraculous Virgin who can produce, in union with the Holy Ghost, singular and extraordinary things” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“When the Holy Ghost, her Spouse, has found Mary in a soul, He flies there. He enters there in His fullness; He communicates Himself to that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to which it makes room for His spouse. Nay, one of the greatest reasons why the Holy Ghost does not now do startling wonders in our souls is because He does not find there a sufficiently great union with His faithful and inseparable spouse” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“Jesus is everywhere and always the Fruit and the Son of Mary; and Mary is everywhere the veritable tree who bears the Fruit of life, and the true Mother who produces it” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary). What will this Advent produce?
Advent is All About Mercy
The season of Advent is primarily a season of Mercy. The liturgical writers speak of this time of Mercy, in which we look with hope to Christ, who will come to redeem us and save us from sin. As Our Lord Himself says: “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!’” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
Advent is a perfect time to focus more on the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. Most people have heard of them; some may be able to name them all; most will only remember a few; some may not even know how many there are—yet they are integral part of our Faith. They are in part based on the terrifying picture painted by Our Lord, in the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel, dealing with the Sheep and the Goats―which is description of the Last Judgment, and therefore shows the importance that the Works of Mercy will play at that Judgment. Before we list the Works of Mercy, let us briefly remind ourselves of those words of Our Lord.
Sheep and Goats
“When the Son of man shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the seat of His majesty. And all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. Then shall the King say to them that shall be on His right hand: ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me! Then shall the just answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, and fed Thee; thirsty, and gave Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? Or naked, and covered Thee? Or when did we see Thee sick or in prison, and came to Thee?’ And the King answering, shall say to them: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to Me.
“Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink. I was a stranger, and you took Me not in: naked, and you covered Me not: sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me!’ Then they also shall answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?’ Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting” (Matthew 25:31-46).
The Old Testament already pointed this out in part: “He that is inclined to mercy shall be blessed: for of his bread he hath given to the poor” (Proverbs 22:9). “He that showeth mercy to the poor, shall be blessed” (Proverbs 14:21). Since God does not change, neither does His truth change, and so Our Lord reiterates the same message in the New Testament, saying: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). To drive the point home, He also spoke of the Unmerciful Servant in a parable.
The Unmerciful Servant
The Unmerciful Servant wanted mercy, but did not want to show mercy. This is so true of most people, not only today, but of all times. We want mercy for ourselves to a high degree, and we refuse or are reluctant to show mercy to others, putting on our hat of judgment and righteousness! Our Lord’s words rebuke that attitude:
“Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus sad to Him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times. Therefore is the Kingdom of heaven likened to a king, who would take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents. And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
“But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt. But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence; and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: ‘Pay what thou owest!’ And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.
“Now his fellow servants, seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him; and said to him: ‘Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me! Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee?’ And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers, until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not everyone his brother from your hearts” (Matthew 18:21-34).
The Unmerciful Servant Needs Bi-Focals
The Unmerciful Servant, when it came to his own faults, was solely focused and hoped only in the mercy of his lord, and did not want justice to be applied to his faults. Yet, when the Unmerciful Servant came across someone who had offended or sinned against him, then he focused solely upon the application of justice, and totally disregarded the application of mercy. This is so true of so many human beings—when it to comes to our sins, mercy is the only consideration; but when it comes to the sins of others, then justice is the only consideration. The warnings from Our Lord are clear: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). “Judge not, that you may not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matthew 7:1-2). Which is why St. Paul gives the sound advice of: “But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31).
Spare Me, Lord, But Slaughter My Enemies!
We are always ready to say: “Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from Me” (Psalms 65:20). But when it comes to our neighbor (and even the sinner or an enemy is a neighbor, as Our Lord points out in the parable of the Good Samaritan—the Samaritans were enemies of the Jews), then we become like the Sons of Thunder: “Jesus sent messengers before His face; and going, they entered into a city of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. And they received Him not, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem [to the ‘enemy’ city’]. And when His disciples James and John had seen this, they said: ‘Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven, and consume them?’ And turning, He rebuked them, saying: ‘You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!’” (Luke 9:52-56). He also said this elsewhere: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10) and insisted: “Go then and learn what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the just, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13).
The Works of Mercy
Mercy, in this context, is said to be a virtue influencing someone to have compassion for, and, if possible, to alleviate another's misfortune. It is the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas that although mercy is, as it were, the spontaneous product of charity, yet it is to be reckoned a special virtue that is distinguishable from charity. For Mercy is also linked to justice, because it softens justice. Obviously the necessity or need of others can be either of body or soul. Hence it is customary to list both corporal and spiritual Works of Mercy. The traditional enumeration of the Corporal Works of Mercy is as follows:
The Corporal Works of Mercy are:
To feed the hungry;
To give drink to the thirsty;
To clothe the naked;
To shelter the homeless;
To visit the sick;
To ransom the captive;
To bury the dead.
The Spiritual Works of Mercy are:
To instruct the ignorant;
To counsel the doubtful;
To admonish sinners;
To bear wrongs patiently;
To forgive offences willingly;
To comfort the afflicted;
To pray for the living and the dead.
It All Comes Down to Giving Alms—Materially or Spiritually
It will be seen from these divisions that the Works of Mercy practically coincide with the various forms of almsgiving. It is thus that St. Thomas regards them. The word alms of course is a corruption of the Greek eleemosyne (mercy). The doing of Works of Mercy is not merely a matter of suggestion; there is also a strict precept imposed, both by the Natural Law and the Divine law, commanding their performance. The Natural Law commands Works of Mercy based upon the principle that we are to do to others as we would have them do to us. The Divine command is seen in the most strict words of Christ, who points out that failure to comply with it, will bring about the supreme penalty of eternal damnation (see Matthew 25:41 above): Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting” (Matthew 25:45-46).
In that parable of Our Lord’s, it is true, there is only direct and explicit mention of only the Corporal Works of Mercy. However, since the Spiritual Works of Mercy deal with a need or a distress whose relief is even more important as well as more effective for the grand purpose of man's creation, the term “Works of Mercy” must be extended into the spiritual realm also. Besides there are the obvious references of Christ to such works as fraternal correction (Matthew 18:15) as well as the forgiveness of injuries (Matthew 6:14).
Adopt a Soul for Advent
This brings us to the ultimate purpose of this article—which is that of practicing one or several Corporal or Spiritual Works of Mercy during Advent, for Advent is all about Our Lord coming to save His lost sheep. Today, more than ever, souls have gone astray. Though material help is fine and sometimes (or often) needed, the good of the soul is more important than the good of the body. “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36). The Spiritual must have primacy over the Corporal. Besides, in the current economic climate, some find it hard to help themselves, never mind others! However, in the spiritual domain, we all have infinitely deep pockets—for we can give spiritual things to others, without losing any of it for ourselves.
If I teach you something about your Faith, I do not lose anything of my own Faith—in fact, it enriches my Faith. If I include you in my prayers and other spiritual exercises, it costs me very little materially—and spiritually I am once again enriched. Thus we could all ADOPT A SOUL DURING ADVENT. It may be a family member, a relative, an acquaintance or a stranger; it could be a lukewarm practicing Catholic; in could be a fallen-away Catholic; it could be a non-Catholic; it could be somebody near or somebody at the other side of the world. No matter. What matters is that we will practicing the same attitude that Our Lord showed in coming to redeem us from our sins.
What we do and how much we do, is up to each and every one of us—some will be inclined to do a lot, some perhaps less. It could include having Masses offered for them; saying extra prayers; suffering providential things for them; offering self-imposed sacrifices for them; offering up our Holy Communions (in part or entirely); etc., etc.
Modern Spirituality is often a Selfish Spirituality
As we will see in the writings of Dom Guéranger, during this Advent season, the modern spiritual life has become very much a cocooned spiritual life, a life of private devotion, which ultimately leads to a “Me. Me, Me” spirituality. Yet we are only one tiny part of the Mystical Body of Christ and what happens to and in the Body at large, affects us to a greater or lesser degree. The Scriptural quote concerning Cain and Abel comes to mind: “And the Lord said to Cain: ‘Where is thy brother Abel?’ And he answered, ‘I know not: am I my brother' s keeper?’” (Genesis 4:9). Many know not the needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ, many do not even care to know! But we are our “brother’s keeper” as witnessed by the words of Our Lady at Fatima, who said: “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go … Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them.” Let us take these words to heart and do for others as we would wish others to do unto us!
With Advent, the ecclesiastical year begins in the Western churches. During this time the faithful are admonished to prepare themselves worthily to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord’s coming into the world as the incarnate God of love, thus to make their souls worthy dwelling-places for the Redeemer coming in Holy Communion and through grace, and thereby to make themselves ready for His final coming as judge, at death and at the end of the world.
According to present modern-day custom, Advent is a period beginning with the Sunday nearest to the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (November 30th) and embracing four Sundays. The first Sunday may be as early as November 27th, and then Advent has twenty-eight days, or as late as December 3rd, giving the season only twenty-one days.
The Meaning of Advent
The name Advent comes from the Latin words, advenire (to come to) and adventus (an arrival), and refers to Christ’s coming into this world. The Lord is coming. Is that what we really want? Is He really happy with the way we live our lives? His coming implies change—it seems to suggest that things must change in our lives. Is that what we want? It is most certainly what He wants—but are we in agreement? Are we looking forward to changing?
Every year at this time we get ready to celebrate His coming , and so there exists a real danger that, through routine, we can lose the feeling of expectancy and joyful anticipation, because, at the end of the season, everything seems to return to pretty much the same old lukewarm routine. If that is the case, then our preparation may have been lacking and we have therefore been robbed of much of the true meaning of this season.
The focus of Advent is by no means limited to just Christ’s first coming. An equal, if not more important theme found in the Advent Liturgy is the second coming of Christ, when He comes again to judge the world. Consequently, there is a double focus of, firstly, the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his first Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. In His first coming He comes as a child offering mercy. In His second coming He will come as a judge administering justice.
Two Sides of Christ
However, He is never merciful without being just, and He is never just without being merciful. Therefore, we must realize that to accept His mercy also requires that we accept His justice. He does not come to play, but to pay—pay for our sins. He does not come to enjoy life, but to give eternal life—and that comes at a price. He comes not to live on Earth forever, but to forever detach us from this Earth.
He prefers poverty over power; humility over honors; rejection over riches and suffering over splendor. His way is not our way, yet He Who called Himself “the Way” shows us wayward wayfarers the true way—and it is not a pleasant way, but the Way of the Cross. He will already carry that Cross from His infancy. Both the Crib of Bethlehem and the Cross of Calvary are made of rough wood, and He would have us carry it after Him.
A New Beginning! No Half-Measures!
Advent is not an end, but a beginning. It should be the beginning of the end of a life of sin and mediocrity—“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
As for mediocrity, Our Lord said to Mother Mariana of Quito, Ecuador: “Alas! If men―and above all, priests and religious souls―would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small inveterate imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me.... But I will not tolerate this. Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me. I desire all or nothing — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross. Moreover, I have continued to live in the Tabernacle under the same roof with these hidden souls, exposing Myself to so many hateful profanations and sacrileges! For I know well all that takes place in My sacramental life! ... Woe to souls like this! Woe!”
Putting on the Purple
The liturgical color for the season of Advent is purple. Purple also has a twofold symbolism. On the one hand purple shows the royal majesty which heralds the coming of the King of Kings. Yet that purple also signifies penance, for the King comes in order to do penance on behalf of mankind, which has grievously offended God—so purple in this sense is also a color symbolic of penance and suffering, since our King came to suffer and die for us. “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance” (Lk. 5:32).
The True Spirit of Advent
The spirit of Advent is somewhat similar to that of Lent, which prepares us for Easter—the greatest feast in the calendar of the Church. Originally the observance of Advent was made up of fasting and took up forty days—as with Lent—but was reduced to four weeks. The first allusion to Advent’s being reduced to four weeks is to be found in the ninth century, in a letter of Pope St. Nicholas I to the Bulgarians.
The Greek Church still continues to observe the fast of Advent, though with much less rigor than that of Lent. It consists of forty days, beginning with November 14th, the day on which this Church keeps the feast of the apostle St. Philip.
Advent is marked by a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, of preparation, of longing. There is a yearning for deliverance from the evils of the world, first expressed by Israelite slaves in Egypt as they cried out from their bitter oppression. It is the cry of those who have experienced the tyranny of injustice in a world under the curse of sin, and yet who have hope of deliverance by a God who has heard the cries of oppressed slaves and brought deliverance!
During Advent we recall the history of God’s people and reflect on how the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament were fulfilled. This gives us a background for the present. Today we can reflect on the past track record of God and so begin to understand what it means to us now for the sake of what is to come, in our own future and that of our world.
Mary Wants to Plant Jesus in our Souls
Advent is, par excellence, the time of the Divine Maternity, the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin, as she draws ever closer to giving birth to God’s Greatest Gift for fallen human nature. During Advent, we should not lose focus of Our Lady, for without her there is no Christmas; without her, God will not be born into this world. It is here cooperation with God that has brought about the Incarnation—God becoming flesh, becoming man so as to save and redeem mankind.
Born Again?
But for mankind to be saved and redeemed, Christ our Savior has to be “born into our souls”. Nay, perhaps that one word will be passed over and looked upon as a routine phrase! Christ wants to be born in our souls, our hearts, our minds, our thoughts, our memories, our hopes, our conversations, our daydreams, our home life, our work life, our social life —in other words, everywhere, in everything, in every moment of our days and nights!
Born to Love!
That is what is meant by the first and greatest commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30). How few there are who comply with this command! Of most, Our Lord would have to say: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6).
Be Our Life—Or A Part of Our Life?
There is no doubt whatsoever that, on the part of Jesus, He truly wants to come to us. He loves us beyond our comprehension and our wildest dreams. There is no problem on the part of Jesus. However, on our side, we have to ask the question: “Do we really want Jesus to come to us?” I mean really, not just theoretically and not just by lip-service. Do we really and truly want Jesus in our lives? To drive the point home more clearly and to avoid misconceptions, do we really and truly want Jesus to be our life? Notice the words “be our life”, which is different to being “a part of our life.” If we want Jesus to be “a part of our life”, then we only partially want Him, we only want a “part-time Jesus”—for some that means on Sundays and prayer times only, for others a little more perhaps, but they place a limit on “how much of Jesus they can take.” He wants to be our whole life, not just a part of our life, and that is what is meant by the commandment to love God with our whole mind, heart, soul and strength.
How Much Longer Will We Resist Him?
All life long Jesus has been trying to REALLY get into our lives. He desires to be a full time part of our lives, not just a part-time visitor. That is not what our Faith is all about, but that is what we have reduced it to! When will this change? Heaven is not our immediate destination until we make an alteration!
We must confess that we need a new heart to love Jesus—our old heart is too cold, too indifferent, too lukewarm, too nonchalant, too self-centered, or world-centered and not God-centered. That is why God says in more than one place:
“And I will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit in their bowels: and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh” (Ezechiel 11:19), and again, “I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you from all your idols. I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh” (Ezechiel 36:26).
Time for a Heart Transplant
Advent is the time for all this to happen! We need to ‘check-in’ to God’s hospital and get that heart transplant that He promises. Only part of our heart is working—we only partially love God—yet we have been told to wholly and totally love Him. We need the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary to, in a sense, be transplanted into ourselves. This notion crops up in the words of the Sacred Heart to Josefa Menendez, when Our Lord says: “My Heart is powerful enough to sustain you. It is yours; take from It all you need … The more you disappear, the more shall I be your life ... My Heart is yours, take it and repair with it.”
In the life of St. Lutgarde, we read of her beseeching Our Lord to give her His heart. St. Lutgarde, being a choir nun, thought it would be very appropriate if she were to be granted a miraculous understanding of Latin, in order that she might have more devotion in reciting the psalms. As matters stood, she did not understand a word of what she said reading the psalms in choir, although she prayed with great fervor. The grace granted, she discovered to her surprise that once again it did not have the result she expected. She began to receive many vivid intellectual lights at the Divine Office, and to be illuminated by numerous penetrating intuitions into the meaning of the psalms. But somehow all this new knowledge left her heart empty and dry. God had granted her this last relatively useless favor together with enough light to see that it was not what she needed, and she soon turned to Him once more confessing that all these lofty intuitions only interfered with her devotion instead of nourishing it.
So seizing the moment, Jesus asked her: “What, then, do you want?”
This time, Jesus had led her secretly to the discovery of the right answer.
“Lord,’ she told Him, “I want Thy Heart.”
“You want My Heart?” said Jesus: “Well, I, too, want your heart.”
St. Lutgarde replied: “Take it, dear Lord. But take it in such a way that the love of Your Heart may be so mingled and united with my own heart that I may possess my heart in Thee, and that it may always remain there secure in Your protection.”
St. Lutgarde is perhaps the first saint in whom this mystical “exchange of hearts” was effected. Since her time, the exchange has become rather common in the lives of mystics devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We read of it in the lives of St. Gertrude, St. Mechtilde (both Cistercians), and St. Margaret Mary. The term is, of course, purely symbolic. There is no question of a physical exchange, but only of a mystical union of wills. Nor does it imply the perfect union of wills in mystical marriage. The exchange of hearts can take place in the degree of union known as spiritual betrothal. The gift then becomes not a sign of perfect transforming union but rather a pledge of that union, which still remains to be desired and which God withholds until His own good time. In more recent times for example, Sister Josefa Menendez, a lay sister of the Society of the Sacred Heart, received a similar grace as a protection against temptations to leave the convent. Are we happy with our heart? Wouldn’t a better heart bring more happiness? Advent is the time to get that spiritual heart transplant in time for Christmas.
Total and Whole
Our Lady also wants Jesus to be our whole life, and she is willing to help give birth to Jesus in our life, so that He may grow and occupy and whole life, just as He did hers. This is, in essence, what St. Louis de Montfort is trying to say in his book, True Devotion to Mary. It is TOTAL consecration, a TOTAL giving of self in return for the TOTAL giving that Christ and His Mother showed towards us poor sinful creatures. The following quotes, taken from different sections of the book, will try to show this picture of Mary as the birth-giver of Jesus in our lives.
“God having willed to commence and to complete His greatest works by the most holy Virgin ever since He created her–we may well think He will not change His conduct in the eternal ages; for He is God, and He changes not, either in His sentiments or in His conduct.” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Mary Gives Birth to Jesus in Souls
“It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only begotten to the world. Whatever sighs the patriarchs may have sent forth, whatever prayers the prophets and the saints of the Old Law may have offered up to obtain this treasure for full four thousand years, it was only Mary who merited it and found grace before God (Luke 1:30) by the force of her prayers and the eminence of her virtues. The world was unworthy, says St. Augustine, to receive the Son of God directly from the Father’s hands. He gave Him to Mary in order that the world might receive Him through her. The Son of God became man for our salvation; but it was in Mary and by Mary” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“God the Father wishes to have children by Mary till the consummation of the world... Just as in the natural and corporal generation of children there are a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there are a Father, who is God, and a Mother, who is Mary. All the true children of God, the predestinate, have God for their Father and Mary for their Mother. He who has not Mary for his Mother has not God for his Father. ... Others, who hate our Blessed Lady or regard her with contempt and indifference, have not God for their Father... For if they had her for their Mother, they would love and honor her as a true child naturally loves and honors the mother who has given him life” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Jesus Wishes to Be Incarnate in You
“God the Son wishes to form Himself, and, so to speak, to incarnate Himself in His members every day, by His dear Mother ... We can apply to her more than St. Paul applied to himself the words: ‘I am in labor again with all the children of God, until Jesus Christ my Son be formed in them in the fullness of His age’” (Cf. Galatians 4:19)” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“St. Augustine, surpassing himself, and going beyond all I have yet said, affirms that all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin, where they are guarded, nourished, brought up and made to grow by that good Mother until she has brought them forth to glory after death, which is properly the day of their birth, as the Church calls the death of the just. O mystery of grace, unknown to the reprobate, and but little known even to the predestinate!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
Through Mary, With Mary, In Mary, By Mary
“God the Holy Ghost wishes to form elect for Himself in her and by her ... When Mary has struck her roots in a soul, she produces there marvels of grace, which she alone can produce, because she alone is the fruitful Virgin who never has had, and never will have, her equal in purity and in fruitfulness” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has been or ever will be–a God Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest saints that there will be in the end of time. The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for her. For it is only that singular and miraculous Virgin who can produce, in union with the Holy Ghost, singular and extraordinary things” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“When the Holy Ghost, her Spouse, has found Mary in a soul, He flies there. He enters there in His fullness; He communicates Himself to that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to which it makes room for His spouse. Nay, one of the greatest reasons why the Holy Ghost does not now do startling wonders in our souls is because He does not find there a sufficiently great union with His faithful and inseparable spouse” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).
“Jesus is everywhere and always the Fruit and the Son of Mary; and Mary is everywhere the veritable tree who bears the Fruit of life, and the true Mother who produces it” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary). What will this Advent produce?
Advent is All About Mercy
The season of Advent is primarily a season of Mercy. The liturgical writers speak of this time of Mercy, in which we look with hope to Christ, who will come to redeem us and save us from sin. As Our Lord Himself says: “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!’” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
Advent is a perfect time to focus more on the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. Most people have heard of them; some may be able to name them all; most will only remember a few; some may not even know how many there are—yet they are integral part of our Faith. They are in part based on the terrifying picture painted by Our Lord, in the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel, dealing with the Sheep and the Goats―which is description of the Last Judgment, and therefore shows the importance that the Works of Mercy will play at that Judgment. Before we list the Works of Mercy, let us briefly remind ourselves of those words of Our Lord.
Sheep and Goats
“When the Son of man shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the seat of His majesty. And all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. Then shall the King say to them that shall be on His right hand: ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me! Then shall the just answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, and fed Thee; thirsty, and gave Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? Or naked, and covered Thee? Or when did we see Thee sick or in prison, and came to Thee?’ And the King answering, shall say to them: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to Me.
“Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink. I was a stranger, and you took Me not in: naked, and you covered Me not: sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me!’ Then they also shall answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?’ Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting” (Matthew 25:31-46).
The Old Testament already pointed this out in part: “He that is inclined to mercy shall be blessed: for of his bread he hath given to the poor” (Proverbs 22:9). “He that showeth mercy to the poor, shall be blessed” (Proverbs 14:21). Since God does not change, neither does His truth change, and so Our Lord reiterates the same message in the New Testament, saying: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). To drive the point home, He also spoke of the Unmerciful Servant in a parable.
The Unmerciful Servant
The Unmerciful Servant wanted mercy, but did not want to show mercy. This is so true of most people, not only today, but of all times. We want mercy for ourselves to a high degree, and we refuse or are reluctant to show mercy to others, putting on our hat of judgment and righteousness! Our Lord’s words rebuke that attitude:
“Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus sad to Him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times. Therefore is the Kingdom of heaven likened to a king, who would take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents. And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
“But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt. But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence; and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: ‘Pay what thou owest!’ And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.
“Now his fellow servants, seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him; and said to him: ‘Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me! Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee?’ And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers, until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not everyone his brother from your hearts” (Matthew 18:21-34).
The Unmerciful Servant Needs Bi-Focals
The Unmerciful Servant, when it came to his own faults, was solely focused and hoped only in the mercy of his lord, and did not want justice to be applied to his faults. Yet, when the Unmerciful Servant came across someone who had offended or sinned against him, then he focused solely upon the application of justice, and totally disregarded the application of mercy. This is so true of so many human beings—when it to comes to our sins, mercy is the only consideration; but when it comes to the sins of others, then justice is the only consideration. The warnings from Our Lord are clear: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). “Judge not, that you may not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matthew 7:1-2). Which is why St. Paul gives the sound advice of: “But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31).
Spare Me, Lord, But Slaughter My Enemies!
We are always ready to say: “Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from Me” (Psalms 65:20). But when it comes to our neighbor (and even the sinner or an enemy is a neighbor, as Our Lord points out in the parable of the Good Samaritan—the Samaritans were enemies of the Jews), then we become like the Sons of Thunder: “Jesus sent messengers before His face; and going, they entered into a city of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. And they received Him not, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem [to the ‘enemy’ city’]. And when His disciples James and John had seen this, they said: ‘Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven, and consume them?’ And turning, He rebuked them, saying: ‘You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!’” (Luke 9:52-56). He also said this elsewhere: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10) and insisted: “Go then and learn what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the just, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13).
The Works of Mercy
Mercy, in this context, is said to be a virtue influencing someone to have compassion for, and, if possible, to alleviate another's misfortune. It is the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas that although mercy is, as it were, the spontaneous product of charity, yet it is to be reckoned a special virtue that is distinguishable from charity. For Mercy is also linked to justice, because it softens justice. Obviously the necessity or need of others can be either of body or soul. Hence it is customary to list both corporal and spiritual Works of Mercy. The traditional enumeration of the Corporal Works of Mercy is as follows:
The Corporal Works of Mercy are:
To feed the hungry;
To give drink to the thirsty;
To clothe the naked;
To shelter the homeless;
To visit the sick;
To ransom the captive;
To bury the dead.
The Spiritual Works of Mercy are:
To instruct the ignorant;
To counsel the doubtful;
To admonish sinners;
To bear wrongs patiently;
To forgive offences willingly;
To comfort the afflicted;
To pray for the living and the dead.
It All Comes Down to Giving Alms—Materially or Spiritually
It will be seen from these divisions that the Works of Mercy practically coincide with the various forms of almsgiving. It is thus that St. Thomas regards them. The word alms of course is a corruption of the Greek eleemosyne (mercy). The doing of Works of Mercy is not merely a matter of suggestion; there is also a strict precept imposed, both by the Natural Law and the Divine law, commanding their performance. The Natural Law commands Works of Mercy based upon the principle that we are to do to others as we would have them do to us. The Divine command is seen in the most strict words of Christ, who points out that failure to comply with it, will bring about the supreme penalty of eternal damnation (see Matthew 25:41 above): Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting” (Matthew 25:45-46).
In that parable of Our Lord’s, it is true, there is only direct and explicit mention of only the Corporal Works of Mercy. However, since the Spiritual Works of Mercy deal with a need or a distress whose relief is even more important as well as more effective for the grand purpose of man's creation, the term “Works of Mercy” must be extended into the spiritual realm also. Besides there are the obvious references of Christ to such works as fraternal correction (Matthew 18:15) as well as the forgiveness of injuries (Matthew 6:14).
Adopt a Soul for Advent
This brings us to the ultimate purpose of this article—which is that of practicing one or several Corporal or Spiritual Works of Mercy during Advent, for Advent is all about Our Lord coming to save His lost sheep. Today, more than ever, souls have gone astray. Though material help is fine and sometimes (or often) needed, the good of the soul is more important than the good of the body. “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36). The Spiritual must have primacy over the Corporal. Besides, in the current economic climate, some find it hard to help themselves, never mind others! However, in the spiritual domain, we all have infinitely deep pockets—for we can give spiritual things to others, without losing any of it for ourselves.
If I teach you something about your Faith, I do not lose anything of my own Faith—in fact, it enriches my Faith. If I include you in my prayers and other spiritual exercises, it costs me very little materially—and spiritually I am once again enriched. Thus we could all ADOPT A SOUL DURING ADVENT. It may be a family member, a relative, an acquaintance or a stranger; it could be a lukewarm practicing Catholic; in could be a fallen-away Catholic; it could be a non-Catholic; it could be somebody near or somebody at the other side of the world. No matter. What matters is that we will practicing the same attitude that Our Lord showed in coming to redeem us from our sins.
What we do and how much we do, is up to each and every one of us—some will be inclined to do a lot, some perhaps less. It could include having Masses offered for them; saying extra prayers; suffering providential things for them; offering self-imposed sacrifices for them; offering up our Holy Communions (in part or entirely); etc., etc.
Modern Spirituality is often a Selfish Spirituality
As we will see in the writings of Dom Guéranger, during this Advent season, the modern spiritual life has become very much a cocooned spiritual life, a life of private devotion, which ultimately leads to a “Me. Me, Me” spirituality. Yet we are only one tiny part of the Mystical Body of Christ and what happens to and in the Body at large, affects us to a greater or lesser degree. The Scriptural quote concerning Cain and Abel comes to mind: “And the Lord said to Cain: ‘Where is thy brother Abel?’ And he answered, ‘I know not: am I my brother' s keeper?’” (Genesis 4:9). Many know not the needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ, many do not even care to know! But we are our “brother’s keeper” as witnessed by the words of Our Lady at Fatima, who said: “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go … Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them.” Let us take these words to heart and do for others as we would wish others to do unto us!
Article 28
Friday November 28th
Black Friday versus Good Friday
Friday November 28th
Black Friday versus Good Friday
Aping God
The devil likes to “ape” God, that is to say, he likes to imitate aspects of God and God’s Church. Tertullian once said: “Diabolos est Dei simia,” and that basically translates into “The devil is God’s monkey (or ape).” What Tertullian meant was that the devil likes nothing better than to ape God. Satanists and secret societies are pretty big on copying or aping certain elements of Catholic religious ceremonies—the Black Mass is one such blasphemous example.
Black Friday
Talking of the word “black”, today happens to be what the world (in the USA world) calls “Black Friday” and it comes right after “Thanksgiving Day” which is always a Thursday. In recent years, most major retailers have opened very early and offered promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season, similar to Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day) sales in many British Commonwealth nations. Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the day after off, followed by a weekend, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers.
For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of Black Friday, but in the late 2000’s many had crept to 5:00 a.m. or even 4:00 a.m. This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Best Buy, and Bealls) opened at midnight for the first time. In 2012, Wal-Mart and several other retailers announced that they would open most of their stores at 8:00 p.m. In 2014, stores were even opening as early as 6:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. On and on it goes…
It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005, although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate, have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time. In 2003, however, Black Friday actually was the busiest shopping day of the year, and it has retained that position every year since, with the exception of 2004.
The amount of money spent on Black Friday has generally increased from year to year:
Year Online Spending (Billions USD)
2013 $1.9 billion (which is $1,900 millions)
2017 $5.0 billion (which is $5,000 millions)
2018 $6.2 billion (which is $6,200 millions)
2019 $7.4 billion (which is $7,400 millions)
2020 $9.03 billion (which is $9,030 millions)
2021 $8.9 billion (which is $8,900 millions)
2022 $9.1 billion (which is $9,100 millions)
2023 $9.8 billion (which is $9,800 millions)
2024 $10.8 billion (which is $10,800 millions)
Even though companies are navigating an uncertain economic environment and wrestle with the volatility of President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs on imported goods, Black Friday retains its crown as the official start of the holiday shopping season and remains the biggest shopping day in the U.S. A forecast from the National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, has predicted an increase in holiday sales during the Tnaksgiving to New Year’s period.. The group estimates that shoppers would collectively spend between $1.01 trillion (over $1,000,000 millions, or one million millions) and $1.02 trillion in November and December, or 3.7% to 4.2% more than 2024. Retailers sold $976 billion during the holiday sales in 2024, or a 4.3% increase from 2023, the group said.
Black Friday masquerades as the first day of traditional Christmas shopping, during which crowds of consumers are drawn to special offers by retailers. The thought sprang to mind that this has an uncanny resemblance to our Holy Thursday and Good Friday, except that it tends to go in the opposite direction. One could almost say that it is a parody. Here are the reasons that occurred in formulating this idea:
Comparisons
► The days are the same day: Holy Thursday and Good Friday / Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday.
► Holy Thursday is centered around Our Lord’s Last Supper; Thanksgiving in centered around the secular Thanksgiving meal.
► Good Friday and Black Friday are all about the world and materialism: Our Lord detaches Himself from the world and material things and dies to save souls; Black Friday is all about attaching oneself to materialism in order to save something too—money!
► Good Friday is frugal in its ceremony (the bare bones) and has somber black vestments; whereas Black Friday is all about opulence with its colorful glitz and glamour.
► The message of Good Friday is one of dying to this world—as Our Lord said: “I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). Whereas the message of Black Friday is one of living for the world and grabbing all one can of this world.
► Good Friday is a day of obligatory fasting; while Black Friday for many is almost a day of compulsory spending and indulging. It is common for prospective shoppers to camp out over the Thanksgiving holiday, even in cold freezing temperatures, in an effort to secure a place in front of the line and thus a better chance at getting desired items.
► Just as the Faith spread throughout the world, so too is Black Friday spreading throughout the world since really “taking-off” in the USA. Canada has started the Black Friday practice. Black Friday was the inspiration for the Mexican government and retailing industry to create an annual weekend of discounts and extended credit terms, El Buen Fin, meaning “the good weekend” in Spanish. Black Friday is also celebrated in the United Kingdom by major online retailers, and more and more UK-based retailers have adopted the Black Friday marketing scheme than ever. In Panama Black Friday was first celebrated in 2012, as a move from the Government to attract local tourism to the countries capital city. In recent years, Black Friday has been promoted in Australia by online retailers. In 2012, after two years of disappointing results, several department stores in Brazil joined their foreign competitors in a successful Black Friday, which more than doubled the total revenue in comparison to the previous year. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Black Friday Sale is a joint sales initiative by hundreds of online vendors.
The Violence of Good Friday and Black Friday
We all know, of course, the extreme violence generated against Our Lord on Good Friday by the sinful passions of the Pharisees, Jews and Roman soldiers. Yet we also see those evil passions surge to the fore on Black Friday. Somehow money, things and greed combine to make a toxic poison for basic Christian charity―or even non-Christian charity and civility. Black Friday entails shopping for and getting cheap deals, but Black Friday crime is actually very common, and it can have a negative impact on the event. Black Friday violence can arise―as the excitement of the day bubbles over and becomes an issue. Disagreements can easily turn into crazy Black Friday fights. Black Friday has become a setting for consumer misbehavior as shoppers compete for deeply discounted products. Fighting, pepper-spraying, dumping merchandise, ransacking stores, robberies and shootings have all been reported on Black Friday.
In 2006, a man shopping at Best Buy was recorded on video assaulting another shopper in a dispute over an article that each wanted to buy. Unruly Wal-Mart shoppers at a store outside Columbus, Ohio, quickly flooded in the doors at opening, pinning several employees against stacks of merchandise. Nine shoppers in a California mall were injured, including an elderly woman who had to be taken to the hospital, when the crowd rushed to grab gift certificates that had been released from the ceiling. If only people had the same passion for attending Masses, receiving Holy Communion and going to Confession!
In 2008, a crowd of approximately 2,000 shoppers in Valley Stream, New York, waited outside for the 5:00 a.m. opening of the local Wal-Mart. [Wouldn’t it be a pleasant surprise for priests to find similar crowds outside their church on a morning, pining to get in!) As opening time approached, the crowd grew anxious and when the doors were opened the crowd pushed forward, breaking the door down, and trampling a 34-year old employee to death. The shoppers did not appear concerned with the victim’s fate, expressing refusal to halt their stampede when other employees attempted to intervene and help the injured employee, complaining that they had been waiting in the cold and were not willing to wait any longer. Shoppers had begun assembling as early as 9:00 p.m. the night before [what a massive mortification for mammon, but for God, no mortification is shown!]. Even when police arrived and attempted to render aid to the injured man, shoppers continued to pour in, shoving and pushing the officers as they made their way into the store. Several other people incurred minor injuries, including a pregnant woman who had to be taken to the hospital. The incident may be the first case of a death occurring during Black Friday sales; according to the National Retail Federation, “We are not aware of any other circumstances where a retail employee has died working on the day after Thanksgiving.”
On the same day, two people were fatally shot during an altercation at the Toys “R” Us store in Palm Desert, California.
During Black Friday 2010, a Madison, Wisconsin woman was arrested outside of aToys “R” Us store after cutting in line, and threatening to shoot other shoppers who tried to object. A Toys for Tots volunteer in Georgia was stabbed by a shoplifter. An Indianapolis woman was arrested after causing a disturbance by arguing with other Wal-Mart shoppers. She had been asked to leave the store, but refused. A man in Buffalo, New York, was trampled when doors opened at a Target store and unruly shoppers rushed in, in an episode reminiscent of the deadly 2008 Wal-Martstampede.
On Black Friday 2011, a woman at a Porter Ranch, California Wal-Mart used pepper spray on fellow shoppers, causing minor injuries to at least 10 people, who had been waiting hours for the store to open. It was later reported that the incident caused 20 injuries. The incident started as people waited in line for the newly discounted Xbox 360 (a video game console). A witness said a woman with two children in tow became upset with the way people were pushing in line. The witness said she pulled out pepper spray and sprayed the other people in line. Another account stated that the store had brought out a crate of discounted Xbox 360s, and a crowd had formed to wait for the unwrapping, when the woman began spraying people “in order to get an advantage,” according to the police. In an incident outside a Wal-Mart store in San Leandro, California, one man was wounded after being shot following Black Friday shopping at about 1:45 a.m.
On Black Friday 2012, two people were shot outside a Wal-Mart in Tallahassee, Florida during a dispute over a parking space.
On Black Friday in 2013, a person in Las Vegas who was carrying a big-screen TV home from a Target store on Thanksgiving was shot in the leg as he tried to wrestle the item back from a robber who had just stolen it from him at gunpoint. In Romeoville IL, a police officer shot a suspected shoplifter driving a car that was dragging a fellow officer at a Kohl’s department store. The suspect and the dragged officer were treated for shoulder injuries. Three people were arrested.
Between 2006 and 2021, according to the website Black Friday Death Count, Black Friday incidents in America left 17 dead and 125 injured. Those numbers are only from “reported cases” ― there are many more incidents that go unreported. Trampling incidents are a significant risk during Black Friday, as impatient crowds push towards their objectives, leading to individuals being trampled, highlighting the potential dangers of overcrowding and impatience during the event.
To give just one example of many, on November 24th, 2025, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department issued a statement saying that its police officers will be on foot, horseback, in patrol cars and helicopters keeping a close eye on Nashville’s shopping centers and big box retailers beginning Black Friday and continuing throughout the Thanksgiving weekend. The department is working closely with management at major retailers in order to enhance public safety and deter retail theft. Stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot and Lowe's are also included. Anyone caught stealing from stores or breaking into vehicles will be arrested and prosecuted.
Police officers will be joined by Mounted Patrol and private security staff at entry and exit points to monitor parking areas and traffic issues. They will have an increased presence of officers inside and outside shopping centers. The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Aviation section will be flying over the shopping hubs Friday and through the weekend looking for any suspicious activity in parking lots. Helicopter crews will immediately radio anything concerning to ground units.
Biggest Violence of All
But the biggest violence of committed on this Black Friday is the violence against the Faith. The whole spirit of Black Friday and what it represents, goes against the spirit of Christ and what He represents. Our Lord came to live in poverty, not in riches. He did not pamper His body by living in luxury, but lived a simple and mortified life: “Jesus said to him: ‘The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests: but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head!’” (Matthew 8:20). He explicitly told us: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:19-21). “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24). “And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part have the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God .. Wherefore, Go out from among them, and be ye separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing!” (2 Corinthians 6:15-17).
Riches and Wealth Work Against Heaven
We see a clear example of this with the rich young man, who wanted to save his soul, yet also wanted to enjoy his worldly possessions. Our Lord refused this two-facedness. Here is St. Matthew’s account: “And behold one came and said to him: ‘Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?’ Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:16-24).
The Religion of Money and Goods
Many have argued that the new priesthood today consists of scientists, professors, teachers and merchants, and advertisers, who are organized as a part of a new secular tradition—they are a parody or an aping of the Church, with its pope, cardinals, bishops and priests. They deny (or relegate) the existence of the supernatural and ridicule it. For them, what is primary is the material world. The world is their god and their teacher, and they gratefully bow down and worship the world and all that the world can supply by means of material goods and their offshoot, or side-effect—money.
These ‘priests’ of the secular religion of materialism, preach throughout their ‘churches’ of schools, colleges; universities, in the media and in the stores. The scientist, or man of natural knowledge, or entrepreneur has become a mini-god, falling into the same trap of Adam of Eve—who wanted to be like unto God. The devil, who in the words of Our Lord, is the prince of this world that they adore, will only too willingly aid and abet them in their folly. As materialists, they see themselves as material producers and consumers of goods, the lifestyle and economics of consumerist capitalism seems natural. Hedonism (the doctrine that pleasure is the highest good) also seems natural, because as a body that has certain needs and wants, what that idiot of a psychologist Freud rightly called modern man as being a “desire-producing-machine” whereby life becomes primarily about the fulfillment of the desires of the body ― the cult of the body.
Saints Peter and Paul Prophesied This
“Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God: having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid” (2 Timothy 1-5).
“In the last days there shall come deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts, saying: ‘Where is His promise or His coming?’ … But of this one thing be not ignorant, my beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord delays not His promise, as some imagine, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance. But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the Earth and the works which are in it, shall be burnt up!” (2 Peter 3:3-10).
Not of the World
Speaking of the devil, Our Lord said: “The prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not any thing” (John 14:30). “And Jesus said to the Jews [today read that as pagan scientists, pagan academics, and the pagan entrepreneurs]: ‘You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!’” (John 8:23). Of His followers, He says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world” (John 17:16). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world [Black Friday]” (1 John 2:16). To which St. John adds: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). This is why we are told: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
Besotted by the World
Today materialism has reached fever-pitch, even among so-called Catholics—who are really worshipers of mammon. As Our Lady said in her apparitions: “All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin ... The secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the divine compass, they will stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry, and they will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain. How the Church will suffer during this dark night! … Woe to the Princes of the Church who think only of piling riches upon riches, to protect their authority and dominate with pride ... The priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity” (Our Lady of Good Success & Our Lady of La Salette).
An Insane Thirst and Attachment to the World
After the Last Supper, Our Lord went to the Garden of Gethsemane—after eating their Thanksgiving meal, many go to their Gardens of Getsomeforfree, the stores and shopping malls. Our Lord sweated blood thinking of His future passion and death for our sins—today’s souls sweat worryingly thinking about the deals and goodies that they might miss-out on. Our Lord said to His three Apostles: “Could you not watch one hour with Me?” ― Today we say: “Could you not shop one hour with me?” Our Lord was sold by Judas for thirty pieces of silver—today many sell themselves to the world and mammon, for a few paltry idols on a shelf. Our Lord was arrested, tied-up and taken captive—today many are tied-up and captivated by things of the world that have arrested their attention. On the Cross Our Lord said: “I thirst!”--thirsting for souls. The world thirsts too, but it is not for Christ nor the spiritual, but it is an unquenchable thirst for the things that this world has to offer. Our Lord was nearly stripped of all that He had and was attached to the Cross by nails—yet souls do not want to be divested of their possessions (they want even more of them) and they are so attached to them that we could say that “they are nailed to them.”
We would do well to memorize and often repeat to ourselves (and family members, relatives, friends, etc.) the already quoted passages from Holy Scripture: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). This is why we are told: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
The devil likes to “ape” God, that is to say, he likes to imitate aspects of God and God’s Church. Tertullian once said: “Diabolos est Dei simia,” and that basically translates into “The devil is God’s monkey (or ape).” What Tertullian meant was that the devil likes nothing better than to ape God. Satanists and secret societies are pretty big on copying or aping certain elements of Catholic religious ceremonies—the Black Mass is one such blasphemous example.
Black Friday
Talking of the word “black”, today happens to be what the world (in the USA world) calls “Black Friday” and it comes right after “Thanksgiving Day” which is always a Thursday. In recent years, most major retailers have opened very early and offered promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season, similar to Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day) sales in many British Commonwealth nations. Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the day after off, followed by a weekend, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers.
For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of Black Friday, but in the late 2000’s many had crept to 5:00 a.m. or even 4:00 a.m. This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Best Buy, and Bealls) opened at midnight for the first time. In 2012, Wal-Mart and several other retailers announced that they would open most of their stores at 8:00 p.m. In 2014, stores were even opening as early as 6:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. On and on it goes…
It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005, although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate, have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time. In 2003, however, Black Friday actually was the busiest shopping day of the year, and it has retained that position every year since, with the exception of 2004.
The amount of money spent on Black Friday has generally increased from year to year:
Year Online Spending (Billions USD)
2013 $1.9 billion (which is $1,900 millions)
2017 $5.0 billion (which is $5,000 millions)
2018 $6.2 billion (which is $6,200 millions)
2019 $7.4 billion (which is $7,400 millions)
2020 $9.03 billion (which is $9,030 millions)
2021 $8.9 billion (which is $8,900 millions)
2022 $9.1 billion (which is $9,100 millions)
2023 $9.8 billion (which is $9,800 millions)
2024 $10.8 billion (which is $10,800 millions)
Even though companies are navigating an uncertain economic environment and wrestle with the volatility of President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs on imported goods, Black Friday retains its crown as the official start of the holiday shopping season and remains the biggest shopping day in the U.S. A forecast from the National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, has predicted an increase in holiday sales during the Tnaksgiving to New Year’s period.. The group estimates that shoppers would collectively spend between $1.01 trillion (over $1,000,000 millions, or one million millions) and $1.02 trillion in November and December, or 3.7% to 4.2% more than 2024. Retailers sold $976 billion during the holiday sales in 2024, or a 4.3% increase from 2023, the group said.
Black Friday masquerades as the first day of traditional Christmas shopping, during which crowds of consumers are drawn to special offers by retailers. The thought sprang to mind that this has an uncanny resemblance to our Holy Thursday and Good Friday, except that it tends to go in the opposite direction. One could almost say that it is a parody. Here are the reasons that occurred in formulating this idea:
Comparisons
► The days are the same day: Holy Thursday and Good Friday / Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday.
► Holy Thursday is centered around Our Lord’s Last Supper; Thanksgiving in centered around the secular Thanksgiving meal.
► Good Friday and Black Friday are all about the world and materialism: Our Lord detaches Himself from the world and material things and dies to save souls; Black Friday is all about attaching oneself to materialism in order to save something too—money!
► Good Friday is frugal in its ceremony (the bare bones) and has somber black vestments; whereas Black Friday is all about opulence with its colorful glitz and glamour.
► The message of Good Friday is one of dying to this world—as Our Lord said: “I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). Whereas the message of Black Friday is one of living for the world and grabbing all one can of this world.
► Good Friday is a day of obligatory fasting; while Black Friday for many is almost a day of compulsory spending and indulging. It is common for prospective shoppers to camp out over the Thanksgiving holiday, even in cold freezing temperatures, in an effort to secure a place in front of the line and thus a better chance at getting desired items.
► Just as the Faith spread throughout the world, so too is Black Friday spreading throughout the world since really “taking-off” in the USA. Canada has started the Black Friday practice. Black Friday was the inspiration for the Mexican government and retailing industry to create an annual weekend of discounts and extended credit terms, El Buen Fin, meaning “the good weekend” in Spanish. Black Friday is also celebrated in the United Kingdom by major online retailers, and more and more UK-based retailers have adopted the Black Friday marketing scheme than ever. In Panama Black Friday was first celebrated in 2012, as a move from the Government to attract local tourism to the countries capital city. In recent years, Black Friday has been promoted in Australia by online retailers. In 2012, after two years of disappointing results, several department stores in Brazil joined their foreign competitors in a successful Black Friday, which more than doubled the total revenue in comparison to the previous year. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Black Friday Sale is a joint sales initiative by hundreds of online vendors.
The Violence of Good Friday and Black Friday
We all know, of course, the extreme violence generated against Our Lord on Good Friday by the sinful passions of the Pharisees, Jews and Roman soldiers. Yet we also see those evil passions surge to the fore on Black Friday. Somehow money, things and greed combine to make a toxic poison for basic Christian charity―or even non-Christian charity and civility. Black Friday entails shopping for and getting cheap deals, but Black Friday crime is actually very common, and it can have a negative impact on the event. Black Friday violence can arise―as the excitement of the day bubbles over and becomes an issue. Disagreements can easily turn into crazy Black Friday fights. Black Friday has become a setting for consumer misbehavior as shoppers compete for deeply discounted products. Fighting, pepper-spraying, dumping merchandise, ransacking stores, robberies and shootings have all been reported on Black Friday.
In 2006, a man shopping at Best Buy was recorded on video assaulting another shopper in a dispute over an article that each wanted to buy. Unruly Wal-Mart shoppers at a store outside Columbus, Ohio, quickly flooded in the doors at opening, pinning several employees against stacks of merchandise. Nine shoppers in a California mall were injured, including an elderly woman who had to be taken to the hospital, when the crowd rushed to grab gift certificates that had been released from the ceiling. If only people had the same passion for attending Masses, receiving Holy Communion and going to Confession!
In 2008, a crowd of approximately 2,000 shoppers in Valley Stream, New York, waited outside for the 5:00 a.m. opening of the local Wal-Mart. [Wouldn’t it be a pleasant surprise for priests to find similar crowds outside their church on a morning, pining to get in!) As opening time approached, the crowd grew anxious and when the doors were opened the crowd pushed forward, breaking the door down, and trampling a 34-year old employee to death. The shoppers did not appear concerned with the victim’s fate, expressing refusal to halt their stampede when other employees attempted to intervene and help the injured employee, complaining that they had been waiting in the cold and were not willing to wait any longer. Shoppers had begun assembling as early as 9:00 p.m. the night before [what a massive mortification for mammon, but for God, no mortification is shown!]. Even when police arrived and attempted to render aid to the injured man, shoppers continued to pour in, shoving and pushing the officers as they made their way into the store. Several other people incurred minor injuries, including a pregnant woman who had to be taken to the hospital. The incident may be the first case of a death occurring during Black Friday sales; according to the National Retail Federation, “We are not aware of any other circumstances where a retail employee has died working on the day after Thanksgiving.”
On the same day, two people were fatally shot during an altercation at the Toys “R” Us store in Palm Desert, California.
During Black Friday 2010, a Madison, Wisconsin woman was arrested outside of aToys “R” Us store after cutting in line, and threatening to shoot other shoppers who tried to object. A Toys for Tots volunteer in Georgia was stabbed by a shoplifter. An Indianapolis woman was arrested after causing a disturbance by arguing with other Wal-Mart shoppers. She had been asked to leave the store, but refused. A man in Buffalo, New York, was trampled when doors opened at a Target store and unruly shoppers rushed in, in an episode reminiscent of the deadly 2008 Wal-Martstampede.
On Black Friday 2011, a woman at a Porter Ranch, California Wal-Mart used pepper spray on fellow shoppers, causing minor injuries to at least 10 people, who had been waiting hours for the store to open. It was later reported that the incident caused 20 injuries. The incident started as people waited in line for the newly discounted Xbox 360 (a video game console). A witness said a woman with two children in tow became upset with the way people were pushing in line. The witness said she pulled out pepper spray and sprayed the other people in line. Another account stated that the store had brought out a crate of discounted Xbox 360s, and a crowd had formed to wait for the unwrapping, when the woman began spraying people “in order to get an advantage,” according to the police. In an incident outside a Wal-Mart store in San Leandro, California, one man was wounded after being shot following Black Friday shopping at about 1:45 a.m.
On Black Friday 2012, two people were shot outside a Wal-Mart in Tallahassee, Florida during a dispute over a parking space.
On Black Friday in 2013, a person in Las Vegas who was carrying a big-screen TV home from a Target store on Thanksgiving was shot in the leg as he tried to wrestle the item back from a robber who had just stolen it from him at gunpoint. In Romeoville IL, a police officer shot a suspected shoplifter driving a car that was dragging a fellow officer at a Kohl’s department store. The suspect and the dragged officer were treated for shoulder injuries. Three people were arrested.
Between 2006 and 2021, according to the website Black Friday Death Count, Black Friday incidents in America left 17 dead and 125 injured. Those numbers are only from “reported cases” ― there are many more incidents that go unreported. Trampling incidents are a significant risk during Black Friday, as impatient crowds push towards their objectives, leading to individuals being trampled, highlighting the potential dangers of overcrowding and impatience during the event.
To give just one example of many, on November 24th, 2025, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department issued a statement saying that its police officers will be on foot, horseback, in patrol cars and helicopters keeping a close eye on Nashville’s shopping centers and big box retailers beginning Black Friday and continuing throughout the Thanksgiving weekend. The department is working closely with management at major retailers in order to enhance public safety and deter retail theft. Stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot and Lowe's are also included. Anyone caught stealing from stores or breaking into vehicles will be arrested and prosecuted.
Police officers will be joined by Mounted Patrol and private security staff at entry and exit points to monitor parking areas and traffic issues. They will have an increased presence of officers inside and outside shopping centers. The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Aviation section will be flying over the shopping hubs Friday and through the weekend looking for any suspicious activity in parking lots. Helicopter crews will immediately radio anything concerning to ground units.
Biggest Violence of All
But the biggest violence of committed on this Black Friday is the violence against the Faith. The whole spirit of Black Friday and what it represents, goes against the spirit of Christ and what He represents. Our Lord came to live in poverty, not in riches. He did not pamper His body by living in luxury, but lived a simple and mortified life: “Jesus said to him: ‘The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests: but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head!’” (Matthew 8:20). He explicitly told us: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:19-21). “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24). “And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part have the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God .. Wherefore, Go out from among them, and be ye separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing!” (2 Corinthians 6:15-17).
Riches and Wealth Work Against Heaven
We see a clear example of this with the rich young man, who wanted to save his soul, yet also wanted to enjoy his worldly possessions. Our Lord refused this two-facedness. Here is St. Matthew’s account: “And behold one came and said to him: ‘Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?’ Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:16-24).
The Religion of Money and Goods
Many have argued that the new priesthood today consists of scientists, professors, teachers and merchants, and advertisers, who are organized as a part of a new secular tradition—they are a parody or an aping of the Church, with its pope, cardinals, bishops and priests. They deny (or relegate) the existence of the supernatural and ridicule it. For them, what is primary is the material world. The world is their god and their teacher, and they gratefully bow down and worship the world and all that the world can supply by means of material goods and their offshoot, or side-effect—money.
These ‘priests’ of the secular religion of materialism, preach throughout their ‘churches’ of schools, colleges; universities, in the media and in the stores. The scientist, or man of natural knowledge, or entrepreneur has become a mini-god, falling into the same trap of Adam of Eve—who wanted to be like unto God. The devil, who in the words of Our Lord, is the prince of this world that they adore, will only too willingly aid and abet them in their folly. As materialists, they see themselves as material producers and consumers of goods, the lifestyle and economics of consumerist capitalism seems natural. Hedonism (the doctrine that pleasure is the highest good) also seems natural, because as a body that has certain needs and wants, what that idiot of a psychologist Freud rightly called modern man as being a “desire-producing-machine” whereby life becomes primarily about the fulfillment of the desires of the body ― the cult of the body.
Saints Peter and Paul Prophesied This
“Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God: having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid” (2 Timothy 1-5).
“In the last days there shall come deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts, saying: ‘Where is His promise or His coming?’ … But of this one thing be not ignorant, my beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord delays not His promise, as some imagine, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance. But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the Earth and the works which are in it, shall be burnt up!” (2 Peter 3:3-10).
Not of the World
Speaking of the devil, Our Lord said: “The prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not any thing” (John 14:30). “And Jesus said to the Jews [today read that as pagan scientists, pagan academics, and the pagan entrepreneurs]: ‘You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!’” (John 8:23). Of His followers, He says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world” (John 17:16). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world [Black Friday]” (1 John 2:16). To which St. John adds: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). This is why we are told: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
Besotted by the World
Today materialism has reached fever-pitch, even among so-called Catholics—who are really worshipers of mammon. As Our Lady said in her apparitions: “All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin ... The secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the divine compass, they will stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry, and they will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain. How the Church will suffer during this dark night! … Woe to the Princes of the Church who think only of piling riches upon riches, to protect their authority and dominate with pride ... The priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity” (Our Lady of Good Success & Our Lady of La Salette).
An Insane Thirst and Attachment to the World
After the Last Supper, Our Lord went to the Garden of Gethsemane—after eating their Thanksgiving meal, many go to their Gardens of Getsomeforfree, the stores and shopping malls. Our Lord sweated blood thinking of His future passion and death for our sins—today’s souls sweat worryingly thinking about the deals and goodies that they might miss-out on. Our Lord said to His three Apostles: “Could you not watch one hour with Me?” ― Today we say: “Could you not shop one hour with me?” Our Lord was sold by Judas for thirty pieces of silver—today many sell themselves to the world and mammon, for a few paltry idols on a shelf. Our Lord was arrested, tied-up and taken captive—today many are tied-up and captivated by things of the world that have arrested their attention. On the Cross Our Lord said: “I thirst!”--thirsting for souls. The world thirsts too, but it is not for Christ nor the spiritual, but it is an unquenchable thirst for the things that this world has to offer. Our Lord was nearly stripped of all that He had and was attached to the Cross by nails—yet souls do not want to be divested of their possessions (they want even more of them) and they are so attached to them that we could say that “they are nailed to them.”
We would do well to memorize and often repeat to ourselves (and family members, relatives, friends, etc.) the already quoted passages from Holy Scripture: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). This is why we are told: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
Article 27
Thursday November 27th
Make it a Godly―Not Godless―Thanksgiving Day
Thursday November 27th
Make it a Godly―Not Godless―Thanksgiving Day
Will You Be Thankful It’s Here? Or Thankful When It’s Over?
Just as Our Lord says: “He that is not with Me, is against Me―and he that gathers not with Me, scatters!” (Matthew 12:30)―you could also say that some are for Thanksgiving Day and some face it reluctantly. Will you be glad when it has finally arrived? Or will you will glad when it’s finally over?
In one sense, Thanksgiving Day can be a wonderful experience if―like anything else in life―it is used properly and in that way it was intended to be used. However, if we abuse it rather than use it―then the negative Thanksgiving Day side-effects begin to flow in as much abundance as the food and wine flow.
Thanksgiving Day can often become an Argument Day, or a Gossiping Day, or a Needling Day, or an Insulting Day, or a Show-Off Day, or a Competitive Day, or one of the many other flavors that are so popular these days. It often sets the annual tone for the prolonged, almost ceaseless partying spirit that begins with Thanksgiving Day, takes in all the pre-Christmas parties at work and at school, then the actual Christmas Day and beyond parties, up until the New Year’s Eve party. For the worldly “party-animal” it is the high-point of the year―whereas for spiritual folk it the high-stress-point of the year, when they feel obliged to “go-along-to-get-along” and the fear and cringe at the thought of saying “No” to an invite just as much as they fear and cringe at saying “Yes” to an invite.
Thanksgiving Tongue-Talking-Terrorists?
Thanksgiving Terrorists! Have you ever thought of seeing your guests, over the holiday season, as potential terrorists? Tongue-Terrorists! Tongue-Talking-Terrorists! Thanksgiving Tongue-Talking-Terrorists! They come armed with a two-edged tongue, sharpened and ready to use! They should be asked to show their tongue at the door, for inspection!! “A slippery mouth works ruin” (Proverbs 26:28)—and during this holiday season many “slippery mouths” will surface! “Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not so many as have perished by their own tongue!” (Ecclesiasticus 28:22). As St. James so truly says:
“If any man thinks himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart―then this man’s religion is vain!” (James 1:26). “For in many things we all offend. If any man offends not in word, the same is a perfect man. Even so the tongue is indeed a little member of the body, and boasts great things. Behold how small a fire sets on aflame a great forest. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue defiles the whole body―being set on fire by Hell. For every nature of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of the rest, is tamed, and has been tamed, by the nature of man. But the tongue no man can tame―it is an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison. By it we bless God and the Father: and by it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing! My brethren, these things ought not so to be!” (James 3:2-10).
Is God Invited?
That brings us to the question: “Is God invited to your Thanksgiving Day party?” You reply: “Huh? Who? God? What has He got to do with Thanksgiving Day? It’s a secular celebration! It’s a secular holiday! It’s not a Church feast-day! Religion has nothing to do with it!” Really? Is that so? Is that what you think? Is that what you were taught?
Is there anything from which we can and should exclude God? Does not Holy Scripture say: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God!” (1 Corinthians 10:31)? And “We give thanks to God always … without ceasing! … We ought to give thanks to God always! … We also give thanks to God without ceasing! … In all things give thanks―for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you all! … We are bound to give thanks always to God!” (1 Thessalonians 1:2; 2:12-13; 5:18; 2 Thessalonians 1:3). “Cease not to give thanks! … Giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father” (Ephesians 1:16; 5:20). “I give thanks to my God always!” (1 Corinthians 1:4). Does not the Preface of the Sacrifice of the Mass say: “It is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God”?
Protestant Presidents, Thermodynamics and the Holy Eucharist
“Huh?” you exclaim, “Protestant Presidents, thermodynamics and the Holy Eucharist? Are you crazy? What on earth are you talking about?” Well, okay, let’s go one step at a time. First of all “Protestant Presidents”.
Protestant Presidents
Just like a broken clock is gives the correct time twice a day, even the Protestants are right about some things! This happens to be the case with the point and purpose of the original Thanksgiving Day. In fact, the first official call for a Day of Thanksgiving in the U.S. ― issued by the Continental Congress in 1777 ― enjoined Americans to offer both thanks and prayers of repentance to God. “That together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins,” says the proclamation. Twelve years later, George Washington issued the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation, also calling for a day of unified prayer for America. The first president wrote: “Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be ― That we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks … And, also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions.”
That―most definitely―is no longer the spirit, purpose and practice on Thanksgiving Day today! It has degenerated from being a day dedicated to God, prayer and penance, to a day that is filled with indifferentism, naturalism, materialism, hedonism (pleasure seeking), criticism and antagonism. Why? Because of an intellectual and spiritual degeneration―as they say: “Use it or lose it!” If you don’t review or refresh your knowledge, you will lose your knowledge. If you forget the past in order to only focus on the present―then you will repeat the mistakes of the past or fail to learn the wisdom of the past―which leads us to The Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Thermodynamics
The First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation): The First Law of Thermodynamics, also known as Law of Conservation of Energy, states that energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed―energy can only be transferred or changed from one form to another. The First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation) states that energy is always conserved, it cannot be created or destroyed. In essence, energy can be converted from one form into another. For example, turning on a light would seem to produce energy; however, it is electrical energy that is converted. The total amount of energy and matter in the Universe remains constant, merely changing from one form to another.
The energy in any system can be converted to heat or work or other things―but you always have the same total that you started with. For example, if the energy level is 7 units, then you could have heat at 4 units, work at 2 units and something else at 1 unit, or 5+1+1, or 2+2+3, etc. It is like saying you have $10 to spend―you spend $7 on a meal, $2 on a drink and $1 on tipping the waiter. Or, in relation to time―you have 24 hours in a day―which never changes but is always a constant 24 hours, of which you may spend 8 hours sleeping, 8 hours working and 8 hours praying, house cleaning, traveling, visiting, reading, studying, etc. If you decide to sleep more, you have less time for other things, but if you dedicate more time to other things, then you have less time to sleep. You cannot change the 24 hours in a day―but you can change how you use those hours. Your income does not change (very much), but you can decide on what you will spend that income―but if you spend more on one thing, then you must spend less on another.
If we look at this from the perspective of the soul―God has given us our soul and the ‘positive energy’ of Sanctifying Grace and Actual Grace to run it and guide it. The soul needs that exterior intervention of energy to maintain it. Yet, the soul can also ‘run’ on ‘negative energy’―which is sin. The soul has a certain capacity or volume and―since nature abhors a vacuum―it has to be and will be filled with some form of energy―either ‘positive energy’ (grace) or ‘negative energy’ (sin). That is an inescapable truth and it is our wise or foolish choice that will dictate on what ‘energy’ our soul will ‘run’.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics: The Second Law of Thermodynamics is commonly known as the Law of Increased Entropy. The word “entropy” means “the tendency to disorder and the degree of disorder” in any given thing. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is the best verified law that we have in science, and yet it is also a law that is often misused and misunderstood. It has been confusing physics students for many years, not to mention laymen. In simple terms, you could call it “The Law of Decay”― The Second Law of Thermodynamics is the tendency for everything in nature to gradually wind-down to its most disorderly possible state―unless there is some outside intervention that slows-down, stops or reverses the tendency to wind-down or decay.
Things can become more ordered by themselves, but only if an appropriate mechanism is in place. But in the absence of such a mechanism, intelligence (transmitted, for example, in the form of an external teaching program) is needed. The Second Law of Thermodynamics strikingly attests to the power and intelligence of our Creator, for the fact that the universe is unstoppably winding down, with less and less energy available for work, points to a Creator who ‘wound up’ the universe to begin with.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics also explains why things, left to themselves, naturally become more and more disordered with time. And why the energy, available for work in any system or person, just naturally and spontaneously decreases―unless that energy is ‘topped-up’ or reinvigorated by some external source―like plugging a draining battery into an external electrical outlet to prevent continual draining (entropy), or an athlete needs to keep exercising and training in order to maintain a certain level of fitness and prevent it from deteriorating (entropy), or rehydrating a dehydrated body by taking a quantity of external water to prevent further dehydration (entropy). Likewise, our mind and soul needs to ‘drink-in’ the ‘water’ of religious doctrine if wants to prevent spiritual dehydration (entropy).
Put into the perspective of the spiritual life―we will progressively get worse and worse as time goes on, unless there is some outside intervention that will come and slow-down, or stop, or even reverse the degeneration. This outside help is, of course, God and His grace―as Our Lord says: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) and St. Thomas Aquinas says: “Grace perfects nature” (Summa Theologica, 1a, q. 1, art. 8). The more ‘outside intervention’ we can secure, the less degenerate and more perfect we will become.
Yet we don’t seek the grace and help of God as much as we should. We do not read and learn as much as we should. We do not remember as much as we should. That is why our Faith degenerates, decays, decomposes and dies. Ask most Catholic adults to name you the Ten Commandments in correct order―or in any order for that matter―and most of them will struggle or fail to do so! The Ten Commandments is something that a six or seven-year-old child learns! Yet, those children, in becoming adults, have allowed that knowledge to decay, decompose and perhaps even die! There you have living proof of The Second Law of Thermodynamics, or the Law of Increased Entropy, or, in even more simple terms, The Law of Decay.
The Holy Eucharist
This brings us to the Most Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist—the word “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving”—should be at the heart of any Thanksgiving Day. The Greek word “eucharistia” (εὐχαριστία) means “thankfulness, gratitude; giving of thanks, thanksgiving” and comes from another similar Greek word “eucharistos” (εὐχάριστος) meaning “thankful, grateful”. This, of course, makes us think of the Holy Eucharist. The Greek word “eucharistia” later entered the Latin language, also keeping the form “eucharistia”. The same word, or at least the same root, is found in Hebrew (אויכריסטיה oikharístia), French (eucharistie), Spanish (eucaristía), English (eucharist), Irish (eocairist), German (eucharistie) and Dutch (eucharistie) languages.
The Last Supper was the Thanksgiving (Eucharistia) par excellence. The Last Supper was the institution of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which gives us the greatest imaginable Gift—Our Lord Jesus Christ, God Himself! Man can never and should never cease to give thanks for this Gift of gifts, this Sharing of all possible sharings! The Last Supper, though primarily a sacrifice, was also meal that Christ commanded to be done again and again in commemoration of Him, of which the Thanksgiving Meal is but a pale secular, non-sacramental, non-grace giving, imitation. In fact, since the Last Supper, you could say that the Sacrifice and its secondary element, the Supper, has never ceased—but is one long perpetual Sacrifice and Meal. At the Last Supper, Our Lord “whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke: and gave to His disciples, and said: ‘Take ye, and eat! This is My Body!’ And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them, saying: ‘Drink ye all of this. For this is My Blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins!’” (Matthew 26:26-28).
Also at the Last Supper, Our Lord gave a ‘new’ commandment, of which the idea of the American notion of “Thanksgiving Day” is a small piece of the gigantic spiritual jigsaw puzzle. Our Lord said: “A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another!” (John 13:34-35). It is sad to see how many celebrations of Thanksgiving are spoiled and ruined by a lack of charity—by bringing in grudges, hatred, anger, envy, gossip, calumny, detraction, barbed or sarcastic comments, immodest talk, impure thoughts, insults, coldness, indifference, etc. This indicates that though these persons might be Christians in name, they are far from being Christians in nature. Imagine Our Lord or Our Lady at a Thanksgiving Day gathering and imagine what their behavior in thoughts, words and actions would be like. A follower of Christ should seek to be like Christ, not the opposite.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the Greatest Thanksgiving
Yet the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Eucharistia) is only secondarily a Meal, it is above all a sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, whereby He gives again, but this time He gives up all that He has—life itself! “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13)—and Our Lord performed this greatest of loving actions, not only for His friends, but also for His enemies, whom He hoped to convert. What Our Lord began at the Last Supper—the institution of the Holy Sacrifice of Mass—He filled-up and completed over the next 18 hours or so, with His Passion and Death upon the cross on Calvary—the consummation of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Just as Christ calls Himself the “Alpha” and “Omega” (the beginning and the end) so too was the Last Supper and Calvary the beginning and the end of the first Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Hence it is fitting that on Thanksgiving Day, wherever possible, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass should be attended in a spirit of profound, humble and heartfelt thanksgiving for all that God has given us—and He has given all that we have! We should thank Christ for his soul-saving sacrifice and His grace-winning and grace-giving Sacrifice of the Mass, for at the Last Supper He also reminded us that we are in total dependence upon Him, “independence” is a misnomer: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
Thanksgiving After the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a Must
In His revelations to St. Margaret Mary, Our Lord repeatedly asked for acts of love and adoration, thanksgiving and reparation to His Sacred Heart. There is one occasion especially when these acts of love are most efficacious: during the time after Holy Communion when the Sacramental Species have not yet disintegrated.
The writings of the saints are filled with praise of the blessings that come to a soul that is properly disposed while in physical contact with the Sacred Heart. “The time after Communion,” says St. Teresa of Avila, “is the best time for negotiating with Jesus Christ; for then He is in the soul, seated, as it were, on a throne of grace, and saying, as He said to the blind man: ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’”
But more authoritative is the exhortation of Pope Pius XII in the encyclical Mediator Dei, where he devotes a full six paragraphs to this single subject. “When Mass is finished,” he directs that, “the person who has received the Eucharist should recollect himself, and in intimate union with the Divine Master hold loving and fruitful converse with Him.” If this seems like stressing the obvious, the Pope does not think so. He complains there are some teachers who discourage such private communication between the soul and the Eucharistic Christ “because this pertains to a private and personal act of piety and not to the good of the community.” Hence it is not liturgical, they say.
How many people, except priests and religious, ever spend any time in prayer after Holy Mass at which they received Holy Communion? Yet Pope Pius XII insists that this is not a mere spiritual luxury, but “such personal conversations are very necessary that we may all enjoy more fully the supernatural treasures that are contained in the Eucharist and, according to our means, share them with others, so that Christ Our Lord may exert the greatest possible influence on the souls of all.” Addressing himself to the bishops, and through them to us, the Pope asks, “why should we not approve of those who, when they receive Holy Communion, remain on in closest familiarity with their Divine Redeemer even after the congregation has been officially dismissed.”
There are three reasons for this: “ . . . (1) for the consolation of conversing with Him, (2) also to render Him due thanks and praise, but especially to ask help to defend their souls against anything that may lessen the efficacy of the Sacrament and (3) to do everything in their power to cooperate with the action of Christ Who is so intimately present.”
Sadly, however, we have many a woeful instance of ‘thanksgiving’ after the Sacrifice of the Mass and Holy Communion. Take a typical Sunday Mass. Within seconds of the priest leaving the altar, people are pouring out of the doors as though the church was on fire! It shows what their minds are thinking, or betrays the values system in their minds—they have just received their Lord and God, and off they go out the door! It would be one thing if they were spiritually on fire and were rushing out to preach the Faith to all and sundry—but that is not the case! They are off to gossip with Sally and Sam, Judy and Jack; they’re off to the coffee and donuts; they have a TV show or sports game to catch, or whatever each person’s passion may be. Today, they have all the Thanksgiving Day things to prepare, see and attend to.
Back to Thermodynamics
Why? Why do they have this attitude? Why this indifference to the Holiest of holies? Because of a spiritual degeneration―which leads us back, once again, to The Second Law of Thermodynamics, or The Law of Increased Entropy, or, in even more simple terms, The Law of Decay―which is the tendency for everything in nature to gradually wind-down to its most disorderly state―unless there is some outside intervention that slows-down, stops or reverses the tendency to wind-down or decay. Your house or car will depreciate and degenerate more quickly if you rarely take care of it. A car, that has run out of gas, will not run again until you walk miles to and from a gas station and refuel the car. Your body will follow the same path, if you do not take care of it with regular exercise, a good diet and sufficient sleep. Your mind will follow the same path if you do not keep it active by regular and challenging mental work. The less you read, the less you learn, the less you know, which lets your ignorance grow as your intellect hits a low. The same applies to your Faith―if you do not exercise it, nourish it, maintain it, protect it on a regular basis, then it will degenerate, decay and eventually die―all of which corresponds to The Second Law of Thermodynamics, or The Law of Increased Entropy, or, in even more simple terms, The Law of Decay.
Holy Scripture puts it thus: “For all flesh is as grass; and all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass is withered, and the flower thereof is fallen away!” (1 Peter 1:24). “In the morning man shall grow up like grass; in the morning he shall flourish and pass away; in the evening he shall fall, grow dry, and wither” (Psalm 89:6). “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:8). “Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:20). We will progressively get worse and worse as time goes on, unless there is some outside intervention that will come and slow-down, or stop, or even reverse the degeneration. This outside help, ultimately, can only come from God and His grace―as Our Lord says: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) and St. Thomas Aquinas says: “Grace perfects nature” (Summa Theologica, 1a, q. 1, art. 8).
The more ‘outside intervention’ we can secure―through the Sacraments, prayers, reading spiritual books, listening to sermons and spiritual talks, seeking spiritual guidance―the less degenerate and more perfect we will become. Without that outside or external help, we will spiritually deteriorate, degenerate, decay and die. That is what is actually happening to the Faith in the Catholic world right now―spiritual deterioration, degeneration, decay and death. It is The Law of Entropy or The Law of Decay in action, which will reach such a point as to prove the truth of Our Lord’s rhetorical question: “The Son of man, when He comes, shall He find, do you think, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8). Following The Law of Entropy or The Law of Decay, each generation is becoming worse and worse―for they do not use the external mechanisms that God has put into place to prevent this spiritual deterioration, degeneration, decay and death―namely, the Church and all the external remedies (‘energy boosters’ or sources of grace) that it offers: Sacraments, Sacramentals, Catechism, Sermons, Conferences, Books, etc.
That is why, following the principles of The Law of Entropy or The Law of Decay, we have arrived at this present state of quasi-secularism, a strange, almost superstitious state, where we mix God and mammon, Catholicity and worldliness, order and disorder, grace and sin, Sacraments and Smartphones, Holy Communion and Unholy Computers, Tabernacles and TVs, all the time deteriorating in our knowledge about God and increasing in our knowledge of the world; decreasing in our love of God and increasing in our love of the world; degenerating the right order of things and regenerating a disordered value of things; relinquishing the supernatural for the natural, the graceful for the ungraceful, switching from a gratitude to God to an ingratitude to God, from a dependence on God to an independence from God. Welcome to our world! Welcome to our universe! As the The Second Law of Thermodynamics says: “The entropy (tendency to disorder) of the universe only increases and never decreases.”
Thanksgiving Day Thermodynamics
If you read, once again, the initial reason and purpose for Thanksgiving Day― where the first official call for a day of thanksgiving in the U.S., issued by the Continental Congress in 1777, enjoined Americans to offer both thanks and prayers of repentance to God. “That together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins,” says the proclamation―and the Protestant George Washington’s first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation, twelve years later in 1789, also calling for a day of unified prayer for America.
On October 3rd, 1789, the first Protestant president, George Washington, wrote: “Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor ― and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me ‘to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.’ Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, Who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be ― That we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation; for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of His providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war; … and in general for all the great and various favors which He hath been pleased to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions.”
Most, if not all of that is today, forgotten and ignored―even though it comes from a Protestant and Protestant and even Masonic government―truth is nevertheless the truth. Just as no person is totally evil―as St. Thomas Aquinas says―so no man is totally wrong. Even apostates, heretics, pagans, etc. speak the truth in some things. Or, as they say, “A broken clock tells the correct time twice a day!” Maybe we should try change a largely godless day into a godly day―a secular day into a more spiritual day! Download the Thanksgiving Day Prayers and Rituals [click here and scroll down to almost the bottom of the page] and you will have a head-start on everybody else!
Just as Our Lord says: “He that is not with Me, is against Me―and he that gathers not with Me, scatters!” (Matthew 12:30)―you could also say that some are for Thanksgiving Day and some face it reluctantly. Will you be glad when it has finally arrived? Or will you will glad when it’s finally over?
In one sense, Thanksgiving Day can be a wonderful experience if―like anything else in life―it is used properly and in that way it was intended to be used. However, if we abuse it rather than use it―then the negative Thanksgiving Day side-effects begin to flow in as much abundance as the food and wine flow.
Thanksgiving Day can often become an Argument Day, or a Gossiping Day, or a Needling Day, or an Insulting Day, or a Show-Off Day, or a Competitive Day, or one of the many other flavors that are so popular these days. It often sets the annual tone for the prolonged, almost ceaseless partying spirit that begins with Thanksgiving Day, takes in all the pre-Christmas parties at work and at school, then the actual Christmas Day and beyond parties, up until the New Year’s Eve party. For the worldly “party-animal” it is the high-point of the year―whereas for spiritual folk it the high-stress-point of the year, when they feel obliged to “go-along-to-get-along” and the fear and cringe at the thought of saying “No” to an invite just as much as they fear and cringe at saying “Yes” to an invite.
Thanksgiving Tongue-Talking-Terrorists?
Thanksgiving Terrorists! Have you ever thought of seeing your guests, over the holiday season, as potential terrorists? Tongue-Terrorists! Tongue-Talking-Terrorists! Thanksgiving Tongue-Talking-Terrorists! They come armed with a two-edged tongue, sharpened and ready to use! They should be asked to show their tongue at the door, for inspection!! “A slippery mouth works ruin” (Proverbs 26:28)—and during this holiday season many “slippery mouths” will surface! “Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not so many as have perished by their own tongue!” (Ecclesiasticus 28:22). As St. James so truly says:
“If any man thinks himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart―then this man’s religion is vain!” (James 1:26). “For in many things we all offend. If any man offends not in word, the same is a perfect man. Even so the tongue is indeed a little member of the body, and boasts great things. Behold how small a fire sets on aflame a great forest. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue defiles the whole body―being set on fire by Hell. For every nature of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of the rest, is tamed, and has been tamed, by the nature of man. But the tongue no man can tame―it is an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison. By it we bless God and the Father: and by it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing! My brethren, these things ought not so to be!” (James 3:2-10).
Is God Invited?
That brings us to the question: “Is God invited to your Thanksgiving Day party?” You reply: “Huh? Who? God? What has He got to do with Thanksgiving Day? It’s a secular celebration! It’s a secular holiday! It’s not a Church feast-day! Religion has nothing to do with it!” Really? Is that so? Is that what you think? Is that what you were taught?
Is there anything from which we can and should exclude God? Does not Holy Scripture say: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God!” (1 Corinthians 10:31)? And “We give thanks to God always … without ceasing! … We ought to give thanks to God always! … We also give thanks to God without ceasing! … In all things give thanks―for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you all! … We are bound to give thanks always to God!” (1 Thessalonians 1:2; 2:12-13; 5:18; 2 Thessalonians 1:3). “Cease not to give thanks! … Giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father” (Ephesians 1:16; 5:20). “I give thanks to my God always!” (1 Corinthians 1:4). Does not the Preface of the Sacrifice of the Mass say: “It is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God”?
Protestant Presidents, Thermodynamics and the Holy Eucharist
“Huh?” you exclaim, “Protestant Presidents, thermodynamics and the Holy Eucharist? Are you crazy? What on earth are you talking about?” Well, okay, let’s go one step at a time. First of all “Protestant Presidents”.
Protestant Presidents
Just like a broken clock is gives the correct time twice a day, even the Protestants are right about some things! This happens to be the case with the point and purpose of the original Thanksgiving Day. In fact, the first official call for a Day of Thanksgiving in the U.S. ― issued by the Continental Congress in 1777 ― enjoined Americans to offer both thanks and prayers of repentance to God. “That together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins,” says the proclamation. Twelve years later, George Washington issued the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation, also calling for a day of unified prayer for America. The first president wrote: “Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be ― That we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks … And, also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions.”
That―most definitely―is no longer the spirit, purpose and practice on Thanksgiving Day today! It has degenerated from being a day dedicated to God, prayer and penance, to a day that is filled with indifferentism, naturalism, materialism, hedonism (pleasure seeking), criticism and antagonism. Why? Because of an intellectual and spiritual degeneration―as they say: “Use it or lose it!” If you don’t review or refresh your knowledge, you will lose your knowledge. If you forget the past in order to only focus on the present―then you will repeat the mistakes of the past or fail to learn the wisdom of the past―which leads us to The Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Thermodynamics
The First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation): The First Law of Thermodynamics, also known as Law of Conservation of Energy, states that energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed―energy can only be transferred or changed from one form to another. The First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation) states that energy is always conserved, it cannot be created or destroyed. In essence, energy can be converted from one form into another. For example, turning on a light would seem to produce energy; however, it is electrical energy that is converted. The total amount of energy and matter in the Universe remains constant, merely changing from one form to another.
The energy in any system can be converted to heat or work or other things―but you always have the same total that you started with. For example, if the energy level is 7 units, then you could have heat at 4 units, work at 2 units and something else at 1 unit, or 5+1+1, or 2+2+3, etc. It is like saying you have $10 to spend―you spend $7 on a meal, $2 on a drink and $1 on tipping the waiter. Or, in relation to time―you have 24 hours in a day―which never changes but is always a constant 24 hours, of which you may spend 8 hours sleeping, 8 hours working and 8 hours praying, house cleaning, traveling, visiting, reading, studying, etc. If you decide to sleep more, you have less time for other things, but if you dedicate more time to other things, then you have less time to sleep. You cannot change the 24 hours in a day―but you can change how you use those hours. Your income does not change (very much), but you can decide on what you will spend that income―but if you spend more on one thing, then you must spend less on another.
If we look at this from the perspective of the soul―God has given us our soul and the ‘positive energy’ of Sanctifying Grace and Actual Grace to run it and guide it. The soul needs that exterior intervention of energy to maintain it. Yet, the soul can also ‘run’ on ‘negative energy’―which is sin. The soul has a certain capacity or volume and―since nature abhors a vacuum―it has to be and will be filled with some form of energy―either ‘positive energy’ (grace) or ‘negative energy’ (sin). That is an inescapable truth and it is our wise or foolish choice that will dictate on what ‘energy’ our soul will ‘run’.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics: The Second Law of Thermodynamics is commonly known as the Law of Increased Entropy. The word “entropy” means “the tendency to disorder and the degree of disorder” in any given thing. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is the best verified law that we have in science, and yet it is also a law that is often misused and misunderstood. It has been confusing physics students for many years, not to mention laymen. In simple terms, you could call it “The Law of Decay”― The Second Law of Thermodynamics is the tendency for everything in nature to gradually wind-down to its most disorderly possible state―unless there is some outside intervention that slows-down, stops or reverses the tendency to wind-down or decay.
Things can become more ordered by themselves, but only if an appropriate mechanism is in place. But in the absence of such a mechanism, intelligence (transmitted, for example, in the form of an external teaching program) is needed. The Second Law of Thermodynamics strikingly attests to the power and intelligence of our Creator, for the fact that the universe is unstoppably winding down, with less and less energy available for work, points to a Creator who ‘wound up’ the universe to begin with.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics also explains why things, left to themselves, naturally become more and more disordered with time. And why the energy, available for work in any system or person, just naturally and spontaneously decreases―unless that energy is ‘topped-up’ or reinvigorated by some external source―like plugging a draining battery into an external electrical outlet to prevent continual draining (entropy), or an athlete needs to keep exercising and training in order to maintain a certain level of fitness and prevent it from deteriorating (entropy), or rehydrating a dehydrated body by taking a quantity of external water to prevent further dehydration (entropy). Likewise, our mind and soul needs to ‘drink-in’ the ‘water’ of religious doctrine if wants to prevent spiritual dehydration (entropy).
Put into the perspective of the spiritual life―we will progressively get worse and worse as time goes on, unless there is some outside intervention that will come and slow-down, or stop, or even reverse the degeneration. This outside help is, of course, God and His grace―as Our Lord says: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) and St. Thomas Aquinas says: “Grace perfects nature” (Summa Theologica, 1a, q. 1, art. 8). The more ‘outside intervention’ we can secure, the less degenerate and more perfect we will become.
Yet we don’t seek the grace and help of God as much as we should. We do not read and learn as much as we should. We do not remember as much as we should. That is why our Faith degenerates, decays, decomposes and dies. Ask most Catholic adults to name you the Ten Commandments in correct order―or in any order for that matter―and most of them will struggle or fail to do so! The Ten Commandments is something that a six or seven-year-old child learns! Yet, those children, in becoming adults, have allowed that knowledge to decay, decompose and perhaps even die! There you have living proof of The Second Law of Thermodynamics, or the Law of Increased Entropy, or, in even more simple terms, The Law of Decay.
The Holy Eucharist
This brings us to the Most Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist—the word “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving”—should be at the heart of any Thanksgiving Day. The Greek word “eucharistia” (εὐχαριστία) means “thankfulness, gratitude; giving of thanks, thanksgiving” and comes from another similar Greek word “eucharistos” (εὐχάριστος) meaning “thankful, grateful”. This, of course, makes us think of the Holy Eucharist. The Greek word “eucharistia” later entered the Latin language, also keeping the form “eucharistia”. The same word, or at least the same root, is found in Hebrew (אויכריסטיה oikharístia), French (eucharistie), Spanish (eucaristía), English (eucharist), Irish (eocairist), German (eucharistie) and Dutch (eucharistie) languages.
The Last Supper was the Thanksgiving (Eucharistia) par excellence. The Last Supper was the institution of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which gives us the greatest imaginable Gift—Our Lord Jesus Christ, God Himself! Man can never and should never cease to give thanks for this Gift of gifts, this Sharing of all possible sharings! The Last Supper, though primarily a sacrifice, was also meal that Christ commanded to be done again and again in commemoration of Him, of which the Thanksgiving Meal is but a pale secular, non-sacramental, non-grace giving, imitation. In fact, since the Last Supper, you could say that the Sacrifice and its secondary element, the Supper, has never ceased—but is one long perpetual Sacrifice and Meal. At the Last Supper, Our Lord “whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke: and gave to His disciples, and said: ‘Take ye, and eat! This is My Body!’ And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them, saying: ‘Drink ye all of this. For this is My Blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins!’” (Matthew 26:26-28).
Also at the Last Supper, Our Lord gave a ‘new’ commandment, of which the idea of the American notion of “Thanksgiving Day” is a small piece of the gigantic spiritual jigsaw puzzle. Our Lord said: “A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another!” (John 13:34-35). It is sad to see how many celebrations of Thanksgiving are spoiled and ruined by a lack of charity—by bringing in grudges, hatred, anger, envy, gossip, calumny, detraction, barbed or sarcastic comments, immodest talk, impure thoughts, insults, coldness, indifference, etc. This indicates that though these persons might be Christians in name, they are far from being Christians in nature. Imagine Our Lord or Our Lady at a Thanksgiving Day gathering and imagine what their behavior in thoughts, words and actions would be like. A follower of Christ should seek to be like Christ, not the opposite.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the Greatest Thanksgiving
Yet the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Eucharistia) is only secondarily a Meal, it is above all a sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, whereby He gives again, but this time He gives up all that He has—life itself! “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13)—and Our Lord performed this greatest of loving actions, not only for His friends, but also for His enemies, whom He hoped to convert. What Our Lord began at the Last Supper—the institution of the Holy Sacrifice of Mass—He filled-up and completed over the next 18 hours or so, with His Passion and Death upon the cross on Calvary—the consummation of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Just as Christ calls Himself the “Alpha” and “Omega” (the beginning and the end) so too was the Last Supper and Calvary the beginning and the end of the first Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Hence it is fitting that on Thanksgiving Day, wherever possible, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass should be attended in a spirit of profound, humble and heartfelt thanksgiving for all that God has given us—and He has given all that we have! We should thank Christ for his soul-saving sacrifice and His grace-winning and grace-giving Sacrifice of the Mass, for at the Last Supper He also reminded us that we are in total dependence upon Him, “independence” is a misnomer: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
Thanksgiving After the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a Must
In His revelations to St. Margaret Mary, Our Lord repeatedly asked for acts of love and adoration, thanksgiving and reparation to His Sacred Heart. There is one occasion especially when these acts of love are most efficacious: during the time after Holy Communion when the Sacramental Species have not yet disintegrated.
The writings of the saints are filled with praise of the blessings that come to a soul that is properly disposed while in physical contact with the Sacred Heart. “The time after Communion,” says St. Teresa of Avila, “is the best time for negotiating with Jesus Christ; for then He is in the soul, seated, as it were, on a throne of grace, and saying, as He said to the blind man: ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’”
But more authoritative is the exhortation of Pope Pius XII in the encyclical Mediator Dei, where he devotes a full six paragraphs to this single subject. “When Mass is finished,” he directs that, “the person who has received the Eucharist should recollect himself, and in intimate union with the Divine Master hold loving and fruitful converse with Him.” If this seems like stressing the obvious, the Pope does not think so. He complains there are some teachers who discourage such private communication between the soul and the Eucharistic Christ “because this pertains to a private and personal act of piety and not to the good of the community.” Hence it is not liturgical, they say.
How many people, except priests and religious, ever spend any time in prayer after Holy Mass at which they received Holy Communion? Yet Pope Pius XII insists that this is not a mere spiritual luxury, but “such personal conversations are very necessary that we may all enjoy more fully the supernatural treasures that are contained in the Eucharist and, according to our means, share them with others, so that Christ Our Lord may exert the greatest possible influence on the souls of all.” Addressing himself to the bishops, and through them to us, the Pope asks, “why should we not approve of those who, when they receive Holy Communion, remain on in closest familiarity with their Divine Redeemer even after the congregation has been officially dismissed.”
There are three reasons for this: “ . . . (1) for the consolation of conversing with Him, (2) also to render Him due thanks and praise, but especially to ask help to defend their souls against anything that may lessen the efficacy of the Sacrament and (3) to do everything in their power to cooperate with the action of Christ Who is so intimately present.”
Sadly, however, we have many a woeful instance of ‘thanksgiving’ after the Sacrifice of the Mass and Holy Communion. Take a typical Sunday Mass. Within seconds of the priest leaving the altar, people are pouring out of the doors as though the church was on fire! It shows what their minds are thinking, or betrays the values system in their minds—they have just received their Lord and God, and off they go out the door! It would be one thing if they were spiritually on fire and were rushing out to preach the Faith to all and sundry—but that is not the case! They are off to gossip with Sally and Sam, Judy and Jack; they’re off to the coffee and donuts; they have a TV show or sports game to catch, or whatever each person’s passion may be. Today, they have all the Thanksgiving Day things to prepare, see and attend to.
Back to Thermodynamics
Why? Why do they have this attitude? Why this indifference to the Holiest of holies? Because of a spiritual degeneration―which leads us back, once again, to The Second Law of Thermodynamics, or The Law of Increased Entropy, or, in even more simple terms, The Law of Decay―which is the tendency for everything in nature to gradually wind-down to its most disorderly state―unless there is some outside intervention that slows-down, stops or reverses the tendency to wind-down or decay. Your house or car will depreciate and degenerate more quickly if you rarely take care of it. A car, that has run out of gas, will not run again until you walk miles to and from a gas station and refuel the car. Your body will follow the same path, if you do not take care of it with regular exercise, a good diet and sufficient sleep. Your mind will follow the same path if you do not keep it active by regular and challenging mental work. The less you read, the less you learn, the less you know, which lets your ignorance grow as your intellect hits a low. The same applies to your Faith―if you do not exercise it, nourish it, maintain it, protect it on a regular basis, then it will degenerate, decay and eventually die―all of which corresponds to The Second Law of Thermodynamics, or The Law of Increased Entropy, or, in even more simple terms, The Law of Decay.
Holy Scripture puts it thus: “For all flesh is as grass; and all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass is withered, and the flower thereof is fallen away!” (1 Peter 1:24). “In the morning man shall grow up like grass; in the morning he shall flourish and pass away; in the evening he shall fall, grow dry, and wither” (Psalm 89:6). “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:8). “Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:20). We will progressively get worse and worse as time goes on, unless there is some outside intervention that will come and slow-down, or stop, or even reverse the degeneration. This outside help, ultimately, can only come from God and His grace―as Our Lord says: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) and St. Thomas Aquinas says: “Grace perfects nature” (Summa Theologica, 1a, q. 1, art. 8).
The more ‘outside intervention’ we can secure―through the Sacraments, prayers, reading spiritual books, listening to sermons and spiritual talks, seeking spiritual guidance―the less degenerate and more perfect we will become. Without that outside or external help, we will spiritually deteriorate, degenerate, decay and die. That is what is actually happening to the Faith in the Catholic world right now―spiritual deterioration, degeneration, decay and death. It is The Law of Entropy or The Law of Decay in action, which will reach such a point as to prove the truth of Our Lord’s rhetorical question: “The Son of man, when He comes, shall He find, do you think, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8). Following The Law of Entropy or The Law of Decay, each generation is becoming worse and worse―for they do not use the external mechanisms that God has put into place to prevent this spiritual deterioration, degeneration, decay and death―namely, the Church and all the external remedies (‘energy boosters’ or sources of grace) that it offers: Sacraments, Sacramentals, Catechism, Sermons, Conferences, Books, etc.
That is why, following the principles of The Law of Entropy or The Law of Decay, we have arrived at this present state of quasi-secularism, a strange, almost superstitious state, where we mix God and mammon, Catholicity and worldliness, order and disorder, grace and sin, Sacraments and Smartphones, Holy Communion and Unholy Computers, Tabernacles and TVs, all the time deteriorating in our knowledge about God and increasing in our knowledge of the world; decreasing in our love of God and increasing in our love of the world; degenerating the right order of things and regenerating a disordered value of things; relinquishing the supernatural for the natural, the graceful for the ungraceful, switching from a gratitude to God to an ingratitude to God, from a dependence on God to an independence from God. Welcome to our world! Welcome to our universe! As the The Second Law of Thermodynamics says: “The entropy (tendency to disorder) of the universe only increases and never decreases.”
Thanksgiving Day Thermodynamics
If you read, once again, the initial reason and purpose for Thanksgiving Day― where the first official call for a day of thanksgiving in the U.S., issued by the Continental Congress in 1777, enjoined Americans to offer both thanks and prayers of repentance to God. “That together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins,” says the proclamation―and the Protestant George Washington’s first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation, twelve years later in 1789, also calling for a day of unified prayer for America.
On October 3rd, 1789, the first Protestant president, George Washington, wrote: “Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor ― and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me ‘to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.’ Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, Who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be ― That we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation; for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of His providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war; … and in general for all the great and various favors which He hath been pleased to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions.”
Most, if not all of that is today, forgotten and ignored―even though it comes from a Protestant and Protestant and even Masonic government―truth is nevertheless the truth. Just as no person is totally evil―as St. Thomas Aquinas says―so no man is totally wrong. Even apostates, heretics, pagans, etc. speak the truth in some things. Or, as they say, “A broken clock tells the correct time twice a day!” Maybe we should try change a largely godless day into a godly day―a secular day into a more spiritual day! Download the Thanksgiving Day Prayers and Rituals [click here and scroll down to almost the bottom of the page] and you will have a head-start on everybody else!
Article 26
Wednesday November 26th
American or Catholic Thanksgiving?
Wednesday November 26th
American or Catholic Thanksgiving?
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Thursday! Hmm!
For those living in the United States of America, the fourth Thursday of the month of November is, in our current times, the day that has been called “Thanksgiving Day.” For non-USA residents (and even resident Americans who are unknowledgeable in the matter), perhaps a short little explanation of the meaning and its historical origins might be in order.
Will the First Thanksgiving Please Step Forward!
In the USA, the secular holiday of “Thanksgiving” is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November (it used to be on the last Thursday of November). This recalls the fact that in 1621, the Plymouth colonists (Protestant Separatists from England) and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is today thought to be the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.
Catholic Thanksgiving Day Number One (Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, 1541)
Beginning in 1539, Francisco Coronado organized a large expedition from Mexico, which included five Franciscan missionaries. He brought with him 336 soldiers and settlers, 100 native Mexican Christians, 552 horses, 600 mules, 5000 sheep, and 500 cows, pigs, and goats. (This marked the introduction of these animals into the southwestern United States).
The expedition arrived in what is now Arizona and found Indian pueblos. After establishing a base in Arizona, Coronado headed east to establish a base-mission near present-day Albuquerque, New Mexico. When they crossed the river which is now called the Rio Grande, they named it Rio de Nuestra Señora (the River of Our Lady). This is its original name as it appeared on the first maps of the region.
Though no “cities of gold” were found, Coronado continued to send out expeditions — and missionaries with them. That there were missionaries on every expedition should tell us that the search for supposed “golden cities” was not the primary reason for Coronado’s ventures. (The gold was needed to fund expeditions and was not sought for personal gain). Spreading the one true Faith among the pagan native Indians was of primary importance.
In April of 1541, Coronado, with a group of soldiers and some missionaries, left Albuquerque, New Mexico, headed northeast, and crossed a section of what is now northwest Texas (the Panhandle). In encountering some of the local Indians, the missionaries found that the natives were immediately open to receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After a few weeks of instruction, members of the Jumano Indian tribe converted and received Baptism.
The expedition then arrived in Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, where, on May 29th, 1541, Father Juan Padilla, O.F.M., offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. (Father Padilla would eventually become the very first martyr of the Faith in America when he was killed in 1542, in what is now Kansas). A Thanksgiving feast followed the Mass. It consisted of game that had earlier been caught. The feast was celebrated in thanksgiving to God for His many blessings and for the recent converts. This 1541 event is the first actual Thanksgiving Day celebrated in the future United States―80 years before the 1621 Thanksgiving of the Pilgrim Fathers.
Catholic Thanksgiving Day Number Two (St. Augustine, Florida, 1565)
The second Catholic Thanksgiving Day―that preceded the Pilgrims’ Plymouth Rock 1621 celebration by 56 years―was at St. Augustine, Florida, which is the first and oldest city of present day United States, founded in 1565 by Spanish Catholic explorers. The Spanish Captain General Pedro Menendez de Aviles and his fleet of soldiers and colonists―accompanied by priests―landed on the coast of Florida on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8th, 1565 It was the first permanent European settlement in North America. There had been other attempts by the Spanish to establish colonies in Florida and Texas, but all were short-lived.
The first sighting of land had been on August 28th, 1565, the feast of St. Augustine, so when they eventually came to shore, they named the settlement after him. On September 8th, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, they came ashore with great fanfare, to the astonishment of the natives. In an official ceremony Don Pedro Menendez came ashore amid the sounding of trumpets, artillery salutes and the firing of cannons to claim the land for King Philip II and Spain.
One of the priests, Fr. Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, who had gone ashore the previous day, advanced to meet him, chanting the Te Deum Laudamus and carrying a Cross, which Menendez and those with him reverently kissed. Then the 500 soldiers, 200 sailors and 100 families and artisans, along with the Timucuan Indians from the nearby village of Seloy, gathered at a makeshift altar, and a Mass in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary was said in Thanksgiving. The Mass was followed by a feast shared by the Spanish with the local Seloy tribe (Timucuan Indians)—thus taking place 56 years before the Plymouth Rock Thanksgiving.
In his book, Cross in the Sand, the Thanksgiving menu would most likely have consisted of what the Spanish settlers had with them during their voyage: cocido, a stew made from salted pork and garbanzo beans laced with garlic seasoning, hard sea biscuits, and red wine. The Timucuans brought wild turkey, venison, oysters and giant clams, as well as maize (corn), beans, squash, nuts and fruits. The Spaniards contribution wascocido, a stew made with pork, garbanzo beans and onions, along with biscuits, olive oil and red wine. In his well-researched book on the State of Florida titled Cross in the Sand, Dr. Michael Gannon duly affirmed that this Mass and feast was “the first community act of religion and thanksgiving in the first permanent European settlement in the land.”
Catholic Thanksgiving Day Number Three (Texas, 1598)
The third Thanksgiving was in Texas. On January 26th, 1598, Catholic explorer Juan de Oñate led an expedition from Mexico City into New Mexico with the aim of founding a new kingdom. The expedition included over 200 soldiers and colonists, the soldiers being headed by Captain Gaspar Perez de Villagra. Many had their families with them. a Spanish expedition set out from Mexico
A number of Christian Indian converts with their families from Mexico were also in the party. With the group were several thousand head of livestock, including cows, horses, mules, sheep, goats, and pigs. Eighty-three wagons carried provisions, ammunition, tools, plants, and seeds for wheat, oats, rye, onions, chili, peas, beans, and different nuts.
On the expedition were eight Franciscan friars: two priests and six brothers. The party experienced many hardships. Three months later, after a long, dangerous trek forging a new trail northward, the now famous El Camino Real [The Royal Road], it crossed the Rio Grande and set up camp south of present day El Paso, Texas. Soon after entering New Mexico, just across the Rio de Nuestra Señora, they were attacked by hostile Indians near present-day El Paso, Texas. A number of wagons and numerous head of livestock were lost, but no members of the expedition were killed. The same was not true for the attacking Indians, a number of whom died.
On April 30th, 1598, moving a little farther up along the river, Juan de Oñate and the Franciscans erected a large cross, and Don Juan de Oñate, took formal possession of the new land, called New Mexico, in the name of the Heavenly Lord, God Almighty, and the earthly lord King Philip II. He declared: “I want to take possession of this land today, April 30th, 1598, in honor of Our Lord Jesus Christ, on this day of the Ascension of Our Lord.”
Immediately afterward a High Mass was offered in thanksgiving. Then, after the Mass, the entire group gathered for a Banquet of Thanksgiving to God for protecting them and for allowing them to arrive at the place after so many hardships along the way. The Franciscan priests blessed the food on tables and the 600-strong expedition of soldiers and colonists feasted. The festive meal consisted of fish, ducks, geese, fruits and vegetables. The celebration ended with a play enacting scenes of the native Indians hearing the first words of the Catholic Faith and receiving the Sacrament of Baptism. After this Thanksgiving Banquet, the expedition headed further up along the river and by June had established the mission-town of San Juan (still populated to this day).
Though there was a Thanksgiving Feast celebrated in 1541, as we earlier saw, it was never commemorated afterward. In contrast, for some years after the Thanksgiving Feast of 1598, a feast was celebrated by the Spanish and the Christian Indians of New Mexico in thanks to the true God for bringing them through many hardships and for His blessings. Today this Thanksgiving Feast is commemorated in San Juan on the thirtieth day of April every year.
The First Shall Be Last…
What is thought to be the first Thanksgiving in 1621, is therefore not quite so, but crosses the finishing-line a good 80 years after the Catholic Thanksgiving in Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, in 1541; and 56 years after the Thanksgiving in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565; and 23 years after the Texan Thanksgiving in El Paso in 1598. It came about after a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, in September of 1620, carrying 102 passengers — an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their Faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World.
After a treacherous and uncomfortable sea crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.
Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see the spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English.
Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants.
In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”— the festival lasted for three days. Pilgrims held their second Thanksgiving celebration in 1623 to mark the end of a long drought that had threatened that year’s harvest.
During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress designated one or more days of thanksgiving a year, and in 1789 George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the national government of the United States. His successors John Adams and James Madison also designated days of thanks during their presidencies.
In 1817, New York became the first of several states to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day, however, and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition. In 1827, a campaign was launched to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. This campaign lasted 36 years until Abraham Lincoln finally responded to the request in 1863. He scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November, and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week, in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s plan, known derisively as “Franksgiving”, was met with passionate opposition, and in 1941 the president reluctantly signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.
Thanksgiving Day as Public Holiday
Though George Washington called for a day of Thanksgiving while he was President, it was not celebrated as a yearly holiday feast until Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving Day as a holiday on October 3rd, 1863 (almost 250 years after the Pilgrims landed on the shores of America and over 320 years after the first Catholic Thanksgiving), in response to the victory at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 by the United States. With this victory in mind, as well as its cost, President Lincoln issued a proclamation stating:
“The year … has been filled with the blessings … which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and even soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions; peace has been preserved with all nations; order has been maintained; the laws have been respected and obeyed; and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict … the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”
So now we know that the Pilgrims did not celebrate the first Thanksgiving in America. The first act of Thanksgiving was the Mass of Thanksgiving celebrated by Fr. Juan Padilla, in 1541, and was followed by a feast. This was 80 years before the Plymouth Rock event.
The second feast of Thanksgiving was celebrated at St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565, at the founding of the first permanent European settlement on American soil. This was 56 years before the Plymouth Rock event.
The third feast of Thanksgiving was celebrated back in 1598, in New Mexico, by Spanish-Catholic colonists and Indian converts to the Faith—23 years before the Plymouth Rock event. They thanked the true God for bringing them safely through many troubles and dangers and for the fact that the seed of the Gospel of Christ was beginning to take root.
Because of the often anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic prejudice of English-speaking Protestants, generations of Americans have never learned this fact of American history.
Let’s Get This Straight!
For a Catholic, every day is—in a sense—“Thanksgiving Day.” The word “Eucharistia” is Greek for “thanksgiving”! The Holy Eucharist—or the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass—is celebrated thousands of times each day throughout the world. The Holy Eucharist is God’s gift to man—in fact the greatest Gift that God could give man—because it is both God Himself, and also the Sacrifice of God for our sins and our salvation! The very gift of the Eucharist and the receiving of the Eucharist, should lead to a thanksgiving for the Eucharist—as is implied by its very name: “Holy Eucharist” meaning “Holy Thanksgiving”!
Our Lord and Thanksgiving
Jesus frequently gave us the example of thanksgiving throughout His life—that is to say, a thanksgiving to God His Father.
As a prefiguration of the Holy Eucharist, Our Lord performed, several times, the miracle of the multiplication of loaves—and we notice that on these occasions He always gave thanks to God before performing the miracle. “And taking the seven loaves and the fishes, and giving thanks, He broke, and gave to His disciples, and the disciples to the people” (Matthew 15:36). “And taking the seven loaves, giving thanks, He broke, and gave to His disciples for to set before them; and they set them before the people” (Mark 8:6). “And Jesus took the loaves: and when He had given thanks, He distributed to them that were set down” (John 6:11).
When Our Lord performed the stupendous miracle of raising Lazarus, after commanding that the stone of the tomb be rolled away and before commanding Lazarus to arise and come forth, Our Lord again first gives thanks to God: “They took therefore the stone away. And Jesus, lifting up His eyes, said: ‘Father, I give Thee thanks that Thou hast heard Me!’” (John 11:41).
At the Last Supper, when He instituted the Holy Eucharist (Holy Thanksgiving), He is reported by the Evangelists as once again giving thanks to God. “And taking bread, He gave thanks, and broke; and gave to them, saying: ‘This is My body, which is given for you. Do this for a commemoration of Me!’” (Luke 22:19). “And having taken the chalice, He gave thanks, and said: ‘Take, and divide it among you!’” (Luke 22:17). “And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them, saying: ‘Drink ye all of this!’” (Matthew 26:27). “And having taken the chalice, giving thanks, He gave it to them. And they all drank of it” (Mark 14:23).
Our Lord Condemns Ingratitude
The chief and most striking incident whereby Our Lord condemned in gratitude was His encounter with the Ten Lepers, where only one was found to come back and give thanks. “And as Jesus entered into a certain town, there met Him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off; and lifted up their voice, saying: ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ To whom, when He saw, He said: ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests!’ And it came to pass, as they went, they were made clean. And one of them, when he saw that he was made clean, went back, with a loud voice glorifying God. And he fell on his face before Jesus’ feet, giving thanks: and this was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering, said, ‘Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine? There is no one found to return and give glory [and thanks] to God, but this stranger!’” (Luke 17:12-18).
Today, it is not even one-in-ten that gives the thanks to God that ought to be given! It might not even be one-in-a-hundred-thousand! Many may think they give thanks, but, as you will read further below, it is mere lip service thanks, but not heart service thanks.
An Ungrateful Time, an Age of Ingratitude
Ingratitude has always been around, but St. Paul makes especial mention of it as a trait that will be seen in the End Times in particular: “Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God! Having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). These kinds of persons have simply forgotten Our Lord’s incontestable truth: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). They have decided that they will do many things without Him, they will “do their own thing” and He will not be a part of it.
In these last days, Our Lady also asks for reparation for ungrateful sinners. Our Lady of Good Success speaks of “the grandeur of this restoring and life-giving Sacrament of Penance, so forgotten and even scorned by ungrateful men, who in their foolish madness, do not realize that it is the only sure means of salvation after one has lost his baptismal innocence” and how “the Host, is exposed to the sacrilegious profanations of His ungrateful sons.”
At Fatima, the Angel took the Chalice and Host. He gave Lucia the Sacred Host on the tongue. Then while giving the Precious Blood from the Chalice to Francisco and Jacinta, he said: “Eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.”
Some years after the 1917 Fatima apparitions, on Thursday, December 10th, 1925, the Blessed Virgin, accompanied by the Child Jesus, appeared to Lucia in her cell. Lucia recounted that Mary showed her a Heart encircled by thorns in her hand. The Child Jesus spoke first, saying: “Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered with the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation.” Then Mary said: “My daughter, look at my Heart surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console me.”
Some 43 years later, Our Lady said at Akita (August 1973): “Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair by their suffering and their poverty for the sinners and the ungrateful.”
Give Thanks Always, Everywhere and for Everything!
This is why St. Paul commands that we should be “giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father” (Ephesians 5:20). Again, elsewhere, he writes that should be “giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12) and that “All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him!” (Colossians 3:17).
The Eucharistic Sacrifice echoes these sentiments in every single one of its Prefaces, that precede the Canon of the Mass: “…we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks to thee, O Holy Lord, Father Almighty, eternal God, through Christ, our Lord.”
This means giving thanks, not only for the pleasant things in life, but also the unpleasant. Not only for things that God gives, but also when God takes away things—like health, wealth, possessions, benefits, jobs, friends, etc. Speaking of jobs, let us remind ourselves of Job’s famous words when God had taken from him his health, his wealth, his children and his livestock: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there! The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away! As it has pleased the Lord so is it done! Blessed be the Name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21).
Gratitude or Thankfulness is Not an Option!
We all remember being forcefully told by our parents to say “Thank you!” to someone who had just given us something or helped us some way! Even though we begrudgingly and sourly squeezed those words from our mouth, it cannot be said that we truly thankful or genuinely grateful—it was more a case of a “Shotgun-Thank-You!” whereby a metaphorical ‘gun’ was held to our head (a slap or a whack) to ‘encourage’ us to give thanks. But, as St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “thanksgiving is less thankful when compelled” (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 106, art. 1). He goes on to say that “thankfulness a special part of justice”—meaning that it is owed in justice—and that “when there is greater favor on the part of the giver, greater thanks are due on the part of the recipient.”
In commenting upon the words of St. Paul, “in all things give thanks” (1 Thessalonians 5:18), St. Thomas Aquinas points out that our greatest thanks are due to God, for He is the first principle or ultimate cause of all our goods. Our Lord laid the foundation for this truth with His own words, when He said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
Gratitude for Mercy!
Talking of ‘great gifts’—what greater gift is there than mercy? Holy Scripture tells us: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all his works!” (Psalm 144:8-9). God’s mercy is above all His works! What kind of gratitude should not be shown to someone who gives us the greatest gift possible? St. Thomas Aquinas says: “The penitent is more bound to give thanks than the innocent, because what he receives from God is more gratuitously given: since, whereas he was deserving of punishment, he has received grace” (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 106, art. 2).
How much mercy have you received in your life? How much thanks is due from you in justice, in gratitude for the greatest gift of God—given time and time again? The 1st century Roman philosopher, Seneca, said that “Among all our many and great vices, none is as common as ingratitude … and the most ungrateful of all is the man who has forgotten a benefit.”
Blind to the Benefits of God!
How blind, indifferent, presumptuous and abusive we are to our greatest benefactor—the Good Lord. The One who gets thanked the least and gets taken for granted the most, is the Good Lord. Every day He gives us blessings beyond all counting through His Divine Providence. There is no provider like God. We breathe His air; we drink His water; we need His light and sunshine; we cultivate His soil; we eat His fruits and crops; we eat His fish and animals; we make medicines from his creation; we clothe ourselves with His materials; we depend upon His seasons; we build our homes with his materials; we depend upon His protection against animals, men and devils; it is He that gives us life by creating our soul; it is He that gives us health by His protective Providence; it is He who calls time, and brings death and final judgment.
Most of all He gave His only Son, Who remains living amongst us in the Blessed Sacrament. He gave us a share in His life through the sanctifying grace received at Baptism. He increased that supernatural life by the coming of his Holy Spirit, with His Gifts, into our souls at Confirmation. He has given us the treasure of the Sacrifice of the Mass—the greatest action that can possible take place anywhere in the world on any given day. To crown all that, He offers us eternal joys in Heaven. And how we take Him for granted! How we fail to say “thank you” to the One from Whom all good gifts come! It is a mystery, a tragedy, an injustice, a blindness, a neglect that should be punished; that has to be punished; and one that will be punished.
We should be spending the whole day, counting our blessings and thanking the One Who grants those blessings—the Almighty, All-Merciful, All-Providing God. As the Preface of the Mass so truly says: ”…we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks to thee, O Holy Lord, Father Almighty, eternal God, through Christ, our Lord.”
God is Owed Gratitude and Love!
St. Thomas points out that “a man owes love to his benefactor, just as he owes him gratitude” and that “to whom more is forgiven, he loveth more” (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 106, art. 2). And St. John tells us: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us!” (1 John 1:10). Therefore, we owe God much gratitude and great love, because “the Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all his works!” (Psalm 144:8-9).
Nobody Excused From Thanksgiving—Neither Sinner, nor Just
“Now a favor is something bestowed freely without obligation [“gratis”]. Therefore, on the part of the giver, the favor may be greater on two counts. First, it may be great owing to the quantity of the thing given—and in this way the innocent person owes greater thanksgiving, because he receives a greater gift from God, also, absolutely speaking, a more continuous gift, other things being equal. Secondly, a favor may be said to be greater, because it is given more gratuitously; and in this sense the penitent is more bound to give thanks than the innocent, because what he receives from God is more gratuitously given—since, whereas the sinner was deserving of punishment, he has received grace. Wherefore, although the gift bestowed on the innocent is, considered absolutely, greater, yet the gift bestowed on the penitent is greater in relation to him—just as a small gift, given to a poor man, is greater to the poor man, than a great gift is to a rich man” (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 106, art. 2).
Degree of Thankfulness
The degree of thankfulness in the recipient should correspond to the degree of favor in the giver — when there is greater favor on the part of the giver, greater thanks are due on the part of the recipient. In judging the magnitude of a favor two things are to be considered, namely, the affection of the heart and the gift itself.
St. Thomas quotes Seneca, who says “We are sometimes under a greater obligation to one who has given little with a large heart, and has bestowed a small favor, yet willingly.”
Holy Scripture bears this out, when Our Lord says: “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living.”
The more we thank God, the more inclined He is to give us more—we operate the same way, don’t we? Let us then think of the incredible mercies—and other graces too—that God has bestowed upon us, and let these thoughts trigger profuse sentiments of thanksgiving within us!
Two Pillars of Thanksgiving!
Have you ever read about the Two Pillars in St. John Bosco’s vision (click here)? One of the chief things we learn from those Two Pillars is thanksgiving! The word “Eucharistia” is Greek for “thanksgiving”! The very gift of the Eucharist and the receiving of the Eucharist, should lead to a thanksgiving for the Eucharist—as is implied by its very name: “Holy Eucharist” meaning “Holy Thanksgiving”!
Under the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the other pillar, was the inscription “Auxilium Christianorum” which means “Help of Christians”. Again, the “Help of Christians” should lead to a “Thanksgiving by Christians” for that help.
Finally, the very outcome of the battle seen by St. John Bosco, should again lead to a thanksgiving for the victory when all seemed lost. As was stated above, the more a person give thanks in gratitude, the more God seems to give; to those who thank but little, little is given.
Nobody was as grateful to God as Our Lady, and nobody received more from God than Our Lady. Her eyes were fully open to all the wonderful things God did for her, and she thanked Him for it—her canticle, the Magnificat, is an indication of this attitude: “My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is His Name. He hath shown might in His arm: He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away” (Luke 1:46-53).
Oh if we could learn how to thank God like He deserves to be thanked! Yet we fail to see that He “has done great things to me” ― for we take those “great things” for granted!
Our Lady Speaks on Gratitude
How many times do you thank God daily? With what fervor and sincerity of heart do you thank Him? How many different things do you thank Him for? If you can count the number of times you thank Him on both hands and both sets of toes (20 for the normal person) then you are a miserly miser! If you thank Him as many times as you have hairs on your head (bald men excluded), then you are still a miser! Our Lady says to the Venerable Mary of Agreda:
Our Lady’s Own Gratitude
“Every day, at beginning of dawn, I prostrated myself in the presence of the Most High and gave Him thanks and praise for his immutable Being, his infinite perfections, and for having created me out of nothing; acknowledging myself as His creature and the work of His hands, I blessed Him and adored Him, giving Him honor, magnificence and Divinity, as the supreme Lord and Creator of myself and of all that exists. I raised up my spirit to place it into His hands, offering myself with profound humility and resignation to Him and asking Him to dispose of me according to His will during that day and during all the days of my life, and to teach me to fulfill whatever would be to His greater pleasure. This I repeated many times during the external works of the day …
“I gave thanks to the Author of all things, acknowledging His works as benefits freely bestowed upon me, and not as dues, which He owed to me. Therefore, when anything was wanting of the necessaries of life, I remained in peace and contentedness and deemed it all perfectly reasonable and proper in my regard, since I had merited none of the gifts and could justly be deprived of all of them” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
Our Lady Complains of Our Ingratitude
“Ponder upon the small return given by mortals for the love of my Son and Lord, and how forgetful of thanks even His faithful continue to be ... Let mortals inquire what treasures and riches they did possess before they came into life? What services had they rendered unto God, in order to merit them? And if out of nothing there cannot arise anything, and if they could not merit the being which they have received, what obligation is there on the part of God to preserve, out of justice, what was given to them entirely gratuitously?
“That God created man, was of no benefit to Himself; but to man it was a benefit, and one as great as the being given to him, and as high as the object for which it was given. And if, in His creation, man becomes indebted so much, that he never can pay his debt, tell me, what right can he invoke at present for his preservation? Has he not received his being without merit and many times forfeited it? What an execrable disorder and what a despicable blindness of mortals is this? For that, which the Lord gives them gratuitously, they do not thank Him, or even give Him acknowledgment, and for that which He denies them justly, and sometimes most mercifully, they are restless and proudly desirous, and they try to procure it by unjust and forbidden means, throwing themselves into the very destruction which flies from them” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
He Who Receives More Should Be More Grateful
“He that received more ought to consider himself more needy, since his debt becomes so much the greater. All should humiliate themselves since of themselves they are nothing, nor can they do anything or possess ought. On this account they, that are raised up by the hand of the Almighty, should humiliate themselves as mere dust. For, left to themselves and to their nothingness and unworthiness, they should esteem themselves so much the more indebted and bound to thankfulness, for that which, by themselves, they can never repay!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
Those Who Give Thanks, Give Poor Thanks
“If some of them do render it, it is so coarse, inattentive and discourteous, that they do not merit reward, but chastisement. They revere and adore profoundly the princes and magnates of the Earth; they ask favors and seek to obtain them with the utmost diligence; they are effusive in their thanks, when they succeed, protesting their lifelong gratitude. But the supreme Lord, Who gives them being, life and activity, Who preserves and sustains them, Who has redeemed them and raised them to the dignity of sons,Who wishes to confer upon them His own glory, Who is in Himself the infinite and the highest Good; Him, the highest Majesty, they forget, because they cannot see Him with their corporal eyes. As if not all good came from Him, they return, at the highest, merely a sluggish remembrance and a hasty thanksgiving” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
Ingratitude Will Be Punished
“Meditate much, and weigh over and over again, how exactly mortals ought to correspond to this immense kindness of God and to His eagerness to assist them. Compare at the same time the heartless obduracy of the children of Adam. I wish that thy heart be softened in affectionate thankfulness toward the Lord, and melted in sorrow at these unhappy proceedings of men. I assure thee, that on the day of the general judgment, the cause of the greatest wrath of the just Judge shall be man’s most ungrateful forgetfulness of this truth; and the confusion of men, on account of this wrath, shall be such, that, on that day, they would of their own accord cast themselves into the abyss of pain, if there were no ministers of divine justice to visit this retribution upon them ... Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
Our Lady Encourages Gratitude
“By incessant praise and acknowledgment, show thyself thankful for the favor which God vouchsafed thee in appointing angels to assist thee, teach thee, and guide thee through the tribulations and sorrows. Mortals, in their abominable ingratitude and grossness, ordinarily forget this blessing ... Acknowledge these blessings and give Him thanks with all thy heart ... Raise thyself above thyself and give Him thanks for the special blessings conferred upon thee and for those conferred upon the human race ... . Thank Him for the benefits, which He has conferred and confers on all, whether they know Him or not, whether they confess or repudiate Him!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
Humble Gratitude
“Accustom thyself to humble thanksgiving for the benefits which thou receivest … Do not deceive thyself with the pretext of being humble; for there is a great difference between thankful humility and humble thanklessness. Remember that the Lord very often shows great favors to the unworthy, in order to manifest His goodness and munificence. On the contrary let no one become inflated, but let everyone acknowledge so much the more his unworthiness, using it as a medicine against the poison of presumption. But gratitude will agree with this humble opinion of self, since we must acknowledge, that every good gift comes from the Father of lights ... Let then thy thanks be greater than that of all the creatures!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
Gratitude Leads to Love, Love Gains More Favors
“Renew many times a day the memory of His blessings, always giving thanks to the Lord with humble and loving affection. Especially memorable among His benefits are that He has called thee, waited for thee, and excused thy faults, and added thereto such often repeated favors. This remembrance will cause in thee sweet and strong movements of love; and thou wilt find new grace and favor before the Lord, since He is so much pleased by a faithful and thankful heart” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
For those living in the United States of America, the fourth Thursday of the month of November is, in our current times, the day that has been called “Thanksgiving Day.” For non-USA residents (and even resident Americans who are unknowledgeable in the matter), perhaps a short little explanation of the meaning and its historical origins might be in order.
Will the First Thanksgiving Please Step Forward!
In the USA, the secular holiday of “Thanksgiving” is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November (it used to be on the last Thursday of November). This recalls the fact that in 1621, the Plymouth colonists (Protestant Separatists from England) and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is today thought to be the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.
Catholic Thanksgiving Day Number One (Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, 1541)
Beginning in 1539, Francisco Coronado organized a large expedition from Mexico, which included five Franciscan missionaries. He brought with him 336 soldiers and settlers, 100 native Mexican Christians, 552 horses, 600 mules, 5000 sheep, and 500 cows, pigs, and goats. (This marked the introduction of these animals into the southwestern United States).
The expedition arrived in what is now Arizona and found Indian pueblos. After establishing a base in Arizona, Coronado headed east to establish a base-mission near present-day Albuquerque, New Mexico. When they crossed the river which is now called the Rio Grande, they named it Rio de Nuestra Señora (the River of Our Lady). This is its original name as it appeared on the first maps of the region.
Though no “cities of gold” were found, Coronado continued to send out expeditions — and missionaries with them. That there were missionaries on every expedition should tell us that the search for supposed “golden cities” was not the primary reason for Coronado’s ventures. (The gold was needed to fund expeditions and was not sought for personal gain). Spreading the one true Faith among the pagan native Indians was of primary importance.
In April of 1541, Coronado, with a group of soldiers and some missionaries, left Albuquerque, New Mexico, headed northeast, and crossed a section of what is now northwest Texas (the Panhandle). In encountering some of the local Indians, the missionaries found that the natives were immediately open to receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After a few weeks of instruction, members of the Jumano Indian tribe converted and received Baptism.
The expedition then arrived in Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, where, on May 29th, 1541, Father Juan Padilla, O.F.M., offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. (Father Padilla would eventually become the very first martyr of the Faith in America when he was killed in 1542, in what is now Kansas). A Thanksgiving feast followed the Mass. It consisted of game that had earlier been caught. The feast was celebrated in thanksgiving to God for His many blessings and for the recent converts. This 1541 event is the first actual Thanksgiving Day celebrated in the future United States―80 years before the 1621 Thanksgiving of the Pilgrim Fathers.
Catholic Thanksgiving Day Number Two (St. Augustine, Florida, 1565)
The second Catholic Thanksgiving Day―that preceded the Pilgrims’ Plymouth Rock 1621 celebration by 56 years―was at St. Augustine, Florida, which is the first and oldest city of present day United States, founded in 1565 by Spanish Catholic explorers. The Spanish Captain General Pedro Menendez de Aviles and his fleet of soldiers and colonists―accompanied by priests―landed on the coast of Florida on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8th, 1565 It was the first permanent European settlement in North America. There had been other attempts by the Spanish to establish colonies in Florida and Texas, but all were short-lived.
The first sighting of land had been on August 28th, 1565, the feast of St. Augustine, so when they eventually came to shore, they named the settlement after him. On September 8th, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, they came ashore with great fanfare, to the astonishment of the natives. In an official ceremony Don Pedro Menendez came ashore amid the sounding of trumpets, artillery salutes and the firing of cannons to claim the land for King Philip II and Spain.
One of the priests, Fr. Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, who had gone ashore the previous day, advanced to meet him, chanting the Te Deum Laudamus and carrying a Cross, which Menendez and those with him reverently kissed. Then the 500 soldiers, 200 sailors and 100 families and artisans, along with the Timucuan Indians from the nearby village of Seloy, gathered at a makeshift altar, and a Mass in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary was said in Thanksgiving. The Mass was followed by a feast shared by the Spanish with the local Seloy tribe (Timucuan Indians)—thus taking place 56 years before the Plymouth Rock Thanksgiving.
In his book, Cross in the Sand, the Thanksgiving menu would most likely have consisted of what the Spanish settlers had with them during their voyage: cocido, a stew made from salted pork and garbanzo beans laced with garlic seasoning, hard sea biscuits, and red wine. The Timucuans brought wild turkey, venison, oysters and giant clams, as well as maize (corn), beans, squash, nuts and fruits. The Spaniards contribution wascocido, a stew made with pork, garbanzo beans and onions, along with biscuits, olive oil and red wine. In his well-researched book on the State of Florida titled Cross in the Sand, Dr. Michael Gannon duly affirmed that this Mass and feast was “the first community act of religion and thanksgiving in the first permanent European settlement in the land.”
Catholic Thanksgiving Day Number Three (Texas, 1598)
The third Thanksgiving was in Texas. On January 26th, 1598, Catholic explorer Juan de Oñate led an expedition from Mexico City into New Mexico with the aim of founding a new kingdom. The expedition included over 200 soldiers and colonists, the soldiers being headed by Captain Gaspar Perez de Villagra. Many had their families with them. a Spanish expedition set out from Mexico
A number of Christian Indian converts with their families from Mexico were also in the party. With the group were several thousand head of livestock, including cows, horses, mules, sheep, goats, and pigs. Eighty-three wagons carried provisions, ammunition, tools, plants, and seeds for wheat, oats, rye, onions, chili, peas, beans, and different nuts.
On the expedition were eight Franciscan friars: two priests and six brothers. The party experienced many hardships. Three months later, after a long, dangerous trek forging a new trail northward, the now famous El Camino Real [The Royal Road], it crossed the Rio Grande and set up camp south of present day El Paso, Texas. Soon after entering New Mexico, just across the Rio de Nuestra Señora, they were attacked by hostile Indians near present-day El Paso, Texas. A number of wagons and numerous head of livestock were lost, but no members of the expedition were killed. The same was not true for the attacking Indians, a number of whom died.
On April 30th, 1598, moving a little farther up along the river, Juan de Oñate and the Franciscans erected a large cross, and Don Juan de Oñate, took formal possession of the new land, called New Mexico, in the name of the Heavenly Lord, God Almighty, and the earthly lord King Philip II. He declared: “I want to take possession of this land today, April 30th, 1598, in honor of Our Lord Jesus Christ, on this day of the Ascension of Our Lord.”
Immediately afterward a High Mass was offered in thanksgiving. Then, after the Mass, the entire group gathered for a Banquet of Thanksgiving to God for protecting them and for allowing them to arrive at the place after so many hardships along the way. The Franciscan priests blessed the food on tables and the 600-strong expedition of soldiers and colonists feasted. The festive meal consisted of fish, ducks, geese, fruits and vegetables. The celebration ended with a play enacting scenes of the native Indians hearing the first words of the Catholic Faith and receiving the Sacrament of Baptism. After this Thanksgiving Banquet, the expedition headed further up along the river and by June had established the mission-town of San Juan (still populated to this day).
Though there was a Thanksgiving Feast celebrated in 1541, as we earlier saw, it was never commemorated afterward. In contrast, for some years after the Thanksgiving Feast of 1598, a feast was celebrated by the Spanish and the Christian Indians of New Mexico in thanks to the true God for bringing them through many hardships and for His blessings. Today this Thanksgiving Feast is commemorated in San Juan on the thirtieth day of April every year.
The First Shall Be Last…
What is thought to be the first Thanksgiving in 1621, is therefore not quite so, but crosses the finishing-line a good 80 years after the Catholic Thanksgiving in Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, in 1541; and 56 years after the Thanksgiving in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565; and 23 years after the Texan Thanksgiving in El Paso in 1598. It came about after a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, in September of 1620, carrying 102 passengers — an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their Faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World.
After a treacherous and uncomfortable sea crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.
Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see the spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English.
Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants.
In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”— the festival lasted for three days. Pilgrims held their second Thanksgiving celebration in 1623 to mark the end of a long drought that had threatened that year’s harvest.
During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress designated one or more days of thanksgiving a year, and in 1789 George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the national government of the United States. His successors John Adams and James Madison also designated days of thanks during their presidencies.
In 1817, New York became the first of several states to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day, however, and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition. In 1827, a campaign was launched to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. This campaign lasted 36 years until Abraham Lincoln finally responded to the request in 1863. He scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November, and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week, in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s plan, known derisively as “Franksgiving”, was met with passionate opposition, and in 1941 the president reluctantly signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.
Thanksgiving Day as Public Holiday
Though George Washington called for a day of Thanksgiving while he was President, it was not celebrated as a yearly holiday feast until Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving Day as a holiday on October 3rd, 1863 (almost 250 years after the Pilgrims landed on the shores of America and over 320 years after the first Catholic Thanksgiving), in response to the victory at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 by the United States. With this victory in mind, as well as its cost, President Lincoln issued a proclamation stating:
“The year … has been filled with the blessings … which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and even soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions; peace has been preserved with all nations; order has been maintained; the laws have been respected and obeyed; and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict … the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”
So now we know that the Pilgrims did not celebrate the first Thanksgiving in America. The first act of Thanksgiving was the Mass of Thanksgiving celebrated by Fr. Juan Padilla, in 1541, and was followed by a feast. This was 80 years before the Plymouth Rock event.
The second feast of Thanksgiving was celebrated at St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565, at the founding of the first permanent European settlement on American soil. This was 56 years before the Plymouth Rock event.
The third feast of Thanksgiving was celebrated back in 1598, in New Mexico, by Spanish-Catholic colonists and Indian converts to the Faith—23 years before the Plymouth Rock event. They thanked the true God for bringing them safely through many troubles and dangers and for the fact that the seed of the Gospel of Christ was beginning to take root.
Because of the often anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic prejudice of English-speaking Protestants, generations of Americans have never learned this fact of American history.
Let’s Get This Straight!
For a Catholic, every day is—in a sense—“Thanksgiving Day.” The word “Eucharistia” is Greek for “thanksgiving”! The Holy Eucharist—or the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass—is celebrated thousands of times each day throughout the world. The Holy Eucharist is God’s gift to man—in fact the greatest Gift that God could give man—because it is both God Himself, and also the Sacrifice of God for our sins and our salvation! The very gift of the Eucharist and the receiving of the Eucharist, should lead to a thanksgiving for the Eucharist—as is implied by its very name: “Holy Eucharist” meaning “Holy Thanksgiving”!
Our Lord and Thanksgiving
Jesus frequently gave us the example of thanksgiving throughout His life—that is to say, a thanksgiving to God His Father.
As a prefiguration of the Holy Eucharist, Our Lord performed, several times, the miracle of the multiplication of loaves—and we notice that on these occasions He always gave thanks to God before performing the miracle. “And taking the seven loaves and the fishes, and giving thanks, He broke, and gave to His disciples, and the disciples to the people” (Matthew 15:36). “And taking the seven loaves, giving thanks, He broke, and gave to His disciples for to set before them; and they set them before the people” (Mark 8:6). “And Jesus took the loaves: and when He had given thanks, He distributed to them that were set down” (John 6:11).
When Our Lord performed the stupendous miracle of raising Lazarus, after commanding that the stone of the tomb be rolled away and before commanding Lazarus to arise and come forth, Our Lord again first gives thanks to God: “They took therefore the stone away. And Jesus, lifting up His eyes, said: ‘Father, I give Thee thanks that Thou hast heard Me!’” (John 11:41).
At the Last Supper, when He instituted the Holy Eucharist (Holy Thanksgiving), He is reported by the Evangelists as once again giving thanks to God. “And taking bread, He gave thanks, and broke; and gave to them, saying: ‘This is My body, which is given for you. Do this for a commemoration of Me!’” (Luke 22:19). “And having taken the chalice, He gave thanks, and said: ‘Take, and divide it among you!’” (Luke 22:17). “And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them, saying: ‘Drink ye all of this!’” (Matthew 26:27). “And having taken the chalice, giving thanks, He gave it to them. And they all drank of it” (Mark 14:23).
Our Lord Condemns Ingratitude
The chief and most striking incident whereby Our Lord condemned in gratitude was His encounter with the Ten Lepers, where only one was found to come back and give thanks. “And as Jesus entered into a certain town, there met Him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off; and lifted up their voice, saying: ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ To whom, when He saw, He said: ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests!’ And it came to pass, as they went, they were made clean. And one of them, when he saw that he was made clean, went back, with a loud voice glorifying God. And he fell on his face before Jesus’ feet, giving thanks: and this was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering, said, ‘Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine? There is no one found to return and give glory [and thanks] to God, but this stranger!’” (Luke 17:12-18).
Today, it is not even one-in-ten that gives the thanks to God that ought to be given! It might not even be one-in-a-hundred-thousand! Many may think they give thanks, but, as you will read further below, it is mere lip service thanks, but not heart service thanks.
An Ungrateful Time, an Age of Ingratitude
Ingratitude has always been around, but St. Paul makes especial mention of it as a trait that will be seen in the End Times in particular: “Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God! Having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). These kinds of persons have simply forgotten Our Lord’s incontestable truth: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). They have decided that they will do many things without Him, they will “do their own thing” and He will not be a part of it.
In these last days, Our Lady also asks for reparation for ungrateful sinners. Our Lady of Good Success speaks of “the grandeur of this restoring and life-giving Sacrament of Penance, so forgotten and even scorned by ungrateful men, who in their foolish madness, do not realize that it is the only sure means of salvation after one has lost his baptismal innocence” and how “the Host, is exposed to the sacrilegious profanations of His ungrateful sons.”
At Fatima, the Angel took the Chalice and Host. He gave Lucia the Sacred Host on the tongue. Then while giving the Precious Blood from the Chalice to Francisco and Jacinta, he said: “Eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.”
Some years after the 1917 Fatima apparitions, on Thursday, December 10th, 1925, the Blessed Virgin, accompanied by the Child Jesus, appeared to Lucia in her cell. Lucia recounted that Mary showed her a Heart encircled by thorns in her hand. The Child Jesus spoke first, saying: “Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered with the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation.” Then Mary said: “My daughter, look at my Heart surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console me.”
Some 43 years later, Our Lady said at Akita (August 1973): “Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair by their suffering and their poverty for the sinners and the ungrateful.”
Give Thanks Always, Everywhere and for Everything!
This is why St. Paul commands that we should be “giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father” (Ephesians 5:20). Again, elsewhere, he writes that should be “giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12) and that “All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him!” (Colossians 3:17).
The Eucharistic Sacrifice echoes these sentiments in every single one of its Prefaces, that precede the Canon of the Mass: “…we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks to thee, O Holy Lord, Father Almighty, eternal God, through Christ, our Lord.”
This means giving thanks, not only for the pleasant things in life, but also the unpleasant. Not only for things that God gives, but also when God takes away things—like health, wealth, possessions, benefits, jobs, friends, etc. Speaking of jobs, let us remind ourselves of Job’s famous words when God had taken from him his health, his wealth, his children and his livestock: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there! The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away! As it has pleased the Lord so is it done! Blessed be the Name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21).
Gratitude or Thankfulness is Not an Option!
We all remember being forcefully told by our parents to say “Thank you!” to someone who had just given us something or helped us some way! Even though we begrudgingly and sourly squeezed those words from our mouth, it cannot be said that we truly thankful or genuinely grateful—it was more a case of a “Shotgun-Thank-You!” whereby a metaphorical ‘gun’ was held to our head (a slap or a whack) to ‘encourage’ us to give thanks. But, as St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “thanksgiving is less thankful when compelled” (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 106, art. 1). He goes on to say that “thankfulness a special part of justice”—meaning that it is owed in justice—and that “when there is greater favor on the part of the giver, greater thanks are due on the part of the recipient.”
In commenting upon the words of St. Paul, “in all things give thanks” (1 Thessalonians 5:18), St. Thomas Aquinas points out that our greatest thanks are due to God, for He is the first principle or ultimate cause of all our goods. Our Lord laid the foundation for this truth with His own words, when He said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).
Gratitude for Mercy!
Talking of ‘great gifts’—what greater gift is there than mercy? Holy Scripture tells us: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all his works!” (Psalm 144:8-9). God’s mercy is above all His works! What kind of gratitude should not be shown to someone who gives us the greatest gift possible? St. Thomas Aquinas says: “The penitent is more bound to give thanks than the innocent, because what he receives from God is more gratuitously given: since, whereas he was deserving of punishment, he has received grace” (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 106, art. 2).
How much mercy have you received in your life? How much thanks is due from you in justice, in gratitude for the greatest gift of God—given time and time again? The 1st century Roman philosopher, Seneca, said that “Among all our many and great vices, none is as common as ingratitude … and the most ungrateful of all is the man who has forgotten a benefit.”
Blind to the Benefits of God!
How blind, indifferent, presumptuous and abusive we are to our greatest benefactor—the Good Lord. The One who gets thanked the least and gets taken for granted the most, is the Good Lord. Every day He gives us blessings beyond all counting through His Divine Providence. There is no provider like God. We breathe His air; we drink His water; we need His light and sunshine; we cultivate His soil; we eat His fruits and crops; we eat His fish and animals; we make medicines from his creation; we clothe ourselves with His materials; we depend upon His seasons; we build our homes with his materials; we depend upon His protection against animals, men and devils; it is He that gives us life by creating our soul; it is He that gives us health by His protective Providence; it is He who calls time, and brings death and final judgment.
Most of all He gave His only Son, Who remains living amongst us in the Blessed Sacrament. He gave us a share in His life through the sanctifying grace received at Baptism. He increased that supernatural life by the coming of his Holy Spirit, with His Gifts, into our souls at Confirmation. He has given us the treasure of the Sacrifice of the Mass—the greatest action that can possible take place anywhere in the world on any given day. To crown all that, He offers us eternal joys in Heaven. And how we take Him for granted! How we fail to say “thank you” to the One from Whom all good gifts come! It is a mystery, a tragedy, an injustice, a blindness, a neglect that should be punished; that has to be punished; and one that will be punished.
We should be spending the whole day, counting our blessings and thanking the One Who grants those blessings—the Almighty, All-Merciful, All-Providing God. As the Preface of the Mass so truly says: ”…we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks to thee, O Holy Lord, Father Almighty, eternal God, through Christ, our Lord.”
God is Owed Gratitude and Love!
St. Thomas points out that “a man owes love to his benefactor, just as he owes him gratitude” and that “to whom more is forgiven, he loveth more” (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 106, art. 2). And St. John tells us: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us!” (1 John 1:10). Therefore, we owe God much gratitude and great love, because “the Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all his works!” (Psalm 144:8-9).
Nobody Excused From Thanksgiving—Neither Sinner, nor Just
“Now a favor is something bestowed freely without obligation [“gratis”]. Therefore, on the part of the giver, the favor may be greater on two counts. First, it may be great owing to the quantity of the thing given—and in this way the innocent person owes greater thanksgiving, because he receives a greater gift from God, also, absolutely speaking, a more continuous gift, other things being equal. Secondly, a favor may be said to be greater, because it is given more gratuitously; and in this sense the penitent is more bound to give thanks than the innocent, because what he receives from God is more gratuitously given—since, whereas the sinner was deserving of punishment, he has received grace. Wherefore, although the gift bestowed on the innocent is, considered absolutely, greater, yet the gift bestowed on the penitent is greater in relation to him—just as a small gift, given to a poor man, is greater to the poor man, than a great gift is to a rich man” (Summa, IIa-IIae, q. 106, art. 2).
Degree of Thankfulness
The degree of thankfulness in the recipient should correspond to the degree of favor in the giver — when there is greater favor on the part of the giver, greater thanks are due on the part of the recipient. In judging the magnitude of a favor two things are to be considered, namely, the affection of the heart and the gift itself.
St. Thomas quotes Seneca, who says “We are sometimes under a greater obligation to one who has given little with a large heart, and has bestowed a small favor, yet willingly.”
Holy Scripture bears this out, when Our Lord says: “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living.”
The more we thank God, the more inclined He is to give us more—we operate the same way, don’t we? Let us then think of the incredible mercies—and other graces too—that God has bestowed upon us, and let these thoughts trigger profuse sentiments of thanksgiving within us!
Two Pillars of Thanksgiving!
Have you ever read about the Two Pillars in St. John Bosco’s vision (click here)? One of the chief things we learn from those Two Pillars is thanksgiving! The word “Eucharistia” is Greek for “thanksgiving”! The very gift of the Eucharist and the receiving of the Eucharist, should lead to a thanksgiving for the Eucharist—as is implied by its very name: “Holy Eucharist” meaning “Holy Thanksgiving”!
Under the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the other pillar, was the inscription “Auxilium Christianorum” which means “Help of Christians”. Again, the “Help of Christians” should lead to a “Thanksgiving by Christians” for that help.
Finally, the very outcome of the battle seen by St. John Bosco, should again lead to a thanksgiving for the victory when all seemed lost. As was stated above, the more a person give thanks in gratitude, the more God seems to give; to those who thank but little, little is given.
Nobody was as grateful to God as Our Lady, and nobody received more from God than Our Lady. Her eyes were fully open to all the wonderful things God did for her, and she thanked Him for it—her canticle, the Magnificat, is an indication of this attitude: “My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is His Name. He hath shown might in His arm: He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away” (Luke 1:46-53).
Oh if we could learn how to thank God like He deserves to be thanked! Yet we fail to see that He “has done great things to me” ― for we take those “great things” for granted!
Our Lady Speaks on Gratitude
How many times do you thank God daily? With what fervor and sincerity of heart do you thank Him? How many different things do you thank Him for? If you can count the number of times you thank Him on both hands and both sets of toes (20 for the normal person) then you are a miserly miser! If you thank Him as many times as you have hairs on your head (bald men excluded), then you are still a miser! Our Lady says to the Venerable Mary of Agreda:
Our Lady’s Own Gratitude
“Every day, at beginning of dawn, I prostrated myself in the presence of the Most High and gave Him thanks and praise for his immutable Being, his infinite perfections, and for having created me out of nothing; acknowledging myself as His creature and the work of His hands, I blessed Him and adored Him, giving Him honor, magnificence and Divinity, as the supreme Lord and Creator of myself and of all that exists. I raised up my spirit to place it into His hands, offering myself with profound humility and resignation to Him and asking Him to dispose of me according to His will during that day and during all the days of my life, and to teach me to fulfill whatever would be to His greater pleasure. This I repeated many times during the external works of the day …
“I gave thanks to the Author of all things, acknowledging His works as benefits freely bestowed upon me, and not as dues, which He owed to me. Therefore, when anything was wanting of the necessaries of life, I remained in peace and contentedness and deemed it all perfectly reasonable and proper in my regard, since I had merited none of the gifts and could justly be deprived of all of them” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
Our Lady Complains of Our Ingratitude
“Ponder upon the small return given by mortals for the love of my Son and Lord, and how forgetful of thanks even His faithful continue to be ... Let mortals inquire what treasures and riches they did possess before they came into life? What services had they rendered unto God, in order to merit them? And if out of nothing there cannot arise anything, and if they could not merit the being which they have received, what obligation is there on the part of God to preserve, out of justice, what was given to them entirely gratuitously?
“That God created man, was of no benefit to Himself; but to man it was a benefit, and one as great as the being given to him, and as high as the object for which it was given. And if, in His creation, man becomes indebted so much, that he never can pay his debt, tell me, what right can he invoke at present for his preservation? Has he not received his being without merit and many times forfeited it? What an execrable disorder and what a despicable blindness of mortals is this? For that, which the Lord gives them gratuitously, they do not thank Him, or even give Him acknowledgment, and for that which He denies them justly, and sometimes most mercifully, they are restless and proudly desirous, and they try to procure it by unjust and forbidden means, throwing themselves into the very destruction which flies from them” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
He Who Receives More Should Be More Grateful
“He that received more ought to consider himself more needy, since his debt becomes so much the greater. All should humiliate themselves since of themselves they are nothing, nor can they do anything or possess ought. On this account they, that are raised up by the hand of the Almighty, should humiliate themselves as mere dust. For, left to themselves and to their nothingness and unworthiness, they should esteem themselves so much the more indebted and bound to thankfulness, for that which, by themselves, they can never repay!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
Those Who Give Thanks, Give Poor Thanks
“If some of them do render it, it is so coarse, inattentive and discourteous, that they do not merit reward, but chastisement. They revere and adore profoundly the princes and magnates of the Earth; they ask favors and seek to obtain them with the utmost diligence; they are effusive in their thanks, when they succeed, protesting their lifelong gratitude. But the supreme Lord, Who gives them being, life and activity, Who preserves and sustains them, Who has redeemed them and raised them to the dignity of sons,Who wishes to confer upon them His own glory, Who is in Himself the infinite and the highest Good; Him, the highest Majesty, they forget, because they cannot see Him with their corporal eyes. As if not all good came from Him, they return, at the highest, merely a sluggish remembrance and a hasty thanksgiving” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
Ingratitude Will Be Punished
“Meditate much, and weigh over and over again, how exactly mortals ought to correspond to this immense kindness of God and to His eagerness to assist them. Compare at the same time the heartless obduracy of the children of Adam. I wish that thy heart be softened in affectionate thankfulness toward the Lord, and melted in sorrow at these unhappy proceedings of men. I assure thee, that on the day of the general judgment, the cause of the greatest wrath of the just Judge shall be man’s most ungrateful forgetfulness of this truth; and the confusion of men, on account of this wrath, shall be such, that, on that day, they would of their own accord cast themselves into the abyss of pain, if there were no ministers of divine justice to visit this retribution upon them ... Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
Our Lady Encourages Gratitude
“By incessant praise and acknowledgment, show thyself thankful for the favor which God vouchsafed thee in appointing angels to assist thee, teach thee, and guide thee through the tribulations and sorrows. Mortals, in their abominable ingratitude and grossness, ordinarily forget this blessing ... Acknowledge these blessings and give Him thanks with all thy heart ... Raise thyself above thyself and give Him thanks for the special blessings conferred upon thee and for those conferred upon the human race ... . Thank Him for the benefits, which He has conferred and confers on all, whether they know Him or not, whether they confess or repudiate Him!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
Humble Gratitude
“Accustom thyself to humble thanksgiving for the benefits which thou receivest … Do not deceive thyself with the pretext of being humble; for there is a great difference between thankful humility and humble thanklessness. Remember that the Lord very often shows great favors to the unworthy, in order to manifest His goodness and munificence. On the contrary let no one become inflated, but let everyone acknowledge so much the more his unworthiness, using it as a medicine against the poison of presumption. But gratitude will agree with this humble opinion of self, since we must acknowledge, that every good gift comes from the Father of lights ... Let then thy thanks be greater than that of all the creatures!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
Gratitude Leads to Love, Love Gains More Favors
“Renew many times a day the memory of His blessings, always giving thanks to the Lord with humble and loving affection. Especially memorable among His benefits are that He has called thee, waited for thee, and excused thy faults, and added thereto such often repeated favors. This remembrance will cause in thee sweet and strong movements of love; and thou wilt find new grace and favor before the Lord, since He is so much pleased by a faithful and thankful heart” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).
Article 25
Tuesday November 25th
Turky or Tongue for Thanksgiving?
Tuesday November 25th
Turky or Tongue for Thanksgiving?
Turkey or Tongue?
As we enter the American holiday season, which encompasses Thanksgiving and Christmas, we also, sadly, enter the “Season of the Tongue” when, in family or social get-togethers, there are more helpings of the tongue that are served than there are helpings of turkey. Spicy food is served with spicy gossip! A sweet glass of wine is accompanied by a bitter whine! Pumpkin pie and an exaggerated lie! “Bite into your turkey and bite your tongue!” could and should be the motto for this tongue-wagging season.
We would do well to remember the words of St. James on the tongue: “We all sin in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is a perfect person, able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn and guide the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the ship’s pilot wants the ship to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it can cause great damage. Consider what a great forest can be set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by Hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be!” (James 3:2-10).
Spice is Not Always Nice
Thanksgiving and Christmas is not just about spicy food, but also about spicy conversation. Spice can be nice—if used in moderation—and the same goes for conversation. St. Francis de Sales—an appropriate saint for this season of “Sales”—tells us: “There is a light-hearted talk, full of modest life and gaiety, and which we should call good conversation, by which we may find an innocent and kindly amusement out of the trifling occurrences which human imperfections afford.” (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Book 3, Chapter 27, “Of Unseemly Words, And The Respect Due To Others”).
As St. Francis de Sales points out, there is nothing wrong with light-hearted, amusing, uplifting talk—but he also points out that this can quickly cross the boundary from virtue to sin, by degenerating into hurtful talk by overdoing it or exaggeration, or because of envy, grudges, etc. “Only beware of letting this seemly mirth go too far, till it becomes ridicule. Ridicule excites mirth at the expense of one’s neighbor; acceptable mirth and playful fun never lose sight of a trustful, kindly courtesy, which can wound no one.”
Holidays Have Fallen From Grace
The problem with the upcoming holiday season is the fact that, by and large, it has suffered a “falling from grace” in the sense that it is more secular than it is spiritual—and nobody seems to notice or care about that “fall from grace”, because everyone participates in that secular, materialistic focus. We have forgotten what it is to be truly Christian and are easily and happily satisfied with superficial or surface Christianity—by displaying our nativity scene in the house or the garden, but not in the garden or house of our soul. We wish others “Merry Christmas” superficially, without really thinking of its real meaning or what we should be wishing by a “Merry Christmas.”
Once this secular and materialistic disease or virus has been caught, it is extremely hard to eliminate. Few are the souls that spend holidays in the spirit commanded by Holy Scripture: “If I partake with thanksgiving, why am I evil spoken of, for that for which I give thanks? Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God!” (1 Corinthians 10:30-31). Our holy days have become mere holidays. We have removed the spiritual and are left with the material. We have nothing other than the feathers without the bird.
We see this falling from grace with God’s own Chosen People, the Israelites, in their exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land, whereby they increasingly became carnal and materialistic in their thoughts and desires—which resulted in God keeping them ‘lost’ in the desert wilderness for forty-years, until all of the original people who had left Egypt had died as a punishment. Only two of the original families out of millions of people who left Egypt, entered the Promised Land. St. Paul warns us of repeating that grave mistake:
“For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud and in the sea. And all did eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was [a figure of] Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased―for they were overthrown in the desert! Now these things were done in a figure of us, that we should not covet evil things as they also coveted! Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play!’ Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you murmur as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come! Wherefore he that thinks himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall! Let no temptation take hold on you!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-13).
Holy Days or Holidays? Which is it to be?
No doubt you have been raised in the tenets and attitudes of the American Culture. Yet, because of your limited and superficial knowledge of history, that culture—like most of the cultures of the world (nobody is picking on Americans here)—that culture is not a Catholic culture, it is a hybrid, compromised, secularized culture, a worldly culture. The natural logical consequences or reasoning then follows—if it is a worldly culture, then who is behind it? Who is the “prince of this world”? Our Lord tells us clearly: “Jesus answered: ‘My kingdom is not of this world!” (John 18:36). “The prince of this world cometh, and in Me he has not anything … The prince of this world is already judged ... Now shall the prince of this world be cast out!” (John 12:31; 16:11; 14:30). We too must cast out the prince of this world and the worldly influence that prince uses to seduce us into worldliness: “The devil took Jesus up into a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them” (Matthew 4:8). Jesus refused the temptation, and, as He would later say: “The cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts after other things entering in choke the word of God, and it is made fruitless” (Mark 4:19). “What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26). For the most part, the culture of the world—no matter which continent or country you choose to consider—is a culture infiltrated and fabricated by the devil. Holy Scripture make that irrefutably clear!
It because of this universal secularization of holy days by which holy days are reduced to mere holidays of a secular nature, that we have also secularized our tongues and we no longer speak of spiritual things at our gatherings, but only worldly things. “They are of the world, therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them!” (1 John 4:5). The problem is that we are not meant to be of this world, we not meant to love this world, we are not meant to follow the attitudes and fashions of this world! Our Lord and Holy Scripture make this abundantly clear.
Christ Seeks to Save the World, Not Canonize the World
Christ came into the world to save the world from the world. He has compassion on the world: “For God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:16-17). “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47), so that “all the world may be made subject to God” (Romans 3:19). “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world” (Galatians 1:4).
Yet, even though Christ had compassion for the world, He did not have compassion for the spirit of worldliness. He came to extract us from the world, not to cement us in the world. “This is the judgment―because the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light: for their works were evil” (John 3:19). “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not … He came unto His own, and His own received him not … the light shone in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:5-11).
God loved the world, but the world hated God and preferred evil pleasures: “The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth: because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil” (John 7:7). “If the world hates you, know ye, that it has hated Me before you … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19).
Christ, at the Last Supper (think “Thanksgiving”) said: “The spirit of truth, the world cannot receive” (John 14:17). “I have manifested Thy Name, Father, to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world ... Thine they were, and to Me Thou gavest them … I am not of the world, and these are in the world … I pray for them … I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me … I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world” (John 17:6-14).
This is why His Apostles hit home the same hard message: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16).
The Holiday Season is a Reunion of Two Opposing Sides
The Church and even the world paint this upcoming holiday season in the colors of peace and joy. One would wish that it not be so, but, sadly, it is so. For the most part (exceptions do exist) this is mere wishful thinking and clever packaging. The upcoming secular holiday season will bring together persons who are camped on opposite sides of the divide—God and the world. Does that sound a little radical? Well listen to Our radical Lord:
“Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law!” (Luke 12:51-53).
“Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:34-37).
“If the world hates you, know ye, that it has hated Me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own―but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18-19).
And as Jesus says: “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!” (Matthew 7:21-23). For “why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Retreating into a Religious Shell
We can clearly see two opposite sides of the fence—God and mammon—and the followers of each side will come to together to ‘celebrate’ the secular holiday season, and they will keep it secular, for to try to make it truly religious will make sparks fly and tongues wag uncontrollably! The common worldwide culture has either compromised the religious aspect of the upcoming season and made it mainly secular while still giving religion a cameo appearance for a few minutes; or it has almost totally removed religion out of the picture—though a few exceptions still exist where religion has pride of place, but rarely is not compromised to some degree.
The few who might still be faithfully spiritual, have little or no courage to tackle the secular tidal wave of secular talk or worldly tsunami of tongues that they do and will encounter over the holiday season. They feel outnumbered and so, tortoise-like, they retreat into a shell of embarrassed silence. Human respect binds their hands, legs and tongues—of which Our Lady of Good Success said: “Cursed human respect! Which makes one ask: ‘What will others say about this?’”
Our fearful human respect gives sway to what others say, because we want to be accepted by family and relatives, and so we let them have their secular, religiously indifferent, or even irreligious way—just because “it’s family!”—forgetting Our Lord’s words: ““Everyone therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:32-37).
Cursed Human Respect
Over the years, that which Our Lady of Good Success calls “cursed human respect”, has eroded the spiritual from our families, as year after year we make more and more concessions to the more worldly-minded members of our families, relatives and friends. We are ashamed of being more religious, and so to please and accommodate them we become more worldly and more permissive of worldly mannerisms and things. We are afraid of friction, but the friction will inevitably come and at some point we will have to “put on the brakes”—and brakes operate on friction (brake pads against the disc of the car wheel causing great heat). So in the end the brakes are applied—but much too late and at the expense of much spirituality being lost, which, in most cases, will never be “reeled back in” or recovered. And God will judge us on what we have lost! We are the keepers of our brothers and sisters—and we cannot, like Cain, protest the contrary to God.
Who will make a stand for Christ during this holiday season? Who will face the barrage of rolled-eyes, raised eyebrows, shaking heads, scornful tongues by trying to make the upcoming holiday season what it should be—a religious, Christ centered, God focused, season, that has the courage to cast out worldliness and faithfully follow the dictates of Holy Scripture: “Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God―having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation has justice with injustice? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part have the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
We are partially in the mess that we are in because we have compromised Christ, we have forced Him to accept Belial, we have dimmed the light of the Faith to please those who love darkness, we shut our mouths about religion to please the unbeliever. God is not pleased. “We have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God” (1 Corinthians 2:12). “For whatsoever is born of God, overcomes the world: and this is the victory which overcomes the world, our Faith!” (1 John 5:4). “You are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world” (John 15:18-19). “Use this world, as if you used it not: for the fashion of this world passes away” (1 Corinthians 7:31). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16).
We can put together a download ― A MANUAL FOR THANKSGIVING DAY ― which you will find on the DOWNLOADS page (click here) ― that is full of suggestions, quotes, readings, etc., to help you sanctify and Christianize this Thanksging Day which is overwhelmingly secular gateway to materialism (Black Friday, Business Saturday, Shopping Sunday, and Cyber Monday).
Thanksgiving Tongue- Talking-Terrorists?
Meanwhile, back at the party! Have you ever thought of seeing your guests, over the holiday season, as potential terrorists? Tongue-Terrorists! Tongue-Talking-Terrorists! Thanksgiving Tongue-Talking-Terrorists! They come armed with a two-edged tongue, sharpened and ready to use! They should be asked to show their tongue at the door, for inspection!! “A slippery mouth works ruin” (Proverbs 26:28)—and during this holiday season many “slippery mouths: will surface! “Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not so many as have perished by their own tongue!” (Ecclesiasticus 28:22). As St. James so truly says:
“If any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man’s religion is vain!” (James 1:26). “For in many things we all offend. If any man offends not in word, the same is a perfect man. Even so the tongue is indeed a little member, and boasts great things. Behold how small a fire sets on aflame a great forest. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue defiles the whole body, being set on fire by Hell. For every nature of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of the rest, is tamed, and hath been tamed, by the nature of man. But the tongue no man can tame, an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison. By it we bless God and the Father: and by it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be!” (James 3:2-10).
The First Shedding of Blood
The first shedding of blood was not in war, nor was it in self-defense, but it was out of envy and began with the tongue. Abel and Cain both offered sacrifices to God. The sacrifice of Abel was pleasing to God, but Cain’s sacrifice was for some reason not pleasing to God. Out of bitterness, envy and anger, Cain initially lied to Abel, in order to get him to a suitable place for the murder. Then, once the lie had served its purpose, “Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and slew him. And the Lord said to Cain: ‘Where is thy brother Abel?’ And he answered: ‘I know not! Am I my brother’s keeper?’
And the Lord said to him: ‘What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to Me from the earth! Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the Earth, which hath opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand. When thou shalt till it, it shall not yield to thee its fruit! A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be upon the Earth!’
“And Cain said to the Lord: ‘My iniquity is greater than that I may deserve pardon! Behold Thou dost cast me out this day from the face of the Earth, and I shall be hidden from Thy face, and I shall be a vagabond and a fugitive on the Earth! Everyone, therefore, that finds me, shall kill me!’
“And the Lord said to him: ‘No, it shall not be so: but whosoever shall kill Cain, shall be punished sevenfold!’ And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, that whosoever found him should not kill him. And Cain went out from the face of the Lord, and dwelt as a fugitive on the Earth” (Genesis 4:8-16).
Whatever You Do, You Do To Me!
We may take sins against fellow human beings lightly, yet Our Lord’s parable about the Sheep and the Goats says otherwise: “Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me!” and “As long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!” (Matthew 25:40, 45).
Holy Scripture warns that “Six things there are, which the Lord hateth, and the seventh his soul detesteth: (1) Haughty eyes; (2) a lying tongue; (3) hands that shed innocent blood; (4) a heart that devises wicked plots; (5) feet that are swift to run into mischief; (6) a deceitful witness that utters lies; (7) and him that sows discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6:16-19). “The Lord hates a mouth with a double tongue” (Proverbs 8:13). You will encounter all of these sins during the forthcoming holiday season! The killing by shedding of innocent blood might not be physical blood, but it will be the “blood of a person’s reputation.”
As a consequence of these sins, the words of Isaias come to mind: “For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity: your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue utters iniquity!” (Isaias 59:3)—thoughts that bring the mind back to God’s words to Cain: “Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the Earth, which has opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand” (Genesis 4:11).
Sin Gives Us Bloody Hands
Our sins cost Our Lord His Precious Blood and thus, in a sense, when we sin, our hands are, so to speak, smeared with His Blood—not in a cleansing way, but in a polluted way. We see God speak in a similar vein to His prophet Ezechiel: “And the Lord spoke to me, saying: ‘Son of man, declare to them their wicked deeds, because … blood is on their hands!” (Ezechiel 23:36-37). How so? Why so? “Because and they have committed fornication with their idols: moreover also their children, whom they bore to Me, they have offered to them to be devoured. Yes, and they have done this to Me. They polluted My sanctuary on the same day, and profaned My Sabbaths. And when they sacrificed their children to their idols, and went into My sanctuary the same day to profane it―they did these things even in the midst of My house” (Ezechiel 23:36-39). “Judge them as shedders of blood are judged: because blood is on their hands” (Ezechiel 23:36-39).
Similarly, we have bloodied our hands by sacrificing to the idols of materialism, entertainment, excess partying and drinking—wherein there is no place for God, and the command of Holy Scripture is disregarded and lost: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God!” (1 Corinthians 10:30-31).
The Scourge of the Tongue—the Sins of the Mouth
How many people commit adultery? How many people have abortions or kill others? How many people steal? How many people commit acts of violence? How many people blaspheme? The numbers of these offenders fade away into insignificance when compared to the number of those persons who sin with their tongues! “For who is there that has not offended with his tongue?” (Ecclesiasticus 19:17). “Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not so many as have perished by their own tongue!” (Ecclesiasticus 28:22).
The Psalmist says: “My tongue is the pen of a writer that writes swiftly!” (Psalm 44:2). But what does the tongue write or produce? “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). Holy Scripture says that the “tongue is a piercing arrow” (Jeremias 9:8) and speaks of “the scourge of the tongue” (Job 5:21) and “the stroke of a whip makes a blue mark: but the stroke of the tongue will break the bones” (Ecclesiasticus 28:21). We speak of “tongue lashings”. Words are also compared to swords ― “For the word of God is more piercing than any two edged sword … the sword of the Spirit―which is the word of God” (Hebrews 4:12; Ephesians 6:17).
Yet our words can be swords too, and swords shed blood. Our words can be arrows, and arrows draw blood. “Slanderers … shed blood” (Ezechiel 22:9). “The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood” (Proverbs 12:6). “For when evil shall be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue” (Job 20:12). “A slippery mouth works ruin” (Proverbs 26:28). “Their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are unprofitable thoughts” (Isaias 59:7). “Their throat is an open sepulcher: with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness in their ways” (Psalm 13:3). “The tongue of a third person hath disquieted man” (Ecclesiasticus 28:16). “A jealous woman is a scourge of the tongue which communicates with all” (Ecclesiasticus 26:9). “A tongue that bears witness brings death” (Ecclesiasticus 26:9) “which is stained with the blood of the innocent” (Numbers 35:33). “Upon whom have you opened your mouth wide, and put out your tongue? Are not you wicked children, a false seed?” (Isaias 57:4).
The Slippery Tongue Slips Into …
“The tongue of the fool is his ruin” (Ecclesiasticus 5:15). “Be not hasty in thy tongue” (Ecclesiasticus 4:34). “Be not called a whisperer, and be not caught in thy tongue and confounded” (Ecclesiasticus 5:16). “Who will set a guard before my mouth, and a sure seal upon my lips, that I fall not by them, and that my tongue destroy me not?” (Ecclesiasticus 22:33). “Blessed is he that has not slipped with his tongue” (Ecclesiasticus 25:11). “Hedge in thy ears with thorns, hear not a wicked tongue, and make doors and bars to thy mouth” (Ecclesiasticus 28:28). “Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not so many as have perished by their own tongue!” (Ecclesiasticus 28:22).
A Book With Bite!
There is a book that everyone should read—because “Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not so many as have perished by their own tongue!” (Ecclesiasticus 28:22). This book was written by a Swiss priest, FR. BELET OF THE DIOCESE OF BASLE, AND IS ENTITLED: SINS OF THE TONGUE—THE BACKBITING TONGUE. Some extracts will be quoted here below, if you would like to read the whole book (more of a booklet than a book) then click here. The next twelve or thirteen paragraphs are taken from the book.
The Backbiter’s Weapon
Backbiting inflicts great harm for it shoots three arrows in a single round and deals a triple death. Saint Bernard assures us of this: “Is this tongue not that of a viper? It is surely very fierce, for it kills three victims with a single sting. Is it not a sharp spear, for it pierces three men in a single throw. The backbiter’s tongue is a sharp sword, a double and even a triple sword, like General Joab’s lance that pierced Absalom as he hung in the oak tree.”
Painless Piercing
Certain experiments prove that magnets possess a mysterious and wonderful power. According to Jerome Cardan, if you rub a dagger with a magnet, those it pierces afterwards will not feel it: “In the home of Dr. Lawrence Guascus I saw a needle or a metal point rubbed with a magnet; one could then stick the needle or point into any part of the body without causing any pain. This seemed incredible to me, and I wanted to make sure it was true. So I took a needle, rubbed it with a magnet and stuck it into my arm. I felt the needle’s presence when it had penetrated completely, but I felt no pain whatsoever. In order to be really sure I turned the needle, still stuck in my arm, in every direction. But I felt nothing and shed not a drop of blood. Afterwards, only the point where the needle had entered could be seen.” Cardan adds that Alexander of Verona was the first to perform this experiment, in Milan: he rubbed a sword with oil in order to be able to wound and heal whoever he wished without any pain.
Backbiting resembles that dagger perfectly. You thrust it in, it enters and causes a wound to three people at once: the backbiter, his listener and the person he backbites. The most seriously wounded one of all, the backbiter, feels absolutely nothing.
Raphael Maffei relates that when Chinese warriors prepared for combat they entered with splendid apparel and elegant arms, carrying four swords on their harness and manipulating two at once with great skill.
But the backbiter’s tongue surpasses them by far. It carries not four swords, nor a hundred, nor six hundred, but thousands, for fear it will run out once it enters into combat. The backbiting tongue often lights such a conflagration that four thousand soldiers ― what am I saying, four thousand? ― forty thousand, even a hundred thousand will not suffice to put it out. A two-edged sword, a keen knife, a piercing arrow, a cane-stiletto, a sharp razor, and a quick biting tongue all bear a striking resemblance. Listen to the Psalmist: “They have bent their bow to shoot arrows.” As the bow strikes from far off and wounds a person unawares, the backbiting tongue attacks those who are absent and wreaks its havoc from a distance of many miles. Bending its bow in Germany, it strikes and wounds a Frenchman or a Spaniard in his own land. Its arrows fly across the sea, or rather they pierce all the way to heaven, for they attack God Himself and His Saints. “They set their mouthings in place of Heaven” (Psalm 72:9), says David. It also penetrates the very bowels of the earth and rends the dead in their tombs, for David adds, “Their pronouncements pierce the earth.” It buries the living, and it digs the dead out of their tombs.
The Devil’s Basin
The backbiter is a beetle and a leech. Saint John Chrysostom remarks, “Everyone flees a backbiter like unhealthy mud, like a leech that feeds on blood, a beetle that feeds in the mire ― that is, on others’ defects.” As for you, act like bees: gather flowers from thorns and use them to make your honey.
Guillaume Perald says, “The mouth of the backbiter and slanderer is the basin the devil uses to wash his hands.” That basin contains not holy water, but the impure water of detraction. The devil pours this filthy water onto many; not on their face, true, but on their back. For the backbiter harms people who are absent, not present, just as the leech draws blood from behind. Now, let all who are in the habit of backbiting others learn that oftentimes those who reveal the crimes of others are more sinful than those who commit them.
Contempt of Charity
The Psalmist goes on to say, “They scoff and speak evil; outrage from on high they threaten” (Psalm 72:8). When its fury is roused, a raging bull lifts its head and casts terrible eyes at its prey, aiming at him and rampaging against him with all its might. Thus does the backbiter move in with head held high; stifling the voice of his conscience, the things he has meditated in his heart spew from his mouth in contempt of every law of Christian charity.
The backbiting tongue has chosen the very motto of Death as its own: “I spare no one!” Priest or judge, known or unknown, religious or worldling, friend or foe, none of that matters to him. The backbiter spares nothing and no one, not even his father and mother. Why is this so? Because he enjoys talking, so speaking evil gratifies him. He considers it a pleasure when he finds something to criticize in others. He is filled with joy when he can invent and relate things that do not even exist.
The Sword and the Dog
“O Lord,” cries David, “rescue my soul from the sword, my only one from the grip of the dog!” (Psalm 21:21). Cassiodorus says that Saint Augustine declares, “The sword is the backbiter’s tongue, and the dog is the backbiter himself.” Why does David ask to be rescued from the grip of the dog? We could understand if he had said a bear or a lion, but why be so afraid of a dog? He is right after a fashion, however. The bear and the lion are naturally fierce, but a dog may often sidle peacefully up to you and suddenly bite your leg. If it is a bulldog, it will square off against you and attack your head. David knew this type of dog from experience. He knew Saul, Semeias, Absalom, Seba, Achitophel and Doeg; they were purebred dogs, which are the most troublesome by far.
Excuses, Excuses…
Do not excuse yourself by saying, “But these are only petty sins,” for a little spark is often enough to produce a conflagration. “Behold how small a fire kindleth a great wood. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity … and inflameth the wheel of our nativity, being set on fire by Hell” (James 3:5-6). This is always true with the backbiting tongue. You say they are petty sins. So if you knew more serious things, wouldn’t you say them? No, wounding your neighbor’s reputation, even lightly, is no little thing. Killing someone with the pen is no less a homicide than killing him with the sword.
Cassian was killed by the hand of a child and pierced with little wounds, but he was no less dead than if he had fallen beneath the hand of Hector or Achilles. The weaker the hand that strikes, the slower the death and the more painful the torment. The smaller the pinpricks of backbiting may seem, the more dangerous the wounds they make. God never lets them go unpunished. Scripture tells us, “He who speaks against his brother, or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law” (James 4:11).
[Here ends the extended series of quotes from Sins of the Tongue—the Backbiting Tongue by Fr. Belet].
As we enter the American holiday season, which encompasses Thanksgiving and Christmas, we also, sadly, enter the “Season of the Tongue” when, in family or social get-togethers, there are more helpings of the tongue that are served than there are helpings of turkey. Spicy food is served with spicy gossip! A sweet glass of wine is accompanied by a bitter whine! Pumpkin pie and an exaggerated lie! “Bite into your turkey and bite your tongue!” could and should be the motto for this tongue-wagging season.
We would do well to remember the words of St. James on the tongue: “We all sin in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is a perfect person, able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn and guide the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the ship’s pilot wants the ship to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it can cause great damage. Consider what a great forest can be set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by Hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be!” (James 3:2-10).
Spice is Not Always Nice
Thanksgiving and Christmas is not just about spicy food, but also about spicy conversation. Spice can be nice—if used in moderation—and the same goes for conversation. St. Francis de Sales—an appropriate saint for this season of “Sales”—tells us: “There is a light-hearted talk, full of modest life and gaiety, and which we should call good conversation, by which we may find an innocent and kindly amusement out of the trifling occurrences which human imperfections afford.” (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Book 3, Chapter 27, “Of Unseemly Words, And The Respect Due To Others”).
As St. Francis de Sales points out, there is nothing wrong with light-hearted, amusing, uplifting talk—but he also points out that this can quickly cross the boundary from virtue to sin, by degenerating into hurtful talk by overdoing it or exaggeration, or because of envy, grudges, etc. “Only beware of letting this seemly mirth go too far, till it becomes ridicule. Ridicule excites mirth at the expense of one’s neighbor; acceptable mirth and playful fun never lose sight of a trustful, kindly courtesy, which can wound no one.”
Holidays Have Fallen From Grace
The problem with the upcoming holiday season is the fact that, by and large, it has suffered a “falling from grace” in the sense that it is more secular than it is spiritual—and nobody seems to notice or care about that “fall from grace”, because everyone participates in that secular, materialistic focus. We have forgotten what it is to be truly Christian and are easily and happily satisfied with superficial or surface Christianity—by displaying our nativity scene in the house or the garden, but not in the garden or house of our soul. We wish others “Merry Christmas” superficially, without really thinking of its real meaning or what we should be wishing by a “Merry Christmas.”
Once this secular and materialistic disease or virus has been caught, it is extremely hard to eliminate. Few are the souls that spend holidays in the spirit commanded by Holy Scripture: “If I partake with thanksgiving, why am I evil spoken of, for that for which I give thanks? Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God!” (1 Corinthians 10:30-31). Our holy days have become mere holidays. We have removed the spiritual and are left with the material. We have nothing other than the feathers without the bird.
We see this falling from grace with God’s own Chosen People, the Israelites, in their exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land, whereby they increasingly became carnal and materialistic in their thoughts and desires—which resulted in God keeping them ‘lost’ in the desert wilderness for forty-years, until all of the original people who had left Egypt had died as a punishment. Only two of the original families out of millions of people who left Egypt, entered the Promised Land. St. Paul warns us of repeating that grave mistake:
“For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud and in the sea. And all did eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was [a figure of] Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased―for they were overthrown in the desert! Now these things were done in a figure of us, that we should not covet evil things as they also coveted! Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play!’ Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you murmur as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come! Wherefore he that thinks himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall! Let no temptation take hold on you!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-13).
Holy Days or Holidays? Which is it to be?
No doubt you have been raised in the tenets and attitudes of the American Culture. Yet, because of your limited and superficial knowledge of history, that culture—like most of the cultures of the world (nobody is picking on Americans here)—that culture is not a Catholic culture, it is a hybrid, compromised, secularized culture, a worldly culture. The natural logical consequences or reasoning then follows—if it is a worldly culture, then who is behind it? Who is the “prince of this world”? Our Lord tells us clearly: “Jesus answered: ‘My kingdom is not of this world!” (John 18:36). “The prince of this world cometh, and in Me he has not anything … The prince of this world is already judged ... Now shall the prince of this world be cast out!” (John 12:31; 16:11; 14:30). We too must cast out the prince of this world and the worldly influence that prince uses to seduce us into worldliness: “The devil took Jesus up into a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them” (Matthew 4:8). Jesus refused the temptation, and, as He would later say: “The cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts after other things entering in choke the word of God, and it is made fruitless” (Mark 4:19). “What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26). For the most part, the culture of the world—no matter which continent or country you choose to consider—is a culture infiltrated and fabricated by the devil. Holy Scripture make that irrefutably clear!
It because of this universal secularization of holy days by which holy days are reduced to mere holidays of a secular nature, that we have also secularized our tongues and we no longer speak of spiritual things at our gatherings, but only worldly things. “They are of the world, therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them!” (1 John 4:5). The problem is that we are not meant to be of this world, we not meant to love this world, we are not meant to follow the attitudes and fashions of this world! Our Lord and Holy Scripture make this abundantly clear.
Christ Seeks to Save the World, Not Canonize the World
Christ came into the world to save the world from the world. He has compassion on the world: “For God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:16-17). “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47), so that “all the world may be made subject to God” (Romans 3:19). “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world” (Galatians 1:4).
Yet, even though Christ had compassion for the world, He did not have compassion for the spirit of worldliness. He came to extract us from the world, not to cement us in the world. “This is the judgment―because the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light: for their works were evil” (John 3:19). “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not … He came unto His own, and His own received him not … the light shone in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:5-11).
God loved the world, but the world hated God and preferred evil pleasures: “The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth: because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil” (John 7:7). “If the world hates you, know ye, that it has hated Me before you … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19).
Christ, at the Last Supper (think “Thanksgiving”) said: “The spirit of truth, the world cannot receive” (John 14:17). “I have manifested Thy Name, Father, to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world ... Thine they were, and to Me Thou gavest them … I am not of the world, and these are in the world … I pray for them … I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me … I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world” (John 17:6-14).
This is why His Apostles hit home the same hard message: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16).
The Holiday Season is a Reunion of Two Opposing Sides
The Church and even the world paint this upcoming holiday season in the colors of peace and joy. One would wish that it not be so, but, sadly, it is so. For the most part (exceptions do exist) this is mere wishful thinking and clever packaging. The upcoming secular holiday season will bring together persons who are camped on opposite sides of the divide—God and the world. Does that sound a little radical? Well listen to Our radical Lord:
“Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law!” (Luke 12:51-53).
“Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:34-37).
“If the world hates you, know ye, that it has hated Me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own―but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18-19).
And as Jesus says: “Not everyone that says to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!” (Matthew 7:21-23). For “why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Retreating into a Religious Shell
We can clearly see two opposite sides of the fence—God and mammon—and the followers of each side will come to together to ‘celebrate’ the secular holiday season, and they will keep it secular, for to try to make it truly religious will make sparks fly and tongues wag uncontrollably! The common worldwide culture has either compromised the religious aspect of the upcoming season and made it mainly secular while still giving religion a cameo appearance for a few minutes; or it has almost totally removed religion out of the picture—though a few exceptions still exist where religion has pride of place, but rarely is not compromised to some degree.
The few who might still be faithfully spiritual, have little or no courage to tackle the secular tidal wave of secular talk or worldly tsunami of tongues that they do and will encounter over the holiday season. They feel outnumbered and so, tortoise-like, they retreat into a shell of embarrassed silence. Human respect binds their hands, legs and tongues—of which Our Lady of Good Success said: “Cursed human respect! Which makes one ask: ‘What will others say about this?’”
Our fearful human respect gives sway to what others say, because we want to be accepted by family and relatives, and so we let them have their secular, religiously indifferent, or even irreligious way—just because “it’s family!”—forgetting Our Lord’s words: ““Everyone therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:32-37).
Cursed Human Respect
Over the years, that which Our Lady of Good Success calls “cursed human respect”, has eroded the spiritual from our families, as year after year we make more and more concessions to the more worldly-minded members of our families, relatives and friends. We are ashamed of being more religious, and so to please and accommodate them we become more worldly and more permissive of worldly mannerisms and things. We are afraid of friction, but the friction will inevitably come and at some point we will have to “put on the brakes”—and brakes operate on friction (brake pads against the disc of the car wheel causing great heat). So in the end the brakes are applied—but much too late and at the expense of much spirituality being lost, which, in most cases, will never be “reeled back in” or recovered. And God will judge us on what we have lost! We are the keepers of our brothers and sisters—and we cannot, like Cain, protest the contrary to God.
Who will make a stand for Christ during this holiday season? Who will face the barrage of rolled-eyes, raised eyebrows, shaking heads, scornful tongues by trying to make the upcoming holiday season what it should be—a religious, Christ centered, God focused, season, that has the courage to cast out worldliness and faithfully follow the dictates of Holy Scripture: “Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God―having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation has justice with injustice? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part have the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God says: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
We are partially in the mess that we are in because we have compromised Christ, we have forced Him to accept Belial, we have dimmed the light of the Faith to please those who love darkness, we shut our mouths about religion to please the unbeliever. God is not pleased. “We have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God” (1 Corinthians 2:12). “For whatsoever is born of God, overcomes the world: and this is the victory which overcomes the world, our Faith!” (1 John 5:4). “You are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world” (John 15:18-19). “Use this world, as if you used it not: for the fashion of this world passes away” (1 Corinthians 7:31). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16).
We can put together a download ― A MANUAL FOR THANKSGIVING DAY ― which you will find on the DOWNLOADS page (click here) ― that is full of suggestions, quotes, readings, etc., to help you sanctify and Christianize this Thanksging Day which is overwhelmingly secular gateway to materialism (Black Friday, Business Saturday, Shopping Sunday, and Cyber Monday).
Thanksgiving Tongue- Talking-Terrorists?
Meanwhile, back at the party! Have you ever thought of seeing your guests, over the holiday season, as potential terrorists? Tongue-Terrorists! Tongue-Talking-Terrorists! Thanksgiving Tongue-Talking-Terrorists! They come armed with a two-edged tongue, sharpened and ready to use! They should be asked to show their tongue at the door, for inspection!! “A slippery mouth works ruin” (Proverbs 26:28)—and during this holiday season many “slippery mouths: will surface! “Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not so many as have perished by their own tongue!” (Ecclesiasticus 28:22). As St. James so truly says:
“If any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man’s religion is vain!” (James 1:26). “For in many things we all offend. If any man offends not in word, the same is a perfect man. Even so the tongue is indeed a little member, and boasts great things. Behold how small a fire sets on aflame a great forest. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue defiles the whole body, being set on fire by Hell. For every nature of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of the rest, is tamed, and hath been tamed, by the nature of man. But the tongue no man can tame, an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison. By it we bless God and the Father: and by it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be!” (James 3:2-10).
The First Shedding of Blood
The first shedding of blood was not in war, nor was it in self-defense, but it was out of envy and began with the tongue. Abel and Cain both offered sacrifices to God. The sacrifice of Abel was pleasing to God, but Cain’s sacrifice was for some reason not pleasing to God. Out of bitterness, envy and anger, Cain initially lied to Abel, in order to get him to a suitable place for the murder. Then, once the lie had served its purpose, “Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and slew him. And the Lord said to Cain: ‘Where is thy brother Abel?’ And he answered: ‘I know not! Am I my brother’s keeper?’
And the Lord said to him: ‘What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to Me from the earth! Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the Earth, which hath opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand. When thou shalt till it, it shall not yield to thee its fruit! A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be upon the Earth!’
“And Cain said to the Lord: ‘My iniquity is greater than that I may deserve pardon! Behold Thou dost cast me out this day from the face of the Earth, and I shall be hidden from Thy face, and I shall be a vagabond and a fugitive on the Earth! Everyone, therefore, that finds me, shall kill me!’
“And the Lord said to him: ‘No, it shall not be so: but whosoever shall kill Cain, shall be punished sevenfold!’ And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, that whosoever found him should not kill him. And Cain went out from the face of the Lord, and dwelt as a fugitive on the Earth” (Genesis 4:8-16).
Whatever You Do, You Do To Me!
We may take sins against fellow human beings lightly, yet Our Lord’s parable about the Sheep and the Goats says otherwise: “Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me!” and “As long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!” (Matthew 25:40, 45).
Holy Scripture warns that “Six things there are, which the Lord hateth, and the seventh his soul detesteth: (1) Haughty eyes; (2) a lying tongue; (3) hands that shed innocent blood; (4) a heart that devises wicked plots; (5) feet that are swift to run into mischief; (6) a deceitful witness that utters lies; (7) and him that sows discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6:16-19). “The Lord hates a mouth with a double tongue” (Proverbs 8:13). You will encounter all of these sins during the forthcoming holiday season! The killing by shedding of innocent blood might not be physical blood, but it will be the “blood of a person’s reputation.”
As a consequence of these sins, the words of Isaias come to mind: “For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity: your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue utters iniquity!” (Isaias 59:3)—thoughts that bring the mind back to God’s words to Cain: “Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the Earth, which has opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand” (Genesis 4:11).
Sin Gives Us Bloody Hands
Our sins cost Our Lord His Precious Blood and thus, in a sense, when we sin, our hands are, so to speak, smeared with His Blood—not in a cleansing way, but in a polluted way. We see God speak in a similar vein to His prophet Ezechiel: “And the Lord spoke to me, saying: ‘Son of man, declare to them their wicked deeds, because … blood is on their hands!” (Ezechiel 23:36-37). How so? Why so? “Because and they have committed fornication with their idols: moreover also their children, whom they bore to Me, they have offered to them to be devoured. Yes, and they have done this to Me. They polluted My sanctuary on the same day, and profaned My Sabbaths. And when they sacrificed their children to their idols, and went into My sanctuary the same day to profane it―they did these things even in the midst of My house” (Ezechiel 23:36-39). “Judge them as shedders of blood are judged: because blood is on their hands” (Ezechiel 23:36-39).
Similarly, we have bloodied our hands by sacrificing to the idols of materialism, entertainment, excess partying and drinking—wherein there is no place for God, and the command of Holy Scripture is disregarded and lost: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God!” (1 Corinthians 10:30-31).
The Scourge of the Tongue—the Sins of the Mouth
How many people commit adultery? How many people have abortions or kill others? How many people steal? How many people commit acts of violence? How many people blaspheme? The numbers of these offenders fade away into insignificance when compared to the number of those persons who sin with their tongues! “For who is there that has not offended with his tongue?” (Ecclesiasticus 19:17). “Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not so many as have perished by their own tongue!” (Ecclesiasticus 28:22).
The Psalmist says: “My tongue is the pen of a writer that writes swiftly!” (Psalm 44:2). But what does the tongue write or produce? “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). Holy Scripture says that the “tongue is a piercing arrow” (Jeremias 9:8) and speaks of “the scourge of the tongue” (Job 5:21) and “the stroke of a whip makes a blue mark: but the stroke of the tongue will break the bones” (Ecclesiasticus 28:21). We speak of “tongue lashings”. Words are also compared to swords ― “For the word of God is more piercing than any two edged sword … the sword of the Spirit―which is the word of God” (Hebrews 4:12; Ephesians 6:17).
Yet our words can be swords too, and swords shed blood. Our words can be arrows, and arrows draw blood. “Slanderers … shed blood” (Ezechiel 22:9). “The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood” (Proverbs 12:6). “For when evil shall be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue” (Job 20:12). “A slippery mouth works ruin” (Proverbs 26:28). “Their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are unprofitable thoughts” (Isaias 59:7). “Their throat is an open sepulcher: with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness in their ways” (Psalm 13:3). “The tongue of a third person hath disquieted man” (Ecclesiasticus 28:16). “A jealous woman is a scourge of the tongue which communicates with all” (Ecclesiasticus 26:9). “A tongue that bears witness brings death” (Ecclesiasticus 26:9) “which is stained with the blood of the innocent” (Numbers 35:33). “Upon whom have you opened your mouth wide, and put out your tongue? Are not you wicked children, a false seed?” (Isaias 57:4).
The Slippery Tongue Slips Into …
“The tongue of the fool is his ruin” (Ecclesiasticus 5:15). “Be not hasty in thy tongue” (Ecclesiasticus 4:34). “Be not called a whisperer, and be not caught in thy tongue and confounded” (Ecclesiasticus 5:16). “Who will set a guard before my mouth, and a sure seal upon my lips, that I fall not by them, and that my tongue destroy me not?” (Ecclesiasticus 22:33). “Blessed is he that has not slipped with his tongue” (Ecclesiasticus 25:11). “Hedge in thy ears with thorns, hear not a wicked tongue, and make doors and bars to thy mouth” (Ecclesiasticus 28:28). “Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not so many as have perished by their own tongue!” (Ecclesiasticus 28:22).
A Book With Bite!
There is a book that everyone should read—because “Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not so many as have perished by their own tongue!” (Ecclesiasticus 28:22). This book was written by a Swiss priest, FR. BELET OF THE DIOCESE OF BASLE, AND IS ENTITLED: SINS OF THE TONGUE—THE BACKBITING TONGUE. Some extracts will be quoted here below, if you would like to read the whole book (more of a booklet than a book) then click here. The next twelve or thirteen paragraphs are taken from the book.
The Backbiter’s Weapon
Backbiting inflicts great harm for it shoots three arrows in a single round and deals a triple death. Saint Bernard assures us of this: “Is this tongue not that of a viper? It is surely very fierce, for it kills three victims with a single sting. Is it not a sharp spear, for it pierces three men in a single throw. The backbiter’s tongue is a sharp sword, a double and even a triple sword, like General Joab’s lance that pierced Absalom as he hung in the oak tree.”
Painless Piercing
Certain experiments prove that magnets possess a mysterious and wonderful power. According to Jerome Cardan, if you rub a dagger with a magnet, those it pierces afterwards will not feel it: “In the home of Dr. Lawrence Guascus I saw a needle or a metal point rubbed with a magnet; one could then stick the needle or point into any part of the body without causing any pain. This seemed incredible to me, and I wanted to make sure it was true. So I took a needle, rubbed it with a magnet and stuck it into my arm. I felt the needle’s presence when it had penetrated completely, but I felt no pain whatsoever. In order to be really sure I turned the needle, still stuck in my arm, in every direction. But I felt nothing and shed not a drop of blood. Afterwards, only the point where the needle had entered could be seen.” Cardan adds that Alexander of Verona was the first to perform this experiment, in Milan: he rubbed a sword with oil in order to be able to wound and heal whoever he wished without any pain.
Backbiting resembles that dagger perfectly. You thrust it in, it enters and causes a wound to three people at once: the backbiter, his listener and the person he backbites. The most seriously wounded one of all, the backbiter, feels absolutely nothing.
Raphael Maffei relates that when Chinese warriors prepared for combat they entered with splendid apparel and elegant arms, carrying four swords on their harness and manipulating two at once with great skill.
But the backbiter’s tongue surpasses them by far. It carries not four swords, nor a hundred, nor six hundred, but thousands, for fear it will run out once it enters into combat. The backbiting tongue often lights such a conflagration that four thousand soldiers ― what am I saying, four thousand? ― forty thousand, even a hundred thousand will not suffice to put it out. A two-edged sword, a keen knife, a piercing arrow, a cane-stiletto, a sharp razor, and a quick biting tongue all bear a striking resemblance. Listen to the Psalmist: “They have bent their bow to shoot arrows.” As the bow strikes from far off and wounds a person unawares, the backbiting tongue attacks those who are absent and wreaks its havoc from a distance of many miles. Bending its bow in Germany, it strikes and wounds a Frenchman or a Spaniard in his own land. Its arrows fly across the sea, or rather they pierce all the way to heaven, for they attack God Himself and His Saints. “They set their mouthings in place of Heaven” (Psalm 72:9), says David. It also penetrates the very bowels of the earth and rends the dead in their tombs, for David adds, “Their pronouncements pierce the earth.” It buries the living, and it digs the dead out of their tombs.
The Devil’s Basin
The backbiter is a beetle and a leech. Saint John Chrysostom remarks, “Everyone flees a backbiter like unhealthy mud, like a leech that feeds on blood, a beetle that feeds in the mire ― that is, on others’ defects.” As for you, act like bees: gather flowers from thorns and use them to make your honey.
Guillaume Perald says, “The mouth of the backbiter and slanderer is the basin the devil uses to wash his hands.” That basin contains not holy water, but the impure water of detraction. The devil pours this filthy water onto many; not on their face, true, but on their back. For the backbiter harms people who are absent, not present, just as the leech draws blood from behind. Now, let all who are in the habit of backbiting others learn that oftentimes those who reveal the crimes of others are more sinful than those who commit them.
Contempt of Charity
The Psalmist goes on to say, “They scoff and speak evil; outrage from on high they threaten” (Psalm 72:8). When its fury is roused, a raging bull lifts its head and casts terrible eyes at its prey, aiming at him and rampaging against him with all its might. Thus does the backbiter move in with head held high; stifling the voice of his conscience, the things he has meditated in his heart spew from his mouth in contempt of every law of Christian charity.
The backbiting tongue has chosen the very motto of Death as its own: “I spare no one!” Priest or judge, known or unknown, religious or worldling, friend or foe, none of that matters to him. The backbiter spares nothing and no one, not even his father and mother. Why is this so? Because he enjoys talking, so speaking evil gratifies him. He considers it a pleasure when he finds something to criticize in others. He is filled with joy when he can invent and relate things that do not even exist.
The Sword and the Dog
“O Lord,” cries David, “rescue my soul from the sword, my only one from the grip of the dog!” (Psalm 21:21). Cassiodorus says that Saint Augustine declares, “The sword is the backbiter’s tongue, and the dog is the backbiter himself.” Why does David ask to be rescued from the grip of the dog? We could understand if he had said a bear or a lion, but why be so afraid of a dog? He is right after a fashion, however. The bear and the lion are naturally fierce, but a dog may often sidle peacefully up to you and suddenly bite your leg. If it is a bulldog, it will square off against you and attack your head. David knew this type of dog from experience. He knew Saul, Semeias, Absalom, Seba, Achitophel and Doeg; they were purebred dogs, which are the most troublesome by far.
Excuses, Excuses…
Do not excuse yourself by saying, “But these are only petty sins,” for a little spark is often enough to produce a conflagration. “Behold how small a fire kindleth a great wood. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity … and inflameth the wheel of our nativity, being set on fire by Hell” (James 3:5-6). This is always true with the backbiting tongue. You say they are petty sins. So if you knew more serious things, wouldn’t you say them? No, wounding your neighbor’s reputation, even lightly, is no little thing. Killing someone with the pen is no less a homicide than killing him with the sword.
Cassian was killed by the hand of a child and pierced with little wounds, but he was no less dead than if he had fallen beneath the hand of Hector or Achilles. The weaker the hand that strikes, the slower the death and the more painful the torment. The smaller the pinpricks of backbiting may seem, the more dangerous the wounds they make. God never lets them go unpunished. Scripture tells us, “He who speaks against his brother, or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law” (James 4:11).
[Here ends the extended series of quotes from Sins of the Tongue—the Backbiting Tongue by Fr. Belet].
Article 24
Monday November 24th
The Last Thing You Want to Think About is the
First Thing You Should Think About!
Monday November 24th
The Last Thing You Want to Think About is the
First Thing You Should Think About!
All Good Things Come To An End
Since we have now entered the last days of the liturgical year—and since we are also living in the “End Times” of the world, as revealed by Our Lady to Sr. Lucia of Fatima—it is well worth considering the essential, yet distasteful and unpalatable, truth about the end of each person’s life.
Skulls on the Dining Table
Talking about “distasteful” and “unpalatable” brings to mind food and eating. The original (Pre-Vatican II) ritual and discipline for the religious Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, would require that at all meal times there would be placed a skull upon the dining table within visibility of all the religious present—so that, even though they were eating to live, they would be reminded that one day they would die. The Carmelites would also display a written sign which said: “Remember man that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return!” ― which is what the priest says to us as he places a sign of the cross with ashes on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday. We have all been sentenced to death by Original Sin (Adam and Eve’s sin) and by the Actual Sins (our own personal sins). We may not be certain about where we will end up after death—Heaven, Purgatory or Hell—but we can be absolutely sure of dying.
Death is the end of our earthly life and it will send our soul before the Judgment Seat of God. It is a sobering thought that we should always keep before our eyes and not stuff it into the closet. St. Thomas Aquinas says that we should always keep our end or goal in view—for as we live, so shall we die; as we sow, so shall we reap: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).
One Thing You Can Bank On—You Will Die and Be Judged
Life’s one certainty is death. Everyone knows this, though not everyone knows what comes next. The rich shall die just as the poor. Some will die young, other will die in old age. Some will die alone, others will die amongst family and friends. Some will be martyred or murdered, others will die in accidents. Some will die when God wants them to die, others will commit suicide. Some will die quickly, others slowly. Some will die loved, other will die hated. Some will die healthy, others will die sick. Some will die with the Faith, others will be die without the Faith. Some of those with the Faith will die in a state of grace, others will die in a state of mortal sin. All of these variables are unknown to us—but what IS KNOWN is that WE WILL DIE! We will die just as Our Lord died and Our Lady died. Death is not the question—it will certainly come—the question is what will happen to us after death? Will we go to Heaven, to Purgatory, or to Hell?
St. Philip Neri wrote: “Beginners in religion ought to exercise themselves principally in meditation on the Four Last Things.” Traditionally, the sermons preached on the four Sundays of Advent were on the Four Last Things. The Church always taught that man should be prepared for the Novissima, the Four Last Things. It is what we pray in the Hail Mary: “Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.” It is a wise prayer, because Scriptures makes us this great promise: “In all thy works, remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin eternally” (Ecclesiasticus 7:40). That is to say, one who meditates on the Novissima will not go to Hell. It is quite a promise, and it is why the pastors of the Church have always preached on the Novissima, the Four Last Things. In the Age of Faith, consideration of the Novissima became a branch of learning, eschatology.
You may wonder what is the meaning of the sinister or mysterious sounding word “eschatology” (pronounced eska-tology). The word “eschatology” is derived from the Greek words “eschaton,” meaning “last,” and “logos” meaning “word” or “words”—thus “eschatology” means “words about the last times or end times” and refers in particular to the study of the end of our lives and the end of the world. Today students have chemistry, biology, social sciences. But there isn’t much attention paid to the eschatology, the study of the Last Things.
The World Will Not Last!
In this last week of the Liturgical Year, let us at least focus on what is last. One of the last things we want to hear is that our joys and pleasures will not last! O yes―we profess to be Catholics; we say we love God; we want to go to Heaven―but, for most persons, having to “walk-the-walk” and not just “talk-the-talk”, is the last thing on their minds and the last thing they want to do! They are quite happy in this world and would not mind living eternally in this world! To them, heaven can be found on Earth! Yet, our happiness―true happiness―cannot be found in this world. As Our Lady said to St. Bernadette at Lourdes: “I do not promise to make you happy in this life, but in the next!” In other words, Our Lady is not going to make Bernadette happy in this world, but only in Heaven.
Our Lord pretty much said the same thing: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal! But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal! For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24).
That does not mean that we will not have some happy moments here on Earth―we will. However, lasting happiness, enduring happiness, eternal happiness, never-ending happiness can only be found in Heaven. Yet―as already stated―Heaven is the last thing on the minds of most people: “They are of the world! Therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them!” (1 John 4:5). Most Catholics “are of the world and of the world they speak” ― they are Catholics in name only, but their heart is tied to the world. Yet Scripture warns us of loving the world: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
This world will not last, but will perish―and if your heart is tied to this world, then you will perish with it: “The Earth shall be worn away like a garment, and the inhabitants thereof shall perish in like manner―but My salvation shall be for ever!” (Isaias 51:6). “The day of the Lord shall come as a thief―in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the Earth and the works which are in it, shall be burnt up!” (2 Peter 3:10). “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3). “And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth. For the first Heaven and the first Earth was gone, and the sea is now no more!” (Apocalypse 21:1). “Behold the Lord shall lay waste the Earth, and shall strip it, and shall afflict the face thereof! … With desolation shall the Earth be laid waste, and it shall be utterly spoiled―for the Lord has spoken this word! The Earth is weakened and faded away! The world faded away!” (Isaias 24:1-4). “Heaven and Earth shall pass away―but My words shall not pass away!” (Matthew 24:35).
Our Lady Bursts the Bubble of Blindness
Unfortunately and even tragically we live as though (1) this world will never end, (2) as though we will never die, and (3) as if there is no Hell! Yet Our Lady seeks to burst this bubble of diabolical disorientation―as is seen by these words spoken to the Venerable Mary of Agreda:
“Who is so dull and insipid as not to know the dangers of the worldly life! Wisdom seems far from the mind of carnal men―for, with a most perverse blindness, they continue to make much of the visible and fictitious good, and they torment themselves and are saddened, whenever it escapes them. This deceitful error has filled the Earth with lovers of the world; it has filled the world with avarice and concupiscence against the law of the Creator; it has made men insane in their desires―for all of them commonly chase after riches and earthly possessions. The rich glory in their riches and wish to be respected because of those riches. The poor strive to be and appear rich. The powerful seek to be feared, worshiped and obeyed. The learned and wise, and the powerful of this world, so reluctantly correct and amend their lives. They play-down their faults, extol their virtues and abilities. Some of them expect to be distinguished by God’s most intimate love, others, to be pardoned without penance!
“Because they never taste or recognize the highest and truest Good, they take no thought or appreciation of it. With this highest Good, the earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible; nor the vain ostentation and pomp, which fascinates the bleary-eyed worldlings, who are so covetous of passing honors, and so full of ignorant admiration for costly grandeur. This blindness robs them of remembrance and affection toward these higher things, which could raise them above their worldliness! Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment! The foolishness of men makes them stupid and deaf, their impious malice makes them scoffers, and their unbelieving perversity turns them away from God.
“What foolishness is it, for men pursue so blindly the deceitful and vile delights of the senses! Be mindful of this dangerous human folly! Consider all delights and joys of the world as insanity, its laughing as sorrow, sensible enjoyment as self-deceit, as the source of foolishness, which intoxicates the heart and hinders and destroys all true wisdom! Guard thyself against the lovers of the world more than against fire―for the wisdom of the sons of this world is carnal and diabolical, and their ways lead to death! Many are the infidels, many the bad Catholics, many the hypocrites! Their inclinations and their blind love of visible things, hold them back. The sons of the world are ignorant, precisely because they are lovers of earthly riches. They feel and suffer the heavy weight of riches, which pins them to the Earth and drives them into its very bowels to seek gold and silver with great anxiety, sleeplessness, labors and sweat―as if they were not men, but wild beasts that do not know what they are suffering and doing. And if they are thus weighed down before acquiring riches, then how much more are they weighed down when they have come into possession of those riches and possessions? Such souls receive an earthly reward―but no heavenly reward! Let the countless numbers that have fallen into Hell with their burden, proclaim it!
“God knows that this insane love will pervert the greater part of the human race, who are lost by the vice of avarice and greed. In senseless fury they follow their pleasures, place no restraint on their passionate desires, and care not where they walk, even if to the most dangerous precipices. They never taste or recognize the highest and truest Good, they take no thought or appreciation of it. Weep in deepest sorrow over the ruin of so many souls absorbed in such dangerous tepidity! The wisdom of the flesh has made men ignorant, foolish and hostile to God. Man is full of blindest inclinations, and if he does not restrain them, he will cause his eternal perdition! Men are so taken up with their earthly and material life, that they do not feel any other evils except those on a physical and material nature. How many men whom the world has celebrated as great, powerful and wise have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell!
“What pretense or excuse will men advance for having forgotten their own eternal salvation? None of the mortals will have any excuse for their foolish negligence―and much less will the children of the Holy Catholic Church have an excuse, since they have received the Faith and yet show in their lives little difference from that of infidels and pagans! The faithful debase themselves to the level of worthless creatures! O insanity! All their life they labor and exert themselves to become more and more entangled in the snares of their passions, to be consumed in deceitful vanities and to deliver themselves over to an inextinguishable fire, death and everlasting perdition in Hell, as if all were a mere joke! They want it to procure for them the pleasures of this life as well as of eternal life! All of them commonly chase after riches and earthly possessions; claiming, thereby, merely to satisfy their needs―which is only a lame pretext for hiding their lack of interest in higher things, spiritual things. In reality they lie to themselves abominously, since they are seeking superfluous things that they do not really need and not what is really necessary!
“The faithful are in such a dangerous and dreadful state of carelessness! Do not think that it is written in vain: ‘Many are called, but few are chosen!’ Fear this sentence and renew in thy heart the care and zeal for thy salvation! Do not allow thyself to desire worldly things―a desire which seduces the human sense, disturbs the judgment and obscures reason. It will cause eternal perdition! The lovers of the world have subjected themselves and are following the standard and the fables of the devil! In the midst of this ruin, Hell has opened its mouth and the more it is fed, the more insatiable becomes its hunger! The number of fools is infinite, and the number of the damned is also uncountable!” (compilation of words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, taken from The Mystical City of God).
Yes! Insanity!
Our Lady succinctly hits the nail on the head! “O insanity! All their life they are more and more entangled in deceitful vanities and deliver themselves over to the inextinguishable fire of Hell, as it all were a mere joke! Do not think that it is written in vain: ‘Many are called, but few are chosen!’ They want it to procure for them the pleasures of this life as well as of eternal life! Let the countless numbers that have fallen into Hell with their burden, proclaim it! Many―whom the world has celebrated as great, powerful and wise―have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! They have subjected themselves and are following the standard and the fables of the devil! Hell has opened its mouth and the more it is fed, the more insatiable becomes its hunger! The number of fools is infinite, and the number of the damned is also uncountable!”
Living Paradoxes―Walking Contradictions!
Yes―we are insane! We are living paradoxes! We are walking contradictions! We are lying hypocrites! We are the unfaithful faithful! Unbelieving believers! We know there is a God―but we often live as though there was no God! We know that we must love God with our whole soul, mind, heart and strength (Mark 12:30)―but, instead, we love ourselves and the world with our whole soul, mind, heart and strength! We know we should “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)―but we want to play without ceasing! We are told to “Seek first the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33)―but we first seek all that the world can offer us! We are told we “cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24)―but we have made a god out of mammon!
We are told that “the wages for sin is death” (Romans 6:23)―but we imagine that the wages of sin to be fun! We are told, “unless you do penance, you will perish” (Luke 13:3)―but we imagine that if do have fun we will perish! We are told, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! Narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leadeth to life and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14)―but we imagine almost everyone goes to Heaven and hardly anyone goes to Hell. We are told, “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved―but he that believeth not shall be condemned!” (Mark 16:16)―but through false ecumenism we now imagine that any and all religions can lead a person to Heaven!
Yes―we are insane! Our Lady has repeatedly warned us of the terrible chastisements that are to come and she has given us instructions on how we could avoid it, or at least mitigate it ― but “fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7) “A fool laughs at instruction” (Proverbs 15:5). “A fool shall be filled with his own ways” (Proverbs 14:14). “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes!” (Proverbs 12:15). “The thought of a fool is sin” (Proverbs 24:9). “A fool will laugh at sin!” (Proverbs 14:9). “The fool said in his heart: ‘There is no God!’” (Psalm 52:1). “The fool walks in darkness!” (Ecclesiastes 2:14). “The number of fools is infinite!” (Ecclesiastes 1:15). “Understand, ye senseless among the people! And you fools, be wise at last!” (Psalms 93:8). Yes―be wise at last! Since we find ourselves in the LAST week of the Liturgical Year, it is a good time to, AT LAST, become wise! It is a good time to AT LAST see that we have been foolishly seduced by the devil, the world, and our own selves!
A New Liturgical Year―A New You!
God is always trying to bring good out of evil! Let’s face it―we are evil. Does that insult you? Well, Our Lord called the world “evil” saying: “I give testimony of the world, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). He even called all of his hearers by the word “evil” ― “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from Heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask Him?” (Luke 11:13). The word “evil” ― philosophically defined ― means “an absence of a good that is due or expected from someone or something.” In that sense, we are all evil―because we are all lacking in one or more things that God expects from us.
St. Paul even admits to struggling with evil: “I am carnal―sold under sin! For that which I work, I understand not! For I do not that good which I want to do; but the evil which I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I do not want to do, … then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me! For I know that there dwells not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good. For to want to do good, is present with me; but to accomplish that which is good, I find not. For the good which I want to do, I do not; but the evil which I do not want to do, that I do! Now, if I do that which I do not want to do, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find, then, that when I have a desire to do good, evil is present with me. For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man―but I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin, that is in my members. Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:14-25).
“God is faithful, and will strengthen and keep you from evil!” (2 Thessalonians 3:3). God want us to be “healed of the evil” (Mark 5:29). “Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart, and a new spirit, saith the Lord … I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you! And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh! … And I will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit in their bowels! And I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh!” (Ezechiel 18:31; 36:26; 11:19). “I will give them a heart to know Me―that I am the Lord! And they shall be My people, and I will be their God! Because they shall return to Me with their whole heart!” (Jeremias 24:7).
To the vast majority of people―perhaps yourself included―God says: “This people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify Me, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Isaias 29:13). So why don’t you cry out to the Lord: “Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit within me!” (Psalm 50:12). Let this coming new Liturgical Year―beginning with the First Sunday of Advent―be the beginning of new life with a new heart and a new approach to God and the Faith!
Since we have now entered the last days of the liturgical year—and since we are also living in the “End Times” of the world, as revealed by Our Lady to Sr. Lucia of Fatima—it is well worth considering the essential, yet distasteful and unpalatable, truth about the end of each person’s life.
Skulls on the Dining Table
Talking about “distasteful” and “unpalatable” brings to mind food and eating. The original (Pre-Vatican II) ritual and discipline for the religious Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, would require that at all meal times there would be placed a skull upon the dining table within visibility of all the religious present—so that, even though they were eating to live, they would be reminded that one day they would die. The Carmelites would also display a written sign which said: “Remember man that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return!” ― which is what the priest says to us as he places a sign of the cross with ashes on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday. We have all been sentenced to death by Original Sin (Adam and Eve’s sin) and by the Actual Sins (our own personal sins). We may not be certain about where we will end up after death—Heaven, Purgatory or Hell—but we can be absolutely sure of dying.
Death is the end of our earthly life and it will send our soul before the Judgment Seat of God. It is a sobering thought that we should always keep before our eyes and not stuff it into the closet. St. Thomas Aquinas says that we should always keep our end or goal in view—for as we live, so shall we die; as we sow, so shall we reap: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).
One Thing You Can Bank On—You Will Die and Be Judged
Life’s one certainty is death. Everyone knows this, though not everyone knows what comes next. The rich shall die just as the poor. Some will die young, other will die in old age. Some will die alone, others will die amongst family and friends. Some will be martyred or murdered, others will die in accidents. Some will die when God wants them to die, others will commit suicide. Some will die quickly, others slowly. Some will die loved, other will die hated. Some will die healthy, others will die sick. Some will die with the Faith, others will be die without the Faith. Some of those with the Faith will die in a state of grace, others will die in a state of mortal sin. All of these variables are unknown to us—but what IS KNOWN is that WE WILL DIE! We will die just as Our Lord died and Our Lady died. Death is not the question—it will certainly come—the question is what will happen to us after death? Will we go to Heaven, to Purgatory, or to Hell?
St. Philip Neri wrote: “Beginners in religion ought to exercise themselves principally in meditation on the Four Last Things.” Traditionally, the sermons preached on the four Sundays of Advent were on the Four Last Things. The Church always taught that man should be prepared for the Novissima, the Four Last Things. It is what we pray in the Hail Mary: “Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.” It is a wise prayer, because Scriptures makes us this great promise: “In all thy works, remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin eternally” (Ecclesiasticus 7:40). That is to say, one who meditates on the Novissima will not go to Hell. It is quite a promise, and it is why the pastors of the Church have always preached on the Novissima, the Four Last Things. In the Age of Faith, consideration of the Novissima became a branch of learning, eschatology.
You may wonder what is the meaning of the sinister or mysterious sounding word “eschatology” (pronounced eska-tology). The word “eschatology” is derived from the Greek words “eschaton,” meaning “last,” and “logos” meaning “word” or “words”—thus “eschatology” means “words about the last times or end times” and refers in particular to the study of the end of our lives and the end of the world. Today students have chemistry, biology, social sciences. But there isn’t much attention paid to the eschatology, the study of the Last Things.
The World Will Not Last!
In this last week of the Liturgical Year, let us at least focus on what is last. One of the last things we want to hear is that our joys and pleasures will not last! O yes―we profess to be Catholics; we say we love God; we want to go to Heaven―but, for most persons, having to “walk-the-walk” and not just “talk-the-talk”, is the last thing on their minds and the last thing they want to do! They are quite happy in this world and would not mind living eternally in this world! To them, heaven can be found on Earth! Yet, our happiness―true happiness―cannot be found in this world. As Our Lady said to St. Bernadette at Lourdes: “I do not promise to make you happy in this life, but in the next!” In other words, Our Lady is not going to make Bernadette happy in this world, but only in Heaven.
Our Lord pretty much said the same thing: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal! But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal! For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24).
That does not mean that we will not have some happy moments here on Earth―we will. However, lasting happiness, enduring happiness, eternal happiness, never-ending happiness can only be found in Heaven. Yet―as already stated―Heaven is the last thing on the minds of most people: “They are of the world! Therefore of the world they speak, and the world hears them!” (1 John 4:5). Most Catholics “are of the world and of the world they speak” ― they are Catholics in name only, but their heart is tied to the world. Yet Scripture warns us of loving the world: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
This world will not last, but will perish―and if your heart is tied to this world, then you will perish with it: “The Earth shall be worn away like a garment, and the inhabitants thereof shall perish in like manner―but My salvation shall be for ever!” (Isaias 51:6). “The day of the Lord shall come as a thief―in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the Earth and the works which are in it, shall be burnt up!” (2 Peter 3:10). “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3). “And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth. For the first Heaven and the first Earth was gone, and the sea is now no more!” (Apocalypse 21:1). “Behold the Lord shall lay waste the Earth, and shall strip it, and shall afflict the face thereof! … With desolation shall the Earth be laid waste, and it shall be utterly spoiled―for the Lord has spoken this word! The Earth is weakened and faded away! The world faded away!” (Isaias 24:1-4). “Heaven and Earth shall pass away―but My words shall not pass away!” (Matthew 24:35).
Our Lady Bursts the Bubble of Blindness
Unfortunately and even tragically we live as though (1) this world will never end, (2) as though we will never die, and (3) as if there is no Hell! Yet Our Lady seeks to burst this bubble of diabolical disorientation―as is seen by these words spoken to the Venerable Mary of Agreda:
“Who is so dull and insipid as not to know the dangers of the worldly life! Wisdom seems far from the mind of carnal men―for, with a most perverse blindness, they continue to make much of the visible and fictitious good, and they torment themselves and are saddened, whenever it escapes them. This deceitful error has filled the Earth with lovers of the world; it has filled the world with avarice and concupiscence against the law of the Creator; it has made men insane in their desires―for all of them commonly chase after riches and earthly possessions. The rich glory in their riches and wish to be respected because of those riches. The poor strive to be and appear rich. The powerful seek to be feared, worshiped and obeyed. The learned and wise, and the powerful of this world, so reluctantly correct and amend their lives. They play-down their faults, extol their virtues and abilities. Some of them expect to be distinguished by God’s most intimate love, others, to be pardoned without penance!
“Because they never taste or recognize the highest and truest Good, they take no thought or appreciation of it. With this highest Good, the earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible; nor the vain ostentation and pomp, which fascinates the bleary-eyed worldlings, who are so covetous of passing honors, and so full of ignorant admiration for costly grandeur. This blindness robs them of remembrance and affection toward these higher things, which could raise them above their worldliness! Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment! The foolishness of men makes them stupid and deaf, their impious malice makes them scoffers, and their unbelieving perversity turns them away from God.
“What foolishness is it, for men pursue so blindly the deceitful and vile delights of the senses! Be mindful of this dangerous human folly! Consider all delights and joys of the world as insanity, its laughing as sorrow, sensible enjoyment as self-deceit, as the source of foolishness, which intoxicates the heart and hinders and destroys all true wisdom! Guard thyself against the lovers of the world more than against fire―for the wisdom of the sons of this world is carnal and diabolical, and their ways lead to death! Many are the infidels, many the bad Catholics, many the hypocrites! Their inclinations and their blind love of visible things, hold them back. The sons of the world are ignorant, precisely because they are lovers of earthly riches. They feel and suffer the heavy weight of riches, which pins them to the Earth and drives them into its very bowels to seek gold and silver with great anxiety, sleeplessness, labors and sweat―as if they were not men, but wild beasts that do not know what they are suffering and doing. And if they are thus weighed down before acquiring riches, then how much more are they weighed down when they have come into possession of those riches and possessions? Such souls receive an earthly reward―but no heavenly reward! Let the countless numbers that have fallen into Hell with their burden, proclaim it!
“God knows that this insane love will pervert the greater part of the human race, who are lost by the vice of avarice and greed. In senseless fury they follow their pleasures, place no restraint on their passionate desires, and care not where they walk, even if to the most dangerous precipices. They never taste or recognize the highest and truest Good, they take no thought or appreciation of it. Weep in deepest sorrow over the ruin of so many souls absorbed in such dangerous tepidity! The wisdom of the flesh has made men ignorant, foolish and hostile to God. Man is full of blindest inclinations, and if he does not restrain them, he will cause his eternal perdition! Men are so taken up with their earthly and material life, that they do not feel any other evils except those on a physical and material nature. How many men whom the world has celebrated as great, powerful and wise have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell!
“What pretense or excuse will men advance for having forgotten their own eternal salvation? None of the mortals will have any excuse for their foolish negligence―and much less will the children of the Holy Catholic Church have an excuse, since they have received the Faith and yet show in their lives little difference from that of infidels and pagans! The faithful debase themselves to the level of worthless creatures! O insanity! All their life they labor and exert themselves to become more and more entangled in the snares of their passions, to be consumed in deceitful vanities and to deliver themselves over to an inextinguishable fire, death and everlasting perdition in Hell, as if all were a mere joke! They want it to procure for them the pleasures of this life as well as of eternal life! All of them commonly chase after riches and earthly possessions; claiming, thereby, merely to satisfy their needs―which is only a lame pretext for hiding their lack of interest in higher things, spiritual things. In reality they lie to themselves abominously, since they are seeking superfluous things that they do not really need and not what is really necessary!
“The faithful are in such a dangerous and dreadful state of carelessness! Do not think that it is written in vain: ‘Many are called, but few are chosen!’ Fear this sentence and renew in thy heart the care and zeal for thy salvation! Do not allow thyself to desire worldly things―a desire which seduces the human sense, disturbs the judgment and obscures reason. It will cause eternal perdition! The lovers of the world have subjected themselves and are following the standard and the fables of the devil! In the midst of this ruin, Hell has opened its mouth and the more it is fed, the more insatiable becomes its hunger! The number of fools is infinite, and the number of the damned is also uncountable!” (compilation of words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, taken from The Mystical City of God).
Yes! Insanity!
Our Lady succinctly hits the nail on the head! “O insanity! All their life they are more and more entangled in deceitful vanities and deliver themselves over to the inextinguishable fire of Hell, as it all were a mere joke! Do not think that it is written in vain: ‘Many are called, but few are chosen!’ They want it to procure for them the pleasures of this life as well as of eternal life! Let the countless numbers that have fallen into Hell with their burden, proclaim it! Many―whom the world has celebrated as great, powerful and wise―have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! They have subjected themselves and are following the standard and the fables of the devil! Hell has opened its mouth and the more it is fed, the more insatiable becomes its hunger! The number of fools is infinite, and the number of the damned is also uncountable!”
Living Paradoxes―Walking Contradictions!
Yes―we are insane! We are living paradoxes! We are walking contradictions! We are lying hypocrites! We are the unfaithful faithful! Unbelieving believers! We know there is a God―but we often live as though there was no God! We know that we must love God with our whole soul, mind, heart and strength (Mark 12:30)―but, instead, we love ourselves and the world with our whole soul, mind, heart and strength! We know we should “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)―but we want to play without ceasing! We are told to “Seek first the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33)―but we first seek all that the world can offer us! We are told we “cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24)―but we have made a god out of mammon!
We are told that “the wages for sin is death” (Romans 6:23)―but we imagine that the wages of sin to be fun! We are told, “unless you do penance, you will perish” (Luke 13:3)―but we imagine that if do have fun we will perish! We are told, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! Narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leadeth to life and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14)―but we imagine almost everyone goes to Heaven and hardly anyone goes to Hell. We are told, “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved―but he that believeth not shall be condemned!” (Mark 16:16)―but through false ecumenism we now imagine that any and all religions can lead a person to Heaven!
Yes―we are insane! Our Lady has repeatedly warned us of the terrible chastisements that are to come and she has given us instructions on how we could avoid it, or at least mitigate it ― but “fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7) “A fool laughs at instruction” (Proverbs 15:5). “A fool shall be filled with his own ways” (Proverbs 14:14). “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes!” (Proverbs 12:15). “The thought of a fool is sin” (Proverbs 24:9). “A fool will laugh at sin!” (Proverbs 14:9). “The fool said in his heart: ‘There is no God!’” (Psalm 52:1). “The fool walks in darkness!” (Ecclesiastes 2:14). “The number of fools is infinite!” (Ecclesiastes 1:15). “Understand, ye senseless among the people! And you fools, be wise at last!” (Psalms 93:8). Yes―be wise at last! Since we find ourselves in the LAST week of the Liturgical Year, it is a good time to, AT LAST, become wise! It is a good time to AT LAST see that we have been foolishly seduced by the devil, the world, and our own selves!
A New Liturgical Year―A New You!
God is always trying to bring good out of evil! Let’s face it―we are evil. Does that insult you? Well, Our Lord called the world “evil” saying: “I give testimony of the world, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). He even called all of his hearers by the word “evil” ― “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from Heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask Him?” (Luke 11:13). The word “evil” ― philosophically defined ― means “an absence of a good that is due or expected from someone or something.” In that sense, we are all evil―because we are all lacking in one or more things that God expects from us.
St. Paul even admits to struggling with evil: “I am carnal―sold under sin! For that which I work, I understand not! For I do not that good which I want to do; but the evil which I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I do not want to do, … then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me! For I know that there dwells not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good. For to want to do good, is present with me; but to accomplish that which is good, I find not. For the good which I want to do, I do not; but the evil which I do not want to do, that I do! Now, if I do that which I do not want to do, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find, then, that when I have a desire to do good, evil is present with me. For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man―but I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin, that is in my members. Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:14-25).
“God is faithful, and will strengthen and keep you from evil!” (2 Thessalonians 3:3). God want us to be “healed of the evil” (Mark 5:29). “Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart, and a new spirit, saith the Lord … I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you! And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh! … And I will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit in their bowels! And I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh!” (Ezechiel 18:31; 36:26; 11:19). “I will give them a heart to know Me―that I am the Lord! And they shall be My people, and I will be their God! Because they shall return to Me with their whole heart!” (Jeremias 24:7).
To the vast majority of people―perhaps yourself included―God says: “This people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify Me, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Isaias 29:13). So why don’t you cry out to the Lord: “Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit within me!” (Psalm 50:12). Let this coming new Liturgical Year―beginning with the First Sunday of Advent―be the beginning of new life with a new heart and a new approach to God and the Faith!
Article 23
Sunday November 23rd
It's the End!
Sunday November 23rd
It's the End!
It’s the Last! Last Means Last!
First things first! Last things first! First things last! Last things last! Which is to be? “First things first” means that important matters should be dealt with before other things. Yet, sometimes, we put in first place what ought to be last. This happens when we fail to follow our reason and logic and objectivity, and, instead we follow our feelings, whims and prejudiced preferences―whereby we transform the values of things: downgrading what is important, and upgrading what is unimportant. Purgatory is loaded with such souls! Hell is even far more loaded with such like souls!
Today―Sunday, November 23rd, 2025―is the LAST Sunday of the Liturgical Year. Therefore, next Sunday―November 30th―is the FIRST Sunday of the Liturgical Year, being the FIRST Sunday of Advent. So we go from LAST to FIRST! Our Lord Himself coined that phrase: “So shall the last be first, and the first last! For many are called, but few chosen!” (Matthew 20:16). On another occasion, after He had pointed out “‘how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God!’ The Apostles wondered, saying among themselves: ‘Who then can be saved?’ … Jesus answered: ‘But many that are first, shall be last: and the last, first!’” (Mark 10:24-25, 31).
What Comes First?
Talking about putting “first things first” ― Our Lord further points out what should come first: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His justice―and all these [other less important] things shall be added unto you!” (Luke 12:31) ... “Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God and His justice―and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Matthew 6:33). Elsewhere, Our Lord repeats this same idea and command in the following terms: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31).
God must come first because He made all things and everything is subject to Him: “Know ye that the Lord, He is God! He made us, and not we ourselves!” (Psalm 99:3). “The Lord hath made all things for Himself!” (Proverbs 16:4). “Thou hast made Heaven and Earth by Thy great power!” (Jeremias 32:17). “Thou hast created all things―and for Thy will they were and have been created!” (Apocalypse 4:11). “All things were made by Him, and without Him was made nothing that was made” (John 1:3). “For in Him were all things created in Heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible ― all things were created by Him and in Him. And He is before all, and by Him all things consist!” (Colossians 1:16-17). God Himself adds: “All things that are under Heaven are Mine!” (Job 41:2). “All the Earth is Mine!” (Exodus 19:5). “All souls are mine!” (Ezechiel 18:4). “All the beasts are Mine!” (Psalms 49:10). Clearly God must come first! But is that what happens?
Last and First Sundays Warn of the Last Times
On this Last Sunday of the Liturgical Year―which is door into the Last Week of the Liturgical Year―Holy Mother Church presents, in the readings in Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, before our eyes an account of Last Times of the world. Then, one week later, on the First Sunday of the next Liturgical Year―the First Sunday of Advent―Holy Mother Church AGAIN presents, to us in the Holy Mass, another reading about the Last Times of the world! So both the LAST and the FIRST speak of the LAST Times!
► THE LAST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR (November 23rd, 2025): “At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: ‘When you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place ― let him who reads understand ― then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything from his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. But woe to those who are with child, or have infants at the breast in those days! But pray that your flight may not be in the winter, or on the Sabbath! For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor will be! And unless those days had been shortened, no living creature would be saved! But, for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened. Then if anyone say to you: “Behold, here is the Christ!” or “There He is!” ― do not believe it! For false christs and false prophets will arise, and will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect! Behold, I have told it to you beforehand. If therefore they say to you: “Behold, He is in the desert!” ― do not go forth; ‘Behold, He is in the inner chambers!’ ― do not believe it! For, as the lightning comes forth from the east and shines even to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together. But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven; and then will all tribes of the Earth mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of Heaven with great power and majesty! And He will send forth His angels with a trumpet and a great sound, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Now from the fig tree learn this parable. When its branch is now tender, and the leaves break forth, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the door. Amen I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things have been accomplished. Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away!’” (Matthew 24:15-35).
► THE FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR (November 30th, 2025): “At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: ‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon the Earth distress of nations, bewildered by the roaring of sea and waves; men fainting for fear and for expectation of the things that are coming on the world; for the powers of Heaven will be shaken! And then they will see the son of Man, coming upon a cloud, with great power and majesty! But when these things begin to come to pass―look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand!’ And He spoke to them a parable: ‘Behold the fig tree and all the trees! When they now put forth their buds, you know that summer is near! Even so, when you see these things coming to pass, know that the kingdom of God is near! Amen I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all things have been accomplished! Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away!’” (Luke 21:25-33).
Sister Lucia of Fatima Says the Last Times are Our Times
Sr. Lucia of Fatima warns us that―already back in 1957―we have entered the “Last Times” or “End Times” of the world:
“Father, the Blessed Virgin did not tell me [explicitly] that we are in the LAST TIMES OF THE WORLD, but I understood this [implicitly] for three reasons:
“The first is because she told me that the Devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle. It is A FINAL BATTLE where one party will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God, or we are with the Devil―there is no middle ground.
“The second reason is because she told me, as well as my cousins, that God is giving two LAST REMEDIES to the world: the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary ... The Most Holy Virgin, in these LAST TIMES in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary! … And, being the LAST REMEDIES, that is to say, they are the FINAL ones, means that there will be no others.”
“And the third, because in the plans of the Divine Providence, when God is going to chastise the world He always first exhausts all other remedies. When He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever, then, as we say in our imperfect way of talking, with a certain fear He presents us the LAST MEANS of salvation, His Blessed Mother. If we despise and reject this LAST MEANS, Heaven will no longer pardon us!” (Sister Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Augustino Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
Will You Last the Last Times?
These “Last Times” could last a long time! Will you last? Or will you be one of the first to fall? These are times of apostasy from the Faith―and “without Faith it is impossible to please God!” (Hebrews 11:6). Our Lord speaks of this mass apostasy when He says: “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8). “Are you fearful, O ye of little Faith?” (Matthew 8:26). “Why are you fearful? Have you not Faith yet?” (Mark 4:40). “Where is your Faith?” (Luke 8:25). “Have the Faith of God!” (Mark 11:22).
Our Lady, in her many modern day apparitions, has also warned us about this apostasy and a massive loss of Faith: “The passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of customs, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects ... These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government, will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective, making it easy for everyone to live in sin. The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them … Many hearts consecrated to God in the priestly and religious state will fall into lukewarmness. This, then, will be the cause of the cursed demon taking possession … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God ...
“The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs. In these unhappy times, people will only think of amusements and there will be unbridled luxury that would conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost … Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops ... Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls ... This, in turn, will call down every type of chastisement―such as plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy―the cause of the perdition of so many souls so dear to Jesus Christ and to me … The righteous will suffer greatly ... The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom … The Gospel of Jesus Christ having been forgotten … the devil will preach another Gospel contrary to that of the true Christ Jesus …
“The Holy Eucharist will be subject to many horrible sacrileges and profanations—both public and secret.
It will be difficult to receive the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.
The Sacrament of Penance will be forgotten and even scorned.
The Sacrament of Matrimony will be attacked and profaned.
The Sacrament of Extreme Unction will be little esteemed.
The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised―vocations to the priesthood will be lost.
There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed … This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings.” (Compilation of quotes from Our Lady of Good Success and Our Lady of La Salette).
Last Times and Last Chance
Sister Lucia of Fatima said: “The Most Holy Virgin has made me understand that we are in the last times of the world. She has told me that the devil is about to wage a decisive battle with the Virgin, and a decisive battle is a final battle, in which one side wins, the other side loses. Also, starting with the present time, we belong either to God, or we belong to the demon—there is no middle ground … God is giving two last remedies to the ― the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And, being the last remedies, that is to say, they are the final ones, means that there will be no others!” Sister Lucia said that Our Blessed Mother had told herself, Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke of the annihilation of many nations “many times!”
Our Lady of Akita echoes this “Last Times” and “Last Remedies” idea: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord ... In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before! … Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son!”
Do not kid yourself into being too complacent! We are living in very evil times and soon it will get unimaginably worse! We are without doubt in the Last Times of the World. That does not mean to say the world will end soon―for as Our Lady foretold, first there must come terrible times; then comes the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; after which comes a short period of great holiness and peace worldwide; this is to be followed by more terrible times and the coming of the Antichrist; after which comes the defeat of the Antichrist, which will be followed by the end of the world. Yet of all these things fall under the umbrella of “The Last Times”.
Right now, we are seeing the dawning of those terrible times that precede the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart―times that will be truly frightening, faith shattering, life threatening, nature upheaving and war mongering, during which the majority of the world’s population will be wiped out―in the words of Our Lady: “During this period, there will be great physical and moral calamities, both public and private … The seasons will be altered … Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes, which will swallow up mountains and cities ... Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes ... There will be famines, plagues and infectious diseases … There will be bloody wars and internal fighting [civil wars] and external disputes with other nations … A general war will follow which will be appalling. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy ... Blood will flow on all sides ... Many nations will be annihilated!”
The Last Remedies are the Last Things on Our Mind
As always with God―everything is variable and “negotiable”. If we take and use the remedies offered to us, then we can still do something about what is to come. Do not dream and imagine that we can totally avoid it―the world is way far too sinful for that to happen.
As Our Lady said to Blessed Elena Ailello, back in 1956: “People are offending God too much! If I were to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times! The world is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge! All is hanging on a slender thread! When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs! All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!”
Those words were echoed by Our Lady of Akita in 1973: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord ... If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them … the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before! … Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.”
Seven years later, in Fulda, Germany, Pope John Paul II revealed that we can no longer avoid and avert the chastisement that is to come―but we can mitigate and soften the blow of what is coming.
Our Lady of Akita had indicated the same thing in 1973: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls … beloved souls who console Him by forming an army of victim souls ... who will repair―by their suffering and their poverty―for the sinners and the ungrateful … Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger!”
Using the Last Remedies
Catholics have good reason to take to heart the words: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12), for “unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required―and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more!” (Luke 12:48). As a Catholic, you have been given far, far more than those in false religions or paganism. The gift of Faith is not for the mantelpiece, but for the “workshop” ― for “Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:20). If “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), then the adopted sons or children of God have to do the same thing―seek and save those who are lost.
The problem is that we tend to “point-the-finger” instead of “saving-the-soul”! Scripture commands: “Cease to point the finger and to speak that which profiteth not!” (Isaias 58:9). “Take heed that you exercise not the judgment of man, but of the Lord―for whatsoever you judge, it shall come back upon you!” (2 Paralipomenon 19:6) ― to which Our Lord adds: “Judge not, that you may not be judged―for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with what measure you give to others, it shall be measured to you again. Why seest thou the speck that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the plank that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: ‘Let me cast the speck out of thy eye; and behold there is a plank in thy own eye? Thou hypocrite! Cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou be able to see to cast out the speck out of thy brother’s eye!” (Matthew 7:1-5). “Thus saith the Lord: ‘Judge ye true judgment, and let every man show mercy and compassion to his brother!’” (Zacharias 7:9) ― to which Our Lord adds: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy! … For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences” (Matthew 5:7; 6:14). Scripture further adds: “Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamor, and blasphemy, be put away from you, with all malice. And be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God hath forgiven you in Christ!” (Ephesians 4:31-32) … “Bearing with one another and forgiving one another―if any have a complaint against another―even as the Lord has forgiven you, so do you also!” (Colossians 3:13). “But judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy!” (James 2:13).
Our Lady―in her apparitions during these “Last Times”―did not tell us “point-the-finger”, nor to “hound-the-sinner.” No―far from it! She asked: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners?” She insisted: “Sacrifice yourselves for sinners! Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! (Fatima). “I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls … beloved souls who console Him by forming a cohort of victim souls ... who will repair―by their suffering and their poverty―for the sinners and the ungrateful … Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger. I desire this!” (Akita).
Are you―and your family―following this path of “prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices”? Or are you following the path of “play, self-indulgence and daring fashions”? Are you “softening the Father’s anger”? Or are you softening your Catholic Faith? Are you prepared to be a “victim soul” for the conversion of sinners? Or are victimizing the souls of sinners by your finger-pointing and words of hate? These current “Last Times” will eventually end with our Last Judgment! Are we judging in a way that we hope to be judged? Or are we judging in a way that we ourselves will fear to be judged? “Judge not, that you may not be judged―for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with what measure you give to others, it shall be measured to you again!” (Matthew 7:1-2). “Thou shalt not judge unjustly ... but judge thy neighbor according to justice!” (Leviticus 19:15).
Our Lord came, not to point the finger at sinners, but to save sinners! His Apostles―James and John―wanted to call down fire from Heaven to destroy a Samaritan town that had refused Jesus: “They received Him not, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem [for the Samaritans hated Jews]. And when His disciples, James and John, had seen this, they said: ‘Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them?’ And turning, Jesus rebuked them, saying: ‘You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save! … The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost! … I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!’” (Luke 9:53-56; 19:10; 5:32). Is our natural approach to sinners like that of James and John? To destroy them? Or is our attitude like that of Our Lord? To seek and save sinners and call them to penance?
We are certainly living in the “Last Times” and each day is a day closer to our “Last Judgment” ― will we at last wake up to what Heaven is requesting from us and start seeking and saving those who are lost―rather than condemning them? That number―of those who are lost―includes Pope Francis, the Liberal and Modernist clergy, the perverts, the abusers, the drunkards and druggies, the Protestants, the Jews, the pagans―in fact, it consists of the vast majority of the world! So let us stop pointing and wagging the finger―and let us, instead, finger our Rosary beads for those poor deluded stubborn insane souls. For, as Sister Lucia of Fatima said in 1957, the Rosary is the answer to all the problems in the world (which is what Our Lady later re-affirmed in 1973 at Akita):
“The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary—to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.” (Sr. Lucia to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
So how many Rosaries are you and your family praying daily? Our Lady insisted: “Say many Rosaries!” (Fatima, May 1917). “Say the Rosary every day!” (Fatima, June 1917). “Continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you!” (Fatima, July 1917). “Continue to say the Rosary every day! Pray, pray very much!” (Fatima, August 1917). “Continue to pray the Rosary!” (Fatima, September 1917). “Continue always to pray the Rosary every day!” (Fatima, October 1917). “Pray very much! … Be faithful and fervent in prayer! … The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary! … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach!” (Akita, 1973).
Maybe this last week of the Liturgical Year and the approach of a new Liturgical Year (with the First Sunday of Advent) is the time when we at last start to pay attention to Our Lady’s message and put it into practice! “Pray in reparation for the ingratitude and outrages of so many men … Pray very much! … Continue to pray very much—very much! … Pray with fervor! … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity!”
First things first! Last things first! First things last! Last things last! Which is to be? “First things first” means that important matters should be dealt with before other things. Yet, sometimes, we put in first place what ought to be last. This happens when we fail to follow our reason and logic and objectivity, and, instead we follow our feelings, whims and prejudiced preferences―whereby we transform the values of things: downgrading what is important, and upgrading what is unimportant. Purgatory is loaded with such souls! Hell is even far more loaded with such like souls!
Today―Sunday, November 23rd, 2025―is the LAST Sunday of the Liturgical Year. Therefore, next Sunday―November 30th―is the FIRST Sunday of the Liturgical Year, being the FIRST Sunday of Advent. So we go from LAST to FIRST! Our Lord Himself coined that phrase: “So shall the last be first, and the first last! For many are called, but few chosen!” (Matthew 20:16). On another occasion, after He had pointed out “‘how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God!’ The Apostles wondered, saying among themselves: ‘Who then can be saved?’ … Jesus answered: ‘But many that are first, shall be last: and the last, first!’” (Mark 10:24-25, 31).
What Comes First?
Talking about putting “first things first” ― Our Lord further points out what should come first: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His justice―and all these [other less important] things shall be added unto you!” (Luke 12:31) ... “Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God and His justice―and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Matthew 6:33). Elsewhere, Our Lord repeats this same idea and command in the following terms: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31).
God must come first because He made all things and everything is subject to Him: “Know ye that the Lord, He is God! He made us, and not we ourselves!” (Psalm 99:3). “The Lord hath made all things for Himself!” (Proverbs 16:4). “Thou hast made Heaven and Earth by Thy great power!” (Jeremias 32:17). “Thou hast created all things―and for Thy will they were and have been created!” (Apocalypse 4:11). “All things were made by Him, and without Him was made nothing that was made” (John 1:3). “For in Him were all things created in Heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible ― all things were created by Him and in Him. And He is before all, and by Him all things consist!” (Colossians 1:16-17). God Himself adds: “All things that are under Heaven are Mine!” (Job 41:2). “All the Earth is Mine!” (Exodus 19:5). “All souls are mine!” (Ezechiel 18:4). “All the beasts are Mine!” (Psalms 49:10). Clearly God must come first! But is that what happens?
Last and First Sundays Warn of the Last Times
On this Last Sunday of the Liturgical Year―which is door into the Last Week of the Liturgical Year―Holy Mother Church presents, in the readings in Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, before our eyes an account of Last Times of the world. Then, one week later, on the First Sunday of the next Liturgical Year―the First Sunday of Advent―Holy Mother Church AGAIN presents, to us in the Holy Mass, another reading about the Last Times of the world! So both the LAST and the FIRST speak of the LAST Times!
► THE LAST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR (November 23rd, 2025): “At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: ‘When you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place ― let him who reads understand ― then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything from his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. But woe to those who are with child, or have infants at the breast in those days! But pray that your flight may not be in the winter, or on the Sabbath! For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor will be! And unless those days had been shortened, no living creature would be saved! But, for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened. Then if anyone say to you: “Behold, here is the Christ!” or “There He is!” ― do not believe it! For false christs and false prophets will arise, and will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect! Behold, I have told it to you beforehand. If therefore they say to you: “Behold, He is in the desert!” ― do not go forth; ‘Behold, He is in the inner chambers!’ ― do not believe it! For, as the lightning comes forth from the east and shines even to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together. But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven; and then will all tribes of the Earth mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of Heaven with great power and majesty! And He will send forth His angels with a trumpet and a great sound, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Now from the fig tree learn this parable. When its branch is now tender, and the leaves break forth, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the door. Amen I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things have been accomplished. Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away!’” (Matthew 24:15-35).
► THE FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR (November 30th, 2025): “At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: ‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon the Earth distress of nations, bewildered by the roaring of sea and waves; men fainting for fear and for expectation of the things that are coming on the world; for the powers of Heaven will be shaken! And then they will see the son of Man, coming upon a cloud, with great power and majesty! But when these things begin to come to pass―look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand!’ And He spoke to them a parable: ‘Behold the fig tree and all the trees! When they now put forth their buds, you know that summer is near! Even so, when you see these things coming to pass, know that the kingdom of God is near! Amen I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all things have been accomplished! Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away!’” (Luke 21:25-33).
Sister Lucia of Fatima Says the Last Times are Our Times
Sr. Lucia of Fatima warns us that―already back in 1957―we have entered the “Last Times” or “End Times” of the world:
“Father, the Blessed Virgin did not tell me [explicitly] that we are in the LAST TIMES OF THE WORLD, but I understood this [implicitly] for three reasons:
“The first is because she told me that the Devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle. It is A FINAL BATTLE where one party will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God, or we are with the Devil―there is no middle ground.
“The second reason is because she told me, as well as my cousins, that God is giving two LAST REMEDIES to the world: the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary ... The Most Holy Virgin, in these LAST TIMES in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary! … And, being the LAST REMEDIES, that is to say, they are the FINAL ones, means that there will be no others.”
“And the third, because in the plans of the Divine Providence, when God is going to chastise the world He always first exhausts all other remedies. When He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever, then, as we say in our imperfect way of talking, with a certain fear He presents us the LAST MEANS of salvation, His Blessed Mother. If we despise and reject this LAST MEANS, Heaven will no longer pardon us!” (Sister Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Augustino Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
Will You Last the Last Times?
These “Last Times” could last a long time! Will you last? Or will you be one of the first to fall? These are times of apostasy from the Faith―and “without Faith it is impossible to please God!” (Hebrews 11:6). Our Lord speaks of this mass apostasy when He says: “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8). “Are you fearful, O ye of little Faith?” (Matthew 8:26). “Why are you fearful? Have you not Faith yet?” (Mark 4:40). “Where is your Faith?” (Luke 8:25). “Have the Faith of God!” (Mark 11:22).
Our Lady, in her many modern day apparitions, has also warned us about this apostasy and a massive loss of Faith: “The passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of customs, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects ... These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government, will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective, making it easy for everyone to live in sin. The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them … Many hearts consecrated to God in the priestly and religious state will fall into lukewarmness. This, then, will be the cause of the cursed demon taking possession … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God ...
“The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs. In these unhappy times, people will only think of amusements and there will be unbridled luxury that would conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost … Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops ... Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls ... This, in turn, will call down every type of chastisement―such as plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy―the cause of the perdition of so many souls so dear to Jesus Christ and to me … The righteous will suffer greatly ... The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom … The Gospel of Jesus Christ having been forgotten … the devil will preach another Gospel contrary to that of the true Christ Jesus …
“The Holy Eucharist will be subject to many horrible sacrileges and profanations—both public and secret.
It will be difficult to receive the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.
The Sacrament of Penance will be forgotten and even scorned.
The Sacrament of Matrimony will be attacked and profaned.
The Sacrament of Extreme Unction will be little esteemed.
The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised―vocations to the priesthood will be lost.
There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed … This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings.” (Compilation of quotes from Our Lady of Good Success and Our Lady of La Salette).
Last Times and Last Chance
Sister Lucia of Fatima said: “The Most Holy Virgin has made me understand that we are in the last times of the world. She has told me that the devil is about to wage a decisive battle with the Virgin, and a decisive battle is a final battle, in which one side wins, the other side loses. Also, starting with the present time, we belong either to God, or we belong to the demon—there is no middle ground … God is giving two last remedies to the ― the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And, being the last remedies, that is to say, they are the final ones, means that there will be no others!” Sister Lucia said that Our Blessed Mother had told herself, Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke of the annihilation of many nations “many times!”
Our Lady of Akita echoes this “Last Times” and “Last Remedies” idea: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord ... In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before! … Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son!”
Do not kid yourself into being too complacent! We are living in very evil times and soon it will get unimaginably worse! We are without doubt in the Last Times of the World. That does not mean to say the world will end soon―for as Our Lady foretold, first there must come terrible times; then comes the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; after which comes a short period of great holiness and peace worldwide; this is to be followed by more terrible times and the coming of the Antichrist; after which comes the defeat of the Antichrist, which will be followed by the end of the world. Yet of all these things fall under the umbrella of “The Last Times”.
Right now, we are seeing the dawning of those terrible times that precede the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart―times that will be truly frightening, faith shattering, life threatening, nature upheaving and war mongering, during which the majority of the world’s population will be wiped out―in the words of Our Lady: “During this period, there will be great physical and moral calamities, both public and private … The seasons will be altered … Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes, which will swallow up mountains and cities ... Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes ... There will be famines, plagues and infectious diseases … There will be bloody wars and internal fighting [civil wars] and external disputes with other nations … A general war will follow which will be appalling. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy ... Blood will flow on all sides ... Many nations will be annihilated!”
The Last Remedies are the Last Things on Our Mind
As always with God―everything is variable and “negotiable”. If we take and use the remedies offered to us, then we can still do something about what is to come. Do not dream and imagine that we can totally avoid it―the world is way far too sinful for that to happen.
As Our Lady said to Blessed Elena Ailello, back in 1956: “People are offending God too much! If I were to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times! The world is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge! All is hanging on a slender thread! When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs! All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!”
Those words were echoed by Our Lady of Akita in 1973: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord ... If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them … the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before! … Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.”
Seven years later, in Fulda, Germany, Pope John Paul II revealed that we can no longer avoid and avert the chastisement that is to come―but we can mitigate and soften the blow of what is coming.
Our Lady of Akita had indicated the same thing in 1973: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls … beloved souls who console Him by forming an army of victim souls ... who will repair―by their suffering and their poverty―for the sinners and the ungrateful … Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger!”
Using the Last Remedies
Catholics have good reason to take to heart the words: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12), for “unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required―and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more!” (Luke 12:48). As a Catholic, you have been given far, far more than those in false religions or paganism. The gift of Faith is not for the mantelpiece, but for the “workshop” ― for “Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:20). If “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), then the adopted sons or children of God have to do the same thing―seek and save those who are lost.
The problem is that we tend to “point-the-finger” instead of “saving-the-soul”! Scripture commands: “Cease to point the finger and to speak that which profiteth not!” (Isaias 58:9). “Take heed that you exercise not the judgment of man, but of the Lord―for whatsoever you judge, it shall come back upon you!” (2 Paralipomenon 19:6) ― to which Our Lord adds: “Judge not, that you may not be judged―for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with what measure you give to others, it shall be measured to you again. Why seest thou the speck that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the plank that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: ‘Let me cast the speck out of thy eye; and behold there is a plank in thy own eye? Thou hypocrite! Cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou be able to see to cast out the speck out of thy brother’s eye!” (Matthew 7:1-5). “Thus saith the Lord: ‘Judge ye true judgment, and let every man show mercy and compassion to his brother!’” (Zacharias 7:9) ― to which Our Lord adds: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy! … For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences” (Matthew 5:7; 6:14). Scripture further adds: “Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamor, and blasphemy, be put away from you, with all malice. And be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God hath forgiven you in Christ!” (Ephesians 4:31-32) … “Bearing with one another and forgiving one another―if any have a complaint against another―even as the Lord has forgiven you, so do you also!” (Colossians 3:13). “But judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy!” (James 2:13).
Our Lady―in her apparitions during these “Last Times”―did not tell us “point-the-finger”, nor to “hound-the-sinner.” No―far from it! She asked: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners?” She insisted: “Sacrifice yourselves for sinners! Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! (Fatima). “I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls … beloved souls who console Him by forming a cohort of victim souls ... who will repair―by their suffering and their poverty―for the sinners and the ungrateful … Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger. I desire this!” (Akita).
Are you―and your family―following this path of “prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices”? Or are you following the path of “play, self-indulgence and daring fashions”? Are you “softening the Father’s anger”? Or are you softening your Catholic Faith? Are you prepared to be a “victim soul” for the conversion of sinners? Or are victimizing the souls of sinners by your finger-pointing and words of hate? These current “Last Times” will eventually end with our Last Judgment! Are we judging in a way that we hope to be judged? Or are we judging in a way that we ourselves will fear to be judged? “Judge not, that you may not be judged―for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with what measure you give to others, it shall be measured to you again!” (Matthew 7:1-2). “Thou shalt not judge unjustly ... but judge thy neighbor according to justice!” (Leviticus 19:15).
Our Lord came, not to point the finger at sinners, but to save sinners! His Apostles―James and John―wanted to call down fire from Heaven to destroy a Samaritan town that had refused Jesus: “They received Him not, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem [for the Samaritans hated Jews]. And when His disciples, James and John, had seen this, they said: ‘Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them?’ And turning, Jesus rebuked them, saying: ‘You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save! … The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost! … I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!’” (Luke 9:53-56; 19:10; 5:32). Is our natural approach to sinners like that of James and John? To destroy them? Or is our attitude like that of Our Lord? To seek and save sinners and call them to penance?
We are certainly living in the “Last Times” and each day is a day closer to our “Last Judgment” ― will we at last wake up to what Heaven is requesting from us and start seeking and saving those who are lost―rather than condemning them? That number―of those who are lost―includes Pope Francis, the Liberal and Modernist clergy, the perverts, the abusers, the drunkards and druggies, the Protestants, the Jews, the pagans―in fact, it consists of the vast majority of the world! So let us stop pointing and wagging the finger―and let us, instead, finger our Rosary beads for those poor deluded stubborn insane souls. For, as Sister Lucia of Fatima said in 1957, the Rosary is the answer to all the problems in the world (which is what Our Lady later re-affirmed in 1973 at Akita):
“The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary—to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.” (Sr. Lucia to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
So how many Rosaries are you and your family praying daily? Our Lady insisted: “Say many Rosaries!” (Fatima, May 1917). “Say the Rosary every day!” (Fatima, June 1917). “Continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you!” (Fatima, July 1917). “Continue to say the Rosary every day! Pray, pray very much!” (Fatima, August 1917). “Continue to pray the Rosary!” (Fatima, September 1917). “Continue always to pray the Rosary every day!” (Fatima, October 1917). “Pray very much! … Be faithful and fervent in prayer! … The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary! … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach!” (Akita, 1973).
Maybe this last week of the Liturgical Year and the approach of a new Liturgical Year (with the First Sunday of Advent) is the time when we at last start to pay attention to Our Lady’s message and put it into practice! “Pray in reparation for the ingratitude and outrages of so many men … Pray very much! … Continue to pray very much—very much! … Pray with fervor! … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity!”
Article 22
Saturday November 22nd
Will I Go to Purgatory?
Saturday November 22nd
Will I Go to Purgatory?
“Most of the souls who are saved pass through Purgatory before arriving at the fullness of beatitude” (St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina).
Wishful Thinking!
A Harris Poll, that surveyed 2,200 U.S. adults, found that: 82% believed in Heaven, 69% believed in Hell, and less than 1% thought they would go to Hell. Unfortunately, the Harris Poll had no question as regards going to Purgatory. How is it that so many American Catholics imagine that nobody goes to Hell—and perhaps Purgatory too? Is our modern-age more saintly than past-ages? Do we sin less today than in ages of old? Most certainly not!
Out of Sight, Out of Mind!
The main reason would be, as the saying goes: “Out of sight, out of mind.” Over the last 50 years or so, the Four Last Things―Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell―are less and less preached and taught in schools and catechism programs. since Vatican II. The Modernist view on universal salvation (everybody is saved), for example, has become mainstream thinking, even among so-called Conservative Catholic scholars today. The Modernist theologian, Von Balthasar, boldly asked that since the Redemption of Christ was sufficient to have saved all sinners, why should it not be so? In the end, he proposed, one can entertain the possibility that Hell, if it even exists, is vacant. Another Modernist, Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J., assures us that the dead are not suffering, or even really gone:
“They do not leave us. They remain! Where are they? In darkness? Oh, No! It is we who are in darkness. We do not see them, but they see us. Their eyes, radiant with glory, are fixed upon our eyes…. Oh, infinite consolation! Although invisible to us, our dead are not absent… They are living near us, transfigured … into light, into power, into love.”
No Toleration for Hell or Purgatory
With all the white funerals, politically-correct sermons—that toast the deceased rather than say he could be toast—soften the mind and sensibilities to the point where the mention of Hell or Purgatory would be met with outrage and outcries:”How dare you even insinuate that my dear pappy could be in Purgatory! I feel that he is in Heaven right now! You should be ashamed of yourself for suggesting that we need to pray for him in case he is in Purgatory! You must have a warped idea of God! My God is kind and sweet and loving—and He would never send anyone to Hell or even Purgatory, especially not my pappy!”
Hell and Purgatory are taboo subjects—they cannot be mentioned in Catholic circles anymore without causing consternation among many! They are more likely to let you get-away with an indecent joke that let to get-away with initiating talk on Hell or Purgatory! Yet, just because society no longer like to think and talk about Hell or Purgatory, does not mean they do not exist, and it will not make them go-away, like some unwanted guest, who is ignored and given the cold-shoulder until he leaves.
Get Real!
Well, leaving Hell aside for the moment, St. Padre Pio (just one of many) is of the opinion that most souls who will end up being saved, have to pass through Purgatory first: “Most of the souls who are saved pass through Purgatory before arriving at the fullness of beatitude” (St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina). If we have to take sides—choosing between the Modernists Von Balthasar with Fr. Rahner against St. Padre Pio—we know where we would stand (even though wishful thinking would try to push us to the Modernist side in imagining that all souls go Heaven). Reality is reality. God is just, holy and demanding, just as much as He is merciful, kind and indulgent. All the apparitions (though we don’t base our opinions solely on apparitions) have always showed the grim, painful face of Purgatory—no apparition has been seen laughing, holding a cigar and a champagne glass, boasting of what a great party was taking place in Purgatory! Purgatory exists and we are most likely to be just lucky enough to scrape in there by the skin of our teeth!
How Great is any Offense Against God?
“Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial sin is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD).
Any offense against an Infinite God, whether great or small, is an infinite offense. Technically there is no such thing as venial sin, for again, any offense, great or small, against an Infinite God is infinite. In God’s great mercy, He does not send souls to Hell who have not offended him seriously, but they have offended Him in a lesser way and so He sends them to Purgatory―or rather, God gives them the true light by which to see and understand sin for what it really is, and the soul, depending upon how it sees itself in that light, willingly casts itself into either Hell or Purgatory—God does push anyone “over the edge.”
Again, the gravity of an offense, whether great or small, is measured, is determined, by the object at which it strikes, by the dignity of the person offended.”The gravity of the injury is measured according to the dignity of the person offended.” (Blessed Abbot Joseph Columba Marmion, O.S.B. 1858-1923). A venial sin is finite in its degree of evilness, but technically, since it is an offense against an infinite God, it is infinite in measure and gravity. But again, in God’s incredible and infinite Mercy, he does not send souls to hell for venial sin. However a venial sin of a friend of God is much more tragic and hurts, offends and wounds God more than a mortal sin of an enemy of God, because the ones you love hurt you the most far more than strangers or enemies.
The offense of a sin is not just measured by what kind of action it happens to be, it is also judged upon the importance of the person whom the sin hurts. Punching a stranger is not as serious as punching a friend. Yet punching the friend is not as serious as punching a family member. Yet that is less serious than punching a priest. However, punching the priest is less serious than punching the bishop or, even worse, punching the Pope. It’s the same power of punch, on the same place—the nose, but it gets ever more serious as the person is more important. Who is more important than God? All sin attacks God, whether directly or indirectly—“Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40).
We Are Just Grains of Sand
It is estimated that almost 2 people (1.8) die each second. Based on the 1.8 figure, that would mean that 108 people die each minute; and 6,480 die each hour; with 155,520 dying each day, or just over a million each week (1,088,640) and over 56 million (56,609,280) each year. That makes you feel kind of unimportant, doesn’t it? How true that is—we are but a tiny grain of sand on the beach of humanity! It brings home the words of Our Lord to Sr. Josefa Menendez, when He said to her: “Little still implies some being, but, Josefa, you are less than that―you are nothingness personified!”
How Many of Those Who Die Are Saved?
How many of those souls are saved and lost? There are varying opinions on that matter. Here is what Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., writes in his book Life Everlasting:
“Many works have been written on the number of the elect. We may refer particularly to the article in the Dictionnaire de Theologie Catholique. Here we restrict ourselves to that which is certain, or at least very probable, in agreement with the great majority of theologians” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).
The Mystery of This Number
“The number of the elect is known only by God. “The Lord knows who are His.” The liturgy says that this number is known to Him alone. This is reaffirmed also by St. Thomas. The end of the world will come when the number of the elect is complete, when the succession of human generations has reached its goal. This number in itself is very great: “I heard the number of them that were signed (of the servants of God), a hundred forty-four thousand were signed, of every tribe of the children of Israel.... After this, I saw a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and in the sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).
“If we count both angels and men, the number of the elect seems to be higher than that of the reprobate. When we speak of men exclusively, the number of the elect remains a matter of controversy. Many Fathers and theologians incline to the smaller number of the elect, because it is said in Scripture: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Again: “Enter you in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction; and many there are who go in thereat; how narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leads to life and few there are that find it.” Still, these texts are not absolutely demonstrative.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).
“Thus, following many others, Fr. Monsabre remarks: ‘If these words were intended for all places and for all times, then the opinion of the small number of the elect would triumph. But we are permitted to think that they are meant, directly, for the ungrateful time of our Savior’s own preaching. When Jesus wishes us to think of the future, He speaks in another manner. Thus He says to His disciples: “If I be lifted up from the Earth, I will draw all things to Myself.” “The gates of Hell shall not prevail against (My Church).” And showing us the results of the last judgment, He says: “The wicked shall go into everlasting punishment, but the just into life everlasting.”’ Fr. Monsabre continues: ‘Remark that He does not tell us definitely the number of the good and of the wicked. To those who demanded a clear pronouncement, He was content to reply: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many . . . shall seek to enter and shall not be able.” The rigorists will tell me possibly that Jesus here hides the mystery of His justice, in order not to frighten timorous souls. As for myself, I prefer to think that He hides here the mystery of His mercy, that we may avoid presumption.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting,chapter 32).
The Great Saints Says Most Are Lost
“The common opinion of the Fathers and ancient theologians is without doubt that those who are saved do not represent the greater number. We may cite in favor of this view the following saints: Basil, John Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen, Hilary, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Leo the Great, Bernard, Thomas Aquinas. Then, nearer to our own times: Molina, St. Robert Bellarmine, Suarez, Vasquez, Lessius, and St. Alphonsus. But they give this view as opinion, not as revealed truth, not as certain conclusion.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).
Uncertainty
“In the last century the contrary opinion, namely, of the greater number of the elect, was defended by Father Faber in England, by Monsignor Bougaud in France, by Father Castelein, S.J., in Belgium. To conclude: some insist on the mercy of God, others on the justice of God. Neither one side nor the other gives us certitude. And the reasons of appropriateness which each invokes differ very much from the reasons of appropriateness invoked in favor of a dogma which is already certain by revelation, whereas here we are treating of a truth that is not certain.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).
Changing Times Bring Changing Numbers
“Theologians in general are inclined to fill out what Scripture and tradition tell us, by distinguishing the means of salvation, given to Catholics, from those that are given men of good-will beyond the borders of the Church. Restricting the question to Catholics, we find the doctrine, generally held especially since Suarez, that, if we consider merely adults, the number of the elect surpasses that of the reprobate. If adult Catholics do at one time or another sin mortally, nevertheless they can arise in the tribunal of penance, and there are relatively few who at the end of life do not repent, or even refuse to receive the sacraments.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).
However today, very few receive the last rites, very few go to confession. We must fear the worst for our day! Besides, Our Lady of Fatima explicitly said that MANY souls go to Hell because there is nobody to pray and offer sacrifices for them—prayer and sacrifice is not exactly on the increase, but on the decrease. Today it is far less (per head) than it was when Our lady appeared and said this, back in 1917.
“The important thing is to observe the commandments of God. St. Augustine said, and the Council of Trent repeats: “God never commands the impossible. But He warns us to do what we can, and to ask of Him the grace to accomplish what we of ourselves cannot do, and He aids us to fulfill what He commands.” Let us put our confidence in Jesus Christ, “the victim of propitiation for our sins,” “the Lamb of God, . . . who takes away the sin of the world.” “Let us go with confidence to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).
We have too low an estimate of God, His holiness, His honor and His demands upon us. Furthermore, we shoot ourselves in the foot by underestimating the gravity of sin. We think most sins to be “sweet-nothings” whereas nothing could be further from the truth. We really need to shape-up, take things more seriously and start paying for the sins we have committed until now. It is the gross indifference of most Catholics that lends credence to St. Padre Pio’s statement: “Most of the souls who are saved pass through Purgatory before arriving at the fullness of beatitude”
Wishful Thinking!
A Harris Poll, that surveyed 2,200 U.S. adults, found that: 82% believed in Heaven, 69% believed in Hell, and less than 1% thought they would go to Hell. Unfortunately, the Harris Poll had no question as regards going to Purgatory. How is it that so many American Catholics imagine that nobody goes to Hell—and perhaps Purgatory too? Is our modern-age more saintly than past-ages? Do we sin less today than in ages of old? Most certainly not!
Out of Sight, Out of Mind!
The main reason would be, as the saying goes: “Out of sight, out of mind.” Over the last 50 years or so, the Four Last Things―Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell―are less and less preached and taught in schools and catechism programs. since Vatican II. The Modernist view on universal salvation (everybody is saved), for example, has become mainstream thinking, even among so-called Conservative Catholic scholars today. The Modernist theologian, Von Balthasar, boldly asked that since the Redemption of Christ was sufficient to have saved all sinners, why should it not be so? In the end, he proposed, one can entertain the possibility that Hell, if it even exists, is vacant. Another Modernist, Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J., assures us that the dead are not suffering, or even really gone:
“They do not leave us. They remain! Where are they? In darkness? Oh, No! It is we who are in darkness. We do not see them, but they see us. Their eyes, radiant with glory, are fixed upon our eyes…. Oh, infinite consolation! Although invisible to us, our dead are not absent… They are living near us, transfigured … into light, into power, into love.”
No Toleration for Hell or Purgatory
With all the white funerals, politically-correct sermons—that toast the deceased rather than say he could be toast—soften the mind and sensibilities to the point where the mention of Hell or Purgatory would be met with outrage and outcries:”How dare you even insinuate that my dear pappy could be in Purgatory! I feel that he is in Heaven right now! You should be ashamed of yourself for suggesting that we need to pray for him in case he is in Purgatory! You must have a warped idea of God! My God is kind and sweet and loving—and He would never send anyone to Hell or even Purgatory, especially not my pappy!”
Hell and Purgatory are taboo subjects—they cannot be mentioned in Catholic circles anymore without causing consternation among many! They are more likely to let you get-away with an indecent joke that let to get-away with initiating talk on Hell or Purgatory! Yet, just because society no longer like to think and talk about Hell or Purgatory, does not mean they do not exist, and it will not make them go-away, like some unwanted guest, who is ignored and given the cold-shoulder until he leaves.
Get Real!
Well, leaving Hell aside for the moment, St. Padre Pio (just one of many) is of the opinion that most souls who will end up being saved, have to pass through Purgatory first: “Most of the souls who are saved pass through Purgatory before arriving at the fullness of beatitude” (St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina). If we have to take sides—choosing between the Modernists Von Balthasar with Fr. Rahner against St. Padre Pio—we know where we would stand (even though wishful thinking would try to push us to the Modernist side in imagining that all souls go Heaven). Reality is reality. God is just, holy and demanding, just as much as He is merciful, kind and indulgent. All the apparitions (though we don’t base our opinions solely on apparitions) have always showed the grim, painful face of Purgatory—no apparition has been seen laughing, holding a cigar and a champagne glass, boasting of what a great party was taking place in Purgatory! Purgatory exists and we are most likely to be just lucky enough to scrape in there by the skin of our teeth!
How Great is any Offense Against God?
“Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial sin is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD).
Any offense against an Infinite God, whether great or small, is an infinite offense. Technically there is no such thing as venial sin, for again, any offense, great or small, against an Infinite God is infinite. In God’s great mercy, He does not send souls to Hell who have not offended him seriously, but they have offended Him in a lesser way and so He sends them to Purgatory―or rather, God gives them the true light by which to see and understand sin for what it really is, and the soul, depending upon how it sees itself in that light, willingly casts itself into either Hell or Purgatory—God does push anyone “over the edge.”
Again, the gravity of an offense, whether great or small, is measured, is determined, by the object at which it strikes, by the dignity of the person offended.”The gravity of the injury is measured according to the dignity of the person offended.” (Blessed Abbot Joseph Columba Marmion, O.S.B. 1858-1923). A venial sin is finite in its degree of evilness, but technically, since it is an offense against an infinite God, it is infinite in measure and gravity. But again, in God’s incredible and infinite Mercy, he does not send souls to hell for venial sin. However a venial sin of a friend of God is much more tragic and hurts, offends and wounds God more than a mortal sin of an enemy of God, because the ones you love hurt you the most far more than strangers or enemies.
The offense of a sin is not just measured by what kind of action it happens to be, it is also judged upon the importance of the person whom the sin hurts. Punching a stranger is not as serious as punching a friend. Yet punching the friend is not as serious as punching a family member. Yet that is less serious than punching a priest. However, punching the priest is less serious than punching the bishop or, even worse, punching the Pope. It’s the same power of punch, on the same place—the nose, but it gets ever more serious as the person is more important. Who is more important than God? All sin attacks God, whether directly or indirectly—“Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40).
We Are Just Grains of Sand
It is estimated that almost 2 people (1.8) die each second. Based on the 1.8 figure, that would mean that 108 people die each minute; and 6,480 die each hour; with 155,520 dying each day, or just over a million each week (1,088,640) and over 56 million (56,609,280) each year. That makes you feel kind of unimportant, doesn’t it? How true that is—we are but a tiny grain of sand on the beach of humanity! It brings home the words of Our Lord to Sr. Josefa Menendez, when He said to her: “Little still implies some being, but, Josefa, you are less than that―you are nothingness personified!”
How Many of Those Who Die Are Saved?
How many of those souls are saved and lost? There are varying opinions on that matter. Here is what Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., writes in his book Life Everlasting:
“Many works have been written on the number of the elect. We may refer particularly to the article in the Dictionnaire de Theologie Catholique. Here we restrict ourselves to that which is certain, or at least very probable, in agreement with the great majority of theologians” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).
The Mystery of This Number
“The number of the elect is known only by God. “The Lord knows who are His.” The liturgy says that this number is known to Him alone. This is reaffirmed also by St. Thomas. The end of the world will come when the number of the elect is complete, when the succession of human generations has reached its goal. This number in itself is very great: “I heard the number of them that were signed (of the servants of God), a hundred forty-four thousand were signed, of every tribe of the children of Israel.... After this, I saw a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and in the sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).
“If we count both angels and men, the number of the elect seems to be higher than that of the reprobate. When we speak of men exclusively, the number of the elect remains a matter of controversy. Many Fathers and theologians incline to the smaller number of the elect, because it is said in Scripture: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Again: “Enter you in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction; and many there are who go in thereat; how narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leads to life and few there are that find it.” Still, these texts are not absolutely demonstrative.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).
“Thus, following many others, Fr. Monsabre remarks: ‘If these words were intended for all places and for all times, then the opinion of the small number of the elect would triumph. But we are permitted to think that they are meant, directly, for the ungrateful time of our Savior’s own preaching. When Jesus wishes us to think of the future, He speaks in another manner. Thus He says to His disciples: “If I be lifted up from the Earth, I will draw all things to Myself.” “The gates of Hell shall not prevail against (My Church).” And showing us the results of the last judgment, He says: “The wicked shall go into everlasting punishment, but the just into life everlasting.”’ Fr. Monsabre continues: ‘Remark that He does not tell us definitely the number of the good and of the wicked. To those who demanded a clear pronouncement, He was content to reply: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many . . . shall seek to enter and shall not be able.” The rigorists will tell me possibly that Jesus here hides the mystery of His justice, in order not to frighten timorous souls. As for myself, I prefer to think that He hides here the mystery of His mercy, that we may avoid presumption.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting,chapter 32).
The Great Saints Says Most Are Lost
“The common opinion of the Fathers and ancient theologians is without doubt that those who are saved do not represent the greater number. We may cite in favor of this view the following saints: Basil, John Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen, Hilary, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Leo the Great, Bernard, Thomas Aquinas. Then, nearer to our own times: Molina, St. Robert Bellarmine, Suarez, Vasquez, Lessius, and St. Alphonsus. But they give this view as opinion, not as revealed truth, not as certain conclusion.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).
Uncertainty
“In the last century the contrary opinion, namely, of the greater number of the elect, was defended by Father Faber in England, by Monsignor Bougaud in France, by Father Castelein, S.J., in Belgium. To conclude: some insist on the mercy of God, others on the justice of God. Neither one side nor the other gives us certitude. And the reasons of appropriateness which each invokes differ very much from the reasons of appropriateness invoked in favor of a dogma which is already certain by revelation, whereas here we are treating of a truth that is not certain.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).
Changing Times Bring Changing Numbers
“Theologians in general are inclined to fill out what Scripture and tradition tell us, by distinguishing the means of salvation, given to Catholics, from those that are given men of good-will beyond the borders of the Church. Restricting the question to Catholics, we find the doctrine, generally held especially since Suarez, that, if we consider merely adults, the number of the elect surpasses that of the reprobate. If adult Catholics do at one time or another sin mortally, nevertheless they can arise in the tribunal of penance, and there are relatively few who at the end of life do not repent, or even refuse to receive the sacraments.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).
However today, very few receive the last rites, very few go to confession. We must fear the worst for our day! Besides, Our Lady of Fatima explicitly said that MANY souls go to Hell because there is nobody to pray and offer sacrifices for them—prayer and sacrifice is not exactly on the increase, but on the decrease. Today it is far less (per head) than it was when Our lady appeared and said this, back in 1917.
“The important thing is to observe the commandments of God. St. Augustine said, and the Council of Trent repeats: “God never commands the impossible. But He warns us to do what we can, and to ask of Him the grace to accomplish what we of ourselves cannot do, and He aids us to fulfill what He commands.” Let us put our confidence in Jesus Christ, “the victim of propitiation for our sins,” “the Lamb of God, . . . who takes away the sin of the world.” “Let us go with confidence to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).
We have too low an estimate of God, His holiness, His honor and His demands upon us. Furthermore, we shoot ourselves in the foot by underestimating the gravity of sin. We think most sins to be “sweet-nothings” whereas nothing could be further from the truth. We really need to shape-up, take things more seriously and start paying for the sins we have committed until now. It is the gross indifference of most Catholics that lends credence to St. Padre Pio’s statement: “Most of the souls who are saved pass through Purgatory before arriving at the fullness of beatitude”
Article 21
Friday November 21st
Mercy & Purgatory
Friday November 21st
Mercy & Purgatory
Consolation in Pain
It is true that all might not achieve such a high degree of Charity that all their temporal punishment for sin would be removed, but there is no one that cannot have confidence in the Divine Mercy. This Mercy is infinite, it imparts peace to all souls that keep it constantly before their eyes and confide therein. With regard to Purgatory the Mercy of God is exercised in a threefold manner:
(1) in consoling the souls;
(2) in mitigating or softening their sufferings;
(3) in giving to ourselves, here on Earth, a thousand means of avoiding those punishing fires.
God Consoles and God Loves
Firstly, we must not forget that God consoles the souls in Purgatory. These are the souls that are destined to be with Him forever in Heaven. It is He Himself that consoles them. Yet He also consoles them through the Blessed Virgin and through the holy angels. He consoles the souls by inspiring them with a high degree of Faith, Hope, and Divine Love— virtues which produce, in the suffering souls, a conformity to the Divine will, a resignation to their just plight, and a most perfect patience.
St. Catherine of Genoa says: “God inspires the soul in Purgatory with so ardent a movement of devoted love, that it would be sufficient to annihilate her, if she were not immortal. Illumined and inflamed by that pure Charity, the more she loves God, the more she detests the least stain that displeases Him, as well as the least hindrance that prevents her union with Him. Therefore, if she could find another Purgatory more terrible than the one to which she is condemned, that soul would plunge herself therein, impelled by the impetuosity of the love which exists between God and herself, in order that she might be the sooner delivered from all that separates her from her Sovereign God.”
St. Catherine continues: “These souls are intimately united to the will of God, and so completely transformed into it, that they are always satisfied with its holy ordinances. The souls in Purgatory have no choice of their own; they can no longer will anything other than what God wills. They receive with perfect submission all that God gives them; and neither pleasure, nor contentment, nor pain can ever again make them think of themselves.”
He Listened Too Late, But He Burns Peacefully
Fr. Schouppe, in Purgatory Explained, writes that St. Magdalen de Pazzi, after the death of one of her brothers, had gone to the choir to offer prayers for him, when she saw a vision of his soul subject to an intense suffering. Touched with compassion, she began to weep and cried out in pity: “Brother, both miserable and blessed at the same time! O soul afflicted and yet contented! These pains are intolerable and yet they are endured. Why are they not understood by those here below, who have not the courage to carry their cross? Whilst you were in this world, my dear brother, you would not listen to my advice, and now you desire ardently that I should listen to you. O God, equally just and merciful, comfort this brother of mine, who has served Thee from his infancy. Have regard to your clemency, I beseech Thee, and make use of Thy great mercy on his behalf. O God most just, if he has not always been attentive to pleasing Thee, at least he has not despised those who made profession of serving you with fidelity.”
The day on which she had that wonderful ecstasy, during which she visited the different prisons of Purgatory, seeing again the soul of her brother, she said to him, “Poor soul, how you suffer and nevertheless you rejoice! You burn and you are satisfied, because you know well that these sufferings must lead you to a great and unspeakable happiness. How happy shall I be, if I could avoid having to endure greater suffering! Remain here, my dear brother, and complete your purification in peace!”
This contentment in the midst of the most intense suffering cannot be explained otherwise than by the Divine consolations which the Holy Ghost infuses into the souls in Purgatory. This Divine Spirit, by means of Faith, Hope, and Charity, puts those souls in the disposition of a sick person who has to submit to very painful treatment, but the effect, of which is to restore him to perfect health. This sick person suffers, but he loves his salutary suffering. The Holy Ghost, the Comforter, gives a similar contentment to the holy souls. In a sense, He enkindles in them the fire of His Love, which helps them fight fire with fire.
The Miracle of St. Stanislaus
Of this we have a striking example in Peter Miles, who was raised from the dead by St. Stanislaus of Cracow, but who preferred and asked to be allowed to return to Purgatory, rather than to live again upon Earth. The celebrated miracle of this resurrection happened in 1070. It is recorded in the Acta Sanctorum for May 7th. St. Stanislaus was the Bishop of Cracow, Poland, when the Duke Boleslas II governed Poland. The king was neglecting God and living too secular a life.
St. Stanislaus reminded the prince of his duties, but Boleslas was irritated and, to revenge himself, he stirred-up against Stanislaus the heirs of a certain Peter Miles, who had died three years previously after having sold a piece of ground to the church of Cracow. The heirs accused the saint of having usurped the ground, without having paid the owner. Stanislaus declared that he had paid for the land, but as the witnesses who should have defended him had been either bribed or intimidated, he was accused of stealing the property of another, and condemned to make restitution.
Then, seeing that he had nothing to expect from human justice, he raised his heart to God, and received a sudden inspiration. He asked for a delay of three days, promising to make Peter Miles appear in person, that he might testify to the legal purchase and payment of the land.
They were granted to him in scorn. The saint fasted, watched, and prayed God to take up the defense of his cause. The third day, after having celebrated Holy Mass, he went out accompanied by his clergy and many of the faithful, to the place where Peter had been buried. By his orders the grave was opened; it contained nothing but bones. He touched them with his crosier, and in the name of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life, he commanded the dead man to arise.
Dead Men Walk
Suddenly the bones became reunited, were covered with flesh, and, in sight of the stupefied people, the dead man was seen to take the Bishop by the hand and walk towards the tribunal. Boleslas, with his court and an immense crowd of people, were awaiting the result with the most lively expectation. “Behold Peter,” said the saint to Boleslas; “he comes, prince, to give testimony before you. Interrogate him―he will answer you!”
It is impossible to describe the stupefaction of the Duke, of his councilors, and of the whole concourse of people. Peter affirmed that he had been paid for the ground; then turning towards his heirs, he reproached them for having accused the pious prelate against all rights of justice; then he exhorted them to do penance for so grievous a sin.
Which Do You Prefer—Purgatory or Earth?
Wishing to complete this great miracle for the glory of God, Stanislaus proposed to the deceased that, if he desired to live a few years longer, he would obtain for him this favor from God. Peter replied that he had no such desire. He was in Purgatory, but he would rather return there immediately and endure its pains, than expose himself to damnation in this terrestrial life. He implored the saint only to beg of God to shorten the time of his sufferings, that he might the sooner enter Heaven. After that, accompanied by the Bishop and a great crowd, Peter returned to his grave, laid himself down, his body fell to pieces, and his bones resumed the same state in which they had first been found. We have reason to believe that the saint soon obtained the deliverance of his soul.
That which is the most remarkable in this example, and which should most attract our attention, is that a soul from Purgatory, after having experienced the most excruciating torments, prefers that state of suffering to the life of this world; and the reason which he gives for this preference is, that in this mortal life we are exposed to the danger of being lost and incurring eternal damnation. He sees Purgatory as being a mercy that he does not want to relinquish.
The Help of Our Lady
The souls in Purgatory receive also great consolation from the Blessed Virgin. Is she not the “Comforter of the Afflicted”? And what affliction can be compared to that of the poor souls in the fires of Purgatory? Is she not the “Mother of Mercy”? And is it not towards these holy suffering souls that she must show all the mercy of her heart? We must not, therefore, be astonished that in the Revelations of St. Bridget the Queen of Heaven gives herself the beautiful name of “Mother of the Souls in Purgatory”. She said to St. Bridget, “I am the Mother of all those who are in the place of expiation; my prayers mitigate the chastisements which are inflicted upon them for their faults.” (Revel. S. Brig., lib. 4. c. 50).
Fear Not, My Son…
On October 25th, 1604, in the College of the Society of Jesus at Coimbra, Portugal, Father Jerome Carvalho died in the odor of sanctity, at the age of fifty years. This admirable and humble servant of God had always felt a lively apprehension of the sufferings of Purgatory. Neither the cruel scourgings which he inflicted upon himself several times every day, not counting those prompted each week by the remembrance of the Passion, nor the six hours which he devoted morning and evening to the meditation of holy subjects, seemed sufficient, in his estimation, to shield him from the chastisement which he imagined awaited him after death.
But one day the Queen of Heaven, to whom he had a tender devotion, decided to come herself to console her servant by the simple assurance that she was a Mother of Mercy to her dear children in Purgatory, and not only to those upon Earth. Seeking, later, to spread this consoling doctrine, the holy man accidentally let fall, in the ardor of his discourse, these words: “She told me this herself.”
Mary’s Powerful Intercession
It is related that a great servant of Mary, Blessed Renier of Citeaux, trembled at the thought of his sins and the terrible Justice of God after death. In his fear, addressing himself to Our Lady, whom he held as his great Protectress, who calls herself Mother of Mercy, he fell into an ecstasy, and saw the Mother of God interceding with her Son in his favor.
“My Son,” she said, “deal mercifully with him in Purgatory, because he humbly repents of his sins.”
“My Mother,” replied Jesus, “I place his cause in thy hands,” which meant to say, be it done to your servant according to your desires. Blessed Renier understood with unutterable joy that Mary had obtained his exemption from Purgatory.
Putting-Out the Flames with the Rosary
The Rosary is a key ingredient in all of this. We read in St. Louis de Montfort’s book, The Secret of the Rosary, how great is the power of the Rosary in remitting temporal punishment due for our sins. Here are a few extracts:
When St. Dominic was performing an exorcism, through Our Lady’s intervention he got the devils to admit many things, one of them was the following: “Now that we are forced to speak, we must also tell you that nobody who perseveres in saying the Rosary will be damned, because she obtains for her servants the grace of true contrition for their sins by which they obtain pardon and mercy” (Secret of the Rosary, “Thirty-Third Rose”).
“Flammin and a great number of other writers tell the story of a young girl of noble station named Alexandra, who had been miraculously converted and enrolled by St. Dominic in the Confraternity of the Rosary. After her death, she appeared to him and said she had been condemned to seven hundred years in Purgatory because of her own sins and those she had caused others to commit by her worldly ways. So she implored him to ease her pains by his prayers and to ask the Confraternity members to pray for the same end. St. Dominic did as she had asked. Two weeks later she appeared to him, more radiant than the sun, having been quickly delivered from Purgatory by the prayers of the Confraternity members. She also told St. Dominic that she had come on behalf of the souls in Purgatory to beg him to go on preaching the Rosary and to ask their relations to offer their Rosaries for them, and that they would reward them abundantly when they entered into glory” (Secret of the Rosary, “Forty-Ninth Rose”).
“Alphonsus, King of Leon and Galicia, very much wanted all his servants to honor the Blessed Virgin by saying the Rosary, so he used to hang a large Rosary on his belt, though he never said it himself. Nevertheless, his wearing it encouraged his courtiers to say the Rosary devoutly. One day the King fell seriously ill and when he was given up for dead he found himself, in spirit, before the judgment seat of Our Lord. Many devils were there accusing him of all the sins he had committed, and Our Lord was about to condemn him when Our Lady came forward to speak in his favor. She called for a pair of scales and had his sins placed in one of the balances, while she put the large Rosary which he had always worn on the other scale, together with all the Rosaries that had been said through his example. It was found that the Rosaries weighed more than his sins. Looking at him with great kindness, Our Lady said, ‘As a reward for the little service you did for me, in wearing my Rosary, I have obtained a great grace for you from my Son. Your life will be spared for a few more years. See that you spend those years wisely, and do penance.’” (Secret of the Rosary, “Eighth Rose”).
It is true that all might not achieve such a high degree of Charity that all their temporal punishment for sin would be removed, but there is no one that cannot have confidence in the Divine Mercy. This Mercy is infinite, it imparts peace to all souls that keep it constantly before their eyes and confide therein. With regard to Purgatory the Mercy of God is exercised in a threefold manner:
(1) in consoling the souls;
(2) in mitigating or softening their sufferings;
(3) in giving to ourselves, here on Earth, a thousand means of avoiding those punishing fires.
God Consoles and God Loves
Firstly, we must not forget that God consoles the souls in Purgatory. These are the souls that are destined to be with Him forever in Heaven. It is He Himself that consoles them. Yet He also consoles them through the Blessed Virgin and through the holy angels. He consoles the souls by inspiring them with a high degree of Faith, Hope, and Divine Love— virtues which produce, in the suffering souls, a conformity to the Divine will, a resignation to their just plight, and a most perfect patience.
St. Catherine of Genoa says: “God inspires the soul in Purgatory with so ardent a movement of devoted love, that it would be sufficient to annihilate her, if she were not immortal. Illumined and inflamed by that pure Charity, the more she loves God, the more she detests the least stain that displeases Him, as well as the least hindrance that prevents her union with Him. Therefore, if she could find another Purgatory more terrible than the one to which she is condemned, that soul would plunge herself therein, impelled by the impetuosity of the love which exists between God and herself, in order that she might be the sooner delivered from all that separates her from her Sovereign God.”
St. Catherine continues: “These souls are intimately united to the will of God, and so completely transformed into it, that they are always satisfied with its holy ordinances. The souls in Purgatory have no choice of their own; they can no longer will anything other than what God wills. They receive with perfect submission all that God gives them; and neither pleasure, nor contentment, nor pain can ever again make them think of themselves.”
He Listened Too Late, But He Burns Peacefully
Fr. Schouppe, in Purgatory Explained, writes that St. Magdalen de Pazzi, after the death of one of her brothers, had gone to the choir to offer prayers for him, when she saw a vision of his soul subject to an intense suffering. Touched with compassion, she began to weep and cried out in pity: “Brother, both miserable and blessed at the same time! O soul afflicted and yet contented! These pains are intolerable and yet they are endured. Why are they not understood by those here below, who have not the courage to carry their cross? Whilst you were in this world, my dear brother, you would not listen to my advice, and now you desire ardently that I should listen to you. O God, equally just and merciful, comfort this brother of mine, who has served Thee from his infancy. Have regard to your clemency, I beseech Thee, and make use of Thy great mercy on his behalf. O God most just, if he has not always been attentive to pleasing Thee, at least he has not despised those who made profession of serving you with fidelity.”
The day on which she had that wonderful ecstasy, during which she visited the different prisons of Purgatory, seeing again the soul of her brother, she said to him, “Poor soul, how you suffer and nevertheless you rejoice! You burn and you are satisfied, because you know well that these sufferings must lead you to a great and unspeakable happiness. How happy shall I be, if I could avoid having to endure greater suffering! Remain here, my dear brother, and complete your purification in peace!”
This contentment in the midst of the most intense suffering cannot be explained otherwise than by the Divine consolations which the Holy Ghost infuses into the souls in Purgatory. This Divine Spirit, by means of Faith, Hope, and Charity, puts those souls in the disposition of a sick person who has to submit to very painful treatment, but the effect, of which is to restore him to perfect health. This sick person suffers, but he loves his salutary suffering. The Holy Ghost, the Comforter, gives a similar contentment to the holy souls. In a sense, He enkindles in them the fire of His Love, which helps them fight fire with fire.
The Miracle of St. Stanislaus
Of this we have a striking example in Peter Miles, who was raised from the dead by St. Stanislaus of Cracow, but who preferred and asked to be allowed to return to Purgatory, rather than to live again upon Earth. The celebrated miracle of this resurrection happened in 1070. It is recorded in the Acta Sanctorum for May 7th. St. Stanislaus was the Bishop of Cracow, Poland, when the Duke Boleslas II governed Poland. The king was neglecting God and living too secular a life.
St. Stanislaus reminded the prince of his duties, but Boleslas was irritated and, to revenge himself, he stirred-up against Stanislaus the heirs of a certain Peter Miles, who had died three years previously after having sold a piece of ground to the church of Cracow. The heirs accused the saint of having usurped the ground, without having paid the owner. Stanislaus declared that he had paid for the land, but as the witnesses who should have defended him had been either bribed or intimidated, he was accused of stealing the property of another, and condemned to make restitution.
Then, seeing that he had nothing to expect from human justice, he raised his heart to God, and received a sudden inspiration. He asked for a delay of three days, promising to make Peter Miles appear in person, that he might testify to the legal purchase and payment of the land.
They were granted to him in scorn. The saint fasted, watched, and prayed God to take up the defense of his cause. The third day, after having celebrated Holy Mass, he went out accompanied by his clergy and many of the faithful, to the place where Peter had been buried. By his orders the grave was opened; it contained nothing but bones. He touched them with his crosier, and in the name of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life, he commanded the dead man to arise.
Dead Men Walk
Suddenly the bones became reunited, were covered with flesh, and, in sight of the stupefied people, the dead man was seen to take the Bishop by the hand and walk towards the tribunal. Boleslas, with his court and an immense crowd of people, were awaiting the result with the most lively expectation. “Behold Peter,” said the saint to Boleslas; “he comes, prince, to give testimony before you. Interrogate him―he will answer you!”
It is impossible to describe the stupefaction of the Duke, of his councilors, and of the whole concourse of people. Peter affirmed that he had been paid for the ground; then turning towards his heirs, he reproached them for having accused the pious prelate against all rights of justice; then he exhorted them to do penance for so grievous a sin.
Which Do You Prefer—Purgatory or Earth?
Wishing to complete this great miracle for the glory of God, Stanislaus proposed to the deceased that, if he desired to live a few years longer, he would obtain for him this favor from God. Peter replied that he had no such desire. He was in Purgatory, but he would rather return there immediately and endure its pains, than expose himself to damnation in this terrestrial life. He implored the saint only to beg of God to shorten the time of his sufferings, that he might the sooner enter Heaven. After that, accompanied by the Bishop and a great crowd, Peter returned to his grave, laid himself down, his body fell to pieces, and his bones resumed the same state in which they had first been found. We have reason to believe that the saint soon obtained the deliverance of his soul.
That which is the most remarkable in this example, and which should most attract our attention, is that a soul from Purgatory, after having experienced the most excruciating torments, prefers that state of suffering to the life of this world; and the reason which he gives for this preference is, that in this mortal life we are exposed to the danger of being lost and incurring eternal damnation. He sees Purgatory as being a mercy that he does not want to relinquish.
The Help of Our Lady
The souls in Purgatory receive also great consolation from the Blessed Virgin. Is she not the “Comforter of the Afflicted”? And what affliction can be compared to that of the poor souls in the fires of Purgatory? Is she not the “Mother of Mercy”? And is it not towards these holy suffering souls that she must show all the mercy of her heart? We must not, therefore, be astonished that in the Revelations of St. Bridget the Queen of Heaven gives herself the beautiful name of “Mother of the Souls in Purgatory”. She said to St. Bridget, “I am the Mother of all those who are in the place of expiation; my prayers mitigate the chastisements which are inflicted upon them for their faults.” (Revel. S. Brig., lib. 4. c. 50).
Fear Not, My Son…
On October 25th, 1604, in the College of the Society of Jesus at Coimbra, Portugal, Father Jerome Carvalho died in the odor of sanctity, at the age of fifty years. This admirable and humble servant of God had always felt a lively apprehension of the sufferings of Purgatory. Neither the cruel scourgings which he inflicted upon himself several times every day, not counting those prompted each week by the remembrance of the Passion, nor the six hours which he devoted morning and evening to the meditation of holy subjects, seemed sufficient, in his estimation, to shield him from the chastisement which he imagined awaited him after death.
But one day the Queen of Heaven, to whom he had a tender devotion, decided to come herself to console her servant by the simple assurance that she was a Mother of Mercy to her dear children in Purgatory, and not only to those upon Earth. Seeking, later, to spread this consoling doctrine, the holy man accidentally let fall, in the ardor of his discourse, these words: “She told me this herself.”
Mary’s Powerful Intercession
It is related that a great servant of Mary, Blessed Renier of Citeaux, trembled at the thought of his sins and the terrible Justice of God after death. In his fear, addressing himself to Our Lady, whom he held as his great Protectress, who calls herself Mother of Mercy, he fell into an ecstasy, and saw the Mother of God interceding with her Son in his favor.
“My Son,” she said, “deal mercifully with him in Purgatory, because he humbly repents of his sins.”
“My Mother,” replied Jesus, “I place his cause in thy hands,” which meant to say, be it done to your servant according to your desires. Blessed Renier understood with unutterable joy that Mary had obtained his exemption from Purgatory.
Putting-Out the Flames with the Rosary
The Rosary is a key ingredient in all of this. We read in St. Louis de Montfort’s book, The Secret of the Rosary, how great is the power of the Rosary in remitting temporal punishment due for our sins. Here are a few extracts:
When St. Dominic was performing an exorcism, through Our Lady’s intervention he got the devils to admit many things, one of them was the following: “Now that we are forced to speak, we must also tell you that nobody who perseveres in saying the Rosary will be damned, because she obtains for her servants the grace of true contrition for their sins by which they obtain pardon and mercy” (Secret of the Rosary, “Thirty-Third Rose”).
“Flammin and a great number of other writers tell the story of a young girl of noble station named Alexandra, who had been miraculously converted and enrolled by St. Dominic in the Confraternity of the Rosary. After her death, she appeared to him and said she had been condemned to seven hundred years in Purgatory because of her own sins and those she had caused others to commit by her worldly ways. So she implored him to ease her pains by his prayers and to ask the Confraternity members to pray for the same end. St. Dominic did as she had asked. Two weeks later she appeared to him, more radiant than the sun, having been quickly delivered from Purgatory by the prayers of the Confraternity members. She also told St. Dominic that she had come on behalf of the souls in Purgatory to beg him to go on preaching the Rosary and to ask their relations to offer their Rosaries for them, and that they would reward them abundantly when they entered into glory” (Secret of the Rosary, “Forty-Ninth Rose”).
“Alphonsus, King of Leon and Galicia, very much wanted all his servants to honor the Blessed Virgin by saying the Rosary, so he used to hang a large Rosary on his belt, though he never said it himself. Nevertheless, his wearing it encouraged his courtiers to say the Rosary devoutly. One day the King fell seriously ill and when he was given up for dead he found himself, in spirit, before the judgment seat of Our Lord. Many devils were there accusing him of all the sins he had committed, and Our Lord was about to condemn him when Our Lady came forward to speak in his favor. She called for a pair of scales and had his sins placed in one of the balances, while she put the large Rosary which he had always worn on the other scale, together with all the Rosaries that had been said through his example. It was found that the Rosaries weighed more than his sins. Looking at him with great kindness, Our Lady said, ‘As a reward for the little service you did for me, in wearing my Rosary, I have obtained a great grace for you from my Son. Your life will be spared for a few more years. See that you spend those years wisely, and do penance.’” (Secret of the Rosary, “Eighth Rose”).
Article 20
Thursday November 20th
From Fear to Confidence and Mercy!
Thursday November 20th
From Fear to Confidence and Mercy!
Fear Leads to Mercy
During the early part of the month of November we have mainly been looking at the rigors and severity of Divine Justice in the other life. They are frightening and it is impossible to think of them without trembling—but that is a good thing, for as Holy Scripture says:”With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). That fire, enkindled by Divine Justice; those excruciating pains―compared to which all the penances of the saints, all the sufferings of the martyrs put together are as nothing―and who is there that thinks he will be able to look upon them and not shudder from very fear?
This fear is salutary and conformable to the spirit of Jesus Christ. Our Divine Master desires that we should fear, and that we should fear not only Hell, but also Purgatory, which is a sort of mitigated Hell. It is to inspire us with this holy fear, that He shows us the dungeons of the Supreme Judge, from which we shall not depart until we have paid the last penny (Matthew 5:26). Since the saints tell us that the fires of Purgatory are the same fires as those of Hell, we may say of the fire of Purgatory, that which is said of Hell fire: “Fear ye not them that kill the body and are not able to kill the soul―but rather fear Him that can cast both soul and body into Hell!” (Matthew 10:28).
Fear Leads to Better Things
Yet that fear can make us wise and make us change our lives—whereby we begin to love God more than we love ourselves: “Fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 110:10) and “The fear of God is the beginning of His love” (Ecclesiasticus 25:16). It is not the intention of Our Lord that we should have an excessive and barren, fruitless fear; a fear which tortures and discourages; a gloomy fear without confidence. No! He wishes that our fear should be tempered and mixed with a great trust in His mercy. He desires that we should fear evil in order to prevent and avoid it. He desires that the thought of those avenging flames should stimulate us to fervor in His service, and cause us to expiate our faults in this world rather than in the other. “Better is it to purge away our sins, and cut off our vices now,” says the author of the Imitation of Christ, “than to keep them for purgation hereafter.” (Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 24).
Moreover, if, despite our efforts to live a good life, and to satisfy for our sins in this world, we have well-grounded fears that we shall have to undergo a Purgatory, we must look forward to that possibility with unbounded confidence in God, Who never fails to console those whom He purifies by sufferings. For as we have said so many times already, God’s justice and mercy always work together. He never shows mercy without attaching some justice; and He never exercises His justice without adding mercy to it.
Look to His Mercy
So after having frightened the living daylights out of ourselves (and hopefully frightened out the desire and attachment to sin too!) let us spend some time looking at the Mercy of God, which shines forth therein no less than His Justice. “His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him” (Luke 1:50). But let our attitude not be one of presumption upon His mercy—which is a sin—but a humble acknowledgment of our sinfulness and unworthiness of His Mercy while still begging Him to show us His Mercy.
We are shown the right attitude by Our Lady’s Magnificat: “My soul does magnify the Lord. Because He has regarded the humility of His handmaid. Because He that is mighty, has done great things to me and His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him. He has put down the mighty from their seat, and has exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things [mercy being one of them]; and the rich He has sent empty away. He has received Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy” (Luke 1:46-54).
God’s Perfect Balance
If God reserves terrible chastisements in the other life for the tiniest faults, He does not inflict those punishments without, at the same time, softening them with clemency―and nothing shows better the admirable harmony of this Divine perfection than Purgatory, because the most severe Justice is there exercised, together with the most unimaginable Mercy. If Our Lord chastises those souls that are dear to Him, it is in His love, according to the words, “Such as I love I rebuke and chastise” (Apocalypse 3:19). With one hand He strikes, with the other He heals. He offers mercy and redemption in abundance (Psalm 129).
This infinite Mercy of our Heavenly Father must be the firm foundation of our confidence; and, after the example of the saints, we must keep it always before our eyes. The saints never lost sight of it; and it was for this reason that the fear of Purgatory never deprived them of their peace and joy of the Holy Ghost.
St. Lidwina, who so well knew the frightful severity of expiatory suffering, was nevertheless animated with that spirit of confidence, and tried to inspire others with the same spirit. One time she received a visit from a good and holy priest. While they were talking―together with other virtuous persons―the conversation turned to the sufferings undergone in the other life. The priest―as he looked at a woman holding a jar filled with grains of mustard-seed―remarked that he trembled when thinking of the fire of Purgatory. “Nevertheless,” he added, “I would be satisfied to go there for as many years as there are grains of seed in this jar; for then, at least, I would be certain of my salvation!”
“What are you saying, Father?” replied St. Lidwina. “Why do you have so little confidence in the Mercy of God? You wouldn’t say that if you had a better knowledge of what Purgatory is like, and of what frightful torments are endured there!”
“Let Purgatory be what it may,” replied the priest, “I persist in what I say!”
A while afterwards, this priest died, and the same persons, who had been present during his conversation with St. Lidwina, questioned the saint if God had revealed to her the priest’s condition in the other world. She replied: “The deceased is well off, on account of his virtuous life; but it would be better for him if he had showed more confidence in the Passion of Jesus Christ, and if he had taken a milder view of the subject of Purgatory.”
A Balanced View
In what consisted this lack of confidence which met the disapproval of St. Lidwina? In the opinion which this good priest had that it is almost impossible to be saved, and that we shall enter Heaven only after having undergone innumerable years of torture. This idea is erroneous, and contrary to Christian confidence. Yes, of course, we know Our Lord’s reply to the question of whether only a few will be saved: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’” (Luke 13:23-24).
Savior of Losers and the Lost
Yet He came to seek and save those who were lost: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10); and “if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow―and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool!” (Isaias 1:18). However, this Mercy is no freebie―but requires a change of heart, a change of life, and a proportionate degree of suffering and penance: “I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh!” says the Lord (Ezechiel 11:19) … “If the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keeps all My commandments, and does judgment and justice―then living he shall live, and shall not die!” (Ezechiel 18:21). To the woman caught in adultery, whom the Scribes and Pharisees wanted to stone to death, Jesus said: “Has no man condemned thee? Neither will I condemn thee! Go, and now sin no more!” (John 8:10-11) … “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23) … “ I say to you― unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
Good Will
Our Savior came to bring peace to men of good-will, and to impose upon us, as a condition of our salvation, a yoke which is sweet and a burden which is not heavy. Therefore, let your will be good, and you will find peace, you will see all difficulties and terrors vanish. Good-will! That is everything! Be of good-will, submit to the Will of God, place his Holy Law above all else, serve the Lord with all your heart, and He will give you such powerful assistance that you will enter Paradise with an astonishing facility. Sounds too easy, eh? “I could never have believed,” you will say, “that it was so easy to enter Heaven!” Again, it must be repeated, to obtain for ourselves this wonder of Mercy, God asks on our part an upright heart, a good-will. That doesn’t mean to say there will be no pain, no sufferings, no crosses, no anxieties—but these are part of God’s will that must be borne with a good-will.
Good will consists, properly speaking, in submitting and conforming our will to that of God―Who is the rule of all good-will; and this good-will attains its highest perfection when we embrace the Divine Will as the highest good in our life, even when it imposes the greatest sacrifices, the most acute suffering. A soul, thus disposed, seems to lose the sensation of pain, and this is because the soul is animated with the spirit of love; and, as St. Augustine says, when we love we suffer not, or, if we suffer, we love the suffering.
The Power of Love
We have already spoken of the power of a perfect act of love and contrition, that is capable of taking away all the debt we owe for our past sins—this fire of love we must enkindle and make grow by our good-will attitude to all the firewood that God decides to throw on our little fire. Ouch!
The Imitation of Christ has a beautiful chapter on the effects of Divine Love, here are a few extracts for your fire:
“Love is an excellent thing, a very great blessing, indeed. It makes every difficulty easy, and bears all wrongs with equanimity. For it bears a burden without being weighted and renders sweet all that is bitter. The noble love of Jesus spurs to great deeds and excites longing for that which is more perfect. Love tends upward; it will not be held down by anything low. Love wishes to be free and estranged from all worldly affections, lest its inward sight be obstructed, lest it be entangled in any temporal interest and overcome by adversity.
“Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger or higher or wider; nothing is more pleasant, nothing fuller, and nothing better in Heaven or on Earth, for love is born of God and cannot rest except in God, Who is above all created things. One who is in love flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free, not bound. He gives all for all and possesses all in all, because he rests in the one sovereign Good, Who is above all things, and from Whom every good flows and proceeds. He does not look to the gift but turns himself above all gifts to the Giver.
“Love often knows no limits but overflows all bounds. Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of troubles, attempts more than it is able, and does not plead impossibility, because it believes that it may and can do all things. For this reason, it is able to do all, performing and effecting much where he who does not love fails and falls. Love is watchful. Sleeping, it does not slumber. Wearied, it is not tired. Pressed, it is not straitened. Alarmed, it is not confused, but like a living flame, a burning torch, it forces its way upward and passes unharmed through every obstacle. If a man loves, he will know the sound of this voice. Love is mean and contemptible in its own eyes, devoted and thankful to God; always trusting and hoping in Him even when He is distasteful to it, for there is no living in love without sorrow. He who is not ready to suffer all things and to stand resigned to the will of the Beloved is not worthy to be called a lover. A lover must embrace willingly all that is difficult and bitter for the sake of the Beloved, and he should not turn away from Him because of adversities.” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 3, chapter 5).
The Confessor of St. Margaret Mary writes…
St. Claude de la Colombière, of the Society of Jesus, confessor of St. Margaret Mary, possessed this loving heart, this perfect will, and in his Retrait Spirituelle he thus expresses his sentiments: “We must not cease to expiate the past disorders of our life by penance; but it must be done without anxiety, because the worst that can befall us, when our will is good and we are submissive and obedient, is to be sent for a long time to Purgatory, and we may say with good reason that this is a great evil. I do not fear Purgatory. Of Hell, I will not speak, for I should wrong the Mercy of God by having the least fear of Hell―although I have merited it more than all the demons together. Purgatory I do not fear. I wish I had not deserved it, since I could not do so without displeasing God; but, as I have merited to go there, I am delighted to go and satisfy His Justice in the most rigorous manner it is possible to imagine, and that even to the Day of Judgment. I know that the torments there endured are horrible, but I know that they honor God, and cannot prove an injury to the souls; that there we are certain never to oppose the will of God; that we shall never resent His severity; that we shall even love the rigors of His justice, and await with patience until it shall be entirely appeased. Therefore, I have given with my whole heart all my satisfactions to the souls in Purgatory, and even bequeath to others all the suffrages which shall be offered for me after my death, in order that God may be glorified in Paradise by souls who shall have merited to be raised to a higher degree of glory than myself.”
Paradise on Earth
See to what an excess of charity, the love of God and our neighbor carries us, once it has taken possession of the heart―it transforms, transfigures suffering in such a manner, that all its bitterness is changed into sweetness. “When you shall arrive at the point where tribulation shall be sweet to you and you shalt relish it for the love of Christ―then think that it is well with you, for you have found a Paradise upon Earth!” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 2, chapter 12). Let us therefore have great love for God, great Charity, and we shall have little fear of Purgatory. The Holy Ghost bears testimony in the depths of our hearts that, being children of God, we have no need to dread the chastisements of a Father if we truly seek to follow and do His will, and not our own.
Good Will = God’s Will
Our Lord Himself said: “I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me!” (John 6:38). “Behold I come! In the head of the book it is written of Me that I should do Thy will, O God! … Then said I: ‘Behold, I come to do Thy will, O God!’” (Hebrews 10:7, 9). “I seek not My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 5:30). “And He said: ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible to Thee! Remove this chalice from Me―but not what I will, but what Thou wilt!’” (Mark 14:36).
To us He says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15) … “You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you” (John 15:14) … “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind” (Luke 10:27) and “Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid!” (John 14:27).
Let our good and holy fear find itself enkindled with this holy love of God!
During the early part of the month of November we have mainly been looking at the rigors and severity of Divine Justice in the other life. They are frightening and it is impossible to think of them without trembling—but that is a good thing, for as Holy Scripture says:”With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). That fire, enkindled by Divine Justice; those excruciating pains―compared to which all the penances of the saints, all the sufferings of the martyrs put together are as nothing―and who is there that thinks he will be able to look upon them and not shudder from very fear?
This fear is salutary and conformable to the spirit of Jesus Christ. Our Divine Master desires that we should fear, and that we should fear not only Hell, but also Purgatory, which is a sort of mitigated Hell. It is to inspire us with this holy fear, that He shows us the dungeons of the Supreme Judge, from which we shall not depart until we have paid the last penny (Matthew 5:26). Since the saints tell us that the fires of Purgatory are the same fires as those of Hell, we may say of the fire of Purgatory, that which is said of Hell fire: “Fear ye not them that kill the body and are not able to kill the soul―but rather fear Him that can cast both soul and body into Hell!” (Matthew 10:28).
Fear Leads to Better Things
Yet that fear can make us wise and make us change our lives—whereby we begin to love God more than we love ourselves: “Fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 110:10) and “The fear of God is the beginning of His love” (Ecclesiasticus 25:16). It is not the intention of Our Lord that we should have an excessive and barren, fruitless fear; a fear which tortures and discourages; a gloomy fear without confidence. No! He wishes that our fear should be tempered and mixed with a great trust in His mercy. He desires that we should fear evil in order to prevent and avoid it. He desires that the thought of those avenging flames should stimulate us to fervor in His service, and cause us to expiate our faults in this world rather than in the other. “Better is it to purge away our sins, and cut off our vices now,” says the author of the Imitation of Christ, “than to keep them for purgation hereafter.” (Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 24).
Moreover, if, despite our efforts to live a good life, and to satisfy for our sins in this world, we have well-grounded fears that we shall have to undergo a Purgatory, we must look forward to that possibility with unbounded confidence in God, Who never fails to console those whom He purifies by sufferings. For as we have said so many times already, God’s justice and mercy always work together. He never shows mercy without attaching some justice; and He never exercises His justice without adding mercy to it.
Look to His Mercy
So after having frightened the living daylights out of ourselves (and hopefully frightened out the desire and attachment to sin too!) let us spend some time looking at the Mercy of God, which shines forth therein no less than His Justice. “His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him” (Luke 1:50). But let our attitude not be one of presumption upon His mercy—which is a sin—but a humble acknowledgment of our sinfulness and unworthiness of His Mercy while still begging Him to show us His Mercy.
We are shown the right attitude by Our Lady’s Magnificat: “My soul does magnify the Lord. Because He has regarded the humility of His handmaid. Because He that is mighty, has done great things to me and His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him. He has put down the mighty from their seat, and has exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things [mercy being one of them]; and the rich He has sent empty away. He has received Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy” (Luke 1:46-54).
God’s Perfect Balance
If God reserves terrible chastisements in the other life for the tiniest faults, He does not inflict those punishments without, at the same time, softening them with clemency―and nothing shows better the admirable harmony of this Divine perfection than Purgatory, because the most severe Justice is there exercised, together with the most unimaginable Mercy. If Our Lord chastises those souls that are dear to Him, it is in His love, according to the words, “Such as I love I rebuke and chastise” (Apocalypse 3:19). With one hand He strikes, with the other He heals. He offers mercy and redemption in abundance (Psalm 129).
This infinite Mercy of our Heavenly Father must be the firm foundation of our confidence; and, after the example of the saints, we must keep it always before our eyes. The saints never lost sight of it; and it was for this reason that the fear of Purgatory never deprived them of their peace and joy of the Holy Ghost.
St. Lidwina, who so well knew the frightful severity of expiatory suffering, was nevertheless animated with that spirit of confidence, and tried to inspire others with the same spirit. One time she received a visit from a good and holy priest. While they were talking―together with other virtuous persons―the conversation turned to the sufferings undergone in the other life. The priest―as he looked at a woman holding a jar filled with grains of mustard-seed―remarked that he trembled when thinking of the fire of Purgatory. “Nevertheless,” he added, “I would be satisfied to go there for as many years as there are grains of seed in this jar; for then, at least, I would be certain of my salvation!”
“What are you saying, Father?” replied St. Lidwina. “Why do you have so little confidence in the Mercy of God? You wouldn’t say that if you had a better knowledge of what Purgatory is like, and of what frightful torments are endured there!”
“Let Purgatory be what it may,” replied the priest, “I persist in what I say!”
A while afterwards, this priest died, and the same persons, who had been present during his conversation with St. Lidwina, questioned the saint if God had revealed to her the priest’s condition in the other world. She replied: “The deceased is well off, on account of his virtuous life; but it would be better for him if he had showed more confidence in the Passion of Jesus Christ, and if he had taken a milder view of the subject of Purgatory.”
A Balanced View
In what consisted this lack of confidence which met the disapproval of St. Lidwina? In the opinion which this good priest had that it is almost impossible to be saved, and that we shall enter Heaven only after having undergone innumerable years of torture. This idea is erroneous, and contrary to Christian confidence. Yes, of course, we know Our Lord’s reply to the question of whether only a few will be saved: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’” (Luke 13:23-24).
Savior of Losers and the Lost
Yet He came to seek and save those who were lost: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10); and “if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow―and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool!” (Isaias 1:18). However, this Mercy is no freebie―but requires a change of heart, a change of life, and a proportionate degree of suffering and penance: “I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh!” says the Lord (Ezechiel 11:19) … “If the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keeps all My commandments, and does judgment and justice―then living he shall live, and shall not die!” (Ezechiel 18:21). To the woman caught in adultery, whom the Scribes and Pharisees wanted to stone to death, Jesus said: “Has no man condemned thee? Neither will I condemn thee! Go, and now sin no more!” (John 8:10-11) … “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23) … “ I say to you― unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
Good Will
Our Savior came to bring peace to men of good-will, and to impose upon us, as a condition of our salvation, a yoke which is sweet and a burden which is not heavy. Therefore, let your will be good, and you will find peace, you will see all difficulties and terrors vanish. Good-will! That is everything! Be of good-will, submit to the Will of God, place his Holy Law above all else, serve the Lord with all your heart, and He will give you such powerful assistance that you will enter Paradise with an astonishing facility. Sounds too easy, eh? “I could never have believed,” you will say, “that it was so easy to enter Heaven!” Again, it must be repeated, to obtain for ourselves this wonder of Mercy, God asks on our part an upright heart, a good-will. That doesn’t mean to say there will be no pain, no sufferings, no crosses, no anxieties—but these are part of God’s will that must be borne with a good-will.
Good will consists, properly speaking, in submitting and conforming our will to that of God―Who is the rule of all good-will; and this good-will attains its highest perfection when we embrace the Divine Will as the highest good in our life, even when it imposes the greatest sacrifices, the most acute suffering. A soul, thus disposed, seems to lose the sensation of pain, and this is because the soul is animated with the spirit of love; and, as St. Augustine says, when we love we suffer not, or, if we suffer, we love the suffering.
The Power of Love
We have already spoken of the power of a perfect act of love and contrition, that is capable of taking away all the debt we owe for our past sins—this fire of love we must enkindle and make grow by our good-will attitude to all the firewood that God decides to throw on our little fire. Ouch!
The Imitation of Christ has a beautiful chapter on the effects of Divine Love, here are a few extracts for your fire:
“Love is an excellent thing, a very great blessing, indeed. It makes every difficulty easy, and bears all wrongs with equanimity. For it bears a burden without being weighted and renders sweet all that is bitter. The noble love of Jesus spurs to great deeds and excites longing for that which is more perfect. Love tends upward; it will not be held down by anything low. Love wishes to be free and estranged from all worldly affections, lest its inward sight be obstructed, lest it be entangled in any temporal interest and overcome by adversity.
“Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger or higher or wider; nothing is more pleasant, nothing fuller, and nothing better in Heaven or on Earth, for love is born of God and cannot rest except in God, Who is above all created things. One who is in love flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free, not bound. He gives all for all and possesses all in all, because he rests in the one sovereign Good, Who is above all things, and from Whom every good flows and proceeds. He does not look to the gift but turns himself above all gifts to the Giver.
“Love often knows no limits but overflows all bounds. Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of troubles, attempts more than it is able, and does not plead impossibility, because it believes that it may and can do all things. For this reason, it is able to do all, performing and effecting much where he who does not love fails and falls. Love is watchful. Sleeping, it does not slumber. Wearied, it is not tired. Pressed, it is not straitened. Alarmed, it is not confused, but like a living flame, a burning torch, it forces its way upward and passes unharmed through every obstacle. If a man loves, he will know the sound of this voice. Love is mean and contemptible in its own eyes, devoted and thankful to God; always trusting and hoping in Him even when He is distasteful to it, for there is no living in love without sorrow. He who is not ready to suffer all things and to stand resigned to the will of the Beloved is not worthy to be called a lover. A lover must embrace willingly all that is difficult and bitter for the sake of the Beloved, and he should not turn away from Him because of adversities.” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 3, chapter 5).
The Confessor of St. Margaret Mary writes…
St. Claude de la Colombière, of the Society of Jesus, confessor of St. Margaret Mary, possessed this loving heart, this perfect will, and in his Retrait Spirituelle he thus expresses his sentiments: “We must not cease to expiate the past disorders of our life by penance; but it must be done without anxiety, because the worst that can befall us, when our will is good and we are submissive and obedient, is to be sent for a long time to Purgatory, and we may say with good reason that this is a great evil. I do not fear Purgatory. Of Hell, I will not speak, for I should wrong the Mercy of God by having the least fear of Hell―although I have merited it more than all the demons together. Purgatory I do not fear. I wish I had not deserved it, since I could not do so without displeasing God; but, as I have merited to go there, I am delighted to go and satisfy His Justice in the most rigorous manner it is possible to imagine, and that even to the Day of Judgment. I know that the torments there endured are horrible, but I know that they honor God, and cannot prove an injury to the souls; that there we are certain never to oppose the will of God; that we shall never resent His severity; that we shall even love the rigors of His justice, and await with patience until it shall be entirely appeased. Therefore, I have given with my whole heart all my satisfactions to the souls in Purgatory, and even bequeath to others all the suffrages which shall be offered for me after my death, in order that God may be glorified in Paradise by souls who shall have merited to be raised to a higher degree of glory than myself.”
Paradise on Earth
See to what an excess of charity, the love of God and our neighbor carries us, once it has taken possession of the heart―it transforms, transfigures suffering in such a manner, that all its bitterness is changed into sweetness. “When you shall arrive at the point where tribulation shall be sweet to you and you shalt relish it for the love of Christ―then think that it is well with you, for you have found a Paradise upon Earth!” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 2, chapter 12). Let us therefore have great love for God, great Charity, and we shall have little fear of Purgatory. The Holy Ghost bears testimony in the depths of our hearts that, being children of God, we have no need to dread the chastisements of a Father if we truly seek to follow and do His will, and not our own.
Good Will = God’s Will
Our Lord Himself said: “I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me!” (John 6:38). “Behold I come! In the head of the book it is written of Me that I should do Thy will, O God! … Then said I: ‘Behold, I come to do Thy will, O God!’” (Hebrews 10:7, 9). “I seek not My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 5:30). “And He said: ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible to Thee! Remove this chalice from Me―but not what I will, but what Thou wilt!’” (Mark 14:36).
To us He says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15) … “You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you” (John 15:14) … “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind” (Luke 10:27) and “Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid!” (John 14:27).
Let our good and holy fear find itself enkindled with this holy love of God!
Article 19
Wednesday November 19th
Have Confidence―Avoid Capitulation!
Wednesday November 19th
Have Confidence―Avoid Capitulation!
Lack of Confidence
As we said yesterday, despondency or discouragement is the most dangerous temptation the devil can employ. It saps us of our confidence. Of course, many of us have the wrong kind of confidence in the first place—we seek to have confidence in ourselves, rather than having confidence in God. But once discouragement or despondency sets in, the confidence quickly flies out the window—some temperaments may resist better and for longer than others, but everyone is prone to this temptation—and we must remind ourselves that it is a TEMPTATION—it is not a part of ourselves, it comes from outside of ourselves, like a virus.
In other temptations the devil attacks one particular virtue: by despondency he attacks them all. In despondency there is nothing to lean upon―we feel that God is asking for that which are unable to give. We would like to turn to God, but the devil convinces us that we dare not hope to receive from God all the help we need to overcome our sins and pay for their debt, because we feel that God does not like us all that much after committing so many sins; thus we become discouraged and nearly reduced to despair, which is the final goal of the devil for the despondent soul.
Purgatory quickly becomes like a debt that has spiraled out of control. Yet we know that, with God, nobody can declare bankruptcy and get away without paying anything. Just as debt seems to crush the heart in our material life, so too does the debt of our sins crush us in relation to our spiritual life. Sometimes people cast all care to the wind and spend, spend, spend, while the credit card still works—knowing that they won’t be able to pay. The devil tries to make us sin, sin, sin, to the point where our hope and confidence of pardon is so low, that we fall into despair.
Any Debt Can Be Paid-Off, But…
First of all, we must remember the words of Scripture: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7). We cannot commit the sin of presumption—which is just as much a sin against hope as despair is—by sinning, sinning and sinning with the presumption that God will still show us His mercy. Read the sermon of St. Alphonsus Liguori on “On The Number Of Sins Beyond Which God Pardons No More”, from which we will just give a few extracts:
“You say: ‘I am young! There are many who have committed more sins than I have!’ But is God on that account obliged to wait for your repentance if you offend Him? In the Gospel of St. Matthew (21:19) we read, that the Savior cursed a fig tree the first time He saw it without fruit: ‘May no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever!’ And immediately the fig tree withered away. You must, then, tremble at the thought of committing a single mortal sin, particularly if you have already been guilty of mortal sins. ‘Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin’ (Ecclesiasticus 5: 5). Say not then, O sinner; ‘As God has forgiven me other sins, so He will pardon me this one if I commit it!’ Say not this―for, if to the sin which has been forgiven you add another, you have reason to fear that this new sin shall be united to your former guilt, and that thus the number will be completed, and that you shall be abandoned!”
Be Realistic, Be Confident
As was said in the previous article, we cannot focus exclusively on God’s mercy, while sweeping his justice under carpet. St. Catherine of Genoa gave us that warning in her Treatise on Purgatory: “Would that I could utter so strong a cry that it would strike all men with terror, and say to them: ‘O wretched beings! Why are you so blinded by this world that you make, as you will find at the hour of death, no provision for the great necessity that will then come upon you? You shelter yourselves beneath your hope in the mercy of God, which you unceasingly exalt. Have not the boldness to say: “I will go to confession and gain a plenary indulgence and thus I shall be saved.” Remember that the full confession and entire contrition which are requisite to gain a plenary indulgence are not easily attained. Did you know how hardly they are come by, you would tremble with fear and be more sure of losing than of gaining them!” (St. Catherine of Genoa).
Nevertheless…
Let it, however, be well understood that despondency is a temptation. Hope and confidence in God are commanded equally with Faith and the other virtues. Therefore the feeling of despondency, which is opposed to hope, must be resisted strongly and CONFIDENTLY. God will forgive if we do not abuse His mercy, even though we will still have to pay—but what kind of person would want to get into Heaven on the back of a life of endless sin, without having settled his debts with God?
Ask With Faith and Confidence
No, as the Apostle, St. James, says, “Let him ask in Faith, nothing wavering!” (James 1:6). The heart that prays with doubt and distrust shall obtain nothing. And we also know that Jesus Christ, whilst still on Earth, granted miracles only when there was confidence: “Daughter, thy Faith hath made thee whole!” (Matthew 9:22).
In Fr. Gottemoller’s book, Words of Love, which deals with Our Lord’s apparitions to three religious sisters (Sr. Josefa Menendez, Sr. Consolata Betrone and Sr. Mary of the Trinity), Our Lord says: “Let them [souls] give themselves up to thoughts of confidence, not fear―for I am a God of pity, ever ready to receive them into My Heart! ... I make little account of all that [miseries and weakness], provided souls come to Me with confidence and love! … You must do all that you can, and it is only after that, that you can count infallibly on My help! … To those who ask with love―that is to say, with unlimited confidence―I cannot prevent Myself from granting even more, far more than what is asked !… Oh, if you knew what My love is! And how I long for you to have confidence in it! … You will be lacking in help only when My Divine Heart will be lacking in power! …
“It often happens that good and pious souls, and very frequently also souls who are consecrated to Me, wound My Heart to Its very depths by some diffident phrase such as: ‘Who knows whether I will be saved?’ Open the Gospel and read there My promises. I promised to My sheep: ‘I will give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish forever, and no man shall pluck them out of My Hand.’ Do you understand? No one can take a soul from Me! Now read on: ‘That which My Father has given Me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them out of the Hand of My Father.’ Do you understand? No one can snatch a soul from Me! ... In all eternity they will not perish ― because I give them eternal life. For whom have I spoken these words? For all the sheep, for all souls! Why then the insult, ‘Who knows whether I will be saved?’ I have given assurances, in the Gospel, that no one can pluck a soul from Me and that I will give that soul eternal life, and so the soul cannot perish. Believe Me, into Hell go only those who really wish to go there; for, though no one can snatch a soul from Me, the soul may, through the free will granted her, flee from Me, may betray Me, deny Me, and so go to Satan of her own volition.
“Oh, if instead of wounding My Heart with such distrust, you would give a little thought to the Heaven which awaits you! I did not create you for Hell, but for Heaven; not as a companion for the devil, but to enjoy Me in everlasting love! You see, to Hell go only those who wish to go there ... How foolish is your fear of being damned! After having shed My Blood in order to save your soul, after having surrounded your soul with graces upon graces all through your entire existence ... would I permit Satan, My worst enemy, to rob Me of that soul, at the last moment of her life, just when I am about to gather in the fruit of the Redemption and when, therefore, that soul is on the point of loving Me forever? Would I do that, when in the Holy Gospel I have promised to give the soul eternal life and that no one can snatch her from My Hands?
“How is it possible to believe such a monstrosity? You see, final impenitence is found only in a soul who purposely wishes to go to Hell and therefore obstinately refuses My mercy, for I never refuse to pardon anyone. I offer the gift of My immense compassion to all, for My Blood was shed for all, for all! No, it is not the multiplicity of sins which condemns a soul, for I forgive everything if she repents, but it is the obstinacy of not wishing to be pardoned, of wishing to be damned! Dismas on the cross had only one single act of Faith in Me, but many, many sins― however, he was pardoned in an instant, and on the very day of his repentance he entered into My kingdom and is a saint! Behold the triumph of My Mercy and of Faith in Me!” (Words of Love, Fr. Bartholomew Gottemoller, chapter 6, “Confidence”).
Beautiful words, but words spoken to those who were sincere in their sorrow for sin and were trying to put things right—as Our Lord said: “I forgive everything if she repents ... You must do all that you can, and it is only after that, that you can count infallibly on My help ... Though no one can snatch a soul from Me, the soul may, through the free will granted her, flee from Me, may betray Me, deny Me, and so go to Satan of her own volition.” Repentance means sorrow for sin, a firm desire to change one’s life, and the desire to pay for the damage done. Our Lord adds: “Have confidence in Me! Trust Me always! You must have a blind confidence that I will fulfill all the great promises which I have made you, for I am kind, immensely kind and merciful, and ‘I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live.’” (Words of Love, Fr. Bartholomew Gottemoller, chapter 6, “Confidence”).
Confidence in the Sufferings and Merits of Jesus Christ
A soul that is addicted to despondency is swayed by fear, which prevents it from reflecting on the immovable foundations of confidence in God. We cannot therefore give her too many motives for overcoming that fear which harasses her incessantly. She will find a powerful one in the sufferings of Jesus Christ, which are as immense as the dignity of His person is infinite. This divine Savior, dying for all mankind, praying for all, offering for all His sufferings and His death, has merited for them all the graces which are necessary for them to overcome their spiritual enemy and to gain eternal happiness. These merits which Jesus Christ did not need for Himself He has given over to mankind. So that, according to St. Bernard, these merits become our own. And by offering them to the Father, we obtain that help which we need to strengthen us against the enemies of our salvation. It is from this principle that the Church, in all the prayers she makes to God, always invokes the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. The mercy is there, all we have to do is pay!
But I Have Sinned Too Much!
“But,” exclaims a soul, frightened at the thought of her many past offenses, “how must Our Lord and Savior look upon me, after the many outrages which I have committed against Him! Can He any longer interest Himself for one who has been so long His enemy?” Can a well-instructed Christian soul have any doubt on this point? Did not Jesus Christ Himself assure us that He came into the world to suffer and die for sinners; that He came chiefly to seek for sinners?
Now, in the face of this assertion, will they still imagine that, because they are sinners, they will be refused the help they require to return to God? No, Heaven and Earth may pass away, but the promises of God shall not pass away unfulfilled. These promises relate to sinners, and if there had been no sinners, would Jesus Christ have suffered? Would He have submitted to a cruel death? The more sinful man is, the more strikingly are the mercy of God, and the power of the Savior’s merits displayed. Is there any blacker crime than the treachery of Judas? Yes, answers St. Jerome, there is one still more enormous, despair! Judas rendered himself more guilty in taking away his own life than in betraying his divine Master. The mercy is there for us, we must do what we can to pay for it. Christ will add His Blood and merits to our payments.
You Have To Beg For His Merits
Let us then never fear to have recourse to the merits of Jesus Christ. We honor them when we make use of them to obtain the helps which we need, since it was for this that Jesus Christ vouchsafed to acquire them and to give them over to us. It is in applying them to ourselves through prayer and good works, that we fulfill the end for which they were purchased. It would be a singular way of honoring them, the not daring to make use of them; it would be going directly against the end which our divine Savior proposed to Himself. In turning from His gifts as useless, we should not be evincing our esteem for them, but only proving our indifference.
Come to Me and Ask!
Since we acknowledge that we are poor, weak, and miserable, should we not seek to enrich and to strengthen ourselves, and to cure our evils? Jesus Christ offers Himself to accomplish these miracles in us, by offering His infinite merits. With loving tenderness He says to us, “Come to me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you” (Matt. 11:28). Is it not therefore against every principle, against every feeling, and still more against the intention of the Savior Himself to fear to have recourse to Him?
Temptation attacks the soul in every way. Through a sentiment of false humility a fear is conceived which fills the soul with dejection. Christian humility and sound reason require that we should recognize our unworthiness of heavenly benefits; but they do not require us to refuse those which are offered, or not to ask for those that have been promised to our prayers. Still more does the gratitude which we owe to Jesus Christ require that we should obey His will, in profiting by His sufferings, to obtain the graces which He has earned for us. Never can we honor Him more than in corresponding to the merciful designs which He had in immolating Himself for us and by suffering with Him for our sins.
Rely on Him, not Ourselves
On what could we rely to appease the justice of God outraged by sin, and to draw down His mercy, if not upon the merits of Our Savior? It is in presenting them to God that we may hope to disarm His anger. Just as He can see in us only that which must provoke His justice, so in His Son He only sees what solicits His mercy. This divine mercy is exercised in our behalf as soon as we, with sentiments of regret, present ourselves to Him, under the shadow of the Savior’s cross, and covered with His precious blood. And thus also is justice appeased. Mercy and truth, justice and peace make together a blessed treaty for us. In the language of the Psalmist: “Mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed” (Psalm 84:11).
False Ideas And Feelings Which We Ascribe To God
It is because we judge God by our own weak human hearts, that we fear to exhaust His mercy. If a person to whom we have given important assistance, whom we have loaded with benefits, treats us with ingratitude, and, in return for kindness, heaps insults upon us, we turn away from him as unworthy of further notice; more especially if he has made use of our very benefits to injure us, we abandon him forever. We should consider we were acting against every dictate of common sense and prudence, did we continue to furnish him with arms to use against us.
The same feelings and judgment we ascribe to God, forgetting that His ways are as far removed from our ways as the heavens are from the Earth. God bears with our wanderings because He is eternal and all-powerful, and He knows that the day of His justice will come, when all shall be brought into order, and forever.
Wrong Idea of God—Wrong Idea of Justice & Mercy
He is patient because He is infinitely good, and wishes to give us the means to return to Him. He who knows all things has seen from all eternity all our weaknesses, our ingratitude, and our reiterated falls. He has foreseen that we could not do anything of ourselves, much less return to Him without help; and that help He has prepared for us in the person of His Son, Jesus. He entreats us, He even commands us to call upon Him in all our wanderings, and He will assist us, He will be our propitiation; for it is in helping us and pardoning us that His mercy is exercised. Yet we still have to add our payments for sin to His generous contribution.
God Has Always Been Just and Merciful
This conduct God brought out in a striking manner toward the Jewish nation. Whenever they fell into idolatry, God punished them, to bring them back to their allegiance. When they abandoned their Lord to serve strange gods, He would deliver them over to their enemies, to be held in cruel bondage. Then, when bowed down by the miseries of their servitude, they lifted up their hearts to God and called upon Him with confidence, God sent them a deliverer to free them from the hard yoke under which they groaned. And so did they continue during a period of four hundred years, continually relapsing into idolatry, and as often experiencing the mercy of God when they called upon Him.
Judge from this if God will tire in pardoning us, if we turn to Him with a sincerely contrite heart. But if the conduct of God toward His Jewish people does not remove your fears, listen to the words of the Prophet-King, inspired by the Holy Ghost, who assures us that God will not despise “a contrite and humbled heart” (Psalm 1:19).
God Wishes to Pardon—Do We Wish to Pay?
When, terrified by the recollection of our sins, we have the thought or the wish to return to God, it is He who is then attracting us by His grace. Does He call us only that He may refuse to receive us? Who can think it? He told St. Peter to forgive after every offense, “I say not to thee, till seven times―but till seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22), and by this we may learn to know His dispositions in our regard. Ah! we little know the boundless tenderness of that divine Heart, if we judge of it by our own, or if we imagine that it ever ceases to care for us. So long as we are in this life we are under the law of mercy, and of that mercy we can ever avail ourselves. It is death only that places us under the law of immutable justice.
Repeated Falls?
Our repeated infidelities ought not to make us lose confidence in God—it is the lack of Faith that makes us fear. God, Who is the tender Father of all His creatures, has taken every means to remove that excessive fear which would draw them from Him. To prevent the soul that has become sensible of its ingratitude and terrified at the view of its repeated relapses into sin, after so often obtaining pardon for them - to prevent such a soul from losing all hope and daring no longer to cry out to Him from the abyss into which it has again fallen, not only does He assure it, by the mouth of the Psalmist, “That those who hope in Him shall never be confounded,” but He expressly declares the positive law of His mercy, and commands us to hope in Him.
God Is Faithful
This precept we cannot fully accomplish but with the help of His grace; and can the Almighty have made this precept and not wish to help us keep it? And can He fall to be touched by our obedience when we endeavor to do so? Can He turn away from us, when we call upon Him, as He has ordered us to do? NO; God cannot be otherwise than faithful to His promises. If we fail, it is because we have not asked with confidence, and because our Faith is weak.
Let the Holy Scriptures here furnish you with another proof of this. St. Peter, at the order of his Divine Master, confidently walks upon the waters. The wind rises, and the apostle’s trust lessens; he fears, and immediately begins to sink, but the danger reanimates his confidence: Peter has recourse to his Divine Master, who stretches forth His hand to save him from perishing. For our instruction Jesus let His apostle know what danger he had been in, when He thus reproached him: “O you of little Faith! Why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31).
“If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow―and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool!” (Isaias 1:18). But you will still have to pay for them, for that is how we show our love and sorrow to Christ.
As we said yesterday, despondency or discouragement is the most dangerous temptation the devil can employ. It saps us of our confidence. Of course, many of us have the wrong kind of confidence in the first place—we seek to have confidence in ourselves, rather than having confidence in God. But once discouragement or despondency sets in, the confidence quickly flies out the window—some temperaments may resist better and for longer than others, but everyone is prone to this temptation—and we must remind ourselves that it is a TEMPTATION—it is not a part of ourselves, it comes from outside of ourselves, like a virus.
In other temptations the devil attacks one particular virtue: by despondency he attacks them all. In despondency there is nothing to lean upon―we feel that God is asking for that which are unable to give. We would like to turn to God, but the devil convinces us that we dare not hope to receive from God all the help we need to overcome our sins and pay for their debt, because we feel that God does not like us all that much after committing so many sins; thus we become discouraged and nearly reduced to despair, which is the final goal of the devil for the despondent soul.
Purgatory quickly becomes like a debt that has spiraled out of control. Yet we know that, with God, nobody can declare bankruptcy and get away without paying anything. Just as debt seems to crush the heart in our material life, so too does the debt of our sins crush us in relation to our spiritual life. Sometimes people cast all care to the wind and spend, spend, spend, while the credit card still works—knowing that they won’t be able to pay. The devil tries to make us sin, sin, sin, to the point where our hope and confidence of pardon is so low, that we fall into despair.
Any Debt Can Be Paid-Off, But…
First of all, we must remember the words of Scripture: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7). We cannot commit the sin of presumption—which is just as much a sin against hope as despair is—by sinning, sinning and sinning with the presumption that God will still show us His mercy. Read the sermon of St. Alphonsus Liguori on “On The Number Of Sins Beyond Which God Pardons No More”, from which we will just give a few extracts:
“You say: ‘I am young! There are many who have committed more sins than I have!’ But is God on that account obliged to wait for your repentance if you offend Him? In the Gospel of St. Matthew (21:19) we read, that the Savior cursed a fig tree the first time He saw it without fruit: ‘May no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever!’ And immediately the fig tree withered away. You must, then, tremble at the thought of committing a single mortal sin, particularly if you have already been guilty of mortal sins. ‘Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin’ (Ecclesiasticus 5: 5). Say not then, O sinner; ‘As God has forgiven me other sins, so He will pardon me this one if I commit it!’ Say not this―for, if to the sin which has been forgiven you add another, you have reason to fear that this new sin shall be united to your former guilt, and that thus the number will be completed, and that you shall be abandoned!”
Be Realistic, Be Confident
As was said in the previous article, we cannot focus exclusively on God’s mercy, while sweeping his justice under carpet. St. Catherine of Genoa gave us that warning in her Treatise on Purgatory: “Would that I could utter so strong a cry that it would strike all men with terror, and say to them: ‘O wretched beings! Why are you so blinded by this world that you make, as you will find at the hour of death, no provision for the great necessity that will then come upon you? You shelter yourselves beneath your hope in the mercy of God, which you unceasingly exalt. Have not the boldness to say: “I will go to confession and gain a plenary indulgence and thus I shall be saved.” Remember that the full confession and entire contrition which are requisite to gain a plenary indulgence are not easily attained. Did you know how hardly they are come by, you would tremble with fear and be more sure of losing than of gaining them!” (St. Catherine of Genoa).
Nevertheless…
Let it, however, be well understood that despondency is a temptation. Hope and confidence in God are commanded equally with Faith and the other virtues. Therefore the feeling of despondency, which is opposed to hope, must be resisted strongly and CONFIDENTLY. God will forgive if we do not abuse His mercy, even though we will still have to pay—but what kind of person would want to get into Heaven on the back of a life of endless sin, without having settled his debts with God?
Ask With Faith and Confidence
No, as the Apostle, St. James, says, “Let him ask in Faith, nothing wavering!” (James 1:6). The heart that prays with doubt and distrust shall obtain nothing. And we also know that Jesus Christ, whilst still on Earth, granted miracles only when there was confidence: “Daughter, thy Faith hath made thee whole!” (Matthew 9:22).
In Fr. Gottemoller’s book, Words of Love, which deals with Our Lord’s apparitions to three religious sisters (Sr. Josefa Menendez, Sr. Consolata Betrone and Sr. Mary of the Trinity), Our Lord says: “Let them [souls] give themselves up to thoughts of confidence, not fear―for I am a God of pity, ever ready to receive them into My Heart! ... I make little account of all that [miseries and weakness], provided souls come to Me with confidence and love! … You must do all that you can, and it is only after that, that you can count infallibly on My help! … To those who ask with love―that is to say, with unlimited confidence―I cannot prevent Myself from granting even more, far more than what is asked !… Oh, if you knew what My love is! And how I long for you to have confidence in it! … You will be lacking in help only when My Divine Heart will be lacking in power! …
“It often happens that good and pious souls, and very frequently also souls who are consecrated to Me, wound My Heart to Its very depths by some diffident phrase such as: ‘Who knows whether I will be saved?’ Open the Gospel and read there My promises. I promised to My sheep: ‘I will give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish forever, and no man shall pluck them out of My Hand.’ Do you understand? No one can take a soul from Me! Now read on: ‘That which My Father has given Me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them out of the Hand of My Father.’ Do you understand? No one can snatch a soul from Me! ... In all eternity they will not perish ― because I give them eternal life. For whom have I spoken these words? For all the sheep, for all souls! Why then the insult, ‘Who knows whether I will be saved?’ I have given assurances, in the Gospel, that no one can pluck a soul from Me and that I will give that soul eternal life, and so the soul cannot perish. Believe Me, into Hell go only those who really wish to go there; for, though no one can snatch a soul from Me, the soul may, through the free will granted her, flee from Me, may betray Me, deny Me, and so go to Satan of her own volition.
“Oh, if instead of wounding My Heart with such distrust, you would give a little thought to the Heaven which awaits you! I did not create you for Hell, but for Heaven; not as a companion for the devil, but to enjoy Me in everlasting love! You see, to Hell go only those who wish to go there ... How foolish is your fear of being damned! After having shed My Blood in order to save your soul, after having surrounded your soul with graces upon graces all through your entire existence ... would I permit Satan, My worst enemy, to rob Me of that soul, at the last moment of her life, just when I am about to gather in the fruit of the Redemption and when, therefore, that soul is on the point of loving Me forever? Would I do that, when in the Holy Gospel I have promised to give the soul eternal life and that no one can snatch her from My Hands?
“How is it possible to believe such a monstrosity? You see, final impenitence is found only in a soul who purposely wishes to go to Hell and therefore obstinately refuses My mercy, for I never refuse to pardon anyone. I offer the gift of My immense compassion to all, for My Blood was shed for all, for all! No, it is not the multiplicity of sins which condemns a soul, for I forgive everything if she repents, but it is the obstinacy of not wishing to be pardoned, of wishing to be damned! Dismas on the cross had only one single act of Faith in Me, but many, many sins― however, he was pardoned in an instant, and on the very day of his repentance he entered into My kingdom and is a saint! Behold the triumph of My Mercy and of Faith in Me!” (Words of Love, Fr. Bartholomew Gottemoller, chapter 6, “Confidence”).
Beautiful words, but words spoken to those who were sincere in their sorrow for sin and were trying to put things right—as Our Lord said: “I forgive everything if she repents ... You must do all that you can, and it is only after that, that you can count infallibly on My help ... Though no one can snatch a soul from Me, the soul may, through the free will granted her, flee from Me, may betray Me, deny Me, and so go to Satan of her own volition.” Repentance means sorrow for sin, a firm desire to change one’s life, and the desire to pay for the damage done. Our Lord adds: “Have confidence in Me! Trust Me always! You must have a blind confidence that I will fulfill all the great promises which I have made you, for I am kind, immensely kind and merciful, and ‘I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live.’” (Words of Love, Fr. Bartholomew Gottemoller, chapter 6, “Confidence”).
Confidence in the Sufferings and Merits of Jesus Christ
A soul that is addicted to despondency is swayed by fear, which prevents it from reflecting on the immovable foundations of confidence in God. We cannot therefore give her too many motives for overcoming that fear which harasses her incessantly. She will find a powerful one in the sufferings of Jesus Christ, which are as immense as the dignity of His person is infinite. This divine Savior, dying for all mankind, praying for all, offering for all His sufferings and His death, has merited for them all the graces which are necessary for them to overcome their spiritual enemy and to gain eternal happiness. These merits which Jesus Christ did not need for Himself He has given over to mankind. So that, according to St. Bernard, these merits become our own. And by offering them to the Father, we obtain that help which we need to strengthen us against the enemies of our salvation. It is from this principle that the Church, in all the prayers she makes to God, always invokes the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. The mercy is there, all we have to do is pay!
But I Have Sinned Too Much!
“But,” exclaims a soul, frightened at the thought of her many past offenses, “how must Our Lord and Savior look upon me, after the many outrages which I have committed against Him! Can He any longer interest Himself for one who has been so long His enemy?” Can a well-instructed Christian soul have any doubt on this point? Did not Jesus Christ Himself assure us that He came into the world to suffer and die for sinners; that He came chiefly to seek for sinners?
Now, in the face of this assertion, will they still imagine that, because they are sinners, they will be refused the help they require to return to God? No, Heaven and Earth may pass away, but the promises of God shall not pass away unfulfilled. These promises relate to sinners, and if there had been no sinners, would Jesus Christ have suffered? Would He have submitted to a cruel death? The more sinful man is, the more strikingly are the mercy of God, and the power of the Savior’s merits displayed. Is there any blacker crime than the treachery of Judas? Yes, answers St. Jerome, there is one still more enormous, despair! Judas rendered himself more guilty in taking away his own life than in betraying his divine Master. The mercy is there for us, we must do what we can to pay for it. Christ will add His Blood and merits to our payments.
You Have To Beg For His Merits
Let us then never fear to have recourse to the merits of Jesus Christ. We honor them when we make use of them to obtain the helps which we need, since it was for this that Jesus Christ vouchsafed to acquire them and to give them over to us. It is in applying them to ourselves through prayer and good works, that we fulfill the end for which they were purchased. It would be a singular way of honoring them, the not daring to make use of them; it would be going directly against the end which our divine Savior proposed to Himself. In turning from His gifts as useless, we should not be evincing our esteem for them, but only proving our indifference.
Come to Me and Ask!
Since we acknowledge that we are poor, weak, and miserable, should we not seek to enrich and to strengthen ourselves, and to cure our evils? Jesus Christ offers Himself to accomplish these miracles in us, by offering His infinite merits. With loving tenderness He says to us, “Come to me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you” (Matt. 11:28). Is it not therefore against every principle, against every feeling, and still more against the intention of the Savior Himself to fear to have recourse to Him?
Temptation attacks the soul in every way. Through a sentiment of false humility a fear is conceived which fills the soul with dejection. Christian humility and sound reason require that we should recognize our unworthiness of heavenly benefits; but they do not require us to refuse those which are offered, or not to ask for those that have been promised to our prayers. Still more does the gratitude which we owe to Jesus Christ require that we should obey His will, in profiting by His sufferings, to obtain the graces which He has earned for us. Never can we honor Him more than in corresponding to the merciful designs which He had in immolating Himself for us and by suffering with Him for our sins.
Rely on Him, not Ourselves
On what could we rely to appease the justice of God outraged by sin, and to draw down His mercy, if not upon the merits of Our Savior? It is in presenting them to God that we may hope to disarm His anger. Just as He can see in us only that which must provoke His justice, so in His Son He only sees what solicits His mercy. This divine mercy is exercised in our behalf as soon as we, with sentiments of regret, present ourselves to Him, under the shadow of the Savior’s cross, and covered with His precious blood. And thus also is justice appeased. Mercy and truth, justice and peace make together a blessed treaty for us. In the language of the Psalmist: “Mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed” (Psalm 84:11).
False Ideas And Feelings Which We Ascribe To God
It is because we judge God by our own weak human hearts, that we fear to exhaust His mercy. If a person to whom we have given important assistance, whom we have loaded with benefits, treats us with ingratitude, and, in return for kindness, heaps insults upon us, we turn away from him as unworthy of further notice; more especially if he has made use of our very benefits to injure us, we abandon him forever. We should consider we were acting against every dictate of common sense and prudence, did we continue to furnish him with arms to use against us.
The same feelings and judgment we ascribe to God, forgetting that His ways are as far removed from our ways as the heavens are from the Earth. God bears with our wanderings because He is eternal and all-powerful, and He knows that the day of His justice will come, when all shall be brought into order, and forever.
Wrong Idea of God—Wrong Idea of Justice & Mercy
He is patient because He is infinitely good, and wishes to give us the means to return to Him. He who knows all things has seen from all eternity all our weaknesses, our ingratitude, and our reiterated falls. He has foreseen that we could not do anything of ourselves, much less return to Him without help; and that help He has prepared for us in the person of His Son, Jesus. He entreats us, He even commands us to call upon Him in all our wanderings, and He will assist us, He will be our propitiation; for it is in helping us and pardoning us that His mercy is exercised. Yet we still have to add our payments for sin to His generous contribution.
God Has Always Been Just and Merciful
This conduct God brought out in a striking manner toward the Jewish nation. Whenever they fell into idolatry, God punished them, to bring them back to their allegiance. When they abandoned their Lord to serve strange gods, He would deliver them over to their enemies, to be held in cruel bondage. Then, when bowed down by the miseries of their servitude, they lifted up their hearts to God and called upon Him with confidence, God sent them a deliverer to free them from the hard yoke under which they groaned. And so did they continue during a period of four hundred years, continually relapsing into idolatry, and as often experiencing the mercy of God when they called upon Him.
Judge from this if God will tire in pardoning us, if we turn to Him with a sincerely contrite heart. But if the conduct of God toward His Jewish people does not remove your fears, listen to the words of the Prophet-King, inspired by the Holy Ghost, who assures us that God will not despise “a contrite and humbled heart” (Psalm 1:19).
God Wishes to Pardon—Do We Wish to Pay?
When, terrified by the recollection of our sins, we have the thought or the wish to return to God, it is He who is then attracting us by His grace. Does He call us only that He may refuse to receive us? Who can think it? He told St. Peter to forgive after every offense, “I say not to thee, till seven times―but till seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22), and by this we may learn to know His dispositions in our regard. Ah! we little know the boundless tenderness of that divine Heart, if we judge of it by our own, or if we imagine that it ever ceases to care for us. So long as we are in this life we are under the law of mercy, and of that mercy we can ever avail ourselves. It is death only that places us under the law of immutable justice.
Repeated Falls?
Our repeated infidelities ought not to make us lose confidence in God—it is the lack of Faith that makes us fear. God, Who is the tender Father of all His creatures, has taken every means to remove that excessive fear which would draw them from Him. To prevent the soul that has become sensible of its ingratitude and terrified at the view of its repeated relapses into sin, after so often obtaining pardon for them - to prevent such a soul from losing all hope and daring no longer to cry out to Him from the abyss into which it has again fallen, not only does He assure it, by the mouth of the Psalmist, “That those who hope in Him shall never be confounded,” but He expressly declares the positive law of His mercy, and commands us to hope in Him.
God Is Faithful
This precept we cannot fully accomplish but with the help of His grace; and can the Almighty have made this precept and not wish to help us keep it? And can He fall to be touched by our obedience when we endeavor to do so? Can He turn away from us, when we call upon Him, as He has ordered us to do? NO; God cannot be otherwise than faithful to His promises. If we fail, it is because we have not asked with confidence, and because our Faith is weak.
Let the Holy Scriptures here furnish you with another proof of this. St. Peter, at the order of his Divine Master, confidently walks upon the waters. The wind rises, and the apostle’s trust lessens; he fears, and immediately begins to sink, but the danger reanimates his confidence: Peter has recourse to his Divine Master, who stretches forth His hand to save him from perishing. For our instruction Jesus let His apostle know what danger he had been in, when He thus reproached him: “O you of little Faith! Why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31).
“If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow―and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool!” (Isaias 1:18). But you will still have to pay for them, for that is how we show our love and sorrow to Christ.
Article 18
Tuesday November 18th
Don't Feel Down or Depressed!
Tuesday November 18th
Don't Feel Down or Depressed!
Despondency & Discouragement Come Disguised
Despondency or discouragement is the most dangerous temptation that the enemy of our salvation can employ. In other temptations he attacks some one virtue in particular, and shows himself openly―but by despondency he attacks them all, but covertly. The snare is readily perceived in other temptations―one finds in religion, often even in reason, principles which condemn them. The knowledge of the evil, to which we cannot blind ourselves, conscience, and the truths of religion which are awakened, serve as helps to sustain us.
But in despondency there is nothing to lean upon―we feel that reason does not suffice to enable us to practice all the good that God requires of us. On the other hand, we dare not hope to receive from God all the help we need to overcome our passions― thus we become discouraged and nearly reduced to despair, the very point to which the devil tries to lead the despondent soul.
This is easily and readily done by the devil in regard to our attitude to Purgatory. The goal of the devil is to make us sin as much as possible, while whispering to us that “God is good! God is kind! God is loving! God is merciful! God is very forgiving!” (which is all true, but it is not ALL the truth), while at the same the devil blinds to the rest of the truth, so that we have no fear or problem sinning. The devil blinds us to the fact that “God is just! God is exacting! God misses nothing! God will demand payment for each and every sin, even every idle word!”
Then, when we have sinned considerably, the devil tempts us despair of ever being able to get out of sin and ever being able to pay for our sin, by making us focus on the truth that:”God is just! God is exacting! God misses nothing! God will demand payment for each and every sin, even every idle word!” while at the same time blinding us the fact that “God is good! God is kind! God is loving! God is merciful! God is very forgiving!”
God Forgives—But Sin Must Be Paid For
Just like the devil makes us focus on one side of the coin and makes us ignore the other side, we also tend to focus exclusively on God’s mercy, while sweeping his justice under carpet. You cannot do that! As St. Catherine of Genoa says at the end of her Treatise on Purgatory:
“Would that I could utter so strong a cry that it would strike all men with terror, and say to them: ‘O wretched beings! Why are you so blinded by this world that you make, as you will find at the hour of death, no provision for the great necessity that will then come upon you?’” (St. Catherine of Genoa).
“You shelter yourselves beneath your hope in the mercy of God―which you unceasingly exalt―not seeing that it is your resistance to His great goodness which will be your condemnation. His goodness should constrain you to do His will, not encourage you to persevere in your own will! Since His justice is unfailing, it must therefore be in some way fully satisfied!” (St. Catherine of Genoa).
“Have not the boldness to say: ‘I will go to confession and gain a plenary indulgence and thus I shall be saved.’ Remember that the full confession and entire contrition―which are requisite to gain a plenary indulgence―are not easily attained. Did you know how hardly they are come by? You would tremble with fear and be more sure of losing than of gaining them” (St. Catherine of Genoa).
As Our Lady of Good Success said to Mother Mariana, in Quito, Ecuador in the 17th century: “Prepare your soul so that, increasingly purified, it might enter into the fullness of the joy of Our Lord. Oh, if mortals, and in particular religious souls, could know what Heaven is and what it is to possess God! How differently they would live! Nor would they spare themselves any sacrifice in order to possess Him! O, if men only understood how to appreciate the time given to them and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!” (Our Lady of Good Success to Mother Mariana, Quito, Ecuador).
Modern Deformation of God
The idiocy of modern-day Catholics is to make God into a patsy or a pushover! Or such a kindly God, that He cannot refuse to forgive all the crimes committed against Him. They imagine that He does not get angry, nor does He take vengeance upon those who sin. If that is the case, then Our Lady must be telling some whopping lies about God when she says:
“If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! … The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together! ... Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she trembles, with dread, at what must happen to the Earth stained with crime! Tremble, Earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves! … Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other! … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events! Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“Know, moreover, that Divine Justice releases terrible chastisements on entire nations, not only for the sins of the people, but for those of priests and religious persons! … before the eyes of God they quicken the rigor of the punishments … fire will rain from Heaven!” (Our Lady of Quito) … “And then water and fire will purge the Earth and consume all the works of man’s pride and all will be renewed … And then Jesus Christ, in an act of His justice and His great mercy, will command His Angels to have all His enemies put to death. Suddenly, the persecutors of the Church of Jesus Christ, and all those given over to sin, will perish and the Earth will become desert-like” (Our Lady of La Salette).
Is Our Lady a Liar? Is Our Lord a Liar?
Is Our Lady lying about God? We just don’t like to hear these things, like children don’t like to see their parents angry—but then the solution is to stop doing what makes them angry? We are so wrapped-up in our own feelings, that we have no time for the feelings of God! We hate to hear about chastisements, but we don’t stop sinning.
Some modern-day Catholics, with the sugar-coated version of Christ, also make Our Lord out to be a liar, Who said that the ingratitude and betrayal of religious souls, so dear to His Heart, would compel Him: “To let My Justice fall upon My beloved cloisters ― and even over cities ― when those so near to Me, who belong to Me, reject My spirit, abandoning Me alone in Tabernacles, rarely remembering that I live there especially for love of them, even more than for the rest of the faithful!” (Our Lord to Mother Mariana, Quito, Ecuador). She saw three swords hanging over the head of Christ. On each was written, “I shall punish heresy, blasphemy and impurity!” With this, she was given to understand all that would take place in the present era. Is Our Lord also lying? Of course not!
Despite the Justice, There Is Still Great Mercy
Yet Our Lady also offers the hand of mercy to those who sincerely seek to turn away from sin and are contrite: “I am in placating the Divine Justice and obtaining mercy and pardon for every sinner who comes to me with a contrite heart, for I am the Mother of Mercy and in me there is only goodness and love” (Our Lady of Quito) … “Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God” (Our Lady of Fatima). “God will take care of His faithful servants and men of good will … who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world” (Our Lady of La Salette). “Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach! Those who place their confidence in me will be saved!” (Our Lady of Akita).
This reminds us of the poignant statement that Our Lady made to St. Bridget: “I am the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the gate of entrance for sinners to God. In the fire of Purgatory there is no suffering that through my intercession would not be more easily bearable than otherwise. Neither is there living on Earth a sinner who is so accursed that he is deprived of my compassion―for everyone, if he receives nothing else through my intercession, receives the grace of being less tempted by evil spirits than he otherwise would be! Nobody, therefore, who is not entirely accursed [by which is meant the final and irrevocable malediction pronounced against the damned], is so entirely cast off by God that he may not return and enjoy his mercy if he invokes my aid. I am called by all the Mother of mercy, and truly the mercy of God towards men has made me so merciful towards them. Therefore he shall be miserable, and forever miserable in another life, who in this, being able, does not have recourse to me, who am so compassionate to all, and so earnestly desire to aid sinners!”
Accepting the Rough with the Smooth
It is important that we acknowledge and accept both sides of God—His justice and His mercy. It is our childishness and irresponsibility that hates to accept the side of justice, while wallowing on the side of mercy. The devil will happily assist us in this exercise. We will post, once more, at the end of this article, the hypothetical “Purgatory Calculator” so that we can see and shockingly see the side of justice—which hopefully scares sin right out of us and makes to start working hard to earn God’s mercy in the time that we have left in each of our lives. The justice, anger and chastisement is not meant to make us despondent, depressed or discouraged—but it is meant to give us a hatred of sin, a hatred of our past deeds, a hatred of future sin, and a great hope in the mercy of God, who nevertheless requires that justice be done. However, if we decide to pay now, rather than later, then we will experience a massive ‘discount price’ on justice. If we foolishly decide to pay after death, then we shall find ‘massive interest rates’ being added to our payments. So we have to hope that we can pay-off most of (or all of) what we owe here below—so that our ‘retirement scheme’ is truly “out of this world.” Hope and confidence in God are as much a commandment as Faith and the other virtues.
Excessive Fear Blinds Us To Truth
The great danger of despondency is that―being deceived by an excessive fear which makes us blind to the truth, and being discouraged at the sight of difficulties or in seeing the difficulty in changes and efforts we would have to make, against which we find no resource in ourselves―we stupidly fail to see this despondency as the effect of temptation. Could we only see it in that light, we should beware of the suggestions that entertain it, and should get rid of our trouble more quickly and more easily.
Despondency is only a Temptation
Let it, however, be well understood that despondency is a temptation, and bears all the marks of being such ―for every feeling that is opposed to the law of God, either in itself or by the consequences it may have, is evidently a temptation. It is thus we judge of every temptation to which we are liable. If we have a thought against Faith, a feeling against charity or some other virtue, we look upon it as a temptation; we turn away from it, and try to elicit acts opposed to the thought or feeling which has put us in danger of offending God.
Now, hope and confidence in God are commanded equally with Faith and the other virtues. Therefore the feeling which is opposed to hope is as much forbidden as that which is against Faith or any other virtue: it has thus every feature of a real temptation.
The law of God obliges us frequently to make acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity; and hence forbids us all willful feelings contrary to these sacred and necessary virtues. How, then, can despondency be viewed otherwise than as a temptation, and even as a very dangerous temptation, since it exposes the Christian soul to abandon every work of piety?
Hope Is the Antidote
To make this danger clearer to you, consider the general course of conduct among men. Is it not the hope of success, of gaining some advantage, of avoiding some evil, or of satisfying some desire or passion, which makes them act , which keeps them going in all their labors, and animates them to overcome their difficulties? Take away from them all hope, and they would soon fall into inaction. None but a madman would strive for an object which he despairs of obtaining. In our spiritual life, despondency produces the same effect; it is founded on the same principle, the lack of a means to reach the end which we propose to ourselves. But this despondency is built upon a failure to see the truth of things, a failure to see the real reality, which is covered by our imagined reality or ‘wishful-thinking’ reality!
Feeble Efforts & Fear of Failure
When we lose all hope of overcoming the difficulties which we may find in the practice of any virtue, we do not try, or but feebly, to make the effort to do so. These insufficient efforts only increase our weakness, and being more than half overcome by despondency, we are easily led away by the passion that sways us. The sense of our weakness first throws us into doubt and into trouble. In that state, thinking only of the difficulty of the combat, we do not distinguish the principles that ought to guide us. The fear of not succeeding, prevents us from employing the means which God has given us, and we are thus defenseless against our enemy.
We are like a child who, seeing the approach of a giant, begins to tremble, and forgets that a stone thrown in the name of the Lord may knock him out and lay him flat. In the same way we forget that we have a powerful help in the goodness of a caring Father, upon Whom we have only to call, to be victorious in all our struggles.
We Rely Too Much On Ourselves
Why does despondency make such strong and fatal impressions on us? We are obviously convinced of our weakness, for we have often experienced it. We painfully feel the difficulty of trying to overcome ourselves, as we succeed but rarely. Filled with these sad and discouraging reflections of our lack of spiritual strength, and of the little that we do to please God, we consider it useless to have recourse to Him, Who, we think, will not listen to our prayer while we are in our present state. This is merely the sad evidence of the pride within the human heart, that would wish to owe to itself all the good which it does, and the happiness to which it aspires! And how opposed to the words of the Holy Ghost: “What have you, that you have not received?” (1 Corinthians 4:7)
Rely on God’s Mercy
In such a state we see and depend only upon our own efforts, so that our despondency diminishes, ceases, returns, or increases, according as we act well or ill. We do not reflect that it is only from the mercy of God we can hope for help, and not by our own merits; that when we have done well it is through the grace of God, which we have not merited, and that, in every circumstance, this mercy is ever ready to dispense to us the necessary grace.
However, we have to supply a basis for God giving us the grace of mercy, just as there had to be something for Our Lord to feed the 4,000 and the 5,000 people. We have to supply, so to speak, the meager “loaves and fishes” and He will take them and do much with them. As we already stated, it is like cents being changed into dollars, or even gold. Our loaves and fishes are our prayers and penances. We have to give a regular and steady supply of them to offset and feed the ‘thousands’ of days of punishment that our sins hungrily demand. God will work with us, but He will not do all the work without us. As St. Augustine says: “God will save man, but not without the cooperation of man.”
Imitate the Saints
When these desponding souls are told that they ought, after the example of the saints, to put all their confidence in God, they will at once answer that it is not surprising that the saints had confidence in God, since they were saints, and served God with fidelity: but that they have not the same right to feel that perfect confidence in Him which the saints had. They do not perceive that such reasoning is contrary to the principles of true religion.
Hope is only Found in God
Hope is a theological virtue, and its motive can be found only in God. These souls make it a human virtue when its source or motive is recognized in man or in his ways. The saints did not hope in God because they were faithful to God, but they were faithful to God because they hoped in Him. Otherwise the sinner could never make an act of hope, and yet it is that very act of hope which disposes him to return to God.
Great Humility
Observe that St. Paul does not say, I have obtained mercy because I have been faithful, but “Having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful” (1 Corinthians 6:25). Mercy always precedes the good which we do; and it is from mercy alone that we have the necessary grace to do any good at all. The saints never counted upon their works to strengthen their confidence in God, for they were ever mindful of the words of Our Savior: “So you also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: ‘We are unprofitable servants!’” (Luke 17:10).
The greater saints they were, the greater was their humility. Their humility allowed them to see only the perfection to which they had not yet reached. Unlike the Pharisee in the Gospel, they found nothing in themselves to warrant their confidence, but in the mercy of God they sought and found a confidence, the foundations of which could not be shaken. This was what supported them, and this it is which must encourage you, and reanimate your fainting strength. It is of the utmost importance for you to understand this truth, that you may not again fall into the snare which your enemy has so often laid for you.
The True Motive for Christian Hope
According to religion the motive of Christian hope, or of confidence in God, is the same for all men, saints and sinners. Hope, as we have already said, is a theological virtue, like Faith and Charity. Its motive, then, can be found only in God, and can rest only upon divine perfection. It follows, therefore, that we exclude from this motive our own merits. We do not hope in God because we have been faithful to Him, but we hope in Him that we may obtain the grace to be faithful.
God is Faithful to His Promises—He will Help
On what, then, is Christian hope founded, and what is its motive, according to religion? Pope Benedict XIV, in his form of the Act of Hope, has pointed out the divine perfections, which constitute this motive. The act is this: “O my God, I hope in Thee, because Thou art faithful to Thy all powerful promises, and because Thy mercies are infinite!” In this motive there is nothing human-all is drawn from God Himself. And could there be a stronger motive to strengthen us in hope and confidence in God?
We here find the mercy of God, who is more anxious to shower His gifts upon man than man is to receive them; who desires their real good and their salvation much more sincerely than they desire it themselves, since He restrains them by His grace, which of themselves they could not merit, and since He prepares for them aid proportionate to the trials to which He exposes them-an aid which they can obtain by prayer, and with it conquer the evil one. This mercy is so infinite, that all the malice of mankind cannot exhaust it; and, after having manifested itself so wonderfully in the gift which God has granted us, His only Son for our ransom, it will not refuse us the assistance which He desires to afford us in this priceless benefit.
Effects of Divine Mercy
The effects of this divine mercy have been promised to us, by the assurances which God has made us, of coming to our assistance, whenever we ask it, to work out our salvation. God, who is truth itself, cannot deceive us, and He is essentially faithful to the promises He makes His creatures. But we find in the Holy Scripture the most touching exhortations to have recourse to Him in our necessities, with the promise that He will be our support and our strength. How, then, can we have any anxiety or seriously entertain any fear that He will reject or abandon us, when we call upon Him with confidence? Would not this be accusing God of not keeping His promise? But that would be blasphemy.
It is true that to grant our prayer God requires that we should call upon Him with confidence—but should we deserve to obtain His benefits if we asked them with a doubting heart; doubting that very goodness of which we are experiencing the effect every instant of our lives, and in so many thousand ways?
Purgatorial Calculator
Below, once again, you will see the hypothetical ‘Purgatorial Calculator’. Of course, there is no ‘black and white’ way that Purgatory is calculated, in a ridiculous kind of “one-size-fits-all” manner! The gravity of each sin is weighed, with it malice, deliberation, mitigating or aggravating circumstances, possibilities of avoidance, etc. The same sin, looking on the surface of things, will receive a varying degrees of punishment for different people. However, the purpose of the chart is to shock or spark us into action to try pay a massive debt with relatively little effort in this world (as compared to Purgatory) and this is what God would prefer in His mercy, rather than have to make us pay later through His justice.
Despondency or discouragement is the most dangerous temptation that the enemy of our salvation can employ. In other temptations he attacks some one virtue in particular, and shows himself openly―but by despondency he attacks them all, but covertly. The snare is readily perceived in other temptations―one finds in religion, often even in reason, principles which condemn them. The knowledge of the evil, to which we cannot blind ourselves, conscience, and the truths of religion which are awakened, serve as helps to sustain us.
But in despondency there is nothing to lean upon―we feel that reason does not suffice to enable us to practice all the good that God requires of us. On the other hand, we dare not hope to receive from God all the help we need to overcome our passions― thus we become discouraged and nearly reduced to despair, the very point to which the devil tries to lead the despondent soul.
This is easily and readily done by the devil in regard to our attitude to Purgatory. The goal of the devil is to make us sin as much as possible, while whispering to us that “God is good! God is kind! God is loving! God is merciful! God is very forgiving!” (which is all true, but it is not ALL the truth), while at the same the devil blinds to the rest of the truth, so that we have no fear or problem sinning. The devil blinds us to the fact that “God is just! God is exacting! God misses nothing! God will demand payment for each and every sin, even every idle word!”
Then, when we have sinned considerably, the devil tempts us despair of ever being able to get out of sin and ever being able to pay for our sin, by making us focus on the truth that:”God is just! God is exacting! God misses nothing! God will demand payment for each and every sin, even every idle word!” while at the same time blinding us the fact that “God is good! God is kind! God is loving! God is merciful! God is very forgiving!”
God Forgives—But Sin Must Be Paid For
Just like the devil makes us focus on one side of the coin and makes us ignore the other side, we also tend to focus exclusively on God’s mercy, while sweeping his justice under carpet. You cannot do that! As St. Catherine of Genoa says at the end of her Treatise on Purgatory:
“Would that I could utter so strong a cry that it would strike all men with terror, and say to them: ‘O wretched beings! Why are you so blinded by this world that you make, as you will find at the hour of death, no provision for the great necessity that will then come upon you?’” (St. Catherine of Genoa).
“You shelter yourselves beneath your hope in the mercy of God―which you unceasingly exalt―not seeing that it is your resistance to His great goodness which will be your condemnation. His goodness should constrain you to do His will, not encourage you to persevere in your own will! Since His justice is unfailing, it must therefore be in some way fully satisfied!” (St. Catherine of Genoa).
“Have not the boldness to say: ‘I will go to confession and gain a plenary indulgence and thus I shall be saved.’ Remember that the full confession and entire contrition―which are requisite to gain a plenary indulgence―are not easily attained. Did you know how hardly they are come by? You would tremble with fear and be more sure of losing than of gaining them” (St. Catherine of Genoa).
As Our Lady of Good Success said to Mother Mariana, in Quito, Ecuador in the 17th century: “Prepare your soul so that, increasingly purified, it might enter into the fullness of the joy of Our Lord. Oh, if mortals, and in particular religious souls, could know what Heaven is and what it is to possess God! How differently they would live! Nor would they spare themselves any sacrifice in order to possess Him! O, if men only understood how to appreciate the time given to them and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!” (Our Lady of Good Success to Mother Mariana, Quito, Ecuador).
Modern Deformation of God
The idiocy of modern-day Catholics is to make God into a patsy or a pushover! Or such a kindly God, that He cannot refuse to forgive all the crimes committed against Him. They imagine that He does not get angry, nor does He take vengeance upon those who sin. If that is the case, then Our Lady must be telling some whopping lies about God when she says:
“If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! … The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together! ... Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she trembles, with dread, at what must happen to the Earth stained with crime! Tremble, Earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves! … Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other! … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events! Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“Know, moreover, that Divine Justice releases terrible chastisements on entire nations, not only for the sins of the people, but for those of priests and religious persons! … before the eyes of God they quicken the rigor of the punishments … fire will rain from Heaven!” (Our Lady of Quito) … “And then water and fire will purge the Earth and consume all the works of man’s pride and all will be renewed … And then Jesus Christ, in an act of His justice and His great mercy, will command His Angels to have all His enemies put to death. Suddenly, the persecutors of the Church of Jesus Christ, and all those given over to sin, will perish and the Earth will become desert-like” (Our Lady of La Salette).
Is Our Lady a Liar? Is Our Lord a Liar?
Is Our Lady lying about God? We just don’t like to hear these things, like children don’t like to see their parents angry—but then the solution is to stop doing what makes them angry? We are so wrapped-up in our own feelings, that we have no time for the feelings of God! We hate to hear about chastisements, but we don’t stop sinning.
Some modern-day Catholics, with the sugar-coated version of Christ, also make Our Lord out to be a liar, Who said that the ingratitude and betrayal of religious souls, so dear to His Heart, would compel Him: “To let My Justice fall upon My beloved cloisters ― and even over cities ― when those so near to Me, who belong to Me, reject My spirit, abandoning Me alone in Tabernacles, rarely remembering that I live there especially for love of them, even more than for the rest of the faithful!” (Our Lord to Mother Mariana, Quito, Ecuador). She saw three swords hanging over the head of Christ. On each was written, “I shall punish heresy, blasphemy and impurity!” With this, she was given to understand all that would take place in the present era. Is Our Lord also lying? Of course not!
Despite the Justice, There Is Still Great Mercy
Yet Our Lady also offers the hand of mercy to those who sincerely seek to turn away from sin and are contrite: “I am in placating the Divine Justice and obtaining mercy and pardon for every sinner who comes to me with a contrite heart, for I am the Mother of Mercy and in me there is only goodness and love” (Our Lady of Quito) … “Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God” (Our Lady of Fatima). “God will take care of His faithful servants and men of good will … who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world” (Our Lady of La Salette). “Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach! Those who place their confidence in me will be saved!” (Our Lady of Akita).
This reminds us of the poignant statement that Our Lady made to St. Bridget: “I am the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the gate of entrance for sinners to God. In the fire of Purgatory there is no suffering that through my intercession would not be more easily bearable than otherwise. Neither is there living on Earth a sinner who is so accursed that he is deprived of my compassion―for everyone, if he receives nothing else through my intercession, receives the grace of being less tempted by evil spirits than he otherwise would be! Nobody, therefore, who is not entirely accursed [by which is meant the final and irrevocable malediction pronounced against the damned], is so entirely cast off by God that he may not return and enjoy his mercy if he invokes my aid. I am called by all the Mother of mercy, and truly the mercy of God towards men has made me so merciful towards them. Therefore he shall be miserable, and forever miserable in another life, who in this, being able, does not have recourse to me, who am so compassionate to all, and so earnestly desire to aid sinners!”
Accepting the Rough with the Smooth
It is important that we acknowledge and accept both sides of God—His justice and His mercy. It is our childishness and irresponsibility that hates to accept the side of justice, while wallowing on the side of mercy. The devil will happily assist us in this exercise. We will post, once more, at the end of this article, the hypothetical “Purgatory Calculator” so that we can see and shockingly see the side of justice—which hopefully scares sin right out of us and makes to start working hard to earn God’s mercy in the time that we have left in each of our lives. The justice, anger and chastisement is not meant to make us despondent, depressed or discouraged—but it is meant to give us a hatred of sin, a hatred of our past deeds, a hatred of future sin, and a great hope in the mercy of God, who nevertheless requires that justice be done. However, if we decide to pay now, rather than later, then we will experience a massive ‘discount price’ on justice. If we foolishly decide to pay after death, then we shall find ‘massive interest rates’ being added to our payments. So we have to hope that we can pay-off most of (or all of) what we owe here below—so that our ‘retirement scheme’ is truly “out of this world.” Hope and confidence in God are as much a commandment as Faith and the other virtues.
Excessive Fear Blinds Us To Truth
The great danger of despondency is that―being deceived by an excessive fear which makes us blind to the truth, and being discouraged at the sight of difficulties or in seeing the difficulty in changes and efforts we would have to make, against which we find no resource in ourselves―we stupidly fail to see this despondency as the effect of temptation. Could we only see it in that light, we should beware of the suggestions that entertain it, and should get rid of our trouble more quickly and more easily.
Despondency is only a Temptation
Let it, however, be well understood that despondency is a temptation, and bears all the marks of being such ―for every feeling that is opposed to the law of God, either in itself or by the consequences it may have, is evidently a temptation. It is thus we judge of every temptation to which we are liable. If we have a thought against Faith, a feeling against charity or some other virtue, we look upon it as a temptation; we turn away from it, and try to elicit acts opposed to the thought or feeling which has put us in danger of offending God.
Now, hope and confidence in God are commanded equally with Faith and the other virtues. Therefore the feeling which is opposed to hope is as much forbidden as that which is against Faith or any other virtue: it has thus every feature of a real temptation.
The law of God obliges us frequently to make acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity; and hence forbids us all willful feelings contrary to these sacred and necessary virtues. How, then, can despondency be viewed otherwise than as a temptation, and even as a very dangerous temptation, since it exposes the Christian soul to abandon every work of piety?
Hope Is the Antidote
To make this danger clearer to you, consider the general course of conduct among men. Is it not the hope of success, of gaining some advantage, of avoiding some evil, or of satisfying some desire or passion, which makes them act , which keeps them going in all their labors, and animates them to overcome their difficulties? Take away from them all hope, and they would soon fall into inaction. None but a madman would strive for an object which he despairs of obtaining. In our spiritual life, despondency produces the same effect; it is founded on the same principle, the lack of a means to reach the end which we propose to ourselves. But this despondency is built upon a failure to see the truth of things, a failure to see the real reality, which is covered by our imagined reality or ‘wishful-thinking’ reality!
Feeble Efforts & Fear of Failure
When we lose all hope of overcoming the difficulties which we may find in the practice of any virtue, we do not try, or but feebly, to make the effort to do so. These insufficient efforts only increase our weakness, and being more than half overcome by despondency, we are easily led away by the passion that sways us. The sense of our weakness first throws us into doubt and into trouble. In that state, thinking only of the difficulty of the combat, we do not distinguish the principles that ought to guide us. The fear of not succeeding, prevents us from employing the means which God has given us, and we are thus defenseless against our enemy.
We are like a child who, seeing the approach of a giant, begins to tremble, and forgets that a stone thrown in the name of the Lord may knock him out and lay him flat. In the same way we forget that we have a powerful help in the goodness of a caring Father, upon Whom we have only to call, to be victorious in all our struggles.
We Rely Too Much On Ourselves
Why does despondency make such strong and fatal impressions on us? We are obviously convinced of our weakness, for we have often experienced it. We painfully feel the difficulty of trying to overcome ourselves, as we succeed but rarely. Filled with these sad and discouraging reflections of our lack of spiritual strength, and of the little that we do to please God, we consider it useless to have recourse to Him, Who, we think, will not listen to our prayer while we are in our present state. This is merely the sad evidence of the pride within the human heart, that would wish to owe to itself all the good which it does, and the happiness to which it aspires! And how opposed to the words of the Holy Ghost: “What have you, that you have not received?” (1 Corinthians 4:7)
Rely on God’s Mercy
In such a state we see and depend only upon our own efforts, so that our despondency diminishes, ceases, returns, or increases, according as we act well or ill. We do not reflect that it is only from the mercy of God we can hope for help, and not by our own merits; that when we have done well it is through the grace of God, which we have not merited, and that, in every circumstance, this mercy is ever ready to dispense to us the necessary grace.
However, we have to supply a basis for God giving us the grace of mercy, just as there had to be something for Our Lord to feed the 4,000 and the 5,000 people. We have to supply, so to speak, the meager “loaves and fishes” and He will take them and do much with them. As we already stated, it is like cents being changed into dollars, or even gold. Our loaves and fishes are our prayers and penances. We have to give a regular and steady supply of them to offset and feed the ‘thousands’ of days of punishment that our sins hungrily demand. God will work with us, but He will not do all the work without us. As St. Augustine says: “God will save man, but not without the cooperation of man.”
Imitate the Saints
When these desponding souls are told that they ought, after the example of the saints, to put all their confidence in God, they will at once answer that it is not surprising that the saints had confidence in God, since they were saints, and served God with fidelity: but that they have not the same right to feel that perfect confidence in Him which the saints had. They do not perceive that such reasoning is contrary to the principles of true religion.
Hope is only Found in God
Hope is a theological virtue, and its motive can be found only in God. These souls make it a human virtue when its source or motive is recognized in man or in his ways. The saints did not hope in God because they were faithful to God, but they were faithful to God because they hoped in Him. Otherwise the sinner could never make an act of hope, and yet it is that very act of hope which disposes him to return to God.
Great Humility
Observe that St. Paul does not say, I have obtained mercy because I have been faithful, but “Having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful” (1 Corinthians 6:25). Mercy always precedes the good which we do; and it is from mercy alone that we have the necessary grace to do any good at all. The saints never counted upon their works to strengthen their confidence in God, for they were ever mindful of the words of Our Savior: “So you also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: ‘We are unprofitable servants!’” (Luke 17:10).
The greater saints they were, the greater was their humility. Their humility allowed them to see only the perfection to which they had not yet reached. Unlike the Pharisee in the Gospel, they found nothing in themselves to warrant their confidence, but in the mercy of God they sought and found a confidence, the foundations of which could not be shaken. This was what supported them, and this it is which must encourage you, and reanimate your fainting strength. It is of the utmost importance for you to understand this truth, that you may not again fall into the snare which your enemy has so often laid for you.
The True Motive for Christian Hope
According to religion the motive of Christian hope, or of confidence in God, is the same for all men, saints and sinners. Hope, as we have already said, is a theological virtue, like Faith and Charity. Its motive, then, can be found only in God, and can rest only upon divine perfection. It follows, therefore, that we exclude from this motive our own merits. We do not hope in God because we have been faithful to Him, but we hope in Him that we may obtain the grace to be faithful.
God is Faithful to His Promises—He will Help
On what, then, is Christian hope founded, and what is its motive, according to religion? Pope Benedict XIV, in his form of the Act of Hope, has pointed out the divine perfections, which constitute this motive. The act is this: “O my God, I hope in Thee, because Thou art faithful to Thy all powerful promises, and because Thy mercies are infinite!” In this motive there is nothing human-all is drawn from God Himself. And could there be a stronger motive to strengthen us in hope and confidence in God?
We here find the mercy of God, who is more anxious to shower His gifts upon man than man is to receive them; who desires their real good and their salvation much more sincerely than they desire it themselves, since He restrains them by His grace, which of themselves they could not merit, and since He prepares for them aid proportionate to the trials to which He exposes them-an aid which they can obtain by prayer, and with it conquer the evil one. This mercy is so infinite, that all the malice of mankind cannot exhaust it; and, after having manifested itself so wonderfully in the gift which God has granted us, His only Son for our ransom, it will not refuse us the assistance which He desires to afford us in this priceless benefit.
Effects of Divine Mercy
The effects of this divine mercy have been promised to us, by the assurances which God has made us, of coming to our assistance, whenever we ask it, to work out our salvation. God, who is truth itself, cannot deceive us, and He is essentially faithful to the promises He makes His creatures. But we find in the Holy Scripture the most touching exhortations to have recourse to Him in our necessities, with the promise that He will be our support and our strength. How, then, can we have any anxiety or seriously entertain any fear that He will reject or abandon us, when we call upon Him with confidence? Would not this be accusing God of not keeping His promise? But that would be blasphemy.
It is true that to grant our prayer God requires that we should call upon Him with confidence—but should we deserve to obtain His benefits if we asked them with a doubting heart; doubting that very goodness of which we are experiencing the effect every instant of our lives, and in so many thousand ways?
Purgatorial Calculator
Below, once again, you will see the hypothetical ‘Purgatorial Calculator’. Of course, there is no ‘black and white’ way that Purgatory is calculated, in a ridiculous kind of “one-size-fits-all” manner! The gravity of each sin is weighed, with it malice, deliberation, mitigating or aggravating circumstances, possibilities of avoidance, etc. The same sin, looking on the surface of things, will receive a varying degrees of punishment for different people. However, the purpose of the chart is to shock or spark us into action to try pay a massive debt with relatively little effort in this world (as compared to Purgatory) and this is what God would prefer in His mercy, rather than have to make us pay later through His justice.
Do Not Undervalue the Gravity of Sin
“Be not without fear about sin forgiven!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance!” (Matthew 3:8). “Thou shalt not go out thence, until thou pay the very last penny!” (Luke 12:59). Sin is expensive, very expensive—it is the most expensive thing in the world because “Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, and a greater evil than disease, or war ... Mortal Sin must be a most terrible thing indeed, to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the eternal punishment of sinners who die with even only one Mortal Sin” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 22, “Mortal Sin”). If an eternal Hell is created to punish just one single Mortal Sin, how on earth can war, flooding, earthquakes, pestilence, disease, death or fire from Heaven be thought to be worse than Hell? No matter what punishment Heaven sends us, it will still be like being tickled in comparison to the punishment of Hell.
As for Venial Sin, the same catechism says: “Although Venial Sin is not a grievous offense against God, it is, nevertheless, a great moral evil, next alone to Mortal Sin. We are prone to look upon Venial Sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that IT IS SECOND ONLY IN EVIL CONSEQUENCE TO MORTAL SIN. In Holy Scripture we see, from many examples, how God regards Venial Sin. Even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished. He was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land [and died at its borders]” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 23, “Venial Sin”).
Do Not Undervalue the Power of Love
While we are in this world, God mercifully accepts a lesser payment than shown in the hypothetical tables above. But when this life comes to a close, the mercy ceases and then the just amount will be collected. Let us not waste time in vain occupations, which can often be sinful too and so only add fuel to the fire—but let us take the rest of our life much more seriously than we have done until now. Remember the power of love—it is not so much the multiplicity of actions and penances that count, but the intensity of love and sorrow that we do them with: “for charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8) and “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47). However, to love much we must sin less—for how can we say we love someone if don’t cease mocking them and slapping them around, which is what Venial Sin essentially does?
One single act of perfect love combined with perfect contrition—sorrow for sin our sins out of a deep love of God and sorrow for having deeply offended someone who loves us so much—is enough to wipe out the entire debt for sin that we would have to pay in Purgatory! Yet that perfect love cannot be switched-on at will like a light-switch. That love must fed by many penances, sacrifices and mortifications; that love must grow through many prayers, readings and meditations. It is like a baby going and growing through all the different stages of life on its way to becoming an adult—babies are not microwaved, nor is love. It is the fruit of long years of effort.
“Be not without fear about sin forgiven!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance!” (Matthew 3:8). “Thou shalt not go out thence, until thou pay the very last penny!” (Luke 12:59). Sin is expensive, very expensive—it is the most expensive thing in the world because “Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, and a greater evil than disease, or war ... Mortal Sin must be a most terrible thing indeed, to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the eternal punishment of sinners who die with even only one Mortal Sin” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 22, “Mortal Sin”). If an eternal Hell is created to punish just one single Mortal Sin, how on earth can war, flooding, earthquakes, pestilence, disease, death or fire from Heaven be thought to be worse than Hell? No matter what punishment Heaven sends us, it will still be like being tickled in comparison to the punishment of Hell.
As for Venial Sin, the same catechism says: “Although Venial Sin is not a grievous offense against God, it is, nevertheless, a great moral evil, next alone to Mortal Sin. We are prone to look upon Venial Sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that IT IS SECOND ONLY IN EVIL CONSEQUENCE TO MORTAL SIN. In Holy Scripture we see, from many examples, how God regards Venial Sin. Even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished. He was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land [and died at its borders]” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 23, “Venial Sin”).
Do Not Undervalue the Power of Love
While we are in this world, God mercifully accepts a lesser payment than shown in the hypothetical tables above. But when this life comes to a close, the mercy ceases and then the just amount will be collected. Let us not waste time in vain occupations, which can often be sinful too and so only add fuel to the fire—but let us take the rest of our life much more seriously than we have done until now. Remember the power of love—it is not so much the multiplicity of actions and penances that count, but the intensity of love and sorrow that we do them with: “for charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8) and “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47). However, to love much we must sin less—for how can we say we love someone if don’t cease mocking them and slapping them around, which is what Venial Sin essentially does?
One single act of perfect love combined with perfect contrition—sorrow for sin our sins out of a deep love of God and sorrow for having deeply offended someone who loves us so much—is enough to wipe out the entire debt for sin that we would have to pay in Purgatory! Yet that perfect love cannot be switched-on at will like a light-switch. That love must fed by many penances, sacrifices and mortifications; that love must grow through many prayers, readings and meditations. It is like a baby going and growing through all the different stages of life on its way to becoming an adult—babies are not microwaved, nor is love. It is the fruit of long years of effort.
Article 17
Monday November 17th
The Mercies of God
Monday November 17th
The Mercies of God
Mercy and Justice Stand Together
There are some who are mainly inclined to justice, and show little or no mercy. There are others who are inclined to mercy, but show little or no justice. Not so with God! He is extreme in both regards—which is something we find hard to grasp. “The Lord is merciful and just” (Psalm 114:5). We might think, “How can loving God keep souls that He loves, in the fires of Purgatory―which are the same as the fires of Hell―sometimes for centuries on end?”
The reason we cannot see the mercy and justice in that action is because we have cheap notions about God and about sin—whereas both are extreme. God is extremely holy and honorable—sin is extremely evil and detestable. However, we neither honor and love God anywhere near as much as we should; neither do we hate and flee sin as much as we should.
The result is—if we can scrape in there by the skin of our teeth—Purgatory, a place which helps us finally understand both those extremes. Yet even Purgatory is an extremely merciful place, for nobody there is punished as much as they could be punished, and God grants consolations even amongst the terrible pain—like a parent trying to comfort a seriously injured child and then nursing him back to full health.
Mercy Now is Better than Mercy Later
Even though Purgatory is a merciful price to pay for Heaven, God offers an even more merciful price to those who are still living here on Earth. We can obtain mercy here below, as we have said, for mere cents on the dollar; whereas after this life, it will seem like we are paying thousands of dollars on a single cent! “I say to thee, you shalt not go out from there, until thou pay the very last penny!” (Luke 12:59).”Let him do penance for his sin!” (Leviticus 5:5). “Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good!” (Galatians 6:10).
Penance Pays Profitably
“And if they be converted in their heart and do penance, and pray to Thee, saying: ‘We have sinned, we have done wickedly, we have dealt unjustly!’ And return to Thee with all their heart, and with all their soul―then hear Thou from Heaven and forgive Thy people, although they have sinned!” (2 Paralipomenon 6:37-39). “And My people, upon whom My Name is called, being converted, shall make supplication to Me, and seek out My Face, and do penance for their most wicked ways―then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sins!” (2 Paralipomenon 7:14). “‘If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow―and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool!’ says the Lord” (Isaias 1:18). “Hear, I beseech you, My words, and do penance!” (Job 21:2). “I came to call sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3). “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance!” (Matthew 3:8). “Do penance―for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2).”God has given him time for penance, and he abuses it in his pride!” (Job 24:23). “If we do not penance, we shall fall into the hands of the Lord!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:22). Penance is the price for sin that must be paid—either Present Penance, or Purgatorial Penance. Paying in the present is much easier, much shorter, much wiser!
We read in the book of Ezechiel: “As I live, says the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways―and why will you die!” (33:11) ... “If the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keeps all My commandments, and does judgment and justice, then living he shall live, and shall not die! I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done! In his justice which he has wrought, he shall live! Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? But if the just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity according to all the abominations which the wicked man uses to work―shall he live? All his justices which he has done, shall not be remembered―for in the prevarication by which he has prevaricated, and in his sin which he has committed, in them he shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:21-24).
Even Our Lady stresses this need to pay for our sins before we die—whether by the name of penance, sacrifice or suffering—she has mentioned this repeatedly.”The leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance!” (La Salette) … “Communities can only be preserved at the cost of much penance!” (Quito) … “Penance! Penance! Penance!” (Lourdes) … “Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger!” (Akita) … “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices!” (Fatima) … “Others will do penance through hunger!” (La Salette) … “Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended! … Above all accept and bear with submission all the suffering the Lord will send you!” (Fatima, the angel) … “You are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort! … Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart! I will never forsake you! My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God!” (Fatima).
Sister Lucia on Penance and Mercy
In her 1957 conversation with Fr. Fuentes, Sister Lucia said: “Father, we should not wait for an appeal to the world to come from Rome on the part of the Holy Father, to do penance. Nor should we wait for the call from our bishops in our dioceses, nor from the religious congregations. No! Our Lord has already, very often, used these means and the world has not paid attention! That is why now it is necessary for each one of us to begin to reform himself spiritually!”
On June 13th, 1929, Lucia saw another important apparition involving Mary as she was making a Holy Hour in the convent chapel at Tuy in Spain, as was her custom on Thursday nights from eleven to twelve. She was alone, praying the prayers of the Angel in the dim light of the sanctuary lamp when, she says:
“Suddenly the whole chapel was illumined by a supernatural light, and above the altar appeared a Cross of light, reaching to the ceiling. In a brighter light on the upper part of the Cross, could be seen the face of a Man and his body as far as the waist; upon his breast was a dove of light; nailed to the Cross was the body of another man. A little below the waist, I could see a chalice and a large Host suspended in the air, onto which drops of blood were falling from the Face of Jesus Crucified and from the wound in His side.
“These drops ran down onto the Host and fell into the chalice. Beneath the right arm of the Cross was Our Lady and in her hand was her Immaculate Heart. It was Our Lady of Fatima, with her Immaculate Heart in her left hand, without sword or roses, but with a crown of thorns and flames. Under the left arm of the Cross, large letters, as if of crystal clear water which ran down upon the altar, formed these words: ‘Grace and Mercy.’”
The Rosary and Mercy
“Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach! Those who place their confidence in me will be saved!” (Akita) … “Say the Rosary every day! … Continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you! … I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day!” (Fatima).
St. Louis de Montfort speaks much of the Rosary and its merciful benefits: “If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins ‘you shall receive a never fading crown of glory!’ (1 Peter 5:4). Even if you are on the brink of damnation; even if you have one foot in Hell; even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic; and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil―sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if—and mark well what I say—if you say the Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins!” (Secret of the Rosary: “A Red Rose”).
Our Lady appeared to St. Dominic and said: “Priests should try to kindle a love of prayer in people’s hearts and especially a love of my Angelic Psalter. If only they would all start saying it and would really persevere, God in His mercy could hardly refuse to give them His grace” (Secret of the Rosary: “Third Rose”).
Alphonsus, King of Leon and Galicia, very much wanted all his servants to honor the Blessed Virgin by saying the Rosary, so he used to hang a large Rosary on his belt, though he never said it himself. Nevertheless, his wearing it encouraged his courtiers to say the Rosary devoutly. One day the King fell seriously ill and, when he was given up for dead, he found himself, in spirit, before the judgment seat of Our Lord. Many devils were there accusing him of all the sins he had committed, and Our Lord was about to condemn him, when Our Lady came forward to speak in his favor. She called for a pair of scales and had his sins placed in one of the balances, while she put the large Rosary which he had always worn on the other scale, together with all the Rosaries that had been said through his example. It was found that the Rosaries weighed more than his sins. Looking at him with great kindness, Our Lady said, “As a reward for the little service you did for me in wearing my Rosary, I have obtained a great grace for you from my Son. Your life will be spared for a few more years. See that you spend those years wisely, and do penance!”
Sister Lucia on the Rosary and Mercy
Sister Lucia stresses that so many mercies can come to us through the Rosary—it the tool or weapon of this age that we live in: “The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary, to such an extent, that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or, above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary! There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary! With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls!” (Sister Lucia to Fr. Fuentes, December 1957).
St. Thomas Aquinas on Mercy
St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “Mercy and truth are necessarily found in all God’s works … [also] justice must exist in all God’s works. Certain works are attributed to justice, and certain others to mercy, because in some justice appears more forcibly and in others mercy. Even in the damnation of the reprobate mercy is seen, which, though it does not totally remit, yet it somewhat alleviates, in punishing short of what is deserved. In the justification of the ungodly, justice is seen, when God remits sins on account of love, though He Himself has mercifully infused that love. So we read of Magdalen: ‘Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much!’ (Luke 7:47).” (Summa Theologica, 1a, q. 21, art. 4)
In bestowing good on creatures, God manifests His goodness. In meeting the needs of creatures, He manifests His justice. In bestowing all that is useful, God manifests His generosity. And in giving what counteracts miseries and defects, God shows His mercy. In all the works of God, justice and mercy are manifest.
Mercy begets Mercy
St. Thomas Aquinas spoke of Mary Magdalen, quoting Our Lord’s words concerning her:”Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much!” (Luke 7:47). Our Lord had also said: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7). These two—charity and mercy—are linked, for mercy is a room in the mansion of charity. When we show mercy, we practice charity. Hence, “charity [mercy] covers a multitude of sins!” (1 Peter 4:8).
This was also the message given to the Venerable Catherine Paluzzi, by a holy Religious, who died in her arms, but who was not admitted to eternal beatitude until after she had passed an entire year in Purgatory. Catherine Paluzzi led a holy life in the diocese of Nepi, in Italy, where she founded a convent of Dominicans. There lived with her a Religious named Bernardine, who was far advanced in the ways of the spiritual life. These two saints emulated each other in fervor, and helped each other to progress more and more in the perfection to which God called them. The biographer of Venerable Catherine compares them to two live coals that communicate heat to each other; and again, to two harps tuned to harmonize together in one perpetual hymn of love to the greater glory of God.
Bernardine died; a painful malady, which she bore with Christian patience, carried her to the grave. Catherine prayed much for the soul of her friend. An entire year elapsed when, on the anniversary of the death of Bernardine, Catherine being in prayer, saw a pit from which came volumes of smoke and flames; then she saw, coming out of the pit, a form surrounded by dark clouds. By degrees these dark clouds were dispersed, and the apparition became radiant with an extraordinary brilliancy.
In this glorious personage Catherine recognized Bernardine and ran towards her.”Is it you, my dearest sister?” said she, “But from where have you just come? What is this pit, this fiery smoke? Does your Purgatory end only today?” “You are right,” replied the soul; “for a year I have been detained in that place of expiation, and today, for the first time, shall I enter Heaven. As regards yourself, persevere in your holy exercises: continue to be charitable and merciful, and you will obtain mercy!” (Diario Domenicano. Cf. Rossignoli, Merveilles, part 2, 51).
A Lack of Mercy will Lose God’s Mercy
“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful!” (Luke 6:36). “Who keepest mercy unto thousands: who takest away iniquity, and wickedness, and sin” (Exodus 34:7). “Be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God has forgiven you in Christ” (Ephesians 4:32). “Blessed are the merciful―for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7). But “judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy” (James 2:13). This reminds us of the unjust and unforgiving steward, who was forgiven a large debt by his master, but then refused to forgive his neighbor a small debt.
“Therefore is the Kingdom of Heaven likened to a king, who would take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents. And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.
“But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence: and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: ‘Pay what thou owest!’ And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.
A talent was 750 ounces of silver. A penny was only one-eighth of an ounce of silver. The price of silver today (November 2025) is $50 oz. Therefore, at today’s prices …
1 TALENT = 750 ounces @ $50 oz = $37,500. Therefore 10,000 talents = 10,000 x $37,5000 = $375 million
1 PENNY = 1/8 ounce @ $25 oz = $6.25 Therefore 100 pence = 100 x $6.25 = $625
“Now his fellow servants seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him; and said to him: ‘Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me! Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee?’ And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt. So also shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not everyone his brother from your hearts” (Matthew 18:23-35).
The Sin of Presumption
There are those who, ever-reminding themselves of the mercy of God, presume to sin wantonly, thinking that mercy will still be shown to them. This is not so! “Say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great! He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’” (Ecclesiasticus 5:6). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7).”Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God!” (Luke 4:12).
St. Alphonsus says: “The sinner who abandons himself to sin without striving to resist temptations, or without at least asking God’s help to conquer them, and hopes that the Lord will one day draw him from the precipice―tempts God to work miracles, or rather to show to him an extraordinary mercy that is not extended to the generality of Christians! … God numbers the graces which He dispenses, as well as the sins which we commit. Hence, when the time which He has fixed arrives, God deprives us of His graces, and begins to inflict chastisement! … When sins reach a certain number, God pardons no more! … God is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but He cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner!” (Sermon: First Sunday of Lent).
Now is the Acceptable Time
We read in the Old Testament: “Thus says the Lord: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee!’” (Isaias 49:8) and St. Paul echoes that in the New Testament, telling us that now is the time, here on Earth, to work out our salvation: “For God says: ‘In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee!’ Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2). “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, with fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12).
Remembering that the Lord is merciful to those who truly sorrow over their sins, seeking to repair the damage caused by them. “And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him!” (Luke 1:50). “The Lord is gracious and merciful; patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all―and His tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:8-9). “Rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God―for He is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy!” (Joel 2:13). “I said: ‘O Lord, be Thou merciful to me! Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee!’” (Psalm 40:5). “Hear, O Lord, and have mercy―for Thou art a merciful God―and have pity on us, for we have sinned before Thee!” (Baruch 3:2). “And they called upon the Lord Who is merciful, and spreading their hands, they lifted them up to Heaven; and the holy Lord God quickly heard their voice!” (Ecclesiasticus 48:22).
There are some who are mainly inclined to justice, and show little or no mercy. There are others who are inclined to mercy, but show little or no justice. Not so with God! He is extreme in both regards—which is something we find hard to grasp. “The Lord is merciful and just” (Psalm 114:5). We might think, “How can loving God keep souls that He loves, in the fires of Purgatory―which are the same as the fires of Hell―sometimes for centuries on end?”
The reason we cannot see the mercy and justice in that action is because we have cheap notions about God and about sin—whereas both are extreme. God is extremely holy and honorable—sin is extremely evil and detestable. However, we neither honor and love God anywhere near as much as we should; neither do we hate and flee sin as much as we should.
The result is—if we can scrape in there by the skin of our teeth—Purgatory, a place which helps us finally understand both those extremes. Yet even Purgatory is an extremely merciful place, for nobody there is punished as much as they could be punished, and God grants consolations even amongst the terrible pain—like a parent trying to comfort a seriously injured child and then nursing him back to full health.
Mercy Now is Better than Mercy Later
Even though Purgatory is a merciful price to pay for Heaven, God offers an even more merciful price to those who are still living here on Earth. We can obtain mercy here below, as we have said, for mere cents on the dollar; whereas after this life, it will seem like we are paying thousands of dollars on a single cent! “I say to thee, you shalt not go out from there, until thou pay the very last penny!” (Luke 12:59).”Let him do penance for his sin!” (Leviticus 5:5). “Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good!” (Galatians 6:10).
Penance Pays Profitably
“And if they be converted in their heart and do penance, and pray to Thee, saying: ‘We have sinned, we have done wickedly, we have dealt unjustly!’ And return to Thee with all their heart, and with all their soul―then hear Thou from Heaven and forgive Thy people, although they have sinned!” (2 Paralipomenon 6:37-39). “And My people, upon whom My Name is called, being converted, shall make supplication to Me, and seek out My Face, and do penance for their most wicked ways―then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sins!” (2 Paralipomenon 7:14). “‘If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow―and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool!’ says the Lord” (Isaias 1:18). “Hear, I beseech you, My words, and do penance!” (Job 21:2). “I came to call sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3). “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance!” (Matthew 3:8). “Do penance―for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2).”God has given him time for penance, and he abuses it in his pride!” (Job 24:23). “If we do not penance, we shall fall into the hands of the Lord!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:22). Penance is the price for sin that must be paid—either Present Penance, or Purgatorial Penance. Paying in the present is much easier, much shorter, much wiser!
We read in the book of Ezechiel: “As I live, says the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways―and why will you die!” (33:11) ... “If the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keeps all My commandments, and does judgment and justice, then living he shall live, and shall not die! I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done! In his justice which he has wrought, he shall live! Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? But if the just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity according to all the abominations which the wicked man uses to work―shall he live? All his justices which he has done, shall not be remembered―for in the prevarication by which he has prevaricated, and in his sin which he has committed, in them he shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:21-24).
Even Our Lady stresses this need to pay for our sins before we die—whether by the name of penance, sacrifice or suffering—she has mentioned this repeatedly.”The leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance!” (La Salette) … “Communities can only be preserved at the cost of much penance!” (Quito) … “Penance! Penance! Penance!” (Lourdes) … “Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger!” (Akita) … “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices!” (Fatima) … “Others will do penance through hunger!” (La Salette) … “Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended! … Above all accept and bear with submission all the suffering the Lord will send you!” (Fatima, the angel) … “You are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort! … Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart! I will never forsake you! My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God!” (Fatima).
Sister Lucia on Penance and Mercy
In her 1957 conversation with Fr. Fuentes, Sister Lucia said: “Father, we should not wait for an appeal to the world to come from Rome on the part of the Holy Father, to do penance. Nor should we wait for the call from our bishops in our dioceses, nor from the religious congregations. No! Our Lord has already, very often, used these means and the world has not paid attention! That is why now it is necessary for each one of us to begin to reform himself spiritually!”
On June 13th, 1929, Lucia saw another important apparition involving Mary as she was making a Holy Hour in the convent chapel at Tuy in Spain, as was her custom on Thursday nights from eleven to twelve. She was alone, praying the prayers of the Angel in the dim light of the sanctuary lamp when, she says:
“Suddenly the whole chapel was illumined by a supernatural light, and above the altar appeared a Cross of light, reaching to the ceiling. In a brighter light on the upper part of the Cross, could be seen the face of a Man and his body as far as the waist; upon his breast was a dove of light; nailed to the Cross was the body of another man. A little below the waist, I could see a chalice and a large Host suspended in the air, onto which drops of blood were falling from the Face of Jesus Crucified and from the wound in His side.
“These drops ran down onto the Host and fell into the chalice. Beneath the right arm of the Cross was Our Lady and in her hand was her Immaculate Heart. It was Our Lady of Fatima, with her Immaculate Heart in her left hand, without sword or roses, but with a crown of thorns and flames. Under the left arm of the Cross, large letters, as if of crystal clear water which ran down upon the altar, formed these words: ‘Grace and Mercy.’”
The Rosary and Mercy
“Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach! Those who place their confidence in me will be saved!” (Akita) … “Say the Rosary every day! … Continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you! … I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day!” (Fatima).
St. Louis de Montfort speaks much of the Rosary and its merciful benefits: “If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins ‘you shall receive a never fading crown of glory!’ (1 Peter 5:4). Even if you are on the brink of damnation; even if you have one foot in Hell; even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic; and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil―sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if—and mark well what I say—if you say the Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins!” (Secret of the Rosary: “A Red Rose”).
Our Lady appeared to St. Dominic and said: “Priests should try to kindle a love of prayer in people’s hearts and especially a love of my Angelic Psalter. If only they would all start saying it and would really persevere, God in His mercy could hardly refuse to give them His grace” (Secret of the Rosary: “Third Rose”).
Alphonsus, King of Leon and Galicia, very much wanted all his servants to honor the Blessed Virgin by saying the Rosary, so he used to hang a large Rosary on his belt, though he never said it himself. Nevertheless, his wearing it encouraged his courtiers to say the Rosary devoutly. One day the King fell seriously ill and, when he was given up for dead, he found himself, in spirit, before the judgment seat of Our Lord. Many devils were there accusing him of all the sins he had committed, and Our Lord was about to condemn him, when Our Lady came forward to speak in his favor. She called for a pair of scales and had his sins placed in one of the balances, while she put the large Rosary which he had always worn on the other scale, together with all the Rosaries that had been said through his example. It was found that the Rosaries weighed more than his sins. Looking at him with great kindness, Our Lady said, “As a reward for the little service you did for me in wearing my Rosary, I have obtained a great grace for you from my Son. Your life will be spared for a few more years. See that you spend those years wisely, and do penance!”
Sister Lucia on the Rosary and Mercy
Sister Lucia stresses that so many mercies can come to us through the Rosary—it the tool or weapon of this age that we live in: “The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary, to such an extent, that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or, above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary! There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary! With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls!” (Sister Lucia to Fr. Fuentes, December 1957).
St. Thomas Aquinas on Mercy
St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “Mercy and truth are necessarily found in all God’s works … [also] justice must exist in all God’s works. Certain works are attributed to justice, and certain others to mercy, because in some justice appears more forcibly and in others mercy. Even in the damnation of the reprobate mercy is seen, which, though it does not totally remit, yet it somewhat alleviates, in punishing short of what is deserved. In the justification of the ungodly, justice is seen, when God remits sins on account of love, though He Himself has mercifully infused that love. So we read of Magdalen: ‘Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much!’ (Luke 7:47).” (Summa Theologica, 1a, q. 21, art. 4)
In bestowing good on creatures, God manifests His goodness. In meeting the needs of creatures, He manifests His justice. In bestowing all that is useful, God manifests His generosity. And in giving what counteracts miseries and defects, God shows His mercy. In all the works of God, justice and mercy are manifest.
Mercy begets Mercy
St. Thomas Aquinas spoke of Mary Magdalen, quoting Our Lord’s words concerning her:”Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much!” (Luke 7:47). Our Lord had also said: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7). These two—charity and mercy—are linked, for mercy is a room in the mansion of charity. When we show mercy, we practice charity. Hence, “charity [mercy] covers a multitude of sins!” (1 Peter 4:8).
This was also the message given to the Venerable Catherine Paluzzi, by a holy Religious, who died in her arms, but who was not admitted to eternal beatitude until after she had passed an entire year in Purgatory. Catherine Paluzzi led a holy life in the diocese of Nepi, in Italy, where she founded a convent of Dominicans. There lived with her a Religious named Bernardine, who was far advanced in the ways of the spiritual life. These two saints emulated each other in fervor, and helped each other to progress more and more in the perfection to which God called them. The biographer of Venerable Catherine compares them to two live coals that communicate heat to each other; and again, to two harps tuned to harmonize together in one perpetual hymn of love to the greater glory of God.
Bernardine died; a painful malady, which she bore with Christian patience, carried her to the grave. Catherine prayed much for the soul of her friend. An entire year elapsed when, on the anniversary of the death of Bernardine, Catherine being in prayer, saw a pit from which came volumes of smoke and flames; then she saw, coming out of the pit, a form surrounded by dark clouds. By degrees these dark clouds were dispersed, and the apparition became radiant with an extraordinary brilliancy.
In this glorious personage Catherine recognized Bernardine and ran towards her.”Is it you, my dearest sister?” said she, “But from where have you just come? What is this pit, this fiery smoke? Does your Purgatory end only today?” “You are right,” replied the soul; “for a year I have been detained in that place of expiation, and today, for the first time, shall I enter Heaven. As regards yourself, persevere in your holy exercises: continue to be charitable and merciful, and you will obtain mercy!” (Diario Domenicano. Cf. Rossignoli, Merveilles, part 2, 51).
A Lack of Mercy will Lose God’s Mercy
“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful!” (Luke 6:36). “Who keepest mercy unto thousands: who takest away iniquity, and wickedness, and sin” (Exodus 34:7). “Be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God has forgiven you in Christ” (Ephesians 4:32). “Blessed are the merciful―for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7). But “judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy” (James 2:13). This reminds us of the unjust and unforgiving steward, who was forgiven a large debt by his master, but then refused to forgive his neighbor a small debt.
“Therefore is the Kingdom of Heaven likened to a king, who would take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents. And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.
“But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence: and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: ‘Pay what thou owest!’ And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.
A talent was 750 ounces of silver. A penny was only one-eighth of an ounce of silver. The price of silver today (November 2025) is $50 oz. Therefore, at today’s prices …
1 TALENT = 750 ounces @ $50 oz = $37,500. Therefore 10,000 talents = 10,000 x $37,5000 = $375 million
1 PENNY = 1/8 ounce @ $25 oz = $6.25 Therefore 100 pence = 100 x $6.25 = $625
“Now his fellow servants seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him; and said to him: ‘Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me! Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee?’ And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt. So also shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not everyone his brother from your hearts” (Matthew 18:23-35).
The Sin of Presumption
There are those who, ever-reminding themselves of the mercy of God, presume to sin wantonly, thinking that mercy will still be shown to them. This is not so! “Say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great! He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’” (Ecclesiasticus 5:6). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7).”Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God!” (Luke 4:12).
St. Alphonsus says: “The sinner who abandons himself to sin without striving to resist temptations, or without at least asking God’s help to conquer them, and hopes that the Lord will one day draw him from the precipice―tempts God to work miracles, or rather to show to him an extraordinary mercy that is not extended to the generality of Christians! … God numbers the graces which He dispenses, as well as the sins which we commit. Hence, when the time which He has fixed arrives, God deprives us of His graces, and begins to inflict chastisement! … When sins reach a certain number, God pardons no more! … God is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but He cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner!” (Sermon: First Sunday of Lent).
Now is the Acceptable Time
We read in the Old Testament: “Thus says the Lord: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee!’” (Isaias 49:8) and St. Paul echoes that in the New Testament, telling us that now is the time, here on Earth, to work out our salvation: “For God says: ‘In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee!’ Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2). “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, with fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12).
Remembering that the Lord is merciful to those who truly sorrow over their sins, seeking to repair the damage caused by them. “And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him!” (Luke 1:50). “The Lord is gracious and merciful; patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all―and His tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:8-9). “Rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God―for He is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy!” (Joel 2:13). “I said: ‘O Lord, be Thou merciful to me! Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee!’” (Psalm 40:5). “Hear, O Lord, and have mercy―for Thou art a merciful God―and have pity on us, for we have sinned before Thee!” (Baruch 3:2). “And they called upon the Lord Who is merciful, and spreading their hands, they lifted them up to Heaven; and the holy Lord God quickly heard their voice!” (Ecclesiasticus 48:22).
Article 16
Sunday November 16th
The Joys of Purgatory
Sunday November 16th
The Joys of Purgatory
Feast of St. Gertrude—November 16th
Little is known of the early life of Gertrude. Gertrude was born on the feast of the Epiphany, January 6th, 1256, in Eisleben, Thuringia (within the Holy Roman Empire). At the age of four, she entered the monastery school at the monastery of St. Mary at Helfta (with much debate having occurred as to whether this monastery is best described as Benedictine or Cistercian), under the direction of its abbess, Gertrude of Hackeborn. It is speculated that she was offered as a child oblate to the Church by devout parents. Given that Gertrude implies in the Herald that her parents were long dead at the time of writing, however, it is also possible that she entered the monastery school as an orphan.
Gertrude was confided to the care of St. Mechtilde, younger sister of the Abbess Gertrude, and joined the monastic community in 1266. It is clear from her own writings that she received a thorough education in a range of subjects. She was thoroughly familiar with scripture, the Fathers of the Church such as St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great, and also in more contemporary spiritual writers such as Richard and Hugh of St Victor, William of St Thierry, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Moreover, Gertrude’s writing demonstrates that she was well-versed in rhetoric, and her Latin is very fluent.
In 1281, at the age of twenty-five, she experienced the first of a series of visions that continued throughout her life, and which changed the course of her life. Her priorities shifted away from secular knowledge and toward the study of Scripture and theology. Gertrude devoted herself strongly to personal prayer and meditation, and began writing spiritual treatises for the benefit of her monastic sisters. Gertrude became one of the great mystics of the 13th century. Together with her friend and teacher St. Mechtilde, she practiced a spirituality called “nuptial mysticism,” that is, she came to see herself as the bride of Christ. Gertrude died at Helfta, near Eisleben, Saxony, around 1302. Her feast day is celebrated on November 16th.
St. Gertrude and Purgatory
St. Gertrude the Great is invoked for souls in Purgatory and for living sinners. Our Lord told St. Gertrude that the following prayer would release 1,000 souls from Purgatory each time it is said. The prayer was extended to include living sinners as well. However, we should realize that prayer should not be said lukewarmly, mechanically or listlessly without any love, nor deliberately distracted, nor rushed—for this would be sinful, and it is hard to believe that sinful prayer is very effective, as it deserves, not a reward, but a punishment. So we should avoid treating prayers like this one as one would look upon a lucky charm.
“Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.”
St. Catherine of Genoa
Passing from one Saint linked with Purgatory to another, we will look at the life and writings of St. Catherine of Genoa. Born at Genoa in 1447, died at the same place on September 15th, 1510, the life of St. Catherine of Genoa may be more properly described as a state than as a life in the ordinary sense. When about twenty-six years old, she became the subject of one of the most extraordinary operations of God in the human soul of which we have record, the result being a marvelous inward condition that lasted till her death. In this state, she received wonderful revelations, of which she spoke at times to those around her, but which are mainly embodied in her two celebrated works: the “Dialogues of the Soul and Body”, and the “Treatise on Purgatory”. Her modern biographies, chiefly translations or adaptations of an old Italian one which is itself founded on ”Memoirs” drawn up by the saint’s own confessor and a friend, mingle what facts they give of her outward life with accounts of her supernatural state and “doctrine
Tough and Painful Marriage
St. Catherine’s parents were Jacopo Fieschi and Francesca di Negro, both of illustrious Italian birth. Two popes — Innocent IV and Adrian V — had been of the Fieschi family, and Jacopo himself became Viceroy of Naples. Catherine is described as an extraordinarily holy child, highly gifted in the way of prayer, and with a wonderful love of Christ’s Passion and of penitential practices; but, also, as having been a most quiet, simple, and exceedingly obedient girl. When about thirteen, she wished to enter the convent, but the nuns to whom her confessor applied having refused her on account of her youth, she appears to have put the idea aside without any further attempt. At sixteen, she was married by her parents’ wish to a young Genoese nobleman, Giuliano Adorno. The marriage turned out wretchedly; Giuliano proved faithless, violent-tempered, and a spendthrift. He made the life of his wife a misery. Details are scanty, but it seems at least clear that Catherine spent the first five years of her marriage in silent, melancholy submission to her husband; and that she then, for another five years, turned a little to the world for consolation in her troubles.
The distractions she took were most innocent; nevertheless, destined as she was for an extraordinary life, they had the effect in her case of producing lukewarmness, the end of which was such intense weariness and depression that she prayed earnestly for a return of her old fervor. Then, just ten years after her marriage, came the event of her life, in answer to her prayer. She went one day, full of melancholy, to a convent in Genoa where she had a sister, a nun. The latter advised her to go to confession to the nuns’ confessor, and Catherine agreed. No sooner, however, had she knelt down in the confessional than a ray of Divine light pierced her soul, and in one moment manifested her own sinfulness and the Love of God with equal clearness. The revelation was so overwhelming that she lost consciousness and fell into a kind of ecstasy, for a space during which the confessor happened to be called away. When he returned, Catherine could only murmur that she would put off her confession, and go home quickly.
St. Catherine’s Treatise on Purgatory
From the moment of that sudden vision of herself and God, the saint’s interior state seems never to have changed, save by varying in intensity and being accompanied by more or less severe penance, according to what she saw required of her by the Holy Spirit Who guided her incessantly. No one could describe it except herself; but she does so, minutely, in her writings, which we will now examine. What follows is taken from her “Treatise on Purgatory”.
No Choice—No Remembrance—No Sadness
“As far as I can see, the souls in Purgatory can have no choice but to be there; this God has most justly ordained by His divine decree. They cannot turn towards themselves and say: ‘I have committed such and such sins for which I deserve to remain here;’ nor can they say: ‘Would that I had refrained from them, for then I should at this moment be in paradise;’ nor again: ‘This soul will be released before me;’ or ‘I shall be released before her.’ They retain no memory of either good or evil respecting themselves or others which would increase their pain. They are so contented with the divine dispositions in their regard; and with doing all that is pleasing to God in that way which He chooses, that they cannot think of themselves, though they may strive to do so. They see nothing but the operation of the divine goodness which is so manifestly bringing them to God that they can reflect neither on their own profit, nor on their hurt. Could they do so, they would not be in pure charity. They see not that they suffer their pains in consequence of their sins, nor can they for a moment entertain that thought, for should they do so it would be an active imperfection, and that cannot exist in a state where there is no longer the possibility of sin.
“At the moment of leaving this life they see why they are sent to Purgatory, but never again, otherwise they would still retain something private, which has no place there. Being established in charity, they can never deviate therefrom by any defect, and have no will or desire, save the pure will of pure love, and can swerve from it in nothing. They can neither commit sin, nor merit by refraining from it.”
Purgatory—A Place of Pain and Peace
“There is no peace to be compared with that of the souls in Purgatory, save that of the saints in paradise, and this peace is ever augmented by the inflowing of God into these souls, which increases in proportion as the impediments to it are removed. The rust of sin is the impediment, and this the fire continually consumes, so that the soul in this state is continually opening itself to admit the divine communication. As a covered surface can never reflect the sun, not through any defect in that orb, but simply from the resistance offered by the covering, so, if the covering be gradually removed, the surface will by little and little be opened to the sun and will more and more reflect His light.
“So it is with the rust of sin, which is the covering of the soul. In Purgatory the flames incessantly consume it, and as it disappears, the soul reflects more and more perfectly the true sun who is God. Its contentment increases as this rust wears away, and the soul is laid bare to the divine ray, and thus one increases and the other decreases until the time is accomplished. The pain never diminishes, although the time does, but as to the will, so united is it to God by pure charity, and so satisfied to be under His divine appointment, that these souls can never say their pains are pains.
The Pain of Purgatory
“On the other hand, it is true that they suffer torments which no tongue can describe nor any intelligence comprehend, unless it be revealed by such a special grace as that which God has vouchsafed to me, but which I am unable to explain. And this vision which God revealed to me has never departed from my memory. I will describe it as far as I am able, and they whose intellects our Lord will deign to open will understand me.
“The source of all suffering is either Original or Actual Sin. God created the soul pure, simple, free from every stain, and with a certain beatific instinct toward Himself. It is drawn aside from Him by Original Sin, and when Actual Sin is afterwards added, this withdraws it still farther, and, ever as it removes from Him, its sinfulness increases, because its communication with God grows less and less.
Increasing Fire of Charity
“And because there is no good except by participation with God, who, to the irrational creatures imparts Himself as He wills and in accordance with His divine decree, and never withdraws from them, but to the rational soul He imparts Himself more or less, according as He finds her more or less freed from the hindrances of sin, it follows that, when He finds a soul that is returning to the purity and simplicity in which she was created, He increased in her the beatific instinct, and kindles in her a fire of charity so powerful and vehement, that it is insupportable to the soul to find any obstacle between her and her end; and the clearer vision she has of these obstacles the greater is her pain.
The Barrier of Pain
“Since the souls in Purgatory are freed from the guilt of sin, there is no barrier between them and God save only the pains they suffer, which delay the satisfaction of their desire. And when they see how serious is even the slightest hindrance, which the necessity of justice causes to check them, a vehement flame kindles within them, which is like that of Hell. They feel no guilt however, and it is guilt which is the cause of the malignant will of the condemned in Hell, to whom God does not communicate His goodness, and thus they remain in despair and with a will forever opposed to the good will of God.
Penalties of Purgatory and Hell
“It is evident that the revolt of man’s will from that of God constitutes sin, and while that revolt continues, man’s guilt remains. Those, therefore, that are in Hell, having passed from this life with perverse wills, their guilt is not remitted, nor can it be, since they are no longer capable of change. When this life is ended, the soul remains forever confirmed either in good or evil according as she has here determined. As it is written: ‘Where I shall find thee,’ that is, at the hour of death, with the will either fixed on sin or repenting of it, ‘there I will judge thee.’ From this judgment there is no appeal, for after death the freedom of the will can never return, but the will is confirmed in that state in which it is found at death. The souls in Hell, having been found at that hour with the will to sin, have the guilt and the punishment always with them, and although this punishment is not so great as they deserve, yet it is eternal. Those in Purgatory, on the other hand, suffer the penalty only, for their guilt was cancelled at death, when they were found hating their sins and penitent for having offended the divine goodness. And this penalty has an end, for the term of it is ever approaching. O misery beyond all misery, and the greater because in his blindness, man regards it not!
“The punishment of the damned is not, it is true, infinite in degree, for the all lovely goodness of God shines even into Hell. He who dies in mortal sin merits infinite woe for an infinite duration; but the mercy of God has only made the time infinite, and mitigated the intensity of the pain. In justice He might have inflicted much greater punishment than He has done.
“Oh, what peril attaches to sin willfully committed! For it is so difficult for man to bring himself to penance, and without penitence guilt remains and will ever remain, so long as man retains unchanged the will to sin, or is intent upon committing it.
Finally Totally Conformed to the Will of God
“The souls in Purgatory are entirely conformed to the will of God; therefore, they correspond with His goodness, are contented with all that He ordains, and are entirely purified from the guilt of their sins. They are pure from sins, because they have in this life abhorred them and confessed them with true contrition, and for this reason God remits their guilt, so that only the stains of sin remain, and these must be devoured by the fire. Thus freed from guilt and united to the will of God, they see Him clearly according to that degree of light which He allows them, and comprehend how great a good is the fruition of God, for which all souls were created. Moreover, these souls are in such close conformity to God, and are drawn so powerfully toward Him by reason of the natural attraction between Him and the soul, that no illustration or comparison could make this impetuosity understood in the way in which my spirit conceives it by its interior sense. Nevertheless I will use one which occurs to me.
Finally a Hunger for God and Heaven
“Let us suppose that in the whole world there were but one loaf to appease the hunger of every creature, and that the bare sight of it would satisfy them. Now man, when in health, has by nature the instinct for food, but if we can suppose him to abstain from it and neither die nor yet lose health and strength, his hunger would clearly become increasingly urgent. In this case, if he knew that nothing but the loaf would satisfy him, and that until he reached it his hunger could not be appeased, he would suffer intolerable pains, which would increase as his distance from the loaf diminished; but if he were sure that he would never see it, his Hell would be as complete as that of the damned souls, who, hungering after God, have no hope of ever seeing the bread of life. But the souls in Purgatory have an assured hope of seeing Him and of being entirely satisfied; and therefore they endure all hunger and suffer all pain until that moment when they enter into eternal possession of this bread, which is Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, and our Love.
The Tag of Sin Designates the Destination
“As the purified spirit finds no repose but in God, for whom it was created, so the soul in sin can rest nowhere but in Hell, which by, reason of its sins, has become its end. Therefore, at that instant in which the soul separates from the body, it goes to its prescribed place, needing no other guide than the nature of the sin itself, if the soul has parted from the body in mortal sin. And if the soul were hindered from obeying that decree (proceeding from the justice of God), it would find itself in a yet deeper Hell, for it would be outside of the divine order, in which mercy always finds place and prevents the full infliction of all the pains the soul has merited. Finding, therefore, no spot more fitting, nor any in which her pains would be so slight, she casts herself into her appointed place.
Souls Throw Themselves Willingly Into Purgatory
“The same thing is true of Purgatory―the soul, leaving the body, and not finding in herself that purity in which she was created, and seeing also the hindrances which prevent her union with God, conscious also that Purgatory only can remove them, casts herself quickly and willingly therein. And if she did not find the means ordained for her purification, she would instantly create for herself a Hell worse than Purgatory, seeing that by reason of this impediment she is hindered from approaching her end, which is God; and this is so great an ill that in comparison with it the soul esteems Purgatory as nothing. True it is, as I have said, like Hell; and yet, in comparison with the loss of God it is as nothing.
No Gates to Paradise—Except Conscience
“I will say furthermore, I see that as far as God is concerned, paradise has no gates, but he who will may enter. For God is all mercy, and His open arms are ever extended to receive us into His glory. But I see that the divine essence is so pure—purer than the imagination can conceive—that the soul, finding in itself the slightest imperfection, would rather cast itself into a thousand Hells than appear, so stained, in the presence of the Divine Majesty. Knowing, then, that Purgatory was intended for her cleaning, she throws herself therein, and finds there that great mercy, the removal of her stains.
“The great importance of Purgatory neither mind can conceive nor tongue describe. I see only that its pains are as great as those of Hell; and yet I see that a soul, stained with the slightest fault, receiving this mercy, counts its pains as naught in comparison with this hindrance to her love. And I know that the greatest misery of the souls in Purgatory is to behold in themselves aught that displeases God, and to discover that, in spite of His goodness, they had consented to it. And this is because, being in the state of grace, they see the reality and the importance of the impediments which hinder their approach to God.”
“I see the souls to be eager in suffering the pains of Purgatory for two reasons. Firstly, because they consider the mercy of God. They understand that if God’s goodness would not temper justice with mercy, satisfying it with the most precious Blood of Jesus Christ, even a single sin would merit a thousand hells. The souls in Purgatory, in fact, perceive with a special light the greatness and the sanctity of God. They suffer, but, at the same time, they rejoice in adoring His greatness and recognizing His sanctity. Their joy is similar to that of the martyrs who suffered in adoration of and witness to the living God and Jesus the Savior; however, for the souls in Purgatory, this joy is felt to a much higher degree.”
The Purgatorial Fires of Love
Purgatory is a marvelous contest of love between God and the soul, and, in a contest of love, there is no space for anything that is hard and ruthless. The One who purifies with suffering purifies for love. He therefore looks for all ways to mitigate as much as possible the suffering that purifies; the one who is purified suffers, but the love that ties him to the One who purifies it makes the suffering more acceptable. The surgeon who treats a patient looks in every way to alleviate the pain, and the patient who suffers finds relief in the thought that, although he is in pain, he will be cured. Knowing this, he suffers with patience.
It is no surprise, then, to recognize that, in Purgatory, there are joys, comforts, and relief. In this we see the love of God toward those souls who are purified, and the love of the souls who, longing to be purified, contemplate with love the harmony between justice and Divine Mercy. The souls want to suffer, for it is a need of their own love that drives them toward God; in their pains, they feel the comfort of God, and cannot refuse their purification because of the happiness they will receive in their eternal glory. In every way, He alleviates their sufferings and comforts them, as a mother kisses and caresses her child who must have an operation.
If God weeps over the lost souls who, willingly and with a relentless hate, separate themselves from Him, how much more is He moved because of those souls who love and long for Him? We are too used to considering God a most severe judge. We separate His justice from His mercy and His love, which in Him are one and the same, and only one love as in the union of a kiss. “Mercy and truth have met each other. Justice and peace have kissed!” (Psalm 84:11).
The First Chief Joy in Purgatory
The first joy of the souls in Purgatory is to feel confirmed in grace. Now they are sure of their eternal salvation and their happy incapacity to sin; they consider all the horror of sins they have committed, feel an immense sorrow in the pains they suffer now, and repent of these sins sincerely. It is a joy that we cannot easily comprehend because we live carelessly in the uncertainty of our eternal salvation. It is a fact, confirmed by many revelations and historical accounts, that the souls in Purgatory prefer to remain in the pains they suffer there, with the assurance of being saved and without sin, rather than to return to Earth with no assurance of being saved. Those who were returned to life by miracles of the saints always chose to go back to death and return to Purgatory.
In confirmation of what we just said, we will recount a famous event that happened in the year 1070 to St. Stanislaw, Bishop of Krakow. The wicked Prince Boleslaw was persecuting the bishop. Among the many persecutions leveled against the saint, he succeeded in exciting against him the rage of the heirs of a certain Peter Miles, who had died three years before. The dead man had left some of his land to the Church. The heirs, sure of the protection of the prince, sued him, and, subordinating or intimidating a number of witnesses, obtained a verdict that the saint be obliged to return the lands.
When he saw that the court would not issue a just sentence, the saint appealed with trust to the justice of God. He had the hearing and the sentence suspended and promised to bring as witness the very deceased maker of the will, who was already three years in the tomb. His proposal was received and accepted, in the midst of sharp ridicule for its seeming absurdity.
After three days of fasting and prayer, the holy bishop went with some clergymen and people to the tomb of Peter Miles and ordered it to be opened. Of course, they found there were only a few bones among the dust. The enemies of the saint exulted, certain of their victory. The saint, however, ordered those bones to rise again in the Name of Jesus, Who is life and resurrection. At this command, those bones, under the eyes of all the people present, gathered and joined together and filled out with flesh. The dead man came out of the tomb. Peter Miles gave his hand to the bishop and went with him, followed by the clergymen and the flabbergasted people, to Boleslaw. He attested to him the truth of the donation he had given.
After that, St. Stanislaw asked Peter Miles whether he wished to go back to the tomb or to live a few more years on Earth. The resurrected man answered that, even though he was still in Purgatory in the midst of excruciating pains for the many sins he had committed, he rather would go back there than to live on Earth without the assurance of being saved. He only implored the bishop to pray and offer suffrages for him, that he might soon be freed from all his suffering. He was taken back to the tomb in a great procession and the bishop blessed him. He lay down inside, and quickly he went back to where he had come from. This reported fact is historical and witnessed by a thousand people.
The Second Chief Joy in Purgatory
The second joy that the souls in Purgatory feel is their very own expiation. Because they love God in a perfect way and long for Him, they are heartily sorry for having offended Him and desire to expiate and make amends. There are souls on Earth who, truly repenting of their sins, feel the need to add to the Sacramental Penance other severe penances―for example, the hair shirt, scourges, fasting, and discomforts of all kinds. In these, they rejoice in their inner spirit because they suffer for love. The souls in Purgatory, having a perfect knowledge even of their smallest sins, rejoice in expiating them.
Another reason for the souls in Purgatory to rejoice, says the saint, is expiation. The souls in Purgatory see themselves doing the will of God, and they delight in what the love and mercy of God are creating in them. God impresses these two attributes on their minds in an instant, and, because they are in grace, they hear and understand it according to their own capacity, with great joy. This joy increases with their degree of closeness to God. The smallest knowledge that it is possible to have of God is, in fact, much greater than any pain or happiness of which man can conceive on Earth. This is why the souls in Purgatory accept with joy the pains which, purifying them, make them closer to God. Little by little, they see the diminishment of the obstacles that hinder them from possessing and delighting in Him.
The Third Chief Joy in Purgatory
The third joy of the souls in Purgatory is the comfort of love, because love makes everything easier. “Where there is love, there is no labor, or, if there is labor, the labor is loved,” says St. Augustine. The souls in Purgatory are in an ocean of love, because Purgatory is a contest of love. It is love that gives pain to the souls, but the pain is mitigated by love, much more than the suffering of St. Laurence, who was martyred, roasted alive on a burning grill. “The coals,” he exclaimed, “are for me like roses”; and yet they were so hot that he also told the tyrant: “I am already burned on this side; turn me on the other side.”
St. Catherine of Genoa, in her treatise on Purgatory, writes: “There is no joy save that in paradise to be compared with the joy of the souls in Purgatory. As the rust of sin is consumed, the soul is more and more open to God’s love. Just as a covered object left out in the sun cannot be penetrated by the sun’s rays, in the same way, once the covering of the soul is removed, the soul opens itself fully to the rays of the sun. Having become one with God’s will, these souls, to the extent that He grants it to them, see into God. Joy in God, oneness with Him, is the end of these souls, an instinct implanted in them at their creation.
“All that I have said is as nothing compared to what I feel within, the witnessed correspondence of love between God and the soul; for when God sees the soul pure as it was in its origins, He tugs at it with a glance, draws it and binds it to Himself with a fiery love. God so transforms the soul in Himself that it knows nothing other than God. He will not cease until He has brought the soul to perfection. That is why the soul seeks to cast off any and all impediments, so that it can be lifted up to God; and such impediments are the cause of the suffering of the souls in Purgatory. Not that the souls dwell on their suffering―they dwell, rather, on the resistance they feel in themselves against the will of God, against His intense and pure love bent on nothing but drawing them up to Him.
“And I see rays of lightning darting from that Divine love to the creature, so intense and fiery as to annihilate not the body alone but, were it possible, the soul. The soul becomes like gold that becomes all the more pure as it is fired, with all dross being cast out.
“The last stage of love is that which does its work without human doing. If humans were to be aware of the many hidden flaws in them, they would despair. These flaws are burned away in the last stage of love. God then shows the soul its weakness, so that the soul may see the workings of God. If we are to become perfect, change must be brought about in us and without us; that is, change is to be the work not of human beings, but of God. This, the last stage of love, is the pure and intense love of God alone. The overwhelming love of God gives the soul a joy beyond words. In Purgatory great joy and great suffering do not exclude one another.”
Little is known of the early life of Gertrude. Gertrude was born on the feast of the Epiphany, January 6th, 1256, in Eisleben, Thuringia (within the Holy Roman Empire). At the age of four, she entered the monastery school at the monastery of St. Mary at Helfta (with much debate having occurred as to whether this monastery is best described as Benedictine or Cistercian), under the direction of its abbess, Gertrude of Hackeborn. It is speculated that she was offered as a child oblate to the Church by devout parents. Given that Gertrude implies in the Herald that her parents were long dead at the time of writing, however, it is also possible that she entered the monastery school as an orphan.
Gertrude was confided to the care of St. Mechtilde, younger sister of the Abbess Gertrude, and joined the monastic community in 1266. It is clear from her own writings that she received a thorough education in a range of subjects. She was thoroughly familiar with scripture, the Fathers of the Church such as St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great, and also in more contemporary spiritual writers such as Richard and Hugh of St Victor, William of St Thierry, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Moreover, Gertrude’s writing demonstrates that she was well-versed in rhetoric, and her Latin is very fluent.
In 1281, at the age of twenty-five, she experienced the first of a series of visions that continued throughout her life, and which changed the course of her life. Her priorities shifted away from secular knowledge and toward the study of Scripture and theology. Gertrude devoted herself strongly to personal prayer and meditation, and began writing spiritual treatises for the benefit of her monastic sisters. Gertrude became one of the great mystics of the 13th century. Together with her friend and teacher St. Mechtilde, she practiced a spirituality called “nuptial mysticism,” that is, she came to see herself as the bride of Christ. Gertrude died at Helfta, near Eisleben, Saxony, around 1302. Her feast day is celebrated on November 16th.
St. Gertrude and Purgatory
St. Gertrude the Great is invoked for souls in Purgatory and for living sinners. Our Lord told St. Gertrude that the following prayer would release 1,000 souls from Purgatory each time it is said. The prayer was extended to include living sinners as well. However, we should realize that prayer should not be said lukewarmly, mechanically or listlessly without any love, nor deliberately distracted, nor rushed—for this would be sinful, and it is hard to believe that sinful prayer is very effective, as it deserves, not a reward, but a punishment. So we should avoid treating prayers like this one as one would look upon a lucky charm.
“Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.”
St. Catherine of Genoa
Passing from one Saint linked with Purgatory to another, we will look at the life and writings of St. Catherine of Genoa. Born at Genoa in 1447, died at the same place on September 15th, 1510, the life of St. Catherine of Genoa may be more properly described as a state than as a life in the ordinary sense. When about twenty-six years old, she became the subject of one of the most extraordinary operations of God in the human soul of which we have record, the result being a marvelous inward condition that lasted till her death. In this state, she received wonderful revelations, of which she spoke at times to those around her, but which are mainly embodied in her two celebrated works: the “Dialogues of the Soul and Body”, and the “Treatise on Purgatory”. Her modern biographies, chiefly translations or adaptations of an old Italian one which is itself founded on ”Memoirs” drawn up by the saint’s own confessor and a friend, mingle what facts they give of her outward life with accounts of her supernatural state and “doctrine
Tough and Painful Marriage
St. Catherine’s parents were Jacopo Fieschi and Francesca di Negro, both of illustrious Italian birth. Two popes — Innocent IV and Adrian V — had been of the Fieschi family, and Jacopo himself became Viceroy of Naples. Catherine is described as an extraordinarily holy child, highly gifted in the way of prayer, and with a wonderful love of Christ’s Passion and of penitential practices; but, also, as having been a most quiet, simple, and exceedingly obedient girl. When about thirteen, she wished to enter the convent, but the nuns to whom her confessor applied having refused her on account of her youth, she appears to have put the idea aside without any further attempt. At sixteen, she was married by her parents’ wish to a young Genoese nobleman, Giuliano Adorno. The marriage turned out wretchedly; Giuliano proved faithless, violent-tempered, and a spendthrift. He made the life of his wife a misery. Details are scanty, but it seems at least clear that Catherine spent the first five years of her marriage in silent, melancholy submission to her husband; and that she then, for another five years, turned a little to the world for consolation in her troubles.
The distractions she took were most innocent; nevertheless, destined as she was for an extraordinary life, they had the effect in her case of producing lukewarmness, the end of which was such intense weariness and depression that she prayed earnestly for a return of her old fervor. Then, just ten years after her marriage, came the event of her life, in answer to her prayer. She went one day, full of melancholy, to a convent in Genoa where she had a sister, a nun. The latter advised her to go to confession to the nuns’ confessor, and Catherine agreed. No sooner, however, had she knelt down in the confessional than a ray of Divine light pierced her soul, and in one moment manifested her own sinfulness and the Love of God with equal clearness. The revelation was so overwhelming that she lost consciousness and fell into a kind of ecstasy, for a space during which the confessor happened to be called away. When he returned, Catherine could only murmur that she would put off her confession, and go home quickly.
St. Catherine’s Treatise on Purgatory
From the moment of that sudden vision of herself and God, the saint’s interior state seems never to have changed, save by varying in intensity and being accompanied by more or less severe penance, according to what she saw required of her by the Holy Spirit Who guided her incessantly. No one could describe it except herself; but she does so, minutely, in her writings, which we will now examine. What follows is taken from her “Treatise on Purgatory”.
No Choice—No Remembrance—No Sadness
“As far as I can see, the souls in Purgatory can have no choice but to be there; this God has most justly ordained by His divine decree. They cannot turn towards themselves and say: ‘I have committed such and such sins for which I deserve to remain here;’ nor can they say: ‘Would that I had refrained from them, for then I should at this moment be in paradise;’ nor again: ‘This soul will be released before me;’ or ‘I shall be released before her.’ They retain no memory of either good or evil respecting themselves or others which would increase their pain. They are so contented with the divine dispositions in their regard; and with doing all that is pleasing to God in that way which He chooses, that they cannot think of themselves, though they may strive to do so. They see nothing but the operation of the divine goodness which is so manifestly bringing them to God that they can reflect neither on their own profit, nor on their hurt. Could they do so, they would not be in pure charity. They see not that they suffer their pains in consequence of their sins, nor can they for a moment entertain that thought, for should they do so it would be an active imperfection, and that cannot exist in a state where there is no longer the possibility of sin.
“At the moment of leaving this life they see why they are sent to Purgatory, but never again, otherwise they would still retain something private, which has no place there. Being established in charity, they can never deviate therefrom by any defect, and have no will or desire, save the pure will of pure love, and can swerve from it in nothing. They can neither commit sin, nor merit by refraining from it.”
Purgatory—A Place of Pain and Peace
“There is no peace to be compared with that of the souls in Purgatory, save that of the saints in paradise, and this peace is ever augmented by the inflowing of God into these souls, which increases in proportion as the impediments to it are removed. The rust of sin is the impediment, and this the fire continually consumes, so that the soul in this state is continually opening itself to admit the divine communication. As a covered surface can never reflect the sun, not through any defect in that orb, but simply from the resistance offered by the covering, so, if the covering be gradually removed, the surface will by little and little be opened to the sun and will more and more reflect His light.
“So it is with the rust of sin, which is the covering of the soul. In Purgatory the flames incessantly consume it, and as it disappears, the soul reflects more and more perfectly the true sun who is God. Its contentment increases as this rust wears away, and the soul is laid bare to the divine ray, and thus one increases and the other decreases until the time is accomplished. The pain never diminishes, although the time does, but as to the will, so united is it to God by pure charity, and so satisfied to be under His divine appointment, that these souls can never say their pains are pains.
The Pain of Purgatory
“On the other hand, it is true that they suffer torments which no tongue can describe nor any intelligence comprehend, unless it be revealed by such a special grace as that which God has vouchsafed to me, but which I am unable to explain. And this vision which God revealed to me has never departed from my memory. I will describe it as far as I am able, and they whose intellects our Lord will deign to open will understand me.
“The source of all suffering is either Original or Actual Sin. God created the soul pure, simple, free from every stain, and with a certain beatific instinct toward Himself. It is drawn aside from Him by Original Sin, and when Actual Sin is afterwards added, this withdraws it still farther, and, ever as it removes from Him, its sinfulness increases, because its communication with God grows less and less.
Increasing Fire of Charity
“And because there is no good except by participation with God, who, to the irrational creatures imparts Himself as He wills and in accordance with His divine decree, and never withdraws from them, but to the rational soul He imparts Himself more or less, according as He finds her more or less freed from the hindrances of sin, it follows that, when He finds a soul that is returning to the purity and simplicity in which she was created, He increased in her the beatific instinct, and kindles in her a fire of charity so powerful and vehement, that it is insupportable to the soul to find any obstacle between her and her end; and the clearer vision she has of these obstacles the greater is her pain.
The Barrier of Pain
“Since the souls in Purgatory are freed from the guilt of sin, there is no barrier between them and God save only the pains they suffer, which delay the satisfaction of their desire. And when they see how serious is even the slightest hindrance, which the necessity of justice causes to check them, a vehement flame kindles within them, which is like that of Hell. They feel no guilt however, and it is guilt which is the cause of the malignant will of the condemned in Hell, to whom God does not communicate His goodness, and thus they remain in despair and with a will forever opposed to the good will of God.
Penalties of Purgatory and Hell
“It is evident that the revolt of man’s will from that of God constitutes sin, and while that revolt continues, man’s guilt remains. Those, therefore, that are in Hell, having passed from this life with perverse wills, their guilt is not remitted, nor can it be, since they are no longer capable of change. When this life is ended, the soul remains forever confirmed either in good or evil according as she has here determined. As it is written: ‘Where I shall find thee,’ that is, at the hour of death, with the will either fixed on sin or repenting of it, ‘there I will judge thee.’ From this judgment there is no appeal, for after death the freedom of the will can never return, but the will is confirmed in that state in which it is found at death. The souls in Hell, having been found at that hour with the will to sin, have the guilt and the punishment always with them, and although this punishment is not so great as they deserve, yet it is eternal. Those in Purgatory, on the other hand, suffer the penalty only, for their guilt was cancelled at death, when they were found hating their sins and penitent for having offended the divine goodness. And this penalty has an end, for the term of it is ever approaching. O misery beyond all misery, and the greater because in his blindness, man regards it not!
“The punishment of the damned is not, it is true, infinite in degree, for the all lovely goodness of God shines even into Hell. He who dies in mortal sin merits infinite woe for an infinite duration; but the mercy of God has only made the time infinite, and mitigated the intensity of the pain. In justice He might have inflicted much greater punishment than He has done.
“Oh, what peril attaches to sin willfully committed! For it is so difficult for man to bring himself to penance, and without penitence guilt remains and will ever remain, so long as man retains unchanged the will to sin, or is intent upon committing it.
Finally Totally Conformed to the Will of God
“The souls in Purgatory are entirely conformed to the will of God; therefore, they correspond with His goodness, are contented with all that He ordains, and are entirely purified from the guilt of their sins. They are pure from sins, because they have in this life abhorred them and confessed them with true contrition, and for this reason God remits their guilt, so that only the stains of sin remain, and these must be devoured by the fire. Thus freed from guilt and united to the will of God, they see Him clearly according to that degree of light which He allows them, and comprehend how great a good is the fruition of God, for which all souls were created. Moreover, these souls are in such close conformity to God, and are drawn so powerfully toward Him by reason of the natural attraction between Him and the soul, that no illustration or comparison could make this impetuosity understood in the way in which my spirit conceives it by its interior sense. Nevertheless I will use one which occurs to me.
Finally a Hunger for God and Heaven
“Let us suppose that in the whole world there were but one loaf to appease the hunger of every creature, and that the bare sight of it would satisfy them. Now man, when in health, has by nature the instinct for food, but if we can suppose him to abstain from it and neither die nor yet lose health and strength, his hunger would clearly become increasingly urgent. In this case, if he knew that nothing but the loaf would satisfy him, and that until he reached it his hunger could not be appeased, he would suffer intolerable pains, which would increase as his distance from the loaf diminished; but if he were sure that he would never see it, his Hell would be as complete as that of the damned souls, who, hungering after God, have no hope of ever seeing the bread of life. But the souls in Purgatory have an assured hope of seeing Him and of being entirely satisfied; and therefore they endure all hunger and suffer all pain until that moment when they enter into eternal possession of this bread, which is Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, and our Love.
The Tag of Sin Designates the Destination
“As the purified spirit finds no repose but in God, for whom it was created, so the soul in sin can rest nowhere but in Hell, which by, reason of its sins, has become its end. Therefore, at that instant in which the soul separates from the body, it goes to its prescribed place, needing no other guide than the nature of the sin itself, if the soul has parted from the body in mortal sin. And if the soul were hindered from obeying that decree (proceeding from the justice of God), it would find itself in a yet deeper Hell, for it would be outside of the divine order, in which mercy always finds place and prevents the full infliction of all the pains the soul has merited. Finding, therefore, no spot more fitting, nor any in which her pains would be so slight, she casts herself into her appointed place.
Souls Throw Themselves Willingly Into Purgatory
“The same thing is true of Purgatory―the soul, leaving the body, and not finding in herself that purity in which she was created, and seeing also the hindrances which prevent her union with God, conscious also that Purgatory only can remove them, casts herself quickly and willingly therein. And if she did not find the means ordained for her purification, she would instantly create for herself a Hell worse than Purgatory, seeing that by reason of this impediment she is hindered from approaching her end, which is God; and this is so great an ill that in comparison with it the soul esteems Purgatory as nothing. True it is, as I have said, like Hell; and yet, in comparison with the loss of God it is as nothing.
No Gates to Paradise—Except Conscience
“I will say furthermore, I see that as far as God is concerned, paradise has no gates, but he who will may enter. For God is all mercy, and His open arms are ever extended to receive us into His glory. But I see that the divine essence is so pure—purer than the imagination can conceive—that the soul, finding in itself the slightest imperfection, would rather cast itself into a thousand Hells than appear, so stained, in the presence of the Divine Majesty. Knowing, then, that Purgatory was intended for her cleaning, she throws herself therein, and finds there that great mercy, the removal of her stains.
“The great importance of Purgatory neither mind can conceive nor tongue describe. I see only that its pains are as great as those of Hell; and yet I see that a soul, stained with the slightest fault, receiving this mercy, counts its pains as naught in comparison with this hindrance to her love. And I know that the greatest misery of the souls in Purgatory is to behold in themselves aught that displeases God, and to discover that, in spite of His goodness, they had consented to it. And this is because, being in the state of grace, they see the reality and the importance of the impediments which hinder their approach to God.”
“I see the souls to be eager in suffering the pains of Purgatory for two reasons. Firstly, because they consider the mercy of God. They understand that if God’s goodness would not temper justice with mercy, satisfying it with the most precious Blood of Jesus Christ, even a single sin would merit a thousand hells. The souls in Purgatory, in fact, perceive with a special light the greatness and the sanctity of God. They suffer, but, at the same time, they rejoice in adoring His greatness and recognizing His sanctity. Their joy is similar to that of the martyrs who suffered in adoration of and witness to the living God and Jesus the Savior; however, for the souls in Purgatory, this joy is felt to a much higher degree.”
The Purgatorial Fires of Love
Purgatory is a marvelous contest of love between God and the soul, and, in a contest of love, there is no space for anything that is hard and ruthless. The One who purifies with suffering purifies for love. He therefore looks for all ways to mitigate as much as possible the suffering that purifies; the one who is purified suffers, but the love that ties him to the One who purifies it makes the suffering more acceptable. The surgeon who treats a patient looks in every way to alleviate the pain, and the patient who suffers finds relief in the thought that, although he is in pain, he will be cured. Knowing this, he suffers with patience.
It is no surprise, then, to recognize that, in Purgatory, there are joys, comforts, and relief. In this we see the love of God toward those souls who are purified, and the love of the souls who, longing to be purified, contemplate with love the harmony between justice and Divine Mercy. The souls want to suffer, for it is a need of their own love that drives them toward God; in their pains, they feel the comfort of God, and cannot refuse their purification because of the happiness they will receive in their eternal glory. In every way, He alleviates their sufferings and comforts them, as a mother kisses and caresses her child who must have an operation.
If God weeps over the lost souls who, willingly and with a relentless hate, separate themselves from Him, how much more is He moved because of those souls who love and long for Him? We are too used to considering God a most severe judge. We separate His justice from His mercy and His love, which in Him are one and the same, and only one love as in the union of a kiss. “Mercy and truth have met each other. Justice and peace have kissed!” (Psalm 84:11).
The First Chief Joy in Purgatory
The first joy of the souls in Purgatory is to feel confirmed in grace. Now they are sure of their eternal salvation and their happy incapacity to sin; they consider all the horror of sins they have committed, feel an immense sorrow in the pains they suffer now, and repent of these sins sincerely. It is a joy that we cannot easily comprehend because we live carelessly in the uncertainty of our eternal salvation. It is a fact, confirmed by many revelations and historical accounts, that the souls in Purgatory prefer to remain in the pains they suffer there, with the assurance of being saved and without sin, rather than to return to Earth with no assurance of being saved. Those who were returned to life by miracles of the saints always chose to go back to death and return to Purgatory.
In confirmation of what we just said, we will recount a famous event that happened in the year 1070 to St. Stanislaw, Bishop of Krakow. The wicked Prince Boleslaw was persecuting the bishop. Among the many persecutions leveled against the saint, he succeeded in exciting against him the rage of the heirs of a certain Peter Miles, who had died three years before. The dead man had left some of his land to the Church. The heirs, sure of the protection of the prince, sued him, and, subordinating or intimidating a number of witnesses, obtained a verdict that the saint be obliged to return the lands.
When he saw that the court would not issue a just sentence, the saint appealed with trust to the justice of God. He had the hearing and the sentence suspended and promised to bring as witness the very deceased maker of the will, who was already three years in the tomb. His proposal was received and accepted, in the midst of sharp ridicule for its seeming absurdity.
After three days of fasting and prayer, the holy bishop went with some clergymen and people to the tomb of Peter Miles and ordered it to be opened. Of course, they found there were only a few bones among the dust. The enemies of the saint exulted, certain of their victory. The saint, however, ordered those bones to rise again in the Name of Jesus, Who is life and resurrection. At this command, those bones, under the eyes of all the people present, gathered and joined together and filled out with flesh. The dead man came out of the tomb. Peter Miles gave his hand to the bishop and went with him, followed by the clergymen and the flabbergasted people, to Boleslaw. He attested to him the truth of the donation he had given.
After that, St. Stanislaw asked Peter Miles whether he wished to go back to the tomb or to live a few more years on Earth. The resurrected man answered that, even though he was still in Purgatory in the midst of excruciating pains for the many sins he had committed, he rather would go back there than to live on Earth without the assurance of being saved. He only implored the bishop to pray and offer suffrages for him, that he might soon be freed from all his suffering. He was taken back to the tomb in a great procession and the bishop blessed him. He lay down inside, and quickly he went back to where he had come from. This reported fact is historical and witnessed by a thousand people.
The Second Chief Joy in Purgatory
The second joy that the souls in Purgatory feel is their very own expiation. Because they love God in a perfect way and long for Him, they are heartily sorry for having offended Him and desire to expiate and make amends. There are souls on Earth who, truly repenting of their sins, feel the need to add to the Sacramental Penance other severe penances―for example, the hair shirt, scourges, fasting, and discomforts of all kinds. In these, they rejoice in their inner spirit because they suffer for love. The souls in Purgatory, having a perfect knowledge even of their smallest sins, rejoice in expiating them.
Another reason for the souls in Purgatory to rejoice, says the saint, is expiation. The souls in Purgatory see themselves doing the will of God, and they delight in what the love and mercy of God are creating in them. God impresses these two attributes on their minds in an instant, and, because they are in grace, they hear and understand it according to their own capacity, with great joy. This joy increases with their degree of closeness to God. The smallest knowledge that it is possible to have of God is, in fact, much greater than any pain or happiness of which man can conceive on Earth. This is why the souls in Purgatory accept with joy the pains which, purifying them, make them closer to God. Little by little, they see the diminishment of the obstacles that hinder them from possessing and delighting in Him.
The Third Chief Joy in Purgatory
The third joy of the souls in Purgatory is the comfort of love, because love makes everything easier. “Where there is love, there is no labor, or, if there is labor, the labor is loved,” says St. Augustine. The souls in Purgatory are in an ocean of love, because Purgatory is a contest of love. It is love that gives pain to the souls, but the pain is mitigated by love, much more than the suffering of St. Laurence, who was martyred, roasted alive on a burning grill. “The coals,” he exclaimed, “are for me like roses”; and yet they were so hot that he also told the tyrant: “I am already burned on this side; turn me on the other side.”
St. Catherine of Genoa, in her treatise on Purgatory, writes: “There is no joy save that in paradise to be compared with the joy of the souls in Purgatory. As the rust of sin is consumed, the soul is more and more open to God’s love. Just as a covered object left out in the sun cannot be penetrated by the sun’s rays, in the same way, once the covering of the soul is removed, the soul opens itself fully to the rays of the sun. Having become one with God’s will, these souls, to the extent that He grants it to them, see into God. Joy in God, oneness with Him, is the end of these souls, an instinct implanted in them at their creation.
“All that I have said is as nothing compared to what I feel within, the witnessed correspondence of love between God and the soul; for when God sees the soul pure as it was in its origins, He tugs at it with a glance, draws it and binds it to Himself with a fiery love. God so transforms the soul in Himself that it knows nothing other than God. He will not cease until He has brought the soul to perfection. That is why the soul seeks to cast off any and all impediments, so that it can be lifted up to God; and such impediments are the cause of the suffering of the souls in Purgatory. Not that the souls dwell on their suffering―they dwell, rather, on the resistance they feel in themselves against the will of God, against His intense and pure love bent on nothing but drawing them up to Him.
“And I see rays of lightning darting from that Divine love to the creature, so intense and fiery as to annihilate not the body alone but, were it possible, the soul. The soul becomes like gold that becomes all the more pure as it is fired, with all dross being cast out.
“The last stage of love is that which does its work without human doing. If humans were to be aware of the many hidden flaws in them, they would despair. These flaws are burned away in the last stage of love. God then shows the soul its weakness, so that the soul may see the workings of God. If we are to become perfect, change must be brought about in us and without us; that is, change is to be the work not of human beings, but of God. This, the last stage of love, is the pure and intense love of God alone. The overwhelming love of God gives the soul a joy beyond words. In Purgatory great joy and great suffering do not exclude one another.”
Article 15
Saturday November 15th
Getting Rid of the Debt
How Can We Reduce Our Debt?
Sin must be paid for; our debt must be settled—otherwise we cannot enter Heaven. If we die in a state of unconfessed, or unrepented, and thus unforgiven mortal sin, then the debt will be paid in Hell. If we neglect to pay for our confessed and forgiven sins in this life, then Purgatory awaits, and Jesus says: “Thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last penny” (Matthew 5:26). The obvious solution is to pay now, rather than later. Now we can pay at a greatly ‘discounted’ price; after death, it will be payments with high interest added; “for the sin is great, and the fierce anger of the Lord hangs over Israel” (2 Paralipomenon 28:13). What payment plan will we choose? What payment plans are there to choose from?
Repayment by Pain & Repayment by Love
Upon Calvary, alongside the dying Christ, we see two sinners: one dying in pain, the other ‘dying’ out of grief-stricken love. One is a man, the other a woman. The man is St. Dismas; the woman is St. Mary Magdalen. We may call them saints today, but at the time they were great sinners being transformed into saints. They were living proof that “the Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy ... and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9).
Even though God is extremely just, He is also extremely merciful—but the time of mercy is NOW, while we are still living. After death comes the time of justice. If you want to experience His mercy—then ACT NOW and don’t put it off! “Thus says the Lord: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee!’” (Isaias 49:8), and St. Paul repeats Isaias’ words, when he writes: “For He says: ‘In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee!’ Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Free to Sin—So Why Pay by Penance?
One of the reasons why people rarely do penance is that they have lost sight of the price of sin. Sin, for most people, is no big deal! If you sin, they say, just go to confession and all is put right! That is bad theology! The only thing that is put right in the confessional is the removal of the guilt for sin (if we are sorry, of course). The debt for sin remains.
The meager, paltry penance that the priest gives to the penitent, is not the full price or cost of sin, but only a small portion of the penance that God demands from the sinner—it is like the first payment of a lifelong mortgage. The priests rarely give the heavy penances that once used to be given, because they fear we are too weak-willed to fulfill them. So they give us forgiveness for a token ‘down-payment’ and leave it to God’s justice to exact the rest of the payment, either by temporal punishment in this life, or by the horrendous fires of Purgatory in the next.
Another good way to look at the cost of sin is not just to look at what it will cost us in Purgatory or, God forbid, Hell, but at what it cost our Savior in His Passion and Death. This is the best and most fruitful topic of meditation and contemplation, as testified by so many saints and spiritual writers. Most people do not fully grasp the extent of Our Lord’s sufferings―they gloss over them too readily and easily, just as they gloss over sin too easily!
Healthy Fear is Necessary
St. Teresa of Avila, in the second chapter of her autobiography, speaks of the dangers of a lack of fear: “I know from this the great advantage of good companions; and I am certain that if at that tender age I had been thrown among good people, I should have persevered in virtue―for if at that time I had found anyone to teach me the fear of God, my soul would have grown strong enough not to fall away! Afterwards, when the fear of God had utterly departed from me, the fear of dishonor alone remained, and was a torment to me in all I did. When I thought that nobody would ever know, I ventured upon many things that were neither honorable nor pleasing unto God.”
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom!” (Psalms 110:10) and “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom!” (Proverbs 1:7). “And from his infancy he taught him to fear God, and to abstain from all sin!” (Tobias 1:10). For this reason—the loss of the sense of sin—we need to often reflect on the true price of sin, by reading accounts of some poor souls from Purgatory, who have been allowed, by Divine Justice and Mercy, to appear to those left on Earth and manifest the rigors and punishments of Purgatory. Out of sight means out of mind; so we will bring into view what goes on in Purgatory, so we may draw salutary benefits from what God has deliberately allowed to be revealed to us.
The Dismal Pain of Dismas
Dismas has led a dismal life; being a thief, robber, and consequently probably a murderer too, he was doing ‘penance’ for his sins and proving the truth of the statement that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). However, there is another thief suffering and dying with him; he has the same history, he has the same sufferings, but he does not have the same fate. His sufferings will be of no use to him, for he does not accept those sufferings as a just wage for his sins. He could have paid his debt there and then―like the Good Thief, Dismas―but he preferred (knowingly or unknowingly) to pay his debt in Hell.
Dismas would pay his debt alongside Jesus―or rather, he would co-pay with Jesus, for, of himself, he could not pay for any of his sins. Sin is an offense against God, even though we might sin against neighbor — “as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40). God is infinite, so any sin is consequently an infinite offense since it offends an infinite God. Therefore, it contracts an infinite debt, which finite man cannot hope to pay. It needs an infinite creature to be able to pay an infinite debt—Jesus is that infinite being, as an infinite God He can pay an infinite debt; as a human being He can pay the human debt for sin. Dismas merely co-pays, just as Our Lady co-redeems. We likewise have to co-pay—it is proof of our admission to guilt and proof of acceptance of responsibility and accountability.
Dismas pays primarily through his body―he is accepting of the pains and tortures of death as a just wage for his sins. It is not pain alone that saves him, it is pain processed and transformed by the soul into something above the natural, into something unnatural for him, into something supernatural. The pain breaks through into his soul and transforms him from a bad thief into a Good Thief who steals Heaven in the last lap of his life, with the last breath of his life. His was a payment plan of pain.
Yet, to say that Dismas died without love would be a grave misunderstanding and misrepresentation of what happened. He had to have some degree of love towards God in his heart for Christ to be able say to him: “This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). A variety of things will have contributed to breaking down any hardness of heart that he may have had—but the pain of suffering undoubtedly opened and softened his heart, and prepared the soil of the soul to receive the seed of divine love. So, in the end, both death and love united in his life, to bring about his salvation.
The Mournful Love of Mary
The other major sinner on Calvary was Mary Magdalen, the sister of Martha, who―according the traditional teaching of the Western (Roman) Church―is the woman who was caught in adultery; also the woman possessed by seven devils and the woman at the banquet of Simon the Leper who was weeping tears over Jesus’ feet, wiping them dry with her hair and anointing Jesus with precious alabaster. Like the thief, Dismas, she too was a great sinner.
However, her payment plan was of a different kind—she paid for her sins through love. Jesus Himself confirmed this, when at the banquet He said: “Why do you trouble this woman? Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Matthew 26:10; Luke 7:47). Her payment plan was based upon the Old Testament quote of: “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12) and the same plan was carried over into the New Testament, as testified by St. Peter: “Charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). This is merely a reflection or an echo of the charity that led Jesus to lay down His life for our sins: “Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). “In this is charity―not as though we had loved God, but because He has first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Like Dismas, Mary experienced a blend of love and pain on Calvary. The more she loved Christ, the more she felt the pain of what was happening to Christ. We know this from personal experience―the more we treasure a person or an object, the more agitated, sorrowful and pained we become when suffering a separation or its loss.
Love and Death United
Love and Death, the two things that seemed contradictory and irreconcilable, now find themselves united on Calvary. The words of Christ perform a marriage, so to speak, between Love and Death: “Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Death proves Love; and Love leads to Death. Our Lord proves His love for us by dying for us; and that love of His had to go to the very extreme, to the point of death itself. He could not raise the stakes any higher than that.
Similarly, Mary Magdalen ‘dies’ on Calvary with Christ. In a vaguely analogous way, as Christ dies mystically in each Sacrifice of the Mass, Mary dies mystically in an unbloody manner at the Sacrifice on Calvary. Christ’s heart is pierced, she feels the wound—since it is for her benefit and salvation that He undergoes all this, and it is her sins (ours too) that pierce that Sacred Heart. She knows that He is the ‘scapegoat’ for her sins. She knows that she should be in His place, sentenced to death and dying on the cross.
Just as Christ had spared her a painful physical death from being stoned to death for adultery, He now prevents her spiritual death by dying on the cross. Like a woman watching her child being slain (Massacre of the Innocents) and wishing that she could be slain in the place of her baby; Mary Magdalen must have wished that this Massacre of the Innocent One could have been prevented and that she could be slain in His place. She was grateful to Him when she escaped being stoned to death; she was grateful to Him again for His redeeming death—she mystically died with Him out of love.
The best way to pay for our sins and quickest way to reduce their debt, is to both suffer and love—but the love is the soul and suffering is generally associated with the body (but it can also exist in the soul). For even the bad thief suffered, but without love—and his end was not Paradise! As St. Paul warns us: “If I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity―then it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3).
As Our Lady says at La Salette: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence.” And we can add the Scriptural verse: “God has given him time for penance, and he abuses it in his pride!” (Job 24:23). Our Lady gave us the clear indication of the path that we have to take—one that will be enforced upon us anyway, if we refuse to take it, but then with less merit—she said at Fatima: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation? … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort!”
No matter how great the debt of your sins may be, God is prepared to accept mere cents on the dollar while you are still living. After death, the true price will be exacted. Better and wiser to pay now than pay later! But of you disagree with God over the price of sin, then you are unlikely to want to pay the price He is asking.
Sin must be paid for; our debt must be settled—otherwise we cannot enter Heaven. If we die in a state of unconfessed, or unrepented, and thus unforgiven mortal sin, then the debt will be paid in Hell. If we neglect to pay for our confessed and forgiven sins in this life, then Purgatory awaits, and Jesus says: “Thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last penny” (Matthew 5:26). The obvious solution is to pay now, rather than later. Now we can pay at a greatly ‘discounted’ price; after death, it will be payments with high interest added; “for the sin is great, and the fierce anger of the Lord hangs over Israel” (2 Paralipomenon 28:13). What payment plan will we choose? What payment plans are there to choose from?
Repayment by Pain & Repayment by Love
Upon Calvary, alongside the dying Christ, we see two sinners: one dying in pain, the other ‘dying’ out of grief-stricken love. One is a man, the other a woman. The man is St. Dismas; the woman is St. Mary Magdalen. We may call them saints today, but at the time they were great sinners being transformed into saints. They were living proof that “the Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy ... and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9).
Even though God is extremely just, He is also extremely merciful—but the time of mercy is NOW, while we are still living. After death comes the time of justice. If you want to experience His mercy—then ACT NOW and don’t put it off! “Thus says the Lord: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee!’” (Isaias 49:8), and St. Paul repeats Isaias’ words, when he writes: “For He says: ‘In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee!’ Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Free to Sin—So Why Pay by Penance?
One of the reasons why people rarely do penance is that they have lost sight of the price of sin. Sin, for most people, is no big deal! If you sin, they say, just go to confession and all is put right! That is bad theology! The only thing that is put right in the confessional is the removal of the guilt for sin (if we are sorry, of course). The debt for sin remains.
The meager, paltry penance that the priest gives to the penitent, is not the full price or cost of sin, but only a small portion of the penance that God demands from the sinner—it is like the first payment of a lifelong mortgage. The priests rarely give the heavy penances that once used to be given, because they fear we are too weak-willed to fulfill them. So they give us forgiveness for a token ‘down-payment’ and leave it to God’s justice to exact the rest of the payment, either by temporal punishment in this life, or by the horrendous fires of Purgatory in the next.
Another good way to look at the cost of sin is not just to look at what it will cost us in Purgatory or, God forbid, Hell, but at what it cost our Savior in His Passion and Death. This is the best and most fruitful topic of meditation and contemplation, as testified by so many saints and spiritual writers. Most people do not fully grasp the extent of Our Lord’s sufferings―they gloss over them too readily and easily, just as they gloss over sin too easily!
Healthy Fear is Necessary
St. Teresa of Avila, in the second chapter of her autobiography, speaks of the dangers of a lack of fear: “I know from this the great advantage of good companions; and I am certain that if at that tender age I had been thrown among good people, I should have persevered in virtue―for if at that time I had found anyone to teach me the fear of God, my soul would have grown strong enough not to fall away! Afterwards, when the fear of God had utterly departed from me, the fear of dishonor alone remained, and was a torment to me in all I did. When I thought that nobody would ever know, I ventured upon many things that were neither honorable nor pleasing unto God.”
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom!” (Psalms 110:10) and “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom!” (Proverbs 1:7). “And from his infancy he taught him to fear God, and to abstain from all sin!” (Tobias 1:10). For this reason—the loss of the sense of sin—we need to often reflect on the true price of sin, by reading accounts of some poor souls from Purgatory, who have been allowed, by Divine Justice and Mercy, to appear to those left on Earth and manifest the rigors and punishments of Purgatory. Out of sight means out of mind; so we will bring into view what goes on in Purgatory, so we may draw salutary benefits from what God has deliberately allowed to be revealed to us.
The Dismal Pain of Dismas
Dismas has led a dismal life; being a thief, robber, and consequently probably a murderer too, he was doing ‘penance’ for his sins and proving the truth of the statement that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). However, there is another thief suffering and dying with him; he has the same history, he has the same sufferings, but he does not have the same fate. His sufferings will be of no use to him, for he does not accept those sufferings as a just wage for his sins. He could have paid his debt there and then―like the Good Thief, Dismas―but he preferred (knowingly or unknowingly) to pay his debt in Hell.
Dismas would pay his debt alongside Jesus―or rather, he would co-pay with Jesus, for, of himself, he could not pay for any of his sins. Sin is an offense against God, even though we might sin against neighbor — “as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40). God is infinite, so any sin is consequently an infinite offense since it offends an infinite God. Therefore, it contracts an infinite debt, which finite man cannot hope to pay. It needs an infinite creature to be able to pay an infinite debt—Jesus is that infinite being, as an infinite God He can pay an infinite debt; as a human being He can pay the human debt for sin. Dismas merely co-pays, just as Our Lady co-redeems. We likewise have to co-pay—it is proof of our admission to guilt and proof of acceptance of responsibility and accountability.
Dismas pays primarily through his body―he is accepting of the pains and tortures of death as a just wage for his sins. It is not pain alone that saves him, it is pain processed and transformed by the soul into something above the natural, into something unnatural for him, into something supernatural. The pain breaks through into his soul and transforms him from a bad thief into a Good Thief who steals Heaven in the last lap of his life, with the last breath of his life. His was a payment plan of pain.
Yet, to say that Dismas died without love would be a grave misunderstanding and misrepresentation of what happened. He had to have some degree of love towards God in his heart for Christ to be able say to him: “This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). A variety of things will have contributed to breaking down any hardness of heart that he may have had—but the pain of suffering undoubtedly opened and softened his heart, and prepared the soil of the soul to receive the seed of divine love. So, in the end, both death and love united in his life, to bring about his salvation.
The Mournful Love of Mary
The other major sinner on Calvary was Mary Magdalen, the sister of Martha, who―according the traditional teaching of the Western (Roman) Church―is the woman who was caught in adultery; also the woman possessed by seven devils and the woman at the banquet of Simon the Leper who was weeping tears over Jesus’ feet, wiping them dry with her hair and anointing Jesus with precious alabaster. Like the thief, Dismas, she too was a great sinner.
However, her payment plan was of a different kind—she paid for her sins through love. Jesus Himself confirmed this, when at the banquet He said: “Why do you trouble this woman? Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Matthew 26:10; Luke 7:47). Her payment plan was based upon the Old Testament quote of: “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12) and the same plan was carried over into the New Testament, as testified by St. Peter: “Charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). This is merely a reflection or an echo of the charity that led Jesus to lay down His life for our sins: “Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). “In this is charity―not as though we had loved God, but because He has first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Like Dismas, Mary experienced a blend of love and pain on Calvary. The more she loved Christ, the more she felt the pain of what was happening to Christ. We know this from personal experience―the more we treasure a person or an object, the more agitated, sorrowful and pained we become when suffering a separation or its loss.
Love and Death United
Love and Death, the two things that seemed contradictory and irreconcilable, now find themselves united on Calvary. The words of Christ perform a marriage, so to speak, between Love and Death: “Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Death proves Love; and Love leads to Death. Our Lord proves His love for us by dying for us; and that love of His had to go to the very extreme, to the point of death itself. He could not raise the stakes any higher than that.
Similarly, Mary Magdalen ‘dies’ on Calvary with Christ. In a vaguely analogous way, as Christ dies mystically in each Sacrifice of the Mass, Mary dies mystically in an unbloody manner at the Sacrifice on Calvary. Christ’s heart is pierced, she feels the wound—since it is for her benefit and salvation that He undergoes all this, and it is her sins (ours too) that pierce that Sacred Heart. She knows that He is the ‘scapegoat’ for her sins. She knows that she should be in His place, sentenced to death and dying on the cross.
Just as Christ had spared her a painful physical death from being stoned to death for adultery, He now prevents her spiritual death by dying on the cross. Like a woman watching her child being slain (Massacre of the Innocents) and wishing that she could be slain in the place of her baby; Mary Magdalen must have wished that this Massacre of the Innocent One could have been prevented and that she could be slain in His place. She was grateful to Him when she escaped being stoned to death; she was grateful to Him again for His redeeming death—she mystically died with Him out of love.
The best way to pay for our sins and quickest way to reduce their debt, is to both suffer and love—but the love is the soul and suffering is generally associated with the body (but it can also exist in the soul). For even the bad thief suffered, but without love—and his end was not Paradise! As St. Paul warns us: “If I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity―then it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3).
As Our Lady says at La Salette: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence.” And we can add the Scriptural verse: “God has given him time for penance, and he abuses it in his pride!” (Job 24:23). Our Lady gave us the clear indication of the path that we have to take—one that will be enforced upon us anyway, if we refuse to take it, but then with less merit—she said at Fatima: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation? … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort!”
No matter how great the debt of your sins may be, God is prepared to accept mere cents on the dollar while you are still living. After death, the true price will be exacted. Better and wiser to pay now than pay later! But of you disagree with God over the price of sin, then you are unlikely to want to pay the price He is asking.
Article 14
Friday November 14th
Twisting God's Arm or Forcing His Hand?
Bargaining With God
Can you imagine being bold enough to bargain with God? When you’re bargaining with a merchant, you hold the money and he holds the merchandise. You each have something the other person wants, so you have some bargaining power. But when it comes to God, He holds everything! He needs nothing! Who could imagine bargaining with the God of the universe? Yet, surprisingly, the first instance of intercessory prayer, found in the Bible, shows Abraham bargaining with God! At first you may think Abraham to be a bit brash to do such a thing. But, as you examine the story, you discover that God was actually encouraging Abraham in this bargaining or ‘arm-twisting’ prayer. God took the initiative by revealing His intent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrha to Abraham, His friend, who was then moved by God’s grace to pray for mercy―based on what he knew of God’s character―for a sinful city that teetered on the brink of destruction.
Abraham Twists God’s Arm
“The Lord said: ‘The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is multiplied, and their sin is become exceedingly grievous! I will go down and see―whether they have done according to the cry that is come to me: or whether it be not so―that I may know!’
“But stood before the Lord and, drawing near, he said: ‘Will You destroy the just with the wicked? If there be fifty just and righteous men in the city, shall they perish with all the others? Will You not spare that place for the sake of the fifty just and righteous men, if they be therein? Far be it from You to do this thing, and to slay the just with the wicked, and for the just to be treated as the wicked! This is not becoming of You! You, Who judge all the Earth, will not make this judgment!’
“And the Lord said to Abraham: ‘If I find in Sodom fifty just and righteous men within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake!’
“And Abraham answered, and said: ‘Seeing I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord, even though I am but dust and ashes! What if there be five less than fifty just persons? Will You, for those forty-five, destroy the whole city?’
“And He said: ‘I will not destroy it, if I find forty-five just men!’
“And again Abraham said to Him: ‘But if forty just and righteous men be found there―what will You do?’
“The Lord said: ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of forty just men!’
“Abraham said: ‘Lord! Be not angry, I beseech You, if I speak again! What if thirty just men shall be found there?’
“The Lord answered: ‘I will not do it if I find thirty just men there!’
“Abraham said: ‘Seeing I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord! What if twenty just men be found there?’
“The Lord said: ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty just men!’
“Abraham said: ‘I beseech You Lord, be not angry if I speak yet once more! What if ten just men should be found there?’
“And the Lord said: ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of ten just men!’
“And the Lord departed after He had left speaking to Abraham―and Abraham returned to his place.” (Genesis 18:20-33).
Sodom and Gomorrha Destroyed Anyway
After all that pleading and bargaining, Sodom and Gomorrha were destroyed anyway―“And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from Heaven. And He destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the Earth” (Genesis 19:24-25). Why? Because not even the most minimal, paltriest, cheapest, easiest condition was met―the finding of a mere ten men who were just and not like the sinful mass of sinners within Sodom and Gomorrha.
The Threat of Fire Today
The same fate faces the world today. God is angry with not just two cities, but with the whole world. Our Lady has warned that: “If there are not souls who by their lives of immolation and sacrifice appease the Divine Justice, fire will rain from Heaven! … Without virginity, it will be necessary for fire from Heaven to rain down upon these lands in order to purify them!” (Our Lady of Good Success) ... “Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions! … The fire of Heaven will fall and consume cities! … And then water and fire will purge the Earth and consume all the works of man’s pride and all will be renewed!” (La Salette) … “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity! It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before! Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful! The survivors will find themselves so desolate, that they will envy the dead!” (Our Lady of Akita, 1973).
St. John the Baptist, the fiery preacher in the desert, also warns of punishment by fire: “He that shall come after me, is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear! He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire. Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly cleanse His floor and gather His wheat into the barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire!” (Matthew 3:11-12).
Our Lord also speaks of this punishing fire in Holy Scripture: “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire!” (Matthew 3:10). “Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire!” (Matthew 7:19). “Even as cockle therefore is gathered up, and burnt with fire―so shall it be at the end of the world! The Son of man shall send His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all them that work iniquity. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire―where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth! … So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire―where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Have you understood all these things?’ They said to Him: ‘Yes!’” (Matthew 13:40-42; 13:49-51).
Beware of Provoking the Hand of God
Holy Scripture paints a fearsome picture concerning the consequences of provoking God: “Evils shall come upon you in the latter times, when you shall do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him by the works of your hands!” (Deuteronomy 31:29). “They have provoked Me and have angered Me with their vanities!” (Deuteronomy 32:21). “But you have done evil and have made for yourself strange gods to provoke Me to anger, and you have cast Me behind your back!” (3 Kings 14:9). “And I will leave the remnants of My inheritance, and will deliver them into the hands of their enemies―and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies! Because they have done evil before Me, and have continued to provoke Me, even unto this day!” (4 Kings 21:14-15). “Because they have forsaken Me, and have sacrificed to strange gods, to provoke Me to wrath with all the works of their hands, therefore My wrath shall fall upon this place, and shall not be quenched!” (2 Paralipomenon 34:25).
Forcing the Hand of God
Once provoked, God is forced to let His hand fall in justice: “Woe to you that devise that which is unprofitable, and work evil in your beds: in the morning light they execute it, because their hand is against God” (Micheas 2:1). “But you that has been the author of all mischief, shalt not escape the hand of God!” (2 Machabees 7:31). “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold I will stretch forth My hand upon the Philistines, and will kill the killers!’” (Ezechiel 25:16). “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold I will lift up My hand against the Gentiles!’” (Isaias 49:22). “As I live, says the Lord God, I will reign over you with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out!” (Ezechiel 20:33). “For there was the fear of death in every city, and the hand of God was exceeding heavy” (1 Kings 5:12).
Avoid Sin—Avoid the Fire!
It takes no rocket-scientist to work out the spiritual math in all this. It is quite simply this: sin = fire. And if 2+2=4, then sin + more sin = more fire. As Our Lord says:”And if your hand, or your foot scandalizes you, cut it off, and cast it from you! It is better for you to go into life maimed or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire! And if your eye scandalizes you, pluck it out, and cast it from you! It is better for you to have one eye and to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into Hell fire!” (Matthew 18:8-9). “And if your hand scandalizes your, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life maimed, than having two hands and go into Hell, into unquenchable fire―where their worm dies not, and the fire is not extinguished!” (Mark 9:42-43). Talk about forcing God’s hand!!
Twist His Arm or Force His Hand?
Just as with Abraham, God is willing to let us twist His arm―but it means stopping a lifestyle that forces His hand. This has been made abundantly clear by Our Lady at her modern-day apparitions: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! … The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people!” (La Salette, 1846) … “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore―because He is already so much offended!” (Fatima, October 13th, 1917) … “Many men in this world afflict the Lord! ... As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity!” (Our Lady of Akita).
Modern-Day Abrahams
The whole purpose of Our Lady’s apparitions is to decrease sin, encourage reparation and search for ‘arm-twisters’ who are prepared to do what Abraham did, and what Our Lady does continually—plead, intercede, beg and cry for mercy for the world and its sinners.
At Fatima, the angel said: “Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended! … Above all accept and bear with submission all the suffering the Lord will send you!” (Fatima, 1916). At Akita, Our Lady says: “I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair, by their suffering and their poverty, for the sinners and the ungrateful … With my Son I have intervened so many times to appease the wrath of the Father. I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering Him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross, His Precious Blood, and beloved souls who console Him forming a cohort of victim souls. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger!” (Our Lady of Akita).
At La Salette, Our Lady makes a rallying call, calling all the ‘arm-twisters’ to the fight: “I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world! It is time they came out and filled the world with light! Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children! I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days! May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ! Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see! For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
Purgatory and the World
What has been said above about the world, applies also to ourselves individually—with fire being the consequence. Instead of fire falling from Heaven to consume us (which still may well happen), we will fall into the fires of Purgatory. The reason is as above: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended!” (Fatima, October 13th, 1917) … “Many men in this world afflict the Lord!” (Our Lady of Akita). Why? How?
Our Lady says: “By their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures … for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth! … Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God! ... People will think of nothing but amusement!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
The notion of penance has been drastically reduced. The Church has reduced Lenten penance to a fraction of what it used to be. The laws of fasting and abstinence have been greatly reduced. Lenten fasting has been reduced by 95% ― from 40 days down to 2 days (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday). The penances given in confession are so little that they cannot fail to communicate the idea that sin is only a trivial thing. And this is all done at a time when the amount of sin in the world is probably the greatest it has ever been―and is increasing daily. All this goes in the face of Our Lady’s messages requiring penance and sacrifice and Our Lord’s words: “No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
Nobody Listens
That is what is so frightening in all of this—many (we hope) know of these dire warnings, yet nobody is doing anything (or very little) about it. What Sr. Lucia told Fr. Fuentes on December 26th, 1957, is so clearly and strikingly true: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad! The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them!” Not only is Our Lady’s Fatima message ignored, but all the messages from all the accepted apparitions are ignored. We just go on our merry way, preoccupied with daily living and the world!
Fire Seems to Be the Only Solution
We are tired of the spiritual! The material is more attractive! We can sit for hours enjoying the material, but we are complaining and whining after barely 30 minutes of the spiritual—Masses can’t end soon enough; likewise for our prayers and other spiritual exercises. A look back at history should be a warning: “In the meantime, there arose a murmuring of the people against the Lord, as it were repining at their fatigue. And, when the Lord heard it, He was angry. And the fire of the Lord being kindled against them, devoured them that were at the uttermost part of the camp” (Numbers 11:1). “And a fire was kindled in their congregation―the flame burned the wicked” (Psalms 105:18).
Our Lord said: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth―and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). But all He finds is the fire of wickedness: “For wickedness is kindled as a fire, it shall devour the brier and the thorn: and shall kindle in the thicket of the forest!” (Isaias 9:18).
“The Earth shook and trembled, the foundations of the mountains were moved, and shaken, because He was angry with them. A smoke went up from His nostrils, and a devouring fire out of His mouth: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens, and came down: and darkness was under His feet. And He rode upon the cherubim, and flew: and slid upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness a covering round about Him: dropping waters out of the clouds of the heavens. By the brightness before Him, the coals of fire were kindled” (2 Kings 22:8-13).
Fiery Times Ahead—One Way or Another
God will kindle a fire for sure—it will be either a fire of love, or a fire in Purgatory to heat up lukewarm love, or the fire of Hell to repay a refusal to love. His fire is more powerful than the fire of wickedness, and if our world (and we with it) do not change, then God will kindle the whole Earth with fire! In a sense, God and Our Lady are pleading with us!
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha is not a fairy-tale, nor is the Flood in Noe’s time! What goes around, comes around! Like a parent with a lethargic teenager, Our Lady has told us time and time again—soon the words will end and the action will start.
As Pope John Paul II said in Fulda, Germany, in 1983—we can no longer avert what is coming, but we can mitigate it or soften the blow! It is not the unbelievers, apostates and sinners that are going to respond to Our Lady’s call—it rests in the lap of people like us. Our salvation, our Purgatory, our future depends upon whether we stir ourselves into action, or simply go with the flow!
Can you imagine being bold enough to bargain with God? When you’re bargaining with a merchant, you hold the money and he holds the merchandise. You each have something the other person wants, so you have some bargaining power. But when it comes to God, He holds everything! He needs nothing! Who could imagine bargaining with the God of the universe? Yet, surprisingly, the first instance of intercessory prayer, found in the Bible, shows Abraham bargaining with God! At first you may think Abraham to be a bit brash to do such a thing. But, as you examine the story, you discover that God was actually encouraging Abraham in this bargaining or ‘arm-twisting’ prayer. God took the initiative by revealing His intent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrha to Abraham, His friend, who was then moved by God’s grace to pray for mercy―based on what he knew of God’s character―for a sinful city that teetered on the brink of destruction.
Abraham Twists God’s Arm
“The Lord said: ‘The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is multiplied, and their sin is become exceedingly grievous! I will go down and see―whether they have done according to the cry that is come to me: or whether it be not so―that I may know!’
“But stood before the Lord and, drawing near, he said: ‘Will You destroy the just with the wicked? If there be fifty just and righteous men in the city, shall they perish with all the others? Will You not spare that place for the sake of the fifty just and righteous men, if they be therein? Far be it from You to do this thing, and to slay the just with the wicked, and for the just to be treated as the wicked! This is not becoming of You! You, Who judge all the Earth, will not make this judgment!’
“And the Lord said to Abraham: ‘If I find in Sodom fifty just and righteous men within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake!’
“And Abraham answered, and said: ‘Seeing I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord, even though I am but dust and ashes! What if there be five less than fifty just persons? Will You, for those forty-five, destroy the whole city?’
“And He said: ‘I will not destroy it, if I find forty-five just men!’
“And again Abraham said to Him: ‘But if forty just and righteous men be found there―what will You do?’
“The Lord said: ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of forty just men!’
“Abraham said: ‘Lord! Be not angry, I beseech You, if I speak again! What if thirty just men shall be found there?’
“The Lord answered: ‘I will not do it if I find thirty just men there!’
“Abraham said: ‘Seeing I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord! What if twenty just men be found there?’
“The Lord said: ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty just men!’
“Abraham said: ‘I beseech You Lord, be not angry if I speak yet once more! What if ten just men should be found there?’
“And the Lord said: ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of ten just men!’
“And the Lord departed after He had left speaking to Abraham―and Abraham returned to his place.” (Genesis 18:20-33).
Sodom and Gomorrha Destroyed Anyway
After all that pleading and bargaining, Sodom and Gomorrha were destroyed anyway―“And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from Heaven. And He destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the Earth” (Genesis 19:24-25). Why? Because not even the most minimal, paltriest, cheapest, easiest condition was met―the finding of a mere ten men who were just and not like the sinful mass of sinners within Sodom and Gomorrha.
The Threat of Fire Today
The same fate faces the world today. God is angry with not just two cities, but with the whole world. Our Lady has warned that: “If there are not souls who by their lives of immolation and sacrifice appease the Divine Justice, fire will rain from Heaven! … Without virginity, it will be necessary for fire from Heaven to rain down upon these lands in order to purify them!” (Our Lady of Good Success) ... “Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions! … The fire of Heaven will fall and consume cities! … And then water and fire will purge the Earth and consume all the works of man’s pride and all will be renewed!” (La Salette) … “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity! It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before! Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful! The survivors will find themselves so desolate, that they will envy the dead!” (Our Lady of Akita, 1973).
St. John the Baptist, the fiery preacher in the desert, also warns of punishment by fire: “He that shall come after me, is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear! He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire. Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly cleanse His floor and gather His wheat into the barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire!” (Matthew 3:11-12).
Our Lord also speaks of this punishing fire in Holy Scripture: “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire!” (Matthew 3:10). “Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire!” (Matthew 7:19). “Even as cockle therefore is gathered up, and burnt with fire―so shall it be at the end of the world! The Son of man shall send His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all them that work iniquity. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire―where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth! … So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire―where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Have you understood all these things?’ They said to Him: ‘Yes!’” (Matthew 13:40-42; 13:49-51).
Beware of Provoking the Hand of God
Holy Scripture paints a fearsome picture concerning the consequences of provoking God: “Evils shall come upon you in the latter times, when you shall do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him by the works of your hands!” (Deuteronomy 31:29). “They have provoked Me and have angered Me with their vanities!” (Deuteronomy 32:21). “But you have done evil and have made for yourself strange gods to provoke Me to anger, and you have cast Me behind your back!” (3 Kings 14:9). “And I will leave the remnants of My inheritance, and will deliver them into the hands of their enemies―and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies! Because they have done evil before Me, and have continued to provoke Me, even unto this day!” (4 Kings 21:14-15). “Because they have forsaken Me, and have sacrificed to strange gods, to provoke Me to wrath with all the works of their hands, therefore My wrath shall fall upon this place, and shall not be quenched!” (2 Paralipomenon 34:25).
Forcing the Hand of God
Once provoked, God is forced to let His hand fall in justice: “Woe to you that devise that which is unprofitable, and work evil in your beds: in the morning light they execute it, because their hand is against God” (Micheas 2:1). “But you that has been the author of all mischief, shalt not escape the hand of God!” (2 Machabees 7:31). “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold I will stretch forth My hand upon the Philistines, and will kill the killers!’” (Ezechiel 25:16). “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold I will lift up My hand against the Gentiles!’” (Isaias 49:22). “As I live, says the Lord God, I will reign over you with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out!” (Ezechiel 20:33). “For there was the fear of death in every city, and the hand of God was exceeding heavy” (1 Kings 5:12).
Avoid Sin—Avoid the Fire!
It takes no rocket-scientist to work out the spiritual math in all this. It is quite simply this: sin = fire. And if 2+2=4, then sin + more sin = more fire. As Our Lord says:”And if your hand, or your foot scandalizes you, cut it off, and cast it from you! It is better for you to go into life maimed or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire! And if your eye scandalizes you, pluck it out, and cast it from you! It is better for you to have one eye and to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into Hell fire!” (Matthew 18:8-9). “And if your hand scandalizes your, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life maimed, than having two hands and go into Hell, into unquenchable fire―where their worm dies not, and the fire is not extinguished!” (Mark 9:42-43). Talk about forcing God’s hand!!
Twist His Arm or Force His Hand?
Just as with Abraham, God is willing to let us twist His arm―but it means stopping a lifestyle that forces His hand. This has been made abundantly clear by Our Lady at her modern-day apparitions: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! … The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people!” (La Salette, 1846) … “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore―because He is already so much offended!” (Fatima, October 13th, 1917) … “Many men in this world afflict the Lord! ... As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity!” (Our Lady of Akita).
Modern-Day Abrahams
The whole purpose of Our Lady’s apparitions is to decrease sin, encourage reparation and search for ‘arm-twisters’ who are prepared to do what Abraham did, and what Our Lady does continually—plead, intercede, beg and cry for mercy for the world and its sinners.
At Fatima, the angel said: “Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended! … Above all accept and bear with submission all the suffering the Lord will send you!” (Fatima, 1916). At Akita, Our Lady says: “I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair, by their suffering and their poverty, for the sinners and the ungrateful … With my Son I have intervened so many times to appease the wrath of the Father. I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering Him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross, His Precious Blood, and beloved souls who console Him forming a cohort of victim souls. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger!” (Our Lady of Akita).
At La Salette, Our Lady makes a rallying call, calling all the ‘arm-twisters’ to the fight: “I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world! It is time they came out and filled the world with light! Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children! I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days! May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ! Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see! For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
Purgatory and the World
What has been said above about the world, applies also to ourselves individually—with fire being the consequence. Instead of fire falling from Heaven to consume us (which still may well happen), we will fall into the fires of Purgatory. The reason is as above: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended!” (Fatima, October 13th, 1917) … “Many men in this world afflict the Lord!” (Our Lady of Akita). Why? How?
Our Lady says: “By their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures … for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth! … Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God! ... People will think of nothing but amusement!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
The notion of penance has been drastically reduced. The Church has reduced Lenten penance to a fraction of what it used to be. The laws of fasting and abstinence have been greatly reduced. Lenten fasting has been reduced by 95% ― from 40 days down to 2 days (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday). The penances given in confession are so little that they cannot fail to communicate the idea that sin is only a trivial thing. And this is all done at a time when the amount of sin in the world is probably the greatest it has ever been―and is increasing daily. All this goes in the face of Our Lady’s messages requiring penance and sacrifice and Our Lord’s words: “No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
Nobody Listens
That is what is so frightening in all of this—many (we hope) know of these dire warnings, yet nobody is doing anything (or very little) about it. What Sr. Lucia told Fr. Fuentes on December 26th, 1957, is so clearly and strikingly true: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad! The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them!” Not only is Our Lady’s Fatima message ignored, but all the messages from all the accepted apparitions are ignored. We just go on our merry way, preoccupied with daily living and the world!
Fire Seems to Be the Only Solution
We are tired of the spiritual! The material is more attractive! We can sit for hours enjoying the material, but we are complaining and whining after barely 30 minutes of the spiritual—Masses can’t end soon enough; likewise for our prayers and other spiritual exercises. A look back at history should be a warning: “In the meantime, there arose a murmuring of the people against the Lord, as it were repining at their fatigue. And, when the Lord heard it, He was angry. And the fire of the Lord being kindled against them, devoured them that were at the uttermost part of the camp” (Numbers 11:1). “And a fire was kindled in their congregation―the flame burned the wicked” (Psalms 105:18).
Our Lord said: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth―and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). But all He finds is the fire of wickedness: “For wickedness is kindled as a fire, it shall devour the brier and the thorn: and shall kindle in the thicket of the forest!” (Isaias 9:18).
“The Earth shook and trembled, the foundations of the mountains were moved, and shaken, because He was angry with them. A smoke went up from His nostrils, and a devouring fire out of His mouth: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens, and came down: and darkness was under His feet. And He rode upon the cherubim, and flew: and slid upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness a covering round about Him: dropping waters out of the clouds of the heavens. By the brightness before Him, the coals of fire were kindled” (2 Kings 22:8-13).
Fiery Times Ahead—One Way or Another
God will kindle a fire for sure—it will be either a fire of love, or a fire in Purgatory to heat up lukewarm love, or the fire of Hell to repay a refusal to love. His fire is more powerful than the fire of wickedness, and if our world (and we with it) do not change, then God will kindle the whole Earth with fire! In a sense, God and Our Lady are pleading with us!
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha is not a fairy-tale, nor is the Flood in Noe’s time! What goes around, comes around! Like a parent with a lethargic teenager, Our Lady has told us time and time again—soon the words will end and the action will start.
As Pope John Paul II said in Fulda, Germany, in 1983—we can no longer avert what is coming, but we can mitigate it or soften the blow! It is not the unbelievers, apostates and sinners that are going to respond to Our Lady’s call—it rests in the lap of people like us. Our salvation, our Purgatory, our future depends upon whether we stir ourselves into action, or simply go with the flow!
Article 13
Thursday November 13th
Is There a Middle-Road?
One Road or Many?
Is there a middle road that we can take in our spiritual lives? Is there a middle road that can take us to Heaven? Is there road that is not too harsh on the feet—a road that winds and climbs gently, rather than the rugged, off-the-beaten-track road that seems too tough? We all know of the spiritual axiom that says: “Virtue stands in the middle between excess and neglect”—is there then a road that steers the middle path, between excess and neglect? Furthermore, there is the saying “All roads lead to Rome”—which seems to suggest that there is more than one road to Heaven. Also, we have the phrase: “To Jesus through Mary” which means that perhaps there is a way to Jesus without Mary! Interesting questions!
The Road Map of Scripture
First of all, Holy Scripture speaks of only two final destinations for our spiritual journey—Heaven and Hell. Our Lord speaks of two roads leading to two different destinations when He says: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14). Our Lord is the gate or door to Heaven:”Jesus said to him: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life! No man comes to the Father, but by Me!’” (John 14:6). “Jesus therefore said to them again: ‘Amen, amen I say to you, I am the door of the sheep!’” (John 10:7). “I am the door! By Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved!” (John 10:9). “Be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the stone which was rejected by you the builders, is become the head of the corner! Neither is there salvation in any other! For there is no other name under Heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved!” (Acts 4:10-12). “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved!” (Acts 16:31). But all this simply shows that Jesus is the one single door, the only door, by which we can be saved—but cannot many different roads lead to the same door?
The Road to Salvation
“You are saved through Faith” (Ephesians 2:18) … but “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20) … But Faith gives birth to Hope, which is also necessary for salvation: “We are saved by Hope” (Romans 8:24). It is hope that moves us to work towards our salvation and produce works worthy of salvation. However, works need the ‘soul’ of Charity, otherwise they are dead and useless:
“If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
We cannot be saved without Faith, Hope and Charity. Thus, the three chief or foundational elements for our journey are Faith, Hope and Charity ― “There remain Faith, Hope, and Charity, these three―but the greatest of these is Charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13), but, again, these are not three roads, but only the means to use on the road.
But is there a Middle Road?
It is not so much that there is a middle road, but a variety of degrees that are applied on the road to Heaven. When we seek a ‘middle-road’, we are really seeking to put less effort in our spiritual lives. The degree of effort should be growing as we grow older—much a child is expected to do more physically as it grows older, from doing nothing and having everything done for it, to eventually have nothing done for it because it has to do it all by itself in adulthood. The same is true for the spiritual life—except that we must always remember that without God we do nothing: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). Here is what Fr. Tanquerey says in his classic book, The Spiritual Life…
“Love alone unites us fully to God. It presupposes Faith and Hope, but it surpasses them. It lays hold of our entire soul, intellect, heart, will, activity, and delivers all unreservedly to God. It excludes Mortal Sin, God’s enemy, and makes us enjoy the divine friendship … The essence of love itself is devotedness. It is a firm determination of the will to give itself up to God, and, if need be, to make the entire sacrifice of self to Him and His glory, preferring His good pleasure to that of self and others … Worldlings, even when they have the Faith, often entertain very false ideas concerning perfection or, as they call it, devotion” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
The Varying Degrees on the Road
“The degrees by which one is raised to perfection are numerous. According to the common doctrine, explained by St. Thomas Aquinas, there are three principal stages or, as they are commonly called, three ways:(1) that of beginners or the Purgative Way, (2) that of souls already advanced, or the Illuminative Way, and (3) that of the perfect, or the Unitive Way.
The Lowest Degree―the Way of Beginners, the Purgative Way
(a) The chief care of beginners is that of preserving charity. Their efforts, then, are directed toward the avoidance of sin, above all, Mortal Sin, and toward the conquest of evil inclinations, of the passions, and of all that could make them lose the love of God. This is the Purgative Way, the end of which is the purification of the soul.
The Middle Degree―the Way of Proficients, the Illuminative Way
(b) The chief concern of those already advanced, the proficients, is progress in the positive exercise of the virtues and growth in Charity. The heart, already purified, is all the more open to divine light and to the love of God. The soul wishes to follow Jesus and to imitate His virtues, and since by following Him one walks in the Light, this is called the Illuminative Way. Here the soul strives to avoid not only Mortal, but even Venial Sin.
The Highest Degree―the Way of the Perfect, the Unitive Way
(c) Perfect souls have but one concern to cling to God and to take their delight in Him. Ever seeking to unite themselves to God, they are in the Unitive Way. Sin fills them with horror, for they fear to displease God and to offend Him. The virtues that most attract them are the Theological Virtues, which unite them to God. Hence, the Earth seems to them an exile, and, like St. Paul, they long to die to be joined to Christ. These are only brief indications. Later on we shall resume them again and develop them in the Second Part of this work. There we shall take the soul from the first stage, that of the purification, to the transforming union that prepares it for the Beatific Vision” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
The Road of Penance
“It is admitted, on all hands, that no one can afford, at any time, to put out of his life the spirit of penance―even though it may take different forms according to the different degrees of perfection. In the same manner, it is agreed that, in order to arrive at the Unitive Way [the highest stage of the spiritual life], one must exercise oneself more and more perfectly in the practice of both the Moral and the Theological Virtues; that the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, cultivated with care, endow the soul with a certain docility that renders it more submissive to the inspirations of grace” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
Our Limitations
There are, however, limits to our perfection here on Earth. Beyond these we must not wish to go, for fear of falling back into a lower degree of perfection, or even lapse into mortal sin. It is certain that we cannot love God as He deserves to be loved. He is infinitely lovable, and, our hearts being finite, can never love Him, even in Heaven, except with a finite love. We can, therefore, and we must always strive to love Him more. According to St. Bernard, the measure with which to love God is to love Him without measure.
Let us not forget, however, that real love consists less in pious sentiments than in acts of the will [actions speak louder than words—and words and actions must be in harmony], and that the best way to love God is to make our will conform to His will. On Earth one cannot love God uninterruptedly, nor unfailingly. One can, with the aid of special graces, avoid all deliberate Venial Sin, but not all faults of frailty. No one ever becomes impeccable, as the Church has declared on many occasions.
As Fr. Tanquerey says: “Behold, then, the whole of Christian perfection: love and sacrifice. Who cannot, with God’s grace, fulfill this twofold condition? Is it really so difficult to love Him Who is infinitely lovable and infinitely loving? The love that He asks of us is nothing extraordinary; it is the devotedness of love the gift of oneself consisting chiefly in conformity to the Divine will. To want to love; is to love. To keep the commandments for God’s sake is to love. To pray is to love. To fulfill our duties of state in view of pleasing God, this is likewise to love. Even to recreate ourselves, to take our meals with the same intention is to love. To serve our neighbor, for God’s sake, is to love. Nothing then is easier―with God’s grace helping―than the constant exercise of Divine love and, through this, a steady advance toward perfection” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
Love Must Translate Into Sacrifice
As for sacrifice, without doubt it seems hard. But we are not asked to love sacrifice for its own sake. It is enough if we love it for God’s sake, or, in other words if we realize that, here on Earth, one cannot love God without renouncing whatever gets in the way of His love. Then sacrifice at first becomes tolerable and soon it becomes even lovable.
Does not a mother, passing long, sleepless nights at the bedside of her sick son, joyously accept fatigue, when she has the hope and, more especially, when she has the certainty of thereby saving his life? Now, when we accept, for the sake of God, the sacrifices He demands, we have not only the hope, but the certainty itself, of pleasing Him, of giving Him glory and of working out the salvation of our own souls. This too is what the Mother of mothers, Our Lady, asked for at Fatima. She asked the three children: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort!” Heaven is endlessly trying to turn up the heat, so to speak, of our love—so that we might be able to suffer more. To the worldling, that sounds surprising, shocking even scandalous, but just as the baby must grow into a man, so too must love of God grow into suffering for God.
School of Suffering
To the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady said: “My most holy Son and myself are trying to find, among those who have arrived at the Way of the Cross, some soul, whom We can instruct systematically in this divine science and whom We can withdraw from the worldly and diabolical wisdom, in which the sons of Adam, with blind stubbornness, are rejecting the salutary discipline of sufferings. If you wish to be our disciple, then enter into this school, in which alone is taught the doctrine of the Cross and the manner of reaching true peace and veritable delights. With this wisdom the earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible; nor the vain ostentation and pomp, which fascinates the blear-eyed worldlings, who are so covetous of passing honors, and so full of ignorant admiration for costly grandeur.”
To be able to do this, we have example and the help of the God-Man—Jesus Christ. Has He not suffered as much as, and even more than we ourselves suffer, for the glory of His Father and the salvation of our souls? Shall we, His disciples, incorporated into Him in Baptism, nourished with His Body and Blood, shall we hesitate when we are called to suffer together with Him, out of love for Him and for His intentions? Is it not true that in the Cross there is immense profit, especially for loving hearts? “In the Cross” says the Imitation of Christ, “is salvation; in the Cross is life; in the Cross is protection from enemies. In the Cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness; in the Cross is strength of mind; in the Cross is joy of spirit. In the Cross is height of “virtue; in the Cross is perfection, of sanctity” (Book 2, chapter 12).
Saint Augustine tells us: “There are no labors too great for loving hearts. In fact, one finds pleasure therein, as we observe in the case of the fisherman fishing, the hunter at the chase, the merchant at the market. For where there is love, there is no labor, or if there be labor, it is a labor of love.” Let us then hasten toward perfection by this path of love and sacrifice.
Degrees of Suffering
St. Bernard distinguishes three degrees of this virtue, corresponding to the three stages of Christian perfection: “The beginner, moved by fear, patiently bears the Cross of Christ; the one who has already made some progress on the road to perfection, inspired by hope, carries it cheerfully; the perfect soul, consumed by love, embraces it ardently.” Beginners, upheld by the fear of God, do not love pain, but rather seek to escape it. However, they choose to suffer rather than to offend God and, though groaning under the weight of the Cross, they resign themselves to carrying the Cross and they endure it in patience.
Those who have already made some progress, are sustained by the hope and the desire of heavenly things; and, though they do not yet seek the Cross, they willingly carry it with a certain joy, knowing that each new pang represents an additional degree of glory: “Going, they went and wept, casting their seeds. But coming, they shall come with joyfulness carrying their sheaves.”
The perfect, led by love, go even further. To glorify the God they love, to become more like our Lord, they go forth to meet the Cross, they long for it and embrace it lovingly, not because it is in itself lovable, but because it offers them the means of proving their love for God and. for Christ Like the Apostles, they rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus. Like St. Paul, they rejoice in their tribulations: “God forbid that I should glory, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world!” (Galatians 6:14).
All Roads Lead to Rome, but…
Saint John of the Cross believed that love is the most important lesson to learn in life, and it will be the subject of our final “exam” when we face God. He wrote: “At the end of our life, we shall be judged on our love alone!” ― which means that at the end of life, the ultimate measure of our worth will be how we have loved God and others through concrete acts of charity. This love should extend to everyone, even those who are considered enemies. The ideal is to pray for their conversion rather than to show hate, as demonstrated by the example during His Passion and His death on the Cross.
Though all roads may lead to Rome, the only road to Heaven is that of Love and Sacrifice. We will be judged on how much we have loved God and how much we have suffered with love for God. There are many, many texts of Holy Scripture that testify to this—here we list but a few: “Love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these!” (Mark 12:30-31). That love requires sacrifices and brings sufferings: “Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you! Pray for them that persecute and calumniate you!” (Matthew 5:44). That love calls for sacrificing the world in order to keep the Commandments: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). That love will be tested by suffering: “Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Or distress? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or danger? Or persecution? Or the sword?” (Romans 8:35).
Cross
Therefore, if we wish to follow Our Lord on the road to Heaven, we must take the road of the Cross: “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). “And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27).”And he that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). Perhaps it will even call upon us to give up our lives out of love for Christ: “Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends!” (John 15:13).
Love
All our works, if they are to be profitable, must be infused by this love: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
A Refusal to Suffer Brings More Suffering in Purgatory
The “Middle-Road” is exactly that—it falls in the middle between Heaven and Hell, which is Purgatory. By not wanting to “give-it-one’s-all” while here on Earth, the soul finds itself having to give more than it bargained for in Purgatory. It tried to get to Heaven for a reduced price, and without fully paying for its sins. As St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “For if the debt of punishment is not paid in full after the stain of sin has been washed away by contrition, nor again are Venial Sins always removed when Mortal Sins are remitted, and if justice demands that sin be set in order by due punishment, it follows that one who, after contrition for his fault and after being absolved, dies before making due satisfaction, is punished after this life. Wherefore those who deny Purgatory speak against the justice of God―for which reason such a statement is erroneous and contrary to Faith” (Summa Theologica, Appendix II, art. 1).
In Purgatory we suffer far more than we could ever have suffered on Earth. St. Thomas tells us that “The fire of Purgatory is the same as the fire of Hell” (Summa Theologica, Appendix II, art. 2). Quoting St. Augustine, St. Thomas writes: “This fire of Purgatory will be more severe than any pain that can be felt, seen or conceived in this world ... The pain of Purgatory, both of loss and of sense, surpasses all the pains of this life … The severity of that punishment is not so much a consequence of the degree of sin, as of the disposition of the person punished―because the same sin is more severely punished then than now” (Summa Theologica, Appendix I, q. 2, art. 1).
The “Middle-Road” tries to do things by halves, it half-loves God; it half-pays for its sins—but we are told to love God with our WHOLE heart, not part of it. Sadly, as authors like Fr. Faber and Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange think, most Catholics are “middle-of-the-road” Catholics or worse―who, if they do not change, will find themselves in the middle of Purgatory!
Lukewarmness on Earth Produces a Hot Purgatory!
Essentially, one of the chief reasons why souls who die in a state of sanctifying grace but find themselves in Purgatory rather than Heaven, is the pandemic virus of lukewarmness. They exerted little or no effort in resisting sin and they exerted little or no effort in paying for sin. They had a diseased devotion. You cannot put clothes in a smoky room without them finally taking on the smell of smoke. Stand next to a fire and you will grow hotter and hotter. Put yourself in a worldly atmosphere and you will gradually be contaminated with increasing degrees of worldliness. Frequent the company of Liberals and you will become more and more Liberal. Tell me who friends are, and I will tell you what you are. Our environment greatly influences us—whether we want it or not; whether we like it or not.
God finds lukewarmness disgusting and He makes that clearly known to us when He says: “I know your works, that you are neither cold, nor hot. I would rather have you be cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth” (Apocalypse 3:15-16). Fr. Faber comments: “There is nothing in the spiritual life which arrests our attention so forcibly as lukewarmness because of the unusual language in which it has pleased God to express His ineffable disgust with it, and the startling doctrine which accompanies the declaration of His loathing, that coldness is less offensive to Him than tepidity. Who is it then with whom God is so exceedingly displeased, that He is sick of His own redeemed creature? We tremble at the answer” (Fr. Faber, Growth in Holiness, ch. 25, “Lukewarmness”). Lukewarmness is not a road that leads to Heaven! It might be a “middle-road” between being spiritually cold and spiritually hot, but it disgusts God and He warns that He will “vomit” such souls out of His mouth!
It’s a pretty ugly thought to imagine oneself being vomited out of the mouth of God! We may be tempted to feel like the Apostles felt, when Our Lord said that one of them would betray Him. “And they being very much troubled, began everyone to say: ‘Is it I, Lord?’” (Matthew 26:22).
A Very Common Problem
“I fear this evil of lukewarmness is very common, and that at this moment it is gnawing the life out of many souls who suspect not its presence there. It is a great grace, a prophecy of a miraculous cure, to find out that we are lukewarm; but we are lost if we do not act with vigor, the moment we make this frightening discovery. It is like going to sleep in the snow, almost a pleasant tingling feeling at the first, and then—lost forever” (Fr. Faber, Growth in Holiness, ch. 25, “Lukewarmness”).
Are You Serious?
The very fact that you are reading this, shows that you a pretty serious about your spiritual life! Most probably, you have made some serious advances over the years that are pleasing to you. You may even be seriously tempted to look down the mountain-side, that you have halfway climbed, and, looking at the folks below, you might be tempted to say with the Pharisee in the Temple: “O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers. I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess” (Luke 18:11-12).
The ‘Good-Bad’ Pharisee
The Pharisee was doing nothing wrong externally. It was in his soul that the problem lay. All the things that he was doing externally were good things. It is good to pray, it is good to give alms. The Jews only had to tithe to the Temple on just two things of their choice, but the Pharisee was freely and willingly tithing on ALL THAT HE POSSESSED! But he was complacent, self-satisfied and proud. He was like the man in the parable: “The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. And he thought within himself, saying: ‘What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?’ And he said: ‘This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. And I will say to my soul: “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thy rest; eat, drink, make good cheer!”’” (Luke 12:16-19).
You Will Be a Target
We may think the same: “I have so many fruits—the many prayers I say, the Masses I attend, the alms I give, and whatever other spiritual exercises we may do.” We say: “I will say more prayers; I will go to more Masses, …etc.” Let it be stressed, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT—THEY ARE ALL GOOD THINGS! But the devil knows that too, and he wants to get a fly into the ointment and destroy it. And for someone who is trying hard, lukewarmness is the best and most common fly the devil uses—as the quotes from Fr. Faber and Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange testify. Lukewarmness can attack beginners in the spiritual life, but the most common focus is on the person that is making progress in spiritual growth. That means YOU! If you are getting better and stronger spiritually, YOU WILL BE ATTACKED!
Is there a middle road that we can take in our spiritual lives? Is there a middle road that can take us to Heaven? Is there road that is not too harsh on the feet—a road that winds and climbs gently, rather than the rugged, off-the-beaten-track road that seems too tough? We all know of the spiritual axiom that says: “Virtue stands in the middle between excess and neglect”—is there then a road that steers the middle path, between excess and neglect? Furthermore, there is the saying “All roads lead to Rome”—which seems to suggest that there is more than one road to Heaven. Also, we have the phrase: “To Jesus through Mary” which means that perhaps there is a way to Jesus without Mary! Interesting questions!
The Road Map of Scripture
First of all, Holy Scripture speaks of only two final destinations for our spiritual journey—Heaven and Hell. Our Lord speaks of two roads leading to two different destinations when He says: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14). Our Lord is the gate or door to Heaven:”Jesus said to him: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life! No man comes to the Father, but by Me!’” (John 14:6). “Jesus therefore said to them again: ‘Amen, amen I say to you, I am the door of the sheep!’” (John 10:7). “I am the door! By Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved!” (John 10:9). “Be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the stone which was rejected by you the builders, is become the head of the corner! Neither is there salvation in any other! For there is no other name under Heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved!” (Acts 4:10-12). “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved!” (Acts 16:31). But all this simply shows that Jesus is the one single door, the only door, by which we can be saved—but cannot many different roads lead to the same door?
The Road to Salvation
“You are saved through Faith” (Ephesians 2:18) … but “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20) … But Faith gives birth to Hope, which is also necessary for salvation: “We are saved by Hope” (Romans 8:24). It is hope that moves us to work towards our salvation and produce works worthy of salvation. However, works need the ‘soul’ of Charity, otherwise they are dead and useless:
“If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
We cannot be saved without Faith, Hope and Charity. Thus, the three chief or foundational elements for our journey are Faith, Hope and Charity ― “There remain Faith, Hope, and Charity, these three―but the greatest of these is Charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13), but, again, these are not three roads, but only the means to use on the road.
But is there a Middle Road?
It is not so much that there is a middle road, but a variety of degrees that are applied on the road to Heaven. When we seek a ‘middle-road’, we are really seeking to put less effort in our spiritual lives. The degree of effort should be growing as we grow older—much a child is expected to do more physically as it grows older, from doing nothing and having everything done for it, to eventually have nothing done for it because it has to do it all by itself in adulthood. The same is true for the spiritual life—except that we must always remember that without God we do nothing: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). Here is what Fr. Tanquerey says in his classic book, The Spiritual Life…
“Love alone unites us fully to God. It presupposes Faith and Hope, but it surpasses them. It lays hold of our entire soul, intellect, heart, will, activity, and delivers all unreservedly to God. It excludes Mortal Sin, God’s enemy, and makes us enjoy the divine friendship … The essence of love itself is devotedness. It is a firm determination of the will to give itself up to God, and, if need be, to make the entire sacrifice of self to Him and His glory, preferring His good pleasure to that of self and others … Worldlings, even when they have the Faith, often entertain very false ideas concerning perfection or, as they call it, devotion” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
The Varying Degrees on the Road
“The degrees by which one is raised to perfection are numerous. According to the common doctrine, explained by St. Thomas Aquinas, there are three principal stages or, as they are commonly called, three ways:(1) that of beginners or the Purgative Way, (2) that of souls already advanced, or the Illuminative Way, and (3) that of the perfect, or the Unitive Way.
The Lowest Degree―the Way of Beginners, the Purgative Way
(a) The chief care of beginners is that of preserving charity. Their efforts, then, are directed toward the avoidance of sin, above all, Mortal Sin, and toward the conquest of evil inclinations, of the passions, and of all that could make them lose the love of God. This is the Purgative Way, the end of which is the purification of the soul.
The Middle Degree―the Way of Proficients, the Illuminative Way
(b) The chief concern of those already advanced, the proficients, is progress in the positive exercise of the virtues and growth in Charity. The heart, already purified, is all the more open to divine light and to the love of God. The soul wishes to follow Jesus and to imitate His virtues, and since by following Him one walks in the Light, this is called the Illuminative Way. Here the soul strives to avoid not only Mortal, but even Venial Sin.
The Highest Degree―the Way of the Perfect, the Unitive Way
(c) Perfect souls have but one concern to cling to God and to take their delight in Him. Ever seeking to unite themselves to God, they are in the Unitive Way. Sin fills them with horror, for they fear to displease God and to offend Him. The virtues that most attract them are the Theological Virtues, which unite them to God. Hence, the Earth seems to them an exile, and, like St. Paul, they long to die to be joined to Christ. These are only brief indications. Later on we shall resume them again and develop them in the Second Part of this work. There we shall take the soul from the first stage, that of the purification, to the transforming union that prepares it for the Beatific Vision” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
The Road of Penance
“It is admitted, on all hands, that no one can afford, at any time, to put out of his life the spirit of penance―even though it may take different forms according to the different degrees of perfection. In the same manner, it is agreed that, in order to arrive at the Unitive Way [the highest stage of the spiritual life], one must exercise oneself more and more perfectly in the practice of both the Moral and the Theological Virtues; that the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, cultivated with care, endow the soul with a certain docility that renders it more submissive to the inspirations of grace” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
Our Limitations
There are, however, limits to our perfection here on Earth. Beyond these we must not wish to go, for fear of falling back into a lower degree of perfection, or even lapse into mortal sin. It is certain that we cannot love God as He deserves to be loved. He is infinitely lovable, and, our hearts being finite, can never love Him, even in Heaven, except with a finite love. We can, therefore, and we must always strive to love Him more. According to St. Bernard, the measure with which to love God is to love Him without measure.
Let us not forget, however, that real love consists less in pious sentiments than in acts of the will [actions speak louder than words—and words and actions must be in harmony], and that the best way to love God is to make our will conform to His will. On Earth one cannot love God uninterruptedly, nor unfailingly. One can, with the aid of special graces, avoid all deliberate Venial Sin, but not all faults of frailty. No one ever becomes impeccable, as the Church has declared on many occasions.
As Fr. Tanquerey says: “Behold, then, the whole of Christian perfection: love and sacrifice. Who cannot, with God’s grace, fulfill this twofold condition? Is it really so difficult to love Him Who is infinitely lovable and infinitely loving? The love that He asks of us is nothing extraordinary; it is the devotedness of love the gift of oneself consisting chiefly in conformity to the Divine will. To want to love; is to love. To keep the commandments for God’s sake is to love. To pray is to love. To fulfill our duties of state in view of pleasing God, this is likewise to love. Even to recreate ourselves, to take our meals with the same intention is to love. To serve our neighbor, for God’s sake, is to love. Nothing then is easier―with God’s grace helping―than the constant exercise of Divine love and, through this, a steady advance toward perfection” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).
Love Must Translate Into Sacrifice
As for sacrifice, without doubt it seems hard. But we are not asked to love sacrifice for its own sake. It is enough if we love it for God’s sake, or, in other words if we realize that, here on Earth, one cannot love God without renouncing whatever gets in the way of His love. Then sacrifice at first becomes tolerable and soon it becomes even lovable.
Does not a mother, passing long, sleepless nights at the bedside of her sick son, joyously accept fatigue, when she has the hope and, more especially, when she has the certainty of thereby saving his life? Now, when we accept, for the sake of God, the sacrifices He demands, we have not only the hope, but the certainty itself, of pleasing Him, of giving Him glory and of working out the salvation of our own souls. This too is what the Mother of mothers, Our Lady, asked for at Fatima. She asked the three children: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort!” Heaven is endlessly trying to turn up the heat, so to speak, of our love—so that we might be able to suffer more. To the worldling, that sounds surprising, shocking even scandalous, but just as the baby must grow into a man, so too must love of God grow into suffering for God.
School of Suffering
To the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady said: “My most holy Son and myself are trying to find, among those who have arrived at the Way of the Cross, some soul, whom We can instruct systematically in this divine science and whom We can withdraw from the worldly and diabolical wisdom, in which the sons of Adam, with blind stubbornness, are rejecting the salutary discipline of sufferings. If you wish to be our disciple, then enter into this school, in which alone is taught the doctrine of the Cross and the manner of reaching true peace and veritable delights. With this wisdom the earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible; nor the vain ostentation and pomp, which fascinates the blear-eyed worldlings, who are so covetous of passing honors, and so full of ignorant admiration for costly grandeur.”
To be able to do this, we have example and the help of the God-Man—Jesus Christ. Has He not suffered as much as, and even more than we ourselves suffer, for the glory of His Father and the salvation of our souls? Shall we, His disciples, incorporated into Him in Baptism, nourished with His Body and Blood, shall we hesitate when we are called to suffer together with Him, out of love for Him and for His intentions? Is it not true that in the Cross there is immense profit, especially for loving hearts? “In the Cross” says the Imitation of Christ, “is salvation; in the Cross is life; in the Cross is protection from enemies. In the Cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness; in the Cross is strength of mind; in the Cross is joy of spirit. In the Cross is height of “virtue; in the Cross is perfection, of sanctity” (Book 2, chapter 12).
Saint Augustine tells us: “There are no labors too great for loving hearts. In fact, one finds pleasure therein, as we observe in the case of the fisherman fishing, the hunter at the chase, the merchant at the market. For where there is love, there is no labor, or if there be labor, it is a labor of love.” Let us then hasten toward perfection by this path of love and sacrifice.
Degrees of Suffering
St. Bernard distinguishes three degrees of this virtue, corresponding to the three stages of Christian perfection: “The beginner, moved by fear, patiently bears the Cross of Christ; the one who has already made some progress on the road to perfection, inspired by hope, carries it cheerfully; the perfect soul, consumed by love, embraces it ardently.” Beginners, upheld by the fear of God, do not love pain, but rather seek to escape it. However, they choose to suffer rather than to offend God and, though groaning under the weight of the Cross, they resign themselves to carrying the Cross and they endure it in patience.
Those who have already made some progress, are sustained by the hope and the desire of heavenly things; and, though they do not yet seek the Cross, they willingly carry it with a certain joy, knowing that each new pang represents an additional degree of glory: “Going, they went and wept, casting their seeds. But coming, they shall come with joyfulness carrying their sheaves.”
The perfect, led by love, go even further. To glorify the God they love, to become more like our Lord, they go forth to meet the Cross, they long for it and embrace it lovingly, not because it is in itself lovable, but because it offers them the means of proving their love for God and. for Christ Like the Apostles, they rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus. Like St. Paul, they rejoice in their tribulations: “God forbid that I should glory, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world!” (Galatians 6:14).
All Roads Lead to Rome, but…
Saint John of the Cross believed that love is the most important lesson to learn in life, and it will be the subject of our final “exam” when we face God. He wrote: “At the end of our life, we shall be judged on our love alone!” ― which means that at the end of life, the ultimate measure of our worth will be how we have loved God and others through concrete acts of charity. This love should extend to everyone, even those who are considered enemies. The ideal is to pray for their conversion rather than to show hate, as demonstrated by the example during His Passion and His death on the Cross.
Though all roads may lead to Rome, the only road to Heaven is that of Love and Sacrifice. We will be judged on how much we have loved God and how much we have suffered with love for God. There are many, many texts of Holy Scripture that testify to this—here we list but a few: “Love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these!” (Mark 12:30-31). That love requires sacrifices and brings sufferings: “Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you! Pray for them that persecute and calumniate you!” (Matthew 5:44). That love calls for sacrificing the world in order to keep the Commandments: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). That love will be tested by suffering: “Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Or distress? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or danger? Or persecution? Or the sword?” (Romans 8:35).
Cross
Therefore, if we wish to follow Our Lord on the road to Heaven, we must take the road of the Cross: “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). “And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27).”And he that takes not up his cross, and follows Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). Perhaps it will even call upon us to give up our lives out of love for Christ: “Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends!” (John 15:13).
Love
All our works, if they are to be profitable, must be infused by this love: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
A Refusal to Suffer Brings More Suffering in Purgatory
The “Middle-Road” is exactly that—it falls in the middle between Heaven and Hell, which is Purgatory. By not wanting to “give-it-one’s-all” while here on Earth, the soul finds itself having to give more than it bargained for in Purgatory. It tried to get to Heaven for a reduced price, and without fully paying for its sins. As St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “For if the debt of punishment is not paid in full after the stain of sin has been washed away by contrition, nor again are Venial Sins always removed when Mortal Sins are remitted, and if justice demands that sin be set in order by due punishment, it follows that one who, after contrition for his fault and after being absolved, dies before making due satisfaction, is punished after this life. Wherefore those who deny Purgatory speak against the justice of God―for which reason such a statement is erroneous and contrary to Faith” (Summa Theologica, Appendix II, art. 1).
In Purgatory we suffer far more than we could ever have suffered on Earth. St. Thomas tells us that “The fire of Purgatory is the same as the fire of Hell” (Summa Theologica, Appendix II, art. 2). Quoting St. Augustine, St. Thomas writes: “This fire of Purgatory will be more severe than any pain that can be felt, seen or conceived in this world ... The pain of Purgatory, both of loss and of sense, surpasses all the pains of this life … The severity of that punishment is not so much a consequence of the degree of sin, as of the disposition of the person punished―because the same sin is more severely punished then than now” (Summa Theologica, Appendix I, q. 2, art. 1).
The “Middle-Road” tries to do things by halves, it half-loves God; it half-pays for its sins—but we are told to love God with our WHOLE heart, not part of it. Sadly, as authors like Fr. Faber and Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange think, most Catholics are “middle-of-the-road” Catholics or worse―who, if they do not change, will find themselves in the middle of Purgatory!
Lukewarmness on Earth Produces a Hot Purgatory!
Essentially, one of the chief reasons why souls who die in a state of sanctifying grace but find themselves in Purgatory rather than Heaven, is the pandemic virus of lukewarmness. They exerted little or no effort in resisting sin and they exerted little or no effort in paying for sin. They had a diseased devotion. You cannot put clothes in a smoky room without them finally taking on the smell of smoke. Stand next to a fire and you will grow hotter and hotter. Put yourself in a worldly atmosphere and you will gradually be contaminated with increasing degrees of worldliness. Frequent the company of Liberals and you will become more and more Liberal. Tell me who friends are, and I will tell you what you are. Our environment greatly influences us—whether we want it or not; whether we like it or not.
God finds lukewarmness disgusting and He makes that clearly known to us when He says: “I know your works, that you are neither cold, nor hot. I would rather have you be cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth” (Apocalypse 3:15-16). Fr. Faber comments: “There is nothing in the spiritual life which arrests our attention so forcibly as lukewarmness because of the unusual language in which it has pleased God to express His ineffable disgust with it, and the startling doctrine which accompanies the declaration of His loathing, that coldness is less offensive to Him than tepidity. Who is it then with whom God is so exceedingly displeased, that He is sick of His own redeemed creature? We tremble at the answer” (Fr. Faber, Growth in Holiness, ch. 25, “Lukewarmness”). Lukewarmness is not a road that leads to Heaven! It might be a “middle-road” between being spiritually cold and spiritually hot, but it disgusts God and He warns that He will “vomit” such souls out of His mouth!
It’s a pretty ugly thought to imagine oneself being vomited out of the mouth of God! We may be tempted to feel like the Apostles felt, when Our Lord said that one of them would betray Him. “And they being very much troubled, began everyone to say: ‘Is it I, Lord?’” (Matthew 26:22).
A Very Common Problem
“I fear this evil of lukewarmness is very common, and that at this moment it is gnawing the life out of many souls who suspect not its presence there. It is a great grace, a prophecy of a miraculous cure, to find out that we are lukewarm; but we are lost if we do not act with vigor, the moment we make this frightening discovery. It is like going to sleep in the snow, almost a pleasant tingling feeling at the first, and then—lost forever” (Fr. Faber, Growth in Holiness, ch. 25, “Lukewarmness”).
Are You Serious?
The very fact that you are reading this, shows that you a pretty serious about your spiritual life! Most probably, you have made some serious advances over the years that are pleasing to you. You may even be seriously tempted to look down the mountain-side, that you have halfway climbed, and, looking at the folks below, you might be tempted to say with the Pharisee in the Temple: “O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers. I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess” (Luke 18:11-12).
The ‘Good-Bad’ Pharisee
The Pharisee was doing nothing wrong externally. It was in his soul that the problem lay. All the things that he was doing externally were good things. It is good to pray, it is good to give alms. The Jews only had to tithe to the Temple on just two things of their choice, but the Pharisee was freely and willingly tithing on ALL THAT HE POSSESSED! But he was complacent, self-satisfied and proud. He was like the man in the parable: “The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. And he thought within himself, saying: ‘What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?’ And he said: ‘This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. And I will say to my soul: “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thy rest; eat, drink, make good cheer!”’” (Luke 12:16-19).
You Will Be a Target
We may think the same: “I have so many fruits—the many prayers I say, the Masses I attend, the alms I give, and whatever other spiritual exercises we may do.” We say: “I will say more prayers; I will go to more Masses, …etc.” Let it be stressed, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT—THEY ARE ALL GOOD THINGS! But the devil knows that too, and he wants to get a fly into the ointment and destroy it. And for someone who is trying hard, lukewarmness is the best and most common fly the devil uses—as the quotes from Fr. Faber and Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange testify. Lukewarmness can attack beginners in the spiritual life, but the most common focus is on the person that is making progress in spiritual growth. That means YOU! If you are getting better and stronger spiritually, YOU WILL BE ATTACKED!
Article 12
Wednesday November 12th
Cardinal Raises Sister from the Dead
Article 12
Wednesday November 12th
Cardinal Raises Sister from the Dead
Another Testimony from the Dead
Yesterday, we saw what a glimpse of Purgatory did for Drithelm, the man raised from the dead. It changed his whole value system. He was already living what we would call an exemplary Catholic life before he died, but he realized how woefully deficient it was. Given a second chance by God, he lived a life of total detachment from the world, immersing himself in prayer, extraordinary penances and the hardest labor.
We find something similar in the life of a Dominican nun who also happened to be the sister of a cardinal—Blessed John Baptist Tolomei. She was raised from the dead by her own brother, and she gave a testimony of the rigor of God’s judgments.
Blessed John Baptist Tolomei, whose rare virtues and the gift of miracles has placed him on our altars, had a sister, Angela Tolomei, the heroism of whose virtue has also been recognized by the Church. She fell dangerously sick, and her holy brother, by earnest prayer, begged Our Lord to cure her. Our Lord replied, as He once did to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, that He would not cure Angela, but that He would do something more. He would raise her from the dead, for the glory of God and the good of souls.
Dead and Alive
Eventually, Angela Tolomei died, recommending herself to the prayers of her holy brother. Whilst she was being carried to the tomb, Blessed John Baptist Tolomei, in obedience, no doubt, inspired by the Holy Ghost, approached the coffin, and, in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, commanded his sister to rise up from the coffin. Immediately she awoke as from a profound slumber, and returned to life.
A Change of Approach to Life
That holy soul seemed struck with terror at what she had seen after death, and related such things concerning the severity of God’s judgments as make us shudder. She commenced, at the same time, to lead a life which proved the truth of her words. Her penance was frightful.
Not content with the ordinary practices of the saints, such as fasting, watching, hair-shirts, and bloody disciplines, she went so far as to cast herself into flames, and to roll herself therein until her flesh was entirely burnt. Her macerated body became an object of pity and of horror. She was censured and accused of destroying, by her excess, the idea of true Christian penance.
She continued, nevertheless, and contented herself with replying: “If you knew the rigors of the judgments of God, you would not speak thus. What are my trifling penances compared with the torments reserved in the other life for those infidelities which we so easily permit ourselves in this world? What are they? What are they? Would that I could do a hundred times more!”
Angela Was Not Even a Great Sinner
There is no question here, as we see, of the tortures to which great sinners, who converted before death, are subjected to in Purgatory (which must be far greater), but of the chastisements which God inflicts upon a fervent Religious for the slightest faults. As we said before, our valuations of Heaven and sin are way off the mark.
Yet, when we read accounts such as these, we still don’t change our misguided sense of values! Do we need to see Purgatory for ourselves, and put our big toe or finger in the fire—like a ‘doubting Thomas’—before we will do something different in our lives? The reply to that would be much the same as the reply given to the rich man—in the Parable about poor Lazarus and the Rich Man—who had died and found himself in Hell, while Lazarus went to Heaven:
The Rich Man and Lazarus
“There was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, and no one did give him; moreover the dogs came, and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died: and he was buried in Hell. And lifting up his eyes, when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom: and he cried, and said: ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue―for I am tormented in this flame!’ And Abraham said to him: ‘Son, remember that you received good things in your lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted; and you are tormented.
“And besides all this, between us and you, there is fixed a great chasm―so that they who would like to pass from here to you, cannot, nor from there can anyone come here.’ And he said: ‘Then, father, I beseech you, that you would send him to my father’s house—for I have five brethren—so that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torments.’ And Abraham said to him: ‘They have Moses and the prophets―let them hear them!’ But he said: ‘No, father Abraham! If one went to them from the dead, they will do penance!’ And he said to him: ‘If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead!” (Luke 16:20-31).
We have Purgatorial sermons galore given by saints; numerous books written on Purgatory, citing cases and incidents like these—but the world does not listen nor does it want to know. They do so at their own peril. But if they could only see a miracle like this for themselves, then they would certainly change! There have been miracles galore—the problem is a lack of Faith, not a lack of miracles. As Our Lord said: “Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed” (John 20:29) … “The Son of man, when He comes, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8).
Spirit or Flesh?
Let us be strong in our Faith and follow the examples of Faith that we have seen these last two day—those of two souls resurrected from the death, Drithelm and Angela Tolomei, whose Faith was radically reformed after seeing the torments of Purgatory! As Scripture says: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8).
We can well imagine that, during these recurring months of November, Heaven is trying, year after year, to light a fire in our hearts—but the wood is green and the fire won’t take hold. But if we don’t allow the Holy Ghost to enkindle in our hearts the fire of His love while we are still living on this Earth, then our charity is going to have to fired-up by the fires of Purgatory after we die. In a nutshell, we were made to burn! Either we burn the debt of sins with the fires of love in our hearts here below; or we burn for the debt of our sins in either Purgatory or Hell. God wants us to do it the least painful way—what do we want to do? It’s a simple logical case of burn now, or burn later!
St. Catherina of Genoa Burned On Earth
St. Catherine of Genoa, according to the decree of her canonization, “while still in the flesh . . . experienced the fiery love of God, a love that consumed her, cleansing and purifying all, so that once quitted this life she could appear forthwith in God’s presence. As she dwelt on this love, the condition of the souls of the faithful in Purgatory, where they are cleansed of the remaining rust and stain of sin, became clear to her. She rejoiced in her union with God in this loving Purgatory, and so did the souls in Purgatory, she realized, who have no choice but to be there, and this because of God’s just decree.”
The Burning Fire of Love
Catherine (1447-1510) lived Purgatory in this world, not symbolically, but literally. She tried to put her inner experience in words, although “tongue cannot express nor heart understand the full meaning of Purgatory, which the soul willingly accepts as a mercy.” In spite of these limitations, her insights into Purgatory, based on her continuous experience of being consumed by an inner purifying fire, are most enlightening. She has been called the “theologian of Purgatory”; and St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), the famous bishop of Geneva, Doctor of the Church and outstanding spiritual counselor, deemed her so-called Tract on Purgatory “wonderful and very seraphic” and the product of “pure inspiration and divine enlightenment.” (Catherine herself had declared that she had “seen all this in the divine light.”) The most important points of his own doctrine on Purgatory are almost literally the same as the affirmations of St. Catherine.
The fire of Purgatory, which comprises the sufferings of the “pain of loss” and the “pain of sense,” is the fire of the love of God enkindled in the soul right after death. Then it sees itself and all its “rust of sin”—which St. Catherine specifies as “the lower self in us .. . the inclination to evil . . . the soul’s self-centeredness . . . the many hidden flaws . . . [the soul’s unpaid] debt”—in the light of God’s Presence.
You Wanna Come In? Wait!
The soul that crossed the threshold to the next life, and is “determined to sin no more,” is forgiven by God, thus freed of sin and guilt. Then “it is close to its first creation . . . [so that its] instinct of beatitude asserts itself with such impetus and fiery charity that any impediment becomes unbearable.” Instinct of beatitude! This psychic instinct, “weakened by Original Sin,” is the soul’s inborn longing for purity, for infinite happiness, for God; it is certainly the deepest and most central instinct of the human soul (although, curiously, it hardly plays a role in current academic personality psychology). The purer the soul, the more this instinct is active. But according to St. Catherine, it is definitively released at this short, solemn, and determining moment when the bodiless soul stands before God, Who has forgiven it its guilt and “tugs at it with a glance, draws it and binds it to Himself with a fiery love that by itself could annihilate the immortal soul. In so acting, God so transforms the soul in Him that it knows nothing other than God; and he continues to draw it up into His fiery love until He restores it to that pure state from which it first issued. As it is being drawn upwards, the soul feels itself melting in the fire of that love of its sweet God.”
Painful Joy—Joyful Pain
In consequence, the soul is, on the one hand, “immersed in charity, incapable of deviating from it, [and] can only will or desire pure love. There is no joy, except that in paradise, to be compared to the joy of the souls in Purgatory. This joy increases day by day because of the way the love of God corresponds to that of the soul, since the impediment of that love is worn away daily.” This is the joy of loving God and being loved by God. On the other hand, this same love is inhibited by the remaining “rust of sin” that impedes the soul to immediately attain at its bliss. Inhibited “fiery love” is the same as ardent longing, yearning, and utter thirstiness, and that means severe suffering. Here we come to St. Catherine’s explanation of the tormenting flames of Purgatory:
I Have Displeased God!
“The greatest suffering of the souls in Purgatory, it seems to me, is the awareness that something in them displeases God, that they have deliberately gone against His great goodness. ... I can also see . . . that the divine essence is so pure and light-filled—much more than we can imagine—that the soul that has but the slightest imperfection would rather throw itself into a thousand Hells than appear thus before the divine presence.” Hence “the soul ... aware that the impediment it faces cannot be removed in any other way, hurls itself into purgatory. ... That is why the soul seeks to cast off any and all impediments so that it can be lifted up to God.”
Love Purifies
The purifying force of God’s love is the essence of Purgatory. “In considering how an impediment blocks our way to God, and for what just reasons . . . [it] is impeded, the soul feels within it a fire like that of Hell, save that it has no sense of guilt.”
The paradox of Purgatory is this: in comparison with God’s love, “the suffering of Purgatory is a small matter,” and yet, “this harmony with God’s will also brings about a very great suffering. Its comprehension is beyond all words or thoughts.” And again, “The overwhelming love of God gives [the soul] a joy beyond words. Yet this joy does not do away with one bit of pain in the sufferings of the souls in Purgatory.”
Museum of Purgatory
It is this unimaginable pain caused by the fire of love and longing that is communicated by all souls from Purgatory and tangibly demonstrated in the burn marks in the Museo del Purgatorio (Purgatory Museum). “A fire like that of Hell”: in the opinion of St. Thomas, the proper fires of Purgatory and Hell are one and the same. Originally, the Jewish Gehinnom also referred to the fire of Hell and Purgatory without distinction, a tradition that is still alive in the modern Orthodox Jewish religion, along with the awareness that “all the suffering of Job would not compare to an instant in gehinnom.” (This latter idea is also taught by St. Augustine, St. Thomas, and St. Bernard).
With respect to the torment of burning, many souls from Purgatory indeed manifest themselves in flames; however, not all of them do. But it is significant that those who show themselves not visibly ablaze may still give proof of their burning in leaving some visible token of their presence. For example, a soul who appeared to the great helper of the poor souls, Mother Anna Maria Lindmayer (1657-1726), the “Saint of Munich,” blew an ice-cold breath into her face, yet upon touching the sister’s foot with a finger, it left a deep burn.
The doctrine of St. Catherine puts our perception of the frightening, to some people even macabre pieces exhibited in the Museo del Purgatorio, in a more balanced perspective. Although the sufferings that left such concrete demonstrations of the souls’ pain cannot be minimized, still they do not tell us the full tale of Purgatory. St. Catherine elucidates that their sufferings “are endurable because of two considerations. The first is their willingness to suffer, the certainty that God has been most merciful to them in the light of what they deserved ... [they] accept the ordinance of God and would not think of doing otherwise. The other consideration that sustains those souls is a certain joy that is never wanting and that, indeed, increases as they come closer to God.”
Preach the Pain—Preach the Love
Her insight is echoed by St. Francis de Sales. He often reminded his priests that they should not only draw the attention of the faithful to the pain and punishment of the souls in Purgatory but also to “their perfect love of God” and to their joy of being in the state of grace and of being sure of their arrival at the blissful vision of God.”
Nonetheless, however mitigating these positive and encouraging considerations may be, they do not prevent a close look at the grim reality of Purgatory, as revealed by the apparitions of souls and their visible imprints, from causing the emotional reaction of shivering. We may suppose, however, that apart from stirring our compassion, this normal human reaction is also calculated to arouse a whole-some fear of sin. St. Catherine herself says that she “would want to frighten people, to cry out to each and everyone: ‘O wretches who let yourselves be blinded in this world and make no provision for this one most important need [your preparation for the next world]!’ . . . His justice will not be wanting.”
Yesterday, we saw what a glimpse of Purgatory did for Drithelm, the man raised from the dead. It changed his whole value system. He was already living what we would call an exemplary Catholic life before he died, but he realized how woefully deficient it was. Given a second chance by God, he lived a life of total detachment from the world, immersing himself in prayer, extraordinary penances and the hardest labor.
We find something similar in the life of a Dominican nun who also happened to be the sister of a cardinal—Blessed John Baptist Tolomei. She was raised from the dead by her own brother, and she gave a testimony of the rigor of God’s judgments.
Blessed John Baptist Tolomei, whose rare virtues and the gift of miracles has placed him on our altars, had a sister, Angela Tolomei, the heroism of whose virtue has also been recognized by the Church. She fell dangerously sick, and her holy brother, by earnest prayer, begged Our Lord to cure her. Our Lord replied, as He once did to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, that He would not cure Angela, but that He would do something more. He would raise her from the dead, for the glory of God and the good of souls.
Dead and Alive
Eventually, Angela Tolomei died, recommending herself to the prayers of her holy brother. Whilst she was being carried to the tomb, Blessed John Baptist Tolomei, in obedience, no doubt, inspired by the Holy Ghost, approached the coffin, and, in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, commanded his sister to rise up from the coffin. Immediately she awoke as from a profound slumber, and returned to life.
A Change of Approach to Life
That holy soul seemed struck with terror at what she had seen after death, and related such things concerning the severity of God’s judgments as make us shudder. She commenced, at the same time, to lead a life which proved the truth of her words. Her penance was frightful.
Not content with the ordinary practices of the saints, such as fasting, watching, hair-shirts, and bloody disciplines, she went so far as to cast herself into flames, and to roll herself therein until her flesh was entirely burnt. Her macerated body became an object of pity and of horror. She was censured and accused of destroying, by her excess, the idea of true Christian penance.
She continued, nevertheless, and contented herself with replying: “If you knew the rigors of the judgments of God, you would not speak thus. What are my trifling penances compared with the torments reserved in the other life for those infidelities which we so easily permit ourselves in this world? What are they? What are they? Would that I could do a hundred times more!”
Angela Was Not Even a Great Sinner
There is no question here, as we see, of the tortures to which great sinners, who converted before death, are subjected to in Purgatory (which must be far greater), but of the chastisements which God inflicts upon a fervent Religious for the slightest faults. As we said before, our valuations of Heaven and sin are way off the mark.
Yet, when we read accounts such as these, we still don’t change our misguided sense of values! Do we need to see Purgatory for ourselves, and put our big toe or finger in the fire—like a ‘doubting Thomas’—before we will do something different in our lives? The reply to that would be much the same as the reply given to the rich man—in the Parable about poor Lazarus and the Rich Man—who had died and found himself in Hell, while Lazarus went to Heaven:
The Rich Man and Lazarus
“There was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, and no one did give him; moreover the dogs came, and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died: and he was buried in Hell. And lifting up his eyes, when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom: and he cried, and said: ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue―for I am tormented in this flame!’ And Abraham said to him: ‘Son, remember that you received good things in your lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted; and you are tormented.
“And besides all this, between us and you, there is fixed a great chasm―so that they who would like to pass from here to you, cannot, nor from there can anyone come here.’ And he said: ‘Then, father, I beseech you, that you would send him to my father’s house—for I have five brethren—so that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torments.’ And Abraham said to him: ‘They have Moses and the prophets―let them hear them!’ But he said: ‘No, father Abraham! If one went to them from the dead, they will do penance!’ And he said to him: ‘If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead!” (Luke 16:20-31).
We have Purgatorial sermons galore given by saints; numerous books written on Purgatory, citing cases and incidents like these—but the world does not listen nor does it want to know. They do so at their own peril. But if they could only see a miracle like this for themselves, then they would certainly change! There have been miracles galore—the problem is a lack of Faith, not a lack of miracles. As Our Lord said: “Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed” (John 20:29) … “The Son of man, when He comes, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8).
Spirit or Flesh?
Let us be strong in our Faith and follow the examples of Faith that we have seen these last two day—those of two souls resurrected from the death, Drithelm and Angela Tolomei, whose Faith was radically reformed after seeing the torments of Purgatory! As Scripture says: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8).
We can well imagine that, during these recurring months of November, Heaven is trying, year after year, to light a fire in our hearts—but the wood is green and the fire won’t take hold. But if we don’t allow the Holy Ghost to enkindle in our hearts the fire of His love while we are still living on this Earth, then our charity is going to have to fired-up by the fires of Purgatory after we die. In a nutshell, we were made to burn! Either we burn the debt of sins with the fires of love in our hearts here below; or we burn for the debt of our sins in either Purgatory or Hell. God wants us to do it the least painful way—what do we want to do? It’s a simple logical case of burn now, or burn later!
St. Catherina of Genoa Burned On Earth
St. Catherine of Genoa, according to the decree of her canonization, “while still in the flesh . . . experienced the fiery love of God, a love that consumed her, cleansing and purifying all, so that once quitted this life she could appear forthwith in God’s presence. As she dwelt on this love, the condition of the souls of the faithful in Purgatory, where they are cleansed of the remaining rust and stain of sin, became clear to her. She rejoiced in her union with God in this loving Purgatory, and so did the souls in Purgatory, she realized, who have no choice but to be there, and this because of God’s just decree.”
The Burning Fire of Love
Catherine (1447-1510) lived Purgatory in this world, not symbolically, but literally. She tried to put her inner experience in words, although “tongue cannot express nor heart understand the full meaning of Purgatory, which the soul willingly accepts as a mercy.” In spite of these limitations, her insights into Purgatory, based on her continuous experience of being consumed by an inner purifying fire, are most enlightening. She has been called the “theologian of Purgatory”; and St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), the famous bishop of Geneva, Doctor of the Church and outstanding spiritual counselor, deemed her so-called Tract on Purgatory “wonderful and very seraphic” and the product of “pure inspiration and divine enlightenment.” (Catherine herself had declared that she had “seen all this in the divine light.”) The most important points of his own doctrine on Purgatory are almost literally the same as the affirmations of St. Catherine.
The fire of Purgatory, which comprises the sufferings of the “pain of loss” and the “pain of sense,” is the fire of the love of God enkindled in the soul right after death. Then it sees itself and all its “rust of sin”—which St. Catherine specifies as “the lower self in us .. . the inclination to evil . . . the soul’s self-centeredness . . . the many hidden flaws . . . [the soul’s unpaid] debt”—in the light of God’s Presence.
You Wanna Come In? Wait!
The soul that crossed the threshold to the next life, and is “determined to sin no more,” is forgiven by God, thus freed of sin and guilt. Then “it is close to its first creation . . . [so that its] instinct of beatitude asserts itself with such impetus and fiery charity that any impediment becomes unbearable.” Instinct of beatitude! This psychic instinct, “weakened by Original Sin,” is the soul’s inborn longing for purity, for infinite happiness, for God; it is certainly the deepest and most central instinct of the human soul (although, curiously, it hardly plays a role in current academic personality psychology). The purer the soul, the more this instinct is active. But according to St. Catherine, it is definitively released at this short, solemn, and determining moment when the bodiless soul stands before God, Who has forgiven it its guilt and “tugs at it with a glance, draws it and binds it to Himself with a fiery love that by itself could annihilate the immortal soul. In so acting, God so transforms the soul in Him that it knows nothing other than God; and he continues to draw it up into His fiery love until He restores it to that pure state from which it first issued. As it is being drawn upwards, the soul feels itself melting in the fire of that love of its sweet God.”
Painful Joy—Joyful Pain
In consequence, the soul is, on the one hand, “immersed in charity, incapable of deviating from it, [and] can only will or desire pure love. There is no joy, except that in paradise, to be compared to the joy of the souls in Purgatory. This joy increases day by day because of the way the love of God corresponds to that of the soul, since the impediment of that love is worn away daily.” This is the joy of loving God and being loved by God. On the other hand, this same love is inhibited by the remaining “rust of sin” that impedes the soul to immediately attain at its bliss. Inhibited “fiery love” is the same as ardent longing, yearning, and utter thirstiness, and that means severe suffering. Here we come to St. Catherine’s explanation of the tormenting flames of Purgatory:
I Have Displeased God!
“The greatest suffering of the souls in Purgatory, it seems to me, is the awareness that something in them displeases God, that they have deliberately gone against His great goodness. ... I can also see . . . that the divine essence is so pure and light-filled—much more than we can imagine—that the soul that has but the slightest imperfection would rather throw itself into a thousand Hells than appear thus before the divine presence.” Hence “the soul ... aware that the impediment it faces cannot be removed in any other way, hurls itself into purgatory. ... That is why the soul seeks to cast off any and all impediments so that it can be lifted up to God.”
Love Purifies
The purifying force of God’s love is the essence of Purgatory. “In considering how an impediment blocks our way to God, and for what just reasons . . . [it] is impeded, the soul feels within it a fire like that of Hell, save that it has no sense of guilt.”
The paradox of Purgatory is this: in comparison with God’s love, “the suffering of Purgatory is a small matter,” and yet, “this harmony with God’s will also brings about a very great suffering. Its comprehension is beyond all words or thoughts.” And again, “The overwhelming love of God gives [the soul] a joy beyond words. Yet this joy does not do away with one bit of pain in the sufferings of the souls in Purgatory.”
Museum of Purgatory
It is this unimaginable pain caused by the fire of love and longing that is communicated by all souls from Purgatory and tangibly demonstrated in the burn marks in the Museo del Purgatorio (Purgatory Museum). “A fire like that of Hell”: in the opinion of St. Thomas, the proper fires of Purgatory and Hell are one and the same. Originally, the Jewish Gehinnom also referred to the fire of Hell and Purgatory without distinction, a tradition that is still alive in the modern Orthodox Jewish religion, along with the awareness that “all the suffering of Job would not compare to an instant in gehinnom.” (This latter idea is also taught by St. Augustine, St. Thomas, and St. Bernard).
With respect to the torment of burning, many souls from Purgatory indeed manifest themselves in flames; however, not all of them do. But it is significant that those who show themselves not visibly ablaze may still give proof of their burning in leaving some visible token of their presence. For example, a soul who appeared to the great helper of the poor souls, Mother Anna Maria Lindmayer (1657-1726), the “Saint of Munich,” blew an ice-cold breath into her face, yet upon touching the sister’s foot with a finger, it left a deep burn.
The doctrine of St. Catherine puts our perception of the frightening, to some people even macabre pieces exhibited in the Museo del Purgatorio, in a more balanced perspective. Although the sufferings that left such concrete demonstrations of the souls’ pain cannot be minimized, still they do not tell us the full tale of Purgatory. St. Catherine elucidates that their sufferings “are endurable because of two considerations. The first is their willingness to suffer, the certainty that God has been most merciful to them in the light of what they deserved ... [they] accept the ordinance of God and would not think of doing otherwise. The other consideration that sustains those souls is a certain joy that is never wanting and that, indeed, increases as they come closer to God.”
Preach the Pain—Preach the Love
Her insight is echoed by St. Francis de Sales. He often reminded his priests that they should not only draw the attention of the faithful to the pain and punishment of the souls in Purgatory but also to “their perfect love of God” and to their joy of being in the state of grace and of being sure of their arrival at the blissful vision of God.”
Nonetheless, however mitigating these positive and encouraging considerations may be, they do not prevent a close look at the grim reality of Purgatory, as revealed by the apparitions of souls and their visible imprints, from causing the emotional reaction of shivering. We may suppose, however, that apart from stirring our compassion, this normal human reaction is also calculated to arouse a whole-some fear of sin. St. Catherine herself says that she “would want to frighten people, to cry out to each and everyone: ‘O wretches who let yourselves be blinded in this world and make no provision for this one most important need [your preparation for the next world]!’ . . . His justice will not be wanting.”
Article 11
Tuesday November 11th
Dead Man Comes Back to Life and Scares His Wife!
What a Loss!! What a Pain!!
According to common doctrine, the chief pain in Purgatory is the delay of the beatific vision. This delay is sometimes called “a temporary pain of loss” ― meaning the loss of God for a longer or shorter time. But, in the proper and strict sense, the “pain of loss” is eternal, and hence found only in Hell.
These two pains of loss differ immensely in rigor, in duration, and in consequences. The damned have lost hope and charity; they blaspheme without ceasing; they have a will that is obstinately rooted in evil; they will never repent; they desire universal damnation in a spiteful way. The souls in Purgatory have assured hope and unlosable charity; they love God; they adore divine justice; they are confirmed in good; they repent profoundly; they love all God’s children.
This delay of the beatific vision in Purgatory differs notably from that which existed in Limbo before the death of Our Lord. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and the prophets, saw in this delay a punishment inflicted, not, properly speaking, on their person, but on human nature not yet perfectly regenerated. The time for deliverance by Christ the Redeemer had not yet arrived. This time has now arrived. Therefore the delay in Purgatory is truly a suffering, the chief of purgatorial sufferings.
Suffering in Purgatory and Suffering on Earth
Suffering in Purgatory is greater than all suffering on Earth. Such is the doctrine of tradition, supported by theological reasoning. Tradition is expressed by St. Augustine: “That fire will be more painful than anything man can suffer in the present life.” St. Isidore speaks in the same sense. According to these testimonies and others similar to them, the least pain in Purgatory surpasses the greatest sufferings of the present life.
St. Bonaventure says: “In the next life, by reason of the state of the souls there retained, the purifying purgatorial suffering will be, in its kind, more severe than the greatest trials on Earth.” What he means is that for one and the same sin, the smallest suffering in Purgatory is greater than any corresponding suffering on Earth. But it does not follow that the least pain in Purgatory surpasses the greatest terrestrial suffering. On this point St. Bonaventure is followed by St. Robert Bellarmine. According to Bellarmine, being deprived of the vision of God is without doubt a very great suffering, but it is sweetened and consoled by the assured hope of once possessing Him. From this hope there arises an incredible joy, which grows in measure as the soul approaches the end of its exile.
Many theologians, especially Suarez, rightly remark that the sufferings in Purgatory, especially the delay of the beatific vision, are of a higher order than our earthly sufferings, and, in this sense, we may say that the smallest suffering in Purgatory is more severe than the greatest suffering on Earth. The joy they have in the hope of deliverance cannot diminish the suffering they feel in being deprived of the beatific vision. We see this truth in Jesus crucified: the supreme beatitude, His love of God and of souls, far from diminishing His pains, augmented them.
St. Catherine of Genoa says: “Souls in Purgatory unite great joy with great suffering. One does not diminish the other.” She continues: “No peace is comparable to that of the souls in Purgatory, except that of the saints in Heaven. On the other hand, the souls in Purgatory endure torments which no tongue can describe and no intelligence comprehend, without special revelation.” As we recall, St. Catherine of Genoa experienced on Earth the pains of Purgatory.
Tough and Kind—Severe and Loving
This testimony of tradition is illustrated by the character of great saints. While they are more severe than ordinary preachers, they also have much greater love of God and souls. They show forth, not only the justice of God, but also His boundless love. A good Christian illustrates the same truth. A Christian mother, for instance, is severe, in order to correct her children, but the element that predominates is sweetness and maternal goodness. Today, on the contrary, it often happens that many parents lack both severity and love. Those persons who do not undergo Purgatory on Earth, will have it later on at a much more severe and painful level. Nor must we make too sharp a distinction between sanctification and salvation. If we neglect sanctification, we may miss salvation itself.
Isn’t God Going Overboard with Purgatory?
Many souls are in Purgatory who have sinned only venially. Can punishment so severe be proportioned to venial sins? St. Thomas replies: “Pain corresponds less to the gravity of the sin than to the disposition of the suffering soul. One and the same sin is punished more severely in Purgatory than it is on Earth. To illustrate. A man of delicate constitution suffers a scourging far more than a hardy man.”
Why is one and the same sin punished more rigorously in Purgatory than on Earth? The Church speaks of the two comings of Christ—His first coming was in mercy, His second coming will be in justice. While we live on Earth, we live in the time of mercy—yet we have to be honest, confess our sins, change our lives and do penance to profit from this “time of mercy.” In this merciful period we are able to pay for sins—not at their true value, but at a vastly reduced rate.
If we neglect, put-off, or refuse to pay now at a reduced rate― then we will have to pay what is just when Christ comes the second time to judge us upon our death. While we are in this life, we have a weak understanding of the majesty and purity of God, and so we make light of sin. But when we die, the light of God will illuminate our minds and the separated soul will know much better than it did before, that God is the one thing necessary and that sin is the greatest evil there is.
Suffering for Sin Grows with Love of God
The more saintly a soul is, the more it loves God, the more it desires to see God and the more it suffers at being delayed in that desire. Pain corresponds to desire. Souls in Purgatory, desiring the beatific vision, suffer from its delay, just as on Earth the saints desire to die and to be with God. This normal consequence of intense love. But this great pain is compensated by their greater abandonment to Providence and their greater love of Divine justice.
Suffering for sin grows with love of God. The reason you don’t feel the gravity of your past sins is that you only have a small love of God. Likewise the reason you complain, when Divine Providence makes you suffer for your past sins, is your small love of God. The more we love, then the more we weep over having offended the object of our love—God. The more we love, the more we want to make reparation and so the more we are prepared to suffer. We see this reflected somewhat in the chilling story of Drithelm, a good Christian who died and was resurrected to live out his Purgatory on Earth.
The Life of Drithelm
Fr. Schouppe writes:
If the pain of loss makes but a feeble impression upon us, it is far different with the pain of sense; the torment of fire, the torture of a sharp and intense cold, affrights our sensibility. This is why Divine Mercy, wishing to excite a holy fear in our souls, speaks but little of the pain of loss, but we are continually shown the fire, the cold, and other torments, which constitute the pain of sense. This is what we see in the Gospel, and in particular revelations, by which God is pleased to manifest to His servants from time to time the mysteries of the other life.
St. Robert Bellarmine and St. Bede testify…
Let us mention one of these revelations. In the first place, let us see what the pious and learned Cardinal St. Robert Bellarmine quotes from the Venerable St. Bede. England has been witness in our own days, writes St. Bede, to a singular prodigy, which may be compared to the miracles of the first ages of the Church. To excite the living to fear the death of the soul, God permitted that a man, after having slept the sleep of death, should return to life and reveal what he had seen in the other world. The frightful, unheard-of details which he relates, and his life of extraordinary penance, which corresponded with his words, produced a lively impression throughout the country. I will now resume the principal circumstances of this history.
Drithelm was a Good Christian
There was in Northumberland, England, a man named Drithelm, who, with his family, led a most Christian life. He fell sick, and his malady increasing day by day, he was soon reduced to extremity, and died, to the great desolation and grief of his wife and children.
The latter passed the night in tears by the remains, but the following day, before his interment, they saw him suddenly return to life, arise, and place himself in a sitting posture. At this sight they were seized with such fear that they all took to flight, with the exception of the wife, who, trembling, remained alone with her risen husband.
He reassured her immediately: “Fear not,” he said; “it is God who restores to me my life; He wishes to show in my person a man raised from the dead. I have yet long to live upon Earth, but my new life will be very different from the one I led before.”
Resurrected and Penitent
Then he arose full of health, went straight to the chapel or church of the place, and there remained long in prayer. He returned home only to take leave of those who had been dear to him upon Earth, to whom he declared that he would live only to prepare himself for death, and advised them to do likewise. Then, having divided his property into three parts, he gave one to his children, another to his wife, and reserved the third part to give in alms.
When he had distributed all to the poor, and had reduced himself to extreme poverty, he went and knocked at the door of a monastery, and begged the Abbot to receive him as a penitent Religious, who would be a servant to all the others.
Unbelievable Penances
The Abbot gave him a retired cell, which he occupied for the rest of his life. Three exercises divided his time prayer, the hardest labor, and extraordinary penances. The most rigorous fasts he accounted as nothing. In winter he was seen to plunge himself into freezing water, and remain there for hours and hours in prayer, whilst he recited the whole 150 psalms from the Psalter of David.
The mortified life of Drithelm, his downcast eyes, even his features, indicated a soul struck with fear of the judgments of God. He kept a perpetual silence, but on being pressed to relate, for the edification of others, what God had manifested to him after his death, he thus described his vision:
Drithelm Tells of His Vision
“On leaving my body, I was received by a benevolent person, who took me under his guidance. His face was brilliant, and he appeared surrounded with light. He arrived at a large deep valley of immense extent, all fire on one side, all ice and snow on the other; on the one hand braziers and caldrons of flame, on the other the most intense cold and the blast of a glacial wind.
“This mysterious valley was filled with innumerable souls, which, tossed as by a furious tempest, threw themselves from one side to the other. When they could no longer endure the violence of the fire, they sought relief amidst the ice and snow; but finding only a new torture, they cast themselves again into the midst of the flames.
“I contemplated in a stupor these continual changing circumstances of horrible torments, and, as far as my sight could extend, I saw nothing but a multitude of souls which suffered without ever having repose. Their very aspect inspired me with fear. I thought at first that I saw Hell―but my guide, who walked before me, turned to me and said, ‘No; this is not, as you think, the Hell of the reprobate. Do you know, he continued, what place this is?’ ‘No,’ I answered. ‘Know,’ he resumed, ‘that this valley, where you see so much fire and so much ice, is the place where the souls of those are punished who, during life, have neglected to confess their sins, and who have deferred their conversion to the end. Thanks to a special mercy of God, they have had the happiness of sincerely repenting before death, of confessing and detesting their sins. This is why they are not damned, and on the great Day of Judgment will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Several of them will obtain their deliverance before that time, by the merits of prayers, alms, and fasts, offered in their favor by the living, and especially in virtue of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered for their relief.’”
Such was the recital of Drithelm. When asked why he so rudely treated his body, why he plunged himself into frozen water, he replied that he had seen other torments, and cold of another kind.
If his brethren expressed astonishment that he could endure these extraordinary austerities, “I have seen,” said he, “penances still more astonishing!” To the day when it pleased God to call him to Himself, he ceased not to afflict his body, and although broken down with age, he would accept no alleviation.
Drithelm’s Life Produced Many Conversions
This event produced a deep sensation in England; a great number of sinners, touched by the words of Drithelm, and struck by the austerity of his life, became sincerely converted.
This fact, adds St. Robert Bellarmine, appears to me of incontestable truth, since, besides being conformable to the words of Holy Scripture: “Let him pass from the snow waters to excessive heat” (Job 29:19), the Venerable St. Bede relates it as a recent and well-known event. More than this, it was followed by the conversion of a great number of sinners, the sign of the work of God, who is accustomed to work prodigies in order to produce fruit in souls.
A Question of Penance
We are sinners and sinners must do penance! “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves!” (1 John 1:8). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). “Do penance! For the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2). “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance!” (Matthew 3:8). “Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein were done the most of His miracles, for that they had not done penance!” (Matthew 11:20). “I say to you― unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
Questions To Ask Yourself
(1) Do I REALLY WANT to change my life? This is a crucial question! Before performing some of His miracles, Our Lord would sometimes ask: “If you WANT!” We have to WANT to do something first before we DO it.
And then there are degrees of HOW MUCH we want something. We see this in the words of Our Lord to the young man who had many possessions. The young man WANTED to go to Heaven, but he also WANTED TO DO THE MINIMUM to get there. To his question on what he had to DO to get there, Our Lord said: “If you WANT to enter into life, keep the commandments!” (Matthew 19:17).
But then Our Lord tries to encourage him from merely doing the MINIMUM into doing the MAXIMUM, in other words to increase his desire, to increase his want. “Jesus said to him: ‘If you WANT to be perfect, go sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven: and then come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard these words, he went away sad―for he had great possessions.” (Matthew 19:21-22).
(2) Do I WANT to give myself entirely to God, Jesus and Mary? Do I REALLY WANT to give myself to them? Or am I attached to myself and the world so much, that what I am REALLY WANTING is to both save my soul, yet still remain attached to myself and things of this life?
This is the case with most people! They are primarily concerned about themselves and the world, they want dual-citizenship! They want to be ‘good’ citizens of the world, and ‘good’ citizens of Heaven.
Yet Our Lord said: “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the clothing?” (Matthew 6:24-25).
(3) We all know the saying: “He who desires the end, must necessarily desire the means to that end!” We know that is true in theory, just like we know we cannot serve God and mammon in theory; but, in practice, are we seeking to do the opposite?
Like most of the world, WE WANT THINGS FOR FREE! We want to get to Heaven; we want to avoid Hell; we want to save our souls—but we don’t want to do ALL that it takes to get there! We want a discount; we want a reduced fare; we want a ‘freebie’ if at all possible!
This is what the young man with many possessions wanted, and he could not bring himself round to sacrificing what Jesus asked for! It says in the Gospel that Jesus LOVED him! He must have sensed Jesus’ love in some way; yet he preferred his petty possessions (creatures) to Jesus (the Creator).
Sadly, most of us are the same. We may even ask the same question as Jesus’ followers asked, who had witnessed the encounter with the rich young man: “The disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’” (Matthew 19:25). Jesus replied: “With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible!” (Matthew 19:28).
So, the good news is that IF WE NO LONGER WANT TO BE LIKE THAT; IF WE WANT TO CHANGE, even though we may FEEL powerless to change, then Jesus, through His Holy Mother, will bring about that miracle of grace within you. You have to WANT and you have to ASK! The grace will then come to help you DO, not without any pain, but it will help you with the pain too!
Make Resolutions
(1) I will not be discouraged by what I may see in examining myself and my surroundings. Discouragement comes from the devil, not from God. Discouragement is the devil’s chief weapon of paralysis.
(2) I will realize that without God I can do nothing — “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) — yet with the help of God, anything and everything is possible — “With God all things are possible!” (Matthew 19:28).
(3) So even though I may FEEL that I don’t want to change, or if I may FEEL that I am not able to change, I will nevertheless ASK TO CHANGE, knowing that Our Lady of Fatima said that we can obtain all things through the Rosary. However, our Rosaries need to IMPROVE; we need to PRAY the Rosary more and SAY it less; we need to put more ATTENTION and more FERVOR into our Rosaries, remembering the words of St. Louis de Montfort, who says:
“In order to pray well, it is not enough to give expression to our petitions by means of that most excellent of all prayers, the Rosary, but we must also pray with great attention, for God listens more to the voice of the heart than that of the mouth. To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin” (The Secret of the Rosary, “Forty-Second Rose”).
According to common doctrine, the chief pain in Purgatory is the delay of the beatific vision. This delay is sometimes called “a temporary pain of loss” ― meaning the loss of God for a longer or shorter time. But, in the proper and strict sense, the “pain of loss” is eternal, and hence found only in Hell.
These two pains of loss differ immensely in rigor, in duration, and in consequences. The damned have lost hope and charity; they blaspheme without ceasing; they have a will that is obstinately rooted in evil; they will never repent; they desire universal damnation in a spiteful way. The souls in Purgatory have assured hope and unlosable charity; they love God; they adore divine justice; they are confirmed in good; they repent profoundly; they love all God’s children.
This delay of the beatific vision in Purgatory differs notably from that which existed in Limbo before the death of Our Lord. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and the prophets, saw in this delay a punishment inflicted, not, properly speaking, on their person, but on human nature not yet perfectly regenerated. The time for deliverance by Christ the Redeemer had not yet arrived. This time has now arrived. Therefore the delay in Purgatory is truly a suffering, the chief of purgatorial sufferings.
Suffering in Purgatory and Suffering on Earth
Suffering in Purgatory is greater than all suffering on Earth. Such is the doctrine of tradition, supported by theological reasoning. Tradition is expressed by St. Augustine: “That fire will be more painful than anything man can suffer in the present life.” St. Isidore speaks in the same sense. According to these testimonies and others similar to them, the least pain in Purgatory surpasses the greatest sufferings of the present life.
St. Bonaventure says: “In the next life, by reason of the state of the souls there retained, the purifying purgatorial suffering will be, in its kind, more severe than the greatest trials on Earth.” What he means is that for one and the same sin, the smallest suffering in Purgatory is greater than any corresponding suffering on Earth. But it does not follow that the least pain in Purgatory surpasses the greatest terrestrial suffering. On this point St. Bonaventure is followed by St. Robert Bellarmine. According to Bellarmine, being deprived of the vision of God is without doubt a very great suffering, but it is sweetened and consoled by the assured hope of once possessing Him. From this hope there arises an incredible joy, which grows in measure as the soul approaches the end of its exile.
Many theologians, especially Suarez, rightly remark that the sufferings in Purgatory, especially the delay of the beatific vision, are of a higher order than our earthly sufferings, and, in this sense, we may say that the smallest suffering in Purgatory is more severe than the greatest suffering on Earth. The joy they have in the hope of deliverance cannot diminish the suffering they feel in being deprived of the beatific vision. We see this truth in Jesus crucified: the supreme beatitude, His love of God and of souls, far from diminishing His pains, augmented them.
St. Catherine of Genoa says: “Souls in Purgatory unite great joy with great suffering. One does not diminish the other.” She continues: “No peace is comparable to that of the souls in Purgatory, except that of the saints in Heaven. On the other hand, the souls in Purgatory endure torments which no tongue can describe and no intelligence comprehend, without special revelation.” As we recall, St. Catherine of Genoa experienced on Earth the pains of Purgatory.
Tough and Kind—Severe and Loving
This testimony of tradition is illustrated by the character of great saints. While they are more severe than ordinary preachers, they also have much greater love of God and souls. They show forth, not only the justice of God, but also His boundless love. A good Christian illustrates the same truth. A Christian mother, for instance, is severe, in order to correct her children, but the element that predominates is sweetness and maternal goodness. Today, on the contrary, it often happens that many parents lack both severity and love. Those persons who do not undergo Purgatory on Earth, will have it later on at a much more severe and painful level. Nor must we make too sharp a distinction between sanctification and salvation. If we neglect sanctification, we may miss salvation itself.
Isn’t God Going Overboard with Purgatory?
Many souls are in Purgatory who have sinned only venially. Can punishment so severe be proportioned to venial sins? St. Thomas replies: “Pain corresponds less to the gravity of the sin than to the disposition of the suffering soul. One and the same sin is punished more severely in Purgatory than it is on Earth. To illustrate. A man of delicate constitution suffers a scourging far more than a hardy man.”
Why is one and the same sin punished more rigorously in Purgatory than on Earth? The Church speaks of the two comings of Christ—His first coming was in mercy, His second coming will be in justice. While we live on Earth, we live in the time of mercy—yet we have to be honest, confess our sins, change our lives and do penance to profit from this “time of mercy.” In this merciful period we are able to pay for sins—not at their true value, but at a vastly reduced rate.
If we neglect, put-off, or refuse to pay now at a reduced rate― then we will have to pay what is just when Christ comes the second time to judge us upon our death. While we are in this life, we have a weak understanding of the majesty and purity of God, and so we make light of sin. But when we die, the light of God will illuminate our minds and the separated soul will know much better than it did before, that God is the one thing necessary and that sin is the greatest evil there is.
Suffering for Sin Grows with Love of God
The more saintly a soul is, the more it loves God, the more it desires to see God and the more it suffers at being delayed in that desire. Pain corresponds to desire. Souls in Purgatory, desiring the beatific vision, suffer from its delay, just as on Earth the saints desire to die and to be with God. This normal consequence of intense love. But this great pain is compensated by their greater abandonment to Providence and their greater love of Divine justice.
Suffering for sin grows with love of God. The reason you don’t feel the gravity of your past sins is that you only have a small love of God. Likewise the reason you complain, when Divine Providence makes you suffer for your past sins, is your small love of God. The more we love, then the more we weep over having offended the object of our love—God. The more we love, the more we want to make reparation and so the more we are prepared to suffer. We see this reflected somewhat in the chilling story of Drithelm, a good Christian who died and was resurrected to live out his Purgatory on Earth.
The Life of Drithelm
Fr. Schouppe writes:
If the pain of loss makes but a feeble impression upon us, it is far different with the pain of sense; the torment of fire, the torture of a sharp and intense cold, affrights our sensibility. This is why Divine Mercy, wishing to excite a holy fear in our souls, speaks but little of the pain of loss, but we are continually shown the fire, the cold, and other torments, which constitute the pain of sense. This is what we see in the Gospel, and in particular revelations, by which God is pleased to manifest to His servants from time to time the mysteries of the other life.
St. Robert Bellarmine and St. Bede testify…
Let us mention one of these revelations. In the first place, let us see what the pious and learned Cardinal St. Robert Bellarmine quotes from the Venerable St. Bede. England has been witness in our own days, writes St. Bede, to a singular prodigy, which may be compared to the miracles of the first ages of the Church. To excite the living to fear the death of the soul, God permitted that a man, after having slept the sleep of death, should return to life and reveal what he had seen in the other world. The frightful, unheard-of details which he relates, and his life of extraordinary penance, which corresponded with his words, produced a lively impression throughout the country. I will now resume the principal circumstances of this history.
Drithelm was a Good Christian
There was in Northumberland, England, a man named Drithelm, who, with his family, led a most Christian life. He fell sick, and his malady increasing day by day, he was soon reduced to extremity, and died, to the great desolation and grief of his wife and children.
The latter passed the night in tears by the remains, but the following day, before his interment, they saw him suddenly return to life, arise, and place himself in a sitting posture. At this sight they were seized with such fear that they all took to flight, with the exception of the wife, who, trembling, remained alone with her risen husband.
He reassured her immediately: “Fear not,” he said; “it is God who restores to me my life; He wishes to show in my person a man raised from the dead. I have yet long to live upon Earth, but my new life will be very different from the one I led before.”
Resurrected and Penitent
Then he arose full of health, went straight to the chapel or church of the place, and there remained long in prayer. He returned home only to take leave of those who had been dear to him upon Earth, to whom he declared that he would live only to prepare himself for death, and advised them to do likewise. Then, having divided his property into three parts, he gave one to his children, another to his wife, and reserved the third part to give in alms.
When he had distributed all to the poor, and had reduced himself to extreme poverty, he went and knocked at the door of a monastery, and begged the Abbot to receive him as a penitent Religious, who would be a servant to all the others.
Unbelievable Penances
The Abbot gave him a retired cell, which he occupied for the rest of his life. Three exercises divided his time prayer, the hardest labor, and extraordinary penances. The most rigorous fasts he accounted as nothing. In winter he was seen to plunge himself into freezing water, and remain there for hours and hours in prayer, whilst he recited the whole 150 psalms from the Psalter of David.
The mortified life of Drithelm, his downcast eyes, even his features, indicated a soul struck with fear of the judgments of God. He kept a perpetual silence, but on being pressed to relate, for the edification of others, what God had manifested to him after his death, he thus described his vision:
Drithelm Tells of His Vision
“On leaving my body, I was received by a benevolent person, who took me under his guidance. His face was brilliant, and he appeared surrounded with light. He arrived at a large deep valley of immense extent, all fire on one side, all ice and snow on the other; on the one hand braziers and caldrons of flame, on the other the most intense cold and the blast of a glacial wind.
“This mysterious valley was filled with innumerable souls, which, tossed as by a furious tempest, threw themselves from one side to the other. When they could no longer endure the violence of the fire, they sought relief amidst the ice and snow; but finding only a new torture, they cast themselves again into the midst of the flames.
“I contemplated in a stupor these continual changing circumstances of horrible torments, and, as far as my sight could extend, I saw nothing but a multitude of souls which suffered without ever having repose. Their very aspect inspired me with fear. I thought at first that I saw Hell―but my guide, who walked before me, turned to me and said, ‘No; this is not, as you think, the Hell of the reprobate. Do you know, he continued, what place this is?’ ‘No,’ I answered. ‘Know,’ he resumed, ‘that this valley, where you see so much fire and so much ice, is the place where the souls of those are punished who, during life, have neglected to confess their sins, and who have deferred their conversion to the end. Thanks to a special mercy of God, they have had the happiness of sincerely repenting before death, of confessing and detesting their sins. This is why they are not damned, and on the great Day of Judgment will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Several of them will obtain their deliverance before that time, by the merits of prayers, alms, and fasts, offered in their favor by the living, and especially in virtue of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered for their relief.’”
Such was the recital of Drithelm. When asked why he so rudely treated his body, why he plunged himself into frozen water, he replied that he had seen other torments, and cold of another kind.
If his brethren expressed astonishment that he could endure these extraordinary austerities, “I have seen,” said he, “penances still more astonishing!” To the day when it pleased God to call him to Himself, he ceased not to afflict his body, and although broken down with age, he would accept no alleviation.
Drithelm’s Life Produced Many Conversions
This event produced a deep sensation in England; a great number of sinners, touched by the words of Drithelm, and struck by the austerity of his life, became sincerely converted.
This fact, adds St. Robert Bellarmine, appears to me of incontestable truth, since, besides being conformable to the words of Holy Scripture: “Let him pass from the snow waters to excessive heat” (Job 29:19), the Venerable St. Bede relates it as a recent and well-known event. More than this, it was followed by the conversion of a great number of sinners, the sign of the work of God, who is accustomed to work prodigies in order to produce fruit in souls.
A Question of Penance
We are sinners and sinners must do penance! “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves!” (1 John 1:8). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32). “Do penance! For the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2). “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance!” (Matthew 3:8). “Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein were done the most of His miracles, for that they had not done penance!” (Matthew 11:20). “I say to you― unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
Questions To Ask Yourself
(1) Do I REALLY WANT to change my life? This is a crucial question! Before performing some of His miracles, Our Lord would sometimes ask: “If you WANT!” We have to WANT to do something first before we DO it.
And then there are degrees of HOW MUCH we want something. We see this in the words of Our Lord to the young man who had many possessions. The young man WANTED to go to Heaven, but he also WANTED TO DO THE MINIMUM to get there. To his question on what he had to DO to get there, Our Lord said: “If you WANT to enter into life, keep the commandments!” (Matthew 19:17).
But then Our Lord tries to encourage him from merely doing the MINIMUM into doing the MAXIMUM, in other words to increase his desire, to increase his want. “Jesus said to him: ‘If you WANT to be perfect, go sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven: and then come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard these words, he went away sad―for he had great possessions.” (Matthew 19:21-22).
(2) Do I WANT to give myself entirely to God, Jesus and Mary? Do I REALLY WANT to give myself to them? Or am I attached to myself and the world so much, that what I am REALLY WANTING is to both save my soul, yet still remain attached to myself and things of this life?
This is the case with most people! They are primarily concerned about themselves and the world, they want dual-citizenship! They want to be ‘good’ citizens of the world, and ‘good’ citizens of Heaven.
Yet Our Lord said: “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the clothing?” (Matthew 6:24-25).
(3) We all know the saying: “He who desires the end, must necessarily desire the means to that end!” We know that is true in theory, just like we know we cannot serve God and mammon in theory; but, in practice, are we seeking to do the opposite?
Like most of the world, WE WANT THINGS FOR FREE! We want to get to Heaven; we want to avoid Hell; we want to save our souls—but we don’t want to do ALL that it takes to get there! We want a discount; we want a reduced fare; we want a ‘freebie’ if at all possible!
This is what the young man with many possessions wanted, and he could not bring himself round to sacrificing what Jesus asked for! It says in the Gospel that Jesus LOVED him! He must have sensed Jesus’ love in some way; yet he preferred his petty possessions (creatures) to Jesus (the Creator).
Sadly, most of us are the same. We may even ask the same question as Jesus’ followers asked, who had witnessed the encounter with the rich young man: “The disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’” (Matthew 19:25). Jesus replied: “With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible!” (Matthew 19:28).
So, the good news is that IF WE NO LONGER WANT TO BE LIKE THAT; IF WE WANT TO CHANGE, even though we may FEEL powerless to change, then Jesus, through His Holy Mother, will bring about that miracle of grace within you. You have to WANT and you have to ASK! The grace will then come to help you DO, not without any pain, but it will help you with the pain too!
Make Resolutions
(1) I will not be discouraged by what I may see in examining myself and my surroundings. Discouragement comes from the devil, not from God. Discouragement is the devil’s chief weapon of paralysis.
(2) I will realize that without God I can do nothing — “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) — yet with the help of God, anything and everything is possible — “With God all things are possible!” (Matthew 19:28).
(3) So even though I may FEEL that I don’t want to change, or if I may FEEL that I am not able to change, I will nevertheless ASK TO CHANGE, knowing that Our Lady of Fatima said that we can obtain all things through the Rosary. However, our Rosaries need to IMPROVE; we need to PRAY the Rosary more and SAY it less; we need to put more ATTENTION and more FERVOR into our Rosaries, remembering the words of St. Louis de Montfort, who says:
“In order to pray well, it is not enough to give expression to our petitions by means of that most excellent of all prayers, the Rosary, but we must also pray with great attention, for God listens more to the voice of the heart than that of the mouth. To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin” (The Secret of the Rosary, “Forty-Second Rose”).
Article 10
Monday November 10th
Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned!
Rome Burns
In July of 64 A.D., a great fire ravaged Rome For six days and seven nights the citizens of ancient Rome watched helplessly as their city burned. The Great Fire spread quickly and savagely, destroying 70% of the city. “Of Rome’s 14 districts, only four remained intact. Three were leveled to the ground. The other seven were reduced to a few scorched and mangled ruins,” writes a contemporary Roman historian, Tacitus. Of the approximate one million-person population, an estimated half was made newly homeless by the fire.
As is usually seen in such mass tragedies, rumors began to wind through the devastated streets. Reports emerged that some men seen fanning the flames claimed they were under orders. As a result of the tremendous losses, the Roman people, feeling the effects of paranoia, looked for someone who might be responsible for the fire. They blamed their emperor—Nero.
Nero Fiddles While Rome Burns
Some rumors speculated that Nero himself had set the fire, others that he had ordered it. Seeing as Nero, after the fire, rebuilt Rome in a new style more to his liking, especially after he used land cleared by the fire to build his Golden Palace and its surrounding pleasure gardens, some believed he used the fire as an excuse for new construction. But perhaps the most interesting rumor that emerged from the Great Fire. According to a well-known expression, the decadent and unpopular Nero, “fiddled while Rome burned.” The expression has a double meaning: Not only did Nero play music while his people suffered, but he was an ineffectual leader in a time of crisis. When the Great Fire broke out, Nero was at his villa at Antium, some 35 miles from Rome. Though he immediately returned and began relief measures, people still didn’t trust him.
In the face of such charges, Nero searched for a scapegoat for the fire. He chose the Christians and persecuted them ruthlessly, torturing and executing them in hideous ways. Despite this public spectacle, Nero still found himself blamed for the fire.
Obsessed with Music
The idea that Nero fiddled while Rome burned is odd. But a mad tyrant who preferred to play music rather than offer succor to his people isn’t unbelievable, and Nero was unquestionably cruel. However, music historians believe the viol class of instruments (an earlier ancestor of the fiddle) was not developed until the 11th century, with the fiddle coming along much later. If Nero played anything, it would probably have been the cithara, a heavy wooden instrument with four to seven strings—but there is still no solid evidence that he played one during the Great Fire. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that Nero was rumored to have sung about the destruction of Troy, while watching the city burn―maybe he sang and accompanied himself on the cithara; however, he stated clearly that this was unconfirmed by eyewitness accounts. Roman historians record that Nero had a real passion for the cithara. In conquered lands, Nero coordinated festivals that featured musical competitions on such dates that he could attend and compete in them all. Nero is said to have been very emotionally wrapped-up with these competitions. Nero’s interest in these musical competitions apparently bothered some of his rivals in the Senate, who found the idea of the emperor competing side by side with common musicians unseemly.
Roman Candles
The story that Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned conjures up images of the emperor, dramatically backlit by the flames from the burning city, alone, calmly playing his fiddle while his people cried out in suffering. This most certainly was his attitude as he enjoyed watching the Christians that he had arrested, slowly burning to death attached to posts in his pleasure gardens and coated with tar, so that they would burn better—hence the grotesque title to the firework, “Roman Candle” which is what those poor Christians were—live human candles! His persecution of the early Christians was the first the religion would endure, and it resulted in the martyrdom of the apostles Peter and Paul, both of whom were executed during the persecutions.
Brutal Life, Brutal Death
The emperor has a well-documented history of brutality. He ascended to the throne after his mother killed his uncle; Nero later had her killed. In the face of blame for the Great Fire, he chose to look for scapegoats and found them in the Christians. Ultimately, the Great Fire helped bring Nero down. Discontent with his reign, his infantries threatened mutiny, and he was declared a public enemy by the Senate. Facing execution, Nero pushed a dagger into his throat and took his life four years after the fire.
Parallels with Purgatory
What is the point of this pagan historical account of Rome burning? Well, there are perhaps more parallels than one would first imagine. Of course, each one may draw something different and there may be many, many spiritual parallels to be found in this event and the ‘key players’ in the tragedy. We will look at a few to try a spark you and fire you up, so that you can draw your own analogies from the event.
Catholic Rome Burns
There are increasing numbers today who believe that Rome is beginning to burn down—metaphorically speaking! The Church has become increasingly worldly, with the fire of worldliness raging through the Church at an alarmingly increasing rate—not all the wood has caught fire, but much of it has and a lot it is burnt to ashes. Could we say that 70% of Rome (a.k.a. the Catholic Church throughout the world) has been destroyed? Perhaps so, with all the church closings and sales that have increased in the last 50 years; the constantly plummeting Mass attendance numbers; the falling numbers of Catholic births and baptisms; the massive loss of vocations over the last half-century, etc. Yes, perhaps 70% of the Church is destroyed as was Rome in 64 A.D. A passion for the world, rather than God, burns brightly and rages vehemently in the hearts of most Catholics today.
Half the Population Homeless
This is closely linked to what was said in the previous paragraph. Heaven is supposed to be our home and the Faith is the key to Heaven’s Gates, yet “many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16). Many have been given the key to the gates at their Baptism, but have since thrown that key away. Our Lady says: “There will be many who will not believe! … Many souls will be deprived of innumerable graces they need to make that great leap from time to eternity! … Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls! ... Many will let themselves be led astray, because they have not worshiped the true Christ! … There are so many souls whom the justice of God condemns for sins committed against me! … Many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness!” (Our Lady at Quito, La Salette, Fatima & Akita). These words of our heavenly Mother merely reinforce the words of her Son: “The Son of man, when He comes, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8). “Many men are called merciful―but who shall find a faithful man?” (Proverbs 20:6).
Ever-increasing numbers of Catholics are becoming ‘homeless’—they have made this world their home and know little or care little for their true home, Heaven. What are we doing for the ‘homeless’? Are fiddling while Rome burns? Are we too preoccupied with our personal slice of the pie of the world to care or do something for those that are ‘homeless’? We might be tempted to think or say those fateful words of Cain: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). The answer is found in Our Lord parable of the Sheep and the Goats: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was a homeless, and you took Me not in! … Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least of my brethren, neither did you do it to Me!” (Matthew 25:41-43). Souls fall into Hell daily while the Catholic world fiddles with the world; souls burn daily in Purgatory while the Catholic world ignores them as it burns with a love of the world! We fiddle, souls burn!
Corruption of Nero and the Romans
Sister Lucia wrote to a priest nephew of hers, Fr. Jose Valinho: “I see by your letter that you are disturbed by the confusion of our time. It is sad indeed that so many persons let themselves be dominated by the diabolical wave which is sweeping the world and that they are blinded to the point of being incapable of seeing error!”
Which is more or less what Our Lady foretold at La Salette: “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that … several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls! ... Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops! ... Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God!” Going back even further in time, we see Our Lady of Good Success foretelling similar things: “The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them! … Many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger! … Many hearts consecrated to God in the priestly and religious state will fall into lukewarmness!”
Much like Nero and the many among the Roman populous: “The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity!” (La Salette). As the spiritual writers all state, impurity dulls and blinds the mind in relation to the things of God. Our Lord shows this by speaking of the reverse side of the coin: “Blessed are the clean of heart―for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).
“It Will Begin At The Top”
Because the Church becomes besotted by worldliness, sensuality and pleasure--”May those in charge of religious communities be on their guard against the people they receive, for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth” (La Salette). “Every type of vice will enter, calling down in turn every type of chastisement, such as plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy, the cause of the perdition of so many souls” (Our Lady of Good Success). The final outcome of all this? “Rome will lose the Faith” (Our Lady of La Salette). Which is borne out by the recent comments of Cardinal Ciappi, in a personal communication to a Professor Baumgartner in Salzburg, Austria. Cardinal Ciappi was the Papal Theologian of Pope John Paul II, said: “In the Third Secret, it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.” The recent divisions over morality amongst the bishops and cardinals at the Synods in Rome in recent years, are a frightening indication of this burning of Rome!
Nero’s Persecution
The world has no problem with the following Scripture verse: “This world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4), but many Catholics do not have a problem with the enemy of God! “Let’s be friends” they say, “after all, our religion is one of love!” Which is what the world loves to hear as it ‘sweet-talks’ so many Catholics out of the Faith. These so-called Catholics not only bury the talent of the Faith that God has given them, but they also bury any uncompromising quotes like: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world! If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15) or “No man can serve two masters! You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24).
Those whom the world cannot ‘sweet-talk’ into accepting a new gospel, they will no longer ‘sweet-talk’ but persecute and even put to death! They “will preach another Gospel contrary to that of the true Christ Jesus … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... The righteous will suffer greatly ... The good will be martyred … There will be desecration of holy places … Churches will be locked up or desecrated ... Churches and altars sacked. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord ...The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God ... The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres … Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them” (La Salette, Fatima, Akita).
A Divided City Falls
Our Lady, in several of her recent apparitions (La Salette and Akita especially) seems to speak of a division in the Church—something which is borne out by other revelations made to the mystics. Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, in her vision of May 13th, 1820, says : “I saw how harmful would be the consequences of this false church. I saw it increase in size; heretics of every kind came into the city (of Rome). The local clergy grew lukewarm, and I saw a great darkness … Then the vision seemed to extend on every side. Whole Catholic communities were being oppressed, harassed, confined, and deprived of their freedom. I saw many churches closed down, great miseries everywhere, wars and bloodshed. A wild and ignorant mob took violent action.”
Fiddling While Souls Burn
“You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved” (Our Lady of Fatima, July 13th, 1917). Whether it is keeping souls out of the fires of Hell, or rescuing souls from the fires of Purgatory—the fire must be fought. That is the whole point and purpose of Our Lord’s coming: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10) and He wants our help in this matter! If we are caught up with the world or ourselves, then we will not hear His voice or will deaden His voice. Too many fiddle while souls burn!
The Price of Not Helping
“For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap” (Galatians 6:8). Or as Scripture says: “With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matthew 7:2). The moderns would say: “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours!” Neglect to help the souls in Purgatory will result in our not being helped when we find ourselves there. Of this we have several proofs, taken from the Life of St. Margaret Mary. “I learned from Sister Margaret,” says Mother Greffier in her Memoirs, “that she one day prayed for two persons of high rank in the world who had just died. She saw them both in Purgatory. The one was condemned for several years to those sufferings, notwithstanding the great number of Masses which were celebrated for her. All those prayers and suffrages were, by Divine Justice, applied to the souls belonging to some of the families of her subjects [instead of her], which had been ruined by their injustice and lack of charity. As nothing was left to those poor people to enable them to have prayers offered for them after their death, God compensated these poor people in the manner we have related” [by taking the Masses offered for those two persons of high rank and applying them to members of their families].
Everyone Owns a Spiritual Treasure Chest
Indulgences are, in the Church, a true spiritual treasure laid open to all the faithful; from which all are allowed to take what they need—for themselves or for others, to pay their own debts and those of others. It was under this figure that God was one day pleased to show them to Blessed Mary of Quito (May 26th). One day, when in ecstasy, she saw in the midst of a large space an immense table covered with heaps of silver, gold, rubies, pearls, and diamonds, and at the same time she heard a voice saying, “These riches are public property; each one may approach and take as much as he pleases.” God made known to her that this was a symbol of indulgences (Fr. Rossignoli, Merveilles 29). We may say, with the author of the Merveilles, how culpable we are if, in such abundance, we ourselves remain poor and destitute and neglect to assist others. The souls in Purgatory are in such extreme necessity, they would beg us with tears in the midst of their torments; and we have the means of paying their debts by indulgences, and we make no or little attempt to do so. Their fire rages and we try put it out with what is equivalent to a glass of water!!
Oh, it’s so hard!
Does access to this treasury demand painful efforts on our parts, such as fasts, pilgrimages, and deprivation that is insupportable to our human nature? “Even though such were the case,” says Fr. Segneri, “we should submit to them.” Do we not see how men, for love of gold, in order to preserve a work of art, to save a part of their fortune or some precious possessions, expose themselves to the flames of a fire? Should we not do at least as much to save from the fires of Purgatory—which are, as Aquinas says, the same as the fires of Hell—those poor souls ransomed by the Blood of Jesus Christ? God’s divine goodness asks nothing so painful: it requires only such works as are ordinary and easy as having a Mass offered for the soul, praying some Rosaries, some Holy Communions, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, the giving of an alms. And we neglect to acquire the most precious treasures by such easy means, and have no desire to apply them to our poor family, relatives and friends suffering in the flames of Purgatory.
Examples
In Fr. Schouppe’s book he speaks of Thomas of Cantimpre and an incident that happened in his own family. The grandmother of Thomas had lost a son in whom she had centered her fondest hopes. Day and night she wept for him and refused all consolation. In the excess of her grief she forgot the great duty of Christian love, and did not think of praying for that soul so dear to her. The unfortunate object of this barren tenderness languished amid the flames of Purgatory, receiving no alleviation in his sufferings. Finally God took pity on him. One day, whilst plunged in the depths of her grief, this woman had a miraculous vision. She saw on a beautiful road a procession of young men, as graceful as angels, advancing full of joy towards a magnificent city. She understood that they were souls from Purgatory making their triumphal entry into Heaven. She looked eagerly to see if among their ranks she could not discover her son. Alas! The child was not there; but she perceived him approaching far behind the others, sad, suffering, and fatigued, his garments drenched with water. “Oh, dear object of my grief,” she cried out to him, “how is it that you remain behind that brilliant band? I should wish to see you at the head of your companions.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
“Mother,” replied the child in a plaintive tone, “it is you, it is these tears which you shed over me that moisten and soil my garments, and retard my entrance into the glory of Heaven. Cease to abandon yourself to a blind and useless grief. Open your heart to more Christian sentiments. If you truly love me, relieve me in my sufferings; apply some indulgences to me, say prayers, give alms, obtain for me the fruits of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is by this means that you will prove your love; for by so doing you will deliver me from prison where languish, and bring me forth to eternal life, which is far more desirable than the life terrestrial which you have given me.” Then the vision disappeared, and that mother, thus admonished and brought back to true Christian sentiments, instead of giving way to immoderate grief, applied to the practice of every good work which could give relief to the soul of her son. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
The great causes of this forgetfulness, this indifference, guilty neglect, and injustice towards the dead, is lack of Faith. For do we not see that true Christians, those animated by a spirit of Faith, make the most noble sacrifices in behalf of their departed friends? Descending in spirit into those penal flames, there contemplating the rigors of Divine Justice, listening to the voice of the dead who implore their compassion, they think only how to give relief to those poor souls, and consider it their most sacred duty to procure for their parents and departed friends all the suffrages possible, according to their means and condition. Happy are those Christians; they show their Faith by their works; they are merciful, and in their turn they shall obtain mercy. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
The Power of Almsgiving
The Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas, gives the preference to alms before fasting and prayer, when there is a question of expiating past faults. “Almsgiving,” he says,”possesses more completely the virtue of satisfaction than prayer, and prayer more completely than fasting.” This is why the great servants of God and the great saints have chosen it as a principal means of assisting the dead. Amongst them we may mention as one of the most remarkable the holy Abbot Raban-Maur (February 4th), first Abbot of Fulda, in the tenth century, and afterwards Archbishop of Mayence. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Father Trithemius, a well-known writer of the Order of St. Benedict, caused abundant alms to be distributed for the dead. He had established a rule that whenever a Religious died, his portion of food should be distributed among the poor for thirty days, that the soul of the deceased might be relieved by the alms. It happened in the year 830 that the monastery of Fulda was attacked by a contagious disease, which carried off a large number of the Religious. Raban-Maur, full of zeal and charity for their souls, called Edelard, the Procurator of the monastery, and reminded him of the rule established regarding the alms for the departed. “Take great care,” said he, “that our constitutions be faithfully observed, and that the poor be fed for a whole month with the food destined for the brethren we have lost.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Edelard failed both in obedience and charity. Under pretext that such liberality was extravagant, and that he must economize the resources of the monastery, but in reality because he was influenced by a secret avarice, he neglected to distribute the food, or did so in a manner far short of the command he had received. God did not leave this disobedience unpunished. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
A month elapsed, when one evening, after the community had retired, he walked across the chapter-room with a lamp in his hand. What was his astonishment when, at an hour that the room should be unoccupied, he found there a great number of Religious. His astonishment turned into fear when, looking at them attentively, he recognized the Religious lately deceased. Terror seized him, an icy coldness ran through his veins and riveted him to the spot like a lifeless statue. Then, one of the dead brothers addressed him with terrible reproaches.”Unfortunate creature,” said he, “why didst thou not distribute the alms which were destined to give relief to the souls of thy departed brethren? Why hast thou deprived us of that assistance amid the torments of Purgatory. Receive, from this moment, the punishment of thy avarice; another and more terrible chastisement is reserved for thee, when, after three days, thou shall appear before thy God.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
At these words Edelard fell as though struck by a thunderbolt, and remained immovable until after midnight, at the hour when the community went to choir. There they found him half-dead, in the same condition as was Heliodorus of old, after he had been scourged by the angels in the temple of Jerusalem (2 Machabees 3). He was carried to the infirmary, where all possible care was lavished upon him, so that he recovered consciousness. As soon as he was able to speak, in the presence of the Abbot and of all his brethren, he related with tears the terrible occurence to which his sad condition but too evidently bore witness. Then adding that he was to die within three; days, he asked for the last Sacraments, with all signs of humble repentance. He received them with sentiments of piety, and three days later expired, assisted by the prayers of his brethren. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Mass for the dead was immediately sung, and his share of food was distributed to the poor, for the benefit of his soul. Meanwhile, his punishment was not at an end. Edelard appeared to Abbot Raban, pale and disfigured. Touched with compassion, Raban inquired what he could do for him. “Ah!” replied the unfortunate soul, “nowithstanding the prayers of our holy community, I cannot obtain the grace of my deliverance until all my brethren, whom my avarice defrauded of the suffrages due to them, have been released. That which has been given to the poor for me has been of no profit but to them, and this by order of Divine Justice. I entreat you, therefore, O venerated and merciful Father, redouble your alms. I hope that by these powerful means Divine clemency will vouchsafe to deliver us all, my brethren first, and afterwards myself, who am the least deserving of mercy.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Raban-Maur increased his alms, and scarcely had another month elapsed, when Edelard again appeared; but clad in white, surrounded with rays of light and his countenance beaming with joy. He thanked, in the most touching manner, his Abbot and all the members of the monastery for the charity exercised towards him (Vie de Raban-Maur; Rossignoli, Merveilles, 2). (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Hard Hearted Scrooges
What instruction does not this history contain! In the first place, the virtue of almsgiving for the dead shines forth in a most striking manner. Then we see how God chastises, even in this life, those who through avarice fear not to deprive the dead of their suffrages. I speak not here of those heirs who render themselves culpable, by neglecting to make the endowments which devolve upon them by last will and testament of their deceased relatives, a negligence which constitutes a sacrilegious injustice; but of those children or relatives who, through miserable motives of interest, have as few Masses as possible celebrated, are sparing in the distribution of alms, having no pity for the souls of their departed relatives, which they leave to languish in the horrible torments of Purgatory. It is the blackest ingratitude, a hardness of heart entirely opposed to Christian charity, and which will meet its punishment perhaps even in this world. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Gold in Your Pocket or Purse
“The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary, to such an extent, that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or, above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls” (Sr. Lucia).
Fiddling While Others Burn
So let us not neglect to use that powerful weapon, let us not fiddle with the world when we can be fiddling with our Rosaries. The more we fiddle with our Rosaries for the souls in Purgatory, the more God will have others fiddle with their Rosaries when it is our turn to burn there! That’s the kind of fiddling we like and want. In fact we hope that there will be thousands fiddling while we burn—fiddling with their Rosaries in compassion, and not fiddling on their fiddles in joy! Let us pray!
In July of 64 A.D., a great fire ravaged Rome For six days and seven nights the citizens of ancient Rome watched helplessly as their city burned. The Great Fire spread quickly and savagely, destroying 70% of the city. “Of Rome’s 14 districts, only four remained intact. Three were leveled to the ground. The other seven were reduced to a few scorched and mangled ruins,” writes a contemporary Roman historian, Tacitus. Of the approximate one million-person population, an estimated half was made newly homeless by the fire.
As is usually seen in such mass tragedies, rumors began to wind through the devastated streets. Reports emerged that some men seen fanning the flames claimed they were under orders. As a result of the tremendous losses, the Roman people, feeling the effects of paranoia, looked for someone who might be responsible for the fire. They blamed their emperor—Nero.
Nero Fiddles While Rome Burns
Some rumors speculated that Nero himself had set the fire, others that he had ordered it. Seeing as Nero, after the fire, rebuilt Rome in a new style more to his liking, especially after he used land cleared by the fire to build his Golden Palace and its surrounding pleasure gardens, some believed he used the fire as an excuse for new construction. But perhaps the most interesting rumor that emerged from the Great Fire. According to a well-known expression, the decadent and unpopular Nero, “fiddled while Rome burned.” The expression has a double meaning: Not only did Nero play music while his people suffered, but he was an ineffectual leader in a time of crisis. When the Great Fire broke out, Nero was at his villa at Antium, some 35 miles from Rome. Though he immediately returned and began relief measures, people still didn’t trust him.
In the face of such charges, Nero searched for a scapegoat for the fire. He chose the Christians and persecuted them ruthlessly, torturing and executing them in hideous ways. Despite this public spectacle, Nero still found himself blamed for the fire.
Obsessed with Music
The idea that Nero fiddled while Rome burned is odd. But a mad tyrant who preferred to play music rather than offer succor to his people isn’t unbelievable, and Nero was unquestionably cruel. However, music historians believe the viol class of instruments (an earlier ancestor of the fiddle) was not developed until the 11th century, with the fiddle coming along much later. If Nero played anything, it would probably have been the cithara, a heavy wooden instrument with four to seven strings—but there is still no solid evidence that he played one during the Great Fire. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that Nero was rumored to have sung about the destruction of Troy, while watching the city burn―maybe he sang and accompanied himself on the cithara; however, he stated clearly that this was unconfirmed by eyewitness accounts. Roman historians record that Nero had a real passion for the cithara. In conquered lands, Nero coordinated festivals that featured musical competitions on such dates that he could attend and compete in them all. Nero is said to have been very emotionally wrapped-up with these competitions. Nero’s interest in these musical competitions apparently bothered some of his rivals in the Senate, who found the idea of the emperor competing side by side with common musicians unseemly.
Roman Candles
The story that Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned conjures up images of the emperor, dramatically backlit by the flames from the burning city, alone, calmly playing his fiddle while his people cried out in suffering. This most certainly was his attitude as he enjoyed watching the Christians that he had arrested, slowly burning to death attached to posts in his pleasure gardens and coated with tar, so that they would burn better—hence the grotesque title to the firework, “Roman Candle” which is what those poor Christians were—live human candles! His persecution of the early Christians was the first the religion would endure, and it resulted in the martyrdom of the apostles Peter and Paul, both of whom were executed during the persecutions.
Brutal Life, Brutal Death
The emperor has a well-documented history of brutality. He ascended to the throne after his mother killed his uncle; Nero later had her killed. In the face of blame for the Great Fire, he chose to look for scapegoats and found them in the Christians. Ultimately, the Great Fire helped bring Nero down. Discontent with his reign, his infantries threatened mutiny, and he was declared a public enemy by the Senate. Facing execution, Nero pushed a dagger into his throat and took his life four years after the fire.
Parallels with Purgatory
What is the point of this pagan historical account of Rome burning? Well, there are perhaps more parallels than one would first imagine. Of course, each one may draw something different and there may be many, many spiritual parallels to be found in this event and the ‘key players’ in the tragedy. We will look at a few to try a spark you and fire you up, so that you can draw your own analogies from the event.
Catholic Rome Burns
There are increasing numbers today who believe that Rome is beginning to burn down—metaphorically speaking! The Church has become increasingly worldly, with the fire of worldliness raging through the Church at an alarmingly increasing rate—not all the wood has caught fire, but much of it has and a lot it is burnt to ashes. Could we say that 70% of Rome (a.k.a. the Catholic Church throughout the world) has been destroyed? Perhaps so, with all the church closings and sales that have increased in the last 50 years; the constantly plummeting Mass attendance numbers; the falling numbers of Catholic births and baptisms; the massive loss of vocations over the last half-century, etc. Yes, perhaps 70% of the Church is destroyed as was Rome in 64 A.D. A passion for the world, rather than God, burns brightly and rages vehemently in the hearts of most Catholics today.
Half the Population Homeless
This is closely linked to what was said in the previous paragraph. Heaven is supposed to be our home and the Faith is the key to Heaven’s Gates, yet “many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16). Many have been given the key to the gates at their Baptism, but have since thrown that key away. Our Lady says: “There will be many who will not believe! … Many souls will be deprived of innumerable graces they need to make that great leap from time to eternity! … Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls! ... Many will let themselves be led astray, because they have not worshiped the true Christ! … There are so many souls whom the justice of God condemns for sins committed against me! … Many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness!” (Our Lady at Quito, La Salette, Fatima & Akita). These words of our heavenly Mother merely reinforce the words of her Son: “The Son of man, when He comes, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8). “Many men are called merciful―but who shall find a faithful man?” (Proverbs 20:6).
Ever-increasing numbers of Catholics are becoming ‘homeless’—they have made this world their home and know little or care little for their true home, Heaven. What are we doing for the ‘homeless’? Are fiddling while Rome burns? Are we too preoccupied with our personal slice of the pie of the world to care or do something for those that are ‘homeless’? We might be tempted to think or say those fateful words of Cain: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). The answer is found in Our Lord parable of the Sheep and the Goats: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was a homeless, and you took Me not in! … Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least of my brethren, neither did you do it to Me!” (Matthew 25:41-43). Souls fall into Hell daily while the Catholic world fiddles with the world; souls burn daily in Purgatory while the Catholic world ignores them as it burns with a love of the world! We fiddle, souls burn!
Corruption of Nero and the Romans
Sister Lucia wrote to a priest nephew of hers, Fr. Jose Valinho: “I see by your letter that you are disturbed by the confusion of our time. It is sad indeed that so many persons let themselves be dominated by the diabolical wave which is sweeping the world and that they are blinded to the point of being incapable of seeing error!”
Which is more or less what Our Lady foretold at La Salette: “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that … several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls! ... Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops! ... Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God!” Going back even further in time, we see Our Lady of Good Success foretelling similar things: “The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them! … Many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger! … Many hearts consecrated to God in the priestly and religious state will fall into lukewarmness!”
Much like Nero and the many among the Roman populous: “The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity!” (La Salette). As the spiritual writers all state, impurity dulls and blinds the mind in relation to the things of God. Our Lord shows this by speaking of the reverse side of the coin: “Blessed are the clean of heart―for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).
“It Will Begin At The Top”
Because the Church becomes besotted by worldliness, sensuality and pleasure--”May those in charge of religious communities be on their guard against the people they receive, for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth” (La Salette). “Every type of vice will enter, calling down in turn every type of chastisement, such as plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy, the cause of the perdition of so many souls” (Our Lady of Good Success). The final outcome of all this? “Rome will lose the Faith” (Our Lady of La Salette). Which is borne out by the recent comments of Cardinal Ciappi, in a personal communication to a Professor Baumgartner in Salzburg, Austria. Cardinal Ciappi was the Papal Theologian of Pope John Paul II, said: “In the Third Secret, it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.” The recent divisions over morality amongst the bishops and cardinals at the Synods in Rome in recent years, are a frightening indication of this burning of Rome!
Nero’s Persecution
The world has no problem with the following Scripture verse: “This world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4), but many Catholics do not have a problem with the enemy of God! “Let’s be friends” they say, “after all, our religion is one of love!” Which is what the world loves to hear as it ‘sweet-talks’ so many Catholics out of the Faith. These so-called Catholics not only bury the talent of the Faith that God has given them, but they also bury any uncompromising quotes like: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world! If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15) or “No man can serve two masters! You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24).
Those whom the world cannot ‘sweet-talk’ into accepting a new gospel, they will no longer ‘sweet-talk’ but persecute and even put to death! They “will preach another Gospel contrary to that of the true Christ Jesus … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... The righteous will suffer greatly ... The good will be martyred … There will be desecration of holy places … Churches will be locked up or desecrated ... Churches and altars sacked. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord ...The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God ... The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres … Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them” (La Salette, Fatima, Akita).
A Divided City Falls
Our Lady, in several of her recent apparitions (La Salette and Akita especially) seems to speak of a division in the Church—something which is borne out by other revelations made to the mystics. Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, in her vision of May 13th, 1820, says : “I saw how harmful would be the consequences of this false church. I saw it increase in size; heretics of every kind came into the city (of Rome). The local clergy grew lukewarm, and I saw a great darkness … Then the vision seemed to extend on every side. Whole Catholic communities were being oppressed, harassed, confined, and deprived of their freedom. I saw many churches closed down, great miseries everywhere, wars and bloodshed. A wild and ignorant mob took violent action.”
Fiddling While Souls Burn
“You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved” (Our Lady of Fatima, July 13th, 1917). Whether it is keeping souls out of the fires of Hell, or rescuing souls from the fires of Purgatory—the fire must be fought. That is the whole point and purpose of Our Lord’s coming: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10) and He wants our help in this matter! If we are caught up with the world or ourselves, then we will not hear His voice or will deaden His voice. Too many fiddle while souls burn!
The Price of Not Helping
“For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap” (Galatians 6:8). Or as Scripture says: “With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matthew 7:2). The moderns would say: “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours!” Neglect to help the souls in Purgatory will result in our not being helped when we find ourselves there. Of this we have several proofs, taken from the Life of St. Margaret Mary. “I learned from Sister Margaret,” says Mother Greffier in her Memoirs, “that she one day prayed for two persons of high rank in the world who had just died. She saw them both in Purgatory. The one was condemned for several years to those sufferings, notwithstanding the great number of Masses which were celebrated for her. All those prayers and suffrages were, by Divine Justice, applied to the souls belonging to some of the families of her subjects [instead of her], which had been ruined by their injustice and lack of charity. As nothing was left to those poor people to enable them to have prayers offered for them after their death, God compensated these poor people in the manner we have related” [by taking the Masses offered for those two persons of high rank and applying them to members of their families].
Everyone Owns a Spiritual Treasure Chest
Indulgences are, in the Church, a true spiritual treasure laid open to all the faithful; from which all are allowed to take what they need—for themselves or for others, to pay their own debts and those of others. It was under this figure that God was one day pleased to show them to Blessed Mary of Quito (May 26th). One day, when in ecstasy, she saw in the midst of a large space an immense table covered with heaps of silver, gold, rubies, pearls, and diamonds, and at the same time she heard a voice saying, “These riches are public property; each one may approach and take as much as he pleases.” God made known to her that this was a symbol of indulgences (Fr. Rossignoli, Merveilles 29). We may say, with the author of the Merveilles, how culpable we are if, in such abundance, we ourselves remain poor and destitute and neglect to assist others. The souls in Purgatory are in such extreme necessity, they would beg us with tears in the midst of their torments; and we have the means of paying their debts by indulgences, and we make no or little attempt to do so. Their fire rages and we try put it out with what is equivalent to a glass of water!!
Oh, it’s so hard!
Does access to this treasury demand painful efforts on our parts, such as fasts, pilgrimages, and deprivation that is insupportable to our human nature? “Even though such were the case,” says Fr. Segneri, “we should submit to them.” Do we not see how men, for love of gold, in order to preserve a work of art, to save a part of their fortune or some precious possessions, expose themselves to the flames of a fire? Should we not do at least as much to save from the fires of Purgatory—which are, as Aquinas says, the same as the fires of Hell—those poor souls ransomed by the Blood of Jesus Christ? God’s divine goodness asks nothing so painful: it requires only such works as are ordinary and easy as having a Mass offered for the soul, praying some Rosaries, some Holy Communions, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, the giving of an alms. And we neglect to acquire the most precious treasures by such easy means, and have no desire to apply them to our poor family, relatives and friends suffering in the flames of Purgatory.
Examples
In Fr. Schouppe’s book he speaks of Thomas of Cantimpre and an incident that happened in his own family. The grandmother of Thomas had lost a son in whom she had centered her fondest hopes. Day and night she wept for him and refused all consolation. In the excess of her grief she forgot the great duty of Christian love, and did not think of praying for that soul so dear to her. The unfortunate object of this barren tenderness languished amid the flames of Purgatory, receiving no alleviation in his sufferings. Finally God took pity on him. One day, whilst plunged in the depths of her grief, this woman had a miraculous vision. She saw on a beautiful road a procession of young men, as graceful as angels, advancing full of joy towards a magnificent city. She understood that they were souls from Purgatory making their triumphal entry into Heaven. She looked eagerly to see if among their ranks she could not discover her son. Alas! The child was not there; but she perceived him approaching far behind the others, sad, suffering, and fatigued, his garments drenched with water. “Oh, dear object of my grief,” she cried out to him, “how is it that you remain behind that brilliant band? I should wish to see you at the head of your companions.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
“Mother,” replied the child in a plaintive tone, “it is you, it is these tears which you shed over me that moisten and soil my garments, and retard my entrance into the glory of Heaven. Cease to abandon yourself to a blind and useless grief. Open your heart to more Christian sentiments. If you truly love me, relieve me in my sufferings; apply some indulgences to me, say prayers, give alms, obtain for me the fruits of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is by this means that you will prove your love; for by so doing you will deliver me from prison where languish, and bring me forth to eternal life, which is far more desirable than the life terrestrial which you have given me.” Then the vision disappeared, and that mother, thus admonished and brought back to true Christian sentiments, instead of giving way to immoderate grief, applied to the practice of every good work which could give relief to the soul of her son. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
The great causes of this forgetfulness, this indifference, guilty neglect, and injustice towards the dead, is lack of Faith. For do we not see that true Christians, those animated by a spirit of Faith, make the most noble sacrifices in behalf of their departed friends? Descending in spirit into those penal flames, there contemplating the rigors of Divine Justice, listening to the voice of the dead who implore their compassion, they think only how to give relief to those poor souls, and consider it their most sacred duty to procure for their parents and departed friends all the suffrages possible, according to their means and condition. Happy are those Christians; they show their Faith by their works; they are merciful, and in their turn they shall obtain mercy. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
The Power of Almsgiving
The Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas, gives the preference to alms before fasting and prayer, when there is a question of expiating past faults. “Almsgiving,” he says,”possesses more completely the virtue of satisfaction than prayer, and prayer more completely than fasting.” This is why the great servants of God and the great saints have chosen it as a principal means of assisting the dead. Amongst them we may mention as one of the most remarkable the holy Abbot Raban-Maur (February 4th), first Abbot of Fulda, in the tenth century, and afterwards Archbishop of Mayence. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Father Trithemius, a well-known writer of the Order of St. Benedict, caused abundant alms to be distributed for the dead. He had established a rule that whenever a Religious died, his portion of food should be distributed among the poor for thirty days, that the soul of the deceased might be relieved by the alms. It happened in the year 830 that the monastery of Fulda was attacked by a contagious disease, which carried off a large number of the Religious. Raban-Maur, full of zeal and charity for their souls, called Edelard, the Procurator of the monastery, and reminded him of the rule established regarding the alms for the departed. “Take great care,” said he, “that our constitutions be faithfully observed, and that the poor be fed for a whole month with the food destined for the brethren we have lost.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Edelard failed both in obedience and charity. Under pretext that such liberality was extravagant, and that he must economize the resources of the monastery, but in reality because he was influenced by a secret avarice, he neglected to distribute the food, or did so in a manner far short of the command he had received. God did not leave this disobedience unpunished. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
A month elapsed, when one evening, after the community had retired, he walked across the chapter-room with a lamp in his hand. What was his astonishment when, at an hour that the room should be unoccupied, he found there a great number of Religious. His astonishment turned into fear when, looking at them attentively, he recognized the Religious lately deceased. Terror seized him, an icy coldness ran through his veins and riveted him to the spot like a lifeless statue. Then, one of the dead brothers addressed him with terrible reproaches.”Unfortunate creature,” said he, “why didst thou not distribute the alms which were destined to give relief to the souls of thy departed brethren? Why hast thou deprived us of that assistance amid the torments of Purgatory. Receive, from this moment, the punishment of thy avarice; another and more terrible chastisement is reserved for thee, when, after three days, thou shall appear before thy God.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
At these words Edelard fell as though struck by a thunderbolt, and remained immovable until after midnight, at the hour when the community went to choir. There they found him half-dead, in the same condition as was Heliodorus of old, after he had been scourged by the angels in the temple of Jerusalem (2 Machabees 3). He was carried to the infirmary, where all possible care was lavished upon him, so that he recovered consciousness. As soon as he was able to speak, in the presence of the Abbot and of all his brethren, he related with tears the terrible occurence to which his sad condition but too evidently bore witness. Then adding that he was to die within three; days, he asked for the last Sacraments, with all signs of humble repentance. He received them with sentiments of piety, and three days later expired, assisted by the prayers of his brethren. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Mass for the dead was immediately sung, and his share of food was distributed to the poor, for the benefit of his soul. Meanwhile, his punishment was not at an end. Edelard appeared to Abbot Raban, pale and disfigured. Touched with compassion, Raban inquired what he could do for him. “Ah!” replied the unfortunate soul, “nowithstanding the prayers of our holy community, I cannot obtain the grace of my deliverance until all my brethren, whom my avarice defrauded of the suffrages due to them, have been released. That which has been given to the poor for me has been of no profit but to them, and this by order of Divine Justice. I entreat you, therefore, O venerated and merciful Father, redouble your alms. I hope that by these powerful means Divine clemency will vouchsafe to deliver us all, my brethren first, and afterwards myself, who am the least deserving of mercy.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Raban-Maur increased his alms, and scarcely had another month elapsed, when Edelard again appeared; but clad in white, surrounded with rays of light and his countenance beaming with joy. He thanked, in the most touching manner, his Abbot and all the members of the monastery for the charity exercised towards him (Vie de Raban-Maur; Rossignoli, Merveilles, 2). (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Hard Hearted Scrooges
What instruction does not this history contain! In the first place, the virtue of almsgiving for the dead shines forth in a most striking manner. Then we see how God chastises, even in this life, those who through avarice fear not to deprive the dead of their suffrages. I speak not here of those heirs who render themselves culpable, by neglecting to make the endowments which devolve upon them by last will and testament of their deceased relatives, a negligence which constitutes a sacrilegious injustice; but of those children or relatives who, through miserable motives of interest, have as few Masses as possible celebrated, are sparing in the distribution of alms, having no pity for the souls of their departed relatives, which they leave to languish in the horrible torments of Purgatory. It is the blackest ingratitude, a hardness of heart entirely opposed to Christian charity, and which will meet its punishment perhaps even in this world. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Gold in Your Pocket or Purse
“The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary, to such an extent, that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or, above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls” (Sr. Lucia).
Fiddling While Others Burn
So let us not neglect to use that powerful weapon, let us not fiddle with the world when we can be fiddling with our Rosaries. The more we fiddle with our Rosaries for the souls in Purgatory, the more God will have others fiddle with their Rosaries when it is our turn to burn there! That’s the kind of fiddling we like and want. In fact we hope that there will be thousands fiddling while we burn—fiddling with their Rosaries in compassion, and not fiddling on their fiddles in joy! Let us pray!
Article 9
Sunday November 9th
Taking the Heat!
Sunday November 9th
Taking the Heat!
Can’t Have It Both Ways!
What on earth is wrong with us?! We want to be allowed to do what we want, yet we despise hearing of the consequences of our actions! We throw a fit if our good actions are not acknowledged and rewarded, yet we throw a greater fit if our bad actions ARE noticed and rewarded (i.e., punished)! There is an interesting book entitled, Ideas Have Consequences, but even more so is it true that our actions have consequences.
As Holy Scripture says: “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then will He render to every man according to his works” (Matthew 16:27). “And this is the judgment―because the Light [Christ] is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light; for their works were evil. For every one that does evil hates the Light, and comes not to the Light, so that his works may not be reproved. But he that does truth, comes to the Light, so that his works may be made manifest, because they are done in God” (John 3:19-21).
A Lose-Lose Situation!
If you read Fr. Schouppe’s book, Purgatory Explained, you will read some very sobering passages about Purgatory. One of the things he points out is the fact that the fires of Purgatory are the same fires as those of Hell. He also points out that there is in Purgatory, as in Hell, a double pain—the pain of loss in the soul and the pain of the senses. The pain suffered by the loss of God is greater than the pain of the fire, or any of the other tortures that the soul suffers.
The pain of loss consists in being deprived for a time of the sight of God―Who is our Supreme Good, for Whom our souls were made. In Purgatory, there is a thirst for God—which should have been there while living on Earth―but the soul thirsted more for worldly things rather than God.
The pain of sense, or sensible suffering, or suffering in our senses, is the same as that which we experience in our flesh. Its nature is not defined by Faith, but it is the common opinion of the Doctors that it consists in fire and other species of suffering. The fire of Purgatory, say the Fathers, is that of Hell, of which the rich glutton speaks when he says: “I am tormented in this flame!” (Luke 16:24).
Taking the Heat!
The same fire, says Pope St. Gregory the Great, torments the damned and purifies the elect. “Almost all theologians,” says the cardinal, St. Robert Bellarmine, “teach that the damned in Hell and the souls in Purgatory suffer the action of the same fire.” It must be held as certain, writes St. Robert Bellarmine, that there is no proportion between the sufferings of this life and those of Purgatory. St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, writes: “As to the suffering, it is equal to that of Hell.” St. Thomas Aquinas states: “The fire of Purgatory is the same as the fire of Hell” (Summa Theologica, Supplement, Appendix II, Art. 1).
We know what a terrible thing fire is, and what pain is caused by the slightest burn, no matter how feeble the flame may be―how much more terrible must be that fire which is fed neither with wood, gas nor oil.
St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, says: “The souls endure a torment so extreme that no tongue can describe it, nor could the understanding conceive the least notion of it, if God did not make it known by a particular grace!”
Admission Prices Are Different
As regards the severity of these pains, since they are inflicted by Infinite Justice, they are proportioned to the nature, the gravity, and the number of sins committed. Each one receives according to his works, each one must acquit himself of the debts with which he sees himself charged before God.
Now these debts differ greatly in quality. Some, which have accumulated during a long life, have reached the ten thousand talents of the Gospel, that is to say, millions and tens of millions; whilst others are reduced to a few farthings or pennies, the trifling remainder of that which has not been expiated on Earth. It follows from this that the souls undergo various kinds of sufferings, that there are innumerable different degrees of expiation in Purgatory, and that some are incomparably more severe than others. However, speaking in general, the doctors agree in saying that the pains are most excruciating.
Don’t Play the Credit-Card Game with Purgatory!
There are some who look at Purgatory much like they look upon their credit card—they will buy now (sin now) and pay later, thinking little of the interest rates. They forget that the interest rates for Purgatory are beyond their wildest imagination! St. Augustine believes that even though the souls in Purgatory will be saved, no doubt, after the trial of fire, nevertheless that trial will be terrible, that torment of Purgatory will be far more intolerable than all the most excruciating sufferings in this world.
St. Thomas goes even further; he maintains that the least pain of Purgatory surpasses all the sufferings of this life, whatsoever they may be. The author of the “Imitation of Christ” explains this doctrine by a practical and striking sentence. Speaking in general of the sufferings of the other life, he says: “There, one hour of torment will be more terrible than a hundred years of rigorous penance done her.”
Happy to Be Saved—But Painfully Happy!
However, before we get carried-away by exaggerated thoughts of “feeling-sorry-for-myself” doom and gloom, let us also remember that joyful and positive outlook of the souls in Purgatory. Another Doctor of the Church, St. Francis de Sales, renowned for his calming and soothing words, says:
“We may draw from the thought of Purgatory more consolation than apprehension. The greater part of those who dread Purgatory so much think more of their own interests than of the interests of God’s glory―this proceeds from the fact that they think only of the sufferings without considering the peace and happiness which are there enjoyed by the holy souls. It is true that the torments are so great that the most acute sufferings of this life bear no comparison to them; but the interior satisfaction, which is enjoyed there, is such that no prosperity nor contentment upon Earth can equal it.
“The souls are in a continual union with God. They are perfectly resigned to His will, or rather their will is so transformed into that of God, that they cannot will but what God wills; so that if Paradise were to be opened to them, they would throw themselves into Hell, rather than appear before God with the stains with which they see themselves disfigured. They purify themselves willingly and lovingly, because such is the Divine good pleasure. They wish to be there in the state wherein God pleases, and as long as it shall please Him. They cannot sin, nor can they experience the least movement of impatience, nor commit the slightest imperfection. They love God more than they love themselves, and more than all things else; they love Him with a perfect, pure, and disinterested love. They are consoled by angels. They are assured of their eternal salvation, and filled with a hope that can never be disappointed in its expectations. Their bitterest anguish is soothed by a certain profound peace. It is a species of Hell as regards the suffering; it is a Paradise as regards the delight infused into their hearts by charity—Charity, stronger than death and more powerful than Hell ; Charity, whose lamps are all fire and flame. Happy state! More desirable than appalling, since its flames are flames of love and charity.” (The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales, chapter 9).
No Room for the “Sweet-Tooth”
Yet, we must not fall into our “sweet-tooth” tendency and suddenly extract and abstract all pains from Purgatory—just as God is extremely just while being extremely merciful, so too are the Poor Souls in extreme pain while being extremely happy. Such are the teachings of the Saints and the Doctors of Church, from which it follows that, if the pains of Purgatory are rigorous, they are not without consolation. When imposing His cross upon us in this life, God pours upon it the sweetness of His grace, and in purifying the souls in Purgatory like gold in the crucible, He soothes their flames by ineffable consolations.
Our God is an Extreme God
We must not lose sight of this consoling element, this bright side of the often gloomy picture which we are going to examine. This, as you can see, is the balance between the Justice and Mercy of God—Whose wisdom can do no wrong, nor can He deceive or be deceived. We must remember that God is extreme—for He is infinitely perfect, and perfection implies an extreme, for someone who is perfect is extremely good. Therefore, all the attributes of God are perfect to the extreme—wherefore, He has to be extreme in His justice while at the same time being extreme in His mercy. Our puny minds cannot reconcile what seem like two opposites—justice and mercy—but that is just like our incapacity to grasp the notion of eternity.
Let us also not deceive ourselves on the probable punishment due to our sins—whether here on Earth (if we are wise to accept it) or in Purgatory (if we are foolish enough to refuse paying while in Earth). It is because we have such a low estimation of what Heaven is and what it costs, which is compounded with our trivialization of sin, whereby we think it is insignificant in some cases—forgetting that our Faith teaches us that both Mortal Sin and Venial Sin are the two greatest evils in the world! “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial sin is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD).
Pay Now, Not Later
As Fr. Schouppe writes, in Purgatory Explained: “God is sanctity itself, much more so than the sun is light, and no shadow of sin can endure before His face. ‘Thine eyes are pure’, says the prophet, ‘and Thou canst not look on iniquity!’ (Habacuc 1:13). When iniquity manifests itself in creatures, the sanctity of God exacts expiation, and when this expiation is made in all the rigor of justice, it is terrible.
“It is for this reason that the Scripture says again, ‘Holy and terrible is His Name’ (Psalm 110:9); as though it would say, His justice is terrible because His sanctity is infinite. The justice of God is terrible, and it punishes with extreme rigor even the most trivial faults. The reason is that these faults, light in our eyes, are in no way light before God. The least sin displeases Him infinitely, and, on account of the infinite sanctity which is offended, the demands enormous atonement. This explains the terrible severity of the pains of the other life, and should penetrate us with a holy fear.
“This fear of Purgatory is a salutary fear; its effect is, not only to animate us with a charitable compassion towards the poor suffering souls, but also with a vigilant zeal for our own spiritual welfare. Think of the fire of Purgatory, and you will endeavor to avoid the least faults; think of the fire of Purgatory, and you will practice penance, that you may satisfy Divine Justice in this world rather than in the next” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Why Burn in Purgatory if You Can Burn for Less Now?
What’s the point of paying for something with ‘big-bucks’ when you pay for it for mere cents on a dollar? Sure it’s discouraging to read about Purgatory—but there would be no worry about Purgatory if we would only do what we should be doing here below! Why burn in Purgatory when you can burn at a lower temperature and for a shorter time here below? What are we talking about? Well, the prayer that most of us probably say every day—or at least most days—gives us the answer:”Come O Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love!” Love is the word—love is a fire. Our Lord Himself showed us this imagery and reality in His apparition to St. Margaret Mary.
Mercy Depends on Love
Love is the pinnacle of all virtues—“the greatest of these is Charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13)—and as such it deserves to be honored above all the others. Therefore, in Our Lord, we honor and adore His Sacred Heart which is the seat of His love for mankind. Mercy is a property or a child of love. St. Thomas Aquinas deals of Mercy under his section on Charity. As Psalm 144 says: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). The Sacred Heart is all about those two pinnacles within God—His Love and His Mercy.
Our Lord Himself indicated this in His apparitions to St. Margaret Mary, especially in the fourth, called the “Great Apparition”. To what did He draw attention in the first place? To the Heart that beats in His breast and to the flames of love that surrounded that Heart. St. Margaret Mary says: “Discovering to me His Heart, He said to me: ‘Behold this Heart ...’” And what did He declare concerning this Heart? That It ineffably loves us and is sensible to the manner in which men repay Its love: “Behold this Heart which has so loved men. ... And in return I receive from the greater part of them nothing but ingratitude!”
What would the reward if men would only love the Heart that loved them? The reward would be mercy! As Jesus said of St. Mary Magdalen: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47). Holy Scripture further cements this: “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).
The burning fire of charity can replace the burning fires of Purgatory in paying for our sins! If we loved God as we ought to love God, then we would automatically sin less and pay more. Our Lord said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength! This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31). An increased love of God would drive away our fear of Purgatory: “Perfect charity casts out fear―because fear has pain. And he that fears is not perfected in charity!” (1 John 4:18).
What on earth is wrong with us?! We want to be allowed to do what we want, yet we despise hearing of the consequences of our actions! We throw a fit if our good actions are not acknowledged and rewarded, yet we throw a greater fit if our bad actions ARE noticed and rewarded (i.e., punished)! There is an interesting book entitled, Ideas Have Consequences, but even more so is it true that our actions have consequences.
As Holy Scripture says: “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then will He render to every man according to his works” (Matthew 16:27). “And this is the judgment―because the Light [Christ] is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light; for their works were evil. For every one that does evil hates the Light, and comes not to the Light, so that his works may not be reproved. But he that does truth, comes to the Light, so that his works may be made manifest, because they are done in God” (John 3:19-21).
A Lose-Lose Situation!
If you read Fr. Schouppe’s book, Purgatory Explained, you will read some very sobering passages about Purgatory. One of the things he points out is the fact that the fires of Purgatory are the same fires as those of Hell. He also points out that there is in Purgatory, as in Hell, a double pain—the pain of loss in the soul and the pain of the senses. The pain suffered by the loss of God is greater than the pain of the fire, or any of the other tortures that the soul suffers.
The pain of loss consists in being deprived for a time of the sight of God―Who is our Supreme Good, for Whom our souls were made. In Purgatory, there is a thirst for God—which should have been there while living on Earth―but the soul thirsted more for worldly things rather than God.
The pain of sense, or sensible suffering, or suffering in our senses, is the same as that which we experience in our flesh. Its nature is not defined by Faith, but it is the common opinion of the Doctors that it consists in fire and other species of suffering. The fire of Purgatory, say the Fathers, is that of Hell, of which the rich glutton speaks when he says: “I am tormented in this flame!” (Luke 16:24).
Taking the Heat!
The same fire, says Pope St. Gregory the Great, torments the damned and purifies the elect. “Almost all theologians,” says the cardinal, St. Robert Bellarmine, “teach that the damned in Hell and the souls in Purgatory suffer the action of the same fire.” It must be held as certain, writes St. Robert Bellarmine, that there is no proportion between the sufferings of this life and those of Purgatory. St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, writes: “As to the suffering, it is equal to that of Hell.” St. Thomas Aquinas states: “The fire of Purgatory is the same as the fire of Hell” (Summa Theologica, Supplement, Appendix II, Art. 1).
We know what a terrible thing fire is, and what pain is caused by the slightest burn, no matter how feeble the flame may be―how much more terrible must be that fire which is fed neither with wood, gas nor oil.
St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, says: “The souls endure a torment so extreme that no tongue can describe it, nor could the understanding conceive the least notion of it, if God did not make it known by a particular grace!”
Admission Prices Are Different
As regards the severity of these pains, since they are inflicted by Infinite Justice, they are proportioned to the nature, the gravity, and the number of sins committed. Each one receives according to his works, each one must acquit himself of the debts with which he sees himself charged before God.
Now these debts differ greatly in quality. Some, which have accumulated during a long life, have reached the ten thousand talents of the Gospel, that is to say, millions and tens of millions; whilst others are reduced to a few farthings or pennies, the trifling remainder of that which has not been expiated on Earth. It follows from this that the souls undergo various kinds of sufferings, that there are innumerable different degrees of expiation in Purgatory, and that some are incomparably more severe than others. However, speaking in general, the doctors agree in saying that the pains are most excruciating.
Don’t Play the Credit-Card Game with Purgatory!
There are some who look at Purgatory much like they look upon their credit card—they will buy now (sin now) and pay later, thinking little of the interest rates. They forget that the interest rates for Purgatory are beyond their wildest imagination! St. Augustine believes that even though the souls in Purgatory will be saved, no doubt, after the trial of fire, nevertheless that trial will be terrible, that torment of Purgatory will be far more intolerable than all the most excruciating sufferings in this world.
St. Thomas goes even further; he maintains that the least pain of Purgatory surpasses all the sufferings of this life, whatsoever they may be. The author of the “Imitation of Christ” explains this doctrine by a practical and striking sentence. Speaking in general of the sufferings of the other life, he says: “There, one hour of torment will be more terrible than a hundred years of rigorous penance done her.”
Happy to Be Saved—But Painfully Happy!
However, before we get carried-away by exaggerated thoughts of “feeling-sorry-for-myself” doom and gloom, let us also remember that joyful and positive outlook of the souls in Purgatory. Another Doctor of the Church, St. Francis de Sales, renowned for his calming and soothing words, says:
“We may draw from the thought of Purgatory more consolation than apprehension. The greater part of those who dread Purgatory so much think more of their own interests than of the interests of God’s glory―this proceeds from the fact that they think only of the sufferings without considering the peace and happiness which are there enjoyed by the holy souls. It is true that the torments are so great that the most acute sufferings of this life bear no comparison to them; but the interior satisfaction, which is enjoyed there, is such that no prosperity nor contentment upon Earth can equal it.
“The souls are in a continual union with God. They are perfectly resigned to His will, or rather their will is so transformed into that of God, that they cannot will but what God wills; so that if Paradise were to be opened to them, they would throw themselves into Hell, rather than appear before God with the stains with which they see themselves disfigured. They purify themselves willingly and lovingly, because such is the Divine good pleasure. They wish to be there in the state wherein God pleases, and as long as it shall please Him. They cannot sin, nor can they experience the least movement of impatience, nor commit the slightest imperfection. They love God more than they love themselves, and more than all things else; they love Him with a perfect, pure, and disinterested love. They are consoled by angels. They are assured of their eternal salvation, and filled with a hope that can never be disappointed in its expectations. Their bitterest anguish is soothed by a certain profound peace. It is a species of Hell as regards the suffering; it is a Paradise as regards the delight infused into their hearts by charity—Charity, stronger than death and more powerful than Hell ; Charity, whose lamps are all fire and flame. Happy state! More desirable than appalling, since its flames are flames of love and charity.” (The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales, chapter 9).
No Room for the “Sweet-Tooth”
Yet, we must not fall into our “sweet-tooth” tendency and suddenly extract and abstract all pains from Purgatory—just as God is extremely just while being extremely merciful, so too are the Poor Souls in extreme pain while being extremely happy. Such are the teachings of the Saints and the Doctors of Church, from which it follows that, if the pains of Purgatory are rigorous, they are not without consolation. When imposing His cross upon us in this life, God pours upon it the sweetness of His grace, and in purifying the souls in Purgatory like gold in the crucible, He soothes their flames by ineffable consolations.
Our God is an Extreme God
We must not lose sight of this consoling element, this bright side of the often gloomy picture which we are going to examine. This, as you can see, is the balance between the Justice and Mercy of God—Whose wisdom can do no wrong, nor can He deceive or be deceived. We must remember that God is extreme—for He is infinitely perfect, and perfection implies an extreme, for someone who is perfect is extremely good. Therefore, all the attributes of God are perfect to the extreme—wherefore, He has to be extreme in His justice while at the same time being extreme in His mercy. Our puny minds cannot reconcile what seem like two opposites—justice and mercy—but that is just like our incapacity to grasp the notion of eternity.
Let us also not deceive ourselves on the probable punishment due to our sins—whether here on Earth (if we are wise to accept it) or in Purgatory (if we are foolish enough to refuse paying while in Earth). It is because we have such a low estimation of what Heaven is and what it costs, which is compounded with our trivialization of sin, whereby we think it is insignificant in some cases—forgetting that our Faith teaches us that both Mortal Sin and Venial Sin are the two greatest evils in the world! “Sin is the only evil upon Earth … Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … Venial sin is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, by Spirago-Clarke; also the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, by Bishop Morrow, STD).
Pay Now, Not Later
As Fr. Schouppe writes, in Purgatory Explained: “God is sanctity itself, much more so than the sun is light, and no shadow of sin can endure before His face. ‘Thine eyes are pure’, says the prophet, ‘and Thou canst not look on iniquity!’ (Habacuc 1:13). When iniquity manifests itself in creatures, the sanctity of God exacts expiation, and when this expiation is made in all the rigor of justice, it is terrible.
“It is for this reason that the Scripture says again, ‘Holy and terrible is His Name’ (Psalm 110:9); as though it would say, His justice is terrible because His sanctity is infinite. The justice of God is terrible, and it punishes with extreme rigor even the most trivial faults. The reason is that these faults, light in our eyes, are in no way light before God. The least sin displeases Him infinitely, and, on account of the infinite sanctity which is offended, the demands enormous atonement. This explains the terrible severity of the pains of the other life, and should penetrate us with a holy fear.
“This fear of Purgatory is a salutary fear; its effect is, not only to animate us with a charitable compassion towards the poor suffering souls, but also with a vigilant zeal for our own spiritual welfare. Think of the fire of Purgatory, and you will endeavor to avoid the least faults; think of the fire of Purgatory, and you will practice penance, that you may satisfy Divine Justice in this world rather than in the next” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Why Burn in Purgatory if You Can Burn for Less Now?
What’s the point of paying for something with ‘big-bucks’ when you pay for it for mere cents on a dollar? Sure it’s discouraging to read about Purgatory—but there would be no worry about Purgatory if we would only do what we should be doing here below! Why burn in Purgatory when you can burn at a lower temperature and for a shorter time here below? What are we talking about? Well, the prayer that most of us probably say every day—or at least most days—gives us the answer:”Come O Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love!” Love is the word—love is a fire. Our Lord Himself showed us this imagery and reality in His apparition to St. Margaret Mary.
Mercy Depends on Love
Love is the pinnacle of all virtues—“the greatest of these is Charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13)—and as such it deserves to be honored above all the others. Therefore, in Our Lord, we honor and adore His Sacred Heart which is the seat of His love for mankind. Mercy is a property or a child of love. St. Thomas Aquinas deals of Mercy under his section on Charity. As Psalm 144 says: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). The Sacred Heart is all about those two pinnacles within God—His Love and His Mercy.
Our Lord Himself indicated this in His apparitions to St. Margaret Mary, especially in the fourth, called the “Great Apparition”. To what did He draw attention in the first place? To the Heart that beats in His breast and to the flames of love that surrounded that Heart. St. Margaret Mary says: “Discovering to me His Heart, He said to me: ‘Behold this Heart ...’” And what did He declare concerning this Heart? That It ineffably loves us and is sensible to the manner in which men repay Its love: “Behold this Heart which has so loved men. ... And in return I receive from the greater part of them nothing but ingratitude!”
What would the reward if men would only love the Heart that loved them? The reward would be mercy! As Jesus said of St. Mary Magdalen: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47). Holy Scripture further cements this: “Charity covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).
The burning fire of charity can replace the burning fires of Purgatory in paying for our sins! If we loved God as we ought to love God, then we would automatically sin less and pay more. Our Lord said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength! This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31). An increased love of God would drive away our fear of Purgatory: “Perfect charity casts out fear―because fear has pain. And he that fears is not perfected in charity!” (1 John 4:18).
Article 8
Saturday November 8th
Your Prices are not My Prices! My Values are not Your Values!
Saturday November 8th
Your Prices are not My Prices! My Values are not Your Values!
The Price of Sin: Heaven’s estimation and our estimation
As God tells us through His prophet Isaias: “My thoughts are not your thoughts; nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9). We could well transpose and paraphrase that into: “My idea of the gravity of sin is not your idea of the gravity of sin; nor is your estimation of the price of sin the same as My estimation of the price of sin, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so is My idea of its gravity exalted above your idea of its gravity, and My price for sin above your price for sin.”
Sin has to be extremely grave and pricey—even Venial Sin. This is seen from Divine Public Revelation in the form of Holy Scripture, and is seconded by what we know through Divine Private Revelation over the course of the centuries—which has been given by God to various saints and mystics.
The Price According to Scripture
In the very beginning of Holy Scripture, in the book of Genesis, we see God place a grave consequence on sin, when He tells Adam what will happen if Adam disobeys Him and eats of the ‘forbidden fruit’: “For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death!” (Genesis 2:17). “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Sin was (and is) so grave, that each man would go to his grave because of the one single of Adam. St. Paul writes: “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).
Furthermore, God made an eternal, never-ending Hell the punishment for even one single, short-lived, temporary, brief, unconfessed and unrepented Mortal Sin—that is terrifyingly striking and underlines the gravity of sin. Our Lord tells us that perhaps most souls are lost and sent to this awful place: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’ … ‘Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!’” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14). Many lost for ETERNITY! Burning in Hell for ETERNITY! Why? Because of sin!
The Price According to the Catechism
It is not for nothing that the Catechism calls sin the greatest evil in the world!”Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, and a greater evil than disease, or war ... Mortal Sin must be a most terrible thing indeed, to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the eternal punishment of sinners who die with even only one Mortal Sin” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 22, “Mortal Sin”).
As for Venial Sin, the same catechism says: “Although Venial Sin is not a grievous offense against God, it is, nevertheless, a great moral evil, next alone to Mortal Sin. We are prone to look upon Venial Sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that IT IS SECOND ONLY IN EVIL CONSEQUENCE TO MORTAL SIN. In Holy Scripture we see, from many examples, how God regards Venial Sin. Even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished. He was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land [and died at its borders]” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 23, “Venial Sin”).
The Price According to the Private Revelations of Our Lady
“You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go ... Many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them” (Our Lady of Fatima). Speaking of our times, she says that “There will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost” (Our Lady of Good Success). “Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls” (Our Lady of La Salette).
In our folly, we ignore the only antidote to the gravity, poison and consequence of sin: “See and contemplate the grandeur of this restoring and life-giving Sacrament of Penance, so forgotten and even scorned by ungrateful men, who in their foolish madness, do not realize that it is the only sure means of salvation after one has lost his baptismal innocence. What is most grievous is that even the ministers of My Most Holy Son do not give to it the value that they should, viewing with cold indifference this valuable and precious treasure, which has been placed in their hands for the restoration of souls redeemed by the Blood of the Redeemer. There are those who consider hearing confession as a loss of time and a futile thing” (Our Lady of Good Success).
Purgatory is Pretty Pricey Too!
We might think that Hell is expensive destination for an eternal vacation, but Purgatory, even though it offers shorter stays, is very pricey too! When we think of what we call dismissively--“Oh, it’s only a Venial Sin! I won’t go to Hell for that!”—we forget that Purgatory, in some respects, is like Hell, though not permanent! That’s a pretty pricey price to pay for a paltry ‘little’ sin—though that is only our estimation of sin, not God’s.
Expensive Trivia
In the book, The Life of St. Louis Bertrand, of the Order of St. Dominic, written Fr. Antist, a Religious of the same Order, and who personally lived with the saint, we read that in the year 1557, whilst St. Louis Bertrand resided at the convent of Valentia, a plague broke out in that city. The terrible plague spread rapidly, threatening to wipe out its inhabitants, and each one feared for his life. A Religious of the community, wishing to prepare himself fervently for death, made a general confession of his whole life to the saint; and on leaving him said, “Father, if it should now please God to call me, I shall return and make known to you my condition in the other life.”
He died a short time afterwards, and the following night he appeared to the saint. He told him that he was detained in Purgatory on account of a few slight faults which remained to be expiated, and begged the saint to recommend him to the community. St. Louis communicated the request immediately to the Prior, who hastened to recommend the soul of the departed to the prayers and Holy Sacrifices of the brethren assembled in chapter. Six days later, a man of the town, who knew nothing of what had passed at the convent, came to make his confession to Father Louis, and told him “that the soul of Father Clement had appeared to him. He saw, he said, the Earth open, and the soul of the deceased Father come forth all glorious; it resembled, he added, a resplendent star, which rose through the air towards Heaven.”
Working-Out the Price of Purgatory
According to the common opinion of the doctors, the expiatory pains are of long duration. “There is no doubt,” says St. Robert Bellarmine (De Gemitu, lib. 2, c. 9), “that the pains of Purgatory are not limited to ten or twenty years, and that they last in some cases entire centuries. But allowing it to be true that their duration did not exceed ten or twenty years, can we account it as nothing to have to endure for ten or twenty years the most excruciating sufferings without the least alleviation? If a man was assured that he should suffer some violent pain in his feet, or his head, or teeth for the space of twenty years, and that without ever sleeping or taking the least repose, would he not a thousand times rather die than live in such a state? And if the choice were given to him between a life thus miserable and the loss of all his temporal goods, would he hesitate to make the sacrifice of his fortune to be delivered from such a torment? Shall we then find any difficulty in embracing labor and penance to free ourselves from the sufferings of Purgatory? Shall we fear to practice the most painful exercises: vigils, fasts, almsgiving, long prayers, and especially contrition, accompanied with sighs and tears?” (St. Robert Bellarmine). These words comprise the whole doctrine of the saints and theologians.
The Math of Sin
Father Mumford, of the Company of Jesus, in his “Treatise on Charity towards the Departed,” bases the long duration of Purgatory on a calculation of probability, which we shall give in substance. He goes out on the principle that, according to the words of the Holy Ghost, “The just man falls seven times a day” (Proverbs 24:16), that is to say, that even those who apply themselves most perfectly to the service of God, notwithstanding their good-will, commit a great number of faults in the infinitely pure eyes of God.
We have but to enter into our own conscience, and there analyze before God our thoughts, our words, and works, to be convinced of this sad effect of human misery—we might even be capable of committing sin “seven times a minute” on a bad day, never mind “seven times a day”. Oh, how easy it is to lack respect in prayer, to prefer our ease to the accomplishment of duty, to sin by vanity, by impatience, by sensuality, by uncharitable thoughts and words, by want of conformity to the will of God! The day is long; is it very difficult for even a virtuous person to commit, I do not say seven, but twenty or thirty of this kind of faults and imperfections?
Let us take a moderate estimate, and suppose that you commit about ten faults a day; at the end of 365 days you will have a sum of 3650 faults. Let us diminish, and, to facilitate the calculation, place it at 3000 per year. At the end of ten years this will amount to 30,000, and at the end of twenty years to 60,000. Suppose that of these 60,000 faults you have expiated one half by penance and good works, there will still remain 30,000 to be atoned for.
Let us continue our hypothesis: You die after these twenty years of virtuous life, and appear before God with a debt of 30,000 faults, which you must discharge in Purgatory. How much time will you need to accomplish this expiation? Suppose, on an average, each fault requires one hour of Purgatory. This measure is very moderate, if we judge by the revelations of the saints; but at any rate this will give you a Purgatory of 30,000 hours. Now, do you know how many years these 30,000 hours represent? Three years, three months, and fifteen days. Thus a good Christian who watches over himself, who applies himself to penance and good works, finds himself liable to three years, three months, and fifteen days of Purgatory.
A Low-End Estimate Only
The preceding calculation is based on an estimate which is lenient in the extreme. Now, if you extend the duration of the pain, and, instead of an hour, you take a day for the expiation of a fault, if, instead of having nothing but venial sins, you bring before God a debt resulting from mortal sins, more or less numerous, which you formerly committed, if you assign, on the average, as St. Frances of Rome says, seven years for the expiation of one mortal sin, remitted as to the guilt, who does not see that we arrive at an appalling duration, and that the expiation may easily be prolonged for many years, and even for centuries?
Years and centuries in torments! O if we only thought of it, with what care should we not avoid the least faults! With what fervor should we not practice penance to make satisfaction in this world!
First Class, Business Class and Coach
Our flight to Heaven, on the plane of Purgatory, has three classes of seats: First Class, Business Class and Coach. It has pleased God to show, in spirit, the gloomy abodes of Purgatory to some privileged souls, who were then told to reveal these sorrowful mysteries for the benefit of faithful. One of this number was St. Frances of Rome, foundress of the Oblates, who died in Rome in 1440. God favored her with great lights concerning the state of souls in the other life. She saw Hell and its horrible torments; she saw also the interior of Purgatory, and the mysterious order or hierarchy that exists there.
Purgatory, she said, is divided into three distinct parts, which are like three large provinces of that kingdom of suffering. They are situated the one beneath the other, and occupied by souls of different orders. These souls are buried more deeply in proportion as they are more defiled and farther removed from the time of their deliverance.
The lowest region is filled with a fierce fire, but which is not dark like that of Hell; it is a vast burning sea, throwing forth immense flames. Innumerable souls are plunged into its depths: they are those who have rendered themselves guilty of mortal sin, which they have duly confessed, but have not sufficiently expiated during life. The servant of God then learned that, for all forgiven mortal sin, there remains to be undergone a suffering of seven years. This term cannot evidently be taken to mean a definite measure, since mortal sins differ in enormity, but as an average penalty. Although the souls are enveloped in the same flames, their sufferings are not the same; they differ according to the number and nature of their former sins.
In this lower Purgatory the saint beheld clergy and the religious consecrated to God. The clergy were those who, after a life of sin, had had the happiness of being sincerely converted; the religious, consecrated to God, were those who had not lived according to the sanctity of their state. At that same moment she saw descend the soul of a priest whom she knew, but whose name she does not reveal. She remarked that he had his face covered with a veil which concealed a stain. Although he had led an edifying life, this priest had not always observed strict temperance, and had sought too eagerly the satisfactions of the table.
The saint was then conducted into the intermediate Purgatory, destined for souls which had deserved less rigorous chastisement. It had three distinct compartments; one resembled an immense dungeon of ice, the cold of which was indescribably intense; the second, on the contrary, was like a huge caldron of boiling oil and pitch; the third had the appearance of a pond of liquid metal resembling molten gold or silver.
The upper Purgatory, which the saint does not describe, is the temporary abode of souls which suffer little, except the pain of loss, and approach the happy moment of their deliverance.
This, in essence, was the vision of St. Frances saw of Purgatory.
The Supermarket of Sin is Expensive
So, hopefully, we have a more objective and realistic idea of the price of sin—rather than the one the devil would like us to have, in order to order more items from his Supermarket of Sin. More objective than our own wishful fancies, based upon an exaggeration of the mercy of God, which has removed all notions of His justice. Our ideas have to be clear and true, otherwise our actions will not be correct and virtuous.
Of course, the devil will step-in with his trump card of discouragement—which does the opposite of what we mentioned above, and focuses solely on God’s justice with not the slightest mention or hope of mercy. This is equally false as focusing on His mercy without any thought to His justice. The first thing we have to get straight in our minds is the gravity of sin, and awfulness of offending God. Unless we do that, we will never change and will be lucky to eventually scrape into Purgatory!
As Holy Scripture says: “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow―and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18)—but at what price?
As God tells us through His prophet Isaias: “My thoughts are not your thoughts; nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9). We could well transpose and paraphrase that into: “My idea of the gravity of sin is not your idea of the gravity of sin; nor is your estimation of the price of sin the same as My estimation of the price of sin, says the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so is My idea of its gravity exalted above your idea of its gravity, and My price for sin above your price for sin.”
Sin has to be extremely grave and pricey—even Venial Sin. This is seen from Divine Public Revelation in the form of Holy Scripture, and is seconded by what we know through Divine Private Revelation over the course of the centuries—which has been given by God to various saints and mystics.
The Price According to Scripture
In the very beginning of Holy Scripture, in the book of Genesis, we see God place a grave consequence on sin, when He tells Adam what will happen if Adam disobeys Him and eats of the ‘forbidden fruit’: “For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death!” (Genesis 2:17). “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Sin was (and is) so grave, that each man would go to his grave because of the one single of Adam. St. Paul writes: “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).
Furthermore, God made an eternal, never-ending Hell the punishment for even one single, short-lived, temporary, brief, unconfessed and unrepented Mortal Sin—that is terrifyingly striking and underlines the gravity of sin. Our Lord tells us that perhaps most souls are lost and sent to this awful place: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’ … ‘Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!’” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14). Many lost for ETERNITY! Burning in Hell for ETERNITY! Why? Because of sin!
The Price According to the Catechism
It is not for nothing that the Catechism calls sin the greatest evil in the world!”Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, and a greater evil than disease, or war ... Mortal Sin must be a most terrible thing indeed, to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the eternal punishment of sinners who die with even only one Mortal Sin” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 22, “Mortal Sin”).
As for Venial Sin, the same catechism says: “Although Venial Sin is not a grievous offense against God, it is, nevertheless, a great moral evil, next alone to Mortal Sin. We are prone to look upon Venial Sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that IT IS SECOND ONLY IN EVIL CONSEQUENCE TO MORTAL SIN. In Holy Scripture we see, from many examples, how God regards Venial Sin. Even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished. He was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land [and died at its borders]” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 23, “Venial Sin”).
The Price According to the Private Revelations of Our Lady
“You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go ... Many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them” (Our Lady of Fatima). Speaking of our times, she says that “There will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost” (Our Lady of Good Success). “Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls” (Our Lady of La Salette).
In our folly, we ignore the only antidote to the gravity, poison and consequence of sin: “See and contemplate the grandeur of this restoring and life-giving Sacrament of Penance, so forgotten and even scorned by ungrateful men, who in their foolish madness, do not realize that it is the only sure means of salvation after one has lost his baptismal innocence. What is most grievous is that even the ministers of My Most Holy Son do not give to it the value that they should, viewing with cold indifference this valuable and precious treasure, which has been placed in their hands for the restoration of souls redeemed by the Blood of the Redeemer. There are those who consider hearing confession as a loss of time and a futile thing” (Our Lady of Good Success).
Purgatory is Pretty Pricey Too!
We might think that Hell is expensive destination for an eternal vacation, but Purgatory, even though it offers shorter stays, is very pricey too! When we think of what we call dismissively--“Oh, it’s only a Venial Sin! I won’t go to Hell for that!”—we forget that Purgatory, in some respects, is like Hell, though not permanent! That’s a pretty pricey price to pay for a paltry ‘little’ sin—though that is only our estimation of sin, not God’s.
Expensive Trivia
In the book, The Life of St. Louis Bertrand, of the Order of St. Dominic, written Fr. Antist, a Religious of the same Order, and who personally lived with the saint, we read that in the year 1557, whilst St. Louis Bertrand resided at the convent of Valentia, a plague broke out in that city. The terrible plague spread rapidly, threatening to wipe out its inhabitants, and each one feared for his life. A Religious of the community, wishing to prepare himself fervently for death, made a general confession of his whole life to the saint; and on leaving him said, “Father, if it should now please God to call me, I shall return and make known to you my condition in the other life.”
He died a short time afterwards, and the following night he appeared to the saint. He told him that he was detained in Purgatory on account of a few slight faults which remained to be expiated, and begged the saint to recommend him to the community. St. Louis communicated the request immediately to the Prior, who hastened to recommend the soul of the departed to the prayers and Holy Sacrifices of the brethren assembled in chapter. Six days later, a man of the town, who knew nothing of what had passed at the convent, came to make his confession to Father Louis, and told him “that the soul of Father Clement had appeared to him. He saw, he said, the Earth open, and the soul of the deceased Father come forth all glorious; it resembled, he added, a resplendent star, which rose through the air towards Heaven.”
Working-Out the Price of Purgatory
According to the common opinion of the doctors, the expiatory pains are of long duration. “There is no doubt,” says St. Robert Bellarmine (De Gemitu, lib. 2, c. 9), “that the pains of Purgatory are not limited to ten or twenty years, and that they last in some cases entire centuries. But allowing it to be true that their duration did not exceed ten or twenty years, can we account it as nothing to have to endure for ten or twenty years the most excruciating sufferings without the least alleviation? If a man was assured that he should suffer some violent pain in his feet, or his head, or teeth for the space of twenty years, and that without ever sleeping or taking the least repose, would he not a thousand times rather die than live in such a state? And if the choice were given to him between a life thus miserable and the loss of all his temporal goods, would he hesitate to make the sacrifice of his fortune to be delivered from such a torment? Shall we then find any difficulty in embracing labor and penance to free ourselves from the sufferings of Purgatory? Shall we fear to practice the most painful exercises: vigils, fasts, almsgiving, long prayers, and especially contrition, accompanied with sighs and tears?” (St. Robert Bellarmine). These words comprise the whole doctrine of the saints and theologians.
The Math of Sin
Father Mumford, of the Company of Jesus, in his “Treatise on Charity towards the Departed,” bases the long duration of Purgatory on a calculation of probability, which we shall give in substance. He goes out on the principle that, according to the words of the Holy Ghost, “The just man falls seven times a day” (Proverbs 24:16), that is to say, that even those who apply themselves most perfectly to the service of God, notwithstanding their good-will, commit a great number of faults in the infinitely pure eyes of God.
We have but to enter into our own conscience, and there analyze before God our thoughts, our words, and works, to be convinced of this sad effect of human misery—we might even be capable of committing sin “seven times a minute” on a bad day, never mind “seven times a day”. Oh, how easy it is to lack respect in prayer, to prefer our ease to the accomplishment of duty, to sin by vanity, by impatience, by sensuality, by uncharitable thoughts and words, by want of conformity to the will of God! The day is long; is it very difficult for even a virtuous person to commit, I do not say seven, but twenty or thirty of this kind of faults and imperfections?
Let us take a moderate estimate, and suppose that you commit about ten faults a day; at the end of 365 days you will have a sum of 3650 faults. Let us diminish, and, to facilitate the calculation, place it at 3000 per year. At the end of ten years this will amount to 30,000, and at the end of twenty years to 60,000. Suppose that of these 60,000 faults you have expiated one half by penance and good works, there will still remain 30,000 to be atoned for.
Let us continue our hypothesis: You die after these twenty years of virtuous life, and appear before God with a debt of 30,000 faults, which you must discharge in Purgatory. How much time will you need to accomplish this expiation? Suppose, on an average, each fault requires one hour of Purgatory. This measure is very moderate, if we judge by the revelations of the saints; but at any rate this will give you a Purgatory of 30,000 hours. Now, do you know how many years these 30,000 hours represent? Three years, three months, and fifteen days. Thus a good Christian who watches over himself, who applies himself to penance and good works, finds himself liable to three years, three months, and fifteen days of Purgatory.
A Low-End Estimate Only
The preceding calculation is based on an estimate which is lenient in the extreme. Now, if you extend the duration of the pain, and, instead of an hour, you take a day for the expiation of a fault, if, instead of having nothing but venial sins, you bring before God a debt resulting from mortal sins, more or less numerous, which you formerly committed, if you assign, on the average, as St. Frances of Rome says, seven years for the expiation of one mortal sin, remitted as to the guilt, who does not see that we arrive at an appalling duration, and that the expiation may easily be prolonged for many years, and even for centuries?
Years and centuries in torments! O if we only thought of it, with what care should we not avoid the least faults! With what fervor should we not practice penance to make satisfaction in this world!
First Class, Business Class and Coach
Our flight to Heaven, on the plane of Purgatory, has three classes of seats: First Class, Business Class and Coach. It has pleased God to show, in spirit, the gloomy abodes of Purgatory to some privileged souls, who were then told to reveal these sorrowful mysteries for the benefit of faithful. One of this number was St. Frances of Rome, foundress of the Oblates, who died in Rome in 1440. God favored her with great lights concerning the state of souls in the other life. She saw Hell and its horrible torments; she saw also the interior of Purgatory, and the mysterious order or hierarchy that exists there.
Purgatory, she said, is divided into three distinct parts, which are like three large provinces of that kingdom of suffering. They are situated the one beneath the other, and occupied by souls of different orders. These souls are buried more deeply in proportion as they are more defiled and farther removed from the time of their deliverance.
The lowest region is filled with a fierce fire, but which is not dark like that of Hell; it is a vast burning sea, throwing forth immense flames. Innumerable souls are plunged into its depths: they are those who have rendered themselves guilty of mortal sin, which they have duly confessed, but have not sufficiently expiated during life. The servant of God then learned that, for all forgiven mortal sin, there remains to be undergone a suffering of seven years. This term cannot evidently be taken to mean a definite measure, since mortal sins differ in enormity, but as an average penalty. Although the souls are enveloped in the same flames, their sufferings are not the same; they differ according to the number and nature of their former sins.
In this lower Purgatory the saint beheld clergy and the religious consecrated to God. The clergy were those who, after a life of sin, had had the happiness of being sincerely converted; the religious, consecrated to God, were those who had not lived according to the sanctity of their state. At that same moment she saw descend the soul of a priest whom she knew, but whose name she does not reveal. She remarked that he had his face covered with a veil which concealed a stain. Although he had led an edifying life, this priest had not always observed strict temperance, and had sought too eagerly the satisfactions of the table.
The saint was then conducted into the intermediate Purgatory, destined for souls which had deserved less rigorous chastisement. It had three distinct compartments; one resembled an immense dungeon of ice, the cold of which was indescribably intense; the second, on the contrary, was like a huge caldron of boiling oil and pitch; the third had the appearance of a pond of liquid metal resembling molten gold or silver.
The upper Purgatory, which the saint does not describe, is the temporary abode of souls which suffer little, except the pain of loss, and approach the happy moment of their deliverance.
This, in essence, was the vision of St. Frances saw of Purgatory.
The Supermarket of Sin is Expensive
So, hopefully, we have a more objective and realistic idea of the price of sin—rather than the one the devil would like us to have, in order to order more items from his Supermarket of Sin. More objective than our own wishful fancies, based upon an exaggeration of the mercy of God, which has removed all notions of His justice. Our ideas have to be clear and true, otherwise our actions will not be correct and virtuous.
Of course, the devil will step-in with his trump card of discouragement—which does the opposite of what we mentioned above, and focuses solely on God’s justice with not the slightest mention or hope of mercy. This is equally false as focusing on His mercy without any thought to His justice. The first thing we have to get straight in our minds is the gravity of sin, and awfulness of offending God. Unless we do that, we will never change and will be lucky to eventually scrape into Purgatory!
As Holy Scripture says: “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow―and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18)—but at what price?
Article 7
Friday November 7th
Budgeting for Heaven and Avoiding Purgatory!
Friday November 7th
Budgeting for Heaven and Avoiding Purgatory!
Two Views of Purgatory
There have always been two views of Purgatory prevailing in the Church, not contradictory, the one of the other, but rather expressive of the mind and devotion of those who have embraced them. Yet the error lies in embracing either one of them, while neglecting to embrace both of them simultaneously. They are like two sides of a coin that have different images on each side—yet they are both an essential part of the coin, though standing on opposite sides.
The Grim View
The first view represents Purgatory as a Hell which is not eternal. Violence, confusion, wailing, horror, preside over its descriptions. It dwells, and truly so, on the terribleness of the pain of sense, which the soul is mysteriously permitted to endure. The fire is the same fire as that of Hell, our earthly fire is said to be like a mere painted fire compared to it. The sense of imprisonment and intense darkness, are additional features in the horror of the scene, which prepare us for that sensible neighborhood to Hell, which many Saints have spoken of as belonging to Purgatory. Then to this terribleness of the pain of sense, is added the dreadfulness of the pain of loss—which again is true, though it is not a permanent loss.
The beauty of God remains, in itself, the same immensely desirable object that it always was. But the soul is changed. All that in life, and in the world of sense, once distracted and dulled its desires for God, is now gone from it—it sees the truth of things like it never so them before, it understands like it never understood before—so that it now seeks God with an impetuosity and a frenzy that no imagination can possibly conceive. God is that light at the end of long, dark, excruciatingly hot tunnel, and that light grows brighter as the soul draws nearer. The very burning excess of its love and desire for God (which it should have had on Earth) becomes the measure of its intolerable pain. What love can do, even on Earth, we learn from the example of Father John Baptist Sanchez, who said that, if any morning he awoke and realized that would not die that day, then he would be a miserable as death at having to live her another day. To those horrors we might add many more which depict Purgatory simply as a Hell which is not eternal. Now all these aspects of Purgatory are true, but they are merely one side of a two-sided coin.
The Joyous View
The second view of Purgatory does not deny any one of the features of the preceding grim view, but it almost puts them out of sight, by the other considerations which it brings more prominently forward. In this view, the soul goes into Purgatory with its eyes fascinated and its spirit sweetly tranquillized, by the face of Jesus, which it glimpsed at the particular Judgment which it has undergone. That remembrance of that Holy Face remains with it, and pacify and tranquillize the terrors of its Purgatorial prison. In the sea of fire, into which it is plunged, it holds fast to that image. The moment that the soul saw that its own unfitness for Heaven, it wings its voluntary flight to Purgatory, like a dove to her proper nest in the shadows of the forest. No prison guards, no angels are needed to escort the soul to its prison. The soul’s understanding of the purity of God suffices.
Seriousness of Sin Sorrowfully Seen
In that moment of Judgment after death, the soul loves God most tenderly, and in return is most tenderly loved by Him. The soul is in punishment, true; but it is in unbroken union with God. St. Catherine of Genoa most positively says, “It has no remembrance, no remembrance at all of its past sins, or of Earth.” Its sweet prison, its holy sepulcher, is in the adorable will of its Heavenly Father, and there it abides the term of its purification with the most perfect contentment and the most unutterable love—yet all the while suffering the most inexpressible pains.
God is All About Extremes
If God is to be perfect, He must be extreme, for perfection implies being extremely good at something. God is extreme in His mercy and extreme in His justice—and the soul reflects this with its extreme love under extreme suffering. As it is not teased or taunted by any vision of self or sin, so neither is it harassed by an atom of fear, or by a single doubt of its own safety or security. It is now in a state of sinlessness—it cannot and will not ever sin again. It cannot even commit the slightest imperfection. It cannot have the least movement of impatience. It can do nothing whatever which will in the least displease God. It loves God above everything, and it loves Him with a pure and disinterested love. It is constantly consoled by angels, and can only rejoice in the confirmed assurance of its own salvation.
Heaven Extremely Expensive
The soul now realizes what it refused or failed to realize on Earth—that Heaven is not the cheap thing that most people made it out to be, thinking they could walk in after a few hastily said prayers and some distractedly heard Masses. Heaven, being the greatest place there is, also carries the greatest admission price—a price few were willing to pay on Earth. Nor could they pay it, even if the wishfully desired to, for they had insufficient funds in the bank of their souls. Now they must earn and pay the full price—which could have been paid at a discounted rate here on Earth, but it was judged, even then, as being far too high a price to pay! The world offered its wares and pleasures and a much cheaper rate, and so that is what most souls spent the time and effort on—the world.
Extremely Bitter-Sweet
Even the most bitter and excruciating agonies that it suffers, are accompanied by a profound unshaken peace, such as the language of this world has no words to tell. It has reached a pinnacle of suffering and a pinnacle of virtue—although now, it will no longer receive any reward for virtuously suffering, as it could have done on Earth. It is forced to do what it should have done on Earth—it is the most painful, yet most successful remedial school there is, having a 100% graduation record with a grade of 100%--for only saints can get into Heaven, and sanctity is total perfection; partial perfection is fodder for Purgatory.
No sooner has a soul, with the guilt of no mortal sin upon it, but owing to God a debt of temporal punishment, issued from the world, and been judged, than it sees itself eternally confirmed in grace and charity (according to St. Catherine of Genoa). It is incapable either of sinning or of meriting anymore; and it is destined, by an eternal and immutable decree, to enter one day as a king or a queen into the kingdom of the blessed, to see, to love, and to enjoy God, the perpetual fountain of all happiness.
Finally the Soul Detests Sin like it Should
In that instant of judgment, all the sins of its past are represented to the soul, whether mortal or venial, even though they have been already forgiven here below by contrition and the Sacrament of Penance. But after this temporary and instantaneous view of them, the soul remembers nothing more about them. St. Catherine’s words are: “The cause of Purgatory, which these souls have in themselves, they see once and for all, in passing out of this life, and never afterwards.” The reason of this exhibition of sins is, she teaches us, to enable the soul in that moment, by an act, no longer indeed meritorious, but nevertheless a real act of the will, to detest all its sins afresh, and especially those venial sins for which it had not contrition during life, either through the weakness of an imperfect heart, or through the accident of a sudden death, that so it may be strictly true, that no sin whatever is pardoned, unless the sinner makes an act of detestation of each and every sin.
Burning-Off the Rust of Sin
After this momentary view of sins and formal detestation of them, the soul sees in itself their evil consequences and these form, what the St. Catherine calls “the impediment of seeing God … The rust of sin is the impediment, and the fire keeps consuming the rust; and, as a thing which is covered cannot correspond to the reverberation of the sun’s rays, so, if the covering be consumed, the thing is at length laid open to the sun.
Burning Inside and Outside
As soon as the soul perceives itself to be acceptable to God, and constituted heir of paradise, but unable, because of this impediment, to take immediate possession of its inheritance, it conceives an intense desire to be rid of this hindrance, this double obligation of guilt and punishment. But knowing that Purgatory alone can consume these two obligations, and that it is for that very end God condemns the soul to fire, it desires itself to endure the punishment. St. Catherin of Genoa says that, “The soul separated from the body, not finding in itself this impediment which cannot be taken away except by Purgatory, at once throws itself into it with right good will. The souls in Purgatory have wills conformed in all things with the will of God, who therefore sheds on them His goodness, and they, as far as their will goes, are happy and cleansed of all their sin. As for guilt, these cleansed souls are as they were when God created them, for God forgives their guilt immediately who have passed from this life ill content with their sins, having confessed all they have committed and having the will to commit no more. Only the rust of sin is left them and from this they cleanse themselves by pain in the fire.”
If the soul did not find this punishment and purgation of Purgatory, to help the soul remove the rust of sin, there would instantaneously be generated in the soul a Hell far worse than Purgatory, because it would see that with this impediment of the stain of sin with its unpaid debt, it could not unite itself to God Who is its end. Wherefore, if the soul could somewhere find another Purgatory fiercer than this, in which it could the sooner get rid of this impediment, it would quickly plunge itself therein, through the impetuosity of the love it bears to God.
A Thousand Hells if Necessary
But this is not all. St. Catherine of Genoa goes on to teach that if the soul, laboring under this impediment, were free to choose between immediately ascending to paradise, and descending to suffer in Purgatory, it would choose to suffer, although the sufferings be almost as dreadful as those of Hell. These are her words: “Of how much importance Purgatory is no tongue can tell, no mind conceive. So much I see, that its pain is almost as if it were that of Hell; and yet I see also that the soul which perceives in itself the slightest flaw or mote of imperfection, would rather throw itself into a thousand Hells, than find itself in the presence of the divine Majesty with that defect upon it; and, therefore, seeing Purgatory to be ordained for the very taking away of these flaws, forthwith it plunges into it, and it seems by its bearing, as I see, to conceive that it finds there an invention of no little mercy, simply in the being able to get rid of this impediment.”
Too Late Have I Loved Thee!
When the righteous soul has thus arrived in Purgatory, losing sight of everything else, it sees before it only two objects—the extremity of suffering, and the extremity of joys. A most tremendous pain is caused by knowing that God loves it with an infinite love, that He is the Chief Good, that He regards the soul as His daughter, and that He has predestined it to enjoy Him forever in company with the Blessed: and hence the soul loves Him with a pure and most perfect charity. At the same time it perceives that it cannot see Him or enjoy Him yet, though it so intensely yearns to do so ; and this afflicts it so much the more, as it is quite uncertain when the term of its penal exile, away from its Lord and paradise, will be fulfilled. This is the pain of loss in Purgatory, of which the St. Catherine of Genoa says that it is “a pain so extreme, that no tongue can tell it, no understanding grasp the least portion of it. Though God in His favor showed me a little spark thereof, yet can I not in any way express it with my tongue.”
Finally the Soul Finds Joy in Suffering
Now let us examine the other object, the extremity of joy. As it loves God with the purest affection, and knows its sufferings to be the will of God in order to procure its purification, it conforms itself perfectly to the divine decree. While in Purgatory, it sees nothing but that this pleases God; it takes in no idea but that of His will; it apprehends nothing so clearly as the suitableness of this purification, in order to present it all fair and lovely to so great a majesty. Thus, St. Catherine of Genoa says: “If a soul, having still something left to be cleansed away, were presented to the Vision of God, it would be worse than that of ten purgatories; for it would be quite unable to endure that excessive goodness and that exquisite justice.” Hence it is that the suffering soul is entirely resigned to the will of its Creator. It loves its very pains, and rejoices in them because they are a holy ordinance of God. Thus in the midst of the ardent heats it enjoys a contentment so complete that it exceeds the grasp of human intelligence to comprehend it. “I do not believe,” says St. Catherine of Genoa, “that it is possible to find a contentment to compare with that of the souls in Purgatory, unless it be the contentment of the Saints in paradise. This contentment increases daily through the influx of God into those souls, and this influx increases in proportion as the impediment is consumed and worn away. Indeed, so far as the will is concerned, we can hardly say that the pains are pains at all, so contentedly do the souls rest in the ordinance of God, to whose will pure love unites them.”
Holily Wholly Indifferent
In another place, St. Catherine says that this inexplicable joy of the soul, while it is undergoing the indescribable Purgatory, springs from the strength and purity of its love of God. “This love gives to the soul such a contentment as cannot be expressed. But this contentment does not take away one iota from the pain; nay, it is the retarding of love from the possession of its object which causes the pain; and the pain is greater according to the greater perfection of love of which God has made the soul capable. Thus the souls in Purgatory have at once the greatest contentment and the greatest suffering; and the one in no way hinders the other.” As to prayers, alms, and Masses, she asserts that the souls experience great consolation from them; but that in these, as in other matters, their principal solicitude is that everything should be “weighed in the most equitable scales of the Divine Will, leaving God to take His own course in everything, and to pay Himself and His justice in the way His own infinite goodness chooses to select.”
Scraping into Purgatory by the Skin of our Teeth
I suppose there is none of us who expects to be lost and damned—how many in Hell actually thought they would end up there? We know and feel, with more or less of alarm, the greatness of the risk we are running by the life we are leading—lukewarm and at peace with many venial sins; but to expect to be lost would be the sin of despair. Hell is only practical to us as a motive of greater diligence, greater strictness, greater circumspectness, greater fear. It is not so with Purgatory. I suppose we all expect, or think ourselves sure, to go there. If we do not think much about the matter at all, then we must have some vague notion of going straight to Heaven as soon as we are judged! But if we seriously reflect upon it, upon our own lives, upon God’s sanctity, upon what we read in books of devotion, in the lives of the Saints, and the revelations that God has permitted to come our way by means of souls condemned to Purgatory, then I can hardly imagine any one of us expecting to escape Purgatory, and perhaps even feeling that it must be almost a stretch of the divine mercy which will get us even there in the first place! Now, if we really expect that our road to Heaven will be through the punishment of Purgatory, for surely its purification is penal, it very much concerns us to know what is common to both the views of Purgatory, which it appears prevail in the Church.
Budgeting for Heaven (or rather, Purgatory)
First, both these views agree that the pains are extremely severe, as well because of the office which God intends them to fulfill, as because of the disembodied soul being the subject of them. Both agree, also, in the length of the suffering.
Do You Have Enough Money and Supplies for 60 Years?
This requires to be dwelt upon, as it is hard to convince people of it, and a great deal comes of the conviction, both to ourselves and others. This duration may be understood in two ways: first, as of actual length of time, and, secondly, as of seeming length from the excess of pain. With regard to the first, if we look into the revelations of Sister Francesca of Pampeluna, we shall find, among some hundreds of cases, that by far the great majority suffered thirty, forty, or sixty years.
Long-Term Rentals
This disclosure may teach us greater watchfulness over ourselves, and more unwearied perseverance in praying for the departed. The old foundations for perpetual Masses embody the same sentiment. We are apt to leave off too soon, imagining with a foolish and unenlightened fondness that our friends are freed from Purgatory much sooner than they really are. If Sister Francesca beheld the souls of many fervent Carmelites, some of whom had wrought miracles in lifetime still in Purgatory ten, twenty, thirty, sixty years after their death, and still not near their deliverance, as many told her, what must become of us and ours? Then as to seeming length from the extremity of pain, there are many instances on record in the Chronicles of the Franciscans, the life of St. Francis Jerome, and elsewhere, of souls appearing an hour or two after death, and thinking they had been many years in Purgatory.
Our Trivial Faults Are Far From Trivial
Both views agree again in holding that, what we in the world call very trivial faults, are most severely dealt with in Purgatory. St. Peter Damian gives us many instances of this, and others are collected and quoted by St. Robert Bellarmine. Slight feelings of self-complacency, trifling inattentions in the recital of the Divine Office, and the like, occur frequently among them! Sister Francesca mentions the case of a girl of fourteen who was in Purgatory, because she was not quite conformed to the will of God in dying so young: and one soul said to her in Purgatory: “Ah, men little think in the world, how dearly they are going to pay here for faults that they hardly note there!” She even saw souls that were immensely punished only for having been scrupulous in this life; either, I suppose, because there is mostly self-will in scruples, or because they did not lay down the scruples when obedience commanded. Wrong notions about small faults may thus lead us to neglect the dead, or leave off our prayers too soon, as well as losing a salutary lesson for ourselves.
Broke and Begging
Then, again, both views agree as to the helplessness of the Holy Souls. They lie like the paralytic at the pool. It would seem as if even the coming of the angel were not an effectual blessing to them, unless there be some one of us to help them. Some have even thought they cannot pray. Anyhow, they have no means of making themselves heard by us, on whose charity they depend. Some writers have said that Our Blessed Lord will not help them without our cooperation; and that Our Blessed Lady cannot help them, except in indirect ways, because she is no longer able to make satisfaction; though I never like to hear anything our dearest mother cannot do; and I regard such statements with suspicion. Whatever may come of these opinions, they at least illustrate the strong way in which theologians apprehend the helplessness of the Holy Souls.
Stupid Notions of ‘Sanctity’!
Then another feature in their helplessness is the forgetfulness of the living, or the cruel flattery of relations who will always have it that those near or dear to them die the deaths of saints. They would surely have a scruple, if they knew of how many Masses and prayers they rob the souls, by the selfish exaggeration of their goodness. I call it selfish, for it is nothing more than a miserable device to console themselves in their sorrow. The very state of the Holy Souls is one of the most unbounded helplessness. They cannot do penance; they cannot merit; they cannot satisfy; they cannot gain indulgences; they have no Sacraments; they are not under the jurisdiction of God’s Vicar, overflowing with the plentitude of means of grace and manifold benedictions. They are a part of the Church, but without either priesthood or altar at their own command.
Lazy, Lukewarm and Blind
Those are the points common to both views of Purgatory; and how manifold are the lessons we learn from them, on our own behalf as well as on behalf of the Holy Souls. For ourselves, what light does all this throw on slovenliness, lukewarmness, and love of ease? What does it make us think of performing our devotions out of a mere spirit of formality, or a trick of habit? What diligence in our examinations of conscience, Confessions, Communions, and prayers! It seems as if the grace of all graces for which we should ever be begging from our dear Lord, would be to hate sin with something of the hatred wherewith He hated it in the garden of Gethsemane. O is not the purity of God something awful, unspeakable, adorable?
Anger at Purgatory
But some persons turn in anger from the thought of Purgatory, as if it were not to be endured, that after trying all our lives long to serve God, we should accomplish the tremendous feat of a good death, only to pass from the agonies of the death-bed into fire, long, keen, searching, triumphant, incomparable fire. Sadly, your anger will not help you, nor alter the facts. But have you thought sufficiently about God? Have you tried to realize His holiness and purity in assiduous meditation? Is there a real divorce between you and the world, which you know is God’s enemy? Do you take God’s side? Are you devoted to His interests? Do you truly long for His glory? Is there a happy marriage between the theory of Catholicism and the practice of Catholicism in your life, or are they separated and divorced? Have you put sin alongside of our dear Saviors’ Passion, and measured the one by the other?
Surely, if you had, Purgatory would only seem to you the last, kind, unexpected, and inexpressibly tender invention of the obstinate love of God, which was mercifully determined to save you in spite of yourself. It would be a perpetual wonder to you, a joyous wonder, fresh every morning, a wonder that would be meat and drink to your soul, that you, being what you know yourself to be, what God knows you to be, should be saved eternally. Remember what the suffering soul said so simply, yet with such force, to Sister Francesca: “Ah! Those on that side of the grave little reckon how dearly they will pay on this side for the lives they live!”
Angry or Lucky?
To be angry, because you are told you will go to Purgatory! Silly, silly people! Most likely it is a great false flattery, and that you will never be good enough to even scrape into Purgatory at all! Why, positively, you do not recognize how lucky you are to be told of it, and told of it truthfully? None but the humble go there. St. Maria Crocifissa di Rosa was told that although many of the saints, while on Earth, loved God more than some do even in Heaven, yet that the greatest saint on Earth was not so humble as are the souls in Purgatory. I do not think I ever read anything in the lives of the saints which struck me so much as that. You see it is not good to be angry about Purgatory; for, as Fr. Faber says, those only are lucky enough to get into Purgatory, who sincerely believe themselves to be worthy of Hell.
There have always been two views of Purgatory prevailing in the Church, not contradictory, the one of the other, but rather expressive of the mind and devotion of those who have embraced them. Yet the error lies in embracing either one of them, while neglecting to embrace both of them simultaneously. They are like two sides of a coin that have different images on each side—yet they are both an essential part of the coin, though standing on opposite sides.
The Grim View
The first view represents Purgatory as a Hell which is not eternal. Violence, confusion, wailing, horror, preside over its descriptions. It dwells, and truly so, on the terribleness of the pain of sense, which the soul is mysteriously permitted to endure. The fire is the same fire as that of Hell, our earthly fire is said to be like a mere painted fire compared to it. The sense of imprisonment and intense darkness, are additional features in the horror of the scene, which prepare us for that sensible neighborhood to Hell, which many Saints have spoken of as belonging to Purgatory. Then to this terribleness of the pain of sense, is added the dreadfulness of the pain of loss—which again is true, though it is not a permanent loss.
The beauty of God remains, in itself, the same immensely desirable object that it always was. But the soul is changed. All that in life, and in the world of sense, once distracted and dulled its desires for God, is now gone from it—it sees the truth of things like it never so them before, it understands like it never understood before—so that it now seeks God with an impetuosity and a frenzy that no imagination can possibly conceive. God is that light at the end of long, dark, excruciatingly hot tunnel, and that light grows brighter as the soul draws nearer. The very burning excess of its love and desire for God (which it should have had on Earth) becomes the measure of its intolerable pain. What love can do, even on Earth, we learn from the example of Father John Baptist Sanchez, who said that, if any morning he awoke and realized that would not die that day, then he would be a miserable as death at having to live her another day. To those horrors we might add many more which depict Purgatory simply as a Hell which is not eternal. Now all these aspects of Purgatory are true, but they are merely one side of a two-sided coin.
The Joyous View
The second view of Purgatory does not deny any one of the features of the preceding grim view, but it almost puts them out of sight, by the other considerations which it brings more prominently forward. In this view, the soul goes into Purgatory with its eyes fascinated and its spirit sweetly tranquillized, by the face of Jesus, which it glimpsed at the particular Judgment which it has undergone. That remembrance of that Holy Face remains with it, and pacify and tranquillize the terrors of its Purgatorial prison. In the sea of fire, into which it is plunged, it holds fast to that image. The moment that the soul saw that its own unfitness for Heaven, it wings its voluntary flight to Purgatory, like a dove to her proper nest in the shadows of the forest. No prison guards, no angels are needed to escort the soul to its prison. The soul’s understanding of the purity of God suffices.
Seriousness of Sin Sorrowfully Seen
In that moment of Judgment after death, the soul loves God most tenderly, and in return is most tenderly loved by Him. The soul is in punishment, true; but it is in unbroken union with God. St. Catherine of Genoa most positively says, “It has no remembrance, no remembrance at all of its past sins, or of Earth.” Its sweet prison, its holy sepulcher, is in the adorable will of its Heavenly Father, and there it abides the term of its purification with the most perfect contentment and the most unutterable love—yet all the while suffering the most inexpressible pains.
God is All About Extremes
If God is to be perfect, He must be extreme, for perfection implies being extremely good at something. God is extreme in His mercy and extreme in His justice—and the soul reflects this with its extreme love under extreme suffering. As it is not teased or taunted by any vision of self or sin, so neither is it harassed by an atom of fear, or by a single doubt of its own safety or security. It is now in a state of sinlessness—it cannot and will not ever sin again. It cannot even commit the slightest imperfection. It cannot have the least movement of impatience. It can do nothing whatever which will in the least displease God. It loves God above everything, and it loves Him with a pure and disinterested love. It is constantly consoled by angels, and can only rejoice in the confirmed assurance of its own salvation.
Heaven Extremely Expensive
The soul now realizes what it refused or failed to realize on Earth—that Heaven is not the cheap thing that most people made it out to be, thinking they could walk in after a few hastily said prayers and some distractedly heard Masses. Heaven, being the greatest place there is, also carries the greatest admission price—a price few were willing to pay on Earth. Nor could they pay it, even if the wishfully desired to, for they had insufficient funds in the bank of their souls. Now they must earn and pay the full price—which could have been paid at a discounted rate here on Earth, but it was judged, even then, as being far too high a price to pay! The world offered its wares and pleasures and a much cheaper rate, and so that is what most souls spent the time and effort on—the world.
Extremely Bitter-Sweet
Even the most bitter and excruciating agonies that it suffers, are accompanied by a profound unshaken peace, such as the language of this world has no words to tell. It has reached a pinnacle of suffering and a pinnacle of virtue—although now, it will no longer receive any reward for virtuously suffering, as it could have done on Earth. It is forced to do what it should have done on Earth—it is the most painful, yet most successful remedial school there is, having a 100% graduation record with a grade of 100%--for only saints can get into Heaven, and sanctity is total perfection; partial perfection is fodder for Purgatory.
No sooner has a soul, with the guilt of no mortal sin upon it, but owing to God a debt of temporal punishment, issued from the world, and been judged, than it sees itself eternally confirmed in grace and charity (according to St. Catherine of Genoa). It is incapable either of sinning or of meriting anymore; and it is destined, by an eternal and immutable decree, to enter one day as a king or a queen into the kingdom of the blessed, to see, to love, and to enjoy God, the perpetual fountain of all happiness.
Finally the Soul Detests Sin like it Should
In that instant of judgment, all the sins of its past are represented to the soul, whether mortal or venial, even though they have been already forgiven here below by contrition and the Sacrament of Penance. But after this temporary and instantaneous view of them, the soul remembers nothing more about them. St. Catherine’s words are: “The cause of Purgatory, which these souls have in themselves, they see once and for all, in passing out of this life, and never afterwards.” The reason of this exhibition of sins is, she teaches us, to enable the soul in that moment, by an act, no longer indeed meritorious, but nevertheless a real act of the will, to detest all its sins afresh, and especially those venial sins for which it had not contrition during life, either through the weakness of an imperfect heart, or through the accident of a sudden death, that so it may be strictly true, that no sin whatever is pardoned, unless the sinner makes an act of detestation of each and every sin.
Burning-Off the Rust of Sin
After this momentary view of sins and formal detestation of them, the soul sees in itself their evil consequences and these form, what the St. Catherine calls “the impediment of seeing God … The rust of sin is the impediment, and the fire keeps consuming the rust; and, as a thing which is covered cannot correspond to the reverberation of the sun’s rays, so, if the covering be consumed, the thing is at length laid open to the sun.
Burning Inside and Outside
As soon as the soul perceives itself to be acceptable to God, and constituted heir of paradise, but unable, because of this impediment, to take immediate possession of its inheritance, it conceives an intense desire to be rid of this hindrance, this double obligation of guilt and punishment. But knowing that Purgatory alone can consume these two obligations, and that it is for that very end God condemns the soul to fire, it desires itself to endure the punishment. St. Catherin of Genoa says that, “The soul separated from the body, not finding in itself this impediment which cannot be taken away except by Purgatory, at once throws itself into it with right good will. The souls in Purgatory have wills conformed in all things with the will of God, who therefore sheds on them His goodness, and they, as far as their will goes, are happy and cleansed of all their sin. As for guilt, these cleansed souls are as they were when God created them, for God forgives their guilt immediately who have passed from this life ill content with their sins, having confessed all they have committed and having the will to commit no more. Only the rust of sin is left them and from this they cleanse themselves by pain in the fire.”
If the soul did not find this punishment and purgation of Purgatory, to help the soul remove the rust of sin, there would instantaneously be generated in the soul a Hell far worse than Purgatory, because it would see that with this impediment of the stain of sin with its unpaid debt, it could not unite itself to God Who is its end. Wherefore, if the soul could somewhere find another Purgatory fiercer than this, in which it could the sooner get rid of this impediment, it would quickly plunge itself therein, through the impetuosity of the love it bears to God.
A Thousand Hells if Necessary
But this is not all. St. Catherine of Genoa goes on to teach that if the soul, laboring under this impediment, were free to choose between immediately ascending to paradise, and descending to suffer in Purgatory, it would choose to suffer, although the sufferings be almost as dreadful as those of Hell. These are her words: “Of how much importance Purgatory is no tongue can tell, no mind conceive. So much I see, that its pain is almost as if it were that of Hell; and yet I see also that the soul which perceives in itself the slightest flaw or mote of imperfection, would rather throw itself into a thousand Hells, than find itself in the presence of the divine Majesty with that defect upon it; and, therefore, seeing Purgatory to be ordained for the very taking away of these flaws, forthwith it plunges into it, and it seems by its bearing, as I see, to conceive that it finds there an invention of no little mercy, simply in the being able to get rid of this impediment.”
Too Late Have I Loved Thee!
When the righteous soul has thus arrived in Purgatory, losing sight of everything else, it sees before it only two objects—the extremity of suffering, and the extremity of joys. A most tremendous pain is caused by knowing that God loves it with an infinite love, that He is the Chief Good, that He regards the soul as His daughter, and that He has predestined it to enjoy Him forever in company with the Blessed: and hence the soul loves Him with a pure and most perfect charity. At the same time it perceives that it cannot see Him or enjoy Him yet, though it so intensely yearns to do so ; and this afflicts it so much the more, as it is quite uncertain when the term of its penal exile, away from its Lord and paradise, will be fulfilled. This is the pain of loss in Purgatory, of which the St. Catherine of Genoa says that it is “a pain so extreme, that no tongue can tell it, no understanding grasp the least portion of it. Though God in His favor showed me a little spark thereof, yet can I not in any way express it with my tongue.”
Finally the Soul Finds Joy in Suffering
Now let us examine the other object, the extremity of joy. As it loves God with the purest affection, and knows its sufferings to be the will of God in order to procure its purification, it conforms itself perfectly to the divine decree. While in Purgatory, it sees nothing but that this pleases God; it takes in no idea but that of His will; it apprehends nothing so clearly as the suitableness of this purification, in order to present it all fair and lovely to so great a majesty. Thus, St. Catherine of Genoa says: “If a soul, having still something left to be cleansed away, were presented to the Vision of God, it would be worse than that of ten purgatories; for it would be quite unable to endure that excessive goodness and that exquisite justice.” Hence it is that the suffering soul is entirely resigned to the will of its Creator. It loves its very pains, and rejoices in them because they are a holy ordinance of God. Thus in the midst of the ardent heats it enjoys a contentment so complete that it exceeds the grasp of human intelligence to comprehend it. “I do not believe,” says St. Catherine of Genoa, “that it is possible to find a contentment to compare with that of the souls in Purgatory, unless it be the contentment of the Saints in paradise. This contentment increases daily through the influx of God into those souls, and this influx increases in proportion as the impediment is consumed and worn away. Indeed, so far as the will is concerned, we can hardly say that the pains are pains at all, so contentedly do the souls rest in the ordinance of God, to whose will pure love unites them.”
Holily Wholly Indifferent
In another place, St. Catherine says that this inexplicable joy of the soul, while it is undergoing the indescribable Purgatory, springs from the strength and purity of its love of God. “This love gives to the soul such a contentment as cannot be expressed. But this contentment does not take away one iota from the pain; nay, it is the retarding of love from the possession of its object which causes the pain; and the pain is greater according to the greater perfection of love of which God has made the soul capable. Thus the souls in Purgatory have at once the greatest contentment and the greatest suffering; and the one in no way hinders the other.” As to prayers, alms, and Masses, she asserts that the souls experience great consolation from them; but that in these, as in other matters, their principal solicitude is that everything should be “weighed in the most equitable scales of the Divine Will, leaving God to take His own course in everything, and to pay Himself and His justice in the way His own infinite goodness chooses to select.”
Scraping into Purgatory by the Skin of our Teeth
I suppose there is none of us who expects to be lost and damned—how many in Hell actually thought they would end up there? We know and feel, with more or less of alarm, the greatness of the risk we are running by the life we are leading—lukewarm and at peace with many venial sins; but to expect to be lost would be the sin of despair. Hell is only practical to us as a motive of greater diligence, greater strictness, greater circumspectness, greater fear. It is not so with Purgatory. I suppose we all expect, or think ourselves sure, to go there. If we do not think much about the matter at all, then we must have some vague notion of going straight to Heaven as soon as we are judged! But if we seriously reflect upon it, upon our own lives, upon God’s sanctity, upon what we read in books of devotion, in the lives of the Saints, and the revelations that God has permitted to come our way by means of souls condemned to Purgatory, then I can hardly imagine any one of us expecting to escape Purgatory, and perhaps even feeling that it must be almost a stretch of the divine mercy which will get us even there in the first place! Now, if we really expect that our road to Heaven will be through the punishment of Purgatory, for surely its purification is penal, it very much concerns us to know what is common to both the views of Purgatory, which it appears prevail in the Church.
Budgeting for Heaven (or rather, Purgatory)
First, both these views agree that the pains are extremely severe, as well because of the office which God intends them to fulfill, as because of the disembodied soul being the subject of them. Both agree, also, in the length of the suffering.
Do You Have Enough Money and Supplies for 60 Years?
This requires to be dwelt upon, as it is hard to convince people of it, and a great deal comes of the conviction, both to ourselves and others. This duration may be understood in two ways: first, as of actual length of time, and, secondly, as of seeming length from the excess of pain. With regard to the first, if we look into the revelations of Sister Francesca of Pampeluna, we shall find, among some hundreds of cases, that by far the great majority suffered thirty, forty, or sixty years.
Long-Term Rentals
This disclosure may teach us greater watchfulness over ourselves, and more unwearied perseverance in praying for the departed. The old foundations for perpetual Masses embody the same sentiment. We are apt to leave off too soon, imagining with a foolish and unenlightened fondness that our friends are freed from Purgatory much sooner than they really are. If Sister Francesca beheld the souls of many fervent Carmelites, some of whom had wrought miracles in lifetime still in Purgatory ten, twenty, thirty, sixty years after their death, and still not near their deliverance, as many told her, what must become of us and ours? Then as to seeming length from the extremity of pain, there are many instances on record in the Chronicles of the Franciscans, the life of St. Francis Jerome, and elsewhere, of souls appearing an hour or two after death, and thinking they had been many years in Purgatory.
Our Trivial Faults Are Far From Trivial
Both views agree again in holding that, what we in the world call very trivial faults, are most severely dealt with in Purgatory. St. Peter Damian gives us many instances of this, and others are collected and quoted by St. Robert Bellarmine. Slight feelings of self-complacency, trifling inattentions in the recital of the Divine Office, and the like, occur frequently among them! Sister Francesca mentions the case of a girl of fourteen who was in Purgatory, because she was not quite conformed to the will of God in dying so young: and one soul said to her in Purgatory: “Ah, men little think in the world, how dearly they are going to pay here for faults that they hardly note there!” She even saw souls that were immensely punished only for having been scrupulous in this life; either, I suppose, because there is mostly self-will in scruples, or because they did not lay down the scruples when obedience commanded. Wrong notions about small faults may thus lead us to neglect the dead, or leave off our prayers too soon, as well as losing a salutary lesson for ourselves.
Broke and Begging
Then, again, both views agree as to the helplessness of the Holy Souls. They lie like the paralytic at the pool. It would seem as if even the coming of the angel were not an effectual blessing to them, unless there be some one of us to help them. Some have even thought they cannot pray. Anyhow, they have no means of making themselves heard by us, on whose charity they depend. Some writers have said that Our Blessed Lord will not help them without our cooperation; and that Our Blessed Lady cannot help them, except in indirect ways, because she is no longer able to make satisfaction; though I never like to hear anything our dearest mother cannot do; and I regard such statements with suspicion. Whatever may come of these opinions, they at least illustrate the strong way in which theologians apprehend the helplessness of the Holy Souls.
Stupid Notions of ‘Sanctity’!
Then another feature in their helplessness is the forgetfulness of the living, or the cruel flattery of relations who will always have it that those near or dear to them die the deaths of saints. They would surely have a scruple, if they knew of how many Masses and prayers they rob the souls, by the selfish exaggeration of their goodness. I call it selfish, for it is nothing more than a miserable device to console themselves in their sorrow. The very state of the Holy Souls is one of the most unbounded helplessness. They cannot do penance; they cannot merit; they cannot satisfy; they cannot gain indulgences; they have no Sacraments; they are not under the jurisdiction of God’s Vicar, overflowing with the plentitude of means of grace and manifold benedictions. They are a part of the Church, but without either priesthood or altar at their own command.
Lazy, Lukewarm and Blind
Those are the points common to both views of Purgatory; and how manifold are the lessons we learn from them, on our own behalf as well as on behalf of the Holy Souls. For ourselves, what light does all this throw on slovenliness, lukewarmness, and love of ease? What does it make us think of performing our devotions out of a mere spirit of formality, or a trick of habit? What diligence in our examinations of conscience, Confessions, Communions, and prayers! It seems as if the grace of all graces for which we should ever be begging from our dear Lord, would be to hate sin with something of the hatred wherewith He hated it in the garden of Gethsemane. O is not the purity of God something awful, unspeakable, adorable?
Anger at Purgatory
But some persons turn in anger from the thought of Purgatory, as if it were not to be endured, that after trying all our lives long to serve God, we should accomplish the tremendous feat of a good death, only to pass from the agonies of the death-bed into fire, long, keen, searching, triumphant, incomparable fire. Sadly, your anger will not help you, nor alter the facts. But have you thought sufficiently about God? Have you tried to realize His holiness and purity in assiduous meditation? Is there a real divorce between you and the world, which you know is God’s enemy? Do you take God’s side? Are you devoted to His interests? Do you truly long for His glory? Is there a happy marriage between the theory of Catholicism and the practice of Catholicism in your life, or are they separated and divorced? Have you put sin alongside of our dear Saviors’ Passion, and measured the one by the other?
Surely, if you had, Purgatory would only seem to you the last, kind, unexpected, and inexpressibly tender invention of the obstinate love of God, which was mercifully determined to save you in spite of yourself. It would be a perpetual wonder to you, a joyous wonder, fresh every morning, a wonder that would be meat and drink to your soul, that you, being what you know yourself to be, what God knows you to be, should be saved eternally. Remember what the suffering soul said so simply, yet with such force, to Sister Francesca: “Ah! Those on that side of the grave little reckon how dearly they will pay on this side for the lives they live!”
Angry or Lucky?
To be angry, because you are told you will go to Purgatory! Silly, silly people! Most likely it is a great false flattery, and that you will never be good enough to even scrape into Purgatory at all! Why, positively, you do not recognize how lucky you are to be told of it, and told of it truthfully? None but the humble go there. St. Maria Crocifissa di Rosa was told that although many of the saints, while on Earth, loved God more than some do even in Heaven, yet that the greatest saint on Earth was not so humble as are the souls in Purgatory. I do not think I ever read anything in the lives of the saints which struck me so much as that. You see it is not good to be angry about Purgatory; for, as Fr. Faber says, those only are lucky enough to get into Purgatory, who sincerely believe themselves to be worthy of Hell.
Article 6
Thursday November 6th
Air-Conditoned, Climate-Controlled Purgatory!
Thursday November 6th
Air-Conditoned, Climate-Controlled Purgatory!
Today’s Air-Conditioned Purgatory
Some people have the weirdest ideas about Purgatory. They amount of sins that they commit would make you think that they imagine Purgatory to be like a five-star hotel, with a bar and Jacuzzi in every room, air-conditioning and climate-control, Olympic size swimming-pool and golf-course thrown in. They sin more and more so that they can spend more and more time there! The Modernist or Liberal Catholic, may well accept the existence of Purgatory in theory, however, in practice, they live as though Purgatory is empty. Let’s face it, how many sermons do you hear on Purgatory these days? Even when they are preached, many ‘water-down’ Purgatory to a point where we think little of the sufferings of the souls detained there—as though they were merely stuck in a traffic jam or in slow-moving traffic on the road to Heaven! The Modernist and Liberal mentality is, in the words of Fr. Felix Salvany, in his book Liberalism is a Sin,
Offend God rather than Neighbor!
“The Catholic simply tainted with Liberalism is generally a good man and sincerely pious; he exhales nevertheless an odor of Liberalism in everything he says, writes, or takes up. This courageous man reasons, speaks, and acts as a Liberal without knowing it. His strong point is charity; he is charity itself. … How the devil must chuckle over the mushy charity held out as a bait to abet his own cause! … Charity is a supernatural virtue which induces us to love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves for the love of God. … Charity is primarily the love of God, secondarily the love of our neighbor for God’s sake. To sacrifice the first is to abandon the latter. Therefore, to offend our neighbor for the love of God is a true act of charity. Not to offend our neighbor for the love of God is a sin. Modern Liberalism reverses this order; it imposes a false notion of charity: our neighbor first, and, if at all, God afterwards” (Fr. Felix Salvany, Liberalism Is A Sin).
Hey! Nobody’s Perfect!
The result of this reversal of charity therefore sees people being prepared to see God offended rather than having to be ‘uncharitable’ by correcting the sinning neighbor! Unbelievable! Yet this modern behavior consequently allows mountains of sins to be piled-up under the pretext of what they think and protest is charity—all they really do is allow others to pile-up their Purgatory! “Sin now, burn later”—that’s their idea of charity. They help their neighbor pile-up the firewood with their excuses for not correcting others--”Everyone has their faults!” … “Nobody’s perfect!” … “It’s only a Venial Sin!” Huh? Only a Venial Sin? Well read some accounts of the suffering undergone in the fires of Purgatory for only Venial Sins! Then come back and say “only”! The entrance fee to Heaven is PERFECTION—as Our Lord Himself said: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), which echoes the Old Testament: “Thou shalt be perfect, and without spot before the Lord thy God” (Deuteronomy 18:13). Heaven is no place for mediocrity or half-baked Catholics—hence the need for the fires of Purgatory to fully-bake the half-baked Catholics. Remember what St. Padre Pio said—many, if not most saints, had to pass to through Purgatory—with the exception of martyrs.
Dense Wood Burns Longer
They say that dense wood burns for much longer—well, these Liberals and Modernists with their fake and false notions of charity and sin, must be pretty dense. Therefore, if they manage to scrape into Purgatory, they will burn all the longer. The physician cauterizing his patient or cutting off his gangrened limb may nonetheless love him. Likewise the ‘cauterizing’ effect of Purgatory is an inexplicably painful act of mercy and love by God—God chastises those who He loves: “I know your works, and that you are neither cold, nor hot. I would prefer that you were cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm―and neither cold, not hot―I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ and do you not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy of Me gold fire tried, so that you may be made rich; and may be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, so that you may see. Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:15-19).
As Penance Goes Down, the Temperature Goes Up
It is lack of penance that places souls in the terrible fires of Purgatory. Our Lord has warned us: product of confession is the receiving and doing of penance. “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
The dogmatic teaching of the Catholic Church on the doctrine of Purgatory was specified in 1439 by the Council of Florence, which declared: “It has likewise been defined that, if those truly penitent have departed in the love of God, before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for sins of commission and omission, the souls of these are cleansed after death by purgatorial punishments.”
The Council of Trent later added: “If anyone says that, after receiving the grace of justification, the guilt of any repentant sinner is remitted and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out, in such a way that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be paid, either in this life or in Purgatory, before the gate to the kingdom of Heaven can be opened: let him be anathema.”
White-Weddings, okay! White-Funerals? You’re Kidding!
St. Paul said that in the last times there would be people with “itching ears” seeking after novelties and believing fables. Well, one of those fables is that Purgatory and Hell are empty—or almost empty. God is love, and love is sweet, and the sweet loving God in His loving sweetness cannot bear to send anyone to Purgatory, let alone Hell!
This novelty of funerals in white is a fable-feeding funeral—funerals in white used to be performed ONLY for children who had died below the “age-of-reason” and were thus incapable of committing sin—which meant that after death they went straight to Heaven, hence the “funeral in white” with the Mass being that of the Angels, not the Requiem Mass. Today, everyone gets a “White-Funeral” and everyone talks as though the deceased is already clinking glasses with the angels and saints in Heaven, at a homecoming party! Sadly, Heaven IS NOT filling up and Purgatory is NOT empty. In fact, the common opinion among theologians is that MOST SOULS, that end up going to Heaven, have to pass through the fires of Purgatory. As Scripture says: “There shall not enter into it anything defiled, or that works abomination or makes a lie …” (Apocalypse 21:27).
Full-Price Ticket to Heaven
The poor souls in Purgatory still have the stains of sin within them. This means two things. First, it means that the souls have not yet paid the temporal penalty due to sin, either for venial sins, or for mortal sins whose guilt was forgiven before death. There is also the problem of unrepented and unforgiven venial sin, for which the guilt and punishment were not removed before death. It is not certain whether the guilt of venial sins is strictly speaking remitted after death, and if so, how the remission takes place.
Discounts Only On Earth
We can pay for damage of sin after death in Purgatory, or we can pay the penalties of satisfaction for sin on Earth before death, which can be done by souls in a state of grace during the course of their whole life on Earth. Whereas before death a soul can cleanse itself by freely choosing to suffer for its sins, and so can gain merit for this suffering; a soul in Purgatory cannot choose to do so and gains no merit for its suffering and no increase in its glory. Rather, it is cleansed according to the demands of Divine Justice.
The Price is Right!
There are simply, or perhaps even too obviously, several basic reasons why souls have to undergo the terrible, yet at the same time joyful, sufferings of Purgatory. To keep things simple, let us enumerate them in a list form:
(1) Those who never lost the grace of God throughout their life, and died after having committed only venial sins in their life, but who were not sufficiently sorry for those venial sins, nor did sufficient penance for them, nor accepted the trials and sufferings that God sent them as a payment for their sins.
(2) Those who have committed mortal sins and therefore lost the grace of God, which they regained through the Sacrament of Confession, but like the case above, they were not sufficiently sorry for those venial sins, nor did sufficient penance for them, nor accepted the trials and sufferings that God sent them as a payment for their sins. Of course, mortal sin is much more expensive than venial sin, and so requires more penance than would be required for venial sin.
(3) The third group, of course, is a combination of the two previous groups listed above—those who have sinned both mortally and venially, and who have died with their mortal sins confessed and forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession. These have an even greater debt for having committed a combination of both kinds of sins.
Each Size of Sin Has Its Price Tag
What modifies this is the personal number and kind of sin that has been committed. There is a hierarchy among sins, which only God can properly and correctly evaluate. Objective and subjective elements come into play to create almost infinite levels of gravity for the same species of sin—the sin of violence will be judged differently in each case: what was duration of the act of violence? What was its intensity? On whom was it inflicted? Was it in self-defense? What damage or injury was inflicted? Was there any sorrow? Was there any apology made? Was any reparation made? Did the behavior improve or cease?
A Just Judge Judges the Just
These are just a few of the many questions that need to be asked to form a correct and just judgment of the level of guilt involved. Thank heavens it God Who judges and nobody else? It would be hard enough to judge one single sin correctly, let alone the thousands or hundreds of thousands of sins that one single person has committed!
It is good to know that, in all of His judgments, God is always both merciful and just. He never applies His justice without mercy; and He never shows mercy without justice. If He would do so, then He would be lacking in one or the other virtue—but God is perfect and so He exercises both in perfect balance and with the utmost harmony. However, it is worth noting one of the psalms, from Holy Scripture, which says: “The Lord is gracious and merciful; patient and plenteous in mercy! The Lord is sweet to all; and His tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:8-9).
Mercy in Hell?
Even those who are damned in Hell, realize that God is merciful to them, and has not permitted them to be punished to degree that they truly deserved—even though they will be punished for eternity. The time of punishment remains the same—eternity—but the degree or intensity of punishment has been reduced. A combination of justice and mercy.
Sweeping Purgatory Under the Carpet?
Unfortunately, our sense of values has been deformed and corrupted, and we have no real inkling of the gravity of sin, nor of the punishment that sin deserves. Furthermore, we have little idea of what Purgatory is really like. For many, it is like a taboo subject—let’s not talk about it, let’s talk about something more pleasant! But when we avoid looking at the doctrine and revelations about Purgatory, we risk harming ourselves by avoiding the issue of the gravity and consequence of sin. When we read and truly meditate upon what goes on in Purgatory, we cannot avoid being struck with a salutary and healthy fear of the consequences of even the most ‘trivial’ sin (if one dare call sin ‘trivial’) and the rigor of God’s justice, even though he simultaneously applies some of His mercy.
“Ouch” and “Ouch” again!
If you read Fr. Schouppe’s book, Purgatory Explained, you will read some very sobering passages about Purgatory. One of the things he points out is the fact that the fires of Purgatory are the same fires as those of Hell. He also points out that there is in Purgatory, as in Hell, a double pain—the pain of loss in the soul and the pain of the senses. The pain suffered by the loss of God, is greater than the pain of the fire, or any of the other tortures, that the soul suffers.
Massive Loss
The pain of loss consists in being deprived for a time of the sight of God, Who is our Supreme Good, for Whom our souls were made. In Purgatory, there is a thirst for God—which should have been there while living on Earth, but the soul thirsted more for worldly things rather than God. The pain of sense, or sensible suffering, is the same as that which we experience in our flesh. Its nature is not defined by Faith, but it is the common opinion of the Doctors that it consists in fire and other species of suffering.
Fearsome Fire—Hot as Hell
The fire of Purgatory, say the Fathers, is that of Hell, of which the rich glutton speaks when he says: “I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24). The same fire, says Pope St. Gregory the Great, torments the damned and purifies the elect. “Almost all theologians,” says the cardinal, St. Robert Bellarmine, “teach that the damned in Hell and the souls in Purgatory suffer the action of the same fire.” It must be held as certain, writes St. Robert Bellarmine, that there is no proportion between the sufferings of this life and those of Purgatory. St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, writes: “As to the suffering, it is equal to that of Hell.”
We know what a terrible thing fire is, and what pain is caused by the slightest burn, no matter how feeble the flame may be; how much more terrible must be that fire which is fed neither with wood, gas nor oil.
St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, says: “The souls endure a torment so extreme that no tongue can describe it, nor could the understanding conceive the least notion of it, if God did not make it known by a particular grace.”
Perfectly Weighted Justice
As regards the severity of these pains, since they are inflicted by Infinite Justice, they are proportioned to the nature, gravity, and number of sins committed. Each one receives according to his works, each one must acquit himself of the debts with which he sees himself charged before God. Now these debts differ greatly in quality. Some, which have accumulated during a long life, have reached the ten thousand talents of the Gospel, that is to say, millions and tens of millions; whilst others are reduced to a few farthings, the trifling remainder of that which has not been expiated on Earth. It follows from this that the souls undergo various kinds of sufferings, that there are innumerable degrees of expiation in Purgatory, and that some are incomparably more severe than others. However, speaking in general, the doctors agree in saying that the pains are most excruciating.
Terrible Time of Torment
St. Augustine believes that even though the souls in Purgatory will be saved, no doubt, after the trial of fire, but that trial will be terrible, that torment of Purgatory will be far more intolerable than all the most excruciating sufferings in this world. St. Thomas goes even further; he maintains that the least pain of Purgatory surpasses all the sufferings of this life, whatsoever they may be. The author of The Imitation of Christ explains this doctrine by a practical and striking sentence. Speaking in general of the sufferings of the other life, he says: “There, one hour of torment will be more terrible than a hundred years of rigorous penance done here!”
Crazy Catholics
Why, O why, do people want to pile up unnecessary punishment in the unimaginably painful and hot fires of Purgatory, which are in essence the fires of Hell, when they could avoid that by either not-sinning here below, or doing fitting serious penance for past sins. If people were physically burned on Earth each time they committed a Mortal or Venial Sin, then sin would soon stop. Because there payment is deferred to a later time, they sin like crazy! They—and we—are crazy! You have to be—if you stop and think about it seriously!
Some people have the weirdest ideas about Purgatory. They amount of sins that they commit would make you think that they imagine Purgatory to be like a five-star hotel, with a bar and Jacuzzi in every room, air-conditioning and climate-control, Olympic size swimming-pool and golf-course thrown in. They sin more and more so that they can spend more and more time there! The Modernist or Liberal Catholic, may well accept the existence of Purgatory in theory, however, in practice, they live as though Purgatory is empty. Let’s face it, how many sermons do you hear on Purgatory these days? Even when they are preached, many ‘water-down’ Purgatory to a point where we think little of the sufferings of the souls detained there—as though they were merely stuck in a traffic jam or in slow-moving traffic on the road to Heaven! The Modernist and Liberal mentality is, in the words of Fr. Felix Salvany, in his book Liberalism is a Sin,
Offend God rather than Neighbor!
“The Catholic simply tainted with Liberalism is generally a good man and sincerely pious; he exhales nevertheless an odor of Liberalism in everything he says, writes, or takes up. This courageous man reasons, speaks, and acts as a Liberal without knowing it. His strong point is charity; he is charity itself. … How the devil must chuckle over the mushy charity held out as a bait to abet his own cause! … Charity is a supernatural virtue which induces us to love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves for the love of God. … Charity is primarily the love of God, secondarily the love of our neighbor for God’s sake. To sacrifice the first is to abandon the latter. Therefore, to offend our neighbor for the love of God is a true act of charity. Not to offend our neighbor for the love of God is a sin. Modern Liberalism reverses this order; it imposes a false notion of charity: our neighbor first, and, if at all, God afterwards” (Fr. Felix Salvany, Liberalism Is A Sin).
Hey! Nobody’s Perfect!
The result of this reversal of charity therefore sees people being prepared to see God offended rather than having to be ‘uncharitable’ by correcting the sinning neighbor! Unbelievable! Yet this modern behavior consequently allows mountains of sins to be piled-up under the pretext of what they think and protest is charity—all they really do is allow others to pile-up their Purgatory! “Sin now, burn later”—that’s their idea of charity. They help their neighbor pile-up the firewood with their excuses for not correcting others--”Everyone has their faults!” … “Nobody’s perfect!” … “It’s only a Venial Sin!” Huh? Only a Venial Sin? Well read some accounts of the suffering undergone in the fires of Purgatory for only Venial Sins! Then come back and say “only”! The entrance fee to Heaven is PERFECTION—as Our Lord Himself said: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), which echoes the Old Testament: “Thou shalt be perfect, and without spot before the Lord thy God” (Deuteronomy 18:13). Heaven is no place for mediocrity or half-baked Catholics—hence the need for the fires of Purgatory to fully-bake the half-baked Catholics. Remember what St. Padre Pio said—many, if not most saints, had to pass to through Purgatory—with the exception of martyrs.
Dense Wood Burns Longer
They say that dense wood burns for much longer—well, these Liberals and Modernists with their fake and false notions of charity and sin, must be pretty dense. Therefore, if they manage to scrape into Purgatory, they will burn all the longer. The physician cauterizing his patient or cutting off his gangrened limb may nonetheless love him. Likewise the ‘cauterizing’ effect of Purgatory is an inexplicably painful act of mercy and love by God—God chastises those who He loves: “I know your works, and that you are neither cold, nor hot. I would prefer that you were cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm―and neither cold, not hot―I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ and do you not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy of Me gold fire tried, so that you may be made rich; and may be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, so that you may see. Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:15-19).
As Penance Goes Down, the Temperature Goes Up
It is lack of penance that places souls in the terrible fires of Purgatory. Our Lord has warned us: product of confession is the receiving and doing of penance. “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
The dogmatic teaching of the Catholic Church on the doctrine of Purgatory was specified in 1439 by the Council of Florence, which declared: “It has likewise been defined that, if those truly penitent have departed in the love of God, before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for sins of commission and omission, the souls of these are cleansed after death by purgatorial punishments.”
The Council of Trent later added: “If anyone says that, after receiving the grace of justification, the guilt of any repentant sinner is remitted and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out, in such a way that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be paid, either in this life or in Purgatory, before the gate to the kingdom of Heaven can be opened: let him be anathema.”
White-Weddings, okay! White-Funerals? You’re Kidding!
St. Paul said that in the last times there would be people with “itching ears” seeking after novelties and believing fables. Well, one of those fables is that Purgatory and Hell are empty—or almost empty. God is love, and love is sweet, and the sweet loving God in His loving sweetness cannot bear to send anyone to Purgatory, let alone Hell!
This novelty of funerals in white is a fable-feeding funeral—funerals in white used to be performed ONLY for children who had died below the “age-of-reason” and were thus incapable of committing sin—which meant that after death they went straight to Heaven, hence the “funeral in white” with the Mass being that of the Angels, not the Requiem Mass. Today, everyone gets a “White-Funeral” and everyone talks as though the deceased is already clinking glasses with the angels and saints in Heaven, at a homecoming party! Sadly, Heaven IS NOT filling up and Purgatory is NOT empty. In fact, the common opinion among theologians is that MOST SOULS, that end up going to Heaven, have to pass through the fires of Purgatory. As Scripture says: “There shall not enter into it anything defiled, or that works abomination or makes a lie …” (Apocalypse 21:27).
Full-Price Ticket to Heaven
The poor souls in Purgatory still have the stains of sin within them. This means two things. First, it means that the souls have not yet paid the temporal penalty due to sin, either for venial sins, or for mortal sins whose guilt was forgiven before death. There is also the problem of unrepented and unforgiven venial sin, for which the guilt and punishment were not removed before death. It is not certain whether the guilt of venial sins is strictly speaking remitted after death, and if so, how the remission takes place.
Discounts Only On Earth
We can pay for damage of sin after death in Purgatory, or we can pay the penalties of satisfaction for sin on Earth before death, which can be done by souls in a state of grace during the course of their whole life on Earth. Whereas before death a soul can cleanse itself by freely choosing to suffer for its sins, and so can gain merit for this suffering; a soul in Purgatory cannot choose to do so and gains no merit for its suffering and no increase in its glory. Rather, it is cleansed according to the demands of Divine Justice.
The Price is Right!
There are simply, or perhaps even too obviously, several basic reasons why souls have to undergo the terrible, yet at the same time joyful, sufferings of Purgatory. To keep things simple, let us enumerate them in a list form:
(1) Those who never lost the grace of God throughout their life, and died after having committed only venial sins in their life, but who were not sufficiently sorry for those venial sins, nor did sufficient penance for them, nor accepted the trials and sufferings that God sent them as a payment for their sins.
(2) Those who have committed mortal sins and therefore lost the grace of God, which they regained through the Sacrament of Confession, but like the case above, they were not sufficiently sorry for those venial sins, nor did sufficient penance for them, nor accepted the trials and sufferings that God sent them as a payment for their sins. Of course, mortal sin is much more expensive than venial sin, and so requires more penance than would be required for venial sin.
(3) The third group, of course, is a combination of the two previous groups listed above—those who have sinned both mortally and venially, and who have died with their mortal sins confessed and forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession. These have an even greater debt for having committed a combination of both kinds of sins.
Each Size of Sin Has Its Price Tag
What modifies this is the personal number and kind of sin that has been committed. There is a hierarchy among sins, which only God can properly and correctly evaluate. Objective and subjective elements come into play to create almost infinite levels of gravity for the same species of sin—the sin of violence will be judged differently in each case: what was duration of the act of violence? What was its intensity? On whom was it inflicted? Was it in self-defense? What damage or injury was inflicted? Was there any sorrow? Was there any apology made? Was any reparation made? Did the behavior improve or cease?
A Just Judge Judges the Just
These are just a few of the many questions that need to be asked to form a correct and just judgment of the level of guilt involved. Thank heavens it God Who judges and nobody else? It would be hard enough to judge one single sin correctly, let alone the thousands or hundreds of thousands of sins that one single person has committed!
It is good to know that, in all of His judgments, God is always both merciful and just. He never applies His justice without mercy; and He never shows mercy without justice. If He would do so, then He would be lacking in one or the other virtue—but God is perfect and so He exercises both in perfect balance and with the utmost harmony. However, it is worth noting one of the psalms, from Holy Scripture, which says: “The Lord is gracious and merciful; patient and plenteous in mercy! The Lord is sweet to all; and His tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:8-9).
Mercy in Hell?
Even those who are damned in Hell, realize that God is merciful to them, and has not permitted them to be punished to degree that they truly deserved—even though they will be punished for eternity. The time of punishment remains the same—eternity—but the degree or intensity of punishment has been reduced. A combination of justice and mercy.
Sweeping Purgatory Under the Carpet?
Unfortunately, our sense of values has been deformed and corrupted, and we have no real inkling of the gravity of sin, nor of the punishment that sin deserves. Furthermore, we have little idea of what Purgatory is really like. For many, it is like a taboo subject—let’s not talk about it, let’s talk about something more pleasant! But when we avoid looking at the doctrine and revelations about Purgatory, we risk harming ourselves by avoiding the issue of the gravity and consequence of sin. When we read and truly meditate upon what goes on in Purgatory, we cannot avoid being struck with a salutary and healthy fear of the consequences of even the most ‘trivial’ sin (if one dare call sin ‘trivial’) and the rigor of God’s justice, even though he simultaneously applies some of His mercy.
“Ouch” and “Ouch” again!
If you read Fr. Schouppe’s book, Purgatory Explained, you will read some very sobering passages about Purgatory. One of the things he points out is the fact that the fires of Purgatory are the same fires as those of Hell. He also points out that there is in Purgatory, as in Hell, a double pain—the pain of loss in the soul and the pain of the senses. The pain suffered by the loss of God, is greater than the pain of the fire, or any of the other tortures, that the soul suffers.
Massive Loss
The pain of loss consists in being deprived for a time of the sight of God, Who is our Supreme Good, for Whom our souls were made. In Purgatory, there is a thirst for God—which should have been there while living on Earth, but the soul thirsted more for worldly things rather than God. The pain of sense, or sensible suffering, is the same as that which we experience in our flesh. Its nature is not defined by Faith, but it is the common opinion of the Doctors that it consists in fire and other species of suffering.
Fearsome Fire—Hot as Hell
The fire of Purgatory, say the Fathers, is that of Hell, of which the rich glutton speaks when he says: “I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24). The same fire, says Pope St. Gregory the Great, torments the damned and purifies the elect. “Almost all theologians,” says the cardinal, St. Robert Bellarmine, “teach that the damned in Hell and the souls in Purgatory suffer the action of the same fire.” It must be held as certain, writes St. Robert Bellarmine, that there is no proportion between the sufferings of this life and those of Purgatory. St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, writes: “As to the suffering, it is equal to that of Hell.”
We know what a terrible thing fire is, and what pain is caused by the slightest burn, no matter how feeble the flame may be; how much more terrible must be that fire which is fed neither with wood, gas nor oil.
St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, says: “The souls endure a torment so extreme that no tongue can describe it, nor could the understanding conceive the least notion of it, if God did not make it known by a particular grace.”
Perfectly Weighted Justice
As regards the severity of these pains, since they are inflicted by Infinite Justice, they are proportioned to the nature, gravity, and number of sins committed. Each one receives according to his works, each one must acquit himself of the debts with which he sees himself charged before God. Now these debts differ greatly in quality. Some, which have accumulated during a long life, have reached the ten thousand talents of the Gospel, that is to say, millions and tens of millions; whilst others are reduced to a few farthings, the trifling remainder of that which has not been expiated on Earth. It follows from this that the souls undergo various kinds of sufferings, that there are innumerable degrees of expiation in Purgatory, and that some are incomparably more severe than others. However, speaking in general, the doctors agree in saying that the pains are most excruciating.
Terrible Time of Torment
St. Augustine believes that even though the souls in Purgatory will be saved, no doubt, after the trial of fire, but that trial will be terrible, that torment of Purgatory will be far more intolerable than all the most excruciating sufferings in this world. St. Thomas goes even further; he maintains that the least pain of Purgatory surpasses all the sufferings of this life, whatsoever they may be. The author of The Imitation of Christ explains this doctrine by a practical and striking sentence. Speaking in general of the sufferings of the other life, he says: “There, one hour of torment will be more terrible than a hundred years of rigorous penance done here!”
Crazy Catholics
Why, O why, do people want to pile up unnecessary punishment in the unimaginably painful and hot fires of Purgatory, which are in essence the fires of Hell, when they could avoid that by either not-sinning here below, or doing fitting serious penance for past sins. If people were physically burned on Earth each time they committed a Mortal or Venial Sin, then sin would soon stop. Because there payment is deferred to a later time, they sin like crazy! They—and we—are crazy! You have to be—if you stop and think about it seriously!
Article 5
Wednesday November 5th
Heavenly Real Estate!
Wednesday November 5th
Heavenly Real Estate!
Different Viewpoints
“Seek ye the Lord, while He may be found: call upon Him, while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and return to our God―for He is bountiful to forgive! For My thoughts are not your thoughts; nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:6-9).
The way that we look at sin is not the way the God looks at sin. In our thoughts it is “no big deal”! Hey! Doesn’t the Bible say that we are all sinners? That’s the reality of things! After all, that’s what Confession is for! We sin; we confess; we’re forgiven; we go on with life! Well―yes and no.
Yes, we are all sinners—we are all born with Original Sin (the sin of our first parents that we did not commit, but we carry its consequences) and we all commit Actual Sin (our own personal sins that we actually commit).
Yes, the Bible does say that “A just man shall fall seven times and shall rise again” (Proverbs 24:16) and “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity.” (1 John 1:8-9). But Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery: “Neither will I condemn thee! Go, and now sin no more!” (John 8:11). For, as Jesus points out in a parable, even though sins are forgiven, we will have pay for them to the very last farthing or cent: “Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last penny” (Matthew 5:26).
Holy but Poor
That is exactly the plight of the souls in Purgatory—we call them both “Holy Souls” and at the same time “Poor Souls”.
They are “holy” in the sense that they are destined for and guaranteed to go to Heaven—which is a place of incredible holiness. Yet, at the moment, they are “poor”—in the sense that they are not “wealthy” enough to enter Heaven, they have not yet “earned” Heaven due to a wasteful, negligent, lukewarm and sinful life here below.
They are far “holier” than we are here on Earth, for now they are learning the beauty and need for suffering, and they are going through the most unimaginable and unspeakable sufferings in Purgatory with peace, patience and joy—which is how we are supposed to suffer here below, but we don’t do so in that manner. Yet at the same time they are “poor” because they have nothing to pay with to shorten their stay in Purgatory—they rely solely on our alms, that is to say our prayers, sacrifices and acts of charity for them.
We, humans, put too cheap a price on Heaven. It must be an insult to God to see us think, speak and act in that way. If we would only stop to think about what that piece of heavenly ‘real-estate’ really is like, then we would get a ‘reality-check’ and perhaps would “get real” about our spiritual life and our choices of where we want to go and what we are prepared to pay to get there.
PERKS OF PARADISE
If we had to pay for Heaven in financial terms—by dishing out the dollars—then few or perhaps nobody could afford it! Just imagine what Heaven offers:
What Price on Eternity?
Heaven offers us eternal life! Eternal life! Just let that word “eternal” sink in! Think about it for a while—but don’t take an eternity over it! That has been the dream of mankind—and, though they cannot make themselves live forever, they never stop trying to find ways that will make them live a bit longer! Live a “bit longer”—imagine the millions of dollars spent on research just to live “a bit longer”! God offers, not just “a bit longer” but ETERNITY—where a million, a billion years is not even a grain of sand among all the beaches of the world, or like a drop of water compared to the drops of water that make up all the world’s oceans. How can you put a price on freedom from death? It’s priceless!
What price eternity? In one sense, it is priceless; in another sense, it costs less than the millions expended on living “a bit longer”—Heaven is bought with spiritual currency and not the world’s currency (except alms). For money cannot buy Heaven, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: “[Peter and John] laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw, that by the imposition of the hands of the Apostles, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying: ‘Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I shall lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost!’ But Peter said to him: ‘Keep thy money to thyself, to perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money! Thy heart is not right in the sight of God! Do penance therefore for this thy wickedness; and pray to God, that perhaps this thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee!’” (Acts 8:17-21).
What a waste of time to spend one’s life pursuing riches and the comforts they can buy! Have we forgotten Our Lord’s encounter with the rich young man? “And behold a certain man running up and kneeling before Him: ‘Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Thou knowest the commandments—keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Jesus: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
“Then Jesus, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you: How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the Kingdom of God!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible―but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:16-26; Mark 10:17-27).
Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette speaks of this vanity and danger:”Priests … will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain (GS) … who think only of piling riches upon riches (LS).” If priests and religious are doing this, it only encourages the laity to do it even more! God says:”Let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, for I am the Lord” (Jeremias 9:23-24). “Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:23-24).
What Price on No More Suffering of Any Kind?
Heaven offers us a life free from any illness or suffering. Imagine what kind of money people would pay for that kind of blessing and guarantee here on Earth! Hundreds of thousands! Even millions! Look at the price of one surgical operation! Of course, insurance companies pay the largest chunk—but people pay insurance companies hundreds a month, every month! Americans consume 80% of the world’s supply of painkillers. Pain also appeared to be a major driver of health-care costs. Research has shown that Americans spent just under $5,000 million in over-the-counter pain medications and another nearly $18,000 million on outpatient analgesics. In the United States, the total amount of money spent on medicines reached approximately $574,000 million ($574 billion) on all forms of medication. Average expenditure is about $1,300 per person per year.
What is the proportion of time and money spent on spiritual health? Very little. Less than 20% of Catholics take the medication of Holy Mass once a week; less than 4% take the medication of the Holy Rosary daily! It seems like most Catholics don’t believe in “Holy-istic” medicine! Unfortunate! Even less is the number of Catholics who will suffer some regular penance—only to later find themselves in REAL suffering in Purgatory, if they are lucky enough to scrape in there! “The Dogma of Purgatory is too much forgotten by the majority of the faithful; the Church Suffering, where they have so many brethren to succor, whither they foresee that they themselves must one day go, seems a strange land to them” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained). Of course, everyone suffers in this life—but very few seem to profit from that suffering if, as Our Lord, Our Lady and most theologians hold that most souls are lost. Two crucified thieves suffered alongside Christ on Calvary—one suffered well and his sufferings brought an eternal end to suffering in Paradise; the other suffered badly and it brought him eternal suffering in Hell.
As Our Lady said to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Understand the ignorance and error of mortals, and how far they drift from the way of light, when, as a rule, nearly all of them strive to avoid labor and suffering and are frightened by the royal and secure road of mortification and the Cross. Full of this deceitful ignorance, they do not only abhor resemblance to Christ’s suffering and my own, and deprive themselves of the true and highest blessing of this life; but they make their recovery impossible, since all of them are weak and afflicted by many sins, for which the only remedy is suffering. Sin is committed by base indulgence and is repugnant to suffering sorrow, while tribulation earns the pardon of the just Judge.”
What Price on Beauty?
No aging, no getting older, ‘wrinklier’, weaker, or ‘wobblier’. No matter in what state we die—old, bald, fat, ugly, deformed or ‘dandruffed’—in Heaven we will find ourselves in the prime of life (early adulthood years) and with perfections of body that vain people of this world would kill for! They fork out thousands of dollars trying to achieve a perfect body, and God will give it to us for free—if we are good! Here, on Earth, billions is spent in the vain (for most) search for the perfect body, the beautiful face, hair care, hair restoration, etc. African Americans spent $507,000 million in 2009 on hair care and personal grooming items. In Britain women spend an average of $6,000 to $8,000 a year on beauty and maintenance. U.S. women spend on average between $12,000 to $15,000 every year on products and salon services. The amount of money spent annually on cosmetics in the United States is $8,000 million dollars! $20,000 million is spent in the U.S. annually on dieting, including diet books, diet drugs and weight-loss surgeries.
As Fr. Schouppe writes, in his book Purgatory Explained: “Souls that allow themselves to be dazzled by the vanities of the world, even if they have the good fortune to escape damnation, will have to undergo terrible punishment. Let us open the Revelations of St. Bridget. We read there that the saint saw herself transported in spirit into Purgatory, and that, among others, she saw there a young lady of high birth who had formerly abandoned herself to the luxury and vanities of the world. This unfortunate soul related to her the history of her life, and the sad state in which she then was found: ‘Happily,’ before death I confessed my sins in such dispositions as to escape Hell, but now I suffer here to expiate the worldly life that my mother did not prevent me from leading!’
“She then added: ‘Alas! This head of mine, which loved to be adorned, and which sought to draw the attention of others, is now devoured with flames inside and out, and these flames are so violent that, every moment, it seems to me that I must die. These shoulders, these arms, which I loved to see admired, are cruelly bound in chains of red-hot iron. These feet, formerly trained for the dance, are now surrounded with vipers that tear them with their fangs and soil them with their filthy slime. All these parts of the body which I have adorned with jewels, flowers, and a variety of other ornaments, are now a prey to the most horrible torture! O mother, mother!’ she cried, ‘how culpable have you been in my regard! It was you who, by a fatal indulgence, encouraged my taste for display and extravagant expense; it was you that took me to theaters, parties, and dances, and to those worldly assemblies which are the ruin of souls!’” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
“Blessed Mary Villani, a Dominican Religious, was transported in spirit to Purgatory. Among the souls that suffered there she saw one more cruelly tormented than the others, in the midst of flames which entirely enveloped her. Touched with compassion, Blessed Mary Villani questioned the soul, who replied: ‘I have been here for a very long time, punished for my vanity and my scandalous extravagance. Thus far I have not received the least alleviation. Whilst I was upon Earth, being wholly occupied with my appearance, my pleasures, and worldly amusements, I thought very little of my duties as a Christian, and fulfilled them only with great reluctance, and in a slothful manner.’” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
What Price on Happiness?
Happiness and joy, beyond our wildest dreams, will be ours! Though there will be no equality in Heaven, there will also be no envy, no jealousy, no pride, no anger, no lust, no greed, no resentment, no desire for revenge, no harboring of grudges, no suspicion, no fear, no arguing, no fighting, etc. What price would you pay to experience that on Earth? You couldn’t pay for it, because it is priceless!
In 2000, the US population spent over $200 billion (200,000 million dollars) on entertainment—just to try find some happiness or joy—which is three times the amount spent on education. Other ‘Make Me Happy’ expenditures are $30,000 million on candy; $76,000 million on soda; $50,000 million on alcohol and $49,000 million on tobacco. That’s only the money side of it—how much time was spent indulging in these things? Our Lady’s complaints at Quito and La Salette are haunting: “The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs … Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement.”
As Fr. Schouppe writes, in his book Purgatory Explained: “The venerable servant of God, Frances of Pampeluna, who was favored with several visions of Purgatory, saw, one day, a man of the world, who, although he had otherwise been a tolerably good Christian, passed fifty-nine years in Purgatory on account of seeking his ease and comfort. Another passed thirty-five years there for the same reason; a third, who had too strong, a passion for gambling, was detained there for sixty-four years. If God is severe towards the rich and the pleasure-seekers of the world, He will not be less so towards princes, magistrates, parents, and, in general, towards all those who have the charge of souls and authority over others.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
You Won’t Miss Anything if by Dozing-Off!
In Heaven you won’t miss out on anything. You will have more time to do things than you ever had here on Earth! Well, one reason for that is the “eternity factor” which makes a long-life on Earth seem like a joke! The other factor is that you won’t sleep in Heaven (so get all the sleep you can now!), for there will be no need for sleep! That must be the worldly man’s dream, for whom “time means money”! The less you sleep, the more you can work and so the more money you can make—much like the stores that want to stay open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Heavenly Diet
The beauty of body in Heaven will be aided by a heavenly diet—which is a diet of no food at all! We won’t need to eat to sustain our bodies. That means no more having to grow, hunt or shop for food; no more check-out lines; no more slaving over a hot oven; no more dirty dishes to wash! Put a price on that! You can’t, it’s priceless!
So there we are, just a few of the “Perks of Paradise”! And we want all that for what price??? God will say: “You’ve gotta be kidding Me! Your offer is a joke! When you develop a mature and real sense of values, then come back and we’ll talk about it!”
That was the attitude of most souls in Purgatory. It was a totally unrealistic view of Heaven and its value. In effect, they wanted to swindle God, by getting all the above and more besides, for a few paltry prayers; some soppy sacrifices; lukewarm lines of “Love ya!” ; mediocre Masses; rushed Rosaries and the like.
That is not the way to treat God, nor will God let us get away with it—it’s not His way, though it might be ours. With these false expectations for Heaven, stemming from our self-love and pride, God could well tell us to go to “the other place.” Yet He knows what we are made of and He shows compassion:
“The Lord is compassionate and merciful; long-suffering and plenteous in mercy. He will not always be angry; nor will He threaten for ever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities ... As a father has compassion on his children, so has the Lord compassion on them that fear Him―for He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust!” (Psalm 102:8-14).
The Real Price of Real Estate
In that kindness, compassion and mercy, He seeks for a solution to our cheap and insulting offer for a piece of Heaven’s real-estate. The solution is Purgatory. As Fr. Schouppe says, in his book, Purgatory Explained:
“The Justice of God is terrible, and it punishes with extreme rigor even the most trivial faults. The reason is, that these faults, light in our eyes, are in no way so before God. The least sin displeases Him infinitely, and, on account of the infinite Sanctity which is offended, the slightest transgression assumes enormous proportions, and demands enormous atonement.
“This explains the terrible severity of the pains of the other life, and should penetrate us with a holy fear. This fear of Purgatory is a salutary fear; its effect is, not only to animate us with a charitable compassion towards the poor suffering souls, but also with a vigilant zeal for our own spiritual welfare. Think of the fire of Purgatory, and you will endeavor to avoid the least faults; think of the fire of Purgatory, and you will practice penance, that you may satisfy Divine Justice in this world rather than in the next. Let us, however, guard against excessive fear, and not lose confidence.
“Let us not forget the Mercy of God, which is not less infinite than His Justice. Thy mercy, Lord, is great above the Heavens, says the prophet; and elsewhere, The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient, and plenteous in mercy? This ineffable mercy should calm the most lively apprehensions, and fill us with a holy confidence, according to the words: ‘In Thee, O Lord, I have hoped; let me never be put to confusion.’ If we are animated with this double sentiment, if our confidence in God’s Mercy is equal to the fear with which His Justice inspires us, we shall have the true spirit of devotion to the souls in Purgatory.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
“Seek ye the Lord, while He may be found: call upon Him, while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and return to our God―for He is bountiful to forgive! For My thoughts are not your thoughts; nor your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:6-9).
The way that we look at sin is not the way the God looks at sin. In our thoughts it is “no big deal”! Hey! Doesn’t the Bible say that we are all sinners? That’s the reality of things! After all, that’s what Confession is for! We sin; we confess; we’re forgiven; we go on with life! Well―yes and no.
Yes, we are all sinners—we are all born with Original Sin (the sin of our first parents that we did not commit, but we carry its consequences) and we all commit Actual Sin (our own personal sins that we actually commit).
Yes, the Bible does say that “A just man shall fall seven times and shall rise again” (Proverbs 24:16) and “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity.” (1 John 1:8-9). But Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery: “Neither will I condemn thee! Go, and now sin no more!” (John 8:11). For, as Jesus points out in a parable, even though sins are forgiven, we will have pay for them to the very last farthing or cent: “Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last penny” (Matthew 5:26).
Holy but Poor
That is exactly the plight of the souls in Purgatory—we call them both “Holy Souls” and at the same time “Poor Souls”.
They are “holy” in the sense that they are destined for and guaranteed to go to Heaven—which is a place of incredible holiness. Yet, at the moment, they are “poor”—in the sense that they are not “wealthy” enough to enter Heaven, they have not yet “earned” Heaven due to a wasteful, negligent, lukewarm and sinful life here below.
They are far “holier” than we are here on Earth, for now they are learning the beauty and need for suffering, and they are going through the most unimaginable and unspeakable sufferings in Purgatory with peace, patience and joy—which is how we are supposed to suffer here below, but we don’t do so in that manner. Yet at the same time they are “poor” because they have nothing to pay with to shorten their stay in Purgatory—they rely solely on our alms, that is to say our prayers, sacrifices and acts of charity for them.
We, humans, put too cheap a price on Heaven. It must be an insult to God to see us think, speak and act in that way. If we would only stop to think about what that piece of heavenly ‘real-estate’ really is like, then we would get a ‘reality-check’ and perhaps would “get real” about our spiritual life and our choices of where we want to go and what we are prepared to pay to get there.
PERKS OF PARADISE
If we had to pay for Heaven in financial terms—by dishing out the dollars—then few or perhaps nobody could afford it! Just imagine what Heaven offers:
What Price on Eternity?
Heaven offers us eternal life! Eternal life! Just let that word “eternal” sink in! Think about it for a while—but don’t take an eternity over it! That has been the dream of mankind—and, though they cannot make themselves live forever, they never stop trying to find ways that will make them live a bit longer! Live a “bit longer”—imagine the millions of dollars spent on research just to live “a bit longer”! God offers, not just “a bit longer” but ETERNITY—where a million, a billion years is not even a grain of sand among all the beaches of the world, or like a drop of water compared to the drops of water that make up all the world’s oceans. How can you put a price on freedom from death? It’s priceless!
What price eternity? In one sense, it is priceless; in another sense, it costs less than the millions expended on living “a bit longer”—Heaven is bought with spiritual currency and not the world’s currency (except alms). For money cannot buy Heaven, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: “[Peter and John] laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw, that by the imposition of the hands of the Apostles, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying: ‘Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I shall lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost!’ But Peter said to him: ‘Keep thy money to thyself, to perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money! Thy heart is not right in the sight of God! Do penance therefore for this thy wickedness; and pray to God, that perhaps this thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee!’” (Acts 8:17-21).
What a waste of time to spend one’s life pursuing riches and the comforts they can buy! Have we forgotten Our Lord’s encounter with the rich young man? “And behold a certain man running up and kneeling before Him: ‘Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Thou knowest the commandments—keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Jesus: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
“Then Jesus, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you: How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the Kingdom of God!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible―but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:16-26; Mark 10:17-27).
Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette speaks of this vanity and danger:”Priests … will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain (GS) … who think only of piling riches upon riches (LS).” If priests and religious are doing this, it only encourages the laity to do it even more! God says:”Let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, for I am the Lord” (Jeremias 9:23-24). “Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:23-24).
What Price on No More Suffering of Any Kind?
Heaven offers us a life free from any illness or suffering. Imagine what kind of money people would pay for that kind of blessing and guarantee here on Earth! Hundreds of thousands! Even millions! Look at the price of one surgical operation! Of course, insurance companies pay the largest chunk—but people pay insurance companies hundreds a month, every month! Americans consume 80% of the world’s supply of painkillers. Pain also appeared to be a major driver of health-care costs. Research has shown that Americans spent just under $5,000 million in over-the-counter pain medications and another nearly $18,000 million on outpatient analgesics. In the United States, the total amount of money spent on medicines reached approximately $574,000 million ($574 billion) on all forms of medication. Average expenditure is about $1,300 per person per year.
What is the proportion of time and money spent on spiritual health? Very little. Less than 20% of Catholics take the medication of Holy Mass once a week; less than 4% take the medication of the Holy Rosary daily! It seems like most Catholics don’t believe in “Holy-istic” medicine! Unfortunate! Even less is the number of Catholics who will suffer some regular penance—only to later find themselves in REAL suffering in Purgatory, if they are lucky enough to scrape in there! “The Dogma of Purgatory is too much forgotten by the majority of the faithful; the Church Suffering, where they have so many brethren to succor, whither they foresee that they themselves must one day go, seems a strange land to them” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained). Of course, everyone suffers in this life—but very few seem to profit from that suffering if, as Our Lord, Our Lady and most theologians hold that most souls are lost. Two crucified thieves suffered alongside Christ on Calvary—one suffered well and his sufferings brought an eternal end to suffering in Paradise; the other suffered badly and it brought him eternal suffering in Hell.
As Our Lady said to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Understand the ignorance and error of mortals, and how far they drift from the way of light, when, as a rule, nearly all of them strive to avoid labor and suffering and are frightened by the royal and secure road of mortification and the Cross. Full of this deceitful ignorance, they do not only abhor resemblance to Christ’s suffering and my own, and deprive themselves of the true and highest blessing of this life; but they make their recovery impossible, since all of them are weak and afflicted by many sins, for which the only remedy is suffering. Sin is committed by base indulgence and is repugnant to suffering sorrow, while tribulation earns the pardon of the just Judge.”
What Price on Beauty?
No aging, no getting older, ‘wrinklier’, weaker, or ‘wobblier’. No matter in what state we die—old, bald, fat, ugly, deformed or ‘dandruffed’—in Heaven we will find ourselves in the prime of life (early adulthood years) and with perfections of body that vain people of this world would kill for! They fork out thousands of dollars trying to achieve a perfect body, and God will give it to us for free—if we are good! Here, on Earth, billions is spent in the vain (for most) search for the perfect body, the beautiful face, hair care, hair restoration, etc. African Americans spent $507,000 million in 2009 on hair care and personal grooming items. In Britain women spend an average of $6,000 to $8,000 a year on beauty and maintenance. U.S. women spend on average between $12,000 to $15,000 every year on products and salon services. The amount of money spent annually on cosmetics in the United States is $8,000 million dollars! $20,000 million is spent in the U.S. annually on dieting, including diet books, diet drugs and weight-loss surgeries.
As Fr. Schouppe writes, in his book Purgatory Explained: “Souls that allow themselves to be dazzled by the vanities of the world, even if they have the good fortune to escape damnation, will have to undergo terrible punishment. Let us open the Revelations of St. Bridget. We read there that the saint saw herself transported in spirit into Purgatory, and that, among others, she saw there a young lady of high birth who had formerly abandoned herself to the luxury and vanities of the world. This unfortunate soul related to her the history of her life, and the sad state in which she then was found: ‘Happily,’ before death I confessed my sins in such dispositions as to escape Hell, but now I suffer here to expiate the worldly life that my mother did not prevent me from leading!’
“She then added: ‘Alas! This head of mine, which loved to be adorned, and which sought to draw the attention of others, is now devoured with flames inside and out, and these flames are so violent that, every moment, it seems to me that I must die. These shoulders, these arms, which I loved to see admired, are cruelly bound in chains of red-hot iron. These feet, formerly trained for the dance, are now surrounded with vipers that tear them with their fangs and soil them with their filthy slime. All these parts of the body which I have adorned with jewels, flowers, and a variety of other ornaments, are now a prey to the most horrible torture! O mother, mother!’ she cried, ‘how culpable have you been in my regard! It was you who, by a fatal indulgence, encouraged my taste for display and extravagant expense; it was you that took me to theaters, parties, and dances, and to those worldly assemblies which are the ruin of souls!’” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
“Blessed Mary Villani, a Dominican Religious, was transported in spirit to Purgatory. Among the souls that suffered there she saw one more cruelly tormented than the others, in the midst of flames which entirely enveloped her. Touched with compassion, Blessed Mary Villani questioned the soul, who replied: ‘I have been here for a very long time, punished for my vanity and my scandalous extravagance. Thus far I have not received the least alleviation. Whilst I was upon Earth, being wholly occupied with my appearance, my pleasures, and worldly amusements, I thought very little of my duties as a Christian, and fulfilled them only with great reluctance, and in a slothful manner.’” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
What Price on Happiness?
Happiness and joy, beyond our wildest dreams, will be ours! Though there will be no equality in Heaven, there will also be no envy, no jealousy, no pride, no anger, no lust, no greed, no resentment, no desire for revenge, no harboring of grudges, no suspicion, no fear, no arguing, no fighting, etc. What price would you pay to experience that on Earth? You couldn’t pay for it, because it is priceless!
In 2000, the US population spent over $200 billion (200,000 million dollars) on entertainment—just to try find some happiness or joy—which is three times the amount spent on education. Other ‘Make Me Happy’ expenditures are $30,000 million on candy; $76,000 million on soda; $50,000 million on alcohol and $49,000 million on tobacco. That’s only the money side of it—how much time was spent indulging in these things? Our Lady’s complaints at Quito and La Salette are haunting: “The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs … Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement.”
As Fr. Schouppe writes, in his book Purgatory Explained: “The venerable servant of God, Frances of Pampeluna, who was favored with several visions of Purgatory, saw, one day, a man of the world, who, although he had otherwise been a tolerably good Christian, passed fifty-nine years in Purgatory on account of seeking his ease and comfort. Another passed thirty-five years there for the same reason; a third, who had too strong, a passion for gambling, was detained there for sixty-four years. If God is severe towards the rich and the pleasure-seekers of the world, He will not be less so towards princes, magistrates, parents, and, in general, towards all those who have the charge of souls and authority over others.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
You Won’t Miss Anything if by Dozing-Off!
In Heaven you won’t miss out on anything. You will have more time to do things than you ever had here on Earth! Well, one reason for that is the “eternity factor” which makes a long-life on Earth seem like a joke! The other factor is that you won’t sleep in Heaven (so get all the sleep you can now!), for there will be no need for sleep! That must be the worldly man’s dream, for whom “time means money”! The less you sleep, the more you can work and so the more money you can make—much like the stores that want to stay open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Heavenly Diet
The beauty of body in Heaven will be aided by a heavenly diet—which is a diet of no food at all! We won’t need to eat to sustain our bodies. That means no more having to grow, hunt or shop for food; no more check-out lines; no more slaving over a hot oven; no more dirty dishes to wash! Put a price on that! You can’t, it’s priceless!
So there we are, just a few of the “Perks of Paradise”! And we want all that for what price??? God will say: “You’ve gotta be kidding Me! Your offer is a joke! When you develop a mature and real sense of values, then come back and we’ll talk about it!”
That was the attitude of most souls in Purgatory. It was a totally unrealistic view of Heaven and its value. In effect, they wanted to swindle God, by getting all the above and more besides, for a few paltry prayers; some soppy sacrifices; lukewarm lines of “Love ya!” ; mediocre Masses; rushed Rosaries and the like.
That is not the way to treat God, nor will God let us get away with it—it’s not His way, though it might be ours. With these false expectations for Heaven, stemming from our self-love and pride, God could well tell us to go to “the other place.” Yet He knows what we are made of and He shows compassion:
“The Lord is compassionate and merciful; long-suffering and plenteous in mercy. He will not always be angry; nor will He threaten for ever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities ... As a father has compassion on his children, so has the Lord compassion on them that fear Him―for He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust!” (Psalm 102:8-14).
The Real Price of Real Estate
In that kindness, compassion and mercy, He seeks for a solution to our cheap and insulting offer for a piece of Heaven’s real-estate. The solution is Purgatory. As Fr. Schouppe says, in his book, Purgatory Explained:
“The Justice of God is terrible, and it punishes with extreme rigor even the most trivial faults. The reason is, that these faults, light in our eyes, are in no way so before God. The least sin displeases Him infinitely, and, on account of the infinite Sanctity which is offended, the slightest transgression assumes enormous proportions, and demands enormous atonement.
“This explains the terrible severity of the pains of the other life, and should penetrate us with a holy fear. This fear of Purgatory is a salutary fear; its effect is, not only to animate us with a charitable compassion towards the poor suffering souls, but also with a vigilant zeal for our own spiritual welfare. Think of the fire of Purgatory, and you will endeavor to avoid the least faults; think of the fire of Purgatory, and you will practice penance, that you may satisfy Divine Justice in this world rather than in the next. Let us, however, guard against excessive fear, and not lose confidence.
“Let us not forget the Mercy of God, which is not less infinite than His Justice. Thy mercy, Lord, is great above the Heavens, says the prophet; and elsewhere, The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient, and plenteous in mercy? This ineffable mercy should calm the most lively apprehensions, and fill us with a holy confidence, according to the words: ‘In Thee, O Lord, I have hoped; let me never be put to confusion.’ If we are animated with this double sentiment, if our confidence in God’s Mercy is equal to the fear with which His Justice inspires us, we shall have the true spirit of devotion to the souls in Purgatory.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Article 4
Tuesday November 4th
Purgatorial Math!
Tuesday November 4th
Purgatorial Math!
Do You Realize the Holiness of God?
“God is Sanctity itself, much more so than the sun is light, and no shadow of sin can endure before His face. ‘Thine eyes are pure,’ says the prophet, ‘and Thou canst not look on iniquity’ (Habacuc 1:13). When iniquity manifests itself in creatures, the Sanctity of God exacts expiation, and when this expiation is made in all the rigor of justice, then it is terrible. It is for this reason that the Scripture says again, ‘Holy and terrible is His Name’ (Ps. 110:7); as though it would say, His Justice is terrible because His Sanctity is infinite” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
The Tiniest Sin is Greatly Displeasing
“The Justice of God is terrible, and it punishes with extreme rigor even the most trivial faults. The reason is, that these faults, light in our eyes, are in no way so before God. The least sin displeases Him infinitely, and, on account of the infinite Sanctity which is offended, the demands enormous atonement. This explains the terrible severity of the pains of the other life, and should penetrate us with a holy fear!” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Seriousness of Sin Sorrowfully Seen
In that moment of Judgment after death, the soul loves God most tenderly, and in return is most tenderly loved by Him. The soul is in punishment, true; but it is in unbroken union with God. St. Catherine of Genoa most positively says of the soul: “It has no remembrance, no remembrance at all of its past sins, or of Earth.” Its sweet prison, its holy sepulcher, is in the adorable will of its Heavenly Father, and there it abides the term of its purification with the most perfect contentment and the most unutterable love—yet all the while suffering the most inexpressible pains.
God is All About Extremes
If God is to be perfect, He must be extreme, for perfection implies being extremely good at something. God is extreme in His mercy and extreme in His justice—and the soul reflects this with its extreme love under extreme suffering. As it is not teased or taunted by any vision of self or sin, so neither is it harassed by an atom of fear, or by a single doubt of its own safety or security. It is now in a state of sinlessness—it cannot and will not ever sin again. It cannot even commit the slightest imperfection. It cannot have the least movement of impatience. It can do nothing whatever which will in the least displease God. It loves God above everything, and it loves Him with a pure and disinterested love. It is constantly consoled by angels, and can only rejoice in the confirmed assurance of its own salvation.
Heaven Extremely Expensive
The soul now realizes what it refused or failed to realize on Earth—that Heaven is not the cheap thing that most people made it out to be, thinking they could walk in after a few hastily said prayers and some distractedly heard Masses. Heaven, being the greatest place there is, also carries the greatest admission price—a price few were willing to pay on Earth. Nor could they pay it, even if the wishfully desired to, for they had insufficient funds in the bank of their souls. Now they must earn and pay the full price—which could have been paid at a discounted rate here on Earth, but it was judged, even then, as being far too high a price to pay! The world offered its wares and pleasures and a much cheaper rate, and so that is what most souls spent the time and effort on—the world.
How Long Do Souls Remain in Purgatory?
The length of time souls are detained in Purgatory depends on:
(a) The number of their faults;
(b) The malice and deliberation with which these have been committed;
(c) The penance done, or not done, the satisfaction made, or not made for sins during life;
(d) Much, too, depends on the suffrages offered for them after death
What can safely be said is that the time souls spend in Purgatory is, as a rule, very much longer than people commonly imagine. We will quote a few of the many instances which are recounted in the lives and revelations of the Saints.
► St. Louis Bertrand’s father was an exemplary Christian, as we should naturally expect, being the father of so great a Saint. He had even wished to become a Carthusian monk until he learned that it was not God’s will for him. When he died, after long years spent in the practice of every Christian virtue, his saintly son, fully aware of the rigors of God’s Justice, offered many Masses and poured forth the most fervent supplications for the soul he so dearly loved. A vision of his father still in Purgatory forced him to intensify a hundredfold his suffrages. He added most severe penances and long fasts to his Masses and prayers. Yet eight whole years passed before he obtained the release of his father.
► St. Malachy’s sister was detained in Purgatory for a very long time, despite the Masses, prayers and heroic mortifications the Saint offered for her!
► It was related to a holy nun in Pampluna, who had succeeded in releasing many Carmelite nuns from Purgatory, that most of these Carmelite nuns had spent terms of from 30 to 60 years there!
► Carmelite nuns in Purgatory for 40, 50 and 60 years! What will it be for those living amidst the temptations of the World and with all their hundreds of weaknesses?
► St. Vincent Ferrer, after the death of his sister, prayed with incredible fervor for her soul and offered many Masses for her release. She appeared to him at length and told him that had it not been for his powerful intercession with God, she should have remained an interminable time in Purgatory.
► In the Dominican Order it is the rule to pray for the Master Generals by name on their anniversaries. Many of these have been dead several hundred years! They were men especially eminent for piety and learning. This rule would not be approved by the Church were it not necessary and prudent.
We do not mean to imply that all souls are detained equally long periods in the expiatory fires. Many have committed lesser faults and have done more penance. Therefore, their punishment will be much less severe. Still, the instances we have quoted are very much to the point, for if these souls who enjoyed the intimacy, who saw the example and who shared in the intercession of great Saints during their lives and were aided by their most efficacious suffrages after death were yet detained for such a length of time in Purgatory, what may not happen to us who enjoy none of these wonderful privileges?
Why Such a Long Expiation?
The reasons are not difficult to find:
1. The malice of sin is very great. What appear to us small faults are in reality serious offenses against the infinite goodness of God. It is enough to see how the Saints wept over their faults. We are weak, it may be urged. That is true, but then God offers us abundant graces to strengthen our weakness, gives us light to see the gravity of our faults, and the necessary force to conquer temptation. If we are still weak, the fault is all our own. We do not use the light and strength God so generously offers us; we do not pray, we do not receive the Sacraments as we should.
2. An eminent theologian wisely remarks that if souls are condemned to Hell for all eternity because of one mortal sin, it is not to be wondered at that other souls should be detained for long years in Purgatory who have committed countless deliberate venial sins, some of which are so grave that at the time of their commission the sinner scarcely knows if they are mortal or venial. Too, they may have committed many mortal sins for which they have had little sorrow and done little or no penance. The guilt has been remitted by absolution, but the pain due to the sins will have to be paid in Purgatory.
Our Lord tells us that we shall have to render an account for each and every idle word we say and that we may not leave our prison until we shall have paid the last farthing (Matthew. 5:26).
The Saints committed few and slight sins―and still they sorrowed much and did severe penances. We commit many and grave sins―and we sorrow little and do little or no penance.
Venial Sins
It would be difficult to calculate the immense number of venial sins that any Catholic commits.
► There is an infinite number of faults of self-love, selfishness; thoughts, words and acts of sensuality, too, in a hundred forms; faults of charity in thought, word and deed; laziness, vanity, jealousy, tepidity and innumerable other faults.
► There are sins of omission which we pay so little heed to. We love God so little, yet He has a thousand claims on our love for the thousands of things he has done for us. Yet, we treat Him with coldness, indifference and base ingratitude. He died for each one of us. Do we ever thank Him as we ought? He remains day and night on the Altar, waiting for our visits, anxious to help us. How seldom we go to Him! He longs to come into our souls in Holy Communion, and we refuse Him entrance. He offers Himself up for us on the Altar every morning at Mass and gives oceans of graces to those who assist at this great Sacrifice. Yet many are too lazy to go to this Calvary! What an abuse of grace!
► Our hearts are mean and hard, full of self-love. We have happy homes, splendid food, warm clothing, an abundance of all good things. Many around us live in hunger and misery, and we give them so little; whereas, we spend lavishly and needlessly on ourselves.
► Life is given us to serve God, to save our souls. Most Christians, however, are satisfied to give God five minutes of prayer in the morning, five minutes at night! The rest of the 24 hours is given to work, rest and pleasure. Ten minutes to God, to our immortal souls, to the great work we have to do, viz., our salvation. Twenty‑three hours and 50 minutes to this transitory life! Is it fair to God?
It may be alleged that our work, our rest, our sufferings are done for God! They should be, and then our merits would be indeed great! The truth is that many scarcely ever think of God during the day! The one engrossing object of their thoughts is self. They think and labor and rest and sleep to satisfy self. God gets a very little place in their day and in their minds. This is an outrage to His loving Heart, which is ever thinking of us.
Mortal Sins
Many Christians unfortunately commit mortal sins during their lives, but though they confess them, they make no due satisfaction for them, as we have already said.
► The Venerable Bede appears to be of the opinion that those who pass a great part of their lives in the commission of grave sins and confess them on their deathbed may be detained in Purgatory even until the Last Day. St. Bede lived in the 600s and 700s and the last was a long way away!
► St. Gertrude, in her revelations, states that those who have committed many grave sins and have not done due penance for them, may not benefit from and share in the ordinary suffrages of the Church for a very considerable time!
All those sins, mortal and venial, are accumulating for the 20, 30, 40, 60 years of our lives. Each and every one has to be atoned for after death.
Purgatorial Math
We again take the extract from Fr. Schouppe’s book, Purgatory Explained, which shows a hypothetical sin-calculator that goes towards showing how and why such long times are spent in Purgatory.
“Father Mumford, of the Company of Jesus, in his Treatise on Charity towards the Departed, bases the long duration of Purgatory on a calculation of probability, which we shall give in substance. He goes out on the principle that, according to the words of the Holy Ghost, The just man falls seven times a day (Proverbs 24:16), that is to say, that even those who apply themselves most perfectly to the service of God, notwithstanding their good-will, commit a great number of faults in the infinitely pure eyes of God. We have but to enter into our own conscience, and there analyze before God our thoughts, our words, and works, to be convinced of this sad effect of human misery. Oh, how easy it is to lack respect in prayer, to prefer our ease to the accomplishment of duty, to sin by vanity, by impatience, by sensuality, by uncharitable thoughts and words, by want of conformity to the will of God! The day is long; is it very difficult for even a virtuous person to commit, I do not say seven, but twenty or thirty of this kind of faults and imperfections?
“Let us take a moderate estimate, and suppose that you commit about ten [venial] faults a day; at the end of 365 days you will have a sum of 3,650 faults. Let us diminish, and, to facilitate the calculation, place it at 3,000 per year. At the end of ten years this will amount to 30,000, and at the end of twenty years to 60,000. Suppose that of these 60,000 faults you have expiated one half by penance and good works, there will still remain 30,000 to be atoned for.
“Let us continue our hypothesis: You die after these twenty years of virtuous life, and appear before God with a debt of 30,000 faults, which you must discharge in Purgatory. How much time will you need to accomplish this expiation? Suppose, on an average, each fault requires one hour of Purgatory. This measure is very moderate, if we judge by the revelations of the saints; but at any rate this will give you a Purgatory of 30,000 hours. Now, do you know how many years these 30,000 hours represent? Three years, three months, and fifteen days. Thus a good Christian who watches over himself, who applies himself to penance and good works, finds himself liable to three years, three months, and fifteen days of Purgatory.
“The preceding calculation is based on an estimate which is lenient in the extreme. Now, if you extend the duration of the pain, and, instead of an hour, you take a day for the expiation of a fault, if, instead of having nothing but venial sins, you bring before God a debt resulting from mortal sins, more or less numerous, which you formerly committed, if you assign, on the average, as St. Frances of Rome says, seven years for the expiation of one mortal sin, remitted as to the guilt, who does not see that we arrive at an appalling duration, and that the expiation may easily be prolonged for many years, and even for centuries?” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained, chapter 22, “The Duration of Purgatory”).
Purgatorial Calculator
Without trying to be silly, or artificial, we have decided to put Fr. Mumford’s statements into table form, so that we can more easily see and understand his message. We have gone with 7 venial sins a day (instead of his 10) based on Scripture: “For a just man shall fall seven times” (Proverbs 24:16). However, experience shows that on some days it is possible to commit seven venial sins, or even more, in an hour—a grumpy start to the day: we mutter when the alarm goes off; we utter a bad word when we stub our toe against something on the way to the bathroom, or when the shower water is too hot or too cold; we complain about the murky weather outside; we put-off our morning prayers or say them in haste or distractedly; we show irritability to the rest of the family at breakfast; we tell a “white lie” or two; we eat too much; we speed on the way to work; we complain about the traffic delays, the red lights, the other drivers, etc.
The tables below show at a glance the cost of such accumulated sin. Of course it is all hypothetical and all this varies with the differing gravity of each venial sin and upon the knowledge and state of the soul, e.g. priest or layman, adult or child, etc. For to whom more is given, more is expected.
“God is Sanctity itself, much more so than the sun is light, and no shadow of sin can endure before His face. ‘Thine eyes are pure,’ says the prophet, ‘and Thou canst not look on iniquity’ (Habacuc 1:13). When iniquity manifests itself in creatures, the Sanctity of God exacts expiation, and when this expiation is made in all the rigor of justice, then it is terrible. It is for this reason that the Scripture says again, ‘Holy and terrible is His Name’ (Ps. 110:7); as though it would say, His Justice is terrible because His Sanctity is infinite” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
The Tiniest Sin is Greatly Displeasing
“The Justice of God is terrible, and it punishes with extreme rigor even the most trivial faults. The reason is, that these faults, light in our eyes, are in no way so before God. The least sin displeases Him infinitely, and, on account of the infinite Sanctity which is offended, the demands enormous atonement. This explains the terrible severity of the pains of the other life, and should penetrate us with a holy fear!” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Seriousness of Sin Sorrowfully Seen
In that moment of Judgment after death, the soul loves God most tenderly, and in return is most tenderly loved by Him. The soul is in punishment, true; but it is in unbroken union with God. St. Catherine of Genoa most positively says of the soul: “It has no remembrance, no remembrance at all of its past sins, or of Earth.” Its sweet prison, its holy sepulcher, is in the adorable will of its Heavenly Father, and there it abides the term of its purification with the most perfect contentment and the most unutterable love—yet all the while suffering the most inexpressible pains.
God is All About Extremes
If God is to be perfect, He must be extreme, for perfection implies being extremely good at something. God is extreme in His mercy and extreme in His justice—and the soul reflects this with its extreme love under extreme suffering. As it is not teased or taunted by any vision of self or sin, so neither is it harassed by an atom of fear, or by a single doubt of its own safety or security. It is now in a state of sinlessness—it cannot and will not ever sin again. It cannot even commit the slightest imperfection. It cannot have the least movement of impatience. It can do nothing whatever which will in the least displease God. It loves God above everything, and it loves Him with a pure and disinterested love. It is constantly consoled by angels, and can only rejoice in the confirmed assurance of its own salvation.
Heaven Extremely Expensive
The soul now realizes what it refused or failed to realize on Earth—that Heaven is not the cheap thing that most people made it out to be, thinking they could walk in after a few hastily said prayers and some distractedly heard Masses. Heaven, being the greatest place there is, also carries the greatest admission price—a price few were willing to pay on Earth. Nor could they pay it, even if the wishfully desired to, for they had insufficient funds in the bank of their souls. Now they must earn and pay the full price—which could have been paid at a discounted rate here on Earth, but it was judged, even then, as being far too high a price to pay! The world offered its wares and pleasures and a much cheaper rate, and so that is what most souls spent the time and effort on—the world.
How Long Do Souls Remain in Purgatory?
The length of time souls are detained in Purgatory depends on:
(a) The number of their faults;
(b) The malice and deliberation with which these have been committed;
(c) The penance done, or not done, the satisfaction made, or not made for sins during life;
(d) Much, too, depends on the suffrages offered for them after death
What can safely be said is that the time souls spend in Purgatory is, as a rule, very much longer than people commonly imagine. We will quote a few of the many instances which are recounted in the lives and revelations of the Saints.
► St. Louis Bertrand’s father was an exemplary Christian, as we should naturally expect, being the father of so great a Saint. He had even wished to become a Carthusian monk until he learned that it was not God’s will for him. When he died, after long years spent in the practice of every Christian virtue, his saintly son, fully aware of the rigors of God’s Justice, offered many Masses and poured forth the most fervent supplications for the soul he so dearly loved. A vision of his father still in Purgatory forced him to intensify a hundredfold his suffrages. He added most severe penances and long fasts to his Masses and prayers. Yet eight whole years passed before he obtained the release of his father.
► St. Malachy’s sister was detained in Purgatory for a very long time, despite the Masses, prayers and heroic mortifications the Saint offered for her!
► It was related to a holy nun in Pampluna, who had succeeded in releasing many Carmelite nuns from Purgatory, that most of these Carmelite nuns had spent terms of from 30 to 60 years there!
► Carmelite nuns in Purgatory for 40, 50 and 60 years! What will it be for those living amidst the temptations of the World and with all their hundreds of weaknesses?
► St. Vincent Ferrer, after the death of his sister, prayed with incredible fervor for her soul and offered many Masses for her release. She appeared to him at length and told him that had it not been for his powerful intercession with God, she should have remained an interminable time in Purgatory.
► In the Dominican Order it is the rule to pray for the Master Generals by name on their anniversaries. Many of these have been dead several hundred years! They were men especially eminent for piety and learning. This rule would not be approved by the Church were it not necessary and prudent.
We do not mean to imply that all souls are detained equally long periods in the expiatory fires. Many have committed lesser faults and have done more penance. Therefore, their punishment will be much less severe. Still, the instances we have quoted are very much to the point, for if these souls who enjoyed the intimacy, who saw the example and who shared in the intercession of great Saints during their lives and were aided by their most efficacious suffrages after death were yet detained for such a length of time in Purgatory, what may not happen to us who enjoy none of these wonderful privileges?
Why Such a Long Expiation?
The reasons are not difficult to find:
1. The malice of sin is very great. What appear to us small faults are in reality serious offenses against the infinite goodness of God. It is enough to see how the Saints wept over their faults. We are weak, it may be urged. That is true, but then God offers us abundant graces to strengthen our weakness, gives us light to see the gravity of our faults, and the necessary force to conquer temptation. If we are still weak, the fault is all our own. We do not use the light and strength God so generously offers us; we do not pray, we do not receive the Sacraments as we should.
2. An eminent theologian wisely remarks that if souls are condemned to Hell for all eternity because of one mortal sin, it is not to be wondered at that other souls should be detained for long years in Purgatory who have committed countless deliberate venial sins, some of which are so grave that at the time of their commission the sinner scarcely knows if they are mortal or venial. Too, they may have committed many mortal sins for which they have had little sorrow and done little or no penance. The guilt has been remitted by absolution, but the pain due to the sins will have to be paid in Purgatory.
Our Lord tells us that we shall have to render an account for each and every idle word we say and that we may not leave our prison until we shall have paid the last farthing (Matthew. 5:26).
The Saints committed few and slight sins―and still they sorrowed much and did severe penances. We commit many and grave sins―and we sorrow little and do little or no penance.
Venial Sins
It would be difficult to calculate the immense number of venial sins that any Catholic commits.
► There is an infinite number of faults of self-love, selfishness; thoughts, words and acts of sensuality, too, in a hundred forms; faults of charity in thought, word and deed; laziness, vanity, jealousy, tepidity and innumerable other faults.
► There are sins of omission which we pay so little heed to. We love God so little, yet He has a thousand claims on our love for the thousands of things he has done for us. Yet, we treat Him with coldness, indifference and base ingratitude. He died for each one of us. Do we ever thank Him as we ought? He remains day and night on the Altar, waiting for our visits, anxious to help us. How seldom we go to Him! He longs to come into our souls in Holy Communion, and we refuse Him entrance. He offers Himself up for us on the Altar every morning at Mass and gives oceans of graces to those who assist at this great Sacrifice. Yet many are too lazy to go to this Calvary! What an abuse of grace!
► Our hearts are mean and hard, full of self-love. We have happy homes, splendid food, warm clothing, an abundance of all good things. Many around us live in hunger and misery, and we give them so little; whereas, we spend lavishly and needlessly on ourselves.
► Life is given us to serve God, to save our souls. Most Christians, however, are satisfied to give God five minutes of prayer in the morning, five minutes at night! The rest of the 24 hours is given to work, rest and pleasure. Ten minutes to God, to our immortal souls, to the great work we have to do, viz., our salvation. Twenty‑three hours and 50 minutes to this transitory life! Is it fair to God?
It may be alleged that our work, our rest, our sufferings are done for God! They should be, and then our merits would be indeed great! The truth is that many scarcely ever think of God during the day! The one engrossing object of their thoughts is self. They think and labor and rest and sleep to satisfy self. God gets a very little place in their day and in their minds. This is an outrage to His loving Heart, which is ever thinking of us.
Mortal Sins
Many Christians unfortunately commit mortal sins during their lives, but though they confess them, they make no due satisfaction for them, as we have already said.
► The Venerable Bede appears to be of the opinion that those who pass a great part of their lives in the commission of grave sins and confess them on their deathbed may be detained in Purgatory even until the Last Day. St. Bede lived in the 600s and 700s and the last was a long way away!
► St. Gertrude, in her revelations, states that those who have committed many grave sins and have not done due penance for them, may not benefit from and share in the ordinary suffrages of the Church for a very considerable time!
All those sins, mortal and venial, are accumulating for the 20, 30, 40, 60 years of our lives. Each and every one has to be atoned for after death.
Purgatorial Math
We again take the extract from Fr. Schouppe’s book, Purgatory Explained, which shows a hypothetical sin-calculator that goes towards showing how and why such long times are spent in Purgatory.
“Father Mumford, of the Company of Jesus, in his Treatise on Charity towards the Departed, bases the long duration of Purgatory on a calculation of probability, which we shall give in substance. He goes out on the principle that, according to the words of the Holy Ghost, The just man falls seven times a day (Proverbs 24:16), that is to say, that even those who apply themselves most perfectly to the service of God, notwithstanding their good-will, commit a great number of faults in the infinitely pure eyes of God. We have but to enter into our own conscience, and there analyze before God our thoughts, our words, and works, to be convinced of this sad effect of human misery. Oh, how easy it is to lack respect in prayer, to prefer our ease to the accomplishment of duty, to sin by vanity, by impatience, by sensuality, by uncharitable thoughts and words, by want of conformity to the will of God! The day is long; is it very difficult for even a virtuous person to commit, I do not say seven, but twenty or thirty of this kind of faults and imperfections?
“Let us take a moderate estimate, and suppose that you commit about ten [venial] faults a day; at the end of 365 days you will have a sum of 3,650 faults. Let us diminish, and, to facilitate the calculation, place it at 3,000 per year. At the end of ten years this will amount to 30,000, and at the end of twenty years to 60,000. Suppose that of these 60,000 faults you have expiated one half by penance and good works, there will still remain 30,000 to be atoned for.
“Let us continue our hypothesis: You die after these twenty years of virtuous life, and appear before God with a debt of 30,000 faults, which you must discharge in Purgatory. How much time will you need to accomplish this expiation? Suppose, on an average, each fault requires one hour of Purgatory. This measure is very moderate, if we judge by the revelations of the saints; but at any rate this will give you a Purgatory of 30,000 hours. Now, do you know how many years these 30,000 hours represent? Three years, three months, and fifteen days. Thus a good Christian who watches over himself, who applies himself to penance and good works, finds himself liable to three years, three months, and fifteen days of Purgatory.
“The preceding calculation is based on an estimate which is lenient in the extreme. Now, if you extend the duration of the pain, and, instead of an hour, you take a day for the expiation of a fault, if, instead of having nothing but venial sins, you bring before God a debt resulting from mortal sins, more or less numerous, which you formerly committed, if you assign, on the average, as St. Frances of Rome says, seven years for the expiation of one mortal sin, remitted as to the guilt, who does not see that we arrive at an appalling duration, and that the expiation may easily be prolonged for many years, and even for centuries?” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained, chapter 22, “The Duration of Purgatory”).
Purgatorial Calculator
Without trying to be silly, or artificial, we have decided to put Fr. Mumford’s statements into table form, so that we can more easily see and understand his message. We have gone with 7 venial sins a day (instead of his 10) based on Scripture: “For a just man shall fall seven times” (Proverbs 24:16). However, experience shows that on some days it is possible to commit seven venial sins, or even more, in an hour—a grumpy start to the day: we mutter when the alarm goes off; we utter a bad word when we stub our toe against something on the way to the bathroom, or when the shower water is too hot or too cold; we complain about the murky weather outside; we put-off our morning prayers or say them in haste or distractedly; we show irritability to the rest of the family at breakfast; we tell a “white lie” or two; we eat too much; we speed on the way to work; we complain about the traffic delays, the red lights, the other drivers, etc.
The tables below show at a glance the cost of such accumulated sin. Of course it is all hypothetical and all this varies with the differing gravity of each venial sin and upon the knowledge and state of the soul, e.g. priest or layman, adult or child, etc. For to whom more is given, more is expected.
Do Not Undervalue the Gravity of Sin
“Be not without fear about sin forgiven” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance” (Matthew 3:8). “Thou shalt not go out thence, until thou pay the very last mite” (Luke 12:59). Sin is expensive, very expensive—it is the most expensive thing in the world because “Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, and a greater evil than disease, or war ... Mortal Sin must be a most terrible thing indeed, to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the eternal punishment of sinners who die with even only one Mortal Sin” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 22, “Mortal Sin”). If an eternal Hell is created to punish just one single Mortal Sin, how on earth can war, flooding, earthquakes, pestilence, disease, death or fire from Heaven be thought to be worse than Hell? No matter what punishment Heaven sends us, it will still be like being tickled in comparison to the punishment of Hell.
As for Venial Sin, the same catechism says: “Although Venial Sin is not a grievous offense against God, it is, nevertheless, a great moral evil, next alone to Mortal Sin. We are prone to look upon Venial Sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that IT IS SECOND ONLY IN EVIL CONSEQUENCE TO MORTAL SIN. In Holy Scripture we see, from many examples, how God regards Venial Sin. Even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished. He was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land [and died at its borders]” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 23, “Venial Sin”).
How Saints Looked Upon Sin
If that is the value of sin, then what is the price we have to pay for sin? If St. Thomas Aquinas says that one single soul, in a state of sanctifying grace, is of more value than all the material wealth of the universe, the what price can we put on a soul that is, or has been, in a state of mortal sin? What price has to be paid to regain that state of grace? Is it any wonder that there are souls—like Amelia, the young friend of the three Fatima visionaries, of whom Our Lady said that she would burn in Purgatory until the end of the world! What is the cost of sin?!! Do the three Hail Marys, that the priest gives you in confession, pay for it? Far from it! It is a merely a down-payment for the damage sin has caused and the Church expects us to do additional penance to pay for our sins!
While we are in this world, God mercifully accepts a lesser payment than shown in the hypothetical tables above. But when this life comes to a close, the mercy ceases and then the just amount will be collected. Let us not waste time in vain occupations, which can often be sinful too and so only add fuel to the fire—but let us take the rest of our life much more seriously than we have done until now. Remember the power of love—it is not so much the multiplicity of actions and penances that count, but the intensity of love and sorrow that we do them with: “for charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8) and “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47). However, to love much we must sin less—for how can we say we love someone if don’t cease mocking them and slapping them around, which is what Venial Sin essentially does?
“Be not without fear about sin forgiven” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance” (Matthew 3:8). “Thou shalt not go out thence, until thou pay the very last mite” (Luke 12:59). Sin is expensive, very expensive—it is the most expensive thing in the world because “Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, and a greater evil than disease, or war ... Mortal Sin must be a most terrible thing indeed, to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the eternal punishment of sinners who die with even only one Mortal Sin” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 22, “Mortal Sin”). If an eternal Hell is created to punish just one single Mortal Sin, how on earth can war, flooding, earthquakes, pestilence, disease, death or fire from Heaven be thought to be worse than Hell? No matter what punishment Heaven sends us, it will still be like being tickled in comparison to the punishment of Hell.
As for Venial Sin, the same catechism says: “Although Venial Sin is not a grievous offense against God, it is, nevertheless, a great moral evil, next alone to Mortal Sin. We are prone to look upon Venial Sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that IT IS SECOND ONLY IN EVIL CONSEQUENCE TO MORTAL SIN. In Holy Scripture we see, from many examples, how God regards Venial Sin. Even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished. He was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land [and died at its borders]” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 23, “Venial Sin”).
How Saints Looked Upon Sin
If that is the value of sin, then what is the price we have to pay for sin? If St. Thomas Aquinas says that one single soul, in a state of sanctifying grace, is of more value than all the material wealth of the universe, the what price can we put on a soul that is, or has been, in a state of mortal sin? What price has to be paid to regain that state of grace? Is it any wonder that there are souls—like Amelia, the young friend of the three Fatima visionaries, of whom Our Lady said that she would burn in Purgatory until the end of the world! What is the cost of sin?!! Do the three Hail Marys, that the priest gives you in confession, pay for it? Far from it! It is a merely a down-payment for the damage sin has caused and the Church expects us to do additional penance to pay for our sins!
While we are in this world, God mercifully accepts a lesser payment than shown in the hypothetical tables above. But when this life comes to a close, the mercy ceases and then the just amount will be collected. Let us not waste time in vain occupations, which can often be sinful too and so only add fuel to the fire—but let us take the rest of our life much more seriously than we have done until now. Remember the power of love—it is not so much the multiplicity of actions and penances that count, but the intensity of love and sorrow that we do them with: “for charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8) and “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47). However, to love much we must sin less—for how can we say we love someone if don’t cease mocking them and slapping them around, which is what Venial Sin essentially does?
Article 3
Monday November 3rd
(transferred feast of the Holy Souls, due to it clashing with a Sunday)
Time to Put Out the Fires!
Monday November 3rd
(transferred feast of the Holy Souls, due to it clashing with a Sunday)
Time to Put Out the Fires!
Fires of Hell, but Focused on Heaven
“The word ‘Purgatory’ is sometimes taken to mean a place, sometimes as an intermediate state, between Hell and Heaven. It is, properly speaking, the condition of souls which, at the moment of death, are in the state of grace, but which have not completely expiated their faults, nor attained the degree of purity necessary to enjoy the vision of God” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
The same fire, says Pope St. Gregory the Great, torments the damned and purifies the elect. “Almost all theologians,” says the cardinal, St. Robert Bellarmine, “teach that the damned in Hell and the souls in Purgatory suffer the action of the same fire.” It must be held as certain, writes St. Robert Bellarmine, that there is no proportion between the sufferings of this life and those of Purgatory. St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, writes: “As to the suffering, it is equal to that of Hell.” St. Thomas Aquinas states: “The fire of Purgatory is the same as the fire of Hell” (Summa Theologica, Supplement, Appendix II, Art. 1).
Passions Were Satisfied; Justice Must Be Satisfied
“Purgatory is, then, a transitory state which terminates in a life of everlasting happiness. It is not a trial by which merit may be gained or lost, but a state of atonement and expiation. The soul has arrived at the term of its earthly career; that life was a time of trial, a time of merit for the soul, a time of mercy on the part of God. This time once expired, nothing but justice is to be expected from God, whilst the soul can neither gain nor lose merit. She remains in the state in which death found her; and since it found her in the state of sanctifying grace, she is certain of never forfeiting that happy state, and of arriving at the eternal possession of God. Nevertheless, since she is burdened with certain debts of temporal punishment, she must satisfy Divine Justice by enduring this punishment in all its rigor” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Lovers of Earth Banished to Earth
“Although Faith tells us nothing definite regarding the location of Purgatory, the most common opinion, that which most accords with the language of Scripture, and which is the most generally received among theologians, places it in the bowels of the Earth, not far from the Hell of the reprobates. Theologians are almost unanimous, says Bellarmine, in teaching that Purgatory, at least the ordinary place of expiation, is situated in the interior of the Earth, that the souls in Purgatory and the reprobate are in the same subterranean space in the deep abyss which the Scripture calls Hell. (Roman Cathechism, chapter 6, §1)” (Fr. Schouppe,Purgatory Explained).
Different Kinds of Hell
“When we say in the Apostles Creed that after His death “Jesus Christ descended into Hell,” the name Hell, says the Catechism of the Council of Trent, signifies those hidden places where the souls are detained which have not yet reached eternal beatitude. But these prisons are of different kinds. One is a dark and gloomy dungeon, where the damned are continually tormented by evil spirits, and by a fire which is never extinguished. This place, which is Hell properly so called, is also named Gehenna and abyss” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
The Hell of Purgatory
If you read Fr. Schouppe’s book, Purgatory Explained, you will read some very sobering passages about Purgatory. One of the things he points out is the fact that the fires of Purgatory are the same fires as those of Hell. “There is another Hell, which contains the fire of Purgatory. There the souls of the just suffer for a certain time, that they may become entirely purified before being admitted into their heavenly fatherland, where nothing defiled can ever enter” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
The Hell of Limbo
“A third Hell was that into which the souls of the saints who died before the coming of Jesus Christ were received, and in which they enjoyed peaceful repose, exempt from pain, consoled and sustained by the hope of their redemption. They were those holy souls which awaited Jesus Christ in Abraham’s bosom, and which were delivered when Christ descended into Hell. Our Savior suddenly diffused among them a brilliant light, which filled them with infinite joy, and gave them sovereign beatitude, which is the vision of God. Then was fulfilled the promise of Jesus to the good thief: This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
“A very probable opinion,” says St. Thomas, “and one which, moreover, corresponds with the words of the saints in particular revelation is, that Purgatory has a double place for expiation. The first will be destined for the generality of souls, and is situated below, near to Hell; the second will be for particular cases, and it is from thence that so many apparitions occur.” (Summa Theologica, Suppl., part. 3, ques. ult.).” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
“The holy Doctor admits, then, like so many others who share his opinions, that sometimes Divine Justice assigns a special place of purification to certain souls, and even permits them to appear either to instruct the living or to procure for the departed the suffrages of which they stand in need; sometimes also for other motives worthy of the wisdom and mercy of God” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Fitting Fires of Hell
“Such is the general view concerning the location of Purgatory. Since we are not writing a controversial treatise, we add neither proofs nor refutations; these can be seen in authors such as Suarez and Bellarmine. We will content ourselves by remarking that the opinion concerning a subterranean Hell has nothing to fear from modern science. A science purely natural is incompetent in questions which belong, as does this one, to the supernatural order. Moreover, we know that spirits may be in a place occupied by bodies, as though these bodies did not exist. Whatever, then, the interior of the Earth may be, whether it be entirely of fire, as geologists commonly say, or whether it be in any other state, there is nothing to prevent its serving as a sojourn of spirits, even of spirits clothed with a risen body. The Apostle, St. Paul teaches us that the air is filled with a multitude of evil spirits: We have to combat, says he, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places (Ephesians 6:12).” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Today’s Air-Conditioned Purgatory
Some people have the weirdest ideas about Purgatory. They amount of sins that they commit would make you think that they imagine Purgatory to be like a five-star hotel, with a bar and Jacuzzi in every room, air-conditioning and climate-control, Olympic size swimming-pool and golf-course thrown in. They sin more and more so that they can spend more and more time there! The Modernist or Liberal Catholic, may well accept the existence of Purgatory in theory, however, in practice, they live as though Purgatory is empty. Let’s face it, how many sermons do you hear on Purgatory these days? Even when they are preached, many ‘water-down’ Purgatory to a point where we think little of the sufferings of the souls detained there—as though they were merely stuck in a traffic jam or in slow-moving traffic on the road to Heaven! The Modernist and Liberal mentality is, in the words of Fr. Felix Salvany, in his book Liberalism is a Sin,
Offend God rather than Neighbor!
“The Catholic simply tainted with Liberalism is generally a good man and sincerely pious; he exhales nevertheless an odor of Liberalism in everything he says, writes, or takes up. This courageous man reasons, speaks, and acts as a Liberal without knowing it. His strong point is charity; he is charity itself. … How the devil must chuckle over the mushy charity held out as a bait to abet his own cause! … Charity is a supernatural virtue which induces us to love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves for the love of God. … Charity is primarily the love of God, secondarily the love of our neighbor for God’s sake. To sacrifice the first is to abandon the latter. Therefore, to offend our neighbor for the love of God is a true act of charity. Not to offend our neighbor for the love of God is a sin. Modern Liberalism reverses this order; it imposes a false notion of charity: our neighbor first, and, if at all, God afterwards” (Fr. Felix Salvany, Liberalism Is A Sin).
Hey! Nobody’s Perfect!
The result of this reversal of charity therefore sees people being prepared to see God offended rather than having to be ‘uncharitable’ by correcting the sinning neighbor! Unbelievable! Yet this modern behavior consequently allows mountains of sins to be piled-up under the pretext of what they think and protest is charity—all they really do is allow others to pile-up their Purgatory! “Sin now, burn later”—that’s their idea of charity. They help their neighbor pile-up the firewood with their excuses for not correcting others--”Everyone has their faults!” … “Nobody’s perfect!” … “It’s only a Venial Sin!” Huh? Only a Venial Sin? Well read some accounts of the suffering undergone in the fires of Purgatory for only Venial Sins! Then come back and say “only”! The entrance fee to Heaven is PERFECTION—as Our Lord Himself said: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), which echoes the Old Testament: “Thou shalt be perfect, and without spot before the Lord thy God” (Deuteronomy 18:13). Heaven is no place for mediocrity or half-baked Catholics—hence the need for the fires of Purgatory to full-bake the half-baked Catholics. Remember—many, if not most saints, had to pass to through Purgatory—with the exception of martyrs.
Dense Wood Burns Longer
They say that dense wood burns for much longer—well, these Liberals and Modernists with their fake and false notions of charity and sin, must be pretty dense. Therefore, if they manage to scrape into Purgatory, they will burn all the longer. The physician cauterizing his patient or cutting off his gangrened limb may nonetheless love him. Likewise the ‘cauterizing’ effect of Purgatory is an inexplicably painful act of mercy and love by God—God chastises those who He loves: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ And knowest not, that thou art wretched [a sinner], and miserable [finding joy in the world, not God], and poor [in grace and merits], and blind [lukewarm], and naked [without virtues]. I counsel thee to buy of Me gold fire tried [true charity], that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see. Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:15-19).
As Penance Goes Down, the Temperature Goes Up
It is lack of penance that places souls in the terrible fires of Purgatory. Our Lord has warned us: product of confession is the receiving and doing of penance. “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
The dogmatic teaching of the Catholic Church on the doctrine of Purgatory was specified in 1439 by the Council of Florence, which declared: “It has likewise been defined that, if those truly penitent have departed in the love of God, before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for sins of commission and omission, the souls of these are cleansed after death by purgatorial punishments.”
The Council of Trent later added: “If anyone says that, after receiving the grace of justification, the guilt of any repentant sinner is remitted and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out, in such a way that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be paid, either in this life or in Purgatory, before the gate to the kingdom of Heaven can be opened: let him be anathema.”
White-Weddings, okay! White-Funerals? You’re Kidding!
St. Paul said that in the last times there would be people with “itching ears” seeking after novelties and believing fables. Well, one of those fables is that Purgatory and Hell are empty—or almost empty. God is love, and love is sweet, and the sweet loving God in His loving sweetness cannot bear to send anyone to Purgatory, let alone Hell!
This novelty of funerals in white is a fable-feeding funeral—funerals in white used to be performed ONLY for children who had died below the “age-of-reason” and were thus incapable of committing sin—which meant that after death they went straight to Heaven, hence the “funeral in white” with the Mass being that of the Angels, not the Requiem Mass. Today, everyone gets a “White-Funeral” and everyone talks as though the deceased is already clinking glasses with the angels and saints in Heaven, at a homecoming party! Sadly, Heaven IS NOT filling up and Purgatory is NOT empty. In fact, the common opinion among theologians is that MOST SOULS, that end up going to Heaven, have to pass through the fires of Purgatory. As Scripture says: “There shall not enter into it anything defiled, or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie …” (Apocalypse 21:27).
Full-Price Ticket to Heaven
The poor souls in Purgatory still have the stains of sin within them. This means two things. First, it means that the souls have not yet paid the temporal penalty due to sin, either for venial sins, or for mortal sins whose guilt was forgiven before death. There is also the problem of unrepented and unforgiven venial sin, for which the guilt and punishment were not removed before death. It is not certain whether the guilt of venial sins is strictly speaking remitted after death, and if so, how the remission takes place.
Discounts Only On Earth
We can pay for damage of sin after death in Purgatory, or we can pay the penalties of satisfaction for sin on Earth before death, which can be done by souls in a state of grace during the course of their whole life on Earth. Whereas before death a soul can cleanse itself by freely choosing to suffer for its sins, and so can gain merit for this suffering; a soul in Purgatory cannot choose to do so and gains no merit for its suffering and no increase in its glory. Rather, it is cleansed according to the demands of Divine Justice.
The Price is Right!
There are simply, or perhaps even too obviously, several basic reasons why souls have to undergo the terrible, yet at the same time joyful, sufferings of Purgatory. To keep things simple, let us enumerate them in a list form:
(1) Those who never lost the grace of God throughout their life, and died after having committed only venial sins in their life, but who were not sufficiently sorry for those venial sins, nor did sufficient penance for them, nor accepted the trials and sufferings that God sent them as a payment for their sins.
(2) Those who have committed mortal sins and therefore lost the grace of God, which they regained through the Sacrament of Confession, but like the case above, they were not sufficiently sorry for those venial sins, nor did sufficient penance for them, nor accepted the trials and sufferings that God sent them as a payment for their sins. Of course, mortal sin is much more expensive than venial sin, and so requires more penance than would be required for venial sin.
(3) The third group, of course, is a combination of the two previous groups listed above—those who have sinned both mortally and venially, and who have died with their mortal sins confessed and forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession. These have an even greater debt for having committed a combination of both kinds of sins.
Each Size of Sin Has Its Price Tag
What modifies this is the personal number and kind of sin that has been committed. There is a hierarchy among sins, which only God can properly and correctly evaluate. Objective and subjective elements come into play to create almost infinite levels of gravity for the same species of sin—the sin of violence will be judged differently in each case: what was duration of the act of violence? What was its intensity? On whom was it inflicted? Was it in self-defense? What damage or injury was inflicted? Was there any sorrow? Was there any apology made? Was any reparation made? Did the behavior improve or cease?
A Just Judge Judges the Just
These are just a few of the many questions that need to be asked to form a correct and just judgment of the level of guilt involved. Thank heavens it God Who judges and nobody else? It would be hard enough to judge one single sin correctly, let alone the thousands or hundreds of thousands of sins that one single person has committed!
It is good to know that, in all of His judgments, God is always both merciful and just. He never applies His justice without mercy; and He never shows mercy without justice. If He would do so, then He would be lacking in one or the other virtue—but God is perfect and so He exercises both in perfect balance and with the utmost harmony. However, it is worth noting one of the psalms, from Holy Scripture, which says: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy! The Lord is sweet to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works!” (Psalm 144:8-9).
Mercy in Hell?
Even those who are damned in Hell, realize that God is merciful to them, and has not permitted them to be punished to degree that they truly deserved—even though they will be punished for eternity. The time of punishment remains the same—eternity—but the degree or intensity of punishment has been reduced. A combination of justice and mercy.
Sweeping Purgatory Under the Carpet?
Unfortunately, our sense of values has been deformed and corrupted, and we have no real inkling of the gravity of sin, nor of the punishment that sin deserves. Furthermore, we have little idea of what Purgatory is really like. For many, it is like a taboo subject—let’s not talk about it, let’s talk about something more pleasant! But when we avoid looking at the doctrine and revelations about Purgatory, we risk harming ourselves by avoiding the issue of the gravity and consequence of sin. When we read and truly meditate upon what goes on in Purgatory, we cannot avoid being struck with a salutary and healthy fear of the consequences of even the most ‘trivial’ sin (if one dare call sin ‘trivial’) and the rigor of God’s justice, even though he simultaneously applies some of His mercy.
“Ouch” and “Ouch” again!
If you read Fr. Schouppe’s book, Purgatory Explained, you will read some very sobering passages about Purgatory. One of the things he points out is the fact that the fires of Purgatory are the same fires as those of Hell. He also points out that there is in Purgatory, as in Hell, a double pain—the pain of loss in the soul and the pain of the senses. The pain suffered by the loss of God, is greater than the pain of the fire, or any of the other tortures, that the soul suffers.
Massive Loss
The pain of loss consists in being deprived for a time of the sight of God, Who is our Supreme Good, for Whom our souls were made. In Purgatory, there is a thirst for God—which should have been there while living on Earth, but the soul thirsted more for worldly things rather than God. The pain of sense, or sensible suffering, is the same as that which we experience in our flesh. Its nature is not defined by Faith, but it is the common opinion of the Doctors that it consists in fire and other species of suffering.
Fearsome Fire—Hot as Hell
The fire of Purgatory, say the Fathers, is that of Hell, of which the rich glutton speaks when he says: “I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24). The same fire, says Pope St. Gregory the Great, torments the damned and purifies the elect. “Almost all theologians,” says the cardinal, St. Robert Bellarmine, “teach that the damned in Hell and the souls in Purgatory suffer the action of the same fire.” It must be held as certain, writes St. Robert Bellarmine, that there is no proportion between the sufferings of this life and those of Purgatory. St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, writes: “As to the suffering, it is equal to that of Hell.”
We know what a terrible thing fire is, and what pain is caused by the slightest burn, no matter how feeble the flame may be; how much more terrible must be that fire which is fed neither with wood, gas nor oil.
St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, says: “The souls endure a torment so extreme that no tongue can describe it, nor could the understanding conceive the least notion of it, if God did not make it known by a particular grace.”
Perfectly Weighted Justice
As regards the severity of these pains, since they are inflicted by Infinite Justice, they are proportioned to the nature, gravity, and number of sins committed. Each one receives according to his works, each one must acquit himself of the debts with which he sees himself charged before God. Now these debts differ greatly in quality. Some, which have accumulated during a long life, have reached the ten thousand talents of the Gospel, that is to say, millions and tens of millions; whilst others are reduced to a few farthings, the trifling remainder of that which has not been expiated on Earth. It follows from this that the souls undergo various kinds of sufferings, that there are innumerable degrees of expiation in Purgatory, and that some are incomparably more severe than others. However, speaking in general, the doctors agree in saying that the pains are most excruciating.
Terrible Time of Torment
St. Augustine believes that even though the souls in Purgatory will be saved, no doubt, after the trial of fire, but that trial will be terrible, that torment of Purgatory will be far more intolerable than all the most excruciating sufferings in this world. St. Thomas goes even further; he maintains that the least pain of Purgatory surpasses all the sufferings of this life, whatsoever they may be. The author of The Imitation of Christ explains this doctrine by a practical and striking sentence. Speaking in general of the sufferings of the other life, he says: “There, one hour of torment will be more terrible than a hundred years of rigorous penance done here!”
Crazy Catholics
Why, O why, do people want to pile up unnecessary punishment in the unimaginably painful and hot fires of Purgatory, which are in essence the fires of Hell, when they could avoid that by either not-sinning here below, or doing fitting serious penance for past sins. If people were physically burned on Earth each time they committed a Mortal or Venial Sin, then sin would soon stop. Because there payment is deferred to a later time, they sin like crazy! They—and we—are crazy! You have to be—if you stop and think about it seriously!
“The word ‘Purgatory’ is sometimes taken to mean a place, sometimes as an intermediate state, between Hell and Heaven. It is, properly speaking, the condition of souls which, at the moment of death, are in the state of grace, but which have not completely expiated their faults, nor attained the degree of purity necessary to enjoy the vision of God” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
The same fire, says Pope St. Gregory the Great, torments the damned and purifies the elect. “Almost all theologians,” says the cardinal, St. Robert Bellarmine, “teach that the damned in Hell and the souls in Purgatory suffer the action of the same fire.” It must be held as certain, writes St. Robert Bellarmine, that there is no proportion between the sufferings of this life and those of Purgatory. St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, writes: “As to the suffering, it is equal to that of Hell.” St. Thomas Aquinas states: “The fire of Purgatory is the same as the fire of Hell” (Summa Theologica, Supplement, Appendix II, Art. 1).
Passions Were Satisfied; Justice Must Be Satisfied
“Purgatory is, then, a transitory state which terminates in a life of everlasting happiness. It is not a trial by which merit may be gained or lost, but a state of atonement and expiation. The soul has arrived at the term of its earthly career; that life was a time of trial, a time of merit for the soul, a time of mercy on the part of God. This time once expired, nothing but justice is to be expected from God, whilst the soul can neither gain nor lose merit. She remains in the state in which death found her; and since it found her in the state of sanctifying grace, she is certain of never forfeiting that happy state, and of arriving at the eternal possession of God. Nevertheless, since she is burdened with certain debts of temporal punishment, she must satisfy Divine Justice by enduring this punishment in all its rigor” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Lovers of Earth Banished to Earth
“Although Faith tells us nothing definite regarding the location of Purgatory, the most common opinion, that which most accords with the language of Scripture, and which is the most generally received among theologians, places it in the bowels of the Earth, not far from the Hell of the reprobates. Theologians are almost unanimous, says Bellarmine, in teaching that Purgatory, at least the ordinary place of expiation, is situated in the interior of the Earth, that the souls in Purgatory and the reprobate are in the same subterranean space in the deep abyss which the Scripture calls Hell. (Roman Cathechism, chapter 6, §1)” (Fr. Schouppe,Purgatory Explained).
Different Kinds of Hell
“When we say in the Apostles Creed that after His death “Jesus Christ descended into Hell,” the name Hell, says the Catechism of the Council of Trent, signifies those hidden places where the souls are detained which have not yet reached eternal beatitude. But these prisons are of different kinds. One is a dark and gloomy dungeon, where the damned are continually tormented by evil spirits, and by a fire which is never extinguished. This place, which is Hell properly so called, is also named Gehenna and abyss” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
The Hell of Purgatory
If you read Fr. Schouppe’s book, Purgatory Explained, you will read some very sobering passages about Purgatory. One of the things he points out is the fact that the fires of Purgatory are the same fires as those of Hell. “There is another Hell, which contains the fire of Purgatory. There the souls of the just suffer for a certain time, that they may become entirely purified before being admitted into their heavenly fatherland, where nothing defiled can ever enter” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
The Hell of Limbo
“A third Hell was that into which the souls of the saints who died before the coming of Jesus Christ were received, and in which they enjoyed peaceful repose, exempt from pain, consoled and sustained by the hope of their redemption. They were those holy souls which awaited Jesus Christ in Abraham’s bosom, and which were delivered when Christ descended into Hell. Our Savior suddenly diffused among them a brilliant light, which filled them with infinite joy, and gave them sovereign beatitude, which is the vision of God. Then was fulfilled the promise of Jesus to the good thief: This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
“A very probable opinion,” says St. Thomas, “and one which, moreover, corresponds with the words of the saints in particular revelation is, that Purgatory has a double place for expiation. The first will be destined for the generality of souls, and is situated below, near to Hell; the second will be for particular cases, and it is from thence that so many apparitions occur.” (Summa Theologica, Suppl., part. 3, ques. ult.).” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
“The holy Doctor admits, then, like so many others who share his opinions, that sometimes Divine Justice assigns a special place of purification to certain souls, and even permits them to appear either to instruct the living or to procure for the departed the suffrages of which they stand in need; sometimes also for other motives worthy of the wisdom and mercy of God” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Fitting Fires of Hell
“Such is the general view concerning the location of Purgatory. Since we are not writing a controversial treatise, we add neither proofs nor refutations; these can be seen in authors such as Suarez and Bellarmine. We will content ourselves by remarking that the opinion concerning a subterranean Hell has nothing to fear from modern science. A science purely natural is incompetent in questions which belong, as does this one, to the supernatural order. Moreover, we know that spirits may be in a place occupied by bodies, as though these bodies did not exist. Whatever, then, the interior of the Earth may be, whether it be entirely of fire, as geologists commonly say, or whether it be in any other state, there is nothing to prevent its serving as a sojourn of spirits, even of spirits clothed with a risen body. The Apostle, St. Paul teaches us that the air is filled with a multitude of evil spirits: We have to combat, says he, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places (Ephesians 6:12).” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).
Today’s Air-Conditioned Purgatory
Some people have the weirdest ideas about Purgatory. They amount of sins that they commit would make you think that they imagine Purgatory to be like a five-star hotel, with a bar and Jacuzzi in every room, air-conditioning and climate-control, Olympic size swimming-pool and golf-course thrown in. They sin more and more so that they can spend more and more time there! The Modernist or Liberal Catholic, may well accept the existence of Purgatory in theory, however, in practice, they live as though Purgatory is empty. Let’s face it, how many sermons do you hear on Purgatory these days? Even when they are preached, many ‘water-down’ Purgatory to a point where we think little of the sufferings of the souls detained there—as though they were merely stuck in a traffic jam or in slow-moving traffic on the road to Heaven! The Modernist and Liberal mentality is, in the words of Fr. Felix Salvany, in his book Liberalism is a Sin,
Offend God rather than Neighbor!
“The Catholic simply tainted with Liberalism is generally a good man and sincerely pious; he exhales nevertheless an odor of Liberalism in everything he says, writes, or takes up. This courageous man reasons, speaks, and acts as a Liberal without knowing it. His strong point is charity; he is charity itself. … How the devil must chuckle over the mushy charity held out as a bait to abet his own cause! … Charity is a supernatural virtue which induces us to love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves for the love of God. … Charity is primarily the love of God, secondarily the love of our neighbor for God’s sake. To sacrifice the first is to abandon the latter. Therefore, to offend our neighbor for the love of God is a true act of charity. Not to offend our neighbor for the love of God is a sin. Modern Liberalism reverses this order; it imposes a false notion of charity: our neighbor first, and, if at all, God afterwards” (Fr. Felix Salvany, Liberalism Is A Sin).
Hey! Nobody’s Perfect!
The result of this reversal of charity therefore sees people being prepared to see God offended rather than having to be ‘uncharitable’ by correcting the sinning neighbor! Unbelievable! Yet this modern behavior consequently allows mountains of sins to be piled-up under the pretext of what they think and protest is charity—all they really do is allow others to pile-up their Purgatory! “Sin now, burn later”—that’s their idea of charity. They help their neighbor pile-up the firewood with their excuses for not correcting others--”Everyone has their faults!” … “Nobody’s perfect!” … “It’s only a Venial Sin!” Huh? Only a Venial Sin? Well read some accounts of the suffering undergone in the fires of Purgatory for only Venial Sins! Then come back and say “only”! The entrance fee to Heaven is PERFECTION—as Our Lord Himself said: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), which echoes the Old Testament: “Thou shalt be perfect, and without spot before the Lord thy God” (Deuteronomy 18:13). Heaven is no place for mediocrity or half-baked Catholics—hence the need for the fires of Purgatory to full-bake the half-baked Catholics. Remember—many, if not most saints, had to pass to through Purgatory—with the exception of martyrs.
Dense Wood Burns Longer
They say that dense wood burns for much longer—well, these Liberals and Modernists with their fake and false notions of charity and sin, must be pretty dense. Therefore, if they manage to scrape into Purgatory, they will burn all the longer. The physician cauterizing his patient or cutting off his gangrened limb may nonetheless love him. Likewise the ‘cauterizing’ effect of Purgatory is an inexplicably painful act of mercy and love by God—God chastises those who He loves: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ And knowest not, that thou art wretched [a sinner], and miserable [finding joy in the world, not God], and poor [in grace and merits], and blind [lukewarm], and naked [without virtues]. I counsel thee to buy of Me gold fire tried [true charity], that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see. Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:15-19).
As Penance Goes Down, the Temperature Goes Up
It is lack of penance that places souls in the terrible fires of Purgatory. Our Lord has warned us: product of confession is the receiving and doing of penance. “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
The dogmatic teaching of the Catholic Church on the doctrine of Purgatory was specified in 1439 by the Council of Florence, which declared: “It has likewise been defined that, if those truly penitent have departed in the love of God, before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for sins of commission and omission, the souls of these are cleansed after death by purgatorial punishments.”
The Council of Trent later added: “If anyone says that, after receiving the grace of justification, the guilt of any repentant sinner is remitted and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out, in such a way that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be paid, either in this life or in Purgatory, before the gate to the kingdom of Heaven can be opened: let him be anathema.”
White-Weddings, okay! White-Funerals? You’re Kidding!
St. Paul said that in the last times there would be people with “itching ears” seeking after novelties and believing fables. Well, one of those fables is that Purgatory and Hell are empty—or almost empty. God is love, and love is sweet, and the sweet loving God in His loving sweetness cannot bear to send anyone to Purgatory, let alone Hell!
This novelty of funerals in white is a fable-feeding funeral—funerals in white used to be performed ONLY for children who had died below the “age-of-reason” and were thus incapable of committing sin—which meant that after death they went straight to Heaven, hence the “funeral in white” with the Mass being that of the Angels, not the Requiem Mass. Today, everyone gets a “White-Funeral” and everyone talks as though the deceased is already clinking glasses with the angels and saints in Heaven, at a homecoming party! Sadly, Heaven IS NOT filling up and Purgatory is NOT empty. In fact, the common opinion among theologians is that MOST SOULS, that end up going to Heaven, have to pass through the fires of Purgatory. As Scripture says: “There shall not enter into it anything defiled, or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie …” (Apocalypse 21:27).
Full-Price Ticket to Heaven
The poor souls in Purgatory still have the stains of sin within them. This means two things. First, it means that the souls have not yet paid the temporal penalty due to sin, either for venial sins, or for mortal sins whose guilt was forgiven before death. There is also the problem of unrepented and unforgiven venial sin, for which the guilt and punishment were not removed before death. It is not certain whether the guilt of venial sins is strictly speaking remitted after death, and if so, how the remission takes place.
Discounts Only On Earth
We can pay for damage of sin after death in Purgatory, or we can pay the penalties of satisfaction for sin on Earth before death, which can be done by souls in a state of grace during the course of their whole life on Earth. Whereas before death a soul can cleanse itself by freely choosing to suffer for its sins, and so can gain merit for this suffering; a soul in Purgatory cannot choose to do so and gains no merit for its suffering and no increase in its glory. Rather, it is cleansed according to the demands of Divine Justice.
The Price is Right!
There are simply, or perhaps even too obviously, several basic reasons why souls have to undergo the terrible, yet at the same time joyful, sufferings of Purgatory. To keep things simple, let us enumerate them in a list form:
(1) Those who never lost the grace of God throughout their life, and died after having committed only venial sins in their life, but who were not sufficiently sorry for those venial sins, nor did sufficient penance for them, nor accepted the trials and sufferings that God sent them as a payment for their sins.
(2) Those who have committed mortal sins and therefore lost the grace of God, which they regained through the Sacrament of Confession, but like the case above, they were not sufficiently sorry for those venial sins, nor did sufficient penance for them, nor accepted the trials and sufferings that God sent them as a payment for their sins. Of course, mortal sin is much more expensive than venial sin, and so requires more penance than would be required for venial sin.
(3) The third group, of course, is a combination of the two previous groups listed above—those who have sinned both mortally and venially, and who have died with their mortal sins confessed and forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession. These have an even greater debt for having committed a combination of both kinds of sins.
Each Size of Sin Has Its Price Tag
What modifies this is the personal number and kind of sin that has been committed. There is a hierarchy among sins, which only God can properly and correctly evaluate. Objective and subjective elements come into play to create almost infinite levels of gravity for the same species of sin—the sin of violence will be judged differently in each case: what was duration of the act of violence? What was its intensity? On whom was it inflicted? Was it in self-defense? What damage or injury was inflicted? Was there any sorrow? Was there any apology made? Was any reparation made? Did the behavior improve or cease?
A Just Judge Judges the Just
These are just a few of the many questions that need to be asked to form a correct and just judgment of the level of guilt involved. Thank heavens it God Who judges and nobody else? It would be hard enough to judge one single sin correctly, let alone the thousands or hundreds of thousands of sins that one single person has committed!
It is good to know that, in all of His judgments, God is always both merciful and just. He never applies His justice without mercy; and He never shows mercy without justice. If He would do so, then He would be lacking in one or the other virtue—but God is perfect and so He exercises both in perfect balance and with the utmost harmony. However, it is worth noting one of the psalms, from Holy Scripture, which says: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy! The Lord is sweet to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works!” (Psalm 144:8-9).
Mercy in Hell?
Even those who are damned in Hell, realize that God is merciful to them, and has not permitted them to be punished to degree that they truly deserved—even though they will be punished for eternity. The time of punishment remains the same—eternity—but the degree or intensity of punishment has been reduced. A combination of justice and mercy.
Sweeping Purgatory Under the Carpet?
Unfortunately, our sense of values has been deformed and corrupted, and we have no real inkling of the gravity of sin, nor of the punishment that sin deserves. Furthermore, we have little idea of what Purgatory is really like. For many, it is like a taboo subject—let’s not talk about it, let’s talk about something more pleasant! But when we avoid looking at the doctrine and revelations about Purgatory, we risk harming ourselves by avoiding the issue of the gravity and consequence of sin. When we read and truly meditate upon what goes on in Purgatory, we cannot avoid being struck with a salutary and healthy fear of the consequences of even the most ‘trivial’ sin (if one dare call sin ‘trivial’) and the rigor of God’s justice, even though he simultaneously applies some of His mercy.
“Ouch” and “Ouch” again!
If you read Fr. Schouppe’s book, Purgatory Explained, you will read some very sobering passages about Purgatory. One of the things he points out is the fact that the fires of Purgatory are the same fires as those of Hell. He also points out that there is in Purgatory, as in Hell, a double pain—the pain of loss in the soul and the pain of the senses. The pain suffered by the loss of God, is greater than the pain of the fire, or any of the other tortures, that the soul suffers.
Massive Loss
The pain of loss consists in being deprived for a time of the sight of God, Who is our Supreme Good, for Whom our souls were made. In Purgatory, there is a thirst for God—which should have been there while living on Earth, but the soul thirsted more for worldly things rather than God. The pain of sense, or sensible suffering, is the same as that which we experience in our flesh. Its nature is not defined by Faith, but it is the common opinion of the Doctors that it consists in fire and other species of suffering.
Fearsome Fire—Hot as Hell
The fire of Purgatory, say the Fathers, is that of Hell, of which the rich glutton speaks when he says: “I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24). The same fire, says Pope St. Gregory the Great, torments the damned and purifies the elect. “Almost all theologians,” says the cardinal, St. Robert Bellarmine, “teach that the damned in Hell and the souls in Purgatory suffer the action of the same fire.” It must be held as certain, writes St. Robert Bellarmine, that there is no proportion between the sufferings of this life and those of Purgatory. St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, writes: “As to the suffering, it is equal to that of Hell.”
We know what a terrible thing fire is, and what pain is caused by the slightest burn, no matter how feeble the flame may be; how much more terrible must be that fire which is fed neither with wood, gas nor oil.
St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, says: “The souls endure a torment so extreme that no tongue can describe it, nor could the understanding conceive the least notion of it, if God did not make it known by a particular grace.”
Perfectly Weighted Justice
As regards the severity of these pains, since they are inflicted by Infinite Justice, they are proportioned to the nature, gravity, and number of sins committed. Each one receives according to his works, each one must acquit himself of the debts with which he sees himself charged before God. Now these debts differ greatly in quality. Some, which have accumulated during a long life, have reached the ten thousand talents of the Gospel, that is to say, millions and tens of millions; whilst others are reduced to a few farthings, the trifling remainder of that which has not been expiated on Earth. It follows from this that the souls undergo various kinds of sufferings, that there are innumerable degrees of expiation in Purgatory, and that some are incomparably more severe than others. However, speaking in general, the doctors agree in saying that the pains are most excruciating.
Terrible Time of Torment
St. Augustine believes that even though the souls in Purgatory will be saved, no doubt, after the trial of fire, but that trial will be terrible, that torment of Purgatory will be far more intolerable than all the most excruciating sufferings in this world. St. Thomas goes even further; he maintains that the least pain of Purgatory surpasses all the sufferings of this life, whatsoever they may be. The author of The Imitation of Christ explains this doctrine by a practical and striking sentence. Speaking in general of the sufferings of the other life, he says: “There, one hour of torment will be more terrible than a hundred years of rigorous penance done here!”
Crazy Catholics
Why, O why, do people want to pile up unnecessary punishment in the unimaginably painful and hot fires of Purgatory, which are in essence the fires of Hell, when they could avoid that by either not-sinning here below, or doing fitting serious penance for past sins. If people were physically burned on Earth each time they committed a Mortal or Venial Sin, then sin would soon stop. Because there payment is deferred to a later time, they sin like crazy! They—and we—are crazy! You have to be—if you stop and think about it seriously!
Article 2
Sunday November 2nd
Are You Going to Heaven?
Sunday November 2nd
Are You Going to Heaven?
How to Clear a Room in a Matter of Seconds!
For most people, the question of the number of souls that shall be saved, or more precisely, the fewness of the souls saved, is perhaps the most painful, frightening, anxiety-giving, discouraging topic that could ever be imagined, let alone discussed! If you want to clear a room of people, or find some time to be alone with yourself, then just start a conversation on the fewness of souls saved! It can be guaranteed that you will find yourself alone within minutes, if not seconds!
Yet, it is a topic that Our Lord Himself addressed and the Evangelists and New Testament writers have brought to our attention. If you read the writings of the saints throughout all the centuries since Our Lord’s day, you will find many references and opinions on the matter. Though there are some varying opinions, essentially, the Fathers of the Church, as well as the Saints of the Church and her theologians, are of the opinion that most souls are not saved. However, before you go into an anxiety-attack and your heart starts beating at a dangerous level, remember also this: most souls are lost through their negligence, stubbornness, pridefulness and lukewarmness. There is not one single soul in Hell that could not have got to Heaven.
Do You Want to Go to Heaven?
Ask yourself if you want to go to Heaven. Who doesn’t want to go to Heaven? Only lunatics and Satanists prefer to go Hell rather than Heaven! Almost everybody wants to go to Heaven! Yet how many people actually get to Heaven? We could pretend―like many of today’s Modernists and Liberals―that salvation is a universal gift and that everyone goes to Heaven! Yet in doing so we would ourselves to be idiots―for Our Lord, Our Lady and Holy Scripture do not agree and tell us the exact opposite!
Our Lord, in the Gospels, tells us that few are actually saved: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But Jesus said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!’” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
Our Lady, in her revelations to the mystic and stigmatist, Venerable Mary of Agreda, said: “Fear the danger of not attending to the divine calls, for that is the cause of the loss of innumerable souls ... How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!”
What happened to Sodom and Gomorrha, will happen to us tomorrow if we do not repent and change our way of life. Our Lady of Akita said: “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.”
Our Lord mentioned the time of Noe and the Ark, reminded us of how few were saved―“the flood came, and took them all away.” God had no qualms about eliminating most of the human race because of sin and wiped them off the face of the Earth—“It repented Him that He had made man on the Earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said: ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth!’” (Genesis 6:6-7).
We see the same anger in God during the Exodus from Egypt on the journey to the Promised Land: “And again the Lord said to Moses: ‘See that this people is stiff-necked! Let Me alone, that My wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of thee a great nation!’” (Exodus 32:9-10).
St. Paul reminds us of this in the New Testament: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea! And all in Moses were baptized―in the cloud and in the sea! And did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ! But with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the desert!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5).
God was not well pleased with most of them! What a horrifying thought! They were His Chosen People—were they not? Yet He was ready to destroy them, He made them wander and die in the desert so that only two (Josue and Caleb) of the original millions who had left Egypt actually entered the Promised Land—the rest were a new generation! With most of them God was not well pleased! What, then, would God think of our ultra-sinful world today? We shiver to think! Our Lady of Fatima judged that it was necessary to show the three children―Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta―a vision of Hell in order to provoke people into praying for the salvation of so many sinners who are falling into Hell! That was back in 1917! How much more sinful is the world today??!!!
Same Old … Same Old … Same Old Truth!
The popes and saints have echoed those unpleasant words throughout the centuries:
St. Justin Martyr, Father of the Church (100-165): “The majority of men shall not see God, except for those who live justly, purified by righteousness and virtue.”
St. Jerome, Doctor and Father of the Church (347-420): “Out of one hundred thousand sinners who continue in sin until death, scarcely one will be saved!”
St. John Chrysostom, Doctor and Father of the Church (347-407): “Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants not one hundred people will be saved. I even doubt whether there will be as many as that! … I do not think that many bishops are saved, but that those who perish are far more numerous.”
St. Augustine, Doctor and Father of the Church (354-430): “Not all, nor even a majority, are saved! … Beyond a doubt the elect are few! … It is certain that few are saved! … If you wish to imitate the multitude, then you shall not be among the few who shall enter in by the narrow gate!”
St. Regimius (437-533): “With the exception of those who die in childhood, most men will be damned!”
Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604): “There are many who arrive at the Faith, but few who are led into the heavenly kingdom … They who are to be saved as Saints, and wish to be saved as imperfect souls, shall not be saved!”
St. John Climacus, Father of the Church (579-649): “Live with the few if you want to reign with the few.” (St. John Climacus, Father of the Church).
St. Bede the Venerable, Doctor and Father of the Church (672-735): “Christ’s flock is called ‘little’ (Luke 12:32) in comparison with the greater number of the reprobates.”
St. Anselm, Doctor of the Church (1033-1109): “If you would like to be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many. And if thou wouldst be quite sure of thy salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few!”
St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church (1225-1274): “There are a select few who are saved” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.7, ad 3.) “Those who are saved are in the minority” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.8, ad.3).
St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552): “O how many souls lose Heaven and are cast into Hell!”
St. Philip Neri (1515-1595): “So vast a number of miserable souls perish, and so comparatively few are saved!”
St. Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church (1515-1582): “I had the greatest sorrow for the many souls that condemned themselves to Hell ... I saw souls falling into Hell like snowflakes!”
St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church (1542-1591): “Behold how many there are who are called, and how few who are chosen! And behold, if you have no care for yourself, your perdition is more certain than your amendment, especially since the way that leads to eternal life is so narrow.”
St. Veronica Giuliani (1660-1727): “The number of the damned is incalculable.”
St. Louis Marie de Montfort (1673-1716): “The number of the elect is so small – so small – that, were we to know how small it is, we would faint away with grief! Be one of the small number who find the way to life, and enter by the narrow gate into Heaven. Take care not to follow the majority and the common herd, so many of whom are lost!”
St. Leonard of Port Maurice (1676-1751): “The greater number of Christian adults are damned! … The most common sentiment which is held is that, among Christians, there are more damned souls than predestined souls. Add the authority of the Greek and Latin Fathers to that of the theologians, and you will find that almost all of them say the same thing.
St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, Doctor of the Church (1696-1787): “Everyone desires to be saved but the greater part is lost … The common opinion is that the greater part of adults is lost! … The saints are few―but we must live with the few if we would be saved with the few!”
St. Benedict Joseph of Labre (1748-1783): “Many will be damned; few will be saved! … Try hard to be among the few who are chosen!”
Blessed Anna Maria Taigi (1769-1837): “The greater number of Christians today are damned. The destiny of those dying on one day is that very few ― not as many as ten ― went straight to Heaven; many remained in Purgatory; and those cast into Hell were as numerous as snowflakes in midwinter.”
St. John Marie Vianney (1786-1859): “Shall we all be saved? Shall we go to Heaven? Alas, my children, we do not know at all! But I tremble when I see so many souls lost these days. See, they fall into Hell as leaves fall from the trees at the approach of winter! … The number of the saved is as few as the number of grapes left after the vineyard-pickers have passed!”
St. Joseph Cafasso (1811-1860): “How few are those who pass for good! An enormous number will come to be damned!”
St. John Neumann (1811-1860): “Only few will be saved; only few will go to Heaven; and that the greater part of mankind will be lost forever.”
Do Not Paint an Untrue Rigorous or Mushy Picture of God!
We poor humans, with our limited capacities of mind and reason, sometimes have difficulty on focusing on more than one thing at a time. We sometimes tend to make things “black and white” and fail to grasp subtle distinctions of gray that can exist between those two extremes.
For some people God is “ALL LOVE” and “ALL MERCY”. They could not imagine that God would send to Hell a soul guilty of just one or several mortal sins. Their favorite Scriptural quotes are such as: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow―and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18).
Others see God as “ALL JUSTICE” and “FIRE AND BRIMSTONE”. They find it hard to imaging God having mercy on sinners and, like St. James and St. John, they want to see punishment and retribution happening right away. “Jesus steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. And He sent messengers before His face; and going, they entered into a city of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. And they received Him not, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem. And when His disciples, James and John, had seen this, they said: ‘Lord! Shall we command fire to come down from Heaven, and consume them?’ And turning, Jesus rebuked them, saying: ‘You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!’” (Luke 9:51-56).
The hard and rigid ones have favorite quotes such as: “For behold the Lord will come with fire, and His chariots are like a whirlwind, to render His wrath in indignation, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For the Lord shall judge by fire, and by His sword unto all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many!” (Isaias 66:15-16). “Who can stand before the face of His indignation? And who shall resist in the fierceness of His anger? His indignation is poured out like fire and the rocks are melted by Him!” (Nahum 1:6).
What we have trouble with is imagining how God can be both extremely just and extremely merciful at one and the same time. Yet we must never forget that GOD IS EXTREME simply because GOD IS PERFECT and something that is perfect is EXTREMELY good, way above the average!
Abuse God’s Mercy At Your Own Risk
What matters just as much—if not more—is not just what God says, but what God does. Even though God is extremely merciful, He will not let His mercy be abused. It is suggested that you set aside to time to read and reflect upon the sermon of St. Alphonsus Liguori for the First Sunday of Lent, entitled: “On The Number Of Sins Beyond Which God Pardons No More” (click here and go to sermon #8). This is a wake-up call for modern-man’s tendency to abuse the mercy of God by downplaying His justice.
There is a Limit to God’s Mercy
Here are just a few extracts from that sermon of St. Alphonsus—a Doctor of the Church and patron of moral theologians:
“God wants all men to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4); but He also wishes us all to labor for our salvation and of obeying Him when He calls us to repentance. Sinners hear the calls of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend Him. But God does not forget them. He numbers the graces which He dispenses, as well as the sins which we commit. Hence, when the time which He has fixed arrives, God deprives us of His graces, and begins to inflict chastisement. St. Basil, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and other fathers, teach that God has fixed for each person the number of the days of his life, and the degrees of health and talent which he will give him, so he has also determined for each the number of sins which He will pardon; and when this number is completed, He will pardon no more.
“God is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner. The Lord pardons sins, but He cannot pardon those who are determined to offend Him. Nor can we demand, from God, a reason why He pardons one person a hundred sins, and takes others out of life, and sends them to Hell, after three or four sins. How many has God sent to Hell for the first offence? St. Gregory relates, that a child of five years, who had arrived at the use of reason, for having uttered a blasphemy, was seized by the devil and carried to Hell. The divine Mother revealed to that great servant of God, Benedicta of Florence, that a boy of twelve years was damned after the first sin. Another boy of eight years died after his first sin and was lost.”
“‘Be not without fear about sins forgiven, and add not sin to sin.’ (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). Say not then, O sinner, ‘As God has forgiven me other sins, so He will pardon me this one if I commit it!’ Say not this; for, if to the sin which has been forgiven you add another, you have reason to fear that this new sin shall be united to your former guilt, and that thus the number will be completed, and that you shall be abandoned. Listen, then, O sinner, to the admonition of the Lord: ‘My son, hast thou sinned? Do so no more, but for thy former sins pray that they may be forgiven thee’ (Ecclesiasticus 21:1). Son, add not sins to those which you have already committed, but be careful to pray for the pardon of your past transgressions; otherwise, if you commit another mortal sin, the gates of the divine mercy may be closed against you, and your soul may be lost forever.” You can read the rest of this most edifying sermon for yourself in your own good time! You will find under the LENT tab, in the subsection SERMONS FOR LENT (or click here and go to sermon #8).
God will show us His mercy if we do not abuse His mercy through presumption of His mercy. “Be not without fear about sins forgiven, and add not sin to sin” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). As St. Alphonsus says: “God is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner.”
Sobering thoughts, huh? God
No Chance Saints!
St. Thomas Aquinas is quoted as telling us that there is no such thing as ‘luck’—nothing happens ‘by chance’ or ‘by accident’—everything is under the guidance of Divine Providence, even the things that we think to be flukes. There are no “chance” saints in Heaven. The principle that Holy Scripture lays down is true for every saint in Heaven, for every soul paying for forgiven but unpaid sin in Purgatory, and those souls suffering eternally in Hell--“Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:8).
That is the basic law of salvation, as Our Lord also pointed out very clearly: “Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Not everyone that saith to me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’ Everyone, therefore, that hears these My words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that heareth these My words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof” (Matthew 7:17-27).
The Road Away from Sin to Sanctity
The road to Heaven is a road that leads us away from sin. It leads us away from worldliness and it leads us to virtue, which is a prerequisite for entrance to Heaven. There is no unrepentant sinner in Heaven; nor is there any lukewarm soul in Heaven—for only saints go to Heaven.
There are some Catholics who say they love God, but they also like certain sins. They have an attitude of “Oh, I’ll just commit this sin and then go to Confession and put it right!” This kind of Catholic is Catholic only in name, but not by nature! Such a Catholic risks his or her salvation with such a “two-timing” attitude. They are spiritual adulterers! They profess to love God, yet they love their pet sins. They want the best of both worlds—they want their illicit joys on Earth and then they want to taste the joys of Heaven. St. James rightly calls such persons “adulterers” when he castigates their “two-timing” attitude: “Adulterers, know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
Our Lord clearly said: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where your treasure is, there is your heart also. The light of your body is your eye. If your eye be single, your whole body shall be lightsome. But if your eye be evil, your whole body shall be darksome. If then the light that is in you, be darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be! No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, be not anxious for your life and what you shall eat; nor for your body and what you shall put on. Is not the life more than just food; and the body more than the clothing?” (Matthew 6:19-25).
No More Single-Eyed, But Double-Hearted Souls
For most people, their chief treasure is on Earth—whether it be sinful treasure or non-sinful treasure. Their eyes are mainly focused on the world for most of the time. And the world is only too ready to satisfy their eyes—and it will satisfy them sinfully or non-sinfully. Impure, immodest, provocative, alluring images and fashions are available whichever way you turn. No wonder Our Lady said that the most popular and most frequent sin that damns souls over the course of the last centuries is the sin of impurity. Not just impurity by actions, but also impurity in thoughts and looks and words.
Seconds Lead to Eternity
Imagine! Just one single sinfully grievous thought, lasting only a few seconds, if unrepented and unconfessed, changes from a few seconds of pleasure into an eternity of pain! You will say: “But I do confess them!” Ah, yes, my friend, you may well confess them, but are you really sorry for them? Are you making a firm purpose of amendment? Most souls have no firm purpose of amendment—which is one of the ESSENTIAL conditions for a good confession. Thus they have been making bad confessions for years! Treating the Sacrament of Confession like a cheap car-wash, week-in and week-out! If those so-called “confessed” sins were mortal sins and you did not have a firm purpose of amendment, but were ready to commit them all over again—a kind of a “sin-confess-sin-confess-sin-confess” syndrome, then you already have one foot in Hell, and not in Heaven. St. Alphonsus Liguori is of the opinion that there are many bad confessions that are made—for a whole variety of reasons: insufficient examination of conscience, fudging on the numbers of mortal sins, or downplaying the gravity of them, or only partially confessing them, or lying about the number of times, not having a firm purpose of amending your life, etc.
Any Sinner Can Become A Saint!
We are not born saints, but we are born with Original Sin. Original Sin is not our personal sin―it is the sin of Adam and Eve―but just like parents endow their children with some of their parental characteristics, so too does Original Sin leave a trace of Adam and Eve’s sinfulness upon our soul. As a consequence, we tend to gravitate to sin more than we tend to gravitate to virtue. In fact, gravity makes it easier and effortless to go downhill—and many there are who are on that downhill slope. Gravity makes climbing hard, and thus there are few who are prepared to persevere in the climb up the mountain of God to Heaven. There are more sinners than there are saints. There are more souls lost than there are souls saved. Yet any sinner can be saved if the sinner is willing to cooperate with God and obey Him.
God Himself tells us this on numerous occasions in Holy Scripture: “The soul that sins, the same shall die! And if a man be just and does judgment and justice … then he shall surely live, says the Lord God … The soul that sins, the same shall die! The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and the father shall not bear the iniquity of the son! The justice of the just shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him! … But if the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keeps all My commandments, and does judgment, and justice, then living he shall live, and shall not die! I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done―and in his justice which he has wrought, he shall live! Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? … When the wicked turns himself away from his wickedness which he has wrought, and does judgment and justice, then he shall save his soul alive. Because he considers and turns away himself from all his iniquities which he has wrought, he shall surely live, and not die!” (Ezechiel 18:4-5, 10, 20-24, 27-28).
“If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow; and if they be red as crimson, they shall be made white as wool” (Isaias 1:18).
For most people, the question of the number of souls that shall be saved, or more precisely, the fewness of the souls saved, is perhaps the most painful, frightening, anxiety-giving, discouraging topic that could ever be imagined, let alone discussed! If you want to clear a room of people, or find some time to be alone with yourself, then just start a conversation on the fewness of souls saved! It can be guaranteed that you will find yourself alone within minutes, if not seconds!
Yet, it is a topic that Our Lord Himself addressed and the Evangelists and New Testament writers have brought to our attention. If you read the writings of the saints throughout all the centuries since Our Lord’s day, you will find many references and opinions on the matter. Though there are some varying opinions, essentially, the Fathers of the Church, as well as the Saints of the Church and her theologians, are of the opinion that most souls are not saved. However, before you go into an anxiety-attack and your heart starts beating at a dangerous level, remember also this: most souls are lost through their negligence, stubbornness, pridefulness and lukewarmness. There is not one single soul in Hell that could not have got to Heaven.
Do You Want to Go to Heaven?
Ask yourself if you want to go to Heaven. Who doesn’t want to go to Heaven? Only lunatics and Satanists prefer to go Hell rather than Heaven! Almost everybody wants to go to Heaven! Yet how many people actually get to Heaven? We could pretend―like many of today’s Modernists and Liberals―that salvation is a universal gift and that everyone goes to Heaven! Yet in doing so we would ourselves to be idiots―for Our Lord, Our Lady and Holy Scripture do not agree and tell us the exact opposite!
Our Lord, in the Gospels, tells us that few are actually saved: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But Jesus said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate―for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! … Enter ye in at the narrow gate―for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life―and few there are that find it! … For many are called, but few are chosen!’” (Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14; 22:14).
Our Lady, in her revelations to the mystic and stigmatist, Venerable Mary of Agreda, said: “Fear the danger of not attending to the divine calls, for that is the cause of the loss of innumerable souls ... How many men have thrown themselves into the eternal darkness of Hell! … Countless numbers have fallen into Hell! … Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day! The neglect and contempt of bodily mortification cause the loss of many souls and bring many more into the danger of eternal loss. I will not tell thee how many souls are lost, in order to not cause thee to die of sorrow at this loss! I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular! Weep ceaselessly over the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls, who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves … and lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation!”
What happened to Sodom and Gomorrha, will happen to us tomorrow if we do not repent and change our way of life. Our Lady of Akita said: “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.”
Our Lord mentioned the time of Noe and the Ark, reminded us of how few were saved―“the flood came, and took them all away.” God had no qualms about eliminating most of the human race because of sin and wiped them off the face of the Earth—“It repented Him that He had made man on the Earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said: ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth!’” (Genesis 6:6-7).
We see the same anger in God during the Exodus from Egypt on the journey to the Promised Land: “And again the Lord said to Moses: ‘See that this people is stiff-necked! Let Me alone, that My wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of thee a great nation!’” (Exodus 32:9-10).
St. Paul reminds us of this in the New Testament: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea! And all in Moses were baptized―in the cloud and in the sea! And did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ! But with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the desert!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5).
God was not well pleased with most of them! What a horrifying thought! They were His Chosen People—were they not? Yet He was ready to destroy them, He made them wander and die in the desert so that only two (Josue and Caleb) of the original millions who had left Egypt actually entered the Promised Land—the rest were a new generation! With most of them God was not well pleased! What, then, would God think of our ultra-sinful world today? We shiver to think! Our Lady of Fatima judged that it was necessary to show the three children―Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta―a vision of Hell in order to provoke people into praying for the salvation of so many sinners who are falling into Hell! That was back in 1917! How much more sinful is the world today??!!!
Same Old … Same Old … Same Old Truth!
The popes and saints have echoed those unpleasant words throughout the centuries:
St. Justin Martyr, Father of the Church (100-165): “The majority of men shall not see God, except for those who live justly, purified by righteousness and virtue.”
St. Jerome, Doctor and Father of the Church (347-420): “Out of one hundred thousand sinners who continue in sin until death, scarcely one will be saved!”
St. John Chrysostom, Doctor and Father of the Church (347-407): “Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants not one hundred people will be saved. I even doubt whether there will be as many as that! … I do not think that many bishops are saved, but that those who perish are far more numerous.”
St. Augustine, Doctor and Father of the Church (354-430): “Not all, nor even a majority, are saved! … Beyond a doubt the elect are few! … It is certain that few are saved! … If you wish to imitate the multitude, then you shall not be among the few who shall enter in by the narrow gate!”
St. Regimius (437-533): “With the exception of those who die in childhood, most men will be damned!”
Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604): “There are many who arrive at the Faith, but few who are led into the heavenly kingdom … They who are to be saved as Saints, and wish to be saved as imperfect souls, shall not be saved!”
St. John Climacus, Father of the Church (579-649): “Live with the few if you want to reign with the few.” (St. John Climacus, Father of the Church).
St. Bede the Venerable, Doctor and Father of the Church (672-735): “Christ’s flock is called ‘little’ (Luke 12:32) in comparison with the greater number of the reprobates.”
St. Anselm, Doctor of the Church (1033-1109): “If you would like to be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many. And if thou wouldst be quite sure of thy salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few!”
St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church (1225-1274): “There are a select few who are saved” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.7, ad 3.) “Those who are saved are in the minority” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.8, ad.3).
St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552): “O how many souls lose Heaven and are cast into Hell!”
St. Philip Neri (1515-1595): “So vast a number of miserable souls perish, and so comparatively few are saved!”
St. Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church (1515-1582): “I had the greatest sorrow for the many souls that condemned themselves to Hell ... I saw souls falling into Hell like snowflakes!”
St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church (1542-1591): “Behold how many there are who are called, and how few who are chosen! And behold, if you have no care for yourself, your perdition is more certain than your amendment, especially since the way that leads to eternal life is so narrow.”
St. Veronica Giuliani (1660-1727): “The number of the damned is incalculable.”
St. Louis Marie de Montfort (1673-1716): “The number of the elect is so small – so small – that, were we to know how small it is, we would faint away with grief! Be one of the small number who find the way to life, and enter by the narrow gate into Heaven. Take care not to follow the majority and the common herd, so many of whom are lost!”
St. Leonard of Port Maurice (1676-1751): “The greater number of Christian adults are damned! … The most common sentiment which is held is that, among Christians, there are more damned souls than predestined souls. Add the authority of the Greek and Latin Fathers to that of the theologians, and you will find that almost all of them say the same thing.
St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, Doctor of the Church (1696-1787): “Everyone desires to be saved but the greater part is lost … The common opinion is that the greater part of adults is lost! … The saints are few―but we must live with the few if we would be saved with the few!”
St. Benedict Joseph of Labre (1748-1783): “Many will be damned; few will be saved! … Try hard to be among the few who are chosen!”
Blessed Anna Maria Taigi (1769-1837): “The greater number of Christians today are damned. The destiny of those dying on one day is that very few ― not as many as ten ― went straight to Heaven; many remained in Purgatory; and those cast into Hell were as numerous as snowflakes in midwinter.”
St. John Marie Vianney (1786-1859): “Shall we all be saved? Shall we go to Heaven? Alas, my children, we do not know at all! But I tremble when I see so many souls lost these days. See, they fall into Hell as leaves fall from the trees at the approach of winter! … The number of the saved is as few as the number of grapes left after the vineyard-pickers have passed!”
St. Joseph Cafasso (1811-1860): “How few are those who pass for good! An enormous number will come to be damned!”
St. John Neumann (1811-1860): “Only few will be saved; only few will go to Heaven; and that the greater part of mankind will be lost forever.”
Do Not Paint an Untrue Rigorous or Mushy Picture of God!
We poor humans, with our limited capacities of mind and reason, sometimes have difficulty on focusing on more than one thing at a time. We sometimes tend to make things “black and white” and fail to grasp subtle distinctions of gray that can exist between those two extremes.
For some people God is “ALL LOVE” and “ALL MERCY”. They could not imagine that God would send to Hell a soul guilty of just one or several mortal sins. Their favorite Scriptural quotes are such as: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow―and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18).
Others see God as “ALL JUSTICE” and “FIRE AND BRIMSTONE”. They find it hard to imaging God having mercy on sinners and, like St. James and St. John, they want to see punishment and retribution happening right away. “Jesus steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. And He sent messengers before His face; and going, they entered into a city of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. And they received Him not, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem. And when His disciples, James and John, had seen this, they said: ‘Lord! Shall we command fire to come down from Heaven, and consume them?’ And turning, Jesus rebuked them, saying: ‘You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!’” (Luke 9:51-56).
The hard and rigid ones have favorite quotes such as: “For behold the Lord will come with fire, and His chariots are like a whirlwind, to render His wrath in indignation, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For the Lord shall judge by fire, and by His sword unto all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many!” (Isaias 66:15-16). “Who can stand before the face of His indignation? And who shall resist in the fierceness of His anger? His indignation is poured out like fire and the rocks are melted by Him!” (Nahum 1:6).
What we have trouble with is imagining how God can be both extremely just and extremely merciful at one and the same time. Yet we must never forget that GOD IS EXTREME simply because GOD IS PERFECT and something that is perfect is EXTREMELY good, way above the average!
Abuse God’s Mercy At Your Own Risk
What matters just as much—if not more—is not just what God says, but what God does. Even though God is extremely merciful, He will not let His mercy be abused. It is suggested that you set aside to time to read and reflect upon the sermon of St. Alphonsus Liguori for the First Sunday of Lent, entitled: “On The Number Of Sins Beyond Which God Pardons No More” (click here and go to sermon #8). This is a wake-up call for modern-man’s tendency to abuse the mercy of God by downplaying His justice.
There is a Limit to God’s Mercy
Here are just a few extracts from that sermon of St. Alphonsus—a Doctor of the Church and patron of moral theologians:
“God wants all men to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4); but He also wishes us all to labor for our salvation and of obeying Him when He calls us to repentance. Sinners hear the calls of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend Him. But God does not forget them. He numbers the graces which He dispenses, as well as the sins which we commit. Hence, when the time which He has fixed arrives, God deprives us of His graces, and begins to inflict chastisement. St. Basil, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and other fathers, teach that God has fixed for each person the number of the days of his life, and the degrees of health and talent which he will give him, so he has also determined for each the number of sins which He will pardon; and when this number is completed, He will pardon no more.
“God is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner. The Lord pardons sins, but He cannot pardon those who are determined to offend Him. Nor can we demand, from God, a reason why He pardons one person a hundred sins, and takes others out of life, and sends them to Hell, after three or four sins. How many has God sent to Hell for the first offence? St. Gregory relates, that a child of five years, who had arrived at the use of reason, for having uttered a blasphemy, was seized by the devil and carried to Hell. The divine Mother revealed to that great servant of God, Benedicta of Florence, that a boy of twelve years was damned after the first sin. Another boy of eight years died after his first sin and was lost.”
“‘Be not without fear about sins forgiven, and add not sin to sin.’ (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). Say not then, O sinner, ‘As God has forgiven me other sins, so He will pardon me this one if I commit it!’ Say not this; for, if to the sin which has been forgiven you add another, you have reason to fear that this new sin shall be united to your former guilt, and that thus the number will be completed, and that you shall be abandoned. Listen, then, O sinner, to the admonition of the Lord: ‘My son, hast thou sinned? Do so no more, but for thy former sins pray that they may be forgiven thee’ (Ecclesiasticus 21:1). Son, add not sins to those which you have already committed, but be careful to pray for the pardon of your past transgressions; otherwise, if you commit another mortal sin, the gates of the divine mercy may be closed against you, and your soul may be lost forever.” You can read the rest of this most edifying sermon for yourself in your own good time! You will find under the LENT tab, in the subsection SERMONS FOR LENT (or click here and go to sermon #8).
God will show us His mercy if we do not abuse His mercy through presumption of His mercy. “Be not without fear about sins forgiven, and add not sin to sin” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). As St. Alphonsus says: “God is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner.”
Sobering thoughts, huh? God
No Chance Saints!
St. Thomas Aquinas is quoted as telling us that there is no such thing as ‘luck’—nothing happens ‘by chance’ or ‘by accident’—everything is under the guidance of Divine Providence, even the things that we think to be flukes. There are no “chance” saints in Heaven. The principle that Holy Scripture lays down is true for every saint in Heaven, for every soul paying for forgiven but unpaid sin in Purgatory, and those souls suffering eternally in Hell--“Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:8).
That is the basic law of salvation, as Our Lord also pointed out very clearly: “Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Not everyone that saith to me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’ Everyone, therefore, that hears these My words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that heareth these My words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof” (Matthew 7:17-27).
The Road Away from Sin to Sanctity
The road to Heaven is a road that leads us away from sin. It leads us away from worldliness and it leads us to virtue, which is a prerequisite for entrance to Heaven. There is no unrepentant sinner in Heaven; nor is there any lukewarm soul in Heaven—for only saints go to Heaven.
There are some Catholics who say they love God, but they also like certain sins. They have an attitude of “Oh, I’ll just commit this sin and then go to Confession and put it right!” This kind of Catholic is Catholic only in name, but not by nature! Such a Catholic risks his or her salvation with such a “two-timing” attitude. They are spiritual adulterers! They profess to love God, yet they love their pet sins. They want the best of both worlds—they want their illicit joys on Earth and then they want to taste the joys of Heaven. St. James rightly calls such persons “adulterers” when he castigates their “two-timing” attitude: “Adulterers, know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
Our Lord clearly said: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where your treasure is, there is your heart also. The light of your body is your eye. If your eye be single, your whole body shall be lightsome. But if your eye be evil, your whole body shall be darksome. If then the light that is in you, be darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be! No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, be not anxious for your life and what you shall eat; nor for your body and what you shall put on. Is not the life more than just food; and the body more than the clothing?” (Matthew 6:19-25).
No More Single-Eyed, But Double-Hearted Souls
For most people, their chief treasure is on Earth—whether it be sinful treasure or non-sinful treasure. Their eyes are mainly focused on the world for most of the time. And the world is only too ready to satisfy their eyes—and it will satisfy them sinfully or non-sinfully. Impure, immodest, provocative, alluring images and fashions are available whichever way you turn. No wonder Our Lady said that the most popular and most frequent sin that damns souls over the course of the last centuries is the sin of impurity. Not just impurity by actions, but also impurity in thoughts and looks and words.
Seconds Lead to Eternity
Imagine! Just one single sinfully grievous thought, lasting only a few seconds, if unrepented and unconfessed, changes from a few seconds of pleasure into an eternity of pain! You will say: “But I do confess them!” Ah, yes, my friend, you may well confess them, but are you really sorry for them? Are you making a firm purpose of amendment? Most souls have no firm purpose of amendment—which is one of the ESSENTIAL conditions for a good confession. Thus they have been making bad confessions for years! Treating the Sacrament of Confession like a cheap car-wash, week-in and week-out! If those so-called “confessed” sins were mortal sins and you did not have a firm purpose of amendment, but were ready to commit them all over again—a kind of a “sin-confess-sin-confess-sin-confess” syndrome, then you already have one foot in Hell, and not in Heaven. St. Alphonsus Liguori is of the opinion that there are many bad confessions that are made—for a whole variety of reasons: insufficient examination of conscience, fudging on the numbers of mortal sins, or downplaying the gravity of them, or only partially confessing them, or lying about the number of times, not having a firm purpose of amending your life, etc.
Any Sinner Can Become A Saint!
We are not born saints, but we are born with Original Sin. Original Sin is not our personal sin―it is the sin of Adam and Eve―but just like parents endow their children with some of their parental characteristics, so too does Original Sin leave a trace of Adam and Eve’s sinfulness upon our soul. As a consequence, we tend to gravitate to sin more than we tend to gravitate to virtue. In fact, gravity makes it easier and effortless to go downhill—and many there are who are on that downhill slope. Gravity makes climbing hard, and thus there are few who are prepared to persevere in the climb up the mountain of God to Heaven. There are more sinners than there are saints. There are more souls lost than there are souls saved. Yet any sinner can be saved if the sinner is willing to cooperate with God and obey Him.
God Himself tells us this on numerous occasions in Holy Scripture: “The soul that sins, the same shall die! And if a man be just and does judgment and justice … then he shall surely live, says the Lord God … The soul that sins, the same shall die! The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and the father shall not bear the iniquity of the son! The justice of the just shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him! … But if the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keeps all My commandments, and does judgment, and justice, then living he shall live, and shall not die! I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done―and in his justice which he has wrought, he shall live! Is it My will that a sinner should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? … When the wicked turns himself away from his wickedness which he has wrought, and does judgment and justice, then he shall save his soul alive. Because he considers and turns away himself from all his iniquities which he has wrought, he shall surely live, and not die!” (Ezechiel 18:4-5, 10, 20-24, 27-28).
“If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow; and if they be red as crimson, they shall be made white as wool” (Isaias 1:18).
Article 1
Saturday November 1st
Happy Birthday! Today is Your Feast Day!
Saturday November 1st
Happy Birthday! Today is Your Feast Day!
Today is Your Feast Day!
Today is the feast of All Saints! Well, happy feast to you, dear saint! “Aw c’mon!” you say, “Stop joking around! I’m no saint and you know it!” Well, maybe and probably you are no saint—but are you on the way to being a saint? Is that your goal in life? Is that—apart from the superior goal of glorifying God—the main focus of your life?
There’s Only One Way
“There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven―whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin, though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Vol. 1, “Introduction”).
Therefore, in Heaven, the saint is not someone extraordinary, the saint is someone who is ordinary, for there are only saints in Heaven—that is one thing that they all have in common, and something that is common is not extraordinary.
Saintly Common Denominator
Another thing that all the saints have in common is that they owe their sanctity, in part, to Our Lady. Explicitly or implicitly, directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly, they all depended upon Our Lady who is the Mediatrix of all Grace. It is through her that God has chosen to distribute all of His graces. Therefore, to pass the exam of sanctity ― to achieve sanctity in this life on Earth and to avoid the remedial school of sanctity in Purgatory―we need to seek-out Mary, to find Mary, to work with Mary, to let Mary teach us, guide us, encourage us and lead to those heights of sanctity which God ear-marked for us on the day He first created our soul.
Your Saintly Calling
St. Louis de Montfort puts it so beautifully in his booklet, The Secret of Mary:
“Chosen soul, living image of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, God wants you to become holy like Him in this life, and glorious like Him in the next. It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you and for which He is even now keeping you in being. What a marvelous transformation is possible! Dust into light, uncleanness into purity, sinfulness into holiness, creature into Creator, man into God! A marvelous work, I repeat, so difficult in itself, and even impossible for a mere creature to bring about, for only God can accomplish it by giving His grace abundantly and in an extraordinary manner. The very creation of the universe is not as great an achievement as this.
Heaven Ain’t Cheap, Ya Know!
It must be remembered that most saints have to pass through the fires of Purgatory before they are allowed admittance into Heaven—except, of course, martyrs, who would go straight to Heaven. But remember, too, that for martyrdom to ‘work’, the martyr has to be sorry for all his sins, otherwise the martyrdom would be in vain (in the case of unrepented mortal sin) and require Purgatory for unrepented venial sin―for no sin can be forgiven if we are not sorry for it. So even some martyrs could, in theory, pass some time in Purgatory if they refuse to be sorry for some of their venial sins.
And if the non-martyred saint has the grace and gift of going straight to Heaven after death, then rest assured that the saint has most certainly done his or her Purgatory here on Earth, by the trials, sorrows, anxieties, humiliations, persecutions, illnesses, pains and sufferings that they would have undergone before being granted such a great privilege.
Burn We Must
At the end of the day, it is the degree of love for God in the heart of the soul that decides the fate of the soul: Heaven, Purgatory or Hell. Love or charity is what will be judged. As St. Paul writes: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). To which Jesus adds: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47), while St. Peter affirms: “Charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). Charity is a fire that burns sins in this world—if we refuse to burn here, we will burn in Purgatory or Hell―but burn we must!
The Remedial School of Saints
Which brings us to the subject of saints and life on Earth. We are all called to be saints, for only saints go to Heaven. We know this in theory, but it is frightening to see how few people try to live this out in practice. If we don’t successfully pass our “sainthood exam” here on Earth, then we will have to spend a long time in the remedial school of sanctity in the fires of Purgatory. Most people have an erroneous notion that Heaven will be populated by the saints on the one hand, and themselves—plain old Mr. and Mrs. so and so on the other hand. They seem to think that Heaven is a place for both sanctity and plain old mediocrity. FALSE! That could not be further from the truth!
Heaven’s Mixed-Bag of Saints
In Heaven, there are all kinds of saints: big and small saints; strong and weak saints; old and young saints; male and female saints; rich and poor saints; “never-sinned-much” saints and “sinned-a-lot” saints; quickly processed saints and slowly processed saints; saints from all kinds of different backgrounds, countries, times and circumstances. But the one thing they have in common is that they are SAINTS and NOT mediocre souls. The mediocre souls find a place in Purgatory, where they have to make up for lost and wasted time and misguided efforts.
How Will I Ever Become A Saint?
“Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you? The means of holiness and salvation are known to everybody, since they are found in the Gospel; the masters of the spiritual life have explained them; the saints have practiced them and shown how essential they are for those who wish to be saved and attain perfection. These means are: sincere humility, unceasing prayer, complete self-denial, abandonment to divine Providence, and obedience to the will of God.” (The Secret of Mary by St. Louis de Montfort).
“The grace and help of God are absolutely necessary for us to practice all these, but we are sure that grace will be given to all, though not in the same measure. I say “not in the same measure,” because God does not give His graces in equal measure to everyone (Romans 12:6), although in His infinite goodness He always gives sufficient grace to each. A person who corresponds to great graces performs great works, and one who corresponds to lesser graces performs lesser works. The value and high standard of our actions corresponds to the value and perfection of the grace given by God and responded to by the faithful soul. No one can contest these principles.” (The Secret of Mary by St. Louis de Montfort).
Sanctity Needs Grace; Grace Comes Through Mary
“To find the grace of God, we must discover Mary. It all comes to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. It is precisely this I wish to teach you. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God.” (The Secret of Mary by St. Louis de Montfort).
This truth was later most perfectly manifested by Our Lady’s apparitions to St. Catherine Labouré, in 1830, at the convent of the Sisters of Charity on the Rue du Bac in Paris, France. It is from these apparitions that we received the so-called “Miraculous Medal.” However, it is more formally known as “The Medal of Our Lady of Grace” and “The Medal of the Immaculate Conception.”
Our Lady herself stipulated the design of the medal, by showing St. Catherine a vision of what it was to look like. There are rays of light beaming forth out of the rings upon Our Lady’s fingers. St. Catherine asked what these rays of light were. Our Lady replied that they were graces. St. Catherine noticed that some rays were shining brilliantly, while other rays of light were dull, so she asked Our Lady what they meant. Our Lady replied that the bright rays were graces that God gave to people, but the dull rays were graces that God did not give to people. St. Catherine, disappointed, asked why God would withhold some graces from us. Our Lady simply replied that they are withheld from us because we don’t ask for them!
If Only I Would Have ...
The poor souls in Purgatory could have avoided those fires if they had only taken their life―their spiritual life―much more seriously. Grace and sanctity was not at the top of their shopping-list, nor did they ask Our Lady for the graces they would have needed to avoid being sent to Purgatory. The words of Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange―already partially quoted above―perfectly represent this truth and we will repeat the aforementioned quote, adding a further passage to it:
The Real Life, the One That Matters
“The interior life, thus conceived, is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists and astronomers, have no interior life―so to speak―but devote themselves to the study of their science, as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him.
“Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity―which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
“This shows that the interior life, or the life of the soul with God, well deserves to be called ‘the one thing necessary’, since by it we tend to our last end and assure our salvation. This last must not be too widely separated from progressive sanctification, for it is the very way of salvation.
“There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul.
“Every sin―though it should be venial―must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Vol. 1, “Introduction”).
Preconceived Ideas About Saints
Workers of miracles—readers of minds—makers of prophecy—severe penances—endless prayers—faultless lives—these and similar traits are what we tend to associate with saints and becoming saints. We forget that when it was announced in the Carmelite Convent of Lisieux, that one of the deceased sisters was “up for canonization”—when the sisters finally extracted the name of the candidate from “those in the know”, they were shocked to find out that it Thérèse of the Infant Jesus! The common reaction was one of “What did she ever do that was worthy of canonization?” Of course, we now know that ‘her way’ is what we now call “The Little Way”—and Pope St. Pius X calls her the model for sanctity in this modern world.
Even Sinner Saints!
For those discouraged about achieving sanctity, there can be no better thing than to read and study the lives of the great sinners who became great saints. They are walking proof of the words of God in Holy Scripture, Who said: “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18).
Around the time of Our Lord, we think of ST. MARY MAGDALEN, who was possessed by seven devils and caught in adultery. Then there is ST. DISMAS, THE GOOD THIEF on the cross, who―after a life of stealing, violence and perhaps even murder―by his sufferings and sorrow for sin, steals Heaven with his dying breath. There too, on Calvary, is the Roman legionary, ST. LONGINUS, who pierces Our Lord’s heart with his spear, and ends up being pierced with sorrow in his own heart—finally converting, leaving the military and becoming a saint. Then there is ST. PAUL the persecutor of Christians, who converts and becomes a pillar of the Faith and paying for his sins through a lifetime of suffering.
A little later in time, as the Church grows, we have ST. CALLIXTUS OF ROME, who had a very sinful life before being taken under the wing of Victor I, a second century pope. Callixtus had embezzled money and started a public riot, amongst other criminal affairs, but left that all behind early in the third century, when he reformed. Callixtus went on to become a pope himself, and died a martyr shortly thereafter, thereby sufficiently paying his debts for sin.
ST. MARY OF EGYPT (c.344-c.421), at the age of 12, ran away from home to Alexandria, the most ‘exciting’ city in the Roman Empire. She became an accomplished seductress, who took special pleasure in corrupting innocent young men. Once, on a whim, she joined a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. By the time the ship reached its destination, Mary had seduced the entire crew and all of the pilgrims. In Jerusalem she realized the enormity of her sins, when a supernatural force prevented her from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Filled with remorse, Mary sought the Mother of God’s intercession and made a good confession. In penance, Mary then spent the rest of her life as a hermit, alone in the Jordanian desert.
The beautiful, teenage ST. PELAGIA would have been every parent’s nightmare. As legend has it, she was a dancer and courtesan by her early teens. Pelagia’s conversion occurred all of a sudden, following a chance encounter with Saint Nonnus, the bishop of Edessa. The young girl was baptized, gave away her possessions to the poor and lived as a hermit for the rest of her life.
Another sinner turned saint was ST. OLGA (879-969). When a neighboring tribe assassinated her husband, St. Olga, princess of Kiev, went to war. Olga slaughtered her husband’s murderer and almost all of his people. In vengeance, she massacred virtually the entire tribe; the few who did survive she sold into slavery. Years later, while in Constantinople to make an alliance with the emperor, Olga visited a church and was in awe of the magnificence of the liturgy. She took instruction, was baptized and returned to Kiev as a Christian, zealous to convert her people. Olga tried to convert her people, but hardly anyone would listen to her―even her family rejected Christianity. Olga died believing that as a missionary, she was a failure. Yet, she planted a seed of Faith which flourished. Today, Catholic and Orthodox Christians of Russia and Ukraine hail her as “Equal to the Apostles.”
Heaven’s Surprise
I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven’s door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.
But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp―
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash!
There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.
Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in Hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.
I nudged Jesus, “What’s the deal?
I would love to hear your take!”
“How’d all these sinners get up here?
God must’ve made a mistake!”
‘And why’s everyone so quiet, so somber?”
“Give me a clue!’
“My Friend,” He said, “They’re all in shock!”
“They never thought they’d be seeing you!”
Museum or Hospital?
As St. Augustine says: “The Church is not a museum of saints, but a hospital of sinners … There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future” (St. Augustine of Hippo, Doctor of the Church—sinners need a good doctor!).
Saints can seem remote and distant, close to God, but far from people. But they’re more like us than we give them credit for. Their lives were like ours, full of dilemmas and struggles, with bad choices as well as good. But their goodness won out in the end, as ours can. Interest in angels is quite popular at the moment, but it is the saints who are really like us in both their strengths and frailties―they should be our focal point and encouragement. They came to Heaven’s Hospital wounded by sin, and they found a cure—sometimes a painful cure—in Christ’s care.
You’d Better Believe It and Want It!
Let it be said and let it be understood and let it be believed and let it be desired: God expects you to be a saint and Our Lady will help you be a saint! Don’t question it and don’t doubt it! It is not, as you may think, an act of pride to want and expect to be a saint—it is an act of insanity not to do so! What’s the alternative to not wanting to and actually becoming a saint in this life? It is either Hell or Purgatory! Either way, it is insanity! Why pay a thousand times more, or pay eternally, for what could have been bought at a fraction of the effort and pain here below? You are expected to be a saint. You can be a saint. You must be a saint. Only saints go to Heaven.
Wow! How?
Whew! That’s a tall order, but one that is possible for everyone, for God never demands the impossible! We might be tempted to agree with the Apostles: “When they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus beholding, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:25-26). Our Lord adds: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) ― Our Lord is the Author of Grace and without His grace we can do nothing with regard to saving our souls and reaching Heaven. Grace perfects nature, and therefore we need to drink copiously from the fountains of grace—which are found in the Sacraments, in quality prayer and in generous sacrifices, penances and alms-giving.
This is what St. Louis de Montfort also says—that this tall order can only be accomplished by grace: “Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you? The means of holiness and salvation are known to everybody, since they are found in the Gospel; the masters of the spiritual life have explained them; the saints have practiced them and shown how essential they are for those who wish to be saved and attain perfection. These means are: sincere humility, unceasing prayer, complete self-denial, abandonment to divine Providence, and obedience to the will of God. The grace and help of God are absolutely necessary for us to practice all these, but we are sure that grace will be given to all, though not in the same measure. I say ‘not in the same measure,’ because God does not give His graces in equal measure to everyone (Romans 12:6), although in His infinite goodness He always gives sufficient grace to each. A person who corresponds to great graces performs great works, and one who corresponds to lesser graces performs lesser works” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary).
Find God’s Grace Through the Mediatrix of All Grace
St. Louis goes on to say what Our Lady herself will later reiterate in a variety of ways: “It all comes to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. It is precisely this I wish to teach you. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary). At Fatima, Our Lady said of herself: “Only she (Our Lady of the Rosary) can help you now!” At Akita, Our Lady said: “I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.” This merely echoes what the Church says in her liturgy concerning Our Lady: “He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord!” (Proverbs 8:35; Mass of the Immaculate Conception, traditional or extraordinary rite, Epistle). It is only saints that go to Heaven, and there is no saint who became a saint without the Mother of God, the Mediatrix of All Graces.
This is why the saints can say the following things about Our Lady:
● St. Albert the Great (a Doctor of the Church), says: “They who are not thy servants, O Mary, shall perish.”
● St. Bonaventure (a Doctor of the Church) repeats the same thought when he says: “They who neglect the service of Mary shall die in their sins.” And again: “For them, from whom Mary turns away her face, there is not even a hope of salvation.”
● St. Ignatius of Antioch (a Father of the Church), a martyr of the second century, writes: “A sinner can be saved only through the Holy Virgin who, by her merciful prayers, obtains salvation for so many who, according to strict justice, would be lost.”
If a lack of devotion to her is a mark of eternal reprobation a constant love for her must be a sign of eternal salvation. Many spiritual writers state that devotion to Mary is a sign of predestination.
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church) says: “It is impossible that a servant of Mary be damned, provided he serves her faithfully and commends himself to her maternal protection.”
● St. Anselm (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “He who turns to thee and is regarded by thee cannot be lost.”
● St. Antonine is of the same opinion. He says: “As it is impossible for them from whom Mary turns away her eyes of mercy to be saved, so it is necessary that they to whom she turns her eyes of mercy and for whom she intercedes to be saved and glorified.”
You could fill books with quotes from saints about Our Lady—these few barely whet the appetite or do her justice. Nevertheless, on this feast of All Saints let all souls realize that all graces come to us through Mary; and, in her own words, she is all we have left in the current dire predicament of the world. Whether we want to survive, or get to Heaven, without her, there is not even the slightest hope of either or both.
Father Faber’s Holy Diagnosis and Prognosis
Let us end with the words of Fr. Faber from the Preface of his own translation, from French to English, of St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary. These words were written in November of 1862—how much worse has the situation become today!
“All those who are likely to read this book [True Devotion to Mary], love God, and lament that they do not love Him more; all desire something for His glory—the spread of some good work, the success of some devotion, the coming of some good time. One man has been striving for years to overcome a particular fault, and has not succeeded. Another mourns, and almost wonders while he mourns, that so few of his relations and friends have been converted to the Faith. One grieves that he has not devotion enough; another that he has a cross to carry which is a peculiarly impossible cross to him; while a third has domestic troubles and family unhappinesses which feel almost incompatible with his salvation; and for all these things prayer appears to bring so little remedy.
“But what is the remedy that is wanted? What is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one. Mary is not half enough preached. Devotion to her is low and thin and poor. ... It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be. It has no faith in itself. Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted, that the Church is not exalted; that souls which might be saints wither and dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelized.
“Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the background. Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them. It is the miserable, unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines. Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the saints, God is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to His Blessed Mother.
“I cannot think of a higher work or a broader vocation for anyone than the simple spreading of this peculiar devotion of the Venerable Grignion de Montfort. Let a man but try it for himself, and his surprise at the graces it brings with it, and the transformations it causes in his soul, will soon convince him of its otherwise almost incredible efficacy as a means for the salvation of men, and for the coming of the kingdom of Christ.
“Oh, if Mary were but known, there would be no coldness to Jesus then! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much more wonderful would be our Faith, and how different would our Communions be! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much happier, how much holier, how much less worldly should we be, and how much more should we be living images of our sole Lord and Savior, her dearest and most blessed Son!” (Fr. Frederick Faber, Preface to his translation of St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary).
Today is the feast of All Saints! Well, happy feast to you, dear saint! “Aw c’mon!” you say, “Stop joking around! I’m no saint and you know it!” Well, maybe and probably you are no saint—but are you on the way to being a saint? Is that your goal in life? Is that—apart from the superior goal of glorifying God—the main focus of your life?
There’s Only One Way
“There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven―whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin, though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Vol. 1, “Introduction”).
Therefore, in Heaven, the saint is not someone extraordinary, the saint is someone who is ordinary, for there are only saints in Heaven—that is one thing that they all have in common, and something that is common is not extraordinary.
Saintly Common Denominator
Another thing that all the saints have in common is that they owe their sanctity, in part, to Our Lady. Explicitly or implicitly, directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly, they all depended upon Our Lady who is the Mediatrix of all Grace. It is through her that God has chosen to distribute all of His graces. Therefore, to pass the exam of sanctity ― to achieve sanctity in this life on Earth and to avoid the remedial school of sanctity in Purgatory―we need to seek-out Mary, to find Mary, to work with Mary, to let Mary teach us, guide us, encourage us and lead to those heights of sanctity which God ear-marked for us on the day He first created our soul.
Your Saintly Calling
St. Louis de Montfort puts it so beautifully in his booklet, The Secret of Mary:
“Chosen soul, living image of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, God wants you to become holy like Him in this life, and glorious like Him in the next. It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you and for which He is even now keeping you in being. What a marvelous transformation is possible! Dust into light, uncleanness into purity, sinfulness into holiness, creature into Creator, man into God! A marvelous work, I repeat, so difficult in itself, and even impossible for a mere creature to bring about, for only God can accomplish it by giving His grace abundantly and in an extraordinary manner. The very creation of the universe is not as great an achievement as this.
Heaven Ain’t Cheap, Ya Know!
It must be remembered that most saints have to pass through the fires of Purgatory before they are allowed admittance into Heaven—except, of course, martyrs, who would go straight to Heaven. But remember, too, that for martyrdom to ‘work’, the martyr has to be sorry for all his sins, otherwise the martyrdom would be in vain (in the case of unrepented mortal sin) and require Purgatory for unrepented venial sin―for no sin can be forgiven if we are not sorry for it. So even some martyrs could, in theory, pass some time in Purgatory if they refuse to be sorry for some of their venial sins.
And if the non-martyred saint has the grace and gift of going straight to Heaven after death, then rest assured that the saint has most certainly done his or her Purgatory here on Earth, by the trials, sorrows, anxieties, humiliations, persecutions, illnesses, pains and sufferings that they would have undergone before being granted such a great privilege.
Burn We Must
At the end of the day, it is the degree of love for God in the heart of the soul that decides the fate of the soul: Heaven, Purgatory or Hell. Love or charity is what will be judged. As St. Paul writes: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). To which Jesus adds: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47), while St. Peter affirms: “Charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). Charity is a fire that burns sins in this world—if we refuse to burn here, we will burn in Purgatory or Hell―but burn we must!
The Remedial School of Saints
Which brings us to the subject of saints and life on Earth. We are all called to be saints, for only saints go to Heaven. We know this in theory, but it is frightening to see how few people try to live this out in practice. If we don’t successfully pass our “sainthood exam” here on Earth, then we will have to spend a long time in the remedial school of sanctity in the fires of Purgatory. Most people have an erroneous notion that Heaven will be populated by the saints on the one hand, and themselves—plain old Mr. and Mrs. so and so on the other hand. They seem to think that Heaven is a place for both sanctity and plain old mediocrity. FALSE! That could not be further from the truth!
Heaven’s Mixed-Bag of Saints
In Heaven, there are all kinds of saints: big and small saints; strong and weak saints; old and young saints; male and female saints; rich and poor saints; “never-sinned-much” saints and “sinned-a-lot” saints; quickly processed saints and slowly processed saints; saints from all kinds of different backgrounds, countries, times and circumstances. But the one thing they have in common is that they are SAINTS and NOT mediocre souls. The mediocre souls find a place in Purgatory, where they have to make up for lost and wasted time and misguided efforts.
How Will I Ever Become A Saint?
“Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you? The means of holiness and salvation are known to everybody, since they are found in the Gospel; the masters of the spiritual life have explained them; the saints have practiced them and shown how essential they are for those who wish to be saved and attain perfection. These means are: sincere humility, unceasing prayer, complete self-denial, abandonment to divine Providence, and obedience to the will of God.” (The Secret of Mary by St. Louis de Montfort).
“The grace and help of God are absolutely necessary for us to practice all these, but we are sure that grace will be given to all, though not in the same measure. I say “not in the same measure,” because God does not give His graces in equal measure to everyone (Romans 12:6), although in His infinite goodness He always gives sufficient grace to each. A person who corresponds to great graces performs great works, and one who corresponds to lesser graces performs lesser works. The value and high standard of our actions corresponds to the value and perfection of the grace given by God and responded to by the faithful soul. No one can contest these principles.” (The Secret of Mary by St. Louis de Montfort).
Sanctity Needs Grace; Grace Comes Through Mary
“To find the grace of God, we must discover Mary. It all comes to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. It is precisely this I wish to teach you. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God.” (The Secret of Mary by St. Louis de Montfort).
This truth was later most perfectly manifested by Our Lady’s apparitions to St. Catherine Labouré, in 1830, at the convent of the Sisters of Charity on the Rue du Bac in Paris, France. It is from these apparitions that we received the so-called “Miraculous Medal.” However, it is more formally known as “The Medal of Our Lady of Grace” and “The Medal of the Immaculate Conception.”
Our Lady herself stipulated the design of the medal, by showing St. Catherine a vision of what it was to look like. There are rays of light beaming forth out of the rings upon Our Lady’s fingers. St. Catherine asked what these rays of light were. Our Lady replied that they were graces. St. Catherine noticed that some rays were shining brilliantly, while other rays of light were dull, so she asked Our Lady what they meant. Our Lady replied that the bright rays were graces that God gave to people, but the dull rays were graces that God did not give to people. St. Catherine, disappointed, asked why God would withhold some graces from us. Our Lady simply replied that they are withheld from us because we don’t ask for them!
If Only I Would Have ...
The poor souls in Purgatory could have avoided those fires if they had only taken their life―their spiritual life―much more seriously. Grace and sanctity was not at the top of their shopping-list, nor did they ask Our Lady for the graces they would have needed to avoid being sent to Purgatory. The words of Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange―already partially quoted above―perfectly represent this truth and we will repeat the aforementioned quote, adding a further passage to it:
The Real Life, the One That Matters
“The interior life, thus conceived, is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists and astronomers, have no interior life―so to speak―but devote themselves to the study of their science, as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him.
“Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity―which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
“This shows that the interior life, or the life of the soul with God, well deserves to be called ‘the one thing necessary’, since by it we tend to our last end and assure our salvation. This last must not be too widely separated from progressive sanctification, for it is the very way of salvation.
“There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul.
“Every sin―though it should be venial―must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Vol. 1, “Introduction”).
Preconceived Ideas About Saints
Workers of miracles—readers of minds—makers of prophecy—severe penances—endless prayers—faultless lives—these and similar traits are what we tend to associate with saints and becoming saints. We forget that when it was announced in the Carmelite Convent of Lisieux, that one of the deceased sisters was “up for canonization”—when the sisters finally extracted the name of the candidate from “those in the know”, they were shocked to find out that it Thérèse of the Infant Jesus! The common reaction was one of “What did she ever do that was worthy of canonization?” Of course, we now know that ‘her way’ is what we now call “The Little Way”—and Pope St. Pius X calls her the model for sanctity in this modern world.
Even Sinner Saints!
For those discouraged about achieving sanctity, there can be no better thing than to read and study the lives of the great sinners who became great saints. They are walking proof of the words of God in Holy Scripture, Who said: “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18).
Around the time of Our Lord, we think of ST. MARY MAGDALEN, who was possessed by seven devils and caught in adultery. Then there is ST. DISMAS, THE GOOD THIEF on the cross, who―after a life of stealing, violence and perhaps even murder―by his sufferings and sorrow for sin, steals Heaven with his dying breath. There too, on Calvary, is the Roman legionary, ST. LONGINUS, who pierces Our Lord’s heart with his spear, and ends up being pierced with sorrow in his own heart—finally converting, leaving the military and becoming a saint. Then there is ST. PAUL the persecutor of Christians, who converts and becomes a pillar of the Faith and paying for his sins through a lifetime of suffering.
A little later in time, as the Church grows, we have ST. CALLIXTUS OF ROME, who had a very sinful life before being taken under the wing of Victor I, a second century pope. Callixtus had embezzled money and started a public riot, amongst other criminal affairs, but left that all behind early in the third century, when he reformed. Callixtus went on to become a pope himself, and died a martyr shortly thereafter, thereby sufficiently paying his debts for sin.
ST. MARY OF EGYPT (c.344-c.421), at the age of 12, ran away from home to Alexandria, the most ‘exciting’ city in the Roman Empire. She became an accomplished seductress, who took special pleasure in corrupting innocent young men. Once, on a whim, she joined a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. By the time the ship reached its destination, Mary had seduced the entire crew and all of the pilgrims. In Jerusalem she realized the enormity of her sins, when a supernatural force prevented her from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Filled with remorse, Mary sought the Mother of God’s intercession and made a good confession. In penance, Mary then spent the rest of her life as a hermit, alone in the Jordanian desert.
The beautiful, teenage ST. PELAGIA would have been every parent’s nightmare. As legend has it, she was a dancer and courtesan by her early teens. Pelagia’s conversion occurred all of a sudden, following a chance encounter with Saint Nonnus, the bishop of Edessa. The young girl was baptized, gave away her possessions to the poor and lived as a hermit for the rest of her life.
Another sinner turned saint was ST. OLGA (879-969). When a neighboring tribe assassinated her husband, St. Olga, princess of Kiev, went to war. Olga slaughtered her husband’s murderer and almost all of his people. In vengeance, she massacred virtually the entire tribe; the few who did survive she sold into slavery. Years later, while in Constantinople to make an alliance with the emperor, Olga visited a church and was in awe of the magnificence of the liturgy. She took instruction, was baptized and returned to Kiev as a Christian, zealous to convert her people. Olga tried to convert her people, but hardly anyone would listen to her―even her family rejected Christianity. Olga died believing that as a missionary, she was a failure. Yet, she planted a seed of Faith which flourished. Today, Catholic and Orthodox Christians of Russia and Ukraine hail her as “Equal to the Apostles.”
Heaven’s Surprise
I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven’s door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.
But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp―
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash!
There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.
Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in Hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.
I nudged Jesus, “What’s the deal?
I would love to hear your take!”
“How’d all these sinners get up here?
God must’ve made a mistake!”
‘And why’s everyone so quiet, so somber?”
“Give me a clue!’
“My Friend,” He said, “They’re all in shock!”
“They never thought they’d be seeing you!”
Museum or Hospital?
As St. Augustine says: “The Church is not a museum of saints, but a hospital of sinners … There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future” (St. Augustine of Hippo, Doctor of the Church—sinners need a good doctor!).
Saints can seem remote and distant, close to God, but far from people. But they’re more like us than we give them credit for. Their lives were like ours, full of dilemmas and struggles, with bad choices as well as good. But their goodness won out in the end, as ours can. Interest in angels is quite popular at the moment, but it is the saints who are really like us in both their strengths and frailties―they should be our focal point and encouragement. They came to Heaven’s Hospital wounded by sin, and they found a cure—sometimes a painful cure—in Christ’s care.
You’d Better Believe It and Want It!
Let it be said and let it be understood and let it be believed and let it be desired: God expects you to be a saint and Our Lady will help you be a saint! Don’t question it and don’t doubt it! It is not, as you may think, an act of pride to want and expect to be a saint—it is an act of insanity not to do so! What’s the alternative to not wanting to and actually becoming a saint in this life? It is either Hell or Purgatory! Either way, it is insanity! Why pay a thousand times more, or pay eternally, for what could have been bought at a fraction of the effort and pain here below? You are expected to be a saint. You can be a saint. You must be a saint. Only saints go to Heaven.
Wow! How?
Whew! That’s a tall order, but one that is possible for everyone, for God never demands the impossible! We might be tempted to agree with the Apostles: “When they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus beholding, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:25-26). Our Lord adds: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) ― Our Lord is the Author of Grace and without His grace we can do nothing with regard to saving our souls and reaching Heaven. Grace perfects nature, and therefore we need to drink copiously from the fountains of grace—which are found in the Sacraments, in quality prayer and in generous sacrifices, penances and alms-giving.
This is what St. Louis de Montfort also says—that this tall order can only be accomplished by grace: “Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you? The means of holiness and salvation are known to everybody, since they are found in the Gospel; the masters of the spiritual life have explained them; the saints have practiced them and shown how essential they are for those who wish to be saved and attain perfection. These means are: sincere humility, unceasing prayer, complete self-denial, abandonment to divine Providence, and obedience to the will of God. The grace and help of God are absolutely necessary for us to practice all these, but we are sure that grace will be given to all, though not in the same measure. I say ‘not in the same measure,’ because God does not give His graces in equal measure to everyone (Romans 12:6), although in His infinite goodness He always gives sufficient grace to each. A person who corresponds to great graces performs great works, and one who corresponds to lesser graces performs lesser works” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary).
Find God’s Grace Through the Mediatrix of All Grace
St. Louis goes on to say what Our Lady herself will later reiterate in a variety of ways: “It all comes to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. It is precisely this I wish to teach you. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary). At Fatima, Our Lady said of herself: “Only she (Our Lady of the Rosary) can help you now!” At Akita, Our Lady said: “I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.” This merely echoes what the Church says in her liturgy concerning Our Lady: “He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord!” (Proverbs 8:35; Mass of the Immaculate Conception, traditional or extraordinary rite, Epistle). It is only saints that go to Heaven, and there is no saint who became a saint without the Mother of God, the Mediatrix of All Graces.
This is why the saints can say the following things about Our Lady:
● St. Albert the Great (a Doctor of the Church), says: “They who are not thy servants, O Mary, shall perish.”
● St. Bonaventure (a Doctor of the Church) repeats the same thought when he says: “They who neglect the service of Mary shall die in their sins.” And again: “For them, from whom Mary turns away her face, there is not even a hope of salvation.”
● St. Ignatius of Antioch (a Father of the Church), a martyr of the second century, writes: “A sinner can be saved only through the Holy Virgin who, by her merciful prayers, obtains salvation for so many who, according to strict justice, would be lost.”
If a lack of devotion to her is a mark of eternal reprobation a constant love for her must be a sign of eternal salvation. Many spiritual writers state that devotion to Mary is a sign of predestination.
● St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church) says: “It is impossible that a servant of Mary be damned, provided he serves her faithfully and commends himself to her maternal protection.”
● St. Anselm (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “He who turns to thee and is regarded by thee cannot be lost.”
● St. Antonine is of the same opinion. He says: “As it is impossible for them from whom Mary turns away her eyes of mercy to be saved, so it is necessary that they to whom she turns her eyes of mercy and for whom she intercedes to be saved and glorified.”
You could fill books with quotes from saints about Our Lady—these few barely whet the appetite or do her justice. Nevertheless, on this feast of All Saints let all souls realize that all graces come to us through Mary; and, in her own words, she is all we have left in the current dire predicament of the world. Whether we want to survive, or get to Heaven, without her, there is not even the slightest hope of either or both.
Father Faber’s Holy Diagnosis and Prognosis
Let us end with the words of Fr. Faber from the Preface of his own translation, from French to English, of St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary. These words were written in November of 1862—how much worse has the situation become today!
“All those who are likely to read this book [True Devotion to Mary], love God, and lament that they do not love Him more; all desire something for His glory—the spread of some good work, the success of some devotion, the coming of some good time. One man has been striving for years to overcome a particular fault, and has not succeeded. Another mourns, and almost wonders while he mourns, that so few of his relations and friends have been converted to the Faith. One grieves that he has not devotion enough; another that he has a cross to carry which is a peculiarly impossible cross to him; while a third has domestic troubles and family unhappinesses which feel almost incompatible with his salvation; and for all these things prayer appears to bring so little remedy.
“But what is the remedy that is wanted? What is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one. Mary is not half enough preached. Devotion to her is low and thin and poor. ... It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be. It has no faith in itself. Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted, that the Church is not exalted; that souls which might be saints wither and dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelized.
“Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the background. Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them. It is the miserable, unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines. Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the saints, God is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to His Blessed Mother.
“I cannot think of a higher work or a broader vocation for anyone than the simple spreading of this peculiar devotion of the Venerable Grignion de Montfort. Let a man but try it for himself, and his surprise at the graces it brings with it, and the transformations it causes in his soul, will soon convince him of its otherwise almost incredible efficacy as a means for the salvation of men, and for the coming of the kingdom of Christ.
“Oh, if Mary were but known, there would be no coldness to Jesus then! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much more wonderful would be our Faith, and how different would our Communions be! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much happier, how much holier, how much less worldly should we be, and how much more should we be living images of our sole Lord and Savior, her dearest and most blessed Son!” (Fr. Frederick Faber, Preface to his translation of St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary).