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Jun272022

Responsorial Psalm

Remember this, you who never think of God.

“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?”

Remember this, you who never think of God.

“When you see a thief, you keep pace with him,
and with adulterers you throw in your lot.
To your mouth you give free rein for evil,
you harness your tongue to deceit.”

Remember this, you who never think of God.

“You sit speaking against your brother;
against your mother’s son you spread rumors.
When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.”

Remember this, you who never think of God.

“Consider this, you who forget God,
lest I rend you and there be no one to rescue you.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.”

Remember this, you who never think of God.

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Jun022022

Discipline in all things

Most people, until they begin to deprive themselves, have little awareness of how indulgent our senses can be in satisfying our immediate desires. This is particularly true of pleasures in food, which makes food a good place to start in the matter of ascetical restraint. Restricting ourselves to eating only at meals and taking nothing else in between, tempering our intake, not always choosing in accord with preference, mild steady fasting in predictable routines-these are hardly extreme measures. But quickly they begin to teach us how to say “no” to desires that would otherwise be indulged without a thought. These lessons of self-denial, first learned in physical privations, can carry over for use into many areas of the spiritual life, especially in exercising charity or conquering pride, but also in the life of prayer when prayer is difficult, as we shall see. The power to command, and the strength to refuse, are indispensable for virtue but are essential as well for contemplative life, as we will also see. All self-denial becomes a form of dying to self, which in itself is a core principle of spirituality, but it also fosters a vibrant will that is able to give freely and generously to God. The interior freedom to love without restraint depends on embracing an ultimate spiritual principle that “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn 3:30), as Saint John the Baptist famously taught, and without which there is no open path to God. –Saint John of the Cross: Master of Contemplation by Father Donald Haggerty

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Jun012022

Self-Denial, in small things

The exercise of self-denial presupposes, then, a profound objective: dying to self for the sake of union with God. What in this pursuit, in the loss of self demanded by is necessary love, at least as regards ascetical self-denial? Clearly, it is not to starve oneself to death. Rather, initially and difficult enough, it is to accept voluntary privations in one’s life; the more radical the better, albeit with common sense and a certain respect for moderation. A breaking free from attachments to comfort and pleasure calls for decisive choices. The task is not to search for painful experiences or harsh penances, but more to step back voluntarily from an easy life of pleasant enjoyments. This reduction of pleasure-seeking, of gratification of our impulsive desires, is always at first an exacting work. –‘Saint John of the Cross: Master of Contemplation’ by St John of the Cross

 

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May292022

The Difficulty of Climbing

The Bridegroom comes, bringing consolation and leaving desolated. He lets us taste a bit of his ineffable sweetness; but before it can penetrate us, he hides and leaves. Now, he does this in order to teach us to fly towards the Lord. Like an eagle, he extends his wings over us and pushes us to rise. And he says: You have tasted a bit of my sweetness. Do you want to be filled with it? Run, fly to my perfumes; lift up your hearts on high, to where I am at the right hand of the Father, where you will see me, no longer in figure or enigma but face to face, in the joy, full and complete, that no one can ever take away from you. –The Ladder of Monks by Guigo II the Carthusian

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May282022

Fruits

“And I must further explain, your Godliness, the difference between the operations of the Holy Spirit Who dwells mystically in the hearts of those who believe in our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ and the operations of the darkness of sin which at the suggestion and instigation of the devil, acts predatorily in us. The Spirit of God reminds us of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and always acts triumphantly with Him, gladdening our hearts and guiding our steps into the way of peace, while the false, diabolical spirit reasons in the opposite way to Christ, and its actions in us are rebellious, stubborn, and full of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. “And whoever lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11:26). He who has the grace of the Holy Spirit in reward for right faith in Christ, even if on account of human frailty his soul were to die for some sin or other, yet he will not die for ever, but he will be raised by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ…

On Acquisition of the Holy Spirit by Saint Seraphim of Sarov

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May272022

No further Word

God could answer as follows: If I have already told you all things in My Word, My Son, and if I have no other word, what answer or revelation can I now make that would surpass this? Fasten your eyes on Him alone because in Him I have spoken and revealed all and in Him you will discover even more than you ask for and desire. You are making an appeal for locutions and revelations that are incomplete, but if you turn your eyes to Him you will find them complete. For He is my entire locution and response, vision and revelation, which I have already spoken, answered, manifested, and revealed to you by giving Him to you as a brother, companion, master, ransom, and reward. . . . If you desire me to answer with a word of comfort, behold My Son subject to Me and to others out of love for Me, and afflicted, and you will see how much He answers you. If you desire Me to declare some secret truths or events to you, fix your eyes only on Him and you will discern hidden in Him the most secret mysteries, and wisdom, and wonders of God. –St John of the Cross “Ascent of Mount Carmel”

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May252022

Jesus teaches St Gemma Galgani the value of suffering

…Jesus in His infinite charity continued His graces and favors to me. One day He said to me lovingly: ‘Daughter, what should I say to you, when in your doubts, your sufferings and your adversities, you think of going to others rather than coming to Me, and you seek alleviation and comfort other than Mine.’

…………

“I knew that I deserved these reproofs, nevertheless I continued as usual, and Jesus rebuked me again saying, ‘Gemma, do you realize that you are offending Me when in your great need you come to Me last, after other creatures who cannot give you consolation? I suffer, My daughter, when I see that you forget Me.’ This last reproof sufficed and served to detach me from every creature in order to turn myself to our Creator.”

“It is true Jesus, if I think of what I have gone through as a child, and now as a grown up girl, I see that I have always had crosses to bear; But oh! how wrong are those who say that suffering is a misfortune!”

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