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Fortitude: seek that which is above

Brothers and sisters:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Epistle of Paul, Letter to Colossians chapter 3

“The kingdom of heaven is to be taken by storm, and it is only the violent that carry it away”. (Matt 12)  And, as when you go against the tide, you must always row without ceasing, and when you stop but for a while, you find yourself drifted far from the spot you had rowed to; so here you must still push forward, and make head against the current of your depraved passions, unless you be content to see yourself quickly carried far back from that degree of perfection which you had before attained. –St Alphonsus Rodriguez ‘The Practice of Christian & Religious Perfection I’.

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Sequester

Isolation,
Jesus glorified
Christ formation,
Holy Spirit inspired,
God, the Father unknown,

You
and
I
Alone.

Lord,
I have,
Nowhere,
Nothing at all,
Nihility,
Annihilated,
Wanderlust,
Disappearance,
Alienation,
Wounded,
Scarred,
Misgiving,
Mistrust,

Jesus,
I trust
in You,

To smash my heart,
To induce tears,
To heal my hurt through further hurting,
To strip me,
To leave me to waste,
To give me every chance to break,
Brittle and hard,
Fractured into little tiny pieces,
Scattered by the wind,

Arise
My Love,
Gather together,
Bring me in,
Infuse peace,
Teach wisdom,
Grant understanding,
Dispense purpose,
Allow multiplication,

All for Your glory,
Graces at stake,
And the fullness of pure joy,
At the foot of the Cross.

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Farewell Discourse moving forward

Gospel of John chapter 15

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.

farewell

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Lacking the slightest affirmative consolation

No victories in the attaining of final victory.  Christ’s passion centers upon defeat, worldly weakness before the might of self-willed determination.  For the nonbeliever, those invested in impermanence, the events of the persecution and crucifixion of Jesus mean nothing.  There is no emotional arousal, never a crisis of conscious.  The depth of the events transpiring before their witnessing pass by them.  Believers overwhelmed by fear, for the most part, flee.  Those brave enough to endure intimately experience sheer horror.  No small victories are garnered.  There is no underlying genius perceptible to the wise.  No moments of reasoning and counsel providing assurance.  Faith is the only solace.  Christ, able to call down legions of angels, easily capable of conquering on a devastating level, acquiesces, complacent to suffer without even a word of protest.  He suffers completely without an ultimate hinting, no whispering affirmations beneath the blood.  There are no sly clever words announcing to followers that ultimate victory is at hand.  No winks behind the backs of those crucifying.  Everything is violently and outrageously real.  Powerlessness grotesquely pronounces itself to the innocent of heart.  The resurrection and ascension remain invisible mysteries to those loving Christ.  Anguish, the experiencing of events unimaginable in terror, establish temporary reality.  Anxiety, the accepting of injustice, overwhelming sadness, assail.  Confident in the majesty of Jesus, events prove devastatingly contradictory to the miracles and healings previously performed.  Confusion rips asunder the minds of the enlightened.  Divine love remains distant during the most crucial of moment upon moment.  No miracle providing worldly vindication will occur.  Obstinate arrogance is granted the right to justify, parading itself as powerful, able to drink the wine of personal satisfaction.  Those confident in self-righteousness feel nothing of doubt or the immensity of injustice being perpetrated.  They interact in a manner of terminal uniqueness, individuals committed to self-acclaimed self-righteousness.  Strong individuals amidst the events of life.  Weakness foreign, surrendering useless.  Those convinced of their own strength see nothing of value in the pathetic cries of the distressed, those loyal to one being taught a lesson for unacceptably challenging the ways of religious convention.  Flippantly, words of condemnation and challenge are voiced by those seeking personal victory, small moments of believing one’s ways are superior.  In reality, at the moment of the turning of eternity, the majority of the witnessing seek only their own short-sighted interest, salvific ignorance prevailing. Those able to intuitively cling to hope through faith in the One they love, know only despair.

Benjamin_West_-_The_Cave_of_Despair_-_Google_Art_Project

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Habit increasing the small into the insurmountable

…St Bernard writing upon the words of Job: “I am reduced to such an extremity that the very things I had a horror to touch are at present become ordinary food”. “Would you know”, says he, “what power practice or habit has over us? At first a thing will appear to you insupportable; but if you accustom yourself to it, in time it will seem less hard, afterwards you will find it easy, and in the end it will give you no pain at all, but a great deal of joy and delight”; so that you may say with Job–“I now take pleasure in feeding upon those things, which before I had difficulty to touch”. –Fr. Alphonsus Rodriguez ‘The Practice of Christian & Religious Perfection volume I’

san_alonso

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More pieces from T.S. Eliot’s ‘Four Quartets’

There is no end, but addition: the trailing
Consequence of further days and hours,
While emotion takes to itself the emotionless
Years of living among the breakage
Of what was believed in as the most reliable-
And therefore the fittest for renunciation.

There is the final addition, the failing
Pride or resentment at failing powers,
The unattached devotion which might pass for devotionless,
In a drifting boat with a slow leakage,
The silent listening to the undeniable
Clamour of the bell of the last annunciation.

Church Bells ringing

–Sweet unction: dedicated to Ann Marie Najjar

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Imitation of Christ

Christ, is superior to all other men in that he is the head of Christianity, just as one speaks of the head of a man in relation to his body, as it is written that all those whom he has foreordained, whom he has prepared, would become of the same form as the image of God’s Son, that he is the firstborn among many others. Hence, whoever wants to achieve a true return and become a son in Christ, let him in true detachment turn to Him and away from self. –Henry Suso

Crucifix

Crucifix

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