Monthly Archives: February 2018

Feb272018

Psalm 32

Blessed is the man to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity,
and in whose spirit, there is no deceit.

When I declared not my sin,
my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

I acknowledged my sin to thee,
and I did not hide my iniquity;

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”;
then thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin.

Therefore, let everyone who is Godly offer prayer to thee;
at a time of distress, in the rush of great waters,
they shall not reach him.

Thou art a hiding place for me,
thou preserve me from trouble;
thou dost encompass me with deliverance.

I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
else it will not keep with you.

Many are the pangs of the wicked;
but steadfast love surrounds him who trusts in the LORD.

Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice,
O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

spacer
Feb262018

Transformation

How that a man’s affection is marvelously changed in ghostly feeling of this naught, when it is nowhere wrought.

WONDERFULLY is a man’s affection varied in ghostly feeling of this naught when it is nowhere wrought. For at the first time that a soul looked thereupon, it shall find all the special deeds of sin that ever he did since he was born, bodily or ghostly, privily or darkly painted thereupon. And howsoever that he turned it about, evermore they will appear before his eyes; until the time be, that with much hard travail, many sore sighings, and many bitter weeping, he have in great part washed them away. Sometime in this travail him think that it is to look thereupon as on hell; for him think that he despaired to win to perfection of ghostly rest out of that pairs Thus far inwards come many, but for greatness of pain that they feel and for lacking of comfort, they go back in beholding of bodily things: seeking fleshly comforts without, for lacking of ghostly they have not yet deserved, as they should if they had abided.

For he that abided feels sometime some comfort, and hath some hope of perfection; for he feeleth and seeth that many of his fordone special sins be in great part by help of grace rubbed away. Nevertheless yet ever among he feeleth pain, but he thinketh that it shall have an end, for it waxeth ever less and less. And therefore he calleth it nought else but purgatory. Sometime he can find no special sin written thereupon, but yet him think that sin is a lump, he wot never what, none other thing than himself; and then it may be called the base and the pain of the original sin. Sometime him think that it is paradise or heaven, for diverse wonderful sweetness and comforts, joys and blessed virtues that he findeth therein. Sometime him think it God, for peace and rest that he findeth therein. –Cloud of Unkowning chapter 69

spacer
Feb252018

When the Well Runs Dry

The Lord had to become and to be the real Leader in my prayer life, and thus in all of my life. As Teresa puts it somewhere, I had to learn to seek the God of consolations and not the consolations of God. It was up to Him whether or not there was water in the pump. Mysteriously, and without my realizing it, he was actually changing my attitudes. I was learning to “hang loose, let go, float free,” precisely by means of the very dryness of the well which seemed so frustrating to me. –‘When the Well Runs Dry’ Father Thomas H. Green, S.J.

Watering the virtues.

Bucket toiling.
A hand pump beginning.
A flowing river from heaven.
Rain pouring eternally.

spacer
Feb112018

Caryll Houselander prayers presented as poems

Descend,
Holy Spirit of Life!
Come down into our hearts,
that we may live.
Descend into emptiness,
that emptiness
may be filled.
Descend into the dust,
that the dust may flower.
Descend into the dark,
that the light may shine in the darkness.
Amen.

Be born in us,
Incarnate Love.
Take our flesh and blood,
and give us your humanity;
take our eyes, and give us your vision;
take our minds, and give us your pure thought;
take our feet and set them in your path;
take our hands,
and fold them in your prayer;
take our hearts
and give them your will to love.
Amen.

By your heaviness and fear
in Gethsemane,
comfort the oppressed
and those who are afraid
By your loneliness,
facing the Passion
while the Apostles slept,
comfort those who face evil alone
while the world sleeps.
By your persistent prayer,
in anguish of anticipation,
strengthen those
who shrink from the unknown.
By your humility,
taking the comfort of angels,
give us grace to help
and to be helped by one another,
and in one another
to comfort you, Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Nail our hands
in your hands
to the Cross.
Make us take and hold
the hard thing.
Nail our feet,
in your feet
to the Cross,
that they may never
wander away from you.
Make our promises and our vows,
nails that hold us fast,
that even the dead weight of sin,
dragging on the nails
in our last weakness,
may not separate us from you,
but may make us one with you
in your redeeming love.
Amen.

spacer
Feb092018

A young religious maturing

Although I generally manage to keep him at arm’s length, the ‘natural man’ still makes himself felt at times in certain hellish dreams in which I find myself entangled unawares.  In short, I am still the same, a great proud sinner.  What a humbling thought!

And to think that God still bears with me and seems not to notice my sins.  How can I disappoint Him?  Why am I not carried away by the desire to love Him and make Him love me?  The most Holy Virgin of Sorrows weeps because Jesus is not loved but sinned against: perhaps I too make Him weep.  Oh console yourself, Mary, preserve ever alive in me the most burning desire to love your Son and enable me, as far as lies within my power, to soothe your bitter sorrows by drawing souls to Jesus and you.  To obtain your help, I dedicate to you all my actions tomorrow.  Purify them, give them that perfection they so much need, and let the rosary be said at least once as I have never said it yet.

–Angelo Roncalli as a young seminarian, future Pope John XXIII ‘Journal of a Soul’

spacer
Feb082018

Devotion

“O Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I would like to be filled with love for You; keep me closely united with You, may my heart be near to Yours. I want to be to You like the apostle John. O Mary of the Rosary, keep me recollected when I say these prayers of yours; bind me forever, with your rosary, to Jesus of the Blessed Sacrament. Blessed be Jesus, my love..” — Pope John XXIII

spacer
Feb072018

Untitled

Learning of the life of Angelo Roncalli, I am watching a wonderful movie ‘The Good Pope: Pope John XXIII’. The complete immersion within the Church washes over as a cleansing stream of a dream. A little boy committed to becoming a priest, leaving his farming family of many simple siblings and loving parents, ventures to the seminary where he excels in his studies. He walks alone. The romance endures, yet complexities emerge; politics, modernism and the concerns of elevating man; war and souls standing upon a precipice. The intentions of a little boy could never anticipate the world, yet innocence and love prevail within the presence of God. Angelo desired only to return to those he loved, his family and country folk, to return as a priest. God’s call was greater, pulling from the womb of tenant farmers—peasants, a brilliant rustic child, whose mind was only surpassed by his heart. At the age of seventy-six, after a full life as a loved priest, moving through intense political times, remaining devoted to the reality of all men possessing the image and likeness Christ, Angelo is authenticated as Papa. As the Pope, he would guide the Church into Vatican II, navigating all for the salvation of souls. Words as the leader of the Universal Church: ‘The Church should be a garden illuminated by God.’

Modern era Popes

Leo XIII (1878-1903)
St. Pius X (1903-14)
Benedict XV (1914-22)
Pius XI (1922-39)
Pius XII (1939-58)
St. John XXIII (1958-63)
Paul VI (1963-78)
John Paul I (1978)
St. John Paul II (1978-2005)
Benedict XVI (2005-2013)
Francis (2013—)

spacer