Lord Jesus Christ, we beg Thee for the grace
to remain guarded beneath the protective mantle of Mary,
surrounded by the holy briar from which was taken the Holy Crown of Thorns,
and saturated with Thy Precious Blood in the power of the Holy Spirit,
with our Guardian Angels,
for the greater glory of the Father.
Amen.
Equivalent, an old homeless man, no longer wandering the streets,
Alone, ties that bind severed, hides cured and fashioned,
Archangels, a guardian angel, cloud patterns ascending and descending,
Relationships and worship softening through the decades, a life,
Tendencies, mis-formations, untruths, useless worries, cares and concerns,
Acceptance, repentance, the calm after the storm, prayer and a hunger.
Blowing in the wind,
Rustling leaves in abundance,
Scattered remains falling to the wayside.
The Holy Spirit, transformation through Virgo Potens within Christ,
The fullness of life.
Discord is a discrepancy of the will which prevents it from conforming to the will of God in such matters as it ought to conform for the glory of God and the good of the neighbor; and it is a grave sin, because St Paul counts dissensions among those sins which exclude those who commit them from the kingdom of heaven. And God declares His hatred and abhorrence of all those that disseminate discord among their neighbors. Dissensions arise generally from pride, which prompts us to over-esteem ourselves and to set our own welfare and opinions against those of others, and from this arises the quarrelling, litigation, obstinacy, slandering, faction, hatred, strife and many other evils without number and without end. –”Humility of Heart” by Capuchin Gaetano (Cajetan) Maria da Bergamo
This quote from the book on Humility recommended by Father Chad Ripperger assisted in assuaging discontent regarding a men’s prayer group I recently have been participating in. The concentration of the group has become dominated by politics. In accord with political positions, I am not at peace with the spiritual approach. My faith has never, nor can it be, centered upon politics. I am confident in my discernment regarding my spiritual call, blessed with a spiritual guide who knows me in some ways better than I know myself. I am convinced national and global political matters have risen to the point of the diabolic. Obsession with political matters, even with the stoutest attempts at spiritual expression, can leave one defeated. The vast majority of those fanatical about politics are spiritual disasters. We do not place our faith in the princes of the world. Our neighbors are not only those who agree with us. We are willing to accept defeat, humiliation, and the angry words/acts of those who despise us. The gentleman leading the prayer group discussed the fact his neighbor has threatened to murder him and his wife. He has brought law enforcement into the matter. As the prayer leader says, the neighbor despises the fact he is white—though the neighbor himself is white, and also the facts he is Catholic and politically conservative. He is attaining a carry and conceal permit in order to arm himself. He has discussed the situation with his other neighbors and they agree he is in the right. There was a lack of accountability, a delusion, that remained uncomfortable. After the prayer group, I attended another prayer group in which we assembled at a Cleveland police divisional headquarters, praying for the police officers and emergency responders working out of the facility. The prayers were empty, busy-body, self-serving in my interpretation. All well-meaning men I highly respect, I understood something was amiss. My spiritual guide instructed me that I had veered away from my calling which is that of a contemplative. From my earliest adult years, I hold closely in my mind words from the I Ching, verse 29. You never have to worry about a lack of those desiring to change the world. They will always be there, agreeing and disagreeing, in multitudes.
Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it?
I do not believe it can be done.
The universe is sacred.
You cannot improve it.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
If you try to hold it, you will lose it.
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
What profit has man from all the labor
which he toils at under the sun?
One generation passes and another comes,
but the world forever stays.
The sun rises and the sun goes down;
then it presses on to the place where it rises.
Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north,
the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds.
All rivers go to the sea,
yet never does the sea become full.
To the place where they go,
the rivers keep on going.
All speech is labored;
there is nothing one can say.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing
nor is the ear satisfied with hearing.
What has been, that will be;
what has been done, that will be done.
Nothing is new under the sun.
Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!”
has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
There is no remembrance of the men of old;
nor of those to come will there be any remembrance
among those who come after them.
Ecclesiastes
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
Christina Rossetti
Mother Angelica instructed her nuns to do everything to keep her alive, no matter how much she suffered, because every day she suffered, she suffered for God.
An image, a poem from my youth, has been entrenched in my mind throughout my life. The poem comes from Jim Carroll’s ‘My Basketball Diaries’, a high school read that elevated a self-destructive attraction to decadence, artistic pursuit through self-indulgence and worldly experience—big cities, punk rock, drugs, and an identity attached to being cool—detached, existential, removed from everything.
Little kids shoot marbles
where the branches break the sun
into graceful shafts of light…
I just want to be pure.
An internal response to the poem, as a bewildered young man, I wrote:
Falling faces,
Thinking thoughts,
Into little tiny pieces,
Form inner-circles,
As they inter-lock.
Jim Carroll died at 59. Today, I attended a funeral Mass for a gentleman who passed away at 59. My thoughts during the Mass drifted to the poem, admiring yet realizing the desire for purity is not enough. An artistic mind may envision the sweetness of purity, yet the boredom, lack of immediate gratification, and rigors of striving toward purity are other things. In momentary revelry, the desire for purity can overwhelm to a degree of eternal yearning, a thirsting for Truth, a hunger for goodness, an acquiescence to the total enveloping of divine peace, however, life moves forward in a rapid, yet slow pace—hours are long, yet years are short. We wake in the morning and the drudgery of life continues. Beyond the childishness concentrated upon identity, desires for esteem and recognition, the satisfaction of convictions being victorious, a craving for purity still permeates.
Purity is a pursuit demanding fortitude, so much more than a fantasy. The funeral Mass today; may the peace of Christ be blessed upon the individual’s soul, may his guardian angel be welcomed as a protector and provider, may Mary—Virgo Potens shed her ever-shining light upon his passage into eternity; may the funeral Mass provide the opportunity to mediate upon the finite nature of life. Death comes unexpected—life is short, eternity is long. Purity must be pursued here and now, while a prayerful appreciation for life is focused upon the eternal.
The eastern orthodox church tells the religious tale of a persevering brother. Afflicted with an inability to defeat sin of the flesh, the brother determinedly subjected himself to confession day after day. Authentic in remorse, contrite and sincere during confession, the brother would leave confession only to confound himself by once more falling to the sin of the flesh, his thorn, his cross, his affliction. Every time, the brother resolutely returned to confession. Every confession, God mercifully absolved him. This cycle continued for decades. Satan finally grew weary of the matter. Frustrated, he screamed foulness, declaring God as an unjust authority, a deceitful judge. Accusing God of betraying order and decency while continually granting forgiveness to this wretched habitually sinning man, while casting him, Satan, into the abyss of hell for a little breach of pride. Worked into a wrathful fury, Satan continued with his accusations: “Just because this man falls down before you confessing, after making a mockery of you day after day for decades, you are willing to forgive him time after time? You make no sense. You stifle all my efforts, never forgiving me. You are not a just judge. You make exceptions. You allow individuals to manipulate you, while thwarting the greater ideal of justice.” Bitterness, a dark black smoke, poured forth from the nostrils of Satan. God responded: “You wicked dragon. When this man turns to sin you are delighted, immersed within his indecency, then filling him with shame. You think you have him, yet he fights you, returning to me daily with a heartfelt confession, administering to his love for me, grateful for the price my only begotten Son paid through his death upon a cross. I will never turn this man away as long as he continues to return to me. He is gaining strength, and through his weakness and humility he will achieve victory over the sin that has strangled him throughout his life. Through mercy and love, I will win him over. Oh Seducer, you accuse me of being an unjust judge. On the contrary, I am just beyond all. In whatever moral state I find a person, I judge him. Observe this man, prostrate and admittedly broken by his sin. He conquers you with his willingness to confess his sins. He has battled all of his life. His fortitude will earn him eternal victory.
Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants,
beyond my fears, from death into life.
Recent Comments