Monthly Archives: December 2020

Dec082020

Through Grace

This union of the spirit and of love, by which a man conforms himself in everything to the supreme and eternal will, enables us to become by grace what God is by His nature.

Let us not forget this truth: the moment a man, by the help of God, succeeds in overcoming his own will, that is, in freeing himself from every inordinate affection and care, to cast himself and all his miseries unreservedly into the bosom of God, that moment he becomes so pleasing to God that he receives the gift of grace. Grace brings charity, and charity drives out all fear and hesitation, and fills the soul with confidence and hope. What is more blessed than to cast all our care on Him Who cannot fail? As long as thou leanest upon thyself thou wilt totter. Cast thyself fearlessly into the arms of God. He will embrace thee, He will heal and save thee.

Albertus Magnus (St Albert the Great) ‘On Union with God’

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Dec072020

Goals and proper contention

To be contented and self-satisfied, to lead a quiet, easy-going life, accomplishing only what duty prescribes is not a good sign. After having done all that our Christian profession requires of us, our Lord nevertheless wishes us to consider ourselves useless servants of His Church; “So you also, when you shall have done all things commanded, you say: We are unprofitable servants.” Therefore how much more useless we ought to consider ourselves, if we live in tepidity and sloth, by which we are still so far removed from that perfections to which we are bound!

When I make my examen of conscience do I find that I fulfil all my duties in the sight of God? What virtue have I acquired hitherto? It may be said that we have acquired the habit of such and such a virtue when we come to practice it willingly and with facility; but when I examine myself, what virtue can I find which I habitually practice with pleasure and facility? I cannot find even one. I am a most unprofitable servant on earth; and if I were now called before the tribunal of my eternal Judge, I much fear that it would be said to me: “Thou wicked servant,” and not “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

In a country where. all are blind it is sufficient for a man to have but one eye for him to be said to have good sight, and amongst a multitude of ignorant people one need possess but a slight tinge of knowledge to acquire the reputation of being very learned; and in the same way in this wicked and corrupt world it is easy to flatter ourselves that we are good, if we are not quite so bad as many others. “I am not as the rest of men.” It was in this that the Pharisee praised himself in the temple.

But in order to know ourselves as we really are, it is not with worldly-minded people we ought to compare ourselves, but with Christ, who is the model for all those who are predestinated. “Look,” says St Paul to every one of us, quoting the words that were said to Moses, “Look and make it according to the pattern that was shown thee on the mount.”

How have I conformed my life to the life of the Incarnate Son of God, who came to teach me the way to heaven by His example? Ascend, O my soul, to the hill of Calvary, and gaze attentively upon thy crucified Savior! To this each one of us must conform in his own state of life if he wishes to be saved; such being the decree of the eternal Father, that the predestinated must “be made conformable to the image of His Son.”

‘Humility of Heart’ by Capuchin Gaetano (Cajetan) Maria da Bergamo

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Dec062020

XVII

I know you were afraid last night. I saw you turn toward the wall trembling with fear.

It was the darkest part of the night. The wind had died down and the clock with the broken minute hand began to tick and every second was absurd.

I saw you push the lamp against the wall. I saw your hands shaking and your fingers quivering. I heard the gnashing of your teeth and the labored galloping of your heart.

And now you come to me with a look of strength and purity, and with magnificent gestures and a newborn smile, you speak to me of life, and you have never spoken so wisely.

But last night, before the smile and before the gestures, I know you were afraid.

Poetry prose by Dulce Maria Loynaz

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Dec062020

Centered Upon God

He said that useless thoughts spoil all – that the mischief began there. We ought to reject them as soon as we perceived their impertinence and return to our communion with God. In the beginning he had often passed his time appointed for prayer in rejecting wandering thoughts and falling right back into them. He could never regulate his devotion by certain methods as some do. Nevertheless, at first he had meditated for some time, but afterwards that went off in a manner that he could give no account of. Brother Lawrence emphasized that all bodily mortifications and other exercises are useless unless they serve to arrive at the union with God by love. He had well considered this. He found that the shortest way to go straight to God was by a continual exercise of love and doing all things for His sake.

He noted that there was a great difference between the acts of the intellect and those of the will. Acts of the intellect were comparatively of little value. Acts of the will were all important. Our only business was to love and delight ourselves in God. All possible kinds of mortification, if they were void of the love of God, could not efface a single sin. Instead, we ought, without anxiety, to expect the pardon of our sins from the blood of Jesus Christ only endeavoring to love Him with all our hearts. And he noted that God seemed to have granted the greatest favors to the greatest sinners as more signal monuments of His mercy.

Brother Lawrence said the greatest pains or pleasures of this world were not to be compared with what he had experienced of both kinds in a spiritual state. As a result he feared nothing, desiring only one thing of God – that he might not offend Him. He said he carried no guilt. “When I fail in my duty, I readily acknowledge it, saying, I am used to do so. I shall never do otherwise if I am left to myself. If I fail not, then I give God thanks acknowledging that it comes from Him.”

Brother Lawrence ‘The Practice of the Presence of God’

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Dec052020

Numbers

Five
is the number of Christ’s wounds, and of our senses,
whose sins
He expiated
by a corresponding number of wounds.

J.K. Huysmans ‘The Cathedral’

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Dec042020

CIII

Poetry prose by Dulce Maria Loynaz from the collection ‘Absolute Solitude’

Like this river that keeps running although it will never arrive anywhere, I chose life, my love, running toward you (Christ).

Running toward you along a path that was always longer than my water, even though my water never ended and it was my heart pushing it along.

I have lived my death and I have died my life in your direction, feeling my way through darkness, confusing faces.

Like this river. Yes, like this slow, blind river that can’t stop or turn back or break away from the rock from which it was born.

The distance of a river has been our distance, the river that never ends, even if I walk, day and night, my entire life.

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Dec032020

The Foundation

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

Gospel of Matthew

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