Feb212020

Lecture

I attended a marvelous lecture by the French religious priest, Community of the Beatitudes, Jacques Philippe. His presence is charming, a notable disposition of a man of prayer. He is the author of many books, including ‘Interior Freedom’. The priest celebrated Mass, then spoke for a lengthy period through a translator. I took six weeks off from work, during December and January, establishing strong fellowship at a new Church. The congregation is active, the Parrish priest organizing many Catholic groups of devotion: Legion of Mary, the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, Opus Dei men’s Holy Hour, Companions of the Missionaries of the Most Precious Blood, A Holy Face devotional Holy Hour, a Blue Army Rosary group—the traditionalist leaning Church has brought my faith to a higher level. I am enjoying social evenings of communal dining, friendship centered squarely upon faith. hope, and charity. I am pleased.  https://frjacquesphilippe.com/about

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Feb172020

Caution

Self-will, self-placation,
I want to do what I want to do,
I’ll do it right now,
I desire the soft and easy path,
Slothful, lazy, biding my time,
Downtime, feeding my appetites,
Staying nowhere, stagnate,
Spiritual dissipation, slowly,
Drifting away, inconsistency,
Allowing the world,
And demons to win,
Habituation arising from neglect,
Comfort and ease, lukewarm,
Pulling the covers up over my head,
Distraction, overworked and tired,
Hitting the snooze button,
Seeking a bit more sleep,
Surrendering to a subtle death.

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Feb142020

Unpleasantness Until Consent

I rebel against who I am.
Negative reaction, instinct,
Dishonesty, self-absorbed,
Inability to cope,
Emotions and feelings,
Desperate, despairing,
Delusion, self-esteem,
Romantic flight from reality,
Futile, unfriendly, casting about,
I rebel therefore I am,
Increasing wrongs,
Decreasing remedies.

Stepping back, impatient,
Breathing space, insubordination,
Waiting hungry, tired, and cold,
Unwashed, somewhat slightly dazed,
Resignation, no offense,
Lacking hope, isolation,
Minimize aggression, cessation,
Beyond rebellion,
Powerlessness, progress,
A frown not enough,
Sadness penetrating, purgative,
Sterile, stagnate, pregnant.

Consent, positive arising,
Interior attitude transformed,
Both the good and the bad,
The ugly recognized, revealed,
Psychic change, weakness,
Hope blossoming,
Roots revealed, upended,
Flowering within suffering,
Sacrifice and mortification,
Sanctuary, the Church, consecration,
The saints and guardian angels,
God loves, trust emerges.

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Jan242020

Heaven Fulfillment: To Hear Mary Sing

Thus alleviating their fatigue by humble and courteous contentions, the most holy Mary and saint Joseph continued on their journey, (traveling to visit Elisabeth and Zacharias) making good use of each single moment. They proceeded alone, without accompaniment of any human creatures; but all the thousand angels, which were set to guard the couch of Solomon, the most holy Mary, attended upon them (Cant. 3, 7). Although the angels accompanied them in corporeal form, serving their great Queen and her most holy Son in her womb, they were visible only to Mary. In the company of the angels and of saint Joseph, the Mother of grace journeyed along, filling the fields and the mountains with the sweetest fragrance of her presence and with the divine praises, in which She unceasingly occupied herself. Sometimes She conversed with the angels and, alternately with them, sang divine canticles concerning the different mysteries of the Divinity and the works of Creation and of the Incarnation. Thus ever anew the pure heart of the immaculate Lady was inflamed by the ardors of divine love. In all this her spouse saint Joseph contributed his share by maintaining a discreet silence, and by allowing his beloved Spouse to pursue the flights of her spirit; for, lost in highest contemplation, he was favored with some understanding what was passing within her soul. –‘The Mystical City of God’, Venerable Mary of Agreda.

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Nov272019

Social commentary from a mind in tune with God

Given a soul alienated from self, lawlessness follows. A soul with a fight inside itself will soon have a fight outside itself with others. Once a man ceases to be of service to his neighbor, he begins to be a burden to him; it is only a step from refusing to live with others to refusing to live for others. When Adam sinned, he accused Eve, and when Cain murdered Abel, he asked the antisocial question, “‘Am I my brother’s keeper” (Gen. 9). When Peter sinned, he went out alone and wept bitterly. Babel’s sin of pride ended in a confusion of tongues which made it impossible to maintain fellowship.

Our personal self-hatred always becomes hatred of neighbor. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the basic appeal of communism, with its philosophy of class struggle: Communism has special affinity for souls that already have a struggle going on inside of themselves. Associated with this inner conflict is a tendency to become hypercritical: unhappy souls almost always blame everyone but themselves for their miseries. Shut up within themselves, they are necessarily shut off from all others except to criticize them. Since the essence of sin is opposition to God’s will, it follows that the sin of one individual is bound to oppose any other individual whose will is in harmony with God’s will. This resulting estrangement from one’s fellow man is intensified when one begins to live solely for this world; then the possessions of the neighbor are regarded as something unjustly taken from oneself. Once the material becomes the goal of life, a society of conflicts is born. As Shelley said: “The accumulations of the materials of external life exceed the quantity of power of assimilating them to the internal laws Of our nature.”  Bishop Fulton Sheen ‘Peace of Soul’

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Nov262019

Reality

Words for thought an elderly friend offered to a young Mother Angelica: ‘When God sends you tribulations, he expects you to tribulate.’

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Nov252019

Ultimate Goal

How excellent the virtue of hope is, may be learned from the fact that its ultimate object is God himself, our highest Good. Although it perceives and seeks Him as something that is absent, yet at the same time it seeks Him also as something that is attainable through the merits of Christ and through the proper activity of the one that hopes for it. The acts and operations of this virtue are regulated by the light of divine faith and by the prudent reliance on the infallible promise of the Lord. Thus hope, by means of the reasoning powers, maintains the middle road between despair and presumption, not permitting man to presume on his own powers for the attainment of eternal glory or to set aside meritorious activity on his own part, nor allowing fear or despondency to hinder Him from exerting himself toward it on account of the Lord’s promises and assurances of final success. In this security, guaranteed by divine faith in all that pertains to these things and applied in prudent and sound reasoning, man hopes without fear of being deceived and yet also without presumption. –Mary to Sister Mary of Agreda ‘Mystical ity of God’

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