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Aug152015

Day by Day, stone by stone, build your secret slowly

Certain portions of Sacred Scripture, attentively pronounced or reverently considered, are similarly of great efficacy.  Consequently, we should be familiar with those facts corresponding to the virtue in question (virtue concentrated upon), and employ them frequently, particularly when beset by the predominant opposite passion.  Those, for instance, who’s strive to attain mildness and patience may repeat these or similar passages: 

“Bear patiently with the wrath of God which comes upon you in punishment for your sins.”  –Baruch 4:25

“The patience of the poor shall not perish, or be deprived of its reward”.  –Psalm 9:19

“The patient man is better than the valiant; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he taketh cities.”  –Proverbs 16:32

“By your patience you will win your soul.”  –Luke 12:1

“With patience run to the fight set before us”.  –Hebrews 12:1

Those or similar aspirations may be used: “O God, when shall I be armed with patience as a shield against the weapons of my enemy?  When shall I so love Thee as to receive with joy all the afflictions Thou shalt be pleased to send?  O life of my soul, shall I never begin to live for Thy glory alone, perfectly resigned to all sufferings?  O how happy, I should be, if in the fiery trial of tribulation, I burn with a desire of being consumed for Thy service”.

–Dom Lorenzo Scupoli ‘The Spiritual Combat’

Spiritual Combat

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Jul012015

Imaginary perfection

…take the time to think about the vanity of the human mind and how easily it becomes confused and wrapped up in itself. I’m sure you can readily see how the interior trials you have experienced were caused by the multiplicity of reflections and desires that came about in your great hurry to attain some imaginary perfection. By this I mean that your imagination had formed an ideal of absolute perfection which your will wanted to reach, but, frightened by the huge difficulty, or rather, impossibility of attaining it, remained, as it were, heavy with child, unable to give birth. On this occasion your will multiplied futile desires which, like bumblebees and hornets, devoured the honey in the hive, while the true and good desires remained starved of all consolation….

Know that patience is the one virtue which gives greatest assurance of our reaching perfection, and, while we must have patience with others, we must also have it with ourselves. Those who aspire to pure love of God need to be more patient with themselves than with others. We have to endure our own imperfections in order to attain perfection; I say ‘endure patiently’ not ‘love’ or ‘embrace’: humility is nurtured through such endurance.  –St Francis de Sales in a letter oi spiritual direction to Mademoiselle de Soulfour.

St Francis de Sales

St Francis de Sales

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Jun042015

Necessities and patience

Jesus, I trust in You
Holy Presence I kneel broken, sincere, making the sign of the Cross,
Corpus Christi, resting exposed I repose blinded, overpowered,
Fighting within, struggling against pain and sadness, waiting,
Relishing moments of peace, capabilities, a monstrance, harvesting confidence,
Trusting, instituting patience, the Eucharist through, with and in the Church,
Lord, I am a weak, one filled with tears, arrest the anger,
I need You, bring me others to be near,

The just and the unjust must each carry his own cross. Carry it with patience to be saved; carry it with impatience and be lost….

…with this present life, those who practice the most patience have the most peace of mind. Let us be convinced that in this valley of tears true peace of heart cannot be found except by those who lovingly embrace their crosses to please Almighty God. “If anyone wishes to come after me,” says the Lord, “he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). This must be done, not by constraint and against our will, but with humility, patience, and love.

St Catherine of Genoa…”To attain union with God, adversities are indispensable. By them God aims at destroying all our corrupt propensities both within and without. All injuries, contempt, abandonment by loved ones, temptations and mortifications are necessary in the highest degree so that we carry on the fight until, by repeated victories, we come to extinguish all viciousness within us.”

“The patient man is better than the valiant” (Proverbs 16:32)…. –St Alphonsus Liguori ‘The Holy Eucharist’

Revelation-1412

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May032015

A weekend of defining, living, concluding

The breathing of the air,
the song of the sweet nightingale,
the grove and its living beauty
in the serene night,
with a flame that is consuming and painless.
–St John of the Cross, ‘Spiritual Canticle’

Patience a virtue. Christ awaits the return of His children. Forgive my trespasses Lord Jesus. Many times I have tested You. I deserve the wrath of Your hand, But You see greater things: Your patience enormous! Grant me a droplet of Your endurance. Grant me the fortitude and strength to abolish my impious impatience, able to reflect Your serenity. Great is the Lord Jesus in wisdom! Holy Mother, sheltering with your mantle, accompany me.

A time of living, solid in faith, building upon hope, loving all the time. I felt the need to live strong this weekend, experiencing and aware, healthy while building, prayerful the whole time. Silent and still before the Eucharist is easy. Living in the world is the difficult part. This weekend I consumed and participated, remaining distant, knowing God calls at all times. I am no Saint Faustina. In all my awkwardness, I have begged for a sign. Some have been given, signs appearing, yet definitive direction remains amiss. Life unfolds as a mystery.

St Faustina tells of marvelous spiritual direction:

“Once I was at a dance with one of my sisters and while everybody was having a good time, my soul was experiencing internal torments. As I began to dance, I suddenly saw Jesus at my side, Jesus racked with pain, stripped of his clothing, covered all over with wounds, who spoke these words to me, “How long shall I suffer and how long will you keep on deceiving Me?” At that moment a charming music stopped, and my company vanished from my sight; there remained Jesus and I. I took a seat by my dear sister, pretending to have a headache in order to cover up what took place in my soul. After a while, I slipped out unnoticed, leaving my sister and all my companions behind, and made my way to the Cathedral of Saint Stanislaus Kostka (Lodz). It was almost twilight; there were only a few people in the cathedral. Paying no attention to what was happening around me, I fell prostrate before the Blessed Sacrament and begged the Lord to be good enough to give me to understand what I should do next.

Then I heard these words, “Go at once to Warsaw (Poland), you will enter a convent there”.  I rose from prayer, came home, and took care of things that needed to be settled. As best I could, I confided to my sister what took place within my soul. I told her to say good-bye to our parents, and thus, in one dress, with no other belongings, I arrived in Warsaw

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