Divine Intimacy

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JMJ

Feast of St. Joseph of Coppertino of the Order of Friars Minor

“Not really understanding my life and how it’s been going…?
I’m 23 with dreams and determined. I’m big on God and church! I love praising God and making him proud of me and my doings. One thing i can’t say is that i’m not blessed. I WILL NOT sit here and say i’m not blessed and have alot of good things going for myself. I have my own car, nice place, my bills get paid, can get SOME things i want, pretty good health, a part time job, in school fulltime with everything paid for and my gas daily to school paid for…i can go on and on with my blessings. But I am missing some things. I’ve never really had a close relationship with anybody. The closest in my family is my grandma, and outside of my family was my ex, but we have been broken up for years, and i’ve just been so lonely and empty feeling since. Due to issues from when i was younger, i have always been moreso a reserved, quiet, not so outgoing person. That’s not the way i want to be, but it’s just how it is. I don’t want God to think i don’t appreciate my blessings, because i do, i just have things i don’t quite understand that is causing me deep, long-term pain. Not having friends or people to date is hard. I continue to live and hang in there, although i’d rather have those things. Any good advice?” – ‘nextkobe1986′ @ Yahoo!Answers

It’s far a greater blessing for God to penetrate more and more fully into your life, into your heart. When the Spirit of Light and Truth came upon the disciples of Our Lord on Pentecost day, He filled the whole house where they were sitting (Ac 2.2). It’s common for us to live in compartmentalized dwellings where we have a room and space of our own and the same, sadly, happens even in that life which we claim to be “new” in, with, for, and by Christ – the Christian Spiritual Life. But the Christian Spiritual Life is not where God remains at the periphery of our whole self and being – the mastery of which we try to keep in our hands. We “try to keep” because our self is broken (if not shattered) and it comes with the more poignant realization of our powerlessness in dealing with it followed, in one extreme, by a debilitating resignation to our helplessness. The effect: the doors of our heart shut us in in gloom, preoccupied with our self – which preoccupation is always the starting point of our disordered relationship, first, with God; second, with others.

However, the Crucified teaches us that there’s a kind of resignation that does not debilitate and degenerate us – but this from the viewpoint of God, not according as we would judge the “Scandal” of the Cross: compressing the whole point of the Cross of Calvary into a single point of sensation or emotion or intellect which is all but a very limited department of our being. His is that childlike resignation in the arms of His most tender loving Father Who, in the depth of the richness of His mercy and benevolence, works not only in consideration of our good and happiness but even of those who surround us, those who have become part of us – especially even those who dealt us pains and hurts, and those who will still become part of us.

The vacuum in our heart can never be filled in by our self. Neither can other passing creatures (material or persons – broken like we are and seeking comfort and consolation as we do) do so. Deep calleth on deep (Ps 41.8, DRV). Our heart is restless unless God’s excessive love – pouring forth from the Crucified – penetrates and fills it. As this excessive love of God on the Cross of Calvary saturates our heart and burns brightly in it, it supplies us the impulse to return love to Him with that love the Crucified returned to Him. And as this excessive love of God on the Cross of Calvary enriches and expands our poor heart, then it begins to see, not those whom it desires to draw to itself to seek from them their poor love, but those whom it may embrace rather with the love of the Crucified – which Divine Love is enough for it to have found as its reward and consolation. Seek the solution of God in Calvary: intimacy with Our Crucified Lord.

The Crucified and the Christian

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JMJ


Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Traditional Latin Mass

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant… He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.
For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth (Phil 2.5-10, DRV).

To comprehend the mystery of God’s love on the Cross, insofar as it is possible to our limitations, is the summit of the Spiritual Life. Christianity is all Divine Love: we are Christians in the measure that we live in Christ’s love, in the measure that we understand God’s love on the Cross of Christ, in the measure that we love as Christ has loved  on the Cross. “Love is only repaid by love” (St. John of the Cross).

On this Feast, the Crucified exhorts us to be rooted in charity and in humility. To be rooted in Divine Charity, we must not fall into two aberrations: the aberration of one who pretends to love God while paying attention solely to his own interests, without any thought for the needs of others; and, the aberration of one who pretends to love his neighbor while paying attention only to the demands of secular “humanism”, without any thought for what is due to God. To be rooted in Divine Charity, we must also be rooted then in true Christian humility which inclines us to truth (cf. our post on “True Humility”), keeping us in our own proper place in relation to God and others – of which the Beatitude of the poor in spirit (Mt 5.3) is its hallmark.

In the face of all that life can offer us in the way of honors, satisfactions, affections of creatures, comforts and pleasures, and riches – the same offer of Satan to Our Lord in his attempt to make the Savior pursue rather His mission in an easier, popular, “sensibly” comprehensible fashion and less painful and gruesome manner – the Crucified repeats in the depths of our hearts His words: If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast… and come, follow Me (Mt 19.21). This means not only to desire nothing more than what one has, but to give up even this; not to be eager for riches, pleasures and comforts, consolations, fame, nor earthly affections, but to sacrifice all these things which fill our heart with our self and with the world, and prevent it from being filled by God Who Is Charity.

The Crucified also spurs us on to material poverty, teaching us to be content with little, curbing our desires for the necessities of life, but He urges us even more to poverty of spirit, for without this, the former is of no worth. “The lack of things,” says St. John of the Cross, “implies no detachment on the part of the soul if it retains a desire for them, that is, if it is still attached to them… The things of this world neither occupy the soul nor cause it harm, since they enter it not, but rather the will and the desire for them, for it is these that dwell within it.”

This poverty of spirit, the hallmark of Christian humility, includes detachment not only from material goods, but also from moral and even spiritual goods. Whoever tries to assert his own personality, seeking the esteem and regard of creatures, who remains attached to his own will and ideas, or is too fond of his independence, is not poor in spirit, but is rich in himself, in his self-love and his pride. “If thou wilt be perfect,” says St. John of the Cross, “sell thy will… come to Christ through meekness and humility; and follow Him to Calvary and the grave.”

In like manner, one who still seeks the affection of creatures, and the joy and satisfactions which they can give him, is not poor in spirit; neither is he who goes in search of consolations and spiritual delights in his devotions and relations with God. Poverty of spirit consists in being entirely stripped and empty of all these pretensions, so that the soul seeks and desires only one thing: to possess God, and to be thus content, even when God lets Himself be found only in darkness, aridity, anguish, and suffering. Here is that perfect poverty of spirit which frees the soul from all that is not God; this very freedom constitutes the reason for our happiness, because, explains St. John of the Cross, “the soul that strips itself of its desires, delights, and affections that are not of God, will be clothed by God with His purity, joy, and will.” The Beatitude promised to the poor in spirit is the possession of God, a possession which will clothe them with His infinite riches. This is the goal to which the Holy Spirit desires to lead us; let us second His action by responding with docility to His invitation to detachment and total despoliation of the Crucified. The more generously we renounce all that is not God, the more we shall enjoy the beatitude promised to the humble soul who is poor in spirit.

When Mary Comes... (II)

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JMJ

Feast of the Holy Name of Mary

She fights against and conquers the visible enemies of Christ and His Church

The Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church celebrates today this glorious feast which Pope Innnocent XI made obligatory throughout the whole Church in commemoration of the victory over and deliverance of the Christian Europe, led by the Catholic King of Poland, John Solieski, from the Moslems who were routed under the walls of Vienna, Austria in 1683 - in the name of and through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

"[This] is the hour for Mary's power, mercy and watchful protection. She, beautiful, loving and splendid, can be as terrible as an army in battle array (Canticle of Canticles 6.3), and among Her names She bears that of 'Our Lady of Victories', reminding us of Lepanto and Vienna. In her is our hope and peace." - Pope Pius XII, Allocution to the Pilgrims of Genoa, April 21, 1940

The above statement made by Pope Pius XII could be said to have been the last reiteration of what the previous occupants of the Chair of St. Peter had consistently maintained:

1. that the Church has invisible and visible enemies of diabolical order to fight with; and,

2. in the face of this battle against diabolical forces:

"From our post, as helmsman of St. Peter's bark, when we hear the storm raging and see spuming before our eyes the furious surge that would fain submerge our vessel, calmly and confidently we look to the Virgin of Mount Carmel and beseech Her not to desert us. Although hell unceasingly renews its attacks, and the violence, audacity and fury of evil forces are ever increasing, as long as we rely on Her powerful 

patronage we never may doubt the victory." - Pope Pius XII, Radio Message to the National Marian Congress of Colombia, July 19, 1946

"Victory." The Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church here on earth, the Church Militant, shall triumph in this enmity which God has irrevocably fixed between the Woman and Her seed, and Satan and his seed (Gen 3.15). But this Catholic triumph is assured only under the banner of the Crucified and the visible badge of the Immaculate Heart of Mary - the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. And this triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, our Catholic triumph, is still far from the offing as long as:

1. the present occupant of the Chair of St. Peter still walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which they have received of us (2 Thess 3.6), halting between two sides (3 Kings 18.21) of the Traditional Roman Catholic Order surmounted by the Crucified (cf. "Our Great Reversal" posted at this site) and the Counterfeit "Catholic" Order allied with the New World Order organized by the Synagogue of Satan (Apoc 3.9) - futilely pursuing Vatican II's double-sided Ecumenical program, an inter-religious "dialogue" on the surface but within, according to the principles that govern it, an attempt to reconcile Catholicism with or adjust it to:

a. the religious and philosophical errors the Synagogue of Satan spewed: (i) out of France (the principles of the French Revolution through Freemasonry) and of Russia (Materialism through its militant front against the Catholic Church, Atheistic-Communist Revolution), and (ii) those widespread "spiritual" fronts that it inspired (Islam, Protestantism) - all of which already supplanted* the Faith (Our Lord Jesus Christ authored, cf. Heb 12.2) in those nations which once prided themselves as Catholic bastions: But yet the Son of Man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, faith on earth? (Lk 18.8);  

* Islam is fast overturning Catholic nations which turned themselves over to Protestantism

b. the Greek schism; and,

c. paganism in general.

This Ecumenical "dialogue" of the Second Vatican Council is a subtle program calculated to weaken the Church from within, making her appear to relinquish her position as the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim 3.15) by forcing her to stand on equal footing with the sects of perdition (2 Pet 2.1) - that she is just like the rest who worship the same "god". But God and Satan are and can never be of equal footing; there is no reconciliation or any middle ground or meeting point between them and the same must be firmly and unequivocally held, as the Chair of St. Peter had constantly done so throughout the ages past, between the Church of Christ and the sects of Satan. Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part the faithful hath with the unbeliever? (2 Cor 6.14)

And does not the Rite of Exorcism forbid dialogue with the devil? Those who profess and propagate these errors are in the hands of Satan. And if he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen... [whose] gods are devils... (Ps 95.5) and the publican (Mt 18.17). They need the liberation of the Crucified and deliverance into His Kingdom - the Catholic Church.

2. the occupant of the Chair of St. Peter does not meet yet the demands of the Woman clothed with the sun (Apoc 12.1) - the heavenly portent which finally appeared in 1917 at Fatima, Portugal: the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart. A consecration which the de facto authorities in the Vatican spoke of as something already accomplished but which pronouncement plainly contradicts the spontaneous prayer of Pope Benedict XVI's predecessor in his last act of consecration. Pope John Paul II, in his act of consecration of March 25, 1984: "Enlighten especially the peoples of which You Yourself  are awaiting our consecration and confiding" ("Illumina specialmente i populi di Cui Tu aspetti la nostra consacrazione e il nostro affidamento," L'Osservatore Romano, March 26, 1984).

True Humility

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JMJ

Feast of St. Nicholas of Tolentino of the Order of St. Augustine

“Where can one find true humbleness of heart? Is it as simple as opening a door for someone else?” – 'Bilbo Baggins' @ Yahoo! Answers

If you were to aspire to reach the summit of the entire edifice of Christian Perfection – the Cross of Calvary which alone eloquently speaks of true charity (to love as God loves) – it is only then that you can find true humility of heart for this is its ultimate foundation: the preliminary and indispensable work, the condition “sine qua non”. And just as digging is no simple task, digging one’s heart could not only be arduous but could rather prove to be a disquieting and agonizing ordeal: for at the end of the pitch-black tunnel is our self – crushed and hurting terribly, and that through all those years we have lived “independently” we even bungled (read: we were wrong!) in nursing it (most often than not, with the varied illusions and delusions of how excellent we are, exaggerating our own worth, as a result making us demanding and pretentious to ourselves and to others). What a terrible “vacuum” one would create in excavating and displacing all of it - crowned with the fact that we have stood wrong even after all our effort to heal and reconstruct our shattered selves - into the hands of God Whose ways we could not even comprehend! But this is the only way the depths of our hearts could be filled, not by any passing creature utterly powerless to do so, but only by that Divine Person Who on the Cross shows us that true “humility keeps us in our own place; that humility is truth: it tends to establish in truth both our intellect – by making us know ourselves as we really are – and so our life, by inclining us to take, in relation to God and to men, our proper place and no other” (Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, C.D., ‘Divine Intimacy,’ 107.1).

True humility does not make us preoccupied with our wounded heart and does not insist upon our brokenness and misery (and of our "broken" view as well of how perfect and happy we could and should have been) as the standard of what is truth and therefore how God and others should deal with, nay more revolve around us. As the Crucified convinces us of this and makes us bow down before Him Who alone understands us and can turn everything into good just at the right time, He, at the same time, provides us the best of opportunities and His own strength to repair and renew us from within - not forgetting that He did not lie lifeless and powerless in the tomb. By letting the Crucified to be God as He Is, He will not fail to make us see, in one way or another, sooner or later, how things in our life turn and go to their proper place. As His face, His love, and His peace find room and shine upon us, then the doors of our heart are thrown open for others who could be more crushed and broken than we had been. And since it is the Crucified Himself reposing in our hearts Who would take care of those who are drawn to Him through us, we shall not delude ourselves and others. 

Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Mt 11.29).

When Mary Comes... (I)

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JMJ

Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

            She shall crush thy head (Gen 3.15, the Catholic Douay-Rheims Version). Thus God speaks of Our Blessed Mother's role in His plan of Redemption: She is the one to crush Satan and his forces through Her Divine Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Since it was by a woman that led us into the dominion of Satan, it was fitting then that God elected also another Woman to undo and repair the injustice of the first; to bring us back to God's dominion; and, even to crush Satan and his forces in their pride and rebellion by her humility and submission, and in their guile by her perfect purity and innocence. And just as Eve became the accomplice of Satan in the mockery of God thereby bearing the firsfruits of it and projecting upon the whole of creation the darkness of Satan’s dominion, so it was fitting also that another Woman should rise as the partner of God par excellence - that is, that she must had never been under the dominion of Satan since her conception.  

           The birth of Mary is the dawn of our redemption; her appearance projects a new light over all the human race: a light of innocence, of purity, of grace, a resplendent presage of the great light which will inundate the world when Christ, lux mundi, the Light of the World, appears. Therefore the Church, in her sacred traditional Liturgy, sings: “Thy nativity, O Virgin Mother of God, brings joy to the whole world, because from you came forth the Sun of Justice, Christ, our God.” (Magnificat Antiphon). Mary's birth is a prelude to the birth of Jesus because it is the initial point of the realization of the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God for the salvation of mankind. The Mother proclaims the Son, making it known that He is about to come, that the divine promises made centuries before, are to be fulfilled. Mary, therefore preserved from sin in anticipation of Christ’s merits, not only announces that the Redemption is at hand, but she bears the firstfruits of it within herself: She is the first one redeemed by Her Divine Son.