On the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception... a treatise about Mary.

I didn't write this.  I wish I had.  Because it is beautiful and succinct, and speaks truth.  For your enjoyment, on this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, I present... "Why the Devil Hates the Blessed Virgin So Much (And Why You Should Love Her)" by Sam Guzman.


Satan hates the Blessed Virgin Mary. In fact, he has been doing everything in his power to discourage devotion to her and instill hatred for her for two millennia. Have you ever noticed that it is Marian dogmas and devotions that stir the strongest reactions in those who reject the Church? Even some good Catholics are embarrassed by devotion to our Lady, and they feel we should not be too extreme in our veneration of her.
Perhaps you, too, have wondered why the Church holds the Immaculate Virgin in such high regard. Perhaps you have wonder why God has chosen to use her in the work of redemption. Today, I’d like to take a look at why the devil hates the Blessed Mother so much, and why we should be her devoted knights.

She will crush your head

The scene is the garden of Eden. The characters are God, the serpent, Adam, and Eve. The devil is smirking in triumph. He has just deceived Eve, and through her, Adam. Oh, he is proud of himself. You can almost feel the demonic pride in destruction, for he has successfully marred God’s handiwork of creation, and dragged human beings—for whom God has a special love—into death and misery.
God has appeared on the scene to clean up the mess, declaring the tragic curse that has arisen from sin, but also to proclaim the protoevangelium, the first hint at the Gospel and the devil’s doom.
God starts by addressing Satan, telling him he is going to eat dirt for the rest of his days. Then he reveals something that makes Satan cringe in horror—his ultimate defeat will come at the hands of a woman.

And I will establish a feud between thee and the woman, between thy offspring and hers; she is to crush thy head, while thou dost lie in ambush at her heels (Genesis 3:15, Knox)

Now, scholars argue about whether or not the pronoun is masculine or feminine in the sentence, “She is to crush thy head”—that is, whether it refers to the Virgin Mary or Jesus Christ. But I’m going to let you in on a little secret: it doesn’t matter. You see, Jesus is going to crush Satan through Mary. She is the instrument Jesus is going to wield when he destroys his ancient enemy.
With that in mind, it is just as legitimate to say, “he will crush your head” as it is to say, “she will crush your head.” It’s kind of like telling an armed assailant, “One more step and I will shoot you” and “One more step and my .44 magnum will blow you away.” They are both true statements.
So why does being defeated by Mary pain the devil so much? Why does God want to use Mary to defeat Satan?

“He has put down the mighty from their seat…”

The devil hates, I mean he loathes the fact that his ultimate defeat will come at the hands of a lowly handmaiden. In a way, his proud heart could handle being defeated by God himself because he’s almighty and omnipotent. But being crushed by a little Lady from Nazareth? The thought is absolutely humiliating. It drives him crazy. For if there is one thing the most proud creature in all of creation hates, it is being humiliated.
Satan finds his defeat by the Virgin Mary humiliating because she is a woman, and women are the weaker sex (1 Peter 3:7), and he despises weakness. He loves nothing more than to see women abused, degraded, and objectified. Not to mention that our Blessed Lady is a human, and Satan hates humans because we have bodies, and he is a pure spirit that thinks bodies are disgusting. But there’s another, more profound reason Satan hates being defeated by Mary: She is his replacement in heaven.
You see, Lucifer was originally God’s finest achievement. He was more beautiful, more powerful than all the other creatures that God has made. And as we all know, it went to his head. He was so gorgeous, so mighty that he really thought he could be better than God. The defining marks of Satan are pride and envy of the Almighty.
And what are the defining characteristics of our Lady? First and foremost, she is supremely humble. In fact, she is the most humble creature that has ever existed. For every ounce of pride the devil has, Mary has twice as much humility. For every drop of hate-filled and bitter envy in Satan’s black heart, Mary’s heart is filled with twice as much praise, worship, and love. For every bit of warped and destructive depravity in the devil’s soul, Mary’s heart is filled with more purity and fruitfulness. And by grace, God has made her the most exquisite and most glorious creature in all the universe—the title the devil used to claim.
In every way, the Immaculate is Satan’s polar opposite. In every way, she is his replacement, and he knows it. This Divine exchange of Mary for Satan is revealed in our Lady’s hymn of praise, the Magnificat. 

My soul magnifies the Lord;
my spirit has found joy in God, who is my Saviour,
because he has looked graciously upon the lowliness of his handmaid.
Behold, from this day forward all generations will count me blessed;
because he who is mighty, he whose name is holy, has wrought for me his wonders.
He has mercy upon those who fear him, from generation to generation;
he has done valiantly with the strength of his arm,
driving the proud astray in the conceit of their hearts;
he has put down the mighty from their seat, and exalted the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty-handed.
He has protected his servant Israel,
keeping his merciful design in remembrance,
according to the promise which he made to our forefathers,
Abraham and his posterity for evermore.

In the Magnificat, we see the role of Mary in salvation summarized beautifully:

• Mary’s humility- “he has looked graciously on the lowliness of his handmaid”
• God’s marvelous work of grace in her: “Because he who is mighty, he who name is holy, has wrought for me his wonders”
• God’s casting out of Satan: “Driving the proud astray in the conceit of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their seat”
• His exalting of Mary in Satan’s place: “He has…exalted the lowly.”

Worst of all for Satan, his replacement in heaven is none other than the mother of the Eternal Word, Jesus Christ, whose passion and death redeemed the very humanity he has worked so hard to destroy. Her Yes to God undid the disobedience of Eve, paving the way for the saving work of the New Adam. The very weakness of Eve that Satan so scorned was replaced by the humble obedience of Mary, an obedience to the will of God that has made her powerful beyond limits. 
This is the Divine plan for the defeat of his enemy. This is Satan’s humiliation and his doom.

Hasta la vista, Satan

In case you didn’t realize it, Satan hates you. His bitter envy inspires him to destroy God’s creation, to drag it down into the abyss of hell. He would love nothing more for you—image bearer of God—to join in him in the eternal flames of the lake of fire, for misery loves company.
But fear not. The ancient serpent is powerless against the Immaculate Virgin, for in God’s plan, she is the instrument that Jesus will use to humiliate and demolish him. Do you want to crush the head of the devil in your life? Do you want to make it safely through trials, temptations, and storms to our eternal Home? The answer is simple: Call on Mary. Love her, be her devoted servant. Be her knight, her defender, her apostle. Consecrate yourself to her totally and completely—for nothing that belongs to her will be lost. As St. John Damascene said so beautifully, “To be devoted to thee, O holy Virgin, is an arm of salvation which God gives to those whom He wishes to save.”
Satan is on a rampage, wreaking as much havoc as he possibly can—because he knows his time is running out. He is afraid and he is angry, for he knows that one day very soon, he will be crushed by the Woman who makes his heart quake, the woman who “looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army with banners” (Song of Solomon 6:10).
—
Prayer
Majestic Queen of Heaven and Mistress of the Angels,
thou didst receive from God the power and commission to crush the head of Satan;
wherefore we humbly beseech thee, send forth the legions of heaven, that, under thy command,
they may seek out all evil spirits, engage them everywhere in battle, curb their insolence,
and hurl them back into the pit of hell. “Who is like unto God?”
O good and tender Mother, thou shalt ever be our hope and the object of our love.
O Mother of God, send forth the holy Angels to defend me and drive far from me the cruel foe.
Holy Angels and Archangels, defend us and keep us.

Sacraments. From St. Augustine.

"Your Lord is seated at the Father’s right hand in heaven. How then is the bread His body? And the chalice, or rather its content, how is it His Blood? These elements are called Sacraments, because in them one thing is perceived by the sense and another thing by the mind. What is seen has a bodily appearance; what the mind perceives produces spiritual fruit. You hear the words, ‘The Body of Christ’, and you answer ‘Amen.’"

— Saint Augustine

The Election. I've got Something To Say

I've been struggling to put into words what I feel about what just happened with this national election.  The campaign was ugly.  It was a dirty, ugly, all-out fight.... the worst in memory, and politics was bad enough to begin with.  It brought out the absolute worst in both major-party candidates, and for that reason, I struggled HARD with a decision on who to vote for.  Not between the two of THEM... that wasn't the hard decision.  I knew that I could never support a continuation of the relativistic, anti-life, world-on-it's head, group think that we've had for the past eight years.  So, I knew undeniably that I couldn't vote for HER.  But could I vote for HIM?  The arrogant, brash, big-mouthed, piggish, self-serving, gold-plated HIM?  Did he represent ME and MY VALUES in any form whatsoever???  It certainly didn't seem so.   So, for much of the campaign, I fretted and stewed, and felt like a truly "disenfranchised voter" with nowhere to go, and no one representing decent, common-sense (is there such a thing any more?) Christian values.    Others around me assured me he was the guy - just the guy to stoop to the gutter where the fight takes place, to be victorious.  But I didn't just want victorious.  I wanted HOPE.  I wanted a return to all that is good about America.  I wanted someone who would remember that we used to find these truths self-evident:  that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; among those life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

So I struggled, and argued with my husband (whose mind was made up decisively and early), and fretted, and prayed for a last minute knight on a white horse to prance in and give me SOMEONE I could vote for with a clear conscious.  It was evident, though, that anyone who was qualified for the job, didn't want the job.  I certainly couldn't blame them.  The job of President of the United States is vicious.  It sucks.  I wouldn't want it.  And there were other considerations to take into account.  When Justice Scalia died, and a Supreme Court vacancy was suddenly on the table, the election's ramifications became even starker.  Stakes were HIGH... not just for four years of one presidency or another, but for the lives of my children well into the future. 

And then Evan McMullin appeared out of nowhere (well, Utah... same thing).  I heard him first on the radio, and he was saying everything I wanted to hear.  He understood ME, he represented MY values.   More than any candidate in recent memory, he was reflecting my hopes for this country.   And he was stepping forward out of a sense of service, not entitlement, because he loves America and wants the best for it.  And I thought "YES!  Here's my guy!"  Knowing that my vote doesn't matter in this heavily blue state anyway,  I might as well vote for someone I actually AGREE with, even if his chances of winning were nil.  Plus, every poll, every pundit, every newspaper article, every newscast, told me that this election was in the bag for HER.  99% certain, anyway.  It was a done deal, the election was a formality.  It was her turn.  She'd done all the required steps, and now she got to be the first woman president, because it's all about gender and breaking a glass ceiling, and WINNING for HER.  Puke. 

But then, I got to thinking.  If Evan McMullin took Utah... that's a red state.  OK.  Sacrifice those red votes and turn them independent,  but that's still minus for the red column, and if anyone was to stop the other two schmucks from winning 270 electoral votes, we really needed to take some votes from a blue column.  We needed a blue state to turn red.  And right before the election, my solidly blue state started turning... purple.  For the first time in a generation.  Well, maybe light blue, according to the polls.  But not dark blue, like it always had been.  Which meant... I had to play defense, if I wanted my guy to have a chance (he didn't.  But theoretically).    I had to plug my nose, and vote for the big-mouth, and take one for the team, because my part in the strategy was defense.  Decision, one week before the election, was finally made. 

The day of the election, I told my children it was "my day of despair" because I believed what I was told, and that we were about to be subjected to four more years of the debacle of Obama-care, gender-identity crisis, the wholesale slaughter of the unborn, unsecure borders, and the relativism of a nation who had lost its moral compass utterly.  We'd lost before we'd even begun.  Everyone said so.  Those people who remembered a time when there was such thing as a right and a wrong... they were gone.  We Christians are out of touch, out of date, backwards.  We are bigots, homophobes, racists, xenophobic paternalistic misogynists.  They all said so.  All the loud people in the media, all the loud people on Facebook.  All those emails leaked from HER campaign.  All the shouting people everywhere.  They believe that of us.  They really do.  Despair.

And then.... the unthinkable, the unbelievable happened.  The 99% certainty didn't happen.  It DIDN'T HAPPEN.  Not by a decisive long shot!  Definitively!  As state after state turned red on the electoral map on November 8th, I was stunned.  Are you serious????  Really really???   I stayed up as late as I could muster, watching the news, and by early morning it was official.  HE had won.  Not HER.  HIM.  The big-mouth.  I hadn't wanted him, even though he got my vote.  The educated woman who everyone said would never vote for the likes of HIM had voted for HIM, and apparently, so had a lot of other people.  A LOT of quiet people, who nobody knew were out there.  So, what was I supposed to feel now?

I'll be honest.  You know what I feel?  RELIEF.  R.E.L.I.E.F.   The certainty of what another four blue years would have held has been dispelled, and that is a fantastic thing.  FANTASTIC.  And, even though I am really nervous about the future of this country, I feel like we have a chance now to regain our senses.  If for no other reason than that Supreme Court vacancy, this was a victory for America.  We have a chance. 

And now we pray.  We pray for HIM, that he would learn humility and wisdom, and surround himself with the best and brightest that our country has to offer.  That HE takes on this responsibility with a sense of service and love of God and country.  We pray for the 50% of this nation that is scared to death, because they believe the lies about the other half of us... that we are racist, xenophobe, misogynist bigots.  We are NOT.  And our vote for HIM doesn't make us so.  Not by a long shot.  And we are dang tired of being labeled as such, just because we have beliefs and values that are as long as the history of the human race, and have not just evolved over the past 30 years like theirs.    We pray for healing, and repentance.  We pray for a return to common sense, a return to faith, a return to justice.

We pray for America.  We've got a lot of work to do.

Explaining the Communion of Saints, in preparation for All Saint's Day!

"We should recall that no man is an island, entire of itself. Our lives are involved with one another, through innumerable interactions they are linked together. No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one is saved alone. The lives of others continually spill over into mine: in what I think, say, and do, and achieve. And conversely, my life spills over into that of others: for better or for worse. So my prayer for another is not something extraneous to that person, something external, not even after death."
Pope Benedict XVI

It's a Sign

SO, my son dropped his binder outside on the way to the bus today.  That's only significant because it means that I made an unexpected trip into town to deliver it to him at school.  On my way there, from out of the LITERAL GUTTER next to the road... a gigantic bald eagle came out of nowhere and attempted to fly into my car.  I was going around 50 miles per hour at the time, and I stared at the thing eye to eye through the windshield on the passenger side.  A BALD EAGLE. 

I swerved into the other lane, and missed the thing by inches.  No exaggeration.  INCHES.  And then I swerved back into my lane, and the car wobbled and took a second to right itself.  It all happened so fast.  My heart was pounding, it was so surreal.  I almost killed a BALD EAGLE, our national bird.  He was almost road kill. 

It took only a nanosecond after that to find the significance of that encounter.  Our nation is currently in the gutter with this election.  We have stooped to such lows as have never been seen before.  If we stay on our current path - what with the election only a few weeks away - WHAMMO.  America as we know it is a gonner.  But if we do the unexpected, if we swerve suddenly at the last minute instead of staying the course... we can avert disaster.  It may cause things to go a bit crazy in the short term, but we will right ourselves again.  America, like that huge bald eagle, will soar once again.  Out of the dang gutter.

I'm going to swerve.  I don't know if anyone will swerve with me, but I hope so, as I kind of feel like it's our only hope.  I'm going to vote my conscience, and I hope every one else does, too.  I'm not going to feel obligated by the miserable choices I've been given. 

I mean - what IF, for the first time in decades - people on both sides of the aisle cooperated on this ONE THING to save our country.  What if the people who are voting for Hillary because they don't want Trump, and the people who are voting for Trump because they don't want Hillary... what if those people didn't vote for them, and instead voted their consciences?  What if they really voted for who they really wanted to vote for?  And America could start anew???

On Free Will

We have nothing of our own but our will. It is the only thing that God has so placed in our own power that we can make an offering of it to him.

St. John Vianney

Words To Live By....

"Our first duty, therefore, precisely in order to heal this world, is to be holy, configured to God; in this way we emanate a healing and transforming power that also acts on others, on history. . . In this regard, it us useful to reflect that the Twelve Apostles were not perfect men, chosen for their moral and religious irreproachability. They were indeed believers, full of enthusiasm and zeal but at the same time marked by their human limitations, which were sometimes even serious. Therefore Jesus did not call them because they were already holy, complete, perfect, but so that they might become so, so that they might thereby also transform history, as it is for us, as it is for all Christians."

Pope Benedict XVI

On Faith and Works... Augustine Style.

Thank you, St. Augustine (ca 400 AD).

"Walking by faith, let us do good works. In these let there be a free love of God for His own sake and an active love for our neighbor. For there is nothing we can do for God. But because we have something we can do for our neighbor, we shall by our good offices to the needy gain the favor of Him Who is the source of all abundance. Let us then do what we can for others; let us freely bestow upon the needy out of our abundance".

Yes.  Let us show our love of God to one another.  It's really that simple.  

Saint Mother Teresa, Pray for Us!

In celebration of her canonization this morning, let us remember.

“Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the action that we do.”

HOW we need his straight-forward wisdom today!!! Speak it, Bishop Sheen!!

And one more, because I'm on a Fulton Sheen kick....

So, HERE is Free Will

What I wish Calvinist's understood about Free Will.  This makes so much sense. 

"To the extent that we abandon our personality to Him, He will take possession of our will and work in us. We are no longer ruled by commands coming from the outside, as from a cruel master, but by almost imperceptible suggestions that rise up from within. We feel as if we had wanted all along to do those things He suggests to us; we are never conscious of being under command. Thus our service to Him becomes the highest form of liberty, for it is always easy to do something for the one we love."

— Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

Strive

This morning's Gospel reading from Luke was powerful.

Someone asked him,
“Lord, will only a few people be saved?”
He answered them,
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate,
for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
but will not be strong enough.

That one word jumped out at me.  STRIVE.  Jesus didn't answer the questioners directly.  He didn't say "Yeah, I only chose a few elect, and those are the ones I'll grab by the hand and escort through the narrow gate, so just stand there and wait for me."   He certainly didn't say "The gate's wide open, everyone saunter on in!"  He directly gave a command.  We are called to STRIVE.  So much in that one word.  It is a call to action.  Doing.  Growing.  Trying. It implies strife, difficulty, obstacles.  It demands effort, and lots of it. The going will be tough, so DO SOMETHING.  It's not enough to desire to be saved.  Jesus calls us to ACTION.   He Himself has opened the gate, but He is calling to us, and it's our job to live this life in such a way that we COME TO HIM.  We, for all our trying, will never beat down that narrow gate if it's closed.  But if He opens it for us... we need to be strong.  We need to STRIVE. 

The other thing that struck me about the way the Lord answered the questioners, was that Jesus made it clear that it wasn't HE who was the limiting factor on who got saved. He's not picking favorites.  There's not a definitive number.  The limit is US.  "Many will attempt to enter but not be strong enough". 

I can read a passage a thousand times, and it isn't until the 1001st time that it's full impact becomes clear - just when I need to hear it.

STRIVE. 

What I need to remember in light of the upcoming election....

"You must not abandon the ship in a storm because you cannot control the winds… What you cannot turn to good, you must at least make as little bad as you can."

— St. Thomas More

Here's to making as little bad as I can in November.....

Quote Of The Day

Quote Of The Day: For Me To Remember

"Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace in the world."

— Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Happy Feast of St. Veronica

Today is the Feast of St. Veronica.  Given that we were just in the presence of her veil, I feel the need to document this day accordingly.  Here's a little info on her....
St. Veronica (1st c.) is one of the holy women of Jerusalem who accompanied Jesus on the Way of the Cross. Out of her sorrow and compassion she offered Jesus her veil to wipe the blood and sweat from his face as He carried the cross on the way to His crucifixion. In gratitude for her simple yet gracious act, Jesus left an image of His face on the cloth. According to tradition, Veronica afterwards went to Rome and brought the cloth with her. This piece of cloth, known as Veronica's Veil, has been venerated as a holy and miraculous image of Jesus Christ ever since. It has been kept since ancient times in St. Peter's Basilica. On the Via Dolorosa (Way of the Cross) in Jerusalem there is a small chapel called the Chapel of the Holy Face that was built on the site of St. Veronica's home and the location where the miracle took place. St. Veronica's feast day is July 12th.

And here's what we saw, a little under a month ago.....

This feast day has taken on a whole new significance. 

Thought For The Day.

"God does not fit in an occupied heart."

— St. John of the Cross

Just So We're Clear... Science and Religion are not opposing forces.

AND... these men are the proof.  Let's just look at some of these great scientists:

1. Copernicus (1473–1543)

Remember Copernicus?! The Catholic priest who practiced medicine and then went into astronomy developing heliocentrism. He discovered that the earth is not the center of the universe, not even of this solar system. He is believed to have entered the priesthood later in life. His contributions to astronomy revolutionized the field and the world.

2. Albertus Magnus, O.P. (before 1200 – 1280)

What’s a list of major intellectual achievements without a Dominican or two on the list?! Fr. Albertus Magnus is the patron saint of the natural sciences and a Doctor of the Church because of his great work in in physics, logic, metaphysics, biology, and psychology.

3. Georges Lemaître (1894–1966)

Fr. Lemaitre with his colleague, Albert Einstein.

Belgian priest and father of the Big Bang Theory. Fr. Lemaitre was a contemporary of, and based his work on Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. Lemaitre also spent time serving as the Director of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

4. Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)

 

Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian Friar who was the founder of the modern science of genetics. Yep! The study of genetics was started by a Catholic priest. If you have taken a science class and had to learn the terms “recessive” and “dominant” it is thanks to Fr. Mendel.

5. Giuseppe Mercalli (1850–1914) 

Priest, volcanologist, and director of the Vesuvius Observatory who is best remembered today for his Mercalli scale for measuring earthquakes which is still in use. Yes, the scientific inquiry of Catholics knows no bounds, even volcanoes and earthquakes have been studied.

6. William of Ockham (c. 1288 – c. 1348)

 

Have you heard of Ockham’s Razor? He is the Franciscan Scholastic who wrote significant works on logic, physics, and theology; known for Ockham’s Razor. Yet, another Catholic priest’s whose work had a huge impact on the natural sciences.

7. Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1598–1671) 

Jesuit astronomer who authored Almagestum novum, an influential encyclopedia of astronomy. He was the first person to measure the rate of acceleration of a freely falling body; created a selenograph with Father Grimaldi who now adorns the entrance at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. Catholic priests remembered at the Smithsonian!

8. Francesco Maria Grimaldi (1618 – 1663)

There are a lot of Jesuit priest-scientists! Fr. Grimaldi was an Italian Jesuit priest, mathematician and physicist who taught at the Jesuit college in Bologna. A crater on the moon is named Grimaldi after him.

9. Nicolas Steno (1638-1686)

Nicholas Steno made great strides in anatomy and geology. He eventually became a Catholic Bishop. Various parts of the body are named after him: Stensen’s duct, Stensen’s gland, Stensen’s vein, and Stensen’s foramina. He is also the founder of the study of fossils.

10. George V. Coyne, S.J. (born January 19, 1933)

George Coyne, S.J.
wiki image

Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO) is one of the observatories used for the Vatican’s scientific inquiries.

How about somebody current? Fr. Coyne is a Jesuit priest, astronomer, and former director of the Vatican Observatory and head of the observatory’s research group which is based at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. Since January 2012, he has served as McDevitt Chair of Religious Philosophy at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY.

11. Fr. Stanley Jaki (1914-2009)

Stanley Jaki, O.S.B
wiki images

Fr. Jaki was a Hungarian Benedictine priest and Distinguished Professor of Physics at Seton Hall University, New Jersey. He most notably taught that science developed out of Christianity and he bridged the divide in the manufactured division between science and faith. You can read about his teaching in the book Science Was Born of Christianity by Stacy Trasancos.

A Night of Fire, By Blaise Pascal

The famous 17th century mathematician and scientist had a dramatic, supernatural conversion experience one night, and afterwards wrote this poem and changed his life.  Read the full story here. 

The year of grace 1654,

Monday, 23 November, feast of St. Clement, pope and martyr, and others in the martyrology. Vigil of St. Chrysogonus, martyr, and others. From about half past ten at night until about half past midnight,

FIRE.

GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob
not of the philosophers and of the learned.
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.
GOD of Jesus Christ.
My God and your God.
Your GOD will be my God.
Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD.
He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel.
Grandeur of the human soul.
Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you.
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
I have departed from him:
They have forsaken me, the fount of living water.
My God, will you leave me?
Let me not be separated from him forever.
This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the one that you sent, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
I left him; I fled him, renounced, crucified.
Let me never be separated from him.
He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel:
Renunciation, total and sweet.
Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.
Eternally in joy for a day’s exercise on the earth.
May I not forget your words. Amen.

The Virgin Tomb of Christ

I had never thought of this before.  From "Shameless Popery".

Both St. Matthew and St. John take pains to specify that Christ’s Tomb was never-before used. Matthew 27:59-61 says,

And Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the sepulchre.

And John 19:41 is even more explicit: “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid.”  But why do they both specify this seemingly-mundane detail?

Because it shows that the Tomb is holy. Certain things are given to God alone, and we don’t touch them. That’s the original meaning of the Greek word hagios, used nearly 100 times in the New Testament. Strong’s Concordance defines it as meaning “set apart by (or for) God, holy, sacred.” A thing is holy by being given over to God in a unique way. There’s a good example of this in Ezekiel 44:1-3, in a prophetic vision of the New Temple:

Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and it was shut. And he said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut. Only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.”

The Temple Gate is God’s alone – nobody else gets to pass through it, because God has passed through it. The Tomb of Christ is similarly God’s alone. Nobody else is buried there because it was set aside by God (even if not by Joseph of Arimathea) for His Son Jesus. And of course, the Apostles are able to continue to point to the reality of the Empty Tomb (Acts 2:29-31, 13:29-31) precisely because no one would ever be laid in that Tomb again.

If you understand this – if you can see why it mattered to the Jews that nobody else had gone (or would go) through the Temple Gate, and why it mattered to the Evangelists that nobody else had been buried (or would be buried) in the Tomb – then you should be able to see why the early Christians were so insistent upon the Virgin Birth and upon the perpetual virginity of Mary.
It’s not about marital sex being sinful or dirty. Matthew & John aren’t insulting burials when they emphasize the newness of the Tomb. Ezekiel isn’t demeaning entering the Temple. And the early Christians aren’t bashing the union between husband and wife. All of those things, in contrast, are good and holy. What all of them are instead emphasizing is that some things are holy, in that they belong utterly and only to God. In fact, some of the earliest Christian commentary on Ezekiel 44 makes it clear that the Virgin Mary is the Temple Gate of Ezekiel 44. For example, St. Gregory the Wonderworker (213-270) proclaims:

The Holy Virgin is herself both an honourable temple of God and a shrine made pure, and a golden altar of whole burnt offerings. By reason of her surpassing purity [she is] the Divine incense of oblation, and oil of the holy grace, and a precious vase bearing in itself the true nard; [yea and] the priestly diadem revealing the good pleasure of God, whom she alone approacheth holy in body and soul. [She is] the door which looks eastward, and by the comings in and goings forth the whole earth is illuminated.

That language makes some Protestants uncomfortable, but it shouldn’t. St. Gregory is saying is that the Virgin Mary, like the Temple of Old, or the Tomb in which Christ lay, is wholly and permanently consecrated to God. And who can deny this? Or who can imagine that this sort of total consecration to God somehow dishonors or diminishes His Glory?

The perpetually-virgin Tomb & the perpetually-Virgin Womb run parallel to one another, and they both tell us something about Who Jesus Is: namely, that He is God, Who alone can command these sorts of radical consecrations. In both His Incarnation and His Resurrection, Jesus emerges into the world in a radical way, and these “portals” between time and eternity are consecrated to Him absolutely and completely.

Oh, how I love C.S. Lewis. He Gets It.

"And let me make it quite clear that when Christians say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral. When they speak of being ‘in Christ’ or of Christ being ‘in them’, this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating through them; that the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts-—that we are His fingers and muscles, the cells of His body. And perhaps that explains one or two things. It explains why this new life is spread not only by purely mental acts like belief, but by bodily acts like baptism and Holy Communion. It is not merely the spreading of an idea; it is more like evolution—a biological or superbiological fact. There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it."

Quote of the Day: What I need to Remember always

"Keep the joy of loving God in your heart and share this joy with all you meet, especially your family. Be holy."

— Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

The Lorica of St. Patrick, in honor of his feast day, ca 377 AD

Oh, how I love this.  I arise today Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through a belief in the Threeness, Through confession of the Oneness Of the Creator of creation. I arise today Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism, Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial, Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension, Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom. I arise today Through the strength of the love of cherubim, In obedience of angels, In service of archangels, In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward, In the prayers of patriarchs, In preachings of the apostles, In faiths of confessors, In innocence of virgins, In deeds of righteous men. I arise today Through the strength of heaven; Light of the sun, Splendor of fire, Speed of lightning, Swiftness of the wind, Depth of the sea, Stability of the earth, Firmness of the rock. I arise today Through God's strength to pilot me; God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me, God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me, God's way to lie before me, God's shield to protect me, God's hosts to save me From snares of the devil, From temptations of vices, From every one who desires me ill, Afar and near, Alone or in a multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and evil, Against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul, Against incantations of false prophets, Against black laws of pagandom, Against false laws of heretics, Against craft of idolatry, Against spells of women and smiths and wizards, Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul. Christ shield me today Against poison, against burning, Against drowning, against wounding, So that reward may come to me in abundance. Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me. I arise today Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through a belief in the Threeness, Through a confession of the Oneness Of the Creator of creation St. Patrick (ca. 377)

The Words I Need for Today

"Realize it, my brethren; —every one who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for nothing; we are not born at random; . . . God sees every one of us; He creates every soul, He lodges it in the body, one by one, for a purpose. He needs, He deigns to need, every one of us. He has an end for each of us; we are all equal in His sight, and we are placed in our different ranks and stations, not to get what we can out of them for ourselves, but to labor in them for Him. As Christ has His work, we too have ours; as He rejoiced to do His work, we must rejoice in ours also."
— Blessed John Henry Newman

My Life-Long Goal. Working on it.

"It is not that I want merely to be called a Christian, but to actually be one. Yes, if I prove to be one, then I can have the name."
— St. Ignatius of Antioch

Motto for our Upcoming Trip

“How well it is for the Christian soul to behold the city which is like a heaven on earth, full of the sacred bones and relics of the martyrs, and bedewed with the precious blood of those witnesses for truth; to look upon the image of our Savior, venerable to all the world, to mark the footprints in the solid stone, forever worthy of the worship of the nations, to roam at will from tomb to tomb rich with the memories of the Saints; to wander at random through the basilicas of the Apostles, with no other company than good thoughts.”

Petrarch

Rest In Peace, Justice Scalia

The Big Picture: It All Comes Down To This. May We Never Forget It

"Each of us must come to the evening of life. Each of us must enter on eternity.  Each of us must come to that quiet, awful time, when we will appear before the Lord of the vineyard, and answer for the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or bad. That, my dear brethren, you will have to undergo. ... It will be the dread moment of expectation when your fate for eternity is in the balance, and when you are about to be sent forth as the companion of either saints or devils, without possibility of change. There can be no change; there can be no reversal. As that judgment decides it, so it will be for ever and ever. Such is the particular judgment. ... when we find ourselves by ourselves, one by one, in his presence, and have brought before us most vividly all the thoughts, words, and deeds of this past life. Who will be able to bear the sight of himself? And yet we shall be obliged steadily to confront ourselves and to see ourselves. In this life we shrink from knowing our real selves. We do not like to know how sinful we are. We love those who prophecy smooth things to us, and we are angry with those who tell us of our faults. But on that day, not one fault only, but all the secret, as well as evident, defects of our character will be clearly brought out. We shall see what we feared to see here, and much more. And then, when the full sight of ourselves comes to us, who will not wish that he had known more of himself here, rather than leaving it for the inevitable day to reveal it all to him!"

— Blessed John Henry Newman

Thought Of The Day: Love

"Love is a strong force — a great good in every way; it alone can make our burdens light, and alone it bears in equal balance what is pleasing and displeasing. It carries a burden and does not feel it; it makes all that is bitter taste sweet. ... Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing higher, nothing stronger, nothing larger, nothing more joyful, nothing fuller, nothing better in heaven or on earth; for love is born of God and can find its rest only in God above all He has created. Such lovers fly high, run swiftly and rejoice. Their souls are free; they give all for all and have all in all. For they rest in One supreme Goodness above all things, from Whom all other good flows and proceeds. They look not only at the gifts, but at the Giver, Who is above all gifts."

— Thomas à Kempis

THIS

"In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship but to keep her on her course."

I need to remember this....

 

"It is not by the extraordinary, but rather by the ordinary, things that we shall sanctify ourselves and help others. The saints become saints by using the opportunities we neglect and even despise. Without going to seek out our neighbor, we can still find many opportunities of exercising fraternal charity in the course of our day’s work. In everyone with whom we come in contact during the day, Christ can be found, Christ can be loved, Christ can be served. Faith, of course, is required, and so is courage. But so also is prudence. Christ is to be served in each of our neighbors according to the particular circumstances of our relations with each one."

— Dom Mary Eugene Boylan

Quote Of The Day

"A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love."

— St. Basil the Great

On Pilgrimage, During the Jubilee Year of Mercy

"The practice of pilgrimage has a special place in the Holy Year, because it represents the journey each of us makes in this life. Life itself is a pilgrimage, and the human being is a viator, a pilgrim traveling along the road, making his way to the desired destination. Similarly, to reach the Holy Door in Rome or in any other place in the world, everyone, each according to his or her ability, will have to make a pilgrimage. This will be a sign that mercy is also a goal to reach and requires dedication and sacrifice. May pilgrimage be an impetus to conversion: by crossing the threshold of the Holy Door, we will find the strength to embrace God's mercy and dedicate ourselves to being merciful with others as the Father has been with us."

— Pope Francis

If Only ISIS Knew This

"And above all, be on your guard not to want to get anything done by force, because God has given free will to everyone and wants to force no one, but only proposes, invites and counsels."

— St. Angela Merici

Thought For The Day: Spiritual Battle

"The life of prayer calls for continuous battles. It is the most important and the longest effort in a life dedicated to God. This effort has been given a beautiful name: it is called the guard of the heart. The human heart is a city; it was meant to be a stronghold. Sin surrendered it. Henceforth it is an open city, the walls of which have to be built up again. The enemy never ceases to do all he can to prevent this. He does this with his accustomed cleverness and strength, with stratagem and fury . . . he succeeds all along the line to distract us and entice us away from the divine presence. We must always be starting again. These continual recoveries, this endless beginning again, tires and disheartens us far more than the actual fighting. We would much prefer a real battle, fierce and decisive. But God, as a rule, thinks otherwise. He would rather we were in a constant state of war."

— Dom Augustin Guillerand