This grieving girl witnessed her father travel from purgatory to heaven

All because she had three Masses said for the repose of his soul.

Philip Kosloski

During the 17th century, a grieving young girl approached Benedictine Abbot Millán de Mirando at the monastery of Our Lady of Montserrat. She begged the abbot to say three Masses for her deceased father.

The young girl was totally convinced that these Masses would speed her father on his way to heaven, releasing him from the pains of purgatory. Moved by the girl’s child-like faith, the abbot said the first Mass the next day.

During the Mass the young girl was kneeling and as she looked up she saw her father near the altar where the priest was saying the Mass. She described her father as “kneeling, surrounded by frightening flames” and located at the bottom step of the altar. The priest was alerted to this miraculous phenomenon and he instructed the girl to place a piece of tissue where her father was kneeling. The tissue immediately started on fire for all to see, though the priest could not see the child’s father. This represented her father being purified by the flames of purgatory.

A second Mass was said for the repose of her father’s soul and again the little girl saw her father. This time he was up a step standing next to the deacon and was “dressed in a vibrantly colored suit.” At this stage her father was still in purgatory, but no longer touched by its flames.

At the third Mass she saw her father for the last time. During the Eucharistic celebration he was “dressed in a snow-white suit,” but then something extraordinary happened at the conclusion of Mass. The little girl exclaimed, “There is my father going away and rising into the sky!” She no longer had to worry about the soul of her father as she knew with confidence that he had reached the gates of heaven.

https://aleteia.org/2017/11/02/this-grieving-girl-witnessed-her-father-travel-from-purgatory-to-heaven/

Purgatory and the Communion of Saints

Brian Kranick

“No man is an island,” so Pope Benedict XVI reminds us in his encyclical letter Spe Salvi (“Saved in Hope”).  We are each bound to one another “through innumerable interactions” so that: “No one lives alone.  No one sins alone.  No one is saved alone.”  Pope Benedict exhorts us to ask, “what can I do in order that others may be saved? . . . Then I will have done my utmost for my own personal salvation as well.”  Salvation is a social reality.  The letter to the Hebrews speaks of the community of believers coming together in a city. Heaven, as a city full of people, is a place of communal salvation. Sin, on the other hand, introduced the “destruction of the unity of the human race.” While man’s original unity was torn apart by sin, the work of redemption aims to heal that disintegration, as Benedict discerns, “redemption appears as the reestablishment of unity.”

Each believer is an interconnected cell in the Mystical Body of Christ.  We are a band of brothers and sisters, bound together in hope and love, in a confraternal exchange of supernatural charity.  Even now, the saints of Church Militant on earth, are surrounded by “so great a cloud of witnesses” – Church Penitent (or Church Suffering) in purgatory and Church Triumphant in heaven.  The Communion of Saints live in a symbiotic relationship: the saints in heaven and purgatory interceding for those on the earth, while the believers on the earth ask for their heavenly intercession.  And, in this month of November, dedicated to the souls in purgatory, we recall our special role in this symbiotic relationship while still alive: to pray, sacrifice and intercede for the dearly departed souls in purgatory.

Those in purgatory have died in God’s grace and friendship and are “assured of their eternal salvation,” however, they are “still imperfectly purified” and must necessarily “undergo purification” to enter into heaven (CCC 1030), for nothing unclean enters into it. (Rev. 21:27)  Jesus spoke of purgatory, alluding to it as a “prison,” in which we pay for our sins down to “the very last penny”:

“Thus, when you go with your accuser before a magistrate, on the way make an effort to settle the case, or you may be dragged before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.” (Lk. 12:58-59)

St. Paul similarly tells the Corinthians that we all will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and are subject to a “purifying fire;” they “will be saved, but only as through fire.” (1 Cor. 3:15)  The encounter with Christ is one of grace and judgment.  Benedict describes this eloquently:

“Grace does not cancel out justice.  It does not make wrong into right.  It is not a sponge which wipes everything away, so that whatever someone has done on earth ends up being of equal value. . . . Evildoers, in the end, do not sit at table at the eternal banquet beside their victims without distinction, as though nothing had happened.” (Spe Salvi, 44)  Even after Confession, we must still make penance.

The departed faithful souls in purgatory do have to make recompense for their sins to satisfy the perfect justice of God.  We can, however, assist them in that.  The Catechism (CCC 1032) quotes an example from Scripture saying, “Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.” (2 Macc. 12:45)  And so, how do we as Christians make atonement for the dead?  The Catechism clarifies this:

“From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.  The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead.”

We are called to be intercessors, for both the living and the dead.  We can offer up our prayers, sacrifices and sufferings on behalf of the poor souls in purgatory, for they can no longer merit for themselves.  But, God has deigned through the Communion of the Saints that we can make up for others what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.  For, we are “God’s fellow workers” (1 Cor. 3:9), contributing to the salvation of souls.  We can do this through our prayers, such as praying the rosary for those in purgatory.  We can offer penances, and sacrifices.  We can give alms, and do acts of charity on behalf of the deceased person.

Benedict also recommends a particular devotion for everyday life, that is, “offering up” all the minor daily hardships of the day.  We can “insert these little annoyances into Christ’s great ‘com-passion’ so that they somehow became part of the treasury of compassion so greatly needed by the human race.”  We can offer up those petty annoyances throughout the day whatever they might be, slow traffic, the heat, the pestering co-worker, etc.  “In this way, even the small inconveniences of daily life could acquire meaning.” (Spe Salvi, 40)  We can be assured that our efforts, prayers and sacrifices are efficacious and capable of mitigating the suffering of those in purgatory. (CCC 958)

Most importantly, we can offer the sacrifice of the Mass, and indulgences granted by the Church, for souls in purgatory.  You can contact your Church and have a mass offered for your beloved deceased.  Another beautiful gift is the tradition going back to Pope Gregory the Great of offering “Gregorian Masses” for deceased persons on thirty consecutive days.  These are generally not done now in parishes, but in monasteries, seminaries, and other religious institutions.

The efficaciousness of intercession for those in purgatory has received mystical confirmation too.  One such mystic was St. Faustina.  She wrote in her Divine Mercy diary about a soul, a recently deceased nun, who visited her from purgatory requesting her prayers.  Upon first visiting her, the sister was in “terrible condition,” but after some undisclosed amount of time of praying for her, the nun eventually returned and “her face was radiant, her eyes beaming with joy.”  She would soon be released from purgatory and conveyed to her that many souls had “profited from my prayers.”  Similarly, in the Divine Mercy Novena, dictated to St. Faustina by Jesus, He asks us to offer the eighth day for the souls in purgatory.  He told St. Faustina, “It is in your power to bring them relief.  Draw all the indulgences from the treasury of My Church and offer them on their behalf.  Oh, if you only knew the torments they suffer, you would continually offer for them the alms of the spirit and pay off their debt to My justice.” (Diary, 1226)  Memorializing a person is nice, but prayer for the deceased may be what they truly need.

Thus, it is within our power as members of the Communion of Saints to assist the poor souls in purgatory in the process of their purification and sanctification.  Our prayers and sacrifices can help pay off their debts.  In turn, in gratefulness for the merit we win for them, they will surely pray and intercede for us, until, at last, in heaven we will meet all those who we have helped, undoubtedly to our surprise.  Also, lest we put our earthly time limits upon God, we should remember to pray even for those who have died long ago.  God, who exists outside of time in eternity, receives all of our prayers and sacrifices in the eternal present, and can merit a soul whether long since dead or in purgatory.  So, out of love for our family and friends, let us do our part in supernatural charity for the souls in purgatory, who may be most in need of our help.

http://catholicexchange.com/purgatory-communion-saints

image: By Lorenzo di Niccolò Italian, Florentine, documented 1393-1412 – Artist (Italian, Florentine)Details of artist on Google Art Project [Public domain], 

Shocking! 84% of Catholics Reject that Satan is a Person and Hell Exists

The Church is Ready to Capsize!

By Fr. Daniel Doctor,

The Roman Catholic Church, that is the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is the Bride of Jesus Christ.  This Church was established by Christ Himself to be the sole means of salvation for
all of humanity. As Catholics, we know of no other way to salvation except through the sacramental system established by Christ and given to His Apostles.

Why is the Catholic Church in Near Chaos and Confusion?

Careful analysis of recent studies and polls taken among Catholics reveals that an overwhelming majority of U.S. Catholics simply do not believe in the Devil, or sin, or it’s logical consequences – eternal damnation in hell.  As we can see, with any kind of an reasonable observation of that the outcome, is that the Church is in a state of near chaos and confusion over what She teaches and what She does not teach.  The overriding reason for this is because bishops, the clergy, teachers and parents, have completely failed in their duties to transmit the Faith to each of the successive past four generations.  And there are huge consequences for this failure.

Pray for Our Church

A lack of a belief in the Devil, sin, or hell makes it very awkward for all of us during the Easter Liturgy, when it comes to the renewing of baptismal promises.  When the priest asks the people, “Do you reject Satan?” . . .  “Who Father? We don’t believe in him anymore.  Silly priest, asking us such stupid questions . . . believing in such archaic things . . . .”

What most of us were not taught – is that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith is an integrated belief system, where one teaching is dependent on every other teaching, creating a whole and concise theology.  Rejection of the Devil as a personal evil, or sin, or even hell, does incredible theological damage to the whole of the Catholic Faith. In fact, like any teaching we like to change, reinterpret, or ignore, the entire faith is undermined and in some cases can even be destroyed.

Consider for a moment, if there is no personal evil like the Devil, Satan, or Lucifer, then much of Catholicism simply disintegrates. Who was it exactly that St. Michael the Archangel fought against?  Or is St. Michael merely symbolic as well? And if he’s symbolic, then are all angels also just symbols? If the Devil is not real, then who tempted our first parents in the garden, which caused the Fall? Who tempted Christ in the desert? Whose head will Mary, our Mother crush? Who did the Saints warns us against? And if all these things didn’t really happen, or will not happen,  then why would we need a Savior?

St. Teresa of Avila, the great Doctor of the Church said, “we need to focus on the things that Jesus saved us from.”  But if sin and hell are not real, and devil and His fallen Angels are just symbols, then why do we need a Savior?  A Savior, who saves us from what?  Therefore, we rob the cross of Jesus Christ of all its meaning.  And Jesus was simply a fool, a poor misguided individual who died on a cross for no good reason.

Jesus Christ told us plainly in scriptures that Hell was created “for the devil and his angels.”  But if these persons are symbolic, does that mean Hell is too? And if Hell is symbolic, why wouldn’t Heaven also be symbolic? The two are intimately related to each other, as we come to understand when we study “The Four Last Things.”

The other consequence if there is no Hell, then there is no justice, and if there is no justice there is no God.  This would also mean that if there is no justice, then humanity does not possess free will.  For justice is the natural end of free will, that individuals at the end of their life are given what they deserve, their due.

I Am Completely Dumbfounded

I am, like many young priests today are, completely dumbfounded that it is possible that 4 out of every 5 Catholics in America, over 84%, reject the Church’s Dogmatic teaching that Satan is a personal evil being and that hell and sin exist.  In fact, Catholics reject the belief in the Devil more than any other religious group in the country!  In fact, belief in the Devil was almost as rare
among Catholics as it was among those who had no religious affiliation or belief.

For years now, I have been saying, and a lot of other priests too, that the number of authentic Catholics, real Catholics, who actually embrace all the Church’s teachings, is somewhere less than 10% of the roughly 70 million baptized U.S. Catholics.  But the sad fact is, it is closer to 5%.  Polls and surveys continue to reveal and confirm this fact more and more.  When it comes down to it, there is an overwhelming number of Catholics in the U.S., including most of the bishops and priests, that are simply not Catholic anymore or at least not Catholic in any meaningful way.

We are now in the fourth generation, going on the fifth, that has grow up in an environment within the Church of deconstruction or flat out denial of the authentic faith. The average Catholic, does not understand the integrity of the Church’s teachings, or even that Her teachings are interdependent on each other.  And sadly, not too many Catholics are really saying a word about this terrible situation.  Nor are many Catholics even declaring that these Dogmatic teachings are Divinely revealed Truths, not made up by men, but revealed by Jesus Christ Himself, while He was on earth.

Nearly everyone has compromised with this evil, most certainly those who are bishops and priests.  But the great Saints of our Catholic Faith forcefully taught us that we never compromise with evil or heresy.  Most of the ordained simply will not state the Truths of the Catholic Church anymore because they know if they do, a large portion of the few remaining Catholics who are still coming to church will get up and leave, or stop donating.

The vast majority of Catholics simply do not accept, believe, or practice the Faith anymore.  The results of this can be clearly measured in the lack of priestly ordinations, the increasing number of priests leaving active ministry, the number of priests who have been exiled, punished, and persecuted for speaking the Truths of the Catholic Faith, the closing of parishes, schools, hospitals, and other Catholic institutions, forced collaboratives, the clustering of parishes, and the constant moving of priests.  This is also seen in the burnout among the clergy because of the increased workload and the lack of any true support system from their Bishops or the people of God.  But all of this that is occurring in the church today, is giving to those of us who pay attention a much more truthful picture of reality of the Catholic Church in America.

I feel so sorry for the number of Catholic families that this present situation has caused.  It means that all of us, most especially parents and priests, must become more pro-active, more aggressive in learning the true Catholic Faith and holding firm to it.  And then teaching this authentic faith to the next generation as well as to the current generation that has lost their faith.

I am here to tell you, and you can believe me or not, but there is a real active evil person, working every day to destroy us and our children. The same is true for so many young adults who are unprepared to counter or even believe in the diabolical, the true evil of this world, which has intensified greatly over these past few years.  This evil has gone unchecked by Faithful Catholics as well as the Church’s hierarchy.

We must, like the Saints, who have gone before us, learn the Catholic faith that we so casually say we believe in.  We must stand up for the Doctrine She has wonderfully taught for over 2,000 years and practice it wholeheartedly.  When we take the time to study and learn the true Faith, this is meant to energize our prayer life.  Do we as Catholics even have a prayer life anymore?  Are we developing a prayer Life?  The relationship with God, that the Church asks us?  This education in the Faith is meant to help us fall in love with the Catholic Church, Her teachings, and give us the strength and courage to oppose the Devil.  I can assure you, as a Roman Catholic Priest, the Devil is absolutely real.

For as St. Peter, our first Pope, taught us in his letters, “Stay sober and alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, solid in your faith.”

If you feel, like I and a whole bunch of other people do, that things are spinning out of control in our world, and most especially in the Church today,  you’re right.  The underlying reason is because the Church is in a state of near chaos and confusion.  As Pope Benedict stated recently, “ready to capsize” this is all brought about by the Church’s chief enemy the Devil, and he is real.  Be assured, we have not arrived at this place in history by accident.  There is an intelligent evil being behind all of this work, bent on our destruction and the destruction of our Lord’s Catholic Church.

We must rededicate ourselves, as good Catholics, to knowing and studying the Faith.  This way, we can resist and fight with all our might against the evil that has plagued us for far too long.  Part of the answer to this problem involves setting aside time to study the Faith, to be enraptured by its glories and mysteries, its blinding truth.  This cannot happen if we don’t make the effort to learn our wonderful Faith, and then follow through with our good intentions.

There is no way to fight against the Devil other than to love God more. And we cannot love what we do not know. Knowledge of the Faith is absolutely crucial for any spiritual growth, and we need to get back on our knees and beg God to deliver us from the sinful evil of this current generation, and the filth, greed, lust, and heresy that has entered our church.

We are not alone in this fight.  We have never been alone. God, His Holy Mother, the Angels, and all His Saints, the whole of Heaven, watches and encourages us to get involved in this fight for the salvation of souls, as well as for the liberty and exultation of Holy Mother the Church, our only known source of salvation.  For as St. Thomas Becket, a martyr for the Faith so wisely taught us, as well as the testimony of so many Saints, without real effort no one ever wins the crown of everlasting life.

The Interior Life is Everything

It Might Not Look Like Much, but the Interior Life is Everything

Denise Renner

I thought life was too short not to do it all, so I was willing to try anything once. I was always up to something new: apartments, jobs, travel plans, degrees, beliefs. I had long lists of things I wanted to try and places I wanted to visit. But then I converted to the Catholic Faith, had my first baby, and became a stay-at-home mom. I don’t really do a whole lot anymore.

No one calls my parents to say, “You’ll never guess what she did now!” about the soup I made for dinner. No one cheers from the sidelines: “Do it now, while you still can!” when I seize some free time to read. And I don’t send postcards from my adventures in the Land of Croup.

There is still movement aplenty in the form of toddler mischief, blocks flying past my head, and children standing on things they shouldn’t be standing on.

But for the most part, any changes, any “movement,” comes not from doing something exciting in the greater world but from an interior movement of the heart, mind, and will. I’m not crossing borders, but experiencing the slow and often painful movement of the soul toward God.

Our culture is all about the externals. We cultivate bodies and bucket lists as if there will be a crown in heaven for those who looked the best while trekking at Machu Picchu. But in heaven, joy will be found in those quiet fruits of practicing the faith: contemplation, prayer, and adoration.

The inner life isn’t flashy, it’s not exciting, and no one is going to be jealous of the time spent on your knees in prayer. But it’s the real stuff, the good stuff. The hard stuff.

More determination is required to subdue the interior man than to mortify the body; and to break one’s will than to break one’s bones. — St. Ignatius of Loyola

In seizing freedom and making lists there was little bending of the will, little in the way of sacrifice beyond saving money for the next adventure. And very little stillness.

Now I live on a much smaller, more intimate scale. There are no big trips planned, no promotions, nothing exciting—only the day-to-day attempt at joyful sacrifice and surrender of self. This is harder than the worst of flights, bedbugs, and food poisoning all in one. It doesn’t sparkle with novelty either: the battle against the flesh is an old one.

But this interior movement is everything, even when I am perfectly still, kneeling—not even “standing on my own two feet.” As the spiritual life has grown, the bucket list has shrunk. Sometimes that feels good and right, other times a backpack and a one-way ticket sound pretty appealing.
And those times I remind myself that the real destination sells no postcards, and no one’s clamoring that you should go now before it’s discovered. The crown offered there is sought in the smallest of moments, in privacy and prayer, in the constant and quiet pursuit of what is good and holy and true—and in the denial of self.

“Lord what wilt Thou have me do? Behold the true sign of a totally perfect soul: when one has reached the point of giving up his will so completely that he no longer seeks, expects or desires to do ought but that which God wills.”
—St. Bernard of Clairvaux

http://catholicexchange.com/might-not-look-like-much-interior-life-everything

image: Mikhail Markovskiy / Shutterstock.com

By Denise Renner

Denise is a wife, mother, and Catholic convert who writes at The Motherlands. She lives in Oregon with her husband and two children. Denise was raised Lutheran, earned a masters in theology from Southern Baptists, and, finally, was lead to the Catholic faith by her husband.

Sky View: Letter of ’71

Sky View: Letter of ’71

The Letter of ’71: Abridged and revised (For new Sky View readers)

According to Archbishop Charles Chaput in Render Unto Caesar, in 1970 Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, asserted that the fallout of the Sexual Revolution was nothing that we have seen before. And in response to the precipitous decline in priestly and religious vocations he said that “the city of man is beginning to strike terror in our heart…the Church is becoming extinguished in men’s souls and Christian communities are crumbling.”

Approximately a year later, in 1971, Sister Lucia, one of three seers of the Marian apparitions at Fatima, wrote a letter to her nephew, Valinho, who was a Catholic priest. It could be argued that this letter was one of the most important letters written in the twentieth century. Contained in this letter was her diagnosis as to why “the Church is becoming extinguished in men’s souls.”

To begin with, Father Valinho was equally distressed over the turmoil and the disorientation of the late sixties and early seventies. His concern was validated by Sister Lucia when she wrote, “It is indeed sad that so many are allowing themselves to be dominated by the diabolical wave that is enveloping the world, and they are so blind that they cannot see their error.” To be sure, this “diabolical wave” had been boiling underneath the surface for several decades.

Leading up to the early 1960’s, the Catholic Church had every reason to be optimistic about her future. Indeed, during the forties and fifties vocations and church attendance were on the rise. In addition, Church membership in America had nearly doubled in size. However, what Catholics did not see coming- including many of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council when it opened in 1962 -was that the Culture of Death would overflow from the concentration camps of the Third Reich and the gulags of the Soviet Union to the youth, entertainment industry and universities in the West. The spirit of anti-Catholicism was far from dead.

It would seem that this came as no surprise to Sister Lucia. With regard to the abrupt surge of secularism in the world she said, “…the principal error is that they have abandoned prayer.” But it is not only the world that had abandoned prayer. She indicated that the trend was also in the Church. “I am convinced,” Lucia said, “that the principal cause of evil in the world and the falling away of so many consecrated souls is the lack of union with God in prayer. The devil our weak points we will fall, our times are very bad and we are weak.” Quite often we forget that the Church is the Mother of humanity; and what a mother does, children also do. With this, the devil exploited the spiritual neglect of Catholics to great effect.

Sister Lucia reminds Fr. Valinho that when people turn away from God in prayer “everything is lacking to them.” Christ reminds us that we can do nothing without him. This is why, according to the Fatima seer, we must draw close to the Tabernacle and pray fervently.

She said there are two practical advantages of prayer: First, we receive “more light, more strength, more grace and virtue than you could ever achieve by reading many books, or by great studies.” And second, Sr. Lucia told her nephew that “you will accomplish a lot in a short period of time.” The lesson she learned from Our Lady of Fatima was that we should “let time be lacking for everything else but never for prayer!” Psalm 127 says it best: "Unless the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build."

Sr. Lucia said that especially for those in spiritual authority they need “to keep close to God and to tell Him about all their affairs and all their problems before they discuss them with human beings.” That’s right! Treat God as a best friend- the most important person in your life –by consulting with Him before seeking the counsel of anyone else.

Perhaps in colleges and seminaries too much emphasis was placed on scholarly books rather than holiness as a source of knowledge; or in parishes, perhaps too much was made of meetings and planning and not enough on spiritual exercises; or among the clergy, maybe their administrative function was given more importance than preaching the Gospel and forming souls. This could be why Sr. Lucia cautioned Fr. Valinho that a Christian without prayer is like a “hollow and split reed.” Indeed, in the absence of robust spiritual activity ministry is just another process and mission gets bogged down with planning.

With that said the letter does conclude with a positive and affirming note: “See that you take everything with calmness and with great confidence in God. He will do for us what we cannot do ourselves. He will supply for our insufficiencies.”

What can be said for the individual can also be said for the Church. Whatever insufficiencies we have as a collective body of believers, God can make up the difference. But he can only do what we cannot do for ourselves if we regularly turn to him in prayer. As such, in a short time, the Lord is sure to compensate for what has been lost in the last fifty years.

The Ascent of Prayer

People climbing Mount Krizevak
in Medjugorje, Bosnia

Nighttime on the Mount: The Ascent of Prayer before the Descent of Tribulation

Saturday's Gospel reading: February 18th, 2012: The Transfiguration

Tradition has it that the transfiguration of Christ on Mt. Tabor transpired forty days before his Passion. Evidently, the Lord wanted at least three of his Apostles- Peter, James and John –to experience his glory before they had to drink the chalice of his suffering. St. Peter would later recount his heavenly experience in his Second Letter when he wrote, “For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that unique declaration came to him from the majestic glory, 'This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.' We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.”

Sometimes the Lord guarantees victory before he permits defeats. He might inspire us with an unshakable certitude to take on a mission for his sake and then allow circumstances to contradict that mission. On Mount Tabor, the divinity of Jesus was revealed before his humanity was crucified. Later, in the Upper Room, he would give his resurrected flesh to his Apostles in the form of the Eucharist the night before his death on the Cross and three days before he had actually risen from the dead.

In tasting the goodness of the Lord at the altar, strength is given to us for the trials that are inevitably associated with doing his will. In the Imitation of Christ our Lord speaks to his disciple. He says, “My son, that good and delightful affection, which you sometimes perceive, is the effect of present grace and a certain foretaste of your heavenly country, but you must not rely too much upon it, because it comes and goes.” And this delightful affection and the foretaste of our heavenly country is chiefly to be found in prayer and in meditation. It is, in a real sense, food for the journey and strength for adversity.

To be sure, it was only after an arduous climb up Mt. Tabor and only after the world had fallen asleep that our Lord would give three of his Apostles a glimpse of his glory. But in doing so, Jesus would not stand alone. Moses and Elijah, two prophets who represented the Old Testament and who also experienced the presence of God on Mt. Sinai, stood beside our Lord to give their testimony of support. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke makes reference to these two men as speaking to Jesus about his “exodus,” that is, his death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. And who is better qualified to talk about such an exodus than Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land and Elijah who was assumed into heaven on a chariot?

After our Lord’s face had shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light, a bright cloud appeared and the voice of God was heard. It was as if God the Father had bequeathed his authority for the second time (the first time at the river Jordan) to Jesus by saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” This, it would seem, is reminiscent of Psalm 2 when God said in even greater detail, “You are my son; today I am your father. Only ask it of me, and I will make your inheritance the nations, your possession the ends of the earth.”

However, conferring the inheritance of the nations and the power to teach with divine authority did not only issue from the Father to the Son, but it also passed from Moses and Elijah- two of the greatest Old Testament prophets –to St. Peter and the Apostles. Indeed, by "making disciples of all the nations" through the preaching ministry of his Church, Jesus Christ would take back what once belonged to his Father, namely, the world! As the prophet Isaiah said, "In days to come, the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it..."

Every apostle must be equal to his mission. Hence, the work of being God’s mouthpiece to the nations would require spiritual transformation; especially for these frail fishermen. And the symbolic value of the transfiguration of Christ on Mt. Tabor suggests that real transformation can only take place on a mountain of prayer and meditation. When speaking of the soul in contemplation, Cornelius A Lapide, a sixteenth century priest and professor of Scripture, wrote:

“She [the soul] is raised above herself, and is lifted up to God in heaven, where she learns and sees that all the things of earth are fragile and worthless, so that from her lofty height she looks down upon them as fit only for children. She perceives that the true riches, honors and pleasures are nowhere but in heaven.”

Without the foretaste of heaven in prayer and meditation and without eagerly anticipating eternal happiness with God, we will inevitably wince from sacrifice and the price we must pay in bringing souls to Christ. The meditation of heaven inspires a farsightedness that is needed not only for living out the life of Christ on a day to day basis, but also for the challenging work God has called us to do.

No doubt, while St. Peter was crucified upside down in Rome- while St. James was dragged to his death in Jerusalem -and while St. John was in exile on the island of Patmos, recalling this heavenly vision of our Lord on Mt. Tabor was probably of great consolation to them. And although we may not enjoy the vision of the Transfiguration in the way the Apostles did, God will certainly not fail to give us a taste of that heavenly sweetness in prayer and meditation in proportion to our faith. This is God's way of giving us a sneakpeak of eternity so that we might be encouraged to hold nothing back!


http://catholic-skyview-tremblay.blogspot.com/2012/02/nighttime-on-mount-ascent-of-prayer.html

Confronting cynicism with prudence

Confronting cynicism with prudence

FATHER GEORGE W. RUTLER

Knowledge of what happened before us is not a hobby.

A majority of New Yorkers surveyed by a classical radio station think Beethoven was a dog. It is the price paid for isolation from a larger culture.


Knowledge of what happened before us is not a hobby. To call someone a history buff is like calling someone a DNA buff. We are walking inheritances, and if we do not know about people who lived before us, we cannot know ourselves. Lacking experience of what Matthew Arnold called "the best which has been thought and said," we cannot prudently reject the worst that has been thought and said.

Prudence is the guide for its fellow natural virtues: it discerns justice, which in turn justifies temperance, which then tempers courage. Aristotle called prudence "right reason in action." Prudence analyzes experience, correctly judges what is right and wrong, and acts accordingly. It is imprudent to underestimate the machinations of evil. Christ requires prudence in a world hostile to Christ: "Behold, I am sending you as lambs among wolves; be therefore crafty as snakes and innocent as doves" (Matthew 10:16).

The prudent remember, for example, that the Nazis began the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, a Friday, and that the British cabinet members were taken by surprise because "gentlemen do not start wars on weekends." Better knowledge of history would have taught them that the Devil is not a gentleman.

Craftiness without innocence is cynical, and innocence without craftiness is naive. The cynic mocks those who are naive. It would be naive to be surprised by the increasing mockery of religion in our cynical society. It would be imprudent not to detect cynicism in the current Administration's opposition to the addition of a prayer to the World War II Memorial in our capital. The director of the Bureau of Land Management said that it would "dilute the memorial's message."

That prayer, read over the radio by President Roosevelt on June 6, 1944, at the start of the Normandy invasion, ended: 

"O Lord, give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment – let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose. With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace – a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen."

Prudence knows that this prayer does not "dilute the message." It is the message.

BE STILL AND LISTEN TO THE LORD

This picture was taken at Lourdes, France in July of 2011 by my friend...notice the two rays of light coming from the two small windows at the back of the church where the tabernacle is kept.  Jesus from the tabernacle is beaming to His Mother, Our Blessed Mother....it stops right at her statue in the grotto.  Also notice the 'open heart' in the rock just above Our Lady - Jesus and Mary share One Divine Holy Heart.

Papal Invite: Be Still and Think of Good Things

Benedict XVI Teaches on Meditation in Audience 

Series on PrayerCASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 17, 2011 (Zenit.org).- 

Pointing to Mary as a teacher, Benedict XVI is recommending a time for silence and mental prayer so as "to feel how beautiful it is when God speaks with us."
The Pope continued today with his audience series on prayer, addressing a crowd gathered at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. After a break in the general audiences during July, he has returned to the theme of prayer with addresses on Bible reading and monastic silence.

Today he asked: what is meditation.
"It means to 'remember' all that God has done and not to forget all his benefits (cf. Psalm 103:2b). Often, we see only the negative things. We also need to hold in our memory the good things, the gifts that God has given us; we need to be attentive to the positive signs that come from God, and remember these," he said.
The Holy Father acknowledged that there might be more familiarity with vocal prayer, but he explained that meditation, what "Christian tradition calls 'mental prayer,'" does not involve words, but is "rather a making contact of our mind with the heart of God."
In this, the Pontiff stated, "Mary is a true model." He noted how St. Luke speaks of her as "keep[ing] all these things and ponder[ing] them in her heart."

"In our own time," he reflected, "we are absorbed with so many activities and commitments, concerns and problems. Often, we tend to fill up all the spaces of the day, without having a moment to stop and reflect and to nourish our spiritual life -- our contact with God. Mary teaches us how necessary it is to find in our days -- with all its activities -- moments to recollect ourselves in silence and to ponder all that the Lord wants to teach us, how he is present and acts in the world and in our life: to be able to stop for a moment and meditate."
Sources
Benedict XVI suggested that there are many ways to meditate.
This prayer is "to create within ourselves an atmosphere of recollection, of interior silence, so as to reflect upon and assimilate the mysteries of our faith, and all that God is doing in us -- and not only the things that come and go," he said.
The Pope suggested drawing from a short passage of sacred Scripture, or a page from a spiritual author, or taking advice from a confessor or spiritual director. He also recommended the rosary as meditation. Or, "we can also dwell upon some intense spiritual experience, on the words that have remained with us from our participation in the Sunday Eucharist."
From there, he explained, it is about "reading and reflecting ... pausing to consider it, seeking to understand it, to understand what it says to me, what it says today -- to open our soul to all that the Lord wants to say to us and teach us."
Making time
Benedict XVI affirmed that "consistency in giving time to God is a fundamental element for spiritual growth."


But then, he said, "it will be the Lord himself who gives us a taste for his mysteries, his words, his presence and action, to feel how beautiful it is when God speaks with us. He will make us understand in a more profound way what he wants of us.
"In the end, this is the goal of our meditation: to entrust ourselves ever more to the hands of God, with trust and love, certain that, in the end, it is only in doing his will that we are truly happy."
--- --- ---
On ZENIT's Web page:
Full text: www.zenit.org/article-33210?l=english

The Three Ages of the Interior Life - Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange

I. THE ONE THING NECESSARY

As everyone can easily understand, the interior life is an elevated form of intimate conversation which everyone has with himself as soon as he is alone, even in the tumult of a great city. From the moment he ceases to converse with his fellow men, man converses interiorly with himself about what preoccupies him most. This conversation varies greatly according to the different ages of life; that of an old man is not that of a youth. It also varies greatly according as a man is good or bad.

As soon as a man (woman) seriously seeks truth and goodness, this intimate conversation with himself tends to become conversation with God. Little by little, instead of seeking himself in everything, instead of tending more or less consciously to make himself a center, man tends to seek God in everything, and to substitute for egoism love of God and of souls in Him. This constitutes the interior life. No sincere man will have any difficulty in recognizing it. The one thing necessary which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary (1) consists in hearing the word of God and living by it.

The interior life thus conceived is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social or political life.  Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science as if God did not exist. In their mo ments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be in certain respects the search for the true and the good in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.

This shows that the interior life, or the life of the soul with God, well deserves to be called the one thing necessary, since by it we tend to our last end and assure our salvation. This last must not be too widely separated from progressive sanctification, for it is the very way of salvation.

PRAYER LIFE OF THE MYSTIC, HEART TO HEART



man in prayer

 St Francis explains that the intense prayer life of the mystic;
prayer is called mystical because its conversation is altogether secret.  In it nothing is spoken between God and the soul except from heart-to-heart, by a communication incommunicable to any others but those who make it. . . (Love of God, Book VI, chpt. 1.)
It is here that we now turn in our discourse on the mystical life: that of the intense prayer life that the mystic leads on his way to union with God.
The Ways of Prayer
We now enter the first realm of the mystical life: that of the ways of prayer. Fittingly enough, for prayer is really the beginning of the road towards perfection; it is the way that every mystic and/or victim-stigmatist travels. The reason for this is that a deeper spirituality is necessary in order to know God's will, to love Him and to be receptive to the graces that He is prepared to give us. If God is the Source of our gifts, then prayer is the channel from which all grace grows and is nurtured. All grace comes through Our Blessed Mother, she is the channel.  In the life of the mystic, prayer is particularly important for spiritual growth, for it is through prayer that one communicates with God and hears the soft whispers of His voice. Prayer is the door through which one enters into the mystical state. It is also the door to the active and the contemplative life, and in fact, to any state of life whereby one earnestly seeks a closer relationship with God. It is here that the mystic begins, and it will be here that we will start our mystical journey.
Prayer means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Therefore, like in any discussion on the meaning of mysticism, we will explore many thoughts on this theme from a variety of sources, with the intention of gaining some perspective of what prayer and spirituality are all about.
The most common definition for prayer was given by St. John Damascene (c. 675- c.749), a holy Doctor of the Church. He described prayer as the "elevation of the soul to God." Others from the early Church have expressed the same feeling in slightly different ways. Here are a few samplings of what these saints have believed:
Prayer is a conversation with God. . . (Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, 7, 2nd century.)

When prayer is poured forth, sins are covered. . . . (St. Ambrose, Delnterpel. Job, 2, 8, 4th century.)

He causes his prayers to be of more avail to himself, who offers them also for others. . . . (Pope St. Gregory I, Morals, 35, 21, 6th century.)

All the virtues assist the soul to attain to a burning love of God, but, above all, pure prayer. By means of it the soul escapes completely from the midst of creatures, carried to God, as it were, on wings. . . . (St. Maximus the Confessor, Centuries on Charity, 1, 2, 7th century.)

Clearly, there is no one standard definition of prayer, as the above examples show. Prayer is many things to different people. One reason is each individual is unique and special, and God treats him or her as such. Because He communicates His will for each one differently, we are going to have a wide diversity of ways in which the life of the spirit is manifested in our faith experience. Each of us has different needs and unusual gifts; we all relate to God in our own special way. Yet one thing all spiritual people have in common is this: a desire for the love of God. Some feel this desire more intensely than others, and they travel on to a higher, deeper spirituality that encounters meditation, contemplation and for some, the mystical life.
Now that we have a general understanding of the importance of prayer in our faith experience, we will look at the four types of prayer that all are familiar with: adoration, thanksgiving, petition and contrition. All ways are important and each has its place. The ordinary person is most likely to petition when he or she prays, wanting something from God that they do not possess. Giving thanks to the Lord is probably the second most common intention in prayer, especially for those who follow the ordinary way. Because we are focusing on the prayer life of the mystic, we must keep in mind that the perception of and the experiences in their prayer life are not necessarily the same as what the ordinary person perceives or experiences. For these holy ones, prayer usually centers around the life of love and of suffering. For the victim, to love is to suffer, and to suffer is to love. All love is ultimately directed to God, Who is the supreme Love of their lives.
Being advanced and matured in the ways of the spirit, these humble souls seek first to love God with all their hearts and souls in the form of adoration (Lk 10:27); secondly, they love their neighbor as themselves (Mt 19:19) and, including themselves, they plead for forgiveness of past sin, begging the Lord to show them His mercy so that none might ever perish (contrition), but instead have eternal life (Jn 3:16). These two types of prayer are selfless and most charitable, for they are only concerned with love and with sacrifice: a sacrifice of the heart, for God and for man.
It is the passion of love that propels the mystic forward; love is the catalyst that moves the soul and carries it to the heights of the interior life. There, in the deepest recesses of the soul, one is consumed by the all-embracing Love that is God. It is here that the Lord gives us His peace (Jn 14:27), and it is here that He nourishes the soul with the living waters of life (Jn 4:14). "Love is the life of the soul" (St. Francis de Sales), the source of its being: "What do you possess if you possess not God?" (St. Augustine).
It is through prayer that one seeks the Beloved, much as the bride seeks after the groom. In mystical language, the bride is the pure and spotless lamb, whereas the Groom is Jesus Christ, Lord and Shepherd of the soul. In this mystical language of love, it is the kiss of love that each mystic seeks, longing to possess and to be possessed by the fire of divine love. St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-90), a victim soul, once said these moving words: "Our heart is made for God. Woe, then, if it be satisfied with less than God, or if it allow itself to burn with any other fire than that of His pure love!"
Most of all, as we have seen in the above examples, the prayers of contrition and adoration adhere to the Gospel message that Jesus gives: love your God, love your neighbor. This is not to say that the prayers of petition and thanksgiving are less important. God forbid! They are every bit as important when used for the proper intentions. The danger most beginners fall into is praying in a way that becomes too self-centered, too self-serving.  It is with petition that this is especially troublesome, although it can be found in thanksgiving as well  if we choose to thank God for only those things that are beneficial to us, we become victims of self-deception.  We must also give thanks for the blessings that others have been given, as well as the trials and tribulations that come from the hand of God.
from the book , THEY BORE THE WOUNDS OF CHRIST by Michael Freze, S.F.O.

There is a Life After This Life

Medjugorje Visionary Ivanka Elez Affirms in Testimony That There is a Life After This Life


I would like to welcome you all with the most beautiful greeting, "Praised be Jesus and Mary."And even more, I would like to give you thanks because you are willing to hear the message of Our Lady. I am standing here before you and I am asking God, "Why did you choose me?" I have been asking this same question to myself and, to be honest with you, I do not have an answer. I have accepted this great gift and, at the same time, I accepted this great responsibility. I am asking God to give me the strength to follow the way He has asked me to.

Ivanka has been given a very special task, from Our Lady, to pray for the family. Ivanka stresses the importance of this to pilgrims today, and reminds us that Our Lady invites us to, "...renew family prayer."

In 1981, I lived with my family in Mostar. Every year during the summer and holy days, I spent time in Bijakovici and here in Medjugorje. On the feast of Saint John the Baptist, June 24, 1981, because it was a holy day of obligation, we have a custom not to work on holy days and Sundays. So the only thing we did that day, we went to church. Usually in the afternoon our parents would have a rest and the children were allowed to play. That's what we did. That afternoon I and Mirjana, the visionary, took a walk outside the village. We were waiting for other kids to join us. We were tired of waiting, and we started walking back toward the village, toward our houses. On my way back, I felt this call in my heart; something was calling me to look toward the hill. When I looked toward the hill, I saw the Mother of God. I said to Mirjana, "Mirjana look there is Gospa, Our Lady on the hill." And you see, Mirjana just waved her hand and said, "What foolish things are you telling me about, what Our Lady?", and she took off. I kept quiet as well, and I followed her. When we arrived at the first houses we met Milka, visionary Marija's sister, who was going to gather the sheep. But when Milka saw my face, she asked me immediately, "What happened to you? Look at what you look like." Walking back together with the two girls, I told Milka what I saw. When we came to the same place I was, from where I saw Our Lady, all three of us saw Her. She was maybe four or five hundred meters away from us. She kept waving to us to come to Her. I felt all kinds of emotions, all of them were mixed in my heart, but you see fear conquered all other emotions. In the meantime, Vicka(visionary) came to us, and she noticed that something was going on with the three of us. We told her, "Hurry up, we see Our Lady on the hill." Vicka took off her shoes, and she ran away towards the houses. She met two boys, two Ivans, and she told them what we said we saw. Because she had boys with her, she gained courage and came back with them to us. Even though there were six of us, none of us wanted to get close to Our Lady. To be honest with you, I don't know how long we spent at the base of the hill. I know that some of us went home, but also a couple of us stayed. We were so scared. We were crying. On the way back to the village, we entered the first house. The family of the house we entered in was celebrating the feast of Saint John the Baptist. There were many people having a dinner, and we told them, crying, "We saw Our Lady." I remember there were many apples on the table, and they started throwing them at us. They told us, "Be quiet, do not play with these things. Do not tell anybody what you just told us." So we went back to our homes. When I came home, I told my granny, my brother, my sister, what I saw. Granny told me, "My child this is not possible." She told me, "Probably someone was guarding the sheep on the hill."My brother and my sister were making jokes about me whenever I mentioned Our Lady. I was fifteen at that time. To be honest with you, this was the longest night of my life. I was questioning myself whether the apparitions were possible or not. I was questioning myself whether I was normal, whether I saw what I saw?

But you see the word of what we saw spread so quickly to other villages that people from other villages started coming the next day. I remember my granny held my hand. She told me,"Whatever is up there, you are not going." But we saw the light three times on the hill, you see we got this strength, so we hurried up the hill. We were running so fast that nobody could keep up with us. When we stood before Our Lady, I have to tell you that, my eyes have never seen something more beautiful than She is. She is young, and She looks like She is nineteen or twenty. Our Lady always has a grey dress, white veil, and a crown of stars, blue eyes and black hair. She always floats on a cloud. Earthly words cannot describe the feeling when you see Our Lady, so much love. You feel so secure when you are with Her. At that moment, when I saw Her again, I knew in my heart that was the Blessed Mother. Two months before that day my mother had passed away, and then I asked Her immediately when I saw Her, "Our Lady where is my mom?" She smiled at me and said, "Do not worry, your mom is with Me." She told us not to be afraid of anything, that She was going to be with us all the time. In the meantime, people caught up with us. They came to us, and they realized that something was going on with us. So on the third day, when we were about to leave for the apparition, we were advised by the others to bring with us Holy Water and Blessed Holy Salt. They advised us to bless that image we saw. So when Our Lady came, Vicka blessed Our Lady with Holy Water, and Vicka told Her, "If You come from God stay, but if You do not come from God ,please leave us." Our Lady smiled back to her, and She said, "I am the Queen of Peace." The first message Our Lady gave to us was the message of peace. After that, Our Lady invites us to peace, conversion, fasting, penance, and prayer. So, from the very beginning of Medjugorje, these are the most important messages Our Lady has been giving to all of us. I always say, in a simple way, we have questions, but these are the answers.

From 1981 to 1985, I had the apparitions on a daily basis. Through these years, Our Lady told me all Her life story, a biography. She told me the future of the Church and the world. I wrote everything down, and when Our Lady tells me when and who to give these papers to, I'll do it. On May 7th 1985, I had my last daily apparition. That was the longest apparition I had because Our Lady spent one hour with me. That was the day when I was given the tenth secret, and I was told that I will no longer have the apparitions on a daily basis, but only once a year on June 25th each year. So from 1985 until this year, I have had this annual apparition on the 25th of June. On the day when I received the tenth secret, Our Lady gave a great gift for me, but also a great gift for the world, because all of us ask ourselves is there life after this life. I'm standing here before all of you as a living witness, and I can tell you, there is a life after this life; because on that day in May I was able to see my late mother. I was able to give Her a hug, and my mother told me, "My child I am proud of you."

For 28 years Our Lady has been showing us the way we should take, and we people are those who will make the decision whether we will accept this way or not, and that way is the way of conversion, peace, love, fasting. The six of us visionaries, each has our own separate task, and I was chosen by Our Lady to pray for families. I am inviting all of you to respect the sacrament of Holy Matrimony, to attend Holy Mass every Sunday, and to have at least one confession monthly. Our Lady invites us all to renew the family prayer, so that the Word of God and the Holy Bible is in the center of our lives. Everyday I pray for the families in the world, but at the same time I'm kindly asking all of you to pray for our families. Many pilgrims think that we visionaries are privileged, that we are closer to God than the rest of you. On the contrary, we are the same as you, and it's not enough to see physically, to see with our eyes. The most important thing is to open our hearts and to have Our Lady in our hearts. The only thing we need to do is open our hearts because Our Lady is here with us today, now and we have to make the decision whether we want to let Her in and to open our hearts and accept Her messages. That is why, carry peace in your hearts, and carry peace to your families, to your countries, to your churches. This is the only way we are able to help Our Lady, so that Her plan is realized, that we bring light to this world. In my annual apparition this year, on the 25th of June, Our Lady invited all of us to "…become apostles of peace," and to pray for peace in the world. Let us become the apostles of peace. Thank You.

Medjugorje Visionary Ivanka