Show #120 "Death & Purgatory" Father Benedict Groeschel CFR

St. Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene, called “the penitent”, was a woman of great beauty who was known as a sinner, but was touched in her soul by the merciful power of Our Lord Jesus Christ and made a great conversion. Scriptures speak of the Lord driving out “seven demons” from her, symbolic of the seven capital sins (Mark 16:9).
Thinking to trick Our Lord, she had been presented to Him by the Scribes and Pharisees whilst He was teaching in the temple. Mary Magdalene had been caught in adultery and the Law of Moses was quite clear as to its punishment: death by stoning. In silence, Our Lord began to write with His finger on the ground. At their persistent questioning, He lifted Himself up and replied: “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone,” and stooping down, He returned to His writing in the dust. One by one they left until none remained but the Judge and the Accused. “Then Jesus lifting up himself, said to her: Woman, where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee? Who said: No man, Lord. And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more” (John 8:10-11). From that moment onwards, her heart was won over completely.

At the house of Simon the Pharisee, the repentant Magdalene poured costly ointments on Jesus’ feet and then dried them with her hair (John 7:38). On her action being censured by the host, Our Lord said in her defense: “Many sins are forgiven her because she has loved much” (John 7:47).
Mary Magdalene was the sister of Martha and Lazarus of Bethany whom the Lord raised from the dead after four days.

She along with the Lord’s mother and other holy women stood at the foot of the cross unafraid for herself. She it was also that, along with others first discovered the empty tomb after the Lord’s Resurrection. And it was to Mary Magdalene that the Lord first appeared after He was risen.

After the martyrdom of the Apostle James in Jerusalem, as persecution intensified, tradition says that Lazarus, Martha and Mary Magdalen, along with others, were placed in a boat and set out to sea. This boat landed on the southern shore of France. While Lazarus and Martha went on to evangelize Provence, a fact claimed in French history, Mary retired to a cave in a mountain, known as La Sainte-Baume, or The Holy Cave. In this cave she lived the life of a penitent for thirty years until her death. Today, at this site, there is a shrine where her relics are venerated.
http://americaneedsfatima.blogspot.com/2019/07/st-mary-magdalene.html

The LGBT Conspiracy and Eros, the Demon of Love

Stefanie NicholasJuly 22, 2019 0 Comments

It’s become impossible to keep up with the activities of the relentless juggernaut known as the “LGBT community.” Seemingly every day, we see a new story more outrageous and shocking than the last. University professors and children’s book publishers are defending the practice of bringing young children to “Pride” events, not by downplaying their sex-fueled and nudity-filled nature, but by assuring us that “nobody likes nakedness more than children” and that witnessing “kink” and nudity is “an excellent opportunity for parents to do unbiased sex education.” In March, a library in Texas hosted one of the now infamous Drag Queen Storytime events, accidentally featuring a 32-year-old convicted sex offender. Let’s not forget Desmond Is Amazing, the 12-year-old drag queen who seems to know a lot about hard drugs.

Many decent people get the sense — and rightly so — that the wholesale normalization of pedophilia is next on the LGBT lobby’s tyrannical to-do list. The above examples of mass child grooming are only a highlight reel, and at any rate, looking at these events in and of themselves is useful only to a certain point. What we are dealing with is, in fact, a global conspiracy made up of tens of thousands of people, poised to reconfigure society as we know it. I’m quite serious. Back in March, I wrote about the dangers of a surface-level opposition to feminism:

The present feminist domination of society and politics is not surprising when we understand that the very language we often use in regard to our opponents is based not on truth, but on usefulness – that is, language that has no regard for truth and therefore no regard for us as human beings created in the image of God. This is justified in the minds of many who use such abusive language (if they consider the implications of their language at all), because we as well as they have accepted a priori that the moral superiority of feminist thought is self-evident.

Thus, it becomes a self-perpetuating system. There is no need for a shadowy cabal of man-hating feminist overlords. All that is required is that the masses never question whether the two statements of belief qualifying radical feminism (listed above) are acceptable or not. All that is required is that the very same people who can see the “problems with feminism today” go on to de facto accept the feminist version of history, of language, of first principles, as gospel truth.

We can observe similar phenomena within the LGBT movement. They’ve been highly successful in their general abuse of history and language, not to mention their ability to frog-boil us to the point where hearing of young boys in women’s outfits stripping for grown men warrants at most an exasperated petition signing or Facebook share. It is difficult to understand the seemingly impossible cohesion of various revolutionary movements when examining only the material evidence.

Not only do various groups work toward their own goals with remarkable efficacy, but they also manage to aid the groups around them in attaining theirs — even those that are completely disparate, such as the aspirations of feminism, LGBT groups, and Islam. In this way, these become the most dangerous and baffling conspiracies of all. Those who decry “conspiracy theorists” are quick to point out that the more people a conspiracy involves, the less likely it is that it will be able to maintain the secrecy it needs to operate. They’re right, and it’s right to ignore them.

They’re missing the point, because they do not understand the supernatural forces guiding these seemingly fragmented conspiracies. It’s true that purely ideological means can bring a conspiracy far, but the more I witness the decay around me, the more I am convinced of the direct influence that God is allowing the prince of the world and his cronies to have in shaping our societies.

I was at a great disadvantage when writing the aforementioned contra-feminism article, as I had not yet read an incredible book called The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis. Understanding the “spirit of feminism” seems obvious enough from Sacred Scripture — it subsists largely within the sin of pride. However, though the LGBT movement shares in the spirit of pride as a root cause (the celebration of it alone should be a warning bell), upon reading this book, I have come to believe that a warped spirit of love — specifically Eros, romantic love — is what plagues them most intensely. More importantly, it is this same spirit that has led the majority of normal, “cisgender,” “straight” people to their incredible tolerance for the collapse taking place around them.

Lewis writes:

The real danger seems to me not that the lovers will idolise each other but that they will idolise Eros himself.

I do not of course mean that they will build altars or say prayers to him. The idolatry I speak of can be seen in the popular misinterpretation of Our Lord’s words “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven her, for she loved much” (Luke VII, 47). From the context, and especially from the preceding parable of the debtors, it is clear that this must mean: “The greatness of her love for Me is evidence of the greatness of the sins I have forgiven her.” (The for here is like the for in “He can’t have gone out, for his hat is still hanging in the hall”; the presence of the hat is not the cause of his being in the house but a probable proof that he is). But thousands of people take it quite differently. They first assume, with no evidence, that her sins were sins against chastity, though, for all we know, they may have been usury, dishonest shopkeeping, or cruelty to children. And they then take Our Lord to be saying, “I forgive her unchastity because she was so much in love.” The implication is that a great Eros extenuates — almost sanctions — almost sanctifies — any actions it leads to.

When lovers say of some act that we might blame, “Love made us do it,” notice the tone. A man saying, “I did it because I was frightened,” or “I did it because I was angry”, speaks quite differently. He is putting forward an excuse for what he feels to require excusing. But the lovers are seldom doing quite that. Notice how tremulously, almost how devoutly, they say the word love, not so much pleading an “extenuating circumstance” as appealing to an authority. The confession can be almost a boast. There can be a shade of defiance in it. They “feel like martyrs.” In extreme cases what their words really express is a demure yet unshakable allegiance to the god of love.

I immediately recognized the painful truth of these words in many regrettable actions I have undertaken in my own life. When Eros becomes a god himself rather than being submitted to God, we give him powerful sway over us. He can lead us to do the unthinkable out of this hollow feeling of intense love — and perhaps even more dangerously to society at large, he can lead us to justify the unjustifiable in the behavior of others.

Mere decades ago, the cry of love became an argument for couples of the same sex having relationships together, with a demand for “marriage” following soon after. Is it so hard to imagine that most people in the not too distant future will find themselves able to stomach “consensual” ephebophilia and pedophilia, slaves as they are to this unchained Eros? The foundation for this acceptance is already being laid.

It’s easy to view the LGBT lobby and especially the pedophilia-as-sexual-orientation faction purely from the perspective of carnal desire. Even aside from the most sex-crazed antics of “Pride” parades and gay bars, they base their entire existence as group on the erroneous concept of “sexual orientation.” We need to understand once again as a society that sexual desires may be complex and nearly infinite, but chastity in spite of temptation is simple and universal (and, with the aid of grace, possible!). This must be emphasized, particularly now, as we see the push for severely disordered pedophilic tendencies to be recognized as an “identity.”

However, though it is undoubtedly important, it is not enough to control what C.S. Lewis calls Venus — sexual love. We must think broadly of Eros, of romantic love, as well in order to truly understand the actions of these confused human beings, particularly when we consider just how many of them are victims of sexual abuse themselves. They, like us, live in a world awash with free pornography, immodesty, and contraception, which no doubt fuels their disordered inclinations even further. Instead of speaking the truth in charity, we await their evil actions with open arms, closing our hearts to the person whom God has made in order to embrace a ghost crafted by human hands. We’re all looking for love, in one way or another, and it is those most starving for love whom Eros is quickest to devour.

It would be foolish to ignore him in this clash of mores, thinking that once we sort Venus out, all will be well. Eros is not to be underestimated. He’s a lot harder to keep on a leash.

https://onepeterfive.com/lgbt-eros-demon/

Image: Joseph Kranak via Flickr.

Solomon on Wisdom

Louis Markos  https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/07/solomon-on-wisdom-louis-markos.html

Lady Wisdom stands on the rooftop and cries out to all who will listen, to all who have ears to hear. She offers prudence to those who lack judgment and understanding to those who lack discernment. And be assured that if you choose Wisdom you choose Hope, Joy, and Life as well.

Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, and the other great poets of ancient Greece, Rome, and the Middle Ages had been given the gift, not only to peer into the twenty-first century, but to correspond with us who live in that most confusing and rudderless of centuries. Had it been in their power to do both of those things, what might they say to us? How would they advise us to live our lives? What wisdom from their experience and from their timeless poems might they choose to pass down to us?

Solomon: On Wisdom

Of all the treasures that lie hidden beneath the ground, of all the rare and precious gifts that are brought on ships from distant lands, of all the wealth that lies stored in the coffers of Egypt and Babylon, the greatest is wisdom.

Long ago, when I was young, the Lord came to me and offered me a choice. I could have anything that my heart desired, he said: wealth, power, fame, long life. For a moment, I must confess, I was tempted to select one of those prizes that all men from all ages and nations have lusted after. But I did not.

I was young and unsure of myself; I did not know if I could succeed my glorious father, David, as King of Israel. And so I begged the Lord to give me wisdom that I might know how to rule his people with justice and skill.

I say it humbly and with gratitude: I do believe that I impressed the Lord with my request. I certainly know that he was pleased, for, in addition to wisdom, he gave me all the other things I did not ask for: wealth and power and fame and long life.

But the wisdom he gave me was not like the wisdom that the people of your age seem to prize so highly. He did not give me specialized knowledge on how to build pyramids or design ships or temper steel. He gave me discernment that I might be able to distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice. He opened my eyes that I might perceive the fine shades of difference that separate the way of the righteous from the path of the fool.

The wisdom he gave me did not manifest itself in mathematical formulas and technological know-how, but in proverbs and parables. He did not fill my head with a thousand facts but gave me a balanced mind and an understanding heart. He did not teach me how to succeed but how to live a prudent life.

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Do you desire, as I did, to obtain wisdom? If so, then you must begin by nurturing within you a fear of the Lord. I do not mean that you should grovel before God, but that you should learn the proper respect and reverence that is due to your Creator. You must learn to recognize and accept who you are in relationship to God; only then will you be truly receptive to his word, his guidance, and his discipline.

Once you have done that, then you must nurture within you a second thing: a passion for wisdom. Wisdom is not like a rock lying on the ground that you need only bend over to pick up. It is a rich vein of gold that you must dig for until your arms are weary with exhaustion, a pearl of great price that you must dive to the murky bottom of the ocean to acquire.

Most of all, wisdom is like a beautiful woman whom you must pursue with intense devotion and single-minded focus. She will have nothing to do with you if you are rude and ill-mannered; but she will reject you as well if you are slothful or indifferent. You cannot love her half-way; you must give all that you have to win her.

Finally, you must nurture within a third thing: a desire for virtue. True wisdom changes the soul as much as it does the heart and mind. Wisdom without virtue is a dangerous thing that makes tyrants instead of kings, executioners instead of judges, charlatans instead of prophets.

If you stray from the path of virtue, you will end up giving your heart to Lady Folly and forsaking Lady Wisdom. You will be clever, rather than wise, and you will come to think of your wisdom as a tool to be used for your own advancement rather than a sacred gift to be guarded and valued for its own sake.

#

I’ve noticed something about your age. You seem to be very squeamish about labeling people as idiots and fools. You need to overcome that weakness. Idiocy and folly destroy both those who possess them and those who come into their orbit. Such things must be exposed for what they are.

Please do not think that being a fool means only lacking in knowledge. I do not counsel you to ridicule those whose brains are impaired or who have been afforded no opportunity to learn. The true fool chooses his folly, even as he scorns the instruction of wise counselors. His problem lies not so much in his lack of learning as in his moral deficiencies. He will not be taught; he will not obey; he will not change.

Oh, my friends of the future, pay heed to the call of Lady Wisdom. She stands on the rooftop and cries out to all who will listen, to all who have ears to hear. She offers prudence to those who lack judgment and understanding to those who lack discernment. Her way will bring you good all the days of your life.

Not so Lady Folly. Her voice is loud and raucous, and her manner sly and undisciplined. She will invite you to taste of her forbidden pleasures, but when you arrive, you will find yourself amongst the lost, the bitter, and the dead.

The decision you must make whether to follow the promises of Wisdom or the temptations of Folly is not a single choice. Each day, you must choose anew to whom you will pledge your allegiance.

But do not be dismayed. The more you follow the way of wisdom, the easier and more pleasant it becomes to make that choice. The longer you stare into the visage of Lady Wisdom, the less attractive Lady Folly will seem.

Most blessed are those who stand at the doorway of Wisdom’s house, whether in my age or your own. Choose this day, my friends, whom you will follow. And be assured that if you choose Wisdom you choose Hope, Joy, and Life as well.

—Solomon

The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politics—we approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly contentious arena of modern discourse? Please consider donating now.

Editor’s Note: The featured image is “The Judgment of Solomon” (c. 1625) by Valentin de Boulogne (1591-1632), courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Gut Bacteria and Brain Chemistry: What’s the Connection?

You know that a healthy gut promotes proper digestion, but that’s not its only responsibility. It also encourages a boosted metabolism and thriving immune system. Additionally, your gut can even influence brain chemistry, according to Michael Gershon, professor and chair of pathology and cell biology at Columbia University.

“The gut can work independently of any control by the brain in your head – it’s functioning as a second brain,” Gershon told Psychology Today. “It’s another independent center of integrate neural activity.”

What’s the Connection?
So what makes this possible? Research from the University of Exeter Medical School and the University of Zaragoza in Spain found that the microorganisms in the gut may be regulating brain chemistry, according to Natural News.

There are 100 trillion bacteria and other microbes of different species living in the gut, often referred to as the gut microbiome. Some of those microbes located in the gut are marked by the protein TLR2, which helps regulate the chemical serotonin – a neurotransmitter that carries signals for the brain but also regulates bowel function. Through TLR2, the researchers believe that some of the gut microbes can impact serotonin levels, which ultimately influences your mood.

A healthy gut goes beyond good digestion.

Research published in the journal BioEssays also suggests that the microbiome in the gut have an impact on the food decisions we make through the vagus nerve, which connects from the digestive tract to the base of the brain. Athena Aktipis, a researcher involved in the study and student at the University of California San Francisco, shared how the microbiome affects more than digestion:

“Microbes have the capacity to manipulate behavior and mood through altering the neural signals in the vagus nerve, changing taste receptors, producing toxins to make us feel bad, and releasing chemical rewards to make us feel good,” she explained.

This means that by taking proper care of your gut, you’ll notice a positive shift in your mood and sense of taste. What’s the easiest way to ensure this happens? Eliminate the unhealthy foods that are difficult to digest from your diet and replace them with fresh and natural plant-sourced choices.

Fueling a Healthy Gut
Making healthier choices impacts your gut directly. When you fuel your body with mostly raw vegetables and other fiber-rich foods, your gut will react positively, digesting properly and promoting healthy immune and brain function. By following a primarily-raw, plant-based diet like the Hallelujah Diet, you can ensure your gut is fueled for success. Eat more fibrous foods like broccoli, turnip greens, Brussels sprouts, chia seeds and beets to reap the benefits.

Beyond a proper diet, you may consider a supplemental approach. Our Digestive Enzymes, Fiber Cleanse and Professional Strength Probiotics can balance health bacteria through the GI tract and eliminate harmful toxins from the body. If you’re ready to follow you gut instinct and promote a healthy system, shop our supplements today.

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https://www.myhdiet.com/why-eat-raw/

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Our Lady of Good Help and the Peshtigo Fire Miracles: An American Story

By Rex Teodosio

On December 8, 2010, Bishop Ricken gave approval to the 1859 apparitions of Our Lady to Sr. Adele Brise, making these apparitions the first ever to be approved in the United States. An essential part of the approval dealt with the Peshtigo Fire miracle cited by the bishop in his declaration. It is impossible to gauge how incredible this miracle was without understanding the intensity of the Peshtigo Fire of 1871.

Armed with a book called, The Great Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Account, by Father Peter Pernin, I and a fellow America Needs Fatima custodian traced the footsteps of the priest as he recounts his amazing experience, his unbelievable survival and his witness of not just one but two Peshtigo Fire miracles.

Father Peter Pernin and His Missions
Father Peter Pernin was the parish priest of the cities of Peshtigo and Marinette, both in Wisconsin, and Cedar River, Michigan. Peshtigo was a small growing community due to a logging company and other enterprises including a factory producing tubs and buckets. The population of Peshtigo was about 2,000 souls. In addition to this population, the work brought in numerous temporary workers. On October 7, 1871, the day before the fire, Father Pernin was scheduled to go to Cedar River by steamboat which was roughly 25 miles north of Marinette along the shore. It never came. In reality, it did pass by the wharf but owing to the dense smoke about the dock area, the captain decided it was too dangerous to make the stop. It was the first sign of divine intervention since he would have been stranded in Cedar River and perished in the fire with the entire city the following day. He returned to Peshtigo that evening.

The day the fire began was a Sunday and Father Pernin was intent on proceeding to Marinette by horseback to celebrate the Mass as was customary.
The Catholics in Peshtigo argued forcefully that it was too dangerous and he conceded to stay. Much smoke and the sound of crackling continued to be seen and heard from a distance.

Premonition of the Calamity
Up until the early evening of the 8th, Father Pernin did not feel compelled to prepare for a calamity. There was danger in the air and everyone felt it. However, there were monitors assigned to watch over the region for dangers of forest fire. They were entrusted to warn the city of any impending danger. Since no warning had come, Father Pernin felt that everyone’s feelings of dread, including his, were irrational.

He only felt the first premonition of a great danger at around 8:00 in the evening. He was walking with his neighbor on her land when suddenly “some old trunks of trees blaze out though without seeing about them any tokens of cinder or spark, just as if the wind had been a breath of fire, capable of kindling them into a flame by its mere contact.” The wind had been faltering until then, blowing at one moment, abating on the next, then suddenly gusting. Off to the west, they saw “a dense cloud of smoke over-hanging the earth, a vivid red reflection of immense extent, and then suddenly struck on my ear, strangely audible in the preternatural silence reigning around, a distant roaring, yet muffled sound, announcing that the elements were in commotion somewhere.”
Father Pernin made up his mind. A great calamity is coming. It was time to prepare for the worst. Little did he know how providential that decision was.

Preparation for the Calamity
At about half past eight, he freed his horse, judging that it was the best he could do for him. He then dug a six-foot-deep trench and buried his chest, the church’s books and precious belongings in it.

His neighbor, Mrs. Tyler, who was hosting a party, approached him and asked, “Father, do you think there is any danger?” “I do not know,” he replied, “but I have unpleasant presentiments, and feel myself impelled to prepare for trouble.” “But, if a fire breaks out, Father, what are we to do?” “In that case, Madam, seek the river at once.” Mrs. Tyler and her family followed the priest’s instruction and were saved. All of Mrs. Tyler’s party guests, except two, perished.

The Tabernacle
Father Pernin then turned his attention to saving the Blessed Sacrament. It was shortly past 9:00 and the wind had picked up. The redness in the sky deepened. The roaring sound seemed to be almost upon him. Even when surrounded by grave danger, he never let the Blessed Sacrament out of his mind. “Object of all objects,” Father Pernin wrote, “precious, priceless, especially in the eyes of a priest.” The calamity seemed about to fall on him. In his haste, he dropped the key to the tabernacle. So he decided to take the tabernacle on his hand cart. He exited the church and immediately a strong gust of wind began blowing with the strength of a hurricane clearing away the gate, the planks and fencing from his path. All he had to do now was to make it to the river.

The Struggle to Make It to Safety
The wind was so strong it pushed him against the building across the street. He struggled to stay on his feet. He tripped several times on his way to the river. Once, it was over a mother and a daughter who had succumbed to the fire. Another time, he lost his balance due to the wind. When trying to get back on his feet, he felt a horse nuzzle his shoulder. It was his own horse, trembling from fear. Pull as he might, the horse never budged. It stayed frozen in its spot only to be found some days later devoured by the fire.
He was still a few blocks away from the bridge. “The air was no longer fit to breathe, full as it was of sand, dust, ashes, cinders, sparks, smoke and fire.” The bridge was mess of people fleeing. Those from the east side thought it was safer on the west. Those from the west thought it safe on the east. Each side pushed through the other. There were “a thousand discordant deafening noises” all about: “…the neighing of horses, falling of chimneys, crashing of uprooted trees, roaring and whistling of the wind, crackling of fire as it ran with lightning-like rapidity from house to house.” Father Pernin noted that all matter of sounds could be heard with the exception of the human voice. “People seemed stricken dumb by terror,” he wrote. “They jostled each other without exchanging look, word, or counsel. The silence of the tomb reigned among the living; nature alone lifted up its voice and spoke.” And spoke it did in a spectacular fashion.
Father Pernin pushed the wagon containing the tabernacle into the river as much as he dared. It was made of wood. It was at high risk of catching fire, but he could not push it deeper in the river. The tabernacle was not waterproof. To submerge it entirely in water would also submerge the Blessed Sacrament. It was the best he could do.

He moved upstream where he awaited his fate. People lined both banks of the river “as far as the eye could see.” They survived the night by being partially immersed in the water and constantly splashing water over their heads.

The Intensity of the Fire
The river where Father Pernin waded was about 400 feet wide. The air was full of flames which darted back and forth across the span of the river all night long. Clothing and quilt, used as coverings, would burst into flames if the people neglected to splash water over them. “The river was bright,” he wrote, “brighter than by day.” It was painful to expose head or hand above the water. He looked around him and “saw nothing but flames; houses, trees, and the air itself were on fire…above my head, as far as the eye could reach into space, alas! Too brilliantly lighted, I saw nothing but immense volumes of flames covering the firmament, clouds driven wildly hither and thither by the fierce power of the tempest.”
Were one to describe the firestorm of hell, this description must necessarily be a point of reference. No adjective best defines this scene other than infernal.
After several hours, as Father Pernin ventured to get out of the water to check the temperature, his shoulders scarcely out of the water, someone shouted, “Father, beware, you are on fire!”

A lady who remained close to him asked, “Father, do you not think this is the end of the world?” “I do not think so,” he replied, “but if other countries are burned as ours seems to have been, the end of the world, at least for us, must be at hand.”

They stood in the cold waters of the river for about five and a half hours.
The aftermath gave more indication of the intensity of the conflagration. Many buildings, including the church, were burned to the ground. When the priest retrieved his vestments, they seemed to have been preserved by the fire. He cleared the dirt around them and tried to lift them up. They came undone. The cloth had been reduced to ash.

Father Pernin himself wrote that the intensity of the fire was such that not only did it burn the trees to the ground, it had burned the very stump of the trees. And, most unbelievable, it burned the very root system of the trees. When he placed his hand in one of these holes on the ground, his hand came away with nothing but ashes.

According to an online science website, the temperature of a bonfire can reach over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. For reference, the melting point for gold is 1,945 degrees. The burning of 1.4 million acres of forest and cyclic hurricane-strength winds must have created the perfect condition to reach at least that temperature, if not more. It is impossible to calculate the total sum of heat produced by the Great Peshtigo Fire. In about twenty-four hours, it burned 1.4 million acres of forest to the ground.

Miracle #1: The Miracle of the Tabernacle
Days later, when the good priest recovered his sight and was well enough to walk around, he returned to Peshtigo to administer to the injured, the dying and the dead. A parishioner approached him and asked; “Father, do you know what has happened to your tabernacle?” “No, what is it?” “Come quickly then, and see. Oh! Father, it is a great miracle!” At the spot where Father Pernin had left the tabernacle, he saw the wagon had fallen to its side. Doubtless it was blown over by the storm. The tabernacle, however, stood on one of the logs floating in the water.

“Everything in the vicinity of this spot had been blackened or charred by the flames: logs, trunks, boxes, nothing had escaped, yet, strange to say, there rose the tabernacle, intact in its snowy whiteness, presenting a wonderful contrast to the grimy blackness of the surrounding objects.” Father Pernin left the tabernacle there for several days for all to see. It was a testimony of the power of the Blessed Sacrament. Exposed to heat that could melt metal, this wooden tabernacle stood untouched by the infernal flames, preserved in its immaculate whiteness. Numbers came and saw. “The Catholics generally regarded the fact as a miracle, and it was spoken of near and far, attracting great attention,” he wrote.

The tabernacle can be found today either at St. Mary’s Church or in the Fire Museum in Peshtigo.

Miracle #2: The Miracle of the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help
Weeks after the fire, Father Pernin heard of an incredible account of a shrine which had been preserved from the fire. He had seen what devastation the fire had wrought in Peshtigo. It seemed improbable that a chapel, a schoolhouse and the property found in the middle of the forest could survive such a firestorm. He decided to visit it himself and see with his own eyes. This eyewitness account was written in his other book titled, The Finger of God Is There!

In 1859, Our Lady appeared to a young girl, Adele Brise (pronounced like “ice”). Her confessor counseled her to heed the apparition’s request which was to catechize children so they will know their faith and avoid punishment. There was also a call to conversion for sinners.

The girl grew to be a nun. Sister Adele suffered much persecution, but she obeyed Our Lady’s request and opened a chapel and schoolhouse on a six-acre piece of land donated for this purpose. It was the very site of Our Lady’s apparition. Twelve years later, the Peshtigo Fire threatened this small parcel of land dedicated to Our Lady. Surely, the inhabitants saw the same red glow Father Pernin described in his account. Surely, they heard the same noise that seemed like the roar of a thousand angry dragons. Surely, they felt the same premonition and the same decision to prepare for the worst. So they did. Many families took what belongings they could carry, what livestock they could drive, and went to the shrine.

It seems irrational to seek refuge from a forest fire in a wooden chapel. It seems more rational to flee, as the survivors in Peshtigo had done, to the closest body of water. After all, the waters of the bay were only 3.5 miles away. Perhaps it wasn’t physical safety they sought, but supernatural. There the faithful were on the late evening of October 8, 1871, pressing upon three simple nuns the duty to protect them from the impending calamity.

The nuns placed their trust in Our Lady. They put a statue of Our Lady on a carrier. They processed around the property praying the rosary out loud. They did not stay in the chapel. They prayed outside to confront the very danger where it threatened them. When the fire, heat and smoke became so oppressive on one side of the property, they moved to another. Despite the danger and their fear, they refused to stop praying the rosary. After hours of praying, confronting the conflagration, suddenly a downpour of rain came and doused the fire. Thus ended the Great Peshtigo Fire, the deadliest fire in American history.
This happened on the morning of October 9th, the very anniversary of Our Lady’s third apparition to Sister Adele Brise.
Father Pernin wrote in The Finger of God Is There!, “Morning's light revealed the deplorable ravages wrought by the conflagration. All the houses and fences in the neighborhood had been burned, with the exception of the school, the chapel and fence surrounding the six acres of land consecrated to the Blessed Virgin. This paling had been charred in several places, but the fire, as if it had been a sentient being, whilst consuming everything in the vicinity, the winding path surrounding the enclosure being only eight or ten feet wide, had respected this spot, sanctified by the visible presence of the Mother of God, and, it now shone cut, like an emerald island in a sea of ashes.”

With this retelling, the words of Bishop Ricken in pronouncing the authenticity of the apparitions of Our Lady of Good Help may gain new significance to many. He said: “Our Lady has lessened or relieved the burdens of the People of God, whether about financial, familial, relationship or employment matters or even through diminishing inclement and tempestuous weather. This holy place was preserved from the infamous Peshtigo Fire of 1871, when many of the faithful gathered here with Adele and prayed through the intercession of Our Lady of Good Help, with the result that the fire that devastated everything in its wake in this entire area stopped when it reached the parameters of the Shrine.” [Accents ours]

2018: Two Fatima Custodians Retrace the Footsteps of Father Pernin
Matthew Shibler, a fellow America Needs Fatima custodian, and I read Father Pernin’s book with focused interest. We compared notes and discussed conclusions. To the best of our abilities we retraced the footsteps of Father Peter Pernin. It was partially an adventure to discover where Father Pernin’s church had been and where he dug the ground to bury his chest, the church’s books and precious belongings. We crossed the same bridge he crossed, assessed where he must have stayed in the water, and where he left the wagon with the Blessed Sacrament. We stood at the banks where the Miracle of the Tabernacle may have happened and said a prayer. It was a reminder to us that even at the height of a chastisement, the impossible can happen. All the furies of hell cannot touch the Church symbolized by the tabernacle, which, of course, is understood by Catholics as the tent or abode of God.
We followed his footsteps partially, too, as a pilgrimage. We stood on the grounds where the faithful prayed their rosary procession. This is the ground where the three little nuns armed with nothing but their beads and a statue of Our Lady faced the infernal storm that consumed 1.4 million acres, except for the six-acre property dedicated to Mary.
It was with exciting realization that this may have been the first public square rosary procession in American history, something America Needs Fatima has been honored to promote.

Hope in Face of the Coming Punishment Predicted at Fatima
It was with awe that we prayed in the chapel. Because of the thousands of talks about the message of Fatima Matthew and I had given as custodians these past several decades, the chastisement prophesied by Our Lady of Fatima was very present in our minds.
When this great punishment comes because of mankind’s sins, will we simply seek physical safety or will we turn to Our Lady? Full of confidence and staring down the chastisement, armed with nothing more than our trust and devotion to Mary, we will see her prophesy fulfilled that “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

http://americaneedsfatima.blogspot.com/2019/07/our-lady-of-good-help-and-peshtigo-fire.html

https://www.hprweb.com/2019/07/father-de-caussade-and-the-abandonment-to-divine-providence/

Father de Caussade and the Abandonment to Divine Providence

Fr. Jeffrey Kirby

Existentially Bored

Currently, we are witnessing a widespread cultural shift away from the Christian faith and an odd movement in many hearts toward various Eastern philosophies and spiritualities. As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI once vocalized, it appears the West has become “existentially bored” with the Gospel message. The posterity of powerful saints, martyrs, spiritual masters, and cultural reformers have become convinced that the Christian patrimony has nothing to offer them. It is falsely believed that the Gospel no longer has relevancy and can no longer offer a viable contribution to developing a strong relationship with God, the world, or peace within our own souls.

Admittedly, this discarding of Christian spiritual wisdom is happening because of many cultural tendencies that Church leadership cannot control. However, there is one glaring exception. There is one aspect that Church leadership can actively control and yet, truth be told, it’s been left wanting. Namely, very little has been done to teach and present the experiences, signs, wonders, wisdom, and masterpieces of our Christian saints and spiritual masters. In such a state, the Church is left appearing to be nothing more than a moral judge or dispenser of presumedly antiquated creedal statements.

The lifeblood of the Church’s existence — our encounter with God and the reception and cooperation with his grace — is necessary if the other aspects of the Church’s life are to have the proper context. And so, the spiritual masters have to be brought out of the Church’s treasury and applied to life today. Their wisdom has to be able to receive new soil and grow to fruition. Believers, or former believers, have to be shown how to see God, discern his providential care, and seek him with a sincere heart.

Father Jean Pierre de Caussade

With the above in mind, and wanting to make a small contribution to this overall effort, this article will present the writings of Father Jean Pierre de Caussade. Over two hundred years ago, the saintly Jesuit gave a series of talks to some Visitation Sisters in Nancy, France. The sisters were so moved by the spiritual conferences that they kept their notes of the talks for about a hundred years. After that century of preservation, the sisters asked for them to be collected and codified into a book.

After some work, that book was published under the title, Abandonment to Divine Providence. The book contained the principal lessons of Father Jean Pierre de Caussade, who coined the term “the sacrament of the present moment.” In some respects, the author was before his times as he retrieved notions within the Christian patrimony, such as the universal call to holiness of all God’s people, the centrality of one’s vocation (whatever it might be), the means of holiness found within our ordinary duties, and the high importance of redemptive suffering. While all of these were within the Christian tradition, some of them had been eclipsed or lopsidedly applied to only those in the clerical or Religious state of life. De Caussade recycled these notions from the tradition and applied them to all Christians of any vocation.

A Fever-Pitched Culture

At first glance we might understandably question how spiritual writings from two centuries ago can help us, but the challenge to seek God always has parallels in every age. For starters, the endeavor to surrender to God’s divine providence is never an easy achievement, regardless of the culture or century. No matter where we are or when we are, our fallen minds are seduced by illusions of control and attracted to the passing things of this world. We are inclined to distraction. This is fallen human nature, and it has not changed much through the generations.

In Western culture today, we always want to be in-the-know and have an obsessive desire for control. We are easily seduced by excessive activity. We avoid divine providence in the present moment because it requires our full attention and honesty about who we are and where we are. In the hustle and bustle, we can easily lose ourselves. In contrast to these movements, Father de Caussade reminds us that if we are willing to lift the veil that lies beyond all the things of this world, God would endlessly reveal himself to us in the most ordinary, and yet amazing, of ways.

Western culture is surrounded by fears of missing out or of only living once with no view to eternity. They demand an incessant juggling of duties. We are always busy and we seem to always like it. We don’t want to miss anything, even if this desire makes us truly miss everything. And this is considered success, even normal. We have so much going on in so many different locales and in so many different types of media. We are stretched to our limits and we often seem not to care, unless it’s to complain or wallow in self-pity on social media!

This pace leads us to forget who we are or where we are called to be. In this shuffle, the real treasures of our lives can get lost along the way. We get caught up in the overall rat race that empties our life of its meaning. We neglect sacred things and important things. We become strangers to ourselves.

Our Spiritual Master’s Wisdom

The above is our world today. Father Caussade, however, points us in a different direction. He gifted us with the divine wisdom contained in Abandonment to Divine Providence, which is not for the fainthearted. The work of the blessed author is written for those who welcome the Cross, or at least have stopped trying to run from it. The masterpiece is a challenge. It demands that we search for value, purpose, and meaning in the array of our human experience — from tragedy and joy to darkness and light. It is an aid to each of us to completely surrender to the workings of divine providence as a mixture of faith, hope, and love, which unites us to God and his work among us. In this effort, we must not be cowardly, but generous and bold. We must have a generosity of heart.

Growing into It

In our adulthood, we have to stand on our own two feet, roll up our sleeves, and build upon the foundation given to us by the holy ones. Like all those who desire pure hearts before God, we have to ask our own questions. More specifically, we have to push ourselves and inquire within our own souls: “Do I believe in divine providence? Will I truly surrender my life to it?”

Faith points us to the mystery and beauty of God’s providence and calls us to a radical surrender — from the depths of our heart — to the workings of divine providence.

Such an abandonment should not be confused with other things. It is not an indulgence in self-reliance or a misplaced confidence in our own strength. It is not a foolish exercise in some type of optimism or wishful thinking. As Father de Caussade teaches us, our surrender to divine providence is a broadening of our minds and hearts to the eternal and infinite. It is a willingness to look beyond the immediate sufferings or sorrows of our lives and to place them within the larger picture of creation and goodness. Our abandonment to divine providence is not a waiting game to get what we want, how we want it, and when we want it. Rather, it is an unconditional surrender. We place all our needs, wants, and hopes before God, here and now, and then we let go.

Truly, an abandonment to divine providence is a true sacrifice of our will to the workings of divine providence. It is a complete trust in God that is willing to accept suffering and disappointment for a greater good. Our abandonment to divine providence is the tough decision to live in the present moment, and not in future hopes or past hurts. It is a willingness to look and search for God here and now, and not later or somewhere else. As Father de Caussade would call it, the here and now is truly a “sacrament of the present moment.” It is a path to encounter God and know of his love and care for us.

The Task Continues

In the above article, the spiritual master Father Jean Pierre fe Caussade was presented and a portion of his spiritual wisdom was outlined and explained. It is a wisdom that leads to peace in a busy and hectic world. It is counsel that is born from the Gospel and that points its followers back to its perennial relevancy and richness.

As many leave the Christian tradition looking for God, this is only one exercise. It is only one example of what the Church could do and employ to show the world the youthfulness of the Gospel and the richness and joy found within it.

The Practice of Confession According to St. Francis De Sales

https://www.hprweb.com/2019/07/a-sweet-remedy-for-our-troubled-times/

A Sweet Remedy for Our Troubled Times

The Practice of Confession According to St. Francis De Sales

Br. John Paul Puschautz, CSJ

In these tumultuous times in the world and in the Church, we need more than ever to plunge into the mystery of God’s infinite mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and to be inspired by the witness of the saints. What better place to start than the exemplar confessor, spiritual director, and Doctor of the Church, St. Francis de Sales? In order to understand the profound spiritual teaching of this great saint regarding the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we need to situate his life in its proper context. He was the firstborn of a Catholic noble family, born August 21st, 1567, in the Catholic Duchy of Savoy, thirty miles south of Geneva. Francis de Sales was born into a conflicted world of religious debate, fresh off the Protestant Reformation which began in 1517 and the “wars of religions” which followed. Since 1536, Savoy was controlled by the followers of John Calvin and, even though the bloodshed of war ceased with a truce, there was no true religious tolerance. This environment would affect Francis for the rest of his life as he was touched by the theological debates and personally invested in the reconciliation of the fallen-away Protestant brethren. It is believed that over the course of his life, thanks to his preaching and writing, over eight thousand Protestants returned to the Catholic faith. His parents, Francis de Boisy and Frances de Sionnaz, being nobility, had high hopes for their son to have an affluent career in public life. This led Francis to a superb education in law and, out of his own initiative and without telling his father, he added courses in theology, according to his desire to become a priest. His studies obtained for him a doctorate in both canon and civil law.

One of the most impactful events in Francis’s life occurred while studying in Paris at the age of 19. While studying theology, he came across the very controversial topic of predestination and, looking at his sins, he became convinced that he was predestined to hell. The worst part about this plaguing thought was not the pain of punishment, but the thought that he would be unable to love God for all of eternity, as hell is the place where there is no love. Relief came in a prayer of abandonment addressed to God: “Whatever may happen, O Lord . . . I will love you always . . . at least in this life will I love you, if it is not given me to love you in eternal life.” Notice the purity of heart of this prayer. Francis does not fear hell because of the extreme physical pain that we see the damned suffer in artistic depictions and in the Gospel, where hell is spoken of as a “blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 13:42). Instead, he realizes that this physical pain is nothing compared to the spiritual pain of not loving, which is the very reason for our existence. This prayer expresses the perfect contrition referred to in the traditional translation of the Act of Contrition which invites the penitent to say, “I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love.” As he continued his studies in Padua, he still had anguish from a theological standpoint regarding predestination but he once again found a resolution in prayer, as he realized that God’s name is not “the one who condemns” but “the one who saves,” the etymological meaning of Jesus. These trials and resolutions formed his spirituality greatly as he reconciled God’s unconditional goodness and love and will that all men be saved with man’s free will to respond to this love in the present moment.

In spite of his desires for Francis’s worldly success, Francis de Boisy eventually gave his fatherly blessing for Francis to become a priest, and Francis was ordained December 18th, 1593. His first mission in Chablais, a Calvinist territory in Savoy, was slow but fruitful. Many citizens and civil authorities, including the duke, were converted to Catholicism, which led to the territory becoming Catholic once more. In 1597, de Sales was named the coadjutor of the Bishop of Granier, and a few years after he was ordained a bishop. He described on that day that “God took me from myself to take me to himself and give me to his people.” While he preached the Lenten sermons in Dijon in 1604, he met the young widow Jane de Chantal. He became her spiritual director and, after several years of waiting and discernment, she founded with his help a new religious congregation: the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. Francis was an on-demand preacher and spiritual director, which influenced his decision to decline the request of the bishop of Paris to become his coadjutor. With his health failing, he desired to return to Annecy to retire, but he was sent on a mission by the pope to oversee a monastic election and to be a part of a delegation to greet King Louis XIII in Avignon. On his return trip, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died in the gardener’s cottage of the Visitation monastery in Lyons, December 28th, 1622, at the age of 55. Francis de Sales was beatified in 1661, canonized in 1665, and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1877.

Francis’s masterful preaching and spiritual accompaniment was recorded in his many writings, which expressed his “spirituality for all” that went to the profound depths of the mystery of God in an accessible way. From these writings we are able to receive some wisdom from him, as an experienced confessor, on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We will begin by looking at the spiritual truths about the sacrament which he expressed in his writings and then we will look at his Advice to Confessors, which he wrote to his priests as their bishop.

By his living relationship with the God who saves, Francis was able to express fundamental truths regarding the infinite sweetness and mercy of God which help us to situate this great sacrament of mercy. It is easy to be overwhelmed with the misery of our sins but, when we place ourselves at the source of mercy, at the foot of the Cross where Jesus won our redemption, we are filled with great love and confidence in order to humbly acknowledge our sins and be cleansed by Jesus’s blood.

The scorpion which has stung us is poisonous when it stings us, but when it is made into an oil it is an excellent remedy against its own sting; sin is shameful when we commit it, but when it is changed into confession and repentance, it is honorable and salutary. Contrition and confession are so beautiful and sweet smelling, that they efface the ugliness and dissipate the stench of sin. . . . Imagine yourself to be on Mount Calvary beneath the feet of Jesus Christ crucified, whose precious blood trickles down from all parts to wash you from all our iniquities; for though it is not the actual blood of the Savior, it is nevertheless the merit of his blood shed for us, which waters abundantly the penitents around the confessionals. Open your heart wide, then, that the sins may go out by confession; for the more they go out from your heart, the more precious merit of the divine Passion enter in to fill it with blessing.¹

What de Sales expressed so eloquently is the spiritual reality which takes place in the confessional. What is dead because of sin is raised to life by the miracle of God’s mercy, and so we have no need to fear, no matter how great the sin is; Jesus’s love is greater. He paid the price for all of our sin and so, once we walk out of that confessional, our souls are white as snow even though they may have been crimson red with sin when we walked in (cf. Is 1:18). Our sins “are buried before God and the confessor in such a way that they will never be remembered.”² Take courage, for “confession and penance render a man infinitely more honorable than sin renders him blamable.”

In front of this amazing reality of God’s crucified love, we can humbly “ask for the grace and light of the Holy Spirit to discern our faults well,”³ and acknowledge our sins before the crucified Christ.

Detest your sins, which alone can cause you to be lost on that dread day. Ah! I will judge myself now, so that I may not be judged; I will examine my conscience and condemn myself, accuse myself and correct myself, so that the Judge may not condemn me on that dread day: I will therefore go to confession.⁴

We start with the greatest sins.

Detest them and cast them away as by as great a contrition and displeasure as your heart can conceive, considering these four things: that by sin you have lost the grace of God, forfeited your place in heaven, incurred the everlasting pains of hell, and renounced the everlasting love of God.⁵

This may seem exaggerated, but in order to fight our natural tendency to justify our behavior by saying that “it’s not that bad,” we need to place ourselves in front of the reality of the ugliness of sin which leads to death. It is not a light matter, but a question of life and death. This is especially true of mortal sin by which we separate ourselves from the love of God and lose the state of sanctifying grace, but it is also true of the affections we have for venial, “harmless” sins. There is no harmless sin, and de Sales warns us against an attitude of complacency, which is poison for our souls. This is why he encouraged not only a general confession at the beginning of our quest for the devout life, which “helps us to know ourselves better, stirs us up to a salutary confusion for our past lives, causes us to wonder at the mercy of God who has borne with us so patiently; it tranquilizes our hearts, refreshes our spirits, urges us to good resolutions . . . and gives our hearts confidence to express ourselves well at our subsequent confessions,”⁶ but also regular devotional confession.

If venial sin displeases God, the affection which we have to venial sin is no other thing than a resolve to be willing to displease his divine majesty. Is it possible that a noble soul should will not only to displease her God, but to take pleasure in displeasing him? . . . these affections are directly contrary to devotion, just as the affections to mortal sin are contrary to charity; they weaken the powers of the spirit, hinder divine consolations, open the door to temptations, and though they do not kill the soul, yet they make her exceedingly sick.⁷

We need confession both to fight against affection to mortal sin which is contrary to charity and to fight against affection to venial sin which is contrary to devotion. True devotion encourages us to strive for perfect contrition. “So when the penitent only hates sin with a weak, though true contrition, he resolves indeed not to sin anymore; but when he loathes the sin with a powerful and vigorous contrition, not only does he detest the sin, but also all affection to the sin and all that springs from it or leads to it.”⁸ But de Sales warns us against an excess of severity with ourselves which can be rooted in a spirit of pride and self-righteousness. We must be humble because, as St. Teresa of Avila said, humility is truth. “Dear imperfections, they force us to acknowledge our misery, give us practice in humility, selflessness, patience, and watchfulness; yet, notwithstanding, God looks at the preparation of our heart and sees that it is perfect.”⁹ We must acknowledge that we are weak creatures which fall easily, and at the same time be vigilant in the fight against sin out of our love for God, trusting that “we shall always be victorious, provided that we are willing to fight.”

We must not therefore be troubled because of our imperfections, for our perfection consists in fighting against them, and we cannot fight against them if we do not see them, nor conquer them if we do not encounter them. Our victory does not lie in not feeling them, but in not consenting to them, and to be harassed by them is not the same thing as to consent to them. Indeed, in order that we may be exercised in humility, it is necessary for us to be sometimes wounded in this spiritual battle: but we are never overcome except when we have lost either life or courage.¹⁰

After this examination of conscience at the foot of the Cross, “then we will go humbly to our confessor honoring God and the sacred priesthood in the person of the priest. We ought to look upon him in confession as an angel whom God sends to reconcile us to his divine goodness.” The priest acts in persona Christi in the sacrament, and so this confession is a direct contact with the Divine Physician who gave his authority to his Apostles “and those who were to receive the same authority by legitimate succession.”¹¹ the night of Easter, when he said, “Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven” (Jn 20:23). Of course we know that the priest is human, with flaws like the rest of us, and we must acknowledge “that you are not an angel, no more than he is”¹², but this fact does not take away from the reality of the priesthood which Jesus instituted to continue his redemptive mission through the forgiveness of sins. De Sales suggests that you “never suffer your heart to be infected with sin for any length of time, since you have so easy a remedy at hand.”¹³ He suggests going to Confession often because we are not only cleansed from our sins by the sacrament, but we are given “strength to avoid them hereafter, a clear light to discern them well, and an abundant grace to repair all the loss which they have caused you.”¹⁴ He knows that this process is not easy for our pride, but he encourages us by saying that “you will practice the virtue of humility, of obedience, of simplicity, and of charity; and in this one act of confession you will exercise more virtue than any other whatsoever.”¹⁵

This good disposition of the penitent is encouraged by a confessor who reflects the qualities of God, and who welcomes them as God the Father welcome his prodigal son. “Remember that at the beginning of their confessions the poor penitents call you Father, and that you must indeed have a fatherly heart towards them, receiving them with a great charity, bearing patiently their uncouthness, ignorance, weakness, slowness and other imperfections.”¹⁶ Like a good physician the confessor must be prudent in discerning what is the state of the penitent soul and its specific need. If they are burdened by shame or a lack of hope, then they must be encouraged of the “great mercy of God which is infinitely greater in pardoning them then are all the sins of the world to damn them.”¹⁷ If they are presumptuous, they must be admonished of the gravity of sin and that “it is a question of his eternal salvation”¹⁸ If they are lost or perplexed, they must be guided patiently in making a good examination of conscience. In order to be a better physician, at times, one needs to ask the patient some questions in order to discover the source of the pain and to prescribe the proper remedy. De Sales suggests asking the penitent what their state in life is because “one must proceed differently according to each vocation.” The confessor must also act as a judge in order to determine if the “penitent has the intention of confessing completely . . . and whether he has the intention of leaving sin and detesting it completely.”¹⁹ If they are not so disposed, it is the duty of the confessor to “enkindle in him these dispositions if this be possible.” And if that’s not possible, then they must love with the tough love of a father who sometimes has to send away and punish in order to help their child realize the “dangerous and miserable state in which he finds himself in.”²⁰

When it comes to the actual confessing of sins, Francis encourages us to be simple, precise, and to strive for great contrition and purpose of amendment. Out of routine we might confess, “I have not loved my neighbor as I ought,” when we should be more precise on what we did and why we did it in order to describe to the Divine Physician what exactly is hurting us and to get at the root of the problem. “Accuse yourself of this particular thing: Having seen a poor man in necessity, I did not help him as I might have done, through negligence, or through hardness of heart, or through contempt according to the reason of this fault.”²¹ We should not justify our actions by making excuses, but must humbly acknowledge our faults. It is once again the role of the confessor to act as a teacher by asking appropriate questions when necessary in order to identify not only the species of the sin, but also the degree of severity, and the frequency, especially for mortal sins. This is not to be nosy by prying into their private lives, but the work of a doctor who wants the good of the patient. If someone says, “I sinned through impurity,” the confessor must ask questions delicately without “lecturing or scolding,”²² in order to help the penitent come face-to-face with their sin so they receive all of God’s mercy in that wound. That statement can mean “I entertained one impure lustful thought about a coworker” or “I am in an adulterous relationship with my coworker for the last ten years.” There is a big difference between these two statements, and so the advice and penance needs to be adapted to the person and their situation.

After the confession of sins and subsequent questions, restitution is imposed. “Once the confessor has well recognized the state of conscience of the penitent, he must dispose and order what he sees to be necessary to render the penitent capable of the grace of God. This concerns the restitution of the goods of another, the amendment of his life, and avoiding the occasion of sin.”²³ We can see that this important part of confession is about helping the penitent to be capable of the grace which God wants to give through the sacrament. If we are still attached to the sin and its consequences, we cannot receive all the grace God wants to give. The restitution is an act of justice which manifests our desire to amend our life. Of course, the secrecy of confession needs to be preserved, so the way that this restitution is prescribed needs to be discerned. Distinct from the penance imposed, the confessor can give counsels which can be helpful for their cure by continual conversion: turning away from sin and turning more towards God.

Next, the penance is imposed by the confessor “with gentle and consoling words.”²⁴ The penance is an integral part of the healing process, and the content and how it is communicated needs to be adapted to the personal needs of the penitent. There will never be an adequate penance to make up for our sins, for “according to the gravity of their sins, they deserve a heavier penance.”²⁵ Still, we need to cooperate with God’s healing grace because, as St. Augustine said, “He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.” The penance needs to be clear and “not confusing and mixed with all sorts of prayers,” and the confessor needs to confirm if the penitent is willing to perform it. It should be adapted to the sins which are confessed in order to serve “as a penance for past sins,” but it can also be a “preservation against future sins.”²⁶ For example, if the penitent is struggling with sins of gluttony or lust, a penance encouraging the virtue of temperance, such as fasting by skipping a meal, is appropriate.

De Sales then encourages confessors to exhort the penitent about the tremendous mystery of redemption which will take place in the words of absolution, in order that they understand that by confession “since he washed his conscience in the blood of the Immaculate Lamb he should take care not to sully it again.”²⁷ It is in the words of absolution that the penitent encounters Jesus the Divine Physician in a special way through the priest acting in persona Christi.

Be attentive and open the ears of your heart, to hear in spirit the words of your absolution, which the Savior of your heart himself, seated on the throne of his mercy, will pronounce on high in heaven before all the angels and saints at the same time that the priest in his name absolves you here below on earth: so that all this throng of the blessed, rejoicing at your happiness, will sing a spiritual canticle with incomparable joy, and they will all give the kiss of peace and fellowship to your heart, which is now restored to grace and sanctified.²⁸

At the end of de Sales’s Advice to Confessors, he sums up in saying that in the “law of grace there must be nothing but sweetness.” Confessors must avoid being too harsh because “it sometimes happens that we are so austere in our corrections that we are more blamable than our penitents are culpable.”²⁹ This sweetness is only possible when the confessor realizes that he is a sinner as well, in need of God’s tremendous mercy. He can be patient only when he realizes that God is patient with him. Confessors must keep in mind always the reality that it is Christ himself working through them, and so they must strive to always more closely conform themselves to him who “became man to unite himself to a merciful disposition” by lowering “themselves with the penitents by a gentle condescension.”³⁰ It is no wonder that life and teaching of St. Francis de Sales has become such a source of inspiration and model for confessors and spiritual directors, for he lived according to these divine principles which he articulated. In doing so he was able to be an instrument of mercy where so many people encountered their Savior in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.