aeternus

The Marian Catechists have put out a call for a Spiritual Bouquet to be prayed for His Excellency Archbishop Raymond L. Burke. Today, June 30 is his 60th birthday and Sunday was his 33rd anniversary of the holy priesthood.

As most people already know, our dear Archbishop is on his way to the Vatican to be the new prefect of the Apostolic Signature, the Church’s supreme court. We taped a television press conference with him the other evening to show the children. It is amazing to me that so many people have been so hostile towards this most humble man and servant of Our Dear Lord . Perhaps they see only his exterior which is strong. But, to look at him with the eyes of the heart, one nearly crumbles with admiration of this holy soul! When he spoke to the press about his new appointment he spoke clearly. However, when asked about leaving St. Louis this dear man actually had to pause he was so choked up. He could then hardly speak because he was so overcome with tears of sadness (which were obviously due to love of the Archdiocese). Oh, how I hope he knows how much we love him here!

My poor little ones were saddened when they saw their dear Archbishop. Young mister looks up to him with such admiration and is very happy for him to be going to Rome. He is taking this news like a good stalwart young man, though I know he is torn between happiness and sadness. He can ‘t help but feel sad he won’t be able to serve mass for him any more. Young Miss was not so tough… she cried. Her words were, “I am so sad”. I said, “That is o.k. you can tell him your sad when you see him at mass”. She said, “No Mommy, if I tell him I’m sad and cry then he’ll be sad and cry and that would not be Christian.” Bless her!

Back to business…

The spiritual bouquet to be offered is specific. The Marian Catechists asks to pray the Chaplet of the Holy Face. This chaplet is a powerful prayer for the triumph of the Church and the downfall of Her enemies. Archbishop Burke has a strong devotion to dear St. Therese of Lisieux and of course we know her religious name was “Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face”. Therese wrote many prayers to express her devotion to the Holy Face. Her poems and prayers helped spread the devotion. She wrote the words “Make me resemble you, Jesus!” on a small card and attached a stamp of the Holy Face to it. She pinned the prayer in a small container over her heart, since at that time the Holy Face Medal did not exist. In August 1895, in her “Canticle to the Holy Face” she wrote:

“Jesus, Your ineffable Image is the star which guides my steps. Ah, You know, Your sweet Face is for me Heaven on earth. My love discovers the charms of Your Face adorned with tears. I smile through my own tears when I contemplate Your sorrows.”

The Chaplet of the Holy Face

For the Triumph of the Church and downfall of Her Enemies

Make the Sign of the Cross, and say:

God, come to my assistance,
Lord, make haste to help me.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Next, say 33 times:
Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered;
let those who hate Him flee before His Holy Face.

At the end, say 3 times:
Glory be to the Father…
________________

The formula that we are using for the Chaplet of the Holy Face is a variation of the original chaplet. If you would like to know more about the Holy Face Devotion, visit the websire: www.holyface.org

I recall hearing the following informational before concerning the “titles” for each of the “hours”. Perhaps this happened years ago when I began my practice of the Liturgy of the Hours prayer and integrated it into my life, but I had since forgotten it. I will say that the good thing about lacking a proper memory and forgetting what you have already been taught is that you can get very excited about learning something wonderful all over again! It never even occurs to you that you have forgotten something and so you don’t feel bad about yourself!

I’m sure many, many people already know that praying the Divine Office is a way of participating in the salvation won in the death and resurrection of Christ. This prayer is a public and common prayer by the people of God and it is rightly considered to be among the primary duties of the Church. Now, notice, we say primary duties of the Church – not just Priest, nuns and consecrated religious! This prayer is for everyone!

Through the formation of the church prayer in common gradually took the form of a set cycle of hours. Now, in praying these hours, we find them a way to recall Christ’s passion. Each of the “seven hours” is linked to an aspect of Christ’s Passion:

• Matins — Office of Readings – The Agony in the Garden
• Laudes — Morning Prayer - Jesus is Condemned to Death
• Terce — Mid-morning - Scourging & Crowning with Thorns
• Sext — Mid-day - The Way of the Cross
• Noon – Mid-afternoon – The Crucifixion
• Vespers — Evening Prayer - Jesus taken down from the Cross
• Compline — Night Prayer - Jesus placed in the Tomb

So maybe you do not have time to participate in the liturgy by taking time out to recite the psalms, but you can always take a moment for reflection and meditation with your breviary and just think about Christ’s passion during these times of the day…

Continued…… (pay attention to the second to last paragraph… great wisdom!)
In his “Dialogues”, St. Gregory[7] tells of a certain priest, Santolo by name, who was captured by the Vandals and condemned to death. The barbarians told him to choose the manner of his death. He refused, saying: “I am in God’s hands and I gladly accept whatever kind of death he wishes me to suffer at your hands; I wish no other.” This reply was so pleasing to God that he miraculously stayed the hand of the executioner ready to behead him. The barbarians were so impressed by the miracle that they freed their prisoner. As regards the manner of our death, therefore, we should esteem that the best kind of death for us which God has designed for us. When therefore we think of our death, let our prayer be: “O Lord, only let me save my soul and I leave the manner of my death to thee!”

We should likewise unite ourselves to God’s will when the moment of death is near. What else is this earth but a prison where we suffer and where we are in constant danger of losing God? Hence David prayed: “Bring my soul out of prison[8].” St. Teresa too feared to lose God and when she would hear the striking of the clock, she would find consolation in the thought that the passing of the hour was an hour less of the danger of losing God.

St. John of Avila was convinced that every right-minded person should desire death on account of living in peril of losing divine grace. What can be more pleasant or desirable than by dying a good death, to have the assurance of no longer being able to lose the grace of God? Perhaps you will answer that you have as yet done nothing to deserve this reward. If it were God’s will that your life should end now, what would you be doing, living on here against his will? Who knows, you might fall into sin and be lost! Even if you escaped mortal sin, you could not live free from all sin. “Why are we so tenacious of life,” exclaims St. Bernard, “when the longer we live, the more we sin[9]?” A single venial sin is more displeasing to God than all the good works we can perform.

Moreover, the person who has little desire for heaven shows he has little love for God. The true lover desires to be with his beloved. We cannot see God while we remain here on earth; hence the saints have yearned for death so that they might go and behold their beloved Lord, face to face. “Oh, that I might die and behold thy beautiful face!” sighed St. Augustine. And St. Paul: “Having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ[10].” “When shall I come and appear before the face of God[11]?” exclaimed the psalmist.

A hunter one day heard the voice of a man singing most sweetly in the forest. Following the sound, he came upon a leper horribly disfigured by the ravages of his disease. Addressing him he said: “How can you sing when you are so terribly afflicted and your death is so near at hand?” And the leper: “Friend, my poor body is a crumbling wall and it is the only thing that separates me from my God. When it falls I shall go forth to God. Time for me is indeed fast running out, so every day I show my happiness by lifting my voice in song.”

Lastly, we should unite ourselves to the will of God as regards our degree of grace and glory. True, we should esteem the things that make for the glory of God, but we should show the greatest esteem for those that concern the will of God. We should desire to love God more than the seraphs, but not to a degree higher than God has destined for us. St. John of Avila[12] says: “I believe every saint has had the desire to be higher in grace than he actually was. However, despite this, their serenity of soul always remained unruffled. Their desire for a greater degree of grace sprang not from a consideration of their own good, but of God’s. They were content with the degree of grace God had meted out for them, though actually God had given them less. They considered it a greater sign of true love of God to be content with what God had given them, than to desire to have received more.”

This means, as Rodriguez explains it, we should be diligent in striving to become perfect, so that tepidity and laziness may not serve as excuses for some to say: “God must help me; I can do only so much for myself.” Nevertheless, when we do fall into some fault, we should not lose our peace of soul and union with the will of God, which permits our fall; nor should we lose our courage. Let us rise at once from this fall, penitently humbling ourselves and by seeking greater help from God, let us continue to march resolutely on the highway of the spiritual life. Likewise, we may well desire to be among the seraphs in heaven, not for our own glory, but for God’s, and to love him more; still we should be resigned to his will and be content with that degree of glory which in his mercy he has set for us.

It would be a serious defect to desire the gifts of supernatural prayer — specifically, ecstasies, visions and revelations. The masters of the spiritual life say that souls thus favored by God, should ask him to take them away so that they may love him out of pure faith — a way of greater security. Many have come to perfection without these supernatural gifts; the only virtues worth-while are those that draw the soul to holiness of life, namely, the virtue of uniformity with God’s holy will. If God does not wish to raise us to the heights of perfection and glory, let us unite ourselves in all things to his holy will, asking him in his mercy, to grant us our soul’s salvation. If we act in this manner, the reward will not be slight which we shall receive from the hands of God who loves above all others, souls resigned to his holy will.

Uniformity With God’s Will

Saint Alphonsus de Ligouri Chapter 6 — Spiritual Desolation.

“Perfection is founded entirely on the love of God: ‘Charity is the bond of perfection;’ and perfect love of God means the complete union of our will with God’s.”

– St. Alphonsus

Translated by Thomas W. Tobin, C.SS.R

• [7] St. Greg. Dial. Bk. 3, chap. 37.[8] Ps. 141:8.

  [9] St. Bernard, Med. chap. 8.

  [10] Phil. 1:23.

  [11] Ps. 41:3.

  [12] St. John Avila. Audi fil. c. 13.

Continued…..

Palladius, the author of the “Lives of the Fathers of the Desert,” experiencing great disgust in prayer, went seeking advice from the abbot Macarius. The saintly abbot gave him this counsel: “When you are tempted in times of dryness to give up praying because you seem to be wasting your time, say: ‘Since I cannot pray, I will be satisfied just to remain on watch here in my cell for the love of Jesus Christ!’ “Devout soul, you do the same when you are tempted to give up prayer just because you seem to be getting nowhere. Say: “I am going to stay here just to please God.” St. Francis de Sales used to say that if we do nothing else but banish distractions and temptations in our prayers, the prayer is well made. Tauler states that persevering prayer in time of dryness will receive greater grace than prayer made amid great sensible devotion.

Rodriguez cites the case of a person who persevered forty years in prayer despite aridity, and experienced great spiritual strength as a result of it; on occasion, when through aridity he would omit meditation he felt spiritually weak and incapable of good deeds. St. Bonaventure and Gerson both say that persons who do not experience the recollection they would like to have in their meditations, often serve God better than they would do if they did have it; the reason is that lack of recollection keeps them more diligent and humble; otherwise they would become puffed up with spiritual pride and grow tepid, vainly believing they had reached the summit of sanctity.

What has been said of dryness holds true of temptations also. Certainly we should strive to avoid temptations; but if God wishes that we be tempted against faith, purity, or any other virtue, we should not give in to discouraging lamentations, but submit ourselves with resignation to God’s holy will. St. Paul asked to be freed from temptations to impurity and our Lord answered him, saying: “My grace is sufficient for thee[6].”

So should we act when we find ourselves victims of unrelenting temptations and God seemingly deaf to our prayers. Let us then say: “Lord, do with me, let happen to me what thou wilt; thy grace is sufficient for me. Only never let me lose this grace.” Consent to temptation, not temptation of itself, can make us lose the grace of God. Temptation resisted keeps us humble, brings us greater merit, makes us have frequent recourse to God, thus preserving us from offending him and unites us more closely to him in the bonds of his holy love.

Finally, we should be united to God’s will in regard to the time and manner of our death. One day St. Gertrude, while climbing up a small hill, lost her footing and fell into a ravine below. After her companions had come to her assistance, they asked her if while falling she had any fear of dying without the sacraments. “I earnestly hope and desire to have the benefit of the sacraments when death is at hand; still, to my way of thinking, the will of God is more important. I believe that the best disposition I could have to die a happy death would be to submit myself to whatever God would wish in my regard. For this reason I desire whatever kind of death God will be pleased to send me.”

to be continued…..

Uniformity With God’s Will

Saint Alphonsus de Ligouri Chapter 6 — Spiritual Desolation.

“Perfection is founded entirely on the love of God: ‘Charity is the bond of perfection;’ and perfect love of God means the complete union of our will with God’s.”

– St. Alphonsus

Translated by Thomas W. Tobin, C.SS.R

• [5] Eccli. 6:10.[6] 2 Cor. 12:9.

The time of spiritual desolation is also a time for being resigned. When a soul begins to cultivate the spiritual life, God usually showers his consolations upon her to wean her away from the world; but when he sees her making solid progress, he withdraws his hand to test her and to see if she will love and serve him without the reward of sensible consolations. “In this life,” as St. Teresa used to say, “our lot is not to enjoy God, but to do his holy will.” And again, “Love of God does not consist in experiencing his tendernesses, but in serving him with resolution and humility.” And in yet another place, “God’s true lovers are discovered in times of aridity and temptation.”

Let the soul thank God when she experiences his loving endearments, but let her not repine when she finds herself left in desolation. It is important to lay great stress on this point, because some souls, beginners in the spiritual life, finding themselves in spiritual aridity, think God has abandoned them, or that the spiritual life is not for them; thus they give up the practice of prayer and lose what they have previously gained. The time of aridity is the best time to practice resignation to God’s holy will. I do not say you will feel no pain in seeing yourself deprived of the sensible presence of God; it is impossible for the soul not to feel it and lament over it, when even our Lord cried out on the cross: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me[3]?” In her sufferings, however, the soul should always be resigned to God’s will.

The saints have all experienced desolations and abandonment of soul. “How impervious to things spiritual, my heart!” cries a St. Bernard. “No savor in pious reading, no pleasure in meditation nor in prayer!” For the most part it has been the common lot of the saints to encounter aridities; sensible consolations were the exceptions. Such things are rare occurrences granted to untried souls so that they may not halt on the road to sanctity; the real delights and happiness that will constitute their reward are reserved for heaven. This earth is a place of merit which is acquired by suffering; heaven is a place of reward and happiness. Hence, in this life the saints neither desired nor sought the joys of sensible fervor, but rather the fervor of the spirit toughened in the crucible of suffering. “O how much better it is,” says St. John of Avila, “to endure aridity and temptation by God’s will than to be raised to the heights of contemplation without God’s will!”

But you say you would gladly endure desolation if you were certain that it comes from God, but you are tortured by the anxiety that your desolation comes by your own fault and is a punishment for your tepidity. Very well, let us suppose you are right; then get rid of your tepidity and exercise more diligence in the affairs of your soul. But because you are possibly experiencing spiritual darkness, are you going to get all wrought up, give up prayer, and thus make things twice as bad as they are?

Let us assume that this aridity is a punishment for your tepidity. Was it not God who sent it? Accept your desolation, as your just desserts and unite yourself to God’s holy will. Did you not say that you merited hell? And now you are complaining? Perhaps you think God should send you consolations! Away with such ideas and be patient under God’s hand. Take up your prayers again and continue to walk in the way you have entered upon; for the future, fear lest such laments come from too little humility and too little resignation to the will of God. Therefore be resigned and say: “Lord, I accept this punishment from thy hands, and I accept it for as long as it pleases thee; if it be thy will that I should be thus afflicted for all eternity, I am satisfied.” Such a prayer, though hard to make, will be far more advantageous to you than the sweetest sensible consolations.

It is well to remember, however, that aridity is not always a chastisement; at times it is a disposition of divine providence for our greater spiritual profit and to keep us humble. Lest St. Paul become vain on account of the spiritual gifts he had received, the Lord permitted him to be tempted to impurity: “And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me[4].”

Prayer made amid sensible devotion is not much of an achievement: “There is a friend, a companion at the table, and he will not abide in the day of distress[5].” You would not consider the casual guest at your table a friend, but only him who assists you in your need without thought of benefit to himself. When God sends spiritual darkness and desolation, his true friends are known.

More tomorrow…

Uniformity With God’s Will

Saint Alphonsus de Ligouri Chapter 6 — Spiritual Desolation.

“Perfection is founded entirely on the love of God: ‘Charity is the bond of perfection;’ and perfect love of God means the complete union of our will with God’s.”

– St. Alphonsus

Translated by Thomas W. Tobin, C.SS.R

• [3] Matt. 27:46.

  [4] 2 Cor. 12:7.

I don’t know what I was thinking, I guess I just wasn’t!

Last night when we arrived to Mount Grace for the Novena to the Sacred Heart I did not realize it was the last night! Maybe I was just deeply hoping the novena would continue throughout the whole entire summer, maybe I was in denial, maybe I was just stupid. However, when the organ sounded the entrance hymn of Come Holy Ghost and I turned around to see the Archbishop ready to process into the chapel, I knew the jig was up. The end was here. And I had a very sad private moment and a pang in my heart at the beginning of the mass. Oh, I wish I could communicate how much I love this annual novena! And, by the way, my children do to. I think my husband will even miss going tonight!

The mass was as usual, lovely. The highlight of the evening was after mass when Archbishop Burke blessed the Pink Sister’s new outdoor statue of St. Joseph. They have renovated a side garden next to the front of the chapel to make a swirling meditative path for walking and the most lovely statue of a 30ish St. Joseph with a 2 year old Jesus on his lap. Jesus is looking up and praying to His Heavenly Father. It really is a beautiful statue to be sure.

Now, I would like to mention here that it seems I am quite “attached” to this novena. And that would probably be a good and easy assessment to make of me. I am a poor soul and I suppose I rely greatly on this chapel, these beautiful nuns and this most beautiful novena to the Sacred Heart. Who could not be inspired by their continual adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, day and night, for the good of souls! Deo Gratias! It should raise your hearts to heaven!

However, as I am studying St. John of the Cross’s Ascent of Mount Carmel I must analyze myself a bit…

Saint John of the Cross discusses in detail all forms of misplaced attachment throughout his book. In Chapter 43 of Book III he discusses “the large variety of ceremonies that many people use as another motivating means for prayer.” He also in the previous chapter talks about the “three different kinds of places, I find, by which God usually moves the will.” To be sure, I am motivated by both this chapel and the novena itself and if I did not know St. John of the Cross better, I might think that he is cautioning me and making me think I am too attached to this novena. We know that we all must endeavor to quell attachments (for the good of our souls) however, I also take to heart the goodness of devotion as John says, “God alone knows why he chooses one place in which to receive praise more than another. What we should know is that he does all for our own benefit and so he may hear our prayers in these places – or anywhere we beseech him with integral faith”

I will post some photos now, but I am already missing my very cold pink lemonade and vanilla chocolate chip cookies (which the Sister’s most kindly share with us after every mass!) I don’t know how I’ll get to sleep tonight without them!

The following prayer is prayed each night at the Pink Sister’s Novena in honor of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus…

Sacred Heart of Jesus, you revealed to St. Margaret Mary your desire to reign over Christian families. To fulfill this desire, we today proclaim your complete dominion over our family. From now on we wish to live your life, to cultivate in our home those virtues which bring us your peace, and avoid that worldliness which you have condemned. You will rule over our minds by simple faith and over our hearts by a love kept aflame by frequent Communion.

Divine Heart of Jesus, be pleased to preside over our family, to bless all we do, to dispel our troubles, sanctify our joys, lighten our sufferings. If one of us should ever offend you by sin, remind us, merciful Jesus, of your goodness and mercy to the penitent sinner. And when the hour of separation strikes, when death brings its grief into our midst, those of us who go and those of us who stay will be submissive to what you have decreed. Then it will be our consolation to remember that the day will come when our entire family, reunited in heaven, will be able to sing forever of your glory and mercy.

May the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the glorious patriarch, St. Joseph, present to you this our Consecration and keep us ever mindful of it all the days of our life. All glory to the Sacred Heat of Jesus, our King and our Father!

Photo above was taken during Prayer before the Noontime mass on Friday.