aeternus

It was my first “Latin Mass” Ash Wednesday today and I was not disappointed with the treatment of the ceremony.  In fact, I gotta say, I have a most superior and GIANT ash cross on my forehead today.  No doubt the biggest since 2nd grade when I recall having been blessed with a rather large thumb of our parish priest.

All silliness aside, the mass was beautiful.  I so very much loved the ceremony of the Blessing of the Ashes and it really makes a soul recollect itself to hear the prayer:

“Grant us, Lord, the grace to begin the Christian’s war of defence with holy fasts; that as we do battle with the spirits of evil, we may be protected by the help of self-denial….

Grant, O Lord, to Thy faithful people, that they may undertake with fitting piety this period of fasting, and complete it with steadfast devotion.”

It is good and fitting to be reminded that our souls are always at war.  We battle each day against the unseen enemy who “prowls around the world seeking our ruin”.  Certainly the “evil team” causes some great giant harms in this world but think of all the “little” harms that team can cause in our own small daily existences.  

Let us spend this time of preparation for His ultimate sacrifice by scrutinizing our own weaknesses and securing our own fortresses.  Let us learn to “block and shield” the advancement of the encroaching enemy and his sly ways.  In our soul’s we need to be like little unseen superheros ducking punches and throwing back a few kicks and backhands when we are attacked!  That’s not to say its easy, but we need to try.  I believe our merciful Lord will give us all the graces we need to succeed!

I hope that after these 40 days are through, we may offer a sacrifice of our own which through its own difficult battle and trial is worthy to be joined with His most perfect one.  It may not be a “grand sacrifice” in the scheme of things, but let it humbly serve as an offering of our great love.

Hey, don’t forget to stop on by that cool new website, Catholic Desktops to get a free copy of the Ash Wednesday Icon!

Prayer in sickness…

O Jesus, You suffered and died for us;
You understand suffering;
Teach me to understand my usffering as You do;
To bear it in union with You;
To offer it with You to atone for my sins
And to bring Your grace to souls in need.
Calm my fears;
increase my trust.

May I gladly accept Your holy will and
become more like You in trial.
If it be Your will, restore me to health so that
I may work for Your honor and glory and
the salvation of all men.

Amen.

Mary, help of sick, pray for me.

—–

Prayer for the Sick

Dear Jesus, Divine Physician and Healer of the sick,
we turn to You in this time of illness. O dearest
Comforter of the Troubled, alleviate our worry and
sorry with Your gentle love, and grant us the grace
and strength to accept this burden. Dear God, we
place our worries in Your hands. We place our
sick under Your care and humbly ask that You restore
Your servant to health again. Above all, grant
us the grace to acknowledge Your holy will and know
that whatsoever You do, You do for the love of us.

Amen.

A mosaic from the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis pictures a bisop giving holy communion to a sick woman. (I am sure this is a particular bishop, I just am not sure which one!)

The Archdiocese of Saint Louis is pleased to announce that you can be one of the first to know the name of the next Archbishop of Saint Louis, when he is announced! To do so, all you need to do is use the SMS text message signup form, which is linked to on the front page of www.archstl.org on the right sidebar (just over to the right, under the quick links). Click on the link and enter your first name and mobile phone number, and you’ll get a text message as soon as the announcement is made, with the Archbishop’s name and more information!

From the 1962 Roman Missal…

Remember, Christian soul, that thou hast this day, and every day of thy life:

God to glorify,

Jesus to imitate,

The Angels and Saints to invoke.

A soul to save,

A body to mortify,

Sins to expiate,

Virtues to acquire,

Hell to avoid,

Heaven to gain,

Eternity to prepare for,

Tie to profit by.

Neighbours to edify,

The world to despise,

Devils to combat,

Passions to subdue,

Death perhaps to suffer,

Judgment to undergo.

… if the soul in its interior acts is to be moved by God divinely, it must be obscured, put to sleep, and pacified in regard to its natural ability and operations until these lose their strength.

Oh, then, spiritual soul, when you see your appetites darkened, your inclinations dry and constrained, your faculties incapacitated for any interior exercise, do not be afflicted; think of this as a grace, since God is freeing you from yourself and taking from you your own activity. However well your actions may have succeeded, you did not work so completely, perfectly, and securely – because of their impurity and awkwardness – as you do now that God takes you by the hand and guides you in darkness, as though you were blind, along a way and to a place you know not. You would never have succeeded in reaching this place no matter how good your eyes and your feet.

To reach a new and unknown land and journey along unknown roads, travelers cannot be guided by their own knowledge; instead, they have doubts about their own knowledge and seek the guidance of others. Obviously they cannot reach new territory or attain this added knowledge if they do not take these new and unknown roads and abandon those familiar ones. Similarly, people learning new details about their art or trade must work in darkness and not with what they already know. If they refuse to lay aside their former knowledge, they will never make any further progress. The soul, too, when it advances, walks in darkness and unknowing.”

– St. John of the Cross – Dark Night of the Soul  Book II Chapter XVI

(photo of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis taken during a glorious bit of sunset light)

I always find such comfort from the words of someone filled with wisdom from the Holy Spirit (even if the words do not pertain to me at this time and place).  I appreciated reading these words today.  It is a short letter from St. Francis de Sales to a woman who’s little soul was filled with disquiet…

“Doubtless you would be able to explain yourself much better verbally than in writing, but till such time as God enables you to do so, we must use such means as are available. All this heaviness and languid dulness cannot exist without depressing you, but so long as your mind and will are firmly resolved to serve God, you need not fear. Such troubles arise from natural imperfection, and are rather diseases than sin, or spiritual faults. All the same you must rouse yourself, and strive to be as brave and as vigorous as you can possibly be.

Yes indeed, my daughter, death is a very hideous thing, but the life beyond it, which God of His Mercy  gives us, is yet more precious, and we must not be afraid ; for wretched as we are, His Mercy is far greater than our weakness, and He has promised it to those who seek to love Him, and whose hope is in Him. When Cardinal Borromeo was at the point of death, he asked for a picture of the Dead Christ, that the sting of death might be taken away in remembering how Christ died for him. The best remedy against your fear of death is meditation oh Him Who  is our life : never think of one without going on to think of the other. My dear child, do not scrutinize so closely whether you are doing much or little, ill or well, so long as what you do is not sinful, and that you are heartily seeking to do everything for God. Try as far as you can to do everything well, but when it is done do not think about it ; try rather to think of what is to be done next. Go on simply in the Lord’s way, and do not torment yourself. We ought to hate  our faults, but with a quiet, calm hatred, hot pettishly and anxiously. We must learn to look patiently at them, and win through them the grace of self-abnegation and humility. For want of this, my child, and through looking at your imperfections in an unreal way, they become more subtle, and do but increase upon you. Nothing so causes our tares to prosper as disquietude and impetuosity in striving to uproot them. There is a great temptation to be disgusted at the world, when we are constrained to dwell in it ; but God’s Providence is wiser than we are. We fancy that if we changed our position, we should do better : possibly, if we changed ourselves. But I am a stedfast foe to all such useless, dangerous, evil desires: even when what we wish for is good in itself, the  desire is evil, since God denies us that particular good  thing, and chooses rather to prove Us in some other  way. He wills to speak to us as to Moses, from a  burning bush, and we would fain hear Him in a  still small Voice, as when He spoke to the Prophet Elijah. May His Goodness ever keep you, my child;  be only constant and courageous, and rejoice in that  He has given you the will to be wholly His.

In Him I am, yours…”

– To a married lady on quietness of mind.  A letter from St. Francis de Sales.

Short Method of Meditation: The Presence of God, which is the first point of the preparation.

“I shall begin with the preparation, which consists in placing yourself in the presence of God, and in imploring his assistance. Now, to assist you to place yourself in the presence of God, I shall set before you four principal means.

The first consists of a lively and attentive comprehension that He is present in all things and in all places: for there is neither place nor thing in the world in which He is not most truly present, so that, as birds, wheresoever they fly, always meet with the air, so we. wheresoever we go or happen to be, always find God
sent in every part thereof, and yet resides in a special manner in the heart, so likewise God, being present to all things, yet He resides in a more particular manner in our soul, for which reason David calls him “the God of his heart.” (Ps. Ixxii.) And St. Paul says that it is in God ” we live, and move, and have our being.” (Acts, xvii.) In consideration, therefore, of this truth, excite in your heart a profound reverence for God, who is there BO intimately present.

A third means is to consider our Saviour in his humanity, looking down from heaven on all mankind, but especially on Christians, who are his children, and more particularly on such as are at prayer, whose good and bad actions He minutely observes. This is by no means a mere flight of the imagination, but a most certain truth; for, although we see Him not, yet He beholds us from above. It was thus that St. Stephen saw Him at the time of his martyrdom. So that we may truly say with the Spouse (Cantic. ii.), “Behold! He stands behind our wall, looking through the windows — looking through the lattice.”

A fourth method consists in imagining to ourselves that Jesus Christ is, in his sacred humanity, just at hand, as we sometimes imagine some friend to be present, saying. “It seems as if I saw him, or someone very like him.” But if the Blessed Sacrament be present, then his presence would be actual and not imaginary ; since we must consider the species and appearance of bread only as a tapestry, behind which our Lord, being really present, observes us, though we cannot actually see Him. Use, then, some of these four means of placing yourself in the presence of God before prayer, not all ? once, but one at a time, in as concise and simple manner as possible.

Invocation, the second point of the Preparation. Being sensible that you are in the presence of God, prostrate yourself with the most profound reverence, acknowledging yourself unworthy to appear before so sovereign a Majesty ; yet, knowing that his goodness so wills it, humbly beg the grace to
serve and worship Him in this meditation. To this end you may use these short and inflamed words of David : ” Cast me not, O God, away from thy face, and take not thy holy spirit from me. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant, and I will consider the wondrous things of thy law. Give me understanding, and I will search out thy law, and I will keep it with all my heart. I am thy servant ; give me understanding.” (Ps. cxvii.) It would also be advisable to invoke your guardian angel, as well as the saints who had some part in the mysteries on which you meditate; as, for example, in meditating on the death of our Lord, you may invoke our Biassed Lady, St. John, St. Mary Magdalen, and other saints, begging that the inward affections and emotions which they at that time conceived, may be communicated to you. Also, in meditating on your own death, you may invoke your good angel, who will then be present with you, beseeching him to inspire you with proper considerations; and so of other mysteries ”

– Saint François de Sales
An introduction to the Devout Life

I don’t really like to mix “business with pleasure” but when they both come together in a fun way, I guess I’ll slightly break the rule…  So, please consider this announcement as coming from an anonymous third party (and not from the EXTREMELY shy soul who writes this aeternus blog!)

Here is the story…

On Monday, which was the feast of the Presentation of the Baby Jesus in the Temple, a new website (designed especially to promote Catholic devotion in a Web 2.0 World) was launched.

(I think perhaps the developers of this site may have chosen this date in particular as they prayed it would be their own humble offering to our Lord.)

The new website, Catholic Desktops endeavors to ignite some Catholic enthusiasm and devotion onto your computer’s desktop. Catholic Desktops wants to help inspire your daily computer life by providing it with fun, cool and faithful computer icons, web templates and iPhone wallpapers.

The icons were developed by a (extremely shy)Catholic Mother, who noticed a lack of things fun and totally Catholic on her computer screen.  She said:

“I have a rosary, holy cards and a big picture of the Sacred Heart on my desk, but there was nothing but software icons staring at me from my computer screen. One day I made a few desktop icons for my friends and myself to share and they were a hit. After some further inspiration and a lot of prayer, we decided to share these fun graphics with the rest of the world through Catholic Desktops.”

The goal of Catholic Desktops is to inspire folks in their own daily devotional life, hopefully inspire vocations and to let Catholics show they can be kinda cool!

The website offers icons of Saints, monastic religious and the Holy Father himself! There are wallpapers for your iPhone which encourage you to “stop, breathe and pray” before you answer a call.  The developerof the site said,  ”I pray the little icons on your computer screen will cause you to stop a minute during your busy day so you can recollect yourself in prayer and thanksgiving (even if it is only a moments bit of silence). In the process…I hope it adds a little fun to your computer life!”

About Catholic Desktops

Developed by aeternus design services, Catholic Desktops is an online source for 2.0 Catholic web life. The site features computer desktop icons, website templates and free iPhone wallpaper as well as internet graphics and website design services.

** So much for anonymity… the icon above was made especially for this blogger from the designer at the Catholic Desktops website.  Now you can have an idea of what this shy blogger actually looks like.  Wow, is her hair crazy or what!

Here is a great bit of loving Fatherly advice from St. Albert the Great.  ”He was known as the “teacher of everything there is to know,” was a scientist long before the age of science, was considered a wizard and magician in his own lifetime, and became the teacher and mentor of that other remarkable mind of his time, St. Thomas Aquinas.”

What a wonderful bit of spiritual (and mental!) advice is shared from him here:

“While we should strive for spiritual perfection of mind, purity and peace in God, it will be found to be not a little beneficial to this that we should return quietly into the inner secret place of the mind in the face of everything said, thought or done to us. There, withdrawn from everything else and completely recollected within ourselves, we can place ourselves in the knowledge of the truth before us and undoubtedly discover and understand that it does us absolutely no good, and rather the contrary, when we are praised or honoured by others while we recognise by the knowledge of the truth about ourselves within that we are blameworthy and guilty.

And just as nothing is any help if externally people praise someone if his conscience internally accuses him, in the same way on the contrary it does a man no harm to be despised, maligned and persecuted when he remains internally just as innocent, blameless and without fault. On the contrary he has all the more good reason to rejoice in the Lord with patience, in peace and silence. After all no adversity can do any harm where evil is not in control, and just as no evil goes unpunished, so no good goes unrewarded. Nor should we wish a reward with hypocrites or expect and receive profit from men, but from the Lord God alone, not in the present, but in the future, and not in fleeting time, but in eternity.

It is clear therefore that nothing is greater, and nothing better than to enter into the inner secret place of the mind always and in every tribulation and occurrence, and there to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ himself, our helper in temptations and tribulations, and to humble ourselves there by confession of sin, and praise God and Father himself, the giver of correction and the giver of consolation.

Above all one should accept everything, in general and individually, in oneself or in others, agreeable or disagreeable, with a prompt and confident spirit, as coming from the hand of his infallible Providence or the order he has arranged. This attitude will lead to the forgiveness of our sins, the deliverance from bitterness, the enjoyment of joy and security, the outpouring of grace and mercy, introduction and establishment into a close relationship with God, abundant enjoyment of his presence, and firm cleaving and union with him.

But let us not copy those who from hypocrisy and Pharisaism want to appear better and different from what they are, and to make a better impression and appearance before men of being something special, than they know in truth inside to be so. For it is absolute madness to seek, hunger for and aspire to human praise or renown, from oneself or others, when one is in spite of it all inwardly full of cravings and serious faults. And certainly the good things we have talked about above will flee him who chases such vanities, and he will merely bring disgrace on himself.

So always keep your faults and your own incapacity before your eyes, and know yourself, so that you can be humbled and not try to avoid being held as the lowest, vilest and most abject scum by everyone when you are aware of the grave sins and serious faults in yourself. For which reason consider yourself compared to others as dross to gold, weeds to the wheat, chaff to the grain, a wolf to the sheep, Satan to the children of God. And do not seek to be respected by others and given precedence before others, but rather flee with all your heart and soul the poison of this disease, the venom of praise, the concern for boasting and vanity, lest, as the prophet says, The wicked is praised in his own heart’s desires, (Psalm 10.4) and Isaiah, They who speak good of you, deceive you and destroy the way of your feet, (Isaiah 3.12) and the Lord in Luke, Woe to you when men speak well of you! (Luke 6.26).”

On Cleaving to God by St. Albert the Great (1193-1280)

photo above from St. Agatha’s Church in St. Louis

“This feast is called Candlemas, and is made in remembrance of the offering that our Lady offered in the temple as said is, and every each bears this day a candle of wax burning, which represents our Lord Jesus Christ. Like as the candle burning hath three things in it, that is to wit, the wax, the wick, and the fire, right so be three things in Jesus Christ, that is the body, the soul and the godhead. For the wax which is made of the bee purely, without company and mixture of one bee with another, signifies the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the fire of the candle signifies the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, which illumines all creatures. And therefore if we will appear in this feast before the face of God, pure and clean and acceptable, we ought to have in us three things which be signified by the candle burning: that is good deeds, true faith, with good works. And like as the candle without burning is dead, right so faith is dead without works as Saint James said, for to believe in God without obeying his commandments profits nothing. And therefore said Saint Gregory: The good work ought to show without that thy intention abide good within the heart, without seeking within any vain glory to be allowed and praised. And by the fire is understood charity, of which God saith: I am come to put fire in the earth, and whom I I will, I will burn.

This feast is called the purification of our Lady, not for that she had need not ought make her purification, for she was pure and clean without having of any stain of deadly sin nor venial, like as she that had, without company of any man, by the virtue of the Holy Ghost, conceived the Son of God, and was delivered without losing of her virginity, so she came with her blessed son at the fortieth day after his nativity for to obey the commandment of the law, after the manner of other women which had need of purification, and also for to show to us the example of humility.

Jacobus de Voragine  -  (1230-1298 Church writer and archbishop)

Golden Legend, vol. 3