Monday, November 26, 2007

The Need of a Good Courage

HOWEVER much we may admire and crave for light, it is apt to dazzle our eyes when they have been long accustomed to darkness; and on first visiting a foreign country, we are sure to feel strange among its inhabitants, however kindly or courteous they may be. Even so, my child, your changed life may be attended with some inward discomfort, and you may feel some reaction of discouragement and weariness after you have taken a final farewell of the world and its follies. Should it be so, I pray you take it patiently, for it will not last,—it is merely the disturbance caused by novelty; and when it is gone by, you will abound in consolations. At first you may suffer somewhat under the loss what you enjoyed among your vain, frivolous companions; but would you forfeit the eternal gifts of God for such things as these? The empty amusements which have engrossed you hitherto may rise up attractively before your imagination, and strive to win you back to rest in them; but are you bold enough to give up a blessed eternity for such deceitful snares? Believe me, if you will but persevere you will not fail to enjoy a sweetness so real and satisfying, that you will be constrained to confess that the world has only gall to give as compared with this honey, and that one single day of devotion is worth more than a thousand years of worldly life.

But you see before you the mountain of Christian perfection, which is very high, and you exclaim in fearfulness that you can never ascend it. Be of good cheer, my child. When the young bees first begin to live they are mere grubs, unable to hover over flowers, or to fly to the mountains, or even to the little hills where they might gather honey; but they are fed for a time with the honey laid up by their predecessors, and by degrees the grubs put forth their wings and grow strong, until they fly abroad and gather their harvest from all the country round. Now we are yet but as grubs in devotion, unable to fly at will, and attain the desired aim of Christian perfection; but if we begin to take shape through our desires and resolutions, our wings will gradually grow, and we may hope one day to become spiritual bees, able to fly. Meanwhile let us feed upon the honey left us in the teaching of so many holy men of old, praying God that He would grant us doves’ wings, so that we may not only fly during this life, but find an abiding resting-place in Eternity.

- Introduction to the Devout Life: Part IV, Chapter II
St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)

Having a Humble Opinion of Self

EVERY man naturally desires knowledge; but what good is knowledge without fear of God?

Indeed a humble rustic who serves God is better than a proud intellectual who neglects his soul to study the course of the stars. He who knows himself well becomes mean in his own eyes and is not happy when praised by men. If I knew all things in the world and had not charity, what would it profit me before God Who will judge me by my deeds?

Shun too great a desire for knowledge, for in it there is much fretting and delusion. Intellectuals
like to appear learned and to be called wise. Yet there are many things the knowledge of which does little or no good to the soul, and he who concerns himself about other things than those which lead to salvation is very unwise.

Many words do not satisfy the soul; but a good life eases the mind and a clean conscience inspires great trust in God.

The more you know and the better you understand, the more severely will you be judged, unless your life is also the more holy. Do not be proud, therefore, because of your learning or skill. Rather, fear because of the talent given you. If you think you know many things and understand them well enough, realize at the same time that there is much you do not know. Hence, do not affect wisdom, but admit your ignorance. Why prefer yourself to anyone else when many are more learned, more cultured than you?

If you wish to learn and appreciate something worth while, then love to be unknown and considered as nothing. Truly to know and despise self is the best and most perfect counsel. To think of oneself as nothing, and always to think well and highly of others is the best and most perfect wisdom. Wherefore, if you see another sin openly or commit a serious crime, do not consider yourself better, for you do not know how long you can remain in good estate. All men are frail, but you must admit that none is more frail than yourself.

- Imitation of Christ: Book I, Chapter II
Thomas a Kempis (c. 1380-1471)

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

When we've been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

- John Newton (1725-1807)

Friday, November 23, 2007

Anne's Hope for Humanity

"Qui Tacet Consentire" - "Who is Silent Gives Consent".

Anne's Hope for Humanity

1. All about the Jewish diarist and Holocaust martyr, Annelies Marie Frank aka Anne Frank (June 12, 1929 - March 1945), and the lessons learned from her short but meaningful life in this world.

2. In general, how to apply these lessons learned to enrich the human spirit and advance the cause of peace and goodwill for all mankind.

3. In specific, the practical education of all succeeding younger generations on the evil of war and hatred and the underlying forces of social prejudice that work to corrupt the human spirit and propel man to commit inhuman acts.

4. Our core belief embraces the Judeo-Christian doctrine of the intrinsic ascendancy of the good, both individual and common; that Almighty God created all things, seen and unseen, and that God saw all things He created as good.

5. Therefore, we shall learn to quickly recognize the innate inferiority of evil systems and evil acts knowing that the reality of evil ultimately depends on the existence of the good, most especially of the one absolute Good, Almighty God Himself.

6. Thus, the voice of our disagreement over evil systems and evil acts will be brought to effect firstly by our relentless refusal to accept hopelessness and despair, complete in our confidence in the superiority of good over evil; that God Himself is good and that good human acts, great and small, hidden or open, alone or with others, direct or indirect, work to quietly undermine and ultimately overpower evil things in general.

7. Henceforth, we will place great emphasis during our teaching on the unity of the intellectual agreements regarding what constitutes the good, both individual and common, and on how we may advance the cause of good things, grerat and small.

8. To sum, we will examine and define completely what is evil, within and without, not to come into direct, hostile confrontation with it but to cast it out completely.

9. We shall work to quickly recognize evil acts and evil systems, within and without, not because there is much evil within and around us but so that we may humbly stand apart and with good courage move away from it.

10. We shall put much of our effort into knowing and doing what is good not to be distinguished as either good or holy, provided that we do as much as we can to be good and holy, but because we have come to believe in the good of all that is true in God's creation.

11. We shall spend all our energies promoting, advancing and fulfilling all that is good, within and without, great or small, whether it be individual or common, because we have come to a personal knowledge of the transcendental unity of all that is good and beautiful; of all that is noble and true in all things God created; and that we have come to a possession of a faith in the one absolute and infinite Truth that transcends all things, seen and unseen, of a universal God that is one, simple, good, beautiful, holy and true.

12. Lastly, this group shall be open to all who come to share in the truth of the personal belief of our beloved Annelies Marie Frank (Anne Frank) that in spite of it all, people are really good at heart - and that you are one of these people.

13. We will all adapt as our motto: "Qui Tacet Consentire" - "Who is Silent Gives Consent".

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Quo Vadis, Domine?

During the reign of the emperor Nero, St. Peter was leaving Rome along the Appian Way (Via Appia Antica) when he encountered Christ carrying his cross in the opposite direction (toward Rome). St. Peter said to Our Lord, "quo vadis, Domine?" -- that is -- "whither goest thou, O Lord?" To which Jesus responded, "I am going to Rome to be crucified." To which St. Peter responded: "Lord, wast Thou not crucified once for all." Our Lord responded, "I saw thee fleeing from death, and I wish to be crucified instead of thee." Peter responded: "Lord, I go; I fulfil Thy command". Jesus then said to him, "Fear not, for I am with thee." At that, St. Peter turned back toward Rome, where he eventually received the crown of martyrdom.

- Apochryphal Acts of Peter and Paul

"Quo Vadis, Domine?" - "Where are You going, Lord?"

I've been asking this question deep inside of me for some time now as I try to discern my own place, my own particular calling within this great family of God, our Holy Mother Church.

"O Lord, in Your wisdom, You have given me a million good reasons why I should serve You and just as many ways for me to serve You. In Your mercy, my God, You have also made it clear to my heart that there is but one reason not to serve You and that there is but one way for me not to serve You."

It's four days before I turn 35.

And my most loving Jesus' will for me can be summed up in just one word:

"Accept", my blessed Savior says to me, "accept the life you are meant to live in Me, through Me, with Me and for Me".

"And fear not, beloved, for I am with thee -- even unto the end of the age."

Friday, November 16, 2007

Desiderata

"I have known this poem since high school. It is a poem about life. At the time, I liked it so much that I memorized it. I still remember most of it today."

Go placidly --
amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career,
however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantmentit is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

- Max Ehrmann, Copyright 1952.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

On Friendship

And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship."

Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.
When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.
And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

The Prophet - Chapter XIX
- Khalil Gibran

On Children

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."

And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

The Prophet - Chapter IV
- Khalil Gibran

On Marriage

Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?"

And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

The Prophet, Chapter III
- Khalil Gibran

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Excerpts from the Diary of Anne Frank

On her Diary -

"Hence, this diary. In order to enhance in my mind's eye the picture of the friend for whom I have waited so long, I don't want to set down a series of bald facts in a diary like most people do, but I want this diary itself to be my friend, and I shall call my friend, Kitty.

June 20, 1942

On her faith in Humanity -

"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."

July 15, 1944

On Friendship -

"I want friends, not admirers. People who respect me for my character and my deeds, not my flattering smile. The circle around me would be much smaller, but what does that matter, as long as they're sincere?"

March 7, 1944

On her Hopes -

"It’s utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more."

July 15, 1944

"I've reached the point where I hardly care whether I live or die. The world will keep on turning without me, and I can't do anything to change events anyway. I'll just let matters take their course and concentrate on studying and hope that everything will be all right in the end."

February 3, 1944

"If God lets me live, I shall attain more than Mummy ever has done, I shall not remain insignificant, I shall work in the world and for mankind!"

April 11, 1944

"I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore, I am grateful to God for giving me this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me."

April 4, 1944

"In the meantime, I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out."

July 15, 1944

On her Despair -

"...but the minute I was alone I knew I was going to cry my eyes out. I slid to the floor in my nightgown and began by saying my prayers, very fervently. Then I drew my knees to my chest, lay my head on my arms and cried, all huddled up on the bare floor. A loud sob brought me back down to earth..."

April 5, 1944

On Happiness -

"Riches can be lost, but that happiness in your own heart can only be veiled, and it will still bring you happiness again, as long as you live. As long as you can look fearlessly up into the heavens, as long as you know that you are pure within, and that you will still find happiness."

February 23, 1944

On Holland -

"I love Holland. I who, having no native country, had hoped that it might become my fatherland, and I still hope it will!"

May 22, 1944

On Religion -

"Poor boy, he's never known what it feels like to make other people happy, and I can't teach him that either. He has no religion, scoffs at Jesus Christ, and swears using the name of God; although I am not orthodox either, it hurst me every time I see how deserted, how poor he really is."

July 6, 1944

"To give me something new to begin with as well, Daddy asked Koophuis for a children's Bible so I could find out something about the New Testament at last."

November 3, 1943

"People who have a religion should be glad, for not everyone has the gift of believing in heavenly things."

July 6, 1944

The Angels

The creatures most like God, the angels, show forth best the goodness, the majesty, the glory of God; these are His most perfect images, and so the ones to be multiplied with divine extravagance. Heaven and earth are indeed full of His glory. Because the angels are bodiless creatures, pure spirits, it is too often concluded that they are supernatural beings; they are not, God is the only supernatural being. The angels are natural beings. They belong in, and, indeed, dominate our world. They are creatures as natural as oaks, or sunsets, or birds, or men. To call them supernatural because they are not like ourselves is part of that provincial pride by which a man puts human nature at the peak of the universe, primarily because he himself is a man.

Once created, the angels live forever, depending as we do, on the steady support of the hand of God but on nothing else. All the things that pertain to us because we have bodies have no place in the angelic world: growth, nourishment, sickness, pain, the decline of old age, and ultimately death. They are so much more like God than we are that their whole being reflects something of the divine eternity, immortality, independence. Angels are neither old or young, sick or healthy, men or women, infants or ancients, tall or short, fat or thin, they are the bright flames of life, unflickering, unfading, indestructible flames that are fed by nothing but God.

The princely dignity of Gabriel standing before Our Lady, the easy competence of Raphael protecting the young Tobias, the majesty of Michael with his flaming sword guarding the gates of a lost paradise gives us some little vision of the nobility of the angels. We are in danger of blinding ourselves to that vision if we forget that these angels were stooping to our limitations, bowing to our penchant for thinking in pictures; thoughtful angels who delight us as a mother delights her infant by imitating it’s gurgling and chuckling. This is not a mother’s normal speech; nor is this the angel’s normal appearance.

Angels were not made to give life to bodies as were our human souls. The bodies in which they have appeared from time to time among us were the appearances of bodies taken for our comfort; not real, but apparent that we might the more easily accept the angel, his message, his companionship. None of the things that are proper to living bodies could be accomplished by these apparent bodies of angels: they could not digest a meal, beget children, become tired, or wake refreshed from sleep. For us to lose our bodies is a tragic thing called death; the body belongs to our integrity, without it we are not men and women but disembodies souls, we are only half ourselves. It is hard for us not to feel a little sorry for the angel’s lack of bodies, forgetting that if the impossible thing had happened and an angel had a real body, it would not be benefited but debased by that fact. It’s completely spiritual nature in it’s independence and power has no need of a body. It can get far more done than any strong man, indeed than any material force. It is free from the barriers that the physical inevitably imposes on our knowledge and our love: free from the sluggishness, fatigue and distraction that makes our lifetime harvest of truth so skimpy; free from the frustration inherent in all our loving gestures of union, of all the feeble faith that supports our love, of all the helplessness that is our love’s bitterest fruit.

Not even a child is puzzled about how an angel gets it’s clothes on over such huge wings; for it is clear to everyone that the wings we give to angels are a symbol and nothing more. The swift flight of a bird contrasted with the trudging step of a man is a fitting symbol of smooth, untrammeled, rapid movement, and so the centuries-old expression of the celerity of angelic passage. In our own times, we might appeal to the soundless swoop of a diving jet plane to help our stumbling minds to follow the flight of an angel; we would come closer to reality by following with a flick of an eye the almost instantaneous thrust of lightning. We have the most accurate measurement of that angelic progress in the same time it takes our own minds to jump from city to city, across oceans, over five, ten, or fifty years; for it is thus that an angel moves.

In our thinking about the angels, we must draw much more on our knowledge of God than our knowledge of men, for the angels are finite pure spirits modeled on the infinite Pure Spirit. We do not locate God by surrounding Him, He is not contained within the easily discerned outlines of a body, a town, a country; He is where He works, and so is everywhere, for nothing can continue to be unless it is supported by His omnipotence. Nor can we locate an angel by surrounding it; it, too, is a pure spirit. To ask where an angel is means to ask where it is working; only thus is an angel in place. Obviously no place can be too small for an angel, no place too big, no place too distant; for with the angels, it is not a question of squeezing a body into uncomfortable quarters, of spreading it’s arms wide to cover more territory, or of easing it out of a town quietly. No angel is everywhere, for no angel is God, no angel is omnipotent; but neither is an angel human, to be circumscribed by the length of it’s arms or the horizons of it’s eyes. It is pure spirit, to be limited in place only by the degree of the power and perfection proper to the nature given it by God.

About ourselves, the angels know all there is to be known from the post of an observer who needs no relief, misses nothing, forgets nothing. Beyond that, the angels, all of them, easily penetrate into the regions of our imagination and memory, areas about which the human observer can only guess; which means that our daydreams are not purely private affairs, they are shared by the whole of the angelic world, our sentimental journeys into the dear days of long ago are never solitary trips. We are not nearly so much alone as we imagine, whatever the hour or the place. In relation to the friendly angels, this is to our infinite comfort, and often enough to our acute embarrassment; while it brings home clearly our weak defenses against the hostile horde of devils, the help we unwittingly and constantly give to our bitter enemies, and our own desperate need for help from powers on a par with these enemies who so completely outmatch us.

The angels can introduce pictures into our imagination, they can reach into the storehouse of memory and parade the past before our mind’s eye; but there the great natural powers of the angelic world grind to a halt before the impregnable sovereignty of our intellect and our will. Not even the highest of the angels knows what a man is going to do next; the most gifted of angels cannot know what I am thinking at this moment. In this privacy of soul, we are equals of the angels; this territory is inviolable to all but almighty God Himself. Such is the stature of man’s dignity. We are spiritual as well as physical; we are free; our intellect and our will are not to be tampered with by any created force. So our thoughts, our deliberate desires, our loves are our own; for them we ourselves must take full credit or full blame. The angels can suggest through imagination and memory, they can coax, entice, threaten, or frighten through these avenues of our sense nature; but we are the ultimate masters in command of our lives.

Some of them are friendly with that staunch friendship that endures, even heightens, throughout our weaknesses, our failures, our pettiness, our positive malice; so friendly as to be on guard for us twenty-four hours a day. It is good to know the power of such friends, good for our courage, for our hopes, for our loneliness, for our self-respect. Other angels are relentlessly hostile, fired with a hate we did nothing to generate and which we can not dissipate by apology or appeasement. They will stop at nothing less than our total destruction, and even that will not satisfy but rather intensify their hate. In sheer self-defense, we can not disregard the information possessed by such an enemy.

That a mere man, the lowest of the intellectual creatures and so far beneath the devils in natural gifts, should, by the grace of God, go beyond the limits of nature to eternal life in the home of God is galling to the devil and a constant prod to his envy. That this particular soul should reach such heights triumphing over Satan’s diabolic genius is a bitter humiliation and added fuel to the fire of his hatred of God. Both that envy and hatred are fed by the devil’s disgust with the sins of men. True, he knows that he is guilty of all the sins he induces men to commit; but that guilt is a far cry from any affection for the things that so easily enslave a man. A man surrendering to the allure or violence of passion, immersing himself in the world of sense, playing the slave to things designed to serve him – all this is revolting to the devil’s purely spiritual nature even when he is playing the principal part in bringing about such a degradation of a man. His utter disgust with the depths to which man can sink is still more reason for his envy that such creatures can still aspire to heaven while Satan himself must grovel eternally in hell.

My Way of Life
- Confraternity of the Precious Blood

Saturday, November 10, 2007

The Interior Life: Humility

BE NOT troubled about those who are with you or against you, but take care that God be with you in everything you do. Keep your conscience clear and God will protect you, for the malice of man cannot harm one whom God wishes to help. If you know how to suffer in silence, you will undoubtedly experience God's help. He knows when and how to deliver you; therefore, place yourself in His hands, for it is a divine prerogative to help men and free them from all distress.

It is often good for us to have others know our faults and rebuke them, for it gives us greater humility. When a man humbles himself because of his faults, he easily placates those about him and readily appeases those who are angry with him.

It is the humble man whom God protects and liberates; it is the humble whom He loves and consoles. To the humble He turns and upon them bestows great grace, that after their humiliation He may raise them up to glory. He reveals His secrets to the humble, and with kind invitation bids them come to Him. Thus, the humble man enjoys peace in the midst of many vexations, because his trust is in God, not in the world. Hence, you must not think that you have made any progress until you look upon yourself as inferior to all others.

The Imitation of Christ,
Book Two - The Second Chapter
- Thomas à Kempis

Friday, November 09, 2007

God Alone

God alone! God alone!
In your courts, O my Lord, is my home!
You are my treasure, my portion,
delight of my soul!
My life, my salvation, my fortress,
my God and my All!
O my soul, claim nothing as your own!
For you, there is God,
and God alone!

- John Keating

Litany of Humility

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being honored, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being humiliated, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, deliver me, Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That in the opinion of the world, others may increase, and I may decrease, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be praised and I unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, Jesus grant me the grace to desire it.

- Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Dominican Spirituality and the Laity in the Third Christian Millenium

The Charism of our Holy Father Dominic --

To anyone wishing to open self to the influence of the Holy Spirit in the Dominican way, we say: "Be loving of God and neighbor, live together in peace and harmony, proclaim the Word of God, be apostolic, be poor, be chaste, be obedient, pray liturgically and privately, study God's Word, seek truth, contemplate and give the fruits of contemplation to others, be faithful to all the elements of this way of life."

To all the Lay faithful of the Third Christian Millenium --

"Duc in altum" : "Launch out into the deep!" - Luke 5:4

Peace be upon you, O beloved of our Lord, and salutations of peace and goodwill to all Christian souls:

Let us prepare ourselves, my dear brothers and sisters, and together in God, our Father, even as good children of our Holy Mother Church, in the unity of the Holy Spirit and in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord, to launch out and penetrate deeply into this world we live in.

Vatican II and the Social Mission of the Laity --

1. Articulate the faith of the Roman Catholic Church:

To strive ceaselessly to hear ever more clearly God's Word, the Gospel of Jesus Christ,taking that Word to heart and shaping one's life according to it.

To speak about the faith and even instruct, strengthen, and motivate others, not only non-believers, but fellow Christians as well and to manifest Christ's message by words and deeds and to communicate His grace to the world.

To lead others - not only non-believers but fellow Christians - to a deeper faith, not simply by our words but also by our deeds, making the Gospel known and more holy through the witness of an exemplary life.

2. Be appreciative of all God's creation:

To learn the deepest meaning and value of all creation, and how to relate it to the praise of God.

To be appreciative of our own humanity and the mysteries of being human: the body, feeling, emotion, love, sex, work, play, community celebration, art, science, the aspirations of the human mind and the longings of the human heart.

To work to see that created goods are more fittingly distributed among men and women and in our own way lead to general progress in human and Christian liberty.

To establish firmly in our hearts the kingdom of God wherein all creation itself will be delivered out of the slavery to corruption and into the freedom of the sons and daughters of God.

3. Be zealous in building a better world for all men, women, and children:

To struggle to free ourselves from the value system of our society - whatever it may be - in order to judge and act by the justice of God and the norms of the Gospel.

To bear witness to the power and glory of Christian love for the inspiration of others.

To promote the unity of all Christians and dialogue with non-Christians and non-believers.

To be dedicated in a special way, with authentic mercy, to the defense of freedom, to social justice and peace, and above all the defense of human dignity, to remedying the different forms of suffering, to relieving the misery of those suffering injustice, working assiduously to change the institutions of society that generate suffering, whether it be economic, psychic, social, moral, or spiritual.

To pursue a social order marked by justice, peace, and freedom for each human being, regardless of race, sex, age, or other distinction and to imbue culture and human activities with moral value.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
Holy Father Dominic, pray for us.

Veritas!

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

God and His Creatures

Talking in our human fashion, we would say that the first creatures God would think of creating would be those most like Him, the angels; and then the things most unlike Him, all the world beneath man. For the angels are, like God, pure spirits whose life is a white heat of knowing and loving, independent of all but God, strangers to death; while the world beneath man is a spiritless world, incapable of the intellect's soaring and the heart's surrender, dependent in every moment and in every activity on the things around it and beneath it, constantly devastated by death and renewed by birth. The wonder to our minds is that divine ingenuity should ever have hit upon such creatures as ourselves: both spirit and matter, dissatisfied with anything less than infinite truth and yearning for love's holocaust, dependent on all the world beneath us yet scorning the limitations of time and space with mind and heart, saddened by death and inspired by birth, yet both terrified and rejioced by the certainty of eternal life.

My Way of Life
- Confraternity of the Precious Blood

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Ut Unum Sint

The United Christian Way --

In our world today, I personally believe that Christians of all denominations must stand together, in common witness, if we are to preserve the noble values that we all cherish as Christians and as citizens of the nations of the free world. Ecumenism, in order for it to grow, must first take root here at the very soil of our Christian faith - in our hearts. We must, being the whole of Christendom, find our common ground that we may be able to stand firmly behind our common causes to life, love, liberty, peace and goodwill for all mankind.

- From the spirit of the Encyclical, Ut Unum Sint - "That All May Be One", of Pope John Paul II on Christian Commitment to Ecumenism.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

The Good God

The good God is that ravishingly attractive Being Who is resisted only when He is not seen; He is infinite enticement, rapturous beyond a man's most extravagant desires, captivating lovableness to tear the heart out of a man. Confronted by divine goodness, the heart of man bursts into such a flame as to make a torch of his whole life. Fascinated by the invitation inherent in such goodness, a man finds no journey too long, no danger too great, no obstacle too wearying; here is strength, courage, daring for the weakest of men, for if this goodness be acheived nothing is lost, if this be lost everything is bitterly lost.

My Way of Life
- Confraternity of the Precious Blood

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Metanoia

Until truth gives light to a man's mind, his heart is immobilized more effectively than the feet of a man in the pitch blackness of a strange place. Unless the mind of a man is nourished on truth, his heart is shrunken and starved. If error, not truth, is the diet of the mind, then the heart gorges itself on poison and is doomed to bloated frustration and the writhings of despair. We can reach out only for what we know; if the light of knowledge be false, we can make nothing but missteps. Our hearts can be aflame only with the fuel offered by our minds. Nor can we change ourselves, adapting mind and heart to any light, to any diet; only truth is light for the eyes and the goal for the heart. We are real, we live in a world of real things, our hearts are not to be nourished on fantasies or nightmares but on realities.

Only our very being is more fundamental to us than truth. We must have truth; only then can we begin to live, only then can we rest in beauty's contemplation, and have our hearts first stirred then filled with good. It was the Word, the Wisdom of God, Who became man and lived amongst us, in order, as He Himself said, that men "might have the truth, and the truth might make them free." He was, He said, "the way, the truth, and the life." He lived for truth, and died rather than mouth the lie that would deny his divinity. Without truth, there is no way for a man's feet to walk, no light for his eyes to see, no goal for his living. He is a slave of the lie that has usurped the throne of truth. Perhaps truth has been denied him with ruthless malice, perhaps the denial came through a teacher's naive, wide-eyed, well meaning stupidity, perhaps it was the individual's own cowardly fear of his own humanity and it's demands for courageous living. Whatever the reason, culpable or not, malicious or well meant, the utter fundamental destruction of the lives of men is exactly the same. We must have truth.

God has said so little, that yet means so much for our living. To have said more would mean less of reverence by God for the splendor of His image in us. Our knowing and loving, He insists, must be our own; the truth ours because we have accepted it; the love ours because we have given it. We are made in His image. Our Maker will be the last to smudge that image in the name of security, or by way of easing the hazards of the nobility of man.

The great truths that must flood the mind of man with light are the limitless perfection of God and the perfectibility of man. The enticements that must captivate the heart of man are the divine goodness of God and man's gratuitously given capacity to share that divine life, to begin to possess that divine goodness even as he walks among the things of earth. The truths are not less certain because they are too clear for our eyes. The task before our heart is not to hold a fickle lover but to spend itself.

Without these truths, and the others that fill out the pattern of a man's days, we are underfed weaklings, starving waifs, paralyzed in our living not only by lack of strength but even more by lack of light. To live a man must move by the steps of his heart; and how can he move until he can see and be drawn by the beauty of Goodness and Truth?

My Way of Life
- Confraternity of the Precious Blood

Alter Christus

O my Jesus, my Everything, my All!
My Lord and my God,
my Savior, my King, my Brother, my Friend.
Thou art my All, my Everything!
My Way, my Truth and my Life.

O my Jesus, Son of the living God and Son of Mary, lead me!
Lead me away from all that is not Thee.
Thou art my Light, my Joy and my Salvation!

O most loving Jesus, hear me: Have mercy on me, a sinner!
Take me, O Lord, take me far away from myself.
Hold me close, O Christ, into Thyself -
Into Thy Afflicted Heart, O Love, embrace me.
Immolate all my love and burning zeal for Thee.

Banish all my fears, consume all my sorrow!
Suffer with me the pain of becoming alive
and weep with me an ocean of Thy mercy
until all the darkness is gone and I am no more.
And only Thou, O glorious God, remain in me.

AMEN.

On Love

If we love God, we must do so freely, for love is a gift or it is nothing --

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

- 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Friday, November 02, 2007

Cor ad Cor Loquitur

To my darlingest Annelies Marie Frank:

Cor ad cor loquitur, "heart speaketh unto heart", that's you and me, my dear Anne. That's our motto. It's what best describes our holy friendship.

May God keep you, my darlingest Annelies Marie, and may His peace always be with you as you pray for me and as I pray for you, my beloved, until the everlasting day we are united in the glorious Kingdom of our Lord forever.

Amen.

- EJ San Miguel