A Meditation on Death

"All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death, From whose embrace no mortal can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin! Happy those She finds doing your will! The second death can do no harm to them."

- St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.'

Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?'

And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'

'Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'

'Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?'

He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.'

And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

- Matthew 25: 31-46

Preparation.

1. PLACE yourself in the Presence of God.
2. Ask His Grace.
3. Suppose yourself to be on your deathbed, in the last extremity, without the smallest hope of recovery.

Considerations.

1. Consider the uncertainty as to the day of your death. One day your soul will quit this body—will it be in summer or winter? in town or country? by day or by night? will it be suddenly or with warning? will it be owing to sickness or an accident? will you have time to make your last confession or not? will your confessor or spiritual father be at hand or will he not? Alas, of all these things we know absolutely nothing: all that we do know is that die we shall, and for the most part sooner than we expect.

2. Consider that then the world is at end as far as you are concerned, there will be no more of it for you, it will be altogether overthrown for you, since all pleasures, vanities, worldly joys, empty delights will be as a mere fantastic vision to you. Woe is me, for what mere trifles and unrealities I have ventured to offend my God? Then you will see that what we preferred to Him was nought. But, on the other hand, all devotion and good works will then seem so precious and so sweet:—Why did I not tread that pleasant path? Then what you thought to be little sins will look like huge mountains, and your devotion will seem but a very little thing.

3. Consider the universal farewell which your soul will take of this world. It will say farewell to riches, pleasures, and idle companions; to amusements and pastimes, to friends and neighbours, to husband, wife and child, in short to all creation. And lastly it will say farewell to its own body, which it will leave pale and cold, to become repulsive in decay.

4. Consider how the survivors will hasten to put that body away, and hide it beneath the earth—and then the world will scarce give you another thought, or remember you, any more than you have done to those already gone. “God rest his soul!” men will say, and that is all. O death, how pitiless, how hard thou art!

5. Consider that when it quits the body the soul must go at once to the right hand or the left. To which will your soul go? what side will it take? none other, be sure, than that to which it had voluntarily drawn while yet in this world.

Affections and Resolutions.

1. Pray to God, and throw yourself into His Arms. O Lord, be Thou my stay in that day of anguish! May that hour be blessed and favourable to me, if all the rest of my life be full of sadness and trial.

2. Despise the world. Forasmuch as I know not the hour in which I must quit the world, I will not grow fond of it. O dear friends, beloved ones of my heart, be content that I cleave to you only with a holy friendship which may last for ever; why should I cling to you with a tie which must needs be broken?

I will prepare for the hour of death and take every precaution for its peaceful arrival; I will thoroughly examine into the state of my conscience, and put in order whatever is wanting.

Conclusion.

Thank God for inspiring you with these resolutions: offer them to His Majesty: intreat Him anew to grant you a happy death by the Merits of His Dear Son’s Death. Ask the prayers of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints. OUR FATHER, etc.

Gather a spiritual bouquet of myrrh.

Introduction to the Devout Life: Part I, Chapter XIII
- Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)

Death: The First of the Four Last Things

"In whatever you do, remember your last days, and you will never sin."
- Sirach 7:36

Bear in mind, therefore, that you are a man and a Christian. As man, you must die; as a Christian, you must, immediately after death, render an account of your life. The first truth is manifest in our daily experience, and the second our faith will not permit us to doubt. No one, whether king or pope, is exempt from this terrible law. A day will come of which you will not see the night, or a night which for you, will have no morning. A time will come, and you know not whether it be this present day or tomorrow, when you who are now reading my words, in perfect health and in full possession of all your faculties, will find yourself stretched upon a bed of death, a lighted taper in your hand, awaiting the sentence pronounced against mankind – a sentence which admits neither delay nor appeal.

Consider, also, how uncertain is the hour of death. It generally comes when man is most forgetful of eternal things, overturning his plans for an earthly future, and opening before him the appalling vision of eternity. Therefore, the Holy Scriptures tell us that it comes as a thief in the night; that is, when men are plunged in sleep and least apprehensive of danger. The forerunner of death is usually a grave illness with its attendant weariness, sufferings, and pains, which weaken the powers of the body and give entrance to the king of terrors. Just as an enemy who wishes to take a citadel destroys the outer fortifications, so death with its vanguard of sickness breaks down the strength of the body, and, as it is about to fall before the repeated assaults of its enemy, the soul, no longer able to resist, takes its flight from the ruins.

Who can express the anguish of the moment when the severity of the sickness, or the declaration of the physician, undeceives us and robs us of all hope of life? The parting from all we hold dear then begins to rise before us. Wife, children, friends, relations, honors, riches are fast passing, with life, from our feeble grasp. Then follow the terrible symptoms which precede the awful hour. The coldness of death seizes our members; the countenance becomes deathly pale; the tongue refuses to perform its duty; all the senses, in fine, are in confusion and disorder in the precipitation of this supreme departure.

Strange resemblance between the beginning and the end of our pilgrimage! The mystery of suffering seems to unite them both. The terrified soul then beholds the approach of that agony which is to terminate its temporal existence. Before the distracted mind rise the horror and darkness of the grave, where the pampered body will become the prey of worms. But keener still is the suffering which the soul endures from the suspense and uncertainty of what her fate will be when she leaves her earthly habitation. You will imagine that you are in the presence of your Sovereign Judge, and that your sins rise up against you to accuse you and complete your condemnation. The heinousness of the evil you committed with so much indifference will then be manifest to you. You will curse a thousand times the day you sinned, and the shameful pleasure which was the cause of your ruin. You will be an object of astonishment and wonder to yourself. "How could I," you will ask, "for love of the foolish things upon which I set my heart, brave the torments which I now behold?" The guilty pleasures will have long since passed away, but their terrible and irrevocable punishment will continue to stare you in the face. Side by side with this appalling eternity of misery you will see the unspeakable and everlasting happiness which you have sacrificed for vanities, transitory and sinful pleasures.

Everything you will behold will be calculated to fill you with terror and remorse. Life will have been spent; there will be no time for repentance. Nor will the friends you have loved or the idols you have adored be able to help you. On the contrary, that which you have loved during life will be the cause of your most poignant anguish at the hour of death. What, then, will be your thoughts at this supreme hour? To whom will you have recourse? Whither will you turn? To go forward will be anguish. To go back impossible. To continue as you are will not be permitted.

Reflect, then, on the sentiments that will be yours when you will stand before the tribunal of God, with no defenders but your good works, with no companion but your own conscience. And if then you will not be able to satisfy your Judge, who will give expression to the bitterness of your anguish? For the question at issue is not a fleeting temporal life, but an eternity of happiness or an eternity of misery. Whither will you turn? What protection will you seek? Your tears will be powerless to soften your Judge; the time for repentance will be past. Little will honors, dignities, and wealth avail you, for "Riches," says the Wise Man, "shall not profit in the day of vengeance, but justice shall deliver a man from death." (Prov. 11:4).

The unhappy soul can only exclaim with the prophet, "The sorrows of death have encompassed me, and the perils of hell have found me." (Ps. 114:3). Unhappy wretch! How swiftly this hour has come upon me! What does it now avail me that I had friends, or honors, or dignities or wealth? All that I can now claim is a few feet of earth and a windings-sheet. My wealth which I hoarded I must leave to be squandered by others, while the sins of injustice which I here committed will pursue me into the next world and there condemn me to eternal torments. Of all my guilty pleasures the sting of remorse alone remains. Why have I made no preparation for this hour? Why was I deaf to the salutary warnings I received? "Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproofs, and have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to my masters?" (Prov. 5:12-13).

To preserve you, my dear Christian, from these vain regrets, I beg you to gather from what has been said three considerations, and to keep them continually before your mind. The first is the terrible remorse which your sins will awaken in you at the hour of death; the second is how ardently, though how vainly, you will wish that you had faithfully served God during life; and the third is how willingly you would accept the most rigorous penance, were you given time for repentance.

Acting on this advice, you will now begin to regulate your life according as you will then wish to have done.

The Sinner's Guide: Chapter 7
- Venerable Louis of Granada (1505-1588)

Soul of Country x

O Filipino nation, who are you? Why do we long to wear the image of other nations like a mask? Why do we take certain delight in being somebody we are not? What have become of us? Why do we seek to imitate the way of other peoples? Do we not have our own image to honor and way to cherish? Can we not see our own reflections in the timeless places and faces contained in the spirit of our Country? O where is the soul of my Filipino people?

Why should we love and honor those wicked things that disrupt the peace and harm our common good? Are we not a free Republic? Do we not share common commitments to look after each other's good in a true spirit of service; to labor in hope and goodwill to fulfill the promise of our present, to be at peace with the living memory of our past and to honor our duty to all our future generations? Do we not have recourse to the strength and potential of our social Democracy? Have we not learned from the pain of our martyred past of the high cost of heroes blood that was paid for this present promise of liberty and self-determination? Have we forgotten the native heart that beats for this beloved motherland that provides for us a certain place between this one earth and sky? How much more noble suffering and sacred blood must be spent in the name of this present moment before the dawn of the morning is come into our hearts and the will of the one Filipino Republic is made to shine like a bright sunrise in our souls?

We are a patient people. But too long have we waited, too much have we suffered, to high a price have we paid to let anything hold us back from the promise of tomorrow that awaits us:

The vision of a united, free, peaceful and prosperous Filipino Republic with liberty, equality, justice and opportunity for all our citizens and our posterity without distinction or prejudice as to race, creed, sex, age, ethnicity or social class.

O my beloved people, the captive soul of the Filipino nation must be set free! We are the masters of our national destiny but until we realize who we are as a people and as individual citizens worthy of a free Republic, the dawn of our morning will seem so far away. We as a people must awaken to the soul of Country. It only takes an instant to see her for who she truly is together in each ourselves and a lifetime to become for her as we truly must as the faithful sons and daughters of a motherland that has loved, sheltered and sustained us all under the eternal vigilance of Almighty God from the very beginning of the generations of our one people.

Nameless

Cor ad Cor Loquitur - "Heart Speaketh unto Heart".

Annelies Marie Frank:

I am Nameless.

The darkness in this world shall never understand me. The evil of this world and the inhabitants herein seek to persecute me. And they only do what they must. For I do not belong to this world. This world can never know me. For only God can appreciate my littleness. Only God can understand what is in my heart. I am part of God's pilgrim people. My heart is a stranger here. The Lord has called me out of this world. He has called me by my real name. A name that only my Creator can give. A name that only my Lord may use to call me. I struggle to respond to Him. For this world can never know me. Nor can the limits of this world forever bind me. I am not made to pace out my life behind the prison walls of nature. For I am made to walk into the arms of God on a road that nature can never build. The unfeeling earth beneath me that seek to embrace my body can never contain the life that shines within me. The unconscious sky above me that seek to deafen my sacred silence can never capture the song that sings inside of my heart. A song that sings forever unto other hearts of the glory and the love of God.

We are Nameless.

You are Near

Chorus:
Yahweh, I know you are near,
standing always at my side.
You guard me from the foe,
and you lead me in ways everlasting.

Lord, you have searched my heart,
and you know when I sit and when I stand.
Your hand is upon me protecting me from death,
keeping me from harm.

(Chorus)

Where can I run from Your love?
If I climb to the heavens You are there;
If I fly to the sunrise or sail beyond the sea,
still I'd find You there.

(Chorus)

You know my heart and its ways,
you who formed me before I was born
in the secret of darkness before I saw the sun
in my mother's womb.

(Chorus)

Marvelous to me are Your works;
how profound are Your thoughts, my Lord.
Even if I could count them, they number as the stars,
You would still be there.

- Catholic Hymn

You are Mine

I will come to you in the silence
I will lift you from all your fear
You will hear My voice
I claim you as My choice
Be still, and know I am near

I am hope for all who are hopeless
I am eyes for all who long to see
In the shadows of the night,
I will be your light
Come and rest in Me

Chorus:
Do not be afraid, I am with you
I have called you each by name
Come and follow Me
I will bring you home
I love you and you are mine

I am strength for all the despairing
Healing for the ones who dwell in shame
All the blind will see, the lame will all run free
And all will know My name

(Chorus)

I am the Word that leads all to freedom
I am the peace the world cannot give
I will call your name, embracing all your pain
Stand up, now, walk, and live

(Chorus)

- David Haas

On Eagle's Wings

"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint." - Isaiah 40:31

You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord,
Who abide in His shadow for life,
Say to the Lord, "My Refuge,
My Rock in Whom I trust."

Chorus:
And He will raise you up on eagle's wings,
Bear you on the breath of dawn,
Make you to shine like the sun,
And hold you in the palm of His Hand.

The snare of the fowler will never capture you,
And famine will bring you no fear;
Under His Wings your refuge,
His faithfulness your shield.

(Chorus)

You need not fear the terror of the night,
Nor the arrow that flies by day,
Though thousands fall about you,
Near you it shall not come.

(Chorus)

For to His angels He's given a command,
To guard you in all of your ways,
Upon their hands they will bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.

(Chorus)

And hold you in the palm of His Hand...

- Michael Joncas

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

Mine eyes have seen the glory
of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage
where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning
of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch fires
of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar
in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence
by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery Gospel
writ in burnished rows of steel;
“As ye deal with My contemners,
so with you My grace shall deal”;
Let the Hero, born of woman,
crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet
that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men
before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him!
be jubilant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies
Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom
that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy,
let us live to make men free;
[originally …let us die to make men free]
While God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory
of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty,
He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool,
and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.

- Julia Ward Howe and John William Steffe

Here I am Lord

I, the Lord of sea and sky,
I have heard My people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin,
My hand will save.

I who made the stars of night,
I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear My light to them?
Whom shall I send?

Chorus:
Here I am Lord, Is it I Lord?
I have heard You calling in the night.
I will go Lord, if You lead me.
I will hold Your people in my heart.

I, the Lord of snow and rain,
I have borne my peoples pain.
I have wept for love of them,
They turn away.

I will break their hearts of stone,
Give them hearts for love alone.
I will speak My word to them,
Whom shall I send?

(Chorus)

I, the Lord of wind and flame,
I will tend the poor and lame.
I will set a feast for them,
My hand will save
Finest bread I will provide,
Till their hearts be satisfied.
I will give My life to them,
Whom shall I send?

(Chorus)

- Dan Schutte

Free Will

This is the wonder of man that so frightens the cowards: every man is in control of himself; his acts are his own, he has full responsibility for every moment of every day, the success or failure of his life rests squarely on his own shoulders. He, and he alone in all the physical universe, is free: free to choose between the paths to his goals, or to abuse that freedom and abandon the human things for which he was made. He has a spiritual appetite commensurate to his spiritual knowledge; his will measures up to his intellect. He can know truth and goodness without limit; so his heart is free in the face of any one particular good since his mind can see it's limits, the promises it does not make, the desires it leaves unfulfilled.

What things that free will of man chooses in this life make or break a man. The evil we know may do us no harm if it does not stir desire, at least no harm beyond wasting time and energy that are not suffiecient for a knowledge of all good things. But the same is not true of our loving. To know a base thing, we must lift it up to our level, spiritualizing it for entry into our minds; to know what is superior to us, we must cut it down to the proportions of our own mind. Our will is not a host but always a guest; to love a base thing means to go out to it and identify ourselves with it, to love a noble thing means to go to its heights and rest in its embrace. In this life, it is quite true that it is both better and worse to love than to know; for love can be either disastrously degrading or breathlessly ennobling. Our happiness or misery is a matter of the objects of our loves.

It is still true that we must know in order to love; the heart does not outrun the head. The priority of our knowledge, the superiority of its rank comes out clearly in our eternal life with God. There we know God, not by cutting Him down to our size, not through the means of a concept or idea, but directly, face to face, through the direct union of the divine essence to our intellects. It is, in other words, by our act of knowing in heaven that we possess God, and the possession of the Infinite is our eternal happiness. The joy and love in the will is an effect of that happiness, not its cause. Here on earth, we have a foretaste of heaven by the divine love in our hearts; there we possess heaven by the eternal vision of God.

My Way of Life
- Confraternity of the Precious Blood

On the Wonderful Effects of Divine Love

May You be blessed, O Heavenly Father, Father of my Lord, Jesus Christ, because You have consented to be mindful of me, poor sinner that I am. O Father of mercies and God of all comfort, I thank You, that sometimes You are pleased to console me with Your gracious presence, though I am unworthy of such consolation.

I bless you and glorify You always, together with Your Son and the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, forever and ever. O my Lord, God, most faithful Lover, when You come into my heart, my whole being is filled with joy. You are my glory and the joy of my heart; my hope and refuge in time of tribulation (Ps 59:17).

You know how weak in love and imperfect in virtue I am and how much I stand in need of Your strength and comfort. Please, Lord, visit me often and instruct me in Your holy teachings.

Deliver me from evil passions and heal my heart from all disorderly affections, so that being healed inwardly and well purified, I may become ready to love You, strong to suffer for You, and firm to persevere.

Love is a strong force - a great good in every way; it alone can make our burdens light, and alone it bears in equal balance what is pleasing and displeasing. It carries a burden and does not feel it; it makes all that is bitter taste sweet.

The noble love of Jesus urges us to do great things and spurs us on to desire perfection. Love tends upward to God and is not occupied with the things of the earth. Love also will be free from all worldly affections, so that the inner vision does not become dimmed, nor does it let itself be trapped by any temporal interest or downcast by misfortune.

Nothing is sweeter than love. nothing higher, nothing stronger, nothing larger, nothing more joyful, nothng fuller, nothing better in heaven or on earth; for love is born of God and can find its rest only in God above all He has created.

Such lovers fly high, run swiftly and rejioce. Their souls are free; they give all for all and have all in all. For they rest in One Supreme Goodness above all things, from Whom all other good flows and proceeds. They look not only at the gifts, but at the Giver, Who is above all gifts.

Love knows no limits, but is fervent above all measure. It feels no burden, makes light of labor, desiring to do more than it is able. Nothing is impossible to love, for it thinks it can and may do all things for the Beloved.

Therefore it does and effects many things, while those who do not love falter and fail.

Love is ever watchful; it rests, but does not sleep; though weary, it is not tired; restricted, yet not hindered. Although it sees reason to fear, it is not dismayed; but like a spark of fire or a burning flame, it blazes upward to God by the fervor of its love, and through the help of His grace is delivered from all dangers.

Those who love thus know well what their voices mean when they cry out to God with all the ardor of their soul: You, Lord God, are my whole love and all my desire. You are all mine and I am all Yours.

Let my heart expand in Your love. Let me learn to know how sweet it is to serve You, how joyful it is to praise You, and to be dissolved in Your love. Oh, I am possessed by love and rise above myself because of the great fervor I feel through Your infinite goodness.

I will sing the canticle of love to You and will follow You, my Beloved, wherever You go, and may my soul never weary of praising You, rejoicing in Your love. I will love You more than myself and myself only for Your sake; I will love others in You and for You, as Your law of love commands.

Love is swift, sincere, pious, joyful and glad; it is strong, patient, faithful, wise, forbearing, courageous, and is never self-seeking; for when people seek themselves they cease to love.

Love is cautious, humble and upright; not weak, noth flighty, nor concerned with trifles. It is sober, chaste, firm, quiet, and keeps guard over the senses.

Love is submissive and obedient to authority, mean and despicable in its own sight, devout and thankful to God. Love always trusts and hopes in God, even when it lacks fervor; for there is no living in love without some sorrow or pain.

Those who are not always ready to suffer and to stand disposed to the will of their Beloved are not worthy to be called lovers; for lovers must gladly embrace all hardship and bitter things for their Beloved, and never allow themselves to turn away from Him by adversity.

The Imitation of Christ: Book III, Chapter 5
- Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471)

Human Excellence

Our judgments on the manliness of a man or the womanliness of a woman are not based on vegetable or animal grounds. Our eyes are not made merely to see, our ears merely to hear; they are to furnish the rough material for a vision and an understanding far beyond the world of the senses. Our human touch has a meaning or it is not human, our human taste leads to judgments possible only to a man or it is the animal's guzzling. Our passions are brutalized beyond all human resemblance when they are in command of our actions; in that false role, they destroy both the man and the passions themselves. Our passions are made to operate under reason, and it is under reason that they reach their greatest perfection. The grounds of our judgment of excellence among men are human grounds: control, capable direction, mastery, responsibility. Or, to put it in one word, the norm of excellence is virtue.

- My Way of Life
Confraternity of the Precious Blood

Our Humanity

The wonder of man is that he is little less than the angels and considerably more than all the rest of the universe: a little less than the angels because he is body as we as spirit, so much more than all the universe because he is so utterly different from the physical world in which no other spirit lives. In our blindness to the obvious, it is easy for us to draw a contrary conclusion. There seems to be so much resemblance between a sleeping man and a sleeping dog, the struggle of the two from the depths of sleep, the morning stretch and yawn. But it is not the dog who makes coffee, draws up plans for the day, and goes his entirely unpredictable way piercing the imprisoning walls of time and eliminating distance with his mind and heart even as he paces the roads with his feet.

The first awakening to the wonders of our soul carries the real danger of a kind of spiritual snobbery. It is easy to be tempted to sniff at the body as a lowly, animal sort of thing vulgarizing and profaning its beautiful spiritual consort. It is in this frame of mind that the body is seen as the prison holding the soul in temporary confinement, or as a mere tool to be tossed aside as it’s edge is blunted; the implication is that man is his soul, and the body merely a nuisance or at best a clumsy impediment to the soul’s glorious powers.

This, in fact, is a groundless illusion springing not so much from admiration of the soul as from contempt for man’s humanity. It is in obvious collision with the facts. It is man who sleeps, not a body; it is the same man who eats and who thinks, who has toothaches and ecstasies, who loves and who dies. We are not angels, and it is no compliment to our humanity to pretend that we are. It is a guarantee of despair to demand of men that they move on the level of pure spirits; they will surely fail before this impossible demand however heroic their efforts, fail so completely and so repeatedly as to kill all hope. To see the glory of the soul as obliterating the body is to be blind to the soul itself; for it is the vital principle of the body, not a disembodied spirit. Surely this is to be blind to man’s humanity. Man is not his soul; body and soul unite in one substantial unit that we call a man. When these two are separated by death, the soul is no more the man than is the corpse which lies dead before us; it is not John Jones who is then admitted to purgatory, but half of him, his soul. It is only when body and soul are reunited in the resurrection that the man lives again.

If angelism does not become a man, neither does bestiality. We are not angels, but then neither are we merely animals; yet that is what the fashionable error of our time declares when it sees man as no more than his body, when it smiles pityingly at the notion of a soul that cannot be bathed or spanked. This error like it’s twin, does not spring from an admiration of the particular bodies we pass on the street but from a contempt and a fear of the humanity of man. It too is an invitation to despair, for it asks man to live humanly while it denies him the centers of control that make responsibility possible to him. Its popularity lies in it’s apparent release from the awful burden of human responsibility; yet it punishes crime and admires virtue in the same breath in which it traces all action to subrational sources quite beyond our control. Again, the collision with the facts is obvious: there are saints and sinners, we are by turns nasty and noble, we are rightly ashamed of our pettiness and exalted by meeting love’s challenge by unselfishness. There is justice and choice and responsibility in our human world, things utterly foreign to the plant and animal world.

These then are some of the wonders of the obvious in ourselves, wonders that we so easily take for granted and to which we become blind. We are alive. We live by a life dramatically different from any other life in the physical universe. The vital principle within us, the soul, easily outraces time, eliminates distance, and pierces the wall of death. We are not angels, though spiritual; we are not animals, though physical. Of all the physical world, we are in control of our actions and our life, responsible for both; made to be masters, first of all of ourselves, then the physical world in which we live out our days.

A man must be courageous to face the truth of his humanity. God’s masterpiece of creation in the physical universe is ourselves. We, and we alone, not only see a sunset but also see and revel in it’s beauty. We do more than hear sounds; we grasp at their meaning or, injecting order into them or discovering that order, open up the whole world of music for our enjoyment. Our taste has commanded and perfected the art of cookery. The fragrance of flowers has been distilled and brought from the ends of the earth for our delicate pleasure. Our touch forever brings a message or carries one, a message of reverence or contempt, of love or hate, of appreciation or disgust. It must be so for our vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch are human things, far above the level of the animal world to which they bind us; human things, and so working humanly at human things in the human manner dictated by intelligence and will. Like the animals, we too have imagination, memory, an instinctive kind of judgment and coordination of the data of the senses; but in us, all these things are so uplifted by that refining contact with the intellect and the will as to soar far above the level of their operation in animals. The wonder of man is that in him the plant and animal world is united to the spiritual and made one, a human one, not to be confused with anything else in God’s creation.

- My Way of Life
Confraternity of the Precious Blood

My Prayer for My Anne

O Father of mercy and of love, in the deepest, darkest depths of despair, You have blessed me with a special friendship. The very first star in the firmament of the darkest night of my life. You gave me Annelies Marie Frank, O Lord, as a light against despair. The first glimmer of hope that leads to faith in things everlasting and unseen. Loving Father, thank you so much for blessing me with a friend as precious as Anne. Grant me, O Lord, I humbly pray, with the love to cherish her now and forever.

AMEN.

2008 Expectations

"A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit". - Psalm 51:12

2008 is a year of new beginnings for me. This is the time to renew and repair all my relationships:

1. With God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to Whom I owe all that I am and all that I have and to Jesus Christ in Whom I owe all that I can be.

2. With Mother Mary without whom I would be utterly lost, to whom I owe the debt of myself and my service in her struggle against the ancient serpent to save all souls for Christ.

3. With Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, the great Knight of the Immaculata, in my eyes the greatest of Marian knights, whose venerable name I took as my Confirmation name (for I was confirmed when I was very young and no one could remember what it originally was).

4. With Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, the protomartyr of the Philippines, my own beloved countryman who personally bears his own valiant witness to me (to our country and to the world) that the demands of our faith can be met and that God exults those who persevere in Him to the end.

5. With Blessed Jacinta Marto, the Little Flower of Fatima, whose magnanimity, purity and spirit of self sacrifice has indelibly impressed upon my soul a great love and a great hope in her little heart. O Blessed Jacinta, may God grant me through the powerful intercession of our Lady of Fatima with the special grace to be a favorable instrument for your cannonization.

6. With Annelies Marie Frank and all the Holy Souls, my darlingest Anne to whom I owe and share the very beginnings of this wonderful journey and has always been patiently present with me in my heart and in my mind through good times and bad and to whom I owe every happiness in Heaven and in the new world to come and to all the Holy Souls whom my beloved Anne had so generously introduced to me in holy friendship.

7. With Archangel Michael to whom I owe the honor of my last name.

8. With Angel Caritas, my guardian angel, to whom I owe the honor of his ever faithful company.

9. With myself to whom I owe the unmerited and inestimable honor of being redeemed by the Precious Blood of my Savior Jesus Christ and the distinct potential being able to earn through the work of the Holy Spirit the promised place that my most loving Jesus had prepared for me in Heaven with Mama Mary and the blessed company of all the Holy Angels and Saints of God whom I love and who had loved me forever.

10. With Holy Mother Church in whose bosom I grew in learning and grace.

11. With all my family and friends who had loved me from the beginning and to whom I owe an eternal debt of love.

12. With my country that sustains the generations of my people, preserves our culture, heritage and history and provides shelter, sustenance and protection for me, my family, my friends and my people.

13. With the one family of humanity, a united community of hope drawn from among the global brotherhood of all the nations of the world.

So help me, God.

Amen.

- EJ San Miguel

The Church Militant

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places". - Ephesians 6:12

Along with the Church Triumphant in Heaven, the Church Suffering in Purgatory, the Church Militant which is God's Pilgrim Church on earth form the entirety of our Holy Mother Chruch. We are the Church Militant precisely because we fight, we fight to set ourselves free from the slavery of sin and death, the world, the flesh and the Devil and all his agents. We fight to reform, conform and unite ourselves to the truth of the image of God in Jesus Christ within ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit. We fight for each ourselves as well as for each other in the Name of Jesus Christ on behalf of the entire human race to diffuse the grace of God here on earth and advance the cause of truth, justice, solidarity, goodwill and peace for all souls without distinction.

We are repentant sinners like myself, the weak and the infirm, exiled hearts and searching souls with faults as numerous as the hairs on our heads. Exile children of this captive earth, the lost and the forsaken, descended from the one family of humanity who from the dawn of time were cast into this vale of tears, born to labor and grieve upon this desperate and fallen world of suffering and death. Valorous souls who do battle with chaos to give law a chance to give birth to peace. The nameless multitude of silent innocents oppressed by the darkness of sin and uncertainty; subjugated by the proud Prince of this fallen world, a murderer and a tyrant, vain and full of lies, a wicked lord, defeated and empty of promise. All who respond to the universal call of Jesus Christ and cry out with one accord to the one, true God of our fathers as our one hope of life and liberation.

- EJ San Miguel

Walker of Worlds

"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life". - Proverbs 4:23

Happiness depends not so much on what is happening outside of a man. For the world outside of ourselves is but an empty dream. Happiness depends very much on what is happening inside of a man. For within each of us is the timeless realm we create in our hearts. Within each of us is contained a fragile world much more wondrous and sublime than all the universe outside of us. It is here, in the unseem realm of the spirit which is the domain of our soul that the source of our happiness may truly be found. It is here, in our hearts, that the Kingdom of God is to be firmly established. It is here that our blessed Lord Jesus Christ wishes to dwell with us with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit. For what rules our hearts determines our realities.

What contains these infinite worlds within each individual man is love. Love is also the key that open the door to our heart, to let the beloved through. We must be careful then what we love. For indeed, we become like to what we love. For we open up these worlds to each other in the love of friendship whereby in time old friends become familiar with the landscapes of each other's souls so much so that their souls become as one. It is the object of our love that is the source of each man's happiness.

From out of the depths of our hearts we are caught in the ebb and flow tide of either darkness or light. For the interior worlds hidden within ourselves silently contain an epic struggle. There are powers in unseen places, both malicious and good, that are constantly at work all about us. Both the light and the darkness vie with great violence for that singular throne of love enshrined at the very summit of the very heart of each our worlds within. The darkness seeks to extinguish the light by corrupting the truth with lies, it is a limiting, binding, evil force that seek to destroy all that is real in ourselves. The light seeks to dispel the darkness by revealing the truth that undoes the lie, it is a magnificent, expansive, beneficent force that seek to reform, conform and unite us into the ultimate reality of Itself. Darkness exists not because of the absence of light but because of it for the darkness comprehends not the light yet even the smallest light shines forth in the darkness.

It is the nature of man to be free. But true human freedom consists not in the ability to choose between darkness and light for to choose the darkness is to lose freedom itself. True human freedom is preserved only by freely choosing the light for it is through the light that is preserved the very life of the human race.

Therefore, we must be careful where we may tread when allowed to walk within the unseen worlds of other people's hearts. Let us be easily inspired by our witness of even the smallest of lights within knowing that without it, our faith is unable to see, our hope is unable to walk and our love is unable to contain these infinite worlds within ourselves. We must also be careful not to let ourselves be taken or surprised by the darkness that we may find nor must we judge the darkness for only the Light may preside over the darkness. And we are not the Light.

- EJ San Miguel

2007 Reflections

"I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another". - John 13:34-35

2007 is a year of endings.

2007 is the year of my return to my native Philippines after 13 years of being away. I spent 5 years living in Australia and 8 years in the United States and today, I'm glad to be home at last. There really is no place like home! All those years spent abroad were certainly the most uncertain years of my life. I experienced a lot of things while I was away and I made a lot of mistakes. The Lord did much to prune me. I left home with a vastly different world view than what I have now.

The love of God has found a place in my heart and though I am still the same sinner, I am now conscious of the universal call of Jesus Christ - directed towards myself. "Why me of all people?", I used to think to myself but that is all vanity. Humility is to know to be thankful simply because I do have a need and only God can fill that need and so I must obey the call of Christ.

The presence of the Lord has become very real to me. For out of the wellspring of His love I have tasted of that certainty of things unseen and the everlasting vision of God. I saw through the eye of faith that God and His love is one and indivisible. God is where His love works. One can not speak of love without God and one can not speak of God without love. To try and separate God from God's love is impossible. For indeed, as Sacred Scripture testifies, God is love. The measure of this love is to love without measure because God is infinite and without measure. And as God is one, love is one. Now, I know that God is love for God loves me and I know that God loves me because God's love is in me. For the Holy Spirit is in me and He bids me to repent and persevere in the way of my Savior Jesus Christ.

Today, I am trying to discern my vocation within Holy Mother Chrurch because I want to tell the world of this incredible love of God in Jesus Christ.

O Lord, let me be a witness of Thy love.

Amen.

- EJ San Miguel

The Crossroads Cafe

"There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens". - Ecclesiastes 3:1

It is now dusk, the setting of another year is upon us and the way ahead is getting dark: Welcome to the Crossroads Cafe, O weary traveler! Our last stop before the void of the third Christian millennium.

The void ahead is the future yet undiscovered and unmapped.

We are children of the promise, walker of worlds, they call us, pilgrims to this strange, forbidden land, looking for our way back to God, our last end. Our way is hard and narrow, an uncertain passage through time and mortality; lonely if it were not for faith, hopeless if it were not for Christ, and futile if it were not for love.

It is twilight and the setting of another year is upon us. Let us pause at the coming of night and take certain comfort in the warmth of our native baptismal communion. Let our hearts draw near to each other as we rest for a moment in the silence, look back at the road behind us, reflect on our lessons learned and take counsel in God within ourselves how to prudently proceed at daybreak in the way of virtue, goodwill and peace.

- EJ San Miguel

The Spirit of Christmas

Let us not forget the spirit of the Christmas season is love.

"God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him". 1 John 4:16

God is love and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a love that spent itself for us, a love that became vulnerable for us, a love that gave everything up for our sake;

to live in the spirit of the love of Christ is to give with joy knowing from the example of our Blessed Savior Himself that the love that we keep in life is the love that we give away.

May God bless us and keep us all in peace and goodwill with one another and advance the cause of Christian unity.

Amen.

- EJ San Miguel