We Live Falling Down & Standing Up

Do You Want God To Communicate with You?

A letter from Mother Luisita (de-coded)

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My beloved child,

Do you want Our Lord to communicate with you? Then try to do the following:

• Preserve unity and peace with everyone who lives under the same roof.

• Try to have habitual recollection by thinking of God.

• Familiarize yourself with some little short prayer with which you invite Jesus to come into your heart.

• Make it a point to entertain yourself with things that pertain to God.

• Keep yourself in healthy fear, guarding the doors of your senses, being careful what you let come in.

• Ask for grace to know and overcome the obstacles that oppose a greater union with God.

Here are the counsels I give you:

• Do everything for God our Lord, seeing Him in the person of the poor and the sick and frequently offer Him your worries.

• Try to teach more with your example than with words, even though words are also necessary.

• Never make any decision when you are disturbed, but wait until your soul is in peace.

• Not to expect perfection in people because we live falling down and standing up.

• None of us is perfect, so don’t get scandalized at the sight of somebody else’s faults. We will only be perfect in heaven.

• Don’t get  discouraged when greater difficulties come. Learn to suffer much, much for God.

• Humble yourself  when humiliations come, and be happy that God our Lord is pleased with you, even though there are reasons for humiliations in the eyes of others.

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be your love, your guide, and your consolation.

~ Mother Luisita, Foundress, Carmelites of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles

Wisdom for Families Struggling in Stressful Times

Gloomy, The Lower Regions: The Lowest Purgatory

V. A porta inferi

R. Erue, Dómine, ànimas eorum.

LOWEST PURGATORY MAY BE CLOSE TO HELL, BUT SOULS THERE ARE ON PATH TO HEAVEN

[adapted from The Other Side]

We have spoken of hell. The level above that is lowest purgatory. However horrible it may be, the soul there is saved and will one day ascend to Heaven. It isn't hell. There are many levels in purgatory. Probably infinite ones.

But gloomy the lower regions are.

The darkness there swirls around the feet and forms a barrier, holding those there prisoner, a darkness that in the words of one woman, Angie Fenimore, who tried to commit suicide, was so thick it could be touched and "had life, some kind of intelligence that was purely negative, even evil."

"Everyone I saw was wearing dirty white robes," recalled Angie in a book about her near-death glimpse called Beyond the Darkness. "Some people’s were heavily soiled, while others’ just appeared dingy with a few stains. Sitting next to me was a man who appeared to be about sixty years old. His hair was gray, and somehow I knew that his eyes were blue, even though everything here appeared in black and various shades of gray.

"This man’s eyes were totally without comprehension. Pathetically squatting on the ground, draped in filthy white robes, he wasn’t radiating anything, not even self-pity. I knew his soul had been rotting here forever. I was sure that this man had killed himself. His clothing suggested that he might have walked the earth during Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry. I wondered if he was Judas Iscariot, who had betrayed the Savior and then hung himself. I felt embarrassed that I was thinking these things in his presence, where he could 'hear' me."

The word "purgatory," said Angie, was "whispered" to her (despite the fact that she was Protestant).

It was edge of the abyss and those who were there – contemplating their lives -- radiated darkness as an aura.

"Like oil over water, the active layer of spirits of light rested above a layer of grim, motionless dark beings," wrote Angie. "Drifting onto the plane, the newly deceased were dressed in white robes, but their gowns were dingy. Like silent sleepwalkers, these spellbound souls descended into the darkness, arms to their sides, their expressionless eyes locked in empty gazes.

"They came from the same direction that I had, dull and hopeless casualties of life that had banked on true death, continuing to fill in the back edge of the prison as the darkness expanded to accommodate them. So sad, they were so young and so dead. As I watched them filing down by the dozens, I was told that most of us who are dying now are going to a place of darkness.

"Hell, while also a specific dimension, is primarily a state of mind. When we die, we are bound by what we think. In mortality the more solid our thoughts become, as we act upon them – allowing darkness to develop in others and in ourselves – the more damning they are. I had been to hell long before I died, and I hadn’t realized it because I had escaped many of the consequences up until the point that I took my life. When we die, our state of mind grows far more obvious because we are gathered together with those who think as we do."

Somehow areas of purgatory seem to branch from the tunnel where those who’ve received a glimpse have encountered what they describe as "bewildered souls."

There are the "dungeon" reaches and what has been described as the middle or "great" area of grayness, where most bound for purgatory head and where the greatest suffering – as in any part of purgatory – is God’s absence. It is gray and ashen – the ashes of sins.

"I can tell you about the different degrees of purgatory because I have passed through them," said that deceased nun during the nineteenth-century revelations called An Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory. "In the great purgatory there are several stages. In the lowest and most painful, like a temporary hell, are the sinners who have committed terrible crimes during life and whose death surprised them in that state. It was almost a miracle that they were saved, and often by the prayers of holy parents or other pious persons.

"Sometimes they did not even have time to confess their sins and the world thought them lost, but God, Whose mercy is infinite, gave them at the moment of death the contrition necessary for their salvation on account of one or more good actions which they performed during life. For such souls, purgatory is terrible. It is a real hell with this difference, that in hell they curse God, whereas we bless Him and thank Him for having saved us.

"Next to these come the souls, who though they did not commit great crimes like the others, were indifferent to God. They did not fulfill their Easter duties and were also converted at the point of death. Perhaps they were unable to receive Holy Communion. They are in purgatory for the long years of indifference. They suffer unheard of pains and are abandoned either without prayers or if they are said for them, they are not allowed to profit from them. There are in this stage of purgatory religious of both sexes, who were tepid, neglectful of their duties, indifferent toward Jesus, also priests who did not exercise their sacred ministry with the reverence due to the Sovereign Majesty and who did not instill the love of God sufficiently into the souls confided to their care.

"In the second purgatory are the souls of those who died with venial sins not fully expiated before death, or with mortal sins that have been forgiven but for which they have not made entire satisfaction to the Divine Justice. In this part of purgatory, there are also different degrees according to the merits of each soul. Thus the purgatory of the consecrated or of those who have received more abundant graces is longer and far more painful than that of ordinary people of the world.

"Lastly, there is the purgatory of desire which is called the Threshold. Very few escape this. To avoid it altogether, one must ardently desire Heaven and the Vision of God. That is rare, rarer than people think, because even pious people are afraid of God and have not, therefore, a sufficiently strong desire of going to Heaven. This purgatory has its very painful martyrdom like the others. The deprivation of our loving Jesus adds to the intense suffering. The majority of people go to purgatory. The lowest is close to hell and the highest gradually draws near to Heaven. It is not on All Souls Day but at Christmas that the greatest number of souls leaves purgatory. There are in purgatory souls who pray ardently to God, but for whom no relative or friend prays on earth. God makes them benefit from the prayers of other people. It happens that God permits them to manifest themselves in different ways, close to their relatives on earth, in order to remind men of the existence of purgatory and to solicit their prayers to come close to God Who is just, but good."

The threshold is a beauty to behold. Holy people may do their purgatory here – and it can be brief. In some cases, mere minutes. "You should see it here," said one voice from the beyond.

From here they look as from a cloud to the landscape of Heaven in the distance.

It is the waiting room.

It is the final laundering. It is far from the "outer darkness."

Many are those who do their purgatory here.

"In 1973, there was no mention of 'near-death' experiences," a woman named Marianne wrote me. "I never had heard of such a thing. But here is what happened in my dream: I was in a room, although there were no walls -- I just knew it was a room. I was observing people in the room from the ceiling. Someone was with me -- next to me. I did not see this ‘someone,’ just felt their presence. The people who I was observing were very happy. In my frame of reference, I thought they were having a party, although there was no food or drinks. The reason for thinking it was a party is that everyone was so happy. They were smiling and talking with a feeling of great expectation. Then just as suddenly, I was back in my body asking my obviously distraught mother what had happened to me.

"In later years, after hearing about near-death experiences, I took a second look at my own experience with a new point of reference. Now I had an understanding of what had occurred. It is my belief that I was shown the upper level of purgatory -- where people are awaiting their entrance into Heaven. They were so happy, even joyous. Their appearance was young, healthy, and nicely dressed. I did not recognize anyone, but I only knew one person who had died and that was my great-grandfather. From what I knew about him, he may have needed more purgatory time -- although that is not for anyone to say, only God.

"The person next to me showing me this place, my guide, must have been an angel.

"Since that time I have had a few ‘angel’ experiences and truly believe it was an angel showing me where, if I had died that day, I would have gone."

Want to avoid it? Ask the Holy Spirit -- and your angel (this Lent) -- to show you what you must purge. We can know this much: love covers over a multitude of sins, and suffering well causes purification. Joy everlasting comes next.

http://www.spiritdaily.net/othersidelowestpurgatory.htm

First Wednesday: Saint Joseph

The Sublime Image of Her Heavenly Spouse

Saint Charles Borromeo: November 4th

 

Since they attack the very root of faith either by openly denying, hypocritically undermining, or misrepresenting revealed doctrine, we should above all recall the truth Charles often taught. "The primary and most important duty of pastors is to guard everything pertaining to the integral and inviolate maintenance of the Catholic Faith, the faith which the Holy Roman Church professes and teaches, without which it is impossible to please God." Again: "In this matter no diligence can be too great to fulfill the certain demands of our office." We must therefore use sound doctrine to withstand "the leaven of heretical depravity," which if not repressed, will corrupt the whole. That is to say, we must oppose these erroneous opinions now deceitfully being scattered abroad, which, when taken all together, are called Modernism. With Charles we must be mindful "of the supreme zeal and excelling diligence which the bishop must exercise in combating the crime of heresy." ~ Pope Saint Pius X, Editae Saepe

"It is a certain, well- established fact that no other crime so seriously offends God and provokes His greatest wrath as the vice of heresy. Nothing contributes more to the down fall of provinces and kingdoms than this frightful pest." ~ Saint Charles Borromeo

Editae Saepe, Encyclical of Pope Pius X on St. Charles Borromeo 

"Men will remember the just man forever, for even though he is dead, he yet speaks."

 

 

Only As Through Fire

 All Souls 2014 (Transferred): November 3rd

Christians have been praying for their departed brothers and sisters since the earliest days of Christianity. Early liturgies and inscriptions on catacomb walls attest to the ancientness of prayers for the dead, even if the Church needed more time to develop a substantial theology behind the practice. Praying for the dead is actually borrowed from Judaism, as indicated in 2 Maccabees 12:41-42. In the New Testament, St Paul prays for mercy for his departed friend Onesiphorus (2 Timothy 1:18). Early Christian writers Tertullian and St. Cyprian testify to the regular practice of praying for the souls of the departed. Tertullian justified the practice based on custom and Tradition, and not on explicit scriptural teaching. This demonstrates that Christians believed that their prayers could somehow have a positive effect on the souls of departed believers. 

Closely connected to the ancient practice of praying for the dead is the belief in an explicit state called purgatory. The New Testament hints at a purification of believers after death. For example, Saint Paul speaks of being saved, "but only as through fire" (1 Corinthians 3:15). Over time, many Church Fathers, including St. Augustine, e.g. in Enchiridion of Faith, Hope, and Love and City of God, further developed the concept of a purgation of sins through fire after death.

In the early Church, departed Christians' names were placed on diptychs. In the sixth century, Benedictine communities held commemorations for the departed on the feast of Pentecost. All Souls' Day became a universal festival largely on account of the influence of Odilo of Cluny in AD 998, when he commanded its annual celebration in the Benedictine houses of his congregation. This soon spread to the Carthusian congregations as well. The day was celebrated on various days, including October 15th in 12th century Milan. Today all Western Catholics celebrate All Souls' Day on November 2, as do many Anglicans, Lutherans, and other Christians. Initially many Protestant reformers rejected All Souls' Day because of the theology behind the feast (Purgatory and prayers/masses for the dead), but the feast is now being celebrated in many Protestant communities, in many cases with a sub-Catholic theology of Purgatory. Some Protestants even pray for the dead; many Anglican liturgies include such prayers. While the Eastern Churches lack a clearly defined doctrine of Purgatory, they still regularly pray for the departed. See the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church and The Catholic Source Book for more information.

All Souls Day: Prayer for the Departed

The Stableness of Everlastingness

The world itself compels us to despise the world

that is so full of wretchedness;

in which is –

abiding malice,

destroying persecution,

swelling wrath,

fretting lust,

false blaming for sin,

and bitterness of slander;

where all things are confused and withouten order;

where neither righteousness is loved nor truth approved;

where faithfulness is unfaithful,

and friendship cruel,

that stands in prosperity and falls in adversity.

There are yet other things that should move us

to the despising of the world:

the changeableness of time;

the shortness of this life;

death sure;

the chance of death unsure;

the stableness of everlastingness

and the vanity of things present;

the truth of joys to come.

Choose what thou wilt.

If thou love the world, with it thou shalt perish;

if thou love Christ, with Him thou shalt reign.

~ Richard Rolle of Hampole, Hermit [1290-1349]

In Whose Hands Are All Graces

You know how We place amid present dangers Our confidence in the Glorious Virgin of the Holy Rosary, for the safety and prosperity of Christendom and the peace and tranquillity of the Church. Mindful that in moments of great trial, pastors and people have ever had recourse with entire confidence to the august Mother of God, in whose hands are all graces, certain too, that devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary is most opportune for the needs of these times, We have desired to revive everywhere this devotion, and to spread it far and wide among the faithful of the world. Oftentimes already We, in recommending the pious practice of devoting October to honouring Our Lady, have pointed out Our reasons and hope for so doing, and the forms to be observed; and the entire Church, docile to Our desires, has ever replied by special manifestations of devotion; and now is making ready to pay to Mary, during a whole month, a daily tribute of the devotion so dear to it.

~ Pope LEO XIII, ENCYCLICAL ON THE ROSARY AND PUBLIC LIFE: VI È BEN NOTO

Times of Such Brazen Impiety: The Mighty Conflict

To the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary

Queen of the most holy Rosary, in these times of such brazen impiety, manifest thy power with the signs of thine ancient victories, and from thy throne, whence thou dost dispense pardon and graces, mercifully regard the Church of thy Son, His Vicar on earth, and every order of clergy and laity, who are sore oppressed in the mighty conflict. Do thou, who art the powerful vanquisher of all heresies, hasten the hour of mercy, even though the hour of God's justice is every day provoked by the countless sins of men. For me who am the least of men, kneeling before thee in supplication, do thou obtain the grace I need to live righteously upon earth and to reign among the just in heaven, the while in company with all faithful Christians throughout the world, I salute thee and acclaim thee as Queen of the most holy Rosary.

Queen of the most holy Rosary, pray for us!