Tim, it sounds like you are going through a similar thing to Jimmy. Please read my post to him, (The Passion of Christ) it could very well apply to you also. I hope it helps.
Hi Timothius, I understand your question, as I also have a hard time making it to daily mass lately, and I am supposed to go as part of the Rule of my order. I TRY to go as often as I can, and try not to either worry too much about it either way. I feel very drawn to it, and I have very bad joint pain from Rhumatiod Arthritis every day, and the days that I receive, I feel so much better both in body and mind. ANYwho, I just wanted to share what Jesus told me several years ago about the Eucharist in a locution. You can take this however you like, I won't be offended if you don't believe me. I had been watching some program on Discovery about human cells renewing themselves. For example, skin cells renew every day, and bone cells every four years, so that even bone cells are new every four years. I was talking to Jesus about how amazing His creation is and about maybe I SHOULD eat healthier etc..( LOL I know I'm not the only one here who talks to Jesus about everything!) any way, He started telling me in a locution that each time we receive the Eucharist it actually transforms our body's cells as they renew! I could never explain things as He does of course but He led me to the passage about the Wedding Feast in Heaven where the one man got in without his "wedding clothes" and was kicked out.(Matthew 22) I understood that the more we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, the more our actual BODIES are also transformed into His likeness! It really made me desire to go to Daily Mass more.
Carmel333...I don't doubt you a bit...our Lord speaks to us in many different ways. I agree...if the Eucharist can restore physical health...imagine how it is healing our soul. I have been trying this mental exercise as of late and it goes like this. I imagine in the news "Jesus Christ...the Son of God...Creator of heaven and earth will be physically appearing at your local Church tonight". Can you imagine how excited people would be...the Church would be packed in expectation of the King of Kings. Yet this is exactly what happens at every Mass and Adoration. Just a little mind trick to get me going when I don't feel like going to Mass. Thanks again for the feedback.
When Padre Pio set up his very first prayer group in the little village of San Giovanni Rotundo as a young priest, not to long after he received the Stigmata he made it a firm rule that none of the ladies (it was a woman's prayer group) could join unless they went to mass and communion every day. This before even joining. Now the striking thing about Padre Pio was that he was not only a great saint and very probably the greatest mystic (that we know of) in the twentieth century he was a real Spiritual Master of the very first rate. We know this from the stories coming out of his confessional and from the letters sent to his spiritual sons and daughters in Italy and through out the world. They are marked with thr huge certainty of a consumate SPiritual Master who was firmly certain of his spiritual footsteps . Now there spiritual daughters whom he led went right on , many of them to become saints themselves. A very good example of such living saints was the American emigre Mary Pyle. So Padre Pio as he led his spiritual daughters to sainthood the essential first step was daily mass and holy communion.
MC...Tim and I wrote our original posts on this matter at almost the same time the other day. It was very weird. Different but similar concerns. We chatted a bit about it somewhere else.
Now I am moving on to the last Garden of prayer, St Teresa of Avila's 7th mansion called by we Catholics, 'Spiritual Marriage'. It used to drive me nuts on reading books on Mystical Theology that when t came to the last stage of prayer all you mostly got were a few garbled pages with the general message, 'Well if you are here you don't need any more advice bud' if you're here you beyond the advice stage. As St Peter says: We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 2 1:19 It was a bit like trawling your way through a great book and finding upon coming to the climax the last few pages had been ripped out. Even more annoying the wonderful dramatic description of the 'marriage entrance' (the ceremony signalling entrance to prayer state are so dramatic, beautiful and inspiring, from St Catherine of Alexandria right on down. A bit like a mystical Hollywood Movie with a hundred actors. Jesus, Our Lady , angels saints , half of heaven, golden rings, jewels , robes, swoons ect. Dramiatic, wonderful...and all so very ,very Catholic.
So I always promised myself that if the day ever came when I entered this garden I would give as good an account of it as I could to save other people wailing and gnashing their teeth as I did. It happened to me this way. It was May 21, 27 years ago and I was in the monastery at the time. Our Lord had clued me in several moths earlier that it was coming off in the stage i previously spoke of Spiritual Bethrothal. Not through an apparition of locution but through inner spiritual assurance.
I love that idea, and I'm going to borrow it, I'm sure you won't mind . I often ponder this thought during weekday Mass: "There is nowhere on earth I could possibly be at this moment that would be better than where I am right now. Nowhere and nothing is better or more valuable than this." At this thought, the cold, half-empty church (yes, sad to say...I was once the only person there with the priest) is transformed into a paradise. However, it is sad to think how many people pass up this opportunity every day.
It was very early morning, I'd say about 5 am when I entered the Forest Park,right beside the Monastery with about five or six sheep dogs scattered round my feet. The park was very beautiful at that time of year, covered as it was in blankets of blue bells and people used to come from miles around to see them. Just after I entered the forest it was kind of like God reached down, picked me up, patted me on the head and said, 'Now you understand'. ..and that was that. No great visions or blowing of trumpets, but as I too stock I found, yes at last I did. That the final stage of prayer was not about being more complicated or greater , the final stage, the last Garden of Prayer was about radical simplicity. But so simple it seems so difficult to put into words. It is as though every heart beat, every breath that we take becomes a prayer. No. More than that it is that we ourselves are become prayer. That instead of saying the rosary we are become the rosary with every second , every minute of life is a bead of prayer. But a prayer than is no longer conscious effort, for this prayer is Eternal and so much a part of our self that it is ourselves. Constant, never ending, with no beginning the very gate way of heaven. Genesis 28 [16] And when Jacob awaked out of sleep, he said: Indeed the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. [17] And trembling he said: How terrible is this place! this is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven.
It seems to me that this prayer is beautifully described in the Parable of the Pearl pf great price. Matthew 13:45-46 45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: 46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. The person who enters this prayer has passed through the final gateway of donating themselves to God.They have sold all they have and in return get the Great Pearl, Spiritual Marriage. So in a real way all prayer is about this, giving yourself and giving yourself untill you have given your all. Heaven itself is like this , it is the Pearl of Great Price and we shall not enter heaven until we have paid the price. So it is my personal believe that no one will enter heaven until they pray in this way. God asks no less than that we sell all for thsi Pearl. Either we reach this Garden in this life or reach it in the next, in Purgatory ,but either way we must reach it. For this is what heaven is , the Eternal Prayer. But first we must pay the price.
Yes, this. How do you forgive those who are not your close surroundings but whom you view as the very instruments of the devil?
The key is identifying it for what it is as you have already done. As you said, they are "instruments of the devil" that have fallen for the lies. The saints in heaven see them as "poor sinners" whom God loves so very much but are on the wrong road. They would rejoice if they would just turn away from the lies. We need to pray for them. As much as I get frustrated with liberals, I need to pray, otherwise, my heart becomes hard and they may have nobody praying for them.
I have long since reached the conclusion that we humans are , of ourselves utterly incapable of forgiveness. It takes God's grace and it takes God's forgiveness big time. But to open the door to God's grace we need prayer, often prayer in a huge effort of constant prayer and fasting. Strange to be talking about this subject on Good Friday when the peace of the world seems to hang in the very balance and we need to pray for forgiveness and peace more than ever. I know people think Kim Jong-un is bluffing at the moment about launching an attack. But I saw a picture of him staring directly into a camera from a few hours ago and I am now convinced he is not bluffing one little bit. I am so glad when these things, like this arise in the world to say I feel bitterness and hate in my heart to no one, no one at all. Mary Queen of Peace, pray for us!!
I might be wrong but I think those words are mostly for the internal use. You won't believe how many scares of familiar scope I have lived through in the late 70s and early 80s while behind the very grim and strong ( as it seemed) Iron Curtain. I was a student in the university then and my profession made military service obligatory for even women, so it was scary. But those were the times one had to stand in a line for 3 hours to get 200 grams of butter....
I certainly hope so. Wars and rumours of wars just as Jesus warned. Mark 13:7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
When there is someone we must forgive because they have hurt us so much and we find forgiveness hard we can only do it by prayer and asking God to help us. In my life I have been hurt a few times and God has placed love in my heart for them.He has really helped me forgive.
Prayer can be looked on as an elastic band that pulls us back to God. Now the more we pray the stronger the elastic band become the greater the pull towards God becomes. We are a little like sheep who become less and less wild and more and more loving pets of the Good Shepherd. At the last Garden of Prayer Jesus gathers the faithful lamb to His heart and never permits it further to stray and the elastic band hag grown so powerful that the heart is forever stuck fast, heart to heart. I believe that this garden of prayer is also prefigured in scripture: Apocalypse 22 The water and tree of life. The conclusion. [1] And he shewed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. [2] In the midst of the street thereof, and on both sides of the river, was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruits every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. [3] And there shall be no curse any more; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. [4] And they shall see his face: and his name shall be on their foreheads. [5] And night shall be no more: and they shall not need the light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall enlighten them, and they shall reign for ever and ever. For now that which was once a tiny trickle has become a mighty sea totally inundating the Garden, this last seventh garden, of the soul.
