Treking

Regardless of  how much you wish to be far away from people, you may find that it is impossible. They live on in our memories and awareness.

If we are not engulfed in our own thoughts and consciousness, we are engulfed in something else, which may be very compelling. Such things are called temptations. The love of solitude is a healthy thing inasmuch as we spend our solitude in prayer, and not reminiscing about old friends or fond memories.

The pictures included on this post came from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV9Rc7yOSj0&ab_channel=ASunnyAdventure 

on Youtube. 

I spent quite a a bit of time searching for the photos included, two of which are of the sign and turn off that go to New Camaldoli Hermitage, and the Nepenthe Resort across the highway and down the mountainside a ways. At the moment the monastery is inaccessible because bad weather washed out the road. There is another route that can be taken to the monastery from the south but I don't know the particulars of how to get on the other route to arrive at the monastery. But, if you are looking for silence and solitude, the monastery is a great refuge from the din.

Don't Look Now

 

One wise little owl waiting.

Don't look now, but there is much we do not see, because our world and God's are so different. If He chooses to transcend our deficits, we can be uproarially happy. The soul that can forsake such joy is already a saint and belongs in His arms forever. 

The soul that can taste such happiness and turn right around and then embrace the cross in all its awefulness, is a saint already.

These facts explain the difficulties we have in life. Nothing works properly until we are one with Christ. We blame ourselves and despair of His mercy, until we arrive at the moment when we will lay down and let out our last breath forever.

Inherent in His distantness is the promise of mercy and the forgiveness of sin which all by themselves give us the wherewithall to surrender to death. I say surrender, because the thought of death is too formidable to think.

So much joy awaits the person who trusts in God and lives in spite of every pitfall we encounter. Other men plot taking away everything we have, and God at the same time is waiting to give us everything we need in abundance, and the fools taking still find a need to rationalize there inhumanity as if they don't find excuse enough, they will have failed. Thus, the nazis catalogues as many deaths with tatoos and the confiscation of the belonging of those they herded together to kill.

Don't waste your time looking for reasons; that is the greedy man's duty. He can't rest until he has accounted it all, forgetting that they too will render everything to God who will take our lives and remove them from all that was faulty about us and set us on our feet, completely new and functioning perfectly.

Every time the pain stabs into me again I am immobilized, and permit Him to inflict on me what others need to be saved and to be safe. Without gratitude to God there is no perspective large enough to allow anyone to see the truth hidden so accesbily to all of us, if only we could love enough.

Desolation and Pain

Shine and do not be ecclipsed.

No one wants to hear the deoslation of pain, the walls that cut a person off from life and hide him in a darkness without pity, which does not ennoble, but pushes him down into the dust and shadows of life so that he no longer exists.

God works in the desolation because no one will enter desolation to touch the suffering and dispel it.

God heals in the solitude and the silence which oppresses and prevents the afflcted from speaking, being heard, obtaining God's mercy by being healed.

He heals through love which must shine bright enough to dispel darkness, loneliness and the emptiness of being forgotten and not seen, nor heard in lamentations and suffering.

This is a charism, not of personal power or notoriety, but of moving across the floor pinned under the cross having been altered to be like Jesus dripping in pain and blood, to heal and free the oppressed from the Heart of heaven.

The people have prayed for millenia, for an end of wars, and the peace disrupted by hatred and greed. Now the time has become that when the humble speak, they are no longer ignored but are heard loud and clear, and the wars are extinguished by the great wind of the Holy Spirit's flight across the world, silencing the most horrendous sounds and speaking blessings where there was once only weeping.

The Lord did not wipe away civilization because He wished to demonstrate divine love so the waiting hearts of His children might  might listen and be revived, restored and mad whole again.

This is the work of the solitary guided into the work of peace and silence and solitude. It is not a place one is forbidden from weeping, but a place where crying out is heard by God and the silence is broken by cries of ehaling and restoration. The people may not hear it, but if they do they might be surprised, and edified by the humility of the soul on which the cross has lain unmoved. Pray always, pray now, pray for everyone and the fulfillment of His promises

Empty Dark

 

Youtube is full of speculation and fantastic conjecture that catches the eye, but provides the mind with little else. What is often missed is, that in the effort to get attention to boost readership, the truth gets kicked into a dust bin.

In the frist place, the crucifixion of  Jesus was nothing comforting. It was spectacular only because, in our beknighted age, crucifixion is such a brutal and barbaric assault on the senses. It was designed to be that way by the Romans. 

From the position of the crucified, everything about the execution was designed to be a spectacular assault on the sensibilities and the emotions, to egregiously state the  power of Rome afflicting those excited to rebellion.

In the  mind's eye, the contemplative cannot fail to notice the drama of the crucifixion of Jesus, and be moved by it appearing in what can be seen. For most pious and humble, it is not difficult to enter into a deep affectation. If it coincides with what Jesus wants and taking His victim by surprise, then the contemplative is launched full force into the crucifixion, nailed to nothing, but afflicted by wounds that point to the presence of nails, and the body bleeds in response. 

This might not have been what was anticipated to begin with; but if a person is afflicted with the wounds, he may be powerless to avoid the consequences of even slightly considering the reality of Christ's pain. The wounds go with the pain, the victim is fixed in the moments of Christ's torture, and his mission of atonement will coincide with the mission of Jesus for mankind. To be caught up in Jesus' plan for men, one is completely engulfed in the act of redemption by the Will of God.

It is not necessary to avoid the emotions which enrich what otherwise is a sterile experience of feelings. Life can be indifferent enough, and the atonement enacted in the victim's flesh is calculated to appease the anger of the Father in reaction to the emptiness of human hearts.

The sign of the supernatural is the lack of selfishness, and depths of selflessness with which the victim identifies with God and his human subjectes. Human beings are prone to being deceived by the enemy so that the emotions must be in control of God's presence, which they will be if the heart is in its rightful place deep in Jesus' love.

The love by which all this takes place, is regrettably, easilly twisted and used as a weapon against the victim. Jesus does not abandon a victim, however.

The need for caring and love cannot be overesmphasized, so the victim is swept up in emotions, which so happen to coincide with the loving depths of atonement.

No one wants to be mislead in the matter, or deceived by mere emotions, to be led off into selfish sin.

This is why poverty, chastity and obedience are invoked by those who would be Christ's victims. If one is diligent in the matter, one scarcely needs to be concerned, though one may be overcome by any thought of failing to coincide with the love of God's Will.

A person wishing to keep Jesus company will find Jesus happiness to see a soul concerned to be occupied with His Will. The constant care of Jesus for a person striving to be a monk is not long deprived of emotion, and the soul takes full advantage to enter into a deeper experience of love.

The cruelty of the Romans highlighted the dreadful emptiness and despair of the romans. In our age today, that darkness hangs heavilly over the human race, the very children of God. God has not failed to tell us we are filled with darkness and emptiness. He tells us so we might correct that situation. The man who would be a solitary monk, or hermit cannot help but be keenly and palpably aware of the state of modern Man, but also how aptly Jesus addressed the issue by spreading arms to His executionrs and yeilded to the full experience of the pain of the torture being inflicted.

We have examples abounding in experience of the emptiness and darkness about us, but if Jesus means to us all He should mean, we do not hesitate long to express our love for Him to comfort Him, however He may choose to use us. The openness of the soul who loves Jesus is touching, and the love between the two is  most obvious, moving hearts grasping at light to find divine love in every moment. 

So the age is surrounded by hidden light waiting for souls to ignite in it, finding burning love that purifies and enables union with God.

THe Grotto

 

The grotto of Massabile in Lourdes.

I would rather apologize to my Lord in humility, than pretend I am holy or outstanding in any way.

It is easy to be alone and ignored as a lost object. People who insult others can count on the Good Lord to rectify things in His justice, so that even the offender who ridicules and deprecates others can lay claim to no distinction except that the Good Lord chooses to dignify them with any virtue.

We must recognize our brother's virtues no matter how repugnant they may be. If we do not, then we can lay claim to no rights from God, nor gifts or any prodigies at all. It is better to enter heaven without distinction than to think we merit something that is no merit at all.

Some of the immiigrant people who live here insist on calling me "father", and even if I am at a distance in the main room, if they see me, they will rise and bow their head towards me. I make a point of greeting people whether I know them or not. I do not speak their language, but a smile is word enough, and after a while, people will recognize you and return your smile, and on a day when pain is particularly insistent, recognition, even by a stranger, is like a warm pat placed on the head in comforting.

If my mind is not beseieged by temptations, it is besieged by the intrusion of the most insistent pain, and I get only enough sleep to survive.

It is not pleasant to be the toy of a proud mind, to be reidiculed in their facile way, and relegated to the common scrap pile. If it had not been for the people who accompanied Him to Golgotha, the Lord's pprescious body would have been taken down roughly and and thrown into the pile of other crucified corpses  to rot and disintegrate. The Romans counted on that kind of evil to keep people compliant and obedient, even in the midst of hunger and abuse.

The people of God should recognize that Jesus endured all that He did in order to move us to love Him so that He might impose any emulation of His crucifixion and passion He would like, to appease the Father's justice.

I used to be astounded by science and the universe it describes, until I caught a glimpse of the passion of Our Lord, and it was all put into perspective for me. First comes love, then comprehension of magnificence and splendor of the Lord that science reveals, and I get to see that nothing I can know in this world will satisfy me after He has revealed His heart, even to the likes of me who is not worthy to know it.

I was touched when I learned about Padre Pio''s stigmatization.In the choir lift after Mass, he was kneeling in prayer before a crucifix when he was suddenly caught up in his own crucifixion alone and unaided, so that he had to crawl on his hands and knees to get back to his cell, where he was discovered on the flood in a pool of his own blood.

Despite losing as much blood each day as he did, Padre Pio was able to carry out his daily duties without accommodation. I hope one day to thank him for his generosity in giving himself over to the crucifixion which descended upon him.

I am able to do what I need to do, and it pleases me if I can offer some suffering to Jesus who endures so much at our hands, as if He were unworthy and contemptible. Rather, it is I who am contemptible, and I find myself often to have failed to yeild to accept some trifle, until He gently reminds me, and the stabbing pains stir again the memory of His love. If I am a star, I am an undistinguished one whose light is poor and who is unstedfast enough to sin or displease the Lord. At least to be humiliated by the recognition of one's weakness disposes one to try better, to love God and other people as He loved us.

Love sees what pleases God if one enters into knowledge of His love, which one may liken to a revelation. To accept incapacitating moments of pain for the sake of someone else's need does more than anything else to reveal God's love to us, if only we might have the generosity and humility to embrace Him; to embrace Jesus is to embrace the cross, and it is a noble place to be to accept His embrace of us in return, even when it occaisions a great deal of suffering unknown and in silent solitude.

Padre Pio was a human being with nerve endings, and an instinct of self preservation the same as all the rest of his companions in life. Still, he allowed the Lord to impose His crucifixion on him so that he might help save souls and ease the sufferings of so many who endured the second world war.

Now, we find ourselves surrounded everywhere with the greatest terrors and people cringe to contemplate the suffering about to enhulf them. And while nuclear annhilation is not pleasant, there is always some new innovation rearing its ugly head to kill millions or even more if possible. This modern age is so eager for invention that it has made the earth continually tremble in destruction and the terror those who are helpless to avoid the catastrophes we hail with such pride. That  pride will be utterly crushed. Live humbly in peace and pray in silence wherever you are. The  person who does will not go to hell, but will escape hell on the last day.

Shadows

 

A single maple leave betrays its presence by
despositing the tannin in the leaf. In Hiroshima,
I believe is where there is a shadow burnted into stone
where a man sat and was vaproised by an atomic
destonation.

It is siad that things unusual are about to happen, things that have not happened before. People will know what no one has spoken to them, and in the moment, the presence of god will stir in the world, in every corner of the soul, and people will be moved. 

This will take place to prepare hearts for His nearness so that anyone who has not known God will know Him and understand what has not been revealed. 

Tremendous things will happen on earth, and all who have scoffed will suddenly feel as if someone had slapped him in the back, expelling the very breath in his lungs, and his heart will be in terror knowing he has stood before God and acknowleged.

Then time will be interrupted, and many will leave this world summoned before God. In the moment, everything will be interrupted and stop, and men will cease their thinking, interrupted to hear God calling to them, implying an acknowledgement. 

Those accustomed to prayer and in particular, contemplation, will acquiesce to a quiet summons and an imperative response, and everything that was going to happen will have been interrupted while recognition is taking place, and the way things used to be will never be again, and that which has been waiting will take place, and the lovers of God in the world will no longer persist in this world but will arrive at the feet of the Son of God in obedience, and the humble will acknowlege Him and lead a prayer-song of praise for the Almighty.

I am the object of ridicule, but He made me to attract humility so I may resemble it. People are called to the silence and the solitude from which God calls and speaks, and if they listen, they become different.

I am the object of ignorance not knowing anything the world values, but full of what God placed within me, unknown. I would have been overwhelmed if He had revealed these things to me, but then the dream which must be seen would be avoided and the Will of the Lord have been negated. That must no be, and i approach Him to be forgiven sins and to be brought to union as He desires, so that His desire may be fulfilled.

The world is ignorant and indifferent, and they think the pain of the cross can be avoided by such deliberate ignorance. It isn't true. Those who have approached and have been united in the pain of the Lord know things that can heal souls and deliver sinners from indifference, and by their sacrificial bond in wounds, and bleeding pain, snatch them from eternal forsakenness to enjoy the love they have lived all their lives denying. But such suffering is without relief, so there are many souls who approach so that there may be relief for a few to rest in peace while someone else mounts by the power of the Lord onto the cross.

But those who think they can arrive at the truth without God, without the Church and without the holy ones of the Lord who approach them in the Name of the Lord, misunderstand what power is, but they will see it and in the terrible moments when upheaval overthrows human willing and desire will finally know who God is and what He intends, and they will be silent, without the ability to speak except to acknowledge God and welcome the sudden desire to be saved. Those who had desired and had prayed they might receive salvation will not have wasted all their sorrowful tears, but the earth will be flooded by their tears, and recognise God is love and love is almighty.

Every plan of men to destroy others will be contradicted, and in the midst of violence, divine peace will explode into the world to be seen, and they will see the truth and the Kingdom of God that He has fashioned for those who love. History will then be abrogated except for the righteousness committed by the just who love the Lord.

Events

 

Do not be afraid of spirtual events, prodigies and manifestations, for they accompany the Lord. He will prevent you from becoming proud and distancing you from His Heart, because He so longs for it to be closer to Him.

He will give you what you do not think you can bear, and the aridity of the silent solitude that surrounds God will engulf you, and in His presence He will make you able to endure anything.

All His soldiers must be ready to enter into that Presense. They must not fear the cross or being fastened to it, because He has engulfed you in His light and His love, so that all the pitiful beings that do not love Him might be obvious and you may see Him in the difference between their darkness and His light. He burns away all that is less than Him, and all that is less than you. Oh yes, do not be afraid or ashamed that your sins accuse you, for if it were not shown, His love would appear diminished, and how brightly His light shines in one who is unafraid.

Men long for what they do not understand, for visions and swooning ecstasies, the very visions of God, but it is not the one who faints in His love or hovers unbid in the insubstantial air who is holy or who is worthy. He makes you worthy in a moment He makes, and in that moment you are worthy by His love. It is no wonder that some truly do have visions and ecstaties, because He has made the capable of enduring His lot so that the very substance of being can hover in the air and the heart melt in the fire of His Heart's love.

Pining for sorrow, the sinner beholds his offenses, but God embraces and loves unbidden so that the being before hIm becomes one by His grace, engulfed in light and love and peace. Time diminishes even what is true and real, but nothing is lost in God who whole-heartedly embraces all who love Him, even the least.

Who is afraid of what vanishes in His forgiveness? But you must love in spite of the grief you have seen. The wight of the inspportable guilt is expunged and what was hidden beneath is illuminated by love and you are left in His glory and forgets the sins.

Yes, Jesus was given us so we may be fastened too and we might experience the freedom of the soul lifted up from its sins, to encounter the love of God which could be Man and be crucified and abandoned to death, for by so doing, we will live as we have thus far never known how to live, fully free and filled with the ineffable bliss of happiness that in His deepmost Heart exists to entice the weak and wary to love Him, daring to love as they have never loved. Such love is enkindled by the Lord to attract lovers to His Heart. You must struggle in life, but the struggles are so small compared to the deeds accomplished on the Cross.

We die and who remembers us or pines in sorrow in our passing? Jesus remembers us, who  have offended Him so that none should be forgotten, but having wept for our sins and denied ourselves, we may be ready to receive what we have been made ready to receive. He is not powerless to restore us to life, but He is able to cleanse us and to make us worthy to be near Him, even to embrace Him, not afraid of any pain of wounds of crucifixion, and those who  love Him are overwhelmed by the power of His love, being remembered and sought and embraced.

Triumphs

 I live in a small universe where small triumphs are occasions for joy. One gathers them together like a bee gathers nectar. Undoubtedly they would be of greater scope for others, but I am happy.

Having prayed and hoped that certain things might change, it is gratifying when all the pain has indeed yeilded a reward

The Lord, jesus, endured the harshness of the cross so we might feast with Him one day and everyone will be smiling who is seated at the table.

We are assured that the reward will be outstanding; indeed Scripture says "eye has not seen nor has ear heard what the Lord has in store for His beloved."

we must keep that promise uppermost in our minds and hearts because the enemy has no pity and will allow us nothing the Lord could demand, but He will be obeyed, even by evil.

When the day has dwidled into night and the darkness hovers in the mist, it can be hard and the cold can be merciless, and sleep will not settle long uponour face. But in the dawn, new light appears and the world is seen for what it is. 

For those in despair and pain, in loneliness and shame, our failures will certainly be shown us in vivid details by the fiend, but we will see the light of Him who triumphs.

The world may be inflamed and the suffering servants of the Lord will get up slowly to praise the Lord, and He will gather with us in joy and we will forget and live with Him in triumph.

Emulation

Father Anthony

 I feel a thousand  impullses tugging me along to go one way or another. I am inspired by the holiness of others, and incited to that same holinesss. But the Lord would have me remain still and silent, so that He may do the immense things He does to bring peace and quiet to a tumultuous world.

It is alright to be caught up in the tide of life, to feel motivated in a thousand directions, and it is alright to be tugged one way or another, just so long as your heart beats strong and solely for the Living God in whose life we share.

There are so many little ones whose light is snuffed early before it is really lit. Let us pray that He will give back to them their lives and heal them where they need. 

If you are aware of the suffering and sorrow so many endure, offer your participation in Jesus and His life as a result of the misery. All that is necessary is to remain silent and still before Him, and await His assumption of your moment up into His bliss and eternal love. Do that, and you will  be glad, and the gladness can be share by a mere movement of your heart to be beating near His.

By being still and quiet, St. Padre Pio was like a burning torch whose fire had power to give back life and to heal broken-heartedness. We may imitate Him in the silence and stillness, as He knows how to work miracles in the world.

You may see His love and be overwhelmed. Be glad in Him.

Bells

Let us make the bell toll with gladness and happiness.
 

The saint's lives are like great cathedral bells which sound loudly for all to hear to great distances. St. Padre Pio was born in 1887 and died in 1968, enduring the passion of Christ in physical wounds which hurt and bled for fifty years.

Many people have been affected by his life and in many places in the world, even though he never left the cloister to visit. There are many stories about how he was seen in places far distant from the monastery convent of the Capuchins where he lives. He is even said to have appeared in the air in the midst of an allied bomber formation headed to deal destruction with bombing attacks. His appearance spared people in cities nearby. So we do not know how one thing will set another into motion.

I am encouraged by the fact that good things can happen in one place and be felt in another, good things and holy things, the result of faith and love.

In part, I was spared death in Vietnam so I may serve God in my own humble way. it has been an opportunity to witness many things that stir faith in many people. It is sobering to realize that we are not alone, but interconnected by our faith and because of our love. His purpose is to increase our faith by proving that we are not doomed, by the positive outcome of many terrible events.

I havenot been blessed with the stigmata like Padre Pio, and I am glad to indicate the goodness of His servants, some who have been declared saints and some not yet. But because of the arthritis and several other things over the years, i have been afforded a participation in His suffering redemption. No one should feel defeated or demeaned by suffering when one would prefer to be healed and suffering ended. But we have the choice to acquiesce to suffering, or to obtain the healing possible in the Lord. Service to the Lord is by our willing act, unless He explicitly makes note that He would like to offer us the chance of suffering to please His Heart.

The grace of the life of Padre Pio was great enough to span distances and time itself. That grace was loud enough to be heard anywhere the Lord can reach and be heard, just like a great cathedral bell. Some pull the great ropes that move the bell to make it toll, and some simply respond with love toward God when they hear the bell. Both are in plain sight of the Lord who is aware of all that happens, and whatever great deeds we have done will be known to all holy people with the Lord.

New Vows

 

In humility and need of you, my Lord Jesus and my Mother, Mary,I pledge myself
all my days, to You and no other until my days are done and I come
to You.

+

Solitude

 

Rise or set, there is no correct answer,
fortunately.

The deeper the solitude, the deeper the solitude I want.

God is infinite, and it should surprise no one that in His immense  infinity, He does not fit  into anything we can conceive.

It is in genuine solitude that you appreciate His greatness and His immense love. Solitude is a spiritual thing, not a physical measurement, like miles or kilometers. While one can retreat farther into a cave, it is not until you have gone all the way to the back that you realize how close everything is in being a living being. Clearly, existence does not define solitude. It is purely spiritual, which is to say, divine.

Once you have realized that solitude is existential and not mathematical, you realize how difficult it is to be truly spiritual in the midst over seven billion other human beings. And every one of the seven billion that exist all crave the love and acceptance of God who does not retreat away from us; it is we who are retreating away from Him, in terror of the materialism that defines all other aspects of life.

It is not possessing things that fulfills the human longing for unity with God who fills every place and everything and lives and moves and has His being in every moment of our existence.

If one craves real solitude, first of all, it is a divine invitation to us to embrace. There is no more certain means of finding solitude than embracing every thing that pains us and fills us with longings we can scarcely define. But of all the cravings, one alone is certain to transcend our limitations to effect a state in which we are close to Him in understanding, and that is in suffering.

Jesus provided Himself as the one efficacious and forgiving sacrifice which atones and satisfies all needs. The longings are silenced when death cuts us off from the longing to enable us to feel the fulfillment that is at the deepest depths of yearning. The possibility of union with Him has driven countless saintly children of God  to embrace poverty, solitude and perpetual longing. The most crass kind of solitude is called loneliness. A transcendance awaits one who chooses to love God as He is found, and not according to one's desires, because the gratification of the longing is a satisfaction of human longing and not the divine longing that waits our embrace. I have been on the cross a long time, high enough above the earth so that the blood drops fall on the dusty earth with a definite sound. From that distance, entering into the divine suffering, one sees adequately to appreciate His love for us. One day, perhaps, it will resolve itself so I may find rest in Him that satisfied.

Notice

 

Someone who thinks he is God's messenger and pet, needs to act differently than to deliberately call out the national guard and police on people who love this country and would love the opportunity to contribute to its defense and contribute to its financial well being.

People who are rejected frequently hold treasures  of wealth and prosperity. But i state the obvious. If people are aborting their babies so they are  not inconvenienced are the same ones who don't want certain people polluting their neighborhood with the breath of their life. 

The people who are stunned by grapefruit sized hail day after day need to think a little deeper to grasp the reason why. The picture ought to be a little clearer by now; pollution is a result of combustion waste. Until it is removed from the atmosphere, the atmosphere will continue in its relentless rampage tearing up neighborhoods, until the impoverished in the world are living like the wealthiest people on the planet. They will be dismayed when it all gets overturned and there is no place safe  from discomfort in the world.

At this time, we live in an era of awakening as a message of austerity finds its way into the minds and hearts of everybody. Don't ask God to be moderate with you  if you spare no thought for those already suffering lack and see only a black sky of need. 

Burn your bombs, seek  out the oppressed, the starving, those dying of thirst without relief, and the people who live isolated from other human beings. Forget your trade wars, and all other  kinds of war, and make a warm place for love to grow in your heart. If you cannot do that, then make your peace with God as best you can and prepare for the next  life.

Offering

If you do not feel as if you could console that Heart, begin by allowing your love to come forth like a fountain within your own, and let it burst forth in a torrent full of joy.

If you are suffering, offer it to Him; it is no ragged thing you offer, but the center of your being. That is His home; He made it so purposely.

Remind yourself that the Father helped the Son to mount the cross and die for you. If you think you cannot offer the Father His Son's death, think again. He is already dying waiting for your love, and if you will some day give it to Him, He will reveal Himself.

There are those who begrudge you the consolation of your own heart, and try to separate you from His Heart so you will forget to offer your heart to Him. Always look for a way to be in a position to offer Him your heart, regardless of how you feel. Do not let a feeling deter you. He will not allow anything to deter you from loving Him and receiving refreshment and peace. His love lives in these two things, so searching for His love is not impossible. Finding it is even less difficult.

Amen +

 

Memorial Day

Rest, brother and be at peace.

 I have no explanation for the joy of your heart within me, except to plead you never leave  me or bandon me. 

Forgive my sins as a sign to your children that you love them enough to pardon them, and give each one your grace and strength.

I cannot say I was a good steward, or even a good son of your gifts, except to say, You are so boundless in your love and happiness, that it spills over like a spring bursting out its confinement to leap up to heaven to be near with you.

I am not unvisited, and I am not ignorant of your passion, but in the manner you desired I have been fixed to a cross as real as life, and as incomprehensible as light.

Let your Light shone on me, and on all your children Lord, and bless them with Yourself.

Amen.

A Unique Position

 

The Mother of God, Mary, has never been seen bearing the wounds of Jesus, Her son. However, A different perspective may be obtained by dedicating our silence to Her in a penance that makes us not just worthy to participate, but ready and willing for Her love.

I am glad She was never made to suffer that kind of pain, but She was present when He was nailed to the cross, and in a mystical way, She experienced the passion fully, and on occasion, has been present as someone else received the Stigmata as She enabled her to do so. I refer to Saint Gemma Galgani.

If anyone can bear the unbearable, it is Mary the Mother of God. And yet, because of Her love, She is able to free us from sin and heal us of all things wrong with us.

All the things wrong with the world today are solvable by asking Her intercession to the Father through Her son. And for this reason, we should pray the Rosary daily, and ask for the solving all things wrong, the wars, the insolent rejection of Jesus and the Church, and the crimes committed everywhere which burden our hearts with pain.

The Mother of God knows what is wrong and how to fix it. At the same time, a great deal of gratitude and humility must be present to obtain our answer. If at first you do not receive what you ask, ask Her how to obtain the gift you seek.

Anyone willing to recall Her life and stand by Her side in the passion, should receive what they ask because they love the Mother of God.

The children of God are not afraid to endure suffering or pain in order to obtain the salvation of souls and the things necessary for salvation.

Useless

If He has given us light, let us do what we can
to be illuminated by it. Let no one think he is
useless in such great light as God provides.

 It is not alright to let someone crumble down to nothing and do nothing to help. At the very least, one should ask if there is anything we can do. The trouble is, that, in crumbling, they take others with them as the mountains fall apart atop of them.

One of the most egregious such events is the disintegration of donald trump, who, having torn up civilization as we know it, now loses control of himself and does nothing useful  in the process.

I can't help but think, there is something we can do, each and every one of us, to help save as much of our civilization as possible.

Nuclear war is no more inevitable than any other kind of war. And it is not alright to stand by and watch as aggressors attack peaceful countries and start destroying their civilizations without at least the dignity of a declaration of war. Flying in dozens of military airplanes loaded with bombs and missiles without provocation to drop them indiscriminately on helpless people is not alright.

On the other hand, cooperating with other nations whose  policies are the annihilation of entire populations is genocide, and unacceptable. Plainly, either we are for civilization or we are for annihilation. Religions that permit or foster the planned destruction of people because of their religion is genocide, and I will say it again, is genocide. There is zero tolerance in God' eyes for the planned destruction of peoples.

God permits many things, defying imagination and comprehension. The things He permits may means loved ones die, lives are disrupted and civilizations disrupted irrevocably. But those who are praying for the salvation of other people are righteous, and in enduring the unendurable, God is glorified by them in their suffering.

Before we were born, He planned to come down and live a life among us and give us the opportunity of participating in salvation and the exaltation of those suffering by being glorified by Him. The participation is living in and with bliss as much as agony, and for some, the two coincide in an unspeakable moment of understanding and peace which supersedes all that has gone before.

I can ask myself, have I really suffered enough to be worth enough to Him to be loved? The answer is always "yes", and when I can comprehend and encompass my experiences, I am speechless that there is nothing appropriate to say. To be silenced in such a way is astonishing.

My prayers are not always granted in the way I wished, but they are acknowledged by Him and He may be edified by our love.

Silence is exquisite, allowing us to experience peace, and in the peace, the love of God, and therefore, the silence is unspeakably valuable. Whether He answers us in a way we immediately comprehend or not, is not important; He made us, and gave us gifts that are immensely powerful; more powerful than armies, navies or air forces. But if we create them, then we must control how we use them. What He does with us depends on our actions. Dropping another megaton of TNT on top of human beings does not bring anything enjoyable on us, adds nothing to the bottom line and gains no favor from the Lord. Any religion that things otherwise is destined to a dark and miserable end.

In the end, if all we actually got out of bombing people was a little thrill, then we have lost our humanity, and our civilization has proved a worthless waste of time. We did not surpass ourselves in the last two world wars; our weapons have dehumanized us and our victims, and perhaps has cut us off from ourselves by cutting us off from God. He stands seeing what we did and what we planned to do, and we will have to try again. If current trends continue as they are now, we will create devices capable of destroying our planet itself while we stand in empty space. The feeling of solid ground disappearing from underneath our feet in a dark and airless void is terrifying at least. Having to wait for a comet strike to kill us is no more edifying than waiting for a warhead to ignite above us and reduce us to radioactive dust.

Pain

 

Today, my hands are full of sorrow, of loneliness and suffering, bearing forward unseen, carrying a cross where every empty heart shines in the light of God's love and is filled with peace and joy for those whose eyes will not close so the soul might see the Face of Christ in peace, being filled by the Holy Spirit with power to love and to disclose divine love.

Comfort denied, prevented, hurts twice as much because it thrusts pain forward in every gesture. He bids me go with Him, to suffer with Him, and demonstrate His divine love until I may rest in peace again seeing the gift of love bestowed brightly visible.

He asks for prayers with which to comfort all those who were forced to die by dictators, without any comfort.

He asks for all to pray for all those whose homes were callously bombarded by greedy selfish animals, and all the young lives cut off from life without mercy, and destruction.

Let the tongues who cry out for war fall off the beasts who crave war. In their place, all those who suffer at their hand should ask God for forgiveness and mercy over the whole earth until the sounds of hatred and violence falls silent.

I do not know when I will realize the pain has been alleviated, and God has walked among us again to assert His reign, but I do not whimper; but move with Christ until He is satisfied that there are men and women in the world who do themselves love God beyond everything and move forward until they meet Him face to face and the meaning of the world we live on is made manifest to our darkness with the satisfaction of Almighty God.

Penetrare et Perforate, sed sola Amore tuo.

Many people wonder about the meaning, the "why" of St. Padre Pio's stigmata. I think it was not a matter of worthiness, so much as the Will of God being embodied to serve the salvation of souls and the Church Herself. 

it may be the Church will suffer a great deal in the coming years, right along with the faithful and even the unfaithful of the Church, and perhaps, for the sake of having something sufficient to the need of the human race.

It is eminently practical that rather than several million stigmatists, there should be only one, taking on himself miraculously, the sin and need of the human race, with Jesus, which was sufficient for the need, but not encompassing everyone.

So, anyone who feels the same charity that St. Padre Pio felt kneeling before the crucifix with the Corpus hanging so near, knows the weeping and lamentation as he undergoes the imprinting of His crucifixion on himself as on a parchment of the needs of the Church.

The world does not exist outside of the Heart of Charity of Jesus. which is to say, he who encounters the love surrounding the place of the skull, encounters the Person and personal suffering of the Lord, Crucified. And he who encounters that, encounters Jesus personally, and not in some empty desolation, but in the furnace of love which engulfed every sensation of the crucifixion of Jesus. One could not experience the passion except with suffering the true pain and suffering of a human being who is also the Divine Lord.

It was all too easy to deprive Padre Pio of happiness by preventing him from hearing confessions, saying Mass or the ordinary joy of the existence of another human being. So, the miracle of the imprinting of the wounds of Jesus on Padre Pio was three-fold deprivation of the kindling of love in an extraordinary heart. But the heart was the first to be wounded, so that, in fifty years of bearing the wounds of Jesus, he might be available constantly and continuously, to intercede on our behalf of and for the salvation of many souls.

 I do not think one can encounter the person of Padre Pio and not suffer with him. Surely, as we are sinners, we are in need of healing, which abundantly encompassed all who approached Padre Pio. No one was outside the sphere of his healing power, the power and efficacy of his Holy Mass or encountered some disembodied wraithe, but he was wholly and entirely loving as Jesus loved in him.

I wanted to write this down before it wafted away from my old mind. If someone wanted to, they could easily carry me off like an old chair; it would not be hard. By the same token, it was not hard to do what they willed with the Padre, because he was so surrendered to the Lord, that he had no strength to resist His Will. O Padre, help my poor tattered soul !

I do not know how, but He has imprinted me, and I do not feel I can resist either, but let me know His love in your love for me, and enable me to be an offering, but one that is worthy in your estimation.

Deeper

 

To be a saint it is only necessary to be ready to love Him as He asks. It is amazing to regard with what love He deals with us. He is always ready to reach out to us in our daily, ordinary lives, constantly vigilant of any opportunity to please Him, whether what He asks is very little, or very great. Thus, pain that appears suddenly might be a request for more of your attention. Your soul might be fortunate to be asked only for your awareness, presence and willingness to be at His disposal.

If one's cross is small, so might the pain you share with Him hanging on the cross. On the other hand, the unbearable pain that can make its sudden appearance can likewise manifest how small our love is by the unwillingness to share any more pain than what is already at hand.

Often, saints have been saints from an early stage in their lives. They became aware of Him and the extraordinary nature of the love He was extending to them. Therefore, if you find yourself pierced through with pain accompanied with no visible sign of its origin, let your first prayer be to be able to bear it for His love, whether it is accompanied with bliss, or not, which is often associated with great sufferings. 

The trappings of modern life are such that they are captivating in themselves. They are capable of fascinating us with awe for their beauty and appreciation of human imagination which all tend to a level of comfort. What a surprise when we discover how extraordinary are His intentions to engulf us in bliss and agony all at the same time. One might even be tempted to ask how it can be unreasonable to enjoy one's place at such a sumptuous table. But the Lord invites us precisely at the realization of happiness at possessing what is possible in the moment. I testify that he has asked me abruptly on many occasions for reasons not disclosed, to embrace the unembraceable suffering, fully aware of its connection with His passion, and of His audcity to ask us. Truly, if we would love Him, we must be willing. 

His audacity in asking might be a sign of great importance to us in growing holier and less selfish and, indeed, selfless. Whether you are actually asked in an explicit way to suffer on His cross, or not, you must consider that He invites you to greater, sweeter love of Him, if you are ready and willing. If you are asked without a disclosure of His intention to permit your suffering or to permit its increase,life is eternal and so is His reward. Consider, also, that many other souls depend on your vigilance in willing to be aware of His desire for your company in a particular.

In the present day, wars break out, unprovoked and unjust, such as in Ukraine, but also in Israel and the greater middle east and even among our allies, that threaten wholesale destruction. If it is not that, then it is a personal crisis, a life-threatening physical incident, or even simply to loss of someone we loved. Giving the heart without asking for the reason, is the highest step before union, a selfless loving surrender to His intent.

I do not say it is always easy to say "yes", though often it is, simply to build our trust so we can be strong enough to actually persevere. Put yes is never trivial, but is easier if we have already previously been asked a lot and we have given the best we have. we cannot help but be closer to Him, and in being closer, we might be susceptible of being asked more explicitly.

How can I refuse You Lord. My hands hurt so much, and the least movement reminds me immediately of your cross. You touch them and make them holy to receive your grace and gifts. Let them, thus, be occasions of you grace and love, since you have so abundantly forgotten my sins and continued to be my Lord. I am only afraid I cannot bear the pain I do not know.Let my misery be the occasion of the greatest graces needed by my friends and enemies, so that it can be seen that you are love and desire from us only love, we who have been so reluctant. Quell the surge of fear the enemy launches at us, and let us invoke your love to protect us through anything.

Embrace me so your people may come to know the sweetness of your embrace, and strengthen their love to withstand the violence of the enemy,  show the world what it is to live in God and He in us, through love.

Apppreciation

Dear Padre Pio, I come to you for refuge
from my troubles, humbling myself in the
dirt at the foot of the cross where i belong 
because of my sins. Please listen to me
patiently and hear my petition from heaven
where you dwell with Jesus forever.
amen.
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 I have gained new insight and appreciation of St. Padre Pio since the sudden onset of arthritis in my hip and wrists. Aspirin and some pain patches I can wear together alleviate some of the pain, but not all of it and stiffness doesn't help. Consequently, I don't write as much as I have been used to.

If you have serious illness crop up suddenly, A prayer to Padre Pio will be a big help; he has helped me so many times, I am in danger of forgetting what all he has done.

A humble heart and spirit will open his heart.

Discipline

 

Some people hear discipline and immediately associate punishment. Yet, discipline motivates us to take care of important things, like taking medications on time, and avoiding eating certain things because of heart health. Without discipline, nature herself would not be able to function.

And still, I am not talking about flagellation or beating one self. I  know people who are religious and "take the discipline" regularly. I never thought it accomplished very much for spiritual growth, whereas fasting allows us to awaken spiritually and to show the world that one loves God more than himself.

While there is nothing dirty about the world, the people in the world can readily choose things that they know lead to the commission of a sin. Fasting can give us strength that avoids sin, or it can awaken us to weakness by which we excuse ourselves from something important. taken over a period of time, that weakness, like water freezing in a crack, can break rock apart along faults that no one realized was there.

It is amusing to see people defending themselves when they know they may be leading people into sinful thinking, such as women who insist that it is perfectly wholesome to display as much of themselves as possible, and they pride themselves that they can still tempt a man to sin. They can draw a person to the edge of a precipice no normal person would attempt to jump off of. The water below may be very deep, but tocks below that are not immediately visible can cave in a man's head.

Our flaws appear in the light of God which have an uncanny effect of interrupting a beautiful picture. The flaw can be devastating, seen in such brilliance, but we can grow used to the incredible power of God's light and we may not respond as we first did when He revealed Himself to us. But people who love Him respond by loving Him more in response to our reaction.

He waits for us with great patience to avail ourselves of the greater abundance of His grace, and we do, we grow, and a deeper resonance develops. 

Peace be with you +

Passage

 Passage

Pope Framcis, dead at 88 Monday April 21, 2025

Pope Francis has died, and we gather to speed him on his way into the light of Christ which he tried to reveal at every turn regardless of what he suffered. He participated in the cross of Christ by His invitation, and so having suffered, he has participated in the salvation of each man, woman and child of the whole human race.

We commemorate the beloved of this world in order to count the passage of so many flames of His love. The light of God is always present in the world; let us never forget we are family, and try to reconcile differences so that we might live in peace and defeat the hatred and violence which continually assaults the world to destroy it and all of us.

Let us remember the life of Jesus in order to conform to it. Let our prayers never cease, and let no prayer be lacking to those who most need help. 

In the conflicts of the world, let our love prevail and our love of Christ prevent violence and defeat it as the failure not of love, but of the inimical being that hates what we love. Never give up praying, and never forget those we promised to pray for and add to our efforts, the intercession that saves souls, mindful that we are all on our own way to depart from this life of struggle. God help us and fill us with His light to guide us and His love to overcome evil. 

Good Friday

 

He was hidden in His humanity, yet His humanity
desired our love and we did not see what He wanted
until the lance had passed into His Heart.
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I love watching planes take off in videos on Youtube. My understanding of the phenomena involved is the same as everybody else's. so I am grateful to be able to understand at all.

Similarly, I love when Jesus shares His pain with me on Good Friday as He has done this year. He does not choose to share the bleeding, and that is fortunate because it would be messy, and, unlike St. Padre Pio, I lack a community, being a hermit, and the service rendered by such a community.

One of the sweetest impressions one gets from movies on the subject of Padre Pio, is the respect and dignity rendered by them toward one of their own. Let us be clear about stimata; they are a share of Jesus' Body and consequently, of His passion, and one way or another, His bleeding and His pain.

This year i turned 78, and He has been most generous sharing with me, and I do not deserve it. He has allowed joy to seep in around the edges with quiet little moments in which to enjoy His presence; the pain is like a violin to a fine wine or a sumptuous chocolate bar. I don't see the future as some have, but I can guess what may be around the corner, and it is frightful to say the least. People will be desperate to find one person sound and whole enough of mind that they might attempt to find some sense in the mélange from him or her. Be clear, the sharing they want cannot be, and God will not grant it except if it meets His criteria, and He judgment is high indeed.

People have already been suffering enough, or I would not suffer anything consequential. As it is, I can suffer rejection, physical pain and ill judgement enough for any ten men, and endure it by myself. There is only one person I would like for company as it is, and  He is my divine Lord, Jesus.  People respond in all sorts of way to His presence, many having no idea who He is, yet they can find comfort and delight in Him the same as me, and it is lovely to celebrate that together in Garden.

Some people do not make the connection between the pleasure of His company and the presence of Jesus in prayer, and that is a gift of contemplation in which all manner of wonders may be seen, stigmata being only one of them. They share His Body, who suffer His passion and His Spirit, and He does not spare  much for their sake. Padre Pio suffered day and night, and frequently at night at the hands of evil and demons, when he would be mercilessly beaten and mistreated, so that at one point he required surgery to repair a hernia, a procedure he underwent without anesthesia. We can glimpse his state in the Mass he celebrated with such devotion that his face wat stained with tears, contorted in suffering. Only a block of wood could be impervious to what was seen by people then. It was silent, very silent in the church during Mass with Padre Pio. People knew He was present, though it is unlikely many had any vision during that time, to explain.

And again, visions are often manifest in the lives of those who lived to pray and prayed with Jesus at their side, united into His happiness and His life itself. That is the essence of a mystical life. Life as a mystic has no subtitles, ordinarily, but there again, there are signs enough that any observer of someone in that kind of prayer cannot be mistaken. A mystic may be defined as someone who shares in the life of Jesus by experiencing His life by His grace and charity. People who were around Padre Pio while he was praying saw him transfigured, and awesome things often happened in his prayers.

A person can share in great joy and happiness, who share in His life through prayer. I know, because I shared with people whom I would unequivocally call mystics. There are many places in Scripture of this week that it is stated strange things happened during the time of His passion.

For everyone, we are called to share together in the penitence of forgiving and being forgiven, which is to say, that they shared in His healing power through means none of us can understand. To forgive is to shed mercy like a rain the desert, and forgive like men freed from the yoke of slavery and the lot of the starving and dying, impoverished and some blessed to have their burden borne by Christ Himself.

He bore all our pain and suffering, but it is a special gift when He bore our wounds and bleeding pain, and shared with us so we could witness His absolute solidarity with the human race. All this evil has forsaken and repudiated, unable to endure the goodness and holiness of Jesus, let alone His light and peace which are His abundant gift to those disposed by divine love to be enabled.

He has enabled me. He loves me and forgives me and the human race may witness His love if they wish, if they can stand to repudiate evil and we can endure His embrace, pierced and bleeding on this day we commemorate forever. 

Sin is to obtain what is desired, forsaking Christ in the process, since either we choose Jesus in a moment, or we choose our own gratification, hoping He does not see and does not know. But He does see, and He does know, and all of Heaven does, and certainly those who choose suffering instead of pain and loneliness instead of His company and His light. But there is a difference between foregoing a good thing for His sake and sinning to satisfy our needs.

I bear what He chose to give me, and I have found impervious joy in having chosen, and having been granted the opportunity to choose the divine Lord, beaten, forsaken and forgotten, denied and not chosen. What little things such treasure rest upon; it is amazing that such little implements as nails in hands and feet, and the one great lance that opened the Heart of Jesus the Lord so we may be physically present to Him in our choices and He may be present to us in His embrace.

Make no mistake, the wickedness of evil is very plain to see, and contemptuous of all who serve Jesus Christ. His light waits to fall on the dawn of this day and all souls good or bad, with the hope that He may be reunited to those who have gone astray. Therefore let us do penance denying ourselves little things, remembering what He chose to forsake so He could bless His cross with obedience to His Father. If we accept our cross, our portion of is nails and lance, it cannot be otherwise than that He will rescue us from evil and keep us safe in that way which is eternal union with the bliss of Love.

The world He created was not evil; it was perfect, created out of His perfect love as an example and statement to  all who would serve Him in life. He has spoken that word to us, and we must still finish our trials by which we attempt to make the right choices in life, and to ask to be forgiven so that He knows we have chosen Him and desire to be with Him, and not with the ones who have forsaken life.

Weeping Silence

Nature itself has been formed into a specific shape
to speak a certain word, and we are impoverished
if we pay it no heed.

Spread wide the palms of your hands, and bare your side to receive His love, that incomprehensible gift of agony which is love and without no man can draw a breath. Walk on those feet cruelly fastened to the tree, look through your blood clogged eyes on the savior of the human race.

How few they are who do, or even dare the think they could bear, such incomprehendible weight on their own frailty.

He drives in each nail on His victim loves, and cries out the lamentation that cannot be spoken because it hurts too much. He waits for His turn to say "It is is finished" without voice, without sound, without encompassing all He did in His short life.

Now, when He arranges for my frail limbs to be raised up to greet His deeds, the world still does not see what He is doing, but every deed requested by those lovers of His love are granted in spite of it all. It is a short span of time, the nailing of the innocent man to the abominable cross. His final act is to cease, to stop, to let out the last breath and not take another. His lovers mimic Him the best they can, and the world goes by in silence because there is nothing else to be done.

All His deeds will be revealed, and all our love unveiled in the midst of the unbelieving. 

They could not even disbelieve if it were not granted from above. Their haughty, arrogant snarls give way to the wave of love that will transfigure the whole earth, and reveal everything.

With my hands spread fixed to the cross I cannot reveal what He has done; I only stand still in the silence and the nothingness of the wilderness. Surely He will come soon to reveal His love to me so that I may be finished, completed His love having succeeded even with me. You cannot see, but He will reveal, and the pain will cease in the glory of His light.