Wounds

 Youtube video about Padre Pio and the stigmata

I was marvelling at how many mornings just like this one, I have been alive and filled with joy, even in the midst of the sufferings present. In a while, the clouds that crept in during the night will evaporate, and the sun will shine, making it an even more splendid moment.

We can be thankful for everything, good or bad, that happens to us, and in the moments we pass that way, we may feel the joy knowing we are close to Jesus, and to victory even if it is our last. We must live in the moment that way, with the mixture of the sad and the joyful because it is the state in which our Lord lives.
He chooses to live with us thus, and every moment is a blessing. On the day we leave everything behind, we can bless the Lord to have survived through all He assigned us for our purification and blessing.

I know that some suffer a great deal, all the more so because there is no other way provided, and the going can get really tough. But I can find solace and happiness dwelling as I do in pain, watching others finding their own way to walk in the footsteps of Jesus on His way to the place of the skull, Golgotha.

It was not a festive occasion the day He was condemned to death and made to carry His cross to the place where He would be nailed up to it and left upright to hang by nails in His wounds. He does not ask very many to enter into the depths of that anguish, but to a lesser extent, we all participate in it until there is no other thought left in our head but that we love Jesus.

So great was that day, that He shares it with everyone who will experiencee salvation because He did.

Do Him the favor of looking on a crucifix and recall His love in enduring the fastening of His Body to the cross, and in your heart keep Him company a for a moment and rest in peace with your head on His chest, listening to the beating of His Heart of love.

Wounds

 Youtube video about Padre Pio and the stigmata

I was marvelling at how many mornings just like this one, I have been alive and filled with joy, even in the midst of the sufferings present. In a while, the clouds that crept in during the night will evaporate, and the sun will shine, making it an even more splendid moment.

We can be thankful for everything, good or bad, that happens to us, and in the moments we pass that way, we may feel the joy knowing we are close to Jesus, and to victory even if it is our last. We must live in the moment that way, with the mixture of the sad and the joyful because it is the state in which our Lord lives.
He chooses to live with us thus, and every moment is a blessing. On the day we leave everything behind, we can bless the Lord to have survived through all He assigned us for our purification and blessing.

I know that some suffer a great deal, all the more so because there is no other way provided, and the going can get really tough. But I can find solace and happiness dwelling as I do in pain, watching others finding their own way to walk in the footsteps of Jesus on His way to the place of the skull, Golgotha.

It was not a festive occasion the day He was condemned to death and made to carry His cross to the place where He would be nailed up to it and left upright to hang by nails in His wounds. He does not ask very many to enter into the depths of that anguish, but to a lesser extent, we all participate in it until there is no other thought left in our head but that we love Jesus.

So great was that day, that He shares it with everyone who will experiencee salvation because He did.

Do Him the favor of looking on a crucifix and recall His love in enduring the fastening of His Body to the cross, and in your heart keep Him company a for a moment and rest in peace with your head on His chest, listening to the beating of His Heart of love.

Through and Through

Tranverberation

Transverberation of St. Theresa of Avila

I was unaware that saint John of the Cross had experienced this, though I knew St. Padre Pio had experienced this piercing of the soul.

Being Friday, it is salutary to dwell for a moment on the suffering of the cross. Always, the answer to desiring greater fervor towards God, is some understanding of the suffering Jesus endured for souls.

The spirit is united intimately with the body, and the body cannot endure without the spirit. So, for all Christians, and indeed, for all lovers of God, there is a great mystery at hand, in which the spirit and the soul live together and are involved in the presence of God while we are present in the world. The one operates on the other, so that being deprived in body of the physical things needed for life, causes an equal yearning and physical pain in the body and mind.

One reason for ecstasy is that what God wishes to accomplish is important enough for Him to accelerate our growth spiritually and to prepare us physically for what the spirit will impose on the physical.

To be clear, it must be said that if the spirit suffers, it is also reflected in the body, and suffering in the body also affects the spirit. What we can experience in the flesh is moderated by the flesh, so that if we were suddenly lifted out of our spirit, the body could experience what would be prevented otherwise. In purgatory, souls are purified in an intense action that heals and perfects what would otherwise prevent the soul from achieving its union with the Lord, entry into heaven.

The spirit can be inflamed by the Lord's love so that if He wishes to intensify our experience of His love, He can do so, and the physical heart can be so affected that it truly feels as if it were about to explode, from the intensification of love.

Padre Pio experienced the transverberation of his heart, and later, the piercing of his hands and feet as if he had actually been crucified, and they remained present to him physically for fifty years, after which time the wounds were no longer visibly present though they persisted as pain in his body.

Padre Pio also said, when asked, that the pain of the wounds could intensify or diminish according to what he was doing in the carrying out of his duties as a monk and member of a community. That he walked where he needed to, and wrote when required to do so, testifies to the power of God's love which made it possible to operate in the fulfillment of his duties.

Although individuals can experience the passion of Jesus in their bodies, that can wane or wax, so that the liturgical year was reflected in the body and spirit of those who endured and experienced the passion of Jesus, so that on Fridays, many sufferd far more fully in the passion of Jesus, and on Good Friday.

The pain can be present and manifest with every breath you take, if you participate in Christ's passion in physical way. Sometimes the suffering is manifest as anxiety and dread such as condemned people endure, and it can be even more intense than if it were a physical manifestation. 

One can suffer greatly from a denial of the fulfillment of a prayer to participate in the wounds of Jesus in His passion, but since He is present in all time and space, He may immerse us at any time in His suffering in a way that will satisfy His Will for the individual, with or without granting their prayer regarding entering into participation of the passion. 

It must be said, that without that wilingness of spirit which is a most pure love, it is not possible to enter into His passion or to deal with its realities in living a daily life amongst other persons, and it is certain, that if we do suffer, that it will be efficacious for souls suffering to mitigate their sins toward their salvation. As you can imagine, with something that important, the Lord is no lazy or indifferent and very much anticipates the growth of the soul participating and longs for the salvation of the soul involved. For this reason, He will insist on a soul being faithful and loving more, even if it becomes more difficult, given what the Lord is doing.

No one may know, or have any inkling that a person is being blessed with participation in His passion-life, until He reveals it for His purposes to the sufferer.

Given the great strength and resilience built into participation in the passion of Christ, we should nevertheless treat everyone as if they already had risen to such a height as to be privileged to live the same passion as Christ. Therefore, treat everyone as very fragile and protect one another with your prayers, because you do not see how He is manifesting Himself to the world in the person of that one whom the Lord loves, and there is no one He does not love.

All are eligible to love Him even to the depths of pain in His sufferings, just as a chalice is made eligible to hold the consecrated Blood of Christ in the Mass.

People are paying dearly for their love of God. The suffering in the world is obvious to the inhabitants of the world, though it takes a different mindset to realize how the Lord is obviously present in the midst of all the suffering in the world, and is operating for the souls in the world who suffer so that it will be credited to them when they are at last united to Him.

Continue praying; pray for peace, the purification of people and organizations involved in manipulating people to cause them suffering for political reasons. Pray for an end of all wars, an end of intimadation and threats designed to force leaders to take course of action certain individuals desire. 

Also obvious in the world, are various natural catastrophes that have not been a normal part of earthly experience, for the Lord is trying to get a visceral reaction to Himself present in the world. Those who will involve themselves in prayer for protection of their brothers and sisters will be blessed because they are doinf the Will of God.

What ultimately may happen is impossible to know, but evil is stirring up and inflaming emotions to distance us from God. Such is being monitored by the Lord. A turning, sooner rather than later, can greatly affect what we will have to endure. Those who insist on excluding Jesus from the world will have a great deal to suffer, because He will not trouble the children of the Lord to endure what He has not heretofore asked of others. There must come an ultimate moment when enough is enough and He will reveal Himself to the world. Then, knowing the truth and the reality of where we stand, we will be made to take a stand one way or the other, though I think when people see the Lord's love, they will mostly desire to be with Him and to love as He loves, and this will be the moment He waited all this time to bring.

If my nights are long and sleepless, and I long to be in the comfort of His presence and must be content with something else, I will live inflamed by His love and find my contentment knowing He loves us, and nothing I suffer will be useless or without efficacy in His divine plan. Let this be my testimony to Jesus whom I love and serve. I tell you what is true and wish you would allow yourself to be easilly moved by His love to love Him and one another so that you might experience His presence and His love in your being. The greater the suffering you endure, the greater the grace for yourself and souls suffering, so that you cannot help but be drawn closer and closer to Him in your reality, and nothing can blind you from experiencing Him, because that experience is His Will for us all. Greatness is our love of Jesus.

Through and Through

Tranverberation

Transverberation of St. Theresa of Avila

I was unaware that saint John of the Cross had experienced this, though I knew St. Padre Pio had experienced this piercing of the soul.

Being Friday, it is salutary to dwell for a moment on the suffering of the cross. Always, the answer to desiring greater fervor towards God, is some understanding of the suffering Jesus endured for souls.

The spirit is united intimately with the body, and the body cannot endure without the spirit. So, for all Christians, and indeed, for all lovers of God, there is a great mystery at hand, in which the spirit and the soul live together and are involved in the presence of God while we are present in the world. The one operates on the other, so that being deprived in body of the physical things needed for life, causes an equal yearning and physical pain in the body and mind.

One reason for ecstasy is that what God wishes to accomplish is important enough for Him to accelerate our growth spiritually and to prepare us physically for what the spirit will impose on the physical.

To be clear, it must be said that if the spirit suffers, it is also reflected in the body, and suffering in the body also affects the spirit. What we can experience in the flesh is moderated by the flesh, so that if we were suddenly lifted out of our spirit, the body could experience what would be prevented otherwise. In purgatory, souls are purified in an intense action that heals and perfects what would otherwise prevent the soul from achieving its union with the Lord, entry into heaven.

The spirit can be inflamed by the Lord's love so that if He wishes to intensify our experience of His love, He can do so, and the physical heart can be so affected that it truly feels as if it were about to explode, from the intensification of love.

Padre Pio experienced the transverberation of his heart, and later, the piercing of his hands and feet as if he had actually been crucified, and they remained present to him physically for fifty years, after which time the wounds were no longer visibly present though they persisted as pain in his body.

Padre Pio also said, when asked, that the pain of the wounds could intensify or diminish according to what he was doing in the carrying out of his duties as a monk and member of a community. That he walked where he needed to, and wrote when required to do so, testifies to the power of God's love which made it possible to operate in the fulfillment of his duties.

Although individuals can experience the passion of Jesus in their bodies, that can wane or wax, so that the liturgical year was reflected in the body and spirit of those who endured and experienced the passion of Jesus, so that on Fridays, many sufferd far more fully in the passion of Jesus, and on Good Friday.

The pain can be present and manifest with every breath you take, if you participate in Christ's passion in physical way. Sometimes the suffering is manifest as anxiety and dread such as condemned people endure, and it can be even more intense than if it were a physical manifestation. 

One can suffer greatly from a denial of the fulfillment of a prayer to participate in the wounds of Jesus in His passion, but since He is present in all time and space, He may immerse us at any time in His suffering in a way that will satisfy His Will for the individual, with or without granting their prayer regarding entering into participation of the passion. 

It must be said, that without that wilingness of spirit which is a most pure love, it is not possible to enter into His passion or to deal with its realities in living a daily life amongst other persons, and it is certain, that if we do suffer, that it will be efficacious for souls suffering to mitigate their sins toward their salvation. As you can imagine, with something that important, the Lord is no lazy or indifferent and very much anticipates the growth of the soul participating and longs for the salvation of the soul involved. For this reason, He will insist on a soul being faithful and loving more, even if it becomes more difficult, given what the Lord is doing.

No one may know, or have any inkling that a person is being blessed with participation in His passion-life, until He reveals it for His purposes to the sufferer.

Given the great strength and resilience built into participation in the passion of Christ, we should nevertheless treat everyone as if they already had risen to such a height as to be privileged to live the same passion as Christ. Therefore, treat everyone as very fragile and protect one another with your prayers, because you do not see how He is manifesting Himself to the world in the person of that one whom the Lord loves, and there is no one He does not love.

All are eligible to love Him even to the depths of pain in His sufferings, just as a chalice is made eligible to hold the consecrated Blood of Christ in the Mass.

People are paying dearly for their love of God. The suffering in the world is obvious to the inhabitants of the world, though it takes a different mindset to realize how the Lord is obviously present in the midst of all the suffering in the world, and is operating for the souls in the world who suffer so that it will be credited to them when they are at last united to Him.

Continue praying; pray for peace, the purification of people and organizations involved in manipulating people to cause them suffering for political reasons. Pray for an end of all wars, an end of intimadation and threats designed to force leaders to take course of action certain individuals desire. 

Also obvious in the world, are various natural catastrophes that have not been a normal part of earthly experience, for the Lord is trying to get a visceral reaction to Himself present in the world. Those who will involve themselves in prayer for protection of their brothers and sisters will be blessed because they are doinf the Will of God.

What ultimately may happen is impossible to know, but evil is stirring up and inflaming emotions to distance us from God. Such is being monitored by the Lord. A turning, sooner rather than later, can greatly affect what we will have to endure. Those who insist on excluding Jesus from the world will have a great deal to suffer, because He will not trouble the children of the Lord to endure what He has not heretofore asked of others. There must come an ultimate moment when enough is enough and He will reveal Himself to the world. Then, knowing the truth and the reality of where we stand, we will be made to take a stand one way or the other, though I think when people see the Lord's love, they will mostly desire to be with Him and to love as He loves, and this will be the moment He waited all this time to bring.

If my nights are long and sleepless, and I long to be in the comfort of His presence and must be content with something else, I will live inflamed by His love and find my contentment knowing He loves us, and nothing I suffer will be useless or without efficacy in His divine plan. Let this be my testimony to Jesus whom I love and serve. I tell you what is true and wish you would allow yourself to be easilly moved by His love to love Him and one another so that you might experience His presence and His love in your being. The greater the suffering you endure, the greater the grace for yourself and souls suffering, so that you cannot help but be drawn closer and closer to Him in your reality, and nothing can blind you from experiencing Him, because that experience is His Will for us all. Greatness is our love of Jesus.

Hear and See

Day's Saints
Blessed Lucy Bufalari, Augustinian
Blessed Maria Klemensa Staszewska, Martyr

Gospel Mt 13:10-17
The disciples approached Jesus and said,
"Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?"
He said to them in reply,
"Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.
To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because
they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.
Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts and be converted
and I heal them.
"But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.
Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people
longed to see what you see but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

+

Bless the Lord and He will bless you.

We can see and hear only if Jesus enabled us. Thus, we ought to be careful to nourish what we have, so that it will become an imperishable reality into which we will be born.

If we do not at least desire to see and hear the meaning of what the Lord says to us, how will we be able to do His Will? Doing penance to atone for our grossness of heart will also make more keen our love of brothers and sisters. If our love grows, we will become closer to the Lord, and we will enter into the reward He has hinted at.

Choose whom you will serve, this day; men or God. Are we of this world, or have we yet been elevated to something else, something better? Do not go into eternity without being transformed by His love, for there is nothing that can comfort the torment of losing what we had. If a child passes away, a part of mother and father has been taken from their hearts, and the pain never goes away, however time may diminish the suffering. Do not subject yourself to the grief of being separated from God after He went to such trouble to bring us closer to Him.

Life in Christ indeed may be a crucifixion to some, and they are deserving of His blessing for their willingness. Pain can be something we fight tooth and nail all our life, or it may be something that coexists with the peace of God and His promise of a better life in the world to come. Love with all your heart and nothing will separate you from Christ.

Hear and See

Day's Saints
Blessed Lucy Bufalari, Augustinian
Blessed Maria Klemensa Staszewska, Martyr

Gospel Mt 13:10-17
The disciples approached Jesus and said,
"Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?"
He said to them in reply,
"Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.
To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because
they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.
Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts and be converted
and I heal them.
"But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.
Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people
longed to see what you see but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

+

Bless the Lord and He will bless you.

We can see and hear only if Jesus enabled us. Thus, we ought to be careful to nourish what we have, so that it will become an imperishable reality into which we will be born.

If we do not at least desire to see and hear the meaning of what the Lord says to us, how will we be able to do His Will? Doing penance to atone for our grossness of heart will also make more keen our love of brothers and sisters. If our love grows, we will become closer to the Lord, and we will enter into the reward He has hinted at.

Choose whom you will serve, this day; men or God. Are we of this world, or have we yet been elevated to something else, something better? Do not go into eternity without being transformed by His love, for there is nothing that can comfort the torment of losing what we had. If a child passes away, a part of mother and father has been taken from their hearts, and the pain never goes away, however time may diminish the suffering. Do not subject yourself to the grief of being separated from God after He went to such trouble to bring us closer to Him.

Life in Christ indeed may be a crucifixion to some, and they are deserving of His blessing for their willingness. Pain can be something we fight tooth and nail all our life, or it may be something that coexists with the peace of God and His promise of a better life in the world to come. Love with all your heart and nothing will separate you from Christ.

Light

Day's Saints
James the Greater, Apostle
Bllessed Antonio of Olmedo, Mercedarian

Gospel Mt 20:20-28
The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons
and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.
He said to her,
"What do you wish?"
She answered him,
"Command that these two sons of mine sit,
one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom."
Jesus said in reply,
"You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?"
They said to him, "We can."
He replied,
"My chalice you will indeed drink,
but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give
but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father."
When the ten heard this,
they became indignant at the two brothers.
But Jesus summoned them and said,
"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and the great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;

whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.
Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served
but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

+

His light is warm.

Just as Jesus did not come to attend to every little pain we suffer, neither did He intend to prolong our suffering beyond what is reasonable, so that it is just that we ask for what we need in order to serve Him in our brothers and sisters. Ask, and you will receive, and if you were healed, be sure to give thanks and tell others so their faith might be strengthened as well.

There is humility in asking without demanding. Today is Tuesday and Tuesday, along with Friday, is a day of penance and fasting. Fasting, for a diabetic can be carried out without harm so long as it does not become obssessive. A good penance is to not mind that what you ask for was not granted, so long as you don't become a sourpuss.

I frequently have need of being reminded of His passion, and He bestows pain upon me as a gift for the sake of souls. There is little time in this world, and all eternity in Heaven, so that spending some time on others suffering for them, or suffering in their place (intercession) for the sake of the grace of salvation for our companions in life is a good thing.

Another penance is to pray the Rosary for the souls in purgatory. They will know it, and one day will repay your consideration with the blessings of the Lord.

As for the Lord, why should one not recall His sufferings? You cannot be sinning at the same time as your are penetrating the mystery of His passon sufferings. How could He not become more affectionate for your consideration in remembering him? As well as the souls in purgatory, we should remember one another, and call on one another for prayers to help our temptations and those moments which press us to the earth like the cross of Jesus when He fell the third time. Remember that He fell because of the magnitude of the wounds and condemnation He suffered on the way to the cross. Sink into every wound and be surrounded by them to lift the cross a little from His Body while He struggled to live until He died. Not one moment was omitted  until  He had suffered all the moments required by His agreement for our salvation through the passion-life He bore.

He has attended countless hours of our tedium and labor, all illnesses and disappointments, and the dire misery of those who have nothing but contempt for anyone who loves the Lord. Pray for them, because it will be difficult for them to be saved unless someone sticks up for them, no matter how contemptuous and indifferent they might have been. Jesus bore the cross for our sake, for all of us, good or bad. What others do with blessings offered them is hidden in the mystery of His merciful love. Let it not be said that we had no mercy in our hearts or did not care that He suffered grievous anguish until it was over. The day we are together with Him will engulf all our sorrows in His love until there is nothing more but love.