Developments

 

From everywhere He reminds us of Himself,
and we must seek Him with all we can.

It is good to keep up with developments in the world, but not to the point that a video will supplant your reliance on Jesus. 

 The universe was created by God for us so we would have a place to live. He gave us intellect with which to chane the world so we might be able to live in it, but not to the extent that any human thought might overshadow God.

Atonement for our offenses against God  in the form of sin cannot oversharow Him to the point that we will supplant His will. The atonement necessary is just that, necessary and will be carried out.

The result of atoning for sin is the chance to show our love for Him and stand at His right side at the judgement. Judgement and a new creation will follow, and by then any alienation from God will be unfortunate.

We can see earthquakes, violent storms, volcanoes and the empty fury of nuclear war which render the earth  uninhabitable. There is no satisfaction to be had in mutual annihilation, and even less satisfaction in having our own will in our mututal wills.

Simplification and love in solitude and silence provide a way to go. There is no joy to anticipate except that rises out of love.

The frustration that modern people experience in life rises from lack of love for others, because God has made our will conditional to His. If our activities in life are  not gentle and purposeful toward the revelation of love for one another, it will remain futile.

Extremes

 

we are dealing with a man who has the  morality of an iguana, and the intellectual capacity of an earthworm.  He threatens to use nuclear weapons on Russia if they do not capitulate in Ukraine. Who does he plan to bomb with nuclear weapons to back up what he says? If anything, this will test what Jesus and Mary mean to us in reality, because these eventualities threaten to get out of hand, and the sole place sanity is evident is in a prayerful heart. Let us pray for peace and the Holy Spirit to influence people's raw emotions which threaten to get out of control and tear down what little is actually still left of civilization.

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.