Urquelle

Change is a constant in life. When it arises suddenly and unbidden, it may destroy. When it is easy to change rules and  laws and no one can object, then we are in danger. This is especially troubling when you cannot object or change something. The human will is so important, that Jesus allowed Himself to be be beaten, ridiculed, intimidated and nailed to a cross to await the lance that opened His side.

When there is no recourse to change, and it becomes permanent, and cannot be altered, then something dies. Jesus died in order to change the immutable. Without Jesus, without His life and death, we would have no guide no hope and peace is laid waste. If there can be no objection, that does not automatically preclude change. Without the possibility of objection, or hope of change, the will is relegated to nothingness, and the human in us dies. Change has always been presaged by objection.

I have no means of getting to Mass. That needs to change, but no amount of prayer has changed that. Pain has diminished, but the pain in my side asserts itself when I am least expecting it. It hurts just enough to be reminded of Jesus, crucified. That I hurt and am reminded is something that does not change.

I am not shut-in, but that does not mean that anyone will come along to bring me to Mass or bring the Mass to me, not even the Eucharist. That is not extraordinary, because the Sacrment of Penance is denied me also, and no amount of papal decrees will change that. No priest should live as I did, but I am not a priest so it does not matter what the pope says about celibacy and the way priests must live. One can snap their fingers, but it will change nothing. And that is dangerous. 

I fear the only thing that is changing is that there is greater opportunity to ignore things; rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic did not save anyone aboard her - she went down to the bottom of the ocean, and those who had no place on the boats died in the freezing cold water. 

God must break the unbreakable for change to take place. His death must be stronger than the invasion of Ukraine, and more powerful than the russian army trying to take what is not theirs by force, killing and destroying things indiscrimantely, as if the victims of their slefihness were meaningless. 

The thousands who died in Hiroshima and Nagsaki were not meaningless. The shadows that were left behind by the flash of light that vaporised thousands cannot be recalled, and the dead who were vaporised cannot be brought back.

Unless we believe in the passion of Christ, there can be no peace, and the kindness of those who love God and one another will be insufficient to change the course of history. But how can we overcome our lack of empathy and our exert out love to the extent that others might be protected unless the passion touches some part of us? It may be arrogant to say, but I can offer myself to feel and experience what no one else may want to feel or experience.

The priest in the parish house will suffer loneliness unless others awaken to the need to provide our loving kindness for their needs. Unless people know, they won't change anything. The pope himself will not feel it either unless it is allowed to become a part of his life experience. You cannot minister to others unless you can feel their pain in your own heart and your own side which awakens the awareness of the lance in His side in YOUR OWN body. That cannot be legislated in the Vatican or the parish house. It must take place in our own hearts and our own actions.

Do not abandon one another. Do not use indifference to relegate others to an instituionalised loneliness. Married or unmarried, a lonely man may feel only cold emptiness unless he is allowed to experience the warmth and happiness of others. Service cannot provide for human kindness by itself. Yet, it remains true, that the death of Christ was empty, lonely and frightening. Those who loved Him were experienced by Him. Our calling must be to the inclusion of the priest into our life as members of a family. That is nothing new, though the ennunciation of that need may be something new because someone recognized it was so.

Intercession

A man of such joy in the midst of such sufferings

as he endured is a treasure for us all. Let us ask him

for what we need.

To intercede is to stand in someone's place to take their punishment upon themselves so that the person is free of condemnation. Jesus is the ultimate Intercessor who stands in the place of ourselves to receive their punishment instead of them.

Jesus took upon Himself the death we incurred by sin so we may walk free of the sin and the punishment incurred by us for our sin,

So, one is really asking a lot when they come up to someone and ask them to intercede for somone so as to take on their illness, misfortune or suffering. If you know someone who would do so immediately and without question, you have met a prescious person worth your life.

To be so close to Jesus as to be permitted to ask to take someone's sickness or suffering to themselves as if it were their right to ask speaks of an intimacy of unspeakable quality. 

The usual situtation is that a person asks Jesus to heal someone for whom they were asked to pray. To ask someone to intercede is to ask them to receive the  suffering or pain with the expectation that the afflicted person will be free of whatever disease or suffering for which they were asked to pray.

It is not the usual case that we are talking about, when we speak of intercession. Such a condition might be that a person suffers some pain or misery for a time in exchange for a recovery from some illness or condition of deprivation. 

One intercessor who comes to mind is Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, the Capuchin frier who received the Stigmata so he could suffer in Christ's place for them to receive well-being and good fortune. He did this without asking anything for the favor. Padre Pio suffered the passion of Jesus every day for fifty years before the stimata were removed, and he died afterward. Being a priest, he participated in the passion of Jesus which the Mass commemorates, and during his Mass, he endured the passion of Jesus to the point of not only bleeding as if freshly crucified, but to the point of suffering all of the pain that accompanied the passion. He obtained the forgiveness of people's sins through his confessional. The  person sometimes was accompanied by actual healing of the problem. 

When we ask someone to intercede, we need to keep in mind what we are asking. The condition of the soul of Padre Pio was such that he was entrusted with particpation in the passion by suffering the wounds inflicted on Jesus by crucifixion after he had asked to suffer the stigmata invisibly, and the Lord entrusted His passion to Padre Pio in such a way that the stigmata were imposed visibly, which is to say, he got more than he bargained for.

Padre Pio could see the suffering of Jesus on the cross so that he endured the suffering of Jesus rejected and unloved in addition to the agony of nails having been driven in with a hammer in his hands, feet and side, so that he bled daily. 

Having suffered thus for fifty years, Padre Pio died. His miracles still occur for people who have asked for healing or rhe remediation of troubles and problems.

It hurts to be ignored and abandoned. The elderly suffer it each day, all day, their sufferings interrupted only by sleep, which comes grudgingly and the loneliness remains unabated as long as they are awake.

It need not be loneliness that afflicts a man, but the opportunity exists to obtain favors from the Lord as we suffer our old age. The pains may be intermittent so that one thing or another may cause pain that is interrupted hour by hour and day by day. An old person who smiles is giving you a gift of pure love, and when someone does ask you to intercede for them, you might offer to suffer for the elderly in their daily pains. Often, having suffered invisibly, they are afflicted with greater sufferings, and finally death itself.

In the case of Jesus, as like Padre Pio, His suffering on the cross ended and He returned to His Father, receiving His only Son and His obedient endurance of the unendurable for the sake of love alone. This should inspire confidencee in Jesus during the day when all sorts of afflctions visit us and we find ourselves in a continuing confition of miserable suffering.

Jesus was innocent, having never committed a sin. When Padre Pio offered himself to suffer the passion invisibly, he was offering his virginity and holiness as well, his whole self. Stigmatised. he offered his whole self, submitting his all to Jesus in thanksgiving for the innocent and sinless sacrifice of his stigmata for the needs of the world of human beings he might never meet. He gifted himself to Jesus and Jesus accepted the relief of some of His pain, that He was able to receive by Padre Pio's selfless act of itnercession.

He may have seen what people wondered about in an age when terrors and horrors present themselves in exchange for the adulation of unrepentant sinners, who fail to see the goodness of Christ and the love of Jesus.

If we ahve sinned, we need to ask Jesus to forgive us so we will be able to particiapte in His salvation and intercession. The exposure of the holiness committed by so many daily is a source of light and comfort in a world of terror and sorrow.

Wonderfully

 The only chance you will get of making a difference is if you are there. A word at the right moment can carry a great deal of weight. Better yet, the statement you make by always being there is immense.

The Lord chooses to feel like us, and to be as vulnerable as we are. We might get hurt, we might be wounded, we might feel as if a wall of stone has fallen on us, but if you still your thoughts and be quiet, He will speak, and you will be made wonderfully.

Together

 Terrible things are waiting to happen, and the ONLY way the United States will survive is if everyone pulls the oars together. If you floudner around in political games, your suffering will be ten times worse. in addition, nations that have need of assistance won't get it because we will have been flattened by disasters and can't help. Let that sink in. Pray for one another. Help one another. Speak a word of encouragement and kindness and forget political garbage. When the country has been shaken down, only those who look out for one another will have any slightest aid or comfort. Jesus receives assistance from the prayers and kindneesses of others, and He remembers even the smallest sip of water.

I used to wonder what I did wrong or where mymiseries werre comfing from. I finally realized thatI was being shown how we will all be hurting by being similarlly afflicted in my own life. He clothes, feeds and houses us, so that we are free for serving Him by serving others. The day of gratuities has come and gone. Now is the time to get real. It was real to me when I was allowed to feel the pains of the cross by sharing in them. He saw fit not to make the wounds visible in blood. At least, what little blood there was was limited and my heart spoke out to Him in a vain attempt to comfort Him.

Persistent disasters compounding to create one very immense disaster

Longing

 

There is no  such thing as getting rid of one's own will. One can surrender his will to Him as totally as possible, and trust Him for the little He sees we are still attached to our own will.

For some, that is not difficult, but for others, it can be searing as any surgery without anesthesia.  Still, our mortal nature limits how much pain we can absorb, and nature protects us against excesses. The best we can do is do as He wishes, and trust.

I would wish the mess we have in Washington DC might be transformed complettely by some magic, but what magic can we weild against the kind of evil that prevails? In willing what He wills, we again, can go only so far before our limits have been reached. Fortunately, the fact that Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified means that He is capable of things we cannot imagine.

That we can assist Him with our penaces and acceptance of trials is irrefutable. That is why there are contemplatives and those dwelling in silent solitude.

Pray for each other and for the work of the Lord in each life. The day is coming when we will be able to see, and then we will rejoice.

Attitude

 

the consolation of purgatory

How do you love yourself when you are crucified? You must, because His love will never cease to make you more one with Him through the pain itself. The key to the heart of those you seem unable to reach with the touch of His kindness is directly related to depths of His crucified pain.

Do not scrap the spirituality you grew up with for something new and shiney. There are lots of Youtube videos making statements about how people  should pray and how they should do the most innocuous things these days.

A humble attitude is your most important attribute as a human being. Praying to God to help your prayer and attitude is absolutely beyond priceless. How you hold a rosary or your prayer posture is not more important than your attititude.

I humble myself in the dirt at the foot of the cross where I belong because of my sins, and I ask you, Lord, to be made acceptable in all things in my life so I may grasp my salvation and enjoy your loving kindness in spite of my faults.

A lackadaisical attitude IS dangerous; a lack of gratitude and faith will lead you to become disrespectful and lose your all important salvation.

Our very weakness and blindness to spiritual realities can ennervate faith by which we see the unseen and our behavior toward the Almighty will suffer.

At the same time, speak how you feel toward the Lord, with respect, and honor Him as your creator.

Spend the time you have in prayer. God is the one who made you and gave you the time in which you live. Meanwhile, realize that we are blind to spiritual realities, and  we must want to see Him and be aware of Him if we are to have any chance of deporting ourselves with a proper attitude.

The saints went off to hidden places to have solitude in which to speak to Him and to see Him as He is, whether you are gifted with insight or consolations, or not.

Do not despise His gifts, but graciously accept them, acknowledging their Source. If you lack reverence or respect, do not expect gifts from the Lord. The spouse of our souls deserves the most respectful attitude, and if our love is to blossom, we need to make time for Him and we need to listen closely in solitude and silence.

This may mean difficult moments for someone just beginning a life of prayer. But to remember that He was crucified in our place helps immensely. You may expect opposition the more you spend time with the Him instead of yourself and your obssessions. If you truly desire solitude and silence in which to cultivate an appropriate attitude, you must move your heart to be close to Him, listening intently and placing Him in the time He gave you, at His feet and close enough to His Heart to hear His longing for you.

That longing is reflected in reality itself. He will calm the tempests and provide for your most important needs. Don't forget to remember Him, and that He is as close as your next breath, and your next thought. As much as you like the things of the world because you are immsersed in them, you must make an equal amount of time available for Him. Remember you get only this one chance. Do not squander your time on your only fickle obssesions. He who made you can do all things, and transform you to one who is HIs lover, and He will embrace a warm and beating heart.

Wills

 I can't sleep tonight. It is another one  of those nights it won't happen for me.
It is not unusual anymore, and it has been ongoing for a number of years. It concerns the Will of God and my own will. I have been praying for a young boy of eleven years who was suddenly confronted by a form of leukemia. He under went a bone marrow transplant and was pronounced free of the disease. However, it became necessary to undergo another transplant, but unfortunately after having neen irradiated to eliminate his own immune system, he was vulnerable to any pathogen in the environment capable of getting a foot hold in his young body. After the euphoria of hearing that he was free of leukemia, he came down with a virus that has halted most of his progress.

In this moment, the family, and the boy himself, would like to experience a full and complete healing, including the restoration of his sight, which became compromised after being put in a coma  by the doctors; I don't pretend to understand that, but he eventually came out of the coma and seemed to be making great progress toward the desiired recovery until the vrus struck. Now the family is struggling to accept that their son is slipping away, with too many things wrong, and too few things moving in the right direction.

It is precisely this moment that every human being must come to in some way or another. One must do his best to accept God's Will even when it is contrary to every instinct of human existance entirely.

It came for me through the naive desire to bear the Stigmata or wounds of the Lord. I had been told that on a certain day, in a certain place, I would be granted my wish, but I received nothing but the humiliation I deserved. I was humbled and made to understand that I had become too attached to the consolations of the Lord and that I should endure their absence after having enjoyed them very much for many years. It made me as angry as any one can be, but it pointed out that the Will of God is more important than me.

In a way, I did receive them, but it was not in a bloody way, but in a way in which I must daily accept and surrender into His Will in everything, not simpply in them atter of Stigmata. The desire for Stigmata is to desire the passion of Jesus to glorify Him and to suffer with Him, the redemptive passion. One need not be stigmatized in order to be crucified in my life and living 24 hours a day. There is a paiin far deeper and indistinct which accompanies me now. I still miss the sweet consolations I used to enjoy. Occasionally I do briefly encounter the consolations once in a while, but the sweeter and deeper the consolations are, the deeper and more painful my suffering becomes, and I have had some serious moments to live through.

I only offer to suffer for someone else reluctantly, aware that I don't really want to feel the lance in my side, though I have without particularly enjoying the consolations; peace, yes, there was peace, I was not agitated or afraid, but spiritually something transpired I do not understand. Occassionally I feel pain in my hands feet and side, either all together at once, or in my hands or in my side, even my feet.

One of the elements of the passion is pain. I have been subjected to gout and to shingles and I think they were of equivalent intensity to a hole in the hand or side. But the apparent  impending approach of homelessness because of a beurocratic foul-up, and then there was also the spectre of my brother and sister confronting the same thing, and it gutted me to pray so hard. Eventually, things resolved themselves.

In order for someone to encounter the stigmata, one must really desire it completely, otherwise it would be  impossible to receive them. That is why it is possible for someone to experience them, and clearly anything is possible for God. To receive stigmata one must really desire that when Jesus at the same time desires that one should, and receive it as a gift of pure divine love.

Thus it is possible, but one should not trouble themselves about such a thing, and seek protetction for evil lest one become a victim of evil when in the moment of love one become the victim of grief.

I mention the stigmata because of the pain of losing someone small and dear to death. Obviously either complete healing or death are possible at the same time, but one desires a dear one to live and be happy and not be ground down in misery. To relinquish one so loved at such a tender age is an unspeakble sorrow. Part of the sorrow of death is that it is permanent. Saint Padre Pio underwent several events in which he experienced the passion Jesus in his soul and in his body, and it is difficult to know which hurt him more, the physical wounds bleeding and hurting, or the suffering in his soul which participated in the passion also.

It is certain that one can enter into the suffering of others. It is a great charity when one offers to exchange their peace and comfort for someone else's pain and sorrow, but it is not difficult. My advice to seekers of the Lord is not to worry in advance that one might be asked to enter into someone else's suffering, but to be of equal peace;  to suffer in peace or not to suffer. To be of equal happiness opens the Heart of Jesus in a deep way to swallow one up in joy that one chose His love or one's personal comfort.

To be a contemplative is to be one who encounters God, and an intercessor is to be one whom Jesus can call upon to endure for someone else, enduring their misery so they may encounter peace and quiet in the Lord. There have been many who were intercessors and very happy at the same time, and the coexistance of love and pain is a sign of God's pleasure with a person. The gifts of St. Padre Pio rose from his love which was intensified by Jesus because of his love for others. The healing of penitents was due no doubt because of his deep and entire immersion in intercession for them. It was also the reason so many people turned to him for their physical and spiritual needs. St. Therese of Lisieux is another example of being totally surrendered to God and immersed in His Passion. 

Every saint has encountered the moment of confrontation with the Will of God; every one of them gave God their will and went on to complete their lives in peace.

Now he can rest in peace and total health giving happiness as he always did.