A Healing Balm for the Soul

An Allegory of Man

 From my archives:


What is the cure for the soul that is weary? What is the antidote to a world stricken with vice? The remedy for the soul overwhelmed by despair?

What "sweetens" the crosses we bear?

The answer is one and the same for all of the questions above.

Virtues. Those God given helps for the soul. The beautiful "coat of many colors" the soul needs to be cloaked in. The armor that God yearns to cover its nakedness, its poverty, with so it doesn't walk about the world completely exposed to that which seeks to harm it.

In the painting above, "An Allegory of Man", Man is being attacked by the Seven deadly Sins and Death, but is shielded by the Seven Virtues. We have really given wide berth to studying and practicing the virtues in the past century and this loss is becoming more noticeable each day as the proliferation of every kind of sin and vice sweeps across humanity. Sometimes it's hard to believe that we can be so obdurate in our unwillingness to see what is as plain as the nose on our face:

The world is drowning in the Seven Deadly Sins. We all struggle with them but millions have given themselves over to them completely.

The loss of the practice of virtue in this world has had tragic repercussions. One of the marks of the deadly sins is that they do in fact have a deadening effect on the soul. The soul grows numb and weary. It cannot function properly in the manner that it was created to - as a clean and holy temple of the Holy Spirit. It loses its sense of being closely connected to God. The soul falls asleep, you could say.

We are a people who are snoring their way into oblivion. An oblivion where no one exists except me, myself, and I. The ultimate dreamworld where the only god that exists is the god of self. A world where people have forgotten both God and neighbor. (Oh, wait, so sorry...I forgot that this "dreamworld" actually has a name. Hell, I think it's called. )

The virtues on the other hand "wake up" the soul. They have a vivifying effect on it because their source is God. When the soul is not coated in virtues it feels their absence because the spiritual state of man depends on the virtues. We have lost our understanding of the protection virtues give us, a truth which the people of past centuries understood well.

When our physical bodies are ill they manifest clear symptoms so that we know something is wrong. It's the same for our souls - they too manifest spiritual symptoms so that we may take note and apply the remedies needed to cure its ills.

And God has given us so many remedies.

 One of the greatest is Confession, which purges the soul of the poisons within it. Once the poison is cleared, the virtues have the necessary room to take root, flourish and grow. Not confessing our sins is like trying to plant a seed in rocky soil, the plant has no room to grow because the soil (of the soul) is so poor. Confession removes the rocks and preps the soil.

Prayer is the conduit through which the soil is watered.

Holy Scripture and the Eucharist feed it. (Anyone who likes gardening knows soil needs to be fertilized to produce anything worthwhile.)

The virtues protect it and cause the soil of the soul to produce fruit abundantly.

Let's turn the tide of sin and despair in our world today by praying for and practicing the virtues.


Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.
                                    St Francis of Assisi

Mass Destruction

We have at our disposal the means to spread the Gospel worldwide. With a touch of a keyboard
at that. Within seconds our words are accessible to millions across the globe. Perhaps millions
don't read them but the words are there, nonetheless. Often, instead of being used as a tool to
reach out to others in a meaningful Christian manner, the internet is used as a weapon of mass destruction, its effects more far reaching than an atomic bomb because the effect can be spiritual and eternal.  I don't speak here of only the websites which are obvious in their sinfulness but also those sites which in a subtle and insidious manner attack the simple faith of Catholics around the world. Reinforced by  intellectualism and an air of religious superiority masked as "theological knowledge" some sites go so far as to even question the validity of the Novus Ordo Mass. And some do it in under the guise of "helping" God. No doubt, some are even doing this with the best of intentions.

As if God is not capable of helping himself if he so chooses. Yes, he often chooses to work through
people but this is despite us not because of us. Our part is to cooperate with His grace. We are simply human vessels, with fallen natures to boot. Not a one of us truly knows the heart of God and his thoughts are not our thoughts.  That he deigns to use us as vehicles to build the Kingdom of God is almost laughable, wouldn't you say?  That He has given us the Holy Spirit as our Helper is in itself enough to drop us to our knees. The Eucharist? This is a gift so profound that even the greatest saints had difficulty finding words to express this Treasure given to the Church.

Truly, our blogs and websites are insignificant when you think of the power of God. I can only surmise that the love of God walks hand in hand with His divine sense of humor. It's good to keep things in perspective in regard to what we write. Yes, He CAN and DOES work through fragile human beings but we can easily become sidetracked by forgetting that the Holy Spirit does the inspiring and "off we go!" claiming his gift as something innate to ourselves. Even worse, we often mix our own human reasoning with the inspiration of the Spirit and make a fine mess of things.

Back to the Mass. With over 1 billion Catholics in the world, Mass is being celebrated around the clock. CEO's sit in pews beside blue collar workers. Senators rub shoulders with homeless people...you get my drift. We are one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

Some claim that that Novus Ordo Masses are invalid. One site I stumbled upon called the Holy Eucharist "circus bread". If you want to find the site, Google it. Don't ask me where it is... I got off
that site in a hurry. It is there, trust me. The Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ present in the Eucharist referred to as "circus bread". How many other Catholics come across sites like these? What
harm is caused by thoughtless and untruthful words like these? These sites are stumbling blocks to many
people.

Mass destruction instead of Mass instruction.

What's wrong with this picture? St. Thomas Aquinas would have jumped for joy if he had the opportunities to spread the glories of the Mass that we have at our fingertips.

The Mass. The glorious, ineffable mystery of the Catholic Mass. In an effort to mitigate some of the damage caused by divisions among Catholics concerning the Mass, the liturgy, and the validity of the Blessed Sacrament I share with you these beautiful quotes by souls far holier and far wiser than ourselves:

"Reverence, therefore, reverence this table, of which we are all communicants! Christ, slain for us, the sacrificial victim who is placed thereon!"  St. John Chysostom   (Catholic Answers)

"It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do without the Holy Mass."  St.
  Padre Pio

"It is the whole Community, the Body of Christ united with its Head, that celebrates. Liturgical  services are not private functions but are celebrations of the Church which is the sacrament of unity, namely, the holy people united and organized under the authority of the bishops. Therefore, liturgical services pertain to the whole Body of the Church."    CCC  1140 

"How I hate this folly of not believing in the Eucharist, etc..! If the Gospel be true, if Jesus Christ be God, what difficulty is there?"     Blaise Pascal

The fact and the main point of this post is (feel free to confirm this with the Pope):

Both the New Mass AND the Traditional Latin Mass are valid. One's personal preference does not change this fact. We are free to attend either one. Both are beautiful, not because the participants are perfect.... but because Christ is present.

May we humbly thank Him.






                                                             

A Love that Consumes

I consume Jesus in the Eucharist and Jesus consumes me. His Divine Heart completely overwhelms this poor sinner's heart. No words could ever fully express the greatness of this Sacrament! We receive The Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ! A Grace and Gift so amazing that it leaves me speechless at times. Just writing about it can move me to tears. We are truly living temples. Sometimes after receiving Communion I think, "How can this be? How can the Eternal Word  give us Himself with such love and tenderness?" Cradle Him in your souls, for this is a Love so immense and so all-encompassing it is beyond expressing in earthly terms. Still, these ancient words are beautiful:

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
and stand with fear and trembling,
and meditate nothing earthly within itself.
For the King of kings and Lord of lords,
Christ our God, comes forward to be sacrificed,
and to be given for food to the faithful.
And the bands of angels go before Him
with every power and dominion,
the many-eyed cherubim, and the six-winged seraphim,
covering their faces, and crying aloud the hymn:
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.

Utterly Thine O Lord !

Coincidence? No way!

Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem. The meaning of the word Bethlehem is "House of Bread". Jesus was born in a manger, which is a feeding trough. He is the Bread of Life. Even the circumstances of His birth show signs of what He would become. How blessed we are to receive Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist!

I drafted this the other day. I was about to print it but the Lord said, " Not yet." I didn't know why until I went to Mass today and heard the Gospel reading. Much to my surprise it was the " Bread of Life "discourse. Now I know why he wanted me to wait!
The Lord wants us to abandon ourselves completely into His hands. When we do this, we become like finely tuned instruments in a divine orchestra. Holy Communion helps us to do this by making us more attuned to the master conductor, Our Lord Jesus Christ.