From now on suffering is linked to love

"In the Old Testament, God often shows His compassion and His tenderness towards man who is suffering. But the coming of the Saviour on earth marks in a more poignant fashion the solidarity of God with suffering humanity. The Gospel shows us Jesus ceaselessly bringing Himself near to the miseries of His contemporaries. Suffering moves Him, touches Him, upsets Him, sometimes to tears. Disregarding custom, we see Him go before the lepers, the untouchables of the time, to put His hands in their wounds and cure them. The suffering of hearts inspires profound compassion in Him, as in the scene of the widow of Naim weeping over the death of her only son. He draws all of those in pain towards His Heart open to all suffering: Come to me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you(Matt. 11: 28).

But God wished to go further: by becoming man, He put Himself also among the number of the suffering. Jesus wished to be born in a wretched stable; He worked hard to gain His daily bread; He knew hunger, thirst, the weariness of long journeys on foot (cf. John 4: 6); for three years, He did not have a home, not even a rock on which to rest His head (cf. Matt. 8: 20); He suffered the misunderstanding of men, their mockeries; they treated Him as a man given over to wine and good food. The truth and the depth of His fear of suffering appears particularly in the prayer in Gethsemani: My God, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me! In the passion, physical and mental pain reach their paroxysm. Finally, Our Lord wished to join man in the mystery of death. All men who suffer can say in facing the Crucified: "He too has suffered."

But if Jesus passed through the abyss of suffering, it was to transfigure it and give it a completely new dimension: from now on suffering is linked to love. If it remains a great evil in itself, suffering has become the most solid foundation of the essential possession of man, that is to say, eternal salvation. It permits us to be tied to Jesus in the work of the Redemption. A consequence of sin, it becomes, by the power of God, the means of our moral recovery."

-- From the spiritual letter of November 21, 1996, by Dom Antoine Marie, osb. Reproduced with permission through the kindness of Fr Jacques Marie, osb.

** Dom Antoine is a benedictine priest at Saint Joseph de Clairval Abbey in Flavigny.

Our prayers and good works can help and serve to deliver the souls in purgatory

"We maintain, then, that we may pray for the faithful departed, and that the prayers and good works of the living greatly relieve them and are profitable to them -for this reason, that all those who die in the grace of God, and consequently in the number of the elect, do not go to Paradise at the very first moment, but many go to Purgatory, where they suffer a temporal punishment, from which our prayers and good works can help and serve to deliver them. There lies the point of our difference.

We agree that the blood of Our Redeemer is the true purgatory of souls; for in it are cleansed all the souls in the world; whence S. Paul speaks of it, in the 1st of Hebrews, as making purgation of sins. Tribuations also are a purgatory, by which our souls are rendered pure, as gold is refined in the furnace. The furnace trieth the potter's vessels, and the trial of affliction just men.(Ecclus. xxvii) Penance and contrition again form a certain purgatory, as David said of old in the 50th Psalm: Thou shalt wash me, 0 Lord, with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed. It is well known also that Baptism in which our sins are washed away can be again called a purgatory, as everything can be that serves to purge away our offences: but here we take Purgatory for a place in which after this life the souls which leave this world before they have been perfectly cleansed from the stains which they have contracted since nothing can enter Paradise which is not pure and undefiled-are detained in order to be washed and purified. And if one would know why this place is called simply Purgatory more than are the other means of purgation above-named, the answer will be, that it is because in that place nothing takes place but the purgation of the stains which remain at the time of departure out of this world, whereas in Baptism, Penance, tribulations, and the rest, not only is the soul purged from its imperfections, but it is further enriched with many graces and perfections ; whence the name of Purgatory has been limited to that place in the other world which, properly speaking, is for no purpose but the purification of souls. And agreeing as to the blood of Our Lord, we so fully acknowledge the virtue thereof, that we protest by all our prayers that the purgation of souls, whether in this world or in the other, is made solely by its application:-more jealous of the honour due to this precious medicine than those who so highly value it that they undervalue the using of it. Therefore by Purgatory we understand a place where souls for a time are purged of the spots and imperfections they carry with them from this mortal life."

-- The Doctrine of Purgatory by St Francis de Sales

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The end of November is just around the corner. Remember to offer a charitable alms for the souls in purgatory: Communions, prayers, skipping dessert, patience at the grocery store or that traffic jam making your blood boil under your skin...

The most sublime grace: transformation into God through charity

"Ordinary graces make up the essential factor in the development of the spiritual life right up to its full maturity. Passive purifications and the partial progressive transformations, which mark the development of the soul, are ordinary graces, that is to say, normal and to be expected in the process of sanctification. From this point of view, the most sublime grace, of transformation into God through charity, remains an ordinary grace.

Those graces can be called extraordinary which, strictly speaking, are not necessary, because they do not concern the substance of the soul's progress. You could call them accessories. They are useful helps for its growth, acting sometimes like signposts or messages which bear a mission, or exist at other times in order to encourage the soul in its simple ascent or, again, to bring it acknowledgement in the eyes of the people of God. In the past, attention was focused almost entirely upon this kind of grace, especially when it assumed perceptible mnifestations, that is to say everything which is understood by mystical phenomena, such as visions, locutions, levitations, etc."

-- Thérèse, The Little Child of God's Mercy by Angel de les Gavarres

Transform me so that through me all may know Christ

"As the consecration of the Mass draws near our Lord is equivalently saying to us: "You, Mary; you, John; you, Peter; and you, Andrew-you, all of you-give Me your body; give Me your blood. Give Me your whole self! I can suffer no more. I have passed through My cross, I have filled up the sufferings of My physical body, but I have not filled up the sufferings wanting to My Mystical Body, in which you are. The Mass is the moment when each one of you may literally fulfill My injunction: 'Take up your cross and follow Me.'"

On the cross our Blessed Lord was looking forward to you, hoping that one day you would be giving yourself to Him at the moment of consecration. Today, in the Mass, that hope our Blessed Lord entertained for you is fulfilled. When you assist at the Mass He expects you now actually to give Him yourself.

Then as the moment of consecration arrives, the priest in obedience to the words of our Lord, "Do this for a commemoration of me," takes bread in his hands and says "This is my body"; and then over the chalice of wine says, "This is the chalice of my blood of the new and eternal testament." He does not consecrate the bread and wine together, but separately.

The separate consecration of the bread and wine is a symbolic representation of the separation of body and blood, and since the Crucifixion entailed that very mystery, Calvary is thus renewed on our altar. But Christ, as has been said, is not alone on our altar; we are with Him. Hence the words of consecration have a double sense; the primary signification of the words is: "This is the Body of Christ; this is the Blood of Christ;" but the secondary signification is "This is my body; this is my blood."

Such is the purpose of life! To redeem ourselves in union with Christ; to apply His merits to our souls by being like Him in all things, even to His death on the Cross. He passed through His consecration on the Cross that we might now pass through ours in the Mass. There is nothing more tragic in all the world than wasted pain. Think of how much suffering there is in hospitals, among the poor, and the bereaved. Think also of how much of that suffering goes to waste! How many of those lonesome, suffering, abandoned, crucified souls are saying with our Lord at the moment of consecration, "This is my body. Take it"? And yet that is what we all should be saying at that second: I give myself to God. Here is my body – take it. Here is my blood – take it. Here is my soul, my will, my energy, my strength, my property, my wealth – all that I have: it is yours – take it! Consecrate it! Offer it! Offer it with thyself to the Heavenly Father in other that He, looking down on this great sacrifice, may see only, His beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased. Transmute the poor bread of my life into thy divine life, swirl the wine of my wasted life into thy divine spirit; unite my broken heart with thy heart; change my cross into a crucifix.

Let no my abandonment and my sorrow and my bereavement go to waste. Gather up the fragments, and as the drop of water is absorbed by the wine at the offertory of the Mass, let my life be absorbed in thine; let my little cross be entwined with the great cross so that I may purchase the joys of everlasting happiness in union with thee.

Consecrate these trial of my life which would go unrewarded unless united with thee; transubstantiate me so that like bread which is now thy body, and wine which is now thy blood, I too my be wholly thine. I care not if the species remain, or that, like the bread and the wine I seem to all earthly eyes the same as before. My station in life, my routine duties, my work, my family — all these are but the species of my life which remain unchanged; but the substance of my life: my soul, my mind, my will, my heart – transubstantiate them, transform them wholly into thy service, so that through me all may know how sweet is the life of Christ."

-- Calvary and the Mass by Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Establish yourself peacefully in God

"As soon, therefore, as the soul experiences some disorderly attraction of the sense or a temptation of the spirit- an inclination to self-love, pride, or impurity, a movement of antipathy for someone, or a lack of charity- it turns immediately to God, and contemplates Him in His infinite beauty and admires His love. The Carmelite professes to God his complete and exclusive love, his desire to avoid all that can displease Him, and his wish to be united with Him. He asks God the Father, or the Sacred Humanity of Christ, to preserve him, telling Him that he relies on Him, and begging Him to draw him to Himself.

The Carmelite will renew these acts as long as may be necessary to establish himself peacefully in God. He will put into them all the fervor of which he is capable, taking care always to act calmly, for he will not be able to repose in God unless he avoids all excitement and fatigue of mind and heart.

St John of the Cross is consistent with himself in recommending this method, for he writes: 'In order to overcome the appetites and to mortify the attraction for created things towards which the will is naturally drawn with desire to enjoy them, there is need of a much deeper love which can only be the love of Christ.' However, this method presupposes that the soul is already experienced in love and has made progress in it, because it will succeed only if it is fervent. Hence the necessity of practising the love of God, loving Him for Himself and for what He has done for us; hence, the need of devoting oneself to contemplation and to the love of Christ.

It is certain that this intimate converse with God will develop in the soul a great facility for turning towards Him the moment an unruly tendency of nature or an attraction for creatures manifests itself. Accustomed to live in the company of God, and becoming captivated by Him, the soul will overcome temptations without great difficulty by rising above them, and will find itself united with God; recollected in Christ.

If, however, our love is not sufficiently lively to calm the temptation, the thoughts or the feelings which agitate us, St John of the Cross recommends that we have recourse to the ordinary manner of acting: rational reflection and making acts of the virtue opposed to the source of temptation. We should then consider how vain and passing is the thought or idea which presented itself to us and the satisfaction which attracted us; how vile and despicable is the act suggested by passion. We will then conclude that it would be unreasonable to let ourselves be carried away by such things; this would be a debasing human nature, a degradation from being a child of God and a consecrated person. then one must consider the consequences which the fault could have: the loss of the divine life and eternal punishment.

One the other hand, one must consider much more worthy it is to overcome one's passions and to be conscious of one's dignity as a Christian, living a life of detachment for God, and taking Christ as one's model. One can dwell on the advantages that will follow from this: growth in Christ, benefits accruing to His mystical body, and the eternal possession of God."

-- The Spirit and Prayer of Carmel by Fr François Jamart, ocd

Asceticism is the effort to cleanse the soul of everything that can hinder the action of God in it

"Asceticism is the effort put forth by the soul, under the action of grace, to overcome the unruly tendencies of human nature, to cleanse the soul of everything that can hinder the action of God in it, and to strive for union with God. Carmelite asceticism is definitely oriented towards contemplation. This is logical, since contemplation is the objective of Carmelite life. Carmelite asceticism has yet another characteristic: its center is love. There is nothing astonishing in this: love is the principal element of Carmelite spirituality; it is not merely its final goal, it is already there at its beginning and it is upon love that the soul relies all during its journey. Carmelite prayer is oriented towards contemplation, and while it does not undervalue reasoning, it 'consists much more in loving than in thinking.'

The efforts which the Carmelite will make to conquer his passions, his evil tendencies, and his defects, will therefore consist rather in acts of love for God than in a direct struggle against these unruly inclinations. At least this is the way recommended by St John of the Cross. He does not underestimate the efficacy of a direct struggle consisting in reflections on the ugliness and the malice of sin and the consequences it entails; or in acts of the virtue opposed to the defect of the temptation to be overcome. Instead, the manner of behavior recommended by him is to turn away from the temptation and to turn towards God and cling to Him by love. He considers this method easier, more fruitful, more perfect. In fact, not only does it free the soul from the attraction and attachment of created things, it raises the soul up to God and makes it grow in love."

-- The Spirit and Prayer of Carmel by Fr François Jamart, ocd

Forbid suffering entrance to your soul

"We must not be slaves either of time or health; we cannot dispose of either as we will! If we thought of acting only when all the conditions were favourable, we would pass our lives doing nothing; or at least we would get out of life very little of what it can give us.

Go ahead! That is a phrase I like so much. Even if everything is far from perfect, we must learn to say it. And things will go ahead, since joy does not come from without or from circumstances. Its principal source is withing us.

That is why faith is such a sure source of happiness, even now. The faithful who keep themselves in a state of grace, or who see that they return to it without delay whenever necessary, possess in their souls God who is infinite Goodness. And it is his presence that keeps them in peace. Troubles and disturbing events will always cause suffering; it is a law of life, and we cannot alter it.

We shall never banish suffering in our life, but we can forbid it entrance to our soul, or at any rate to the higher part of the soul. We are there, as it were, on a mountain, and we regard our troubles as the dweller upon the mountain contemplates the storm sweeping over the plain.

But we do not reach that height all at once; we have to arrive at it by stages. The thousand and one petty annoyances that each day brings are our training. We must calmly watch them come and go. To want to avoid them all is impossible; to allow them to upset us is a weakness. There will always be some cloud on the horizon of our lives. But do not let any of these things stop you, or even affect you. In short: Go ahead!"

-- Where Silence is Praise by A Carthusian

Surrender everything to arrive at union with God

"Under the influence of these virtues [faith, hope and love] the soul lives a truly supernatural life. However, St John of the Cross assigns another role to these virtues in the practice of the contemplative life. By contemplation, the soul tends to union with God. Now there is no proportion between God and His creatures. It follows that no created thing can be a means of union with God; no natural activity of our intellectual powers can unite us to Him. Hence the soul, in order to arrive at union with God, must despoil and empty itself of all created things and must cease all its natural modes of activity in its search for God. It must detach itself from everything that comes to it through the senses, empty itself of all distinct or particular knowledge even though it be clearly supernatural, and establish itself in obscurity and in a complete freedom of these things. This purification of the faculties of the soul is accomplished through the exercise of the theological virtues.

Faith purifies the intellect. By adhering to faith, by replying upon it alone on its journey to God, the soul is purified and enlightened and takes hold of God, as it were. Faith, indeed, 'is the only proximate and proportionate means for union of the soul with God.' 'The Son of God,' says St John of the Cross, 'communicates Himself to the soul only through faith. Between faith and God the resemblance is so great that there is no other difference than that which exists between seeing God and believing in God.' It is therefore 'in the obscurity of faith that God is found hidden, and it is with the aid of darkness that the mind is united with God.' Further, 'the more faith a soul has, the more it is united to God.'

Just as faith purifies the understanding, so hope empties the memory of the remembrance of earthly things to turn the soul towards the things that we hope for. 'To arrive at the union of love,' says St John of the Cross, 'the soul must despoil itself of everything and walk without any other support than hope in God alone.' 'God, indeed, so greatly values the hope of a soul which is always turned towards Him without ever lowering its gaze on anything else, that we can say in truth: it obtains all it hopes for.'

Finally, charity must free the will of all affection or attraction for created things so that it loves God alone. This love of God, St John of the Cross insists, must be absolute and continuous. The soul that desires God to give Himself wholly to it must give itself wholly and unreservedly to Him. It must be content with Him alone and surrender everything to Him. Consequently the soul must keep itself from loving anything as much as it loves God, because to put into the balance with God what is infinitely below Him is really to belittle Him. It must even avoid seeking itself in God. It must live for Him in complete detachment."

-- The Spirit and Prayer of Carmel by François Jamart, ocd