The Barns of Our Soul

Let no one put his confidence in the vanity of this world.  That vanity, as you see, is something standing with insecure footing.  Devotion to it is short-lived and empty, and its beauty is like smoke in a wind.  The comeliness of its countenance is like that which you see when you look on the beauty of that vine which had its early summer blossoms in well-constituted abundance, yet cannot bring forth the actual fruit of the promised grape harvest.  While it brings forth too much, it incurs the reproach of perpetual sterility.  

A far different beauty, dearly beloved, is that which the time of eternal life promises to us, if only one makes his way as a poor person with regard to sins.  He who gathers the fruits of mercy and struggles against the urge to foolish covetousness, he goes as a rich person to Christ.  He makes his way with great wealth to heaven who wards off from himself the pomp of short-lived vanity.  He who by his zealous practice of religion is lightening his heart once burdened with vices carries with him great resources to paradise,  Finally, he has escaped all the penury of begging who has daily planted in his heart the commandments of our Christ, and with watchful faith has filled the barns of his soul with seeds heavenly in their origin.  

Saint Valerian of Cimiez

-Saint Valerian (460) was the bishop of Comelium, the present day Comiez in Nice, France.

The Spirit will teach you what to say

No matter how lofty the doctrine preached, or polished the rhetoric, or sublime the style in which the preaching is clothed, the profit does not ordinarily increase because of these means in themselves; it comes from the spirit of the preacher...  We frequently see, insofar as it is possible to judge here below, that the better the life of the preacher the more abundant the fruit, no matter how lowly his style, poor his rhetoric, and plain the doctrine.  For the living spirit enkindles fire.  But when this spirit is wanting, the gain is small, however sublime the style and doctrine.  Although it is true that good style, gestures, sublime doctrine, and well-chosen words are more moving and productive of effect when accompanied by this good spirit, yet, without it, even though delightful and pleasing to the senses and the intellect, the sermon imparts little or no devotion to the will.  For the will in this case will ordinarily be left as weak and remiss as before, even though wonderful things were admirably spoken; and the sermon merely delights the sense of hearing, like a musical concert or sounding bells.  But the spirit, as I said, will not leave its natural ties any more than previously, since the voice does not possess the power to raise a dead man from his sepulcher.  

Saint John of the Cross

-Saint John of the Cross (1591) is called the Mystical Doctor.

How to Avoid the Hypocrisy of the Pharisees

Like the stones of a temple, cut for a building of God the Father, you have been lifted up to the top by the crane of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, and the rope of the Holy Spirit.  For your faith has drawn you up and charity has been the road leading to God.  You are all fellow pilgrims, carrying with you God and his temple; you are bearers of Christ and of holy offerings, decked out in the commandments of Jesus Christ.

And so do not cease to pray for all other people, for there is hope of their conversion and of their finding God.  Give them the chance to be instructed, at least by the way you behave.  When they are angry with you, be meek; answer their words of pride by your humility, their blasphemies by your prayers, their error by your steadfastness in faith, their bullying by your gentleness.  Let us not be in a hurry to give them tit for tat, but, by our sweet reasonableness, show that we are their brothers and sisters.  Let us rather be eager to imitate the Lord, striving to be the first in bearing wrongs, in suffering loss, in being despised, so that no weed of the evil one may be found among you; but abide in Jesus Christ in perfect purity and temperance of body and soul.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch

-Saint Ignatius of Antioch (107) was from Syria and was a bishop and a martyr.  

How to Make Everything Clean for Us

On awaking, enter in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and consecrate to it your body, your soul, your heart, and your whole being, so as to live but for its love and glory alone.  Our heart is too small to contain two loves, being made only for divine love, it finds no rest in any other.  Divine love suffices to prevent us from willfully doing anything which could displease the Beloved of our souls.  Indeed, I cannot understand how a heart that belongs to God and truly wishes to love him, can deliberately offend him.  I see more clearly than the day that a life without the love of Jesus Christ is the greatest of all miseries.  Let us apply ourselves only to love and to suffer while loving.  When we have acquired the perfect knowledge thereof, then we shall know and do all that God wishes for us.  Never forget him who died for love of you.  You will only love him insofar as you know how to suffer in silence, preferring him to creatures and eternity to time.  If we wish to have the love of the divine Heart as our guest, we must empty and detach our heart from its affection for creatures and for ourselves.  As it is love alone which produces in us desire of conformity with out Sovereign Master, we can only attain to this conformity by loving him supremely...  I love my Sovereign Master and think more of him than of his gifts and benefits, which I esteem only in him and as coming from him.  My heart can neither love nor be attached to aught but to him alone.  All else is nothing and serves but to hinder the purity of love, and to raise a barrier between the soul and her Beloved.  Grant, O my God, that throughout my life, I may love you with true, ardent, and persevering love.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

-Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1690) was a Visitandine nun to whom the Lord made many revelations of his Sacred Heart.  

Only One Thing is Required

Even when the devotion of good people wishes that the evil be corrected and obtains the conversion of many by the grace of our merciful God, the plots of evil spirits against the saints are not diminished.  Whether by secret schemes or in open battle, they trouble the resolution of good will among all the faithful.  Everything honorable, everything holy, they find repugnant.  Although nothing would be allowed beyond what divine justice permits, what serves the good of correcting God's people through discipline or the teaching of patience, these spirits treat with the craft art of deceit, that they might seem to harm or to spare through their own free will.  

Sad to say, they make such a mockery of many with the wickedness of pretense that some people both are afraid to deal with these spirits when enraged and want to keep them placated.  Yet the benefits of demons are more harmful than all wounds, because it is safer for mankind to deserve the hatred of the devil than his peace.  Wise souls, who have learned to fear only one, to love only one, and hope in only one, when their desires have been regulated and their bodily sense crucified, are not moved to any fear of or awe before the enemy.  

Saint Leo the Great

-Saint Leo the Great (461) reigned as pope from 440 to 461.  He is a Doctor of the Church.

Jesus, the Good Samaritan

Lord Jesus, I pray that you may be moved to pity and come to me.  I have gone down from Jerusalem to Jericho, descended from the heights to the depths, from health to sickness.  I have fallen into the hands of the angels of darkness who have not only stripped me of my garment of spiritual grace but have also wounded me and left me half-dead.  Bind up the wounds of my sins by making me believe that they can be healed, for if I despair of healing they will become worse.  Apply the oil of forgiveness to them and pour in the wine of compunction.  If you place me on your beast, you will be raising the poor from the dust, the needy from the rubbish heap.  For it is you who have carried our sins, who have paid back what you did not take.  If you lead me to the inn of your Church you will nourish me with your Body and Blood.  If you take care of me I shall not transgress your commandments nor fall prey to the rage of wild beasts.  I need your protection as long as I bear this corruptible flesh.  So listen to me, Samaritan, listen to me who am stripped and wounded, weeping and groaning, as I call upon you and cry out with David:  "Have mercy on me, O God, in your great kindness."

Saint Gregory the Great

-Saint Gregory the Great (604) was one of the most important popes and influential writers of the Middle Ages.

Power over Demons

I long to see you a true knight, strong in your fight against the devil's every trick as long as we are on this battlefield, surrounded by enemies who are constantly fighting against us.  Like a true and courageous knight, a new plant, rise with fresh desire to go out against them.  Don't retreat, lest we be left dead or taken prisoner.  People are said to be in prison when they are somewhere they cannot leave as they please.  So if we were to turn aside the head of our will, abandon our holy resolve, and turn our efforts to carrying out the machinations of the devil, we would be in the very worst prison possible; we would have forfeited our freedom and become servants and slaves of sin.

If you say to me, "I am weak in the face of so many enemies," I answer you that of ourselves we are all so weak and frail that we fall at the slightest obstacle.  But divine providence is at work within our soul, strengthening us and relieving us of all weakness.  So be trustful, firmly believing that God always provides for souls who trust in him.  Then the devil is powerless, because the power of the most gracious holy cross deprives him of all his power over us.  But that same cross, by God's boundless goodness, makes us wholly strong, freed from all weakness and instability.  When we remember the holy cross we come to love virtue and hate vice.  Since we are the very rock in which that holy standard was implanted, we cannot say we have no access to it; it is firmly fixed in our very selves.  You know that neither nails nor cross nor rock could have held the God-Man on the cross had not his love for us held him there.  We are the ones for whom his blood was given as ransom.  When we remember that, honor is despicable, and mockery, torture, and insults are attractive.  

Saint Catherine of Siena

-Saint Catherine of Siena (1380), Doctor of the Church, was a Dominican, stigmatist, and papal counselor.

Avoiding the Sin of the Rich Man

Give us understanding, my God, of what it is that's given to those who fight valiantly in the dream of this miserable life.  Obtain for us, O loving souls, understanding of the joy it gives you to see the eternal character of your fruition, and how it is so delightful to see certainly that it will have no end.  Oh, how fortunate we are, my Lord!  For we believe in everlasting joy and known the truth well; but with so pronounced a habit of failing to reflect on these truths, they have already become so foreign to our souls that these souls neither know about them nor desire to know about them.  O selfish people, greedy for your pleasures and delights; not waiting a short time in order to enjoy them in such abundance, not waiting a year, not waiting a day, not waiting an hour - and perhaps it will take no more than a moment - you lose everything, because of the joy of that misery you see present.

Oh, how little we trust you, Lord!  How much greater the riches and treasures you entrusted to us, since after his thirty-three years of great trials and so unbearable and pitiable a death, you have given us your Son; and so many years before we were born!  Even knowing that we wouldn't repay you, you didn't want to cease trusting us with such an inestimable treasure, so that it wouldn't be your fault, merciful Father, if we fail to acquire what through him we can obtain from you.

O blessed souls who with this precious price knew so well how to profit and buy an inheritance so delightful and permanent, tell us how you gained such an unending good!  Help us, since you are so near the fount; draw water for those here below who are perishing of thirst.

Saint Teresa of Avila

-Saint Teresa of Avila (1582), Doctor of the Church, reformed the Carmelite Order.

Must Suffer Greatly

O my God, you who do not refuse me suffering.  For some time you have accustomed me to love you in the deprivation of all sensible joys, in a suffering heart, and often enough, in an exhausted body.  I accept all from your hand and unite myself to your will.  Is it not just that having received all from you I should give you something in return, and that I should offer you the trials, prayers, sacrifices, and humble activity that is your daily design for me?  Through it all I want to try, by your grace, to maintain joy of spirit.  

O God, for some time you have given me the grace of suffering:  spiritual trials, the renunciation of my desires and tastes, deeply felt spiritual isolation.  How well you know how to choose the most appropriate suffering, the one that crucifies us and allows the least possibility of selfishness.  In my illness there were still subtle temptations for me, and satisfactions that were legitimate and yet too worldly.  In leaving me this physical misery, with its inconveniences and helplessness, you have again hidden this from others and sent me other trials that are very painful and known only to you.

From the bottom of my heart, I say to you, "Thank you."  Blessed are you, O God, for all this pain, through which you allow me to atone for my faults, draw near to your heart, and also to obtain, I hope, many spiritual graces for many people, as well as for those I love.

My God, help me to carry the cross you have offered me, and let none of this precious grace of suffering be lost.

Elisabeth Leseur

-Elisabeth Leseur (1914) was a French married laywoman whose cause for canonization is underway.

Proclaiming God's Reign

Supposing two men come to a city without food, money, or a change of clothes.  Who do you think would welcome them, where would they find an open door?  Who would want to know them?  What sort of lodging would they find and where would they start to look for it?  One must surely marvel at the power of one who could send his disciples out in such a way, and at the faith of those whom he sent.

What had these men to offer?  What was their message?  "He was crucified," they said.  The preachers were Jews, men of lowly station, ignorant, illiterate, poor.  Their teaching was about a cross:  hence the need for faith.  But power triumphs through difficulties.  The cross was proclaimed and temples were destroyed; the cross was proclaimed and kings were conquered; the cross was proclaimed and the worldly-wise were put to shame, pagan festivals were abolished, pagan deities destroyed.  Why be so amazed that the apostles were believed, or that they themselves could believe, and then they returned home safely after being welcomed everywhere?  But these are truly great marvels and we should not fail to realize this.  Unknown strangers, poorly dressed, and without contacts, traveled all over the world proclaiming someone who had been crucified, and offering a life of fasting in place of drunkenness, and irksome self-restraint in place of sensuality.  It can hardly have been easy for those addicted to such vices to receive these exhortation to renounce them and live upright lives.  And yet whole peoples seized upon this teaching, whole nations embraced it.

Eusebius of Emesa

Eusebius (359) was a bishop, a prolific author, and a courageous opponent of heresy.

Trustworthy in Small Matters

Our good Jesus has placed my soul in extreme desolation and I find it difficult to think that I am living the life of God's children.  I am in a wilderness where my soul knows no comfort in these moments of trepidation and hope.

Now and again a most feeble light penetrates from above, just enough to reassure my poor soul that all is being directed by divine Providence and that through joy and tears the heavenly Father is leading me by inscrutable secret ways to the end he has in view.  This is nothing else than the perfection of my soul and its union with God.  But then, alas, a little later my poor soul is plunged into a more tragic desolation than before.

I cannot understand how one can live when our blessed God places the soul in such straits.  All I can say is that my soul in this state seems to glimpse a concealed hand which can be none other than the hand of God.  Moreover, at the apex of my spirit I feel, like the stirring of a gentle spring breeze, the divine Master's most beautiful assurance that not a hair of our heads will perish without the permission of our heavenly Father, that he watches over the soul with fatherly love, and that when he tries it by similar desolation he invariably does so out of love and for the soul's perfection.

Hence it is that the bitterness of the trial is sweetened by the balm of God's goodness and mercy.  Praise be to God who can so marvelously alternate joy and tears so as to lead the soul by unknown paths to the attainment of perfection, a flower which the merciful God causes to bloom amid the thorns of suffering, watered by the tears of the soul that suffers patiently, that humbly conforms to the divine will and prays with warmth and fervor.

Let us always trust in God, and may our lively faith and the comfort of Christian hope assist us in this.

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

-Saint Pio of Pietrelcina (1968) was an Italian Capuchin priest who during his lifetime enjoyed a vast reputation for sanctity.

Great Faith

The psalmist refers to the words, "I will please the Lord in the land of the living"; and, as if a person asked, how do you know of the existence of such a place at all? he replies, that he knows it through faith.  "I have believed" that such a place exists, though unseen by mortal eye, and, by reason of such faith, I said, "I will please the Lord in the land of the living."  Saint Paul quotes this passage where he says, "But having the same spirit of faith, as it is written, I have believed; therefore I have spoken.  We also believe, and, therefore, we speak, knowing that he who raised up Jesus will raise us up also with Jesus, and place us with you"; where he teaches that the resurrection of the body, and the true country of the living in which we are to be located with the Lord Jesus, is to be learned in the spirit of faith, and not by any human demonstration.  And, as such faith requires a soul truly humble, that it may be subject to the obedience required by faith, he therefore adds, "but I have been humbled exceedingly."  I have believed, because I have not relied on my own abilities, but I have exhibited the greatest humility and docility to the Holy Spirit, as the Lord says in Matthew 11, "I give thanks to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to the little ones"; and in another place, John 5, "How can you believe who receive glory one from another?"

Saint Robert Bellarmine

Saint Robert (1621) was a brilliant Jesuit preacher and theologian noted for his rational argumentation.

Exaltation of the Cross

If you wish to have the light of divine grace, and a heart free from all care, if you wish to curb all harmful temptations, and to be made perfect in the ways of God, do not tarry in running to the cross of Christ.  Truly there is no other way for the sons of Christ to manage to find God, and having found him, to hold on to him, but in the life and the way of the suffering God and man which... is the Book of Life, the reading of which no one can have access to except through continual prayer.  Continual prayer elevates, illumines, and transforms the soul.  Illumined by the light perceived in prayer, the soul sees clearly the way of Christ prepared and trodden by the feet of the Crucified; running along this way with an expanded heart, it not only distances itself from the weighty cares of the world but rises above itself to taste divine sweetness.  Then it is set ablaze by divine fire.  Thus illumined, elevated, and set ablaze, it is transformed into the God-man.  All this is achieved by gazing on the cross in continual prayer.

Hence, my dearest son, fling yourself upon this cross, ask him who died on it for you to enlighten you to know fully, so that plunged deep in knowledge of your own defects, you can be uplifted to know fully the sweetness of divine goodness which seemed incomprehensible to you when, so full of defects as you were, God lifted you up to divine sonship, and promised to be your Father.  Do not, therefore, be ungrateful toward him, but strive to accomplish in everything the will of so great and so lovable a Father.  For if legitimate sons cannot accomplish what pleases the Father, how will the adulterous ones be able to do so?  Adulterous sons are the ones who stray from the discipline of the cross through concupiscence of the flesh.  Legitimate sons, on the other hand, are the ones who strive to conform themselves in every way to their teacher and Father who suffered for them.  They do so by following him in poverty, suffering, and contempt.  For certainly, my dear son, these three things are the basis and the fulfillment of all perfection.  For in these three, the soul is truly enlightened, perfected, purged, and most fittingly prepared for divine transformation.  

Blessed Angela of Foligno

-Blessed Angela (1309) was a wife and mother who later became a Franciscan tertiary and an esteemed mystical writer.

Being Merciful

A third time the girl repeated:  "You too were with that man yesterday," but a third time he denied it.  Finally Jesus looked at him, reminding him of his previous assertion.  Peter understood, repented of his sin, and began to weep.  Mercifully, however, Jesus forgave him his sin, because he knew that Peter, being a man, was subject to human frailty.  Now, as I said before, the reason God's plan permitted Peter to sin was because he was to be entrusted with the whole people of God, and sinlessness added to his severity might have made him unforgiving toward his brothers and sisters.  He fell into sin so that, remembering his own fault and the Lord's forgiveness, he also might forgive others out of love for them.  This was God's providential dispensation.  He to whom the Church was to be entrusted, he, the pillar of the churches, the harbor of faith, was allowed to sin; Peter, the teacher of the world, was permitted to sin, so that having been forgiven himself he would be merciful to others.  

Saint John Chrysostom

-Saint John Chrysostom (407) was a formed preacher and commentator on Scripture.  

Christ's Compassion for the Suffering

Suffering has to come because if you look at the cross, he has got his head bending down - he wants to kiss you - and he has both hands wide open - he wants to embrace you.  He has his heart opened wide to receive you.  Then when you feel miserable inside, look at the cross and you will know what is happening.  Suffering, pain, sorrow, humiliation, feelings of loneliness, are nothing but the kiss of Jesus, a sign that you have come so close that he can kiss you.  Do you understand, brothers, sisters, or whoever you may be?  Suffering, pain, humiliation - this is the kiss of Jesus.  At times you come so close to Jesus that he may kiss you.  I once told this to a lady who was suffering very much.  She answered, "Tell Jesus not to kiss me - to stop kissing me."  That suffering has to come that came in the life of Our Lady, that came in the life of Jesus - it has to come in our life also.  Only never put on a long face.  Suffering is a gift from God.  It is between you and Jesus alone inside...  Our total surrender will come today by surrendering even our sins so that we will be poor.  "Unless you become a child, you cannot be lifted up.  We need humility to acknowledge our sin.  The knowledge of our sin helps us to rise.  "I will get up and go to my Father."

Blessed Theresa of Calcutta

-Blessed Theresa of Calcutta (1997) won the Nobel Peace Prize and founded the Missionaries of Charity.  

Welcoming Christ the Physician

Have mercy on me, O God, in your great kindness.

Let us imagine a man seriously injured and gasping for his last draughts of life-giving air.  Lying naked on a rubbish heap, he points to his still unbandaged wounds; he longs for a doctor to come, and in his distress begs for pity.  Sin is the soul's wound.  You who are wounded, recognize in your hearts who your physician is and uncover to him the wounds of your sins.  May he who knows every secret thought hear the groaning of your hearts.  Let your suffering reach him, so that to you also it may be said:  The Lord has taken away your sin.  Cry out with David - see how he speaks:  Have mercy on me, O God, in your great kindness.  It is as if he were saying:  I am in peril from a great wound which no physician can heal, unless the omnipotent physician comes to my aid.  No wound is beyond his power of healing; he heals without asking a fee, he restores health by a mere word.  I should despair of my wound did I not rely on the Almighty.  Have mercy on me, O God, in your great kindness.

Saint Gregory the Great

-Saint Gregory of the Great (604) was one of the most important popes and influential writers of the Middle Ages.

Humility

The first kind of humility:  This is the kind that is necessary for my eternal salvation, and consists in subjecting and humbling myself, as far as I can, so that I obey the law of God our Lord in everything; so much so that even if I were made the lord of all created things in this world, or even if my own life on this earth were at stake, I would not deliberately set about breaking any law, whether divine or human, that obliges me under the pain of mortal sin.

The second kind of humility:  The second is more perfect than the first.  I have it if I find myself at a point where I do not desire, nor even prefer, to be rich rather than poor, to seek fame rather than disgrace, to desire a long rather than a short life, provided it is the same for the service of God and the good of my soul; and along with this I would not deliberately set about committing a venial sin, even for the whole of creation or under threat to my own life.

The third kind of humility:  This is the most perfect humility.  It is present when - given that the first and second kinds are included, and supposing equal praise and glory of the divine majesty - in order to imitate Christ our Lord and to be actually more like him, I want and choose poverty with Christ poor rather than wealth, and ignominy with Christ in great ignominy rather than fame, and I desire more to be thought a fool and an idiot for Christ, who was taken to be such, rather than thought wise and prudent in this world.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola

-Saint Ignatius (1556) was the founder of the Society of Jesus.

The Meaning of the Parable of the Talents

Do human beings have anything to offer to God?  Yes, their faith and their love.  These are what God asks of them, as it is written:  "And now, O Israel, do you know what the Lord, your God, requires of you?  To fear the Lord, your God, to walk in his ways, to love him, to keep all his commandments, and to serve the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul.

These are the offerings, these the gifts which we must present to the Lord.  And in order that we may offer him these gifts from the heart, we must first know him, we must have drunk the knowledge of his goodness from the waters of his deep well. 

But look more closely at these words of Moses the prophet:  "And now, O Israel, what does the Lord, your God, require of you?"  Those who deny that the salvation of human beings is within the power of their freedom ought to blush when they hear these words!  Would God require something of human beings if they were incapable of responding to God's demand and offering him what they owe him?  No:  there is indeed God's gift, but there is also a contribution they must make.  For example, it was indeed within the power of a human being to make a gold piece earn ten more or five more, but it was for God to see to it that this man should have the gold piece which he could use to earn ten more.  When the man presented to God the ten pieces he had earned, he received another gift, not money this time, but authority and rule over ten cities.

Origen

-Origen (254) of Alexandria, Egypt, was a great philosopher and theologian.

The Virtue of the Wise Virgins

Though the Christian ought to rejoice in the moral goods and works he performs temporally, insofar as they are the cause of temporal goods, he ought not do so as the Gentiles, who did not penetrate with the eyes of their soul beyond the things of this mortal life.  Since the Christian has the light of faith, in which he hopes for eternal life, and without which nothing from above or below will have any value, he ought to rejoice in the possession and exercise of these moral goods only and chiefly in the second manner: that insofar as he performs these works for the love of God, they produce eternal life for him.

Thus, through his good customs and virtues he should fix his eyes only upon the service and honor of God.  Without this aspect the virtues are worth nothing in God's sight.  This is evident in the Gospel in the case of the ten virgins; they had all preserved their virginity and done good works, yet because five of them had not rejoiced in this second way (by directing their joy in these works to God), but rather in the first, rejoicing vainly in the possession of these works, they were rejected from heaven and left without any gratitude or reward from their spouse (Mt. 25: 1-13).  Also many of the ancients possessed numerous virtues and engaged in good works, and many Christians have them today and accomplish wonderful deeds; but such works are of no profit for eternal life, because of failure to seek only the honor and glory of God.

The Christian, then, should not be joyful if he accomplishes good works and abides by good customs, but if he does them out of love for God alone, without any other motive.

Saint John of the Cross

-Saint John of the Cross (1591) is called the Mystical Doctor.

The Greatness of John the Baptist

The Lord's forerunner was a man, not a god; whereas the Lord whom he preceded was both man and God.  The forerunner was a man destined to be divinized by God's grace, whereas the one he preceded was God by nature, who, through his desire to save and redeem us, lowered himself in order to assume our human nature.

A man was sent.  By whom?  By the divine Word, whose forerunner he was.  To go before the Lord was his mission.  Lifting up his voice, this man called out:  "The voice of one crying in the wilderness!"

It was the herald preparing the way for the Lord's coming.  John was his name; John to whom was given the grace to go ahead of the King of kings, to point out to the world the Word made flesh, to baptize him with that baptism in which the Spirit would manifest his divine Sonship, to give witness through his teaching and martyrdom to the eternal light.

John Scotus Erigena

-John Scotus Erigena (877) was born in Ireland and was a great medieval theologian.

The Desire the Pharisees Lacked

In the felt experience wherein the soul finds the certitude that God is within it, the soul is given the grace of wanting God so perfectly that everything in it is in true and not false harmony.  False harmony exists when the soul says that it wants God but does not really mean it, because its desire for God is not true in everything, in every way, or in every respect.  Its desire for God is true when all the members of the body are in harmony with the soul, and the soul in turn is in harmony with the heart and with the entire body that it becomes one with them and responds as one for all of them.  Then the soul truly wants God, and this desire is granted to it through grace.

Hence when the soul is told:  "What do you want?"  it can respond:  "I want God."  God then tells it, "I am the one making you feel that desire."  Until it reaches this point, the soul's desire is not true or integral.  This form of desire is granted to the soul by a grace which it knows that God is within it, and that it is in companionship with God.  This gift is to have a desire, now a unified one, in which it feels that it loves God in a way analogous to the true love with which God has loved us.  The soul feels God merging with it and becoming its companion.

Blessed Angela of Foligno

-Blessed Angela of Foligno (1309) was a wife and mother who later became a Franciscan tertiary and an esteemed mystical writer.

We Will See Greater Things

Perhaps the thought might arise in our hearts:  "I can't pursue that sort of perfection; I feel that I am frail and weak and imperfect.  I am worn down by the devil's wiles, by the weakness of my flesh, by the world's allurements and deceit."  True, it can't be denied that if you follow the world you will grow weak, so fearful, and slavishly timid that like a child you will be afraid of your own shadow.  But if a child is sensible and runs to its mother, it feels secure and unafraid there...  Boundless Goodness has give us remedy for all our weakness in his wondrous charity.  Charity is that gentlest of mothers who has deep humility as her nurse, and she in turn nourishes all her children, the virtues.  None of them can have life unless it is conceived and brought forth by this mother, charity...

Follow, then, those true shepherds who followed Christ crucified...  They kept close to his footsteps.  For knowing their own weakness, they ran humbly to their mother, true charity, with their pride in honor and their self-centeredness struck down.  There they lost their fear.  They were not afraid to correct those in their care, because they kept in mind the words of Christ:  "Do not fear those who can kill the body; fear me."  This doesn't surprise me, because their eyes and their desire were fed not on earth but on God's honor and other people's salvation.

Saint Catherine of Siena

-Saint Catherine of Siena (1380), Doctor of the Church, was a Dominican, stigmatist, and papal counselor.