More Prayer, and Remain in His Love!

The s.d. said that nothing must endure the state during Mass as long as it lasts, as there is nothing to do about it but pray and endure.  Of course, it is quite secondary to the call for all of us:  Remain in His Love!

Jesus loves us.  He wants us to be close to Him, to unite with Him.  That is the simple truth and basic instruction and goal.  To do this, we must love Jesus more than anything else, especially our own selves.

But I hope any readers of these recent posts understand that mystical phenomenon carry with them many crosses not just brought on by others but also within the recipient, for there are many doubts and senses of unworthiness, plus questions and wondering if one is not getting the message, or is not doing something more or other that the Lord desires.

It estranges some people for various reasons, and in others it makes no difference as to helping inspire, and that is painful. 

So it is best to remain focused on loving Christ and on remaining in His love, and in enduring whatever numinous events or none, with equanimity of spirit and praying for humility which comes along with mystical phenomenon.  It is all quite humbling--those crosses.

I don't feel as if there is anything more that can be written about such matters at this point.  Just know that they are not "fun" and carry with them (if they happen in public) lots of trials and upsets.  Think of Jesus, how it really was for Him, dragging that cross through the crowds jeering and cheering and a very few weeping.  He was marked, and nothing was going to change people's views other than his death and resurrection.

For us imperfect humans, nothing will change people's views other than our deaths and any ways in which the Holy Spirit might change their hearts to Him, never to the person who is simply a temporal medium of whatever spiritual message.

Just know that there is a painful reality to such things.

Present Moments Not Including Writing!

Well, spiritual correspondence has been taking time lately.  People have ideas, questions, and issues to write about that deserve responses.  Plus, there is e-alogue that occurs on specific spiritual topics.

However, between the heat wave, then two little ones visiting for a weekend, then mega-garden workout--nothing has been very busy.

But there is a prayer request that has been asked of some friends--just two or three including family.  If the ecstasy during every Mass, going on for nearly three years, is to be a sign and message of the power of the Living Word of Christ Present in His Word, and the Sacrifice also very powerful, and His mystical presence to be more recognized by us souls who go to Mass (and I suppose by anyone who believes in Jesus Christ), then it seems the message or sign is not getting through. 

Of course, only God knows if it is getting through in some subconscious or supernatural way.  But the outer reactions over time, particularly with some including some clerics, makes one wonder!  So have been praying to God that if I am in the wrong location, let me know where He wills me to go; if this is a gift for me--so refreshing and profound, Mass after Mass--then thanks, but shouldn't it be for others more than me?

I am to pray for whatever God wills, and that He use it for souls, for priests and for the Church.  I do pray that, but I will need great faith to accept that somehow it is having effect even though it seems more the opposite.  This is nothing to do with the person but is simply a message, a reminder, a sign.

Anyway, that is what I'm pondering and praying.  Little bits of reading at night, usually worn out from manual labor and other responsibilities of maintenance, a holy hour, prayers, and present moment encounters--picking up with Elisabeth of Schonau once again.  Have been reading it in pieces for a couple months.  This week read about her ecstasies/trances/altered states; the author, a prof from U of Vermont, utilizes three terms for them.  Says they occurred in the Mass setting and on rare occasion during community reading of Divine Office prayers.  Regardless, Elisabeth of Schonau is most helpful, and I'm thankful for these people who endured and lived lives that caused them much suffering and persecution.

A friend today said that "they" always tell people who have different encounters of a mystical nature to not ever talk about them nor to write, other than if told to and in a personal journal.  The friend's husband asked, "Who is 'they'?"  A good question, that.  But I interjected that yes, often these people would be sequestered off in a dank cell, and subjected to all kinds of scrutiny.  The husband also pointed out that if none of them were supposed to talk or write, then how is it we have books to read today that describe what they endured and for what purposes for the good of souls?

So, we do have their encounters in writing, often from others who observed, or directors who wrote, or several friends and often the persons themselves.  It does seem that the issue over not being able to receive Communion during Mass due to the ecstasy is a huge stumbling block to clerics and even hard for the s.d. to grasp.  It came to me when reading of Elisabeth's having these during Mass, also, that it has only been since Pope Pius the Tenth that we have had frequent Communion.  In Elisabeth's time it was once a year usually--the Easter duty.  No doubt that is why now it seems so very hard for others to comprehend that Communion can be in another form, of a deep and profoundly spiritual reality, all the same.

Nothing is being rather open.  The friend asked, "Don't you want to be a saint?"  Nothing admitted only wanting to love God and do His will.  No, I don't care to be a saint--at least the kind that we have so many of already, at great cost and effort, from every century and continent and culture and status.  The old ones are fine with me; don't need current ones to keep me Catholic or striving to love God and others.

My thought now is that some perhaps are dotted about who need to study and learn about such matters as other people may have numinous events and no one seems to be able to grasp or deal with such.  It is bound to happen in one form or another in a soul's journey in this life, striving to remain in His love and live in Christ in the present moments.

Teresa of Avila's states ceased after her soul was purified.  Then she says that she lived in that state but could move her limbs and function--all the while in the peace and bliss and love of union.  Yes, she was then in Christ yet doing her work on earth.  Nothing has wondered if and when this thing will stop.  Have prayed for it to stop many times over for the past nearly three years, on my own and also as directed in the past year.  But to be purified--this is a hard nut God would have to crack--my soul.