During the night, the pain allowed for more prayers and an update on a beautiful little girl who is just diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of pediatric cancer. Tumors have settled in her brain and coat her spinal column. All the more our picayune naggings and hauntings of the evil one can irritate us when we consider, otherwise, the seriousness of illnesses these holy innocents face in children's hospitals all over the world.
How many times do we offer our old and annoyingly painful lives in exchange for just one of these sweet children to be able to live and enjoy a full life? Yet, we remain here for some reason; today I considered it might be due to my not being pure enough to be exchanged for such a sweet and beautiful child...not that God is in the business of making mortal exchanges. But, there have been instances of those who made offerings for certain intentions, and mysteriously they developed illnesses while their well-intended offering was seemingly miraculously being fulfilled.
A spiritual daughter of Padre Pio is one such case in point. She offered herself as a victim and prayer that he would finally go to San Giovanni Rotundo and begin his mission in earnest. A terminal illness developed, Padre Pio came to see her, and that broke the hidden chains restraining his going and remaining at the monastery to which God called him. Raffaelina Cerase died soon after, her offering fulfilled. There's more to it, but this gives the idea. It is a win-win situation, always.
Today a most kind occurrence happened prior to Mass. In confession, a young priest offered to ask (on my behalf) the head priest if the chair could remain in the chapel, thus sparing me pain, suffering and more injury in having to lift it from the car and carry it in and out each day. We agreed that the devil is doing all to keep me from Mass. What is also obvious but not to the one who persecutes the most, is that the devil is using that person to inflict much of the suffering! The devil loves to work from within the Church, often with those in the Church who we would think are inured to such tricks. The devil stops at nothing--nothing but His Real Presence or who He sends to stop the antics.
I decided that while the young priest is most chivalrous in Christian kindness, I should muster courage to ask the head priest once again and not have this kind priest be placed in the middle. In fact, I sometimes have concern that those who may help me could take some brunt by the devil. So after Mass I made the request myself. It is all so very silly--if it were not for the bodily pain, cost, and incapacitation the lifting and carrying of the chair cross has caused. The head priest listened and agreed finally that the chair can remain in the chapel but must be removed between Masses and stored outside some double doors, near a holy water font. Of course, I cannot move the chair now with both shoulders a mess; however I promised to try to find someone to do this for me.
It is ironic that this person prays daily for one of my family members to return to the Faith, when the person's very actions toward me has caused the family member all the more to despise and consider evil, the Church, and has not spoken to me because I remain Catholic. See the tangles the devil likes to create and retain, all the while with stupid ironies known to some...and total blindness in others he uses to live out the very ironies?
As St. John of Avila reminds in His sermons on the Holy Spirit, we must wean ourselves from the temporal aspects and all the more call upon the Father and the Son to send the Holy Ghost, and pray the three of Them, the Trinity, abide in us and us in Him. St. John of Avila repeats that there will be no union without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as One in the Trinity. Again we glimpse why the saints always came to the love and understanding of where the Son leads us; and St. John of Avila presents it so clearly, utilizing Scripture passages.
Perhaps later, after my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon to make sure the left shoulder is not a torn rotator cuff, I will share more on John of Avila's writings on this topic. It explains best what I have been trying to describe in His Real Presence as the Trinity, and to not fragment Jesus--or any of the Three Persons--to the diminishing of the Others. In the Mass, All are present and All must be revered and uplifted with no fragmenting of One or Two or even sullied distraction from the Three in One Being.
God bless His Real Presence in us!
And let us please pray for the little children so suffering in all the hospitals of the world!
A spiritual daughter of Padre Pio is one such case in point. She offered herself as a victim and prayer that he would finally go to San Giovanni Rotundo and begin his mission in earnest. A terminal illness developed, Padre Pio came to see her, and that broke the hidden chains restraining his going and remaining at the monastery to which God called him. Raffaelina Cerase died soon after, her offering fulfilled. There's more to it, but this gives the idea. It is a win-win situation, always.
Today a most kind occurrence happened prior to Mass. In confession, a young priest offered to ask (on my behalf) the head priest if the chair could remain in the chapel, thus sparing me pain, suffering and more injury in having to lift it from the car and carry it in and out each day. We agreed that the devil is doing all to keep me from Mass. What is also obvious but not to the one who persecutes the most, is that the devil is using that person to inflict much of the suffering! The devil loves to work from within the Church, often with those in the Church who we would think are inured to such tricks. The devil stops at nothing--nothing but His Real Presence or who He sends to stop the antics.
I decided that while the young priest is most chivalrous in Christian kindness, I should muster courage to ask the head priest once again and not have this kind priest be placed in the middle. In fact, I sometimes have concern that those who may help me could take some brunt by the devil. So after Mass I made the request myself. It is all so very silly--if it were not for the bodily pain, cost, and incapacitation the lifting and carrying of the chair cross has caused. The head priest listened and agreed finally that the chair can remain in the chapel but must be removed between Masses and stored outside some double doors, near a holy water font. Of course, I cannot move the chair now with both shoulders a mess; however I promised to try to find someone to do this for me.
As St. John of Avila reminds in His sermons on the Holy Spirit, we must wean ourselves from the temporal aspects and all the more call upon the Father and the Son to send the Holy Ghost, and pray the three of Them, the Trinity, abide in us and us in Him. St. John of Avila repeats that there will be no union without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as One in the Trinity. Again we glimpse why the saints always came to the love and understanding of where the Son leads us; and St. John of Avila presents it so clearly, utilizing Scripture passages.
Perhaps later, after my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon to make sure the left shoulder is not a torn rotator cuff, I will share more on John of Avila's writings on this topic. It explains best what I have been trying to describe in His Real Presence as the Trinity, and to not fragment Jesus--or any of the Three Persons--to the diminishing of the Others. In the Mass, All are present and All must be revered and uplifted with no fragmenting of One or Two or even sullied distraction from the Three in One Being.
God bless His Real Presence in us!
And let us please pray for the little children so suffering in all the hospitals of the world!
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