A State of Contant Total Amazement

"My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement." - Patricia Graynamore.

A Dominican brother once told me, "Most people, most of the day, are practical atheists. I know I am. I'm a religious, and most of the day I don't think about how God's grace is actively working in my life."

"[4] Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!  
[5] Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near.  
[6]Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.  
[7]Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
[8] Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."
Philippians 4:4-8, NAB.

[The first quotation is taken from: http://joeversusthevolcano.blogspot.com/.]

Vincentian Missioner Prayer

Divine Savior, transform me into yourself. May my hands be your hands. May my tongue be your tongue. Grant that every faculty of my body may serve only to glorify you. Above all, transform my soul and all its powers that my memory, my will, and my affections may be the memory, the will, and the affections of you. I pray you to destroy in me all that is not of you. Grant that I may live but in you and by you and for you, that I may truly say with Saint Paul, “I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me.” Amen.

(Shared by the Association of the Miraculous Medal [click here to go to their website].)

"A Sign of Contradiction" by Joseph Roy

A true Christian

is a sign of contradiction;

a living symbol of the Cross.

He or she is a person who

believes the unbelievable,

bears the unbearable,

forgives the unforgivable,

loves the unlovable,

is perfectly happy not to be perfect,

is willing to give up one's will,

becomes weak to be strong,

sees some good in every bad

and

finds love by giving it away.

A Christian transcends the natural

with the immeasurable power of love

and becomes a supernatural person.

(Attributed to Joseph Roy; discovered at the monastery for the Contemplatives of St. Joseph.)

"On the Practice of Particular Virtues"

[Note: The following is the practical application of these previous two articles: 1) "The Christian Lives for Christ"; 2) "The General Nature of Christ's Life in His Members."]

The truths we have been considering have important consequences….

Prayer. The soul will no longer pray for its own cribbed and narrow interests, but will regard its prayer as an extension and continuation of Christ’s prayer, once it has penetrated the meaning of the words spoken to the Apostles: “And whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do …. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full” (Jn. 14:13; 16:24).

During the Mass the soul will worship …, intercede in the name of Christ for the conversion of innumerable souls both in the present and in the future; it will also make reparation in the name of Christ by accepting generously every annoyance; it will thank God in the name of Christ not only for individual benefits but also for the universal gifts of creation, elevation to the life of grace, the Incarnation, the Redemption and the Eucharist….

Such a soul will speak to our Blessed Lady as though with the voice of Christ and will find in her title of “Mother” hitherto unsuspected depths of meaning. It will understand better the wealth of Mary’s spiritual motherhood for those struggling toward salvation.

The soul at this stage finds it easier to prolong its prayer throughout the day, offering at each hour the various actions of the Savior….

During its visits to the Blessed Sacrament this Christ-like soul offers to God the acts of the Infant Jesus, the acts of His hidden life, of His public life, of His Passion, of His risen and Eucharistic life. Christ lives in that soul as fully as possible, radiating, so to speak, His own contemplative prayer and salvific love into that soul.

Humility. This devoted soul begins to detest a life lived only for self; it begins to despise itself in comparison with Christ. More than ever before it sees how limited, confined, base, and opposed to the freedom of the sons of God is any excessive thought of self….

It begins to shun self-love in all its forms as the chief obstacle to Christ living within us….

Such a soul is ready to delight in humiliations and to accept contempt with little or no distress—it is only right that its defects should be noted in order that the excellence of Christ who must dwell within us should stand out in vivid contrast. Now it sees more clearly the significance of Christ’s request: “Allow me to live in you while you die to yourself,” and His promise: “While you are stricken with extreme poverty, I am rich and my riches will suffice for you.” His riches are to be ours, our own personal property.

The soul learns to belittle its own limited virtues and to extol as its own possession the unlimited perfections of Christ Himself. That which is highly prized by the proud and ambitious is reckoned of no account, since the soul has ceased caring for its own glory.

Brotherly love. The Christian soul begins to see others as Christ sees them, discovering in all a trait of beauty worthy of imitation, just as beauty can be found in each and every wild flower. She has a special love for the poor as the sorrowing members of Christ, and also for the children because of their innocence…. She loves the aged whom others have forsaken, finding in many of them greater wisdom than elsewhere.

The faith of this soul is more and more enlightened by the gifts [of the Holy Spirit], becoming more penetrative and lucid. She looks at everything from Christ’s point of view, asking herself what would Jesus think about this, what is He actually thinking about it. The soul realizes better the true value of the Mass, Holy Communion and sacramental absolution. She has a keener insight into the spiritual meaning of everyday events, seeing the higher good which God intends through permitting evil. She says to herself: “Christ sees this higher good,” and even she herself foresees it to some extent.

In a similar way her confidence increases, because the confidence of Christ has supplanted trust in self. The encouragement of Christ is constantly before her:  “Have confidence, I have overcome the world…”; and the soul replies by putting all her trust in God, no longer daring to hope in her own strength—like St. Paul: “For when I am weak, then am I powerful.” St. Philip Neri used to say: “Whenever I lose hope in myself, then I can trust all the more in the grace of God.” …

The love of God increases noticeably, … causing a spiritual ecstasy wherein the ardent soul goes out of itself, so to speak, and is carried toward God…. [The] man in whom Christ lives begins to think almost continually of God. His love for God is fully sincere…. This love has no other purpose but the giving of greater glory to God in which he finds peace and joy…. Then it is that the soul dedicates itself without reserve to God, abandoning itself entirely into the hands of God.

And so is realized that prayer of St. Nicholas of Flüe: “My Lord and my God, remove from me all that stands in the way of my coming to you; give me everything that will bring me closer to you; rid me of myself and take me completely into your possession.”

Then the soul generously accepts the cross permitted by God so that it may cooperate more effectively in the saving of souls…. [The] sick, for example, … suffer night and day without complaint, offering their sorrows in union with Christ for the conversion of sinners, knowing that without suffering the world can never enjoy true peace.

The reason why certain souls choose to make this generous offering … is because Christ, having foreseen their sufferings, inspires them to do so. He himself bears their pains as though He were suffering in them; in this sense He continues His agony until the end of time….

And it is in this spirit which inspires the prayer of many at the present time: “Lord, in this time of worldwide strife, when a spirit of pride is being spread abroad denying all religion and God’s existence, give me a deeper understanding of the mystery of the redemptive Incarnation and of Thy holy self-abasement in the Passion. Make me desire to share in Thine own humiliations and sorrows to the extent which Thy Providence desires. Make me discover in this desire peace, strength, and even at times joy, according to Thine own good pleasure, in order to give strength to me and confidence to others.

(Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., The Priest in Union with Christ, p. 37-40; available from TAN Books; published with permission.)

"The General Nature of Christ's Life in His Members"

What is required from our side so that we may share in this life of Christ? We must frequently call to mind and repeat to ourselves this truth: Christ desires to live in me, to pray, love, act and suffer in me. Then we will be ready to lay aside freely our former self with its inordinate, lower and limited desires in exchange for the desires of Christ Himself. This renunciation of our old self is of vital importance. Gradually we will come to realize the meaning of these words of St. John the Baptist: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn. 3:30). Morally speaking, it is essential to forget one’s own personality, to lose it—in the good sense of the word—for the sake of living in Christ as members in the head; in other words, we must think, desire and act with Him and in Him, in the same way as our hand moves under directions from the head.

By degrees, the spirit of Christ will take the place of our spirit—a way of thinking, feeling, judging, loving, willing, doing and suffering, a mental outlook which is extremely cramped and superficial since it is materially dependent on our physical temperament, on our heredity, on the influence of our surrounding circumstances and on the ideas of our time and locality. It is this spirit which must slowly yield ground to the spirit of Christ, to His way of looking at things, of judging, feeling, loving, acting and suffering. Only then is Christ truly living within us.

And thus we find the Saints attaining a higher self-less state in their spiritual life, a state vastly superior to that in which they possessed their own natural personality. As an example in the field of learning we can think of St. Thomas—the universal Doctor of the Church—who never speaks of himself in his works but remains completely objective; as examples in the active life there are many Saints who vividly portray the life of Christ in their actions, such as St. John Vianney. These Saints have amply fulfilled the words of St. Paul: “To live is Christ.” They alone have realized that our moral personality cannot be brought to its full perfection unless it is in some way lost in the person of Christ, just as a river only reaches its term when it flows into the sea. Consequently, the Saints have substituted for their own ideas and judgments the judgments of Christ accepted on faith; their own will has made way for the holy will of Christ, and their own activity for His sanctifying activity. In this way they have become God’s servants in the fullest sense of the word, just as our hand is the servant of the will. And so St. Paul could say: “And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20). St. John Chrysostom said that the heart of Paul was the heart of Christ….

We must offer ourselves to Him, so that He may live in us His own divine life which far surpasses our own. Thus, when we pray, we must unite ourselves to the powerful prayer of Christ, so that our prayer then becomes, so to speak, an extension or continuation of Christ’s prayer.

If we adopt this way of life, our soul will not merely become more perfect but will also surrender itself completely so as to live in utter self-forgetfulness. It will then appreciate Christ’s invitation to so many of the Saints: “Allow me to live in you, while you die to yourself.” That was the way followed by St. Benedict, St. Francis, St. Dominic, St. Vincent de Paul; these obtained the true freedom of the sons of God. 

(Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., The Priest in Union with Christ, p. 35-36; available from TAN Books; published with permission.)

"The Christian Lives for Christ"

Christ Himself said: “I am the true vine … you are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing” (John 15:1-5). Nothing at all—not a single salutary act, and therefore no act which merits eternal life. Even the beginning of belief is due to the antecedent grace of Christ—contrary to the teaching of the Semi-Pelagians.

St. Paul preached a similar doctrine: We have been planted together in Christ (Rom. 6:5), who is so to speak the root of all holiness, “and if the root be holy, so are the branches” (Rom. 11:16). The same truth is expressed in another metaphor: “You are the body of Christ, and members of member” (1 Cor. 12:27), and this St. Paul often repeats.

Through our Baptism we have “died like him” to sin, we have been “buried with him,” and “come to life again with him” (cf. Rom. 6:4). In writing to the Galatians, the Apostle says: “For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). And so “for me, to live is Christ: and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). St. Thomas explains that just as the hunter lives for the chase, the soldier for war and military service, the student for study, so also the Christian—and especially the saint—lives for Christ, who ardently desires to live in him, and he in his turn lives in an atmosphere of faith and trust in Christ and of love for Him. “The Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring all things to your mind, whosoever I shall have said to you” (John 14:26). By the gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, piety, fortitude and even fear, He will recall to your minds everything I have said to you, so that the words already spoken in the Gospel may become for you “words of eternal life,” since they are “spirit and life.”

We could not desire any clearer witness to the truth of Christ’s life within us. “And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20).

(Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., The Priest in Union with Christ, p. 33-34; available from TAN Books; published with permission.)

"The Spirit of Detachment"

In The Ascent of Mount Carmel (1), St. John of the Cross sets forth a profound doctrine on the perfect abnegation of self-will. He indicates the most direct route to reach lofty …. If we recall the elevation of the end he has in view, we will not consider the abnegation he demands exaggerated. A man who wishes to climb a mountain does not stop at the first difficulties….

We should detach ourselves from exterior goods, riches and honors…. St. Paul says: "The time is short. . . and they that rejoice, as if they rejoiced not; . . . and they that use this world, as if they used it not" (2). Even those who do not effectively practice the counsel of evangelical poverty ought to have its spirit if they wish to tend to perfection.

We must detach ourselves from the goods of the body, from beauty, from health itself; it would be an aberration to cling to them more than to union with God. And we cling to health far more than we think; if it were irremediably taken from us, it would be a true sacrifice for us, and one that may be asked of us. All these things will pass away like a flower that withers.

We must avoid all complacency in the virtues we may have. To entertain any complacency would be vanity and perhaps amount to scorn of our neighbor. The Christian ought to esteem the virtues, not inasmuch as they are in him like a personal possession, but inasmuch as they lead the soul to God.

When we receive consolations in prayer, we must not dwell on them with satisfaction; to do so would be to make of this means of drawing near to God an obstacle that would hinder us from reaching Him…. All that glitters is not gold; and we must be careful not to confound an imitation diamond with a real one. We should remind ourselves of our Savior's words: "Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God and His justice; and all these things (all that is useful to your soul and even to your body) shall be added unto you" (3).

Therefore we understand that adversity is good for us in order to deliver us from illusion and make us find the true road again….

Live in holy detachment … at the same time recalling the words of St. Paul: "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal" (4). Christ also says to His apostles: "But yet rejoice not in this, that spirits are subject unto you (that you drive out demons); but rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven" (5).

On the subject of eloquence, St. John of the Cross says: " … though the senses be charmed and the understanding delighted, but little or no substantial warmth reaches to the will. In general, the will remains dull and weak as before in good works, though marvelous things have been marvelously told it. . . . Though men may be wonderful preachers, yet their sermons are soon forgotten if they kindle no fire in the will" (6).

This teaching of St. John of the Cross demonstrates how necessary it is that the preacher greatly purify his intention that his words may truly bear life-giving fruit, which will last for eternity. To effect this purification, his soul must live according to the spirit of immolation or of sacrifice, which assures the first place in the soul to the love of God and of souls in God.

The fruit of the purification of the will ... is peace, the tranquility of order in which the soul is established with respect to God and its neighbor. This peace is not always joy, but it tends to become more profound and more lofty and to radiate even on the most troubled souls, giving them the light of life. This is what Christ says: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." They will make Him known and loved.

As a practical conclusion, each one ought, in his examination of conscience, to ask himself whether his spirit of self-abnegation is increasing or diminishing. If there is no longer the minimum of exterior mortification, it is a sign that interior mortification has disappeared, that he no longer tends toward perfection, and that he is like salt which has lost its savor.

Here it should be remembered that on the journey toward God, he who does not advance falls back…. This progress should … be so to speak uniformly accelerated, like the movement of a stone that tends toward the center of the earth which attracts it. Souls ought, in fact, to advance more rapidly toward God, the nearer they approach Him and are more drawn by Him (7).

We should pray as follows: "My God, make me know the obstacles …” [Note: This prayer can be found in its entirety here: http://rugwig.blogspot.com/2010/06/prayer-for-transformation.html.]

He who would say this prayer frequently would make great progress…. Undoubtedly he would receive many crosses, but he would be borne by them more than he would bear them, as a bird is borne by its wings more than it bears them. This is what The Imitation says: "If thou carry the cross willingly, it will carry thee, and bring thee to thy desired end, namely, to that place where there will be an end of suffering, though here there will be no end" (8). This is the true road by which one enters the inner courts of the kingdom of God.

Footnotes:

1. Bk. III, chaps. 15 ff.

2. See I Cor. 7:29-31.

3. Matt. 6: 33.

4. Cf. I Cor. 13:1.

5. Luke 10: 20.

6. The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. III, chap. 44.

7. St. Thomas, In Epist. ad Hebr., 10:25: "The natural movement increases in proportion as it draws near its end. The contrary is true of violent movement (e.g., of a stone cast into the air). Grace likewise moves one according to the natural mode. Therefore those who are in the state of grace ought to grow so much the more as they draw nearer the end." Cf. Ia IIae, q.35, a.6: "Every natural movement is more intense in the end."

8. The Imitation of Christ, Bk. II, chap. 12.

(Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., The Three Ages of the Interior Life, p. 374-378; available from TAN Books; published with permission.)