Padraig Northern Ireland is so beautiful. I'm tempted to take a trip but hubby is always too busy, a workaholic. We are going to Liseux last weekend in September. A friend phoned me as she had obtained 4 twin rooms from a private group who had difficulty filling their quota. I immediately booked. Husband is a bit reluctant but he is coming around. Hopefully there will be no problems and it will go ahead.
What a blessing! I have not even managed to get to Lourdes or Fatima yet , never mind Liseaux. The pictures of the Basilica are wonderful. I was thinking a lot about Saint Therese last night and her Dark Night of the Soul, which was so total that some people call her the Patron Saint of Atheists. Perhaps there are two kinds of Dark Nights. A Dark Night that is Salvific that is personal for our own Salvation and after night for some saints a Dark Night that is Redemptive for the Redemption of the entire World. I believe St Therese's Dark Night was Redemptive. Picture a golden chalice that fills up and then overflows. That is moving on from Salvific to Redemptive. You will be able to visit her home and her Carmel too! Also her town which is quite big and well worth seeing!
We were there about 10 years ago and it was so lovely. I had no intention of returning as Medjugorje is always my go to pilgrimage but I had a dream in which she was present. I also that evening read a chapter of St Paul's letter to Corinthians where he tells us to strive for the higher gifts especially love as without love we are empty gongs. I was thinking that what St Therese took to heart. Love was everything. The following morning I got a call to know if I was interested in going to Liseaux. I felt she was inviting me to return. I said yes. David is accepting he is going now. He always needs shock tactics to get him away from home for a few days.
This is true! I never had any idea that St Therese knew I was alive. One day my husband and I learned that her relics were coming to the Carmel in Southern Maryland. We went there to venerate her relics and we ended up being filmed in the newscast. The next day one of my students told me he saw me on the news. lol I guess St Therese was aware of me, finally.
I’m not camping but am on a three day Carmelite retreat in Maria Stein, Ohio. We have two Carmelite brothers for Mass, Divine Office, Holy Hour etc. I’m attaching a photo some Carmelite Nuns from Cincinnati joined us today. They are all so young! Gives me hope.
A little jealous of this one, Padraig If you have time share of few things you got from the retreat. I meant Katfalls, not Padraig. Oops
Sitting here staring out at the heavy rain. It has been pouring down for hours and it is to rain all day tomorrow. I was tempted to give up and go home this morning but hated the idea of quitting. By chance I happened to tune into a talk Fulton Sheen gave at West Point. I wonder how many of the cadets listening had any idea that they were listening to a saint. Fulton was very patriotic, hated Communism and was a veryx Orthodox Catholic. Funny I had been praying to him this afternoon, walked along the beach thinking g how he spent an hour everyday praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament. It was maybe this practise that led to him becoming a saint. I wonder if he still tells jokes in heaven?
Himself and Padre Pio probably have the entire celestial court in stitches ~ just imagining it brings a big bounce of pure joy
The title of our retreat “The Healing Power Of Contemplative Power” Br John-Mary of Jesus Crucified,OCD. I am posting a very brief synopsis of the retreat. Intellect/Faith. Memory/Hope. Will:Love. I felt like for three days I was there I had one foot in heaven. Praised Be to Jesus Christ now and forever.
This is all-encompassing. What a blessing. Yes, Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Thanks for sharing this.
Awesome. It’s sounds like an incredible retreat. I wish our community had friars near us. We zoomed in a friar at our last recollection. Blessed to have technology for those isolated communities.
I love how St. Therese, right before her death, asked to look into a priests chalice,and she saw her image. She was so united with the Crucified. She drank the very dregs of the chalice with Our Lord.
Have you read Ruth Burrows, 'Guidelines to Mystical prayer'.? Ruth Burrows is not her real name, she is and English Carmelite Prioress. She had this theory that some people walk a Light On spiritual path and some a Light Off path. Some folks have things like visions and feeling NGS and here voices ect. Others walk a path of Secret Mystical Darkness. She instances St Teresa of Avila as a light on person and St Therese of Liseaux as a light off kind of person. I think though with St Therese she did have some ligh on times though her life was in divine darkness. But even in her darkness she could see things. A for instance she knew that she was in Spiritual Marriage. No visions or big deal, but she just knew.
I saw this on X this morning and wondered about Ruth Burrows.....She was 100 years old when she passed away. Imho, the first part kinda describes what they are calling "synodality"........ This "light is on" or "light is off" is incredibly interesting. Thinking of Mother Theresa ~ she must have been in the "light off" mode.... "Human wisdom seeks to assess results, to enquire if we are being "fulfilled" - and, if this is not happening it manipulates life and other people to ensure that it does happen. Human wisdom assumes that it knows the shape of human fulfillment and how to attain it. It urges us to evade the humiliating, non-satisfying aspects of life; to seek more rewarding ways of prayer; to seek that which makes us feel good and even holy; and to hide from a self-knowledge that strips us of self-complacency and leaves us poor, unholy, unfulfilled. How important it is to accept the destruction of our spiritual self-image! When it is endangered, we react like scalded cats. We back off; we scramble around for a way of escape; and then we set about doing what we can to reinstate ourselves. What the Spirit of Jesus asks us to do is lovingly, trustingly to accept the disillusionment. What does it matter that we are shabby and soiled when we have Jesus as our holiness? There is only one holiness, and that is Jesus. His holiness is there for us and so we can be happy not to have a holiness of our own, one we can enjoy - it would be illusory anyway." Sister Ruth Burrows, O.C.D.
