Very true, and I suspect the reason we do not see the miracles of previous generations is because the belief of mankind, in general, is invested in the world. Another term for this, which keeps coming to me, is the "desert mind". The "desert mind" is a scorching wasteland, which attracts and stockpiles all kinds of evils.
The next Chapter in Father Stephen's book talks about the , 'Honeymoon period', in the spiritual life when the soul gets buried with all kinds of graces and blessings and is top of the world. I always feel a little sorry for our Protestant Evangelical friends who get themselves, 'Saved' and then promptly, 'Backslide', to the place they started. The idea of a Spiritual Journey or progress in holiness appears often absent. The honeymoon period is all she wrote. Marriage is such a perfect allegory for the Spiritual Life. Marriage not being about what we can take but about what both spouses can give. About building rather than having at once reached a perfect end. The family is the perfect allegory of the Blessed Trinity and prayer is of course Trinitarian. The Holy Spirit changing us from one degree of Glory unto the nest into the image of Christ as children of the Father. Jesus talked about this honeymoon when He said: Matthew 13:20-22 20 Some seed fell on the stony ground. That is like a person who hears the message and right away he is glad to hear it. 21 But it does not go down deep in his heart. He believes it for a short time. When trouble or a hard time comes because of the message, he stops believing. 22 Some seed fell among the weeds. That is like the person who hears the message. But he thinks about the things of this world. He wants to get money to be happy. These things push the message out of his heart. No good comes from it. The saddest example of this I ever saw was a young Protestant man I met when I was in young. He was as they say, 'On fire with the Lord'. He had a wonderful house Church which he attended and invited me to and I was very,very impressed with it all. Then , many years later passing the University I happened to meet him again and went over to talk to him about Jesus and Faith. It was so sad he had totally lost his Faith and looked so sad. It was very touching. When we hear of people who loose the Faith it is 100% certain in every case that they have stopped praying.
Jesus as Friend. I read the most beautiful chapter in the book last night which touched me personally , entitled, 'Jesus as Friend'. The father says that the earliest reference to prayer relationship in Scripture cites Adam and Eve walking in friendship with God in the Garden of Eden. He also cites Moses as someone who talked to God directly, face to face (as a friend would). He tells a lovely story of a man who was dying of AIDS. The priest asked him if he was still praying? The poor guy answered that he stopped praying three months previously because God had stopped answering his requests. Upon probing the gentleman admitted he was angry and in despair with God because he was dying. Fr Rosetti said he should go into Church and tell God how he really felt that God already knew how he felt but that he should be honest. The poor man did so, entered into a true relationship with God and died a holy death a few months later. I would guess few enough people reach this level of relationship were Jesus is a real friend.
As we travel the pilgrim path our manner of prayer changes as our hearts do. I remember at one time when I was much younger I went through a time of great interest in Devotional Prayer practices. Many of these prayers were long, complex involving time and periods of prayer which were difficult, time consuming but which promised great spiritual rewards. In fact I know now that when I was a child and simply chattered away to Jesus as my best childhood friend that this was a better, simpler path. But the years rolled past and the long, long years of the Dark Night set in and Jesus appeared to disappear and my friend seemed to be gone. But now I see Jesus more clearly as my friend even more present than I did in His ever presence. I see how more clearly in the Light of the Moon at Night than I ever did in the blaze of the sun. He is silent now. No more chattering. Yet like two old friends we sit together in a companiable silence, no need to speak. For His heart beat is mine and mine, His, His thoughts, mine and mine, His. No need for chatter. Two very old friends. Put a new heart within me Lord, melt it you my heart of stone. Silent friends for all Eternity.
The Father reminds us that the closer we get to God the more clearly we see our own sins. Padre Pio in speaking of sin wisely said that having confessed them we must hand them over to God and move peacefully onwards knowing they are gone. But sometimes they remind me of the brown and black leaves of Autumn falling in there thousands swirling and accessing around my head. This reminds me of how , at the end we will be brought to the Judgement Seat, the golden book of our lives will be opened and our life review will begin. What can any of us do but trust in the mercy of God? It reminds me of the stories of Veterans from the First and Second World Wars. Often their wives had to comfort them when they woke up screaming from the memory of incidents in the war. Sometimes this night time screaming went on the rest of their lives. Of things so awful they could not even speak of them. Consciousness of our sins can be a little like that. Here there are two great graces. The Grace of being forgiven by God.. ....and the Grace of accepting that forgiveness..of forgiving ourselves. God forgives freely. We are often not very good at forgiving ourselves.
God wants it all . This book is really excellent and I am enjoying it very much. It has to be said that my impression of the author, the American Exorcist Monsignor Stephen Rossetti just grows and grows. Certainly a very saintly person indeed to write of things like this, no doubt from personal prayer experience. It's wonderful to find that there are really, really good people like this going about in our poor fallen World. I see he has his own exorcists blog which is well wroth reading. 'Exorcist's Diary'. https://spiritualdirection.com/2020/10/29/exorcist-diary-1-stop-saying-that-name Exorcist Diary #1: “Stop Saying that Name!” October 29, 2020 Monsignor Stephen Rossetti In the middle of our exorcism session, out of the mouth of the possessed person came the cry, “Stop saying that name!” We had been saying the holy name of Jesus and it was really getting to the demons. They hated to hear it. So, realizing they hated it, we said it all the more, again and again. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. The name of Jesus is holy. It should never be used in vain or as a cuss word. This would be like throwing something holy in the mud. “At the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil 2:10). I often quote this passage in the midst of a session, and emphasize the phrase, “under the earth.” Even in hell, the name of Jesus is all-powerful and every knee must bend. On earth, the name of Jesus has power to cast out demons. As the Rite of Exorcism says, “In nomine Domini nostri Iesu Christi eradicare et effugare ab hoc plasmate Dei” which is, “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: be uprooted and be put to flight from this creature of God.” How many saints have died with the name of Jesus on their lips! But to the demons, his name is torture or, truly, pure hell.
There was a farmer one time who had a new neighbour moved in next door. He noticed the guy on the roads round about and they shared friendly waves and nods. As time went by they had friendly chats by the roadside, these moved up to visits and invites to eat and the farmer realised with a start one day that they had become close friends in fact the best of friends. Revelation 3:20 To the Church in Laodicea …19Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent. 20Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me. 21To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.… Then one day his new friend asked for a favour if he could have one of the farmers fields, not to rent or buy or loan but that the farmer simply give it.This was a big deal. For a farmer the land was everything and here was this guy asking that he simply give it. But the farmer thought of their friendship , how much he had grown to love his new friend and so finally yes he gave the field. Matthew 13:45 The Parables of the Treasure and Pearl 44The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field. 45Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. 46When he found one very precious pearl, he went away and sold all he had and bought it.… But it did not stop there. The new friend kept turning up asking for more and the farmer just kept right on giving. All his land, all his livestock and at the end the new friend came and took up residence in his home with him, claiming his very farmhouse as his own. But the farmer never complained in fact he had never been happier in his entire life. John 14:23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. It is like this with prayer God wants it all 100%.
I believe this verse explains much about the veneration of saints; we Catholics do not confuse their personal holiness with the unreachable Divine Majesty. However, we venerate the saints' icons on our knees because those they represent are in the presence of the Holy Trinity, the "supreme heavenly court." In the Eastern Christian tradition, saintly icons are called "windows to heaven." Thus, in a way, the ground on which we kneel in the Church is "Holy Ground."
I like this quote, thanks for posting it. When I was younger, I thought that God kept track of sins and merits on a list. So I assume like you, though I am not sure, I suffered from a kind of superstitious scrupulosity. Doing all of these prayers to receive merits and worrying over sin. Today, my experience is that sin is taking my attention and affection off of Jesus. Which has serious consequences, because when I do, I am no longer living in Truth, Faith and Peace. When a storm is brewing I keep hold of Jesus all the more. So when those leaves start to blow around, I know I need to settle down in recollection. In my household currently there are a few things starting up again it seems. It's always the same pattern, and I think part of it has to do with the deliverance prayers from Monseigneur Rossetti. I have learned, though slowly, to not engage and let Jesus take care of things.
I read a lovely story one time about a French nun who when Jesus appeared to her she rushed to confess some sin she had committed. Jesus looked confused and asked her, 'What sin?' She was confused herself then realised she had told the sin in confession. Then Jesus told her that He did not even recall sins told in confession, He had no memory of them. God is not like us at all He not only forgives and forgets. We may well forgive, as best we can, but we can never ever forget. So we find the forgetness thing from God hard to a handle on. I told the priest in confession this morning that I was turning in to the most shocking old crank and wondered why he was shaking with laughter. When he got a hold on himself he said, 'So am I!' ..and we both laughed.
Acesis Acesis, spiritual training or discipline was the subject of the last chapter I wrote. St Paul writes quite a lot about this comparing us to athletes in training for a great match. 1 Corinthians 9:25-27 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified. This in turn reminds me of a vision Padre Pio had when he was a child. He faced the devil as a great warrior and a voice told him he would have to face and overcome him through his life. Acesis is keeping our spiritual train on the tracks. They are the tracks on which we run. Basically this means living a disciplined Catholic life. This may mean things like going to mass every day, devoting a certain amount of time each day to prayer, saying the rosary, reading the Bible, going to confession, giving a certain amount to charity, fasting and so on. Keeping the train of our soul on track.
The Present Moment. This is a lovely little book divided into many small chapters and I find if I read a chapter before sleeping at night it is very prayerful and gives me loads to meditate on when I wake in the night. The Father reminds us that the past is gone , the future is yet to happen so all we have is the Sacrament of the Present moment, the Eternal now. Its so very easy to get lost in thoughts of the past and worries about the future. We have Jesus in the little tabernacles of our hearts. may our eyes be always fixed in Worship before Him!
Pray at all Times Ephesians 6:18-20 With all prayer and petition pray [with specific requests] at all times [on every occasion and in every season] in the Spirit, and with this in view, stay alert with all perseverance and petition [interceding in prayer] for all God's people. The father in this chapter the scriptural injunction to, 'Pray at all time'. He rightly says that humanly speaking this is impossible. But that with God all things are possible. As St Paul reminds us the Holy Spirit prays within us to the Father , transforming us from one degree of Glory unto the next into the image of Jesus. So this pray is essentially Trinitarian. We are entering into the home of the Holy of Holies, the Blessed Trinity. We are becoming more and more part of the Eternal Family. It is the most curious thing watching this prayer in action, like some little engine constantly working like our heart beats, our breath, our pulse..on and on and on and on forever. The beginning of heaven.
Another interesting aspect to prayer I find is that once the prayers are made, they continue to be active. Like scripture, they never return void. Even the half attentive prayers, which is incentive to pray always.
I keep forgetting this. It reminds me of the bird Noah let loose in the Ark that flied away and never came back. It never came back because it found land. Prayers sometime feel like they just fly away. But they are busy.
Prayer is like breathing. The Father says that prayer is like breathing and must become part of ourselves, like our very breath. He also points out that those who do not pray are like those who do not breath , they die. Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life. I just read the book last night in bed and lay in the dark, clutching my brass crucifix staring up and the lovely little luminous stars I have stuck on my bedroom ceiling. God felt so very far away. It seemed for a moment as though I stood in the middle of some vast, cold dark desert with howling winds of aloneness all around. This reminded me of when I first went into the Dark Night all those years ago. I used to travel by bus to the monastery in the country to visit my Spiritual Director, Fr Bernard. Saint Teresa of Avila said that those in the Dark Night are, 'Very greatly to be pitied'. This is true. So many thoughts. Was I going mad? Had I offended God in some unknown way? Was I hallucinating? Where had I gone wrong on the path? I recall asking Fr Bernard how long it might last. He told me that with St Paul of the Cross it lasted 30 years. I told him he was just telling me this to cheer me up. We both laughed. 1 Kings 8:10-13 “And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. Then spake Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in forever.” In truth the Dark Night never ends as such. It is just that the night turns luminous. As though we see by the light of a very bright moon instead of the light of the sun. In the Dark Night we begin to see God so intensely that we are blinded. So we see him the Dark. In the Light of Darkness. Sometimes, like last night in bed the darkness of the night, though, comes swirling back around me. A reminder of other days. 'It is in the vesture of hope that the soul goes forth disguised in this secret and dark night; seeing that it goes forth so detached from all possession, without any consolations, that it regards nothing, and that its sole anxiety is about God, putting its “mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope” in the words of ...'
Ecstasies and Raptures The Holy Father quotes St John of the Cross , a Doctor of the Church , exstensively here. St John was death on things like visions , locutions and special graces like raptures and ecstasies ; he was kinda a nose to the grindstone of love kinda guy. Such things as raptures came about he said through human weakness. As the soul grew stronger they would go. The wise person strictly controlled such goings on. St John was right of course. These are not things the soul should linger on or in. It kind wind up being a kind of spiritual spoiling yourself. Worse maybe a source of pride. Yet even so if the soul keeps a certain distance and does not take it all too seriously I think a very little spiritual fireworks do no harm. Its about forty years now since I did the raptures and ecstasy stage. It was certainly interesting, especially at first. I believe this is the place St Teresa of Avila calls the Prayer of Union, the 5th stage of the seven in the Interior Castle of Seven Stages. Even back then I had them under strict control so no one ( I hope ever noticed). Yet even so they could be so violent I used to get thrown to the ground. I used to even believe I was about to die of joy. Even so many years later I can kinda go into one. I don't take such things too seriously but I do enjoy them, I can;t deny it. Apart from the great joy and delight they bring they take me back all those years ago to sweet memories of a younger self. I would not be so hard on them as St John of the Cross. So long as taken lightly and handled with a spirit of strict control as a pure gift from God. I see today is the Feast of St Therese. She is usually cited as one who walked in total dark but she had her moments of light too. I am not sure that St John of the Cross would have approved.
I was thinking of what Father Stephen had written about Ecstasies and it brought back my own memory of the very first time I went into ecstasy in prayer over 40 years ago. It was around the time I was waiting to go into the monastery and I recall it quite clearly from so very,very long ago as though it were yesterday. I was walking across the city with my old family pet dog, Blue. We had just passed the University, a lovely area and going up a slight hill saying the rosary as I went. Right out of the blue, it is hard so hard to describe, impossible really. It felt like I was going up into the air ,taking flight. So much so I even looked down to see I was still on the ground in case I was going upwards. It was as though God had reached down to Earth and given me a great big hug. A feeling of being enfolded in great, great love and light. But because it was the very first time it happened it lives with me forever as first time things are inclined to do. But as St John of the Cross is right in saying we should not make too big a deal about such things...I find them very entertaining, interesting, enjoyable and..well fun. Gifts from God. Something to be thankful for. A gift. From God. Magical. It reminded me of the scene from the film, 'Mary Poppins', when she flies.
