Prayer and the Expanding Heart The human heart is very complex, often fearful, and quick to withdraw, placing up barriers to keep others out. It is a form of both protection and death since it can become a self-made prison. Some people need to be kept at a distance for many reasons, not all of them bad, but so dysfunctional that they only have their own pain to give. At the beginning of one’s journey towards becoming more loving, which could be many years, discernment is needed. For compulsion, and the desire to save and control, even if unconscious, can cause a great deal of havoc. The Christian Path is a demanding one. We are called to actually ‘incarnate’ Christ Jesus into the world. To allow His very life to become one with our own life, so as to make us deeply loving human beings. It is a slow process for most of us, and like me, I believe, we are always at the beginning of the journey. The Sermon on the Mount, and on the Plain, show us something of the mercy, and compassion, of God, and how we are to grow into that. It is not done by an act of the will, or even by a desire to ‘do it’, but by the slow process of graces indwelling. Prayer is how this growth happens. Prayer deepens as we make room for it in our daily lives. At first it may be a few minutes a day, offered up in the morning, say just 10 minutes. That is a mustard seed of faith, and if this discipline is done faithfully, just ten minutes, growth in love of God and the desire to pray more happens because of grace. That small territory given over to God, slowly expands, until one day, one finds that prayer is like breathing, we do it and we sense change that comes from a place beyond ourselves. Yet so intimate that it is one with our souls, closer than our souls. Something always there, but we were unaware until we began the journey of faith, prayer, and hope. It is love that feeds this inner life. As prayer deepens, the realization of our unity with all other humans becomes more conscious. This happens because we begin to understand and experience what Jesus taught when he gave his Sermon on the Mount, as well as on the Plain. “For God allows the rain to fall on the thankful and unthankful alike”. All are encased in God’s love, and as we grow in our understanding our oneness with others in Christ Jesus (because he is one with all), we sense a need to be with them in prayer. As we struggle with our own desire to grow into loving beings, and to allow God’s grace to transform us, so we begin to have compassion, and love for all, because of the Love of God that is increasing in us. We begin to understand the hundred fold. We over time, learn to forgive, to understand and to have compassion. Even in the midst of emotional turmoil which is simply part of human life. We no longer give power to others to keep us enchained in relationship based on resentment, hatred, and being powerless in forgiveness. For in allowing grace to heal our hearts, and to trust in God’s love for us, and others, we get the gift of universal love for all. In saying the Rosary, in going deeper into the life of Christ Jesus, this also helps to bring forth the unity that I have with others. For the Our Father, and the Hail Mary is a prayer that is Universal, for all. The Glory Be, is also praising God with my brothers and sister all over the world. One reason I believe that many Christians fear a deep relationship with Christ Jesus, is because they are fearful of letting go of their narrow approach on how God works in the world…..which is a deep mystery, that we can grow in understanding slowly. I also do not believe that the scriptures are for Christians to line up quotes to pound each other, as well as to superficially judge others who seek God in other religious paths. It is good to study other faith paths, but before that, it is also important to be deeply rooted in one’s own tradition. We all need a place to stand from, and having a deep life of prayer will only strengthen those roots. We worship a God of Infinite love as shown us in the New Testament, especially in the stories that Jesus told. They are there for us to ponder and study, not to just read, and pass on to something else. The word of God is a vehicle of the Holy Spirit to heal our narrow, idolatrous ideas of God, which only add to the pain of the world. So if anyone wants to grow in compassion and love of others, then pray deeply, open one’s heart and allow grace to do its work.—Br.MD
Very beautiful Mark! Sometimes the pressures of life can be overwhelming and prayer seems to be the only way to surface for air. I am so grateful that the Holy Virgin has given me the grace to be able to pray daily and to pray her rosary daily! I would be lost without it! The truth be told I know that more real pain and more real suffering would enter my life if it was not for prayer. I have daily crosses and some are very scary, because they involve the salvation of my family but in prayer I know that my family is safe because I know the Lord is giving me the sufferings to offer for their salvation. At times this is hard and I want a break [as it seems so unfair], I especially pray that I will not be given another suffering such as the death of another child because I do not believe I could suffer that again and remain sane; therefore with the sufferings that God has permited since then, I remind myself to be constantly grateful for these sufferings, however at times the sufferings are maddening and without a seeming end; I am at the mercy of God constantly but I am fully aware of how wretched I am. I recieve little flickers of light at times and these suffice as consolations, however the big crosses have remained and seem to increase; so I do not see myself as having an expanding heart in prayer but only a holding on by the skin of my teeth type heart!, May God have Mercy on my soul and any other souls going through this same monotonous yet [ what feels like]extreme sufferings. Amen.
Josephite, I will try to remember to walk with you in your sufferings: I remind myself to be constantly grateful for these sufferings, however at times the sufferings are maddening and without a seeming end... Jer 17:7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. 8 for he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.
I love the idea of the heart expanding. Although far from feeling great unity with everyone around me I foten feel and ahve felt deeper and deeper sepration. A feeling of aloneness of being in the desert. Of being very conscious that they are on one path ,very often and I am on a very , very different one.
Our hearts expand when we are faithful to graces inspiration......you seem to be doing that my friend. Peace mark
God loves each human biing as if they are the only person in the world.....quote from St. Augustine. Our unity comes from that reality, not about how we feel, or, our emotinal state. Trust is a choice, I guess we all struggle with this, yet, when we pray, and seek to grow ing love, it is graces doing, and slowly our ability to love more deeply happens wihtout our knowing it.........others do however. We see the blind spots in those we know and love, it goes both ways, the goodness that grace bestows on them, as well as those aspects that need further healing. So grace healing, and our growth in love is often hidden......yet we continue. Peace mark
God loves, this is true. But each soul has a choice about how to respond to that love. Many, I would say very much the majority of mankind choose not to love back. As the Cathechism of the Church indicates, those who pray will most certainly be saved, those who do not pray, who choose not to respond to God's love will most certainly be damned. There really is a hell , it is a reality. Love cannot be forced otherwise it is would not be love. Many , indeed I believe most people choose not to enter into this relationship with God. I cannot honestly say in my own spiritual life I feel this union with those who choose to turn away from God. I love them, I hope and pray for their salvation, but I know whereas I and others choose to walk up the holy mountain they choose to walk Down away from it. I can only report what I see from my own place on the mountain of prayer. I can only report what I see. I know it is not modern or fashionable and seems very, very harsh, but it what prayer shows me. I would say my own inner vision is close to what Catholic mystics have seen down the ages, notably the Children of Fatima; that many, many souls choose hell. Love cannot be forced. Some souls choose to love, but most do not. I would say this is closer to what Catholic mystics have reported down the centuries. I cannot report I feel close to souls who choose hell. They remind me of a refrigerator. They give off no heat, no love. It is as though in a sense they were already in hell; the hell they themselves have chosen. I love them, I pray for them but no I feel no union with them, quite the reverse, oil and water don't mix. I am travelling one way, they, quite another.
My own husband is a person I don't feel a union with; I suppose this is a... strange thing to say! But it is a reality and I see it as part of my cross. We have been married for 38 years come next February. My husband remains a mystery to me? I see glimmers of grace at times but normally they are short lived! Still I pray, hope, trust and try to love what at times is unlovable. For me it is a great lesson in patience and it may remain a lesson until the day I die, and that is the sad part. Edited to change..... we will be married 38 years next February not 37 years And to think that I blame him for not remembering things correctly
Yes, I think some people mistake the nature of love. It is not a matter of , 'Feeling'. But a matter of giving , of self gift. feelings may come with it or not as the case may be. Jesus is the perfect example of this. They spat in His face and tortured Him to death and still He loved. But this does not mean He had , 'Feelings ' for them. Nor does prayer mean we have , 'Feelings' of Union with everyone. 'feelings' are in this sense a distraction and irrelvant. Love simply gives and does not count the cost.
We simply do not know how many are in hell, the mytics do not either. They were people of their time. Yes, hell is a free choice, I still pray for the salvation of all, like are Lady of Fatima taught us: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, and lead all souls to heaven, expecilly those in most need of your mercy". I turst in the true, loving justice of God. Peace mark
I always take Fatima as the best sermon we could ever give about hell. At Fatima Our Lady showed the children falling like snowflakes into the fire. My own personal experience from the people I meet is that they have far more interest in what is on the TV than anything to do with God. That prayer is foreign and very ,very seldon entered into. If we do not have a relationship with God in this passing life, how can we have a relationship with Him in Eternity? Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 'As Our Lady spoke these last words, she opened her hands once more, as she had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. Terrified and as if to plead for succour, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so kindly and so sadly: You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.'
I think the opinion of this priest would be one I share: http://www.courageouspriest.com/souls-damned How Many Souls Are Damned? Is Hell Heavily Populated? Father Dwight Longenecker – Having just finished Ralph Martin’s excellent study on universalism, Will Many Be Saved? it leads me to wonder about this thing we call speculative theology. It seems to me that theologians may well speculate when sacred Scripture and church teaching is unclear about something, but in the matter of heaven, hell and salvation there is not really very much room for speculation. The Scriptures are clear in their teaching that many will be damned and few will be saved. Furthermore, Ralph Martin shows that it has been the unanimous teaching of the church and the witness of saints and mystics that many are damned and few are saved. Of course this is a “hard saying”. We don’t like the idea that anyone should be consigned to everlasting torment, but that’s what the Word of God teaches. Nevertheless, there is room for speculation. The problem I have with wannabe universalists like Balthasar and Rahner is not that they speculate, but that they do not speculate enough. They are busy speculating in ways that undermine the clear meaning of Scripture and contradict the timeless message of the gospel and the traditions of the church. To soften the harsh reality that many people will reject God’s love and go to hell forever they try to imagine how this might not be true and how God’s love will overcome all obstacles and reach down and save people even if they don’t want to be saved. In their desire to uphold the universal redemption of the world and the everlasting love of God they over rule human freedom and the reality of human depravity and rebellion against God. In their naïve’ sentimentality they can’t imagine that anyone would reject God’s love, and yet every verifiable bit of evidence from history and yesterday’s newspaper reveal the total depravity of many men’s hearts and their spitting hatred of all that is beautiful, good and true. Instead of speculating the truth of God away with their own imaginings why not speculate as to how people might be saved through unconventional ways of choosing God or what might happen to souls who reject God. C.S.Lewis’ final Narnia book The Great Battle has a great scene where a pagan who always worshiped the God Tash–but did so in nobility, honor and virtue sees the Christ figure Aslan and recognizes him as the “Tash” he always worshipped whereas the follower of Aslan who was corrupt and deceitful sees Aslan and it is Tash who devours him. In other words, at the judgement all shall be revealed. All impediments will be taken away and perhaps each soul will see Christ and know him clearly and fully for who he is and what he has done. All doubt and misunderstanding will be erased. All true motives will be revealed and at that moment the summary of the soul’s choice will be finalized. We can speculate along those lines because it allows that many who have never known the gospel, but have followed the light they have been given may see Christ and be saved by him who is the only Way, Truth and Life. But simply to speculate that hell is not real or that if it is real there is nobody there is to defy Scripture, tradition, the magisterium of the church, the witness of the saints and common sense, for do we really honestly believe that the most wicked souls on earth will desire to enter heaven? We must accept hell and we must accept that many go there. But even then there is room for speculation. We know that hell exists and we must accept that it is a place of punishment and torment. Not because God is a sadistic monster, but because hell is separation from God and that must be torment for anyone. What are we to make of the torment? It may be fire and brimstone and monsters and pitchforks, but it may also be the torment of loneliness, the torment of regret, the torment of grief and loss, the torment of alienation from God forever. It may be darkness and fire and ice and all these things and more.
We can also speculate about the number who go to hell. Will there really be great multitudes who reject God’s love and hate him to the bitter end? My own opinion is that this is so because I see so many people in this life who hate all that is beautiful, good and true. It is so easy to suggest that the vast majority are poor, lost lemmings who don’t really know God or reject God and that they are good at heart and mean well and when they see Christ they will accept him joyfully. But is this the case? To be sure there are many who have just impediments to faith. They were shown a bad example, or they were abused by a Christian or they were never taught the true faith. However, there are also a vast number of people who have no impediments. They live in a Christian society. There is a church on every street corner. There are signs of faith all around them. They are surrounded by Christian friends, family and neighbors. They have been to Sunday School and been catechized. They have Christian radio shows and television programs. They have religious books and websites. They have had plenty of time and plenty of chances to seek the truth, to find the Lord and to pursue their soul’s salvation and they have done nothing at all. They have not sought the Lord. They have not sought eternal life and they have not responded to any sign of religion or faith. Shall they not be held accountable for the fact that they did nothing? They did not care enough for their soul to even begin asking the questions? Is it not patronizing and treating them with contempt to say, “Oh well, all you mediocre people–you will just be gathered up in God’s big loving embrace and welcomed home?” They have not done anything to respond to the love that was offered or the redemption won for them at great price. Shall we treat their choice with such disrespect and force them into a heaven they have no desire for and have done nothing to merit? And what of the millions of pagan souls who have never heard of Christ? We hope that they may be saved by following faithfully the light they have been given, and we are taught that this is possible, but is there much evidence that many of those souls do, in fact, pursue the light they have been given with sincere hearts and with all their might? I hope that it is so, but I do not see evidence of such. It seems to me that most men are like me–they spend their lives thinking only of themselves and their pleasure and think very little about God and his Beauty and goodness. Furthermore, there is plenty of evidence that many of the pagans are not simply drifting in a haze of general niceness and goodness which will one day allow them to drift into heaven. Instead among the pagans we see true barbarism, cruelty, violence and the worship of demons. The speculation can continue. Let us suppose that there are multitudes upon multitudes heading on the broad path to destruction. What becomes of them? We know that those who are saved are called to ‘grow up to the full humanity of Jesus Christ.’ They are called to be divinized. The redeemed become greater and greater in their growth in glory. Their progress to sanctification continues until they are full and completely radiant eternal beings. What if the damned are on an opposite trajectory? If the saved are getting bigger and bigger and being infused with more and more glory and goodness and the fullness of God in Christ Jesus in an ever widening gyre is it not logical to suppose that the damned are getting smaller and smaller and less and less significant and going down an ever decreasing spiral into the dark? If the saved are becoming individual, radiant and unique beings eternal in the heavens perhaps the damned are becoming increasingly insignificant–mere ciphers of what they could have been–drones with empty souls and empty hearts. All glory has been withdrawn from them and they are dwindling into ash, falling into trash, descending into being mere shadows of the stars they were meant to be. If this is the case, then the Scriptures which talk about the wood, hay and stubble being burnt up make sense. This is the fire that purifies and burns up all that is trash. We do not hold to hell as obliteration of the eternal soul, but perhaps the eternal soul shrinks into so insignificant an identity as to be what ash is to a piece of wood? The judgement therefore is not made on quantitative terms but qualitative. As harsh as it may sound, does it matter that the trash is thrown on the fire? This is actually the image the Christ uses when he speaks of Gehenna–which was the trash dump outside Jerusalem. The chaff will be thrown away and burned. The potter throws the broken pot onto the trash heap. The waste is a tragedy, but nature is prodigious. There are many acorns but from them few oak trees. There are many seeds and few flowers. There is much coal but few diamonds. I realize in this egalitarian age where we judge by quantity not quality such a thought is horrendous, and my own heart is heavy at the thought of so many being damned. Indeed it is heavy at the thought of one soul being damned. I wish that all would come to salvation and hope that many will see Christ at that moment and say “yes” to Love, “yes” to Life “yes” to Goodness, Truth and Beauty, “yes” to Christ. However, I cannot help but believe that there will also be many who will continue to hate Christ and reject his love. St Faustina saw that each soul would see Christ and he will ask each one three times if they love him and only those who reject his love three times will depart from him. That is the sort of speculation that inspires me for it combines hope and mercy with the reality of the everlasting consequences of human choice. This is truly a severe mercy, but the only one which grants man true dignity in the image of God for part of that image is that God has granted to each soul a portion of his own omnipotence–which we call free will–and this free will cannot be violated or man is no longer in God’s image. It must therefore be respected, and for that free will to be respected it must receive the consequences of its choice.
Of course you can speculate. What I tell people is that they need to understand that they can go to hell, such is our freedom. I feel that the relationship that others have with God, is way above my pay grade to consider, yet I can pray for all, and I do. Those in hell, yes, choose, and God's justice is based on absoulute truth. Thanks for sharing my friend. peace mark
I think we are all on the same page, just reading it from different angles! The love and Mercy of God [including our trust and hope in these, His Divine attributes] Verses The Justice of God [which includes the fact that many souls go to hell] Are.... two sides of the same coin! We know that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and it is in fear and trembling that we must work out our salvation! For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. He calls us to Seek Him, to Love Him, to Serve Him and Trust Him and we must then defer to His all Knowingness, to His Divine Wisdom, to His Complete Understanding. Sacred Heart of Jesus Thy Kingdom Come. Amen.
Yes, I feel this, too, and live this, too. It is kind of baffling. It is a struggle to love someone who does not seem to love you. Or give an inch. It is like being in prison. I also sometimes think that maybe things will never change. I pray and pray for change, but it never comes. But we keep praying. I heard I've that prayer is not so much about changing circumstances, but changing ourselves from the inside. I still hope, though. Loving those who do not seem to love you back is a mystery, but it must have a meaning.
Not really a mystery to me... that is what Christ did. He loved and still loves those who don't love him back. Very hard for us to do that all. As I too live this type of life, I tend to look at it like purgatory on earth.
It is still hard to wait, though. Just saying. It's awesome to hear stories of miraculous conversion, but not everyone gets that. It's still good to hope, though. We have to hope.
