Most of my life, Connie I have used old Catholic Religious libraries, using some very old books. I very much prefer them. They have a different way of looking at things than most modern writers. For instnce moderns often have no interest at all in things mystical, like visions and dreams. Its almost like they never happned. Also the old ones had a different way of looking at our Faith, more certain, more assured, more direct with less funny notions. I am more at home there. I maybe should have been born in the 1800's I think from the 1960's onwards Catholic writing maybe went downhill as the Church came under fierce attack from the inside out. You can see it, say from the publication figures for Catholic magazines, less and less people read them as they turned from Spiritual topics to 'modern' ones concerned with things like sociology, current events , psychology, politics and so on....things not realy central to the Faith. In Ireland only one Catholic magazine, 'The Sacred Heart Messenger ', has stood the test of time, sticking to the old ways. The Mission Magazines are the worst and those run by religious orders, full of 'Liberation ' politics which are none of our buisness. I sound like an old fuddy duddy but I think , if it doesn't help my prayer life, wel lwhy bother? I can but magazines like, 'Time' and 'newsweek' anywhere anytime. When my dad died a few months back he left me a treasue trove of old books which i am loving. If I do buy books it is from publishers that do reprints of old stuff like, 'Tan' books.
Just got back from the Blue & Gold football game at Notre Dame. Talk about books...the huge, multi-level bookstore there, though filled to the gills with memorabelia and souveniers, it also is a HUGE real bookstore with several very large religious sections - everything from prayer cards to $1000.00 rosaries to browse through! This time I found an entire room full of Bibles and saints' books that I never knew was there before! We found it just as we were leaving though, so I have a first-stop room to check out fully next time! Going to Notre Dame always recharges our batteries, my husband's especially, and lately he really needed a recharge. Though he goes for the game initially, we always get a huge faith recharge as well. This trip was no disappointment in that regard! Saturday, for the game, it rained all day, but we managed to huddle under our little plastic rain parkas and watch the muddy fun unfold on the field. It didn't storm bad, just a cold light rain most of the time. We were there, safe in our sanctuary...as the rest of the country was being pummeled with deadly tornadoes and destruction! We were oblivious to all that until we saw the news this morning! Many prayers for all those poor souls. We saved our spiritual excursions for today. The sun was shining, and though still cold, at least it was drier. First was Palm Sunday Mass at the Basilica. Oh My!!! Dave said it was the best Mass he had ever attended! It was sure up there for me as well...I had trouble staying dry-eyed...sometimes Masses make me cry, and this one especially with the singing - it was phenomenal, and lovely young voices always remind me of my own two songbird children, and so I cry tears of memories, longing and joy. The students reinacted the entire Passion with many narrators, and the young choir members in the loft imitated the crowd of Jews, startling us all with their shouts from above and behind us at the appropriate time in the story. The Mass lasted almost an hour and a half!!! Then afterward we walked all around the Basilica looking at the memorabelia. They have several "chapels" within the Basilica - one Chapel houses a ton of saints' relics, and we learned today that there is a relic for EVERY saint on the Feast day calendar! They even have a relic of the Virgin Mary, and Saint Ann! And I photographed a relic of St. Francis. There is one "monstrance" style holder that is said to house a relic of each apostle! There are bones of some saints there, and inside the main tabernancle there are relics of St. Peter AND St. Paul! How do I know all this? Well, today, after Mass we met a woman there who was a Basilica tour guide and she gave my husband and I a private tour! We even got to go into the Sacristy, and into a private museum where they had curios full of chalices, vestments of Fr. Sorin, and also items of several Popes, including Pope JPII. Oh, it was a Glorious day indeed! We topped it off, of course, with a visit to the Grotto, which was quite deserted after all that time had gone by. I like it when it is quiet there, not so many bustling around. We saw some beautiful swans on the campus lake, and pretty spring flowers beginning to bloom. We talked about religion and theology most of the way home, so that also was great. And of course I now have more books to read...whenever I get the time!
Padraig, I have been waiting for the chance to stroll through your gardens this spring. Has the tour been cancelled? Safe in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
I will try to write more this afternoon Terry. I like to try to respond to other posts on the forum as I think this keeps the forum , 'Live' but it takes time. But doing posts on this thread is mainly what I want to do. Maybe it is good to go slow, though , it gives more time for praying to Our Lady beofre writing. She is the one who taught me, a kind but great teacher, gentle and perservering... Our Lady; Sedes Sapeinte, Seat of Wisdom, ora pro nobis:
OK. The difference between St Teresa of Avila any many other mystics especially medieval ones such as St Gertrude, Bernard of Clairvaux Julian of Norwich ,etc, is that she is very modern in her approach. She breaks things down into three stages and gives very clear sign posts into each. This is the kind of way we have been brought up to think , parables and stories are fine but I think there's something inside our modern skulls that longs to have things spelled out and spelled out clearly. She does this not only clearly but with warmth, humanity and not a little humour. So if you have such a great saint a master teacher, a Doctor of the Church who not only talked the talk but walked the walk, what the use of adding to it. Well each soul is different and comes to things differently. I for instance have read a little psychology for instance and have had access to a whole range of books on the subject the Great teresa had not, Teresa lived in fear of the Inquisition and so had to be careful in what she said. They burned folks like candles for being false mystics back in those dire days... In either case I hope I can thorw my own modern lights as we travel these Seven Gardens of Prayer.
The First Garden. A Garden Enclosed. Meditative Prayer Regard the Enclosed Garden above and see how perfect everything is. The gardener has done a huge amount of work making all things perfect. The first thought that comes into my mind is, 'How beautiful'...the next , 'What hard work!' Lets take it from the hard work angle first. Why on earth does the Lady Gardener devote so much time and trouble, almost a full time job, into cultivating her garden the garden of prayer. Clearly because she has a great love. I think of the soul that prays, the gardener as being kin of like a NASA rocket. The first stage is to get it of the ground. For many, many souls, these latter days, this requires a really intense conversion experience. ..and it is to these souls, such as those who have visited Medugorje unbelievers or luke warm and charged with the Spirit. It does not matter really how dramatic or undramatic are conversion experience may be we have to carry it on through. Its no good loving gardening or the Garden if it does not translate into action. But at conversion folks get very, very special conversion graces to carry us through the first part. The first prat few even relatively good Catholics know really all\ that much about prayer and how to deepen it. But if we don't on the other hand translate these graces into the hard work of digging the field we will never have a garden to speak of. We see this so clearly in the lives of our dear priests. Their whole life must cntre on the mass. In order to do this they must pray and pray deeply in order to be spiritual people of faith. Now if they do not do so..and many of them do not, then they may be great buisnessmen, great adminstrators great speakers, great social workers but as priests they are dead and useless. John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. So this is why sometimes when we regard a preist we may see him as though he were a great castle from the outside but inside all his ruins, for the priest who fails to pray fails at everything, he is like a husk his garden , the garden of prayer, the garden of his heart utter ruin. I use the example of priests, not because I have it in for them, but because as jesus said: Luke 12:48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. The Church of course will have given the priest his NASA booster rocket to him on a platter in the Seminary. He will have been taught to pray (if the seminary is any good at all, sadly many of them are worse than useless) and instilled in him a real devotion to prayer and underlined with great urgency the need for him to keep up a deep constant prayer life. But what is so true of the priest is true of us all as Christians, as our Catholic Cathechism teaches us, quoting St Aphonsus Ligouri, 'Pray and you shall be saved; fail to pray and you will most certainly be damned'. meaning its not some bolt on devotional extra its the very essence of our spiritual life, the path to holiness. Prayer is talking to God. Imagine a man and woman, husband and wife who never talk to each other or who talk in a hurried fashion for half an hour each week. COuld we call this a successful marriage.Yet many, many lay folk and priests who seldom pray consider themselves' Good' Catholics. They are not. Luke 18 The Parable of the Persistent Widow 1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
So we do not begin work on the garden of prayer empty handed. 1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us. This booster rocket of grace we get when we turn to God this access of love in our hearts is what will carry us well into this first garden turning that which has been neglected so long into a miracle of grace. But grace though free is not cheap. It has been bought for us by the blood of the Lamb of God. This is not a hobby, not an also ran, how we fare in cultivating this garden is how we will spend our etrnity. For if we fail in this we fail in all things, whilst if we suceed in this we have suceeded in pleasing God and shall continue to please Him for all Eternity, in heaven. But before picking up our tools and getting to work lets turn in a special way to those at a future time have just experinced, or recently experinced the Illumination of COnscience. In the first place you will be wondering what exactly it was and why it happened and having been handed the ball from God, so to speak where you are to carry it.
What Jesus has done is an act of great Mercy. He has let the people of the world of all faiths and none see themselves in His Divine Light, to let yourself see yoursoul the way God Himself sees you..as you would have seen yourself if you had just died and stood in the very presence of God. For make no mistake there really is a God as you have seen and at the end of life we are judged and judged on how much we have loved and we are sent some to a place of condign cleansing in the FIres of Love...Purgatory, some to Eteranl Damnation...and it IS ETERNAL called hell and some to a place of Eternal life ..heaven. Scripture shows us this and Scripture being the word of God is Infallible truth. This is the teaching of the One Holy Catholic Church from its beginning. cf: http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2008/02/final-judgment-and-eternal-destiny-in.html Now God Himself Has opened the floodgates of His Mercy to save a World that was not turning but running from His love. Now He has placed the seeds of Truth directly in your hearts; do not permit that Satan the Great Deciever pluck this truth from your hearts. This was not a, 'Mass hysteria' or a 'World pschosis' 'Symptomatic of a collective neurosis of the stresses of our times' . The terrible natural disasters , famines, wars economic collapse etc came about as a direct result of our turning away from God;the great Signs in the Heavens are the voice of God Our Father calling us back. Turn to God and turn to God in prayer, this is not an option it is the path to heaven ; there is no other path. Turn to God with all your heart, He created you for love; make no mistake the alternative is Eternal fire and Darkness; hell.
But before crossing the gate and entering the first garden of prayer it is well to pause. I have known people frozen in the path of prayer unable to progess even very holy monks because of obstacles they have left in the ir paths. The first and primary obstacle to prayer is lack of forgiveness and of this Jesus Himself warned in the following terms;
I got a really nice surprise the other day when my younger brother Fergal called down. He has a young family of four children and like all fathers is very,very busy. But he had been reading, 'The Gardens' and was actually trying to put it into practise in his life!! Its wonderful to post on the forum with folks from all over the world but I have to say meeting someone from your own family who puts these things to work is wonderful. Prayer is such an adventure it really is . As Jesus said: Matthew 13:52 He said to them, "Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old." I have been praying now ,since my conversion since 1981 (about 30 years this month) and I don't think there has been a day gone past without some new adventure. For instance in the past few months I stopped getting into work half an hour early each morning (for they just put me to work, unpaid) and spent the time in front of the Blessed Sacrament. What had, at first been a way of simply avoiding unpaid labour has become a real jewel in my day. I see now looking back on it that God had arranged things that I might spend the time with him; it was no accident. Lately I have found coming hom from work, after taking the dog for a walk and tired to play my computer it simply won't work. So I have spent the time with the good Lord, in bed in prayer. Again this is no accident another nuge. Again several years ago I planned to go camping regualrly to go camping as a means of relaxation and entertainment..but one again these periods have turned into times often of intensive prayer and retreat. Again ; no accident. For we may think we love God and treasue our times in prayer but the good God loves us a billion times more and He will work to make time for us even when we are to careless to make time for Him. At least this has been my experience.
Padraig, interesting that your conversion happened in 1981 when our Lady began appearing in Medjugorje - what date did our Lady appear to you?
In May. I think Medugorje started in June 81. Rwanda started in 81 too, I think. In November. Pope John 2 was shot too in May 1981.
May - month of our Lady - how providential. 1981 was a very significant year - without the direct intervention of our Lady in Medjugorje, the world would have destroyed itself by now [Ivan]. We owe our very lives to this magnificant Lady. Interesting in my life how I have developed great devotion to our Lady [thanks to this forum] and as I get closer to her I realise she has been a mother to me all along. There are no coincidences! I was born in May I was born of the Feast of the Visitation [which was always my favourite decade of the Rosary to contemplates but never made the connection with my birthday until recently!]. So May is an important month to me too. In 1981 I turned 18 so I am just a little older than the Medjugorje visionaries. I think their lives and ours are now inextricably linked because of the intervention of the Lady of Peace.
Padraig, The idea of treating prayer as a hobby struck a chord with me. In the early years of my conversion, God graced me with much consolation. The temptation to which I often succombed, however, was to depend on consolation to sustain my prayer life or even become a substitute for my prayer life. As you say, grace is not cheap and, for the love of God, one must work at developing good prayer habits. Such habits are an expression of thanksgiving, and a recognition that consolations are a blessing, not a guarantee. It is the Lord alone, whom we seek. We humans are creatures of habit. Memories can be fleeting and emotions transitory. Old habits of inattentiveness and spiritual sloth will re-assert themselves if I do not labor in the garden of prayer daily. Safe in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
So true! The ongoing guidance of Our Lady through this Vale of Tears is of fathomless worth! May our children experience the full measure of Her Triumph! Safe in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
I think ,Terry, the one great lesson of St John of the Cross, is that we seek God for God alone, not for anything else but God. That is why the way of prayer is a way thorugh darkness to light. I find when I go into the local Convent of the Poor Clares I often find myself looking at them and feeling a very,very great pity for them. Especially the very young ones. Why? Well because I know that they are either going through or heading towards the Dark Night of the Soul, were the black flames of grace will lap their souls to the very core. But as we die with Christ so shall we live with Christ. I heard about a wonderful mystical experience John Adams (Second President of the USA ) had when he was retired on his farm Peacefields. He was deeply moved by the words of St Paul exhorting Christians to rejoice. "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice! The Lord is near" (Philippians 4:4-5). ( We have this said to us on Gaudate Sunday) John Adams was filled with so much joy he actually tried to dance (though he was a very old man of 90). But as he looked at the grass he saw a very small flower. He froze astonished for he said though he had lived in Europe a while and actually seen a Queen covered in gorgeous jewels he could never compare it to the beauty of the little flower and suddenly to him the world was filled with joy and astounding beauty. This reminds me as St Paul says that though we must pass through the dark to the light that as St Paul reminds us the sorrows of this world are not even worth comparing to the joys of the life to come. "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Romans 8:18
Yes Bobby, I think 1981 was a very,very special year indeed. As Albert Einstein famously said, 'God does not deal with dice' As the years role by 1981 will be seen as the pivotal years in Our Lady's plan against Satan. Watch and see.
The visitation is also my favorite Mystery, but I was born in June. My son, my two stepsons, and my mother were all born in early May though. My daughter was born on the fourth of July! That is always fun. I too am looking forward to the world recognizing 1981 as a very important year for the Church, as it was and is and someday all will understand it like the "apostles of Mary" already do. Just got back from the Medjugorje conference at Notre Dame, which is why I haven't posted in several days. It was GREAT...but it was the smallest one they have ever had. The numbers were down so much that they had to cut some corners this year, like they didn't have the big video screen they usually have, and the area we used in the arena was made smaller than even last year. But in spite of this, it was a great success and the guests were terrific. My Mom went with us and she enjoyed it very much. It was special that it began on the anniversary of Fatima this year. So I was able to walk in the gardens of prayer that is Notre Dame...rain or shine (it rained the whole weekend, but no matter), it is a beautiful place and brings a great peace to us.
I wonder, Connie if the apparition sites might mirror the death and Ressurection of Our Lord? He was ahiled on Palm SUnday then folks ran after He died ..then He rose and the Church was born. Only a few faithful souls stayed firm round Mary who stood the course. Garabandal is a good example of this. I am old enough to recall when the whole Catholic World seemed full of talk about it; now it is like an abandoned building. But its all in God's time ; not ours..but He is coming, He is coming...we must keep our lanterns alight, God's time not ours. Let us gather round Mary and prayerfully wait.
The biggest reason why folks fail in prayer, the biggest obstacle by far in prayer is lack of forgiveness. Jesus said of this: Matthew 5.23–24, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” Notice what Jesus is saying here. It is no good being at the altar (of prayer) if you have fallen out with someone; for loving God and loving your brothers and sisters are simply two dies of the same coin. You can't have one without the other. There will be ,can be no progress without forgiveness if you bare a grudge. I knew a very Holy monk one time who it appeared to me to have recieved great graces of prayer from God. However he held a deep seated grudge against his Abbot. It was very apprent to me and I think to others that his prayer life had not only frozen but was actually going backwards with bitterness. One time a monk visted the monastery after man yyears and noticed this it was so apparent..he was not only not going forward but atually going backwards and it was so apparent this when you talked to him. In toher words his prayer life had become barren, a deesrt, vain. 1 John 4:20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen
