Catholic Hermit: Thoughts on Being Chained to Souls

The following are excerpts from recent letter to my spiritual father (director) after having read from 2 Timothy.  Somehow, he enjoyed the thoughts, and encouraged me to get to my writing.  He added to the thoughts, the aspect of the Mystical Body of Christ as those of us who are chained to souls the Lord gives us, to be praying for, suffering for and with, to help bring them to salvation in Christ's eternal glory.

From the letter:

"Did you notice yesterday’s (Thursday, June 2) first reading, 2 Timothy?  He talks about how we are CHAINED—like chained to souls to help bring about their salvation, chained as in the Gospel, with our being chosen to help bring souls not yet chosen to come to His eternal glory, chained for their salvation.

"That really struck me in a major way.  That is how it needs to be with those of us who are in Christ and His Real Presence having His abode in us, and us remaining in His Love.  We are by that very fact, chained to the Gospel, the Living Word, and our life, our souls, are chosen and to be chained then to the work of helping bring other souls to salvation in His eternal glory. 

"I think it is meant to be very natural, rather pleasant, yet urgent in a natural way such as how we would be if we had a chain around us, chained to something so that we never are away from it but we get used to being chained as part of our entire existences. And being chained, we become used to that which we are chained.  We know not to pull against the chains but to just accept and have these souls part of our existences and efforts of salvation to His eternal glory.  We are chosen for this effort, to be chained to souls He needs to come to salvation and to His eternal glory.

"I realize there is not really a conscious way to keep in mind all the souls we are chained with, as we are also chained ourselves to the Gospel.  It is our being chained to His Real Presence and His Living Word, that is what will then seep into the souls we are chained to, as well, and all that is how these souls will come to salvation for His eternal glory.

"A. (young mother and wife) is concerned about her husband who is not acting his usual self, and is going through some very early pre-pre-midlife crisis.  She has been very concerned, and mentioned doing some kind of fast. I suggested we do not need to make it misery or difficult but rather light and enjoyable, fun to pray.  So she said he likes driving cars, like a race car driver would enjoy going around curves well, doing it professionally.  So we are offering various aspects of driving in whatever ways, as the prayer for him.  

"I have considered my back a road, and so the constant pain is a constant prayer, and I think of this awful muscle trouble in my back to be straightening out, and my back being a straight and solid, safe road, for her husband to be on, for his life to straighten out and be solid, and find his way.  Then that also related with J.’s cycling roads and paths, and then also a woman named A.H. asked for prayers for her daughter and her boyfriend (living together) who are hiking in Tennessee, camping and going on trails.  

"And, all the prayers of my back spine road and muscles, are for their souls. I realize that the temporal aspects are not the main point, for anything can happen to our bodies and temporal circumstances at any given moment without notice.  It is our souls that are of prime importance, so the enjoyable ways of praying and having the prayers continue without my even having to think about them, since my back is doing the praying as a road and path—the pain is praying.

"It is light and easy, and I’m not all that concerned but more so am psyched and excited and interested in souls now, and “on it!”  I am onto these souls, have my prayer talons in them. I had to laugh after I realized the bi-location experience of being with J. and then later finding out why he was so excited and his trip he was going on, that the poor guy wants nothing to do with me, but God does not let him have that freedom.  I was taken there, and not just me but his grandmother (my mom) was there, also.  

"We are on it, and you are on it, and S. is praying along with several others I have alerted; and J. cannot escape.  He is chained, and we are chained to his soul, as well, and many other souls for we are chosen since we know the Lord and love Him and have offered to do His will and work.  So He has many souls that in and through Him and the Gospel, we are chained and chained to help these souls come to salvation and to His eternal glory.

"It is so humorous, isn’t it?  The work is not hard work when we  keep it natural and fun and try not to struggle away from being chained.  I am chained to this mattress and to ice packs, and to much added pain, and I am chained in this unfinished dwelling and even the heat wave we are to have this weekend, and chained to trying to walk outside enough and lean over to hook up soaker hoses every couple of hours to try to keep things watered.  But it really does not matter.  

"Our daily, temporal efforts are totally whatever the Lord allows of our bodies, but our souls are chained, and we can easily do that work for the souls we are chained with, due to being chained to the Gospel and HIs Real Presence, ourselves.  It is fascinating, right?  It is exciting, and quite the adventure."

Catholic Hermit: Scripture, Addendum on Being Chained

[Section of Scripture and addendum sent to spiritual father (director) of which I was going on about in a letter written to him.]

Perhaps it is not quite how I had read it, but the meaning seems clear that we are in essence chained to the Gospel.  We are chained but not in a criminal way, not bad, but chained to other souls, chained in Christ, chained in the liberating Gospel, the Living Word.  

We are saved by being chained in His Love, in His Real Presence, and thus for the sake of those who are chosen for us, for souls, so that they too may receive salvation that is the salvation in Jesus, and all then together with eternal glory.  

It does make sense, to consider ourselves chained to the freedom that is Christ, but chained for the work of souls, in a natural and good way, not trying to escape or pull against the good work that is the Gospel, and which does involve suffering that in a temporal sense can wrongly seem like suffering.  

It is really quite freeing to enjoy being chained in His Love, to His Real Presence, and then to the souls He chooses so that they can be saved in HIs eternal glory, all of us together, in wonderful chains that are not temporally binding at all.

From 2 Timothy:

“Beloved:

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David:

such is my Gospel, for which I am suffering,

even to the point of chains, like a criminal.

But the word of God is not chained.

Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen,

so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus,

together with eternal glory.”

Bearing All, Strengthened in All, by God

This morning's first reading from 2 Timothy focuses purpose in this short excerpt:

"but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel
with the strength that comes from God."

This sickening, totally debilitating, upper left back muscle pain persists.  Yet there is slight progress.  I was able to sleep in the night and even awoke with left arm moved in a position that has not at all been possible prior.  It was the pain that awoke me, but even a day ago could not have moved the arm like that.

By early evening, yesterday, the thought came to me that perhaps the Lord is not wanting me to consider trying to finish the hermitage and move elsewhere--not this summer nor in the fall.  Perhaps He wills me to remain here indefinitely, until the money runs dry or I die.

With that thought, I made an offering to God, telling Him that I agree to remain here if that is what He wills.  I do not yet know His Mind as mine.  My thoughts continue to be in my mind--my ideas--yet I also recognize at times those of His ideas, His insights, His thoughts.  With this one, though, the thought that perhaps God's physically truncating me so totally every couple of weeks recently and for months in the winter, is to ask of me to cease my plans to finish and be on my way--yes, perhaps that is God's thought.

I do not know, though.  It could also be that the Lord is asking of me to give up the work efforts and to try to bail out.  Yet, if that is the case, then He'd give me the physical ability to take the necessary steps to even pack up enough to try to market it "as is."  Regardless, there is nothing more to thinking about possibilities than to give the offering I gave, that I am willing to remain here if that is His will.

When we are in process of His Mind replacing our intellects, our thoughts and ideas, His will has to have already replaced our wills.  But we then are aware that our minds must be replaced by His Mind.  In the intervening space of time and experiences of His Will yet still our minds, we live thus with not knowing definitively as we learn to discern, what are His Insights and what remain our thoughts.

In such circumstances of spiritual transition and progression, we must simply be quite open to making offerings of our daily moments and details, of any idea or notion, to Him.  We must repeat the offering of that which might be His Idea, His Thought--agree to it.  Let go of the thoughts and ideas that are probably our own, or at least could be our own notions and reflections.

It is a humbling stance, all this.  Soon we recognize that plans and ideas do not really matter all that much--other than that we go along with the flow of events, not really knowing yet for sure other than to be sure that the Lord's will is unfolding in us, as it is His will now, not ours.  And the thoughts will either be His Mind replacing ours, or it will yet be our ideas trying to make themselves known in a false position of prominence.

Best not to fret about which is what.  Rather, just take the thoughts and agree to that which we had not wanted in what may have been our own ideas or that of others--that which have seemed most logical and practical.  In this instance it has seemed most prudent to get this place finished and sell and move.  There are no obvious, practical reasons to remain in an area in which there are no close contacts, very little financial security, much manual labor involved as well as temporal responsibilities.

I suppose it was the very thought which could be His Insight, of viewing the opposite consideration, that makes it seem all the more likely His Mind giving the thought to offer to remain here, to stop trying to finish the place sooner than later, to just let the current episode of physical incapacitation gradually evolve daily, nightly, and let go of temporal goals.

Just keeping whatever possible of the vegetables, fruits, trees, and flowers watered is monumental.  Each step the body takes is a jolt of sickening pain, yet perhaps today, somehow, the body will be able to get into truck bed and most carefully try to shove off the mulch...maybe even drive the mile or less to get the PVC pipes the woman still has, so that at some point in future I can put them together as supports for bird netting over the berry bushes here.

Yes, it seems a small and insignificant detail.  I have considered that perhaps the Lord is saying "no" to even that plan, although it would be lovely to have some fruit from the bushes this year.  The birds already have helped themselves to plenty, and crows took out all but 3 shoots.  I've replanted the entire corn crop nearly two weeks ago.

Discerning His Mind and Insights from what are yet my thoughts, is definitely a process.  Amidst the pain yesterday, I ended up disengaging from suffering and from suffering the thoughts themselves, by distracting with a British series on YouTube.  News came of some awful situation with a person I've known in the past, who has been shockingly arrested.

This morning I consider the above Scripture and send it in Spirit to the woman undergoing quite painful tests, probably right now, and which will provide answers to a situation which is of dire consequence in her life--of something she and her husband desire deeply, something quite emotionally real and vital.

Many other prayers for souls become interwoven with the immense physical pain of this body.  Yesterday in the suffering, I literally was lifted out of the day in the filmed drama series by the lovely scenery of England and once again the lilting British accents, and observed lives being lived out through the lens of a camera, plot and action unfolding from excellent actors and actresses guided by a talented director.

Really, in a form of our own reality, His Real Presence directs our lives, our actions, our scripts in daily life.  So it is, also, perhaps a help to me in the silence of solitude, to grasp that His Mind is rather like the script such as the program I watched which helped take me in the present moment out of the sickening pain and into other lives elsewhere--scripted lives with their developed and written out lines and situations.

Today brings more of the script that His Real Presence has written for this hamstrung, consecrated Catholic hermit.  Time seems timeless, and I will follow His script, increasingly aware of that which is His script, not my lines but His lines, created and scripted out for me, as He does for everyone.  We simply are not that aware, though, nor maybe have given up our own wills yet, let alone our own minds, our own attempts at writing our own lines, trying to make up our own situations, acting out our own dramas.

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Little children, let us love God above all things and one another as Jesus loves us!  Bear all our hardships with the strength that comes from God, for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  Just think of it:  the Gospel is the script given us to speak, act, live out each present moment with the Spirit abiding in us and by His Living Word!