Thoughts on the Mystic Portal (from March 31, 2011)

 

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Thoughts on The Mystic Portal

I am living the temporal humanity of Christ.
I bear His temporal pain and breathe His soul's suffering.
Yet only when the human is subsumed in His mystical Divinity
is there one Joy, one Love, the one Reality: God-Man.

Only then do the two worlds, temporal and mystical, 
become one reality, the Divine Reality.
The temporal is a shadow of the full humanity of Christ   
if without union in the mystical reality of His Divinity.

The temporal Catholic world is a holding cell 
for passage through the mystic portal, 
to become the full humanity of Christ in His Divinity, 
to be fully one in the One in the one true reality.

(I hope I am stating it meaningfully, accurately; 
words are incompetent secretaries to insights.)

It is something like this, and I must get through 
the mystic portal with His physical and soul suffering,
in order to be in the true reality: one reality of oneness in God.

Do you see that the Sacraments, all of them, 
but most frequently Eucharist in Mass 
and Reconciliation in Confession,  
are portal passage points 
for the temporal to enter into the mystical, 
and that without the One in reality of the mystical,
in these sacraments, there would be false reality? 

Jesus in His full humanity 
is the Divine ever-flowing into within the temporal.  
He is not the temporal occasionally touching the mystical.
 
When we pain-bearing soul-suffering humans pass 
through the mystic portal to be subsumed in His Divinity, 
we awash the temporal in and by His living waters.  
We then may fully live His humanity mystically Divine 
as we are become one with the One Reality.

Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives strength to the weary,
And to the one who lacks might He increases power.
30 Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
31 Yet those who [d]wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will [e]mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

Christian, Catholic, Mystic, Hermit: John Chrysostom's Sermon on Love

 

Saint John Chrysostom (c.345-407)

priest at Antioch then Bishop of Constantinople, Doctor of the Church

2nd  Sermon on the inscription to the Book of the Acts of the Apostles

"Do you love me?"... "Tend my sheep"

Let us follow the manner of life of the apostles and we will be their inferiors in nothing. For it was not their miracles that made them apostles, it was the holiness of their lives. It is by this means that a disciple of Christ is recognized. The Lord himself clearly gave us this sign. When he wanted to draw a portrait of his disciples and make known the sign that marked out his apostles, he said: “This is how all will know you are my disciples” . How? By working miracles? Raising the dead? Not at all. How, then? “This is how all will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13,35). Love is not a miracle but a work. “Love is the fulfillment of the Law” (Rm 13,10)... Therefore, have love among yourselves and you will counted among the apostles, even amongst the first of them. Do you want another proof of this teaching? See how Christ addressed Peter: “Peter, do you love me more than these?” There is nothing that enables us to win the Kingdom of heaven more than loving Christ as he deserves... What are we to do to love more than the apostles did?... Listen to Christ, the very one we are to love: “If you love me more than these, be the shepherd of my sheep”... Zeal, compassion, attentiveness are deeds, not miracles.

Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit: Morning Pep Talk from God and Hildegarde de Bingen

 

More inspirational, morning "pep talk" from God, to spur me on to keep going today amidst sickening physical pain and distressing facing of some relational realities that I'd put off closure for a long time.

[I suppose it is not really my closure when the others chose to cut off in various ways, even if subtly and cleverly. But it is my closure in needing to face and accept the reality of the situations--types of death such losses truly are. No point in going on as I had been, thinking that by being one-sidedly taking the high road was going to help; it is not a high road to blow air into a corpse. No truth, beauty, and goodness of genuine life genuinely results.]

The following is from a vision in which vice and virtue, sadness and joy, dialogue with one another. The late, great Hildegarde of Bingen, 1098-1179, wrote the inward conversation which is found with other of her writings in The Book of Divine Works.

Sadness - "Alas, why was I created? why am I alive? who will free me? if God watched over me why do I know so many dangers? Even were I to trust in Him He would not bring me happiness. Even when I rejoice in Him he does not protect me from misery...If He is my God why does he deprive me of His grace? Created in misery, born in misery, I have no consolation, what is the point of a life that lacks joy?

Celestial Joy - "God created man full of light...Consider the prosperity God pours upon man! Who gives you all that you have if it isn't God?...I praise all the works of God even if they are sources of sadness. You, you are constantly sad, but I , I entrust my actions to God who reveals to me that even in a certain sadness there is joy, and even in a certain joy there is no profit...."

Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit: Elucidating Morning Locution

 "Your eradication as a person."

Morning locution, elucidating: "Your eradication as a person."

That is what is of value in recent, constructive and constructing incidents and situations. The person must at some point be eradicated; the soul thus becomes increasingly prominent.

This is what the Holy Spirit is explaining in a concise statement of mystical fact. My self as a person is being eradicated.

(The soul remains significantly present and growing in ways beyond my ken.)

I grasp the reality of what is being explained: why the recent culminating incidents that could seem insulting, hurtful, are not at all. They are simply part of this marvelous process of my person being eradicated.

The understanding is immediate, illuminating, glorious; and I am most grateful. While most will not, would not, understand the beauty of this statement of truth from God through the Holy Spirit, I know my late mother would, and does now, where she is, near and dear. It is what my late spiritual "da," Rev. F., would understand immediately; he'd smile and likely is smiling now, as well.

It's definitely a tremendous positive; I don't intend for anyone to feel concern, Rather to consider the joy and wonderment at how God guides the soul through detachment, as Jesus Himself spoke of the seed that must fall to the ground, be crushed, die, in order to have new life. This is life of the soul and spirit, not of the more limiting temporal.

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Love in His Love!

Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit: Gratitude and Praise of God

"It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail." 

         ~ Jesus Christ, Son of God 

I've accepted all the more that nothing much has to do with me.  In fact, when considering such as a hermit vocation, as any vocation, as in ourselves vis a vis God, nothing really has to do with ourselves, but all has to do with God.

One of my favorite conversations with Jesus that Catherine of Siena wrote in her diaries, was that of Him asking her who she thinks she is and who He is.  (I am paraphrasing the exact interchange between the two of them, and by interchange I refer to what I call "thought-flashing"--the interior, instantaneous manner in which the Holy Spirit or God or Jesus or those who are in eternity, on the "other side" speak and communicate."  The output of what Jesus explains to Catherine as to who we are and Who He Is, is stated succinctly, powerfully, and truthfully:  You are nothing, and I am All.

In some after-effect thoughts relating to another hermit who had for years detracted me and my writing, but evidently recently has forgotten all those blog posts and likely has removed or altered what the person wrote on the person's blog, which to me is not honest--but the odd thing is that the person continued to be in denial.  And the main point I've considered is:  none of it matters.  I wasted many blog posts over the 12  years of the person actively stalking and attacking my writing as the consecrated Catholic hermit I am according to the Church's guidelines and written statements of the hermit vocation, of the avenues by which one may follow and live out with both being in the consecrated life of the Church, in the eremitic vocation.  And none of that matters, either.

However, it was a lot of wasted energy, thought, and reaction to this other person, because no one cares, really, about the temporal, human-made structure, formalities, and externals of a hermit vocation.  No one cares if one is following one avenue or the other.   No one cares that this other hermit makes up terms and rules for living the hermit life or behaved in less than Christian manner in the written attacks and negative assessments of my personhood.  

That type of behavior is part and parcel of being a blogger.  There will always be those who are bothered that there is competition, of sorts, or someone else who may have reading audience, or who may point out a way of life that is approved by such as the Church, that the other disagrees with because the other may have a need to be viewed as an authority or has a need to be approved in a public way.  None of it matters.

No one other than the friends of that person care.  And certainly  no one I know cares about what type of hermit or even if a hermit.  This includes any number of Catholics.  I have come to laugh at the situation, and of ever having been bothered by this other hermit's writing or attempts to expose my identity, to stalk and essentially dox and pester.  

I reflected on this recently, just how pathetic it was, and also, though, what a waste.  I wasted time, energy, emotion, and attempts to get the person to cease and desist. Finally, I removed myself from writing much on externals of hermit vocation and have tried, at least, devoting to the inner core of what it is to be a Christian.  But the perspective is as a life and vocation lived as a hermit, who is also born mystic, and who has known various denominations for four decades prior to the Lord calling me into Catholicism, now nearly three decades (and a beautiful progression and story, that).

Once again:

"It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail." 

         ~ Jesus Christ, Son of God 

What really matters is not to do with hermit this or that. It's but a vocation, not our souls, not our ways of being, of living God's Law, the Law of Love.  No one cares what hermits write when it deals with externals or a canon law created by humans, or who can be called a Catholic hermit or not, based upon what a human deems correct or not, or anything at all to do with how advanced or at what level, or if one has progressed in this or that.  No one cares if I write or the other hermit writes, or that our vocational paths vary slightly, which is of little to no consequence to the full spectrum of our lives, especially that of our souls' eternal existence.

What matters to others is not even really a concern, as far as sharing our temporal lives. What matters is one's spiritual offerings, one's humility in sharing errors, one's thoughts on and attempts in living Christ's Word in the major and minor details of our daily lives, and in what God wills of us which is to follow His Greatest Commandment:  Love God above all things and love others as God loves (or love others as ourselves).

I might, before long, share in another format.  The idea came to fruition through a dear person, a loving soul who has interest and expertise, and one topic that the person emphasized is that of not allowing what others may say or react in what I may be sharing, to bother me.   That's the way of social media these days--can always be someone who becomes a detractor, a nemesis or several negative reactors.  There are always those who disagree or want to argue--especially when the topic has to do with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Christianity, Scripture, and living one's life for God.

We do not matter, ultimately, other than to God.  But God matters in the details to the full spectrum of existence, and to us.  We are nothing; God is ALL.  Our temporal structure and system of doing, our human-kind made up rules and protocols are insignificant to the spiritual life, the Christian way forward, the beauty of worship and praise of God, of knowing that we live in God and He lives in us.  We are fed by Christ; we share His Body, consume and are consumed in His Real Presence.  We consume and are consumed through, with, and in Christ's Body and Blood: the full essence of the Holy Trinity of which we are born, led, taught, guided, forgiven, and especially loved!

And yet again,  

"It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail." 

         ~ Jesus Christ, Son of God 

How do we come to know His Real Presence intimately and in truth, beauty, and goodness?  How do we learn to love God above all things and to love others as God loves?  How do we encounter the Trinity in ways of faith, in the numinous as well as in the every day temporal realm?  What all constitutes this activity, experience, communication called "prayer"?  How do we learn to discern spirits; how do we learn to discern God's will for us?  How does Scripture, the Living Word of God, become interactive and very real in our daily lives?  How do we become born anew in the spirit, increase in faith, become one in Christ Jesus, experience union with God?

These and other manifestations matter.  Do we need to know at what personal phase or level of progression?  Do we need to have supernatural experiences?  Do we need to compare ourselves with others--or contrast ourselves, either or also?  Are we striving in religious structure, or are we striving in spiritual life of becoming one with His Real Presence?

These are considerations for what hopefully will come forth, but I may also share aspects of my own life background and lessons learned, ways in which God has been gracious as well as instructive, and also some consequences of veering off the narrow path, and His lovingly calling me onward.  There are truly things "like scales" invisible, but very real, as the Apostle Paul had fall from his own eyes, that can signify in each of us the holy action of the Spirit opening our eyes.  We have myriad such eye-openings, deeper conversions, when we come to the spiritual in existences, and begin to view as God views, not as the world sees, and to listen as God listens--not as we hear.

I'll let you know when the added sharing is up and available. In the meantime, we must remember to keep a loving sense of humor, and grasp that when we make waste and mistake by being culled off by the temporal.  What silliness can occur in the temporal goings-on of our egos and sensitivities especially to mistakenly think that we are more than the nothings that we are, and instead forget that God is ALL, and God Alone matters.  What God views and thinks of us is what matters; and the Holy Trinity Is and Are the point of reference and fullness of our sole and soul existence.

Now, back to gingerly putting some tiny conifers in the ground.  Grateful for the beautiful day and praising God for life even if the knee is bone on bone with eight weeks to go to full replacement, and the thyroid getting medication to help what had gone kaput, and the Arachnoiditis pain progressing as that is what happens with Arachnoiditis.  I praise God I can limp and have some bit of energy to feel the soil and spread the tiny roots of His creation in some exquisite, miniature trees!  

Praise God for His Word!  Praise God for the beauty of life and of others, despite the difficulties that may transpire in our daily interactions.  God bless His Real Presence in us!  Love in Christ's Love!

Thank you the forbearance of God's bounteous grace of God's being All, and of my being nothing.

And forevermore, to not forget:

"It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail." 

         ~ Jesus Christ, Son of God 

Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit: Sifting Through in Present, the Past Considerations on Hermit This or That

The reason those of us who are Christian Hermits, Catholics, and the lot, have chosen not to be "Diocese" or "Canonical" or 1983's human-devised "Canon Law 603" hermits has little to do with being more hidden or small, although these are valid points as to why not be the other.  

The real reason we choose not to be that which humans have created and perpetuate, is that we prefer to be "God's Hermits."  This means more in depth than I wish to write, for I've written and written about this over the past 23 years, with 17 years of the writing including blogs.

I just felt it good to set the fact out there, and being "God's Hermit" my self, has become so intimately deeply inculcated and immersed as my ontological, spiritual, mystical being, that there is no need to explain further.  It is as it is; and being God's hermit rather than a diocese or CL603 or canonical hermit, all being interchangeable terms for that format and choice, is a beautiful choice for those of us who are chosen by God to be God's hermits and not the other fairly recent designation.  And those who chose that other designation and feel God has called them to that designation I am sure have their heartfelt reasons for doing so.  

Just wanted to clarify.  Yes, God's hermits are hidden and small amidst many other facets spiritual, interior, and bits of human exterior as well tossed in. But being small and hidden is not the defining term; God''s hermit is the definitive descriptor/s or term, if one even needed.  I'm at a point in my spiritual life and vocation that I do not need to think of myself with a term, label, or descriptor/s.  It is, after all, a pathway God has chosen for me and it seems many others over the centuries, for this life, not for eternity.  I have learned that not being the other, I really do not know why they chose the diocese/canonical/1983 CL603 designation. It does not matter, whichever, other than to the persons' own sense of calling and choice made. 

God bless His Real Presence in us.  Let us love in His Love!

Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit of God and His Church Eternal: Marvelous to Ponder and Receive

 I find this powerful, and it is where I'm "at" spiritually at this point.  So very helpful if I can but absorb and free myself more from the temporal of body and all the body and temporal of this realm seems to require.  Surely the weight can be reduced,  simplified, of course--the temporal needs and responsibilities.  But my mind and heart and soul can be freed; I know it.  But I don't know quite how other than ask Jesus to help and provide this freedom so I can endure the temporal encumbrances.

This from John of the Cross in Spiritual Canticles--powerful and shocking in a way, but seems where I am spiritually now, and why temporal churches are that which God has progressed me through and into this other of His Mystical "Church" if it can be labeled something that has such strong temporal connotations and denotations, both.  

I have guilt about it or did, and realize it is actually as it ought to be, and is best in progressing in Christ and out of the temporal churches and temporal world which hold no more means of enduring in the world, not really, so on to the spiritual and mystical of His Real Presence and otherwise kind of suffer out the aspects of temporal. 

Yet, I ought to free myself from as much as feasible of temporal yet that is the problem having a body here and the body needing abode and to keep going, and abode and temporal with many responsibilities that are temporal.

Thank  you, John of the Cross, for these thoughts, truths, and realities of spiritual growth and progression, and in Scripture as Paul writes of dying to self and being alive in Christ.

[It] ought to be known that when a soul treading the spiritual road has reached such a point that she has lost all roads and natural methods in her communion with God, and no longer seeks him by reflections or forms or feelings or by any other way of creatures and the senses, but has advanced beyond them all and beyond all modes and manners, and enjoys communion with God in faith and love, then it is said that God is her gain, because she has certainly lost all that is not God and has truly lost herself.

Entire selection:

Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591)

Carmelite, Doctor of the Church

Spiritual Canticle, 29,11 (© Institute of Carmelite Studies)

“Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it”

“I lost myself and was found” The one who walks in the love of God seeks neither gain nor reward, but seeks only to lose with the will all things and self for God: and this loss the lover judges to be a gain. Thus it is, as St. Paul asserts: “For me death is gain” [Phil 1:21], that is, my death for Christ is my gain, spiritually, of all things and of myself. Consequently the soul declares: I was found. The soul that does not know how to lose herself does not find herself but rather loses herself, as Our Lord teaches in the Gospel: “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 16:25). Should we desire to interpret this verse more spiritually and in accord with what we are discussing here, it ought to be known that when a soul treading the spiritual road has reached such a point that she has lost all roads and natural methods in her communion with God, and no longer seeks him by reflections or forms or feelings or by any other way of creatures and the senses, but has advanced beyond them all and beyond all modes and manners, and enjoys communion with God in faith and love, then it is said that God is her gain, because she has certainly lost all that is not God and has truly lost herself.

Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit: Visions, Locutions, Progression into His Mystical Church, and Those Who've Helped

(A long one, but I've had many thoughts, having been considering some visions and locutions of the past, my increased yearning for His Eternal Mystical Church, an unexpected gouge yet again from someone I'll refer to as [Z]-- plus I'm having prolonged, severe pain (barometric shift and heat?) in which I must be in bed, and writing is a means of expressing from within to without which helps me also ignore the physical pain.)

I found HIs Real Presence blessed me with very appropriate and truthful, holy answer to the woman who 16 years now, takes issue and tears me down.  What else is new, I suppose, for I tend to collect people like that, particularly many temporal Catholics.  When I read in the dissertation by the Cistercian priest who [expert and scholar stated to trust his writings] as he is of quality as a scholar--he wrote that so many of the mystics' and "saints" writings have been edited and altered to suit the temporal Church's narrative--rather, that of the temporal Church leaders and religious superiors of whichever time period of the lives and their writings, all the more I realized not much of the temporal can be trusted as truth of temporal Church leaders, nor the people in it who do not realize not even the personal writings of mystics' and saints' lived experiences can be trusted.

And all the more I felt pity for the woman who is so consumed with canon law being her authority and that of being approved by a temporal bishop seems authentic and more important than consecration by God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. She has helped me and taught me much in this aspect, for her writing is caught up in temporal scholarship and erudition; all the more the person's issues seems the product or concubinage of temporal Church.  

But praise be to His Real Presence, I'd not have come to seek and be led and progressed to His Mystical Church if not for many priests, bishops, and temporal Catholics such as this person.  Her written conviction maintains that I have done damage to the Church, to others, and to the hermit vocation (and that my own soul is deceived if I think that I have not done serious damage by referring to myself as a Catholic hermit. (Seems errant since for some time I preface "Catholic" with "Christian" of which in my spiritual life I consider Christian as foremost, then Catholic, then Mystic, then Hermit, with hermit the least as seems in categories a life style vocation as is a religious order life style and priest life style, a married life style, and the single life style--all of which for those of us who are Christians about 1/4 in religious population are Catholic.  And as Christians, we all have a prayer life and love of His Real Presence and love of following Jesus, and striving to live His Living Word.  

But "The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever" (I John 2:17).  And, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away" Mt. 24:35).  So goes the way of the temporal: the temporal Catholic, the temporal Orthodox, the temporal anything and any church, the temporal of our bodies here on earth.  From early Church history, even, humankind has meddled--edited out, altered, added to that of humankind's own desire to create human precepts and teach them as doctrine when they are not, and create saints of people perceived as holy and blessed--yet alter and edit some of their writings if they were not the narrative some of humankind willed.  

Perhaps their visions and words came too close to the truth of His Real Presence, the mystical breadth of His Living Word, and into the reality of His Mystical Church--and union with His Real Presence which transcends the temporal church and exists in the ideal of Christ's Church of His Instituting, of which He is Head and no other stand-in or in-place-of.  That reality and truth would be the undoing of the temporal church narrative in time periods of Christian history, and Christians would be set loose from the temporal human precepts, rituals, traditions and canon laws (or the rules and laws made up in Christian denominations since the reformation).  

Would people then have their minds and hearts and souls cleared and opened to hear within and without proclaimed, to listen to and absorb His Real Presence, to sense Him, to experience His nudges and guidance, to realize the truth of being fed by His Real Presence and know in truth and faith that He is in us and we are in Him always?  Would they grasp that those in Heaven, full of love and light, are eager to help us, as are angels, particularly our guardian angel, and that Mary also is at the ready to demonstrate the power of women--even to a holy delight of men--in respect and honor,  and that she ever always points us toward her Son, Jesus Christ?

So [Z] has, in her writings and detractions, if it be from envy or "concern," or a self-anointed position to save the long-standing (including pre-time of Christ) hermit way of life, publicly, repeatedly, declared that I have brought great harm to and have hurt people and the Church.  (The temporal church, for the temporal seems what she has placed herself in charge of setting precedent for Canon Law 603 and to be guardian of hermit vocation past, present, and future.).   This person [Z] is among some temporal church parishioners, priests, a couple of bishops, and toss in a pope with political and temporal church guffaws by whom I've had the sincere benefit of "O Happy Fault!" in knowing and being persecuted by, over the past 27 years.  

These blessed persecutors from within the temporal church have helped bring me to the truth of God's Mystical Church, the Church that is eternal and is of heaven and earth.  If only we all on earth would realize Her Glory and be brought into His Mystical Church now and forever, in which His Real Presence presides in glory, truth, beauty and goodness--in faith and hope and love.  

God's Mystical Church is Christ's Ideal and Intention from the beginning when there was the Word, and the Word was made Flesh, and the Word was God.  God's Mystical Church has Christ as Head as well as those in His Mystical Church who love and follow His Real Presence and His Living Word: His Body, the Body of His Holy and Eternal Church.  The Law is God's Law of Love; there is no need for other as God's Law supersedes all others, as Jesus says in the Word.  The humankind created terms of the temporal church are not existent by Christ's Word; do we find the human-created terms in God's Mystical and Eternal Church?  His True Church, His Mystical Eternal Church, living and welcoming for those on earth who come into and exist as Her Members--and those who do so when they find truth in death.   

This is Christ's Church, Christ's Holy Church, Holy Mother Church:  God's Mystical Eternal Church.  And the "mystical" is necessary for those outside her who have not grasped because they are too enamored and obeisant to the temporal church altered and added to by humankind over the centuries, for they find truth in canon law and human precepts taught as doctrines, in human-created rituals and traditions, and read His Living Word but do not open themselves to the reality of depth and breadth spiritually because the temporal has charge over to many of their minds and hearts.  In the temporal church the attitude of "obligation" overrides free will and love of His Real Presence, and the temporal is trusted over the numinous of the Holy Spirit.  The on-going humankind-created canon laws are thus more important to these of the temporal church than the Power of God and His Law of Love; being consecrated by a man with a humankind-created title of bishop is deemed solely righteous over being consecrated by God-in-Three-Persons.

I'm not suggesting that the temporal Church is not necessary. The apostle Paul suggests rightly, however, that we ought not stay feeding upon breastmilk, but to grow and learn and progress spiritually in Christ by the guidance and help of the Holy Spirit, by the power of God and the love of His Word, into eating--digesting--real spiritual food.  We ought not stay stuck in the temporal; we should not disparage those who God is progressing; we should not persecute but consider their lives, their love, their desire for God and His desire for them and pray to God to lead us onward into Himself, and into the Church that Christ instituted--not what it has become over the centuries of structure and system and in various ways what Christ Himself railed against of the Jewish high priests, Sadducees, scribes, Pharisees, and the blind following of the people themselves who were like lost lambs led by blind shepherds.

I feel sorry for persons such as Z; and there are many who are docked and blinded without vision nor ears dug out to hear the still small voice or the whisper of the wind, nor can hear the tinkling of the supernatural bells hearkening the angels' songs of praise--nor taste the joy and bliss of His Real Presence feeding us Himself for we of His Mystical Church in faith and love know that He is in us, and we are in Him always.  We honor Christ by never forgetting Him, not by day, not by night.

The Z's of the temporal Catholic Church are entangled in the nets just 'neath surface of the doldrum waters, seemingly stuck but for the loving assurance that the Heavenly Father is taking care of them, will help them.  So do not worry, and do not remain desperately trying to untangle and free them; leave that to the Almighty Father. Rather, those who are told to swim on out into the deep--in faith swim out where feet cannot touch earth nor eyes see any distant shore.   Do not doubt and look back in weakness, as I had done.  But never again, not now or ever. I have hesitated on God's graces and His command, all for fear of lack of human approval and inclusion?  Was that it?  I'm so sorry, Lord!  Never again will I look back nor seek what Thou hast progressed me through, sending an angel to lead me by the arm to the Stairway to Heaven, yet quavering and second-guessing, am still on the landing before the first step, or so it seems to my weak-spined eyes.

Those who are aware of His Mystical Church, or who by swimming in His faith and trust, finally finding awareness and truth of His Mystical and Eternal Church, are at some point brought to the truth, beauty, and goodness of the fact that if not for being persecuted and detracted, they'd have remained docked in the temporal.   If not for being shown the entangling nets of the temporal, humankind-altered church and all those persons struggling and trapped just 'neath the doldrum waters, there would be no one swimming on out into the deep, no one progressing into His Mystical Eternal Church--not until after temporal death, if God's grace wills then.  

No one would write of it, even if their writings were discounted; or if an important person to the temporal church were to write of His Mystical Church, would their writings be edited and altered so that the entangling nets seem like the earthen, only end?  And the temporal Church could have been instead, His Mystical Eternal Church if not for humankind inserting themselves--the Z's and others, those who took (or take) an increasing authority of self position...and their nascent followers, in kind.  And many of these or even most, are well-intentioned, have known nothing other, or could not withstand the loss of temporal prestige, position, possessions and political power so remained with the ones they influenced (influence) in the entangling nets, just 'neath the surface of the doldrum waters.

So we must not be sorry that the one who has used a religious title and made up the initials "erem.dio" to give greater distinction and clout to hermits approved by a 1983 temporal church law.  Is there no respect for traditional and historical hermits such as John the Baptist and all those up until recent times, or even the Old Testament prophets who lived the hermit vocation in ways we'd do well to ponder?  But please do not feel sorry for me, either, or anyone else who this woman has detracted online or correspondence--me for now 16 years, having tried to convince readers that I am a fraud and causing great harm to the hermit vocation, the [temporal] Church, to whomever and for whatever.  

The ones who persecute others for what is nothing of which Christ nor John the Baptist nor any of the great prophets of Christian or religious history in general ever spoke or desired--these who desire privilege in a simple hermit vocation title and a humankind-created temporal Catholic canon law, are of those in the entangling nets struggling yet still not realizing they are placing their efforts, hearts, minds, souls into that which matters only to the temporal.  These types likely do not realize that others have tried to help them--those they detracted and labeled as frauds as well as the angels, the mystics, the holy ones of Heaven who pray tried to help the ones--even priests and bishops--who may can be with them in the entangling nets. 

But as I learned and was told by my Heavenly Father, I cannot--no one can--help any who are ensnared in the entangling nets of temporality except His Real Presence.  God is taking care of those in the entangling nets of temporal church.  And God instructs any who are not in the nets, by His grace, to swim on out into the deep, duc et altum, to not look back, but in faith to keep swimming despite feeling no earth under their feet nor seeing no land in the distance across the vast and mystifying waters.  These are being told to swim on out in faith and are being directed to the reality and truth, the beauty and goodness, of His Mystical Eternal Church.

How glorious is this?  How grateful I am to any who persecuted or even shunned or strove to run me out of the temporal church!  God had to take action to get me to heed the visions and locutions:  His blessings and graces for my spiritual progression!  How thankful, yet sorry, for [Z] who has been the most vocal and public in her detraction over the longest period of time!

I found it so courageous and marvelous that Amos in today's Old Testament reading for Mass, despite being dissed and tossed out and told to go away, let the rulers and people hear the reality all the same. His prophecy given Him from God was not good news for them.  We know what happened later on.  We all have consequences for not listening to God, for not spiritually progressing, for getting entangled in the temporal nets of our earthly lives, be it in temporal aspects of Church or in society, culture, politics, or morality.

There is depth and meaning in this excerpt I'm cutting and pasting, from an early Church writer and holy one who saw even then, and grasped His Living Word in the depth and breadth of which God provides for us to learn to absorb His Word.  Repeatedly I am heartened by indications in some of the writings in which the clues and realities of His Mystical Church are not edited out nor altered.

[I'm even praying and asking His Real Presence if I should emphasize Christ and my life-long and forever, eternal Christianity by the blog label "Christian Mystic Hermit".  It seems it puts the priority and emphasis foremost, for as it is, there are many divisions in the temporal Catholic Church of rites in the Roman; thus church and the Orthodox, as well. If "Catholic" were as it was even in the earliest centuries and understood as such, but even [Z] cannot grasp the meaning of Catholic without divisive hate and offense.  Consider how other potential readers then may have negative or hateful reactions to my use of "Catholic", whereas no one of Christendom, East or West, would find argument with "Christian Mystic Hermit". Just a prayer I'm presenting to God, a request for His Holy Choice.  God provides!]

God bless His Real Presence IN US!  Love in His Love!

[I'm even praying and asking His Real Presence if I should emphasize Christ and my life-long and forever, eternal Christianity by the blog label "Christian Mystic Hermit".  It seems it puts the priority and emphasis foremost, for as it is, there are many divisions in the temporal Catholic Church of rites in the Roman; thus church and the Orthodox, as well. If "Catholic" were as it was even in the earliest centuries and understood as such, but even [Z] cannot grasp the meaning of Catholic without divisive hate and offense.  Consider how other potential readers then may have negative or hateful reactions to my use of "Catholic", whereas no one of Christendom, East or West, would find argument with "Christian Mystic Hermit". Just a prayer I'm presenting to God, a request for His Holy Choice.  God provides!]

Saint Cyril of Alexandria (380-444)

Bishop, Doctor of the Church

Commentary on Saint Luke's Gospel, 5 ; PG 72, 565

"The crowd glorified God who had given such authority to human beings"

The incurable paralytic was lying on his stretcher. Having exhausted medical art he was carried by his relatives to the only true physician: the physician who comes from heaven. But when he had been set down in front of the one who could cure him it was his faith that drew the Lord's attention. To demonstrate that this faith destroyed sin, Jesus immediately said: “Your sins are forgiven.” Now perhaps you will say to me: “This man wanted to be cured of his sickness, so why did Christ make known to him the remission of his sins?” This was so you might learn that God sees a person's heart in silence, soundlessly, and beholds the paths of all the living. For, as scripture says: “Each one's ways are plain to the Lord's sight; all their paths he surveys” (Prv 5:21). (...) All the same, when Christ said: “Your sins are forgiven”, he left the field open to the incredulity of those standing by; the forgiveness of sins cannot be seen by eyes of flesh. So when the paralytic stood up and walked, he gave proof that Christ possesses the power of God. (...) Who has this power ? He alone, or ourselves too ? We also have it along with him. He, on his part, forgives sins because he is both man and God and Lord of the Law. But we, on our side, have received this splendid and wonderful grace from him since it was his will to give this power to all humankind. For he said to the apostles: “Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 18:18). And again: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them” (Jn 20:23).

[Note per blog post above:  I'm even praying and asking His Real Presence if I should emphasize Christ and my life-long and forever, eternal Christianity by the blog label "Christian Mystic Hermit".  It seems it puts the priority and emphasis foremost, for as it is, there are many divisions in the temporal Catholic Church of rites in the Roman; thus church and the Orthodox, as well. If "Catholic" were as it was even in the earliest centuries and understood as such, but even [Z] cannot grasp the meaning of Catholic without divisive hate and offense.  Consider how other potential readers then may have negative or hateful reactions to my use of "Catholic", whereas no one of Christendom, East or West, would find argument with "Christian Mystic Hermit". Just a prayer I'm presenting to God, a request for His Holy Choice.  God provides!]

ic Hermit".  It seems it puts the priority and emphasis foremost, for as it is, there are many divisions in the temporal Catholic Church of rites in the Roman; thus church and the Orthodox, as well. If "Catholic" were as it was even in the earliest centuries and understood as such, but even [Z] cannot grasp the meaning of Catholic without divisive hate and offense.  Consider how other potential readers then may have negative or hateful reactions to my use of "Catholic", whereas no one of Christendom, East or West, would find argument with "Christian Mystic Hermit". Just a prayer I'm presenting to God, a request for His Holy Choice.  God provides!]

Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit: At Point of Giving Up, but God Reaches in, Reveals, Renews Faith

 This morning I was utterly crushed, at the point of giving up.  The physical pain with summer's heat utterly drains the bodily energy; my spirits have been depleted by further stripping of what has been too painful to even share other than a stripping of what means most to my heart and mind temporally, of my earthly life.

God is doing it in types of rejection, in essence and reality, and I'd lost sight of God in my suffering.  The human in me fell to feelings, understandable, but not helpful.  I forced the body to do a little painting of siding--back side, lower level, first color coat as priming is completed for that section of house; the new color is much lighter than the previous. Yes, let there be light!  

I need light, Lord.

In the morning pain--physical and mind and heart, even soul--I so longed to be with those who always loved me and still do:  those on the other side, those who have passed on and are in the Light of His Real Presence eternally, all intact except temporal bodies left behind.  And me--they left me behind as soon, I hope, I will be leaving, also, never to bodily return unless God sends me in corporeal vision or voice to help someone here on earth, just as He has sent others in person--loved ones and holy personages, angels, Mary, and Jesus--to help me from time to time.  

But how I so wanted to and still desire to be lifted out of this body and this temporal existence to enjoy the love and companionship of those I love and who have always loved me, and to be in His Real Presence in Heaven.  The desire to physically die was so strong and stronger yet the desire to be with those who encouraged and supported, guided and taught, and loved me on earth, and of whom I loved and trusted without reason to not--that I wondered if I could possibly last it out, endure unto the end here on earth.

As my temporal body of pain sickened with the increase in heat of day, I had to return to bed, Love and Mercy put in their crates for a nap.  Then His Real Presence and His Living Word--Paul's Second Letter to Timothy--reminded me of Paul's same feelings, that of feeling as if he could not make it to the end, that the suffering and God's stripping him of all but God Himself, felt overwhelming.

Second Letter to Timothy 4,6-8.17-18.

Beloved: I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.
From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance.
But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the proclamation might be completed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was rescued from the lion's mouth.
The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Dear His Real Presence please give me the strength to persevere until the end here on earth.  Thank You, Lord, for being with me in the struggle of suffering, as it is intensifying, and my yearning for those I love and who al my life loved me, is strong...while my body feels weak.  Help me to relinquish those you are separating from me here, and teach me to handle the added solitude with grace.  Help me to not have hurt feelings and to understand this as Your will for my spiritual progression and for Your great utilization of my soul, and suffering, in any way You desire.  Help me pray and love all the more those that are not mine.  Please heal my heart of the human mind and heart wounds.  Thank You, Dear His Real Presence.

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Love in His Love!

Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit: Words, His Mystical Church, Bread, Love as God Loves

On occasion I read some blogs of others striving in this hermit vocation.  My main take away is that there are many words, exhausting, and many words laborious to grapple with, plod through.  So much so are the words, that the content loses meaning, the effect is, again, exhausting and empty, devoid of other than multiplicity of words.

I consider this reality and effect per my own blog and writings.  Mine fare often the same, especially when the realities of the temporal church and those ensconced in the temporal, have flared briefly and then sizzled; the effect, also, exhausting and empty, devoid other than words--and painful the loss of the ideal of Christ and His Church.

Recently I found comfort in an early saint, mystic, and I believe Doctor of the Church (these labels that have been created and affixed in later centuries by humankind), for he struggled with the ways in which the Church, by the mid-to-late second century and early third century, in his estimation with cited reasons--the temporal Church had already begun to lose Her way.  Well, the people, the body within the Church, the humankind leaders of the body, had done so--not Christ nor His Ideal of His Church.

Christ and the Ideal of His Church, with Christ as Head and all those who love and believe and follow Christ, who uphold His Word and strive to love as God Loves--the greatest command according to Jesus--Christ and the Ideal of His Church can remain intact today.  Yet one must recognize what is His Church, the ideal of His Church, and this is His Mystical Church--for means of delineating that of the temporal Church which has lost the way in various ways, off the narrow path and too much created by humankind over the centuries.

What His Mystical Church is and means in such as this Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit's every-day life, is that of progressive learning and understanding.  I must wait and be strong in order to learn and understand; and faith is required, plus picking up the cues and messages from His Living Word, such as a couple weeks ago noticing a profound description of His Mystical Church given by John the Apostle, in his Revelations.  He was shown and pointed out the lack of temporal building for His [Mystical] Church, for the temple is God Himself!

Oh, my, the suffering of this body here, this temporal, physical body. And the emotional and mental suffering that accompany severe physical suffering, continues on and on as if world without end.  But of course, there will be an end to my bodily and emotional and mental suffering.  I can find the strength and patience to wait by continuing the open awareness to learning about and experiencing here and now, His Mystical Church.

Today in the Gospel, Jesus explains how we are to pray, about the bread of life, and of our being fed the bread, His Body, and of course many of us recognize that Jesus speaks metaphorically and on varying levels in His Living Word.  I appreciated reading the thoughts on the topic, shared below by early 3rd century Cyprian, saint, Bishop of Carthage, and martyr.  God Bless His Real Presence in us, and Love in His Love!

"Our daily bread"

“Give us this day our daily bread.” This can be understood both spiritually and materially, because either understanding is of profit in divine usefulness for salvation. For Christ is the bread of life and the bread here is not for all, but is ours. And as we say “Our Father” because he is the Father of those who understand and believe, so too we say “our bread” because Christ is the bread of those of us who attain to his body. Moreover, we ask that this bread be given daily, lest (...) by the intervention of some grievous sin (...) we be separated from the body of Christ, as he himself declares, saying: “I am the bread of life which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of my bread he shall live forever. Moreover, the bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51) (...) The Lord himself warns us, saying: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you” (Jn 6:53). And so we petition that our bread, that is Christ, be given us daily, so that we, who abide and live in Christ, may not withdraw from His sanctification and body. But it can also be understood that we who have renounced the world and have cast aside its wealth and pomp in the faith given by spiritual grace seek only food and sustenance for ourselves (...). Moreover, those who have begun to be disciples of Christ according to their Master's words, renouncing all things, should ask for bread daily and not put off their petition and its desires, as the Lord himself again prescribes in these words: “Be not anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will have anxieties of its own. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Mt 6:34). Worthily then does the disciple of Christ ask for sustenance for the day, since he is forbidden to worry about the morrow.

Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit: Compassion, Mercy, Essential to Love as God Loves

Awoke to thick snowflakes falling like manna from heaven.  Stuck to ground but melted now; very late spring here, and unusual.  I suppose every day and night and how God unfolds them are unusual!

My thoughts have been regarding the importance of compassion, indiscriminate compassion regardless of persons' actions and words, especially when it comes to the usual human decline and the life situations that occur by our errors in judgment, decisions, and wrong-turns from the narrow path.  God always has compassion, no matter what, even if we deserve what we get coming to us, even if we have caused some of our own problems, even if we choose unkindness and a type of ugliness in our lives.

To learn to love to love as God loves, I realize I need this indiscriminate compassion.  I need to have compassion as God has compassion, as this is crucial and indispensable in loving as God loves.  Love requires compassion; love requires mercy. Compassion (mercy) does not condone ugliness, unkindness, evil, wrong word and wrong action or even wrong thoughts; but compassion (mercy) is a form of loving understanding and empathy for all souls (and the persons whose souls are within them.)

Compassion, or mercy, is very difficult particularly if we have been the recipient of ugliness, unkindness, rudeness, wrong thoughts, words, and/or wrong actions.  Compassion or mercy, is most challenging when we read or hear about or are recipients of (even if in being part of the community of humankind) evil. God never fails nor falters in having mercy, or compassion, on even the worst of humankind; of the most vile and vicious of persons He maintains mercy and compassion.

I took time yesterday to ponder various situations, the worst and most heinous of humankind I could fathom and had read about or heard about in my long lifetime.  In each, I came to realize that God had mercy and compassion for these souls and the persons whose souls were or are within. Yes, there are temporal and eternal consequences for those who think, say, and do wrong; but that is not the point.  Having mercy and compassion is the point:  I need to have compassion, to show mercy, without hesitation and for any and all, if I am going to learn how to love as God loves.

Jesus looked over Jerusalem one evening, prior to His being trapped, arrested, brutalized, unfairly tried and convicted, and cruelly crucified,  He overlooked Jerusalem and saw and had seen as God sees--all the persons with their souls, and all the sins and the sins yet to be perpetrated for years and centuries to come.  And the Living Word simply states:  Jesus wept.  Jesus wept due to the compassion and mercy He holds and offers, always, eternally; he has compassion and mercy as part of what it is to love as God Loves, as Jesus Christ is the Son of God and loves as God loves, being God Himself.

I'm practicing and learning to love as God Loves; and now I must also focus on having compassion and offering mercy no matter what others have thought, said, and done in action.  The mercy and compassion I am learning and possess within me, to be released from His Real Presence within me to without of me--this is how I am on my way to learning to love as God Loves.  Nothing is as crucial to me as is now learning to release His compassion within me, His mercy that is within me because I am within His Real Presence and He is within me. This compassion is always with me and able to be released, dispensed, without hesitation, for mercy is His and now also mine, to give without critical review but freely, instantaneously. 

This is the next step in learning to love as God Loves: to recognize and release His mercy and have compassion instantaneously, automatically, for as I am His and He is mine, His mercy and compassion is also mine to give freely and fully, without hesitation or mental deliberation, review, inner conflict.

I must practice this, for my humanness has made me rusty; grace and my cooperation with His grace will remove the rust and create in me a clean heart to see and release mercy and compassion no matter all else no matter who it is I encounter in whatever aspect, including memory of those of the past.

God bless His Real Presence in me!  Love in His Love!

Dear Lord, please keep showing me all the facets and what I must learn to learn to love as You Love!

Letter to the Philippians 2,6-11.

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father 

Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit: What His Real Presence Determines v What Humankind Determines

 

I admit that I become discouraged and even embarrassed when, it seems particularly some Catholics, expound upon what they think mentally and thus determine as some type of spiritual yet temporal fact.  I simply do not "get" that mental-ity nor, I suppose, undergirding as such, the hubris involved in humankind "thinking" he or she may or can determine what is, when God determines all, especially when it comes to spiritual matters.

I look to His Living Word for the example of how to think, and that is as the Lord commanded me 27 years ago, upon waking:  "Think with the heart!  Think with the heart!  Think with the heart!"  I read it in the Old Testament, from the prophets such as Jeremiah.  I read it in the Psalms, "Lean not unto thine own understanding, but rely upon the Lord Thy God."  I read it in the Gospels and Epistles, as well.  Jesus says, "Remain in My Love."  Jesus teaches the greatest commandment is to love God above all things and love others as oneself [as God loves].  

It seems to me from lived experience as a Christian, foremost, and from His Real Presence Who abides within me and me within His Real Presence [the Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit], and from His Living Word, that truly when we determine with our heads and our personality intrusions such as ego and temporal pride, of what aspects we "are", that we place ourselves outside of the truth, beauty, and goodness of which His Real Presence determines of our existences.

What we are (or are not) is for God to determine, especially in relationship to His Real Presence.  Too often I notice head-thinking and head-determining and head-declaring from human mentality, what others or themselves are or are not.

Why not trust that His Real Presence determines what and who we are, in what relationships with His Real Presence?  A hum  listen to His Real Presence within each soul, as it is God Who consecrates, God Who determines and gives distinction, God Whose Words matter to the mind and to the heart and in the soul.  His Real Presence consecrates, weds, espouses, anoints, chooses, determines, gives vocations and whatever labels in whatever words understandable to the ones to whom He is interacting and speaking.

We ought not take upon our human minds and selves to think with our heads and determine with our human wills, who is what and which and who is not.  Perhaps those Christians who removed themselves from and are unaware of such humankind determinations and labels are more open and free to hear God speaking to the human heart, words such as I have wounded, I have consecrated your heart; this is the espousal of your soul, you are my betrothed,  I have called you to [this or that vocation without using the word vocation but stating His desired purpose].

Now, some might say or think with your head that God does not tell us things within.  Perhaps we are too busy reading about and mentally thinking of our own words or those of other human minds, who write or speak of rituals and laws and traditions of certain vocations and who is this or that, who is a saint or blessed, who is consecrated this or that, who is a bride of Christ, who is a prophet, a hermit, a mystic, a whatever label or designation or determination under the sun,

Recently I have recognized the vanity of vanities in such mental contriving and humankind determinations as such, which is not ours whatsoever but God's purview and will.   I got off-course myself with those who think mentally and intellectually, of which we need to remember always that God is the One Who creates our brains and all therein.  I thus realized, myself, the foolishness of my writing of labels, especially that of "mystic" of which no human can truly define what is a mystic other than humankind, mental attempts with yet more words and labels.

When and if God wills--He will divulge to us what we are, what is our vocation per His will and in His terms and labels, defined or not, when we have experience of being espoused, betrothed, wed to Christ, when we have or do not have indication of being consecrated--of which if not consciously aware, we can be grateful that being Christians, we are thus consecrated to God by God and mostly in hidden and subconscious determination.

And then what?  Do we need to discuss or debate the reality?  Do some think that those not Catholic are not consecrated to and in and by His Real Presence?  Do some think that other than Catholics can be wed to Christ, be brides of Christ, including men?  (For we know, or ought know, that in His Real Presence we are genderless souls, beloved and consecrated, given whatever "labels" or non-wordage purposes by His Real Presence, by His will and determination.)

As for myself, I simply go about each day and night praying, praising, living in the temporal body and with mind, heart, and soul loving His Real Presence.  I pray for humility and forgiveness, I live out the temporal consequences for my faults and sins--mostly now remorse and regret of what I recall of which at the time not always aware of how wrongly I spoke or acted or wrote.  This includes this blog, for I set out to share and chronicle my spiritual progression, one step after another, day after day, desiring to climb His Holy Mountain, now the Stairway to Heaven. 

And progression is that!  God's will be done and my will cooperate with His Real Presence to the best of my temporal and spiritual ability and awareness. I am grateful for the graces God has bestowed upon myself and on my fellow humans who love and follow and believe in Christ, in God, in the Holy Spirit in whatever phase of knowing we each and all live, within and without our beings.  All for God: omnia pro Deo--we progress at varying rates of knowing and sometimes better yet, unknowing.

Let us let go the labels, especially those made up by humankind; let us not dwell on labels but rather on His Real Presence and His Divine Will for our bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits.  God bless His Real Presence in us; and let us love in His Love!