Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit: Another correspondence with a friend

I'll include some of the personal part--more surgery ahead, but at least the neck is not needing surgery immediately! Thanks be to God!

Dear X,

My neck is not good; I saw the neurosurgeon. Neck surgery is not urgent right now, but my thumb is urgent.  I will likely have that surgery done in two weeks or three at most.  It is relatively simple, or so he says. I pray that when he gets in there he does not find it worse, for a surgeon four years ago told me it would be 4-6 months of recovery and disuse those months.  This surgeon said a month; two weeks for external healing, for the concern for infection to be over, and not much use  Another two weeks for inner healing. Not even general anesthetic, but some sedation and local, of course. If I don't get the thumb fixed, he guarantees I will lose use of it and first three fingers which are currently numb and have lost strength, right hand.  He said my hand will become a stiff claw if I let it go, and even now no guarantee I'll have feeling or strength back. 

Then after the thumb, we can think about the neck.  That will involve four levels so 6 vertebrae with the discs between. He went over the MRI with me and explained it with knowledge and clarity and trusted experience.  It is bad, but it is not urgent until my arms and pain down arms and numbness and neck pain become intolerable. He does not think the neck nerves would cause the spatial disorientation, but he cannot be sure since neurology is rather a mystery.  He is Catholic, and said he is a Christian; I know he is a Catholic from research I did on him. He recognized my cross as one like his great uncle had worn, a Jesuit priest, long ago.  

Dr. J. will do the hand surgery.  I pray I can hold out for the neck surgery for awhile yet. But it just depends on the cord as it is rather squeezed with no fluid around it in C-4,5-6 area of neck, and there are very large bone spurs pressing on the nerves coming out of C 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; C7 seems okay as does 1.  He said it is unlikely my headache will be reduced from the neck surgery, but the main issue is to keep my arms and and hands usable.  Neck will lose mobility given it's most of it that would be fused.  I might need to do the knee replacement before the neck.  God will guide in these matters just as His Real Presence worked out that I got in to see this neurosurgeon within a week and without a referral.  Dr. J. said I must not fall or get a whiplash from a car accident as the cord could easily "snap"at the squeezed section.  (My luck I'd be a quadriplegic and not die and be on my way, off this earth!)  I'll be careful on the ladder, although I don't have that much more to do using the ladder--just the kitchen ceiling for now and plan to give in and hire some help as the planks are long and awkward.

I'll see if I get very motivated to work on the kitchen and get my bedroom and bathroom extra sanitary, and maybe have the right thumb/hand done Sept.  7.  Otherwise I will do 14th, but I have things that need to get planted yet this fall so early Oct. here would be  cooler.  Thus the 7th would be good as a month recovery puts me at Oct. 7th, if the thumb is not requiring more invasive type surgery once he gets into it.

Today's Living Word is very important and filled with so much that I could write on and on, feasting on all that is taught us.  Paul emphasizes  that God chooses us, and also what and how those of us with faith can go forth and make a difference for others, being a witness of His Real Presence.  Those were the Thessalonians, and we, of course, can do and be as they were, transformed by the Living Word that:  "[our gospel] did not come to [us] in word alone but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction."

This is how we may be utilized--to live and "speak" the gospel even without words, for it comes to us also in power and in the Holy Spirit and also with conviction.  This happens when we have the desire, the courage, and the love of God to be and speak and spread and live the gospel. Allow and ask the Holy Spirit to give us this conviction and power to do so.

The psalm's first line is a good one for this desire and faith of the above: Sing to the Lord a new song....

Then the Gospel is so good to think about and act on because Jesus points out and warns about the clergy, in essence, as well as could be any of us-- and how they/we can be hypocritical and false in our words and actions and thoughts: religious and spiritual frauds.  Jesus is quite harsh and honest in what He says will happen to them/us and in describing the types of fraud via priorities and values and false teaching.

It is a serious reminder for me to look within and excoriate my hypocrisy and ways in which I have dropped "the mantle" of my Christian faith and calling, and in what I could have done--and still could do in humility but also in faith, and exhibit the truth of how real is His Real Presence in our lives, and be fully open to His Real Presence in me, living in me as He does, with my not clouding over or smothering His Real Presence with my human ways and selfish thoughts and various sinful habits.

I have read a couple books on Rose of Lima, and one was written after certain documents were finally unsealed at the Vatican regarding realistic details of her life and some of the exaggerations that were used for her canonization.  For one thing, she was popular, and politically for the Church hierarchy at that time, they needed someone from South America, and a female, to canonize to help temporally and spiritually with the Church in the late 16th c. in that region.  I prefer reality and truth of the actualities of people's lives for they then seem more relatable to me, and believable. 

The book can be a reminder that it is other people who get caught up in the frenzy to embellish and sometimes make up myths or legends not true about people for they want to be a part of the excitement and also desire a "king" or "queen" of sorts from their area--spiritual king or queen--and lots of miracles and amazing occurrences fabricated from what in actuality have more humble explanations.  I do not find these revealings to diminish such as Rose of Lima; it more just exposes human nature of others and those higher up who orchestrate what will bring various benefits to the Church in South America or at large.  

I admit some of the details of miraculous occurrences I'd read in the first book I read about Rose, I wanted to believe and did in part!  I am so very, very human, and I too loved the excitement of strange and unusual occurrences, such as that her mother or maybe her nurse saw a rose appear in the air above Rose's mouth when she was an infant, took it as a sign of God and her holiness, and thus they called her "Rose."  But in the formerly sealed documents, released, that was explained to be false; it was metaphoric of sorts, for the mother or nurse or maybe a neighbor (I forget which but the truth was written in the saint investigation process) described the infant's lips or cheeks to be as beautiful as a red rose.  They did call her Rose; that is true!

However, others of her spiritual life and experiences were depicted more honestly.  I don't blame the saints; it's us humans who get a bit carried away; and these holy people did many good deeds and started this or that charity, or accepted suffering and persevered through it.  You mention the reality that Rose did harm her health by the austerities--and explained that people in that time period (and really up until current times and some still have that misunderstanding) felt penances would help them be closer to God or would please God--and that, of course, contradicts Scriptures, His Living Word in that God does not want holocausts and burnt offerings. God wants a humble and contrite heart; God wants our love; God wants our obedience to His will, etc.

I admit it has taken me quite awhile to re-appreciate these holy people who others have made into canonized saints.  Part of my appreciation is in some of their marvelous writings, and of their lives often lived with suffering that came naturally and allowed by God and not self-inflicted, and also because they gave themselves to love of God and prayer and love of His Word and of His Real Presence. Also, I appreciate them for they'd not at all have wanted to be canonized as "saints." 

The realistic book written in early 2000, after a swath of documents were unsealed, did kind of disappoint me at first.  I wanted to stay on the "cloud" of some essence of hysteria and hype.  Truth of John of the Cross' escape from imprisonment by his fellow priests and brothers for 9 months was not that an angel led him out, but rather was his praying and suffering and writing his poems all the while gaining the confidence of one of his "guards", and eventually got him to give him little bits of this and that by which he then was able to be let out for short time periods, and got cloths and sheets and secretively tied them together, and then planned his escape, and one dark night was able to escape in one of those times his guard "let down his guard" for just a few minutes.  (I know John of the Cross was helped by his guardian angel, Mary, and His Real Presence throughout this and many ordeals of his life from birth onward, of course!)  And John fully cooperated with his body, mind, heart and soul to live and die for His Real Presence.)

But the truth to me is better than fiction, for John of the Cross depended on His Real Presence and utilized any number of inner guidances in how to submit and to cooperate with his captors, to use his time well in prayer and suffering and writing his poems, and in picking up inspirations here and there to help him figure a way out of captivity--and none too soon for he was being starved to death. Those nine months shortened his life, and in some physical aspects he never fully recovered.

It is amazing that he later on submitted to another envious superior and another confrere in his religious order. But he maybe sensed within and was so in love with God, that his work on earth was not going to go much further, not with his health and not with his superior and confreres who once again resented him and caused him more ill health and his life.  He desired to go to God by that point! He was exultant!

All that he went through as a child, all very factual, and how he got his education, and even his tiny stature, and his creativity even in a sketch he drew that is beautiful--and writing out the wisdom of the spiritual life and how to grow toward union with His Real Presence--what he left for all of us who follow in our lives centuries later will have this great works of John of the Cross.  Just knowing how he was persecuted and mistreated by his own but how he escaped when he was given the opportunity and also used wisdom and inspirations God and his angel helped with, for it was not yet time for John's life on earth to be finished--these things help me immensely. 

John and Teresa of Avila were spiritual friends, and he was confessor to her sisters for only about 2-3 very momentous years--but that he and she were seen levitating while sitting in their chairs conversing about God--that is amazing and seems to validly have occurred, just as Teresa's heart was transverberated and proof is her heart in a jar to this day.  But the real miracle to me of these holy people is how they spiritually progressed in everyday life and never gave up, and truly they became like Paul said--not I who live but Christ lives in me.  

To mystics, the mystical experiences are helps along the way to give the person strength and endurance, and at times to help guide, and to give insights to share. But phenomenon do not cause the spiritual growth that persevering in suffering promotes, and in such as going into oneself to be honest with who we are-- we can be inspired in His Living Word.  We can discover that any of us can be hypocrites and frauds, and woe to us if we do not recognize our flaws and sins: overcome ourselves and fly above to do and be better, to love and live in His Real Presence and thus love and live among others as He does.

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

 

Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit: More Correspondence on Focus in Loving His Real Presence

 More correspondence to a friend whose interest or comfort level has been more in writing of persons in the canonization process or already canonized as saints in the Church.  I've been encouraging (maybe even badgering a bit!) trying to write of His Living Word and of His Real Presence, for His Real Presence is in His Living Word, of course.  I'm praying for the friend to be enlivened by His Real presence, the Holy Trinity, and might find writing on what ought be the love and life of our existences to come easier than it has thus far, and for the heart to be in it, rather than writing daily saint biographies.  

I suppose after awhile, if it continues to be not the captivating and enlivening topic that I find His Real Presence to be, the veritable Love of my life and soul's existence, then in I will need to stand down and suggest the friend return to what is more comfortable--and that is partly what I've found deterring in the elevation of holy souls through an involved canonical approval process called "canonization."  

People can get ensnared in these persons' lives without recognizing that these "saints" were not that interested in other than intense, magnanimous love of and for and in His Real Presence: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And this includes then delight and love of and in any aspect of His Real Presence as he is in us and we are in Him. So His Living Word, Spiritual/Mystical Eucharist, and Prayer (love-talk, loving and praising conversation with HRP), take on a consuming delight and meaning, a purpose, such as to then love God above all else and love others and self and His Creation as God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit love.

Dear X,

I know writing about HIs Living Word is more difficult than writing of the saints.  As we know, today is the celebration of John Vianney, parish priest and amazing mystic.  I've read a fat book about him years ago, and another smaller one. I really like him, but it is personal and selfish, both, as he helped me accept some of the persecution.  Plus, earlier on in my spiritual life, I had more overt attacks by the devil, usually at night when I could more easily be taken off-guard, including some with fire and also being tormented in other ways; John Vianney had fire across his bed (and in his room), and I learned from him how to deal with it.  He learned to recognize immediately and not be fearful or upset, but would just laugh and speak aloud to the devil whom he called the Grappler, and would turn over and go back to sleep.  I think part of what I have found very difficult or did was to recognize that while God is so real, the devil is, also.  

However, as always, these people who are made into saints without their consent because it's after they've died, often are priests or religious or have something the temporal church wants or can use which is a good thing in many ways--some active or temporal good that they provide or the church can benefit from which is for good purpose even if to attract more people to Catholicism, to Christianity.  But I seem in an odd category of those who are rejected, which is not at all a rejection by His Real Presence, but by people in the temporal church and the temporal church itself.  And I consider that a very good thing because it is His Real Presence Who leads us to Himself, not a temporal church.  

The temporal church can help such as with education and a place to gather to worship, or not online worship, and there is much benefit for those who do not have HIs Real Presence in the Living Word except when they might listen to His Living Word in worship services, but they have His Real Presence in tangible Host, even if they might not realize or their minds not grasping yet that HIs Real Presence is in them at anytime and all the time, through a simple awareness and appreciation and spiritual communion.  Plus, that of prayer--and more can be taught if the priest preaches about His Real Presence in any or all of the Three Persons or of His Living Word in Masses that people can listen to with varying degrees of attention.  

And the other traditions and reading about such as saints or especially the writings of marvelous Christians particularly the early ones, brings a great deal of help to us Christians today. You read In Imitation of Christ--an earlier writer, they think Thomas a Kempis but not totally sure.  What a treasure, and thankfully he was not canonized and all that process, but what is emphasized is what he wrote--a tome of wisdom and practical living out our lives as Christ-like beings, or that is the goal.

I can tell your heart is maybe not yet enlivened and on fire with His Living Word, but the Holy Spirit is lighting it, and will help you find it easier and second nature to you because His Real Presence in in you.  One thing in these current readings that you point out is focusing on faith (trust/faith).  Yet something other that is the reason we have or learn to have more and more faith, and trust--and that is due to our love--of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit:  His Real Presence.  The more love we have for and of HRP, the greater our faith, and the greater our trust, and the greater our courage, and the more of these, then the more love.  

So love is our reason and purpose, love for HRP, and faith is a means of increase of love, and love is a cause of increase in faith, trust, courage, etc.  So I think if we consider love of His Real Presence or break it down to love of Jesus or Love of God or Love of the Holy Spirit separately but at some point bring them together as they are One Person, it is love that progresses us and love drives us to desire more of HRP and our faith increases, and at some time our love increases, and then more courage, more trust, more virtues. But it all seems to hinge upon and begin with love, and the depth of our love and focus of our love, as in Love the Lord God with all your mind, heart, and strength, or Love God above all things and others as ourselves, meaning love as God loves, which comes increasingly as we become more in love with His Real Presence and in love with learning to love.

That is the secret of those people (saints) of which the temporal church people were assigned to the task of making them into canonized saints.  That is really what we learn from these people who lived and died and the reason why they grew spiritually and were able to be courageous and be increasingly as Jesus said was possible.  They learned to love God more than all else and to love as God loves--loving all souls and all creation and all that is of His Real Presence.

It was for love of her daughter and having heard that Jesus had the ability to heal and to drive out demons, that the Canaanite woman begged Jesus to help her daughter.  Jesus did use that situation to demonstrate and teach about the coming time when the apostles would be bringing the good news of His Real Presence to all peoples of the earth--the Gentiles as they were called of those around them such as other than Jews.  And Jesus commends the faith of the woman and her humility, knowing she was not Jewish and viewed as but a dog of sorts, but her motive was great love, and Jesus responds to LOVE such as of others, also; and we can figure that when Jesus healed her daughter, the woman LOVED Jesus ever after, and her faith grew, and she knew in her heart and mind that Jesus is God or whatever the Creator of all would be termed in her culture.  She loved Him and her mother heart was surely touched deeply with His love.

I know when His Real Presence starts speaking to you freely in His Living Word, you will not find it difficult at all and in fact far easier than going through the two or three saint books and composing and writing out the biographical information.  Your mind and heart will have only to write what is being enlivened and ideas and understandings will come, and relate to your life and others' lives, or whatever, I'm convinced you will have a far easier time writing of this and your heart will be on fire in His Living Word more than in the written biographies of those in the canonization process or canonized.  When in love, what and who is the One a person thinks about and wants to talk about--I mean in love as in Divine Love.  

I guess we'll find out if you and I pray--ask His Real Presence to increase our love and converse and enlighten our minds, hearts, and souls in His Real Presence in His Living Word, in prayer, and in what can be come (as we can have HRP in praying always) having HRP always in on-going spiritual Eucharist, too.

The saints are of value for how they came to this love of His Real Presence and understood His Real Presence is in them always and in all ways: in His Living Word, in prayer/conversation with God, and in spiritual, mystical Eucharist,  and these sustain because His Real Presence is in these and thus in us and us in His Real Presence. These aspects  increase our love of HRP and thus increases our faith in HRP.

It's all very real.

I noticed Augustine's understanding and writing of Peter's love for Christ was what sustained him and gave him faith and courage to walk toward Jesus on the water.  Then there came Peter's taking his eyes and focus off Jesus and his love for Him, and distractions caused him to lose faith and falter.  Yet he calls out to Jesus, and Jesus of course pulls him up and to the boat in safety. His Real Presence is in us and the One to Whom we turn to in love and talk with in our love relationship, and HIs Real Presence responds to us whom He loves, always and in all ways.

Saint Augustine (354-430)

Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church

Appendix no. 192 , attributed sermon; PL 39, 2100

"Command me to come to you on the water"

       When Peter courageously moves across the sea, his feet are unsteady but his love grows strong (…); his feet sink down but he clings to the Christ's hand. Faith upholds him so long as he feels the waves making way. Troubled by the storm, he takes heart in his love for the Savior. Peter walks across the sea borne up more by love than by his feet. (…)        He pays no attention to what his feet are treading on; all he sees are the footprints of him whom he loves. He saw his Lord from his position of safety in the boat and, led by love, climbed down into the sea. He no longer sees the sea but Jesus alone.

Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit: More Correspondence Regarding His Real Presence, the Trinity

I'm not getting through to the person who corresponds and  has tremendous devotion to writing biographies of what a lengthy process that has evolved and expanded since the third century--that of, for want of better explanation:  saint-making.  It has become known in recent centuries a "canonization process."

My interest, of course, is His Real Presence in me and me in His Real Presence and living the Law of God--the Law of Love.

This is how I responded, for I tried to encourage the person to consider coming alive in His Living Word and us writing of His Real Presence Who sustains us in His Living Word, but the friend's heart obviously remains in that of these people, good Christians in life they are, but most in the last few centuries having been elevated through a process they on earth would shun--but are now labeled after a massive ceremony after years of a group of people earning salaries and putting in full-time work for those years, so these people can be "canonized" and called saint-this and saint -that.  

And where does that leave many people?  Their hearts and minds more into these saints than in His Real Presence, even though they might say that theses "saints" show them how to live a Christian life. But why cannot, since we are in His Real Presence and His Real Presence is in us, we live as followers of Christ Who Is His Real Presence, Who in full is the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

Here's what I wrote in response to biographical sketch written to me of Peter Julian Eymard, a wonderful Christian man, I'm sure in life and now deceased to the temporal but enjoying eternal life!

Dear X,

Your trips to Kroger are productive, I'm sure, and maybe partly the need for pumpkin bread ingredients or even the healthy additions baked in by your talented hands!  "May the Lord grant success to the work of your hands!" (I have always loved that Psalm-forget which one by number but content matters, I suppose.)

I have been pondering how we as humans are so attached to the temporal and have trouble detaching but seems the work of life to learn to detach as we are dying every moment physically, and our souls and hearts and minds though, can be growing and all in preparation for eternity or "Heaven."  And I am noticing that in recognizing His Real Presence in me at all times and places no matter my thoughts, emotions, and bodily condition, and I am in His Real Presence (Trinity which includes Jesus, of course, which then includes His Body and Blood or what is termed in the Catholic church, in substance, the Eucharist but in tangible also known as the consecrated Host)--that the signs and wonders no longer matter as far as His Real Presence always being in me and me in HRP.  

However, they provide some encouragement, for sure, and are helpful--such as the Holy Spirit having sprinkler Station Three of all those heads spraying and turning off properly, automatically, and the constant gurgling stopped. I had asked the Holy Spirit and also Jesus, my Spouse, to please help as I was overburdened and overwhelmed with the added maintenance problem.  God provided, and I praised them for it and am sharing that most helpful miracle with you now.  Praise HRP!  (His Real Presence!)

So Peter Julian Eymard actually had devotion to the Eucharist as a stepping stone to at some point if not on earth but in heaven then, not having devotion to the "Eucharist" per say but to His Real Presence who we realize either here or at death or after progressing farther after we die but before we are in fullness of life, truth, beauty, goodness and the Light of the HRP, the Trinity.  I had always had a tremendous devotion to the Eucharist until now for 13 years ago with the onset of the mystical ecstasy, I was in the gradual progression and understanding my intense devotion is actually to and in and with and through His Real Presence who is in me constantly and I am in His Real Presence constantly.  No longer is the devotion to a consecrated tangible--however, and this is important, from birth on we start to attach and be dependent after the great detachment of sorts when we are born--detach from His Real Presence in mystical and spiritual, and we are born into bodies and minds and emotions with souls but we are taught this and that attachment to function in this life, and to learn the ways of the temporal existence while still having minds, emotions and very importantly souls.

So in part of religious training and to get the idea so that we can grasp His Real Presence in us and Us in Him, Jesus used bread and wine to help us learn faith and that the bread is His Body and the wine is His blood, and we are to break bread and drink one one with another in prayerful and holy intent of love of God and in remembrance of HIM.  A transubstantiation occurs.  Jesus knew and knows how it is us humans immersed in temporal life and our spiritual reality clouded if not shrouded.  Even the Disciples had a terrible time understanding some parables and asked him to explain, or did not grasp the power of God's law of love and of great faith in God and the ability then to drive out demons and to perform miracles. But they started to learn and especially with the help and grasp of the Holy Spirit Who Jesus gave to humankind at Pentecost as yet another way and means and to visualize, with the dove as a symbol, or fire like thousands of tongues, and the miracles that occurred in that event alone.  Faith and understanding kind of grow together.

It is a matter of progression, and of opening ourselves to the acceptance of His Real Presence without the need remaining of the tangible and temporal at some point, and of course it will definitely be for everyone when they die, but it is all right and helpful to grasp when younger than I am, that is for sure.  I have been not letting go of that tangible but was forced by God to let go and in the ecstasy be shown how His Real Presence is sustaining me in the elements that we otherwise know as His Living Word, and Eucharist without a tangible Host at all, but fed spiritually more effective and efficient in that way as we are in HIs Real Presence all the time and HIs REal Presence is in us), plus in conversation with God--Prayer. We are sustained by this Trinity that comprises the Mass, so in that way the Mass is always in us and we are in the Mass.

I considered how Jesus went to a distant spot to be alone and away from people to ponder and mourn the death of John the Baptist, but His Real Presence always exemplifies, and actually makes REAL, the Law of Love, so when all those people figure out his location and many were there waiting for him--imagine the human might have the "uh-oh" moment of "here we go again--no time for myself to even grieve," and yet the His Real Presence of the Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit, the Trinity, immediately goes into loving and having compassion and concern for them so began teaching and explaining in whatever ways humans can generally grasp when beginning to learn spiritual truths--through parables, as they were hungry spiritually, and after some time of teaching, their temporal bodies were hungry, also. 

So a miracle provided for the temporal, but mainly it was to help solidify what He'd taught them, so that their faith could be increased--kind of like a benchmark or a blessing, the miracle of bread and fish--feeding them what in essence was spiritual for the temporal increased miraculously, spiritually, mystically.  Jesus was teaching what God had tried to impart upon Ezekiel, when God had Ezekiel eat the scroll of Scripture, Living Word of God.  That, too, was a tangible form of "Eucharist" in a way, but the spiritual reality is that of consuming HIs Real Presence is superfluous once we have "consumed" the reality that HRP is in us already, always, everywhere, in all ways--and we are in HRP, as well.  

That is why in he ecstasy I began experiencing in any and every Mass beginning nearly 13 years ago, I never had any hunger for the tangible host and never was lacking, and have not been since in that way--but I was hindering the progression by my not getting it not realizing that God was leading me on and to grasp the ways in which HIs Real Presence sustains us in our very SOULS, in all ways and always.  But we have to get to that point of grasping, and His Real Presence provided temporal-spiritual method in the Last Supper, and taught much of the spiritual in what has been termed the Last Supper Discourses.  

The great devotion, of course, is actually a devotion to His Real Presence Who Is in us and we are in HRP, and to exhibit and the overflow extending out to all souls and creation is that of HRP's (and our--since we are in HRP and HRP in us):  LOVE.

Love in His Love, and God Bless His Real Presence in us!

 

Just to Clarify...Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit's Present Moment Situation

 What I've been trying to express--my soul's journey and progression--could seem as if I've "left" the Church. 

No, but in a way I have progressed through the Church, for the Body of Christ and of Whom Christ is the Head, is not a static "thing" but rather a means and living procession by which Jesus instituted a means of Christians to learn, grow, assist, love, worship, pray, and support one another in our spiritual journeys as followers and lovers of Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

I am very grateful for my upbringing as a Protestant (Methodist) and of the various denominations that due to moving when young and married, and the earthly spouse not so much spiritual but more attracted to action, we progressed tried various churches until it really came forth that was not interested much in the Christian path but rather the temporal life and with the pitfalls that the spouse had been enjoying of temporal and physical conquests, I suppose it can all be categorized, that were somewhat hidden from me along the way.

But then I was freed by being left, which was not my choice but God's way of taking me to Himself, and allowing me to return to life after a death experience, to rear three beloved children and to fulfill my mission. And that mission is my soul's progression to God, to union with Christ, and to love to learn to love, and to suffer to love and love to suffer, and to love God above all things and in God and in God's love, to love others as God loves.

Thus, I have come to understand that while I'd hoped I could just remain static in the Catholic Church which to me has been a never ending treasure chest of all matters spiritual of Trinitarian, of those God needed me to meet so I'd not feel so alone--the Christian mystics--and of so much to learn from this great treasure trove of Christian history, tradition, and faith. But the spiritual journey is not meant to be static; it is ever proceeding with God leading the soul onward.

So what I've "left", or perhaps better put has left me, or that God plucked me out of in various ways and remains firm that I will not return to that aspect, is the temporal and more human created of what has seemingly clogged the spiritual plumbing of  Christ's Church--and can occur in any Christian church, not just the Catholic or it's various derivatives, rites, divisions even within what retains a certain label such as Roman Catholicism.

The human additions and structure and this and that will not progress me to God.  But the spiritual remains--the soul of the Church which is Christ and those who love and seek and follow Christ.  And I'm sure if any Protestants are reading this and maybe grasp what I'm trying inartfully to express--you may have encountered the duality temptation in your denomination.  The spiritual can be action-oriented and as Christ in helping the poor, healing in a variety of ways, building up Christians, evangelizing unbelievers--but all that is rooted in the life of Christ, in the Holy Spirit, in God the Father's law of love.  So I'm not talking about detaching from all temporal, but rather from "the world" that can be as much a world in church that is not helpful in its temporalities that clog the pipes of spiritual progression to union with God.

I've tried to get a friend who likes to write of a Catholic-labeled and canonized saint each day, to consider including that we write about some aspect of Christ's Living Word in the daily Gospel reading--just some point of interest, understanding, or question, or even take it to the application level in our daily life.  But the person is not comfortable with doing that, for various reasons.  I will go forth on my own seeking and tremendous desire for Christ, for His Real Presences (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) in spiritual Eucharist/communion, His Living Word, and Prayer.

Due to the mystical ecstasies during Mass which God brought me to and showed me the stairway to heaven, now nearly 13 years ago, the temporal aspects that can clog minds and concern of losing control on part of priests and bishops in grappling with such a phenomenon occurring with me, a simple parishioner--doors kept closing; the welcome mat was withdrawn either overtly or subtly.  Even so much as a couple weeks ago I wondered if I should try yet again, but wise advisors were astounded I'd even consider that given also the progression of spinal pain and difficulty sitting. But mostly it was due to how obvious the Lord made the closed doors and rejections by priests and parishioners firm and quite obvious.

The great news is that I have recently understood how marvelous this is, and my joy at God bringing me into the Catholic church knows no bounds, for I understand now the process of progression, and Catholicism is going into the roots of Christ's church in history, tradition, theology--once one begins to dig and study.  The closer to the time of Christ, the richer the treasures in ascertaining what is of greatest value in the soul's progression to union with God. This is not to ignore more recent examples in persons, but the whole matter of canonizations and selective editing and embellishing of lives does not help come to the reality of the suffering, for example, or the ways in which such souls who came to union with God even in brief periods and glimpses had also left or been left by the temporal world of the church, those human aspects and created laws, rules, regulations, and requirements that effectively are entangling nets for those who want to proceed to God, to be through, with, and in Him, to exist in God's love and to love Him above all else, and to love in His Love, as He loves all souls and all His creation.

For the most part, I've been stuck in a sense of guilt or something, wondering if I tried hard enough or if this is even right--until the Lord helped me to  see this is merely spiritual progression, and He has been bringing me through the process all my life, for I desire Him and seek Him with all my body, mind, heart, and soul, and with what strength He has given me.  I'm grasping now more deeply and with liberating and loving effect, the visions and locutions of past years; I'm on the path God desires for me.  I'm effectually in the mystical Church while at the same time of course in the temporal life, and my charitable little gifts are given, and what words of encouragement to others-but my main action is that of being in His Real Presence through Prayer, Spiritual Communion, and His Living Word.

And this constitutes my life, which is also in God's natural world, in my physical body of increasing pain and limitations, in what bit of manual labor and interactions with whomever God brings to me or me to them in a variety of ways--spiritually directed by God but normal in our earthly sense. So that if not for spiritual awareness, I'd not notice that God is constantly in authority over ever detail and moment and breath of my outer and inner existence.

I'm not sure how I'm to identify myself, for God has me as a hermit, and I've come to realize there is no vow or rule of life required as God determines our vocations; this is how God chose for me, years ago, knowing what my body was going to require, and what God wanted of me in the contemplative, spiritual nature He bequeathed upon me at conception.

I guess I am as the first followers and lovers of Christ:  a Christian. Yet, God brought  me into and through the various Christian churches and into what is called the Catholic Church--and had that "catholic" from later in the first century as part of the descriptor or label.  But "Catholic" can mean to many the more temporal aspects which humans devised and developed over the centuries, so I'm not that; the Lord has brought me through with benefit of understanding the dualities, and into the mystical and spiritual aspect of His Church of which I am in the Body and He is Head.  Thus I have no desire of the temporal fussing and politicizations, of heavy-laden hierarchies and canon laws and rules, regulations, and requirements.  I do not have them consciously in mind, for God's law of Love and the laws of the prophets are ingrained and always have been, from my upbringing as a Christian with Christian parents who believed in following the Ten Commandments as best we humans do, knowing we are frail to temptations at times and not alien to falls.  But God's love and mercy, His and others' and our forgiveness is real in the temporal and even deeper in the spiritual.

Well, enough on all this; more than enough all my expressing of what has been transpiring.  A huge shift is that I've accepted and am praising God for what He has been trying to do with me for these years in which I have been as if a person and mind and heart and soul split between worlds, trying desperately to cling to what is not necessary once God progresses us through increasingly to His way of Love, to living in His Real Presence each moment day and night, of at any moment of desiring to receive His Real Presence from Him--His Body and Blood to sustain me, of in thought or act of reading or listening such as spoke on internet--the Living Word of God, and of the never-ceasing inner and outer communication with His Real Presence:  prayer.

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

Christian, Mystic, Hermit, Catholic: God Provides All Necessary in Today

I think I've worked through even though it's taken me along time and much writing and praying, to simply and deeply accept and say YES, I agree to want and have you more directly now.  And I add on, "Please show me what next and what is helpful in this phase."

I don't want any reader to think I have "left the "church."  The Body of Christ with Christ as Head, the Church, is now not so much a place or thing, nor is it a temporal need now.  When several years ago God showed me in vision the persons and objects and aspects in a type of visual metaphor of the temporal Church,  and asked me, "Why would you want THAT when you can have ME more directly now?", it has taken these years to experience and consider and pray about God's will and what He meant and means.  And despite my continuing to try to force forward thinking I needed the temporal Church still, that I must be misinterpreting, in part, the vision and locution, God in practicum did not allow any of my attempts to continue temporal life in the temporal Church.  Even the other day I thought aloud in conversation with a long time friend and helper, "Should I try again?"  He responded, "How many times would you keep subjecting yourself to what continues to be closed doors and non-acceptance?  And maybe more importantly, why would you keep doing that?"

And true, the latter is the question that led me to understanding that God chose for me and was delighted for me to become Catholic, but He is showing me as in all of life, even into eternity, it is all a process through which we all progress at individual "time" and ways and means of process and progression.  He leads; He guides; He wills all.  God is patience but persists in helping us progress through the process, or series of processions, one flowing into the next, on and on. Probably the major flow-to-the-next is at our temporal deaths, but there are many deaths and rebirths within our temporal lives if we desire Christ increasingly, but have our hindrances tethering.  God then progresses us which requires some breaking of the tethers, even ones that might seem ought be what we ought have throughout this life, in the same way, shape, and form.  

No.  And so I am reviewing the positives and reasons why God and what God provided and the ways in which I still attached possessiveness and my human desire for acceptance and to fit in, and my naive wish for something on earth to live out the ideal as well as to be a constant in this life, and that this would be a constant, a once-and-for-all place or thing or experience.  But the soul is not created to exist like that, to essentially not progress and be brought by God through processes to closer and closer relationship and understanding of and with and through and in God. The more we desire union with God, the more we must be prepared for and accept shifts and changes and learning and growth, and letting go of even what seem to be or we think ought to be sacrosanct temporal aspects, such as the ideals of the temporal Church.

Nothing can be forced--and that includes forcing ourselves to stay in one place or phase, or to move forward beyond what God ordains, such as desiring for Jesus to come back and take us with Him. That desire cannot be forced into a reality unless that reality is based on the reality that Jesus exists in timelessness and will come take us from this life according to His will and means.  It cannot be rushed or dictated by what we want in order to essentially escape the "lessons" we have yet to learn here, now, and often without knowing specifically what are these lessons nor how to learn them--or on our time frame and conditions which generally wants a rush-order job-done. 

This morning I did force a praise of God, first thing.  I had a determination of my will to get up from bed and be dressed and mudding the bathroom walls, doing a second and final skim coat. I wanted to do this starting at 9 a.m. or shortly after.  I have come to accept that my praise of God is often forced, when I remember to praise God, but that a forced praise of God is better than no praise of God at all.  And as often can be the case, a habit can become natural and unforced with practice and conscious recognition and desire.  I did not, of course, do a forced praise of God without having the sincere desire to praise God. My praise of God, forced, does not mean my desire to praise God is any less than a spontaneous and rich and glorious praise of God.

Then I noticed today's Gospel reading is of Jesus' praising of God!  And I noticed a commentary on praising God by Augustine.  (I have come to a point of consciously not referring to these great people, great souls, as "saints" or "St." this or that because I know consciously that titles of sainthood and canonization process and confirmation on certain humans is a mechanism of humans, specifically those humans who were and are in a man-created hierarchy in the temporal Churches:  Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and other offshoots of Catholicism, and other religions in the world might designate the people they consider to be holy by some other designation.  But at this phase in my progression in the process, it is important for me to let go of the man-developed mores and practices that Jesus did not create or use or find necessary or needful.  Jesus is wanting all souls to be holy and to be saved and to come to the Father, to believe in the Father and Holy Spirit and come through Him, God's Son, One in Three, Second Person of the Trinity--and have fullness of life in the Spirit, and be children of God, and so forth.

Even in praising God, forced, and in praising God after reading the Living Word and deepening the reality that I am in God and He is in me, and in then praising God with deeper love and conscious awareness of God Being All and my being nothing of my own and only relevant in God and His Love and Mercy of and toward me--I could not force my body up to remain up.  The physical lumbar, hip, leg, foot pain and radiating pain causing unctuous nausea,  put me back on the bed for another couple of hours. And yes, I do whatever at my temporal means to help the physical situation:  oral pain med to augment the pain pump release, called for appt. to increase pump release of med, anti nausea meds-- a second type when the first had litle to no effect.  And the acceptance of having to get down and stay down awhile.  

Change my temporal goals, and let go and let God for this morning and however long physically, just as I had o let go and let God when I accepted God more directly, and had to let go of what I loved tremendously, even too much--the temporal Catholic church of parish and diocese, of all that entails, of this and that temporal and human-developed, human-created and evolved over the years.  

This does not mean I let go of my faith, or of His Real Presence in spiritual communion (spiritual Eucharist), or His Living Word, or prayer.  It does not mean that I do not appreciate and find friendship in and much good help from holy persons living and deceased such as Augustine and many others, including little known holy people like the auto mechanic's secretary who is pivotal in a holy and helpful business that helps so many with love, honesty, integrity and excellence in quality of work done.

And I recommend to any and all, if seeking God: the Catholic Church.  In this Church will be the spiritual, mystical Church, Christ's Church.  I just don't recommend loving the externals or such, but love God more and discover His Real Presence in the Mass as in Eucharist, Living Word, and prayer.  Then discover His Real Presence all the time in the "mass as our lives", in spiritual eucharit, Living Word , and prayer.  Discover the mystics and the prophets and writers, the great spiritual directors, the theologians who strive to explain, and the Scriptural scholars, likewise.  But know that the Church is created and intended by God as a means of process and progression, to find and have His Real Presence in Eucharist, Word, and prayer, and to recognize His Real Presence Who Is in us and in others, as we are in His Real Presence always and everywhere He Is.  Learn to love to learn to love, and suffer to love and love to suffer. Love God above all things, and love others and self as God loves us.  

The Catholic church is a means of many processes of progression to God, but the Church is not God Himself.  The Mass is beyond description.  The Mass is the stairway to heaven, and I suppose each soul must figure that out with God's individualized instruction and progressing in the processes.  

I became very attached to the "Church" and so wanted to be accepted and fit in and have it remain steady, not a progression itself, so static as such, but God provided all necessary to proceed and understand that His acceptance and fitting into Him, becoming one with God, is what He ultimately and primarily and primordially desires and wills in His great love and desire for us to remain in His Love, in His ineffable Beingness.

And thus, I share here a cut-and-paste of today's Gospel reading of His Real Presence in Living Word, plus excerpt of Augustine's writing on praising God.  And God Bless His Real Presence in us all!

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 11,25-27.

At that time Jesus exclaimed, "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."

Saint Augustine (354-430)

Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church

Sermon 34 ; CCL 41, 423-426.

"I praise you, Father"

We are invited to sing a new song to the Lord (Ps 149:1). The new man is the man who knows this new song. Singing is joy and, if we consider the matter more closely, love. Someone who understands about loving this new life knows the new song, and so we need to be informed as to what the new life is for the sake of the new song. All these things belong to the same Kingdom: new man, new song, new covenant. The new man will sing a new song and be a member of the new covenant. (…) “See!” you will say, “I am singing.” You are singing; yes, you are singing, I can hear you. But be careful that your life doesn't bear witness against your tongue. Sing with your voice, sing with your heart, sing with your mouth, sing in your conduct: “Sing to the Lord a new song.” You are wondering what you are to sing for him whom you love and you cast about for the praises to sing to him. “His praise is in the assembly of the saints” (Ps 149:1). The praise to be sung is that of the singer. Do you want to sing praise to God? Be yourself what you sing. You are his praise if you live uprightly.

What I've Learned After Two Decades as a Consecrated Catholic Hermit

There's no need to have a label of "hermit."

There's no need in being a "canonically approved hermit."

There's not really even a need for a formal vow, for if God has asked or given you this vocation, it is ordained by God, and you will live it and learn and offer yourself regardless of title or approval by others, including a bishop. 

However, if a written vow helps one feel more committed, or a sign taken such as wearing a crucifix--which really is more a sign of being a Christian, regardless, then write out a vow and tell it to God, for if one cannot keep a vow to God, why would one think one could keep a vow repeated to a person, even if a titled person in a church?  But if one feels there is helpfulness in the accountability factor of such as a spiritual director or some other person knowing one is a hermit, then do so.

A simple, inner assent to God's will what we consider small and large matters, suffices.

I realize after nearly 22 years of this evolving vocation, that my foremost vocation is as a Christian.  Being a Catholic or a hermit are not so much the focus as what earlier on I thought each identity ought to be. I think this is because in seeking God and living the hermit vocation, I have grown more dependent on God than on the temporal church or a style of living such as hermit vocation when it simply is how God has chosen for me for His reasons and not really mine.  

And the Trinity of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are my focus; I have come to recognize and accept God's showing me the other, the temporal aspects such as "hermit" and temporal church more structured aspects, and asked why would I want that when I can have Him more directly now?  And that now was several years ago, but finally, in this now, I have come to realize that God has progressed me through the temporal aspects, helpful and wonderful as they are, but has me all the more conformed to His way of how He wants me to exist and to love and pray and worship and glorify Him.  As St. Paul writes, "to exist in His glory."

So it's more that I've learned and had to let go of what we humans think and prescribe and create and develop in labels of vocations within our signature and main vocation of being Christians--lovers and followers of Christ--and allow God to take us through this corridor or passageway of life, through the temporal Catholic Church or such, and begin to learn to live and love more as a spiritual being, grasping that His Real Presence is in spiritual Communion, the Living Word, and prayer as well as the temporal and tangible Communion, for His Real Presence of Body and Blood, Living Word, and communication with the Living God in prayer--He is in us and we are in Him, as Jesus states in various ways indirectly and directly.

When faith grows, love grows, and body becomes less and less, and the mind and emotions of temporal world ease off their dependency and tethers to the temporal world, we become His more directly, and have Him more directly, and that in all aspects of His Real Presence. We are being prepared for the spiritual, mystical realm of eternity where temporal and tangible signs and helps for our faith will not be needed.  No label of what we are in God will be needed--for all souls will be of God as we already are souls of God here, already, and have been from the beginning.  Those of us who have accepted Christ as our savior and love and know the Three Persons of the Trinity--this is acceptance, love, and dependency on the Godhead is our commitment.  Increasingly as God brings us along through the corridor of our lives and in the Church, the need for touchstones, ritual, and tangibles lessen and we come to grasp His Real Presence in sheer faith.

It can be scary from the human standpoint, to let go the human need for approval, labels, titles, a "place" in which we gain some sort of confidence based on our position among others.  But at some point, which can be during our lives, usually later on, or at death and beyond death, we must let go and not want that other, the temporal aspects good as they may seem, and desire and understand that we can have God more directly now, and actually, on into eternity... now and forever.

Perhaps the Covid Pandemic has helped in some ways, with many realizing through spiritual communion, that can occur any time at all in which we desire, that His Real Presence is in us and we are in Him in actuality, and the tangible Host is not available, so we learn in faith that He is sustaining us in that spiritual communion as well as He is in us in the Living Word we read or have in our thoughts, and when we pray--yes, His Real Presence we are conversing with and glorifying and expressing love, God and us.

I have learned over the last few years that I confess my sins to God in prayer, and He absolves me; and Jesus teaches us to acknowledge to God, ourselves, to others--and ask for forgiveness for our sins.  But God in His Mystery and Power and Grace, in God's Mercy and Love--He forgives me all my sins.

But until we come to this point of faith and understanding and love of God, He in His goodness provides the temporal and tangible touchstones of faith, and that is well and good and what God provides.  But at some point we find we've been led to let go, not have dependency on alter Christi or on holy tangibles, or the beautiful touchstones--but let go, accept God's offer to let God have us more directly.  The process will, like all that is of God, occur according to His will and timing and our dying to self and rising in faith.

(Some will understand what I'm writing; others might not.  May God be praised either way.)

God bless His Real Presence in us.  Yes, His Real Presence abides in us, and we abide in His Real Presence, and this can be always and everywhere, as communion, His Word, and prayer and our love of God become understood as being always.AA

Catholic Hermit: Humor and Praising God!

Might seem far apart, but the Lord provides me with humor in the most unlikely and even persecuting of earthly circumstances.  I remind myself that humility and sincerity are helpful and hopeful that Jesus will view me with love and mercy.

I rambled on in my vlogs, and blunderingly tried to relate some odd situation that keeps on, regarding surgeon, surgeon's nurse, and the young osteo PA.  My surgery is hanging on a condition yet, and I figure not to be surprised if more "conditions" come up from the surgeon and/or his nurse in the next three days.

I met one condition, although it set me back physically to jump through that hoop.  I don't plan to explain here as have already--not in any impressive relating of the situation but enough that maybe others can make sense of it.  What I'm impressed with most, now, even though at the time it was terrible and I felt that the surgeon's nurse had been perhaps vindictive in her extreme interpretation of my honest explanation of why a person in constant and increasingly more severe pain, and this for years and years, would have dark thoughts from time to time.

Anyway, there was much humor from that adventure, and I can find many aspects so marvelous as to praise God repeatedly, for having had the experience, no over.  One point of humor is that honesty is not always the best policy!  And all things are relative to any given set of circumstances; and as well, people we pay in this temporal realm to provide for us often do not have a grasp of the pain, for example, that the population they are being trained, educated, paid to serve, do indeed bear, sometimes for decades until they are released from earthly bodies.

I've realized the good of now repeating my vow of and consecration to suffering.  There are excellent reminders when I made the vow again this morning, with whomever as witnesses this time.  Always the Lord knows--His Real Presence knows--and Our Lady of Sorrows by also the title, Our Lady of Solitude.  She knows.  They have accepted my offering years ago, even when I'd forget in the midst of one of many pain sieges, or such as now with a steady increase in pain hour by hour and a steady decline in bodily strength.

Yet, I can praise the Lord, for the reminders in the vow of suffering include responding in love.  Plus, I am reminded of the lofty calling for those of us who suffer and have been called by Christ to be one of His Own--such as a victim soul of His Sacred Heart.

The distractions of the temporal world--of which I admit I allow them and sometimes seem to chase after them, even, in human desperation to take my mind out of body and away from pain--these can also cause us to forget  the purpose, the good, the goal that is so critical to remember in order to suffer well, or better, for love of His Real Presence, His Church and all in His Body, and as His Mother--suffered in union with her Son.

The Gospel for today reminds to praise God--the Gospel for today's Mass reading (and celebrated today in the Universal Church as Ascension of our Lord despite Thursday past the traditional day, nine days prior to Pentecost).

"As He blessed them He parted from them
and was taken up to heaven.
They did Him homage
and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
and they were continually in the temple praising God."

So many aspects of loving and serving God can be so easily forgotten consciously when in pain or when otherwise not in pain and out living an active life.

In this sense, pain is a good way of life, for it does tend to be a constant reminder if we allow it to infuse and inform our spiritual lives--minds, hearts, and souls.

While my body right now is not "up" for driving to the 24-hour Adoration Chapel at the parish, nor would it be prudent for me to tax the body to attempt that physically, I am reminded that the tabernacle is also my heart, and that my heart is in Christ's Sacred Heart, and I am also bound by various vows and consecrations to Mary's Immaculate Heart.

So I can, with great joy (have to ask grace to be joyful even if it does not "show"), I can continually be in "the temple" praising God.

Praising God!  That is really simple enough.  Just takes the mind God gives us and the physical senses that are blessings, and if some of them have failed over time or injury, then the inner senses that are always there for us--that we should pray and do all we can not to prohibit full reign within us.

So I can look about me in this bedroom of my Solus Deus Hermitage, and I can praise God for many things seen and unseen.  I can have an inner sense look about my mind, heart, and spirit and have multitudinous experiences and aspects of which to praise God!

I have renewed my vow of suffering, and within that vow are so many points upon which to praise God, including that I have made the vow.  Just making a vow, offering all aspects of suffering as a victim soul of Jesus as well as in response to agreeing and accepting the power of God's making my sufferings and the sufferings of Holy Mother Church:  as One.

I can also praise God that He has given me many situations to laugh about, and also to laugh at my own stupidity of sorts, to have answered a couple questions with honesty, when honesty was not at all the best policy given the person who was asking--that person's personality and intentions being not as one might hope or expect.  

Yet, I can praise God for the very fact and reality that He is in His Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence is the Master over all that He allows us to experience in this life.  He is always calling us via the cross, to the next situation, the next moment, the next higher level of suffering or the next lessening of suffering.  

He is calling us always to offer our sufferings with a heart and mind and spirit of PRAISE to His Glory, His Power, His Might!

No matter the temporal outcomes determined by others' reactions and decisions, we who have given ourselves fully to His Real Presence, have the assurance that God's will, will be done!  That is a major praise--and what a relief of otherwise what can be quite a heavy burden to bear--too heavy, in fact.

Carrying the cross or crosses He gifts us, and with the help from others along the way, is our calling, our mission, our work.   Even if but one person helping us carry our cross or crosses, now and then, we can praise God.  (But most likely there are so many  helping us we do not notice--such as our guardian angels and most definitely  all the ones who love us and root for us from the other side!) So many seen and unseen help us carry the cross we've been given in any present moment.

Yet also with such lofty and serious realities, God also gifts us with the ability to have a sense of humor--an outer sense, yes, but in times of suffering, the inner sense of humor remains inviolable.  Humor sprinkled in humility is like salt enhancing the flavor of food.  We can laugh at ourselves; lighten the darkest moment, lighten deepest pain, lighten most humbling of situations.

Jesus Christ is ascended to heaven.  He sent the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit.  His Real presence is with us, in us, through us; we are in Him always.  Remain in His Love!  Repentance, Humility, Love and Mercy mark our souls with the reality of His Real Presence for all eternity.

God bless His Real Presence in us!

His Real Presence makes all the difference, always.  

Catholic Hermit: Time to Praise

Awoke quite early with severe pain--and no wonder with the on-going manual labor recently in the Te Deum Hermitage!  Just a few tasks yet to fine-tune the interior, and then I will play "gardener."  The trees and perennial flowers, the roses, the vegetables and fruits, and also the weeds have been neglected this summer due to bodily mishaps and all the interior work done in order to have the house finished.

But this Scripture from Ephesians 5 in today's Mass readings rivets my attention as it is so positive and uplifting--as always the Word of the Living God uplifts!

"...be filled with the Spirit,
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts,
giving thanks always and for everything
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father."

I particularly love the aspect suggested of "singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts."  As a consecrated Catholic hermit whose daily horarium has been heavy on the manual labor and thoughts necessarily needing to be attentive to tasks at hand in order to ready the property for closure and the transition to where I know not--it is good to be reminded that within our hearts we are able to sing and play (music or whatever love-musings and actions) to Jesus.

Even in the night when using some laptop program to distract with the sound of accented voices (somehow British or other foreign or even a regional accent or drawl helps lull my pained body to sleep), I can utilize the voices as a form of music and turn all with intention of my heart, as singing and playing to the Lord.  It may seem pathetic, that--but praise be to God that it works when I yet cannot take anti-inflammatory medications as have not been cleared yet with the head injury and brain bleeds.

Increasingly I am reminded that intention is so crucial in our approach to all matters temporal, and thus spiritual.  We can use hone our hearts and minds and bodies to creating all aspects in our daily lives to become, in effect, spiritual songs.  I have slipped in this aspect of inner singing and playing simply due to the intensity of trying to finish the manual labor here with a deadline set not so much by myself but by finances and others now engaged in this final phase with the old farmhouse hermitage.

As to addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs--I have not done so recently and not so much directly in the past, either.  It is a lovely suggestion--perhaps more an abjuration!  We can say to friends, "Blessings to you" or "Much love to you" or "God love you" (as my spiritual father usually says when a phone conversation is at end or his letter concludes.  How about "The Lord be with you" or "God bless!"?  

Depending upon our location amidst people in "the world", our greetings may vary or be attenuated by how well we know the other or in what way they may be comfortable or not with our greetings.  Yet it does not take long or much to develop a way with others that allows them to accept our good intentions and our own way of being--spiritual being, and indeed, filled with the Spirit.  We can assess the persons and situations in the present moments, and by the power of the Holy Spirit can be guided as to loving praise and joyous remarks.

While I currently live in an area that is mostly quite secular, others detect in me rather easily, the spiritual.  I do not mention that I am a consecrated Catholic hermit as I try to live the Church's guidelines for her hermits to be "hidden from the eyes of men."  However I do not hesitate to reflect in action and word that I am a child of God--in subtleties merging into more overt depending upon the situation and person with whom I'm interacting.

The Holy Spirit most often speaks for us even if we think we are the ones thinking and speaking.  Although I've been woefully too busy and distracted with manual labor and attention to details of temporal transactions--the Holy Spirit yet guides and reigns over my mind, heart, and spirit.  The love of God we have within and our living within His Real Presence, filled with His Body and Blood, greets others in our thoughts as well as others we meet in person.  The message and effect are there even if we speak not a word.

And our angels are with us even when we neglect thinking of them or thanking them--as I have been neglectful in this, as well.  The other day when the two teens were here helping spread more gravel and then trying to tidy up the pole barn, I was sweeping rat droppings and other debris and noticed a lovely white feather fringed with rust-color--and thought it might be a hawk's feather--a red hawk.  But only this morning did I remember the old saying that angels leave reminders of their presence through a bird's feather.  Even if not an actuality--although could be, who are we to say?--the linkage of a feather as a reminder of our guardian angel's presence is lovely and of value.

Just as St. Paul's reminder in Ephesians is lovely and of value and so very, very true....

"...be filled with the Spirit,
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts,
giving thanks always and for everything
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father."

(And yes, giving thanks always and for everything--which means even that which we think not what we needed or wanted, that which causes us pain and inconvenience and distress.)

God bless His Real Presence in us!

Catholic Hermit: Good Advice from St. Paul for Hermits or Anyone!

Read this Scripture the other day.  Think it was from 1 Thessalonians. [Found it!  1 Thessalonians 4: 9-11]

Brothers and sisters:
On the subject of fraternal charity
you have no need for anyone to write you,
for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
Indeed, you do this for all the brothers throughout Macedonia.
Nevertheless, we urge you, brothers and sisters, to progress even more,
and to aspire to live a tranquil life,
to mind your own affairs,
and to work with your own hands,
as we instructed you.

A couple weeks ago, I received a letter from my spiritual father.  In it, he reminded of three aspects that carry us through life, in spiritual progression toward union with Christ.  He wrote:  Be simple.  Be wise.  Receive the Eucharist.

Of course, being simple and wise require our cooperation with the Holy Spirit, to pray for these graces, and to be patient and accepting in receiving these gifts.  There are ways in which we can help the process, too, in our desire to "be" simple and wise, and to promote these aspects within our daily lives.

As for receiving the Eucharist, the spiritual father reminded of the truth of John 6 in which Jesus explains that when we eat His Body and drink His blood, we will have eternal life....  Consuming Jesus' Real Presence in the consecrated Host and also partaking of Him in spiritual Communion at other times, we fulfill Jesus' incredible gift of Himself, tangibly, mystically, and partake of the Trinity in unfathomable immensity.

Life does not need to be complex.  I love the idea of aspiring to live a tranquil life, to mind my own affairs, and to work with my own hands.  Over the years I have rather wondered about some religious communities I have observed popping up on occasion, in which the members do not work with their own hands but rather expect hand outs as a means of trying to be akin to their perception of poverty and a kind of manipulated view of St. Francis' style.  The problem perhaps resides in that in our present moment, circumstances in society and culture are not the present moments of St. Francis' time.

Hermits can run amuck in this aspect, too, if attempting to imitate in daily life, habitat and other externals or as they informed some interior practices, hermits who lived in the desert or caves or huts in the woods.

It does seem that if we stick to the spiritual basics and apply these to our present moments and our current environments and culture, we can do well and progress beautifully if we love one another, aspire to a tranquil life, mind our own affairs, and work with our own hands.  On the latter, we can check ourselves if we desire or accept handouts from others rather than fending for ourselves.  For one thing, we should not promote the practice of essentially paying others or rewarding them for praying, as we all are called to pray for others, ourselves, and the world.

Add to the above suggestions of St. Paul which cover immense swaths of temporal and spiritual life existence--to be simple, be wise, and to receive the Eucharist rather promote positive progress without much complexity or distraction.  Yes, we can in a way, consume His Real Presence by taking in His Living Word into our minds, hearts, and spirits.  So in a certain aspect, as is in Scripture recorded of "eating" the scroll or consuming the Word, we do partake of His Real Presence when we read or take in the Word of God in metaphoric as well as literal form.

While not the same, of course, as Holy Communion, of the Bread and the Wine, the Body and the Blood--either in tangible or mystical form--the Living Word is something to truly ponder in light of its being also living and active, life-giving, and to be consumed.

These days, this nothing consecrated Catholic hermit is trying to keep at the efforts of working with my own hands.  There is so much work, and the bodily pain has been high; the mind and heart have to counteract temptations to work burn-out.  Balance is always blessed, yet in this circumstance, the balance is within the work and between the body's ability to keep at it and the mind's and heart's focus in present moment efforts and progress.

Any work, great or small, is better than no work at all.  And work can encompass many facets of active or inactive "effort."  I also remind myself that as is so true in the spiritual life, the race becomes far more challenging in the end-run.  The unknowns of being able to finish, to get across the final precipice or line or project or trial or to even surmise if one can begin another "race", another "phase" in life here on earth, require increased faith--a kind of blind faith, in fact.

In this thought, praying and striving to be simple and wise interact with playful interest to the follower of Christ.  Of course, wisdom is not as tangibly procured as is being simple, if we view being simple as actions in daily life of temporal surroundings and items with which we live in our present moments.  But there is something beneath the temporal surface in being simple.  And to that point, we verge into the intangibles of being wise, for being simple and wise have depths that beg exploration.

And that, my dear friends and readers, is what I intend to plumb today as I now will rise, dress, hook up more hoses to watering systems and either continue in pole barn work or fill a tray with drywall mud and have at some walls in the hermitage.

God bless His Real Presence in us, one way or another.