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!

 

Catholic hermit, God's hermit: Awaiting What's Next

I read this Gospel the other day, of Jesus Christ according to St. John 15:18-20a, and since.  Of course it seems deeply meant for my soul.  Yes, I know it is meant for everyone.  But Jesus is speaking to me and desiring me to remember it beyond my mind and heart.  Remember the Word He speaks to me in my soul.

"Jesus said to [me]: '...If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.  Remember the word I spoke to you....'"

This is the reminder that I do not "belong" to that world--and He has for many years tried to get me to not only understand but also to accept.  That world is needful, good, His creation; it just is not where God wants me to linger.  It is not the out of the world where He wants me to be in order to fulfill His purpose, the mission He's given me from the beginning.

Years of preparation and progression, years of delights and trials have passed.  For years God has been patient with me and still would be--if the pruning and now this major pruning as if truncating my body to nearly a stump, were not sufficient.  There might be yet more pruning, though.  Who knows but God?

I am going to try very hard now, as I've made another acceptance--what I call a "full acceptance."  Made it at the counter on brief time up for cup of coffee this morning.  But who knows, truly, but God if my acceptance is actually "full".  I've made full acceptances before, and asking God to use me as He wills.

I feel sick unto death.  In other words, the pain is so sickening and now am so depleted with this major crucifixion of the  major transition, that I would like to die in order to be in union with God forever.  Sometimes the pain in the feet and the sensations, or then the heart pain, has me concerned that what is within will become external.

Tell myself not to be concerned; it won't matter whatever happens, not really.  I'm in transition and perhaps already transited.  Likely so, this.  Who could really know but God?

What I do know is that I do not mean nor intend to rile others, but I fear perhaps I have in writing even what it was that I needed to absorb that has helped me let go of that world and opened and understanding the why, now, of the need for being taken out of that world and transitioning to what is next, that I can grasp in the intellect and understanding but no further.  Again, only God knows fully what it is when chosen out of that world.

I've written emails today to those I must not pester.  Writing continues to be what helps me get the mind out of pain.  However, a thought as come to try not to write, at least not emails.  I am writing to those who are not going through this major transition, at least not at this time.  They have their own transitions, and my prayer is that of transitions leading to union with God in the very real and conscious sense of the mystical reality of Divine union with and in God the Father, through the Son, and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

For this is what the Trinity desires of us.  For this we were created in the ultimate, eternal, mystical sense.

I'm trying, also, to not be concerned that this level of pain not continue, for being in bed most of the time for days on end, or then getting up and doing a couple or three hours of manual labor and then being down in bed for several days more--the practicality of such an existence is not going to be viable if it continues for a long time.

I'm listening to more lectures--not writing notes, not concerned if I do not remember details or even if the bodily pain or otherwise intrudes on the listening and the remembering on surface.  I trust in the Holy Spirit that it has come into the inner sense through the outer senses, and there is good the Lord has for me in such as now, some review of the prayer that is the mystics' contemplation of, with, God.

The writing must slow and be less until the time is otherwise, through the transition phase and when and if God has something for what is next.  In the meantime, if I write such as now, these bits and pieces, it is partly due to flight from bodily pain at a sickening level, plus such as the Word of Jesus, shared above from John 15.

God bless His Real Presence in us!

Illegal Catholic Hermit: Pattern of Spiritual Practice

Sharing another of St. Philotheos' wise instructions from his Forty Texts on Watchfulness [nepsis], much if not all can be applicable to any Catholic hermit.  

[Note:  "noetic" is from the Greek noesis/ noetikos, meaning inner wisdom, direct knowing, or subjecting understanding.  As defined by the philosopher William James (1902), noetic refers to "states of insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect.  They are illuminations, revelations, full of significance and importance, all inarticulate though they remain, and as a rule they carry with them a curious sense of authority..."]


"2.  When engaged in noetic warfare, we should therefore do all we can to choose some spiritual practice from divine Scripture and apply it to our intellect like a healing ointment.  From dawn we should stand bravely and unflinchingly at the gate of the heart, with true remembrance of God and unceasing prayer of Jesus Christ in the soul; and, keeping watch with the intellect, we should slaughter all the sinners of the land (Ps 101:8). 

"Given over in the intensity of our ecstasy to the constant remembrance of God, we should for the Lord's sake cut off the heads of the tyrants (Hab 3:14), that is to say, should destroy hostile thoughts at their first appearance.  For in noetic warfare, too, there is a certain divine practice and order.  Thus we should force ourselves to act in this way until it is time for eating.  

"After this, having thanked the Lord who solely by virtue of His compassion provides us with both spiritual and bodily food, we should devote ourselves to the remembrance of death and to meditation on it.  The following morning we should courageously resume the same sequence of tasks.  Even if we act daily in this manner we will only just manage, with the Lord's help, to escape from the meshes of the noetic enemy. 

"When this pattern of spiritual practice if firmly established in us, it gives birth to the triad:  faith, hope, and love.  Faith disposes us truly to fear God.  Hope, transcending servile fear, binds us to the love of God, since 'hope does not disappoint' (Matt. 22:40).  And 'love never fails' (1 Cor. 13:8), once it has become to him who shares in it the motive for fulfilling the divine law both in the present life and in the life to be." 

The habitual practice of training our minds, our intellects, by the training of the will to choose some aspect of Holy Scripture and apply it to our minds will bring a healing, as the saint mentions.  Plus, the remembrance of God and with the attitude of unceasing prayer (not necessarily the mentally conscious prayer so much as subconscious love of Christ in form of prayer in the soul) will help keep watch over our intellects, our thoughts.

Destroying "hostile thoughts at their first appearance" is a training of the mind and will.  Through daily practice of remembering God and the prayer of Jesus [the saint likely means the Jesus Prayer:  Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner], we will develop a strength of mind and heart that is ordered and freed from "the meshes of the noetic enemy."

St. Philotheos points out that when we have this spiritual practice established in our daily lives, we will live out faith, hope, and love to a degree of union in the divine law of God's love:  Union with God.

I will try to practice more a pattern of spiritual practice that forms my intellect and will based on a Scripture selection or verse, and to pray the Jesus Prayer in its essence if not striving in praying it specifically as much as possible with the conscious, and then asking my angel to help me hold the intent in my subconscious.  

While physical pain or other tasks do distract the conscious mind, surely with asking His Real Presence, the Virgin Mary, and our angels to help in spiritual practice, we can find ourselves more in tune with faith, hope, and love and in approaching union with God in increasing measure and holy effect.  Worth trying and putting into practice, what will be helpful to whatever extent:  Spiritual progress!

God bless His Real Presence in us!

[I admit that the pain level has been so high lately, that I'm having to offer the pain instead of much focused spiritual efforts in training the will and keeping watch on the intellect.  However, today in doing quite a bit of standing in an act of charity, of thoughtfulness of other, I did consider my vow of consecration of suffering and how indeed I did offer many aspects if not all, of suffering.  Also, I need to practice reacting in love to calumny and indignities I find myself suffering.  So I did that--tried to patiently pray and react with loving attitude within my mind and heart; and the situation did somewhat turn from what it had been to much better.  But the Good Lord is allowing me pain that has me feeling at times as if in another reality!  Suffering seems long, sometimes....]

Catholic Hermit: Gratitude Opens Souls to Graces

Another jewel given us through the Holy Spirit in the writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, 12th century, Cistercion abbot and Doctor of the Church.  This, from Sermon 27.

I'm having a difficult morning after a challenging night, last.  The physical pain is higher, but I am also so yearning for Christ, for my earthly end to come if He'd but return to me to take me with Him.  He told me in September, 2012, to "Wait"--that he had to leave to tend to some other souls but would return.

However, in my waiting, I have not utilized the temporal time as well as I ought.  I feel as if like the parable of the "unprofitable servant."  Even now, in turning back to the good spiritual reading that my late Spiritual Da encouraged me to do, in his last note card to me 10 months ago, the reading is challenging, for I'd tended, myself, to temporal construction skills and manual labor, and accepting a most harrowing form of being stripped down.  All that was very good, but the conversion, the turning to more spiritual reading and contemplation, requires another type of discipline, along with the increase in physical suffering, on going.

In the recent reading about acquired and infused virtues and the infused gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the needful sanctifying grace we are given as in a seed when our soul implanted in us when conceived and born into this world, the nurturing and tending this seed filled with sanctifying grace is to be our focus.  We are to increasingly desire the supernatural end of seeing God face to face, of being united in His Real Presence for eternity.

Last night I began praying earnestly for the infused virtues and that my acquired virtues be strengthened, and both acquired and infused be in balance--as Pere Gerrigou-Lagrange terms, a happy medium.  I pray with hope in God for my faith to be increased, and for charity, the supreme grace and theological virtue grow within me to whatever perfection God desires for me.  And in that, I know He wills supreme good and perfect love, as God Is Love; the Holy Spirit is Love, Jesus Christ is Love.

The yearning to be with Christ, in Him, taken from this life and world can become all-encompassing indeed; the waiting can seem insufferable in some aspects difficult to describe.  Yet the Holy Spirit instills peace within, and wisdom reminds of peace in the waiting.  So this morning, upon reading this from St. Bernard, on the Gospel in which we learn of the healing of the ten lepers, with the one who returned to thank Jesus for the grace, for the gift of healing, and mention of all the graces given us, I know that the Lord is speaking to each of us, all of us--and also any of us who so desire union with Christ.

In writing out these words of truth, my soul shall be all the more assured that what I ask of the graces, virtues, and embrace of the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit, will be given and increased as this is God's will!  And my gratitude for all that God's goodness and love, will grow, as well, even in the days and nights that pain and yearning and reality of my nothingness to God's All.  Waiting can become intense; gratitude to, for, of, in the Holy Trinity is my hymn in the waiting of whatever present moments.

The words in the following sermon are St. Bernard's help to me in yet another way of understanding what I am reading in Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange's The Three Ages of the Interior Life, of which he is explaining in those writings, what St. Thomas means in the Summa Theologica.  When I told the Holy Spirit who already knows my thoughts--told Him in the night and morning--that my comprehension of the reading is difficult for me, the Holy Spirit provides yet another saint to explain in yet another way as well as a means of making a place for and assurance of the graces in virtues and gifts of God that my soul sorely needs to progress as I wait for Jesus to come for me.

"How happy was that Samaritan leper who recognized that 'he possessed nothing he had not received' (I Cor 4:7).  'He guarded what had been entrusted to him' (2 Tim 1:12) and turned back to the Lord to thank Him.  Blessed are they who, after each gift of grace, turn back to Him in Whom is the fullness of all the graces, for if we show ourselves thankful in regard to Him for all we have received then we make ready a place for grace within ourselves...in even greater abundance.  In fact, our ingratitude is the only thing that prevents us making progress following our conversion....

"Happy, then, are they who think of themselves as strangers and who give great thanks for even the least blessing, thinking that everything given to a stranger and foreigner is a wholly free gift.  How unfortunate the wretched we are, on the other hand, if after first of all appearing timid, humble and pious, we then forget just how freely given is what we have received....

"I beg you then, brethren, let us remain ever more humbly under the mighty hand of God (I Pt 5:6)....Let us continue in thanksgiving with great devotion, and He will grant us the grace that alone can save our souls.  Let us show our gratitude, not just in our words and on our lips but in deed and in truth."

God bless His Real Presence in us!  

All will be well. God provides all necessary to this penitent, this contrite nothing of a consecrated Catholic hermit, simply a soul who loves deeply yet imperfectly for now, but in God's grace and tutelage.  In love of God in Himself, all will be healed within, and in gratitude I must wait, am able to wait, upheld and filled by God's magnanimous Spirit of all graces and gifts, in Christ Jesus, my savior.

Catholic Hermit: Raised Beyond in Christ Jesus

I continue to be amazed at how many views of this blog continue to be of those wanting to know how to become a Catholic hermit.  However, recently, increasing numbers of this blog, A Catholic Hermit, are interested in the richer aspects, the spiritual aspects that come in living the eremitic vocation in the joyous anticipation of Christ's desire for us to come to Divine Union in Him.

Becoming a Catholic Hermit has been covered in my blog quite amply.  The Lord has raised me beyond the details of what the Church requires of those of us who have made our profession of the three evangelical counsels as well as offered our vows, either publicly or privately.  That, in looking back over the nearly two decades of my hermit life, seems now the simple yet definitively profound and necessary part.

But allowing the Lord to form the hermit, along with one's spiritual director, confessor, priest (if other than or in addition to a priest director), Bishop--ultimately brings the consecrated Catholic hermit beyond temporal, goodly intermediaries and into the God-lifted spiritual life of which all souls are called.  

The visitor yesterday who will return sometime today with some provisions I need, discussed briefly how it is that there comes a time in which we recognize very much and with great gratitude, how it is that God, in HIs Son, and through the Holy Spirit, is forever the source and pinnacle of our full and holy formation in His Divine Will.  

A transition occurs, sometimes without our being consciously aware, that the Lord is dealing with us more directly, and we are lifted up increasingly even amidst the depths of the worst of suffering, despite the breadth of ongoing clouds of "unknowing." One becomes of God's will and divine action, profoundly, definitively, consecrated by Christ and consecrated in Christ.

What transcends all else is becoming raised beyond in Jesus Christ.

I cannot emphasize this enough, although I cannot now attempt to write more on descriptions or specifics.  But this I do know from the Holy Spirit, and from Christ Himself,  what is the "better part" of which Jesus mercifully explains to Martha who was yet tied with being busy about many things--not bad--but that her sister Mary had chosen the "better part."

Being on the cross with Christ, one is raised beyond in Jesus Christ.  That truth is steadfast; I suppose it helps if one recognizes that we have been brought thus far and offers praise in the humility of great suffering.  There is joy in suffering, thus.

What is of value, then, what now matters?  We might find ourselves asking this necessary question.  Take heed of the answer God alone provides in various means and ways.  This is of heaven, not earth.

God bless His Real Presence in us!

Catholic Hermit on Devil Involvement in Our Souls

In the spiritual realm and of the soul, the devil is allowed to be involved at certain levels and in certain ways.  St. John of the Cross proposed what consists of the levels or "rings" of the soul.  Further, there are certain levels or rings to which God allows the devil access.

Why allow access to areas of our souls?  It is the Lord's way of strengthening us in faith, in learning how to combat the forces of this temporal life, in learning how to grow in the spiritual life, and in allowing us to progress as souls in preparation for eternal life with the goal of heaven:  spiritual perfection and union with Christ.

In spiritual combat, the Lord gives us all manner of assistance.  But for the purposes in this post, I simply want to explain the diagram of the levels or rings of the soul and give some examples of how the devil is allowed to involve himself in these areas.

Picture in your mind a large circle with smaller circles going inward, circle or ring by ring until the very center circle.  This entire large circles with rings gradating toward a center circle, represents our souls.

The outer ring represents the senses.  God allows the devil to involve himself with our senses, to tempt us at the physical sense level: what we see hear, touch, say, smell as well as all temporal objects and physical situations, pain, pleasure, actions, and through objects.

The next ring represents the emotions.  God allows the devil access to interfere with our emotions, our feelings.  The devil does this through creating upset, disturbance, extremes in sorrow as well as in happiness. Yes, extremes--the devil works through utilizing extremes especially with emotions.

The third ring inward represents imagination, or images.  God allows the devil to create images such as false visions, distressing dreams, horrific scenes in our inner sight, and also to warp our "imaginations" with a variety of visual effects.

The fourth ring represents memory.  Ah, how successful the devil can be when allowed to induce thoughts of the past--longings and inner remembrances of how things used to be either better or worse, whatever disturbs the soul the most.

The fifth ring represents knowledge.  God lets the devil try us by presenting false ideas, false facts, distorted information, and also tempts our pride that we have superior knowledge when, in truth, we do not.  The devil uses the knowledge we have to give a sense of confidence in what knowledge we think we have, and then let us fall flat.

The sixth ring represents understanding.  God allows the devil access to our understanding, for what better and higher-level area of being than to confuse that which we understand, as understanding is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit?  By testing our understanding under hell-fire, we face ultimate conquest or derision.

The center ring of our souls contains two aspects:  our intellect and our will.  The will is in closer proximity to the center of all creation, the center from which we proceed forthwith, from God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.  The devil is not allowed access nor involvement with this center area or ring of our soul.  God keeps the intellect and will protected.  Thus, there is nothing the devil can do to disrupt our wills or our intellects.  

All the other aspects are the areas in which the devil can interfere, and if we are not watchful, if we do not learn spiritual combat techniques, it is through our senses, emotions, imaginations, memory, knowledge, understanding--that influence and cause us to, by our own intellects and our own free wills, to cave to these other influences.  But as far as the will and intellect, the devil is not allowed access.  The damage comes when we do not combat the deceptions and disruptions that evil can cause in the outer rings or lower levels of our souls.

How is this, then, that our will and our intellect are off-limits to the devil?  In this innermost part of our souls, the very center of our souls, while the will and intellect are each within, it is the will that is in first position, or primary, and closest to our Source: God.  Our intellect is interconnected; and at its best and height of spiritual progression, the intellect unites with the will in a ceaseless cooperative interaction with God.  

When (and we ought pray for this grace and actual occurrence) our will and our intellect become God's, or rather, more technically when God's Will and God's Mind flows and fills ours--in effect replacing our will and intellect, usually one and then the other--then there is supreme, holy cooperation and providential grace in action.  

Divine Union occurs when the totality of our soul becomes one with God, and this does not happen in our earthly lifetimes or would be quite rare if possible.  The senses, while being usually the first area that the devil works his tricks on us, is that which gets in the way of Divine Union while yet alive.  This is rather obvious, since our bodies bind us to this life until we die.

However, other aspects of our souls, other levels, may have union with God even if briefly, while we are yet in our mortal bodies.  And in some instances, some aspect or other or more may over time, find union with God while we yet are on earth.  The process termed purgatory is the continuation of our soul progression.  

Well, I am verging into far more than that of this post's topic: the devil's involvement in our souls, what God allows, and brief explanation.  Simply being aware of these aspects of our souls and the various ways in which they interact and also how we can be deceived, is quite helpful in combatting successfully, the devil's attempts to get our intellects and wills to sin or ultimately, to ruin our eternity in union with God.

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Turn away from evil and do good!  Praise God in all things and love one another as Jesus loves us!

Catholic Hermit: Hermit Tabernacles

The role, reality, and symbol of the soul as Tabernacle extends and ripens to fruition for a consecrated Catholic hermit.  In addition to the soul as Tabernacle, the hermitage represents a type of tabernacle in its form and function; and the very vocation of a hermit is that of living within the enclosure of vocational tabernacle both in the temporal aspects and in the spiritual elements.

The soul as Tabernacle is long-appreciated as such.  Wherein, within, our very souls reside the will and the intellect functioning centrally, and in which the very mystical power of His Real Presence pours out graces, anointing the soul as Tabernacle, the abode of God in the soul.

The relationship of soul in God, soul as Tabernacle, is key in grasping what entails a soul, implanted by God:  the will and the intellect.  Consider these spiritual aspects while also imaging the hermit vocation and hermitage as a more functional "type" as tabernacle.  For, all aspects both temporal and spiritual have elements and realities that are lived out within the soul as Tabernacle and the vocation and hermitage as tabernacle.  

[I capitalize Tabernacle as relating to soul, as God's abode within the soul, compared to the more tangible, temporal lower-case tabernacle representing the hermit vocation and the hermitage as tabernacle, while each type, of course, are or should be, inhabited by the soul and His Real Presence mystically, spiritually and temporally, tangibly.  And, on earth there may be a tangible, literal tabernacle with a consecrated host, situated in some hermitages.  However, we can grasp by the enactment of the Holy Spirit, that this lovely item called on earth a "tabernacle", despite the miracle of His Real Presence being within a tangible host, is not necessary for a hermit or soul of other vocation. The soul as Tabernacle is key to eventual Divine Union, and thus only by the Holy Spirit's actions on the soul assures Divine Union--mystical actions which supersedes, so to speak, the necessary temporal presence of a literal Tabernacle with consecrated Host--wondrous as that is, of course.]

So within the soul Tabernacle abides His Real Presence:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  And within the soul Tabernacle abides our will and intellect in the center-most portion, in position for Divine union.  The soul also contains elements or aspects that range out in position from the center of the soul: understanding, memory, imagination (capacity for images), emotion, and then in outermost position--the senses.

Each layer emanating outward from the soul Tabernacle grow farther from His Real Presence as Source of Energy and Beingness until those aspects help coordinate and integrate with the body, such as emotion and senses.  

Conversely, from the outer rings of the soul Tabernacle, are the senses linked with and from the body, then the emotions, and in gradation the various aspects that increase in spiritual intensity toward the center of His Real Presence, culminating with our will and intellect in primal position for eventual Divine Union.

Why this is important to share at this point, is due to the consideration of the will--our will and the Divine Will.  Also, for a consecrated Catholic hermit, one can grasp the spiritual-temporal linkages with the hermit vocation, vis a vis the function of a hermitage itself as type for tabernacle.  Yet for souls in any vocation, the understanding of the soul as Tabernacle yields spiritual progress.

The hermit vocation, not only the spiritual aspects but the daily existence and actions within and without of the hermit, provides links in the transition from bodily externals to the soul's Tabernacle.  The senses merge into the emotions/heart; these flow into imagination (capacity for image, vision, dream, locution).  These in turn enhance and evolve into memory (linkage of external to interior life) which then magnify understanding (ability to relate what God ordains).  

From within to without, and without to within--from the mystical, spiritual center of the soul to the thoughts and actions relative and interactive for and with the outer world, the soul's Tabernacle and all aspects relative to it, are in kinesthetic motion: inflowing and outflowing.

The hermitage as tabernacle "type" offers the  example of the soul as God's abode.  We have a cave, a hut, an apartment, a cell, a farmhouse--a tangible, physical dwelling place to shield us from the elements, from intrusions of all types, much as the senses and emotions are a buffer between the outer realms and the inner sanctum of the soul where will, intellect and His Real Presence are most intimately sublime.

Within the hermitage as tabernacle, whatever represents and imbues the spiritual and the soul Tabernacle, enhances the hermitage.  The external evidence may be sensory--charm, simplicity, serenity, natural elements, aura of holiness, and even signs of the trials of physical labor and hardship--all emanate from a temporal, tabernacle "place" that transcends structure in spiritual under- and overtones.

[At this point, I don't think there need be more written description of how it is that the hermitage itself, and the hermit's vocation, represents, embodies a type of tabernacle.  The reader (whether or not a consecrated religious of hermit vocation) can ponder individually, the marvelous aspects of the relationship of our outer and inner temporal and spiritual existences and functions as tabernacle and Tabernacle.  We also can gain insights as to what aspects can be heightened for maximum benefit in the body, mind, heart and spirit's desire for Divine Union, to be fully united with God.]

From without to within and within to without, each detail and aspect plays a role and function as tabernacle, culminating in the Tabernacle of the soul being a type of heaven in which our will becomes the Divine Will, and our intellect becomes God's Mind, Holy Wisdom.

These considerations seem necessary for considering how it is that the innermost part of the soul must be converted, or expunged and replaced, from our will to God's will.  It seems that God's operative powers must effect the transition upon the will first, for the intellect is informed and motivated by the will.

For the Tabernacle to become one with God as one Abode through, with, and in Him, a first enactment occurs at some point in the life of the soul--earthly or otherwise.  As Jesus explained to His disciples, the will must die like the seed that falls to the ground, crushed, buried, before it grows into new life:  the will resurrected in God's will, new, as Divine Will.  The Tabernacle sanctified by and in Divine Union of the soul into God.

A consecrated hermit may further consider these aspects in conjunction with his or her own hermitage and all functions and aspects of his or her individual daily life in context of hermit vocation.  The externals, while generated from within the central most elements of the soul Tabernacle, can be effected to greater or lesser benefit by the hermit's external functioning.  It is all worth pondering, these linkages, and of hermit as Tabernacle and tabernacle, in progression toward union with God.

Catholic Hermit: Deeper Conversions

Of course, this extended period of physical suffering includes--and perhaps has predominant impetus in--deeper spiritual conversions.

These periods of immense suffering include the accompanying storms and darkness.  The body, mind, heart, and soul are put through the grinder, so to speak.  Or, to stick with weather metaphor--all aspects of body, mind, heart, and soul are buffeted by howling winds, pounded by torrential rains, drought-ridden by desert dryness, immobilized and frozen in icy avalanches.

This period of time here, for my body, mind, heart, and soul--seems as if not weathering this storm.  Yet, it most certainly must be or I'd not be writing about it.

Last evening, when realizing I have no means to do manual labor, and at a deeper sense no work to be done in any active or acceptable, tangible, capacity in the temporal Catholic Church--and facing the unknowing of when or if the body would be "doing" much again, at all--an email came.  It is one that I have received the past three years, asking for some St. Bernard Love of God Bourbon Balls.

I realized the Lord was reaching in, saying, "You can do this.  I will let you be able to make these over which you pray and pour love into the efforts."  

Making these small and simple confections are usually without obstacles--nothing like other work efforts or interactions with the temporal world that become marathons of perseverance and endurance.  Other than if the printer is ornery if more labels are needed, the process is something that my body can manage if I make them in phases.  It is so very painful for me to stand in one spot for more than five minutes or even less.  And that is the case even when the back pain is at more manageable levels.

There is nothing else in my life right now that I can actually "do" and have satisfactory completion.  I am still persevering with kitchen and bathroom cabinets, so those rooms cannot be finished until there is resolution with the store and cabinet company representative.  There is nothing else--no other area of life that can be engaged to complete something.

Even all the garden harvest that I processed and froze is ruined.  Somehow, the cord came loose from the outlet when a couple weeks ago--surely must have been then--I struggled with each awkward and heavy bathroom base cabinet, having to get them in from the pole barn to the house.  Yesterday, when I finally was able to walk the short distance to the pole barn, needing a container of frozen food, I discovered all in the freezers had long-since thawed.  There is no meat involved, but the hermit's winter and spring food supply is all but gone.

Can't even empty it out--body not able.

As for what is going on spiritually in this deeper conversion, I've written it to Fr. V. in Nigeria and to a long-time friend, not Catholic, but who reads without comment, and prays.  Fr. V. is unlikely to respond with comment other than to remind to pray and remain in Christ's love.  Yet, it serves a purpose to express the depths of thoughts, insights, and conclusions when the storms are ravaging the outer and inner earth of our beings.

I am considering on a deeper level such great and successfully spiritual souls as Bruno the Carthusian, John of the Cross, and Joseph Benedict LeBre.  Their times of deeper conversions give great insight into those called to a different type of temporal life, a deeper call to live in the spiritual realm while their bodies existed in the temporal world.  Even with John of the Cross, his mind, heart, and soul went to another "place" although living amidst his fellow Carmelite religious brothers.  

He wrote his great insights and poetry more toward the beginning of his adult life as a consecrated religious and priest.  In the very few years between his imprisonment and torture by his fellow priests and monks and his final years of persecution again by his fellow religious, John had brief cohesion of active life utilization of his body, mind, heart, and spirit as spiritual director to Teresa of Avila's religious sisters in the several foundations she made of reformed Carmelites.

Bruno had more temporal Catholic world utilization at the beginning of his priesthood but extending some years when he was priest and professor in Cologne, Germany.  His departure from the temporal Catholic world was a decisive separation although previously had been an agreed-upon goal between himself and five or six friends--some of them priests.  They had resolved to leave that world and seek union in God without the temporal distractions and the laws of minds that can cause all kinds of obstacles to the "climb up the holy mountain.".  

And leave they did, and up the highest mountain they could find in the farthest reaches of the French Alps. Bruno was only called back to the temporal Catholic world once after that, by a pope.  He assisted for a short time although the pope wanted him to remain longer in his service.  But Bruno left for another foundation of similarly-minded men (again, some of them priests and others not) that later became also a monastery known as part of the Carthusian order.  Bruno died there.  

He did not formally "found" the order himself.  No, he simply (but I am sure with many dyings to self along the way) lived the ideals and in the way he thought was most helpful in climbing the holy mountain, to live spiritually the Christian ideal for achieving Divine Union and living the law of God.  He did not write down any laws of mind; he lived in whatever way he sensed could be successful in the repeated deeper conversions which would reach the spiritual summit.

Joseph Benedict LeBre sought entrance to numerous religious orders.  He was allowed entrance into several, often with much reservation on the parts of abbots and priors.  He never lasted long; they were concerned about what they perceived as his potential to be ill, and a couple superiors sent him on his way due to his becoming ill.  In other monastic attempts, he was considered to be at cross-ends with the goals and efforts of the monks themselves. Joseph's focused and desirous seeking of the spiritual realm and of God did not fit in.  Out he went.

Joseph had his mind, heart, and soul set on the spiritual heights.  Yes, he was crushed repeatedly when sent away from the various religious houses.  But that led him to a time of deeper conversion in which he realized he was called to live the life of a "pilgrim."  He determined to follow Jesus directly, without the ways and means or laws of minds involved in religious orders or other designated vocations.  He wandered for a couple of years or so in France before sensing within a strong calling to walk to Rome.  

Joseph LeBre wandered, walked, lived, and prayed as Jesus did in His life ministry.  He never encountered his family again.  Even in Rome, he lived as a pilgrim--not taking upon himself label of hermit or religious solitary or anything other vocational title.  Today he would be likened to a hobo or a homeless person; in Rome, those who noticed him at first considered him a filthy vagrant.  He died in the odor of sanctity, on a street, although a priest convinced him to live in his rectory for awhile, living there along with a few other homeless men the priest took in--worn out and ill from their ages, poverty, and harsh living conditions.

These three examples, have roosted in my mind this past day, as they have off and on for several years.  As such, these three souls (on earth known as saintly men) assist me in the deeper conversion occurring.  Such conversions are unlikely to provide much progress or success if the body is not incapacitated from all activity and distractions.  Thus, while difficult to be rid of current temporal distractions due to the pain and the mind's concerns about how will the work progress in this hermitage, how will I be able to do the heavier work once the family leaves the area--a prolonged, incapacitating pain siege allows for that self-concern mindset to pass.

Then the eye of the storm occurs in which the temporal worries and questions and thoughts of even past persecutions or whatever else, are stilled and silenced.  That is when His Real Presence shines the light on the deeper conversion and upon the decisions and acceptances that are to be made if one is willing.  If not, there will be yet more storms and then eyes of the storms with their opportunities for deeper conversions.

The three men have been in the beam of Christ's light in this day of the eye of this storm.  Even though the body could get up and move about a bit more, the pain is enough to remand: lay low, be still.  And, there is now the recognition of the storm's purpose, the pain siege's "inner eye."  The mind and heart want to pursue the deepening and to be given, in the soul's "eye," the insights and courage required to venture forth and through the other side of this storm.

These three men's life examples of following Jesus in His life and teachings and in the law of God, are with me as companions--as storm chasers, I guess we could say.  We don't need to fall victim to storms but rather to see them as they are--natural events brought and allowed by God--and to enter into them knowing that in the storm's eye are the deeper conversions of greater Christ-clarity, of spiritual progression, and hold the graces we carry with us when we pass through them.

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Little children, let us love God above all things and love one another as ourselves!

Spiritual Reading, Spiritual Progress, Suffering

 "It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings" (from Hebrews, Chapter 1). 

This Scripture, from one of this hermit's favorite books of the Bible, spoke sensible reminder this morning, regarding suffering.  Am in such pain!  And while Jesus is the pioneer of our salvation through His sufferings, we bear our sufferings through, with, and in His Real Presence--the Trinity in us, deep in our souls.

Must have stood too long in one spot, rolling the dozens of St. Bernard Love of God Bourbon Balls the other day, despite breaking the efforts into three segments of time, including one segment the night before.  Then yesterday made a first and second batch of Fortitude Fudge and for the first time used the new stove.

Too tired to drive the distance to the post office, but figured out how to schedule a pick up here at the hermitage.  At first, when trying to schedule on line, kept getting a message that the address did not match their records.   Called the post office, and a kindly postal worker took the information, said this has never happened before, would research and call back.

When she called a short time later, she informed that this nothing Catholic hermit (did not refer to me as such, of course) had its own address wrong!  So, explaining the chronic pain was wrestling for top spot in the brain, she took pity and repeated the address so this nothing could write it down.  Have been here nearly two years.  Ah, the ravages of pain.

Today am resting, obviously.  But am reflecting upon the phone book discussion with the young spiritual friend, thousands of miles away.  She has come to the recognition that what the author writes is ultra-intellectual and wordy, and the extended quotes of St. Teresa are more understandable than all the words and explanations of the late author.  Nothing hermit chuckled and admitted it had felt that way, too.  

But we agreed that for those who perhaps had no background at all in the spiritual life nor in the lives of two great saints, the book might be helpful and all the explanations--those of the saints and those of the late author trying to better explain what the saints explain--might be just what those readers need.  The young, married woman and mother did add that her spiritual director said last time they met, that reading St. Teresa's Way of Perfection is next.

Yes.  Why is it that some priests or ourselves (and perhaps mostly us) think we cannot make sense of what the saints write, and thus turn to books that interfere with the one-on-one relationship we could have directly with the saint and his or her own thoughts, put down in writing and available centuries after their earthly passings?

When trying to locate what the late great Adolphe Tanquerey wrote about fortitude, in his section on virtues, in his excellent book The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology--came upon a section had forgotten.  He writes specifically on spiritual direction as well as why have a rule of life, and what ought be included.  Plus, he advises that we select only the best of the books to read, written by the saints themselves, as well as the Scriptures, of course.

There is always good to be found in books written by others trying to explain what the saints wrote and meant and taught.  And so the young friend and the nothing Catholic hermit, discussed what stood out from St. Teresa's "mansions" metaphor to describe aspects of the soul's progression through prayer, through the purgative (senses), illuminative (mind), and into the unitive (soul united with God) way.

She was uncertain how a person in the 7th mansion--having experienced not only the betrothal but ultimately the mystical marriage, union with the Divine, could still have temptations to despair, struggles, ups and downs.  St. Teresa's excellent description proved useful in answering.  She explains it is like a king who is in his palace, on his throne, secure in his position as king of the kingdom.  

Yet out in the kingdom there can be battles raging, and chaos and despair, hardships and trials swirling about.  (The king might even be called to leave his palace to help fight the foes.)  But all the while, the king is either physically in his palace or otherwise secure in knowing he is the king, and that his chair and seat of power remains secure, as depicted by his throne in the palace.

It is for souls, as well, when the various phases are passed, and the soul has experienced much, including betrothal and some form of raptures and then mystical marriage or union.  Even in the mystical marriage and union, there will be struggles.  One week could be great temptations to despair; the next week there could be blissful peace.  

However, the soul when in this "mansion" or phase of the spiritual life, has arrived at the great and firm awareness that His Real Presence, the Trinity, has made His abode in the soul and remains there, no matter what.  The soul knows this despite battles raging in its daily life, or even battering right up to the "walls" of the soul itself.  Yet, the Trinity, His Real Presence, remains constant and fills the inner sanctum of the soul.

For this nothing Catholic hermit, the reminder has proven encouraging and powerful.  We can judge ourselves (beyond what others may enjoy judging of us) for backsliding or not progressing spiritually.  Shouldn't we have blissful existences, all be a bed of roses, have constantly beaming faces--when we come to union with His Real Presence while yet on earth?

Not so, at least not all the time or even often.  Maybe people think that would be the case, and judge others (or we castigate ourselves) if we do not come to such existence.  In fact, Teresa reminds that if we have what she calls raptures, eventually they can subside.  She explains they occur when the mind fears the unknown, and when His Real Presence takes the soul away with Him for periods of time, in a unitive bliss, yes, it stems from protecting the soul in a way, from such ecstatic love experience with the Divine.  When the soul gradually loses that fear and is more accustomed to His Real Presence in direct embraces of the soul, the raptures may dwindle and sometimes cease altogether.

This, too, is reassuring to nothing Catholic hermit.  There is renewed courage.  And as for salvation being perfected through sufferings--the pioneer of perfecting our salvation through sufferings--we know that all we suffer on this earth is purifying fire, perfecting, when united with His sufferings.

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Little children, let us love one another, for God Is Love!

[Not sure why sometimes the text is on white background rather than the blog post background.  Kind of visually annoying, but what is that little outer battle compared to His Real Presence having His Abode in us?]